The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #1

Episode Date: November 16, 2017

Joe Rogan sits down to discuss Pettis/Poirier, Holloway/Aldo, Conor McGregor, Stipe Miocic, Colby Covington, the Bellator Heavyweight Grand Prix, and more.

And we're live. So literally this morning, I had this thought. I thought about it a bit yesterday, and this morning I thought of it. I was like, why don't you just do it? I said, I need to do some sort of an MMA recap show, because there's always so much shit that's happening that I miss a lot of it. I don't get a chance to talk to a lot of it.

I love doing it with Brendan. He's my favorite because we get so silly and because he loves MMA as much as I do. I could talk to him forever about it. So I'm sure I'll do some of those definitely in the future with him. He's really good at breaking down fights to men He has a he's got a skeptical eye for things and he has a great obviously He was a high-level professional heavyweight fighter, but he also has a real good understanding of where someone is at various stages of their career

I think that's big because fighters have like these peaks and valleys and you never know where they're at think that's big because fighters have like these peaks and valleys and you never know where they're at you know like fighting is a hard hard business and the idea that you could stay in like a super high level for a long period of time that just doesn't seem to be the case it seems like everybody's body starts giving out after a certain period of time after a certain amount of time cage fighting your body's just given out unless you're a guy like gsp that takes all this time off which i think was brilliant now in in retrospect he knew what we all didn't know he really was in fucking amazing shape he really was fighting i don't say amazing cardio shape because that's one legit criticism that brendan had is that he looked like he was getting tired and it was pretty early in the fight.

The guy was off for four years, and he's stepping right in fighting Bisping, who's the middleweight champion. That is not easy. That's very hard. Bisping keeps a fast pace. He's got amazing cardio. He's tough as shit. Like, there was a tall order.

Like, to see him come back like that. But I think he recognized that grind was too heavy on him but he wasn't done yet you know he was only 32 i think when he retired 32 is that right somewhere in that range comes back at 36 i'm like wow what's you know what are the odds he's actually going to be better than he was before or look good he looked fucking amazing he looked like a bigger better version version of the welterweight champion, George St. Pierre. It was weird.

It was weird to see. I mean, I don't want to say that I doubted him because I did not doubt him because I'm very open-minded and I have a deep respect for George. I think he's amazing. He's just a great person, a great example of, in my opinion, how a champion should carry himself. George has always been one of my favorite examples because you see him and you're like, like, that guy is, like, well-spoken.

He's friendly. He's genuine. And he's super open-minded in terms of, like, his willingness to listen to coaches and formulate a good game plan and always be trying out new stuff. Like, he spent a lot of time working with those guys in Henzo Gracie's, the Donaher Death Squad. There was a lot of images of them training together. If he's training with, like, Gary Tonin and some of these fucking animals, I mean, John

Donaher is a wizard, and he's done just this amazing job with Eddie Cummins and these kids that he has in New York that are these leg lock masters. I mean, it's just Gordon Ryan. They're just animals. These guys are killing people. And for George to be in the mix with those guys, like, he's getting down with some serious fucking strangle experts so for just knowing that he's training with those guys because Eddie Cummins has been killing tournaments Gary Tony's been killing turd they've all Ryan's

been killing tournaments that all those kids Nikki Ryan his brother too they're all animals so these got like Dona her has this great group of really savage jiu-jitsu players. And George is diving into that mix. Comes to L.A., he's doing boxing with Freddie Roach. You know, he's one of the best boxing coaches in the world. Manny Pacquiao's trainer. So he's, like, getting down with, like, real boxing trainers. He's getting down with real jiu-jitsu coaches.

And he never stopped. He never stopped, which is just amazing. And it's amazing that he could just jump jump right back in Dominic Cruz sent me a text message right after it was over he said I told you ring rust is bullshit and unfortunately Dominic just broke his arm I don't know the specifics of it but that's a that's a huge bummer he's uh he's got to be chomping at the bit now to get back in there now that TJ just knocked out Cody Garbrandt he must be chomping chomping at the bit now to get back in there. Now that TJ just knocked out Cody Garbrandt, he must be chomping, chomping at the bit. So a few of the fights that went down really recently this past weekend,

Pettis and Poirier, holy shit, what a good fight that was. That was crazy. That's a crazy fight. And Dustin Poirier at 155 pounds seems like a different person. He's just so much healthier at 155. And he looked awesome in the Joe Duffy fight, too. And this fight was a big, big win for him, though. Former champion in Pettis, guy who was a champion of Strikeforce, too. I mean, shit.

That's a big win, you know. Anthony Pettis is a tough loss. It seemed like he had broken a rib or something. Like there was something going on. Like when he got mounted, he had to tap. You know, that's very unfortunate. But Pettis just looked really good in his last fight. Who did Pettis fight he fought and beat in his last fight?

Did he fight Gilbert Melendez? Jim Miller, that's right. That's right. Who did Gilbert Melendez fight? You know what I just watched the other day? I re-watched Gilbert Melendez. Oh, Gilbert fought. Who was it that kicked his legs?

God damn it. Can't believe I'm forgetting this. Jeremy Stevens, that's what. Sorry, Jeremy. Jesus Christ. That was one of Jeremy Stevens' finest performances. I forgot who did it. There's too many fights.

I have to erase my brain data. I've got to erase some Dan Severin footage from the 90s. I just, I have to, I can't though, out of respect, but I have just too many fights floating around my fucking head. That fight was a good fight though, because that was, the Pettis and Poirier fight is a fight between two guys that are like legit top 10 contenders. Like either one of them with a couple of good wins could be fighting for the title. And maybe for Poirier, that was enough to get him in there and fight for the title. But it's like you got just a shark pool there. Tony Ferguson is the interim champ.

Who knows what the fuck is going to happen now with Conor. Because Conor was involved in some sort of an altercation with referee Mark Goddard, where he jumped into the cage while the fight had not been called yet, apparently. This is Mark Goddard's interpretation of it. And I think Conor's, he made an apology, and I think what he was basically saying was that he was angry that the referee had not stopped the fight. First, he thought the referee had stopped the fight, and then he was angry that he had not, because he gets like really concerned when someone's taking a beating too much and he felt like this guy really was out of it and

taking a beating I think where the confusion was and I hope I'm not fucking this up we'll check the confusion was I think that Mark Goddard was saying essentially that he had not known whether or not the bell had gone off he knows he knew bell was close, but he did not know whether it had gone off. It was too loud in there for him to hear it. And he was concerned, I believe, that it went off. And so that's when he stepped in because he thought the round was over. He was not necessarily calling the fight yet. Then when Conor McGregor jumped in, since he hadn't already called the fight,

he was in a bad situation because the fight, technically speaking, was still going on. I hope I'm not fucking this up. Did I fuck that up? He made a statement on Facebook. Yes. And by the way, I felt the way he wrote this statement was really, it was not just like very professional. It was very poised. I was very impressed with it.

I don't want to read the whole thing, but he essentially says the first round was progressing, and then so when the guy got hurt, he said he connected Charlie Ward, connected with a left hand that slumped John Redmond to his knees, and at this exact point I could not and had not made my determination that John was either out of the contest or not in the position to intelligently defend himself. The punch and the action that followed naturally resulted in a surge of crowd noise, one that was so significant, I had already made my determination that I could not audibly hear the bell sound for the end of the round.

I had made my decision to step in with the belief that the bell had indeed been sounded, which in actual fact it had not. This is a critical fact to the ensuing proceedings. So apparently there was a massive amount of confusion because of the noise, there was a massive amount of confusion because of the noise and so it looked like a very reasonable stoppage. See if you can find the video footage. To me, because there's a bunch of video of the brawl itself and all the craziness that happened with it.

But it definitely seemed like, if I remember correctly, I've seen it, but last time I saw it was a couple days ago. It looked like a really reasonable stoppage, like a smart stoppage. Like you see it and you go, yeah, that guy, he's getting hurt. They should stop this. And then I think Conor just assumed when he stepped in, which you would, especially if it's that fucking loud, you assume there's no bell, and Mark Goddard steps in.

See, Conor runs in, and he tackles him to the ground, but there's already cornermen in there. And so these guys are hugging, and Mark Goddard is trying to get control of the octagon, and so Conor comes at him and pushes him, and he's yelling at him this this is a just a terrible scene terrible scene you know and I'm sure Conor if he

could take it back would take it back because I'm sure he you know realized this is a disaster and he even apologized you know you can't you can't do that you can't run in you got do that. You can't run in. You got to be sure that the referee stopped the fight. And, you know, I mean, they have to have control of the octagon. Otherwise anything can happen, right? Anybody can get it in any time, not just a friend, but somebody wants to hurt you. So they don't know what i mean obviously they knew that connor was probably coming in to congratulate his friend but they you can't make them give up the rules like the rules are in place for a very good reason to protect the athletes people get super emotional about fights and

there's many times i would believe that if they weren't very stringent in how they allow the athletes to behave, like have a really stringent set of rules, if they didn't do that, those guys would fight a lot. I mean, there'd be a lot of chaos. People would climb into the ring and beat the shit out of each other. We've obviously had a few incidents where corners argued with each other. But relatively speaking, when you think about how many fights take place, it's a very small number. And it's one of the reasons why is because we have pretty clear rules.

Like, you have to listen to the referee at all times. It's real simple. Like, there's a time where the cage is shut and the referee is in there, and that guy has control of that until he brings somebody in. And he has to have control over it. If he calls the fight, then he calls time. And then he brings the doctors in or whatever he wants to do or he stops the fight. That is entirely, it's got to entirely be his call.

And I see that Conor thought it was over. And he's probably like completely caught in the moment. He's fucking happy for his friend. He dives on his friend. They're celebrating. He's thinking that there's going. He dives on his friend. They're celebrating. He's thinking that there's going to be a bunch of people in there any second now because the fight's over. He's thinking they're going to open it up and Bruce Buffer is going to step in. But no.

