Transcribe your podcast
[00:00:01]

Fill her up. You're listening to the gas digital network.

[00:00:06]

Conceive, believe, achieve. Shut the up.

[00:00:10]

You're listening to believe you me with.

[00:00:13]

Michael the Count Bisbing and Anthony Lionheart Smith.

[00:00:18]

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the believe you me podcast. And I am very honored and privileged to be joined by the one and only president awesome, the founder of Karate Combat. What's up, my brother? Nice to finally talk to you.

[00:00:32]

No, it's a pleasure, man. I've been waiting for this for a long time. So to be face to face over the phone with you is an honor.

[00:00:39]

First of all, karate combat, I absolutely love this. I do. I haven't seen a full event, but I've seen all the clips online and I love what you've created. Talk to me about how karate combat came to be in the first place.

[00:00:53]

So, actually, what's interesting, a lot of people don't know this. Karate combat has been around for about five years now, so they were throwing events constantly. And over the course of five years, they got a lot of traction from the traditional karate fans, but they never broke through into the combat sports fans. So that was the reason for them bringing me on. Since I have a very large background and many years in this sport, they want to break through to MMA fans, combat sports fans, and get mainstream. So I've only been in charge of the last two events now. So I've only been in charge last three months. And you can see the big difference now. Now the social clips, you can't miss it. It's all over social media. All the MMA superstars are showing up to our shows. We got Dean Thomas working with us. So it's a pleasure. Now.

[00:01:36]

Yeah, no, listen, it's the social media clips that I've seen, and when I see them, I'm like, this looks awesome. It really does. Obviously, I love combat sports, of course, but I just love. Because everyone's trying to find the new thing. I mean, UFC set in stone, mixed martial arts is what it is. And everyone, for a long time, I've always been trying to reinvent the wheel and do something different. But this is something, I won't say unique, but it just looks cool, man. I love the.

[00:02:04]

What do you call it?

[00:02:05]

Is it the pit? The fighting pit? The pit is awesome. They run up, they jump off that. It's incredible, man.

[00:02:13]

It is. And it makes for such a great viewing experience because many times I love the cage in my gym. I have a cage in my gym. But it's very hard to film, very hard to see when you're a spectator, actually. When you're close to the cage, it's even harder to see sometimes with all the poles and stuff. So it's such a great experience. If you're ever in a show live, which I believe you're coming to our next show live, right. You'll be able to have a great experience and look inside the pit. Well, yeah.

[00:02:39]

Well, you were kind enough to invite me to your next show down in Mexico. So, I mean, listen, I love a good night out. I love a good reason to go to Mexico City, and I love karate combat, even though I haven't seen it. So thank you very much. Who will be competing on that card?

[00:02:56]

You're going to love it, man. So we have a bunch of UFC vets as well as some homegrown athletes, too. So just to name a few, we have Alejandro Flores. He's going to be competing on the card. He's one of the mexican heroes. He's a UFC vet as well. Goyito is another mexican superstar. He's a UFC vet. Raphael Alves fought in the UFC. Very athletic guy from Brazil, if you guys remember. He has some viral clips of him moving his head. Crazy. So he's going to be fighting Efren Escudero, who was an ultimate fighter, one of the first mexican fighters in UFC, and then some homegrown athletes. Also, we have Shazay Brint, who is one of our biggest stars right now. Coming up, he became a national hero in Pakistan. Look, as you know, karate combat has a lot of viewership right now. A lot of attention going to the athletes. So he actually, in just one fight, he has stadiums filled in Pakistan of people watching him fight now. It's pretty tremendous. And karate combat signed a tv deal in Asia because of him, purely because of him. So he's one of our homegrown stars that are coming up.

[00:03:58]

That's amazing. Congratulations on all your success, and fingers crossed, I'll see you down there in Mexico City. Loyoto Mashida, he's competed on there for a few times.

[00:04:08]

Right? So, Leoto. Leoto, GSP, Basrudin, wonder boy, Thompson, these are all the names of our ambassadors, the one that are behind karate combat, that helps us structure the event and helps brand the event and really make sure that we stay true to the karate traditions and martial arts traditions and values. So they're more of. Think of them as ambassadors of the sport.

[00:04:31]

Okay, got you. For anyone that hasn't seen it, I looked up the rule set online on your website. Just explain the actual rules because I saw in some of the clips people hitting the ground and then people following up with shots. And I thought, this is mixed martial arts, this isn't karate. But then when I looked up the rule set, I kind of learned a little bit, but I'll allow you to explain to everybody watching.

[00:04:52]

So there's a mentality in karate where they do allow, or they teach a strike on the ground and they teach more effective strikes on the ground. But with the karate point system that's going on, the sport of karate kind of weakened, man, and the point fighting kind of ruined what karate used to be. It was a real martial art at one time. So karate combat's objective is sort of to bring back and solidify karate in the martial arts space, in the combat sports space. So we have the ground and pound. Now, here's the rules behind the ground and pound. You're allowed to ground a pound as long as you're continuously, effectively striking. So if somebody wraps you up, we stop it, we stand you back up, or if somebody kicks you off, we stop it, we stand you back up. So it keeps the action going and it maintains itself as a striking art. But we allow that realistic component where you can finish a guy on the ground.

[00:05:40]

No, that's amazing. I really do enjoy it. And it's funny you talk about karate there and the point karate stuff, because I did a little bit when I was a Kid. I don't know if you'll know of this guy. He was a big deal in the UK. His name was Alfie Lewis. He was a very, well, worldwide respected. What was the name of the organized Fska or Iska? I forget it, whatever. Anyway, so I went along and I competed in a few of these and it was the most frustrating shit, know, because I'd be there ready to go, and then this guy just like flicked.

[00:06:12]

Me points and I'm like, what the.

[00:06:15]

I'm ready to go.

[00:06:16]

This is bullshit. So I'll tell you this, it gets even worse. So please, when you get a chance after this call, go on YouTube. All the fans watch it. Go on YouTube and watch the gold medal match in a karate point fighting. So the guy that got knocked out won the gold medal. He got kicked in the. He ran into a kick, he got kicked in the head too hard. So they disqualified the guy that kicked him and he got silver. So imagine he wakes up in the hospital after being concussed and has a gold medal in the Olympics. Like, it's so absurd. So we're sort of protesting against that because look, we love boxing. We love Moitai. I love all martial arts. But in reality, many times, because the takedown aspect is not in boxing or Moitai, it's unrealistic. You get away with a lot of unrealistic strikes that you can't do in a real fighting situation. Karate combat is interesting since you're allowed to score a takedown. You're actually seeing mma striking like a complete form, if that makes sense. Right? Because all the techniques being used would work in a real fight.

