MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 62 | The Korean Zombie, Chase Hooper, Ray Flores & Sean Woodson

Episode Date: June 8, 2021

This week on What the Heck, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck chats with "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung (5:55), along with coach Eddie Cha, to preview his upcoming UFC Vegas 29 headliner with Dan Ige on June 19 and contemplating retirement after his most recent loss to Brian Ortega. Boxing announcer Ray Flores (22:42), who was part of the international broadcast team Sunday night in Miami, recaps Floyd Mayweather vs. Jake Paul and gives his reaction to Jake Paul's next booking with Tyron Woodley on Aug. 28. Chase Hooper (47:34) previews his UFC 263 matchup with Steven Peterson and talks working with Stephen Thompson and Ryan Hall in preparation for Saturday's featherweight bout. Finally, Sean Woodson (1:17:20) discusses his split decision win over Youssef Zalal at UFC Vegas 28 and why he wants to fight Josh Culibao next. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What the Heck with Mike Heck on MMAfighting.com. Now here is your host, Mike Heck. What the heck? Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of What the Heck here on MMAfighting.com. I am Mike Heck. Thank you for joining us once again this week.

Coming off a very busy weekend in the combat sports world, we're going to discuss that. We got UFC 263 coming up this Saturday. We're going to be discussing that. That is a great event. Two title fights, we get Israel Adasanya versus Martin Vittori for the middleweight title, rematch. And then we get the flyway title rematch. I'm so excited for that one.

Davis and Figurato versus Brandon Moreno. I think this is one of the top five fights I've been looking forward to the entire year. Of course, the return of Nathan Diaz to the Octagon. He's going to fight Leon Edwards, big fight right there. The whole card is really good. Blahmaa versus Damia Maya, Paul Craig versus Jamal Hill. And I believe that there is a unbelievably understated women's flyweight out that is just not getting enough love between Lauren Murphy and Joanne Calderwood

because the next title contender, no doubt, is coming out of that fight. So it's a really good card, really looking forward to it. We had UFC Vegas 28 this past Saturday. Jarzania Rosenstrike knocks out Augusto Sakai at the buzzer in round number one. He is back on track. we'll see where he goes in this heavyweight division Martine Taborah got a big win over Wall Harris just your heart breaks for Wall Harris

because it seemed like things were heading in the right direction Tybora ends up turning the tables taking the momentum and stopping Walt Harris so yeah if you watch the event you watched that event for a long time there was some good of course Santiago Ponsadivio versus Miguel Baezza was absolutely unbelievable there were some interesting fights

some fights that were not that exciting, but it is what it is. All roads, we're pointing to Glendale, Arizona, and this Saturday, UFC 23. Unless we forget what happened on Sunday. Floyd Mayweather versus Logan Paul. We all got, we got soccered in. Let's be honest.

But deep down, we knew it was going to happen, right? We knew exactly what was going to happen. We just thought Floyd would probably put Logan away at some point. Like, it looked like he could. could have at any point in that fight, at least in the second half of it from probably rounds four through eight. It looks like Floyd was like one flurry away from ending the fight, but it doesn't matter. Floyd's the guy who made a lot of money in this fight for an exhibition and there you go. If you bought it and you didn't like it, sorry, if you loved it, great. I mean, it was just fun. It was

a fun thing. It was an exhibition fight. For those who were looking for Hagler-Herns, it just wasn't going to happen. It just wasn't. But whatever. Hopefully we don't have to talk about that anymore. I mean, I'm happy. I mean, it's just been a traffic juggernaut. Like the amount of tension that that fight received is unbelievable. And I'm just, I'm kind of surprised. I really am. I'm really surprised by how much attention that fight got, but we'll see what happens. Happened on Showtime. Chad Johnson, former NFL wide receiver made his boxing debut. He went the distance with Brian Maxwell.

It was an interesting night if he got it. And there you go. We'll move on. But there's a lot going on in the heck household right now. We got the dog that's been here for a week. He's a little crazy. My kids being a little loud and obnoxious right now. So we're just going to rifle through this lineup right now.

At least the announcement, the interviews are not going to be rifled through it. But at least we're going to announce the lineup really quick. and then we'll get to our first conversation coming up on the program. All right, so wrap it us up this week. One of the aforementioned winners from UFC Vegas 28, Sean Woodson returned to the Octagon after about a year away from it, beat Yusuf Salal, split decision win. Yusuf Salah was not happy about it.

It was a close fight. I thought Sean Woodson did just enough to earn that decision. So we'll get his thoughts, what the last year of his career and his life have been like since that lost to Julian Arosa, what he took away from that fight and so forth. And so on. Chase Hooper is going to join us.

Very excited to catch back up with Chase Hooper. He is fighting this Saturday at UFC 263, taking on Stephen Ocho Peterson, his first fight since the win over Peter Barrett in December. And he's, a lot has happened in his life since we last conversed. The last time we spoke was probably like two days after the win over Peter Barrett. But a lot has changed. He's acquired some new fun hobbies.

He's engaged. and he spent some time training with some killers. We'll get more information on that ahead of his fight this Saturday coming up on the show. Ray Flores will join us. He's back. If he's back, you know that something crazy happened in the boxing world. He was part of the broadcast team for the international audience for Mayweather v. Paul. He was in the building of Miami.

We will get his thoughts on how that fight all played out, the reactions to it all, and his busy schedule. the man's got a lot going on. But first, let us kick things off with a man who will be headlining next Saturday's UFC event. UFC Vegas 29 taken on Dan Ige. That is a fantastic fight at 145 pounds looking to get back on track and joining us for the first time here on what the heck alongside his longtime coach Eddie Chah. Let us welcome in the Korean zombie. All right, we are less than two weeks away from UFC Vegas 29 at the apex, which will feature a very intriguing main event at 145 pounds between Dan Ige and my guest at this time, the Korean

zombie Chan Sung Jung. And he's also being joined by his coach, Eddie Cha, who will join us and translate, which I greatly appreciate. Gentlemen, thank you for doing this. How are you? We're good. How are you? I'm doing great. And I appreciate the time very much. We're a weaker and a half or so away from this fight as we record first fight since the matchup with Brian Ortega. So Chan Sung, How excited are you to get back on the horse against a really tough opponent in Dan Ige? I still. Oh,

I think there's a title to run to do that way to be able to show you to that show you to that kind of can show you have to be able to. He says, he's excited to get back in the ring. He still feels like a title contention is possible for him. And, you know, this fight is a first step to that direction. The fight with, or, Ortega didn't go your way.

And, you know, from reading various articles, it seemed like you took the loss pretty hard. And you kind of had to take a deep look in the mirror after the fact. Is that accurate? And if so, can you elaborate on that further? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a lot of time. So, like, it's a very important,

but I've never, like, in Korea from I think I'm thinking I'm going to go to go to

go to that game to get so more more than more more than

more than he said losing is always hard whether it was the Ortega

or anything like that so that part is true he might have underestimated

he made a slight mistake of actually running camp in in Korea so that's

why he's back in States which were 2 and 0 when you camp out here

and just looking to turn things around you know it's not his first loss hopefully it's his last but it's just a part of fighting and he's ready to show his skill set this fight

Eddie question for you what do you think could have been done differently in that fight against Brian Ortega was there like something that you saw that you were just like man if we just did this I know it's like hindsight and the fight is over and it's behind you guys but is there something that you saw that you were like man if we were just able

to like implement this a little bit better maybe things would have gone our way Yeah, I mean, we could have started a little bit faster. It was our intention to kind of feel out round one and really pick it up in round two, which he did. And then, you know, he just got caught a little bit with that elbow. But, you know, I know zombie wanted to wrestle that camp and do all sorts of stuff. We kind of prevented him from doing that. But like that might have been a slight mistake as well.

And he has a great ground game. He's got a great wrestling game and everything like that. So, you know, lesson learned. you know in hindsight it's it's easy to say we should have done this we should have done that but uh i feel like it takes away from brian's win i thought he fought great he did what he had to do and so you know we'll just kind of leave it at that fair enough i appreciate the candor there and chensang when did you sort of like turn the corner and say you know what enough thinking about the brian ortega fight let's get a new fight on the books let's get back in there and do this

thing? Well, right, that's not that I'm going to get to get that I'm going to make it, but if I didn't not, I'm going to be back and then I'm going to be able to be it that I'm not going to be able to get on track kind of right away after the fight. He had a slight doubt of possibly retiring, but then that didn't last too long. He wanted to go back in there and show his skill sets and what he wasn't able to

to do that fight and get back to training. Why were you thinking about retiring? I know you changed your mind, but why did it get to that place? Yeah, I think that's not. I know, all the people who get to give them, if all people are just going to have to, he thinks most athletes, when you take a loss

like that, especially in the higher levels, everybody thinks about slightly retiring. He truly believes, that. So it doesn't last too long. It does definitely creep in your head. Yeah, especially in this crazy sport of ours. And now you're going to fight Dan Igay, who had the loss to Calvin Cater last year, but then he bounced back with a 22-second knocko win over Gavin Tucker. And then after that performance, he called you out, Chan Song. It didn't take long for the fight to get put on the books. How did you react to Dan's performance and then him calling you out after the fact?

Now, now in the headway's in a lot-dang-with-sought-sar-not-sar-not-harmes. Other rankers are all for other rankers, but, but, but, well, what, whatever that's a good performance and that can't have that I think that's a

I think so, everybody in the division right now is either locked up with somebody, they all got opponents lined up, so with Danny Gay's last performance. he feels like he's an adversary opponent. And there's nobody really left right now. I mean, Debeves retired and injured,

Holloway, was waiting for the belt. Yaira got him. So if you look at the top five, I mean, Ortega's getting the title shot. And so all that was literally left, Cater wasn't ready to perform. He was still, concussion, protocol.

There was nobody really left, but he gave him to fight. Technically kind of was the only fight to make and that made sense. Did the UFC approach him about a different fight, maybe with Cater or anybody? Like before finding out that it was going to take a little bit extra time for him to get his mind right

after the Holloway fight? They did. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I know it just didn't pan out. I don't think the timeline worked, but yeah, they did offer him and a couple of one other guy, but they were both weren't ready.

