The Joe Rogan Experience - December 29, 2009


JRE MMA Show #2 (Audio Only)


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 3 minutes

Words per Minute

156.99657

Word Count

10,019

Sentence Count

856

Misogynist Sentences

17


Summary

Bisping vs. Bisping 2, Kelvin Gastelum vs. Weidman 2, and some thoughts on weight vs. 185 pounds. Also, a tragic story about a young girl who died while training for a Muay Thai fight and how it could have been prevented, and the scariest thing I've heard in a while. I'm in Hawaii and I'm drinking and eating like a pig, so I'm sorry about the audio quality. I'll try to fix that next time, but it'll probably be worse than it was last time. I'm not a doctor, I'm just a guy who likes to drink and eat and drink a lot, and that's about it. I hope you enjoy this episode, and I'll see you next week for the next episode of the podcast. Cheers, Jon & Christian. -Jon Sorrentino Subscribe, Like, Share, and Tell a Friend about this Podcast! If you like what you hear, please HIT SUBSCRIBE and leave us a review on iTunes and tell a friend about what you think of our podcast! We'll be looking out for your thoughts on the podcast in the comments section below! Love ya, Jon and Christian! XOXO, Jon & Chris xx - The Best Podcast of the Week: - Jon & Chacho, Chris, Jason, Love Birds, Kristy, Mike, Sarah, Evan, & John, Brian, - & Jon, Michael, , and much more! - Thank you for listening to this podcast, love you, love ya, bye, bye! - Your support is so much, Jon, your support is SO much, much more, thank you so much! -Jon & Christian, <3 - Cheers! - EJ, Kristy & AJ, . - AJ, Rachael, Jody, AJ, & AJ Love you, R. & JUICY, MURCHING, RYAN, EJ & KEVY, P. & AYANTHORA, MALAYA, & JOSY, AND KEVAN, etc., - THEY, JACOB, & KAREN, etc. - PENNY, JR, JAYE, & GABE, etc..


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Ladies and gentlemen, coming at you live from Paris.
00:00:14.000 I'm in Hawaii right now.
00:00:15.000 And, uh, I was gonna, I was gonna watch the Bisping fight, the Bisping-Kelvin-Geslam fight live.
00:00:25.000 And, uh, Do sort of a breakdown of it while it was happening, but the shit was going on at like 2 o'clock in the morning out here.
00:00:36.000 It wasn't happening.
00:00:37.000 I have been eating like a pig and drinking.
00:00:41.000 I've been doing vacation type shit.
00:00:43.000 I'm a strong believer in that you need to do vacation time.
00:00:49.000 Like vacation time is important.
00:00:51.000 You can't just be working all the time.
00:00:53.000 Occasionally you have to just fuck off.
00:00:56.000 And so that's what I've been doing.
00:00:58.000 I've just been fucking off.
00:00:59.000 So I was tired and I decided I am not going to stay up late.
00:01:04.000 And so I watched it in the morning.
00:01:06.000 I watched it this morning and I've got a couple thoughts on it.
00:01:09.000 First of all, Brendan Chobb said this on his Instagram and I could not agree more.
00:01:16.000 I don't think you should be allowed to fight three weeks after you have a brutal fight like Michael Bisping did with GSP. He got rocked.
00:01:27.000 He got choked unconscious.
00:01:29.000 And then three weeks later, he's fighting a really dangerous...
00:01:35.000 Young and up-and-coming Kelvin Gastelum.
00:01:37.000 And Kelvin is a beast.
00:01:39.000 He's got nasty boxing.
00:01:41.000 And that is what he showed in that fight.
00:01:43.000 He hit him with a beautiful straight right jab and a right hand behind it.
00:01:49.000 And oh my goodness, it was just...
00:01:51.000 That kid is just on fire.
00:01:53.000 He's just on another level right now.
00:01:55.000 I'm super, super impressed with Kelvin.
00:01:57.000 Kelvin has got...
00:01:59.000 Lightning-fast hands.
00:02:01.000 And he's an interesting guy because he's what I would call a tweener.
00:02:07.000 And what that means is that I don't...
00:02:09.000 I mean, I think Kelvin in...
00:02:14.000 In the best of times, like if Kelvin has the best camp and the best performance, it's entirely possible that he could beat anybody at 185 pounds.
00:02:24.000 But should he be at 185 pounds?
00:02:27.000 Boy, I don't know, because Chris Weidman is at 185 pounds, and when Chris Weidman got Kelvin to the ground, it really did look like you're talking about two completely different weight classes.
00:02:37.000 And Chris Weidman was able to choke Kelvin out.
00:02:39.000 And obviously Weidman is a former champion, and there's absolutely no shame in losing to Chris Weidman.
00:02:46.000 But it's just the way it looked when you were watching the fight.
00:02:51.000 To me, it looked like two different weight classes.
00:02:55.000 And there's a lot of people that think that really Kelvin should be fighting at 170 pounds if he got the proper diet.
00:03:03.000 And he was doing that for a while.
00:03:05.000 At one point in time, he was...
00:03:09.000 I know Dolce was working with him for a while, and he had his diet in line, and he looked fantastic.
00:03:17.000 And then, you know, just things happened, and he didn't want to pay the Dolce money, and I don't know who he's working with right now as a nutritionist, but I just...
00:03:32.000 I think he's a phenomenal fighter.
00:03:34.000 I just don't know if 185 pounds is the right weight class for him.
00:03:39.000 It could be.
00:03:40.000 I mean, it could be that maybe what he really needs to do is just lose some body fat, put on some muscle, and maybe 185 pounds will be his weight class.
00:03:49.000 It's just that constant debate of whether or not you should weaken your body and Drop down to the minimum weight you can, or whether or not you should fight at a natural weight and have a healthy body.
00:04:05.000 It's a real good argument, and I'm pausing right now because I'm pulling something up.
00:04:10.000 There's a girl that just died in Australia.
00:04:13.000 She died...
00:04:17.000 Very recently, she was preparing for a Muay Thai fight.
00:04:22.000 And it's just...
00:04:24.000 It's just part of what this sport is about.
00:04:28.000 Unfortunately, it really bothers the fucking shit out of me.
00:04:31.000 I think it's the scariest thing.
00:04:33.000 I think...
00:04:35.000 Yeah, here it is.
00:04:36.000 Teenager dies training...
00:04:39.000 Here it is.
00:04:42.000 The girl's name...
00:04:44.000 She was 18 years old, and her name was Jessica Lindsay, and she died while she was cutting weight.
00:04:50.000 She was an amateur kickboxer in Australia.
00:04:53.000 I cut weight a bunch of times when I was doing Taekwondo tournaments, and it is brutal.
00:04:59.000 It's terrible.
00:05:00.000 I was bad at it, too.
00:05:02.000 I didn't do it correctly.
00:05:03.000 I just...
00:05:04.000 Worked out real hard the night before and wore rubber suits and the whole deal and dehydrated myself.
00:05:10.000 And I didn't rehydrate myself well either, so I felt like shit the next day when I was fighting.
00:05:15.000 And a lot of wrestlers back in the day used to do the same thing.
00:05:20.000 My weight cut, though, was nowhere near as extreme as some of the MMA fighters do.
00:05:26.000 Some MMA fighters, I mean, they're getting on death's door.
00:05:30.000 And I just...
00:05:32.000 I just think it's one of the most disturbing and most unfortunate aspects of MMA. Kevin Lee said before his last fight with Tony Ferguson that he felt like he was dying when he was cutting weight.
00:05:48.000 And he made the weight.
00:05:49.000 Khabib Nurmagomedov, who's the, if not the best, one of the very best lightweights in the world, undefeated Kevin had his body shut down last time he tried to make the weight and couldn't make the Tony Ferguson fight.
00:06:04.000 They pulled him out and took him to the hospital.
00:06:06.000 I mean I'm beating on a dead horse here because it's something that everybody knows.
00:06:11.000 Everybody is aware that it's a terrible, terrible aspect of our sport.
00:06:16.000 And in my mind, it's contrary to what martial arts is supposed to be about.
00:06:20.000 So in that sense, I encourage Kelvin to stay at 185 pounds because Obviously, the guy's knocked out Vitor Belford at 185. He just knocked out former champion Michael Bisping at 185 pounds.
