My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 58 - THE BEST OF MMA IN MY MOM'S BASEMENT

Episode Date: April 27, 2020

Enjoy this 'Best-Of MMA In My Mom's Basement' Compilation featuring appearances by UFC President Dana White, Jorge Masvidal, UFC Middleweight Champion Israel "The Last Stylebender" Adesanya, UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic, UFC Welterweight Champion Kamaru Usman, Coach John Kavanagh, Joanna Jedrzerjczyk, Cain Velasquez, Chael Sonnen, Max Holloway, Ken Shamrock, Ben Askren, Ilima-Lei MacFarlane, Megan Olivi, Joseph Benavidez, and more.You can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. So what we've done is basically taken a taste of most of the interviews I've conducted over the past year or so on this podcast that are just mixed martial arts oriented. So you'll only be hearing from people in that realm if you're only interested in that. Hopefully, this will inspire you to go back and listen to these interviews in full. I do think they're best listened to in full because I try to really prepare my interviews and take you through a span of someone's career, if not their entire career with them. So they are still all available in the archive if you want to go back, check them out. What I will do now is I'll sort of intro all of these clips for you, peek in and out of the podcast, and check in with you.

First up, let's get things started with the baddest motherfucker in the world, Jorge Masvidal, talking about his street fighting past, and then a little bit of his rise to fame, his UFC rise, and what he thought of people calling him an overnight success. I loved it, man. I didn't have the grades to compete. But if not, I would have loved to have given it a fair shot, you know, just wrestled. That would have been another turn in life that I would have done.

I'm a huge fan of wrestling. So I would have loved to wrestle. So when I saw the UFC, I was like, wow, I could do both of these things, both of these first loves that I've had at the same damn time. So that's exactly what I did. I fell in love with UFC. And after that, I just put the blinders on. Didn't matter if I was street fighting or not. I knew I'd be a prize fighter.

I knew I'd get to this level, to this point one day. And when did the more organized street fights come out? The famous like Kimbo Slice style backyard fights where they're being videotaped and you almost have a matchup ready to go. When did that come about? I was young still hadn't turned pro and it went from um just me and kimball were out of the same gym and and they kimball was cool enough to to talk to me and say hey would you want to fight and i was like hell yeah it'd be a lot of experience a lot of exposure you know kimball was already huge and if you remember back in the day, you might be too young. The aura around him was insane.

Even like I'm almost too young for that side of Kimbo. But by the time he debuted into the UFC, I even knew that was a massive deal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was huge, you know. He was the scariest man on the planet for a bit, I feel like, on the internet. Yeah, coming out of YouTube when he took that guy's eyeball out, that was like the most scariest, infamous shit you could find. Like, who is this animal?

So what was the aura around those events, like showing up to fight in a backyard with Kimbo? Oh, amazing, amazing. I grew up in that, so I love that. I feel right at home. I mean, there's some elements I don't like because there's sore losers. People might take weapons and people's friends and stuff. But the sheer aspect and competition of it it's it sounds so

stupid but if me and you went to go play a baseball game or basketball game in our neighborhood there'd be no problems involved with it you know it'd be no no hard feelings about it really right i kind of look at it the same thing for fighting it's what i enjoy to compete in it's it's what i adore i love the math behind the signs the angles the conditioning it takes to be able to compete at that level, the discipline to go to the gym and just repeat the same movement over and over and over and over, repeat it more than everybody in the gym until I got it better than everybody in the gym. All those aspects of it I love. So it's not really always I'm the tougher guy.

I want to prove it to you. To me, it's like a pickup game almost. Yeah, it's like a pickup game almost, you know, like, all right, let's do it. You know, I had a little bit of preparation. I'm ready to go. Let's do it. You know, it's just like a pickup game almost, you're saying? Yeah, it's like a pickup game almost, you know? Like, all right, let's do it. You know, I had a little bit of preparation. I'm ready to go. Let's do it, you know? It's just like a pickup game, you know? Dude, it's crazy to me that you and I are the same species

because I can't ever imagine just, oh, let me go fight someone in Kimbo's backyard like that could take my head off potentially just for fun. That's the thing, though. I don't think like that as far as like, oh, man, I could get serious. I know I'm in a fight. I know there's a lot of risk. but the reward is so much greater than me and i just i got the superman complex where i'm like nah nobody's gonna hurt me i'll be all right now how could you not with the year you had so let's talk about the year you had you started

things off in london with the darren till fight that darren till fight you're coming off a loss against stephen thompson you're going into enemy territory, and you go out there. You start the fight with a running kick to the cock. Unfortunately, you didn't mean to kick him in the cock. But this was one of the more absurd openings to a fight this year. What was the thought process like? Because I feel like this will show some growth. By the time we get to the Ben Askren fight, we'll show how that could go very right.

In this one, what was the thought process to starting the fight with that kick? Maybe two weeks before I fucked up my knee pretty good, right? Okay. I jammed my knee. With a tail fight? Yeah. I jammed up my knee pretty good. I got into a good scramble. I got a nice little tear in my meniscus.

Nothing crazy. My knee was just jacked up, you know? So I was like, man, how cool would it be if I fucked up tail's knee and we're both fucking on not the greatest of knees, you know? So my plan was just to run in and side kick him on the hip or the leg or the thigh. Just get that leg and just compromise it a little bit. He pivoted a little bit and turned out. So as the kick was landing, he had already moved out of position by a couple inches,

and I got him in a spot where you shouldn't be hitting people in, you know? Yeah, and then he goes, he drops you in that in that fight yeah and he got you pretty hurt it looked like yeah you get right back up and you you knock him out brutally i mean when people say shadow realm it was one of those knockouts the entire crowd fell silent that had to feel amazing and then afterwards you served up what you referred to as the three-piece nissota to leon edwards who's still out there talking trash against you. Is he? Yeah.

He's been saying things lately? Yeah, I think he has. I mean, he's been doing the thing where he dismisses you and claims he's not talking trash. He's like, no, I don't care about that guy. All I care about is the title. He just needs to do his own. Since the start, this individual's been calling me out, you know.

He called me out when he beat somebody that had knocked out. He called me out, and I said, yeah, maybe, maybe not then. I'll fight you. I'll respond to your call out. I'll fight you if that's the most attractive table in the office. It seems like you respond to pretty much every call out. You're not one to back down from a fight. No, no, no, especially if it makes sense.

But a lot of times in my career, that held me back because I'm not fighting the guys that I should be for the right checks and stuff. Leon is on the personal side. If I see him and he says something slick, we'll handle it then. But on the business side, it has to make sense, you know. And he's still ranked under me. He hasn't finished nobody in the top ten. And I got, like, six other fights.

They bring in lucrative paychecks. Now, don't get me wrong. Leon's been winning. So I'm going to do everything on my end to one day be in the cage with him if he keeps winning and shut his mouth fucking for good man because that guy loves the fucking to talk shit and then act like he doesn't talk shit man how do you how am i doing an interview and you interrupt me in the middle of my interview knowing that i'm doing a fucking interview knowing that i just closed out the night i just stole the fucking show i'm the main event and i just won how are you gonna try to do that

to me to get yourself famous i i can't relate to individuals like that i'm not that type of dude i'm not i'm not gonna say this guy's a bad car salesman so you can buy a car off me no i'm just gonna work but i'm work better and harder than this guy i'm gonna sell more cars for my boss he's this guy's fucking selling more cars i'm not gonna sit here and do that type of of shit like him and the guy that got his jaw broken that that's how they roll off negativity enough downplaying you to make themselves bigger that that's not really me i don't i don't like that i can't relate to that you know and those type of people i i dislike man so that's why they get what they get i think that's probably part of the reason that people respect you so much

and this was i feel like the the launching point of this year right for you what changed for you dana white says you you got way more serious about mixed martial arts would you say that's the truth was there a big change in your mind or no definitely a big big um paradigm shift i think it's called yeah happened numerous of them happened cut off a lot of negativity kept the circle even smaller and then made it even smaller and just been downsizing ever since i uh i don't i don't need stupid things in my life they could they could lead me straight from the path we we have our our goals set very high for 2020 so it's no different than 19 we got a lot of work to do i gotta get to it you know there's not a day i don't i don't step on that gas pedal and just see where

i'm at i just want to get after it as hard as i can you know i won't let nothing stop those goals i have three years left 2020 and up so i gotta i gotta give it the best man there's a lot of things i want written in my chapter of life before i close i can't i can't close this book yet i got a lot of things to do you're a smart dude you could you could see that farther not only am i skilled and i'm ranked high in this dude but i'm also a fucking hype train your name they're calling me an overnight sensation i've been in this shit i was gonna say it's not a little weird the overnight stuff because you haven't been here for 16 years how i see it is do you like take offense to that i take super offense to that yeah every night i fucking train my ass off and

you're gonna call me an overnight sensation? I kind of get it. And with the same token, before I get challenged for the belt, I had to go and get famous. Literally. And that's not easy, man, to get famous nowadays. A lot of fucking famous people. I had to go and literally get famous, come back. Now I can challenge for that belt if I wanted to.

