[music] Hello and welcome to the Hammer. I'm your host Steve, you're always one of my co-hosts. Greg, how's it going guys? And Steve? So welcome to our show, you're listening to us live at 93.3 CFMU and you can also find us on iTunes and at thehammer.mma.com. You can also find us at dickdidmma.com. It's a great site, it's got live forums, interviews and our radio show now. So make sure you guys check that out. The Hammer Army is growing, thank you guys, all of our rabid fans are getting us more and more exposure. And we have big news to speak as well. Absolutely. So we're going to talk about Fido as you would expect but we also managed to catch up with a muscle shark Sean Shirk this Sunday. So we've got an interview with Shirk and we're going to play that for you at the end of the show. It's really, really good stuff, he gave us a lot of really good insights into first of all the lightweight division and also what he expects from South in the future. So check that out. And he's just an overall really cool guy. He's a really cool guy. Just sitting down with Shirk, talking with him, he had a lot of really interesting insights into the business and he didn't beat us up. Except for Steve, because Greg and I were... Well Steve was mouthing off, so he had to set him straight. Well also Greg and I were in the right-way class. And thanks to the Card Man in Gridsby, Ontario for hooking us up. Oh yeah, that was awesome. One of my favorite moments, we did interview Shirk but we were just hanging out with Shirk before that and he mentioned that he's been signing autographs all day and he's all stiffened up. So he said, "I should travel with my own private chiropractor." Greg was like, "Well, I used to travel with Volkman. He's in your camp. He's a chiropractor." That was definitely a funny scenario. Shirk's like, "Yeah, well, we do that when we're sparring." I'm like, "Yeah, you broke it, Jake. You ought to fix it." Cool. So after we talk Strike Force in the news, you have to stick around until the end of the show and you can hear Dave here talking to Sean Shirk for a while. Really fun. Yeah, we got some time with him. So we're going to talk obviously about Strike Force. This is an important show. This is the kickoff of their heavyweight Grand Prix and this card was all heavyweights. I was skeptical about an all heavyweight card. Yeah, so I thought it would be fun and it was. Well, heavyweight fights can either be incredibly fun because you get more emotionally invested in the heavyweights and it can also be incredibly slow because sometimes the guys are sluggish. Now fortunately for this particular card, they picked a lot of guys with glass jaws or hammer fins. I don't get right. There were glass jaws on this card but there were also really good fights. So let's run them down. So we're going to start with obviously the most important one. Antonio Solvo versus Fedor Emilianenko. Now the last emperor was coming back from his loss to Fabrizio Veridun and he was expected to do great things and do very, very well on this tournament. After all those contract negotiations, he better deliver victory. You would think so. But unfortunately, I wasn't here last week. I did have a chance to talk with Greg and Steve on the phone before they came in. I told them, "Remember to tell everyone I'm calling Antonio Solvo." I legitimately didn't say this because the worst thing that could happen for Strike Force is if he won. Would you know, as far as it would be, if you thought about that in time, I should have told you, 35 to one odds on Solvo winning the tournament. I mean, it's a lot easier for him now. There's some guys who might make a lot of money. It's not quite 35 to one anymore. Exactly. So, Antonio Solvo... I'm going to lose money betting on it now. The first round was fairly even. It was a bit of a brawl. I actually gave it to Solvo off the strength of the fact that he took it down twice. I did as well. And he caught him a couple times in the brawl. So, I mean, I don't know what anyone was saying about Fedor taking that up 10-9 to look like it to me. I thought it was very, very close. It was very close, but Solvo struck with a guy and he took him down. I didn't see Fedor getting any takedowns, did you? I enjoyed it, though. It was a fun round. It was very much enjoying it. Absolutely. Now, the first round, Solvedor came out with a big overhand right. Second round, Fedor came out with the same big overhand right, but this time Solvo was expecting it. He changed levels and went for the shot. 265 pound man got Fedor down easily, got on top of him. 265 pound man who was also Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu block belt. He moved to full mount and proceeded to rain in the hammer. Those are some awesome shots. Famer's face took the beating. But he definitely did the Fedor thing where he took a ton of punishment, blood all over the place, but he still seemed like he was okay. He might even make a comeback. Yeah, you know, I mean, definitely he did the Fedor thing that he took a tremendous amount of punishment. He didn't die. But his hands kept getting limper and limper and limper. Oh, yeah. I mean, eventually it took its toll. I thought his head was in it, though, still. And at the end of that second round, I was edging my seat like Fedor come back. Yeah, exactly. You know, just like it's supposed to be. Yeah, exactly. Because he's, I mean, did so many times where he's taken a lot of feeding and he's just come back and pulled something else. You know, it definitely has happened that Fedor has done that. But, I mean, for a guy the size of Solva, and keep in mind, Solva wasn't just pounding the guy with hammer face for four and a half minutes, although he was doing