Club Shay Shay - Daniel Cormier Part 1 - Club Shay Shay

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have we ever seen someone in that sport that possessed
the arsenal that he had.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, he's by far the most talented person that we've
had in next martial arts.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
When he beat me, I was that was the best
you've ever been. I'd never been better.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Let's just say, for the sake of argument, you're three
years apart, and now y'all move up for y'all light heavyweight.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Nah, he wasn't beating a heavy.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
All my life, grinding all my life, sacrifics, hustle, pa price,
one slice got the bronic geist. Swat all my life.
I be grinding all my life, all my life, grinding
all my life, sacrifics, hustle, patic price, one slice got
the bronic geist, swatch all my life. I'd be grinding

(00:40):
all my life.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Hello, Welcome to another episode of Club Sha Shay. I
am your host, Shannon Sharp. I'm also the proprid of
Club Sha Sha stopping by for conversation and a drink today.
Is one of the most accomplished and decorated fighters in
MMA history. He's one of the great mixed martial artists
of all times, a warrior in the Opt to God,
a champion in every MMA organization he's competed in it.
A former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion and Heavyweight Champion, He's

(01:07):
the second fighter in UFC history to hold titles in
two weight classes simultaneously. He's the first fighter in the
UFC to win and defend both the light heavyweight and
the heavyweight belts.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
A UFC Hall of.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Famer, a two time Olympian, three time Louisiana state champion,
an All American freestyle wrestler, color commentator, world class talent,
a master on the microphone, a father, a husband, and legend.
DC could stand for double Champion, but in this case
it stands for Daniel Cormier.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
Mom, Man, I.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Say it again, when you say it all, When you
say it all, man, I'm gonna tell you when you
say it all, this something Because I grew up in Louisiana,
I never could have imagined.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Really, it's life.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I swear to God I never could have imagined. And
to hear all that, man, that was a right man.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Thanks for stopped by Club sha May you know when
you stopped by Club shay Shaw, you know you got
to have a taste of the yeah shave. Yeah, man,
it's good it's great.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
You know anything about Conye.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
No, I don't, but let me I'm gonna try that
always smell strong.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Too, ye see witsh it around.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well that's pretty good. It don't even really yeah see
it ain't got that bike that I was back a
little bit so my daddy drinking like Southern comfort and
stuff like.

Speaker 3 (02:27):
Yeah, set your hair off. Yeah no, no, no, no, no,
it's nice and smooth. Yeah, it's easy. See. We gotta
get you something. We get something for you, old man.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
That's actually really good.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Yeah see, that's really good.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
Let me ask you when you hear what I read
off And you and I were talking before we started
this interview, and you was talking about growing up in
Louisiana and the expectations of now you're in media. Did
you expect any of this to happen? This be your
life at your age now?

Speaker 2 (02:55):
No, shon, I was. I was a kid that I
didn't do. I grew up in Lafayette, right, so it's
not the best place, right, But I followed everybody, so.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
I did everything they did.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
So when I was in high school my freshman year,
I was a kid that failed off the wrestling team.
I was a kid that had to go to summer
school to get to tenth grade. I did all kinds
of bad stuff until I started getting better wrestling, and
then I realized like, wait, this wrestling can take me somewhere. Right,
But even after that, I never thought that I would
have jobs doing what I do with the volume, working

(03:26):
at ESPN, working at Fox that I used to get
a lot of similarities, right, but like having those opportunities,
I never could have imagined doing that because I didn't
even go to I didn't go to college for media,
but IM just did. You went to college to play sports.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
And normally the best people that are in media didn't
go to college for media. Yes, especially when they do
what we do now. Obviously you know the play by
play and things of that. You know obviously, but to
sit and talk about a sport, it really helps if
you played that sport and you can speak through personal experience.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
Absolutely, and that's what people want to hear. The actually
want to hear when you are talking as the guy
that played the tight end, the guy that's in the
Pro Football Hall of Fame, when you're talking about football, yes,
because they know, well, he been in the trenches and
that's what I do when it comes to fighting, I
can explain something in real fine detail. Yes, because there's

(04:17):
no position. I haven't experienced the good and the bad
in my career.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
I'm gonna take it from this approach. You got a
late start to MMA, yep. And getting a late start
that didn't deter you, because now I'm looking at you
what you were able to accomplish later in your career.

Speaker 3 (04:39):
I mean, it's how is that possible? DC?

Speaker 2 (04:41):
So I walked into that gym at thirty and a half.
I turned thirty one in March. I only fought for
ten years and at forty one I should have been done.
But the money I got too good.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Money get good at the end.

Speaker 2 (04:53):
Yeah, the money get good at the end whenever you
aren't supposed to be doing it anymore. But I kept fighting.
But I want that gym. But because of my background
in wrestling, it gave me like a massive head start.
So I went out to San Jose. I went to
multiple gyms recruiting. They were trying to get me the train.
But I walked into AKA BRO I saw King Velasquez.

(05:14):
I was like, Yo, that dude is who I want
to fight like. And if I can train alongside him,
it will lead me to being one of the best.
But at thirty one years old, I was essentially making
my MMA debut.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Because normally guys that are really really good, they start
obviously you got a wrestling background, yep, but they've been
doing this for an extremely long period of tear a
time and you just basically, I mean, thirty years old
with a wrestling background, but you got to be multi
faster than to be really good in the UFC. The
more around it you are, the better you are. If
you're one dimensional, you're not going to have You're gonna

(05:46):
have a very short shelf life in that sport.

Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Not today.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
You can't.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
You definitely cannot be one dimensional today. Right back in
the day, you remember Roy's gracing those guys I do.
They would walk with the jiu jitsu chain, you had
the jiu jitsu gud and you had the big boxing.
One brother went I with one glove on.

Speaker 3 (06:00):
His name was R. Jaffison. He went out there one glove.

Speaker 1 (06:04):
Can't do that this The first two fights there were
in Denver, Colorado. I saw him UFC. Really yeah, you went.
I went, see that's crazy.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
I was telling day to the story. You actually went
to watch it.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
I went to watch it because you know, there's like, okay,
and you know, listening to him, what is gonna be, Well,
we're gonna see if a karate guy could beat this
guy and a big guy could beat that guy. And
I'm like, okay, so what about the class and they're like,
ain't no way class.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
I'm like, hold on him.

Speaker 1 (06:27):
So a guy one twenty five could literally be fighting
somebody you seventy five like yeah, I was like, I
don't think this goes in well.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
But that's what drew you in. And then Royce wins
and he's one hundred and sixty five once.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
Yes, I'm looking at his little dude said you about
to get the brakes beat on you? And he got
his he got his you, he got his suit on
his wild yeah, and I'm like, what's he doing and
he's like literally trying to lay down. I'm like, I
don't think this because cause I ain't never even no DC,
I don't know nobody, no Virginia Jitsu.

Speaker 3 (06:54):
And he's like laying down. I'm like, what you're doing?

Speaker 2 (06:57):
You going on there?

Speaker 3 (06:58):
Yeah exactly, and you're going on with him. They were
in trouble.

Speaker 2 (07:01):
But i had to grow so that My manager still
to this day, Dwayne, he calls me when I graduated
college at Oklahoma State. He goes, Hey, there's this sport.
This is two thousand and one. He goes, there's a
sport that's gonna take over. It's gonna be MMA. It's fighting.
Have you ever been in a fight like in your life?
I started laughing at him. I said, I grew up

(07:23):
in Louisiana. I have to fight all the time. And
I think that that even though even though Shanon like
we don't, I'm pretty sure you grew up down in
the South, Yeah, and you had to fight at times
even though we are doing it correctly.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Somebody's trying to punch you. Yes, you're trying to punch somebody.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
So then when somebody taught me to punch, like, okay,
this is how it's done the right way correct.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
So it allowed for me to adjust to it much faster.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
And I wasn't scared, like that's the biggest thing with wrestlers,
especially being scared to get hit. You cannot be scared.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
How is it that.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
We're starting to see more athletes DC dominate In the forties,
when we saw a guy like yourself. You see a
Lebron James, you saw a Tom Brady. You see guys
that are playing at extreme because normally guys they're gone
by the time they get to the mid thirties. They're gone,
especially in your sport. Even in football, guys ain't playing
that long. And every once in a while you get
a Kareem, I'll do it, Jaba, that'll be But he's

(08:16):
a big guy and he doesn't need to get up and.

