MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 37 | Jordan Leavitt, Walt Harris, Alex Morono & Tyson Chartier

Episode Date: December 10, 2020

Check out episode 37 of What the Heck as MMA Fighting's Mike Heck chats with Jordan Leavitt (6:40) to recap his impressive 22 second KO win over Matt Wiman at UFC Vegas 16. Alex Morono (25:37) previews his upcoming matchup with former champion Anthony Pettis at UFC Vegas 17 on Dec. 19. Manager and coach Tyson Chartier (46:41) discusses Rob Font and Calvin Kattar's upcoming fights against Marlon Moraes and Max Holloway respectively. Finally, Walt Harris (1:15:42) talks being on the broadcast team for UFC Vegas 15 and explains why he feels he may have come back to compete too soon after tragedy struck in his life. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. This is What the Heck with Mike Heck on MMAFiting.com. Now, here is your host, Mike Heck. What the heck? Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of What The Heck here on MMAFighting.com. Thank you all for checking out the program this week. So much going on, as always, in this crazy sport of ours. UFC Vegas 16 is in the books.

It was a great night for Marvin, Vittori picked up the biggest win of his career against Jack Hermanson in the main event. We're actually going to talk to one of the big stars from that event to kick off the show in just a few minutes. We saw U.S. Romero get released from the UFC. We saw Anthony Johnson part ways with the UFC, but his return to MMA will go down in Bellator MMA. What a great move that was. I think adding Romero would be, I mean, it was a no-brainer anyways. It is definitely a no-brainer now.

But we'll see. I know there's reports out there that Bellator is not interested. We've seen Scott Coker say, I might have said we're not interested, but doesn't mean we're not going to be interested, like, later. I don't know. It's kind of weird, but something tells me the interest will peak at some point, because I just don't understand. I don't understand.

Yul Romero is one of the top five middleweights in the world, maybe top three. Jed Mishud thinks he's top two if you watch Between the Links. But we'll see. We talked all about Romero in between the links. If you guys haven't, check that out. So head back, watch that. You'll get everybody's take on the release of Y'all Ramirez. That was a shocker on Friday.

We have UFC 256 going down this weekend in Las Vegas. Davison Figito versus Brandon Moreno for the UFC Flyway title is the main event. Love that fight. However, as expected, especially three-week turnaround for both champion and challenger. There is a contingency plan in place, as I reported on Friday night. Manel Cape, the former Risen Banimoy champion. has still not made his UFC debut yet. They have tried many, many times.

It just hasn't worked out. Minel Cape is serving as the backup fighter in case something does go awry, which by all accounts seems very unlikely at this point. Figuedoedo is saying he's already in the low 1-30s could make weight any time. Moreno has never really had issues on the scale as far as I know.

That's a really interesting fight. Fighter of the year could actually be on the line in that fight. If you think about it, I mean, if Figuedo wins, it's no brain. Brandon Moreno wins. he has inserted himself into that conversation, no doubt about it. Tony Ferguson, he is back against Charles Olivera. Huge fight right there at 155.

The card is pretty damn good. It is pretty damn good. I've had chats with Brandon Moreno, as well as Kevin Holland, who fights Jacaree Soza on the main card on Saturday. You can find those interviews on last week's show, or you can just go find him in the archives individually. There's two more events left for the UFC this year. Bellator is their last event.

event tonight, headlined, not their last event ever, but last event of 2020, headlined by Alimelaide McFarlane defending her flyway title against Juliana Velasquez, who has been, in my mind, the number one contender for like three years now. She finally gets her title shot. That's a really interesting fight. That's one of the more interesting fights of the entire week. But so make sure you check that out. I'm fascinating to see how that plays out.

If Lima-Mikfarl wins that fight, it's kind of a now-what scenario. Like, what's next? Like, what else can be done? Do you run it back with Alejandra Lara? I mean, what do you do? Velasca seemed to be kind of like the last domino to fall, so we'll see, but Velasquez is a very tough out. Well, let's run down the lineup for this show,

and we'll get to our first guest. Wrap it us up this week. We're going to chat with Walt Harris, the big ticket himself, and to sort of peel back the curtain, Walt Harris was originally scheduled to be on what the heck last week. We released the show.

He came on the day, like the day we released it. So like five or six hours after the show was released, because as we're getting ready to sit down and have our interview, the day before it was supposed to be released, Usada came and knocked on the door. So we got delayed a day. So I spoke with Walt this past Thursday.

So it was like a week ago because he had been part of the broadcast team for the UFC Vegas 15 event. So we talked all about that when he's hoping to return. And, you know, we touched on just a really tough. year he has had in and out of the octagon just really good on his stuff and then we had some fun at the end talking some NBA so if you're a basketball fan wald is a huge NBA fan knows this stuff we'll speak with wall Harris to wrap up the show this week Tyson chartier is going to be back on the show the manager the coach for the likes of i don't know guys you might have heard of Calvin cater

rob font in fact Tyson chartier was my first interview when i moved over to m may fighting was right when the pandemic hit and we thought UFC 249 was going to be at Tachi Palace. Remember that whole thing? It seemed like forever ago. And then Calvin Cater was supposed to fight Jeremy Stevens. That event got canceled or postponed a couple of weeks.

Then he still fought Jeremy Stevens. And then this whole year has just been nuts. It just seems like a decade ago now. Does it not? But he's back. It's been a crazy year for him, as well as the entire New England cartel. Rob Vont's got a big one next weekend

against Marlon Marius, first fight of 2020. recovering from an ACL injury and surgery. Calvin Cater fighting Max Freaking Holloway on January 16th. Excited to catch up with Tyson. He feels like he needed some redemption from the last time he was on the show. He'll explain why a little bit later on. Alex Marano's had an interesting year.

It began with losing his opponent Diego Lima right before UFC 247 to an injury and in-stepped Chaos Williams on around a week's notice. And Alex Marano got finished in 27 seconds. Then he comes back a few months later. fights and beats Reese McKee in an empty arena. And now he's fighting Anthony Pettis on December 19th. Huge fight for the Great White. We will speak with him about the biggest bout of his career in around 20 minutes or so.

But first, let us talk with one of the big stars from this past Saturday nights U.S. Vegas 16 event. He slammed his way into his first Octagon win, his first performance bonus. Heck, slammed his way into hearts around the world. How about that? Let us say hello once again to Jordan Levitt. All right, let us say hello once again to one of the big stars of this past Saturday's UFC Vegas 16 event. He makes his UFC debut in 22 seconds later. It was over following a vicious slam knockout of Matt Wyman.

Jordan Levitt back on the program. How are you, sir? I'm doing pretty well, I think. I would say so. Congratulations, by the way. And it's funny, there are times where I watch fights. happen and I remember having conversations with with the fighters in the cage, you being one of them watching this fight happen. I remember the first time I actually interviewed you, it's probably like a

year and a half ago and you were this guy that had this great personality. You were a little outside of the box and you were having such a hard time just finding somebody to fight you. Like you were calling out everybody around the country. You were getting maybe a fight a year. Fast forward and now you fought five times since then, got on the Contender Series, got a contract, track with the UFC and now you get your first UFC win. This thing moved along pretty quickly, did it not? Oh yeah, 100% I went from averaging a year to having five fights in the calendar year, four fights in 2020, even when the four of the months were completely canceled, baby on the way, bought a dog, like 2020's been the best year of my life so far. Like, yeah,

I went from having no luck to all the luck. It's crazy, man. And one other thing that really stuck out about that conversation is besides you calling out every 55 or in the sport, was when I asked you what your goal was in fighting at the time, it wasn't like going to the UFC or going this way or being a world champion. You very nonchalantly said, and I'm somewhat paraphrasing here, you know what I just want to get a knockout. Like I've got a bunch of submissions. I just want to know what it feels like to get a knockout. And while this may not have been the knockout you envisioned or, you know, maybe it was, how does it feel a few days later now that you've accomplished that and you did it in the UFC of all places?

right i mean it took until my my 12th fight to get a knockout and it was on the biggest stage on a main card in the ufc i didn't see it coming that way especially like via rampage slam um definitely don't train for that one so that was cool i'll be honest when i heard you were fighting matt wyman i didn't know what to think about it because matt was a guy like a lot of people had their eye on it 155 before he took that like several year hiatus away from the sport. But since he came back, he got beat up pretty bad by Luis Pena, then Joe Selecki. What did you think of the matchup when it was presented to you? When you saw Matt Wyman's name on the contract, what did you think?

It was really weird because I used to be a really big fan of him when I was younger. I feel like a lot of the tactics he used were like 10 years ahead of the time. He would drop him for leg locks. He would pull guard. He would do single leg scrambles. like he did a lot of stuff that I really thought was interesting that I'd still implement today so when I saw his name I was like oh that's weird like one of my favorites so I had mixed feelings come into this fight I'm like I didn't want I was like saying like I don't want to get knocked out by

by Matt Wyman but I don't want to knock Matt Wyman out and I was like he's never been submitted before so I was planning on him being rugged and me having to like write out a decision And so the fight was pretty anticlimactic. I got pretty lucky and fortunate with that slam. And it was kind of a scary knockout. And yeah, I hope I never had the win by that way again. But if it's the opportunity to present itself, I will slam you. But, yeah, it's weird, man.

That's crazy. And, you know, like you said, you brought up an interesting point. Like, you went for the takedown immediately and your corner basis said, like, bring him over here. You did that. And then I said, where are you? Like, bring him over here. And then like, you know, the lights are on you. So there's like that stage blindness.

I'm like, where are you? And then I think Matt began to chuckle. I think he began the chuckle. And then I kind of cut it off. But like, I was like, where are you? And then dumped him. Wood said that was the most Jordan-esque knockout it could have ever been.

He said it went from playful to scary real quick. It was, it was funny because you could actually see moment. I didn't even hear you say, where are you? But you can see the moment. You're like, oh, yeah, I see you. Like, your eyes opened up a little wider. It's hilarious now that you say that. But he was, as, as you're looking for the stake down, he's trying to, like, maintain balance, it looked like, but then he wrapped his legs around you as if he wanted to pull guard. And, you know, you adjust your forearm and that was a wrap. Were you surprised that, like, his defense before the slam was to attempt to pull guard? Like, I would imagine going to the ground,

even though he's very difficult to submit would be, like, the last thing he'd want to do against you. kind of walk us through that moment and what you were feeling at the time. So I shot in on his hips and I could have finished the takedown right there, but I didn't want to, I didn't want him to fall to his guard because he kind of just holds you down and he'll saw you out in his guard. I didn't want to be elbowed on the top of the head for an entire round. So he went to pull initially,

but I picked him up to stop him from pulling guard. And so when I picked him up, he tried to, you know, finally started to sprawl by that time. My hands were locked and he couldn't get it. his feet to the ground. I was able to get like a nice little Matt Hughes type of blitz. And then I think he kind of just like can see the, okay, I'll just follow him, I'll lock in my guards.