00:06:34.000 I mean, he could knock out anybody at 185. But a guy like Chris Weidman, who's very smart about cutting weight, he cuts a lot of weight, but he does it the right way, rehydrates the right way, and he's just a fucking beast.
00:06:48.000 He's just so much bigger.
00:06:50.000 And when he got Kelvin to the ground and submitted him with a head and arm choke, boy, it just really seemed like that's the wrong weight class for Kelvin.
00:06:57.000 And then you see Kelvin, next fight, fights Bisping and just fucking lights him up in the first round.
00:07:03.000 Now, would he have been able to do that if he fought the Bisping that was training for George St. Pierre?
00:07:11.000 I mean, if Bisping did not have the George St. Pierre fight and just went right into the Kelvin Gaslam fight, Would the same result have happened?
00:07:19.000 It could very well have.
00:07:20.000 The way Kelvin hits, he's fast as fuck.
00:07:23.000 His hands are beautiful.
00:07:24.000 He throws really crisp, straight punches.
00:07:28.000 And in this sport, there's not a whole lot of guys who have crisper, sharper hands at 185 pounds than Kelvin.
00:07:38.000 I mean, he just has beautiful head movement in boxing.
00:07:41.000 And when he moves in for the kill with those hands, you saw in the Vitor Belfort fight.
00:07:48.000 I mean, he just fucked Vitor up with those straight punches.
00:07:51.000 And he throws them efficiently, and they have snap to them.
00:07:55.000 And on top of that, he's a very good wrestler.
00:07:58.000 I mean, a lot of people forget how good his wrestling skills are on top of all that.
00:08:02.000 He's just a real threat at 185 pounds.
00:08:05.000 Fascinating thing.
00:08:06.000 Because it's just such a wide-open division.
00:08:10.000 He just called out Robert Whittaker.
00:08:14.000 Who's the interim champion, of course.
00:08:16.000 And called out Whitaker and wants Whitaker to fight him next.
00:08:22.000 But, of course, Robert Whitaker is waiting for the big payday.
00:08:26.000 I would, too, if I was him, to fight George St. Pierre.
00:08:29.000 So it's a wide-open division now that St. Pierre choked out Michael Bisping.
00:08:35.000 And then Kelvin just lights up Bisping.
00:08:39.000 And, of course...
00:08:42.000 You've got to think that Weidman is still in the mix.
00:08:44.000 I mean, even though Weidman lost to Yoel Romero and then lost to Gegard Mousasi, he's still in the mix.
00:08:51.000 He was winning that Yoel Romero fight, in my opinion, until he got caught with that wicked flying knee.
00:08:57.000 But that's the danger of fighting Yoel Romero.
00:09:00.000 Yoel Romero could do that to anybody in the world.
00:09:02.000 He's just such a fucking freak athlete.
00:09:06.000 So really, really wide open division.
00:09:09.000 I'm bummed as fuck that Gegard went over and decided to fight for Bellator.
00:09:17.000 But I get it.
00:09:18.000 I mean, these guys got to go where the money is.
00:09:20.000 And at Bellator, he easily could be a champion.
00:09:23.000 I think he could be a champion in the UFC as well.
00:09:26.000 And maybe we will see him in the UFC again.
00:09:29.000 I mean, he could easily fight a year or two over in the UFC and then come back over.
00:09:33.000 Gegard is still relatively young.
00:09:35.000 But it's nice to have competition.
00:09:38.000 I think competition is good for everybody.
00:09:40.000 And I think it really elevates the sport.
00:09:43.000 It elevates the level of sport.
00:09:45.000 And you can see by the results that a lot of these UFC fighters are having, especially Lorenz Larkin, who is very good.
00:09:54.000 He's a very, very good striker.
00:09:56.000 He loses to Lima in a bid for the title and then loses by knockout to the always dangerous Paul Daly.
00:10:04.000 So I think Bellator and now, especially in that 170-pound division, you've got Rory McDonald.
00:10:10.000 Bellator is really showing they have absolute world championship caliber talent over there.
00:10:17.000 So to get back to that fight, I agree entirely to get back to the Bisping and Kelvin Gastelum fight.
00:10:26.000 I agree 100% with what Brendan Schaub said, that you really have to protect a fighter from themselves.
00:10:33.000 You really can't be letting a guy fight three weeks after an absolutely brutal fight like that.
00:10:38.000 It just does not make sense.
00:10:40.000 It just does not make sense.
00:10:42.000 I don't think it's smart.
00:10:44.000 I mean, I understand the UFC needed someone to fill in and short notice because Anderson Silva tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, and they did not want to lose the Shanghai main event.
00:10:57.000 So it turns into an even bigger fight when you've got the former middleweight champion right off of his loss three weeks later fighting again, but...
00:11:08.000 It's just not smart.
00:11:10.000 I know Bisping wanted to do it.
00:11:11.000 I know Bisping would probably do it again if you asked him to do it.
00:11:13.000 If you asked Bisping to fight in a couple of weeks, he'd probably do it again.
00:11:19.000 Someone was talking about him fighting in England, I believe in March, which...
00:11:26.000 Boy, I mean, that's less crazy, but still crazy, right?
00:11:30.000 Because we're basically into December.
00:11:32.000 So you've got December, January, February.
00:11:35.000 Three months off, really.
00:11:37.000 And then March.
00:11:38.000 But of course, during that time, he's going to be sparring.
00:11:42.000 And you know Bisping.
00:11:43.000 He's a fucking animal.
00:11:44.000 He's not going to train easy.
00:11:46.000 He's not going to take much time off.
00:11:48.000 And there's a lot of debate as to how much time a fighter should be forced to take off After they get knocked out.
00:11:57.000 And here's the thing about that.
00:11:59.000 You're seeing guys when they're fighting.
00:12:03.000 And you're seeing them getting knocked out.
00:12:04.000 And you're seeing them fighting X amount of months later.
00:12:08.000 So you saw Bisping.
00:12:09.000 He didn't get knocked out by George St. Pierre.
00:12:11.000 But he certainly got rocked with that left hook.
00:12:13.000 And then he got choked out when he was on the ground.
00:12:15.000 Now, for people who don't know a lot about MMA, getting choked out...
00:12:21.000 It's not nearly as bad as getting knocked out.
00:12:24.000 There's almost nothing to it.
00:12:26.000 The way to look at it is, if you look at a garden hose, and you know how you can bend a garden hose and cramp it down, and it stops the water from coming out?
00:12:34.000 That's exactly what happens to your fucking brain when you get choked out.
00:12:39.000 When you get choked out, it's basically cutting off the blood of your brain.
00:12:42.000 You wake up, and you're fine.
00:12:45.000 You don't have memory issues.
00:12:46.000 You don't have balance issues for the most part, especially if you've only been out for a couple of seconds.
00:12:51.000 It happens all of the time in training.
00:12:55.000 I've seen many, many guys get choked unconscious.
00:12:58.000 I've choked people unconscious.
00:13:00.000 They come back and they're fine.
00:13:01.000 It's not that big of a deal.
00:13:03.000 But you've got to realize before he got choked unconscious, he got hit with a big fucking left hand and hurt.
00:13:10.000 And it was a great fight before that.
00:13:12.000 Both guys were giving and taking.
00:13:14.000 Fighters need time off after fights.
00:13:17.000 So you're seeing that, right?
00:13:19.000 You're seeing… The actual competition between George St. Pierre and Michael Bisping.
00:13:24.000 What we're not seeing is how many times he got hit during training.
00:13:28.000 Did he get rocked ever?
00:13:29.000 Did he get clipped and dropped?
00:13:31.000 Did he get dropped and hurt and take a couple days off and then get back to training again?
00:13:36.000 Only he knows.
00:13:37.000 Only his camp knows.
00:13:38.000 And most of the times, they're not talking.
00:13:40.000 But you hear about it all the time.
00:13:42.000 As a matter of fact, I was talking to Forrest Griffin once.
00:13:45.000 And Forrest was telling me that before he fought Anderson Silva, he was knocked unconscious twice in training.
00:13:53.000 That's fucking crazy.
00:13:55.000 I mean, here he is.
00:13:59.000 About to fight the greatest pound for pound fighter of all time next to – I mean there's three guys in that debate, right?
00:14:08.000 My number one guy right now is Mighty Mouse.
00:14:11.000 I think just he represents the highest skill level.
