October 9, 2023 • 54 mins
Text me a question for the show
From the impact of social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok on entertainment, to UFC 295 speculation and retirement contemplation, we've got it all covered. We are breaking down the John Jones vs. Stipe Miocic fight and discussing if it could be the biggest heavyweight fight in combat sports history. We're also exploring the implications of potential retirements and the transformation of the heavyweight division in the UFC.
Lastly, we're zooming out to look at the global growth of UFC, the Performance Institute, and the potential of new markets like India. And for a bit of nostalgia, we take a walk down memory lane, reminiscing about the early days of MMA and how it's evolved to become a global phenomenon.
So join us in this intriguing conversation and let's talk combat sports, media, and what lies ahead for UFC.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is a special presentation from UFC Fight Pass
.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Step into our world at UFCFightPasscom.
Please welcome, from the FITSNation podcast, brendan
Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hey, how's it going everybody?
Fits Nation Live is coming toyou on a Friday afternoon and I
am thrilled to be with you.
Let me shut off the speakers inmy home office, my studio, and
we'll see how it all goes.
Okay, I think I'm good here now, wanted to have some fun with
everybody, and I guess we couldcall it a bit of an
(00:40):
old-fashioned format.
Wherever you may be from, Idon't know if they have sports
talk radio shows still, theyexist in the bigger cities and
TJ DeSantis is running the boardfrom behind the scenes and we
thought why don't we fire up thephone lines and see if there's
any fans out there that want tocall in and chat about this
weekend, about the big fightscoming up, about 2023, about
(01:04):
life lessons learned this year?
If you're a fan of FITS Nation,you know that I like to talk a
lot more than just about thefights going down in the octagon
.
It's a lot about the stories ofthese great athletes and
coaches and people that make theUFC world go, and something
that jumped out at me recentlythat really spoke to me when I
(01:26):
started to think about it waswhen Dana White was asked about
Laura Sanko.
Laura obviously made her colorcommentary debut at the
pay-per-view down at SydneyAustralia and it was a big
moment for the first woman to beon the call for a modern-era
UFC broadcast earlier this year.
She's done great things withthe contender series and she
punched herself all the way upto being on a pay-per-view
(01:48):
broadcast crew.
And when Dana White was askedabout it and just saying yeah,
she does a great job, but shedid a great job.
And he then comes through anddrops the gem of if you know
what you want to do in life,that really gets you a lot of
the way there.
Once you really are clear onwhat you want to do, then you
(02:10):
can rest easy and wake up withthe purpose driving you towards
doing what you want to do.
And I have dealt with, to bequite honest, being a bit of a
professional rut at times,especially over the last year or
two, with the nature of the jobthat I have changing quite a
bit.
I used to go on the roadpre-pandemic.
(02:32):
I was in big arenas, there werebig crowds, I'd called some
title fights, our fight nightswere elevated to ESPN and
obviously that's changed withthe way of the world.
During the pandemic, the Apexis a unique environment to call
sports in.
So I really sat there and askedmyself take that to heart?
(02:52):
Dana White saying if you reallyknow what you want to do, then
you can go after it.
And really I never got intothis business to call fights
specifically or to be aplay-by-play announcer.
What I have always loved is theidea of having an interview show
, a podcast, a talk radio show,and so I've kind of put more
(03:14):
energy into the podcast recentlyand it seems to have been
working out.
Went live with Dracus DuPlessis recently.
That was a great situation.
I've got a lot of interestingguests lined up for the podcast
and, as I mentioned, tj DeSantis, who's run the board, said why
don't we go live?
Why don't we do a live stream?
I got this phone number,917ufctalk, that has been
(03:37):
underutilized for years andyears and years and maybe we'll
interact with the fans.
Take some calls, texts,whatever you got.
Call in and we can chat and wecan talk about the hot topics in
the world of MMA and beyond.
Tj, you want to pop up onscreen as my producer on air
(03:58):
type of situation and the guythat's made this whole thing
possible.
If you guys knew the force atwhich TJ was ramming his head
against the wall today to makethis live stream possible.
Tj, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I'm afraid to speak right now because it just might
all fall apart, Because theaudio wheels were dangerously
close to falling off.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Pretty much.
Yeah, tj, let's talk about thisformat though real quick.
How did the phone number?
And if anybody calls in, we cantake calls, like, really right
away.
I don't want to hold it back,but you're from a bygone era and
I know that these shows stillexist, these calling shows, but
certainly not really in the MMAor the UFC landscape.
(04:43):
But I think it's exciting whatwe're pushing, our little engine
that could up the hill rightnow.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You know what the problem is, is everyone nowadays
, for whatever reason, they justdon't like to talk on the phone
.
So you can also text us.
By the way, 917, ufc Talk takestext messages.
I started an FM radio, brendan,and I have always enjoyed
answering the request line whenI was working on the FM, because
you never knew exactly what youwere going to get First off.
(05:09):
I feel like I was about to sayI'm going to shatter people's
dreams here, but peoplelistening now or watching now,
they don't even know anythingabout request lines.
But we had a request line.
It was never like a validrequest line.
There was no request.
You didn't ever call a radiostation and go, hey, can I hear
Metallica?
And I'm like sure I'll put iton in four songs If that
happened.
It was just a coincidence, butI've always loved interacting,
(05:34):
because radio is this.
I mean, this is the thing.
I still look at it as radio.
I'm looking at a camera rightnow, which I absolutely despise,
but radio has turned intotelevision, but the medium of
interaction, I think, has goneup and down at the same time,
because you can do it like anInstagram live and people can
drop comments in the chat andall that stuff, but people don't
(05:55):
call anymore.
And I still think like Iremember listening to radio
shows when I was a kid andfalling in love with some of the
listeners' personalities, and Ifeel like you don't really get
that through text on a Twitchstream or anything of that
nature.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
No, you definitely don't.
And I know that I have somefans of Fitz Nation that will
tend to comment and if somebodycalls in I'll be like yes,
they've kind of been around andlistening.
But, TJ, you're absolutelyright.
Tj, I wondered too, like askyou a question, Like, do you
ever call anybody to order foodanymore?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
No, that's another thing.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
It's like all Uber Eats, it's all app, it's all
online.
And sometimes I do call andpeople are a little off put.
I'm just like, yeah, can Iorder some food?
And they're like what?
Yeah, they're probably.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I guess you can Answering the phone to make sure
that it's not their friendcalling them at work.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I'm like when do you get off dude?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Let's hang out, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
And I read an article recently.
This is kind of one of mycrusades that I'm on this year,
but it's kind of a weird thing.
It's like anti-social.
I went full anti-social mediafor a chunk of this year and I
still am kind of like on thefence with that and what I've
realized TJ is.
I read some articles and theysaid social media is dead.
(07:08):
Right, and on the surface you'dbe like, well, what do you mean
?
Social media is dead.
Instagram has never been bigger.
Tiktok is joining the fray, allthese things Right, but it's
not social media anymore, it'smedia.
It's media on a mobile phone.
That's what the world has comeinto.
I do not get on Instagram tokeep up with friends and family
and to see what they're up to.
(07:29):
I don't do that, do you?
No, that's not what it's for.
It's for media.
It's for news.
It's for shows in bite-sizedform.
Yeah, it's for clips from apodcast.
I can be a fan of the HowardStern show without even
subscribing to Sirius XM radio.
Absolutely, and that's kind ofwhat you know.
That's what those platforms areto me.
Now.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, I mean, there are certain fights that happen
that you don't have to buy thepay-per-view because the fight
is 30 seconds and then it endsup on, you know, instagram or
TikTok.
Whether or not the UFC put itthere is irrelevant, it's just,
you know these bite-sized things, if it fits onto that 90-second
mark.
That's the way everyoneconsumes media and, like what
we're doing right now, you know,there's this sort of long form
(08:11):
show format, if you will.
I hate to even call it longform, because what have we been
on the air?
Like 11 minutes, if that?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
But like, this sort of whole entire episode is not
really the end goal anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Like they're just going to be like okay, where's
the 30-second clips that we canthrow up on the Fight Pass
Instagram, you know, and get areality.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And that's what it is and like that's great.
I love that people can just getblasted with all of this stuff,
but at the same time it's likeyou lose so much in the you know
wash if you will when you cutit down like that.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yes, I thought of having a segment on FITS Nation
on the podcast, when I dointerviews with fighters, called
like you know, like the clickbait segment.
Right, be like, hey, saysomething outlandish and I'll
clip it and put it on socialmedia and let's like, let's see
what kind of reaction.
I haven't done that because I'mnot really the hot take guy.
I don't want to be hollow, I'drather have kind of more
(09:07):
substance to it, even if ittakes building something over a
longer period of time.
But yeah, I mean, it's theworld we live in.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
It's funny that you mentioned that, because when we
started the first rounds onFacebook, pretty much at the
beginning of the pandemic, wewould notice that when we would
just show highlights, that ourengagement would go up right.
So I started the segment at thebeginning of every show where I
called it clip bait, where Iwould just bait people with like
fry and takiyama you know,people stop and see that.
(09:36):
So, like I'll just hit JohnJones.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Let's go, let's go.
You know, john Jones highlightsNow people are like what's
happening?
Right.
So here's the deal I want toknow and maybe we could fire up
that graphic that you made onJohn Jones Okay, way back in
2008,.
We're 15 years later.
But also, like, are we buyingthat?
You know, we're about to seeJohn Jones in his last UFC fight
(10:02):
, 15 some odd years later, atMadison Square Garden, to defend
his heavyweight championship.
He's 27 and one.
The one has a giant asterisknext to it.
Right, like, in terms of theretirement talk, I believe win
or lose for Steve Bay, this isit.
I don't think he can get betterthan this.
(10:22):
If he wins, if he beats JohnJones I can't remember how old
he is off the top of my head,but he's about that age and I
don't think that he, like youknow, I don't think the money
would change his life really todefend that belt and I just
think that Steve Bay, with thewin, he'd be done with John.
I think, with the win, I thinkJones is going to hang around.
(10:43):
I think he's going to defendthe belt one time.
I think there's too much moneyat stake.
He signed what like a seven oreight fight contract before he
fought Cyril Gondon atheavyweight.
So the dollars and cents areall laid out there, and I just
think that if he turns back,steve Bay is probably going to
be a giant favorite against thewinner of whoever they might
rush into next Tom Aspinol,sergei Pavlovich, right up there
(11:05):
, gialta now made a Jones is noundersized guy, as we saw
against Cyril Gondon.
So I don't know what do youthink?
You think they're both done, Ithink they're both done.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, I mean, that's what we were talking about
before we went on the air, isyou know?
I wanted to pose it to you byour cell.
Jones and or Miochich willretire after UFC 295 because I
think that we're definitelygoing to get one.
I think winner lose.
Steve Bay is probably going towalk out for the last time and
leave his gloves behind, but Ithink Jones might as well,
because you know, I understandthere are some challengers that
(11:38):
are intriguing in theheavyweight class for John.
But I still look at John the wayhe he didn't look super
motivated towards the end of hisrun at light heavyweight.
I still don't really know whathe looks like at heavyweight
because it's real gone fight,you know, went so quick.
If Jones goes out there andbeats Steve Bay, who is
statistically the bestheavyweight the UFC has ever
(11:59):
seen I mean you want to look athis numbers, they're pretty damn
impressive, which goes to yourargument and you know what is
there for Steve Bay, you know,left to prove.
If he beats John Jones, I thinkthe rematch would be insane for
him, you know, financially.
But Steve Bay is a guy thatlike, do you see him really
being motivated by money period,because I'm sure everybody
wants more money, but I justdon't think Steve Bay is a guy
(12:21):
that's going to do anything hedoesn't want to do.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I think he has made his life changing money right
and he lives in Cleveland, ohioand I don't think he's, I don't
really think his lifestyleschange that much with the money
that he does have.
There's something to be admiredabout that, you know and it's
like a firefighter, like whostill wants to go to work when
you don't have to?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Well, and why would you?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
why would you beat John Jones?
You know the goat when you'rethe heavyweight greatest and so
that would kind of put you in.
You know that conversation in acertain respect.
Yeah, and then why would yousay well, if I make a lot of
money, I can do this like youcan't go out better than a win
over John Jones as a heavyweightchampion, be called the
heavyweight greatest of all time, make a bunch of money.
(13:05):
You don't really need money.
Like he's not out there likeMcGregor trying to buy a yacht
and start four different liquorcompanies.
He's not that guy.
So I don't think he puts it onthe line like that.
I think he puts it on the lineagainst John Jones and I think
this will be the last time.
Are we sad if it's a John Jonesretirement, thinking that Steve
Bay is probably done?
And I think we've, you know,kind of been prepared.
(13:27):
Steve Bay has only fought oncea year, if that for the last,
like handful of years anyways,but John Jones like the greatest
of all time.
I mean, I was sad when TomBrady retired because I was a
huge Tom Brady fan.
What do you think the MMA worldreaction is going to be if we
don't see John anymore?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I mean unfortunately, I don't think it'll be as
devastated as it should be.
