The Ariel Helwani Show - Ariel Helwani Reacts to Classic Interviews, Vol 4: Jon Jones, Rampage Jackson, Dana White, Nick Diaz

Episode Date: February 25, 2026

Ariel Helwani reacts to his own classic interviews, providing additional insights and behind-the-scenes stories for each. This volume includes early conversations with some of MMA's most notable names, including Nick Diaz (08:26), 'Rampage' Jackson (19:56), Gina Carano (32:52), Pat Barry (47:40), Dana White (56:35), and Jon Jones (1:05:49).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the air... Welcome to the fourth installment of our classic interview lookback series. This is something that we started doing when we came over and started on Crown, and I've enjoyed it very much because there's a lot of new fans out there that perhaps are unfamiliar with some of our very early stuff. I like looking at the early stuff, like the real early stuff. It's been a lot of fun. We've done it three times before.

Do check those out when you have some time, but this is going to be a fun one. This I think might be my favorite one so far because there's a great theme attached to it. I talked about the early days. Well, that's the theme. The theme is really the embryonic stages of my career. And we're going to focus on 2009 in particular because this was one of the most important years of my professional career. And I'll explain why. So I started this whole thing.

I graduated in 2004. You know the story. I went to Syracuse, had a radio show there, all that stuff. I graduate from Syracuse in May of 2004, and then I go down this path of TV production, behind the scenes work, that sort of thing. I get to Spike TV in September of 2007. I last a week there.

I don't like it. I start my website, jerrypark.com. I've told the story a million times before. I give myself six months to get notice. Last few days of my self-imposed deadline, I get this job. MMA rated. It's going great. I start April 1st. I get a call in November of 2008. So I went from April 1st to November of 2008. I'm in San Jose for a Strike Force event. I get, I don't even get a call. I get a, like an MSN chat. It might have been G chat by then. I think it was G chat. Yeah.

Saying, hey, it's Thursday. Friday's your last day. The site was sold. The whole site, the parent company was sold. And they're shutting down the MMA side. I'm like, what? We were on fire. What the hell is going on? So then I'm out of a job. And then I decide to go back into production. I work on the UFC primetime event. It was a series for BJ Penn versus GSP UFC 94.

They hired the producer of 247, which was the great HBO series. HBO boxing followed Delaware Mayweather, Mayweather, Manhattan. That's when it really became a thing after those two. Jason Hare, who produced the Last Dance, directed it as well. They hire him. UFC hires him. I know him because I worked at HBO. And now I'm working in production, but I don't really want to work in production.

I'm not happy long hours in an edit room. I'm logging BJ Penn training footage. And let me tell you, there wasn't much training to be had. It was all like light jogging. It wasn't great. It was great to be doing MMA stuff, but it wasn't great. Finally, in March of 2009, so I've been out in. November, December, January, February.

I roll through those months like this, but let me tell you, not great times. Newly married, living in a tiny apartment. I'm like, am I ever going to get back in? Am I ever going to get this train rolling again? I was on a bit of a heater there with M-A-rated. Finally, in March of 2009, I get an email from someone who works at versus.com,

versus was a TV network, which was first the OLN network, Outdoor Life Network. Then it was Versus, then it was NBCSN. And Versus was the home of WEC. And then towards the end of their deal, they aired a few UFC events, most notably Dominic Cruz versus Demetrius Johnson,

Brandon Vera versus John Jones, John Jones versus Vladimir Matt Ushanko, Chris Lytle versus Dan Hardy. I think in total it was like six or so. They say, oh, you want to write for the website? Absolutely. Didn't negotiate, got nothing for it. Actually, the name of my column was the MMA beat precursor to the actual show.

That was March and it was good, but it wasn't a great deal. And then in April of 2009, I get a call from AOL. AOL fan house was a respected sports site. They were growing their MMA coverage. Brian Tucker was the editor. They had Michael David Smith there. Mike Chiapeta ends up joining the old school fans will know these names. And I say, all right, this is it.

I remember getting that one. I got $1,000 a month. I was getting peanuts for the versus stuff. I mean, I was making nothing. And I remember thinking, this is my shot. This is it. Reputable sports website, support, got the versus thing as well. This is my chance.

And so I felt like the back end of 2009, I had to go full throttle. It was a very, very important time. I remember getting the call in April of 2009 to do fan house, and we hadn't quite like figured it out, but I was so revved and ready to go. I was so excited. I was so pumped and amped to get back out there, to get back to the events,

because I was going to a bunch of events that I knew someone who was working with someone over at Echo, Echo Unlimited, the clothing brand, and I asked them if they could sponsor a trip that I wanted to take to San Jose in early April of 2009 to cover the Nick Diaz. versus Frank Shamrock fight. And I was going to do it for my own YouTube channel.

The YouTube channel that you're watching right now that had maybe, I don't know, 5,000 subscribers, something like that. Nothing on there. But I just wanted to be out at the events. And this was a really important event because Elitexie went under in October of 2008. Lead XC was dead.

And Scott Coker and Strike Force decided, all right, there's all these great fighters attached to EliteXC, attached to Showtime, we can get the Showtime deal, we could slide into that slot, get those fighters, we have our fighters, and we can make a serious run of being a number two promotion in the United States. And this was their first event. I'll never forget the kickoff press conference. Their first main event was Frank Shamrock, Bay Area legend, face of Strikeforce in many respects, going up against Nick Diaz, coming over from Elite XC. And it was like, it was like the old school

meets the new school. The face-off was a legendary face-off. The photo is unbelievable. Frank walking up to Nick to shake his hand, wearing the jacket, the sport coat, Nick wearing the hoodie, and he flips him off. I mean, what's better than that? Take me back to those days. Those were amazing days. HP Pavilion, Jimmy Lennon in the back. There's the poster. Josh Thompson versus Scott Smith on the bill. Saturday, April 11th. Frank Shamrock versus Nick Dia. I mean, what's better than that? Some of these other names, Nick Diaz versus Frank Shamrock, Gilbert Melendez versus Haudrigo Dam, Scott Smith versus Benjee Radick. That's right, Josh Thompson got injured.

Chris Cyborg at 151 pounds against Hitomi Okano, Brett Rogers against Ron Humphreys. By the way, main card, TKO, TKO, KO, KO, KO, KO, KO, TKO. That was the strike force event. Car crashes. Luke Rockhold on the prelims. Untelevised Any other James Terry on the preempts as well

Anyway, I went out there Under the Jerry Park Umbrella You'll see the logo Sponsored by Echo My one and only trip doing this I think I walked away from that trip With like 35 interviews

I interviewed everyone Under the Sun But the Crem de la Crem Was my post-fight interview with Nick Diaz One of my very first chats If not maybe my first chat To be honest

And I remember asking him a question Off the bat I asked him, man, did you expect the fight to be that easy? And I remember him looking at me and saying, who said it was easy? Easier said than done. I remember thinking myself, oh, you idiot, why did you say it? Why did you word it that way? One of the several times where I had an internal discussion with myself saying, like,

maybe you should have worded it a little bit better when asking Nick that question. In any event, here it is. You can live it or relive it for the maybe first time or 10th time. I don't know. It's a gem. It's a gem from a bygone era. The Jerry Park Days, the Echo Days, April 2009, HP Pavilion. Nick Diaz defeats Frank Shamrock in the second round via TKO. It was never really close. It was very one-sided. It was the new age beating the old age. And here is my post-fight chat with the one and only Nick Diaz. Ariel Halwani for jerrypark.com being joined by the victorious Nick Diaz and Nick first off congratulations on a very impressive victory were you expecting the fight to go that easily for you tonight? Who said it was easy you know that took a lot of well easier said than done but it took a lot

of training you know a lot of sparring goes down you know I like a fact to think about gives me you know a lot of confidence to know that I put in a lot of round You know, I spard, you know, a lot of important people since I started boxing, you know, I started out this pro boxer, Kristen Cruz, started sparring him. And, you know, you know, Caesar put me in there, sparring, you know, these guys that were fighting for money, pro and boxing, you know, they were knocking people out and stuff. And then, you know, one after another, this R.J. Carson guy. All these, I could name names forever, all these different pro boxers that are sparring.

But I just know, I just know the other MMA fighter. aren't on in there putting in at work and I know when they start they're going to be really discouraged and that discourages them so they don't you know that's why they're in and then they're out and I like oh yeah I did that one time but I'm I'm in there every day and then I got to go and I train my jih Tzu with the ghee and no gear put the gie on I take the damn gie off you know I train with my brother you know take a ass open I don't come in feeling good so I got to feel good we know how disappointing the KJ Noon's loss was to you do you feel as though you finally put that past you and have now kind of reestablish yourself in MMA?

I didn't feel like that was a loss, you know? That's the doctor's fault. You know what I mean? They never would have stopped that fight in Vegas, so whatever, you know what I mean? And that guy is trying to turn a box or whatever he can, and he's not doing a good job. I fight the guy in a pro boxing match. Of course, I don't think the payment of money versus these MMA fights that they're paying right now a little more money, I think, for me to be fighting. So I don't think that's going to happen. So I'm going to have to say farewell to that, I suppose. And But whatever, you know, no hard feelings. I don't feel like you want, I never did.