Now I'm above that belt because I got my own fucking belt. I don't need that belt. I got the one that I won belt. But since they said that that's a belt and they say that he's good and stuff, I'm going to prove to the world how good I am by embarrassing this dude. And also that's another person that's been talking a lot. So if you sense my

animosity towards him, I just think he's a fucking actor. I think he talks too much. I can't wait to beat him and his 17 personalities. Let's take it from one champion to another, the baddest motherfucker in the game to the last style bender. Israel Adesanya talking about what makes him geek out as well as winning the interim UFC middleweight championship.

Things other than the UFC. The name of this show is My Mom's Basement. We talk about a lot of nerdy shit. Definitely. And a question that I like to ask every guest is what makes you geek out? What is it for you that you kind of become a kid again? Dance. Like watching someone kill off a circle, like a battle.

That geek, like you see me lose my shit. You know how black people celebrate? I'm extra. Super, super extra. Like, I run around rolling on the ground like I'm catching the Holy Ghost if someone, like, kills something off, like, to a tight beat. It's crazy for me. Dance, is it anime for you as well? Anime, yeah. I mean, like, I mean, when I saw fucking Guy Sensei, when I saw him hit the, you know, the eighth gate when he opened it, yeah.

I cried because, like, well, boy tears because, like, they had this, you know, whole monologue for, like, a whole episode of his upbringing with his dad and him not being good enough because he didn't have any, you know, what do you call it? He didn't have any ninja to and all he had was tiger to. So he had to really work hard to smoke everybody else. So, yeah, when he opened the eighth gate and he just became the red mist of the hidden leaf village that that hit me in the feels i haven't i got chills thinking about it right now wow yeah all right so let's talk about your championship victory this year take me through that day the day that you fought robert whittaker from the morning to the fight what was that like was my my championship sorry that yes this was your first defense correct? My man, you've been doing your research.

Oh, yeah. Definitely. That's what it felt like. When I won the belt in Atlanta, it felt like, yes, I won. I kept on saying, if you look on the belt, there's no interim. There's no interim. I've been the champ, and the guy who was supposed to be the champ has been calling in sick. So, yeah, I stepped up, and I was the quote-unquote interim champ.

So I defended my quote-unquote interim championship. So now I'm the double interim champ. Conor McGregor had a very similar experience, by the way, because when he won his interim championship against Chad Mendes, as a fan of Conor, I felt like that was the big victory. And the Jose Aldo one was almost a celebration fight. 13 seconds. Exactly, yeah.

12 seconds, proper 12, isn't it? Hey, good plug. No, but yeah, that day, actually after the wins, things were a little bit weird in Atlanta, so I kind of just went into my shell a little bit. And then the day of the fight, I came out of my shell. If I remember correctly, the fight was in out of my shell um if i remember correctly the fight was in the evening so i just i pretty much just slept all day watched netflix all day i

don't really like to think about the fight i just zone out on other shit and then get to the arena everything keep it off your mind yeah i mean i will sleep in but a lot of people like tend to what do they call it paralysis over analysis that's when you like overthink something too much and then after a while you can yeah you freeze or you shut down or you get stage fright or you choke choke choke and i never want that to happen to me so i just kind of just don't know about other shit and then yeah the fire happened the way it happened um the first round i'll tell you when i got rocked in the first round i remember thinking oh shit that shouldn't have happened but my ass never hit the ground straight away i retook the center of the cage round i remember thinking oh shit that shouldn't have happened but my ass never

hit the ground straight away i retook the center of the cage and i started working again and the second round i dropped him you know and i let them know hey just because he's a tough mexican as everyone was saying doesn't mean he can't get touched and yeah i let him i let it be known i've got that power as well that precision and the third round i was just working him cracked him with a spinning elbow and some other cool shit um and then in the fourth round, I was just working him, cracked him with a spinning elbow and some other cool shit. And then in the fourth round, yeah, he made a really beautiful chest move by throwing a high kick, you know, something that he didn't throw the whole fight. So I wasn't really expecting. And then in the fifth round, that was when, you know, I looked across the cage from him

and I said, you know, you're not going to defeat me. I'm prepared to die. And I meant that shit. So if I was prepared to die, I was ready to kill. And when I was going for him, I meant that shit. I even watched, if you go on my Instagram story, there's a guy, I can't remember the name of the production now. He made on YouTube, like, legit a mini documentary, 40 minutes. If you get a spare 40 minutes or even just 10 minutes, you'll get hooked. Just on that fight? No, on the whole career of my UFC career.

It went from chapter one to seven, and it was just beautifully done. So watching that fight again, it gave me the chills, man. It was a movie. It was a fucking movie, the back and forth tied up for the fifth round. Absolutely. Still fight of the year, I think. I think right now, yeah. The UFC is crazy.

We've got another card this weekend in Russia. Shit can happen. That card and then 245 is ridiculous as well. Three title fights. Three title fights as well. But, yeah. So, I mean, that fifth round, I dusted him. I looked better than I did in the first round.

I just stepped it up. You know, like, who else can do that in a title fight? You know, a lot of people can't. I mean, I can't think of anyone in recent years that's done that, but I did it. That's why I feel like that's fight of the year, and I might be fighter of the year as well. What were your thoughts on Darren Till's performance this past Saturday? I liked it. I liked it, man. I think he played it smart.

Coming off two losses, two finishing losses, being finished, that is. You step up to a new weight class and then you call out a beast of the weight class. A guy that you saw what we did together. And, yeah. I'll give him props. I'll say he played it smart. He kept his distance very well.

He used the homework I already kind of did with... He would have figured it out eventually. He and his team are pretty smart. They definitely looked at the fight with me and Calvin and did their homework. He was able to just nullify Calvin's game. He was able to shut him down. He didn't really put the foot on the pedal like he normally does when he's really feeling himself.

But he played it safe, which is good. He's a smart kid, smart guy. Yeah, I was impressed. Do you think you guys will fight in the future? 100%. I think we're destined to fight because of just our styles and our story. And especially your personalities feel like they would clash

perfectly for that build up. I would say we're friends, but we're friendly to each other. It seems that way, yeah, like a mutual respect of some sort. Hey, just because I'm a fan doesn't mean you can't catch these hands. Yeah. So moving on to your first title defense then against Robert Whitaker, you made this extravagant entrance where you had a full dance routine. You had everything like that. It was amazing. It was the best entrance I've ever seen in the UFC.

Thank you. Thank you. Do we expect that to be like a regular thing for you? With me, expect the unexpected, I always say. That was a special one because it was so close to home and my boys they they're from that side of the world so for me i wanted to do something spectacular and i tried to do it at ufc 234 when robert pulled out and couldn't fight and i was going to step up as the main event i tried to do it like a spectacular entrance as well road labor arena and the ufc said no we don't want that and i was like all right then fuck you i was gonna say did you have to like get that approved for people

I think what I've heard through the grapevine is like Dana's not a big fan of things like that but I don't care you know I mean how could you not

after you watched the way it went exactly so for me it was my show this time it wasn't Robert vs. Calvin as the you know

proposed as the main event it was my show and I was like I'm gonna do this my way or no way and for me I just have to stay true to myself, stay true to my roots, and that's

dance culture, that's street culture. You know, so I just... And that's, for me, my quote that week was, if I'm having fun, I'm the best in the world. I said that the whole week, and my goal, people say, how are you going to do this fight? How are you going to finish this fight? So I look, I'm going to have fun.

And I made sure I had fun. So to set the tone, I had my boys do this extravagant little choreography, choreography, and just walk me out. We had some, you see like little, you know, like little details with the Naruto run with the special Chidori into like a spirit bomb. And like just, you see the Liam Neeson in the the intro yeah like uh there's details to this there's levels to this so yeah i just had to do it my way or no way

and it's totally went viral it had to help you know the the building of your star the building of your personality it let people that maybe didn't see you before know who you are did that fight play out the way you thought it would? Yep. Yep. And allegedly, I told the right people to make the right bets. Allegedly. All right. Maybe you'll fill us in next time.

Office full of degenerates over here. I'm a counter striker. That's what I started doing when I first kickboxed. And people forgot because I became so good at creating mistakes on the other side with my opponents so they forgot like I can make them still create mistakes and then capitalize the mistakes on the counter and yeah it wasn't really linear attacks it was lateral attacks and people were quite surprised like oh how can you hit someone while you're in the matrix like leaning all the way back yeah excuse me and yeah I went exactly as I thought. I thought it was going to be maybe around the third or second round,

and, yeah, kudos to him. So now you got the championship. You're looking to defend what the UFC is now calling the official championship, what you've been calling the official championship for a little longer. What's your philosophy when it comes to picking an opponent as a champion? Some people say, I just want the biggest money fight. Some people say they want the legacy fights. What is it from you?

I like that. I like that. Okay, example right now, right after the fight, I see this, you know, botched up Ricky Martin looking bitch. And I call him out. I let him know, what's up? Give him that great suck. Yeah, man, he felt that. He felt that in his chest.

