Bellator came to Canada for the first time last week, and The Hammer MMA Radio was there. We recap all the fights, including both featherweight title tournament fights, and the ridiculous Neil Grove vs. Zak Jensen battle. Stick around till the end of the show too, where we interview Neil Grove about his victory. Then we preview Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Henderson, a card headlined by what some would call a dream match between two former Pride legends. We run down that fight, the women's title fight, and everything else.Check out our website at http://www.thehammermma.com or Subscribe via Itunes.
The Hammer MMA Radio
The Hammer MMA Radio - Episode 51
[music] Hello and welcome to the Hammer! I'm your host Dave, turn this always by my co-hosts. Greg, how's it going guys? And Steve, huh? It is Wednesday, July or July the 27th. I completely lost my place on the page there. So, but I do know what data is. We're going to talk a little bit about Bellator 47, which Greg and I had the pleasure of seeing live, and we're going to talk about Strike Force and Fader vs. Henderson. But let's start with Bellator. So this was the fight that happened at the Rama Casino this past Saturday night. And Aurelia, yeah. And this is the 47th Bellator Show, the first one in Canada. I have to be named Bellator 47. That's right. And there are MTV now, so they're kind of blowing up. MTV 2, sorry. Well, MTV 2, but the strong rumors that they're angling for that Spike TV show as a UFC begins to wind down their Spike run. If they get Spike, that's going to be a lot. And also, from what Warren Redmi said at the interview afterwards, which we also have the pleasure of doing, the Price Conference, they're looking to come back to Rama. Yep. They liked it. They thought it was a sold out crowd. There was people in every seat. Yeah, he had nothing but positive things to say about the show. And they liked the vibe of the Rama crowd and how the people were easy to work with. Well, Bellator is still growing, so they have big crowds and small crowds. And you nearly sold out a 5,000 seat building. That's good. Yeah. This was definitely a big crowd. It's a hot crowd, too. These people were very, very happy to see some M.A. A lot of cheering. A lot of very, very intense fans. And one thing I really, really enjoyed about this was the fans stuck around. I mean, for some of the shows we've been to, once the local guys go, they're fan-based leads. Yeah, sure. Here, people were staying to the main event. Yeah. They were here to see some M.A. There was pretty much a people started to file out maybe third round of the main event. Yeah. Well, at that point, it was very painfully obvious what was going to happen. Yeah. So, let's talk about that main event. The main event, the two main comments for the featherweight semi-finals to see who's going to get to take on Joe Warren for the belt. The main was Pat Kern versus Ronnie Mann. Pat Kern's very, very well-rounded. Ronnie Mann's a striker with some good takedown defense. This was a very technical fight. Most of it was on the feet. Kern managed to take down to get some ground and pound. But pretty one-sided. Kern was going to win this one by decision. Didn't look like at any point. Man, was it going to be able to catch him and put him in danger? Yeah. A lot of, a lot. I think he's been cautious, too. There were a couple of booths thrown out by the crowd, too. I mean, it was, it wasn't the most exciting fight in the world, but it was a very technical battle. You could tell these two guys were so good that they kind of canceled each other out, and I think that kind of translated into a little more of a boring fight. You guys were there live. I was watching it on TV. It looked very one-sided for Kern though. It was one-sided. I think that was the problem that a lot of fans had with it. It was pretty clear that Mann wasn't quite quick enough to catch Kern. Yeah. And it was pretty cooler that Kern wasn't going to take the risk and just open it up and try to devastate this guy. Well, he couldn't afford to take that risk, because Mann was very, very, exactly. Well, what's very unique about Bellator is to get a title shot. You have to win a tournament. Yeah. So there's just a lot at stake in these semifinals. Yeah. So, I mean, these guys, Kern wasn't looking to go crazy. He was looking to get his title shot. Kind of a smallest side, though. I mean, these guys fight each round of this tournament, like a month, a month, a month. They do the whole tournament in, like, three months. Yeah. Really shows the Strike Force Grand Prix guys how it should be done. Yeah. If they ever do fight. So then we go forward to the next fight. Marlon Sando versus Naza Nazarino Mallardari. Sando looked awesome. I've been waiting to see Sandro fight for a while. He trains with Jose Aldo. Yes, he does. And he looked great. Yeah. He was incredible. Sando was not a guy who was afraid to open up. He