The Joe Rogan Experience - JRE MMA Show #2

Episode Date: November 25, 2017

This episode is currently only available as audio. Joe Rogan sits down for an update after the Gastelum/Bisping fight with recent news in MMA.

Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out! The Joe Rogan Experience Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day! Ladies and gentlemen, coming at you live from paradise I'm in Hawaii right now And I was gonna watch the Bisping fight The Bisping-Kelvinping kelvin guestlem fight live and uh do like sort of a breakdown of it while it was happening but the shit was going on at like two o'clock in the morning out

here and it wasn't happening i have been eating like a pig and drinking i've been doing vacation type shit. I'm a strong believer in that you need to do vacation time. Like vacation time is important. You can't just be working all the time. Occasionally, you have to just fuck off. And so that's what I've been doing. I've just been fucking off. So I was tired and I decided I am not going to stay up late. And so I watched it in the morning. I watched it this morning and I've got a couple thoughts on it. First of all, Brendan Chobb said this on his Instagram and I could not agree more. I don't think you should be allowed to fight three weeks after you have a brutal fight like Michael Bisping did with GSP. He got rocked. He got choked unconscious. And then three weeks later, he's fighting a really

dangerous young and up-and-coming Kelvin Gastelum. And Kelvin is a beast. He's got nasty boxing. And that is what he showed in that fight. He hit him with a beautiful straight right jab and a right hand behind it, and oh my goodness, it was just, that kid is just on fire. He's just on another level right now. I'm super, super impressed with Kelvin. Kelvin has got lightning fast hands, and he's an interesting guy because he's what I would call a tweener and what that means is that i don't i mean i think kelvin in in the best best of times like if kelvin

has the best camp and the the best performance it's entirely possible that he could beat anybody at 185 pounds but should he be at 185 pounds boy i don't know because chris weidman is at 185 pounds and when chris weidman got calvin to the ground it really did look like you're talking about two completely different weight classes and chris weidman was able to choke calvin out and obviously weidman is a former champion and there's absolutely no shame in losing to Chris Weidman but it's just the way um it looked when you were watching the fight to me it looked like two different weight classes and um there's a lot of people that think that really Kelvin should be fighting at 170 pounds if he got the proper diet and he was doing that for a while uh it was at one point in time he was uh i know dolce was working with him for a while and uh he had his diet in line

and he looked fantastic and then you know just things happened and he didn't want to pay the Dolce money. I don't know who he's working with right now as a nutritionist, but I think he's a phenomenal fighter. I just don't know if 185 pounds is the right weight class for him. It could be. I mean, it could be that maybe what he really needs to do is just lose some body fat, put on some muscle, and maybe 185 pounds will be his weight class. It's just that constant debate of whether or not you should weaken your body and drop down to the minimum weight you can, or whether or not you should fight at a natural weight and have a healthy body.

It's a real good argument, and I'm pausing right now because I'm pulling something up. There's a girl that just died in Australia. She died very recently. She was preparing for a Muay Thai fight. And it's just part of what this sport is about. Unfortunately, it really bothers the fucking shit out of me. I think it's the scariest thing. I think, yeah, here it is.

Teenager dies training. Here it is. The girl's name, she was 18 years old and her name was Jessica Lindsay and she died while she was cutting weight. She was an amateur kickboxer in Australia. I cut weight a bunch of times when I was doing Taekwondo tournaments and it is brutal. It's terrible. I was bad at it too. I didn't do it correctly. I just worked out real hard the night before and wore rubber suits and the whole deal and dehydrated myself. And I didn't rehydrate myself well either. So I felt like shit the next day when I was fighting. And a lot of wrestlers back in the day used to do the same thing. My weight cut, though, was nowhere near as extreme as some of the MMA fighters do. Some MMA fighters, I mean, they're getting on death's door.

And I just think it's one of the most disturbing and most unfortunate aspects of MMA. Kevin Lee said before his last fight with Tony Ferguson That he felt like he was dying when he was cutting weight And he made the weight Khabib Nurmagomedov, who's the, if not the best One of the very best lightweights in the world Undefeated Had his body shut down last time he tried to make the weight

And couldn't make the Tony Ferguson fight They pulled him out and took him to the hospital. I mean, I'm beating on a dead horse here because it's something that everybody knows. Everybody's aware that it's a terrible, terrible aspect of our sport. And in my mind, it's contrary to what martial arts is supposed to be about. So in that sense, I encourage Kelvin to stay at 185 pounds because obviously the guy has knocked out Vitor Belfort at 185. He just knocked out former champion Michael Bisping at 185 pounds. I mean he could knock out anybody at 185.

But a guy like Chris Weidman who is very smart about cutting weight, He cuts a lot of weight, but he does it the right way, rehydrates the right way. And he's just a fucking beast. He's just so much bigger. And when he got Kelvin to the ground and submitted him with a head and arm choke, boy, it just really seemed like that's the wrong weight class for Kelvin. And then you see Kelvin next fight, fights Bisping and just fucking lights him up in the first round. fights Bisping and just fucking lights him up in the first round. Now, would he have been able to do that if he fought the Bisping that was training for George St. Pierre? I mean, if Bisping did not have the George St. Pierre fight and just went right into

the Kelvin Gastelum fight, would the same result have happened? It could very well have. The way Kelvin hits, he's fast as fuck. His hands are beautiful. He throws really crisp straight punches and in this sport there's not a whole lot of guys who have crisper sharper hands at 185 pounds than kelvin i mean he just has beautiful head movement and boxing and when he moves in for the kill with those hands. Whoa!

You saw in the Vitor Belfort fight. I mean, he just fucked Vitor up with those straight punches. And he throws them efficiently and they have snap to them and just – and on top of that, he's a very good wrestler. I mean, a lot of people forget how good his wrestling skills are on top of all that. He's just a real threat at 185 pounds. Fascinating thing because it's just such a wide-open division. He just called out Robert Whittaker, who's the interim champion, of course, and called out Whittaker and wants Whittaker to fight him next.

