You're listening to the Gas Digital Network. Conceive, believe, achieve. Shut the f up. You're listening to believe you me with Michael the Count Bisbing.

You know my name yet? And Anthony Lionhardt-Smith.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are back with another episode of the Believe You Me podcast, this time featuring the Irish dragon, the Iron Lung.

The Iron Lung dragon person.

The long-running SoB, Paul Felder. What's going on, Paul?

What's up, man? I'm back. I'm back home, Michael. I was out, basically, a resident of the Red Rocks Hotel Casino for about a week straight there. Not a bad place to be, but definitely not where you want to live permanently.

No, no, no. Hotel life is not what it's cracked up to be. Stack show for you all today. We're going to go through all the drama happening in Australia, in Perth between Izzy and Dreykis. There's There's a lot to talk about there. There's a lot of meat on that bone. And when I say bones, I'm not talking what's packing downstairs in the underpants. We've also got head coach from 47MMA, Saif Saoud, joining us later. He's always a great guy to talk to, and he's actually a contender to me for analyst of the year, the SOB. No swearing. You'll notice, Paul, I'm trying to not swear. I've had to use... What do you call them? Acronyms.

Is the channel getting in trouble for all of the swear What's going on?

F-bombs galore are not going down too well. So I'm going to have to try and rein it in.

We got to get the kids on here. You can't get the kids on here dropping the F-bombs.

You got to- We cannot. Anyway, let's start with UFC 305 going down this weekend. Drikis DuPlece, defending against Israel at Asana. Great fight on paper. Of course, this is being hyped in a very, very unusual way. Of course, there was all the backstory and the beef and the bad blood, the African champions and all the rest of it. This week, Israel Adesanya came out. He posted a picture, a picture of him and Izzy in their underpants. Brian, if you have the image of this, please. And then Izzy circles his junk. Have you seen this, Paul? Oh, my God. Brian, bring that up, please, when you can. Yes, so he circled his and he circled Drikus's. Now, to be fair, Drikus did look like he's just done a cold plunge. And Izzy looked like he was up for the job, shall we say. And he said, You tell me who's the real African champ? Jesus Guys.

Oh, man. I'm trying to stay on top of the... Well, obviously, the UFC didn't put that on countdown or the embedded. That was something that they wouldn't get there.

Well, it just happened this week. And then When Drickies came back, and there's a video of Drickies, and a guy showing it to Drickies. He said, What do you think about this? And Drickies goes, Wolf, wolf, in his South African accent. I don't know what the hell is going on. They're both got custom fight shorts. Again, people are like, well, Drickies is short. They look more Africans than Izzy's. And then Drickies had a face off with somebody not called Israel Adesanya, got slapped in the face. Brian, have we got a video of that, please? Oh, my gosh.

It's gone down in Perth, huh?

There's a lot of drama going on. The king, the man, too. How are. Yeah, that's right. First of all- Who's that? Who the hell is that Who is that? Harrington, can you jump on and give us a little bit of backstory? Because you send that to me this morning, Harrington, and I was led in bed without my glasses on. So I thought it was Israel at a song. I thought, Oh, is he slapdrick? He's in the face? That's never a good sign. That's never a good sign when a fighter loses his cool like that, but it wasn't, is it?

No, it was actually a fighter from when Drickies was on the regional scene in Africa. I think the- Was that old? It was the EFC was the promotion. Yeah, it was old. Drikas ended up taking the guy down and submitting him within a minute. So he got revenge back for the slap. But it is going super viral this week, I think, because a lot of people, like me, are dumb enough to be like, All right, this guy got slapped by his head.

That's the problem nowadays, right? And we never know what's real, what's been altered, what's been AI generated, what's from 10 years ago? I thought maybe he looked a little young there. I was like, That looks like it was him from a little bit ago. But yeah, if that was a fan, I'd have lost my crap, man. I would have been fighting. We're fighting.

Well done for not swearing there, Paul.

I got you, Michael. I got you, buddy.

Yeah, to your point of not knowing what to believe, it's really hard these days because I've had people... There's a lot of unrest going on in the UK right now, and And I had some people sending me videos on Twitter saying, Are you going to share this, Bispinger? We've got to get this out there. And I looked at a video and it was a guy, a priest or whatever, speaking the word of the gospel, and he comes and gets arrested. And I thought, Wow, that is crazy that he's getting arrested. And I showed it to my wife, and Rebecca, she's on the money every time. She's like, Michael, that's during coffee.

I'll go to Christine, I'll be like, oh, babe, look at this. You're not going to believe what they're doing. She'll be like, Paul, that's from 20 years ago, or it's like, that's not even real. Look at the comments. She's always like, look at the comments. And it's like, oh, this is making them. I'm all pissed off, and I can't believe it. I'm out I'm outraged, and they're like, yes.

I fall for it every single time. Rebecca, straight away, she said, Michael, look, everybody in the background is wearing masks.

You know what I mean? Clearly, that's not today. Although with Monkeypox, we'll be back in masks soon.

It was 2021. Well, it's funny that you mentioned Monkeypox because we have got it in the notes. We'll talk about that later. We'll stay on three or five for a moment. Yes, stay on track. We'll stay on three or five. Harrington, what are the big talking points that we are missing here, Harrington? Because before we get into the analytical breakdown, Harrington, is there any other big news or beefs that we should be delving into?

There's a couple of stories from this week. Both fighters, obviously got the custom short treatment as you talked about. There was another thing. During the open workouts, one of the fans got to ask Israel Adesanya a question. He said he cribbed a question from Tom Aspinal. He said, Hey, do you think Drikus has ever been fingered by an MMA fighter? That guy has tickets to UFC 305 Brian, play that video if you can.

And Hamilton, he's very crass. I wasn't going to go there, but play the tape, Brian.

I'm not even saying the S-word, and here we are.

He's all right here.

He's all right? Yeah.

I have a question from Tom Askenal.

Yes. Do you think three kiss has ever been figured by an MMA fan?

I don't know. Ask the coach. What did he say at the end?

I think he said, Ask his coach.

Oh, God. As I say, being promoted in a very, very particular way.

Yeah, I was going to say there's some very- Sexual undertones. Yeah, some very... Yes, I wanted to say what sexual undertones. You can assume based on the men involved.

Yeah. They're just messing around. They're just being silly. Some of it's a bit immature. Tom Aspenal when I did that Tells from the Octagon tour last year, I had Tom on both times. And I asked him that when he was sitting on a couch in front of 2,000 people. I said, I've got a question for you, Tom. Have you ever been fingered by an MMA, by the... Oh, shit. Passion, drive, and patience. The formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive. Ebay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance. Supercharges, roof racks, exhaust kits, LED, headlights, and more. Whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has you covered. With over 122 million parts for your number one ride or die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. And with eBay guaranteed fit, your car is guaranteed to fit your ride every time all your money back. Because with eBay Motors, you're burning rubber, not cash. With all the parts you need at the prices you want, it's easy to make your car the MVP and bring home huge wins.

Keep your ride or die alive at ebaymotors. Com. Eligible items only, exclusions apply. Anyway, let's talk about the fight. Paul, they heard me talk about this a little bit on Monday with Anthony. Drichas versus Izzy. What do you think? How do you see this one?

I think even though when you first thought that that fighter was maybe Israel when you didn't have your glasses on, Even though that didn't happen and there wasn't a slap, Izzy has been almost taking this one a little personal, the whole African thing, who's the true African? There's a lot of bad blood in it. It runs deep for somebody like Israel Adestani, who's so proud of where he comes from. I hope that he can control that because he does seem more amped up. He's declaring this is the best he's going to ever look. He's going to go out there. He's going to smash this dude. But Drikus is a guy. If you try to pressure him too much, he's got good takedowns. He's got awkward striking. I think there's a lot of questions to be answered from Izzy on how he's going to return after a long layoff, after getting just owned by somebody like Sean Strickland. I like where Duplicey's head's been at this whole week, letting things roll off, even saying wolf, wolf to when somebody showed him that picture. He doesn't really seem to be too bothered. He seems extremely confident in this one, Michael.

I think Israel can go out there and be his old self, but I'm leaning towards Dirkus just being awkward and strong as SHIT and going out there and making it ugly, man.

Listen, we can say SHIT, we can say shit, we can say whatever the hell we want.

What's the F bomb, But we're just going to limit it a touch because YouTube is pulling us back.

Yeah, I agree. I do think the break will have been good for Inzi, right? Because he was very, very active. We know that. But he's under a ton of pressure right now because he lost the belt. Sean beats him. Now there's another champion in Drikus. If he doesn't come back and win this one, it's like his reign, his time, it's done.

Where do you go? Yes.

It's done. It's over. And I always say, you go up, and what goes up must come down. So it's a really, really tough one. As you say, if Izzy goes forward, which I would recommend, if he goes forward, though, he could walk on into the take-down traps because Drikus times them really well. I do think standing back and doing his typical countering style, that's going to play into the hands of Drickers because he's got no problem being hyper-aggressive, super high-paced, massive output, and walking people down, swinging bombs, and then seamlessly transitioning to the takedown. Izzy said that this would be the best version of him that we've seen. He said, Oh, you all must have forgot talking like Roy Jones Jr. But he did knock out Alex Pereira when he was beating that time. He was a long-time middleweight champion, the second best champion and most dominant that we've ever had. Yeah, man, I'm excited for it. So you're leading Drickers.

I am just because I'm going to lead towards the champion who's been active, who's just did what he did with Sean Strickland in that battle and in the fight before. He just looked good lately. He seems so confident. I do think Israel can go make us all eat our words. He's that fighter. But that's where I'm leaning. The way that I've been watching the Embeddits, I've been watching how they are, and Izzy seems confident, but even a couple of things he said, you can tell he's not sure because it's been a layoff for him, and he's not a guy that usually comes off those layoffs. He was a very active champion. And just, man, Drikus... When I first watched him fight, I'll be completely honest, I was like, and I don't mean in this respect because I like Drikus, and I've had some conversations with him, and he's a super cool guy. But At first I was like, Man, this guy doesn't look all that good. And then you see him hit people and they just feel it. And lately, his cardio seems to have improved, even though a lot of people were doubting that early in his UFC career.

He seems to have really come back on that.

He got the nose fixed.

I don't know what he did, but if that's what needed to help him, it has. So if he can pressure like that, I mean, Sean pressured him and Izzy had a lot of trouble dealing with it. Has Has he fixed those holes? Has he made those adjustments? We're going to find out. And if Izzy comes back and looks dominant again, hell, yeah. I mean, he's an awesome champion. He's an awesome dude to have hold that belt. But I don't know, something about Drikus' duplicity. Man, he's been manifesting this for a long time when you talk about this guy and what he's had to do to get there. And he just finds a way to win. He's one of those guys.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I'm favoring Drikus as well. I think he wins this fight. Is he going to be hard to finish, but I could see a submission for Drikus. He's got 10 submissions on his record, nine knockouts. He's more of a submission guy, to be fair.