that. He was also going for submission attempts. Yeah, he was, he was advancing position. Fedor would recover position after Solva would get dislodged by submission time. So we'll just be like, muck and go right back to form. Here's the thing. He started, uh, Solva started gassing though. During that round, he started getting slower. And I was like, Oh man, you know, maybe he can, you know, maybe he'll slow down and third round Fedor is going to come out. And it's just going to be one of those comebacks and really anti climactic and the second round, Dr. Stoppage for Fedor's eye. Well, that's, that's what happened the first time he lost. Yeah, that's right. But this was, there's no debate. This was like his eye was shot. His face was rocky. He got these like, yeah, his eye was gone. His face was a mess. His nose was bleeding, legit stuff. Both eyes were hurt. You know, Fedor himself afterwards, they interviewed both guys. Solva said he was proud to win and he traded really, really hard, but a happy giant. Yeah. Fedor said, you know what? I think I'm done. I'm cool. I'm leaving. So I guess that's it for Fedor. I did not. It's a high probability that I don't think there's always a chance. There's been some things. Okay. So he comes out there, gives his interview, translators, switches it up and it's like, Oh, you know, I'm thinking of quitting. Yeah. Actually in Russian Fedor, apparently I can't, I don't speak Russian, but the word is that Fedor was saying, no, I'm done. I really don't want to come back. And then instantly M one, the management guys, strike force putting out the things. No, no, he's not out. He's not retiring. It was just a spur of the moment. We're not going to allow him to retire. Exactly. And, and, and, uh, strike force of, uh, Koker, he said that, uh, Fedor, he's going to try and get Fedor to come in as like a first alternate in this tournament already. Oh, man. And you know, I heard that. But the thing is West first him being first alternate, he lost clean and it was a devastating loss. It was never happened in these Japanese tournaments. They're, they're, they're pushing this to be just like, so I, I think it's unfortunate. Fedor was even, I, I love to see Fedor fight again. The thing is, I love to see Fedor fight again, too, if we managed to build a time machine and go back to 2005. Oh, come on. He could still go. Oh, no way. I, he could still go. You know what? No, but the thing is, I was a huge pride fan. I was a huge fan of Fedor back and pride. And I mean, anyone who knows me knows, I was a pride fan and I love Shogun and I love Fedor. But in the last few years, you know, when Fedor has not been taking the top competition, I've had to grow more and more off the guy. And I mean, I still like watching a fight. You know, you could, you could say verdume was a fluke. This was, this was not a fluke. No, this was a thrashing. He lost very, very decisively to serve us. Because the guy loses fights doesn't mean that he shouldn't be fighting. Right. But I mean, after the verdume lost Fedor came out at that point, started making noises about him retiring. And he comes out after this fight and he's like, I want to quit. Please don't make me fight. And everyone was like, no, he doesn't want to quit. He wants to fight. Yeah. Well, you know what? Like, if the guy's got the heart of a champion, he's going to be like, Hey, you know what, I lost this fight. I'm going to see you in four months when I'm going to beat down verdume. I agree. Be a guy who I speak convinced to come back to fight. Yeah, you can have the heart of a champion and just get sick of what you're doing. You know, what I mean? It's it's a he's maybe just doesn't want to do it anymore. Like, if the guy doesn't want to do it anymore, I don't want to watch M one pray the guy obviously not for thrashing. Yeah, of course. You know, and I also don't want to see that like, like, if the guy's going to go and fight like he did in pride, then the fine. I mean, I'd love to see that fate or again. I haven't seen that fate or three years. You can't expect like eight years later, whatever, for a guy to come back and fight like, you know what? Fader is not at old. No, but to say you like, Oh, he's old and done. He's 33. He's ever in the air. So if he's done if he's done in his own mind, then he's done. Oh, for sure. That's what he might be done. But to say that the only reason you want to see him fight is if he's like he was in 2005, that's that's crazy. You know, Dan Henderson doesn't like the same as he used to be, but people still want to see him fight. You know what though, again, he's not an old guy in the sport. Yeah, keep in mind this is this is only 33. He's only 33. He's younger than Harrison Silva. He's younger than Liodo Machida. He's younger than BJ Penn. He's like he's way younger than right. You know, and like all these guys still look pretty good. You know, I keep, I keep waiting for the expiry and a couture hasn't happened yet. And I call against the guy who called against the guy who fights the last three years. You know, the guy still wins. What's what you call him to win a fight? That's when he'll retire. That's why I'm never going to call it because I don't want to go. But like, again, probably the only guy in the world who hates Randy. I don't hate him. But I mean, like, I know that odds are going to catch up with him at some point. Again, like, it to me, it's been pretty clear that there's fate or the legendary fighter that I loved and pride. And there's fate or the shill of M one global. And I want to see fate or the legendary fighter that I loved and pride. I want to see that fate or I'm tired of fate or the M one shill. Do you know what I mean? I'm done with M one. All you