He felt it in his soul. Yeah. And, yeah, I set that next fight up already. And that's a guy that he, I felt, was the number one contender because he beat Yor Romero, who was the former number one contender. So I set that fight up, and then now suddenly he hurt his bicep, and he can't fight for eight months. So I'm like, cool, I'm not sitting around for eight months. I'm ready to go and I look around the division and I see if I was Dana White I'd say Kelvin and Robert face each other because they're coming off losses and they kind of owe the fans that fight I'd say there's a guy like Jared Kananir He's a guy that I think he's the dark horse of the division.

I would agree. Yeah. But he just doesn't, he hasn't gotten over yet. He doesn't have that. He just needs one more fight, one more big win to kind of get him over. It could have been that Anderson Silva fight if it didn't go away at once. Yeah, I agree. I agree.

You know, but even though that's his last fight against the Joker, he was very dominant, finished him. But they were both kind of still on the come up, you know. And I'm looking at him, trust me. And even I saw him at the fights in the weekend. I said, you know, I appreciate you. You're a cool dude, but I'm looking forward to fight you. And he said likewise. Then we have, who else do we have in the division?

You've got Yoel himself. Yeah, Yoel himself. Okay, so he's coming off like Two or three losses in a row But he's still gunning for you, obviously Exactly And I've called him out What's your take on that? I called him out

I was the one that called him out, you know And even his manager at the fights was Trying to flex a little bit He's like, hey, Israel Israel's like, what? He's like, yeah, we signed the contract We told him And I was like, what?

He's like, because I didn't know who he was at first And he's like, Yoel, we've agreed to the fight i was like okay cool story bro do you think do you think that's true do you think the contract has been sent their way i don't know who's dana seems to it sounds like you guys like having him shaking his head no because he knows he knows everything that goes on behind the scenes he's the guy that fights outside the octagon for me yeah um so yeah i i've agreed to the fight. I've called him out. But I don't think Dana wants to fight. And it's hard to sell a fight to the public when the guy's coming off three losses in a row.

And he's known for doing things in the past, you know. So, yeah, I mean. So if you had your pick right now, who you're fighting next, a prediction for who you're fighting next, who do you think it is? We're working on that right now. I don't want to give anything away. You don't have to spoil it. But I've called out UL because that's if I wasn't in Bojachino, I wasn't going to fight. I want him next because

I just want to. You still want him in the future though, correct? I want to take care of everyone of this era that is supposed to be a badass. So that way when it's all said and done, they say he fucking gone for everyone. He never ducked nobody and he he beat everyone so that's why he's the greatest of all time and then eventually i'll jump up and i'll fight either light heavyweight or heavyweight i haven't decided yet fully but i know which one i want so i mean john jones we can't go

without bringing him up i am maybe john jones biggest hater i hate the shit out of this guy and i really need you to come up big knock him out for me when you knock him out you'll think back to this interview you'll be like that nerd he hated john jones as well have you met john jones i've never met him but i was at 226 at his fight and i um i sized him up uh my son fight um what's his name oh thor hammer chest what's his name tiago santos santos yeah sorry uh so i'm fight him and i was i'm not impressed by his performance what do you think a meeting would be like between you and john if you met face to face do you think it would be contentious do you think i think you would be like fighting one day or i think you'll be surprised

that my stature at my presence because it's a lot when you're on Twitter talking shit and when you feel me in person. You look at me when I came in. Do you think I'm this big when you see me on TV? No. Exactly. You're very big. Yeah, that's what she said.

But yeah, so he's going to see the same thing and he's going to be surprised at how my presence, not just physically, but my presence, when they feel me, it's different. You look at Brad Tavares in the first round. They all come out. You know what? We're going to keep the championship train rolling. Up next, Stipe Miocic talking about the finishing sequence that won him back his UFC heavyweight championship over Daniel Cormier.

I hit him the first time. I saw it. I'm like, yeah, you don't like those. We're going to keep going with those. I didn't care. I don't know if you, I mean, watching the fight, you couldn't tell how much it was bothering him, but Stipe kept going back to it.

Yeah. You could tell it was bothering. You couldn't tell it was on the first again. I saw his face in the first one. I saw his face in the first one. I'm like, yeah, he did not like that. He didn't like it. And so I kept going, kept going.

And then when I hit the last one, right before I hit him with the one-two, he almost went, he damn went he almost went yeah and that was probably the best posture i've ever done my entire life and uh and uh yeah and i hit him with a one-two all right we're getting out of here i'm done with this he even got hurt uh when remember ufc 200 he had that fight against anderson silva and silva kicked him to the body you know on that short notice fight it looked like he got hurt it was crazy yeah um you do that dance afterwards that you hated. You were so pissed off

at yourself. What was that? Was it a Fortnite? I don't know what it was. You were in here the week before. You were telling me about Fortnite.

I was like... Yeah, no, the Irish... It was my Irish jig, the Irish dance. And you hated that you did that? I've never seen you Irish jig.

When I drink, I do it. Because I think, you know, I just... I mean, it's not me and I just... Bro, you can't control yourself when you win. Oh, yeah. I frankly tanked it like from old school, man. Yeah. I just, it's not me. I was excited. I frankly tanked it from old school, man. I blacked out and started doing, like when I went on the title the first time, I'm like, I'm a world champ.

I'm a world champ. I remember that. I did it. Whatever. You want another champion, you got another champion. Ladies and gentlemen, the UFC welterweight champion, Kamaru Usman. This is something that people rarely ever see.

You've seen some of the best fighters in the world never get to achieve this, to get to the top. So I'm excited, man. Man, I'm happy. We're all happy for you here. And this fight is a long time coming. This weekend, you've got Colby Covington

for this championship. There's some real bad blood here, right? You would say that you guys really don't like each other. Yeah, Colby Cuntington. I think that's a good name for him. I'm going to be honest, I'm not a fan of his either. Yeah, Colby Cuntington. It's a big fight.

I'm excited for the fight. That's the word I can only put on it because it's just real. It's not fake. It's just real rivalry. This is what prize fighting was designed for. It's for moments like this where it's it's real. It's not fake. This is real rivalry. This is what price fighting was designed for. It's for moments like this where it's good versus evil. And it just so happens to be, I'm not a race guy by any means, but it just happens to be black versus white.

And it happens to be the guy who is kind of right now jumping on the Trump train and creating this persona to where he's made... I give him props. He's kind of made it the fight that is tugging at people's strings. People want to see him get knocked out. People want to see that.

I have to be the guy to knock him out. Which would be fucking awesome. Come on, fucking do it for us. I can't wait to be the guy to knock him out. Which would be fucking awesome. Come on, fucking do it for us. Come on, man. I can't wait to be standing over him. And this is just... I'll tell you secrets.

At this point now, you start to get a lot of daydreams, a lot of nightdreams about it. The visualization. You start to picture it all the time. Your mind is running circles, playing out how this fight ends, what happens, what's going on, what takes place. And each and every time it ends with me just – I'm seeing his face.

He's laying there unconscious, face is all cut up with deep cuts, blood, bloodied up. His eyes roll back in the back of his head. There's the referee. There's doctors, all kinds of people around him terrifying you're describing a horror movie right yeah all kinds of people around him and they're trying to resuscitate him they're trying to bring him back and i'm standing over him and this is just how it ends each and every single time wow in my mind so i can't wait to actually make it a reality another thing about about him, multiple fighters, including yourself, I remember you saying this at a press conference to him,

have accused him of pretty much being a different person behind the scenes. You see him behind the scenes and people say that he's quieter and he's a bit shy. Is that something that you still stand by? He's a nerd. He's a nerd. We accept him on this show. Come on, my mom's basing here. We don't accept his kind of nerd man yeah it's a different kind of nerd like it's a different kind of nerd like there there's there's the you know this quote-unquote nerd who it's not even a bad thing you're accepted now because nerds got the facts you you know they got we're just talking

i'm the kind of nerd i just like comic books you know what i mean i just like superhero movies come on all that so if i'm in the superheroes i going to come to you, hey, what did Superman do in this comic or this and that? And you got the facts. Bro, I got the facts for you. It's like, oh, yeah, that's my dude right there. You guys might quote-unquote call him a nerd, but he got the facts when I need him. That's my guy. Boom.

But he's the kind of nerd that comes around, yeah, I've got four chicks with me. I'm banging four chicks. That stuff is crazy no you're not i got a private jet no you don't you know i've got a big mansion in this no you don't those girls are rented you know you hired all of that stuff so stop like that's that kind of those videos really do make me cringe out of my skin, Henry Cejudo style. That's what I'm saying. Even the nerds don't like him. You know, he's that guy that he's just – and I give him props for this. Somehow he has found a lane to where he's unaccepted by all. True.

I guarantee you Donald Trump is in the office like, God, fuck, I don't even like this guy. Please knock him out. I guarantee you Donald – Did you see the stuff Dana said about Colby wanting to sit next to Donald at UFC 244 in MSG? And he said he was like, let me ask Donald. And he was like, eventually it just didn't happen. I don't think Colby is there. All right.

This podcast has gone on long enough without any Conor McGregor talk. So up next is his coach, the man himself, John Kavanaugh. I'm just getting my bearings. Yeah, straight from the airport. Flying over from Ireland. Yeah. Who do you got this uh this friday at bellator 222 so the the bad boy bellator dylan danis yep making his um long-awaited return absolutely so uh everybody's looking forward to see how he does who is uh who's in his corner other than you um i actually don't know that i i'm guessing probably the same team as last time, but I haven't even met him yet.

