[music] Hello and welcome to the Hammer! It is February 1st, and I'm your host Dave. Join us always by... Greg, how's it going guys? And Steve, hey. So my co-host and I have a great show for you. As we always try to do, this one is going to talk about Anderson Silva and Vidor Belfort, which is coming up, and we're also going to review Strike Forces, Diaz vs Cyborg. This card looks so awesome. Both cards, pretty good cards. So you're listening to us live at 93.3 CFMU on a Tuesday night, which is snowing pretty heavily. Yeah, we were a day early. Yeah, but we got called in to fill the gap. And you can also find this at thehammermma.com as well as on iTunes, Zero Zoom Store and various other locations. Yep, we're all over the Internet. We're huge Internet celebrities. That's right. So there you go. We're going to start off with the UFC 126 card coming up this Saturday. Now, this is going to be highlighted by the main event, Middleweight Championship out, Anderson Silva, the Spider, taking on Vidor the Phenom Belfort. This is a long time coming in this fight. This fight was supposed to happen almost a year ago. Yep. Almost a year ago. And Belfort got injured. And then Silva got injured. Silva had a fight with Jose Simon. Yeah. Belfort's been on the shelf for a long, long time. He's still only had one fight since his comeback, right? Just the Rich Franklin fight. He's won five in a row, but in the last two years, since July of 2008, he's only been in the ring for a total of three minutes and 16 seconds. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, for him to take out Rich Franklin, someone of Rich Franklin's caliber that way. I mean, I don't want to say he necessarily deserves a title shot because I had one win. But, I mean, his reputation precedes him. And stylistically, I think this will be a really, really fun fight. Well, for people who don't know Belfort, let's explain Belfort a bit. Belfort was a huge up-and-comer. He started in the UFC at the age of 18. Mm-hmm. He had a great reputation. Beat one or the silver, beat a lot of the best. Former UFC champion. Former UFC champion. And he fought all over the world, as many of them did at that point in the UFC history. More options back there. Now, the problem with Belfort is Belfort has always had a great asset and a great foe. Mm-hmm. The great asset is he is the fastest-hears I've ever seen anyone bar not. He's like a middleweight version of Dominant Cruise. I mean, he's so ridiculously fast. His highlight reel of combos is one of the greatest. Anytime you see that highlight of him way back in an old UFC fight, just dominating this poor other guy and chopping him up like tomatoes. Well, a lot of times... That's bond really still like. And he did that too. So, I mean, you know, the guy is no joke. Now, the great foe and the great obstacle that Vittor Belfort has always faced has been Vittor Belfort. He mentally collapsed against Randy Koterer. It was knocked out by Koterer twice. And Koterer, he later trained with Koterer to prove his mental game. He also had huge personal problems. He comes from a very violent part of Brazil. His sister was kidnapped and murdered. And that destroyed his mental game. As it would do with a lot of people. As it would for anyone realistically. So, this is, you know, he dropped out of the game. He had a very mixed record. Then he came over and back and he'll lead to XC. Affliction. Affliction. Affliction. Yeah. And yeah, he's on a good run. He had one fight in the UFC since his comeback. He annihilated former champion, Rich Franklin. Yep. And looked really good. Thing is, though, that wasn't a middleweight fight. That was a catchweight fight for a variety of reasons. So, this is his first fight at middleweight in the UFC. For the title. Well, it's been more than a year. He's had plenty of time to make the cut. Oh, plenty of time to work down. I've got to assume he's perfectly healthy anyway. Oh, one of the reasons why they had to do the catchweight is, one, Franklin wanted to go up. And two, Vitor had been training for a fight with Fedor. He was too big. Yeah. Like, he didn't miss the cut because he couldn't make the cut. He's made middleweight before. So, I've got no doubt. People are saying that he may not make way. I've got no doubt with the guys. Yeah. He's going to make way. He's going to be fine. Now, it's been two years. So, Ringrust is going to be an issue for him. It's been keeping busy. Belfort's been training with some tough guys. They've been training. They said he says the best two-year camp he's ever had. So, he's been training for this fight for years now. He's known he's had this fight since, I think, mid to late 2009. That's a long time to learn an opponent and watch tape and make a game plan. Yeah, there'll be some Ringrust, but it's not like he's taking the fight on short notice. Yeah. With that being said, the guy is going up against the Spider Solva. Anderson Solva is an executioner. This guy is phenomenal striker. What can we possibly say that hasn't already been said? You know, he finishes. You know, he finishes. Knock up power both hands, moving forward and back upwards. Knock up power, knees, feet. Can finish you with submissions. There's no one in the world that enters and Solva is an underdog going into the fight with. Like, no matter how good Belfort looks, Anderson Solva should be better. Yeah. Well, Belfort, like Belfort, Anderson Solva, his great opponent is Anderson Solva. He tends to underestimate opponents or come in and feel sloppy, and he puts on crazy performances, look extremely unmotivated against Chelsea and until he absolutely had to be. But you wouldn't know it from his win loss record. You