[00:07:12]

So the idea is, let's get away from the point fighting stuff, and let's make karate real again. Let's legitimize karate again. And that's sort of the karate revolution. We're going, yeah, okay.

[00:07:22]

I mean, because karate is a deadly martial art. It's a very famous art. And of course, guys like Anderson Silva, Leoto Machida, they were kind of, what's the word I'm looking for? There was kind of a comeback, wasn't there, in the Mashida era? There was a big comeback for karate, but it's kind of drifted off a little bit. What's your background? Why are you so passionate about this? Tell me a bit about yourself, please.

[00:07:47]

Okay, so this is pretty know. I started martial arts when I was three years old. My father was my coach. My mother, father, and uncles were all competitors. And sort of my father looked at learning the martial arts as university, so he invested in me training with some of the greatest coaches in the world. You're going to recognize all their names. I took countless privates with the co founder of Jiu jitsu, elu Gracie. I started jiu jitsu when I was ten years old. I was doing shoticon karate before that. I got my black belt from Hoyt Gracie Hoyce sent me to GSP. I trained with Tristar Frazz the hobby for many years.

[00:08:15]

Wow.

[00:08:16]

And then frazz the hobby, GSP, sent me to John Denner at Henzo Gracie. And then I finally opened up my own MMA team. We've been around for four years. We have 108 wins, eleven losses, 90% win ratio. We're the most controversial, viral MMA team on social media. But that's where it all started. And the idea was this, with karate combat, they're like, look, we need the eyes on us. We need someone to disrupt these things, and we need someone that knows about combat sports. So they saw that I had this unique ability to promote these new fighters and get eyes on them on social media, and they're like, wait, if we get this guy and he can put eyes on our athletes, we can promote our know how we want. And that was the idea behind it. So my job, essentially, as president, is to get the eyes on these athletes, promote them, push them, and thank God it's working, because in only two events, I'm sitting across to Michael Bisby on my phone, actually. Right? Not sitting across.

[00:09:07]

Come on. Hey, listen, that is a legit background.

[00:09:11]

You know what I mean?

[00:09:12]

I'm sitting there feeling like a fraud talking to you. That's incredible. And then when you said the guy won the gold medal from getting knocked out, I instantly went to. Everyone online is going to be saying, oh, just kind of like Michael Bisby when he got knocked out against Anderson silva, but then still went on to win the fight.

[00:09:30]

I didn't get knocked out, you bastard. You did, man. You did. It was unbelievable. It was unbelievable. Oh, dear, dear.

[00:09:37]

So the team that you're talking about, for those that don't know, is the goat shed.

[00:09:41]

That's in Miami, right? Yes, in Miami. In Miami. So it's a unique place.

[00:09:46]

What makes it the most controversial team?

[00:09:48]

What is so controversial? Purposefully, when I first opened the gym, I had zero credibility as a coach. I had one pro, four amateurs. I had no credibility. And I was such a young coach, even though I'm bald, I'm 33 years old, so I'm still a decently young coach and definitely a young president. So when I opened up a lot of the competitive gyms, they didn't give me credit, and they spoke pretty badly of me. So I said, you know what? Let me figure out a way to get this gym going viral to promote my athletes so I can get them more active and make a name for my athletes in my gym. And I just came up with, I had no idea that I could do this, but I'm a decently creative guy. I came up with a lot of crazy content ideas, and I would just post and post and post. And very quickly, Jogan actually followed us on our third month of opening, which is pretty cool. And a lot of huge names in the sports started following us and supporting us, and then it grew. Right now, we have 34 pros fighting across the world.

[00:10:44]

We have UFC fighters. We actually have a fighter fighting under the comaine event in Mexico City February 24. Francisco Prado. So he's right under Brian Ortega. So the gym is doing phenomenal, but it was all based off passion. We feed 15 fighters three meals a day. We house them, we take care of them, we pay for training camps. Currently, I'm in Mexico City. We have a small house I rented for my athletes to prepare for the know, we got them a cook, a driver, all this stuff. And the presidency from karate, combat has enabled me to really fuel the passion that these guys have for fighting and allow the dreams to come true and guide.

[00:11:24]

It's. It really is amazing because now, I mean, obviously the sport of mixed martial arts and combat sports, boxing has been around for hundreds of years, but with promotions like yours and of course the UFC and all the other promotions, people have a real opportunity to earn their lives around because not everybody's good at going to school and getting a college degree or whatever the case may be.

[00:11:45]

You know what I mean?

[00:11:45]

But there's a lot of people that are good at martial arts, and now with guys like yourself and of course, everything that I just mentioned, there's a real opportunity and a real avenue to make something of themselves through the martial arts.

[00:11:58]

Definitely. And that's what's unique also about the gym. Not to just bring it back to goat shut every time, but just so you guys have a background, please. Obviously, I make viral content. I try to be controversial to get the eyes on these athletes, and it's worked very well. But the scenes behind it, right? Like, behind all the exotic cars and jewelry and all that crap that I post, that's Bs. There's, like, a true heart behind it. There's true passion behind it. Because most of my athletes don't speak a lick of English when they come to my gym. Not one know they're all immigrants. Their families are back home, and within a year, they can get on their feet. They can bring their children from whatever country, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, wherever it is. They can bring their children, they can bring their wives. They can make a life for themselves in America. And that american dream that everyone speaks of is sort of a reality. I go, should I get to see? Know? Just to give you an example, I had a kid. He was living my gym for so long from Mexico, he would cry.

[00:12:53]

His dream is just to buy his mother a home, take care of her because she works so much and she has nothing. This kid just fought three fights in one night, made $100,000 in combat global in Mexico. That's like 2 million pesos. He completely changed his life. Absolutely. And that guy's living in my gym, eating Microwaved meals, three meals a day. Microwave meals. So it's just fascinating to see all these wonderful people from different countries come in and they can sort of change their lives, and they have a chance at this dream. That's not easy. You're fighting the scariest men on earth. Oh, yeah.

[00:13:27]

No, it's not easy. I had no idea there was that kind of money in combat.

[00:13:31]

It. Yeah. Well, in the cups, where you fight three times in one night. Yeah. It's $100,000. Wow.

[00:13:38]

Incredible. Incredible. You were talking about the cars and all the rest of it, and then when I joined your live, you were like, Bisbin, we got to get you to an event. I saw you promoting some wild party at a big house in Miami. I was like, we're going to Miami. We're going to the party. And then like, no, you're going international. You're going through the borders. I got to do all that shit.

