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Believe U Me with.

Michael the Countess Bing... You know my name yet? And Anthony Lionheart Smith.

What's up, ladies and gentlemen? Welcome back to the show. Hope you are all well. I'm still in Tenerife, as you can see. Hamilton's still at home, still hasn't invested in a decent bit of lighting. Open a window window, maybe.

They're all open. It's just this time of day. It's a little overcast in New York right now. Looks like we're going to get rain. My lighting is screwed over by the clouds.

I'm only kidding, buddy. Thank you for being here and thank you all for being here. We have Tom Aspinall joining us later today, of course. Heavyweight sensation who will be returning very soon back to the octagon. I want to hear all about his thoughts on the heavyweight division because a lot has changed in that regard with Jon Jones and Steve Pay and Sergey Pavlovych and all the rest of it. But a lot of stuff to talk about. A lot of fights happening this weekend, some interesting stuff. Nate Diaz got arrested this morning as well. Should we just start with that stuff?

Yeah, of course. It's the biggest story everywhere right now.

Yeah. No, it is. Listen, again, so I've put out two YouTube videos on this, right? I put out one just reporting what happened. And in that, I did say, listen, the man's almost 40. He needs to just maybe think a little bit more. And I'm saying that from experience as a man that's been through this and the man that has had to learn and potentially, well, not potentially, had to learn the hard way. Anyway, then he had to surrender himself this morning. He's been charged of second degree battery. I read somewhere that second degree battery maximum of eight years and then something, $1,000 fine is not going to get that, is he? How is he going to get nowhere near that? And I was getting flamed for it. All the MMA websites love to throw out bisping say's. You know what I mean? Like I'm talking crap. I'm not talking crap about DAs, but you don't want to be getting involved in altercations on the street when you're a world-class fighter with what would be predominantly a layman, a guy that's not a fighter. I know he's had a few boxing fights, but you know what I'm saying?

Anyway, a video came out again, another angle. So I did another video this morning and I went, oh, Diaz is innocent, baby. Now, that doesn't mean he's innocent of everything. But that guy on the second video clip, and maybe, Brian, you can bring that up and show it. But in fact, don't actually. I put it on my YouTube and then we got demonetized because it's too violent. Youtube needs to bloody calm down. The guys approach and Díaz, it looked like there was a mass braw going on. You've all seen it by now anyway. Mass braw going on. Díaz pushes someone out the way and it's disengaging from the main madness of the crowd. And then this this Rodney Peterson, whoever he is, comes up and he looks like he's engaging. Well, he got what he wanted. Simple as that. And now, of course, like always, they start it, it gets finished, and then they go to the police. Now, do we know is it him that went to the police or is it the city of New Orleans that are choosing to just press charges themselves?

I wish I knew the answer to that. I don't know. I just know that New Orleans had notified Nate that there was a warrant out for his arrest.

Yeah, that's right. Just bring up the statement from his lawyer, if you can please, Brian. But there's no need, in fact. He just said they're complying with everything. He's gone and he's been arrested. He's posted bail and now he's back out. He's had his mug shot taken, his fingerprints taken, and there it is. And now it's in the judicial system. In my video, what I was talking about was, oh, there it is. He said, Bonda has been granted and posted with the full permission from the court to resume travel, which includes returning back to Stockton. We appreciate how we were treated by the New Orleans Police Department. So please treat us nicely and fairly. You know what I mean? Look how well we're speaking about the police department publicly. I spoke about this because obviously I've got a little bit of experience when it comes to these matters. And the sun has just come out from behind the cloud and now I'm looking like I'm coming from wherever.

Can I have some of yours?

Yeah, we need the happy medium. E need the happy medium. When you're a trained fighter, now obviously the laws in the UK and the USA are different, but they're very close as well. They're very similar, maybe some different language and whatnot. Certainly you can get an abortion everywhere in the UK. Sorry, I couldn't resist that one. Couldn't resist. But if you're a trained individual, if you're a martial artist, if you're a pro fighter, if you're, let's say, someone that served in the army and seen real combat, you get treated a little bit differently. And it's fair and unfair at the same time because you're still a human being. But I remember when I got done, the judge told me, in fact, he told me several different Judges told me on different occasions that because of my martial arts training, I perceived threats of violence different to an untrained individual. You know what I'm saying? So that therefore, my emotions, my adrenaline shouldn't have been as heightened, you know what I mean? And I shouldn't have acted the way that I did.

That is, I legitimately thought that was just the thing they said in movies. You know what I mean? I thought that was just something straight out of con air or undisputed. That's crazy. If you have been training your entire life to know what to do instinctively in a fight or flight situation, it should be that much more lenient, especially if the fight is coming to you. If you've been training for 20 years to know exactly when the right distance is, what the right shot to throw is to neutralize a threat to you, and a threat is coming at you, that's your training.

Well, you know what I mean? And unfortunately, yes, Brian?

All of that is fine and dandy, but I saw the video. Nate dumped that dude on his face.

Well, I was just about to say, I think from the video perspective, he did the bare minimum. He choked him out. I know we talked about this on the last show, but it has escalated much like it did at that bloody in the city of New Orleans. All that was missing was the Bourbon Street Bitch. But he choked him out. It was a blood joke. He did not then put him down. He didn't tap dance on his head. He didn't savage the beat him. He didn't send him to hospital. I mean, all right, he's accentuating. He's showing a little bit of blood on the back of his head. That's probably the most dangerous part, falling on the back of your head unconscious on concrete. But if you're going to go out fighting pro fighters, what do you expect?

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. My only issue with Nate is it seemed like that was a continuation of when he was throwing the bottles inside the fight. You know what I mean? You turned around through the water bottles, it seemed like that fight then spill that into the street. You could argue that Nate did start that altercation, right?

Well, he did. And that's what I was talking about. Listen, we all love the thug element, if you will, of Nate Díaz. We love he won't back down and all the rest of it. And I'm doubling down what I said the other day. But at some point, you can't go around doing that, walking around, throwing whatever it is. It's pretty good really harmlessless. Bottle of water. You throw a bottle of water hard enough that you could do some damage at someone. And of course, it just makes me think of the Conor McGregor and Nate Díaz press conference when Conor starts throwing cans of monster. That's definitely leveling up a touch. You know what I mean? But still, you do stuff like that. And then that was starting to brawl. And I don't want to go on about it, but yeah, regardless, it's like, Dude, come on. But whatever. Hey, who am I to judge? I made a lot of mistakes. Took me a long time to grow up.

I'll tell you right now, I would buy a Nate Diaz mugshot T shirt.

That's going to be cool merch. He's going to be able to do something cool with an actual mugshot of a stocked in gangster. It's pretty sick.

Yeah, it is. But still, let's see how all of that plays out now. This weekend, there's a big fight going down between Luke Rockhold and Mike Perry. And that's a sentence I never thought I would ever say in my life. And I say it's big. It's not big, big. It was certainly intriguing to me. I do know for a fact that they're getting paid very, very handsomely. But the promotion for this has been fantastic. We saw a few weeks ago they had the initial press conference where, you know, Perry whips the bugger on him. And then he's like, Did you concede, believe, achieve Luke? Michael Bateson knocked you you out. When's the last time Facebook knocked anyone out? But still, I laughed. And then this week they've been carrying it on and they've been hyping this fight very well. And I for one, I've never watched a BKFC event in my life. I won't be watching this one, but I will be trying to find the highlights of it on Sunday morning. I'm not going to lie. Play that clip, Brian, that we've got of them two going back and forth earlier. Luke's mom wants me to win.

That's who wants me to win. Why do.

You say that?

To our baby boy, go home and stop this fight. I'm going to send him packing, mom. You look like You look like your mom still does your laundry. She made your bed this morning? Yeah, I haven't seen it. She gave you some apple sauce. She feeds you apple sauce by the spoon. I do everything myself.

I've been that way for 20 years.

Damn. All right, listen, I've got no beef with Luke Rock all these days whatsoever, and I wish him the best this weekend, but he just can't do it, can he? Do you know what I mean? I am no trash talking mastermind, but I look like one when I went up against Luke Rockhold. I mean, there he is. Per is giving him a hard time. And he's saying the best thing he can do to come up with is I made my own bed.

Pro tip, when somebody starts shitting on you, you don't defend yourself, you shit.

