Games with Names - "UFC 229" with Dana White | Khabib vs. McGregor

Episode Date: February 20, 2024

Dana White is in studio! We're breaking down one of the wildest UFC fights of all time: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor. Dana joins us in studio at the Wynn Las Vegas (4:01). We go back to Octo...ber of 2016 (18:17). We profile both fighters (48:30). We break down the fight (58:18). We score it (1:08:22). We wrap it up from Vegas (1:12:45). Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties
Starting point is 00:00:12 you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app,
Starting point is 00:00:26 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume
Starting point is 00:00:47 women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Carrie Champion and this is season four of Naked
Starting point is 00:01:04 Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. Habib got over
Starting point is 00:01:32 the cage and jumped into his corner and all hell broke loose. Irish guys and Russians. And let's just say they're not drinking water. Well, yeah. That was a problem for all the Irish guys were drunk and the Muslims were sober. Oh my God. Today, we're talking about UFC 229, Khabib McGregor.
Starting point is 00:01:52 I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody. The good man Chad does what the f*** he wants. I want to change his face. Don't mess with Russia. Khabib's crew could come in here and probably wipe out half this country. The guy's wrestling bears when he's a kid. Then comes Conor McGregor. He's incredibly
Starting point is 00:02:07 witty. His trash talk is Ali level. Throws the dolly through the bus. You gotta rest. You're dealing with two hardcore alpha males. Who's the NFL equivalent to Habib, though? First of all, I tell Brady this all the time. You
Starting point is 00:02:24 gave me and my family 20 of the best years of our life man just everybody was training that year to beat the patriots that's what happens when you're the best in the uf state one of the biggest one of the biggest. One of the biggest fights ever. I am so f***ing tired of doing podcasts. I'm not doing any more podcasts. What's up, buddy? Thanks for joining us, man. No, thanks for having me.
Starting point is 00:02:56 Man, so... Games with Names is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to Games with Names presented by Winbet. We are on the search to find the greatest game of all time today. We're back, baby. Where are we back at? Our home away from home. The win.
Starting point is 00:03:18 The win. Las Vegas. Las Vegas. Hotel and casino. And casino. There it is. Today we are recording and we are talking about the UFC 229 McGregor vs. Khabib. Our first time in the octagon. First time in the octagon.
Starting point is 00:03:34 We've been in the ring once. We've been in the ring once. With our man Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels. Yeah. I'm not a toy, toy. They're related now. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:03:44 WWE and UFC. They're one. They're one. Why? I don't understand that, but I get it. Yeah. We'll have to ask him. And, you know, we have to, if it's going to be our first Octagon interview,
Starting point is 00:03:56 you got to bring the guy who invented the Octagon. That's right. Did he invent the Octagon or he invented the UFC? I don't know that he invented the shit. He bought the UFC and succeeded the usc yes dana white the man i can't i mean i can't wait i can't either guys from boston i saw him at he's always been very hospitable to me at all the little ufc fights i've gone to he's a boston guy loves the patriots lost a bunch of weight shredded shred mcdad oh my we gotta ask him what his secret is because i need
Starting point is 00:04:25 that tip baby yeah what tip just the tip pause pause whoa jackie jackie uh we get into the crazy fight and everything that leads up to it we talk about boston sports vegas sports where's he from he says he's from both bi-coastal guy bi bicoastal guy. He's bicoastal. Is this on a coast? This is a desert. West coast, technically, I guess. If you're PST, you're west coast to me. Yeah, it's pretty west coast.
Starting point is 00:04:55 You're on the time zone. If you're on the time zone, you're on the time zone. If you're on the time zone, you're on the time zone. Maybe some Hasbulla talk. What a guy. Dude, I can't not watch him on anything on social media. Whenever I see anything, I saw him driving a car, flipping someone off, doing donuts. Shooting guns, running jet skis.
Starting point is 00:05:14 Yeah, he's shooting AKs. I mean, he's like living how we all wish we could live. Yeah. It's a banger episode. Banger. I'm looking forward to it. Cannot wait. Make sure to check out Games with Names on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat,
Starting point is 00:05:29 and TikTok at Games With Names. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Comment a game you want us to do. And remember, rate and review. Rate and review. Games With Names is brought to you by WinBet. WinBet brings the excitement of the win Las Vegas and
Starting point is 00:05:49 Encore Boston Harbor to your phone. Join WinBet today and bet with the official online gaming product from WinResorts. Let's go, Jack. Let's go. October 6, 2018 T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Starting point is 00:06:07 A clash of styles, bold and brash versus cold and calculated. I'd like to take this chance to apologize to absolutely nobody. This is UFC 229, Habib versus McGregor. Hell yeah. What a team. Welcome to Games with Names presented by Wynn Bayett. Today we are recording at the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. We have a very special guest.
Starting point is 00:06:43 Very special. I mean, look at, we got so many people. We're here at the Wynn. People are all gathering to see him. We got President, CEO, the man who built the UFC, Dana White. Thanks for joining us, man. Thanks for having me. Man, so you're from Boston.
Starting point is 00:07:03 Yeah, so my family. But you're also from Vegas. Yeah. I don't know the story. So I bounced around a lot when I was a kid, you know, we grew up, uh, back there, they were paying nurses more here than anywhere in the country. And like the late seventies and my mom moved me and my sister out to Vegas. I was in fourth or fifth grade, stayed here till I was, uh, in high school and went back to Boston after I graduated. Wow. Then came back here till i was uh in high school then went back to boston after i graduated wow then came back here when i was 26 so i bounced back and forth actually really lucky that i was able to have that east coast west coast upbringing yeah it was awesome yeah and this is that was
Starting point is 00:07:36 before vegas was really 250 000 people here when we moved here it's it's really like the last five years everyone yeah left california came out here. I mean, it's crazy. Well, now that sports are here, it's turned into a big sports town. And, you know, I mean, they're going to have fucking ping pong here pretty soon. I mean, everything they do here. Slap. I literally just went to slap. My guy.
Starting point is 00:07:58 I had slapped. I literally just went to the WNBA game a couple nights ago at Mandalay Bay. There wasn't an empty seat in the house. The place was packed. They're the champs. They're the champs. Defending champs. Brady owns them. 100%. I heard what's-her-name called them out. Say, hey, what the hell? Why is this the first game you've been to? You own us. Who did? One of their stars. Sounds like a Kelsey Plum thing to me. Yeah. I got to look that one up. You got to look that up. I saw that. Well, welcome to Games with Names. And today we're talking about the Khabib McGregor UFC 229 fight. It's a pretty crazy fight.
Starting point is 00:08:35 Awesome fight. Big one. That was a big one for us. And obviously a ton of animosity between those two going in. A ton of animosity between Khab going in a ton of animosity between uh habib and connor's corner men and it was just yeah it was it was crazy at this point mcgregor he was at like the high of the high he was probably the most famous athlete on the planet 100 and you know and habib at the time too you know and and when you think about the muslim world you know what i mean over
Starting point is 00:09:04 a billion worldwide might even be two billion now for all i know but you know and and when you think about the muslim world you know what i mean over a billion worldwide might even be two billion now for all i know but you know and he was like the first muslim world champion in in the ufc stud and it was it was crazy that like i remember this fight and all the hoopla before the hype before you know the guys throwing you know mcgregor throws the the dolly through the bus like when you're putting dead out of these fights there's like a there's like a probably like a a meter of where you love that kind of shit because it's building the fight and there's a meter where you have to kind of step in and say hey boys like how does that work we're at a point now where we don't need the the craziness to build a fight you know what i mean what we need are uh
Starting point is 00:09:49 just the matchup itself the fact that these are two of the best in the world and people think that i love that stuff but i don't because what happens is we're regulated by the government the athletic commission is is the government and uh yeah they they uh they don't like that shit so it's bad when it happens. And, you know, one of the things that I got criticized about by the media is when we were promoting the fight, I promoted the whole thing that happened, uh, in Brooklyn, um, with the bus, but, but it's part of the story. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:19 You know what I mean? Exactly. I don't give a shit. It's part of the story. We told the story the way that it unfolded and how it played out. you know obviously it was a big fight lots of animosity and uh you know we were ready for what happened after but we didn't uh we didn't execute perfectly the way that we should have you know he habib got over the cage yeah jumped into his corner and and then all you know all hell broke loose yeah Did anyone get arrested?