00:14:14.000 But does he represent the highest competition level in terms of like the guys he's faced?
00:14:20.000 I don't think so.
00:14:21.000 I think number one competition level is Jon Jones.
00:14:24.000 Jon Jones has choked out Lyoto Machida, Rampage Jackson.
00:14:28.000 He's beat Rashad Evans.
00:14:30.000 He beat Alexander Gustafson.
00:14:33.000 He beat Glover Teixeira.
00:14:35.000 He beat Vitor Belfort.
00:14:36.000 He beat Daniel Cormier twice.
00:14:39.000 I mean, fuck!
00:14:41.000 He's beating everybody.
00:14:42.000 I think you look at competition-wise, Jon Jones is a very strong argument for the greatest of all time.
00:14:49.000 But Anderson Silva's fucking right there too, man.
00:14:53.000 Anderson Silva in his prime, I think, when you look at the way he knocked out Vitor Belfort with that front kick to the face, when you look at the way he fought...
00:15:02.000 Forrest Griffin in that fight that we were just talking about and KO'd him like a magician, the way he fought Stefan Bonner and literally put his back up against the cage.
00:15:11.000 Again, Stefan Bonner and Forrest Griffin, they're just – No disrespect, they're not at the same level as Lyoto Machida or Glover Teixeira or some of the guys that Jon Jones has faced.
00:15:26.000 But it's the way Anderson beat them.
00:15:28.000 I mean Anderson was just in his prime.
00:15:31.000 He was a fucking master, like a real master.
00:15:35.000 So Forrest Griffin fighting Anderson Silva after being KO'd twice in training camp is just insane.
00:15:44.000 But these are the things that fighters do when they have to do them.
00:15:48.000 You're talking about a giant payday.
00:15:50.000 You're talking about a big fight.
00:15:51.000 You give the guy a chance.
00:15:52.000 Like, do you want to fight?
00:15:53.000 Do you think you could fight?
00:15:54.000 Yeah, I could do it.
00:15:55.000 I could do it.
00:15:56.000 And they go out there and they're compromised and they get clipped and you see it immediately sometimes.
00:16:01.000 Sometimes you see guys...
00:16:04.000 They get clipped and you don't know why.
00:16:05.000 I mean they get hit with something and look, at any time when a person is throwing a punch or a kick at you and it connects, it can put you out.
00:16:15.000 But there's no doubt at all, no doubt about it, that the resiliency of a fighter After they've been KO'd is compromised.
00:16:25.000 There's just no doubt about it.
00:16:26.000 When you see a guy who's been KO'd and then you see them get hit weeks, months later, they cannot take a shot the same way.
00:16:34.000 Their brain is still recovering.
00:16:36.000 Their body is still recovering from the concussion.
00:16:38.000 And you have to figure out a way to balance being a risk taker and seizing an opportunity, which is a huge opportunity, Versus concentrating on having a long and healthy career.
00:16:55.000 Now, that said, for Michael Bisping, he's kind of at the end of his career.
00:17:02.000 I mean, he said essentially that he wants to fight one more time in England, which would be beautiful for him.
00:17:06.000 And I hope they give him a good matchup so it'll be a good fight for the fans.
00:17:11.000 And I hope they give Michael some time off.
00:17:14.000 Give the man some time to really relax and then go through a real nice three, four-month training camp, get in excellent shape, and give his best effort for one more go at it.
00:17:24.000 I would like to see that.
00:17:25.000 But it might be the hardest shit in the world to talk a fighter Into retiring or for a fighter to figure out when to retire.
00:17:35.000 I was just talking to Matt Brown.
00:17:38.000 He came to see me in Denver and I was telling him, I was like, dude, that fight that you have with Diego Sanchez, what a perfect way to go out.
00:17:46.000 Beautiful, spectacular knockout, classic Matt Brown fight, just blood and guts.
00:17:51.000 He's one of my all-time favorite fighters to watch, for sure, because he's so fucking ferocious.
00:17:58.000 You knew when you were going to go to see a Matt Brown fight, if Matt Brown was fighting anybody, win, lose, or draw, that guy was going to have to face hell.
00:18:08.000 Matt Brown would bring it.
00:18:09.000 The ferocity, intensity that that guy would bring inside the octagon was just unrivaled.
00:18:17.000 The thing about Matt is he's not like an unbelievably physically gifted guy.
00:18:22.000 He's not like some Kevin Randleman character.
00:18:25.000 There's been guys that are just physical freaks.
00:18:28.000 Anthony Rumble Johnson.
00:18:30.000 There's Brock Lesnar.
00:18:32.000 There's guys that are just physically, they're just freakish.
00:18:35.000 They can do things that are just incredibly unusual.
00:18:38.000 And then there's guys...
00:18:40.000 That their mind is just unbreakable.
00:18:43.000 They're just a fucking warrior to the core, down to the cells.
00:18:49.000 That's Matt Brown.
00:18:51.000 And Matt Brown can lose.
00:18:53.000 He's lost before.
00:18:54.000 But he just loses because his body gives out.
00:18:58.000 It's never because his mind gives out.
00:19:00.000 I mean, that guy is coming to fucking kill you every time he gets into that octagon.
00:19:05.000 And I love that about him.
00:19:07.000 I mean, it's one of my all-time favorite fighters to watch for sure.
00:19:10.000 And when I was telling him, congratulations.
00:19:14.000 I mean it's an amazing way to cap off a career.
00:19:17.000 He's like, I might not be the last one.
00:19:18.000 So he's still – even after going through all those wars, he's in his 30s now.
00:19:24.000 I believe he's like 35 I think he is, maybe 36. And still wondering, I think he's 36, still wondering, like, is this it?
00:19:33.000 Do I do one more?
00:19:34.000 Do I do one more?
00:19:35.000 One more!
00:19:36.000 Because the thrill that you experience, I mean, obviously, I've never fought inside the octagon, so I'm just guessing, but the thrill of just fighting in general, it's such a much higher level of danger and excitement than most people experience in everyday life.
00:19:54.000 And it's incredibly addictive.
00:19:56.000 And it makes regular life seem dull and gray in comparison.
00:20:02.000 When those guys get into the octagon, when a guy like Matt Brown smashes an elbow down on Diego Sanchez and Diego slumps and goes limp and the crowd goes insane and, you know...
00:20:13.000 Just when Matt got into the octagon, there's a crazy video of the fight.
00:20:19.000 While we're watching the fight, Matt steps into the octagon, steps through the cage, and fucking roars!
00:20:26.000 I mean, roars!
00:20:28.000 Like, you see it in his face, you see it in his eyes, he just opens his mouth and screams.
00:20:35.000 That motherfucker was there to fight.
00:20:36.000 That's what he loves to do.
00:20:38.000 And it was finally there.
00:20:40.000 It was finally happening.
00:20:41.000 Gets through the training camp, steps into that octagon.
00:20:43.000 It's go time.
00:20:44.000 That is as exciting as life is going to be for him or for any combat sports athlete.
00:20:51.000 And it is incredibly, incredibly hard to give that up.
00:20:56.000 Once you've experienced that, man, I mean, you see it in these guys.
00:21:00.000 It's so hard for them to know when to walk away.
00:21:04.000 But I think it's incredibly critical to balance out the glory of combat sports, the glory of giving your all and going out on your shield sometimes and sometimes winning with vicious knockout or incredible submission, but knowing when the body has taken enough, knowing when your vehicle is damaged to the point where you should not be engaging in competition anymore.
00:21:30.000 And it's different for everybody.
00:21:32.000 And it's so hard to figure out when.
00:21:34.000 And some guys just know.
00:21:35.000 Some guys just know and they go, you know what?
00:21:37.000 I'm good.
00:21:38.000 That's it.
00:21:39.000 I don't feel it anymore.
00:21:40.000 I'm going to step away.
00:21:42.000 Um...
00:21:43.000 TJ Grant's a good example of that.
00:21:45.000 Here's a guy that was supposed to be fighting for the title.
00:21:48.000 He's about to fight for the UFC lightweight title and nobody ever heard from him again.
00:21:52.000 He was suffering from concussion syndrome.
00:21:54.000 He just had a real hard time recovering from a concussion that he got in training and never fought again.
00:22:01.000 Took a regular job.
00:22:02.000 He's done some training, training fighters and stuff, but never decided to get back into the octagon again.