Back on them. Exactly. There you go, Brian. That's the whole thing. You don't go, Whoa, no, I made my own bet this morning. For 20 years. I don't even like apple juice. What are you talking about? Mike, you're out of your mind. I haven't had apple juice since I was a kid. Oh, dear. Bless. Well, Per is certainly making it interesting and exciting. And so as we rock off with one once again, the choice of fashion. Now, I know they're in Colorado, Luke Rockle is a fashionable guy. And maybe it's me. Maybe I'm wrong. Do you know what I mean? He's the model. He's the Ralph Lauren guy. I'm certainly not. But last time he had that crazy jacket. And this time I know he's in Colorado, but he's not on the slopes. You're doing an interview. Oh, bloody hell. It's hilarious. So go on.

Somebody else pointed out to me that Luke has a bookcase behind him with no books on it.

Well, it's not where he lives, is it? It's not where he lives in his defence. But even still, I think there probably is a fair bit of interest in this fight because it's Luke Rockhold, a former UFC middleweight champion who was very, very dominant and is a formidable fighter, simple as that. And Mike Perry is perfectly suited to burn a knuckle. Mike Perry is a brawler. He's a little bit out there. He doesn't care. He's willing to talk a bit of crap. And I find him very, very entertaining. And I think this will be a good scrap. Let's remember, I think Luke Rockhold wins this fight. I think he does. But I don't think it's going to be easy. Let's remember, Perry beat Michael Vennon Page in bare knuckle, who, again, is very tall, 6'3, very long. You know what I mean? But Perry is suited to this. He wants to get on the inside. He wants to get it dirty. He wants to just have a wild scrappy fight. Someone like Michael Vennon Page and somebody like Luke Rockhold wants to style it, wants to keep it at range, wants to use all his skill and finess and all the rest of it.

Well, the perfect antidote to that is somebody like Mike Perry that's going to try and brawl you on the inside. And he's got the momentum on his side. I still think Rockle does it. I think Perville will have done a tremendous job refining his skills, getting him ready for this, working on this side of things. Even though that side of things wasn't very good in the press conference or that little clip that we saw. I think Rocko takes it. I think he manages to keep it at range. I think Rocko probably finishes him, if I'm honest.

Really? Rockhold good crack, man.

He is the.

Much bigger guy. When I think of Luke Rockhold, I think of his kicking arsenal. I think of his Jutsu arsenal. You know better than anybody, the hand coming down when he's overextending on his punches a little bit. Granted, that is, I guess, why you go to Parilla. And that's got to be a super cool exercise for Parilla, coming from the boxing world and then transitioning into MMA coaching, now being able to take those skills into a hybridization of the both, that's got to be pretty sick. But I don't know, man, there's just something about Mike Perry style that's like, you said it yourself, he is perfectly suited for bare knuckle fighting. He has no dreams of a modeling career. He's ready to get down and dirty.

Brian, what do you think? Where would you put your money?

I really don't like to bet against Mike Perry because he's a little maniac. But Luke Rockhold is massive comparatively. So I just have to put my money on Luke Rockhold.

Luke Rockhold could easily... Well, he did fight at 205. Perry fought a lot of the time, lightweight, is a massive team. He fought at lightweight, he did. 100 % he fought at lightweight. There's a big, big size difference. Size matters. And yeah, Perry's scrappy and he's a nutter. And I'm a fan.

I'm a fan. What are the weight classes? How are these guys fighting each other?

Well, Per is booked up. Look at Harington feverishly checking out. Did Perry fight at lightweight? It doesn't matter.

I looked it up. He did. He did. You're not wrong.

Okay, I know. But you were just dying to prove me wrong.

I knew that happened because bisbing said it happened.

Actually, Mike, he didn't.

You were wrong on.

Your own podcast.

Oh, Christ. I was looking at the weight for this fight. They're fighting at 175 pounds.

But when you found out I was right, you weren't going to interrupt. By the way, you were right. But it's okay. Believers are going to defend you either way. What weight are they.

Fighting at? 175.

There's no way they're fighting at 175, 195 maybe.

That's what I'm seeing here. Let me double check on the BKFC website.

No, there's no way, Luke Rockwell's fight to get 175 pounds. Don't worry about it. Don't check any further. We don't need to know. I guarantee it's not 175 pounds. We just said Luke Rockhold's a massive man. Okay? It will not be just based on pure logic. It's not going to be 175 pounds. If it is, then good luck. Good luck, Luke, because you're going to get knocked out if you do that wake up.

Maybe that's why he's wearing the coat, because he's just got to keep sweating at all times.

He's a very smart man. He knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing. Okay, let's talk about HDLT supplements. A package from these guys arrived right before I flew out to Tenerife. And I'm very, very grateful because, listen, I'm on the go. I'm living out of a hotel room in a suitcase, but I know that I'm putting in all the nutrients that my body requires. They have all kinds of stuff. They got the multivitamin, which I'm using, so it gives you all the nutrients, as I say. They got the pre workout, which is fantastic. I'm telling you, I'm flying through these workouts. I'm working out like a beast. I'm losing weight. And that's partly due to the Shred, which is another one of the... It's a metabolism boosting supplement, makes you feel great. You don't feel wired. It's not like you've had six cups of coffees or five Red Bulls or anything like that. You just feel good. You feel energetic. The workouts fly by. And this is all... It's backed by science in over a dozen human trials, all showing clear benefits from their supplements, whether it be sleep, mood, energy performance, wellbeing, and as I say, the weight loss.

Now, it's not specific to just one sport or sportsmen or cardio only. It's simply taking it will get you to a place of overall improvement, confidence and motivation. It isn't a supplement just for the hardcore athlete, as I said, but anyone, including a cash potato, who has trouble even getting up to exercise. You want to take care of yourself. You want to get moving, most importantly. If you are a cash potato, stop doing that. Stop eating crap. Start putting good stuff in your body and start with a multivitamin. We do not get enough nutrients into our system. It is a simple as that. It's as simple as that it really is. And HDLT, these are quality supplements. So whether you just want the nutrients from the multivitamin, you want to lose a bit of weight with a shed, you want to work out harder in the gym with the pre workout, they have a whole a whole bunch of supplements. So check out the website, which is htltsubs. Com to check out everything, as I said, from the pre workout, the protein, that's delicious, by the way, and all the other supplements that they have.

Make sure you use the promo code bisping for 10 % off. Now, once again, that is htltsubs. Com. The code is bisping, but only if you want 10 % off. All right, let's get back into the show. All right, non MMA. Arrington said there's not a lot going on. There's a lot going on in the world, buddy boy. There's a lot going on. Give us that stuff. What's going on with NBC, Fox, CNN, and all that stuff.

So a couple of big changes. Tucker Carlson was the highest rated personality in cable news... Sorry, in cable period, tracking over 3 million viewers a night. However, Friday was his last show. Unceremonyously, press release came out over the weekend. He would not be returning to Fox News. And his show has been like a lot of fill ins and replacements in that 8 PM slot for the time being.

Kind of like when Lewis left and then we were bringing in a lot of little replacements here and there. Oh, we got this guy filling in. Hey, what's up? What's up?

Yeah, dude. Just trying out people to replace Tucker. And then Don Lemon, on the same day, one of the top anchors at CNN, was on a leave of absence. It was reported that he was let go.

Yeah. There's a lot to talk about there. You just said the highest rated guy on cable. Tv, essentially. Tv is dead. It's no wonder. These guys are going to pay ridiculous amounts of money. I don't know what Tucker Carlson gets. I read this story about Don Lemon when I saw that, and he's on like 405 or 6 million dollars per year. So he's on a fat contract. But just keeping up, we'll get to the TV thing in a minute. But keeping it on them two. One not them two. When I say them two, I mean CNN and Fox News. They're both as bad as each other. They both talk out their ass. They do. Fox News is so far right, CNN is so far left. They both have clearly an agenda. They both talk out their ass. Of course, Fox was just sued. What was it? 775 million for all that stuff over the Dominion stuff with whatever you want to call it.

Voter.

Fraud. Voter fraud.

Yeah.

I'm.