But, of course, Robert Whittaker is waiting for the big payday. I would too if I was him to fight George St. Pierre. So it's a wide-open division now that St. Pierre choked out Michael Bisping and then Kelvin just lights up Bisping. And of course, you've got to think that Weidman is still in the mix. I mean, even though Weidman lost to Yoel Romero and then lost to Gegard Mousasi, he's still in the mix. He was winning that Yoel Romero fight, in my opinion, until he got caught with that wicked flying knee. But that's the danger of fighting Yoel Romero.

Yoel Romero could do that to anybody in the world. He's just such a fucking freak athlete. So really, really wide open division. I'm bummed as fuck that Gegard went over and decided to fight for Bellator. But I get it. I mean, these guys got to go where all the money is. And at Bellator, he easily could be a a champion I think he could be a champion in the UFC as well and maybe we will see him in the UFC again I mean he could easily fight a year or two over in the UFC and then come back over Gegard is still relatively young but it's nice to have competition I think competition is good for everybody and I think it uh I think it really

elevates the sport it elevates the level of sport And you can see by the results that a lot of these UFC fighters are having, especially Lorenz Larkin, who is very good. He's a very, very good striker. He loses to Lima in a bid for the title and then loses by knockout to the always dangerous Paul Daly. and loses by knockout to the always dangerous Paul Daly. So I think Bellator, and now especially in that 170-pound division, you've got Rory McDonald. Bellator is really showing they have absolute world championship caliber talent over there. So to get back to that fight, I agree entirely with, to get back to the Bisping and Kelvin Gastelum fight, I agree 100% with what Brendan Chobb said, that you really have to protect a fighter from themselves.

You really can't be letting a guy fight three weeks after an absolutely brutal fight like that. It just does not make sense. It just does not make sense. I don't think it's smart. I mean, I understand the UFC needed someone to fill in and short notice because Anderson Silva tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, and they did not want to lose the Shanghai main event. So it turns into an even bigger fight when you've got the former middleweight champion right off of his loss three weeks later fighting again but it's just not smart i know bisping wanted to do it i know bisping would probably do it again if he asked him to do it if you if you ask bisping to fight in a couple weeks he'll probably probably do it again and and um someone was talking about him

fighting in england i believe in march which which, boy, I mean, that's less crazy, but still crazy, right? Because we're basically into December. So you got December, January, February, three months off, really, and then March. But, of course, during that time, he's going to be sparring. And, you know, you know Bisping. He's a fucking animal. He's not going to train easy. He's not going to take much time off and uh there's a lot of debate as to how much time a fighter should be forced to take off after they get knocked out and here's the thing about that

you're you're seeing guys when they're fighting and you're seeing them getting knocked out and you're seeing them fighting you know x amount of're seeing them getting knocked out and you're seeing them fighting X amount of months later. So you saw Bisping. He didn't get knocked out by George St-Pierre, but he certainly got rocked with that left hook and then he got choked out when he was on the ground. Now, for people who don't know a lot about MMA, getting choked out is not nearly as bad as getting knocked out. There's almost nothing to it. The way to look at it is if you look at a garden hose and you know how you can bend the garden hose and cramp it down and it stops the water from coming out? That's exactly what happens to your fucking brain when you get choked out.

When you get choked out, it's basically cutting off the blood of your brain. You wake up and you're fine. You don't have memory issues. You don't have memory issues. You don't have balance issues for the most part, especially if you've only been out for a couple of seconds. It happens all of the time in training. I've seen many, many guys get choked unconscious. I've choked people unconscious. They come back and they're fine.

It's not that big of a deal. unconscious. They come back and they're fine. It's not that big of a deal. But you got to realize before he got choked unconscious, he got hit with a big fucking left hand and hurt. And it was a great fight before that. Both guys were giving and taking. Fighters need time off after fights. So you're seeing that, right? You're seeing the actual competition between George St. Pierre and Michael Bisping. What we're not seeing is how many times he got hit during training. Did he get rocked ever? Did he get clipped and dropped? Did he get dropped and hurt and take a couple days off and then get back to training again? Only he knows. Only his camp knows. And most of the times they're not talking. But you hear about

it all the time. As a matter of fact, I was talking to Forrest Griffin once. And Forrest was telling me that before he fought Anderson Silva, he was knocked unconscious twice in training. That's fucking crazy. I mean here he is about to fight the greatest pound-for-pound fighter of all time next to – I mean there's three guys in that debate, right? My number one guy right now is Mighty Mouse. I think just he represents the highest skill level. But does he represent the highest competition level in terms of like the guys he's faced? I don't think so.

I think number one competition level is Jon Jones. Jon Jones has choked out Lyoto Machida, Rampage Jackson. He's beat Rashad Evans. He beat Alexander Gustafson. He beat Glover Teixeira. He beat Vitor Belfort. He beat Daniel Cormier twice. I mean, fuck. He's beaten everybody.

I think you look at competition-wise, Jon Jones is a very strong argument for the greatest of all time. But Anderson Silva's fucking right there too, man. Anderson Silva in his prime, I think when you look at the way he knocked out Vitor Belfort with that front kick to the face, when you look at the way he fought Forrest Griffin in that fight that we were just talking about and KO'd him like a magician the way he fought Stefan Bonner and literally put his back up against the cage and again

Stefan Bonner and Forrest Griffin they're just no disrespect, they're not at the same level as Lyoto Machida or Glover Teixeira or some of the guys that Jon Jones has faced. But it's the way Anderson beat them.