[00:13:58]

And fly to Mexico.

[00:13:59]

I'm very grateful, by the way. I've never been to Miami, and I'm thought, we're going to Miami, baby.

[00:14:04]

Let's go, man. Well, I got to tell you. Look, I'll tell you what happened. This was Dean Thomas. He told me this. So when I threw the Las Vegas card, was the first card I've ever thrown in my life. I was the new president. The card before I was involved in, but I didn't create Las Vegas was from scratch. My turn to do it as the new president. I was very nervous, but I pulled it off to a major degree with Anthony Pettis, Benson Henderson. The trilogy and the undercard was phenomenal. Everyone loved it. All the superstars from UFC were there. The UFC execs were there. We've actually locked the deal down to partner with them. So that's pretty cool that we're going to be working with the UFC. So all that stuff was good, right? But Dean took me to the side. Dean Thomas told me, Dave, look, anybody can do one good event. Can you do the second one? Is what's going to say something about you? He's like, can you do it again? Or you're a one hit wonder. He terrified me with that, right? So I said, what the hell? What am I going to do?

[00:14:56]

How can I top Las Vegas? And I said, you know what? Let me go left field. Let me just do something no one's ever done. So I threw a celebrity mansion party at my mom's house.

[00:15:05]

That's the one I was talking about.

[00:15:07]

That's the one you're talking. So. And we advertised it as that. We said, look, come to President Awesome's mom's house. And the promo was me going to my mother and asking her permission to throw a party. And it was hilarious, and it was just like a spin off. And we had Rick Ross hosting it, and all the celebrities showed up. The fights were amazing. Police seven, eight police cars came to break it up. We were able to hold them off, and they allowed us to finish the event. Helicopters came. It was insane. So it was such a success. It solidified me in this position where, hey, again, I said it for the third time. I could talk to you.

[00:15:43]

Oh, no, for sure. No, listen, I could talk to you all day. Are you documenting all of this? Have you got some people following you around with a camera? Because this sounds like a wild reality tv show.

[00:15:54]

No, it's really crazy. So my gym is a psychopath place. I'll tell you this. All the misfits, the people that don't fit in in different backgrounds, they find me. I become their coach. For whatever reason. It just seems to be the trend. Somebody that doesn't fit in the gym is the outcast. He usually finds me and fits in perfectly in our gym. And it's a troubled place because of that. There's a lot of unbelievable content there because I have a bunch of psychopaths living together. So it's pretty cool we have somebody filming us three years straight of everything that goes on in the gym. And now with karate combat. After my first event, the founders behind karate combat were like, dude, we don't know why, but crazy shit follows you. So we filmed the behind the scenes of this Miami party. We're about to release it. I would say it's going to be released in about two more days. We're editing it. Mean I have to take out a lot of uncensored parts, unfortunately, because it's still karate and I have to maintain values. But, man, if I could show an uncensored version, it would be even.

[00:16:57]

Onlyfans would turn me away.

[00:16:59]

I'm sure there's a lot of people that want it censored. I'm sure there's a lot of people that went there, had a few drinks, forgot the cameras were rolling.

[00:17:06]

You know what? Get that out of the tape. Oh, God.

[00:17:12]

I had no idea that you partnered with the UFC. I had no idea at all. Talk to me about that.

[00:17:16]

So basically what happened? Know, our organization is very interesting. We're free everywhere. We don't have a paywall, so there's no pay per view. There's nothing like that. You can watch us free on YouTube, free on Facebook, on our app. And because of that, our viewership has absolutely skyrocketed since my team and I have joined. We have four x in viewership. So our last event did in Vegas was over 40 million views across platform. Wow. Which are crazy numbers. But that's also because we have an advantage. We don't have a pay per view thing. That event. The hype was so high that a lot of the UFC execs hit us up the day before, like, yo, can we put this on bypass? And we're like, dude, we'll give it to you guys for free, no problem. We'd love to work with the UFC. Unlike other organizations, they want to go head to head. They want to compete with the UFC. We have no intentions of that. We want to be the top striking league in the world, but we have no intentions of competing against organizations at all. Especially. Sorry about that. Especially because I coach in the UFC, so I definitely don't want to go against essentially my boss as.

[00:18:21]

Yeah. So we are on fight pass now, and we're trying to work a bigger deal going past fight pass and working as well with the UFC. Amazing.

[00:18:30]

Talk to me. Somebody said to me on Twitter, I got to ask this question. The event's taking place in Mexico, right?

[00:18:39]

Yes.

[00:18:39]

It's not mma. Do they have athletic commissions in Mexico? And can people with one eye compete against some of the best karate fighters on the goddamn planet? I need something to do.

[00:18:54]

I'm going out of my mind. Dude, you're shocking me right now. Of course we would love. That would be insane. Yeah, no problem, man. Holy shit.

[00:19:03]

Can we reel out an old guy? Can we find a really old pensioner?

[00:19:08]

Let me tell you something. You have more hair follicles than I do, so don't call yourself old. You're looking far better than me.

[00:19:15]

I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Hey, I'll do a little karate.

[00:19:18]

I'll get involved. Let's go. We're talking about this after the podcast.

[00:19:22]

100% budy. 100%.

[00:19:24]

Who's your dream fight? What dream fight would you have? Do you have a matchup?

[00:19:29]

I don't know who you got on the roster? Let's do that rematch with GSP. Son of a bitch. I owe him one. No wrestling, no rear naked chokes. I'm joking, of course, but maybe a little bit serious. Maybe a little bit dear. So, Mexico, what was the main event again?

[00:19:51]

So the main event is a mexican fighter named Goyito. He's fighting one of our vets, actually, a guy that's been entitled to. It's. It's a pretty good fight as far as having a homegrown athlete from ours fighting a UFC vet. So that's sort of what we want. We want the highest level strikers in the world. So we want to make sure that all of our athletes can fight amongst the highest level. So this is sort of a test, right, for our homegrown athlete to see how he can handle. Yeah.

[00:20:21]

And I look forward to being there. One of the reasons this kind of got on my radar was because of Baz Rutin. I mean, anybody that knows Baz Rutin absolutely loves this guy.

[00:20:31]

What?

[00:20:32]

Just a legend of martial arts in general, and just one of the nicest, funniest guys. So charismatic. What has Baz's role been? Has he always been a commentator and an ambassador?