was going for jump knees. He was doing, he was going right after Naza. Now, Naza is a mostly submission specialist, but he quickly learned in this fight he wasn't going to get to the ground. Yeah. So he just decided to show his chops and throw back at him. So this wasn't even, it was, you know, Marlon Sandro definitely won this fight. But Mallardari was going at him too. This was a buy-up. Yeah. This was a fun one. I'll give Mallardari a lot of credit for, for one, I mean, throwing and making it exciting and for another actually being able to hang in there. He hung in with, who is a legitimate top five in the world featherweight. Yep, absolutely. Mm-hmm. So big props to Sandro on the win. Him versus current for the shot at Joe Warren. It's giving a tough fight. Sandro, I think, has the striking advantage. I think it's tough enough to get to the ground. Yeah, I think Sandro has got to the top. But current's got a rock hard chain and he's got tools. He does have tools. He does have tools. It's going to be a good fight. Yeah, that's about a month away. I'm looking forward to it. And to me, Mallardari, this guy's, I mean, he's not there yet, but this guy's got some really, really positive side. Mm-hmm. That was the guy, to me that was a guy that lost a 30, 27 fight, but didn't look bad. Yeah. I mean, when a guy has got that much submission skill and he's able to strike when he's demanded of him, this is a guy in, given how few further weights there are in the grand scheme of things, this is a guy who's going to be in that top ten act. Well, I mean, you look at this belt and Bjorn went on for a little while about how stacked their featherweight division is and it's true when you see these four guys. Well, the thing is, you know, if you're a five foot six, 145 pound guy and you're an athlete, if you do this, you're not making the NFL. Yeah. Well, exactly. What are you going to do other than become a fighter? Yeah. To have some form of combat, whether it be wrestling or boxing. Maybe a boxer or a wrestler or a mixed martial artist. Yeah. Maybe you could get away with a soccer. And even then it would be difficult. Even though he's got a call to go for headers. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely the most, the best place to go if you want to be in the NFL. Well, this is a very good time now, too, because UFC now finally has a featherweight division. Bellator spotlighting these guys in their tournaments. So you either had to go to WC or to go to Japan. Yeah. So this is good. Now North America is the hotspot for featherweights. So it's great to see some of the guys really starting to take off. I mean, you know, these guys definitely good. Now we go forward to Chris Hordeshki versus Chris Saunders. Saunders said before his fight, he grew up watching Chris Hordeshki and he was honored to fight him. I thought that was a little bit odd because Saunders is two years old in the Hordeshki. He mentioned Hordeshki. He talked about Hamanik and he talked about STEM. Well, he talked about Hamanik and Hordeshki. Come on. But Hordeshks, he's got a lot of fight years. He's been fighting for 10 years. He doesn't look it, but he does have a lot of fight years. Oh. Good Lord. It looks like he's never been hitting his life. Well, he just rarely has him. He's very elusive. He could tell by his, like, his unscarred face. Pretty fires are the most dangerous, because he doesn't get hit. Hordeshki, he definitely dominated this fight. Saunders, he has a, you know, pretty well-rounded game, but it does definitely give him, of course, Hordeshki was a level above him. Yeah, for sure. He was able to get the fight to the ground at will. He was able to, you know, avoid the striking and hit back when he hit will. So, Hordeshki definitely dominated this fight. The crowd loved it. Hordeshki is a hometown guy. And he had kind of a touching story about how he lost a friend a week before the fight. So, you know, big congratulations to Hordeshki and, you know, the fans couldn't be more excited to see Hordeshki win. We were actually fortunate to get an interview with Hordeshki after the fight. And he said he was going well, looking out to, you know, make some waves in Bellator and get a shot at that lightweight tournament that's going to be opening up in 2012. So, there's probably another fight for him between now and 2012, but in the lightweight tournament in Bellator, he can make some waves. Oh, sure. Oh, for sure. Especially because he's so young and he's got a lot of tools. He was decent in the WEC, you know. He's got potential, for sure. I hate to say it, but also a lot of the crazy top-head lightweights that Hordeshki, I don't think would have too much of a chance against. They're tied up in the UFC. He was in the Bellator division where he's got a fight, you know, Roger Huerta. I think that'd be a good fight. Who he could be? I think he could be with Hordeshki, you know, so. Yeah, well, we'll get that