the post-fight Victory horns are sounding and they are sounding

for one sugar Sean O’Malley the new UFC bantamweight champion of the world it’s

official we can say it welcome to the sugar show everybody and welcome to the UFC 292 post fight show

we are live here on the MMA fighting YouTube channel thank you for joining us it is right now 3 13 a.m on the East

Coast but the Vibes are high as they have been all week new champion in the bantamweight division Zhang Wei Lee with

a record-breaking dominant decision win in the co-main event to retain the straw way title Ian Machado Gary dominant win

we’ll talk about that and more I am Mike Heck and joining me to talk all about it

is a man you saw on the watch party a man who is with us watching Sean O’Malley knock out Al Jermaine Sterling

live he is the one and only Mr hot take Mr no gray area Jed michoud Jed how are you

sir I mean I’m a changed man Mike because I now am living in the sugar era it’s so

sweet it’s so sweet Mike oh yes what a great end to an event that was

let’s be honest I enjoyed it it was not a bad of it but it was it was lagging a little and then Sean O’Malley just

rewrites the rules to the game baby and now we got something to talk about for real we certainly do and again like I said

you were live with me as this is all going down with GC Sean O’Malley sniped

him just like he said he was going to do all week I’m gonna snipe him I’m gonna find his shin at some point he makes a mistake I’m gonna find his chin and he

did it Sean O’Malley is the bantamweight champion of the world Judd Michelle this just happened a couple of hours ago

has it really sunk in here that Sean O’Malley did what a lot of people thought he wouldn’t do outside of a a

value betting perspective unless you were walking around Boston because everybody thought Sean O’Malley’s going to win in Boston

yeah I mean I think everyone thought that this could happen I don’t think many people predicted it certainly I

think the smart money and the smart thought was that aljo has a lot of advantages like

all of the on paper and I said it uh various pre-show stuff and even on the watch party all the on paper stuff was

in algebra’s favor but there were Vibes there was this idea um that you know maybe O’Malley has a

touch of the McGregor and him this abilities sort of make unlikely outcomes occur in in the best you know possible

Universe for him and it happened eerily close to the McGregor Aldo finish

frankly um him doing that over a guy colloquially known as aljo is certainly something and you know history

may not repeat itself but it appears to have rhymed in this instance and so not like shocking that this happened I’m not

like I can’t believe what occurred but uh it was it was very cool to see happen

and sort of where we’re gonna go from here the the bantamweight division is never going to be the same uh and

it might not be for better frankly but I am very interested to see kind of how this how this rope plays out moving

forward yeah I think at this point at least during this Reign the bantamweight

division will very rarely be like a co-main event division like it has been

for so long but Sean O’Malley is the champion and things are going to change very quickly he obviously called out

Cheeto Vera something he’s been calling for the whole time and then he called out jervante Davis you do that was coming it happened like within three

minutes of this I did not I did not know that was coming out and that’s all me hand up I was dumb I should have known

that was coming but the speed with which it pivoted to I guess I’ll fight Cheeto

because like people kind of want to see that one but I don’t wanna I don’t want to give the business to the rest of

these dudes because they’re not big business let’s fight Javonte it was lightning fast

yeah it just seems it seems like this we were heading in this direction Marlon Barry just need to do his job he did it

against Pedro Munoz this is where we’re going like Shawn O’Malley wants December it seems like Cheeto Vera and his team

are already planning on December I saw a post from his manager saying thank you

for an epic week in Boston we’ll see you in December this is the fight right like aljame wants a rematch I don’t think

there’s any chance he gets it even though he deserves it but he’s but we don’t use the word deserves because it

doesn’t really work in the UFC and in the sport in general but we are getting Sean O’Malley Marlon Vera too for the

bantamweight title and this is the biggest fight you can make this is the biggest fight in the history of the division

oh easily I think there was a very good argument uh that like a year ago that

rematch was the biggest fight in the division from a numbers standpoint um they’re the two biggest stars in the

division uh after tonight O’Malley is the number two star in MMA like I feel

really confident and comfortable calling Sean O’Malley the number two biggest star in MMA and arguably number one

depending on your views on if Conor still intends to ever fight again so uh

yeah it’s unquestionably the biggest fight in the history of this division it’s the biggest fight that can be made in the sport right now probably

um maybe you could do something with Conor um and somebody else but I don’t I think that this fight will do

better numbers than Conor versus Chandler will and I think Connor versus channel will do just fine because it’s

still Conor but you got to have some a real foil and that’s I think that’s what Cheeto is bringing here so yeah I’d be

pretty surprised at this point if that’s not uh 296 December in in Las Vegas the

the headliner and it’s never gonna like you said Shawn O’Malley is never going to not fight in the main event of a

pay-per-view from this point forward that that is just not his lot in life at this moment in time because the UFC is

never going to put him on a card with Conor who’s the only dude who could take that spot from him at the moment

and from a from a box office perspective from a business perspective and let’s be honest from an Intrigue perspective

because Sean O’Malley has captivated and captured a lot of the Casual viewing audience

it is obviously going to be a very interesting however long apparently according to Sean O’Malley this is going

to be a very interesting 12 years because he’s going to be doing this until 20 35 apparently he’s gonna have a

12-year run and if he’s able to do that at this point I’m just going to believe everything he says and as interesting as

this division is going to be moving forward with Sean O’Malley at the helm I think the more interesting short-term

question coming out of this fight is not where Sean O’Malley goes it’s where Al Jermaine Sterling goes because he was

very forthright he was very honest with his assessment of the fight and where his future is because if Sean O’Malley’s

knocking him out in the second round like that he doesn’t like his chances very much about going up to 145 in

fighting Alexander volkanovsky and that idea is probably completely off the table I don’t know if that fight ever

happens unless bulkanovsky just shows for it and gets it it’s probably done so where does Al Jermaine Sterling Go From

Here does he even attempt to go up to 45 and just try to earn a spot like do you

go up there and you try to fight the Ilia taporias we know tapori is about to get a title shot but the tapori

is the ofloyevs the those types of Fighters like is this his future right now just go up there and try to pick

apart one of these top five top seven guys in hopes that you can Intrigue

volkanovsky into fighting you or is he staying at 135 in hopes of trying to get a rematch that if you watch the post

fight press conference Sean O’Malley does not seem interested in that at all where does he go from here because that

might be the more interesting question in the short term Toronto Valley is never fighting this dude again he’s going up to 145. he

he’ll take some time on him and Hall that’s why I didn’t really like his post fight speech in the Octagon um it was very honest and so full credit to him

for that but it’s one of those things that I think he’s gonna wish he could take back just for saying it out loud of

uh you know I don’t like my chances well sure you’re not gonna fight vulcanovsky

now like you’re not you don’t get to lose go up and fight for the belt that’s not how that works so Volk isn’t really

even in consideration at this at the moment you’re the question for him is fundamentally do I stick around here in

a weight class where my best friend and training partner I’ve already essentially told him hey I’m going to

get out of the way so you can run this um and he’s probably even ahead of me in

title Shot line right now just because Sean O’Malley I think is more likely to

say yes to more opt into aljo a second time uh but is it it’s just not gonna

work for him he’s going to look at it and be like no I’d have to fight a bunch of dudes I’ve already fought I don’t really want to do again and that’s to

entice O’Malley to get a rematch so he’s not going to say yes to so maybe he could hang around in case Cheeto wins

and he could slide in there for you know to beat Cheeto or whatever but I think the much simpler thing is just go up

because I I think he’ll do quite fine at 145. he might not be volcanovsky hey man

I got a secret nobody else at 145 has been beaten that dude for like four years so

you’re not alone that like you can go fight but you can get up you move up he

goes up and let’s say he fights Josh I don’t know what Josh amit’s career plans are but you know he gets a fight like

that and performs really well then there’s a very easy narrative he was cutting too much weight it was too hard

for 135 he is so much better suited to this weight class he’s still strong and big but he’s got more speed here it’s

going to be great so I think he’s just moving up to 145. it’s the most logical move forward for him so I think that

that’s what we’re gonna get next for him last thing before we move on to what John Wayne Lee did and obviously much

more talk about this for a long time because this is one of those moments that’s just gonna stick with us it’s

going to be in highlight packages Baba O’Riley that’s that knockout punch gonna be there forever we talked about

this bantamoic division a lot heading into this fight and where it all goes and we know Mario there is probably

getting the next shot but we have marab we have Corey sandhagen we have even though you don’t like to admit it

because we don’t really know what he’s doing right now we have Henry sahuto and then we have this flux of this influx of

like other contenders On The Rise right now who is The Biggest Loser in this fight

and I’m not talking about Al Jermaine Sterling I’m talking about of the guys who are vying for that title opportunity

how much did marob lose tonight because there is a story there and it’s a fascinating one but with all the names

that Shawn O’Malley was presented or all the names that came out of his mouth but Rob de Wallace Willie was not one of

them I I alluded to this earlier I think

bantamweight is about to be awful um and that’s gonna really break the hearts of a lot of the hipsters who are

under the um false narrative that this is the best division of the sport it’s a very very good division

um the only reason that narrative started to thrive is because Conor broke lightweight like Conor just stealing the

lightweight belt and then being a lunatic and just broke lightweight for a very long time and it’s still suffering

some of those effects frankly think there’s a pretty good shot here that um that our new Champion is going to

break bantamweight he’s going to fight Cheeto in a few beats Cheeto he pretty much explicitly said that he doesn’t

give a [ __ ] about fighting anybody else in this way class um hey why are you so interested in travonta Davis uh because he’s a star

and there’s nobody uh there’s nobody in the bantamweight division that’s a star there’s there’s Cheeto and that’s it

um so I I maybe the UFC decides to be a little heavy-handed with him and make

him defend the belt but if he’s his biggest star coming off of this then I think he is probably going to be uh I’m

not sure that they force his hand and so then it’s I would say morab is sort of the front

runner like right now but I think that everybody in this weight class other than Cheeto Vera is moved one more fight

away from fighting for the title wherever they were previously in line you probably just add one more fight to

it because I think we’re we’re in in for a bit of a stalemate at the top here and

maybe some interim titles coming down the line because that might be a way to entice him if you can put an interim

belt on somebody else yeah the the Intercontinental division as I’ve always called it with

bantamweight is now going to become a prize fighting division which Sean O’Malley’s the champion Corey sandhagen

may actually have come out of this okay because maybe Corey sandhagen when he comes back gets to fight like marab for

an interim title instead of having to fight Umar for nothing so uh I got the

only person I can see that like we’re gonna do Cheeto in December I suspect

we’re gonna get some layoff after that and maybe the UFC is going to start hounding around to be like hey Umar how

long until you’re back healthy let’s try and fire you up because you could maybe sell a purity on rematch like I could

see O’Malley accepting pirian if he can get a couple of Dubs in maybe maybe Henry sahuto but you know that I don’t

treat him as a real person so is that but I I think I think he’s going to

defend against Cheeto and I think we are not gonna see him for maybe a full year like he might defending his Cheeto in

December and then it’s like I’ll wait till July or even the next go-around at Madison Square Garden something like

that yeah you’re probably right so it’s going to be interesting to see where this division goes where Al Jermaine Sterling

goes a lot to kind of digest coming out of this Main Event co-main Event

she didn’t get the finish and I think it busted a lot of parlays and a lot of betting slips for ripped up and thrown

on the floor but all in all this was about as one side as you could get there

was a moment where Amanda lemosh slapped on this weird submission sort of ninja

choke s kind of a thing and it looked like Zhang might be in a little bit of trouble at least if you listen to the commentators they’re like oh she’s

turning blue and other than that Amanda lamosh had and maybe like one right hand

early she had nothing for John Whaley this was a historic one-sided Championship

Beatdown by jean-lei Lee and even though she didn’t get the finish and a lot of people had betting tickets that she

would get the Finish boy is it fun to watch her compete because it’s gonna be tough to take that

title off of her yeah uh I thought that this fight would look like this only she’d get the

stoppage coming in I know that Amanda limos was like a Darling Dog this week a

lot of people were like yeah she’s she can do some real violent stuff and Wiley Zhang’s not impervious to getting hit I

was like sure can’t be super shocked if it happens but uh I watched Wiley Zhang

just like throw Jessica and Josh out the cage and I basically watched Jessica and drive through the exact same thing dilemmo show I think I know how this is

gonna work and look like that like uh I mean best performance of Wiley’s career

I I would say all things considered she is really like for when she entered the

UFC on that big big long winning streak like 19 fights or whatever it was she was largely just like an athlete who did

a bunch of like was just the best athlete in the division and that was dope and it won her a belt frankly by

just being the best athlete and then she lost had a couple of setbacks and she’s

refined her game a lot like she she’s really smart in her approach to this fight she minimized any opportunity

limos had to generate consistent offense got to her spots and just ragged all the

motion like if you look at the stats on this fight it is unbelievable it’s like 288 to six or something

296 to 29. yeah it’s that’s those are those cartoon numbers like I could go

load up EA UFC 4 right now and I could not put those numbers on like the easy

mode setting and she did it in an actual world championship fight against totally viable Contender so

it was an incredible performance from her and shouts to Joe Rogan and Daniel

Cormier because tonight was a banner night for the oh that that submission’s close and me being like oh good I know

that she is very safe as long as they’re saying it’s close the safest place you

can be like Fort Knox uh out of probably the White House is like a fairly secure

building and locked into a submission that Joe Rogan is squealing about saying that it is close you could not be more

safe than being in those positions yes what a performance and yeah 296 to

28 is which is 2900 I guess and the significant strikes 163 to 24.

for Zhang Wei Lee I mean just most significant strikes landed the biggest strike differential in women’s UFC

history They’re laughing I was live vlogging this like for the site right and I gave I think I did the first two

rounds or ten nines um for for Whaley um and then they showed that stat after

round two where the stat like the Striking totals live we’re like so Amanda lambosch has landed six strikes

and in my live blog I wrote here’s the stat update I perhaps should have scored some of

these previous rounds 10 8. it was just unbelievable like how

nothing was happening from limbo it didn’t even feel like early on it didn’t even feel like she was that ineffective

but she had nothing to offer nothing so that brings up the big question here

is right there and if they go to China That’s obviously a massive fight and in fact

well even if they don’t like they could go to Boston and this is a very big fight they’d go to New York and this is a very big fight then go anywhere and

this is a big fight but they have to go to China with this one so Tatiana’s war is kind of lost out here

did she not I mean it’s she’s going to get her shot she’s going to get another win I was I suggested because I felt

like I knew where this fight was gonna go they should have just done Mackenzie Dern versus Tatiana Suarez as a Fight

Night Main Event I think that would have been a really good call but apparently which flew under everybody’s radar Mackenzie Dern is fighting Jessica and

Raj at UFC 295 they showed her on the screen and there was a graphic which no one announced and nobody knew about so

we’re it’s it’s gonna be it’s gonna be John Wiley versus John John that is what’s gonna happen is Tatiana Suarez

just gonna sit around and wait for the winner of that fight or is she gonna have another fight what did tonight do

to Tatiana Suarez’s Championship aspirations and how far back is she gonna have to wait now

probably gonna have to wait a quick shout out to Jessica androgs who’s trying to speed run the end of career

losing streak it’s gonna be your fifth fight this year she lost 30 in a row and she’s gonna turn around and fight just take it take some time off like you

don’t have to keep doing this but uh tattoo Suarez is it makes way more sense for her to fight

Mackenzie darn oh other than that instead she’s probably just gonna sit on the sideline as she was originally

booked to fight for energy Robo maybe they I don’t know how long ago was out um because I think it was a knee injury

but uh maybe they just rebooked that but I would assume that Tatiana Suarez will

get to get the honor potentially of weighing in as a backup Fighter for the impending uh Whaley versus yawn fight

but she ain’t jumping the line like if limo should won we had talked about it there was very much a world where Tatiana just gets to okay it’s time to

do this this is clearly where this division is going let’s just get there but did you hear the the Chinese reporter

and I don’t know if you listen to The Post presser Mike uh a a reporter who I

believe was Chinese um noted to Dana White that on Chinese

social media uh The Knockout or the the fight from Wiley had generated 1.9

billion views so uh I’m just gonna go ahead and say that I

would cut off a pinky if the UFC doesn’t book Wiley versus Jean and do that in

China because why wouldn’t they Give Me A Reason any reason at all

that’s if that’s if that fact is true about 1.9 billion with a B

the two of them in China is the the biggest no-brainer in the history of combat I don’t know what else to tell

you man I feel like we could maybe get this in before the end of the year there is Rumblings about perhaps a card in China

by the end of the year maybe you know like some kind of hinted about it in the press or two he didn’t say it because he

leaned heavily on that we don’t book fights or someone was like Hey their rumors you’re thinking about China before the end of the year and he was

like wink or whatever so it seems certainly after tonight uh it may have

been a situation where they were just gonna like let’s wait and see about what happens here but I would say after tonight uh that’s going to get a full

court press honestly if we’re talking about Futures and fights the genre the eventual genre

Tatiana Suarez fight is going to be incredibly fascinating I am very much

looking forward to that matchup uh when it does happen Tatiana is going to run her but it’s gonna be dope

it’s gonna be interesting to see that’s a really really good fight and I’m highly intrigued by it Ian Machado Gary

Jen michoud goes out there and just lays waste to Neil magni who is just incredibly tough I thought there are

multiple points in this fight where Ian was just going to kick him in the leg and the leg was going to give out and the referee is just going to save him

from himself but magni makes it to the cards Ian Machado Gary on one of the

judges cards three ten Eights incredible performance this is one-sided

as it could get this is about as good as it could be for Ian Machado Gary outside of getting a quick finish but

he calls out Wonder Boy Thompson apparently Dana White said they already reached out to Stephen about doing that

fight and he turned it down I don’t know if he’s gonna be able to turn this one down dude honestly I feel

like cooler heads are going to Prevail and I think Steven’s just gonna have to take this fight if he wants to

get to this title run because I think the fights that he wants the UFC just isn’t going to give him right now so

biggest takeaway from Ian Machado Gary’s performance and his upside at 170

because there are some fun guys moving up the ladder but I feel like Ian Machado Gary is is ahead of all of them

right now that’s gonna be weird I do want to talk about Wonder Boy first because as good

as this performance was from IMG I think this is going to be the bra a broad

narrative perhaps supersede it just because Dana throw under the bus isn’t the right term

um I I don’t know like held under the bus while it went over and reversed over like Dana just tried to bury Wonder Boy

but be like yeah he passed up the fight I don’t know if that’s true or not um because I just don’t take things Dana

says at face value um if it is I have no idea what wonderboy’s doing like yeah I think

you’re gonna lose this fight but like who are you trying to fight if it’s like if if your goal is to win is to fight a

tight for a title you’ve already lost all the wrestlers in front of you like who and you have

explicitly said you don’t want to fight him who the hell do you want to fight if it’s not like somebody like this so I

don’t know he wants the Osman fight okay um well I don’t think maybe I don’t know

just say yes dude it’s fine uh I don’t think there’s some fight’s gonna go well for you and I’m not even sure you’re

gonna get it so I don’t know uh Ian Machado Gary was dope tonight

um perfect performance uh maybe not perfect uh 96. he could have finished it

um on uh Casey and I talked about this in the presser briefly like I know many people won’t hold that

against him and I don’t really hold it against him but there is a point for me where when you are fighting it’s

somebody who is no longer capable of Defending themselves reasonably which is where Magnus was in that third round

pretty much he was just in full-on survival mode um not putting a coffin nail in

it’s like a missed opportunity but it’s not a bad performance his performance was obviously Sensational and every

other part of it too was what is great like he carried himself like a star this

whole week uh I don’t know that he has won yet but my takeaways from this event

are I mean Machado Gary fan now think that dude’s dope um both the way he fights and the things

he says I find enjoyable and some of it’s insane like I’m not here to say that all of it’s reasonable and I agree

with all of his takes um his statement that he was carrying the card pre-fight is insane several of

his statements afterwards are insane um but he’s carrying himself with with a

great confidence that is appealing to me the way he handles his business is great and I thought his post fight was awesome

you know like he gave Neo magni his props but didn’t back down at all from the [ __ ] he talked about Neil magni had

doubled down on the stuff he said and that’s a font like you you don’t have to be like oh we’re bonded in battle now so

like we’re all gravy you know it’s like no F that dude he still sucks you don’t say that [ __ ]

um but respect to him for you know knuckling up and fighting me like you gotta at least give a man respect for

doing that but he still sucks ass uh I love democrato Gary’s performance this whole week uh I’m I’ll tell you what I’m

super hot on a man like I know that JDM is is the the darling Delight of the welterweight division

I Ian Machado Gary is this this weight classes if there’s a dude who’s going to take the belt from shavkot when he does

get it Ian Machado Gary’s gonna be that dude yeah incredible performance the man

backed up everything he said it’s gonna be interesting if he gets the Wonder Boy fight do they just go back to Jeff Neal I don’t know if the ship has

sailed on that I would still like to see that fight if it can happen I think that’s a really good like next test

because welterweight has a lot of litmus tests and I feel like Neil magni is sort

of the dude that welcomes you into the top 10 to 12 range Neil is like you’re

you’re a top seven guy give me Sean Brady

at the post pressure IMG was like I am the best Jiu-Jitsu player in the world

y’all don’t know it because you’ve never seen like I’m that’s that’s only a loose exaggeration he was like if I fight in

December I might F around and then try and try and win a nogi World Championship uh because like I’m telling

you guys I’m that good at grappling you just don’t know because I never showed it to you I I would like to see it if this is true

then I’m I have him very highly ranked in our latest rankings which I did tonight uh if he is also the greatest

Grappler to exist on Earth uh I’m underrating him by significant margin I’d like to know it and Sean Brady gonna

tackle that dude’s ass so let’s just do that I wanna the top of this division ain’t nothing but dudes we’re gonna put

you on the mat and check and real check you right there let’s do it I don’t know what Sean Brady’s doing seems like it’d

be a great time for these two guys to fight if I’m Sean Brady I am doing nothing but calling this guy out yeah that’s all I’m

doing just focus all your attention on again trying to get that fight I don’t think that’s gonna happen but uh if you’re

Sean Brady and you can get to Ian Machado Gary and force Ian to talk about you do it dude Shopko I was about to

fight Kelvin Gaslamp for God knows what reason like just fight em Shadow Gary now oh that’s that’s a better win for

you in the division and in MMA let’s do that like if I’m any dude who knows I

have to fight backwards next fight uh and I’m at the top of this weight class

and that’s not I’m not saying that because that’s an easy win I’m just saying it because like that’s that’s gonna give you the most bang for your

buck if you can do it and as as Casey and you have as you said a lot about

Hamza and I think it was Hamza fight the dude now because he’s 26 man he ain’t

getting worse over the next five years fight him now yeah that would be super interesting if

Ian started calling him out so good win for him good win for Mario Batista he gets it done we talked about Marlon Vera

where he goes he earned himself a title shot with his victory what are you laughing at

Mario batine still won a fight on the main card and Cheeto Fair let’s talk

about the thing that matters I just love the the that fight hitting on this card is so freaking weird

dude got out there he still took the fight after losing Cody garbrandt anyone and he got in there and won the fight

but is it one word it wasn’t yeah if you look back on this event you’re

gonna remember the Chris Robin Brad Tavares fight you’re not gonna remember this fight that happened

yes and you segued perfectly because before we go get to the peeps I do want

to talk about what happened in that fight because we started the watch party right before round two was gonna start

in the Chris Weidman Brad to virus fight so we got to watch it and Brad just kept nailing them with light kicks there was

a point in the second round where I thought he broke his leg again I was like oh no he went down he started

limping on it and it just he may have torn his MCL did you I don’t know if you

caught that at the presser I don’t know what you call from the presser um so uh aljo said and you know not a

doctor and it’s not there but alja was asked about it and uh I believe he loose

said that like there’s concern that he injured it and then Dana I think specifically said that uh tall accused

asked about the wagon fight and he was like I would like well I’ve been to retire um like they think he tore his MCL in

the fight like so he’s so he’s out for a while anyway because he now has on the

other leg not on the previously certain like surgery one but leave the leg that

was getting kicked amongst lead leg theoretically he has suffered actually like legitimate knee damage so

um Casey Casey you laughed at me in the pre-fight Q a when I was like I’m concerned about this man’s leg and you

were like it’s like it’s fine I was half right it was the wrong leg I should have been concerned about the other leg

I said on the preview show that honestly like like and I know Chris Weidman is a very is very hungry and he’s very

competitive and he wanted this fight to be the beginning of a title run and I think a lot of people roll their eyes

with that but Chris was very serious about that and the argument I made on the previous show that the best case

scenario the best thing that could happen for for Weidman for Tavares for

everybody else who loves Chris Wyman loves what he was able to do in his career was that Weidman would would lose

a somewhat competitive decision and then just be done because you came back dude

you came back after all of that right you go in there

your leg is compromised in the fight you still fight back you still land some shots you got Tavares kind of reeling at

a point or two in that fight with some of the shots that you landed you lose a competitive decision what a

perfect time to walk away like No One’s Gonna Be down on you for that I just think the title run hopes are over

you you did something a lot of people believed you may never do again there were talks you might just lose your leg

altogether because of this injury but you made it back you competed like a freaking Champion you didn’t win but you

competed and I felt like this was the best case scenario for everybody involved and it played out that way so I

guess I’ll ask you this and it’s kind of a bummer to say but I think it’s a conversation needs to be had especially after what Dana said was this the last

Chris Weidman fight it was a really good chance it was the last Crystal I’ve been fighting the UFC

um I think we talk about this all the time if you just blanketly assume that no fighter is going to retire you’re

going to be right far more often than you’re going to be wrong um if he did in fact tear his MCL or or

you know any any other ligament going on in there and is looking at six months another year on the sidelines for

surgery Rehabilitation and now he is two legs down or two legs with 50 combined

surgeries or whatever it is something some insane number between them I think there’s a very good chance that he just

kind of goes home looks and says no um I came back from the big one like you were saying and that that’s enough uh

I’d be a bit surprised though I do think he’s gonna want an exit um he’s just gonna want that real

the the moment if if not to come back so uh if I’m putting money down I think we

will see Chris Weidman fight at least one more time I am personally I think it’s time Mike I know that he’s

not currently in the organization but we can mend these fences let’s just rock it back in a year and a

half Luke rockhold let’s just do it yes that was supposed to be the Rivalry that was going to Define middleweight for

like the Next Generation and then they fought the one time it was awesome and then they never fought again and now

both dudes got washed almost overnight and now here we are when Chris is ready to come back let’s

just sign sign Luke for one more Lucas specifically said that he like doesn’t want to end his Combat Sports career off

that bare-knuckle fight with Mike Perry so come back home let’s run that back uh

it’ll be something and it’s a good retirement fight for both dudes running back is a retirement fight it’s ideal

I love that idea I think that’s the only fight that would make sense for Chris at this point Gregory Rodriguez kind of some

controversy with the finish of Dennis hallulin we’ll see how that plays out

now controversy it’s cool okay the rule of cool applies that was dope so I don’t

care that it was arguably legal also if you don’t want to get punched in the back of the head uh don’t present the

back of your head to get punched that’s long my official stat uh standpoint on this I think it’s a dumb rule um so

don’t don’t do it welcome back to the UFC Kurt hollabaugh gets his first official UFC win triangle

choke against Austin Hubbard Kurt Hollow will still continue on called out Patty pimblet he became the 71st lightweight

currently on the active roster to call out Patty pemblitt so I mean go for the Gusto Brad Katona and Cody Gibson put on

a friggin show what a freaking fight that was uh katoni getting a contract

is that what Dana said yeah well he didn’t say those words but someone asked him is it safe to assume that like uh

with you know Stefan Bonner Cody Gibson and he was like yeah all right good much deserved uh Andre

petrovski Gerald mirzaard it was the most fun middleweighty middleweight fight I probably ever seen

uh but Petrosky wins The splitty Natty Ice is just something special she beat

the hell out of Andrea Lee that fight was not really all that competitive and then Karina Silva submits Marina morose

gets a little Revenge from their fight from several years back but Maddie Iceman

before easy questions I gotta talk about her yeah gotta talk about her she’s so good I ranked her she is now going to be

in my flyweight rankings I think I have her like number 12 after that performance against Andrew Lee I am

super excited to see where she goes Jen I love this uh I I went for it I ranked

them both both of the sofas are in my flyweight rankings baby let’s go nice um Natty Ice is higher than Korean a

Silva but the bottom of the rankings there’s a lot of opportunity for someone to slide it there and why not um Karina

Silva look Natty Ice beat the hell out of uh KGB Lee and that was dope but uh

Korea Silva frankly impressed me more because we sort of anticipated this what Natty Ice was going to do in our

conversation you and I had the conversation beforehand that green Silva is the one that she already lost marose

morose is sneaky like a hitter like she she’s sneaky a very competitive very

tough out in this division and is there any civil warped her and tapped her um

right with the buzzer beater tap too I love those so uh I was even more impressed by Queen Silva because she

exceeded expectations whereas Natty Ice is just like all right it’s time for her to start making real moves here and and

see what we’ve got on our hands with her but yeah um look the prelims are fun man really

fun car really good really really good all right no issues

and that’s it was awesome yeah all right let’s bring in E Casey

Lyden and we’ll take a few questions before we get out of here it is pretty late so we’re not gonna take a whole bunch of questions but we’ll take a few

Mike I didn’t ask you this when I was on the thing my our first question is going to be for me to you Mike uh how do we

feel about Cheeto not getting a mic on him uh after beating Pedro Munoz

it’s a missed opportunity like your promotional packages like you got enough there like I get it you just go back to

that first fight and have it played out and some of the things that were said and whatever but you you you miss an

opportunity here you certainly missed an opportunity not giving Cheeto the Michael cheetah was

yeah Cheeto was probably the fourth most popular fighter

on the entire card uh I think jean-lailey was probably number two uh

yeah dude Chris and Chris Weidman was very popular because of the story and the comeback and then uh Vera is like

right there like super over with us and so I kind of expected him to get a microphone in his hand and

that it is so incredible watching this guy because he never looks like he’s

even in a fight when it’s over this one like he had some sweat in his like his

beautifully done hair had like some sweaty bangs like three or four of them and that’s like the most you’ve seen

Cheeto Vera like perspire in a fight in like five years it’s insane

yeah and I thought it was fun as hell Pedro Munoz always comes

I did not think Pedro won but I thought that there’s a very there’s a reasonable argument that he won do you want to give

him the first two rounds I don’t have any issues with that yeah pretty much yeah well Cheeto won by Pride rules if it will go with that I gave Cheeto the

first I gave Peter the second yeah um I I also made decisions 75 of media uh cheetah winning and

actually surprisingly 60 of fans I’m sorry Pedro winning and 60 of fans also have

Pedro winning which is surprising but wow it was interesting Pedro kicked the legs a whole bunch and

leg kicks don’t win fights yep of course not however I do have it on on good

authority that Cheeto uh did some post-fight interview standing because

his legs were all jacked up so yeah maybe maybe like kicks do matter

and you should start factoring those into what happened in your scorecards uh

is Patty Pima the only fighter who is it called a Patty template Ah that’s a

great question fantastic work stuff proud of you stuff that’s a great question uh well

done all right and this opportunity for Patty too Patty could have could have could do it Anderson called himself out

for years yeah by my clone um

what do we actually think about the stoppage for the main event a plus I don’t know notes I don’t think

there was really anything bad about it me either I think it was I think it was a perfect stoppage I will go on Beyond I

think it was fantastic I believe Mark Goddard is the second best referee in MMA I think Jason Herzog is the best and

has been for some time but Mark Goddard is rarely bad and usually very good and

I thought he nailed it um you can always leave a stoppage one or two punches longer and I won’t be

like super upset um and I know that a lot of Fighters would prefer that you saw some

outpouring of that but by the way you’re supposed to stop fights nailed it like he aljo got

clubbed a bunch and then the time he turned away that he he was no longer

rolling in and rolling up he rolled away he functionally turned his back if he was standing against the fence it was a

back turn like yeah that’s it it was an ideal stoppage yeah yeah you would you just yeah the way he

turtled that direction it’s just that that that’s that’s pretty much the fetal

position you just you’re done and um if he wanted yeah there’s many other ways

to get up and defend yourself that’s not one of them and I thought Goddard Goddard is that the ref tonight yeah

yeah I thought and I thought he did he gave the champ the proper amount of time to recover so uh I agree I totally agree

I that when that right hand landed I thought he killed him like I thought the way out it did look like he face

planted and but he didn’t but it looked like it yeah he recovered and was able to try to defend and Sean landed like a

bunch of big hammer fists and I think Goddard did a nice job because he could have stopped it after like the third or fourth Hammer fist because he was

Landing him and then aljo was able to sort of get his wits to him and start to fend and I think the way Mark looked at

it was I mean we give this dude like one more big shot before I step in there and then

after he sort of turned aljo over like kind of threw his legs to the side and

he landed that like everything he had right hand it that just busted open aljo’s eye that was it like that was the

shot that was a gnarly punch on the bottom and I got her stepped in and stopped it and I had no

issue with the stoppage especially hearing Al Joe sort of talk about it at the end like he was he was he felt like

maybe the stoppage a little early but at the same token he was honest he was like I don’t even know where I was like I forgot I was in Massachusetts I forgot

all this guys your freaking hair green because you’re in Massachusetts you know right and that’s why I don’t have a real

issue with this option like no if marab du Walsh really wants to come out publicly and be like oh that’s a bad stoppage like fine you’re the teammate

go ahead Rob’s a terrific friend yeah I I didn’t think the stoppage was

bad I think after that huge right-hand O’Malley landed I was like okay I think we’ve seen enough Fair

all right yeah dude he that was like 20 unanswered bombs yeah

at some point at some point you got to do more than not get put unconscious to

consider that intelligent defense yeah right uh

but if aljo had survived that man interesting KO of the Year enough for

fighter of the year it’s not the KO of the Year neither it’s neither yeah fighter of the year you’re you’re

never going to invite you the year with one fight the only person who could maybe pull it off is Jon Jones maybe

could have done it just by beating Cyril gone but he’s gonna fight steep a and probably one fight of the year as a

result um which you know fine um it’s definitely not care of the year I

it it’s going to take a [ __ ] miracle to beat Izzy for KO of the Year given all of the surroundings of that this is

great this is a slightly damaged by not being like if that was a clean face plant KO

if aljo didn’t Turf it on that shot then we could have a real conversation

because it’s the way it went it might make some people’s top fives but we’ve had a lot of incredible violence already

this year and still almost half of the year to go Cheeto just posted to to Twitter with a

giant joint in his mouth uh fighting for a world title very soon so my guess is they’re already talking about this one

so uh oh I mean it’s definitely happening here I’ll say if O’Malley comes and

beats Cheeto um he’ll be on fight of the Year ballots for sure

yep I think we know they answered this one but we might as well just kind of talk about it a bit is Sean O’Malley a

crossover star like with the boxing I guess

I thought Oh I thought which is everything I was just kind of talking about just

for people that are like people who don’t even follow the sport know who Connor is people don’t follow the sport know who Ronda is do people who don’t

follow fighting do they know who Sean O’Malley is I don’t think people who don’t follow

Sports at all know who Sean O’Malley is but people who just follow sports like I

I got texts from people today being like is a Molly going to get gassed up tonight um but they know who he is and I’ll tell

you what Tomorrow People are he yes tomorrow he is going to be known by a broader

spectrum of fans than just MMA fans or even just sports fans he he’s not Conor

but like he’s gonna be the next best thing to Conor that we’ve had since like he’s

going to be the best the best star that MMA has had since Conor I think that I think the part that maybe

fans like is because he’s going to he’s the next biggest thing since Connor yet

he’s not Conor like we get like that’s I think that’s the good part yeah we’ve had this is new this is new so uh I

think that’s it just cool yeah dude he’s next he’s next gen Connor he’s Connor for the kids

oh God yeah he’s a big gamer and all that stuff so that that’s all that’s gonna do is just help him all the things

it’s gonna do great uh he’s gonna fight Cheeto and he’s not

gonna fight for like a year yeah uh how can Dana say he doesn’t make fights on the night but then say they

reached out to Wonderboy and he’s turned down the Gary fight he just says Eddie thing that suits him at a time so

I had heard I had heard like some Rumblings that if Ian beat Neil that

they’re gonna try to to book that one as a main event at the end of the year so them reaching out to Wonderboy and

offering it him kind of on the spot is not surprising to me based on things that I had heard but it didn’t like this

is not saying like this is a done deal or anything like that but um it just seemed like this is the

direction the UFC was going to go with the reaction that Machado Gary this week but

um I mean this is what Dana does right like this is what he does

yeah uh I don’t care about Dana being like marginally hypocritical it’s whatever I did notice it today uh

someone’s got to get in his ear to just make fights on Fight Night like it’s fine it’s not one it’s not like we’re

holding you to any standards the media does not hold you to any standards in general but two it would just be way a

better view a news cycle in all things if you would like actually talk about what’s going to be next for these

Fighters that just fought instead of the questions being hey what did you what’s your take on this performance cool

what’s gonna be next not gonna answer that all right um what about the Patriots and what about

these other things like when are you coming back to China like no just talk about the the only way you have to

communicate about the fighters who just fought is your opinion of the performance and what is going to come next for them why can’t you just

somebody can write you a memo sheet of here’s sort of what we’re thinking we’re not locked into this but I’ll tell you

what uh I would love to watch a guy like Ian Machado Gary fight a Stephen Wonderboy Thompson or fight a thing you

know what we’re not I’m not saying we’re gonna do it but you’re right doing doing Wiley Zhang versus jean-jon on in China

it’s incredibly big business for us that’s the sort of thing that we’re really into why not have those conversations like it’s it’s so dumb and

such a waste of the time I I don’t get it if we can have yawn right there cage

side I mean I don’t it was it was odd but um this is I thought do you feel like do

you feel like because the one time he really did make fights after the fight was Colby the

whole Leon Colby thing and that was in March that was well I mean in March but

he also did it in December with the light heavyweight title it’s like that fight sucked we booked a new light

heavyweight title yeah because they needed a main event for that card that was really hurting but I guess my big

question is that was dope we came out like this is news and great and interesting yeah oh no certainly so I

guess my question in the Fallout of this is that if Sean O’Malley really wants to fight Cheeto Vera in December

and Leon if what Colby has to say about Jon Jones being like nah dude I ain’t

giving this dude the rub which actually wouldn’t surprise me based on some of the things these two have said about each other

is Leanna Colby even gonna happen this year like do you feel like that fight’s even gonna happen this year or is that going to be push to next year now I do

not personally I do not personally believe that fight’s gonna happen this year um because it’s I don’t know feel like we’d

have made some traction on it by now that fight has been out there for what four months five months as the thing

that was going to happen so I I don’t know um yeah

I I would I would guess that’s not gonna happen which means and also if you have to pick one of those two what do you

think the UFC is going to think is better business it’s going to be O’Malley Cheeto so they’re gonna pick that one over over

doing Leon Colby foreign yeah I mean which I mean this is this just screams we have to call Jon Jones

and be like if he really feels this way she’s like dude just you’re gonna have to deal with it sorry like these guys are fighting in the

co-main event that’s it you’re just gonna have to deal with it we’ll put you at different pressers if we have to but this is your Coal Mine event battle we

gotta do it yeah yeah I doubt John would really say no

it’ll be fine yeah uh UFC already uploaded the Finish to

YouTube I don’t think they’ve ever done this straight after a pay-per-view for a title fight are they actually promoting now uh just only for O’Malley so I will

say this the UFC is trying different things um and you can see it on the project oh you think that’s what this is

I mean yeah

I hadn’t even considered that as you like they’re just sort of trying it out

yeah that’s what I think they’re doing I think they’re trying it out uh they’re trying a lot of things out I like the picture picture stuff they’re doing

um I kind of like the react the fighter reactions like even just showing just the little nuances uh Chris Weidman is

fighting and they just do a little picture-in-picture without Jermaine Sterling just watching with faded breath

his teammate about to lose to Brad Tavares and having an injured leg like these things are really cool uh I like

some of the new slow motion replays they’re doing that the alternate angles of certain things that they’re doing like the broadcast just seems like more

fun they’re trying new things to see if they’re gonna work and I think having a cell phone image of

the finish and just throwing it up on the screen I don’t know if it’s like the cell phone image of Dana’s

you know from Dana social or if they show the actual finish by now the broadcast finish on you yeah

I mean they’ve pumped it on all sides on all their socials I mean they’ve been out with it it’s it’s really good Casey

never talk about this in post like I had not considered that this is them trying something um which would be cool if that’s the

case I just sort of thought that um the UFC are not fools and they know that this is the moment to capitalize on

the biggest thing that they can have and so they are actually doing the promotional bit maybe not in perpetuity

for formality but this is the one if you have can only pick one this is the one to do it you want to get this out you

want this to be everywhere you want the clip to be on SportsCenter Top 10 tomorrow running endlessly endlessly endlessly you want to put him on Jimmy

Kimmel and Fallon and do all that stuff and I think that that’s what we’re going to see but it would be dope if this is

just how they were going to move forward because it’s much more reasonable yeah and then we’re not going to do this

every single time but moments like this yes like if they could redo you know at the time putting the Leon Edwards head

kick up there I think with that lineup we should have done that as well yeah but um

I slightly disagree they’re trying to do something different I actually agree with this comment they’re actually

promoting that’s all this is actually promotion and I I don’t understand doing something

different by actually promoting and this is this is what you do right this is a this is this is the right move

this was the right move right and and I think the actual like promotion for this

card was really good Dana is not He’s Just Not That Guy anymore he’s

still like the face of the company and people care what they have to say but he’s not that guy anymore like even even at the press conference when

you know I asked him about just being in Boston the crowd was all fired up it wasn’t

I just want I don’t know like the way it was set up I’m like oh man Dana’s gonna actually like get really excited here

he’s like no we broke the gate record good home and I was like Oh I thought

you’d come up with something a little better than that but that’s right I think the UFC under yeah the U the UFC

has really good smart people working for them and just because Dana is not the one promoting it doesn’t mean that they

as a company cannot and they’re doing a unless there’s a power slap event the

same week or the same month as a card is happening they typically they did a really good job of putting this card

over this week I thought

maybe got to me a little bit just because of the ubiquity of it but the

the interstitials with with um Sean O’Malley and his like commercial

spots like during the prelims and stuff that’s all good and this is I feel like we say it all the time we haven’t been

really like negative on the UFC tonight which is great because I don’t always want to bag on him but like when people

are asked the question why are you mean to the UFC there are many moral reasons for that but one of the biggest one is

just at a fundamental level I am aware of what they are capable of doing because I have seen it this is it like

this 291 290 like that that stretch of pay-per-views is like hey here’s where

what you should demand as a fan every time they’re because they have the ability to do this they just simply

choose not to for most of it and when they do great things happen 290 and 291 were awesome events and now this is

I mean this just rules like this yeah this event isn’t the best but the end result is awesome

yep and that’s people are gonna remember before we go I have a question

for you gentlemen um coming into the fight where did you put did you put consider

um algeman Sterling the bantamweight goat like where did you put him and where do you put them now

I only somebody brought this up a few weeks ago and I had started diving into it but I didn’t really get all the way

to a full answer I think I’m still at Dominic Cruz um I don’t feel confident in that answer

um with aljo at number two and it was uh somebody and maybe it was uh maybe it

was AKA somebody this week and I for sorry I don’t remember who just sort of compared it to BJ being the goat

lightweight and it was sort of just a default one like um his career is very important and and

substantial but probably didn’t really have like the resume that demands gothood uh certainly not in the case of

other web you know weight classes and I feel like that with dom like he’s kind of the default because of various

factors but this is still a division waiting on somebody to stand up and say

yo I’m him yeah to me it’s

if we’re if we’re comparing the bantamweight division in its history to like the ending of a Mario Kart Grand

Prix algebra and Sterling is on the podium now where you put him is is up to you

it could be three but he is on the podium with Dominic Cruz if you want a 30 dealership on that

conversation fine um but he is one of the top two guys and it’s and even after tonight he’s still

one of the top two guys for sure yeah this doesn’t knock him off off the podium for me everyone takes losses his

what he’s previously accomplished is enough so but it’s you know by the term

greatest it makes sense but at the same time we’re talking calling the saying that hey you’re the

greatest bandwid alive and being like and also Anderson Silva’s the greatest middleweight alive those aren’t those

don’t feel like the same greatness yeah couples you know it’s like there’s there’s a bit of a gap there in the term

goat we’re comparing George St-Pierre and Dominic Cruz and I was just thought

that was super interesting about bantamweight too um like you said I’m the Hipster and I think I love Bantam

white so but I think it’s just because it’s it’s a Division I don’t know if we’re ever going to have a

dream you’ll get one eventually but yeah yeah I mean right now right now like

just even thinking about it more it’s um it’s algebra one for me and C still won

his right like if you want to put Cruise one that’s fine but I just feel like

Sterling’s UFC resume is better than cruises it just is like the amount of

names that he has beaten over all this time and I understand Cruz had injuries so he hasn’t had as many fights as

Sterling but Sterling has fought everybody and beaten just about

everybody in the process it’s a tough run he’s had man really

strong if you pick Sterling I’m not going to argue my my stance is I largely

judge goateness and that based not on your overall resume though I think some of that factors in but it’s your time at

the top because I think that’s the hardest and most meaningful part of it and everyone’s I would say that cruise

is time at the top is was better uh comparative to his relative peers at the

time but if you want to pick Sterling I got no beef with that yeah it was supposed to be yawn Pierre Yan was

supposed to be the guy who was going to be the goat of this weight class and MMA MMA made

yeah that one knee yeah I’m still I’m still of Dom it’s hard to go but that’s

not the hill I would die on but no yeah no but now this discussion becomes a little more interesting with Sterling

there and now the division like who knows like Shawn O’Malley is going to is going to properly choose the big money

fights and if he can run off four or five title defenses man there are gonna be people saying that he is the best if

he has the record it’s going to happen that’s going to be a conversation that’s going to be had William that’s absolutely the case yeah more sure

there’s no chance he’s running all four or five and I’m I feel like I’ve been higher on Sean O’Malley than most and

credit to him uh I believe um who who posted this

um because I want to I want to remember who somebody put up the stat and I’ll find in a second to give them their props uh

Sean O’Malley is the youngest UFC champion at this point he’s the only UFC champion under 30.

so that’s crazy uh it’s absolutely incredible for him to be there

um and that so you know he has the opportunity to have that level of success but

Bantam way to it’s bantamweight and lightweight are divisions that people just aren’t going to put together five

wins at the top it’s just never gonna happen yeah I mean this could be the beginning of the next gen making moves because

Aaron blanchfield’s gonna probably get a title shot sooner rather than later she could be another one I would pick

her to beat either Alexa grass or Valentina right now and there’s there’s others as well so

it’s an interesting time all right Casey you could hit the music I think we have uh we have done our part here it is 4 14

a.m eastern time so time to wrap this up uh but in about five hours and 45

minutes uh we’ll be back AK will join me we’ll do some matchmaking we’ll have some fun talk about the Fallout of this

event and much more MMA hour on Monday with some special guest hosts

there’ll be a lot more chatter about this but thank you all for watching all the programming this week checking out

all the coverage this week shout out to Jose Young’s boots on the ground dude works his ass off uh so don’t get it

twisted in that respect at all that’s great thank you very much he really does he’s still good he doesn’t ask about the

Patriots or hey my buddies really really good at fighting Dana are you thinking about

signing them just it’s just good professional questions

that was the best question Cheeto bear got a dub and that man was like I need

to know about Morales okay they had no idea who that was

[Music] you know that the Cheeto just got the

dub right I feel like you could ask about that Ecuadorian but okay fair enough

go to sleep everybody good night love y’all

mix martial arts mixed martial arts how do we Vector martial arts we like them

back then [Applause]

[Music] it’s just so perfect for title time USA

the fighting city of Boston Massachusetts as tomorrow night the UFC returns to the TD Garden and brings with

it a fascinating main event for the bantamoy title we get a second title fight in the women’s strawweight

division we got some heat on a welterweight fight there’s a lot of interesting storylines going down here

at UFC 292 we’re here to talk about it right now welcome to the UFC 292 preview show here at mafighting.com I am Mike

Heck here in Boston the room where the ceremonial not the ceremonial wins the

morning weigh-ins kicked off a little while ago all the fighters made weight main event official all the fights are

made official joining me is my best friend the man who is not even calling this event UFC 292

but the man who is calling this event the tough 31 finale there he is the incomparable Alexander

Kaylee AKA how are you Ultimate Fighter 31 finale finally

finally I I wasn’t sure we would get here it’s been a long 12 weeks with with

everyone that my fighting crew but especially GC Connor Burks and uh E Casey lein who were with me on every

episode shout outs to Mike as well and Jen Mushu who chimed in on an episode we are finally at the finale that’s all

we’re here to talk about the two biggest fights in the card Austin Hubbard versus Kurt hollabaugh

and uh bracketona versus Cody Gibson so Mike Let’s Get Right do you want to just get right into it or do we want to talk

about some of like the undercard stuff first I mean what do you want to how do you want to do this I mean we can we can start so what would

be the main event is is Kurt in your eyes is Kurt halibut Austin Hubbard the main event of this card

oh it’s Brad Katona Cody Gibson I mean Brad Katona looking to become my first the first two-time Ultimate Fighter

Champion you make this history the ultimate ultimate fighter or multimit fighter as I prefer uh Cody

Gibson a nearly decade long journey to try to get back to the UFC and then yeah you got the co-main with uh Kurt

hollabaugh and Austin Hubbard which is which is could easily be the main mic but everyone’s here for Katona and Gibson

well I’m very curious after hearing what you just said what the gymnastics score for you is for UFC 292 because we do

have the two title fights technically it’s four title fights if we count The Ultimate Fighter finale bouts

where are you at here we got algeman Sterling Sean O’Malley we got the second title vote John Wayne Lee and Amanda

lamosh we got some fights with some heat on it we got the two tough fights we have some the first two fights of this

card Andrea Lee versus Natty Ice Natalia Silva and Marina morose uh versus the

other Silva on this card Karina Silva those are two really good fights to kick off this card so where is the AK lead

gymnastics score right now for UFC 292. I’m so excited man It’s gotta be at like

a 9.6 9.7 I just love the story lines going into this fight I love the

matchups I love the matches that they managed to Cobble together uh you know even though they lost some Fighters I

think they put together some really good they called up some really good replacement opponents that are intriguing and challenging in their own

way love silvermania to start the card obviously I love The Ultimate Fighter finale um two of those fights Chris Weidman

coming back it there’s just so many good positive things that can happen and if everything clicks everything lands and we get some

good competitive fights some memorable exciting finishes maybe a successful Chris Weidman come back fingers crossed

again this could be one of the I don’t want to say action-wise I don’t know people’s gonna say it’s one of the best cards of the

year but one of the most talked about like but four months from now it could be I think I think we could we

could be we could be talking about this one especially if there’s an upset in the main event boy I mean we’ll be remembering this one not just this year

but we’ll remember it for a long time so I’ll go 9.7 9.7 that’s how highly I I

think this card can go yeah yeah yeah I don’t even know if you like 290 and 291 were that high for you AKA

doing some tens I’ve given some tens uh 291 wasn’t what was the last time

what was the last time I gave it 10. there was a pay view early this year I’ll try to remember uh it was 288.

