MMA Fighting - What the Heck: Episode 68 | Michael Chiesa, Gilbert Burns, Adrian Yanez and Josh Martinez

Episode Date: July 20, 2021

This week on What the Heck, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck speaks to Michael Chiesa (7:58) to preview his upcoming fight with Vicente Luque at UFC 265, talk the latest news in MMA, and whether or not he was in the running to fight Kamaru Usman for the welterweight title at UFC 261. Adrian Yanez (33:51) discusses his UFC Vegas 32 fight with Randy Costa this Saturday and how the fight was built on positivity. Big Brother and MTV's The Challenge veteran Josh Martinez (57:27) talks his upcoming boxing match against Adam Pike at Big Brother US vs. Big Brother Canada on Aug. 6, wanting a boxing card made with alum from The Challenge in the future, and the heartbreaking situation in Cuba. Finally, Gilbert Burns (1:17:46) recaps his UFC 264 win over Stephen Thompson and reacts to Dana White's criticism of the performance. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What the Heck with Mike Heck on MMAfighting.com. Now, here is your host, Mike Heck. What the heck? Hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of What the Heck here on MAPFiting.com. I am Mike Heck, as you can see, a little bit of a different background behind me. And if you follow me on Twitter, you might know why? Because Mother Nature decided, you know what?

You know that Mike Cat guy? I'm going to smack him right. right across the face. And that's pretty much what she did. And I know what I'm going through is nothing like what a lot of people are going through in other countries, Germany specifically, some horror stories going on over there. And my heart goes out to everybody. But on a lower scale, I guess, it hit my house. Basically a big storm hit, rained for about 20 or 30 minutes. And And it just left devastation and knocked out about 15 feet in my driveway. It was like a complete washout.

We had a bridge that sort of separates the lower end from the upper end of the driveway. And there's a little calm creek that flows underneath. This creek was not as calm on Sunday night. And we literally watched the entire bridge collapse and just go away. And a good thing that came out of this was the fact that we made the choice to park our cars down at the bottom of the driveway. Because if we had parked at the top, we were to have two cars just stuck up there and nowhere to go. Luckily, the town that I live in came through in a big way, sent a crew over bulldozers, all sorts of craziness, digging out

some debris from the creek. And they ended up dumping a whole bunch of rock and dirt and rock and dirt. And luckily, we can walk across there now. So I don't know how I feel about driving across there, but at least we can walk across there now. And pretty amazing that they were able to get that done in like six hours. So awesome stuff. Really appreciate the town of Lennox. J.P. Maximilian, all the work they did. And so that part's done.

Now we get a deal with all this rain. Water has for the first time since we bought the house gone up through the basin floor. So we're dealing with that right now. So it's just been a friggin' nightmare. And it's just been a, it's really not the best time for this to happen. But we have a big show. We'll get to the guests. I'm not going to do a whole big intro or anything like that.

We're just going to get right into it because there's just five million things going on. But right off the bat, I'll let you guys know that on Wednesday morning I will be hitting the road. I will be jumping on an airplane for the first time in a couple of years. I'll be heading to Tampa, Florida to cover the BKFC event, headline by Paige Van Zand versus Rachel Ostevic. Britton Hart will be fighting Jenny Savage on that card and a whole bunch more. It should be a really interesting show. I'm excited to just get back on the road and do what I love to do, cover these events,

talk to the fighters, do some stuff that's a little different than events are typically covered. So I'm looking forward to that. So make sure you follow my coverage from Wednesday. We're going to have, I think it's an open workout. There's some media scrums. Thursday is, oh, the press conference as well. Thursday's the way ends, Friday the fights. So it should be a good time.

I'm really looking forward to it. And then, of course, on Saturday, big one for the UFC. You got T.J. Dillishaw returning after his suspension, he's going to take on Corey Sanhagen. And with everything going on, I feel like that fight, as good as it is, is kind of flying under the radar. And it's kind of a shame that that's the case. But that's the combat sports world and landscape that we are a part of right now. But that fight should be really, really good. I'm looking forward to it.

We'll talk about that UFC Vegas 32 event. a little bit later on in the show. UFC Vegas 31 happened on Saturday as well. Misha Tate, triumphant return for her. We'll talk about that in a little bit with our first guest. And Islam Makachev just continues to show that he is one of the best 155 pounds in the world. And if you haven't read it, the man, the myth of legend, Sean Al Shadi, he wrote a great feature that dropped on Sunday morning about what sort of his takeaways from the event.

And I completely agree with him. Islam Makachev, throw him in there against the top five guys. and it's sink or swim time. He's earned the right for a sink or swim fight, and I want to see it. Whether that's against Hafeel DeSanjos, I like that idea. I know DeSanjos isn't quite a top five guy,

but former champion, they rebooked that, I'd be fine with that. If they did the Tony Ferguson fight, I know that the Ferguson enthusiast may not be so fond of that idea because it hasn't been good for Ferguson over his last three fights, and I feel like a fight with Mokachev

may kind of end up the same. Who knows it is MMA and things change and evolve all the time. But it's a tough matchup for Tony Ferguson. But a good storyline for that fight with Habib and the rivalry of those two put together without actually getting into the Octagon, which there needs to be a 30 for 30 on that fight made some day. So we'll see what happens. Good show. And we got a good show here what the heck. So let us run down the lineup. And we'll get to our first guest. Rapping us up. We're going to talk to Gilbert Burns coming off his win over. Steven Thompson at UFC 264.

Some people sort of poo-pooed his performance. Dana White had some not-so-nice things to say about it. I thought it was a great performance. I thought he had an A-plus night, not just because of the fight, but because of what he said after the fight. I love the call-it. I love the sort of heel-turn, Heelbert Burns. I really dug that, and I like the call-outs too.

So we'll get Gilbert's thoughts on the win, the reaction, the call-outs, etc. To wrap us up later on. Before that, we're going to talk to Josh Martinez. If you don't know who he is, have you ever watched Big Brother or you probably know him more from MTV's The Challenge. Josh from The Challenge is going to join us because he's actually got himself a good old fashion boxing match coming up on August 6th in Arlington, Texas, it's Big Brother U.S. versus Big Brother Canada.

They put together this card. And Josh, who went pretty far in the last challenge, I know he's going to be part of the next season of the challenge. He joins us to talk about that stuff. his experiences on the show and making his boxing debut on that car, which you can watch on Fight TV on August 6th. The night before, UFC 265. So you can make a little Texas weekend out of it.

You can go to Arlington, watch that card, and then get in the car and drive to Houston. It's like three, three and a half, probably a little under four hours away. So make a weekend out of it. So we'll talk to him a little bit later on about that experience and what he's looking forward to. We will also talk to Adrian Yannas. He's going to be fighting this Saturday against Randy Costa. I cannot love that fight anymore. And Adrian's got to join us.

And it's nice because it's kind of the theme of the conversation, especially after we saw with Connor McGregor at UFC 264 and how negative and ugly this got, this rivalry, this feud, if you will, between Adrian Yannas and Randy Costa, nothing but positivity. Nothing but positivity. No trash talk.

Maybe trash talk about certain brand name items that these gentlemen like to consume. But other than that, just really good positive stuff. two guys who are exciting fires just want to get in there and fight. That's the people's main event in my eyes. So we'll talk to Adrian Yannes, one of the exciting prospects in 135 pounds coming up a little bit later on. He also gives his take on the San Hagan-Dillishaw main event as well. But first, we're going to kick things off with Michael Kiesa.

He was on the broadcast this past Saturday, part of the desk with Michael Chandler with Karen Bryans. And he's got a big fight coming up at the UFC's next pay-per-view offering new UFC 265. Let's talk to the Maverick right now on what the heck. All right, let us say hello to a man that returns to action. August 7th at UFC 265 in Houston. He's going to face Vicente Lucay. And not only that, watching the UFC Vegas 31 event on Saturday, nobody's face was on my television screen more than this man's face.

From his work on the desk to his commercial with Justin Gaci, it was the Michael Kiesa show on Saturday 90s, kind enough to join us right now. How are you, man? I'm doing good, man. I'm doing good. You know, I had some mixed reviews about the commercial. So everybody loved it, for one.

But then it got to the point last night where I had like the same people, they're like, dude, I've just seen your commercial. This is so great. And then by the end of the fights, they're like, hey, are they, how many more times are they going to play this? I'm getting kind of sick of you. But nonetheless, man, it was cool, you know, it was cool to work the desk for Misa Tate's comeback fight.

You know, I usually, once I'm about six, seven weeks out, eight weeks out, I usually don't work the desk, but it was already out in your training. And I just wanted to call my friends fight. So it was really cool to be a part of that. And yeah, it was good. Yeah, and I was going to ask you about that because like you said, a lot of people, when it's this close, they probably don't jump on the desk. But it did remind me of something like Eric Nixick told me about Misha Tate that, you know,

doing that stuff and talking about fights and looking at things from an analytic perspective, it's actually very helpful when it comes to keeping your mind sharp and things of that nature, seeing like, you know, maybe some new evolving things and tactics take place on this car that you're calling and you get to see it for the first time. Like, did you kind of notice that yourself? I know you don't typically get on there and do the desk this close to a fight. But yeah, you wanted to call Misha's fight. But did you kind of get some sort of mental help with that, like heading into your fight,

just being able to work the desk for this one? I like working the desk for that reason all the time. I love being, you know, diving into guys' styles and like do my studies and stuff. You know, but for this one, it was just like, I'm already out here training. and it's Misha's fight and Rick Little, my coach was out here. So it just made a lot of sense, you know what I mean? But if I was back home training and it was just close to the fight, you know, when you come do these desk shows,

you know, you've got to quarantine, you've got to do tests and stuff. And it can kind of throw a wrench on your training. But, you know, I've been out here. I was able to establish all my training times. And it just kind of worked out. It was nice to just kind of take a break, you know. I put a lot of pressure on myself going into these training camps, you know.

And I, it's just like going to work on the desk. was just like a nice little break, you know, even though I'm still revolving my, what I'm doing around fighting. I'm not dwelling on the fact that I'm fighting Vicente Lucke, you know, because then you do need breaks away from dwelling on that opponent sometimes. It's good for your mental health, I believe. How did you enjoy working with Michael Chandler on the desk? I enjoyed the post-fight stuff as well with Islam and Michael and it seemed like you and Karen were, you know, kind of doing your thing and kind of get some, plant some seeds, if you will. What was that like working with Chandler like that? Oh, for one.

