MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 56 | Colby Covington, Ryan Bader, Frank Mir & Jeff Molina

Episode Date: April 27, 2021

This week on What the Heck, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck speaks with Colby Covington (5:50) to get his reaction to Kamaru Usman's KO win over Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261 this past Saturday, Dana White saying he's next for a rematch with Usman, and much more. Jeff Molina (35:02) recaps his Fight of the Night earning win over Aori Qileng at UFC 261 and explains why he wasn't thrilled with his performance as a whole. Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader (49:38) discusses his light heavyweight grand prix win over Lyoto Machida, Corey Anderson being his next opponent, and Scott Coker announcing an interim heavyweight title matchup could be announced soon. Finally, Frank Mir (1:08:35) discusses his pro boxing debut at the Triller Fight Club event earlier this month in Atlanta against Steve Cunningham, the judges, Oscar De La Hoya’s commentary taking away from his fight, and more. 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

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What the heck? Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to an all-new edition of What the Heck here on MMAfighting.com. Hope you're all rested and recovered from the craziness of UFC 261, which went down Saturday night in Jacksonville. Florida. The fans were back. They were loud. They were on fire. There were some things I could have done without. The wooing was back. I didn't miss that very much. There was some certain behaviors towards certain fighters on the card that wasn't great. But all in all, it was pretty surreal hearing the fans in that way for the first time in over a year. But three title fights,

two champions retained Valentina Shvchenko with an incredible performance in her stoppage of Justcandraj, as good as you can do it. I know the storylines, the hype are kind of behind the other two title fights, but Valentina Shvchenko was absolutely phenomenal. She deserves a ton of credit. She is going to be a tough out for anybody for a long time at 125 pounds. Kamar Usman knocked out Jorge Mazdal in the main event in the second round. man that was just wild i mean that's going to be more than likely on the short list for knockout of the year at the end of 2021 and if it's not on the short list that means we're going to see some absolutely ridiculous knockouts the rest of this year but what a performance by usman and then

rose namunas stops zhangui lee in the first round with that beautiful head kick to recapture the strawway title title fights are really interesting they ended in dominant and violent Of course, some scary stuff in the middleweight bout between Uriah Hall and Chris Wyden. By now, you all know what happened. You probably have all seen it. It was just nasty. It was gruesome. You don't want to see that happen to anybody.

But he had successful surgery on his leg on Sunday. He was told, and he said this on Instagram, he's going to be on crutches for eight weeks before he can walk on his own. He could be back to training in six to 12 months, he was told. And I really hope that's the case. case. I mean, whether he comes back in fights or not, that's one thing, but I just want him to be in the best place possible. Like, he could walk around. He's as healthy as he can be. And I know I'm not alone on this, but we wish him all the best. I will say I did reach out to Uriah Hall's team to try to get him on the show this week. He's taking some time off. He's going on vacation. At this point,

he feels like between talking to Joe Rogan, talking to the media in the back on Saturday, he feels like he said all he needs to at this point. And I've said this many times already. You've got to feel for Uriah Hall, too. It's unfortunate what happened to Chris Wyman, but I know how much this fight meant to Uriah Hall. Chris Wyman was the first man to defeat him back in 2010. This fight was nearly 11 years in the making.

Hall wanted this fight very badly. He was looking forward to it. It's something that first lost something he's been stewing on for a long time. He felt this was a winnable fight. And, I mean, he got the win. but certainly not the way he would have wanted. So he definitely got a feel for him. And then the main card kicked off.

Anthony Smith, he looked great in his fight with Jimmy Crute. That one ended in unfortunate circumstances as well. Another leg injury. This wasn't as severe, but it was still bad for Jimmy Crute referee and the doctors. The doctor specifically stopped the fight before the second round. Jimmy Crut wanted to go. He was yelling. He was screaming.

He was game. But he just couldn't put weight on that leg. Anthony Smith gets the win. and that fight was awesome for as long as it lasted. But we'll be talking more about UFC 261 on the show. We got four great guests. Let us run down the lineup and we'll get right into it. Rapping us up.

If you missed it, due to all the UFC 261 craziness, I had the chance to speak with the former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Meir, to recap his pro boxing debut on the trailer card. He fought Steve Cunningham, went the distance, six rounds, lost a decision. and we discussed the fight, the judges, fighting for Triller, Oscar Delahoya's commentary, which you could hear during the fight, if he'd fight for Triller again and much more. A couple quick warnings before you see that.

One, the interview happened on Wednesday or Thursday of last week. So there is a UFC 261 question in there, so ignore that. The other, I was helping my parents get rid of some stuff before they put their house in the market in Boston. So the interview took place there, not here, the sound and the video quality, isn't what you're typically used to seeing, but it's still a great interview with Frank Mear. You'll hear that at the end of the show.

Ryan Bader's going to join us, the Bellator Heavyweight champion. He advanced to the semifinals of the light heavyweight Grand Prix with the win over Leo de Machita. He has his next opponent lined up. That is another former UFC fighter, Corey Anderson. We discussed that. The whole Grand Prix, everything going on with him.

Darth Bader will join us later on. Speaking of UFC 261, one half of the fight of the night on Saturday. Jeff Molina will join us to recap that crazy fight with Arici Lang, his first UFC win, first UFC bonus. And looking forward to that conversation. We're going to kick things off with the man who was in attendance Saturday night, a man who had a vested interest in the main event for the Welterweight title in Jacksonville, back on the show and kicking us off this week. Colby

Covington. All right, it's kicking us off this week as a man whose name was brought up an awful lot during the UFC 261 fight week, and he wasn't even fighting on the card. So, of course, he made headlines when Dana White said before the main event between Kamar Usman and Jorge Mazadol went down. And it was reiterated after Usman's knockout win that the next fight to make for the Walterway title is the rematch between Usman and my guest at this time. Colby Chaos Covington, who is kind enough to join us right now. Colby, thank you for doing this man.

Thanks for having me, Mike. It's a pleasure to talk to you again. You know, we started this thing a long time ago together, and it's good to still be here today at the top of the game, number one in the world chasing world title fights and world championships. So it's a pleasure to speak to you again. Yeah, it's great to have you here. And I know you haven't done a lot of interviews since the wind over Tyrone Woodley in September. But I guess how are you, man? Like, it's been a minute.

What's been going on in the life of Colby Covington and the world of Colby Covington Incorporated over the last several months? Yeah, it's been a great couple months. You know, we've been working hard in the gym, tirelessly, you know, just working on the evolution of our game and just making sure that we're well-rounded and we're ready to go and staying ready on a moment's notice at all times. So, you know, things didn't fall my way in the fight world. I didn't get the fights that I thought I was going to get in the time I was going to get them. I stayed ready for those backup fights in case someone fell out.

But now it's time for round two with Marty Jusman, you know, the CEO of EPO. So I can't wait to get back in there with them. and I just love all the hype he's getting as being the, you know, the greatest fighter of all time, the pound for pound number one. So it's just going to make it that much more credible when I go out there and smash him next time around. I'm,

I'm interested in this because were you supposed to, did the UFC want you to be the backup for the fight on Saturday? Because I know Dana brought it up, like, briefly at the post-fight press conference said, Usman may have had a problem with that in some way. Like, what happened? Were you supposed to be the backup fighter for that? Yeah, it was.

is supposed to, but, you know, Marty Jusman and Street Judas, that fragile guy from Miami, you know, they both refused it. They said, hey, if anybody gets injured or has to pull out last minute, we're not fighting Colby. It's a stylistic change, and we're not ready for that stylistic change on short notice. So, you know, it's pretty clear to me, and it's clear to the fans, you know, who's been hiding from me and who's running. And, you know, these guys are scared to me right now. So I'm just waiting to get a hold of one of them now, and that's Marty juice men and hopefully he doesn't take too long on the sidelines i know he's saying that he needs some time with his daughter and he wants some time off but you know it's time for round two don't delay

this any more than it needs to be so obviously there's there's a lot to discuss with you first off you were in the building on saturday the first event in over a year in a sold-out arena before we get into what happened in the fight um and how that affects you obviously what was it like being there and just seeing the fans back did you enjoy it Yeah, I enjoyed it. The only reason I went out there was for the fans. You know, there's a reason I'm the people's champion and, you know, the people love me and I love the people. So I kind of wanted to feel that energy with the crowd and their arena again. And really just some normalcy, you know, some normalcy back in our lives. You know, it's been the scam-demic and they're keeping us locked down and quarantine and this and that. So it was good to get back in the building with people and interact and have that normalcy back in our lives. Big thank you to Dana White for making it happen. And Ronnie D. Rhonda Santis, the best governor in America right now, you know, making it all possible. So we could go back to Florida with the UFC and put on some great fights for the fans and have the fans back doing what they were able to do.

And that's fun, be entertained and enjoy the show. Was that a camouflage suit you were wearing on Saturday? Was that what that was? That's right. That was a camouflage suit for all my friends in the military and law enforcement. You know, nothing but love for those guys. Everybody knows I fight for the troops. and, you know, I inspire, I'm inspired by them,

and motivated by them. And they give me a lot of my purpose every day and my training and my purpose when I step into the Octagon that I'm fighting for those that fight for us and fight for our freedoms and sacrifice their lives for the red, white, and blue so we can, you know, live our free lives here in America. So let's go back to sort of like the middle of fight week

because Dana White was doing a bunch of interviews, a lot of media throughout the builds of the card and talking about the fight between it was in a Mazadol. And he said essentially that, listen, we're giving Mazadol the rematch, but then after that, Colby gets the winner. So how did you react to that statement and that vote of confidence from the big boss that you were next in line, at least in his eyes? Yeah, it was good. It was, you know, that's, but, you know, it's one step, you know, we still got to get Marty and Ali Adelisle's on the other hook.

You know, those guys, they're refusing to fight me. You know, there's a reason he ran it back right away with that fragile guy, Street, Judas Mosvedol. they knew it was an easy lick, an easy payday. The guy's got almost 20 losses on his record. He's literally the definition of journeymen. So, you know, Jorge, we found out, you know, he's fragile. He has no chin. So, you know, of course he wanted to expose all that hype in front of the world.

