MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 47 | Stephen Thompson, Casey O’Neill, Ricky Simon, Julia Avila & Chris Gutierrez

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

This week on What the Heck, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck speaks with No. 5 ranked UFC welterweight Stephen Thompson (4:41) as he states his case as to why he should be next for champion Kamaru Usman following UFC 258. Casey O’Neill (31:48) recaps her second-round TKO victory against Shana Dobson in her octagon debut this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 19. Ricky Simon (55:32) discusses his unanimous decision win over Brian Kelleher at UFC 258, hopes to fight Frankie Edgar sooner rather than later, and why he feels a fight with Sean O'Malley will never happen. Julia Avila (1:17:35) talks her upcoming fight with Juija Stoliarenko on March 20, what she took away from her loss against Sijara Eubanks in September and the injuries she's had to overcome. Finally, Chris Gutierrez (1:39:51) recaps his unanimous decision win over Andre Ewell at UFC 258, talks being at the forefront of the leg kick movement in the sport of mixed martial arts, and his current custody battle that was discussed during the broadcast. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What the Heck with Mike Heck on MMAfighting.com. Now here is your host, Mike Heck. What the heck? Hello there, everybody. Welcome to a brand new edition of What the Heck here on MMAfighting.com. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for checking out the 47th episode of the program.

It's crazy, man. It just seems like just yesterday. Episode one went down. but we're coming along, I guess we should say. We do have a lot to get to this week. Of course, we're coming out of UFC Vegas 19 this past Saturday, capped off by Derek Lewis's big knockout win over Curtis Blades in the main event. We talked about the card extensively on the post-fight show, on onto the next one.

So check those out on the podcast network or YouTube. But one thing I will say, let us put some darn respect on Derek. Eric Lewis's name. I mean, this guy is a personality. We love listening to him talk. He's just fun to watch, but he's putting it all together in a very big way right now. He's shown, not only does he have the power, but he's a pretty intelligent fighter on top of having that life-altering power. So kudos to him. He had a game plan. It paid off. And awesome performance. Unbelievable, big ups is one of the biggest upsets in a main event in like the last five years. and on the flip side for Curtis Blades,

obviously a very tough loss for him. He knows it. But let me just say to the people kicking him while he's down, come on now. I mean, give the guy a break. Look fantastic in that first round. You got caught with the big uppercut, knocked him out, took those big shots after.

And now he's got people getting his phone number and FaceTiming him and giving a bunch of crap about it. And it's just a little much. It's a little much. Just be better if you're like that. I know most of the people watching this aren't like that. Some people have criticisms and that's fine. But to call the man on his phone and give him a bunch of crap after getting knocked out like that,

it's a little bit redonculus. So hopefully he's doing okay. Derek Lewis on to the next big thing. Maybe Alistair Overeign, that's what he wants. Overeem seems to want that fight as well. Maybe he gets the winner of this Saturday's UFC Vegas 20 main event between Jarzanio Rosenstrike and Cyril Gan. we will see what is next for the Black Beast, but we will have some answers clearly coming out of Saturday night.

It was a big night for the heavyweight division this past Saturday as well. Chris Dawkes got a big win. Tom Aspinall got a big win. Sergei Spieback got a big win. So it was a good night for the heavyweight division. And we'll talk more UFC Vegas 19 coming up later on in the program. But let us run down the lineup and get to our first guest, five guests this week. Here we go.

Rounding us off. We will speak with Chris Gutierrez after his big win over on. Andre Ewell at UFC 258 will talk about his performance. The leg kicks, what he's been dealing with outside of the cage, as was discussed on the broadcast. El Guapo will join us to wrap up the program. Julia Avulad returns to the program, always a breath of fresh air. There is only one raging panda. She returns to action March 20th against Julius Stolio Renco.

What a crazy fight that should be. We will get her thoughts on that. Her last fight with Tajar, Eubanks, and more. like her first true loss in MMA too, which seems to be in really good spirits. Ricky Simone got his second win in less than a month at UFC 258, defeated Brian Kellahar. That's now three straight wins overall for him. He wants a rank guy next. He has somebody in mind he'd like to fight.

And if you listen to on to the next one on a weekly basis, there was a lot of support for his suggestion. So stay tuned for that. Speaking of UFC Vegas 19, what a debut was for Casey O'Neill. She lives up to the hype, incredible pace. Just, she was just an animal. I mean, I was saying it all week. She is an animal in there, and she showed it. She stopped Shauna Dobson in round two.

I think the UFC has something here. Definitely excited to talk with King Casey for the first time in around 20, 25 minutes or so. But first, we kick things off with a man who has his sights set on UFC gold. In fact, there are a lot of people out there who support this idea. and the door opened a little bit more last week, as you may have seen on social media. More on that right now with the one, the only, Stephen Thompson. All right, back on the program,

the number five ranked fighter in one of the more interesting divisions in our sport right now, the NMF champion, and perhaps maybe another shiny gold belt could be in his future with the way things are playing out right now. Let us say hello to Stephen Wonderboy Thompson. How are you, man? Doing good, man. glad to be on with you, brother. How's everything going? Everything's going great, man.

I appreciate it. Come back on. A lot to discuss with you. But first off, happy belated birthday, my man. How does the big three eight feel? It feels amazing. I feel like I'm 25 years old. And happy birthday to you as well, big three eight as well. So, hey, we're moving up together, man. We're getting older. I feel spry. I feel like a spry 38 year old. 100%. I'm there with you. I'm feeling the exact. same. But no, it was a good birthday, man. I'm feeling great, man, feeling great. I hear you, man. But before we get into this 170-pound puzzle that you are in the middle of right now, how are you feeling? I mean, I know you were dealing with a couple of injuries after the Jeff Neal fight.

Wasn't anything that was going to keep you out for like a really long time. But what's the, I guess, the status on everything, if you don't mind me asking? As of right now, everything's good. The hand's still giving me a little problem. I got an MRI on that this week. But other than that, the leg's fine. like I'm training everything feels good just trying to get this hand looked at that's the only thing

keeping me from competing like today so yeah so I'm feeling good man that's good your name has come up a lot over the last several weeks Stephen first we found out that Hamza at Shamaif was out of the March 13th fight with Leon Edwards a lot of people wanted to see you step in there you actually had like a call out of Leon Edwards last year

which blew everybody's mind although, you know, like you said, it wasn't going to be possible unless the fight could get pushed back a couple of months at best. Did the UFC actually, like, reach out to you at all, at least inquire about your services to fight Leon? Or were they aware of what was going on with you? No, they didn't. I think they, number one was aware kind of like, you know, what was going on with me. But I think on top of that, they really needed somebody for that March 15th card and, you know, for many events. So they were looking for somebody who could make that.

And I couldn't do that at the moment. I was hoping that they were going to take him off the card and maybe be ready in April or May because that's what I'm looking about coming back and can make that fight happen. So, yeah, man, I don't know who he's going to be fighting at this point. I think they were trying to get Colby Covington. Colby's like, nah, man, I'm not fighting this guy. So, yeah, it's kind of up in the air at this point.

A lot of things happen in the World's Way Division. and a lot of stuff, you know, not happening in the well-to-weight division. He's got a fight, man. You didn't hear? No, I didn't know. Oh, yeah, that's right. He's fighting Mohammed, right? Yeah.

Malo. Muhammad Balal? Man, and wait for that guy to step up and shooting his shot because he fought, like, what, two weeks ago? Fought at the pay-per-view, yeah. Yeah, I fought like two weeks ago, man. And came out with a win, so good for him. That's right.

I forgot all about that. You got to remember the name, Stephen. Remember the name. I know it. Daggummit. But good for him, man. So I'm glad he's making that step up and, you know, looking for a good show. I'm definitely going to be watching that fight really closely for sure. Things, like you said, they've gotten very interesting for you. We had the Walterway title fight at UFC 258, Kamara Usman v. Gilbert Burns, really good scrap for as long as it lasted. Showed the swings that the sport can bring. And in the end, Uspin overcame some adversity, retain the title with a third round finish of Durino.

What did you think of the fight and another successful title defense for Kamar Usman? Yeah, man, 100%. I mean, Gilbert Burn was very hungry. And this was supposed to be his toughest fight yet. And that's what everybody was thinking. That's what I thought. And the first round kind of showed that. Like, man, my goodness, you know, Gilbert Burns is put on some heat right off the bat.

Usman is a champ, man. And he's a champ for a reason. He kept super calm and, you know, took the punishment. I don't think he took a lot of damage because he blocked. a lot of it, but came back in the second and third round to finish him with a jab. And he's known for his wrestling, and he's taking guys out with a jab. Man, that shows the evolution of Kamara Usman, you know, was looking to see just the same old Usman out there, you know, maybe taking him down, using his wrestling to try and nullify

Gilbert Burns Jiu-Jitsu, but he's very confident and striking. I do believe that if we fought, he would definitely change game plans. He would not fight me the same way. He would definitely fight the, you know, use his wrestling background to try and get me to the floor. But, dude, hats off, two thumbs up with an amazing performance for Usman for sure. Where do you rank Usman right now in like the grand scheme of things? Like there are folks who are ready to throw him in the conversation with a guy like George, St. Pierre, a man, you're very familiar with. Yeah.

Others think it's a bit premature to make those comparisons, but everyone agrees that he's at least on the road to getting there. What have you sort of made of his rise considering his road was pretty long to get to the belt because he had a lot of difficulty finding the right fights along the way. Yeah, he did, man. But, I mean, when you're comparing yourself to somebody like George St. Pierre, who's defended the title like, what, 12, 13 times, something like that. And he's, what, defended it three times, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a little too soon. to be putting him up there with GSP.

But he is on the way. Of course, I think everybody's on the way, you know, to try and get there. But at this point, he's doing a great job. His last three performances, they've all been just ridiculous. Just like, man, this dude is getting better every time I see him. Yeah, is he there? No, I don't think he's there yet. Now when you're putting yourself comparing yourself to GSP,

you got a long road ahead of here that dare, sir, because, you know, GSP, he's fought some tough dues and defended the title 12 or third. I think it was 12 times. 12 times. That's ridiculous, man. Crazy. But, yeah, man, I don't think he's quite there.

Yeah, I mean, GSP's run is ridiculous. I think it was, he actually had nine title defenses, and then 11 or 12 title wins, something in that, in that realm. Just the guy's a winner. Yeah, something crazy. And then comes out of retirement and Wednesday, 185, you know, title, which is crazy, man. The guy's the goat for sure. And like I've seen him recently.

He's got hair. He looks so weird with hair. I don't know if you've seen his Instagram. He has, GSP has hair. Like, shave it, man, shave it. I don't know. He looks good with it, but it's like, it's weird. He doesn't look like the same guy.

He looks like a lot thinner now, too. But not like that. He's cleaned up. In shape, though, like an in shape. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's doing a lot of the, he's like into the fasting thing. Like he went on like a three day water fast.

He does the cold baths, which I've seen a lot of heard about a, you know, a lot of people say there's a lot of benefits to that. You know, doing the cold baths, cold showers for like so many days or something like that. Of course, the guy's always been a nut. I would go up there and, you know, be involved with his training camps and he would go to these spas in the middle of winter. I mean, snow outside. He's outside in a cold bath, like a 50 degree cold bath. And he's just like, no, I stuck my toe in there. I was like, no, there's no way. There's no way I'm doing this right now. I'll catch you guys on the inside. But he would be out there, man, in a full out snow and a cold bath. I'm like, you're nuts, man.

So he's a wild. I know. He is a wild male. He's just no way I can do that. So he's a different, different breed for sure absolutely so after usman wins he does something champions don't normally do he has a name in mind he calls out hori mazadal and of course they met in july usman got the win defended his title it was a short notice fight and you know you were on the show talking about how you were a mazadol fan heading into that fight because old go old game bred the old bmf champ called out said the nmf champion if i win the belt i want to run it back with that guy so as you're watching the end of UFC 258, Usman retains the title,

and he calls out Mazadol, what were you thinking? I was like, okay, for one, I was like, the guy, his last fight was you. Mazidol's last fight, I believe, was Kamar Usman, right? It was, yeah.