I've always been a huge fan of Michael Chandler. I mean, back in the Bellator days, man, I remember when he fought Eddie Alvarez. The first Bellator pay-per-view was the Eddie Alvarez rematch, correct? I think I'm right on this one. Yeah, I think you are right. I'm testing your knowledge, Mike. But I remember I was out here in Vegas at John Woods House

when I watched the Mike Chandler, Eddie Alvarez, rematch on pay-per-view and stuff. So I've been a huge fan of him for a long time. So it's just kind of weird for me. Like, you know, yeah, I've been in UFC for nine years, but like when I'm working the desk and I'm taking a guy like Malcolm Chandler through his first desk show and I'm kind of like, you know, he's, I'm saying this very humbly, but it's like he's the rookie in this instance and I'm the vet. I'm like this is just weird. You know, it's weird how life works out sometimes. Um, but I had such a blast working with Mike. He's a good guy and he's kind of really good. I like his layers to, to his knowledge and the things that he says, I feel like when you talk about learning stuff, Mike, um, I feel like I learn a lot. You know, I learn a lot. You know, I learn a lot. from like studying guys as fights, but I feel like I learn more from the people I'm working next to.

Like one of my favorite people to work with, hands down Barna, is Anthony Smith. I love working with Anthony Smith because when I listen to his analysis, I'm like, wow, I didn't think of it like that. Or there's certain perspectives that I don't see myself.

I pick up from guys like Anthony Smith. And I feel like Michael Chandler, he's got a good future in this type of stuff. I like the layers to his knowledge. So I feel like that's where I gain the most amount of knowledge in these desks shows is whoever I'm working next to. just seeing kind of going back to misha i mean she just looked so noticeably relaxed in there like it might have been the most relaxed i've ever seen her before a fight like when bruce buff

was announcing her she looked right at home in there like there there's certainly pressure is heading into a fight like you're about to get punched in the face but still she was just like this is where i belong did you notice that too like the different sort of just just approach she had mentally right before she was about to start fighting marion rneau it's the demeanor the whole camp. The whole, I mean, I know it's not my place to get into the details. Not my place at all. So I'm not going to. But I know what it was like for her to be in training camp prior to this fight with Marion or no. I know what it was like for her. I know what type of, for lack of better words, I know what type of bullshit she had to go through. So when you take that out of her life and having her fire for competition reignited, I mean, I mean, I can hands down say, Misha Tate's the mentally toughest person I've ever trained with. I've ever seen fight.

I mean, we've seen her get her arm broken. We've seen her get her nose smashed. We've seen Julie Kedzie head kicker and have her come back and win. Like, she is so damn tough. And when you have to deal with the things she had to deal with, all that, all that BS just starts to extinguish that flame and take away what makes Misha Tate so special. And for her to take this time off and find herself. again and find her, you know, the passion was never gone. It was just a desire for competition. So to see all that come back and just see how comfortable it was out there, see that type of

performance. Nobody's ever finished Marion Reno and UFC. And she did it in emphatic fashion. So it was just great to see. And she's such a good person. She's a great ambassador for the sport for males and females alike. I'm just very happy for her, man. She deserves, she deserves a lot of great things. And this is something people don't know about Misha Tate. She doesn't have to fight. Like that's like a common, that's a common misconception for people is like when a guy or a girl retires and they come out of retirement and they're like, oh, they must be, you know, they have to fight now. They're broke or this. It's like a negative type of thing. Like Misha's very well off. She doesn't have to fight. She could be done. She, dude, she headlined UFC 200. I mean,

she's, she's good. But she just wants to fight. She's a competitive. She wants to be here. She doesn't have to be here. So I think that's what makes this comeback a little more special. I would agree. So let's talk about you, my man. You get Vicente Lucay in a little less than three weeks. Good fight for sure, an important fight.

But from our past conversations, and I know you're aware of the dangers this man presents, I'm wondering if you were, I don't know if unhappy was the word, but were you understanding of the matchmaking considering the landscape of this division right now? It's the fight that makes sense. I mean, to be completely honest with you, Mike, you know, I know that there was all these kind of swirling talks about, you know, maybe me and Camaro and this and that. And look, I knew it was Bicente a long time ago. I just didn't say anything about it. It's just, you know, when the champ starts saying your name, you kind of run with it for a while.

So I've known it's going to be Bacente for a long time. And I'm not unhappy with the match of at all. There's not, is he tough? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this guy, you know, I'm not just saying this because this is, I'm not trying to build up my opponent. you know, but it's like, this is the most dangerous guy I've ever fought. And if you look at his record, you look at what he's done in the Ocgon, nobody would disagree with me.

I mean, he's super dangerous. He's a finisher. He can knock you out. He can submit you. He's always in good shape. He's always well prepared. This guy's tough. This guy's really dangerous.

This guy's a serious threat. And I'm not taking him lightly at all. And, you know, yeah, I played into the fact that Kamaro was saying my name and all he was saying when, yeah, I played into it a little bit. But I knew the whole time it was going to be Sente-Luke. and I'm not that, you know, I was never distracted by what was going on. I played into it. Why do you think I never made a post to Kamar Usman?

Why do you think I never responded to Ali? Why do you think I never, to you guys, to the media? Yeah, I was like, yeah, yeah, Camaro saying my name. I welcome that fight. Great. Why do you think I didn't prod back at it? I'm just, I knew who the guy, I knew who it was going to be. And this is a challenge.

And to be quite frank, like I, I think Bacente, if this is the fight I need to get to the next level. This is the guy with the dangers that he presents inside the octagon. This is a test I need to pass before I get to that next level. I think that if I can get out there with Vicente Lucke and get a win, whether it be by finish or by decision, whatever the result is, I'm going to have to walk through the fire to get it. So I think that that's a good test for me to see where I'm at. And, you know, I want to fight for the title.

You know, if I go out there and have a dominant performance, I don't see how I can't make my stake my claim with a fight-fight win streak and being the freshly minted number five guy. You know, they bumped our spots. They switched us around. Why not me? You know, but I'm not looking too far ahead. I'm deadlocked focused on Vicente Lucke and whatever comes after that. You know, we'll see what happens.

What was your like initial reaction to the whole Ali thing and him saying, how about we do Usman versus Kiesa in June? Like, I knew that wasn't possible because you didn't want to fight. June, you were going to do July or later than that. But just your overall thoughts on just get in the rub like that. I wasn't upset about it. I'll tell you that much. And this isn't the first time this happened either, Mike. I don't know if I'm even supposed to say this, but I'm going to say it.

They actually, my manager reached out, Danny, like, let's say sometime in March. I got a he called me and he's like hey there's uh you need to like how good a shape are you in right now I was like I mean I'm training you know I only took three days off when I got home from Fight Island I took three days off got right back to training and uh like yeah I'm training why what's up he's like uh you want to fight tomorrow April 24th I was like oh shoot I mean I'm not going to say no but yeah I mean let me know you know so it's like it kind of been going on for a while you know what I mean yeah so I don't know yeah it was cool to have it's cool that when the champ and the maybe not maybe Camaro not

himself isn't saying it but when like all he's saying it and stuff it's like cool like I'm glad that like I'm coming up in these conversations it's good for me you know it's good for it's good for my chances especially you now you take all the April 24th you know potentially fighting him potentially fighting him in June everything all he's saying whatever um you know you have that all happen in past and now i got bassente a head now if i can go out and get this win i feel like i got some momentum to give myself a good uh good argument to fire for the title so i think it'd be great uh i think i'm deserving i feel like uh it's crazy to think i've been here for nine years and i'm like

am i turning into the michael bispie am i going to be the guy that's kind of like get in there and like battle it out for a decade but before I get my title shot, you know. If that's the case, whatever, that's fine. As long as I get one, sooner or later. Whether it be after Vicente or not, I just hope, I just, I really have to fight for the title someday. It's my destiny.

I know you probably not you're supposed to talk about this, but you did, so I'm going to ask you a follow-up. When, how long was that carrot sort of dangled in front of you? Like, when did you realize that Mazadol was the guy and that this wasn't going to happen? So when Danny called me, he's like, oh, it's like a, it's like a, 60, 40, maybe, maybe not. And I think it was more or less. I mean, I know how this business works.

I'm like to think I'm pretty savvy to this type of stuff in negotiations and how it works. But actually, I remember the date now is whenever I commentated for LFA in March, I was like in the airport. And he called me. He was like, okay, you know, what do you think about fighting tomorrow and April? I'm like, I'm freaking, I'm in Spokane Airport. No, I was in Oklahoma. I was like, I just landed in Oklahoma. What am I supposed to do?

Just go to start running on the treadmill. It wasn't very long because I think that they, I think that when Danny called me, I think it was like seven and a half weeks out or seven weeks out. And then by the time they locked it in, I think it was like six weeks before the 24. So there was definitely like a four to seven day period where I was kind of just like waiting in the wings, just kind of like text. I'm like, hey,

like, do we know what's going on yet? Like, I kind of, I'm kind of going nuts here. I need to know what I need to do right now. Like, I'm trying to like,

you know, trying to get myself prepared for the biggest moment of my life that's coming up on the short of notice. So, yeah, it was kind of hectic. No pun intended,

given that I'm on. Hey. Mike Hicks show. Nice, nicely done. So, yeah, I mean,

what a crazy turn of events. That would have been. Jeez, we get Mazadol and, you know, would have been the first fighting for, like, You would have been making that walk with the, that would have been sick.

What a crazy moment that would have been. That would have been, like, that would have been amazing. But in addition to your fight on August 7, Juliana Payne is getting a title shot. How about that? And you came on the show and you said after Payne's last win, she should fight for the belt. That's exactly what's happening. So I'm sure that you're pumped for her, but now you get to kind of set the table for her as well, which is pretty cool, right? Yeah, dude.

It's, uh, Julie and I've been fighting side by side for years. You know, she started training. She walked in the gym a week after me. These AirPods just don't, they hate my freaking call flower year. They need to make like something that fits in better. I'm like sticking into my ears, sorry. But we've been side by side for years and we've had the same aspirations for a long time. And you can see that through just through our career.

Like we both win the ultimate fighter. We both had these conversations about, you know, wanting to be the best, the best of the best in our respected divisions. and I know the tremendous amount of adversity she's been through in her life in and out of competition. And I'm just so happy she's getting her opportunity. I feel like how hardened she has been to, you know, she's had some tough losses. She's had some tough injuries.

I feel like all the adversity that she's facing her life in and out of the Octagon has hardened her for this moment. She's tempered for this moment. Like how do you temper, how do you temper? you got to keep throwing it in the flames and he got to beat it. You throw in the flames. You beat it in flames. And you keep going to this process and until it just becomes bulletproof. And I think that she's, I think that she's, everything is, is timed perfect going into this moment for her. I think that she's going to have a great performance and I think she's going to win.