Starting point is 00:10:45 I don't think anybody got arrested. I don't even know. If these questions are too much. No, no. We actually got it contained pretty quickly. We were expecting it. We expected it to happen. If you look, the guys that were inside the octagon,
Starting point is 00:10:57 when Habib jumps over, the guy is like just Mrs. Grabbingham. And he gets over the cage and into the corner. But no, we were anticipating it. We got it under control pretty quick. Nobody got hurt. The problem was after, you know, you had, you know, Irish guys and. And Russians. And Russian guys fighting out in the.
Starting point is 00:11:17 And let's just say they're not drinking waters. Well, yeah. Well, the. That was the problem. All the Irish guys were drunk and the Muslims were sober. Oh, my God. It's an advantage. You got an advantage there.
Starting point is 00:11:30 No doubt about it. So is this at this point going into this fight, at this point of the UFC, was this the greatest fight you think? Greatest fight? It was one of the biggest. One of the biggest? Yeah. I mean, we've had so many great fights. When you talk about a great fight, what a great fight means, we've had tons of great fights. This was one of the biggest. One of the biggest. Yeah. I mean, we've had so many great fights.
Starting point is 00:11:45 When you talk about a great fight, what a great fight means, we've had tons of great fights. This was one of the biggest. One of the biggest fights ever. Yeah, it was definitely. It was like, and I wasn't big in the fight game or anything, but it was like, I watched this guy from Russia, Khabib, or Khabib, and the guy's wrestling bears when he's a kid.
Starting point is 00:12:04 Yeah. And you got this little irishman he's a freak athlete man and he's a he's a badass dude it's as i always talk about like we talk about the pussies that are in this country right now with what's going on and everything but you know we talk about you know habib's crew could come in here and probably wipe out half this country by on their own these dudes are so tough and nasty and come from such a a tough upbringing like fucking men yeah you talk about men these dudes are like nasty dudes don't mess with russians that's that's a that's a keynote to especially dagestan oh my god yeah exactly any of the stands anything that ends in stand stay away
Starting point is 00:12:43 from don't mess exactly can you can you can you walk us through the the origin of you taking over the ufc yeah so uh back in the day you know i was involved in boxing very minor level you know uh trained guys and all that kind of stuff the biggest thing i ever did was i got a local kid here a a fight with Roy Jones Jr. back in the day. And I started to take jujitsu with my friends, the Fertitta brothers. They own Station Casinos here in Vegas. And through that, we fell in love with the sport and we started to meet a lot of the athletes. And I started to manage Chuck liddell and tito ortiz i got into a contract dispute with the old owner of the ufc his name is bob meyer which is
Starting point is 00:13:30 out of new york and uh he flipped out on me one day uh and said you know what there is no more money left we might not have enough money to do the next event so i was like we hung up the phone i was like oh shit so i literally hung up and called the Fertittas and said, I think the UFC is going out of business. I think we could buy it. And I think we should. So Lorenzo went into negotiations with, uh, with Meyerowitz. And a couple months later, we own the UFC for $2 million. God damn.
Starting point is 00:13:57 How many, how many, 2 million bucks? 2 million. What are they worth now? You guys were, how many? Well, we sold it back in 2016 for $4.25 billion, and now it's worth $12. Is the UFC right now where your original vision was at that point, or are you still thinking it could get even bigger?
Starting point is 00:14:16 I still have a ton of vision for it. We're still working on a lot of things that, you know, I was dreaming about back in 2001. Yeah, it's crazy. You guys handle it like almost like the nfl thanks like as far as like just the professionalism and like how you guys handle all the the the deals with the the sponsors and all the guys have their like everyone has to wear reebok right well the reebok deal's over now yeah we're the company
Starting point is 00:14:45 called venom now but yeah or even that i mean that's very look at that's richie incognito we won't hey no bullying no bullying all these nfl dudes are here i know richie incognito that dude has some of the best feet we used to work out together right when all that shit was going down about the bullying in Miami. He's definitely a bully, but you gotta have a bully on team. You gotta have a bully on team. There's a bully. There's bullies everywhere.
Starting point is 00:15:14 You need that asshole. Bullies are everywhere. You gotta deal with bullies. Especially on the offensive line. You want a fucking bully on the offensive line. 100%. I mean, that guy used to have crazy, but that's crazy now you grew up in in boston and vegas now you're a boston fan yes of all boston sports yeah yeah yeah oh hell yes yes yes i'm boston i'm still boston guy i live in vegas but i'm i'm patriots celtics red
Starting point is 00:15:40 socks i'm not a big hockey fan but we're going with the bruins yeah now you got any uh kids stories of you going to any games or anything or you didn't have that kind of money to really go to games i went to a couple baseball games when i was young um but i didn't really start going to celtics games until i you know started making money and patriots and you know i was at the i was at the uh the super bowl when you guys came back in atlanta and won the won the super bowl that night was It was incredible. What an incredible experience. First of all, I tell Brady this all the time.
Starting point is 00:16:09 I'm going to tell you now. You gave me and my family 20 of the best years of our life, man. Just the Patriots run. Every Sunday I stayed home and I watched all the games. My kids grew up. We were born and raised in Vegas, but they grew up Patriots fans. And just what an amazing experience and an amazing time during your run at New England was incredible. Yeah, it was a hell of a run.
Starting point is 00:16:34 But, you know, in Vegas now, how about Vegas having all these sports teams? That's pretty fucking badass. This is, by design, this the the entertainment capital of the world by design this is a sports town yeah you know the gaming thing was just always you know a big problem for people now that they figured out the gaming side this is without a doubt going to be one of the biggest and best sports towns how are the world how are the like are the locals of vegas are they like becoming raiders like are they raiders fans or is it because anytime you see a way team come and play the raiders a lot of the fan base in that stadium is usually you know
Starting point is 00:17:12 100 you know it makes sense when you think about the brilliance of it if you're going to go to an away game you want to go to vegas you're going to your boys 100 right it's it's a no-brainer um but yeah i mean the uh the locals that live here have embraced the teams. Like for instance, the Golden Knights, huge, man. I mean, it's huge here in Las Vegas. Everybody. And what was funny is in the beginning, I had an opportunity to invest in the Golden Knights. I'm like, hockey in Vegas? That's ridiculous. But I was way off on that one, man. It is huge here. But now you drive on the freeways here you see the golden knights license plates the raiders license plates and yeah it's a big sports town i mean every sport they're gonna have
Starting point is 00:17:50 fucking ping pong team here pretty soon i mean every sport in the world is coming to vegas it's hard not to capitalize on it if you're a professional league yep yeah i mean it's it's a slam dunk now that the teams have actually done it i agree it's been insane uh vegas is a sports city versus boston is sports city easy right i mean listen the one thing that vegas doesn't have is the history you know what i mean tradition we're going to build the history here you know over the next 30 years but uh boston has such a great history of sports you know it's like boston new y, Philly, Chicago. We don't have that yet, but this is the place to come
Starting point is 00:18:29 if you want to go to an away game. It's kind of like, what is it, Great Gatsby? There's East Egg and West Egg. This is like East Egg people over here. It's still a little new, but they still got some money out here as far as loving equity of sport. Can you give us the origin of Fuck It Friday? They still got some money out here as far as loving equity of sport. Can you give us the origin of Fuck It Friday?
Starting point is 00:18:51 Yeah, so I started to – I like food. I love food. And we put together this thing one day. When Popeye's chicken sandwiches came out, I was like one of the crackheads that was running down there and getting Popeye's. People were fighting over that shit. It was insane. I'm not shitting you. This happened. I had a guy that worked at Popeye's.
Starting point is 00:19:08 He was tucking them out the back door to us. We were paying him. He was putting them out the back door because they were literally running out. There were big lines. I got a guy kicking them out the back door for me for some money. So we ended up taking one of the Popeye's chicken sandwiches and making a sandwich with Krispy Kreme donuts. So the donuts were chicken sandwiches and making a sandwich with crispy cream donuts oh so the donuts were the bread and the popeyes chick and that was how fucking friday began i ate it it was awesome and and uh that started the whole thing and it all takes place at the ufc headquarters it's one of the biggest things i do on social media i watch it every time i post that just on
Starting point is 00:19:39 my stuff it does over two million views you know loves food, man. Everyone loves food. I mean, look at El Prez from Barstool. I mean, the pizza, he's killing it. The pizza reviews kill it. What NFL player do you think could come into the cage and be well and do well? Well, it's interesting because a lot of NFL players. And Harden, right? Harden did it? Greg Hardy?