Yeah, so it just doesn't make sense for the guy to fight him begin. He clearly lost, he had a short notice, but I just think that Kamar Usman knows, I mean, it's smart, it's smart for him, he knows he can beat him.

and for a high pay, and it's a big name. There is beef there. So it makes sense on his part, but as a fan and as a fighter and as somebody who's been at the top of the game and trying to get title fights, it doesn't make sense for the UFC to make that. You know, as a fan, doesn't make sense for that to happen. You know, fight somebody you haven't fought yet. You know, you beat pretty much everybody except for one, you know, me in the top five. That's it. Of course, you got Michael Kess, who's ranked number six.

He haven't fought Michael Kessi either. But, man, keep on going down the line. You know, go down the line. You beat everybody up here. Who's next? There's this guy. So, yeah, I think a bigger fight would be, I don't know, man, would be like George Monsvadold, Leon Edwards. I think Monsradal has beef with everybody at this point, except for me.

But, you know, he could, that would be a big call. hard too, a big fight, him and Leon Edwards. We just saw that fight happen with him in Usman, so it doesn't make sense for it to happen again. So, yeah, not even Colby. Colby Covington, his last, who was his last fight? Was it Usman? It was Woodley. It was Woodley. That's right. That's right. It was Woodley. I think Woodley's got a fight against Vicente Lucke, who I fought a year ago. So, man, all these guys got fights except for me, man. So hopefully I'm trying to get that title fight. Like, come on, Usman. Come on, man.

I probably from he hadn't fought yet. This sport, I mean, I actually, coming out of that event, I mean, obviously Usen was the big winner. Julian Marquez, you know, trying to get the date with Miley was a big winner. And then Anthony Hernandez's a big winner. But I thought Mazadol was a big winner coming out of that. I thought you were a big winner coming out of that. I thought Colby Covington was probably the biggest loser coming out of that event

because he was supposed to fight Mazadol. It was all like right there. And all that's kind of taken away. And this sport is a very interesting world, as you've seen throughout your career. While things seem so simple on paper, there's more than meets the eye behind the scenes. And it seemed as if all signs were pointing towards this Usman Mazadol thing taking off right away. They were talking about maybe the summer, possibly coaching the ultimate fighter. And then last week, we see Usman come out and say, I'm not feeling generous anymore. Anybody can get it. So as

the one guy in the top five, Stephen, who hasn't fought Kamar Usman, that tweet must have been like music to like, I guess your eyes. Was it not? It was. It was music to everything because I was saying it out loud. I was reading that tweet out loud to my eyes, my ears, everything. Yeah, it was super cool to actually see Usman say that. That anybody can get it. So that leads me to believe that I have a possibility to make this thing happen. You know, so doing interviews like you, staying active on social media can definitely possibly help get the fans behind it because at this point, you know, if the fans love it, the UFC, you know, kind of gets by. behind it. So as of right now, I'm seeing a lot of people saying that I should be fighting for the title shot. I should be facing Usman at this point. But you never know, man. So I'm, you know, staying in shape. I'm working out. Got to get this hand looked at, obviously. And, you know, hopefully we can make this thing happen. We'll make this thing happen. I think it would be an awesome fight. And Usman even said it. I think his toughest fight would be somebody like me with just to, you know,

to hard, hard to prepare for, a difficult read. One of the, you know, I'm the third best in the division with a take down defense. So I think it would just be a fun fight. I like it because I think it would be a fun fight. Number one, obviously fighting for the title again, but, but two, I like it. I think he's a great guy, good champion. And it's just the time to really test my abilities against somebody at that level who is the best. even it was funny like even after the event when we did like our live stream the post fight coverage

i mean tons of comments oozen versus wonder boy usen versus wonder boy so you're seeing like you're seeing the support that's got to make you feel pretty damn good right now does it not oh yeah oh yeah 100% man i it all put smiles on my face like my dad's reading everything obviously he's reading every interview out there uh every tweet he's looking back at my my picture is like everybody wants it they want to see you fight man let's make it happen let's get it go. He's like, you know, my dad's an old school guy. You did get on there and you need to call him out. You know, you got to be a little more aggressive, Wonder Boy. I'm like, Dad, you know, I'm not that way. Like, chill, you know, chill. But it's good, man. I know that he's excited.

I'm excited just in the fact that, you know, there's still a possibility that I could go out there and fight for the title and fans are wanting to see it, you know. People know that I can give him a hard time. Anybody in my weight class a hard time. there's a lot of people out there not calling my name. They're not talking about me. Now I want to, you know, face me. There hasn't been a whole lot of talk about me at this point, even though I'm ranked number five to those guys

because they know I'm a threat. They know I'm a threat. Would you do the ultimate fighter if they offered that to you? I think it would be cool. I think it would be fun. The NMF, you know, I don't know if the people running it would think it would be good because, I mean, I'm not going to say, there and talk crap about anybody, but I think it would be fun. I don't know how exciting it

would be because normally you see the two coaches just hate each other, right? And I don't know if I could do that. Like, I'm not good at talking crap. I'm not good at it. That's one of the reasons that I don't do it, you know? I don't know. I do all my talking with my hands and my feet, and that's about it. But I think it would be fun. Yeah, it's a new era of the ultimate fighter. Why not change things up a little bit? change it up and see you at the end of math and go out there and have a good time with it, right? I think it would be cool.

The coach's challenge would be so fun to watch between you and Usma. I wonder what kind of freaking game they would give you guys. Oh, Lord, that would be great, man. Some of the stuff they come up with was just ridiculous, especially in the earlier shows. It was so fun to watch. I mean, like you sort of alluded to, there hasn't been a lot of openings up the top of this division in a while, man.

Like we had Usman Mazadol, we got Usman Burns, Colby versus Tyron, you and Jeff Neal, and then we had the Kiesa Magnify. It's kind of been like a dark sort of like cavey road to navigate, but now you've got this little light man and you want to sprint towards it. So you see it, how do we make this happen, man? Like you come out of the tunnel,

what do we get to do coming out of this tunnel to make this thing in reality? That's the thing. It's just keep people talking about it. You know, if I'm staying silent, people will forget about it and somebody else would jump in there. So at this point, doing things like I said with you, doing these interviews and staying active on social media and trying to make this fan.

Just keep the fans wanting the fight. You know, every time I go to my Instagram, there's somebody talking about me fighting Usman. So got to keep that going. You were part of the early stages of Tyron Woodley's title reign. In fact, you fought him twice for the belt, as everybody knows. And, you know, the division was a very interesting place back then. I guess, like, how would you compare things now to how. it was back then. Like it seemed, I won't say

easier because it did take some doing for you to get that first fight with Tyron, but you were the number one contender and you deserved it. How do you, how would you kind of compare the two timeframes? I think there are some differences for sure. At this point, it's like if you, you know, the more that you talk

even if you're in the top six, eight, ten could definitely win you a title fight. If you, I mean, you saw you know, Mazvidal do it, you know, get And he actually was, he was, went to where Usman was, and they started talking trash to each other, which made that fight happen. Back when I, you know, it wasn't that long ago, you actually had to work your behind up there. You had to actually show it in your fights.

You know, I went through Murderers Road to get that fight for the title. You know, after meeting Hendricks, I figured I was going to be up next, but they were like, no, you got to fight the number one contender now. And now it's like you can jump past that with just, just getting fans behind you. So that's a big difference right there, I believe, in just a short amount of time. It's wild, man. Obviously, the title fight is an option right now. That's A1 scenario for Wonderboy. If for some reason, and you know how these things work out, Usman, Mazadol, their teams, the UFC, they come to terms.

What else kind of sticks out to you? I mean, there's Colby, there's Burns. There's, actually, there is one guy who likes a fight with you. Michael Kiesa, he said, if we fought, let the night. Nicest MF or win. That's what he told me on the program. And now we got Nate DSA and he wants to come back and fight at 170. So what kind of sticks out to you if the title fight isn't there for you at this point in time? Well, my last three, four, you know, fights have been guys, you know, ranked behind me. I want to get a fight either somebody ranked above me or with a big enough name that will help get me there. So, I mean, yeah, obviously Colby, anybody in the top five, I would love to fight if me and Usman does. happened. It's really up to, you know, them willing to do it. You know, the NMF, you know, Colby Covington, Burns, anybody up there. Leon Edwards, if, you know, if maybe he has another

falling out, I don't know what could happen between now and then. But, you know, or even Nick Diaz, if he's thinking about coming in April or May, I hear that's kind of his time frame. That's kind of mine as well. So somebody like him with the name as well, who, uh, who I think is an OG, man. the guys, he is an OG. That makes sense for me. That makes sense. But for somebody that's ranked behind me, you know, even though Kies is right there, it's like, you know, give me somebody ranked above me for, you know,

because the past year and a half, two years I've been fighting guys ranked behind me. It's like, you know, like I said before, I just don't want them to try and make me, hopefully they're not trying to make me a gatekeeper at this point. You know, I think I deserve it's somebody ahead of me at this point. Now, keeping my fingers crossed, man, and still trying to shoot without a hoosman fight. But if I don't get it, man, give me Nate Diaz or somebody ranked above me. Give me, give me the NMF. Give me Kobe Covington.

They all, both interesting contrasts of a build-up styles between yourself and Nate and Colby. I mean, that's magic right there, Stephen. It's great television. Thank you, man. I appreciate it. One way or another, with your name strongly in the mix right now. You said in our last conversation, sometime in 2021, Stephen Wonderboy Thompson is going to fight for the Walterweight title.

You've got to be feeling much better about that prediction right now. Oh, 100% right now. Oh, my gosh. I'm ecstatic. It makes me want to go out there and just just hit the bag right now. I just got done hitting them. I want to go back out there now after this interview. That's what we aim to do.

We aim to get you back out on the on those bats. When that moment comes for you, and I'm sure you've envisioned this many times, Dana White wrapping the belt are on your way. I'm sure that those thoughts cross your mind ahead of those Woodley fights. Will it be like much sweeter for you to do it now than it would have been back then considering the injuries, all the things you've gone through? This would be just an incredible story and an incredible thing for you. Like what would that mean to you at this point in your life and your career to have that bell wrapped around your waist? It, man, it would be more than anything. And I don't think just for me, but, you know, everybody that helped get me here.

You know, my coaches, especially my dad. My dad's been with me since day one, and he talks about that title every day, you know, as if he's the one fighting for it, I think, in some way he's kind of living through me a little bit. You know, he's been there since then, so he knows the drive. He knows the hard work and the sacrifices I made to get to where I'm at, you know, and he made those as well. So for me to win that fight, not just for me, but for him would just mean the world to me. But like you said, the adversity that I went through, you know, the injury.

the working my way back up from, you know, after that last fight with Woodley and getting beat by Darren Till and moving, you know, significantly, you know, rank number nine, been working my way back up. It's been a hard work, man, long road for sure. So to win it this year, man, to get that title belt with me and the world to me, man, it would be amazing. Who's house with the belt stay at? Yours or your dad's? My dad's. My dad's, man. I'm putting that belt around him. his waist for sure. But I think I think it shouldn't go to anybody's house. They'd definitely go up in the gym where, you know, everybody can enjoy it. You know, I got teammates. I got amateurs here that help get me to where I am. You know, everybody that I train with, if they're, even on the

same level, I still, I still pick up things from them. You know, I'm, I still come in the gym every day with an empty cup. Even this is, this is my, this is my school. This is my gym and I still come out there with an empty cup. You know, I can learn from everybody and trying to help them out and them helping me out. It's just put it in a place where everybody can enjoy it. So your dad gets it for like a weekend and then it goes upstate crowded wall. He'll get certain custody. You know, he'll get, you know, the weekends. We can't give you a day or two during the week too. Yeah, man. Come on. I should at least get the week, you know, every other week or something. I agree. We'll have to drop some kind of contract. Maybe Legal Zoom can sponsor this interview or something.

Ride it up. Write it up. I kind of thought about you in January because, you know, kind of going from one nicest MF or towards another, I want to get your take on Dustin Porre's big win over Connor McGregor because what a moment that was for him. Another guy who has had a crazy road in the sport had to come back from some tough times. He gets the chance for vindication and delivers in a big way. What did you make of Dustin's win, the well-deserved shine he's getting right now, and how much did that sort of fire you up?