And for zombie, Do you feel like this is the right fight to come back to after that last fight? Like, does this one get you excited? Does it get your blood pumping? Or like Eddie just said, is it just kind of, this is the fight I have to take right now? Well, I'm trying to try to try to try. You think that's a fight. I don't know.

I don't know. I'm just going to be any guy around a son's who to fight. He thinks it's the fight he has to take. in order to get a title shot. Like we talked about, there's not really anybody left. And he's excited to fight Dan. He thinks he's an adversary opponent. He thinks it's going to be a good fight.

And, you know, every fight, you've got to be focused and kind of looking forward to it. Otherwise, you're going to go in underestimating a guy. We're not underestimating Dan by any means. I think he's a really, really good fighter. He was on a six-fighting industry. The kid is really good. I mean, the guys is beat.

His record speaks for itself. He's right number seven. He's a dangerous, dangerous kid. I know you want to get back to the belts. That's a big goal of yours. How close do you think you are? Like if you beat Dan Igay, where does that put you in this division? First, actually, I'm going to say, you're going to say to Halloween with

talking to say. Anyway, Halloween Guy with Ruii and champion, Oetga, and now, but now, but so, so, it's going to be to see. But, what, what, who can be a problem will be, what you have could have been so we're going to

that that's a thing that's a yeah his goal

was actually call out all the way after this fight but Hollowey

got you here and Ortega's fighting the champ Mokanowski and

we just don't know what's going to happen with injuries and the division

and the way it's mixing up but he's just kind of kind of see how it plays out

can't control anything like that so his his goal is just to win

first once he he beats Dan and then see how everything else plays out, and then we're kind of go from there. And Eddie, obviously, Extreme Couture has been a staple of the sport for a little while. Now, Eric Nixick has become one of the premier coaches in the sport.

He's got some world champions in the camp right now. I know a fight is a fight. You get to treat every fight as such, but for you, is there a little extra motivation being able to coach against a guy like Eric? No, I know. I know Eric pretty well. I know. There's no bad blood or anything like that.

We've actually used one of his guys for a camp for Eric Anders' last camp, a rider. And nothing of good things to say about his camp, his gym, Eric. I think Danny is a class hack. I've been watching almost all his interviews and stuff like that. You know, like, so it's just a fight, you know, like we're on other side right now. But at the end, I hope we can all shake hands and go have a beer or do something else. I mean, we've competed against all the top coaches in the world. You know, it's a small industry.

So when you get to a certain level, you're going to compete against everybody. But yeah, I mean, it's definitely a challenge, but we're not fighting the camps. We have a general idea of what they might run and things like that. But it's going to boil down to the individual, make them the right decisions and win the right things in the cage. You know, I truly believe coaching only goes so far. The fighter is going to make the difference in this. He's going to have to push through. He's going to have to make the reads, you know, in certain things.

And we'll definitely help him make adjustments. But at the end of the day, this is why the fighters get all the credit, because they deserve it. How do we get this thing done, Chen Song? How do you close the show next Saturday against Dan Igay? How do we get this thing done? Go to the next year, how much do you can never? I always plan on this season to think of it. But I'm like doing, if I'm like sparring a lot of stuff, it won't knockout,

So I'm just going to go to decision and finish it. We train that way for camp the whole time, but he's not surprised if you get the knockout or if he gets a submission or anything like that. He feels like he can go any which way. I'm sure they feel the same way as well. They both have wins on the ground and fields and so forth. So this is what makes it an intriguing fight.

Everyone thinks it's going to be a banging fight. Might be a wrestling match, might be a jit-two match, who knows. But anything can happen, and that's why the sport is so exciting. You got two guys like that and going on the stage. You're 19. So I'm glad you hear. There's a few other things I did want to ask you about, Chen Song.

First of all, I was so fascinated by the video you put out about different ways that fighters can cheat on the scales during the way-ins, like different tricks fighters can use to, like, defeat the scale. What inspired you to make that video? You're going to cheating on fights. We appreciate it.

We had that out of the same time. that things like that, like that, but those are not going to not really if you're not if you're not going to he just said he wants to just keep it a clean sport,

you know, we have usada for the drug testing, the PEDs and stuff like that and the commission is technically in charge of watching the weight scale and stuff, but he just wants it to be fair and kind of educate all the corners, everybody to actually look for those kind of teams because he just doesn't feel like it's fair. He doesn't do that.

You know, maybe I told him to kind of be careful, like, now you're throwing people under the bus but he's like, I didn't say any names. No, you're not, but it's still, I'm sure your peers aren't going to appreciate this. But that's the way he is. He's always done things the right way. He's never done anything

to break the sports, rules, or anything like that. And so he just wanted to kind of educate the sport, the people, knowing what to look for. So it's a lot harder to get out of cheat, so to speak. Yeah, it was wild to watch that whole video. Yeah, I was like, what?

I was like, I didn't even think that was even possible, especially like at this level because now there's, there's only like a person or two up on the stage. So I'm like, how could you even do this now? But I guess we'd be surprised, right? Yeah, I've known a lot of those tricks and I've heard a lot of stories. I've seen them happen, but there's no way I'd definitely speak on that, you know? Right, right, right, right.

Do you have a prediction for the title fight between Volkanowski and Ortega? I mean, you faced one of those men. Who do you think wins that fight? Volcanovarez-Otrega, too. Outski-Wiq. Actually, just until, he could be able to win it's got to think.

But, now he's the possibility of, there's a lot of it. Volcanoesky's a takedown, take-downs, but not yet. So, so if you're going to sling to go to end up

whether Oletga's both both can't make a damage to be a long as

a lot of can't be able to get to win can't be a bunch while back

he thought that Mokanowski would be able to win that fight but the more and more

he kind of thinks about it and looks about looked at that fight he thinks Otega has a

good chance of winning the switching stance the late kicks he doesn't think that Ortecolnikov, he will most likely try to take him down if he does. It might be a mistake, who knows, you know,

but if he keeps it standing, the switching stance and lay kicks and the punching pop that Ortega has, he definitely has the chance in that fight. And then last thing from me, after getting a win for BKFC, Leonard Garcia officially announces retirement from combat sports.

And obviously, you've had some incredible moments in the cage with Leonard Garcia. The first fight was one of the greatest fights of all time. And then you caught him with the first twister submission in UFC history. So I wanted to get your thoughts on Leonard retiring in those

two incredible moments, those fights that you had with him. Leonard Garcia got hit so. You got two-bomaching see a shot to have. I think of him. How do you think? Thank you. Renner-Garcia, I mean,

never ever, never, and I've never, even, but, not even not even kind of

kind of of me, so, so, unta-ta-and-a- when a little sort of

something, there's a little and then now, we're going to get to be able to be able to He said, yeah, he's had two amazing fights with him.

He hasn't had a relationship where he was able to talk to him or they felt like they called each other or anything in between those fights or anything like that. But he does feel a sense of closest to him, the ring time and the fight for that they did share. And so he was a little, like maybe sad a little bit that he retired. But at the same time, it's a part of aging in the sport is that we do have to retire. But he does feel a sense of like a brotherhood, kind of a close. that he has and he shared the ring with him.

So he wishes them the best. And he did hear about him again. Great having the Korean zombie on the show. And Eddie Chah as well, just two brilliant minds in the sport. And it's just great to have him. It's great to be able to pick Eddie Chah's brains about stuff. And Korean zombie is just a guy that I've wanted to have on for a while,

especially since if you haven't seen that video, there are English captions in it. It's on the Korean zombie's YouTube page. It's him kind of rifling through. and going through, we wrote about it on enemifighting.com as well, like different ways you can cheat on the scale. And it's like pretty fascinating. I'm just like, wow, people actually do that. And he shows, he actually shows you how to do it. It's pretty wild stuff. So go check that out. And I'm excited for that fight between TKZ and Dan Igay next Saturday in Las Vegas as we move

ahead to our next guest. Fresh back from Miami, Florida. He was in the building for Floyd Mayweather versus Logan. Paul on Sunday, on Showtime. What else could you say? Let's hear from the man who was in the building, part of the broadcasting for the international audience. Let us say hello once again to Ray Flores. All right, let us welcome back.

Ray Flores to the program. As you know, on Sunday night, Showtime pay-per-view, Floyd Mayweather fought Logan Paul in an exhibition bout. It's been met with some mixed emotions, to say the least. But Ray was in Miami looking like $10 trillion in that. suit as part of the international broadcast team. So I wanted to bring him back to describe the ambiance and talk about all things Mayweather Paul in Miami. Ray, how are you, man? I'm great, man. I'm still buzzing after last night. I mean, it was a lot of, you know, good energy

and, you know, solid turnout. People seem to have fun. And, you know, we saw it Floyd Mayweather in the ring for likely the final time. So it was certainly a momentous occasion down in Miami. So you're back home. The week is over. The fight is over. What did you think of the fight week overall, especially for an exhibition bout like this? Because I know Tyson Jones was an exhibition bout, but this one seemed to be on a much different level. Well, I mean, look, you got Floyd Mayweather. And Floyd is one of those polarizing figures that has crossed over into general entertainment and pop culture. And then you had Logan Paul, who's made his name on social media. and endeavored into the boxing world. And him and his brother, Jake, have been successful, drawing attention and drawing money and headlining. And they've gotten a reception. I mean, people, you either love them or you hate them,

but you're going to pay attention to them. So, I mean, in my estimation, kudos off to everyone involved in the promotion for when the fight was announced. People were like, really, this fight's happening? And it gained steam and steam. And it was, you know, trending, I think, number one on social media last night. were paying attention all over the world. And you know what?

You know, hopefully people had fun and were entertained and enjoy the exhibition. I was intrigued by a lot of different things that happened last night that I'm sure we'll dive into. Yeah. And I think I think fun is like the right word here because I think a lot of people were aware, but then kind of forgot that this is not a professional fight. But I mean, the curiosity, like you said, like it just continued to build throughout. Like everyone knew that Logan Paul was never, ever going to be able to get in there and

outbox Floyd Mayweather. Like, that's just silly to even say out loud as a joke. But, you know, he was the much bigger fighter. So people were wondering how that would translate. I'm sure you had some of the same questions heading in. But I guess like right off the bat, like what were your biggest takeaways of the exhibition overall? I mean, Logan, Paul can take a punch. I mean, big shots from Floyd. And even though there was a 34 and a half pound weight difference, look, when you get a hit clean by Floyd Mayweather, even at 44 years of age, you're still getting hit by one of the best fighters to ever step inside the ring. And I mean, it was still, you know, he ate some big shots and, you know, he held on.