Then that way I could, you know, control where the fight goes. But as soon as he locked it, I locked in that Gerald Harris like cross face and just, you know, dumb. They hit him with the earth. I do, uh, I do want to address one thing that some folks, I guess, have had an issue with with this whole thing. It was the celebration afterwards. And first off, let me just say,

my piece here first. Kudos to you for having the wherewithal to know Matt was done after the slam and also leaving the cage to console Matt's wife in the corner outside of it. I thought that was amazing. Some people had an issue with the splits and the celebration afterwards because Matt was out like a light. He was out cold. Personally, I didn't have much of an issue with the Jordan because like others, because I've been talking to you for a while. I've been following your career for a while. That's what you do when you win. This is nothing new. This wasn't a, oh yeah, I just got a knockout. Let me do a split, you do this pretty much every time you win. I'm also taking to account that I'm not a fighter. I have no idea what goes on in that cage other than what I see on television. But for those who may

have had an issue with the celebration, is that something you want to address it all? I mean, sure. I mean, these are the same people that loved it when Jorge Mazvedol, body Ben Ascran, then patted the ground. These are the same people that love it when there's just blood everywhere. So I mean, screw them. Their opinion doesn't mean much. They're very fickle. Um, I'm sure if I would have gotten off daddy, he would have jumped on the cage. He would have screamed at the camera. But, you know, you fall into a quick split and then you walk to the cage, realize he's not waking up right away.

And then they go to commercial break because you're crying. And it's like, oh, you're the bad guy. And I'm like, this is an ugly sport. And I was upset by the way I won. But literally there are many more brutal knockouts at that all the time. And these people cheer for it. So it's like, your booze mean nothing. and I've seen what makes you cheer kind of thing.

Yeah, it was a hard, it was hard for me, and not as hard for me as it was for Matt or his wife. But I waited for him to wake up, and then I did the dirty dancing lift. And then the reason I did it twice is because Bruce Buffer's like, come on, I missed it, you have to do it. And when Bruce Buffer asked you something, I'm like, okay, Bruce, I've wanted to talk to you since I've been 14,

okay, this lifts for you. But I do understand, by the way it was cut, it could seem tasteless, but in reality, if you've been watching this sport for longer than 24 hours, you see some pretty distasteful things. So it's a little, I mean, I'm sorry if I offended people, but then also grow up. It's fighting.

Yeah, it's fighting. Like a fish fight's totally fine, cutting them open, knocking them out, breaking their legs, fine. You can't do a laughable dance afterwards. I don't know, man. I don't even, like, it was just, I think it was just the split. And maybe like some people like didn't realize that you went there. There was a commercial break.

And then the dirty dancing thing happens. Like maybe some people realized like didn't realize that that happened like after Matt woke up and and all that stuff. Which was awesome. By the way, how did Bruce react once he saw it the second time? What did he say to you? He said, oh, ballets your base. I'm like, you're the best base to black. Plus, on top of that, like after that time, you had to have known that an extra 50 G is there's a good chance that was coming your way too.

right? Like you're about to become a dad. That's kind of a game changer, is it not? Yeah, we just, we've been looking at apartments the past few days, and I'm, I basically just plan on buying, getting the lease, paying out the lease for an entire year. I've never had that stability ever in my life. I've never been able to enjoy knowing that for a year, me and my family would be okay. And yeah, that 50G is really a game changer to life changer. I get to bring my daughter into the world when I don't have to worry about paying the bills. I may even be able to spend like a few weeks just with my family. And anything is worth that. I do anything for that. So definitely a game changer.

May I ask what you what you said to Matt's wife on the outside? There's not. I didn't know, I didn't know exactly what to say. I just said, I'm sorry, you know, I just, because I was sorry. I just said, like, I mean, I'm sorry that I won that way. And then she was very, very composed. And she just says, it's the fight game, it happens. And which kind of made me feel worse. I'm like, she's cool of it, but I'm not cool of it.

But yeah, I just said, I'm sorry. And then I said, your husband's a good man. And then, you know, I'm not sure if she reached up to hug me or I'll reach up to hug her. I don't know. If I reached up to hug her, I don't know. If I reached up to hook her, I guess that was kind of weird. But yeah, then I went back in the cage. But yeah, I just said, I'm sorry.

I don't think I'm not sure. I wasn't quite sure what you should say. Yeah. Did you have a chance to talk to Matt at all? I know he was kind of out of it, but do you guys get to exchange words at all before he left the cage? We weren't able to talk, but I got a message for him, and then I got a message back to him.

But that's about all. I just, you know, thanked him for his career. and we just, you know, you gave a quick little message back. I don't think there's any bad blood there. He's never been that type of person. We're both religious people. We're both very soft-spoken. I don't imagine there's any bad blood, and I hope there's not.

And, yeah, that's all you could hope for. Yeah, I didn't think that would be bad blood there, but maybe, you know. You mentioned, I mean, this is a crazy year. You've taken advantage of it in a big way. You have an octagon debut the last 22 seconds. It took absolutely zero damage. There's a lot of folks. I mean, I see that.

Where did that happen? I hit my forearm, hit myself, I hit myself in my phone. You know, I'm a dangerous person. I'm hurting people. I'm hurting myself. I didn't know if that was like from training or something. I don't know.

But there's, that's hilarious. There's a lot of folks who would say, like, in your position, I'm ready. I'll fight this week, next week. Just get me on a card. You and your wife are about to welcome your first child. into the world in February and you basically said after the fight like I'm spent I want to spend this final trimester with my wife I'll worry about fighting after that first of all as a dad myself

completely respect that 100% is there anything that would get you to fight before that um I suppose if like something on the 19th card was perfect for me and I jump on last minute you know the only thing better than 50k to support your family is 100k so I mean it's worth the risk But yeah, that's the only card that I feasibly see a chance of me hopping on to. But that seems very, that seems mostly unlikely. But it's also 2020, so we'll see. But no, I'm going to be a help meet for my wife the last trimester. She's been a trooper this entire time making my meals.

I couldn't even keep down solid food and making sure that I'm okay. Like, my fight could take a hold for two and a half months. So March, April, something in that time frame you're thinking about? You know, two weeks after that baby's here, I'm down to go into quarantine again. We can still, I'm excited to fight again. I want to see what fights are open at that time. And I don't know. We'll see who we'll sign on.

We'll see who we'll sign on the dotted block. Is there anybody that kind of sticks out to you? I mean, it's interesting that you fight Matt Wyman, a guy that when you were growing up, He's a guy that you watch and kind of took some of your game away from and kind of used it as your own. Is there anybody else in the roster that you're just like, there's no bad blood here, obviously, unless there is? But just like, man, I want to fight this guy, like I've been a fan of his or something like that. Is there anybody that kind of makes sense for you right now in terms of the next opponent? No, I don't.

No one really comes to minds. And I know that's very generic. I'll fight anybody. I can't think of like, I've only been in the same. division for like six months. I was always looking at the 45 division and be like, oh, I'd like to fight that person when I get in. I'm still just a fan boy, the 55 division. I don't know. We'll see who has bad blood for me because I don't need bad blood to fight anybody. It's just a fist fight fan. Yeah, hopefully someone will call me out. I don't have to be weird about that.

I would love to someone just call me out. But okay, cool, that's a fight. Sean Shelby, let's do it. You know that's coming, right? I'm hoping they want to knock out split boy. They're going to put baby in a corner. We'll see what Nancy does when I put him to sleep. I'm, I mean, I'm right for the very generic call-outs. I mean, let's do it. I remember the last time we talked, it was right before the contender series fight.

And I asked you what that contract would mean to you. And you said, you know, you mentioned how, how much you want to support your family. But there's a really powerful thing that you said that I've remembered ever since. You said, I just want to be less embarrassed when I tell people I'm a fighter. Mission accomplished? Yeah, mission accomplished. How does that feel?

A little weird. There's a lot of people that doubt you when you do things that are different and risky. and people you love and people you love who are worried for you and people you hate who just will talk down to anything you do. Got a lot of negative feedback this entire time and I don't hear them now. They're just like echoes

that are just fading more and more in the distance because they were wrong. I got to prove them wrong. And it's nice. I can't wait to see them. And they'll be like, oh yeah, congrats, man. I'm really happy for you.

And I'm like, oh, yeah, sure, man. I'm happy to not be embarrassed anymore. It's happy to know that I wasn't deluded or silly or just, you know, someone who was just chasing a dream with no real basis to be chasing it. It's a nice place to be in. Last thing before I let you go. I know you're not a fan of like the knockout memes that have been going around. I'm sure that probably bothers you.

but there are some brilliant ones with the dirty dancing lift. They did after the decision, the Swayze one, doing the hoisting. I mean, that seeing things like that and fans taking time to make stuff like that and put you in there, that's got to be pretty cool to see you, right? Oh, that's a dream come true, man. I've always wanted to be a meme. I grew up as like a part of the meme generation. That's how we send jokes.

It's how we post our political abuse. That's how we put people down. becoming a meme is like immortality to my generation that's kind of cool oh yeah I love I love the dirty dancing memes I love the split memes

yeah I don't like the videos of the slam it kind of makes me cringe I've only watched my fight once it makes me uncomfortable but oh yeah the memes and the comments on Reddit and stuff the funny jokes oh I live for it's a dream come true good stuff right there from Jordan Lovett

definitely got to pay attention to. We didn't even talk about the books. Like I talked to him. If you go back into the archives, you could watch the conversation I had with Jordan before the Contender Series fight. He likes, his goal is to read like 100 books a year.

So he's reading like two, three books a week. It's just unbelievable. Just a really smart guy. And as I said on onto the next one, the matchmaking podcast, we haven't seen that. I hope they kind of like slow roll him a little bit. Like there's no need to rush Jordan Levin. it, especially at 55, let him build himself up.

I think he could become a very popular fighter. I think he could be a very dangerous guy throughout his entire career at 155 if they can promote him correctly and just let him do his thing. Like, no need to throw him into a top 25 fight right now. There's just no need to do that. Just continue to build him up slowly, showcase him, let him build his way up, let his confidence continue to rise. And they could do good things with him.