I believe she's going to win. I can't divulge too much. I know how the training has been going. And I think she's going to shock the world, man. I think you guys are in for a real truth. on August 7th. And I got a leader off right. I got a leader off right. I got to go out and get a win. I got a leader off into that co-main event riding high. So I find weird places and things to like put myself, put myself under more pressure.

I don't know why. But I'm like, I have to win for Julie. Like, and now I don't have to just win for myself. I'm like, I got to go win for Julie. I got to set the tone right. You know what I mean? I'm kind of like putting pressure on myself. Like I got to lead her off strong.

She makes that walk. I got to go out and I got to be able to come back in that locker room pumped up on a win to send her off for her to go get the job done. And I believe she's going to do it, man. I'm really excited for her. And she's very rewarding of it. I mean, look who she's facing the octagon. I mean, she's faced everybody. The laundry list of contenders. She's faced the best of the best time and time again. And I think she's going to really shock the world. it's funny you know i remember i had a conversation with calvin kator last year and you know he's calvin's on a big trash talker but he seeks out those ships on his shoulder like wherever he can find it if he can find something like a little piece that he could put on his shoulder to like give him that extra pressure he finds it wherever he can find it whether it's something his opponent said or you know maybe like a former opponent was said something nice about the guy like he finds it whenever he can

are you the same way do you try to find that every time you fight yeah you know and so i'm the same way and people are like, like, you need to not put so much pressure on yourself. I'm like, no, I do. I need to put the pressure on myself because I like, that's where I feel like I perform best. So I definitely like if I see an interview where someone's talking to my opponent or if I see an interview where someone's talking me down or just anything, it's like I find places to put pressure on myself. But the one thing I won't do, Mike, is I'm not the type of guy where I'm not spiteful and I'm not out to prove anybody wrong. That's not it. That's one thing I don't do. I'm not out to prove any naysay is wrong, I could give two shits. I'm just out to prove my people right. You know what I mean? At the

end of the day, when your time in the light, when your time under the sun comes to an end, all you're going to have left is your memories, your friends, your family, and your teammates. You know, the fans that, you know, you'll have diehard fans that it'll stick by your side till the end and maybe through the end. But I'm not out to prove anybody wrong. I'm just here to prove people right. I'm here to prove my people right and give them a reason to have some affirmations for their beliefs in me. So I'm not to prove anyone wrong. I'm just here to prove people right. What was your reaction to the co-main event of UFC 264? Because you had Wonderboy facing Gilbert Burns is a big fight for this division. And you know, you were kind of the guy that

a lot of people thought of in terms of like what happens the aftermath of it all because Wonderboy winning puts him in a great position to fight for the belt. Gilbert Burns winning, you know, kind of keeps him in the same spot as long as Ouzman is still the champion. So overall, like, I know you don't typically cheer for people to win or lose. It's not your style. But for your career, was it, was it a good thing that Gilbert beat Wonderboy? Does it make your path to the title easier? In fact, does it make your path to a Gilbert Burns fight easier? Because I know that's a guy that you have a lot of respect for and you feel, and you told me this before, when it's all sudden done, he could be your biggest rival in the sport.

He could be my biggest rival, but I don't mean that in like a bad play. I just think like he's just, that's a great fight. You know, a hippie. Gilbert and I, we see each other in passing, we're always super nice to each other. But him and I both know what we bring to the table. And I think the fans and the media alike, you like, that's a good fight. You know, but for me, I just, like I said,

I'm just so laser-focused on Vicente. I just, it doesn't make a difference to me. Like, we'll see what happens with Gilbert. I think that, you know, I think that they put him and Leon together at this point right now. I don't think that we all know what Dana favors. He favors activity. and if Leon votes to sit out and try to wait for a title shot

and Gilbert says screw it, keep me back in there and fights whoever. You know what I mean? I know Gilbert wants to fight before the end of the year. I think Gilbert could fight, you know, he could fight another one or two guys below him, beat him and get another title shot before Leon. Oh, look who's that. We got a little Cody.

Stamen? We got Stamen. You know, if Leon wants to sit and wait, I don't think it's going to favor him. I think that he's going to have to fight somebody, and there's really not a ton of options for him. So, you know, that was one of those fights that I liked both guys so much. I mean, who doesn't like Wonderboy?

I mean, he's like the M.F. He's the nicest, he's a nice mother effort in the UFC. And then he got Gilbert Burns, who's just, you know, same as Wonderboy. Everybody likes Gilbert Burns. So for me, it was like, maybe the best man win. I'm not even thinking about who I could potentially fight coming out of that matchup. I just, that's, when it comes to Vicente Lucke, that's where guys, you can't make a single mistake against him. And that's inside the Octon and outside of the Akron.

It would be a mistake for me to start dwelling on, oh, I might fight the winner of Wonderboy in Burns. It's like, no, no, no, don't even think about it. Just watch the fight, have fun, enjoy it. Don't even think about you fighting the winner. Focus on Vicente Luque. Don't let anything slip through the cracks when it comes to this matchup, because one thing slips through the cracks. and he's going to slip through a left hook, and it could be a bad night for me.

So I'm just, I'm not, it was a fun fight to watch, but I'm not even thinking about who's next. I'm just, I'm just focused on August 7th. Fair enough. Did you feel the criticism was fair of Gilbert Burns' performance?

I thought it was a great night for him. I didn't understand why people were so sour on his performance. I thought this fight was great. I mean, what are you supposed to do with Wonderboy? You can't tell me that you're, It's kind of unfair if everybody has this expectation that, like, you're supposed to go out and have some fun stand-up fight with Wonderboy Thompson when you're a world champion in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Like, that's like that, look, Gilbert can slaying him with the best of them. He's got amazing power in his hands.

You know, we've seen his work in the stand-up department. It's phenomenal, but it's not on Wonderboy's level. And he did what anybody of his grappling caliber should do. Go out and wrestle the guy. Go out and put him on the fence, take him down, finish for the submission, look for ground and pound, just positionally dominate him. I thought the fight was great, you know, but I'm biased.

I'm a grappling-based fighter. So when I'm watching Gilbert fight Wonderboy, I'm like, this is great. You know, this is how you fight the guy. So, I mean, everybody loves a good, exciting fight. Everybody loves a dude standing bang. and all that stuff, I understand. But that's mixed martial arts was like the UFC was founded on Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

Hoist Gracie made this shit happen. You know what I mean? We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Brazilian jiu-jitsu. So if a guy wants to go out and have a fight like Gilbert Burns does, show some respect and pay homage. Because if guys were just standing and banging the whole time back in 93, we wouldn't be where we're at today. If there wasn't a skinny Brazilian dude and a guy out there choking. out these huge buff guys, we wouldn't freaking be here. So put some respect

on Gilbert Byrd's win. That was awesome. You know, showing some respect to the, to the one branch of mixed martial arts that really made this whole UFC thing happen. Good on Burns. It's great by. Well said. A couple last quick things. How excited are you to be back in front of a arena

full of fans when you, when you fight? I mean, it's been a minute, man. Dude. It's going to be electric, man. I'm so excited. You know, I've always said it, man. The fans are the backbone and the beating heart of the sport. They're the other reason why we're able to do what we do.

Wasn't for the fans that love the sport and Brazilian jiu-jitsu? We wouldn't be here. So it's going to be great to get out there in front of the fan. I'm excited to get to Houston. Everything's bigger in Texas. Hopefully the wins are as well. You know, and I'm just looking forward to it. I think it's going to be exciting card stacked from top to bottom.

I mean, you got Raphael Pazia making it. You finally got a fight, you know, his fight with Bobby Green, headline in the prelims. Song Yadong, Casey Kennedy is going to be sick. Jose Aldo, Pedro Munoz, Juliana Pena versus the goat. Amanda Nunes, Surreal Gahn, versus Black Beast, me, first Luke. Oh, it's going to be freaking awesome.

How do we get this thing done on August 7th? just fight my fight man i just i i i'm i'm coming into my own i know i know where my limitations are and i know where i excel and i've addressed bull um i made a lot of adjustments from my last fight to now i've been doing my camp in las vegas still having rick little come out and he know he's bouncing back and forth between here in chicago um making sure me and julia are prepared and ready for our fight i have great training partners out here uh great coached out here and I feel like I'm able to blend the best of both worlds and put them together, you know, so I'm going to be a very, very, very, very dangerous man on August 7th.

And you guys just have to tune in and see live on pay-per-view. Good stuff from Michael Kieser right there. Looking forward to that fight with Vicente, Lucay. And I think the question I asked about being disappointed or unhappy with the opponent, he wanted a top five guy. I know Luke is pretty much right there. He called it Colby Covington, Wonderboy. kind of made sense to him as well.

Leon Edwards, of course, gets Luce, which is a tough out. And I think he has this handle in this the right way. It's a tough fight. And looking forward to that one at UFC 265 coming up in a little less than three weeks from right now at the Toyota Center in Houston. We move ahead to, speaking of Houston.

Adrian Yannis, he's from Houston. He's to be fighting this Saturday against Randy Costa. Really looking forward to this fight at UFC Vegas 32. Here he is right now on what the heck. All right, let us welcome back. One of the most exciting prospects at 135 pods in the UFC, Mr. Adrian Yannas. He is back at action on July 24th. Fun fight with Randy Costa, the fight that was built on social media around positivity.

And now they're going to meet inside the Hallad Octagon very, very soon. Adrian, how are you, man? Man, I'm doing great. I'm blessed, man. I'm super excited. Man, it's just right around the corner. And, man, I really can't wait. I really can't wait to step in the cage.

I was super excited. It is very rare in this sport. And I've talked to Randy about this on a couple of different occasions that something like what you guys did on social media got so much traction. Yet there was no trash talk, like no personal animosity towards one another, your fighting styles. It was the total opposite of what we saw on Saturday in the build to Connor McGregor versus Dustin Porier.

This is like the yin to the yang. And it's so refreshing. Like how cool is this for you to see that. There's nothing fabricated here. You guys were just very respectable of each other. You threw some jabs at some of the things that you like to consume. But other than that, that's as far as it went. And this fight got put together and everybody's fired up for it.

Man, it's honestly like really, really cool that that happened. And the way it happened, it's pretty awesome. And it was pretty organic. All of it happened organically. And nothing was kind of like fabricated. Nothing was just like over the top. We didn't push anything. Yeah, of course.

a little trash talk between Reese and Dr. Pepper, of course. But, you know, that's just all fun in games. It just makes it just a little bit, like, funner and everything. You know, the trash talk isn't even trash talk. He's just, you know, like, hey, I think this is better than that. And it's pretty cool. I love it, you know, and it's kind of like a breath of fresh air whenever you get to people who you know, respect each other, and they're going to go in there and fight either way.

