MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Brandon Royval recaps UFC Mexico City win, talks title future | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

Brian Campbell sits down with the RAW DWAG Brandon Royval following his win over Brandon Moreno. BC and Brandon discuss live as a UFC Fighter, a possible Pantoja Trilogy and weaponizing his cardio. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

oh yeah raw dog time oh yeah look at this guy brandon roival on top of the world back at it look at mini raw dog mini raw dog out in the park the flyweight of the moment you know i'm going to be fired up to talk to you brandon roival but what a breakthrough comeback victory over brandon moreno congratulations of what went down at UFC 298 talk to me how you feeling right now I feel good I mean I also feel like shit too my ankles all full and then uh you know after getting a fight it's uh I always forget too like when I was younger I had like a rule like after my first fight I was like I'm never kicking again because like I look like I'm the type of dude to break my leg when you throw kicks

you know I'm saying and uh bro it just, I look like I'm the type of dude to break my leg when you throw kicks, you know what I'm saying? And, uh, bro, it just sucks for everybody. Like even when you hate like land kicks, well, it just sucks. So it's just, uh, just limping around this park, walking my dog and all this fun stuff. Does this feel like the biggest win of your career? Is it the biggest one of your career? It was a gutsy win, man. Yeah, it definitely is. I didn't feel like it, though. Like, honestly, I kind of just wanted a win, bro.

I was really mad at myself after the title fight. And I just wanted a win, man. I just wanted to be back in the win calm. I wanted to go fight. And I didn't really think it all through. I was just like, all right, this is a good opportunity. And I can just quick turn around. And it's like, I've never main evented a UFC thing before.

So I was like, if I can get on all this like it's just kind of killing a bunch of birds one stone you know there you go so I mentioned it was 298 it wasn't it was UFC Mexico City the main event massive opportunity so you get this last minute call when Amir Al-Bazi falls out well not last minute what was it about a month and a half two months uh for you to figure out it's like six weeks but that decision when you're coming directly off the title loss to Pantoja, mentally, everything that goes into play, how much of a debate was it whether to accept that fight? Was it absolutely automatic?

Oh, it was automatic. I have a rule that I don't accept fights that I like. I guess I've never hesitated or anything, but short notices, if you think about it for too long, that's, like, when I've made my mistakes, I think. Which is, like, I'm basing this off of one fight. But if I'm super enthused about it, it's just, like, then we're all go. We're all go. It's, like, if you have to think about it for super long, I think it's maybe not, like, a good decision especially like a short notice i mean but uh if you're enthused about it and like your first reactions yes and you got to go off of that

so it's like i i tell the fighters around me and all that stuff too it's just like what's your first reaction and go off of that if it's short enough and uh for me my first reaction was like oh fuck yeah like i gotta go fight uh i gotta be a main event i get a free trip to mexico like i was all excited about everything man so uh i don't get to go fight. I'm going to be a main event. I get a free trip to Mexico. Like, I was all excited about everything, man. So I don't get to go visit the world much. So I was pretty stoked on going to Mexico. Well, you go in there against a former two-time champion in Marino, the star of the division in some ways of what he's put together

personality-wise, career-wise. And you knew it gave you its chance to not just run back the title loss and redeem the loss you had to Marino years ago, but man, it was a, from the low of losing to the high of coming in here and win it, it turns your stock around like that, which is the opportunity you get with a last minute notice like that. Does it feel reviving in that regard to you? Oh, absolutely. I mean, maybe not like reviving. Like, I don't feel like I'm going like i'm not 100 sure if i'm getting a title shot off this but it was just like a nice breath of fresh air man because like i said losing fights suck but losing a title fight

sucks man that that was definitely one of the lower ones i've had and uh just to get myself right back out of it and then mainly just like bro give myself a reason to wake up every day like fucking and like you know enthused and ready to get after it, you know? Because after that title fight, like, I was sitting, like, like, I wasn't motivated to go back to training, really, until that Moreno came around. And I was like, perfect. This is exactly what I needed. I definitely wanted that, like, edge back. And I feel like that was a cool way to do it, just to go be a spoiler of parties.

And then also, you know, like go get the ranking, go show the world what I can do. And, uh, I don't know. There's a lot of things. There's so much things that add up into that.

That's just like, I was so excited to go do, you know, it wasn't the, well, let's talk about this performance against Moreno. He's got that experience. You've been in there with him before you go five rounds here at altitude

and you get your hand race. him before you go five rounds here at altitude and you get your hand race how do you feel you did this how were you able to neutralize him and get the job done um man i feel like uh i feel like one training in denver is like always that big advantage where it's like uh training in denver and like i feel like i weaponized cardio which is like a weird thing to say like a weird thing to say. Like a weird thing to think is like, and I don't want to use it all the time, but it's like, I feel like I've weaponized cardio as a fighter and just staying in someone's face and kind of draw, like, you know what I'm saying? And just kind of like having that, like, uh, I don't know that edge that it's like, if it goes third, fourth, fifth round, I'm definitely going gonna start getting stronger and i like that part of me too is like wondering uh like i wonder what his uh strategy in that fight was or like what their like tactics were because uh the first two rounds he was moving so much you know like he wasn't

engaging much and it was like i wonder if he was like all right we're gonna save some energy and just kind of like preserve energy and that thing and i kind of wonder if that's what he was uh what the tactic was on his side but um yeah i feel like i weaponized cardio and i made that kind of my thing and uh especially later on in that fight like once i hit like the third fourth fifth round once i like kind of hit him in the nuts i thought i was like oh shit he's he's tired like i knew i didn't really hit him you know like i did it i barely like nicked him if anything like like maybe a toe, you know? And I assume my boy got a good cup on. So, I mean,