It would have been Bruce Buffer. It was another organization. But you know what I'm saying. Whoever their Bruce Buffer is. But then somewhere along the line, he realized the fight hadn't been stopped. And then I think he got very upset, he said, because he has seen people take unnecessary punishment.

And he felt like that guy was done. And he felt like to not stop the fight right then would be a terrible thing. And I totally see his point of view. That makes sense, too. That makes sense too. That makes sense too. Just, you can't, you can't push officials. You can't jump in when you're not supposed to be there. So mistakes were made. But, um, I don't know what you do about something like that. I don't know how you, I don't know, like if they have standard punishments for shit like that. But it'd be a shame if that instance took a counter fight away from the fans.

I'm not saying he shouldn't be punished. I would just say if he was punished, it would be a shame. I mean, I guess you have to set a precedent. I don't know how that works. You ever shove an official, Jamie? No, I've definitely yelled at him, though. Playing basketball? Yeah, everybody yells, right? Well, fighters, you can talk to an official jamie no i've definitely yelled at him though but i mean playing basketball yeah everybody yells right fighters you can talk to an official right yeah man they're real strict about that like when people do they get very upset you definitely can't

put your hands on them you know roy roy uh nelson just was pissed off once at a late stoppage and he uh he kicked uh big john mcc McCarthy in the butt, but it was like the most gentle kick ever. I mean, he didn't kick him like he was trying to hurt him. You know, he like touched his foot on his butt. I mean, it was nothing. And Big John said it was nothing. But he shouldn't have touched him.

It's all it is. It's just there's rules and you get crazy. And it was the same thing, in fact. Big Roy was pissed that he let him take so much punishment. Something similar happened this year in the NBA. Steph Curry is one of the top players. Yeah. He's known for throwing his mouthpiece when he gets pissed.

He always takes his mouthpiece out a lot when play is not in action. He does? For whatever reason something happened in the nba finals last year he turned around and tried to throw it uh at like the the scorers table and it hit a fan that's so nasty it's definitely really gross i mean it's just like a ufc fighter throwing it into the crowd like some nasty mouthpiece like nobody wants well that's some fighters oh no some people would dive for a ufc fighter's mouthpiece but if he's throwing it at a referee that's like spitting in his face well he it bounced off the ground and hit him i think is what happened here so like he didn't i don't know if he

even meant to throw it at him but either way he shouldn't be throwing his mouthpiece no when he's pissed it's sort of like but he didn't get suspended which a lot of people were saying like what do you think early in the year he should have at least got a three- or four-game suspension, not just a $50,000 fine, which is a tenth of what he makes that day probably. I don't think anything would happen to you if you were a fighter and you threw your mouthpiece at the ground in front of a referee. I think because the UFC is so violent that that would be taken as like, oh, come on, throw the mouthpiece on the ground. But I think in basketball it's probably a pretty big deal, right?

It's definitely different. I mean, you can't spit your gum at them. No. But you can't spit at people, man. Well, that's different. I mean, we already take off your headband. That's not what you're doing. You're spitting at people.

You're just throwing it with your hand. That thing's all slobbery and shit. You know what the fuck you're doing. That's so gross anyway with all the hands and sweat and blood and everything just going around the court. Is it as satisfying, though, to take out your mouthpiece filled with spit and hit someone in the face with it as it is to spit in their face? Never done either, to be honest with you, but I don't know.

To spit in the face, I think, is a dangerous move. Hawk a big loogie in his fucking mouth. Yeah, because you've got to be close. You've got to be real close to spit. It's like a I'm ready for violence move. You spit in someone's face. That's not just an insult. It's like the only way to respond to that insult is like something more intense.

There's always like a moment when someone spits in someone's face where there's this like terrifying moment of anything could happen here. Like how does this go? Does this swing left or does this swing right? How does this go? But in MMA, like that happens i mean you're you're involved in these violent altercations if someone just threw their mouthpiece at the ground like you people would barely even notice it you know you you couldn't do it at a referee like obviously a referee they would warn you or something like that maybe i'm wrong could you throw a shadow punch or shadow kick and be like i was never gonna hit him i wasn't even close but like no no no no

no that's threatening yeah that's threatening yeah you know if you if you like fake kicked even if you were five foot away from someone you're kind of threatening you're at the very least you're doing something that's totally unnecessary like why why would you do that you're doing that to elicit some sort of response from the referee. You're trying to get him scared. Trying to get him to realize that he's in the cage with a trained killer.

I mean, seriously. If you're in the cage and Francis Ngannou's mad at you, and you're the referee, what a fucking terrifying position you'd be in. That guy is a smasher. He's just a super athlete smasher.

Has it ever happened in the history of MMA, like in a big fight in a cage, that a fighter's gotten pissed and taken a swing? I've seen it happen in boxing, I think, a few times. It just doesn't happen often, obviously. I think to the UFC fighter's credit, I don't think anyone has ever taken a swing at a referee. I don't think that's ever happened.

I don't think so. Okay. Well, that's good. Yeah. I think that, like, if you stop and think about how many fights there are and how few even, like, bad situations there are in between fighters, few even like bad situations are in between fighters. I like to think that even though it's a super intense endeavor to be fist fighting another person, male or female, like for the most part, they're like really friendly people that do it.

For the most part, they're very, you know, they're, they're accomplished. They're, and they don't have any time for bullshit. But lately there's been this trend, and I think it's because Conor McGregor's been so successful with it, of shit-talking to, like, the nth degree. Like, who can be the biggest shit-talker? And Kobe Covington is just going for it, baby. He's fucking going for it. And I got to tell you, I don't know how I feel because part of me thinks it's entertaining as fuck.

When I read some of the shit that he says and I see some of the shit he says, like he is just going for it. But it's working. See, here's the thing. And this is one of the things that he said. You got to understand, like a lot of this is you're just trying to get your name out there. You're trying to do something that makes a splash, even if it's a bad splash, even if it's like pissing off the entire country of Brazil, he's making a splash, you know? And I could see the point that like, you shouldn't do it that way.

I get it. I get people saying that. What I don't get is people saying that they're not paying attention. I'm paying attention. I'm not encouraging it. I'm just being an, I'm analyzing it from an outside perspective as a person who's a huge fan of the way Conor McGregor talks shit. I enjoy it. I fucking enjoy it. When Jeremy Steven says something to him, he goes, who the fuck is that guy?

When Jeremy Stevens says something to him, he goes, who the fuck is that guy? He's a magic man with that shit. I think he's amazing. His fucking timing, the things he says, he's a character. He's a fucking character. And he fucks people up. There's no denying that. Conor McGregor's a beast.

And I think probably not even in his prime. I mean, I think his athletic prime might be a couple of years away. I mean, who the fuck knows what that guy can accomplish. But one thing that's clear is that he's changed the landscape when it comes to shit-talking. Like, now

everybody wants to be a shit-talker. Now shit-talking talking is like it's mandatory for the gig you know shit talking has become some thing that like it's like an art form in and of itself guys are just some guys are just going for it so kobe apparently got into it with fabrizio over doom because one thing about brazilians if you talk some shit about Brazil they will get really mad at you they're very proud they're very nationalistic they love Brazil and I don't know if that was what the argument was about but Fabrizio over doom hit Kovacovic with a fucking boomerang see the problem with that is I don't think Fabrizio is trying to kill him. Right.

But the problem with that is that's a weapon like that. It literally is what it is. Like, it seems like it's goofy because it's something that we have when we're kids. You know, it never really works. Have you ever got a boomerang to come back to you? Like, come on, man. You can't just stay in the same spot and get that boomerang to come back to you. Has anybody ever done that can you really do

that sure I've seen it happen for sure you got to do it up in the air or something there's a way you throw it yeah but does it go right back to you see if you could find a video of someone actually getting a boomerang to go right back to the same spot where you stand they do that you can do with a frisbee to us even a guy do it with crazy frisbee so like they invented it so they can kill things with it though theybee, too. I've seen a guy do it with a crazy frisbee. So, like, they invented it so they can kill things with it, though. They invented it to, like, throw at birds and shit. So this is a real weapon.

Like, you're literally hitting a guy in the head with a weapon. I mean, I'm not. Look at this guy. That's Australian as fuck. What's he got to say? And the boomerang will come back. Let me just demonstrate for you. That guy's English.

He says boomerang's going straight out. Oh, the dog fetches it. He gotcha. He gotcha. He gotcha. I believe someone probably can, but the point is it's a weapon. So it's like Kobe got hit with a weapon. For Doom, he hit him in the head with a piece of wood and apparently he punched him in the face too according to colby

covington this guy looks like he'd be really good at a boomerang let me see it come back oh shit look at that that's fucking crazy oh it flew away oh yeah i mean is this bullshit too it comes back to the vicinity that you're in. Sort of like a, I mean, I don't know. Like even if you sent a falcon, I don't know if it would come right back to the same GPS spot that you left it, let it go from. But pretty, pretty close. Yeah. How does that work?

Falcons are just, they don't know what to do? I have no idea on that. So this dude is like a boomerang expert. Look at him just whipping that boomerang. How long would you have to practice to get that good at a boomerang expert. Look at him just whipping that boomerang. How long would you have to practice to get that good at a boomerang? That is, what a weird fucking weapon. And he couldn't catch it either.

He couldn't catch it, but what a weird thing, you know? That someone figured out how to do that. Like, how smart were those goddamn people? Like, how many different shapes did they come up with? Okay, if you had to guess, how long do you think the boomerangs been around thousands of years obvious I would say it's gotta be one of those accidents someone figured out and was like whoa look at that and

just threw it right hey comes back look at that it comes back yeah but do you think that like there's a conventional academic view of when it was invented. It must be, right? So you can find that. I just heard there's this, one of the most popular VR games or VR experiences, I think I showed it to you, you've probably done it, called Tilt Brush,

that virtual painting experience. Yeah, yeah. I just saw yesterday a tweet that said it was started as, the guy who made it started out to make a 3D chess game, but a bug was found that one of the pieces was dragging light behind it or whatever and it's like oh look at that and now he made the most popular vr thing there was based off of a bug that so similar someone could just

throw on a stick and be like hey look i say this one comes back to you what could we use this for right sort of like how they invented viagra because they were trying to come up with some blood pressure medication or some shit. Yeah, exactly. Like, hey, hey, hey. No one knows for sure how the returning boomerang was invented. Anyway, Colby got hit in the head with one. I don't know how that works, man. That seems like assault.