And that's just because Johnhas been this guy, you know,
with a lot of ups and downs inhis career.
He's, you know, left millionsof dollars on the table because,
you know, personal things havegotten in a new way and, you
know, john Jones not being anactive UFC fighter isn't all
that strange to people.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah, I guess we've gotten used to life without him
for a while.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, that said, I think he's the greatest to ever
do it.
And if you argue that he's not,you're arguing because of like
role model type of things, youknow, mainstream athlete types
of things, like all theintangibles that Conor McGregor
has, that sort of elevates himto the the greatest of all time.
For some people, john Jones hasdetractions.
In the same manner, if you'rearguing that John isn't the best
(14:27):
to ever step in the octagon,it's because of things that have
happened outside of competition.
And yeah, I mean I don't know,no matter what I think, whenever
John does call it a career, I'mgoing to be sad.
And it's not because we won'tsee him anymore, it's because of
how much we've already lost.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's a.
It's a what could have beentype of situation with John
Jones that always will be in acertain respect, and like he
just elevates an event like to adifferent level, like you don't
really have to even do much interms of promotion.
I'm interested to see how muchbigger it's going to get when
the UFC put certain fights andcertain events together.
I continue to be surprised,knowing that you know the UFC
(15:08):
were the best to put on bigfights on a consistent basis.
There's no question about it.
And I remember thinking thispast summer International Fight
Week and Las Vegas, and then youknow Volkanowski fighting Yaya
Rodriguez, and then that's theheadliner, and I was just like
man, that's what we're trottingout for International Fight Week
.
I would have thought it wouldhave been a bigger fight than
(15:29):
that, you know.
And then we had the flyweighttitle as the, as the co-main
event.
And then, sure enough, fightWeek comes.
Stuff starts ramping up.
Las Vegas gets a little crowded, ufc X is kind of wall to wall
with fans at the conventioncenter.
Trump's going to show up and allof a sudden, on fight night,
I'm like, well, goddamn, thiscouldn't have been much bigger.
(15:51):
Yeah, this couldn't have beenmuch bigger.
We own the sports world.
Tonight it became this hugeevent and I loved Alexander
Volkanowski, love what he standsfor.
Yaya Rodriguez is an excitingguy and in Mexico is, you know,
obviously this blossomingcountry in terms of churning out
highest level fighters.
And you know it became a hugeevent and I just go.
(16:14):
Well, there I go again.
You know I was wrong.
Again we can make big fights,so I'm really interested to see
how big it's going to get in NewYork City with John Jones.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I mean, that's the thing, too, and this actually
goes to a text message we justgot from Tim in Seattle.
Tim writes and he says hey guys, where does this rank as
biggest heavyweight fights incombat sports history, not just
in the UFC, not just in MMA, butoverall combat sports?
I think there's something to besaid about that, because for me
, the baddest man on the planetis always going to be perceived
(16:46):
as as a heavyweight.
I think you know, when it comesto combat sports, I'm always
going to favor a heavyweightmixed martial artist over a
heavyweight boxer.
So if you're the heavyweightchampion of the UFC, mainstream
sports and otherwise, you're thebaddest man on the planet.
You have the statisticalgreatest heavyweight to ever do
it in steep John Jones, thegreatest MMA fighter in history,
(17:09):
in the world's most famousarena, Madison Square Garden.
I mean, I got hairs in the backof my neck standing up right
now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I know, and I hate when we go on recency bias and
we just say that was the bestthing we've ever seen on Monday
morning when it happened onSaturday night.
We always say that.
We say it was Super Bowls allthe time.
But, yeah, it's hard to reallyargue for anything different
than this one being the biggest.
Tyson Fury, deontay Wilder waslike a massive event.
But here's the thing, and thisday and age for boxing, boxing
(17:40):
is now the niche sport, in myopinion, in regards to boxing
versus MMA.
Maybe it's because I'm so fardown this rabbit hole and I
don't watch a lot of boxingevents, but I don't know.
I just feel like the UFC justgets the nod in terms of making
headlines across the sportslandscape more readily than
(18:03):
boxing does.
And Tyson Fury's in the news.
He's going to fight Francis andGano and then he's going to
fight again for the real fightthat he's in in December.
So I just think, yeah, likethis one has got to be the
biggest before this.
You know, steve Bay fights inGano and it happens in front of
(18:24):
a huge arena and a bunch of fans.
Then, you know, mate, in therematch I'm talking about,
obviously they fought in Boston,it turns into kind of a clunker
of a fight because in Ghanawasn't ready for that.
But if in Ghana and Steve Bay,instead of fighting in the apex
with a few hundred watching inwhat was that?
Early 2021, march of 2021, ifmemory serves then you know that
(18:45):
would have been a monster event.
But the world wasn't open theway it is now and also like that
might have been the biggest tothis point, if in Ghana was able
to knock out Steve Bay the waythat he did.
But this one would have trumpedit anyways, because John Jones
is a bigger name than Francisand Gano will be and will ever
be, at least in my opinion.
Now, if in Ghana pulls an upsetat Tyson Fury, then maybe the
(19:10):
you know that conversation getsopened a little bit more.
But you know, right now JohnJones is one of, if not the
biggest stars in combat sportshistory in the UFC's heavyweight
division, the way that he movedup, the way that he dominated,
like he did.
If he defends his belt in NewYork City, madison Square Garden
against Steve Bay Meech, yeah,you got to say this is the
biggest matchup in heavyweighthistory and combat sports.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, no, I think it's the plants Murko Krokop and
Fedor Miliyanko as the greatestheavyweight mixed martial arts
fight we've ever seen.
It's a pride fight.
I know maybe that's a popularopinion If I'm, you know, toeing
the company line here, but youknow, as a hardcore MMA fan, I
remember thinking this was thegreatest heavyweight fight that
we had ever seen.
It happened in, I think, summerof 2005.
And don't get me wrong.
(19:55):
There have been greatheavyweight fights and
intriguing matchups.
Steve Bay has done amazingthings statistically Again the
greatest in the UFC but I don'tknow if I would consider Steve
Bay the greatest heavyweight toever do it.
We'll never really find out.
I don't know what a primefailure would have looked like
against a prime Steve Bay Meech.
You know, I think that somepeople will say that the
(20:15):
heavyweight wasn't as evolvedback in 2005 as it is today.
I don't really think there'sall that much of a difference
between the talent in theheavyweight division from 10, 15
years ago to today.
I think it's, unfortunately oneof the slower divisions to
evolve, but that largely comesdown to the fact that these guys
are 230 pounds.
You know throwing.
You know with lightning fastspeed and you know things happen
(20:39):
.
You know, on any given night inany you know weight class.
Someone can win in mixedmartial arts that they land in
the button that is magnifiedtenfold when it comes to
heavyweight.
So I think we have seen a lotmore turnover there.
But again, I do think that thissteep Meech hitch in John Jones
fight is bigger than Fedor andCroko.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well, yeah, and also the sport is so young that the
conversation is constantlychanging in terms of what it
means and how big it is.
I mean, think about 2005compared to now and the platform
that the UFC has.
Last thing I'll say onheavyweight is, if both do
retire, like TJ is inclined tobelieve the very interesting
thing is like how they handlethe heavyweight division going
(21:21):
forward and like who jumps outand who becomes the name,
because there's not really thisgiant marketable star at
heavyweight outside of Jones.
You could argue that Steve Paytisn't that marketable.
I mean, he's kind of likeresisted the social media and
the you know being out there,right, and he's always done
(21:45):
what's needed of him.
He shows up at the pressconferences but he's not a
bulletin board material guy.
And neither are the other guyscoming up next in line Tom
Aspinall, sergey Pavlovich, gailTenelmeyda, curtis Bledes has
been there for a long time.
I guess Derek Lewis right,derek Lewis makes headlines and
can mount a championship run,depending on who they might
(22:06):
match him up against.
But you know that's thedevelopment in the heavyweight
division.
Should both retire, I think weshould soak in the buildup
that's going to be over the nextmonth or so, and it'll be kind
of a sprint because you know AbuDhabi is going to get a lot of
headlines obviously in the nextfew weeks and after that, you
know, we're only two weeks orthree weeks away, I guess, from
(22:28):
Madison Square Garden being thecenter of the sports world for a
night.
Yeah, I get another text, thisfrom by the way, you called it
to go more meta to have our showtalking about media.
People want to text, call inpeople.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
917?
Yeah, 917 UFC Talks, so it's917.
Ufc Talk 917-832-8255.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
If you want to talk, then come on and talk, let's
talk.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
But if you want to text go ahead.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
We encourage all forms of feedback.
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
This one from the 310 .
He says you guys are talkingabout the evolution of mixed
martial arts.
We've seen some countries breakout as of late.
What about India?
1.5 billion people and we haveyet to see an Indian star inside
the UFC.
When will it happen?
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
So Anshul Jubli came off of the road to UFC last year
, I believe.
He's Indian and he fights inAbu Dhabi, I think, and so
there's one of the early ones.
And then, who was theheavyweight TJ that just fought?
He was a wrestler and aheavyweight and he was a
(23:31):
Canadian, he was Indo-Canadian,so not from India.
Oh, arjun Buller, arjun SinghBuller.
So he just fought recently, inthe last five years, but he
wasn't going to be a big star.
What's interesting is I don'tknow if I'm supposed to, you
know if this is inside baseball,but we're just going to have to
(23:53):
ride with it here.
You know, I know somebody thatworks at the UFC Performance
Institute, I know plenty ofpeople that do, and so obviously
we're opening up a new UFC PIin Mexico and that's coming up
this fall.
And we have the UFC PI inShanghai, china, and a few years
ago they held like a combine,remember this?
(24:14):
They held a combine in Shanghaiand they're like let's see who
gets to go to the program.
We're trying to build China asa market.
We're going to start chasingIndia, we're going to get into
India and you know there's goingto be some of that kind of
treatment.
Now there's no plans for a PI,but you know Shanghai will be
kind of their home base forwhatever comes out of India.
(24:36):
But they're going to startactively building that market
with people in our umbrella oflike a combined situation to try
to like develop that market.
Get the best fighters they have.
You know wrestling, they havefighting, they got athletes and
they got a lot of people.
And a lot of people means a lotof eyeballs.
That means a lot of wallets andyou know it's like why not?
(24:59):
We're a global sport, let'skeep building the business.
And so if you say, what's next,how much more can we grow?
India is a good point bywhoever texted in.
From what did you say the 310?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yeah, I think that's LA.
There we go.
So you know, I look at theevolution and you know,
obviously Khabib has been agreat star for Dagestan and you
know, I remember when I firstgot into MMA, podcasting back in
like 2005, a guy that I did ashow with named Jordan Breen was
talking about the caucusnations of Russia.
(25:31):
You know, and they weren'treally on the map yet, there
were a handful of guys that were, you know, fighting, but not to
the level that they are now.
And obviously we've seen anexplosion.
You know there are so manyfighters that are, you know, cut
from the same cloth as Khabiband you know Khabib is the
greatest to do it at 155.
Who knows what, you know, thosecountries are still going to
look like here in five, 10 years.
(25:53):
And you know, I just think that,you know, with the PIs going up
, you just need that exposureand you get more exposure.
You get.
You know.
I mean, look how much womenhave evolved since Ronda Rouse
came in the UFC.
And I think that that you know15 year old kid is sitting at
home looking at the televisiongoing.
That person looks like me.
That person I can livevicariously through this person.
Wait, I can go to the gym.
(26:14):
Wait, I'm actually kind of goodat this, and all of a sudden.
You know there's an explosionand you know where.
There's one or two today,there's many more tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
There's no more accessible sport.
I was blown away by this.
Once I started working you know, really starting to call fights
move back to Las Vegas in 2017,went into syndicate, did some
Muay Thai classes and stuff likethat.
And I was like oh God, yeah.
So I did Muay Thai for a fewand then, like you know, it came
(26:43):
to sparring.
It was super light sparring, soI'm going to sound like a major
wimp when I say this, but, likeyou know, somebody just popped
me right here, right?
And I was still kind of new withthe.
UFC and it just gave me enoughwhere I had to just make sure my
tooth wasn't loose.
I didn't have a mouth guard inor whatever and I'm like nobody
knows who I am not that theywould care, anyways.
I'm not a do you know who I amtype of guy, but just in terms
of like hey, maybe don't give mea black guy.
(27:04):
I got to be on TV this weekendand I was just like gosh, maybe
Muay Thai isn't the one likeright where it's like I thought
I would like striking way betterthan grappling.
Most people say that Most Iwould say you know people
without a grappling background.
You know, didn't high schoolwrestle and all that.
They're like I don't want toroll around with a guy on the
(27:25):
ground and do all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Right, I'm allergic to getting hit.
Brendan, it caused me to, so itsounds much more manly, though.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Yeah, but you don't think about getting hit, you
think about hitting.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
It's much more manly to be like boom, boom on the bag
.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
One.
Two, right, stephen A Smith ishitting the pads and I could do
it better than that.
So, anyways, did a little MuayThai just for a few classes, and
then I just got hit in themouth.
