The Ariel Helwani Show - Ariel Helwani Reacts to Classic Interviews, Vol 3: Justin Bieber, Chael Sonnen, Nate Diaz, Jorge Masvidal

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

Ariel Helwani reacts to some of his classic interviews, providing additional insights and behind-the-scenes stories for each.This volume includes one of Ariel's first conversations with Chael Sonnen, prior to him becoming 'The Bad Guy' (02:50), Andrei Arlovski and the infamous 'How's Taste' moment (13:23), pop superstar Justin Bieber getting grilled (24:02), Bob Arum blasting the UFC and its fanbase during the early days (34:52), Ariel's first meeting with Jorge Masvidal (52:56), and an instant-classic Nate Diaz interview (1:04:49).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Eriawadi Show. Back in your life and welcome to our third installment of my lookback series of some of my old interviews. dare I say, classic interviews. Feels weird for me to say that. That feels like I'm sort of calling my own interviews classic, but classic also means just old. Remembered, nostalgic, legendary. Who knows, we've done this twice before.

You seem to have enjoyed it. I actually kind of enjoy it as well. In a weird way, it's almost like a little bit therapeutic. I don't know what it is. It's fun. It's, again, it's nostalgic. It gives me good vibes, memories. And I know there's a lot of you out there,

especially here on this newest channel. who don't know the backstory to some of these old interviews. And, well, now that I'm an unc, and now that I'm an old man, I've been able to compile a pretty extensive library of interviews. And it's fun to look back at, especially like when some of the youngsters were, you know, just starting out and the ones who then became legends, who you now know very well. And that's kind of actually the theme of this volume three of our classic, interview series because we're going to look back at a sort of like before they were stars

type of interview where it's like a guy who's really, really young and now we know them as a superstar. You get the drill. You get the drill. And so that's the theme. I like to pick a theme when I do these. And today's theme is going to be before they were stars. And some of the themes, by the way, and some of the interviews I should say are really like my first meeting with these people. Like the first time I ever spoke to them, my first time I ever had them on camera, the first time I ever interviewed them. And that's actually where we're going to begin. We're going to go all the way back to the 17th of July, 2008. This was a fascinating time in the world of MMA. Affliction was a very popular t-shirt company at the time. T-shirt, jeans, but for the

most part, you know, it was those cool t-shirts with the wings and the skulls and all this stuff. I say cool, I didn't really wear them, but they were quite popular. And they had decided, the powers at B, over at Affliction, led by Tom Attencio, had decided that they were going to get in the MMA promotion business. Now, for the longest time, they were in great standing with the UFC brass. The fighters got to wear their shirts. This is before the uniform days. They got to wear them, you know, on their walk out to the ring. They got to wear them at the press conference

They got to wear them ever You can wear whatever you want And if you were in good standing with the UFC And if you paid a little tax You were allowed as a fighter To rock your affliction gear But then they decided to get into the promotional business And the UFC did not like that

And so Affliction was banned No one was allowed to wear Affliction gear And in fact one of their biggest stars George St. Pierre Was actually paid to wear a black t-shirt In honor of that

Affliction paid him I'm pretty sure it might have been the Matt Sera 2-fighter maybe the next one where he wore a black t-shirt and others did as well and so anyway

Affliction gets into the promotional game they come out big hot and heavy they're paying top dollar the likes of Fyodor Alenko and Tim Sylvia and Andrea Oloski and many many others

I mean there are two shows they only had two were absolutely loaded Superstack shows incredible shows and their first show was in Anaheim on the 19th of July, July 19th, 2008, and it was called Affliction Band. Yes, and Megadeth played.

And so if all this is sounding a little bit familiar, yeah, you know, the concerts at combat sports events aren't a new thing. And also somewhat familiar, especially in the wrestling world these days, once the UFC found out that they were going to do this show at the pond in Anaheim, the Honda Center, they booked their own show same day in Las Vegas on free TV, on Spike TV, or cable TV. Affliction was on pay-per-view. They went on cable to try to counter-program it and hurt them. And they countered with a card that was kind of hassily thrown together, and it was

headlined by Anderson Silva moving up to 205 pounds. Anderson Silva was the pound-for-pound best in many people's eyes. Moving up from 185 to 205, he was the 185-pound champion going up against James Irvin and he absolutely annihilated James Irvin. And so it was a night where we got the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world in most people's eyes, Anderson Silva, going up against the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. In other people's eyes, Fyodor O'Mayenko,

on the same night in two different events on the west coast of the United States. Also, that was my first night on Twitter because we live-tweeted the two events going on at the same time on the MMA-rated Twitter account. Anyway, that was July 19th. We're going to start on July 17th, Media Day, in L.A. And again, it was a who's who. And I was a young buck in the game. I just started working for MMA rated.

I'd started in April, April of 2008. That was my first real job in MMA journalism. They had a video player. I wanted to interview fighters. I would hire a local cameraman via Craigslist, and hope for the best. Hope that they were competent. I hope that they knew how to just literally edit, cut, here, here, and upload. and there I was in this ballroom at I think the Hilton in L.A., and it's literally a who's who.

And one of the people that I met that day was a young man named Chale P. Sunnan. At the time, just Chale Sunnan. And he was a very different kind of Chale Sunnan. He was a very, very mild-mannered, very respectful, very chill, Chale-Sunnan. This was my first interview with Chale, and he was still in WEC, and he was in the midst of this feud with palo filial and as you can see in the interview he kind of has this sort of like no nonsense delivery where in the moment he's being very honest about the state of the fight and i'm i'm left like confused at his honesty i'll explain more on the back end but for now please

enjoy my very first interview with my now old friend the american gangster chale sonnet Ariel Hawwani for MMA rated.com being joined by Chale Sunnan and Chale. We just found out September 10th. You, Paolo Filio, the rematch. Excited about this one. Finally, it's going to be happening. Yeah, just looking forward to being on the card, yeah. Now, this is obviously going to be a title fight.

You're getting another chance to redeem yourself after that tough loss earlier this year. You took about while Paolo was dealing with some personal issues. That was a big risk for you. Why did you decide to take it? Yeah, I don't know if it was a risk or not. I wanted to compete. You know, it was my idea. Paulo pulled out, and another gentleman had an opponent pulled out, so we were able to get matched up.

But, yeah, I mean, even September 10th, I mean, if he doesn't show, I'll take somebody else on. You think there's a chance he won't show? I think I'm not counting on the fight. I'm optimistic about it. We're preparing for it. But in my heart, I'm not sure it's going to happen. Have you signed the papers? Is everything finalized on that front? Yeah, last night, actually. We're out here in California. They faxed him to the hotel,

signed him and sent him back, and it's my name and his name on the contract. So, like I said, for now, we're certainly moving in that direction. Have they given you any type of update as to, you know, where his head at is right now? Yeah, they did. They said, look, we just got off the phone with his management, and they've assured us that he's coming and he's feeling better. So I've had the Assurances, yeah. A pause right there as we can. You see that I'm sort of trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

Also, you notice that his answers are very short. Like, there's no schick here. Paulo was a very colorful character, and he was going through a lot. He had beaten Chale the previous year, and there was a sort of controversy surrounding the tap. And so Chale wanted the rematch, and he fought twice, and he was sort of back in line to fight Palofilio. But when he says, I don't even know if this fight is going to happen. I was like, what do you talk? I never kind of heard.

I never heard that before. I just thought, oh, fight is announced and fight is going to happen. And even him talking about faxing the contract back, that never happens. There's things like Doc, you sign it. I feel like a dinosaur listening to this. And it wasn't really that long ago. It was only, well, I guess it was 17 years ago. Golly.

In any event, the way he's talking about it shocked me. And I remember going back to the hotel that day being like, how is this possible? How does he not think that this fight is going to happen? Why did he say that? Why did he even drop any kind of doubt whatsoever about any of this? It was just a fascinating look at a guy who was just sort of figuring himself out. And I thought it was really interesting. By the way, the fight never actually happened on September 10th.