this is all just assumptions, but I know I didn't, I know I didn't hit him flush. You know what I'm saying? We're fly away. My boy back in, no, I'm just kidding. But he, he was taking all his time and I was like, Oh no, he's tired. That's what it is. Like I didn't hit him in the nuts. He just has a quick way to take a, take a few seconds to catch his breath and then go back at it. So from there on out, every time they broke us up,

or anytime there's like a split, I just got right back in his face. And that was kind of what I decided from there on out is that I'm like, okay, I think I can, I have him winded and I can kind of just start taking over a little bit from here. Well, when I saw him in the second half of that fight, doing non Brandon Moreno moves, which is to circle away from the action

to constantly almost be using movement to a negative effect, I was going to ask you if you thought it was fatigue on his end, but what do you think you made the adjustment striking-wise to be able to close distance easier in ways that you weren't able to in the first couple rounds?

Man, I kind of wish i did uh i did more especially like looking back because like i could have stole way more angles on him i could have done like those like cool lomo chanko angles on him i could do a bunch of cool things and then i could have uh oh i forget what we like i forget what they call we have like a name for at our gym but uh like a shifting i wish i did a better job shifting because he was running away a lot. And it's like, if I would have shifted and just doubled up on my punches and switch

stances, I could have won, got away with a lot of more calf kicks and I could have covered distance and just stayed in his face even a little bit more when he was retreating. So, I mean, I feel like what I,

what I did was the asshole move and just pick up my fucking, pick up my cardio, pick up my pace and just stay in front of him a little bit more. What I wished I did was a bunch of other things, though. So, you know, looking back, we'll do that shit against Pantoja. One thing you did was, even if he took you down, he didn't keep you down. That was going to be the key to victory in a lot of ways.

How happy are you with your ability to avoid those troubles and take that away from him in this matchup? Yeah, bro, I almost got a go-go plot. I should have went for it. That would have been the coolest. That would have been the coolest way to win, and I would have retired after that. That would have been my last fight.

Oh, you don't mean that. You don't mean that. Come on. Oh, I feel like I do, man. I've been telling myself this since I was a kid. If I get a go-go plot in a fight, I think that's anything I want to accomplish, and I'm done, you know?

But, yeah, man. Fuck, I forgot man uh fuck i forgot the question i forgot the question man my wrestling yeah his ability yeah i hired a wrestling yeah i hired a wrestling coach to watch my videos to watch my sparring to uh watch me wrestle and then have privates with me. So that's how I worked on that camp, really, is just wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, popping up, and that is just, I don't want, I'm not going to be held down. Like, these fools ain't going to hold me down. I feel like that's like an empowerment speech that I'm, dang it, the system's not going to hold me down no more.

But mainly these flyweights aren't going to hold me down, really, is what I don't want. So that's something that I'm working on real hard. worked on super hard this camp and like i said i i pretty much videoed all my rounds and uh had somebody looking over it um and just kind of where we went right where we went wrong and uh i just seen those improvements in there really quick and i knew it was going to be a quick uh it was going to be a quick like learning learning lesson from uh pantoja to moreno quick like learning learning lesson from uh Pantoja to Moreno so by the time that next fight comes around I'm gonna have it so dialed in

well look I could ask and I got my first takedown too that's where I got my first takedown I think I could ask you a million questions about technique but this is morning combat raw dog so people expect different questions out of me do the dms blow up on fire when you win a five round main event in mexico city yeah yeah for sure for sure i get some good shit some bad shit but uh yeah the dms are popping the dms are i mean they're slowing down now but dms are popping uh my girlfriend had my phone the whole entire time making sure they weren't popping too much otherwise i was gonna say say, are they Ryan Garcia level popping? Or, you know, let's put it on levels here.

I mean, Ryan Garcia is a lot better looking than the Raw Dogs, actually. And honestly, you got that boxer money, man. Ryan Garcia is worth more, looks better, and damn, sadly both, though. You know, I got more charisma, and I'm not saying outlandish shit right now so maybe maybe that maybe i got personality development you know yeah i i fear for ryan garcia's future after some of those uh press conferences and interviews i've done that we've seen yeah yeah yeah especially like the last one i'm like damn the last two but the last one especially i was like, damn. The last two, but the last one especially, I was like, damn. You might be hanging out lose it and, and, you know, you lost it in a competitive fight, but it wasn't disputed. You lost the damn fight, the champion defended. Sometimes fighters don't come back from that. Sometimes it feels like the balloon

of invincibility gets popped and that's it. How did you walk that out? How difficult was that? I needed that Moreno fight. I needed that Moreno fight to kind of pull me in a good place for sure. And there's never no, like, I don't have doubt. I i can beat pantoja i know i can win that fight i know uh little adjustments uh little things i i win that fight but um i i definitely wanted that moreno like that moreno fight definitely pulled me out of that like the place where i was just getting in my head and i was staying at home too much you know and then you're not doing what you need to do or what like uh what I need to do get it and granted it was like I had it was a it was the fight the Christmas and New Year's and I had family in town all that stuff so I wasn't getting much training done but the moment that fight happened it was just like

all right cool we got we were back to being focused 100% and all that stuff. So man, really, that's what pulled me out of the dark place. And then two is just like in my head, I 100% believe I could beat Pantoja. It's like, I know, I know how outlandish it sounds, but it's like, I know, I know I can win that fight. I know I can beat him. I know a couple of small adjustments in either one of those fights, I could win those.