guys do is seem to poison promotions and poison fighters. And what M one's the worst. I completely agree with you. They're making a fighter or convincing him to fight when he doesn't want to no matter what money's involved or anything. But I'm just saying that just because fate or is lost twice, if he wanted to get in there and fight someone, I gladly watch. Yeah, and I would too. If the fate or came out and said, you know what, that was a fluke. I'm coming back and I'm going to beat Antonio sov up. Then I'd be all bored. If Peter came out and said, you know what, maybe I'm too small for the modern heavyweight division. I'm going to cut to two or five, as Marou and all suggested. And I'm going to come back and I'm going to tear it up and you're going to see me walk kill over and save St. Peru. I'd watch that. But if it was like, I quit, please don't make me fight. He didn't actually say, please don't make me. Yeah. It's a slight exaggeration. Well, when Greg says, you know, it's obvious if the guy's heart's not in it's the heart's not in it. That's that's, that's, you know, the translator, the translator definitely said, maybe I am done with this sport. I don't think that I want to compete anymore. That's what the translator said. And now we find out that the actual what he did saying, Russian was even more decisive. You know, the translator was trying to clean that up. But he's already back out there saying, Oh, I was a little hasty. You know, maybe I'll wind up back in the tournament. So a little hasty after being pummeled by like, fist after fist from. If I had, if I had Bigfoot, like beating the crap, but to me, I'd probably consider retiring. But yeah, we're tired from the planet. For me, hopefully he comes back. Hopefully it's not a tournament. And even aside from that, even if the guy does come back, of the guys left in this tournament, he's lost of a verdume. He's lost to sova. He's beaten our law ski, who's out. He's beaten Rogers, who's likely to be out. He hasn't fought Barnett. He hasn't fought Karatanov. And also over him is is frothing at the mouth, waiting for a chance to be like the next guy who notches his belt of Fedor. There will be, even if it's a year from now, there'll be money in that over him. Fedor, if I anyway, they really hope that the strike force will really hope that Fedor comes back, though, because this did amazing records for money, like up there with the biggest strike force show ever. It was free on TV, so I didn't know records for money, but the great for ratings is up there with Gina Crown on cyborgs. Drawing ratings eventually turns into money when you're on cable. Unless you screw it up like they did before. Exactly. All right, so what was next on the card? So next on the card, under a law ski came out to fight Sergei Karatanov, who they are referring to as young Fedor now. Karatanov is a sample master with a really, really good right hand. Andre Arlaski is a kickboxer with a really, really soft jaw showed in this match. He's the last Joe from Mike Tyson's budget. Yeah, he's become that, unfortunately. Unfortunately, the damage does accumulate. He looked great. They were having a fun role boxing match. Every single time he comes out, I'm like, oh man, I like watching a move, I like watching a strike, and I'm like, he looks great until he gets hit, always gets fucked. I know the same thing happened with Chuck Liddell at the end of his career. This is the third time. This is the fifth house on a row for an Oscar lead. Four, if I'm not mistaken, a lot of a lot of a row. Well, four or five in a row, and the last three or four by knock out. Yeah. You know, there was one that wasn't by knock out with all the restaurants and been by knock out. His jaw is gone. You know, even the commentators are sitting there going like, yeah, he's pretty much done. Watching him lying on the ground with his eyes glazed over after taking really just one big seriously budget. Watching him get up off the ground three or four minutes later, as they were raising Karatana's hands and his eyes were still glazed over, and he's still wobbling. It wasn't a pleasant sight, wasn't a pleasant sight, because I like Arlowski. But it just, yeah, it's done. I mean, he's just, he's an incredible guy, but his mind has been suspect for a while, and now his body's failing him too. You know what? Team Pitbull, you can make some money at this gym, train some guys, you know, but it's time, you don't need to be getting hit in the face by these monstrously huge modern heavyweights anymore. Yeah, some real serious damage could get done if it hasn't already gotten done. Particularly because I can't figure it. Like, if there's one guy in this tournament that Arlowski's going to be, I can't pick him. Oh, no, no, he was the least likely person to win this tournament. People say Brett Rogers was the least likely. Our loss gives you the less. Yeah, looking for sure. Yeah, Roger's beat our losses. That's true. Karatana looked decent. He looked good, yeah. You know, they keep calling the dark horse to this competition. He's a real serious guy. He managed to do pretty well for himself. I'm doing this drag tournament. So keep an eye out for Karatana. One step closer. Then we go forward. We have some reserve bouts here. They did three reserve bouts. So hopefully they were all great. Yeah, they were all great. Hopefully one of these guys goes into the tournament and not a returning fador. Yeah, for sure. So Shane D'Lavo del Rosario picked up another win with a submission by Armbar, four minutes and 31 seconds of a Lavaar Johnson. Good fight. He has a great fight. Del Rosario looked fantastic. He out-pointed Johnson's feet and the second fight went to the ground. He just went right to