I don’t know there’s some there’s been some tents not too okay no you can’t no

one gave 288 a 10. nobody in the in the on paper the aftermath any of it that is

not a 10. somewhere in there in that car yeah right well it will be talked about for

four months or for the next four years if like you said Sean O’Malley can pull off the big upset and defeat Al Jermaine

Sterling and it’s been real interesting here AKA because everything on paper tells me that this should be the

algebrae Sterling show he should not walk through Sean O’Malley but he should have a relatively fun time getting

through this fight and getting a pretty sizable payday at that because Sean O’Malley is the biggest star in the

division and everything on paper tells most pundits Sterling should do very well here if he just sticks to what he

does well on the flip side Destiny is hard to stop and Sean O’Malley feels like the karma

the good Juju everything the momentum it’s all on his side and no matter what happens on Saturday just this night on

this night when he steps in the Octagon about your main Sterling it is meant to be that he will walk out of the TD

Garden as the bantamweight champion what have you made of the build and and sort of the the destiny thing I don’t know

how much you believe in that when it comes to Combat Sports in certain moments in the sport but a lot of people

just feel like you know what doesn’t matter what the matchup is stylistically Sean O’Malley’s is going to win the belt because that’s what’s

supposed to happen here Mike it’s funny you mentioned the word destiny because I just put up a feature

on MMA fighting a.com about fighters who were received a lot of hype and were

seemingly destined to win a UFC title ahead of their very first championship challenge so you guys check that that’s

on uh and myfighting.com right now it talks about Conor McGregor and Brock Lesnar Holly Holmes in there even though

I don’t know how super hyped she was going to that Rousey fight which kind of had to be mentioned Cody garbrand some other names in there Darren till

um all kind of to put context into what Sean O’Malley is trying to pull off here and what he could be capable of if he

does well as far as his star power his his his influence his uh whether he

himself Will Go On on a long Reign so it’s funny it’s fun to look at what happened to people in the past and where

their careers went after uh win or lose so I love I’ve loved the build up to this

the only thing that sucks was that we had that weird murky situation where right after uh aljo wins that close

decision over sahudo of course we know that um sugar Shawn O’Malley should be

next but it did feel a bit awkward for them to just sort of immediately go like oh well it’s booked it’s booked it’s already done it’s booked happen uh you

know a couple of months for now like a somewhat of a quick turnaround for the champion algeman Sterling and and we all

knew algae certainly wanted to fight Sean O’Malley we all knew this was the fight to make the only and he was I thought he

was pretty reasonable saying let me get my Medicals checked let me make sure I’m I’m okay to get

back and train and give myself a proper Camp before this and it somehow it turned into this thing you know just

fodder for Sean O’Malley and for the fancy maintain a white saying like oh we don’t know what’s going on with alja why

he’s not agreeing to it that part was so silly I’m glad that’s in the past I’m glad you know

it’s coming some interviews but it is by no means the main narrative going to this fight the narrative in this should be aljo looking to continue to make

history uh extending what is already a record of title defenses could could extend that reference to four in the

bantamweight division Sean O’Malley possibly ascending to that level of stardom that you cross over stardom that

you only see with McGregor Lesnar Ronda Rousey because that fan base is there

and so that that I’m glad that that is what we are focusing on I’m glad that’s what the OC has done I think a pretty good job of pushing since the fight was

actually officially announced and you know we’ll get to our predictions Mike some people might think it’s an obvious

fight to pick but even if you think that just the Intrigue going in I it’s so compelling the trauma is is everything

it should be for a title fight I’m all in this is if I was just rating this one title fight it’s a 10 out of 10.

yeah Sean O’Malley’s become sort of an adopted New Englander because there are no Boston guys on the car there are no

Massachusetts fighters on this card but Sean O’Malley’s just be kind of kind of become like the adopted fighter in

Boston which is just nuts it is shot on Mali country which really makes no sense because he’s not from here at all I know

he’s the last name makes sense but it’s just very strange that a kid from Montana is so over in Boston ahead of

this big fight so there are a lot of interesting story lines that go to it so I want to touch on one of them AKA I

want to talk about the pressures on both of these guys because to me I feel like Sean O’Malley has I’m not gonna say he

has no pressure but he has very little pressure in this fight because of his star power because of the way he has

presented himself if you watched him and heard him at the media day very Pro wrestling-esque he’s putting aljo over

as the greatest bantamweight of all time he’s supposed to lose this fight if I lose this fight then I’m the last guy to

fight the guy so it’s kind of technically the champion anyway she’s saying all the right things and on the the other side algebraic Sterling feels

like this is going to be pretty quick work because Sean has does not have a great resume and Sean has painted that

picture well if I don’t have a great resume and I beat you what does that make you as a champion what does that

make your resume look like so Sean is saying the right things I feel like there’s some pressure but very little I

feel like he could bounce back to a title shot very very quickly I feel like 97 of the pressure is on algebrae and

Sterling heading into tomorrow do you agree with that or am I absolutely insane I I don’t know 97 but more it has to be

more on aljo because he has said I’m going up to featherweight after this and that’s with the assumption that he’s

beating Sean O’Malley I think any time he’s added a caveat in interviews it’s like oh well if and if if by some chance

I lose to Sean you know then I might cons I might consider coming back but generally he’s saying he’s saying this is the last one because I’m going to win

and then I’m going to get out of the way so my buddy Murad was really can then can then conquer the division and

continue this this Sarah Longo lineage um so this at that aspect there’s pressure on him uh the fact that like

you said he hasn’t necessarily given O’Malley all of his props he’s certain he certainly credited him as a striker and I think if you know if you if you

look at his shoes closely he he has said you know Sean’s a worthy challenger but definitely this week he’s focused on the hype aspect he has

focused on the how did this guy get here who is he beaten which again as you said it’s like that’s

that’s poor pro wrestling promotion on aljo’s part because yes if you beat this

guy well now you beat a guy who you say is beat nobody if you lose to him you just lost a guy who you say has beaten nobody meanwhile O’Malley taking the

opposite tact if I win I’ve knocked off I beat the best bantamweight there ever was to become number one that’s just

basic promotion great self-promotion um and it’s a typical in an interview you lose it softens it’s a tip of the

cap to your opponent it’s like hey I went in there with the best and I lost there’s no big deal right so uh I but I

uh back to the pressure question yeah man it’s it’s a lot on aljo if he gets knocked out by O’Malley I mean

not not to keep Harpy on the McGregor comparisons but when Jose Aldo went in there with

McGregor he was favored I believe he was favored a lot of us pundits in the MMA media who

were still skeptical of like how good McGregor really was we’re like well this is the fight this is the one where this guy gets

exposed and people see who that the CH why The champ is the champ why this guy coming up is just a big hype job and

although as much as I hate to say it has never that 13 second knockout will always be

part of his legacy and when you when you McGregor Fanboys it’s all they bring up all the times oh the 13 seconds 13 seconds this is why McGregor should be

ranked above although in the all-time great talks he knocked him out in 13 seconds that clip has been played a million

times and although again his legacy cemented in stone but that part is is something that will always be people

always bring up when trying to bring them down and it sucks it shouldn’t be that way but it is the same thing will happen with Sterling If he if he gets

knocked out by O’Malley holy crap his whole title run which is already one of the strangest title runs we have ever

seen will be called into question if he’ll say see see it just he uh he finally you know he finally faces this

guy and then and then he gets knocked out and how great A Champion with Sterling really which is so unfair because I think Sterling’s run has been

very good um any question marks about it are out of his control uh but again I can I can

I can say this all I want people in the media critics can can say this all they want

what a lot of people are going to remember if it goes down as O’Malley wants to go down Saturday is him knocking Sterling out cold so if that

happens that’s just a huge hit to Sterling and his legacy it shouldn’t be but it will be and if it goes the other

way like like you’ve said Mike before um O’Malley has plenty of chances to bounce back

I don’t even like I don’t even mention like I don’t even really ask that question for like a legacy perspective

because even though Al Jermaine Sterling has said that he has met with UFC brass ever since this fight was booked and

there was a bunch of talk about how am I being promoted and the way algeman has

been sort of portrayed By Dana in the promotion I wonder what this mean like if he goes

out and loses with this thought about moving to 145 and maybe he he might just try to angle for that rematch but

I don’t know how confident I am that he would just that he would get it you know what I mean like if Sean wins he’s gonna

have a lot more sway in this and he’s already planted the seeds that have barlin Vera beats Pedro Munoz he wants

to fight Marlon Veron December and have that rematch which is probably the biggest fight in the division that can

be made right now so if Sean O’Malley wins this wins the title how long of a

road is it back to a title shot for algebraic sharing whether it’s a 35 or 45 could Sean O’Malley potentially knock

algebra and Sterling out of the title picture forever if he wins tomorrow

it’s a little harsh and I think if Sterling doesn’t get a rematch

and I and and I am someone who’s against the media rematch typically I love the bantamweight division there’s so many

people I’d love to get a title shot I want to see Cheeto and I’ll uh and O’Malley fight against someday certainly

for the title would make it even more compelling um but given the circumstances under which we’ve seen other Champions get

rematches uh if it almost feels unfair to not give

aljo that shot right and I boy he’s been talking about Dana White

Privilege a lot he that he would be uh doing the Dana White Privilege media tour if he lost O’Malley and did end if

he wanted a rematch to be called for it like right away either the press conference or like within this week

and didn’t get it I don’t know again I’m not even saying like that he he he’s it’s like an

automatic like always had such a dominant run that to give him a championship not giving reaction be wrong I’m just saying based on what

we’ve seen I feel like they’re Champions have accomplished less who got immediate rematches

uh so Ken O’Malley knock it could he possibly permanently knock him out of title picture yes yes I don’t think it’s

right I think and this is maybe me being blindly optimistic and

somewhat ignorant of how the promotion has worked with Sterling in the past

I think of Sterling one of the rematch they would give it to him so that’s where I lean that’s if I’m betting money I would say Sterling as long as he acts

somewhat quickly letting his intentions be known uh gets that rematch if he does some sort

of I need to take some time to think and and we don’t hear from him for like two weeks the UFC will move on from him so

quickly you won’t even you’ll barely remember that he was the champion that’s how quickly they’re ready to move on but

I I think he can influence their hand a little bit um so I will go no I’m an O’Malley win does not

definitely knock Sterling out of the title picture um but Sterling’s gonna have to play his

cards right if that happens because the UFC uh is not going to feel like they owe him anything

yeah that’s gonna be super interesting either way just aljo because if aljo wins he’s the lone holder of of the

title defense record in the division he he will still have the title for the most consecutive title defenses in the

division him moving up to 145 is interesting some people feel like a win solidifies his run because it has been a

very strange Title reign winning the title by DQ then the split decision then the TJ fight with the one armed and the

one arm and the injury then the sehudo fight with the weird split decision and the just a horrendous scorecard that if

that judge just got it right then Henry suhutto would be the champion right now it’s just wild to even think about and

now he’s fighting Sean O’Malley and he feels that the aftermath of this fight should he win is well shot was not that

good to begin with so what are the chances that a dominant win from algebra and Sterling especially if he finished

him in the first three rounds people will be like you know what this dude is the best bantamweight of all time or do

you think they’ll react the way that aljo kind of feels that he still won’t get the credit that he’s due and that

Sean just wasn’t that good to begin with it doesn’t help that he’s doing the Sean’s you know a hype a hype uh machine

product like that was the worst thing he could have done because he’s uh and he’s probably doing it in a he’s trying to

get ahead of it I I get it he he I think aljo thinks like okay I can outsmart people but I’m

going to get ahead of this because people are going to say this after I beat him so I’m gonna say before and then it’s like well I knew all along

that people were gonna discredit this win but that’s like trying to get ahead of a narrative that’s not controlling a

narrative uh maybe he’s given up on that because he’s done a lot there’s one thing aljo has done throughout his

career he’s been very good with uh media he’s been very good at doing media appearances with reacting to things said

about him with reacting to things uh said about things that he said he’s very online

he’s very uh uh media Savvy um again mileage may vary on on how he’s

handled some of these situations but he is very active as far as reacting to things but in this sense he might be a

little too proactive because again if now we’ll run it down like I said let’s say he beats let’s say he beats uh

O’Malley let’s say it’s like uh you know not a super thrilling decision win like he doesn’t submit I’m not super then you’re right then he says oh well you

just beat a hype train a guy with no grappling a guy who’s like your style is good against and then sahudo I mean you barely won against the Hutto did you do

the shot the one arm we could we go on and on one the title by DQ uh Split Decision against yawn in the rematch

it if it won’t legitimize it because I think it’s legitimate already I think this is

a great title run things with again some very high level competition circumstances out of his

control that have put whatever asterisks on some of these performances so if you don’t think it’s legitimate

already I don’t know of him beating O’Malley changes that so I’m like I don’t know if that answers

your question because again I think it’s already legitimate and I think people who already think it’s legitimate win or lose win or lose shouldn’t change that

let’s say he gets knocked out by O’Malley on on uh Saturday for me that doesn’t delegitimize his title run it’s

been a great title run and he lost to wife who I think is a pretty good Challenger um if he but if you’re

anti-algia if you think again all these asterisks are should be blown up and matter than him beating uh O’Malley is

not going to change anything so technically I guess my answer is no Mike I don’t I don’t think anything happens on Saturday will make it extra

legitimate and that’s what makes this all very interesting because if on top of that

even if aljo wins that means he’s going to vacate and go to 45. who’s going to fight for the vacant title does Sean get

right back in there is it going to be murab versus Henry sahuto like it’s going to be real real fascinating to see

how this all plays out and we’ll probably talk about that more on on to the next one on Sunday a live Edition which would be on this program but okay

let’s just get right into this let’s make the pick let’s make it official right now according to our friends at

DraftKings Sportsbook Al Jermaine Sterling the favorite minus 258 The Comeback on the Challenger sugar shot

O’Malley plus 210 AK who leaves the city of Champions as a champion themselves

I’ve you know wrestled with this in my mind no pun intended I just can’t see a

world where O’Malley can stop Sterling’s takedowns as many times he needs to because uh we talked about it on the uh

live way and show my kind of saying like is is this a puncher’s chance situation does O’Malley need to catch him with

something and knock him out and I think no matter how you expect O’Malley to win uh it has to be he has to keep the fight

on the feet I’m sure he’s practiced a ton of jujitsu practice a ton of wrestling he probably even enjoys it he probably likes grappling practice I’m

sure he does and good for him but there’s we say it all the time there’s like a lifetime of training a certain

skill and you’re just not going to catch up with it in however many months you have to pay or even how however how long

um you know O’Malley’s been been training in MMA right uh because Sterling’s been wrestling his whole life and he’s very good at it it’s not like

he’s a guy who’s been wrestling his whole life and we don’t see it in the cage we see it in a lot of his fights it’s it’s it’s it’s

emphasized he’s improved a ton as a striker he’s good Striker too but that wrestling is his base and he goes to it

when he needs it um if O’Malley suddenly becomes you know Prime Chuck Liddell sprawling and

brawling sure he could knock Sterling out he could out strike him over 25 minutes

but we’ve seen wrestlers take O’Malley down as recently as oh sorry people use their wrestling I don’t want to I was

gonna say pyoto yon I don’t want to pigeonhole him as a wrestler but he’s a guy who certainly can wrestle and he did

against Sean O’Malley while they might have while they may have different approaches to doing it it’s it’s I still view O’Malley’s

takedown defense as a significant weakness and while aljo I’m sure would love to prove that he can outstrike

O’Malley uh he can always fall back in the wrestling and he should and I think

he’s going to take O’Malley’s back more than once O’Malley may be able to survive one of

those exchanges but he won’t be able to survive the entire fight Sterling by submission we’re naked choke uh round three

I’m going round two if you listen to a bets barred I’ve I’ve laid this out I’ve actually uh for the

sake of science I’m actually like placing bets on this one because I’m gonna be on the show I’m not gonna be like hey this is what I would do but I’m

actually not going to do it um I have some exposure on algeman Sterling I have a bet on algeman Sterling inside the distance I have a

bet on algebra and Sterling round two I have a bet on algebrae Sterling round three couple sprinkles and guess what

Mike guess what friends forever because I listened to the show and I did the same thing I’ve also got algebra by

finish in rounds two and three because of you so we are riding and dying on this one together I don’t know how I feel about that

I don’t know if this is a jinx I am the worst protecting things I am the worst predicting thing so this might be bad

for you oh man yeah maybe maybe not submit your predictions article that would be might be a great thing for my

best but and I’ll talk about this with the co-main event as well nothing would

surprise me here like just maybe there is a sort of like Kismet Destiny style thing that happens and Sean O’Malley is

just meant to win the title tomorrow in Boston he might just kick algebra and Sterling in the face we have no idea and

that’s what makes this fight so interesting so let’s go to the co-main of nak we have jeanway Lee first title

defense in the second Reign after just running over Carlos barza takes on Amanda lemosh Amanda obviously a very

dangerous fighter in her own right I remember Casey Lyden was incredibly high on Amanda a couple of years back right

we’re in the thick of the pandemic and here she is getting ready to fight for a world title so great read by our

wonderful producer ekc but I I’ve brought this up a million times AKA and I’ll bring it up to you right now I feel

like nobody’s talking about this fight nobody’s talking about it it’s it’s the Shawn O’Malley algeman Sterling show and

now it has become the Ian Machado Gary Neil magni show which we’ll get into in a moment and this one’s just just a fun

fight that’s not getting any love are you surprised that this is not getting like any attention it’s very strange I’m

not surprised at all and I love this fight but I’m not surprised the most the announcement of the fight at first was

this was itself a surprise to everyone um not that lamosh well based on meritocracy the most

didn’t deserve it because she lost to Jessica and Josh not that long ago in a submission of the Year candidate uh

fight um and the two women who beat Jessica and Josh uh Yan Chao Nan and Tatiana

Suarez you know we we want to see them fight boys don’t see one of them fight

zhangily preferably both you know a perfect scenario for the UFC would have been yawn getting able to fight uh Zhang and China sometime this

year and then Tatiana Suarez uh fighting her either at the end of the year or early next year right that’s but

the champ wants to fight the champ needed an opponent lamosh great performance against Marina Rodriguez who

has just had so much bad luck she she feels like she’d done enough to earn a title fight but never got that signature

win and then lamos just runs through her and lamosh takes that spot so the fight kind of came out it wasn’t the fight we

expected it wasn’t the fight we necessarily wanted it’s just the timing worked out

um there’s a you could say there’s a language barrier too of course you know uh from China from Brazil they don’t

speak the same language I don’t think they’re interested in talking trust to each other either way um even if that wasn’t an issue if

anyone’s watched embedded this week their segments are have nothing to do about each other they’re barely talking

about each other it’s just training and dieting and it’s just not a dynamic match-up personality wise but on paper

great fight definitely legitimate Challenger lamosh has so many finishes at 115 people

complain sometimes about strawberry division not having no finishes and the motion I feel like has like half of them that happened last year she’s just

that’s that’s how she does or within the last two years um and Jang has obviously finished her she runs through people she’s uh she’s an absolute Juggernaut so

people should be talking about more Mike they should be I think we’ve tried to do our part but I don’t blame fans for

uh not knowing that this is happening and and not necessarily being at the

front of their conversations when it comes to UFC 292. yeah I mean it’s what happens John Wayne

Lee versus Johnny and Jay check one like no one was really talking about it except Dana was when Dana was like

really promoting he was putting that fight over and some of the hardcores were into it ended up being one of the greatest fights of all time so maybe

lightning will strike twice but AKA it’s been very interesting here in Boston because between fans fellow media

members that I’ve spoken to and even some of the security that was working at the Garden during the press conference

yesterday Amanda Lemos is kind of the dot the Darling Dog on this car a lot of

people feel like she has a much better chance of the betting lines are indicating so before we get to our official pick

what would be a more shocking result in your eyes Sean O’Malley winning or Amanda Lemos winning

uh O’Malley O’Malley because I’m with the I’m with everyone this is one thing I don’t like about the

lamosh Zhang matchup is that lamosh has a really good chance of finishing shangly is a super athlete

um great technically she has everything like that you need to be a dominant Champion but I think she also has a lot

of good Challengers like of the three names we mentioned I think I feel most comfortable picking her against Yan

shonan but it doesn’t mean a lot of people picking Tatiana as far as against her and I’m like you said there’s probably a

handful of thinking in Manila mosh and the one question for me is Zhang’s defense she’s not like the best

offensive Fighter um we’ve seen her knocked out we saw her war with Joanna

this is an issue um if lamosh hits you and I think she is gonna

I think she is going to catch Jang a few times she could put your ass down so this is not a case where uh like there’s

an opponent where like oh well how how is she gonna beat Jang it’s like there’s a lot of ways she gets done she’s she

has good juices too she can finish she can finish via submission so you know me I’m always going chalk

I’m always playing it safe uh so of course you know if you ask me when the fight was booked I’m leaning towards the champion but again lamosh could really

spoil the UFC’s plans to have Jan shonan and Zhang Wei Lee um fight in China you

could still do that fight you could have it be a non-title fight um certainly since it probably wouldn’t be a pay-per-view they do in China so

you can do a non-title uh five round Main Event featuring Yan and Zhang but boy you’d really like to have that title

in there um that’s that’s that’s sort of the idea and it seems that the cards were aligned it perfectly

but now you have a real spoiler in the most here so for sure I would find O’Malley

um beating Sterling more shocking I I think lamosh is as live and underdogs as you can be

well her price tag is the underdog is Plus 250. John Whaley very sizable favorite minus

310 what’s the official pick AKA have you you felt like John Wayne Lee at the beginning but as time has gone on are we

flipping are we flipping over to the Challenger it feels like I’ve done everything possible to jinx Chang Willie not that I

believe in that sort of thing we did a UFC 292 primer this that went up earlier

this week and one of the questions and I’ll tell you right now I was responsible for making the questions one of the questions was what’s next for

Zhang wheelie after this fight so I was I’ve been super disrespectful to alamosa’s Chances

this is more to do with again my confidence in Zhang Whitley yes I think she can get caught yes I wish she was a

little bit sharper defensively but I do think she is pound for pound one of the top three fighters in the

world and I trust her I I after the going into the Esparza fight I was like I think

Zhang is peaking at the right time so we thought we all thought she would be Carla she did in pretty dominant fashion

I would pick her to win a rematch with rose number junis I don’t think we ever get that sorry a third fight excuse me if they were to fight again I would pick

Zhang I think she’s peaking at the right time I think that’s when what’s going to keep her from uh getting into trouble

against Amanda lamosh so give me Zhang to score a finish I’m gonna say second

round uh second round knockout

good pick uh I have John Whaley inside the distance um a parlay piece as well I also have

the uh the under three and a half combined with the under four and or no

yeah I I I I I I have two unders which I got him at I think under four and a half in the in the main event under three and

a half in this one for plus money I think Amanda is a live dog I I understand why she is a popular pick

despite being such a it being such a wide margin on the betting lines but

I feel like this is a puncher’s chance kind of an opportunity like I I just think Zhang is just at the peak of her

powers right now I think she’s just so good I think she’s peaking at the right time and I think if this fight happened

two years ago or two years later I would think Amanda lamos would have a a really good chance but right now it’s going to

be very very tough to beat John Whaley maybe Tatiana Suarez can do it maybe yanjan on can do it I think Tatiana

Suarez from an athletic in a competitive and just a Powerhouse a physical perspective I feel like Tatiana Suarez

has the best chance to beat John Whaley so with that I do think Zhang’s gonna get her out of there will Amanda make

things a little hairy for jean-wee Lee betters I think there might be a moment or two but in the end I think jeanway

Lee will weather any kind of a storm and she does get her out of there uh within the first three rounds so that will be

an interesting fight till that happens we’ll touch on two quick things and then we’ll take some questions before we get to get out of here AKA but

the big fight that has sort of stolen headlines over the past few days is

involving Neil Magny AKA Neil magni the the Wiley vets doesn’t talk trash

doesn’t get fired up even killed not the case this week if you saw at the press

conference in fact I talked to John attic a little while ago John was telling me that in the fighter meeting Neil Maggie was pretty pissed off in the

fighter meeting too saying that nobody he has ever faced nobody is ever prepared for has gotten him as angry as

he is this week and the press conference things just got a little bananas they

went back and forth Ian Machado Gary for better for worse has gotten people riled up whether it’s because they’re pro-en

or against him but AK Neil magni has become one of the

big story lines heading into this card what have you made of the build it hasn’t been pretty I know the internet’s

community MMA fans were like oh get this guy off my television screen I saw a lot of that

on Twitter what have you made of this build and end of this matchup now that Jeff Neal’s no longer competing yeah uh

I’m fine with it like uh I’ve said many times we’re getting the better of two meals uh Neil magni defeated Jeff Neal

in the battle of the Niels a while ago uh turning Jeff Neal into Jeff Ned um you know a lot of people don’t

recognize that but in a sense he’s got the I don’t own the UFC rankings if Neil is higher right now based on where the

careers have gone since but uh I do know what we checked earlier today magni number 11 in the uh UFC rankings not

that those rankings matter MMA fighting Global rankings check about um so I like the fight I like the fight

I have been mostly ignorant to the trash talk uh I did I was informed that I got

very ugly at the press conference in Machado Gary the the Conor comparisons were

unavoidable um once he started succeeding in cage Warriors He’s from Ireland

um he’s a confident guy he’s got his his uh his wife Layla’s does an excellent

job being his manager sort of guiding his career I think she’s helped him a lot with developing this persona

uh but at times it almost feels too put on too online

um the Jeff Neal stuff was also got very ugly he like had an old mug shot of Neil and they put it on his T-shirt and they

were kind of like you know putting all across their social media and selling it and if people found that funny or amused by

that that’s fine I I get it it’s this is a nasty game guys are gonna you know trying to get in each other’s head but I

I for me that does nothing for me I just think that’s ugly I think it’s a little gross and then um with Neil magni this week it was you

know bringing up some stupid comments Maggie made about uh I’m gonna beat my opponents I’m gonna beat one of my

opponents like I beat my worse than I beat my child or something horrible thing for Magna to say and just

as bad I think to bring it up uh as fight promotion so I I understand what Machado Gary’s trying to do

I if it gets people interested in him again this is the fight game

um it is McGregor s McGregor also crossed a lot of lines ahead of his fights uh I’m not a fan of I’m not a fan

of it I’m still a fan of this fight I I again I’m not like holding a lot of

this against Machado Gary it’s sort of the game they play it’s a hate the uh don’t hate the player hate the game

situation but I do think based on some of his behavior and the whole I’m carrying 292 thing uh if he loses on

he lives on Saturday it would be Darkly hilarious and I think he has as much pressure as anyone you know you asked me

the top uh Mike who has more pressure aljo or O’Malley and I wouldn’t quite put on that level but he might be third

he has even more than the co-main he has a ton of pressure on him to deliver because he has talked a big game

we and a lot of the media sites have aggregated his comments we’ve put it out there we’ve we’ve Amplified his voice

and he’s and now he’s facing a short notice opponent he’s gotta win he has got to it the one thing smart he

hasn’t run down magni as far as how good Magna is he’s given magnets like skills credit but boy he has talked a lot and

if he loses uh it’ll hurt him in the short term no nothing nothing major but um it’s one of those losses that

everyone’s going to hold against him pretty much for the rest of his career no matter how successful he is Far and Away the biggest favorite on the

card minus 485 The Comeback on Neil magni Buster of 70. yeah we’ll see how this plays out main card wraps up with

uh or runs out however mind you uh Mario Batista versus Damon Blackshear Damon Blackshear turning around a seven day

notice after a twister submission like six days ago in Las Vegas so he’s

felt pretty Breezy throughout this fight week it’s the main card’s gonna kick off with just a tremendous fight between

Marlon Vera and Pedro Munoz I feel like Pedro’s being slept on in a big way I am

leaning Marlon Vera in that fight but I feel like no one’s given Pedro credit which is kind of the story of his career but I do want to bring up before we get

to the peeps AKA Chris Weidman stepped on the scale made weight successfully first time he has done that since before

the Uriah Hall fight we know what happened there the catastrophic leg injury the road to recovery just kept it

just kept going and going and going and finally the All-American the former middleweight champion of the world is

going to step back into the octagon and face Brad Tavares at UFC 292. John

Amic was telling me that that moment for Chris Weidman when he got announced into the press conference and he got a big

pop from the Boston crowd it kind of put him in a really good place it was almost like he needed that

because he didn’t really know how he was going to be perceived in Boston was he going to be cheered whether it’s gonna be booed will

people still remember what he accomplished but when he got introduced and he came out from behind that curtain

the crowd in the garden went absolutely bananas for this guy and it did something to him so

not a lot of people talking about this I feel like this is a extremely under the radar storyline with the main event and

with everything that’s going on with Ian Machado Gary and Neil magni Chris Weidman coming back after that horrific

injury you saw him on the scale what are your thoughts on the return and the match of the Brads of ours

I’ve always been a big Chris Weidman fan because he was one of the first Fighters that made me feel smart because when I

was still sort of in my naysense MMA fans stage um or at least just starting to feel

like I had some understanding of how MMA worked it took a long time I I probably I still don’t

um the first Anderson Silva fight I had picked Wideman to win pretty confidently

pretty confidently and it wasn’t some I was all in the Wyman hype train always got a smash Silva it was more like I was

just looking like their ages and the way they were trending I’m like and just oh how long can silver maintain this and I

liked everything about Wyman’s background as far as like his his ability to Grapple um how quickly he seemed to have taken

to the Striking game he picked up some really big knockouts um so I I was very excited why in this

chance and when he won I was I was at a uh I was at like a Boston pizza or something and I was just like I got up I

was like my my pumped my hands in the air and I see some people disappointed in shocked and I was just like I didn’t

say anything but my body language clearly said I Told You So to a room with strangers who I

hadn’t spoken to war to so I have a fondness for Chris Weidman um I’ve enjoyed his career for the most part the

highs the lows and really looking forward to him coming back Brad Tavares the perfect matchup a guy who they don’t

expect to you know be a for you know just knock them out in the first round maybe knock him out at all

it’s not really uh Tavares bag it’s also a tough name it’s a reputable guy I think Tavares I’ve had him in the

top 20 top 25 of middleweight for ages just because he’s that gatekeeper he’s that that tiers GateKeeper

and he’s won more than he’s lost generally so I like I like that matchup but I’ll tell you Mike I am the worst person

if if I was to be on the watch party watching this fight I would be the worst person to have on because I’m gonna be

very tense and nervous during this fight um I I’m not expecting the injury to

just like you know immediately flare up again or for him to take a leg kick and then just get dropped I I have a lot of

faith that he in what he said that they’ve done everything they can to you know rehab surgery whatever I’m sure

there’s what there’s a I don’t know how much metal there is in that leg now but that’s it’s hard for me to see it’s

it’s he’s out because he’s up there in age two right this isn’t just like oh he’s coming back he’s 39.

he just turned 39 he’s been fighting for quite a while now um so I’m optimistic I’m predicting a

win but there’s that right does that part of me that the MMA devil that’s

just like cannot get the worst case scenario out of my mind so uh I will be uh I’ll be a bit of a wreck watching

this one yeah I believe I mean just depending on the timing that could be the first thing

that’s on when the watch party starts is the Chris Weidman fight because it’s gonna be on right before the

pay-per-view starts so we’ll see what happens that is a very interesting fight very much looking forward to it we got

Gregory Rodriguez Dennis to lulin that’s not going to the cards more than likely Austin Hubbard Kurt hollabaugh for the

lightweight tough finale Championship Brad Katona looking to become a two-time tough champ taking on Cody Gibson we got

Andre petrovsky getting the Gerald mearshart test and then we have Andrew Lee versus Natty the ice Matilda Karina

Silva versus Marina morose sneaky deep card I like almost every single fight on

this there’s something to be intrigued by in every single fight on this card it’s a good one so with that said let’s

bring in the man the myth of Legends The Undefeated ekc lighted where is he there

he is how we doing let’s take some questions uh we can roll fry for the next 10 or so

minutes just because that’s how much battery power I have left in my camera so yeah

by the way guys uh how do you grade the UFC 292 lineup through a little poll B

very strong B grade 55 a pretty good too 24 but I thought there’d be more A’s I

think this card is really really good but b b’s not bad 55 I don’t know it’s got the potential it’s got the potential

to be really really good I think so

all right hmm but we’ll see uh let’s go to the peeps

oh I see someone asking okay go ahead let’s look at this one if this is The Ultimate Fighter finale

and not UFC 292 does that mean that this is the tough hang finale and not the previous show

uh technically yes but it’s not the same with that GC Conor much Mike my best friend as much as I love you uh GC Conor

Brooks would have to be here I can’t do a tough hang finale without him so uh Casey there’s another question I’ll just

pull up real quick uh Brandon wants because we were just talking about it is this weidman’s last fight either way

um nothing would make me happier than seeing him win and retire but I have a feeling if he wins he’s definitely it’s

definitely like I’m back I’m back give me a top 10 guy next I so I don’t think no way why I’m retired I know I would

love to see go out on top Chris what a story that would be you come back and it went but almost no chance Mike I don’t

know I don’t know yeah if he wins I’m going for that title

Israel out of Sonya I’m coming for you if he loses bad I think he retires

I kind of like look if Chris Weidman can go on a run that’s great deep down in the pit of my

stomach this is how I kind of hope this all plays out Wyman and Tavares go to war like they

just have a great competitive fight it’s back and forth Wyman lands a leg kick takes a leg kick

we get that answer to that question early and it should say really close fight 29 28 maybe we go to splitty City

Chris Weidman goes the full three rounds in a competitive fight with the top 25 guy and he’s just like look

I got in there I did it I’ve done what else do I need to do I’m done I’m satisfied

if he loses bad we’re just gonna feel awful about it if he wins he’s just gonna keep going but if he loses like a

really competitive split decision at least gets to the cards like I think that’s a victory in itself and what a

perfect time for him to kind of ride off into the sunset I’m not here to tell him he like needs to retire or anything like

that but as someone who was on the watch party when Frankie Edgar got obliterated and

retired watched Luke rockhold retire but then not retire two weeks later and watch Robbie Lawler retire the way that

he did I feel like Chris Wyman deserves a really good moment and not a scary

nasty sad one and I feel like the best chance for us to get this kind of a

moment is for him to go out and have a great fight baby beyond the losing end with the Tavares and then he can ride

off into the sunset so that’s what I’m kind of hoping for um but if he wins I don’t think he’s going anywhere

okay yeah there we go thoughts on why I’ve been

still saying he is title I mean I know AK if you’re gonna put yourself through this like shouldn’t that be somewhat at

least in the back of your mind that maybe I gotta maybe I got something I’ve been there before maybe maybe getting

the surgery and having this bad stuff happen to me maybe this is just setting me up for something spectacular

a month a month pass from the 10-year anniversary of his knockout of Anderson

Silva so 10 years ago plus a month just to kind of get me skilled

visualization is a hell of a thing I’m sure if you ask 9 out of 10 martial artists um how important visualization is to

their careers and to the results they get it they’ll tell you it’s hugely important

um Weidman has definitely in his mind played out the scenario where he comes back tonight to get to window Tavares gets top 10 opponents next fight and

then you know if the cards fall just right gets a middleweight title shot whether it’s against Izzy or someone else

um it’s it’s a hell of a thing uh and these endless he wouldn’t have gotten as far

as he’s gotten without you know without dreaming without so corny without dreaming without imagining

it without picturing how would go I’m sure he’s visualized how him finishing Tavares on Saturday right so

uh yeah see my thought is I can’t imagine it being

possible that he can fight his way up to that level I think middleweight just has some decent contenders ahead of him that

he would not get past but I have no problem with him having them good for him that’s where his head should be at I

guess but um I’d also have like I said before would like to see a retirement but that’s just me

uh

take a couple more uh why is Batista still on the main card I would think

they would have slid the Weidman fight on there with Cody falling out so I asked Mario was asked about this at

media day and he said that he was cool fighting Damon Blackshear or anybody else as long as he stayed on the main

card Sean O’Malley is a long time teammate training partner fighting for a world title being on this main card

meant more to him than the actual opponent so and the UFC gave him his wish and that’s what’s happening and

it’s fine it’s fine but I think TV perspective

since this was uh the Weidman fight was always planned to be the main event of the prelims I’m pretty sure uh ESPN had

a bunch of promo packages and stuff kind of built ready for that time in the TV slot

um and if they put Batista there they just wouldn’t have those packages put my packages ready and those promo packages probably wouldn’t fit into the

pay-per-view broadcast so I’m sure there’s some TV issues too that go into this but uh you know gotta pop that

rating man yeah yeah I’m not I’m not gonna complain

bantamweights rule uh if you want to make the whole plane out of bantamweight I would support it secondly I think

Weidman is getting the free TV I I obviously getting the free TV Rob right he’s leading he’s closing out the UFC uh

sorry the ESPN main card there’s a lot of casual interest I think in weidman’s return and I think you’re

much more likely to get a return on that by having him on ESPN what a moment you can build up right National Television

then saying oh if you want to see why items return you’ve got to buy the preview I don’t know if the juice is worth the squeeze there so I know

Weidman wants the prestige to be on a main card but I do think being the featured ESPN

um fight here actually means something so I think he I think he should be okay with it and I’m totally okay with it

yeah white man wins I’m sure his next fight will be on a pay-per-view portion of a card for a main event of some sort

of fight night yeah there’s gonna be a million plus people watching him fight tomorrow yeah yeah uh

[Music] um oh

which fight can steal the show uh the show stealer and a low-key Banger or

maybe it’s both for you AKA and is it Kurt Hall about Austin Hubbard or is it Brad Katona Cody no see that steel the

show implies that they’re not already the headliner you know you can’t steal the show when everyone is already

looking forward to your fights the most that’s like 1A and 1B so you can’t it’s going to be one of the silvas it’s

gonna be one of those I think I’m just I’ll go I’ll say Natalia silver Andrew Lee because I think Natalia Silva can

put her away but if she doesn’t it’s gonna be a pretty competitive and fun um three-round fight even she does put

her away I think that’s something to watch so I’m all in on civil Mania I hate having to pick one over the other but I will just pick one and I do like

uh I do want to see where Natalia Silva goes but I think I think Karina Silva is fantastic as well and um her weird sort

of rematch with uh Marina Rose is interesting but yeah I’ll go into Thai Silva and Andrew Lee

Casey all right I’m also going silver Lee and as a backup I am going Cody

Gibson versus Katona yeah yeah yeah I think I think that fight that’s got some

um real beef and um I’ve I’ve always just personally as a fan been a big fan

of uh been a big fan of Cody Gibson’s fighting style so I am excited to see what he can do in there and Brent Katona

is a quality bantamweight that should honestly never been released from the UFC in the first place

nine years nine years since Cody Gibson last fight in the OC 2014. look at that he’s one fight away from getting a new

contract what a business is saying what a business as far as still the show

I will say uh uh Whaley versus limos I think yeah I think that can be a crazy

exciting fight much in the same way that uh you mentioned earlier uh Joanna versus Whaley was kind of a it was it

was a co-main event what was the main event for that card that was the wasn’t that the Izzy Romero

card yeah so that had a lot of Buzz coming into the fight Izzy Romero and

awali and Joanna was kind of like well it’s a good fight that makes a lot of sense and we’re excited to see it but we weren’t really talking about it and um I

don’t I don’t expect a fight of the year but I do think the Motions thing are gonna be it’s gonna be pretty awesome

fight I I think Cheeto Vera Pedro Munoz is gonna

absolutely rule I think it’s gonna be super super good and it’s not getting

it’s getting some attention but it’s not going to get a lot it’s getting the attention because people think Marlon Verge is going to win and fight Sean