I mean, when was the last time they've brought in some? somebody just completely molded them from the beginning and had him work his way up. Like, there's no need to rush this guy is all I'm really trying to say. He's ready for December 19th if they call him up. If somebody needs a quick replacement, I don't think they're going to bring in another new fight for him because there's already like 278 fights on that card for December 19th. We're going to be watching fights for 14 hours. And I'm not complaining about that.

I'm not being cynical, as some folks out there have said in the comments. I'm not a cynical guy at all. but I'm just telling you like it is. Go look at the car. There's a million fights on there. But we'll see what happens with Jordan Levin. I'm excited to see what is next for him at the end of the day. As we move ahead to our next guest,

huge opportunity ahead of himself next Saturday against Anthony Pettis on that December 19th car. We just spoke of Alex Marano makes his what the heck debut. All right, let's check in with Alex Marano, who's going to fight Anthony Pettis next weekend in Las Vegas. UFC Vegas 17, I believe we're calling this event. These names are all over the place. but a final event of the air.

Pretty cool way to cap off the air. Alex, good to see you, man. How are you? Cool, man. I'm doing awesome. You know, kind of in like a fireball, two-week fight camp. It's been a lot of fun. You know, anytime coming to fight camp in good shape always makes things easy.

And it was funny, you know, after my fight, you know, mid-November, I was kind of perusing all the different fight cards and I had a few teammates on this on this card. And I was like, man, it would be crazy to get on that card. But I was like, but there's no way. You know, I just fought. And dude, sure enough, man, they offer, they offer me pettis on the last, the last card of the year, arguably one of the best fight cards of the year. Very excited.

It's a big opportunity and I'm looking to make the most out of it. So when did you actually know that this is a thing? Like how long ago? Last Tuesday. So one week from yesterday and I'm like in the middle of teaching a big kids jiu-jitsu class. And in the middle of class, you know, my phone's blowing up. And, you know, naturally I'm teaching. I don't go get on my phone.

But the program director at my gym, our front desk lady had like walked on the mats, which is on Orthodox and hands me the gym phone line. And I'm like, all right, what's up? And she was like, hey, it's your coach in Dallas. And like, anytime coach save calls me, I like instantly like get in line and I'm like, all right. And I take the phone call and coach is like, hey, Marano, you know, they offered Anthony Peders on the 19th.

And I was like, coach, can I call you back after class? And he's like, no. Okay. I'll take the fight. And then, you know, so I immediately, you know, like tell my striking coach who's at the gym with me, he's teaching kickboxing class. I'm like, hey, you'll never guess what they just offered. And I'm like, but, you know, I don't know if Pettus is going to accept.

I don't know if the UFC is, like, actually going to book it. I just, there's a bunch of unknowns. And, like, I'm talking less than 20 minutes later before the class is even over. My phone just starts blowing up. And they, and ASP and Brett Akamoto had posted the fight was a go. And I was like, how did they find out? I literally just said yes, like minutes ago. So, I mean, it was on.

You know, I had less than 20 minutes to kind of like be in that surreal state of mind. And then, like, as soon as it was announced, I was like, awesome. I get to do some damage to Pettis. It's time to rock and roll. That's amazing, man. This whole year has been interesting for you, hasn't it? Like, you started off UFC 247 against Chaos Williams, last minute opponent switch. Didn't go your way, but then you bounce back. You had that nice win in November against Reese McKee. And now you're fighting a former world champion to cap things off. If someone told you in February was when that fight happened, excuse me, if someone told you in February after the Chaos Williams fight that you'd be fighting Anthony Pettis at the end of the year,

That would be stricken by a pandemic that you probably didn't even know much about at the time. What would you have said to them? You know, my coach said the same thing. He was like, Marano, imagine if I told you'd be fighting Pettus, you know, after you're lost in February. I was like, there's no way. I would never have believed you. And like beyond losing the chaos fight in my hometown in front of everyone, in front of everybody, you know, the lockdown happens. I almost go out of business.

Man, I had a, my middle brother had passed away. I was on a hunting trip and a friend got shot. This year was bad. Like this, and then like I was telling my striking coaches, like, dude, this year can't get any worse. And like the next day as he's leaving the gym, a guy runs a red light and hits him. He was fine. But like, we stopped saying things couldn't get worse because things kept getting worse. And then thankfully, you know, business kind of picks back up in October and November.

I get the fight. I win the fight. You know, and then I get this fight offer in December. I got a really cool, you know, opportunity for my gym and my team coming at the end of the year as well. The year, thankfully, has really turned around. And I am like captain positive energy. Like, you know, I try to be optimistic no matter what happens. And this year was really testing that.

But thankfully, it's finished pretty strong. Has this been like the most trying year for you? I mean, it has the opportunity to end in a really strong way. But in terms of just trying to balance out the positive and the negatives and try to get over that hump and stay positive like you normally are. Has this been one of those years where it's been more difficult than any other? I mean, yeah. You know, and I've been very grateful and thankful that like my life has had. the route that it's taken.

I haven't had many bad years. I mean, I can't really think of anything. And then really from like 2015 on has just been like so many cool like, you know, like got to the UFC, you know, like full owner of my gym, you know, bought a house, paid the house off. Like everything has just been kind of, you know,

going up and up. And I guess 2017, I think I was when I fought Nico Price and then I fought Keita Nakamura. So I had no contest in a loss that year. So that would mean like competition wise, that was no fun, but the year itself was a good year. And yeah, so this has certainly been a growing year for sure. And not only for myself, like the entire planet, not even the U.S., but, you know, it's been, it's been tough for everyone. So any bit of good news or opportunistic

moments that I can find this year, I'm really trying to cling on to and make the most out of them. And in finishing this year as such is a really good way to kind of counteract all the negativity. So it's been, it's been awesome. Well, I'm happy you've been able to find some silver linings. I'm sorry about all the things that have happened to you this year. I did want to touch on one of the things that did happen this year, the chaos fight because, you know, as everybody knows or should know, you're supposed to fight Diego Lima, switch happens on like a week's notice, didn't go your way. Chaos is, you know, kind of taken off at this point. What did you take away from that, from that night in Houston, Texas? Yeah, again, going back

to, like, you know, being optimistic. And, you know, anytime I lose a fight, the last thing I want is, like, any sympathy. I don't want people to feel bad. for me and I always take away lessons and honestly that chaos loss is what gives me so much confidence for this pedus fight because like I studied tape on chaos I know his skill set I know how much time he's spent training the odds makers you know he was like a plus 450 dog there were two takeaways I had from that fight one if chaos can beat me I can beat anybody like anyone can beat anyone in a may like I can be pet us I'm pretty sure I'm to be a decent underdog in this fight to on the on the on the bookmakers I actually prefer that you know more to win less to lose

and in two I was like why why am I doing this now now granted I really enjoy the training and the hardship and the camaraderie and the fight camps but like you know I would you know for that for that you know chaos fight camp the Diego Lima fight camp you know I drove to and from Dallas every week for eight weeks you know had to stay in hotels and just like stay away from the family in the gym that there's like a lot of sacrifice that again I'm happy to do, but it starts to get taxing around like week six, week seven, week eight. And I was like, why am I going? Why am I like torturing myself? And there was one defining answer. It wasn't for money. It wasn't for notoriety. It was because it's fun. Like it's to experience life

in its most extreme state. And like in what I found is these fights. You know, like if you go get into like a street fight, like an altercation out in a bar and a parking lot, whatever, it's a, it's more sinister. You have the implication of the law getting arrested. You have potentially getting a weapon pulled on you, getting damaged, getting jumped, whatever. It's not a fun feeling. Whereas these MMA fights, it's based around like glory and like prize money. So your opponent signed up for the potential risk. You're getting paid handsomely for it.

I have the support of all the fans and my teammates and my family. It's a much more glorious, positive feel. And then experiencing like the adrenaline rush, the excitement, sometimes the fear. It's just like really raw emotion. And what I did my last fight against Reese is I tried not to censor any of that emotion. And I tried to feel everything I could and it gave me more control. Normally I would choose like the most hardcore walkout song I can find, which is usually, I'm on a Marth.

But this time I chose something like a little more melodic, a little lighter-hearted. And, you know, right before my walk-out song came on, I was getting into that death or victory mentality. And then when the song came on, I took a breath. And I told myself, I was like, I want to put on a masterclass of technique and control this fight and be patient and find my range and be technical. And I feel like I was able to turn that flip where I was when I fought chaos, you know, I felt the energy of my home crowd.

And I was like, I was, I accepted the brawl and like paid the ultimate price when I made the decision to fight like that. And it got out of hand quick. and I'm like I can accept that responsibility and learn for my lessons but I won't make that mistake again and I just feel like I'm in such a serene state in my career right now in terms of like not only decision making but like control of the of the mental side of it which I feel has always been a strong suit of mine and it's just I feel like everything's like on the up and up right now which is great everything's just getting stronger than it was before did not having the crowd at the apex when you

fought Reese did that help in that process um I like the crowd I like the crowd I like the energy and I like hearing when somebody gets dropped you know if I'm the one getting dropped usually don't hear anything because you go on a defense mobile like when you hit someone or drop someone it's cool here in the crowd because it like encourages you to finish it encourages me to try to finish um I actually I don't want to say I prefer the apex but but I really do enjoy it I enjoy that the small octagon actually feels normal because people are asking you know What do you like better? The big cage or the small cage? And I don't really know. When I'm in the big cage, it feels really big. When I'm in the small cage, it feels normal.

Like fighting on the local scene again, and it's still a pretty big cage. So I like the close quarters nature of it. And I like, I just, I like the martial arts aspect. It's, you know, it makes it seem like it's more for like martial arts credit than glory because there's not a bunch of fans there. And I just kind of appreciate that. Plus, I always enjoyed the hardship of fights. So, like, hearing my opponent breathe heavy, hearing, quit, get hurt, whatever, has always been, like, a fun psychological aspect that I try to delve into every time. And this makes that a little bit easier. So, like you talked about earlier, not only are you competing on this card,

you're sharing it with some teammates, including Jeff Neal, who is headlining against Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. I mean, both of you guys just have these massive fights against these big names. I mean, this has to be a pretty cool moment, not just for you, but for the entire team, right? Yeah, last night, coach was walking us through it. And I'll tell you, I wonder how many rounds I did yesterday with Jeff. We did like an hour of like strategy movement fit in work. And then we did our hard sparring work.