Speaker 3 (08:18):
Down the court.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
But to see Tom play until he's what forty three,
forty four years of age, yourself fighting at forty one, Yeah,
that's the whole. Lebron still being able to be play
at the level he's playing at. Why do you think
guys are being able to do things to this level much.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Longer because of the access to recovery. I think athletes
are smarter today. Those guys are very young. So when
we're younger, like you're in your twenties, you're in your thirties,
you're superman. You go to sleep, you jump out of bed,
you go to train every day. But then as you
start to get older and the body starts to ache
a little more. But those guys in their twenties and
thirties are not. They're not rejecting the body anymore. They're

(08:58):
saying that twenty five. While I may feel great, I
know there are like problems underlying, yes for me that
I need to address address, make sure that I'm straight.
And I think that's why they're playing so long. But
they're playing at an elite level. I remember when paid
Manny went to Denver. He set it himself. He goes,
I can't throw the ball down the field, he goes,
But I will manage a game every now and again.
I'll give you one that goes a little deeper, right,

(09:19):
he goes, But I'm managing the game because at the
point we were still kind of living in that world
where you just age and then you age out. And
even Aaron Rodgers right now, right, we'll see what happens
this year, but last year he just didn't look like
the same guy and caught him to him quick.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
Right going into a fight, Because like you said, when
you're young, you feel invincible, you feel you can't lose.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
As you start to get age, you're like, I'm not
as quick as I once was.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
My reaction time is not the same, My defense mechanisms
are not the same. My spidery senses don't tingle like
they was telling I'm not processing information.

Speaker 3 (09:56):
You know what I'm saying. The computer at the end
of it, it works. You back on you exactly right.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
But DC, I mean for you to do I mean
you went in there and you did what you did
to Steve Pig Like, what's what did you was your
thought process?

Speaker 3 (10:14):
Did you?

Speaker 1 (10:14):
Like, man, I'm getting older, Did you do any did
you train any different?

Speaker 2 (10:17):
So at thirty nine I didn't, So I didn't at
thirty nine. This is the craziest shit ever. So thirty
nine starts, yes, right. In two thousand and seventeen, I
lost to John Jones and Anaheim. So they called me, Hey,
you want to fight another fight? It was like September October.
I said no, I said, so the first time I'd

(10:38):
been knocked out in my life, Like in my life, Shannon,
like in football, I would hit people and you kind
of buzz yeah, yeah, yeah. I was knocked dail wrung
and all it was was my bell just got wrong. Right,
you go back to playing. I got knocked out, man like,
he kicked me in ahead and he hit me with
a bunch of follow up shots and it put me out, like, hey,
I remember, I can tell you right now. This was

(10:59):
in two I was a seventeen the moment that fight finished,
all the way back to the ambulance. I still can't
recall that time. Really, I can't make myself remember what happened.
I try. I try now, even that night, to go, man,
what happened in that ten to fifteen minutes. Dude. There's
a video on me crying with Joe Rogan. He's interviewing

(11:22):
me after the fight. But I'm so concussed that I'm
crying in the outdown because I just lost the biggest
fight of my career. They called me to fight again
and I said no. I said, I'm gonna let my
brain rests until the end of next year or the
beginning next year. I fight in January at thirty nine.
I feel great, go into I win the belt back.
I beat step A in July and I'm fine. I
feel no age because of a late start, right, I'm

(11:45):
only doing this seven years now, eight years because of
a late start. At thirty nine, I become the double champ.
I defend the Belton Madison Square Garden. Everything's great, But
on that morning of that fight with Derrick Lewis. I
get up to do my shakeout, I go run hit
my pad. As I'm on the treadmill, I'm like, God,
I'm like, I don't feel great this morning. Like I'm
kind of like a Q right, Shannon, I'm running. I sneeze,

(12:07):
bro When I sneeze, threw my back out. What threw
my back out? I sneezed so violent that, yes, I see,
so violently my back went out. So now I'm stuck
hunched over. Mind you, At one am tonight, I've gotta
walk to that. I'm gonna fight Derek Lewis. You can't
lose the main event on the day. So then they
coming there. They massage me, they give me a stem

(12:30):
cell treatment. They get me up in about around five
o'clock in the afternoon.

Speaker 3 (12:33):
I go fight.

Speaker 2 (12:34):
One month after that, I'm in the gym training. I
kicked Kane's leg. He checks it, tingo goes all the
way up my leg. The disc sits on my sciatica.
Now I'm paralyzed almost and from that moment on, I
just was not the same guy. It took one incident.
A sneeze essentially ended my career because I never want
to fight again. Steep A beat me the next time,

(12:56):
then he beat me the following that. It's like I
never it was that one thing. So I think these guys,
while they're playing longer, have an ability to go alonger.
But it'll be one thing. Yes, if Lebron gets hurt,
it's not going to be like when he got hurt
in his twenties. He's really gonna that's the.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Thing to bounce back, because when you're younger, the ability
to bounce back. Yeah, I mean an injury that would
keep you down to day all of a sudden, it's
two three days, or maybe it's a week, and an
injury that would keep you down a week. When you're younger,
it's keeping you down two weeks or maybe even a month.
The body just doesn't recover with the football.

Speaker 3 (13:28):
Like what year how old were you when you retired?

Speaker 1 (13:30):
I was I was gonna turn thirty six and too much.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
But you were still relatively young. Yeah, and today's game though,
you're to play three more years? Yes, right, because because
they don't.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
In training camp, we had you know, we're outside twice
a day, we hitting, we have some days we have
two a day practice.

Speaker 3 (13:47):
They're only hit no more, no, no, no, no, they
don't hit. The more we hit.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
They were for real, real hit, and we hit for
real real in college, and we hit for real really
high school.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
So but I think it got our body used to
taking that. We didn't have these little ticket tag injuries
that the guys getting now. But do you think that
because you didn't have the wear and tear that you know, say,
if you had gotten to this like and you're twenty,
like I think John Jones started.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Like John Jones. John Jones started at like nineteen.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Do you think because you didn't have to wear and
tear because, like you said, even though you got I mean,
you had a short sheef, Like, really you don't have
like eight years?

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:24):
Yeah, I fought for eight years. Yeah, I was the champ.
I was in the championship for eight years. I fought
for the belt those last two years. That didn't mean
I was necessarily in the picture, right. I was fighting
for the belt because I have the name value fighting
for the belt, and I'm because I was the champion.
I had to defend. Sure, I was beating Steepe, but man,
by that that old monkey jump on my back in

(14:45):
the third round shit, I would beat the shit out
of him. By the third round, the monkey jump on
my back, I was like, yo, I am exhausted. I
never felt it before. Wow, Yeah, it was crazy.

Speaker 3 (14:53):
It was.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
It is the scariest thing that you could ever imagine
in your life. I've been in some some Harry siuations
inside that octagon, not having the energy to fight because
that dude wants to kill you. Yes, if that like,
if that referee don't take him off of you, he
gonna keep beating you up. Like that's how you got

(15:17):
to approach fighting, right. So it's like, that's a scary
when you're like, you get off that stool and you're like,
oh my god, I don't know how if I got
ten more minutes.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
I forget who it was, but I remember there was
some lady that she like woke. She's like I was
in the ring, and I realized I didn't want to
fight anymore. I was like, you probably want to, like
training or maybe even the night in the back, yes,
but you don't in the ring.

Speaker 3 (15:43):
And she, I forget the name.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
She fought, Yes, she got knocked out. Then she she lost,
She lost, she lost Tate yep, Misa Tate yep.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
I remember her saying.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
That, and I'm like, boy, that's an awful time to
find out you don't want to do something when you're
actually doing it.

Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, there's some questions before every time. Oh yeah, for sure,
every time there's some questions. I used to watch I
used to watch Floyd and all them dudes like in
the ring before when they're introduced. I'm like, how do
they do that? How do they find calm in this
with everything going on around them, with what's at stake?
And I was like, man, I couldn't do it, But

(16:23):
then I would. I would walk to that octagon. It's
the most like you know, like you know right, And
that's why people That's what people don't understand. When you
hit that tunnel for a super Bowl or you hit
that tunnel for a big game, your whole body's on fire.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah you got goose bump, You got goose bumps everywhere?
What's going through your mind?

Speaker 2 (16:42):
Shannon. I'm in the back every time, and I would
go in same routine. I'm from Louise's superstitious. I go
in the back and I go to sleep. People would
look at me like, how can you sleep? Knowing that
in three hours, you're gonna go fight for a world championship.
But I knew that my preparation. I left no stolen turn.

(17:02):
I've done everything, so the result was done. Either I
was gonna win or I was gonna lose, because it
wasn't gonna be something that you did in that I
did wrong. And in that three hours? How do you
settle yourself? I said, because I'm ready, But they would
I would be in the back, I get up, I
do my warm up. Then they would tell me, all right, DC,
you walk in a minute, and you start hearing music.

(17:22):
All right, DC, you we're walking in five four three two,
and it's just nerves. I'm like, how many times should
I have gone left? I went to college, shennon, How
did I end up here? Fighting?

Speaker 3 (17:32):
Man?

Speaker 2 (17:32):
I hit that curtain? Thousands of people eighteen thousand. The
USC does an amazing job of walking you through the crowd,
and the energy is just electric, and they're reaching for you,
and they're they want to pc you, and I couldn't.

Speaker 3 (17:46):
I couldn't even handle it.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
I would run to the octagon because it's just too much.
I'm already jazz. I can't take in any more energy
before I step in there.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Do you see them?

Speaker 1 (17:56):
Because a lot of times you get you get into
a zone DC and you know, like you say it,
like you don't even you don't even see the people.
It's like a com Like I'm in a game and
it's like a com I don't even hear the crowd. Yeah,
it's like everything is just like hush, and all of
a sudden, you catch your path, you tech your touchdown,
and if I can.

Speaker 3 (18:12):
Hear it, yes, it's great.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
But I could like I can't see him because I'm
purposely tunneling on the octagon and have the ability to
go second. So the guy that I'm fighting is already
in there right right, So I'm not standing there way
wait trying to so I'm going second. When I hit that,
when I hit that, that freaking uh, when I hit that,
that step, those steps, I'd walk up and I taped

(18:36):
the tap the octagon. That was some football ship. We
used to always hit the right like I always tap
the octagon. I go in there, Bro, there's Bruce Bruce's
dress to the dime. Yeah, there's some commissioners making sure
we don't fight before and then when they do the
last instruction, then you turn around there's a pen that
they dropped to lock the cage. It makes that sound
right there, that hit the drop. I could hear it

(18:57):
twenty thousand in the arena and you can still hear that.
I can hear that pen. And then I would say
to myself, I swear to God. I would be like,
somebody got dying.

Speaker 3 (19:05):
It ain't gonna be me, you swear to guy. Every time,
I'd be like, somebody gonna die here. I'm about to
make you go, make you go un lock that gate. Yeah,
I'm jump over there.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
You don't either to jump over to run away from
me or they gonna pull me off of you by
the time this is done right. And that was always
my approach because you had to look at it like
life and death.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
He just had it.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
I had so many things I wouldn't eat. I would like,
I'm staying from sex. I wanted to be as primal
as I could be going into the octagon.

Speaker 3 (19:35):
Would you cut? Okay? You had light heavy?

Speaker 1 (19:37):
That weight is two oh five, So now so what
are you coming down from? You coming from two thirty?
You coming from two thirty five? You come from two fifty?
Where you coming from?

Speaker 2 (19:44):
Deep Shannon, my nutritioness, was at my house for a
fight I was supposed to have in January, but I
got hurt the day before things given. He had a turkey, Brian,
a turkey and a brine. It was in a big
old pail. Yeah, it was white dude, Shannon. He was
gonna make us stay, give a dinner, but it was
not gonna be seasoned.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
I got hurt right before Thanksgiving.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
Man, we took that turkey, rints all that shit off,
made it ourself and season it. The next day. I
weigh two hundred and fifty seven pounds. Wait, wait, two
fifty seven.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
And you gotta be two oh five in January.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
January nineteenth, I weighed at two o four point seven.
I was to fifty seven. What that I was huge?
I was big, but like I wasn't tall.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Yeah, I know that's a lot of weight. Look in
a small area deep.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
But when I would walk into the octagon, you could
see where the power was and my ass and my legs.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
Yes, it was like that all this you're really explosive.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Exactly, and it was all in this right while I
was the shorter guy, short arms, Yeah, I had my
torso is not tall, but like it's in my legs
and that's why the explosiveness was always so on on display. Yeah,
it was good, but.

Speaker 3 (20:51):
It was the It is the best.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
It's like walk, dude, when you're on when you're on
that sideline, and the national was playing that feeling. Yeah,
that's what we're feeling, bro, it's the best. It's lily,
I've That's why so many fighters end up on drugs
and messed up because you can't.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
You can't.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
You can't replicate that no, and that's why athletes struggle
once they leave the said sport. It's because you're never
gonna be able to replicate twenty thousand, eighty thousand, however
many thousand. You're never gonna be able to replicate the
locker room. You're never gonna be able to replicate the
bus rides, the plane ride just to come Rodderie. Now,
I don't know, but that's what you missed the most.
That's what that literally is.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
The practices and afterwards just sitting there. Yeah, yeah, I
didn't miss the games.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
I mean, the money was nice, but you just missed
the camaraderie, the laughing and joking, you in the line,
stretching and doing all those things. Yep, you mentioned Anaheim,
you fought John Jones. I think you were thirty five
and he was twenty seven. Yep, if you guys were
comparable ages, is that fight different?

Speaker 2 (21:45):
I think I think there are a lot of I
think there are a lot of reasons why he beat me.
He's I mean, have you met John Jones.

Speaker 3 (21:54):
I haven't.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
John Jones is probably six five six four sixty five.
John Jones's arms are eighty four inches apart. His reach
wow minus seventy two. Yeah, so like he was taller,
like a little so even at the same age, he
would still be taller. Yes, two of his brothers played
in the NFL. One was like really good chance. So

(22:20):
I think I would be better because I would be younger.
But I don't know if I could have been better
in Anaheim because I trained so hard, because he beat
me the first time.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
I've never been better. When he beat me, I was better.
I'd never been better.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
I would have beat everybody else in the world and
in all those weight classes. I was never better than
that night and he beat me, and even the fight
up to the point that he got me, it was
just super competitive. Joe Rogan said something to the effect
of you can clearly see you're watching the two best
lightweights we've ever seen in an octagon because we were
both so locked in. So I don't know that the

(22:56):
age made as much of a difference because I just
think that he has a lot of builten advantages with
his height and his reach, and he's got great timing
and he's tough, dude.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
He's very tough.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Shannon like I would club him upside the head and
he would just keep fighting. He was just and not
many did.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
That, and that's what I wanted.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
What makes him because like you said, okay, he's he's
six foot four and a half, he's sixty five eighty
four inch reach.

Speaker 3 (23:21):
He could punch you. He can take you down.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
He don't hit very hard though his hands. He does
not punch hard. Really no, he does not punch hard.
He so we were I went into the fight. I
talked to Rashad Evans and versatus. He doesn't hit hard,
but he has other weapons. So we first started fighting.
The first time, we trade jabs because I had a
real unique ability because of my athleticism to get to
the jab even though the guy was tall.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
So we jab each other and.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
My nose started bleeding. I was like, well, why my
nose bleed? He don't hit it hard, right, my ship bleed.
His ship bleeding for different reasons.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
But.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Going my ship bleed right, and I'm like, why is
my nose bleeding? I was like, why why ish you bleed?
So anyhow, he uh, we start fighting and I'm like, okay,
but I gotta pressure him because I'm shorter. Yo, you
gotta walk through some razors to get to him. He's
got knees, yes, elbows that. So by the time I

(24:23):
get in, I've been needing the body three times.