interview up maybe in a week or so. Yeah. And then we go forward to Neil Grove versus Zach Janssen. This was a bit of a sensational fight. I knew this was going to be good. These guys never get out of the first round. Yeah, this was going to be a fight of the night. It's going viral on YouTube. Definitely look this one up. Janssen came out swinging, not Grove down. Grove countered back by just kind of rallying from the ground and going for a leg lock. They were scrambling and they became a moment where both guys, Grove was like, "Okay, well, I don't really know how to advance and get this leg lock." And Janssen was like, "Well, I don't really know how to get out of this leg lock without putting myself at risk." Let's just punch each other. They looked at each other and shrugged and just started throwing bombs at each other. They're sitting on the ground, legs entwined, punching each other in the face. It's ridiculous. The crowd janssen's face after this fight, we were looking at this. He looked like he'd been in a war. The post-fight press conference, man, his face was a mess. Yeah, he looked like he'd just gotten his ass kicked by a 265-pound guy named Goliath. And speaking of Goliath... Speaking of Goliath, Goliath looked fine. Grove looked perfect after this match. But he had all the respect in the world for Janssen. This exchange of them sitting on the ground, you have to see this. I loved it. The entire audience exploded for the first 30 seconds of them punching each other. Because this went on for a while. Then it was so insane, and you would never see this in any other match, that virtually everyone in the press row began just laughing at how... Laughing in ecstasy at how unusual and awesome this moment was. The video's only like two minutes, so Neil Grove and Zach Janssen, YouTube it. Yeah. And we actually eventually got a six-minute interview with Grove, which we're going to be playing at the end of the show. He's a big dude. Big, big dude. But, honestly, it couldn't be another nicer guy. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Has fought in the UFC before, and realistically, they said that this is Clint's spot in the heavyweight tournament starting in September. No, for sure. He was in the last tournament, too. He was a finalist. He'd lost to a wrestler, but he said, "Hey, you know what? I've been training in America, learning my wrestling game. Let's see what happens now." So, look forward to that. Local fights, Alexander Barresera versus Jesse Gross, William Romero versus Daniel Langby. Romero looked really, really good. He's a top prospect, and Alka Mateo versus Mike Ritchie. Ritchie is a Moitai expert who's actually a... Alex Ritchie. Alex Ritchie. No. Good. Mike Ritchie. Mike Ritchie is another guy in the division. Yeah. This is supposed to be Alex Ritchie. We missed what that. Anyways, Ritchie is a top Moitai guy who's got some good wrestling, and he's three and oh now. So, it's not quite time to start seeing the praises yet, but... He's looked good, and we saw him at score fighting series, too, and he looked pretty good. Yeah. This guy, I think, has got a future here. That's talked to him, too. Yeah, absolutely. So, we're looking forward to that, too. And now we go forward to Strike Force. Fader versus Henderson. So, the main event will obviously be Fader versus Henderson. Really? This is an interesting fight, I guess, because you've got Fader, who's a heavyweight, they're meeting at 220. And so, and then Henderson is the lightweight champion. It's not for his belt, because it's not at that weight class. Wouldn't it odd? No, Fader's belt. Wouldn't it odd a necessary catch weight fight, but I still want to... That is Strike Force. But I still want to see it. Yeah. To me, I mean, it's an interesting fight, and it's also a garbage fight. So, if Fader wins this fight, it proves that a heavyweight can be in a middleweight. I already knew that. If Henderson wins this fight... Then, then Henderson's on a heavyweight. He's that light heavyweight now, but he's fought middleweight. His most recent win was middleweight. He came into Strike Force to fight middleweight, lost to Jake Shields. He was the only guy who lost and went up a division. One, and now he's fighting a heavyweight. There's no question in my mind that Fader is definitely going to be a bigger, heavier man. There's no question that Fader is most likely to win this fight, which means that you're likely sending your lightweight champion, and his first match as a lightweight champion, into defeat against a heavyweight for no damn reason. For no belt, for no nothing. Don't forget the money. Oh, he says he got... This is not some free TV, what money? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's getting paid. He's got a very good contract. He even said the only reason he took this fight was for the pay. Yeah, they go. Yeah, but how Strike Force making money is free on TV. Who knows? Then if Henderson wins... It's not that Henderson's problem. And also, it's not Strike Force anymore, it's Zufa. Yeah. Strike Force is kind of like their toy right now. I think that this fight was signed, though, before Zufa came in. And honestly, if Henderson beats Emilio Naiko, which is not impossible, because he's got a tough chin, and he's got a knockoff. Actually, that's awesome for Henderson, though. If Henderson beats Fader and Fader is losing three fights in their own, including a guy whose natural weight division is 190, come on, man. What's the way you already have left for Fader to do? Well, what are you going to do with Fader? Honestly, he's already on the two-fight losing streak anyway. His career's running low anyway. This could be huge for Henderson to win. What should Fader be doing other than losing the guys right now? Yeah. Seriously. Like, according to Chaison and Fader's MMA record is three and two. I never saw that. It's not MMA connected, it's hilarious. To me, I couldn't be more dispassionate about this fight. Oh, I disagree. I disagree. I disagree. It's going to be a fun fight. It's going to be great. It's going to be awesome. The result is, you know, whatever. To me, Henderson should be fighting in his division. Naiko should be fighting his division. If Ella Manko wants to make the cut to 205 and fight for the belt, I am all for them. I agree with that. You've made a crucial mistake, Dave. You're trying to attach logic to strike force. They don't go together. They really don't. This is all garbage, you're correct. It's a garbage fight. But when they step in the ring and they start their own bombs, it's going to be worth it. Yeah, except that Manko is a counter-potcher. So it's not going to be one of bombs. He's going to wait for Henderson to throw bombs. Oh, okay. Then that's guys throwing bombs. He's going to knock him out. Wait, hold on. Have you ever seen either of these guys fight before Dave? He's going to fight before. Henderson's a stalker and then he goes to counter-potcher. The counter-potcher is going to win. Guarantee you. I'm not saying he's not going to win. I'm saying that it should be entertaining and they're going to throw punches. You can't guarantee that. Of course you're going to throw punches. This is a fight. What are you going to throw? I always like fish. Dan Henderson go. I like seeing Dan Henderson fight. Regardless of what style he decides to incorporate, I love seeing Dan Henderson fight. I like Dan Henderson. I love Dan Henderson. It's going to be good. Honestly, how many times do I talk about this on this show? About my favorite knock out of all time. Henderson crushing Bizping. As much as I used to love a million ankle. If you crush the million ankle, this will be my new favorite knock out of all time. I haven't even seen it yet. If he manages to knock out Fader with a job, I don't care. Favorite knock out of all time. You're going to like a knocking out Fader with a Bizping. Really? You don't like Bizping. I can't say Bizping. I love Fader. But at the same time, when you've got a guy who's at this much of a weight disadvantage. Oh, okay. You're really buying any underdog factor on this, right? Okay. He's 41 years old and he's 190 pounds. Fighting a guy who's a heavy one. Despite the implications of this fight, people are going to want to watch this fight. Absolutely. I want to watch this fight. Anyway, next. So that way it's a good main event. Yeah, it's interesting. So the one that's not a main event, the woman's welterweight championship. I lost Conan versus Misha Tate. You normally, and I do agree that the title fight should usually be last. But this is a fight where everyone will walk away with that building afterwards. This is tough. That's a tough decision. It is a very tough decision. I mean, yeah, the title fight, it's hard. It really is. And it's a shame because I like watching. Misha Tate's great. Marla's cone is great too. I want to see this fight badly. This fight's going to be great. Yeah, it's just, you know, it's like the old saying. You may be a champion, but you're still a woman. Oh. That's fine. You know what? When was the last time they put a women's championship as a main event? It was like a, I think it was like a challenging show. They didn't do it for the challenge. They didn't do it for the challenge. They didn't do it for the challenge. They put that lazy heavy weight a little more. That's right. For Sarah Kaufman. It's unfortunate. A little bit more respect for the women's championship. It's still a championship. Conan is a great fighter. They're both great fighters. Misha Tate. Misha Tate's very good. Tate is a top wrestler. Conan is a very, very good striker with incredible submissions from her back. To me, I think Tate's going to take this one. Conan's normal advantage is their size and their reach. Tate's a talented wrestler who's training with alpha male. If anyone can teach her how to get inside on a tall