I mean, Anderson was just in his prime. He was a fucking master, like a real master. So Forrest Griffin fighting Anderson Silva after being KO'd twice in training camp is just insane. But these are the things that fighters do when they have to do them. You know, you're talking about a giant payday. You're talking about a big fight. You give the guy a chance. Like, do you want to fight? Do you think you could fight? Yeah, yeah, I could do it. I could do it. And they go out there and they're compromised and they get clipped and you see it immediately sometimes. Sometimes you see guys, they get clipped and you don't know why. I mean,

they get hit with something and look, at any time when a person is throwing a punch or a kick at you and it connects, it can put you out. But there's no doubt at all, no doubt about it, that the resiliency of a fighter after they've been KO'd is compromised. There's just no doubt about it. When you see a guy who's been KO'd and then you see them get hit weeks, months later, they cannot take a shot the same way. Their brain is still recovering. Their body is still recovering from the concussion. You have to figure out a way to balance being a risk taker and seizing an opportunity, which is a huge opportunity, versus concentrating on having a long and healthy career. Now, that said, for Michael Bisping, he's kind of at the end of his career.

I mean, he said essentially that he wants to fight one more time in England, which would be beautiful for him. And I hope they give him a good matchup so it'll be a good fight for the fans. And I hope they give Michael some time off. Give the man some time to really relax and then go through a real nice three, four-month training camp, get in excellent shape, and give his best effort for one more go at it.

I would like to see that. But it might be the hardest shit in the world to talk a fighter into retiring or for a fighter to figure out when to retire. I was just talking to Matt Brown. He came to see me in Denver. And I was telling him, I was like, dude, that fight that you have with Diego Sanchez, what a perfect way to go out Beautiful spectacular knockout Classic Matt Brown fight Just blood and guts He's one of my all time favorite fighters to watch

For sure Because he's so fucking ferocious You knew when you were going to go To see a Matt Brown fight If Matt Brown was fighting anybody Win, lose or draw That guy was going to have to face hell Matt Brown fight, if Matt Brown was fighting anybody, win, lose, or draw, that guy was going to have to face hell. Matt Brown would bring it. The ferocity, intensity that that guy

would bring inside the octagon was just unrivaled. And the thing about Matt is he's not like an unbelievably physically gifted guy. He's not like some kevin randleman character you know there's been guys that are just physical freaks you know anthony rumble johnson there's uh you know brock lesnar there's there's guys that are just physically they're just freakish they can do things that are just incredibly unusual and then there's guys that their mind is just unbreakable. They're just a fucking warrior to the core, down to the cells. That's Matt Brown. And Matt Brown can lose. He's lost before.

But he just loses because his body gives out. It's never because his mind gives out. I mean, that guy is coming to fucking kill you every time he gets into that octagon. And I love that about him. I mean, it's one of my all time favorite fighters to watch for sure. And when I was telling him, congratulations, I mean, it's an amazing way to cap off a career. It's like, might not be the last one. So he's still, you know, even after going through all those wars, you know, he's in his 30s now. I believe he's like 35. I think he is.

Maybe 36. And still wondering. I think he's 36. Still wondering. Is this it? Do I do one more? Do I do one more? One more.

Because the thrill that you experience. I mean, obviously, I've never fought inside the octagon, so I'm just guessing. I mean, obviously, I've never fought inside the octagon, so I'm just guessing. But the thrill of just fighting in general, it's such a much higher level of danger and excitement than most people experience in everyday life. And it's incredibly addictive. And it makes regular life seem dull and gray in comparison. and gray in comparison when those guys get into the octagon when a guy like matt brown smashes an elbow down on diego sanchez and diego slumps and goes limp and the crowd goes insane and you know when just when matt got into the octagon there's a crazy video of the fight while we're watching the fight matt steps into the octagon steps through the cage and fucking roars

i mean roars like you see it in his face you see it in his eyes he just opens his mouth and screams that motherfucker was there to fight that's what he loves to do and it was finally there it was finally happening gets through the training camp steps into that octagon. It's go time. That is as exciting as life is going to be for him or for any combat sports athlete. And it is incredibly, incredibly hard to give that up. Once you've experienced that, man, I mean, you see it in these guys. It's so hard for them to know when to walk away. But I think it's incredibly critical to balance out the glory of combat sports, the glory of giving your all and going out on your shield sometimes and sometimes winning with vicious knockout or incredible submission,

but knowing when the body has taken enough, knowing when your vehicle is damaged to the point where you should not be engaging in competition anymore. And it's different for everybody, and it's so hard to figure out when. And some guys just know. Some guys just know, and they go, you know what? I'm good. That's it. I don't feel it anymore.

I'm going to step away. TJ Grant's a good example of that. Here's a guy that was supposed to be fighting for the title. He's about to fight for the UFC lightweight title and nobody ever heard from him again. He was suffering from concussion syndrome. He just had a real hard time recovering from a concussion that he got in training and never fought again. He took a regular job. He's done some training, training fighters and stuff, but never decided to get back into the octagon again. Chris Holdsworth's another example. Got a training injury,

got hit in the head in training real bad, got a concussion, and decided to stop, and that was it. Very hard for these guys to figure out when so um next saturday december 2nd there's a big fight it's a rematch between max holloway and jose aldo you also have alistair ovareem and francis and gano on that card whoa henry saludo and ser Pettis, Eddie Alvarez, and Justin Gagey. Just those four fights right there. Holy shit. Holy shit. I know I talked about Holloway versus Aldo before.

What I like about this fight is, first of all, the first fight was very good until Aldo ran out of gas and Holloway took over. Aldo's camp was saying that going into that fight, Aldo had a leg injury, which kind of makes sense because he really didn't throw many leg kicks, but he also didn't throw very many leg kicks against Frankie Edgar. I think the strategy for that fight, though, was that he was worried about the takedowns of Frankie Edgar. So he had decided to avoid being taken down. One of the best ways to do it would be just to avoid kicking and just outbox him.