There's no animosity, no nothing. And, like, honestly, 10 out of 10 times. the people who respect each other more end up having a better fight. They end up going like it ends up being like a fight of the night and turn worthy like in my sense. Every time I've seen somebody who just respect each other, like they go after it man. Look at when Travis Brown fought Andre Alaskin. They used to train together and they had this love and admiration for each other. They went in there and they threw down until one of them fell. So it's like I feel like it's much more of the same. And the way everything's been coming together like,

MMA Twitter did a great job in setting this up and kind of made it an alley-out for us to dunk it. So, you know, it's all looking good and all looks very good on my eyes. Whenever I'm looking at everything. So it's happening July 24th, of course, the big goal of this whole thing at first was to get it on that first Houston card in front of the fans. It didn't happen. You're still booked to fight Randy. And I know Randy had told me that if something had fallen out of that Houston card, they're going to do everything in their power to slide you guys in there.

And that didn't happen. Was that disappointing for you? the fact that you guys didn't get that opportunity or are you okay with it at the end of the day? Well, it was a kind of mixture of a lot of things. We did end up getting the opportunity to go into it. But I completely understand like why Randy didn't fully jump into it

because, you know, like he's in the, I know whenever it comes to marijuana and all that stuff, like in Texas still kind of holds that like as a freaking regulatory rule and i think that's stupid it's idiotic it's not performance dancing at all so like i he was like hey look like it's a weak notice and it's like you know hey i needed to help sleep and everything so it was like we went back we even dm'd each other back and forth so i completely understood his case and not wanting to do it and also too you know i i didn't want any repercussions or any bad things that happened on on his end it would have been cool to have

another fight on another fight but uh just super short notice between everybody so uh man if we had like a bigger time frame it would have been uh it would have been a for sure thing but it was like the week of and and it would have been a real big risk for randy and then the repercussions after if you had if like they the Texas commission would have punished them you know and i don't want that for him and also you know at the same time it kind of was like a little bit of a blessing because, you know, right after all that stuff, you know, I got to sit and watch the fights and just got to enjoy it, you know, be a fan in the cage and just be able to experience that. So it was pretty cool on both sides.

It was pretty cool. But then also it made it even better for July 24th because now, like, we got more built up, more built up. And then, like, MMA Twitter's, like, going nuts this week, especially because they're like, it's finally going to happen. I really can't believe it's next week. Oh, my goodness. You know, it kind of led it marinated a little bit better. So, you know, the Houston is going to come.

It's going to come. I have no doubt about it that I'm going to get my shot whenever time comes. Another time, it's honestly slipping away from me because it's August 7, so two weeks after this fight, which, you know, if we have a fight of the night, I'm pretty sure we're both going to be out of commission for a month. So it gets another one slips away. but the good news is part of this booking this UFC 265 card in Houston

is that the company has signed like a multi-fight multi-year deal with the Toyota Center so there's going to be more chances for you to fight there because that's kind of soften the blow once you found out that they're going back to Houston in two weeks and they could just push this one back again but at least there's going to be more opportunities for you to fight there right?

Oh yeah it would have been cool to push it back two weeks But man, I've already been training so hard. Like, I had literally had not stopped training at all since after the Gustavo fight. Because I was told that that 262 was a big possibility. So I never got out of training camp. So I'm like, man, why would I want to push this back two weeks further back? Two weeks further back, even though, like, we tried to push it as an option. But, like, man, I'm ready to get it over with, man.

Like, I've been in a training camp for such a long time. I haven't been out of a training camp since the beginning of the year. So I'm just ready. I'm ready to jump in the cage and I'm filled with excitement right now. But man, it will be cool. It would be cool to get the UCTOT Center card and whatever card it is. But man, like I'm missing two big opportunities. It was the first one back in Houston.

And then also Derek Lewis is fighting for the interim title, heavyweight title. So, like, you know, those are two big spots. and I wish I would have been able to get the spots, but, you know, the next one's fine, too. It does, it does kind of like, man, it does bring me down a bit, but at the same time, I'm like, you know, my chance and my, like, everything's still there, you know, it'll come back. And whenever I do, I have a, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be on a main card spot. Well said. I know that the Victor Rodriguez win, that was like the, hey, I've arrived, but the Gustavo

Lopez win, this was like the, this is the breakout performance for you. the one that like caught everybody's attention because people know who gustavo is he's a tough guy he's won championships and other organizations veteran of the sport and you went in there and it dominated him and then put him away in the third round i know there's been a lot of hype and a lot of attention on this fight in particular but have you started to notice fans just paying attention to you specifically as a fighter like did did you feel that sort of breakout moment yourself after the lopez win oh absolutely i felt i felt the fans were starting to look at what i was doing and inside the case.

You know, the first, the first UFC debut, you know, like, it was, it, it was a great showing, especially for somebody coming in short notice. You've got to do what you got to do with the short notice, notice people, especially coming in outside the organization. Like, you got, you got to put your stamp, you got to put the stamp on those guys, especially whenever you come in. And then to get that fight, next fight, and I get a really good veteran in Gustavo Lopez, who's tough as nails, has never gotten outplash like that. Yes, of course, you know,

he's had his losses, but man, like, he's never been out of a fight. He's always been in a fight, man. He even took a fight on six days notice against Marab. It went all three rounds with him. So, like, I took all that into account, and that, and honestly, like, his next fight, he fought Anthony Burchuk, who's another stud, goes out there and finishes him in the first round pretty handily pretty easily. So man, looking at that, like the opponent in Gustavo and just me being able to out class them the whole entire time, I think a lot of people saw the potential that I have, and I believe they believe in me a lot. So it's really cool, you know, just to see the people always commenting. Like, I'm starting to get noticed whenever people start putting out the best MMA strikers, and then they

start throwing my name in there, and there's, like, the comments filled like, where's Adrianian, Where's Asianianis? I'm just like, dude, I'm like, man, this is so cool. That is pretty cool. But the highlight of everything is the Teddy Atlas, you know, going off and giving me all the praise. And, you know, that I want to keep on living up to the expectation every single time. So I'm always looking to better one up what I did last time. This fight with Randy, it's one of those things that nobody really thought about until somebody thought about it and put it out into the ether.

for everybody to see, right? Because was he even on your radar, like, until somebody mentioned it and then just kind of took off? Like, was Randy even a guy you were thinking about fighting? Honestly, I had kind of like no idea. I had no idea like a fight with him

would even be moving around this kind of early. Honestly, I would have thought we would have been like a couple more fights into the UFC and then getting the fight. This is like kind of both early and both of our careers and in the UFC at least. And I kind of, It kind of went different places and somebody mentioned it and I didn't see it because I know at that

point in time my phone was kind of blowing up, blowing up after the fight and then somebody was like started blowing up Randy started telling him like you're scared to fight Adrian and he's like no I'm not and I'm like I saw that and I was like yeah I'm not either so I just threw my name in there and even with a couple of people that I kind of I kind of called out right after the fight like trying to aim for fights for future fights and nobody answered and granny is the guy that that you know put it out there it's like well like put it out there but like you know until someone nudged them is like yeah I respect the guy but I'll fight them so same approach with me man I still respect them and I like I respect them but I'll fight them too man if they say hey you know you fight this

when you get a rematch again I was like all right cool that'd be fun that'd be fun too because I'd still fight them because it's one of those weird things where like I can I respect fighters so much that I would fight them. Just like I looked up to Jose Aldo, Frankie Edgar for so much, I respect him so much, that would be an absolute honor to fight him. And I feel the same way with Randy.

Like, he's a really good, genuinely, really good guy who wears his heart on his sleeves every single time he goes out there and fights. So I have nothing but respect for that. And it's really, really cool. It's really, really cool to see that. And I'm really glad that, like, this fight is actually centered around, like,

you know, good sportsmanship instead of it being like how this past weekend with, with Connor McGregor and Dustin Porre, how that, you know, kind of like how that ended, you know, not the greatest, but, you know, hey, you know, me, me and Randy are showing that you can be a good sport and still promote the fight at the same time. There's a lot of excitement behind this fight. And I know you're ready to go. You and Randy have built this thing up sort of organically and, and like we said, through positivity.

How do you like the matchup with Randy? because he's a big 35 or he's a big guy. He cuts a pretty significant amount of weight to get to 35. His style, especially on the feet, you know, you're more of a, the scientific striker. You're very technical. I mean, you mix in some different things that make you so unique. But Randy's striking is like, he's a technical wild man, if that makes sense. So how do you like the matcher from that perspective and the challenge that he presents you on that end?

And it's, it's one that really excites me, if I'm being quite honest, because he's, He is that wild guy, and he's also the guy who's really fast, really explosive, and has a lot of pop and his punches and his kicks. So I had to be on my P's and Q's. I have to pitch the perfect game. Also, he has to as well. He has to pitch the perfect game. That's the best part about this is that we both have to be on our A games or else one of us is going to sleep. And I like to believe whenever I look across the caves that, like, whenever I see Randy, I like the aggressive style that he brings.

I feel like that fits me perfectly, especially with his wild man that's like the wild man kicks and everything is kind of like set up, setting up for something else and something bigger. You know, I don't mind. I don't mind it at all. Like I'm actually like really excited. Like I have really phenomenal kickers in my gym that I, that had been helping me train for this really fast strikers. Then also like a good one that just got signed by the U.C.

Lehmada Martinez. is he's been helping me train for this fight, and he's never really stopped training from after the contenders all the way up to now. He's been on a two-fight win streak, and he's been helping me train, like, train for these unorthodox kicks and unorthodox punches, you know, gives him himself a karate-style background, and also he's a really good kickboxer, super good kickboxer. So I've been getting a lot of good work in, and if I'm being quite honest with you,

I feel he's a lot faster than Randy. So, like, I feel like I've been getting great work around it. So we both had to be on a piece and cues. I like the style matchup just for me because, man, like, you make a mistake against me. I'm making you pay for it tenfold. So I love this matchup, but I feel like it suits me very well. I think the timing for this fight is actually really good, too, when you consider what the card actually looks like.

There's like 417 Banimite fights on this card. It's insane. and some really good names. Like Arce and Ewell are fighting on this card. We got Kyler Phillips and Hale-Pyva. I know it's supposed to be Hopiola-Sunzo. Of course, you guys, and then we get the main event,

Corey Sanhagan and T.J. Dilloshaw. I mean, there's a lot of, like, potential to plant some seeds for future fights, just being on this car. Do you agree with that? How much is that excite you being on this particular car with these particular fights? Man, that actually excites me a lot.