Did you see that thing, Michael, where he submitted a whole team? Yeah, a bunch of blood belt in a row.

One after the other. I think another thing worth considering is given all the stuff that happened this week, given the stuff that Sean Strickland brought up as well, shout out the puppy and the dog and all this whatever was going on, right? That, I think, played a factor for Israel because he was extremely popular, one of the biggest stars. Still is, still is. But there seems to have been, and this is from what I've seen online, and maybe his lived experience is very different, but there seems to be more people on the dating bandwagon than the supporting bandwagon. You know what I mean?

That's a tough transition sometimes.

Mentally, we feel that pressure. And so He has this thing in his mind where he's got to go out there and he's got to deliver a sensational performance. Like when he destroyed Paulo Costa, when he knocked out Alex Pereira. In his mind, he needs something big and he's going to show the world. And then with the Maybe it's just what I've seen online. Maybe it's the algorithm showing me all the shit. My algorithm shows me a lot of crazy stuff, but it's showing a lot of people talking crap about it. Is he as well.

Me too. Yeah, I agree. That's a lot of pressure. And on top of that, the more and more you say, and you know damn well how this works, the more nastiness you put out there, the more you say about how you're going to crush this guy, we got to get in there. You got to get in there and back it up. And now you're getting in there after Not a long layoff by layoff standards, but a long layoff for Adesanya. Again, I'm totally with you. And you're in Perth, you're close to home, you're going to have either a ton of support there. You've got all those teammates Dan Hooker, Kykara Franz is on the card. Those situations are tough. What if those guys start taking Ls early in the night and then you're the last one to go? These are all things that you can say it doesn't bother you. Me and you both know damn well it does.

It does. As stupid as this is, because I'm not a superstitious guy, but I guarantee you've done the same thing. In the old school days, now most fighters have a locker room of their own, but in the old school days, there was red corner and blue corner lockers. So you'd be in there, you'd be sharing your locker. And if everyone in that locker room comes in Victoria, this is a good sign. If everyone in that locker room starts coming in, black and blue, defeated, bused up, covered in blood. The energy in the room is really low. You're trying to warm up for your fight, but your teammate over there is getting consoled by your coaches.

He's crying. Yeah, he's crying over with the coaches.

That has It has a massive, massive impact. And as you said, you're the fire zone.

It's funny you say that. I did the same thing, man, because same thing. Like, 2014, it would just be, especially earlier in the night, I'd be earlier in the night. It would just be like eight dudes in there. And as the night went on, you're just seeing guys, Oh, that guy lost. I got everyone in here lost already this tonight? Everyone in my locker room is lost. I'm definitely going to lose. I'm definitely losing tonight.

Yeah. Because that's when the pressure is really starting to mount up as an individual, as a fighter, as a human being. You can be the toughest guy ever, and you can talk all the crap to the media. But what goes on in here is so important, and just those little things like that, which realistically don't impact us as individuals one little bit. Onea little bit, one little bit. But you're looking for little signs that may help you. Now, when you go through the teammates on the card, Kykar France versus Steve Iraseg.

Yeah, a fight that he could lose. Not that he's going to. Dan Hooker versus Gamma. It's like a fight that he can lose.

If they're all in the same locker room, listen, I'll throw it out there. I like Dan Hooker. He impressed the hell out of me against Jalen Turner. That was such an inspirational performance. It really was against Justin Poey, even though he lost. He was incredible. It was such a great fight. But I just think stylistically, Mataj Gamrott is a really, really bad matchup.

Yeah, it's tough fight. And Michael, it's Dan Hooker, Kykar France, then Israel Adesanya, all in a row, all in a row.

Also, one more, not the same team, but an Anzac. That's what they call the Australians and New Zealand. I don't know if you're aware of that, Paul. What do they call them? The colloquialisms, colloquialisms or something? I don't know. Whatever. Move on. Tied to Avasa.

Tied to Avasa in a row. Yes. So a guy that they're going to be rooting for as well, right? A guy from Australia, a local guy. You got an In Australia, New Zealand, New Zealand, New Zealand/Africa with Israel Adesanya all in a freaking row, man. It could be either the best night ever, and it could be momentum, going, going, going, they're hyped up or like we talked about, It could be wrong.

This sounds bad. This could be a clean sweep, right? Tied to a Varsive versus your Razzina Rosenstein. I love Tye. Tye's awesome. He's one of the best dudes you'll ever meet. He's a great guy, Tye. He is an awesome dude. He's fun. He shows up. He fights. He's a showman. He's hilarious. One of the best things from Tye to a Varsive, Brian, if you can find it great, have you ever seen that clip where Ty is doing a-A live? A live, and then one of his fans jump on. He couldn't stop laughing. He just got to stop like that.

He's drunk as he can possibly be after one of his fights. I think we're in Abu Dhabi when he was doing one of those. He's He's coming off a big win, I think. He has three shoots. Hard, hard job.

Here it is. Well done, Brian. Hold on. This is so good. Every time I see it, I laugh. Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah, Allah Oh my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, God. I'm laughing harder than time. There's something about just seeing someone laugh like that.

All you see is the guy's hair for a second, and then he finally reveals himself, and you see Tye like, Oh my God. No way.

Oh God. Deep breath. So anyway, we all liked him. We all liked him, but he's lost deep breath four in a row. Josinho Rosenstreich, I think he had like 76 kickboxing fights with about 65 knockouts. The real deal is legit. It's a really, really hard fight for Thai to be boss of us. It's stylistically. Yeah, exactly.

It's the cleanest path to victory for Thai. Most cases, it's to be the more powerful striker to go out there. I think this is a fight he can win, obviously. But Man, again, another guy who, again, you're coming off for losses, Michael, right? You're going to be like, damn, now we're in Perth, we're in Australia. I got to win this one. You talk about pressure, and I know he's a guy that really tries to not be like that, but he He's feeling this. He doesn't want to be on a five-fight losing streak. He doesn't want to have the UFC to start making a decision on whether he should have this contract or not. And you lose five in a row, man, no matter how awesome you are, it's tough. What do we do with this guy? You're going to be put in a tough spot. You go out there and knock out Jorzinho, the UFC forgives all those losses because you're awful, and you bring it every single time. They can trust you to show up and throw down, but he's got to win this one.

Yeah, fully agree. But It's a tough one. Dan Huck and Mataj Gamma. We know Gamma is going to be shooting a single leg the moment the fight starts stylistically. He's got a really big chance of losing Kaikara France against Diversik. Diversik is awesome. I'm leaning towards Diversik, and I'm leaning towards Diversik. So we're saying right here, and this is by no stretch of the imagination, an insult to the Australian or the New Zealand MMA fraternity. But are you saying that at UFC 305 in Perth, Paul, they're all going to lose a clean sweep.

Am I saying that?

Are we saying that?

No, what we are you saying? I am.

My wife's Australian.

I know.

I'm saying that. I'm saying there's a really good chance.

I think if Dan has a great night, if he can hurt Gamrath early and try to stuff some of these takedowns. But I mean, I don't know. It could be It could be a really bad night. Although the one good saving Grace, though, is for Australia is they've got Steve Irsberg. So I mean, that one's win-win. You get the to win. There's going to be a lot of fans from New Zealand in attendance, but there's going to be a hell of a lot more people there rooting for Steve Irsberg. There's no doubt about that.

Yeah, no, I'm with you. This episode is sponsored by Betterhelp. If you are thinking of starting therapy, then give Betterhelp a try because it's all entirely online. It's designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. If you have an issue that you want to take control of, then there's no better way to do that than speaking with Betterhelp. Their therapist will help you navigate those waters to be coming be a better version of yourself, regardless of what the issue is, where maybe you've got an anger issue, depression, anxiety. There could be a whole host of issues. I'm not going to list them all, but whatever it is. And typically we're all going through somebody speaking to a professional therapist Therapist will definitely help you out. You just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and you can switch therapists at any time for no additional charge. Maybe you're not vibing with the person, and by the way, it's so convenient. Do it in your car, do it at home, do it in a hotel room, do it sitting on the toilet, just log in on your phone, and away you go.

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I'm on the protest for that, too. As long as he's not smoking too many cigarettes in there, I think he's got this one.

Or is he the guy that likes a good say? Yeah, he's the one that when he won the bonus or whatever, he was out with his team in Vegas, and they're like, Hey, Carlos. And he's like, Oh, yeah.

And he's celebrating with his team, having a smoke, just having a casual smoke.

I know a lot of MMA fighters that Sneaker smoke? A little cig bank here and there. I might have had a cig bank myself over the years.

Back in the day, I've definitely had them. I'm not going to lie to you. I try to steer clear of them nowadays.

You won't be winning any triathlons if you're smoking the cigarettes.

No, absolutely not.

Harrington, before we move on to other news, show yourself, please, brother. Is there any other story lines revolving around the main card that we should get to? Is there any other stories we're missing?

There's one pretty big one. Dana White came out and said-Oh, yeah, that the winner.

Sean Strickland will face the winner. That one?

That one's pretty big. Yeah, Sean Strickland is going to face the winner. And there's a decent chance if it's Drikus Duplaise who wins, that that fight will happen in South Africa, because if Drikus wins, Dana is finally going to take the UFC down to Africa.

Did we talk, Harrington, about Sean Strickland being announced as fighting the winner on Monday? Was that news out then?

No. No, on Monday, we said the exact opposite, actually. We were like, Yeah, it probably should be Whitaker Homson.

Hey, listen. And talking about that then, Strickland being given the next title fight, that's always been a risky move, but it's paid off for him. I assume the logic behind that is, I mean, Drickies is already beating Rob if Drickies wins. If Izzy wins, he's already beating Rob twice. And then if Hamza that beats-I think that's why. Yeah, there's not really a storyline.

And the rematch, either way, looks great. You know what I mean? Sean facing Drickies, Sean facing Izzy. They were both... You know what I mean? Israel gets his chance at revenge if he wins. And Drickus, very The most competitive fight that Sean has won it back really badly. Who doesn't want to see? I mean, I'm tuning in for both of those fights on either side of it. So I think that makes sense. And then I think you let that fight play out and Hamza and Whitaker, then they can see or let Let them go fight. Then we've even got another guy now for when that fight happens or a backup for that. So the middleweights are back and having a nice little picture here set up for the title shot.

And then in terms of Hamza as well, if he wants to beat Rob, I guess the only issue is that he's not the most active guy right now and reportedly he's got to make it to that fight.

We're having trouble even getting him to these fights. I'm not saying it's his fault. He's getting sick and it seems legit. But if you're the UFC, you're not banking on him being any title challenger quite yet. You want to see, can you come in? Can you be healthy? Can you look good? Can we expect you to do that again? And then maybe we can talk. Are you ready for the title picture?

Well, yeah, because you got to remember, a lot of people don't... Like casual fans, and we probably don't know the full scope of it, but we've been around the organization and we commentate the fights and all the rest of it. There's so much work goes into promoting these fights. Promoting a pay-per-view is millions and millions of dollars. And yeah, you might get people missing weight. You might get people dropping off the cards. But typically, how often do you see a main event of a pay-per-view drop off? That could be a reality with Hamza right now because he hasn't proven with respect that he's reliable.