00:22:08.000 Chris Holdsworth's another example.
00:22:10.000 Got a training injury, got hit in the head in training real bad, got a concussion, and decided to stop, and that was it.
00:22:23.000 Very hard for these guys to figure out when.
00:22:26.000 So next Saturday, December 2nd, There's a big fight.
00:22:31.000 It's a rematch between Max Holloway and Jose Aldo.
00:22:36.000 You also have Alistair Overeem and Francis Ngannou on that card.
00:22:41.000 Henry Cejudo and Sergio Pettis.
00:22:46.000 Eddie Alvarez.
00:22:50.000 Just those four fights right there.
00:22:54.000 Holy shit.
00:22:56.000 Holy shit.
00:22:58.000 I know I talked about Holloway versus Aldo before.
00:23:02.000 What I like about this fight...
00:23:05.000 First of all, the first fight was very good until Aldo ran out of gas and Holloway took over.
00:23:12.000 Aldo's camp was saying that going into that fight, Aldo had a leg injury, which kind of makes sense because he really didn't throw many leg kicks.
00:23:19.000 But he also didn't throw very many leg kicks against Frankie Edgar.
00:23:22.000 I think the strategy for that fight, though, was that he was worried about the takedowns of Frankie Edgar.
00:23:28.000 So he had decided to avoid being taken down.
00:23:31.000 One of the best ways to do it would be just to avoid kicking and just outbox him.
00:23:35.000 And he did that very well in that fight and won a pretty clear, unanimous decision.
00:23:40.000 This is going to be a different fighter.
00:23:42.000 I mean, Max Holloway is in his prime.
00:23:45.000 He beat Aldo the first time around.
00:23:48.000 And he's incredibly confident that he's going to be able to beat Aldo the second time.
00:23:52.000 Aldo, though, said that he had this leg injury and it prevented him from throwing leg kicks, but that it's better now.
00:23:59.000 And that's one of the reasons why he's excited about fighting Holloway again.
00:24:02.000 Now, if that is the case and if Aldo is in tremendous shape because he took this fight on relatively short notice, he did not get a full two, three-month training camp.
00:24:11.000 I think it was five weeks out, maybe more.
00:24:15.000 I'm sorry if I'm wrong about that.
00:24:17.000 I'm not looking at it right in front of me, but I know it wasn't a full camp because I know it was supposed to be Frankie Edgar.
00:24:24.000 Edgar got injured.
00:24:26.000 So Aldo steps in.
00:24:27.000 So we're going to find out.
00:24:28.000 We're going to find out if Aldo can make the proper adjustments and whether or not the ability to throw leg kicks is going to make a difference because Aldo's leg kicks classically in history have been some of the very best in the game.
00:24:41.000 If you look at his fight with Uriah Faber, it's one of the very best uses ever.
00:24:46.000 Uses?
00:24:47.000 Best use of leg kicks maybe in the featherweight division ever and just smashed Uriah Faber's leg to the point where, I mean, it's one of the all-time grossest injuries in MMA. Uriah's left leg was like twice the size of his right leg and had to do a bunch of crazy therapy to recover from it, including hyperbaric chamber, and, you know, he documented it.
00:25:08.000 Uriah's He's such a cool dude.
00:25:10.000 I love that he did this.
00:25:12.000 He documented a lot of the injury online to show everybody, like, look how fucked up my leg is.
00:25:19.000 That's Aldo at his best.
00:25:21.000 Is Aldo the same guy now?
00:25:23.000 I mean, he's gone through 29 professional MMA fights at the highest level.
00:25:29.000 He's been a champion for a long time.
00:25:31.000 And, you know, he's had some wars.
00:25:33.000 The second fight with Chad Mendez was a war.
00:25:36.000 Of course, he got stopped quick by Conor McGregor.
00:25:39.000 The fight with Max Holloway was a war.
00:25:42.000 I mean, he's been through some really tough fights.
00:25:45.000 Does he still have that same level, you know?
00:25:48.000 We really don't know.
00:25:49.000 And we're going to find out.
00:25:51.000 Hopefully, we're going to find out from an in shape.
00:25:53.000 I mean, I don't know what kind of camp he was involved in, like how hard he was training, rather, before he entered into camp for this championship fight.
00:26:03.000 I'm hoping that he was in good shape, and that's one of the reasons why he was so eager to take the fight.
00:26:08.000 And we're going to find out.
00:26:09.000 We're going to find out Saturday night, and that's very interesting.
00:26:11.000 But maybe even more interesting is Alistair Overeem and Francis Ngannou.
00:26:17.000 Because Alistair Overeem is one of the most experienced guys in the division, of course.
00:26:21.000 Overeem is the former Dream Heavyweight Champion, former Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion, and former K-1 Grand Prix Champion.
00:26:29.000 One of the very best kickboxers to ever fight in MMA, without a doubt.
00:26:35.000 But you want to talk about a guy who has been in wars.
00:26:39.000 Like, let's Google Alistair Overeem's overall record because it's got to be fucking crazy.
00:26:48.000 As far as the number of times he's been stopped, I mean, it's really fucking bananas.
00:26:54.000 Let's go and look.
00:26:55.000 We'll first look at his MMA career.
00:26:57.000 We'll count this up.
00:26:59.000 And this is no disrespect to him.
00:27:01.000 I'm a huge Alistair Overeem fan, and I'm not saying that he should retire or anything crazy like that.
00:27:06.000 But let's just take a look at how many times he's been stopped just in MMA.
00:27:13.000 Okay, so he won two fights in a row.
00:27:18.000 Fantastic victory over Mark Hunt.
00:27:20.000 He KO'd him with knees and won a split decision over Fabrizio Verdun.
00:27:27.000 Actually, a majority decision.
00:27:28.000 One of the judges called it a draw.
00:27:33.000 That was a very close decision, but I thought that Verdun was going to get the nod, quite honestly.
00:27:39.000 Let's look at the times he's lost though.
00:27:42.000 Stipe Miocic, when he fought for the title, knocked him out.
00:27:46.000 Before that, Ben Rothwell knocked him out.
00:27:49.000 Before that, Antonio Bigfoot Silva knocked him out.
00:27:55.000 Brutal knockouts.
00:27:56.000 So that's just within the last four years in the UFC, he suffered four brutal knockouts.
00:28:05.000 Before that, Sergey Karotanov knocked him out.
00:28:09.000 Brutal knockout in 2007, 10 years ago.
00:28:12.000 Mauricio Shogunhua knocked him out also in 2007. He lost to Ricardo Arona.
00:28:18.000 He got stopped in that fight.
00:28:21.000 He tapped two strikes.
00:28:26.000 Hojerio Noguera stopped him.
00:28:29.000 Little Nog stopped him.
00:28:31.000 His corner stopped it.
00:28:32.000 It's a TKO. That was in 2006. He got stopped by Fabrizio Verdun, but that was a Kimura.
00:28:38.000 That was a submission.
00:28:42.000 Shogun Hua stopped him the first time in 2005. So Shogun knocked him out twice.
00:28:51.000 He TKO'd him in 2005 and KO'd him in 2007. Before that, Little Nog beat him by decision.
00:29:02.000 Chuck Liddell KO'd him in a fantastic fight where Overeem was really coming on strong against Chuck.
00:29:08.000 And then Chuck...
00:29:10.000 Caught him with some brutal punches and KO'd him.
00:29:13.000 That was in 2003. Before that, Bobby Hoffman, a lot of people forgot about Bobby Hoffman, way back in rings, KO'd him in 2003. That's it for MMA. So, just MMA KOs, right?
00:29:35.000 The first KO loss, we have Bobby Hoffman, then we have Chuck Liddell, then we have Shogun, then we have Little Nog, then we have Arona, then we have Shogun again, then we have Karatanov.
00:29:54.000 Okay, we already have seven.
00:29:56.000 That's Karatanov.
00:29:58.000 Then we have Bigfoot Silva, 8. Travis Brown, 9. Ben Rothwell, 10. Stipe Miocic, 11. 11 stoppage losses in MMA. I mean, holy fucking shit.
00:30:14.000 That's crazy.
00:30:16.000 11 knockout or stoppage losses in MMA. Then...
00:30:21.000 You go to kickboxing.
00:30:23.000 Badr Hari stopped him in the K1 Grand Prix Final in 2009. He stopped him.