O’Malley and like the big rematch and Pedro’s just like all right dude I’m up

here too and I’m coming off a really good win and have you seen the guys I’ve lost to like I lose to the very very

best so I love that fight I love the fact that Pedro is kind of like that Silent Assassin guy right now he’s like

all right let him forget me let him downplay everything that I’ve done in my career I’m gonna go ahead and fight this

dude and I think stylistically there’s a value on him from a betting perspective I understand why people

would want to side with Pedro and take a dog shot at him I mean Loki I’m picking Munoz I think I

like Millions a lot and I I feel bad that he’s not people aren’t talking about him you know people are talking

about O’Malley Vera but I think I I want to see O’Malley Munoz just as much if we

get that match up you know if the stars lying but I don’t think there’s any

fight on this card where the result would shock me I’m trying to like truly truly Shock Me Like There’s No One who

I’m like oh there’s there’s no lock for me in this car let me put that way if someone asks like oh what’s your lock for this card like winner I have none I

honestly don’t think there’s like there’s no fight where I’m better than 80 confident that this well 90 there’s

no fight where I’m better than 90 confident that’s one one of the fighters going to win I love the matchmaking for this card

interesting the one result that would surprise you is if Kurt Hollowell beat Austin Hopper

by decision really that would oh by decision okay okay yeah no if Kurt wins he’s gonna this is gonna run him over in

two minutes that’s just what Kurt does and Hubbard wins decisions so

yeah and Gregory Rodriguez Dennis delulin will not be fighting for the middleweighty middleweight title I feel

pretty confident in saying that because they’re just gonna beat the hell out of each other I’ll take one more and then we gotta get

out of here one more will the UFC AKA try to keep aljo at

bantamweight if he retains where does his division go if he wins I don’t care okay so we know yeah they’re like do

whatever you want they don’t care go let’s go for another belt yeah sure do you I it’s I can’t we really can’t

overstate like how poorly I feel like the UFC has um promoted algeman Sterling

since he came to the UFC they for whatever reason they refused to put him on a main card uh for the longest time I

think he was on one I want to say Fight Night Main card in his first like five or six fights and it’s weird because he

was this young guy pretty exciting I think pretty exciting style person like good good with the media good on the mic

um and they just would not promote him in a meaningful way it was very bizarre even as Champion I almost feel like they

they’re reluctant to push him as one of their big guys like they don’t want they don’t push him as an a-level star

um some of that again maybe because he’s in the media so much and does so much of his own promotion the UC either you know

feels like they don’t need to be involved or they don’t um uh they don’t

support it I don’t know um we we’ve said there’s many justifiable reasons why fans you know

might have not been on the uh alza main Sterling bandwagon just his title ring is so bizarre but you know we we always

say that the promotion’s job is to sort of smooth these things over and make this guy you know help make Sky marketable and sell pay-per-views and

make you money and the UC has not done that so I don’t think they care about keeping Olive Joe bantamweight

they’d be happy I think to move on to murab or again Sean O’Malley get him back into another title shot sooner

rather than later um they’re fine they’re fine with Al Joe doing featherweight staying at bantamweight it’s not something they’re

having meetings over let’s put it that way yep if this is maybe some talk about

after five maybe two but two hypothetical but if O’Malley loses a competitive competitive decision

is there a chance at UFC and and aljo vacates is there a chance O’Malley might get another title shot coming off a

close loss yeah just because yes okay a very good chance okay dude if alja goes

if aljo goes out there and submits him in round three if there’s still good okay oh wow okay all right like it’s

very it’s that possible that’s why like to me Sean O’Malley has very little pressure because if he loses like so

what you can he at worst he can go and fight anybody else and one win gets him

back that’s just where he is in this Division and in his standing with the company right now so to me I feel like

they’ll do Murad versus a huto and if sahuto somehow isn’t ready to go Sean O’Malley’s getting getting right back in

there and fighting for the title I feel pretty confident in that if of course in all of this yeah if O’Malley

uh 14 seconds um starting somehow some some sort of

just incredible win like that yep zomali will he become the bantamweight Connor

in terms of just well I know there’s no economy yeah Conor McGregor is Conor McGregor but could he find could

I don’t know maybe what what what the UFC was hoping Cody garbrandt was going to be they might get with uh with Sean

O’Malley in terms of just um making that 35 division just like a

marquee real Marquee division you know and with that kind of champ and the government O’Malley is way more famous

than Cody was before his title fight like O’Malley’s legitimately I don’t want to say he’s he’s like a uh you know

a super main string star like I don’t think he passes the mom test I think if I if any of us you know if I ask my mom

not yet not yet if he gets that type of win you know and more importantly

there’s an age group that knows who this guy is I think I I say it all the time I’m old uh I’m sure people who are out

there you young uh hip cats in the comments tell me like do you have friends who aren’t into MMA who who know

who Sean O’Malley is I would wager that they probably some sort of clip of him on a clip of his highlights on Tick Tock

Instagram whatever uh maybe you’ve seen something funny he said a funny clip from his podcast

um he stands out he’s distinct and he appeals to a certain fan base so I I don’t know if he can be the Conor he can

be you know that level star yet but he is going to ascend to another level of stardom if he

pulls off that again maybe not maybe not AAA tier but like just a notch below like maybe clearly the biggest

bantamweight star the UFC’s ever had sure we could be talking yeah I think oh I think he’s already there yeah oh yes

yeah yeah exactly he might already be uh despite not even having won the titles so that’s a big moment there is so there

are there’s so much potential for O’Malley to become a Next Level star on

Saturday I don’t think it happens but if he gets the result that he’s been calling for for months now

um it will happen he’s a tier one star if he was titled on Saturday yeah he’s not in McGregor but

he’s he’s sitting at the table with the Jon Jones’s and the izzies and them for

sure if he wins this fight someone in the comments EQ says my friends are idiots

that’s why they know Sean O’Malley that’s a huge demographic for MMA the 80

enormous

is trust me that that means it’s probably many many many many many more

idiots who also know who Sean Amelia is who maybe don’t know love MMA but maybe love him some Somali and we’ll uh we’ll

be curious about how this fight goes wow thank you that’s a great way to say I I think that’s what’s exciting about the

main event is that I think we all see that kind of Next Level potential in

terms of even just as journalists just like man the stories that are gonna and just the direction of the sport that

could it could go if O’Malley wins dominantly and just who because you just don’t know it’s just kind of a new

frontier in terms of I guess the Phantom whites so it’d be fun

I feel and just just think about the street cred it gives it gives data whites Contender series O’Malley becomes

the second Champion he’s like the first dude that they like basically hand-picked to come on the show and

possibly go for a run like this I mean Jamal Hill just won the belt now Shawn O’Malley that’s the second Champion it’s

just a huge boost all around like do you have the UFC like I said will never say this danaway will never say this they

are so hoping shot O’Malley wins this fight they’re so hoping that out that Destiny it in fact rears its head and

and Sean comes through and it’ll be a wild moment like I’ve already pictured what the reaction would be if Sean

O’Malley knocked out Al Jermaine Sterling tomorrow night at the watch party I will lose my if that’s what

happens and just like wow I cannot believe that this has happened like

almost like how McGregor knocked out Jose Aldo it would kind of feel like a similar thing to me yeah as the more

we’re talking about the more kind of like I was like I’m kind of feeling the same parallels kind of coming into this fight I know Connor’s Conor said there’s

no real comparison but this feels as close as we’ve gotten to it since then

yeah I like the comparison all right yeah you can go ahead and hit the music uh we’re done we will be Jose and I will

be heading over to the Garden there’s a 30th Anniversary q a going down with uh Rob font Calvin kater Joe Lauzon and

chel P Sonnen taking questions from the peep so he will be there and we’ll have

ceremonial weigh-ins and then I fly out to New York first thing tomorrow morning we’ll have the watch party the people’s

pre-fight show 5 45 PM Eastern we’ll have all the winter interviews post fight press conference host fight show

AK and I back on Sunday for on to the next one there’s just a lot going on so for all of your UFC 292 coverage

throughout this weekend stick with us here at MMA fighting.com so for Casey

for AK I am Mike Keck thank you for watching we’ll see you later on everybody

thank you

there’s no Big John again today because he’s out there working on the farm but we’re going to give you a little special uh edition of the Punk’s opinion you

know Sean O’Malley had came out podcast Dave podcast saved my little psychic here my buddy here we’ve been doing

dirty for a while now buddy what’s it been like seven years now we’ve been doing this together six years six years man it’s been a long

time yeah man you’re a filthy little animal to stick with me this long oh geez look uh you know look Big John’s

out on the farm we’re gonna drop you a little quick punks opinion I saw something that came up with Sean O’Malley over the management stuff and

I’ve had one manager my whole career but I’ve also seen the generations and the flips of managers as it’s come through

so you know you in the beginning there was guys like Monty Cox who managed all the military guys then you had Bob cook

who managed all the the AKA guys and there was other managers along the way that managed like the scrap pack and and

other you know another uh and then Uriah came along shortly after you know like there was there was a management that

had changed or developed and opened up and Jim started having their own management things those type of things

had started coming about but I wanted just to kind of touch on some of the stuff that he had said at the presser

and uh it made perfect sense but I also want to make sure that everyone understood management has changed so

much from the time that I was fighting and it’s been a long long time guys a long

long time I mean Bob cook was my manager started being my manager back in 1999. you know like kind of the end of 98 99

right when I started right when I moved over towards um towards to Calif back to California from

Coeur d’Alene Idaho so um just wanted to give you a take and then now the management has changed a

lot more lawyers are involved a lot more um like Heavy Hitters are more involved you have some some managers or some

Fighters are are uh managed by like um Audi atar some are managed by CAA

summer managed by um you know other other top level uh management companies and so I just

wanted to I just wanted to touch base on what he said but Dave’s going to play the clip for what he said and then I’m

gonna touch a little bit on it this one won’t be as long obviously as the one that we did uh just in the past couple

weeks if you haven’t seen it we did it what two weeks ago week and a half ago two weeks ago yeah so if you guys haven’t checked that one out go check it

out and uh check it uh it was it was a good little one it was about 35 minutes this one won’t be as long at least I

don’t think it will uh there’s not as much to really to talk about but you know Dave will I’m sure pop in some questions because Dave has no idea how

the sport goes so he actually he actually relates to a lot of you know 99 of the fans out there that have no idea

what really goes on so they just sit from their couch and tell you I could have done it better so that’s it that’s podcast Dave but um look let’s go ahead

and play that part uh with Sean O’Malley and we’ll go go through and I’ll have you stop it at moments of it to talk about it go ahead yep so he’s trying to

Molly media day this week and leading up to the UFC tuning into I’ll play this club for you here we go I’d say make

sure when you get these managers contracts you guys read them and look through them have a lawyer look through

them don’t just sign just because these guys say I can get you in the UFC they’re taking 20 of your purse they’re

taking your win bonus they’re taking your fight bonus performance bonus I I would be very very skeptical on signing

their contracts you could sign with a manager but make sure you have okay so okay so now I know things have changed

um look I had signed 20 to my to my management but my management also paid my trainers so 20 was 10 to my trainers

10 to my to my management now I am under the understanding now with some of the

managers that I know in the in the in the MMA industry now it’s 20 to them and

then the fighters pay the managers uh the fighters pay the their trainers separately that’s not how I did it

that’s not how the guys at the majority of the guys at AKA from what I understand did it no they were working

with the zenkins and so it was a 10 to management and then a 10 to the trainers

because it was a kind of a conglomerate of the two that had joined together with Javier Mendez Bob cook and Dwayne zinken

they had joined together and the gym was all fighters inside that gym at the time were managed by uh Bob cook and Dwayne

zinken now I know that other managements don’t do that now you do have to understand

that there can be conversations with with the manager like if you don’t if you don’t

want to if when you when you bring a manager on you’re you’re vetting them they work for

you it’s not the other way around for some reason people believe that like oh this guy can do this for me that they’re

doing me a favor no they’re doing their job and that’s I think where uh sugar shot

very smart when I was listening to him talk about this he had wrapped his head around all of

the things that Fighters need to start to understand when he said read the contract read the contract if you don’t

know what it means man Google like figure it out like those are things like you’re signing your your

not your life away but you’re signing a big portion of your finances away to a

manager and you’re allowing them to control your destiny in not just in the sport but like in terms of marketability

and so you’ve got to be very cautious um with who you sign with vet them talk

to them you know get and there’s going to be a lot of things I’m gonna say about some of the stuff but I think this is one of those things where

you need to make sure that for me I think 20 is too much for just for management okay

um now if there’s also another side deal that they can get you you can do management is for them negotiating the

contract and then uh sponsors is another deal but then since there is no sponsors you know in the um in the UFC in terms

of in the cage whatever Deals they can get you outside of the cage they can get a percentage of but that is a separate

negotiated deal and that should also be based on what the dollar amount is I mean I do remember there was I’ve had

several sponsors this is back then so the money I think is a little bit better now um over time it generally tends to get

better uh but I mean I had sponsors that were paying me 25 Grand just to wear the shorts Inside the Cage you know and that

was it 25 Grand just to wear the shorts not a shirt not not no I didn’t have we didn’t have banners back then just to

wear the shorts and so those are deals that you can negotiate separately

um that deal for me as well was 10 they got 10 of the sponsor and then they got and then they got 10 of my contract uh

for the fights that they negotiated so they negotiated a four fight deal or six five deal they got that 10 for the six

fights and my trainers got the other 10 so then realistic I was only losing the

20 total not 20 to the manager and then another percentage to the trainers so

then you’re losing anywhere between 30 to 40 percent just to the trainers and just to the management that’s ridiculous

now that last part that he had talked about was with the was within in regards to the bonuses

your manager I don’t and I’ve said this before your manager shouldn’t get [ __ ]

for performance bonuses a big fat goose egg that’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever

heard your management doesn’t negotiate the fifty thousand dollars uh by your

performance they don’t they don’t go they didn’t negotiate that deal okay that is something that Dana gives out

for your performance not for your manager’s performance in the contract negotiations your manager shouldn’t get

[ __ ] nothing none of it he shouldn’t get any of that whether it’s that but I don’t

even know about other bonuses back room bonuses any of that [ __ ] it shouldn’t get any of that none of it you should be

collecting his job was to negotiate the contract for you in the UFC he did that

and he does he did it based on the fights so he if you signed a three fight deal four fight deal six five deal

whatever it is he gets his 10 or 20 or whatever so I’ve heard some managers up to 30 which is

just ridiculous in terms of what you guys actually make and you’re giving away 30 percent adjust to the manager

not I doubt that’s even to the trainers for some of them I’ve heard it’s not to the chase just the managers 30 if your

manager is taking 30 percent there’s got to be some sort of something else going on are you getting

30 and you’re bringing me five or six other responses that are making me another hundred thousand dollars I don’t

even know but I’m simply saying you should never be paying 30 for the contracted fights that you’ve negotiated

okay in in terms of the bonuses none you don’t get any of that you weren’t in

there fighting you didn’t go out there and fight your ass off you didn’t go out there and get fight of the night you didn’t go out there and get submission of the night you didn’t go out there and

get knocked out on the night you didn’t get any of those things I did you know and I did it in my training with my

trainers now if you want to give your trainers a percentage of that I I would highly

recommend it I suggest you do your trainers helped you get to that level of having those performances I think if

anyone deserves anything from that it’d be your trainers they get a little bonus because hey we did it together and and

to believe that you you did it by yourself in terms of uh it’s just not true in terms of The Knockout the

submission or the performance and the push the cardio all of those things whatever got you paid if you want to

give your coaches some of that I would highly suggest it man that that’s what keeps your and sad that that’s what

money keeps family together and uh it’s it can it can break you up too but in

this position I think this is one of those things so let them know you appreciate them without always just having to tell them you appreciate them

let them know and I was I would suggest giving them a little bit of a bonus on that if you have any questions before we

move on on that Dave nope not in that part okay go ahead let’s go ahead and carry it on here we

go contracts you could sign with a manager but make sure you have stuff in there you know it’s fair to you because

none of none of these contracts are fair to the fighters and these managers know that these Fighters aren’t going to read it or Fighters for a reason so I would

be very I would sound very very careful with you know these guys that are really close to the UFC you know I just want to

go off that you’ve obviously made a statement recently that MMA managers are no good and you’re going to prove that has a specific incident happened that

makes you want to pick up this course um no there’s been a couple instances more recent yeah okay stop here

now I’m not fully on board with the MMA managers are no good um I think there are there are reasons

to have an MMA manager and um I can give a couple examples I don’t want to throw any names out but I do know some

Fighters and they’re people that are close to me so I don’t want to throw that out too much is that they thought they had they had actually

almost two managers working for them they went behind closed doors and Dana had sat them down and in bullshitting

with them thought they were doing them a fake you know like basically like hey I can do this for you I can do this for you and at the end of the day they

signed a contract um with the UFC and they sidestep the

manager and at the end of the day they’re like oh yeah but then I don’t have to pay the management fee yeah but you also got less

you got less than certain certain areas and what I mean by what you get paid

doesn’t always reflect who you’re gonna fight so it’s certain parts in your

career as you step up in competition you want to get paid more but if if you’re fighting let’s say you’re fighting in

the 135 pound division you need to take as much money as you can in your second contract your first

contract they’ll give you like you know you’re going to be fighting the low-level guy not low level guys but guys that are just coming in the UFC uh

same thing goes for Bellator if you’re in fighting 135 pound Division and you’re fighting that first round of of

competition is going to be kind of the the the guys that are just coming in

okay like uh Brett Jones had fought um had fought Danny sabatello thinking that

okay look my first fight in Danny took the fight on short notice I should be able to get this win didn’t get that win in certain weight classes these guys

they’re the guys that are right that are not ranked in the top 15 they’re [ __ ] killers

there’s tons of them out there they’re not even in the UFC they’re not even in Bellator they’re not even one or or pfl

there’s guys out there at 135 pounds because it’s the most stacked division in in the sport right now 145 is also

very stacked 155 is of course always stacked those three weight classes right there

they’ve always got some of the best fighters in the world that are not even in these big promotions so your first

contract I understand is to get you in contract it’s like that rookie contract I look at things like a rookie contract

your first one you do your three four fights under a rookie contract but after that if you’re in one of those weight

classes you need to try to get as much money as you can because no matter who you fight they’re all tough they’re all

tough now when you get into this you know even I would even say even to the 70 pounds it’s kind of in that way it’s

kind of tapering off a little bit guys in the top 15 guys outside the top 15 guys that are not in the in the UFC

there’s still some tough ones out there but there’s not a lot of them out there you can kind of understand the name recognition and this and that but when

you get to 85 205 and then up into the heavyweight there’s only a handful I’d say maybe like you know you got eight

you know eight to ten in the UFC or maybe a little bit more that are top 15 that are the some of the best guys in the world and then you’ve got you know

six to eight whatever in the UFC or in Bellator that are some of the best guys in the world you know maybe five to five

to seven best guys in the world other promotions but those weight classes are generally a little bit

um they’re not as deep and so when you’re having these negotiations your first contract is your rookie contract

if you’re in the lower weight classes I suggest you go ahead and and you start asking for a significant amount of money

or a little bit more of an increase if you’ve had good performances you go ahead and do that because no matter who you fight it’s going to be tough fights

why would you want to fight somebody um for let’s just give an example look

at your rookie contract in the UFC is like 10 and 10. so those are guys you’re gonna fight for four fights three fights

four fights but then you get into the next contract at 135 pounds now I’m going to be looking to get in that next

contract they’re gonna look to try to get me in the top 15. they’re all killers they’re all killers so who so why would

I not try to get as much money as I possibly could for that contract and those managers need to understand and if

your manager doesn’t understand that then you need to find yourself a new manager because a lot of how they

negotiate the deal has to do with who you are how you perform what weight class you’re in who are the likely

people that you may potentially be fighting in that top 15 that top 10 that top you know that top uh level of

fighters in your weight class because that will that will directly reflect how much

money your manager should be asking look if I get to 135 pounds can you pull up 135 can I see it at all there Dave you

won’t be able to see it okay so if I was to pull up 135 I mean who who are the can you just rate them off to me yeah so

who are the best guys in 135 in the UFC okay so you got a number one marab yep

Sean Henry Sun Hagen pyrion uh Chio Rob

font songidong Dominic okay so stop it Chito so Chito is kind of you know what’s he six

she always six yep yeah so that’s to get to six now look let’s go okay we go beyond that it’s Rob font

Sonya dong who’s behind those guys Don Cruz uh Pedro Munoz Mr

Ricky Simon Jonathan Martinez Adrian yarnes and Chris katitas okay so you

have some really good guys in that in that when I that’s in the top 15. so I need to start asking if I’m a guy

after I’ve got through my rookie contract your manager should be trying to get you the most amount of money in those areas now you get can you look at

the 185 pounds yep let’s read off the 185 how far yep at one rickus at two uh what a car

canonier bitore Strickland Brunson

Roman delete Jaco Manson Brendan Allen okay so who was six was

um Brunson okay who’s Brunson Bronson seven seven yeah okay and then uh Delete

is a [ __ ] killer he’s another guy he’s just a killer I think brunson’s kind of starting to fall off a little

bit and he’s getting a little bit older it’s just harder for him to get in shape into wrestle and utilize what his big

tool is for him so those are the things it starts to fall off at around six and

seven whereas in the 35 pound it it’s get those guys are still relatively young but they’re coming up they’re

they’re making a March towards the top five whereas in in the uh in the 185 pound division a couple guys are making

their March like deletes he’s gonna make his March into that top five top you know three or four probably here pretty soon but he but the other guys are kind

of some of them like Brunson is kind of starting to fall off a little bit some of the guys are falling off your manager should be negotiating the most amount of

money for you in that hundred thirty five hundred forty five hundred fifty five maybe you up into the 170 pound division in your second contract because

all those Fighters are killers at that point let’s go ahead and roll some of them more what he was saying

all right here we go being careful with these guys they’re not they’re not good at their jobs they you know they’ll

manipulate you do you think it’s a problem that it’s like a low barrier to entry anyone can be an MMA manager so

they’re just not necessarily skilled in the workplace or is it that a lot of these guys through their job have just

become too close to the promotion and as such cannot represent the fighter as effectively as possible a little bit of both you know you meet scumbags

he is right you can meet scumbags in both okay they can be everywhere okay but let’s go with what he was talking

about and is the whoever the person was asking the

question the reporter or the analyst or whoever he was the media when he asked the question he he brought up a good

point he brought up a good he was a it was a great question have these managers gotten too close to the promotion if you

are a fighter and your manager is

If your manager is too friendly with whether it’s Dana whether it’s you know

the matchmakers whether it’s people within the UFC it’s I’m not really sure it’s somebody

you would really want to have as your manager because you have to wonder as it as the way the shift that has changed

back when I was fighting Bob cook he never hung out with Dana he never hung

out with Joe Silva he never hung out with Sean Shelby like you know sure they would meet and talk contracts

but they weren’t they weren’t hanging out on Planes together they weren’t hanging out and gambling together they

weren’t you know hanging out at their houses together I would be skeptical of any manager hanging out

and doing these things and now look some Fighters are like oh well he’s in with them he’s in with Dana he’s in with you

know the matchmakers he’s been with you know it could be it could be bellator’s guys as well could be like okay

um but those are the ones those managers are like hey when their selling point to you is

when they’re selling point to you is that I’m friends with Dana I hang out with him I gamble with him um I have dinner

with him I go to his house um I fly places with him you’ve got to be skeptical of those managers because

now some of those managers only have four or five Fighters so then that makes it a little bit more I don’t say

different it makes it’s a different scenario but when your manager has you know 60 70 80 Fighters and are they are

they leveraging you to get some of their younger guys on that’s one two is are they cutting you

are they not giving you the best offered contract because they want to get four or five of their other guys on whether

it’s Dana White’s consenter series whether it’s the what’s the one that does with Matt Sarah uh Dana White’s

looking forward for a fight all of these things I don’t know if that show is still around but all that stuff you know

what I mean like um is it the ultimate fighter is that something you’re looking for are you

impressed and that’s things some of these managers will reach out to be like yeah I’m like uh Fighters will say I’m

impressed because he’s my my manager of the guys vet that

I’m vetting is out there hanging out with Dana he’s out there hanging out with you know the promoter out there hanging out with the matchmakers those

are not things that you should be you shouldn’t be happy about that you should be thinking to yourself why

like I need I can’t have you you guys can’t be friends and still negotiate and

get me the best deal it just it doesn’t doesn’t work that way as much as we would like to imagine in a

world in a fairy tale world it doesn’t work that way the managers

and um promoters and matchmakers are people that do the contracts for these

the organizations they shouldn’t be friends your manager should be okay look this is business okay not sure I can say

hi we can you know we we shouldn’t be hanging out though like I should be handling this in terms of like I need to

make sure that my contract or my fighter is being taken care of and that’s it that’s what you should be looking for in

a manager and Sean and Sean he’s seen this and he he’s obviously speaking from experience If your manager or someone you’re

talking about signing with is like yeah I hang out with with the promoter yeah I hang out with the matchmakers yeah I hang out you know

and I’m there at all these Vents and you know and they and they’re putting me up and they’re doing this that doesn’t do

anything for you that doesn’t do anything for you and so those were things that I think Fighters

need to need to understand you need to find somebody that is a little bit different

um away from away from that now not all managers are bad that’s the thing not all of them are bad

um I think I think there’s a lot of great managers out there and you’ve just got to find the one that fits best with

your needs like I always wanted somebody who wasn’t close with whatever promotion because when you do decide to pull that

trigger like I left from one promotion to the next when the UFC got rid of the 155 pound Division I went to I went and

fought in Pride when I fought in Pride that had to be I had to get a different manager for that because you have to have different negotiations for the job

to to negotiate with the Japanese at that time and so I went out and got a different manager to handle that side

and then but I still stayed with Bob for the US stuff it’s fought over and pride came back when Strikeforce happened I

utilized Bob to negotiate with Scott Coker and my relationship with Scott cooker sure I’m extremely close with him

but during my fighting career it was a it was a business there was plenty of times where Coker would call and yell

directly at me on things that I said in the media but then and I was fine with that and there was things that you know

he would relate through Bob to me as well and those are things like you want to make sure you have that separation

because if things do go sour or they go south or whatever it is that that you

can you can separate those things you can’t have a close close friendship with them

at that time when you’re trying to be a fighter because there’s just too many things that you’ll fall victim to oh I

can do this for you I can do that for you and you’ll start to bend a little bit because it is the UFC or because it

is the Bellator because it is one because it is a big promotion and you’ve got to be very cautious and careful

about that go ahead and let’s try to finish up with the Sean thing yeah it’s just 10 seconds bro and you could have broke scumbag friends you could have a

lot of money and then those Rich there’s you know there’s high level scumbags out there and uh you know they’re good at

they’re they’re good at being scumbag they’re good at that yeah that’s your clip yeah yeah no I get

it he’s um but he is right like some some people will go ahead and take advantage of manage some managers will

take advantage of you know hanging out with uh the promoters hanging out with the matchmakers doing all these things

so if you’re a young fighter to recap on the whole thing is

your percentage is up to you negotiate don’t think like hey this is their set percent uh set percentage no it’s not

it’s everything is negotiable I’m signing you to work for me negotiate that I don’t give a [ __ ] don’t get it

caught up also in this number that it has to be 20 no it can be 15 percent

okay now maybe it’s harder to do the math for some of you but guess what that extra five percent goes a long way

and so start start thinking about that it doesn’t have to be 20. everyone’s like oh 10 20 30. why are we rounding up

that’s one thing in terms of bonuses I think your trainers should get the bonuses on the on the performance bonus

submission bonus knockout bonus whatever it is if you want to tip your you know or you get not tip but if you want to

give them a percentage of your trainers or percentage of that yes management I don’t believe should get it management

should be getting you sponsors outside of outside of the cage or in the cage if you’re allowed to have sponsors in the

cage they get a percentage of that your trainers don’t get a percentage of that

your TR your coaches and stuff don’t get a percentage of your of your sponsors so now that’s where you divide the line

like look you get me sponsors I give you a percentage of that to your management okay my coaches got me to the level of

knockout submission performance of the night I’m gonna give them a percentage of that these are all things that are negotiable

you need to sit down with whoever’s trying to sign you and if this if one of the things that comes out of the manager’s mouth is I’m good friends with

the promoter and I hang out with him at his house or I hang out with him on his plane or I hang out with him in in Cabo

Mexico Florida wherever it is okay whether it’s the promoter whether it’s the matchmakers you guys have got to

stay clear and he’s he’s obviously speaking from experience foreign

this is happening but I’m saying though is that remember how nc2a was the

college coaches were paying the parents to have these kids come to their college

it’s you’re starting to lean a little bit more towards are these managers paying to get their fighters in

and I I’m like I said I’m not I’m not saying they are but it’s gotten to the point where you you’ve gotta

you’ve gotta like with Sean he sounds like he’s got something in the back pocket which some people

um have reached out to me and have talked to me about it and stuff and he does have something in his back pocket and like he said he’ll release it when

the time is right but at the end of the day like are are the managers

will managers will start I think coming this is one of the negatives of Bellator going away when I look at Bellator does

go away I don’t I don’t I’m not 100 in I just saw a report the other day on uh

on BET was doing a deal with Paramount and the whole deal they got down to it

they came in with such a low ball offer that they shut the whole deal down they’ve been negotiating for a long time

and so to think that like the pfl deal or any other people that are in this

negotiation with Bellator there’s a lot that needs to happen for us to sit up here and for us for me to sit up here

and speculate it just it can’t happen like no there’s these deals don’t these deals just don’t happen overnight

that’s one two is that the little tiny nuances of it all like just the little tiny things who I want you to pay for

this I want you to pay for that no and some of them are um deal breakers for whether it’s one

side or the other side and so um look at the end of the day everyone will just we’ll just have to wait and

see on how that all happens but to say that this deal is gonna um happen I mean like I wouldn’t be convinced until the

end of the day but this is the reason why Bellator is or this is the reason why it going away creates more of a

leverage for managers or not managers but promotions whether the UFC to start

to leverage the managers against their Fighters and so Sean doing what Sean’s doing I

think he’s he’s taking steps to to secure his best interest whereas if bellatource goes away and you

have pfl and you have one those are the two major of the other two major promotions now that the UFC understands that they

can start leveraging a lot more these managers are going like hey man your guy’s gonna have to take less you want these guys to get paid more you

want more promotions Joe Joe Rogan has said it Jimmy Smith has said it other

people that have been involved like myself and Big John has said it as well is all of us that want the fighters to

make more money the way for them to make more money is have more options you wanna it’s it’s really comes down to

making sure that I can leverage this promotion against this promotion and I talked to managers this week and I legit

just said why are we why are not why are Fighters not leaving

the UFC when they got a little bit of a name they leave they go to another promotion if all these other promotions

are not Superior which I think they’re all they’re all equally as good in terms

of like you have top three or top five Fighters five six they can all compete with each other why don’t they just go

to another promotion like how Anthony Johnson did because Anthony didn’t even become their Champion but he had great knockouts over there and then come back

and make double the amount of money he was making maybe even triple the amount of money because I had worked with Anthony from the time he came into his

career but on top of that he had asked me to manage him during that time when he was about to leave

um the World Series if I didn’t go back to the UFC and I told him no I just didn’t I did was there was just

no way that I was I felt comfortable managing him walking him into the UFC and having a sit-down conversation with

Joe Silva and having a sit-down conversation with Dana White about Anthony Johnson it just wasn’t a it

wasn’t something that I had put myself into in terms of I didn’t want to put myself in that position I had had to had

conversations with Joe Silva plenty of times while cornering and Anthony not making

the wait and Joe came directly to me because he knew that I was the one that was kind of trying to help him as much

as possible in his direct trajectory of his career and so Joe had came in and just

tore me a new [ __ ] but it was like basically about AJ and uh you know and there was a lot and that was a good

thing about Joe is after Joe cooled down he was easier to talk to but uh you had to let him say what hit what was on his

mind and you were able to have a conversation with Joe Silva thinks Joe Silva is one of the

he he was he was nasty he could be nasty but he was he was a straight shooter he

let you know exactly what was on his mind he did everything uh the right way I believe and so I just look at

these Fighters need to separate their percentage vet their vet

their management separate what their percentage is for bonus bonuses separate their percentage for what sponsors are

and then move forward and see how it goes and look your fight your your management can be fired at any time and

you can hire a new one at any time so don’t forget that now they still get paid for the contract they negotiated

though so if you’re three fights if you are they signed you to a six five deal and you’re only two fights in you still

owe them for those four other fights to pay them out somehow and and they’re gonna get paid

they’re gonna get paid somehow someway hi Dave what do you got I feel like you have uh tudo D two dumb questions but

let’s go um so I’m just gonna take a timestamp real quick so that I know what where I’m

at we’re talking about this but um the question I had was um for you that we haven’t really touched on is is is a is

there such a drastic change in the sport since since having a manager was a big deal you know and then UFC brought in

um you know sponsors that were kind of mandatory sponsors whereas Fighters could not no longer have and UFC is

obviously the biggest promotion and then outside the UFC you can have other sponsors but there’s kind of like um there’s opportunities now to kind of

have a lot of these bigger these bigger sponsors is is that kind of eliminating the need um because one of the things I

saw when the Reebok deal came around was that um you write a favor used to have his own MMA management company and um

and you started seeing people Joseph Benavides was famous for coming out in the media and saying he he basically

left that management company because um he didn’t need it anymore since he didn’t you know he couldn’t he couldn’t get sponsors quote unquote

get sponsors like house outside like far walk into the cage and all that obviously outside of this the uh cage

you can do whatever he wants but you know fight week you have to wear Reebok or Venom now um and then in the cage you

can’t you know you can’t have a banner you can’t have your shorts and all that yeah that might have been because they trained together they were both out of

alpha male and it’s uriah’s gym that you rise like hey if you guys are managing under me I’ll negotiate your management I’ll take a less percentage I would

imagine the percentage in terms of that it was probably like anywhere between 7 to 12 or 15 or 10 whatever it was but he

said look what I will do though is I will get you sponsors so anyone that came to Uriah to sponsor him he probably

turned around and flipped it and tried to sponsor his other guys that’s that’s a good manager he’s trying to utilize

his connections from him being a top level fighter to get his other guys sponsors as well but then when the

Reebok could deal and the Venom deal came in with the Reebok at the time got rid of that

everyone understood that these sponsors they they all fled once Reebok came in

all these sponsors they were already at the time paying the UFC 50 to 100 000

just to even sponsor fighters in the cage they went from when I was fighting it was like they they didn’t have to

worry about it people were just sponsoring the fighters directly and then the UFC went about and said look

all your sponsors need to be uh sent to us and we need to see it we need to see who they are we need to call them we

need to contact them make sure that we have that we have the ability or the rights to use your logo inside the cage

on these Fighters so they started going that way and that turned into okay well

now that you’re we know that we have your approval to use our logo in your cage it’s gonna cost you now to put your

your logo on these fighters in our cage when and then on the side note what they would do

is they would go to them and say hey if you pay us directly you don’t even have to sponsor those

Fighters we’ll just put your name Inside the Cage we’ll put you on the canvas we’ll put you on the the padding on the side

inside the cage you’re gonna be there for every fight not just one that’s what the UFC was doing they got

all the contact information and they went around the fighters and went right to their sponsors and hit

them up directly for cash and they and they were saying hey well you pay us 50 100 200 300 000 and we’ll put you inside

our inside our cage for a certain amount of shows maybe the one show whatever it was so they were they were skirting

around it and utilizing using all those contacts from the fighters to get themselves more money and for Uriah I

could probably see like and at the time those sponsors all just bounced out they’re like look there’s no money to be made now they’re done they’re like we

left I had friends that had MMA Brands they had they had clothing lines but what they did was they also created MMA

stuff they stopped doing the MMA stuff and just kept doing the skate stuff and the surf stuff and the you know and

whatever it is and all the other Jiu Jitsu stuff they did all that stuff but they didn’t create any more MMA stuff

they’re like yeah we’re good we’re done we’re not trying to chase those anymore and so URI got out probably right at the

right time he understood and I’m sure that there was like hey let me leave go get another manager go do whatever it is

there’s honestly there was no really probably no need for Benavides to even have a manager a lot of these guys if

you understand the sport if you understand what you’re getting yourself into you know how to negotiate a

contract there’s not much room that you can get out of them you’re not going to get much they have

their standard unless you until you get up to the top one and two and then the champion basically those guys there’s no

room for negotiation they have it’s almost like a it’s a it’s a graph they’ve got a graph and says okay this

is where you’re gonna be if you’re ranked in the top five but when it’s time to negotiate your contract okay now

we’re gonna put you here if you’re if it’s time to negotiate your contract and you’re number one you’re the number one seed getting into the title fight

then they they negotiate two contracts one is if you win the title and it’s how much more money you’re gonna get paid you know with pay-per-view points and

all this other stuff and there’s one if you lose in the title fight and we’re gonna put you here but we’re still gonna increase you a significant amount of

money so there’s different ways to negotiate these contracts just Fighters don’t seem to understand that all they

see and I’ve said this for the longest time all they see is

UFC being on TV I want to be famous and that is the biggest way of getting into

this and I’ve given credit to Eddie Alvarez the way he handles his career that guy

has made so much damn money people don’t even realize how much damn money he’s made he has crushed it crushed it he was

making money in Elite XC he’s making money in Bulldogs making money and all these in bellatories making money in all

these places you know and I gotta be honest man like he did it

right he did it right not having a loyalty to one promotion he did it right and he made the most amount of money

because of that and then when he went when he did go to the UFC they paid him a [ __ ] ton of money there too because he had already become Champion almost

everywhere he had went and then when they went to one one paid him

an astronomical amount of money I don’t want to say it but they paid he told me and I’m like geez

geez why’d you leave he’s like well you know I wanted uh everything for him it

was more about the travel every time he had to travel to overseas so far to fight every single time he’s like look

it’s Taxi man a taxi especially at my age as I’m getting older it’s not as fun as it was when I was 26 25. and I got I

understood I understood I never wanted to fight out on San Jose because I didn’t have to go anywhere it starts to tax on you

what else you got Dave um I think that’s really out on the management thing

um you know I get I guess now like um is there any advice like if somebody

like do you have advice I mean you kind of talked about contracts and all that but somebody doesn’t want to have a

manager they just want to keep all the money they can do you have any advice for kind of hand managing themselves

I mean look there’s a couple things I could the

number one thing is you guys and this is my number one thing for fighters in general period for

athletes not even just Fighters athletes um I have a buddy who plays

he plays in the NFL this guy is he just signed his second contract so he got out of his rookie

contract signed a second contract he’s so worried about certain women like a woman in his life

and I’m like the right one will come don’t get distracted with all this [ __ ] because you he hasn’t been playing very

well in the last two years but I’m surprised that he got a second contract and

and I’ve talked to him about it he’s hit me up and like hey man like you know I said you’ve got to find somebody

all these men that are successful the ones that have been you’ve noticed their their female stays out of the spotlight

that they’re not their female is not involved in the spotlight you know they’re there for their man and that’s

about it they’re not on social media you know hyping everything up they’re not out there taking selfie asses you know

they’re doing their thing they’re they’re who your success I believe is directly

related to what type of female you have next to you by your side and that that is one of the Stark thing

differences between like you see some of these some of these Fighters man just running around with an Instagram model and it’s

like why like so you have eye candy do you think it’s going to be there maybe maybe she’ll stick it out maybe she will but

every when I look at those type of situations I look at that’s not a good business decision because every time you

guys have an argument you’re wondering if someone obviously someone’s in her DMS hitting her up you know at any

moment she’ll turn around and and run off and she could I’m not saying she would but she could and that’s something

that plays in Fighters minds and within this sport this is the hurt business you need to make sure you are 100 focused on

what’s in front of you that’s it you can’t be focused on anything else and finding someone who is by your side and

you have no you have no concerns about whatsoever of doing anything else or

being you know out there at the club at night doing whatever it is I don’t care those are the things like that type of

thing is I think what it will drive Fighters success um in terms of contracts and

negotiations I’ve already laid that out that’s your management make sure is the one that you want negotiations come on

terms of your in terms of the percentage taken um negotiations come in terms of the

percentage taken also for sponsors and no they should never get any of the The Knockout bonus percentage bonus

submission bonus any of that stuff any of your performance bonuses they should get a percentage of your trainers should get a percentage of that and be very

weary of managers that one of their first things they say is Dana White is

my friend I hang out with him we go I go to his I go places with him or hang out

with his family and those are things to be very weary of because like the Sean was saying they are too close to the

promotion or too close to the promoter then you have to start wondering do they have your best interest at heart that’s

what you have to wonder so those are all things to keep an eye out now I’m not saying that those those managers that are hanging out at their

house or on their plane or doing all this that they’re not good matters I think a lot of them are fantastic managers okay I think a lot of them are

um and I know a lot of them personally I think that they are fantastic people and good managers but you just there’s new

managers coming in there’s bigger companies coming in that are trying to get part of this be cautious and careful

of those managers that say like I know him I done business with him I do business deals with him

um I mean you know I’ve I’ve sent him this many fighters be very cautious of all those things so um you know it’s got

to feel good for you as a fighter that’s really what it comes down to let me ask you this then

um this is a question that may be interesting it will go off of them is it good then because you know Sean

has a good relationship with the UFC right because he kind of plays ball right when it comes to the character on

screen and kind of helping promote the fight and all that right we just said Nick Diaz versus Jake Paul where Jake

was out publicly saying he was pissed that Nate wasn’t promoting the fight the way he maybe thought he would um is it good for Fighters then to hat

to to basically um close that bridge of the relationship with the promotion themselves and have

that relationship on their own and and kind of so that like you know Sean probably has a close enough relationship

with Dana where he can go straight to Dana and say hey hey you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours on whatever whatever

the situations is that something that you would say is a good is good to kind

of have as a fighter look I think it is good to have it as a fighter but I also think it can be bad like I said

the promoter at times and it’s a revolving door we’ve seen Fighters come in think they have a good relationship with Dana they do until you start if you

have a loss or two then it’s not as good of a relationship anymore your phone calls don’t get picked up as much

that’s the way this business works and so in terms of Sean look Sean he caught on

on the contender series it had nothing to do with Sean could Market it himself

Sean does a great job on his social media on his podcast he does a great job

of marketing himself having a manager a manager is not helping to Market him or it should be but isn’t you know I mean

he’s doing it all himself he’s I would say he’s like one step down from another YouTube star that’s really what Sean is

and so he’s doing it himself now if it wasn’t the other way around like you have Al Joe alja’s a fantastic fighter

amazing fighter but he’s not as marketable and this is what we mean by marketable as he’s not

as marketable as Sean so having a relationship with Dana yeah it’s great but when it comes to the

contract negotiations I’m not 100 sold you don’t need a manager I think you need someone who is not

close with them though somebody who can also draw the line and that’s where that’s what we’re talking about now as a

fighter you tend to think you are worth more than you really are and then the contract negotiations don’t ever really go anywhere you want this and they’re

like we ain’t doing that now you have to now as a fighter most Fighters get stuck in their way Sean seems like he’s got it

figured out like look okay if you’re not gonna do that then give me another option or this is my second option you

can’t go to the promotion and say hey this is um hey this is my uh this is

what I want take it or leave it they’ll be like screw you you need to come into come with them with another option look

this is what I’m looking for okay how how far are we from here and there’s like yeah we’re not we’re not close at

all okay well this is my second option okay and he comes in with a second backup contract and says hey this is

what I’m looking for but if I become Champion then it goes to this contract you need to have two and three options

when you approach them if you’re going to manage yourself you also have to understand where you’re at in the pecking order in terms of in

rankings if I’m ranked in his division which is the toughest division in the damn world okay right now in the in the

sport he needs to be thinking what he did was brilliant he got through his Contender series contract he fought all

the easy guys he could possibly fight made as much money as he possibly could in those shitty contracts that they’re

in coming out of the contender series and then once he signed a big lucrative contract okay I’ll fight Peter yarn

brilliant and he had nothing to lose had he lost to Peter yawn

he should have lost that’s what everyone would have said that’s the point of that’s the point of

negotiating a bigger deal in that second contract because if you lose if he would

have lost if he would have um if he was negotiate a shittier deal like say less money and they would have still put him

against Peter John you’re still fighting Killers even if it wasn’t Peter John it was somebody down the chain a little bit

more okay like one or two spots and at the time it was like morale being a little bit uh ranked lower if it was

going to be murab that’s a he’s a killer you’ve got to understand I need to get as much money as I possibly can for the

level and the quality of opponents that I’m fighting especially in the 135 pound division Sean O’Malley played it [ __ ]