He lasted, you know, 24 minutes and didn't get knocked out by Floyd Mayweather. I mean, that's, I think, a win all to itself for Logan Paul. And for Floyd, I mean, the guy has been there, done that. I mean, he just, there's certain guys that were born to be prize fighters. And Floyd Mayweather is one of those guys. I mean, 25 years in the sporty turn pro in, you know, 19. 1996 and even now still drawing fans and drawing attention, you know, into his mid 40s. I mean, that's ridiculous what he was able to do.

Even with an exhibition, like an exhibition that he did, he was on the couch for two years, didn't even train every day. He goes, I trained a couple days a week for this thing. You know what I mean? Goes out there has no issue whatsoever with Logan Ball. And, you know, I know he didn't finish him, whatever. But still, I mean, they put on, you know, an entertaining, you know, event. and people had fun. And again, as you pointed out, Mike, it was an exhibition. This wasn't counting.

I think we would have seen Floyd step on the gas a little bit more if this was a pro fight. But Floyd's like, it's an exhibition. It doesn't count. You know, let me go out and have some fun. And, you know, I don't think he let up per se, but he didn't press the issue the way that he would have had it gone to his professional record. Yeah, because, I mean, it looked, it looked like he could have put Logan away from like rounds four and on. and just didn't do that. And I understand the entertainment aspect of it. It got people talking to it. It probably created a lot more interest and buzz and reaction had he knocked him out

in the fifth round. You know what I mean? Like if he just got out and finished him in the fifth round, you're like, yep, this is what we expected. But now that it went the distance, there's much more of reaction now, is there not? Well, of course. And the thing is, Mike,

and I mentioned this on the commentary on the international broadcast, is as the fight was going on, like after round four and round five, it was almost like you were watching Logan Paul sort of, you know, beat the clock, right, like trying to, you know, just survive because there was a period in the fourth round where he went back to the corner between four and five and he had his hand on the corners. And he was just breathing heavy. I mean, look, you're in there, you know, with 12 minutes with Floyd Mayweather. That's not easy to do.

And he had to last another 12 minutes. And he did it. I mean, man, that's like pretty impressive in my estimation. a 44-year-old Floyd Mayweather. So it was like watching to see if Floyd was going to be able to really turn up the heat and turn up the intensity. So there were storylines as the fight evolved, which I think were compelling for fight fans and people that were just intrigued by

this spectacle. As a, I mean, you've watched thousands, maybe tens of thousands of fights at this point in your lifetime. So outside of his ability to take punishment, were you impressed with Logan Paul, the boxer? I mean, you know, he landed. a clean shot on Floyd, and that was one of my questions heading into the fight, is could he land a clean shot against Floyd? And he did it. I mean, there was questions. We didn't know what the heck we were going to get, Mike. I mean, I was like, I don't even know

if this guy's going to be able to touch Floyd. Well, he landed a clean shot on Floyd. It didn't face Floyd at all. Floyd was like, yeah, okay, you know, but still, this is a guy that probably walked into the ring at over 200 pounds, hitting Floyd Mayweather, probably walked in the ring no more than 160. So that is over a 40 pound difference. He had some full steam in Floyd Eat's like, okay. You know what I mean? He landed a clean shot against Floyd Mayweather. I don't think I could do that. So that was mightily impressive to me, you know? I know there were, I know there were like technically no scores. Like we didn't score anything. Like people on Twitter were scoring it, but like how did you score it? Like I may have given Logan the first. Like there's an argument

to be made, but even that was a little debatable in my eyes. Like I know MMA fighting when we're live watching it and going round by round. It was a sweep for Floyd, but how did you sort of see it? I thought Floyd won every single round. I didn't give Logan one round. I mean, maybe, maybe one round, but Floyd went out there and he dominated. He looked mightily impressive. He went out and handled his business.

He, you know, he just, he's a master inside that ring. The thing about Floyd is that he's a student of the game. He's brilliant. I mean, when it comes to education and boxing, Floyd Mayweather has like 17 doctorates. You know what I mean? That's how brilliant and how smart he is with the kind of knowledge that that man possesses and still to be able to have most of his reflexes into his mid-40s. I mean, my goodness.

So the stock of Logan Paul in your eyes has risen regardless of Brazil. I mean, he went the distance. That's all you need to know. You look at the headline. He went the distance to Floyd Mayweather. Exactly. I mean, the guy lasted eight rounds with Floyd Mayweather. And that makes him more marketable moving forward.

But again, the thing is when it. comes to this and Logan impressed me with his physicality. And I know people are like, oh, holding San Burgos, the referee said, if we had judges, I would have deducted a point. That's the problem that you have when you go ahead and you don't have judges. But the physicality of Logan Paul would the ability to tie up Floyd Mayweather and sort of kill the clock a little bit. And that was impressive. I mean, he's got a strong grip. That's for sure. You can tell that he comes from a wrestling background. And for Floyd, like at the end of the of the day, he made a lot of money and he didn't lose. So no skin off his hide. He got to show his

stuff. He did his thing. And he looked, he looked like Floyd for a lot of that fight. Like maybe the father time beats us all, even Floyd Mayweather. But still, he made a lot of money and it was a very successful night. You mentioned at the beginning of this that we may have seen Floyd Mayweather for the final time. So in your heart of hearts, do you think that was the last time we see Floyd in a boxing ring, like competing, whether exhibition or not? I think so. because I don't recollect, even, you know, when he had that exhibition in Japan with, who was it, Tension was his name, and a couple of years ago, Floyd, you know, sort of left it out there. Yeah, we'll see if, you know, another one and everything else.

And he came back, but definitively last night after the fight, I mean, not after the fight in the ring, but in the post-fight press conference, he goes, look, I've been at this for 25 years, you know, do I want to do this anymore? Absolutely not. Am I going to do another exhibition? No. I've never heard Floyd say that even about exhibitions. So when he says that, I take Floyd being a man of his word,

and I do believe that that will be the case. And now Floyd is really going to go into full promoter mode and sort of teaching his pupils. And if you're a fighter like a Giovante Davis, who is going to be headlining in a couple of weeks against Mario Barrios, and you have the highest grossing prize fighter of all time, giving you tips and telling you how to deal with certain tactics and how to deal with the medium and the pressure as he moves up the ladder as a pay-per-view star. I mean, my goodness, I mean,

talk about being advantageous to you. I know you were working and calling the fights for the international audience, but were you aware that a lot of people were having issues with the stream on Showtime? Were you seeing that on social media? Well, I saw it on social media and that was unfortunate because I remember when Mayweather McGregor happened and the, you know, the pay-per-view systems got overloaded because so many people were going ahead and trying to buy the fight and everything else. And I think that digitally, that's what happened with this one. I mean, there was, you know, curiosity, very interested to see the numbers, but with as many people saying, oh, I'm having issues, I saw a lot of different people saying, I'm having issues or, you know,

I bought the fight, now I got it, a little bit late, everything else. That means that the interest really peaked at the very last moment. So, I mean, the ability to be able to promote this thing and get the hype at a fever pitch, I think is a good thing and advantageous, but it's also can be a detriment because you've got to be able to have the capability to handle all that. And sometimes, as we know, systems get overloaded, especially in this digital world that we're now involved in. The reaction to the fight, yeah, it was what it was.

And like you just said, like you make a great point. it just goes to show you that because of the reaction of the fight, it just shows you that Mayweather and Paul did such a good job selling it. Like it got people intrigued. The amount of attention it generated in the build was incredible. Do you consider Sunday night a win for boxing? Like, do you think this is something that we're going to continue to see more of in the future? Like former Hall of Fame level world champions,

just getting in there and moving around with celebrities, kind of polarizing people like that? I think it has to be a case-by-case basis. Mike, because bottom line is that when you get in that ring, you can get seriously hurt. And you had Floyd Mayweather, who's so brilliant. I mean, this guy just, he knows every centimeter, not an inch, Mike, every centimeter of that ring. And he's so, you know, his ability to move and understand angles and everything else, you know, he kind of, he knows how to keep himself out of danger.

And he knows how to not inflict as much damage. as possible. My whole thing coming into the fight, Mike, was, especially with Jake Paul taking the head of Floyd Mayweather, I'm like, if Floyd's really mad and comes out there and barrels right into Logan Paul, like he could break his eye socket. He could break his jaw. He could break a sheetbone, you know, massive lacerations, you know, broken ribs, things like that can happen. And I don't think Floyd really had that violent attitude heading into the fight. It was more so being a sportsman. When you get guys in there on a case-by-case basis, what if one of them goes in there with a violent mentality and then something dangerous happens or a serious injury happens? I don't want

to see that. So I think it has to be a case-by-case basis. And was it a win for boxing? Was it a loss for boxing? No, I don't think it was a slight win because it drew eyeballs more to the sport. Was it a loss? No, I don't think so. I think it's sort of evened out. And now, I mean, we have a very busy summer in the sport of boxing and in combat sports. I mean, some really good fights coming up and I'm pumped for all of them. And this happened to kick off the summer. And I think it gets people excited for what's to come in this summer of 2021 with fans being back in the house for combat sports. It's lively. It's energetic. And we're going to get some damn good fights across the board with every different entity. You think we'll ever see anything like this in MMA?

Well, MMA is a different beast. I mean, maybe, but man, it's going to take a special kind of celebrity or a YouTuber to get in there because MMA is wrestling. It's Jiu-Jitsu. I mean, you could snap your arm like that. You know what I mean? You can get knocked out like that in boxing, but you only have to really worry about, you know, keeping your hands up and not getting knocked out. Whereas MMA, you can get taken down. You could break your arm. If you could take it down the wrong way, you could break your arm. I mean, there are a lot of different ways that you could get injured. I think you could get injured more at MMA. than what you can in boxing because of, you know, your limbs and your legs and everything. I mean, what happened to Chris Wyman? I mean, can you imagine? Oh, my God. I mean, just a horrendous injury. And I'm glad that he's walking and he looks to be, you know, getting better.