People try to talk like, oh, you know, I did this. And then I'm like, what the fuck do you know? You're a fighter? You know? So a lot of people that like to talk, I don't hit hard or something, you know. I think that's ridiculous, too. I think a lot of people don't want to get hit by me, so they don't get hit. And then, you know, when you see good punches land, you know, it doesn't look like you're hitting hard.

You know what I mean? Look at it. You know, just watch a boxing fight. A lot of punches are throwing and landed. You're going to say they don't hit hard. It's just ridiculous. You know, you only throw a punch once in a while. And when it lands, they say, oh, that was a hard punch because there's only damn

to punch it through, you know, so. But, you know, this fight, though, you know, I feel like, you know, I could have finished the fight on the ground with the submission, but sometimes it's a little bit easier, you know, just to throw punches. And it's more of a sure thing if you do the damage in the rounds, you know, you don't get that submission. gets up at least you put in that damage for the next round so sometimes it's a little smarter way to go but my coach fought him before cze gracie fought him before and uh you know if i had gotten to the ground which

could happen very easily um you know frank never would have won that fight you know the guy would ended up with this fight so i'm very grateful for my coach and who have i know it was kind of effortless uh the build-up to this fight you did a great job hyping it and it was all kind of highlighted by the interview in the l-a times this week is there anything that you regret saying or doing leading up to this fight? No, you know, I just got to, I'm just trying to do what I got to do, you know. I don't put too much thought into it, you know. I just put more into my training and then, you know, most people are doing a lot of

interviews and build up and stuff. And also that's how I know that's how I know that I wouldn't have time to do that. There's, you know, too much stress involved in trying to make it to your next chance. You got to make sleep. You got to make training three times a day. you can't be missing one or two days. I'm going to have that up on you, and you can't do that.

Every day is going to count. So I put a lot of hard work in. People don't understand that. All right. Well, it's a big night for Nick Diaz. A very impressive performance against Frank Shamrock tonight. Great stuff, and congratulations on the victory. I just opened a school in Lodi on 2.30 School Street,

right on the corner of Lodai Avenue and School Street, across from Lyons restaurant. So if you want to come and train in Jiu-Jitsu with me, I'm going to see his greatest of Jiu-Jitsu. and I think some martial arts training there. Thanks, Nick. Thank you. The freaking man, Nick Diaz.

I think I asked three questions in that interview, and it wasn't our longest chat, but it was always great talking to him, and you see at the very beginning there. Did you guys see that when I said, were you expecting it to be that easy? And he's like, who said it was easy? And then I said, off camera.

Yeah, what did you say? I didn't quite hear it. I said, I thought it was easy. And he's like, oh, easier said than done. Who the hell am I? The freaking balls on this. kid. Why am I saying that to Nick Diaz? Gosh. I was too caught up with the Echo Unlimited logo at the bottom.

Hell yeah. What was that? Jerry Park with like grass ward art? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's good ship. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shout to Echo Unlimited. It's very of its time, that whole look. The whole thing, the whole thing. Back in the day, by the way, back of the day, I would have to go to the local, you know, area and go on Craigslist and just find a person and just pray to God. This is pre-Casey, pray to God that they knew how to shoot in. So sometimes the dimensions were off. And I thought I was cooking with the Jerry Park. And for a second, I thought, you know what, maybe I'll go back to Jerry Park because I left Jerry Park. Obviously, do the M.A rated thing. And I was like, okay, maybe I'll just go back to it and be the Jerry Park guy and build this up. And perhaps that was uncrowned before uncrown.

In fact, I'll tell you for a minute there, it came down to either uncrowned or Jerry Park. We were going to call uncrown Jerry Park, sort of like in a Grantlandy type of way. I remember those conversations. Yeah, I think uncrown. I think we did. I think we did right. Yeah. But it was sort of like a...

I think there was something that stopped it from happening. It might have been some sort of trademark thing. Great marketing. Yeah. I like Jerry Park. It was kind of like out there. Yeah, there was something about it. Could we have brought back the grass logo?

Hell yeah. I would have gotten an Echo and Limited shirt with Jerry Park Grass logo on it. That's like the Nautica, you know, Mark Coleman thing or whatever. Mark Kerr is a Mark Kerr or Mark Coleman? Nick Diaz is just a U.S. is just a unique individual in this sport. Like his ability to open himself up, like he's obviously a very private person, right?

Like when you've been around Nick long enough, you know that he doesn't like to do that. But when you get him talking, then he just opens up. And he tells you everything with pure honesty, right? Even the taking offense at your very first question about it being easy, like, most, 99.99999% of fighters are like,

yeah, man, I knew it was going to be easy because I was in camp. And he thinks of fighting in a completely different way than everybody else that he's just like, no, that you thought that was easy? I worked my whole life for this. Like, this ain't easy. He's a unique individual. It was also, like, pretty incredible at the end. You're talking about this rising star, and he's just like,

yo, I just opened up a gym on one three, five school road. Like, if you want to come train jujitsu with me, Polo. Oh, that was a staple of Nick interviews. It's incredible. He would always plug the gym, and it felt so regional all the time with him, and it was so NorCal. The LA Times article that I completely forgot about now all these years later. It's entitled Going to Pot, written by Lance Pugmire, who used to work for the Times,

and it's just about his pot use. I'm more consistent about everything being a cannabis user. I'm happy to get loaded. Here's some good music. I remain consistent. I have an easy way to deal with things. This was controversial back then. Now we're talking about Carlos Prachas smoking 10 heaters before a fight, and this was controversial.

Now that's a sponsorship. Yeah. I can pass a drug test in. eight days with herbal cleansers. I drink 10 pounds of water and sweat out 10 pounds of water every day. I'll be fine because not that long prior. He had the Takenori Gomi fight in pride in which he won via Gogo Plata and then tested positive and later had more issues with Nevada and the cannabis stuff.

So that just takes me back. That fight was so huge for me to get back on track and for Strike Force as well. That was the first, you know, strike force. of the new era on Showtime. That was their first show on Showtime and there was a lot of excitement. And I was so young. I was, uh, I was 26 at the time. And he was so young and he was on a role and he ended up winning 11 fights in row and that KJ. Noon's fight was in there and the controversy with the cut in Hawaii and he's walking off with the double birds. It was just such a fun time. What a fun time and what a fun character. You never were quite sure if he hated you or not,

but like he always talked. So deep down, I think he enjoyed it. And, uh, you know, happy to say that now we're all good. We definitely had some ups and downs, but I think the downs are way more pronounced. Like, everyone talks about where I come from, people like you get slapped. Like, that was just a line. And he talked to me a million times after that.

So legendary Nick with the chin hair, great chat. I'll tell you one thing that annoyed me. And I remember being in the moment. At the very beginning, there's a guy who sticks his microphone. You see the microphone poking out there. And I was like, bro, this is my interview. This is my moment. I'm a young buck in the game.

Who are you with your little? your little microphone coming into my interview. But overall, a great time and a good way to start this out. So a few months later, so now I'm like rolling. Once April comes and goes, made you, I'm rolling. Like I was looking back at the YouTube channel, there's some, there's some gems either, you know, behind the, we privated some of them for some reason. I'm not sure, but like there's, there was so many videos back then.

I was just pumping them out. And I went to UFC 100, which was in July of 2009. And I went for verses. So it was kind of like some for versus, some for AOL. And then eventually it was mostly for AOL. And that became M.A. fighting. AOL bought M. M.M.A. fighting.

And the first time I ever spoke to Rampage, it was in an interview with Ariani Celeste. Ariani Celeste was doing some stuff for M.A. rated. And we were using her as like a correspondent, if you will. And so we did this very awkward, like, two person. And like, Ariani and myself interviewing Rampage. He wanted nothing to do with me and was just focused on her. And that was totally fine. I understood the assignment.

But I believe the interview that you're about to watch right now is the first one-on-one interview that I've ever done with Rampage. And at the beginning of the interview, I mentioned like, hey, do you remember me? Little Mermaid because he was calling me the Little Mermaid because of my name. And I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember me. You'll see for yourself. Anyway, I was in Vegas, UFC 100, and they would, flood us with a ton of media opportunities and interviews and stuff like that.

There it is, of course, the big one, July 11th of 2009, Brock Leicester versus Frank Mear, 2, George St. Pierre versus Tiago Alves, Dan Henderson versus Michael Bisping. But this interview doesn't have much to do with that. It's, I do believe, my very first chat with Rampage Jackson, it's one of the very few interviews that I have from the versus era, because they were all uploaded straight, and I kept some of them, and then I uploaded them to my YouTube channel.