And good job. You guys did that. But now we're going to fight. There's no one else. There's no other lightweights for Marty and Ali to pick. There's no other former teammates that are another blown up lightweight that you guys can beat on. It's time for round two with Colby Coventon and Marty,

Usman. And, you know, this is going to be really the test of two of the best fighters of all time in this weight class. Okay. So you were there, you were right there to watch it all play out on Saturday night. And Usman won the first round. No surprise. Mazadal was taking some shots. He was smiling, got taken down. He worked his way back up. And it seemed like he might have had like a little bit of momentum headed in the second round. And then Usman knocked him cold with that big right hand. And most people thought like if the fight was going to end in that way, it would have been the other way. Were you surprised the way the fight actually ended?

No, I wasn't really surprised. You know, I noticed that there, I mean, George, first off, that fragile dude Street Judas Mosphidal, you know, he doesn't like to train. He has no work ethic. I mean, his everyday life, Mike, that guy is, you know, popping pills, doing freaking drugs, partying, you know, cheating on his wife, you know, lying to his kids. So the guy is just a piece of

shit, you know, and finally things caught up to him. Karma bit him in the ass. And, you know, he's getting older now. What's he almost 40 years old now? So the guy's past his time. He shouldn't even be in there at the top of the level. And Marty realized that, you know, he took him down because, you know, that fragile guy, Street Judas Mosswoodal has no takedown defense.

Took him down, get him gas, get him tired, get him gassed out. And then boom, started swinging haymakers. So I knew it was just a matter of time until he was going to catch him with a big shot. And, you know, it's nothing special just because Marty beat this journeyman, you know, with a bunch of hype on him. It's nothing special. I wasn't impressed with that fight. You know, if anything, dude, I saw a lot of weaknesses in his game, Mike.

You know, of course the media is not going to talk about the weaknesses. They want to just talk about the strength and this crazy knockout and this and that and this new evolved game of his. But, you know, I saw him get tired in that first round. You know, he was swinging heavy and he got in the rest of the exchange and he was tired when he got back to his feet. So if he fights me like that, Mike, I promise you, it will be anew. So when people are starting to compare him to George St. Pierre right now,

now? What is your reaction to that? Because like, it's, it's either like he's on the road there or some people think he's there and some people look at like the different sorts of generations of the sport and say that, you know, with the streak he's on, the guys he's fought, you know, the game has evolved so much at this point. Like, maybe he surpassed George St. Pierre. So what are your thoughts in those comparisons at this point in his run? Oh, you know, I don't really know much about GSP's run. Like, I don't know how many title fight wins he had. So, you know, I don't know if you want to compare that to, you know, Usman's title fight wins, but, you know, there's a lot of fights.

You know, that fight with me and Usman, you know, you can't, that's not a definitive win, you know, he should be won a rematch and prove the critics wrong on that fight because, you know, I was winning most that fight. You know, it was an early stoppage. It was a bad stoppage. There was a ton of terrible breaks in that fight, the nutshot, you know, that he called when I kicked him in the liver, that's a momentum change. So, you know, that wasn't a win, you know, that's not a real win.

If I would have won like that, I would want him to rematch right away and prove to the critics, proved to all the doubters, proved to all the media that, you know, that's not the way you win. That's not a convincing win, and I wouldn't be satisfied with that. So,

you know, hopefully Marty will want to come back and rematch soon and won't be hiding for me for too much longer. So I probably got like 25 to 30 DMs on Instagram earlier last week

when you posted that photo with a woman and people were asked me like, who is that? And I didn't even know how to respond. Who was that? Man, that's, embarrassing, Mike. You know, that was the mother of his two children. His wife still right now

to this day because they haven't legally got the divorce yet. So that was that fragile dude, Judas Mosfidal's wife and mother of his two children. And you know what's disgusting about that, Mike? Is the reason I put that up because first off, we go back, you know, 10 years. So she's a family friend of mine. You know, I met her before George and she's always been good to me, you know, and a good lady. So, you know, she's just a friend who we were just catching up talking. And it's so crazy because after we hung out, I went and looked on Google and I looked on the internet and I'm like, type in the Google search, Jorge's wife, Jorge's mother of

his children. And they tried, that fragile dude, Judas Mosfidal tried to scrub the internet of his own wife and mother of his two children and say that his manager's daughter, Imalcala, was the wife of his wife of him and the mother of his children. So, you know, I was just putting some truth out there, Mike, some facts, you know, so you can't run from or hide from the truth or facts. You know, that was Jorge Mosfadol, that fragile dude's wife and that, that's the mother of his children. You can't hide that. No more lying to the people. So what made you want to post that picture? Oh, just, you know, just to let him know, you know, that, hey, man, I see you,

dude, I see how fake you are. You know, I see that you tried to literally erase her from existence, bro. Like, that's the mother of your children. She's carrying your kids. I know the piece of shit you are that you fragile motherfucker, George Mosfidel. I know how fragile. I know the piece of shit you are to your wife, to your two kids, you know. I know how much stress you're creating their lives and the things that you're making their lives, you know, that much harder.

So, you know, I was just, I just wanted to put it in front of his face, Mike, and let him know that, you know, you can't run from the truth or hide from the truth anymore. I'm going to expose you of your fakeness. He did an interview with the SPN with Ariel leading up to the fight and he talked about the situation during the two of you guys. He based said like both of you guys got kicked out of ATT after like a near skirmish or something, but then he got brought back into the fold and you weren't. And I know you've kind of told your side of the story, but can you, can you give a reaction to what, to what Jorge was saying about, you know, both of you guys got kicked out. They wanted to bring him back and just kind of let you do.

your own thing? Yeah, I can give you an elaboration, Mike, into truth, into facts, in the real side of the story, because once again, that fragile, dude, Judas Mosvidal is not telling the facts, not telling the truth of this story. He would come into the gym every day I'm training, you know, getting ready for my father. There's been screaming across the gym, oh, Colby, I'm going to fuck you up, I'm going to baptize you, blah, blah, blah, and just make a scene so like none of the pro fighters could train. It was disrupting the training. So Dan Lambert, he had to make a decision. He's like, hey, you guys are both out. This is creating too much problems over at the gym and it's messing up the chemistry. So you guys are gone. So a couple

weeks go by, he's still begging to go back, blah, blah, blah. Finally, Dan decides to bring him back and he also wanted to bring me back. And he's like, hey, Kobe, you know, I'd like you to come back, you know, the pandemic's starting or, you know, it's over. And, you know, I made a mistake. I want you back on the team. But I said, Dan, you know, thanks, but no thanks. You know, I'm not going back. You know, it wasn't a good situation for me over at that gym, ATT. You know, there was a lot of drama, a lot of people starting stuff. But you know what's funny about it, Mike, is all these people start and stuff.

They only scream at me when coaches are in between them across the gym. If they really wanted to do something, Mike, they would have came up to me face to face. Like Dustin's sorry, oh, it's on site when I see Kobe. Dustin, you know it's not on site. I'll put you down so quickly. You were my easy rounds. When I got tired, I'd go with you just to play with you like my little dummy. So if it was really on sight, you would have came up to me.

and that fragile dude, Judas Mosswood, same thing. If you really were about that, like you come up to me. You try and start some shit. But no, you just want to talk to the media like you're all big, build yourself up. But that's not the truth. And the truth is not what you tried to say, that, oh, they didn't invite Colby back. They just wanted him back. No, they wanted me back too, Mike.

But I didn't want to go back. I had better coaches over at Colby Covington Incorporated and MMA Masters. You know, my judicious coach, Daniel Valverde, we've been really working really hard on my submissions. just feel like a finishing machine. I feel on top of the world. This is the best Jitsu coach I've ever had. It just so happens. He's a judo coach, very good trips and good takedowns. So I'm learning a lot there for him too. And then my kickboxing coach, Caesar Carnaro, we just work so hard on timing and just really sitting down on our punches and just

being efficient with my energy and really maximizing my volume. So I just feel like I'm on another level with him. And my strength and conditioning coach, Jonathan Lopez, amazing strength and conditioning coach. That guy's a wizard. And he's really just taking my as the cardio king to the next level. So I'm thankful for my situation. I didn't want to go back. And that's the facts. That's truth.

You can go ask Dan Lambert. Not too long ago, it seemed like the fight between you and Mazadol was going to happen. I mean, he got, he ended up getting the title fight. I'm curious like what happened there because it seemed like after you beat Tyron Woodley, there was talks about Mazadol, maybe running it back with Nate. And then as soon as you beat Tyran, it was like, nope, we're not doing that. We're going to do Mazadol versus Covington. There was rumors out there about maybe the two you guys.

coaching the resurgence of the ultimate fighter. It seemed like this is the direction everybody wanted to go. What happened with that from your perspective? Well, not just from my perspective, Mike. What happened from the UFC perspective, from Dana White's perspective, Hunter Campbell's perspective is the truth. You know, plain and simple,

that fragile dude, Judas Mosvado did not want to fight me. After I beat Woodley, they were trying to match this up in October, November, December. You know, he would refuse every month. No, I'm not fighting Colby. No, I don't like that matchup. Oh, he's too tough for me. we used to train, blah, blah, blah.

So he's talking all this smack in the media, saying he's going to baptize me, saying he's doing this on site. But then when it's time to fight an octagon for millions of dollars, you know, oh, now you don't want to fight. You know, now you're scared. So they couldn't get that fight together, plain and simple, Mike. And the last ditched effort they tried to make was making us the ultimate fighter coaches. But plain and simply, he said, no, I don't want to be ultimate fighter coaches against him.

I don't want to fight Colby, you know, I want to rematch or I want to fight Nate Diaz or some other lightweight or washed up scrubs. So, you know, everybody knows who's my son, you know, that fragile, that dude, Judas Moswell is my son. I am his father and he knows who daddy is. And now all its hype is gone. Ten seconds of fame are out of here. And, you know, we're never going to fight. I had nothing to prove to him.