opponent, take him down and beat him up, it's a rye favor. That's very true. Although I kind of see this going the same way as a Sarah Kaufman fight. Sarah Kaufman could get a Russell Conan and a striker. But in the end, Conan's submissions are good. And how good are these girls' submissions defenses? The same thing you could say is true of the fight with Conan and Gorilla. If you look at Karmusch, Karmusch was pound earful for us. The Conan got the miracle sub. That's right. That was great. Both of them powerful strikers, good brawlers. But they're not as evolved grapplers as Misha Tate. Sarah Kaufman has a very good wrestling game, though. Sarah Kaufman's got a good wrestling game. But I think Misha Tate's probably the best wrestler in the division. In women's 135, to me, no question. Misha Tate's the best sole grappler. I just wouldn't count Conan out. I've seen really talented Jujitsu fighters not be able to tap out Tate. And they trained the tournament to get the shot for her. So if they're not able to tap out Tate, as Conan's got the long legs and the crazy triangles. She's a big woman's 135. But Misha Tate is a powerful wrestler. I've seen her power out of submissions before. I think Tate's going to be able to stay on top and get the win by decision. That's how I call this one. I think Conan's going to catch her. I think so too. I just see. I mean, I think Misha Tate's great, but I think Conan just is able to do this. It seems like at will she's able to do this. So I think I'm going to call Conan. Conan is like the new women's no garah. She has pounded on for four hours and she comes up with a miracle solution out of nowhere. Yeah. This is going to be a great fight. This is two guys made of garro without the pride years. Fair enough. Then we go forward. Ruth O'Strawaby Lawler versus Tim Kennedy. Both these guys are top, top middleweights, Kennedy, probably in contention for the title shop. Lawler is he knocks Kennedy out. I'm calling that right now. Strikeforce loves Tim Kennedy. I don't get it. I think Robbie Lawler can beat him. I've seen him fight a billion times. It seems like on Strikeforce shows, they're always like, "This is the middleweight. This guy's the prospect." He always looks fine. He never looks anything better than that. I think Robbie Lawler can beat him. Robbie Lawler is tough. Yeah, he is. He's nails. He really is. Robbie Lawler, he's the spoiler. Whenever some guy is going to come up and, you know, Tim Kennedy is the Strikeforce equivalent of Brian Stan. You know, he's a former soldier who... I think Brian Stan is more upside than Tim Kennedy. Yeah, great look. But the thing is, yeah, Brian Stan would rip Kennedy apart. Yeah. And realistically, Lawler, who's got such a tough chin, to me, I think Kennedy has to win this by his wrestling. Yep. And Lawler, I don't think you can hold the guy down for long enough. If the eventually is going to throw a punch. To me, I think Lawler wins this one. Jack Ray held him down. But that's Jack Ray. Yeah. Jack Ray is much, much more talented, not Grappler. Yes. Really? In the middle way? I don't think... Other than Damien Mein-Woonos, who's more talented than Jack Ray. I completely agree. You know? So, yeah, I think this part will be okay too. It's a good, Contenders-y type match. And then Paul Daly versus Tyrone Woodley. This is... Yeah. Effectively... Then wait for this one for a little while. Yeah. I would call this one the de facto welterweight championship. I'm not naming it that. Yeah. With Diaz vacating and moving off. The winner is at least in the title. In the title... Daly was a lot of stratified Diaz for the championship. And Tyrone Woodley was the guy who should have fought Diaz. But if they don't say it's a title fight, they can't just give a guy a title later. Yeah. If they haven't announced it's a title fight... This isn't the WWE. The Diaz hasn't vacated yet. But to me, if you look at... They're doing this into in Woodley and Scott Smith versus Tarek Safadin. The winners of the... The winners are going to face each other. Half of the belt. One of Diaz vacates. If this does not happen, there is no logic at all left in this company. And you should never watch Strike Force again. That's the way it is. If the winners of these two belts do not fight for a belt once Diaz vacates... What are you doing? This is what comes down to. What are you doing? I don't disagree. Isn't there the possibility that Diaz loses to GSP? Because... You know what comes back and takes the belt back? He's got a vacate. You want to fight GSB? Okay. If they... No, no, no. But he can always come back and fight someone for the belt. Yeah. You know, I'm sure they're going to wait and see how that plays out. But let's more to the point. This fight, Tyrone Woodley versus Paul Daly. I think it'd be great. wrestler versus striker. Yep. They're both really good at what the other guy said. They're both good fighters. Yeah. Realistically, Smith