Hey, for you to come back so quickly, take a huge fight. I'm always a little nervous. Is it too much too soon? Are you trying too hard to run it back? It turned out to be exactly what you needed, but it took the changes that you mentioned that you made in camp. So you said you didn't get a guaranteed number one contender fight. It could lead that way. What is your strategy? I mean, besides staying healthy and waiting by the phone,

where do you go from here? I have a few ideas. If they're not going to give me the Pantoja 301 fight, I have a few ideas on who's next. I mean, mainly just like one other couple of people available. So the flyweight division is a little weird. So it's like there's a handful of people that you can fight, but I mean, I'll fight either one of those two dudes. I'm just kidding but uh yeah um but the goal is always the same man just try to get that belt try to try to chase

who's at the top uh i'm kind of all about exciting fights too i love that that was like my first time ever actually striking a whole entire fight uh i've never got to do that as far as ben and not only in the u, but in MMA. You try to get taken down. Now that we're avoiding takedowns, I might have to be able to strike for three, four, five rounds or whatever it is. But that was my first time striking pretty much a whole fight. So that was pretty cool. And it's just like I like the exciting fights.

Fighting Moreno gets me out of bed. And there's a couple of dudes that I'm like, it'd be so fun to fight him. Well, this division is so fun. I always say post Mighty Mouse and Cejudo because anybody can win the title. Anybody ranked in the top 10 is, you know, two big wins away, it seems, or sometimes one from getting their opportunity.

Does it feel that way within the top 10 that, you know, as much as, like, you can beat anybody at any time, but you can lose to anybody at a time. It feels like the competition is so even across the board at 125. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like I'm going to beat all of them up, honestly. That's how I feel. I know across the board, I feel like even, even when you go back, like there's that new kid, Josh band, man, I love watching him fight. I've been watching him fight in the coma, but it's like that kid's boxing's off the chain uh he does some cool

things and it's just like all around the board man i just feel like the flyweight division is way more interesting now and i feel like there's so many good fights and so many cool things you can do along the lines and it's like um i definitely want to go in and win a battle defend it a few times and you know watched the flyweight division from a distance once all these kids develop, get good, and start really developing some of their skills. But the up-and-comers are young, and they're good, man. They're really good.

Having two losses to the current champion, does that not hold you back in the same way it held, or we thought it would hold Holloway back from getting a third Volkanovski fight, but he got got it but there were other matchups where there were rumors at times when people always go wait that guy's lost to that guy twice do you think that'll be something that holds you back from getting another shot at Pantoja possibly possibly and I feel like that fight was just not long ago you know what I'm saying so that's like another thing that could hold me back from it um but I knew when I took the Moreno fight,

I was doing whatever I had to do to get back to where I wanted to be. And that's exactly what it is. It's just like I took a risk like that for a reason, you know? I took a risk like that because I'm like, it's going to be hard to deny me once you're back to being the number one contender. It had to be great to redeem the loss loss to moreno was there was there a set was there a part of you that celebrated that yeah a little bit but mainly it was just like man i really don't count that as a loss sorry my dog's seen other seen a girl dog and trying to lay

the mac down honestly i'm here baby up to the family nickname yeah yeah alright he's a little pretty boy um but yeah a little bit it was a little cool to just have that and like I feel like I was only watching like

some of the press conference highlights where he's like while I was beating Brandon and stuff like that I didn't hear all the stuff like he was saying nice stuff before and then they'd cut and do like the rude shit

so in my head I was like this dude just thinks he won the fight and it's like that's so weird to me like like i wouldn't be celebrating that really if it's just like i had nothing to do with the with the that whatever it is the shoulder popping out if i'd have been a kimura and a shoulder popped out then i wouldn't be really celebrating it's just like a weird accident that happened you know but uh i went back watch the highlight the the actual things i'm like oh he was saying some sweet stuff It was just what they played was the asshole thing.

So maybe I needed that in my head too, because I was like, fuck this guy. But yeah, a little bit of that and just a little bit of just, man, he's the number one spot. I didn't like think about it until after the fight, but it was like, that's a former champion I just beat. And that's cool. That's cool in itself, man. I feel like these little markers that i cross off along the way it's just been a blessing in disguise you

know well i heard the call out afterwards when you were sort of trying to say like hey mexican crowd you can support me too you know what i mean like like did you feel like you won them over by the end of that night no i mean to a degree degree two degree there's like a handful of people that most people were cool most people were being cool and there's a handful of people that were like talking shit flipping me off like doing the most grabbing at me uh when we're walking by so it was a it was a little dicey still all right all right well look you're shirtless in the park right now you're living your best life. Does it get hard locally to be Brandon Roy Vaughn?

I mean, if you're trying to buy Delta 8s at the Circle K, is it difficult because people come right up to you? They know who you are. It just depends on what area I'm in, for sure. I feel like I get recognized more in certain places than not. But no, I'm not going to be doing this forever, so I just have to enjoy it when I can. You know what I'm saying? What you don't see is the big old belly I have underneath.

I haven't scrolled down, but your boy's picking up weight during these last couple weeks. Or this last four days. All right, this is interesting. This is what the people want to know, how the sausage gets made and eaten. When you come off of a training camp, you win a big fight. Is it a week of like whatever fits in my body or is it a little discipline in that?

No, no discipline at all, bro. I think the the it's if I can if I can finish it, bro, you should see how many Girl Scout cookies I ran through. I've had I've had these collected up and yeah, I've went through at least like six boxes, which is embarrassing. I got to get the favorite here because I've, I've been gone on record a million times. If it's not Thin Mints, I want to know what's wrong with you.