I'm going to go out there. I'm going to starch Marty Fake Newsman. And it's on the bigger and better things. So the way Dana White was speaking throughout the week, I thought we might see you get in that octagon with Usman, kind of do the, like a flashback to the early days of the U.S. where the next guy walks in and they do the face off. Why didn't we see that? We didn't see that because Marty didn't want it. Just like he doesn't want this fight, he does not want round two.

If I was the easy lift, Mike, he would have came after me to rematch me right away. There's a reason he took the easy payday with that fragile dude, Judas Mosphidal. He knew it was an easy fight. The guy's got almost 20 losses on his record. He's a journeyman, and Marty knew that. So Marty's been in there with me. He knows how tough I am. He knew I took multiple rounds off him, concussed him,

wobbled him, almost had it finished if he didn't fake a timeout, I have to get a breather. So he knows how tough I am and he's refusing to fight me. He doesn't want anything to do with me. He'd rather retire, honestly, might than get round two with me locked in that octagon. Do you think this fight happens? I don't know. I hope so. I want it. There's nothing more than I want. I want to rewrite my wrongs. I want to prove to the world that I'm a better fighter than him. And I want to prove the world that I'm the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the world right now. So I hope it happens. if it doesn't happen, it'll only be because of him that he doesn't want to fight.

He might walk away from the sport or, you know, I need more time with my daughter or this and that. So, you know, I hope it happens, but we'll have to see. Have you talked to Dana on Saturday? Or have you talked to him since Saturday about this? Yeah, I talked to him a little bit Saturday after the fight. He's like, yeah, you're next. We're going to make that fight. We're going to get that fight done.

So it's the fight to make, man. It's what the fans want. It's what Dana White, the UFC wants. You know, even Stephen A. Smith is out there on first take this morning campaigner for that fight. So he even knows that that's the fight to make. So, you know, I'm ready to go. You know, we don't need to delay this any more than it needs to be. You know, hopefully it'll be back in Florida, you know, doing a favor for Ron DeSantis, for him doing a favor for us and let us be the first sport back with

fans. So, you know, hopefully we get it done sooner than later. Yeah, I mean, there are, I mean, there's some interesting matchups coming up in your division. Of course, Leon Edwards fighting Nate Diaz, May 15th. Gilbert Burns is fighting Stephen Thompson on July 10. You know, Ustman fought Edwards a few years ago. He's on a nice run. He just beat Gilbert Burns. He hasn't fought Nate or Wonderboy yet. So is there any part of you concerned that one of these guys could jump the queue, so to speak?

No, not at all. I mean, Dana White made a promise to me, you know, Hunter Campbell, they made promises to me. You know, I know these guys wouldn't break their promises. I know these guys are men of their word. You know, these are good, good hardworking men, blue-collar men, you know, that it rise up to the top of the industry. So, you know, I think I take these guys' word at what they said. And, you know, everybody knows I'm number one in the world. I'm number one in the rankings.

You can't deny that. That's fact. So this is the fight that needs to happen. You know, Marty should want to jump at this fight right away, man. You should want to prove to the critics and the doubters, you know, that, oh, you're the best in the world. You're the convincing. You want to be the pound for pound number one. You want to be the goat.

You got to go through me again and prove to the world that that wasn't a fluke because it was a fluke. You know, I was winning that fight, early stoppage, fake timeouts. This and that. So let's go, Marty Jusman. Stop wasting time. We know you're the CEO and EPO, but it's time to get exposed in front of the world. The stars wrote in full force on Saturday night, Colby, you were there. Some of the UFC's biggest names were there. Tom Brady was out there with the Tampa Bay Bucks and even Jake Paul was in the building, had the little running with DC. Octagon side. I don't know if you were out there for that. But, I mean, what have you made of this? Jake Paul phenomenon? I've been dying to ask you about this. The fight with Ben Ascran did

reportedly a million and a half pay-per-view buys. What have you made with this, him being at the event and everything that's going on with him? You know, everything that's going on with him is hilarious. This guy's an amateur. You know, Snake Paul is literally a bum. You know, he's a Disney YouTube star. You know, he's not a real fighter. He's an amateur. He's a nobody. You know, I literally smacked the pubs off his face. But, you know, what I'm making him is he's just, you know, looking to get hype and build himself up as a real fighter. He's not a real fighter. He's not a real fighter. This guy's a nobody from the streets. That last fight with Ben Ascreen was a work.

They made that a fix. Ascron took a dive for the money, and that's that. I'd really take much more from that circus of trailer. It's literally a circus. It's the clown show. So no one's got time on their Saturday night at midnight to listen to an hour fucking special by Justin Bieber in between fights. Come on.

This is a joke. This is joke time. So let's get back to the real business, like the UFC, you know, where we got real stars coming out, Tom Brady. Cuba Good and Junior. You know, Mike Evans was in attendance, a couple of other NFL players, a bunch of UFC fighters and, you know, just back to normalcy and back to regular life. You know, fans in the arena, energy, electricity, and, you know, the best entertainment show in the world.

What if he starts calling your name? He's calling Al-Mazadol. He's called O'Connor. Looks like Tyron Woodley wants that fight now, your old buddy. What if you start saying your name? I'm shocked he hasn't, if we're being honest. You're shocked, Mike? I'm shocked he hasn't said your name.

name, even just for, for height purposes. I'm surprised, honestly. No, he wouldn't do that, Mike. He's not that stupid. He's only looking for old, retired washed up fighters. He's not looking for a guy in his prime who's the top of the wave class who can actually throw hands. He's looking for wrestlers, jiu-jitsu fighters, you know, guys that supposedly did MMA, but they're literally, you know, 40 and 50-year-old virgins, you know, and he's not going to call out someone that actually knows that a fight. Nick Diaz is there on Saturday as well. Did you run into him in any way?

He was a couple seats down for me front row, but he knows better than that to pipe up to me. You know, he's a stock of the soy boy. He's not going to mess with magaboms. And someone was asking me, they're like, oh, you think Nick's going to fight again? I'm like, I don't know. He might. If he does, it's just going to be a cash grab. It's not going to be anything like he's a legit threat to anyone.

And if honestly, like, you saw Tom Brady in the building, you saw Cuba Gooding Jr. in the building. You saw all these other A-list celebrities in the building. And well, and it's like, are they getting in the octagon? Probably not. So, you know, I don't believe Nick Diaz is getting in the octagon as likely as that Tom Brady is going to get in the octagon. Yeah. I mean, Tom Brady in the octagon. I don't want to see that.

Let Tom Brady sling that football down the field. He won us a lot of championships here in New England. And he's the goat, no doubt about that. So as far as you go in this title shot, the rematch that you're hoping to get, when do you want that? I mean, I assume you want this fight to happen as soon as possible. Usman just fought twice in like 70-something days. Things are starting to fill up pay-per-view main event-wise and title fight-wise. Has a date even been discussed at all, like a time frame, anything?

Yeah, I was talking with Hunter Campbell today, you know, and, you know, we were talking about a date, August, September. I think that's something that makes sense for Marty. It gives him four, five, six months to get ready for it. So hopefully it's August, September. I don't want to delay it later in the year and talk to over November. You know, just let's get this out of the way, you know, especially because Marty Jusman was saying in the lead up to this fight, oh, I want to fight two or three more times this year.

So he said it himself, Mike. He wants to fight two or three more times this year. I'm the next guy in line. There's no one else to make. And, you know, you didn't take any damage in that fight with that fragile guy. Judas Mossadol. So it was a flawless victory. You took the guy down. You got the big haymaker knockout. Good for you. You didn't take no damage. So there's no excuses to delay this fight any later than September at the absolute latest. Would you consider any other matchup? Like if Usman can't

do that date or they go a different direction for some reason? Is there any other fight you consider at this point or is a title fight or bust? No, I'm a, I'm the money fight in the UFC, man. Huzman's not even a draw. He doesn't draw numbers. He doesn't move the needle. The guy's literally a nobody. Yeah, you've had a good career. You beat some guys that literally were washed up after I beat him.

You followed in the footsteps of me. He tried to copy my literally carbon copy blueprint. So, you know, I don't see anything special with him. If she doesn't want to fight, you know, I fight for paychecks, man. You know, I'm a draw. The UFC needs me and they need to make a big fight, you know, or save a card. I'm always ready to fight, man. I stay ready 24-7, 365.

So, you know, I'm just going to keep doing my business. And if the UFC needs me to come step up and fight a big fight, I'm going to come step up and prove that I'm the best in the world because that's all I want to do. I'm trying to prove my legacy and my greatness right now. And that's just by the biggest fights in the world. Speaking of big names and big fights, have you seen Connors trying to get Usman's attention now?

Have you seen that on social media over the last couple days? I haven't seen it, but I've heard about it. And, you know, that's obviously just Connor, just trying to get some hype, get some headlines. Come on, dude. The guy just got knocked out by Dustin Soria. Come on, are you serious? You want a title shot at 170?

Dude, you're getting beat up by literally gatekeeper lightweights. And now you want to come to the top of the 170 welterweight division. Everybody knows what Connor's doing. He's not really going to do that. He's not going to come up and fight welterweight. He's just doing that to grab attention, to grab headlines, make people think he's being taken seriously. Because honestly, he's a joke.

He's the laughing stock in the MMA community. And even to casual fans, because they're just like, man, Connor's washed up, he's done. He made all that money with his whiskey. He made all that money for the Mayweather fight. He has no motivation. Nothing gets him up during the morning to go fight.

So, you know, he tries to save for his kids, you know, but man, the guy's done, man. He has nothing left in the tank. You think Dustin beats him again? Yeah, and that's not like saying Dustin Sorrier is any good or, like, you know, is anything special because the guy's not. Like, the guy's a gatekeeper lightweight. He's nothing more, you know.