Sure that's something to do that's possibly a knee jerk reaction. But they talk out their ass. Cnn talk out the Raz. Sometimes when I'm like, forget 30 minutes free, I'm about to go commentate or whatever, I'm all done. I've done my prep, done my research, put the news on just for a minute, and I'll come across CNN. And then I'll go to Fox News just for a laugh and just both of them, they're both giving exact opposite events of what's going on. And depending on what you want to believe, you're just going to keep consuming that, you know what I mean? Whether you're far right or you're far left, a Democrat, Republican, whatever you want to call it, I'm neither. So I find it absolutely bloody hilarious.

Well, I noticed when I was living at my folks' place during the pandemic. They are nightly Fox News watchers. And the thing that I picked up from just hearing it in the background over and over again is just the constant fear mongering. If we can make you afraid, if we can get your anxiety up, you'll stick through the next commercial break to find out the solution to the people who are trying to take away your way of life. Cnn is doing the exact same thing. Americans are being mistreated X, Y, and Z for this reason. Find out more after this commercial break. They're all just trying to sell you a pillow. That's it. Just stick around, buy the pillow.

Well, Fox News are. Myp illow.

Com. I'm sure there's a liberal.

Pillow out there. Yeah, there's got to be. It's a whole fluffy little sensitive pillow. This will make you more understanding to other people's cares and desires and wants and needs.

Yeah, I bet you somebody just made a pillow to just fight with them.

I bet you. It's many different colours. Our pillow is fantastic. Oh, yeah, our pillows. That is.

What it's called.

Yeah. Oh, my God. That's hilarious. Yeah. In the UK, and again, this isn't UK is better. There is an authority. News channels aren't allowed to just bullshit. It has to be based, in fact, I forget the exact law, the wording of it or whatever, but I'm rightly so, because people turn on the TV, they see a respected organization like Fox or CNN or whatever, and they believe that what they're being told is true. So there needs to be a certain... What's the word I'm looking for? A certain responsibility that they have to uphold to always be endeavouring to tell the truth. Now, of course, it's the fucking news. So good luck with that.

Well, they get around that a lot by not saying that this is the news, but this is an editorial program. So it's like, this is the opinion of the anchor that is on, and.

That's.

How they get around it.

A lot. And we have a source. The source said such and such. Anonymous source. Yeah, anonymous source. The source doesn't exist. Based upon that, and then they go off on a tangent with that whatever rhetoric it is. Yeah, yeah. Oh, well. But it didn't make me laugh. Don Leman, he was fired. This was insane. I don't watch CNN. I stumble across it sometimes. What was Don Leman fired for? Just give me the exact quote.

My man puts his foot in his mouth repeatedly. Let me...

Well, no, he does. He said there's a lot of silly stuff. A lot of silly stuff. But he was talking about women, and he said women are out of the prime time when they get to the 50s. He said in the 20s, 30s and 40s, they're still in the prime. In the 50s, they're past the prime.

I'm paraphrasing. He was talking about a Republican presidential nominate now Nikki Haley. He said, This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable. I think it's the wrong road to go down. She says people, politicians are something if not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime. Sorry, a woman is considered to be in their prime in their 20s, 30s, maybe 40s, Lemon said during this morning.

Hold on. Brian's in here one second. I just want to... You're going to say what I'm going to say. How could they be saying that about her in the 50s? Joe Biden is running again, and he's... He's trying to get sentenced together, man. And he's in his 80s, and this is supposed to be the most powerful man, the leader of the free world. Do you know what I mean? He's falling upstairs.

I was just going to expand on Harrington's reasoning for this guy getting fired. Last week he had a guy on named Vivek Ramaswamy, and they were talking about... And this dude Vivek was talking about how racism isn't the problem that Don Leman says it is. And then Don Leman was just, instead of continuing the interview, he just insisted on fighting with him. The producers were in his ear, probably telling him to stop. But he was like, I can't continue a train of thought with you guys yelling in my ear. So he literally shut his producers off. It was a fucking nightmare for a broadcast team. And that was the final straw for him, for sure.

It reminds me, have you ever seen the morning show?

The Apple TV show?

No. Apple TV. Rebecca was watching it. It's not really my thing. What's her name?

Reeve Witherspoon or Jenner P r anice?

No, Reeve Without a Spoon.

Reet with a Fork.

Have you seen that meme? Reeve Witherspoon. Reeve Without a Spoon. I'm very childhood, it made me laugh. Yeah, same thing on there. She does the same shit. Anyway, enough of that. English people, the Ugandans, the people all over the world, they don't know what Fox is, they don't know what CNN is. They just want to hear about MMA and have some good old fashioned banter. We do have Tom Aspinal joining us, as I said. But give me a funny story, Harrington. Give me something that I can dissect, something we can talk about.

Non MMA or MMA? Whatever you want. Okay. I think.

Just do it.

This one's interesting. Max Halloween says he wants a rematch with Conor McGregor under UFC 1 rules. He said, Open weight, back in the day, they didn't care about that. I'll go full on old school UFC for a rematch with Conor McGregor. What do you think about that?

So basically, he wants a street fight.

Yeah. Two groin strikes, eye gouging.

I wonder why he's calling out McGregor all of a sudden. I did see his quote a few days ago. He said he was one of the only people that fed the way. In fact, the only one that fed the way to not get finished by him. And of course, Max is... He's imperatory, Max, isn't he? And I do feel sorry for him because he's an incredible fighter of the highest degree. Max Halloween is just phenomenal, but he's not the champ. And with respect, I don't think he'll ever be champ again. He's just one step behind Volkanovsky. Volkanovsky shut that book last time. And Halloween is out there. He's beaten the number one contenders. He beat Arnold Allen, clearly. He was just too good. But he's not going to get a title fight. So I guess he's in this weird one now where he's just chasing huge fights outside of his division, outside of the sport. He even talked about boxing. He said, I wouldn't mind boxing. Javante Davis, Ryan Garcia, any of those guys, let's go. Yeah, I feel for him because he's clearly one of the best. He's still in his prime. He's not slowing down, but I don't think he'll be his champion again.

What do you reckon?

Well, I mean, he.

Might be.

Look, the guy who's going to beat Alexander Volkanovsky is likely in the UFC right now. You know what I mean?

He just got beat by somebody in the UFC, haven't you? I'm not sure if you're.

Aware of that. Okay. Well, A, that's debatable.

B... Well, according to history, historic facts and data. You like to look things up.

Okay, fair enough.

Just look up his record. He just got beat. Okay, so shut up.

The featherweight who's going to beat Alexander Volkanovsky is likely in the UFC right now.

That's just the... It might be J ae Rodriquez.

Could be. It could be any number of people. But I do genuinely believe Alexander Volkanovsky is going to get the immediate rematch versus whoever beats him. And at that point, Max Hall away is next up in line. So I do think there's always a path.

Yeah, but it's not for your peace of mind, for yourself, as a fighter, more importantly, as a person. You can't base your whole existence and your whole career just hanging around waiting for the champion to get beat. You know what I'm saying? That's not what a world champion does. That's not the mindset of someone that wants to be the champion, that wants to be the best, that wants to make history, that's out there fighting for your family. So, okay, well, here's what we're going to do. We're going to tread water in the deep end and eventually someone's going to fail and their failure will be my come up. You know what I'm saying? It's just David Goggins would not say that. Stay hard, okay? Suck it up. Stay in that fucking deep end. Wait for the champion. You'll fall and then you'll rise. Okay? Stay fucking hard, guys. Let's go.

Or you go the end of the you go the Anthony Smith route and just train every contender that goes up against Volkanovsky.

What is Anthony Smith doing? Where is he today, by the way, joking? We knew he couldn't make it. Obviously, getting very close now to his fight against is Johnny Walker in Charlotte, North Carolina. I can't wait. I'm nervous, man. I'm nervous for Anthony.

I was saying that to somebody just yesterday. Alex gave me the green light. I'm allowed to go. So I'm thinking about driving down there. But I've never been to a fight. Obviously, it was at your fight, right? And that's at the garden. That's the only time I've ever known somebody who's in there in the cage. And I don't know, man, that's a nerve racking experience. I can't imagine what it's like to get in there.