I mean, that's like, I know he wasn't trying to kill him. Watch the video. Let's see if we can watch the video. Boomerang 25 to 50,000 years ago. Wow, that's a big gap. Yeah. They're like, um, I don't know. He threw a bag.

It looked like he just bought it or something. I think someone might have, yeah, he might have bought it or someone gave it to him or something. They give you boomerangs down there, but he's got it in the bag, and he just fucking whips it. He hits him in the, like, side of the head. He hits him in, like, the shoulder and he just fucking whips it he hits him in the like side of the head he hits him in like the shoulder and the head and colby's still talking shit to him do they give out boomerangs like blaze in hawaii is that probably up they give you one yeah colby like when he hit him with it he's like whoa yeah this is crazy that just happened today, right? I think so. I just found out about it like right after the last podcast was over Great and they talking crazy shit to each other. We don't have to broadcast the shit talking. I find it rude and vulgar It's weird man. It's like some people like it some people like the trash talking

But these two guys are obviously in different weight classes, so they're never gonna It's like some people like it some people like the trash-talking, but these two guys are obviously in different weight classes So they're never gonna fight but some people like It's like tough guy conflict that fighters have with each other and some people hate it There's some people that think that some people are martial artists, you know, and they think that this is all like offensive that you should conduct yourself like a martial artist. And some people have said that, and a lot of people like agree with it and think that this is a better path

for the sport for all of us. But there's no denying the entertainment value of being a shithead. I mean, it's entertaining. You know, I don't want people to fight, but I am entertained often when they do. I think we'd all be better off if they didn't fight. But there's something about, like, Jon Jones going, I beat you after I did cocaine.

Like, there's something about that that, yeah, it's not like, it doesn't feel like the embodiment of the true spirit of what we would think of as martial arts being a vehicle for developing your human potential and the path of the true spirit of what we would think of as martial arts being a vehicle for developing your human potential and the path of the warrior samurai and the noble poet you know we have all these like quite chan cane views what martial arts are but one thing that martial arts are is a psychological warfare as well it's undeniable that it has a big impact and who you're fighting. You can get

emotional. If a guy fucks with your head too much, you can get to a point where you're out of character and you take chances you shouldn't take. You're nervous beyond like your ability to control because you're so worried about losing to this person that you have this big emotional investment with. That's real. I mean, that's one of the things that Miyamoto Musashi used when he was a sword fighter. In the Book of Five Rings, he would talk about all the different games that he would play. And people have documented it. Like when Musashi would have these duels, he would show up like hours late and let this poor fuck just freak out, worrying about a sword fight that he was

going to have. The guy's sitting there for hours and hours and then finally Musashi would show up and the guy would be like a nervous wreck and he would just fuck him up and kill him. And he had all these tactics that he used and that was just one of them. So psychological warfare is something that's always been a part of the martial arts. But some people feel like the most noble path for both warriors is just be respectful and just have no emotions on the line with this in terms of like a hate for each other. Instead, just respect each other like warriors and go after it. And there's been some amazing fights where guys took on that mentality.

That's, you know, it's an interesting thing, the way people express themselves when they're doing what I think is like the most difficult athletic endeavor. The way people get to express themselves. Do you decide to just put on a show or do you decide to be the stoic warrior, you know, who doesn't talk much and takes care of business? It's interesting, man. Like we were talking about Stipe Miocic before the podcast. I was going back and forth with Stipe. Stipe's a fireman. He's the heavyweight champion of the world. And he's also a fireman. He's the baddest man on the planet. He's the UFC heavyweight champion of the world. And he's also a fireman. He's the baddest man on the planet.

He's the UFC heavyweight champion of the world. He's smashing people. And he's also a fireman. You know? Like, that guy doesn't get enough love. Like, that's the heavyweight champion of the world. It's crazy. It's what a weird position that guy's in.

You know? And it couldn't be nicer, but you got to think, what if he was like a crazy shit talker? What if Stipe Miocic was like Colby Covington, just talking mad shit, you know, instead Stipe shows up to knock people out and he looks like he's in, in line to like take the bus to get to work like he he barely looks like he's about to fight he has like the most stoic relaxed expression before he fucks people up much like Fedor did he's got his own sort of version of that I guess one of the more amazing things about Fedor's career was like he would be in the middle of a firefight, just a full on firefight. And he never let his expression shift. You never saw Fedor like gritting his teeth and making a mean face. Fedor didn't waste any energy.

Maybe if he made one or two mean faces in his career, I might have missed it. energy. Maybe if he made one or two mean faces in his career, I might have missed it. But most of the time, he would be in the middle of these fucking horrific wars in pride with like just dead face. You know, I mean, he, in hindsight, especially since Kane's been injured so many times, he in hindsight, I think has to be recognized right next to Fabrizio Verdum as the two greatest heavyweights of all time, which Cain Velasquez is right in there in that mix too. And if he wasn't injured so much, I would think Cain is probably the most difficult one for all of them.

He just was, when he fought Verdum, not making any excuses for him, but I think he really didn't have enough of an opportunity to adapt to the Mexico City altitude. It's like extreme altitude. And Verdum did a very wise thing. He got up there way early. And he lived up there even higher than Mexico City. He set up his training camp

like way in advance. So he totally acclimated. So for the first time in Kane's career, somebody had a cardio advantage over him, which was crazy. And then on top of that, Fabrizio Verdum is just the nastiest submission artist in the history of the sport. He tapped out Fedor Emelianenko.

He tapped out Minotauro Nogueira. And he tapped out Cain Velasquez. Those three guys have to be considered top three all time. So top three or five all time guys, Minotauro's tapped three of them. Excuse me. Fabrizio Verdum has tapped three of them. Minotauro tapped a bunch of them too. You know?

Minotauro, when he tapped Mark Coleman, that was gigantic for jiu-jitsu. To show that a guy could tap somebody off of his back that was a UFC heavyweight champion and still a murderer like Mark the Hammer Coleman, watching Minotauro tap him was giant. But you just got to think of how good Verdum is. Verdum tapped Minotauro, he tapped Kane, and he tapped Fedor. So for Colby to talk shit to him, like, Jesus, dude. I want to see the rematch between Verdum and Stipe.

I hope they can make that. If Verdum wins his fight, I hope they can make that. If Verdum wins his fight, he decided to take this fight on short notice, fairly short notice, for Marcin Tibura, who's a very promising young guy. And he was supposed to be fighting Mark Hunt, which is going to be a crazy striker's match, I would imagine. But Mark Hunt got pulled from the card.

There's some concern about something that he said in an interview. And he said that the UFC is, that they want to remove him because of his lawsuit. And the UFC was like, look, we've already paid you $1.6 million since the lawsuit was filed. Like, you fought for us and made a lot of money since then. Like, we're not trying to stop you. I believe that's what they said. Pretty sure. I don't want to misquote that.

But the point is, like, they decided for whatever the reason was to remove Mark Hunt from the card and Fabrizio moved right into it. And it was right after he just submitted Walt Harris. So Fabrizio's still in the mix. And, like, having that quick win like that over Harris got a nice submission. Beautiful armbar transition from the back. It was just nasty. He's just so high level on the ground. I don't think people understand or appreciate it.

He could do that to almost anybody. The thing is like his level of jujitsu, he was a legitimate world champion in jujitsu. He won Abu Dhabi. I mean, Fabrizio Verdum is just a straight up killer. His jujitsu is at such a high level still. Like most of the heavyweights that get on the ground with him are going to be in deep fucking water. It's just the level of Jiu-Jitsu that he has is so high that like the average MMA practitioner, you know, at a high level has a really good level of Jiu-Jitsu. But Fabrizio Verdum is a guy that taps those guys. Like, that's how good he is. If he gets anybody that's anywhere near his size on the ground that's competing in the heavyweight division,

there is a huge likelihood that he has a massive jiu-jitsu advantage. And until you've rolled with a guy who has a massive jiu-jitsu advantage, you don't realize how big the difference between him being 5% better than you, him being 10% better, him being 15%. Fabricio's probably 20% to 30% better than anybody else in the division when it goes to the ground. So even if you're good and strong and you're athletic and you're quick, he puts the smush on you.

You stay smushed, man. The Brandon Vera fight's a great example of that. Brandon Vera was a bad motherfucker and he's good at the ground. He knows how to fight. He knows how to submit. He knows how to kick box. He was on fire at the time, but Fabrizio put the smush down on him. He got on top of him. That mount was just inescapable and he started smashing him. Fabrizio, super underrated jujitsu. I think even though people know it's his strong suit they know how badass he is when you watch like the shit that he can do there's not a whole lot of guys

that are like that as a heavyweight there's not a whole lot of guys that have that kind of guard there's not a whole lot of guys that are just so dangerous from everywhere and his striking has got really good too you got to think he knocked out Mark Hunt with a flying knee, you know, and that's how he won the title. He's a beast. Fabricio Verdum is a fucking beast. He just got super emotional when he fought Stipe in Brazil and just really charged at him, almost uncharacteristically aggressive. And Stipe just set it up and just dropped a bomb on him and knocked him out. But Stipe could do that to any living human any living human that chases stipe miocic around like that and stipe can just stop and cork went on you as you're moving in the only one i think you might be able to take something like that was like a prime time mark hunt like prime time mark hunt had like the greatest jaw of all time

cro cop head kicked him. Full on, left high kick to the head. And Mark Hunt like barely wobbled a little. He was like wobbled a little. Like he might have went down to one knee for a second and bounced back up. Like that would smash people. Most people got hit with that Crow Cop left high kick and it was night-night. But there's a video of it. I'm pretty sure crow cop was wearing shoes i think he was wearing shoes when he head kicked him

he's wearing shoes yeah that's crazy they let merco crow cop kick kickbox with shoes on pride didn't give a fuck. Look, see that? He's throwing kicks with, look at that. Boom, hits him in the head. Look what happens, a little wobble. That's it. That's insane.