00:30:34.000 He got stopped by Glaube Fetosa in Kyokushin vs.
00:30:41.000 K1 in 2004. He got KO'd.
00:30:44.000 He got stopped by Bernard Paris in K1 Holland.
00:30:49.000 That's in 2001. So, one, two, three KO losses in kickboxing.
00:31:00.000 On top of all the other MMA losses, that's a lot of fucking stoppage losses, folks.
00:31:06.000 And it's led people to question the durability of the current guy.
00:31:13.000 But what we do know...
00:31:16.000 Is that Alistair is extremely crafty.
00:31:19.000 And one of the things that I like about Alistair these days is since he's gone over to Jackson and Winklejohn in Albuquerque, he has become much more elusive, much slicker on his feet, moves around a lot more, and doesn't just try to smash people.
00:31:38.000 The Uberm, the guy that we saw fight Brock Lesnar in his UFC debut.
00:31:45.000 That was like classic Ubering.
00:31:46.000 Just jacked to the tits, smashing people, running through people.
00:31:51.000 He would meet force with greater force.
00:31:53.000 Now what you're seeing is...
00:31:56.000 What you're seeing is the Alistair Overeem that fought Junior Dos Santos, who fought an incredibly clever fight, moved around well.
00:32:04.000 He was very, very slick, very difficult to hit, and then started scoring on Junior and then eventually caught him with a beautiful left hook and KO'd him.
00:32:15.000 That, to me, is the interesting Andrei Orlovsky today, a guy who realizes that Perhaps he can't take a punch like he did when he was younger.
00:32:26.000 He's been in a lot of really, really tough fights as we just went over.
00:32:30.000 And realizes like, hey, now I have to be smart.
00:32:33.000 Now I have to be clever.
00:32:34.000 I have to move around a lot.
00:32:35.000 I have to use my skills.
00:32:36.000 And his skills are substantial.
00:32:38.000 In my opinion, he's the best right up there with Mark Hunt, of course.
00:32:43.000 Who he just beat.
00:32:45.000 The best heavyweight kickboxer ever.
00:32:47.000 When it comes to credentials, he's the best heavyweight kickboxer ever in MMA. Really.
00:32:52.000 No heavyweight kickboxer other than him and Hunt have ever won the K-1 Grand Prix and Hunt won it.
00:32:58.000 He stepped into the finals as an alternate.
00:33:00.000 He had lost earlier that night.
00:33:03.000 Not to take anything away from Hunt, because of course Mark Hunt is still just one of the all-time greats when it comes to kickboxing.
00:33:10.000 But when Mark Hunt won, he won.
00:33:15.000 We can go to that record right here.
00:33:17.000 Mark Hunt won the K-1 Grand Prix.
00:33:20.000 He won it.
00:33:21.000 He had lost that night.
00:33:25.000 See, he's fought the K1 Grand Prix a couple times.
00:33:28.000 He lost to Semi Schilt.
00:33:30.000 He got TKO'd by a spinning back kick.
00:33:34.000 And he won.
00:33:36.000 Goddamn, he's fought a lot of fucking awesome kickboxing fights too.
00:33:41.000 So he lost to Ray Sefo in 2001 in the semifinals.
00:33:51.000 And then he won that night.
00:33:54.000 He beat Stefan Leko.
00:33:58.000 So he lost to Ray Sefo.
00:34:00.000 Ray Sefo apparently couldn't continue.
00:34:02.000 And then he came back to win.
00:34:04.000 If I'm getting that right, yeah.
00:34:07.000 Looks like he beat Stefan Leko.
00:34:10.000 In the semifinals.
00:34:13.000 Well, it says semifinals.
00:34:15.000 It says wins K-1 Grand Prix Championship 2001. Oh, okay.
00:34:20.000 He fought Francisco Filio.
00:34:21.000 But that was in...
00:34:23.000 I'm looking at a different date.
00:34:26.000 That was in 2002. Or 2001, he beat Fielder.
00:34:33.000 Anyway, I'm rambling.
00:34:35.000 Did you notice?
00:34:36.000 Yeah.
00:34:36.000 I'm talking too much.
00:34:38.000 So he's fighting Francis Ngannou.
00:34:41.000 And Francis Ngannou, who is right now 10-1 in the UFC. 10-1 with zero draws, so 10 wins.
00:34:49.000 And he's just been smashing everybody.
00:34:51.000 And if he looked at his last fight against Andrei Arlovsky, that was a fight where it was probably one of the first fights where he really got tested.
00:34:58.000 We really got to see what happens when he fights a former champion and a former really world-class fighter.
00:35:06.000 And it was a good test, but now a bigger test is in front of him when he's going to fight Alistair Overeem.
00:35:14.000 I mean, we've seen him so far.
00:35:17.000 Four times inside the octagon.
00:35:20.000 He stopped Curtis Blades by knockout.
00:35:23.000 He stopped Bohan...
00:35:25.000 I don't know how to say this guy's name again.
00:35:29.000 Mihajovic.
00:35:31.000 Mihajovic?
00:35:32.000 I don't remember how to say that.
00:35:33.000 Bohan Mihajovic?
00:35:36.000 I do not remember how to say homeboy's name.
00:35:40.000 Then he stopped Anthony Hamilton by submission, showing that he has submission skills as well.
00:35:46.000 And then, of course, just knocked out Andrei Arlovsky in his last fight.
00:35:50.000 It's a very interesting fight because the question is, is Ngannou ready for a guy who's got the skills of Alistair over him?
00:36:00.000 The skill, the experience at the highest level, the craftiness.
00:36:03.000 Is he going to set traps?
00:36:06.000 And is Francis Ngannou going to fall for those traps?
00:36:10.000 The other question is, can Alistair Overeem take a shot from Ngannou?
00:36:16.000 Ngannou has legitimate, absolute one-punch knockout power, extreme confidence, and he's fresh and in his prime right now.
00:36:26.000 Actually entering his prime.
00:36:28.000 I mean, arguably, he hasn't even reached his prime yet because Ngannou is one of those guys that at 31 years of age is near his physical prime, but he's still learning.
00:36:39.000 He's still getting better at the sport.
00:36:41.000 And as he fights better and better competition, you're going to see more of his skills shine.
00:36:47.000 You're going to see where the holes are in his game, and you're going to see how he responds to adversity.
00:36:53.000 Hopefully, we're going to get a chance to see all those things in this fight.
00:36:57.000 If Overeem wins, there's a very good argument for him being next in line to fight Stipe and Mioche.
00:37:03.000 The real question about the heavyweight division, the real question other than who's next for Stipe, the real question is the health of Cain Velasquez.
00:37:13.000 Cain Velasquez, in my opinion, is without a doubt one of the greatest heavyweights of all time.
00:37:20.000 He's just a force of nature when he's in shape.
00:37:23.000 When you see the Cain Velasquez that beat Ben Rothwell, when you see the Cain Velasquez that just stormed the division, when you see him in the second and third fight with Junior Dos Santos, that Cain Velasquez is a fucking monster.
00:37:38.000 The question is, after all the surgeries, back surgery, knee surgery, shoulder surgery, can he come back and be that guy again?
00:37:48.000 As a fan, I most certainly hope he can, but we're really not going to know.
00:37:53.000 Another fight on the card that's very interesting is Henry Cejudo and Sergio Pettis.
00:37:59.000 Sergio Pettis is the younger brother of Showtime Pettis, Anthony Pettis, who is the former lightweight champion.
00:38:07.000 And Henry Cejudo, of course, is a former Olympic gold medalist, the number two ranked flyweight in the world.
00:38:13.000 And Henry is coming off of an absolutely spectacular KO of Wilson Hayes.
00:38:21.000 I was blown away by him in that fight.
00:38:24.000 In that fight, he looked like some sort of a karate master.
00:38:28.000 I mean, it was a very, very interesting fight.
00:38:31.000 Before that, he lost to Benavidez.
00:38:33.000 And Benavidez, of course, one of the most experienced, one of the best guys in the division.
00:38:36.000 And he lost a very, very close fight, a fight where I've talked to his coaches afterwards and they were really pissed off by the decision.
00:38:44.000 They thought Cejudo could have gotten a nod, but...
00:38:48.000 He rebounded and he rebounded versus Wilson Hayes and looked like a completely different fighter.
