MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 4 | Frankie Edgar, Dominick Reyes, Alexander Hernandez, Laura Sanko & Gilbert Burns

Episode Date: April 23, 2020

This week on What the Heck, Mike Heck speaks with UFC lightweight Alexander Hernandez (4:43), recent UFC light heavyweight title challenger Dominick Reyes (27:49), no. 6 UFC welterweight contender and current Twitter champion Gilbert Burns (46:02), UFC on ESPN reporter Laura Sanko (1:11:04) and former UFC lightweight champion -- and one of the newest additions to the bantamweight division -- Frankie Edgar (1:37:24). Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now here is your host, Mike Heck. What the heck? Well, hello there, everybody. Welcome to a brand new episode of What the Heck on MMAfighting.com, the MMA fighting YouTube page. And wherever it is you find your favorite podcast. My name is Mike Heck. Hope you're having a great week. Hope that you're staying home, but at least staying at.

in trying to make the best of this crazy situation. We got a fantastic lineup of guests for the show this week, but the MMA wheel just continues to turn, doesn't it? Like a lot of news has come out over the last several days. We got the PFL. They have canceled or postponed their 2020 season. They reportedly released about a third of their roster on top of that, but they're going to be paying a stipend to the remaining fighters on the roster,

and I certainly understand their decision to do that. I was a little surprised it did so early, but if you really take a look at the roster from top to bottom, there's a lot of international fighters. So being able to pull off a season, especially under this format, would have been very difficult to do. Bellator, they have postponed Bellator 244, which is supposed to go down on June 6th in Chicago. That was supposed to be headlined by the rematch between Michael Chandler and Benson Henderson. So that fight, that card is going to be pushed to another day. But Bellator is, however, looking to kickstart things back up, June, maybe July sometime in the summer,

and host events from a Hollywood soundstage. It's kind of like the old days of studio professional wrestling, perhaps, like WCW Saturday night back in the day for us, elder statesmen that grew up during that time. Maybe they can have the cage on one of those circular things that spins around between fights. But that'll be pretty interesting to see once that comes out. And of course, with the UFC, May 9th is very much a thing. We found out earlier this week. It's going to be called UFC 249.

And as they reported on Tuesday, multiple sources confirmed to me and other members of the site that the event will take place somewhere in the state of Florida. I want to give a shout out to Esther Lynn for creating maybe the greatest fight graphic of all time when it came to that event. You can check it out on our Instagram page. But from what we gather, the fighters, the teams, they're scheduled to fly into Jacksonville, Florida to get ready for Fight Week. although the actual physical location has not been revealed at this time. We don't know what the hell is going to happen, but we're going to keep you posting all that. But of course, UFC 249, 2.0 will be headlined by Tony Ferguson versus Justin Gagee

for the interim lightweight title, Henry Sehudo versus Dominic Cruz for the Bannamweight title. And how about Tony Ferguson successfully weighing in this past Friday at 155 on the nose? There is only one El Kukui, and we're going to be talking about that, the event itself and a whole lot more this week on what the heck. So let's run down the lineup, let you know how this is all going down this week. Later on the show, we're going to chat with Frankie Edgar, the former UFC Lightweight Champion, who a little more than 10 years ago captured that title by defeating BJ Penn at UFC 112 and Abadabie.

We're going to talk to the answer all about that, what he's been up to during these quarantine times, his plans to move to 135 and much more. UFC reporter Laura Sanko is going to return to the show to talk about all the changes that have happened in the UFC over the last couple of weeks. She was actually supposed to come on last week, and there's a bit of a story there. Plus, we're going to talk about a whole bunch of other things. We're also going to talk to Gilbert Doreno Burns. This guy has been trying to get a fight since he defeated Damia Maya, finished him in the first round at UFC, Brasilia. And as of now, he hasn't been able to find that fight.

So we're going to check in with the reigning Twitter champion, Gilbert Burns, later on in the show. Dominic Reyes is going to join us a couple of months removed from that awesome fight with John Jones at UFC 247 in February. As you all know by now, John Jones got the decision is still the champion, but it's one of those controversial decisions that we're still talking about. But we're going to check in with the Devastator in around 25 minutes or so. But first, we're going to check in with Alexander Hernandez, who is supposed to fight on both iterations of the April 18th version of UFC 249. And first it was going to be Islam Makachev in Brooklyn, then undefeated Omar Morales was going to be his opponent at Tachi Palace before the event was just off the table for April 18th altogether.

His name, as you may have noticed, was not on the fight card for May 9th. And we're going to get the answer as to why and much more right now with Alex Hernandez on What the Heck. All right, we move ahead to our next guest, a very relaxed next guest, if you can see right now, the top 15 lightweight in the world. It's a little strange because had things, gone on the way they were scheduled to. We'd be talking about what happened at UFC

249. It's been a bit of a wild road for us all, but definitely for this man. Alex Hernandez, Alex, how are you? This is like the debut of massage table chronicles. Yeah, I'm doing pretty good. I've got getting a massage right now. I'm on the table, so we're getting a real intimate look today. But yeah, I'm doing good, man.

I'm chilling. I just got back on the I mean, I guess I was already on the horse, but, you know, I kind of relax, reset last week a little bit, let my body cool off because, you know, just the toll it takes on your body getting ready for camp and lining up for that week. So I just did some things outdoors and start hitting it really hard at the latter end of last week and getting into this week. So got my dude here. Yeah, there's his ass.

Yeah, so he's working on the legs and we're getting back to it, man. Get back to work today. Well, you see him in a really good place mentally right now, probably mostly because of the massage. right now, but how have you handled the sort of on again, off again happenings with UFC 249 and April 18th and all that stuff? Yeah, man, that was a roller coaster ride. You know, like I said, you know, fighting itself takes such a toll on you. You know, you get the anxiety, the sleepless nights, the physical toll, the emotional toll. And so, let me switch the odds here.

My bad, dude. So the whole, it's so ridiculous. So the, yeah, the whole fucking thing. I mean, it was Mayam and it was like, you know, I had, I mean, my own head coach fell out at one point. He got sick. I thought I caught some shit at some point where I was just having to fight through it and just trained. But every time I'd start revving up, I'd get like insanely nauseous and really hot. And so, but I mean, getting tested is difficult.

So I don't really worry about that shit. But I just, I mean, it seemed like we were all kind of dropping at one point. But again, you know, my employer and my opponents weren't really pandering the fear or, you know, adhering to really any of the laws or any of the, like a pandemic was going on at all. So we just had to like kind of get on this mountain of optimism, you know, and kind of keep that perspective with the UFC and just push through, you know, not be a bitch. and that that's what I did. And I got a fuckload better in the last, you know, two months. I mean, I've been in camp mode since, you know, since January 1st, it seems. So I've been going hard for a long time now.

And I've radically improved. And I kind of justified or sort of confirmed that to myself, just in these last few days taking off, resetting, and not worrying about an opponent so much or an event and just coming in having some phone with the guys, in the gym. Everybody's really eager just to get in here. So I kind of opened the doors a little bit and just ran through everybody. Just for all these poor bastards that we called teammates just got humbled. So that felt good. It felt good to take the blinders off, have so fun, and just fuck people

up. I am in a pretty good space right now. I've got a good workplace before me right now. And I've got a bunch of eager guys are ready to get back in the gym. So, yeah, we're not, I mean, we've, I've, I've already kind of got over the whole idea, and I'm just looking forward to the next thing now, you know. The last time we spoke, you were actually in the Middle East for that Fighters for Freedom Tour, and you were talking about, you know, viewing things in a different light through that experience, you know, what the soldiers deal with overseas, things you may have taken for granted. But I think the most important thing to you was being able to form your own opinions about

a lot of these different global topics and not going along with the perceptions of others. Like, looking back, how much has that experience helped you when it comes to the coronavirus and what's going on in the world right now? I mean, so much. I mean, my whole thing, and it's kind of like a philosophy that transcends everything, is that like stagnation's death, like movement's life. You need it. And so for me, my biggest thing was like, I'm just not going to pander to these fears

and this like insanity that people are running with. Like I'm just going to keep living my life the exact same. That's exactly what I did. Like I trained the same. I operate the same in pretty much every capacity that I ran. The only thing was going to the grocery store, you know, felt like apocalyptic now or whatever. You know, it was like the fucking world was about to burn down.

But other than that, like I just stayed in my bubble. I was home, gym, home gym, kept my training partners. Fortunately, it seems like, Brazil. Brazilian just don't give a fuck. So I had all the crew there, you know, and we were getting things done pretty much the exact same. And it was, it was good. I just didn't, I didn't, you know, indulge the fears. I just kept moving.

I kept working. And when I got sick, I just kept working. And I fucking ate that shit up, dude. COVID's probably trying to deal with me right now, figure out, like, the antibodies to conquer my shit. I probably fucked it up. So I'm not, I'm not, I'm not like, I'm just not worried about it. And the more that, you know, information comes out with the ratios, death ratios, and people start kind of realizing that, oh, we've been categorizing everything into this,

like, COVID umbrella, you know, the more I hope people can kind of be like, okay, this isn't, maybe everything is cracked up to be. It's not the in the world. It's not something to, like, really even hide from, you know, just take care of yourself. Like anything else, hell's found within, you know. And so I think we just need to operate to sit in ourselves, take care of ourselves, be our best versions of ourselves, before we go, I don't know,

point their fingers, creating prucking conspiracies or whatever the fuck else. Like, you just take care of yourself and just get back on track of line. And so I think that helps. I mean, what that has to do with the Middle East thing, I think just being level-headed, you know, just maintaining a level mind. You mentioned that you were sick, your coach was sick,

Do you think, I don't know, if he got tested, you mentioned things about testing, and you didn't really get into it too much. Do you think you had it at all? Do you think you're just coming down with something? My head coach did have it. And, I mean, I was breathing that dude's air, so, maybe. You probably did have it. Yeah, maybe.

But I just fucked it up, dude. It's just not worried about it. I had to get ready for a fight. That's what I was going to do. I said that's what I was going to do. And that's what I did. And I'm in the best shape of my life. So I'm ready to,

I'm ready to take on whatever challenge. I'm ready to fight any opponent that's available here in the States. I'm ready for whatever. And I guess, you know, you're talking about, I guess, maybe just perspectives and things like that with that trip or just any other trip I've been on or just life. One thing that I was able to do was have understanding and sympathy for the Russians and leaving prematurely. I mean, it felt like they left prematurely, but maybe they didn't, you know. Those flight bans were coming up. the likelihood the fight was was slim you know dim dim outlook for sure and then it ended up not happening

anyways and so for them to have to go back to their country and get back to their you know their homes their families i can understand that and so for me it wasn't something that i like dwelled over it wasn't something like sulked on i just uh i just got back to it and uh yeah flip flip it was just yeah thanks for doing with me dude but uh that's the greatest interview of all time Yeah, I was just, I was just ready for the next thing. So that's, that's what we did. Yeah, I thought it was kind of interesting because, you know, the Makachef fight was the one that was lined up. And then once we figured out he was off the card, Omar Morales was slated to be your new opponent. I mean, he's undefeated. He's a, had a great win on the contender series, got a win in the UFC.

No disrespect to Omar, but to go from a top 15 guy to, you know, a surging prospect like Omar, were you happy with that matchup? Because I was a little surprised to see that name, if we're being honest here. Well, that goes back to the roller coaster ride, man. And I just had to like, this camp, I was able to take complete domain over my mind and kind of get back to this cavalier state of not giving a fuck at all. I was training and prepared to fight like a man who had nothing to lose. I wasn't worried about shit. And so, you know, as a fight on, is a fight off.