That was awesome. I mean, for somebody to go out, you know, first loss to get dominated like that in the first fight, but then come back and just show his, I mean, the guy's been in the game for a long time, too. You know, he's a veteran of the game. And I was kind of upset the other day. Who was it? Somebody called me a veteran. I'm like, wait a second.

A vet. When I think of a vet, I think of an old guy. I'm like, I'm not old guys. I know. My dad's like, you know, Stephen, you've been in the game. You've been fighting with the UFC for almost 10 years. So, yeah, I mean, you're considered a vet. if you look at it that way.

I'm like, okay, I'll give you that, but I'm not an old guy. But he's been in the game for a long time. And for him to go out there and get that win over Connor McGregor, just to see the improvement that he's made since then was just awesome. It was awesome. It inspired me for sure, 100%. But, you know, Connor 1-1, Dustin 1-1, you got to do a tree. You got to do a trio, right?

You got to, you know, best two out of three. wins. So I think they should make that happen again. I think that is. I think that's the talk at this point. But yeah, man, I was I was super proud of him, super proud of Dustin Poirier. Yeah, that seems to be the front runner right now for certain. We'll see how that all plays out. But you are remaining busy at the school. Your YouTube channel is a lot of fun. Do you have anything coming up this week on the channel for the peeps to check out, maybe be a part of in getting a behind the scenes look at Stephen Winterboy Thompson? You know, we're going to be doing some more, you know, training things like that.

Like, I know we do attending Tuesdays, but we're on Fridays, we're starting to do more vlogs, kind of the day in the life of Steve Wonderboy Thompson, stuff that he's going through. But also we're focused on trying to make this fight happen with Usman. So be watching the channel, guys. We've got some really cool things coming your way. So if you hadn't hit that subscribe, that first off, you got to hit this guy up. You got to make sure this guy right here gets to subscribe. over to the channel as well come hang out with me steven water boy thompson and sweet tea i think

i think you're getting close to what 300 000 now we're getting there yes we're getting there man we've been a little over a year and we got we hit 300 000 man so we're working on that that that 500 000 that a million of course we got a long way to go but we're having fun along the way so that's why that's why it's been easy for us we just have them fun and the upstate karate wall is going to have like youtube plaques and maybe a title but belt on the wall. Oh, yeah. We're putting it all out there, baby.

We're trying to get all the belts. Always great chatting with Wonderboy. Listen, I'm in for that fight. And I have no issue with Uzbin calling out Jorge Mazadol. None. Because it kind of forced the rest of the division to get cooking. You know what I mean? Like some of the guys in the top of the division, like Leon Edwards has a fight with Blah

Muhammad. We're still waiting on what's next for Colby Covington. What are we going to do? You know, it kind of lets the division play itself up. But now that Mazadol might not be in the equation right now, Wonderboy seems like a pretty darn good option. And me, it's a fresh matchup, interesting stylistically. And what a story that would be if Stephen Thompson could become a world champion in 2021.

That'd be wild. Of course, he would have a big test in front of him with Kamar Usman, just a dominant welterweight dominant champion. We'll see what happens here. But welterweight, after having a pretty slow 2020, in terms of storylines, it's getting a little more interesting with each passing day. So I'm excited for that. And the women's flyweight division in the UFC got very interesting in 2020.

Continues to get more interesting. And thus far in 2021, we're seeing some prospects shine, just like Casey O'Neill, who had herself a night and a half at UFC Vegas 19 this past Saturday. Let us check in with her right now for the first time on what the heck. You know, people talk about the importance of first impressions. And my next guest made a big one this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 19. She stopped Shauna Dobson in the second round of her UFC debut. King Casey O'Neill joins us fresh off her victory.

How are you, Casey? I'm good. Never been better. So feeling real good after that fight. I would say so. Congratulations on the win. It's been less than 48 hours since the fight happened as we record right now. Has it like sunk in what you just accomplished on Saturday night?

Thanks so, you know. So obviously like. I don't know if people talk about this, but like your first UFC fight, nobody told me before it, but you don't realize how sort of blacked out you become, you know? So, like, I think instincts took over from the fight, and I don't even really remember the fight that much, to be honest. So I'm still sort of like piecing it back together in my head, and it's sinking in slowly. But, yeah. Is this just, is this like the first time that's happened to you?

Has that happened at other points in your career? Never. So yeah, this is the first time that I sort of like, I went out there and I was standing in the cage and I felt like cold and like nervous and I never feel nervous. And I was like, oh God. And then maybe two minutes then I started to feel a bit more like myself. But I don't really remember anything. I remember like bits and pieces. It's coming back to me. But yeah. Do you remember the actual like walk to the octagon itself? I remember it. But it's sort of like. an outer body experience, if you understand what I mean, you know? Like it was, I guess I was just like, I can't believe this is happening. I've waited like a long time to make that walk. And obviously, it was my dream for a long time. And then it was happening. So it was very surreal. Did it sort of live up to the expectations that you set for that walk? Because, you know,

it's different for, you know, a 23 year old who's 5 and O making that walk compared to like a 16 and 5 fighters in their 30s. So like obviously you weren't doing it in front of a crowd. I know you're very close to your parents. You wanted to share that moment with them and they weren't there. Was it a little weird making the walk in front of like very few people and not having your parents in the crowd? Yeah, it was an experience for sure. Like I guess that I had sort of always envisioned making that walk like in front of a big crowd in Australia or something like that. you know so that's how I'd always imagined it going but obviously with COVID there's not many

people there so I kind of like knew what to expect but then didn't in a way I would have liked to have had a crowd there because I feel like I would have been able to show my personality more I was sort of a little bit like reserved because there was nobody there to sort of be boisterous for so I didn't get to I'm sure like much of my personality, unfortunately, but I guess there's always next time. There you go. A lot of, what's interesting about you is like a lot of 23-year-olds who aren't even, like, and you're a professional fighter, it's not easy to be a professional fighter for a number of reasons, but a lot of 23-year-olds who aren't as traveled as you are, they struggle to, to like make ends meet and put things together. You go from Scotland to Australia to Thailand to Vegas, all different places to like build this big network around you and you're doing it

essentially by yourself, were there a lot of days where things were kind of getting rough on you during this sort of rise? Like maybe the bank account was dwindling. There's a pandemic going on, shutting out events around the world. Where there are like a fair amount of struggles along the way to get to this point? Yeah, I mean, I would say probably the past three years straight has been a struggle. So obviously, like you said, moving around. a lot and just making it work for myself. And Thailand's a relatively cheap country, which is something that helped me. And obviously winning the scholarship with Tiger Mouintai, they helped me out a lot financially

as well. But definitely once I got to Vegas, I wasn't already signed when I got to Vegas. I was still trying to get signed. So that was a shock to the bank account for sure as soon as I got to America and had to start paying regular prices for things again. And I was like, you need to make this happen. Like, now get yourself there because you're running out of money. And thankfully, I did a couple weeks later.

I ended up signed and I made it work. Yeah, it's got to make you feel like, you know, the sacrifices you made, the struggles you've had, they paid off for you. I mean, you had to have felt pretty good. The timing was probably perfect for you. Yeah, I mean, I'm a strong believer in everything happening when it's meant to happen. So I never stressed the fact that it hadn't happened for me yet, per se. But obviously, I was starting to get stressful in a way because I was like, well, then maybe you need to find another fight.

You need to fight for someone else. You need to make some money or you maybe need to go somewhere else. But yeah, I've always been able to make it work for myself, though I think I strive in uncomfortable situations, especially like being young and moving around by yourself. you really have to learn how to sort of depend on yourself. So no matter what, when the bank account was running low or the motivation was running low, I can always pull myself out of it and make something happen.

Life experience is a lot. You bank that life experience and the fights get a little bit easier. So before the fight happens, Chas Skelly and Jamal Emmer's were supposed to get after it. And Chas Skelly's in the octagon and we find out that Jamal Emers has back spasm, backstage and he's not going to be able to fight. So what was happening when you found out that, hey, you're going to head out there a little earlier than you anticipated? Yeah, so that was so weird for like that.

That's obviously a first time in the USC that's ever happened. But for me, even that was like so strange. So they come out of the back and they tell me that one opponent's in the octagon and one's not going to make the walk or it looks like they're not going to make the walk. So I could be up in 20 or I could be up in 10. So just be ready. So the pressure. my first UFC fight and then added pressure of oh my god I'm like am i walking now am i walking then

and then that's like starting to like make me nervous i guess and yeah then eventually his opponent didn't make the walk so they're like five minutes and we had to go and yeah luckily i was already warm actually like that wasn't the first weird thing of the night so that other fight fell off the louise penny fight and that was meant to be in between me and my teammate who had the same corner Julina Rosa. So my team found out about that and they're running between the change rooms to warm both of us up at the same time. So yeah, it was all a bit up in the air and everything was a bit crazy. And, you know, for my first experience, I think that all the craziness sort of just added to it and it ended up being even better after one because everything was done and relaxed.

What's more taxing on you? The anticipation for the fight or the fight itself? Because putting pen to paper on a fight in like November for a fight like in February, you know, you're in the UFC but the fight isn't for like another three or four months. Does the anticipation levels like just getting to the fight sort of exceed the actual fight itself for you? Yeah, 100%. So I'm a real mental fighter and I'm a chronic over trainer. Any coach that I've ever had in my life will tell you that.

So I found out about the fight in November and I put myself in fight camps straight away. I was like dieting and training three times a day and everything. So the body was getting broken down and the mind was like racing. Obviously wanting to make good first impression of my first UFC fight was my biggest goal. So knowing about the fight for as long as I did was almost detrimental. So yeah, the fight itself is always the easiest part for me. Every fight that I've had, it's sort of like, once I'm in there, I know that, like, I can mix it up and I'll be okay no matter what happens. But getting there, I'm very in my head.

And like I said, I manifest a lot of stuff. And I meditate, like, try and make things happen in my mind before they happen. So I spend a lot of time in my head. So knowing about the fight for a long time and it meaning so much to me definitely took its toll. and that was the main relief after the fight, not even the win, like the fact that the first one was done was the main relief. So when they come in and tell you,

hey, you're fighting earlier, you're probably like, let's go. Let's get this team rolling. I was like, yes, 10 minutes is good, actually, because 20 minutes, my heart might explode. The fight was, it started off the way I expected it to. You and Shauna just exchanged big shots early. She's a very aggressive starter anyways,

which is something I'm sure you were prepared. for when she hit you the first time. Did it feel like any difference to your pre-UFC fights or is that like the wake-up call you needed? Definitely the wake-up call I needed. I had obviously watched tape of her and I knew she started hard and aggressive. So I was like, I'm going to start more hard and more aggressive. And that's sort of what happened there.

Like it was like a little like tumbleweed of us two at the first like 10 seconds. And when she hit me like the first thing that went through my head was like, fuck yeah. Oh, sorry, my phone list is here. But I was like, yeah, let's go. Like, I'm awake now. I'm moving my head. That, like, sort of woke me up for sure. I was a bit stuck in the mud.

But I ate that one and my head came back and I was like, I'm ready to go. There you go. And by the way, you could say whatever you want here. This is the internet. The internet's a beautiful place. So you get your take down. You get to side control. She was able to get up, but you spent the rest of the wrong controlling her.

You negated her. You know, everything she tried to do, you had an answer for it. How confident were you feeling? heading to the stool after the first round because something tells me, like you weren't overly thrilled with a lot of that round, like you were winning a lot of it, but something tells me you weren't, I guess,

completely satisfied with the first five minutes of that fight. Yeah, so like I said, mental fight are a very big perfectionist. I'm not happy with the whole fight, to be honest. I feel like I rushed a lot. Like I said, I came out hard and aggressive to try and match her, and then I sort of never slowed it down on the ground the way I usually do. I let her reverse position too many times

and stand up too many times for my own liking. So I'm standing in the corner between the first and the second. I'm like, you get her down and she doesn't get back up. Like that was the only thing that I was thinking in my head. And my coaches had the same idea. You know, Coach Casey, who's my grappling coach, he's like, slow it down, position, then damage. So I think I did a better job of that in the second round.