00:38:54.000 The thing that excites me about this fight is two things.
00:38:58.000 One, the potential of Sergio Pettis.
00:39:01.000 Sergio Pettis is a young kid.
00:39:04.000 He's one of the youngest guys in the division.
00:39:06.000 He's the extremely talented younger brother of another extremely talented fighter.
00:39:12.000 So he's had martial arts in his life most of the time growing up.
00:39:17.000 He's 24 years old now.
00:39:19.000 He trains under the great Duke Rufus, who in my opinion is one of the very best guys in the division in terms of his ability to coach fighters.
00:39:27.000 He's fucking fantastic.
00:39:29.000 Not in the division, I should say in the division.
00:39:33.000 Duke Rufus is just an amazing striking coach.
00:39:36.000 He's a former world Muay Thai champion himself, outstanding kickboxer, and extremely knowledgeable about both kickboxing and MMA, and one of the best guys in the world at training kickboxers for MMA. I mean, he's just fantastic.
00:39:51.000 And what we've seen from young Sergio, we saw him get submitted by Alex Caceres early on in his career.
00:40:02.000 And Alex is just slicker and caught him on the ground.
00:40:06.000 And then we saw him lose again to Ryan Benoit.
00:40:10.000 I think that these losses, especially for a young fighter, are absolutely critical.
00:40:16.000 I think you find out what you're really made of and you see what you need to improve upon.
00:40:21.000 And in fighting tough guys early on, like Alex Caceres, like Ryan Benoit, I mean...
00:40:28.000 And we're talking about two years ago, he fought Benoit.
00:40:32.000 He was 21 years old then.
00:40:34.000 Or 22 years old.
00:40:36.000 He's 24 now.
00:40:37.000 So he's a really young kid, still learning, still growing, on the job, and has looked fantastic in his last few fights.
00:40:45.000 Looked really good against John Moraga, and looked even better against Brandon Moreno in his last fight, which was a five-round unanimous decision victory.
00:40:56.000 So this, in my opinion, is going to be the toughest fight of his career because Henry Cejudo just has that Olympic gold medal winner mindset.
00:41:08.000 The mindset of a guy like Cejudo, I mean, this guy is focused on being a champion 24 hours a day.
00:41:15.000 And if you look at the way he fought against Wilson Hayes, I mean, if that's indicative of the kind of improvement that this guy can make, And Kieran Fitzgibbons, who is another fucking phenomenal Muay Thai coach, he told me that this kid is just a sponge and just can learn so fast at a ridiculous weight.
00:41:37.000 And I think you're looking at athletic prowess in Henry Cejudo, but I think maybe perhaps more important than that, you're looking at his mind.
00:41:46.000 His mind is just ultra sharp and focused and determined.
00:41:52.000 And he's just got that championship mindset.
00:41:54.000 I mean, that's why he is an Olympic gold medalist in wrestling.
00:41:58.000 So he's got unparalleled wrestling skill.
00:42:01.000 In the division.
00:42:02.000 And then on top of that, if you look at the Wilson Hayes fight, you look at radical improvements in his striking and movement.
00:42:08.000 I mean, he looked like a combination of a prime, Lyoto Machida, and Conor McGregor with his movement against Wilson Hayes.
00:42:17.000 I think a lot of guys are realizing that karate style, if you have all those other bases covered, if you have great wrestling, if you have submissions, good takedown defense, and good boxing skills, as well as Muay Thai, everything else, that karate stance, that sideways stance that we see employed all the time by Wonderboy Thompson, that we see...
00:42:39.000 We've seen a bunch of different fighters.
00:42:41.000 Of course, Lyoto Machida, a bunch of different fighters use that stance inside the octagon.
00:42:46.000 Conor McGregor, it's a very difficult stance to deal with.
00:42:50.000 If you're good at it, if you're good at that movement, that in and out, side to side movement, Michael Venom Page has a very unusual take on that.
00:42:59.000 Fighting in Bellator, he likes to fight like that too.
00:43:02.000 And of course he's a former point fighting champion.
00:43:05.000 That style is fucking hard to deal with.
00:43:08.000 It's really hard for guys to judge.
00:43:10.000 And if you're dealing with a guy like Cejudo who's lightning fast on top of that and starts moving like that with those world-class wrestling skills, with excellent striking, you know, classic striking, boxing, kickboxing.
00:43:24.000 Very difficult to deal with.
00:43:25.000 I'm very interested to see what style he takes or how he approaches this fight with Sergio Pettis.
00:43:33.000 He's quite a bit older than Sergio, being 30. That's a really interesting fight.
00:43:39.000 I'm very curious.
00:43:40.000 I just do not know how that one's going to play out.
00:43:43.000 One fight that I don't know how is going to play out, but I'm fucking beyond pumped for it, is Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gagey.
00:43:53.000 Justin Gagey is a fucking savage.
00:43:58.000 And so is Eddie Alvarez.
00:44:00.000 Eddie Alvarez is a beast.
00:44:01.000 And I think a lot of people are looking past Alvarez.
00:44:04.000 You know, Alvarez...
00:44:06.000 Had just come off of that brutal knockout loss, kind of a humiliating knockout loss to Conor McGregor.
00:44:17.000 And then after that, he is involved in the no contest versus Dustin Poirier.
00:44:27.000 I believe that was an eye poke.
00:44:30.000 That is...
00:44:32.000 I'm trying to remember how that fight went down, but I do not.
00:44:35.000 I feel like someone got poked in the eye.
00:44:39.000 Either way, it's a no contest.
00:44:41.000 So that obviously doesn't move him up the ladder any.
00:44:45.000 And he's got to regroup.
00:44:49.000 Yeah, no contest.
00:44:50.000 Here it is.
00:44:54.000 Yeah...
00:44:57.000 Yeah, this was a...
00:45:00.000 Okay, now I remember what it was.
00:45:01.000 It wasn't an eye poke.
00:45:02.000 It was a knee to a downed opponent.
00:45:06.000 And it was a fucking phenomenal fight while it played out against Dustin Poirier.
00:45:12.000 They were going back and forth.
00:45:14.000 Now I remember the fight.
00:45:16.000 And Poirier had Alvarez in some deep trouble.
00:45:20.000 And Alvarez rebounded.
00:45:22.000 And Alvarez...
00:45:25.000 I believe hit Dustin Poirier with a knee while he was down.
00:45:31.000 Yeah.
00:45:34.000 That's exactly what happened.
00:45:37.000 And interesting.
00:45:42.000 Yeah, see, this is what happened.
00:45:45.000 Poirier...
00:45:49.000 Alvarez, you know, Herb Dean was defending it, saying that Alvarez didn't intentionally knee Poirier.
00:45:56.000 And if I remember the fight, it was a crazy war.
00:46:00.000 Alvarez had been rocked, Poirier had been rocked, Poirier was bloodied, and Alvarez hit him with an unintentional knee that could have Resulted in a disqualification win for Poirier.
00:46:15.000 And Poirier was saying that he looked at it as a win, which is interesting.
00:46:24.000 So, anyway, Poirier rebounded from that fight.
00:46:28.000 Obviously, and stopped Anthony Pettis in his last fight.
00:46:33.000 So the division is just crazy and unbelievably hot right now.
00:46:39.000 And everybody waiting to see what the fuck happens with Conor McGregor rebounding.
00:46:43.000 But Eddie Alvarez with the no contest and before that the KO loss to Conor McGregor desperately rebounding.
00:46:50.000 He needs a win, and he's coming in there against one of the most fucking savage guys in the division.
00:46:57.000 Justin Gage showed in that Michael Johnson fight what he's made of, and a lot of people were very excited to see him inside the octagon.
00:47:03.000 He had been fighting in the World Series of Fighting and looking like an absolute monster.
00:47:08.000 But against what a lot of people thought was just not the same caliber of competition as the UFC offered.
00:47:16.000 And so they wanted to see what would happen if he fought a real world class fighter.
00:47:21.000 And what we saw in the Michael Johnson fight is a Justin Gaethje who fights...
00:47:26.000 I don't want to say reckless, but he puts himself in danger.
00:47:31.000 And it's one of the things that makes him so exciting.
00:47:33.000 He forces his will on people.
00:47:34.000 He's a ferocious striker and an excellent wrestler as well.
00:47:39.000 And just fucking puts it on fighters.