And he did that very well in that fight and won a pretty clear unanimous decision. This is going to be a different fighter. I mean, Max Holloway is in his prime. He beat Aldo the first time around, and he's incredibly confident that he's going to be able to beat Aldo the second time. Aldo, though, said that he had this leg injury, and it prevented him from throwing leg kicks, but that it's better now,

and that's one of the reasons why he's excited about fighting Holloway again. Now, if that is the case, and if Aldo is in tremendous shape, because he took this fight fighting Holloway again. Now, if that is the case, and if Aldo is in tremendous shape, because he took this fight on relatively short notice, he did not get a full two, three month training camp. I think it was five weeks out, maybe more. I'm sorry if I'm wrong about that. I'm not looking at it right in front of me, but I know it wasn't a full camp because I know it was supposed to be Frankie Edgar. Edgar got injured, and so Aldo steps in. So we're going to find out.

We're going to find out if Aldo can make the proper adjustments and whether or not the ability to throw leg kicks is going to make a difference because Aldo's leg kicks classically in history have been some of the very best in the game. If you look at his fight with Uriah Faber, it's one of the very best uses, uses? Best use of leg kicks maybe in the featherweight division ever, and just smashed Uriah Faber's leg to the point where, I mean, it's one of the all-time grossest injuries in MMA. Uriah's left leg was like twice the size of his right leg, and had to do a bunch of crazy therapy to recover from it, including hyperbaric chamber and you know he documented it your eyes he's such a cool dude he's uh i love that he did this he

he documented a lot of the injury online to show everybody like look how fucked up my leg is and uh that's aldo at his best uh is aldo the same guy now? I mean, he's gone through 29 professional MMA fights at the highest level. He's been a champion for a long time. And, you know, he's had some wars. The second fight with Chad Mendes was a war. Of course, he got stopped quick by Conor McGregor. The fight with Max Holloway was a war. I mean, he's been through some really tough fights.

Does he still have that same level? We really don't know, and we're going to find out. Hopefully, we're going to find out from an in-shape. I mean, I don't know what kind of camp he was involved in, like how hard he was training, rather, before he entered into camp for this championship fight. I'm hoping that he was in good shape, and that's one of the reasons why he was so eager to take the fight.

And we're going to find out. We're going to find out Saturday night, and that's very interesting. But maybe even more interesting is Alistair Overeem and Francis Ngannou because Alistair Overeem is one of the most experienced guys in the division, of course. Overeem is the former Dream heavyweight champion, former Strikeforce heavyweight champion, and former K-1 Grand Prix champion.

One of the very best kickboxers to ever fight in MMA, without a doubt. But you want to talk about a guy who has been in wars. Like, let's Google Alistair Overeem's overall record because it's got to be fucking crazy. As far as the number of times he's been stopped, I mean, it's really fucking bananas. Let's go and look. We'll first look at his MMA career. We'll count this up.

And this is no disrespect to him. I'm a huge Alistair Overeem fan, and I'm not saying that he should retire or anything crazy like that. But let's just take a look at how many times he's been stopped just in MMA. Okay, so he won two fights in a row. Fantastic victory over Mark Hunt. He KO'd him with knees and won a split decision over Fabrizio Verdum. Or actually a majority decision. One of the referees, I guess, or one of the judges called it a draw. I thought that was a very close decision, but I thought that Verdum was going to get the nod, quite honestly.

Let's look at the times he's lost, though. Stipe Miocic, when he fought for the title, knocked him out. Before that, Ben Rothwell knocked him out. Before that, Travis Brown knocked him out. Before that, Antonio Bigfoot Silva knocked him out. Brutal knockout. So that's just within the last four years in the UFC, he suffered four brutal knockouts. Before that, Sergey Karatunov knocked him out. Brutal knockout in 2007, 10 years ago. Mauricio Shogun Hua knocked him out also in 2007.

He lost to Ricardo Arona. He got stopped in that fight. He tapped two strikes. stopped in that fight. He tapped two strikes. Hojirio Noguera stopped him. Little Nog stopped him. His corner stopped it. It's a TKO. That was in 2006. He got stopped by Fabrizio Verdum, but that was a Kimura. That was a submission. Shogun Hua stopped him the first time in 2005 So Shogun knocked him out twice He TKO'd him in 2005 and KO'd him in 2007 Before that, Little Nog beat him by decision Chuck Liddell KO'd him in a fantastic fight where Overeem was really coming

on strong against Chuck and then uh Chuck caught him with some brutal punches and KO'd him that was in 2003 before that Bobby Hoffman a lot of people forgot about Bobby Hoffman way back in rings, KO'd him in 2000, and that's it for MMA. So just MMA KOs, right? The first KO loss, we have Bobby Hoffman, then we have Chuck Liddell, then we have Shogun, Dell, then we have Shogun, then we have Little Nog, then we have Arona, then we have Shogun again, then we have Karatanov. Okay, we already have seven. That's Karatanov. Then we have Bigfoot Silva, eight.

Travis Brown, nine. Ben Rothwell, ten. Stipe Miocic, 8. Travis Brown, 9. Ben Rothwell, 10. Stipe Miocic, 11. 11 stoppage losses in MMA. I mean, holy fucking shit. That's crazy. 11 knockout or stoppage losses in MMA. Then you go to kickboxing.

Then you go to kickboxing. Badr Hari stopped him in the K1 Grand Prix Final in 2009. He stopped him. He got stopped by Glaube Feitosa in Kyokushin vs. K1 in 2004. He got KO'd. He got stopped by Bernard Paris in K-1 Holland. That's in 2001. So, one, two, three KO losses in kickboxing. On top of all the other MMA losses.

That's a lot of fucking stoppage losses, folks. And it's led people to question the durability of the current guy. But what we do know is that Alistair these days is since he's gone over to Jackson and Winklejohn in Albuquerque he has become much more elusive much slicker on his feet moves around a lot more and doesn't just try to smash people the uberim the guy that we saw fight Brock Lesnar in his UFC debut. That was like classic Ubering, which is jacked to the tits, smashing people, running through people. He would meet force with greater force. Now what you're seeing is the Alistair Overeem that fought Junior Dos Santos, who fought an incredibly clever fight.