I must have done seven or eight rounds with them. And I'll tell you, I'm glad I'm not Wonderboy. Jeff is sharp right now. And man, that's a, that's a, I was telling Jeff too. I was like, I was like, buddy, I know I'm biased. I was like, but of all the welterweight in the UFC, you're the last person I'd ever want to fight. Grants, I do a lot of rounds with them, so I know how bad things can go. Man, that guy's a, he's something special, man.

I can't wait to see him become champion. You know, it's awesome. He's headlining the card. I'm honored to be on the main card, my first time being on a main card, fighting pettus of all people. So, you know, training with Jeff yesterday. I had to be Wonderboy. He was being pettus. And it was just a really fun kind of like last, I guess not our last hard day,

one of our last hard sessions for the spike camp. And I got on the lucky and I only had two weeks of hard work. I know he's been grinding it out for, you know, close to two months now. And yeah, it's really cool. You know, we kind of like feed off each other's energy. And I'm really excited to have, you know, friends hang out with while we're in, you know, COVID in Vegas for the week and all that fun stuff. So I'm looking forward to fight a week on Tuesday.

I mean, I know you haven't had a lot of time since Penn went to paper, but have you talked to Diego Faheda at all? Because I know he fought Anthony earlier. he's a Fortis guy as well came the first man to submit him back in January on that Connor Cowboy card that has to build a little more confidence knowing that there is sort of a blueprint

that your team has put together in order to beat him but have you talked to Diego at all about this fight? Yeah, yeah, we've spoken a bit coach has more so been like the bridge between our experiences and you know, Carlos Diego Oferi he and I have different styles

so you know Coach Safe has done a good job kind of implementing what we're good at to win this fight and CDF was the man. I remember watching that fight with my friends at home. If I'm not mistaken, that was in January of this year. Yeah. And man, I was hyping him up.

And, you know, I teach quite a bit of jujitsu. And Carlos DeGiofira used a high crotch entry to a body lock to a backtake, which in my opinion is one of the best wrestling entries with a single-leggeral high crotch into like a jujitsu finish with the body lock dragged down backtakes. And I'm just a big fan of that style. And I always use that fight in particular as a reference to. my students when teaching. So I'm very familiar with like the routes in that fight.

And man, we kind of dodged each other because CDF is fighting Burrell Daryush pretty soon. So I know he'll be starting camp soon. So I was at Fortis, you know, while he was doing his thing on the border. And I know he'll be going up to Fortis here soon for, you know, his eight weeks. And we're actually going to have crossed paths, which is sad. But when he did fight Pettus, I was actually showing up just to be a good teammate and help the guys out. So I actually had to emulate pedisprim a couple times. So, yeah, I was very much so involved in that camp.

And it's just good to have some comfortability, you know, with style of the guy I'm fighting. And knowing that a teammate beat him is, is helpful. A lot of people feel like Anthony is, I don't know, sort of the end of the line. Like they'll look at a topology page more than his fights himself and be like, oh, he's lost four out of seven. But like, if you take a deeper look at who he's lost to, it's Diego, who was just a monster. I think he could be like a complete breakout guy at 55 in 2021. He lost to Nate, lost to Ferguson in a fight that I don't think gets enough credit as far as entertaining fights. And then Dustin and Max and so forth and so on, I mean, he's losing to the best of the best.

And last year, he's Superman punched, C-Oed Wonder Boy Thompson into the shadow realm. Well, maybe his best days are behind him. Like, maybe he's not going to be fighting for a belt anytime soon. Still a very dangerous guy with a big name, right? I mean, this is certainly a guy who can't sleep on. And I'm sure that you're keeping that in mind, right? Hell no. Did even Reese McKee, I was thinking was the most.

dangerous man on the planet when I fight him. I am I try to be as self-aware as possible. And one thing that certain coaches that I've had in the past would do is they would like hype me up and kind of like downplay my opponents. And coming up in the ranks, I never did that. I would always envision my opponents to be these big monsters because I fought some big ass welter weights in my day. And when I would see him at Wayans, I'm like, I'm like Matt, my striking coach, I'm like, dude, this dude, he looks at me. He's like, dude, he's not that small. And I'm like, yeah, but he's small than I envisioned it to be.

So I always like, I would always make my opponents actually bigger and better than they really were. So when I actually got to fight him, it wasn't as hard as I imagined, opposed to being like, oh, you know, this dude's coming off a loss. He's old. He sucks. And if you expect him to be bad and in the fight, they're better than you expect, then you're like, oh, I'm misprepared. So I've always tried to do the opposite. So I know I'm fighting the best Anthony Pettus that there's ever been. And I keep glancing over.

I got my computer right next to me. And I have the topology page. And just, I'm going to read off, you know, he got a loss to Barbosa. Barbosa is the man. He's got a win over Charles Oliveira, who is, you know, a contender. He's got a lost to Holloway who's the best. He's got a win over Jim Miller. I lost to Poye, who's the best.

I went over to Kiesa, who is a good grappler. A lost to T for. No one wants to fight the boogeman. I knock out over Thompson, and then I lost to Diaz, a lost to CDF, and it went over Soroni. And then my name is at the top. Just like being on this list of these legendary fighters, it brings me such pride. And again, it makes me want to jump at this opportunity, you know, like head first with both hands up, man. I can't wait.

And again, I'm not, I mean, if there's any opponent I've ever had to not overlook, it's Pettus, and I'm certainly not doing that. You mentioned self-awareness. You're a very self-aware guy. If you go out there and you beat a guy like Anthony Pettus next Saturday, and you do so impressively, do you allow yourself to think about where a win over Anthony can take you? Like, do you allow yourself to get to that place, or are you just solely focused on Pettus, December 19th, and nothing more?

I mean, yeah, you know, it opens the floodgates every night since I've taken this fight as I lay in bed before I go to sleep. I just imagine what if it opens up like an endless possibility of fights and again naturally so like one thing my coach was saying and and he he put into words exactly what I was thinking like celebrating getting the fight is not the goal celebrating the victory is is is is is what I need to focus most on and that is the hardest task at hand but uh there's just no telling like I've already looked through the UFC's top 15 welterweights and I'm like man this would be a cool fight that'd be a cool fight and uh and again just like winning this fight is what is

going to get me the next level of my career And I just, and the fact that, you know, they even asked me my name, like matchmakers to fight Pettus already puts me there, which is great. But like more to prove to myself than anything else, I'm going to win this fight. Like I'm going to take it to him and take it from him and win this fight. Like I will, I am willing to give my life to take his on the 19th. And I know Pettus is a gamer, but if he's not like ready to fight to the death, then it's going to be a rough fight. How do you how do you see this thing going down? Like I know you feel like you're.

walking out with your hand raised, but is there like a certain vision you have before your, your eyes shut tight when you go to sleep? Because I'm sure you've seen this fight end in a million different ways and go go down in a million different ways since you, you sign the contract. How do you kind of, what's sort of the consistent vision in your mind? I always just envision knockouts ever since I started training. You know, in every interview I've told myself this, just one, to not give anything away, but two, to hopefully strike some fear into the hearts of my opponents, but I'm always gunning for a knockout. best case scenario, I score knockout.

But in this fight, I'm planning on like a three-round war decision victory with my primary goal to do as much damage within 15 minutes as possible. And with that goal, I'm hoping the finish will present itself. But at this high level, I'm going to try to make zero mistakes and find my times to be offensive and just really, again, just try to put on a master class of mixed martial arts is my goal. So I mean, I'm looking for like a third round finish. If anything, just to make sure if the first round goes and the second round goes, I'm not like, you know, dang, I didn't, I didn't do what I was hoping to do. So I was playing for a third round, a third round, a grind. Have you visualized

like the walkouts and stuff? Because I know, like, there are fighters who like will visualize every second of it, even the walkout, because I'm sure you're probably going to walk out first and he'll walk out second. So you're going to watch him walk to the cage and it becomes just like this real thing, right? Yeah. You know what? I got two, two hours. of octagon time. I've made the walk 11 times. I do envision that a lot. I'm still on the fence of my walkout song, but which is not, you know, I couldn't really care. But it's just kind of a fun aspect. Plus, I've actually gotten to know some of these bands because they're like a little less mainstream than like most. But, but yeah, I've envisioned that a million times. And I really can't wait to be in Vegas, you know, going to the UFCPI to train a bit. You know, they have the octagon there. It's just cool to be in that environment. it's just cool to be in the UFC, man. I plan on being there for at least another five years, you know,

and then I'll rearrange my goals accordingly, but it's been a blast, man. And, like, it's funny, like, the longer I've been with the company, it seems like the more opportunities I'm getting and I'm starting to, like, see the same employees and have more conversations for Sean and Dana and Mick. It's just nice.

It's nice being kind of a mainstay. Great stuff from The Great White. Alex Marano really enjoyed that conversation. First time I've actually chat. with him in an interview setting since his win over Kyle Noak in his UFC debut. It has been a while ago. That is a really interesting

fight on December 19th. At first I think I reacted to the booking between Marano and Pettus like everybody else which I was just like, what? Really? But the more I think about it, the more I like that fight. It's a really good one heading into the final card of the year for the UFC. We move ahead

to my old friend, New England native, Tyson Chartier, the manager and the coach of guys like Calvin Cater, like Rob Fott, amongst many others. I figured we were more than an overdue getting him back on the program. So here he is on what the heck. All right, back on the program is actually the first man I interviewed when I came over to M.A. fighting earlier this year.

And so much has changed since then. The manager, coach, one of the faces of the New England cartel. He's wearing the hat right now. Tyson Charity are back on the program. And look at this setup, man. Unbelievable. How are you, man? I'm good, man.

I finally got the wife to decorate the office. It's nice to have a, the wife kind of did this too. I still get some work to do. Yours is a little more put together than mine, but it's looking pretty sharp. When did it get completed over there? We had the stuff in here for probably six months, and then a couple weeks ago of the UFC cameras

were going to be here doing a big shoot on the team. So my wife thought it would look nice to finally finish it for them, and they did a bunch of interviews in here as well. Very cool. Well, you have become one of the big. busiest guys in the sport over the last several months, Tyson, between seeing you in ESPN articles everywhere before these fight cards. You've been all over the place.

Fight Island, Jacksonville, Cater had a massive year. Rob Fons getting ready to fight December 19th. Peter Barrett's fighting Chase Hooper this weekend. It's been a crazy year for you for like a number of reasons, has it not? Yeah, it's been, you know, I would say there's good busy and bad busy. And this year has been a tough year for a lot of reasons on a lot of people, but I've been good busy. So I've been blessed.