Speaker 3 (24:26):
I've been elbowed two times.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
So now I get off, I get my ship going,
and then we get apart. So now I gotta go
all through the razors again to get my offense going again.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
That's what makes him special. He's a special fighter, he
really is.

Speaker 2 (24:40):
And I respect him for what he did inside the Octen,
mainly because he beat me on that night.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
Like and you said, that's the absolute bands DC has
ever ever.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Been, Shannon, I was. I was in such great shape.
My shoulders were like big. I was lifting, I was running,
I was training hard.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
I auditioned, I was well conditioned. I was mopping.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
You was ready to go five if if five, if
five is what is.

Speaker 2 (25:06):
Required, because we went twenty five the first time, yes, right,
so and and my cardial failed me. Okay, so I
was like, I need to be better because it's going
twenty five again. And then ultimately he got me with
the head kit. But uh, I was in shape, man,
I was ready to go. My mind was strong, everything
was ready to go. Get the job done on that night.

(25:27):
But he was he got it done.

Speaker 3 (25:29):
He was what about him?

Speaker 1 (25:30):
What if y'all had moved up, y'all similar ad Let's
just say, for the sake of argument, you three years apart,
and now y'all move up and y'all fight heavyweight.

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Na, he wasn't beat me at heavyweight.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
He couldn't beat you.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
I don't think so, because I was good at heavyweight.
Now I think I was probably better, probably a natural heavyweight,
way that financial weight, like my natural weight. But he
almost admitted it, he said in the time that we
were fighting. He goes, no, I'm not going to fight
him at heavyweight. That would be giving him the advance.

(26:00):
He goes he's bigger than me naturally, and he goes no.
But then like a couple of weeks ago. He was
talking about me fighting. I was like, brou I'm forty
five years old. Man, I'm forty six. Now go fight
the dude that want to fight you. Like he got
a big old he want to fight you, not heavy,
talk about hour be I would beat DC at everywhere. Yo,
I've been I've been retired for five years. My brother,

(26:20):
go fight somebody else, like I'm good fight Tom aspinall.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
When you and John got into it at the at
the press.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Or the very first yeah, what happened? Damn DC, Hey, Shannon,
it's so funny because MMA has struggled to capture the
urban audience.

Speaker 3 (26:45):
Yes, it really has.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
John and I are going to fight the first time
John and I have had We've always had a history
of not getting along great, right, So when the press
conference happened, we came forward to the forehead. I pushed him,
He pushed me. We flew off the octogen that was
right in the middle of football season. In every sports center,
everything led with that, correct, because it was that big.
Lorenzo Fortita told me, he goes, you guys would have

(27:10):
made so much money. He goes, you made great money
in January, but it was six months he goes, if
y'all fought in September, he goes, you can't imagine how
much money you would have made on pay per view.
But because the fire had died down a little bit
after six months past. But we had that moment where
the cameras, the cameras kept recording. It was just we
just didn't like each other. But after the fight, I

(27:32):
was in Newark, New Jersey, walking around like I would
always do, and that's when I realized that being in
there with him had changed the way the public perceived me. Right,
because I'm in a very urban neighborhood, very black, and.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
Everybody's like, hey, hey, hey.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
But I think it was because of what we did
for each other. Hate each other, dislike each other. We
did great business, and we did elevate each other to
the point that when I thought Steve a I was
able to elevate him because of the name recognition I
got from fighting John.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
Look the elephant in the room I saw, Demetrius Johnson says,
because John Jones, the steroid is tied to his name, Yep,
he can't be in the gold Carvers.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
I don't believe that. I don't believe that he should
be considered the grace of fall time.

Speaker 3 (28:21):
I've said that you can't.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
You can't chanting steroids. Yes, in fighting is much different
than anything else in the world.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
They make you stronger, they make you faster, they give you.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
Endurance, recovery ability when you train. That's what you that's
what it That's mainly what steroids does. It allows you
to go there and go hard and go hard tomorrow,
and go hard to day after, and go hard today
after and go hard today after.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
That's when you grow. That's when you become better.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yep, because it gets to a point where're like, damn,
I just I can't get I can't give you everything today.

Speaker 3 (28:54):
Yes, but you can go back to back.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
And that was me at thirty six, right, even know
I was the best I could ever be, the best
I could ever be. I'm working as hard as I
could ever work in my life, knowing that I have
to be ready at thirty six. He's twenty eight, right,
so he's in his prime. He's in his prime. But
that's the fight that he actually tested positive and they

(29:17):
made it a no contest. So while he's doing that,
it's like, like you said, he's able to keep up
with me. Work wise, but exceed it because at a
point I got to say, hey, coach, I gotta take
a morning, man, I need it. Yeah, I have to.
I have to take a morning And I don't know
that he would need to do that. Yeah, so I don't.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
I don't. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
Did you suspect at the time when you were in
there waiting that there's something that might not be on
the up and up?

Speaker 3 (29:42):
No?

Speaker 2 (29:42):
No, no, no no, I didn't suspect. He felt like
he felt like he was always strong. He was always strong,
he was always big, he was always in shape. It
wasn't nothing that surprised me. What sucked was that was
that I felt like I moved past it, right, like, Okay, this.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
Dude beat me twice and shit's over.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
Like there's nothing I'm gonna to be the champion because
if I can't beat nobody else is beating for truth, right,
I was like, if I ain't beating him, the rest
of these dudes ain't beating him, because I know how much, right,
Because when I fight the other ones, I destroy him,
right right.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
Because they don't have the tool but they don't have
the toolbox he got now exactly. And plus he's sixty
five six four and a half. He's long, long limbs,
and he like he has it all. I mean, you
can need.

Speaker 2 (30:28):
If he if you write a check a checklist of
what you want in a fighter. At two oh five,
the heavyweight John Jones, they're talking about the White House.
They're talking about a White House fight.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
Art.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Hey, man, we gotta have some Americans win.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yes, don't you know I don't like John Jones.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Is no secret.

Speaker 3 (30:44):
The whole world knows it.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
I say, man, y'all better put John Jones on there,
because right now we ain't got one American in the
top ten pound for bomb. I said, if y'all want
an American dude to go get a victory, put John
Jones in there because he gonna win. That's what he does. Yes,
But at the end of the day, I still don't believe,
and I agree with DJ. It's like you just can't
have that tie to your name, especially in fighting, and

(31:07):
people call you the greatest of all time. He's the
greatest talent the sport has ever seen.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Have we That's what I was about to ask you,
have we ever seen someone in that sport that possessed
the arsenal that he had no, No.

Speaker 2 (31:20):
He's by far the He's by far the most talented
person that we've had in mixed martial arts in terms
of his his length, his skills, his mind. He's the
most talented guy we've ever had. We've had great fighters,
the Metrix Johnson's was amazing, Kabib is amazing. But Kabib
did it through great determination and hard work. He wasn't
Kabeb wasn't gonna run a basketball and shoot it John Jones.

(31:44):
They got a video John Jones trying to dunk a basketball.
You should see that. That's bad. But obviously he's an athlete.
Look at his family. Yes, right, yeah, yeah, he's the
best athlete we've ever had in terms of in terms
of the best of all time. I would never give
that because of that. Now, he's not the only guy

(32:05):
I fought on steroids. I think that before they started
doing all that testing, all those guys are doing steric Really,
I really do they just they I mean many of
them had popped for steroids before and I fought.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
Them, and they had they had figured out a way
how to cycle on and off.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
So cycle on and off, or uh, cycle on and off,
or they just weren't testing right. I never took a
drug test until I got into the UFC.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
I just went and fought.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
So I don't know what those guys were doing. There
was a guy, now no, they said that this guy
got tested positive for something. They said, Yousada, who was
the testing commission at the time, bro, they got a bit.
They got a bit like I know when they're coming, right.
They would come at six am in the morning, and
I did. I got tested sixty five times from Ysada

(32:53):
from wrestling to them. But look at me, I'm not
on steroids. But they were hitting the numbers. I said
that publicly one time, way back in the day. The
next time they came to them, I was at four
o'clock in the afternoon.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
So they were watching.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
But that because they had gotten like repetitive, they heard
fighter of doing it. One guy popped for something this year.
They got him at ten pm. They said, if they
were to let him go to bed and wake up
the next morning, they came testing him.