Moved around well. Santos, who fought an incredibly clever fight, moved around well. He was very, very slick, very difficult to hit, and then started scoring on Junior, and then eventually caught him with a beautiful left hook and KO'd him. That, to me, is the interesting Andrei Arlovsky today, a guy who realizes that perhaps he can't take a punch like he did when he was younger. He's been in a lot of really, really tough fights as we just went over and realizes like, hey, now I have to be smart. Now I have to be clever. I have to move around a lot. I have to use my skills. And his skills are substantial. In my opinion, he's the best, right up there with

Mark Hunt, of course, who he just beat, the best heavyweight kickboxer ever. When it comes to credentials, he's the best heavyweight kickboxer ever in MMA, really. No heavyweight kickboxer other than him and Hunt have ever won the K-1 Grand Prix, and Hunt won it. He stepped into the finals as an alternate. He had lost earlier that night. Not to take anything away from Hunt, because because of course mark hunt is still just one of the the all-time greats when it comes to kickboxing

but when mark hunt won um he won we can go to that record right here mark hunt won um the the k1 grand prix he won it he had lost that night um see, he's fought the K1 Grand Prix a couple of times, he lost to Semmy Schilt, he got TKO'd by a spinning back kick, and he won, well, he's, god damn, he's fought a lot of fucking awesome kickboxing fights too, so too. So he lost to Ray Cepho in 2001 in the semifinals. And then he won that night. He beat Stefan Lecco. So he lost to Ray Cepho. Ray Cepho apparently couldn't continue. And then he came back to

win. If I'm getting that right, yeah. Looks like he beat Stefan Leko in the semifinals. Well, it says semifinals. It says wins K1 Grand Prix Championship 2001. Oh, okay. He fought Francisco Filho, but that was in – I'm looking at a different date. That was in 2002 or 2001.

He beat Filho. Anyway, I'm rambling. Did you notice? Yeah. I'm talking too much. So he's fighting Francis Ngannou, and Francis Ngannou, who is right now 10-1 in the UFC, 10-1 with zero draws, so 10 wins, and has just been smashing everybody. And if you look at his last fight against Andrei Arlovsky,

that was a fight where it was probably one of the first fights where he really got tested. We really got to see what happens when he fights a former champion and a former really world-class fighter? And it was a good test, but now a bigger test is in front of him when he's going to fight Alistair Overeem. I mean, we've seen him so far four times inside the Octagon. He stopped Curtis Blades by knockout. He stopped Bohan. I don't know how to say this guy's name again,

Mihaylovich, I don't remember how to get it. Boyan Mihaylovich, I do not remember how to say homeboy's name. Then he stopped Anthony Hamilton by submission, showing that he has submission skills as well. And then, of course, just knocked out Andrei Arlovsky in his last fight. It's a very interesting fight because the question is, is Ngannou ready for a guy who's got the skills of Alistair Overeem? The skill, the experience at the highest level, the craftiness. The skill, the experience at the highest level, the craftiness. Is he going to set traps?

And is Francis Ngannou going to fall for those traps? The other question is, can Alistair Overeem take a shot from Ngannou? Ngannou has legitimate, absolute one-punch knockout power, extreme confidence, and he's fresh and in his prime right now. Actually entering his prime. I mean, arguably, he hasn't even reached his prime yet because Ngannou is one of those guys that at 31 years of age is near his physical prime, but he's still learning. He's still getting better at the sport.

And as he fights better and better competition, you're going to see more of his skills shine. You're going to see where the holes are in his game. And you're going to see how he responds to adversity. Hopefully, we're going to get a chance to see all those things in this fight. If Overeem wins, there's a very good argument for him being next in line to fight Stipe Miocic. The real question about the heavyweight division, the real question other than who's next for Stipe, the real question is the health of Cain Velasquez. Cain Velasquez, in my opinion, is without a doubt

one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. He's just a force of nature when he's in shape. When you see the Cain Velasquez that beat Ben Rothwell, when you see the Cain Velasquez that just stormed the division, when you see him in the second and third fight with Junior Dos Santos, that Cain Velasquez is a fucking monster. The question is, after all the surgeries, back surgery, knee surgery, shoulder surgery, can he come back and be that guy again?

As a fan, I most certainly hope he can. But we're really not going to know. Another fight on the card that's very interesting is Henry Cejudo and Sergio Pettis. Sergio Pettis is the younger brother of Showtime Pis, Anthony Petis, who is the former lightweight champion. And Henry Cejudo, of course, is a former Olympic gold medalist, the number two ranked fly weight in the world. And Henry is coming off of an absolutely spectacular KO of Wilson Hayes. I was blown away by him in that fight. In that fight, he looked like some sort of a karate master. I mean, it was a very, very interesting fight.

Before that, he lost to Benavidez, and Benavidez is, of course, one of the most experienced, one of the best guys in the division. And he lost a very, very close fight, a fight where I've talked to his coaches afterwards, and they were really pissed off by the decision. They thought Cejudo could have gotten the nod, but he rebounded and he rebounded versus Wilson Hayes and looked like a completely different fighter.

The thing that excites me about this fight is two things. One, the potential of Sergio Pettis. Sergio Pettis is a young kid. He's one of the youngest guys in the division. He's the extremely talented younger brother of another extremely talented fighter. So he's had martial arts in his life, you know, most of the time growing up. He's 24 years old now. He trains under the great Duke Rufus, who, in my my opinion is one of the very best guys in the division in terms of his ability to coach fighters. He's fucking fantastic.