Yeah, no, not recently. No, not recently. And that was his thing early was he was. He was ready to go all the time. And then he got really bad COVID and That caused other things to linger with him for a while. He just doesn't... It's just you can't put trust in that yet. He's got to make it to a big fight, fight a big ranked guy like somebody like Robert Whitaker, who's been nothing but game for this fight Ever since it has been talked about, it was set up before it didn't happen. So let them have it. Let them get that fight out of the way. Then maybe they can be next in line. But I like the Strickland being next in line. I think that makes the most sense.

He's going to be fighting dick to dick, nipple to nipple. He's going to be going hard. He's going to be bringing up dog stuff. He's going to be going full Sean Strickland. You know what? I can't wait for it.

Yeah, it's going to be nuts. It's going to be nuts. It's going to be inappropriate.

It's going to be wildly inappropriate. It's going to be offensive. You know what I mean? But it does- Buckle up. Buckle up indeed. Buckle up. All right, okay. How much you jump on the screen, brother. So I'm going I'm going to get Harrington to break it down. You mentioned the monkeypox thing before, and this is popping up all over social media feeds, left, right, and center. I'll give my take on it first, but Harrington just laid the foundation.

Well, the World Health Organization has declared a global health emergency over monkeypox. I think it was 17,000 cases have been discovered this year, over 500 deaths, and the majority of those cases are in the Republic of Congo, but it spreading around other parts of Africa.

Right. I mean, that sounds like very, very serious stuff. Two years ago, they brought it up. It was a thing then that went away. And the thing is this, When is the boy who cried Wolf? This might be legit. This could be legit something to worry about. Granted, it's more predominant in gay guys, and I'm not a gay man, so I'm not overly concerned. I'm not concerned in the slightest because of what I'm I'm about to say. They shut down the whole world. They forced vaccines on everybody. We know all the stuff that went on for something that turned out to be not a big deal. And I'll be honest, I believed all the hype at the time. You have all these organizations coming out, and they say this, and doctors are saying that, and governments are saying that, and collectively, worldwide, all the countries are agreeing. And I was like, Well, when do all countries get on the same page? This must be bad because I'm not a scientist. I'm not a doctor. And it turns out that that was a massive massive overreaction. And this is the problem that they've done. There is no more trust.

I would say en masse, the public at large, when they see something like this, even if it is going to be bad, they're going to look at that like I did last night. I could not have rolled my one eye hard enough. I was like, they, Shut the hell up. No one's going to buy any of the shit that they are selling these days.

I'm with you right there. And it's because of so much of the overreaction and the forcing of things. You know what? And when COVID first came out and we didn't know what was really going on, or at least we didn't, I'm sure there were some people that did, obviously, right? And we were told this, we were told that, and all the people that were told they're idiots or, Oh, this is a lie, that's a lie. All the stuff that then turned out to actually help with dealing with COVID that we were told, Oh, you sound like an idiot. You're going to take a horse to the woman. The Ironman team was it. All that stuff. Now they're saying, Oh, actually, It's really helpful. There's even people saying that it's helpful with certain cancers and stuff. Then the other thing is not only... Okay, I was with you, too. I was all about like, Oh, what do we got to do? Oh, this is scary. Even if it was as serious as it was early on, the vaccine and all that stuff, that being forced the way it was and not really telling the truth about how effective it was, that's what I think pissed off the people, especially more than anything, was that you just lied too much.

Now, obviously, we wanted to stop it early on. It was killing a lot of people. When it first came out, it was obviously stronger. Then as any virus. It wants to stay around, so it starts getting less and less fatal. But early on, man, yeah, it was scary. We didn't know what was going on. But then it's all the stuff that came later for me that really made me start questioning everything. And I think you and just most American people start going, Wait a minute. Are we going? Are you just trying to pull this over our eyes again? So I'm with you. Even if this thing is deadly serious now, now look what you've done. You've made your entire population question every single thing that we're told.

Yes, without question. I even posted a video of me getting the vaccine on Instagram at the time. I don't know why I did that. I feel like such a fool.

I argue with a lot of people that now I'm in complete agreeance with some of those same people now. They go, Man, I tried to tell you early on. I'm like, Yeah, bro, but I was too chou, I guess.

Well, because I thought a vaccine is a vaccine. You take something, you don't get it anymore. That's absolute nonsense. My wife had the boosters in the lot. She still got COVID. I still got COVID. Everyone still got COVID, but we all had to get this vaccine. The pharmaceutical company is billions of dollars. My mother had polio, and the polio has pretty much eradicated that because of vaccines and stuff like that. So I always had faith and there's other But anyway, that was a whole load of bullshit. But monkeypox, good luck. Trying to enforce a vaccine for monkeypox or whatever.

Never again. And that's sad, because I'm not somebody that's against the vaccines that have done things that have stopped the illnesses. But you're right. Anything new that's going to come out that suddenly just popped up again? No way. And I was not that type of guy. I was not that guy. And that whole 2020 and everything that came after that has made me one of those people.

Yeah, it's funny because of the presidential race and all the rest of it that's going on right now.

That's the first thing I said to Christine today. She was like, Oh, look at all this monkeypox. You go, The election is right around the corner. Isn't that funny?

How convenient. And then it showed the footage in Minneapolis last night. I saw it on the news where they were going down the street shooting people with pain guns just for being on their porches, being outside, being on their porches. I mean, it's crazy. Brian, I'm sure he I could add a lot to this conversation regarding the World Health Organization and many, many scams and wool being pulled over public's eyes. It's not so crazy. And there he is. It's not so crazy that the royal family are a lizard people that worship Satan now, is it?

Aha.

That painting, bro.

Let's talk about that painting, right? I brought that up. I brought that up a few months ago. That painting was crazy. When they revealed that, I went, Wow, what the hell is this?

That It was a beautiful piece of art. What are you talking about?

Michael, your country, they're worshiping Satan. They just revealed it to us. But still it's the US, I think.

They don't worshiping Satan, and they don't even worship God. No one's religious in the UK. Do you know what I mean? So they're certainly not worshiping Satan. I know religious people watching this, they'd be like, Oh, well, that's the first sign of worshiping the devil by disowning God. What are you talking about? They just don't care. They're just live in their lives. They're trying to get by. They're trying to earn money. They're trying to pay their bills.

Drinking pints, man. Drinking pints.

Yeah. They're trying to deal with this overreaching government right now.

I can go for a pint.

There's always time for a pint. Anyway, Dana White, Tuesday Night Contender series. Nice work as always, Paul. At the Post fight press conference, I don't know if you have a video, Brian. It's not really important. Dana dropped that Connor will not be fighting this year at all.

He misspoke. He meant ever.

Come on.

Is he like, I'm about as convinced that he's going to fight as I am that the Monkeypox vaccine is going to be effective. Let's put it that way.

If you had to bet on one coming true, which one would be more? Where would you bet go? Monkeypox Monkeypox or Connor?

If the Monkeypox is real or Connor will fight? Yeah.

That's a tough one.

Probably the Monkeypox being real.

And then, by the way, Connor came out and said, What's going on? He said, Put me in. December's the day, December's the day. So I don't know what's going on there with that miscommunication. I have no idea. Oh, here we go.

I saw that you and Connor were both in Sturgis.

I'm wondering if you guys met at all and talked about the potential of his fight as well.

We talked, yeah. We didn't meet up, but we talked. And yeah, he wants to fight, so we'll figure it out. Soon?

This year, by the end of this year. Not this year.

He won't fight this year.

I saw that you and Connor-Of course.

I hope he does fight. I think for the UFC, of course, I'll watch it. I want to see it finally happen.

I was looking into this the other day for a video I did on YouTube. Michael Chandler, of course, now it's It's 2021, last four. So it's three and a half years. That's a long time. Let's say he comes back next year and it's April. We're talking four years away from the octagon. That is a lifetime in combat sports. On the flip side, that's coming up close to almost two and a half, three years for Michael Chandler. He's got a fight. Michael Chandler is 38 years old.

Wow. I can't believe it. Yeah, I guess he is.

He's 39. He's 39 in April.

Granted, he looks great for 39, but he's got to fight. He's got to fight. It feels like he just got here, right? We're not seeing enough of him. He's a guy that's exciting, whether he's winning or losing. The dude has wasted. Now, I know that he would have gotten probably a very lucrative payday, obviously, if him and Connor did fight or do fight. But, Michael, you're also a guy who probably has a very nice contract, Chandler. You definitely bonus when you go out there and fight, whether it's fight of the night or performance of the night. You're talking years of not fighting, even if you just fought once or twice a year in those almost three years that by the time he would have fought, Connor, if that happens in the future, you're talking millions of dollars, probably, that you've just left sitting on the table.

Without question. If I was Michael Chandler, and of course, there's a lot going on behind the scenes that we don't know about. We don't know the extent of all the conversations. We don't know what the contract looks like. There's a lot of stuff we don't know. But there's a lot of assumption, and we can get a gage on things. If I was Michael Chandler, I'd say, Right, if the fire is not going to happen until next year, we're in August, the man's doing The man's probably doing bench press and squats, kettlebell swings as I'm speaking right now. He's giving a lecture to some young homeless children on how to really go after your goals. He's taking the believe, conceive, achieve from Luke Rock, Alden ran with it. The man is an inspiration, but I would say it's August. Give me a fight.

Give me a fight.

Give me a tune-up fight. Let me continue to hype this up bigger. Put me in with DJ It's a decent competition. Let me smoke him. Get on the mic.

Yeah, call him back out. But go get paid, Mike Handler. We want to see you fight. I want to see you fight. You got in. You made some noise, man. You knocked out Hooker. You went, you got Oliver, you got Dustin Poirier fights, you got Gechi fights, you had all these crazy fights. And now you got the counter fight and it just didn't happen. And it's not your fault. But it's a huge risk to wait around. Even if it's going to happen, I'm in complete agreement with you, Michael, go get another fight and then be like, All right, next year, let's go. But, man, you can get back in there. You're in shape. He could fight in a month from now.

Oh, yeah. He's in shape. Without question. Still, we talk about this subject a lot on here, so we'll move on. We don't want to spend too much time on it. Harrington, tell us about John Anick. He has been responding to some haters as the call.

Yeah, so he's been getting a little bit of flak. He said You can imagine all the different things that commentators hear from fans and fighters and coaches and bosses over the years, but I sleep well at night. I stand by that call, and I stand by Balal Muhammad as a friend. When we launched the podcast, my twin brother, four or five years ago, whatever it was, he had 18,000 Instagram followers. He was unranked. We believed in him in terms of him having a social media presence, that he could become a contender, and if not, a Championship athlete. And you know what? We bet on the right effing guy. And if I got married a second time, he might be an effing groom.

I thought And if I got married a second time, I might just marry Balal.

Yeah, I thought it was going there, too, when I first said it.