know, it looked ridiculously unmotivated against us ladies and Danny and Maya. Absolutely. So, I mean, he's another guy where he doesn't, you know, his mental game is, to me, an issue. And the other thing is, Anderson Solva has a little bit of a ducking top competition. He did not want to give shots to Henderson, Dan Henderson, to name our court. Now, in his defense there, guys, that he had previously beaten. So it's not like, you know, he was afraid he couldn't beat those guys. Well, that being said, though, if you look at the string of guys, he's fought. They've all been wrestlers or submission guys. And he's either stayed off the mat with them and punched him out. Or he's managed to catch Chael Sun in the submission. He has never faced a striker of the caliber of Vida Belfort. Quite frankly, I don't know if there is a striker of the caliber of Vida Belfort. Yeah. This is the most elite striker Anderson Solva's ever faced. It's the last good striker I can think of Anderson Solva facing would be Forrest. And Forrest has got a very... He's nowhere close to Solva. No, he's not the striker that Belfort is. And Forrest is a more deliberate striker. So, I mean, it's like comparing Apple Store and just... This should be an amazing striking battle. Now, the thing that's going to hurt Belfort is that Anderson Solva... I mean, he's really known for being, you know, that phenomenal striker, but he is a well-rounded fighter. If this goes to the ground, I mean, he's no joke. I can't picture Solva wanting to take this... I don't picture Solva being able to take the fight to the ground. Belfort, he's trained well. You know, after his loss was to go to her, he went and trained with Coater, and became a very good wrestler. He's got great takedown offense. I don't see Solva being able to get the fight to the ground on his terms. And with that being said, Belfort has got vicious ground and pound. Yeah. Vicious, vicious, savage ground and pound. You know, Solva... He moles you. I wouldn't want to take Belfort to the ground. I don't think Solva's capable of it. I think that this is going to be a fight where neither guy wants to get the other to the ground. Neither guy's really capable of it. He's going to either end with Belfort clinching him against the cage, and Solva showing that my tight clench of his, or is going to end with them striking each other. I cannot picture this when I go in the ground. I don't think either guy's capable of it. Belfort, not having a recent body of work to go on is actually kind of an advantage because it's harder to sort of see what you're up against. I mean, all he's been doing is training, other than the Franklin fight. So you don't really know where he's... How many trains does he learn? You don't know what he's weak at, what he's strong at. So I mean, that's another thing that's sort of working in his favor, I think. Well, we know Solva is coming off a little bit of an injury. Yep. We know that he's not like motivated in his last fight, but he tends to get motivated real quick when he's in with the right opponent. I think he'll kind of motivate him for this one. Belfort, we haven't seen him in a while in the last little bit of time. We don't know what he's been up to. But an interesting little note is he's been training a lot for Karate to have more of a striking battle with Anderson Solva. His coaches have said he's actually gotten faster since cutting to down the middle way. He's actually improved his speed. So this is going to be the... That's scary. The fastest Belfort we've ever seen. Do you think he's training with anyone who can strike like Solva though? He's training with some good guys. He's training with the World Changers. I'm thinking you haven't fought in a couple of years. You get in the ring and your first match is against Anderson Solva. It could be a very, very bad night. It's a tough match. But I mean, you know, Belfort's mentally. He's been looking stronger than the terrible strategy of his sister as he's years ago. He's being able to put that behind him. And I mean, you know, this is a guy. He's got the right tools. If he comes in motivated, he can pull it off. He definitely has the ability to knock out Anderson Solva. Now, with that being said, Anderson Solva has not the ability to knock out anybody. Anderson Solva could knock out Brock Lesnar or Fedor. So let's make some calls. I got a call Belfort. I think that Solva's looked lazy and unmotivated. I'm not behind the guy. That question is hard of a champion. Belfort, he's been put together a run. He's had two years to know who he's going to fight, knowing who, how to train for the guy. I got to figure that this is Belfort's time. I'm calling Anderson Solva. I have to as well. If you're talking whose head is more in the game, Anderson Solva's problem is he gets so bored that he doesn't take it seriously. He can turn it on when he needs to, and betting against him is crazy. Yeah, it really is. I mean, until somebody shows that they can dominate him, I mean, Sean and got close. But Solva wasn't, I don't think Solva was taking that seriously. He will take this seriously. Now, I am very glad to see someone with this sort of skill set come in and face him, because I think it would be a very interesting match, and I don't think it's impossible that Belfort will win. It's just, I mean, come on, it's Anderson Solva. Yeah, exactly. Well, you can never really truly bet against Anderson Solva. In this case, though, I am, because he's 36 now. He's looked unmotivated. Belfort, as much of a veteran as he is, he started so young. He's only 33. You know, he's still in his prime. Even though he's taken two years off, he's spent those two