So I'm very glad that I have this one. Like I don't have my first interview with Dana. That was on the versus website. That was UFC 97. But the first one with Rampage, I do have. And you'll see, he gives me a bit of a, a bit of a love tap towards the end of the interview. Anyway, here's my chat from July of 2009.

A couple months after that, Nick Diaz chat, with the one and only Quinton Rampage Jackson. Ariel Halwani for Versus.com being joined by Quentin. Do you remember me? You told me to say hello to you the next time we meet each other in person I'll give you a keyword, all right? The Little Mermaid.

You made fun of my name. I remember you now, I'm sorry, man. Made fun of my name. You tell me the Little Mermaid. Yeah, the Little Mermaid. You look like... No, you don't look like the Little Mermaid because she was beautiful.

You're ugly as hell, but... You were saying that I want... You were making fun of me, like being compared to a fish and half a woman, all that whole thing. Yeah, I'm sorry. Probably one of those days. How long ago was that? That was like two months ago, man.

Was it? Yeah. I meet a lot of people. I do a lot of interviews. And for some reason, I just don't remember a whole lot of people. I used to. I used to be one of those guys, remember faces, remember everybody. But now that I meet so many people all over the world,

I can't remember nobody unless I already know them. They were part of my family. Sometimes I don't remember them either because sometimes my family would be asking for money. I was like, I forget them real quick. I was like, oh, who are you? He's like, man, we grew up together. Like, I don't know you. They asked for money.

I don't remember me. Amisia, a homie. I don't know. but, you know. I'll never forget the mermaid. You'll never forget. Man, those are some hard punches, man. Damn.

I remember you now. Are you cool? I remember you, man. All right, well, let me get you, let me get you fired up for a quick second. Tomorrow night, UFC 98, 98. Roshad Evans going up against Liotta Machita. It's 98 already? Yeah, man.

Rashad Evans said that he thinks Machita deserved the shot before you. More deserving of it. What do you think of that? Repeat that again? Rashad Evans said that he thought Liota Machita deserved the title shot before you. What do you think of that? I don't care nothing about that type of stuff. You know what I'm saying?

Hell, La Chita is, that's his name right? La Chita? Because he run all times. He run all time, La Chita. Muchita. He, whatever his name is. Mucita. He's undefeated, man.

He's been being forced his last guy. He finally finished somebody, you know. I had the belt once before. Yeah, let him go get it. Let him go get it. Everything is for a reason. You know what I'm saying? Whoever gets it, it don't matter.

Because when I get in the cage, I'm gonna make them splatter, you feel me? You and Rashad Evans had a very entertaining stare down. My favorite part is when you just kept repeating, watch, watch, remember that? I think I remember that. It's kind of, like, annoying after you win a big fight, a grueling fight, and then they bring the next guy in the Octagon. It's like, don't you just want to kind of chill for a second? This is the biggest thing right here what really upset me

that most fans don't even know is that when I fought Jardine, it was actually supposed to be Rashad. He turned down the fight, even before he even got anywhere. Why did he turn it down? Because my, the message I got is that he said he wanted to be champion longer. Because it was right after his fight with,

we both fought the same night. And it was right out of his fight with, what, Forrest Griffin? My fight with Van der Leigh, a couple weeks later, I think it was two weeks we went by. Dina White called me and said, hey, we need you to fight

on March 7th. I said, okay, who you? He said, Rashad. I said, okay, cool. I was kind of reluctant at first. I didn't even want to fight either because, you know what I had hurt my jaw a week before the Vanillae fight.

But I was like, okay, cool, you know, I did it. Then he called back and said, oh, the fight's off, Rashad don't want it. I'm like, okay, cool. Then he called me back, like a couple days later and said, oh, but you still got a fight. I'm like, oh, Rashad fight now? He was like, no, we will call you later with an opponent.

So I started training. He called me back a couple days. like, oh, it's Jardine, Richard's opponent. Like, what the hell? So for him to get in my face after I fall his opponent, and it's supposed to be him. But, you know what I'm saying? He didn't take the fight.

A lot of fans don't know that. Now they know. And I fought two fights back-to-back with a hurt jaw. And then Frank Mirren gets hurt. Bless you! Don't be sneezing my interview next time. You wait. I smell gas on here.

We'll blow our ass up over here. I can smell a gas. Anyway, like I'm saying. I forgot what I was saying. I smell a gas and we got people sneezing the bag. Well, let me ask you a quick question. No, no, I don't remember right now. Hey, around with you.

Area. Then he'll get in my face. I took a fight, he was supposed to fight. You know, I fought two fights with my jaw. That's stuff like that. Then Frank Mirrigate get hurt. Then they move to fight up. I can't take a fight like that.

And then he's going to disrespect me and say, oh, La Chita was more deserving of a of a match to me. I don't cut enough about that stuff. I'm like a duck right now. They're like water rolling off my back. As the UFC told you

that you are the guy who's going to be facing the winner of Machita Evans 100%. Man, they've been saying that, you know what I said, I gave up a title match. I did UFC a fair I gave up a title match

by fighting Jordan. I gave it up. If they didn't want to whip me, then I've been out of the number one contending spot, you know what I'm saying. It's like, going to Vegas gambling,

you know what I'm saying, and playing a known because you know what I'm saying god know I was over trained anything could happen when you over trained you know what I trained real hard for Van der Leigh that's the harder ever trained before that was that was I had to whoop on them and I did a bad fight before that so you already know I trained like a madman on that I was doing everything and then I had to come back and train for Jardine I piqued three weeks before the fight they messed with me mentioned I was like oh man so all right final question yeah what was I talking about what was I talking about just one one last question for rampage yeah they're doing a lot of in crazy they were just my this mic just like I was

saying so yeah I'm deserving of the number one contender I remember what I was saying now because I did that I'm bust my ass I did the UFC a favor and took their fight you know what I'm saying and Richard didn't take it I took their fight and they were complaining about they don't want to fight each other Richard and Jardine don't want to fight it because they teammates they be twisting each other nipples and shit. You know what I'm saying? They can play with each other nipples all they want. I'm fighting.

I'm going to make it happen. I'm going to get my belt back. What do you think of the nipple stuff? Man, that's kind of fruity, too, to me, you know what I'm saying? Hey, you want to take it home? You got the mic. Yeah, I got the mic. Look here.

Sign up. Hey, y'all are watching verses, and Rampage Piss. Y'all ain't never seen Rampage Piss like this. For real. I'm going to get my belt back, and I'm going to keep it. And then anybody, if anybody, somebody's up in their cage with me, they'll get smashed, for real. y'all heard on verses

these nuts in your mouth I forgot about that sign-up that was a classic rampage you know how you know that I was a young buck in the game I gave up the mic as soon as that happened I was like that that might have been the only time right kind of embarrassed by that

slap me took the mic that's rampage in his prime by the way in case you're wondering how that all played out so he's coming off the win over Keith Jardine. He's talking about the title picture and whatnot. Not that long ago, some, from when that did it happened? Seven months prior, he was the light heavyweight champion. He doesn't end up fighting until May of the following year because he was supposed to fight Rampage, excuse me, he was supposed to fight Rashad at the end of the ultimate fighter in Memphis.

It was an event built around him. But as some of you may recall, at the end of all of that, he ended up getting a team gig. And so, the UFC had to change course. They put BJ Penn versus Diego Sanchez in the main event. They were very mad at him. And then he ended up fighting Rashad UFC 114,

Memorial Day weekend of 2010. By then, it sort of felt like the rivalry had fizzled. There was a point where, you know, the two of them, like it was one of the biggest rivalries in the, in the sport. They were the coaches on the Ultimate Fighter 10.

That was a huge one with Kimbo Slice. More on that event in a moment. in that series in a moment, and they wanted it to culminate with that UFC 107 card in December of 2009, didn't end up happening. They waited until May of 2010. He ended up losing. He did eventually get another crack at the belt. He lost to John Jones at UFC 135. But that was, that was vintage rampage. And I do believe it was the first time we did a one-on-one together. So great memories there. Reminds me of those days, like, we would, so believe it or not, the first time that I was credentialed to a UFC event was UFC 97. They wouldn't, they wouldn't credential me, even in the early days of Versus. I was working for the broadcast partner of the UFC. Imagine working for Paramount Plus today and not getting credentialed. And what they told us was versus.com isn't big enough.

And our response was always like, we're your broadcast partner, but still, they were very strict on these. So 97 was in April of 2009. 98 was in May of 2009 99 was in Cologne Germany I didn't go to that one and then 100 I went obviously for verses

so I was still very new to all of this and I would go to everything and you know fighters would have like meeting greets they would have after parties I would go to everything with a cameraman trying to get interviews trying to get content and it reminds me of those days

those long days in Vegas doing anything I don't even know he might have had a couple of drinks in him at that point anything I can't to get as much content as possible. I would leave those trips with like 25 to 30 interviews. And sometimes I would space them out.

Great memories, great times, enjoyed it very much. All right. So then we go a couple weeks later. Actually, in the midst of all this, I actually launched the MMA hour. It was just a couple of weeks prior. I remember doing the UFC 100 post show. We started in mid-June of 2009.