The first round, I just sort of went balls to the wall and, you know, was moving around like crazy. And second round, I slowed it down and just tried to damage her. Yeah, you had her in all kinds of trouble, mounted her, elbows, punches, just landing over and over again. Finally, Chris Tione steps in and stops the fight. What is going through your mind when the fight is stopped and that first win is in the books? Yeah, like that was probably the best moment of my life so far, you know. I couldn't hold back the emotions. I cried on live TV, which I didn't want to do, but it just happened.

Yeah, it was relief. It was like shock almost, you know? Like I said, I was blacked out for a lot of the fight. So like I sort of came back to it and was like, oh my God, I just did it. And yeah, just thrill and disappointment that my family wasn't there, I guess, a little bit as well. But there was a lot of emotions rushing through me at that point. Did they watch it live? I'm sure they did, but did you get a chance to talk to them,

maybe FaceTime them after the fight? What was that conversation like? Yeah, I called them both. My mom was a blubbering mess the way she always is, just crying and losing her shit. And my dad was obviously super stalked. So my mom is probably my biggest supporter, but my dad has wanted this for me as much as I want it for myself.

Like since I started fighting, he made a lot of sacrifices before. I could drive. He used to drive me 45 minutes to the gym from where we lived pretty much every night. And if he didn't drive me there, he drove me home after I got three trains myself to go there, you know, when I was too young to drive. So it meant a lot for them as well to see me, like, to do this, you know, especially moving away from them a couple years ago. That was a big decision for me. Like you said, I'm super close to them. So it was like a big hard decision to move away. and I knew that it was the best step for my career at the time.

And obviously they missed me a lot when I'm not there. So them seeing that it finally paid off and that I made it happen for myself, they were just like very proud of me. That's great. I know I know you're black, you were like blacked out for most of the fight. But like the final stretch, you're landing these shots and Chris Tione is warning you about the back of the head.

And I know like you're in these moments. Like you're not trying. to punch anybody in the back of the head, obviously. But when you have, like, one person on offense like you're at, the other person is trying to desperately get out of this bad position. Sometimes the movements between the two of you just don't always intertwine the right way. So, again, you're kind of blacked out.

I don't even know if you remember the stretch of the fight. But when he's warning you about the back of the head, does that, like, throw you off your rhythm at all, like especially on the mental side of things? Because you don't want to lose a point in your first UFC fight, right? Yeah. So I do remember that part. And I do remember thinking when he was a lot. like, watch the back of the head. I was like, well, she keeps moving her head. Like, it's not my fault.

I remember thinking that, but it does throw you off your game. That was like the first time I've ever been warned about hitting someone in the back of the head. So I was like, obviously landing shots and he'd be like, watch the back of the head and you'd almost like take a second to like adjust and be like trying not to hit the back of the head. So that gave her an extra couple of seconds, I think. Because when I was on the back at that first bit and I was landing the elbows, I was like I was very blacked out at that point. Like I was just going for it. And then he's like, watch the back of the head.

And I'm like, where? Where's the back of the head? So, yeah. Did you watch any of the earlier fights before you fought? Yeah, I watched the, I think it was the second one, the knockout, Amon Zahabee, whilst I was in the back. And then I sort of was warming up for the rest of them. But that's the only one I caught.

Okay. So you didn't see the Sergei Speedback fight earlier on? No, I didn't. I don't watch that fight. So Chris Tione was the referee for that fight as well. And listen, I will say this. Chris Tionni and any referee, that is a difficult job. That is why I'm not a referee because I don't need that headache.

I don't need that. Very few times you get praise as a referee. But when you make a mistake, man, oh man, the people are all over you in the Spivak fight. Chris Tioni just let Spivak just punish poor Jared Vandera for like 30 shots too many. And people were just screaming for this fight to stop. It seems like your fight with Shana, we're getting to that line. Like it could have been stopped a little bit sooner. What did you think of the stoppage?

I mean, I like that it went a little bit longer because I like hitting people. So I got a little bit more time to hit her. But yeah, I don't know. I feel like my one was good timing, to be honest. I've watched back the fight a couple times and a couple of the strikes that I was throwing because I was in such a high mind. She had her elbows up and I was just smashing elbow to elbow. so I think he could see that

and he definitely stopped it at a good time though because I wasn't she wasn't moving like once I got to that man in the second round but I'll have to watch back the other fight to decide what I think on that yeah you'll yeah I think you'll agree with me on the other fight was it weird watching it back like seeing yourself in the octagon

yeah so weird like I've watched it maybe three times now and even just like it still doesn't feel real that I did that like you know so I think that it's going to take a couple. I've got quite a few friends who were already in the UFC and they were telling me, they were like warning me a little bit

about the fact that the first four sort of are like out-of-body experiences. You need to get that like get your feet wet, I guess, before you can like jump in and have a swim. So I'm excited to get the next couple out of the way so I can start remembering the fights. To share that moment with Ty Gwider, and those watching right now, he's a Bellator middleweight, very promising prospect.

He's in your corner. What was that like for you to kind of share that big moment in your life with him? It was cool, you know, so like obviously we were together for the whole fight camp and he knows how much it meant to me and everything. So to have him there and see me like actually do what I said I was going to do, I think that it was pretty cool for both of us. And now it's my turn to go and do the same for him. So I'm excited to be on that.

the things because I think it's more nerve-wracking. Like, I think my one was more nerve-wracking for him, and I'm pretty sure his will be more nerve-wracking for me. But, yeah, it was cool to have that moment together. As you probably have gotten in pretty much every post-fight interview you've ever had, we only let you soak up these wins for so long, Casey. It's on to the next one. What do we want next?

And it didn't look like you took a lot of damage in the fight. When do you want to come back and keep this train rolling? Yeah, so I had called my manager about, 20 minutes after the fight and was trying to book another fight. So hopefully we're going to like aim for the first couple of weeks of May or the end of April. So that's no, I don't want to wait any longer than me. So Mick knows that too. I've made sure that he knows that.

So we're getting back as fast as possible. My main goal this year is to have three or four fights and make an aim for myself. So I started chapter one, but I got a long way to go and I'm only just getting started. Yeah, I'm glad you said that because, I mean, when you look at like the development of your career and you're in the very capable hands of Mr. Danny Rubenstein, one of the best in the game, he's been with people who are in the position you're in right now. I assume you have very lofty goals becoming a world champion. But is getting to that point something you want to get to as quickly as possible or are you just kind of buckled in ready to enjoy this ride, enjoy this development? Because like you said, you're only 23. You're 6 and 0 as a pro. You're not even near your athletic prime yet. Yeah, I'm not in a hurry to fight for the belt. Like I've spoke about it a lot. I want to fight everyone in the division. I just want to fight all the time.

So being 23, I think that once you end up becoming the champion, you're almost like one or two fights a year at most because it's a lot harder to fight when you're the champion. But being a contender, you get to fight as many times as possible. So I'm looking to just fight as many times as I possibly can for a little while. and if that title shot comes around, obviously we won't say no, but yeah, I'm happy with a slow burn. So when you saw some of the like Kevin Holland last year fighting five times and going five and oh, you're like, that's what I want, something like that. Yeah, I've mentioned it in other interviews that that's sort of like what I want to do the same thing, you know, so just stay busy and make sure that the U.S.

you know, is that I'm always an option to fight, so they know to call me when they need someone to jump in. I'm sure you don't care who's in the other side of the contract, but I do have to ask, is there anybody that you kind of have your sights set on? Anybody sort of stick out to you for the sophomore appearance? No, I mean, not anybody per name per se, but definitely since I fought Shannon, and she already had four fights in the UFC. I don't want to, like, fight a newcomer or anything. I want to keep fighting people that have been in the UFC as well and test myself against, like,

better and better competition. I think that's one of the most important things to me is to fight somebody better each time that I fight so that I can try and improve myself. Fighting somebody who's tough is the biggest motivation for me in fight camp as well to train harder and become better, good enough to beat them. So, yeah. By the way, were you bummed? You didn't get a bonus?

Or did you kind of understand it? So bummed. I was like, come on. I like talked about the fact that I was running out of money guys you could give me a real top of cash. I mean there's some stiff competition there. It was. Once I started seeing the amount of finishes on the card, I kind of knew that I was like,

oh, I guess I'm not getting one. But hey, like Derek Lewis was getting paid like $300,000. I'm getting paid a lot less than that. You could be giving me that $50K. I could use it. Yeah, I mean, that knockout was brutal. Like a lot of times I'm waiting. you?

Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah, that was a problem. But even Juliana Rosa, like flying knees, I know the stoppage was kind of questionable. There were, you know what I mean? Yeah. The best part is, so obviously we're teammates. And I caught, like I said, I called my fight.

I was going to finish in the second round. I'd been speaking about it because I had that dream a couple of times the night before. And then actually that night, Julian was like, I'm just going to skip knee and get the fuck out of there. So, like, he called his own fight too. I just thought that was so cool. We have like this little psychic bubble going on, obviously, because both of us called our finishes. So that was awesome.

Well, I mean, but the resurgence that guy is having. It's just, it's inspiring. It really is. I mean, third sit in the UFC. He's finally got, and he's, like, he's not just beating, like, fighters in the, he's beating, like, really good guys. Like, Sean Woodson's no joke. Nate Landwehr's no joke. And he goes in there and gets two big finishes.

How inspiring is that being around somebody like Julian who's been there, done that? and it's finally starting to put it together in this third trip to the UFC. Yeah, I'm super stoked for him, you know. So he's obviously not had a super easy run, but he works so hard. He's in the gym so much, you know, like training. And you can see it in the gym how good he is, like the way he trains and like the way he handles people in the gym. And now he's finally like put it together in the big stage and obviously on a two-fight win streak. And I think that he's just going to continue to do bigger and bigger things.

and he's massive for his weight division. So that also is something that people go to look out for. You know his reach and his legs on the ground and his jiu-jitsu. So yeah, he's going big places. Big night, big performance for Casey O'Neill this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 19. I like the fact that she just wants to stay active, log in that octagon time, but she's in no rush to get to the belt. She's got the right attitude.

She's only getting better. And I really think the UFC certainly could have something here with Casey O'Neill, especially if she has performances like that. We will see what is next for her. As we move ahead to our next guest, the Mullet is coming back. And Ricky Simone is back on what the heck as well? Here he is right now. All right, let us say hello to Ricky Simone, another victory under his belt at UFC 258 this past Saturday. This time he earns a unanimous decision over an always game, Brian Kelleher.

Team Mullet defeats Team Crystal in the apex. Ricky, how are you, man? I'm doing good, the moll starting to flow again, so almost back in business. There you go, yeah, because, you know, you broke a lot of hearts when you got rid of the mullet last year, and now it's starting to come back. So this is like a full-on thing, or did you just cut it just for the fight? Oh, no, I got on a good winning streak again and just started popping back up, so it has a mind of its own, so I'm sure by the next one it would be even, it would be a,

even more flowy. All right. So we're full on committed to bringing this mullet back for the people. As long as I keep winning. I get a lot of fans. Even when I was out in Abu Dhabi

and they allowed a little bit of a crowd, people were chanting for the mullet. So I was like, day, even out here. So yeah, I got to bring it back for the fans. What was that like, man? I mean, it's, it's been, it seemed like it's been forever since fighters got to fight in front of a live audience.

And you got to experience that. What was that like for you compared to like your last couple of fights? It felt right. That's how it's supposed to be. You know, we get to this point, especially walking, like my first few fights, walking out for the UFC especially, that was like my favorite part. It's crazy. You get to a point, you know, we fighting, you know, on the come-ups not easy at all. You know, we're fighting in front of, you know, nobody inside of a bar sometimes. So when you finally get to the point where you're walking out in front of thousands of fans

and a sold-out arena, you know, that's a good feeling. and so that's how it's meant to be you know we like to put on a show it's entertainment we're out there beating the crowd out of each other let's hear let's hear some fans let's get them back in there yeah it was kind of I remember like at first when the fights are going on I was just like eh you know we don't we don't hear the woo's anymore

I'm like this isn't so bad and now like once the Holloway cater card happened like three days before yours I was like man we I miss the fans so much makes such a big difference right yeah yeah it's it's meant to be in front of you know a lot of eyes and, you know, and a lot of times we feed off those reactions, too, so it's fun for us.