I was like maybe I shouldn'treally do a sport that could
give me a black guy when I'm new, you know, when I'm the new guy
.
And then I started jujitsu 2019, liked it a lot more than I
(27:58):
thought and I took the pandemicoff.
I took a longer time than thanyou know I normally would have.
You know, obviously there was abunch going on and we have a
baby and all.
There was a lot of differentfactors, but I've gotten the in
the gear.
I've gotten the key back on inthe key in the key for the most
part.
And for the most part in the keyon the road when.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, On the road you know I don't pack a key.
I put a key on one time,brendan.
I put a key one time because Itook a nap real quick with my
own, they got to choke me out ofmy own.
Damn no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
No, that's like one of the early things that you
just like trying to grab orwhatever, and somebody just
takes your callers and it's like, yeah, I haven't been put to
sleep yet but, people like you.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
See you're more like I'm getting me.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
No, here's another thing.
Speaking of you know who I amNobody.
Well, I shouldn't say nobody.
I've never.
I would have thought that atExtreme Couture, where UFC
fighters are training 30 feetthat way, and I'm saying hello
to all of them and good to seeyou, and then I get on the Jiu
Jitsu mat and theoretically,these are people that are into
Jiu Jitsu, so maybe they watchthe UFC.
(29:07):
They would probably know who Iam right, they don't know who I
am.
It's crazy.
I'm just like you know and I'mlike you know.
It's a lot in my voice and notmy face.
That's on TV Often.
I get that.
But even the coach, even thecoach like Nick Sick.
Nick Sick was like hey, man,green light, this guy, anybody
wants to, you know, tap him out,whatever.
And he's just like oh, you knowhim from high school or
something.
And I'm just like no, I workfor the UFC, I'm on TV, like
(29:30):
every Saturday.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, so you know, I mean it's you get humbled real
quick.
You get humbled, so I've.
I've done a lot of Jiu Jitsucommentary over the last
probably six or seven years withEddie.
Oh yeah, I want to get in onthat TJ.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Like that's a new life.
Goal is to have you calling oneof my Jiu Jitsu matches.
Like maybe I get on that FBI,you know.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
FBI.
Sure, I mean, you got to getout of that Get out of that.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Come on, isn't there a GEE situation we could do?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
No, no, no, no, no, ok, ok, all right, I'll get it
down the thing that I think isinteresting, though, is when I
first started doing Jiu Jitsu is, a lot of the community was
like oh, this is an MMA guy.
I'm like, yeah, but like,without Jiu Jitsu there would be
no UFC.
Like to me, Jiu Jitsu and mixedmartial arts are one in the
same.
Like all combat sports are acousin to one another.
(30:20):
But for whatever reason, Ithink that over the last 10
years or so, the hardcore JiuJitsu community has kind of
pulled away from mixed martialarts.
It's kind of coming back.
I think you know what the UFCand fight pass is doing with the
FBI is really significant inbridging those two worlds.
It sounds weird to me to saybridging those two worlds
(30:41):
because again to me they're thesame, jiu Jitsu.
I mean the UFC was the paidprogram for Gracie.
Jiu Jitsu.
You know what I mean.
It literally was the.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I know the, so everyone started it, they're
like I was a 150 pound guy.
I saw this guy beat all thebaddest dudes.
Now what's now?
What's interesting, though, isthere is definitely a rivalry
between the boxing world and theMMA world.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It's gotten a lot better a lot better, A lot
better, but for a long time Imean.
The go to for me was oh, youknow how many people die a year
in boxing?
A lot, Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You know how many people die a?
Speaker 2 (31:12):
year in the UFC.
None Right, we're beyond that,I don't have to argue.
The safety points of mixedmartial arts yeah, but yeah, I
think the issue is is you stillhave an older guard in boxing
that, for whatever reason, theycan't seem to either?
A get over the fact that youknow wrestling is a real part of
(31:35):
combat and you have to embracefighting on the floor.
And they don't like it for manyreasons.
They always try to say it'sbarbaric.
I mean it's too exciting, it'stoo exciting for them.
I just that's the problem.
My issue is this like you'regoing to tell me that wrestling
and hitting a guy on the flooris barbaric when a guy gets
knocked down twice and aroundand he gets back up and he's
(31:57):
clearly out of it.
But you go, go fight.
You got to stand in front ofthis guy.
Still, You're still here.
I mean, yeah, it's combatsports, it's barbaric.
We don't need to argue aboutthe barbaricism.
Is barbaricism a word?
Let's go with it.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I'll go with it, yeah .
Speaker 2 (32:11):
You know we don't need to talk about that anymore,
but we're a lot, you know.
One thing I think isinteresting is what Dana is
doing with this kid, callumWalsh.
You know really blowing him up.
You know he's fighting outthere in Madison Square Garden
and the theater a couple nightsbefore 295.
I think you have a lot of MMAfans that maybe haven't come
over to the world of boxingstarting to get turned on to
Callum a little bit and payingattention.
(32:33):
Maybe they're not watching live, or maybe they are.
They're at least, you know,looking up the result and you
know following him a bit.
I think that's really importantbecause I don't think we've
really had too many people thathave been an ambassador for
mixed martial arts and boxing atthe same time.
And you talk to Callum and likethe only reason the kids are
boxers because they didn't havean MMA gym in Cork, ireland.
(32:55):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
He would have been in the MMA round if it was there,
but it wasn't.
Yeah, because he came up andMcGregor was blown up, right
yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I think that we're starting to see this new
generation of fans not reallylook at any sort of flavor of
combat sport being, you know, arival to one or the other.
It's just like all right, I'llwatch this.
This is interesting and that'sthe way it should be.
If you like mixed martial arts,you at least have an
appreciation for every combatsport.
You might just not know it.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, exactly right, that's interesting, that jujitsu
and MMA thing, like you saythat, and so many people that
get into MMA via MMA right, theydon't come in from one
particular combat sport and thenget into it, like you know,
like me, like my kind of firstreal experience, professionally
(33:44):
and as a fan, and all this isinto MMA as the UFC, and then I
can appreciate the art ofgrappling and jujitsu and I can
appreciate the art of boxing.
But I will say, you know, whenthere's a knockdown of boxing,
I'm just like, oh, it's justgetting to the good part, why
are you stopping?
Right, it's just kind of one ofthose things.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, but if you watch MMA and then you go and
watch a single discipline, sportthere's part of your brain that
just goes like, okay, thisisn't a complete fight.
I'm not trying to say that it'snot, you know, valuable, I'm
sorry.
I think the most brutal if wewant to talk about brutal sports
.
I mean, you already talkedabout it Watch a Muay Thai fight
like watch a pro Muay Thaifight.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
I mean just elbows, Just to the ring.
You know, right, right theimpact.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
The sound that they make when they are slamming into
each other is.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Well, and they can't, you know, they can't get into
the ground and take a break,right, Because you get a
takedown and then there's sometop control.
It's like all right, I'm noteating an elbow right now.
I have seen some.
You know, I don't have to standhere and take big shots.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
I have seen some Muay Thai smokers in the Midwest
where some wrestlers try to trytheir hand at Muay Thai and they
get rocked and the referee hasto stop them from going into.
That you know instinctual.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Into the last double Instinctual shoot for a leg.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
It's always fun You've been at smokers in the
Midwest TJ.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Oh yeah, I commentated some.
I mean, I've commented on ashow that ended in a riot, where
my color commentator came backand she had a black eye.
Wow yeah, fun, fun times yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I mean, I knew you were a real one, but jeez, what
are you commentating for?
I thought the whole thing wassmokers.
Is that they're illegal?
They're underground?
No, so.
So was there a live stream.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
No, no, no DVDs dog, it's 2004.
You know, we got to put theseDVDs.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Whoa yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Uh, not all.
Where'd you sell the DVDs?
Oh, cagefightvideoscom.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
No way huh.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah, you can check it out.
Wow, you go back in the way,way back machine archiveorg and
go to cagefightvideoscom.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Cagefightvideoscom.
So you'd make and that's funnythat you have a commentary crew
for that Like the fights weren'tjust enough, so they just like
wanted them to sound like youknow, here's what's going on and
there was commentary for it.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, yeah, it was.
It was a mess.
Yeah, you know how much I gotpaid.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Let me ask you, so like, of course, you didn't get
paid.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
No, no, I got paid.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Oh, you got paid.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
I didn't get paid.
I got a discount on the DVD.
They let me buy it for $15instead of $20.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Right, exactly yeah, so you didn't get paid.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
No, you didn't yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I did.
I did some of those.
Uh, you know, like you know,you call some popcorn or
football, stand up on the standup on the bed of a, of a truck
and uh say what's going on?
Right, that's you know, thehumble beginnings Exactly.
What do you think of?
Uh, what do you think of?
Like this TJ then?
Because you know I'm old enoughnow where I don't want to say I
(36:32):
get grumpy about stuff, but Ido get nostalgic about a lot of
different things and you realizethat the old world isn't coming
back.
It's just not coming back.
Your kids are going to grow upin a different era.
There are certain things thatyou loved about the way that you
grew up and it's not going tobe the same in the MMA scope of
(36:52):
things, like you've seen it,like you've seen a lot of this
sport to where it is now.
What are your thoughts on it?
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Uh, I mean, I think that everything that I will
complain about not being the waythat it used to be is, uh,
probably for the better, becauseit means that we're getting you
know more fights, like peoplesay.
Oh, ufc Fight cards are watereddown compared to what they used
to be.
Yeah, the UFC was put on sixcards a year.
I mean, right, you know,depending on the, the month, the
(37:21):
UFC can put on five cards andyou know, five weeks in a month
and still be inside the samecalendar month.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
We just got done that .
Last week we were dark Uh-huh.
For the first time in 18 weekswe did 17 Saturdays in a row.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
I know my wife doesn't remember what it's like
when I'm home on a Saturday,like that's wild, that's wild.
Yeah, I'm yeah, so I mean rightlike 2002 is when I first got
into to mixed martial arts andlike really started to follow it
.
I could not sleep starting twodays before a UFC.
I remember UFC 40, november22nd 2002 T-Dor T's Ken Shamrock
(37:59):
, ufc 40 vendetta.
I'm watching on pay-per-viewand I literally Can't sleep two
nights before because we haven'thad a UFC since August.
You know it's the the biggestblood feud the sport has ever
seen and in Tito and Ken and itwas like that repeatedly.
And I remember in 2003 UFC 43happened in June and then there
(38:23):
wasn't another UFC until likeSeptember and like I went the
whole summer Without a UFC andit's like right, that was my
obsession, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Like yeah, I benefited there are no regional
shows.
I mean, there was none of thatthere were.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
there were regional shows, but it was a dude.
They were scary.
I'm not kidding you, they werescary.
Well, they weren't on.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
You know it's not easily accessible.
No, I'm gonna Omaha dude LikeI'm.
That's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yeah, they're not no, I remember the UFC would end up
on Direct TV and like some ofthese regional sports networks,
every once in a while It'd belike a what think of, like what
UFC unleashed is.
It was like the precursor tothat and I remember setting my
alarm to wake up at like threeo'clock in the morning to watch
a UFC fight on the SunshineNetwork, and it was like Tiki
(39:14):
goes in versus Bob Cook and LikeI shouldn't even have the
Sunshine Network.
I lived in Minnesota at thetime but you know it was on and
direct TV and I was like I'mthere for it.
Yeah but like that's, that's howmuch, like I needed it.
And you know, the thing that Ithink is is most interesting
about it is I have anappreciation for what a lot of
(39:36):
people will kind of bitching andmoan about with the UFC today,
because it's like oh, this isn'tthe greatest car, there's not a
title fight in this.
You know, fight night or youknow this pay-per-view is a
little soft, like yeah, butthere's an offering, man, like
you have the opportunity towatch, and like I don't want to
say like don't watch If youdon't want to watch, because I
always want people to watch.
(39:56):
But it's like you can pick andchoose and you can take things
on demand.
You can watch things you knowon your phone.
You can download an app andit's just like, even when I am
home on a Saturday, if we're notdoing like extra rounds or
something like I got it up on myphone, dude, my wife hates it
yeah, I'm an addict and like.
My problem is this, brendan LikeI've watched so long that, even
if, like, fight past fired metomorrow, I'm like seven seasons
(40:19):
into a Television series and Ican't stop watching until the
end.
There's not ever gonna be afinale, so I'm gonna be here for
the rest of my life and Peoplejust have to accept it and my
loved ones have to accept it.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Okay, sorry, my wife is leaving to pick my son up
from school.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
She's like you're really talking about fights
again, brendan.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I mean I hear you on allthat.
That's very interesting andit's like I don't think it's the
water down thing, I think thatit's.
It doesn't mean as, yeah, itdoesn't mean as much because you
don't have to wait as long.
Like think about how themodern-day equivalent is
football.
Yeah, I think of how muchpeople just get so jazzed up for
(41:04):
the start of football seasonright and now, and, like, truth
be told, like recently, I'm justlike man, football is so
saturated.
Now I'm like you can't get muchbigger, can it?