Starting point is 00:20:00 Yeah. Greg Hardy, yeah. There's been a lot of crossover. We've had college players, um, and NFL players come in and, and, and do well. Yeah. You know what I mean? Uh, you're talking about big, explosive, powerful, athletic guys, um, who don't mind getting hit. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's a different thing. Like we were talking before we hopped on, I started taking up boxing and it, and it's so different if you're not like,
Starting point is 00:20:27 I couldn't imagine going and fighting a guy like a Habib or some guy that's been doing this since he was two years old. Right. I mean, that's different though, but, but look at the athlete for your size. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:38 Look at the success you had in the NFL. Now imagine if at your age, when you started playing football, you started training to mix martial arts, you would have the NFL. Now imagine if at your age when you started playing football, you started training in mixed martial arts. You would have done something. You absolutely positively would have been somebody in the sport. You know Ovid St. Preux? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:20:53 Who did he play for, Tennessee? Ovid St. Preux? OSP? Yeah, he played for Tennessee. He was a good player at Tennessee. He actually did really well and has been in the UFC for like 10 years. Wow. Yeah, football player man the football players are are as far as physical attributes and and you could be
Starting point is 00:21:12 the greatest physical specimen of all time and you know this better than anybody you have to like to get hit everyone's got a plan till you get hit in the face as mike tyson said that's it and you were one of these fast, small guys cutting across the middle, wide open with linebackers that were three times your size hitting you. I think you would have done
Starting point is 00:21:36 damn well in the UFC. Hey, I'm Gianna Prudente. And I'm Jamee Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions, like how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed?
Starting point is 00:21:55 Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job
Starting point is 00:22:16 and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it, like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos,
Starting point is 00:22:46 which recently hit the number one science podcast in America. I'm a neuroscientist at Stanford, and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. We're looking at a whole new series of episodes this season to understand why and how our lives look the way they do. Why does your memory drift so much? Why is it so hard to keep a secret? When should you not trust your intuition?
Starting point is 00:23:13 Why do brains so easily fall for magic tricks? And why do they love conspiracy theories? I'm hitting these questions and hundreds more because the more we know about what's running under the hood, the better we can steer our lives. Join me weekly to explore the relationship between your brain and your life by digging into unexpected questions. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app,
Starting point is 00:23:39 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, here we go. It's Cam Jordan from New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan. Can't stop it. You know what's going to happen. Can't stop it. That's right.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Catch new episodes every Wednesday, all season long. That's what you look for in year 14 to do more. No days off. And I'll have my friends who happen to be some of the NFL's biggest stars join me on the pod. We'll give you a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moments from around the league. And you know we'll have fun doing it. Ha! Yeah!
Starting point is 00:24:22 Oh, and I'll have a special guest each month join me to mix it up a little bit. Who is it? None other than Syke. You'll have to tune in to find out. So tap in
Starting point is 00:24:34 to Off the Edge with Cam Jordan's podcast, your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
Starting point is 00:24:42 or wherever you get your podcasts. So we have a segment where we like to go back in the date and go over pop culture. So this date was October 6, 2018. Number one movie, Venom. Did you see that? Venom? I did, yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:56 How did you like it? I didn't like it. Tom Hardy? Tom Hardy? I didn't love it. It wasn't my favorite. It didn't live up to the hype. Well, the uh comic book thing
Starting point is 00:25:05 has gone through the roof yeah yeah but in a different way different i've just some of those movies i can't iron man one best incredible right the greatest comic movie of all time original spider-mans are fucking good spider-mans are good yep exactly they got started doing them all the time the first dark night i liked uh the christopher nolan batmans yeah those are the best i think those are the best i agree you hear that he's about to do uh the james bond i heard i heard that too talks i like that christopher nolan the guy who directed those dark nights he might be doing the the first x-men really good that was really Yep. And around this time, October 4th, Tom Brady becomes the third NFL quarterback
Starting point is 00:25:48 to record 500 career touchdown passes in a 38-24 win over the Colts. Couldn't happen to a better guy on a better team. Against a shittier team. We love talking smack about the Colts. Anything bad you got to say about the Colts, let it fly. You know what's funny?
Starting point is 00:26:04 And I'm in a very odd place now because Dalton Kincaid played football with my son and kind of grew up with my son and now he's a Buffalo Bill. All the places he ends up is a Buffalo Bill. Obviously we're rooting for him and we love
Starting point is 00:26:20 him. But another one, Puka Nakua. Stud. Puka Nakua grew up. So I funded the team that he played on with my kids. He's from Vegas? Yeah, yeah. He's a Vegas kid. He grew up with my kids since they were this big. And so we're really proud of him.
Starting point is 00:26:34 We're obviously proud of Dalton. And it is impossible to not love the quarterback of the Buffalo Bills. I fucking love him, man. He is an absolute stud. Yeah, he's a stud. It's the buffalo bills like dude every time we play them even when when you guys were dominant and good the buffalo bills were always a problem they were always tough to play and uh but they were they were front runners they never they never got to the know. They spent 20 years trying to design a team to beat us. And anytime you play in that division, regardless of records or anything,
Starting point is 00:27:11 it's always a super tough game because you see them twice a year. You guys see them twice a year every year. Every time we play Buffalo, even when we go to them. And in the AFC, you'd end up in the, you know. I just, I like to, you know, I think of it like this, you know, like when we were, we were the big brother of the division for 20 years. Right now, it's probably Buffalo. You guys were the champs.
Starting point is 00:27:29 You guys were the champs all those years, no matter what. Even when we didn't win the championship, you guys were champs, and you were the team to beat. Exactly. And right now, Buffalo's probably the older brother of the division right now. But it's kind of like I tell the Buffalo fans, which I'm always around Buffalo fans, and they're awesome fans, but I tell them at least when we were the big brother of the division,
Starting point is 00:27:52 we'd go out in the block and beat the shit out of everyone else. Now our older brother's getting his ass beat every time he goes out and tries to fight other people. It's like, what's going on, Buffalo? We've got to get on this. But you are right. When you think about the fans of Buffalo, talk about people who have been who have been first of all you got to go out and and watch your team in the nastiest fucking weather of all time okay the nastiest weather other than uh uh the packers you
Starting point is 00:28:16 know what i mean other than the packers the nastiest weather ever um your team is always the bridesmaid never the bride they never make it and and every year you guys i god bless all of you buffalo fans you guys are always every time i talk to you this is our year this is our year they love their football not your year they love that i i respect the shit out of those fans i've never been flipped off so many times and it's by so many different age groups i've talked about it on the pod so many times i mean three-year-olds to 90-year-olds flipping you off when you're you leave a little shirt you know who else it's true i love buffalo fan i love their passion i love especially the celtics and we go into philly right philly so i would go to these big you know the philly versus the celtics and
Starting point is 00:29:02 we're getting into the playoffs and i come walking in and I wear my Celtics gear and stuff. Boo. They're yelling at me. You got some balls wearing that UFC socks. You know, they're all fucking yelling at me the whole time that I'm there. We sit and God, God,
Starting point is 00:29:15 if we can walk out of that arena that night with a wind man, it is the best feeling in the world. I'm like, it's just, I love the rivalry between Philly and Boston. It's so fun. They're very similar cities. So true.
Starting point is 00:29:27 You know, I mean. Well, you got New York, Philly, and then you got Buffalo. So those three rivalries are so fun. They are. East Coast, cold weather people, tough people, blue collar people. 100%. Throwing batteries at Santa if you're in Philly. I mean, it's crazy.
Starting point is 00:29:43 And tons of sports history tons of history you grew up with puka nakua did you ever think that this kid would my kids did my kids grew up with puka yeah what i mean yeah like was he grew up in our house yeah was he was he balling balling so when we used to fund a team me and lorenzo used to fund a team called the little cowboys here in vegas and he was on the little cowboys, um, with my kids and a bunch of other guys that are playing right now. You know what I mean? Um, there's a kid named Caillou.