You know, I'm kind of hoping after the fight that they let me stay and watch the rest of the fights so I can sit back and watch and scout. But, man, there's a lot of good, there's a lot of big, big potential fights that are there. You know, like even in the main event, like those are the two guys that you want to be fighting because those guys are the top contenders that will eventually lead to the belt. If not, if they already have the belt, whoever it is, because they're all good enough to hold the belt. So to me, I just look back and you kind of want to scout and look at everybody on the car.

You know, it'd be cool if I'd try to be able to fight first. and watch everybody else fights so I can sit back and watch them live because, man, watching the fights live, you get to see their actual speed, the actual, like, the sound of how hard they hit. You get to be a little bit more intimate with those little factors, those little, like, moments in there you can physically see someone slow down a little bit better whenever you're watching live. So it's, it's cool, like, because you can notice, noticed the difference whenever I watched this last UC, whenever it was in Houston, UC 262,

watching it live and watching the Oliveira stoppage, like, live, like there was, it was, it was like, wow, it was really, really cool, but also you can see the little moments of the, the tide of the shift turn, you know, the little shift turn that made it kind of roll down. And then, like, you watch it on TV, you're just like, whoa, this looks a lot faster than what it did on, than it did live. So it's pretty good. Like, that's what I would want to do.

I would want to fight first, then watch everybody else, you know, kind of fight. So I can get a better grasp of where their speeds at, where their power's at, and what little things they have, that little signs, almost like playing poker. What little signs are giving in so I can see, like, when I need to turn it up and when I need to push? What do you think, when's the main event, Sandhagen or Dillishaw? Man, I'm riding with Corey Santa Hagan on this one. No, you know, yeah, yeah, Corey Sanaghan. I'm not too fond of T.J. Dillard show.

I'm just going to say, you look like you have something on your mind there, but... Yeah, yeah, no, man. Yeah, no. Yeah, you know, he's getting gifted at the main event against the top contender, but also that top contenders is Corey Santa Hagan. So, you know, it's kind of on the outs for him. you know. Fair enough. But you got to set the table for this fight.

You want to, obviously, you want to steal this, you want to steal the show. You want everybody talking about you as opposed to what happens to this main event. So how do we do this? How do we set the table? How do we steal that thunder? Oh, yeah, man, I got to go in there and knock Randy out. You know, I love the guy. You know, I respect the guy by the same time.

We're both trying to do the same thing. But I'm going in there and I'm going to knock him out. Second round, calling it right now. Second round knockout. He's good. you know, but I have a lot of fight experience and not that he doesn't because he's training with some really good fighters out in Florida, but I just feel I'm on this different level and I have this different maturity in this fight because I've been around it for a very long time

and I definitely, I know within myself how down and dirty I can dig, you know, and I'm ready to go out there and impose my will and, you know, it doesn't matter of a size difference, nothing, but I'm going there in the second round, and I'm going to knock him out. I have to ask you about this, because it slipped my mind the last time we spoke, and it really irked me. It was one of those moments in my career where I was like, how did I not ask him about this? It was like right there on the tee, and I didn't ask him. What's going out with you and Dr. Pepper? Has there been any conversations? Like, how has this not happened by now? Man, it's all undocked. The ball is in Dr. Pepper's court, man. We've been knocking on the doorstep

for a very long time. They just have been a lot of. open the door yet. So I'm just sitting here knocking, trying to kick the door down, trying to get a sponsorship or something, you know. Man, I wouldn't even mind a year, a year's supply of Dr. Pepper, you know, I wouldn't mind it at all. In a year of supply, Dr. Pepper will probably last me two years, especially if I'm being in training camp most of those whole times. So like, hey, man, throw me a bone. Throw me something. Throw me a 24-pack. I don't care. It's like, I just want more Dr. Pepper. I wouldn't mind it at all. Have they given you any, like even a like on social media, anything?

Oh, they responded to me once. They responded to me once. They quoted my tweet, and I was like, I was like, oh, this is so cool. Are we getting stuff? Did we get the ball rolling? And then I felt like I missed the shot. But then after that, like, everybody on MMA Twitter was like kind of just adding Dr. Pepper. And I just felt like, man, I don't know if it was too much or not enough.

I don't know what it was. So, ah, man, yeah, it's, it's, it's, I feel like it's right there. I just need, like, if I go out there and knock Randy out, man, I think that states a big case to be like, hey, Dr. Pepper Time. Would you do a Dr. Pepper Shui, like, Tai Tiawasa? Oh, man, everybody, like, there's, there's been, it's been mixed reviews on Twitter that people, like, someone told me to do a Shui. And I was like, man, am I really going to have to do a Dr. Pepper Shui? And, and then after that, like, I'm getting a whole bunch of. Mix response. A lot of people are saying yes, do it. Some people are saying like, nah, man,

don't do it. Don't do it. Man, it just depends. Man, I might do a poll. If it goes over 50% says yes, then I'll do it. If it goes over 50% for no, I won't do it. So it just depends. I'll have to see you about that. Some people just want to see me separate. You know, so they would want me to do the Dr. Pepper's Sweet. All right. So I'm going to change your life right now, Adrian when it comes to this conversation. Okay. And I know, and this is MMA. So I could say this right now on camera and people are going to be like,

okay, whatever. But then like three months later, everyone's going to forget about it and you can keep this in your back pocket. Okay. So before I did this job, I was a wedding DJ. So I was a wedding DJ. And I remember a bride and groom,

like we're telling me like the groom's family is crazy. Like they're nuts. So like whatever they ask you to do, like tell them to like, kick rocks. So I'm behind there. I'm trying to like get everything ready. And one of the groomsmen, who is the brother of the groom walks up to me. He goes, so we have a, we have a tradition in our family that the bride has to take a shot out of the groom's shoe or one of the groomsman's shoe or the something like that. And I was like, first of all, it's the grossest thing I've ever heard. I was like, and second of all, like, she's never going to do this. He goes, well, it's tradition.

And she has to do it. She goes, so just get on the microphone, tell her to do it. I'm like, well, I'm never, ever going to do that at somebody's wedding because that's insane. So I walked up to her and I was like, listen, there apparently is this tradition where you have to like drink alcohol out of like your husband's shoe. And she's like, yeah, I know. And like if I don't do it, I'm like kicked out of the family. So like, I guess I have to do it. She's like, I really don't want to.

Like she was almost in tears. So I was like, I got an idea. So I went up to the bar and I grabbed one of those like rocks glasses and I stuck it in the shoe. So I poured the shot in the shoe into the glass. that was inside the shoe. So she took the shoe and drank it. Nobody knew the glass was there.

So it wasn't disgusting. Oh, yeah. You know what? You might be right. You got a good idea, man. You got a good point. You got a good point. Save that one.

You won't be able to do it after this one, but like down the road. Oh, yeah. You got this, man. Yeah, I wish I knew this about a month ago. Good stuff from Adrian Yoniatas. Positivity, my friends. positivity is everything in this fight, this rivalry, this feud has been built on positivity.

And the fight is just going to be awesome. It's just really good matchmaking. And I'm glad that, you know, Randy, Adrian, but mostly the fans made this fight happen. And they did it in the best possible way. So kudos to everybody involved. Really, really looking forward to that one coming up Saturday night from Las Vegas at the apex. We move ahead to a little bit of a different kind of an interview. We're going to talk to Josh Martinez.

You may know him from Big Brother. You may know him from MTV's The Challenge, that huge show hosted by T.J. Lavin. I don't need to explain what the challenges. You know what it is. But Josh is going to be boxing. Coming up in a couple of weeks, let's talk to Josh Martinez right now on what the heck. All right.

So if you're a fan of reality television, if you're a fan of MTV's The Challenge, that you recognize this individual. And for those wondering why he is on a combat sports show, one, you know me. I like to get on anybody to talk combat sports. fighter or not, but also because he will actually be competing himself on August 6th, part of a boxing event, pitting cast members from the show Big Brother. It's Big Brother U.S. versus Big Brother Canada. The event goes down in Arlington, Texas. You can check it out on Fight TV. He's actually to be taken on Adam Pike. Let us say hello to Josh Martinez. Josh, how are you, man? Good, brother. How's it going? It's going well. It's good to have you here. So you're coming off,

I believe your fourth season of the challenge, the double agent season. That was your fifth? Yeah, well, they just actually right before I jumped on, they just announced the new season. So I just did, yeah, this is my fifth season. And then the new season airs August 11th. They literally just released it this morning. So five seasons of the challenge. Yeah, it's been a wild ride.

So, yeah, the double agent season is the last one you were on. And you made it pretty far once again. That's been like the story of your challenge run. You make it pretty far. but you come up just short before the final. So you've kind of experienced like both in some way because you've lost an opening challenge, you got to come back,

but you've also gone pretty far and come up short. What's worse? Getting knocked out like right away or getting knocked out late in the game? Oh, getting knocked out right away. I think that I honestly, my whole challenge career has been such an uphill battle, but it's been something that has helped me grown so much and helped me deal with failure in a way where like I'm not really, you know,

when I fail, when I don't have success on the show, it doesn't set me back if anything, it makes me work harder. But if I didn't have the opportunity to continue to come back season after season and kind of have a shot at playing the game that I've fallen in love with or just having a shot at the money

and going out first, that would have been a bummer. Yeah, my rookie season, I went out literally hours into the game. And I probably wouldn't have a career with MTV right now. So hell yeah, going out first. But, I mean, getting closer and closer, I just think each season you learn what works,

what doesn't, what I need to work. on and I just keep getting stronger and just more confident within the game. So yeah, I feel really lucky to just be part of it, honestly. I think everybody watching this and everybody in general at some point has watched the challenge. And I think all of us at some point in our lives, we try to imagine ourselves on the show, like how would we do on it? Like, we'll T.J. Lab and think I'm tough or really think I'm a, I'm a wuss and send me home with with bad vibes, like all that stuff. So getting there and like getting chosen and being part of it for the first time, was it kind of surreal for you being on the show and arriving to that first challenge?

Like seeing some of the people that have been mainstays in the show for so long? 1000%. I mean, my rookie season was just crazy because I had gotten leaked probably a month prior to going into the show. So all the fans were going nuts online. And I think I just had this like pressure coming off of a win from Big Brother that I had to perform. And then you pull up and you see all of these freaking vets. And like for me now to be considered a vet kind of in their shoes, it's so weird to me because I still, till this day, remember the very first day I met all of them.