Yeah, this is Ian Drickens. I never normally respond to stuff like that, because when we're commentating, Paul, I don't feel like you do a pretty good job of not getting hate. I get a ton of bullshit.

We all get it.

I said on that fight that maybe, I think it was round one or round two. It might have been close, and it wasn't guaranteed that Bilal won it. I thought he won it, but the judges, you never know, they might get it wrong. I had lots of people coming after me for that. But what do you think about John Anick there coming out? I mean, listen, you can't please everybody. That's just a fact.

Yeah. And I think he just wants it to be clear that he's allowed to be friends with people as long as it's not affecting the call. And it didn't affect the call. You know what I mean? Me and you both know this. When he's on the mic, when he's dialed in to do his job, that's all the dude does. He is so prepared. He puts me to shame as far as the preparation and being on point and being disciplined on fight week. I wish that the fans could really understand that. The dude is not ever being favorites, but he's allowed to also have relationships with human beings outside of the octagon. But I can guarantee you, yeah, when those guys hit that tunnel, like he said, that's the last thing he's thinking about. He's looking at his notes, he's thinking about all the reads that he's got to do. There's so much for the play-by-play guy. It's more us that can get carried away with that stuff because we're just there to talk about the actual fighters in the fight. John's got Bud Light reads, he's got this sponsorship read.

He is one of the most professional people that I've ever worked with and the passion that he has for the sport and the respect for the fighters. And that's why it's a big deal to him that people, commentators, pronounce fighters names correctly and stuff like that. And he takes it personally because he really feels it. It's like, That's our job. We need to pronounce the goddamn name correctly. That's how passionate he is about the sport. And I don't think it influences his commentary. My relationships never influence my commentary either. But I'm close with Tom Aspinal. Fortunately, the fight didn't last very long. He makes it quick and easy. He makes it quick and easy. But anyone that I'm friends with, it's very simple to call out a fight in regards to the action that you are seeing.

Yeah, absolutely. You just got to try be in the moment, and that's what we're there to do. For me, there's one guy, and it's Jared Gordon, the one time with the Bobby Green thing, but that was because of a foul. I overreacted on that one, and I even ended up apologizing to Bobby Green for that. But as far as John, he's never going to be like that. We don't take that into consideration. When the fight's happening, there's so much stuff going on around us. We got producers in our ears guiding us through the thing. We've got other people talking. But the other thing is these fans just... Some people just want to hate. Some people just want to hate.

You know how that is? No, they do. You say one word wrong about their favorite fighter or doesn't go into their narrative, or maybe they've got money on the guy and you're saying, Oh, it looks like he's got work to do.

You're the worst commentator, and you don't know what the hell you're talking about.

Or he's got to get a finish. If he's going to win this one, they're like, That's affecting their bet. They're like, Oh, you're a dickhead. Speaking of Balal, though, Kamara Usman has been going after him because Balal is brimming with confidence, and rightly so, he's the champion of the world. He's claiming himself to be the best well to wait of all time. He's up there with George St. Pierre. Kamal Usman went in on Balal Muhammad. He said, My man, Balal, you're a not so good version of myself. Everything Bilal does, I do better. I have a win over Leon Edwards. And in the second fight, I dominated Leon until lightning struck. Still, not the best point there, Kamari. Then he says, Becoming Having a new champion, that goes to your head. It's like having your first beer. All of a sudden, now you're talking reckless to everybody. All right, this episode is sponsored by Shopify. If you are a businessman, if you have a product, if you're selling something and you're not online, then you really need to wake up and get serious about your selling. And that is the possibility that is supplied by Shopify.

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What's going on, Saif?

What you need to say is there's three analysts of the year right here on this panel. I think it's three. Are we?

Yeah.

Well, this show is really getting good already.

I'll just throw it out there, guys. I've won that, I think, the last four years in a row. I don't want to get all help on it.

Me and Paul are just happy to be here.

Yeah, we're happy for the participation, Charles and Michael.

I'm like, Analyst of the Year.

Do I have to go again?

What about personality? What about commentator? You're in for that one as well, Paul.

I think that's what I'm... They do it really interestingly because we're all grouped into different sections. Laura is up for commentator.

Commentator, yeah.

So is John Gooden.

But you know what I think it is? It's like, look, it's just a lot of love for our own community.

I think that's what it's really is.

That's the key.

How can we find Find a place for everybody.

Yeah, I like these awards because it's nice that they recognize all of us and say, Hey, these guys are all doing this thing. Even though we joke about it, we all are happy about it. It's not something you hear about that you're mad about. I think it's cool that they do that. Mike, you know this, Paul has been around for a while. They've been doing it since 2008. And when it first came out, it was a real big deal.

It was. I remember when it first came out.

If there's a trophy involved, fighters want it.

I'll say this, I haven't received my trophy for the last three years in a row.

Wow. You got to file. Is this an official complaint?

I think so. It's an official complaint.

Anyway, we're not here- You got to put it in writing.

We're not here to scratch our own and rub ourselves down. We'll leave that to them, whatever. Safe. Last week, you're always at the apex. You got a tremendous team, Pauetis MMA. Congratulations on what you're doing. Me and Paul, I'm sure We both agree. We love your passion. I've never been in the training room with you, but you're obviously clearly getting fantastic results. Last week, your guy, Damon Jackson, went up against Chepe Mariscal, lost the decision, and you, You lost your mind that you and Chepe were having some heated words.

Well, I mean, look, and I spoke on this yesterday to your buddy Anthony. Indeed, I mean, look, I don't like to talk about fighters because I don't fight any. I just think as a coach, you're above it. I spoke on it yesterday, but I'll touch on it for a former champion. Can I say no, Paul? I mean, it's his show, so I got to answer the question. Here's what happened. This kid asked for three more weeks. He was supposed to fight Dan Ege in July. Then they came to us. Damon said, I'm ready. He said, Let's do it right now. Let me jump in there. Let me do it. I can make the wait. So we take the fight, and then they asked for a three-week extension. All right. Damon has four daughters, okay? And he had planned his whole... You know how it is. You could call Mike, he had planned a vacation after and all this shit. And Coach, I got to fit this in, and these guys need the money. I mean, there's a lot of things to it, right? So he's like, Man, they postponed the fight. He was pissed. Damon was pissed.

He made a post about it. He was really upset. He's like, I'm really pissed about it. He's like, How does this guy have a schedule fight? And then he postponed it. It doesn't make sense. We took it short notice. Does he need more time to prepare? Whatever. So we take the fight, we shut up. So then we end up getting moved to the co-main event. The card had some issues. Multiple fights fell out. Now, here we are. This kid shows up at 150 pounds. 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 5, 6 pounds over. How do you ask for three weeks and then you come in 5, 6 pounds over? Here's the worst part. The worst part is Alex Hernández, who, again, I love, and I said this yesterday, I really like Alex Hernández. I don't think he did this on purpose. I think he's a hell of a kid and a good fighter. He did come in at 150 pounds for Damon's last fight. And what did Damon Jackson do? Because he's a fucking psycho. Yeah, yeah, Coach, I got it. I'm like, Damon, you're a You're not a huge featherweight anyway.

You walk at 163, 164. You're not a big guy. Damon, you can't do this. Hernández was a 55. Coach, I got it. I can do it. Well, son of a gun. He did it. He got it done. Beat it tough. Alex Hernández in the third round. I think you guys were there. I mean, they scrapped it out. So I can't help it when I see this kid come in on the same freaking weight. And I'm like, This shit happened to us. We're the co-main event. We don't want to screw the company and say, Hey, we're out. Damon wants to fight. I said, We can't do it unless he makes 48. We just can't. I said, This whole fight is going to be a clinch battle. And this makes no sense, Damon. This is like a weight class up at featherweight. You're talking about 145-pound athlete. Five pounds at a 145 Five. I mean, that's on a rehydration. You know this, guys. I mean, the smaller you are, the more it matters, and that's a huge miss. So the only reason why I said anything was because the fight played out like I thought it would.

It was competitive in the first, and then Damon just got wore And Chepay was doing good. His corner goes, look at him. He's tired. He's so tired. And I go, because he made the wait. That's all I said. I go, because he made the wait. And I'm going to have my guys back. And it's fucking true. That's when he turns to me, he goes, you took the money.

No.

What is this, your third time here? And I was like, Bro, I go, Man, dude. And so then I just shut the fuck up. I'm not fighting. I'm just trying to get my guy to win and try to get him through it. And consequently enough, for the guy having zero gas, he didn't get finished. Credit to Damon and how tough he is and how much heart he has that he kept moving in those positions and grabbing and holding and grappling and looking poor The kid looking up at me like, I got nothing, but he just kept going. And then the kid is celebrating it like, Yeah, the sunglasses. Man, you got to have a little shame when you miss by five pounds, you come up to the other team and you're like, Hey, I'm sorry. Thanks for taking the fight. You get on the mic, you say your piece. You don't fucking puff out your chest. And then it's all the stuff he was saying, Yeah, look at the scorecards. I was wrecking him. It's like, God, that's not how this works, bud. You don't even say that. The fight is not even a win.

It's like an asterisk. This isn't how this game goes. So I was just telling him, You're a disgrace, man, and you deserve an Emmy for that. He was on the scales all wobbling around, and it just was... You And then he was 150 pounds at 4:00 AM, and he's wobbling around then at 149.5, a few hours later. And just the way he was talking about it, it just, well, they took the money, so they were down. They took the money. No, man. This kid He got a freaking vacation plan with his kids. We're the co-made event for the UFC. We're pros, dude.

This isn't an amateur hour.

This is not a game. If you miss weight in the UFC, it should be a point deduction in the next round, and it should be If you do it again, you're done. You're a champion, you're done. We don't care what you do. This is the UFC, man. This is the highest level. It's one thing the kid won the fight, and I said this yesterday. God bless the kid. He might have whipped his ass anyway. He might have had that motor going. He was the favorite. He's a Bulldog. He's a younger kid. Good for him. But, guy, that's not how this works, man. And this comes down to professionalism, class, and how we do this sport. And guess what? The matchmakers weren't happy either. So that just got me to say to him, I go, Don't even talk to me. I go, You cheated. You know you did. You asked for three weeks, and then you came in heavy. Of course, you had the gas, man. Look at the scorecard. It's like, Dude, man, just you know what? Nothing but the best for you, kid. I hope you learn how this works and how it works at the high level.

You won't be fighting for a championship if you can't make weight. I'll tell you that much.

He keep going. He won't be fighting at 45, too. You know what I mean? You only get so many times like that, especially big misses like that. It's one thing you... Listen, there's no excuse ever, but you come in four, five, six pounds. That's when it's like, man, you're not even near the mark. That's what makes sense, Paul.

None of it. If it was a short notice on his end, and it's like, Fuck, man. We get it. Dude, you asked for three extra week. I don't get it, man. So don't start chirping, dude, because... And that's all it was.

Listen. I know it with you.