And then Travis Kelsey startsdating Taylor Swift and they do
a toy story broadcast fromAndy's room, and I'm like, well,
it's gonna get bigger, likeit's already gotten way bigger.
Yeah, like in the last twoweeks, just as I was saying,
(41:27):
like football really can't getmuch bigger, between Fantasy and
betting and this and that, andlike the games are on in red
zone, you watch seven hourscommercial free, all this stuff.
And I'm like, well it's, we'rekind of nearing the peak.
And then Taylor's like, hey,travis want to go on a date.
And then it's like, okay, herewe go, we'll both skyrocketing.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Could you imagine if Travis Kelsey was a UFC fighter
and the camera was on TaylorSwift during the midst of a
fight?
So I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
It's crazy.
I'm I wondered how we wouldhandle that on the broadcast,
because I Get it.
The people who are big-timefootball fans, like if you're
sitting there and I'm one ofthem like if you're watching a
game, you want to watch the game, right, right.
But it would be Irresponsibleof that TV network doing the
(42:14):
game to not milk it, like theydon't care about pissing you off
.
You're watching Sunday NightFootball.
It's chiefs and jets and turnsout it ends up being a pretty
good game.
You're gonna watch that game.
Now you might gripe about it allthey showed her too much this
and that but you're gonna watch.
So they're not concerned withyou changing the channel.
They are concerned with themillions of people that are
(42:38):
watching so that we can cut awayto see Taylor's reaction to a
touchdown.
Like it becomes an award showat that point and she's the most
famous person in the buildingand it's the story that
everybody's talking about.
And I promise that I wouldn'treally Get out there and give my
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelseytake, like a week ago.
I'm like I'm just gonna nottweet about this.
(42:59):
I'm not because it pisses meoff, because I'm just like,
whatever the world can havetheir fun, right and I'm having.
You know it's kind of funny,whatever, but it would be
irresponsible from a speakingfrom a media perspective for
whatever TV network to not do it.
Now, fighting is different Inthat you can't cut like during
the game and all this otherstuff, but you bring up a good
point.
If she was dating a fighter,you know right, and then it's
(43:21):
like that fighters fighting likeyou got to think in between
rounds, when we're showingreplays, we're gonna show her
reaction.
Oh yeah, whatever the biggestthing is, you have to.
It all depends.
You know it all depends.
I mean, you know there'sobviously a lot of celebrities
that Go to UFC events and weshow them.
It's kind of a formula.
You show the bigger celebritytoward the main event.
(43:44):
You know, if it's Trump, we'regonna show him several times and
you know it kind of depends on.
You know that depends on ifthey bought the tickets or not.
You know, like some, like LeoDiCaprio, we don't usually show
Because he buys his own tickets,right, so that he can say no
but if we?
give Mark Wahlberg front rowtickets.
(44:05):
It's like, hey, I'm gonna showyou a camera, right?
Yeah, it's like I'm gonna showyou on camera.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Going back to radio.
No one calls us so we can'treally do anything about it, but
they should.
917, ufc talk is the number.
If you call us, there's a lawthat it's implied consent that
you're willing to allow us tobroadcast your phone call.
It's illegal to broadcast aphone call when someone doesn't
know they're on the air.
But there's implied consentbecause you're calling a live
(44:30):
show, right?
No one's calling.
I do have another Text here.
This from the way, guys whenfrom Hawaii.
Yeah, when is the octagon goingto come to Hawaii?
We need it here, especiallyafter the tragic fires in Maui.
Mahalo man, thank you for.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Thank you for texting from Hawaii.
My wife is born and raised inHawaii.
I'd like to retire theresomeday.
Got big Hawaiian ties.
There's a there's just a plainold dollars and cents issue.
When it comes to going toHawaii, the biggest leaping off
point is that their arena is notexactly conducive To a big-time
(45:12):
UFC event, and that's what we'dwant it to be.
A loha stadium, obviously, isbig enough to handle the
capacity, but it's outside.
Dana White has said repeatedlythat he doesn't want to deal
with weather concerns because,as we know, it can.
Well, it can.
It can rain.
For I went to a UH footballgame when Colt Brendon was the
quarterback and you know theywere putting up like 80 points
(45:34):
every game and it was thatseason where I think they ended
up going to the sugar bowl thatyear and then they got blown out
by Georgia but went to a gamethat year and like it'll rain
for five minutes and then it'snot, and then it kind of gets
and then it gets dark and thenit'll rain again, and then I'm
just like no wonder they havesuch a good home field advantage
.
You got jet lagged players.
They're in paradise.
It rains every five minutes.
(45:56):
You don't know if it's two pmor two, like you know.
Once it's dark, it's like youdon't know what time it is.
The weather is different.
So I mean, that's really likewe had a heyday, I feel like in
the last three, four years,where we could have put
basically like a Hawaiianagainst a non Hawaiian, kind of
like we do in Brazil, and wecould have done it all the way
up, and then Max could have beenin the main event.
(46:17):
Right, you could have done likeMax and Connor at Aloha Stadium
.
The other thing that people kindof forget about is like the
time of day.
If you're not gonna have anarena, then the stadium doesn't
work, because then, like the 10Eastern for 10 Eastern, 7
Pacific start time for a maincard, well, that's four o'clock
(46:37):
in Hawaii, four or fivedepending on the time of year.
So that just doesn't work foran outdoor show and then the
indoor show.
And they've tried to make ithappen.
They've tried to make it happen.
They've talked to Hawaii andthey were just at an impasse in
terms of Hawaii will give usthis amount of money to come do
a show over there.
And the UFC says that's notenough and it's not really a
(46:59):
moving target, like you need topass this and we'll go, if not,
we won't go.
And the other thing is Hawaiiis not really begging for like,
like, like, hawaii doesn't needto be.
Like, hey, man, wouldn't it begreat if we could do a UFC event
here?
Maybe then some people wouldcome visit, maybe some people go
on vacation to Hawaii if weheld the UFC event.
That's not how it goes.
(47:19):
No, no, but I appreciate thetext from the 808 and, believe
me, there would be a lot ofcompetition within all
departments of the UFC as far aswho gets assigned to that show.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
There's a rich tradition in mixed martial arts
and Hawaiian history.
You know they're amazingfighters.
You already mentioned Max, BJPenn, but there's some you know,
very influential promotions andthe grassroots of mixed martial
arts that were Hawaiian based.
I would love to see, maybe likea team Hawaii versus the world
on the ultimate fighter orsomething like that.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Be cool.
Yeah, I think the ultimatefighter needs to continue to.
You know, gimmick is looked atas a negative word.
I think it needs to continue togimmick itself to stay relevant
.
Yeah, it's like it's a bit of aformat that we've seen too much
.
So this year they decided to gobig.
(48:13):
They get Connor and MichaelChandler, so that was a splash
and they put it on ESPN over thesummer.
They need to continue to docreative things with the
ultimate fighter.
I like that idea.
I like team high.
They're like.
So, like Max was, could havebeen in the main event.
Ega Yanti Madaris, when he wason the roster, was always a fun
fighter.
Like we had like a good chunkof Hawaiians that were like in
(48:36):
the mix.
Like Yanti was in a main eventagainst Cowboys Seroni in 2018.
Sometime between 2018 and 2020,you know would have been ripe
for something like that, buthappen yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
No, I'm not going to happen anytime soon,
unfortunately, you mentionedgimmick and I think that you
know there is a long unfortunatestanding and there being
gimmick promotions and thingslike that and a lot of gimmicks
and MMA to sort of get on theradar.
But I think you're right whenyou have something that is
proven, you're using the gimmickangle to spice something up.
There's a lot of value thereand I think some people will
(49:12):
sort of fight against that.
You know there are some puriststhat just want to see the best
fighters that are availablefight their way to the UFC
through the ultimate fighter.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
But that's why we have the contenders series now
100%, yeah, so like there's lessof a need to find, like, the
absolute best guys for theultimate fighter.
Yeah, now it's even more primedfor like let's do something fun
with this, right.
Let's do a country, let's do acountry, let's make good TV.
I've always thought too,instead of having a coach's
challenge at the end of the year, there should be some sort of
(49:43):
challenge every episode.
Like you remember the biggestloser?
They did like every episode.
They had like a game and it'sjust like if your team won the
game, you got immunity, or theother team had to add a pound to
their you know whatever totallike do that stuff Early early,
early tough.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
They did that and it really was gimmicky and it was
silly, because the fights werebeing decided by a game where
all the athletes would be on themat and they would have socks
on and whoever could keep theirsocks on the longest got to pick
the fight.
I'm not even kidding you.
That was like literally one ofthem.
There was another one, I thinkI think it was season one where
you basically would stand andyour partner would get on your
(50:24):
back, like a piggyback ride orstanding, where you make a choke
position and they had to crawlaround the body and whoever did
that the most would win.
And Diego Sanchez did it, Ithink, on like Rashad Evans or
something.
I don't know who it was.
They weren't on the same season, so it's probably not it, but
the idea was basically make theguy do it a whole bunch and then
(50:45):
you would go next and they madehim do it a whole bunch.
He set the record and then theteam said, oh, we forfeit, and
then picked, I think, diego tofight because he was so tired
from doing it.
But I don't know.
Yeah, now's the time to go backto stupid stuff like that.
It's fun.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
You know, like like a combined show, like you know,
like the ultimate fighter andthe apprentice, like let's find
a fighter that I don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
I'm just like let's find a fighter at the same time.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Well, no, do a TikTok challenge, like, do like, like,
incorporate marketing into it.
I feel like all right.
Well, this guy's, this guy getsthe game like fight.
You know, combat sports arepromotions, they're not leagues,
they're promotions.
So it's just like, all right,this guy, this guy knows how to
promote, this guy could be funwhatever, but that would be
winners at the top.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
You know what I want?
I want Dana to do the ultimatepromoter.
I think that would be a funtelevision show.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
That would be.
That would be a great show too.
That would be great.
And then, like you know, youget a job on the, on the staff.
You're fighting for a job inthe front office.
It's accessible.
There's a lot of people outthere.
They asked me.
They're just like what could Ido?
I just want to work for the UFC.
What could I do?
And I'm just like I don't know.
Dude, like what do you want todo?
Like you want to be in medical,you can be a medical.
You want to be a lawyer.
Like you could be in our legaldepartment.
(51:59):
You like social media, you canbe in our social department.
Like I don't know what to tellyou.
You know there's a lot ofdifferent things.
There's like the ultimatepromoter.
There's a show.
There's the show TJ, let's doit.
Put it on UFC Five Pass Done.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
We just came up with television ideas.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
All right.
So I have to get run and zoom.
We've got to wrap this up.
This was a good first foray.
What say you, what do you think?
Is this all right?
Yeah, you know, I think we needHumbl, Humble beginnings.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
We need to try to coach people out of their shell
to actually pick up the phone.
You know yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
I have a dream of people calling in.
You know I used to love thispodcast where people would write
like parody songs about likethe podcast and things like that
.
And I've thought like, oh mygoodness, wouldn't it be fun to
make like MMA songs, like UFCsongs or something you know 30
seconds long, a minute.
Take a karaoke version, dubyour voice in, write some fun
(52:55):
lyrics, send stuff in like that.
Listen.
There's a lot of differentavenues we could go down, but if
you've gotten this far in theprogram, forever indebted to
have you listening along, and Ithink we'll do this again, tj we
gotta wrap our heads togetherwhat went right, what went wrong
, what could go better.
But the good news is we have along runway because you know it
(53:17):
costs nothing to hit.
Go on our home studios and findsome time and put out some
content like this yeah, let's doit Whenever you're free.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
I like Fridays like this, you know it's fun to sort
of get things up and you know,whenever you're free, let me
know we'll hit the buttons andmake it work better next time.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
All right, well, tj DeSantis is the man and you know
, just thanks for kind of givingthe idea, giving the support,
giving the resources.
Ufc Fight Pass has been greatfor FITZ Nation to kind of
continue to thrive and, you know, get some interesting guests
and give me the creative ways tocreate more stuff like do
(53:57):
different types of things, likea live stream talking about UFC
things, whether it is going toHawaii or the history of the UFC
or John Jones and Stipeupcoming.
I do have some excitinginterviews that are coming down
the pike.
Kyle Bohiolo will be fightingin the Comaine event in Sao
Paulo in November.
I'm gonna link up with him nextweek.
(54:18):
Megan O'Levy just celebrated 10years with the UFC, so I texted
her the other day and I'm gonnalink up with Megan O'Levy in the
coming weeks as well, so theinterview shows won't be going
away.
This the first of what I hopeto be a handful of live streams
for FITZ Nation to just kind oftalk fights, shoot the breeze a
(54:39):
little bit and see what otherideas we can come up with.
All right, thanks everybody.
Hope you have a great weekend.
Enjoy the fights tomorrow GrantDawson, bobby Green, in the
main event from the Apex.
I'll be back on the call a weekfrom tomorrow at the Apex for
Sadiq Youssef and Edson Barbosa.
Thanks again, we'll see younext time.
This is a special presentation from UFC Fight Pass
.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Step into our world at UFCFightPasscom.