It actually got postponed because there was a hurricane that was happening in the area. And it got moved to November the day after Barack Obama won the, the first election that he was a part of and became president of the United States. It was November 5th, Obama, November 4th. Why I remember all that, I'm not sure, but anyway, we continue. Against Paulo, ended a little controversially in your mind. Do you still feel like the fight should have continued? Well, not necessarily. I mean, I've never stood behind that argument extremely strongly. You know, at the immediate time that the fight ended, I didn't tap and that that was my stance. I went home a day later. I watched it on replay and I screamed

out loud and I didn't know that that had happened until I had to sit down and watch it and it was a little bit embarrassing but that's a judgment call. I certainly don't fault the referee for stopping it or anybody else. It had been a different ref. I mean, you know, his job's to protect me. I screamed in pain and he stepped in and protected me. So I don't have a huge problem with the way the fight stopped. is actually second ranked middleweight in the world. Would you agree with that? He's one of them. I'm not sure how he lost the number one status. He's undefeated. He's the only guy that's undefeated, and he's taking on good competition. So I think number one or number two

is very deserving for him. And finally, how has your time been with the WEC? You know, you've obviously fought in the UFC now. It's owned by Zufa. Still trying to keep both brands separate. Are you happy with them? Yeah, I really enjoy the WEC. They treat you really really well uh i'm not a guy that needs to be treated super well uh but they do it all the same they're organized and professional and and i appreciate him all right well he is a low maintenance chale son in and in september 10th he gets another shot at palo filio best of luck to chale i appreciate that thank you very much so respectful so nice uh dare i say somewhat boring as well just a sort of uh vanilla wrestler from organ what a time

You ever see that one, Rick? Sure, I have. You have? I catch off guard there, sorry. Sorry. We didn't really talk about whether or not we were going to bring you guys in, but I have seen that.

I like when I get your takes on it. Yeah, I've seen all, honestly, there's no chance that I haven't seen all of your interviews with Chale. Oh, I was trying to catch you. Oh, okay, with Chale, okay. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, from being on it.

Maybe the vast majority. No chance G.C. seen that one. Nah, because that's pre, like, Chale's in his father's nut sack in July. In the dad's nut sack. It was filmed on a potato. It was good shit.

Four by three. By the Craig's list videographer. Shut up. Yeah, four by three is crazy. It is crazy. They didn't even know what a 1080 by 1920 was. I know. But he's like so boring, right?

He's also kind of just like looking around. It's, you know, it's not the chale that we've come to know and love who was locked in. I believe on the last classic, we did one of the, you know, the chale becomes chaste. Oh, yeah. That was when he beat Nate Marquart. Yeah. U.C. 109. I wonder if Chale has seen this in a while. I wonder what Chale would think about this version of Chale.

But that was the guy that we saw for many, many years. Yeah. It was really UFC 104 that changed it all. So that was a little over a year later, October of 2009. Amazing what personality does for fighters. Right? I mean, Colby went through that too. He was that guy.

And then all of a sudden, you know, he became a totally different fighter. A very memorable interview happened that day. There were a ton from that one media event. I remember also meeting Josh Barnett for the first time. And he said to me either on air or off air, like, hey man, I see what you're doing. You're doing great work. And I was very, very new. So that meant the world to me.

But I did happen to get some time with Andre Arlowski, the former UFC heavyweight champion who was fresh off his stint in the UFC. that was that was much publicized as well because he had one fight left on his contract UFC 82 against jake o'brien they put him on the prelims and this was in an era where the prelims were non-televised and everyone thought that they were burying him and so then he leaves because it was clear that he was going to leave and he signs with affliction and they were trying to set up the big andre alofsky against feodor alenko fight and that would end up being the headliner for Affliction 2, Day of Reckoning in January of 2009.

He fought on the co-main event against Ben Rothwell on this card. And so this was a big one because it was UFC versus IFL and all this stuff. And there was a bit of a history between him and Tim Sylvia. And there was a bit of a love triangle thing going on. Anyway, you may know where I'm going with all this. Here is that infamous interview with the one and only Andre the Pitbull Arlowski. Ariel Hawani for MMA rated.com being joined by Andre the Pitbull Arlovsky. Andre, Saturday night, you against Big Ben Rothwell.

How are you feeling just a couple of days out? I'm very excited, and I'm ready for the fight. How has life after the UFC been treating you so far? You know what I'm not even thinking about, because I was busy with my training, and I can tell you after July 19th. Do you feel different? I mean, you know, in the last year you fought against Jake O'Brien. They put you on the undercard.

Now you're being, you know, put here, one of the top dogs, one of the big draws on the, on the card. Do you feel loved more now? Be honest, it's not really matter for me. I'm on a paper view or not, but yeah, of course, I'm very excited and I fought for UFC almost eight years. It was a tough decision for me, but now I'm with affliction, I move on, and I'm cool. Big Ben Rothwell is a guy who, you know, blew through the heavyweight division in the IFL, now he's coming over and fighting a top 10, you know, fighters such as yourself. Do you think that maybe his record,

was a little padded there because of some of the competition he faced in the iFL we will have an answer on july 19s but i can tell you he's a tough guy he's strong his he's he's he's good striker and i trained for this fight really hard and uh we found out who's better in july 19s you talk about the training uh so i don't know if you guys can tell but he is very intimidating i'm very nervous because i'm building up to the question so i'm building up i'm building up i'm sort of softening him up building him up building building building but my heart is racing because i'm i'm about to ask him the question. And I'm very nervous. He's intimidating. His team is intimidating. They're all

watching me. I'm new. No one knows who the hell I am. It's building. Continue. You've enlisted the help of Freddie Roach, the world famous boxing trainer. I give you much props for that because I think it's a long time coming that an MMA fighter goes into the boxing world and gets some help with striking. How has it been working with Freddie thus far? It was, it was very excited. I spent three weeks in LA and He helps me a lot, but I'm still trained with my boxing coach in Chicago, Mike Garcia, and I have great team, great trainers. So I'm happy.

He'll be in your corner, right, on Saturday. He will. And we've heard some rumors that you're going to be going into the world of boxing, but then we heard that it's not for sure yet. September 13th. Are you, in fact, going to be trying your hand at the sport of boxing? You know, guys, first thing, first of all, I have to fight on July 19th, and we'll find out after.

But it's something you're thinking about. We'll see. Fuck a lot. Okay, I got to ask you this final question, though. because there was a lot of talk online, I'm sure you know about it, Tim Sylvia and your former ex-girlfriend. What was up with all that stuff? You know what? I'm not interested, and it's his business, and if he did something with him, I just want to ask him, hey, Tim House taste my p, p, p, okay?

All right. I'll talk about Tim Sylvia. It was a little soap opera, right? I don't care. All right. Well, strong words from And Jarolovsky. Clearly, your mind is focused on Saturday night. Absolutely.

Best of luck. my fight and then July 19th again, man, Russell. All right, so there you have it. We built up a lot of courage on that day to ask him that question. I asked him about, so I was so nervous that I actually screwed up the question. This has always bothered me. I said, I said, former ex-girlfriend, which makes no sense. It's either former girlfriend or ex-girlfriend, but I was nervous.

I'm not going to lie, I was nervous. and he ends up saying house tastes my PPP which then became PPP which some then tried to make it into beep beep but it wasn't I think he just meant PPP for some reason now I get this and I'm like holy crap this feels like a big deal I go back to the hotel same hotel as the fighter's hotel and I see him and his team and his manager at the time Leo not too happy with me me yelling at me screaming at me intimidating didn't feel great but it goes out and you know viral in 2008 is a little bit different than viral in 2025 viral in 2008 is uh you know you blow up on the sherdog forum you blow up on the u g and they were pissed they were pissed about it and and the woman in question was

pissed about it too. She sent me some really mean messages, like really mean. In any event, shortly thereafter, I see And Jarlovsky's selling merch that says, House Taste My Pee on it. Hats, Beanie's T-shirts. I'm like, what is this? You guys were mad and now you're selling merch? House Taste became a thing. Used it a million different times. I think I even used it as my username on one of the forums. house tastes. It was tremendous. And for the long time, I was so afraid to speak to Andre afterwards. We've since obviously cleared it up. He jokes about it. I remember him saying it in an like, it took me like five, six years to build up the courage to ask him about the incident.