Okay, now my opponent's out of the country. He's for sure out. Okay, now I don't have a location. Now I don't have an opponent. That goes by for a whole week trying not to check out. then okay now we got a list of names i thought michael johnson was going to be the name and then the next day it was like you know now there's this omar mara morales guy um you got 10 minutes do you want them or not okay what happened the other ones now those other guys are off the table now do you want

the guy or not i mean fuck you i want to fight so just give me the guy i don't care who it is just give me the guy okay this is the guy so we got the guy michael johnson got a guy everybody got a guy they lined up the card you know and then and then one week before it fell out but it was just you just had to be malable and roll with the punches. You know, mold to whatever, you know, everything else threw at you. Because all I could do is just control my own shit. And sometimes that's not even really picking your opponent. It's just who do you got who's available and who do they want you to fight.

And it seemed like that's who they wanted me to fight. So that's what I was going to do. By the same token, though, I've never had an opponent that wasn't top 15. Every guy I've fought since I've entered the UFC and I didn't come off of another giant organization. I just came out of fucking LFA with a humble record of under 10 fights. Everybody that I fought at the time of signing

was a top 15 ranked opponent. Even if they weren't by the time we actually got to the card when we were negotiating, they were. And so fighting someone like Morales would have been someone that I naturally would have fought on my way up. and would have had the opportunity to kind of to display something different. And also just for the sake of

separation of degrees, showing people that I do belong in the top 15 because people doubt whatever, you know, just because of how I've kind of like risen in there and how I just jumped in. Like I wouldn't have mind putting on display of, you know, here's the difference between me and them. And then here's why I am where I'm at.

Is it the ranked opponent that the caliber I would want to know? but it would have been a guy who was trying to take my head off, who was hungry than hell, and an underdog. And I always respect an underdog. I did more against a high-ranked opponent in less time. So he was certainly not being overlooked.

Was there a part of you that was like, you know, I mean, you're having this not giving an F mentality towards the fight and who they present to you at this point. Was there a part of you that's like, it doesn't matter who the name is, I'm going to put pen to paper because this thing's probably not going to happen anyways? Yeah, well, and so that was a shit part

Because you couldn't say it wasn't going to happen As much as like that big part of your brain I guess called logic was like dude There's no way this thing happens You had to keep your heart You had to keep your heart held high And keep training as if it were Because I mean

The last thing you want You know is to be checked out When it's time to check in So I was just prepared for anyone And I just had to keep the belief That it was going to take place I think the whole process A little frustrated

and it was like, man, maybe at a certain point you don't keep pushing because you're really dragging us through the mud with you. But it's a – it just wasn't what it was. It was an experience, man. It was a growth metric for sure. And, you know, it doesn't kill you. It does make you stronger. And we did – we became a better team through all this. So I'm not mad at it.

So we saw the May 9th card sort of get put out there. Your name was not on it. So were you offered a fight for that event? I'd seen something that you weren't – you weren't interested. and fighting on that card. Is that true? Yeah, I don't want to find on that card because, again, I don't want to be strung out by the time I get to a fight. I've already been preparing. I've reved up for a specific date. The date fell out. And so I don't want to get strung into this May 9th debacle if it falls out too. I want to see that happen. You know, I was on the front

lines before. Okay, I want to see somebody else to do it now. I want to see that May 9th card come to fruition. And then if it does, they're looking at doing the 16th the 23rd. So put me on one of those cards. Put me on that 23rd card. After we just know that it's a possibility to have fights. Because the last thing I want is to get to May 9th and not happen. And then you get strong out to the next month and your body's just taking a fucking toll. Your mind's taking a toll. And again, you get literally like a strung out sensation. Like, dude, I'm worn. I'm broken. I'd rather be under than overtrained.

So you're just, you were pretty much just done with the roller coaster out of it all. Let's just make sure a fight card actually takes place. And then, you know, if it's six days notice, a week and a half notice, you're in. Yeah, yeah, I'm prepared. I'll get back. I just don't, I don't want to keep just getting dragged. I don't want to keep getting dragged to uncertainty. I just want some clarity.

So I was down before. I don't want to keep doing it. So let's just see, let's see this May 9th card happen. And then we'll see what's up. I know the UFC put together these conference calls for you guys on Friday and on Monday. And, you know, to sort of give you guys an update on everything. and most of those topics were leaked out, as you've probably seen at this point. But do you feel better about things or maybe have a clearer sense of what the plan is

between your employer and what you guys are sort of heading into after attending that call? They talk about paychecks? That's what I'm curious about. That too. Yeah, well, that was another question I was going to have. I'm curious about a paycheck. That's really the only thing that's kind of on my mind too is, you know, I spent a lot of money in preparation for it, especially because we got a way up to the week of.

and so, sorry, the week right before. And so it's costly. It costs personally on your body. And then, of course, paying your coaches and then convincing and coercing those guys to put on during a pandemic. And, you know, might be a little extra. So that's the only thing I'm really curious about. Everything else is still, to me, is as gray as it was, you know, when the fight got canceled. So I don't really think that we've done a good job of bringing any new clarity.

But also, you know, it's just. is kind of the world we're in right now. It doesn't have a lot of clarity. Do you expect at this point to get some sort of compensation for this past Saturday's fight at all? Like, just based on what you've heard or conversations you've had? Yes. And it was, I mean, it was declared. So I would. I do expect them to come through on that. You got to pay for those massages, man. You got to pay. Do these massages are not cheap? I'll say that. You know, opponent-wise,

It doesn't really matter at this point. I mean, if it can't be Mockachev, like, what makes sense to you? Is it a Morales? It doesn't really matter at this point. Let's not give the Fs like you were talking about. Yeah, yeah. No, no, exactly. At this point, it's just like, who's on soil and who's prepared.

And that's the way the only credentials we can really run by. I need action. Victories will, you know, further propel my career. And just dub using the UFC, you know. Again, I didn't get this, like, long world. I didn't get to like tailor make anything or really create this like long little highlight reel off of you know nobody. So I was just prepared to do that on somebody's.

But pandemic strikes and we need somebody to get knocked out, dude, I'll knock that guy out, whoever it is. I don't know. I will, you know, indiscriminately do that. I wanted to ask you about this because you've brought up some interesting things about the mental and the physical, the fight camps take a toll on. And I've had conversations in the past about this. You know, like most things, this is something that probably gets easier with time.

But how do you handle like the post-fight emotional swings? I'm not talking about like wins and losses. I'm talking more about, you know, you put in all this work. You have a day. You have an opponent. You have a goal. The glitz, the lights. You have a fight.

And then it's just gone. And I've talked to fighters over the years that win or lose, once that feeling is gone and the fight is over, it puts them in a funk. Like, it's almost like a depression in a way. Is that something you've ever dealt with? I don't catch that weird shit, dude. I'm not like, I live for the light. No, I'll do that shit, dude.

I'll tell you what, though, I could die at any moment after victory. I cannot die after a loss. I think that all the fucking time. I'm like, I'm happy with my life where I'm at. Like, if I'm on a plane, which I'm on pretty regularly, you know, just between me, obligations, work or fucking just training, you know. And after I, after a good victory, I'm on top. I've like fulfilled my fill.

I'm like, you know what I did this plane crashed? I'm Gucci. I'm good. I'm not worried about anything. I have that Seroni loss, you could not kill me. I could not die. I had to have to get some redemption back. I've got to like be on top again.

You know, after a loss, it's like I'm just constantly seeking the next point of redemption. But after a victory, I'm good. I'm stuff for life, man. I'm just wanting, I want the next victory. But I'm not chasing the applause by any stretch. You know, and I'm also, I don't want to be a fighter for life. This is what I want to do for now. I want to achieve my goals and I want to move on to the next venture.

You know, I'm Alex. I'm not, you know, the in-N-A guy or the fucking UFC fight. I'm not, I don't like pride myself on a title like that. So when do you, do you have a timeline on this? I mean, I know. Oh, yeah. I want to bounce out before 35, you know. So I'm 27 right now.

That's plenty of time to get all my shit in, get everything I need to earn. make my connection, steal the glop, and move on in the next, you know, the next venture. What do you think that's going to be? Well, that Irish time of a bitch took my whiskey, so I'm just probably going to chase the Mexican roots and go with tequila. You like those palms, boy? But Mazda was there, too. I thought you were growing a third hand for a second. God, Dan, that looks so fucking ugly, too, this thing.

Oh, puffy-ass bitch. Yeah, dude, balls with all this going on the tequila now, isn't he? Yeah, he's got one. Yeah, okay, well, you know, I just got to make mine more known, I guess. You know, it's tough. You got to take me seriously, dude. I didn't want to cancel on you last minute because he changed your time. And I don't pay attention to my times anyways. I just wake up in the morning and check the itinerary.

So I was like, well, I certainly don't want to do Mike like that. He's got a schedule of a tier two, you know? This is way better. This is way better than you're just sitting in your gym. You have to do every interview like this. I'll hang from a rapture or something next time. All right, a couple more things I'll let you finish the rest of the massage here. Ferguson versus Gagee.

Who do you like in that fight? That's tough. You know, I think like what most believe, opening three rounds, I think Gage has got a, shot like a I'd almost say it's Gachie's advantage but then if it starts going into the fourth round, maybe even the third or the fourth round

maybe even halfway through the third. I don't know my kind of mindset's changed now that now that he's got the time and I'm so glad he's got the time because that fight honestly bothered me because I want to Gachie to have his camp. I want to have his time to train and prepare

but the way Gachie's been fighting like his last few fights, who did he knockout? Vic, Cowboy Barboso. The way that he's just walked down

and annihilated those guys, something's clicked in him. He's changed. He's not, I think he's always been composed, but he's just really refined and articulated his game better. And so now he takes less to do more.

And I think the way that he's been taking guys out and the way that Ferguson is accessible to taking shots on the chin, I think Gagy's got a great shot of putting him away in the opening two rounds. I mean, a great shot. Ferguson always loses the first round. He notoriously loses the first round and then just devastates the second round. Against a guy like Gachi that's not really a round you want to lose. You know, those opening two rounds are really decisive.

I might give it to Gachi now, dude. I might just swing it to Gachie, but Ferguson's a fucking freak. though, dude. Who do you got, man? I don't know. I honestly don't know. A week ago, I was all Ferguson. I started think more.

Now I'm kind of gaugie. I think it's probably the fight of a century. I think it's an incredible fight. I really, I don't know. I wouldn't want to fight either one of those guys right now in my career. I'm with you. I'm with you. What did you think of Ferguson making weight on Friday?