I came here before I met Dylan. Unbelievable. Well, you got to hit all the SPG guys, you know, like one by one from the first stop. Dylan next. Exactly. This is our first time ever sitting down and ever actually having a conversation. We met briefly, but here's just a question right off the bat. What have you thought of the absolute lunacy that I've been tweeting to you guys for the past few years

it's been a lot of fun i'm not gonna lie i've enjoyed it i think it's um yeah you know you don't take yourself too serious and you mix humor with you obviously have a deep understanding of our sport and the storylines to go along with it with a bit of as we would say with a bit of crack yeah yeah yeah not the illegal sort yeah the good sort um so yeah i i i think it's fun that means a lot because every time i send out a tweet a ridiculous executive director of support tweet i think like either they're gonna find this funny or they're eventually gonna put a restraining order on my ass because it's some of this stuff was getting a bit much. You're kind of a bit of an Irish sense of humor that we, again,

we don't take ourselves all that seriously and we understand, you know, a joke. Kind of like that on a grander scale with Connor? Kind of. I think actually even a better analogy was I just heard Bruce Springsteen. He's about to release of an album yeah and he has already booked the studio for next year for his next album and i think he'd be 71 at the time why like what what is he going to get another grammy award is he going to get like billy joel hasn't written music in decades because he figures he doesn't have to he has enough hits right and

maybe he just feels he's done enough yeah br. Bruce Springsteen still has this fire, this creativity, this wanting to produce, to do something. And I would equate a little bit more of that to Conor rather than just another athlete's journey. So I only heard that on the radio yesterday. It was a little bell in my head going, that's what it is.

Yeah. It's this, obviously Bruce Springsteen that's what it is. Yeah. It's this, obviously, Bruce Springsteen just loves what he does and it's not for fame or for money or for awards.

He's got all that. Now it's just the love of the activity. And you feel Connor has that back? Yes. When do you think he got that back?

Around what era? You don't have to pinpoint a specific date or time. I would say kind of the start of the year or near the end of last year was when I really started coming back in. Following the Habib fight.

Yeah, after a little bit of time out. I saw recently he went back to the Crumlin Boxing Club and he competed in their, what was it? They had some kind of like charity show that they do. I didn't even know about that until the following day. And these videos start popping up, Conor's in a boxing match. I was like, what did I miss here? No, trust me, I was just as perplexed as you i was like what is going on right now but uh it's a good contest you have been seeing like he's in the gym more and more you know at

least from it's hard for me to say whether or not he is it could be dave could be taking 100 pictures of him and jim puts him out over time but over instagram i see a lot of gym shots it looks like he just recently got a little injury to his hand. Yeah, that was a real shame. I thought we had some good momentum going again. Did you think a fight was approaching? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Wow. Yeah, absolutely. And the hand might have delayed something. And then he hurt his hand. Do you know or can you say what the timetable for recovery is there? Up next, Joanna Young-Jacek. So let's talk about another aspect of your game, and that's your mind games. You've been known to be a great shit talker from writing things on your water bottles to getting in your opponent's face pre-fight.

But I was never offending anybody. And even if I wrote something on my bottles, it was like motivational. For you, yeah. Yeah, it was, yeah. But I don't do trash talk. I do what I feel. I say what I feel like I want to say. Because I'm an adult person and I'm responsible for my words and acts, you say?

No, how do you say? Yeah, actions. Actions. And the thing is like I never offend. But if someone is trying to step on my toe i'm gonna show who i am you know and there is no time for nice you and i you know and and that's the that's the thing it's a fight game you know it's not a poker you know it's not a game real emotions you know and sometimes people can say like too much or you were not aggressive the

face of was just okay the face of was intense i. I'm the only Joanna who is dealing with everything, you know. There is many people helping me preparing for the fights, my coaches. But at the end, it's all about me and my opponent stepping in the octagon, eye to eye, you know. And who is better, you know. There are people, your opponents are telling you before the fight, you're weak, you're not strong, you're not fast, you're not ready. No. You have to prove them wrong, you know, that you are ready, you're weak you're not strong you're not fast you're not ready no you have to prove them wrong you know that you are ready you know yeah so when you you seem to like the stare down you seem to like getting in your opponent's face it's not a game but i like

to play with them if they wanna check me out i let them you know yeah it's it's definitely frightening from a fan's perspective it's's frightening. People are like, oh, she's arrogant. She's cocky. I'm not arrogant. I'm not cocky. I'm confident. Yes, I'm confident because of the amount of work I put in every single day. And I believe in myself.

The worst thing in the world is not believing in yourself. And very often people are like, why are you so confident? Because I believe in myself. Because I know I have done everything to be in this spot. Facing the best. And putting on show, you know? Have you always been that way, or was it... Yes. All right, here we've got Cain Velasquez going through five of what I considered

the most important fights of his career. All right, so I've got five fights written down for you, Cain, and I've got five matches written down for you, Ray, that kind of span, maybe not your careers, but a large portion of your careers. We can start with you, Cain, and I've got five matches written down for you, Ray, that kind of span, maybe not your careers, but a large portion of your careers. We could start with you, Cain. When I name these fights, just tell me what you remember about them, if you could add anything to them, if you can. Your UFC debut, UFC 83 against Brad Morris. What do you remember about that? I remember the fight should have been stopped earlier than what it was. Went in there, just beat up Morris, and I think the fight should have been stopped earlier.

Super early UFC card. Were you nervous about making that Bright Lights debut? So that was Matt Serra, GSP2, and it was a huge crowd. When I went out there, it was a huge crowd. When I went out there, it was a huge crowd. I feel like NCAA wrestling got me kind of used to, you know, competing in front of people. Yeah. So I knew that that was going to happen. But, again, just the task at hand and, you know,

focused on what I had to do kind of blocked the people out of it. I was just focused on what I had to do, kind of blocked the people out of it. I was just focused on what I had to do. All right, moving on. Your first fight with Brock Lesnar, UFC 121. Man, it was everything that I've worked for and everything that I wanted to do in the sport, you know, it came down to that match. It came down to that fight.

It was, like, my dreams and hopes and everything all into that into that fight um at the time brock was a guy that was you know very like unbeatable right he was huge good wrestling a lot of power um you know just very very intimidating figure you know so a lot of a lot of pressure but for me it was like yeah man i was just destined to be there and to beat him on that night how did you tune that out of your brain the intimidation part of lesnar because he had that aura around him at the time like you said that he was unbeatable so how did you tune that out and be like i am the one to beat brock lesnar and then go on to do it it's different man when when you're a fighter and you fight i'm sure every

every guy's mentality is different, man. But my mentality out there is I'm a killer. It's kill or be killed. I'm going to go out there and fuck him up. That's how I feel all the time. Whenever I get into conflict with someone, I'm a fucking killer. I got this. All right.

Your fight against Junior Dos Santos, the UFC on Fox debut when you lost the UFC title. What do you remember about that? Going in, you know, not being able to practice what, like how I should fight, you know, having a lot of injuries here and there. It was really tough, but you know what? I just, it was hard, man. It was hard to go out there and try to do the things that I want to do and not being able to. But Dos Santos is a tough dude, and he beat me that night, yeah.

So skipping forward to the second fight where you regained your title against him. What do you remember about that? Coming back and actually literally taking the title from the man who stole it from you. That had to feel amazing. Did that feel better than even the first title win? Oh, I love revenge. I love it. Yeah, yeah.

That's all that was in my head man i just like shit myself a little when you said that i mean yeah yeah again it's it's just in that moment you know it's like to to me competing and and uh you know going against someone is is everything you know and for like dos santos i think he's a great human being, but competing is something else. It's something different. I'll compete at anything. That's how competitive I am.

But for him to go in and take something away from me that I've worked so hard for, I had to make an example out of him. I had to punish him, and that's all I was thinking about at that moment. Finally for you, your fight against Travis Brown, UFC 200. A big return to the octagon for you, and you really got it done. It felt good.

It felt good, yeah. Travis Brown, again, a lot of respect for what he's done in the sport and just a human being as well. It's hard to fight those guys like him and Noguera, guys that you don't hate, that you like, you know. But, hey, man, again, it's competing, it's competition. I like that fight with Travis Brown because I'm always working on new stuff and always trying to get better, you know.

And I did that spinning back kick, you know, in that fight that I've done in practice just recently and I've landed a bunch of times and it's like, okay, I can do it here, you know. So it was great just to be a part of UFC 200. Maybe bring that spinning back kick out against Brock Crown Jewel. Of course, maybe. Here's a clip of Chell P. Sonnen, the American gangster,

giving me some advice on how to be a man. Now, we've got to put the interview on pause for a second. I mean, the interview's still going on, but the MMA talk on pause. Sure. And go back to something you said earlier. You said you went to sleep every night, knew I'm the baddest man on the planet. You just got to give me some advice on being a man, because clearly, sitting across from the table from you, you're much more of a man than me. Now, that's very interesting. I may have more muscle than you, but I must tell you, you have very high energy. You have a fantastic voice. I was nervous with the interview.