And we were all good. And I actually think while watching that, he was kind of all good. I think it's his manager that blew up. What a time. How's taste? legendary stuff the four by three is wild what the hell how did we get here in any of the times man we don't have to relitigate

every dimension the four by three is wild I can't even tell you guys how nervous I was in that moment because the whole interview was just to build up to that question and you know what it worked

and I remember the forums I remember everything from that time about the house taste so but I had No, I had no, like, I had no backing. I had nothing. So I go back to the hotel and these guys are yelling at me and I'm like, oh, what the hell? What is this?

I don't know anything. What was your big fear that was going to happen when you asked? Oh, that he would, I just, it wasn't that I was afraid of what would happen. I was just afraid to ask it. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's personal. Yeah.

You know, like, it's, it's quite a, but it was, but just so you know, like, I didn't, I think people know by now, like, I don't make a habit. it, and I don't even know in 2025 if I would ask about something like that, but it got to be a really big story because they fought each other. Yes. And she was somewhat popular. She was a model or something like that. And, you know, it just, it was a big story. It was a big story. My question is, what was your percentage of the merch sales? Like, what was your cut for creating that moment? By the way, I don't even know if it's true. I don't even know if Sylvia was asked about it at some point afterwards. I don't even know if the story was true. Sylvia is still with her? No, no, no.

This was like a rumored thing. Can we still get merch? That's a good question. Let's see. Is it house taste? And then on the back it says PPP. House taste. Had you already posted it by the time they talked to you?

By then it became Peepee. It was not PPP by then. Like once the, once it started going around, it was... How's taste my Pee-P? Yeah. Nice. House Taste my Pee-B. The official writing of it was H-O-W-A-P-S,

taste my P.E. P.E. P.E. And it was, I mean, I'm looking here, March 1st, 2018, an MMA fighting article, 10 years later, Andre Arlowski reflects on how's taste phenomenon. It was a legit phenomenon. That is accurate. Oh, there's another one here. Andre Arlowski explains how's taste my peepee. I mean, all you got to do is... What's the heck? What, does this one require further, like, explanation. I feel like it's pretty straight forward. Yeah, it's pretty cut and dry. No, no. What a time. I was, I was terrified. But that was a fun day. I was at the affliction event because I couldn't get credentials to the UFC event for the first, like, year and a half of my time covering the sport. And so I went to the affliction one, and it was great

because you had all these guys there. And then you had guys like Chale who wasn't even fighting on the card. I forgot to mention that, by the way. Chale was just a guy. I think Chale was there if, oh, he was there for Matt Linnon. I didn't even explain that at the top. Why the hell was Chale at this press conference? He was there because he was cornering his good friend, Matt Lundlin, who fought on the card, and I believe fought Terry Martin, if my memory serves me correct. No, it was Fabio Nassiamento.

Terry Martin was up against Vitor Bell. By the way, it was a great card. Paul Buantel will be Gary Goodrich in the curtain jerker. Vitor Belfort beat Terry Martin in the second fight. Mike Pyle beat J.J. Ambrose. Antonio Hoseeriore. Nogera beat Edwin Deweez, Matt Linlin beat Fabio Nasimento, Babalu Soproo beat Mike Whitehead, Mark Harmonic beat Savant Young, Josh Barnett beat Pedro Hizzo, Andrea Olavsky beat Ben Rothwell and Fyodor

submitted Tim Sylvia in 36 seconds. And reportedly Tim Sylvia got like $800,000 for that fight. We have the shirt? Yeah! Look at that. Arlowski says, how's taste my PPP. Tremendous I need one of those Yeah we need to get one of those Vintage Put it on the shop All right

We move along And we'll stick with the Before They Were Stars theme This interview Is from August of 2009 And this was the same weekend Actually it was the same day If my

math is correct August 29 2009 was UFC 102. And this was right before I started to go to UFC events and UFC 102 was in Portland and we weren't traveling all the way to the West Coast. And so I was just covering those from home. 103 I didn't attend.

We'll get to that one in a moment. 104 in L.A. was one of the very first that I went on the West Coast as far as covering UFC events. And so this interview, which I posted on August 31st, was actually taped on August 29th. And I was invited on the day of UFC 102 because I remember thinking like, it's kind of weird that I'm here and not at the UFC event. Because at this point, I'm covering the sport for AOL fan house, for verses. I'm a year and a half into everything.

Anyway, at the U.S. Open, they had a sort of like, I don't know, a celebrity day. where they would invite celebrities and they invited some media and I was the video reporter for AOL Fan House and the only one who kind of did this sort of thing they had Ellie Seckback on the West Coast

but I was on the East Coast and so they said hey do you want to go out there and interview some people and there were some pretty interesting names namely Will Ferrell and Justin Bieber and so I was very excited about this

and I knew who Justin Bieber was he was a Canadian guy and he was a youngster who was making some waves, some headlines for his music, but also for a rumor out there that he was dating a young woman named Taylor Swift who happened to be at least like three, four years older than him. And so, of course, and now I know,

I realize it's a bit of a theme here, me asking about the dating life, I happen to see young Bieber there and asked him a few questions, asked him a few questions about his love of hockey, his career and also the rumors of him dating Taylor Swift. Now, I will tell you this is sort of a before they were stars interview, but it's also the one and only time that I've ever spoken to Justin Bieber.

I did meet his dad at a UFC event later down the road, but as far as one-on-one with the Bebes, this was it. But as you can see, he's changed a lot since then, as we all do when we go from youngster to teenager to actual grown man, But it's a fun look back at an interview with one of the all-time greats. Take a look. Ariel Halwani for Fanhouse.com at the U.S.T.A. Arthur Ash Kids Day, being joined by recording artist Justin Bieber.

What's going on, man? Doing great. I'm glad to be here. Yeah. Are you a big sports fan? Yeah, I love sports. What's your favorite sport? Favorite sport has to be hockey, and then basketball. Nice. You're Canadian, right? Yes, Canadian.

Asima, you're from Ontario, correct? Yes, near Toronto. So I sort of hate you because I'm from Montreal. You're from Toronto. We're supposed to have a rivalry. Yeah, I like the Maple Leafs, so it's going to be a problem. When's the last time they won the Stanley Cup? I think it was like 67.

Before both of us were born? Yes. I mean, it's sad, but I mean, I'm not going to join a bandwagon. That means I'm a true hockey fan. There's a lot of people that want to see another team come to Ontario, possibly in the Hamilton area. You know, they want to move the Phoenix Coyotes. Would you think that would be good, or would that take away some of the luster from the Maple Leafs? I mean, I don't know.

I don't know about that. I mean, Toronto is its own thing. I don't know. It would be cool to have another team in Ontario, so I don't know. Who do you think is going to do better this season? The Maple Leafs or the Canadians? I really think the Leaps might do better because they just got almost a brand new roster. They got a new goalie who's supposed to be really good and a new defense.

So they might just do good, but Montreal might. They've been making it to the playoffs, at least. Maybe the Maple Leafs can finish in fourth this year. Let's shoot for that. I'll shoot for that. Are you a Raptors or Blue Jays fan? No. Nothing?

No. Do you like basketball? Yeah, I love basketball. I like the calves. Speaking of bandwagon. I didn't join it because of him. Who? Because of Shaq?

Yeah. That's even ultra-banwagon, man. You're leading the way. I know, but, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I'm terrible. Do you think they can put it together and finally win this season? Yeah, but I don't know if Shaq's going to help him because Shaq is going to just clog the lane because James is just

just drives the lane and dunks. I don't know if Shaq's going to clog it. I don't know. I don't know what they're thinking, but Shaq, you're cool, but I think it's time. Are you calling out Shaq right now saying it's time for him to hang it up? I mean, not. Sounds like you are. Okay.

Well, I'm just not going to say it, but I think they catch the drift. You see his show Shaq Versus? He competes against other sports stars. Really? Have you seen it? No, not yet. It seems as though his interests lie elsewhere. I mean, if he's really that focused on playing,

what's he doing competing against beach volleyball players? I don't know. I don't know what he's thinking. Any other sports that you like? What other sports do I like? I like a lot of different sports. All-time favorite player? In any sport?

Any sport, the guy you look up to? Gretzky. Really? The great one. Great one. Do you think that's a bit of his, you know, his legacy has been tarnished because the coyotes have never done well under him? Yeah.