You have to know how insane that is. Folks, you don't know. I mean, that is crazy. Mirko Krokop puts everybody to sleep. He didn't even make Mark Hunt sleepy. That prime time Mark Hunt had the most ridiculous jaw of all time. The most ridiculous ability to take a shot, I should say, of all time. Because it wasn't just his jaw. Anywhere he took, he just could take a shot. Just insanely, insanely tough. For Beast Over Doom, KO'd him. So you have to realize, you know, we're talking about a straight-up killer now.

And he's 40. It's interesting. He says he feels great, though. With guys like that, you almost wish they could get him on some TRT. You almost wish it was legal. Like, only they could administer it, monitor the levels. Because if Fabrizio Verdum could do TRT, if he could have TRT Vitor-type physique,

remember that? Those are the glory years of chaos, the TRT Vitor years. If you get a TRT Verdum, holy shit, son. I mean, goddamn. That would be insane. I wonder, yeah, there's TRT Vitor. And there's regular Vitor with the cross on his head. And then there's the first Vitor, which was probably like some other shit Vitor.

Yeah, crazy. probably like some other shit, Vitor. Yeah. Crazy. But at his prime, man, like when he knocked out Luke Rockhold or when he knocked out Michael Bisping or Dan Henderson in one round, he was just terrifying. He was just something different. Just smashing people

in a way that was kind of stunning. Like, wow, Vitor has never been better he just understood more because he was older and experienced and then when they let him take tests his body was performing like a young guy's body so he has this young guy's body but this old guy's brain and he just has incredible confidence from all his wars I mean he's been in there with so many just assassins and survived and lost and won. You know, I mean, Vitor's been around forever.

So to see him on the TRT makes you go, God damn, what's this little TRT, man? You're not supposed to say that. You're not supposed to say that, but here's one way that a company like Bellator or one of these other organizations could get ahead is if they allowed that. I don't know how they do that. I don't know if that has to be a state athletic commission thing,

but if there was a way where Bellator decided, listen, let's be honest here. Fighters would be much healthier, be able to get through their training camp better, feel more physically strong if we just allowed them to do just a little bit of TRT. We'll monitor it. We'll make sure everybody's okay. Extend the career of a lot of the older guys. What's up with that heavyweight grand prix they just announced yeah it's like a big tournament yeah they're doing some big crazy tournament ryan bader is

gonna fight as a heavyweight king moe's gonna fight as a heavyweight big country's in it mitrione rampage fedor rampage chael sunnins in it yeah he's gonna go like for a year or did they really i don't know i don't know what the schedule is. I just saw the announcement for it the other day, and I saw some pictures. I was like, oh, shit. Yeah. Interesting, huh? A Trion.

I like Ryan Bader as a heavyweight. That could be interesting. Ryan Bader not having to cut any weight, maybe even putting a little weight on. Fast as fuck man that might be his weight class who knows Ryan Bader he's the Bellator champ now what happened

doesn't that Frank Mir I think the picture is Frank Mir how dare they cut Frank Mir off you sons of bitches you sons of bitches. You sons of bitches. Have some respect. Have some fucking respect, whoever edited that shit. I was going to ask, have you heard any, I haven't heard his name come up yet.

Do you know who that is? Kyle Snyder. He's a wrestler from Ohio State. He won the gold medal in the Rio Olympics. He's really young. He's only 20 when he won it. He just won the 2017 gold medal for heavyweight to beat a Russian. I guess he's – I've seen his name pop up a little bit,

but I haven't heard anything about him training with a particular team. I think he's done at Ohio State now. He won back-to-back. Does he want to fight MMA? Is that what you're saying? I think so. So I was just Googling it. That's why I was asking if you heard anything.

It said that he wants to fight in the UFC and do the 2020 Olympics. Damn. What a beast. I know. in the UFC and do the 2020 Olympics. Damn. What a beast. I know. He'd have to be matched up carefully, you know. The thing about the 2020 Olympics, like, man, I got to think that would take up all your time. How would you have time to, like, kickbox and learn submissions?

I don't know. I mean, he's a badass wrestler, obviously. I don't know what he doesn't know or what he needs to. Well, I think everything escalates, right? Everybody gets better. I mean, there's outliers in every generation, like Michael Jordan-type characters. But I think in every sport, people get better. And it must be the case in wrestling, too, right?

It's got to be. I would imagine. I don't know enough. I only wrestled for one year in high school, and I quite honestly don't know enough about modern wrestling. But I could always call Cormier up, and he would school me on it. But I think if you look at the level, like he's a great example. Look at the level of technical wrestling knowledge that Cormier has

in relationship to maybe some of the earlier days wrestlers. You're talking about a completely different level. One of the reasons why Cormier has been so successful is how technical he is as a wrestler how good he is like his his wrestling is he it's like him Yoel Romero is probably number one like Yoel Romero meddled in pretty much every international match that he was ever in every international major tournament that he was ever in, he medaled. Yoel Romero is like one of the scariest wrestlers that's ever done MMA, for sure. There's no doubt about it. I mean, he was the freak of freaks.

He beat Kale Sanderson twice. And he was one of the greatest wrestlers ever. I mean, Yoel Romero was a freak. Did he ever fight in the UFC or anything? I remember hearing him when I was growing up. Kale? I don't believe he ever fought MMA. Pull that up.

Find out if that's true. There was a fake MMA fight I found out that the Russian experiment did. God damn it. Why can't I remember his name? I don't see anything. It just name? Coaching after he wrestled yeah, probably didn't probably decided not to what the fuck's the dudes named the giant guy the experiment I can't believe his name slipping my The giant Russian dude. Can I believe I can't remember his name? Gary Brunner?

No. No. Scientist. The one I'm always talking about. What? How? How does that happen? Where does an idea go and just vanish?

Why is it saying sleep experiment? No. The Russian experiment. That's why I typed in. He's the guy who lost to Rulon Gardner. Jesus Christ, I can't believe I can't remember his name. This is so embarrassing. No, the guy right above with the red singlet.

Keep going. Keep it right, right, right. Yeah. That's him. Go to the webpage. Alexander Careland. Thank you. Jesus Christ.

How can I not? I was coming up with some weird fake Russian names. We smoked pot before we did this. I'm sorry. Sometimes it's not good for your memory. There's a perfect example. Because Corellon is like a guy I've been a fan of his forever. He's just one of the scariest human beings that's ever lived.

I don't even know what my point was. What was my point about Corellon? Why would we be bringing him up? Oh, he had a fake fight. He had an MMA fight he had an mma fight and everybody was always like wow if that guy only fought mma it would be amazing and then he had like a pro wrestling match i don't believe i don't it's not saying it was like a fixed fight i think it was like a pro wrestling type situation and uh it just looked

weird to watch but at the time i think Rulon Gardner had beaten him, he had won, like, who knows how many fucking matches in a row. He was such a terrifying person. He would scoop guys up by their waist, and they would try to flatten out on their stomach to try to avoid being thrown. Have you ever seen video? Whoa, did we blow out?

What happened? there we go yeah all right we're back we had some issue i don't know what the happened but we were talking about uh jose aldo versus max holloway two dose which is only happening because frankie edgar apparently got injured i do not know what the injury was do you know what the injury was young james did he disclose it? There's a bunch of people that were talking shit online. I was watching one of his Instagram pictures. There was a video that he made.

A bunch of people were calling him a bitch for pulling out of the fight. Like, these fucking kids. Like, out of all the people to call a bitch, Frankie Edgar is one of the biggest studs that's ever fought in mma that guy's an animal he's i mean he's like one of the most durable tough and like mentally strong guys in the sport so when someone calls him a bitch it's it's it's actually hilarious it's like you read that like that is one of the craziest fucking things anybody could ever say. You called Frankie Edgar a bitch? Like, that doesn't even make any, that's preposterous. That's like saying Joey Diaz is a hot chick or something. It's just, what are you saying?

It doesn't even make any sense. Like, if Frankie Edgar is a bitch, do you know what kind of benchmark you have set? Like you have to be more of a man than Frankie Edgar or you're a bitch? That is crazy. We're all going to be bitches. We will all fail. You're going to look at a nation of bitches. If that's where you're setting your bitch benchmark, you're calling yourself a bitch for sure.

For sure. Because I guarantee you, if Frankie Edgar is pulling out of a fight for an injury, you would calling yourself a bitch for sure, for sure. Because I guarantee you, if Frankie Edgar is pulling out of a fight for an injury, you would have pulled out quicker. So you're more of a bitch than him. You'd have to be. There's no way you're less of a bitch or anything, anything remotely close to him. When you're talking about a guy who's a former UFC lightweight champion in a weight class that he barely even cut any weight for. He would walk around at 155 and he won the title. He beat BJ Penn.

Like, get the fuck out of here. More than once. Beat Cub Swanson. I mean, Frankie Edgar's a fucking monster. He's an animal. He's the wrong guy to be calling a bitch. She can't. It just shows you how ridiculous people are online. Oh, he's jumping up, bro. You don't get it, bro. He's a bitch for pulling out. I guarantee you that's not true. I guarantee you if he pulled out of that fight, it's because he's

fucking injured, period. End of discussion. He's not a bitch. He's not afraid of anybody. And that's not taking anything away from Max Holloway, because he's fucking awesome. Max Holloway is a savage. He's a killer, straight up killer. And not even close to his prime. Max Holloway is a long way away from his prime. He's way better now than he was when he first got into the UFC. He's continued to get better with every fight. Now he's the champion. He just stopped Aldo.