And it's surreal. It's intense. I think everybody says, oh, yeah, I'll do the challenge. Watching from home, it looks way easier. I'll be the first to say, like, watching the challenges we do, be like, oh, yeah, I could do that. But when you're there and you have the pressure on and you have the people that are, everybody's a competitor

and bring something to the show, yeah, it looks a lot easier watching it from home. But, dude, the game is intense and just the living, I think just the whole the whole aspect of the game, the social aspect, the living locked in a house for two months with crazy people. So yeah, it's definitely harder than it seems for sure. So now you have an interesting challenge in a different way. Friday night, August 6th, Big Brother U.S. versus Big Brother Canada, you're going to be facing Adam Pike. Before we get into the actual combat itself, like when was this brought to your attention and how did you react to it? So I got reached out to do this box.

First off, I, with all the YouTubers and all the TikTokers and everybody kind of doing these celebrity fights, I instantly was like, why haven't we, Big Brothers, like, how can we have them done one? Our fans are so invested in everything that we do. They support us. I mean, I've been off of the show now four years and I still have so many fans from Big Brother to support me.

So I was like, our fans are right or die. Why don't we do this? And then I got reached out, I want to say like February, March, right before I left to go film the new season. of the challenge. They reached out to me like three weeks before. And, yeah, Adel's been great in setting everything up. And they, you know, they let me know what was going down, who I would be, they kind of

gave me the option to who I was going to fight. I mean, I was, they were switching in and out fighters to match me up because I could either somebody didn't want to fight me or they couldn't find somebody like my size and my weight to box me. So I'm glad that it's Adam. Adams is a competitor. Adams is a tough fucking dude. So it's going to be a showdown.

And I'm excited. I love competing and I love, you know, putting myself against, like, strong people like that and having to go up against them. So I'm stoked for everybody. I'm really excited for it. What have you made for, I mean, obviously he's been a part of you wanting to put something like this together. And you sort of having this concept, like, why haven't we done this? But we've seen what Jake Paul has been doing. I mean, the man, love him or hate him, he's carved out a very successful niche in this, in this landscape.

And people are interested in it, whether they want to see him win or see him get knocked out. Like, what have you thought about what he's been able to do? I think he's a genius. I think Jake Paul, even though, you know, I think he's so young, he's so successful. And he's a complete genius. I think he's the one that kind of started all of this. And it's just so smart from his end and now look what it's turned into. I hope that this is the first of many Big Brother fights or reality TV events that we do.

And I hope that is a huge success. I know that the fans are excited. I know that all the fighters, all of us are really excited and stoked to be kind of the first wants to do it. But yeah, I hope, I mean, Jake Paul kind of paved the way to do it for all, like, social influencers or whatever you want to call it. And now we're doing it. So I just hope that it's a huge success so that we can continue doing these fights because I think that it's going to be a hit. For sure, it's going to be a hit. And I'm so excited to be part of it. Are you personally a combat sports fan? Are you a boxing fan? Do you watch M.MA or anything

like that? Yeah. So my dad's a huge MMA fight. I'm Cuban. So I grew up watching boxing. obviously Mayweather, a big Mayweather fight, a big Mayweather fan, sorry. So yeah, I grew up watching fighting sports and all that stuff. So, yeah, just to be, I mean, my dad always said that either I was going to be a lawyer or a boxer because I'm so outspoken and I have a strong personality. So I guess I'm kind of living up the dream and doing this boxing match. That's crazy. What's sort of your combat experience?

I think everyone's been in some sort of scrap at some point. lives, but like, where did you gauge your actual, like, boxing experience? Oh, dude, I mean, I grew up, I grew up playing sports and I grew up playing football and baseball, and I grew up in fights in and out of fights my whole life. Not primarily because of me, I was always either defending one of my cousins or something like that. So I'm a scrapper. I'm a fighter for sure. In training, I actually started training. Growing up, I would do boxing just for, like, cardio, because I love training and doing, like, hit training and things like that. And boxing is just a whole different animal. But I think I've been training, I want to say, like, two months and a half before leading into this fight.

And I've been doing two days now, you know, with a private Cuban trainer here in Miami. So I don't have much experience, but I have been preparing myself for the fight for sure. Who's training you if you don't mind me asking? His name is Russell and it's Empire Fit. Like, I've been going to the gym here for three years and he has his whole team there. So I've been working with them for three years now. and you know I'm really I'm really just stoked to have them in my corner they know me well they know how I train um so yeah they're pushing me hard and yeah I'm excited to just have them have them like represent me kind of

have you met obviously you knew who adam was and you know he's a tough guy but have you like hung out with them like are you guys friendly no we've never met so yeah we're friendly definitely um Adam I was a fan of him on his season of big brother the guy killed it on that season and then he's been a fan of mine I'm a big brother and just very supportive with everything that I do with the challenge and on social media. We've never met. But I do know that, you know, we are, even though we're friendly and we get along, I think that we're both very competitive. And we don't, I don't like to lose. I know that he doesn't like to lose.

So I think that, you know, when it comes to like stepping into the ring, I think all that friendly stuff is going to stay outside of the ring. And I think that we're going to put on a good show and a good fight because I know, I mean, we've talked about it back and forth and throw like jabs. Like, you know, I don't think none of us want to lose. So I think that it's going to be I think our fight's going to be one of the best ones honestly, I'm being rude with you because we're ready to just get in there and just kill it. What are some of the things that you guys are saying to each other

back and forth? So I've been gone, but when I got home, I've been gone filming when I got home, I saw all the things that he was saying on social media and just talking all this shit and doing all these funny posts. I was like, all right, I'm not one to do that. I mean, even when I have real castmates coming on me

when the show's airing, I don't go back and forth on the internet. I don't like it. But I was like, all right, well, I'll see you August 6, I guess. Like, you know, but for the most part, it's friendly banter. But I think that, you know, he's been training really hard. The guy's been putting in work in the gym. So if anything is just pushing me to train even harder leading up to the fight, yeah, for the most part, we get along.

But I think when it comes down to it, we're just going to, we're going to scrap, dude. It's going to be a bloodbath for sure. Yeah, of course, and anything you do, and anyone who's watch a challenge can tell this. it's pretty easy to see. You want to win. And I certainly understand that. But while you have an opponent that you'll be battling, there's always like when you do something like this,

there's always these small battles within ourselves, like trying something new, you're vulnerable, you're in front of doing this thing in front of all these people who are going to be paying attention to you. So outside of just wins and losses, what are you hoping to accomplish on August 6th in the boxing ring? I think for me it's like you just said, it's challenging myself.

for me, when I'm scared to do something, that's when I jump head first into it. You know, when I first got asked, I was like, I have no professional fighting experience. I've never truly boxed. I've done like workouts and things like that incorporating boxing, but like trade like a boxer. I have no experience. But for me, it was like, all right, am I scared to do it? I'm not scared to do it, but is it something new? Is it outside of the box?

It's something that I've never done. Hell yeah. And I love watching boxing matches. I love watching MAA and all that stuff. stuff. So I was like, fuck it, put me in there. And I think for me, it's more of like challenging win or lose, whatever does happen on August 6th. It's more of like I had the balls in the courage to step into the ring, especially against somebody like Adam and just go in there and give it everything that I got. And for me, it's like I'm motivated by fear and I'm

driven by fear. And like I think that no matter what criticism or what people say about me, I'm never going to back down from something because of people's, you know, what people think about it. It's more of like challenging myself and taking on this new task and just giving it everything that I got and putting in the work to just perform and do well and put on a good fight. So I think for me, it's just the growth in the whole process of the training and leading up to the fight and just like, proving to myself that, you know, even if it's something new, I can tackle it and give it my awe and just compete and put my heart into it. So, yeah, I'm excited for it.

When did you get back from filming? Dude, I got back from filming like, I want to say about not even two weeks. Okay. I got off the show and then I traveled for a few days. And then, yeah, I got home probably like a week. It's been like a week now, I think like a week and a half. Yeah. Did you watch the Dustin Pori and Connor fight on Saturday?

I did watch it. Yeah, I did watch it. Disappointment, dude. What a disappointment, man. I mean, I had money on McGregor, but, you know, you can't predict those type of things when they happen. You're an injury like that. So, I mean, and I was in the McGregor fight in, um, in Vegas a few years ago.

So that fight lasted. Who was it against? Was it against how? It lasted like 40 seconds. So I really wanted to see. You know, I was like, dude,

I really wanted to see put on a good fight. But yeah, it's like you never know what's going to happen in the ring, dude. And that's a scary, that's something that's really scary.

But, but yeah, I was just disappointed with that fight. Yeah, at least you don't have to check leg kicks or anything with this. Yeah. I'm just kidding.

I mean, I mean, like, five months to train for that. Boxing we could throw hands. but MMA, that's a whole different ballgame. That's a different animal. No, no, no. I wouldn't be filming.

I wouldn't be training for a show and then going straight into an MMA fight. Fuck that. That's brutal. Yeah. I don't know if we're going to see that world where the, you know, the celebrity fights happen in MMA. It'd be interesting to see. You would be down for that?

Fuck, yeah. I would be done. I would just need, like, a solid four months of training before I would step into the ring with anybody. That would be so wild. I'd be interested to see how that would play out. So how does this all go down August 6th? Like you said it's going to be very exciting.

You and Josh are very competitive guys. Big Brother U.S. versus Big Brother Canada. What's the headline going to read when the fight's over? I think the headline's going to read that, you know, Big Brother U.S. won most of the matches. And I'm telling you I'm not going in there, like holding back. I'm going in just, I'm going ham. Like I'm literally just giving it everything that I have. obviously not trying to hurt Adam.

I don't think that's what we're trying to do here. But I think that we are, and we've talked about it like so many times that we're ready to put on a fucking fight. And I don't know who's going to win it, but I know that I'm going to give it everything that I got. I know Adam's going to put up a good fight. And I think that it's going to be one of the best fights that day. But I'm just hoping for the win, honestly, just putting in the work and just hoping for the win, for sure. Before we let you go, I did want to ask you about something that that goes beyond TV and beyond. unboxing and things of that nature.

And that is what is currently going on in Cuba right now. Because you, of course, as you've talked about before, you are a Cuban American. I believe your parents came over from there. And maybe I heard this wrong, but your grandfather, maybe your great-grandfather, spent time in prison for fighting for a lot of the same things that are being fought for now over there. And as people have probably seen by now, the pandemic has really crushed Cuba. And not just because of the pandemic, but there's been food shortage. and lack of supply of medicine.

Now it's summertime and there's blackouts and there's inflation. And it's scary stuff, man. And now there's this positive COVID test spikes. Like things are just really bad over there. And the people of Cuba have just said like, you know what? We're not going to take this line down anymore. We're going to fight back. So I sort of wanted to get your thoughts on what is going on over there.