Speaker 3 (33:17):
It had been gone twelve hours, twelve hours for that
to get out of his system.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
It's crazy the level of stuff they have out there.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Well, it's just like anything. I mean, they're gonna come
up with something that that's ind and out. They got
these peptides and now see and didn't you didn't you
thought you're gonna have all that bite too. I don't
drink now, I don't got drink, it'll have the bite.
But then the viral video of you finding out that
he tests positive and you used to like you was

(33:49):
just so broken.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
Hard, heartbroken. It's like it's like losing your first girlfriend.
I had a girlfriend growing up, and me and her
we went crazy. Right, you have sex for the first time.
It is all you want to do. I'm checking myself
out of school man to go meet this girl. She
checking herself out of school. She's up in the middle
of the night on the phone because her mom doesn't
let her use the phone. Our parents took us together.

(34:12):
They found out what we were doing. They sat us
in the front yard and told us we could not
see each other anymore.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
That's what it felt like.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Let me tell you something. I'm on the city bus
getting over that.

Speaker 3 (34:24):
I'm thirty five cents. I'm going to her house. Who
was the mama go to work?

Speaker 1 (34:29):
And you said it was like that, I will sign
on labor. I want to fight him.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Heartbroken because I know how hard I had worked. Again,
it was just like, Anaheim, I worked so hard to
prepare myself. We are when you're fighting, that's your business partner.
Imagine you're playing the Kansas City Chiefs and on Sunday
they just don't show up. Think about all week that

(34:55):
they just don't show on. But your game check is
tie to them showing up. Now you're like, hey, man,
you're hurting my business. I ain't know what the first
check looked like when we fought. I want that second
check and about the thing and hopefully we go a
third time, you know what it's like.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
That was the hurd of it.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
And then it was UFC two hundred.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
Man.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
We was we were on Good Morning America together. It
was big and I was like, man, we need a
It was I was heartbroken because it's not just me,
it was my entire team that worked so hard to
make sure I was prepared to fight that night. So yeah,
I said, I'll sign whatever I need to. But Dan,
it was like, come on, Dan, it was like, you

(35:36):
can't do that. You could tell he didn't want to
tell me that.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
You could tell.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
It was like he was like, can I talk to you?
I was like what do you need me? What do
you need? I was staying at the MGM signature because
I always stayed like at that small low one on
the side. He goes, can you come over to the
arena right now? And I was like why. I was like,
it's two in the afternoon. He goes, I want you to.
I have to talk to you out something really important.
So I walk over with my team. He's in the

(36:00):
back of that all way and he tells me and
he goes, we have to talk to the media. I
was like, damn, everything's in place, and I didn't know.
I was still just going about my day like I
was a little cut weight to make for the fight.
And he was like, you have to address the media.
It's horrible. I was up there crying and.

Speaker 3 (36:17):
Shit, yeah, I know people, man, DC, what you crying for? DC?

Speaker 2 (36:20):
Crying every time all drive They hadn't got me crying
multiple times.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Did you drive home from from from Did you fly
after you found out?

Speaker 2 (36:31):
No?

Speaker 3 (36:31):
No, I fought. I fought.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
Remember I fought Anderson Silver. Two days later they got
Anderson to fight.

Speaker 3 (36:36):
Yeah, which was good.

Speaker 2 (36:37):
I actually I got to fight Anderson Silver, which was awesome.
But they got Anderson said yes, not many people would
have done no, no, not two days.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
But is it hard because you're fighting a fight, Because
I've seen people take fights on short notice and kick
the other fighter ass because he's not prepared to fight
that guy. You prepared to fight a guy with one
style and this guy has a different style, and you're like,
and something bad could have happened.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
So I was surprised you even took that.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
So I took the fight because I want, Dude, I
wanted to fight bad. Like when you want you want
to fight, you want to check, you want to fight,
you want to check, but you want to fight right,
like you have all that weight. I was already two
hundred and fifteen pounds, Like, I don't want to go
through all that. And then two months they go, you
gotta do it again, because as a champion, I would
fight two times a year max, right, So I'm like,

(37:26):
I don't want to have to go through that again,
so I would. I fought Anderson and it wasn't a
great fight because again I was so nervous. Dude, I
was in the octagu I looked across and I was like,
the very first UFC I ever went to, I went
to Philadelphia to watch Anderson silverad be Forest Griffin, and
I mean Anderson was flexing on him. He's like moving sideways,
punching him with one hand. Force is just falling down.

(37:48):
He finishes the guy that was the UFC light heavyweight champion.
I was like, damn, this is crazy. I'm fighting Anderson.
I'm in the octagon. I go to the middle. When
I walk back to the size shape, I looked by
him and I said, oh my god, that's actually Anderson Silver.
Sand Like serious, I'm really fighting Anderson Silver.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Yeah. Yeah, that was the.

Speaker 2 (38:08):
First I've never had that happen to me in my life.
It was always somebody's gotta die, except for when I
fought Anderson. I was like like, I don't want to
beat them. I gotta fight and Silver. But then once
I got then I start trying to kick. No, hey,
I never had that problem.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
You don't take you don't take it.

Speaker 2 (38:24):
Dan Henderson was my idol. He was on the Olympic team.
I choke him unconscious. Damn I beat the ship out
of him.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
You don't feel bad.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Hell no, somebody gotta die.

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Somebody gotta get it, all right, When you play your
brother in football, if you play star.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we want to lose. No, I'm
trying to kill I'm trying to kill him and tell
him about it afterward. Yes, John retires and everybody's that.
Hold on, bro, you retired and then two weeks later
you're talking about you and protocol again testing protocol.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
Yeah, that pissed you off, didn't.

Speaker 2 (38:58):
So when he retired, it didn't. I just want him to.
I want to see him fight Tom Aspernau. I just
want him. I wanted to see him fight Tom. He
good Shannon. He literally has everything you want in the heavyweight.
He's big, he's physical, he can wrestle, he's fast. Michael

(39:18):
Bisbee once said to me, oh, man, jell, he could
be like Muhammad Alijah mmma. I said, man, you're going crazy.
I said you. You're a person that works at the company.
You're a person that take people take your opinion seriously.
You cannot be that strong. On one side, he goes,
I swear it's true. He's fighting the guy uh named Sergei,

(39:39):
who had knocked out ten straight people. Nobody can go
around with Sergey. Tom Asperinaux knocks him out in the round,
walks into the thing and hugs Michael Bisbeck. I was
like I thought, I said, Bisbal, I thought you were
like his advocate, you advocating for this dude. But like
he's actually that good, right, and then he beats up
on Curtis Blade. He beats everybody, And so when I
think about it, I'm like, Okay, now we get to

(40:00):
see John. Because John and I did this thing called CounterPunch. Well,
he sat on one side. I sat on the other
with Joe Rogan, and John said it was so it
was crazy because we just hated each other so much.
We're just talking. John said to me, he said, at
the end of the day, I'm better than you because

(40:23):
I'm younger. He goes, you can't beat me in the
basketball game. I go, well, that's debatable. You cannot swim me,
you cannot run me, he said, because every day you
wake up, you're a day older, and you look in
the mirror and you see a thirty six year old man,
and I look in him in my absolute prime, I'm
twenty eight. He said. You can't be better than me

(40:46):
because the laws of life don't allow for a thirty
six year old man to be better than a twenty
eight year old man. When we're doing the same thing.
Tom Aspinall is thirty now John Jones is thirty eight.
See I want to see it on the opposite side.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Because he said, and he said, well he should be favorite,
because you know he's much younger. And I've heard you
and other fighter say, well you were.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
You the whole time.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
The older guy gave you an opportunity, he dropped the latter.
So return the favor and give this guy. You don't
think there's any chance that John can beat him?