versus Safadin, to me is the one that's interesting. Smith is a rocket puncher. Although, you know, he's had some rough followings the last two times. Safadin, he likes to brawl. Yeah. I mean, to me, that's... I think that's going to be the more entertaining of the two fights. Yeah. I really think that Tyrone Woodley is a good enough wrestler that he might kill the cost check daily. He can build a whole daily down. That's why his game plan is going to be. I think that's going to wind up how the fight's going because, like, you saw what cost check did to Daly. Yeah. So, I think that this is probably going to be similar to that. Unless Daly's evolved his game. Yes. I mean, he can knock this dude out in, like, no problem. Daly can knock anybody out, except he is. But Tyrone Woodley's going to have a good game plan and he's going to win that one. Well, also, keep in mind, Tyrone Woodley does not have a weak chin himself. I've seen this... There's a difference between a weak chin and a hit by a dale. Yeah, but I mean, you only need to take enough punches to grab a single leg. And Daly is going to be on his back. Yeah. This is actually a really interesting fight, too. I like this card. Yeah. So, yeah, there's some good stuff on this card. Yeah, and then we go forward to the preliminary cards. We've got Josiahs Cavalcante versus Boba Green. Cavalcante is a guy that they're high on. Eduardo Pompelona versus Tyler Stinson. I don't want to think about either one of these guys. Once you get into the lower end of the strike-first card, they're local guys. Yeah. Derek Brunson versus Lumubu Sires. Brian Holmes versus Gabriel Selenis Jones. And lastly, Alex Stavis versus Julie Kenzie. Kenzie is a standout from Jackson's Gym. And she is... I would say she's probably the second or third in line for the women's welterweight. Well, there's like three girls in the division. Yeah, well... I guess it's my favorite. It's just kind of a shame. I know. I agree. I like the women's division. Alexis is Canadian, isn't she? Uh, Alexis, I believe, is Canadian. Kenzie, I believe, is American. My favorite part of reviewing a strike-first card is Dave trying to name all the local guys. I know it's great. It's just... It's wonderful. Because no one's ever heard their names before. Let me tell you, L-U-M-U-M-B-A. Lumumba. You're doing a wonderful job, Dave. Best I can do. Sorry, Lumumba, if I mispronounced it. All right, so before we get to the Neil Grove interview, really quickly, the UFC Ban and weight championship is going to be defended on free TV. Dominic Cruz versus Demetrius Johnson, headlined UFC Live on versus 6 October 1st. I think that speaks more to Johnson than that. You can't headline a show with that, and also Johnson's not a name in the least. That's the reason. But they want to get some exposure for that championship. They're doing it because they can't put... More people are going to watch it. Yeah. Why not? I think they are, though. I mean, you put it on free TV. More people are going to watch it. They're going to actually shell money to buy it, right? Yeah, true. But it's a thing that they don't think they can headline with. What I think is interesting is you're right. Do you see Cruz fight once, you're hooked? Good point. I think that might be the reason, too. But it's really interesting that... Who probably the Cruz can beat Johnson is lightning fast. You can beat Johnson. Cruz can beat Johnson. Cruz is beating Johnson. Well, Cruz's advantage is he's so damn fast. He's fast and an Orthodox. Johnson is... I think he's Johnson. I think he's Johnson. I know what the Doc's more important than that. Yeah. Everyone thought Liodo was unbeatable. Shogun was able to beat him because he's just not just as fast. You know, I think Johnson is just as fast as Cruz. Yeah. Well, let's move on. Let's move on. We can talk about that later. So, I think we're going to go forward to the Neil Grover interview. So, without further ado, Neil Grover. From Bellator. So, I'm here with Neil Grover, who is just one in process with victory over Zach Jensen and one of the most exciting fights tonight. How are you feeling now? I'm feeling great. I'm stoked. I'm still pumped up from the win. You know what? I've come out to Canada as my first visit. I love the reception. The support has been excellent. And as you can hear from the crowd, bearing our fight, and our fight to Zach Jensen, they win off, you know. And I think it's what it's about. MMA is about finishing fights. MMA is about putting up a brief show for guys. And anyway, you're going to get people to follow you, support you, sponsor you, and love you. So, yeah. And I feel great. As always, it's always tough because you end up making friends with a guy you're fighting against, but it's a job. It's a job. And I've come out to do the job. And, you know, it worked my way to time. Now, you're winning today. It's one, you know. He's caught back in a heavyweight tournament. Is