You agree with that? Yeah. Not really. I mean, I don't know. He's never really had a great roster to be able to produce. So I don't know. He's doing his thing. By the way, could we just pause right here?

What a blast from the past. Shack on the Cavs, Gretzky, coaching the coyotes. I mean, I forgot about all of this. Incredible. And what about that hair, too? Remember that era where the kids were having the hair over their ears and they'd have to, like, move their head like that to fix their hair?

What a time. Anyway, we continue. USDA Kids Day. Or Maurice Richard? I think Maurice Richard is great. Look at you, giving love to the Canadians. No, I think he's great, though. I'm not going to lie.

I think Bobby Orr was incredible as well. That's true. Great defense in for the Bruins. All right, I have to ask you this because I was doing a lot of research about you online. I heard a rumor that you're dating Taylor Swift. Is it true? No, it's not true.

Um, she is a little bit older than me. That's great, man. Everyone would love you if that was true. I know, but we're definitely friends. I just was with her actually two days ago. How'd that go? It was fun. Just hanging out as friends? Yeah, she was at her, she was at her, she was at a concert, so I just went over and hung out with her and stuff. She's 19, you're 14, right?

Yeah, 15. You're 15? Yeah, so, I mean, 16 is, I don't think it's illegal at 16, is it? So you just wait a year? I'm waiting. You tweeted her recently, and that created a lot of buzz? I guess, yeah. That's good.

keep doing what you're doing man thank you very much all right best of luck to you and nice to talk to you and go Canadians go Habs go Leaves What

what the hell was I doing What was First of all the allegations there 19 and 15 Brady this young man People still tweeting People still tweeting Yeah

2009 Lastly Kind of crazy How young he seems Compared to you Like in 2009 Yeah And Justin Bieber

The exact same age Holy smoke stuff that's you that's what it would have been 2009 that's what it would have been like did you have a hair like that I don't know you've seen my airline

well I mean back then I rocked a nice buzz my dad sent me a picture from my senior year homecoming I had a nice airline back then man I thought you're gonna say it's tough those were the days now it was actually great I had a nice straight across buzz

man lined up oh lined up like Rick Sirka 2013 lined up at the local sports club You were grilling Justin Bieber Like there was no... Was it too much? You were going hard on the young man. Who's your favorite NBA team?

The Cavs. He was speaking of fucking bandwagon. You were not giving that man any airspace. I was an intrepid reporter. Now, a few things about that. One, he handled it well. He did. And two, like, Justin Bieber knows ball.

The Cavas, the best team. That was crazy. That was crazy. Oh, he's smart. Wait, can we play just the first like four seconds again, real quick? Uh-oh. Like the very, very beginning? Just very beginning.

Here we go. What did I do? Ariel Halwani for fanhouse.com at the USDA. Oh, he's looking at me? We can cut it. Just the fact that it's Ariel Hawwani fanhouse.com at the Arthur Ash Kids Day interviewing Justin Bieber. Like, that is the most random sentence I've ever heard. It is some kind of.

of alternate universe. In the end, I actually did a quick, maybe someone back there knows the answer. Did they ever actually date? I don't think they did. I think the age difference probably precluded. He's been with, like, Selena Gomez. For sure, yeah.

Bieber and Swift have a complicated relationship, having been friends and collaborators in the past, but later becoming entangled in a public feud in 2019 over Swift's Masters and her dispute with Bieber's manager, Scooter Braun. I'm about to say Scooter's involved somehow. He married Haley pretty young, right? Yeah, but I was just trying to see if anything actually,

because this was a big deal. This was a big deal. Oh, wow. Justin Bieber Spark's outrage from Taylor Swift fans. Anyway, it doesn't look like they're in a good place now, but back then, back then, I remember going back to my apartment and telling my wife, like, wow, I can't believe I was booked it. Like, that was a big deal.

Bieber was a big deal. He was massive. He was bigger then than he is now. Yeah. he probably thought about dating her and then he was like oh that fucking guy just pressed me about it I'll never hear the end of it I'm not doing it all right that's us signing off

let's go haves he's like wait no go leaves as it fades to blast shut up kid you see at the end you're just shoving them into a locker I mean the hair is so like nuggieble if that's a word the quaff is awful I don't know what that air was all about

and bro all right you don't think it was awful we'll keep this clip for the next time Harmon-Serukian comes on. No, no, that was good. You're fucked. Justin Bieber. That was a fun one. That was a fun one.

All right. So that was the Arthur Ash, U.S.T.A. Kids Day, the same night as UFC 102 and Randy Couture beat Antonio Rodrigo Nogera. That one didn't quite go viral, but our next one definitely went viral. The next one happened at another iconic New York City. venue. It was the Yankee Stadium in September of 2009. So actually not that long after, like a little over a week later. I was on some kind of roll back then, and I was going all over the place. If there was a media day, I was there. And there was a media day on,

like I said, September 10th, 2009 at Yankee Stadium for the upcoming Mani Pacquiao versus Miguel Cotto fight. There it is. On November 4th, 14th in Las Vegas, but they used New York, Cotto, all that stuff. And so that was a very fun one. And I went there. Now, at the time, I was all in on MMA. And one of the big stories was the fact that UFC 103, which coincidentally was going to be headlined by Rich Franklin versus Vitor Belfort, who they got his contract from affliction after affliction went under in the summer of 2009. and they took some of the contracts that they wanted, including Vitor Bell for you.

So you see how it's all coming together here? UFC 103 was going to happen on the same night as Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Juan Manuel Marquez. Now, this was a big deal because they never went head to head. Boxing and MMA tried, especially when it came to pay-per-view events, tried to steer clear of each other, didn't want any type of issues or forcing the audience to pick and choose. And so it was a very big deal at the UFC and make.

where they're going hit to head. I watched both of them at the same time and want to see which one was doing better and who'd go on first and who'd go on last and all that stuff. So this is a big topic of conversation. And so there I am. I got to interview Mani Pacquiao that day. We actually played him a clip from that interview when we spoke to him a couple months ago when he's saying, when I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me. You know, he was big into the karaoke. We were sitting in the Yankees dugout, but no one really remembers that. They remember, though, my interview with Bob Aaron. Headman over at Top Rank obviously has a history with Floyd Mayweather and had a budding sort of rivalry with the UFC and Dana White. And so I wondered what he thought

of all this and also the rise of MMA. Needless to say, this was probably my first viral interview. This thing exploded. It was everywhere. I remember seeing it on Inside MMA and all these other pages and I was like, holy crap, this is nuts. Why did it explode? Why did it? It it go viral, you may know, you may not know. Take a look and see for yourself. Ariel Hawani for Fanhouse.com at Yankee Stadium for the Mani Pakel Miguel Cotto press conference and we're being joined by top ranks Bob Aram and Bob. This is a very exciting event for New Yorkers to have a press conference here in Yankee Stadium. Do you think we'll ever see the day that we'll see a big fight here? Yeah, I think that one of the reasons we had the

press conference here in Yankee Stadium is it's a precursor for a big, big event here at the stadium. Nothing would be better for boxing. It would be great to come back to Yankee Stadium and to do a big event. And I can't wait, and we're going to do it next year. Really? Is that the plan? That's the plan. Maybe the winner of the Mayweather-Marcus fight fighting the winner of this fight? I don't think so. But certainly a big fight is going to happen next year, and it will happen at Yankee Stadium. Do you think that those two winners will face off,

or is there too many hurdles involved? You know, I really can't tell. I mean, let's see who wins, and then we'll see. I mean, I, you know, Marquez is more predictable than Mayweather. So if Manny wins and Marquez wins, the drum beats or roll, for a Manny Marquez fight, which would be a real possibility. If Mayweather wins against either of these guys, he's just a problem and a headcase,

and it would be very, very difficult to put a match together. I'd like to get your take on something a good friend of yours, UFC President Dana White said recently. He said, you know, no one wants to see Mayweather fight Marquez. People want to see Pachial fight Mayweather. And as you know, boxing and UFC are going head-to-head next to. weekend, you know, U.S.C. 103 against the Mayweather fight. Do you think at some point boxing is going to have to make a fight like that? And because of the competition from

MMA and more specifically the UFC have to give the fans the fights involving these megastars? Well, Pachiao and Koto is the best fight that can be made from an action standpoint. Mayweather is a tremendous talent. real problem with Mayweather is, we used to call it years ago, a fighter who stinks his opponent out. He doesn't engage. He's a great defensive fighter. People don't want to spend money watching a defensive fighter. That's the problem. Now, it may very well be that a Pachau Mayweather fight can be built up and people can talk about it, but in my heart and heart I know it'll be like a hunter running around a ring looking for a deer.