Speaker 3 (41:20):
I do.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
That's the problem. If I had I said to MyD
I said, gun to my head. If I had to choose,
I would probably say John Jones wh win. It's all
I've seen him do. I've seen him fight. He's right,
he's everyone. This is always the next best guy. This
guy is gonna beat me. This guy's gonna beat John Jones.
And what does John do? He vanquishes him, he beats him.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
They said that about Gus.

Speaker 2 (41:43):
They said about Gusta, saying about me, saying it about Rashad,
said it about Rampage, said it about Cyril gon I
mean he dirty Cyril gone up.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
I've been the man, have been away for a hundred
years and walked through Cyril Gon like he was like
cerro Gon was me, And that was embarrassing.

Speaker 3 (41:56):
That was DC that was embarrassed. That look DC, that hims.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
Trying to stay off of Cyril Man because I like Cyril,
y know, when Cyril's on the ground, and he looked
at him like, I was like, he looked like he
saw a ghose. He was so in awe of John
that he couldn't even compete with him. I was like, bro,
he about to fight for the world title again. Imagine
if imagine if Cyril Gun winning John go okay, okay,
I'm back.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Yeah, Well, that would piss somebody off. That would piss
people off.

Speaker 2 (42:23):
Because if Cyril beats Tom, because he's Cyril is that
good he is, He's that good.

Speaker 3 (42:29):
He could beat Tom Aspernaut. But Dany ain't gonna let
that happen. What if John's like, yo, yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
You know, Daniel won't let that happen. Daniel will not
let John come back and fight Cyril Gun for the
heavyweight title.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
He's like, no, no, that you gotta fight ultimate move
of all time. I would laugh at that shit.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
I would be happy, like John, You'll you'll get over
that one.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Yeah, okay, you say you can't put John as you go,
give me my Rushmore.

Speaker 2 (42:57):
Fighters, Dimitri Johnson, George Saint, Pierre Kulbe. Kulbee was undefeated,
nobody be him fourth. God, that's where it gets tough.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
That's where it gets tough because you.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
Feel like you want to put Like when we talk
about just accomplishments, no one's more accomplished than a man
the new nest can can I really put her on
the Mount Rushmore of fighting?

Speaker 3 (43:24):
But George Demetrius kubeeb.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
God, there's some good guys. Chuck Ladell was good man.
Chuck Liddell's kind of responsible for us being here. Randy
Cooltur won two titles in his bracket. I think that
fourth place would belong to one.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
Of those guys.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
I think somebody like that because I can't put I
would never put myself up there, right, But I'm like,
right in that four to seven range, I.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
Thought you might put Anderson.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Anderson had the uh Anderson had the steroids right Like,
it was like, I can't put Anderson like I would
like to put Anderson.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
If I'm saying all those guys.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Included, then obviously John and Anderson are on that Mount
Rushaboret But I don't do that. I don't. I refused it.
It's not in fighting. Barry Bonds was in a Hall
of Famer before he even went to San Francisco. Correct, right, Plus,
he's hitting with a baseball bat, He's not punching someone
in the face.

Speaker 3 (44:22):
Women fighters? What did what did Ronda Rowsey do for email?

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Everything?

Speaker 3 (44:29):
For women?

Speaker 2 (44:30):
They know on the record said I will never have
women fighting in the UFC or something very close to that.
Then Ronda came along and she just opened up the floodgates.
And now Dana goes very in his life, very rarely
does he make decisions where he's like, I really messed up.
He openly goes. Ronda Rowsey coming in and making me

(44:52):
take on female fighting. He's one of the best decision
I've ever made because it gave me a man, the
new nest. He gave me Jeang Wayne Lee, Valentina chef Chenko.
It's like all these women to have an opportunity because
of Ronda. No, Rhonda Ralsee like, I don't know if
women still today fighting the UFC, that's how important she is.

Speaker 3 (45:09):
Could she have been better?

Speaker 2 (45:11):
I think she was at the right time. Also right,
the girls just weren't well rounded enough to compete with her.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
And when she got somebody that will's well around.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
They You saw what Amanda did to I saw Holly Holm.

Speaker 3 (45:23):
That was probably the beginning of the end, wasn't it.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Yeah, you know again like you know when it's done.
But at the end is when the money gets better
than them men. So yeah, she couldn't have beat them.
If she couldn't have beaten Holly, she was not going
to beat Amanda, No, but I think it was just
such a great pull to have her back that she didn't.

Speaker 1 (45:43):
You mentioned this the UFC at the White House, Danna. Look,
I was at the when they had it at the sphere.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
I went.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
It was amazing. It was amazing. And I wouldn't put anything.
If Danna say they're gonna have a fight on the moon,
I don't know where their line flying to the B,
but it's gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (46:02):
It's gonna happen. If he's saying they're gonna have it
on the White House lawn.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
Now, I don't know how they go pad everybody down
and frisk everybody to do background checks because and maybe
it's just closed circuit and they're really only a handful
of staff there.

Speaker 2 (46:17):
No, no, I think it's gonna be an event. They
said they want twenty thousand in there at.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
The White House.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
At the White House, they got an East egg hunt
the White House when.

Speaker 3 (46:25):
He put twenty eight thousands. But them kids, I didn't.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Shannon, short of God, Shanon, I sort of got. I
was not believing it until I saw that they have
that Easter egg hunting.

Speaker 3 (46:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
I was like, wow, well that it's possible. Because right now,
when when Trump goes to a fight, yeah, we get
background checks.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Yes, the night before they go to.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
The arena, they're shit sweeping sweeping the fight before he
shows up. I don't know, but they I told Dana
this recently. We were in New Orleans and I said,
you're going to the White House for real? He goes,
I said, because you said we got a year, we're
a year away. Yeah, he was talking about he was

(47:06):
talking about something on an interview, and he goes, we
still got a year. The world's gonna change in MMA.
By that point, I said, you're speaking in definites. I go,
this is happening. Yes, We're we're gonna go watch a
fight at the White House. That's crazy.

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Speaker 1 (48:53):
You said, look, we don't have really any Americans in
the pound for pound top ten.

Speaker 3 (48:59):
And we just can't have.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
You know, barn is coming in and win in all
the fighting at the White House, so we got to
you gotta put John Jones.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
John called, but I'm calling him Captain of America. But
but somebody gotta win.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
But Dana don't.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
But Dana wants for sure things, knows that guys are
gonna be he can count on.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
I think he's gonna fight at the White House. He
has to he has to fight at the White House, jont.
I mean, I don't know why he won't fight this, dude,
I said this if I was still fighting out a
fall time Asphal already. I just want to did it.
Like the bigger the challenge, the better, like go prove yourself.

(49:43):
But I don't know why he'll do it. But he
might have to fight Tom Asphal. Like you said, Dana's
gonna make him fight Tom.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
What I mean, how much money would they need for
DC to come out of retirement the White House?

Speaker 3 (49:55):
Yeah, they got twenty million for you.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Still not doing a shit. Say, I can't trade, I
can't train. I go, let dude, I'm doing CrossFit, I
do little. I was just today practicing and how I'm
gonna do su more uh dead lifts. I'm like, I'm
doing supermore dead lifts. I'm like that's I'm just getting
excited to go do my supermo dead lifts and say, hey,
I can't find because I can't. I can't.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
I was.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
I was sparring the other day.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
I started.

Speaker 2 (50:20):
I started a team of guys that I'm training and
helping career their career.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
I was sparring.