Well, you're going to have a lot more fans, not of the Mullets coming back, that's for sure. But congratulations, that a great win on Saturday, man. I mean, this fight with Kelleher, it seemed like you guys are circling each other for so long now. How happy are you not just, not just to get the win, but to kind of move on from something else, as fun as it probably was with Kelleher through these last several months. Yeah, no, it does feel good to kind of get past that just because we have a and John for so long, you know. So I felt like I kept doing the same camp over and over again,

getting ready for that fight. So I was definitely ready for a little bit of a switchup. So this is two wins and less than a month. It's a position you've been in before. It's like right before your UFC debut, I believe the last time that happened to you. And while it's not the most ideal situation in the world, in today's UFC,

we saw what that kind of activity did for Kelleher last year for guys like Kevin Holland, keeps you fresh in everybody's mind having dominant wins you know these types of things can shoot you up the ladder real quick was part of the reasoning behind bouncing back so quickly because of that or was it mostly because the let's get this Kelleher rivalry in the river mirror a little bit of both a little bit of both I think

you know one because it was a false positive both times that got the fights canceled you know in our opinions and we got retested and and there was never a double positive, you know, two in a row at least, and no one ever got sick. So part of it was getting that fight, you know, over which because I feel like I owed it to him. I know he was still ready to go. So I was like, if I can get through this fight unscathed, then, you know, I'm going to try to take that fight quick because also I had a long, I mean, that was a long layoff. A lot of fights get canceled.

I had fought like since May or something, you know, one fight in 2020. And, you know, the better, the more active I am, the better I'm going to perform and the more comfortable I'm going to be in there. So I just want to keep the ball rolling. Oh, Mike, I just realized that that was your first. So like the, the Fight Island fight, the Borg fight was the only time you fought in 2020? That was in Florida. That was the, yeah, that was the only time in 2020. And that was a 17th in Florida, I believe.

And so I went to Fight Island with Paige. I was in her corner. You know, I cornered a bunch of the apex. But I never got another fight. You know, the Kelleher fight fell off twice. And so, yeah, I mean, you know, it was kind of a boring year, one fight. That's crazy. Like, I would have, I mean, it's right there in front of me, but I didn't even think.

I was like, oh, he definitely fought three times because he always fights. Like, he's always a pretty active guy. So I didn't even think, didn't even think anything of it. I was in camp for a while. I was in training camp because I did training camp for Kelleher. That fight got canceled. I said that Alex Perez's spot with him for his two-month camp, you know, for the world title fight. And then right after that, I got back in the camp for my fight.

So it was nonstop. It was like five months straight of, you know, I was just in shape ready to go. So it felt kind of right that, you know, I got two fights out of it. You know, I put in a lot of work. So I was like, yeah, I need to make some money anyway. So let's line them up. You're like the assistant coach of the air. You coached more than you fought.

Yeah, for real. Damn. I feel like you're dissing me right now, but it's true. No, no, it's just the way that it is. Kind of going back to Saturday, I mean, the pressure you put on him was incredible throughout the fight. Like, you were just in his face. You didn't get him time to breathe. You cut him open right away.

Did anything surprise you? Did anything Brian delivered in that fight throw you off at all? Absolutely nothing. You know what's funny? I had my coach, Dylan Fossil, he watched. film on Brian and he was doing those marching forward kind of front kicks because he lands after he doesn't just snap in come back to place. He snaps it and kind of takes a step forward into the opposite position. He was throwing at it, throwing at me for two camps, getting ready for him.

And I was like every time, boom, yeah, right, it's not going to hit me. Boom. Hit me like three times in the fight though. So I mean, I knew he was going to throw that one, but he's good at it. He got me a couple times. I got to cut under my chin. I think one of his big toe probably went halfway in my neck. But, yeah, I mean, nothing, nothing he did surprise me. We were really, we were well prepared for Brian. And, you know, and we knew his best thing was a guillotine show. And in my opinion, I fought the best grappler in the division, Ronnie Yaya.

So, and I felt plenty comfortable with my awareness on my entries. And so, you know, honestly, I wasn't too worried about Brian's guillotine. How are you feeling physically since Saturday? Because, like we said, two fights in a month. Are you enjoying some R&R? more so than ever before maybe? Ah, man, it sucks, it sucks, but I thought I would want to, but I've already kind of like jump back into practice a little bit.

I had my cousin Vince, I stayed a couple days in Vegas. I just got back home. Vince was holding pads for me while I was out there, and I was hitting the PI every day, and they were taking care of me and healing me up a little bit. I've had some injuries that, you know, I've been dealing with since before my Island fight, and I had planned to stay in Vegas after. that fight and get possibly some stem cells on my shoulder and some rehab on it, but then the Keller Her fight popped up, so we postponed that. So, uh, so yeah, I mean, there's always

those little things, you know, going into the fights, but my body is, is doing much better than I would fit what I thought after two fights back to back. There you go. What did you and Brian talk about after the fight? Like, the guy's a smart businessman. He gets it. The, the Simon and Simone says stuff. Like, it's got a ring to it. You were even like, like jumping in on it towards the end there and even even after the fight you guys had a lot of fun sort of going back and forth to each other what did you guys say to each other after the fight if you don't mind me asking yeah no it's funny because uh we've been like kind of jawing back and forth for a while now online and stuff but i was always like it was always just funny to me like

i never like was mad or anything uh and i hope i mean i don't know if you felt the same way obviously i think it was a lot more joking around than anything but and i kept doing saying like you know I was a tired of seeing his bald head. Sorry, Mike. He was rubbing his head a lot, and I was, like, play with my mullet a lot and, you know, that stuff. So after the fight, it was just kind of, I just let him know, like, hey, man, I'm a big fan.

I thought he was funny online before, you know, we ever even agreed to fight. And, you know, he's definitely a better, I don't know how good of a rapper he is. He's definitely a better rapper than Woodley. But, yeah, and then he said, he said let's smoke a joint after two but we were stuck in quarantine

we weren't allowed to go anywhere after the fight so it is what it is I mean there you go friends after all of this a lot of respect there there always was with you guys it seemed like there's like a kismet between the two of you guys like eventually between you and especially Brian kind of like poking prodding in like a fun way this fight was bound to happen as soon as possibly could

Yeah, yeah, and right from the gig goes, most because he was wanting to fight up away class, and I'm a fat boy, and I was like, oh, another band-in-way at upper-way class, let's get that going. I feel like this should be happening way more. I think Brian, like, kind of like laid out the blueprint on how to do it, and I feel like it should be that way,

especially on these short notice, like turnaround fights, especially in your case. Like, this fight at 135 made absolutely no sense. Doing it 45 or 40 is fine, but even like seeing like Jim Miller and Bobby Green, That fight was booked really quickly, and it was at 55. I'm like, why? Why are you doing it at 55?

I suppose, I assume that you like this, you know, let's fight. If you're going to give me like a three-week camp to prepare for somebody, let's do it at 45. Yeah, definitely have a short notice. Like, I fought bored off a three-week's notice, and I asked for a catchweight or upper-weight, and I don't know if it was Borg's camp or whatever, they said no. So I was pretty pissed about that. And so, yeah, I feel like if it's a shorter notice, we should get, you know, at least a catch weight. But they don't seem to really seem to like to do catch weights because right after the fight, they asked me if I wanted this one.

And I said, yeah, but can we do it a catch weight? And they said, I know we can do it up a weight class, but we don't want to do it a catch weight. So I was like, yeah, more food for you. Yeah, it wasn't too bad. I mean, stayed on the diet and kept the weight low. So I'm, you know, and I got to eat a little bit more on five weeks. So that was, it was kind of nice. I felt a little too spoiled, feel a little guilty all week.

There you go. So now you got this, this back-to-back, this two-for-done. You said when speaking in the media after the fight, I deserve a top 15 guy. That's what, that's what I should get next. You feel as if you've earned that opportunity, it's hard to argue with that, man, especially the run you've been on and winning back-to-back fights like this.

Who sticks out to you right now that makes sense? Like, is there anybody that's on your radar that's in the top 15? Well, there's obviously I want there's several fights that I want I mean I've I've only lost to your eye favor and then now I think he's what's falling like number three in the world you know and now's a super close fight Sometimes I watched that fight and I think I won sometimes I watched that fight I think he won you know so I think that was a super close fight and and he's number three in the world and I'm kind of beating everyone outside the rankings right now that they're putting up against me and And some guys I beat are arranged right now, you know You know, so I think I deserve a ranked opponent unless they want to just keep paying me this money to beat up these guys that aren't bringing the attention to the fight. I mean, I think I would really like the Sunsouth fight maybe towards the beginning of the summer.

I think that fight would make sense. And I don't know if this fight makes as much sense, but I know Frank Edgar is probably going to take some time off and heal up. and when he's ready, maybe early summer or around then, if he wants to get going, I think that would be a good one too. I'll have you know, Ricky, that myself and a colleague of mine, Mr. Alex Cayley, we host a matchmaking show the day after these cards. And we get a lot of input from the fans to, like, kind of chime in what they think makes sense for matchmaking. There's a lot of support for Ricky Simone versus Frankie Edgar.

People like that idea. Wow. You know, I was on Pott Island. last summer when him and Pedro fell out and I was I was game I told I told him put me in I know I probably doesn't make he doesn't make sense for him but I mean I'm or I was already in a fight island and I was ready to go so I thought I you know I've always looked up to Frank yet watched him fight I even stole some some of the you know some of the setups and some the stuff he does so I I mean shit I mean give me another chance out of legend you know I blew it

the first time shit give me a give me a give me a second go out I think it makes a lot of sense. What did you think watching him and Sandhagin in that fight and the way that ended? Because that was just like, you see knees like that? Like people kind of compare it to Mazadal and Ascran. And Mazadol, like, you watch the videos of him just like setting it up. Like you knew he's going to come out and throw it. But the way Sanhagen like timed that and like kind of lured him into it was just,

it was just crazy, man. It was scary to watch. What did you think of that watching it? I thought it was a beautiful knee It was beautifully timed He's so lanky for the weight class So it made it easy to pop that up like that And man it was

I probably felt the same as everybody else though Like no one liked to see Fricky get knocked out like that You know like he's one of the Seems like one of the good guys And he's a sport and he's a legend So that was a bad knockout though And it's very nice by Corey Absolutely

So if it's not like a top 15 guy, I just, I'm curious because this is like one of the ideas that I had. Let's just say like he gets back on track, UFC 260 beats Thomas Almeida. What do you thoughts on? Have you told me, O'Malley right now? You know he's not taking that fight, Mike? Amali's not taking that fight. Why? Come on.

You think O'Malley would take that fight? He fought Cheeto. I don't know. I mean, yeah, yeah, I mean, I'll just. surprised took that Cheeto fight. Like, you know, I was, you know, I was, I'm not a, I'm not a big gambler, but I saw how how much of a favorite O'Malley was, I wouldn't put some money down on my boy. I was like, oh, this is not going to be good for O'Malley.

But I just think I'm like the worst style for him, right? Someone's going to grind him out, wrestle him, make him grapple, be off his back, dropping some crazy elbows on top of him. No, he doesn't want that. So you don't see it coming, but if they offered it to you, I'm sure you're jumping all over that, right? Oh yeah, I've been wondering about it. Ask my manager how long I've been asking for that fight.

And he's like, Rick, they're not going to give it to you. Like, you can try, try all you want, but O'Malley's not taking that fight. In my opinion, Amali's not, but he could prove me wrong if. And I'm always right. Like I said, I'm already back in the gym. Today, I, you know, I'm taking a light. Went to Nogi, ran four miles. Taking a light, though, not going to do anything alive.

But I'm staying in his shape. If anything happens to Almeida, you know, I'll be ready. Oh, there you go. So, like, I think, like, Cody Stamen could be a decent option for you, just because he was supposed to fight not too long ago. His opponent, Ascar, Ascar was out. You know, Marab's still there. I know you already fought him and beat him.