years training for one guy. Think about one guy only. I got to figure, if ever he's going to pull it off and become a two division champion, like Coach Turin, BJ Penn, this is his one chance. I think he's going to make the most of it. So I got to stick by my boy. We're going to find out really soon. Yep. So we go forward. This is actually a fantastic card. We have Jake Allenberger taking on Carlos Edward Rocha. That's going to be an interesting one. Allenberger is a wrestler. Rocha is a great submission guy. And we've got Forrest Griffin with Rich Franklin. I know we're going to want to talk about this one for a bit. Both of these guys, former champions. Yeah. Forrest of the Light Heavyweights. Rich Franklin of the Middleweights. Both of them moving off for a little while. Yeah. Forrest hasn't fought since Tito in late last year. Yeah. That fight was not good at all. Forrest did not look at his best. He did not look his best. Franklin is coming off a broken arm, but he did look phenomenal against Liddell. Oh, he looked great against Liddell. Uh, it showed tough heart, good reserve, great striking. He managed to knock Liddell out with a broken hand. Yeah. I think this is Franklin's fight to lose. This is really tough. Forrest is good. I think no matter what, Forrest is going to wind up with a size advantage in this fight. And I do think that they're fairly evenly matched in what they do. Mm-hmm. I find it, I think it's really tough to bet against Forrest and something like this, but I think it could be a really, it could be a really, really close fight. I think this one's going to be mostly a stand-up brawl. Griffin has created escapes from his back. Franklin is a pretty good wrestler, but I don't see that, I see that counseling each other out. I think this one is going to be a decision. Yeah. Oh yeah. I think this is going to be both guys. They're too much to really ask you to get a question of clinching and grappling and pushing against his cage and can Griffin use his size to negate the strength and the speed and the skill of a much smaller Franklin. Mm-hmm. Now that being said, I got to figure Griffin, as much as people love Franklin, Griffin's no joke. He's a bigger man. He's got a tough chair. Whatever you say, he's still one of the top guys in the light. Oh yeah. He's still got that title, for sure. People think Griffin's over the hill or done. I don't think so. I think he's got a couple more fights left in him. I think he takes his fight with Franklin. As I said, I'm calling Franklin, because I think Franklin is going to be superior in skill, and I think he's going to win the fight based on his skill set and his abilities. I mean, Forrest is tough, so it's not going to be a finish, but I think Franklin's going to help point him. I actually thought there was something really interesting, is Forrest did a YouTube video this morning, actually saying that they're betting the winner gets to pick the losers tattoo. Oh, that's awesome. I have no idea if they're kidding. Forrest has that kind of sense of humor. Yeah, yeah. You never really know if he's kidding or not, but that'd be a crazy guy. I know these guys are buddies, so I mean, it's very possible. Remember when Tito pulled out of coaching? That's right. I think Franklin called Forrest to come in and help him out and stuff, so you know these guys have our friends. I really hope they're talking about that bet during the show. I think it's really, really interesting. Like I haven't seen the hype special yet. Yeah, I haven't seen it either. Yeah, so I think it might only start tonight. Oh, okay. There you go. But I look forward to that. So in your call? My call is close fight decision, but I think Forrest can do it. Okay. So let me go forward. John Bones Jones versus Ryan Bader. This is going to be great. In a lot of ways, this is the most interesting fight on this card. This is a stacked card. These are the two top prospects in the light heavyweight division. Top prospects in the UFC. Guys have been calling both of the both of these two future champions. Yeah. For years. And light heavyweight is the most active vision. These are the movers and shakers of it. Bones. He's huge for the division. He's very tall, very lanky, phenomenal wrestler, erotic striker, but his ground and pound is devastating. I think if he gets on top of you and he pounds you, no one in the world. He has the best ground and pound in the UFC. He uses elbows like nobody else. Like his only loss is because he beat a guy too badly with them. Yeah. And Bader's not small either. Bader is another guy who's monstrously huge. I've seen pitchers of him standing next to him to Kane Velasquez. He's noticeably bigger than Velasquez before he makes his cut. He has an all around skill set. He can do everything. Phenomenal wrestler. Great boxer. Yeah. What I find very surprising on this, a lot of the big talk going into this fight is that the betting odds on Bader, it's like it's over three to one for Bones. And I consider these guys a lot more evenly matched than that. People are very much underwriting Bader. I'm not saying that Bader's going to win because, I mean, this can go either way I think. But Bader is not that much of an underdog in this fight. I think he's got a very, very good chance. This is, I consider this one a too close to call. Yeah. You know, this is two guys with very great, with amazing skill sets and anything can happen. If the fight tilts to a ground and pound, then Jones is probably going to take it. But you have to get Ryan Bader down. Then that's the key question, I guess. If it goes to the ground, and if Jones makes it get top of this in the ground, it's over. It's over. Jones