And that's not boxing. I mean, Mayweather will not engage his opponent. And that makes a stinking fight. And if people are being asked to spend $50 to watch it on pay-per-view, I can see they would have a reluctance. Now, sure, he did big numbers when he fought Oscar, but it was Oscar and he conned the people. I'm going to go out, and I'm going to knock him out.

People know Mayweather now. They know the son of a gun doesn't fight. He's a fight scared. Now, that's okay. I don't want to demean it. If this was like a pitcher, you know, who had a great curveball and struck everybody out so there was no action, it would be great. But he's a boxer, and he has to entertain. And Mayweather does not entertain.

Outside the ring, yeah, he shoots up cars, he does other things like that, and he entertains. But in the ring, he's not an entertaining fighter. So do you think that fight will bomb on pay-per-view, the Mayn Weather fight? I have no idea how the fight is going to do on pay-per-view. I have no idea whether the UFC fight that Dane is putting on will hurt it. For me, I look at the UFC audience and the boxing audience as being two different audiences entirely. Our audience in boxing is ethnic, Hispanic, Filipino, Puerto Rican, Mexican, and the hardcore boxing fan who can't watch, like me, can't watch UFC. UFC are a bunch of skinhead white guys

watching people in the ring who also look like skinhead white guys I take offense to that just for someone who covers the sport I'm not a skinhead I'm actually a Jew I'm not a white guy so nothing like that in MMA and you don't have any tattoos no tattoos and a lot of people I know in MMA don't have tattoos 90% of the people in the audience wear tattoos

I don't care that's up to them but those aren't people that would have any interest at any time in boxing. They wouldn't. They wouldn't. The only guy they might want to see is Kelly Pavlik. I think that we would disagree on that. Let's quickly switch gears. By the way, I love this right here. I love this. Can we pause right there?

The fact that tattoos is like some sort of sticking point and the fact that he brings up Kelly Pavlik who had a ton of tattoos who was a white guy with a shaved head. Like imagine that being the argument in the year 2025 or 2026. Ah, the tattoos on those guys. Did you see the tattoos? Now, every fighter has tattoos. I mean, it's quite commonplace. But what I really love is him looking off to the side with the smile. He's like, yeah, I'm cooking right now.

You know, I'm cooking those frauds. Classic Bob Aram, we continue. Do you think, I mean, smiling, or I don't know if you're smiling at him, but it seems like a pretty brash thing to say about the sport. I mean, really, if they're two separate, why even take the shot? Because for me and people like me, it is not something that they ever care to see. They've watched it, it's horrible, guys rolling around like homosexuals on the ground. I mean, it is not a sport that shows great, great talent.

The guys who throw punches can't throw a punch to save their ass. When the punches land, the guys have no chins. These are not like boxes. They are not trained like boxes. Can you really say that about a sport that's generating 1.7 million pay-per-views for UFC 100 and getting over a million for UFC 101. I mean, clearly, unless everyone is mistaken and everyone thinks that this is a disgusting sport,

something's wrong with our society, right? Well, something's wrong with your math because there ain't no way that that's a pay-per-view generated anything like the numbers that you gave me and that they put out. I know what the numbers are. What did they do? The numbers were south of one million.

For 100? Yes. Really? Yes. So they're off by 700. or so thousand? Who's to check? They're not a public company.

Who's the check? All right. Let's quickly switch gears here for a thing because I think we'll disagree on this for a while. Are you concerned at all with the controversy around where Manny Pachia is going to train and some of the distractions? Is that something on your mind leading into this fight? No, absolutely not. Manny Packow decided he wanted to train back in Baguia.

Unfortunately, he can train most of the time in the U.S. because of tax reasons. And so Freddie and the camp are more. in the camp, or moving to Baggio after the tour, and he'll be back in the United States four weeks in front of the fight. Okay, and final question, just can't get over it. Have you ever been to an MMA fight before? Yeah, it's terrible. Terrible.

You'd never... These are all my friends. The Fratitas, you know, their father, the late father who died was a very close friend of mine. Dana White, I admire. These guys have done a marvelous job promoting UFC. They've done extremely well. All hats off to them.

But for me, it's junk. It's garbage. Any part of you a little bit upset because of how good they're doing is that's why you're taking the shot? No, I love the way they have shown us because of how well they've been doing in certain aspects to make us adapt. They do an unbelievable job on advertising on the internet. We're following that. They do an unbelievable job in the arena with music and so forth and steaming up to cross. We're trying to duplicate it. They are great promoters.

They are really sensational promoters, and they're really good guys. So I give them all the kudos and all the credit for what they've done. There's no knock on them. These are good class guys who've really built a terrific business. But for me, MMA is garbage and junk. That's how I feel, and I would think that the majority of people in my generation, and my generation would feel the same. And that's probably the problem, right?

Maybe. Your generation isn't buying the pay-per-views. Well, neither are the Mexicans and neither are the Filipinos and neither are the blacks. Well, that remains to be seen. Thanks for the time, Bob. Oh, my God. You know what's the best part about that? I'm pretty sure at least one of you back there has never seen that before.

Andy's never seen this before, right? Never seen it before. So I'm getting your, like, real-time commentary? Yeah, for sure. And you're like, what the hell is this man saying? I was not prepared. for any of that. So now you can understand why it exploded, right?

Yeah, for sure. That's crazy. This is me relatively young in the game. Legendary Bob Aram, who, if my math is correct, he's born in 1931. 31 plus 2000 would be 69 plus 9, but he hadn't had his birthday yet, so it would be plus 8, would be 77. He's 77 in that clip. He's 93 now, still at all the events doing his thing.

He's 77 in that clip and he's throwing his fastball like that. What's interesting is he says that he likes Dana White, that he likes the Fortitas, that he respects them. They're class guys. Obviously, things have changed a little bit between him and Dana White. But when he said all that, I was like, holy crap. And what was big for me was it went everywhere. And the MMA community felt like I was defending MMA in front of Big Bad Bob Aram.

They seem to have appreciated that. And I think that that sort of endeared me to a lot of people. And in the subsequent year, that's all everyone wanted to talk about. The Bob Aram interview, the Bob Aram interview. Everyone wants to talk about Bob Aram saying the thing about the tattoos and the homosexuals and the rolling around and all that stuff. It was crazy. It was nuts.

I remember running back, again, to my apartment in New York City on the Upper East Side thinking, like, what have I just stumbled into? And that was kind of a crazy day, getting to talk to Pacquiao, Cotto, and then that one. Had you ever seen that one, G.C., before. You've seen that one, right? I had seen it not seen it in its entirety. It's wild, right?

It's crazy. Rolling around like the homosexuals, I was dying there. It's amazing. It's amazing. And I'm like, do I keep going or do I switch? And then I'm like, well, I guess I got to go back. The blacks and the Mexicans are buying it. I mean, that was another banger at the end from him.

I'm like, God, dude. Yeah, your age ain't buying the pay-per-views. Neither are the Hispanics of the blacks. It's like, all right, Bob. chill out till this day till this day whatever like we talk about something my wife and I always say who's to check who's to check you know with the bear you know who's the check these numbers yeah yeah it's just like who's to check you bob yeah yeah also south of a million yeah where were there i've heard south of a million the crazy thing about that is bob seems

150 years old there and still like still kick him with no anyway you see him in the rings like in japan Crazy. He's flying over to Japan. He's traveling. Crazy. That is, that's an all-time. No one would fault him if he'd just be like, you know what, I'm good. I'm going to watch this one from home. I'll call in. The fact that he still goes to... But he's on such a legendary run, like the length of time in the game of boxing that this man has done. I can firmly stay. That will never be replicated. Truly insane to see, like, obviously I joined much later in the game than you guys.