What can I do wrong along the way? A lot of people like the tag alongs, a lot of people like weird stuff to the coconut ones. I don't know about that. Where does the raw dog get down on the girls? I agree with you. If you're like Thin Mints, you're a weird Girl Scout eater.

You know what I'm saying? It's like it's the crack cocaine of cookies, you know? Let's go. Let's go. I'm here. We're done. They give you enough. I feel like the sleeve's even better with a compacted a little better.

You know what I'm saying? There's so much that goes into what makes the Thin Mint the best Girl Scout cookie of all. But I'll take tagalongs as a second. Not a close second, but a second, you know? This is cool. I just get to pick the brain of the raw dog here as he's chilling after this monstrous win here. You should see how much

do you fuck up quesadilla tacos? I'm sorry, what did you just say? Bro, you're trying to make me speak a little bit of Spanish, which I've been already messing up. Quesadilla tacos? Quesadilla? I don't know how to say it. how to say oh yeah yeah i know i know what you're talking about now yes bro every day i've been having some of those i hit all the street vendors up uh yeah bro i'm bad i'm one of those people that like i make weight easily and i've never missed weight in my life

but the week or two weeks after a fight i can look like a whole different person you walk around like i ate me or something, you know, but I know personally, and maybe this is the worst thing that's ever happened to me is I know I can make flyweight in a week and a half with, with just trying to kill my body. And from there on out,

did you see the rehydrations from that card? I mean, people from, from two 98, Jeff kneeled 30 pounds over after weighing in. This can't be safe. This can't be sustainable. Maybe it's different from them, but if I gain

30 pounds, I would be uncomfortable. That's too big of a difference. I like going in at 140, 143, no higher than that. That's my ideal weight. Damn, man. If I was anything above that i'd be uncomfortably like back there bouncing around i when i take my shirt off i don't take my shirt

off that much in public even though it kind of looks like you know this is a bad timing honestly but i'm showing off in public i don't normally do this though it's cool i was wearing a lame shirt i don't want you to see it. You know what I'm saying? When you take off your shirt in front of the UFC crowd, I'm like, you know, I'm not big or anything. I'm a little insecure. So I'm not trying to have a belly on top of having this skinny body. Like zero muscle, big old belly.

Like I could look weird real quick. The tacos. If you can make one on a week and a half, then I guess you've got to have an advantage over others. How tough, give me in layman's terms. How insanely tough is it to make championship weight? I mean, is it,

is I assume it's like every time you do it, you say this will be the last time, right? Yeah. I was really grateful that I got the leeway on that pound. This one around, but my last flight, I died it. My last fight, when I fought Pantoja at the championship weight, was easy because when I was the backup, I made that show so hard.

I made it so hard. I can't believe I mess up that much on my diet. And it's been, like, since I was younger that I've done it that bad. But when I started cutting water weight, I weighed 142. Like, Wednesday, I woke weight, I weighed 142. Like Wednesday, I woke up, I weighed 142. I looked at, I called my nutritionist up and I was like, what are we going to do about this, bro? Like he goes, you're getting in the sauna right now. So I cut weight for pretty much 24 hours and cut 17 pounds. That last pound was probably the worst one.

But yeah, man, that day sucked. I don't know where I went wrong. I think I just got cocky with it and I thought I knew everything. And I just stopped checking my weight until I got there. That was a mistake. But damn, man. Yeah, that was a horrible day. I'm glad I didn't have to fight that next day to a certain degree. Is that gap of a day and a half from the way into the fight enough, even if the weight cut was difficult to feel like yourself again come fight night?

I believe so. I believe so for sure. It's plenty of time. I've had a fight in the morning and a weight in at night type thing before. So for me, that's plenty of time. And it's like, I don't cut dangerously. I feel like I'm really good about it. And I've had a nutritionist since I was younger. And a couple of smart things that I've done along the way that I think some of these dudes, like when I bought Askar, Askar, Askar, or I was supposed to buy Askar, Askar. I heard he was like there the night of cutting 20 pounds or something. And he's like asking people, he's like, how do you cut? He's like, how do you guys cut weight or like even when i showed up to uh mexico dude there's dudes cutting weight on tuesday like tuesday night they're sitting there in the sauna and it's like you

guys are sitting in the sauna and then you guys have to drink water you're pretty much just like spinning your wheels it's like boxing have you ever been around like uh boxers don't know how to cut weight really like they don't cut weight intelligently i'll be in a boxing room and these dudes all have sweatsuits on right there and they're like yeah we're cutting weight and i'm like that's not how you do it you got to burn calories when you're a couple weeks out you don't cut water weight three weeks out that's done and then are like they're not necessarily cutting water weight they're cutting water weight and then putting it right back on so it's just like we're spinning our wheels right now you got to burn calories and it's like that that's the that's the move is being in a caloric deficit which sucks but it is it is what it is what you

have to do it's incredible what you guys go through to to live out this dream to entertain us i gotta get your your your thoughts on some pressing topics right here ilia toporia wins the featherweight title congratulations to him he's the king of spain he's the king of europe he's the king of luke thomas's heart in fact luke's got a bone air from hair to hand over ohio over the rise of tuporia do we let luke thomas have this or do we call him out for his annoying man love i think we might have to let him have this man love a little bit man i mean he's good man his ground game's good and he's just out here knocking people out uh you watch his like earlier fights like when they're in