Yeah, it's way different. When you know the person, obviously, we watch so many fights and we consume a lot of it. But when you know them personally, it's on a different level. And then when you're friends with them, very close friends, you do a podcast. Me and Anthony, we go off on these tangent and we talk for ages. And it's great. Just I think that's why people enjoy it. It's just two guys were talking about our thoughts and our feelings and all the rest of it. And you build a real connection. When someone like that, a family member, someone close to you steps into an octagon, it is absolutely terrifying. So that's why I say I'm nervous for him. I'm not nervous because I don't think he can compete. I'm not nervous because I think he's going to lose or anything like that. That's my mate. That's my mate stepping in there and I hope everything goes well. I hope he wins the fight. I hope he does great. I hope he puts his best foot forward and comes out in one piece. But that doesn't always happen, sadly. It's a totally little bloody game.

I'm calling an audible here, but I just saw yesterday the odds were posted for the fight. Anthony, slight underdog.

You.

Want to make some money?

Yeah. Listen, I guess when you look at Anthony, what's his record? Can you bring up his record? Well, obviously he had the leg break, didn't he? That's never good. That's going to slow someone's momentum. Hold on.

36 and 17. And then I'll look up his UFC record now.

It's okay. I meant his form in his last few fights. Because records don't tell the true story. All right. Yeah, it was only the one. I thought there might have been two. I couldn't remember. So it was a leg break against Magomed Ancolai Ef. So he's coming back from a nasty injury. Before that, three tremendous wins, Devin Clark, Jimmy Crude, Ryan Span, all stoppages, and he looked phenomenal. Jimmy Crude, Dr. Span, just destroyed his legs. Ryan Span, he looked like a man possessed. He looked like there wasn't a man on this planet that would stop him. And Devin Clark, beautiful, slick triangle choke off his back. Then he snaps his leg. Listen, it happens. And against Magomed Ancolai EV, if there's a man that you're going to snap your ankle on, it's Ancolai EV. It's just that Johnny Walker is such a freak. But he has calmed that down a bit. It's a tremendous fan. I'm excited, but I'm bloody, bloody nervous. Anyway, as we all are, I won't be there, though. I'm not going to lie. Where am I right now? Tenerife. And this time next week, where will I be?

I'm assuming Tenerife.

Yeah. And when I get back, I can't say to the kids, Hi, kids. By the way, going to go watch my podcast. Yeah, I can watch it on TV, correct. No, I don't have an official role. Do I have a ticket? No, but I'm going to bother someone. But getting there, no, I'm going to spend the fortune on flights and hotels. And I will go out and I will return hungover. And I know you haven't seen me in ages, but still, I love you. Just that. So I can't do it, man. If I was home the whole time, then I wouldn't do. But anyway, let's get back to the show. What are we talking about here? So let's talk about Israel and Asenya. Give me the the low down on this. And this is a little bit tricky and a little bit spicy. So don't say anything too much because Israel has been very insulting and it's getting... He's talking about... Just give the bloody quotes, what he's saying.

So Israel took some exception to what Dukakis was saying going back and forth. He did clarify that he never once said that Dukakis was not an African, but he said that he has an issue with this cracker questioning the Africaness of Francis and Ghanu, of Kamara Uspen and himself. And the actual quote is here, Be careful what you wish for. You got what you want. He's next. I'm going to F and beat him until he's black.

Yeah. I mean, it's spicy for them because obviously they are both African. There's a lot of history and politics there that I'm going to stay out, especially as a white Englishman. Do you know what I mean? They'll be like, You just shut up, B isby. I don't like the language out of there, Issy there calling him the cracker? What is a cracker for those non Americans? Because I'm not.

As far as I understand.

I know it's an insult to a white person, right? It's just what black people call white people if they want to be insulting.

The way I heard it, the way I've always understood it is like whip cracker. Going back to...

Oh, really? Well, that's not too bad then. Fair enough. Don't blame him.

It's pretty rough. He also called him a coloniser.

Well, anyway, whatever, staying out of all that stuff because that's none of my business or yours. The fight, I mean, Drickey Stupressi, I'm a fan of that guy. I think he's awesome. I love what he brings to the table. He's a lovely guy when you meet him. Fights his heart out, but he's sloppy. He gets caught, he gets out wrestled, and he gasses. But he's fun because he's such, I'll use the term warrior for a cliched term, but he is. He's a fighter, man. He's a real fighter. And he, most of the time finds a way to get it done. Who was his last fight? Derek Brunson. I mean, that was a fun fight. I was in the crowd, place was going crazy against Darren Till, again. But he's not on the level of an Israel out of Sardinia. It's just is just as simple as that. Is he would piece him up. Is he would have a field day. Now, of course, there's always that punches chance and all the rest of it. And Dricters will be fired up and he's getting better and his gas tank will be all the... No, there's levels to this game.

Israel out of Sanya is leaps and bounds at this moment in time over a Drickey's duplexy.

Certainly. And I mean, we're talking this guy is five and on the UFC, seems like an absolute world beater, but what is it? Two fights before he got in the UFC, he was K out, not T K out, K out. So it's one of those things where if you're really going to let your chin do the talking for you against somebody with the precision and power of Israel out of Sonya, and you've already had your chin cracked once in the past. I could see if it's somebody who's never been knocked out. That's a little bit different to me. But this is somebody who, within the last three years, has been K out. I just do not see this going well.

For him. Well, the fight that needs to happen... Well, the fight that I want to see is Robert Whitaker again. You know what I'm saying? What is the appetite? Do you feel like that, Brian? Obviously, it's getting to the Max Hollaway, Volkanovsky territory, but it's only two. It's not against three. And the third one Volkerovsky, shut the door with authority. Whitaker is catching up. The first fight he got finished. The second fight was close. He did a lot better. And Whitaker's looked on fire. Is it just the one fight with Marvel Vitori has had since? And is there a booking for Whitaker? I think I saw some news recently.

Whitaker versus Du Plessie, we talked about on the last show.

It was Whitaker versus Du Plessie. Yeah. I don't know if I'm going to be commentating that one. Is it on a pay per view?

Ufc 290, yes.

Right, well, I will not be commentating that one then. I will not be commentating that one. And those are Tommy Torn Tables. What's up, big Tom?

What's going on? How's things going? Sorry, I'm a bit late. I had some technical difficulties.

Oh, God. Technical difficulty. It's a classic, isn't it? You can always use that one, can't you?

New headphones, mate. What do you reckon? They sound all right? Everything good?

Yeah, they look better than your ears. So yeah, I like them. They look good, mate. They look good. How's everything, Tom? You're good, buddy.

Yeah, all good, mate. All good. How's things? Where are you at the moment?

I am in Tenerife.

Lovely.

Lovely. Yeah, it is. It's my first time here. I love it. I'm not down the south where all the party animals are. I'm in the north where all the cultured people, the intelligent people, you know what I mean? And I fit right in. We're having long conversations about books and history and politics, and I'm wowing the locals with my brilliance.

I bet.

I bet. No, that's the.

Best you got. I bet I'm loving it. I bet it was the other light. It's nice.

Nice light, isn't it? It's lovely, mate. It's lovely. Tom, you've been away for a little bit. Obviously now you're back. The legs feeling fantastic. You're looking bigger and leaner than ever. You've packed on tremendous amounts of muscle. There's been a lot going on in the heavyweight division. I'm assuming... Don't say anything unless you're allowed to or whatever, but I'm assuming you're going to have a fight pretty soon. But all in all, what's going on with the career, Tom?

Well, at the moment, I'm just waiting, basically, to be honest with you. I'd love to tell you that I've got a fight, but I'd be lying. I've been told that I'm going to fight on the 22nd of July on the London show. I'm just waiting to get confirmation on that. Me and a couple of guys have had a few back and forths online, but nothing officially confirmed at the moment. So just waiting on that, mate, I'm ready to go. I'm completely ready to go. Everything's good. The body's in a great place. The mind is good. Better than ever actually. Everything's good. I'm just waiting on the comment right now. So that's where I'm up to.

All right. Well, we'll keep us posted and looking forward to finding out. Since your last fight, the heavyweight division, a lot has happened. Cirol Garn got beaten by John Jones. We haven't spoken about that. What did you think about that fight, Tom? What do you think we saw from John Jones that interests you?

Well, we saw from John Jones, I think, what everyone was expecting to see from John Jones, in my opinion. We knew that John Jones could do that. We knew that John Jones could do that. What we were unsure about is how would Ciroganne react in that under the pressure like he did? And it was very odd to see because I followed Searsgan's career closely. I've known Searsgan for quite a while. I fought three of his teammates and stuff. And to me it looked, talked... I don't want to slag the guy off because I like Ciroganne. He's a very nice guy and he's always been very nice to me.