Starting point is 00:30:12 Uh, he's playing with, uh, he just got, I think he's with Seattle. And then, um, you know, there's a few kids that went to the NFL from that team and, and good colleges too. And, uh, to see Puka doing what he's doing now it's just it's so it could not happen to a better human being when you meet this kid you will love this kid he's always smiling always always smiling and the crazy thing to me is that it's so hard for a rookie receiver which he's not like an overly dominant athletic guy. Right.
Starting point is 00:30:45 Like a Jamar Chase who came in his rookie year and balled out. But to be able to gain the trust of a quarterback, which he was kind of forced in that role with Cooper Cup not playing, but on any situational play, Matthew Stafford for those first four weeks was looking at Pukunuku, and he was being a dependable, reliable receiver across that middle. I mean, it's been really impressive. Stafford for those first four weeks was looking at Pukunuku and he was being a dependable reliable receiver across that man I mean it's been really impressive there's a lot of there's a lot of great athletes I mean Bryce Harper's from out here there's like yeah it's like a little hub of
Starting point is 00:31:14 it's true studs and it's actually been that way for I went to school with Marty Cordova I don't know if you remember him but he was the 1995 American League Rookie of the Year he played for the Minnesota Twins and uh you, he grew up with us. There's been lots of people that have come out of Vegas. Yeah, it's crazy. We got to get back to UFC. That's why we're here. We're talking to him.
Starting point is 00:31:31 Hell yeah. Not the founder, the guy who took it over, bought it for $2 million, sold it for 4.8. Now we merged with WWE. Can you explain that real quick? I'm getting off my script because I don't understand. No, it's all good. Yeah, so what we did was we went public uh a couple years ago with endeavor um endeavor went
Starting point is 00:31:50 out and and and you know did a deal with vince and the wwe to merge ufc and wwe uh under the same stock uh ticker symbol tko yeah and you know i think he felt like there were a lot of synergies like if you look at the ufc we we are a fucking dialed in machine yeah and i think that when you looked at the wwe uh ari saw some some opportunities to go out and cut new tv deals because their tv deals were up and get that sponsorship number up uh, and a lot of other things that he could add a lot of value to that would make this a very powerful stock. Yeah. Geez.
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Starting point is 00:33:39 let's get back into this fight how important of a a character is Conor McGregor for the UFC? Well, we've had, when you think about my business, it's very star-driven. So, you know, when we started out, we had Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Ronda Rousey. I mean, you think of all the stars that have come up, and every star that has been built in the UFC has helped take the, I'll give you an example, like Matt Hughes, right? You remember Matt Hughes came out to a country boy can survive. And he appealed to a certain audience. Chuck Liddell had the Mohawk, you know, and knock people out at a time when people didn't really understand the ground game. And then you had somebody like
Starting point is 00:34:20 Anderson Silva, who was like the Bruce Lee of the UFC at that time, he could do anything. So you had all these different characters with different personalities from different places who helped take the sport to another level. Then comes Conor McGregor. And one of the things that I always talk about with Conor McGregor is that everybody thinks they're Irish. When you think about, you know, you go all over the world, you think about St. Paddy's day and you know, the Irish bars and everybody thinks they're Irish. The Irish thing is really powerful. So he comes out, incredible personality.
Starting point is 00:34:52 He's from Ireland, and he can actually fight too. Yeah. So it was like, it was such a home run, and it just, you know, he took us to a whole nother level throughout Europe and other parts of the world. What makes him a special fighter is his hands length. He was like, he's got a lot of things with Connor.
Starting point is 00:35:10 One of the, one of the things with Connor is let's start with his personality. He's got this magnetic personality that you were just drawn to. He's, he's incredibly witty. His trash talk is Ali level. Um, you know,
Starting point is 00:35:23 his persona is Ali level. He's, his persona is Ali level. He's a guy that transcends all sports. He's one of the guys that when he walks into a room, everybody's like, holy shit, that's Conor McGregor. What about his fight style?
Starting point is 00:35:38 He's one of these guys, he can do anything. He likes to stand up. He's got heavy hands. He can knock you out. His ground game isn't bad either you know so but people like to see him stand up and knock you out yeah jack can you set the stage for this fight let's jump into the fight yeah let's get into this thing um so as we touched on earlier the lead up i mean this goes back two or three years trash talk camps are fighting slapping in the hallways we got the dolly through the uh and it's crazy because they were they were kind of boys at the very very beginning and didn't
Starting point is 00:36:12 habib he kind of like it was kind of a parallel rise right connor at the very beginning keep going like their rise was quasi like parallel ish you're absolutely right their rise it was at the same time and uh you know the problem that you're talking about with these two when you say they were boys they were never really boys it was like a mutual hey whatever you're dealing with two hardcore fucking alpha males assassins 100 these guys are both killers they both want to be the best they both want to win and they're both willing to fight anybody and do anything to be the best. So when you get those two type of guys,
Starting point is 00:36:48 there is no being buddies. Those two are on a collision course before they even knew they were. Um, yeah, as we touched on earlier also, I mean, these two camps, like it was just animosity at every turn and a clash of styles too.
Starting point is 00:37:02 Like you got, can be cold, calculated, tough, just to do the fight like great wrestler ground great ground i mean a machine almost like i don't know like how do you even beat him it seems impossible i mean i know no one's done it i'm gonna tell you one of the things that's super unfortunate for us but very fortunate for habib you know um the fact that i mean this guy i would have loved to have seen him go on longer yeah so much more very sanders when his dad passed away he kind of sucked all the energy his dad was his trainer yeah growing up and trained a whole camp
Starting point is 00:37:38 and everything else and the dad had a vision that habib would be the champion then when habib retired islam would come in and be the champion. Let me tell you what, you want to talk about one of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport that's never talked about, Habib Nurmagomedov's dad. You know what I mean when you think about what that guy built? So the problem was in the Muslim world is he became this huge megastar in the Muslim world. So after he beat Conor McGregor, he went on like this tour of all the Muslim countries.
Starting point is 00:38:07 So he's going into Turkey. He's going into Saudi Arabia. He's going to Abu Dhabi. He's going over to Dubai. And they're raining on him. I mean, he didn't even make it back to his dressing room after the fight. And Putin was on the phone. And Putin gave him and his father like 20 million dollars worth of property in
Starting point is 00:38:26 Russia then he went into you know the Muslim territories where these guys are just cars money gyms whatever whatever he wanted so once you get to that level it's like what we're dealing with with Conor McGregor Conor McGregor lives on a yacht in the middle of wherever the warmest place in the world is at that time. And you know, it's just, and he's showing you, Oh man, I live vicariously on Instagram. Well, once you get to that level, man, it's just, you're not getting up and getting punched in the face every day anymore. It's just, you know, is Habib the greatest, greatest of all time is John Jones, John Jones, John Jones John Jones John Jones he's still John Jones is undefeated Habib was undefeated too but I would have liked to seen Habib more do more John Jones
Starting point is 00:39:12 has been around forever he's fought everybody in the light heavyweight division now he's in the heavyweight division beating guys like take three years off Ali never looked the same after three years he took three years off John Jones went in and made Cyril Ghosn look like he'd never fought in his life. Who, you know, I mean, Jones is the greatest ever. He's so long. And he's never been beat. Never been beat. Man.
Starting point is 00:39:36 He doesn't know what losing feels like. He's never lost. Think of that. Who's the NFL equivalent to Habib, though, as a player? It's tough. Well, it is because, because you know you guys have so many legends you guys have so much history in the sport there's so many legends in your sport it's hard to say you know we're we're 30 years old but you know the the the sport that me and the fortita started is is 23 years old yeah we're still a we're still a kid compared to the NFL and some of these other sports that's great and the lead up of this one I'd be remiss if we
Starting point is 00:40:10 didn't talk numbers Khabib entered this thing 26 and 0 coming off a win over Al Iaquinta not that long a year earlier Connor 21 and 3 but hadn't fought since the Mayweather. So there was a lot of talk. Would he have fared better if he'd had a little appearance in the octagon in between that? You think he should have had a little tune-up fight? No, we don't do tune-up fights here. That's not how this works. Tune-up fights are like a boxing bullshit thing.
Starting point is 00:40:40 No stepping stones? No stepping stones for me. Not in UFC. Fuck no. Yeah. There's no such thing here. Fight for not in ufc fuck no yeah there's no such thing for the belt baby double champ um yeah no he uh it's it's part of the problem listen in this sport when you have to be a very special kind of person to have 50 80 100 million in the bank and still come out and compete at that level.