No. Look, I'm 44 years old now in a few weeks. I haven't fought since 2008. I'm not a fighter. Guess what? I don't need to fight. I need this. Okay, here's where I'm at with my life. I don't talk with these. I talk with this. So if the kid starts chirping, you're going to have to try to keep up because you're not going to be able to, number one. Number two is that's not what I'm trying to do, but I'm always going to side with my guy. Here they are talking about how exhausted he is. Well, God damn right, he's exhausted. He made the wait. And it was apparent. You guys were there. It played a role. We can't say it didn't. And again, not taking it away. Maybe Chefe does that anyway. That's the sad part for him that maybe he's going to have to That's the problem.

And we'll never know because you're absolutely right. It does play, and it has a massive impact. Cutting weight, it deteriorates you so much. But you mentioned your brain. We'll be picking that brain, Charlotte, I want to ask you some questions about UFC 305. But on the subject of missing weight, Chepe wasn't the only one. That night, there was three people that missed weight. Throughout my long story, a championship career, I mean, come on. No, but all jokes aside, throughout my career, I never missed weight once. And I never, I had 29 fights in the UFC. I never had an opponent miss weight either. I have not experienced this phenomenon at all. Me either.

But these days, It's just weird, man.

It's weird. This is this new generation. I mean, what is going on?

I don't know, but it's like, look, dude, you can't flex around after that. It's really an apology, and you take the win and you move on. But five pounds, four and a half. You guys took the money, man. It's a fucking hustle game. Dude, this is about people's physical lives, the danger they're in. Damon had a huge power in that fight, and I was just worried about him. I wanted to get him through it, and I didn't want him to get knocked out. After the first round, that's all I'm going to. Like, kid, I don't care about one win, dude. It's all good, man. It's not about that. It's about do the right thing, be a professional. If you can't be a professional in the UFC at the highest level of competition in mixed martial arts, you don't belong there. You could be the best fighter in the world. And we just saw a kid who was really skilled that they told him, Hey, we don't need you. Bye-bye. Guys, this is the This is the party. And guess what? You can get uninvited, man. It doesn't mean because you're talented, there's football players, not the NFL, there's basketball players, not the NBA.

Just because you're skilled, if you're an ass, nobody's going to want to deal with you, man. And these athletes need to understand, dude, you are not bigger than the sport. You never will be. I've been doing this since 2005. Mike, Paul. You get humbled and you learn. Once we're gone, someone will fill the void, right? It just is the sport. Enjoy your time, be a good person, do the right thing, and you'll be here for a long time, man. But otherwise, you won't.

But here's what I want to watch you say. How long have you been a coach? How long have you been coaching?

I've been a head coach since 2009.

All right, so you got a lot of experience. That's 15 years. Now that the UFC, it's so popular, it's without a doubt mainstream. It's huge. And so many more people want to fight. The amount of fights that are has been put on is way higher. Do you see a difference from some of the guys that want to get involved because maybe they see it on TV and it looks cool and it's easy money in their mind? Here we go. Or am I way off the mark?

We're about to dive into our boomer talk right now.

All these old motherfuckers.

That's what I want.

Here we go. Okay. The younger generation sees things differently than we do. Part of me I like that. And guess what? We all have it in us. That little, Fuck you. I don't follow your rules. I do what I want. We all did MMA. Paul, what did your mom say? Mike, what did your parents say? They weren't like, Hey, great job. Yeah, Mike, go get them. They were thinking, What the hell are you talking about? I mean, my dad has a dojo still. He was like, This is a bad idea. I'm like, You talk.

My dad was like, Go for it, son. And my mom was like, If you make some money, give me some. So mine was a little different. No, you know your mom.

You know what I mean. And back then, we didn't know what the hell was going on. Remember, we were like, Is this Are we going to work? Are we going to make a living doing this? I remember me and Cowboy and Rasha and all, we're looking at each other like, Are we going to actually be able to keep going with this and make a living? So it was just different. We were just happy to make a living. They're just different from us. I don't know what it is. Volume definitely is a part of it. But it's like, guess what? Whatever it is, it ain't right and it isn't cool. And it cannot be a part of our sport because it makes such a big impact in the performances. And people who train understand that. Paul could be cutting weight to fight at 155 and be going with a middle weight often at welter weight when he's 175. But if he's 164, he's not touching that guy for the day. He's going with the featherweight that whole week because his body is depleted and he needs to be very careful about exploding. Same thing with you, Mike.

You're a dual fiber, that's it. Are you going with heavy weights? No, it's not. That's too big. So 10, 15 pounds in the higher weights is big. And feather weight, 10 12 pounds, 12 pounds. That's a weight class. I'm a 45 or I'm a 55er. So I think the UFC has to try to implement a change. But the problem is then this goes to Mick and on Sean and on Hunter and on Dana getting phone calls all day. Hey, man, can we do this? Well, hey, 10-9. Well, hey, I want a 10-8 round. I mean, it's going to get even messier. I just think it's either do that or when people miss weight, they're done. You give them one time and then you put them on a regimen. We've had people miss weight. Macy's just gone miss weight one time, took a year off, hired a nutritionist, did not fight. Mick was like, Look, you guys got to make them wait. This happened. We were like, Hey, we missed, we're done. And guess what? Now she's off the run. Now she can make it. She took the time out, spent the money, lost money that whole year.

But that's what being a pro is, right? You got to figure it out. It's your job. It's not on everyone else, the team, on Sean, on Mick, all calling each other, everybody's stressed out, all the managers, Brian, hamper, blah, blah, blah. It's not on them. So, dude, this is your one job to show up on the wait, not to win.

Not to win. Show up on wait. Two points, final note on this, and then we'll move on because People are like, Jesus, enough of the weight cut. But you're right. You're absolutely right. It's a massive point. I always say, show up on weight, you're in shape. It pisses me off when people get tired after one round and you're supposed to be a You're a professional mixed martial artist. You're blowing out your ass after five minutes. I agree. Get out of here.

It's bullshit. But if the other person missed weight, do we know if it's because of the weight bully and the 10 pounds on the rehydration, that that guy's 174 and Damon's 163? We don't know. Did he blow his load because of the strambles? Again, that's why- But even for Damon, it was clear that he wasn't out of shape.

You know what I mean? It was a grinder of a pace and with a bigger guy.

If I'm a guy who has 5 pounds on me.

It feels good- That was obvious that it wasn't an in-shape thing.

That's what I'm going to do. I'm pushing the freaking pace, man.

That was not directed at Damon or any of your guys. I'm just saying in general, people. Here's what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is let's not miss weight at all. So that way, when you show up, if you're on weight, the other guy's on weight, and you fucking get exhausted, it's like, well, you stuck. You just got tired. When you take away the messing up and not doing what you're supposed to It's clear, losing is losing. And again, I keep saying it, Tepe might have done that anyway. Hell, he might have won by knockout even earlier. We all know this thing, man, you roll the dice in there. There's a lot of variables. But just take away the unprofessionalism, take away not doing your part. Like, guess what? You do your part, we'll do our part, then nobody can say anything.

I agree. Steph, look like you're coming to us from what looks to be a big, massive mansion Is this your home? I'm at the house right now.

This is the house.

The mixed martial arts life has treated you very kindly. This is the house.

Well, Mike, this is what happens when you work hard every day from a young man. I remember doing All this same stuff for no money. Again, here this goes back to it. People always like, I get up every day at 4:30, 5:00 AM. I go and train people at my gym. My clients I've trained since for 15 years, since 2009. They've watched this whole thing happen and start for this and all that. I still go and I train them, even if it's for the same amount of money, 50 bucks, whatever. Because guess what? Staying busy and being engaged and being active. Hey, I'm engaged with this guy. I'm training him. He's worth $10 billion. He's talking to me the whole time about this and that and what he does and this, this and this. I'm learning that whole time about this, this, this. The gym This is a place to learn for everybody, coaches included. So my philosophy is never stop learning, never stop growing. Well, guess what happens when you don't stop learning, never stop growing? This commentator thing is the analyst thing. I had no idea that I could even do that. I'm not as quick-witted as you are, Mike, or as handsome.

But Paul graduated with an acting degree. So how am I supposed to compete with that? All right? But I didn't even want to do it. But when I did it, I was like, Man, I guess that's something I didn't know I could do. So I'm always trying to push myself to grow, and I have high standards, and I got girls, so I need space, Mike.

You got any questions for safe, Paul? Because I've got one in a minute, but I've been dominating the questions. I got to pass you the baton, Paul.

Just say, when you transitioned from when you were fighting to becoming more of a coach, how was that for you? And was that something even when you were more active as an athlete? Was that always something that was in the back of your mind? I think this is more where my strength is.

It was in the front of my mind, actually. Here's how it was. I grew up doing martial arts. I was the four-time national champion. My dad and Shon Ruh, my old school, he knows, Shon Ruh Karate, a real straightforward hard style. And I did judo, too, and was a two-time state champion in judo. So that's where I got my grappling. And I wanted to go to the Olympics and do all this stuff. And I did martial arts from three years old all the way until I went to college. And when I When I went to college, that was 1999, the UFC was not really going on. Remember, it dipped out. I went to law school and did some other stuff. But then I got brought to fighting and I went to Jackson's, which Paul, you've been there and linked up with Greg. I was three I'm no amateur, 3-0 pro. But the whole time, I was like, Man, I want to get to 5-0. I was supposed to fight in UFC Abu Dhabi, get my prelim win. I was going to be done, set the gloves down and say, I wanted to have the experience to be able to- When you say Abu Dhabi, was that the one with Anderson Silver?

Yeah, that was in 2009, I think.

Yeah. I tore my ACL, I tore my bicep, me and Matt Serra got the half of my bicep.

And I just got all fucked up, and my body fell apart at 3-0 Pro. I had I shot, corner me, Greg. I had a lot of hype, so I had to take a turn, and I wasn't really ready mentally. I was like, Man, my plan got screwed up. But by doing that, I came to Dallas earlier and got started earlier. And I had a little bit of thirst because I didn't quite get what I wanted.

Yeah, you didn't go as far as you wanted.

So I put all that energy in a coaching. And I never... I should have worked harder as a fighter, right? Maybe if I was hydrated, I wouldn't have got injured. I never stressed. I never warmed up. I would just, Oh, I'm an athlete, man. I've been doing this my whole life. I could have been a better person. So I feel like that turn was good. It took about two years. I'd be watching Isaac Valley flag and these guys in the UFC, and I'm like, Man, I trained with these guys, and I was in the room with them and competing, obviously, Paul, you get it. And it was hard for me. But now, looking back on it, I'm super grateful because if I wouldn't have got started then, maybe things wouldn't have worked out. And all I want to say to fighters is this. You look at Mike, you look at you, you have to diversify yourself. You cannot limit yourself to this because this is not cool after 35, 36.

Don't last, man.

Even if you're doing it, respect. But I want to hear about, what man are you or what woman are you? What are you doing? What's your legacy? Man, how can you communicate? Just think about how many people listen to Mike and you now. When you're fighting, people heard you for 10 seconds after it. Mike is usually talking shit. They didn't really know you. Now people, they've got access to you and you can change and promote the sport. They get a window into who you are. I don't know, man. I'm big on diversifying from My team, all for my team. All for Ramez, Carlsberg, all my fighters that fought for me. They all are training people in the gym. They all are doing very well. And it's like an umbrella, man, like a family. They have to. They have to. They have to. They have to. They have to. They have to. They have to. They have to. They have to. They have to afford it.