All in the big fights, he always get knocked out and beaten. So, you know, he's just, he's a jobber. That's the definition of what Descelsori is. And he's a fake. He's a clown, man, trying to start that charity and say that he's all about the good fight and always trying to give back to kids. No, it's not. That's a tax write off for your business. Tell the people the truth, man. I know the real person you are of Desensori. You're a piece of shit person behind the scenes. You won't take pictures with fans. You won't do this and that. You don't treat nobody good. You act like you're better than people with the ego. So don't act like you're special just because you beat Comman

McGregor after his time and when he was washed up. So last thing, I mean, you're saying hopefully August, September, you're in there, you fight Usman again for the Welterweight title. You've said many times since the first fight, you believed you got the big fat hose job from the referee, Mark Goddard, not just for the stoppage of the fight. You mentioned it here, but the stoppages of the action as well.

Mazadol got his rematch. You want your rematch. What's the message for Kamar Usman right now? All the message is, you know, you took You're trying to tell me you need activity. I came back and won a fight. Did George, you know, that fragile guy win a fight? When you beat him 50, 43, you already beat him convincing, and it was a dominant win.

And then you took him rematch right away because you knew it's an easy lick. I came back and won a fight and beat a guy that you beat for the world championship, you know, a former UFC champion. And, you know, I've had three or four of those on my resume in my last couple of fights, so as wins. So, you know, this is the fight that needs to happen. This is the fight the fight the fans want. Give the people what they want, Marty.

you know, give Dana White and the UFC what they want. Come show your greatness. Come prove that you're the well-to-weight group. Come prove that you're the pound for pound number one. Because I know I'm going to stop you. This is going to be a completely different outcome round two. You're not going to have Mark Goddard to save your life, give you fake timeouts for fake nutshots when I kicked you in the liver.

That completely changed the momentum of the whole entire fight. I would have finished him right there. No more faking eye poke on the other eye. I barely touched your left eye. You're crying on your right eye for five minutes, getting a break. you know so there's no more change in momentum and no more cheating you know it's it's got to be done with marty juiceman the CEO of EPO colby it's been eight months but we finally got to catch back up i truly appreciate i think the rematch makes a whole lot of sense at this point like you said

people want to see it Dana wants to see it and uh all the best to you in getting that fight colby i'm glad we're able to do this once again and thank you for the time as always any any parting words for the peeps. Oh, party words for the peeps. It was great to see you all again. You know, great to have you back in the arena. And, you know, I can't wait for my next fight. I'm not going to disappoint.

Colby Covington kicking us off. Never disappoints. It's always an interesting conversation with the former UFC interim welterweight champion. And I can tell you, people want to see this fight. They want to see the rematch with Kamar Usman. I get people hitting me up on social media all the time. I want to see the rematch. Colby's the number one contender, let's do it.

It makes sense for a number of reasons. This is the fight I picked on onto the next one. A.K. Lee did not go with that one. I went with it for, like I said, a number of different reasons. You can go back and check out onto the next one, me and A.K.'s matchmaking podcast, wherever you can find your favorite podcast, wherever you listen, and you can go back and see why I think this fight makes a lot of sense. But we'll move ahead to Jeff Molina.

Just picked up his first UFC win in Jacksonville. and his first UFC bonus on Saturday night. Here he is Jeff Molina on What the Heck. All right, let us say hello to one of the big winners from this past Saturday's UFC 21 event in Jacksonville, one half of the fight of the night. And what a fight it was, he defeated Arricie Lang via unanimous decision. Jeff Molina joins us right now.

Sunglasses on, he's wearing a T-shirt, so that means you're probably still in Florida. How are you, man? I'm good, brother. Yeah, yeah, still in Florida. But yeah, yeah, doing well, doing well. Thanks for having me. Absolutely.

Congratulations on the win. in the fight, man, it was just so fun to watch. How does it all feel less than 48 hours later as we record this? Feels good, man. It feels good to get the debut out the way. Fight of the night isn't the type of bonus I want. I want performance in the night, but man, I'll take it, right? 50 Gs.

You got your 50 Gs. And I know you were supposed to debut in January before the COVID test and everything, which obviously sucked for you. But to be able to make that first walk in Jacksonville in front of the, of a fired up crowd like that, I would assume that this was a tremendous consolation prize, was it not? Absolutely, man. So the initial debut was scheduled November 14th.

I signed the contract for it. I think the day after contender series. Yeah, I think it was like 24 hours after contender series. Scheduled November 14th, it was Zerouk. I had a fracture in my leg, but I was still going to fight was, you know, midday through training camp. is the root got COVID, so they rescheduled it for January. And then I caught the vid.

And, yeah, that sucked, man. That sucks. So finally, having that debut after back-to-back to back camps, it felt really fucking good, dude. How would you describe the feeling of getting the Bruce Buffer intro in that arena? Like, I know you fought many times, been in the martial arts game for many years, but, you know, the octagon jitters we always hear about, they had to have been there in that moment, right? like Bruce is

saying your name everyone's going crazy like were you feeling the jitters before the fight started? Yeah, I don't know man so the whole Bruce thing that is cool as shit man I picture that in my head

like a million times but my teammate Julian Marquez talks about like drawing energy from the crowd that's never really been something I've done but I was like hey man I'll try anything once so he told me before the fight started since this is the first event back with fans

to turn to the crowd, raise your arms up, and just kind of take some of that energy in. So I did that. And then I kind of felt the same thing with Bruce as he was making the announcement, saying my name. It was like,

I was kind of just looking at him and feeling that vibe. So I don't know if it's placebo, but I felt something. I'm not sure what it was, but it was cool. It was cool. He looked like a million bucks, too.

He was on fire all night. Yeah, he was on one, man. It was kind of cool, him introducing my opponent to my, My opponent has like a cool nickname. And yeah, I was feeling that. And I was like, oh, wait, I can't fuck him. You know, like that's my opponent.

We're about to get into a fist fight. Yeah, it was a beautifully match made fight because with your two styles, because he likes to move forward, tough as nails. He's got heart for miles, which was clear in that third round. But, you know, most felt you had the technical advantage in the fight. You're obviously a very exciting fight. People still remember the contender series fight. You also have the James Krause cheat code with you,

which you didn't have in the Contender Series fight. So I'm wondering if there was anything that surprised you in the fight from his end. No, man. If anything, it helped having known exactly what he didn't do. He was going to try to walk me down, march me down. He has a really good sense of range. The one thing that did surprise me was his ability to get out of the way of the low kick. The low kick was a huge part of the game plan.

And I think I landed one. So it was something that I had to make an adapt, or I had to adapt to me. mid-fight. And again, she coach James Krauss. He told me exactly what to do. He was like, let's cut the calf kick and go to something else. And that's what we did. But that was the only thing that surprised me, man. We knew he was going to try to walk me down. That wasn't a surprise. And I'm glad we knew that. And we also knew he had a good sense of range and we weren't

wrong. Yeah, it was a rough night for the leg kicks, wasn't it? Jeez. Yeah, geez. Man, I wish they would have let us stayed in the arena to watch the rest of the fights, man. But at the same time, I'm kind of glad I didn't see that in person, dude. I'm super cringed when it comes to that kind of stuff. So I'm glad I didn't see that live. I heard about it. I had friends and family that came out to support me, which is fucking awesome. But yeah, they were in the arena and they were just talking about the sound of me. And I was like, ah, dude. You don't want to hear about that. How many people came out?

Man, I had some teammates. I think in total was about 10, 15 people, man. So I definitely felt the love. That's pretty cool. And we mentioned James. Obviously, he's had a great start to year from a coaching perspective. We could hear him throughout the first couple of rounds telling you to get off the fence and you seem to get cooking in that second round. The third round was amazing, which we'll talk about in a second. But what was the conversation like in the corner between you and James between the second and third rounds? Because whatever he said, it looked like to have lit a fire underneath you. Yeah, absolutely, man. I'm so glad to have had my coaches on Fight Week and for the fight like that. That was awesome. It was cool. It definitely made things easier.

But yeah, you said it, man. James Krause is a cheat coach. I think he's coached the year. Just the stable of guys he has. I can't think of another coach that would be in contenders besides Trevor Woodman just for the two title fights in this past weekend. But man, he said everything I needed to hear. And I'm not proud of my performance at all.

The one thing I am proud of that I did in the fight was my ability to adapt in battle. I think that that in its own is very underrated. I think the highest-level fighters are able to do that. The Sehudo's, like the Henry Sehudo, Marlon Mariah's fight comes to mind. The DJ is really good at adapting mid-fight. John Jones, and I'm naming like world champions. And I'm not comparing myself to these guys.

And I'm hopefully one day I'll be on their level. But I think that that tool itself is underrated to be in mid-battle and have to change something on the fly. And I did that, man. In between the first and second, I think the cameras picked this up. But I look at James and I'm like, long story short, I pretty much say like, dude, my shit isn't working. Like my primaries aren't working. What do I do?

I think the cameras picked up the part where I tell him, like, help. Like, I say, what do you want me to do? And he tells me, and he tells me, and I did just that. And that won me to fight, man. You know, I'll take some kudos for that to be able to be receptive to that type of comments. And then also on his part to tell me what to do, man. And I did exactly what he told me to. and I started landing and it won't be the fight.

Why weren't you proud of the performance? Like I know fighters, you guys are so hard on yourselves no matter what happens. Like if you went out there and knocked him out in 30 seconds, like you'd probably still have something to think negatively about, but why weren't you proud of the performance? Yeah, you're right in that aspect, right? I think that the really good guys are going to be the world's biggest critic

regardless if they go out there and knock them out in the first 10 seconds. But there was a lot of things that I actually. could have done better, man. I just couldn't find my swag in that first round. And I could have met him with bone on bone earlier, man, especially when he's crashing into me, bone on bone, meaning like elbow or knee. We knew that forward pressure was going to be there.

And I wish I would have to wrestle a bit more, man. I feel like my wrestling is underrated or my grappling is underrated. And I didn't really, didn't really show it. So there's a lot of things that I'm going to take away from this, man. Again, I'm glad to get the debut out of the way. But this was a learning experience. And oh yeah, not to mention me being a fucking idiot the last 10 seconds of the fight trying to be mad tallway, point to the ground and then end up getting rocked like bad.

Like I was hurt at the end of that fight, man. So it was just me being stupid. So when you visualize the fight, which I do a lot of visualization, man. I visualize me doing that a million times. And every time I visualize it, the same thing happened. I get fucking clipped. But yeah, you know, in the third round, It's a 10-8 round, and some judges still gave me a 10-8 for that round, but I got hurt because I was driving my hands and just slugging.