Starting point is 00:41:05 Because part of what makes you so badass here, there's two things. Part of what makes you so badass here is hunger. All the things you want, right? And number two is once you get to a level of success and monetary success, how do you keep fucking training that hard? And everybody that's under you is training to beat you. Just like you said that happened, you know, in the NFL and in the AFC, right? Everybody was training that year to beat the Patriots and breaking down your film, breaking down your plays, breaking down your film breaking down your plays breaking down your defense
Starting point is 00:41:45 everything they saw was to beat you that's what happens when you're the best in the ufc you're measuring stick yep that's what they call measuring stick team guy fight fighter what dana said made me think of that line from rocky when you say the worst thing you can become is civilized rock you went and became civilized when that is you know what's fascinating is with stallone you know stallone's such a big fight fan when i see fight movies they're fucking goofy to me it's probably like when you watch a fucking football movie it's like this is the dumbest fucking shit that i've ever seen in my life it's literally nothing like any of this but stallone always had this way of you know when you watched a fucking rocky movie man your ass was getting up at six o'clock the next morning and going to work out and start training they were so
Starting point is 00:42:28 motivational and he always had these these things that were were true sayings about being involved in boxing or some type of combat sport the origin of my beard is because of rocky four is it really when you use russia yeah when you remember he wanted to go to russia and he wanted to be fucking i saw rocky one two three and four a million times man you can't you can't not turn it on so true i mean it's always on a tbs or some channel i mean if you're on channels anymore probably kind of what's your favorite rocky everybody makes the argument with me that like rocky one should be your favorite no that's right's right. It's cinematography-wise, yeah, and they got all the best. But I loved 3 and 4. 3 was my favorite.
Starting point is 00:43:13 Mr. T? Mr. T, Clubber Lang. Clubber Lang. You know what I mean? What's your prediction? It was so good. Pain. And the training sequences that he had, Clubber Lang when he was coming up.
Starting point is 00:43:23 But 4 was great, too. I loved 4, too. The Russian. and four of my are my two favorites i loved three because just like we were just talking about you know he kind of was up there and he's beating all those guys and then it gets a little harder when you're the champ you know you lose that hunger and then you got that hungry guy that's coming in there you know my dad my dad used to say that when I'd come home from training. He'd go, you out training those six guys? What are we talking about? The six guys in high school are coming to take your job right now.
Starting point is 00:43:51 They're coming up right now. And, you know, it's true. And that's what Glover Lang was. He was that one guy. And then Rocky had to get a little rhythm. He had to go to L.A. and get a little rhythm. Well, it was kind of like the – no, they went to Philly. Didn't he go to – Philly. He went to L.A.,A. and get a little rhythm. You're right. Well, it was kind of like the, no, they went to Philly. Didn't he go to Philly?
Starting point is 00:44:06 He went to L.A., though. No, Philly is where they went. They ended up at some gym in Philly that Apollo Creed used to work at. I thought that was in L.A. No, it was Philly. That's where Apollo Creed came up. Is that, we got to backtrack a bit. I'm on it.
Starting point is 00:44:18 I'm on it. I can't remember. I think it's L.A. You might be right. Because remember, they would race at the beach with Apollo. Oh, yeah, you're right. Well, I don't know. Because Apollo was from L.A. Yeah, you're probably right i thought i thought he's from philly
Starting point is 00:44:28 all right where did they train um but one of the things that rocky three is about and you're what we're talking about here is how he had gotten top had all the money and and he's on all the magazines anymore and yeah and then old mick lied to him yeah well he was doing easier fights for him you can't beat him Rock you can't beat him I'm looking at the beach scene right now what's up with Dagestan and producing all these great fighters
Starting point is 00:44:56 is it just because they're so fucking tough out there they come out of a really tough place literally wrestling bears I'm not kidding you all the stands everything that ends in a stand stay away from with that yeah stay away from that fucking guy that's where he's from or her jesus valentina shevchenko too have you uh she's a badass what's it like beating a little hasbulla he's awesome man i'm gonna see him uh next week are you flying abu dhabi on tuesday oh my god yeah i'll be with him on uh
Starting point is 00:45:25 probably wednesday or thursday we love him over here we love magnetic i mean he's magnetic he is it's incredible i mean he's living his best life 100 oh we you know what just between me and the nelk boys you know we've made that kid over a million dollars just you know and doing merchandise and doing fun shit with him. I put him in the video game. He's going to be in the video game. That would be awesome. We paid him a shitload of money for that.
Starting point is 00:45:50 You can fight Hasbulla in a video game here pretty soon. Oh, my God. I cannot wait. And it's time for the bounty wingman question. Bring out the wings. They're there. Bounty is everyone's favorite wingman because you can't have football without wings and you can't have wings without bounty and today's bounty wingman question will be going to
Starting point is 00:46:14 my day one wingman kurt de la rosa best friend since birth pretty much what is the messiest situation that we've been in i want to hear your story and then i may have one um i would say the messiest situation that we have been in uh to keep it pg because you don't want to talk about being in trouble you can do you can do our um so i don't know you probably you should remember this it's the first year our city entered into babe ruth which was a big kind of like 13 14 15 baseball league or whatever we left we entered the the palo alto yeah so we're in a completely different city they have you know 10 part 10 teams or whatever the league's already set up we're like bad news like hey redwood redwood city wants to join and we're
Starting point is 00:47:11 gonna put our own little all-star team together because redwood city was already a big enough city that we had 10 teams in itself already and we're like you know what we're joining this palo alto league and we're gonna kind of stitch a team together to fit in this other league. So we're now playing against all the kids that we usually would only play in like playoffs or all-stars or whatnot. And so we're kind of like, he said the bad news, bad news bears. These people were classy and it was people had money.
Starting point is 00:47:39 It was also like Jules and I were kind of like, Oh, we're kind of getting pretty good at baseball. We're going to be playing shortstop and second base. We had all these aspirations to be great. So we're playing at Kenyatta. Kenyatta. And the rival team, I don't remember what their team was.
Starting point is 00:47:56 They were green. That's all I can remember. And they had this one dude who was like 6'1", 210. He rolled up his sleeves. Yeah, because he had guns. He was like a pre-chunky up his he rolled up his sleeves yeah because he had guns he was like a pre-chunky kid you know what i mean so you know but like he rolled up his sleeves i mean how old are we so we were 13 or 14 they went to 15 it went to 15 yeah and you know you should look at this guy who's six one you know 200-plus pounds at the age of 14, 15. Probably 190.
Starting point is 00:48:27 Then you look at Jules and I, and we're both still 4'10", 100 pounds soaking wet. You know, little guys. And so there was this one play. I think we were up by like two runs already, so they were getting a little frustrated. And he hits a ground ball through the right side. And so if you know baseball, what happens is the first baseman tries to get the ball. Second base has to rotate to first to cover just in case you want to backdoor him on,
Starting point is 00:48:51 you know, if he gets too far around. So instead of him kind of running through the line, he just plows right through me. I get blindsided, taken out. And so I'm like in like a daze, like cartoon, like, you know, I got dust all over me. And I sit up and I just see Julian sprinting full speed, just launches full body into this guy. Threw my glove at him first. Yeah, threw his glove. Threw my glove. I threw my glove at him first.
Starting point is 00:49:15 I was like, ah! This guy's holding me like a little fucking rag doll. And, you know, that's the bounty, you know, pledge right there is like, hey, like, you get in a messy situation, and you got your cleanup right here. And he came to clean up the mess for me because, you know, that's what best friends do. Fucking belly badass. I always appreciated that.
Starting point is 00:49:36 Like, fuck this dude. I don't know. Sorry, bounty, but yeah. You remember that, yeah? Oh, yeah. Quijada, his second baseline. You want to know how bad news bears? So we make the playoffs.
Starting point is 00:49:50 It's just another messy situation. Messy situation. Make playoffs. Get to the finals, right? But it's like a two-game elimination. So we lost one game, I think, right? And so then we battled our way back to the finals to play the best team that everyone knew the best team we would have to win twice we'd have to win twice
Starting point is 00:50:11 first game we play them we're beating their ass we're like up like what eight or nine yeah we're up eight or nine i'm not gonna give names, but our goddamn fucking manager, not knowing the goddamn situations, puts one of our boys in because he wants to get them in. It's one of the last games, and the next game is like championship. You know what I mean? Puts in our final sub. Final sub ends up head-butting someone in something. No, he gets caught in a pickle.