one of my friends was his uh uh fought earlier to pour a like when he was when he was first fighting the ufc's use of law uh but if you watch his like come up he was submitting a bunch of people and then it like started turning to knockouts it's like this kid's just developing but when he first came on scene he was like originally just like grappler and it's like now he's knocking people out and now he's just a real problem everywhere and uh i i don't know how he does against uh max holloway but if volk doesn't make big adjustments i think the same result's gonna happen and kid has a certain aura about him and all that thing but i think maybe like a max holloway could be a bad matchup for him that would be a very very interesting fight but if he got through that man i don't want to i don't want to get on

board like luke is but this man might not lose for a bit you never know though i mean if you know i mean if my guy's the beat gets up in that bullpen once more than then that could change things but uh on this same night in mexico city just happens to be a couple of my favorite fighters score big wins you in the main event but how about t city man how about our guy brian ortega that fire you up to see him come from come back from hell and bust his ankles dancing to warm up and then 100 especially someone because i got hurt in that first round especially something i got hurt in that first round that brian ortega had me motivated in the pocket and then me and him have like the same storyline you know what i'm saying of like we both got hurt against our opponent we're both fighting the dude in mexico we're doing

all this stuff so we kind of have the same storyline when it comes to that so for some reason i had in my head i was like the moment brian ortega won i'm like i'm for sure winning like i put that in my head after he won that fight i was like oh cool we're catching w's now and uh i do so many dumb things because if he had lost I would have put some weird thing together that that's why he lost and I'm gonna win type thing but I'll get like weirdly some superstition that only works out for me type thing but that was the one that was the one leading up to it is me and him are warming up together right next to each other in the locker room he popped his shoulder out I popped my shoulder out he just beat some dude direct from Mexico

being a Mexican-American and uh same thing as me So in my head I was just like Oh now I'm for sure They're gonna win Since Brian Ortega won So yeah Well you said you guys Had similar stories I was hoping you had

A similar social life To that guy Because you know He's a lot of people's heroes For the right reasons To be very fair Yeah yeah You're comparing

This is the second time You compared a beautiful man Compared to myself It's like I'm sure his DMs Were popping and stuff too, but. Oh God. Wait, now he's married.

Who would have saw that coming? Ortega's married. I know. There we go. Happy to see it though for him. Does Conor McGregor ever fight again? I don't think so. But he's going to tease, bro.

I need to, Michael Taylor needs to give up on that. Cause I don't think he's ever, Michael Taylor might not ever fight again if he keeps pressing his bucket. He might be giving up what's left of his peak earning years waiting for this payday, right? 100%. 100%. It's like if he's not getting direct pay-per-view money off of it, then he's wasting money right now. Like if he's fighting for a normal contract type thing on it,

he might just be wasting money right now or wasting time to make money. All right. Have you seen Money Moikado? Another guy I love. Just an absolute crazy man. Calling out the UFC saying enough of these shitty fight nights. Enough of the Apex. He didn't want to fight at the Apex, but he did it.

Do the fighters start to echo this, or is this just something the media talks about too much no i believe this 100 too i feel like uh the ufc is uh what's it called when there's two like like inflation not inflation of fighters but you know i'm not yeah i mean that's this is all true stuff i'm talking about like since there's so many fighters that they uh they put on some fighters that i don't think would have been ufc quality have been UFC quality or like top-notch quality. So you get like a condensed version of what real great fighters could be. You know what I'm saying?

Do you remember like back in the day when you'd watch a UFC and you'd know every fighter on the card? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. There was like a time where I knew every fighter on the card from beginning to end. Now it's like i don't know half these dudes i don't even know some of these guys in my weight class where i'm like oh shit this guy's a flyweight uh yeah so it's just kind of like uh i mean it's cool because they're making their money so and like oh are they brandon 12 and 12 isn't isn't ringing too

too i'm not talking about the fighters i I'm talking about the UFC. Okay, good. The UFC is making their money. Sorry about that one. Okay. All right. Yeah, yeah. With the products being watered down. Watered down. Yeah, that's what I was looking for.

They've got dates to fill. It's become what it is. The Dana White Contender Series has become a factory for them. I understand it. I can see it. On this note because i am self-conscious sometimes we rail against power slap because it's disrespectful man there's no defense do fighters care about that absolute bullshit about defense obviously i don't

no i mean but when you see power when you see your own company put out power slap is like okay cool go do your thing or is it like man f that cool, go do your thing? Or is it like, man, F that? I just don't think it should be on their social media. I don't think UFC should be posting some dude slapping another person. Because I've been in the UFC PI with these guys, and what they do compared to what we do is like a joke. These dudes are like, I don't even know why they're wasting time on the scale. They're sitting there like, none of them cut weight. They're all just sitting there eating fucking fruit roll-ups not like acting like an athlete at

all and then go jumping on the scale they're like oh i'm this i'm like this is uh i don't know man i guess it's whatever you can consider a sport i don't know what the technical term that qualifies like or defines the sport but it's just like what they do and what we do is 100 different and uh for a million from for a million different reasons but it's just like what they do and what we do is 100 different and uh for a million from for a million different reasons but it's just like the discipline it takes to be an mma fighter and like being at ufc uh uh at the ufcpi and stuff like that it's like i remember just like it being an honor where i'm like this is like my museum you know what i'm saying like there's are like a playground for me like there's punching bags there's speed bags there's everything i've ever wanted there's two different cages one one big size, one small size.

And these assholes are on the speed bags, slapping it like idiots. And I'm like, I don't know, man. As someone who loves the martial arts, I don't consider slapping the martial arts portion of it. You know what I'm saying? So- It's shocking to me.