And it's very silly to do. I do think it helped me win the 50 Gs on one hand, so it's kind of like the fight of the night has to be pretty back and forth. So I think that type of back-and-forthness that happened in that third where he rocks me at the very end is key. But I don't know if 50 Gs is worth my longevity in the sport. So I'm going to learn from this. I won't do that again, but that's my sense. style, man. My style is bonus friendly. So, I mean, outside of the final 10 seconds, that third round was bananas, man. I mean, you landed 127 significant strikes. That's the third. Third most landed

in a round in UFC history. You also landed the most overall significant strikes in the history of the flyweight division. Davis and Figueros fight against Brandon Moreno was the winner. You had two less rounds to do it and you beat them by over 50 significant strikes. So one fight in, you're already in the record books, despite how the last 10 seconds of that fight went, how does that all feel? Yeah, Davidson, who? No, I'm kidding. Yeah, it feels good, man. It's cool.

That's a cool stat. And I saw a tweet that showed, like, other fighters that are in the same, like, category or, like, you know, just good company. I think DJ was on there. I think Holloway was on there. It was cool. That's cool stat, man. And I'm into it.

It's obviously good to be in the illustrious company of guys like that. It's probably better to get two checks and a bonus. And I remember Joe Rogan's interviewing you. You say 50 MF&Gs in the post fight right off the bat. You got it for that crazy fight. But as the fight's going on, I'm not sure how much you watch of it, considering the crazy finishes that went down the rest of the way, were you starting to get worried that maybe they would just do four performance bonuses

and no fight at night? Were you surprised that you got it? Dude. Yeah, yeah. Every fight. We were watching it back in the hotel room with my coaches. Luckily, the UFC paid for the pay for the pay for you and had it all in the room. So we walked in the room and the fights were playing already.

But yeah, every fight, I was like, oh, I hope this is the most boring fight ever. Every fight right before it started, I'm like, dude, I hope they just wrestle each other for 15 minutes straight. And I was getting really worried with the title fights. I'm like, dude, there's no way these title fights are going to be boring, like, especially Rose and Wiley. But yeah, yeah, I was worried until I was told that I won it. There you go. Yeah, I mean, the title fights are great. Chonko was ridiculous.

Rose was ridiculous. And then Uzman knocking on Mazadol like that, man. Like I didn't see that coming from a mile away. Like a lot of people, like if Usman wanted, like a dominant decision, wouldn't it surprise me. If Mazadol knocked Usband out like that, wouldn't have surprised me. But seeing Uzbin knock Mazdaal like that was, was jarring, man. I wonder what the odds were. Yeah, yeah.

That was insane. That was insane. But you can almost see coming with the way Mazel was dropping his hands and trying to like laugh off. every strike, man. Like, you got to respect the game, man. And I think Mazadol said that too. He was like, man, I screwed up. Well, I want to talk.

I pointed to the ground and slugged with some dude that I shouldn't be doing that with, you know? Well, you learned a valuable lesson. But I have to tell you, we host a matchmaking podcast on the site. We record, like, the morning after the events. And we always were like solicit listener suggestions for different matchups. Like, we kind of get a gauge of what people want to see, especially from the prelims. you, my friends, got a lot of people excited.

There are a lot of people who are ready to see you back in there. So many different matchups are throwing our way. I think you got more than anybody else if we're being honest. But you left them wanting more, Jeff, despite how you feel about the performance overall. And I know you just fought. I know you're on vacation right now, sort of smelling the roses. But perfect world, have you thought about when you want to get back in there? Are there any matchups that have caught your eye?

Yeah, yeah. I did have a matchup in mind that I wanted, but dude retired. I wanted to fight Jimmy Flick or the winner of the Flick, figure, the Figuero fight. I'm still down. I forgot who Figuero is fighting, but not the actual figure out,

but the great value figure out. I'll fight the winner of that fight. I'm into it. I like that match up. But man, I really don't care. I'll leave it up to my coaches. If they like it,

I like it. I'll say yes to anything as long as they say yes first. As far as when I want to be back, I went to this fight with a couple injuries that I want to get checked out but if everything is good to go, nothing serious, then ASAP. And you want to be on another pay-a-view again, right? Like, we had to do this in front of crowds as much as possible

because, I mean, you were on the contender series, don't crowd, but having your debut in front of a crowd like that, I'm sure you want that feeling a lot more moving forward. Yeah, sure. I'll fight in front of five people again or 15,000. Don't get me wrong. The experience was sick, man. It was one for the record books, as I say.

But I got to experience it. Once is enough for me, obviously there's going to be a lot more of those experiences, but I don't care where it is. If it is Apex again, I'll fight there. If it's in Singapore, like it was originally supposed to be, I'll fight there. I want experiences, and since I already experienced it, I'm okay if it doesn't happen again. But, man, I don't really care where I fight. Fight to fight, whether it's in front of Dana and five other people or 50s.

15,000. Jeff Molina, a very exciting up-and-comer in the UFC's flyweight division. That division is great. I can't believe they try to get rid of that division a few years ago, but Jeff Molina is an exciting guy. A lot of fun potential matchups are in his future. What a fight that was on Saturday. I'm excited to see what is next for him.

We know what's next for Ryan Bader. He's going to take on Corey Anderson later on this year and the Bellator light heavyweight Grand Prix. and I wanted to get his thoughts on a number of topics, including Scott Coker saying, you know what? We're going to do an interim heavyweight title fight. We don't do interim titles here, but we're going to do one for the heavyweight division. So let's talk to Ryan Bader about that and much more right now.

All right, we move ahead to the reigning Bellator heavyweight champion who recently advanced to the semifinals of the light heavyweight Grand Prix. A unanimous decision went over Leo Tomachita, and now he is set to meet Corey Anderson in the next round later on this year, let us say hello to Ryan Bader. Ryan, how are you, man? I'm doing well. What about you? Doing great. It's great to have you here. First fight of 2021 is in the books. You took on a super tough guy, a legend in Leo de Machita, someone you were obviously

quite familiar with. You get the win. How does it feel to get back in the wind column and spend 25 minutes in there with the guy who got a win over you several years prior? Yeah, it was good. You know, obviously, you want to get that win back. and he's a tricky guy, you know, and so I didn't want to make the same mistakes as I did the first time. And so, you know, that we knew the first round,

we kind of had to, with the chill out, basically, and not get, you know, not rush in like I did the first time ended up getting knocked out in 2012. And so I saw what I saw that at the end of that round, what I needed, and then kind of started taking control of that fight and kind of go from there. His durability, even at this stage in his career, is pretty unbelievable, isn't it?

I mean, you were landing some big shots, and I'm sure you weren't overly surprised, but were you surprised that he was able to go the full 25 with you? Yeah, I wasn't expecting that. You know, after, you know, the fourth or fifth round, we were expecting him to be tricky and elusive and all that kind of stuff. But, you know, I was on top of him kind of put a beating on him. He would not, a lot of guys, like, look for a way out,

you know, give you a position, and, you know, like started raining down punches and they'll kind of look for that way out. And he never did. You know, he took those. He was trying to fight back the whole time. You know, at the very end, it was like a minute, 50 left. You know, he was pretty tired. He was laying there.

Then he just comes back with a back elbow and hits me right in the nose. It was, oh, come on now. Yeah, but he, I was surprised. I know he's, you know, he's a veteran. He's a tough guy. You know, he's been in there with everybody. But I was surprised about how durable he was and wanted to have that will to keep fighting. This is the second one of these Grand Prix that you've been a part of.

And I really love them. I feel like it elevates things to another level, especially, you know, this one with some of the names that are involved. And the heavyweight one was was really crazy too with some of the names there. But, you know, after being in this game for so long, being a part of these tournaments, sort of knowing what your next move is going to be ahead of time outside of like when the actual fights are going to happen. Do you enjoy these? Like, is it a little bit refreshing to be a part of these Grand Prix? Yeah, 100%.

I enjoyed the heavyweight grand prix because, I knew the dates basically and, and, I mean, not exactly who, but you can look in that bracket who you can potentially face. So you start, you start, you know, diving into these guys and you're able to, you know, be a step ahead. And I, I love the timing because I know, you know, this year, granted, I keep winning, I'm going to fight, you know, in July and October. Whereas if I had just a title fight, you'd fight and then, you know, who's next? We don't know. It could be, you know, three months.

It could be a year later we were fighting again. So I like, it just keeps me refreshed. It keeps me focused the whole time. So it's not there. I never have a time where I'm like, oh, I don't have a fight on the horizon. I know I do. So that's why I love these tournaments.

I love looking at and the fans do too, the bracket, who's in there, who the possible matchups are. And so I have a lot of fun with these. You are in attendance for Corey Anderson's win a couple of weeks ago. He'll obviously be next for you in this tournament. What did you think of his performance? you know, sitting not too far away from it.

Yeah, he looked great. The only thing is the guy he fought, you know, we just, nobody really knew, you know, what his level was or what his level is, really, you know. So it's hard. But I know because of the guys that Corey's fought in his past, you know, I know how tough he is. You know, we trained to get together a little bit.

But yeah, so he looked good. He went out there and did his thing, got on top, and used his ground of town. He's always durable. He's always in his shape. I thought he looked really good. It's one of those fights where, I mean, from a stateless perspective, obviously like you, he's a great wrestler, also like you and possess his power on the feet.

But looking into this fight, like this is one of those fights people look at me like, oh, this fight hasn't happened already. You know what I mean? And it hasn't. So it's kind of weird that it's happening now, but it's just interesting that you're in a Grand Prix. You'll be a win away from fighting for a championship. And now you guys are meeting.

Is it kind of weird to think about that? you spent all this time together in the UFC and now you're fighting in a different organization. Yeah, exactly. You know, he was always on my radar. And like I said, we trained together, you know, here and there. But he was always on my radar and I figured that we would, because we were both, you know, you know, top five, you know, top 10 in the UFC forever, that we'd cross past. But yeah, you never know.