Starting point is 00:50:43 In a pickle. Between home and third. And instead of just getting tagged out, decides to just go full spear into the third baseman way over the top where everyone's kind of like, whoa, that was a little aggressive.
Starting point is 00:50:57 Ejected. Full eject. We had to force a game. This is bottom of six. All we had to do was get three more outs in the next inning to force a final game to the season.
Starting point is 00:51:07 For the championship. Bad news bears. We had to forfeit. Fuck it. No subs. No subs. Bad news bears. Knocked out of the game.
Starting point is 00:51:15 Our whole team, like, classless as they come. Like, fuck you guys. We're all, like, from East Redwood City. The fix is in. This is bullshit. It's a script. Fuck this guys. We're all like from East Redwood City. The fix is in. It's a bullshit. It's a script. Fuck this city. I don't think they had another Redwood City team ever enter that league again.
Starting point is 00:51:32 We were like, fuck you guys and your stupid league. We were champions. Literally like the bad news bears at the end where they're like pouring like beers and stuff on them for losing the game. That was us. Kenny Englehart. Why you got to fucking try to take someone's neck out, bro? In the heat of the moment. He got excited.
Starting point is 00:51:51 Maybe that's why he was a sub, though. And that's our bounty wingman question. Storytime. Should we get into this breakdown,'s get into this breakdown this fight of course lightweight championship as we know the pay-per-view buys were insane 2.4 million i believe yep was it the highest at that time yeah i mean uh it's crazy the only the only pay-per-view the only pay-per-view that beat that was uh connor and floyd wow and floyd and uh pacquiao oh that's right yeah that's right but so okay so this is number one ufc yeah damn insane thought so um we all remember what happened everyone talks
Starting point is 00:52:34 before and after but rounds one and two khabib kind of dominated him dominated he was just like just on top of him wearing him out wearing him out i was watching that fight i was like uh there's no way connor's gonna win this fight yeah to connor's credit i mean if you look at when he when he fought poria you know when he grabbed onto poria and did what he did to poria he came out of that fight and was like i i was freaked out by it i couldn't believe that somebody could do that to me. I was blown away by what Habib had done to him. Habib was a bad boy. I would have loved to have seen more of him in his career.
Starting point is 00:53:12 And there was talk of stoppage in the second round. People were calling for it. Even Joe Rogan was on the mic alluding to like, is Herb Dean going to stop this thing? What makes Herb Dean such a good ref? Well, he trains too he trains and he's had a couple of fights himself um i think any amateurs i don't know if he ever fought pro but uh he's knowledgeable he knows what he's doing he's he's one of the best refs
Starting point is 00:53:36 of all time what was that call to connor like after the bus incident you're like what are you fucking doing well he he got arrested i know to go to fucking it's just like you gotta be the commish that's when you gotta put a commish hat on that's the mentality man i mean this guy habib and his crew ran into one of connor's buddies slapped him he called connor and told him connor loaded up a bunch of thugs on a plane from ireland they jumped on a fucking on a fucking g650 and fucking flew out here rolling deep and uh you know jesus now what happens when street kids make some money fucking jump on a g650 and fly to new york and start a fucking rumble a legit rumble it's insane oh my god what's a fight day routine like for you you get you get workout in
Starting point is 00:54:25 yeah yeah every day i get in you know i'm addicted to like cold plunging and and there's this thing called the superhuman protocol i do it every morning every morning when i wake up and uh i work out and then i start my day i literally now that i'm fucking 50 i dedicate two hours of my day to my health got it yeah since i've retired it's been so incorporated my my life is so routine you know wake up in the morning body work ball drills meetings body work before practice body work after practice like when it's not your priority when you're when your body is not your priority right now you have to it's a mental toughness for a person to make it a priority so true into their day and for you what happens to a lot of athletes is how old are you now 37 37
Starting point is 00:55:14 so for the last we'll call it fucking 30 years probably the last 30 years it's been all physical for you you've just been working out and doing all this shit a lot of guys when they retire like yeah i'm done i'm not working and they don't try to get their health back till maybe 10 years later you know what i tried that like right when i got out i was so just mentally drained right because i i tore the root of my meniscus and it was a grind i couldn't walk until friday i'm playing on sundays and like that was so raw in my head where like as soon as i retired i kind of took a chill break and i was always a guy that worked out all year round which you know was a strength but also making me i broke down my body because of it 100 and i was like depressed when you work out it
Starting point is 00:55:56 releases an endorphin like it when you wake up you work out you accomplish something it's like then you're ready for the day i couldn't agree with you more that's where i'm at man that's exactly where i'm at um but yeah i could see how that could happen to an athlete when when they retire um i gotta ask you a question so you know you're on one of the greatest teams of all time what you guys achieved and accomplished the money the you know what it must feel like running through that fucking tunnel into the stadium you know whether you're in foxborough or you're going to another place where you're getting booed and you got the animosity and and that's fun to win how fucking hard is it to say all right i'm gonna walk away from this now it's time to go was it hard or did
Starting point is 00:56:38 you just feel like you know what it's time it wasn't hard for me because I respect the game too much. And when I was turning on the film, I wasn't looking like me. You know, when you turn on the film and things that were so remedially easy started becoming hard, like I was like, all right, I'm not greedy. I love the game. I've accomplished so much from this game. I've went above and beyond anything I ever expected. I got to get out of here just because I pissed off a lot of people.
Starting point is 00:57:15 You know, when you're in your prime, and I remember watching guys, you go against guys, and when I was a younger player, they were in their prime, and they dominated me. And then I got into my prime, and you could see that they were getting out of their prime and you wanted to embarrass them. You know, there comes a point where you can get hurt out there. If you're not right. A hundred percent, you know, you get hurt. It's like this sport. Exactly. You can't go too long. You can get hurt.
Starting point is 00:57:40 If you're not cutting the same way you're a millisecond off, you know, guys are trying to tee off on you. You've been on the Patriots. You've won so much. You were circled every year. This is the team. If guys were getting paid off of that game, coaches were getting jobs off of beating us.
Starting point is 00:57:59 So it was one of those things where it was hard and it hurt. It hurt me mentally, but it was hard and it hurt it was it hurt me mentally but it was like i was so thankful that i got to have my career where i had it i got to play on one team and i respected the game too much where you know i could have played two more years right it would have been a like what are you doing i didn't want to be that guy right i remember watching those guys and were you hurt the year you you yeah i tried the root of my meniscus yeah in the beginning of the year and i and it's usually like uh you can get this micro fracture surgery they go in there but it's like a 12-month recovery i was 34. i was like i'm gonna try to do it without it and it was just it
Starting point is 00:58:43 was a grind mental you know when you're not healthy that's what wears you out because you have to go out and perform and there's a standard and there's an expectation right you know you've been doing it for so long it's such an elite level that like when when it's it was so hard to just get right for a sunday i was like i can't what am I doing you know I uh it was wasn't my time anymore gotta hang them up it was tough how bad do you miss it I didn't start missing it until my body felt good yeah that makes sense I remember I was like there was a couple weeks in my last year like I don't know I'm gonna fucking play this game and I got like a big game plan to me you know like we were I'd have to go and run the
Starting point is 00:59:26 day before the game it was covid so it was all fucking weird we couldn't like practice or certain certain things and i couldn't even walk like we played against seattle i couldn't walk the day before the game like my knee was blowing up and it just that stress because you don't i wanted to go out you know what i mean there's an expectation of how you're supposed to be right and that that just that wore on me you know and it broke me down a little bit you know what's interesting when you say that um it was when you started to your body started to heal it's like these fighters like there'll be a great fight we'll have on saturday night right and i'll go back to the press conference and the media will start asking me when's um you know when's this guy
Starting point is 01:00:05 gonna fight again it's like just fucking we just finished the show what are you talking about we don't even call these guys for weeks till after you gotta let once they start to go home you know they've been away from their families they've been cutting weight they've been stressed out about the fight the fight's over now they're all banged up you let them get past all that when you're when you're that type of an athlete like you just said you start to get antsy once you start to feel good yeah you know then you start to think about what's next and all this other stuff but when you're beat up and they don't even want to fucking talk about or think about no that's why you know when the season would end every year belichick would always say don't't be calling me right after the season saying you're going to retire.