is going to win the fight. But with that being said, Bader is a wrestling baseline wrestler. He's a phenomenal wrestler. Yeah. And as far as Jones's typical advantage is that he's so big and he's so lanky, Bader's big dude. I want to try to wrestle that guy. I mean, he's a monster. Yeah. So I don't see big Jup Bader as being able to, or Jones is being easily able to take down Bader as he was, Matt, you shanko or Hamill or some of the smaller guys. No, this is a monstrous step up. Now, Bones has fought good wrestlers before. Yeah. If you look at the monster, the good wrestling fought with Stefan Bonner, he couldn't get bonner down. That one went to the decision. That one went to the decision. Yeah. But Hamill, Hamill's a very good match. Shanko. Even matchy, Shanko's got a good wrestler. Yeah, they're both wrestlers, but they're both smaller. Yeah. They don't have the size. Yeah. Whereas Bader's got the size to back up that wrestling. Can Bones take a punch? Do you even know that yet? No one's hit him. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. If Bader walks up there and punches him in the face, I mean, can he handle that pressure? I think Bader's had the most difficult test so far fighting a little nog. Honestly, I actually thought better guys. Yeah, he has. So this is going to be very, very close. And the winner is like a title liminator away from a title shot, I think. Yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. This is to say, who is the future of the most dynamic division in the sport? Barn on. Whoever wins this fight has a title shot within the year. Yeah. For sure. So it's extremely, extremely loaded fight. Now it is very, very close. With that being said, I don't think Jones is going to be able to get Bader down. I think that, you know, this is going to be both guys are phenomenal while training Jones by Greg Jackson, Bader by AKA, Bader, tough guy, great wrestling, phenomenal chin, phenomenal heart, phenomenal boxer. I think he can out strike Jones on his feet. I think he's going to pick this one up by decision. My call is Ryan Bader for the win. I'm going to call Bones. I think that Bones is strong enough and just unorthodox and elusive enough. He's got so, so many tricks in his bag. And I think that he has the ability to get Ryan Bader down and I think, and the second he gets on top, it's done. Yeah. So. Well, but I think, you know, you got to get him down, you got to pound on him to get him down, you got to get him down, you got to keep him down. I don't think anyone can do that with a guy that as big as Bader and as skilled as Bader. That's just makes us quite excited. Now here's my thing though, I, I'm, I'm leaning with Bones and I think this is a very, very close fight. But I'm leaning with Bones because I have never seen, I have never seen Bones look anything but, but perfect in his matches. He looks great. Bader has been very, very impressive, but Bader is gassed and Bader has looked a little, has looked out of his element. He's fought slightly tougher guys, but I know that Bader's got a breaking point and so far, I don't know if Bones does. I mean, this thing goes into round three and Bader gasses. I know that Bones can capitalize. Yeah. And who knows what the pace of this fight is going to be? I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be excellent. And do you know what? I don't know it. I don't know how Bones is going to look in the later rounds, but I know that Bader can get weak. Yeah. So I'm going to go Bones and I cannot wait to see this one. Yeah. This is the fight I'm most excited about of the last year, I would say. You know, like people up to everything past, I would say Shogun versus Liodo. I'm more excited about this than I did and I was about Fader versus Virdo. It's so great. Yeah. Then we go forward. Captain White Baut is going to lead off the night, Miguel Torres, who's 38 and three. He's only lost as recently or to Benavita as in Bulls. He's going to be taking on Antonio Benwellos, who's 18 and 6. He's a very, very tough fighter. He's gone one-on-one with Scott Jorgensen, who's a former, you know, title contender for the band weights. These are two guys. They know how to fight. They know how to scrap. It's going to be exciting to fight. And the former WDC guys, which means it's going to be exciting and awesome. Absolutely. And Torres, I mean, for the longest time, he was pound for pound, one of the best fighters in the world. Yep. He's had a couple of bad losses, as Dave just said. I think that that's a fluke. I think he still got it. Oh, so do I. I mean, he's very, he's very tall from what I recall for the, for the band and weight division. So he has a height advantage and he's, yeah, I mean, he's, he's very well-rounded and exciting fighter. They're both well-rounded. They're both well-rounded. Everyone's well-rounded. It's a band and weight. But Torres, I think, has the more impressive track record and I think that he's going to take this. And he's itching to get to get himself back on the, on the right track. Everyone wants a crack at that belt. This could be a chance for Miguel Torres to say, "Hey, I'm the guy." I'm still here. You know, I'm still, I'm still relevant. Well, especially with crews out of action for a little while, like it's like, you make a name for yourself and get in there while the title shots good. Yep. Absolutely. So that's going to be an interesting one. I got to call Torres for that. He's just too much of a veteran to my body. Yeah. Yep. I think we're all in agreement on that. We're going to be on Spike TV and we've got Donald Serone taking on Paul Kelly, a little bit of an interesting match here. Paul, if Donald Serone