I've been fortunate that, you know, I still get to work. And my guys, you know, they're all still climbing the ranks. And, you know, just one fight at a time. But it's been a great 2020 overall. I can't complain. By the way, I just thought about this. Happy 10th anniversary to you. I think around a week or so ago was the 10-year anniversary of your first professional fight.

CS3. Is that right? Yeah, I was like CS2 or 3. It was like a Thursday night fight. It was weird. But it was fortunate enough to get the win. And yeah, you know, learned a lot from those days back and there was a time when I was a fighter too so it's uh it's

it's funny to think back on those days is that the kind of thing you remember like a fight like that like frame by frame because it was a pro debut and it was a big deal or do you just remember like big like big parts of the fight I I remember like big parts of the fight like I remember I got hip tossed the first round I got mounted the whole time and I was like man I got freaking hip toss that's embarrassing and I'm mounted and you know I was forced to have to come back and get the win but I just kind of remembered as a part of my past that's, you know, helping me now. And I don't dwell on the wins and the losses too much. It's more about the experiences and the memories I made.

And, you know, every now and then my, you know, my kids are getting old enough now where they can watch one of the fights. And they're like, oh, Daddy, you fight too like Uncle Calvin. And it's, you know, it's kind of cool for them to be able to go back and see that. It's pretty crazy, pretty crazy to, like, think about this year because Rob and Calvin have been telling me for the past few years in different interviews that

we want to be the fifth sports team in New England. It's not there yet, I would say, but to see it start to get closer and closer and get more buzz, not just locally, but even across the sport, as a manager and a coach, someone who's right in the fire with these guys, what has that been like to watch unfold this year?

It's cool. It's finally like, you know, I'll say nine, ten, 11 years ago, I had this vision of how things could be different. And little by little, you know, we started just making little changes, little changes. And, you know, three years ago, it became kind of official, hey, we're going to make a run at this different way of doing things. And, you know, I'm fortunate enough to have high-level athletes like Robin Calvin that are making me look good in it and making the team look good. So, you know, it's kind of like all the

hard work's already, you know, finally paying off. You know, like I said, the UFC sent cameras out here last week for three days to do a little story on the team. I think they're kind of catching on that we're doing a little bit different and we're having success. You know, you see Calvin's run. You know, Rob's on a two-fight wind streak. He's coming back fighting the number three guy next week in Marlon Rice. So I think it's kind of taken notice of like, wow, like it's this little niche up in New England kind of just sticking to themselves, but it's working. Let's see what's going on. Was it kind of surreal having the cameras in the house and and filming all these, this vignettes and videos and stuff was it was it kind of surreal like you probably weren't like over you probably were like

settled with it being like oh we made it but it's got to feel good knowing that there is that interest right yeah I mean we always say for the team it's it's about hitting those checkpoints you know we're trying to enjoy this journey we're trying to chase you know two belts for these guys and you know it's always one fight at a time but every now and then it is kind of cool to take a step back reflect on how far we've come and the things that we're doing and we always say that you know we just hit another checkpoint. And, you know, having the UFC recognize this as a team that's up and coming and, you know, want to invest money into sending a team out here to kind of document it.

It's a, you know, it's a good checkpoint. But it doesn't matter if we don't win, right? You know, so it's cool to experience. And five years ago, I think I would have thought this is the coolest thing ever. But as we keep climbing the ladder, it's just another part of what we're trying to accomplish. And those things are going to come along with it. We mentioned Peter Barrett back in the Octagon on Saturday. The man has been a staple in New England on the scene for a long time.

Now, exciting fighter. He's overcome a lot in and out of the cage. He had that crazy fight with Yusuf Zalal on his debut. Now he gets a sophomore appearance against a young whippersnapper and Chase Hoopers. He's looking to get back in the wind column himself. How is Pete feeling just days away from this one? He's good. I was texting with him.

He just landed in Vegas. So he's checking in with the UFC now. He feels good, man. He said, a good camp. He feels good. His weights on point. Obviously, this is just going to be a clash of style. I think Chase Hooper knows that he can't stand with Peter

and that his best chances to probably try to go to the ground. But I think a lot of times people forget that, you know, Pete was a decent high school wrestler and he's got decent M.MA wrestling. So, you know, it's a tall task for Chase Hooper. It's a fight that I expect Pete to win. And, you know, Chase has got a bit of a big name. So it's kind of a good fight for Pete. Pete to kind of put himself on the map and, you know, get a little bit more recognition.

Yeah, it's interesting because one thing I think young fighters can learn from Pete, the man knows how to brand himself, Tyson. Like, he's constantly promoting the slippery brand on social media, is doing videos, got T-shirts, like every single fight. Like, he may not be like a household name around the globe yet, but he's certainly, like, setting himself up to become one should he take that next couple of steps forward in his career, right? Like, he's planting those seeds, so to speak. Yeah, he's great with self-promotion.

He's got a really good kind of a cult following locally, and it just keeps growing with every fight. And I think the thing that you get with Pete is you feel like you're along for the ride with him. Even if you're never on the mats with him or at a fight, you feel like you're part of the journey because he's pretty good to be social media and keeping everybody updated. And, you know, he's just a real guy. So I think people, that resonates with a lot of people.

And obviously, he's got a really cool fighting style. You know, he likes to go out there and kind of like Chris Leibon, let it bang, and take one to give one. and then just, you know, he's always in an excited fight. So that's this Saturday. Next Saturday, you mentioned it. Rob Font back in the Octagon, Tours ACL, around a year ago, almost a year to the day against Ricky Simone, getting that win in D.C.

He's been rehabbing, just waiting for his chance. And he gets Marlon Morias, the former WSOF champion, former UFC title challenger for his comeback fight. He must have been beside himself when he found that out. Was he not? Yeah, I mean, a lot of people coming off a layoff. going to kind of look for that like, you know, builder fight to come back to kind of get your feet wet, you know, knock off the ring rest type thing.

Not Rob. I mean, this is Robb's third one-year layoff in the UFC, unfortunately. He came back last year and beat Ricky Simone on a one-year layoff. And then now he gets to come back and fight Milam Rice. And Rob's been in the rankings for like four or five years now. And he just hasn't got that blue ship win. You know, we had the chance against Lennox. We had the chance to get the good knows.

Unfortunately, he fell short. So third time's a charm. We get to fight the number three guy. I think we're catching him at the right time. You know, he's coming off a loss. He's going to be hungry. So we're expecting the best mother, Marais. And, you know, Rob is one of those guys that he's got an innate ability to get better through an injury.

You know, it's been a year that he's rehabbing in the ACL. But he's focused on, you know, a lot of video, a lot of coaching and a lot of studying and mental prep. So, you know, going into this fight next week, I mean, he looks just as good as he did going into the Ricky Simone fight, if not better. What has it been like kind of watching him come to? back. You know, you mentioned he's watching videos. He's finding ways, even though he couldn't physically do a lot of things to improve his mindset, improve his fight IQ, especially seeing the success Calvin's been having this year. That had to have lit an even bigger fire under him, right? Yeah, I think a little bit of nostalgia, because, like, Rob was the first guy I had in the

UFC and the first guy I made that UFC walk with, and then to see him on the sidelines the last year and then come back, it's kind of like, we're getting the team back together. You know, me, Calvin are going to walk Rob to the Cage next week. And, you know, I've missed that. It's always, you know, he's always different with your first, right? He's like my oldest child. So it's, I'm excited to get back in there with him and, you know, for him to go for that third win in a row. And I think the past year, him being part of Calvin's camps and getting to walk Calvin to the cage twice as the main event and, you know, against Stevens right after the COVID with, you know, a lot of eyes on us. I think that's got to help him with the mental prep for his fight because he's

made that walk and cornered in front of those empty arena. So it's not going to be super foreign to him. He's done it. He's seen Calvin in those big pressure moments. And he gets hyped up and wishes it was him. So I think Calvin's rise over the last year is just going to pull Rob forward. And then Rob will go forward and pull Calvin up with him. And they just keep kind of leapfogging each other.

It's always great to see in a team environment like that. And obviously, if he beat tomorrow on next weekend, he's right there. We're starting to have big names in the conversation. Marlon is a big name itself. but let's talk about Calvin Cater because he got the fight that everyone in the universe wanted to see. Everyone wanted to see Cater versus Holloway and we're going to see that on January 16th. And what a massive fight that is. Calvin is so funny.

He's got the Belichick mentality. It's business. It is what it is. It's on to whoever opponent X is. Was his reaction to this booking with Max different than any of the other ones? Like, I mean, former champion, number one ranked guy in the division, a guy that a lot of people feel is the best 45 or of all time. guy who, like Calvin, who has this like, I don't want to put this, like a reserved intensity to him.

Was there like any giddiness to him finding out that he's fighting Max Holloway? No, he was, he was more excited that the fight might be in Vegas. He's never fought in Las Vegas. It's been like a goal of his to fight in Vegas. So he was finally excited because originally, you know, it looks like the fight might be in Vegas now. It looks like it might be in Fight Island. Who knows?

but, you know, he was just so, he's like, so in Vegas, they're going to fight in Vegas? He's like, all right. And he goes, five rounds. I go, yeah, he goes, all right. And then the next thing, he's like, what's the pay? Because he didn't even know where he was out on his contract. So, yeah, no, he, you get what you get with Calvin.

Like, he just wants to kill the next person in front of them. If it was max, that's great. If it was zombie or Ortega or whoever, you know, it's going to be the same reaction. He just kind of like, all right, you know, I've been working the whole time. just tell me who I'm fighting. And I think that's what makes him dangerous too. He's not going to get any more nervous because it's Max, just like he's not going to get any more excited.

I remember I was talking to you about the Dan Ege booking. And I think I talked to Kevin about this as well. It was just the name came across and he just looked to you and said, what do you think? Like, do you think I should do this? And you said, sure, let's do a main event, Fight Allen. Why not? And you're just like, all right, let's go.

Yeah. That was that was ahead. I think his exact words were, if you think it's the move, let's do it. And I was like, I think it's the right move. And here's why. And we kind of had a list of reasons. And it made sense. And unfortunately, it worked out.