Dude, that guy is a maniac. I mean, I think that's exactly what he needed to do, you know, to be, to stay true to himself, to keep the fear in people's hearts, and to keep, to keep true to, you know, the guys who question his sanity that that was the move to make. And I don't, I think he's, I think he's a perfect maniac. I think he's a workaholic, you know, maniac. I think he's, I think he's exactly who he needs to be and what he needs to be, especially for, you know, his occupation and his role as a champion. So, uh, I admire him. I do. I think, uh, I would never do that. I don't personally think that there's a big enough point in it, but I see

why he did it and I'm into it. So, you know, keep on being a furgy, Fergie, Fergie, you know. Yeah, keep on being you, my man. Enjoy the rest of that massage. Always great catching up with you. Yeah, look forward to see what's next for you, man. Stay healthy, safe. And, uh, I will, you know, all that good stuff. We'll talk soon, man. Thank you. All right. All right. All right. Good catch it on, man. Later. All right. See. All right. There he is Alexander, Alexander the great Hernandez kicking off this week's show, and that was a pretty wild chat. Was it not? Just a little bit of everything in there. And that was definitely the first time I've ever interviewed a fighter while he was on the massage table. But we will see what is next for

Alex Hernandez at 155 pounds. Now let's check in with one of the top contenders at 205 pounds. He had that incredible fight with John Jones at UFC 247 in February. It came up just short. Let us say hello to the Devastator, Dominic Reyes. All right, we have Dominic Reyes on the program, and man, many still believe a little over two months later should be the UFC light heavyweight champion after that incredible battle with John Jones at UFC 247. It's been a little while since I've had the chance to chat with the Dominator in this capacity. Dominic, how are you, man? I'm good, Mike. How are you doing, man? Great. First question, which is the most important question, how are you doing during this crazy, unprecedented time in the world with COVID-19? How are you doing? How's everybody around?

you doing? You know, everybody around me is safe and healthy, so that's nice. And I'm doing all right, man, just doing a lot of yard work. There you go. And you're multitasking like crazy, driving very safely, as we can see, the hands-free technology working in your favor I see. Yeah, man. It's great having you here.

Like, we sort of touched on this after you went over Chris Widman in Boston at the post-fight press conference, from, you know, viral chaos on the regional scene to your quick, UFC debut. I remember interviewing you after that first fight and people were coming up to you and recognizing you on the streets in the middle of that conversation. Then you were headlining events and writing the titles. I mean, it's crazy, man. Like six or so year story, this would be a little bit different if that belt was on your mantle. But this has been a crazy ride so far, is it not? Dude, it's been the most awesome ride. This wave is gnarly, bro. I love it. All every day is like, I feel myself getting better.

I feel myself maturing and figuring this game out. And, oh, man, I'm having fun. It's hard not to smile, man. It really is. I know in Boston, your first UFC main event, this was something like a bunch of us in the media covering the event we're talking about. You were just so relaxed the whole week.

Like walking around the hotel, walking around the city. Like, you were just having the time of your life. You were just taking it all in. As you're preparing to fight John, you know, this is the goat in a lot of people's eyes. you're fighting for your first world title. Did that fight feel any different to you?

Was there any extra in the butterfly department? It was strange, man. All week, it was a little more because it was a title fight. And it was John. You know, I regard him as the best of all time, to be honest. So that was big for me as well. But yeah, I was a little nervous. All my nerves went away.

when I was driving to the arena on the fight night. I was driving. We were in a Lamborghini. Yeah. And I remember talking to my brother and be like, hey, man, like, no matter what happens, bro. Like, I know that no matter what happens, I still have you and my family. And no matter what, it's going to be fine. Like, it's not going to, this, no matter what happens to this fight, it's not going to

change who I am. So like he looked at me and like he's like yeah, bro, you got this. Like you're, you're more than ready. Like no matter what happens, we're all here for you no matter what. I was like, heck yeah. And then it all just melted away and I was ready to go. I was like, I got to the arena. I was so relaxed and I was just kicking it like backstage. Were even more confident on fight night? Like as you're pulling up to the arena, especially in a Lamborghini for God's sake, you know, Were you feel even more confident heading into that fight? Yeah, man. As soon as I walked in, as soon as we got there, I was like, oh, heck, yeah.

I had a nice, you know, custom-fitted suit on. I looked good. I was, oh, man, I was, I was like, I'm here. It's time. This is my night. This is my time. The only thing that's going to stop me tonight is me. The fight was great, man.

You gave, you gave John Hell. You've talked about it a lot over the last couple of months. I'm curious, how many times have you gone back and watched that fight with John since it happened? So I've only seen it twice. I've seen it you know

hundreds of thousand times in my own head but I watched it on on camera twice. Anything changed watching it back? I mean you were in there but watching it back

did you see things any differently because I know I know watching the fight at first because I was recapping it I had scored it for you I watched it the second time with the sound off and no computer screen in front of

me, I still had scored it for you, but I thought, you know, I guess I could see how some people thought it was a little bit closer, but I still scored it for you. Did anything change watching it back at all? No, man, it was exactly how I remember it going. It was actually better than I remember it going in my head. So that was cool. I mean, it was just like I thought. I mean, it could have been it could have been four to one for me. I still hold that same thought. I mean, you look at, you watch the film in the beginning of the fourth. I had them hurt. pretty good. And then I kind of let off the gas because I didn't want to burn myself out. But whatever, it is what it is. We'll come back and we'll knock them out next time.

As you've seen it, as the world has seen at this point, a lot can happen in a short amount of time. We're in the middle of a global pandemic. And in the midst of this wild times, John Jones found himself in trouble with the law once again. I saw you react to it on social media, not long after. But, you know, after seeing the reports, I don't know if you watch the videos at all that have surfaced, but, you know, what was going through your mind when you saw this news? First thing I thought was like again, you know, like what is this guy doing? Secondly was, I'm glad it didn't happen before our fight. And then third was this guy needs some real help. So that was my whole, my entire thought process on it. And that was really it.

Is there, I mean, like you said, you, I think a lot of people sort of reacted to this that we figured he just needs to get the help that he needs. He needs to do it himself. Is there any part of you that feels bad for John through all of this? No, not at all. I feel bad for a lot of people, but definitely not John Jones, ever. In a way with all of this, it kind of leaves a lot up in the air in terms of the 205 pound division moving forward, especially right now with what's going on in the world, and we've seen how the UFC has dealt with these situations over the air.

Sometimes they act on it. Sometimes they don't. Do you think they act on it here? Do you think there'll be any repercussions from the UFC should something happen? here. Man, I don't even I got nothing for you, man. I'm not one of those decision makers.

Honestly, I would like to I think the punishment should be you got a rematch Dom. That should be the punishment. Right? Yeah. It only makes sense. Yeah. I'll serve up some justice. I'm fine with that. Let's do it. Because I know you've done some other interviews

and you essentially said that you have he was interested in running this one back and they were talks about maybe in the fall. Correct to you if I'm wrong because I'm kind of spitball in here, but it sounds like you were in, they were in, John's the one thing holding it back. Is that accurate? That is accurate. Is it a little frustrating right now? Because most people would agree, you know, I'll lay my cards in the table. I've said this before. I think the rematch makes all the sense of the world and I think you do too. But with all this uncertainty being so close to becoming a champion and just not knowing what the next move is, you seem very happy. But is it's a rematch.

it a little tough for you right now deep down inside? I'm very happy because, you know, I'm healthy and happy, man, but it's a little frustrating. You know, I would have gave him a rematch if the judges would have scored it right, you know. I would be like, yeah, man, you got the rematch, you deserve it, good fight. But I don't know. He's not exactly a stand-up guy, so I can't. I don't, he's a guy where you expect nothing and then if you get something, you're like, yeah, cool, you know. I don't expect anything from this guy.

I don't expect any goodness for him from him. But if we get something, then heck, heck, yeah. So I only can control what I could control at the end of the day. And I can control my attitude. I control, you know, I'm training. But other than that, you know, I'm not going to stress out over something that I have no power over. I have power over it where I could, you know, keep poking the bear and all that.

But, you know. You don't really need to do that, right? I mean, you can. but why? Exactly. So I really just smile and be happy. Like, whatever, man. That's the best way to do it.

You've seen, we've seen Jan Blahovic make his presence felt in the division. He wants that fight with John after the finish of Corey. What have you made of what Jan's done as of late? Oh, man, the social media stuff that he said he wants to fish John. That's hilarious, man. Yon, that's hilarious, man. Way to one up John with his weird, like, gay talk. and then one up it.

Like, I'm going to kiss me. Yes. Is that the tweet of the year in 2020 so far? I don't even think he intended it to be the tweet of the year. I don't even know. There was quite a lot of good tweets. That was just, that was good. I respect that, Jan.

I respect that. Outside of the tweeting, in terms of the fighting, what have you made of him? Oh, I think he's a fantastic fighter. I think he's one of the most technical guys in the division. I think he has some really good power. Yeah, I think he's just a technical beast, and he has a lot of experience where he's wise with his technical ability.

So I've been wanting to fight Yan since I beat Jared Cannonier. I don't know if you guys know or remember. I called him out right after the fight. So, I mean, this is the guy I've been wanting to fight for a minute. So if there's interim, then yeah, hell yeah. let's do it. But I think we're going to get that rematch first. You think you're going to get the John fight? You think it's happening? I think I'll get it over Yon, whatever, Polish fight.

What if they do with John say he wants to pop some cherries in Poland or something from weird crap like that? He did say that, but who knows? I mean, for talking fall, is that sort of your timeline the fall? Or if they offered you, say, the interim fight with Jan, June, July, August, Would you jump on that opportunity or would you rather wait to the fall? I could do that. I just had to count the months real quick. So you're good. So if we're doing one, two, three, you know, two or three months down the road, you're in.

Oh, no, a couple, we're good, a couple fingers. Oh, man, what an exciting time, 205 is right now. I mean, it's very fun. guys on the come-up too. Yeah, Yeri Prasca is in the UFC now ready to make his debut. And you've gone from the hunter to the hunted in a little less than three years in this division. So from a competitive standpoint, you've got to be loving this right now.

You got to love being the hunted and the exciting matchups potentially coming your way. Dude, I freaking love it. So when I first got in the UFC, I always just always talk about trying to revive the division, you know, being the new phase of the 205s, we got guys coming up, but I'm just the leader of the class. And that's exactly what's happening, man. The division is going to be exciting for the next, you know, as long as I'm in the division, you know. It's going to be a lot of fun.

There's a lot of great matchups out there for me. The list is so long now. It's so exciting. I'll just throw out a couple names of guys that I respect them in the division that I think I'll fight in the future. So we got Rackick, Alexander Rackik, we got Putilaba. we got there's a new guy that just joined but we got to see how he fights

Corey Anderson, Johnny Walker you know, Jan, Tiago like this, dude, this is gonna be great. It's gonna be a fun

next couple, seven, eight years. Besides the yard work, what else you've been doing during this, during this wild time? Are you enjoying the quarantine life?

Are you just ready to sort of move past all of this at this point? I know I'm, I'm kind of losing my mind a little bit, but trying to make the most of it. But I don't know how much longer I can do this, Dominic. I'm not going to lie. Dude, I agree, man. I completely agree. I'm getting a little stir crazy over here. Not stir crazy enough to go out of the middle and not do some crazy stuff, but I'm getting

stir crazy. That's for sure. But to be 100% honest, man, it's a lot similar to my life normally without COVID. You know, I stay home a lot and I train and I go home. My routine is pretty, you know, train go home, see my family, train go home, see my family, you know, and then every once in a while throwing an adventure or, or, you know, a nightlife event, you know, so it's similar, but I can't do things with other people anymore. Like, I can't go out to a club or it's, like, just the beach. I mean, there's so many different things, so I'm ready for this to be over, man. I saw you were teaming up. You did something with Paige Van Zant for TMZ. Talk about that

and how much you enjoyed that experience. That was really cool, man. So TMZ started this new thing called Fight School. It's on Snapchat. Paige is the host. And it's really cool. We talked about some of the stuff. Like, for instance, we talked about my uppercut that I landed on Jones, you know,

and kind of what I did to set it up and how I seen it. So it's actually a cool show. She's really nice. You know, I think Paige is really cool. I never met her before until then. And she was really nice, really welcoming. She was a very sweet girl. So page is cool, really cool.