I got the date wrong, the whole thing. Nobody knows what day it is. That wasn't on you. Nobody knows. I was like, oh, we're one day out. I thought about all that. It could be April. Nobody knows. I feel like the Chael P. Son and Persona, you walk into a room and everyone's like, oh, fuck, Chael's here.

Well, that's very nice of you. You better be on your toes. That's very nice of you. I will tell you, I have never walked in a room in my life, not looked around and asked myself, am I the most powerful man in this room? See, that's crazy. That's like animal instinct. Not every time has the answer been yes. It hasn't always been, but I do,

every single room I go into, I do ask myself, am I the most powerful guy in this room? Chael, every single room I've gone into this room, I look around and say, am I the weakest man in this room? And the answer is generally yes. No, you're very lean. You're very fit. Come on, you're saying weak? No, that's, the people know what I look around and say, am I the weakest man in this room? And the answer is generally yes. No, you're very lean. You're very fit. Come on. No, that's... The people know what I look like. It's a podcast, but they know what I look like.

I'm not lean. I'm not fit. I'm out of shape. I didn't think I was selling anything. No, you look good. Come on. What does it take to be a man? I don't really know. I don't think it comes down to bravado and macho-ness, though. I think... Are you willing to work hard? Are you willing to get up early

when that alarm goes off, whether you feel like it or not? Early as I snooze a few times, yeah. Me too, but I mean, will you follow through on your word? Then you're a man. Maybe more of a man than I thought. Absolutely. I can tell by looking at you. I got a good read on you, despite those tattoos. Oh, you're not a tattoo guy, yeah.

Probably broke your mother's heart. Up next, Max Holloway and I talking about his son, many blessed. How's that DC rivalry treating you for the daddest man on the planet? We call him Danos now. And I told him, I told him, you know, I'm the type of dude, like I tell everybody, I'm not like how much of a competitor of Savage is. I want to be I already did

and there's goals I did a goal I wanted to become a UFC champion now I want to be the number one power for power fighter in the world

and Danos is number one power for power in the world so I told him you better watch out if you get a contract in my name

you know damn best believe I'm signing it I don't know what you're doing but I'm signing it I gotta tell you if what you're doing, but I'm signing it. I got to tell you, if you want to be the daddest man on the planet, you got to have less swag. Right now, you walked in with the coolest shoes I've ever seen.

You're in a matching OVO jumpsuit. Like, you got to do that. Like, tuck your sweatshirt into your sweatpants. Wear some New Balances, something like that. On a lighter note, Mini Blessed. Yes. I love this kid. Yes. I've probably blogged about Mini Blessed as many times as i've blogged about you you're you're you're you're a

man you're a man bro that's the truth your son is the funniest most swagged out kid on the planet there's videos of him standing on chairs at bruno mars concerts getting down like you've never seen like if if i have one eighth the swag that Mini Blessed has, by the time I'm dead, it will be a good life. He dabs you out of the planet every time you win a fight. Yeah, he does. Man, I wish. I got videos of him at the Logic.

Logic came down and Eminem came down concert and he was on the chair doing it. But I was missing the good parts. And, man, he was going for it. We was all focused and when i look at him he's like a big i don't know how it happened he got he downloaded youtube music but he's like he he's the reason why we went like i love eminem but he's the reason why we went because he's like dad i heard eminem's coming down can we go to the concert he's seven oh my god so

this guy is like listening to like i like, how do you know Eminem? He's listening to YouTube music. Yeah. And he listened to that. He found Eminem. I don't know if some videos I posted up of him rapping. He tried to rap before. He tried making stuff.

He's so funny. That kid is something else. Has he seen 8 Mile? I did not show him 8 Mile. Bro, you got to show him 8 Mile. I should. I'm sure he would love it. Does he like watching you fight?

He loves it. He loves watching me fight, man. No fear? No fear. Like, he makes the, like, if you saw the last fight, if you see, like, Paul Federer said something like, oh, my gosh, look at his son's face. He's in touch. He wasn't.

That's just how he is. Like, he's at home watching TV. He does this weird thing where he's sad. Him and his mother's side, a bunch of their kids do it too. They sit down. The TV's here, and then they look sideways. So he does this weird thing, and he makes his eyes something weird that makes him look concerned, but he's not. That's how he could be watching the most kid-friendly show ever, and he watches it like that. I do this thing when I'm watching fights where I think I'm in the fight.

It's like VR, and I just do the head bobbing. That's cool. I love doing that. This next clip is actually from one of my favorite underrated interviews in the entire My Mom's Basement catalog with the world's most dangerous man, Ken Shamrock. This is him talking about the UFC's early beginnings and his trilogy with Hoist Gracie. Think about it. I didn't think it was going to happen. Like you didn't think the UFC event was going to happen, right? Oh, you think about it was no holes barred, bare knuckle,

kicking guys on the ground, headbutting them. I mean, all these things, right? And you're just like, that's not going to happen. So I go and defend my title i fly into denver three days later going to this thing thinking okay they're going to pull us aside okay this house is going to work and so i went there not thinking it's going to happen we go into this thing and it was supposed to be no holes board yeah suppose anything goes the the two days before the event they had this meeting this rules meeting it was like rules. I was like, rules meeting? I was like, okay, here's the first thinking. Okay, here we go.

With no fish hooking, right? No eye gouging. No biting. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you do, you're just going to get fined. The fight won't stop. Another thing that's insane. You're going in there.

What are you signing up for at this point? And you're a legitimate fighter at this point. Well, I'm a street fighter. I mean, I grew up on the streets fighting, right? So none of this scared me because there's no gun and there's no knife and I'm not going to get jumped. So it's like – it's not like it scared me or anything. But in the whole time in my mind, I'm still thinking, can't do that. I mean they can't do that, right?

Which is what I'm okay with, right? And so they go, right after they say all these things, which was supposed to be no holes barred, which it is because they're not going to stop the fight. Yes, it basically is. You're only making $1,500, so you get fined twice. Your money's gone, so win the fight. Yes. So that's what people really thought, too.

Well, that's not going to matter. I just want to win. So the next thing they go is they take away – I forget which one it was. I believe it was Zane Frazier's kick pads because he was going to wear kick pads. They said you can't wear kick pads. They're like, why? It seems weird that you can't wear kick pads if it's no-holds-barred, like just to protect yourself. Then they let Art Jemison wear one boxing glove.

So they were making the rules up and then they come to, and they say I can't wear my wrestling shoes. I was like, well, why? Because they're dangerous. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? You kick a guy in the head, but you can't wear wrestling shoes? And I'm like, in my mind, I was cocky. Yeah.

And I was like, okay, no worries. I'm going to beat all these guys anyways, right? I mean, I thought I was going to destroy everybody because they just look like a joke. Definitely. And so they take my wrestling shoes away. Well, what I didn't realize was that when they took my wrestling shoes and they did their homework on me because they watched me over in Japan where I was the champion over there. And I was wearing wrestling shoes.

And so they figured by them taking my shoes away, I'd be slipping, right? Yeah. And that's exactly what happened. And the event was sort of run by the Gracies and all that. It was a promotion for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. So Gracie gets the submission over you, and the second fight is the one I'm super interested in because the super fight is booked. Everyone's looking forward to it. And right before the event, a time limit gets put on it, a 30-minute time limit.

And you said after the fight that that hindered your game plan. Is it true that your game plan was to fight for two hours that night? Yes. Yeah. Where did that come from? Gracie's always said that they were the best condition athletes and that their submissions were the best. Like this style was the best in the world. And so me being from Japan with the shoot wrestling, catch wrestling, I wanted to put an end to that.

I was in great shape. I went 45 minutes with Hoist, not Hoist, but Funaki with a two out of three fall. I knew I could go for two hours. And so I started training for that because I didn't want to just beat him into it because I knew the faster you went against him after I fought him the first time I realized that the gi was a trap yeah you get caught yes and the sweater you get the more the geek catches you and the more you move out of the guard the more at risk you are so I really at that time was where I created the ground and pound where I hit his body I hit him in the head and I just work him and stay there and let him make the moves, let him commit. Yeah.

And I was going to do that until he got so tired after me pounding his body. For two hours. For however long it took that his legs would drop and that I would be able to submit him at ease. And if you watched the fight, I had him. Yeah. It would have worked. No, you definitely did, yes. It was said by everyone later if there were judges, the judges would have awarded you the fight i had him yeah no you definitely did yes and uh because it was said by everyone

later if there were judges the judges would have awarded you the fight well if it would have gone another 20 minutes he wouldn't have been able to walk out of the ring because if you saw the way the fight ended he's all laying on me they had to carry him his brothers had to come in and carry him back to the locker room because he was that exhausted because of all the body shots i was landing on him trying to get him to drop his legs but because we had found out the night before that they were putting a time limit and i couldn't change my strategy yeah so i had to stay with it thinking that 30 minutes and then of course they came in and said three more minutes and then they asked for another time and all that yeah and um finally after they did the two two overtimes because

horium was the one screaming it he came out to do it again. And his brothers told him in the corners, he can't go no more, no more. And I was like, no, no. Yeah. You wanted you were the best condition athlete in your mind. So and after that, you know starting to win or were you just frustrated that it was a draw and you couldn't get the official victory i think i was more angry and frustrated at the the shoes when they did the first one it was still bothering me that even the second fight you were like i should have been wearing shoes in that first one yeah because it just bothered me that I allowed him to do that.