So, I mean, there are top 15 options, just a matter of, like, you know, when do you want to do this? Because I think both those guys want to turn around rather quickly and get something on the books, you kind of have options right now. You can either do that or you can take your time if you want to. Yeah, I mean, I got two wins already in 2021. So I'm not in any rush right now. I'm going to do everything I can to make sure my body is where it's at,

where I can keep performing at a high level. You know, I feel I feel great. I really feel like I've put the right team around me. I've been killing it with my strength conditioning at home, killing at home with my team, American Top Team Portland. And then, you know, I've set up a great camp over in California at a team O Yama's. And I get a work with a great training conditione coach over there, great jiu-suitous coach over there. And then I got world-class athletes around me.

So, you know, I feel like I've done everything right to put the right team around me. So as long as my body stays, you know, healthy, then I'm going to be active this year. It's crazy, man. Like, I remember the first time I interviewed you were fighting for Titan FC. It was like so long. It seems like forever ago, right? And now like all these lessons we learn along the way, the contender series fights,

now we're in the UFC. And like you got two different camps figured out. You get strength and condition programs figured out in two different states. Like it's crazy to think about like how much the sport has evolved since like our first conversations, right? Yeah. Yeah.

But we got to keep up with it. You know? Yeah, it's wild. It's been kind of a crazy ride. And it took me 13. professional fights to get in. You know, I'm fighting out of all the top promotions outside the UFC, you know, not making any money, you know, so it's just like, I just enjoy every, every part of this. I, you know, I can't stop smiling in the back. You know, I'm spoiled,

all fight week. You know, I get all my food brought to me. I get all, like, this new gear, get all, you know, I feel like it's like Christmas every fight week, but, you know, so I definitely, I definitely don't take it for granted. Who do you like in the title fight, if you don't mind me asking, Jan and Sterling? A couple weeks, man. That's the, that's the, That's a fun fight to watch. It's interesting to kind of like break down. And I mean, it's a 50-50 fight. Every day I wake up and like, I'm like, oh,

I'm going to win. And then the next day I'm like, oh, I think Sterling might win. Just one of those like really interesting stylistic matchups. What kind of sticks out to you with that fight? Yeah, it's an interesting one. I'm excited for it. I think Sterling gets it done with the wrestling.

I think he's like long enough for the way class. he's going to be able to stay out of those crazy firefights that Yon likes to kind of storm in with, you know. So I think he's going to, as long as his gas tank holds up, I think Sterling should be able to take it with the wrestling. It's a fun fight, man. I can't wait. Maybe you'll get your way on that card, man.

You're on pace for like 14 fights this year. Yeah. Well, my girl set up a trip to Mexico for us next month, so she's like begging me not to take a short-outist fight. for at least next month. So, all right, there you go. All right. You got to give her that.

Trip to Mexico, take that trip, man. Good, God. The next day after we get back, I'll be competing on Chal Sun and submission underground. I'm going to be doing a tag team jihisciu match. My cousin, John Simone, will be my partner. And we're going against anybody who wants to take us on with the weight limit of 320 pounds. Damn. And I'm sure it's always that.

UFC 5 fast. Hopefully I'm messing that up. Yeah. got, wow, tag team grappling match? That is bonkers, man. I love that. You know, about, I want to say six years ago, it's been a while, but my cousin and I competed in a tag team jihisi tournament at a local show, and we took on the goal. We took on the trophy. So it's an undefeated tag team back together. So my cousin's not as fat as he was anymore. So we'll have a lower that weight limit a little bit. There you go. Anybody you got

mind for this? You know, I haven't seen too many interesting names that were been, a lot of people have been talking crap online, trying to get in on it. But I know Kiesa and Arnett threw their names in the hat. So, you know, we get a little bit of a Washington boys grudge match going on here, I guess. That's fun. I think Mike's too fat for that, though. I don't think they'll make it.

See, that would be a little Washington rivalry. I like it, man. Another very strong performance for Ricky Simone at UFC 258 over Brian Kelleher. That is a very tough out. Ricky's hoping he can get that fight with Frankie Edgar. I have to say I like that idea. No issue with it whatsoever. I know Frankie wants to get in there with top five guys and try to get to a title shot.

He had that really bad loss, the knockout to Corey Sanhagen. And hopefully he's doing better. He's feeling better. Hopefully he takes a little bit of time off. but Frankie's the kind of guy that, I mean, look at the Brian Ortega knockout. You got knocked out viciously in that fight and then was back like, what, a month later, two months later, fighting Cub Swanson. I think a fight with Ricky Simone and Frankie Edgar's is a really interesting one.

Plus, I kind of like the tag team grappling match call out with this cousin for submission underground. We'll see if there's any takers. Make sure you hit up Ricky Simone on the old Twitter if you want to take on him and his cousin, John, at submission underground. Chil P, make that happen. I'm excited to see how that all plays out. As we head to our next guest, she's got a big fight coming up in around a month's time. Back on the program, Julia Avila.

Well, it has been a minute since the raging panda was in our lives here at MFA fighting.com, and it was time to remedy that situation immediately. She returns to action March 20th against Julia Stoliaranko, a little Julia versus Julia action. Let us welcome back, the number 15th ranked Bannamweight in the world, Julia Avila. How are you? I'm doing really well. I just finished training. So I'm kind of on cloud nine and riding that high.

There you go. It's nice to you sitting still for a change. Oh, something like that. We've done interviews with you on the treadmill and like all different types of scenarios. So this is, but as always, good to see you. We have a fight on the books, which we will discuss in the moment. But other than that, coming out of a busy few months in 2020, how has 2021 been treating you thus far? 2021 has been great. I've been training with a lot of new people, working with a couple new coaches, and I'm still keeping my camp here at OMA, but I'm adding a little additional things to perpetuate that growth in my martial arts career. So it's been pretty good. The temperature or the weather has been a little off the rails here in Oklahoma, but, you know, we work around it. I've been blessed to create my own gym.

So I haven't skipped a day of training. Well, there you go. Yeah, I'm in Massachusetts, so I'm used to the snow and the ice. It's everywhere. It always is throughout the winter months. But this is obviously something that doesn't happen in Oklahoma that often, getting winter storms and getting all the snow that everybody had. Things got shut down for a little while, didn't they?

Yes, it got to negative temperatures. There were people slipping and all over the place. It was pretty atrocious for us southerners for Oklahoma and for Texas. like. Yeah, I have a cousin down there and we were talking the other day and he was like, it's funny. People like don't care in Texas. Like they just, they'll get in the trucks and they'll drive like it's sunny and 85 out. Like they'll just slip inside anywhere. And they said that there was a pile up on one of the highways like 130 something cars with some trucks and stuff. That's crazy. It's absolutely insane. But you know what? It also shows a lot of the camaraderie that that we have with

each other. Like there was a lot of people helping each other out. I actually helped out shovel out some snow for some of my neighbors and, you know, we just banded together. So it really brings us together in these trying times. Absolutely. I could not agree more. So we last saw you compete in September. It was a crazy road to get to that fight with Sajara-U-Banks. You were slotted in there to fight Nika Montanio three different times after like four or five different dates with Carol Rosa didn't work out. And then after the October date falls out, you jump at the opportunity to fight Sajara a few weeks earlier and unfortunately did not go your way. What did you take away from that fight, the decision to push things up a few weeks and

sharing the octagon with Sajara? So I was a little apprehensive. I think with a full camp, I would have had the upper hand in that bout. But, you know, no qualms with it. Like props to her. She did great. She was amazing. but like

I didn't prep and I went that entire week a cut week I was thinking to myself she's not going to shoot on me she's not going to shoot on me she wants to bang

she wants to stand and bang and she shot on me and took me down almost at will so I just didn't have the right game plan I wasn't in the right headspace

I actually came out with an injury that I'd been dealing with for since that fight and I learned a lot about my body, a lot about my body mechanics, and I'm really hoping, like I said, I've been working on my growth as martial artist, and I'm really looking forward to my fight against Julia. So that fight against Sarge, she's a great fighter. She's going to be in the top 10, I'm sure, by the end of the year. And I look forward to seeing her again, if not for a title fight, then somewhere along the way. It was an interesting first round of that fight because you hit her with some big shots. You brought her into those flurries that people know you for.

And she was able to come through it all. She used her wrestling, like you said, the ground control. And unfortunately, despite your best efforts, you weren't able to get back up. And it certainly sucks to lose a fight. But like you said, the beautiful thing about MMA and martial arts and the sport is you can always take something away. You can always learn and always evolve. How important do you think that fight will be like in your overall story? I think it will set the stage for me to show my growth.

I almost guarantee that you'll never catch me on my back ever again. I know how to defend it on that. But it's just I went in there thinking I could muscle things, and I'm at the level now where I can't just relax. lie on that. And especially my injury, like, I move. I mean, I can push grown men, little baby elephants off of me.

And I couldn't do anything because of my injury. And it was, it was very frustrating. I did rock her a couple of times. There were a couple of times where she was like, weep a wobble. And I was like, all right, I got this. And she would just shoot in for that

takedown and got me down every time. And it was a beautiful game plan on her end. And I just didn't have an answer for it. Can you, what's that? Can you talk about the injury? Yeah, yeah. It was my lower back.

I had, my hips are just, like, crooked, and they wouldn't set back. And so I had a searing pain that I couldn't bridge up. There was never any point where I could get my feet underneath me to bridge up because there was so much pain there. So whenever she was on top of me, I would just try to pull guard or get underneath her. and I had a holder there. Yeah, there was almost no bridges because it's just hurt. Now I'm like a hula dancer.

I can move my hip left and right. There you go. Did you have to, was it just like something you could do in the gym, strength and conditioning, any kind of like rehab? Like what kinds of things did you have to do? A lot of physical therapy. Oh gosh. So much rehab.

And I started back from Ground Zero. with my strength training and just my movements in general. Luckily, I didn't have to have any surgery or anything, but it just, it was pretty rough. Well, I'm glad you're feeling better. I mean, obviously the injury, the fight didn't slow you down at all because in classic Julia Avila fashion, you were back on the treadmill logging miles the day after the fight.

There's like no rest for you ever, is there, Julia? No, I don't like to, and I think that that's probably my downfall. I don't let my body recover. When I had surgery on my thumb, after I broke it, I was like, all right, well, I can squat with a safety bar. Just, right? Like, have it here. I can figure out how to do a curl, just, like, latch it onto my wrist. Oh, you're something else.

It takes a certain kind of man to love me. So I'm very thankful for my team and my husband to be able to put up with, my crazy antics. Well, that's what we love about you, Julia. And what I thought was really awesome about that whole thing is that, you know, one thing fighters learn in this sport, and I've talked to fighters for years about this, is that, like, in a win, everyone wants to be along for the ride. But when you lose, you kind of find out who the real ones are.

And it warmed my heart to see this big crew of folks waiting for you in Oklahoma City when you arrived home after that fight with Chajara. Like, that has to mean the world to you. I'm going to cry talking about this. Gosh, I'm such a softie. Just punch me in the face. So I was overwhelmed, but the people, my teammates that showed up, there's this little boy, Parker. He's actually an MMA fighter.

He's 12 years old. I train with him all the time. He's so fun. He won a couple medals for his jiu-jitsu tournament, and he said, you're still a champion to me, and he gave me his medal. Oh, that is amazing. That was sweet and completely unprompted. His parents didn't tell him to do it.

He just thought, he's like, I think she needs this. And so, gosh, he's just a great kid. And all of my teammates, just amazing, amazing people. And all of my family, like, I have really good hardcore fans, and I love them, each and every one of them. I'm sorry. that's so cool 12 years old this kid's gonna is this a kid we gotta keep an eye on moving forward into the future he trains hard and is more consistent than some of the pros that I know

and he just like comes in spars I mean he's as tall as I am maybe a little taller um a buck 35 soaking wet but like he just comes in a smile on his face the whole time and I'm just like Parker You're just, his name is Baby Hulk. So keep an eye out. Keep an eye out for Baby Hulk, everybody. But that's amazing. But now you got yourself a fun little scrap with Julia Stoliarenko, who was part of one of the greatest women's MMA fights I ever seen last year with Lisa Verzoza.