Brilliance he’s getting paid really well he knows how marketable he is he doesn’t need a manager but I would always have

someone look over the contract always see if I missed something when I was when when you read it also just take a

look at it man just understand that everything is negotiable let’s have a don’t shut it down like yeah they’re

they’re [ __ ] me they’re screwing me they don’t they don’t respect me no that’s not how business is done they

respect you they want you Dana White it’s like clockwork every single time it comes to contract time the guy’s not a

draw he doesn’t he doesn’t put fans in the seat no one Tunes in to watch him he’s [ __ ] his last performance went

decision like it’s always that when it’s contract time it’s the same it’s the same thing in the NFL it’s the same

thing in the NBA they always say that this guy hasn’t won a championship or this guy hasn’t no man they’re doing

that to try to to get fans to think you’re not as good as you really are and to get make make you believe you’re not

as good as you really are Sean didn’t deal with that Sean understood I’m good I bring eyeballs to this uh Arena to

this stage I’m gonna get the best of the maximum amount I possibly can he’s got his head wrapped around him man I

appreciate it I actually admire looking at when I was listening to his con the way he he spoke

it let me know the way how calm he was and the way he was talking about it that he’s thought about this for a long time

and how to handle himself and he’s got that and I also like that he’s got this thing on the side with whoever was

managing before who I know but it’s you just he’s got this thing like no I’m gonna let it all come about and when the

time comes if I needed to use it I’ll utilize it and it’s brilliant he’s he’s holding

that in his back pocket most Fighters would spout off at any moment when things didn’t go their way and just

shoot these guys in the foot when there’s no need to just keep it between you and whoever and when the time comes

if you ever need to utilize it have it there in your back pocket to pull it out that’s it that’s the trump card okay I

got this man you’re a scumbag you know if that’s the way he feels so but anyways but hey this this is a great

little conversation Dave I’m glad I had you along for the ride buddy six seven years in the making my man

all right guys wait that’s gonna wrap you wrap us up for another another edition of Punk’s opinion and we will

see ya

all right today I’m joined by the one

and only Colby chaos competent he should

be fighting for the Welterweight Title

pretty soon one of the top content is

one of the best fighters and Donald

Trump’s favorite fighter Colby thanks

for your time man I’ll be doing

hey what’s up my brother thank you for

your time it’s always a pleasure to talk

to the the King of London the king of

the UK my man Michael bisting there we

go well thank you very much uh let’s

just start with this real quick Leon

Edwards obviously you were there back in

summer in London you were the backup

fighter since then there’s been a lot of

talk you know you’re still the front

runner you’re supposed to be fighting

Dana alluded to that in the last day or

two as well on the Madison Square Garden

card what is the situation what’s the

score with that

yeah the situation is Leon Edwards

Scissorhands is still hiding from me

apparently you know he knows I’m a lot

tougher challenge than than I even think

of him you know if it was so easy I

think he would have came out and he

would have already tried to defend

already but you know what I have to ask

you you know Michael is back in your

career could you imagine being offered

at home date in front of your home fans

and turning it down and saying that they

don’t deserve that

I mean dude Michael the UFC tried to

give filet mignon to the UK fans because

the UK fans are so passionate and such

great fans and Leon said no your

you deserve sandwich you get a

Fight Night event you don’t get a

pay-per-view World title fight Mega

fight you know so it’s it’s it’s it’s

sorry you know I wonder what the people

of UK are saying about Leon Edwards in

the streets right now because I

guarantee it’s not good you know the

guy’s a coward he’s out there ducking

he’s hiding he’s looking for any excuse

not to fight and you know his time’s

about up you know he’s going to be

forced to have to come out here and

fight or you know or worse things will

happen they’ll get stripped

well as I said the rumor is Madison

Square Garden I’m sure you know more

about that there’s nothing official yet

so you know we won’t talk about that day

but on that main event that’s matters uh

sorry that’s Jon Jones versus Steve

miocic I mean what a fight card that

would be to be they’re saying it’s going

to be a co-main event I mean how would

you feel about that

I mean you know let’s be honest let’s

talk about the facts Michael you know it

is Jon Jones going to be willing to

share uh a card with his former college

roommate who who knows all his Dirty

Secrets all the skeletons are in his

closet I beg that he’s going over the

UFC right now and he’s telling him yo

I’m not sharing a card with Colby I will

refuse to fight here so the only way I

see that fight happening is we know

John’s unpredictable we know he might go

sniff some white girls kind of like Joe

Biden so you know he he’s not to be

relied on he might get pulled off the

card and we might have to come save the

day and be the main event so you know

the the real question that we need to be

asking him is was honestly was Jon Jones

on The Client List of Epstein Island

honestly Michael I want to know this

afternoon Mike there’s no way I wasn’t

on it

any way to confirm that he wasn’t on it

I just want to know the truth was Jon

Jones on Epstein Island

we’ll get right on it I mean that is

hilarious

Jesus Christ you never failed to do uh

to make me laugh my god

um let’s just assume that that fight

goes down though and you’re both on that

card right as you just did there as you

have done many times I mean you know you

don’t pull your punches shall we say

when it comes to Jon Jones what do you

think that moment would be like if

you’re both backstage you think security

would do they would make an effort to

keep you apart from one another

yeah I think it would be electric and I

think the fans deserve to see that

that’s who we fight for it’s not about

the judges not about the rep it’s about

the fans it’s about putting on the

biggest and most electric fights for the

fans so the people want to see us on the

press conference stage everybody knows I

got questions to ask John Michael you

probably didn’t know this but I know

this from being roommates from you

should ask him about the time you hit

someone with a baseball bat

oh okay all right well well I wasn’t

that we’ll say alleged alleged

facts you know I know

I know reasons Jon Jones does not want

to be painted in a bad light so he’s not

going to share a card with me I think

the only way we get Madison Square

Garden this thing is you know if we’re

headlining it because John has to pull

out again because he’s sniffing some

white girls like Joe Biden

so so all jokes aside that you think

that John would strongly suggest it or

just say outright to the UFC no I’m not

sharing a card with this guy I don’t

even talking I don’t like him and

don’t respect him and I don’t want him

coming out with outlandish things at the

press conference

yeah a little birdie told me Michael

that he went to the behind you know

backstage with the suits and and the big

dogs at the UFC and said hey he refuses

to share a car with me so you know

they’re going to give him what he wants

you know they don’t want to ruin their

New York show and they’re hoping that he

still shows up but you know they they

need a backup plan he’s not reliable you

know I’m the ultimate company man when I

say and I give my word to the UFC that

I’m showing up I’m showing up I’ve never

ever pulled out of one fight I’ve always

and the ultimate you know professional

and that’s what I do best so the UFC

knows they can rely on me that’s why I’m

in this position and you know it’s stuff

that John doesn’t want to share a car

I’m not it wouldn’t even be talking

Mike he’d just be talking truth like if

you can’t handle the truth in today’s

society then man go go get a safe space

you know we’ll get to the fight with

Lynn in a second and I’m curious to know

your approach but you know when you say

you don’t pull out granted you don’t but

the scheduled uh Colby you’ve only had

four fights in the last four years is

there a reason for that yeah of course

there’s a reason for that Michael let’s

look at the facts you know they’re

trying to line up big fights one guy’s

refusing to fight they try to set that

up for a few months the next fight that

was offered was a guy that couldn’t make

weight and he was an unprofessional boss

so how is that unfold to me Michael I

wouldn’t be in this position if I was

turning down fights or if I wasn’t the

one that was not making fights happen

I’m the one that’s been ready to fight

the whole time I was willing to fight

either guy in London on a moment’s

notice within two days notice so it’s

not my fault other guys fell apart you

know couldn’t make way unprofessional

other guys scared talk to Big Game

behind closed doors oh it’s on site with

Kobe this and that but when it came time

to actually get in the case he didn’t

want to get embarrassed so that’s not my

fault that’s out of my control Mike

all right so let’s just say the fight

goes down whether or not it’s Madison

Square Garden Leon Edwards obviously

he’s the champion now knocked out kamaru

defended the belt against Kamara once

again in July how do you approach this

fight Colby how do you get the job done

yeah just doing what I do best Mike I I

love pressure the bigger the pressure

the the better that I do so the high

intensity you know that I bring to the

table everybody knows I’m the cardio

King I don’t get tired in there so I

just think that I can chain together my

mixed martial arts game better than

anybody in the world right now and it’s

gonna set up some Mega fights after I

win that world title you know I don’t

know if Leon’s gonna want to rematch

after I’m done with him in this fight

but if he does you know I’ll solidify

myself and I will defend that title

against him you know there’s always the

uzman fight again I’ve already beat him

two times one time by referee me

and the second time everybody knew I won

by the fans one I knew I won in New York

so that fight’s there you know this

little at 55 Michael has been

running a big mouse so you know he wants

to come get smoked he he’s gonna get his

ass whooped too so you know there’s a

lot of big fights that are to make after

I get this title but man Leah needs to

come out here and defend Michael he’s

he’s he acts like he’s the best in the

world come prove it you be one guy now

it’s a different style matchup let’s see

how you stop I’ll match up with

America’s champ

what did you think of the performance

against kamaru the the one in July when

he defended the belt against him

what did you think of kamaru

yeah I mean the first fight you know

Usman had that locked up you know it was

his fight to lose and give away and

that’s what happened you know he got

caught by a fluke head kick in the last

round and you know he was stunned and

after that fight you could tell he’s not

the same person Mike his his drive’s not

the same you know his hunger is just you

get Knocked Up I don’t know I’ve never

been knocked out unconscious like that

but when you get knocked out unconscious

like that I gotta imagine that it kills

your confidence so it didn’t look like a

confident guy in there but you know it

still looked like a guy that that did

enough to win but you know it was

anybody’s decision it was up to the

judges that night and we know how

unpredictable judges can be so you know

I I it looked like it was meant you know

lost the step and you know the fire is

not the fire’s completely gone from him

anymore

yeah I mean getting knocked out I mean

I’ve been there it does it does you know

it takes some coming back from and that

was a vicious knockout when I was

knocked out my next fight I was very

nervous I was maybe gunshot throughout

the training camp but I wasn’t facing

the guy that knocks me out and even then

when I did very much Dan Henderson I

mean when was that Jesus Christ were

talking seven years later maybe yeah

seven years later even then on the day I

still had a little bit of uh you know I

wasn’t trauma because that’s not the

word I was just letting bed think he’s

now I’m stepping back into

Knoxville with this guy again last time

I did I got knocked out for another

world so yeah you’re right maybe there

was a little bit of uh I don’t know what

did they call it gunshot skeletons in

the closet regardless

recently I partnered with a company

called Legacy precious metals now I know

a lot of people are going through tough

times right now but if you are fortunate

enough to where you have a few dollars

left over every month to think about

investing then maybe investing in gold

and silver through Legacy precious

metals might be for you now the stock

market if you follow that stuff it’s all

over the place in fact it’s plummeting

right now but precious metals they’ve

always held their value or even

increased so of course that’s something

that we’re all interested in does it

have to be a lot of money could just be

a little bit because it all adds up over

time now if you click the link there is

a guide there it’ll tell you all about

investing in gold and silver or you can

give them a call and they will answer

all of your questions at 866-933-0317

so let’s let’s assume for the record and

don’t go ask me all you UK fans out

there uh let’s just assume you go out

there you beat Leon Edwards who would

you want to defend the gates first

you know I’m the ultimate company man

Mike so what I love about the company

and the brand of the UFC is the biggest

and best promotion in the world they put

on the biggest and best fights that

pay-per-view has to offer and the world

has to offer so whatever route the

company wants to go Mike then that’s the

the fight that I want to go you know I

want to give the fans and the company

what they want and their money’s worth

so whatever they sit down and they look

at and they say hey this is the biggest

numbers that we can do this is the

biggest and best fight that we can put

together I’m going to be all on board

for I I take all comers the UFC knows

that never said no to one fight always

been ready for every single fight that’s

been offered and I’m ready to fight the

biggest and best fighters in the world

I’m in my Prime right now Michael and

I’ve made a lot of games while people

haven’t seen me maybe oh you think I

just been sitting on the couch okay yeah

we’ll see when I get locked in that

octagon what I’ve been doing since my

time off because I’m a very extremely

motivated Blue Collar All-American

working man and you know it just so

happens that you know not only am I

going to get my title but election

season is coming up right for Donald

Trump so it’s kind of funny how the

universe works

you know we’ll get to that in a little

bit because I wanted to ask you a couple

of things about that but uh do you keep

up with the sport Colby would you say

you’re a fan do you watch most events

no I I can’t say that you know honestly

speaking Mike you know I have a very

busy life I’m doing a lot of things and

I’m very passionate about a lot of other

things in my life other you know crafts

and arts and things I like Hobbies I

like to do so you know sometimes the big

fights I’ll sit down and I’ll watch it

one weekend but you know I’m not

watching every every fight night every

week you know that’s just you know not

my lifestyle I’d rather you know my big

thing Mike is I like to have a little

balance in my life and when I’m not

fighting you know sometimes I just kind

of want to separate my life and have a

different here’s the person the human

that’s you know enjoying his weekend

enjoying his life and not so just sucked

into the the world that is mixed martial

arts yeah no absolutely sometimes you

need a break from it you’ve got to step

away give you a clear head so what are

the Hobbies what does Colby Covington

like to do when he’s not punching people

in the face taking them down why don’t

we talking little arts and crafts here a

little artist I mean you learn to play

the piano what are we talking here at

all day

uh I mean I’m very passionate about

giving back time to our First Responders

here in America you know our Law

Enforcement Officers I visit a lot of

different law enforcement cities uh

offices to to pay respects to our real

heroes that sacrifice every day to keep

Law and Order in our country so I’m very

passionate about you know giving back

and donating some of the things I’ve

learned and giving it to you know our

First Responders that are fighting for

us every single day and then you know on

top of that I love poker I’m very poker

uh oriented and and uh passionate about

poker and trying to be a two-sport world

champion I think that would be a great

history and a great feat to be able to

conquer two different sports at the same

time I know absolutely nothing about

poker I don’t know how to prank but I’m

happy because I’ve got enough vices in

my life the last thing I need is a

serious gambling problem you talked

about going back there Colby

um one guy I had him on my podcast

recently then burgerimbo he speaks about

you so highly how much you’ve helped him

and all the rest of it talk to me about

that friendship and how that kind of

came together yeah Timber Timber’s a

great guy man he’s been a great sense of

uh positivity in our gym and just just

it just shows things in perspective you

know people are complaining about little

things and then you see a guy like temba

who came from Zimbabwe and he had

nothing you know he’s living in you know

like shelters and and you know mud mud

piles for you know his way of living and

he’s not complaining he’s just smiling

he’s just happy to be alive and thankful

just has a different perspective on life

so you know I tell a lot of the people I

used him as an example that hey man look

at this guy he’s here in America chasing

his dreams not complaining not

making excuses he’s out there working

hard every day and you know it’s just a

pleasure to work alongside him and I’m

happy for the the platform that he’s

getting with the rock stuff and I’m

excited to see how his journey unfolds

from here on out yeah no you yeah you’re

talking truth there because everyone

wants to be a victim these days

certainly this new generation I mean

Jesus Christ I mean what do you think of

the state of things I mean you’re

talking about it there people that’s

complaining all the rest of it the world

is a different place these days as I

said people like to complain you’ve got

to be careful what you say people are

all looking to be offended at the drop

of a heart what do you think of all this

this modern world we live in today

oh man it’s you know it’s it’s

disgusting it’s it’s a lot of wokism you

know it’s this it’s this soft soy boy

mentality oh it’s okay for men to go to

women’s sports and playing women’s

sports it’s okay it’s okay to have a

safe space and have feelings oh you

can’t say mean words to people even if

they’re the truth you can’t say mean

words because then you’ll hurt someone’s

feelings so you know and then the cancel

culture is just disgusting you know

people are saying facts you know why why

do we hide Hunter Biden’s laptop why was

that hidden from Twitter like that was

truth and facts why did we hide Hunter

Biden’s laptop so you know I got

questions that I want answered Mike just

like Don Jones laptop what is on Jon

Jones laptop did he attend Epstein

island or did he not because there’s no

way to confirm did he or did you not

he’s just seeing that on the job they’ll

find out they will find out

I know the truth about Jon Jones I went

to college with him I know that he

graduated with a degree and piece of

you know and he was on he was on

the honor roll for being a piece of

so I’ve been on fire today you’re on

fire what was that like though because I

know you guys used to be buddies where

did where did it all go sour

it it all went sour when you know he

started doing steroids to bulk up so his

mood swings and and all the stuff he was

putting in his body was affecting his

emotions and and he just like he had

mood swings and he would literally just

be bipolar one day you would be like

completely fine and we were best friends

the next day he would just be like oh

Kobe your shoes are messed up wrong why

did you not put them like perfectly in

the corner I’m like bro it’s just my

shoes like what’s the big deal man you

just I’m like we’ve been we’ve been

tighter than that and and closer than

that for long enough the shoes and and

so just his mood swings Mike he just he

went through a mood swing and then not

even that Mike look at the big piece of

that he is I mean he’s he just his

last phone he’s beating up his wife left

his wife a bloody mess in that hotel and

went to jail like this guy’s a dirt back

hitting a Bentley with two hookers in

the back hitting a pregnant lady at a

stop sign and then fleeing the scene

with drugs like it’s just countless

thing after thing failing steroid test

the truth is the truth Michael and I

don’t have any skeletons in my closet

that guy’s a dirt bag and I want the

world to see it I don’t want him to be

painting it in a good light because he’s

not a God-fearing man the guy’s a

he’s an evil spirit

what do you think about the fight with

steepe

what are your thoughts on that

yeah you know my thoughts are you know I

hope Steve comes out and puts on a great

performance you know does good for all

the firefighters and gives all the the

First Responders in this this country

Hope and Faith but you know we have to

see you know he’s a little older now you

know not to disrespect he’s a great

fighter he did great things in the sport

I mean he’s probably the best

heavyweight of all time without a doubt

right now but you know we got to see

which Stipe comes back you know Mike you

know some guys they come back and fight

when you know their time has passed but

you know I’m excited to see you know it

has his time passed or does he still

have it

yeah not fair enough let me ask you

about this because it drives me crazy

right you’re a guy that’s built you know

you’ve worked your ass off to get

yourself to this point

most guys in the UFC all have boxers

really do you know but there’s this new

generation there’s this new fight this

KSI the Dylan danis the Jay Paul

right what do you think of this whole I

don’t know

what do you think of these guys

you know

Diaz fight with Jake Paul as well

no I didn’t pay attention but I will

tell you one thing Michael that is a

bold-faced lie them saying that Nate

Diaz made 20 million that’s I guarantee

I’ll bet every dollar in my bank account

okay that’s like me saying Mike hey

guess what my my last fight with George

I made 100 million hey I sent it I said

it it’s true right Mike it’s true I made

100 billion

there’s no there’s no draw like people

are not that interested in in these

Showtime gimmick fights you know that’s

they’re gimmick fights you know they’re

character fights like these guys can’t

really fight they’re you know most the

time you know Jake Paul’s are just

paying people to take Dives you know he

has all that money from the Disney World

and from his brother and family so he’s

got that privileged lifestyle where he

can pay people off to take Dives and we

know how people act with money these

days Mike they’ll do anything for a

dollar

yeah uh you’re 35 years old

what is the future for Colby Covington

assuming you go out there you beat Leon

I mean have you thought about that how

many more fights you want to have you

know retirement I mean or does is that

too far away to even think about

yeah you know Mike I I feel literally in

my Prime right now like physically

mentally I’ve taken good care of my body

I don’t party I don’t go out drink

that’s just not my lifestyle my

lifestyle is I’m a dedicated uh martial

artist to my craft so you know I know I

have the best years ahead of me my body

I’ve taken such good care of it so you

know I I haven’t really thought like

that you know I just think one fight at

a time right now you know I’m focused on

Leon if I have to handle him in the

rematch and and prove it back to back

with him then then I’m ready to do that

and so you know but I do think kind of

about the future and I’m very passionate

I want to go into politics one day I’m a

fighter in the cage but now I want to go

be a fighter for the people I want to be

a fighter for as a public servant than

serving the people and it’s not going to

be bought out because I can’t be bought

out you know I made enough money from

the UFC that I don’t need to be bought

out so I won’t sell my soul and I want

to go fight for the people in Paul in

the political world

as I said we’ll get to that in just a

second uh welterware division there’s a

lot of up and comers we’ve got shav cat

rachmanov I’m not sure if you’re

familiar with him Ian Gary’s on this

weekend uh Conor McGregor is also

talking about fighting at 170 pounds I’m

assuming that is a fight that you would

more than welcome

I mean if if the UFC sees that fight as

being the top fight that they can put in

the welterweight division for a world

title then of course I’m going to

entertain that Connor’s you know every

time Conor comes around you never know

what you’re going to get with Connor you

know no one thought he was gonna knock

some Jose Alda 9 second team he went out

there and did it so you know Conor’s

unpredictable he’s the you know the

biggest draw the sport has so you know I

love the work he’s done but so I you

know of course I’d love to fight him but

you know I don’t need to fight him it’s

not going to solidify my legacy you know

I’m beating champion after Champion

literally I beat the every Champion

that’s been a champion for the last

decade since George GSP so you know like

that fight if if he wants it and he

comes back and starts with someone or

wants that fight let’s do it let’s do

the biggest and best business the UFC

can do because I’m a company man I want

to deliver the fights the UFC walks all

right somebody asked me on I put a tweet

out and said he’s got some questions for

Colby somebody said this I thought this

was funny you can only have one

dial against Leon Edwards or Donald

Trump wins the election

which one are we choosing Colby

Donald Trump winning the election of

course you know because

I could I could lose you know a decision

that you know I didn’t rightfully lose

but as long as the fans know that who

the best fighter in the world is that’s

what’s important to me you know I want

to give the fans what they want and you

know they pay their harder money to

watch it so these fights are about the

fans and they’re not about anything else

than giving the fans the biggest and

best buys they want just like you did

you turned around fought your home

country fought on two three months notes

you were fighting back to back to back

defend defend I mean I mean you’re a

warrior you’re one of the greatest

fighters of all time because of

you just went out there and put it on

the line you weren’t afraid you didn’t

sit out for eight months like Lee on

sale for 14 months when he waited for

his first title shot after he beat Nate

Diaz and then now he wants to sit out

another eight nine months so you know

and Rob his fans of a pay-per-view in UK

so you know Michael bispin is the King

of London and the king in the UK and

that’ll never change well that’s Leon

Edwards right now otherwise they’re

gonna come after me I’ve got to say it

um you mentioned they were off but the

British fans were offered filet mignon

okay

you didn’t have the best things to say

about British food

oh yeah I had to keep it honest though

the British food like I don’t know but

if it’s the cattle or if it’s the meat

that they get over there it just it

tastes like processed and like it wasn’t

good quality like like like like we have

in America we have like uh uh what’s it

called it’s called wagyu like wagon A5

like Japanese wagon that’s like I said

that’s Japanese

we we order it from there but I don’t

know the food was a little off you know

I love the people the people are made in

the sights the history there in the UK

and London it’s amazing Mike that’s why

I want to go defend my title in the UK

after I beat Leon because that place is

amazing you know I love seeing all the

history the the castle everything you

guys have over there is just it’s

amazing yeah yeah I I will say this and

I’ll get disowned for saying this the

food out here the states I gotta say it

is bad okay don’t subscribe everybody

I’m just afraid as it is simple as that

uh right so in your mind I know you’re

training I messaged you the other day

since I’m training

what date are you training for or when

do you think this fight will happen

yeah you know the date that I’m training

for is is every single day Michael you

know I I’ve stayed ready you know I’ve

been ready on a moment’s notice I love

to fight it’s literally the my favorite

thing to do on Earth is go out there and

and put it on the line and feel that

adrenaline feel that Arena feel the

electricity that goes through those

things and and go out there and fight

with with every ounce of of passion in

your soul so you know I’m ready on a

moment’s notice whenever the UFC wants

to make it happen if anything falls

through and any any of their upcoming

pay-per-view Main Events you know Colby

chaos Covington’s ready to save the day

I don’t think Leon Edward Scissorhand

this is but I mean what is Leon because

he’s he’s an idiot you know he’s he’s a

dumb the guy didn’t graduate middle

school so you know you can tell the guy

the fumbling mumbling idiot and he

didn’t freaking you know do his do his

studying and homework when it was when

he was a kid I’m only laughing because

like you’ve taken time out your day to

come and do an interview so I’m not

gonna argue with you but I’m laughing

because people are going to say look at

this pain just letting Colby say

whatever he wants but that’s how it

works that’s how it goes

um when did this start uh Colby for you

did this this competitiveness this urge

I’m assuming it was wrestling at school

yeah you know as soon as I started

wrestling I was a kid I got bullied man

I had people picking on me and so that

competitive nature was from not wanting

to ever be picked on ever again you know

I said hey you know I don’t want any

bully to ever think that they can come

up to me and and invade my privacy and

be able to control me you know I want to

be the the best fighter and the best you

know Sportsman in the world so just that

competitive nature led me to just the

the room the the training room and you

know it’s helped me have a work ethic of

training twice a day my whole entire

life I don’t know any other way so I

still love it just as much as I did when

I was a little kid I probably love it

more now because now I have a lot more

haters and doubters and people that tell

me that they think they know what I’m

able what I’m capable of doing so you

know I have a lot of proving proving

right of myself and proving wrong to the

world and all these basement little

nerds all the little basement freaking

fake journalists they don’t have

journalism degrees they’re in their

mom’s basement their Fanboys this sport

the only reason they go to the sport is

because they get free tickets and

they’re Fanboys I never I never get

tickets to see their sport they get

tickets to see me and my sport so and

they want to degrade me and talk

like they know you know what I’m capable

of and what I’ve accomplished in my

career so you know I can’t wait to prove

everybody wrong

yeah no it’s going to be a great fight I

look forward to it I hate to pick up Jon

Jones again but but it’s it’s he’s such

a big name in the sport when you two

were at college and I’m not looking for

gossip or drama anything like that but

but were you both because you were

roommates you were both wrestlers did

you bowls at the same time have

conversations about being in the UFC

when you were older

we we definitely talked about it a

little bit that was honestly when we

were kind of first introduced to jiu

jitsu like after wrestling practice

there was a kid in our in our on our

team Joe Soto he was another roommate

that that was uh in the same apartment

as us we had a two-bedroom apartment and

me and John shared a room and Joe’s

photo shoot a shared a room with another

kid from New Jersey but Joe had had been

doing Jiu Jitsu in California and after

wrestling practice at Iowa Central we

would stay after wrestling practice and

just do grappling roles and Jiu-Jitsu

rules just for like an hour just to get

an extra sweat and just the extra you

know different type of workout there was

Dynamic and kind of kind of helped us

with our wrestling because it helped our

scrambling abilities and other things so

that’s kind of when we were first

introduced to it and then I think seeing

some of the pro fights in town like we

all were like man we could beat these

guys we can compete at the highest level

so I think that’s where we all realize

that hey call wrestling like college

like there’s nowhere to go after there

there’s no financial gain after college

with all this wrestling experience so if

you want to make a good life for

yourself you have to go down this

fighting route and and that’s the rest

is history so how long was it for when

you just when you left College I’ll quit

wrestling how long until your first

professional MMA fight

yeah my first professional MMA fight was

about one year after I had finished

College

yeah yeah it was it was uh it was right

away and and

the biggest thing about it was I didn’t

I’d moved to Florida at the time and

Florida’s uh law over here is you have

to do five amateur fights before you can

go pro so I didn’t want to do five

amateur fights I was like no I want to

go pro right away so I had to go back

home to Oregon and fight my professional

debut and then and I went out there and

finished the guy you know TKO them in

the in the first round and and uh you

know there the MMA Journey started there

it is uh all right let’s head on this

then Leon Edwards what is the biggest

threat that he possesses to you

um probably just him trying to to tell

me what he’s gonna do to me you know if

he was so confident in doing this

Michael he would have came out here and

done it already I mean I think he sees a

lot of fear he knows what’s coming and

what’s ahead of him and what he has on

this plate so I’m not really worried

about anything he does I’m just worried

about if he’s gonna show up or not

Michael

head ganks

nah I you know I keep my hands high you

know my style is you know I’m joking I’m

not worried about the head kicks yeah

that was a flu cake against Usman so

we’ll see now he’s got America’s chant

he’s in for a long night you better you

better pack a lunch Michael well listen

I’m looking forward to it you’re one of

the best promoters in the game Colby I

thank you for your time really

appreciate it can’t wait for the fight

once again all the best thank you very

much

Michael

today was a better day for me it’s not it’s a it’s oh God boys and girls you just have no idea

you just have no idea um

what a tumultuous time in my career it’s the 10th of August uh 2023 this is

episode 167 of my live chat my name is Luke Thomas this is my personal Channel how

are you guys doing welcome uh on the docket today let’s see

we have just the absolutely massive news about the uh federal judge granting

class action certification for the plaintiffs that’d be the fighters in the

lawsuit against UFC which is just enormous enormous earth-shattering uh news even if there

aren’t any questions about it I’m just going to get to it at some point um so that’s going to be that

please forgive me um because of the stress that I am under

due to the state of things around me I am uh I’ve made myself sick no I don’t

like I’m not like sneezing or anything like that but um I have some issue with my throat where

it has like the sides of it have swollen up and it hurts to talk

it hurts to swallow I have a throat loss engine to help assist me with doing this uh

chat today I just can’t I wish I could get up on here I honest to God I wish I could get up on here and tell you that

everything is Rosy and great and that um you know

the future of all the projects that I’ve been working on are going in the direction that I want them to go in but

boys and girls that is just not that’s just not the truth or at a bare minimum I don’t really know what’s going

to happen but the uncertainty of it all has absolutely taken a toll on me

taking an unbelievable toll on me in all the worst ways

um I’m just having a rough time I’m having a real rough time and uh I don’t really I’ll have some

information soon actually I think no later than the end of this month I’ll actually have some

some pretty good information some some Direction but as it stands today I’m just in a

rough spot a rough spot I haven’t had a good night’s rest in I I can’t remember the

last time I mean there’s some nights I’ve slept a little better than others but um

dude you just put in an enormous amount of work and then you think at the end of the amount of work that you get to it’s

going to amount to something and then sometimes it does in fact for most of the time I’ve been working it has uh

just up until recently up until recently uh and now everything is just so

profoundly uncertain and uh it’s beating me up it’s beating me up it’s beating me up real good

so I’m going to give you the best I’ve got today uh through what I would describe

as unenviable circumstances I’m not asking for pity or sympathy or

anything like that that’s really not what this is about but rather that you know I’m just not going to get up on here and uh pretend that everything is

like awesome when it definitely [ __ ] isn’t it definitely [ __ ] isn’t so

work with me please and um I appreciate it as I said before

um I’ve got this thing going on it’s just making it hard to talk so you know kind of sucks when that’s your job but

uh it is I am where I am in all of this so let’s do this let’s get this party started thumbs up on the video if you haven’t

already there’s a poll please take it about what you might expect from the fighter lawsuit

we’ll get to some of those results at the end of the podcast today we’ll go as you guys know about an hour or so with

the free questions and then we’ll get to some of the paid ones if you feel so generous if not no judgment but you could do me a favor

you can hit that subscribe button because that’s free it doesn’t cost you a thing right so if you’d be so kindness

to do that I’d be really really uh I’d really really appreciative all right all right so enough with the uh the moping I suppose

um let’s try to get this thing going in the right direction shall we let’s go

all right did I lock my door yes so the two store won’t come in um I mentioned the class action lawsuit but

also other things to get to there are fights tomorrow with Bellator there are fights Saturday with UFC there is some

boxing I’m actually going to be calling the prelims for the Rodriguez Lopez fight over in um

MGM National Harbor which is there there’s like a MGM opened up a property just outside DC in this area called

National Harbor which is technically Oxon Hill Maryland it’s funny when I moved I moved back to DC in December of

04 I actually moved to Oxen Hill and um dude it was a it was a war zone it was a

war zone and I guess uh big parts of it still are but they’ve developed this area right along the water and they called it the

National Harbor and MGM built like a pretty nice Casino there I wouldn’t call it like

it’s not as big as a Vegas casino but it’s again MGM built it so it’s like

really nice um this is the this among other reasons is why Atlantic City has suffered

because you’ve got all these other places Baltimore has put a bunch of casinos as well West Virginia’s got a

bunch of casinos you used to have to resort to going to Atlantic City and of course they’ve got

MGM property there in Borgata and some other ones but it’s just it you know it doesn’t hold the same

um scarce resources that it once did now they’re just spread out anyway I’ll be

calling that you’ve got the navarrete Valdez fight and you got Anthony Joshua fighting Robert hellenius on short

notice because dillian White apparently can’t stop allegedly taking Peds so that’s fun

so we’ll get to any of those things UFC card whatever I’m gonna give you what I’ve got for the

next 90 minutes or so thank you for being here and uh sorry to dump this on you to open the show I’m

just boys and girls I’m struggling struggling so

I always feel like it’s better to be honest than not but uh maybe that’s why I’m in the predicament

that I’m in right so all right here we go

all right first things first let’s pull this up shall we

and uh we’ll add this there we go all right uh okay the likely purchase of Bellator

seems like a great opportunity for pfl to Rebrand itself what changes would you make

to give pfl the best chance it can have outside of your suggestion of the Matchmaker model this person writes I

think taking elements from other organizations as well as implementing the changes fans have been wanting to

see would be great in setting the pfl apart while creating a trajectory for success for example

take the Grand Prix kicks in these to a grounded opponent open scoring fixes to gloves for eye pokes blah blah blah all

right it’s actually a pretty good question I think first things first if I’m pfl

and I’m buying Bellator um I don’t think you need to keep the

Bellator brand around I think that it’s not that the pfl brand is like so Grand relative to the

Bellator brand but I don’t know really like if you’re buying Bellator you like for example when the UFC talks about

like what we were buying we were buying three letters we were buying you f and c you know and it mattered because it still had it had at the time that they

purchased it in 2001 it had some cultural cachet and and visible visibility and awareness and so that

brand that identity was quite important and they made all those changes and blah blah we all know the story

it was a grand success uh you’re not really doing that with Bellator I think what you’re doing with Bellator is

you’re probably buying a library right you’re buying you’re buying access to all of the library that they might have

you’re buying the roster I think that’s the most important part right and then

probably you know again there might be talent in the front office excuse me of Bellator that you might want to retain some you some May

come over some may not but in general to me the biggest two assets you’d be buying would be the fighter contracts

and then the fight Library um because you can like that’s going to serve you pretty well when you begin to integrate The rosters and and you need

stuff for social assets and promotional deals whatever so that’s really what you’re buying uh I know there had I’ve

heard that there have been some talks that they might keep the brand alive and have kind of like a separate but equal thing I just don’t think that makes a

lot of sense if you’re buying a rival organization the whole idea is so that there can be

crossover and again you can do that while still having independent Brands but it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to

me so the first thing I would say is is you know understand what you’re buying the

second part is you know it’s kind of funny too I mentioned this to BC on a podcast where like of all of the

organizations bellator’s cage is the only one that doesn’t have a separate identity right so like think about it

this way like um pfl has the smart cage and that’s a very dumb name for it I make fun of them for

it I call it the Ask Jeeves cage just as a joke but at least it has it has some kind of separate identity from the brand

UFC has the Octagon quite famous obviously even WC had though had the had the blue cage with the blue canvas it

had a kind of way to stand out Strike Force less so I suppose those had the hexagon it wasn’t really known as a big

thing but still and some some basic identity

um you know you can sort of go down the list in general what I would say is bellator’s rounded cage just doesn’t it

doesn’t have any unique identity so like you don’t need to borrow anything from that either the changes that I think are

the most important ones really aren’t so much about absorbing Bellator other than the roster and itself

one elbows I think need to be reintroduced uh big time I don’t think that they’re gonna really play too much

and go with borrowing anything that one does I don’t really think that’s in the conversation so I’m not even going to introduce it but what I would say is

important and I would take this from what Bellator does listen I remember quite distinctly it

was about 10 years ago this time I remember it so distinctly that Bjorn rebny and his media people at the time

put out a release saying you know we’re going to start breaking things up where if you’ve been in tournaments before and

you don’t want to go back into it or you either won one or you were a finalist I forget exactly what the rules were but

that you would be put in a separate pool where you didn’t have to go back into tournaments you were just going to be under the Matchmaker model

and a lot of people were like aren’t you diluting your brand does this make a whole lot of sense but the reason why he did it is because

the tournament can be a great place to launch stars that is true doesn’t always

launch one but we all know we’ve seen guys or ladies break out in tournaments

in ways that really put themselves on the map so tournaments can be quite valuable

I think retaining them for that reason is important on the other hand Relentless tournaments

are star Killers because they just get washed back into the grind over and over

again and injuries happen then the fights are supposed to make don’t happen one of the big lessons from the Bjorn excuse me the Bjorn rebny era of

Bellator was that I even joked about it I was like this is the place where underdogs go to thrive

and it’s true that happens all the time so what I think they should do is they should keep tournaments a key part of

what they do as a Grand Prix model as a Grand Prix model Relentless tournaments

and then putting guys back into these like also just the way in which they have to physically get ready all

the time on these calendars where they’re fighting so often it’s just brutal you’re gonna you’re gonna make guys

exit their careers earlier by doing [ __ ] like that right you put guys in

tournaments that often that continuously certain guys who are insanely durable you know like Patricio Pitbull obviously

he’s you know come up against his limits but you know during that time he was able to get through of it but I think you shortened the career of Pat Quran

doing that I do I think I think his career was shortened by how much damage and wear

and tear he had to go through on this Relentless cycle of of tournaments it’s just not good for these guys so once in

a while when it makes sense for a a a a weight class in the way that Coker has structured it under Bellator I think

makes a lot of sense it makes a lot of sense changing some of the rules now that you’re not in a tournament allows you to have things like elbows because

they’re very worried about cuts and whatnot it opens it all up it opens it all up aside from that I don’t think you

need to do much I really don’t make compelling matchups with the roster you have introduce big Stakes continue

to sign big stars they now have Amanda Serrano on the women’s side they re-sign Clarissa Shields that’s big I don’t know

what the future is with Kayla Harrison I guess we’ll see but they’ve got Francis they’ve got Jake Paul they’ve got some

things cooking here especially if they get Bellator and they can adjust their their business model a little bit I

think they can do great things but one of the criticisms I hear from the inside of the industry

about pfl and you can decide for yourself how true this is is that like there are obviously a lot of people in

the operations of pfl who are you know who were born and bred fight game kinds of guys but at the very top the

executive leadership these are not people who cut their teeth in the fight game and they don’t still have the same kind of decision-making sensibility

around these choices that will enable them to make some of the smarter easier calls that the fan base would respond to

and that the market would reward they’ve got different ideas because they it takes time to learn how the fight game

works it’s a very unique slice of sports there’s a there’s an argument that I

hear pretty pretty consistently actually in my time in covering the pfl is that

you know they’re excellent at raising money as you can see um they have managed to broker some

pretty important deals they’ve got some interesting things cooking like they can do certain very smart capable

interesting things in the fight game but that they make some decisions later that

they could have made sooner by virtue of their lack of experience in understanding how the fight fans ultimately reward or don’t

um certain choices so we’ll see what they do that would be how I would go through with it but

I will only time will tell what lessons they take

Luke do you really see Sterling’s excuse me how do you really see Sterling’s career going at 145 who along the top 10

do you see having trouble with strolling style it’s a great question you know I mean

the thing is this with Sterling like I don’t really know how he’s gonna look at 145. he I think his

a physical Powerhouse at 135 will all of that translate up at 145

when you’ve got the Max holloways and Ilya toporeas and you know obviously Alexander

volkanovsky’s of the world who can physically match that or you know um

and deal with it I mean the kind of backpacking style like who would you say is the backpacking guy at 145 you might

be inclined to say Brian Ortega but even he doesn’t really fight that he could fight that way right he’s got a lot of

the same skills that if he were to direct them in that way I think he could make strong use of them

but rather he just doesn’t he just doesn’t he he will play in different ways he’ll jump

Guillotine and obviously he’ll do some stuff from the back you know he can but it’s not a he doesn’t really like Matt

return guys to create back exposure which he then takes advantage of and then you know like silhouette stretching

them out that’s algeman’s game so I think he brings a very unique grappling kind of

threat to the to the division I think my question would be the same question that all of you would have which is physically how does it translate because

we know he can manhandle these guys at 135 we know that but if he doesn’t have to cut weight if you can put an extra

muscle on not we’re not talking a ton here but a little extra muscle on

and then rearrange his grappling Style um

then there would be there would be an interesting threat there but it all

hinges on whether or not that physical style translates also let me see his reach what is

algerman Sterling’s reach his reach would be

see where did the fine metric his reach is 71 inches right so let’s do this so

let’s go we know volcanocity is gonna have a pretty big reach even though he’s got short arms so let’s do volcanovsky

his reach is going to be 71 about the same I think I think Max is

like one less let’s see about toporia uh he’s got a 69 inch reach event so

he’s got some of the dimensions you know this is just a small sample he’s got some of the dimensions that could make it interesting

but the the only question that really matters is is how does he when he physically locks up with those guys does

he retain some of the same kind of advantages that he enjoys at 135 when he was at 145 after adjusting for his own

body and everything else I don’t know it’s a great question that’s a really great question I don’t have a great answer for you but it’s I

think the central question there all right let’s go to this one Luke what do you think

what do you think training will look like for Francis particularly now that he’s enjoying uh excuse me now that he’s joining I

should say Mike Tyson do you think that the massive Payday for Francis will force him into taking no

risks in training quite the opposite do Fighters sometimes train just to get the fight safely and could the risk of

losing the bag by getting injured be something that then affects what he looks like on Fight Night well here’s the thing

boxing is a dangerous difficult sport but as we’ve seen relative to MMA the demands on the body in training now

sparring is different but just pure training they’re not nearly as difficult on the body just in terms of the wear

and tear like dude wrestling wrestling for 30 minutes is is [ __ ]

brutal it’s [ __ ] brutal I mean the reason why these guys go in like two minute periods right it’s a Sprint it’s

a Sprint you know trying to do that at length is just absolutely you’re just asking for problems and I’ve said this a

million times you know what I’m gonna pull it up today I’m gonna show you what Craig Jones says about it

um and dude long-term Jiu Jitsu is bad for the body I don’t give a [ __ ] what anyone else tells you everyone’s a little bit different some people just

want to apply to but for the vast majority of people 15 years of actually trading you know consistently Jiu Jitsu

it will tear your body to Pieces it’s just a reality unboxing will of course too but in a short camp like this

um I think I wouldn’t really so much worry about injury the biggest problem that Francis is going up against is dude

you’re not going to out [ __ ] box this guy right you’re not gonna outbox them you’re just

it’s not going to happen that you’re going to outbox not just another Boxer but a guy known

at six nine with a greater reach than Jon Jones

known for being a slickster in boxing you’re just not gonna outbox that guy

it’s not gonna happen dude listen his coaches know this too they know that they if you go in there and try to out

slick Tyson Fury dude it’s going to be real bad for you real bad they have to mix it up Tyson Fury good with a long

guard good Jabs he’s got a lot of different fakes and faints and he’s got a lot of different

Tempo changes with his distance which he manages real well he uses a lot of posts right again so he’s got Jabs posts on

the lead shoulder Jabs post hook fakes and faints and everything else and his defensive trunk movement and shoulder

rolling is like second to none at heavyweight truly second to none at heavyweight so you know if if

Francis is going to figure out something I think you know this is just me thinking out loud I think going to the

body is going to be absolutely essential you’re going to have to force him to transfer his defense I think you know what’s the rule box of

brawler brawl a boxer you’re gonna have to make it ugly you’re gonna have to make it ugly and on the inside listen

here’s a very simple this is true in a lot of cases and I bring us up all the time but it’s going to be like hyper

true in a case like this if if Tyson Fury is working at the end of

his own jab and there’s space behind him I mean there’s just no chance that

Francis can win you have to we have to fight him here real close real close I mean he wants to

work with the fakes and the faints at range with that I think he’s like 85 86 inch reach so he’s trying to go way out

here dude you got to take all of that away or do your best to do it now you’re asking about training with Mike

certainly Mike knows a lot about the fight game and I’m sure that all those guys have been able to watch tape and be like hey

what’s what’s on here you know um and then make some adjustments but I think it’s going to be about getting to

the inside roasting the body making it ugly and honestly this is you didn’t get to see it in the Spence and Crawford

fight but if you go back and look at my Spence breakdown like what what are the things that Spence does dude Spence

straight up [ __ ] wrestles these guys under hook and then punching to the other side collar tying framing but

framing into the ropes where you’re like you know you’re getting cranked you know another thing he does is he’ll

Circle his head to the inside push you over as he’s got lead outside foot position so these guys either trip or

they have to move in these big directions to get away and then he’s [ __ ] lighting them up as they move go

look at the ugas fight he was literally just using his head posting them over Dude you got to wrestle him you gotta

wrestle him so he has to make it ugly he’s got to make it on the inside the key is to what extent Fury sorry um

Tyson and uh Mike Tyson and Eric nixic and Dewey Cooper and whoever else they

brought in what all those guys can do to get him ready for that you know but it’s it’s gonna be any any any pronounced

amount of time where you see Tyson Fury here curtains for him bro it’s curtains

you cannot beat him that way not not not possible and people are like oh what

about the power of Francis listen don’t misunderstand me I think Francis has the power to

seemingly you know I mean to borrow from uh my my favorite rap or Vinnie Paz it’s