And then when they offered him the rematch because Frankie Edgar got injured, they offered Aldo the rematch. So Aldo took it. Now it's going to be Max Holloway versus Aldo too, which is still a huge fucking fight. And Aldo's when Aldo got accepted, Max Holloway wrote on his Instagram, it is what it is like, no big deal. Well, what are we going to do? Like what you're about to fight the greatest featherweight of all time for the second time and he's like it is what

it is like that's how badass he is he just figured if i fucked you up once i'm gonna fuck you up again like in his mind this is not a good fight which is hilarious that's that's what a beast max holloway is that he's facing Jose Aldo, and he's like, it is what it is. It's not what I was looking for. Yeah, it is what it is. What a beast. Max Holloway is a killer. He's a fucking killer, that kid. He's a killer. It is what it is. You're fighting Jose Ald aldo he's coming to get you because you knocked him out to win the belt he has a chance at revenge and he's like it is what it is he's an animal man the fucking kid is the real deal

what's so exciting about him is that he's not even close to done. You know, he has massive potential, and he could easily move up to 155 if he wanted to. Like, if they could... If, say... Max Holloway wins this fight spectacularly and then starts talking a bunch of shit about Conor McGregor and then moves up to 155, I think Max Holloway could easily compete at 155

if he wanted to do some sort of unification bout. I think that, not a unification bout, but a champion versus champion bout. I think for sure Max Holloway could be competitive at 155. And Max Holloway's only loss in his career was to Conor. That's the only loss he has on his record. That's what a badass he is. And he was the only guy that went to decision. Frankie Edgar released a statement after UFC 218 withdrawal.

Max, I'll see you down the road. Well, what's the statement? He's got a facial surgery to repair a facial injury. He says it's a minor setback. He'll start training in about six weeks. I wonder what it is. Maybe it's a face problem, bro. It might be.

I'm just saying. Facial surgery can mean a lot of things. You know, it can mean you got something wrong with your jaw, which is not good. It could mean you got something wrong with your cheekbone, which is not good. It could mean you got something wrong with your orbital, which is not good good. It could mean you got something wrong with your orbital, which is not good. Or it could mean something that I don't understand. So if he's not concerned about it,

maybe it's something I don't understand. Maybe it's not a broken something. Maybe like something was like detached or something needed to be stitched back on. Yikes. You think about all the elbows people have taken, all the shit that gets displaced all over your face. Like John Wayne Parr has sort of documented all the stitches that he's ever taken.

Multiple time world Muay Thai champion, just a fucking straight-up savage from Australia. And John Wayne Parr was still fighting. He's fighting for Bellator now. He's one of the Bellator on the Bellator kickboxing roster. But he's had, God, he's going to the bellator on the bellator kickboxing roster but he's had oh god he's gonna be pissed at me for not remembering but i think he's had more than 300 stitches in his face he's such an animal he's like documented them too i think they did something where it shows

john wayne parr and it shows all the places and they put stitches on all the places where he's had actual stitches. They, like, you know, doctored him in. I got to hear it. Yeah, and the picture's just straight crazy. You're like, you are in a business that shreds your face. Yeah, that's it right there. That's all the different places in his body where he's been stitched up, which is just incredible. I mean, you look at his

face. It's like a mask of stitches, but he looks normal when you meet him. They did a great job stitching him up. I mean, he definitely looks like a guy you wouldn't fuck with. You know, you want to fuck with a dude who has scars all over his face. Probably not a good move, but couldn't be a nicer guy. That was a fight that he had where his cornerman took that big cut on the side of his head and started making mouth things with it and talking. Hey, my name is Mr. Cut. That's how morose these guys get.

But, you know, he's still after it. And that guy's, you know, I mean, it comes to, like, the amount of facial damage that he's received and delivered. Delivered a lot of it, too. A shitload of it. Yuck. Oh, no. Who's that?

Ron Stallings? Suffers nasty cut. His eyebrow's hanging off. That's the choir boy. He's a very good fighter. That sucks. Yeah, there was a real bad one with Marvin Eastman. Vitor Belfort hit Marvin Eastman with a flying knee.

Not a flying knee, but like jumped into it, jumped knee, and just smashed him in the forehead and cut his eyebrow open terribly. It was like this really long cut. I was like, oh, my God. Yeah. Yeah yeah that one pull that up yeah that is a enormous cut i mean literally i mean four inches long maybe third eyebrow yeah like a huge third eyebrow going off his eyebrow and you see all the meat in there and everything.

And they have to stitch all that together. I mean, I don't know what happens with the muscles underneath it. Shit. That one was bad. What was that one? Is that it? Yeah. Marvin Eastman.

Oh, my God. That last angle was even worse. Go to that one right next to that one. Yeah. Look at that. You see it from that angle? Oh. It literally looks like he got attacked by a machete.

Like someone stuck a machete in his head. Yeah. Those are nasty. I don't know how we got to that. I don't know how we got on that. We were talking about damage, you know? I don't know if we said enough about the Goddard-McGregor thing. But it's always just very disappointing. I wish he hadn't have done it, but I get, I get where he, I get how he thought the fight was over, I get

why when he thought the fight wasn't over, he was furious, I get all of it, it's just very uncomfortable, and I think Goddard could not have handled himself better, that guy is a fucking man. I love the way he handled it. I love the way he wrote about it. The way he wrote about it was, like, so clear and so concise, and it's the way he wrote about taking control, like, his job inside the cage, what he was trying to do, makes you realize what a great referee he really is,

like how he's taking everything into consideration and following the rules, even in the middle of chaos. But you got to do. You got to do. It's a fucking tough job. That is one of the toughest jobs in sports. To be a referee in a professional MMA fight is one of the toughest jobs in sports. There's so much craziness going on, and it's so dangerous if someone loses. The moment between someone getting hit and KO'd and being okay

to taking five, six, seven, eight unanswered blows and not being okay. There is a difference. There's a big difference and a great referee is very, very important. And it's so subjective. It's so hard to decide when a guy's done. And how do you know? And do you take into consideration how tough the guy is? Because like Frankie Edgar can survive past the lands of doom where most people drown in their own fear. He survives past that and comes back and can win. There's guys like him. And then there's some guys, and once they get hit and once they get hurt, their ability to recover is not the same.

And I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's just the person who recovered, didn't fight someone who hits hard enough or in the correct places to do enough damage where they couldn't return, or if they're so damn tough it doesn't matter who hits them or where they hit them they figure out a way to make it back it's who knows there's a lot of arguments on both sides but man you got to take into consideration like if you're watching say a Frankie Edgar Gray Maynard fight and you go oh my god this could be stopped at any moment it could be stopped but it wasn stopped, and Frankie came back to win.

He had a draw in one fight, won in the second fight. And in the second fight where he won by knockout, it was arguably even crazier because Gray Maynard was fucking him up in the first round again. Like, Gray Maynard was a beast, and he was huge for 155. But Frankie Edgar got through that storm some guys wouldn't have and some referees would have stopped that fight and I don't know who's right that's I want to be really honest about this I have no idea who's right I don't know what the right move is

I don't know if the right move is to let a guy fight and let him recover and and and give him every chance he can to win that fight even if it makes him take, and give him every chance he can to win that fight, even if it makes him take unnecessary damage. Give him the benefit of the doubt, or err on the side of caution and safety. And different fighters would have a different opinion. You know, there was this archaic idea for a long time that has pretty much since been abandoned, but the idea was that if you tap from strikes, you're a bitch. It was a real thing, you know, that people would stick in George St. Pierre's face because he tapped with strikes to Matt Serra. Matt Serra just

blasted him and he was on top blasting him and George knew he was going out. So he just, he had a tap. Matt Serra was a KO, too. He could hit fucking hard. But when you tap to strikes, if you know that you're not going to recover, I think it's a smart move. I think we have the wrong way of looking at it if we denigrate people. I know they do it just to talk shit. I know you're it just to talk shit. I know it's that I don't, you know, you're testing someone's courage. But I think between fighters, there should be a difference between the shit talking that fighters engage in, and then the way that other people analyze

the actual sport itself. Because I think if you analyze the actual sport itself, you can't see anything wrong with tapping the strikes. If you're a pundit, you're a sideliner, you're an MMA fan, you're, in my opinion, if you really trust a guy's judgment as a champion and as a high-level fighter like George St. Pierre is, you can't be upset if he taps the strikes. It's because he's getting fucked up and he knows it. Like the Ioana Jacek, she said she didn't tap the strikes. She said she was moving her hand around. It looked like a tap to me. She was getting smashed, though.

She might not have even known she was tapping. She might have been in a memory short-out circuit where she's getting blasted, blasted, blasted. So if she even remembers tapping, who knows? She's getting cracked man i mean she got clipped with that left hand and then rose gets on top of her and starts dropping haymakers on her just boom boom boom boom and you see her reach over and tap right as the referee gets in and rescues her and she might not have meant to. She might have been just, you've got to realize,

when you're getting smashed in the face like that, everything is chaos. It's fireworks and sparks. And every situation is different. In one situation, you might have a guy who's fully aware of what's happening and knows exactly what he's doing. He's getting bombed on, but he can get through it.

Versus a person who gets hit. And from the very first shot, they don't know what the fuck is happening. They're just on queer street. They're Gonsville. They don't know where they are. They're like, whoa. And you can't see it from the outside. The only person who knows is the person that's getting hit.

And the only person who knows their ability to recover. Now, how much of that is psychological? How much of that is their fighting spirit? How much of it is physiological? Guesswork. No one knows. It's a combination of all those things for sure, 100%, because you can't just have the physical,

and you can't just have the mental. If you have the mental and someone has the physical way better than you, you have to have all of it. The idea that any person could be an MMA champ. It's like, Ooh, I don't know. Cause everyone that's a champ is fucking super exceptional. If it's not just physically, it's physically and mentally, like it's not an easy game. It's a crazy fucking sport. And, uh, who knows if you want to tapped it looked like she tapped who knows if she realized what was going on you know did you see that thing about that football

player that was diagnosed with cte for the first time while he was alive we sort of glossed over it when we were talking to dan carlin but this is the first time a living football player has been diagnosed with CTE. I wasn't going to ask who it was, but it says they're unnamed. Yeah, I wouldn't want people to know. I guess. Man, they're saying that even high school kids have it.