It's shocking to me the effort put in, but hey, it's business. They feel like it's hot in India. They say it's hot in India. What do I know? What do I know? I'm just dwelling in my basement right now. When you see a card like UFC 300, you won't be able to get on it. You just main event in Mexico city as a fighter. Is that the goal? Like, would you have wanted to been on that more than anything? Or does it not matter to you?

Yeah. Yeah. That was my goal. If I won the fight or if I lost the fight. Who was I going to call out for UFC 300 right after the Pantoja fight? But it's like, if I won that fight, if I could be on that UFC 300 card, that would have been so sweet. But I was trying to find fighters that would be fun to fight on that card anyway. So that was another thing that I was going to do

is just call someone out and try to get on that card anyway. So that was like one, another thing that I was going to do is just call someone out and, uh, try to get on that UFC 300 card. Cause, uh, you know, what a, what an honor that would be to be a part of like one of those legacy cards,

you know, it's incredible. It's history. Those round numbers matter. I get into arguments about it, but they do matter. They do. They are a moment in time.

They are, you know, it's one of those stupid things, but it's like, yeah. And it's a cool car to be a part of. And, uh, uh, I was curious to see what the main event was i'm still excited about the main event for

sure it's a dope fight but uh i was curious what they're gonna do because it just seemed like they're gonna have fucking godzilla versus king kong in there at a certain point the build-up was so like uh what was so big that uh i thought it would be something major all right we've seen a celebrity uh well look the ufc let's give them credit there's celebrities galore showing up at I thought it would be something major. All right. We've seen a celebrity. Oh, look, the UFC, let's give them credit. There's celebrities galore showing up at every event. But to see Volkanovski put Mark Zuckerberg in his corner, we've seen it a few other times with quasi-celebrities.

Dude, when Mike Perry put Coach Latorre in his corner, it was the coolest freaking thing of all time. Have you ever wanted to experiment with something like that and what do you lose by sacrificing a member of your corner to put somebody famous in yeah yeah i was about to have mike paris grew up in my corner too one time no it's fine it's a joke it's scratch that i don't want to get my ass kicked i was them those jokes yeah you're about to catch some of that bear bear faith i'm telling you i know hi, huh? Yeah, my parents, man. But, dude, I would do that shit for sure.

I only had three corners in this fight, and it's like, be quite fair, too. I don't know if I even listen to shit when I fight. My corner did a great job, and I was doing some of the stuff, but I feel like I barely started listening in my fights recently. So that was one thing I was thinking of, too, is just like i had an option at four corners when you're the main event and it's like bro people are leaving messages like saying they'll give me money to be in that corner i'm like if i get fifty thousand dollars

for someone to be in my corner maybe maybe i secured a sponsor you know what i'm saying so yeah if he almost wants to be in my corner besides him bringing that bad juju and not carrying shit i would allow him for sure it is weird seeing a nerd like zuck go up there but you know he's doing much better than i am maybe i'll when you look at a nerd like that you're like this is either the dorkiest dude ever or one of the best jujitsu practitioners i've ever seen well elon did not have the balls to pick up the phone but let me ask you this a year from now if brandon royval is going to be the flyweight champion of the world, what has to happen?

Does anything need to change? Has it already changed mentally? How do you get to the top of that mountain? I still believe I can beat all these guys with the skill set I have now, but definitely wrestling. Wrestling is something that when I was younger, I might have already told you this on the interview, but I had a Miguel Torres interview when I was younger. And he said, I'll be I'll be any of these guys where they're good at.

And he's like, I kind of just had that mind state of just like, if you take me down, that's where I want to beat you. That's where I want to, like, win that. If we strike, that's where I want to win at. And I kind of had that like mentality my whole entire career and maybe not diving in deep as a wrestling as I should and thinking of me as like a point system. Because even like a guy like Pantoja, who's a killer, fought for points when he went. And it's like, if he's doing that, then everybody's going to start. Everybody's already doing it. It's just if he's doing that and he's a champion and that's like then i need to start thinking about that too of just like okay this is gonna secure this round this is gonna do that it's gonna do that and it's like we're in such a

high level where it's like these guys that i'm fighting are all really good and it's like it's hard to get finishes now where when i was younger it was just like oh you're a wrestler you want to take the fight down i'm gonna submit you two seconds it's like these guys are real class panto is a real class grappler he's not going to be easy submission for sure and that motherfucker might have the best chin in the ufc so finishing him isn't really the best option yeah so when he won that title dude you gotta you gotta pour one out for him he he gave all that's why i didn't think he was gonna that's why i thought you were gonna beat him for the belt mostly because i didn't know how much he left in the cage against marina yeah yeah and i was thinking that too i'm like dude this chin this

chin has to be eventually cracked and it's like i know i got like a like i'm not the strongest puncher maybe but i know i have a strong kick and a strong knee and he walked into one of those so flush and just did not bat an eye and i was like this guy's this guy can take a strong kick and a strong knee. And he walked into one of those so flush and just did not bat an eye. And I was like, this guy can take a fucking punch. And that being said, his submission defense is great. So it's just like when it comes down to that, I might have to actually win on points or just a real gut battle, I think. I think that's how I fight him next.