It was a calculated risk to fight that low, but it earned us this opportunity here. You know, had we not taken that, maybe we haven't fought yet since Steven. So I think, you know, obviously in hindsight, it was the right move, right? We got a, you know, a nice win. We dominated in the fourth and the fifth round, showed everybody that we're a headliner and showed everybody that were worthy of fighting the goat, the number one guy, probably in a contender fight. I remember texting with you after Dana White announced

that the fight between Zabit and Yayae Rodriguez was no longer happening. I think it was like August 29th or something like that. And you guys had called, you went on social media, called for the opportunity to step in and fight. And when you found out Zabit was not going to stay on the card and ultimately like kind of declined the fight, maybe he was holding out hope for a title shot.

You said something like, all right, cool, no problem, but don't be surprised if you get left behind playing this card. And now with the whole Yaira suspension and everything, Zabit is going to not, he's not going to have a single fight this year. So you kind of kind of hit that one on the head. You weren't like being disrespectful at all. You're just like, dude, all right, I get it. But if we pass you by, can't get mad. Yeah, you can politic your way to a title shot or you can earn it.

And this team's always going to earn it. You know, we're not. We don't get favors from the UFC. We earn everything we get. And that's not said in an annoying way. Like, you know, Calvin's a fighter, Rob's a fighter. And, you know, I'm a competitive coach, manager, whatever you want to call me. And we're going to earn that shot, you know.

And I meant that when I said that to Risvon, you know, as a beat special manager. And, you know, I was like, hey, go ahead. You know, if you guys are fighting for a title fight, you know, you guys are going to sit around the lobby for that. Go ahead. But don't be surprised if we go and get a big fight this fall or winter and leapfrog you. Because I don't think there's any scenario. where we can go beat Max, the number one contender, in a five-round fight,

after just beating Ege in a five-round fight, we've got a six-fight win streak, and then knocking out Jeremy Stevens the way we did, since fighting Zabit, and he's done nothing, I don't think there's any way that Zabit could lobby for a title shot over Calvin. Agreed. There's no way.

If Calvin wins that fight, he's fighting for the belt next. Like, his next fight will be for the belt. But there's a lot of politics in M.A. I mean, all we can do, our whole team motto is we focus on what we can control. All we can control right now is next week beating Miloom Rice. And then on January 16th, beating Max Holloway. And then what comes of it comes of it, you know, we'll lobby for what we need. You know, we'll try to play politics.

But we're going to let our work through speak for itself in the same regard. Like, you know, you can't argue that if you beat Max Holloway in a main event that you don't deserve a title shot. So as a coach, are you enjoying like looking at film and and kind of studying tendencies on guys like Marais, guys like Holloway? Like that must jazz you up to try to like put these puzzle pieces in place, right? Yeah, man. It's like I'm trying to solve math equations over here. Like, you know, I've got three monitors sitting here right in front of me. This is the lab where I do all my work.

And I'm just looking for tendencies and look for habits. And, you know, we see some holes. And I really think Calvin's style is suited to beat. someone like Max, you know, you see Max has struggled with guys like Dustin Porrier, yeah, he's a self-plod, that power. You could argue that Calvin has just as much power as Dustin does.

You know, Calvin's a sharp shooter. And, you know, I think it's kind of Calvin's fight to lose. You know, it's going to come down to volume. You know, if Calvin just waits and tries to pick his shots, yeah, maybe Max could out point us. But if Calvin shows up, ready to throw,

ready to match volume, I just don't see how Max is going to be able to deal with with our power, with our cardio. Like, you know, we kind of match them everywhere. The only place someone could argue that Max has the advantage over Calvin is they're going to say, well, the experience. Okay, cool. Calvin's got 25 fights too.

Yeah, the big fight experience. Cool. Calvin said two main events in the last year. Like, you know, we're the young hungry prospect, even though we're old to venom. You know, where the up andcoming prospect, so it puts a little bit more pressure on Max. And, you know, then people could argue that Max is, you know, better with volume. him in this and that, but that's not something that's hard to change. Calvin goes out there and just throws combos and gets in his face. Like, Max's going to have to deal with that power. If Max

wants to do what he did with Lamas and stand in the middle, point to the ground and fight in a phone booth, that's a battle he's going to lose every day with Calvin. So I think Max has to fight real smart going against someone like Calvin. I think we got just as many weapons, but we also have the power advantage. We're longer. You know, I think we got a three-inch reach advantage. And I just think, you know, it's our time. So I'm excited about the challenge of breaking down video on probably one of the best 45ers to ever fight in this sport and try to knock them out. You have guys in both divisions, you know, font and and cater, both of these divisions, Bannonweight in 45, in my opinion, like from one to whoever the lowest rank guy is.

Like, if you look at lightweight welterweight, those divisions are great, but they're very top heavy. but Bano weight and featherweight are deeper divisions overall, in my opinion. Like if you bought stock in either division, you're in good shape. Like you're probably going to net a pretty tidy profit. What division do you think is better overall, 35 or 45 from like a fan's perspective? Yeah, I do agree. I think they're the two most exciting divisions right now.

There's a lot of juices, a lot of prospects. There's a lot of people even not ranked in the top time that you think could buy for a title. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's right now it's kind of exciting. with 35 just because I think some of those guys are staying a little busier. 45, you're starting to see the guys get to the top five and they want to sit around, you know, there hasn't been a lot of activity. I mean, to find these zombie and our tag of thought, you know, that kind of shook things up a little bit. But it's a little stale, you know.

So I think 35 is exciting. I was excited to see Jan versus Sterling, you know, hopefully that gets re-booked. And then, you know, Cruz fighting someone like Kenny. Kenny's a dark horse. Like he's just, you know, don't count him out against him. Cruz. It's a weird fight when you look at it on paper, but, you know, Kenny's really good. So then you got guys like, you know, Ricky Simone, who aren't even ranked, you know, and then she'll verify now, though, like, there's a bunch of good fights out there, you know,

and then, yes, I go with 35 just because I think it's, like, maybe a little bit deeper, and it's more active right now, but, yeah, I mean, we beat, we go and beat the number three, Mylon Marais. I think that worst-case scenario puts us at number six. you know because maybe they'll pull him down move up uh frankie and whoever else is up there with him uh frankie and munoz and maybe we'll move to you know six or whatever but you know i think we're in a really good spot we beat marlin and we're kind of like right where

calvin's at now one fight away from a title shot or because of COVID you know you could be the fill in for the next time of shot that's true who why is this driving crazy you have a fighter fighting Thursday right for bellator I have three three of them uh Aid Andrews making his Belator debut on the main card. Yeah, so he just signed with them. And then I have Justin Sumpter on the undercard. He's by now Romero Cotton.

And then I have Cameron Lachnov, who's 5 and O with Belator. But this is his, you know, he's not signed with him. So this is his last fight option on that. And so he can go 6 and 0 against 9-0. I mess up the kid's name. It's a Russian kid. Shemiel, Nikiev, or something. He's going against a kid who's 9-0.

He gets that win. It'll be 6-0. know with Belator once I would down I think at that point it would be a nine-fight win street could be 11 and 2 there's big things coming for him you know he speaks Russian English and a little

Uzbek he's got dual citizenship with here in Russia and he's got a huge following in Turkey because that's where his parents are from so I think he's just like a guy that anybody would be lucky to have on their roster because he's just so unique and he's got a cool fighting style like he doesn't mind banging but he's got great jiu jihitsu

So yeah, you can check out It's going to be a big big next month or so for the squad, five weeks, six weeks or so. Last thing, I mean,

like I said, you're all over the place, you're getting asked about fight picks and all these things. You're like an analyst and a coach at the same time. You're all over ESPN. Fighter of the year,

all right? If Davis and Figato wins on Saturday and retains the title, is he the fighter of the years? Is this a no-brainer? That makes him three-d-d-all this year? Four-n-no. Who did he beat before he beat

the two wins against what's the name? Two Benavita two Benavitas wins so is Benavitas, Benavitas, Perez, yeah. Man, I don't see I agree.

It could be a fight of the year but he missed weight, you know? So I feel like you get penalized for that. So who else would be good for fight a year? You got Kamsat. If he had gotten that win, I think that would have been

a good thing for him. I think if Yusif would have won that last fight, he'd be kind of you know, you throw him in there. He would have been like three or four and all in the UFC this year. It's Kevin Holland. A new comment, Kevin Holland's got a lot of juice right now. Yeah, I don't know.

Jan, Jan Belhovic. Yeah. Two fights. I don't know. I don't know. What if Brandon Moreno wins? Yeah, that's, I like him. He's always some smiley.

He's so nice. On our team, 2020 doesn't end until January 16th. Because our bowl with Calvin was 3 and 0. three and oh in 2020 and uh he's gone two and oh and now he's getting a 2020. 2020 fight on uh january 16 so if he wins that in our head he'll be three and oh in 2020 2020 so i'll give calvin the fight of the year there you go i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna throw a weird theory at you and i haven't told anybody this you're the first person i'm telling so this is this is a tyson charterier exclusive for fighter of the year and under the radar pick

I don't think he wins, but I think he should be in the conversation. And people are going to watch this and be like, Mike, what the hell are you talking about? What about Michael Chandler? One win over Benson Henderson finished him. But who has made more of an impact in 2020 by doing nothing than Michael Chandler? Free agency was a huge story this year. Signs of the UFC. It's the backup fighter.

Left Tony Ferguson dangling for like a month. dude fight me and channel just went radio silent just healed out it's just an interesting theory yeah i mean i get what you're saying like he's at an impact i don't i think you can say story of the year yeah all right fair enough yeah you know but fighter of year yeah he hasn't fought and i think people have seen you know henderson and then he goes and loses his next fight so i think it's kind of like how much is that that wind doesn't age as well now you know yeah um but you know it's good to see people doing, you know, free agency and getting paid and stuff like that. So, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I'm actually to see who he fights since they do. It's got to be. It's got to be. It'd be exciting. Yeah, hell yeah, it would be. Just throw him right after it. Put him right on the Conner card. I think that's what you do.

I just don't know who else is there. Ferguson's fighting Olivera. Dan Hooker, maybe. I mean, if it's going to be on Fight Island, it's an easier track for him. Yeah. I'm trying to get anybody at 55 is fun. yeah no i i'm excited to see him finally uh you know kind of like how eddie alvarez was a few years back when he came in you were excited to see how he does against this competition so yeah he's solid

um yeah i mean i'd love to see him fight gachie that'd be a good one and uh who you go with in that fight who i don't know it's hard to go at gage is such an animal man like i don't know it's a it's a tough fight i think i would favor gaichi like right now. But I don't know. I mean, when you have, Chandler only had the one fight, he's probably as healthy as healthy as walking into a fight. He may be in his entire career, which could be interesting. Like Rob, when you have all that time, can only help and sharpen things up that maybe you didn't sharpen prior. So I like the matchup, especially if it hits the

mat. But I mean, it's Chandler's a powerhouse, but man, if Gachie starts getting off, it's really, it starts landing those light kicks. It's really tough. have to beat that guy. Yeah. Maybe I hope it happens, but anything's possible. That's right. You get, you get your own things to worry about. You got some big fights on the horizon.