Please welcome, from the FITSNation podcast, brendan
Fitzgerald.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hey, how's it going everybody?
Fits Nation Live is coming toyou on a Friday afternoon and I
am thrilled to be with you.
Let me shut off the speakers inmy home office, my studio, and
we'll see how it all goes.
Okay, I think I'm good here now, wanted to have some fun with
everybody, and I guess we couldcall it a bit of an
(00:40):
old-fashioned format.
Wherever you may be from, Idon't know if they have sports
talk radio shows still, theyexist in the bigger cities and
TJ DeSantis is running the boardfrom behind the scenes and we
thought why don't we fire up thephone lines and see if there's
any fans out there that want tocall in and chat about this
weekend, about the big fightscoming up, about 2023, about
(01:04):
life lessons learned this year?
If you're a fan of FITS Nation,you know that I like to talk a
lot more than just about thefights going down in the octagon
.
It's a lot about the stories ofthese great athletes and
coaches and people that make theUFC world go, and something
that jumped out at me recentlythat really spoke to me when I
(01:26):
started to think about it waswhen Dana White was asked about
Laura Sanko.
Laura obviously made her colorcommentary debut at the
pay-per-view down at SydneyAustralia and it was a big
moment for the first woman to beon the call for a modern-era
UFC broadcast earlier this year.
She's done great things withthe contender series and she
punched herself all the way upto being on a pay-per-view
(01:48):
broadcast crew.
And when Dana White was askedabout it and just saying yeah,
she does a great job, but shedid a great job.
And he then comes through anddrops the gem of if you know
what you want to do in life,that really gets you a lot of
the way there.
Once you really are clear onwhat you want to do, then you
(02:10):
can rest easy and wake up withthe purpose driving you towards
doing what you want to do.
And I have dealt with, to bequite honest, being a bit of a
professional rut at times,especially over the last year or
two, with the nature of the jobthat I have changing quite a
bit.
I used to go on the roadpre-pandemic.
(02:32):
I was in big arenas, there werebig crowds, I'd called some
title fights, our fight nightswere elevated to ESPN and
obviously that's changed withthe way of the world.
During the pandemic, the Apexis a unique environment to call
sports in.
So I really sat there and askedmyself take that to heart?
(02:52):
Dana White saying if you reallyknow what you want to do, then
you can go after it.
And really I never got intothis business to call fights
specifically or to be aplay-by-play announcer.
What I have always loved is theidea of having an interview show
, a podcast, a talk radio show,and so I've kind of put more
(03:14):
energy into the podcast recentlyand it seems to have been
working out.
Went live with Dracus DuPlessis recently.
That was a great situation.
I've got a lot of interestingguests lined up for the podcast
and, as I mentioned, tj DeSantis, who's run the board, said why
don't we go live?
Why don't we do a live stream?
I got this phone number,917ufctalk, that has been
(03:37):
underutilized for years andyears and years and maybe we'll
interact with the fans.
Take some calls, texts,whatever you got.
Call in and we can chat and wecan talk about the hot topics in
the world of MMA and beyond.
Tj, you want to pop up onscreen as my producer on air
(03:58):
type of situation and the guythat's made this whole thing
possible.
If you guys knew the force atwhich TJ was ramming his head
against the wall today to makethis live stream possible.
Tj, how are you doing?
Speaker 2 (04:14):
I'm afraid to speak right now because it just might
all fall apart, Because theaudio wheels were dangerously
close to falling off.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Pretty much.
Yeah, tj, let's talk about thisformat though real quick.
How did the phone number?
And if anybody calls in, we cantake calls, like, really right
away.
I don't want to hold it back,but you're from a bygone era and
I know that these shows stillexist, these calling shows, but
certainly not really in the MMAor the UFC landscape.
(04:43):
But I think it's exciting whatwe're pushing, our little engine
that could up the hill rightnow.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
You know what the problem is, is everyone nowadays
, for whatever reason, they justdon't like to talk on the phone
.
So you can also text us.
By the way, 917, ufc Talk takestext messages.
I started an FM radio, brendan,and I have always enjoyed
answering the request line whenI was working on the FM, because
you never knew exactly what youwere going to get First off.
(05:09):
I feel like I was about to sayI'm going to shatter people's
dreams here, but peoplelistening now or watching now,
they don't even know anythingabout request lines.
But we had a request line.
It was never like a validrequest line.
There was no request.
You didn't ever call a radiostation and go, hey, can I hear
Metallica?
And I'm like sure I'll put iton in four songs If that
happened.
It was just a coincidence, butI've always loved interacting,
(05:34):
because radio is this.
I mean, this is the thing.
I still look at it as radio.
I'm looking at a camera rightnow, which I absolutely despise,
but radio has turned intotelevision, but the medium of
interaction, I think, has goneup and down at the same time,
because you can do it like anInstagram live and people can
drop comments in the chat andall that stuff, but people don't
(05:55):
call anymore.
And I still think like Iremember listening to radio
shows when I was a kid andfalling in love with some of the
listeners' personalities, and Ifeel like you don't really get
that through text on a Twitchstream or anything of that
nature.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
No, you definitely don't.
And I know that I have somefans of Fitz Nation that will
tend to comment and if somebodycalls in I'll be like yes,
they've kind of been around andlistening.
But, TJ, you're absolutelyright.
Tj, I wondered too, like askyou a question, Like, do you
ever call anybody to order foodanymore?
Speaker 2 (06:27):
No, that's another thing.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
It's like all Uber Eats, it's all app, it's all
online.
And sometimes I do call andpeople are a little off put.
I'm just like, yeah, can Iorder some food?
And they're like what?
Yeah, they're probably.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
I guess you can Answering the phone to make sure
that it's not their friendcalling them at work.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
I'm like when do you get off dude?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Let's hang out, yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
And I read an article recently.
This is kind of one of mycrusades that I'm on this year,
but it's kind of a weird thing.
It's like anti-social.
I went full anti-social mediafor a chunk of this year and I
still am kind of like on thefence with that and what I've
realized TJ is.
I read some articles and theysaid social media is dead.
(07:08):
Right, and on the surface you'dbe like, well, what do you mean
?
Social media is dead.
Instagram has never been bigger.
Tiktok is joining the fray, allthese things Right, but it's
not social media anymore, it'smedia.
It's media on a mobile phone.
That's what the world has comeinto.
I do not get on Instagram tokeep up with friends and family
and to see what they're up to.
(07:29):
I don't do that, do you?
No, that's not what it's for.
It's for media.
It's for news.
It's for shows in bite-sizedform.
Yeah, it's for clips from apodcast.
I can be a fan of the HowardStern show without even
subscribing to Sirius XM radio.
Absolutely, and that's kind ofwhat you know.
That's what those platforms areto me.
Now.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
Yeah, I mean, there are certain fights that happen
that you don't have to buy thepay-per-view because the fight
is 30 seconds and then it endsup on, you know, instagram or
TikTok.
Whether or not the UFC put itthere is irrelevant, it's just,
you know these bite-sized things, if it fits onto that 90-second
mark.
That's the way everyoneconsumes media and, like what
we're doing right now, you know,there's this sort of long form
(08:11):
show format, if you will.
I hate to even call it longform, because what have we been
on the air?
Like 11 minutes, if that?
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
But like, this sort of whole entire episode is not
really the end goal anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
No, it's not.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Like they're just going to be like okay, where's
the 30-second clips that we canthrow up on the Fight Pass
Instagram, you know, and get areality.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And that's what it is and like that's great.
I love that people can just getblasted with all of this stuff,
but at the same time it's likeyou lose so much in the you know
wash if you will when you cutit down like that.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yes, I thought of having a segment on FITS Nation
on the podcast, when I dointerviews with fighters, called
like you know, like the clickbait segment.
Right, be like, hey, saysomething outlandish and I'll
clip it and put it on socialmedia and let's like, let's see
what kind of reaction.
I haven't done that because I'mnot really the hot take guy.
I don't want to be hollow, I'drather have kind of more
(09:07):
substance to it, even if ittakes building something over a
longer period of time.
But yeah, I mean, it's theworld we live in.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
It's funny that you mentioned that, because when we
started the first rounds onFacebook, pretty much at the
beginning of the pandemic, wewould notice that when we would
just show highlights, that ourengagement would go up right.
So I started the segment at thebeginning of every show where I
called it clip bait, where Iwould just bait people with like
fry and takiyama you know,people stop and see that.
(09:36):
So, like I'll just hit JohnJones.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Let's go, let's go.
You know, john Jones highlightsNow people are like what's
happening?
Right.
So here's the deal I want toknow and maybe we could fire up
that graphic that you made onJohn Jones Okay, way back in
2008,.
We're 15 years later.
But also, like, are we buyingthat?
You know, we're about to seeJohn Jones in his last UFC fight
(10:02):
, 15 some odd years later, atMadison Square Garden, to defend
his heavyweight championship.
He's 27 and one.
The one has a giant asterisknext to it.
Right, like, in terms of theretirement talk, I believe win
or lose for Steve Bay, this isit.
I don't think he can get betterthan this.
(10:22):
If he wins, if he beats JohnJones I can't remember how old
he is off the top of my head,but he's about that age and I
don't think that he, like youknow, I don't think the money
would change his life really todefend that belt and I just
think that Steve Bay, with thewin, he'd be done with John.
I think, with the win, I thinkJones is going to hang around.
(10:43):
I think he's going to defendthe belt one time.
I think there's too much moneyat stake.
He signed what like a seven oreight fight contract before he
fought Cyril Gondon atheavyweight.
So the dollars and cents areall laid out there, and I just
think that if he turns back,steve Bay is probably going to
be a giant favorite against thewinner of whoever they might
rush into next Tom Aspinol,sergei Pavlovich, right up there
(11:05):
, gialta now made a Jones is noundersized guy, as we saw
against Cyril Gondon.
So I don't know what do youthink?
You think they're both done, Ithink they're both done.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah, I mean, that's what we were talking about
before we went on the air, isyou know?
I wanted to pose it to you byour cell.
Jones and or Miochich willretire after UFC 295 because I
think that we're definitelygoing to get one.
I think winner lose.
Steve Bay is probably going towalk out for the last time and
leave his gloves behind, but Ithink Jones might as well,
because you know, I understandthere are some challengers that
(11:38):
are intriguing in theheavyweight class for John.
But I still look at John the wayhe he didn't look super
motivated towards the end of hisrun at light heavyweight.
I still don't really know whathe looks like at heavyweight
because it's real gone fight,you know, went so quick.
If Jones goes out there andbeats Steve Bay, who is
statistically the bestheavyweight the UFC has ever
(11:59):
seen I mean you want to look athis numbers, they're pretty damn
impressive, which goes to yourargument and you know what is
there for Steve Bay, you know,left to prove.
If he beats John Jones, I thinkthe rematch would be insane for
him, you know, financially.
But Steve Bay is a guy thatlike, do you see him really
being motivated by money period,because I'm sure everybody
wants more money, but I justdon't think Steve Bay is a guy
(12:21):
that's going to do anything hedoesn't want to do.
Speaker 1 (12:24):
I think he has made his life changing money right
and he lives in Cleveland, ohioand I don't think he's, I don't
really think his lifestyleschange that much with the money
that he does have.
There's something to be admiredabout that, you know and it's
like a firefighter, like whostill wants to go to work when
you don't have to?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Well, and why would you?
Speaker 1 (12:44):
why would you beat John Jones?
You know the goat when you'rethe heavyweight greatest and so
that would kind of put you in.
You know that conversation in acertain respect.
Yeah, and then why would yousay well, if I make a lot of
money, I can do this like youcan't go out better than a win
over John Jones as a heavyweightchampion, be called the
heavyweight greatest of all time, make a bunch of money.
(13:05):
You don't really need money.
Like he's not out there likeMcGregor trying to buy a yacht
and start four different liquorcompanies.
He's not that guy.
So I don't think he puts it onthe line like that.
I think he puts it on the lineagainst John Jones and I think
this will be the last time.
Are we sad if it's a John Jonesretirement, thinking that Steve
Bay is probably done?
And I think we've, you know,kind of been prepared.
(13:27):
Steve Bay has only fought oncea year, if that for the last,
like handful of years anyways,but John Jones like the greatest
of all time.
I mean, I was sad when TomBrady retired because I was a
huge Tom Brady fan.
What do you think the MMA worldreaction is going to be if we
don't see John anymore?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
I mean unfortunately, I don't think it'll be as
devastated as it should be.
And that's just because Johnhas been this guy, you know,
with a lot of ups and downs inhis career.
He's, you know, left millionsof dollars on the table because,
you know, personal things havegotten in a new way and, you
know, john Jones not being anactive UFC fighter isn't all
that strange to people.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah, I guess we've gotten used to life without him
for a while.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, that said, I think he's the greatest to ever
do it.
And if you argue that he's not,you're arguing because of like
role model type of things, youknow, mainstream athlete types
of things, like all theintangibles that Conor McGregor
has, that sort of elevates himto the the greatest of all time.
For some people, john Jones hasdetractions.