Not the division, I should say, in the sport. Duke Rufus is just an amazing striking coach. He's a former world Muay Thai champion himself, outstanding kickboxer, and extremely knowledgeable about both kickboxing and MMA and one of the best guys in the world at training kickboxers for MMA. I mean, he's just fantastic. And what we've seen from young Sergio, we saw him get submitted by Alex Caceres early on in his career. And Alex is just slicker and caught him on the ground and uh and then we saw him lose again to ryan benoit i i think that these losses especially for a young fighter are absolutely critical i think you find out what you're really made of you and you see what you

need to improve upon and in fighting tough guys early on like Alex Caceres, like Ryan Benoit. I mean – and we're talking about two years ago he fought Benoit. He was 21 years old then. So – or 22 years old. He's 24 now. So he's a really young kid, still learning, still growing, on the job and has looked fantastic in his last few fights. Looked really good against John Moraga and looked even better against Brandon Moreno in his last fight, which was a five-round unanimous decision victory.

So this, in my opinion, is going to be the toughest fight of his career because Henry Cejudo just has that Olympic gold medal winner mindset. The mindset of a guy like Cejudo, I mean this guy is focused on being a champion 24 hours a day. And if you look at the way he fought against Wilson Hayes, I mean if that's indicative of the kind of improvement that this guy can make, and Kieran Fitzgibbons, who is another fucking phenomenal Muay Thai coach, he told me that this kid is just a sponge and just can learn so fast at a ridiculous weight. And I think you're looking at athletic prowess in Henry Cejudo, but I think maybe perhaps more important than that,

you're looking at his mind. His mind is just ultra sharp and focused and determined, and he's just got that championship mindset. I mean, that's why he is an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling. So he's got unparalleled wrestling skill in the division. And then on top of that, if you look at the Wilson Hayes fight, you look at radical improvements in his striking and movement. I mean, he looked like a combination of a prime Lyoto Machida and Conor McGregor

with his movement against Wilson Hayes. I think a lot of guys are realizing that karate style, if you have all those other bases covered, if you have great wrestling, if you have submissions, good takedown defense and good boxing skills as well as Muay Thai, everything else, that karate stance, that sideways stance that we see employed all the time by Wonderboy Thompson, that we see a bunch of different fighters. Of course, Lyoto Machida, a bunch of different fighters use that stance inside the octagon. Conor McGregor, it's a very difficult stance to deal with. If you're good at it, if you're good at that movement, that in-and-out, side-to-side movement, Michael Venom Page has a very unusual take on that. Fighting in Bellator, he likes to fight like that too. And of course, he's a former point fighting champion.

That style is fucking hard to deal with. It's really hard for guys to judge. And if you're dealing with a guy like Cejudo, who's lightning fast on top of that, and starts moving like that with those world-class wrestling skills, with excellent striking, classic striking, boxing, kickboxing, very difficult to deal with. I'm very interested to see what style he takes or how he approaches this fight with Sergio Pettis. He's quite a bit older than Sergio, being 30. That's a really interesting fight. I'm very curious. I just do

not know how that one's going to play out one fight that i don't know how to is going to play out but i'm fucking beyond pumped for it is eddie alvarez and justin gagey justin gagey is a fucking savage and so is eddie alvarez eddie alvarez is a beast. And I think a lot of people are looking past Alvarez. You know, Alvarez had just come off of that brutal knockout loss, kind of a humiliating knockout loss to Conor McGregor. And then after that, he is involved in the no contest versus Dustin Poirier. I believe that was an eye poke. That is, I'm trying to remember how that fight went down, but I do not. I feel like someone got poked in the eye. Either way, it's a no contest. So that obviously doesn't move him up the ladder any. And he's got to regroup. Yeah, no contest. Here it is. Yeah. Yeah, this was a okay. Now I remember what it was. It wasn't an eye poke. It was a knee to a downed opponent. And it was a fucking phenomenal fight while it played out against Dustin Poirier. They were going back and forth.

Now I remember the fight. And Poirier had Alvarez in some deep trouble. And Alvarez rebounded. And Alvarez rebounded. And Alvarez, I believe, hit Dustin Poirier with a knee while he was down. Yeah. That's exactly what happened. And interesting.

Yeah, see, this is what happened. Poirier, Alvarez, Herb Dean was defending it, saying that Alvarez didn't intentionally knee Poirier. And if I remember the fight, it was a crazy war. Alvarez had been rocked. Poirier had been rocked. Poirier was bloodied, and Alvarez hit him rocked Poirier had been rocked Poirier was bloodied And Alvarez hit him With an unintentional knee That could have Resulted in a disqualification Win for Poirier

And Poirier was saying that he looked at it As a win Which is interesting So anyway Poirier rebounded from that fight, obviously, and stopped Anthony Pettis in his last fight. So the division is just crazy and unbelievably hot right now. And everybody waiting to see what the fuck happens with Conor McGregor rebounding. But Eddie Alvarez with the no contest and before that the KO loss to Conor McGregor desperately needs a win. And he's coming in there against one of the most fucking savage guys in the division. Justin Gaethje showed in that Michael Johnson fight what he's made of.

And a lot of people were very excited to see him inside the octagon. He had been fighting in the World Series of fighting and looking like an absolute monster but against what a lot of people thought was just not the same caliber of competition as the ufc offered and so they wanted to see what would happen if he fought a real world class fighter and And what we saw in the Michael Johnson fight is a Justin Gaethje who fights, I don't want to say reckless, but he puts himself in danger. And it's one of the things that makes him so exciting. He forces his will on people. He's a ferocious striker and an excellent wrestler as well and just fucking puts it on fighters. He tests their will.