You just can't not like the guy. He's doing a little bit on this film out here. So we've been hanging out a little bit, had a few dinners. He's the nicest guy on the face of the earth.

Well, you've got a new heavyweight friend of you, mate. I didn't realise. I didn't realise I was getting replaced.

Cheating on you, Tom. I am. That's it. But he's not here right now. I'm like, I'll have to call Tom for crying out loud.

Come on. No, but I like it. I do like him a lot. He's a really nice guy. And to me, though, I don't know, something looked off with him. I don't know exactly what it was. He didn't look... I don't know. Obviously, his grappling isn't up to the level of John Jones's. But on the contrary to that, in my opinion, he is one of the most athletic heavyweights that's ever fought in the UFC. You see the guy on Instagram, 250 pounds, whatever he is, doing muscle ups. The guy is ridiculously athletic but he didn't seem to use any of that, which seemed very odd. If you're not, you know better than me, if you're not up to someone's skill level, use your athletic ability and you didn't... You got to taking down and there was no scramble there. There wasn't any resistance. Just spaz out. If you can't get him off, blast him off. Use whatever you can to try and get him off. And he didn't really seem to do that, which seemed a bit weird to me. I don't know if he was injured or something was going on. I don't know. I don't want to put words in his mouth.

I don't know exactly what's going on. But he just didn't look right to me in that fight. It looked a bit odd.

Yeah. All right. So Kurtz Blaze came out, your old mate, and he was saying that he's going to run through Sergey Pavloviac, and he's the best match up for John Jones. And he can wrestle. He's big, he's strong. He's got the heavy hands and all the rest of it. And he went out there and he got knocked out in the first round against Sergey Pavloviac. I'm assuming that you were watching that one very closely.

I watch all the heavy weights closely, especially the top 10, top 5, because I'm around that area. So yeah, I mean, Kavlje Vits could have missed him, could he? Simple as that. Couldn't miss him. They lost it. It wasn't a punch that he threw that didn't land near enough clean. And it just looked like a bad night for Kurt. It's out there. He didn't seem to get anything going. His game plan seemed to be maybe a little bit off. I don't know. You just have the night sometimes, don't you? It's just not going right. And it seemed to be one of them. He just seemed to not be able to get things going. And Pavelovitz just couldn't miss. Every punch he threw and every punch he threw and every punch he landed, clean. And yeah, that's the way it went.

When you look at Sergey Pavelovitz, do you think that's someone in the future that I'm going to run into?

Well, I was supposed to fight him twice before. I know a lot about Pavelovitz as well. Both times he pulled out. I'm not saying that he's scared of me or anything.

Like that. He's a.

Pull out merge. In. I'm not saying that at all. That's just the way it goes sometimes.

He was just in. Tom Aspinos, there's Sergey Pavelovitch. He's ducking him.

Absolutely none of that. But yeah, I think Pavelovitch is very good. I thought he was good a long time. I was supposed to fight a couple of years ago and I thought he was good then and I think he's good now. You know what I mean? I think he's really good. And yeah, definitely. I definitely think we're going to fight in the future at 100 %.

Did you see this week, Dan Deas just got arrested?

I didn't know he got arrested. I seen that he choked out that guy. I seen.

The guy choked out. He just had an arrest warrant for him. So he's had to surrender himself because otherwise they're going to get him eventually. It's just going to cause problems. So he's gone and he surrendered himself. He's been charged with second degree assault. Obviously, growing up in the North West of England, Tom, being a big lad like yourself, was that something that bothered you? Because you're very calm and you don't seem like the type of guy that has drama following you around. What do you think of all that?

I presume Nate, he hasn't had a few beers at this point. I presume. They seem to be on some night out or event or something. When you're drinking, it throws things off a little bit, doesn't it? It does throw things off. You have a few beers and that and usually you'll be able to walk away and next minute you can. I don't know. It's just one of them, isn't it? People lately, as it's a lot more popular than I am. And you know what it's like? People test you sometimes. People test you. And I bet you get tested way more more than someone like me gets tested. So sometimes it's a bit tougher to walk away.

I'm looking at that left arm of yours there and it's looking pretty juicy brother. Look at that. Jesus Christ, you could crack a nut in it. When's the last time someone tested you?

Quite recently actually.

Quite recently. On the street?

Yeah, on the street. Go on.

It's just what happened to my commit in the Northwest of England.

After a few years. Yeah, but what happened? Talk us through it. Where were you and what was the sitch?

First of all, it's partly my fault because...

Hey, you're honest. You're honest.

No, the altercation wasn't my fault. The fact that I was in this one particular bar at the particular time that I was in there with the people who were in there, I should have known better. Do you know what I mean? I should have known way better. I should have been in that place. But again, once you've had a few beers and I was with people who wanted to go in there, I was having a good time and I didn't just want to be that guy who's like, Oh, come on, let's go. I'm just going to go. So I just went along with it. The crowd of people who I was with wanted to go in this one particular bar and it was late. It was like 2 AM, 3 AM maybe. I've been.

Drinking all day. Sorry to interrupt. Is it norm for being a little bit sketchy, a bit of a rough place?

Yeah, exactly. I had a little look in there as we were entering the room. There was definitely sketchy characters around at the time and I should have just left it there. But instead, I soldiered on and went in.

As you do.

Trouble found me soon enough. So I had to leave before it escalated any further. We'll put it that way.

And that was in Manchester, I'm assuming? Yeah. The last time I was tested like that was in Manchester. It's a rough place.

People like a beer in a scrap, don't they? Especially as a person like a little bit more in the public eye. You should know these places. But when you're with a crowd of people and they're going somewhere, you don't want to be that guy who says, Oh, no, I'm not going in there. So I just went along with it. I'd had a few beers at.

The time. But you should be able to, Tom. And that's the thing. But you're right, prevailing wisdom and history and being a little bit older, mature, and sadly, sometimes because of being someone in your position or my position, you got to think better. And that's the hard part as well, because you want to be a normal guy. You don't want to certainly have anyone saying that, Oh, he thinks thinks he's all gone to his head. He said he can't go here. He can't go there. But the reality is you are a known person. I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about what. You know what I mean? You are a known person. You have got a little bit of fame. You do have a target on your back. So the reality is, yeah, you're not saying that I'm some megastar, but it's saying I'm not going to go to these places where unfortunately it's going to kick off. And guess what? Little anonymous dickhead that's all aggressive, that's had too many shandies tonight, that's going to be kicking off. No one's going to be talking about him, but I'm the one that's going to be plastered all over the website with everyone talking shit about me.

Exactly. And unfortunately, in this particular situation, they did have a knife on them as well.

Yeah, of course.

So it's just not good, is it, Mike? Like you say, you just got to read the situation a little bit better. But when alcohol is involved, it's a little bit more difficult. I learned from it anyway. I learned from it.

As soon as there's any talk of knives and you see any knives, you got to get out of there, man. It's insane. I mean, obviously the US has a big problem with guns, but the knife situation in the UK is just bloody out of control. I'm assuming, obviously, I'm not out there, is it still as bad as it ever was?

It's getting worse. I was saying this to my wife recently, actually. I'm getting a little bit worried now about my oldest son is nearly seven now. When I was 14, 15, it was like, you're getting a bit of trouble with a few lads and stuff, you'd have a bit of a scrap and that'd be the end of it. But now these lads are turning up to school with knives. It's crazy, man. It's absolutely crazy. And it's just going from bad to worse. And I'm just getting a little bit worried about the future for my own kids.

Yeah, well, it's mob mentality, isn't it? Because a lot of them are carrying them. So then they feel that they have to. And I know that's what it's like in inner city. Everyone's carrying a knife. If I don't have a knife, then I'm going to be the one that's screwed. If a knife fight, it's like bringing a twix to a knife fight or bringing a knife to a gunfight. You know what I mean? If you might be in a knife fight, then you might want to have a knife on you. So you're damned if you do. You're damned if you don't. Well, you're more like stabbed up if you don't. It's awful. It's bloody awful. It really is. But anyway, anyway. How many fights, Tom, until you are crowned? Tom Aspinall, fighting out of Manchester, England, and new UFC light heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.