Because I think in the first one, I would have destroyed him. Because there was no time limit, right? I mean, I'd have been able to go as long as I needed to. And he wouldn't have been able to get me like that with the shoes on. Because I had much more balance, much more strength, a lot more leverage to be able to move and do what I wanted to do. Just like I did in the second one. I just dominated him. And I thought I could have I did in the second one. I just dominated him. Yeah.

And I thought I could have done that in the first one, but in the first one, there was no time limit. And our weight wasn't too far off from one another. We were the two lightest guys in the tournament. Yeah. What were you? You were around like 205? No, I was about 190, 194 pounds, something like that.

And I think he was around 180-something. Yeah, he said he was 170, but he was over 180, around 185 or something, because he was taller than me. So that's the thing I think frustrated me all the way into the second fight was that I just felt, man, I just, and that was on me, not him. It had nothing to do with them. I made that mistake because I allowed him to do it. So the trilogy is booked almost 21 years later in Bellator in 2016. Do you regret booking that fight after the way it went?

I mean, Hoyce just hit you right in the dick. Yeah, I just, man, I like, you know, and you don't know why it happens, but that was just something throughout my career for whatever reason. It just wasn't meant to be. Yeah. You know, I mean, how does that happen? I'm wearing a steel cup. Yeah.

Right? I mean, I know if he, and I kind of thought he would try to find a way out of it somehow. And how often does a groin shot go unnoticed in MMA? Yeah, you know, and that's just, like I said, I just, it's frustrating.

I gotta let it go, right? I mean, it's one of those things you just gotta, hey, it wasn't meant to be. So would you say there is bad blood between you and Hoyce? Like, was that the last time you saw him? There's bad blood only because,

not because it happened, right? The way he reacted to it maybe yeah that that bothers me because he almost said well that's the way we used to fight and you're like what you just admitted you did it on purpose yeah and and and then not to be able to go back and do it again like he wouldn't fight me again i know and uh and i just felt and not only just for myself but i felt like the fans were robbed of being able to see this thing end one way or the other but just to be able to have a finish to it and it never happened because he wouldn't fight me he wouldn't do it again and and and to me to be able to have somebody i wouldn't do it to be able to sit there and say i won the fight i'd be embarrassed to know that I did hit him in the groin.

And I think it was on purpose because, I mean, I'm in close. I'm not moving. There's no way that was an accident. But to even put that aside, okay, I'll accept it was an accident. If that's what you want to say, fight me again. And let's put an end to it. And unfortunately, he didn't want to do that. So it even makes even more sense of why he did it on purpose. Here's me and Ben Askren reading out one of the most ridiculous Jorge Masvidal tweets of all time.

So going back to your man Masvidal. Yes. When you hear about the whole scuffle he had after that fight with Leon Edwards backstage, he said he gave him a three-piece in a soda. Yeah, I was there, so I walked back. You saw it happen? I didn't see it happen. I walked back and I walked upstairs to do the interview upstairs.

And then when I was ready to go down, they're like, no one can go downstairs. There was a fight. And do you think in that moment that your Masvidal fight slipped through maybe? Oh, definitely. Well, I was already thinking that. I already kind of thought that. Because of the week prior. And then that was like, I guarantee it's gone now.

Yeah. Yeah. And you had a history with him. So even before this, I went back and dug up a tweet he sent to you. This was a tweet that in the moment I was like, man, this is outrageous, and I needed to bring it up to you. Let's go. He said, beg me. Excuse my language.

Mom, if you're listening, excuse the French here. Beg me, you little slut. And just like a little slut whore, your day is coming. Hashtag host lap season. The fuck was he talking about there? Listen, the man stuck on high school insults. I mean, Robbie. High school?

That was gibberish. Well, you're just out of high school, so you probably remember this. That was absolute gibberish. Like you said, just out of high school? Nobody said stuff like that. Really? No. So I feel like people in high school said that. Beg me, you little said, just out of high school. Nobody said stuff like that. Really? No. So I feel like people in high school said that.

Thank you, little slut. And just like a little slut whore. And he tried saying teacher's pet one time. What kind of insults are these? These are terrible. This guy's doing mad libs. He's doing Twitter mad libs. I don't know.

This next clip is from another one of my favorite underrated interviews with Alimaleh McFarlane, a Bellator champion, about her home, Hawaii. All right. Speaking of questions, we're going to do a lightning round of Hawaii questions. Okay. Hawaii. Because I have so many of them. I basically just went up to everyone in the office.

I was like, you ever meet anyone from Hawaii? And they were like, no. And I was like, don't you have so many questions? So first one, what's the best Hawaiian food? Oh, I always get lomi salmon, poi, and poke. First stop when I get off the airplane. Which is? Lomi salmon is like a salmon

dish obviously it's like cubed and it has uh green onions onions and tomatoes in there nice uh it's a cold dish and then poke obviously you guys have poke right but hawaiian poke is much different it's cubed raw fish okay hawaiian poke is i'm such a plain guy i'm one of those like chicken fingers and french fries yeah i don't really know yeah but hawaiian poke is i'm such a plain guy i'm one of those like chicken fingers and french fries yeah i don't really know yeah but hawaiian poke is completely different from the poke up here in the mainland so you guys need to try real hawaiian poke uh what's the best wine drink um 1944 mai tai is that an alcoholic drink yeah okay oh is that what you're asking for i was just asking for anything really i'm i don't really drink often but when I do, I just go to the bartender. I'm like, make me the girliest thing possible.

I can't do alcohol. Alcohol is just gross. Yeah. And aren't you like 20? Are you an officer? I just heard that you can't drink alcohol. I mean, that's true, but you know. Yeah, yeah.

So get the 1944 Mai Tai because that's when the drink was created. And pretty much most bars will have it. It will fuck you up. So, yeah, just try it. Does Hawaii claim The Rock? He always talks about being Hawaiian, but he also talks about being from California and everywhere. Is he like a fake Hawaiian? I wouldn't call him fake.

And he's actually Samoan, which is Polynesian. So he's definitely like he's from Hawaii. He's local. But it's really funny there's this Instagram it's a it's a Hawaiian guy that puts the the rock like face swap thing on oh yeah and he calls himself Pohaku which is actually translated to rock in Hawaiian oh nice but it the way he talks he's like hello this is Pohaku aloha and he like talks with a super white accent but says Hawaiian whereas it's freaking hilarious so i would say that's pretty accurate in how we uh how we think of dwayne

johnson okay okay fair do you guys eat canned ham all the time i heard you guys just eat spam yeah spam yes we do that it's delicious i've never had it it's delicious you gotta try it fry it up put it on some rice and wrap it with nori or nori. Sorry. And it'll be a spam musubi. All right. I'll try it. This one is a question on behalf of me.

Do you ever get too high sometimes and then just think about how far Hawaii is from everything else and get worried? So I looked at it on Google Maps today and I was like, oh, my God. It's I wrote it down. It's 2,390 miles away from the closest thing. And I read that if there's some kind of disaster happened where we couldn't get food there we're fucked the island only has food for three days yep because we get everything imported does that scare you yeah that's terrifying it is i read that

before my heart started beating fast yeah like the whole island shuts down like there was a power outage one year and like everybody lost their shit the whole island shut down like there was a power outage one year and like everybody lost their shit the whole island shut down or there's if there's like a hurricane warning cost goes empty what about the nuclear nuclear warning oh dude that was crazy all your family get texts like i was there i was actually home so did you get the notification i was home and it was um it was super crazy because that was right after my belt burned in a house fire i'm not sure if you saw that on my social media but literally less than a month after i won the belt for the first time i was at a sponsor's house on a different island doing promo and left my belt at their house we went out to party when

we came back the whole house was on fire and i'm like oh okay uh bellator uh there's my belt inside that house right now um and so i lost my belt in the fire and then we're all we're literally all covered in ashes and so we didn't sleep all night all of our phones are pretty much dead because our charges were inside there we have to go through extra security because all of our shit was in the house, like when we go to the airport. Oh, yeah. And then we finally make it back to Oahu, and I finally get showered. I'm nice and clean. I lay down in bed. I'm like, oh, so nice.

And then my phone starts ringing, and I look at it, and it's like – It says a nuke is incoming? Missile inbound. Seek shelter immediately. This is not a drill. Oh, my God. And I'm like, oh, okay. What are you trying to tell me?

How long was it before they knew that that wasn't like real? Was it minutes? It was – no. It was like 15 minutes. Holy shit. Yeah. So were you like actually like seeking shelter panicking or were you like there's no way this is real? My sister at first – the only ones at our home were my dad and I.

And, of course, we start getting, everybody starts calling us. My sisters are all calling. They're all worried about us. They're, you know, and they're, like, in their car. One of them is, like, frantically bawling. She's like, close the windows, close the windows. She's freaking out. So me and my dad are, like, going around the house, trying to close everything.