I mean, what a, I mean, my thoughts and prayers go out to Wydenman under a speedy recovery. But, you know, you don't play fighting. I mean, that's, you just don't do that. And I just hope guys, if they want to do it. And the thing is about last night with Chad Johnson also, Mike, Guys took it seriously. Everybody on that card took it seriously. Train hard, look in great shape, made weight. So if celebrities are going to do it, you better take it seriously because this is nothing to mess around with.

The attention, the media is one thing. But once that bell rings, you better bring your best because it is life or death inside that ring. I hate to say it that way, Mike, but that's the way it is. Yeah, I mean, you didn't say anything incorrect there. You mentioned Chad Johnson. He made his first foray into the boxing realm. And he certainly learned some lessons. He got dropped, but he made it through. What did you think of the former NFL are going in there and lacing up the myths? You know, the fact that he was training with the Charlos. I mean, Jermal Charle, I mean, those, I know those guys. You know, Jamal and Jermal, I've known them for a long time. And, you know, even from prospects to being contenders and graduating to being world champions, those are bad dudes in that ring. And the fact that Chad, Johnson went in there and was sparring with them. I believe he sparred with them. I'm like, whoa, like you're learning under the Charlos and Ronnie Shields. One thing about Ronnie Shields,

he doesn't let up on you. You come in there. He doesn't care who you are. You could be, you know, the president of the United States. You could be, you know, LeBron James. If you're in there to train boxing and he's training you, you're going to do it his way, the old school way, the hard way. And for Chad Johnson to make it through a training camp to get knocked down by a bare knuckle boxer, an MMA fighter, a guy who had one professional fight to get up and beat the count. And my hat's off to him at 43 years of age, that takes some guts and some tenacity. So I was impressed by Chad Johnson. You know, he had some things to work on, but you know what?

He looked apart. And like you said, he took it seriously. And that's the most important thing. Like Nate Robinson, God bless him. He got in there and fought Jake Paul and he was throwing bombs and trying to end it early. But you could tell there, I don't think he took it as seriously as Chad Johnson did. Is that fair? I would say that because the thing is, is that you really have to dedicate, you know,

eight to 10 weeks, even before that, before you even get into a hardcore training camp, you've got to be in shape going into camp because you don't go into camp trying to get into shape. You need to go into camp already in shape. And Chad Johnson did it. And I didn't, I heard nothing but positive reviews from the charlos. And listen, the charlots are guys that are not going to just throw out compliments just to do that. That's not the personality.

It's not their DNA. Same thing with Ronnie Shields. So for them to say, and for Errol Spence to say, hey, Chad Johnson went out there and, you know, he fought hard. I mean, he gained the respect of world champion fighters, and that's not easy to do in this sport. There was one person who thought Logan Paul won last night, and that was Jake Paul. Jake Paul, 50 and won, all that stuff. Jake Paul is a character. Yeah.

He has a fight booked. He's going to fight Tyron Woodley on August 28th. And this, my man, has be very, very intrigued. This seems like the right piece of business. Seems like the appropriate step up for Jake. I like it. I like a lot about this. How did you react to this booking becoming official?

Well, I was in Atlanta when Jake Paul knocked out Ben Astgren. And Tyrone Woodley was watching and he was very militant like supporting Ben and being around that atmosphere, watching what was going on with Jake. and these two guys don't like each other. Jake is very brash and boisterous, and he's a polarizing figure, much like his brother. I would even say that Jake is more of a lightning rod

than that of Logan, because with Jake Paul, I mean, he just has this, you know, he comes off very brash and cocky, but he's been able to back it up in his professional fight, so I understand why. But Tyrone Willey doesn't like him,

and I think it's going to be very interesting. I mean, but there is a big size disparity. As you can tell, I mean, Jake Paul is a lot bigger, thicker than that of Tyron Woodley. And muscles don't win fights. But man, oh, man, as we get closer to August 28th, that is going to be a very unique and entertaining event. And you know what? I think that, again, when it comes to that particular fight, expect the unexpected. Because you never know.

I mean, who knows? You know, we talk about guys getting old in price fighting. You never know what Jake Paul, if he has any limitations. When is he going to run into that guy who's going to make him fight and put him in precarious positions? Is Tyrone Woodley that guy? I don't know, but we'll find out on August 28th. Do you feel Jake beats him, like it's a decisive win, whether it's a dominant decision or he stops Tyron Woodley?

Do you feel like the community starts to look at him a little more seriously now? I don't know. Jake is despised by so many fighters and and hardcore fight fans. I don't, even if he goes out there and knocks out Tyron Woodley, I don't know if he's going to get the respect that he's looking for because Woodley's lost, what, three in a row in the UFC heading by four in a row. Okay, so four in a row.

So what people might say is out, well, he beat a guy that was on a four-fight losing streak in the UFC. Now, you get him fighting a potential Tommy Fury who's undefeated, the brother Tyson Fury, they're both in the similar weight class. Then I think it starts to open up more eyes. I think Jake should be the heavy favorite heading into this fight because, you know, I've talked to Anthony Dorell, I've talked to B.J. Flores, Jay Leon Love, all guys that are in the camp with Jake Paul. And Dorel, I think spar with Jake Paul a little bit. And they say that, look, Jake has real talent.

and I've heard from numerous sources that he has real talent. And what I've seen thus far, he has demonstrated them. It's one thing to have the ability in the gym, Mike, but it's another thing, even under the bright lights to go out there and back up everything that you said, even against guys who are quote unquote limited. That's not easy. It's not like Jake Paul went out there and dragged Ben Astrin for eight rounds and won a convincing decision.

No, he's knocking guys out, sending them into next week, bouncing their head off the canvas like a basketball. So he's backing up what he said in his first three fights. Again, wait and see with Tyron Woodley because Woodley's going to come out like a mad possessed on August 28th. It's amazing how much attention those guys bring to the combat sports world. It really is unbelievable. I know we don't like to talk about clicks and stuff like that, but the numbers that Logan Paul versus Floyd Mayweather brought in were just like mind-boggling. I looked at this morning. I was like, I cannot believe this. This is unbelievable. Well, let it be less than a younger fighters, though, Mike, to really put an emphasis on being a self-promoter.

Like, it's one thing to have your promoter promote for you, but you are your best promoter and you're your best advocate to generate interest. No matter what it is that you do, you don't have to be as outlandish as the Paul brothers, but show personality. People want nowadays, Mike, authenticity in everyday life. they don't want the best version of you. They want authentic, real people that they can follow and gravitate towards and say, I can relate to that person. And I think younger fighters need to understand that. And I think that it's going to be,

it's just going to be better for the sport to have more personality being shown, not being, not striving away from what you're doing as a person, but just be out there more. Make yourself a little more accessible on social media so people can get to know you more. I would, uh, it's well said. So what is next for one of the busiest people in combat sports? That would be you, Ray. Well, I mean, your next few weeks must be out of control right now. What's, what, what's your date book looking like these days? Well, I mean, I'm off this weekend. I'm going to enjoy, we call it here in Chicago summertime shy. So I'm going to enjoy, you know, summertime

shy here in Chicago. I'm going to have a lot of fun. Can't wait to see a lot of friends and family I haven't seen. And then next week, I go down to Miami once again for a Trillify Club. I'm really excited about this fight, Teofima Lopez and George Cambosus. I think, and honestly, I know that Tiofimo is a heavy favorite, but this fight's going to be a war. It'll be on pay-per-view. I'm going to be calling, you know, the preliminary portion of being involved in the pay-per-view. So really pumped about that and think it's going to be an excellent card down in Miami at the home of the Miami-A-Marland's. And then June 26th, that'll be in Atlanta, you know, calling the international broadcast for Giovante Davis and Mario Barrios. The next night, I go from Atlanta to Minneapolis.

We have, you know, David Morrell, a PBC on Fox. I'll be calling the international that one. July 3rd, calling the international Chris Colbert and Yoriochus Gambo, I believe, is, you know, that'll be out in Los Angeles, July 10th, MLW. And then away we go. July 24th, Wilder Fury, I'll be involved in that promotion with Premier boxing champions, Fox, top rank ESPN. Really excited about Vegas, August 21, Errol Spence, Manny Packia.

So, summer, man. And I can't wait. going to be on the road a lot, but away we go. And it has been, it's so great and refreshing to see fight fans in attendance, having fun, enjoying the fights, feeling that energy, the electricity. I'm fired up, my man. I hear you. I mean, you are, you are a busy guy and life is good, right? Life is good. Busy, but it's good. I'm in my hometown. I'm back in my hometown. I'm living the heart of the city, having fun, traveling all over the country, calling kick-ass fights, doing an interviews with you here on a heck of a show. So yeah, life is good, my man.

Always tremendous insight from Ray Flores. The guys watched 10,000 fights at this point, probably more than that if we're being honest. And the guy is absolutely everywhere when it comes to the world of professional boxing. Now he's in the world of professional wrestling. He's part of the Triller broadcast team. The man is all over the place. I'm very happy to see the success that he has had over the last few years in the boxing world. Big thank you once again to Ray Flores for joining us on the show. So move ahead to our next guest back inside the Octagon this Saturday in Glendale, Arizona, huge event, UFC 263.

Let us welcome back the 21-year-old Chase Hooper. All right, it's back by popular demand is Chase Hooper, who will be competing on the massive UFC 263 card this Saturday in Glendale, Arizona, taking on Stephen Ocho Peterson. Chase, good to see you, my man. We finally made this happen. How are you? Good.

just, you know, trying to get the weight down as much as I can before heading out. And, yeah, just excited to be on such a stacked card. Absolutely. And by the way, the craziness and the scheduling snafus are 1,000% on me. So I appreciate your flexibility, especially on Fight Week. You talk about getting the weight down. Are you, like, on track towards like a typical cut for Fight Week? Yeah, more or less.