I mean, that fight got a lot of love during the end of the year award season, but didn't get enough love, if we're being honest. But I'm sure knowing you, you watched that fight. What did you think of it? I watched it live. I thought these girls were amazing, so tough. And oh my gosh, the grit in both of them. It was beautiful.

It was absolutely beautiful. And I just, for five rounds, they went. And I could have seen it gone either way. I mean, geez, that was a blood bath. And it was, I would say arguably definitely the best Invicta fight last year. five for the year of 2020. Absolutely. Yeah.

And then the next day we got Yohanna and Zhang Wei Li. So like that weekend, we got two of the best fights ever. Yeah. Yeah. That's the one that resonates in my head. That one was the best fight of the year for sure. Yeah. I went off my fight in, but only because I beat out the guys.

Yeah. That was an insane fight. And I'm telling everybody watching right now, if you have not watched that fight, go into UFC Fight Pass and find it because it's so freaking good. And back in the seconds of your time. Yeah, absolutely. It's tremendous. I mean, it's just, it's such a wild fight.

And that fight obviously got her back in the UFC, had the short notice fight with Yana Kuditskaya. She lost a decision. But as we saw this past Saturday, Yana beat Kailen Vieira, dropped those elbows on her in the last 30 seconds, busted her open, got a big win. And you love a good scrap as much as, anybody, Julia. How excited were you to see Stoliarenko's name on the other side of that contract? I was so excited. I know that she's going to come in tough. I know I'm not going to be able to finish her, but I want to get a stoppage, right? Because she's not going to tap and she's not going to

give up. And I know I'm not going to get a knockout. But I want it to be so bloody and brutal that I want the ref to stop it. So I'm really looking forward to it. We're going to fight for our namesake or our name rights. You know, I'm looking for the arm bars. I'm looking for the elbows. I'm excited. You know, I got a beat on her. Yeah, March is a good month for fight of the year contenders, as we saw last year.

So maybe we can strike lightning in a bottle again in 2021, Julia. Woo! I mean, you would have to think that she's going to stand there and trade with you at times. But, you know, like we saw in the last fight, she might rely on her wrestling based on the fight with are and I assume you will welcome that challenge with open arms. Oh, yeah. Now that I've worked on my wrestling a little bit more and done strict wrestling, I can implement it into my game and get an advantageous position and work around that.

My strength has always been one of my benefits, one of my stronger suits. So I'll be able to implement that as well. I'm really looking forward to the scrap. I'm really looking forward to testing myself against someone who, you know, has eight arm bar finishes. And I see how it plays out. There you go. So what other change, like who else are you working with? You said you've influenced some new coaches, some, you're keeping kind of the core group,

but you're just adding some pieces to the table. What sorts of pieces have you added specifically? What coaches are you working with, et cetera? So I train jiu-jitsu all the time with my, home gym here at Oklahoma Martial Arts Academy, but I've also been training strict Muay with Killer Bees kickboxing that's here locally with Mike Girot. I've been working some strict wrestling with, you know, wrestling shoes, the whole get-up and everything with my buddy, Logan, Boehner, and just my strength training with my husband and working a lot of implementing all

of it together. My, another one of my jiu-jitsu purchase. He's more of a no-gey sombo catch wrestling. He's been showing me some dirty-ass stuff. So if I win with a Frank or a Boston crab, like it'll be from Bill Lee over here. Yeah, he's dirty. I'm going to win with a wrist lock. Oh, man. So there's a chance we could see Julia Avila get a win via Boston Crab inside the Octagon.

a story that would be it's that's a lock for submission of the year i mean yeah i'm not gonna it's it's all it's all fair it's all fair and love and more yeah i mean if opportunity presents itself you're not gonna say no exactly so we're expecting some sort of stoppage a very bloody crazy gritty stoppage here to kind of put you in this to take this next step forward here in 2021 what kinds of goals have you set for the raging panda in 2021. I mean, it starts with the Pandolorean March 20th. We saw that on Instagram. It's brilliant.

But if we're having this conversation in December, what are we talking about here? Well, I would love to make my way up the ranks. I know that my loss has set me back, but I'm looking to redeem myself. And I think with a stoppage or a definitive win, I think that would put me up the ranks a little bit. I would love to fight two more times this year. I think that's a little bit more responsible with a good camp and good breaks. And then I know I said last year that I wanted to make 2020 and 2021 make a run for the belt. Depending on the outcomes of the fights that I would like to have and see this year, it would put me on that path. Definitely, that's the ultimate goal,

otherwise why do this right um but you know uh just make my way up the ranks and uh try to solidify a name for myself in uh among women's mma and among my peers you know i i i want to earn their respect and i don't want to do it just from being a one trick pony yeah i mean this it's and you're on a pretty fun card i mean dark brunson versus kevin holland is the main event should be a fun night of action. Oh, I did want to ask you this. I mean, if anybody watches the fight cards and follows you on social media, you are live tweeting your way throughout all of these cards. We see your tweets in the broadcast all the time. You're offering some insight. You're showing your unique excitement, so to speak, for these fights. Do you think maybe sometime down the road, like,

I think it would be a very interesting thing to have you on the desk one of these times during these broadcasts. Is that something like you'd like to be a part of down the road, maybe get an opportunity, be in the booth, be on the desk, and start breaking down some. fights? Oh my gosh. I would absolutely love that. I do feel like I do have an analytical eye and I can break down fighters and their approach or I see things a little bit differently, especially with women fighters. So if we had a heavy dominant dominated women's card, then I think I would provide some really good insight on that. But, you know, that's neither here nor there. I would love the opportunity and I would jump at it. But fighting.

is my priority right now. And so I actually, I don't have a job anymore. I'm a full-time athlete. So, yeah, I was let go for my job due to downsizing corona and everything. So I've been focusing 100% everything goes into my career. So losing your job is not a good thing, but in terms of like where you want to go, is this kind of a blessing in disguise, would you say? Oh, definitely, and it's not even in disguise. I would prefer that I be chosen over someone who has a family that they have to support. So I definitely saw the benefits in it. And there's absolutely no ill feelings towards the company. I loved and I served and I appreciated my job for six years. And it was wonderful. I had a great run. But now I, this is a blessing. And it's not even a disguise. Like I was able to recover.

and focus on my recovery with my back injury and now I train full time. So it's pretty awesome, really. Pretty important question here. We only see like the top of the panda head. Let's see the shirt here. Let's see the shirt and where can we get these shirts? Check it out. That's amazing.

So this is actually the panda that I have tattooed on my thigh. for the majority of the shirts that we put out, I like to use that because I like my fans. When they buy the shirt, I want them to have a part of me with them. So I like to use that panda for the logos. But yeah, we actually have another commemorative shirt that's coming out and it says competitive snuggler. Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Where do we get these?

Where do we get these shirts? I'm sure the competitive snuggler shirt will be a top seller. Yes, you can check it out on my Instagram. I have a link on there, and I'll be posting sales for it. They're pretty affordable. They're, I think, $25 and then $30 with shipping. You can find me at Raging Panda MMA on all social media platforms. So it's pretty easy.

Are you still pumping out masks? No. Gosh, well, with all the snow. and everything. Like, people have just been staying indoors, and no one's really concerned about that for the past week. But, I mean, no one's been asking for masks, but I would gladly make them if anyone asked.

Well, there you go. You are just an amazing person, Julia. We love having these conversations. You are the raging panda, but you've got a heart of gold on top of that. So there's some rage in the cage, but outside of it, you're like a saint. And we appreciate your time very much. All the best of you for the rest of you.

rest of camp and in the fight on March 20th. Really looking forward to this one, Julia. Thank you, Mike. Me too. You guys are going to see a brand new panda, but I'm still going to rage just as hard. How can you not like her? She's just so fun, so uniquely herself. And it's just, again, it's a breath of fresh air.

And I feel like, and I've been saying this for a little while now, if she can run off a few wins and go on a nice run, she could be a star in this division. I really think that. Hopefully she can win some fights and stay active for that to happen, but she's got a really tough fight ahead of her on March 20 with Julia Stolioranko. I think that's a low-key banger. I'm really excited for that one, 15 minutes. That's going to be a wild one.

We do have one more interview coming up to wrap up the program, but before we get there, we're going to kind of close up the segmented part of the show. The usual thank you, so to speak, for checking out the program. Big thank you to all of you, whether it's in video or audio forum on the podcast network. Make sure you subscribe wherever. All that good stuff. Tell a friend what we're doing. That would be wonderful. Thank you very much for all that.

So big thanks to all of you. Big shout to Casey Liden for his big, big help on the production end. Don't know what I would do without the man in the mustache. Alex Savas, Jose Young's, and the graphics and the hard work behind the scenes with the social media stuff. And of course, the fighters, the managers, everyone involved helping to make this show happen and put it all together. Big shouts to them as well for making this happen each and every week. As always, friends, have a heck of a week, everybody. We'll leave you with my chat with another big winner from UFC 258.

Was it nine days ago at this point as we record? 10 days this has been released. Chris Al-Guapo Gutierrez. See you later, everybody. Thank you for watching. All right, let us say hello to another big winner from UFC 258 this past Saturday. And in my opinion, one of the under the radar fighters in a loaded 135 pond division right now. unbeaten in his last five, just got a short-notice winner of Andre Ewell, Al Guapo himself.

Chris Gutierrez joins us. The victorious Chris Gutierrez. How are you, sir? What's up, man? I'm good. How are you doing? I'm doing great, man. It's great to talk to you.

It's been a minute since you and I have been able to converse like this. But first off, great performance. That third round, especially. It was a one-sided round to really put a stamp on things. I see a little bit of remnants on the face from the fight, but how does it all feel a few days later, man? It all feels good, you know. It was kind of like a surreal moment in there.

But after watching the fight a couple of times, I got to see my handiwork. But, you know, it's on to the next. So what did you think of your handiwork watching it back? I impressed myself, you know, overall. So, you know, I'm still my own biggest critic, you know. But that's okay because that just means I just want to improve and be the best at what I do. Well, there you go. Why did you impress yourself?

Because, I mean, like you said, all fighters are the same way. You are all your worst critics. You all find things you did wrong more than things you did right. It just seems to be like the common thing. But why do you feel like you impress yourself so much in this one? You know, I'll regain some demons in that fight. I'll reclaim some demons in my personal life as well. And for it to all come together on that night, you know, it just kind of,

it just shows my growth in general as a man, you know, not only as a professional athlete, but most importantly as a man, you know. And so I just felt like everything kind of came together that week and in the day of the fight. So that's why I said I was able to impress myself and, you know, I'm here now. There you go.

Yeah, it's funny because, you know, a lot of people kind of overlooked a lot of things, Kamara Usman had a look through too. Like obviously your situations are a little bit different, but still fighting a former teammate, trying to like mask all of that, try to like apply these things into like where they need to go. It's not, it's not very easy to do. And it's often overlooked as a fighter.

And that's something you've experienced as well. Yeah, you know, we're just humans as well. You know, we put on our pants the same way everyone else does. We don't do anything different. You know, at least though, I don't flip it to mind. So it's just it's one of those like, you know, you have so many emotions, right? And for those 15 minutes or those 30 minutes, the world is looking at you, right? and just some people are waiting for your downfall.

Some people are waiting for your, you know, your, you know, the come up, the, the, the, the, the beautiful stuff. And everyone's just focused on you on either winning or losing that no one really knows everything that's going on, you know, your personal life. And, you know, and a lot of times, man, that affects your performance. You know, that's why I just, I try to live my life outside of the gym. I try to have my personal life in control, you know, not hectic. all this drama. I try to live drama free. I mean, hell, who the hell?

Who really wants to live with drama, you know? And so I just felt like everything's coming together. There's a lot to unpack with what you just said, and I want to bounce back there in a second. But just to kind of talk about the fight, like I spoke to Andre, I think it was Tuesday of last week, and he told me that the UFC's original plan was to rebook the fight between him and Cody Stamen for this event.