[00:20:45]

So, yes, he has since the start. He's a chairman, he's an ambassador, he's a commentator. Boss Ruden is a very special person to me as well. So I brought boss to my gym. He spent time with my fighters. He's trained my fighters. We were flying to him as well. And he's important to me for a number of reasons. One, he really understands the values of the martial art while still being the savage he is. And that's an important thing to talk about, because a lot of old school karate dojos, man, a lot of them end up being Mac dojos. They just don't have real fighters. So he's an example of, okay, we have these traditions. We have the spirit of the martial arts, all that stuff. But at the same time, we fight for real. We know how to train for real. We know what it takes. We know a fighter's mentality. Sometimes, hey, interviews might get a little more savage. It might not be that traditional martial arts mentality of being humble and soft spoken. You might have some psychopaths that are really extroverted. So he understands the balance. So he really keeps me under control, where I can go to him and ask him advice if I'm ever troubled about something, if there's a question about how I'm marketing something, I always go to him for approval.

[00:21:49]

And he's been such a supporter, absolute supporter with me.

[00:21:53]

Yeah, no, he's an absolute legend. Always been a huge fan. You mentioned, like, mcDojo's there in this modern day and age. It's crazy to me that there's still, and I don't want to be disrespectful to all martial arts. I don't. I really don't. But there's a lot of charlatans out there, and it's crazy that in this day and age, where it's clearly evident what works and what doesn't work. And I understand that there's still a lot of good that can come from being in that community and having the sense of discipline and respect and all the rest of it. But there's also just a lot of people that are showing shit that are going to get people seriously hurt.

[00:22:30]

Agreed. Agreed. And it's a problem when you see a nine year old walking around with a black belt.

[00:22:35]

It's kind of.

[00:22:37]

It makes everyone.

[00:22:39]

That's what used to piss me off when I used to go to the karate tournaments. There was five or six year olds walking around with a black belt. When I was younger and I did a japanese jujitsu. That's how I started, and I was very good. I was kind of like a prodigy, if you will. The main guy in the organization always took a special shine to me, but he wouldn't give me a black belt, even though he said, you deserve one, but I won't give you one until you're 16, he said, because the human mind cannot possibly learn enough at that age. But then you see these five, six, seven year olds walking around with black belts, and it just undermines the whole process.

[00:23:15]

It really does, man. And that's something that I want to change. To be honest. What I'm trying to pitch eventually that I would love is for us to have karate combat approved dojos so we can go to these karate combat dojos and be like, hey, this is approved. If you want to learn how to fight for real, you want to learn karate that actually works in a real life situation, this is the dojo to go to. I think we should start having these different places approved so people can know where they have to train. Because, look, if you want to look at the highest level fighters in the world, you have to look at MMA right now. You have to. It's the most evolved, complete form of combat sports right now. And when you look at it, every MMA gym is going to have a muay Thai coach, a wrestling coach, and a. That's usually what it is, right? Nobody has a karate coach, a wrestling coach. So for me, that shows to me that right now, all the eyes are on moi. Thai boxing. Okay, I lost you for a second.

[00:24:09]

Yeah, sorry, budy, you were breaking up a second there.

[00:24:12]

My bad. No problem. Okay, so that shows to me the fact that all these gyms have those muay Thai coaches shows to me that the respect right now in the eyes and very well deserved, is to the moitai, not to the karate. They would not even think about that. So my objective is, hey, how can I, in five years, evolve this sport and this martial arts so much that, hey, a gym like american top team or a gym that you train at yourself, Tristar. All these huge MMA gyms say, you know what? We need a karate combat coach over here because he can teach us strikes with takedowns. He can teach us effective boxing on the ground, ground and pound on the ground. We need somebody like that. And that's my objective. I want it to be respected by everybody in the combat sports world.

[00:24:50]

So you're an entrepreneur, you're a businessman. I can see you. I can already see. This is the new version of the Gracie jiu jitsu realm. The karate combat gyms are coming. They're taking over. And then we're going to do into dojo storming. Okay, never mind. Karate combat dojo storming live on YouTube.

[00:25:11]

You did it. You did it. This is my first promo. I'm going to cut this up. Listen to me right now. You're going to absolutely love this. So like you said, there needs to be a camera filming. Twenty four seven, right? So we're investing on a new YouTube channel we're going to put out, and our series is going to be dojo storming. That's the series. And we're going to storm different gyms, different dojos, from the Max dojos to the most legit places. I'm going to bring fighters, we're going to spar. We're not going to tell them we're coming. We're storming the dojo, and we're going to see who's legit and who's not. So you are. Damn right. The Gracie challenge is, oh, I see.

[00:25:44]

I love that. But one, I mean, that's awesome for me, but one could interpret that as assault. You run into a gym, there's you and all you UFC fights are like, let's get them, boys.

[00:25:55]

Let's see what they're made of.

[00:25:56]

And it's like a bunch of old women and kids and they're like, dad, help.

[00:26:02]

Yeah, definitely.

[00:26:05]

Well, listen, I'm looking forward to being there in Mexico City. Do me a favor. Shoot me your number and we'll connect better and we'll arrange it. But all the best with everything. Congrats on everything you've done, because what you've achieved in such a short time is phenomenal. I'm a huge fan and I can't wait to go to my first show.

[00:26:22]

Love it, love it. It was such a pleasure, man. Thank you. Thank you for helping us promote this art. No, dude, I love it.

[00:26:28]

I really do. Best of luck and we'll talk soon.

[00:26:30]

Yes, sir.

[00:26:32]

Today's episode is brought to you by eight sleep, which is the high tech solution to your age old sleeping issues. Eight sleep's podcuffer slips right over your mattress, bringing heating and cooling technology that keeps you comfortable and sleeping deeper for a better, more restful night's sleep. Listen, I say it every time and I really mean it. I love the eight sleep. It is fantastic if you struggle with the temperature in the night, if your wife wants it too hot and you want it a little bit cooler, okay, this will solve all of those issues. Sleep science has shown that in order to sleep your best, the body temperature needs to drop in the early and the middle part of the sleep and then rise in the morning. So the pod will improve your sleep by automatically adjusting your bed's temperature based on your individual needs. The COVID can be added to any bed, like a fitted sheet, and allows you and your partner to cool or warm your side of the bed as low as 55 degrees and up to a whopping 110 degrees. In addition to keeping you at the perfect temperature all the night, the pod also tracks your sleep and your health metrics.