It's insane to see, like, how much. vitriol there was for MMA from these boxing guys. Obviously the Lou DeBella Joe Rogan thing went mega viral and then seeing Bob Aram like this it's like real hatred toward it's like it's garbage I've been to it sucks I hate it. That's what it was

You couldn't be a fan of both you couldn't cover both you cannot cover both and so like now here we are living in a time where Dana is promoting back then it was Dana White versus boxing it was UFC versus boxing and so to see how it's all come together and to see the crossovers

and this guy wanting to fight that guy and all that. Yeah, man, it was very, you know, I always talk about how there's no tribalism in MMA as opposed to wrestling. That was the tribalism. It was like you're either team boxing or your team MMA. Now, of course, there were people like me who were a fan of both, but like publicly and even the players involved, you couldn't be, you couldn't be a supporter of both. No way.

All right, let's stick with the theme of first chats. So far, I'm pretty sure that was my first chat with our. for a chat with Chale for sure, definitely the first and only chat with Bieber and definitely the first and only chat with Bob Aram. This one comes later in, yes, January of 2010. So this is like four months later. And I was in the Florida area, to be exact, the sunrise Florida area. for Strike Force Miami, which didn't actually take place in Miami. It actually took place in Sunrise, Florida, home of the Florida Panthers. The main event that night was Nick Diaz versus Mary Soromskis.

This was January 30th, 2010, Chris Cyborg beat Marlos Coonan. The big draw on that card was Herschel Walker, I believe, former Georgia Bulldog, right? Absolute legend, like number one Georgia Bulldog ever. I have a signed helmet of his. My dad knows what Strike Force is because Herschel Walker brought him. I was just going to ask, did you know he fought? Oh, yeah, yeah, it was a pretty big deal in it in Atlanta, like the local newspaper and news were covering it. It was unbelievable, him crossing over and being successful.

Anyways, he fought Greg Nagy in his Strike Force debut, MMA debut as well. And, I mean, the rest of the card was not. One of my favorite knockouts of all time happened on that card. Robbie Loller, Melvin Manhuff. We talked to Robbie about that. Bobby Lashley against West Sims, J. Haran against Joe Riggs. On the EA's, listen to this, on the EA sports. MMA.com live stream.

That's where that fight aired. And then the rest was non-televised. Anyway, when I used to go to these events, I would try to get interviews with other fighters. I would go to gyms. I would go to, you know, media

things, and I would try to bank these interviews so that we could spread them out in the subsequent days and weeks. And so if I was in the South Florida region, I would go to ATT, the old ATT, not the brand spanking new one that we see now with the dorms and all this stuff. It was, it was pretty small. And so I went to ATT and I would just post up there and fighters would be there and you'd meet them for the

first time and they would appreciate that you were there on their turf to speak to them. It was great. You build a rapport. You get to know them. And so one of the fighters that I met that day was Jorge Madh Vidal, game bread himself. Now, Mazvedal was known as a bit of like like an underground legend. I mean, he had fought in promotions, but never, you know, in the UFC up until that point and and you know a fight here at strike force playboy mansion bow dog fights and goku but really got a lot of notoriety for better or worse because of his fight against toby amata beltor five may 1st 2009 he lost via inverted triangle choke one of the weirdest most memorable submissions of all time that's masvidal amada's legs are

wrapped around his head and his head is down there. It won the submission of the year, obviously. It was insane. And you thought at the time, there's no way Mazvedal can even come back from this. It was so bad. But he did come back from it. He ended up beating Eric Reynolds at Bellator 12, just a couple of months later. Actually, a little over a month later.

So he got right back to it at WANVie submission and then beat Saturo Kitaoka at Sengoku in November. Just a couple of months after that, as he was gearing up for, a potential return and a potential rematch against Toby Yamada, which never came. I was able to speak to him. I saw him at ATT. And so this is my very first interaction, my very first conversation with the soon-to-be way down the line, Cuban Jesus, the one-and-only game bred Jorge Masvedal. Ariel Halwani at the American Top Team Gym in Coconut Creek, Florida, being joined by George Masvedal,

who will be facing Toby Amada this coming March, a highly anticipated rematch. George, good to see you, and of course this is a big fight for you because, and I'm curious your take on it, Toby Amata got a lot of love for the way he finished you last year. What do you think about having to see yourself in that highlight over and over and over again? I mean, for me it sucks, you know, but he deserves all the loving credit he got because I was pulling a shit open on him, and he pulled it out of his butt, so I can't hate on it. I mean, it sucks that.

It's my face on the poster for submission of the year, but, you know, I just, I got to live with and just push through and keep training hard and repay the favor. I won't repay it with submission of the year, but I'll definitely be like breaking jaw the year or something like that, you know? I never heard that one, but that sounds like an exciting award.

It's a new topic I'm bringing to the MMA world. All right, well, what did you think when he was actually in the process of pulling it off? Have you ever been in that position before? I've been in that position 100 times, and that's where my problem was that I've always been there, but with wrestlers mainly they don't really go for chokes and more for a styling position.

So I just thought he'd get tired, you know, we get into a scramble and I ended, as I was picking him up, actually, I thought I was going to slam him. Then when he locked the legs, I'm like, all right, I wear him out, and then I go for a big slam. But once the choke started to apply, I was like, damn, what the fuck going on? You know what I'm saying? And I was going to jump back, but I was like, then I'm going to leave this hand and he

can keep him or I was like, let me just wear him out and shake him, you know? But Toby had other plans, you know, so. And credit to you, you didn't tap. Did it did it happen so quickly or were you just not going to? I thought, man, the whole time I was like, he's going to get tired, he's going to get tired, and then the choke got real tight. And I was like, well, he's going to get tired. Because I thought I was almost positive he would get tired before I would, you know.

But when I saw the video, I noticed the big mistake that I went is that I pushed this arm forward and I leaned into the choke. I should have, if anything, gone back with it, you know, instead of going into the choke because as soon as his cap muscle got right under my throat, that was it. You know, the choke got me, but I wasn't going to time no matter what, you know. How many times have you seen that video? I've seen enough time. Are you done with it now?

Are you still going to watch it now because the fight's coming up? I'll still see it, man, just for technique-wise. And let's say I don't feel like running or something one day because whatever. Whatever reasons, I just pop that bad boy in and, you know what I'm saying? I get motivation to go do something, you know? Now, I think it's a good move by Bellator to make this rematch. There's a lot of interest in this fight. Did you ask for this rematch or did they come to you and present it to you?

I mean, as soon as the fight was over, I was asking for the rematch. You know, I'm a sore loser. I was like, man, I want a rematch, I want a rematch, you know? Of course, Toby had to do his business, either beat Eddie or lose the Eddie, you know? But I just wanted the rematch, you know, it hurt me in a lot of ways. Lost a lot of money and just losing a fight sucks, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, especially if you're winning it, the whole three rounds, and then boom, you get clots. Like, damn, all that work for nothing, you know?

Yeah, yeah. So what do you think about being a part of the Bellator promotion? Because it seems as though that, you know, the first season, very solid. Now they've got a new TV deal. They're signing a lot of young, great fighters. They're doing the tournament again. Are you happy with them? Yeah, I'm happy with them.

I just want to stay more active, you know what I'm saying? Luckily, though, they do give me the option to be able to go to Japan and fight other places, which I like a lot, you know what I'm saying? But as long as I stay busy with any promotion. I'm happy, you know. That's my number one concern. I want to start getting five to six fights a year. So what I've been trying to do, but usually I end up getting like four to three fights a year,

you know, so I want to be able to get five, six fights this year. That's my main concern. Do you like the tournament format? Yeah, I loved it, man. That allows me to get a lot of fights. You know, the only thing that sucks with me is I cut a lot of weight, so I've got to be giving my weight down, I can't be eating, can't be doing any of that shit, you know,

but whatever, you know? And they're signing some really great young fighters, some fighters that people might not know about, but anyone in particular that they've signed that you're excited to potentially face? Uh, excited, no. I mean, I'd only be excited to sign like bums that way to get to the money easy, you know, to sign some, some bums off the street. But actually, I saw a couple good guys. I saw that they signed the Judo-Olympic guy and then another All-American wrestler. So I'm looking forward to, you know, a lot of good grapplers in there, you know, and I just got to beat them in my strength, you know, make sure I keep the game standing and hurt them, you know?