Speaker 2 (50:26):
One of them punched me in my rib with a
straight right hand boot right here, dude. It was the
most painful shot I taken. My rib come out, right,
my rib come out. I'm in pain, Shaan. I can't
get off my couch. I'm just like every time I
get off my couch, I'm rolling to my knees to
then push up because I can't squeeze my core. Every

(50:48):
time I squeeze, my cord hurts and I get I go,
I go take a nap. I'm just sleeping. I guess
I'm because I'm sleeping rolling I sleep, I roll over
the top of it, pop it back in place. But
I'm like, I couldn't do this every day like I
used to. I always had separated ribs of black guys.
I just couldn't do that anyware. This life is too comfortable.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
What I do now. You make good living. You don't
need to go big punch kicks.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
I don't want to fight no more man plus like,
come on, go put some paths on, go tackle somebody.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
No no artificial hells bone. I'm good. The pain is
too great.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
I think that's what people take for granted, like how
great the pain is that we endure.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
To do what we did right, it sucks.

Speaker 1 (51:31):
I mean before I got my heaps replaced DC, I
just thought the pain that I was in was normal
because I had dealt with it for so long.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
Yeah, and you get there and you're like, okay, this
is my new normal. And then the doctor says, no,
you don't have to live like that.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
How much better does it feel?

Speaker 3 (51:45):
A thousand? Really?

Speaker 1 (51:47):
I mean there was no position that I could get
in that was comfortable. If I laid down, it hurt.
If I stood, if it hurt, it walked, it hurt,
Sitting hurt, standing too long it hurt. There was no
position in which my body did hurt. My hips didn't hurt.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
I got it.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
I don't have that, Thank God, I don't have that. Yeah,
because that that ship seems.

Speaker 3 (52:07):
So it is. What about what about Connor McGregor at
the White House? Oh ye, ship man, it's over, it's over.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
The man. This dude, Connor McGregor, he is trippingreg.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
He made too much money, huh, he made way too much.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
He went from plumbing to making He sold that liquor
from what five hundred million?

Speaker 3 (52:30):
Too much? He got a hundred million for fighting one
hundred maion fighting floor.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Then he was doing pay per views like nothing human
could be the two and a half million pay per views.
He made too much money. Connor says he wants to
fight all the time, and everybody kind of they jumped
to it, but it's like he wants to stay relevant,
he wants to stay in the news. He wants to
stay he wants to notariety of being Connor McGregor without

(52:56):
having to be Connor McGregor. And that kind of sucks
because when he was the man, I bet you tapped in,
Oh you bet you tapped.

Speaker 3 (53:05):
Into the UFC more because he could because he could
sell a fight.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
He could sell a fight.

Speaker 3 (53:08):
He could sell it.

Speaker 1 (53:09):
But him and kuld Be was the best. Did you
think he was just one dimensional? And that's why he
was good.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
He was very good. But when he when they got
him on the ground, DC, he couldn't get up.

Speaker 2 (53:20):
They couldn't get him on the ground. Kabeb got him. Yeah,
that Kabe was a different personal like.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
Him, and kabb really didn't like you, Joe. That's pert
you know.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
Sometimes you're like, oh, we just selling the fight, but
it seemed that it was it was a little more
to it, like he like Kabeb sincerely and genuinely did
not like her.

Speaker 2 (53:39):
He hates He won't say his name. Still today he
still does not say.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
His name because he said religion.

Speaker 2 (53:46):
He still won't say his name. Last week he did
an interview in New York. He says, this guy, he'll
never say his name.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
He hates him.

Speaker 2 (53:53):
Dude. They're in the octagon and Connor goes. He whispers
after the third round, after Kabe, it's just business could be. No,
it ain't, No, it ain't. You don't mess with them dudes. Man,
the Russian dudes there.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
And then when he like when he had him, the ref,
the ref had to do a little bit. Actually, DC,
you saw that DC. He wasn't gonlet He wasn't gonna
let him go.

Speaker 3 (54:13):
He was gonna put him to sleep. Shad.

Speaker 2 (54:15):
He was holding him and he said, I kicked your ass.
I kicked your ass. And he kind of was like
then he jumped over the fence. Yes, and try to
beat his team. He's like you, I was like, WHOA.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
But dude, he had him.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
He was not going to let him go because he
felt so his family got so disrespected by this dude
that he wanted to end them. And and honestly, sometimes
you bite off more than you can chew. Yeah, because
he because kind of got beat bad that night. He did,
he got beat bad. I mean, but here's the thing
that that kind of made Kube. He really did make

(54:49):
Kabe the biggest, a bigger star. Like we talked about
me and Jones. He Kabe went from I think he
had two or three million followers on Instagram the next
morning ten million. Wow, after that fighting all that happened,
ten million, crazy seven million at night. That's a big jump.

Speaker 3 (55:09):
You think Kabeb would come out of retirement.

Speaker 2 (55:11):
Kabib told me we did a thing in a while
back when Kabebe said they offered him forty million dollars
to fight. He said, no, he ain't coming back. If
they offered him forty million, he hasn't come back yet,
he ain't coming back. No, No, Dougas I bet at Douggason,
you can make a million dollars and be good for
the rest of your life.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
Yeah, right in that place. Well, if they offered Kabe
forty million, what they offer John Jones? If I asked Ana, I.

Speaker 2 (55:37):
Think they offered I Johnson, he warnted thirty and I
think they got the money. They got thirty for me,
and he said, though they got thirty for me. He said, hey,
let me tell you something.

Speaker 3 (55:48):
I just told you.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
I'm barbecue meat thirty.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Hurt shit. I might test positive after he's over. What
is it about?

Speaker 1 (56:02):
What is it about Dagastan that the guys that are
taking wrestle Now, look, I've seen somebody follow somebody like
those wrestlers. Wrestlers, Yeah, they really I'm talking about those
guys that go to the Olympics. That's a whole different level.
How did they get so good?

Speaker 2 (56:19):
They just so over there. They put them in wrestling,
they put them in both styles. Then at like five
six years old, they identify like where are kids going
to be better? And that's all they do all the
way up to school. Kab Kabeban Islam started doing somble
when they were super young together right with his dad.
So their whole life they did combat, somble combat, soamble

(56:40):
was actually like geek tops punching, grappling, like they were
essentially doing mma as like kids, right, and then just
keep getting better. I think I think I think from
my son right too, how have the mentality that I

(57:01):
have or had? It's impossible his life's too comfortable. Yeah, okay,
his life's too comfortable. You and your brother and your
to your children, they can't even make themselves think like
you did growing up, where you grew up.

Speaker 3 (57:17):
And how you grew up. So it's like.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
They all live like that because while Kabeb, I want
to see Kobeb's son and then the next Islam's son,
then we could see how it does over there because
for them it was the way to live and change
all of their own just like us. Yes, right, it's
like yes, we're almost like desperate. That's one of my

(57:42):
kids like playing football and he's like, I want to
do this and I want to do this. I go, well,
you gotta be at every practice. You gotta go with
your individual coach, like you got to go on Sunday
whenever you go do all your speeding agility. You have
to get up early in the morning to lift weights.
I go because while you are living where you live
and how you live, there's a kid like me that's

(58:04):
doing the same thing, but without the fallback of what
my dad did to make sure that I'm okay when
all this is done. So I don't know that we can.
How does Christian McCaffrey develop the mentality that his father had.
Unless his father came on a whole from you know ed,
maybe he had a whole bunch of money. But I
don't know, how does he develop that mentality.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
I'm a firm believer when I look at the Mannings,
Ye them Archie Manning and and his his and Peyton
and Eli.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
They just teach him.

Speaker 3 (58:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
I mean it's something special for you too, for your
dad to have and says no, I want to get it. See,
I still have a healthy respect for Brownie. Yes, because
he's still you know, he the likelihood or if you
having a historically or a transcendent great parent and then
the child be equally as transcendent and great.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
No, it's just not going to have though.

Speaker 1 (58:55):
If great King Griffy Kreen Griffy Senior was a good
baseball player, but he wasn't junior Bobby Bonds was an
unbelievable player, he wasn't Barry No. No if so to
ask Kareem had Son, Magic got Son to ask their sons,
their probably to be just what your It ain't happening.