You've got to do You've got to go because as you say, you grow as a person as well. By the way, Steph, now that I've got you on it, I want to take this opportunity to thank you publicly because when I had my first knee replacement, you sent me out a huge box of all kinds of supplements and tumor shots and all kinds of stuff, which I'm sure that was quite the parcel in the package. That would have been great expense. That was so thoughtful and I'm so grateful for that. Listen, when you get hurt like that and you carry your ACL, and then you see somebody else and you're like, Oh, fuck.

You're like, Man, fuck. This guy's about to fight a war. It's a war. And so it's like, Man, give the guy a care package for the battle. So again, even getting hurt was something that I looked back on as a blessing because I learned so much. I wouldn't have never been that way, Mike, or had those feelings if I wouldn't have had to go for that surgery. I feel like I really got God prepared me, or whatever you want to say, that prepared me for all the experiences. I fought a guy, I wait class up, hardest fight of my life. So maybe a little of that was coming out last week. I've had those experiences. I understand how tough they are.

But Paul, this is what I want to see from a coach because I don't expect to name any names, but there's a lot of, again, as the sport has got bigger, there's a lot of pretenders. There's a lot of fakes. Perillo is a real one. You are a real one. I can spot the real ones, and I can spot the pretenders. You've been in the gym, you've fought, you've trained, you know what goes into it, you know what the fighters are going through. A lot of these jumped-up padmen have no idea what these fighters are getting themselves into. I see some fighters, a fighter recently that showed their name, Nameless, a female getting the shit kicked out of her, covered in blood. And the cornerman between rounds has got no passion and couldn't care less.

And I'm like- They don't. They just want to be there. Hey, Mike, it's about their IG. It's about their... How many fighters you got? Motherfucker, I How do you post every other day, but you only got one or two fighters. It's so obvious. But the problem is that this is a different world. If you ask me to do something, I'm going to do it because you're the fucking champ, because I respect you. Dean and Anthony. I got love for these guys. I look at anyone who's a fighter, and I'm like, Whatever you need, man. But I really don't do a ton of media. I don't have a podcast. I don't do any of that.

And I wouldn't have done this show. Bro, you're coming on this one again because you are fired.

Yeah, I wouldn't even done the show. Because who the fuck wants to hear from a 44-year-old dude who doesn't fight anymore? Coaches have a place. I don't see Bill Belichick blabbing his mouth off. I don't see the NFL coaches fucking talking every day. I don't see the NBA coaches trying to talk every day. They're such high level coaches that they don't need to talk. I'm too busy working. It's not about me. It's about my athlete. So when somebody ask me, I usually do it if they're a fighter. But I really try to not do too much because the other thing is, too, your fighters don't want to hear you fucking blabbing all the time on Twitter. I don't care what anybody says. You've got to control your team. And Greg Jackson told me that. He said, never let go of the collar. And I never understood that. He was my coach, and I love him very much. He's a good man, and he doesn't get enough credit. He gets lost in the shuffle when people talk shit. It's like, that motherfucker is one of the legends of the game. And in the early days of MMA, one of the cornerstones, Greg Jackson.

I mean, mad respect. But if you lose the respect of your team, you're done. If you lose respect to one fighter, you're done. So everything I do for me, I know what it's like to be in the room and look at my coach. So I think it helps me the way that I am with my athletes, because you guys all know Look at that, man. You don't want to see your coach fucking all fucked up or he's emotional or he's this or that. The job of the coach is to lead. Shut up and lead. That's your job. Your job is not to spotlight. That's not your job. Your job is to lead behind the scenes, and you're athletes are supposed to rise. But if you don't have any athletes, you got to talk all the time to make yourself relevant. And that's what they do.

So this weekend, UFC 305, we'll end it on this. And thank you for your time, safe. Always love talking to you. You got so much insight. You You are one of the top coaches. When you look at Izzy versus Drikus Duplece, what's your thoughts on this?

This is such an incredible fight, and I'm glad people are really buzzing about it. Drikus has proven so many people wrong. He came out, we looked at him, Well, this guy's not very fast. That's what I said earlier. It's like he got so tired against Brunson. It was like, Oh, yeah, he's done. He's good. Then he came out against Robert Whitaker. I think Robert Whitaker is one of the best fighters in the UFC. I have so much respect for him. The way that he beat Robert, and he beat him on that game plan. Their coach showed that. They saw the sprint in. He talked about it. He showed it. The coach is very good. Drikus' coach is excellent. I don't know about the taser I'm saying that's not my voice. I just give the old fashioned yelling. But Drikus' coach really is impressive. And on the other side, you have one of the greatest middleweights ever. I mean, this guy's got an incredible fight IQ. Him and Eugene have been together a long time. I'm sure they're going to cook up a really good game plan. And these coaches, too, here, man. Whenever someone's going for a championship, you've always got to look at the coaches.

Who's going to make the adjustments? Who's not? These are two coaches that have raised these guys up. So here's the thing. Have you raised athletes up or did you get them when they were already in the UFC? Did you get the guy when he was already in the UFC or where was he at? Show me you can raise the guy up. And Drikus has been raised by his coach and Eugene also raised Izzy. So these guys are very close to their coaches. So if it comes down to blood and guts, they're both going to be trying to make changes. And it really comes down to, can Drickus push Izzy back and keep that cardio going without getting stunned and without getting caught? And Drickus is tough, man. He's a powerhouse, and he's going to keep coming. But Izzy is that good. He can catch you coming in. His counters are really something. So it's going to be a good one, man. I'm excited for it. Also, Irsegg is really an incredible fighter at Flyweight. I think this kid is unheralded. He almost won the belt. He came this close. Then here, Kykar, France, what's he going to look like coming back?

Really exciting card. I'm excited for this one.

My man, look at that. What a breakdown. He's taking our jobs, Paul. That's what he's trying to do.

Hey, I'm on YouTube, guys. I'm not even on TV. They just put me on YouTube.

You got to click on. I'm coming for Coach of the Year.

Come on.

I'm coming for Coach of the Year soon because when I get the time, I'm going to start coaching, and I'm going to call you and get some advice. Are you really going to start coaching? I would love to one day, but I'm too busy still doing me.

Paul, you'd be good at it, too.

I don't know if I'll ever get to where I'm head coach type status, but I was just talking to Sean braided and some of the guys in Philly. I want to start going in a little more and not so much to train as much as just... So if there's anything I can do to just give a little bit of advice from my own experience, because now Sean's getting main events, Joe Piper is getting these big fights. I do want to try to be a fly on the wall a little bit more.

I think you guys don't realize how much is the fiber of your being? You belong in the gym, right, around that because you are that. And it brings back all those memories. And I encourage it. I think it's great for you. You've both done so much in the sport, and I don't think you realize how much you have to give. I really don't. And I mean, what you think... Now, let me end with this. You, Dom, Mike, DC is fucking great at it, too. I don't know why everybody bitches about everybody. You know how fucking hard it is to sit there and talk like that and just be able to go that quick?

Seven hours. Yeah. It's not easy.

It's easy. Everyone sitting at home can do a better job. It's so easy. All you got to do is know 30 fighters off the top of your head and all of their records and their fight style and their history and what they're capable of and break down what they're doing on the fly, live on TV. When most people have never done anything like that, they get on TV, they go, Because it's a lot different when you're under the bright light, you sons of bitches. Anyway, safe as gone. All right, so there is the general, safe Saoud, fired up, passionate, left without saying goodbye, but great to have him on.

An Irish goodbye, as they say.

An Irish goodbye. Do you do an Irish goodbye, Paul?

I do like to do an Irish goodbye. If there's a lot of people and I got to think about it, five or more people, I'm just, I'm going to go take a piss and I'm gone.

Yeah. I'm the same way when family comes to the house or I go back to England to see my mom and stuff. I don't want the big tearful goodbye. And I end up having every time I go see my mom, I feel so bad. I live on the other side of the bloody world. She lives by herself. I go down and see. I always stick a pile of cash in her hand. I give her a big hug and I cry. Last time she came, she was at my house and I was like, she was leaving and I wasn't leaving to the next mom. I'm like, just go, just go, just go. I'll call you later. We don't need this whole, I love you. Take care of yourself. Because I can't take it. The safe, solid goodbye, the Irish goodbye is the way to do it. We were talking about Bilal Mohamed right before safe, rudely interrupted.

Rud coming in and not saying goodbye.

Wow. He might be a great coach, but he's got no manners. Bilal Mohamed, Kamara Usman calling him a dollar store version of himself.

Paul. I love all this. I love all this because it's just both these guys trying to set something up, I think. I think Balal sees this as a great opportunity for himself. If that were to be the fight, there's a lot of other crazy fights in the welterweight division that he might have to get first. But if not, if he can go in and get somebody like Kamara Usman to fight him. Man, former champ, as dominant as he was for as long as he was, or talking trash to each other on Twitter, trust me, He's just looking at this as a great opportunity, and he loves talking trash. And I know Kamara is trying to say that it's because he's got the belt now and it's going to his head. That's Balal. If you've ever hung out with him, he loves to just get under your skin. You know what I mean? He loves to just be that guy making jokes. He's sitting there on his phone. I guarantee you the whole time, he's cracking up. And some of his responses to Kamara, who I respect, I've worked with him. I have nothing but love for Kamara as well.

But man, he had some funny responses. You sucked in the movie and your podcast.

Well, Teddy Atlas said, famously, talking about Leon Edwards, When you become the champion, you get 30 %. I would say when it comes to trash talk, Balal has got 30 % better at least. He's embracing it. Yeah, the trash talk has definitely stepped up. Now, this is a crazy shout. This is a crazy one. Balal Muhammad versus Kamara Usman for the welterweight title, because I know Shabqat Rachmaninov is 18 and all, he's undefeated, and they're all finishes. But when you look at the record, and this is no disrespect to any of these names, Stephen Thompson, Jeff Neil, and Neil Magnet. Before that, Colston Harris, Michelle Pizaris. They're the last five people that he fought. All great fighters, Wonder Boys, a legend, Jeff Neil is as tough as they come, but they're not big names. They're not in the top five. They're not sniffing the belt, right? Kamara Usman, yes, he has lost his last three. Was dominating Leon, like he said, but then got caught with a head kick. He lost by knockout. Then the rematch, it was a close fight with Leon. Leon clearly won, but Kamara pushed him. Then he fights Hamza Chimev at 185 pounds, and that could have been a draw, and it was in a different weight class.

Am I out of my mind to say that it's not beyond the realms of possibility that Kamara Usman might challenge Balal Mahhaj Ahmed coming off three losses?

I know. That's where it's tough, right? I mean, that's what I think they're trying. That's what Balal is trying to do, I think. I think that's what he's doing.

And that's what Kamal is trying.