Starting point is 01:00:46 Take a fucking second. You know what I mean? Because right after a battle, right after a fucking 18, 20-week season, you're beat up mentally. It's been a fucking grind all year. You just want to make a decision just like what you guys do. Let's get back to the fight, Jack. Round three, Conor comes out and gets it.
Starting point is 01:01:09 Bouncing back. I thought Habib was kind of like getting his wind in the third round. It was, you would hear in the commentary a little bit, the muscles were full of blood. All that ground and pound, all that domination, those first two rounds. He was a little slower. Not like, didn't look like off, but it was a little slower not like didn't look like off but
Starting point is 01:01:25 it was a little slower i would think right because i looked habib or connor i'd be even round three i don't know man i don't know you know i i can't remember what the stat is and if he ever did lose one but habib hadn't lost a round right that was the first one in like his whole friggin career right and uh he uh he was one of those guys that seemed to get more dominant as the fight went on because he was actually wearing you out and grinding you and um but i don't i don't remember how i think he was getting energy a little bit that's same same and i don't think he would bring him to the ground he yeah it wasn't like he was kind of toying with him yes he was toying Conor. The only other round he ever lost was Justin Gaethje.
Starting point is 01:02:06 So that was. On the judge's scorecard, he lost? Yeah. But then round four comes out, neck crank, ends it. Takes Conor to the ground. Wanted to change his face. Wanted to change his face. That was the quote from the all of 229, honestly.
Starting point is 01:02:23 Jeez. I can't even imagine because I know like what you're thinking because I've been arrested. Shit had to deal with the commission stuff. I couldn't even imagine what was going through your mind when you see the melees going after the fucking fight. I mean, just the liability. Especially when we were expecting it.
Starting point is 01:02:43 We were expecting it and we were ready for it. it still happened it's just it's yeah it's it's uh fucking two testosterone up motherfuckers just disappointing because i mean it's one of those like the lead-up was so crazy that like there had to be that exhale of like when it actually started like oh all right we got to this point and then it ends and afterwards like that's insane yeah it's yeah people think that because i'm a promoter that that stuff's good for us it's not good for us because right the commission you know and we're the biggest and baddest in all of combat sports so we're the ones to make the uh example out of when it does happen i mean you gotta you gotta lay down the law what did you what would you did you find uh find them or something where they did what did they find them two million bucks two million dollars each find habib no habib got fined two million
Starting point is 01:03:30 dollars yeah he got fined two million dollars that's no fucking joke so that's how how much they frown on this shit happening yeah two million dollar fine i mean you, you gotta do that. And I'm a, I'm a player guy, Joe Rogan. Incredible. Unbelievable. Yep. When you, you hired him. Yeah. What year? Shit. I mean, he was, he literally was doing fear factor when I hired him. Um, so when we bought the UFC, the company was based in New York. So I jumped on a plane, flew out to New York and started cleaning out the old offices. I was emptying all these boxes and, and, and sending shit to Vegas that I thought I needed to keep from, from the office. And I, I had a VCR cause they had fucking tapes for days. I mean, I must've watched 250, 300 tapes to make sure that it wasn't anything,
Starting point is 01:04:21 whatever. So I popped in this tape and there was this talk show the keenan ivory wayan show the oldest wayan brother had his own talk show yeah and they had joe rogan on there and joe rogan was talking about and i knew joe rogan from fear factor you know yeah i would watch on tv and joe rogan was talking about how badass ufc fighters were and what they would really do to some of these karate guys that were in movies and shit like that and i was like man this guy knows what he's talking about. He's smart. He's funny. He's articulate. So I reached out to Rogan at that time. I think it was on the internet. You know, I reached out to him, we started talking and I asked him if he would like to work for us and be a commentator. So if you look at where the UFC was at that time, um, you know, we were losing
Starting point is 01:05:04 money like crazy. We bought it for $2 million, which sounds like a great story now. We ended up being like almost $40 million in the hole before we turned it around. But Joe Rogan did like the first 12 or 13 shows for free. He said, fuck yeah, I'll come there and do it and sit in the best seats in the house and everything else. So Joe and I have been super close friends for a very long time.
Starting point is 01:05:24 I would do anything for joe roger he's killed it came in at ufc 11 you in the backstage interviews yeah so before we bought the company he worked for a little while for the ufc he was a backstage interviewer yeah and then um but i didn't even know that when i saw the videotape of him did you have anyone else in in mind for that role or was it just joe rogan so when i came in i sort of took over all the production and revamped all the you know the um the commentators and who was going to interview so the you know if you look at our production now it's fucking flaw our production is so on point but it took 23 years to get there i mean it takes a lot of time to refine routines
Starting point is 01:06:07 and you're constantly still doing it i bet 100 yes we're still uh evolving when you when you green you grow and you're ripe you're raw that's what my dad used to tell me was your dad a football coach yeah yeah it sounds like it yeah he was a fucking he was a shout out frank shout out frank uh habib's legacy in ufc one of the greatest of all time one of the greatest connor yep greatest showman one of the one of the one of the biggest superstars ever one of i think he was the first guy to win two titles in two different weight classes um and and the guy who really took the company to another level all throughout europe yeah and more importantly who's your favorite fighter of another level all throughout Europe. Yeah. And more importantly, who's your favorite fighter of all time?
Starting point is 01:06:48 Um, it's, it's hard to say that I have a favorite fighter. Connor, Connor has been an incredible partner. You know what I mean? Usually when you get guys that are that big of superstars, they go,
Starting point is 01:06:59 they, they become total egomaniacs and they go against the fucking and do whatever. Connor McGregor is for a kid that you know when you think about it he was he was on what's called the dole when we signed him which is basically he was on um welfare you think about where he came from the the business sense that this kid had is is fascinating and conor mcgregor everybody always asks me is he a nightmare to deal with? No, he's actually not. He's actually a really good partner and he, he understands the business and,
Starting point is 01:07:30 you know, he's actually been great to work with. So Conor is one of my all-time favorite, Ronda Rousey, probably the greatest that I've ever worked with anything you needed, whatever it was, Ronda was willing to do it. and you know I have a really really incredible relationship with Chuck Liddell Chuck Liddell one of my first big superstars and yeah you know helped help they all have their own spot 100 there's there's so many different people along the way and I feel bad not saying everybody I've worked with lots of incredible people in my career i mean and then that doesn't include my staff the woman sitting behind me super the only person in the world that i actually listen to and uh respect opinions from and and many other people in our organization
Starting point is 01:08:18 top three fights of all time jones gustafson m McGregor, Habib. And I have to pick this one because, you know, going into when we first started bringing women into the UFC, the backlash we got, how I said women would never fight in the UFC. The list goes on and on. The night that Ronda Rousey fought Karmouche down in Southern California, the place was sold out. When Ronda walked out of the tunnel, the place fucking erupted and went crazy and i stood around i looked around i said i made the right decision and now look at where women's fighting is now yeah so me personally my top three wow she was she was an absolute rock star it was almost like when she when she lost she finally lost it was like it was a big deal it
Starting point is 01:09:05 was huge we never thought she could lose we were in australia in a soccer stadium right no uh holly home holly home in a soccer stadium soccer that's how big she was 47 000 people for a woman's fight you two women fighting, 47,000 people in another country, and the two women involved in the main event weren't Australian. It's fucking crazy. That's a testament to you, taking that, making that. It's crazy. That's unbelievable.
Starting point is 01:09:38 Jack, do we miss anything? We got a couple. We got to give a shout-out to the Little Cowboys. Caillou Kelly on the seahawks don king kade hookah little cowboys shout out to the little cow i want to take them all i want to i want to get a time machine and get the little cowboys i played on the little redwood city 49ers did you really in the bay area we won super bowls we won super cowboys versus the little 49ers i mean that'd be a movie should we make a a movie? And before we leave, I mean, you couldn't walk the week of the Seattle game.
Starting point is 01:10:08 You go out and have your career high, 179 yards. I know. In Seattle, Cam throwing you the ball? Cam. Got to give you some shine for that, brother. I remember that. That was after that. That was like one of my most proud moments.