And that show is pretty cool too. We'll have to check that out. I want to end on this note. One thing is for certain, you have had a lot of support on the rise up this division. And even more so since the John Jones fight in a sport like this, it could be like the most negative place in the world. But it seems like that support for you just continues to grow and grow and grow. So what does that mean to you? Oh, it means a lot to me, man.

It also means that I'm doing things right. You know, I'm just being me. I'm not trying to be a character. I'm not trying to be, you know, a Colby or trying too hard. Like, I'm just focusing on my craft, you know, and just being happy, you know. I think the fans are seeing that I'm focusing on my craft and they respect that I get better in between fights. You know, I think that's what the fans really appreciate is my ability to go out there and get better. and as well as, you know, inflict as much damage as possible.

You know, I like, I like, you know, I like, you know, I like fighting. I enjoy scrapping, you know, and I, the fans are receptive to that. So I appreciate that because I truly love it and they can see it out of me, I think. And I think that's, that's what it's about. I had a buddy of mine who texted me like 15 minutes ago and wanted me to ask you this, because I know you were a, you were a football player. I don't know how much you follow the NFL these days. You probably follow it a little bit, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

I'm up here in Massachusetts. They got Brady, they got gronk now. What do you think of their chances now? And how heartbroken should I be at this plan? If I was you, I would be pretty hurt right now, to be honest. Because I don't know, man. I think he should have retired up there. What does he need that much more money for?

Like he has a crazy amount of money. But whatever, man. I would see it as disrespect if I was in Bostonian, but that's just me. I think Tampa's not going to be that great still. I think it's the same story. But we'll see. Brady's, you know, a hell of a leader. And Gronk is, he'll bring a lot of energy to your squad, that's for sure.

So we'll see what happens, man. I think it definitely boosted their stock. That's for sure. But as far as championship caliber, it takes a lot more than one guy's his football. You know, if it was MMA, then maybe he could be champ. This is a... Oh, wow. There you go.

I mean, I think he's just got this... I think Brady's just got this... massive chip on his shoulder right now. He wants to prove he can do without Belichick. Plus, the paychecks aren't going to hurt either. He's making more money than he's ever made in his life. And geez, Louise, to be that guy right now. But we'll see what happens. Not a bad gig. Not a bad gig to be Tom Brady. That's for sure. Absolutely. It's not a bad gig to be Dominic Reyes either, man. What a road this has been. We've made it to the promise land anyways. You're almost there. You're a win away from having that gold belt around your waist.

And I can't thank you enough, man. It's always great catching up with you. I'm glad we're able to do this after all this time. Stay safe, stay healthy. We look forward to seeing what is next for you. I appreciate it, man. My pleasure, Mike. Have a good one, man. Peace.

Take care, brother. A very relaxed and a very happy Dominic Reyes. Joining us on the show, I realized I screwed up the nickname. I called him the Dominator at the beginning of that interview. It's something that's been with me ever since. But you just got to forge your head when you make mistakes like that. But always great catching up with the Devastator.

And in my opinion, no disrespect to Yombo. I think what Jan's done recently has been great, but I think you've got to run that fight back with John Jones, or at least if John's going to be out for a little while, I'm totally okay with Belhovitz versus Reyes for an interim title. I know that word interim has been thrown out more than the cliche octagon jitters over the years, but it kind of makes sense here, especially in the current times, gets these guys a little more money, which I'm always okay with. The winner can fight John Jones. I'm good with that idea as well, and it seems like Dominic Reyes is not opposed to that either. As we bring in our next guest, This guy has just been surging up the UFC welterweight division. He just finished Damien Maya in the first round at UFC, Brasilia last month. It seems like it was just yesterday, but it was over a month ago right now. He's the number six ranked 170 pounder in the world. Here's my chat with Gilbert Burns. All right, we move ahead to a man who may be having more fun on Twitter than anybody else on the planner right now.

If he's not sharing funny fail videos, he's calling for big fight. So let's get an update from Gilbert Doreno Burns. Gilbert, good to see you, man. How are you? Yeah, I'm good, Mike. How are you doing, brother? I'm doing great. I know it's a difficult time in the world with coronavirus and everything.

But how much fun are you having with Twitter and putting these videos out for the world to see? And I'm going to tell the story. To be very honestly with you, I share the first one. And I think I shared like three or four. the first time that I was sharing this type of videos, the MAMI videos. And I got a ton of message, hey, please keep doing that. That was the first laugh that I gave today. And another guy, hey, that was the only laugh that I gave.

Hey, you make me so happy right now. I'm being so hard. And I get a ton of messages with the guys like, hey, that's the only, no, there's the only reason that thing made me smile that was this to it. And then I was, okay, I guess I'm going to keep doing that. And then people were having fun. I was just, I just kept doing. I was having a lot of fun.

Like, I don't, I don't get to a lot of menus, but these ones specifically, it was making me, it's making me, like, so hard. I like that a lot. So how do you, like, how do you find them? Are you just, like, scouring the internet, looking for them and then just posting? Like, how are you finding these videos? They have a page in Brazil, they call, it's like, Okajon. It's kind of like the translation of the coffee.

And the guy was sending to me every day. look at that one, look at these ones. And a lot of guys in Brazil, I guess the Brazilian community loved those type of video shoot. Everybody, as soon as I start posting, I think a lot of people start reading. A lot of people just start sending to me. They send it, and every time I would just see a new word

that I was posting, I was posting. Until right now, I kind of give a little break, but still I look at my Twitter and my Instagram, a lot of people still sending that thing to me, and it's funny, so I just kept posting. They're just the most ridiculous videos. I'm like thinking about them right now. They're just so ridiculous.

I'm waiting for like the end of them every time with the guys dancing and everything and the music playing in the background. You even got like other fighters in the UFC getting involved. Like you're getting tagged left and right with these videos. You're bringing the fighters together in a way during this uncertain time. Gilbert had something to be very proud of, right? That was cool, bro. And a lot of fans like this is.

And when they saw something. Any type of social media, they tagging me. And I said, I don't even saw it. I got three, four different tags on that thing. I said, oh, shit, okay, I got it. And Twitter, too, and a lot of fighters, too. They make you fun. It, like I said, it's cool.

It's funny. It doesn't hurt nobody. A lot of people left. So why not? I'm going to keep doing it. I saw you gave Ben Asker in the business the other day as well. Why did you decide to take that shot, if you don't mind me asking? Come on, bro.

freaking Ben Ask him. He left the sport. I don't even fought the guy. I know that was a fight that I won. And he talks a lot. And I just, I was, I was the, I think I was the man guy doing all these guys dancing. And come on, that, that question was for me. It was simply those, I say, come on, bro. You don't know. Like, where are you wet? Like, just a little, I don't, I don't, I don't even know Ben Astrid to say something bad about him. I don't know. He, personally, but the character as a fighting that he does, I'm not a fun so much. Like, I just want to, he's one of the type of guys that he's still competing. That'll be one of my picks for sure.

I would love to compete against Van Ashley. He's not competing. They just have a little phone on Twitter. I know he likes you. Why not? There you go. You saw an opportunity. You just took it, right?

100%. Every opportunity that I see, I would do something. So let's talk about what's going on with you these days. because we had spoken around a month or so ago after the Damien Maya fight. First off, you fought on the last event before everything got postponed and temporarily shut down.

Do you think about it? Like, man, if I was booked to fight a week later, who knows where things would be, you know? I was very blessed, very, very lucky, very, I don't know, I don't even know how to describe, but I'm very happy, especially with the big fight that I have, the performance that I had, that was the first event with the course,

was indoors. Crazy. I told you, I got way more nervous than than usually because no crowd, no nothing. And yeah, but I feel very happy and very glad that I performed. That was the last event that we had. And yeah, I'm blessed. And wow, if it was one week after a couple, I'll be nuts right now because I know a lot of guys like to fight. You know, they love to compete. But I think I think I'm one of the top five, top three guys that love to compete. You know, I love to compete. Like, I've been talking to a couple of graduating tournaments that they already want to do the super fights.

I already put my name in there. I know, I think it's going to be a little hard to get on a me in May fight. Right now, they're going to have that one May 9. I think we, I mean, we don't know for sure. We hope they have the May 9 show. And things start to get them back after. after May, but I just love to compete. And I'm glad that I had the chance to compete.

And, bro, if I didn't have fought, wow, I'll be peace right now, like, training, like being crazy. I still training a lot. I still doing, like, I got the keys for my conditioning coach from I-AGP. They give me the keys. I can go there, you know, do my workout, the G's clothes. But I still can go there. They have right down my workout.

I get a couple of secret sessions with Henry Hills. And I have my garage training that I have two guys that that's coming. They come in almost every day. And we do a little new regular schedule. You know, we still training one day. Yesterday will wrestle. Today, we're going to grapple a little bit in the morning because we're still going to spot hard at night.

So I still doing my regular schedule, but way different than before. We don't have the full trainer, the full. We have a lot of killers at the gym. We're not doing a lot of sessions together. but I still doing my best to stay in shape, but I'm glad I just compete, you know. Yeah, and you were ready to fight the next weekend against Tyron Woodley for that London card that didn't end up happening. And a couple weeks ago, you went on Twitter and said that you got turned down again, and I had reached out, and you told me that it was Woodley who turned you down again.

So what happened this time around from your perspective? So what happened was the first time in London. He declined the fight, and then after the event was canceled, after the president gave the speech and then I canceled, then he went on social media, oh, I accept the fight with Gilbert. That was a lie. And he just asked to get on the fight for the May 9th, discard that's coming.

And he declined again. He declared for the April 18 that didn't happen. That's supposed to happen. he said he wants to get on this card and Sean Shia with Dana said the only guy available for you is Gilbert Burns and they all let me think about the bones gave off the back after a couple of days

out of you don't want to fight Gilbert and then they have one spot for main line and I was aware that I'm not fighting I'm still gonna train I still gonna help you guys and she's gonna get ready and I heard they have one spot and Ali called me say hey would you ask for that spot

and Sean says just to you're available. Just you, you're the only guy that's going to be available to fight. On the top six, on the top five, you're the only guy. And he did the same thing again.

He gave me a couple of days to think about it and blah, blah, blah. That was when I tweeted out. I said, yeah, two more we would know. And I was hoping he said yes, but guess what he are? We're not interested in fighting Gilbert right now. But I'm okay with guys

declining fight. Like, sometimes they, Like, he is the guy that I respect a lot because he reached out to me, hey, I want to fight you. Let's do it. He said, I'm not training, bro. Like, there's no way I'm going to fight you right now. I have my training foreigners. And I'm okay, no problem.

I know I get it. You know, I understand. But the guy that lying to his fans, hey, I'm fighting. I'm a killer mode. I'm going to fight. No, you're not. You're picking. You choose a fight.

And he used to. I lost all the respect that I had to, Tyron Only. I had a lot of respect to the guy. to be the champion, former champion. He had two title defense that wasn't, it was not fun at all. It was ugly fights. But the way he beat Darryliel,

the way he beat Robby-Laurer, like, come on, we got to respect the guy. But then he lost, he just did one fight at a year. If you take a look, he just fought one time a year. Then he lost. After that, he just not fighting anymore. And then, come on, the guy comes and say, hey, please, give me a.

title fight for my birthday. Come on, bro. And after that, I was like, man, that guy is playing around. Give me a title shot for my birthday? Come on, Mike. That's crazy. And then I was like, man, no respect for these guys anymore. I'm done. I'm done calling him out.