I'm trying to work more with the PI and kind of see how it goes. I feel like I've been making my cuts harder than they need to be. So, you know, I really just have been taking all the advice that I can from the Performance Institute and the dietitians and stuff with UFC. And yeah, it's been pretty good. I'm feeling better energy-wise than I usually do. So, yeah, we'll see how that kind of carries me through the week. So you're back.

As we mentioned, you're on this massive card and you get to fight in front of fans again. and it's been since months, six months, excuse me, since we've last seen you, how excited are you to just get back in that octagon again and make that walk in front of a bunch of people? I don't know. For me, it's never really been like a huge thing with the crowds. You know, regardless of if there are people there or there aren't, when you're kind of, you're in the mix, like when you're fighting,

it's just so intimate that it's like just you and the other guy and you can kind of hear a little bit on the outside, but it's not, I don't know, the crowd energy for me hasn't been too much of an issue. Some people are a little like, I don't know, like a little shocked or like a little scared with the crowd, but I just, I don't know. I always just think about it, like it's the 15 minutes that I got to, you know, put in the work and then after that I get to go back to normal life. So kind of regardless of how that has had to happen in the past or, you know, how it's

going to be happening this time. It's still just the same rules, you know, the same out of me. And, yeah, just trying to see if I can make the improvements and show that I, you know, belong to be here. I've seen you have been a busy man since the win over

Peter Barrett. We'll discuss the training part of it in a minute, but I noticed you took up a new activity in the snow. You're a snowboarder now? How did you enjoy your first season on the slopes? It was a good time. I honestly, really have never had any activities besides like playing video games and stuff outside of training. That always makes it hard for interviews where people are like, oh, what do you do outside of

fighting? And I'm like, I don't do that much. I just sit around and, you know, binge eat pretty much. But yeah, it's fun to have something to do that's not fighting related at all, but it's still, you know, active and it's still, you know, burns calories, all that. And it's, you know, it's a completely different type of, you know, I'm not very well coordinated, so it's kind of a different, it's just a different sport altogether, and I'm having a good time with it. So is it like this year, this past season, was that your first time ever snowboarding? Yeah, I've been probably less than 10 times in the time that I've done it. But yeah, I always make sure to not post too much about it before I come home.

You know, in case I do get hurt, I'll be like, oh, I got hurt training, guys. I wasn't, you know, trying to do some sick jumps or anything. Do you do any sick jumps? I've attempted a couple. Some of the, like, little baby jumps, but, you know, sometimes you just, like, scorpion yourself. But, yeah, it's a good time. So why snowboarding over skiing? Just the cooler thing?

Yeah, I always thought it'd be cooler to tell people I got hurt snowboarding and skiing. But it's also, you know, I've heard it's easier to pick up. And then also the knee injuries are not as severe. I've had multiple training partners have, you know, huge knee injuries from skiing, but not from snowboarding. Smart man. I also saw that you took another big step in your life. you're getting married. How about that?

Congratulations on the engagement. How does it feel getting ready to be Mr. Chase Hooper? I don't know. It's a, you know, she's been living with me for a while. She's actually been with me since my first pro fight. So, you know, she's been with me since I was making, I think I made $500 and $500 for my first fight. You know, she's been living with me for two and a half years out of the three and a half we've been together.

So, you know, we're kind of already in that type of life. But now we get the tax breaks associated with that. I get more of a benefit from that than she does. But, yeah, it's going to be a good time. I feel like I'm usually pretty good about not making too poor decisions. So, you know, this felt like a good decision to make. And, yeah, going through with it. Was the proposal, like, a simple one?

Was it extravagant? Was there, like, a 20-piece ensemble playing in? Like, or was it just the old school down on a knee? Let's lock it up kind of thing. Yeah, no, it was pretty basic, a little awkward. That's just kind of how I do everything, though. But, yeah, it worked out. She didn't really care too much about that part, you know,

more than the overall kind of moving on to that next step. But, you know, yeah, it's going to be a fun little thing to look forward to, you know, once I get this week over with. But still got to focus on the business side of things. Did you set a date yet? Yeah, it's sometime in August, the 21st, I think. This year? Yeah.

Get it done. I was the same way. I got engaged five months later. It was done. Yeah. I figure I'll spend the money while I have it, that type of, thing. There go.

In preparation for this fight, I saw that you took a trip to Simpsonville, South Carolina to upstate karate and you worked with Wonderboy and Ray Thompson. How did this all come together? Yeah, so I, uh, it kind of all came together from training with Ryan Hall, um, initially. So Ryan Hall hit me up. I went out there and, uh, you know, trained with him for a week after my Kisteras fight in like, I won't say July or August. but, you know, he mentioned training with either Raymond Daniels or Wonderboy.

He said they're both great to work with. And then, you know, I kind of have always been needing to work on my stand-up more. And I just kind of figured it was the right time. You know, after the fight, I had some more money. I had, you know, the time that I could take off and dedicate to, you know, just training and working on the stand-up. But yeah, initially I was kind of looking at Thailand, trying to do some more traditional Muay Thai. But it just kind of didn't make sense. The country's still pretty locked down.

And price-wise, it was so much cheaper to go, you know, like the flight to Thailand, minus, you know, what I'd have to spend on staying somewhere, train somewhere, all that, was, you know, just as expensive as my whole trip to South Carolina. So, yeah, I went, trained with Wonder Boy, you know, super cool. His dad runs quite a bit of the striking stuff. But, yeah, they have a great program down there, and they're super, like, detail-oriented. They have a good way of explaining things. And it's always nice to, you know, kind of go to a different spot where you don't know anybody,

nobody knows you really and just kind of be you know one of the guys kind of back at the bottom of the totem pole a little bit and kind of just be in the mix riding with the other guys and uh yeah it was a great time so Ryan hall and Stephen Thompson that's a pretty lethal combination right there yeah hopefully I'm able to you know make use of the I spent three weeks down in January and then I spent another week you know probably six weeks out from this fight. So hopefully I'll be able to, you know, not embarrass them and show that I'm, you know, making the improvements that I need to

and that I want to. And just kind of being more of a well-rounded fighter than I have been in the past. Well, it's, I mean, it's hard pressed to find better guys to get you ready for a fight as you get ready to face a 27-fight veteran and Steven Peterson. Comes from a great team at Fortis MMA. We haven't seen them for a while. It's been a little under two years. since the spinning back fist highlight real knockout.

When you saw Ocho's name on the other side of the contract, how did you react to that one? How do you like this one stylistically? I think it's a good fight because kind of the issue that I have had with the past couple of fights is fighting someone that is content with just kind of winning the rounds versus trying to finish. You know, all respect to my last couple opponents. but both Kaceres and Barrett are, you know, perfectly fine with, you know, kind of point fighting

and just winning the rounds and kind of grounding it out. But I function really well in the more chaotic fight, and I think that's kind of the beautiful thing about this one, is that he, you know, he says it all the time is that he's kind of trying to chase the bonuses. He's trying to, you know, like everybody else, trying to make that extra bit of money. but he's, you know, a little more of a grinder

and he's more of a guy that will bring the fight. And I feel like that's, you know, these are the type of fights that I need because they're, you know, they let me scramble a little more rather than just kind of ending up with the like hitter, patter type of, I don't know, you kind of get a lull

in those type of fight and then you just get into a momentum and it's harder to break than when these guys come out here and they try to finish you and you have to, you know, match that pace and it's, you know, it makes it a better time and it makes it better to watch. Just makes it better for everybody, really. So do you feel like this will be more like the Tamer fight and less like the Casares and Barrett fights in terms of like the action and the pacing of the fight? Yeah, I think it really will be because, you know, the tamer fight, he's trying to finish me

the whole time. I was trying to finish him the whole time. and that's that's the type of fight that I perform the best in I have in the past a lot of my finishes are against guys that you know want to fight versus guys that are fine with the decisions um but yeah I uh I'm really looking forward to this one uh just kind of see how well the new stuff is that I've been trying to implement will kind of mix into the old stuff and you know, with the pressure of, you know, an opponent like this, it's going to be a good time. He does have some submission wins on his resume. He's even got an Oma Plata finish in his career.

What do you think of Stevens grappling, his jiu-jitsu game heading into this fight? Yeah, he's a, I feel like he's a pretty well-rounded fighter. I wouldn't say that he's quite an expert in any area, but he's just really well-rounded. You know, obviously he's a veteran guy. He's been in the mix for a while. He's had a ton of UFC fight. But that's kind of the thing is that, you know, I want a guy who thinks that he can hang with me on the ground that that's perfect. You know, if he wants to grapple with me, I'll be just fine with that. And at the end of the day, really, like, if I'm grappling somebody and they're, you know,

out grappling me, I'm in for a rough night. but I don't see him necessarily as a more traditional jiu-situ guy. You know, he's got some submission wins, but, you know, for the most part, anybody that's well-rounded that has as many fights as he does should have, you know, a little bit of everything on their resume. But yeah, I, I, you know, obviously the thing is not to overestimate my ability. and underestimate his. But yeah, I think I'll have the edge in the grappling.