Armageddon when he balls up the fist it’s Armageddon but but dude we’re

talking about a guy who is like inside of boxing slick as [ __ ]

super slick um and for people who are like I like MMA better than boxing fine I’m not trying to talk you out of it but you at

least you got to know what you’re up against and we’re talking about guys who can make people Miss by that much consistently all the time

hard guy to be hard got to be so I think it’s going to be ugly wrestling on the inside Bodywork making him transfer his

defense pressing him into the ropes pressing him into the uh into the corners and just absolutely going to

work on him there you know and also you know last thing on the power thing is like dude he fought Deontay Wilder you

know three [ __ ] times like Deontay Wilder isn’t just powerful among the

current heavyweights Deontay Wilder is all-time level power I’m not saying he’s

the number one but I’m saying if you picked out the top five heavyweight power punchers of all time I think you

have to put Deontay on that list certainly have to put his right straight on that list you know

all right uh here we go Luke do you think Wonder Boy The Wonder

Boy situation will have an effect on fighters on how to react in that situation will Financial stable Fighters

uh back out from the fight more often well

I mean everyone’s a little different right excuse me

I think part of the calculus that went into Wonder Boys situation I

think he said this explicitly was look guys he’s 40. he’s 40. you know he has to be very careful about

some of the decisions that he makes uh regarding some of these situations and you know you can agree or disagree I

think I would tend to think that you know a guy that experienced in Combat Sports knows what’s best for him at this

point and uh you know he knows that his opportunities are going to be limited man so you got to really strike when the

iron is hot you know whether or not this was worth it all in the end I guess you can decide for yourself but listen people have made the argument

like if you pay these guys more then they’ll be less inclined to take risk and my argument

in response to that is like

I don’t understand what that what the problem is oh we we as the consumers would get less

fights yeah I don’t know guys I’m not looking to get maximum number of fights

every single time I mean yeah the more the merrier to an extent right like I’d rather have 12 good fights than nine

good fights yes of course but I guess the point I’m trying to make here is like

coerced labor due to financial constraints you know I gotta tell you the older I

get the less I’m interested in just like looking the other way on [ __ ] like that everyone’s going to be different if you

feel different fine feel different but I’ll just telling you how this is my chat so I’m gonna say how I feel I don’t

really feel great about that I always feel great about that about some guy who is making a choice to

compete not because when the terms of it changed last minute right where either the guy falls out and

they try to replace him or the guy stays and he’s like massively overweight like this that’s not the deal that Wonder Boy

agreed to Wonderboy agreed to fight that guy at that way on that day those were

the terms and then the terms just get jumbled quite literally at the last minute and he’s just supposed to say you know

okay this is great I don’t want to do that I’m 40 years old I have to be I have to be more

um thoughtful about some of the decisions that that he makes I I tend to think I understand that but I’m just telling you as a consumer

yes it’s disappointing when fights fall through absolutely I’m not here to tell you that you don’t have a right to feel

disappointed that we did not get to see a Wonder Boy versus Michelle padetta fight I I certainly understand

but at the same time it’s like dude what is fair to those guys

what is fair to them and what is fair to them is not necessarily going to be an answer that pleases the consumer or is

in the consumer’s best interest I don’t know that it is but it’s not it’s not designed to be

it’s designed to be one where they have more protections and they have more more you know

um ability to fight on the initially agreed upon terms and not have to take

last minute sometimes very difficult changes excuse me

um in order to meet basic financial obligations so you know do I think more guys will do

it listen I think some people will look at a situation like this and say I don’t want the media Hassle and they’ll say no again some guys might be 30 versus 40

and that even if they have the financial means to say Yes um or to say no rather they will still

say yes and listen there’s another type of guy in the in the in the MMA world who

really can get a lot of fans on his or her side when they say hey you know what I am

going to take it like for example and again that’s a very different kind of pressure but when Jose or yeah Jose

Aldo fell out from the initial attempt to make the Conor McGregor fight and then Chad Mendes uh subbed in and Conor was all banged up

it’s a completely different type of fighter it’s on short notice it’s just a disaster form he still took it he still

won like there is a shitload of risk in doing that but the reward is tremendous

it’s tremendous so there’s always going to be guys who are like I see more reward than risk blah blah blah because

they’re in different stages of their career but for a senior level fighter who is you know much closer to the end

of their career than the even the middle of the of their career versus the you know to say nothing of the beginning

when a situation like this arises if they have the financial means to say no do I think more of them might say yes maybe maybe but also like just last

thing on this is this is not something that happens all the time again the last one that happened was when was the UFC 207 we talked about it last week I think

when Tony Ferguson fought or was supposed to fight Habib Habib

doesn’t make it Tony weighs in no problem and he was like what am I supposed to get here like again just

goes back to the contracts I’m not going to relitigate all those things you’re asking about well Financial stable Fighters back out

more often I’ve said it before too boxers do it way more regularly they’re like I’m not [ __ ] no no

I’m not taking on a guy who who did not meet the terms of the agreement and now

just still wants to fight [ __ ] off I’m not going to do it um it’s disappointing for us but at some

point dude if you’re around the fight game long enough and you see who takes L’s consistently

over the long term right who has the most cost to Bear over the long term who has the most issues to

deal with over the long term Fighters saying no to to

short notice changes in deals um I don’t think that’s the thing that I

I again you can be disappointed but being mad at Wonder Boy I don’t I think that’s the wrong way to look at it not

saying that this person is I’m just pointing out more generally you know I just I think um

at some point you do have to ask how the sausage is made and at some point like thinking ethically through these I I I

believe is a worthy exercise um someone’s asking thoughts on the Bulgarian weightlifting system and its

Reliance on steroids combined with a focus on maxing out this is not a question I can give you a really uh great answer on but I tell you who can

um a guy by the two guys I’ll point out um Zach tellender who I’ve been on his

podcast before he’s like a weightlifting coach out of I think he lives out of Austin Texas I mean who isn’t out of Austin Texas these days I suppose but

um he’s a great guy shout outs to coach Zach you can find him on Instagram you can find him on YouTube

anywhere you get your content he does tremendous tremendous work he has done a

great deal about the pros and cons of the Bulgarian weightlifting system and

then another guy you could probably look at who I think trained with them during that era or at least some of the

vestiges of it is Max Ida Max Ada it’s pronounced or his last name is spelled

a-i-t-a he is also a weightlifting coach a high level a super high level weightlifting coach

um I think he has coached guys who are ladies who have done uh really well for the US

during the course of their career I like both gentlemen very much they’ve both spoken about this at length

um also one more I’d give you Chad Wesley Smith out of Juggernaut training systems Chad Wesley Smith was a world record for

a long time power lifter I think he’s got a nearly a thousand pound pull on the deadlift I think he’s got nearly a

900 or plus um squat like this [ __ ] strong he’s super strong uh he has he’s not

retired from active competition he has a company called Juggernaut training systems and they’ve gone over this as well so any of those any of those guys

will give you a great answer better than I ever could so please seek their their wisdom not mine

uh okay Luke do you think arasania at the Sonia’s star power is secure now what do

you think will happen if he goes back to having dominant but uninspiring performances like against Romero ovatori

canonier and Whitaker yeah it’s a good question so let’s assume

let’s assume that given his excuse me

let’s assume that given his last win the one over Alex Pereira that it was

transformative it seemed transformative to me right the amount of like attention it got the virality of it the story

behind it it just seemed like it leveled him up and we’ve talked about this before how long it takes to really

become a star in UFC even if you’re a champion like it doesn’t happen even with the title win in a title defense

sometimes it can take much longer than that it took him a little while took Silva a little while again everyone

being like Oh my God Anderson Silva’s this that and the other dude I remember when people were like didn’t give a [ __ ] about Anderson Silva

I remember this distinctly it took a while before he became it like when he fought Rich Franklin even the second

time people weren’t sold on him you know so um

the point I want to make is let’s assume though that he has really turned the corner and I think that he has you know we had this discussion on the morning

combat pregame preview with Chuck Mendenhall and Brian and I didn’t really believe it when they fought at 281

um but then you know kind of came around afterwards but then at 287 I do think he finally broke through all right so we’re

there so what happens in this world if he goes and has another performance listen are there going to be some of the

same Echoes about oh here’s all it is again yes of course you’re gonna get that no

doubt um there will be some of that for sure uh although he could also add to his

Legend but you’re asking about a case where it doesn’t the fight is he’s dominant but boring you know like the cannon ear fight or something

and what I would say is you will get some of the same Echoes from people like that but there will be

a little bit more I think if it if it matches what we saw from other champions

the criticisms really never go away and then late stage George Saint Pierre was the most boring version of Saint Pierre

now not the one who fought Michael Bisping but the one at the end of the line when he was like you know the guy against Dan Hardy and stuff like that

like go back and watch the GSP who fought even Carl Parisian but like Jay Huron you know Frank Trigg first BJ Penn

fight like just go look at those it’s a different guy and so the point I wanted to make is the criticisms really never

go away in part because just everything you do is so heavily magnified but what you notice is that when someone really

truly breaks through and becomes a you know a pop culture figure or an icon in

the game I’m not necessarily saying he’s quiet at The Icon stage but you see what I’m getting at

there’s just a lot more people who don’t necessarily bite their tongues but there’s a lot more of a balanced kind of

equation where the blue birds are there the critics who don’t like it are there but there’s a lot more it’s just a lot

more people who are like hey man have some reverence for this guy look what he’s done look what he’s built look how we got here

you just began to see people chirp more about that you know against Strickland in in

um uh Australia I don’t really know how all that’s going to play out in that market I don’t quite know how they perceive the

two of them or this matchup in particular I don’t really know but I guess what I would say is when I

just think about some of those things I remember like late stage you know Saint Pierre

the the weight of accumulated greatness ends up kind of

suffocating some of the criticisms that would be there in more early stage greatness

doesn’t eliminate them doesn’t eliminate them but it it limits it to a degree so

you’ll still see it you’ll still see it if that ends up being a fight like that which by the way there’s a decent

probability it could go that way depending on how sean plays it it could go that way

um but I just think if he has truly broken through you’ll see that late stage reverence kind of trample some of

the noise on the way all right here we go

okay finally someone’s getting to the class action lawsuit here we go Luke I saw an interview with Terence

Crawford on CBS CBS mornings where he talked about his harsh upbringing mother paying neighborhood kids to fight him

never saying I love you Etc as you’ve been open about your own Mother’s harsh treatment of you and having similar childhood issues myself

this person writes I’d be interested in interested to know your thoughts on this and the correlation between trauma and

greatness in general well there is one I don’t know what the what the academic literature says about it unfortunately

which would be the really the best answer that anyone could give you let me say a couple things one

I don’t want anyone to think that like I mean listen the people are complicated and they’re and they’re

people have compartmentalized identities they have compartmentalized lives like in the one hand I have told you guys

about many of the things my mom has done that I thought were really Beyond The Pale including some of the beatings that I’ve gotten and some other things and

some other harsh treatment at the same time I should I should tell you the other side of things and the other side

of things is that um you know there’s many reasons why it’s hard for your mother to not be in

your life anymore but one of them was for me in particular that among all of the sort of adult figures in my

life um my mom was the most the most loving to me my sister thinks that I was her

favorite that might be hard to square with some of the things that I told you but this is what I mean about a person like being

both Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde um like you you can be both at the same

time and she was so like I want to be clear like the the things that my mom did I thought were wrong that I have articulated to you those are all real

and they have been impactful but the other side of the story is like dude I genuinely miss her love

I don’t know how else to say it like I she was more so than other family

members in many ways my biggest critic uh but also my biggest supporter too it

it’s hard to explain but it really is true like I remember

I don’t know if I’ve ever told you guys this before maybe I have I don’t know I remember uh

when my mom got divorced for the second time I had a stepdad for a while I think he has since passed away

um we didn’t stay in contact he was a nice guy but we didn’t stay in contact but I remember the one thing he told me when when uh my mom and him split up

and we moved uh he was uh he’s like don’t ever let your mother tell you you’re stupid

because she had done it all the time she’s done it all the time you know she’s done it so many times but at the

same time like you know when I did bring home academic achievements like no one was a greater

um celebrator of those things and so you know you just you can tell it’s disorienting to even

explain imagine being a 13 14 year old kid trying to navigate this [ __ ] like it was it did a number on me but I just

want you to understand um I feel an obligation to defend the good parts about what happened in my

life with my mom and not just tell you all the bad parts so they are both real but they there is another side to the

equation in terms of what Terence Crawford was talking about there’s video of his mom talking about it as well dude that’s just straight up child abuse I

don’t give a [ __ ] what anybody says that’s child abuse that’s child abuse straight up paying neighborhood kids to

fight your your own kid to toughen them up is child abuse straight up 100 knows

there’s no other name for that other than child abuse um again these could be complicated

relationships I’m not here to declare to you how Bud Crawford’s Mom feels about his her child she might love him in ways

that uh would resemble everyone else but the act of doing that is abuse towards a

child and like not saying I love you like dude I tell my daughter every day multiple times per day how much I love

her um I tell her she’s beautiful every day I tell her she’s intelligent every day because if you don’t you can mess a kid

up I mean it’s easy to see a situation like Terence Crawford and be like oh you know like the more adversity the

better they’ll become but that’s not really true Terence Crawford is a very special individual is a very special

individual most of the time talking shitty to your kid and

um giving them unnecessary frankly in this particular case abusive difficulty you’re not going to get a Terence

Crawford out of that you’re going to get an inmate out of that you know what I mean you’re going to get some you’re going to get a failure out

of that you’re going to get a a lonely person out of that Terence is unusual and he is clearly

destined for Grant I mean already has achieved it but I meant as a child it was easy to not easy to

tell but what I’m saying is he has the genetic and whatever other forms of makeup that produce greatness

he had all of those things to take the fuel from that and then let it

and let him become something extraordinary but the lesson to take from that is not oh

if we do this you’ll get a Terence Crawford you won’t you will get a

damaged messed up failure of a person and not

necessarily a failure professionally but if they’re a person if they’re a dad they’ll be a bad father they’ll be a bad

husband um if that even comes to it they could be bad professional you’re just gonna mess them up now I think the question

then becomes we’re like well like isn’t there something to be said for adversity creating greatness now that is true that

is true like the very best people in any kind of professional Endeavor are

the ones who just who accepted that they accepted that uh

adversity was a thing to make themselves better and used it as fuel and to an extent I think all of us have done that

at various parts of my life in our lives I’ve done that to an extent in various parts of my life I you know I had to use

fuel from doubt or anger I felt at something to push me through but

ultimately that can only Propel you so far and for so long there have to be other elements in place and I think

those are the healthy ones about discipline about the value of hard work about understanding

um the the the long-term process at play and then

try to enjoy parts of that too because that will carry you pretty far as well you know there are certain people who

are very successful who are like psychotically competitive really not talking about those so you know you’re asking thoughts on

the correlation between trauma and greatness in general listen I attribute anything I’m not in any way declaring

anything I’ve done to be great um but to the extent I’ve achieved anything I have set out to do has part

of my upbringing helped me get there yes I think that is partly true

but you know dude it [ __ ] me up from all my life

like you just shouldn’t do that to children you just shouldn’t do that to children

it’s you you will ruin them um and it takes a long time and

dedicated work to undo you know adding additional trauma on top

um to motivate someone you know you might get something out of it I’m not here to declare you that it doesn’t happen like you know guys from Humble

difficult backgrounds end up having a certain kind of hunger that makes them ferocious particularly in fight Sports

this is this is a well-known thing but I always try to tell you guys the story

I’m not making any comments about Fighters I’m not making any comments about boxers whose individual lives I I can’t I can’t say enough about in terms

I don’t know anything about it to have an educated comment but I do know some of the guys I served with and I’m

telling you I’m like please listen to me the most gung-ho [ __ ] Marines I serve

with dude they were absolute Savages and they were very good at their jobs they had first class pfts blah blah blah dude

they were nightmare husbands and absentee fathers

you know like they were messed up they were messed up so

I’m glad that Terence Crawford has arrived at a place in his life where he is not as encumbered by these things

um and he has turned out to be just an absolute like dude I said this before you got to live in the bud Crawford era

congratulations that’s how great he is but just telling your kids like you’re

not telling your kids you love them or having neighborhood kids fight them it’s [ __ ] abuse man and there really

is no defense of that all right let’s get to this part because this is the one

that I have been dying to talk about let’s talk about this fighter lawsuit so

what did the person ask here they asked would this class excuse me

Luke with the class action lawsuit moving forward I have a few quick questions in the world the fighters

uh win number one what will the settlement be at least your estimation of the

settlement to what are your what are your estimation of the changes the court would force on the UFC in three in a perfect world if you were the judge

during executioner at what would your rulings be I I I can’t even begin to Fathom what the last one would be but

I’ll tell you the two things that are really sort of standing out that kind of matter here first of all let me say something

now morning combat is nominated this year for best MMA programming we went to

the last two years I don’t know if we’ll win it this year or not um but there’s been many years where I thought

I had done great work and I was never nominated for anything um and that happens like people have

different views of your work than you might have of your own and if you look at the current crop of the nominated MMA

journalist I’m not in any way here asking you not to vote for them Aaron we had Aaron roster on the show yesterday like please please go vote for him but

what I am saying is uh and I’m not gonna bag uh on on um Fighters only for not nominating John

Nash but what I would say is if anyone from Fighters only is listening I really think you guys should consider putting

him on the list next year for whatever eligibility period this covers the

subsequent Awards should put him on that list because John Nash is not out there telling you which fighter is in and

which fighter is out he doesn’t go to slap fighting press conferences you know and I guess listen some people

have to do some of the [ __ ] for their job I it’s it’s a it’s this is a very difficult business and people try to make their way the best that they can

what I am trying to point out to you is this guy does actual [ __ ] journalism

real world Big Time impact [ __ ] and he has been all over this case from the

word Go including uh revealing to the world that this case had finally moved forward with this class action certification John Nash does journalism

he doesn’t do fight previews he doesn’t do you know this manager told me this

[ __ ] he doesn’t do any of that stuff he tries to figure out how does the business run who is taking advantage of

who let’s shine a light on the folks that um on the practices that need more exposure

right so start there now you’re asking about what will the

settlement be or your estimation of the settlement well they have asked my understanding is between I think more

than 800 million to anywhere between 800 million and 1.6 billion uh but that is just the tip of the

iceberg that can hit many multiples by the time this case goes through either

through settlement or if it reaches a jury now I have a feeling this is just not going to reach a jury

I mean this is now Trent guys did you read the judges um decision in all of this I mean he

how do I say this he found the UFC’s lawyer’s argument

deeply unpersuasive not even close to persuasive

whatever persuasive is he found their arguments to be the opposite of that

uh he didn’t Grant identity class certification which would have been anyone with like

video game rights or image rights who in that period of time but those would have been much less in terms of what the rewards could have been it was the bout

class that he certified and that’s about 1200 Fighters unless they opt out and now you’re just talking billions and

billions of dollars literally I mean it could be it could be I mean it’s 5 billion off the table not really not

really right it could be very very well beyond the table this is [ __ ] massive but that isn’t really the biggest part

the the biggest part of the story is not that 1200 Fighters could be entitled to

a spread of a billion dollars or more that’s significant but not the big story

the big story is that the judge through this class certification has agreed that

um the plaintiffs have standing he didn’t Grant it already but he they have

standing which means they could eventually get it they are eligible essentially as a way maybe of saying it for injunctive relief now I’m not going

to get into the Weeds on what it all means but it basically means this he could rule

in such a way as to change the UFC’s business practices and the biggest one he could

rule on and in fact part of the story of this is the coercive contracts in the judge’s mind

so noodle this for a second right noodle this for a second the judge could rule

that MMA contracts could be no more than two years in

length right no promoter but certainly not the UFC could have any contract longer than

two years that would be the max think about what that would do to the MMA industry where every two years you

had a brand new deal and you could go from this promoter to that promoter to this promoter to that

promoter folks it would still probably be the case almost certainly that the

UFC would retain its space as the dominant brand but opening that

and allowing a-level figures to go here here here here and mix and match and

everything it would completely reorder the MMA industry when we talk about how

big this is we’re not there yet but if the ju if ultimately we end with

a court case even through settlement if we end with a court case where uh UFC

contracts can no cannot be any longer than two years that would massively

massively change the industry the fighters would have significantly more

power to uh

seek out any promoter they want essentially and have their wages rise far more through competition

and have much more ability to do what basically like Canelo and Bud Crawford are doing they sign three fight deal

with PBC two fight deal with match room you know whatever and then they just two fight deal with top rank whatever and

then they just jump around ESPN The Zone Showtime blah blah blah blah and they’re moving around and they had this Mobility to go and

Chase the biggest paycheck where now promoters are almost in this sort of like continuously bidding process for

your services now I know what some folks are going to say it’s like oh well then you mean like some of the guys might be much more

readily uh to leave the UFC to go somewhere else yes that’s exactly what I’m saying because what the judge says in his

ruling and I cannot encourage you enough to read it with the judge says quite clearly his ruling is he doesn’t think

that there is anything to the idea that what the UFC has done is like some

otherworldly capacity for fight promotion what he spotlights are

coercive contracts in fact let me pull this up for you here so you can see it

for yourself um here we go

let’s this is from bloody elbow let’s switch over look here so he talks about through all the uh

chicken Kentucky Fried Chicken ads first is how the court found the Ultimate Fighting Championship quote willfully engaged in anti-competitive conduct to

maintain or increase their Market power end quote in the industry and he continues this is the judge writing

quote this was mainly accomplished in three ways first through the enforcement of exclusionary contracts which kept

Fighters locked up in anti-competitive manner second through extra contractual methods to make fighter contracts

effectively Perpetual so like they’re constantly adding on things that would just extend these contracts into forever

and then third through acquisition and shutting down a Rivals so now I might be like buying Strike Force or something like that by the way

the UFC does remember this remember this picture hold on yeah remember this boy that’s going to

come back to haunt him big time big time I mean couldn’t haunt him more

lots of lots of bragging on the front end like people you know I remember when Dana White was like doing his stick in

the 2007 or eight and people were saying at the time like oh it’s so fresh it’s so different you don’t hear CEOs and

sports talk like this and I’m like dude there’s a [ __ ] reason they don’t do that there’s a reason they don’t do that because you’re gonna get sued and all of

the bragging and all of this other [ __ ] on the front end it’s all gonna cost you on the back end well welcome ladies and gentlemen to the back

end because now all of that and not including but not limited to Joe Silva’s

emails bragging about how much they control the industry all got subpoenaed all got used

against him and the judge cited it in his reasoning for why he made the

choices that he made that’s why CEOs don’t go out and just [ __ ] jack off in their Rivals faces

uh because if it ends up being a situation where there are regulatory consequences or implications

you’re only creating problems for yourself down the line well ladies and gentlemen one more time

welcome to the consequences because they have begun to arrive

you’re looking at them now the judge’s ruling is unequivocal

unequivocal and you don’t have to take my word for it oh Luke’s biased against the UFC fine go read what the judge has

to say you don’t have to take my word for it in any capacity whatsoever go read what he has to say

because what he basically argues is there’s nothing really special yes they are they are talented promoters there’s

no denying and they are successful promoters there’s no denying but there’s nothing so crazy talented about them

that explains their market dominance in fact what he argues after hearing what the other experts had to say is it’s

quite the opposite the reason why they have maintained dominance is just because of the contracts they employ and

the way in which they have gotten rid of the competition by buying them out that’s it

flatly calls them a monopoly by the way flatly calls them one and says these practices uh are a huge

[ __ ] problem a massive problem so ladies and gentlemen

if this continues you are going to get just a different MMA industry there’s just really no other way to say

it the MMA industry will not look the same after this if this continues

the question is if you get a settlement how much do they end up giving up and again I’m not so much concerned or even

focused on the dollar amount right the 700 million 800 million a billion 2

billion whatever it ends up being I don’t I mean that’s not to say it’s insignificant but that’s really not what I’m focused on the change would be in how they are

required to alter their business practices and if Fighters can get out of contracts in a year or two routinely by

matter of law oh it’s a brand new ball game it’s a

brand new ball game now now let’s see who can compete

now let’s take a look at what competition looks like because you don’t have competition now I’ve said it before

Bellator pfl1 any other MMA promoter can no longer out compete the UFC unless there

was some kind of scandalous disaster for them from you know I I don’t even want to say but just something that ruined

their business in some kind of way I’m not wishing that upon them because that would be bad for the entire MMA

industry I’m simply saying in a theoretical world you know um like that maybe the other ones could

out-compete them but in the world in which we live as I we understand it today they can’t and as I’ve said it before Bellator pfl one I don’t think

any of these organizations even make money they don’t even make up they don’t even make profit and Bellator does it’s quite

modest um it’s certainly pfl and one don’t right and I guess if belter was making a

ton of money they wouldn’t be on the chopping block for a sale so uh here we are but what happens when

guys can just move around after two years and producing a pit bull can go fight Max Holloway and Jose Aldo can go

fight I don’t know whoever and Alexander volkanovsky can go fight again this is a world where everything

has been reshuffled or whatever somebody who all the fans want to see him fight over there or

um I’ll make something up uh let’s see um uh Jonathan Almeida can go fight Anatoly

Malkin Anatoly Malkin can go fight whoever and then there’s just back and forth and constant like that right now

you have a completely different industry now you have competition now you have a

much more even playing field now let’s see what it looks like

for these otherworldly promotional abilities now let’s see that

that’s what they’re facing that’s what they’re facing I don’t think there’s any [ __ ] way this goes to a

jury no chance they don’t want to risk that at all can you imagine if a jury agrees

essentially with the judge ultimately long term and what they might do they would lay

down the hammer of Thor on them so I don’t think that they want to risk

that at all and of course the plaintiffs might not want to arrest that either because what if you do push everything to a trial and everyone just takes the

UFC side and then this all goes up in smoke this will get resolved but in the end in the end uh they are facing a

world a potential world I should say a potential world where if injunctive relief is ultimately

granted and made official and it changes contracts to being you

know these limited time things brand new ball game brand new ball game

and by the way that wouldn’t even necessarily diminish or um

you might be asking well what happens in the Ali acts in a situation like that they could still pass that

they could still pass that you know so I don’t think that that’s likely uh

Senator Mark Wayne Mullen despite all of his bravado seems to be uninterested in this now for reasons I’m not really

certain about I don’t know what he’s doing but my point being is like this was a

massive massive ruling not merely for the plaintiffs this was a historical

uh well I don’t know if I want to say that quite yet

it’s the news could not be bigger whether or not this will lead to something tangible in the industry Still

Remains unclear there are hurdles that remain but what I guess what I wanted to say and to end this conversation is

you might look back what day is it today the 10th yeah you might look back at August 9th 2023 as one of the most

pivotal dates in all of MMA history that’s not in any way exaggeration

that’s how big this is that’s how big this is if you can’t keep the guys under lock

and key and they’re free to go anywhere and organizations can clearly raise money to sign their services and now you

have access to the pay-per-view end of the Town excuse me the talent roster

and the Conor McGregor’s can go fight Mayweather whenever they want right and then they Diaz’s can go fight

the Conor McGregor’s without the UFC they could do it by themselves think about that right or the Diaz’s we could

do you know you see what I’m saying like the the potential here for the balance

of power to shift in the industry is extraordinary this is no small matter

this is no small matter this is huge huge

we will see what comes of it but um

biggest news in MMA by a million miles you could announce Conor McGregor is going to fight Nate Diaz you know

um tomorrow you know for free uh on rumble or some [ __ ] and it still

wouldn’t even be a fraction as big as this one this is massive news massive massive massive huge extraordinary news to the

highest order you could get it basically a different MMA industry by virtue of this so

what I’d say is be real careful about days like this be real careful and the next time people

are like hey why don’t CEOs ever talk like that very good reason very good reason

um I’ve got a couple other women one more of these and then we’ll get to some of the paid ones someone’s asking why Luke why don’t we

see Baron bolos burrato platas or other more sophisticated BJJ techniques used

in MMA is it because they’re success rates you see Baron bolos and whatnot I’ve seen it

in like Regional level MMA but um you know just kind of inverting to take someone’s back through like a

behind the leg entanglement is you know I don’t think that’s the best

use of your time right any time it’s not a sacrifice throw but

anytime where you’re like you’re going to your back as your first choice in MMA

not to say that’s wrong like we can think of many examples where it’s not but as a general rule like you don’t see

the Dark Side of guys doing that for a reason you just don’t want [ __ ] to go bad and then you’re stuck there you know

um okay

oh gotta get to this one and then we’ll call it a day curious to hear your thoughts on the

laughable statement I believe the UFC release no they did not release it about how the majority of the fighters

from the Utah event choosing to take non-disclosure agreements regarding their pay somehow benefits their negotiation building no no In fairness

to the UFC that was not from them that was from the commission [Music]

from the commission that was from the commission

hey you just you can’t even you can’t believe this is the world we live in but it’s the world we live in no so

basically what Utah says is if you want to release this independently you can a few of the guys did

um Gabrielle bonfim I think Kevin Holland did there were some other ones as well about four in total who did it

not many um but what they had argued was the release of this actually hurts their

ability to negotiate which is like the exact opposite of the truth like other

um unions or trade associations that work as you know the representative of their

uh athletes in the in the major sporting leagues in the states demand it they demand that it’s public because when

it’s public you can say I’m entitled to that or more if you have a similar level of uh you know

um solar stage of your career it enables you the lack of information

gives power to management the more information gives power to uh the the

the union members in this particular case or the trade Association members and you have you have it by the way the

commission apparently paid an undisclosed sponsorship fee to lure an MMA promoter there which is like just a

complete conflict of interest in every way imaginable and then put out a statement being like it’s actually bad for them to negotiate which is like like

like [ __ ] Twilight Zone [ __ ] this is being like this is almost like

your doctor being like what you need to do is stop eating um fruits and veggies and nuts and going

for a walk and I need you to sit on the couch and eat nothing but [ __ ] sandwiches that is what you need to fix

your health you’ll be like what the [ __ ] are you talking about right it’s that this is the eat the [ __ ] sandwich advice

from your Utah Sports Commission like dude we are living in a world now

this is why this lawsuit is like so relevant not just because of the implications of it but we’re living in a world now where all of the centers of

power are working together for their institutional benefit at the expense of

any of the contracted labor who they have to um pay out to work with

that’s a little bit of an overstatement but here you have a case where the athletic commission is in Partnership

essentially not like an official one like hey we have a agreed upon partnership but the sort of informal

Arrangement where we want the promoter to come we’re not going to say that the

fighters can’t get their pay made public but we’re just sort of going to say that if they do it’d be really bad for them

who keeps calling me uh

someone keeps calling um we have this sort of like Arrangement

where um essentially you know you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours right and the

fighters who’s protecting their interests who’s protecting them

sure as [ __ ] the commission not in Utah anyway all right with that in mind if you have

any paid questions we can get to them now let me take a look at the poll here I believe my guy Aunt sent me one

okay here we go so the question was will the fighter lawsuit change the MMA industry don’t know not sure 36 I think

that’s fair I mean even I don’t know like I have I I mean I understand what it could do but like is it going to I

don’t know we’ll have to see yes 33 no 30 wow that’s that that actually makes a

fair amount of sense um so everyone who voted I appreciate that thank you all right if you have any

paid ones we’ll get to them Jesus Christ there’s a lot uh all right let me get through this as quick as I can

have you watched Dan Hagan’s striking video so I bought it I have not watched it yet he’s got my money but I haven’t

had time to take a look at it yet do you think him putting out can help his opponent a little yeah

bonus best instructional video you’ve watched the uh power bottom from uh Craig Jones he’s got [ __ ] hilarious

was it power ride or whatever it’s called The Power Ride philosophy the Craig Jones instructional where he

basically explains the way in which Jiu Jitsu scores points where you you know you knee cut to the side and then you go

to mount and these people can still use their legs to create movement which is how movement underneath is created

this is not a meaningful way to control someone you actually have to control their legs there’s more to it than this

but you have to control their legs and then you can actually have physical control over the other person it was a

really really really well done instructional but you know I know that him and Gordon Ryan are best friends

Gordon’s got great instructionals too so does John danaher let’s go feel better Luke I’m trying

dude I’m trying uh sorry yeah I don’t even I mean I appreciate this it’s very nice for

Melissa thank you Melissa um it’s just a rough time man it’s just a

rough time I don’t know what else to say you know

uh I’ll do my best to make sure you remain on the power slap email list did you

guys see Dana yesterday uh saying like how bad Showtime boxing’s

production was at a power slap post what do they call those post fight post slap press conference

and I’m just thinking to myself I’m like you know to each his own to each his own but

it takes an enormous amount of what’s the word

I’ll put it this way I could never with a straight face

promote how good the technology is on the production side of a slap event

basically a week or so after Showtime boxing just aired Spence versus Crawford

dude you could air Spence versus Crawford in like 144p and that would still be in every way

better than 4K 8K power slap you know there’s nothing there’s absolutely

nothing from a technological perspective that slap could ever do

that would ever put it on par get Spence Crawford with a respectable

boxing match I mean they couldn’t even touch Spence Crawford like it wouldn’t even like not even there’s no there’s no

technological Gap it’s like I mean I’m sure I I’m sure that the people who work on the

production side of slap are talented you know like they have a job to do they’re going to do it the best that they can like you

know I get that but it’s just two garbage pale kids hitting

each other it’s much easier to show and it’s two Garbage Pail Kids hitting each other with no defense like

that that will no matter what you dress it up with whatever technology you put that will never

ever be anything worthy of exaltation

ever uh just want to say thanks for

everything y’all have done for the last few years thanks man appreciate it bro thank you um my wife is from Lawton oh damn bro

she might steal your wallet every time you dunk on it I pause the video

dude what in Oklahoma man I swear to God this is what you hear you wanna you wanna know Lawton Oklahoma here’s Lawton

Oklahoma ready there’s four Fort Sill is in Lawton Oklahoma so I had to spend time there for two reasons one my dad

grew up in Lawton but two the Marine Corps uh is now not they don’t I don’t think the Marine Corps does much

artillery anymore but they did when I was in and so we would have to train um sometimes you go to 29 palms and they

would have we would do like what’s called a cax a combined arms exercise but sometimes you would just have to go to army bases to train Fort AP Hill uh

Fort sell so we would go to Fort sell and we would use their facilities bro it’s strip malls and it’s angry Steve’s

Bail Bondsman next to um you know crazy Bob’s Pawn Shop that that

is Lawton Oklahoma dude like anyone I cannot believe my dad got out of that place and like I managed to be you know

uh I managed to the fact that my dad got out of law in Oklahoma and did something more important than stealing car stereos

is a miracle a miracle okay I mean guys I appreciate these

questions I’m just not I’m I’m so [ __ ] done with this topic I appreciate the donation I’m sorry to I

can’t give you an answer that you are or are not looking for but I’m just I’m I’m so [ __ ] done on this

thank you Christian I appreciate it bro uh thanks man these are very nice

everyone I feel bad now I didn’t I’m not trying to generate um

um donations off of sadness which it appears I have done but uh

but thank you thank you uh what role does a manager play for fighter great question just relationship with the

brass mostly I feel like a fighter could represent himself almost as good as if needed okay so again we’ve been over this a little bit but the basic idea

would be as follows like what you would really want from one is to the thing is it’s like a lot of guys have managers

when they don’t really need them and what they really just need is an attorney or if the industry changed now that’s

different where again let’s imagine contracts are two years and you’ve got multiple bidders at the same time coming

after you in a fairly regular rotation like in an eight-year rotation this would be happening of four different

really important occasions yes the manager would be very very important to create to to get you the best kind of

deal and help you with career advice something like that would be important but basically there’s two kinds of managers there’s guys like Nate Diaz’s

manager who um helps them navigate media opportunities

uh business opportunities um what they should do with the UFC because they’ve got you know a lot more

leverage than other guys do relatively speaking that kind of a thing I think nates is only MMA client like that sort

of thing and then you have the other ones who basically from what I can understand they’ve they’ve they’ve not made it clear to me otherwise but from

what I can understand they just seem to act like brokers where they end up the UFC like goes to the manager and they’re

like hey we need a 170 or blah blah and then they kind of fill it in and they make money at scale

um whether these guys are successful or not but because they’ve got so many of them they can they can still um derive a nice income

um that’s basically the the sum total of it most guys don’t really need the latter but they well the other part is

the manager ends up acting like a gatekeeper to the UFC where the matchmakers then look to the manager like you know show me what you got and

so having that relationship between manager and Matchmaker can be quite important but what I would say is in a

healthier industry you would not want that relationship in a healthier industry you would want there to be some

firewall separation between them but that’s really not the industry that we have

um Alexander gave a nice donation thank you buddy that’s very nice of you so did Jeeps uh this person okay so oh yeah same dude

do we know what show money is it doesn’t exist Does that mean weigh-in show or the cage closes and can a good manager

affect this I kind of went over this before but it’s basically like this these are terms that commissions have used at various times but they don’t

exist in UFC contracts I don’t think they exist in Bellator contracts either but the basic idea would be this and

from again I’ve not seen every single UFC contract but every single UFC contract that I have seen

splits your pay into two parts now some guys are different they get a flat sum but in general it would be purse and

then bonus and the purse you’re entitled to upon about completion so you’re asking could a manager get you some

Protections in the event that you weigh in and your opponent does it or whatever and you get some measure of that in a

different industry you could but I don’t know what existing leverage they would have to to make that work

thanks bro that’s very nice appreciate it uh

oh you will oh you will you will I don’t know exactly when I don’t know exactly when

but you will you will uh al-azov versus Gregorian in one did

you happen to watch I still have not seen it yet I’m sorry guys there’s so many things I have to prep for and I have kickboxing his ends up kind of

taking a bit of a uh you know back bench kind of position

uh do you think belter 300 or EOC 300 will look better not the whole white gloves or Grand Prix or Goldman um

so people didn’t like UFC 200’s gold mat I didn’t hate it I don’t know if I loved it but I didn’t hate it

I hope is the answer I hope the promoters do something a little bit special I think that would be really cool

pork roll or I don’t eat pork so there you go uh Sofia Vergara or Selma Salma

Hayek boy I mean this is the Sophie’s choice of um

middle-aged uh Latin women um you know I’ve always been I have to go

Selma but Sophia is it’s 1a1b you know

if you were stuck in a life or death team trivia game but your partner had to be [Music]

I mean listen I have great respect for the career of BJ Penn I have great respect believe it or not for the career

and listen to the words I’m saying the careers of BJ Penn and Tito Ortiz but uh

in the situation that you had posited I think I just forfeit

do you think the commanders might actually change the name back there is no way they’re going to go back to I’m going to say it one time there’s no way

they’re going back to Redskins not gonna happen not gonna happen not in any way

shape or form is that going to happen I think all the people who are pushing for it are out of their minds you might get

a change from commanders that’s true that’s true you are not going to get the

old name back it’s not going to happen depression runs in my family uh

biological dad hung himself sorry bro and Mom attempted pills when I was nine Jesus that’s a lot I recognize when I

start to shut myself off in the world you also catch yourself when stress gets you yeah dude yeah PS sounds like strep

it might be dude I don’t know what I have I don’t know what I have um I don’t have a fever or anything and I you know I can you know go to the gym

I mean I have my own gym here in my house I’ve kind of built but you know I’m not like down that way but like just

dude my throat is swollen like I can feel it swollen here you know um yeah dude I can always catch myself

the good news is I’ve been lucky to have people around me who have helped me Identify some of the things some of my

own like negative self talk uh that has been clarifying

um but yes I think having some self-awareness of your own limits and your own

um Hang-Ups or uh

routines that you go through that put you in bad places I think is critically important

how would Umar do if he moves to the UFC at one you mean Usman

Umar is in the UFC Oh you mean Umar if you moved up well dude I don’t know I mean let’s see how well he does a

135 first right Luke hope all is well with you uh what

should Crawford’s next three fights be Charlie Spence and then Zoo

gracias what I would say is for Crawford so he’s gonna have to do Spence next

probably no matter what after that I gotta tell you the Charlo fight I just love it I don’t know if that’s

gonna be possible I don’t know what’s gonna happen with Charlo and Canelo I don’t have a faintest idea but I’m sold

on that one I’m sold at 154 Charlo versus um Crawford would be

amazing and I tell you what I’m I mean okay if if Crawford goes to 160 or 168 I

might pick against them I’m not picking against them 154 and below nope

learn that lesson

what’s wrong with Dad rap what aren’t you in that demo do you like any current rappers Drake Lil Baby J Cole Kendrick

Lamar um not really listen dude I’m a 44 year old white guy who gives a [ __ ] about what my opinions

are on any of this stuff um who do I no

um I like listen I like uh some stuff from the baby I like some stuff from

Drake very little but some I like some stuff from a little bit of

Travis Scott not much you know little pieces here and there uh in general but in general no I don’t

Mr Stonewood just doesn’t do anything for me but like you know it’s not I’m not the audience like hip-hop is for

young people and the artists say this new hip-hop is for young people

it’s not for me you know there doesn’t hinge on my participation like I’m just a guy you know so

um Curtis Dukes thank you Curtis again I feel now I feel embarrassed that people are doing this but it’s too late now I

guess Do You Feel That back control is what Mount used to be in the early days of MMA yes there seems to be few guys

with great back escapes and back triangle yes Mount used to be like the end of all things and even back is not

like that now but um yes it used to be just much more of a

fight ending position and a dangerous position than it is today it’s guys can’t even hold it today

favorite unranked UFC fighters to watch well I’m not sure who’s ranked and unranked let me see here very quickly

um uh you know what

he hasn’t had the best run surprisingly but gurram kutetelazi if he’s [ __ ]

good um is Kevin Holland ranked I don’t know if Kevin Holland is ranked is he right yeah he’s ranked at 12. okay

so I can’t quite bring him in you know but I grew him girlazzi is [ __ ]

awesome you know Pat sabatini I think is pretty good um yeah there’s a lot of guys shots to

Billy Q I love Billy Q you know great guy so yeah there’s there’s lots of unranked guys who are fun though and

ladies too who are fun to watch uh anything you can tell us about why

voting in the world MMA Awards is so much more important this time around um

what could I say the first one was a surprise

the second one was also a surprise but because we’ve got the first one it was

like a cool bonus but it didn’t really change much for us um this would be massively important to

set up I think it doesn’t hinge on the award it’s not

what I’m saying what I am saying is there is going to whatever the next chapter of MK looks

like it will be influenced by that award whether we get it or not I’ll put it

that way uh Colby zero wins in the top ten Dustin

p in the last five fights only one win over a current top 10 challenge top 10 Chandler same all are ranked in

the top three in division privilege somewhere in there is a question I don’t know where it is

I don’t know what you’re saying like I’m not sure how to answer that

uh from corrupt okay American Revolution from corrupt Supreme Court Justices to Old

politicians that belong in a retirement home Congressman openly insider trading is this just the status quo how do we fix

this you know I’m reminded by um previous periods of History uh in the

United States government where corruption was this is more than you’re sort of pointing at like corruption

gerontocracy self-dealing we’re just living in an age where uh

I’ve said this before where the elites of the country are not really held to account and they’re not really charged

with things that they should be charged with and uh

we My Hope Is that there’s going to be a future era where a lot of this stuff

there have been the there have been previous administrations presidential administrations that made this kind of

rooting out of anti uh they’ve been anti-corruption Grant in particular a staple of what they did and had a

great effect at it I am hoping that um we can get a a future version of something like that

because other than that I don’t really know what to tell you thank you Christopher Jesus these are very people are being way too nice to me what if all

four of the Bellator title fights go the distance that is the risk they are running so I remember when Bellator Fahad King Mo fight Gengar Musashi

kingma one that was one of three title fights on CBS I believe all three of those went the distance they’re gonna

add a fourth it’s a risk they are running it’s a risk they are running

happy birthday to our girl e oh I know what you did I know what you did

I’m not mad at it it’s kind of funny you almost got me but you didn’t but nice

try here we go best piece of advice you received when it came to moving past childhood trauma

um I don’t know if you just move past [ __ ] like that bro you don’t just you don’t just wake up

one day and then decide you’re done with it um

I I think I would just say though that uh

the best way to explain this um you don’t get to declare to yourself

you’re done with it it’s it’s the the demons are not so easily uh

esjude but what I would say is um

you have to realize that the things that happen to you and the

negative the the the events that happen the negative things that happen to you

um virtually all of it is correctable with the right kind of help it seems like it’s not correctable it

actually is for what it’s worth I think journalists do add some value to the sports coverage

it’s hard to put into words but promotion self-covering athletes influences type all three don’t do it for me buddy that’s the future

that’s the future Sports media won’t go away in particular or I should say all together but it will

dramatically shrink because there’s just not an incentive unless they have a large audience there’s just no incentive

to work with them well said Luke child abuse is a terrible means to ensure future success we just

don’t pay as much attention to the broken people who don’t make it so like Terence has yeah man like Terence is

amazing Terence is an amazing guy for a lot of reasons but just [ __ ] on your kid like that you are not going to

create a Terence Crawford you’re going to create an inmate how would you improve the BMF belt in

the future people keep asking it’s a great question Chris and I appreciate the donation I don’t have strong feelings about BMF doesn’t I I you know

I don’t I don’t hate it I don’t mind that it’s there but it doesn’t do anything for me it’s like the fight is

good or it’s not and like you know the UFC has done this well where they picked Jorge and Nate and you

knew you were going to get action they picked Justin and they picked Dustin you knew you were going to get action but like

if they keep doing it you might end up getting a situation where like

uh look at this home by the way look at this look at this look at this

watch power slap 4 live and free on Rumble close thank you very much done

with that um what if you get a scenario where the fight kind of sucks and then someone

gets the Bell like you know it it doesn’t it’s not going to change their fortunes I mean I guess it helps them

with their contracts and the kind of money they can make but you see my point like it just doesn’t it doesn’t

I don’t know what it’s supposed to mean I I don’t I I don’t hate it I don’t love it it’s just there for me you know