Mid-July, Strike Force announces that they are going to do the most. anticipated women's bout in MMA history. So at that point, there's no women's MMA in the UFC. That comes in 2013. Elite XE was the main home

for like big time women's MMA. And, you know, the fighters were few and far between, but they did have someone named Gina Carrano, who was extremely popular, who they would put on CBS and everyone loved her. Strike Force buys the elite XC assets and fighters, the contracts, brings it over. Scott Coker now is the man for women's MMA.

And they would dabble a little bit as Strike Force pre-eliedexe, but now they've got all these big names, including Chris Cyborg and including Gina Carano. And for the longest time, we all said, that's the biggest fight possible. That is the biggest fight possible at 145 pounds. So they announced in July of 2009, they are going to do this in August of 2009 at the HP Pavilion, their unofficial or official home right over there. Look at that. Is that not a throwback?

The Rockstar logo, the Strike Force logo, old school Strike Force logo with the wings. Carano Cyborg, August 15, 2009, at the Shark Tank. Oh, my dear, old school. As old school as it gets. Anyway, in July of 2009, they did a media day at Madison Square Garden, of all places, here in New York, which was amazing for me because we were here. I remember recording the MMA hour, by the way, in this building on this floor, and we recorded it in a little room, and it wasn't live in the early days.

And I remember recording the episode and saying, all right, we got to go to the media day now. And I thought I was unplugging my computer. Frankie, I thought I was unplugging my computer. You know what I did? I unplugged the thing that recorded the show. Oh, man. It was awful. We've come a long way from them days, right? Now we've got a backup to a backup to a backup. Lost the whole show. Oh, it was devastating. One of the worst feelings ever. Just did a whole hour and a half show. Lost it. It had to quickly tape a shorter show and bolt down to a MSG. There was so much media there.

Gina was becoming a huge star. People were very into this fight. It was, you know, like the brute, brutal, Chris Cyborg was a killer finisher, elbows, Muay Thai, just an intimidating force of nature going up against Gina Carano, who everyone loved, the girl next door, all that stuff. Great fighter as well. But she was an underdog. Anyway, there was a ton of media there.

We did this, they did this press conference, kind of next to the theater, and then they had a whole setup outside with a cage outside of MSG next to the Penn Station entrance. And to her credit, Gina saw me there, and she called me up to do a one-on-one, and there was a ton of media, and you'll see at the beginning of the interview, she kind of says to me, like, it's crazy how much media is here, which was a cool moment because I felt like, okay, she kind of is comfortable with me, she trusts me, give me the interview, appreciate it very much, and I had to work hard. I remember bothering Chris de Blasio of Showtime, head of PR to get that one-on-one. I had to get the one-on-one.

I had to get the one-on-one. And I did get the one-on-one ahead of what was at the time the biggest women's MMA fight of all time. And I would still argue to this day is top five most important women's MMA fights of all time. So here's my chat with the great Gina Carrano from back in July of 2009 at Madison Square Garden. Ariel Hawani for Fanhouse.com being joined by the young lady who will be facing Chris Cyborg Santos on August 15th for the first ever strike force a 145 pound title of course

she is Gina Carrano and Gina first off welcome to New York the last time we saw you here was in May of 2008 for the Elite X's first event on CBS seems a little bit different now doesn't it are you seeing this this is amazing this is crazy I'm I really appreciate all the the media covering this because this is a this is huge for the sport and for women for me did you ever think when you first got into the sport that you'd be headlining an event on a network like Showtime. I mean obviously there have been you know a headlining acts for female fighters but never on such a grand stage like this. I never thought about it until I started seeing the reaction that people were

giving and now this is like this is a dream come true so I just I'm just looking forward to the fight and having it done and and doing well. It took a long time for the Strike Force deal to come through but it finally went through now you're fighting for them against Cyborg the one that you always wanted to face. Did you get nervous there for a while that this? fight would never actually happen I knew it would happen you know you can always fight anywhere you can find your backyard yeah I knew it would happen but um I know maybe the anticipation for it ended up being a good thing but it's gonna happen

and and I'm stoked on it I'm happy and that's what I'm you've enlisted the help of Randy Couture to be your head trainer Randy is obviously a legend in the sport and in the past Kim Couture has been in your corner she also gonna be in your corner Um, no, she's not going to be in my corner for this fight. Randi's being a mentor to me, and then I've got, I never trained with Kim. So she was just more there for my moral support. But now I'm having, I'm having Randy kind of take that over.

I always wanted them to be that, and I think that I need that for Cyborg. In the press conference, you, yeah, just one second, in the press conference, a lot of pressure here. In the press conference, yes, just one final question, Gina. Yeah, in the press conference, you mentioned Kit Cope, who you've trained with. It wasn't Kit Cope that you were talking about? No, that wasn't Kitkoop. Oh, okay. It was actually Kevin Ross.

Well, I just want to ask you a question. There's something that came out today. Kit was talking about that if you keep training with Extreme Couture, that you might be in trouble come August 15th, that you're not getting the training that you deserve at Extreme Couture. How would you respond to that? Who said that? Kit Cope.

That's not sure. Actually, I am getting everything that I need right now. and everything is going very well. But thanks for the concern, Kit. Everything is good. Everything is good. All right. Well, it all goes down August 15th live from the HP Pavilion in San Jose.

Gina Carano going up against Chris Cyborg Santos. Best of luck to you, Gina. Thank you. Good to see you always. Yes. As always. Take care. Bye.

Okay. Okay. So here is the media workout outside that I was talking about. about. More Rinalo on the microphone. The great crew Phil Nurse. Oh, and we met up again. Ahmed Ali at all those events. I never thought in a million years we'd be doing an interview on the corner 33rd and 8th. What are you feeling right now? Um, adrenaline, exhaustion and, um, anxiety. And I'm just pumped to go back and train hard for the next four weeks because I got a tough, tough one in front of me. This is the first time that we, that, uh, you know, the New York

MMA fans get to see a big star come out and do something like this. How receptive were they to you? I felt good energy coming my way. You know, I was just hitting pads, not doing very much, but I think that, you know, I think maybe a couple of them will watch now. I'm a little disappointed. You didn't do the worm out there. You know what? You should have told me. I could have done that. I would have shown you on this kind of stage. I would have done that. When you're doing something like that, is that just to, you know, please the crowd type of thing, or you're just, you're not really actually doing anything real serious, right? Yeah, yeah, that was, it's just pads. You know, I can't, I like to kind of be in the

gym and you know do my stuff out there but one person I would like to think is a Phil Phil Phil Phil nurse yeah he um he came out and worked with me that's the first time we've worked together so it was kind of nice to meet him and I have a lot of respect from him and I just called him up out of blue because I don't know but anybody here in New York and so thank you Phil you're awesome crew fill get those GSP vibes coming out of Phil you get those good you know those good vibrations yeah it was different to work with but he actually even caught me in the rib with one of his knees and I was like oh that was good he barely even tap me so he's he's he's the shit he's cool breaking news crew full nurse injured Gina

Krona Gina next up for you ESPs I hear we're going to ESPs yeah breaking barriers every single day you are yeah I'm trying are excited about that have you ever been to the SPs I have but the last time I went I was in the rafter so this time I think you know me and cyber we're going to be walking the red carpet and it's gonna be cool we both had to get dressed up and and get away from the life that we're used to which is in the gym and I think it'll be it'll be fun we see you do pull a little Brock Lesnar or something you know, some trash talking and things like that? No, I don't even think.

That's why I fight, it's because I'm not good at that. Maybe I should take some lessons from him. All right, final question. We want a serious prediction. How's it going to end? What round, which fashion? August 15th. How's this one going down?

This one's going to be tough, and that's all I know about it right now. You any want to me to say? No, I just think it's going to be a good, tough fight, and I'm looking forward to it. All right, Gina, I have to say, I was at the UFC Fan Expo. A couple of people noticed me, shocked. Every single one of them said your interviews with Gina, they're the best. I think that has nothing to do with me, but I'll take the compliment.

Always a pleasure to talk to you. I have something to do with you. And you're doing good things for this part too, so you always give good news and I appreciate it. Thanks a lot, Gina. Best of luck. Thank you. Cheers. Oh gosh.

Tough to watch. Golly, young Ariel, tough to watch. Tough to watch. I was always very nervous talking to Gina for some reason or another. In the end, it ended in the first round. She lost via TKO. And wouldn't you believe it? Last time we ever saw her fight.

And that was almost 16 and a half years ago from where we are today. But it was a great time. They made her do a lot. Fly to New York, go to the ESPs, and she only had four weeks from that point to train for the fight. They made her do a lot. That was a big one. Rick, you remember watching that one? Of course.

That was a huge fight. Massive? I don't mean the interview. The event. The event was massive. Yeah. Yeah, don't know. I mean, the interview was big, too.