did not know or ask or care who his opponent was going into this lightweight fight, he said, "Just give me whoever you want." No, no. They said, "Hey, do you want to fight on UFC 126 on February 5th?" He says, "Sure. Do you want to know who you're fighting? It doesn't matter." Yeah. Awesome. That sounds like my cowboy. Yeah. Which is fantastic. That's a reflection of his heart. You guys can, you guys can roll in a fight. He did call out Cole Miller. He was a fight killer. But he isn't carried. I love you. It's like the virgins here is, Cole Miller just got beat down by Matt Wyman, and Serone has made a very public display of not liking Cole Miller pretty much, and he said, "You know what? I don't feel good that he got beat up by Matt Wyman. I didn't get to beat him up, so he still wants him." Donald Serone is a character. I mean, he's great. If he can win some fights, he's going to be a huge star in the United States. Well, he's going to beat Paul Kelly, I think. Absolutely. I really do. Yeah. Kelly's lost a top company. He's a receiver and a Volkman. Yeah. I mean, the basic thing is you have to look at, is the UFC level of competition that much higher than the WEC level of competition? I think it is for the most, but like for the most part, yes. But when you talk at the top of the lightweight division, the top handful of guys, I still think, and hang and Serone is one of them. Donald Serone was a top guy in WEC. Yeah. Paul Kelly is nowhere close to top guy in the UFC. I mean, Ken Donald Serone, BJ Penn, or Gray Maynard, or Frank Yeager, may as to be seen. Can he beat Paul Kelly? Yeah, he can beat Paul Kelly. I mean, this is the fight to get him off the prelim card and get him onto the main card with Cole Miller. Yeah. He's motivated. He wants his fight. He wants his win. Yeah. I got to call Serone for this. I have to call Serone as well. I think he's got a lot of tools, and he's got that Diaz build where he's got that huge height advantage. I mean, he could submit you from anywhere. He's just very, very dynamic. Then he's all over the place, hard to tap out, hard to get a good hand on his chin. I think there's just going to be a good warm up for him. Someone is going to stop Serone, but I don't think it's going to be Paul Kelly. Yeah. Right. And Chad Mendez is going to make his featherweight to return and to take on Michihiro O'Migala. O'Migala's judo fighter, who didn't really look great in the UFC in his run in 2007, but went on a run in Dream in Singoku, and he's coming back to the States. This is the big comeback for him. He tried to make it big over here. He went back, refined his game. Really, he's got a lot to prove here. A lot to prove. Yeah. Now Mendez is a phenomenal wrestler himself. I don't think that O'Migala is going to be able to judo down. I don't bet. The guy has talented at wrestling. I don't bet against Chad Mendez at the moment. The guy's got the wrestling, better wrestling than anyone in that division. Yeah. He's on the short list for the title after Harmony. He wins this fight. He's very likely to get the winner of Hamanek Aldo. This fights for Mendez. Yeah. You've got to also talk about the Japanese track record in UFC. It's a tough transition. It's very bad. I mean, it is a very, very tough transition to make. It's a different ball game, and Mendez is going to take this. So the prelim card was going to have a Paul Taylor vs. Kenny Bruttiger. There's also a rumor that these fights are going to wind up on the internet. But as of this moment, there's no home for that fight. The assumption is that they might be able to show up on the Facebook. They might be on Facebook. Facebook like them again. So hopefully they've worked out the bugs on that. So Kingsbury, Kyle Kingsbury, and the light heavyweight, taking on Ricardo Romero. Mike Pierce at Walter Waite, taking on Kenny Robertson. The only really interesting one here is Benton Waite's Demetrius Johnson, who's eight and one with only one loss for Brad Pickett. Yep. He's going to take on Northwoman Yamoto. Kid Yamamoto. Kid Yamamoto. Kid Yamamoto. This is debut. Both Uriah Faber. They were both top rank guys in the division for years. Uriah has wanted him forever. This is his year of state debut. Kid Yamamoto is very well rounded, 18 and three. He's got wrestling. He's got Mai Tai. He can kickbox with you. He has big prospect. It's a great prospect. The word is that his glory days are behind him. He doesn't look as good lately as he has back in the day. And I actually think that the reason why he is not on a prelim card is they're not sure which kid Yamamoto they're going to get. Yeah. And that's smart. I mean, it's a guy who's got a little bit of a tarnished track record, so you don't know what you're going to see. He's a huge star in Japan. The guy has a great win center as Bell. He can be a huge star, but if he shows up and gets knocked out in a minute or two. Yeah. I mean, he's a huge star, but so is Takanori Gomi and so is sexy Ama. So I mean, both of those guys have not looked impressive, you know, other than the little flash you're in there. So here, if he puts on a great performance, they can air it at some point during the night. It's a good highlight reel for him. And you know what? If he can't quite hang, like they hope he can, then they can hide it. Yeah. I still think he can win this fight against Demetrius Johnson. I'd have to say he can, he's just got a lot of tool sets and he is a solid vet. So we go forward. There's not a lot to talk about in the news this week, but we do have a Strike Force card which happened this Saturday. This was Nick Diaz versus Evangelist cyborg Santos, man cyborg as we like to call him. And I have to say