Speaker 3 (59:14):
So for the dad for Ken, Griffy Jr.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
And Barry, their dads were good, Yes, they just wasn't them.
They weren't them, So the second one was better. But
to ask the next one to be better than the
one that's the greatest.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
Just imagine Barry Bond's son being Barry Bonds were better. No,
it's like it's like Vladimir Garrel.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
Yeah, he was really good.

Speaker 2 (59:33):
But his son now is with the same name, yes,
with the same name, better than his dad. That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
So for him to have another one that does that
will be very hard. But like, so.

Speaker 2 (59:47):
Wor's like Worre's Peyton's son. Where's Eli's son? Peyton said,
his son went to his camp a couple of weeks
before I saw that.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
Yes, but is he gonna it's gonna be It's gonna be.
I mean, come on, it's gonna be hard. Yes, Tom
Tom had has a son, yep, but you but here's
the thing. But yeah, his other son, right, So just
imagine Tom Brady, Tom Brady's son Benjamin being as good
as Tom. God even to bless you like that, bro,

(01:00:17):
I'm sorry, even to bless you.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
I don't think so. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
It's hard, yes, but they get like like but even
for Lebron James Junior, Yes, Lebron James Junior. Yes, to
be in the NBA, it's nuts. And then to have
another one that's supposed even better than.

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
The other one, Yes, but to expect them and I
think the thing is Bron's done everything right, Yes, but
to expect a child to be Lebron or Kareem's son
to be him, a magic son, to be him. Come on, bro,
that that's not about to happen. Lebron James Junior.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
If he can go and if he can stay in
the league for ten years, that to me would be astounding,
because and.

Speaker 3 (01:00:58):
He will, he will.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
But to be in there ten years after what your
dad did with all that pressure from the moment he
picked up a basketball, there was pressure on him.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
Because the expectations you got to be because everybody know
who your dad is.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
My son would wrestle and I would see people you
just I just why kid, just beat DC's son.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
I'm like, but.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
It's not you didn't, right, I just beat d C's boy.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
I had Kim Gradford Jr. On And when his son
Trey was coming up, he played baseball and the people
in the stand would say he ain't his dad, and
his dad would say name five people.

Speaker 3 (01:01:34):
Who are who ooh, I like that. So what would
they say that you couldn't say anything? I mean, yeah,
I want you know. He was an m v P.
He I mean he did everything.

Speaker 1 (01:01:49):
Yes, he's one of the greatest. He's one of the
greatest players. I mean the sweetest wing ever is six.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
On the home Come on, he ain't gonna be him.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
No, it's okay, but the kid have to accept that.
That's okay. And a lot of people you were having
we were having a conversation about my brother. I embraced it.
See I never lived in the shadow. I embraced it.
Every number he had I got the exact same number.
He was three in high school. I was three in
high school. He was two in college. I was two
in college.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
He was eighty four. I was eighty four. Every card
that he had I got.

Speaker 1 (01:02:21):
So I never looked at like and when people told me, man,
you're not gonna be like your brother, watch, watch me watch.

Speaker 3 (01:02:28):
But not many people have that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:29):
Yeah, we have that dog in him, like that, like
there's there's a dog about that mentality that most people
don't have. Yes, especially kid, especially a kid that wakes
up and he's sleeping in a beautiful home with everything
he ever want in his life. Like it's hard for
that kid to go. Yeah, my kid gets up in
the morning at six thirty three days a week and
he lifts weights. My kid does wrestling practice at two

(01:02:52):
o'clock in the afternoon. Then he goes to football practice
at five thirty in the afternoon. He does that four
days a week. Then on Sundays he meets with with
his private coach to do football training where he does
speed agility, he catches passes, he goes through his coverages
and his reads. For me, that's my son going, Dad.

(01:03:13):
I want to try to do something great, I said, Pop.
If it works, awesome, if it doesn't, you gave himself
a chance. You took advantage of every opportunity you had.
Everything that we have accrued, you use to try to
better yourself. If it works, great, if it doesn't, you
never skipped out on the work. That's all I care about,

(01:03:35):
And I'm fine with that. And maybe it does, maybe
it doesn't. But he's given himself a chance even though
he doesn't have to.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
That's what I loved. How did you and Kulbe he
become such a great fan.

Speaker 2 (01:03:48):
That's my boy, right there man. He walked into the gym.
He walked into the gym by himself. King Mola Wall
brought him from New Jersey. He wanted to come and
train with all the wrestlers. Barely spoke a liquor English,
walked in the gym. Stayed at an Extended State America
right up the street from Aka, and he would walk

(01:04:11):
back and forth by himself from the hotel to the practice.
And on his first day, I was like, oh, little
Russian kid, because I spent a lot of time there
when I was wrestling. We started kind of talking a
little bit, and it just it grew, and then I
just understand how much of a he's like a really
good human being. He's a good person, real strong values,
and he's the best. I think he's the best fighter ever. Really,

(01:04:35):
I do, Yeah, I do. I saw a kid that
came in there with limited striking. He told you exactly
what he was going to do every single time, and
he did it. He was beating Michael Johnson up one time,
telling him, brother, you know I deserve a title fight.
You need to give up, Like that's how dominating.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
And he's start in the pocket with Connor knocked Conna
that knocked him down.

Speaker 2 (01:04:59):
After Connor had bought exployed Maywell for nine rounds, he
stood with him and knock him out. Yeah. I think
he's the best man. I think he's he just stands
for something so much bigger than just fighting. And I
think he like I think he, I think he, uh,
I think he he. I think he.

Speaker 3 (01:05:15):
Obviously he elevates the people.

Speaker 2 (01:05:17):
Around him, which is very important, but he also is
like a He's like a guiding light for a lot
of people that follow him, and he does things the
right way.

Speaker 1 (01:05:26):
There's this viral clip going around that he refuses to
shake this lady's hand, how to respect for his wife.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Yep, and is religious religion and if you know his religion,
that's that's that's the way it is right. But not
many men are willing to do that, especially in that moment, right.
Kate Kate, Kate Scott, Kate Kate Scott. She's She's a
great and listener. But I think the reason that got
so odd was because that kid reacted the way that

(01:05:54):
he did. There was a YouTube kid that was up
there with him and he kind of was like, oh
my God, like speed, I show speed. And the way
he acted was like, because he shook everyone's hand, but
then he just politely said and then I'm pretty sure
he explained it to her afterwards. And then but again,
it's live, it's live TV, right, things happen, But that's
respect to his wife. And then I was honestly respect

(01:06:17):
to Kate. It's actually a respectful gesture to the person.
You refuse it to shake hands because he has a
married man should not shake the hand of another woman.

Speaker 3 (01:06:26):
Wow, what separate Russian fighters from American fighters? I don't
think that. I don't think that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:35):
I don't think that is much more to it than
just the the that that need to change their lives right,
their need I mean even even not not I'm not
talking homeless, like I'm not talking like transient people that

(01:06:55):
are living on the street. But even our upbringing, even
in mind where I lived in small house, after the
small house when I was younger, Yeah, then my parents
did all they could to move us into a big
house to where they bought their first house for ten
thousand dollars.

Speaker 3 (01:07:12):
It wasn't a great house, but it was theirs. That's
still better.

Speaker 2 (01:07:16):
Than what they have over there. They're like, it's all concrete,
just concrete stuff. So yeah, it's like, I think it's
just that mentality of need to get better that makes
it allows for those guys to kind of just elevate
themselves a little more. Because even my upbringing and I
thought that I had it tough was better than what

(01:07:37):
they have there. And you know what we people are
willing to do to change their lives for sure. Yeah,
this concludes the first half of my conversation. Part two
is also posted and you can access it to whichever
podcast platform you just listen to part one on. Just
simply go back to club profile and I'll see you there.

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Club Shay Shay - Daniel Cormier Part 1

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Host

Shannon Sharpe

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Club Shay Shay - Daniel Cormier Part 1