I got her twice. I forgot that there was a back end to that as well. I thought it was over after the first one. It was massive for women's MMA. What I love about that first one is, is it feels like the walls are closing in on your guys. They're closing in. There's somebody behind you.

Another mic popping out at the beginning, trying to sneak in on the interview. But it was cool to see Gina kind of like recognize the moment and like look out to that and talking about, and you know, you asking her about whether it's overwhelming and her saying actually it's a dream come true. like pretty pretty cool to be able to look back at

stuff like this in the history of MMMA oh my god yeah what a time that was that was a fun time shame that we never saw our fight again that was for the first ever uh strike force yeah for now for now maybe that's why i picked this one um but it was a great time 2009 gc how old were you in in in in july of 2009 uh about to turn 16 aware of gina no no clue first time i heard of gina carano was Mandalorian. Wow. Yeah.

And then you were like, oh, this person fought? Yeah. Yeah. It's so crazy. Was Mandalorian good? First season I enjoyed a lot. Second. How many seasons?

I don't even know now. I stopped watching after one. How many was she in? Was she like a reoccurring character? She was. Yeah. She was like a real character. So in the MMA world it was big.

It was like, oh wow, Gina Carano graduated to Star Wars. Yeah. And then for you, she was just an actress. Who is this chick? Yeah, yeah. Who happened to? Who is this chick? Let me just say, it wasn't like, yes, Star Wars, very cool.

She also was like the lead actress in a Steven Soderberg film. So it's not like she was like, heywire. Yeah, she was kind of big. She was kind of a big deal. Oh, she was a huge deal, but that was a disaster in the aftermath because they dubbed. The Haywire, yeah, they had to redub the line. Her whole, all her lines. All her lines.

All her lines. A.D.R. What is that? They, they re-did the lines in a studio after the fact. With a different person? Different person. That was a disaster. Why would they do that?

At no point in the filming did they say, like, yeah, we don't like how this sounds. Like, you can't have someone not speak. Like, it looks fake. No, they pulled it off fine. What? You don't remember the backlash. I remember the backlash. What I'm saying is the end product was fine.

It just wasn't her voice. No. People hated it. It felt like you were watching like an old kung fu movie. Nah, no, your bucking was bad. That's a good movie in your opinion. Yeah, it was fine. No.

It was pretty good. Never even heard of it. Haywire's a big deal was her first film. Frank, you ever see Haywire? I haven't, but I'm a big Sutterberg fan, so. And so any line she had? It was like all her lines.

Nah, you're realizing it's true. Sometimes the ADR is bad. Look it up. 5.8 on IMDB. That's look it up, look it up. They changed, it wasn't her voice. Yes, it was not her voice. They reddubbed all the lines.

With another human being speaking. Yes. Crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Happens all the time. Does it? Absolutely. With what?

There's entire ADR studios that that's all they do is redone. I've never heard of this before. I hadn't heard of it before that. We put that next to Brownout. It was controversial because it was her, she was the lead of the film. She was in every scene.

And it's rare for it to be that whole, like the whole performance. What's a famous example of a movie that experienced this where the lead actor, actress, experience this? No, I don't, I don't have that.

Oh, Frank just said, it happens all the time. ADR happens all the time. Didn't they read like... Jane Tatum's in this? Yeah, yeah. When they did Bain's voice, they redid all of Tom.

Who? Bain and the Dark Night Rises. Oh, but that's like a... Right, but like they could... It was inaudible. They couldn't use it. They'd redo everything. Oh, they did?

All right. Well, it was a big deal. No, a whole movie called singing in the rain with a whole premise is how the entire thing is 80-yard because they wanted a certain looking actress with the voice of someone else in the back. this doesn't look that bad no it's good

no it's bad no I'm legit watching right now if you guys hadn't told me I wouldn't have noticed yeah but at the time she's one of the most famous fighters in the world we knew her voice like she had a very unique delivery anyway the event 13,000 gate of 736 which is kind of wild

purses total purses 468 again staple of strike force how about this there were in total on this card nine fights eight of the nine ended via stoppage. All four fights on the main card ended via stoppage. Cyborg wins via TKO. Gagra Musasi wins via Kio against Babalu Sobral.

Gilbert Melendez beats Mitsuhiro Ishida. And by the way, Gilbert was the champ. Musasi became the champ. And then Fabrice Verdume beat Mike Kyle. Also on the prelims, Jay Haran, beat Jesse Taylor, Justin Wilcox on there. James Terry again. So that was a big one.

First time, headlining, on Showtime, two women. Massive, massive stuff. All right, we move along now to UFC 104. UFC 104 happened in October of 2009, and this was a massive one for me as well. This was in Los Angeles. And I remember, all right, so I was doing the fan house stuff, and I was getting like a local guy to shoot for me. I was telling you about this. But there was this guy that I met who was working for Elite XC as of 2008 named E.K.C.

Liden, who was their backstage shooter. So I would see him at events. His girlfriend, Esther Lynn, was the photographer. And we kept in touch, and I would see him all the time. Now he's out of a job. And so I made the pitch to our editor at Fan House. I was like, we should hire this guy as our videographer. He should be our videographer. And he should just come with me to all the event, so I don't have to hire a local person. Well, it just so happened. So I told you about 100. I went for versus I didn't go to 101, which was in Philly. I didn't go to 102, which was in Portland. You may recall from a previous classic interview episode, I interviewed Justin Bieber on that day at the U.S. Open. I didn't go to 103 because it was during Rush Ashana, that was in Dallas.

104 was in L.A. And from 104 until a very long time, I went to almost every single one. And it just so happened that case he lived in LA so was perfect he didn't have to travel and then I remember the next one was 107 I went to 107 and I paid for him to come I was like no he has to be there and then from that one forward they covered it which was great so 104 was a big one because I got a one-on-one with Dana White it was Machita Shogun it was Kane Velasquez on there which was huge because he was a you know Mexican-American fighting in LA a ton of media the sport is flying now and also on AOL we did a pre-show and I did that pre-show in the bowels of the staple center

with the late great Tom Derbasi and this was a big deal was it was streamed live on our fan house site and it was just big it was big for me it was big to be a part of it was big to be there it felt like a really big deal on the turning point and a memorable interview was a post-fight interview with Pat Barry, who was a kickboxer, turned MMA fighter, who was coming over to the UFC. He had a great kickboxing career. His career was 17-7-1, you know, solid enough, comes over to the UFC. He's 3-0.

He beats Dan Evanson at UFC 92 via leg kicks. He loses to Tim Haig at UFC 98, and now he's matched up against Anthony Hardin, who was a former training partner of his. And he was a great personality. And there was an interview that came out the week of that fight about him just eating rice and ketchup, having no money to his name. And he needed this win. Former training partner, former, you know, stable mate, whatever, friend, he needed this win. He got the win. He ended up winning, what was it, via TKO in the second round. He got the knockout of the night and the fight of the night award as well. Back then, there weren't, you know, performance bonuses. It was knockouts.

submission fight of the night. He got two of those bonuses. So it was massive for him. But when I'm interviewing him here, we're interviewing him in the back. We would get to interview some of the guys in the back next to the locker room. And you'll see at the very beginning, Dana White walks by and he shakes his hand. He's so excited. He says he's not going to wash his hand. And you can see just how big this is for him, how much it means to him. I love the passion. I love the emotion. It's one of my favorite interviews from backstage back in those days. So we go to October of 2009, Staples Center, Los Angeles, post-fight interview. with the victorious Pat H.D. Barry.

Awesome. That was awesome. Congratulations, man. That was awesome. On free TV, too. I know. I know. Thanks, man. All right, Pat, well, we'll get right into it.

You just got a great compliment there from Dana White. How you feeling? That's, man, that's just to shake his hands. I'm not going to wash this. I'm going to rub my face on it, man. That's dope. To hear that coming from him is everything. You were very emotional after the fight.

What were the thoughts going through your mind? This is the fight that I knew I was building up for ever since I switched over in MMA. Like, I don't think going into MMA and I'm just going to do regular shows. I get into anything I'm going all the way and the UFC is the top. And Anthony Hardong is a very decorated, dangerous guy. He's a former teammate of mine of four or five years. I mean, we're friends and I had him on mine.

As soon as I moved over to MMA, I knew it was going to happen eventually. And for my third fight to be against him, like says a lot about me and then the outcome says even more, man. It's just an all-around emotional moment. We've got a long history. You have a bunch of K1 victories on your resume. Just a couple of MMA victories. This is the biggest victory of your entire combat sports career?