I would just stay in his face the whole entire time and just do a battle of will. And it's like at a certain point, it's just i would just stay in his face the whole entire time and just uh just do a battle of will you know and it's like at a certain point it's just like i'm gonna turn into a gut race and that that's how i want to see my next fight going with him it's just no matter what it is i'm gonna make him work harder than he's ever worked in his whole entire life and i'm not gonna step back a flyweight track meet in the trilogy with pantoja coming up hey yeah if he doesn't get if I haven't go ahead go ahead go ahead no no I haven't upset uh uh with um pre-fontaine man I have like a real big pre-fontaine obsession and that full he was like not a talented racer which

I feel like that about myself I'm not. I've never been talented at anything. But it's just like in a guts battle and a battle of will, I've always been great at. I've always thrived there. And I feel like that's where I would take it next. I was trying to out-sophisticate him. I was trying to be tricky with him. And it's just like, let's just see where his heart is. Let's see who got a bigger heart.

Let's see who got a bigger set of nuts when it comes down to it. Huevos, brother. Huevos. Huevos. Yeah, bro. One week in Mexico, bro. I should start messing up on that. Simone Holmes. I love the Raiders. And Prefontaine's got the great running quote of, to paraphrase,

it's not about who's faster, it's who's willing to endure more pain. Can you take that to the UFC cage? Oh, 100%. 100%. I didn't want to take it there, but I feel like I have to now. With these next few guys, they're good. And it's just like, I feel like it's going to turn into one of those.

Just like, who can endure more pain? Who can endure all that? That's actually like kind of one thing that got me through camp too is just like a saying like that. It was something similar to that. Just like how much pain are you willing to put yourself through is like the close to your heart of living kind of thing.

And it's like, I kind of went from one camp to the next camp and like I was facing injuries after the Pantoja, but I actually injured my hand pretty badly. it was like i was pretty much training the first couple weeks without like fully being able to engage in that and uh and then you know i had a cutting weight two times it really sucks so it's just like uh in my head it was just like i wanted to put myself through hell because man that's that's really what this fucking sport comes down to sometimes man and it's like if you fucking sport comes down to sometimes, man. And it's like if you want it, it's just hard work.

And it's like I've lived that life for so long that it's like almost nothing to me nowadays. It's hard work is what we do around here. And I really believe that. This is a park that I actually finish my runs at normally. Are you in Denver? Yeah, I'm in Denver. So during camps, I'll hit like a 12-mile run, and this is where I finish it at. It's this, and it's just like – yeah, so it's nice to sit back here

and not be fucking sore as shit and all that other stuff. Now, do you get to have a THC party at the end of the workout? Is that what happens in Colorado? Yeah, yeah, for sure, man. I actually might do that right now. But yeah. All the snow Morning combat edition

Yes Yes It's a beautiful It's a beautiful day And when I was leaving Colorado It was snowy Like this shit I'm also happy to go to Mexico City

Because there was a blizzard before And I'm like It's a good time to get the hell out of here There it is Man I could just pick the brain Of the raw dog For a weekly segment here For hours

I appreciate the time Brandon Of, of getting inside the mind. One of my favorite. Let me pick your brain. Do you think Ken Martin has a chance of beating Hank Davis? What the fuck? Frank Martin or whatever. Frank Martin. He has a chance.

Yes, I accept that fight. I love that fight. Of course, you want to see Gervonta against Haney, against Teofimo, against all the big names. I do question how much bigger in weight Gervonta is going to allow himself to grow. There's a lot of killers at 140 that I don't know if he's going out of his way to fight. I love that fight with Frank Martin. He's got the speed.

He's got the dog. He's got some pop. He gets inside on you. I think Frank Martin could win. I don't think he will, but I don't have any issue with this matchup whatsoever. It's funny, bringing up Ryan Garcia again, as much as I love that matchup because of the star power,

I don't see how I give Ryguy a chance against Haney, especially if he's off, if he's living the Oscar life. If there's fishnets showing up soon, I don't know if I'm going to give him a shot at all in that one. Oh, absolutely. And then that's one thing about ryan garcia you gotta give him credit for is he's willing to take some of these hard fights it's like if i was him i probably would have fought roly or like uh like a pimple i would i would definitely have took my sweet time to go

fight haney but him calling out haney right off the bat looks like this guy's really like risking it all man and uh he's one of the top paid box if i was one of the top paid boxers i was like this guy's really like risking it all man and uh he's one of the top paid box if i was one of the top paid boxers i was like that much i would definitely have not fought any next and i might have a duck tank a little bit too but uh maybe that's what's getting him paid his tank really honestly but yeah some of it's good to see like it's it's such a good time for boxing but frank martin has to be one of my favorite to watch as a southpaw. Just watching that southpaw, the way he moves, him and Boots are kind of moved the same.

Even that little Lomo Checo movement, but they're a little bit bigger. I don't know, man. It'd be cool to watch Frank Martin take that, but I don't think so. I hope they make that fight soon. I know there's been rumors that it's being signed behind the scenes, but we got to see it. We got to see more big fights. Canelo not fighting Benavidez? I mean, what are we doing,

Raw Dog? Come on, bro. I know. He's not going to fight him at all. Is he fighting the other Charlo? No. He's going over to the zone. He wants to fight Munguia or the big puncher, Edgar Berlanga, who's not ready yet. Not ready for him. Hey, good to see you get into

the box, too. That's what I'm talking about. You would never do BKFC, would you? Yeah. Fuck no. I would never do BKFC. And that's, like, another thing, too, is I'm in a weird weight class where it's, like, I would have to, like, if I was trying to make money and challenge one of these boxers, I'm not fighting in a way.

Like, fuck. Boxing in a way, that's like a death. Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't want that. So, like, then uh who are the guys that are fighting today are tomorrow there's two dudes that are my weight class pretty much that are fine like i don't know if i want to fight either one of those dudes either like yeah these weight classes are pretty good and it's like uh i don't know man maybe like a

heavyweight i and i had the heavyweight skill what would it mind but these fucking little dudes are good you can get carved up in that game, man. You can get carved that up. Yeah, yeah, straight up. Do you have anything, Kermel fight? Kermel Morton or whatever? Yeah, Kermel Morton, Floyd Mayweather's young prospect. He looks, I mean, he's young, but he looks to be the goods.