Rob Fawn, you get cater, you got Barry, you got three guys for Bellator, a whole bunch of stuff going on. But you're the man. You're the man. I don't think anyone's going to give you any shit about the hat this time, Tyson. You're, you're good to go. I didn't wear a Ford. Did we call me muffin head that time?

I'm not used to being trolled. No one cares what I say. You know, you all call me muffin. I was like, come on. This is cool. Like, you guys got to, you know, I get to talk shop with you on here, the new podcast. And it was not, nothing I said was there was a substance. They just wanted to talk about my gushy forehead.

I have a gushy forehead. But what do you do, you know? We made up for it. Redemption, just like you wanted, right? That's right. You did it, man. I appreciate the time. And all the best to you.

All the best of the squad, man. Such a good dude that Tyson Chardier. Glad to see him and the team start to get some recognition. It's been a long time coming. I've been watching these guys do their thing for so long now. And finally, it's all starting to come together. Of course, we did talk about Nate Andrews in that interview, and he was supposed to go to Yamauchi at tonight's Bellator event.

But you may have seen this by now. Yamahuchi missed weight by like seven pounds, just under seven pounds. That is just absolutely ridiculous. So that fight is off. It should have been off and I'm told Nate Andrews is getting compensated, which he should be getting compensated. It's just, just unfortunate. It really is. Come on.

It was a tough fight to begin with and then to have a guy miss weight by like seven pounds is just unbelievable. Just unbelievable. I was going to say some other mean words, but I don't want to get in trouble with my kids jumping around right in front of me. But we're getting ready to wrap up another edition of what the heck here on M.AFighting.com. Thank you so much for checking out the show. I've had some people hit me up on social media asking what they could do to help us out. First off, I guess I'll say keep doing what you're doing, keep watching, keep listening. The podcast numbers have been ridiculous this year, just really, really strong.

And that means a lot. But to help out tell a friend, tell two friends, your brother, your sister, your cousin, let them know what we're doing here. Not just this show, though, all the shows between the links. Let me just say something about between the links. I love this show. I love this show right here. This is like my baby. I protect it.

I nurture it. I take care of it. But between the links is like when that baby that you've protected and nurtured for all those years turns 21. And then you can go like to the bar and drink beers with it and hang out and do some crazy stuff. Between the links is that. It's just so much fun to do. So let people know about that one. Everyone loves a great like a nice healthy debate, right?

So let everyone know between the, of course the A side, Jose Young's and the crew. On to the next one, et cetera. Let them know, people. That's the stuff that makes her breaks channels. We appreciate that. With that said, we will leave you with my chat with the great, the big ticket, Walt Harris. This was great. So happy for him that he got his shot on the broadcast at UFC Vegas 16.

And I will say, I said this at the top. If you skipped ahead just because you wanted to hear Wild Harris, I understand that. We recorded this interview before UFC Vegas. 16 went down. Okay. So while I was on the broadcast, for UFC Vegas 15. Basically, this is like a week behind, all right?

We talked about him being on the UFC Vegas 15 broadcast team. UFC Vegas 16 came and gone. You get it at this point. But we talked about that. It was really cool to see him up there looking dapper. Family, the tragic loss of his stepdaughter and I have Blanchard. We talked openly and honestly about that and how that sort of has translated to his fighting career.

We're going to start that chat in just a moment. Before you do that, again, thanks to all of you guys for watching and listening. big thanks to Casey Liden on the production, Jose Young's and Alex Savas on the graphics and dealing with me being a pain in the butt every single week. And as always, have a heck of a week, everybody. Let's say goodbye with the big ticket himself,

Walt Harris. All right, well, if you watch the UFC Vegas 15 broadcast this past Saturday night, you may have seen a well-dressed, well-spoken, heavyweight contender on the desk that just knocked it out of the damn park. Walt Harris joins us this week on the program. Walt, how are you, sir?

I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing great. You did a phenomenal job on Saturday night while looking like a couple Billy on top of that. How did you enjoy that experience of sitting on the desk and talking some fights with the crew? Oh, man, it was fun. I'll be honest. When I first got there, I was a little nervous. You know, it's kind of overwhelming when you realize how much actually goes into a TV production. But once I got the gist of it, man, it was smooth sailing. What sorts of things might have thrown you off? because watching on TV, you just think that you just sit up there and have a mic and answer questions.

But like you said, it's a television broadcast and there's all sorts of different twists and turns that maybe you weren't prepared for. Well, for starters, you know, Friday night we did two shows. And it was a monkey wrench got throwing the game when Curtis Blades and Derek Lewis's fights got canceled. So the production had to go back in, rewrite the script, had to rewrite the order of the show. And then you have to re-prepared your information. and, you know, there's so much that you have to learn in such a short period of time. And you've got to, you know, learn how to feel spaces and, you know, whether the information that you studied and that you took notes on is even pertinent to what's going on in the broadcast, man.

I mean, it's a lot. And then there's a lot of words that you need to learn in order to kind of, you know, understand what the producer is trying to tell you to do during the show. He's in your ear at the same time you're trying to speak. You know, so it's a lot of. a lot, man, but it's so much fun for sure. In a way, I mean, because I assume because you did so well, you'll probably do this again, in a way, is it almost beneficial that you kind of got thrown to the fire right off the

bad and there were some hiccups? So now that the next time, it's smooth sailing. Yeah, for sure. I definitely, you know, I love challenges and, you know, being thrown in the mix early and, you know, not really knowing exactly what to do is exactly what I could ask for. because the next time, like you said, it'll be smooth sailing. It won't even be hard. And I'll be better prepared for it.

You know, I don't know how to study and prepare my notes. And, you know, we'll go from there. Is that something that you hoped would be an option for you? Because it was one of those things, honestly, that I didn't really think about until I saw you up there. But immediately, I was like, oh, this is a great choice. This is awesome. This makes total sense. Was the broadcasting side of the fight game, something that you had in mind to be a part of?

Yeah, I've always, I'm. I mean, I've been a sports guy my whole life. I watch every sport, whether it's hockey, basketball, soccer. I'm into everything. In fact, right now I'm sitting here watching Stephen A. Like, sports is my life, you know what I mean? So it's kind of a natural progression for me. My family's always felt like it was something that I need to do.

And at first I kind of was like, oh, whatever. But then I started realizing just how much I do love sports and how much I know about sports and I love talking and arguing and doing all those different things. So I feel like commentary was definitely a natural progression for me. And then like right off the bat, you're on ESPN. And I know like myself growing up, like I watched SportsCenter on a loop like over and over and over again seeing like the Dan Patrick's and the Obermans and the Stuart Scots and folks like that. So that must have been pretty surreal for you as well.

Yeah, dude. It was like kind of when I heard we were doing live, it's when like I was like what like what like. like, dude, you're on ESPN, like, this is huge, you know what I mean? Like, most people that started out commentating, especially fighters, they usually kind of do a local circuit, you know, they kind of, you know, get their feet wet that way. And my very first time I was throwing on ESPN with Megan O'Levy and Michael Kiesel, who is, he's 10 shows in, but the dude's like a pro, man, like, he's so good. And it was just, it was kind of overwhelming at the time.

And I was just, like, grateful, you know, and I saw like I can think of was just how grateful I was to be sitting up there doing that. I don't know if you saw it, but I saw the feedback on Twitter and social media and it was universal in praise for you and your contributions on the broadcast. But how did ESPN the UFC feel about? Did they offer any feedback? Yeah, yeah. I talked to, I was at Candida, the producer of the show.

He wanted me to smile more. That was his thing. He's like, dude, you got to let that big pretty smile out. And I was like, okay, cool. you know, like, because to be honest, the first day, like, I was, I was confused as to how to approach it, you know, because I just, I didn't want my personality to, like, overtake the show. I didn't want to be too dominant. And then I can be very, very loud, you know, like, I'm a, like, loud human being. You, you know, when I'm doing interviews, it's probably not as prevalent. But when I'm, like, just having fun, like, it's, I'm so loud. So I was worried about being too loud on the mic because my mic sounded like it was too loud in my head. And he was just like, No, it's okay. He's like, you actually need to yell a little bit more. You know, he said he wanted me to talk more, which was crazy to me because I was like,

dang, I talked too much. So that was pretty cool to kind of like be told you need to talk more. You know, but that was about it, man. He was happy. I think everybody was happy, Megan and Mike was super pumped. So I'm looking forward to continuing and getting better at it, man, for sure. The card ended with Anthony Smith getting a quick submission win over Devin Clark. and for a guy who has had the year that he had,

dealing with a lot of adversity, he fought for a world title last year. He certainly needed that win. What did you make of his performance, especially getting a made-event slot a little more than 24 hours prior to that after, like you mentioned, the Curtis Blades positive test?

Man, I was impressed with Anthony, man. I mean, that dude is so resilient. I've always been a fan of his and how he fights and how he approaches the game. I thought he went in there and did exactly what he needed to do. I also thought Devin did what he needed to do. I think he just got a bit overwhelmed by the moment, which I kind of expected because I've been in that spot where you're coming off a tragic situation or you're going through

something in that camp. And, you know, you want to perform so well that you kind of almost overdo it. And then you kind of miss steps in the middle of that fight. And I think that happened to me as well with Oberyn. I heard him. And instead of me taking my time, I kind of rushed in and got blew my load. And I think Devin did the same thing. He kind of got wanted to get his hands on him. And then he got it, you know, got to the point where he was comfortable at or where he was comfortable

on the ground. And then he just made a mistake. And you can't make mistakes like that at the highest level, man. I mean, it just, those guys are just too good. And I thought Anthony capitalized on it. And he won the fight. Yeah, he looked great. It was something that he really needed. And you know how fans can be. Sometimes they give you the credit. And then other times are like, well, he fought a good's not in the top 15

switches off wins and loss in the UFC, slow your roll don't get too excited but if you're a guy like Anthony Smith who I mean he's been in these situations before he's dropped two or three in a row and then goes on these runs is this sort of the beginning of maybe a second title run for him or it's just

we need a slow roll him a little bit just keep putting up against top 15 guys slowly bring him back up and just to see where he's at I'm all for the slow process because I mean he's been fast track once you know what I mean and we saw what happened in the end of that um I think he's at a point in his career now where it like he said after in his post-fight interview fight the fights that are in front of you know what I mean and

I think he realizes that he got fast track last time and it may have been a little bit too much for him put too much on his plate um you know so I think let's fight by fight basis with him to see how it goes you know because only he knows exactly how he feels and for him to say take the fights in front of them and that's what you know i think that's what should be done were there any other performances on the card that that got you fired up like outside of anthony smith who sort of stole the show for you on saturday um biaza man i called biaza to a t bro it's crazy um i was in the back and we were picking the fights me and michael and i told michael i was like bro bia's striking is nasty but i'll guarantee you it doesn't get out of the second round

and Sato will go to sleep. And he was like, no, I don't know, man. Sato was down there with Henry Hoof. And I think they're both going to feel each other out. It's going to go all three rounds. I guarantee you you put some sleep in the second round. And boom, on Q, second round, head and arm choke. I was like, and I looked over at him, Mike, it just got up and like, I'm like, yeah, I told you, dude.