Stamen elected to stay on the card the week before, to fight Ascar Ascar, and then he lost his opponent a few hours before. And by the time that news dropped, you were already in. Penda paper, signed, sealed and delivered for 258. Is that how you sort of remembered as well? Did you sign like the Saturday before or did you know ahead of time? No, it was a Saturday before. I found out Friday evening, like, hey, short notice fight.

I was like, cool, whatever, let's do it. And then it was like, that's against Andre. And I was like, cool, even better, you know. We didn't want to the scrap either way. So it's like, well, let's, you know, let's do it. and yeah and then i guess you know cody's uh opponent fell through and so uh he was left without with that an opponent but by that time we had already signed ours so you know it is it is yeah too late you snooze you lose right that's right so it worked out for you and then you know

obviously Andre having the fight with jonathan made that an easy yes for you and then just for like a competitive standpoint obviously a very big guy for the band and weight division He's got that long reach, very confident guy, but you're able to use those, and I'm going to say patented leg kicks of yours because this isn't like a new trend. You weren't copying Dustin Poria or anything. You've been doing this for a while now. You slowed him down. He tried to put on his poker face the best he possibly could. So I'm curious, like, were you surprised by how many of those leg kicks that he could actually take and still keep a, like a smile on his face through most of them?

You know, I respect Andre, you know. I respect him first as a man first before an athlete, but, you know, I knew he was going to be a game opponent. I know he wasn't going to be no one punch, you know, one kick, and he's going to fall and won a way out. I know he was going to be there from start to Bell, from to Interbell. So, you know, was I surprised a little bit that he could take him, but I knew, you know, I put those kicks on anybody. They're going to fill them. So, I mean, to be honest, I've put. middle weights and light heavy weights down with leg kicks.

So it's, I know how to chop trees down. That's no problem for me. One of the things that was, that was mentioned on the broadcast, and it went to commercial where I was watching it, so I don't even know if it aired, like, anywhere. Definitely didn't air where I'm from is it may have been, I don't know if it was between the first and second rounds or the second and third.

I might be wrong about that, but Mark Montoya was apparently telling you between rounds to, like, pick up the pace and throw more volume. And you respectfully told them, in essence, like, I get it. I know what you're trying to say, but the guy's waiting a counter. I just can't play into his game like that.

So rather me try to paraphrase this conversation, like what was that conversation like between you and Mark? Oh, that was funny. No, you know, you know, coaches have the best seat of the house, right? And so they can see things that you really can't see because you're so focused in tunnel vision that sometimes you're so focused that you just focus on the body and you're like, you're just reacting, right?

So you're not really thinking. You're just reacting about the same time you kind of are thinking. It's the weirdest thing ever. But, you know, your coaches obviously have the best seat. And they're like, you're like the robot in there. They're controlling you. But again, you're the one in there taking the hit.

So it's like, okay, you know, I get, you want me to throw this, but yet he's doing this. And then so together we go, okay, what do you feel that he's doing? And I'm like, oh, what, he's waiting to step in with this. and then we worked around it we're like okay we're gonna do A when he does A we're gonna do B C really quick and so we just started

I can't say exactly what it was that's a secret but it's just you know that's how we communicate you have to communicate with your corner otherwise it's like why are they there for you know just to have the best seat of the house no they they're going to do a job as well

and my coaches are the best at it and so that's why you know it's very important and it's good that we listen to them yeah and obviously it showed in that third round because the volume was up tenfold for sure. I mean, great win. You were obviously not phased by the short notice at all, considering the card, the fight, the opponent, how it all went.

Where would you rank that win in your UFC run thus far? I mean, I'm beating in life four. I believe it is. And so where does it put me? I don't know. Like I said before, that's not my job. you know, I could, I could want a ranked opponent and they'd be like, no, you're still, you know, your next fight or three fights from now or your next one could be a ranked opponent. Who knows, you know?

My job is just to win. Whoever they put in front of me, sign on the dotted line and let's go. I meant more in terms of like in your mind, like compared to the other like three wins on the streak on top of this one. Like, where would you rank this one in your mind in terms of like your UFC wins? I don't know, a really good spot, hopefully. You know, I don't, I don't really know. I would be lying. I really don't know.

I just know, you know, since my first, since my first, you know, my debut, which I lost. And so since then, I turned it around. And so, you know, I'm happy with whatever comes my way. So I'm just here to, I just got to keep winning. That's, that's the name of the game. I just got to keep winning. Yeah. you were and you talked about earlier i mean you were very you were very emotional after the win

understandably so and for those who have been falling along sort of my journey in this sport you and i have had some very deep conversations over the years as it relates to what you have gone through over the last couple of years not just with the custody battle which was mentioned on the broadcast but like some of the obstacles you've overcome individually because of this whole situation i mean you basically were at rock bottom i mean you've talked about contemplating suicide at one point and all these different signs like pointed you to keep on going. So when you like look at how far you have come from that point in your life in your career coming out that first loss in the UFC, I mean, man, you were proud of your performance on Saturday, but you got to be proud of like the overall line of work at this point. Are you not?

No. And that's, and that's, that's also I had a conversation with a friend you other day. And that's exactly what it is. You know, fighting is not, fighting is not everything about. me you know I am a fighter but that's there's more to me than just being a fighter you know and so you know I'm a human and I I feel pain just like everyone else and I think the difference is that you know like you said I was rock bottom I did you know contemplate suicide at one point you know I'm actually multiple times you know not

you can't you don't just think of something like that one day almost do it and then it just goes away no I've had you know I I I suffered from depression and all that from that, you know, and I'm still scarred for life. You know, I'll never forget that day. But I think the difference is, I want to bring awareness to it, and I want to be able to, you know, inspire and help others. You know, I feel like that's truly my calling on this earth. It's not to be a fighter, is to help others, you know, help others in any way I can.

And I think it's because of that, you know, I've been blessed to be able to compete with some of the greatest athletes, you know. And so that's, I generally feel good when I say that. I feel like that's my purpose is to help. I actually spoke to, to Will Brooks the other day, former Bellator champion, fought in the UFC for a little while.

You know, things haven't really gone his way. And that was like one of the big things he talked about. Like if he had just sort of known about the mental health aspect of the sport, like long before then, he might be in a different position than he's in now. He's just sort of like peeling back, those layers at this point in his life and his career and has done like such a tremendous value

to him in his life. Have you had like other fighters or other people in the sport reach out to you and get your advice and talk to you about these kinds of things? Yeah, you know, I've had people, I've had people, actually I talked to a friend yesterday that's kind of going through some stuff and, you know, I'm in the process of trying to help him a little bit. You know, I just found out about that too so you know i'm in the process of trying to help him out but um you know and i don't want to put his business out there but you know that's again that's what i feel like i'm meant to do is it's help um to answer your question um yeah you know i was um you know able to uh to turn it around you know that's good man if you don't mind me asking has there i know you're doing this

off of your son not just to help him out with light but you want to show him that especially in this crazy world right now, like anything's possible. So can I ask how how that whole situation is going right now? Like has there been any headway since we last spoke? With my son? Yeah. No, of course you can ask about it. Um, no, actually, it's been two years since I've seen them. Really? Yeah. It was supposed to get better, right? I was supposed to be with my son. I'm supposed to be seeing my son. It's two years. I haven't seen it. I haven't seen a picture. I haven't seen Anything. Oh, my God.

I remember. Yeah, because I remember the last time we spoke, it was like, I think you had to meet somewhere with, like, the X. And it was like one of those meetings where, like, every, it had to be monitored in a way. And you thought you were going to be able to overcome that. That's two years late. It's two years, huh? Yeah, two years. That, uh, I was, I was seeing my son at a library.

Yeah, two years ago. I was seeing him at a library. And it was good, man. It was good. I was. we're with each other once a week for like, what, two hours, I believe. And, you know, it sucks, right? Just two hours.

But I take that over anything. And then, you know, some circumstances happened. And for whatever reason, I don't know why. But, yeah, I lost those rights too. Lost those rights too. So then it's like we're back at square one. which, you know, I'm supposed to be at this library seeing my son. And then situations happen out of my control.

And, yeah, to be fair, me and my son almost got hit by a car. Let's just say that. Oh, my God. I wish I could bake that up, but it's not. So, yeah, I'll leave it like that. Yep, me and my son, that woman's got hit by a car. And I'll let your imagination do the rest. Okay.

Exactly. So, yeah, I was the same way. How we always get hit by car, but then I lose rights to see my son even more. That's crazy, man. So what, so like you said back to square one, does that mean you have to start this process over? Or are you like, is it like before square one now? I mean, I'm supposed to be going to a facility to see my son. But those haven't been going successful either. So, you know, something's got to give. So hopefully, you know, this Wednesday, hopefully it's actually just got news we're supposed to be able to start seeing on this Wednesday. But we'll see, you know, until he's in my arms, in my possession. You know what I mean? Until he's with me, I can have something different to say. But until then, two years, but I'm still pushing.

There you go, man. Good for you. Good for you. I'm glad you're still pushing. I'm glad you're in a good spot. And listen, when you go to Factory X and you get to hang out guys like Brandon Roy Val and Yusuf Zala, it's like having two little kids jumping all over you, right? That's exactly what it is.

That's how it is at the gym, man. This is a big family. Just the culture is so different. Everyone's so loving up there. And, you know, we're all trying to take each other's heads off at times, but it's all out of love, you know. And we keep each other accountable. So it's fun. It's a fun environment.

There you go, man. So like we sort of alluded to at the top here, and thank you for sharing that. I don't want to get any more into it. but do you feel like you're the under the radar guy at 135? Like this is such a crazy division. It's so deep with talent. And you're on this like really nice run now. Do you feel like when people are talking about like that next wave of up and coming contenders that your name's not being mentioned enough?

I don't know. I mean, I think people know who I am. I just, you know, I just in due time, you know, in due time, it'll happen. I've always been the under the radar. type person though. I've always been the underdog. Even when I've been at Champions at promotions, I've been the underdog. So it's like, I've never been that

person to never stand down until it's too late. And then, you know, we got to dance at that point. So it is what it is. You know, like I said, I'm happy to be where I'm at. And yeah, like I said, I've always

been the under the radar type person. But I think people know who I am that thing's a day. Do you want this to continue, like kind of take this underdog mentality, take this role, be the dog for as long as possible? Because eventually that that's going to go away. That's okay. And then in due time, right?

Then in due time, that means that the time is meant to be, you know. But I'm still going to be the same person. I'm still going to go into there with that underdog mentality because that's what, that's what makes me, that's what makes me who I am. That's what makes me dig the way I did. So at the end of the day, I just played my role. role and I'll play it well. Let's put DeAnalyst hat on for a moment.

If you could, Chris, got a big Bannemway title fight coming up in a couple weeks. Got Piotr Yan fighting Al Jermaine Sterling, his first title defense. I got to say, of all the title fights, like, listen, you got some big names in there, but of all the title fights that I'm just fascinated by from a competitive standpoint, this one might top the list for me. How do you see this one playing out? Like, what are you looking for at that fight? Man, that one's going to be an interesting fight too, though.

because they're all killers, you know. But who's going to take that one? I think Al Jermain is... You think so? Yeah, I think Al Jermain is going to take it. I just think he's... We've gotten to see a lot more of his credentials and everything, you know? And though Peter Yan is just...

You know, he's a really good kickboxer and he's hard to take down. I think Al Jermain can put him on the mat. So it'll be nice to see what Peter Yank can do. You know, styles make fights. That's a hell of an interesting style, stylistic fight. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that one for sure. As far as you go, like you said, doesn't matter. Give me a name.

You're saying yes. Perfect world. When would you like to get back in there? In about three or four months. So May, June? Yeah, yeah, yeah, May June, you know, that would be nice. I like to give my son a nice little birthday present. You know, his birthday's a June.

So I need to try to make some money for that. There you go, man. Listen, Chris, congratulations on the win. Good start for the year for one El Guapo. Looking forward to seeing what's next for you, man. All the best to you. We'll talk soon. And I don't think that under the radar tab's going to be on you very long, my man. Not too long. But I appreciate the time, man. Thank you. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.