I think you said light and heavyweight then. That'll be a fucking long time.

Okay, now.

Let's go.

Definitely not light heavyweight. I don't know. I'd like to say about three or four. I think if I can get by whoever I'm fighting in July and then one of the real top boys then maybe a Pavloviac or a Steve Pay or Sears or something after that. I think I'm right there, mate, to be honest. I think I'm right there. I'll be right there. The heavyweight division at the moment is just looking great, isn't it? It's looking, in my opinion, I've said this on multiple interviews, I think the top 15 right now is the strongest it's ever been. I think it's got the most talent from 1 to 15. I think any of them guys could beat each other on any given day. And I think there's just a lot of talent. There's a lot of young guys as well in the heavyweight division now, especially the top 10, top 15. They're all guys around... They're not old legends anymore. The guys in the 30s who are still young and they're not all tall up and their bodies aren't a mess and they've not took a million shots and stuff like that. These are young, hungry guys coming through in the prime.

They're not old legends who are just hanging on to the career. So it's very exciting times at heavyweight. But to answer your question, I think a couple of fights I'll be up there fighting for the title.

For sure. It was a new generation and that's what the division needs. It's what a sports need in general. Did you see recently, Jones came out and I forget the exact quote, I'm paraphrasing. He said, How cool would that be? I'll go up, I'll beat the heavyweight goat and then retire. Did you see that?

I was saying this for ages. I was like, look, he's going to go up there. He'll have one fight. He'll fight Steve Bay and then he'll retire. And everyone says, oh, he signed an eight fight deal or whatever, a six fight deal. And he's put all this weight on. I'm like, mate, there's no chance. The guy doesn't have to be fighting someone like me or someone like Pavelovic or someone like that. He's not going to want to take on young contenders anymore. I don't blame him. I don't blame him either. He doesn't have to. He doesn't have anything to prove to anybody. The guy has done everything. I always thought from the beginning, maybe he'll come up, he'll have one or two fights and then he'll leave it at that. I'm sure that's what he's going to do. But now he's come out and said that's what he's going to do. So who knows? I think John Jones is the guy. He says one thing and does another and he changes his mind every two minutes. So we'll see what he actually does.

I think it might be three fights. If that was me, I'd want to say, Right, I'll have three. I'll win it, I'll win it, I'll defend it, I'll take it off Steve Bay and then I'll defend it one more time. When I say take it, I mean take the weight, the heavyweight GOAT status, if you will, and then defend it one more time. Because as you say, he's been there, done it, got the T shirt. His legacy and respect in the sport is not in question. It never, ever will be. But when you hear that as the competitor, Tom, does that like... Because you just said there, three, four fights, that could be 18 months, something like that.

Does.

That make you think shit? Because I know you want to be the guy and I know you believe in yourself and it's not this place belief and it's not false confidence and you're not talking anything bad about John Jones. You just believe in yourself and what you're capable of. And the icing on the cake would be to be the guy to dethrone John Jones. But if that wasn't available, would that be unsatisfying for you or just it is what it is?

No, it is what it is for me. Obviously, I'd love to fight him. That would be my dream to fight John Jones.

But.

More so my dream is to get to win the UFC heavyweight title. It doesn't matter really who holds it at the title. It'd be fucking nice. Beating someone who's considered the gold, that would be fucking really nice. But at the end of the day, I want to be the heavyweight champion. It doesn't really matter who holds it at the time. I think I match up well stylistically with John Jones, but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. I'm not really too bothered about it. It would be really nice, but if it doesn't happen, whatever. As long as I win the title, I'm not too bothered.

I can't wait to hear who you find in July, Tom, and I'm looking forward to it. Now, outside the octagon, you haven't just been sitting on your ass, recovering from a broken leg. You've been becoming a bit of a media sensation. You've been all over the place. You're going on TV shows in England. What was that show that you did? You did a big TV show recently where you were a guest.

I've done a couple, to be honest. I started calling me mainstream Tommy these days. Mainstream Tommy Aspino. I've done a couple. Which one are you referring to exactly?

I don't know what they are, but I know you've.

Done a couple. I've done a question of sport, which is a very prestigious show in the UK.

For people that don't know, that's a big time. That's main stream.

And I was the first ever MMA fighter to be on it.

First one ever. See, that's offensive.

Sorry.

Mate. If there's anyone that should have been picked for fucking British TV, the first ever person on this question should have been me.

I didn't do it. You're right. And I did a couple more Michael McI nterviews show on BBC. A couple of BBC stuff, which is very mainstream in the UK. It's one of the main channels. So yeah, it's getting up there. I'm doing what I can while I've been injured, I've been trapped. I'm obviously working for BT Sport, the UFC and stuff.

Like that. I was going to get there. You're robbing my job. He's coming for my job.

It was just a one-off, I think. Maybe I'll do it again, but it's not going to be a full-time.

Thing until I'm retired. No, you know what, Tom? You're really good at it. Old busting balls and being silly as that. No, you're good at it, mate. Go for it. That's what you want to do. And you got to spread your wings as far and wide as you possibly can. And I think with your star power, with your charm personality, the likability that you have, mate, keep doing what you're doing because outside of the Oxf ood really matters. You fight two, three times a year. If you're lucky, sometimes it might be once. Sometimes you got years where you might not fight at all. You got to still have a presence outside the Oxf ood because you haven't got a normal day job. You're not getting that paycheck every month or every week, are you? So keep doing it, mate. Smash it out the goddamn park. Right, I got a few quick fire questions for you from Twitter, if you don't mind. Are you good for a couple of minutes?

Yeah, I'm good for at least five to 10 minutes. Yeah, I'm good.

All right, mate, we've got you for hours. Harrington.

Yes, sir. All right, let's see.

Have you been paying attention to the show?

I have been paying attention to the show. I'm sorry, there's gardeners and whatnot. All right.

Get up. Tom, Harrington's life has changed. My God. It wasn't like this man was homeless. Now he's got gardeners. Wow.

You've got your own gardener, really.

The landlord called the gardeners for the place I live in. I'm not hiring gardeners.

No, no, no. Well, while you ask this first question, I'm going to look at some good ones, but go ahead.

Okay. David Briscoe wants to know, Galloways or Green Lodge? He'll know what it means.

I actually don't. I know what Galloway is. I'm not sure what Green Losh is. No idea what that is.

So he's got it here as Green Howls.

Or Green Arches you're talking about.

Oh, Green Arches.

Oh, Mikey B knows what that is. By the way, just on a side note, I've got a story about a gardener in a set that I want to tell you because this is.

Quite the follow up. I want to hear it. I want to hear it.

But I think Green Alches, to be honest, the cheese and onion pasties from there, second to none.

Are you a Gregs fan?

Yeah. Gregs is the ultimate for me. But the Gregs wasn't an option on this one. So yeah, Gregs have been number one, probably. Greenhills is number two. And then Galloways, maybe. I don't know. I don't know.

Not what about Holland's pie, Tom?

Holland's are good also. But I think for me, Gregs takes it.

When you go to the chippie, what is it? Is it stake in kidney? No, I.

Actually have something a bit controversial. I have chips, fish, and and gravy, which people think that's a bit weird, but I think it's excellent.

When I go to the chip, I don't get fish and chips. Well, Rebecca used to where she still brings it up to this day because I used to say the fish was too expensive, and it was when we were broke, we couldn't afford it. But I'm either a stake in kidney pudding, chips, peas and gravy, or a chicken and mushroom. I'm starving now, man.

I am starving.

Tell us this conversation, the story about the gardener.

Well, it's actually t's not about the gardeners. What are they called? The people who cook the trees. You know, the people who climb up the trees.

The tree fellows.

You know what I mean? The people who cut the trees.

Arborists.

Arborists. That's it. That's it. Yeah.

So my dad... These tree fellows are walking down the street.

No, listen to this. So my dad, he had the same two guys who cut his trees for years. And the brothers as well. And one of them was up the tree and he said that the chainsaw hit his arm. But apparently that's quite common. They wear some like... Chain mail. Yeah, something that stops it. And they leave it swinging sometimes and it just hit his arm. And apparently it's pretty calm. I was like, Fuck, that sounds really bad. And he said he looked down at his arm and he noticed that his jacket was ripped, which is obviously a bit more uncommon that that's happened. So he said he pulled his jacket it open just to see where the rip is. And he said that blood started squirting like over his head. And he said he looked a little bit more in and he could see that the chainsaw had ripped into his bone cut like half his bone off. And then he started going into shock. So his brother had to help him down from the ladder.