there anyone in particular you'd say, "That's the guy I want to fight in the first round?" Not really fun to do that. You know, I've met all these guys, I've seen them all, and they're all fantastic fighters, and I'm really looking forward to facing off of each one of them, you know. It's two fights, and then you're in the finals. So between the eight guys, I've spied with some of them. I've trained with some of them, and it's going to be an exciting lineup. There's some really good fighters, and we've got to dig it in there. There's some Eric Crindall. There's a lot of big fighters in there. And I'm looking forward to it. You obviously are a very powerful striker, but you've mixed up your game. You've added some rustling, and you said you've added some nasty stuff on the ground, so you need some submissions. But you turned it on and you had to go to America to do it. How do you feel about training there? You know, I went and lived with my agent for a while, and he introduced me to all these different camps, and I found two that I really liked. I've got a new striking coach, but they've been more than a very young guy, and he's an up-and-coming fighter as well, like that. But he's been throwing different combinations at me and making me work that little bit harder, and I find it refreshing that there's something new for me to learn. Saying that, the same goes for the guys I've been training with. That's the rain. And for us, Mark Munoz, as you know, is one of the best middle whites that's out there. I've been training with Christop Szezinski, who's a Canadian as well, and an amazing guy, I've met him and his wife, and Mark's wife as well, because he's fantastic people. And because they're so really friendly and really nice, I enjoy going to train. They make you work extra hard. There's no pussy putting around. You are training hard. Every day from 10 to 12, and they're strength and conditioning training later on during the day, I've been loving it. Because I'm new at the resting part of the sport, the sufficient part of the sport. And going there and learning something is refreshing. It's great. I mean, I'm 40 years old, but I'm learning something. So, you know, all the best that anyone enjoys, I'm facing in a heavy weight tournament, because I've got so much more arsenal now, and I feel absolutely pumped, and getting into this heavy weight tournament. Well, absolutely, Muno is in Szezinski at the best in the world at teaching takedown defense. Is that the missing piece of the puzzle for you? Oh, yeah, definitely. Our family's have sparring with guys. We've got some of these, not so many of these announcements. But we've had a heavy weight, he's a Olympian champion. Sparring with him, sparring with Fabicio de Dumu goes to the camp as well. These are top, top, wrestling, and sufficient guys, and take down guys. Take down guys, take down experts. And by sparring with these guys, now and then I find myself stopping it. Now and then I find myself getting up. Now and then I find myself actually putting on a submission. And every time that happens, I just absolutely love the fact that I'm there. I hate the fact that I'm away from my family. I love the fact that I'm learning something new. And, you know, in the process, win my fights, bring my money home. Now, you mentioned that you're 40 years old. Do you feel like you're under pressure to perform really quickly? Or are you going to go to Randy Couture and just stay in your championship? No, definitely. You know what, Randy Couture is somebody I looked up to because of that fact that he's in his 40s and he's done really well. I've had to change the way I've trained, I've had to change the way I eat, and by eating clean, by eating healthy, and by training clever. And also having the best chiropractors and physiotherapists looking after me, I've got the OC-5 Doc. Dr. Kesler's camp in Orange County who's been looking after me. I'd go there every day after a training session. It didn't matter whether it was sore or not, they would look after me. I'd get a massage, I'd get readjusted. If there was something that I could paint, they would look after for me. So every day I was in there as well. And with their great support, it makes it possible for me. And England, stuff on that cost a lot of money every time we go. But with this sort of sponsorship that I'm getting from these guys, it keeps me going. And I really would like to be at the same sort of level if not better by the age of 43, 44. Give me another three for you. I want to become better as a champion. I want to stay the champion as well. To fight for Bjorn and for Alberto is an absolute pleasure. The guys are good to the fight and they look after us. It's good to be here. It was a pleasure to see you. Thank you very much for having me with us. And you're listening to Neil Grove, the future Bellator's Camp in the making. Thank you very much, guys. Thanks for your time. Thank you.