Hopefully, you know, that's kind of the thing is if I go into these fights and I'm fighting a better grappler, I'm going to be in for a rough night. You're young, you're evolving, you know, long way away from your physical prime. And you can certainly make some leaps in six months' time. But you're going to implement a whole bunch of different things. you've gotten some different looks from different styles of fighters, some really good ones, Ryan Hall, Wonder Boy, Thomas, like you mentioned. How much better do you feel like your striking has gotten since the Peter Barrett fight? I feel like the last fight, there was a lot of little fundamental things that were kind of wrong with my striking,

which is what I initially went down to South Carolina, like telling him. I was like, hey, you tell me, like, throw these punches and I will do it. but I feel like there's something missing that's kind of, you know, putting me out of position or, you know, not letting me realize the potential of my strikes. You know, I'm not taking the most out of it. I'm not, you know, using my body fully. And I feel like, you know, for the first two weeks or so probably that I was down in South Carolina, we just worked basics and just kind of, you know, fixed a lot of these little.

little bad habits that I had that, you know, made huge changes to, you know, my ability to hit quick, you know, defend quickly, be in position a little better. And I feel like that will hopefully help out quite a bit. But that's kind of the thing right now is I still have so much time that it's trying to make the most of the time between the fights and really just, you know, Also, while I don't have like a secondary job that I have to worry about, you know, I have a lady here, but she's just fine, you know, taking care of the house and the animals and all that on her own. So it's okay for me to be able to kind of drop everything for a couple weeks and go train at these places. And it's really just trying to make them most of the time between the fights to, you know, make the improvements that I need. and just kind of keep getting a little better every fight because I still have so much time,

like you're saying. And like I ever kind of always said, is like my prime is still, you know, my late 20s and I'm just, you know, I'm not even 22 yet. So it's kind of, you know, obviously I still have to take these fights. I still got to make the money. I still got to pay my bills, all that. And, you know, prove that I deserve the amount of attention. and, you know, respect that I have been able to get in the UFC,

but it's just kind of, yeah, putting the time in and trying to see these improvements between the fights, but I feel like it's going to be a lot different. I just understand a lot of the fundamentals of striking a lot better, and I'm hoping that when I'm tired, you know, I'll still be going back to, you know, the stuff that I worked on in South Carolina rather than, you know, old bad habits that, you know, I've been more detrimental of anything.

So ultimately, are you happy that it was a six-month stretch between fights? Yeah, it's also kind of with a weight cut, too. You know, I just need that amount of time for my body to get back to normal because I'm still growing. I don't want to mess up my body too much. I think it was Paul Felder who just kind of put something out about people cutting too much weight and how it's, you know, it's going to hurt you in the future because then you're going to have to move up to a division you don't need to. But yeah, for me, it's kind of

just taking the time to really soak up all the knowledge that I can and make the improvements between the fights and then also let my body heal, get back to normal, you know, eating normally so that I'm not kind of in a deficit all the time trying to make weight, you know, every couple of months rather than, you know, taking a little bit of time, getting back to normal and then cutting again. So yeah, it's just kind of overall. It's been a good time to kind of take that between the fight. I know all weight cuts are tough, but is yours, like, particularly brutal? I think it's just harder because I'm not maxed out, you know, body wise. Like, I'm going to keep growing for a while.

And essentially the past couple fights, it's been like a couple pounds added on between, you know, each cut. So it's kind of trying to treat every fight as my potential last one at 45 just to kind of not lock myself in because, yeah, I'm still growing. And, you know, my weight has been obviously going up quite a bit. but it'll just do it randomly you know between the fights my body is trying to still go through puberty and all that thing you know so it's it's uh yeah i'm trying to be smart about it and not do it until i have a horrible cut and i miss weight or something um but yeah it's uh definitely a bit of a

cut, but I'm, I'm really good at, you know, discipline with the diet. And then, you know, the water weight always sucks, but, you know, I, like I said, for this one, I've been really working with the PI. And the weight's been coming off great. So, yeah, I see how it goes on Friday for weigh-ins. I know we spoke after the win over Barrett and, you know, it was a crazy fight. You overcame some adversity. You got the submission. But we also discussed, you know, how it sort of went over with the broadcast team, more specifically DC and Rogan, who will certainly be there this time around. And I'm sure you're not overly concerned about that part because you're getting into a fight in a cage with another human being. But is there

like a small part of you that's looking to prove something to those guys this time around? The hey, like, listen, I'm taking this seriously. I went out and I'm training with Wonderboy and Ray Thompson. Like, I'm finding great strikers to work with. Do you play, is there a part of you that wants to like surprise those guys a little bit on Saturday? I think it's more, you know, the commentators, I understand they're just trying to do their job. They're just trying to fill stuff, you know, fill time and throw stuff out there. For me, it's more important to impress the matchmakers, you know, the people that actually determine, you know, my future, you know, if I have a job, that type of thing. but it's always nice to be able to rewatch the fight and not have to be like oh that sucks to hear

but you know at the end of the day it's more important that I'm able to get my two checks and you know kind of have the win have the momentum and still have that you know kind of positive outlook for the next couple months after um but yeah I think the thing is still that I have so much time. But it's it's also not being content with just taking the win. It's just trying to, you know, make the improvements. Obviously, I would love it if the commentators love this fight. And, you know, we're saying I was doing everything perfect.

But, you know, you can't really have too big of an ego in this sport for too long because, you know, at the end of the day, 50% of all the people that are fighting, you know, aside from the no contest and draws obviously are going to lose, you know, 50% of people have stepped in there lose. So it's kind of just trying to be humble about it and not take too much into it. But, you know, so many fighters say that they want to improve whatever aspects. But I feel like I'm actually, you know, taking the steps to go out there and try and do it rather than just kind of saying it and then, you know, fighting the same way every time.

I'm really, you know, buckling down and trying to fix this stuff that I need to work on and, you know, become a more well-rounded fighter and, you know, have a career here and, you know, not have to have a real job for a while and be able to, you know, support my family and all that. So how do we impress the matchmakers, the guys that keep you employed and get you up the ranks? How does this all play out on Saturday? Do we have an official Chase Hooper prediction here? I'm predicting definitely an exciting fight. You know, I know he's kind of a grinder. He obviously is always trying to finish, but he can, you know, he has the cardio to still go to 15 minutes. And the thing is, I do too.

I've been really, honestly, I've really strapped down and done a ton of cardio stuff for this camp more than usual, just kind of so I'm going to be able to hopefully, you know, keep a high pace for that 15 minutes. minutes regardless. You know, with both guys looking to finish, it's going to be really hard for it to go that full 15 minutes, I think. But yeah, I'm hoping for a finish regardless.

And then, you know, after that, I'm going to go back and have some dinner. And hopefully my jaw won't be too sore. There you go. Did you watch the Mayweather Logan Paul fight last night? I did not. I don't know what I was doing last night. I think I was building some Legos. Better call.

Better call. No doubt about that. I wasn't sure. I know Ben Ascran, your guy, your PIC, so to speak, a couple months ago, didn't have a great night against Jake Paul. I don't think he really cares all that much because he made a lot of money. And now he can build disc golf courses anywhere he wants at this point. But he took the loss extremely well to nobody's surprise.

He's very good at that. What did you think of that fight? Did you watch it? Did it surprise you at all? Yeah, I watched the Ben Astorne fight. It's one of those things where, like, it's hard to watch, like, a teammate or, you know, somebody that you know and somebody that you like and have met, you know, it's hard to watch that happen.

But, you know, he did get paid and he, you know, takes it really well. That type of stuff is always worse to watch for the people on the outside, you know. having been someone that's, you know, been at these high levels and got beat up on TV, it's not, it's not that bad. I was fine after, you know, just like he was, I'm sure. And the money obviously helps. But it's definitely hard to watch, you know, somebody that you like genuinely as a person to watch him get, you know, dropped like that on TV.

But yeah, I don't know. He never really has been a striker, so I don't think for him that he really put too much on the fight regardless of the result. And yeah, he made plenty of money off of it. Yes, he did, and that's great for him. Last thing, UFC 23, ridiculous card, a lot of interesting matchups. Two title fights are obviously very interesting. The flyway title fight, I'm really circled it on.

I'm so excited for that. Obviously, Nate Diaz coming back and fighting Leon. That's interesting. that's gotten a lot of buzz. Which fight outside of your own are you personally looking forward to the most on this card to watch afterwards? Ooh, there's a ton of fights. I want to see a great one, obviously. The whole card's stacked, but I want to see Boulal and Damien Maya. That's going to be a crazy fight. It's going to be kind of a, you know, changing of the guard type of fight, I think. And I want to see Balaal,

you know, get the win after, you know, getting that horrible injury from Leon Edwards. And then I also want to see Nate Diaz get back in there, see if he still has what it takes. You know, it's going to be one of the things where it's going to be cool to just be in these guys' presence, you know? The guys like Adasania and the guys like Frigaredo, these like just super high-level guys.

And I get to, you know, like walk past him in the hall, that type of thing. Um, it's just going to be a cool experience overall. I feel like the energy in the arena that night is going to be crazy. Um, I don't know how much I'll get to see after the fight, you know, being that it looks like we're going to be quarantined and they're going to drive us back probably, I would assume after. I don't know.

You know, in the past, they, they have like a green room where you can go and watch the fights and eat and all that. But I think they're going to bring us back. Um, but yeah, it's going to. to be a great card and I'm honestly just happy with how the card's taped up and you know the more people watching it the more eyes on me and you know that's kind of the thing is that uh trying to get that out there but it's a it's a fantastic card and I'm really happy with it. Big thank you to Chase Hooper for joining us like you said at the top a lot has gone on in his life

he's engaged training with Ryan Hall and Wonderboy and he lived to tell the tale and his story will continue this Saturday in Glendale, Arizona, UFC 263. And we will be there. Jose Youngs will be on site in his backyard. So very excited about that. We'll bring you all the coverage. The media day. We'll have the press conference on Thursday.

We'll have the way in show, of course, on Friday. Preview show, People's Free Fight show, all sorts of fun stuff. Lots of coverage in regards to UFC 263 right here on MAAfighting.com. Alator is back this weekend as well. Bellator 260, Douglas Lima, defends his Walterway title against Yaroslav Amosov, Aaron Pico on the card. Paul Daly versus Jason Jackson is on that card. That's an absolute banger. I will be out at Mohegan's Sun on tomorrow. We're going to do a different kind of media day, so we're not going to virtually stream the Bellator virtual media day, because I'll be there. I'll be getting one-on-ones with all the

fighters, and we'll just upload the individual videos, and then I'll be on site Friday for or Bellator 26, so looking forward to that. And how can I forget the big announcement of the day on Monday? MMAfighting.com just got a whole lot better with the edition or re-edition of the legend. Sean Al-Shadi, that's right, multiple time between the links, guest, he's here. He's back with the MA fighting team. I am so fired up about this. He told me about this last week, sent me a DM, and I was,

I don't know who is happier. Sean or me. I was so pumped to be able to finally work with him, a guy that I have looked up to in this business, a guy that I've respected, and I know I can learn a ton from. So very happy to welcome shot off shoddy back into the fold here at M-Mayfutting.com.