I'm done. You have seen. I'm available. We don't know right now. Like, a lot of people are not training. They kind of force him to training, working hard to keep in shape. Let's see. Someone pulls out. The fight won't five is off from the main eye.

Let's just suppose. The UFC knows that I'm ready to fight. Maybe the United States will fight, maybe not. I'm done calling this guy out. I'm just going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm going to beat everybody that they put it from me. Eventually, I'm going to fight at the Moodler. I believe that we're going to fight.

But I'm just done calling these guys out. If you want to fight, we fight. Neil Edwards, Warner Boy, I'm just going to give one big call out. If anyone on these top five guys wants to fight, I'm available. If not, I'm going to keep fighting. I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. need to have the, if you need to do the hard path of beating the number eight, then number 10, then the number seven, then, you know, I'm going to do it.

I'm going to keep doing it, and eventually I'm going to beat these guys. And harder to smoothly, because guess what, he's just turned 38, if I'm not on 37, 38. If you keep it ducking everybody, one more year, 39, one more year 40. Okay, like, I fight when you're 40. I don't mind. I'd rather fight you right now than fight you when you have 40. They were going to, oh, I was old, I was not in my crime. I'd rather fight these guys right now.

I feel like you're the wild card at 170 pounds right now, because I'm not going to tell you who it was, but I've talked to like two or three different fighters. We're talking about different things. They're like, yeah, I want to fight on one of these cards. Like, I'm ready. Like, COVID be darned. Like, I want to fight.

And I'm like, well, what about if Gilbert Burns has offered to you? Because you know that guy wants to fight? And they're like, I'm not really sure because that, you know, I need to, like, train for that guy. Like, all due respect. Nothing but praise for you, but they feel like with the surge you're on, they need like an actual training camp to fight you. Does that make you feel any better about it? Or is this still kind of frustrating because you're having a hard time landing a fight right now?

I'm learning to control a lot of my ego, you know, like to don't let my ego get out of controlling and self-control. You know, I'm trying to have a lot that. If my ego is still having a bigger piece of me, my ego will be. so happy with that they're like yeah they don't want to fight me but now having more self-control being more aware of the situation is first training because i want to fight i want to compete i want to get better and like like the only why that that i want to compete a lot is because i know i'm going to improve you know i know i'm going to improve as a competition that's how i saw i saw jiu jitza 12 years old that's how i start training and after one month after one month

I don't even know what jiu-jitsu was. I just, I don't even know the movies yet. One month I did my first competition. Two months, I did my second competition. Three months I did my third competition. And I never stopped competing. And that's how I got better in jih Tijuana. It's not just going to the gym, training hard.

No, it's training hard plus competing. And that's the only way I know to get better. And I get frustrated on the guys, oh, yeah, he's stuff. Oh, for him, I need more. Why, for me, you need more? You know, like, for everybody needs to be on your 100%. Like, for me, to be any type of guy on the top 10, on top of the team, I need to be 100%.

And to be 100% is more me. It's a fight against me. There's a competition against me. There's a lot of things that I need to don't do it. A lot of things that I got to do it in order to be 100%. But that's on me. That don't depend on my coach. It don't depend on nobody.

No, my training partners. That depends on me. me, I need to, that will to prepare, needs to be big that, that will to win. And I have that. And I get frustrated. I know I'm on a great spot right now. Number six in the World War Division. For my ego, nice and great.

The status, the status is nice being the top six. But Rio Gilbert, the hungry freaking guy that loves to compete, I'm, may help. Sometimes I wish I was on the ranking because I'll be fighting me completely. that I know that guy wants to fight. I'll be fighting anyone. I'll be fighting, you know. But I'm on the top six, and then they say, no. I say, I fight anyone.

They say, no, you're in the top six. I don't, I'm not going to give you a guy that's not in the ranking. They're like, wow. And I know a couple guys out of that that you want to fight, like Nico Price. I love this guy. And I know he loves to compete. He don't, you don't give a dent you. If you throw my name, he says, yeah, I fight Gilbert right now.

I don't know. Tony Martin is one of the guys that I fight Gilbert. I don't care. but they're not on the ranking and then I'm like, man, get more frustrated that I kind of earn a position to get a ranked guy and everyone that's ranked it

already or they, I don't know, the couple of excuses, a couple guys in respect, but a couple of guys they, I don't know, they just kind of, I have a miniature from Woodley. He just, that Dana White stopped and looking like that and Drake,

you know, that one that you want to fight and be championed against him, say no, you want to stay rapid, be a number one container, yeah. So that's all these guys want. You know, they just want to save the spot that I don't like that. How do you kind of balance? Because, I mean, eventually you're just going to get to a point where you're just like,

oh, my God, like I have to fight. Hey, buddy, what's going on? It's going on. Usually that happens to me. Usually my kid comes in during my interviews and that happens all the time. But it's nice to see it happen on the other end. But how do you sort of balance, like the competitor, Gilbert Burns, who just wants to fight all the time

to the guy who has sort of earned that spot. Like you're in the top six now. You want to fight guys that are ahead of you. You want to get to that belt. But eventually, do you think there's going to be a breaking point where you're just like, I don't care about the rankings anymore? I just want to fight somebody. I think we'll keep going like that.

If I don't get a fight, like Willie don't want to fight, these guys don't want to fight. These guys just, be honest, let's put a name. That really don't want to fight. Why he? If I had an opponent before called Leon Wiredwood, the guy that's coming on a lot of wins, total respect to the guy.

And Tyrone Wulia was scheduled to fight the guy. They just don't fought because of the whole Corona thing. Come on. Now I don't want to fight this guy anymore. I was fighting this guy. Come on, bro. You sign the contrary. You're supposed to honor with that.

So now he don't want to fight Leon Wardardardardardt. And Colby want to get an easy fight. to get a, no, he's a fight, but he wants to get a one fight to fight for the title again. Leon Wander, he's just want to fight Woodley, so I kind of, I want to fight Woodley, I want to fight Colby. I want to fight Leon Waders, but I got it because Leon Writers, he deserves to fight Woodley, and I don't want to, I, like, I fight you, if you don't fight Woodley, I fight you, but okay, you fight Woodley, and then who we have that Wonderboy, hands are broken, nice guy, okay, I call this guy, I fight, I fight Wonderboy too, but, I, I fight Wonderboy, but,

I think it's going to get to a point that all that coronavirus need to be done. And I think if Warner Boy, Edwards, Kobe, or Woodard don't give him an opportunity. I need to fight Keaessa. After, let's say, all the scenario goes good. I be Keeser. Woodley, those guys keep installing the division. I'm going to figure if I'd fight Josh Neal. And let's say, be Joff Neal.

Let's, for sure, a lot of respect to these guys. I'm just putting in a scenario. Best scenario. Okay, I beat these two guys. And then they got to fight me now after those. Maybe I got to do two more fights to beat these guys just to, I don't know, because the skills are these guys is relevant. He just gone here.

Okay, let me beat a couple more guys. And I just beat the guy that you make a negative fight. I just finished the guy on the first round, the legend that you guys just make all the rounds and finish the guy with the one round. So I don't know. I get frustrated sometimes, but I try to use that time to improve to get better. But I still hungry, but sometimes I feel that I didn't compete, that I didn't fought this year yet, I think.

And that makes me hungry. And then I don't know. I'm just going to put all my energy on my training on improve and get better. And it's going to be like a pit bull, you know, like a football when he's hungry. when he goes to a fight, he's going to be on the cage. As soon as you let the people go, that's going to be hungry and going forward to the fights. I can't wait to my next fight to show these guys how good I'm getting,

how bad I'm getting right now. Sometimes it's frustrating, but I'm going to control that, and I'm going to put all my hands on my training and get better. So if you had a guest, do you think your next competitive event will be grappling or MMA? What do you think is going to come first? I just heard the flow of grappling. I have a great relationship with the guys from floor grappling.

I heard they're going to do an event with the closing doors very soon. And I just put my name. Oh, if you guys, don't we? I better be on that. I better be on that one. You know, because I'm not on May 9. There's a rumor from May 16, but we don't know. But part of my MMA people,

operations a lot of grappling, so big grappling anyway. But if I have to guess, Mike, I guess I'm going to grappling before. I fight a year again. How are you enjoying the extra family time with the quarantine? I know my kid's around all the time, his school's off for the rest of the year. How are you enjoying it? How are you enjoying? Tell me the truth.

You know, some days about another, Gilbert. I'm not going to lie. No, it has been good to just like, I'll work and I'll take five, you know, a few minutes to go downstairs and hang out with them. And once, like, I have a break in between, we'll run outside for a while. So it is nice having them there all the time. But, you know, I think you know what I'm saying. Once in a while, you need a little bit of free there. I'm going to tell you the truth.

The true. I miss my training. I miss, you know, my training partners have been. I miss fighting, go to the UFC, Washington. I miss that. But what I miss. at most is the school, bro. If the kids is cool, bro.

Like, I love my kids. Best thing that I have on my life right now, my family, my kids and my wife. But, wow. 24 hours with the kids, 24-7, wow. So much, bro. And we're doing a lot. We're fishing, we're training, we're running, we biking, we basketball, we're trampoline, we go everywhere.

We're doing everything. All the type of games. But wow. I miss the school so much. like you love my family, but wow, when you, we did a little play job of each other. Sometimes I just,

well, all right, let me just go home to depot, just to get out a little bit, you know, give a little walk by myself, just because it's being rough. Like,

I love to save the family, but sometimes we need that little break, you know, school is perfect. Eight to two, no kids, then kids come back, we miss the kids a little bit,

we play more and go to training and come back. I miss the road team to be, and this is my routine, you know. Yeah. Big shout out to all the teachers out there because I've always always put you on a pedestal, but now you're on like the biggest pedestal after all this time, you know? I said a lot of friends are waiting for the teachers. They deserve, bro.

Wow. My kids are in trouble, bro. Like, wow. So when you're not training or hanging with, or even when you're hanging with the family or, you know, if you're not creating Twitter videos that are making everybody happy, what else are you doing? like any shows you're binge watching,

reading any books? Like what other things you're doing with this extra time? Boy, I miss me the books. I get three books that I gather, that I got to read. You start reading and video start yet. I promised to start this week. I'm down with the books. I got to go back to the book real quick.

We're just watching Netflix. We start watching Fowder. That's how he said. The police one, the police one on Netflix called Fowder. We're watching this one. I was just playing a lot of video games with the kids,

like Fortnite, Calduddy, and fishing. I think that was what the most of video game, fishing, Netflix, I watch a lot of fights. Yeah, but with the family, more Netflix, fishing with fishing a lot. That is the first time that really, I think I got a lot better on fishing. My ability to see if it's better.

And overall, playing 100% with the kids. And I like because they have a lot of energy, so we run. I'm going to post a little video. They don't, yesterday we'll, they play TikTok. They love TikTok. And they saw Anthony Paddy's showtime kick, the kick that he gave on Ben Henderson. They both did.