[00:27:41]

And on average, pod users see their sleep quality improve by 32% after just a month using eight sleep. So there's no better way to improve your day than sleeping better. And the easiest way to do that is with the eight sleep pod three, start the new year right and invest in the rest that you deserve with the eight sleep pod cover. Trust me, you're going to love this thing. It's going to change your life right now. Go to eight sleep bisping to get $200 off, as well as free shipping. Eight sleep bisping, $200 off the eight sleep pod cover, $200 off freeshipping. Eight sleep bisping. All right, so there he is, president awesome. I'll tell you what, that guy is awesome. Karate combat is awesome as well. As I said, brian, he was doing a live. And I just jumped on because I started following him recently and started showing an interest in karate combat because the events look absolutely sensational, the production's fun. As I said, they got this, like, concave sides where the fighters run up it, jump off it and stuff like that. I'm like, this shit looks amazing. So I jumped on alive, and he was like, oh, Bispin's here.

[00:28:52]

Bispin, we're going to get you to an event. Do you want to come to Mexico City?

[00:28:55]

So I was like, you're going to.

[00:28:57]

Hook a brother up. You're going to send a first class ticket and a hotel room. He's like, yeah. I'm like, sign me up, brother. Let's go.

[00:29:05]

Yeah.

[00:29:05]

Those fights are great. I really like when if you're backing up from the other guy, you fall. So it's like a penalty instead of backing up to the cage.

[00:29:16]

As you've probably noticed by now, Mike Harrington is not with us today. We've decided to get rid of him once and for all.

[00:29:24]

He's fired.

[00:29:25]

He's fired. We're sick of it. We're joking. Of course. He had a bit of a family emergency. We're not going to go into details about his family. Everything's fine. No need to be overly concerned. But he had a bit of a family emergency, so he could have made the show today and he was beside himself with tears. He was very, very sad, very upset that he didn't get to speak to President Awesome.

[00:29:46]

I think he's trying to get press passes to karate combat events.

[00:29:50]

Is he really?

[00:29:51]

I think that's the plan. I think we're going to try to. Whenever they're on the east coast up here, we're going to go just get.

[00:29:58]

On alive and just request to go.

[00:30:01]

I didn't realize we had that much pull, but I am going to do that for sure.

[00:30:05]

A live Bym episode from Karate Combat. That actually would be pretty good. And I'll tell you what, it is the night before UFC Mexico. So it's going to be a fun weekend. I just got to figure out someone to go with. So anyway, welcome to the show, everybody. It's a proper now started in the general flow of things. Again, thank you to President Awesome Asim for taking the time. So what do we think is the biggest story that we need to break into?

[00:30:32]

It ain't. Go on, Brian.

[00:30:35]

Dana White was on Pat McAfee.

[00:30:37]

Oh, God.

[00:30:39]

I know.

[00:30:40]

It's crazy. It's crazy. Play the video.

[00:30:44]

Let's take a look. Yeah, so just. I'm a mark. Conor McGregor's fighting Chandler eventually. Yeah. Hopefully this I heard. I heard we got a date. We didn't have a date. Chandler's pushing for a date. People are pushing for a date. Connor said he knows a date. Everybody has a date. You're the guy that got to set the date. You should say the date. There is no date. Come on. I'm hoping for the fall. We get it done in the fall. The date.

[00:31:15]

The date. The date. When's that guy?

[00:31:18]

That guy's great.

[00:31:19]

I got to start watching him. Is it McAfee or McCaffey?

[00:31:23]

McAfee, I believe.

[00:31:24]

McAfee. Yeah.

[00:31:26]

Why? He's super paid. You know, he's very entertaining guy.

[00:31:29]

No, he's very entertaining. He's great. Yeah. So apparently hoping to get it done before the end of the year, probably fall, autumn for the listeners and just, I think it was yesterday or the day before I saw an interview or I saw a tweet or something about McGregor saying, get the effing date, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What did he say? Harrington put it in the notes.

[00:31:50]

He's a little about it.

[00:31:53]

Sorry.

[00:31:54]

Let me find it. He said, get this date set.

[00:31:58]

Pretty much the date. The date again? Yeah, it's all about the date. Weird. I mean, listen, obviously they've got a good reason.

[00:32:08]

Right.

[00:32:08]

But I don't know what that is. I have no idea. I have no inside scoop. I haven't had these conversations that they don't need to run it by me or anything like that. Of course, I literally have no idea why it would be because I think he got back in the testing pool in October.

[00:32:23]

Right.

[00:32:23]

So that wouldn't be an issue.

[00:32:25]

Right.

[00:32:27]

He seemingly wants to fight.

[00:32:29]

I mean, he talks about it literally every time he talks in public.

[00:32:33]

The UFC will want Conor to fight. Know, let's be honest, he used Paddy Pimlett's terminology. He's the cash cow. He's the biggest star. He drives the most revenue and pay per view sales by far. It's not even close. So I wonder. I should have maybe pondering so loudly on a public podcast, but there's got to be a reason. You know what I mean?

[00:32:56]

Has some speculation here where he says please. Apparently there's been some rumors on the Internet here, but maybe Leon Edwards next title defense is at 175 and the UFC opens up a 165 pound division, essentially for Conor McGregor. That's the Internet, millings.

[00:33:16]

Yeah, but didn't John and Annek come out and put those rumors to bed and say that this is just literally a few people on the Internet?

[00:33:23]

It is.

[00:33:23]

Heard nothing of the sort.

[00:33:26]

There is literally no official word on it. Yeah, it's just a thought that the Internet has been putting out and a.

[00:33:32]

Lot of thoughts get put on the Internet. You certainly can't believe them. I kind of like that, though, if I'm honest. A 55. Well, 2535-4555-6575-8525 I think that makes a lot of sense. Dana spoke about it recently and said he was against that and he didn't want to do that. I'm not sure what the reasoning was, but I kind of like it. If I'm honest, I'm sure he's got a very good reason. He built the UFC to what it is today. I certainly didn't do that, you know what I mean? So I'm sure he knows a thing or two about running a successful business, but from my p brain, it seems like that would only be a good thing because you can have more champions, more champions, more superstars, more belts, more interesting fights for pay per views and stuff like that.

[00:34:22]

Sure. Do you run into the same problem that boxing does, then, where you have one guy holding four division belts because he can hit every one of those weights? Is that maybe the reason why Dana doesn't want to do it?

[00:34:33]

Yeah, I have no idea, but I don't think that's necessarily going to be the issue because if you think about it, we haven't seen 25, 35, 45 all dominated and run by the same person, or even 35 and 45. I don't even think there's ever been a double weight champ that low. Yes, we've had 45 and 55 with McGregor, but I don't know. I don't think that's the reason, and I don't know if that's the reason why this fight isn't going ahead.