I just agree with so many things especially politics however I don’t think you will ever understand how much of an impact oh that’s Jesus [ __ ] cry

dude this is very nice of you every week I look forward to your Thursday uh me a couple videos uh inspiring Semper Fi

well again I didn’t I don’t think I did that video very well and it caused a lot of backlash and hurt to people I like

and uh it could have been better um should have been better but um you know listen I

the best thing that someone could say is I don’t agree but I want to hear you know I don’t know if that’s the best thing but that’s a great thing you got

to listen to people who you don’t listen to me but you have to listen to somebody out there who says

things that you’re unaccustomed to hearing because over time you’re going to be like oh [ __ ] uh again not me but

someone else in your life you know wisdom comes from unusual places and not from necessarily from the

same worldview you’ve been cultivating all your life it’s you have to just kind of develop an ear for it and we all get

it wrong I’m going to continue to get it wrong we all do but it’s an important exercise that will benefit you long term

to do those kinds of things just started from the top and heard you were sick and still doing this she’s uh

no well okay guys I mean I’m just a guy like this is very nice of you I really appreciate it but

um not sure if my question about the Utah fight or ndas made it but yes it did make it so thank you

Endeavor about to back out that WWE deal why I didn’t hear anything did something happen

Scott Coker just again I don’t think that’s going to help Bellator at this point uh

five add in the

how to avoid being cynical EG inflation UFC drying the lawsuit with their money late stage

um boy that’s a great question I don’t I had to avoid being cynical as an MMA fan

if you’re like upset at the state of the industry um

I don’t bring this up because I don’t know how much you guys want to hear it I get letters I shouldn’t say letters but

I get emails I get emails from MMA fans I’d say about one a week but I got there’s certain

weeks where I’ll get like two or three I’m not even doing a bit here and you can choose to believe this or not I

don’t care of people like just cashing out you know we talk about how people

as fans kind of get burned out and then kind of just slowly fade away but there’s another kind of person who gets

rejected and this by the way happens in other sports too like dude here in DC now there’s been a massive return

since the change in ownership but like how many people just abandoned the Washington football team whatever you

want to say how many people just abandoned it because they were just so depressed about the state of things like people

just left they just left you know they were like number one or close to number one in attendance and they’re like one of the worst if not the worst like you

know if I’m worse to first or from first to worst um people just kind of Zonk out there’s I

get emails from fans all the time being like I just can’t stand the way the industry is structured I can’t stand how

this works I can’t stand it and then they just say they leave do they mean it I don’t know do you believe them up to

you but it is unusual that I get emails like that fairly regularly it’s kind of I mean I won’t say it’s

surprising because I guess I understand it but um it does happen it does happen more than

you might think do you think that the UFC’s war on the media has messed up the collective

knowledge of the fan base I you know um war on the media is a strong word I don’t know if they’ve declared war I

mean they still welcome them there to the most of them anyway to the uh to the events war is not an accurate

description but they like to have listen the guys who run the UFC like to have

control they like to have control over lots of things and they don’t want anyone to influence that level of

control that could all be avoided and that creates friction

um do I think that has messed up the fan base to an extent I think the bigger issues

just turnover though it’s not that thoughts on the boat fight in Montgomery

Alabama man we should have got to that on MK was that not amazing the the the the Montgomery Alabama

just beat down and then when you hear the story it’s like dude they had this boat the Riverboat couldn’t dock for 45 minutes

because these [ __ ] drunk rednecks wouldn’t move their [ __ ] this is this one talking about like when I left the South dude I don’t miss the south at all

at all I know some people think that the South has its charm and it does there are obviously wonderful people who live

in all parts of the world including the South and there’s miserable people who live in all parts of the world and stuff but dude drunk rednecks on a boat is

like it just is such a turn off for me I couldn’t I couldn’t I can’t I can’t be around people like that I just can’t do

it I can’t do it you know everyone’s gonna be different fine I’m not telling you how to live you like if you live in

Montgomery Alabama and you like it fine man cool enjoy it not here to take it away from you but it ain’t for me it

ain’t for me it ain’t for me at all and uh you know and then just beating up the [ __ ] guy working on the dock for

doing his his job like dude like you know

I don’t know if every form of Beatdown that was handed out was entirely ethical

or fair you know because it was just this melee in every way but like the people the the people on that boat

who [ __ ] with that guy and then everyone with them boy I gotta tell you I don’t feel bad about the ass whooping they

took not at all in fact I kind of enjoyed it to be honest to be honest with you uh just miserable awful

people miserable awful people you know and and and uh God I cannot

stand certain entitled redneck dude entitled rednecks are the worst they’re the worst they’re the worst they’re the

worst dude and you know they were drinking on that boat dude you know they were out there doing whatever the [ __ ] they were doing drinking on that boat

all this and they they can’t even the business can’t even dock you know so people are stuck can you imagine being

stuck on that goddamn boat because you can’t dock because these [ __ ] rednecks don’t want to move their pontoon but I mean

you know I I gotta tell you I just had zero

Sympathy for the ass whooping they took just none of it I couldn’t you know again I’m sure that there’s some version

where some people took it too far or whatever sure let people who want to zipruder that film do that but

I uh you don’t often see righteous beatdowns they actually a truly righteous beatdown

are actually pretty rare you know they’re not that usually situations are a little more muddled and someone could

have done this I don’t know man that one seemed pretty fair for the most part that one

oh God I cannot stand Sun tanned drunk boating rednecks ugh

the worst kind of people the worst the [ __ ] worst the worst the worst dude

because I had to go to high school with people like that dude and you oh my Lord the [ __ ] they say the conversations they

have these These are these are these are deeply incurious

people deeply and curious you know and then and then to turn

that’s why listen and you can be in curious that’s that’s no that’s not a crime but then

to then hit the guy and you’re the one who’s [ __ ] with the boat for 40 I mean

just watch the OC 263 when Nate wobbled Leon in round five why didn’t Nate follow up with the w it’s a question people get asked I don’t really know

what the answer is uh seemed like he gave Leon three seconds to recover P.S I bumped into you

at Brooklyn Pine thanks for the pick oh [ __ ] so uh Brooklyn is a neighborhood in

Northeast DC they got a restaurant there that’s pretty good called uh Brooklyn’s uh Brooklyn plant there’s one called Brooklyn’s Finest as well and um it’s

right off the Metro so we like to we like to hop off and go and uh and there was a I think this was the waiter that

we had that one day we had a waiter one day it was like an MMA fan and uh he was super cool he was he was all quiet and

stuff and um anyway long story short I get recognized in DC sometimes but um

why didn’t Nate follow up that’s the million dollar question I don’t I don’t know if he thought he didn’t have enough

time he also likes to play games where he does that [ __ ] where he like points and laughs like it’s all part of the show and he didn’t have the same kind of

like focused um he didn’t have the same kind of

finishing Focus that he probably should have it’s it’s an important question

but at the same time it’s like the Jake Paul thing he got out of it what he wanted to like when when Nate was

hitting the guillotine on Jake everyone’s like yeah that’s the real thing that’s all he had to do and then of course he kind of came on late in

that fight in the tenth that’s all you have to do it’s really all I had to do against Leon it’s like that’s all his fans want you

know how many years did Francis versus Tyson Fury take off of Dana White’s life

um probably not that much but the fact that it’s on ESPN plus that that probably isn’t his favorite

I mean Usman as Islam is Champion 55. I don’t know what this is in reference to so I’m sorry sir that you have to give

money email me if I if you would like a better answer than I’m able to give just reference this please

hey mate thoughts on kaikar France versus Manila cop I haven’t given that

too much thought that is a hell of a fight

I think that I would favor kaikara France but I think cops

unpredictability make him a very very dangerous Foe and that makes it a very

exciting fight as well so kaikara France to me has got overall he’s got a little more technically sound game but I think

cop’s a better athlete and is vastly more unpredictable with it

again same thing kind of been over it I highly encourage researching

peer-reviewed published research all the best yes can never go wrong well I won’t say you can never go wrong but in general you can go much more right that

way uh just felt like saying morning combat is the best combat show out there dude this is really nice of you guys I feel

embarrassed that I even started the show that way but I’m just you know I am where I am but thank you Timothy I appreciate it uh

oh well you’re trying to this man has this man has spent like 50 bucks today

on open mic comedy right here and I haven’t fallen for any of it I don’t think but uh I appreciate the donations

last but not least legit MK is the only anime show I watch uh I disagree with you on a Lot Faith

and politics but man I’ve been riding with you since MMA B days well thank you bro I appreciate that and love you NBC whatever you do I’ll be sure to come

along um well thanks man thank you buddy I appreciate I appreciate all of you the last one

had a weird disagreement with my girlfriend a couple weeks ago at what stage of point of any would you interfere in any observed crime you see

it would take a lot I’ve seen crimes uh if someone’s shoplifting I’m not

gonna do [ __ ] I’m not I’m not dude I live in the United States of America there are over 300 million guns in

circulation in this country you think I’m gonna [ __ ] risk some 15 year old pulling it out at TJ Maxx because they

wanted to steal some [ __ ] clothes I’m not I’m not interfering at all the only time I’ve ever really interfered was

when I saw a guy uh hit a woman um on the street in New York City me and my buddy of mine was with me thank God I

wasn’t alone and we were able to to interfere while one of us called the couple he called the cops I got in the

middle and then kind of like defuse the situation so she didn’t get

continuously hit on but he was [ __ ] big he was a [ __ ] big guy um that’s the only time I’ve ever really

I mean there may be another one I’m not thinking of right now but that like [ __ ] like that or you know there’s road rage

incident yeah I’m not I’m not I’m not dying on 395 because someone’s having a

bad day I’m not I’m not doing that you know this is a dangerous country in certain ways like that I’m not not

playing that game at all all right last but not least how many rounds of powerslap will BC

Abraham and Shaq last I don’t know I I’m five I don’t I don’t

know I don’t know I don’t even know what the numbers would be I don’t know um listen guys I really appreciate today I’m sorry I started such a sour note but

like I’m just having such a rough time but um you guys have made me feel uh better so

I really appreciate that I will get this on podcast tonight thank you guys so much I’m gonna call it a day

um can’t say how much I appreciate you guys today and every day thank you so much I’m out of here until next time

now it’s time to answer some questions shall we time now for everyone’s favorite segment of the week it is time

it’s time for a good old-fashioned q a MMA fans yeah

ladies and gentlemen the moment has arrived to hear from the man himself Ariel helwani

live from the Box Studios and beautiful

and now to answer your questions get out of your seats and on your feet because

here he is Ariel helwani [Applause] I think my big takeaway from all that is

I really need to up my my video camera game I mean DJ puts me to shame in the

microphone what’s wrong with my microphone I think my microphone is greater is it really yeah

I disagree you have the MVP if I had to start if I had to start

with one camera has to be updated right yeah upgraded updated yeah all right

um what a guy uh what happened to my questions oh here they are okay here we go

um number one Connor from Canada hi Ariel can you explain what is going on with the class action lawsuit against

the UFC that is now allowing fighters to sue seems like a big deal that isn’t really being discussed thanks okay so

it’s not I mean this has been ongoing for 10 years but last uh last week was a

big step uh for that class action lawsuit and there’s a lot of people out there who are covering this very

thoroughly at the top of the list uh Eric mcgracken who’s also a lawyer based in Canada he does a tremendous job

covering this and John Nash does a great job for bloody elbow and sometimes I see

some people saying like oh MMA media is not covering this and should be covering that or they’re covering too much of this and that you have to understand

every beat you know people focus on different things and so you know fight news that’s

important and cards and especially you know in this sport where there’s no there’s no time

off there’s no off season you get on this treadmill if your job requires you to cover every UFC event or every

Bellator event like it’s hard to do this other stuff so I’m very thankful for the likes of Eric and John who covered the

other stuff maybe the less glorious stuff um and really focus on the regulation

the legal side of the game and Eric does a great job of it last week I’m going to read something here uh this is from last

Wednesday at almost exactly this time August 9 2023 4 25 PM Eastern so almost

exactly one week ago this is from Reuters martial arts Fighters wage lawsuit against UFC can proceed as a

class action lawsuit a U.S judge in Nevada on Wednesday said a group of martial arts Fighters suing the Ultimate

Fighting Championship for alleged suppression of their wages can move forward as a class action seeking damages estimated at between

811 million and 1.6 billion dollars that’s USD by the way U.S District Judge

Richard bullwear is decision grants class action status to more than 1200 fighters who competed in live

professional UFC promoted martial arts or makes martial arts ballots in the U.S between December of 2010 and June 2017.

a couple Fighters reached out to me and said how can I join this and if you have fought in that time period you’re just a

part of it automatically so there’s nothing to like sign up or join the plaintiffs contend nevada-based zuffa

which does business at the USC abuse its Market power to acquire or block rival

promoters and use exclusive contracts to keep Fighters within the UFC the plaintiffs allege the UFC suppressed

Fighters bout compensation quote the UFC pays its Fighters only 20 percent of its

event revenues when boxing and other major sports pay well above 50 percent said air Cramer chairman of Berger

Montag who is a lead attorney representing the class UFC lawyer William Isaacson of Paul Weiss Rifkin

Warden and Garrison said Zoopa plan to challenge the certification order and an appeal the UFC has denied any Anti-Trust

violations this is just one step in a long legal process Isaacson said he also called the lawsuit legally and factually

meritless UFC title what it called a healthy competition competitive MMA Market which benefits athletes promoters

and fans alike I mentioned Eric mcgracken he actually did a nice little two-minute video recap being the big

news last Wednesday let’s take a look at it so breaking news just today federal

court and the U.S has certified a class action lawsuit against the UFC now this

lawsuit’s been going on for the better part of 10 years and a few years ago it looked like it was going to be certified

but today the official reasons came out certifying the antitrust lawsuit so in a

nutshell a bunch of Fighters sued the UFC saying they used illegal techniques

to acquire dominance in the market and they abused that dominance in the market

and the effect of that has been to underpay Fighters drastically over the

years the lawsuit started by some individual Fighters but they wanted it certified as a class action meaning

hundreds and hundreds of Fighters automatically get to participate in that’s exactly what occurred today with

the Court’s certification order so there’s a class of about 1200 Fighters that are now suing the UFC unless they

opt out and in a nutshell these are reason you know really damning uh

reasons the court released today they found on a preponderance of evidence that the UFC has used ruthless and

coercive practices and in a nutshell there’s three things the court said number one that they use oppressive

contracts number two that they use ruthless tactics outside of those

oppressive contracts and combine those two things keep fighters from really

ever enjoying free agency and three the court found that the UFC has bought up

competition not to necessarily make their product better but instead to give Fighters fewer choices on the open

market so the courts found that the UFC has used a series of tactics over a number of years to lock themselves into

a dominant Market position and that they abuse that power to maintain that

position so this is interesting stuff folks this lawsuit is definitely worth an ion

I mean that is just tremendous reporting great journalism shout out to Eric and follow him on

social media on Twitter on Tick Tock uh so there you have it there’s the latest there he can summarize it a hell of a

lot better than me but this is obviously not going to end anytime soon but a massive step forward and a story that we

should all be paying attention to uh number two Cole good day Ariel and crew thoughts on the two new MMA rules that

got passed over the weekend bloody elbow had the breakdown for the rules and proposed new rule uh the approved rules

Fighters will have access to a cut man after being cut by a foul or accidental headbutt love it Fighters will have more

time to recover from eye pokes before being examined by a doctor love it clarification around positioning

Fighters for a restart after a foul warning or Physicians examination or a

point deduction love that and we also talked about that recently on the show as well proposed rule clarification of

how referees can reset Fighter’s position after foul we talked about that as well like all these in fact let’s

give some more love to Eric McCracken he did two videos about these Bros rules he was at the Abc conference in Las Vegas

just a few weeks ago take a look at this two brand new rules designed to help MMA

fighters after they sustain a foul these were just voted in at the association of

boxing commissions conference last week in Nevada so here they are number one when a foul occurs whether it’s a clash

of hedge whether it’s an illegal strike of some kind and you have a cut

Fighters now will have up to five minutes to recover from that cut and

during that time a cut person could come into the ringer cage and they could tend

to that room they can’t tend to anything else but they could enter the wound so it used to be the fighter had to resume

the fight make it to the end of the round and only then the cut person could come in but they’ve changed back to say

look the cut person could address it immediately to give that fighter a better chance of being able to continue

rule number two this rule is designed to deal with how referees and doctors work

together after an illegal eye poke so when an eye poke occurs timeout is

called and the fighter has up to five minutes to recover but here’s the new nuances number one

officials could give the fouled fighter a cold compress and they could put it on

their eye to give them some time to recover after a minute or 90 seconds only then should the ringside physician

should come in and if possible the doctor shouldn’t immediately shine a light in the Fighter’s eye and say can

you see because the answer is often no they can’t see right away and then the fight is called instead these rules are

designed to say look give the fighter some time to recover give them a tool to recover

let the doctor take a quick look at things but not immediately ask about Vision let the fighter enjoy much of

that five minutes and then and only then ask if their vision is obstructed and if it is of course without is over but if

it’s not they had a fair chance to recover here’s the rules

stalling fighters in mixed martial arts there’s a brand new rule that deals with

how referees should address the situation the unified rules of MMA have

just been updated and referees have always had discretion to separate Stalin

Fighters but it’s never been explained how or when they should exercise that discretion this has now changed the

brand new Amendment to the unified rules tells referees that if the competitors

fail to demonstrate real significant sustained effort to try to move on and

try to finish the fight that’s the situation where they could step in and deal with stalling Fighters so whether

they’re up Pressed Against the Cage whether they’re on the ground the referee could come in and separate them

if they’re not following this brand new rule so here’s a copy of it I’d love to

know your thoughts all right so again uh great breakdowns

kind of snackable videos uh very easy to follow and understand and I like all

those changes and the proposed one as well uh the the sport continues to evolve it continues to improve uh and as

we’ve talked about like I throw out things like open scoring and you know judging things like that I I know that

the sport is only 30 years old the only thing I want is progression Improvement Evolution it’s when the regulators and

the Commissioners sit and say like oh it’s all good and we don’t need to change anything that’s what pisses me off but if they’re trying to make things

better and I would you know I would be surprised if anyone thinks that this is making things worse that to me is

promising and makes me feel like the people in charge The Regulators the officials are not letting their egos get

involved and they are trying to make things better so this is all very promising to me uh number three Chase hi

Ariel is Sean O’Malley receiving the least Reserve title shot in the UFC over the last five years he won an extremely

controversial decision against Peter Yan China’s no other ranked wins in the UFC all of Sean’s other wins are Fighters

that have now been released from the UFC I mean I don’t know uh he’s fought some

tough guys and you can’t just dismiss the yawn decision it wasn’t a

robbery it was a close fight um you know we we’ve had Fighters especially in some of the lower weight

classes you know like the Tyler Santos’s of the world like she didn’t have any huge massive number one Contender win uh

Yuri prohaska only had a couple fights in the UFC so I I don’t think that that’s necessarily Fair

um you know my my guy Jamal Hill didn’t have a ton of fight like there have been

situations where Fighters have uh gotten opportunities and ran with it and no

one’s going to turn it down um it’s you know it’s it’s up to the UFC it’s up to their discretion to give that

opportunity to someone for whatever reason it could be you know they need someone on the car they they have no one

else in that particular weight class or the champion I mean Sean Strickland right uh like what’s his big signature

win he’s getting a tattoo shot on uh on on September 9th so I think Beyond one

was pretty damn big and you know I don’t love the fact that he had to sit for 11 months but if that was

the fight to get him the title shot back in October like if he was getting one in February I don’t think anyone would have battered an eye

I think it’s just the distance in between fights that leaves people you

know asking questions like this um Stefan Shalom Mario Shalom first

question on the sub stack it pays to sleuth thank you anything goes right if I recall

correctly your deal with them may fighting after turning kiyawani was for three years correct which means we’re

almost exactly one year out correct in fact I think the

I think the the two-year anniversary to the day was today or yesterday or tomorrow it’s like a one

one of these days because I remember it was like second week of August and then I went to SummerSlam in Vegas and then I

came back and then I went to Jake Paul time with the one in Cleveland so yeah it’s it’s like we are celebrating

essentially the two-year anniversary how far out do those negotiations typically begin will you be testing the

waters as you often advise fighters to do will you follow in line uh with your

favorite social media platform and become the x-hour to become the show for everything wow these are a lot of questions I mean uh a year out is when

you start to kind of think about the future I would say that’s sort of like the signal to start thinking

um I would say typically in these things especially in TV rare for negotiations

of any kind but it does happen to happen a year out typically like eight six months out is

when it gets really fun um I was telling someone recently

I mean I couldn’t be happier with the way things played out post ESPN all the gigs how they all fit in perfectly nice

little you know puzzle pieces that nothing intertwined nothing overlap no

one’s feelings got hurt no one was upset at least to the best of my knowledge they may say otherwise and so I think

the return has been great you know if we didn’t come back we don’t meet GC we don’t meet mysterious Frank

we don’t uh reunite with corporate Alex and Joe we don’t get New York Rick back I mean it couldn’t have worked out

better we had the show in Dallas uh just a couple weeks ago which was incredible or the shows so everything has been

great um but who knows you know they may not want me they may say Hit the Road Jack

uh they may say you know we’re done I don’t know you know I’ve I’ve been uh

I’ve been surprised before so let’s see uh I I’m not one who loves change

believe it or not like I hate to move I hate I actually hate going on vacation I dread it because of

packing like I I like routine as Tim and I were speaking about I like knowing today I’m doing this today I’m doing

that even if the weeks are different and I love the fact that my weeks are always you know different every day is

different right like Monday I’m doing this Tuesday I’m doing that nothing is the same but I kind of like to know in advance

um so it’s all like I’m seeking change but you know we’ll see the the media business is

changing it’s evolving he does bring up an interesting you know comment about the x-hour uh that has been you know on

my mind as well I mean I have a lot of interest just like DJ so let’s see stay tuned

watch this space as they say um but I think it’s going to be all great things and thus far two years in

couldn’t be happier like there has been thank God no misstep no regret no

frustration really really really uh appreciative about how everything turned out

uh Nick gang Chris Weidman making his comeback fight after that horrific leg

break has been the sleeper news of the month so far couldn’t agree more Nick historically no one has come back looking great if there’s such an

incident Corey Hill rest in peace Anderson Silva both went on to lose most of their fights after healing back up Tyrone spung retired from kickboxing is

pretty much only boxed since it happened to him in 2014 aside from the haritanov loss in MMA this is a massive deal and

more people should be talking about it couldn’t agree more what’s the gang’s thoughts on this PS hope to hear weidman’s Dad after the fight Nick the

Dane I mean I couldn’t agree more you all know he’s one of my favorites

covering him when he got into the UFC even before he got into the UFC the Sakara fight the Maya fight

um you know the the the submission in Vancouver getting the title shot and then you know Hurricane Sandy all

that stuff that he’s had to deal with the ups and downs when he broke his leg in Jacksonville

it was one of the most depressing things that I’ve ever seen covering MMA I remember going to bed that night feeling

legitimately sad because you get to know these people he gets into their families you get to know their wives you get to know their kids you get to know their

parents and like you don’t know what’s going to happen with a leg break like that what what is the worst like

amputation like your mind just it was horrific it was absolutely horrific and

so to see him come back I was telling this to someone yesterday in life when we go through something

traumatic we try to avoid any which way possible to repeat that

traumatic event here’s Chris Weidman here’s Anderson so these these examples that were mentioned who

suffered one of the most traumatic injuries that you could possibly suffer in athletics

and did all that they could to just get back there to do the exact same thing to be in that spot fight’s about to start

to go out there and as he says throws a leg kick off the bat let’s see if he does that’s a different kind of human

being that’s a different kind of breed um and so I’m thrilled for him I wish

him the best I love the fact that they put him up there against a fellow veteran and not a young gun who’s going

to try to like wipe the floor with him obviously the deck is is stacked against them obviously historically

you don’t come back looking the same but he’s a freak athlete he always has been a very determined

person and and fighter and uh you know I I just wish him the best I absolutely

do and and I think it might be flying into the radar like if this was you know a flight night or or you know maybe a

lesser card uh perhaps you would feel like we’re talking about a more should be talking

about it more but with Al Joe and Sean and some of the big names he and Gary doing a good job of getting some attention maybe it’s flying into the

radar but not over here my friends I actually thought about asking him to come on I feel like he’s going through enough I feel like there’s probably

enough you know attention and and immediately I wanted to let him be in will reconvene

in the future but uh wishing him the best and I agree with you Nick it should be

getting as much attention as anything on the card Brantley hey Ariel question in relation

to Future’s interview last week he mentioned he liked to box Mike Tyson and you started setting up a time slash location have you ever gone through

behind the scenes and message the promoter to see if it was actually possible or do you just assume that they see it

or hear about it from the show and you don’t have to do anything curious if you ever had a big hand in making a fight happen outside the show uh yeah I mean

there’s a couple probably the most famous one is uh Pat

Cummins against Daniel Cormier Daniel Cormier was supposed to fight Rashad Evans I think

it was UFC 270 or something like that Rashad Evans pulled out like 10 days out

um man what is his name uh

oh my God I can’t believe I’m blanking on on the manager’s name now your Crick isn’t there right

what does that matter is his name um I got to get this

can’t believe I’m blanking here he was mayhem’s manager he was he was uh

King Mo’s manager he was Pat Cummings manager someone out there

the wall man oh my God how am I blacking out his name anyway it’s going to come

to me in a second his manager uh Ryan Parsons there it is Ryan Parsons

um Ryan Parsons called me and said like we need to get Pat Cummins in he’s got a

great story he wrestled Daniel Cormier in college he made him cry all that stuff I called Dana White and said this

guy’s been trying to get into the UFC he’s got this great backstory he made him cry all that stuff you need to talk

to this guy he could save the fight Dana said give me Ryan Parsons number Ryan Parson got the call he drove to

Starbucks or whatever coffee shop that that that Pat Cummins was working at at the time went through the drive-through

gave him the phone and and and and said tell Dana the story Dana wants to know the story and he told Dan’s door and he got the fight that day and I think

either later that day or the next day they were both on Fox Sports Live talking about the fight he was not in

the UFC and you know I’m just answering the question here I thousand percent got them in also

uh JDS was looking for a fight Mark hunt called me this was I think 246 and said

how do I get the fight and I I called Dana and I said Mark Hunt’s looking for a flight and wants this one and he’s

like does he really want it we have to go through this guy that guy’s like no he says deal with him directly he wants the JDS fight and he got the JDS fight

so yes there have been times and if I’m being honest I feel like I should start writing these Downs because these down

because I know there’s been some others and I’m starting to you know get old and forget things but those are probably the

the two biggest ones that I feel like I directly had a hand in uh in making and

there’s been other times here there where you’re asked to oh do you have this guy’s phone number do you have that guy’s phone number

and I guess there’s some person out there who would say like you shouldn’t do that but like what do I care if it can help someone out

um you know why the hell not makes for a good story we’re all trying to get by

so yeah there you go hello hello uh who do you think leaves UFC first in their

current role Dana buffer Rogan or anik how would you rank them in order of biggest impact that would be felt by

their absence I mean golly um who do I think leaves first I mean I

guess you would have to say Rogan just because like he’s the closest one to being out like he went from doing every

show to just doing the pay-per-views um so I would probably say Rogan and

then Dana I mean I don’t see buffer and anik leaving anytime soon but for maybe the last one to leave he

just loves us so much I mean I can see Anna getting another job doing some other sport um but I think he loves it as well Rogan

just continues to get bigger and bigger and then maybe at one point says no Moss but I think he just loves to say I mean

I’m certain he doesn’t do it for the money I think he just enjoys he’s got a great gig I mean he just shows up for

the the the the local you know non-international domestic pay-per-views

you get to do the biggest fights the biggest cards once a month in the United States you’re Gucci

so that’s that’s how I would rank them personally

but I don’t see any of them leaving anytime soon because I think they love it immensely uh P the G Ariel what in the

world is going on with this whole first cameroonian fighter in UFC history situation Saturday night are you

pretending fighters who choose free agency don’t exist anymore wild State of Affairs love to hear your thoughts I

mean look I would like to chalk this up to a human error are they going to

apologize for it I doubt it but you know there’s there’s actual human beings in those trucks that do these things and

it’s very possible that some graphics person screwed this up I would hate to

think as you’re looking at it right now this is from Saturday’s card I would hate to think that someone is trying to

take a shot at not only Francis and ganu but the actual first cameroonian fighter

in UFC history which was who had a great run in Pride and then a

run in the UFC as well France and guy who commented on this with the photo of him holding the cameroonian flag and

obviously he himself showed love to

there he is right over there uh legendary mass that he’s come out to Great Moments in his career most notably

the little nog knockout uh I would like to think that no one is asking the

production staff and the the lower thirds operator Graphics operator to

take shots at the likes of Francis and so could you I can’t imagine why there would be any beef with so could you

feels like it’s a France today so I’m actually going to say that this was human error now you know I’m not

I really like there’s a part of me that feels like these things get blown out of proportion I can understand if I’m

Francis or so could you you’d be offended by that but I I’m not a conspiracy guy and I like to think the

best out of people in these situations and I think sometimes people think that it’s Dana White literally in the truck making

these calls gonna be further from the truth um so let’s can we chalk this one up to a

mistake I mean the timing is definitely a little bit strange but why would they do this like well what’s the point what’s the upside here

well you can’t pretend like these guys don’t exist especially Francis heavyweight champion feels like a a mistake GC do you agree

with me or do you think there’s more to this are you a little bit more cynical than I am uh man it’s it’s kind of weird like that

it happens to be surrounding Francis and Gano but I I don’t know man I mean someone is

typing that in like someone had to have been like uh wasn’t Francis and Gano cameroonian yeah but I mean you’ve

you’ve worked in these situations and yeah I guess you just mess up but like if

that’s going to be your fighter fact when you when you double check that yeah no you should I’ve made issues I’ve made

I’ve made plenty of mistakes on graphics this is a fairly big one though I

suppose this is a massive one and the timing is very unfortunate very odd and the fighter it’s surrounding is also

very odd I wonder by the way what the process is like when you’re putting up a fun fact like that there has to be some

sort of like fact checking process so what are they going through like what is the person who’s in charge of that by

the way correct me if I’m wrong doesn’t your girlfriend have a similar job yes yeah she works at ESPN

in but that capacity like did you have to go to Mexico because I know ESPN there’s like stats and info group right

and so you send them that’s what I would see I would see this like you would send them is this correct I don’t know if the UFC has that you know what I mean so if

like I I would see people all the time sending that like slack channel the stats and info Channel be like is it right that Russell Westbrook has the mo

you know what I mean so that you don’t get these things wrong I don’t know I don’t know if it’s just some guy in a

truck doing this there also had to have been more than one person’s eyes on this there’s absolutely no way that just

someone made it and then just fired it off and that’s that’s all it was

I don’t know I don’t know man you think so I mean

dude we by the time a lower third for us goes up and theirs is way more important

than ours there’s been like five sets of eyes so you’re you’re leaning you’re leaning towards what you’re leaning

towards this is a subtle shot they’re just trying to erase them from the history book yeah but then at the same time who would have who would have been

like put that he’s the only cameroonian fighter in all time like who who would who would other than Dana White who

ultimately has a beef with Francis zanganu there in the truck like why would they care they’re just people trying to do a job I

I think it was a every time I’m about to say that I think it was a mistake I’m also like man how do you make this mistake like how do you

make this mistake this is just such a ridiculously big mistake and it got thousands hundreds of thousands of eyes

on it like after after angano tweeted about it it is it is uh yeah the timing is

unfortunately nice suspects it’s definitely sus bro

it is whoever the graphic guy is whoever makes the last third it’s definitely tough I know he did not have a good

afternoon on uh on Saturday no uh Gary G greetings Ariel my question is

do you have any insight on the Derek Lewis situation that the pfl get a chance to approach the black beast I’m assuming the UFC threw a bag of money at

him before pfl got a chance I’m also wondering okay so let me just answer this uh no because there’s always an

exclusive negotiation period so you can’t get to the fighter and as he said at the post fight press conference in

Utah he wanted to stay and they gave him a deal that kept him happy and so he’s

sticking around I think it’s a fight deal which ensures he ain’t going anywhere anytime soon uh good for Derek

he seems very happy tried to get Derek on the show he doesn’t want to do a lot of media these days and and more power

to him love Derek will always love Derek has been nothing but good to me um happy for him and yeah he didn’t want

to leave he didn’t want to leave um you know I’m sure they’re treating him well as they should because he’s a

big star and he got the manscape deal too shout out to him that commercial was great but no no one else got to him

because of that exclusive negotiation period um I’m also wondering Gary continue news

if you’ve heard anything on Brian Ortega it’s been over a year now and it doesn’t seem like he’s fight ready I was there

live on Long Island for his last fight I didn’t anticipate this long of an injury Hiatus 10-7 Gary G no update on Brian

Ortega um see him out there seems like he’s training seems like he’s healthy doesn’t seem like he’s still battling the injury

but is he fight ready you know is he training camp ready

TBD so yeah crazy that was over a year ago and not much since

still one of the most popular plays in that division but yeah not much since and I don’t have anything concrete to

share Max 83 guten tag Ariel yes guchita again uh congratulations to all the

German fans out there who uh are happy about Harry Kane joining Bayern Munich I

just saw his first interview with Sky Sports this morning didn’t offer much still quite weird to see him in that

Jersey but uh anyway that’s the business of sports any update by the way on the your UEFA super

cup GCA I understand man city is playing Sevilla this evening uh over there any

updates on that yeah actually at the half Sevilla leads 1-0 wow yeah

tough sledding these days for man city of course kdb out I don’t know if you see that yeah big injury

um wow that is that is surprising yeah my my son’s probably in tatters right now they gotta focus on uh Newcastle on

Saturday that’s right my girlfriend is actually watching she weighed in on the and gone and oh wow she says there was a

analysis okay she says there was undoubtedly multiple eyes on it but she doesn’t believe that it uh was malicious

she thinks it would just be highly unprofessional if there was malicious intent behind it see that’s what I think

as well but that is crazy multiple eyes missed that like when you have a St and thank you to her for that I appreciate

it if you have a stat like that first that’s a very like googable thing to is

that the word like googleable thing googleable right Google how’s the one checking that also like if we can go

back to the picture right click of it it’s also like it’s the highlighted thing to like it’s like it sticks out

with the white font uh yeah I mean okay is it possible by the

way okay now that I look at this again is it possible that they meant to say only cameroonian fighter in the UFC and

someone [ __ ] it up and turned it into UFC history absolutely yeah on the UFC roster like oh it also it also it is

weird to say it like instead of being like first cameroonian fighter in UFC history only cameroonian fighter and UFC

history sounds just sounds very weird that actually makes it sound malicious only Cameroon fighter on the UFC roster

sounds like what they meant to put and there was a uh yes uh complication and

communication I feel for that person by the way like the moment where you see your work is like you’re you’re a graphics person

like that you don’t want to go viral you don’t want to [ __ ] up and all eyes will be on you in that truck because I think

it got out right like it got out mid event people notice it instantaneously like it

was immediate people notice it and I know whoever was the final person or whoever typed that in their stomach

their heart probably went all the way to their ankles yes yes their ass fell out for sure what is it

oh someone wants to break the fourth wall when we were in Dallas it was a graphics op and Mike got on the stage

with you and the guy Taps you on the shoulders like who is that and I was like oh he’s an employee of ours and then he Taps me again and there’s the

lower third on his screen it says Mike Heck a MMA hour employee and I’m like no no no no that’s not his title

but just to think that this is the same thing like who is that guy oh he’s a cameroonian fighter like oh let me type

out that he’s the first one in UFC history oh man but they are not doing these on the Fly these have been finalized days in advance I I can be

sure of I mean oh that for sure the the freak out that that person it like gives

me nightmares the freak out that that person must have had I feel anxiety just thinking about the scenario where that person realizes that they just really

[ __ ] up especially it’s not just saying like oh only Iranian fighter like there’s no it’s tied to like one of the

biggest stories of the last year in the UFC it just so happened to me that Francis is from Cameroon and you know

that this is going to be made out to be a massive deal if you would have said like only Danish fighter nufc history

definitely insulting to Mark Matson and Martin campman and all these guys but

there’s no controversy attached to Danish Fighters right now it happened to be Cameroon that you messed up on golly

my girlfriend chimes in one more time oh yes please she said if I was on the crew that it happened to I can guarantee you

there would be a big talking to afterward from the higher producers do you think dismissal do you think I

don’t think dismissal but I think I think someone got a serious serious talking to my my biggest mistake I’ve

ever made in production uh we were doing a live broadcast for a Yankees game I feel like I’ve told this before but we

got Aaron judge and we got like hat we got like halfway through the interview Aaron judge obviously a big name doesn’t

have a lot of time uh we got Aaron judge on the broadcast uh and it was a taped interview we got halfway through it and

I realized I I was not recording and my stomach I was like I had the biggest

internal freak out had to tell everyone they had to tell Aaron they were like oh yeah Aaron our board up didn’t start the

recording so uh we’re just gonna have to re-rack this and he’s like uh all right

I guess that like you could just tell he was annoyed it was like oh man who was the reporter or who’s the host I’m

trying to remember who uh because that person is probably more annoyed than Aaron judge like Aaron judge is like

whatever I’m just gonna give you candy the producers and the and the host yeah they talked to you pretty seriously afterward and it was like the biggest

like I was so guilty like I was like so like oh God I’m so sorry yeah so I’m

sure whoever did this felt terrible but you didn’t get fired look at this my

face is getting red right now I know I know that’s how embarrassed I was uh no I did not get fired no all right

now by the way did you consider just recording Midway interview and then just

saying like I don’t know what happened I pressed it yeah yeah I considered a lot of things and then I was just like okay this is Aaron judge like I I have to

come clean on what happened if it was like did you if it was you know area Hawaii MMA you know ESPN MMA journalist

I would have been like sure I missed the starting of the recording but NBD it was

nightmares scenario now did you alert them mid-interview or did you wait for the interview to end not mid interview because I was like we

have to stop we have to we have to shut it down and restart it by the way even hearing someone in your

position saying we have to stop makes me feel sick to my stomach that’s the worst you’re in an interview like oh yeah uh

we didn’t catch that or oh what I have to fake this now I was doing a real Sports story yesterday uh which I’ll be

very excited to share with all of you in the very near future and there was one point where we had like a great answer

and then they said they didn’t catch it because the freaking plane was over the uh spot that we were standing I have to ask

it’s just like you can’t recreate that nowhere near as bad as as your blunder though but oh so bad so bad

all right well thanks for that great Insight uh from the truck we could have a whole new segment Tails from the truck

uh it is very I had to sit in this truck a couple times and uh I don’t I don’t I don’t envy people have to send trucks I

mean it’s a tough job there’s a lot of stress you got people screaming yelling f-bombs all over the place there’s no

daylight you’re like you’re usually trucks for those that haven’t been there they’re very tight there’s not a lot of

space you’re in there for hours and you walk outside and like the Sun hits you and you’re like ah the outdoors it’s a

tough gig it’s not fun everyone thinks it’s glamorous so you get to go to all these events but then you make a mistake

like that and everyone hates you it’s no fun um anyway uh back to Max from Germany I

do believe yes I know you and Connor share a strong history together but I am slash was a big fan of his back in the

day nowadays I’m basically just concerned about him as a human being all of his appearances are just weird to me

do you really believe that he’s coming back in December as he said I think the ship has sailed and we maybe don’t see

him ever again P.S we need Don fry greetings from Germany my man uh and uh

moderator Lewis who as always does a great job tells me that this particular individual

continues to ask for Don Frye we’ll get him I mean I don’t think it’s too hard to get done Legend the Predator

um I think Conor fights again do I think December is possibly not going to happen absolutely but I do think he fights

again it’s a weird thing going on now with Conor and Michael Chandler because the ultimate fighter just wrapped up and

like you could see Chandler’s trying to bait him into a fight and to get his his interest peaked with the small hands

with the he’s not going to do this and that and I I don’t know if it’s working necessarily on Conor but as I said last

week I think the fight to make is Conor versus Chandler if only because Chandler was promised the fight and I know the

fight game is full of empty promises but it would be kind of shitty if he went and and fought someone else he could

definitely do that just engaging Nathan Diaz but yeah I I uh I I believe GC was the

one that said this the clip of the the time that I was at the black Forge Inn in May for the Katie Taylor fight when he was holding Court back there and he

said at the end of The Ultimate Fighter they would have the date for the fans of when he uh would fight Michael Chandler

and yesterday was the last episode of The Ultimate Fighter and correct me if I’m wrong do you see they did not have a

date right nope no no no how did they address it uh

Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler will meet in the Octagon at some point down

the road uh something something like that like uh a much anticipated contest in the Octagon awaits it sounded like

for a very very brief moment at the end uh as they were finishing things up they

like talked about 292 and like how the finales are going to be on it and then they talked about Chandler McGregor and

like it sounded like they might be like they’re gonna fight and then they dropped though like at some point

yeah it’s a weird one think December might be I mean they don’t really need a big fight for December they certainly

don’t need one for November and there’s a chance that Leon and Colby fight on that card and then you may have Yuri and

and Alex in December and so like what I would do is just kind of save them for

298 or 299 and just have two massive shows back to back uh but yeah it’s it’s

definitely a weird one um yeah I don’t know I don’t know what’s I I

don’t I don’t know like how many times you get a fight but I I feel confident saying he’s going to fight again that’s that’s how I feel at the moment do you

feel otherwise no I’m with you on that

some point early next year why does he do those videos where he’s

wearing like the Speedos and then we got another one this morning I don’t

know if people talked about it I mean that’s it anytime there’s a McGregor post you know you’re in for it when you

get the when you get the blue box and it’s just the audio he’s the only one that still uses the audio function I

don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else do it you know you’re in for a good time when you see the Blue audio box the

yacht videos are I mean the one last week of him yelling at the fertittas yeah it’s I’ve probably watched like 150

times uh just get some work in Lads be over

shortly best part it’s so good oh my gosh uh overall what what score

would you give out of 10. your first season of The Ultimate Fighter um

we’re grading this on like comparing it to other reality shows just

I think you’re you’re I think your expectations were high I think you were excited about it expectations were way

too high wait my expectations were here they should have been much closer to here

entertainment value you know how captivating it was how

interested you were in it I I was interested in it and it kept my

interest throughout but I was also you know I I got to get on the show

tough hang afterward and like talk about it uh with AK Lee and Casey Lyden so

like I think that helped like if I if I was not doing that show I don’t know if I would have made it

through the entire season like watching every episode every week I feel like I would have just been checking in more

I mean the internet the entertainment value like when it comes to like an actual reality show itself it was not

good like if I’m if I’m stacking this up against like a Survivor like any of like

the big name reality shows like it’s the challenge I know Rick is here I know he loves the challenge uh like I mean I’m

giving it like a d plus a c minus wow it’s so formulaic it’s just like

there’s nothing really this draws you in there’s no drama there’s no anything I love the fact that you’re calling it

formulaic and you’re right in doing so and and you didn’t watch the previous 29 or whatever Seasons

we don’t get any drama until the very last episode then we find out Cody

Gibson and Brad Katona hate each other and I’m like where was any of this the entire season

yeah I’d say one one asterisk to the it’s the same every time they did try

that live season which I thought you know good effort at least to try and like switch it up I don’t know if you

know ultimately that was super successful they created some good talent um but yeah

and also it was almost it was almost inhumane they made them stay in the house for 13 freaking weeks it was

absurd yeah I if I’m not mistaken I believe it was Aaron McKenzie who was on team McGregor he’s been tweeting uh a

decent amount about like how yeah I believe it was Aaron McKenzie about how negative of an experience the

entire thing was oh it’s brutal like he can’t talk to your family yeah he lost and he lost pretty early on and like

having to hang out for however many weeks and like I I don’t really know how you feel the time from that point

um so yeah I mean I feel like if you lose you gotta leave that’s that’s there’s been times though

where those people step in if there’s injuries sure so I think there’s a there’s a reason to be around and put

them in another house ready put in another house where they have access to phones and stuff like that and if you need them they have to come back you

know yeah yeah and like but then if they come back people are gonna be like oh they got to do that and there’s gonna be

whining and griping about that the vet’s first prospects thing was like ended up being like pretty dumb especially

because like some of the prospects were like 36 it should have just been was in the UFC like UFC veteran versus

the Potential Prospect and it was also kind of a mismatch like we got no prospects in the in the finales on

Saturday we only really got one that even won Enrico de Chulo

um so like it was It was kind of one-way traffic for team Chandler the whole way like we didn’t even get here’s the

bottom line the ultimate sorry it’s for interrupting but the ultimate like the

ultimate like hook that this show had was that you know

we got exposed to some great young Fighters some future Superstars some future title contenders some future

Champions those don’t exist anymore if anything they’re just getting signed out right or they’re going on Contender series you know what I mean like

yesterday I know he didn’t win but like George Hardwick there was a lot of excitement about him fighting and so he’s going on Contender series he’s the

cage Warriors Champion he’s not going on The Ultimate Fighter and so like if you don’t have that anymore what do you have you know what I mean what do you have

you don’t have much weeks of programming for ESPN plus which is all the old I know how did it at this point how did it

do yeah I can’t imagine that’s a great question they they did as as big as big gets uh with with McGregor bringing