He puts tremendous pressure on fighters and the the fight with michael johnson was just a pleasure to watch just so much fun and so fucking crazy there was so much chaos in that fight and a lot of people were introduced to justin gaethje from that fight the hardcore fans had known him already from the World Series of Fighting and had heard about him through the internet, but the UFC fans and the people that were watching that night, they really got a chance to be treated to just the kind of chaotic fight that is really going to bring the casual casual fan when they see a guy like

Justin Gagey fight it's really going to make you a fan of this kid just his style it's just there's very few guys I mean other than I mean Matt Brown who I talked about before but even Matt Brown is capable of winning so many different ways, whereas Gagey, he's going to probably try to knock you out or get – I mean he's even said himself that he might get knocked out. You're probably going to see me get knocked out, he said, over the next few years. He's got that mindset, this kill or be killed mindset. and it's just absolutely fascinating to see this kid compete inside the octagon because he's so fucking crazy because he's such a fucking animal inside the octagon he just got this undeniable killer instinct and indomitable spirit and just there's levels to this game there's levels physically and he's at a very high level physically

But there's also levels mentally And that's what excites me about Justin Gaethje is his The mental level He just has zero quit in him And he's 100% ferocious So him fighting A fucking animal

Like Eddie Alvarez That's just a recipe for a good time. And we're going to get to see that. And we're going to get to see that next Saturday night live on pay-per-view. So how long have we been doing this here? 49 minutes. Boy, I can fucking talk a lot, huh? So also on the undercard, here's another fight that's a big fight um this is uh

charles olivera versus paul felder paul felder continues to impress i'll tell you what paul felder is a fucking phenomenal uh commentary guy too he did commentary guy color commentator he did a fantastic job doing um commentary for uh d Tuesday Night Fight show and the Tuesday Night Contenders show. And he's done some UFC events now as well and just excellent. Great enthusiasm, very knowledgeable, great talker, smart, articulate guy. And he's fighting Charles Oliveira Saturday night. Now, Charles Oliveira is a guy who has had mixed success inside the octagon. At his best, he's been incredible.

He shows a great range of very technical striking and very, very solid Brazilian jiu-jitsu. But he's had some tough losses. The KO loss to Cub Swanson. He burst onto the scene with an amazing victory way, way back in the day. See, this is not even, Efrain Escudero was his second fight inside the Octagon, actually, and he got him by standing rear naked choke. That was a big fight because Efrain Escudero had won the ultimate fighter and it was just, it was a big victory for him. And he went down. He lost to Cowboy Cerrone. He got KO'd in the first round. He lost to Jim Miller. He got submitted. And then the Cubs

Swanson KO. He got beat up by Frankie Edgar in a very fun fight, three-round unanimous decision. Then Max Holloway put it on him and stopped him in the first round. Then Anthony Pettis submitted him. So he's had some ups and downs. Ricardo Lamas KO'd him. Excuse me, Ricardo Lamas KO'd him. Excuse me. Ricardo Lamas finished him by submission in the second round.

So he beat Will Brooks by submission in the first round of his last fight and got back on track. Looked excellent in that fight and fought that fight. It was like it was a real do or die fight for him against Will Brooks, a guy who was coming over from Bellator, a guy who's very talented, and Oliveira wound up submitting him. That was a big victory for him. And in my opinion, this is one of the most dangerous fights for him right now at this stage of his career because Paul Felder is a fucking killer. He's an animal. He's very, very strong physically.

He's a big 155-pounder, whereas Oliveira is a smaller 155 pounder. A guy who's fought at 145 before, but just really had a hard time making that weight. Felder's going to have a power and strength advantage, and Oliveira is going to have to be crafty. And in my opinion, his best way to win this fight is to get this fight to the ground. And in my opinion, his best way to win this fight is to get this fight to the ground. And that's going to be a tall order, a very tall order. Felder is just a very aggressive, very durable and extremely aggressive guy at 155 pounds. Can I say aggressive one more time? I really loved his fight against – well, he's had some amazing fights inside the octagon but what what i

liked i liked his fights against i like his fight against barboza because the barboza fight showed him against one of the very best strikers in the division and he got outstruck he lost that fight but he was in it every second of the fight and he was trying to win up until the very end. He's had some ups and downs inside the octagon, but he's won two in a row, both by knockout, both in the first round. And the Barboza fight and the Ross Pearson fight were two decision losses that he got, a split decision against Ross Pearson. He beat Danny Castillo in a spectacular spinning backfist knockout.

Jason Sago before that. And the Barboza fight, I think, was just a good example of where this guy's heart is at. Fought against one of the best and fastest strikers in the division and was in it to the end it was a real learning experience for him and that was uh also a fight of the night so i think felder at this stage of his career is really coming into his own i don't think he's in his prime yet i think uh at 33 years of age we're starting to see the very best of him and he's he's got an incredibly bright future but also've got to realize at 33 years of age, you've kind of got to get after it right now.

I mean, this is the time for him. And for Oliveira, Oliveira's got to capitalize on that victory that he just had over Will Brooks. And he's a little bit younger at 28 and still got massive potential and an incredible amount of experience for a guy who's 28 years old. So this fucking card is just stacked. This card is stacked from top to bottom. I mean, you've got Cowboy Oliveira versus Yancy Medeiros is on that fight.

And David Tamer is on that fight card as well against Drakkar Close. Now, that's a fucking sleeper that's the big sleeper fight there because david tamer is a fucking vicious striker i mean real world class striker and he's only 28 years old and david tamer really let everybody know what the fuck is up when he fought Lando Venata. A lot of people had no idea who he was up until that fight, even though he had won two fights in a row by KO in the octagon. against a really talented striker like Lando Venata and just outstrike him every step of the way, you really got to see how good he is. And again, at 28 years of age, I don't think we've seen the best of him yet.

I think he has just got a massive, massive amount of potential. And that's the fight that I think is the big sleeper fight on this card. A lot of people are just not quite aware of it. And the guy he's fighting, Drakkar Close, 8-0 with one draw and very fucking dangerous fighter as well. He's coming from two victories in a row in the UFC. And this will be probably his most dangerous fight against Tamer. Tamer is just a wild, fast, dynamic striker with legit world-class kickboxing Muay Thai skills. Very, very fun card.