Perfect. They both, my both kids, Pedro and Joshua, they both did the kick. You got to post this one. They have a lot of energy. They were practicing the kick, like drilling over and over. And I was getting tired just to hold the pads. and they do. So I like it because they have a lot of energy

and they're so athletic. Anything they do, they do with a lot of energy, a lot of wheels. So I just have, I'm having a lot of fun with the kids as well, but sometimes I mean, the pain and ass,

you're not going to lie. I'm not going to be the guy all positive. Oh, super nice. No, bro. He said, be super hard. Keeping it real. We're keeping it real in the show.

I want to let you get back to the family, man. Always a pleasure. I think I speak for a lot of people. Gilbert, what I say. Kudos to you. for trying to put smiles on our faces during these uncertain times in the world. All the best to you and the family.

Hope you can get back in there sooner rather than later. Thanks, Gilbert. Always a pleasure catching up with you, man. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate that with you, too, bro. Take it easy to the family. Gilbert, Doreno Burns, ladies and gentlemen. Always great chatting with him.

If he can get some fights agreed upon this year, this could be a massive year for him. But he's in that weird position where he wants to fight up. But so do all the other guys ahead of him. Because once you get into that top five, you're just looking right at the UFC title right now. And 170 and the UFC is a very, very, very strong division. And it's going to be interesting to see what Gilbert Burns is next. I have a feeling he's going to have to sort of take a step back to at least get a fight, which he really wants. Maybe take that.

He could be a guy that sort of takes that Tony Ferguson approach up the 170 pound ladder. But we'll see what's next for. DeRino, hopefully sooner or rather than later, as we check it with our next guest, She is officially the first multiple-time guest in the very short history of what the heck is. We welcome back, UFC reporter Laura Sanko. All right, a couple weeks ago, we checked in with our next guest, but in this crazy sport, things can change in an instant. And that's what happened with this conversation.

It was one that I truly enjoyed, but unfortunately, things changed. And a lot of that conversation became sort of old news after the April 18th iteration of UFC 249 was canceled. So we want to bring her back on. catch up on all the moving and shaking regarding this event and the UFC in general. So let's welcome back UFC reporter Laura Sanko to the program. Laura, how are you? I'm great. It's good to be back.

I was laughing because when you posted that interview, someone commented on Twitter, didn't age well. And I think the ego in me thought that they were referring to me, and I was really hurt by that. But then I realized, oh, they met the interview didn't age well because everything changed, like 24 hours later. Hopefully they met it. Maybe they did mean me.

Maybe both. Who knows? Either way, I'm at peace with it all. Yeah, it's not you. It's either me or the event. And I think when people who aren't fans of the sport ask me if the MMA news cycle is crazier than any other sport, I feel like our first conversation would be a great starting point

to prove that theory accurate. Would you agree? Totally agree. I mean, that was, because you uploaded that, what, 10 hours after we spoke? I don't know, less than 10 hours after we spoke. And it was all completely a moot point. And that is the name of the game around here. I definitely want to get your take on a number of things, but as some people know, you were supposed to be on the show last week, but you had to reschedule at the last minute because of an unfortunate incident.

You were very apologetic about having to reschedule, which was not necessary at all. But if you don't mind, can you talk about what happened last week? Yeah. So if people follow me on Instagram, they probably know that I live on a farm. It's technically a ranch because we only have cattle, but it's not a Texas-sized ranch. We have 150 acres here. But what is kind of unique about it is I don't actually live in the country. So like out one window this way I can see the golf course that's connected to the country club

in the neighborhood right next to us. And then there's another neighborhood right over here. But we have this chunk of farmland. And so we have farm equipment. I mean, like I said, we have 35 head of cattle and do that whole thing. So it is a working farm in that respect. And we woke up Easter morning and a big piece of farm equipment had been stolen. And it was our Polaris Ranger, not like the razor where it's their fun.

It was more of a farm version. And a bunch of tools had been stolen. So like $20,000 worth of stuff. And the worst part was that they, they, whoever did it was not ultra-intelligent. They went through the fence, which any farmer will tell you, I would almost rather you, I would almost rather you wake me up and I'll open the gate for you than run over my fence. because the entire property, all 150 acres, which I don't know what the circumference is exactly, but it's several miles, is one contiguous electric, thick wire fence.

So when you break part of it, putting it back together is an absolute mother effort to be polite about it. But it was just, it was not a good way to wake up on Easter. It's weird because we don't have, well, we will know, but we don't, we didn't have security cameras where our equipment is stored. but our neighbors who just built across the street have excellent footage where we can see specifically the vehicle, the people, we know roughly what they look like, you can watch them go in, break into a bunch of stuff. I'm just, I'm obviously thankful that no one was hurt and all that, but it's such a weird feeling knowing that other people were in your things and often enjoying them or profiting from them

or whatever. But like I said, it's certainly not, it's not the worst thing that could have happened. So all and all, not a huge deal, but certainly not fun either. So are these very intelligent individuals still on the loose right now? Yeah, they are. Unfortunately, I mean, we were able to piece, it was kind of fun. My husband was so annoyed about it. He's got too much time on his hands right now. I was to do a lot of people. So we canvassed the neighborhood that leads the direction that we know that they left. So we have a lot of people's ring camera footage of them tearing down the street. We know what vehicle they arrived in. We know what time. We know that they were also canvising that neighborhood and the other neighborhoods around us for other stuff. So unfortunately, a lot of ring

cameras don't have high enough resolution where you can actually get a license plate or the right angle to get a license plate. So we know what kind of car it was, but we don't know exactly who they are. So no, they have not been apprehended. And like I said, the only thing, the only thing that made us feel slightly better is that this very electrified fence that we have, like I said, it's very thick wire. The bottom wire had clearly been cut by some sort of fence cutter or whatever. It was a clean cut. But the bottom wire is not hot. The middle wire, you could tell, had been cut partway through and then someone had stopped cutting it, clearly because they got the shit shocked out of them

because I can assure you don't want to stick a metal tool on that middle or top wire. The top wire had been driven through. So clearly they cut the bottom one and thought, oh, no big deal. Went to the second one, got shocked, not to death, but got shocked pretty bad. And then thought, screw this, we'll just drive through the top wire

because the top wire actually broke like a quarter mile from where they went through. But anyway. That is wild. I'm happy someone got electrocuted. That's all. Yeah. I mean, you got to find silver lining wherever you can find it.

And I'm obviously sorry that happened to you all. Hopefully that all gets squared away in your favor. And thank you for sharing that. But let's transition to another wild world. MMA, the UFC. Let's go back a couple of weeks ago. You come on this show. We hype up UFC 249 on April 18th.

You find out you're going to be a part of the broadcast. And then hours after the show was released, it was no longer happening. happening April 18th. How did you react to all that, especially since you were so excited to get back to work? It was. I was clearly so pumped. Unbelievably disappointed. Unbelievably disappointed. And I literally, they must have had a phone tree set up or something because, you know, right now when every bit of information, people are starving for it. So they're aware that as soon as anything gets announced, it just spreads like wildfire. So I think that they didn't want to tell us first. So they, I'm guessing, told Brett Okamoto initially about it.

And then as soon as they did that, they told everyone else. Because literally I got the text from my boss just moments after I saw something online. It was literally within two minutes. So, yeah, I was really disappointed. Really disappointed. But I understand why it happened. I think we talked about that a little bit, you know, when you and I spoke. I do understand the other side of the equation, but I'm very happy to say I'm headed out for May 9th.

So I have a new goal to hit. I'm excited to go to those fights and that card looks crazy good. Yeah, with the May 9th event, you find that you're going to be working that one as well. When you saw that this was getting real again, because I think people expected it was going to be a couple weeks, maybe like another month before we could start putting things together after what happened with April 18th. I'm sure you were excited to find out you're going to be a part of this. but do you allow yourself to get too excited with all the uncertainty in the world right now? Yeah, I'm finding myself being a little bit more reserved about that type of stuff. But I had posted, I don't remember what I posted.

I posted something. It was actually after I had the, we had the equipment stolen. I posted something on Instagram where I was just honest about how I was feeling about being cooped up and missing all this work and just feeling like my life was not in my hands, which is not a feeling that I particularly love. And not long after that, I can't remember, but I think the next day, Dana

very kindly messaged me, and he's like, hey, keep your head in the game. I want you know, like, as soon as that other fight got called off, he's like, within a day, I was already talking to Disney and ESPN and getting this figured out, and May 9th is going to happen. And they're like, don't you worry, like, you know, we're going to make this work. So pretty soon after

I was really disappointed, I felt at least array of hope. And then as I saw more and more news come out, I felt good about it. And I'm confident it's going to happen. I got travel booked today. So it should be there. There you go. And as most of us know now, Ferguson Gachie, that fight's going to headline this card for the interim lightweight title. And you gave a really incredible breakdown of the fight, which you could check out in the archives of the show. But now you have, now you have Justin Gachie who was going to take this fight on less than two weeks noticed originally. Now he gets a few. extra weeks to prepare for this wacky puzzle that is Tony Ferguson. So I'm sure this is going to help

in so many facets getting that extra time. But how big of a difference does this make in your opinion for Justin Gachie heading into May 9th? I think it makes a huge difference because Tony's one of those guys that, you know, he has, he's not, well, no one's a perfect fighter, but Tony Ferguson is not a perfect fighter. And this is another two weeks that Justin Gachie has to study his game, to study those openings, and you'd be amazed what you can accomplish in a short period of time when you know exactly what you're dealing with, who you're going to be facing. And while on one hand, I love that Tony Ferguson made weight. Only Tony Ferguson would do that, right?

Like, it was a very Tony move. Part of me is like, that's so incredible, it's so cool. It's so difficult to do. But the analyst side of me, I don't love it. I don't love it for the fight itself because it's not that far away from having to do it again. And anybody who fought, it's probably far enough where I don't, I'm not confident it will have any effect on his second weight cut, but anybody who has fought on the ultimate fighter will tell you firsthand, anytime you make weight that close together, if you have even a reasonably difficult

cut, which I think Tony does, that second one is rough. your body does not like to do that too close together. So part of the fan in me is like, that's awesome. The analyst in me is like, I don't know if I would have done that. But it's cool that he did it. And it definitely shows the mentality that makes Tony Ferguson who Tony Ferguson is and what he's like in a fight. I mean, the guy does not give up. It doesn't matter what odds he's facing.

He is one of the most mentally fortified individuals. that you'll ever see inside the octagon. You know, Justin Gachie's a wild man, and I think he's got two extra weeks to work, man. That's a lot of time to study, a lot of time to prepare some specific combinations. So I'm even more excited for this fight than I was. Yeah, Tony's such a savage. Like, he did that for himself, but obviously you've got to believe there's some psychological warfare there as well. And I've been seeing kind of like both sides of the sword, like kind of the fan and the analyst side of it.

And Daniel Cormier said something pretty interesting on Monday. He said that it essentially won't be as hard as people may think because when he starts his cut again, he's not going to be at like 179 like he did maybe for this first one. He'll be at like 173, 174. So it's going to make things a little bit easier. What do you think about how D.C. sort of looked at it. Well, I think D.C. is looking at it like a heavyweight. You know, I, DC, I think that the heavy weights are not going to bounce up to their hanging out weight as quickly as someone who is cutting to lightweight does.