that Strike Force is very hit or miss, mostly miss for us. I love this card. This card was fantastic. Yeah. I actually pulled it together. But when it finished, I was like, I love Strike Force. Give me more of this. Yeah. So that doesn't happen very often. Seriously, this was the card I'd bash on Strike Force more than anyone. Paul Wannala was not too annoying. The commentators. I'll call the newspapers. Yeah. I didn't yell at the TV. The other commentators were good. The fights were exciting. There was no decisions. Everything went fast pace. It was, if you're ever going to watch Strike Force, this is a card to watch. Maybe they've ironed out the, maybe the ironed out their issues. Seems like maybe someone pulled Wannala aside and said, "Look, stop acting like an idiot." There's still a lot of watchiness. There's still a lot of catch wave fights. They had amateur bouts on the card for some reason. Things that didn't make sense. The main card was great. The main card is what you got to think about though. The main card was great. First Strike Force prelims. They've got to find guys who are going to fight for free or for barely any money and they got to take what they can get. I've got no issue with that. So Walter White Championship out, Nick Diaz defending against Evangelist to Cyborg Santos. Cyborg came out rocking in this fight. Cyborg looked phenomenal. He's crazy. He's up all of energy that guy. He came out throwing bombs, throwing leg kicks. I was surprised at how strong he came at. And that's the thing with Diaz is he's always had such a phenomenal reach in boxing. No one's tried to kick his legs out from underneath him. Cyborg did that, really hurt him with the leg kicks. Diaz showed the heart of the champion, got against the cage a lot, and managed to, in the second round, pull out the armbar, four minutes and fifty seconds of round two. Now what really impressed me with Diaz here is Diaz is getting leg kicked and these looked like brutal leg kicks he's getting struck and Diaz doesn't sell anything. Yeah. He's getting leg kicked and he doesn't let the guy know that he's hurt if he even is hurt. He just walked through all that stuff, took all the best shots. Once Cyborg got tired, he started returning fire. And then when Cyborg just had enough and took him down, big mistake, he was submitted in seconds. Diaz just let them punch himself out and then submitted him. He looked great. Diaz looked awesome. Well, both Diaz brothers are so dangerous when you think you have the upper hand on them. You know, they just taking them down is just the worst idea. I think even Cyborg knew it. Oh, yeah. I think Cyborg was just tired, but he made the mistake anymore. He took the guy down. Now, with that being said, Diaz, if you're getting a few strategies, this is a soak up punishment. Wow. It's a dangerous strategy to have against Paul Daly, which is your next local test. But he's not going to have that strategy against Daly. There's no way. I think it's all. All Daly's got is a punch. Really? I mean, it's not like Daly's going to leg kick him to death. So the big question is, can Daly knock out Diaz? Diaz doesn't get... Diaz takes punches. And his only finishes have been like TKO, like early refs stoppages and blood stoppages and stuff. Does he have the strength to knock him out? Daly can knock him out just about anyone in Walter. If Daly hit GSP on the button, he would knock out GSP. Daly's got an unbelievable punch. He's incredible when it comes to that, if he connects. But I don't think he's going to connect on Diaz. I cannot wait for that title fight. Yeah. That's the most exciting fight Strike Force could put together right now, maybe excluding the heavyweights. And that prelim, they're not doing a hype special probably, but I mean the hype over the internet and whatever, those two guys, they are going to talk so much trash. That's money. It's going to be great. And Daly, if Daly loses, he is definitely going to hit Nick Diaz after the battle. Because if Josh Kosschek can get under your skin, how are they? Well, I love it. I think Kosschek hit him with a plunger at some point. I actually looked during the match. Shamrock is saying he's like, "Oh, yeah, getting in there and getting hit by Diaz is awful." The worst part is he's talking to you while he does it. Yeah. It's just ridiculous. I mean, Nick Diaz is probably the most annoying guy to fight because, I mean, he's like Gary Peyton on the basketball court. He just never shuts up. And I mean, Daly is, how are Daly going to keep his composure during that fight? It's going to be unbelievable. So this fight misses cyborg. She started crying and Diaz started yelling obscenities. I don't know for sure. And nobody really seems sure if he was yelling them at her or what. But he definitely made a scene afterwards of people through drinks in the ring and stuff. Diaz is awesome. I can't stand the guy at this moment. I'm not. You know what? He's entertaining. But I really hate him. I don't like entertaining if he can fight. The guy's got my respect. I like his brother a lot more than him. He's definitely a good fighter, but God, he's such a lull to human being. He's wrong with boxing. You know, I mean, when you get too many stories like I'm a thug from the streets and I reform my life by beating people up for money, but, you know, like, I would much rather you just have a serious martial arts like GSP. But the thing is, I mean, Nick Diaz, he does it. Like I think a lot of his personality, but a lot of it is, I mean, to get to get the fights over too. But he's the type of guy. I don't think he's smart enough. I think it's the most powerful thing he's got. But he's the type of