And to top it off, you're up a tree.

Yeah, he's fucking miles up the tree. He's miles up the industry. They had to get the air ambulance and he had to do a seven hour surgery to sew his arm back on. His arm was nearly fully off and he's still not got the feeling back in his fingers. I think his fingers don't work or something yet. It's fucking wild because it's the same guy that I've known for 20 years. It's really weird. My dad just told me that the day I was like, Wow, that is wild.

What was the crapper's job or the most miserable job that you did pre UFC and pre making a living out of mixed martial arts?

Well, all the jobs that I did were to supplement my training, basically just to pay for my training, to pay for me getting by. I worked as a personal trainer. I guess I had some qualifications and shit for that. But otherwise, I was just doing stuff to get a bit of money to get me through the training. So I worked as a doorman, I worked as a cleaner. I did just a few shitty jobs like that. I was a shit doorman. I was terrible. Really?

Why? Why were you such a bad doorman?

I didn't do fuck all. I didn't do anything. Unless people were fighting with each other, I wouldn't do anything. I'd just look away if anything was going on. But yeah, I got in a few sticky situations with that. I definitely got into a few sticky situations with that.

When I was DJing, I used to do the doors sometimes as well at this one club. It was a rough shit all of a club. Mon Rose.

Oh yeah, Mon Mon Rose.

Where is that now? It was Great Arwood. It's not there anymore. It got burned down. But I remember we were at the door and I was dying to chin this guy. I'm the doorman. This guy shows up and we're with the doorman and it's a nasty crew. These door lads are dealing with serious, serious individuals from Manchester and Liverpool and whatnot. There was a lot of gang activity. These guys show up and it's all kicking off. I'm not sure exactly why. But there was one nobhead with a Balaclava on, right? And he's just mouthing off for everyone at the door. And all the door, all the other lads aren't doing anything. So I'm like, No one's doing anything. So there's got to be a reason why they're not doing it. But look at the size of him. And I was just on his side. I'm just going to give him a right up, Bosh. And sit him down and be the fucking hero. But I'm like, Hold on a minute. No. If no one else is bothered, then why am I going to have these... They're clearly very dangerous individuals. I'm not going to bring bring that on.

But yes, I was a different doorman when I was younger. I just want to take a second to thank our newest sponsor, ManteS leep, because I've been using their sleep mask. And let me tell you, I am sleeping like a baby. And I'm telling you, a good night's sleep, it is the remedy to a good next day. That sounds so obvious. But if you're sleep deprived, nothing goes well. You feel grouchy, you're not a good person to be around, you're not productive, you get headaches, you can't be bothered. And driven by that belief, Master S leep is on a mission to give light sleepers control and mastery over their sleep. With Master S leep, you can maximize the enjoyment of life and unlock your full potential. The mask that I'm talking about, they are 100 % blackout for deeper sleep. They are made of soft and breathable, durable materials, so you never worry about it stretching out or falling off. And they have a bunch of different products, I'm telling you, like the sound mask, which features razor thin Bluetooth headphones with a 20 hour battery life. So as always, this is a good one.

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Okay, Stone Thor wants to know, speaking of freak injuries, a couple of guys want to know. Stone Thor wants to know any recommendation for exercise you did whilst recovering that really helped you out. He's recovering from ACL surgery himself. And U Paynes wants to know. He wants to know how a high level athlete's perspective on coming back from a freak injury like that. He just had a shoulder surgery and just going to the gym like a normal guy is freaking him out right now.

Well, first of all, let me say that it's a little bit like I had a fucking amazing surgeon and an amazing physio who helped me a lot, both of them. So that instils a lot of confidence in you. They also have me doing a lot of one legged exercise because obviously I had knee injury. So I was doing a lot of one legged exercises. You just got to go slowly back into stuff to build your confidence up. That's what I was doing. The first time back kicking and taking kicks in my knee, that was quite a big day for me because I'd done a fair bit of boxing training before. I'd even done a few boxing spas before. But the first time getting blasted in the knee, kicked in the knee by someone my size or bigger, it was a little bit worrying at first. But I think ultimately for me, I had the knee injury for so long beforehand that now that I know it's fixed, like mentally, I feel so much like I feel so much more... I just feel free mentally because I feel like my knee is not going to give out me anymore.

That's what I feel like. It doesn't feel unstable. It doesn't feel weak. It doesn't feel painful or anything like that. Whereas for five years I was dealing with all that before. Now that's completely gone. So that's how I got to deal with it is just the fact that it was bad for so long, but now it feels so strong.

The biggest injury that I went through, obviously, was the eye thing. I guess that was a little different because I wasn't sure if I'd ever return. But going through that time, I went through some pretty dark days, shall we say, where I was feeling sorry for myself. I felt that not only my manhood, but my identity has been taken away. I wasn't a fun guy to be around for a while. Did you experience some days like that?

Definitely. There was a day, one day in particular, and I remember thinking, honestly, this is the first time ever thought this. And I thought, I don't know if I fucking want to do this anymore. I don't know if I want to risk this happening again because it's fucking hard to train for so long and have something like that happen in front of lots of people. It fucking hurts the ego, man. It's painful, not just on the body, but on the mind as well. Even still, I feel like my spirit is a little bit hurt and I can't wait to come back and show everybody that that's not going to hold me back anymore. I still feel like I've got a lot to prove to myself and to everybody else that that's not me, the person who falls over with a bad leg. I feel like until I get back fighting and get some wins, I can't put that behind me fully. There definitely was some days where I was like, Fuck, is it worth doing this? And the answer is, yeah. I fucking love this sport. I absolutely love this sport. I live and breathe it.

I've sacrificed everything for this sport. My whole life has been geared towards where I am now and I fucking can't wait to just come back and just show everybody what I can do with two legs.

Well, I think everyone knows, Tom, that you're not the guy that fell down in that cage. It was a freak ing injury. But we have a lot of people that send in questions on this topic here. When you're going through those dark days and people can take a lot of inspiration from this, not through fighting, but just through... There's a big focus on mental health these days and a lot of people are suffering. A lot of people are in a rut, the feeling they've got no inspiration. But we're Northern lads and we don't talk about our feelings too much. But what stuff helped you to get out of that slump, if for want of a better word?

Well, I'm very lucky, me personally, because a lot of people are like the people who are around me and my dad and stuff and my wife and even my mom and my brother and stuff, they all believe in me. So I do have that light on my side massively. A lot of the time, my dad, he won't let me get down on the dumps about this stuff. He just won't let me. Simple as that. So when I'm feeling down, the people around me, they tend to pick me up. So I'm very lucky in that respect. Also, I think with me, because I've been through a lot of tough times as well before this. And to be honest, even tougher times I've been through. I've always had a goal and the goal has always been I want to make a career fighting people. That's what I want to do. I really want to do that. And what I'm referring to then mainly, Mike, is when I was 24 years old, I had three children. And when I say no money, I mean, I had fucking no money. From one week to the next, I didn't have anything.

And I remember when I found out I was having twins, well, when my wife found out she was having twins, loads of people, really close people were like, Look, what are you going to do now? You're going to get a job. Or, Are you going to have to stop fighting now, aren't you? And there were so many people literally, a lot of close people around me who thought that I couldn't do this anymore. And that belief in yourself and that goal and having that thing to work towards all the time, you've got to keep that in mind at all times. You have to. And I'm really lucky because not everybody has a goal. Not everybody has something like that. Not everybody has a target to work towards. And it's fucking difficult, man. You go through tough times and you got to think about the end goal.

It's funny, isn't it? Because they often say you've got to have a why. You know what I mean? A why are you doing this? And you having twins there, that is your why. Why you want to do this, why you want to become successful at it, become a champion and all the rest of it. But that was tearing you apart in two ways. The why could have been, well, now I've got to go get a real job. I've got to stop messing around. Or I'm going to continue and push even further because I know in my situation, people were talking shit about me. Some of my mates were like, What is he doing? Because I wasn't in your situation, but I just quit. I found out about what UFC was, I quit work and I was a bit of a knucklehead around town. I was like, What's he doing? He thinks he's hard. Now he's going to go off and become a professional fighter. He's not being a very good dad. Do you know what I mean? So yeah, no powerful words, Tom.