In the same manner, if you'rearguing that John isn't the best
(14:27):
to ever step in the octagon,it's because of things that have
happened outside of competition.
And yeah, I mean I don't know,no matter what I think, whenever
John does call it a career, I'mgoing to be sad.
And it's not because we won'tsee him anymore, it's because of
how much we've already lost.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Yeah, yeah, it's a.
It's a what could have beentype of situation with John
Jones that always will be in acertain respect, and like he
just elevates an event like to adifferent level, like you don't
really have to even do much interms of promotion.
I'm interested to see how muchbigger it's going to get when
the UFC put certain fights andcertain events together.
I continue to be surprised,knowing that you know the UFC
(15:08):
were the best to put on bigfights on a consistent basis.
There's no question about it.
And I remember thinking thispast summer International Fight
Week and Las Vegas, and then youknow Volkanowski fighting Yaya
Rodriguez, and then that's theheadliner, and I was just like
man, that's what we're trottingout for International Fight Week
.
I would have thought it wouldhave been a bigger fight than
(15:29):
that, you know.
And then we had the flyweighttitle as the, as the co-main
event.
And then, sure enough, fightWeek comes.
Stuff starts ramping up.
Las Vegas gets a little crowded, ufc X is kind of wall to wall
with fans at the conventioncenter.
Trump's going to show up and allof a sudden, on fight night,
I'm like, well, goddamn, thiscouldn't have been much bigger.
(15:51):
Yeah, this couldn't have beenmuch bigger.
We own the sports world.
Tonight it became this hugeevent and I loved Alexander
Volkanowski, love what he standsfor.
Yaya Rodriguez is an excitingguy and in Mexico is, you know,
obviously this blossomingcountry in terms of churning out
highest level fighters.
And you know it became a hugeevent and I just go.
(16:14):
Well, there I go again.
You know I was wrong.
Again we can make big fights,so I'm really interested to see
how big it's going to get in NewYork City with John Jones.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
I mean, that's the thing, too, and this actually
goes to a text message we justgot from Tim in Seattle.
Tim writes and he says hey guys, where does this rank as
biggest heavyweight fights incombat sports history, not just
in the UFC, not just in MMA, butoverall combat sports?
I think there's something to besaid about that, because for me
, the baddest man on the planetis always going to be perceived
(16:46):
as as a heavyweight.
I think you know, when it comesto combat sports, I'm always
going to favor a heavyweightmixed martial artist over a
heavyweight boxer.
So if you're the heavyweightchampion of the UFC, mainstream
sports and otherwise, you're thebaddest man on the planet.
You have the statisticalgreatest heavyweight to ever do
it in steep John Jones, thegreatest MMA fighter in history,
(17:09):
in the world's most famousarena, Madison Square Garden.
I mean, I got hairs in the backof my neck standing up right
now.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I know, and I hate when we go on recency bias and
we just say that was the bestthing we've ever seen on Monday
morning when it happened onSaturday night.
We always say that.
We say it was Super Bowls allthe time.
But, yeah, it's hard to reallyargue for anything different
than this one being the biggest.
Tyson Fury, deontay Wilder waslike a massive event.
But here's the thing, and thisday and age for boxing, boxing
(17:40):
is now the niche sport, in myopinion, in regards to boxing
versus MMA.
Maybe it's because I'm so fardown this rabbit hole and I
don't watch a lot of boxingevents, but I don't know.
I just feel like the UFC justgets the nod in terms of making
headlines across the sportslandscape more readily than
(18:03):
boxing does.
And Tyson Fury's in the news.
He's going to fight Francis andGano and then he's going to
fight again for the real fightthat he's in in December.
So I just think, yeah, likethis one has got to be the
biggest before this.
You know, steve Bay fights inGano and it happens in front of
(18:24):
a huge arena and a bunch of fans.
Then, you know, mate, in therematch I'm talking about,
obviously they fought in Boston,it turns into kind of a clunker
of a fight because in Ghanawasn't ready for that.
But if in Ghana and Steve Bay,instead of fighting in the apex
with a few hundred watching inwhat was that?
Early 2021, march of 2021, ifmemory serves then you know that
(18:45):
would have been a monster event.
But the world wasn't open theway it is now and also like that
might have been the biggest tothis point, if in Ghana was able
to knock out Steve Bay the waythat he did.
But this one would have trumpedit anyways, because John Jones
is a bigger name than Francisand Gano will be and will ever
be, at least in my opinion.
Now, if in Ghana pulls an upsetat Tyson Fury, then maybe the
(19:10):
you know that conversation getsopened a little bit more.
But you know, right now JohnJones is one of, if not the
biggest stars in combat sportshistory in the UFC's heavyweight
division, the way that he movedup, the way that he dominated,
like he did.
If he defends his belt in NewYork City, madison Square Garden
against Steve Bay Meech, yeah,you got to say this is the
biggest matchup in heavyweighthistory and combat sports.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Yeah, no, I think it's the plants Murko Krokop and
Fedor Miliyanko as the greatestheavyweight mixed martial arts
fight we've ever seen.
It's a pride fight.
I know maybe that's a popularopinion If I'm, you know, toeing
the company line here, but youknow, as a hardcore MMA fan, I
remember thinking this was thegreatest heavyweight fight that
we had ever seen.
It happened in, I think, summerof 2005.
And don't get me wrong.
(19:55):
There have been greatheavyweight fights and
intriguing matchups.
Steve Bay has done amazingthings statistically Again the
greatest in the UFC but I don'tknow if I would consider Steve
Bay the greatest heavyweight toever do it.
We'll never really find out.
I don't know what a primefailure would have looked like
against a prime Steve Bay Meech.
You know, I think that somepeople will say that the
(20:15):
heavyweight wasn't as evolvedback in 2005 as it is today.
I don't really think there'sall that much of a difference
between the talent in theheavyweight division from 10, 15
years ago to today.
I think it's, unfortunately oneof the slower divisions to
evolve, but that largely comesdown to the fact that these guys
are 230 pounds.
You know throwing.
You know with lightning fastspeed and you know things happen
(20:39):
.
You know, on any given night inany you know weight class.
Someone can win in mixedmartial arts that they land in
the button that is magnifiedtenfold when it comes to
heavyweight.
So I think we have seen a lotmore turnover there.
But again, I do think that thissteep Meech hitch in John Jones
fight is bigger than Fedor andCroko.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Well, yeah, and also the sport is so young that the
conversation is constantlychanging in terms of what it
means and how big it is.
I mean, think about 2005compared to now and the platform
that the UFC has.
Last thing I'll say onheavyweight is, if both do
retire, like TJ is inclined tobelieve the very interesting
thing is like how they handlethe heavyweight division going
(21:21):
forward and like who jumps outand who becomes the name,
because there's not really thisgiant marketable star at
heavyweight outside of Jones.
You could argue that Steve Paytisn't that marketable.
I mean, he's kind of likeresisted the social media and
the you know being out there,right, and he's always done
(21:45):
what's needed of him.
He shows up at the pressconferences but he's not a
bulletin board material guy.
And neither are the other guyscoming up next in line Tom
Aspinall, sergey Pavlovich, gailTenelmeyda, curtis Bledes has
been there for a long time.
I guess Derek Lewis right,derek Lewis makes headlines and
can mount a championship run,depending on who they might
(22:06):
match him up against.
But you know that's thedevelopment in the heavyweight
division.
Should both retire, I think weshould soak in the buildup
that's going to be over the nextmonth or so, and it'll be kind
of a sprint because you know AbuDhabi is going to get a lot of
headlines obviously in the nextfew weeks and after that, you
know, we're only two weeks orthree weeks away, I guess, from
(22:28):
Madison Square Garden being thecenter of the sports world for a
night.
Yeah, I get another text, thisfrom by the way, you called it
to go more meta to have our showtalking about media.
People want to text, call inpeople.
What is it?
Speaker 2 (22:42):
917?
Yeah, 917 UFC Talks, so it's917.
Ufc Talk 917-832-8255.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
If you want to talk, then come on and talk, let's
talk.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
But if you want to text go ahead.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
We encourage all forms of feedback.
Go ahead.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
This one from the 310 .
He says you guys are talkingabout the evolution of mixed
martial arts.
We've seen some countries breakout as of late.
What about India?
1.5 billion people and we haveyet to see an Indian star inside
the UFC.
When will it happen?
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
So Anshul Jubli came off of the road to UFC last year
, I believe.
He's Indian and he fights inAbu Dhabi, I think, and so
there's one of the early ones.
And then, who was theheavyweight TJ that just fought?
He was a wrestler and aheavyweight and he was a
(23:31):
Canadian, he was Indo-Canadian,so not from India.
Oh, arjun Buller, arjun SinghBuller.
So he just fought recently, inthe last five years, but he
wasn't going to be a big star.
What's interesting is I don'tknow if I'm supposed to, you
know if this is inside baseball,but we're just going to have to
(23:53):
ride with it here.
You know, I know somebody thatworks at the UFC Performance
Institute, I know plenty ofpeople that do, and so obviously
we're opening up a new UFC PIin Mexico and that's coming up
this fall.
And we have the UFC PI inShanghai, china, and a few years
ago they held like a combine,remember this?
(24:14):
They held a combine in Shanghaiand they're like let's see who
gets to go to the program.
We're trying to build China asa market.
We're going to start chasingIndia, we're going to get into
India and you know there's goingto be some of that kind of
treatment.
Now there's no plans for a PI,but you know Shanghai will be
kind of their home base forwhatever comes out of India.
(24:36):
But they're going to startactively building that market
with people in our umbrella oflike a combined situation to try
to like develop that market.
Get the best fighters they have.
You know wrestling, they havefighting, they got athletes and
they got a lot of people.
And a lot of people means a lotof eyeballs.
That means a lot of wallets andyou know it's like why not?
(24:59):
We're a global sport, let'skeep building the business.
And so if you say, what's next,how much more can we grow?
India is a good point bywhoever texted in.
From what did you say the 310?
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Yeah, I think that's LA.
There we go.
So you know, I look at theevolution and you know,
obviously Khabib has been agreat star for Dagestan and you
know, I remember when I firstgot into MMA, podcasting back in
like 2005, a guy that I did ashow with named Jordan Breen was
talking about the caucusnations of Russia.
(25:31):
You know, and they weren'treally on the map yet, there
were a handful of guys that were, you know, fighting, but not to
the level that they are now.
And obviously we've seen anexplosion.
You know there are so manyfighters that are, you know, cut
from the same cloth as Khabiband you know Khabib is the
greatest to do it at 155.
Who knows what, you know, thosecountries are still going to
look like here in five, 10 years.
(25:53):
And you know, I just think that,you know, with the PIs going up
, you just need that exposureand you get more exposure.
You get.
You know.
I mean, look how much womenhave evolved since Ronda Rouse
came in the UFC.
And I think that that you know15 year old kid is sitting at
home looking at the televisiongoing.
That person looks like me.
That person I can livevicariously through this person.
Wait, I can go to the gym.
(26:14):
Wait, I'm actually kind of goodat this, and all of a sudden.
You know there's an explosionand you know where.
There's one or two today,there's many more tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
There's no more accessible sport.
I was blown away by this.
Once I started working you know, really starting to call fights
move back to Las Vegas in 2017,went into syndicate, did some
Muay Thai classes and stuff likethat.
And I was like oh God, yeah.
So I did Muay Thai for a fewand then, like you know, it came
(26:43):
to sparring.
It was super light sparring, soI'm going to sound like a major
wimp when I say this, but, likeyou know, somebody just popped
me right here, right?
And I was still kind of new withthe.
UFC and it just gave me enoughwhere I had to just make sure my
tooth wasn't loose.
I didn't have a mouth guard inor whatever and I'm like nobody
knows who I am not that theywould care, anyways.
I'm not a do you know who I amtype of guy, but just in terms
of like hey, maybe don't give mea black guy.
(27:04):
I got to be on TV this weekendand I was just like gosh, maybe
Muay Thai isn't the one likeright where it's like I thought
I would like striking way betterthan grappling.
Most people say that Most Iwould say you know people
without a grappling background.
You know, didn't high schoolwrestle and all that.
They're like I don't want toroll around with a guy on the
(27:25):
ground and do all this stuff.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Right, I'm allergic to getting hit.
Brendan, it caused me to, so itsounds much more manly, though.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Yeah, but you don't think about getting hit, you
think about hitting.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
It's much more manly to be like boom, boom on the bag
.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
One.
Two, right, stephen A Smith ishitting the pads and I could do
it better than that.
So, anyways, did a little MuayThai just for a few classes, and
then I just got hit in themouth.
I was like maybe I shouldn'treally do a sport that could
give me a black guy when I'm new, you know, when I'm the new guy
.
And then I started jujitsu 2019, liked it a lot more than I
(27:58):
thought and I took the pandemicoff.
I took a longer time than thanyou know I normally would have.
You know, obviously there was abunch going on and we have a
baby and all.
There was a lot of differentfactors, but I've gotten the in
the gear.
I've gotten the key back on inthe key in the key for the most
part.