And what it's been like for you to watch what is happening. Yeah. It's, dude, it's heartbreaking. Today, actually this morning, we were able to communicate. with one of my dad's brother and my uncle and speaks to our cousins and stuff like that. And I mean, I was just bawling on the phone for an hour. It's just, it's so sad. It's gotten so bad.

And people don't understand that there is no other options but kind of to protest. They don't have another option. They're starving. Inflation, like you said, is so high. People can't afford to even go to a grocery store. There's no food. Even if they go to a grocery store, there is no food. So there's no food.

There's no medication. And it's just gotten so bad. People are dying just because of COVID. It's been happening, but it's so bad because they don't have the basic necessities that they need. So it's just, it's really heartbreaking. And in knowing that we can't do anything to help, that's where I'm struggling because I have the money. If I wanted to send money right now to help, I can't. The government doesn't give it to our family.

So it's just, it's really hard. But I think that what I can do from my end and what I've been doing is just trying to speak as much about it, bring awareness. So I'm getting so many messages and so many DMs from people that have no. idea what's going on in Cuba, which is crazy to me. So just bringing awareness with the thousands or 30 or 40, whatever people watch my story, just to bring awareness to it, it's something that I feel like I, that's the only thing that I can do. And it's helping me kind of, you know, deal with it and just feeling like I'm doing something.

Because I'm feeling helpless and not being able to help my family, it is really sad. But I'm really grateful to support and just like, I'm hoping that things change because it's just heartbreaking, honestly. What are your parents think about it? You know, because they came over in the 80s, right? So, yeah, my parents came over in the 80s. My mom was really young. I think my mom was 15 and my dad was 18.

My dad was homeless for about three years in Cuba. You know, his family was just living in the streets at one point because they spoke out. So my family spoke out against the dictatorship and basically the whole town turned on them. So it was like, you know, every single day they were getting. you know, either their house was getting bombed with stuff, people egging their house, like just attacking them and getting slandered. So it got so bad that my dad had to leave the country. Like he, my dad came in a boat from Cuba and fled.

And then my mom was requested, like back in the 80s, you could request your family. So she went from Costa Rica to the States. But it's just that struggle stays with them. Like, you know, it's like that, that what they went through has, it's been years and it's still like my parents can't even get through a full conversation talking about that story and what happened to them in Cuba. So it is really sad that that is still happening in our country and that our people are still going through that. And,

you know, it's heartbreaking. But I think for once, my dad was telling me this morning, he's like, you know, people never had the courage to kind of speak up against a dictatorship. They were so scared. And I think now with social media and they're seeing what they're creating and all the noise that they're making, now people are finding the courage and the strength to do it. So I think that that's why I just want to share more because I know that the Cuban people are finding support in all, everything that is put on social media. So yeah, it is really tough, but I just pray that, you know, I pray for my family.

I pay for my country and I just pray that things start to change. But I appreciate you bringing that up. That means a lot for sure and just bringing more awareness. So thank you. There he is. Josh Martinez getting ready to make his boxing debut coming up on. on August 6. You can watch action on Fight TV, Big Brother U.S. versus Big Brother Canada. And just thought it was really good stuff about Cuba. He's obviously a Cuban American and

everything going on over there is just, it's just craziness. So our hearts go out to everybody over in Cuba dealing with what they're dealing with right now as you get ready to wrap up the program. One more interview coming up to wrap us up. And that's it. So thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Hopefully you can get my house in order and this nightmare. could be behind us because it's just driving me crazy. I don't even know how I'm talking to you right now, but onwards and upwards. That's what I always say. Off to Tampa tomorrow, BKFC, look for my coverage out there.

All sorts of different things should be happening. Fight card on Friday, of course, headlined by Paige Van Zand versus Rachel Ostevic. So join me for that. We'll be at the Bellator, A.J. McKee versus Patricia Pitbull, media day, and open workout and all that stuff. There's so much fun stuff going on. Brandon Moreno. has a media luncheon coming up on Tuesday. So we'll be there for that as well.

So lots of content coming your way on M-Afighting.com on our YouTube page, wherever you're finding us. So just follow along and, yeah, and partake in the good stuff. But I'm getting out here. Again, thank you to you guys for checking out the program. Big thinking to Casey on the production, Jose and Alex on the social stuff. We're done. We're out of here.

Have a heck of a week, everybody. We'll see you throughout the week. We'll wrap things up my chat with Gilbert, Doreno Burns. All right. let us say hello to Gilbert Burns, who picked up a big win over Stephen Thompson at UFC 264. And the man got on the microphone after the win. He spit some fire. I dug it a lot.

In addition, he has also joined up with the fine folks over at Kilcliffe and their clean energy fight club. A lot going on in the world of Doreno these days. How are you, man? I'm doing good, bro. Thank you. Good to have you back here. And look, you went into the Octagon in front of 20,000 people and you beat Stephen Thompson. That is not easy to do.

It's also not easy to look good against Stephen Thompson. And all in all, no matter what anybody else says, man, I thought you looked good against him and you got the job done. That's all that matters, right? Me too. I think I look very good. I execute a game plan that we had. And yeah, came up victorious, no injuries, two checks.

Didn't move up in the ranks, but politics, I don't care. And family was there. No injuries. Four take down attempt. Three executed. Control. No damage. Yeah, for sure I'm happy.

I'm not saying this because you're here because I've said this on other platforms and other places as well. I thought overall this was an A plus night for you. The whole body of work from the win, the reaction after the final horn, you yelling, what, what, what? And then given a little bit back to the boo birds at T-Mobile. I love the promo of Joe Rogan after. like the little bit of a heel turn and the callouts were great too, which we'll discuss in a moment. I'm curious how you would grade yourself as a whole for everything you did on Saturday,

from the walkout to the fight to the post-fight interview with Rogan and everything. I think it was a great night, especially I was very nervous coming from a knockout loss against the champion and, you know, trying to rebuild myself again, make sure I do believe in what I said, that I still have time to be a champion, and steal everything in there. I want to be the champion. And I got to remind myself, you know, not even the others, but remind myself that as you can do.

And then I was freaking nervous before the fight. But I went there and execute was a good game playing against a very game opponent. Last eight years, no one took him down three times like I did. No one controlled him. Like I did, no one got a lot of damage like I didn't got damage. And a post-fight interview was nice. I did what I had to say. I, you know, a lot of fans got behind me, a lot of faith.

You know, the other day, my fire was canceled. So I went to the daughter with the family. Then I went to get a meal with Harry. Bro, a big crowd saw me and then, you know, a lot of support from the fans, social media, too. I think it was a very good night against a tough opponent, rebuting myself back to the title shot. I think it was a great, great night. Yeah, I mean, because you're such a nice guy.

you're considered one of the good guys in the sport. But when you cut that promo on the crowd, man, I loved it. Like, boo-me, boom-y, it was great. Like, what compelled you to do that? Like, can you walk us through that moment? Because it seemed like you're going to take the high road and just say, like, look, I'm sorry. I try to finish these fights.

And then boom, you go heal and become heel-burnt Burns. Like, why did you decide to do that? Because I caught, I caught myself saying sorry a lot, you know? Anything that I do bad, I do help. preach that to my kids, you gotta say, sorry if you did something bad. And then I remember we were preaching that a lot before. Leave me, I don't, you know, I'm leaving for this week for the, get that Saturday to watch the fire.

Mom, I don't want to do something bad. Don't fight back, you know, relax because my boys have a lot of energy. So that was, I think, the thing that we were preaching so much. And then at the end of the fight, I called myself and saying, sorry. As soon as I called myself and saying sorry, But I'm sorry. I'm not a lot of guys. I felt good against a very guy.

I respect you guys. Long time with COVID. Now it's opening up. You guys want to see more action. But you come here and do action against these guys. Go start. Go forward against the water boys. Suing for the fence.

You'll see what's going to happen. So when I caught myself saying, sorry, say, you know what? Boo, I don't care. I like the energy. So that was. that was kind of very natural. A lot of the story heading into this fight was some of the work done in the gyms with some of the specialists that you each brought in.

Like, Steam was working with guys like Ryan Hall. You were working with Raymond Daniels. That became such a big story because it's obviously such a great tool to have. But you made it a point several times to give credit to Jason Jackson, the ass kicking machine who's been on a tear over at Bellator. He could be the next guy to fight Yaroslav Amosov for their Walterweight title. How specifically was he so important? impactful to you ahead of this fight?

Very, very. I had three guys helping me so much. Lee and Jimenez, Raymond Daniels, Jason Jackson. That was sick, my full camp. That was it. Those three guys every day,

twice a day, for sure. All my team, Sian for the MMA, few halls, who was one of the guys, true, that he had a very crazy take down defense,

and then it was one that I used to the other guys, too. But Jason Jackson was such a big, condition because he has the best taking down defense on the MMA period.

Like, period. I can point a lot of guys not trying to like that, but I take a lot of guys down the gym. Most of the guy I score a takedown. Most. He's the only

for a guy that if I do get a take down on a few halls and boom right back up. Jason pulled right back up. And Jason Jackson is kind of like the taller. And I think he got even more, more,

I recall that, the range. More rich. Yeah, he got more rich and more than than the one about it. Well, I was in case it was so hard.

Down towards the two years. You know, a lot better was being too. But wow. a big help because of that. Take down defense, the defense, you know, take down in his defense, and hold down and keep him down.

That was Jason high level. He's going to be the next battle champion for sure because when I touched Stephen, he was strong, but nothing close to tricking Jason Jackson. You sort of touched on this earlier, but it was brought up at the media day, and you talked about it then too, but I actually went into this whole fight being one of the people who thought like all the pressure

was on Wonder Boy. Like the story was about him and could he get back to a title shot? It's all on the line for him. And for you, yeah, there's obviously some pressure. You want to get back to the belt. But I felt like in a weird way, you were kind of playing with house money a little bit heading into this fight. Like a win would be big, a loss, albeit would have been pretty crappy for you. I didn't think it would be as catastrophic for you as it would be for Wonderboy.

And you kind of disagree with that sentiment. You talked about how nervous you were before the fight. Why is that? Why did you, where did this extra pressure come from? It came from me because I always believe it could be the champion. I could become a champion. I think he went to the fire. I'm overconfident.

And I remind myself that a lot of opportunity, but he's the first one, you know, when I get more. But I was happy to believe it. I did. But you know what? We're going to get another time. But at the other half, I was just like, man, and just lost it. So hard right now.