That's what Kamara is trying to do. I mean, I think people would like to see it, but I think it's going to be a tough sell to the UFC, unfortunately. I think they're going to want Kamara to go and have a fight under his belt with a win before he does it. But I'd watch it, Michael.

No, for sure. I'd watch it. 100%. Then on that, Leon Edwards, what do you think they do with Leon next? I said earlier at the time, Oh, yeah, go on. You can play that, Brian, if you want. Yeah, let's Let's have a listen to Kamaru here.

My man, you're a not-so-good version of myself.

You're not-so...

Everything he does, I do better.

He's like, Oh, I did what you couldn't do. I beat Balal.

I beat... See, I forgot his name already.

He said, I did what you couldn't do.

I beat Leon Edwards.

I have a win over Leon Edwards. And in the second fight, I dominated Leon Edwards until Latin hit struck and he landed the kick. And that's what I think, becoming a new champion, that goes to your head. It's like having your first beer.

It's like all of a sudden now you're talking reckless to everybody, my man.

Would have been great five minutes ago, Brian. Just playing. Don't get offended. But yeah, we talked about that. Leon, I said, this sounds crazy as well, Leon Edwards versus MVP. What would you do with Leon Edwards right now?

Yeah, I know. I like that right there. Let him go have It's a fun fight with somebody that's going to be right in his wheelhouse where they can have an incredible striking battle. I think you got to just let him chill out as long as he wants to chill out and see where the pieces fall because that was a tough one. I think he was pretty confident he was going to go in there and get that W handedly, and it just didn't go his way from the jump in that fight. To be in Manchester and to have that. Let him go rest up and come back. I think give him something fun, though. Give him somebody that's not going to be a Kamara Usman or a Balal. Let me, Leon, go and have a fun fight and get his confidence back. And then if he goes and gets one win, I think whoever's the champion, you just throw them right back in the mix.

I agree. Well said. Let me ask you this, Paul, you've had a lot of success in your life. You were a classically trained actor. You were one of the top UFC fighters on the planet. You are a commentator. You're still doubling in the arts. You're in hacks on HBO. Life is good for Paul Felder.

Incredible triathlete.

Oh, my God. You qualified for a big race recently, correct?

Correct. I don't think I can go, but I did qualify.

So success all over the place. But with all that stuff, you seem like you've always been the same person, and you live, and I haven't been to your home or anything, but you're not a flashy guy. You don't let success go to your head. I wouldn't go as far I have to say frugal, but you're not flashy, right? We've had some nice dinners. You're half the villain stuff.

I do not mind spending money out to eat. I will tell you that. We've had some nice dinners.

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Yeah, I got an idea on that one. A Japanese man decided to live pretty frugally himself. He decided in his early 20s, he's sick of the corporate rat race, doesn't want to do all that. He lived off of a diet consisting almost exclusively of vegetables and rice, went through the winters with no heat, went through the summers with no air conditioning, all in his quest to save, I think it was around a million Yen, or 100 million Yen. I don't know. Sorry about that. It comes out to about 600,000 US. He ended up saving about 135 million, which comes out to about 860 US dollars, 860,000 US dollars. But he says, thanks to the inflation in the Yen over that 21-year period, he's not really sure it was all worth it.

Well, I am no financial expert, but that seems like that guy, God bless him, that's not the smartest approach. What I'm going to do is I'm going to suffer my entire life. I'm going to live off the bare minimum. I'm not going to have air conditioning or heating or anything of the sort. I'm going to suffer every day, every minute of every day for the rest of my life to save some money in the bank so that I can retire early. Money in the bank, you are losing money every single year with inflation. What is this man doing, Paul?

He's not living life to its fullest. He could have died two years into that journey, got hit by a bus, and it's like, you died eating rice and vegetables, no air conditioning, no heat. I mean, there's no way you have a girlfriend or a wife, right? No. You're not getting any.

He ain't pulling no birds.

You're not getting any. So you're not buying beer, you're not drinking, you're not having any fun. You're probably not exercising too much if you're only eating rice and vegetables. I think he's got it all wrong, Michael. He's got it all wrong.

Well, you hit the nail on the head because you got to live your life, right? Because I work hard, I make a decent living. You can't take it with you. And I'm I'm not saying that I've gone on this new... Because I'm trying to save as much as possible for retirement. I don't have a pension in place or anything like that. So I got to work my ass off. And I've got three kids, and I want to set them up as well. But I do want to have an active retirement. However, However, you wrap, you hit the nail on the head. You could get hit by a bus. Hopefully, we don't. Hopefully, the lightning doesn't strike, but shit does happen, and you can't take it with you. So that's why just recently we went to Maui. I said, You know what? Let's make some memories. Let's go on vacation. So It's like the last minute, we bought something. You can't be reckless with the future because, of course, more than likely, you got to see that future. It's going to become a reality. But you have got to live in the moments as well.

Yeah. Like you said, you don't know. You don't know. So you're living like that. It's just so you can have an... I don't agree with that. I'm all about saving and being smart. But like you said, taking a last minute trip or doing stuff that's fun or going enjoying yourself, you've got to live it while you're here, man. We don't know what happens. We don't know where things go. We don't know what's after this life.

There's nothing in my humble opinion, I might be wrong. I'm wrong about a lot of things, but my belief system is that when you die, you die. That's it. This ain't a warmup. You ain't going to... My belief, I'm entitled to my belief, when you die, you're going to get put in the ground, you're going to disintegrate, you're going to dissolve, you're going to be food for worms and bugs and all the rest of it, and that's it. And you're going to be repurposed into the ground. There we go. That is the circle of life. I would love to believe that we go off to the sky and that all my loved ones are up there and we all make Mary- There's a lot of people up there.

You had Irish goodbye to Michael.

Oh, there's a lot of people that are going to want to get their hands on me. I want people playing harps. As I go, what's up, buddy? I had a couple of mates from school die. They're up there waiting for me. That sounds lovely. I find that very hard to believe, but still, we weren't planning on getting onto that one. Just that guy trying to save money.

Saving money.

What an idiot.

Live your life, buddy. He didn't work out too much. And now you can't even afford that air conditioning anyway.

Yeah, exactly. What would you say is your biggest splurge in life?

What are you... I mean, when we go out to eat and do stuff like that, or obviously, I really don't have many bad things, but buying equipment and bike stuff is probably my biggest issue now, letting Christine buy whatever she wants. There's a package showing up on our doorstep pretty much every day. Is it like you? I'm like, What is this? It's never anything like, luxurious or crazy, I'm just amazed at the amount of things that she could have delivered to the house on a daily basis. And this isn't a knock on her. They're usually for the kids or there's something, but I'm just like, I don't even know how you can order this much stuff.

We also have parcels every single day.

We had a big one on the porch the other day, and it stayed there for days.

I'm like, You're going to bring that in? It's massive boxes of peanuts that she buys to feed the wild crows and the squirrels and all the animals. She has a little wildlife sanctuary outside.

That's my mom. My God, she's feeding all the animals where she lives.

And they make a mess. There's bloody peanut shells all over the garden. I spent a fortune having a nice outdoor kitchen, fire pit, TV and everything. And there's just squirrels and shit, literally shitting everywhere. And peanut shells. I'm like, You're going to find a new spot for these shells. This is not the peanut eating, bird shitting domain. This is the kickback central in summer. Anyway, Hamilton, you put a story in specifically for the triathlete, Paul Felder.

Yeah, this was cool, right? Normally, we don't celebrate anything in the Olympics outside of first, second, or third place. But there was a runner from Great Britain who got 78th place in the marathon, right? Not that great. But when you factor in the fact that at around Mile 2, she broke her leg. It's a pretty stunning feat to have completed the marathon. I believe it was just 40 minutes behind the eventual winner running 20 plus miles on a broken leg.

Yes, I think you sent me the thing. She still ran a 251, which for elite marathoners is really slow, right? But for a A marathoner on a broken leg, that's still six minute something pace for 26.5 miles.

That's what I was trying to work out. Let me look at it.

I think a 250 would put you probably like 6:30. Yeah, 6:30 pace?

So it's about 170 minutes, divided by 26 miles, we'll say, 6.5 miles a minute. But that's on a metric system. So about six and a half minutes.

Yeah, on a broken leg.

On a broken leg.

For context, I just did that full, and that was... I mean, obviously, I'm not an elite marathon runner either, and that's off of a bike, but that was 329. So she still on a broken leg, was able to run sub-three in the Olympics. So credit to her, man.

You take this- without a broken leg. You take this triathlete stuff very serious, Paul. So serious, in fact, that the other day we were talking about the Red Rock Casino, which Which is a beautiful hotel in Las Vegas where the UFC accommodate us when we're commentating. But there's some long hallways, and you're riding your bike, which you have in your room, down the hallways in the hotel.

Because you know how it is. Anybody that's been to Las Vegas and in these hotels knows how long those hallways can be if your room is at the end of the hallway. So I was hauling my bike from the A-Pax where I keep a road bike out there in Las Vegas for I'm out there riding. But I loved it from a parking garage all the way through the casino up into the... And then I finally got there and I was like, I'm not walking this bike anymore. And I was riding my bike down the freaking hallway at the Red Rocks. If they find out about that, they might be mad at me. So the one cleaning lady did see me zip by and I was like, Oh, shit, they're going to get mad if they're getting by. But then I also had the crew knocking on my door, dropping something off that I didn't order. And I was like, Oh, God, they hear me on my... I have the bike trainer that you can ride indoors and do all that stuff. It makes noise sometimes. So I was like, Oh, no, they're going to get mad at me.

We were speaking about Chandler before. I didn't realize this, Harrington. You should have told us. It's in the notes. He has asked Chandler actually asked for a fight, and he called out Charles Oliveira. He said, The most realistic option... I never saw this. Most realistic option is if you look at the landscape and considering everything Charles Oliveira. I love the rematch with Charles. I think it's a great fight to get the fans pumped up. I almost had him finish in the first round that I made a gloyal mistake in the second, but I wouldn't make it yet. It was almost a self-fulfilling prophecy that I was working on in a camp that turned out to be my demise. Anyway, he goes on. He says, Yeah, why not? Number one on tender spot, him versus Charles Oliver. And I'm going to say, my respect for Michael Chandler has gone up massively after that, because when I said before, get the man a fight, it wouldn't be He frowned upon, I guess, to give him a fight that... I'm not saying you give him a win because of the Conor McGregor fight, but you give him a fight that would be favorable- Lower hanging fruit than that.

Not Charles Oliveira that beat him soundly last time.

No, I agree. And we were talking about this for a bit. I think that is a win-win because if he goes out there and he beats Charles, he puts himself in line for one more fight in a title shot, or maybe he just calls Connor right back out again. He goes in there, now he's got to... So it gives him options, and it really sets himself up nicely. At 39, he beats Charles. He gets that win back. I like where his head's at with that. And for Michael Chandler, he's only had big fights, right? So if you go out there and rematch him, people want to see that again. The first one was crazy. You know it's going to be... Any time he's in there, honestly, it's going to be crazy. You match him up with Charles, it's going to be crazy. And Charles needs a win, and he's already beaten him. So I think it lines up nice.