[00:34:57]

Right.

[00:34:57]

Maybe there's something going on with Connor that we don't know about. Maybe just him saying, set an echoing date and all the rest of it is a bit of public posturing, but I literally, literally have no idea. But I'll tell you what, it is a little frustrating. And I say frustrating, I mean, as a fan, as a fan, because we always say this, and sometimes we might take the piss out of Connor and whatever, because he says a lot of wild shit, but he's entertaining as hell. He is.

[00:35:22]

When you put yourself out there, people take a piss on you.

[00:35:26]

Yeah, well, they don't take our piss.

[00:35:28]

I know that's not the phrase.

[00:35:31]

No, but listen, I used to be kind of emotionally influenced by some of the comments, I would say, but I'm totally over all that stuff now because McGregor used to get on my tits.

[00:35:43]

You know what I mean?

[00:35:43]

Because he came after me in the public and he said a lot of shit, so sometimes I might let my emotions skew my take. He's entertaining. He's good for the sport. He's the biggest star. So as a fan, I say it's frustrating because I just want to see him back in there and I need some shit to talk about for the podcast for my YouTube channel. And make no mistake, when McGregor's involved, there's plenty of shit to talk about for sure.

[00:36:06]

And we've been getting baited on this.

[00:36:07]

Fight since tough horror Michael Chandler has.

[00:36:11]

I mean, Jesus Christ, that dude is patient.

[00:36:15]

I mean, Michael Chandler, he's got the patience of a saint. Granted, multi million dollar payday that's going to give you, you know, and if you've waited this long, if you've waited this long, then another little bit of a delay, so what? So be it. And we've had this conversation before, but at what point do you say, book me another fight? I can't do this, know, because there has to come a.

[00:36:41]

I mean, like.

[00:36:42]

You said before, is the payday worth the mean? A main event versus Conor McGregor is going to be worth more than whatever your contract is against somebody.

[00:36:53]

No, no. Without question, without mean. Chandler's one of the most exciting that we've got in the sport. Every time he competes, it's fight of the night, fight of the year. Him and Justin Gagey, even Charles Oliveira, Dustin Poyer, those fights were sensational. And he's not getting any younger either. I think he's 36, 37. McGregor's not getting any younger. It's like we were talking about on Monday, though. We were talking, me and Anthony, we were talking about having the amount of money that you can amass when you get to the level of a Conor McGregor or a Floyd Mayweather or somebody like know. And do you still really want to fight? Because at this point, and I'm not saying he doesn't, but at this point, it's going to be over three years, three and a half years. If we get to the end of the year. That's a lot of time.

[00:37:38]

And not only that, but he already has. I'm sure his money is making him money. I'm sure he's not waiting for a paycheck from anybody.

[00:37:45]

No, there's no, obviously the forged irish style that seems to be blowing up. Then you've got the proper twelve stuff. He's got fingers in pies, he's got pubs, he's got restaurants. Yeah, no, he doesn't need that money. It's like we said on Monday, though, he needs that thrill. Needs the thrill. All right. This episode is sponsored by Price Peaks, which is the largest independently owned daily fantasy sports platform in North America. And they are the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports dfs, it's just you against the numbers. Instead of battling thousands of other players, including pros and sharks, you just pick more or less than the numbers. It really is that easy. Look, this weekend we have another tremendous fight card and you can get in on the action. Joel Piper in his first ever main event, will he land over or under 40.5 significant strikes? I say over. Although he does hit like harder than Francis Nganu Rodolfo Vieira. He's a highly accredited jiu jitsu master. Will he land over or under 2.5 takedowns? And Gregory Rodriguez Robocop. Will he land over or under 55.5 significant strikes? Okay, it is that easy.

[00:39:05]

There is quick withdrawals, easy gameplay, and an enormous section of players and stat types are what make price picks the number one daily fantasy sports app. Price Peaks also offers Apple Pay for quick and easy deposits into your account, whether it's UFC or football that you want to bet on. So please check this out. You can 25 x your money. So what more are you waiting for? Of course the website go to pricepix.com believe and use the code believe for a deposit first match of up to $100. As I said, pricepix.com believe. Use the code believe for a first deposit match of up to $100. Anyway, enough about that. Elia Topordia, Alexander Volkanovsky. That goes down next week. I'm very, very excited for that fight card. Top to bottom, everyone's talking about 299. I tell you what, UFC 298 is phenomenal. Elia Saporia is the undefeated challenger. I think he's 14 and 14 and twelve finishes. Ridiculous skill set from top to bottom. Started off as a Greco Roman wrestler when he was a kid. Beautiful karate, excellent jujitsu, slick boxing. Some of the best boxing that we've got in all of the UFC, in my humble opinion.

[00:40:21]

And he is not being humble one little bit. What is the exact quote that he's saying, Brian? Because I can't bloody read because these concept lenses are driving me crazy again.

[00:40:30]

So Toporius says he's going to beat Volkanovsky so bad they won't offer him a rematch, and that the other top contenders, in the vision that Volk is beaten, might as well retire because he's not giving them a title shot. That is a lot of shit to be talking when you have Alexander Volkanovsky as your next opponent.

[00:40:46]

Yeah, no, it is. And it doesn't make sense either, because you want to advertise yourself as maybe he's just talking shit for the sake of it. And he probably is.

[00:40:54]

Sure.

[00:40:54]

Because Brian Ortega, sorry. Yay, Rodriguez and all these guys, they'd be great matchups for him if he wins. And it's a big if, as would Max Holloway, of course, but Volkanovsky came out and he said, hold on, eye adjustment 793. He said he's already acting like he's the champion and thinks he's this. He literally thinks that he's some superstar already. Oh, mate, that's all going to change February 17, Mike, and he's going to have a rude shock. Yeah, he's going to have to literally eat a big humble pie and I get to do that. That's my perfect storyline for my fight right now. Mate, that's a terrible australian accent, so I apologize.

[00:41:35]

But Volk coming off a loss and the way he was talking about it, he know I was down, I was drinking every day. If he comes in focused, Ila Tuporia might very much regret all the shit he's talking.