Like, I don't know. I should probably gamble. And Megan was like, no, no gambling. You know, I'm like, yeah, you're right. You know, I don't need to gamble. but I was picking those fights like crazy dude I was like man that's kind of weird I picked two of them exactly I think it was that one

and then the very first fight of the night no it was the JSP fight I picked so I'm like I don't know man I might have a future in Vegas there you go man we get you on all these different shows get you on the betting show because I mean JSP was was a surprising one because Kamaka looks so good in his first fight. It was so wild. And he was a heavy

favorite in that fight too. And JSP, especially after the loss to Joe Lozahn, weren't really sure what he was going to look like. It'd been over a year since he fought, but to go in there, he's a huge 45er. Massive. Massive, bro. So big. So big. And he was healthy, man. That's the thing I was banking on. I was like, all right, he fought Lozahn at like 50%. His shoulder was

screwed up. So he's 100%. You know, although Kakamakamak. had a full camp and he was 100%. I felt like I just, JSP, man. He's tough. He's from the South, man. He's a dirty, dirty boy. So I felt like he was going to be able to go in there and get it done and he did. Man, I was happy

for him. Well, you did an amazing job on the broadcast. Hope to see you up there again. But in terms of your Octagon presence, we last saw you compete in October against Alexander Volkoff UFC 254. Didn't go your way. First off, you know, being part of the Fight Island experience, such a

unique time, especially with everything going on in 2020, getting to be on a card like that. What was that experience like for you? Man, it was insane. The reception over there was amazing. The people were amazing. You know, it was just a great, a great experience for me, because I've always wanted to go over there and see that side of the world.

All be, you know, it was in a pandemic. So it wasn't at full capacity. I just, I had a great time, man. I enjoyed my team. I enjoyed the process. And, you know, I'm grateful for that opportunity. You know, like we just mentioned, you know, the fight didn't go your way. Volkov is a massive guy.

He's just so tall. He uses his distance really well. He went to the body a lot. And, you know, you can always take things away from these fights, win or lose. But, you know, what sorts of things did you take back to the U.S. with you following a fight with a guy like Volkov? You know, just that I can't switch off in the middle of fights. You know, you've got to be mentally prepared. And I switched off for a split second in that fight.

And it ended up costing me the fight. I went back and I watched it. And I was just like, man, it's just that smart. Like, that's the level, you know what I mean? Like, top 10 to top five and up, you know, that's just those guys are so good that you can't switch off. And, you know, I went back in the gym and I worked because, I mean, we worked on that kick for 13 weeks, bro. Like, I was prepared for that kick. I just switched off for that half a second and he capitalized.

And so, you know, like, that's what I took away from it, man. Just stay focused, the full 15 to 20. five minutes, whatever be, you know, however long year in that. It has been a crazy year for everybody. Walt, you especially in and out of the octagon, we don't know when this pandemic is going to end, but, you know, you've had some great opportunities along the way. You've had main events, being on the broadcasts and analysts this past weekend, etc. Is there a part of you that's like ready to just throw this calendar in the trash and turn to

2021? Are you excited for that to happen? Yeah, man. I started, I got rid of it. months ago, bro, like, I'm so mentally over 2020, it's just ridiculous, bro. It's been the worst year ever for everybody, you know, but trying to just, you know, keep working and staying positive and being here present for my family. But, man, this year cannot end fast enough, bro.

I'm so glad it's December and, you know, just glad it's all over, man, for real. Yeah, we made it to December. It seems like we never get here, right? Right. I just, it's crazy that it's December. It was like, man, this can't get fast enough and now it's here. It's like, man.

It's weird, man. This has been extremely, extremely weird. In a perfect world, when would you like to get back in there and compete? Is there a certain time frame that you have in mind for 2021? Yeah, I was thinking February. You know, I need to take some time mentally for myself. You know, I kind of feel like I jump back in it so quick after every. everything. You know, I hadn't had a whole, like, I really hadn't even grieved properly, to be

honest. You know, and then I just need to, I heard Anthony say something, you know, he talked to somebody. You know, I think that's going to be key for me as well. I haven't really talked to somebody, you know. I think those things are important. I think mental health is huge, and I've realized that more over this last year than anything or at any point in my life, how important mental health is. You know, so I think I'm going to take a little bit of time, you know, the next couple weeks to focus on that. And then probably February, you know, March maybe.

Can I see where I am and then go from there? Have you, do you feel like you've been able to, to grieve appropriately at this point? I mean, like you said, you jumped right back into this thing. And, you know, you felt like maybe it would take your mind off of everything. And I can't even imagine what you've gone through. But, you know, have you, have, do you feel like you've, you've been able to process that and grieve to this point? I mean, in spurs, man, it's weird because like you said, you know,

I've been trying to stay busy to take my mind off of it. And it's worked to a certain degree, but then there's that day where it hits you and I just would break down, you know what I mean? And so I think that, no, I haven't fully grieved how I need to. You know, I think I need to sit out and really, really assess, you know, the mental side of which I'm about to start working with some sports psychologists. And, you know, I have a therapist. I'm not seeing it as regular as I should.

But, you know, that part of it, I think, is key for me. You know what I mean? I think I need to really take that into consideration and then get back into it. Because, like you said, I've been trying to stay busy, you know, just to keep my mind, you know, from just going to that super, super dark place. But, you know, we'll get all that figured out. And I'll be back stronger than ever for sure. Because I know we've spoken in the past before all this happened.

And correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we've talked about depression and going through different things in your life and overcoming obstacles. And you've been a part of that and had to deal with those things as well. Has those things that you've learned along the way? How much is that? I mean, it's hard to say help, but how much has that kind of assisted you in this process? It definitely has. You know, I mean, like this is nothing I've ever been through. wish anybody to go through.

But I think some of the things that I've been through in my life have kind of helped me hold on to this point, if you will. But like I said, this is uncharted territory for myself as well. So it's something that I definitely need to sit down and analyze deeper. And, you know, just to make sure I'm okay. You know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, sometimes I think we tend to forget about ourselves. because we're trying to take care of others and look out for others. And then being a fighter on top of that doesn't make it any easier

because when you're a fighter, you feel like you can make it through anything. And that's a lot of my problem. I feel like, all right, I'll be all right. You know, you'll figure it out later. And, you know, sometimes you need to slow down and really look at it and see where you are to make sure you're okay. So we'll see, man. I mean, I'm blessed.

I got good people around me. So I think everything will work out. it's hard to transition from that but I know you're a you're a giant basketball fan so much movement going on we just saw the Russell Westbro

trade what do you think of all this movement crazy bro I'm so excited the season starts in like two weeks so like I'm just you know super excited about that you know like it's just going to be fun there's so much movement I don't think AD signed his contract yet

so like I don't think he's going to leave but I feel like he's waiting to see what Yannis does. So I'm excited about that. And just basketball in general, man, I'm excited to watch it again. And I'll be honest, like last year, I didn't watch as much. I probably started watching the bubble midway through. Just because basketball just kind of lost his flare, man. It felt like, you know, and I hate to blame LeBron for it.

But it's just like when he started the super team thing, man, I'm an old school ball player. So like the Jordan Air is what I'm what I'm accustomed to, man. don't team up with the rivals, bro. Like, that just ain't what we do. You know what I mean? So it kind of took a lot of the love of basketball away. But now I'm starting to, like, kind of get it back. Because the balance in the league seems like it's coming back a little bit.

You got, you got KD and Kyrie. You got Russell Westbrook and Bradley Bill and Washington. You're going to have John Wall and hopefully hard. So, you know, everything's kind of even than out, you know, even though the Lakers are going to win it again, I feel like, you know, it'll be fun to watch man and i'm excited to see it yeah i'm uh i'm from the boston area so i'm a big selfics fan i feel like there's a lot to be excited about like if if i were to buy stock in the mb a i would buy a lot of the southics because they're so young and they're so talented but

they're just not there yet they got it's just something's not quite there like they're missing i don't know if it's a piece or like because tatum is the real deal but like that dude's legit in And I'm sold on Jalen Brown as well as a two-way player. I think he plays on both ends of the floor and he plays hard every night. It's just to him, consistency. I think it's going to be his key. But I can't figure out what it is that they're missing. You know what I mean?

Like they had so many opportunities to put the heat away. And they just, you know, I don't know. But I love the look at the Boston Celtics, for sure. They need a big man. They've needed a big man for like five years. I think that could be it. But I mean, it's so weird with the NBA, you know, like they have the small line-ups and like, which way are they going? Are they going back to the traditional big man?

Are they going to go small? I don't know. So, you know, I saw them draft a bunch of big men. And I don't know. They may be going back to the traditional four-out, four-round one and playing that way. So we'll see. But man, it's going to be fun to watch. I wish we could get Kendrick Perkins back from like a decade ago.

Just bring him in there. Man, dude, perfect fit. He was a dog, man. Toughness personified. Absolutely, man. Hey, I appreciate the time, Walt. It's a great catch up with you again. I thought you did a phenomenal job on the broadcast.

I hope this is a regular thing for you. And who knows? Maybe this will parlay to seeing you do some sideline reporting for ESPN doing in the bubble sometime or in these arenas full of people. I'd love to see that. That'd be unbelievable, man. I would love to do that for sure. I appreciate it, man.

Thank you for having you. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.