You know, I went over to Beltor and then Belator started signing a lot of these guys. And so, yeah, it's a fight looking forward to. I liked a guy, you know, but we have a similar styles. And he has a style of a guy that I fought a bunch, you know, these wrestlers that, you know, that are like me and I've always done well with that stylistic matchup. I feel like I'm, he does a lot of things good, but I just feel like I'm better at him. So it's looking like July, you said, for this fight? Yeah, you know, I think they want to kind of keep the, we're going to wait until after the Romero

and Johnson fight to see, because I think they want to keep them together. I don't know if we do it on the same night. But to give everybody a fair shake, you know, they don't want to, you know, have them fighting in May. And then, you know, if they're barring any injuries or whatever. So it's kind of fluid right now, but they're looking around July, late summer. Will you be there for that fight as well for Rumble and Romero? I don't think so, you know, because it's out of the, you know, the East Coast and Connecticut and stuff. And you got to do the whole quarantine, all that kind of stuff.

So who do you think wins that fight? Man, I don't know. You know, I think it's going to be an awesome fight, you know, but we always look forward to these fights that look all crazy on paper, right? And then it turns out not to be, you know, but I mean, Anthony's going to go in there and try to do what he does, which is throw bombs at you and knock you out. And Romero is just so unpredictable, you know.

We'll see if he uses his wrestling and all that. And Romero's great. So that's one of the ones I can't call at all because, you know, You know, Johnson has that it factor where he could end the fight anytime. And Romero's super athlete, you know, he's a good striker. He's even better wrestling, but he doesn't use his wrestling all the time, you know, but will he with Anthony? So that's what I'm excited.

I'm excited for that fight for sure. Yeah, it's going to be pure chaos. And I'm here for it, Ryan. Oh, yeah. So let me ask you about this. Corey, Corey had made some waves recently. He tweeted out something to the effect that, you know, UFC game a career, Bellator game the life that he's made, you know, all this extra money.

more, I think he said, like, double he made in 15 fights with the UFC with bonuses. He seems like, obviously, he's very happy with the decision to move to Belator. One, what do you make of those comments? And two, like, how do you feel about your decision to sign with Belator? Because we're, what, this is four years now, right? We're approaching the four-year anniversary of Ben hitting the paper. Yeah, I mean, he's right, you know, and that's why I came over, too, you know, and my first contract with them, and then I was able to renew my contract after I beat Fador,

you know, and he's definitely right. That's why I love it over here. We're treated really well. You know, on the financial side, too, you know, you have people look at what your disclosed pay is and all that. And they're like, oh, they're not even getting paid, you know, but that's, you know, that's BS. There's a bunch of other stuff going on.

And so I'm super happy with my contract for sure. And, you know, I have those same sediments. We saw Vadim Nemcoff get a win over Phil Davis. That was a fun fight. And you've been very clear that. You know, I know people are asking you about rematches and redemption tours and things like that, but you've been very clear. You have no preference who you fight in this Grand Prix.

If you get the rematch with him, great. If not, all good. You have your own things to worry about. What did you make of his performance against Phil? Yeah, he looked good. You know, he was, I was interested to see, you know, because in their first fight, it was a three-round fight, right? And Phil got him really, really tired and had him in bad positions in the third round.

And so I was excited to see, you know, a five-round fight with. them. And I was actually doing the analyst desk at the, at the fight, you know, we're talking about we're like, you know, Phil needs to go in there and he needs to threaten to take down, get a take down in one of the early rounds. Because we think he wins the later rounds, you know, but can he steal around in the beginning? But Nemcoff had really good output. You know, he had his foot on the gas a whole time. Good job. And then, you know, he has a, has a good little sneaky right hand, obviously his kicks. But I was impressed with his output. you know, and on the desk there, like I was saying, with Phil, you know, I was watching it.

And I had no, Phil like Phil a lot. And we're like, come on, Phil. Like, fate to take that. Go get one. Go try and make him think about it. It was just a little too late, you know. And then ended up being a closer fight than I thought it was. You know, I thought Knipkopf, you know, had maybe four to one, you know, in the rounds.

But he looked good. So after your win over Leota Machita, Scott Koker speaks with the media, and he said that they're planning to book an interim heavyweight title fight pretty soon and an announcement will be forthcoming. And, you know, we're approaching the two-year mark since you've been able to defend your title. But, you know, between the Grand Prix and the pandemic, like, that's completely understandable. The undisputed title will remain on your mantle. But when you found out that we're going to do an interim title, how did you react to that?

Yeah, I mean, that's fine. It is what it is. You know, we were prepared to defend the heavyweight title in early March. You know, we thought they were coming back in early. March was like, all right, we'll, you know, we'll defend the heavyweight title, obviously. I lost my light heavyweight. But then they said, you know, they merged with, you know, showtime or whatever. So it took a little longer. Then they were doing this Grand Prix and they asked if I to come down. So just like the heavyweight one, you know, they said, hey, you can keep your

light heavyweight belt, come up, do this grand prix, you know, and it would involve. So said the same thing with this one. You know, don't worry about the heavyweight. You're still the champ. You know, well, it might have to figure some things out. But please, you know, come join this tournament. So doing what Belator is asking. And I want to be part of this tournament anyway. So if they got to do an interim, you know, a fight for for interim champ for heavyweight, that's fine. It just makes the next fight bigger, two belts on the line, basically. So I'm fine with it. Yeah, it's just more of a, I'm not going to say glorified, but it's just kind of bonus to a number one contenders fight, right? Like fight is a little more money. Yeah. You know, I have the belt still, you know, and so it is what it is.

you know, so, and I kind of put that on their plate, too. I was supposed to fight Tim Johnson. I said, that's up to me. It's up to Beltor, obviously, but maybe Tim Johnson wants to wait, you know, for the, for the shot, you know, because, you know, we were pretty much almost booked with that, you know, so I guess they want to do that. So I assume it's him versus somebody else, you know, and so it is what it is. Who do you think should get that other spot, you think?

I don't know. You know, I'd have to kind of There's a few Looking at the rankings on The Russian dude maybe The Mulden I don't know I'd rather pronounce his name

But maybe those two Yeah I mean Tim should definitely be there There's no doubt about that Yeah Tim should be Tim's earned it You know we talked like said When we were almost booking that fight

You know I reached out then And said hey You know Let's do this We do the fight whatever Then that like heavy week deal came up So Yeah, having somebody else.

So let's discuss something that you've been announced to be a part of recently. You're now part of the clean energy team. You're joining the squad with Kill Cliff Energy Drink and get biofuel. So how did this all come together for you? And how excited are you being involved in something like this? Yeah, you know, I've always had a good relationship with sponsors. You know, some of the fighters will just, you know, turn and burn, basically, you know, wear a t-shirt for somebody, this and that. I mean, a lot of the clean energy crew from like the ethanol side, I've known and been with them for, man, almost like 12, 15 years.

And we became good friends or good people. And the same with the Kilcliffe, you know, kind of new Kilcliff team. But went out and met with those guys, you know, we all have the same mindset. And, you know, I love the Kilcliff stuff. There's CBD drinks, all that kind of stuff. So I, like I was saying, I don't like to just have a sponsor just to get a little check. You know, I want to be involved with these kind of companies, you know, and, and so, yeah, I'm enjoying it for sure. So what are some of the things that you're going to be doing sort of in representation of this whole thing, if you don't mind me asking?

Yeah, you know, well, Kill Clef always has some cool stuff going on. You know, we were going to do a dog sledding race, but I had my fight. So I miss that. So that's, I love, you know, doing stuff, you know, I want to be a part of, you know, their whole team, too, as far as going out and doing the dog sledding. stop doing this. You know, we, with the, um, the get wild feel, all those guys are up in South Dakota, you know, and we go up there. We'd have like a pheasant hunt and stuff like that. And I know these guys, there's a lot, a lot of them are my friends and all that. And so that's what I try to surround myself with. And I think part of this as well, because, you know, like myself, you're, you know,

we want to leave things behind as, as parents, as fathers, you know, it's kind of a no brain. Like, we want to create positive and safe environments for them. Leave them in a better place, so to speak. was that like a big part of this of you saying yes and agreeing to this and being a part of this as well? 100% you know with the get biofield you know it's bigger in the Midwest and and hopefully it'll start coming out you know I'm on the West Coast basically in Arizona hopefully start coming out and rolling out to the rest of the nation but yeah it's just clean renewable energy you know and you know I've been around a bunch of their plants in the Midwest and stuff like that and

So, you know, on that side and then, you know, with Kill Cliff, you know, they, their whole deal, too, is they give back to Navy Steel Foundation. And I work with a lot of the military and military groups and whatnot. We've given a lot to different, you know, donations, different charities, you know. I get to do with cool stuff, like went to the Navy Steel land warfare class, you know, this and that. So I just like being involved in that and just kind of helping out and giving back however I can. Best Kill Cliff flavor. I like the purple CBD drink. It's called the goat.

Yeah. That's perfect. So there you go. Can I just ask you about this? I don't know why. It's the new cycle. It drives you crazy. But did you watch the fight between Ben Ascgren and Jake Paul?

Was that something that was even on your radar? Well, I just saw like the, you know, the clips after. But I didn't watch. I didn't get the fight or anything like that, you know, but it was everywhere after. But yeah. just kind of a circus, you know. And I like Ben, but I kind of had a feeling that was going to happen. You know, Ben's not a boxer.

He's a great wrestler, great, you know, great on the ground. But going into a straight boxing match, you know, and Jake Paul, he, yeah, say what you say about him, whatever. But, you know, he's an athlete. He's big. He's taking it very seriously. And so I was like, man, this is going to be, it's not going to be very good. And then I didn't realize it was going to be that bad. but yeah it was bad now he's picking fights with dc man like what's going i know what's he was he

gonna come pick fights with you like what i mean for his angle you know he's he's getting the eyeballs you know he's getting paid so more power to him you know but uh a lot of the mma communities they're not too happy no i mean he's found a niche people are talking yeah so i mean i guess success for his end but yeah now we have to keep talking about it i don't know but people are going to you know they don't always have to like you, just like the heel, right? If people hate you, they want to pay, watch your fight to watch you get beat up, and that's how it works, and he's doing it right. Great having the Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader on the show for the first time.