This is the biggest victory of my entire career right here against Anthony Hardong. Did you feel as though maybe if you would have lost this fight your U.S. career could have come to an early end? I mean from, I hear rumors. I don't know any facts, but I hear rumors that the UFC has to let people go. If you don't bring the thunder, if you're not bringing the show, I mean, there's no point that you've got to go and I lost my second fight against Tim Haagg. You know, and I'm sure if I would have lost against Anthony Hardong, and

Unless I put on one hell of a show before I did lose, but if I would have gotten there and easily gotten submitted again, I'm pretty sure that they would have, you know, just said, hey, man, just not, you're out of here, but just go and get some more experience before you come back, because this is top level. And most expected this fight to stay standing, or at least you wanted this fight to stay standing,

given your background. How did you feel out there, though? Because it did kind of go the way you wanted to, and then at the end kind of put him, you kind of put him out in the second round. Yeah, I mean, I expected the fight to go, I expected the majority of the fight to be standing. I knew that at some point in time,

he was going to try to take it to the ground. Like, I knew that. And that's what I was ready for. That's what we've been training for. I mean, if you remember my last time, I hit the ground, that didn't turn out too well. So that's what the whole purpose of this training camp was, was to make sure I just stay standing.

Because I already know, even though I have to keep working on it, my striking is very good. I have to keep training it. You know, it can get better, but it's very good, but my ground game is where I'm suspect at. Scale 1 to 10. How comfortable do you feel on the ground at this point in your MMA career? At practice?

I feel real good. In a fight, I feel a lot better now than I did the second time. Even the first time, when I hit the ground with Dan Emerson, we just laid there. I was terrified. Second time, wasn't so nervous, but it had a bad outcome. This time was just, I can do something right on the ground, man. And that just felt awesome by that. You know, the fact that I even was on top at one point in time.

And I had him in a pretty good position. Like, that was Eric Schaefer, man. He's the master. You're one of these smaller heavyweights in the UFC heavyweight division. Do you think that this is the best division for you? one of the shorter heavyweights in the UFC. All right. Well, do you think this is the best of it?

Excuse me. Do you think this is the best division for you? As of right now, I say yes. I mean, I'm, you know, I'm, I mean, the fights to fight. You know what I mean? You're getting it only so big. I mean, and the bigger you get, the harder it is to fight them and this and that. But, I mean, I'm, if I hit you, you're going to feel it,

no matter how tall or short or heavy or light I am. I mean, so as of right now, I'm not convinced that I have to most. How's the eye? It's kind of hurt a little bit. I mean, it's closing up a little bit, but I'm so high right now on victory that I don't feel anything. My thumb is aching. This is, my thumb has given me some problem, but everything else is I'm good, man.

And finally, is there someone that you'd like to fight next? That's a dangerous question, man. I don't know. Just do it, just do it. Chey Congo. Really? All right, check. Well, he's fighting Frank Meir, so maybe you'll get the fight after that.

Yep, cool. All right, well, best of luck in that fight in the future. whenever your next fight is, but most importantly, congratulations tonight, very impressive. All right, so there it is. Great moment between him and Dana White. I was just there. And then we just started rolling.

He ended up getting that Czechongo fight. Anyone remember that Czechongo fight? Rick, you remember that Czechongo fight? The craziest fight in MMA history. The number of knockdowns between them, the number of moments where it felt like it was over, by far the craziest fight in U.S. His next fight after that one was the Miracle Krocop fight in Vancouver.

They put him on the rocket ship, and then the big talking point after that one was he, he respected him too much. He didn't go for the kill. He ended up losing that fight. He beat Joey Beltran. Then he got the Czech Congo fight. And that was an incredible one in which he got knocked out. The finish is nuts. Like it looks like he folds Congo, Congo comes back, knocks him out in Pittsburgh. What a wild event that was in Pittsburgh on a Sunday night in Pittsburgh. But those backstage interviews were great. You see the emotion. You see how much it means to him. And he was a very fun fighter to cover back then. It was always, it was always. kind of killer be killed. He later had that face off with Stefan Strouf. Remember the size differential there? That was a wild scene as well. The Odomachita ended up winning that night against Maricio

Shogun Hua, but it was very controversial and so they ran it back at UFC 113 a few months later in Montreal and Shogun knocked him out. Kane Velasquez ended up defeating Ben Rothwell that night via second round TKO and thus we all kind of believed, all right, Kane is for real. That was his first big test. Glacin Tebow beat Josh Neer, Josh Stevenson beat Spencer Fisher, Anthony Johnson, the late great Anthony Johnson beat Yoshiyuki Yoshida. Dana White in that interaction says on free TV because there were only two prelims that night on TV, both on Spike, Ryan Bader beat Eric Schaefer, Pat Barry, beat Anthony Hardin. On the un-televised prelims that night, the infamous Chil Sunan versus Yushin Okami fight happened and that's where the bad guy was born because he was so upset that Okami

He wasn't building up the fight and promoting it, did the interview on the show, and never again. He was never un-televised again. Jorge Rivera beat Rob Kimmins. Kyle Kingsbury beat Razak Ahasan and Stefan Strue beat Chase Gormley. Amazing. What a time. What a time. The gate 1.9 million attendance 14,000 over at the Staples Staples Center in Los Angeles, UFC 104.

Okay, we move along to UFC 106. November of 2009. Now I'm in the groove. Now I'm in the groove. This wasn't a huge event for the UFC. It was a little bit malign. The gate was $3 million, a little over $3 million,

but no one was really asking for a rematch at this point between one Titor Ortiz and Forrest Griffin. No belt on the line, and it just felt like it was lacking. Ended up being an okay event, split decision. But why do I bring this to your attention? It's because, like I said, I'm in a bit of a groove at this point.

I'm rolling and I'm doing interviews with Dana White and I'm starting to get some attention. And I'll never forget this interview. It was a big one for me because he would do the press conferences. And there weren't a lot of people there with a camera back then. There weren't a lot of people doing interviews. There weren't a lot of people bothering him. And so I was able to catch him in the back of the Mandalay Bay, sort of just like in the hallway. And he did a, I think it was like a four or so minute interview with me. But he paid me a very nice compliment. And I'll be honest, as a young buck back then, meant the world. It was a huge, huge deal to get that type of recognition. Not that long ago,

I'm waiting in a massive line for him. And I'm getting to the front of the line in Montreal, UFC 97, and my microphone breaks. Not that long prior, I see him in the casino of, I think, the palms or the hard rock. And I'm like questioning if I should go up and introduce myself and say, like, I'm going to be interviewing you one day. I don't do that because I say, I'll see him down the line. But this was a big one for me. Not going to lie, it was a massive one for me. I appreciated it very much. And it was sort of like the beginning of our somewhat friendly relationship, the banter, all the stuff that people came to expect when I had a chance to interview with him. So this was after the event, after Forrest Griffin beats Titor Ortiz. Not the best event. Not the worst event,

not the best event. But it's Vegas. It's late 2009. It's the legendary Mandalay Bay. And I love the media room back there. The whole setup was so great. The media room next to the press conference room, the little corridors. It was great, great times in my life. Here's my post-fight interview with Dana White. Ariel Halwani for Fanhouse.com backstage at UFC 106 with UFC President Dana White. Dana? How are you? Good. This guy's turned out to be one of the best interviewers in MMA, so I try to fuck with him a little bit here and throw him off his game. Well, I appreciate that. You just had another great event. Forrest Griffin won. Tito Ortiz said he thought he got robbed. Do you agree? Do I think he got robbed? No, I don't think he got robbed. Do I think that that fight was 30-27?

Absolutely not. It was a close fight to score. The first round, you know, could have gone either way. I think Tito won the second round. And there's no doubt who won the third round. We know that you've had a very personal relationship with Forrest Griffin due to his involvement on the first season, the ultimate fighter. What was it like for you to see him rebound from the Anderson Silva loss the way he did? tonight. Well, you know, one of the things that I feel is, and I've gone through this a million times, you know, Chuck when he lost to Randy and when he lost over in the Pride tournament and things like this, you've got to get back on the horse, man. You know, in this sport, you're only as good as your last fight. And when your last fight, you know, is like Forrest's last

fight was, you're better off just to jump on the horse and get it behind you, you know? Clearly, Tito seemed a little gas in the third. Do you still think that he has what it takes, 18-month layoff, back surgery, can you still compete with the best at 205? There's no doubt about it. Tito can compete with the best. The thing is, is that ring rust is real, okay? I don't care who you are, how good you are, how young you are. When you take that much time off, it affects you. Ultimate Fighter, people are talking about it. I know you don't think about these things, but is that a possibility? Would you like to see those two guys potentially in the 11th season? You know what? I honestly don't know. I got to sit down. You know, I got to look at our schedule next year

and figure out some things and make some decisions on who I think the next coach is going to be. This has been a very tough month for you. A lot of injuries, a lot of crazy things happened. It was fun to just actually sit down and watch a fight and not have any controversies. Well, no, I mean, we're sitting down there. There were controversy. I mean, we had 27 eye pokes in the Kosh-Jack Johnson fight, you know, a 3027 score in the Tito, excuse me, in the Tito-Force fight. You know, things have been a little bumpy lately. but you know you got to take it on the chin and keep moving let's quickly talk about josh koshk

you said in the post-flight press conference you were very impressed with his performance talk to me about it josh and i have butted heads a lot behind the scenes and you don't hear about it a lot publicly because josh isn't one of these kids that runs around you know yapping about things that happened you know um and i have never talked about it publicly but um you know i i got to give him his props tonight man i was when i say i was really impressed i was blown away with josh koshka tonight are you able to talk about it publicly now what's that the problems that you guys had behind the scenes. You know, it's just, it's just a, you know, like I said, 350 personalities, egos, et cetera, to deal with. And, you know, Josh and I have had our moments. A lot of other guys

look very impressive, Amir Sadala, Little Nog, anyone in particular that you were really blown away by? Little Nog, yeah. He, uh, he, uh, I have a ton of respect for Louise Kane stand-up and the type of fighter that he is. And, um, little Nog made it look easy tonight, man, he looked great. Not only did he look good in the fight, physically look good. He came in in great shape. and I'm very impressed. He's going to be a great addition to the 205 pound division. Phil Barone, does he have a future in the UFC? I think Phil Barone will come back for another fight.