That high school kids who play a lot, bang heads a lot, you're going to get it. Like, that is... That is so hard to deal with. You think about how many people play football, how many people box, how many people fight, how many people are going to walk out of that thing just Gonsville, and how many people are going to be really clever, like Mighty Mouse,

and avoid the damage, and just have a technical understanding of, like of where to be and where not to be. What's coming next. How to keep somebody thinking. How to overload their mind with possibilities. You know, it's like you've got two different styles. You've got that style. The super technical upper echelon of MMA

where he's like gets super aggressive and picks up his pace towards the end of the fights and wind up finishing guys. Just excellence. Like that crazy suplex to armbar thing that he did on Ray, goddammit, what's his name? Ray Borg. The Taz Mexican Devil.

I fuck that up all the time. And when I do the weigh-ins, I call him the Tasmanian Devil. It just comes out of my mouth like an idiot. But Ray Borg, who's a very good fighter and very tough and fast, man. When Mighty Mouse just put it on him, it was like you're watching an artist. You're watching someone who's just clearly head and shoulders technically above anyone in his division. That's why this

fight that TJ's asking for gets really interesting. TJ Dillashaw versus Mighty Mouse is going to be one of the greatest fights of all time if they could pull it off. If they actually wind up making that fight, holy shit will I be

excited. I'll be so excited because I think this would be the first time in a long time where Mighty Mouse has been challenged. I mean, he got challenged by Ian. Ian McCall had him in a really bad spot. He's certainly been challenged by other fighters. You know, he certainly, like, fought fighters early in his career where he had, like, really good fights with them. Joseph Benavidez. But at the stage that he's at now, he's, like, he's so fucking, he's so advanced that I think it takes someone like a T.J. Dillashaw,

like a real, super confident world champion killer, to give him the fight that we need to see. Because if TJ really can make 125, and he says he really can make 125, then holy shit what a fight that is. Ooh, that's a good fight. Because TJ will have a giant power advantage, right? I mean, TJ's knocked out Hennon Barau. TJ's knocked out Cody Garbrandt in his last fight.

TJ avoided all the chaos that John Lineker brings into the cage. TJ avoided all that. He shut him down. Like, TJ right now is operating at a real high world championship level. And the only fight that he lost, he lost to Dominic Cruz by the narrowest of margins. Some people don't even feel like he lost that fight. There was an argument that if you look at the damaging blows, that he landed more damaging blows to Dominic, particularly if you factor in the leg kicks. So it's arguable that that was, at the very worst, a draw. That it was such a close fight to call.

That's arguable. Or you could argue that Dominic won, too. But the point is, he's a legit world championship caliber fighter. Like, TJ's a fucking killer. He's a killer. What he did to Hennon Barau is insane. And then what he just did to Cody coming off the deck and KO and Cody Garbrandt like that, that's fucking insane too. He's in rare form. So him

versus Mighty Mouse is the fight. That's the fight where you go, holy shit, which one of these guys is arguably the best fighter in the world? Because right now we think it's Mighty Mouse. But that thing always moves up and down. Like, who's the best fighter? You know, it always moves around. Like, when Jon Jones wins and knocks out Daniel Cormier, you go, damn, you almost want to give it to Jon. Like, he's in a deeper shark pond. You know, there's more killers.

He's fighting Cormier, who's just as good as they get. After beating Rumble after holding the title and John KOs him you got god man you almost have to give it to John but then John tests positive so you're like what the fuck man so here's the heat right it's John and DJ right Demetrius is probably my idea is ideas, number one. And John is in this situation where he's probably going to get suspended or something. But then you've got probably TJ, if not George St. Pierre. I said GSP moved up on the official list. Did he go to number one?

Number two. Of course. That's interesting that you give him that with one fight against Michael Bisping. There's the list. against Michael Bisping. That just shows you how badass you have to be to step in and fight Michael Bisping. After Michael Bisping knocks out Luke Rockhold, after he had beaten Anderson Silva,

defends his title against Dan Henderson, and you just jump in there and beat him and then jump to number two in the pound-for-pound rankings. It's like, what? Welcome back, man man it's crazy so what do you think about all that stuff they're having all this uh these conversations about who's ranking the fighters and that the organization shouldn't be able to rank the fighters like they shouldn't be able to make the matches it's done technically right now through uh writers right but mostly writers is it they i think you can see who the writers are right who writers are voting panelists i'm sorry but they're all people from let's see like yeah but

at the end of the day blogs and whatnot the ufc decides what they're going to do right at the end of the day they go yeah yeah you guys are cute listen george saint pierre is going to fight michael bisping shut the fuck up i was going to compare it At the end of the day, they go, yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys are cute. Listen, George St. Pierre is going to fight Michael Bisping. Shut the fuck up. I was going to compare it to something that came out this week. The way the college football runs their big playoff is they have a panel that takes into account all of the official rankings that are done, a couple computer rankings, but then at the end of the thing, it's still the seven or eight people are going to decide that this team is ranked over this team and it really comes down to money the matchups they

want to see and what they can sell in ads but they don't officially say that it just creates more posts like why did they do this we don't understand it and they won't say yeah well it's the ufc has the ability to do whatever it wants and they're in a situation, and here's the argument for it. They're in a situation where they just bought this organization for $4 billion. They need to make money, motherfucker. So they're going to have Tyron Woodley fight Nate Diaz. They're like, hey, that's going to do some pay-per-view numbers. And it will.

That's an interesting fight. I like to see it. I like to see how Nate deals with the biggest, fastest welterweight in the division, the biggest knockout artist welterweight in the division. I mean, there's no doubt about it. Tyron Woodley is a tank. He's a tank who throws fucking missiles your way. Boom, boom. And he's gotten very tactical. People got mad at him for those two Wonderboy fights, but I suggest that they don't truly appreciate what those fights represented. They represented extreme consequences for any mistake.

You're fighting a guy who's like one of the best counterstrikers on the planet Earth in Wonderboy. He's one of the sneakiest, slipperiest strikers in the planet earth in wonder boy he's one of the sneakiest slipperiest strikers in the sport he moves like a world champion karate guy who also has takedown defense and he's got a ton of experience in mma now and he just fights weird he throws front leg roundhouse kicks to your face he jumps in and hits you with shots you don't see coming because he has that blitz karate style that he employs sometimes. Very difficult to hit. His hands are always down low. And Tyron managed to not just beat him, and they were boring fights.

I'm not going to lie to you. They were boring fights, but they weren't boring to me while they were happening. It was boring in terms of the overall result because it was a five-round decision where not a lot of exchanges took place. But it wasn't boring when I was watching it. And this is why. It's because now that you know how it ended, you'll just sit through the fight and go, oh, my God, this is boring. But when you don't know what is going to happen, they don't know either.

And they're making these decisions, and they're so evenly matched that they're canceling each other out. And Tyron is doing a very smart thing by not engaging. And he's not doing too much. Because if he does too much, it leaves these openings. And he doesn't want to even remotely risk that he's going to put himself in a position where he gets open and Wonderboy catches him. So he makes Wonderboy do all the leading. And then when the bombs get dropped on both occasions, Tyron Woodley was the one that hurt Wonderboy, which is crazy.

When you think that Wonderboy is one of the best kickboxers that's ever fought in MMA. He had some insane kickboxing record. I want to quote it out of the top of my head. I think it was 57-0. It was 57-0 as a kickboxer. This is a guy that George St. Pierre said was the best striker that he's ever sparred with. That's how goddamn good Wonderboy is. He's another level striker.

And those two fights between Tyron Woodley and Wonderboy essentially were striking exchanges for the most part, except for the first fight. The first fight, Tyron did get him in a guillotine for a while. And it looked like he was burning his arms out. You know, you couldn't believe that Wonderboy got out of it. But the point is, in the moments of the fight where one fighter was in trouble, it was always Wonderboy.

And that's enough, in my eyes, to give Tyron the decisions for sure. Just that. If we want to look at what is a fight, I think the current system of like 10 points, 9 points, it's too flawed. We adopted this from boxing. We should have a way more comprehensive system. And I think it should be a system that's probably over 100 points,

or up to 100 points, rather, that you have points for significant moments in the fight like maybe significant moments when someone gets dipped that accounts for a certain amount of points significant moments where a person almost gets submitted and figures out how to power out that accounts for a certain amount of points do they power out and wind up reversing the position because that should be worth a certain amount of points you know there should be an accumulative effect it shouldn't be just like you won or you won. It should be like, how do you know who won?

Like, can we look at the stats? Can we look at the numbers? And then can we look at it from an expert point of view? Because every punch does not have the same impact that other punches do. Every kick does not have the same impact that other kicks do. And every submission doesn't have the same probability of succeeding. So if you're watching all these things happen, probability of succeeding.

So if you're watching all these things happen, you need real world-class experts to assess what's happening at any stage of the fight. The only people who should ever judge a fight are guys like Matt Hume, who used to judge for Pride, guys like Duke Rufus,

world-class guys, Firas Zahabi. You could get that level of martial artist to judge fights. And I think you would have the opportunity to create a totally new system that's not boxing-based because the 10-point must system is just so flawed. Have a new system and just only have high-level, world-class martial artists and nothing less do all the judging because they'll understand what the difference is between someone just taking somebody down and someone taking somebody down and threatening them someone who's on the bottom was winning with elbows or was threatening with submissions maybe they don't understand how close these submissions are some people don't know what

a triangle is locked up until it's a fucking tap you know there's if you've never sparred a day in your life and you watch someone who's tapping someone with a wrist lock, you're not going to know what the fuck is happening. You're just not, most likely, unless you're a real aficionado that's just never physically practiced it. Most of the people that are referees, unfortunately, or I should say judges, there's a lot of them. I don't want to say most of them.