That lightweight cut those guys. You know, James Kraft, obviously a really good friend of mine fought at lightweight for a very long time. And he's taller like Tony is. He's actually a little bit bigger frame than Tony is. But the guys that cut to 55, I don't care who you're talking about. no one has an easy cut to 55. That's just the way that those two weight classes are situated with each other. So while he might not bounce up to his like,

oh, I'm just hanging out, walking around weight, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anybody that has an easy cut to 55. And again, I just go back to all of the many, many people I've talked to that have either taken fights close back to back or we're on the ultimate fighter. and I've seen it happen in person. It's happened to me. When you cut weight, when you truly cut weight,

when you truly make weight, you spend time in the sauna, whatever you have to do, your body does not enjoy doing that a second time too close together. Now, how many, would it be three weeks apart? Yeah.

That might, that's certainly, I know that sounds obvious to say, three weeks is a heck of a lot better than two weeks. It gets, you know, the curve of how much easier that gets is kind of a hockey. stick, I think, but I wouldn't, if I was his coach, I would not have, I would not have been a huge fan of that. But then again, like, when you know Tony and his mindset and what he needs to do to keep his mind right, maybe the risk of cutting twice too close together is outweighed by the

mentality that that would, you know, the, the, the, the energy that that would bring his mindset coming to the fight, which for someone like Tony might be way more important. So, it's going to be such a wild fight and another fight that's really interesting. Get Henry Sehudo defending against Dominic Cruz for the Banoi title. I think it's been it's been almost three and a half years since we've seen Dominic. Henry's been on a tear as of late. Stylistically, when you put these two guys on paper, such a fascinating fight. What are your thoughts on Sohudo versus Cruz? It's such a fascinating fight and I'm so excited to see Dominant Cruz back in the mix of Bannaway to the game. I mean, this completely shuffles the deck for that weight class.

And we talk about someone who was one of the most dominant champion that that division has seen, but to have not fought in nearly four years opens so many questions. But I'm telling you, if you were to ask me, Fighter A fought fairly recently, had a great fight won, Fighter B, hasn't fought in four years, also did not win his last fight. Who are you going to pick? Nine times out of ten, I'm going to pick the guy who just fought and who won. Only dominant crews, and I'm telling you, only dominant crews can spend four years away from the Octagon and come back and not miss a beat. And that is what I expect from him. I know that that sounds crazy, but having spent time around him, he is,

a mentally unique individual. He is one of the most intense people I have ever met. He's one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. His ability to analyze, I mean, you hear it obviously all the time on the broadcast. I think he's one of the most capable analysts in terms of just on the fly really breaking things down that we have. And he puts that into practice. It's not like he's been away from the game and he's you know we it's kind of a running joke honestly that you know domic doesn't believe in ring rust that's kind of his his his you know his mantra that he tells about other fighters all the time and he really does believe that has he added new tools to his game we have no idea or have these injuries uh affected his ability to move and his movement

has always been the key to his game because it's really, really tough to train for dominant Cruz when he moves the way that he does. But, you know, like I said at the beginning of this comment, Henry Suhudo has looked phenomenal as of late. I feel like if you would have asked me three or four years ago, would Henry Sehudo be fighting dominant Cruz for the Banyan Weight Championship? I would say that you're crazy because there was a time when I felt like Henry he wasn't really putting it all together. You know, his stance is completely different. His movement is different.

He's knocking guys out. And he looks absolutely incredible in the last couple of years. And I think Dominic has his hands completely full with someone like Henry Sehudo. It's a big legacy fight for both guys, too, because I understand the fans aspect where like, well, what about Piotr-Jon and what about Al Jermaine Sterling? And what about Corey Sannag? And like, these guys have been active and they're winning. Like, I get that.

but I have much less of a problem with this fight than I did with the Jose Aldo fight, if that makes sense. Agreed. Agree. Agree. This, you know, it goes back to the point I made early about Dominic Cruz. People have that understanding that Dominic Cruz did not take time away because his fight game was falling off.

You know, he didn't take time away because he lost his focus or his priorities. He had to take time off because of injuries. and he left on the precipice of being a champion again. So I think it's more than right to stick him right back in the mix of contender. I have absolutely no problem with that. Given his legacy, he's a guy in my book who doesn't need to reprove himself, right? So I love this fight, although I also get why if I was Peodor Yan, I would not be loving it. But he's got a fight book too as well, I think up in June.

And who knows what's going to happen to the schedule. But I imagine that fight will go on as planned possibly. Against Mario Marais. Yeah, but I guess it's in Kazakhstan, so that might present some problems. Maybe Fight Island for that one. Ooh, I'd have to know more about this Fight Island on the other. I do. I'm dying.

I just want to see what it's going to look like. But a lot of the April 18th event, at least the second fight card is going to move forward on May 9. We got Seroni and Pettis. We got Watterson versus Asparza. that's a great fight, but we may have to add another fight to this card. I know there's an open spot, one that nobody expected. The UFC might have to add a fight between Megan Olivie and Lorisanko because on Tuesday night, Megan Alibi tweets, quote, Laura Sanko, you're taking everything I worked for, MFER. What is the story behind that tweet from your colleague? Did you

not see this? I did not see it. No. She must, I would assume it has to do with you getting the nod to be a part of the May 9th broadcast. But yeah, she tweeted out, Laura Sanko, you're taking everything I worked for, MF her. Well, this just got awkward, didn't it? No. If she wants to fight, I'm in. I mean, I've always, I don't know if I believe in fighting coworkers, but I feel very confident in my chances in that fight.

I'll just put it that way. I can't believe you didn't see that. No, I didn't. And no one said it to me either. Really? I thought it's hilarious. I was just like, what? No.

I'm going to guess she's joking, but. Yeah, I might have to respond to that. We'll see. I have to see this response. I'm curious because you're going. Hey, sorry, Mike. I'm going to interrupt. Actually, I'm mistaken. That was from a fake account of making a movie. I was like, I just looked it up. They did the thing where they barely change the name around. That's hilarious. It was like the Errolwani tweet that Dana White responded to. I thought I saw the blue checkmark and everything. Yeah, me too.

Can I just say, I'm so glad I didn't see it because Lord only knows what I would have written in response, but I can tell you, like, that he's extremely out of character for her because she's very professional. That's why I was so surprising to me, and I looked at it, and like, I usually am more careful with these things, but then it got sent to me again, and I was like, all right, but good Lord. No, no, no. I'm turning red, right before your eyes. So that's why we're going to talk about it. But then I realized you didn't hear about it. Like, oh, wait, let me double check. And then while you were talking, it was like, oh, it was a fake account.

Oh, I'm so, listen, I've been duped before, but that's absolutely hilarious. I will say that, like, I was sitting here racking my brain because I'm like, that does dot sound like something that she would do? Yeah, I thought it was just like a total, like, joke. Like, I thought it was just, like, playing around. That's how I took it. Yeah, no, totally. Plus, you know, she's, she's awesome and she's amazing at what she does.

So I can't, I can't imagine that she would feel that way either, but that is really, really funny. That is great. What a terrible moment for me, but it is what it is. I can tell you something? I, after the James Krauss fight, when there was that card with all of the really questionable judging, and that one judge that was later found to have been training with, da-da-da-da-da-da, I can't even repeat it all now. There were a couple of people that were creating fake accounts of that guy. Oh, yeah.

And he, one of those fake accounts tweeted me and said something like, get back in the kitchen. I went off. And I am ashamed slash not ashamed to say that I may have sent it to someone at the UFC and said, we need to never work with this judge again because he's a dickhead. Wow. And then I very quickly, thank God, some other people on Twitter were like, no, no, no, this is a fake account. This is a fake account.

And then I was like, never mind, never mind. He's fine. He's fine. He can stay. I mean, his judging is still questionable, but he doesn't need to be fired. Wow. All right. You made me feel a little bit better.

So thank you for the best of it. So a couple more things for letting you go. I know you're supposed to be on the April 18th broadcast. D.C. had talked about, you know, sort of, how things would have gone from his perspective. Like he would drive, he would have drove to Tachy Palace on Saturday, get tested, he would call the fights, and then he would drive home. What would your schedule have looked like for that event?

Would you have flown in earlier and been around the whole fight week, or would you have come in on Saturday and left on Saturday? Yeah, I would have come in a little bit later on Friday, and there was going to be a medical check. As soon as we got in, we were kind of instructed to really stick to, you know, our room just really limit the amount of people and, objects, frankly, that you come in contact and just be really, really smart with it. There were strict instructions even about the way that I was going to conduct my interviews,

which I'm imagining will still apply to May 9th. It's tricky because with the social media interviews, they are filmed vertically so that they can be put up on an Instagram story. So we don't have the benefit really of being able to stand too far apart. So I actually might be doing a number of my interviews almost as an. an Instagram live format where I'm on a phone and the fighters on a phone in a slightly separate location. This remains to be seen and the logistics are a little clunky. But I also said, you know, I'm not, I'm personally not opposed to doing interviews that would be, you know,

at a reasonable distance either. So we'll see what happens. But they're definitely going above and beyond to make sure that everybody is as safe as possible. And there is, I think, a medical check every day that you're there. And they're arranging people's travel to where we're there on site as little as possible. So get in late, leave early, you know, that type of thing. Come in contact with as few people as possible. Laura, I can't think you enough. It is a weird time in the world. I appreciate it coming on and talking fights. And I'll have you know I was thinking about you the other day because school of Massachusetts is officially canceled for the rest of the year, and we got a package delivered in the mail yesterday. Common Core Math Skills Workbook. I was like, oh, my God, Laura warned

me about this. This is going to be a nightmare, isn't it? Yeah, I'm lucky that I'm still in kindergarten math, which, thank goodness I have a pretty good grasp of. What grade are your kids in? He's in kindergarten. Oh, will you be fine. All right. I saw Common Core. I'm like, oh, my God, no. You can't get too common core with King Garden math. Come on. I would be concerned if I had a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, an upgrader, forget it. Because apparently the way that they multiply and do long division now is completely different than what you and I learned. And it would not be a pretty picture. But yeah, no, we're, we are trucking along in homeschool. I don't know. I'll have to, maybe I'll bring my son on one of these times and he can tell you what he thinks of me as a kindergarten teacher. Well, all the best to you and the family, Laura. Look forward to hearing your voice in the broadcast. podcast, May 9. Thanks. Appreciate you. Thanks. There you have it.

And I am mad enough to admit, ladies and gentlemen. I was duped. I can't believe I was duped. Well done, Megan O'Leavy, parody accounts. You got me. You got me and you got a lot of other people with that one. What an embarrassing moment. But thanks to Loris Sanko for coming on the show

and at least making me feel better about it. God, what a dope. But we got to get ready for the final interview of the show. It was a little over 10 years ago that this man, Frankie Edgar, became a UFC world champion at UFC 112. And now he's looking to start another chapter in a storied career at 135 pounds. I will preface this by saying the audio is a little bit wonky. I don't even know if that's an actual word, but the video quality is tremendous.

The audio just kind of spaces out a little from time to time. But I just want to just kind of throw that warning out there for you guys. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed this conversation. So here it is my chat with Frankie Edgar. All right, we move ahead to our next guest, the former UFC lightweight champion of the world. Happy to be joined by Frankie Edgar. Good to see you.

How are you, sir? I'm good. How are you? Doing great. You got the quarantine beard looking strong right now, Frank. I have to say, I don't think I've ever seen you with the beard, at least like that throughout your career. Is this a new thing for you?

You know, it's just something to keep me occupied in this quarantine. I keep saying I'm going to cut it when the quarantine's over, but I don't see an end in sight. So I'm going to have to reassess situation in a couple weeks here and see what we're going to do. So how many weeks of work has this beard been so far? Yeah, I'm about, I'm like six or seven weeks in. Six or seven weeks growing this thing. So it's been a minute from me. Do you enjoy it?