And there's no doubt about it. I'll be asking him to be on between the links multiple times. So Jed Michoud might have to insert a foot in his mouth. And I know a lot of people want to see that. But that's it. We're going to wrap up the show this week. Thank you very much for watching. Big shout out to you each and every week for joining us,

whether you watch on the YouTube page or you listen wherever you find your favorite podcast. Big shout out to the legend E. Casey Liden on the production side, absolute lifesaver. Jose Young's Alex Savis on the graphics and the social media stuff. Really appreciate that. Back next week. Have a heck of a week, everybody. We will leave you with my chat from one of the winners from UFC Vegas 28 this past Saturday. The sniper.

Sean Woodson. All right, let us say hello to Sean Woodson, who returned to the Octagon for the first time in nearly a year, and he fought a gritty and tough use of Salal and got back in the wind column with a hard-fought split decision victory. Sean, good to see you, man. How are you? Good to see you. I'm doing good, man. Doing good. Good to be back on.

Absolutely. It had been a minute since we had seen you in action. You had a lot of time to reflect on that walk to the Octagon. How fired up were you to just get back to what you love so much just getting in there and fighting. Man, I was super fired up. I was counting down the days. It was a long, 12-week camp. Yeah, I was ecstatic.

I was so happy from the beginning of fight week. You know, as soon as I got there in Vegas, I was happy, felt amazing every single day. And yeah, walk out. Everything was great. I was so happy to be there. Always am. It was one of those cards that, I mean,

there were so many fights and they were trying to, like, keep with time. So we didn't really get to hear from you after the fight, but you spoke a little bit to the camp. camera afterwards. And it was hard to really hear everything you were saying, but it seemed that despite the win, and I know that all fighters are their own worst critics, it doesn't seem like you were overly thrilled with your performance. Did I read that correctly? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, not at all, man. I will say ring rust is real. You know, I was one of them guys that used to say, you know, I don't believe in ring rust, you know, being Dominic Cruz,

you know, like related with each other as far as that we've talked about it, like we both Don't believe in ring rust. Man, ring rust is real. I felt it. Felt it bad. Warm up was great in the back. Everything felt great all five week. I felt amazing.

Walking out felt great. But yeah, the moment I got in there, I just felt off. Everything felt off. My timing, my speed, my, you know, range. It just everything was off. It was like another dimension. It was weird. Some I've never felt before.

And I definitely think that year layoff, you know, played into it. And yeah, I just, you know, I fell off. I didn't feel like myself until like probably the third round, you know. I didn't start, you know, really getting going until the third round. And yeah, I just wasn't happy with my performance at all. Happy I got to win for sure. But, man, I'm so looking forward to putting on a better performance next time. I know it's the first time it happened with like, what is that like in there?

Like when you feel like you're not yourself and you're feeling off, like you're in a fistfight. You're in there the guy who's trying to finish you and knock you unconscious or put you to sleep. Like, what kind of like inner dialogue are you having with yourself in these moments? Yeah, I'm just, I'm just making sure not to like let it get the best of me, you know, not to, not to panic, you know, like, you know, I've seen a lot of times that fights guys that have a bad first round and they'll just, you know, that'll just determine the whole fight. I just, you know, I made it a point to it. I didn't want to, I didn't, I didn't let it get the best of me. I didn't, you know, didn't fold under that pressure. Like I felt something was off right away in the first, but I just kept telling myself, you know, just stay tight, you know, be able.

in your defense and, you know, we'll figure it out. We're going to turn this around. I knew that first round was his hands down. And when I went back to my corner after the first round, I just, you know, in my head, I'm just like, you know, all right, that didn't go our way, but we're going to turn this around. So it just became like, just keep it, keep the fundamentals intact. Just be fundamental.

Like, don't do anything crazy. Just ride the wave and eventually you're going to get to the other side of it. Yeah, just don't try and force it. You know, I just didn't, you know, I knew it, you know, if I just stayed calm and stayed patient that I would eventually, you know, get into. the fight, you know, I would get going at some point. I just, you know, I didn't want to force it and make, you know, any stupid mistakes, you know. But yeah, from the get-go, from the very first round, I mean, as soon as the first round started, it was equivalent to feeling like I had never

fought a day in my life. Like, it was so weird, man, so weird, something I've never felt before. It's probably a good learning lesson for you. I mean, it wasn't the greatest performance, but in the long run, like, the next few chapters in your career, it's going to build upon that because you've experienced that before. 100%. Yeah, like, you know, as not happy as I am with that fight, I definitely took some positives from it. You know, it gave me a lot of confidence knowing that, you know,

even when I'm not feeling myself, I'm still, you know, I still have the skills and the, you know, mental composure to find a way to win, to, you know, not completely, you know, just crumble and everything go to shit, you know, like, yeah, I definitely took some positives from it, that even when I'm, you know, not feeling like myself, I still can make it happen. Do you feel like a little bit of that mentality came from the Julian Erosa fight?

Because that was the last time we had seen you. And you looked really good in that fight. It seemed like some of the momentum was kind of heading in his favor before the third round. But then you came out and you dropped him and you had him in big trouble before he caught you in that submission. And that's the first pro loss of your career. But something tells me, especially after what you had just been saying about this fight, you took a lot away from that fight with Julian. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, you hit it right on the money.

Yeah, I feel like, you know, I learned a lot from that Julian. fight, and I feel like that came into play this fight, you know. Prior to the Julian fight, you know, and all my other fights, you know, everything had went my way. So that, that Julian fight, you know, when things started to, you know, not go my way, that was like a learning curve for me. That was a learning experience. So taking that into this fight with Yusuf, yeah, when that first round didn't go my way, you know, I've been there before. I've been in that high pressure situation when, you know, I'm not winning. I'm not dominating. Things weren't going my way. But, you know, because I was there before, I feel like, you know,

I was able to handle that moment, you know, a lot better. What had the last year or so been like for you since that fight would join? Like, I know you were supposed to fight in November against Jonathan Pierce, but that fight ended up getting scrapped. And then Kai Kamaka steps in and Jonathan gets the win and the finish. And I'm sure that was probably frustrating for you to watch. But what had the last like 11, 12 months been like for you heading into this fight? Man, just a test.

I just feel like I was, you know, constantly getting tested, you know. after that erosa fight, that was a whole, you know, that was some major adversity I had to overcome, you know, dealing with that, you know, mentally. And then, you know, having that fight in November lined up and, you know, putting in a good training camp for that, feeling great, feeling amazing. And then boom, that, you know, swept out from under me from due to injury, you know, last second. That was tough. But, yeah, I think it was just, this whole last year has been like just a testament to my faith and, like, you know, just doubling down on believing in myself and believing that I'm supposed to be. here and then believing that, you know, everything happens for a reason and, you know, no matter what happens to you, you know, you can just take positives from it, you can grow

from it and learn from it. And yeah, this last year, there's been a year full of things to help me grow. And, you know, I, uh, yeah, everything happens for a reason. And yeah, I just feel like I've grown a lot, tremendous, a tremendous amount this last year. What was the injury, if you don't mind me asking? I tore some cartilage in my ribs pretty bad. It was, uh, It was like the last last hard session of training camp. I was going with a guy bigger than me, had me in a body lock, and I was being real stubborn with the takedown and just twisted and kind of contorting my body in a weird way. And right away I felt it, Rip Carter's tour.

And like, yeah, it was pretty bad. Did you try to, like, battle through it and still try to get to the fight? Yeah, I was trying to do my best. You know, I still had a good amount of weight to cut. and yeah, like, you know, it was just such a, you know, for the ribs, there's nothing you can do but rest. So it's like, you know, I think we had like a week and a half or two weeks left before the fight. So it's like, yeah, I could have sat around and like, you know, completely rested it at that time. But it's like I still had to be, I still had to be active to cut weight.

I still had to be moving around and doing stuff to cut the weight. So it was like just a weird balance. It's like, you know, if, yeah, if I sat and rested and tended to the rib, the weight probably wouldn't have got made. And if, you know, if I kept moving to, you know, make that weight, my rib wasn't going to heal. So, you know, I was going to go into the fight real compromise. So, yeah, it was I had to pull from that, which I, you know, devastating me. I hate, you know, having to pull it from a fight. But, yeah, torn collage in my rib, it took about six to eight weeks to heal.

And ever since then, you know, me and my strength conditioning coach, we focused on, like, you know, doing specific stuff to strengthen that area. So that doesn't happen again. Well, there you go. One thing I was curious about and one thing that was definitely different from the last time we spoke is not working at Glory MMA anymore. I know you had learned a lot from James Krauss and Grant Dawson and the team over there heading into your last fight.

In the end, was it just sort of, you know, hey, look, it wasn't really broken before, so no need to fix it kind of a thing? Or was it the matchup with Yusuf because he also has a relationship with James when James goes out to Colorado? Yeah, it was a mixture of both of those. So initially, yeah, it was kind of like, you know,

the camp and the guys I started with, you know, what you said, you know, it wasn't broke, so, you know, no, no reason, you know, try and fix things, basically. So it's like, you know, after the contender series fight, you know, Krause reached out to me and said, you know, come through, would love to work with you, you know, whatnot. And, you know, I'd be a fool not to, you know, take them up on that. You know, I spent, you know, my entire career training here at home with my guys and wolves and stuff. So, you know, I had never really got to experience that, that big camp, you know, like Kraus and those guys out of glory. So, you know, I was like, hell yeah, you know, I definitely want to go and, you know, try that out and, you know, see what that's like.

And it's great. It's amazing, you know, and it's, you know, I talk to a couple of other, I've done a couple of other interviews and, you know, I feel like guys are kind of like, you know, painted out as like, you know, I've just completely cut ties with them. That's not the case at all. You know, I definitely plan on going and doing more training with them. Me and Krause still got a good relationship, you know, we still text and talk from time and time. And, you know, I got love for all those guys out there. You know, the facility is great. The training is great. Krause is one of the best minds in the sport. But, you know, I think there's two different guys in this sport.