So that's going to be next Saturday night. Also, Tisha Torres is going to be fighting the Karate Heidi. Heidi? Karate Hottie? Michelle Watterson. That should be a fun fight as well. Tisha Torres, who's an outstanding striker and Michelle Watterson who uh employs a lot of that karate style as well that we're talking about that sidewards sideways stance she's got good kickboxing skills as well good

submission skills and uh Tisha Torres is gonna most likely try to keep this fight on the feet this should be a lot of fun I mean um Michelle lost her last fight to Rose Namajunas, but she beat Paige Van Zandt by submission before that in a very, very impressive fight. Angela Magana, she beat her by submission before that. And Jessica Panay, she beat her in Invicta by decision before that. And she's got a lot of hype behind her. One, because she's got a unique style. She's fighting out of Jackson's in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

And she's also a very beautiful young lady. And of course, people like that. That's a very interesting fight. The whole card. This is like a great card from top to bottom. It should be a very interesting fight. The whole card. This is like a great card from top to bottom. It should be a lot of fun. But again, the sleeper fight, like I said, is David Tamer and Jakar Klos. Keep an eye on Tamer.

That motherfucker is wild. Oliveira versus Felder should be a lot of fun. Alvarez versus Gage. Do not go to the bathroom. Do not get popcorn while that fight is going on. As long as it lasts, that fight will be chaos. I think Cejudo versus Pettis is going to be a very interesting test to see where Pettis is at this stage of his career. And to see if Cejudo can continue to show these massive jumps and leaps of improvement that he showed in his last fight against Wilson Hayes.

The Overeem and Gano fight. Fucking A, man. That could be chaos. I am interested to see whether or not Francis and Gano can catch Alistair Overeem or whether or not he finds himself against a guy who's far too crafty for him at this stage of his career. I mean, we really don't know. He fought Arlovsky in his last fight, but with all due respect, I do not believe that Arlovsky is in the same category as Overeem. I think Overeem represents another level of danger. And on top of that, Overeem is a very good ground game that a lot of people are forgetting about. Overeem won the Abu Dhabi European Trials.

He submitted Vitor Belfort. I mean, Overeem has legitimate submission skills. Submitted Mark Hunt. Overeem can submit guys. He's got good wrestling skills as well. You've got to remember, he took Stefan Struve to the ground with a beautiful takedown that TKO'd him when he got him to the ground. He may choose to try to take Francis Ngannou to the ground.

We might see that. We don't know. It's a very interesting fight to see where Ngannou is at ground. We might see that. We don't know. It's a very interesting fight to see where Ngannou is at this stage of his career and the biggest test of his career so far and a fight that Overeem was looking for. Overeem believes that he has the skills to put Ngannou in his place and reestablish himself as the number one contender in the heavyweight division. That makes me very happy to see that fight. I'm very pumped.

And then, of course, for all the marbles in the featherweight division, Max Holloway versus Jose motherfucking Aldo for the title. You know, with a guy like Aldo, you've got to remember, you're talking about a guy who was the best ever at featherweight for a long fucking time. You're talking about a guy that, up until that Conor McG McGregor fight had beaten everybody that they put in front of him. He rebounded fantastic from that fight with the Frankie Edgar fight and then got beat down by Max Holloway. I want to see where he's at right now. I want to see whether or not he can rebound.

And I want to see after 29 professional MMA fights at the highest level at 31 years of age, does he still have what it takes to fight at a world championship level? And can he come back better than ever? Now with Max Holloway, he's a fucking killer. Max Holloway has everything you want to see in a champion, a championship's mindset. And the way he wanted to go down at 25 years of age, too, I mean, just keeps getting better. He's not even near his prime. The way he wanted to go down to Brazil and beat Jose Aldo in Rio, and the way he said

it, that he wanted to fight him in his country, and that's what kings do. They go to the other person's kingdom and take their throne and that's what he did very exciting fight so i'm fucking pumped for next saturday night um now to answer some of the criticisms and questions a lot of people have been saying hey man you should probably do this with guests i am absolutely going to do this with guests the only reason why i didn't do this one with a guest is because i'm in hawaii bitch i'm on vacation and i felt like i owed everybody one because i just thought i was going to do one of these things every week but the next one i do i will bring in a guest and i'm going to

bring in i'm going to try to bring in more fighters um i think this is the best way i think to do a fighter podcast not just i mean i'm definitely going to do more where I just sit down, do a regular podcast with them for the JRE podcast. But when it comes to just a straight MMA podcast, I'm going to do quite a few of these, bring guys in. Bring some guys in that are interesting that I don't think maybe some of you folks have never heard talk before. So that'll be cool. I'm also going to ask questions or have you guys ask questions. So what I'm going to do is for the next one, I'm going to put a post up on Instagram

and allow you guys and gals and non-binary folks to put – how long do we have to say that for? Non-binary folks. How many of you are out there that are non-binary folks to put, how long do we have to say that for? Non-binary, how many of you are out there that are non-binary? Is it really important to address you? Do you feel left out if I don't? Humans, I'm going to allow all of you humans to ask questions and we'll pick some good ones and throw those out there as well in the podcast. So that's it for now uh next week i got i

got some good guests this week i've got some really fucking funny people um i have ct fletcher who's uh i'm sure he's funny but he's also a power lifting legend he's gonna be here um owen smith the guy that i've been telling you folks about who who's, in my opinion, one of the funniest motherfuckers on the planet Earth and a guy people are sleeping on. People just don't know how good Owen Smith is. He'll be here. Brian Callen will be here this week. I got a lot of good guests this week. So that's it for now, friends.

And thank you for tuning in to episode 2 of the JREMMA show. And I'll talk to you guys soon. Okay. All right. Bye-bye.