Because I feel like you look like a different person almost. Like you look scary. You look like a proxious man with that beard. You know what? Maybe I should keep it. I need all the help. I get, man. I'm not the guy to begin with. Well, thank you for coming. I really appreciate your time. First things first. How are you and the family holding up during this crazy time in the world, the coronavirus pandemic? How does everybody do? Yeah, we're doing okay. You know, just staying in for the most part. I'm training, you know, in my basement. I'm training one other friend of mine. We kind of, we said we got ourselves in a monogamous relationship and only me and him could train. So at least I got one guy I could work out with.

But other than that, I'm in my basement or my gym by myself. So, you know, homeschooling the kids, all that stuff is, it's an experience. We'll keep it at that. Did I see on Tuesday you posted about a tornado or something tornado-ish hitting your house? What happened there? Yeah, yeah. yesterday afternoon actually I didn't

we didn't know a tornado was coming we knew a the thunderstorm was coming I'll go for a bike ride with my kids before it came

I'm outside taking a garbage out and all of a sudden it starts whipping up and I actually posted the video on my Instagram so it's on there but from like the ring

in camp yeah it was my roof I probably needed to get a new roof I have a window broken in my neighborhood there's trees down

like crazy probably probably worse than Sandy as far as trees it went down at least in my neighborhood wow Is everybody okay? Yeah, I mean, everyone's safe, you know, just some damage.

I mean, I don't know if everyone in my neighborhood got out with, you know, safely. I'm assuming they did, but I know damage definitely a lot. I think I've seen one tornado land here in Massachusetts across the street from where I used to live. And I've seen a couple from a distance visiting family down south. But to see one in the northeast, that's super rare, right? Like, have you ever seen a tornado before yet before Tuesday? Yeah. no this is the first time i've ever been in a hurricane or a tornado rather i mean i don't know

i'm calling a tornado maybe it was a freaking gale wind or something but it felt like a tornado it felt like a movie dude i heard it coming for like 30 seconds and i almost didn't know what it was i thought the rain was coming i'm like that rain and then when it started getting closer and closer man that buzzing was was uh it was like a movie really was wild it's crazy in terms of your fighting career the last time we saw you compete was in december against the korean zombie and you took the fight on at least opponent-wise and weight class-wise short notice because you were scheduled to fight Corey Sandhagen a month later. You know, you've been in so many different scenarios in your career, Frankie.

What did you take away from that fight with Korean Zombie in Busan? You know, I took the opportunity. I don't regret taking an opportunity. Looking back to us, and that always sucks. And he just can't go back and change those things. But, you know, I stocked the cards against myself more so than usual going out there. Irish distance, a foreign country, all that stuff. I think what I learned is this next time around,

I want to kind of put the ball in my court and, you know, make sure it's a trouble situation for myself. Not so much, you know, going in the enemy's territory and, you know, short notice and all that stuff. By the way, did you happen to see Korean Zombies video about how fighters can cheat at weigh-ins? Did you see that at all? No, I, I, I, uh, gray's pants.

Yeah, I seen something like, I didn't really watch it though, honestly. Yeah, so basically what he did, it was like him and a fellow fighter. They did this video where they literally walked through every cheating scenario that they've ever seen at Wayans. Some things that I've seen before, like the towel thing, some things I never seen before, like the finger on the back and they went through like all these different things. So that leads me to believe, like, is there anything that you've seen at Wayans over the years that people should watch out for that maybe fans and, you know, other fighters may not be aware of? I mean, the only thing I see back in where you know, my buddy weighed in and his friend

Navar stayed behind him and kind of lift up his butt cheek for him a little bit to kind of make him lighter. I don't think that's possible. You know, the UFC events guys are not so close to you. They shouldn't be so close to where they can grab you. So as far as in the UFC, I don't really know. I don't have to cheat, so, or find ways to cheat.

I never have to find the lights. part of the scale like that we're trying to do so your plan was to head down to 35 for your next fight to fight san hagen i assume that's still the plan moving forward yes uh that's the plan 35 um i don't know who i'm going to get matched up with uh but you know someone along those lines and um you know we'll see i i wanted the fight in june before this all went down and you know now i see that may 9th is scheduled tentatively and uh i guess we'll see what happens once the ball gets wrong. I would like to get in there, probably typically, ideally. Have you, have you already started to like change the diet and things like that in preparation

for that eventual cut to 35 or are you going to wait until, you know, something's pen to paper, you got something in the books because, you know, this is a tough time to be thinking about dropping weight. I know I've tried and have failed miserably at this point. Yeah, no, it's definitely not the ideal time to be worrying about weight and, you know, not having access to all the amenities and what. whatnot. But, you know, when I decided this past summer, I was going to go down to 35, I kind of tricked my mind to not get over 60, and I'm pretty much there. I probably walk around 57, you know, without really trying hard. So, you know, I got my weight in the right to get, you know,

a date in mind, I'll get, you know, I'll get all hooked up with nutritionists and really get zeroed in. How do you sort of look at the UFC moving forward right now? Because obviously you're a fighter and you've never said no to a fight. And obviously this is a different time now than than we've seen in the past. But you're wearing a lot of different hats. You're not just fighter, your father, your husband, your family man, your training partner, all these different things. If the UFC said like Frankie, man, we need you for like May 23rd or something, would you have a hard time taking a fight right now or would you need to wait a little bit? Are you ready to just jump right in there at this point? You know, like I said, based on my last fight, I don't want to

jump and take anything short notice really. I want to have a proper camp to prepare and all that stuff. You know, always a game guy. And if, you know, the situation is, you know, tempting for myself, then of course, I'll think about it. You know, and I'm disregard. Obviously, health and safety have to be in concern. Involved, you know, I'm not trying to disregard this whole pandemic and whatnot, but, you know, I'm athlete and I want to compete. I mean, this is what I've been doing my whole life. So that's what I want to get back to. regardless of what's going on. 35 is super interesting right now.

It's just a loaded division. Everybody in the top, like 25 to 30 is somebody to keep an eye on or, you know, is right there. How excited are you to just be a part of this division and start mixing it up with some of these guys? Yeah, you know, it's cool. It's like another extension of my career. You know, it's been half my career lightweight and then the other half of 45. So I get a new set of 24.

toys to play with, you know what I mean? And a lot of new, interesting matchups. And that they could possibly match up with. How do you feel about the matchmaking up the top these days? We're going to see Suhudo Aldo. Now we're going to see Sehudo Cruz, who's coming back after a three-plus year layoff. A very interesting fight on paper note out about that.

But what are your thoughts on the matchmaking in this new division of yours? Yeah. I mean, you still know what's going to happen. Not so much just my division, I think. guys. I don't know. All guys are getting title shots off, you know, not one, but two losses here and there or guys coming from, you know, four-year layoff getting a title shot.

So you really don't know what's going to happen. I get why they're doing it. They want to put popular guys in. Dominicru is one of the most guys at 35. He may be the best champion we had at that weight so far. So, you know, I could see why they're pushing him along, but I could also see how some other guys might be frustrated by that. Speaking of champions, a little over 10 years ago, we were actually talking about

this off air as well. You became the UFC Lightway Champion. Like you beat BJ Penn in Abu Dhabi, UFC 112, an amazing achievement and accomplishment for you, obviously. I remember watching that fight with my buddies in this tiny apartment. It was just a crazy night, and I remember

being a fan of the sport. It was like just when I was getting in my fan, I was so happy. But 10 years ago, you made a dream come true. Do you still remember that night vividly and hearing the Ann knew like it was yesterday? Yeah, absolutely. that one will stick in my memory, you know, right in the forefront forever.

You know, I always talk about my wrestling career and, you know, kind of always coming in second and getting so close to my goal and not achieving it. And so that night being able to achieve that, you know, become the best in the world. And here and new is something I'll never forget. I mean, the first time is obviously something very special. But you jump, let's just say you're like, you jump into this band and weight division, you go through these contenders and you caption that second title in a second way class. Any chance that trumps the first one or the first one always remain up top on that pedestal? We're going to have to wait and see. I'm going to wait and give you that answer. Last thing, Frankie, I appreciate the time very much.

People are starting to lose their minds with this quarantine right now. And you're staying as busy as you can. But people are just looking for something new to grab at. A book, a new show, a movie. What's the answer, punfully intended, Frankie, for those folks? Any book recommendations? Anything that we should check out and read to better improve ourselves during this crazy time? You know, I read the book The Outsider.

It's a series on HBO. My buddy told me to watch it, but I read the book instead. Stephen King, I ripped it in like a week. It's like a 500-page book, but I said to do. I ripped that book. It's pretty good. It follows along the series pretty closely, too. So that's not a bad pick right there.

I'll have to check that out for sure. Great stuff, Frankie. I really appreciate you coming on. I've been covering the sport for a little over five years now, and this is the first time we've been able to chat. So it means a lot. Anything else you want to get off your chest to let the folks know about before we let you go? No, hey, check out my podcast, champ in the tramp.

It's me and Roger Matthews. We have a new episode every week, so I've been doing that in my basement. I'm actually here in the podcast room as we speak. So, yeah, check us out. How are you enjoying being on that side of the podcasting microphone? You're enjoying the host seat a little bit? I am. It's fun. It's with my buddy right now. We've had a couple of guests, you know, guys that I mostly train with or hang out with. So, you know, we're just getting our feet wet, having fun with it and see we can make of it. How far do you think this thing can go? Like, do you have like, are you just kind of winging it right now? Or do you sort of have like certain goals, aspirations steps you want to take to make it even bigger? honestly I'm just winging it right now I guess you know we we're trying to stay consistent

and just trying to have fun make it fun because you know if it doesn't make money at least I get to sit in my basement bullshit with my buddy's a couple nights a week perfect way to look at it thanks again Frankie stay healthy and safe hopefully we could do this again soon maybe before your your Bannamweight debut I appreciate the time man absolutely you got it brother. Take care. There it is. Frankie Edgar, wrapping a bow on another episode of what the heck on mhmafining.com. Big thank you to Frankie and all the guests this week. I don't think I've laughed or smiled this much doing the show ever. I have to say, I'm really having a blast doing the show and being a part of this team as on the day that this episode is released, Thursday, April 23rd, 2020.

It's been officially one month since I've been. joined the team at MMA fighting and I just couldn't be happier about that. And I know this website is held to a certain standard in the sport. It's a site that I've gone to daily for years and years and years. And I know I still have a lot of room to grow, but I hope I'm at least living up to somewhat your expectations anyways. I know it's, uh, you guys have some high ones. So hopefully if we're not there, we can get there.

But make sure you subscribe on YouTube, subscribe wherever you're listening to the show in podcast form. It's totally free to do that. You get the shows immediately upon release. You can even get notified that they're released. So why make extra work for yourselves, ladies and gentlemen? Not only do you get the show, you get the A-side Live Chat Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. These shows have been incredible, special guests galore, fighters galore.

It's just been a lot of fun. Of course, you got Eurobash every Tuesday with Pizzie Carroll and Nile McGrath. That's become one of my favorite listens of the week. Those two just bantering back and forth is phenomenal. Plus their guest list is really good as well. plus all the other cool stuff we got going on like the coffee talks the news reactions and we got some other things heading your way in a couple of weeks so get ready for that just stay locked into mabfighting.com for all that so that's it for this week thank you for watching and listening

i'm done rambling i am mike hack and as always have a heck of a week everybody you a podcast network