And then after a while. Probably wouldn't help with a nuke dude yeah and then my dad's like honey if it if it lands we're dead because these are single panel like walls like let's just go inside the room i was like okay so we just went inside uh his bedroom we just laid in bed and we're like we started saying our goodbyes like he started god tech technically someone hit the wrong button yeah and i was like you know what dad we've accomplished a lot i was like we've lived a really good life like i could die right now and i'd be happy holy shit so yeah we just accepted it teenager hit the wrong button um what's up with the hawaiian alphabet you got 12 letters all right folks get

the tissues ready for our next guests because this story is so romantic that you might cry in the middle of it. This is the story of how Megan Olivie and Joseph Benavidez met. Megan and Joe are legit, like, my two favorite people I've met through barstool, I want to say. But I actually don't know that much about, like, how you guys met. So I want to talk about that. Okay. When did that happen? Because from what I understand, you didn't meet through the UFC.

No. No. Which is crazy. I figure a lot of people assume that. Everyone does. It's so annoying. Like yesterday. Which I don't mind that because then I just looked like the coolest guy. For sure.

Yeah. You know, they're like, oh, you just interviewed all these guys and you liked him? Like he must be super cool. Yeah. But like we met like long before. Ten years ago. Ten years ago in Las Vegas, which, you know, we've made a home in now. And Mandalay Bay lobby, I was on a fight trip like, you know.

This is 2009, so you're in WC this time. Around like the cruise flight? Right before. Yeah, a month before. Oh, was it? Yeah. Yeah. And then she lived in New York and was literally here.

Celebrating graduating college with my two best friends. Seton Hall, right? Seton Hall. Right before I started Fordham. Look at that. The interviewer did his research on the interview. So yeah, we were just having a good time before I started grad school and they started work. And then he was really cute.

And he was with a group of friends who invited us out as well. And we're like 22 years old with no money. Like, yeah, we'll go. Sure. And Joe doesn't drink. And I was like, oh, that's cool. And so I was like, oh, I guess I won't really drink either. And that night we just quoted Will Ferrell to each other the whole time.

And then he asked if I had email. And I was like, yeah. You asked if she had email. And I was like, yeah. You asked if she had email? Dude, I was behind the times. Is that like a high-tech strategy thing? I don't know. You don't ask for the number, you ask for the email? Dude, well, I guess it works.

I was like using that. I was like behind the times. You want to meet a girl and be like, hey, what's your email? Yeah, no. Do you have a Slack? He was like, yeah. He's like, I don't even know what Slack is a tool. He's like, do you have an email?

Slack is like for work things. It's like a young people thing. Oh, okay. This is what it was, is I thought she was super professional and like obviously like really cool. And then I had just got like my first computer in my life. I never had a computer growing up ever. Like we had like a. So did you think email was awesome?

Yeah. So I just thought like that's what people do. Like I'm older. I'm in Vegas. Like I met i don't know yeah what i was really thinking and then i was like you got email because i do because i thought i was like cool because i finally had a computer i first computer ever 2009 yeah and then i think her first email like she emailed me her number and she's like this is easier yeah much easier but we continued to email like throughout like a lot like falling in love over emails which was weird i mean i'm sending letters to each other bro it was and i was sending like youtube videos and like boys to men videos and like trying so hard dude everything trying so hard and get this the morning

of our wedding um she had she was like check under the bed or something and i was like what the heck and i pulled it out and it was all our emails printed out oh my god yeah because they gmo keeps it all yeah so we have the first correspondence we had to another and we were trying so hard to impress with each other i thought you were gonna stay trying so hard not to cry when you pulled them out because now I'm crying. Oh, I didn't cry hard. You're about to make me cry. That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard in my life. I'll cry right now.

But I cried like that was in the question. Like I cried like immediately reading that. Oh, yeah. But, yeah, like it was like we were trying like so hard. You're like, you motherfucker. On our wedding day, you make me cry this hard? It was awesome. But then I had coffee and donuts.

Also, you had coffee and donuts delivered. And I had a bunch of maniacs there. When you guys met, sorry to cut you off. Not a good one. Were you, you weren't covering fighting at all at the time? Not at all. So my brother, I grew up in Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. Yep.

So right on the Jersey board, I was born in Jersey, and then my high school was both states, and it's like the best wrestling in- Your high school was Pennsylvania and New Jersey? Yep. Never heard of that. Yeah. So- You're like number one in the nation.

Yeah. We're a crazy wrestling school and community and stuff. So my brother's 10 years older than me, and he was a wrestler. So I grew up literally on a wrestling mat. I would ref stuff. I would work tournaments. I mean, I was always there. I didn't know that.

Yeah. I was never like a mat rat or like a water girl. Never dated a wrestler. Never worked for the wrestling team. But when my brother was wrestling and I was younger, I would help out here and there. My dad was a coach, so I'd always help. And so I understood that. And my grandfather was a Navy champion boxer.

Oh, wow, cool. And his brother was a professional boxer. Huge fighting family. Right, exactly. That's destiny. So I understood the sport really well, but I literally only knew, like, Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. And that was, like, probably from Entourage.

Yeah. I didn't really even know anything. The Friends episode? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Tank Abbott, right? Yeah. So when I actually saw it, I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. And I get this, you know, like it wasn't an adjustment period for me.

It was like, I totally understand this. But when he told me he was a fighter, I was like, oh, okay. Like, I just thought he was saying that. I was like. What's the largest mammal you could knock out joe benavidez oh yeah the largest mammal and for megan olivi yeah well when i heard that question the first largest mammal i thought about was a moose and i know moose no way are super aggressive yeah but they can also be stationary targets right because they're big i mean if it didn't move i guess

yeah and then the other thing well the thing is like i'm not gonna knock out a bear because it's gonna move and try to fight me i guess a moose would do that too so maybe a deer or something something big you're picking things with antlers i feel like that's how you get what about like a doe yeah something like that but this is the other thing this is the other thing that you can't do that the other thing with the moose is the long jaw i think allows like a lot more brain snap oh you think it works like a human jaw however the brute jaw like if it's square like you don't like it's not good benson henderson thing a myth like if you keep your jaw clenched are you more are you less likely to get knocked out yeah because even like you see people when they start opening their mouth that's when they can get knocked out when they're

they're tired and cardio because there's more broken like rattle but if it hits like a still object like you know there's less god i love megan and joe they are the best all right closing out the podcast is the one the only ufc president Dana White. This next clip is from my very first interview ever with Dana over a year ago. March 25th, I believe, was the day that I conducted it regarding a very interesting fight. Take a listen. All right, so it looked like for a little bit that Conor and Cowboy were in discussions. Cowboy and Conor were going back and forth, seemed like they wanted to do it, and then we caught wind as fans or media, whatever you want to call us, that the negotiations had fell, fallen through because the UFC wanted the fight to happen

as a co-main event. And Conor McGregor didn't want that. Is there truth to that? Yes, yes, that, that, that, that, that did happen. You know, but, but it's not anything – every time I deal with Conor, there's always something. You know, there's always something to deal with, and we get it figured out. So just as a fan, can you explain to me the rationale behind Conor McGregor being a co-main event? I think it's so crazy. I can't imagine Conor McGregor being a co-main event. I know that I'm probably the worst person to, you know, try to play devil's advocate against because I'm a fanboy and I'm a nut hugger, but I just have to understand. No, I love hearing other people's

point of view on that. I interviewed with Kevin Aioli the other day and he said the same thing. Well, let me ask you a question. We were going to do the fight that was going to be on the card with him was probably going to be the heavyweight championship. Should that be the co-main event? I believe so, if Conor McGregor's on the card, yes. Boom. Well, there you go. Well, the more people I hear from the fans and the media and all this shit, if I end up putting Conor McGregor not as a champion on the main event,

I guess I don't have to listen to any bullshit, do I? I mean, there is precedent for it in the past with Conor at 196 and 202. They're two of the top three of the company's highest selling pay-per-views, no? Yeah. So if I didn't do it this way and everybody, you know, I just made him the main event with no title, no nothing, everybody would go fucking mental and go nuts and start chirping about, you know. You think so? Oh, 100%. everybody would go fucking mental and go nuts and start chirping about, you know, you get favoritism. Oh,

100%. I don't know. But you did it at 196 with a title fight on the card, a tremendous fight between Misha Tate and Holly Holm. It was the first Diaz fight. Well, you know why that happened. He was the main event.

The fight fell out. Diaz went in last minute and we kept him the main event. Yeah, that's true. Correct. But then it was, it was rebooked for UFC 200. That kind of fell apart, and then you did it at 202. That was the main event with no title either.

But he was the champion, wasn't he? All right, that's fair. That's fair. I was interested in hearing— Conor McGregor is not the champion right now. He's ranked number two in the world right now. Oh, God, you're rubbing salt in the wounds, Dana. You're rubbing salt in the wounds.