the Armbar. This is beautiful. This is a great, great Armbar guys. Yeah, it was really great. I did not expect that round 10 with an Armbar. Yeah. That was our first round, correct? Yep. Yep. And he's the number one alternate, is he not? He's the first alternate to go. He was a whole bunch. He was a whole bunch. He was a whole fador. Chad Griggs looked great against Volante. That guy's awesome. But he derailed Bobby Lashley in his life. He made a bit of a name for himself and then had this awesome performance. I'm loving this dude. There was a big feature in this guy. He came out swinging, was hitting Volante hard. Volante was staggering around. He came back with an, Volante came back with an amazing height kick that literally exploded Chad Griggs's ear. It was like it squeezed the juice box out of his ear. It was awesome. But foolishly, Volante dropped his mouthpiece during this. So the ref paused him to say, "Go put your mouthpiece back in." By the time he had his mouthpiece back in, Griggs was like, "Yeah, my ear is shot, but I only need the other ear to beat you." He raged out of his crazy shot. I don't think he needs either ear to beat me. The way he was throwing it. He's kind of like Matt Hamill, you know what I mean? I'm surprised he was able to stand straight with his ear like that. I mean, that's supposed to destroy your equilibrium when you get an ear injury like that. The shots these guys were throwing each other were just fascinating. I loved it. They were taking great shots and Griggs is a tough, tough dude. Yeah. So if Griggs obviously beats down Volante, TKO, two minutes and 49 seconds around one, this is a super fun fight. And Griggs, I'm impressed. I mean, he's a small guy for the heavyweight division. So I don't know how he's going to fare against some of the monsters at the top. I can't wait to see. But God, he's an entertaining guy to watch. And then a guy who is also very, very small for the division, Valentin Overeem, who is the smaller brother of Alistair, barely even 6'3" and 265 pounds. However, he is older as you know. He is the older brother. And he's actually massive. But he took on Ray Sefo. Sefo is a great striker with no submission defense or takedown. We really know what he's more of a kickboxer. He's more of a kickboxer. He's more of a kickboxer. He's more of a kickboxer. He's more of a kickboxer. He's more of a kickboxer. He's more of a kickboxer. He's more of a kickboxer in career, like 3 MMA FUDs. Yeah. Well, 3 now. 2-1 now. So Overeem basically pushed him over. Grabbed him in that crank and ended it in one minute and 37 seconds in first round. Great looking submission. Great looking submission. Very, very fun. But Overeem is not going to get that on anyone but Sefo. Yeah, it was not a huge test. This is a gift horse. Overeem didn't look in the mouth. Yeah. Yeah, he just took it. He just took it. He just took it. He didn't inject some. Allegedly. Moving right along. I really, really did like the show. This was a five heavyweight fight, six rounds. Yeah, I know. Awesome. It was great. It was violence fast. It was good. Except for all the production. Oh my God. Oh, Tony Gabby started. Oh, God. That's talking about production. Literally in every single fight that anyone lost, Mauro and Ella said before the fight was over, that guy's too small. He should cut down to light heavyweight. He said that about Fedor while Fedor was still fighting. It's Fedor. If you're thinking that that's an option for Fedor, that's fine. Not while he's in the heavyweight tournament fighting. That's not what the fight's still going on. Not after Fedor has come up with crushing come from behind victory after crushing come behind victory for eight years. And I'm really getting sick of the cheesy lines. It's really starting to wear on my brain, like the Cupid line, the wily. They call him Valentine, but he's got more arrows and what I remember. He's got more weapons and just cupid. Oh, this is, come on, man, inducing commentary, some weird audio effects. We always complain about strike force of production. But at least this time, I think pride was also mentioned more than strike force was mentioned in this show. He was mentioned more than strike force was mentioned because every couple, every couple seconds, he'd be like, Oh, this guy, he didn't train a lot, Cepho didn't train a lot for his fight because he was busy training Bell for the real fight with enters and silver. Not this scrubby ass tournament that we're having. I'm saying, this is going to be like the Haiti of pride. This is like pride. It's like pride. You know, pride, people love pride. People remember pride really well. Comparisons with that are really tough to make. They should try and make their own identity, not be the new pride. Yeah. Well, but I like their tournament. I like the idea. The fights were great. It just fights were great. I mean, the ratings was the best they've had since cyborgs were chronicled. They've actually managed to come back. And this is three, what we consider to be very good strike force shows in a row. I do think they're on a role and I'm glad for it. They've managed to climb back out of the wild to 2009 levels, but they're still at 2009 levels. And I mean, there was there was a literally a point where it became a weird high pitched whistle. Yeah, it happened numerous times. 