Yeah, it lines up perfectly. And also, if you look at it, because every fight is a risk, if he was to lose, I think the Connor fight could still happen because Conor also has lost. He struggled with the results lately. So I think that's tremendous. As you say, a win sets him up for a title fight or a shot against Conor McGregor. Anyway, all right. So that's the bulk of the show. We're going to do some questions now real quickly just to finish off. And thank you very much, Paul Felder, for your time. And of course, to the general safe South Dude, if you do have a question, please send it in to bympod@gmail. Com. Harrington, jump on, please. The questions have been struggling a little bit in terms of their volume, in terms of their originality, in terms of just actually being a good question or not. You've got to deliver it in a clear, concise form. Brian dismisses a lot of the questions because the two lot, this is not your podcast or a chance to have a podcast. Also, we're not your travel agent. I'm sure that Mike doesn't have Have a favorite place in every city for you to check on.

I mean, I might have, Brian. You're going to forward me these questions, but if you got one, send it in bympod@gmail. Com.

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All right.

So the first question we have here today is from Doug Norton. Hi, guys. So a lot of people talk about Conor McGregor. Is he going to fight by the end of the year? Is he going to fight Chandler? Will he, in fact, just retire? Will he ever fight again? Now, looking at the lightweight rankings, you've got Makachev at the top, and then below that, you've got Tsarukian, who Makhachev's already beaten. Below that, you've got Charles Oliveira, who he's already beaten. You've got Justin and who he's already beaten. You've got Gamrott, which would be a good fight. But below Gamrott, you've got Michael Chandler. Now, out of all those guys, Michael Chandler would put bums on seats fighting Makhachev. Be incredibly entertaining. He's got a big empty the gas tank in round one, bombastic wrestling style, which would be interesting to see against Makhachev. He certainly wouldn't be any worse than any of the other people who challenged him. Is there not a world where Conor McGregor sits injured by the sideline? Chanda fights Makhachev. If Chanda loses, McGregor still fights Chanda if he wants. It's like you just heard our conversation. If he gets a freak win, then Conor McGregor comes back, has his fight against Chanda, excuse me, This time for the lightweight title, probably beats him because Chandler holds his hands down low and Connor's fast, accurate, and hits hard, and walks off into the sunset with the lightweight title.

The more I think about that, the more I think it could actually happen. What do you reckon? Cheers, guys. Well, thank you very much for the question. Well done for asking the question to the conversation that we just had. Well, we didn't know that.

What?

We didn't know that that question was going to come up.

No. We We already just talked about all those circumstances, basically.

No, we did. What was his point at the end, though? Chandler becomes champion?

I think he was saying Connor could become champion. Connor becomes the champion and retires. But he has to fight to do that. So So that's probably not going to happen.

You really feel... I mean, we talked about this on Monday with Anthony. I mean, he's got so much going on, the bare-knuckle stuff. And the longer it is- I think he wants to do that. I think the longer it is, though, and you know this, Paul, because you were talking about coming back recently, the longer you're away from the combat world, from the fight world, the more you realize that you don't need it. And yes, okay, he's going to get a gigantic payday. But I don't think really Steve Money is a motivator for him anymore.

No, he wants it because I do think he wants that life. He wants that thrill, that rush that he is obsessed with. I mean, he got everything he has because of his fighting skills and his obsession with sport. Let's not take that away from him. No. It's not going to be the same. He's not that young, hungry kid from Ireland than fighting to make money, to make something. You did it. You did it. Oh, he did it. You don't have the skills as you used to. You're now, what, mid to getting on late 30s now? Is Conor 36?

Yeah, 36. I want to know, would you ever rock a leather waistcoat?

I saw that.

He pulled it off. I reckon, Paul, you could pull it off.

I I would look like I was in a different bar, if you know what I mean, if I was- YMCA.

Hey, man, there's no need to feel down ahead. Oh, man.

Precisely that bar.

I want one of those waistcoats. I'm telling you, next week, I'm rocking a leather waistcoat for the show.

I think that's the way to go. Show the guns.

The guns popping.

Show the guns. We'll get you a next undershirt, too, for it.

Bro, I did this my bad movie back in the day called Plastic. And in that, I wear a red leather waistcoat. It's red.

I'm not going to find that. I'm not going to find that.

Brother, I talk like I have a Polish accent. I just talk like this all time. Right, Harrington, Brian, that question was number one bullshit because we already talked about the answer. What other question do we have, please?

I will say that that happens so much that people send in questions, and then half of the show is about the question.

It wasn't his fault.

So sometimes we don't get to them.

It wasn't his fault. This next one is from Liam, and If he definitely didn't talk about this today.

Liam Sullivan here from Sunny Old London. Quick question. I heard C. J. Diller Shore as a piece of shit. I just wanted to know, who is the worst training partner you guys have ever had? Love the podcast, long-time listener, but Yeah.

Thank you, Liam. And I second that motion. Got my little thing here. Some people said the funiest stuff. Worst trading partner. I mean, it's hard, isn't it? I don't want to put anyone on blast. I've got one name in my mind right now. What?

I got one, too. I don't know what to say. He's still a current fighter.

Yeah. I didn't train with him too much. I had a bit of a bad training situation with Uriah Hall once. I've talked about it on here. So the drills where you hold someone down and then the drill is for them to get back to their feet, and that's it. And then if they get back to their feet, they go back down and you get on them. You know what I mean? I'm trying to think which way round was it. So I was holding him down. I held him down for the whole five minute round. He didn't get up. Then it came to him holding me down, and I was getting up a few times because I was good at doing that. But then right at the end of the round, he just starts teeing off with the small MMA goes on. And I'm like, What the hell are you doing? But that is not the drill. Just because you're frustrated because you Come on, hold me down. Son, step into my office.

I got to say, I've been the guy.

I've been that guy.

I've been the guy that somebody else would be like, Oh, man, I've came with Paul Felder, and he was I've cursed people out. I've called them a P-U-F-Y, you know what I mean? Come on, mother, for this. Say it. Pussy, I've yelled that. Sergio Pettus has a video. One day, I met Rufus for it, and I wasn't getting beat up, but I was getting tagged with some shots from this young, fast kid, and I was just starting to lose it and just screaming at him, Come on, you pussy, bro. And Sergio is just in the back with his phone out, just loving it, laughing. I wasn't always He's that way. But yeah, another guy, you know him. I'm not going to say he was the worst training partner. Probably the most scary, unorthodox guy to go with is Jeremiah Wells from the UFC. So explosive. He could jump off walls and throw Anthony Pettus kicks, and he could do flying all that. And man, you didn't know what you were going to get when you spar him. And even when I go back to the gym in Philly, you see guys to this day still like, I don't want to with Jeremiah in his story.

He's toned down, and he's a much better trading part. When he was young and crazy, before he dialed himself in, he was so hard to go with.

I hate those guys only because I'm jealous. I'm so jealous.

And he hits so freaking hard.

I'm not explosive. I'm not overly fast. I'm not the strongest. Do you know what I mean? I'm like, these sons of bitches, you got so many natural advantages. But because of that, they don't train hard, and they all get tired real quick. And then I wait for them to get tired. I'm like, Now we'll see what's up, buddy. It's two minutes into the run and you're tired.

I played by a lot of those same rules.

Flash, rush, boom, pow. That's a bit of Baz rutin for you there. We got one more, Brian.

Yes, sir.

The last question here tonight is from Alan, from Scotland. Scotland. Hi, BYM crew. Alan from Scotland here. Just a couple of questions. My first one is, with Paul Knaufsky, what do you think his next fight is? Does he stay in the division or does he go up to lightweight and try and challenge? Or just take a fight to get a fight? My second question, Jones and Steepay, is it actually going to happen? I haven't seen it confirmed. Has it been booked? If not, do we actually see it happening? Personally, I don't think it will happen. I think it will just fizzle out and we'll see a retirement. Jones will retire and Steepay will Then Tom just left the fight, whoever has already beaten the division. But yeah, thanks. Big fan, guys. Cheers. Thank you very much, bud. I appreciate it. Volkanovski's next fight. So I spoke to him in Manchester, Paul. He said that he's had discussions with the UFC. When he's ready to come back, he will fight the winner of either Max and Teporia.

Yeah, I've heard that, too. I think he's been vocal about that, that that's what will be next for him. And I think that's fair for Volkanovski. I think he's earned that right to sit and just see what happens and let himself rest and come back charged up and fresh. Man, I love that dude. So whatever they give him, I'm excited for, and I would love for it to be a shot at the belt. If it's Max, I'm sure I want to watch it. And I'm not saying I'm rooting for Ilia, but I think it's definitely a more interesting fight for everyone if it's If Ilia retains the belt and it's those two that go at it. But it might not be that way. It might not be that way.

To your point a second ago, Balkanoff, he's just one of the best dudes you could ever meet. He really is. If there was a top five people in MMA right now, Volkanovski is right up there. I don't know who the other top five would be, but he's just so down to Earth. He's funny. I saw him in Manchester, I stole him for a quick interview from my YouTube YouTube channel. He was having three drinks at the bar. He's like, Yeah, this is fine. I've had three drinks. Now I'm in a good mood and all the rest of it. In Manchester, when it all kicked off at the hotel, he got involved. He double-legged someone.

He tried to take him down. He Yeah. Got to take him down. He's the bachelor.

You know what? I love this guy. And then, you know what? I loved what he said yesterday. Someone asked him a question, and I forget the exact question, but it was along the lines of if you could be set up for the rest of your life, financially financially, but all of your fight career was forgotten about, would you do that? And he's like, 100 % in a moment. He said, I don't care about me. I care about my family. I care about setting them up. That's why we do this. Never mind legacy of my fight career. I'm not interested in ego. If you're telling me that all that could be eradicated and all the greatness and all the ego and all the accolades and all the fans and everything, all that's gone. But we're set up financially without a shadow of a doubt.

Yeah. Have you seen the skit when he's He's pretending to be a construction worker as if he's an old fighter that doesn't fight anymore? He's like, No, you don't understand. I fought this guy from Dagostan, Islam, Mahashiv. They're like, Yeah, okay, man, get back to digging the hole. And he's like, No, I swear to God. I swear to.

No, it's hilarious. And then the one before his last fight when the phone was ringing and he's like, hello, and he's getting scammed and stuff. You remember that one?

Yeah, he's getting his credit card out and all that stuff.

And then he's chopping the hedges and stuff. It's so Good. So good. Anyway, that's the end of the show. If you are here at the end of the show, I got a big announcement. The times are going to be moving 10:00 AM Monday and Thursday. Live, BYM. A lot of people ask for it. We're going to be going live. Live, interactive, comments, chats. Yes, you name it. We're doing it. We're making big changes. We're going big or going broke. Both are the man. Thank you, brother.

Always a pleasure. You're the man. Thanks, dude. Thanks for having me, man. Always a blast to you guys.

Always. Thank you, sir. Goodbye.