McGregor in to go against uh Chandler uh one question that is posed uh Brad

Catona in the finale on Saturday uh trying to become a two-time Ultimate

Fighter Champion is he the ultimate ultimate fighter or is he the ultimate fighter that’s been a big topic oh wow

multimet fighter is strong

why are you crying no one’s here in the house and she’s crying at the door what am I supposed to do she’s sweating

actually I think she’s nervous that everyone left her yeah what’s your problem why are you being so shy all of

a sudden oh look at that we’ve come a long way we’ve come a long way Machi why

what’s the problem Machi why are you crying you have to talk in that voice you know oh of course you gotta have the

dog voice the dog voice is great what’s your problem why are you being so cool are you a dog hater Rick

I’m not a dog hater but like I could sit out that moment

runs out to me I give him you know what’s your big mind you gotta you gotta give the dog The Voice man come on you

ever think you’d say you never thought you’d see this no no definitely not especially because I know the story of

how how much and the feelings initially so yeah no I do not I did not see this

coming but I am happy I mean it clearly this this is part of the family so yeah she sees the the the the luggage she’s

getting all worried about it oh my poor machi oh why

[Laughter] I can’t believe you hate the dog voice Rick I mean that just comes with having

a dog it’s just part you know it’s it’s part of the whole Fun by the way you come

home no one wants to talk to me anymore except for for matcha she’s the only one no I’m all for you having that I don’t

need to be party to you having that you can have that you know like that’s

that’s for you guys much is trying to tell me something right now let me just kick her out sorry guys

oh all right so you decided I like I like multimet I like multimet for what it’s worth I think that’s pretty clever

I think I’m an ultimate ultimate fighter oh Chris Weidman there he is shout out to Chris yeah and to John galang uh yes

they left me alone Beast um all right let’s get to the uh before

we get to the last question we were supposing a question brackatona trying to become the first uh two-time Ultimate

Fighter champion and the question is posed multiment fighter or the ultimate

ultimate fighter I think you gotta go ultimate ultimate oh wow

Connor which is it I’ve been backing ultimate ultimate

fighter though the whole season so I’ll stick with it because I’m not voted when he said it on the show he was like is it

he bracket’s own asked the question he said an ultimate fighter and like for the first three or four seconds I was like what

does he mean by that maybe I’m just slow but uh but yeah I didn’t ultimate ultimate you know immediately clicked

so he will be a double champ are they going to bring both the trophies out for him if he wins on Saturday

no it’s like a glass it’s usually like some kind of like weird glass configuration thing like is he going to

be holding both the glass configurations up against the shoulder I hope not the ultimate ultimate

Champion they forgot to bring out the second belt for Connor when he wanted MSG they’re definitely not ultimate

ultimate fighter doesn’t apologize to anyone yeah

all right that’s enough tough talk um no soup for you

hello Lads no soup is back with a juicy question enough of these softballs for Ariel Ariel what’s going on with Frankie

Edgar did he really not talk to you because of Ali and is that why he’s barely been mentioned by you since something must have happened behind the

scenes you’d love to have the Legends like Paul Veron which is great but not a people about Frankie since he retired I

don’t think that’s fair or accurate I did talk a lot about Frankie uh going into that last fight spoke about it

after I mean he hasn’t really done anything to talk about on this show since but yes to answer your question he

did stop coming on because of Ali I knew Frankie before he knew Ali and I don’t

want the last thing I want is to get into any type of Feud with Frankie Edgar I was a little bit bummed that that happened

um but you know Ali makes some money and he’s he’s got a side with this guy I get it who the hell am I

we had great interviews I feel like I covered him really fairly and and in a fun way the pizza thing with Mark Henry

uh still maintained a great relationship with Mark Henry and even with Frankie I texted him before the fight after the fight uh no hard feelings you know it’s

all very stupid and unfortunate all this stuff and uh I wish you know I wish it didn’t happen four years plus now I

don’t even understand why it’s a thing uh I don’t even think he understands why it’s a thing Ali that is

um but yeah I mean what would you want me to say about him in the last eight nine ten months we we definitely talked

about him going into the MSG fight and after the MSG fight what more is there to say I would have loved to have him on

before or after I’d love to have them on tomorrow but uh

can’t do it so what do you want me to do I don’t know what else there is to say not my call I saw him once in a uh

airport in the midst of all this and it was it was totally fine if I saw him today I’d be totally fine too he he’s

he’s he’s showing loyalty to his guy he’s following his guys um

you know advice if you want to call it that request and you know I I can’t I

can’t fault that you know I wish I wish the guy would drop it but

uh I don’t think he is anytime soon and I don’t think we have been as affected

as he suspected we would be uh Aaron hey Ariel as an interviewer we

often face the challenge of needing to ask questions that push or challenge Our Guest for example it’s clear that asking Fighters that about pay can be a tough

topic to discuss but is relevant to the business of MMA you’ve demonstrated a remarkable skill thank you in

acknowledging the difficulty of certain questions while maintaining a respectful approach can you share your perspective

on Crafting engaging questions and how to be both a strong considerate

interviewer I truly appreciate your time insights and all the energy you give to the sport shout out to Aaron Pete he’s

very positive and very kind on social media we tend to talk about the negativity and the haters and stuff like

that but I see his comments and his tweets and uh I appreciate them very much so much love and and chat with him

as well use the interesting word there crafting engaging questions um as I’ve said before I don’t write my

questions in advance even if it’s you know if it’s for this show if it’s for a two-hour real sports interview if it’s

about something I’m completely you know four and two if it’s for the basketball interviews wrestling those sit-downs the

BT ones TNT now I I just don’t like writing them do I want to ask certain things do I want to you know

inquire about certain things yes um and the best way to navigate those

Waters in my opinion are to just ask those hard questions in a respectful way

I know that’s very easy to say but like in a soft respectful approachable

comforting way if you just start out saying like hey why did you do this or

hey what are your thoughts on this I hate the talk about question that’s the worst talk about this

your thoughts on this um you know have I made these mistakes in the thousands of hours that we’ve

done most likely but the best is when you could just you know that’s why I’ve always tried to speak in a kind of like

soft calm way you want this to feel relaxed you want this to feel you know

um down to earth it’s just two friends chatting and and you ultimately don’t want it to feel like an interview and

that’s what I hope you know like the greatest compliment that I always hear people say about Howard Stern is like they get in that chair they’re sitting

there and they forget they’re doing a show and so I always hope that that is the feeling

um you always try to make that you know the uh the the like the the the the the end

game and have them say like wow I can’t believe we spoke about that because I wasn’t really thinking about interview

consequences and that just like we’re just we’re just talking um and that’s not me trying to trick

them or be Sly or anything like that I’m just you know I’m just trying to ask uh

questions and get answers to things that people want to know about these people uh the good sometimes the bad sometimes

the ugly I’m not shooting for any of that um that’s the thing that I never understood about the instigating thing

it’s like oh of course like if you’re just gonna ask positive positive positive fluffy questions all the time

there’ll be no sort of you know drama or anything like that but

like that’s part of the job the job is to ask about certain things but to do it in the most respectful

and appropriate way possible and I’ve tried to do that throughout my career sometimes you succeed sometimes you fail

sometimes people think that you’re asking things with bad intentions sometimes people don’t really understand

why you’re asking things sometimes people misconstrue questions uh this is all going to happen it has happened it

will happen it will probably happen down the line as well um and that’s just part of the gig and

you hope that you have enough you know credibility and history and connections

and and and body of work to suggest that like you’re not trying I couldn’t again as I’ve said a thousand times I couldn’t

care less if if a video gets x amount of

views versus I I don’t I don’t profit off of any of that so like I have no re I’m not pushing for any of that I’m trying like the DJ conversation is the

exact thing that I would point to I didn’t think that we would talk about the stuff on the back end it just kind

of flowed I had nothing written I had no real Direction and and we went an hour

and I was like holy [ __ ] I’ve kept them for too long petrovsky as well like I knew a little bit about his story but

that that to me is the best part of the job um and the best part of interviewing period

like when you just like I said I I’ve been working on this real support story and I’m so enamored with the subject

because I keep learning more about this individual and I’m just blown away by the way he lives his life and the way he

thinks about things and I’m like why I just I can’t get enough I just want to keep asking more and more questions I

could sit there for three hours what about this and how do you deal with that because I want to get better too as a human being but I want people to learn

um about these people and and that’s what I feel like the job of the interviewer is so again people may have uh different

interpretations of what you know your intentions are I could tell you from the heart here you know I don’t have any sort of agenda

I don’t have any sort of malicious intent I’m just trying to talk to interesting people and get you know get

their story out there the good the bad the ugly and have you judge whether or not you like them uh you know I I can

have my feelings internally But ultimately it’s not really my call here um and that’s why I’ll have people from

all walks of life on the show and and try not to even shy away and try to steer towards people that I know have

different you know um different ways of life and line of

thinking that I have because I think those are the most interesting people to talk to if you’re just surrounding yourself with the same like-minded

people it’s not that fun it’s not that interesting you don’t learn anything there’s nothing to really pry about you’re just talking to yourself there’s

nothing to really ask there’s nothing to really investigate there’s nothing to really follow up on uh it’s the

different people the new people the the unique ones that are the most fun and challenging to to speak to and I

enjoy those challenges very much so I don’t know uh I guess that that would

be my answer but but I would ultimately say like I sometimes watch these interviews and they’re so stiff and

formal and and and that doesn’t make the subject comfortable so ultimately what I think you need to remember is like

being relaxed being comfortable being conversational will get people to feel that same way and ultimately

open up all right great stuff great questions appreciate all of them appreciate

moderator Lewis as well for uh compiling them uh that’s it from me guys

um but back on Monday of course post pay-per-view Monday couldn’t miss it

as we’ve been teasing we’ve got the boys leading the way we’ve

got New York Rick and GC it’s the uh it’s it’s it’s I don’t know what it’s called it’s the GC and Rick show it’s

the Rick and GC show it’s the New York and Georgia I don’t know I don’t know what’s happening do we have any more

details that we can share or we’re still keeping it we’re keeping I think we’ve got to keep

it under wraps all right yeah we’re gonna keep it under wraps it’s just you’re gonna beat us up Monday at 1pm

Eastern exactly yeah we got to keep it under wraps so like we if we give it away then no one will show up so we have to we have to leave some something for

surprise so they’ll at least show up maybe some special guests maybe not who knows I can’t wait to tune in yeah maybe

I don’t know maybe if you can carve out some time for maybe I pop in you know maybe yeah yeah I mean send me the zoom

link you know maybe I’ll hit me up with your your booking producer

um we’ll find out in the studio out of the studio you know in the control room

you know like but I don’t know what’s gonna happen from home

I have to ask you here here now it’s your moment does how weird does that feel you have no control over this we

could go on air the MMA hour with Ariel helwani Graphics roll out and we can do

anything how do you feel about this first of all I would say I don’t know if there’s anything

on this planet right now that gets me more excited than that notion right there I don’t have to book a show on

Monday I mean are you kidding me this is a gift from the heavens number one uh as you know

you know I I I don’t I don’t I don’t I don’t pass the Baton very easily uh you

will now have the distinction of doing it twice GC first time I don’t think there’s any two people that I would

trust with that show I would either just decide not to do the show we shut it down for the day or whatever uh but I

feel like we’re in very capable hands and it’s actually exciting to be excited for

my show as a fan you’re a fan of your own shovel for this week and hearing the insights downloading it watching it all

that stuff and more uh as a fan just tuning in myself I think it’s good well

we’re excited to have you as a fan um it’s gonna be a great show I hope you guys get what 35 000 live

concurrence smash our France show which I think is the uh yeah no why not okay

when they know when they know what guests we’re gonna have

in studio together 48 Hours removed from here live on the show

I’m already I’m already getting the Bradley Martin response to DJ we’re gonna learn oh my God we’re gonna push

the desk out of the way we’re gonna have Bradley and DJ roll DJ was like I don’t want to complicate things all right we

won’t complicate things let’s do it right we’ve got Zucker musk not yet not confirmed yet in the works

efforting yeah remake of Facebook

Mark um you know the bubble he the bubbles are popping up with Mark so it’s not a hundred percent yet once once we

clear the bubbles then we’ll we’ll see what happens by the way your level of interest in DJ versus Bradley Martin

here correct I mean based on how DJ’s laid it out

like he just wants to like prove something it’s not gonna like I’m not expecting like this to be Bradley Martin

is actually trying to rip his head off and DJ’s trying to like take his arm home or his neck um so not as much it feels like it’s a

little too cordial you know what I mean I need some animus in my fight I need to I need there to be a reason that they’re

fighting rather than just like hey I want to show that little guys can fight like I know DJ can fight I don’t need to

I don’t need to see that I know he would twist Bradley Martin into a pretzel don’t don’t need it to be seen four out

of ten I I want to see the visual you’re into a 12 out of 10. someone of someone a foot taller and a hundred pounds

heavier as Rick put it getting twisted like a pretzel you you can watch some

like ADCC like open weight stuff and you’ll see it you’ll see like and

heavyweights and Bradley Martin do it though wow why could you imagine the visual he

was like yeah I could pick him up and drop like like put them down take them down could you imagine DJ just

body slamming Bradley Martin that would be insane I can why are we hearing so much about Bradley Martin all of a

sudden is it just because of this gimmick where he’s challenging all these Fighters I mean he has a ton of followers like he’s he does he’s yeah

he’s just show good is this show good he’s a big time influencer oh I know him more from like content yeah he’s a big

guy like gym content uh but I mean like he had ideas on in the in the build up to

the to the Jake Paul and ideas fight like yeah I don’t think he’s just coming out of nowhere I think he just has this

Channel with a bunch of followers and like he keeps posing this question and like it gets clipped off

people I think he’s smart he done something that like the note boys did which is like you touch yourself to

fighting and there’s a new audience that comes with that and now he’s leaning into that I think he went on O’Malley’s

podcast O’Malley and Tim’s and like they actually had like a really civil discussion about like a street fight not

just like oh yeah and O’Malley was like he was like I don’t really want to find out because you’re gigantic but like I

think I have the skills to handle you uh do these clean

I mean we have the picture right here like yeah I mean I mean he’s I don’t know enough about

that world but he’s spending some hours in the gyms if he’s clean like he is

how is that possible how do you even get that a lot of time in the gym a lot of time in the gym

respect a lot of protein amino acids that was that was the key right right

um all right well uh man great stuff from DJ DJ was awesome wasn’t he great he just didn’t get enough he’s come such

a long way in the interview game like when we first met him where he just didn’t want to ever open up and give you

anything now he’s just like it just feels like what the [ __ ] you want to talk about let’s go let’s go talk talk I was like see I can’t even I can’t even

imagine like him not opening up like you’re just like oh you got sick and left he’s like [ __ ] yeah I was having

diarrhea oh my God

yeah I mean his fate was so his fate was so tied to the UFC brand and product and

he didn’t want a misstep and then at a certain point it wasn’t and he was like well I’m just gonna be DJ and we love

that DJ I think we like that DJ a lot more once he started swearing it all changed remember there was a point where

even him swearing was weird squeaky clean [ __ ] it yeah yeah tremendous uh all right gents much love

good luck on Monday perhaps we’ll talk then as far as yeah thank you as far as

me hosting this show uh the next time you’ll see me doing so will be September 6th so we’ll have the Monday show and

then we’ll be off for two weeks and so uh we hope you don’t miss us too much but again there is a Monday show and uh

to everyone who you know complains about everything how do you like us now you’re gonna miss us a hell of a lot more all

right I can guarantee that um but it’s a uh it’s a little break for uh myself and the crew and then we’ll be

back a lot of [ __ ] gonna happen by the way by the time you guys say goodbye on on Monday the 21st of August and

September 6th I mean that Singapore card is actually quite

good the one coming up next weekend well not this week like this weekend is Boston but next weekend Holloway chance

on young Anthony Smith Brian Spann Giga chikate Alex caseras Aaron blanchfield Tyler Santos Junior taffa Parker Porter

and it’s a damn good card especially for uh Singapore and then the one following that is syrell gun Sergey Spivak Mano

fioro against Rose Nami Eunice that’s the one in Paris time for Singapore too sign me up oh

Jesus uh yeah usick against uh Daniel Dubois Stadium August 26 as well so there’s

just a lot going on and a lot will have happened the the game will change the next time I’m hosting this show

will be three days away from Izzy versus Sean Strickland that’s crazy

see you then man yeah see you then my most anticipated fight of the year I mean it’s gonna be

fantastic yeah hopefully I’ll talk to you guys then if not I’ll be watching listening

downloading all that stuff and more uh Frank we could say goodbye now

I told the guys we gotta go till four today [Music]

actually Monday’s show was shorter than this one ah we love it I love it I want some more

of it uh but a great day was had and I am excited about 292.

at the TD Garden this Saturday night on pay-per-view of course Al Jermaine

Sterling Sean O’Malley zhangwei Liam andalemos black share against Mario Batista

Marlon verrigan’s Pedro Munoz Chris Weidman Brad Tavares Gregory Rodriguez against Dennis toyilin

nailed it Austin Hubbard Kurt hollabaugh Katona Cody Gibson shout out tough

Andrea petrovsky against Joe mearshard is on the early prelims what the hell Andrew Lee against entire Silva

karintova against Marina morose I mean that’s a solid pay-per-view card top to bottom a little something for everyone I

can’t be petrovsky’s that low what the hell why is Petrosky that low they should have put him on the uh main card

it wasn’t like it was the featured prelim fight on ESPN they never bumped that one up but that low that is a bit

surprising maybe they’ll change it I’m looking at some dodgy website here uh thank you very

much to the aforementioned entrepritoski uh good luck to him this Saturday

incredible story easy to root for him good luck to Shane Burgos next Wednesday

thank you to him for his time as well thank you to Tim Welch good luck to the team and of course thank you to

Demetrius Johnson Mighty house aka the goad himself for stopping by with such great stuff back on Monday take time

[Music] over here

McCarthy [Music]

go ahead Flex you sexy beast because I was trying to sell you on the internet it didn’t work I tried I tried it is the

wing in podcast and if I can sell Josh Thompson we’re gonna do it I’m gonna do it I’m gonna be his pimp yeah there was

no high there was no high odds he came and no one came in with some big money I mean I need big money man if I’m gonna be sold you got something for some big

money I mean it’s got to be more It’s gotta be more than seven dollars people are offering

that’s gotta be life-changing money my friend life-changing what’s happening dude [ __ ] it’s Philly I feel like I

haven’t talked to you in forever it’s been a couple days yeah it’s been a

couple days I know I know we dropped this show every now like twice a week and you know we do people we’re always

talking in between I have a question for you did you did you listen to the thing that I did while you were gone in Sioux

Falls you know what you’re uh the Punk’s opinion yeah I did what’d you think

I I didn’t talk to you because you were busy that week and I didn’t want to get in your ear I know that fight week’s for

you can be a little stressful so yeah

you know what what was funny to me is that everyone’s got their opinions on

everything and and stuff and there are when you don’t when you don’t know there

are States that if you weigh in you will get whatever is that show money that is on

your contract and there are states that you know you actually have to step foot

in to that cage and be prepared to fight even if they qualified at that moment

yes you will get paid your show money because you stepped into the cage so all of them are set up a little bit

different different languages and things like that and so you know the whole thing about you know

it’s so funny because everyone everyone so will always say that I I put Dana down and then I’m putting the UFC down I

agree with Dana in this you can’t you can’t have someone like Wonder Boy in the position

he is and the amount of money he’s making because you’re talking it’s you know

High six figures yeah is his pay it’s good and to sit there and have him because he

was offered that fight against Michael uh with the three pounds and he decided

I’m not gonna take it okay and that’s his option I had nothing against Wonder boyfriend I’d do it he was offered a

second fight he said no he wasn’t going to take it and so for someone to expect that he’s gonna get his show money

that just doesn’t work you know yeah just because you made wait yes he did make weight but when you make as much

money as him I I agree that I believe any promotion should help pay that

Fighter’s training camp the amount the money that you know you could say that he spent during that time getting ready

for the fight you know help uh meet the cost of what it what what it took for him to get prepared for that but when

we’re talking about getting the show money you’re usually talking about Fighters that make you know somewhere in

the area of you know 30 30 40. you know that because that’s about what it’ll

cost for your camp you know you could say that it’s going to cost you 30 000 for your camera it’s

going to cost you forty thousand dollars for your candidate it very rarely is it gonna cost you that much especially if you’re making 30 30 like you’re someone

that’s still not normal because you’re not only bringing people in the same way no but you’re also living on the ramen

diet to get yourself through camp like that’s like that kind of money is that’s like beginners type money and they’re

still trying to figure out how to buy a house they’re still trying to figure out how to take care of their they’re not even thinking about buying the think about where you are how am I going to

buy that car yeah yeah pretty much majority of them are um I I do it’s so funny because you

brought up what I was gonna bring up was everyone’s like man you’re home ringing for Dana this and that like it’s just

you’re so biased I’m like no man I’m actually just trying to speak the truth look I’ve had experiences with Dana that

have been very positive and I actually I admire that the the guy for how he’s

been able to along with a lot of help from the fertittas obviously a ton of help from the vegetas but they’ve they’ve created something that was that

was able to be sold for 4.4 4.25 these 4.4 billion Four Points you know good

for them you know and I’m happy for I’m happy like I’m happy the growth of the sport is important to me because it

gives us a platform to talk like this and um it’s and I’ve told this to I don’t

know how many people that my life would be completely different had this sport

not come at the right time and then the Fertitta is not drug It From The Trenches and [ __ ] it made it something

like let’s just be honest man I mean like I would not you and I would never have met you and your life would be

completely different had this sport not been around my life for sure I mean I would have joined probably the military

or some sort of police officer or firefighter I would have done something like that I’m a physical person I like

to physically do activities not anymore okay but when I was younger okay I don’t want to do any Fork around the house or anything like that [ __ ] that I wanna but

you know I mean like I just I was someone that would have probably taken a job with like the forest service or something along those lines you know

something along those lines anyways this job and this this uh whole thing came about at the right time I just I agree

that when you’re talking about the amount of money that he made um you need to make there’s there’s

stipulations and they’re like hey man I’m not paying you the whole thing for not getting a fight out of it at the end of the day you signed the ballot

agreement to give me about like I deserve a fight you know and the

fact that I offered you that fight yes he was three pounds over but you’re gonna get an additional amount of money

based upon him not making weight you decided not to take it okay then I offered you another fight and you

decided not to take that one and as a promoter I need you I need you

to actually perform for me to be able to pay you that kind of money that kind of money and look that kind of money yeah

and and I totally agree you can’t just have someone say no I’m not gonna fight him yet give me my money doesn’t work

out but on the flip side I take Stephen Thompson’s side also is because he is 40 years old he doesn’t have another

opportunity to title shot unless he continues to win so I understand where he’s coming from when you when you look

at it you got to look at it from both sides I understand the promoter side and I understand the fighter side he is in a

position though like Sean Strickland came on when I posted the video he came on my post like it was [ __ ] three

pounds like just buck up and do it I’m like yeah Sean you’re 32 years old or 33 years old you got some time still son

and you’re fighting for the title right now you found your way into this position but when you hit 38 39 40 and you

realize that your your time is variable there is no more there is no more you

know chances no there’s not like they’re like you lose it’s done you know look at how long it took Glover to get back into

that situation they had no choice because he just kept winning you know and uh they made him the champ then they

gave him a run back on it because the guys behind him were losing too so okay he had to get the second shot at the

title third actually you know what I mean like those opportunities came because and then Yuri got hurt and all this other stuff but

those opportunities came given the circumstances Stephen Thompson is in a division where it’s a I feel like it’s a lot tougher

than the 85 and the 205 and those opportunities are not going to come very often and those guys in that that stage

of where he’s at ranked number four number five number six they’re [ __ ] Killers Stone Cold Killers man and

they’re gonna continue to get better all of them and they’re coming for him and he can’t afford he’s got to spend his

whole Camp getting ready for that one person and if it doesn’t go right it’s [ __ ] done like he can keep fighting

for money but he’s not somebody that I think is going to be the guy fighting for money he financially is okay I mean

he’s got great schools karate schools he developed him and his family have developed great programs it is they’re

fantastic if you ever follow them on social media the DodgeBall [ __ ] looks for real like legit he’s out just taking

kids heads off I love it but that to me is he is not a fighter that’s going to

continue to fight Beyond his Beyond his time because he’s like what am I doing it for just the money yeah but if you if

you look at and this is the this is the part that I was like I don’t know if that was the right

decision but you know and again it’s Steven’s decision but when you look at that weight class

who’s one of the weakest wrestlers there is besides Stephen Thompson in that top ten well I’m not sure paje was in the

top ten but heya is a guy that doesn’t have great wrestling and if you take a look at you

know all the guys from Camaro Usman to Colby to belong Mohammed shamayev you

know even Gilbert Burns can wrestle him but you know Thompson already fought him you got rachman off man you’re talking

about a wrestling you know stud Factory there so for

Stephen to he’s in that position he’s I was almost like I know it was three pounds but man that was a to me that was

a good fight for him I thought it was a good matchup for him I thought it was a great matchup

um the other thing though is that look giving up the three pounds we know that is a lot bigger than just that so he

struggled to make the weight I mean I would have just kept telling him like Hey make the [ __ ] wait so we can get the

fight you’re right you can’t but you should like that’s that comes that comes down to the commission says you have

this much time well when Sean once it’s over when Strickland to put on there it was just three pounds I said if it’s just three pounds then he can just

[ __ ] make the weight that’s what it comes down to if it’s just three pounds make the weight exactly but that’s my point and um and

like I said works both ways I see it from both sides I see it from the promoter side I need something for my

250 000 show money that you’re supposed yeah I’m supposed to pay you if you get in the cage but I also Dana had came out

publicly and said I’m gonna go ahead and make I’m gonna make sure that he’s taken care of you know at least camps and

stuff like he came out publicly and so that that’s that’s really I think what most Fighters if you’re not gonna get the fight which

sucks because you spent the time getting in shape and doing all the work but hey at least cover what my expenses are

and for someone like him I believe the expense is probably having a fair uh not therapist a even possibly a sports

therapist you’ve got a nutrition nutritionist you’ve got your trainers you got some Fighters have sports therapists like people that walk them

through the daily routines um but I think he is very educated and

he’s very um Smart in how he handles his his uh camps you can see he’s 40 years old still looks like he’s [ __ ] 28.

um you know he does a great job of taking care of himself and his body and but he also understands there won’t be

another shot if I lose and so I kind of leaned in the favor of the fighter of not taking the fight because I

understand where you’re at and I don’t know who they offered in the second fight and he said he said in a couple weeks he can fight again which may have

been on this card because Dana said in two weeks I’ll put you on now I don’t know if that was against again or if it

was um or if it was somebody else that’s not easy either because that’s you know

Stephen Thompson having to cut weight again getting ready for that so not easy is Ian Gary on this fight

he’s on tonight he’s he’s on this weekend right sorry yeah Gary yeah yeah Machado yeah so he yeah Ian Gary Machado

McGary um but his opponent fell off so I wonder if he was offering him him isn’t he at

170 yeah he’s a 70 pounder so I wonder because Dana said I offered him a fight

in two weeks against somebody it they just feel uh who is that Neil magni with

him yesterday or the day before yeah so I would imagine maybe it was Ian Gary now that to me shocks the [ __ ] out of me

why didn’t you take that fight if that was the fighter

like I mean being Gary’s tough he’s good but

I get what you’re saying he’s where is he ranked I get it I think he’s like in the low end if he’s even on there yet

okay 170. again Gary so he’s number 13. right but he’s right above yeah

but yeah yeah he has ranked above a hat but he is he’s also someone who’s been clipped he didn’t hurt before he’s uh he

is hittable um he’s young he has not doesn’t have anywhere near the experience he is a kind of a tall longer kid but I think it

just I don’t know I think that fight he maybe would have tried to take him down but I’ve seen what he has on the ground

he’s not fantastic on the ground yeah but you’re not sure that that was the fight no you’re right I’m I’m throwing

what else man I’m just thinking out loud I’m thinking out loud for for the people that are listening I’m thinking out loud

I’m guessing yes I am guessing I’m guessing but it’s all right but hey uh I just wanted to get your feedback on the

whole situation and scenario and I I agree with a lot of what you were saying you know it’s funny how

because you know you you came out and you were saying you know look 27 years I thought I didn’t know the rules really

now most people don’t and they don’t understand exactly you know in in every

state that’s why I say each athletic commission is kind of its own Little Kingdom

you know and they do things different and you’ve got to know exactly where you’re at for what you know uh is gonna

be allowed for a certain thing or what’s you’re entitled to for certain things you know some uh the percentages is 20

but they take 10 they give you 10 there’s all kinds of different things that go on and it’s a matter of you

gotta know you know and it’s you’re in that position like Stephen Thompson was you got to know hey

they don’t have to give you your show money yeah you know knowing where you’re fighting and stuff you got to know hey

that’s this is not something that you can you’re just gonna get you you can always say I’m I’m not going to take you

know I’m not going to fight him if he’s not making weight and that’s okay I have no problem with it it is your call

but everyone’s got this idea that oh the fighter automatically if he makes weight he gets his show money no that’s not

true just depends on where you’re at yeah yeah like I said like you you said it

it’s Fighters don’t know the rules man they don’t know what goes on like they don’t know a lot of and we’re gonna talk

like you know what we just brought up the rules and uh there was a thing they just passed and what did they just pass

they passed three new rules there was three three new rules for MMA you want to pull those up real quick Dave we’ll

talk about that and then we’re gonna jump into the UFC card and we’ll jump into a little bit of the pfl but let’s jump onto the new three rule changes

because Fighters don’t know so yeah they don’t yeah Fighters are listening to this pay attention so now you know these

are the rule changes now so John you know what this is this is your area of expertise you jump in this and you do

this buddy go right ahead well the first one is something I’ve been trying to get

past for years because it just makes sense and it’s you

know you have Fighters will end up in situations where you have a foul it’s

unintentional it can be it will say you know a clash of heads both Fighters are coming in to throw shots their heads

Clash you’ve done that multiple times I’ve missed that multiple times yeah but no I know you’ll have it to where the

fighters will clash and one of them steps away and they’ve got a cut

and you know many times the referees won’t even stop the fight he goes you got to

stop the fight you got to make sure both are okay is if you see it but you see that one fighter has been cut and we

just had Chris Curtis who was fighting and I’m trying to remember who he was fighting but you know he’s fighting and

it was a clash of heads he’s cut he’s got blood dripping in his eye and they’re sitting there and they’re

saying you know well you know can you go on he says yeah you know and he’s trying to he’s wiping blood out of his eye and then every time you know he wipes it

away it drips more in there and he ends up having to step out of a fight that he wants to stay in but they

won’t help him and you look and you go look he was he was cut by a foul if we

have a fighter that is altered by a foul gets a cut why is it

that during that break that we’re taking because of the cut we can’t bring the cut man in to close the cut as best they

can give them a certain amount of time and try to put that fighter back to as

close to you know as good as they were as you can and now let’s see if we can get him back in the fight if they had

been able to do that with Chris Curtis he would have gotten back in the fight and you know you wouldn’t have had the no contest at the point

it just makes sense it’s good for the fans it’s good for the fighters it’s good for the promotions and it got

turned down multiple times so kind of snuck it in this time and it passed so I’m kind of happy with that one because

that one is kind of the one that I was working on for a while but well John it’s a good good adjustment yeah I’ve

sat in some of these meetings not with the ABC but some of these uh commission meetings and

when you start to make too much sense like you are okay they they just can’t seem to comprehend it’s like what you’re

making too much sense no [ __ ] no that doesn’t work we can’t have that I don’t like change they don’t they don’t like to make too much sense they don’t like

to make things simple and easy for themselves it’s it’s it’s kind of classic what was the uh what was the

second one the second one is a more of it’s a

procedural codifying of the language of referee’s discretion

on separating stalled Fighters and when we talk about codifying the language

we’re talking about if a fighter is not in progression of moving themselves or

attempting to move themselves to a more dominant position or that fighter is not

in any way attempting to finish the fight or do damage that could

finish a fight or move themselves towards a submission that could finish the fight that’s what the referee is

going to be looking at and that’s when they’re going to say we’re going to separate you be it in the stand-up or on

the ground that is in the last one go ahead let’s see the last one the last one is you

know Nevada came up with trying to utilize the if you had an eye

poke uh allowing the the ringside physician to actually bring in a damp towel or

damp cloth that the fighter could actually use to help you know rub out their eye because if you’re putting some

type of fluid in it makes the eye feel a little bit better and so it’s a clarification for

everywhere to be able to utilize that damp cloth and for the ringside

physician to understand look you don’t walk in the cage and have a guy that’s just got poked in

the eye say can you see it’s the end you know we want to ask him

hey can you see me but I want to do that down the road I’m not going to sit there

and you know right away ask the fighter I can tell you back you know when I was refereeing I would you know tell the

ringside position hey right now let’s just give him time I want you to look at his eye don’t be asking him anything

right now let’s take a look at it you tell me if you see something you and I’ll talk and then we’ll go back and

talk about Kenny C and that’s because you just want to give the fighter time because there is a five minute

but it’s not the fighter that’s in control of the five minutes it’s that ringside physician and the referee

that’s in control of it and you want to try to give that fighter as much time but as soon as the doctor says oh he’s

good you got to start the fight yeah you don’t get you can’t sit there and now like oh I’ll give you more time you

don’t have that power so you want to try to manipulate things so you’re giving them enough time to where they feel

comfortable and it’s that they’re not being pushed by someone saying you know can you see and they don’t want to say

no because they know what’s going to happen so they’re sitting there trying to buy time this way

the ringside Physicians are being told don’t ask them right away about it can you see give them the damp cloth see if

that helps it’s just something to try to bring about a better result yeah the number one thing that doctors even refs

would first the question they would the first thing they would ask you can you see you’re like man I just got poked in

the eye like give me a second give me a second I mean my my go-to is always pretty much tell you guys to [ __ ] off

and then like kind of turn my back to you guys and walk away because I knew that they were coming at me and going are you okay can you see and you know

that the words no I can’t see no cannot come out of your mouth so you’re trying to pussyfoot around it and you’re a

little bit tired normally uh you know everything else is on your mind but the [ __ ] ref in your eye you’re just

trying to figure out how can I get my eye clear so I can see and it’s one of the most frustrating moments is when the

doc comes in it’s like are you able to see and you’re like give me a second just give me a second to clear it give

me a second to you know you can’t put any water in it but now apparently you can’t now you’re saying a

damp cloth can I put water and then put the damp cloth over it like pour water in my eye you cannot pour out poor water

what is the what’s the reasoning behind that because when someone puts water into the cage no matter if it’s on the

ground it can cause a problem with the matte surface because not all surfaces are canvas yeah that’s true some are

vinyl and it becomes a slippery problem or you can have it to where now the the

person has watered their body and now they become more slippery compared to their so they try to not to introduce

that type of water you’ll see that you know guys are you know they’ll sneak and they’ll pour water over the top guy’s

head and they’re saying hey dial them off right it’s always the same thing but they’re just trying not but the damp cloth it’s it’s got water you can

actually you know squeeze it a little bit and put some water in your eye but you know it’s I used to tell Fighters

all the time you know if they got poked in the eye and stuff you know I would sit there and John Dodson was a great one you know I would sit there and I

said you know yeah heck you know can you see me right and then he says yeah I said am I

good looking yeah so obviously you can’t see so I got to give you more time right you know

there’s ways of you know again manipulating you gotta you do things that kind of lighten the situation if

you can you were never that nice to me in the cage ass well you that’s because you weren’t as nice as John Dodson I

definitely was not I definitely was not I was never nice to the refs and never like I just I always felt like you guys

were against you yeah I’m so much against us just your your job was to keep the fight moving and in situations

where there was a nutshot or an eye poke or a head a clash of heads you guys were like okay come on are you feeling better

you’re like yeah you just felt the pressure though of you know

you felt like there was pressure yeah but you’re in your mind you’re like I want to fight like I want to keep going

but I really need to clear my cobwebs for a second from a headbutt or an eye poke or whatever it is um you know just give me that time give

me my space man like that like that every for me I just don’t there was one time you and I think were

we were I can’t remember what fight it was but you grabbed me by the arm for something and I was like what in the

[ __ ] is this guy doing like why are you like why are you grabbing me right now like big daddy I’m trying to think I’m

trying to think I think it was a growing shot or an eye poke something along the lines but it was it was early in my career and uh and you’d grab it probably

because you were doing your walk a walk away yeah and you would grab me and we’re telling trying to tell me to to

like hey you got everybody and I was like oh man no no I was just telling you where to stay yeah the second rule is

okay so you said it’s codifying language on referee discretion on when to separate stalling Fighters but isn’t

there something also in there that says a fighter has made a foul will not get an event advantageous position back but

we’ll stay in a disadvantaged position just say that antagis position if that was the case before the foul is that

also incorporated into this rule number two yes so like if they Clash hit or if they if I’m on top and I clash heads

with you I come down on top of you you’re gonna you’re gonna pick me back up I want you to think of it this because

you’re not gonna put me on top you know we’ve had you we used to try to say you

know and there’s always going to be something that you know makes it to where the way you can try to teach

somebody something it’s not going to work out but it’s what they remember and so you know we would say that look

if if the bottom fighter fouls okay we don’t

take them out of the position if the top fighter fouls we take them out of the position

because most of the time Josh when you think about it you know the top fighter is the person

in control of the position but we’ve had it to where you know the a fighter gets

the back of someone he ends up on his back and he’s trying he’d work for the choke and the guy you know that’s on the

top position with his back to his opponent Jason you know swings his head back and head butts right

referee stops it you know takes a point and then starts them from a standing position you go what are you doing

right he goes well he’s the top fighter I can’t put him back in the same yeah Common Sense brother but that’s where

we’re talking about with this is what benefits

the fighter that was fouled okay is it staying on the ground or is

it putting them to a stand-up position that’s what the referee should be taking

into consideration and doing if you were the fighter that was fouled

what is the best thing for me to do for you based upon the position that you’re

in puts you back in that position or is it to take you out of that position do you ask the fighter do you ask I used to

all the time oh really I would sit there and say oh absolutely if I looked at it and said hey

I should put you to the stand-up position but I know you’re a Grappler that’s you’ve

been working hard to get this person to the ground I would say hey I’m going to give you the choice I’ll let you be in a

standard position or I’ll put you back underneath it which which do you want and I would let the fighter make that

decision because they were the one that was filed that’s what I want to know like if you have someone like a Damian Maya right fighting like an Israel

I’ve worked real hard to [ __ ] pull guard so he’s like I want to be on the ball I want to be here this is where I

want to be I’m safer down here and I’m gonna be better off yes that’s what I wanted to know would you be willing to

ask and if you did ask okay you take that into consideration or you just asking absolutely yeah God okay perfect

like these are all rules that these are new rule changes now these Fighters they have been employed the damn thing

has been employed I’ve saw that a couple times now it’s everywhere okay all right look I think these are all good changes

they are they’re all good every one of them I mean every one of them I’m surprised that um I’m actually not

surprised now we’ll see if we can get rid of the 12-6 elbow that John like Lorenzo Fertitta said

just sometimes you gotta let him let it go you gotta let it go you gotta let him have their their their thing that makes

him feel like they’ve done something yeah I get it all right look we we rambled on enough but I want to make

sure that the the rules got out there Fighters you guys can just go right to that and so you guys can learn the new rules because I know you guys didn’t

know these anyways and you didn’t you probably don’t know half the other rules but there you go uh it baffles me right

when you see Fighters like they need in the face you know when they’re down or anything like that and the thing they

look up at the ref and like do I win if uh if I stay down you know and um but

anyways hey all right let’s go ahead and talk about the main event algeman Sterling Sean O’Malley let’s go right in

speaking of fouls yeah let’s pick it up all right I hope there’s no foul in this one no no I think this is I think this

is a a good matchup I think it benefits one fighter pretty well I think Al Jermaine

Sterling has a big advantage in this fight that’s you know you can sit there and say whatever you want Shawn O’Malley is

a hell of a fighter I take nothing from him he’s got a very good ground game

I’m not too sure it’s as good as uh algermains and if there’s one difference

between the two algeer main striking has never been

his Mainstay but he’s definitely adequate with it and he does a good job with guys that are good Strikers

so they’re striking if you want to say that Sean’s got a little bit of an advantage okay I’ll give it to you

you want to say on the ground submission wise they’re close but I gotta give it to

aljamin but the big difference one’s a good wrestler and one’s not a wrestler one’s got

adequate wrestling and he’s gonna have a very hard time if if aljamin comes into

him Sean’s gonna have a hard time not keeping uh aljamin from taking him down

or keeping Alchemy from taking him down but that’s the the real difference that I see in it you know Al Jermaine

Sterling if you know we can say everything you want about you know what’s been going on in the Banning

ways that we’ve talked about the bantamweights are you know just phenomenal it’s the best division in the

sport yeah as far as right now over overall Talent everything that just unbelievable

and look you know take a look at the freaking lineup that he has gone through you know and everyone’s going to give

their little thing about well yeah but you know Henry was just coming back and nope God damn it man he went you know

Corey sandhagen to get to the championship yeah I know the thing that happened with you know Peter young but then came back and had a great

performance against Peter Young he won that one wins against TJ yes TJ had the

shoulder but you know what that’s not on [ __ ] Alchemy no he went out there and did exactly what he was supposed to do he dominated that fight got the win and

then he takes on Henry sahuto and he gets the win there the dude has been outstanding

just outstanding and you could say you know who’s the best bantamweight there’s

ever been in the UFC with Dominic Cruz would be the first one that I would think of yeah but you could definitely say that Al

Jermaine Sterling might have taken that spot it’s there it’s there dude I don’t know

I don’t know I would probably have to go with the one take a look at overall wins but who replaced Dom on when he was on

his hiatus uh [ __ ] remember his name the one

Cody no Aldo’s uh no no Jose Aldo’s uh

he was [ __ ] up yeah but he was kicking everyone’s ass yeah but he was but okay

hold on hold on hold on how many that’s what I’m saying he won I want to say two

fights as the champion and then lost the dealership hmm Daddy I thought it was more than that

we have two or three that was it can you look them up

baby this is right that’s a scroll okay this is record scroll down so when we see the champion so he’s got Wings Over

Faber McDonald Wineland favorite no no McDonald didn’t

fight him for the championship I thought that was for a I thought he did fight it for the championship because McDonald’s the last minute replacement I thought

now take a take a look at the the house might have been four rounds yeah he’s got he’s got a win against

Uriah for the title probably yep that’s a battle me tail fight yeah that was bad and weight title yep so then he’s got a

win against Uriah that was probably to to win it or was so the McDonald fight

to win it remember it was a vacuum fight as well this was a title fight yeah

okay so the Uriah fight was a five round so that was to for a vacant title so he

wins that then he beats McDonald’s I’m getting bad Eddie weinland beats

Eddie Weiland for the championship you know you know I guess I don’t remember why they get a championship but okay he

beats your your eye again that’s three yeah and then he loses yeah true

true true but I mean look at who look that was his first loss in a long time yeah yeah that was I think yeah forever

since like his first fight scroll all the way down yeah look at all those wins wow

I mean I think that’s what made him so popular because at the time he was just he was so dominant he was whipping he

was he was more afraid look I’m not taking anything away from Algebra I think aljo is fantastic I

think he’s a phenomenal Fighter um I agree with you he’s got definitely got to me I think he’s got the edge on

the ground I’m not gonna rule out Sean O’Malley on the ground though either but he does have the edge in terms of wrestling and jiu jitsu

um that also being said I’m gonna go almost with their complete opposites where Sean

O’Malley has a very Stark advantage on the feet now you’re saying not as much and I think I’ll just

got good stand up I don’t think it’s bad I think he’s fast he’s explosive but the way that Sean O’Malley’s usually

utilizes his footwork and the way he’s able to use his length and his reach with the snapping of the jab it’s that’s

gonna give like with Peter yawn right you knew that they were going to be in the pocket Peter’s gonna hit you in the pocket because he’s not a big guy you

know but but John O’Malley’s not going to be there like he’s going to be push kick in he’s going to be up kicking

right to the face he’s gonna be trying to stick the long jab he’ll be hitting the uppercuts along with the left Hooks and the long jab he’s going to be mixing

up the combination switching the stances left and right now as a wrestler doesn’t matter what kind of wrestler you are

every wrestler will tell you as you start switching your stance because we’re not used to that as wrestlers

we’re not used to you switching because I like to shoot with my right leg forward I like shoot with my left leg forward okay those are things that

wrestlers have to make adjustments on and I don’t know maybe Sean has seen

how he shoots his double leg or how he shoots his his takedowns it’s like okay if I’m in this dance he shoots less or

he’s not as comfortable or his takedowns aren’t as deep off when he shoots off of this leg forward and he may fight from that direction he

can do it that’s what he’s been able to do against everyone and his fight with Peter yawn even though I thought Peter

yawn won the fight he like I said after that fight he outputted the coverage

I beyond I’d had no idea that he was going to be that good against Peter John Peter Young was [ __ ] walking through

people and making it look easy what he did to Jose Aldo and other guys I was like holy [ __ ] he’s gonna light Sean

O’Malley up Sean doesn’t even know what’s coming yet and he was impressive and the speed of which he has okay to

snap the jab the knees up the middle the height the height difference would be a little bit of it will be significant

also as he is certainly dips his head to throw his jab just to lead into the

takedowns he’s got to be very cautious of those knees man he’s uh he has his last loss has been knocked has been a

knockout but it’s a head kick slash like knee head kick I believe right yeah against Marlon rice yeah so those things

will be there now I know that aljo’s gotten a lot better A lot better he’s just fine-tuned his game he’s matured

into who he is as a fighter he is spectacular all over the mat and what he did in that second Peter yarn fight [ __ ]

I would I had I kind of ruled him out because I was like look the way you fought the first fight you think you’re gonna do that in the second fight no way

but he came in shape he came ready to fight after his next surgery he was ready to go it was like after the injury

it was a mindset of I’ve got to be in the best shape I possibly can all I can do right now you know without [ __ ]

myself up is do cardio and he did it I think he’s gonna carry that over but Sean O’Malley’s got great conditioning

and also he pushes the pace this is going to be a fun fight I think it’s gonna be a lot funner than people think

it’s me a lot closer than people think where I think that obviously if Sean keep it on the feet I

think he wins if aljo takes to the ground I think he’s able to control the position and and do his thing he may

even get a submission but where this fight gets interesting for me John is when you look back at the Peter

yawn fight you look back at some of the old fights and I saw a guy who did a video I can’t remember who did it but he had put it out on social media and I was

watching I’m like holy [ __ ] and I’ve seen actually not just one guy two other guys trying to follow suit just didn’t

do his good a job and putting the video together the video of Sean O’Malley using the fence every single time he

gets up by grabbing the fence that’s something you got to be cautious of and careful of like pay attention

because will there be points taken away Sean utilized the fence way more than I

was even paying attention to I didn’t even think on takedown defenses on ability to get

himself up from this from the knee position against the fence like actually literally turning himself to hit the uh

the like the switch on the takedown he hit the switch a couple times and he used the fence to help create the

momentum to get deeper on the switch those are all things that may potentially cost him the the a point in

a round and then eventually catch cost him the fight so those are things that we got to kind of be cautious of when I’m thinking of betting and I’m thinking

of the betting lines and how this thing I’m obviously I’m not putting money on you know a DQ from feds grabbing but I would say

that would be a bad idea yeah but I but I am thinking like that’s gonna play a factor because aljo will get in deep on

these takedowns he’s fast he’s explosive he’s got great wrestling and if Peter yawn was able to take uh aljame are able

to take um Sean O’Malley down algebra’s gonna be able to take him down also it’s how well Sean O’Malley gets back up to

his feet that’s exactly it and how does he do it does he get points taken away because he’s grabbing the fence that

will tell that will help me change when I’m looking at the betting lines on how I make my bets

what do you think uh you know the betting line on it right now what minus 258 and a plus 210.