45 seconds stretch. And I was like, is that a corner trying to do some weird signal? What the hell? Yeah. I realized it's on mic feedback. Yeah. Do you not know how to work a boom mic? Do you know, like, why are you why are you employed as a as a as a mic operator, a sound technician? It's very noticeable. And am I the only one who thought Gus Johnson was wearing lipstick? Yeah, I don't know what I thought you lost a bet. Gus Johnson maybe was the camera or maybe the lighting or something, but it looked like he was wearing a lipstick. Gus Johnson may well be the worst interviewer that has ever conducted an interview. Is it actually an interview? Do you don't ask any questions? I don't think it is. That was pretty rough. You know, like, like Gus, let me give you some sales tips, my friend. Ask open any questions. So if, let's say, car a ton of wins a fight, come out and say car a ton of you won that fight. You must be very excited. What's next for you? Don't come on and say car a ton of you look good. You won the fight. Yeah. All declarative statements. Yeah. And car sounds like, yes, I did look good. Ask him his thoughts on the fight that just occurred when he thought it was opponent who we wants to fight next, you know, any anything, anything, ask him a question, but ask him any question. Ask anyone you interviewed a question. Ask him what the last movie saw was. I don't care. Ask him a question. Don't walk up. Ask him. Ask him about his Russian Orthodox music. You know, if that's fate or if you walk up to if you walk up to fate or say something like, Hey, fear, this is a second loss in a row for you. How does that affect your mental statement? We were mental state. Don't you like fate or you've lost? Does that mean you're done? Well, you have to be fair to the girl who interviewed fate or those. And like fate or has had like an interesting or story career. Like, I didn't have a problem. I just knew that because I was funny. Ask him things like, Oh, what kind of music do you listen to? It's like he's ever done anything in this book. Yeah. This is not like he's fought in Grand Priest style tournaments before. We've done well on them that he could talk about those experiences there. Oh, my God. Let's ask him. He'll fail or you listen to Russian music without a lot of tone in it. They're how you considered Britney Spears. Strike Force is always going to be the low dog to UFC unless they fix that production and just I mean, it's not like they have to fire all their commentators. They just have no. Come on. They're not all bad. First of all, they're not all bad. There's a couple of bad apples in there. Like, I like that. It's just great. Frank Shamrock does a great job. It's just Bernardo Gus Johnson, Heidi Andrew, all the girl who does the interviews because she's awful. You know, everyone who's ever held a camera or a mic in your company. The sound people really need to get rid of the production crew. Get rid of all of them. Just like Purge. Purge. Make fate or happy. Have some bloody purges. Get these people out of here. Do a Russia style. The Heidi Andrew interview of Gina Chrono. Gina Chrono may well be the most lovable fighter in the history of fighting. She's more lovable than friggin Lancelot. Hey guys, what's up? So Gina, how you doing, girlfriend? Hey, Heidi. What is this an interview? Are you kidding? I thought Gina might have had too many drinks. I don't think she sounded a little drunk, but I don't think she was because that's the way she talks. She's laid back. When I saw her on the record, she was really laid back and relaxed and very smooth. She's a lovable girl and she's a great face for the company. It's great for them that she's coming back. Check out that high video Gina Chrono's coming back 2011. That's good. They should push stuff like that. Of course. I'm very happy with the direction of Strike Force right now. My question though is if Gina Chrono does come back, cyborg murdered her. Cyborg 2 pay per view. Do it. Yeah, she's always had issues making weight for 145. Kaufman's called her out. Yeah, it's not good. I would love to see the fight, but that's not what you do. You do her in cyborg 2 when they do their first pay per view. That's the money. Yeah, those are the two biggest names right now. You think Gina Chrono's not to diverge too much. You think Gina Chrono's going to have more than one fight in her comeback? Have her loose come in and loose a cyborg again or miraculously win. Yeah, yeah. You got to get the money while it's there because you don't know how long she's going to be around for. Well, aside from that, Sarah Kaufman, the former 135 champ, has called out Chrono. I don't think Chrono can make the cuts on 135. She's very, very big for 145. Yeah. You know, like, that'd be an interesting fight. Kaufman would have to go up, but man, I'd like to see that. Yeah, I love to see that. I just don't think that's that's a hard fight. I think Kaufman could take it. That's that's a hard welcome back fight. Oh, yeah, yeah. Chrono coming back, running into Sarah Kaufman's fist. I mean, that's going to hurt. And Kaufman said that she was ready to leave it all in the ring. She's a rip-in on poor Gina. All right, so we do this show from Hamilton, Ontario, very close to Toronto, which just had a major sales thing for UFC 129. Yeah. Toronto's destroyed all previous UFC ticket sales, 42,000 tickets sold during the Fight Club presale. Yeah. So they sold out before the tickets went on sale. Yep. And then they threw they frantically threw up another 13,000 tickets on time for the on sale date. Yeah. They're all gone. 55,000 tickets sold seven minutes in the official sale date. And one, two, three of them are in this booth. That's right. Oh, I am so excited. Yeah, it's going to be great. Having MMA in Ontario is going to be great. And we will be doing this. It's part on the line. We'll be doing a lot of coverage of that. Oh, yeah, for sure. And from that show, actually, Matt Hamill versus Phil Davis is one of the five main card fights. There has been some things going down. We briefly mentioned the last week when it was just rumor. We