Listen, you know what we ask of guys? We ask you, you come in, you'll leave it all in the ring. Phil Barone is a tough guy who, you know, look at the shots he took tonight, stays in there, goes toe to toe till the end. Phil Barone always puts on exciting fights. Well, Daniel, you're always gracious with your time. We appreciate it. Thank you so much, and we'll see in a couple of weeks at the tough finale.

I want to ask GSI a question coming off of that. So you're a newer fan, if you will, a newer observer of all things, MMA, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you make of that guy versus the guy that we dissect on a day-to-day basis? The first thing is like he's jovial. Like, it feels like he's happy to be doing what he's doing. Like, he's messing around at the beginning of it. He's giving you compliments.

You would never see that nowadays. Yeah. And then obviously just the investment in the product, how much he knows how deep he can go on it. and like real in-depth explanations about what just happened. Yeah, like the question about who impressed you the most, we were talking about this after the first Dufa boxing event, and he had no answer. And here he is talking about Little Nog and Louise Kane and the Barone answer.

Like that struck me. I don't usually watch these before we do it. I like to watch them fresh here while they're playing alongside all of you. And look, I'm a different person. We're all different, but you nailed it like the investment in the product. And again, this was, you know, 2009, so we're talking 17 years ago or so, but it's just, it's just amazing to see, that's the guy that I'm talking about. When I always talk about the old Dana White, who was throwing, you know,

98 miles an hour heaters, that's the guy that I'm talking about, invested, passionate, you know, like he's going back to his room and he's working on it more, and he's working on him more, and he's trying to grow this thing, and he's trying to succeed and win the race. By the way, talking about the injuries, the original main event for that card was supposed to be Brock Lesser versus Shane Carwin. And Titor Ortiz was supposed to fight Mark Coleman. So that fight got canceled because Carwin got sick. And then Coleman had to withdraw.

Forrest Sepsin saves the day. They do that as the main event. He's coming off the Ultimate Fighter. I mean, we were talking about Tough 11. So Ultimate Fighter was several years, what, four years after that. But he was a very big star in the sport at that time, former champion. Those were the days. And him paying me that compliment really didn't mean a lot.

I remember afterwards telling my wife about it and being like, that is massive. Like, that's the vote of confidence. I get it. I understand it. And that's why I don't begrudge younger media when they're trying to get into that same spot.

But like just like his overall happiness talking about the product to me palpable. And that's the guy. That's why I wanted to play that one for the compliment, yes, but also to show you like that's the guy that we're talking about when we talk about the old Dana White. Okay, one more. I was just going to say one more on that. It's nice to see that.

you know, the more things change, the more things stay the same, talking about 13 eye pokes in the judge. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, good point. Show her to now and nothing has changed in that regard. A lot. It's different, but the sports the same. You're 100% right. I mean, even when I was listening to Rampage, talk about things. I'm like,

he's talking about matchmaking. It's like, yeah, this drama will forever continue, and you'd like to see some advancements, especially when it comes to eye pokes, but yes, I don't think that is going to change anytime soon. He's talking about Fighter Pay and all that stuff. Anyway, one more. I talked about the tough finale.

Let's go to the tough finale. Tough finale. Tough 10 was massive. Told you earlier that tough 10 was massive because it was Rampage and Rashad, but it was Kimbo. Kimbo showing up was just gigantic. It was massive. I mean, like, I think like one of the episodes had like 10 million viewers or something like that on Spike TV. It was crazy. It was crazy. And this is when we were introduced to the likes of Matt Matrione. I mean, this tough. F-10 finale was huge. Roy Nelson versus Brendan Schaub in the finale for the contract. Nelson was massive.

Nelson was the IFL champion coming over. Huge. Matt Hamill was on there against John Jones, of course. Kimbo versus Houston Alexander. Frankie Edgar fighting Matt Beach. That's the infamous Frankie Edgar Matt Beach fight in which Frankie Edgar beats Matt Beach, the late replacement,

and then gets a title shot and beats BJ Penn at UFC 112 shortly thereafter. Mitreone, Marcus Jones, James McSweeney, Darrow Schoonover, tities, as one rampage would call him, John Madsen versus Justin Wren, Brian Stan on the prelims against Rodney Wallace, John Howard against Dennis Holman, and Mark Bochek against Joe Bramer. I want to give you an interview with John Jones.

He was a young buck at this point. John Jones in April, excuse me, December of 2009, was 22. Young Buck 22? Yes, 22. Young Buck John Jones rolling at this point

doing a lot of great things in the sport. 9-0, 3-0 in the UFC, beats Andre Guzmall in August of 2008, beats Stephen Bonner, the late-great Stefan Bonner in January of 2009, beats Jake O'Brien in July of 2009. So this would be his fourth fight in 2009. and fifth in a little over a year.

And so he's matched up against the wrestler Matt Hamill of the ultimate fighter fame, has the feud with Michael Bisping. Everyone expects him to roll right through Hammer. Hamill, the hammer, Hamill. Obviously, by now you know that the fight ended via DQ. Jones loses, his one and only loss. If that exact fight would happen today,

nothing would happen. 12-6 elbow, the fight is called off. He loses. He was seconds. The fight probably couldn't even stop. He was beating up Matt Hamill, ground and pound. The fight could have been stopped easily even before the elbow. But lands the elbow, fight stopped, DQ, Hamill doesn't continue.

And it's the one and only blemish, as far as like wins and losses are concerned, on John Jones's resume. Before the fight, I caught up with John Jones. A very young, shy John Jones. Thought it would be a fun look back for all of you. Here is that conversation. Ariel Halwani for Fanhouse.com at the Ultimate Fighter 10 finale. in Las Vegas, Nevada, being joined by John Bones-Jones,

who faces Matt the Hammer-Hammel this Saturday night on Spike TV. And John, there's obviously a lot of excitement surrounding this fight. A lot of people are excited to see you fight again. I'm curious, because the last time we saw you in action, UFC 100, I mean, obviously you looked very good there. But it seems as though your career and your life has changed a lot since then. A lot of notoriety, a lot more publicity. Would you agree with that?

Yeah, absolutely. I'm excited about it. You know, I have a goal and I have a dream in the sport, and that's to make it to the very top of the ladder. And I understand that, you know, getting to the top of the ladder, a lot of this stuff is going to come with it. So I accept what it is, and I just try to do my best at it. Yeah, well, this is the first time you're involved in a media workout.

You're getting so much more pressed now. How are you dealing with all this? You're seeing your name on the big marquee outside. How does that feel internally? It feels great. You know, it feels really good. But, you know, I'm not really into the sport for, like, the hype and fame or any of that type of stuff.

You know, it's like I've become passionate about being a very good. mixed martial artists and I'm getting better and I'm becoming a better martial artist and like I said all this is just kind of coming with it so um you know my main focus is just being a provider for my family you know being the best man I can be um being some sort of leader and role model to you know younger athletes who want to do the same things or similar things and uh you know just still the best to make it to the top of that ladder I remember when I spoke to you at UFC 100 you were just standing off in the corner a lot of people didn't recognize you back then and you saw a crew fell nurse and you were actually excited to me

meet him and talk to him and that was the first time that you guys actually met each other and now here you are working out with him so tell us about that that arrangement it was great you know I was fortunate enough to compete in the same nights as George St. Pierre on three different occasions and I was starting to think maybe it was destiny so I seized the moment at UFC 100 and you know got enough with guts to talk to Greg and tell him how much I admired him and got to see Phil nervous hip pads for the first time and I was just so amazed on all the brilliance that was put into one athlete so I wanted to be a part of that and you know everything just kind of worked out. It's funny you mentioned George St. Pierre. A lot of people are calling you the next

GSP and in the sense that you are a true mixed martial artist. Obviously we know about your wrestling background but you are great at all facets of the game. What do you think of that comparison? It feels good. It feels good. Although once again you know I train really really hard and you know all that stuff just comes with it you know so I'm just going to keep training hard you know I really try not to get too fed up into hype and and things like that you know. I said my mom only goal is just to make it towards the top so whoever the people feel the need to compare me to I'm flattered but and obviously there's a there's a lot of attention on this

particular show because of Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson fighting for the for the six-figure contract but yet you're at the top you're in the main event what do you think about sharing the spotlight with those guys oh man sharing the spotlight with Kimbo Slice is huge America loves Kimball and you know I think his last his appearance 6.5 million homes checked into that so it's a It's going to be great, you know. It'll be a big opportunity for me to share myself with the world and I just appreciate it. What do you think of Matt Hamill as an opponent? Because he looked very impressive in his last fight, knocking Mark Munoz out with a kick that a lot of people didn't think that he had that kind of ability. Yeah, I'm very impressed with Hamill and how fast he's progressing. I think he's such an amazing human being for the way he inspires, you know, others to pursue your dreams and to not allow disabilities to slow you down.