guy. Because the classic was definitely selling a fight with GSP and you could tell. Oh, yeah. He says he's not selling anything. He actually is just a little gym at jackass. But the thing with Diaz is that he, you got to, you got to like the fact that he's invested in every fight and he hates every opponent that he has. And I can't really. He was barely invested in this fight. When people were asking him at the press conference beforehand, they were like, so what do you think? You just talk about other guys. GSP, he talked about Jake Shields. He talked about anybody. He wouldn't even acknowledge that work after the fight. He acknowledged that work. And he said this guy brought it out there and he gave him due respect, which you don't see very often. But Diaz does do that though. When Diaz beats a guy, you'll notice, I mean, when I think I was watching a fight with his brother, Nate Diaz, and I think it was Pellegrino that he was fighting. Yeah. This is an older fight. And, you know, Nate Diaz submitted him. The first one into the ring to congratulate Pellegrino was his brother. So, you know, he hates his opponents. He gets really amped for the fights. He takes a lot of stuff personally, but he's not going to daily it and hit someone after the bell. Right. You know? So anyway. So you go forward. Renaldo Sousa defended his middleweight championship against Robbie Lawler. Why was the middleweight on after Walter Waite? Diaz is the bigger star. He made the most money that night. Yeah. I heard Diaz made $150,000 that night. That's for strike force. That's for strike force. That's some good money. Not a win bonus, but he did pick up $150,000. Now, Renaldo Sousa came out looking extremely good against Lawler. Yeah. He looked great. He took Lawler down in the first round, worked the ground game phenomenally well. Lawler managed to get back up, loved him. His standing game was great, though. Like, he was out striking when the fee, although Sousa was holding his own as well. As soon as that fight went to the ground every time, Jackaree was putting on a clinic. This is like-- you know how Sada Roth was, transitioned so effortlessly? Mm-hmm. Sousa was transitioning like that. He was jumping from the left side to the right side control. He just completely floating over the guy. And to Lawler's credit, he was hanging on. He avoided the submissions quite a lot. Man, you get back into his phenomenal. He ducked arm bars like it was going on a style. But you could tell in the third round, Lawler just did not have the gas tank. Two is the first round knockouts. So he ended up getting choked out with a rear naked choke. Two Mitch into three rounds. He can only swim through quicksand for so long. Yeah. Well, and that's the thing with a good, heavy, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu guy, he wears you down. Yeah. And that's what happened with Lawler. He's got worn down. In a lot of ways, this is one of the most exciting fights I've seen in months and months. Just because both guys were so good at what brought them to the dance. Like-- And they used it so well. And they used it so well. It was like a clinic of styles. Yeah. This isn't a Tiago Alvis, Brandon Vero, where the two strikers decided, "Okay, well, we're not going to strike because you're not going to happen." This was where all Souso went to the ground. Lawler fended him off. And whenever they got the stand-up, you were afraid for Souso's life. And that ground game was never boring the entire fight. So we go forward. Herschel Walker, the $5,000 night man who's making strike for us all the money that they can possibly make. He's definitely making secret bonuses. Oh, for sure. He's probably going to have to be. He's got to be. Taking on Scott Carson. This is actually a really, really good fight for two guys in their mid-40s, late-40s for Herschel Walker. That came out with the veteran Carson kicked him in the head. Walker shrugged it off and yelled, "Come on." Carson tried again. Walker clipped him with a left hook, put him down. After that, all Walker just got on him, ground impounded him, while Carson got back up. Walker dropped him again, ground impounded him for the finish, one minute or three minutes and 13 seconds and around one, TKO strikes, but for Herschel Walker. That looked good. Good for him. I mean, remember, the level of competition here is practically nonexistent, but this guy does not go with their embarrassed themselves. He takes it seriously and he looks good. He's like every other sport he's played in his life. Well, he's true athlete. You know, he's 48 years old. Obviously, I don't think that a heavyweight at 216 pounds, he can take on, let's say, fatal or big force. No, he's not going to win a strike force title. And I think if he cuts to 205, can you take on some of the guys as the monsters at 205? Of course not. But he's an entertaining fighter. He puts on good fights. He wins. He's a classic guy. He pulls the opponent. Spectralvus team. And he's a big draw. So I mean... He obviously enjoys it. Yeah, and he loves it. So why not? I keep watching him fight. Yes, why? So Roger Gracie took on Trevor Prangley and Light Heavyweights. Gracie is a very long, lean, light heavyweight. Look great in this fight. He managed to take Prangley down. This is exactly what you'd expect from a Gracie. Prangley struggled with it. Was not able to get that. Gracie got on his back, topped him out for four minutes and 19 seconds to run one. Not surprising. Just at all. He looked good. It's 4-0 now? 4-0? Yep. So Gracie's looking like he's going to move ahead in that lightweight division. Still, you know, because Strike 4 is always bobble's there. They're not