were mostly correct. Yeah. Tiago Silva doesn't appear that he passed his drug test from the January 1st fight. So he is out of the Rampage Jackson fight in May. And so they needed to find another opponent for him. They have pulled Matt Hamill. Matt Hamill is going to take the fight with Rampage in May. Rashad couldn't take the fight for whatever. I think he wants to wait for a title shot. Yeah. You know, all this stuff going down. So now Jason Brill has stepped into face Phil Davis in Toronto. Okay. So that's good because Brill's had nothing to do. And I do want to see Phil Davis. Has he thoughts it's a little knock? No, no. Okay. That's why these are actually two like two prospects. I'm very excited. I'm more interested in this fight. Brill's look great in that. And then Hamill. Hamill who's been on a winning streak. Yeah. You know, I've got a feeling that he thinks that Rampage is a better fight for him than Phil Davis because Phil Davis and Rampage is far smaller. Well, also interesting is Rampage was offered the title fight against Shogun but didn't want to take it on six weeks notice. Yeah, there's been a bit of drama about that. They asked Shogun why Rampage didn't take the fight. And Shogun said, I don't know why. And Rampage apparently took that as an offense as if Shogun had said to all Rampage's ducking the fight. So they actually got into a little bit of a back and forth on Twitter. Which is perfect for an inevitable fight. Yeah. Now, the real reason is Rampage apparently is walking around in about 250 right now. And he says he can't make the 45 pound weight cut in the five weeks. Right now he has until May. That's right. Six weeks is Oh God. Yeah. That's ridiculous. Plus for a guy that do a lot of spitting and running in the sun. For a guy that he also lost to very decisively to Shogun. That's true. That's not what you want to take on six weeks, especially if you're out of shape. Even if he makes the weight cut, he'll be he'll be a mess. He'll be like rumble Johnson. So I think this is correct. Although I have to say Rampage versus Matt Hamill is not a co-main event that really excites me. It isn't. But Hamill's been on a win streak. Rampage is always kind of fun. He deserves it. But I'm not loving it. Yeah. I'm not as excited for it as I would be for Rampage versus Rashad to or Chaga Silva or Rampage versus Tago Silva. But I mean, it's a good fight. Hamill's a guy. I have no problem getting behind Hamill. I think he's a he's a good character. He always he always goes hard. Classy guy. So if I mean if Shogun manages to make it through rule of make it through bones, you still got Evans and now Rampage is starting to heat back up with him. He's got some stuff to do over the next two years. This this this division is is this like heavy weight? Heavy weight? Heavy weight of vision is always good. It's extra good right now. Vader's not irrelevant. No. I hope he comes back. I know this is kind of an interesting scenario. But Chaga Silva is likely to be failing this drug test for for the January 1st show. Now here's the thing. Who did he beat? No, Brandon Vera. Brandon Vera was cut after a loss. If this loss becomes overturned. Oh yeah. He's not he he's had didn't have a loss. Do they bring him back? Do they contractually have to bring him back? I think I don't think they would bring him back unless they were contractually obligated. He was only he's only cut. He still fights on his contract, I believe. So he was cut because he was after a loss. If that becomes a win. Oh yeah. If it comes a win, they have to bring him back. Do we need him back? Well, I don't know. Someone's I think it's the right thing to do. Someone's got to fight Ryan Bader to get Ryan Bader's career back. Sure. Hey, no, no, that's I don't even I don't even think that's a burn. I think that's I think that's I think that's real. I mean, you know, bones are bones managed to make his big break by crushing by crushing poor Brandon Vera. Bader needs a big break. Why not give him Brandon Vera? They're both coming off of, you know, technical losses. So and if if Vera doesn't if they do bring Vera back and he doesn't leave it all in there, then he just has no business being there. I mean, after this after that loss, he needs to be hungrier than he's ever been before and just be be a monster there. This is this is the biggest wake up call you've ever gotten in your life. You got covered. You're the golden boy. Like what three years ago? Yeah. You got cut from UFC. Yeah. And now he's in. And now hopefully he's going to have a second chance. You know, so he's got to make good on it. Like this is your resurrection. You need to ascend. Yeah. All right. So we can find us on the internet at www.thehammermma.com, iTunes store, addicted MMA.com. Now we're going to cut to Dave interviewing Sean Shirk. So here we go with Mr. Sean Shirk. Hope you enjoy it. So I'm here with the muscle shark Sean Shirk, the former lightweight UFC champion. Sean, how are you doing today? I'm good. Thanks. Sir, thank you very much. Take some time to sit down and or stand up and have a chat with us. So first of all, I want to ask you a question I know that everyone's interested in. Where are you fighting next? Nothing scheduled yet. I'm maybe looking at a summer return. So, you know, my schedule's been really busy and I know the UFC, you know, they implemented all the WEC guys too. So, you know, they're putting some guys on hold and stuff too. So I'm just kind of doing my thing and waiting my turn, I guess. See, now with the WEC guys being in, the lightweight division being really stacked right now, does that put a lot of pressure on the fighters in the division or do you feel like you have to perform more or, you know, brisk? I