So outside of the Aetagon, hats off to Hamel, and he's a great person. But inside the Ategine, you know, it's interfering with my goals and my dreams. And, you know, it's nothing personal between me and him, and we both just got to get the job done. I'm sure we both have pretty good bills to pay when we get home. So I'm trying to have a little bit of extra money in my pocket. You obviously respect him a lot. Do you mind when you fight a guy that you don't have this beef against

and you can't have, you know, trash talking and all that? Does that bother you? Oh, no. I've never had beef against anyone. that I fought. So, you know, we're both just trying to get the job done. If I feel sorry or, or any type of thing like that, you know, he's going to take me out, and I can't allow that to happen. So I know he'll knock me out if he had the chance, and I'm going to knock him out when I get that chance. It's been much talked about the fact that you go on YouTube and you like to look at clips and you

like to sort of emulate things that you see on video. What kind of tricks can we expect from you come Saturday night? Well, yeah, I definitely started off my career, learning how to fight on on YouTube, and it really worked for me. Now that I'm training with this great coaching, they just teach me how to be a more conventional athlete and you know definitely still expect the spinning back fists and anything wild like that it's still definitely there it's rooted deep in me but I think you guys will see it just a much more well-rounded athlete and it's just going to be good it's going to be great all right well the evolution of john jones continues this Saturday night on spike tv he faces matt the hamill hammer hamill that's a tongue twister man I used to mess up a lot of

times back then and it would kill me inside. I would die. Like if I signed off and screwed up like that, I would go to my room and yell, ah, ah, you know that meme of the lady who goes into her bathroom and is like, that's me. Yeah, all the time classic. Yeah, that is a great one. By the way, that was a huge thing. That was a huge thing back then. You remember John Jones YouTube watcher would learn moves from YouTube? Remember that? Like, that was his whole thing. Like, this guy just sits at home and He's a sponge. He's unbelievable. And it turns out he was pretty unbelievable.

Yeah. But I remember that was a huge part of his persona. He just watches moves and he copies them. He was that good. He was a phenom. So young. Who did you copy that elbow from? Yeah.

It's probably his fault. Probably his fault. Was that the event? No, I think it was the following year. Maybe it was two years later. I remember it was a December event where you emailed me the Brimidge Rampage one, but that was later, right? I think that might have been like, when was that?

That was a John. Jones card? No, but it was a, it was a tough finale in, you know, the tough finalies were a big deal back then in December. And I remember, because you wrote to me, let me see, Marcus Brimidge, it was Marcus Brimidge. Again, was it, was it, oh, against Stephen Bass, December of 2011. What was the headliner of the event? It was the Ultimate Fighter 14 finale. The headliner was Michael Bisping versus Mayhem Miller. Wow, shout out. Yeah. Damn. Brandel, Bermudez, Dotson, Dillishaw, Ferguson, of Edwards.

That's a good one. That's a good one, too. Roy Nelson knocked out, Brendan Chob in the first round. Matt Hamill beat John Jones, quote-unquote. Kimball Slice beat Houston Alexander, and it was kind of like he has to win this to stick around. Frank Yeager beat Matt Beach,

Matt Matreone beat Marcus Jones. He definitely stuck around. McSweeney won, Madsen won, Stan won, Howard won, Bochick won. The attendance, by the way, for those Palms events, like this one says 1700s. So it's not far off from what they're saying the apex will be able to hold around 1,100.

I think 1100 will actually be totally fine for a low level, like massive difference between 1100 and like, what is it, 50 or 300? Yeah, friends and family. Yeah, massive. Like those, I never had a problem. I don't think anyone ever had a problem with those palms or hard rock events. They do feel of that time though, right? The UFC is now every time there's a question to Dana White. it's about doing a stadium,

let alone arenas at this point. But to your point, it has a place. And those of it, sometimes those more intimate events actually feel better. Like you can really, like, get into it

and you feel that energy. Yeah. No, you're right. Yeah, speaking of that, let's, should we read the email. It's been a while. No.

No, we shouldn't do that. It's not the forum. It has been a while. I mean, you know, though, it's, what better forum than this one? It's lost to history. I don't think you even have it anymore.

Yeah, it's gone. We should, We should probably not. How about, I mean, John Jones, that, that is,

you know, days before lose, like, I know, right? It's crazy. It is kind of crazy. The loss.

The loss. The loss. Yeah. Is there wild to see, and also to just see that guy. Like, what, what simpler times for that man?

No, 100%. He's talking about GSP and all this stuff. I mean, it didn't derail him all that much, right? I mean, not at all.

No. To be honest. It was one of those that he lost, but everybody goes, no, we know you won, so we're going to treat it like a win. But just like you said with the eye pokes, super controversial, I don't remember doing, you know, I don't even think back then the MAA was on Mondays. But imagine that Monday show, right? This is crazy. They just robbed the prospect of his, of his, oh, how could they do this? They have to fix this.

Get Andy Foster on the phone. What a time. Hope you guys enjoy this as much as. I enjoy doing it. I don't know about everyone else back there, but I certainly enjoy doing it. A fun lookback. Our fourth installment of this lookback series, try to do it maybe once every quarter or so whenever we have a slot to fill. Trying to educate you, you know, the youth, the Johnny Come Lately's, the post-pandemic nobs, if you will. It used to be the tough nobs, then the McGregor nobs, pandemic news. So it's going to be the Paramount Plus nobs. It all keeps rolling a lot.

long keeps rolling along and God willing we'll be here and God willing one day in maybe 20 years we'll do a look back on our 2026 interviews. How about that? We'll be 60 something years old doing this. I don't know if that's a good thing or back. I'm in. All right, all right. All right. All right. Frank, you in? Absolutely. Hey. You didn't even hesitate. You know what? That's what I love about you. Didn't even hesitate. Ride or die. That's you. That is you. These episodes always bring a smile on my face. No jokes. You enjoy them? Yeah, I really do. I don't know if it's just storytelling or if it's just funny to see another side of you and these characters that I didn't see since I'm so much newer to it. But I think it's a little bit of everything.

Young Ariel. Wide-eyed. Fresh face. Dare I say a little awkward? A little awkward. That was the thing. When he takes the mic from you, like, you could see there's a fight in you. There's a fight.

I'm not ready. I'm not sure. You're not ready to enforce it. Now he'd push them aside and say, this is my microphone. And by the way, for all the people who today say like, oh, you instigate, like, I'm, I'm talking to Gina Carrano about Kit Cope saying something on the radio who I think she might have been, I don't know, and Kevin Ross, who she's not even married, she meant, like, you know, we never back down from trying to advance stories, get the truth, do our research. You call it instigating, we call it journalism. And, you know, we'll die on that hill, no problem. As long as we accurately summarize or quote, no problems, no problems here. Thank you for that, Frank. Thank you to all of you for. listening and watching as always. Appreciate you all very much. You know, usually around this time I say, like, thanks to this guy, thanks to this guy. But like, these are old interviews. So I can't really,

can't really do that. Why not? You could thank them for the moment that you had with them. Oh, of course. Of course. 17 years later, thank you for the access guys. I've always wanted to thank you guys. But trust me when I do say 2009 was a very, very important year for me. And after that, like by 2010, 2011, I would say it's some of our best work. Some might say we've fallen off since then. Some might say we peaked in 2011 because I was going like those events, you know, November and Vegas, back in Vegas two weeks later, a week or so after that was Memphis. And then we were back to Vegas as well.

Like we were going four, five, six times to Vegas within the span of two, three months. L.A. here, San Jose there. It was a lot of long flights, a lot of West Coast trips. But I loved it. I loved everything about it. I wanted to do nothing else but that and I couldn't believe that I was you know just a few years removed from college

thinking, watching, dreaming about these guys writing to them and now here I am with the power players the biggest stars the most important people in the sport and there wasn't that much competition that was you know part of the the luck if you will there wasn't that much competition there wasn't

you know a line of people that I had to wait for you know all of them end their interviews and then I could get my shot. No, it was just me. So it was great. It was, it was really a great time. I remember those years very, very fondly. I'm appreciative and grateful for those years and I love looking back at them as well. So thank you very much for watching. I appreciate you all very much. Until next time, peace, I'm out of here.