And I got to prove to myself that, for me, that I, that I still can be the champion. And the wound, they come and ask, boy. A lot of guys who fight, they give him the water boy. Yeah, like, man, I got to know that fight. So, and then I learned so much from the Camaro fighting ahead. Because in the Camaro fight, I, and what did I do? But we start getting undisciplined,

loading up, punch, trying to finish the fight, angry, emotions. So at that fight, I knew it could get here. I knew I might got a knock down from Stephen Wonderboy. But what do I have to change? You've got to be disciplined. I got to stay with the gameplay, stick with the plan. So all the little fingers, I had. had two fights that I was more nervous about it.

But first one was Damien Maia back then because it was a big deal with in Brazil, Jiu-2-A, one of my idols, I was so freaking nervous. Title I was nervous, but not as much. Damien Maia was the number one. But now Stephen Wonderball Tompso, I got so freaking nervous that that's why I'm helping my performance.

Not because I did what I did, because I was extremely nervous and I was still able to do what I had to do, follow the game playing, stay in discipline, listening to my coach. That's why I put a lot of, I think that's why I felt a lot of pressure coming from a loss, trying to rebuild myself, trying to keep believing on myself that can be a champion. And, you know, and going against a freaking high-level guy, and I got to learn the lesson that I just made a mistake in my life. I think that's why too I got.

The pressure was too much because, okay, I learned to be disciplined. Okay, you really learned. Show me. That was kind of the pressure that I had. After the main event, Dana White spoke to the media, and he was asked about your performance, and he said, it wasn't a good fight, and that you won, and that was the extent of it. What did you make of Dana's opinion about the fight?

So hard to, nowadays, to kind of react to any Dana's opinion. I remember, you know, a fight that I remember that was super, super close. Francis Inga knew after he lost the title shot, who was his first fight, you remember? After he lost the title shot to Derek Lewis? Derek Lewis, how was that fight? It was kind of forgettable. Yeah, but who won that fight? Black Beast wasn't Francis. That's the only difference.

I was the number one contender just fought for the title. or I lost. Okay, it got a little boring fight. I don't think it was that boring. But I agree. It wasn't as entertained. I did what I had to do. But I won't.

You know, that's the difference thing. And I was flying, you know, a lot of fights, like Dana said, every fight he makes, every weekend he makes, he makes fights. And he said the same thing about the heavyweight kill, kill, kill a game. Cyril gone, yeah. Cil gun, a couple of fights ago, say, man. I don't like that performance. Guys fighting for the title right now.

So it's very hard nowadays to. Daniel, I'm very emotional. For sure, he wants my fight to be a bang. For sure, he wants a corner of a man where I fight to be a bang. And I understand, you know, as a promoter, that's what you have to do. So I understand his opinion, but I don't rely on that. You know, that I'm not going to define what I'm going to do now. I mean, like you said, like the fight wasn't as bad as, like, a lot of people,

made it out to be. I thought like the moment, I don't know if it was the first round of the second round where you're on top of him. It was the second round. The second round when you're like you're on top of him and he just starts throwing like, what do you think in that moment? You're like, all right, dude, let's let's do this. I'll do this with you all day. Yeah, that was Joe Frazier. And my pride, remember? So that was a good one, boy. I had fun in there. I was very nervous and capitalize and execute a game plan. I guess a very freaking tough guy. me a freaking spinning hill kick came on the back of my neck that that freaking landed right here i lost my last leg for a little b and i oh shit i got to keep stay opposed stay disciplined

discipline discipline remember stay disciplined so hands up hard things like kind of fired back a little b i had a lot of fun in there i was and that guy was freaking people have no idea like people who are what is the jiu jit to a lot of haters that don't hit it but and then i watched the fight and i said man there's a lot of jiu jih Tia that people don't realize how was my head movement in the fight when they took him down, when I went to the shots, how was my hip position?

That guy was very slippery. If I kind of overcommit to go to a transition submission, that guy was up in the gamer. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to have a very heavy mass control here, control of the hips, control of the shoulders, good head position, heavy hips, and as soon as I can,

I'm able to strike, I'm going to strike, but it was very tact. practical fight. People that has a good level and understand your grappling, they're like, oh, I know what you did, you know. Yeah, it's not easy to take him down, let alone keep him down, and you were able to do both of those things. So you had three names in mind after the fight, Mazadol, Diaz, Leon Edwards, and all three make a lot of sense. No one thought it was that they were reaching for anything crazy. I thought they all were sensible callouts. Do you have sort of an order of preference? Does

like, does one name stand out above the others? If your name is then Nate, it's a big fight. You've got to say yes for these fights, but I'm not chasing. I'm not chasing. So if the way I see, Kobe fight is going to be by November. That's why I'm hearing. I'm ready to go November, October, November already. So the way I see is

Be let's say That scenario If I go out there and beat His name, Leon Weathers, right? I might get very close to the title, right? I might be right back, but not Depends on, you know, if he's a close fight, might not. And if it ends up that Kobe beats Usman,

a trilogy will be in place, right? So I don't know what to do. I don't know if I do fight Magidav first, you know, and then I fall Leon, then it would be like two or three wins. Then I have another title shot. It's very weird place right now. I don't know if you come out,

who will be. So I don't know, if they pick who you want. I would say, give me Magidav. Leon going to sit down. He's going to wait. Then I fight Leon later round. I don't care. But both.

but both guys make sense. It's hard for me if they are from Liam, but like they say next, the winning gets the title for sure, I'm going to file a Liam. But I don't know. I don't know if you, the thing that I think is,

I don't know if I win again. We'll put it right there. Or it's still a more, you know. And then if I be Leon and I'm right there, it doesn't make sense for me. I imagine that that's number seven, you know. it's very, I don't know, it's a little trick. I don't know what to do, but two names that I have first,

you'll be much without ending the one of it. Let me ask you this, because you mentioned the interesting spot here, and you mentioned the plan for the UFC is to rebook this Oosman-Couvington fight and do the rematch. And a lot of people feel a certain way about Colby, and I know you talked about Colby quite a bit, but for you personally, if the UFC is to make this fight, is there a part of you that becomes a Colby fan?

Because if he beats Usman and wins the belt, like you said, they might run it back and do the third fight, but Colby being the champion makes your road back to a title a little bit easier than it would have Usman just keeps running off wins. Do you view it that way that there's a part of you that kind of wants Colby to win

because it gets you there faster? Does that make sense? No, if I can think they want to fight Camarra for the title again, I still want to fight Colby, but it doesn't, you know, I want to, for sure, I want to become a champion, but I think Camaro is going to be there when I get there again.

They see and we need to ever kind of cheer for Kobe, to be honest. It's going to be very hard for that to happen. But I don't know, Marr's going to beat Kobe. And that's it. And they close the doors. You're going to beat me or Leon Edwards for the next fight, you know. and he's to be Santa Lucas coming, you know, he's beating Kiyos. He may be jumping me because if he does beat cool, it's very impressive.

The next title shot might be Luka against Leon, you know? So, you know, so I don't know. I see a lot of scenarios. I just do believe Mange without war or Leon. I doesn't make sense. I'm going to wait, you know, but the thing right now, too, Mike, I'm not in a hurry to go to the title, you know, like I saw a lot of guys hurry. Jorge, two title fights back to back, lost the first one that he wasn't ready.

Two weeks notice in five rounds, the one that he was ready, he lost the fight more two rounds. So that's why I think they hurry a little bit, you know, to the title. Cody Garber did that before. A couple other guys did that before they lost. They won't fight for the title again, you know, and I don't mind to take my mind. time. I don't mind to, even if I need to do a couple more fights. I don't mind to fight Leon. They probably horrid. They fight. Because I know I'm going to get there again. And as soon as I'm fighting for the tide, I want to make no mistake. I want to make sure

that time after February 14, 13, when I fought through my next fight, I want to make sure I freaking my next level improved so much. So would it be fair to say that it would mean more for you to, to, you to, to beat Usman to capture the title because of the run he's been on, the position he's put himself in in the overall landscape. It would mean, obviously you want to become champion, but it would mean more for you. It would be more significant if you took it from Usman

than taking it from Covington or anybody else. Yes, 100%. He's the number one pound and four pound right now. Champion, one of the best welterweight on the planet, you know, for sure we mean a lot bit tomorrow you know that that's a high level fighter you know so let's talk about your partnership

with Kilcliffe and their energy drinks a vast variety of flavors I saw different kinds of drinks there's all natural there's there's energy drinks there's some with CBD in them how did this come on your radar like how did this partnership come together and what about it made you say you know what I'm in I got to be part of this

this Kilcliff Fight Club yeah the man the Kilcliffe is freaking a great company. I know those guys since the they used to crazy story. They used to sponsor a guy that I fuck up with them.

It's kind of like very nice guy, but a rival, you know, very big rival. Lucas Lapri, I beat him a couple times before I lived in a scenario. After I left, he became like six, seven times

world champion, you know? And he was also the Kiel Cliff, and I knew kind of was a drink, but then they came, They went and they became one of the same for sponsors, you know. And then it became very natural, you know, like they're looking for the guys who are sponsoring of the gene. And then they asked for a couple high-level guys, high-level fighters.

And my name was in the conversation on Harry Pookew, my name and then Harry called me, hey, we want you a sponsor. And then say, that looks good. And the best thing is they're freaking great taste. like the joie rogan the fleming joys one of the best then they have the goats so good and i thought i've been talking to the guys you got to do a burns flavor you know got to make i don't know assaicuadana or something very very brazina or kaiperina or i don't know we make something happen we got to make that burn's flavor soon have you had the CBD ones yes i do love the

CBD is one. I love it. I like it ever. Those are my favorites for recovery. I always do a lot of CBD. I know I have my my, my, I got me? Yeah. I have my, my, my, my sports, a lot of hemp that I do a lot of CBD aware of it, but the drinks and the, but in the energy drinks, very clean energy.

I like it. I like it. What's the go to? What's the one that like, if they're all there and you can only pick one. What's the flavor? What's the one you're going to pick every. single time. It's the grape, the goat, that's number one,

but the Flaming Joy is it's right there. They're right there. I like both the goats and the Flaminger. All right, so check out, and this Kilcliffe fight team is just insane. Go to their website and check out who's on Israel, Asana, Robbie Loller, Ryan Bader, and the list

goes on and on. Gilbert Burns, obviously a part of it as well. And now, Gilbert, you can enjoy another Kill Cliff beverage in celebration for the big win over Stephen Thompson. So congratulations, man. Well done. Look forward to whatever the next move is for you, sir. I think you're handling on this fantastically. You rode back to the title.

You're taking your time. You're in no rush. I think you're handling this absolutely perfectly. So enjoy the win. Enjoy the time with the family. And we'll talk soon, hopefully, my man. Thank you, brother. Have a good one. Mike. Always good talk to you.

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