mean, there's always pressure. I mean, we're fighting in the UFC. That's the Super Bowl that makes martial arts. Does it put pressure on me because WEC guys are coming over? No, not at all. You know, I've been part of the UFC since UFC 30. The WEC guys are the ones that are going to feel the pressure because they're, you know, they're taking a huge step up in competition and if they don't perform, they're going to get cut. You know, the UFC's got 70-something lightweights under contract right now. They have to get rid of fighters. You know, so if you're not performing, you're going to get caught and they're going to cut the new guys coming in. They're not going to mess with the top two guys. The vets are safe, but the new guys got to prove themselves yet. Right. So, who would you like to fight? If there's any WEC guy that you've seen that guy's a guy that I'd like to get in the cage? I want to fight contenders. You know, I'm not interested in fighting a WEC guy because they're not contenders right now. I just want to fight the best guys, the guys that have the big win streaks, the guys that are content, you know, the top 10 guys in the world, you know, it's been five years since I've fought a guy that hasn't been ranked top 10 in the world, you know. So, I want to just keep that momentum going and keep fighting the best of the best. So, for best of the best right now, Frank Yeager and Gray Manard. Now, you're a powerful grappler. You got some good striking. You're a lot like Gray Manard, I'd say. Do you think that you would stock up well with Frank Yeager? Do you think you could beat the champ? I already fought Frank Yeager and I lost. You know, I wasn't able to, you know, his foot works really good, really elusive. I wasn't able to get a hold of him and use my strength and my power a whole lot. You know, he outpointed me and, you know, I lost a decision. So, that's what he's good at. He's good at being elusive and he's good at hitting you and staying out of range and things of that nature. I believe that's how he'd be Gray as well. So, he didn't be great here to draw with Gray, but I believe that's how he ended up with the draw with Gray is by doing the same thing. So, I would love another shot. You know, I mean, is it going to happen tomorrow? No, I got to beat a couple more contenders first. So, you know, worry about the task at hand first. So, what do you think you need to do to really say, I'm still ready to fight at the top level? Who do you want it to be? Like, what's your path? Is it a key yard? Is it? Yeah. As of right now, I think there's, you know, there's got to be, there's got to be about, I would say probably four or five contenders in the UFC, you know, there's a lot of guys that are on some big win streaks and, you know, those are the guys I want to continue to fight. The guys that, that if I beat them, it's going to, it's going to help propel my, my path to, to fighting for the belt. So, you're a wrestler, or you're a baseline wrestler. You've obviously mixed up your game a lot. Now, right now wrestling is, is hot and you see a lot of wrestlers are winning. Do you think it's the best style for a fighter right now, the best base style to have? I think wrestling's the best base. wrestling's the hardest thing to learn. You have to, you have to, I grew up with a man since I was seven years old, and it took me my entire life to become the wrestler that I am right now. It's not something you're going to learn overnight. You know, there's always exceptions to the rule like George St. Pierre. He never competed in wrestling, but he's one of the best mixed martial arts wrestlers out there, even though he never competed in the sport. He's an exception, a very rare exception. Otherwise, for, for everybody else out there, I mean, you can't learn how to wrestle overnight. You got to do, you got to start at a very young age. Uh, wrestlers have the best base because, uh, balance, um, work ethic, strength, um, you know, and they're able to pick up the, you know, just based on athletic ability, they're able to pick up the jujitsu and pick up the boxing at a much more, uh, celebrated pace. Is there one thing that you want to add to your style for us to see for your next fight? Um, you know, I'm three dimensional. I've been training since 1994. I've been fighting since 1999. I don't have any weaknesses in, in my game. My game is real solid. I'm a, well, versus, versus the best. Um, I like the, I'd like to catch a guy in a submission or two, you know, that'd be kind of fun. Just to show people how good you are on the ground because that's the only rest of me to expect of your game. Well, for, for a long part of my career, it was, it was a lot of ground inbound, a lot of wrestling and lately my career has been a lot of stand up, a lot of boxing, trying to show that versatility. You know, I'd like to go back to the ground and show some submissions too, you know, and show that, that three dimensional phase that I'm going through. This is a bit of a, a, uh, uh, side track question, but you found Japan and right now the Japanese MMA scene is going through a lot of changes with top contenders from Sengoku and Dream coming over and K1 going through some issues as well. Do you think that that hurts MMA as a sport overall or do you think that UFC can fill that gap on a worldwide basis? Um, I think Japan's always had kind of some issues as far as I know with, uh, with pride, disappearing as fast as it did and, uh, K1's always been kind of hit and miss and, and I mean, I've always been under the impression that they've kind of had some issues over there. Um, as far as filling a void, you know, the American fans, do they really follow Japanese mixed martial arts? I don't, you