A lot of them are real martial artists, 100%. But there's quite a few that were sort of grandfathered in from boxing, and they don't necessarily know a whole lot about MMA. Now, this is not representative of the vast majority, but I see them every now and then, and some of them are very nice people. And I say, hi, Mike, how you doing? I mean, we're just talking disagreements on things and maybe different levels of appreciation for what's happening.

But every now and then you get a decision where everybody looks at everybody and goes, what in the fuck does that just say? Like everybody, you, me, everybody. Look over at Tony. I look over at John Anik. He'll look over at me. I'll look over at Daniel Cormier. He'll look over at me.

I'm like, what the fuck? That shouldn't happen. That shouldn't happen when all the experts are in agreement that this is a bad decision. And we're not talking about like debatable moments. Like there's fights where you look at it and go, man, I could see the argument for this guy winning. And then the other guy could say, well, I see the argument for that guy winning. And I'll be like, damn, you got a point. You know, like Brendan and I will do that all the time. He'll make an argument for why he thinks that Conor won the second fight easy, and I'll make an argument like, I don't know, man. I don't know about all that.

I mean, we're not using the same system back then. When someone got dropped, it's not a 10-8 thing, right? It's not like they don't give away 10-8 rounds as quickly back then. I'm pretty sure that was the old rules. Was it not? God damn it, I should know that. Anyway, point being, some people think Nate could have got a draw in that fight. And I'm like, maybe. Maybe.

It wasn't far enough away where you couldn't see that. It was one of those where you're like, wow, maybe. There's been a bunch of fights like that. And I could see the argument for Conor winning 100%. He hit them quicker, faster, harder, won the first rounds bigger. But, man, I don't know. We're adding points. If you're just doing this 10-9 thing, and occasionally 10-8.

But now most of the states are adopting the full new MMA regulations. And as they do that, we're going to get a much better range of rounds, like what a round scores as, which is a good step. It's a good step in the right direction. I just think it is an incredibly critical part of the sport, is who judges the decisions. And again, it's not to disparage anybody who's currently doing it, but I think it is a

position that should be held in the highest of esteem right up there with referee I think this position is is uh it's crucial for the future of the fighters it's crucial for the legitimacy of the sport itself because when bad decisions happen people angry, and they question whether or not the sport is legitimate, and that's dangerous to the respect that the athletes face. Like here's a perfect example. Canelo Alvarez versus Gennady Golovkin. Everybody who's a boxing fan knows Gennady Golovkin won that fight unless you're a huge Canelo fan and you're just absorbed in Canelo.

You love him. If you watch that fight, Golovkin seemed to control way more of the fight than Canelo did. It didn't mean that Canelo didn't win rounds, didn't mean Canelo didn't land good shots, but he lost. It seemed to me that he lost, and they didn't give it to him. Golovkin didn't get the decision. It was a draw. And people were watching it going, what the fuck? And that's what Brendan called in advance. Brendan Schaub called it in advance. He's like, unless Golovkin wins by knockout, he's never winning a decision.

And I go, you really think so? He's like, fuck yeah. He nailed it. He totally nailed it. When they read the draw, I put my hands on my face like Macaulay Culkin and home alone I went oh you fucked him you fucking naughty galov kid. Oh You got him What do you think of that you said when they did the instant replay?

I think it was the first time at the UFC in New York. Yeah with the wall Harris fight. Yeah, it's a good move, man They keep doing that, or is that only a one-time kind of thing? I don't know. They should keep doing it. No, it wasn't Walt Harris fight. Which fight was it? They said they did it because of the Musashi Weidman fight. Right. And then they used it. I guess it got used, though, during those two

fights, right? Yeah, it was the Walt Harris fight and then there was the other fight. Ozdemir? Yeah. Yeah. So it came into play and was used properly probably right yes it was well the wall harris thing is very unfortunate he had kicked that dude um but the other one uh ozdemir got knocked out by who was the gentleman ozdemir was fighting oh don't try to remember look it up i was like i yeah, sorry. I was like, I was there. I can kind of remember.

I remember him, like, being pissed that he thought he'd lost, and you came in and told him that he didn't actually lose. Yeah, is that the dude he fought's a beast. This is a weird time. Weird time for the sport, man. Like, this is like a transitionary period, I feel like. like, this is like a transitionary period, I feel like. And Conor is such a gigantic star that he's almost eclipsed the sport.

Who was it? It wasn't Ozdemir. It wasn't? No. Oh, Volkan Ozdemir is the guy who's going to fight. Yeah, he's going to fight. Lights out guy. That's hilarious. Just pull up the last card yeah it's not alexi olinic actually that sounds right is it curtis blades defeated alexi olinic yeah

curtis blades beat the shit out of him. Yeah, that's right. Curtis Blades is a really interesting prospect. He's a big, big kid. He's super athletic. And he threw an illegal kick, but it literally just touched the ear. That was the Godbeer Walt Harris. That was the illegal kick.

That was Godbeer Walt Harris. Yeah, the other one was the doctor stoppage. Right, but wasn't there something that happened in that fight that was also controversial? I think he was beating him up, and then there was a—I'm trying to remember how it stopped. I think it was— Who did Godbeer fight? He fought Walt Harris. He got head kicked, right?

Correct, yeah, and Godbeer got the win on that. Right, but then when Curtis Blades, he accidentally kicked him in the ear. He just touched his ear. Referee stopped the fight after Blades delivered an illegal kick to a downed opponent. Yeah. Doctor called in to check on him. See, that kick barely touched his ear.

He was already done. Yeah, you're right. He was hurting really bad. Curtis was putting a beating on him. When he went down, Curtis threw this wild kick and just touched, I mean, literally touched his ear. It did not hit him. But the referee saw the contact and then went to the instant replay to make sure that he was okay.

As soon as the referee saw the instant replay, he was like, okay, clear, he's okay. But the doctors looked at him and they asked him, like, dude, this guy's fucked up. Like, this fight's over. And I think he said that it was over. He said he couldn't continue. I was bringing that up to begin with. Do you know how the instant replay worked? No.

Like, did they all just get into a huddle and watch the video, or was there someone? I'd imagine the referee probably watches it, and they probably watch it with, like, Mark Ratner, one of the officials. You know, and they look at it and make an informed decision. You know, and I don't know what the parameters of that are. I don't know who gets the call. But I would imagine there's very little disagreement when someone's looking at film like that because they're not biased. I mean, these guys, if you have John McCarthy and Herb Dean, they're looking at film,

I guarantee you they're going to agree on what it is. And there's a lot of dispute about that kind of shit. It's really important to have those guys that are completely on top of the rules. There was one fight where Tim Means fought Cowboy Oliveira, and he hit him while he was down. Do you remember that? And we were trying to figure out whether or not it was legal. And I believe it was Dan Mergliato.

And we even got Mark Ratner on the air, and Mark Ratner thought it was a legal knee because he was down on one knee with one foot and no hands. He's like, under the new rules, that would be legal. And Big John McCarthy says, no, it's like under the new rules that would be legal and big john mccarthy says no it's not if anything from your feet other than the soles of your feet are down on the ground you're still a downed opponent i was like oh so he had to explain it to me after the fight because everybody always calls it three points of contact but olivera literally did not have a foot on the ground he just had his knee his foot was up in the air and his other

foot was touching the ground and he got kneed in the face. And we got kneed in the face. They said it was an illegal knee. And we were like, how is that the case? Because there's only two points of contact. There's the knee and the foot. Like you're not talking about knee, a foot and a hand. It's just two points of contact. But apparently it can't be anything other than the ball your feet what it could be is you have the both balls your feet down the ground but you have one hand down that's three points of contact and under the new rules that would be legal under the old rules if you touch the ground at all it's illegal super confusing right so in that one it was really important to have a referee like big john waiting right there yeah see he smashes him like see how he's got

yeah the knee means more than one right that's what they're going with. Well, I think when it landed, that right foot was elevated and was off the ground. Didn't something similar happen where the guy delivering the knees, like, lifted him up off the ground? Yeah. Just to get him off the ground? Yes. Yeah, guys have done that, to lift him up off the ground and slam knees into their body because they were touching with their hands. You can do that.

That's legal. It is a weird rule, and it's a rule that we're going to have to figure out what makes sense because the knees to the head to a downed opponent, I feel like that almost makes sense because that is a real legitimate move. And if someone can do that to you, why is that different? Is it too easy? Like, why is that different than being able to elbow someone in the face when they're on the ground? Because it hits harder? Is that what it is? Okay, so it's better. So I can't use it because it's better. So you can just elbow me all day long in the face, but you can't knee me in the head and

put me out of my misery. I don't know who's right or who's wrong, but it's an effective martial arts technique, and they've eliminated it supposedly for the safety of the fighters. But you've got to figure out, like, what's legal and what's not legal. Like, here's another thing. This is a fascinating fight that just took place between Matt Brown and Diego Sanchez. Crazy wild fight, as long as it lasted, Matt Brown lands this fucking beautiful elbow.

He palms him away and just boom, drops this beautiful elbow on him. I mean, it was just picture perfect. And Diego goes limp like a sniper just shot him from the sixth floor depository. I mean, it was perfect. It's like the perfect KO, but Diego was complaining that it was the back of the head. But here's the thing. Nobody gives a shit if it's the back of the head. If you're standing up, watch this. Boom. Look how he goes limp. I mean, that is Diego Sanchez is a fucking warrior, dude. For him to go limp like that. Look at this. Boom.

here, dude. For him to go limp like that, look at this. Boom. Totally on the back of the head. But that's okay when you're standing up. That's what's weird. If you punch somebody in the back of the head, like when Matt Serra fought George, I'm pretty sure some of those shots he blasted him with, he hit him in the back of the head. It might've even been the first one. Because if you're swinging sometimes and your hand goes around, like your hand hits the back of the head all the time. Head kicks, head kicks hit the back of the head all the time. Like if you neck kick somebody, like if you go over, like say if someone's standing with their left shoulder to you, if you go over that left shoulder and drop down with that kick, that neck kick,

shit, that a lot of time goes in the back of the head. That's a lot of times where it's landing. It's coming around. You're coming over the shoulder. You're literally slamming your foot, the instep, right into the back of that dude's head. And that's a hard fucking impact from a leg. Happens all the time. It's totally illegal. It's weird. Because if you get on the ground, they'll go, watch the back of the head, watch the back of the head. Like even from the mount. I mean, even from the guard, rather. If you're in someone's guard, you're punched them. Watch the back of the head. Everybody's watching the back of the head. How about protect the back of your head? No one says, watch your eyes. Don't hit the eyes. You don't say don't hit the eyes,

the back of the head's off limits. It seems like a good spot to hit. Like, what are we doing? I mean, well, it's so dangerous. Everything's dangerous. This is fighting. This is MMA. Look, shouldn't you know what works the best? If you can elbow someone in the back of the head sometimes,

how come you can't do it all the time? I'm not saying that anybody should change that result. The result was perfect. Matt Brown by KO. I'm not saying that anybody should change that result. The result was perfect. Matt Brown by KO. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is open it up. Let guys do whatever they want to do. And no gloves.