And for the most part in the keyon the road when.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
Yeah, On the road you know I don't pack a key.
I put a key on one time,brendan.
I put a key one time because Itook a nap real quick with my
own, they got to choke me out ofmy own.
Damn no, thank you.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
No, that's like one of the early things that you
just like trying to grab orwhatever, and somebody just
takes your callers and it's like, yeah, I haven't been put to
sleep yet but, people like you.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
See you're more like I'm getting me.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
No, here's another thing.
Speaking of you know who I amNobody.
Well, I shouldn't say nobody.
I've never.
I would have thought that atExtreme Couture, where UFC
fighters are training 30 feetthat way, and I'm saying hello
to all of them and good to seeyou, and then I get on the Jiu
Jitsu mat and theoretically,these are people that are into
Jiu Jitsu, so maybe they watchthe UFC.
(29:07):
They would probably know who Iam right, they don't know who I
am.
It's crazy.
I'm just like you know and I'mlike you know.
It's a lot in my voice and notmy face.
That's on TV Often.
I get that.
But even the coach, even thecoach like Nick Sick.
Nick Sick was like hey, man,green light, this guy, anybody
wants to, you know, tap him out,whatever.
And he's just like oh, you knowhim from high school or
something.
And I'm just like no, I workfor the UFC, I'm on TV, like
(29:30):
every Saturday.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yeah, so you know, I mean it's you get humbled real
quick.
You get humbled, so I've.
I've done a lot of Jiu Jitsucommentary over the last
probably six or seven years withEddie.
Oh yeah, I want to get in onthat TJ.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
Like that's a new life.
Goal is to have you calling oneof my Jiu Jitsu matches.
Like maybe I get on that FBI,you know.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
FBI.
Sure, I mean, you got to getout of that Get out of that.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Come on, isn't there a GEE situation we could do?
Speaker 2 (29:57):
No, no, no, no, no, ok, ok, all right, I'll get it
down the thing that I think isinteresting, though, is when I
first started doing Jiu Jitsu is, a lot of the community was
like oh, this is an MMA guy.
I'm like, yeah, but like,without Jiu Jitsu there would be
no UFC.
Like to me, Jiu Jitsu and mixedmartial arts are one in the
same.
Like all combat sports are acousin to one another.
(30:20):
But for whatever reason, Ithink that over the last 10
years or so, the hardcore JiuJitsu community has kind of
pulled away from mixed martialarts.
It's kind of coming back.
I think you know what the UFCand fight pass is doing with the
FBI is really significant inbridging those two worlds.
It sounds weird to me to saybridging those two worlds
(30:41):
because again to me they're thesame, jiu Jitsu.
I mean the UFC was the paidprogram for Gracie.
Jiu Jitsu.
You know what I mean.
It literally was the.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
I know the, so everyone started it, they're
like I was a 150 pound guy.
I saw this guy beat all thebaddest dudes.
Now what's now?
What's interesting, though, isthere is definitely a rivalry
between the boxing world and theMMA world.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
It's gotten a lot better a lot better, A lot
better, but for a long time Imean.
The go to for me was oh, youknow how many people die a year
in boxing?
A lot, Mm, hmm.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
You know how many people die a?
Speaker 2 (31:12):
year in the UFC.
None Right, we're beyond that,I don't have to argue.
The safety points of mixedmartial arts yeah, but yeah, I
think the issue is is you stillhave an older guard in boxing
that, for whatever reason, theycan't seem to either?
A get over the fact that youknow wrestling is a real part of
(31:35):
combat and you have to embracefighting on the floor.
And they don't like it for manyreasons.
They always try to say it'sbarbaric.
I mean it's too exciting, it'stoo exciting for them.
I just that's the problem.
My issue is this like you'regoing to tell me that wrestling
and hitting a guy on the flooris barbaric when a guy gets
knocked down twice and aroundand he gets back up and he's
(31:57):
clearly out of it.
But you go, go fight.
You got to stand in front ofthis guy.
Still, You're still here.
I mean, yeah, it's combatsports, it's barbaric.
We don't need to argue aboutthe barbaricism.
Is barbaricism a word?
Let's go with it.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
I'll go with it, yeah .
Speaker 2 (32:11):
You know we don't need to talk about that anymore,
but we're a lot, you know.
One thing I think isinteresting is what Dana is
doing with this kid, callumWalsh.
You know really blowing him up.
You know he's fighting outthere in Madison Square Garden
and the theater a couple nightsbefore 295.
I think you have a lot of MMAfans that maybe haven't come
over to the world of boxingstarting to get turned on to
Callum a little bit and payingattention.
(32:33):
Maybe they're not watching live, or maybe they are.
They're at least, you know,looking up the result and you
know following him a bit.
I think that's really importantbecause I don't think we've
really had too many people thathave been an ambassador for
mixed martial arts and boxing atthe same time.
And you talk to Callum and likethe only reason the kids are
boxers because they didn't havean MMA gym in Cork, ireland.
(32:55):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
He would have been in the MMA round if it was there,
but it wasn't.
Yeah, because he came up andMcGregor was blown up, right
yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I think that we're starting to see this new
generation of fans not reallylook at any sort of flavor of
combat sport being, you know, arival to one or the other.
It's just like all right, I'llwatch this.
This is interesting and that'sthe way it should be.
If you like mixed martial arts,you at least have an
appreciation for every combatsport.
You might just not know it.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, exactly right, that's interesting, that jujitsu
and MMA thing, like you saythat, and so many people that
get into MMA via MMA right, theydon't come in from one
particular combat sport and thenget into it, like you know,
like me, like my kind of firstreal experience, professionally
(33:44):
and as a fan, and all this isinto MMA as the UFC, and then I
can appreciate the art ofgrappling and jujitsu and I can
appreciate the art of boxing.
But I will say, you know, whenthere's a knockdown of boxing,
I'm just like, oh, it's justgetting to the good part, why
are you stopping?
Right, it's just kind of one ofthose things.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
Yeah, but if you watch MMA and then you go and
watch a single discipline, sportthere's part of your brain that
just goes like, okay, thisisn't a complete fight.
I'm not trying to say that it'snot, you know, valuable, I'm
sorry.
I think the most brutal if wewant to talk about brutal sports
.
I mean, you already talkedabout it Watch a Muay Thai fight
like watch a pro Muay Thaifight.
Speaker 1 (34:21):
I mean just elbows, Just to the ring.
You know, right, right theimpact.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
The sound that they make when they are slamming into
each other is.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Well, and they can't, you know, they can't get into
the ground and take a break,right, Because you get a
takedown and then there's sometop control.
It's like all right, I'm noteating an elbow right now.
I have seen some.
You know, I don't have to standhere and take big shots.
Speaker 2 (34:39):
I have seen some Muay Thai smokers in the Midwest
where some wrestlers try to trytheir hand at Muay Thai and they
get rocked and the referee hasto stop them from going into.
That you know instinctual.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Into the last double Instinctual shoot for a leg.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
It's always fun You've been at smokers in the
Midwest TJ.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
Oh yeah, I commentated some.
I mean, I've commented on ashow that ended in a riot, where
my color commentator came backand she had a black eye.
Wow yeah, fun, fun times yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:06):
I mean, I knew you were a real one, but jeez, what
are you commentating for?
I thought the whole thing wassmokers.
Is that they're illegal?
They're underground?
No, so.
So was there a live stream.
Speaker 2 (35:17):
No, no, no DVDs dog, it's 2004.
You know, we got to put theseDVDs.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Whoa yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
Uh, not all.
Where'd you sell the DVDs?
Oh, cagefightvideoscom.
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
No way huh.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah, you can check it out.
Wow, you go back in the way,way back machine archiveorg and
go to cagefightvideoscom.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Cagefightvideoscom.
So you'd make and that's funnythat you have a commentary crew
for that Like the fights weren'tjust enough, so they just like
wanted them to sound like youknow, here's what's going on and
there was commentary for it.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah, yeah, it was.
It was a mess.
Yeah, you know how much I gotpaid.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
Let me ask you, so like, of course, you didn't get
paid.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
No, no, I got paid.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Oh, you got paid.
Speaker 2 (35:59):
I didn't get paid.
I got a discount on the DVD.
They let me buy it for $15instead of $20.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Right, exactly yeah, so you didn't get paid.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
No, you didn't yeah.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
I did.
I did some of those.
Uh, you know, like you know,you call some popcorn or
football, stand up on the standup on the bed of a, of a truck
and uh say what's going on?
Right, that's you know, thehumble beginnings Exactly.
What do you think of?
Uh, what do you think of?
Like this TJ then?
Because you know I'm old enoughnow where I don't want to say I
(36:32):
get grumpy about stuff, but Ido get nostalgic about a lot of
different things and you realizethat the old world isn't coming
back.
It's just not coming back.
Your kids are going to grow upin a different era.
There are certain things thatyou loved about the way that you
grew up and it's not going tobe the same in the MMA scope of
(36:52):
things, like you've seen it,like you've seen a lot of this
sport to where it is now.
What are your thoughts on it?
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Uh, I mean, I think that everything that I will
complain about not being the waythat it used to be is, uh,
probably for the better, becauseit means that we're getting you
know more fights, like peoplesay.
Oh, ufc Fight cards are watereddown compared to what they used
to be.
Yeah, the UFC was put on sixcards a year.
I mean, right, you know,depending on the, the month, the
(37:21):
UFC can put on five cards andyou know, five weeks in a month
and still be inside the samecalendar month.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
We just got done that .
Last week we were dark Uh-huh.
For the first time in 18 weekswe did 17 Saturdays in a row.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
I know my wife doesn't remember what it's like
when I'm home on a Saturday,like that's wild, that's wild.
Yeah, I'm yeah, so I mean rightlike 2002 is when I first got
into to mixed martial arts andlike really started to follow it
.
I could not sleep starting twodays before a UFC.
I remember UFC 40, november22nd 2002 T-Dor T's Ken Shamrock
(37:59):
, ufc 40 vendetta.
I'm watching on pay-per-viewand I literally Can't sleep two
nights before because we haven'thad a UFC since August.
You know it's the the biggestblood feud the sport has ever
seen and in Tito and Ken and itwas like that repeatedly.
And I remember in 2003 UFC 43happened in June and then there
(38:23):
wasn't another UFC until likeSeptember and like I went the
whole summer Without a UFC andit's like right, that was my
obsession, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
Like yeah, I benefited there are no regional
shows.
I mean, there was none of thatthere were.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
there were regional shows, but it was a dude.
They were scary.
I'm not kidding you, they werescary.
Well, they weren't on.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
You know it's not easily accessible.
No, I'm gonna Omaha dude LikeI'm.
That's what I mean.
Speaker 2 (38:50):
Yeah, they're not no, I remember the UFC would end up
on Direct TV and like some ofthese regional sports networks,
every once in a while It'd belike a what think of, like what
UFC unleashed is.
It was like the precursor tothat and I remember setting my
alarm to wake up at like threeo'clock in the morning to watch
a UFC fight on the SunshineNetwork, and it was like Tiki
(39:14):
goes in versus Bob Cook and LikeI shouldn't even have the
Sunshine Network.
I lived in Minnesota at thetime but you know it was on and
direct TV and I was like I'mthere for it.
Yeah but like that's, that's howmuch, like I needed it.
And you know, the thing that Ithink is is most interesting
about it is I have anappreciation for what a lot of
(39:36):
people will kind of bitching andmoan about with the UFC today,
because it's like oh, this isn'tthe greatest car, there's not a
title fight in this.
You know, fight night or youknow this pay-per-view is a
little soft, like yeah, butthere's an offering, man, like
you have the opportunity towatch, and like I don't want to
say like don't watch If youdon't want to watch, because I
always want people to watch.
(39:56):
But it's like you can pick andchoose and you can take things
on demand.
You can watch things you knowon your phone.
You can download an app andit's just like, even when I am
home on a Saturday, if we're notdoing like extra rounds or
something like I got it up on myphone, dude, my wife hates it
yeah, I'm an addict and like.
My problem is this, brendan LikeI've watched so long that, even
if, like, fight past fired metomorrow, I'm like seven seasons
(40:19):
into a Television series and Ican't stop watching until the
end.
There's not ever gonna be afinale, so I'm gonna be here for
the rest of my life and Peoplejust have to accept it and my
loved ones have to accept it.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Okay, sorry, my wife is leaving to pick my son up
from school.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
She's like you're really talking about fights
again, brendan.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, I mean I hear you on allthat.
That's very interesting andit's like I don't think it's the
water down thing, I think thatit's.
It doesn't mean as, yeah, itdoesn't mean as much because you
don't have to wait as long.
Like think about how themodern-day equivalent is
football.
Yeah, I think of how muchpeople just get so jazzed up for
(41:04):
the start of football seasonright and now, and, like, truth
be told, like recently, I'm justlike man, football is so
saturated.
Now I'm like you can't get muchbigger, can it?
And then Travis Kelsey startsdating Taylor Swift and they do
a toy story broadcast fromAndy's room, and I'm like, well,
it's gonna get bigger, likeit's already gotten way bigger.