know, I think most of the American fans are, are engulfed in the UFC. But to me, uh, what I meant by that was more, do you think that the American fighters are going to be able to make global headway and to say, you know, we are the best fighters and we are not just American fighters, but the UFC as a whole say, we're the global brand. We are the brand that you have to watch, whether you're in Japan, whether you're in Africa, this is the brand. Well, the global, the global brand is the UFC. It has been for a long time. Maybe it's not the brand in Japan. I don't know how big the UFC is in Japan. Maybe they follow a dream or, or whatever, K1, maybe they follow that more than they do with the UFC, but you bring a UFC anywhere in the world. They're going to sell out, you know, the UFC is in Abu Dhabi, selling out the UFC is in Germany, selling out the UFC is in Ireland, selling out the UFC is in the UK, selling out there in Canada, selling 50 something thousand seats. I mean, the UFC can go anywhere in the world. They're going to sell every single ticket they have. You know, that's a huge statement. No other sport can do that. You know, you think of a football game went to Abu Dhabi, how many people would watch, you know, watch football? How many people would watch a baseball game in Germany? I mean, it's not universal. UFC mixed martial arts is a universal sport. They can go anywhere in the world. They can sell as many seats as they have. Well, absolutely. And you probably write that in a football game one, two, two, well in Japan. Now, for, for your opinion, for fighters that might not be rated well right now, people that aren't being looked at, who's the best, who's the up-and-comer that we should look at as the next Sean Shirk in the next year or year and a half? You know, I don't watch a whole lot of mixed martial arts, to be honest with you. I don't know a lot about the younger up-and-coming guys. You know, one of the guys I've seen for a while now would, would be John Jones, you know, I mean, he's, he's definitely an up-and-comer, you know, I've been saying for a while, he's going to be the next George St. Pierre, you know. So, I think he's definitely going to be someone that, that guys need to keep their eyes on. I know he's fighting for a title sometime soon too, which would be interesting, yeah. So, one last, it's a bit of a personal question, but for the win over N.M. Dovin, which he did win, that was obviously the crowd rock in a very mixed way. Looking from your point of view inside the fight, obviously you think the fight, you won the fight. What do you, what do you think that you saw that we didn't see? You know, I think, I think the big thing was was, you know, I did dominate that first round as far as, as far as the second round goes. I controlled the majority of that round minus the last minute. But, you know, a lot of, I think a lot of people, what they weren't understanding was a lot of the punches that he was throwing weren't connecting cleanly on the feet. You know, I mean, I didn't even have, even have so much as a black eye after that fight, you know, and I think it was easy. Look at everyone on my fights, I'm black, I'm blue, I didn't even have a black eye. So, I wasn't, the punches weren't being landed as cleanly as people thought. Maybe that's what the judges saw. But, I mean, on a side note, I mean, I thought I won the first round cleanly, the second round was close. I thought, I thought I pulled that out, third round, I did lose. So, you know, I mean, it is what it is. I mean, I felt like I won the fight. I'm sure Evan felt like he won the fight and all the fans are kind of have a mixed reaction with it. Fair enough. Well, that's true. But, I mean, obviously, you're looking forward to when your next fight and Evan Dunham's struggled since then. So, you know, I think that you proved that, you know, you had a little tool set that day and legitimately deserved the win. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he struggled against Melvin, who's a really dangerous fighter, you know, Melvin's got punching power and speed and explosion and he can hit you when, you know, he's so fast, he can hit you, hit you with a punch before you even see it, which is a very dangerous punch. So, I didn't see that fight, but I'm assuming that's what happened. Being that done, I'm not knocked out in that fight. I'm assuming he was trying to, probably trying to box with him and got hit with somebody who you see, you know. Now, you said that you think that you're ready for the UFC Hall of Fame. Now, that's something that traditionally an athlete would worry about more towards the end of the career. Have you done everything you want to do in mixed martial arts or do you think that there's still a couple more milestones that you really want to set? I think there's still things I want to do. As far as that question, I think somebody asked me that question. It wasn't something that I specifically came out and said. I was asked, somebody asked me a question. Do you think you're going to be in the Hall of Fame or something like that? And, you know, I think I've done enough to be in the Hall of Fame. You know, that time's not, that it's not time yet. I'm not retiring. I still want to fight. There's still things I want to accomplish. So that time will come when it's time. Well, absolutely. We're looking forward to seeing what you do next. So, Ms. Shirk, thank you very much. Take the time to speak with us and have a great time. Thanks. Appreciate it. So, that was Mr. Sean Shirk, the muscle shark. Sean, thank you for sitting down with the hammer. And if you're a visual person, you can check that out on YouTube by looking for the hammer-mma.com. [silence]