00:47:42.000 He tests their will.
00:47:44.000 He puts tremendous pressure on fighters.
00:47:47.000 And the fight with Michael Johnson was just...
00:47:52.000 A pleasure to watch.
00:47:53.000 Just so much fun and so fucking crazy.
00:47:57.000 There was so much chaos in that fight.
00:47:59.000 And a lot of people were introduced to Justin Gaethje from that fight.
00:48:04.000 The hardcore fans had known him already from the World Series of Fighting and had heard about him through the internet.
00:48:09.000 But the UFC fans and the people that were watching that night, they really got a chance to be treated to just the kind of chaotic fight That is really going to bring the casual fan, when they see a guy like Justin Gagey fight, it's really going to make you...
00:48:31.000 A fan of this kid.
00:48:33.000 Just his style.
00:48:35.000 There's very few guys.
00:48:36.000 I mean, other than Matt Brown, who I talked about before.
00:48:40.000 But even Matt Brown is capable of winning so many different ways.
00:48:44.000 Whereas Gagey, he's going to probably try to knock you out.
00:48:49.000 I mean, he's even said himself that he might get knocked out.
00:48:52.000 You're probably going to see me get knocked out, he said.
00:48:55.000 Over the next few years, he's got that mindset, this kill or be killed mindset.
00:49:00.000 And it's just absolutely fascinating to see this kid compete inside the octagon because he's so fucking crazy because he's such a fucking animal inside the octagon.
00:49:12.000 He's just got this undeniable killer instinct and indomitable spirit.
00:49:20.000 There's levels to this game.
00:49:22.000 There's levels physically, and he's at a very high level physically, but there's also levels mentally.
00:49:28.000 And that's what excites me about Justy Gagey, is the mental level.
00:49:33.000 He just has zero quit in him, and he's 100% ferocious.
00:49:38.000 So him fighting a fucking animal like Eddie Alvarez, that's just a recipe for a good time.
00:49:46.000 And we're going to get to see that.
00:49:48.000 And we're going to get to see that next Saturday night, live on pay-per-view.
00:49:53.000 Woo!
00:49:54.000 So, how long have we been doing this here?
00:49:57.000 49 minutes?
00:49:59.000 Boy, I can fucking talk a lot, huh?
00:50:02.000 So also on the undercard, here's another fight that's a big fight.
00:50:06.000 This is Charles Oliveira versus Paul Felder.
00:50:10.000 Paul Felder continues to impress.
00:50:12.000 I'll tell you what, Paul Felder is a fucking phenomenal commentary guy too.
00:50:17.000 He did...
00:50:18.000 Commentary guy?
00:50:19.000 Color commentator.
00:50:20.000 He did a fantastic job doing commentary for Dana White's Tuesday Night Fight Show, the Tuesday Night Contenders Show, and he's done some UFC events now as well and just excellent.
00:50:34.000 Great enthusiasm, very knowledgeable, great talker, smart, articulate guy.
00:50:40.000 And he's fighting Charles Oliveira Saturday night.
00:50:43.000 Now, Charles Oliveira is a guy who has had mixed success inside the octagon.
00:50:48.000 At his best, he's been incredible.
00:50:50.000 And he shows a great range of very technical striking and very, very solid Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
00:50:57.000 But he's had some tough losses.
00:51:01.000 The KO loss to Cub Swanson.
00:51:05.000 He burst onto the scene with an amazing victory.
00:51:12.000 Way, way back in the day.
00:51:14.000 See, this is not even...
00:51:15.000 Efrain Escudero was his second fight inside the octagon, actually.
00:51:19.000 And he got him by standing, rear naked choke.
00:51:21.000 That was a big fight, because Efrain Escudero had won the Ultimate Fighter, and it was a big victory for him.
00:51:27.000 And he went down.
00:51:31.000 He lost to Cowboy Cerrone.
00:51:34.000 He got KO'd in the first round.
00:51:38.000 He lost to Jim Miller.
00:51:39.000 He got submitted.
00:51:41.000 And then the Cubs wants in KO.
00:51:43.000 He got beat up by Frankie Edgar in a very fun fight.
00:51:47.000 Three round unanimous decision.
00:51:50.000 Then Max Holloway put it on him and stopped him in the first round.
00:51:56.000 Then Anthony Pettis submitted him.
00:51:59.000 So he's had some ups and downs.
00:52:02.000 Ricardo Lamas finished him by submission in the second round.
00:52:08.000 So he beat Will Brooks by submission in the first round of his last fight and got back on track.
00:52:14.000 Looked excellent in that fight and fought that fight.
00:52:18.000 It was a real do-or-die fight for him against Will Brooks, a guy who was coming over from Bellator, a guy who was very talented, and Oliveira wound up submitting him.
00:52:28.000 It was a big victory for him.
00:52:30.000 And in my opinion, this is one of the most dangerous fights for him right now at this stage of his career because Paul Felder is a fucking killer.
00:52:39.000 He's an animal.
00:52:40.000 He's very, very strong physically.
00:52:42.000 He's a big 155 pounder, whereas Oliveira is a smaller 155 pounder, a guy who's fought at 145 before, but just really had a hard time making that weight.
00:52:52.000 Felder's going to have a power and strength advantage, and Oliveira is going to have to be crafty.
00:53:00.000 And in my opinion, his best way to win this fight is to get this fight to the ground.
00:53:04.000 And that's going to be a tall order, a very tall order.
00:53:07.000 Felder is just a very aggressive, very durable and extremely aggressive guy at 155 pounds.
00:53:17.000 Can I say aggressive one more time?
00:53:19.000 I really loved his fight against...
00:53:21.000 Well, he's had some amazing fights inside the octagon.
00:53:26.000 But what I liked...
00:53:28.000 I liked his fight against Barboza because the Barboza fight showed him against one of the very best strikers in the division.
00:53:37.000 And he got outstruck.
00:53:39.000 He lost that fight.
00:53:41.000 But he was in it every second of the fight.
00:53:43.000 And he was trying to win up until the very end.
00:53:47.000 He's had some ups and downs inside the octagon, but he's won two in a row, both by knockout, both in the first round.
00:53:55.000 And the Barboza fight and the Ross Pearson fight were two decision losses that he got, a split decision against Ross Pearson.
00:54:03.000 He beat Danny Castillo in a spectacular spinning backfist knockout.
00:54:09.000 Jason Sago before that.
00:54:12.000 And The Barboza fight, I think, was just a good example of where this guy's heart is at.
00:54:20.000 Fought against one of the best and fastest strikers in the division and was in it to the end.
00:54:25.000 It was a real learning experience for him.
00:54:27.000 And that was also fight of the night.
00:54:30.000 I think Felder, at this stage of his career, is really coming into his own.
00:54:35.000 I don't think he's in his prime yet.
00:54:36.000 I think at 33 years of age, we're starting to see the very best of him.
00:54:41.000 He's got an incredibly bright future.
00:54:43.000 But also, you've got to realize at 33 years of age, you've got to get after it right now.
00:54:48.000 I mean, this is the time for him.
00:54:50.000 And for Oliveira, Oliveira's got to capitalize on that victory that he just had over Will Brooks.
00:54:59.000 And, you know, he's a little bit younger at 28 and still got massive potential and an incredible amount of experience for a guy who's 28 years old.
00:55:08.000 So this fucking card is just stacked.
00:55:10.000 This card is stacked from top to bottom.
00:55:13.000 I mean, you've got Cowboy Oliveira versus Yancey Medeiros is on that fight and David Tamer is on that fight card as well against Drakkar Close.
00:55:24.000 Now, that's a fucking sleeper.
00:55:27.000 That's the big sleeper fight there because David Tamer is a fucking vicious striker.
00:55:34.000 I mean real world class striker and he's only 28 years old and David Tamer really let everybody know what the fuck is up when he fought Lando Venata.
00:55:45.000 A lot of people had no idea who he was up until that fight even though he had won two fights in a row by KO in the octagon.
00:55:56.000 When you got to see that kid compete against a really talented striker like Lando Venata and just outstrike him every step of the way, you really got to see how good he is.
00:56:07.000 And again, at 28 years of age, I don't think we've seen the best of him yet.
00:56:11.000 I think he has just got a massive, massive amount of potential.
00:56:15.000 And that's the fight that I think is the big sleeper fight on this card.