going to move him head-fast. Yeah. Well, there's a lightweight... Well, Lightweight. There's a knee-man heavyweight tournament going on right now anyway. I'm sure they're going to put him in a catch-weight fight with like Fedor at some kind of reason. Well, then Lightweight, I mean, are there that many people in the way? There's... There's Kimbo's relative. Oh, Light Heavyweights. Sorry. Light Heavyweights. Yeah, Kimbo's relative. What am I thinking? Dan Henderson. Yeah, Light Heavyweights. There's guys. I thought, for some reason... They're going to bring up the saucy. When the saucy's hanging around, Kim Will Lawwall's hanging around. So... There's the Henderson-Fijau fight for the title coming up. Yeah, there's stuff going on. There's room for him. I actually thought it was really interesting. Marcus Davis, who was recently cut from the UFC this week, he did an interview and he said that they asked him, "Are you going to go to Strike 4s?" Because they could really shore up their lightweight division. Yeah, they need some help in there. He said that Strike 4s has a policy not to hire UFC fighters coming up a loss. Interesting. Well, that's pretty much everyone who's going to exit the UFC. Well, what happened with Paul Daly? He has a UFC fighter came up a lot. He went on and fought him too. He went to Impact FC and Shark Fight. So, Davis should go have a shark fight. He should. He should go to Shark Fight to have a win and come up with him. So, he can go get a Strike 4s contract. Now, what do you guys think about that? Like, the lightweight division in the UFC is so stacked and so many good fighters are going to get caught because there's not enough room. Of course, good. We talked about it. Well, but the thing is Strike 4s, Koker is actually not too unwise here. He's got an idea where he doesn't want to make his promotion look cheap by taking UFC losers. So, he's like, "Okay, we'll go back to the Myers and win a fight, then we'll bring you up." Yeah. Now, that means he's going to have to compete with Bellator for some of the top lightways because Bellator is hungry for lightways too, but he's got the more money to throw it on him. Yeah. Much more money. Yeah. Well, maybe not for long. He's got the ability to buy the guys he wants and he can also get them on the cheap. Yeah. If he says, "No one wants you, go fight in the minor leagues, okay, well, your options come fight for me for $5,000 a night," as everyone on this card was doing. Does anyone know how well this card did with regards to buy rate? I'm not sure for the ratings or anything, but I hope it didn't. It was on buy rate. Oh, it was on pay for you. I'm hoping it does well because it was a really good card and they've got another one coming out mid February is the first couple fights in the heavyweight tournament. That's like two weeks away. Is that going to be on pay for view? I think they're just not doing pay for views. The plaintiffs do a pay for view sometime later this year. I think they want to tie it in. If Fedor gets to over him in the tournament, I think they want to put that on pay for view, but they want to be very careful that it's the right fight that they go on pay for view with. Yeah, that makes sense. You know what? At this rate, Diaz should be on pay for view. I absolutely think so. I mean, he's definitely proven himself to be the most exciting guy in the company. I know nothing about this, but they put on a pay for view in the summer, early fall, and they have say Fedor versus over him and Diaz versus Paul Daley. I think that's the best shot they have at succeeding on pay for view. I think that's a great card. I bet it. Like it'll be daily. I mean, you could also like you got to think about Miller too. Miller's hanging around. Yep. And they've been talking a ton of trash. But notice what we're doing. You know what? Christine Seiburg-Santels is still around. She's not doing anything. That's right. You know, they don't have a little poem for her right now. Well, I thought you meant for her to fight Diaz? No. What are you thinking? Well, to be honest, it'd still be a good fight probably. If Diaz is yelling, I'm sending these out, or she probably would. I think about this. So once the last time we sat around and we were like excited for the potential of strike force fights and stuff, things that we actually look forward to seeing. I'm not quite excited yet. Well, it's now relevant in my mind. I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm excited. Basically, they need- I'm excited for this upcoming music card. I feel like this card was like, before the strike force was in free fall, they just pulled a rip-court and the parachute came out. Now I've got to see if the parachute blossoms and they can come to a soft landing. Well, if the parachute goes like an umbrella, it just goes fake, and they fall to their doom. This heavyweight tournament. This heavyweight tournament, this could be the make-up break, I think. They've done some interesting things. We'll see what happens. You know, Theodore can still bury a company is what he's good at. So, I'm sure that we'll see you in the next year. Well, we're going to find out in the next two weeks. All right, so huge UFC card coming up this weekend. I'm assuming everybody's going to watch this. This is a must watch. If you're not watching this card, I have no idea why you'd be listening to this show. This is the card to see if Bones and Bader, which of them is the future of the sport, really. And that's the third match from the top, so... So thank you for tuning in. You've listened to set93.3, CFMU, and you can also find us at thehammermaa.com. That's it. Have a good week. Later. [BLANK_AUDIO]