[00:41:49]

I think when you look at them on paper and you assess their skills right, grappling wise. All right, Toporia's got tremendous takedowns. We've seen that. We've seen know. I just said a moment ago, he's been Greco Roman wrestling from a very, very early age. He's got a great double leg takedown. He explodes from halfway across the octagon and he still manages to get it. So he's got great technique and great explosive ability. Got to remember, Volkanovsky just fought Islam twice in a row. And in the first one, where he had a full camp, he gave Islam everything he could handle. He was able to nullify almost everything. He was able to get his own takedowns. He was able to drop him. He was able to win it on some of the public scorecards. Granted, Islam got it on the judges. I agreed with the judges. I'll be honest, on the know, I wasn't sure who was going to get it, but that's how close the fight was. Wildly close. So if Islam couldn't take full advantage, and that's with him stepping up a weight class, Volkanovsky, then I think Toporia struggles there. Jujitsu wise, I think the same kind of rules or things that I just said, the points that I made kind of apply as well when it comes to jujitsu.

[00:43:02]

Sorry, go on.

[00:43:03]

I'm sorry. Listen to how he handled Brian Ortega. Ortega hit him with every submission that he had pretty much locked in and he just parted his way out of them.

[00:43:14]

Yeah, but I say this every time. Bolkanovsky doesn't really have a neck, does he?

[00:43:17]

Fair enough.

[00:43:18]

He's a bowling ball on top of a set of shoulders. I've said that before, but that's literally such nice, shiny bowling ball as well, on the feet. I don't know. Because when you look at Sepordia, the boxing is beautiful, right? The way that he rolls away from the punches, the way he faints, jabs to the body, comes upstairs, the footwork, the pivots, the angles he uses. He's slick, he's fast, he's powerful, he counters really well. But you can say that about Volkanovsky as well. Look at the way that he shut out Max Holloway three times in a.

[00:43:49]

Row, you know what I mean?

[00:43:51]

So, yes, he's confident. But you got to think about this for Ilia Toporia, let's just have a look at his record here. The last person he beat was Josh ever. Hold on, I can't see it. Goddamn thing. This contact lens. I gotta get my glasses on. Hold on, 1 second. That's Paolo Costa.

[00:44:07]

Yeah.

[00:44:07]

So if you look at Ilya Taporia, okay, his last win was over Josh Emmett, great win. Bryce Mitchell, great win. Jai Herbert, Ryan Hall, Damon Jackson, Youssef Zolal, all great wins. And I am not shaming his resume, but when you compare it to Volkanovsky, a man that's been the champion for God knows how long now. Five round fight after five round fight, defending that belt time after time, taking on all the number one contenders, the people that want to be the champion, Max Holloway, Yair Rodriguez, Chang Jung, Brian Ortega, Max Holloway, Jose Aldo. You know, that's impressive, because every one of those people, when you're trying to become the champion, this is it. This is the life changing moment, right? You put everything into this training camp when you're defending belts time after time after time. It's easy to get complacent. It's easy to rest on your laurels and be like, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. I'm okay. Whereas the challenger, who wants to be you, who wants to take what you've got, who wants to start getting opportunities for life changing money, this is it. This is the lottery shot for them.

[00:45:15]

John Hendrix, fighting. Know that man wanted that win.

[00:45:20]

Oh, yeah.

[00:45:21]

No.

[00:45:21]

And he showed up and he beat the shit out of Joyce.

[00:45:24]

You know what I mean?

[00:45:26]

So, yeah. Anyway, so when you look at it like that, listen, I get toporia being so not confident.

[00:45:34]

Confident, confident, yeah.

[00:45:37]

There's nothing wrong with being confident. You're bound to be if you're not confident. And if you're not talking a bit of know, then people start to say that you're scared. You know what I mean? So people are never happy regardless.

[00:45:51]

You know what mean a lot of hot shit, though. That is wild thing to say.

[00:45:55]

Says he'll knock out McGregor in round one as well. I think we talked about that on Monday, so I won't go into that one.

[00:46:00]

That's probably.

[00:46:01]

Yeah, yeah. Anyway, so it's going to be good. The fight card. Paolo Costa. Robert Whitaker's on there as well. Marab versus Henry Cejudo. Ian Gary. Did you see Ian Gary? What he was saying? If you go to his instagram, was it his instagram? It's got to be his instagram. He's talking shit about Quentin Rampage Jackson now.

[00:46:20]

Why?

[00:46:21]

Because I did an interview with Ian Gary this morning for TNT Sports, and he was great. He was. He was awesome. And then I come out from doing that and I look at Instagram and there's Ian Gary just chatting shit because he was supposed to do Rampage's podcast, but apparently now he's not because Rampage did an interview with Hellwanie and started calling him a cook and all this type of stuff. And I know rampage. I've known him a long time. That's just his sense of humor. He's just trying to be funny. Here, listen to this. Jackson went on aerial last night and spoke about how I turned down his podcast because I was afraid of being made fun of. I've got the cunt on Monday of fight week. I've got him in like four days. I'm on his podcast and he goes on, he calls me a cook, and he's Ian the cook. He didn't even know my name. And he's like, asking Ariel, does his wife really have a boyfriend?

[00:47:18]

No.

[00:47:18]

You take cun.

[00:47:20]

No.

[00:47:21]

Because you're believing absolute bollocks and lies from other people. Imagine running a podcast and not knowing who your next guest was.

[00:47:30]

Imagine being that stupid and then going.

[00:47:34]

On aerial and speaking about it. Well, I can tell you one thing. Yeah, definitely not having me on now.

[00:47:39]

Because you're an idiot and chatting mad shit. Good luck.

[00:47:42]

Take care.

[00:47:42]

I wish you nothing but ball.

[00:47:48]

I tell you what. I'll tell you what he did.

[00:47:50]

It's pretty fair.

[00:47:51]

He does not give a shit.

[00:47:53]

No.

[00:47:53]

God bless him. You've got to admire that about Ian Gary. Say whatever you want, right? And all these people out know they're talking mad shit. Right? You got to admire he's sticking to his guns. He might have turned the comments off on social media, and I don't blame him if it's just people talking pure shit, because you do absorb that a little bit. If you decide to look at the comments and it's just nastiness and negativity, you can't help but absorb some of it. So he's probably done the right thing. Not sure if it's the smartest thing to talk about rampage like that. Rampage is a wild man.

[00:48:29]

I feel like if you see him out in public, he comes to fights, like he might just jump the cage on you.