00:56:19.000 A lot of people are just not quite aware of it.
00:56:23.000 And the guys fighting Drakkar close, 8-0 with one draw and very fucking dangerous fighter as well.
00:56:31.000 You know, he's coming from two victories in a row in the UFC and this will be his probably his most dangerous fight against Tamer.
00:56:41.000 Tamer is just a Wild, fast, dynamic striker with legit world-class kickboxing Muay Thai skills.
00:56:50.000 Very, very fun card.
00:56:53.000 So that's going to be next Saturday night.
00:56:54.000 Also, Tisha Torres is going to be fighting the Karate Heidi, Michelle Watterson.
00:57:02.000 That should be a fun fight as well.
00:57:04.000 Tisha Torres, who's an outstanding striker, and Michelle Waterson, who employs a lot of that karate style as well.
00:57:11.000 We're talking about that sideways stance.
00:57:14.000 She's got good kickboxing skills as well, good submission skills.
00:57:18.000 And Tisha Torres is going to most likely try to keep this fight on the feet.
00:57:22.000 This should be a lot of fun.
00:57:24.000 I mean, Michelle lost her last fight to Rose Namajunas.
00:57:28.000 But she beat Paige Van Zandt by submission before that in a very, very impressive fight.
00:57:35.000 Angela Magana, she beat her by submission before that.
00:57:38.000 And Jessica Panay, she beat her in Invicta.
00:57:41.000 By decision before that.
00:57:44.000 And she's got a lot of hype behind her.
00:57:48.000 One, because she's got a unique style.
00:57:51.000 She's fighting out of Jackson's in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
00:57:55.000 And she's also a very beautiful young lady.
00:57:58.000 And of course, people like that.
00:58:00.000 That's a very interesting fight.
00:58:01.000 The whole card, this is like a great card from top to bottom.
00:58:04.000 It should be a lot of fun.
00:58:05.000 But again, the sleeper fight, like I said, is David Tamer and Jakar Close.
00:58:10.000 Keep an eye on Tamer.
00:58:11.000 That motherfucker is wild.
00:58:14.000 Oliveira versus Felder should be a lot of fun.
00:58:17.000 Alvarez versus Gage.
00:58:18.000 Do not go to the bathroom.
00:58:20.000 Do not get popcorn while that fight is going on.
00:58:22.000 As long as at last, that fight will be chaos.
00:58:26.000 I think Cejudo versus Pettis is going to be a very interesting test to see where Pettis is at this stage of his career and to see if Cejudo can continue to show these massive jumps and leaps of improvement that he showed in his last fight against Wilson Hayes.
00:58:41.000 The Overeem and Gano fight.
00:58:44.000 Fucking A, man.
00:58:45.000 That could be chaos.
00:58:46.000 I am interested to see whether or not Francis and Gano can catch Alistair Overeem or whether or not he finds himself against a guy who's far too crafty for him at this stage of his career.
00:58:58.000 I mean, we really don't know.
00:59:00.000 He fought...
00:59:02.000 Arlovsky in his last fight, but with all due respect, I do not believe that Arlovsky is in the same category as Overeem.
00:59:10.000 I think Overeem represents another level of danger.
00:59:13.000 And on top of that, Overeem is a very good ground game that a lot of people are forgetting about.
00:59:18.000 Overeem won the Abu Dhabi European Trials.
00:59:21.000 He submitted Vitor Belfort.
00:59:23.000 I mean, Overeem has legitimate submission skills.
00:59:26.000 Submitted Mark Hunt.
00:59:28.000 Overeem can submit guys.
00:59:29.000 He's got good wrestling skills as well.
00:59:32.000 Got to remember, he took Stefan Struve to the ground with a beautiful takedown that TKO'd him when he got him to the ground.
00:59:38.000 He may choose to try to take Francis Ngannou to the ground.
00:59:41.000 We might see that.
00:59:42.000 We don't know.
00:59:44.000 It's a very interesting fight to see where Ngannou is at this stage of his career and the biggest test of his career so far.
00:59:52.000 A fight that Overeem was looking for.
00:59:54.000 Overeem believes that he has the skills to put Ngannou in his place and reestablish himself as the number one contender in the heavyweight division.
01:00:03.000 That makes me very happy to see that fight.
01:00:06.000 I'm very pumped.
01:00:06.000 And then, of course, for all the marbles in the featherweight division, Max Holloway versus Jose motherfucking Aldo for the title.
01:00:15.000 You know, with a guy like Aldo, you've got to remember, you're talking about a guy who was the best ever at featherweight for a long fucking time.
01:00:24.000 You're talking about a guy that, up until that Conor McGregor fight, had beaten everybody that they put in front of him.
01:00:30.000 He rebounded fantastic from that fight with the Frankie Edgar fight, then got beat down by Max Holloway.
01:00:36.000 I want to see where he's at right now.
01:00:38.000 I want to see whether or not he can rebound.
01:00:41.000 And I want to see after 29 professional MMA fights at the highest level, at 31 years of age, does he still have what it takes to fight at a world championship level?
01:00:51.000 And can he come back better than ever?
01:00:54.000 Now, with Max Holloway, he's a fucking killer.
01:00:57.000 Max Holloway has everything you want to see in a champion, a championships mindset.
01:01:02.000 And the way he wanted to go down at 25 years of age, too, I mean, just keeps getting better.
01:01:08.000 He's not even near his prime.
01:01:11.000 The way he wanted to go down to Brazil and beat Jose Aldo in Rio.
01:01:16.000 And the way he said it, that he wanted to fight him in his country.
01:01:20.000 And that's what kings do.
01:01:22.000 They go to the other person's kingdom and take their throne.
01:01:26.000 And that's what he did.
01:01:28.000 Very exciting fight.
01:01:29.000 So I'm fucking pumped for next Saturday night.
01:01:32.000 Now, to answer some of the criticisms and questions, a lot of people have been saying, hey man, you should probably do this with guests.
01:01:38.000 I am absolutely going to do this with guests.
01:01:41.000 The only reason why I didn't do this one with a guest is because I'm in Hawaii, bitch!
01:01:46.000 I'm on vacation.
01:01:47.000 And I felt like I owed everybody one because I said I was going to do one of these things every week.
01:01:51.000 But the next one I do, I will bring in a guest.
01:01:53.000 And I'm going to try to bring in more fighters.
01:01:57.000 I think this is the best way, I think, to do a fighter podcast.
01:02:03.000 I'm definitely going to do more where I just sit down and do a regular podcast with them for the JRE podcast.
01:02:10.000 But when it comes to just a straight MMA podcast, I'm going to do...
01:02:14.000 Quite a few of these.
01:02:15.000 Bring guys in.
01:02:16.000 Bring some guys in that are interesting that I don't think maybe some of you folks have never heard talk before.
01:02:24.000 So that'll be cool.
01:02:26.000 I'm also going to ask questions or have you guys ask questions.
01:02:31.000 So what I'm going to do is for the next one, I'm going to put a post up on Instagram and allow you guys and gals and non-binary folks to put...
01:02:42.000 How long do we have to say that for?
01:02:45.000 Non-binary.
01:02:46.000 How many of you are out there that are non-binary?
01:02:49.000 Is it really important to address you?
01:02:50.000 Do you feel left out if I don't?
01:02:53.000 Humans.
01:02:53.000 I'm going to allow all of you humans to ask questions, and we'll pick some good ones and throw those out there as well in the podcast.
01:03:04.000 So that's it for now.
01:03:06.000 Next week, I got some good guests this week.
01:03:09.000 I've got some really fucking funny people.
01:03:11.000 I have C.T. Fletcher, who's – I'm sure he's funny, but he's also a powerlifting legend.
01:03:16.000 He's going to be here.
01:03:19.000 Owen Smith, the guy that I've been telling you folks about who's, in my opinion, one of the funniest motherfuckers on the planet Earth and a guy people are sleeping on.
01:03:27.000 People just don't know how good Owen Smith is.
01:03:30.000 He'll be here.
01:03:33.000 Brian Callen will be here this week.
01:03:35.000 I got a lot of good guests this week.
01:03:36.000 So...
01:03:37.000 That's it for now, friends.
01:03:39.000 And thank you for tuning in to episode two of the JREMMA show.
01:03:46.000 And I'll talk to you guys soon.
01:03:48.000 Okay.
01:03:49.000 All right.