I've got a similar story actually. So someone who's close to my wife, a relative of my wife, just somebody who's close to her. I remember they were essentially saying, not in so many words, but they were essentially saying to her and to me, you need to sort yourself out. Or basically, not like this exactly, but she was basically saying that you need to look after your wife and your kids, basically, or someone else is going to do it. Essentially that because you've got no money, you're messing around, you're living on this fake dream thing. It's never going to happen, stuff like that. And recently, the same person has come to me and asked me for money recently because they want to borrow money off me. And it's fucking wild the way world works. And it's going to complete 360. It'll complete 180, sorry. And yeah, these people, they don't believe in you because a lot of the time, these people, they just don't... They've got a short mindset. They can't see the big picture and they can't dream and they can't believe that you can achieve the dreams like that. Like I say, I'm really lucky to have my old man around me and stuff like that who's always instilling me from a young age, look, this is what you're going to do and this is how you're going to do it and this is the plan.

And that's why this is mine and my dad's thing. And I'll always listen to my dad above anyone and everyone else.

That's why I always instill in my kids, dream big. And I don't think enough people are told that. And certainly, and again, we have in common from the part of the world where we're from, around our neck of the woods. You designed that you're just going to fit into the mould. In Clindro, people are born in Clindro, they work their entire life there and they die there. And don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that. And they have a very happy life, you know what I mean? But stepping outside of that box, breaking the mould, dreaming big, just daring to say it out loud, Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to fight in the UFC or I'm going to be an actor, or whatever it is that someone's saying that they want to do, it blows people's minds. And I think it's the people with a negative mindset that really potentially don't have the ability to do something like that, that they're the ones that want to shut those doors and shut down your hopes and dreams because they've got fuck all going on in their life as well.

Definitely. I completely agree. The other day, actually, I was driving around the estate, like a council estate, and I seen three girls I went to school with all walking together with prams, with fake design of coats on. And it just fucking sent shivers down my spine, to be honest with you. I was just like, That's exactly where they were supposed to be. Do you know what I mean? That's exactly what they were supposed to do. And like you say, even now, I look people in the eye and I say to them, look, I'm going to be the heavyweight champion of the world. And I think that some people, they don't know where to look. They don't know whether to laugh or not. They don't know whether I'm joking. And it's the same when I used to say, look, I'm going to be in the UFC. When I had three kids and I had basically no money, and I could hardly... I used to have to borrow money off people to get to the gym to train. And is like I used to say, look, I'm going to be in the UFC. I'm going to pay you back.

I'm going to pay you back and money's not going to be an issue for me one day. And I could see people almost rolling their eyes and being like, this dickhead, what's he talking about? He's going to end up working in the factory in six months. Like you say, I think we need to install it in our kids early. You can do whatever you want. And to be honest, that's one of the things that I hate about where I live. I absolutely love where I live. But the mentality of people here, it hurts me sometimes, the small minded mentality of people because there's so much talent that people have got, so many good things that people can do. But nobody... It's generational. People don't believe in themselves. People don't tell the kids that they can do stuff. People don't tell them that you're free to do whatever you want to do. You don't have to do just what your dad's done or your uncle's doing or whatever. You can do whatever you want to do. People don't believe it and people need to start believing.

It is generational, as you said. It's generational. It's just like the system. And when we're talking about small town mentalities, and I think based on... So also adding to that is there's not much opportunity around, you know what I mean? Whereas the standard, it's not even nine to five, it's more like fucking six till five, or 6 AM till six PM working in factories and all the rest of you doing manual labour. That's just what working class lads are destined to do. And that's what everyone else does. And when you can be brave enough to speak up and try and step outside of that mould, that's where you get attacked or people... Not attacked, that's far too strong a word. But where you get a little criticism. And as I say, often that's based in not jealousy, again, that's too strong, but a little bit of envy there as well. But still, as you said, fantastic part of the world. But I love it daily. I miss it daily. I miss the people. And as you said, so many talented people, you know what I mean? The sense of humour in some people and the skill and the wittiness and just the overall people in general.

Beautiful Tommy, like you. Anyway, right. Well, that all got a bit deep, didn't it?

It did. It's usually the last one this place. It's because Anthony Smith isn't here, you see. Bringing the humour. He's usually bringing the humour. Where is he anyway? He's in camp, isn't he? He's in camp.

It's just like you turning for a fight. How dare he put in his hopes and dreams first before we jump in on this little rinkie dink podcast. We had to call.

Tom Aspinall. Who's he.

Fighting now? Johnny Walker.

That's it. It's a good fight. It's a.

Good fight. Yeah, good fight. Give us a prediction. We'll let you go on that.

I think Anthony's going to beat him.

You've got to say that, haven't you? You've got to.

Say that. Well, I don't know Anthony that well. I've only spoken to him on here. I've never met him face to face. I don't know him. But I think Anthony's like gritty, isn't he? And it seems that... Although Johnny Walker is very dangerous, but I think Anthony's a veteran. I think that counts for a lot, doesn't it? If you've had a lot of tough fights and you know how to weather the storm and you know how to control your energy and you don't get too excited when you get someone hurt and you don't panic too much when you get hurt, I think that counts for a lot. And I think Anthony's got a lot of that in him and I think he can.

Win, definitely. Well, he's the better martial artist without question. Without question, he's a better martial artist. But Johnny Walker is just a dangerous man in terms of unpredictability, explosions, and just sheer power. That makes him dangerous. But in terms of technical ability, Anthony's got it all day long. Tom, great talking to you, mate. Always a pleasure to tell your dad I say hello and hopefully see you in person soon, my brother.

Gentlemen, thanks for having me as always. And have a lovely... Well, it's evening and I don't know what time it.

Is it's out on the same time zone, 8 PM. It's nonstop work for me, Tom. I've been at.

It all day.

I'm.

Doing this.

Have a.

Lovely day. Have a lovely.

Day, Harry. I'm off to a movie set. I'm going to be going to 6 o'clock in the morning. That's Northwest work ethic for you.

The guy is not giving up yet.

I'm not seeing a pound note. I didn't want to pick up. Take it easy, Tom. See you later, buddy. There he is, Tom Aspinall. Can't wait for the return. Hopefully it's in July, but whenever it is, listen, I think the man will be a champion one day, without question. He's got all the makings, but more importantly, the physical tools, but the mindset. And especially when you speak to him in-depth like that. And he opens up a bit about the journey that he's been on. It's very, very inspiring.

Yeah, it's absolutely incredible. I am so psyched for that card. And it is awesome. Tom is a big enough star in the UK to carry a London card all day long. And that's exciting for UKMMA, for sure.

Oh, absolutely it is. Listen, there's two shows that he mentioned there. That's mainstream TV, Question of Sport. I remember watching Question of Sport with my dad when I was a kid. You know what I mean? So he's breaking down barriers. Of course, he's had two main events in the UK. Is it two or three. Yeah, two, I believe. Two main events. So a lot of exposure. And no doubt it is going to continue. Listen, we're not doing questions today. If you want to send one in though for the next show with myself and Antony and all the boys, send them into bynp odgmail. Com. We will answer them then. But until then, that is the end of the show. You guys be well. Take care. Howington.

If you're watching on i2 Spotify or... Sorry, if you're listening on iT oot Spotify, we're a very fun podcast. Make sure to subscribe to the show. Leave a five star rating positive review to help us out on those platforms. If you're watching on YouTube, make sure to subscribe to the channel. Hit the notification bell to find out whenever a new episode drops. Make sure you hit the like button on this video. And if you want to catch over 400 episodes, you can't find anywhere else. Completely ad free and untencored, head to the brand new gas digital. Com. Use the promo code BY and get yourself a seven day free trial. Check out over 20 great shows on the network.

Yes, well said. We appreciate you all. We're almost at 200,000 subscribers on YouTube. Come on, geez Louise, what are you doing? Enjoy your weekends. Thank you for watching. We'll be back Monday with a stacked show with Anthony. He'll be back as well and we'll have a couple of guests. Be well. Take care. All the best.