I'm tired of saying this. Take the gloves away. No wraps. No hand wraps. That would save a lot. You would not be able to get away with nearly as much everybody would look like john wayne par though you'd be all cut up but i just think it's more realistic it's just so weird to me you put pads on your knuckles but you're allowed to elbow someone

in the eyeball what oh you're protecting your hands well that seems like cheating be, like, if you only hit someone with your hands so hard, that should be how hard you can hit them. Shouldn't be able to fucking put them in a cast. I mean, that's what you're doing. You put them in, like, a soft leather-covered cast. That's what that Margarita fight was. You know when Margarita got busted with Shane Mosley when they found cement in his gloves?

They took it too far. But that's what it is. You're making it so you can hit someone harder. It hurts almost as much. It doesn't have the sharpness to it that someone has when they hit you with bare knuckle. Bare knuckle has like a sharpness. Bare knuckle has like a sharpness, but the amount of power that someone can generate just with no regards to their own safety is more. They can swing, drop bombs on you.

Did he get caught because of that picture? Because they saw it? I do not know. Did they see it there? You could see it there? It's hard to tell what that is. Because it's broken. That's what that other picture was sort of alluding to. Can you make that bigger? As far as it'll zoom in. it's hard to tell what that is. That's what that other picture was sort of alluding to. Can you make that bigger?

As far as it'll zoom in. It's hard to tell what that is. That could just be the gauze that's all wet. I mean, it's after the fight. It looks like it cracked. I guess that's what they're trying to say. Whoa, really? I mean, I don't know.

The gauze shouldn't crack like that, right? It should rip. Yo, imagine if that's the case. What if it really did turn into, like, hard shit plaster there's the thing whoa i don't know how they found it you know i mean how did he get caught i don't know either i think they uh someone from that's how you get sugar shane mosley's team watched him watched him wrap his hands i think you're allowed to wrap watch your opponent wrap their hands and he noticed something in the wraps and had it pulled out. So then everybody decided that that's what he had been doing his whole career,

which is why he had been smashing people, because he had been smashing a lot of people. He just had more power, more pop, his loaded gloves. Prior to the 2009 Sugar Shane Mosley-Antonio Margarito fight, Mosley's trainer Nazeem, was in the Margarito dressing room so he could observe Margarito's hands getting wrapped prior to putting on boxing gloves. As Margarito's trainers were wrapping their fighters' hands, Richardson noticed what appeared to be a plaster of Paris powder on the wraps.

Dun-dun-dun! to be a plaster of Paris powder on the wraps. Dun, dun, dun. The plaster of Paris hardens when it comes into contact with moisture, and any fighter will sweat during the course of a fight. Oh, shit. As soon as Richardson saw the substance, he accused Margarito of fighting with loaded gloves. Margarito's hands were rewrapped, and Mosley hammered Margarito. He did too. He beat the shit out of him that day. I bet that dude felt guilty knowing that you were gonna

try to fight a world champion like Sugar Shane, but you were trying to cheat. Trying to load up them gloves, kid. Yeah, that's not good, but I think that bare knuckle would be different. I think it would be better for submissions for sure. Way easier to secure chokes. Your hands slip behind things way easier when there's no gloves. And it would be way harder to hit somebody. You would have a really hard time if someone ducked and you hit the top of their forehead.

You could easily break your hand. Like people break their hands all the time in that way. What else did I want to talk about? I think that might be it, dude. We covered it all. Aldo, Max Holloway, we covered that a little bit. I want to see if Aldo still can compete at a world-class level and improve. Because you know that he can compete at a world-class level and improve. Because you know that he can compete at a world-class level.

You've seen the last few fights that he's had. He still, I mean, other than the fight that he had with Conor, where Conor starched him, did he fight Frankie Edgar right after he fought Conor? I believe he did. I believe that's who he won the title from. Is that who it was? Yeah.

And he outboxed him. You know, he fought a guy in Max Holloway that's at the top of his game. Top of his game for now and with more height to come. But, I mean, he's just peaking. He's ramping it up right now. Max is a fucking beast. So it's interesting to see whether or not Aldo can recover. And he doesn't have a full camp for this fight either. You know, he had to take this fight on, I want to say four weeks notice. See if that's true. I don't want to lie. But I think Max Holloway is one of the best up-and-coming fighters for sure in the world, a world champion. When I say up-and-coming, I mean up-and-coming in like the pound-for-pound sort of a way.

I mean, he's just got greatness written all over him. If he just keeps up at this pace and he's got the attitude. He's got the skills. He's a straight killer, but you can't look past an old warrior like Aldo. Not saying that he is. I bet he's not, but everybody else can't look past it either. Aldo's still fucking super dangerous. He's going to be real motivated, and a win by Aldo would be gigantic at this stage of the game if Aldo could bounce back the way he bounced back from the McGregor fight and outbox Frankie if he could bounce back in some way figure out what he did wrong in that first fight and solve the puzzle whoa that's big that's a big fight's a big fight. And the other fight we talked about, um,

Tyron Woodley and Nate Diaz. Yeah. That's the other one. That's crazy. Five days ago. I found that it says he was supposed to fight Ricardo Lamas, uh, two weeks later.

And now he's been bumped up to this. So it was only five days ago. They made that fight. So, yeah. Whoa. And so he only has two weeks then. Yeah.

So yeah. November 11th. Jesus Christ. Well, that's confirmed Otto will replace Frankie Edgar, so I guess that was when they announced it. Jesus Christ. That's crazy. Well, I hope he's training a lot. I hope he's in great shape. I hope the weight cut isn't

too much either, because he's a big guy. At least he was for a while. He leaned out quite a bit. I think he was having a really hard time making that cut from like well into like he looked like he's about 170 something and then we cut down to 145 and real hard for him he would suffer in the last round of fights like uh if he didn't smoke guys early on sometimes he faded towards the end like he did with ricardo lamas like the end of the fight, Lamas was on top of him. Like he had done enough to win for sure. But at the end, he was fading.

He was getting tired. And I think a big part of that was probably just getting the water sucked out of you. You know, those guys, they torture themselves, man. The card for this weekend. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. For Duman, Tubor is interesting. I like that. Tim Means and Bilal Muhammad, that, dun, dun. For Duman, Tubor is interesting. I like that.

Tim Means and Bilal Muhammad, that's a serious fight. Some good fights on that card. All right, and that is when? Saturday? Yeah, Saturday night. Saturday night. In Australia. Oh, shit, Australia.

I'll be in. I'm going to be in Phoenix. I'm going to be in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm going to get to see Mike Goldberg. I haven't seen Mike in forever. He'm going to be in Phoenix, Arizona. I'm going to get to see Mike Goldberg. I haven't seen Mike in forever. He's killing it in Bellator, man. I like the fact that Bellator exists. I love the UFC.

The UFC is my home. I'm not doing commentary for anybody ever. The UFC is like family to me. But I think competition is important. I think it's important for everything i think these systems competing with each other makes them greater i think the more opportunities that young fighters have to perform and fight in the more you're going to see higher and higher level of of ability and performance level fighting knowledge just this more competition is a higher level for the UFC.

It's a higher level for Bellator. Everybody's going to accelerate. This is a growing thing right now. And as long as they're not competing with each other on the same night, as long as they don't do anything dumb and have fights on the same night, I think they complement each other. I really do. I think there's some fighters that will do better in Bellator.

I think there's some fighters that prefer do better in Bellator. I think there's some fighters that prefer to be in the UFC. It's all good, man. It's all good. You know, the UFC has way more world-class fighters, but Bellator has got some tough motherfuckers, some real legit world-class fighters too now. And their roster is growing. Like Rory McDonald is one of the best fucking welterweights on the planet and he's over there now. I hope we get him back. I really do. I love commentating his fights. Lorenz Larkin's over there now.

Lamas, like there's a bunch of guys. Diego Lima. I think Lima or Douglas Lima is one of the best fucking welterweights on the planet for sure. His brother Diego, I think, is still fighting for the UFC.

But there's a bunch of talent over there now. Like real legit talent. It's good. It's good for everybody. It's good for the sport. Gives people opportunities, makes people raise their games up. For the athletes, the more Michael Chandlers are out there, the boogeyman in the woods. Michael Chandler is a boogeyman in the 155-pound division.

He's terrifying for everybody. It doesn't matter what organization you fight for. That guy's a straight-up killer. So there's enough really dangerous world-class fighters over there in Bellator for it to be excitingly competitive for everybody. I think it's good. And I like that Goldie's got a gig because I love him. So I think that's it. I think we did more than an hour. We're going to call it the hour. But I'm a vibramouth motherfucker and I can't stop talking. I don't feel the need to apologize for anything I said. I don't think I fucked up and offended anybody. If I did, I'm going to blame it on the weed. Anything to add, young Jamie?

No, I think that was a good first. Episode one. There you go. I think we'll do this more often. Okay. I'm not guaranteeing every week, but we'll keep it close. All right. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.