So now that the tournament is starting in April, do you expect to be fighting for them for the rest of the year, or do you think you'll maybe go to Japan or fight for another promotion? No, actually, I think my work is cut out for me for Bellator. I'll be fighting the tournament in April, May, June, then the winner will take a break, and then fight Eddie for the title in September. So I think that would be more or less how my year would go. And then after the fight with Eddie, I'd have to see how my body's took into it. I'm going to fight this February just to make sure I stay in shape, and then I'm going to do those four fights.

So I just got to, if I have no injuries, I would love to go. If Bellator lets me, I'll go to Japan or if not do another fight with Eddie or whoever they put in front of me, you know? Where are you fighting in February? Here in Miami, local show. Against two? A dead man. That's it.

That's it. A dead man. From parts unknown. I don't know. I don't go. It's funny that you say, or interesting, that you say that after you fight Eddie, you're going to see how you feel. So I'm guessing you're pretty confident heading into this tournament again, right?

I'm super confident, man. I'm going to kick Toby's butt. I'm going to kick all the other guys that I don't know the names, and I'm going to kick Eddie's butt, you know. And then after that, I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm a big party, that's for sure. You know, I'm going to have a lot of money in my hand. It's just going to be a big party, you know?

Yeah, that's the great thing about Beltaur. You win that tournament. You get paid pretty well. Actually, no. Really? They dropped, man. They did me wrong. They dropped the purse?

They dropped the purse. Instead of 175, it's 100 grand. So it's like, you know what I'm saying? I'm kind of like, you know, it takes $75,000 a word, but I'll do, man. I'll budget myself in certain things. And then the fight with Eddie, it'll be for more money, you know what I'm saying? So it'll be good for me, you know? Okay.

And then for your career in general, is the ultimate goal for you to eventually finding the UFC, maybe strike force now, or are you happy with Beltor? And if Belator continues to do well, would you be happy finishing your career with them? My ultimate goal is no dis to any organization or promotion is just to fight the best. I mean, I would love to say I'm in the UFC or in Strike Force or in Dreams or in St. Google, but if the best ain't there, I mean, you know, unless I'm getting paid a ton of money, you know what I'm saying? I just want to fight the best, man, basically. You know, if there's eight guys, not that it is right now, but if this This would be my dream scenario.

If there was the top 10 guys in the world were ranked and they were under one roof, that's where I would try to be at, you know what I'm saying? So I can continuously just fight the best. And that's really ultimately my goal, you know. And I think Belator could do that, you know, and if not, at least they allow me, though, to go to other places and fight whoever there's the best. They got a couple good lightways in Belator and I, like Eddie and Toby and a couple other guys that they signed. But after them done with those guys, they'll allow me to go to Japan and fight maybe Ioki

or maybe a rematch with Gita Oka or any of those guys again, you know? Who's number one on your list? number one i had to say pen man it has to be pen man you know he has a lot of solid wins over his years man pen what do you think of a yoki's recent you know his his gestures after his recent win when he was flipping off the crowd and all that i thought well i you know a lot of people say it was uncomfortable i just

i don't know man maybe quita oka you know slapped his mom or something i don't know i don't know so i don't really want to judge and i just think it sucks with kitaoka i mean not quita oka what's his name uh hirota der his arm broke you know that sucks man i feel for him you know he can't fight can't support his family, you know, sucks with him, you know. All right, and for the people out there that, you know, are big fans of M.MA, maybe new fans talking about Kimbo Slices. This was the first street fighter, right?

You were the first guy to sort of come into MMA and, you know, from the streets to the sport. Do you sort of laugh sometimes that people don't even know that? I don't really care. Yeah, I guess I kind of laugh, you know, I just, I don't know, I don't know, I just since I had some... Are you happy to shed that label? What do you mean, like...

You know, that people actually know, you know, Because Kimbo still has the street fighter label on him. There are people who don't even know that you were ever doing that kind of stuff. Are you happy that people don't associate you with that sort of genre of sport? Yeah, in a way, yeah, because if you're like a professional fighter is different than if you're a street fighter. If you're a street fighter, almost all those dudes, they're drinking, they smoking weed, they, you know, they ain't doing shit. And then when they get beat up, they're saying, well, I f*** smoke weed, I drink. That's why I get my butt beat.

If not, I'll be kicking everybody's ass, they don't train you right, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah, I kind of, I don't want to be said, I'm a street fighter, but, you know, at the end of the day, that's what I started doing. So I don't really care what people say, man. Bottom line, when you're labeling me, just put fighter, man, you know, that's it. That's how you got to put. I'm a fight. I'm going to fight you in the street. If I can't get a fight, let's say, after I beat Eddie and all these people, I can't get a fight with Penn because Dana White and letting them doing it.

I'll catch Penn in the streets and beat his ass, though. You know what I'm saying? One thing or another, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah, man, you can label me whatever you want, man. Anytime, anywhere, George Mazvedal. basically yeah but i like to have a training camp too as well i just don't want to be like getting that from the strip club or something somebody sucker punches me either you know yeah of course all right well uh best of luck against toby and best of luck throughout the tournament we're looking

forward to it best of luck to toby because i'm gonna kill him uh that fight never happened neither did the eddie alvarez fight by the way uh so a lot change amada only fought a couple more years he retired in 2013 and we know what happened to Jorge masvedal who at the time everyone was calling george and they still sort of call him at a t t george You see ATT is a very small gym. Everything's very compact. But he's still the same guy. He's still the same guy.

Like some guys, you listen, the chel you listen to from back then, completely different guy or a completely different tone, completely different delivery. Masvedal, to me, sounds very much like he does now and still has the same sort of, how you say, machismo, machismo about him. So, yeah, a lot changed. But those interviews were fun because that's how I got to meet a lot of. of these guys for the first time and develop a relationship. And Mazvedal has mentioned that

interview a lot. Oh, you spoke to me back when no one was talking to me and all that stuff. And I would literally just stay there for five, six hours and talk to anyone who I recognize who had a fight come up, even if they didn't have a fight coming out. What's going on your career? Just to get the content, just to get more interviews up on the website. And that was a fun one. All right. Well, we'll end on March the 27th, 2010. UFC 111. This show took place. at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. The headliner that night, George St. Pierre versus Dan Hardy.

St. Pierre, of course, successfully defending his title, Shane Carwin defeating Frank Meir to win the interim heavyweight title and thus punching his ticket to a big showdown against Brock Lesner at UFC 116. Kurt Pellegrino beat Fabricio Camois via Rear Naked Choke. He was on a roll back then. John Fitch beat Ben Saunders. And Jim Miller, the Pride of New Jersey, beat Mark Bochek, the Canadian in the first fight of the pay-per-view card.

Other fights on this card, a young man named Matthew Riddle beat Greg Soto. Actually, lost via DQ. No, Matthew Riddle beat Greg Soto via DQ, excuse me, illegal upkick in the third round. Jared Heyman beat Rodney Wallace via decision. Hussimar Paul Harris beat Thomas Der Waughal on the... final non-televised prelim, and there were two fights that happened on the Spike TV prelim card. One, Hikardo Ameda, defeating Matt Brown via second round submission, and then the main event was a catchweight fight between Nathan Diaz and Rory Markham. It was a catchweight fight because Nate

missed weight. He ended up weighing it at 177 pounds, and this was, you know, this was prime Nate Diaz. This was 2010. You know what? Actually, almost not fair. And did I say Nate Miss Wade? I meant to say Mark and Miss Wade. I don't want that smoke. I screwed up. Mark and Miss Wade. Nate fought at 170 and I think a lot of people

shortly thereafter realized that he was better off at 155. I think it was the Rory McDonald fight at UFC 129 where people felt yeah, these guys at 170 are getting to be too big. But at this point, he was still comfortable at He was still kind of growing into his body. I mean, 2010, how old was Nate? Nate was, well, he's born in 1985, 15, 10.

He was just 25 years young. So he was still kind of growing into his body and still figuring everything out. He was coming off a loss to Gray Maynard just a couple months prior in January of 2010 in Fairfax, Virginia. He was sort of a 500 fighter at that point, win one here, lose one there. he was very much Nick Diaz's younger brother. I mentioned just a couple months prior, Nick Diaz is headlining the Strike Force event in Miami, defending his Strike Force

Walter White title against Mary Soromskis. So he was still very much Nick's younger brother. And he was doing his thing. He was coming off the Ultimate Fighter. And, you know, a fun fighter, a fighter who delivered, but again, wants some, loss some.