Love the Grand Prix. This light heavyweight Grand Prix is just crazy. The fight with Corey Anderson will be fun. He's saying sometime in July. We'll see. I know an official date hasn't been announced yet, but we get the final opening round matchup. Next Friday, May 7th, Anthony Johnson versus Yol Romero.

I can't believe we're seeing this fight. And I'll be there for that event. I'm very excited about that. So lots of coverage. My first event working for M.A. fighting, then I'm going on the road to cover. So hopefully this is the first of many, and I'm excited about that. But of course, we get another big week in MMA this week.

One on TNT4 coming up on Wednesday. Ang Lang Seng defends his light heavyweight title against the man who him for his middleweight title rainier de ritter that is an interesting matchup of course vatally big dash tested positive for coven 19 he was out of the fight de ritter taking this fight on really short notice a little over a week so that's a fun fight eddie alvarez is back after his dq loss got overturned to a no contest that was interesting news and the pfl is back on thursday after a wild night to kick off their season anthony pettis lost a clay collard we saw bububbs we saw bubba Jenkins beat Lance Palmer.

We saw Marcyne Held lutes to Natasha Schult. I mean, holy moly, crazy. Crazy. Three massive upsets. Of course, the main event for Thursday's card for the PFL is Roy McDonald's PFL debut. It's finally happening. Takes on Curtis Millinder.

UFC is back on Saturday as well. UFC Vegas 25. Now one headline by Dominic Reyes versus Yuri Prahashka. That's going to be a fun card. Got some interviews coming up for that card as well. You'll find those later on this week. on the MA Fighting YouTube channel. We got one more guest to get to,

but before that happens, just once again, a big thank you to all of you for watching and listening to the program, to all of our programs. The post-fight coverage on Saturday night, really happy with the numbers there.

Thank you so much for that. It means a lot. And a big thank you to Casey Lydden, of course, on the production. Cool Alex and Jose Young's in the graphics and the social media. Just heroes all around. But listen,

have a heck of a week, everybody. We wrap things up with my chat from this past Thursday. with Frank Meir. All right, so real quick, just to address what I'll surely see in the comments. I'm on location right now in Boston at my parents' house, so I'm not in Command Center 2.0. So apologies for the different look for the lack of video and audio quality on my end.

But let us say hello once again to the former UFC heavyweight champion, Frank Meir, who stepped into the boxing ring this past Saturday. He took on a former two-time Cruiserate World Champion and Steve Cunningham. and he went the distance with him on the Triller Fight Club car, which is something he should be incredibly proud of. Frank Meir, how are you, sir? I'm doing well, and actually I thought the fight was four to two. I had it 56, 54, or excuse me, 58, 56 when I was walking in the corner.

And I was like, well, maybe one of the rounds I kind of stole at the end because I landed that good shot the end of the third. So I'm thinking, oh, maybe one went my way and I got this to a draw. And then when they started announcing the scores of 60, 54, I'm like, oh, come on, guys. Really? not one round. I mean, I know it's boxing versus MMA, but be fair. Yeah, I would agree with that. I thought it was a little bit closer than the scorecards indicated, but congratulations, man. I know it's not typical to congratulate somebody after a loss,

but I feel in this case, it's completely warranted. How does this experience all feel a few days later? You know, it's been a great experience. You know, obviously my stock has gone up more in this loss than most of my victories. And I think that's because really, honestly, people are really appreciative of the journey. They realized the battle that I went out there and fought, what I put on the line. Obviously, they can see how hard I've been working to go out there and do this on a technical side, on the nutrition side, on a lifting side. And so, you know, I think that's actually probably a good trend. There was a lot of things that happened that night that I think are bad examples to our children. And I think that at least that people can appreciate that going out there and being a warrior, regardless of the results, is something that we can admire in our culture.

and I'm very proud to represent that and help guide other people to go and say, hey, look, man, it's not always about winning and losing. You know, sometimes it's about how you play the game and how you fight and how you show up. And those are things that are within our control. So I feel like that takes stress off of people to go, hey, just go out through and perform as well as you can

and let the chips fall where they may and look at my situation that I'm at. I agree with a lot of what you just said. So I'm curious, when you say that there are certain things that happened that weren't great examples for the children, And what do you mean specifically? Well, I get that it was also a concert. And there's a certain element to the concert, you know, genre that, you know,

that maybe would make a lot of parents of their, you know, 11 and 15-year-old kids uncomfortable. I've never felt uncomfortable ringing my children to a fight. And my kids go to concerts all the time. But the atmosphere and kind of how that the, especially, you know, the pundits, whatever you want to call them, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the power of the hosts were basically behaving. The atmosphere they would have said, if that had been a sold out arena,

I don't think I'd be comfortable having my children there, to say the least, you know, as far as, you know, hey, look, I'm not anti-drugs at all as far as weed. You know, all the more power to you. Personally, it's not my cup of tea, but that's just because it makes me lazy and I want to just eat and sleep. And I already have the urges to do that.

But I have no urge with other people. I think it should completely be legal. I'm all, I'm very pro-marijuana, but I don't know, just everybody being high on a show, you know, drinking and hanging out and party. And I'm just like, ah, that's a little too much, guys, you know what I mean? I mean, I think there has to be certain people have a certain character that we completely get and understand, like Snoop Dog. I get it. That's him. That's who he is.

And, you know, if you hire Snoop Dog and you expect something else, you're the idiot. You know what I mean? And he brings a huge fan base, and he's the cool guy. But as far as, like, some of the other guys that should have been brought off. And I don't think that's, I don't really blame Triller for that. You know, they brought Al Bernstein on to be a legitimate boxing host. They brought on De La Jolla to be a legitimate guy. Obviously, you can't control in what shape he showed up.

But I still wonder how come the producer listening in watching us and says, go, hey, man, let's go and let him know that he's having a rough night. We're going to cut it short. We're going to get him out of here because, you know, he's embarrassing us. He's embarrassing himself. And he's just not, he's, you know, he's upsetting a lot of people. I mean, if you're sitting there with your phone, you can see that it almost overshadowed my fight that I'm having as MMA versus boxing in a boxing match. And now the topic became how awful and what the hell is Oscar on.

Yeah, it's funny because I talked to Ray Flores, who is one of the play-by-play guys about that situation. You said basically like, listen, Oscar's not fighting for two months. He was having fun. So I kind of let him go. And, you know, maybe in hindsight he regrets that. But is it true? Yeah, I know. because there still have to be a professionalism to show up.

I mean, hey, you want to cut loose and let go. There's people that have met me out when I'm out after a fight. I have a couple drinks. I've commentated shows. And afterwards, if you see me in a bar, I'm having a beer. I'm smoking a cigar. That's when it's time to play. I think that was a bad example to show children that you don't play while you're supposed

to be working. I mean, we can all have fun while we're at work. I enjoy my job and I commentate. You know, people can hear me in the past for ACB, you know, and then commentating with Brian Lacey, we were making jokes, having fun. But as far as cracking out the champagne before the show's over with,

no, you don't party before it's done. Like, get your work done, be a professional. And then, hey, cut loose and enjoy yourself. So I'm curious because one of my colleagues was there covering the card, and he said he could hear the commentary throughout the surround sound speakers in the arena. Could you hear his commentary while you were fighting?

I did. and it was distracting to me a little bit. I was more upset when they were talking shit about Cunningham. You know, like now, you know, first he's going to murder me. And I not expected it to the first round or two. But then as I'm listening to them talk about Cunningham, it's like, wait a minute, you guys aren't giving me credit for what I'm doing. You're just trying to say that he's no good, that this guy is a chump.

Like, to me, it was just such a loser mentality on how to commentate the fight that I'm like, really, I would expect more from somebody who's been in here at the highest levels. So that was upsetting. And then the other thing is that the judges, they got to own up on that. Really not one round you gave me because you were listening to the commentary. And it was being piped in and it influenced the judges. One of the judges, I think, had it the most correct when he had, again, the 58, 56 score, you know, four rounds to two, you know. But as far as it was a shutout, six rounds, I didn't win a single round.

Like that I didn't agree with. And I felt that that was completely on the commentators. Well, it's not their fault that they're influencing. the judges should not be influenced by that. They need to channel out and just focus on the fight itself. But that's what happens. When we last spoke, you talked about the challenges that it was getting into the boxing and you were starting to enjoy it.

So I'm curious, like what was more difficult, like the training, the buildup to the fight itself, the preparation, or kind of the in-fight mentality where, you know, it's not MMA, it's boxing. You can't just go in there and shoot for takedowns, things like that. Like, what was more difficult for you? That actually was. It was funny because, you know, You train hard when you're sparring in the gym, but it's never 100%.

There's never that I am trying to completely put this guy to sleep. And obviously, that trigger gets pulled during the fight. So it put me in an elevated state of mind. And then I found out that I was battling myself. Not on the outside, as far as my jab, my cross. A lot of those things are extremely similar to what I do in MMA. And actually, I was using the same boxing. I would use an MMA fight.

I didn't really specialize to be a boxer. I was being an MMA fighter using my MMA skills. that were legal, but then when I got inside, I thought it would be easy to shut that off, and it wasn't. And it made it be a little bit slower on the inside. All good. Sorry, you guys see me? I did. There we go.

There we go. So anyway, so that was a battle. Every time I was inside, not holding the back of his head when I threw punches, not digging an overhook, turning and throwing shots. even so not so much just not trying to throw a knee or an elbow, which I accidentally think I threw one over. And they were like, great. But not kicking, but just my brain seeing it and identifying, I'm having to constantly say, no, don't do that.

Nope, can't do that. Stop, stop. Because the one thing about the state of Georgia, the Athletic Commission, the rule on the books is if I get disqualified by a foul, so if I foul my opponent, and it could be unintentional as far as, let's say I step behind his leg and I throw a punch and I sweep him. Well, he blows his knee, fights over with it.