Starting point is 01:10:22 Because I remember I had to walk with the trainer. We were walking just to get the fluid out of my most proud moments was because i i remember we i had to walk with the trainer we were walking just to get the fluid out of my knee i was hitting the bike on saturday you fly out two days before going on west coast trips and i'm sitting there i'm walking we're walking up these hills in seattle i'm like i don't know if this is i'm talking to my guy mids i'm like dude i don't know if we can i can go you're gonna be fine he's from australia you're gonna be fine mate you're gonna be fine and i'm like ah fuck and then we went out and did that after that game i was like mine is a crazy thing mind over matter so true mine so true but i mean that's when you play in the nfl the level that you guys play and again i know you hear this your
Starting point is 01:11:02 whole life but at your size to be able to do what you did in the nfl and be able to do what you did on the patriots and like i said when we started this interview the the enjoyment that you guys gave my family over the last 20 you know every sunday a family member either had a brady edelman amandola or Gronk jersey on. Literally, everybody in my family either had one of those jerseys on. My God. And it's not an interview. This is a conversation. Well, whatever this is.
Starting point is 01:11:31 This conversation. Whatever's going on. When we started, whatever's going on here. Does this fight have a name? Because we call games with names. Does this fight have a name? This fight? This conversation?
Starting point is 01:11:45 No, the fight that we're talking about. The Habib fight. Oh, no, it was just Habib versus Conor. That's enough. Habib versus Conor. Habib versus Conor and Habib versus Conor 2. Yeah. Are we teasing something?
Starting point is 01:11:59 No. You said 2. I don't know. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career,
Starting point is 01:12:17 you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies.
Starting point is 01:12:44 Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it? Like you miss 100% of the shots you never take. Yeah. Rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos, which recently hit the number one science podcast in America. I'm a neuroscientist at Stanford, and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. We're looking at a whole new series of
Starting point is 01:13:23 episodes this season to understand why and how our lives look the way they do. Why does your memory drift so much? Why is it so hard to keep a secret? When should you not trust your intuition? Why do brains so easily fall for magic tricks? And why do they love conspiracy theories? I'm hitting these questions and hundreds more because the more we know about what's running under the hood, the better we can steer our lives. Join me weekly to explore the relationship between your brain and your life by digging into unexpected questions. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 01:14:10 All right, here we go. It's Cam Jordan from New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan. Can't stop it. You know what's going to happen. Can't stop it. That's right. Catch new episodes every Wednesday, all season long. That's what you look for in year 14, to do more. No days off. And I'll have my friends who happen to be some of the NFL's biggest stars join me on the pod. We'll give you a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moments from around the league.
Starting point is 01:14:43 And you know we'll have fun doing it oh and i'll have a special guest each month join me to mix it up a little bit who is it none other than psych you have to tune in to find out so tap in to off the edge with cam jordan's podcast your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football listen on the iheart Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We have score the game presented by Winbet. We have a thing where we score each fight, each game in all sports. Stakes 1 to 10. What is this?
Starting point is 01:15:21 This had to be a 10. It's a 10 stake. It's a 10 stakes. It was a 10, especially with the, um, with the, uh, all the stuff that led up to the fight.
Starting point is 01:15:31 Yeah. 10 star power. Everyone was at this fight. Oh my God. The two guys in the ring, everybody sitting ringside. The star power on this is a thousand. You got to give a star level 10.
Starting point is 01:15:43 Well, this is, this is the thing that you think about. That's crazy. When you think about fighting. I mean, you have the most powerful people in the world watching these fights. It's like we were just talking about. When she goes back to her home country, she meets with the present. That's crazy. It is.
Starting point is 01:15:59 Gameplay. Fight play. It wasn't a 10 because Khabib kind of owned him yeah but but but you know what a lot of people don't last four rounds with khabib yeah connor did you know one out of 10 what do you got yeah one out of 10 ranking give us seven seven that's good score that's good it's that's honest i like that it's honest name a b versus connor's honest. Name? Abib versus Connor? Yep. I mean, that's probably like a... I mean, there's been some crazy...
Starting point is 01:16:29 We've had like some crazy games on here. But those are two of the biggest superstars in the sport. Just the name of the game. It doesn't need a rumble in the jumble type moniker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't need the moniker. We're a fucking one then. All right.
Starting point is 01:16:40 We'll give it a three. All right. That's nice of you. A three. There we go. We got to come up with a name. We'll have to hit the comment section. Yeah, we'll get the fans.
Starting point is 01:16:47 When we post this, we'll see what the fans call it. Give us a 30. No, we do that median, 7.5. Where's the list in the games that we've done? Oh, I see how you do it. Okay. So a 7.5 puts us at a dead tie. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 01:17:01 This is an insult to combat sports it's a tie with the 2014 the basketball tournament team barstool versus the Notre Dame alumni Jesus Christ I'm just going to put it out there we got fucked because we didn't come up with a cool name for the event
Starting point is 01:17:18 marketing's big we got fucked listen when you got two of the biggest superstars in the game you don't need to say their name sell it you know what I mean I don't have to of the biggest superstars in the game, their names sell it. You know what I mean? I don't have to come up with Rumble in the Jungle or anything like that. You know what I mean? Jeez. Rumble in the Desert.
Starting point is 01:17:34 That's all we need. The Duel in the Desert. If I came up with Duel in the Desert, it should be a fucking 0.5. It should be our score. The scoring's all wonky every time we got fucked we got fucked on the name man dana thank you do you have anything to plug you want no man we're good i'm just happy to be here thanks again man for for all the enjoyment over the years and uh it's good to hang out and have a conversation with you definitely i appreciate you too man you've always taken
Starting point is 01:18:02 care of me i saw you in salt lake at uh what ufc was well you and i used to bump into each other at celtics games too celtics and then at the boston you guys had a boston fight in what yeah 2014 and a bunch of you guys came out for that we came out for that right that was fun you've always taken care of yeah i think the last time i saw you was when the lakers and the Celtics were in the finals out in L.A., and we were both coming in that backdoor area there. Oh, yeah. I lost 20 grand to Snoop on that game. We got Metta World Peace coming on soon to talk about that game, actually.
Starting point is 01:18:35 Oh, really? Yeah. What's he doing now? I don't know. He's changing his name. Now he's Metta Sandiford Artest. So every week we got to stay up on it and see if he hasn't changed. Yeah, we got to.
Starting point is 01:18:46 I don't know. I'm going to do some deep diving. We have a whole digital team that's working on what his name is. Got to keep tabs on him. The tabs. But I don't know. I appreciate you, man. Thank you.
Starting point is 01:18:56 Good to see you. What an episode. Cool dude. He knows a lot about fighting and everything. Being a G, making money, fighting. Making money, fighting, and dieting. And transforming. I mean, if you think about it, he's transformed the UFC into a huge success,
Starting point is 01:19:19 and he transformed his body into a huge success. I don't see Roger Goodell looking ripped. Oh, Roger, he's put together i mean if you're a ripped commish pretty cool sterling no lanky he looks like a basketball commish he does roger adam silver silver or silver yeah who was i think that's i think you're thinking of donald sterling from the clippers yeah maybe, maybe that. Definitely not ripped. No. Bad guy. Definitely bad, actually.
Starting point is 01:19:48 Very bad. Or, wait, who was the guy? It was before him. It was, what am I doing? David Stern. Stern. Stern. Stern.
Starting point is 01:19:56 Jeez Louise. I'm blank. Too many S's. A lot of S's. A lot of S's. Either way, they ain't ripped like Dana ripped. No, they ain't Dana ripped. No.
Starting point is 01:20:08 Thanks again to Dana, and thanks to the beautiful Wynn Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. This is it. I think we made it to the bigs when we get to have field trips on our podcast. So cool. This isn't even really like a field trip. This is like a home away from home. It's like Dunstan Checks In. It's like what?
Starting point is 01:20:22 Like Dunstan Checks In. What is it? Dunstan Checks In? I thought that would be right in your wheelhouse i'm a blank check i know you're a blank you know that you know that all right that's another episode of games with names presented by win bet remember to follow games with names on youtube instagram x tiktok and snapchat see you guys later see you next week jackie. Later. Later. Games with Names is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Starting point is 01:20:56 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do,
Starting point is 01:21:19 like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to The Making of a Rivalry, Caitlin Clark vs. Angel Reese
Starting point is 01:21:52 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we
Starting point is 01:22:16 consume women's basketball. And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke.

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