Yeah, like in the last twoweeks, just as I was saying,
(41:27):
like football really can't getmuch bigger, between Fantasy and
betting and this and that, andlike the games are on in red
zone, you watch seven hourscommercial free, all this stuff.
And I'm like, well it's, we'rekind of nearing the peak.
And then Taylor's like, hey,travis want to go on a date.
And then it's like, okay, herewe go, we'll both skyrocketing.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Could you imagine if Travis Kelsey was a UFC fighter
and the camera was on TaylorSwift during the midst of a
fight?
So I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
It's crazy.
I'm I wondered how we wouldhandle that on the broadcast,
because I Get it.
The people who are big-timefootball fans, like if you're
sitting there and I'm one ofthem like if you're watching a
game, you want to watch the game, right, right.
But it would be Irresponsibleof that TV network doing the
(42:14):
game to not milk it, like theydon't care about pissing you off
.
You're watching Sunday NightFootball.
It's chiefs and jets and turnsout it ends up being a pretty
good game.
You're gonna watch that game.
Now you might gripe about it allthey showed her too much this
and that but you're gonna watch.
So they're not concerned withyou changing the channel.
They are concerned with themillions of people that are
(42:38):
watching so that we can cut awayto see Taylor's reaction to a
touchdown.
Like it becomes an award showat that point and she's the most
famous person in the buildingand it's the story that
everybody's talking about.
And I promise that I wouldn'treally Get out there and give my
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelseytake, like a week ago.
I'm like I'm just gonna nottweet about this.
(42:59):
I'm not because it pisses meoff, because I'm just like,
whatever the world can havetheir fun, right and I'm having.
You know it's kind of funny,whatever, but it would be
irresponsible from a speakingfrom a media perspective for
whatever TV network to not do it.
Now, fighting is different Inthat you can't cut like during
the game and all this otherstuff, but you bring up a good
point.
If she was dating a fighter,you know right, and then it's
(43:21):
like that fighters fighting likeyou got to think in between
rounds, when we're showingreplays, we're gonna show her
reaction.
Oh yeah, whatever the biggestthing is, you have to.
It all depends.
You know it all depends.
I mean, you know there'sobviously a lot of celebrities
that Go to UFC events and weshow them.
It's kind of a formula.
You show the bigger celebritytoward the main event.
(43:44):
You know, if it's Trump, we'regonna show him several times and
you know it kind of depends on.
You know that depends on ifthey bought the tickets or not.
You know, like some, like LeoDiCaprio, we don't usually show
Because he buys his own tickets,right, so that he can say no
but if we?
give Mark Wahlberg front rowtickets.
(44:05):
It's like, hey, I'm gonna showyou a camera, right?
Yeah, it's like I'm gonna showyou on camera.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
Going back to radio.
No one calls us so we can'treally do anything about it, but
they should.
917, ufc talk is the number.
If you call us, there's a lawthat it's implied consent that
you're willing to allow us tobroadcast your phone call.
It's illegal to broadcast aphone call when someone doesn't
know they're on the air.
But there's implied consentbecause you're calling a live
(44:30):
show, right?
No one's calling.
I do have another Text here.
This from the way, guys whenfrom Hawaii.
Yeah, when is the octagon goingto come to Hawaii?
We need it here, especiallyafter the tragic fires in Maui.
Mahalo man, thank you for.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
Thank you for texting from Hawaii.
My wife is born and raised inHawaii.
I'd like to retire theresomeday.
Got big Hawaiian ties.
There's a there's just a plainold dollars and cents issue.
When it comes to going toHawaii, the biggest leaping off
point is that their arena is notexactly conducive To a big-time
(45:12):
UFC event, and that's what we'dwant it to be.
A loha stadium, obviously, isbig enough to handle the
capacity, but it's outside.
Dana White has said repeatedlythat he doesn't want to deal
with weather concerns because,as we know, it can.
Well, it can.
It can rain.
For I went to a UH footballgame when Colt Brendon was the
quarterback and you know theywere putting up like 80 points
(45:34):
every game and it was thatseason where I think they ended
up going to the sugar bowl thatyear and then they got blown out
by Georgia but went to a gamethat year and like it'll rain
for five minutes and then it'snot, and then it kind of gets
and then it gets dark and thenit'll rain again, and then I'm
just like no wonder they havesuch a good home field advantage
.
You got jet lagged players.
They're in paradise.
It rains every five minutes.
(45:56):
You don't know if it's two pmor two, like you know.
Once it's dark, it's like youdon't know what time it is.
The weather is different.
So I mean, that's really likewe had a heyday, I feel like in
the last three, four years,where we could have put
basically like a Hawaiianagainst a non Hawaiian, kind of
like we do in Brazil, and wecould have done it all the way
up, and then Max could have beenin the main event.
(46:17):
Right, you could have done likeMax and Connor at Aloha Stadium
.
The other thing that people kindof forget about is like the
time of day.
If you're not gonna have anarena, then the stadium doesn't
work, because then, like the 10Eastern for 10 Eastern, 7
Pacific start time for a maincard, well, that's four o'clock
(46:37):
in Hawaii, four or fivedepending on the time of year.
So that just doesn't work foran outdoor show and then the
indoor show.
And they've tried to make ithappen.
They've tried to make it happen.
They've talked to Hawaii andthey were just at an impasse in
terms of Hawaii will give usthis amount of money to come do
a show over there.
And the UFC says that's notenough and it's not really a
(46:59):
moving target, like you need topass this and we'll go, if not,
we won't go.
And the other thing is Hawaiiis not really begging for like,
like, like, hawaii doesn't needto be.
Like, hey, man, wouldn't it begreat if we could do a UFC event
here?
Maybe then some people wouldcome visit, maybe some people go
on vacation to Hawaii if weheld the UFC event.
That's not how it goes.
(47:19):
No, no, but I appreciate thetext from the 808 and, believe
me, there would be a lot ofcompetition within all
departments of the UFC as far aswho gets assigned to that show.
Speaker 2 (47:32):
There's a rich tradition in mixed martial arts
and Hawaiian history.
You know they're amazingfighters.
You already mentioned Max, BJPenn, but there's some you know,
very influential promotions andthe grassroots of mixed martial
arts that were Hawaiian based.
I would love to see, maybe likea team Hawaii versus the world
on the ultimate fighter orsomething like that.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Be cool.
Yeah, I think the ultimatefighter needs to continue to.
You know, gimmick is looked atas a negative word.
I think it needs to continue togimmick itself to stay relevant
.
Yeah, it's like it's a bit of aformat that we've seen too much
.
So this year they decided to gobig.
(48:13):
They get Connor and MichaelChandler, so that was a splash
and they put it on ESPN over thesummer.
They need to continue to docreative things with the
ultimate fighter.
I like that idea.
I like team high.
They're like.
So, like Max was, could havebeen in the main event.
Ega Yanti Madaris, when he wason the roster, was always a fun
fighter.
Like we had like a good chunkof Hawaiians that were like in
(48:36):
the mix.
Like Yanti was in a main eventagainst Cowboys Seroni in 2018.
Sometime between 2018 and 2020,you know would have been ripe
for something like that, buthappen yeah.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
No, I'm not going to happen anytime soon,
unfortunately, you mentionedgimmick and I think that you
know there is a long unfortunatestanding and there being
gimmick promotions and thingslike that and a lot of gimmicks
and MMA to sort of get on theradar.
But I think you're right whenyou have something that is
proven, you're using the gimmickangle to spice something up.
There's a lot of value thereand I think some people will
(49:12):
sort of fight against that.
You know there are some puriststhat just want to see the best
fighters that are availablefight their way to the UFC
through the ultimate fighter.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
But that's why we have the contenders series now
100%, yeah, so like there's lessof a need to find, like, the
absolute best guys for theultimate fighter.
Yeah, now it's even more primedfor like let's do something fun
with this, right.
Let's do a country, let's do acountry, let's make good TV.
I've always thought too,instead of having a coach's
challenge at the end of the year, there should be some sort of
(49:43):
challenge every episode.
Like you remember the biggestloser?
They did like every episode.
They had like a game and it'sjust like if your team won the
game, you got immunity, or theother team had to add a pound to
their you know whatever totallike do that stuff Early early,
early tough.
Speaker 2 (49:59):
They did that and it really was gimmicky and it was
silly, because the fights werebeing decided by a game where
all the athletes would be on themat and they would have socks
on and whoever could keep theirsocks on the longest got to pick
the fight.
I'm not even kidding you.
That was like literally one ofthem.
There was another one, I thinkI think it was season one where
you basically would stand andyour partner would get on your
(50:24):
back, like a piggyback ride orstanding, where you make a choke
position and they had to crawlaround the body and whoever did
that the most would win.
And Diego Sanchez did it, Ithink, on like Rashad Evans or
something.
I don't know who it was.
They weren't on the same season, so it's probably not it, but
the idea was basically make theguy do it a whole bunch and then
(50:45):
you would go next and they madehim do it a whole bunch.
He set the record and then theteam said, oh, we forfeit, and
then picked, I think, diego tofight because he was so tired
from doing it.
But I don't know.
Yeah, now's the time to go backto stupid stuff like that.
It's fun.
Speaker 1 (51:00):
You know, like like a combined show, like you know,
like the ultimate fighter andthe apprentice, like let's find
a fighter that I don't know.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
I'm just like let's find a fighter at the same time.
Speaker 1 (51:15):
Well, no, do a TikTok challenge, like, do like, like,
incorporate marketing into it.
I feel like all right.
Well, this guy's, this guy getsthe game like fight.
You know, combat sports arepromotions, they're not leagues,
they're promotions.
So it's just like, all right,this guy, this guy knows how to
promote, this guy could be funwhatever, but that would be
winners at the top.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
You know what I want?
I want Dana to do the ultimatepromoter.
I think that would be a funtelevision show.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
That would be.
That would be a great show too.
That would be great.
And then, like you know, youget a job on the, on the staff.
You're fighting for a job inthe front office.
It's accessible.
There's a lot of people outthere.
They asked me.
They're just like what could Ido?
I just want to work for the UFC.
What could I do?
And I'm just like I don't know.
Dude, like what do you want todo?
Like you want to be in medical,you can be a medical.
You want to be a lawyer.
Like you could be in our legaldepartment.
(51:59):
You like social media, you canbe in our social department.
Like I don't know what to tellyou.
You know there's a lot ofdifferent things.
There's like the ultimatepromoter.
There's a show.
There's the show TJ, let's doit.
Put it on UFC Five Pass Done.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
We just came up with television ideas.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
All right.
So I have to get run and zoom.
We've got to wrap this up.
This was a good first foray.
What say you, what do you think?
Is this all right?
Yeah, you know, I think we needHumbl, Humble beginnings.
Speaker 2 (52:28):
We need to try to coach people out of their shell
to actually pick up the phone.
You know yeah.
Speaker 1 (52:34):
I have a dream of people calling in.
You know I used to love thispodcast where people would write
like parody songs about likethe podcast and things like that
.
And I've thought like, oh mygoodness, wouldn't it be fun to
make like MMA songs, like UFCsongs or something you know 30
seconds long, a minute.
Take a karaoke version, dubyour voice in, write some fun
(52:55):
lyrics, send stuff in like that.
Listen.
There's a lot of differentavenues we could go down, but if
you've gotten this far in theprogram, forever indebted to
have you listening along, and Ithink we'll do this again, tj we
gotta wrap our heads togetherwhat went right, what went wrong
, what could go better.
But the good news is we have along runway because you know it
(53:17):
costs nothing to hit.
Go on our home studios and findsome time and put out some
content like this yeah, let's doit Whenever you're free.
Speaker 2 (53:25):
I like Fridays like this, you know it's fun to sort
of get things up and you know,whenever you're free, let me
know we'll hit the buttons andmake it work better next time.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
All right, well, tj DeSantis is the man and you know
, just thanks for kind of givingthe idea, giving the support,
giving the resources.
Ufc Fight Pass has been greatfor FITZ Nation to kind of
continue to thrive and, you know, get some interesting guests
and give me the creative ways tocreate more stuff like do
(53:57):
different types of things, likea live stream talking about UFC
things, whether it is going toHawaii or the history of the UFC
or John Jones and Stipeupcoming.
I do have some excitinginterviews that are coming down
the pike.
Kyle Bohiolo will be fightingin the Comaine event in Sao
Paulo in November.
I'm gonna link up with him nextweek.
(54:18):
Megan O'Levy just celebrated 10years with the UFC, so I texted
her the other day and I'm gonnalink up with Megan O'Levy in the
coming weeks as well, so theinterview shows won't be going
away.
This the first of what I hopeto be a handful of live streams
for FITZ Nation to just kind oftalk fights, shoot the breeze a
(54:39):
little bit and see what otherideas we can come up with.
All right, thanks everybody.
Hope you have a great weekend.
Enjoy the fights tomorrow GrantDawson, bobby Green, in the
main event from the Apex.
I'll be back on the call a weekfrom tomorrow at the Apex for
Sadiq Youssef and Edson Barbosa.
Thanks again, we'll see younext time.
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