That's deemed a foul. I lose my whole purse. And I just knew that would be a difficult conversation to have with the wife. So that distracted me a little bit during the fight. Maybe after a few more boxing matches, I can clear my mind of that. Because I don't typically have that much of an issue in Jiu-Jitsu. And when I wrestle, not to hit people. But boxing is just, you know, very similar to fighting as far as this type of intensity of hitting each other.

And I was definitely struggling not to do MMA. Did you kind of fall in love with it? Because it sounds like you want to do it some more. Well, I think it's definitely something that made me. Even today, I was sparring at Seneca, and now this is the first time I got to spar with kicks and take downs altogether. And right off the bat, I mean, my legs felt a little fatigue from throwing kicks, but I threw a lot of high volume to get kind of break the ice again.

But as far as the improvement, my hands are so much better right now, that that helped build me as a martial artist. So, of course, I'm going to continue to do boxing matches. And actually, I'm going to add in, I would like to do some kickboxing matches because I think those will also relate very well to MMA. You said one of the most important reasons you took this opportunity was that you wanted to make your children proud. And I know your daughter Bella was in your corner. You wanted to make her proud. And you wanted her to say that she was proud of you when you left the squared circle after a job well done.

What did she say to you? What was your family's reaction after the fight itself? Oh, they were ecstatic. They were very much like, wow, dad, you know. You know, my wife even said, she goes, honestly, Frank, I was like, just don't get knocked down the first round. Don't get knocked down the first round. You know, and then the second round hits. And she says, oh, my God, you made it into the second round.

You know, and then every round, she just got more excited, more excited. And then she was just almost ready to start crying for me. She said, you wanted to go out there and show that you could box with a world champion. And you're in the heat of what you love. She sees how much I sacrifice. And so, you know, my wife's in there crying going, like, he's doing it. He's living his life right now. What have you made?

I mean, because you know being an MMA so long, the MMA fans, the MMA community, it's almost like the hardest group to please and get positive feedback from. But you've gotten a lot of praise, a lot of props as the kids say, how has that made you feel? It feels good. You know, obviously being recognized as somebody that can represent the martial arts community because I'm an MMA fighter. You know, a lot of times some people get that confused. They call me a jihitsu guy. I'm like, guys, I've done well in jih Tijuana, but I'm as much as a jih Tzu guy now as I'm a boxer. I wouldn't start calling myself a professional boxer, even though technically I am.

M. M.MA is my love, and that's what I really want to push up to the forefront and represent. And so the fact that I took on this role and represented mixed martial arts for a second time of my life, where I was the guy versus, you know, the MMA guy, you know, holding our honor. You know, I'm glad that I was able to represent. And especially, obviously, you know, I was disappointed with what happened to Asterin. But had we gone 0 and 2 that night as far as I know I still lost, but I feel like at least we put a win in the MMA market for me for what I was able to do to help pull the weight for the rest of the guys.

Yeah, I mean, if you're an M.A fan, obviously the main event, it was an unfortunate ending. But I remember that the last conversation we had, you said you had a lot of respect for what Jake Paul has been doing. He's been taking it seriously. And he goes out and stops Ben Askeran in under two minutes. What did you think of it overall? Yeah, actually, I was impressive.

Look, Jake Paul, you know, Logan Paul, they've made their name by being controversial and putting out different videos and their marketing. My cup of tea, no, it's not my style. But you know what? I realize that there's lots of different people in the world. There's all different kinds of styles. There's different pizza for everybody, right?

And so, but the one thing that I can say about, you know, them is that they train hard. He shows up to the gym. He puts the work and he does what his coaches. You know, I'm friends with BJ Flores. The guy does whatever he asks him to do. He goes, hey, we got to wait. Today, you know, we're going for a run, we're going for a run. I'm going to have you spar these two pros, three rounds each.

He does it. And so that in itself is a good example to the rest of the guys. Like, hey, he's jumping in there in boxing, and he might not have taken the most conventional route, but he's paying his dues. He's fighting and training hard. He's bleeding. He's sweating. I have nothing but love and respect for that.

Would you compete on another trillic card like this again? Yeah. there's a few things that I would like them to make some adjustments on that I think just needs to be brought to their attention. Obviously, they have Melissa Henrichs, who's phenomenal on the fight side. You know, their matchmaker, matchmaker Peter was phenomenal work with. So a lot of the people had all the best of intentions. But this was a crazy monster that no one had ever been a part of. I mean, so you have, you know, production down there that's responsible for the music video or whatever, the music industry aspect of it.

You have the commentators and what they're doing with the celebrities. then you have the fight production trying to go on. And all these guys are trying to intermingle and work together. I mean, at one point, I was impressed it actually went off, just because I've never seen so many moving parts. And so are there some hiccups? Absolutely. You know, I would like the show to be able to be watched

a little bit more of a general audience. I feel that they hit their market audience. But I'm also a little disappointed I feel like, and not from, you know, a lot of it has to do with what Oscar did. But I mean, a lot of the, I think it was a little too excessive with the weed and everything else and the drinking and the party. And it's like, hey, you know what, you know, you're alienating a lot of our mainstream America right now. You know, let's kind of, you know, maybe tone it down a little bit. Let's have flavor to this.

But we don't have to be it to where, you know, as a parent, I'm feeling I'm comfortable if my kids are watching this. I know you were originally supposed to fight Antonio Tarver. Is there a part of you that that was kind of bummed you didn't get that opportunity? Or is it almost better that you got to fight Steve Cunningham, who, A lot of people figured was a tougher matchup for you. Oh, Steve was absolutely at this point in his career, a tougher matchup. Yeah, I feel like, you know, Tarver was a much more winnable prospect forming than Cunningham. But that being said, you know, I mean, you know, Tarver has much more of a household name.

You know, look, he has wins over Roy Jones Jr. You know, he was a light heavyweight champ of the world. You know, even as an amateur, he was a world champion in 96. and he was also in movies. I mean, he got to do the movie role, you know, a pretty major role in Rocky Six, which I really loved that movie. It was awesome.

And so, you know, as far as name value, it was huge, but Triller brought so many eyes on it that it kind of made up for the fact that I didn't have that superstar marquee name. And I think Cunningham was a phenomenal dance partner. You saw somebody that, like, now I've exchanged information with them. Like, next time I'm getting close to a boxing match,

I would love to be able to go out there and spa with him and pick his brain and use him as somebody to, to help set me up as far as make me a better boxer. So I know you just fought on Saturday, and you know an MMA, we let you savor the flavor for very little time before we ask what's next. But do you kind of have an idea? Like, I know you signed with BKFC last year. Do you think your next fight will be with them?

Like, how do you kind of see this next step going in terms of your competition? Yeah, I see the BKFC or actually Malki might have something going here in June. I don't want to let too much out. I don't know how much he doesn't want to talk about, but possibly a fight and Florida where I would really love to be able to fight because, you know, my father's from Cuba. I have a lot of extended family there in Florida. And so I would like to be able to go there and possibly do an MMA match next or BKFC match with the bare knuckle, which if I do the bare knuckle, I'm honestly really interested in showcasing

against a high-level boxer. So that way I can also show that, hey, look, if we're both on our stand-up hands, if you let me go ahead and hit from the clinch, this isn't going to be as close as it was in our boxing match. Will you watch UFC 261 on Saturday? Of course. Yeah, I can bubble all the fights. I do the best I can.

There you go. Thoughts on the main event, on the main event between Usen and Amazol. Is there any, can you see this fight going any differently than the first time? I know they got full camps now, but do you see this fight going any differently?

Yeah, I think that, look, you know, Ousman's a monster. That guy is phenomenal. And, you know, right now had to put money war to him.

He's somebody who's a very underrated so the guy's grappling is able to be good enough to hopefully he can stay off Usman and make this a stand-up war, which Ousman's awesome at too. Great switch dancing, cutting different levels. But, you know, I think that I think it's going to be still a hard fight.

for Motha to be much closer, and I wouldn't be surprised if he pulls it off. Frank, I appreciate the time, man. I know you're getting ready to go train again because you're a wild man, but I think I speak for pretty much everybody in the MMA community, in the media space. We tip the proverbial cap to you, sir,

for your showing on Saturday. Well done. I know you wanted to go in there and get the victory, but this is a victory in itself. So congratulations again. Thank you for the time. And all the best to you. Congratulations to Pellas, you go.

You got a second mic. Kids, he was asking, Did I win? Did you guys as far as, did I earn your pride? Yeah. We're all training together, hanging out as a family, and they say they're proud of me, so we're good. I won.

That's better than any win in itself, Meg. Better than any amount of money or anything else, yes. Oh, by the way, did I see Bella added to the trophy case? Is that accurate? As far as... Fastling? Didn't she win some... Oh, yeah, Bella did.

She did. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that and spoke to you about that yet. I mean, I've done interviews on it. Bella became the national champ here two weekends ago. Was it three weekends ago? She won nationals, which was a phenomenal match. I couldn't have ridden it better.

Like, I'm like, Bella, when they make a movie about your life, this scene is going to make people cry. Because here she goes out there. She's going to get her headwrap. She's more established as a wrestler is won things longer than Bella has. She goes out there and they give her a take down at the beginning, which I've watched a couple. a couple time.

It was a takedown. But so she's on bottom. The girl saw that the shoulder was taped and was smart. She went after Bella and was able to turn her twice. Bella basically spent the first period not getting pinned, you know, as the clock ran out. And then, so we're down eight to zero. Bella gets up. McGregor, her wrestling coach fired her up, talked to her about what needed to be done.

I calmed her back down when she looked over at me. I was like, hey, just start over, man. Just, you know, reset. And she went out there, picked top, which. People in no wrestling, you normally don't do that. And she went out there and stuck her in 30 seconds. And the girl was a legitimately tough girl. So, I mean, to do what she did to win the way she did, like, I mean, it had me.

I went in the locker room. I went to cry for those. I didn't embarrass her. Amazing. Congratulations to her. Congratulations to you, Frank. I appreciate the time and enjoy the training, my man. Thank you so much.

All right, man. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.