You know, you got the guys that, you know, they have to, you know, get away from home and, you know, get away from distractions. And that, you know, puts them in the better mind state to train and, you know, be them best selves. And then you got guys that, you know, they do better and perform better when they're at. At home, you know, happy fighter is a dangerous fighter. And I feel like that's, you know, more my style, you know, just my team at home just, it just works better for me. And, you know, that outside of the training, too, you know, like, you know, it's not just me comparing gyms like, oh, I feel like Wolvesden is a better fit for me than glory, you know.

They're both great fits for me. But when you look at the total package, just it works better for me at home because, you know, here I got my, you know, I got my recovery team. I got my strength conditioning coach. My nutritionist here. So just being around my family and my mom and my dog, it just makes training as hard as I do every day just, you know, a lot more comfortable. And, you know, I feel like I perform better under those circumstances. Yeah, it's nice to like log miles at first.

It feels like, you know, we're doing something different. It's like a new adventure. And then, you know, it's in any line, whether it's fighting or, you know, sales, anything. Like, the more you travel, it's just like, oh, man, like, I could be at home doing this. So it's no, obviously, yeah. So it's not a negative situation. Obviously, it's just, you know, better. and it was more geographic than anything.

And for this camp, you know, honestly, you know, I would have spent a good amount of time out there for this camp. You know, I probably would have spent a few weeks out there for this camp if it wasn't, you know, the matchup, just, there was a conflict in the matchup, use of having the same head coach as James Krause. And, you know, James Krause was being really good friends with Yusuf and really good friends with me.

You know, I didn't even want to, you know, try and tie him into that, you know, he just. So, yeah, I thought, you know, it just worked out better for me to do my full camp back at home for this fight. But, yeah, like, next fight, you know, I'm definitely going to go out there and, you know, spend some time with those guys and sharpen up. Good to hear. Good to hear.

The fight itself was super competitive. Like the first round was pretty active, even though you didn't feel like yourself. You know, he obviously wanted to take the fight to the ground. You were trying to keep it up. You're even pointing to the ground to try to, like, lure him into your kind of a fight. But he kept his composure, a lot of clinching, a lot of wrestling defense you showed throughout the fight. Is that the kind of fight you expected from him? To a certain degree.

I knew he, you know, I had a really good feeling that he was going to come to wrestle and try and, you know, get. it to the ground, especially because of how my last fight went. But, you know, I wasn't expecting him to be as wrestling heavy as he was. You know, he has a strong, strong kickboxing background. If you watch all his other fights, he does mix in the takedowns here and there. But, you know, predominantly he likes to strike. So I definitely was expecting to do a lot more striking this fight.

You know, I was not expecting, you know, him to pursue the takedown, you know, as hard as he did nonstop like that. But, yeah, I definitely, I definitely see him trying to mix some takedowns in there. But yeah, it was a lot more wrestling, a lot more of a wrestling-based fight than I thought going into that. The second round, you started to get cooking a little bit more. You were a defendant to stand more. You were a definitive stick to any more, a little more. A little more. I know you didn't feel great until the third round, and it seemed like your pace picked up a little bit in round three.

But round two, you were starting to have a little bit more success. You ended the round with the tight guillotine choke that, you know, it was, it was nice. It looked pretty nasty, man. It looked pretty nasty out there. But everyone in Twitterland thought it was one, one after two. too. Is that kind of how you and your team were feeling as well? Yeah, I knew for sure that he had won that first round. And in my mind, the second round was, you know, iffy.

It was a toss-up. It could have went either way. And I knew for sure I had won that third round. So I knew it came down probably to that second round was going to be the decided factor of the fight. Yeah, Yusuf did not seem pleased by the judging. He felt like he got the big hose job from the big hose job from the judges out in Las Vegas. I mean, you felt pretty good about it. Like, where would you sort of gauge your confidence level when they're reading the decision? Were you like at a 10?

There's no way I lose this fight? Or were you like, I don't know. The judges can be a little fickle sometimes. Yeah, the moment the fight was over, yeah, like I honestly couldn't have told you. Like, if you'd ask me right then and there, you know, I just knew it was really close the moment the fight was over. But the moment they started, the moment they started reading the scorecards and I knew it was a split, I was confident that it was going my way. The moment I knew it was split, I was confident it was going my way. Yeah, I seen he was pretty upset about it, which I guess I kind of get it.

You know, I'm not trying to, you know, like it seems like I'm talking shit. Like, I got a lot of respect for Yusuf and his camp. But it's like, you know, I don't really feel like you should have been that upset. You know, I feel like, you know, both of us could have done a lot more. Like, you know, both of us could have done a lot more. If the fight would have went his way, like, you know, I wouldn't have been like, you know, super. I wouldn't have felt like I got basically. I don't feel like either one of us put on the type of performance where we felt like we could have got robbed where we got robbed.

It was a close fight. So like for him to be super upset, it's like, man, you know, you could have done a lot more in that fight, you know, for you to, you know, be upset like that. Listen, you get the second half of your paycheck. You went through a grueling fight. I know it was the performance you had hoped for. Yusuf is a tough out. You got through it. You know, do we take at least some solace here?

It was like a big sigh of relief that it's over and done with. You feel like you didn't have a great performance. but you still got the second half of your paycheck that had to make you like, like, whew, all right, we got through this. This is maybe as bad as it gets here. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, like, yeah, I wasn't happy with my performance at all,

but, you know, yeah, like I was super happy. I got the win. Yousiff is a, you know, a tough opponent. Had a lot of pressure going into this fight, you know, felt like my back was against the wall coming off that loss. Even though he was coming off of, you know, two fight skid, I was coming off of, you know,

one loss, you know, I'm, you know, I wasn't 100% confident. I would have got the same treatment as him, you know, and there's no telling if I would have lost two in a row, if I would have got a third opportunity, you know, as far as I know, that could have been, that could have been the fight, you know, I could have been fighting for my job right then and there, you know. So yeah, and yeah, yeah, as unhappy as I was, I definitely took some positives from it. I took confidence from it, you know, that, you know, didn't feel good, but still, you know, got, made it, made it happen.

And, yeah, I'm just, man, I can't wait for the next one. I can't wait for the next one. Have you watched it back yet? No, I haven't. No, I'm going to, I'll get around to that today for sure. I've seen like little clips on Instagram here and there, but no, I haven't watched it back yet the whole fight. So you're excited to get back in there. What's kind of next to you? Like, I'm sure you don't want to sit another year again and kind of deal what you just don't.

So when do you want to get back? And does anything stick out to you in terms of matchups? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so I got a little issue going on my hand right now. It's kind of fat. Don't know if it's broken or just some, you know, just banged up a little bit. I'm going to get that checked out. hopefully that's only takes like a few weeks to heal up but uh i believe i got like 180 day suspension

so the soon as i could fight is october i believe but so yeah i want to get back in there october september oh no october november october november for sure is when i want to get back in there two weeks ago i watched that card i saw a josh kulumbow pick up a win listen to his post-fighter interview he said that he would like to get back in there around the same time frame october november uh yeah we both fought around the same time so turn around time for a show should be the same. He likes to strike. I love the strike. You know, same experience levels. He's 9 and 1. I'm 8 and 1. I think it would be a, you know, I think that's a perfect matchup. There's a perfect matchup. Yeah, I think like we, you know,

his last fight, he fought a one-dimensional wrestler who was trying to take him down the entire time, you know, this past fight, you know, I was defending takedowns whole time. I think me and him, you know, we duke it out, you know, it'd be a striking fight and it'd be an exciting one for the fans. I really want that fight. Damn, that's a good one, man. And I know a lot of fans agree with that because we host a matchmaking show like the day after these cards. And that was a very popular selection. Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely, yeah, I'm really going to push for that fight.

I've already hit him my manager about it. He said he's going to try and make that happen. I hope he, you know, I hope he watches, fights as hard as I do. And, you know, he saw me call him out afterwards. Hope you see this interview. I'm probably going to DM him on Instagram pretty soon and see what's up and see what going. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure Josh would be more than happy to accept a fight like that and get to show war striking and not have to defend as many

takedons. But maybe this is gamesmanship on your end. Maybe you go out there and you start taking them down right away. You know, maybe we're planting some seeds. No, I didn't think so. Hey, right. No, yeah, no, I'm going to be looking to throw these hands, man. It looks like a gamer, man. I feel like this, that would be a really exciting fight.

Last thing, and since everybody's talking about it, did you get a chance to watch the Floyd Mayweather, Logan Paul, craziness? Or did you do yourself with Solid and stay the hell away from that thing. I didn't even think about tuning in to that. And I'm the biggest fight fan there is. I watch it all, like, everything I can.

There's a lot of fight on. I'm watching it. But yeah, that was just, that was just, that's just a joke, man. Like, I knew Floyd was going to play with him the whole time. Yeah, that's just silly. I mean, Floyd is super smart for what he's doing. I can't knock him. Like, dude's a husband, he's a genius when it comes to, you know,

getting this money and all that stuff. But that ain't something I was going to pay for it, tuning to watch. Are you going to watch Tyron fight Jake Paul on August 28th? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I will tune with him to that because I think that's going to be competitive. I do too. Like I know a lot of people are looking at like, oh, you know, Tyrone is going to smoke them. Like that's a no-brainer that Tyrant is going to win. I don't see it like that.

Like, I think it's going to be competitive. I'm interested to see how that fight plays out. I was more interested in the Ascran fight for like the circus of it all, but is like from a fighting perspective. I'm way more interested in this one. Yeah. That asking fight, that was, you know, I feel like, you know, that was too predictable. I knew how that was going to go. I knew exactly. Like,

anybody I talked to, I told him, Jay Paul's going to knock him out in the first round, like, quickly. They were smart with that. Like, they literally picked the MMA fighter with the worst hands in MMA history they were doing, man. Wild, wild world we were a part of, Sean, this

combat sports universe that we are a part It's crazy. But listen, congratulations to you on the win, Sean. Good stuff. Happy to see you back. I'm glad that you got over that crazy year of yours. And enjoy the victory. Heal that hand up.

And we'll talk soon, man. Thank you, man. I appreciate that, man. Always great talking to you. Looking forward to putting on a better performance next time. And, yeah, looking forward to talking to you again after another win. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.