Anyway, on this night, he beats Markham and he does so, you know, rather convincingly, he wins via TKO in the first. round and this was a time where Casey and I, my videographer, you know, we were allowed, we would sit in the media room and we would say, hey, we'd love to talk to Nate. Believe it or not, they wouldn't come, like the prelim fighters, they would fight and that was it. There was no, you know how now they all just sit there on the dais and they answer questions? That didn't happen. And it would only be like the main card fighters who they would all show up at the very end for a press conference

with Dana White. The prelim guys, unless something crazy happened, they would fight and leave. And so I was the only one there with a camera. Sometimes there'd be someone else. But I wanted to talk to everyone. So I would say, hey, can we talk to Nate? And we would get escorted to the back. And we would talk to them either in the locker room or in the hallway. It was amazing. It was the best. We got so many great interviews as a result of that. And this is one of them. And so you'll see in this interview here, there's a really fun interaction that you'll see in a moment. But it's just classic Nate Diaz and those backstage interviews that were so much fun to do way back in the day. So let's go back to March 2010, an interview, not my first, but one of the early ones with

the great Nathan Diaz. Ariel Halwani post-fight at UFC 111 with Nate Diaz, who looked great tonight in defeating Rory Markham. First off, Nate, congratulations on the win. Would you happy with your performance? Yeah, I guess it was good because I got in and out. Got in and out. How was your first time at 170?

How did you feel? Sorry, can we pause for a second? do you notice Nick let's just go back further Nick completely sizing me up rewind the tape rewind the tape if you can Nick completely sizing me up

like look at the look on Nick Nick's face Nick look at the right here right here oh Nick's like I don't want you to do this interview right now and I don't like this guy that you're talking to look at that face Nick not happy he loves me now I think

anyway we continue got in and out how was your first time at 170. How did you feel? I had a lot of energy. Um, just building up to the way in was, coming up to the way and wasn't as miserable as usual. That's pretty much, pretty much it. There were a lot of questions about why he came in so overweight. Did you get an official reason? No, he came in more than overweight than it said to. I think he was like 10 or 12 pounds over because we heard his manager was calling and stuff, saying he was heavier than whatever the hell

They said he was in a, I don't know. I wish he would have made the weight, but it was like, whatever, though, you know. I think it was a little unprofessional, that he came in that much over? Whatever, you know, you know, you got to make weight, you know. I'm not going to dog the guy out, whatever. Sometimes making weight sucks, and you just want to say, I'm not even going to do it. But you got to do it. You got to make the weight.

That's what you agreed to. Otherwise, go up. But, you know, right on, I don't care. It wasn't good for me. and I'm sure he'll make the weight next time. Did you consider not taking the fight because it was such a huge discrepancy in weight? No, no. I figured that. I figure he would either have to...

I don't like that guy. That was Kurt Pellegrino. Why don't you like him? You have some history, right? Yeah, he's... I don't like guys who clown around. He used to be on Hendo Gracie's team, too, and he jumped ship, so... He's a traitor.

nothing huge but you know well now you are swimming with the 170 pound sharks so he's at 155 um i'm guessing you're going to stick around on 170 now this is not just testing the water i'm going back really yeah i'm going to 55 why i'll go i don't you know i'll fight i don't care i'll fight both i don't got to why do you got to be in one so you think your next one will actually be at 155 probably probably probably 70 i don't know we'll talk about my team my coach and what they want to, you know, my manager, my manager is my coach, so he's a shot caller if he tells me whatever to do, you know, he's got my back, so I got his, he's going to let me know what I got to do. A lot of people thought you deserved to win the fight against Graham Maynard

in January. Did you feel as though you had something to prove tonight and finish the fight decisively to show that, you know what, you are a top contender and you did deserve to win that fight? No, yeah, I did win that fight. Only people who thought I lost that fight were the judges, but who's that? Who were the judges? You know what I'm saying? Like, I thought I did. I didn't get one person saying that he did. And I didn't feel like if I, if I lost the fight, you know, how did he win the fight? That's more of the question. Maybe I didn't do enough, but he didn't do shit. So, all right, so. A lot of guys are you can't, I can't complain. What can I say? You're going to get, You're going to get the f*** up to win in this game.

You've got to win if you're going to win, I guess. All right, I think someone's trying to get the cord under us there. They will step back. Yeah, how much? They really want it. All right, so you're saying, $1.55's next. Anyone in particular that you would like to fight? No, not at the moment.

I don't care. Whatever, like I said, whatever my manager and these guys here to say, I don't care. Shout out Nate. In fact, he fought three more times at $170, and everything ended with the the fight against Roy McDonald. I do wonder his next fight at 170 was, yes, the Connor McGregor fight. How about that?

After the Rory won, of course. But that was a big win for him, especially when you consider the fact that Rory missed weight, Rory Markham, missed weight by seven pounds. He claimed more at the time. Oftentimes, we saw this quite recently

with Kelvin Gassum, the guy who misses weight by that much, ends up winning the fight. But not on this night with Nate Diaz, the interaction with Kurt Pellegrino there, who he beat, A few fights prior was just amazing. Just him, you know, stopping and saying he doesn't like him

and saying some things about him, we had to bleep it out. I didn't bleep it out now. We used to bleep out every single swear word back in the day. When I say we, it was Casey that did it. That was an AOL fan house rule. That's fucking bullshit. You can imagine how tough that was and how the times they have changed, how the times they have changed.

And so we're all a little bit older, a little bit grayer, a little bit fatter. That's what happens. Right, Frankie? It's tough. I noticed in the sort of look-back non-show installments, you don't really like to try. Oh, I tried to talk earlier. You just ignored me. What?

Did you enjoy this? Oh, I thought it was great. Which was your favorite one? Bob Aaron. Yeah. Which I wanted to ask you real quick. So when he brought up the skin, I was like, you were so quick to be like, I take offense to that.

I'm a fan like had he said anything like that in the past that you knew of or this is the first time nothing like so I mean kudos to you of 16 years ago for jumping right on that but that was pretty it seemed too good you know what I mean so you thought it was like no no no like too good like you definitely knew how to handle with someone starts saying stupid so also he's Jewish too he's talking about this stuff I'm like come on man what are you talking about but that that really was the sentiment at least from the old guard from the 77 year olds that really was the sentiment. I mean, I remember the whole like, it's human cockfighting and all that. I was living in Arizona at the time with John McCain, right? So it wasn't too surprised from that,

but it just seemed like you jumped on it real quick. So that's cool. I appreciate that. That's probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me. Yeah. This guy's a D1 glazer. Yeah. There it. There it is. Thanks, boss. Appreciate that. All right, hope you enjoyed this third installment of our classic interview look back series. We do these periodically and we'll continue to do them if you continue to like them and i think you do like them and i like you know i like teaching the youngsters like frank about some of our our work you know it it didn't all just start with you coming into our lives back in 2021 frank okay like we had a whole other career prior to that allegedly yeah there's actual visual evidence some of them have

actually disappeared because it was a period where we were uploading things on bright cove and other weird that was the question I had oh um after Andre's team talked to you that's what you said his name there Andre it's very sort of did you post the video before after talking to them hmm that's a good question yeah I asked earlier yeah yeah okay sorry sorry I missed that one um I do believe that it was before I posted because I would legit we take for granted how quickly we could get things up now like I would legit have to wait six, seven, eight, maybe even sometimes the next day to get these up because number one, I was working with guys that I found on Craigslist. Some of them didn't know what

the hell they were doing. I remember one event in particular, I think it was in Stockton where the cameraman was awful and everything, all the formatting was off. Like when we'd upload the videos, they'd come in like super skinny, weird. So that would take a while. Plus getting me the videos with the crappy hotel, you know, internet, the Ethernet. was not very good so you know a lot's changed a lot's changed we're in a much better was there any part of you was like maybe i shouldn't post this no not enough journalism baby journalism thanks for watching everyone we'll do this again soon good night