He's not the champion. Back then when he fought that, God, you're rubbing salt in the wounds, Dana. You're rubbing salt in the wounds. He's not the champion. Back then when he fought that fight, he was the main event. His fight fell off. On late notice, as usual with Conor McGregor, he takes another fucking fight and takes a weight class above him. That's right. He's a fucking savage, Dana. He is a savage. He's a fucking savage, and I love him for it.

And he was the champion. So, yes, of course we're going to keep him in that main event slot. That's not the case right now. I just think if you're taking any advice from little Bob Fox here, I just think Conor McGregor, main event, always. It doesn't matter who's on. If you put every title you have on the line and Conor McGregor's not a champ, you put the champ champ in the main event.

And this next clip is from UFC 246 McGregor versus Cowboy fight week and how close did we get at any point to a different matchup for Conor we heard rumors in November of maybe an Aldo rematch we heard rumors over the summer of Gaethje and he had the hand injury we heard rumors of Cowboy back then too did we come dangerously close to seeing a different return opponent for Conor or no? Listen, Conor, I had this conversation earlier today about the whole Gaethje thing and this and that, and does Conor have approval over who he fights? First of all, Conor McGregor has never turned down a fight. So if you look at a guy like Conor, who was such a massive star and had so much riding on each fight,

right? We would go into his living room and say, this guy just fell out. And his response would be, either I'm going back to bed, tell me who I'm fighting when I wake up, or I'm going to the gym, let me know who says yes. I mean, these are the responses this guy had to people falling out. He's never turned down a fight. It's never been an issue of who he was going to fight or not. And him and Cowboy have been talking about fighting since the day at that season.

The fans have wanted it for so long. I mean, our first interview was basically you and me going back and forth on whether or not this was a co-main event or a main event. Exactly. I hate to say it, but told you so. Yeah, so did Lorenzo. Lorenzo hit me with say it, but told you so. So did Lorenzo. Lorenzo hit me with that one, too. Told you so. Finally, enjoy this segment of

fan questions from you guys, the listeners of this podcast, that I read out to Dana White just before UFC 244 back in November. Favorite meal, if you're just picking a meal. You know, I would say my favorite meal is Italian food.

I like Italian. We're going chicken parm. I like raviolis. I like any kind of pasta. All right. Go-to drink? Hmm. My go-to drink.

You like a beer drinker? Yeah, I'm a beer guy. Listen, I used to be the hard liquor. I'm too fucking old for hard liquor now. That shit kicks my ass for like three days. I used to drink vodka and now I can't even do it anymore. Now I got to drink like the sissy, low carb fucking, you know, zero carb beer. Like the Michelob Ultra.

When Connor's passing you shots of proper 12 on stage, you take it where you're just like, oh, that just ruined my stomach. I'm done for the day. So I don't like whiskey. I don't like whiskey. And I'm not just saying this. Everybody thinks I, you know, kiss Conor's ass so much. People say that about me too. It's crazy.

But how do you not love Conor McGregor? You know what I mean? How do you not? You know, he's made a few mistakes here in the last year, but the kid's awesome. And, but his proper 12 is good. Yeah. It's good. It tastes good yeah you know what i mean um and and i'm not a whiskey guy but i like his whiskey the day he gave it to me i liked it um so jack daniels you know you know fireball yes so jack daniels makes a form of fireball and i know a lot of kids younger kids like to drink fireball. And I know a lot of kids, younger kids, like to drink fireball. Get the Jack Daniels.

Jack Daniels Fire or Jack Daniels Red. Shit's so good. So I will literally get... I'll take a glass of that and a beer. I'll drink the beer and I'll sip on the Jack Daniels fire. That's really crazy to me because I'm a guy

that really can't drink. I'm a pussy. My stomach's real bad. I could really only do like a ginger ale vodka. If I had a Jack Daniels. That's really crazy to me because I'm a guy that really can't drink. I'm a pussy. My stomach's real bad. I could really only do like a ginger ale vodka. If I had a Jack Daniels fireball shot, I think I would throw up on the spot. It's so good. Like one sip. That's crazy. All right. So we got some fan questions.

Fans sent in some questions. We could do lightning round for these. Kevin Curry says, do you have an all-time favorite fight? Do you have one personally? It could be boxing too. I know you're a long-time boxing fan. So I used to. I used to have a favorite fight.

But there's been so many. I mean, we've been on a run of just ridiculous fights since Fox. You know, the Matt Hughes-Frank Trigg two fight. Because going into that fight when we told Hughes, you know, we're going to do this fight again. You know, he hates Trigg with a passion. And going into that fight, he's like, this is such a – but this is the type of guy that Matt Hughes was. This is such a lose-lose for me. I'm never going to beat him more impressively than I did the first time.

I hate the guy. So, you know, but I'll do it. Let's do it. And what happens? He actually beats him more impressively than he did the first time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was one of my favorite fights. Personally, I go Robbie Lawler versus Rory McDonald, too, from UFC 189.

That stare down at the end of round four where Robbie's spraying the blood out of his face. It's crazy. Crazy. Yeah. There's been so many fucking crazy fights. I mean, Henderson and Shogun and I'm trying to think of some of the recent ones. I mean, Gastelum versus Adesanya. Oh, my God.

We're talking about a guy that's on this card. Gastelum, you know, is returning against Darren gastelum versus adesanya oh my god we're talking about a guy that's on this card gastelum you know is returning against darren till yep that fight was insane that's right now i think the fight of the year i agree what's the most pissed off you've ever been as the president of the ufc you get pink a lot when you get pissed off yeah steam starts firing out of those ears there's been a lot of incidents jones you know getting that card canceled way back in the day i mean he's gotten a ton of cards canceled, if we're being honest here. Connor with the dolly. There's Habib jumping over the cage.

He really shouldn't have done that. God, that's a tough one. I would have to say that the most pissed off I've been. Linnaeus, how long have you been with the company now? Six years. I mean, you've never seen me crazy pissed off, right? I mean. Really?

Yeah. Everybody thinks that at work I'm some fucking lunatic and I'm running around slapping people around i don't assume that but i assume when jones is out doing jones things you're probably livid it was early days i would say i would have to say that nobody because you have to you have to uh look at the time and the place that we're in um you know we're burning money you don't know if this thing's going to keep going and i believe in this thing's going to keep going and i believe in this thing that this thing can work and i would have to say that nobody's pissed me off more than tito ortiz and the shit that he pulled while he was here and we actually have a question about him

it was going to be my final question for you did you really think and i know your answer to this this is a fan question did you really think that you would beat tito ortiz in a boxing match i knew it and so did he that's why it didn't happen but that so tito ortiz was doing a new deal with us and tito and i hated each other so bad that lorenzo handled that deal okay so he and lorenzo did this deal and lorenzo so you know tito never had great hands. Yeah. Okay. So Tito had been working on his boxing. And I think that he was working with, what's his name, the Mexican kid that fought De La Hoya and was big at that time with De La Hoya and him and Fernando Vargas. Okay. So Tito was training with Fernando Vargas. So Tito started to feel like his hands were getting in a good place and we hated each other so he told lorenzo

the last thing that i want in this deal is i want three round boxing match with dana three three minute rounds boxing lorenzo called me and said this is what i said yes sign sign tell him sign the deal there was no hesitation on your end like this is a fucking ufc fighter and i'm signing up to fight him right now this wasn't going to be the first time that tito and i had boxed oh you had boxed tito before many times i didn't know that oh yeah i didn't know that listen why were you boxing tito ortiz for whatever reason tito pulled that out of his ass for that to happen as it started to get closer and i was training and you know i was at the time i was sparring with heavyweight pro boxers i was sparring with top 10 ranked heavyweights to get ready for that fight right i was in fucking ridiculous shape

i was ready and i was gonna whoop his ass in front of everybody. Now, let me make this very clear. If it was an MMA match, Tito would murder me. Yeah. Like it would be fucking. Definitely. It would be the most horrific beating you've ever fucking seen in your life. He would double leg me, smash me against the fence. It would be like a Habib smash.

And put his fucking, no, it would be worse than that. Tito would literally put his fucking elbows through my skull, OK? Just so we're clear here. Yeah. In a boxing match, I was going to fuck him up and make him look stupid. And he knows that. And that's why that fight didn't happen. Talk that shit, champ.

I love it. I would love to see that boxing match happen today. I want that to happen right the fuck now. I'm too fucking old for that now. But I think Tito is too old for it too. I think it to happen right the fuck now. I'm too fucking old for that now. I think Tito's too old for it too. I think it'd be like grudge match. You know, that's it's Stallone and De Niro. They're like old men and they're fighting in the ring. It would be incredible. Dana, thank you so much.

I'm looking forward to the press conference tonight. I'm looking forward to Madison Square Garden in November. If there's one thing that we've learned over the last several years, there's nothing fun about old men fighting each other. Okay. You know what, Fath? Yeah, Oscar De La Hoya, your friend proved that. Doesn't look good.

Yeah. Dana, thank you so much. Thanks for having me. I didn't include any of the quarantine interviews because they're so recent that I figured they're probably still fresh in your brain. I didn't want to put them in the best of. But I really appreciate you guys listening to this podcast. I really appreciate you guys supporting over the past year. Thank you so much.

I hope you continue to do so.