I look at it Al Jermaine Sterling has been very impressive as the champion

he has fought well he’s fought smart and I look at it and this is the big

difference to me is the wrestling one has a huge advantage in that area I

agree with you that I think Sean O’Malley’s got a little bit I’m gonna give a little bit I’m not saying it’s you know

you know so Stark he’s not Israel out of Sanya but he’s damn good in the stand-up

and he uses his length well and he he’s the front kicks are good but Al jemain has fought on guys that are just as good

as that in the stand-up and I think he’s going to do just fine but you know I

look at it and I think algeman should be the the favorite you know and if it’s a matter of

does he get it done I don’t you know I think he did I think he does well like hey look if I’m gonna

weigh in on the odds here no pun intended actually yeah there was punited but is is if I’m waiting on these odds

and I’m looking at it right now you go aljo at minus 258 you got Shawn O’Malley at plus 210. I’m not really taking that

bet you know um I do believe that Sean’s gonna win but I’m not putting 258 down

oh you’re going with Sean no sorry not Sean I think I’ll Joe I think alja’s gonna win but I’m not putting I’m not

putting the 258 down to win that money you know there’s just I’m just not taking that chance

um but I also look at the reason why I would go more with Al Joe is this is when the fight does hit the ground one

is physically I think a lot stronger than the others I agree and when chasing submissions

like that physical strength on attacking the arm lifting the chin getting under the neck all those things the physical

strength happens it’s very important it does push to the side chokes to get in

the neck and the back front Guillotines all those things play a huge Factor when

whoever the stronger fighter is now aljo is also someone that doesn’t Chase it if it’s not there to where he blows himself

out and then all of a sudden now his arms are like lead so that’s another thing so I look I’m not gonna try I’m

not gonna rule out Sean O’Malley but I would lean definitely towards ultramaine Sterling now look if you’re going to

look to take a little bit of a bet let’s take a little bit of that the over is plus 130 on four and a half

I mean I would maybe potentially say this could go the distance based on that Sean O’Malley is good on the ground he

is somebody that could um stay away from the submission getting

submitted long enough who knows but I I think if I was to potentially take that I would probably say that

I would take the over did you take the over I think I might take the under yeah but you’re gonna you’re gonna bet them

130. I would bet sorry it’s voice it’s 166 on the under at four and a half minus 166.

yeah you know which is telling you something yeah yeah I know I

I believe the same thing though To Be Honest John I believe the same thing I think I think that Sean I think that

the strength of of aljo on the ground I’ll do is a huge Panama yeah he’s big

huge battle point now Sean is tall you know but he is he’s string being built

and that doesn’t mean that he’s weak it’s just that you can see aljamin has got strength

he he does a lot of you know movement where all of a sudden he uses that power

and you can see when he does now most of it you know it’s technique and he’s his technique is outstanding he takes the

back incredibly well yeah yeah no he’s fantastic he reminds me of patchy mix a little bit in that

area yeah very very much and uh I I just look at it

based upon everything that I’ve seen and I think Sean O’Malley’s going to be around for a long time and I think he’s

going to be the champ I just don’t think it’s going to be in this one oh really it won’t you think he’s gonna be the champ yep wow

eventually I think Sean O’Malley will be your Champion let’s get I want to while we’re still on this main event but I want to get just strictly into aljo is

he said 99 sure he’s going up to featherweight after this yeah

that is the dumbest thing why because

the reason why I’m this way is this is your opportunity to make as much money as you possibly can as the champion if

you’re not the champion your pay gets cut in half you go to 145.

and you’re you’re I think obviously you’d probably get right to a title shot or you’d be your first fight Champion versus champion

yeah and you lose that fight because you’re vacating the 35 pound title

you’re now not making what you were making being the champ 135 where you were more than able to to be pretend

potentially the rest of the crew that are behind you you know you got San Hagen chomping at the bit pretty much right there next in line I think after

that I know you got marab he’s there also but marab and him are not fighting

so I get you’re probably stepping aside to let morav have a shot at the title I think that’s partly it yeah and you got

Henry trying to make his you know his comeback and remember he’s waiting I think Henry’s waiting on murab is what I think he’s waiting on because that’s

stylus that’s a perfect matchup for him or he believes it is and I think it is too I’m not saying that it’s 100

guaranteed he’s gonna win but I think it’s a it’s a stylistic matchup that’s perfect for him

tend to be in the champ again um I just don’t think it’s a good idea by by Al Jermaine Sterling he’s got good

he’s got good momentum right now making the weight may be difficult but you know what’s even more difficult is after you

have a loss trying to get back to that top and at 145 we all know the speed tenacity the ability and the mental of

that guy sitting there volkanovsky is just something not to be [ __ ] with no you know and so I mean it’s I know he’s

I know alge was a big guy for that weight class but I mean we just saw we just saw what uh Volk did to to Islam

it was a lot bigger guy so it just like physical body frame is what I meant

um yeah I don’t know I I just want to get your thought on your thoughts on that nah I look at it I don’t know how

much you know I don’t know what it’s taking out of aljo to get to 35. you know and

if it’s and like you know one of the things I just said he’s a huge 135 pounder now he carries a lot of muscle

for 135 pound fighter who’s got not he’s not a small frame guy you know Corey

sandhagen is a large frame guy but he’s thin Sean O’Malley is a large frame guy but he’s thin

Alger means not so I don’t know how much it takes if it’s taking so much that it’s going to affect its performance I

think it’s the right thing to do to move up if he can maintain it I think he’s got the ability at 135 if

he stayed there to you know continue to ride the wave and and continue to to beat these you

know top guys in the toughest Division I think there is and submit yourself as

the the greatest bantamweight that’s the UFC’s ever had it’s not not a bad thing to do yeah yeah I agree I agree I just

look at the the amount of money he continued to make and then like he said try to work towards solidifying yourself is the best bantamweight I know he’s got

I feel I feel like he’s got a long ways to go though to get past Dom Cruz if you pull up the pull up the rankings

for me please at 135 pounds so he’s beat he’s beating uh TJ who’s

out now he’s beaten um if he beats Shawn and San

the uh Vera font song I mean now you’re looking at new guys coming up in the in

the rankings um I mean I’m looking at that I mean

outside all of them I would say Corey would I think give him a good go I know he’s beating Corey got submission

they’re both different Fighters now they’re the same Fighters but they’re they’re both respectively better you know um I agree and Corey’s gotten a

lot better on the ground I don’t know if it’s enough to stop his Jiu Jitsu and stuff but I guess I would love to see that fight again the one that obviously

and I’m just not a homer thing is um it’s not the Homer thing this is not

Homer and I’m and look and I’m actually not even saying Umar is going to win I’m saying that it makes for a very good

fight the power the power that Umar possesses now that he’s become a [ __ ] full-blown man I mean like he’s he’s got

a lot more power physically very very strong um style the style of his stand-up will

give will give him fits and his ability to stuff takedowns and his style of wrestling and stuff takedowns is

something that I’ll just gonna have a little bit of a different a hard time with I’m not saying that he’s not gonna get

him down I’m saying he’s gonna have a little bit more of a hard time getting him down because it’s a different style of takedown defense and how they defend

their takedown so but those I agree with you though those are probably the only two guys in that whole division that I

would think that would give him a hard time yeah that’s it you know um but is that enough to really get him past Dom

that’s a question all right let’s go and move on to the co-main event co-main event another championship fight

Wei Li Zhang against Amanda Lemos this is a Amanda Lemos as you know she’s had a you

know she was on fire there and she got stopped in her one fight you know against

um I’m blanking on the name I can’t say it uh andrage it was against andrage that

she lost the one I believe but uh she’s she’s the full package but Bailey Zhang

she does everything well yeah everything well she wrestles well she strikes well she’s got a good submission game

you know physically she’s strong physically she can go she’s got a great gas tank

she’s she’s a hard person to pick against Dave kick on uh sorry kick on

click on uh lamos please who was our last two was it on Josh I thought it was Andres

yep it was she was on oystering for a while ganger that was that standing Angela Hill or

triangle yes I do recall yep she just made a mistake she made a mistake

Watterson um she when I when I was reading the

thing I did I couldn’t recall if it was Jessica and Raj but I think andrage is the one that said earlier today that

that she the levels actually hits a lot harder than Whaley Zhang and I’m like oh wow she’s like yeah

Hershey cracks she’s faster than her she hits harder than her um I but I look at what Whaley has been

doing the last two fights she’s evolving her game working with Henry suhuto understanding what the when

to wrestle her wrestlings her wrestling’s got way better when to wrestle when not to wrestle when to throw Big Shots when not to throw Big

Shots game planning at a higher level and using her fight IQ instead of just

being the person that fought uh you’ll want a young J check that person is a

dog that person yeah you need to pull that person out every once in a while but if you’re gonna that’s when you need

to not not every single fight you’re right you’re you’re basically what is it called burn your burning

burning the candle of both ends both ends you know and that’s kind of what she was doing you know sure you’re winning the fights but man you’re taking

years off your life and your career by fighting that way um I look at this fight as long as she

fights a smart fight the takedowns will be there the speed of her of of Zang awali getting in on the takedowns I

think the strength might be a little bit more too in Whaley’s favor but the power and the speed of lemos’s hands I think

is going to be a factor how many times can she hit her but where we have found John with Whaley Zhang she will be there

in the fourth and fifth round she will push the pace she won those fights and whereas Joanna was the person

that always had the better cardio in the third fourth to fifth round she outworked her in that third fourth and

fifth round I haven’t seen another female in that weight class be able to do that be able to do that and now I don’t know

what lamos’s cardio will be like in the fourth to fifth round but I would almost put money down that

if I was to look on the way and then the waning on the odds and see if there was a betting line for that I’d put my money

on on Whaley Zhang outlasting her or having better rounds or winning those later rounds in four or five and three

four and five because I know she’s got the dog in her we’ve seen it we’ve seen it too many times and so let’s go ahead

and look at these uh these odds for the weighing in on the odds segment and the way these things pretty heavy

favorite three to one basically at minus 305 plus 245 for lumos you know you look

at the over which cracks me up because he over under is at 3.5 three and a half rounds so they’re giving you

you know around and a half past the norm and it’s plus 135 for the over and a

minus 175 for the under so really they’re looking at it to stop before

that and uh I don’t know I look at it it’s lamos is good

Wei Li Zhang has she’s really just the the person that gives her problems

is a person that’s got great movement someone that moves in and out and uses

lateral uh movement that tends to slow her down a little bit someone that stands in front of her which lamos will

is the kind of fight that she usually does well with yeah I’m going to go with the under I’m

going to go with Wiley I think Whaley is going to be able to physically dominate her in that clinch how she did against

Jessica and Raj and how she’s done against so many other Fighters she’s going to make it a dirty grimy fight

maybe look for submissions maybe look for the takedowns and I think once she gets to the top position she’s going to

be nasty vicious grown-up pound control all those things and she doesn’t need to

get the takedowns but she will to keep it to keep it fresh to keep Lemos thinking like damn if I throw too many

Big Shots I’m gonna get taken down if I get put on bottom I’m gonna get control I’m gonna get hit with some big shots those are all things that go through

Fighters Minds so this is one of those uh fights where I’m gonna ride with the with the champ and Wei Lee and I think

she’s gonna have a dominant performance and I’m gonna take the under on the three and a half okay minus 175 probably put about 250

down and uh and go with that and then if I was to take I would I would definitely just wouldn’t bet for her to win on the

minus 305. it’s just too much money too much money and with lemos’s power

uh nah she’s gonna have some pop in that first round round and a half and so I’d stay away from that I’d stay away from

that so just my uh my two cents on that whole that whole deal all right go ahead let’s go to the uh Coco main event I

guess you would call it now the cocoa Neil magni taking on Ian Gary or Ian

Machado Gary nobody taking this thing pretty much last uh

last minute you know it’s but he always comes in shape he’s always ready he talks about he’s always training and

he’s I don’t think he’s somebody that would take a fight unless he believed he could win he’s one of those guys I believe

I tell you right now I believe this is a very difficult fight for Ian Gary you know I have nothing but respect for Neil

magni he is a dog he’s he’s got very unorthodox uh stand up not a ton of

power as far as you know he doesn’t have that one you know crack knockout power but he’s a volume guy that puts a lot of

volume on and wears you out he’s got a very good ground game and I’ll tell you there’s not a doubt my mind is ground

game is better than Ian Gary’s right now I mean Gary I think is you know he’s going to want to keep this in the

stand-up uh he wants to keep it on the feet he wants to try to to hurt Neil in the stand-up but he’s gonna this is

where that that you know the rubber meets the road in that now you’re facing a guy

with a ton of experience who is a as we would call a wiley veteran that

has been in all kinds of different situations has had to work his way out he’s lost some of those fights he’s won

some of those fights but he’s he’s been there and done it where you

you’ve walked through a lot of guys you’re you’re a great fighter but you haven’t experienced everything and so

then all of a sudden something is just not going right for you in the fight and you don’t know how to fix it

where that’s what Neil Manny can do to you so this could be very difficult fight for Ian Gary

you know what’s funny is I look at like a Neo magni almost like a jake Shields right you throw Jake shields in there

with with these top level black belts in a jiu jitsu tournament and he makes them look average you take Neil Magnum you

put them there with the guys that are supposed to be the next biggest thing or guys that are the top five or five ranked Fighters he makes him look

average he just has a body style he has a style in which he fights just makes it

difficult for all these fighters to deal with it’s it’s the guys that have a specific

World title type of talent a guy that you know like a Gilbert Burns that is so

good on the ground yeah he he can beat Neil magni there but it takes a guy like Gilbert Burns to do

it you know or it takes a guy you know that’s got just World caliber you know

stand-up a Wonder Boy that becomes difficult for Neil magni in that

situation okay Ian Gary has not gotten to that point yet he doesn’t have a ground game like a

Gilbert Burns he doesn’t have a stand-up game as technically difficult to match

up as Stephen Thompson he’s good I’m not taking anything away from him he is a

young Talent he is gonna just get better but you can take a look right now and say

he’s a good fighter but he’s not great anywhere right now is he a great stand-up fighter I’ve seen

guys hurt him I saw he got dropped and rocked and it was good not last fight but the fight before he was in a lot of trouble is he a great wrestler no no

he’s good he can wrestle is he a great submission fighter no but he’s a good

fighter he’s well-rounded but so is the guy that he’s facing and so I’m not saying he’s not you know Ian

Gary’s not going to win but he’s gonna have a tough time beating you know there there’s a there’s a a

fine line between being confident and being cocky he’s treading that right now Ian Gary did you not see that he said he

is the only Superstar that UFC 292.

I’m the Superstar wow dude congratulations

congratulations I mean this is excuse me

look I love the confidence uh but it’s when it starts to border the Cockiness of it all you’ve got to be very cautious

because now you’re putting more pressure on yourself as a young Talent undefeated 12-0 okay there’s a lot at risk for you

right now you lose a Neil magni we’re not talking about keeping you in the rankies man we’re talking about okay

how do we get you a Wendy back on track you know and then that that’s really what the UFC’s thinking we’ve put money

we’ve started investing time into you we’re wanting you to win they’re we’re bringing you in someone who stylistically Neil’s not gonna probably

try to take him down he may threaten in here and there oh he’ll take him down but yeah he’ll take him down and then

and then I think you know on the feet though I think Neil magni with the the push kick the long jab the quick hands

it’s gonna be a problem to deal with do you have a difficult to deal with now Ian Gary’s a tall long linky kid himself

you know uh pretty well built and uh you know I hear nothing but great Praises about him at kill Cliff everyone talks

about how good he is talented you see the one that he does have he’s got power yes he does smack no he can he can but

he’s also been his Chin’s been a little checked also as of recently and so you know he can be hurt you know he’s not

just walking through everyone’s punches like they don’t affect him so there’s a lot at stake for Neil magni it’s it’s a win-win

situation I come in I get paid there’s less there’s less at risk for him I think so you know um coming in on a

short notice Ian Gary there’s a lot of stake losing your O Okay um fighting a

guy who’s a seasoned veteran but also the UFC expecting you to get through this guy you’ve got to show me you can

beat this guy before I even start talking about her thinking about putting you against against a top five guy or

top three guy or whatever it is so this is a big deal that’s a big deal for him next fight

oh Damon blacks here stepping in right away Man blaster just had an outstanding

submission Victory last week with the Twister well he’s just stepping right

back in and going against Mario Batista Mario Batista very good on the ground good with a stand-up he’s a well-rounded

fighter I look at that it’s a pretty even fight I mean they’re both interesting they

both should be in shape they both should come to fight and um well the real questions here and I look at this you know sometimes when you you feel like

well I I didn’t have to work that hard in my fight or anything it’s just that you you peek in that camp and then you

make that weight and then you get that fight and it does start to tail off and you just the the second weight cut kicks

your ass yeah that I don’t even look at it as the weight cut point of view and I I cut I

cut weight I didn’t cut a ton of weight though but I mean I was cutting in the 20 you know in the 20 pound range almost

every fight but I look at it more as the mental the

sense of relief when the fight is over you’re checked out and then now you called me to fight this guy now I gotta

check myself back in I spent six to eight weeks checking myself into that first fight I exude I used all my energy

in Camp I I did everything to focus on that one person and this is somebody who

is like you said I’m riding High I didn’t use a lot of energy I got the submission I moved on it was I’m not

banged up at all I have an opportunity to make a ton of money those fights don’t normally go well the

second one no they don’t it’s because you have mentally checked out you are

you’re you’re I got paid already I’m like I’m doing well everything is good you know what let me make this little

extra cash on the side over here what happens when you’re trying to make a little extra cash on the side those are the people that are slanging those are

the ones that think they’re just doing it on the side I’m doing it on the side guess what I get busted well you got busted because you weren’t ready for it

like you were your eyes weren’t focused on what was ahead of you and so um I’m looking at this going this is I get you

had a great performance if I was to is there odds on this Dave

we got odds on this no overrunners it’s a last-minute replacement so I

doubt they would have it no it doesn’t look no no it was right there was it oh you saw it yeah keep going keep going

keep going I was looking for the apostrophe in his name but I didn’t see it no you’re right no I didn’t I thought

it because it was right after the thing that was interesting nope but my my my thought process on this whole deal is I

would probably go with uh Batista based on the fact that you have a guy coming off of the adrenaline dump the relief

getting paid feeling good well it’s still trying to get back the mindset part of the whole reason for the camp is

you know there’s a physical side to it there’s a mental side to it and there is a there’s a Clarity that comes with

building up towards that one opponent in that fight and then it’s over and then

just jump right back in some guys can do it so we’ll see if Damon black well we’ve seen guys do it shamav he did it

we’ve seen Holland do it like these guys have done it they’ve had success that’s I mean that’s pretty much how they catapulted themselves into everyone’s

front living room and just everyone became a household name is because they did that and I admire them a lot for that but it doesn’t always work out for

everyone okay so uh okay let’s go into the next fight because this fight to me is I think is kind of flying under the radar

oh I mean most people are like they’re not even giving it what it is Marlon Vera gives Pedro Munoz Pedro Munoz

he’s lost some luster but he hasn’t lost his ability to fight first off the dude

is a phenomenal ground technician but he’s really more gone into the stand up

and uh he is heavy-handed Marlon Vera we know he is a

volume fighter but he’s got power too uh uses his kicks well he’s got a great

ground game this is a great matchup in my opinion I I tend to lean towards Cheeto you know a little bit in it just

based upon the fact that he’s just a little more you know elusive on the feet doesn’t take as many shots Pedro tends

to take a lot of shots to try to land the big heavy shot but either guy could win the fight but it’s a really great

matchup I’m gonna lean more towards Chito because Chito uses more weapons Pedro has gotten away from his wrestling

gone away from his Jiu Jitsu got away from his talking and now he’s just Central he’s just boxing and if he was

to continue to get back if he was to get back to his kicks and maybe threaten maybe threaten to take down every once

in a while I’d probably lean a little bit more towards Pedro but because Chito Vera is coming off of a loss and he

understands what it’s what’s at stake and how he needs to get back on the win track and he was so close to getting a

title shot oh he was right there he just needs to he needs to go out there and make an example out of Pedro Munoz and I

think he’s going to utilize every single tool whether it’s his knees whether it’s his elbows whether it’s you know the

calf kicks the leg kicks all of those things I think you’re going to see a very driven and motivated marlin

chitovera so I’m looking forward to that the next fight and this will probably be I mean for me this will be the last one

I probably want to talk about is the return of Chris Weidman man got to give this guy a lot of credit and love uh for

his return nothing but the best for this guy and uh I’m looking forward to he has talked about this whole camp

through his social media I didn’t just spend time trying to heal I spent time trying to get better so all the things

that I was working on before he’s like yeah I’m trying I was trying to get better I’ve mastered all those things and now I’m trying to add more tools to

my Arsenal now I don’t know how it’s going to end up going but you know with the leg and that that first couple kicks

you throw or you check or any of those things that’s in your mind buddy I know it’s in your mind oh yeah um but he’s

got he’s got a tough task against Brad Tavares but I think I think it’s a good matchup for him to return on

Brad Tavares more of a stand-up guy you know heavy hands tough dude can take big

shots so Chris needs to be in that you know uh that mindset of don’t don’t try to knock

you know this guy’s block off because that’s not easy to do let me just continue to touch him let me keep on

making him work hard and just work towards my win but yeah I think it’s good to see Chris Weidman coming back

trying to make you know you know he I look at let’s be honest he’s he’s not gonna have a title right

that’s not going to happen you know ever since his loss of the title to Luke

rockhold Chris has been on a different run and he’s had he’s had difficulties in fights but he’s still he’s a he’s a

great fighter he’s a tough dude and just to see him come back off of that injury you know my hat’s off to him I hope I

hope only the best for him damn who brought Negative Nancy over here [ __ ] okay hold on hold on let’s

take bring it bring up that that uh thing because I believe there’s only two wins yeah since uh the wrong velocity he

beat Amari and he beat Kelvin gaslin because I did that fight and uh go ahead

my thought is my thought is that he’s gonna have to get started on the wrestling if he can get to the wrestling he’s got great submissions also he just

doesn’t utilize them he fell in love a little bit with the kicking and the kickboxing and all that stuff during the

Anderson Silva camps you know and he knew that the wrestling was there and he could utilize it but I think he fell in

love with it a little bit too much and uh and it cost him against rockhold but I think if he gets back to the wrestling

because he’s he’s good at the takedowns his single leg dump is probably one of the best in the game

um and when he gets on top man he just finds ways to get to them out he finds ways to get to that top position and do

damage he has good ground a pound so if you’re gonna be if he’s gonna beat Brad Tavares that’s the way to do it yep I

agree John is there any other fights on this car that you want to chat about ah you got to give it up for uh there’s

Gerald Shard is coming back he’s going against uh Andre petrovsky that’s

actually a really good matchup because petrovsky he’s got great wrestling he likes to stand and bang he’s super

physical but Gerald Mercer if you don’t get rid of him he’s always a danger with

his submission game so and mercyhard is now fighting out of uh uh kill Cliff FC

uh so a little bit of a change he used to be with rufusport so who’s doing not training how to kill

Cliff right now who is knocked out isn’t there it’s [ __ ] crazy there’s a ton of guys the other one is Austin Hubbard

and uh Kurt hollabaugh both coming off of The Ultimate Fighter with uh McGregor

and Chandler and stuff so interesting they were teammates interesting to watch them go at it

interesting back in the UFC uh yeah for me it’s gonna be go back to that day for

me please uh Gregory Rodriguez man he’s always fun to watch remember he got that

big cut across his uh before his vein was showing that was just disgusting uh

had that thing broke it would have just been spewing out like this and they would have stopped the fight for sure

um you know and then Andrea Lee uh I love watching her fight she has she’s had some great performances KGB yep KGB

she does some great performances and she’s also had some ones where she just let herself down so I’m looking to see

um how she does coming in this one she’s up and down but she’s she seems like she’s on the incline and then uh Marina

I don’t even know you said awesome Rose moros she’s good she’s really good she just got to

believe in herself a little bit more and and Pull and pull the trigger a little bit more and physically she’s she is a

style matchup uh one of those like nightmare Style Match because she’s long

she’s tall she’s long for the weight class she’s got a good jab she can utilize her kicks good she’s good she

got good takedown defense she’s got to believe in herself a little bit more and let it all Let It All Hang Out well

that’s gonna wrap up our UFC talk and uh you guys enjoy that pay-per-view and we will be doing the recap on that shortly

after that so check us out uh before we move on go to onlyfans.com weighing in

subscribe to us over there it is free John’s on there a lot I’ve been posting a lot about you John I’ve been posting

you know you know butt picks beard picks you know haircut picks all about you buddy you

know there you go hey man we’re getting a lot more subscribers we’re actually hitting them pretty good we’re hitting some pretty

good numbers and um hey man uh check us out over there at onlyfans.com weighing

in let’s go ahead and jump into we got the pfl also so we’re gonna do a a recap on

a recap we’re gonna do um breakdown on this we got Maurice Green and henna Ferreira what do you think well this is

the 2023 playoffs which Joe Rogan just came out and said that that little bit

about the pfl or let me give you a little advice you don’t think it’s just an outsider get rid of the stupid point

things yeah because it doesn’t make sense but and there’s exact

evidence of it in here but I like this heavyweight matchup these both guys huge Maurice Green is a

large man Heenan Faria has big mess six foot eight this is a good matchup both

guys like to be in the stand up uh for the most part but uh fahea will take the

fight to the ground greens will try to avoid you know avoid that but this is a good heavyweight matchup and green has

been you know working out with uh Jon Jones and he feels confident after working with John that he’s uh improved

his game to the point where he can take on anyone he’s gonna have his hands full with Enon yeah I’m looking at Maurice Green if he

performs at all like he did in his last fight he ain’t getting out of the first second round it’s he I don’t know what

he was doing or I mean there was moments where he turned his back and ran away but John John’s done that a couple other Fighters have done it survival of the

fish you got to make sure that you uh you know if you’re getting on your bike get on your bike man hey you continue to fight and look it got him into this into

the playoffs no he won that fight he he lost that

fight they gave it to him as a win John he lost that fight ante Dalia won that

fight no pull it up no hold up Maurice Marie none no he lost are you very upset that

he lost yes oh that is right oh my God that’s right okay sorry the whole point

system is just freaking that’s right because he was the one acting like he

should have won and when they arrested and he was left over that’s right that’s right he got me threw me all off man

okay he even had me convince he won the fight no it just it came down he was I

remember now looking he’s like he was disappointed that he yeah oh wow he was like okay I won oh my gosh no anyways

all right well hey uh I’m looking if he performs the way he performed in that in that fight it ain’t gonna be good for

him next fight I agree Larissa Pacheco in a rematch against olena

Kohl’s Nick she’s Ukrainian

uh you know this is this is the one that they fought before I believe it’s yeah just recently I believe just recently

yeah it was last year last year yeah I think it was uh Marissa fought her to go and fight

um uh damn it I want to say it was to fight uh

um Aspen Kayla Kayla Harrison yep yeah yep was yep and so

you know look Larissa’s the real deal yeah Larissa can

fight Larissa is a tough out for anybody yes she is you know and uh

she’s gonna walk through Elena again yeah I’m sorry I agree I’ll walk through

her I agree with you um this is out of all the things the scoring system

for the pfl I’m like now you know what I can work around it we just gotta find a way to make it better there’s something

there the scoring system if you’re if you’re so adamant if the pfl is so adamant about having there we’ve got to have something to make it a little bit

better there’s got to be a way to do it that’s one two is this is the thing that I’m the most frustrated about I’ve seen

these fights that’s every season you’ve seen these

fights well the same people okay but here take it and this is the problem okay like you’re saying Larissa and

Elena just watching it was I mean it wasn’t close it was a dominant

performance by Larissa so now she’s going to fight her again okay so she fights her again and if you go just two

fights down you’ve got Marina Mo Cantina going against Amber leibrock now Amber

librock is in the playoffs she just got smoked

by Larissa Pacheco also okay and she’s in the playoffs based

upon you know her first fight she had a knockout in the first round head kick it

was beautifully done but it wasn’t against a high level fighter no and so now she’s in the class and if she beats

Marina because I’m saying I’m telling Larissa is going to be you know Elena she’s gonna end the fighter again it’s like

yeah no I get it what you want to see I know it’s not what you want to see it’s hard to make your playoffs

captivating to Captivate people’s attention when you’re I’ve seen these fights before that’s my point like think

about this it’s like okay look if we watched Earl Spence and Bud Crawford fight well that’s what we just watched him it

was a great fighting are you tuning in in five months to watch the same fight knowing that it was very one-sided one-sided I’m

up I’m not tuning in for that and that’s where we’re at right now with with you know so like if I want to make some adjustments like look does pfl have

something they’ve got something okay the smart cage thing I know people are like ah it’s stupid I actually kind of think

it’s cool whatever okay just do me a favor you are an intelligent man I love

you tell me what’s so smart about their cage well it gives up it gives it gives us stats I don’t know if they’re always

right but it gives us yes you said it doesn’t give you [ __ ] some little nerd in the truck is giving you look

I like what they’re doing they’ve got something there they just gotta find ways to tweak it and make it make it a

little bit easier for people to understand for Sean O’Connell every time he has to say the smart cage

like poor Sean gotta say oh okay there’s nothing smart about it oh I do like some

of the things they do as far as I really like you know their uh where they have

their own algorithm as far as you know who’s who’s winning the fight based upon

what they’ve seen even though you know they give like a percentage you know of something you know some of that’s cool I

don’t like the fact when they go and they do the like the speed of a kick okay and they say 17 miles per hour well

I hate to tell you guys that does not look impressive 17 miles per hour that’s not impressive when the kick is you’re

saying the fastest kick of the night when trust me when you get someone that really kicks and it hits someone hard

it’s a whole lot more than 17 miles per hour okay maybe maybe the the smart cage

isn’t really where I wanted to go then look I don’t think I will go with the

same thing you said though is I actually do enjoy when they say okay how did you have it Randy how did you have it Kenny

how do you have it it’s kind of fun they don’t they don’t go they don’t go round by round they just go fight by far yeah

you know and they and I like the fact they bring fans in they bring the fans in to say who do you know who the fans

think won Kenny you know and uh Randy and then they have the judges you know come up

with you know the only thing the issue that I have with that whole breakdown though is it really starts to CR and I

don’t know how they are with their with their Fighters look we’ve done stuff on here and Fighters have literally DM me

man you said I was gonna lose oh my God and I’m like guys I’m giving a breakdown like and [ __ ] you were supposed

to lose you got lucky I was like you know what I mean so then it becomes

it just becomes a little awkward when you’re the analyst and you’re like covert was very difficult when you’re

trying to call a fight because you’re saying something and these dudes could hear you so there was I was trying to

like kind of Mumble under my breath oh my God is that why you remember when they got

close to us I was like John man I don’t even know what to say right now John you go right ahead you talk

so but yeah okay what’s so funny is this happens all day just it just recently happened in Sioux Falls we had a fight

between Dalton Rasta and and Aaron Jeffries and you know when we we do

a uh a call that we have with all the production team and everything and we’ll

go through the fights and Josh and I’ll explain well this is you know the strong suit of this fighter

and you know it’s funny because I when I walked into uh Aaron Jeffries wins the fight he beats Dalton roster takes away

his undefeated record and first thing Aaron Jeffrey says to me you know before

I start talking he says and you thought I was gonna lose and it’s like and where did you hear

that yeah because I told everyone look this is a 50 50 fight it just depends on

where it takes place if Aaron Jeffries can put it in this realm he’s got a

great shot of winning if Dalton roster puts it in this realm he’s got the great shot at winning you know but it’s funny

because they they have that yeah it’s like well you thought I was gonna lose well John yeah it’s been very clear with

you like if you read the comments like I do that people only hear things from their perspective yeah and it’s so funny

because like I said earlier on the show is people like oh man you’re just riding on Dana’s nuts about the whole uh

payment thing I’m like

it was kind of funny because I finally I had some people in our comments go have you not listened to this show you must

be new they were like is Josh never says anything nice about I I do say things

nice about Dana just people tend to hear what they want to hear they want to hear and it’s not just Dana like there’s other you know Fighters like oh you hate

this guy like I I do say a lot of things nice things about Colby Covington but people seem to think that you and I are

Colby Covington haters I actually really really admire Colby Covington and how he’s managed to maneuver his career to

get to the highest point and look he’s doing his last and he’s still getting to dance yeah he’s pretty damn smart he

finds a way to get himself in there so you can’t knock people like that he’s doing what he does um you know Nathan Kelly is a very good

fighter against um Damien Nelson uh Nathan Kelly though to me good on the

feeds got some big Power he tends to load up tends to throw big overhand shots you know he is a good Striker but

we’ll see how we get if he can get it done or not yeah you know yeah the one down here

that blows my mind is you know you got Danilo Marquez against Satoshi ishi Satoshi ishi back in shut

up really is that the same one yeah he’s got yeah click on that go ahead no [ __ ] way yes

holy hello [ __ ] what in the hell 36 years of age now he must have been so

young when he was training at AKA holy cow yeah wow

geez he was a baby then when he was training AKA because I was like just out of the Olympics yeah I think I was like

29 28 29 when he was there he was a baby man he was with the uh he was with uh

Yoshida they came to our gym and uh worked with us on some Judo man he was a baby it was funny he

treated uh is she like like he was his young Protege which he was obviously

what I’m saying like he was making him do all the moves yeah it was pretty funny it was pretty

fun all right hey that’s gonna wrap up our pfl talk but hey make sure you guys go to onlyfans.com Wayne and subscribe

us over there it is free John and I’d love to have some conversations over there about MMA about the fight talking

about talking about a guy that goes to only fans still in Dennis is who we’re gonna talk about here we go buddy here

we go this guy lit it up this week with the with this I’ll tell you he’s tearing up Logan Paul on the internet right now

John he crushed him man he crushed I will I will give him credit for some of

the the pictures that he was putting out there he was kind of making it to where I did I think they said that uh Logan

Paul actually put in a a cease and desist something yeah something like

that he found really yeah he Files come on yeah

um also too yeah it was pretty funny to hear that I mean what what Dylan danis

had done basically what he has done now he’s taken a bunch of pictures of um Logan Paul’s fiance I don’t know

who she is or I don’t know I don’t even know what her name is um but she is apparently dated

um pull up pull up who she is Dave she’s a dated um I think Leonardo DiCaprio uh some

other people and well it looks like she’s dating [ __ ] Dylan no that’s that’s not her

oh he he imposed her face I think it’s someone if someone had posted like the

real picture of him with whoever the girl was wearing that dress but he imposed her face but apparently she’s

dated whoever she is is that her she’s dated uh Leonardo

Dicaprio and a couple other people and they are now engaged but it was pretty

funny she did a I guess several people and so yeah so now they’re engaged and

this is uh this is where it’s going this is where it’s going so Dylan danis basically took all the pictures of her

with all of her exes making out with them kissing on them hugging on them and put them all out as well as uh him you

know within him with a facial and post uh a photo of her and and Dylan Sitting

face to face kind of like that one that you saw earlier that one there oh okay the left on the left there you go yep so

that’s yeah so apparently that one’s supposed to be fake but I don’t know that’s a good fake photo

then it is apparently it is see that one there see that one right there below it there that’s the original one see uh

yeah that was that and that was Dylan’s girlfriend I believe I believe yeah I’ve seen her yeah okay okay

hey whatever man tip my hat to the guy man he’s uh he’s uh he’s out there slanging dick and you know and pulling

them so let him be gotta do I want to see if he actually gets in that kit in that cage if he gets in that ring though

that’s what I want to see I’ll tell you what this is what it’s like what

what is it Josh that makes it to where a guy Dylan Dennis has two professional fights

in his career in MMA he’s got zero boxing fights what is it that makes it

to where this guy draws so much attention he stays active people care he stays

active on his social media that’s all he stays active he’s constantly he’s constantly prodding people he’s

constantly look John you and I probably wouldn’t be friends but you know if if I continue if

I just went on this Rampage and just started like [ __ ] around with Nate and [ __ ] around with with Nick and

started [ __ ] around with Jake and be like hey you got my sloppy seconds like if you stay [ __ ] like that you’re gonna

you’re gonna get people’s attention the media is gonna pick it up I just don’t I don’t have it in need to do that type of

[ __ ] I’ve never been that person I never will be crap but these guys do it man they do it I mean I look at it too as at

the end of my whatever it is I’m doing at the end of it all of it it’s like I want also to have your children look at

you be like [ __ ] on the internet you know that they can respect you a little bit yeah a

little bit I mean I’ve done a lot of stupid [ __ ] John you and I both you know what I mean but it’s like the the right

now we we grew up in an era where there was no camera phones and [ __ ] didn’t live forever on the internet we

were blessed enough to do that you know uh we lived in the moment kind of thing but now these young kids and these guys

here that everything’s on the internet it the internet Never Never Dies it’s

gonna be there forever so whatever you’re doing whatever you’re selling yourself or your body or whatever okay it’s gonna be there man I mean

there was a it’s a very sad story but there was a mother on only fans and apparently some of the I guess some of

the kids uh had seen this kid’s mother on only fans and took the pictures and were showing them all around school and the

kid and then the kid killed himself oh that is that is where that is what

I’m talking about like you and and that’s not gonna happen every to everyone I understand that but I’m saying there’s consequences man for

whatever it is we do in life and you can’t and your kids will eventually down the road maybe potentially see it

because the internet’s gonna live on forever just remember that so yeah anyway

boxing match against Logan Paul yeah scheduled for when is this thing

supposedly going to take place October yeah October and there’s a

hundred thousand dollar clause in there that if Dylan pulls out he owes Logan Paul

a hundred thousand dollars or they can send a if he says he’s injured it has to

be verified through a doctor of their choice or something like that yeah I guess yeah

I just see you just filed bankruptcy right come on yeah I’m like

uh first off you’re not going to see the hundred thousand dollars no

okay he’s gonna pull out of the fight he pulls out of all the things that he gets you know put in there he uses it for the

the coverage and the media attention that fight’s not gonna happen yeah I

don’t think it’s gonna happen either I don’t think it’s gonna happen either but John you got Conor McGregor saying he’s willing to fight Michael Chandler in

December what are we gonna do about the usada thing and if he gets past Michael Chandler he wants to fight Justin gaichi and then Diaz the third fight will

always be there with Diaz No Matter What that fight will be there but the gaichi fight if he doesn’t get past Chandler gaichi’s not taking that fight he’s made

it very clear he wants title implications and that’s it that’s all and what are we doing about the usara

though what what are we doing if that’s happening in December what do we do about usada what’s what you’re doing is

Dana is gonna bring in Michael Channel or Michael Chandler’s managers and make

a deal let’s just be honest that’s what it’s going to be because he’s not going to be

Michael Chandler is going to have to especially based on what happened with Mark hunt Michael Chandler is going to

have to agree that oh Connor is not going to be tested for the six months before like you know Henry

sahuto had to do any of that it’s going to be an abbreviated uh

testing schedule for Connor for him to fight December let’s just be honest look it’s it’s the middle of August right now

really you got September October November December that’s four there you go that’s as much as you’re gonna get so

you take a look and say you know Michael Chandler are you going to make a lot of money here what do you think are you

okay if he’s only tested for three months Michael Chandler’s gonna go yep I’m good so I don’t think it’s you know in the

end but you’re gonna have to get Chandler to sign off on that you know because they’re not going to go

through another lawsuit like they did with what happened before so I mean but let’s

let’s look at this from a couple different ways let’s first let’s look at it from

do people the fans casual fan you need to give a [ __ ] whether Conor McGregor’s on the sauce or not you think they care

if he’s been used auto tested no nope outside of the fighter that he is

fighting and the hardcore fans that want to make a big stink about it you think they’re anyone else going to care nope

no you think the media is going to report on this nope no he’s not gonna care at all nope

I don’t think the media is going to care either No One’s Gonna Make a big deal about your side of not being involved media

will not do it because they don’t want their credentials taken away covering the UFC let’s be honest the [ __ ] still happens

no matter what any one of these [ __ ] media people say it still happens and no they will not cover it they there will

be one or two brave souls that go out there and say this is ridiculous they’ll make a story about it and then we’ll

never hear from them again okay they will just fall off into the abyss as media and no longer work for whoever

they work for and yeah you know what I mean I’m I’m poking

fun at it but they’re not they’re not going to cover it the way that they’re that you would think they would cover it for somebody who is

is apparently this promotion is pushed so hard for you saw the testing and the

media has talked about it the fans talk about it everyone talks about it and all the other promotions can’t get past the

criteria Mister yeah don’t get past that criteria and all the other promotions talk about maybe you can man they can’t

do it yeah you know like you guys don’t test you guys are all you guys are on steroids well everyone’s on stairways remember according to Nate Diaz but the

biggest thing is this is No One’s Gonna care they want to see the fight they’re

going to bend they’re gonna bend the knee to get the fight to happen and that’s what’s gonna happen so uh but hey

that’s we’re gonna find out and hopefully it does happen in December and they all get paid real quick the Shmoe and uh the Schmo yep and let’s go Shmo

and Helen Yeek congratulations on your engagement the best of luck to you guys and you guys are awesome man we love you

guys love working with you guys you guys have been amazing keep doing what you guys doing and the best of luck in your

future together awesome congratulations to both you and to the Schmo dude way to

go man playing way out of your level I like it good job uh super good guy and

the last picture that Dave has you guys can go ahead and poke some fun at it if he can pull it up I sent to him recently

uh oh oh yeah oh he’s gonna try to get it oh oh yeah yeah you sent it to me

while we were taking a break oh okay okay okay [Music] it’s coming it’s coming

this is a little throwback for you all if you guys don’t follow me on social media it’s at the realpunk on Twitter

and on Instagram and uh Big John McCarthy right Big John McCarthy also on Instagram

John McCarthy MMA sir and then I just typed oh look and it’s the Backstreet

Boys it is the Backstreet Boys a little throwback for you guys you gotta end

this oh Jesus we gotta end this show on a funny hilarious note you got me to the

far left got Cain Velasquez right there in the middle Mike’s here Justin Timberlake on the right on the far right

you got John Fitch there in between swick and cos uh [ __ ] clothing we

did a photo shoot was an awesome time we had a great time but man it’s funny you got Uriah on there you got some other

guys some other people that have commented on there uh Laura senka was on there and some other people but it was Hilary Ryan goes you got to bring it

back and look at Laura senko the drip that’s like the trip chin and Phil Davis

both on there as well so it was fun what was the name of the album there you go he’s got the Backstreet Boys Sean Brady

up in there too but it was just funny man Robin black Mike swick yeah cut through some comments on there maybe we

had a good time uh but it was fun it was fun to throw back a little a photo back in the old like kind of Dethrone

Affliction the stuff all over print God it was an ugly era when you look back

but good times we had we had a great time everywhere you can on a t-shirt that was that was what they did team AKA

right there though but uh good good memories and good times and uh check it out at the real Punk if you guys want to check it out and leave a comment so good

stuff and uh John take us away buddy hey for everyone out there I hope you uh have fun watching the fights there

should be a fantastic UFC here it’s pay-per-view so you gotta pay for it I’m apologizing to you now but so do I so

what the hell we’ll see you [Applause]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

all right [Music]