Yeah, yeah, he might be the guy, man. I was watching him spar. I'm like, that motherfucker is so goddamn good. All right. So the guy I've circled of the boxers right now that I think most has the, I can't put a ceiling on him, is Shakur Stevenson. Who's that guy for you? For sure.

And I feel like everybody's ducking him right now, too. I feel like he might be the most ducked. Because he doesn't have the necessary star power to want to fight him right now. But, yeah. Southpaw, being able to move. Yeah. Because even with haney it's like i thought loma beat haney and i'm a huge loma fan so i'm probably just gonna

say that no matter what but i thought loma beat haney and uh i don't know you know it's another weird one is uh is uh teo fema teo fema is one of those dudes who i'm like this guy could be the best boxer in the world one day and then the next day he's just fucking he's just average one day yeah it's weird yeah there's always chaos in He's just average one day. Yeah, it's weird. There's always chaos in his life too, and sometimes he juggles it perfectly and shocks you. Other times, you're like, what the hell is going on here? It's weird. Yeah, I thought Oscar Valdez might have even won that fight.

Maybe I was scoring it wrong, but I thought – maybe I was just impressed by how good Oscar Valdez was doing. But I thought the same thing with the Lomo. I'm like, Oscar Valdez is good, man. He's just right outside that little area where you're seeing him do so many good things, but it's just like, man, I would love to see him catch a bout soon,

or one of those. You're talking about Valdez or Jermaine Ortiz? Jermaine Ortiz. Why the fuck? Valdez is a good fighter, too, man. I get all these folks confused constantly. I'll be saying Haney for Shakur, all that, all the time. But, yeah, another one.

All right, last one before I can stop going off on boxing. But I'm a huge Boots fan. Boots is, like, another one of those dudes when he goes southpaw. He does so many cool little angles and so many cool little things. Dude, he's a virtuoso. He's, like, out there abstract painting, just, like, you know, just playing outside the cords and noodling. I'd love, love to see him against Terrence Crawford,

but I don't think there's a chance we'd get that. Yeah, yeah. Terrence is going to take that, which is smart. I mean, Terrence won't take the fight unless there was so much money, I think, because I think Terrence is looking at, I got a couple super paydays left, maybe Canelo, you know what I mean? Maybe Tim Zhu at 54, but you want to see a guy like boots who has waited for a couple years and has looked to be that guy who has next you want to see him properly take the

handoff by going through a modern star to get there right you don't want to see him winning a vacant title against some guy you never heard of from uzbekistan you know i mean you want to see him go through the thurmans the those crawfords, the Spences, so to speak. But it's politics. Boxing's got a lot of BS politics. I know UFC's got a lot of BS politics, but, you know, I don't want to get you in trouble here. It's been so great talking. Let me close with this realistic question here, because I love this. What's the best part about being a UFC fighter? The best part about being a UFC fighter uh man i i feel like just training like i love

training and then uh back in the day like i would train all the time but it's just like the recovery part of it i never had because i was working a job or like i was in school and i was doing all these other little things where you're like i just didn't want to be like i like you know i'm saying i wanted i needed a place to live and i wasn't one of those fighters that were living in my car like living with roommates and stuff i live by myself always so it was just like i uh i was pretty much lacking sleep like anything that any recovery time was me working or doing some other thing and uh it kind of turned into that bs so for me it's just training full-time and just getting to do like like i gotta go box i gotta go do jujitsu now and it's like i gotta go like i not just doing mma classes i get to go out and box some of these boxers in colorado i

get to go do jiu-jitsu with michael liera who's one of the best jiu-jitsu guys in the world and it's like for me it's just a freedom that i have now and it's like that that's the coolest part because if i didn't have to fight i would almost enjoy that too but it's just like i i have in order to train full-time i gotta fight sometimes you know true but it allows you to really really hone your craft in ways that yeah working full-time somewhere else wouldn't um i thought you would say the walkout the rush because i feel like that's one of those things that brings people back is that not a thing for you no no i hate the walkout honestly uh i feel like the my walkout last time was cool because I mixed two songs that, I mixed my shimmy shimmy ah, ooh baby I like it raw with a Mexican song. And I had that

whole crowd full until I walked, until they saw my face, they're like, oh shit, boo. But I had the whole crowd singing. So that was one of my favorite walkouts I've had, just because I mixed two songs and, you know, there was a moment Where the crowd was rooting for me But other than that man I hate that walk out That's actually one of the harder parts for me Walking out and Being in the back room

Warming up is cool Driving to the arena And then walking out is the hardest part for me Interesting Love it man Could have been her all day. Raw Duck, thank you for the time. We're going to see you back soon.

Maybe, right? Soon-ish? Yeah, yeah. Hopefully in two months. I always don't know how they fight. Yeah, yeah. I'm trying to stay active too, man. There it is, man.

What a good dude. Great to chat with you. Congratulations on the win over Moreno. We'll do this again. I appreciate you being, what should I say? You recognize the MK. You accept the role that MK plays in this weird combat kingdom. I appreciate it.

All right, cool. Thank you for having me. Thank you for your time, bro. I appreciate you for having me on again. Stay positive and test negative. All right, bro? That's what we're after. Always a natty king over here.

Scrawny as shit. All right, ladies. Good.