[00:48:35]

Rampage comes to fight, and it's funny you say jump the cage. I've seen Rampage do that in sparring. Right? It was an old, oh, no, sorry. Rampage was getting ready for one of his fights, and one of our training partners at the time was Tyson Jeffries. Shout out, Tyson. Jeffrey, great guy. Helped me out a bunch, in a bunch of training camps. And Tyson had, like, a weird offbeat rhythm with his striking and stuff. And he had a very strong wrestler as well. Apparently he cracked. I say apparently because I wasn't there. I've heard the story so many times, but I've seen rampage do similar things. I forgot I wasn't there on this one. But he hits rampage because Tyson told me the story himself, because he stayed in my house. He hits rampage, and then Rampage just explodes and goes to kill him. And the door, the cage door was locked. So Tyson jumps over the fence of the octagon, rampage jumps over it and chases him down the street or something like that. So anyway, I'm just saying. Ian, Gary, good looking, the fire gears, Jeff, Neal. But I don't know if the rampage Jackson tree is one you should go barking up.

[00:49:44]

Yeah, that's rough, dude.

[00:49:46]

Yeah. What else have we got, Brian, you.

[00:49:49]

Want some mma, or should we?

[00:49:52]

Oh, look at Mike Harrington here. Let's do a little non mma. Go on, give us one. What have we got?

[00:49:57]

Well, we have a Hong Kong finance worker was tricked into doling out over $25 million in a secret transaction authorized by the company's London CFO on a group call where every single person was AI generated. So the scammer made a full zoom call, maybe, I would imagine, got their coworkers faces through their LinkedIn or whatever face and hold everybody and just convince them to wire over 25 million.

[00:50:31]

I mean, listen, AI is amazing what you can do with it. And the deep fake stuff. I don't know too much about it. I just know what I see online and stuff like that. But one would think that somebody in a position to be in control of wiring $25 million, you would like to think that that guy was of a certain level of intelligence. Now, granted, these days, with all these crypto billionaires and all the rest of it, acquiring that level of wealth isn't as hard as what it used to be, although I still haven't done it.

[00:51:02]

So it's pretty hard.

[00:51:03]

But what I'm saying is a lot more millionaires these days, and there's a lot of ways to get rich. But you would think that there would be some protocol, there would be some steps. It wouldn't just take some guy with the technology of deep fake AI to scam this guy.

[00:51:20]

Here's the best part.

[00:51:22]

Tell me.

[00:51:23]

So the workers said they had grown suspicious after they received a message that was purportedly from the company's uk based chief financial officer. Initially, the workers suspected it was a phishing email, and it talked for the need of a secret transaction to be carried out. However, their doubts were put aside after the video call because they recognized the other people in it.

[00:51:46]

Oh, my God. So they pick up a phone.

[00:51:49]

They didn't call their supervisor, or they're like, this feels like a phone call to a president. If you can authorize 25 million to go, you probably have a vp or a president's number somewhere.

[00:52:02]

Call them. It's a lot of money.

[00:52:04]

100%. Yeah, it's crazy. It just goes to show, I mean, listen, of course, yeah, I feel for the guy. Of course I do. But if they're doing that to him, think about all the everyday people that are getting scammed. I think there's a lot of old ladies and stuff like that. Because remember, there used to be a lot of people getting scammed where they call them late at night, these old ladies, and they force them into buying shit and stuff like that. I say old ladies. Old people, pardon me. And they're not overly competent. And they give these fake bills, and you owe this amount of money for your electricity, and we can take this amount today, otherwise, we're going to take you to court. That stuff went on for a long time, but now with this shit, jesus, if this guy's getting scammed out of 25 million, people have got to be careful these days.

[00:52:49]

I literally 20 minutes before we started recording, got a phone call from a scam likely number, and I picked it up just to see, and they were like, oh, it was some lady who could barely read. And she was reading off of a script, and she was just telling me how they were about to shut off my Verizon services. I had just happened to pay my bill and deal with them, like, the day, so. But she seemed to know my name, my address, all that other stuff. And then she was like, oh, and then we're about to shut off your service. And I was like, no, this is a scam. Goodbye. If I was paying attention or I was a little dumber.

[00:53:29]

So I get fake invoices quite regularly to my email. Fake invoices from PayPal, right. And they look legit.

[00:53:41]

Yes.

[00:53:41]

They look like the real deal. And the amount of times, and let's say everyone's going to give me shit. The amount of times I've gone, what the is this? I don't remember spending 700. And it says, to claim your refund, click this button here.

[00:53:57]

Do you know what I mean? And I got lot of you into.

[00:54:00]

Your Paypal account and all that.

[00:54:02]

Yeah, I know, but I'm straight away.

[00:54:03]

I'm like, what the.

[00:54:05]

No, no, don't push that. She has all the PayPal stuff goes through her phone. She's like, look, this is bullshit. This payment does not exist.

[00:54:14]

Right?

[00:54:15]

But the scammers. We got to talk about this. We've never talked about this, Brian.

[00:54:18]

I got done, didn't I?

[00:54:21]

You sure did.

[00:54:22]

Because of you.

[00:54:25]

I helped for sure. I did.

[00:54:31]

You start it. You start it.

[00:54:32]

All right? I get a lot of emails for Mike all the time, and there are people asking him to do things or give stuff and all this other stuff. But this one came in and it was like, hey, we are a podcast with. I think they said they were with ESPN.

[00:54:50]

They were like, ESPn? What's that?

[00:54:53]

Nike?

[00:54:54]

They said they were with Nike, right? They were like, we have this podcast. We got all this money. We want to pay Mike. Like, I think they said like $500 or $1,000 or something.

[00:55:04]

It was $2,500 to come on for 45 minutes. And I was like, that's an easy $2,500.

[00:55:11]

I sent him the message. I was like, hey, these guys want to pay you for a little bit of time. So I just sent him the information, and then I was like, oh, good. I just made Mike some money. And then what?

[00:55:23]

So. So the guy comes on and he says, right, here's what we're going to do. He says, we do the podcast through Facebook.

[00:55:31]

Okay?

[00:55:32]

And the good news is that you can advertise this to all your Facebook followers on my Facebook fan page. I hate using that term. And I'm like, I said to you, I said, well, I don't want to do that. I don't want to advertise your podcast on my Facebook. I said, if you want me to come on and do your Facebook, I'll do know.

[00:55:49]

But I don't want to put it.

[00:55:50]

Through my says, oh, well, then we don't need to do that. He said, but let's schedule a Zoom call three days before we do it to make everything set up fine. Anyway, so we jump on and we're on the zoom, and there's no image of the guy. And that should have been number one. I should have known it was some guy. I forget what his name was. Toby Keith or something like that. Some bloody runners club or something like that. I googled the guy.

[00:56:17]

It was legit. The guy came up attached to the company. Yeah, it was.

[00:56:21]

I googled him. I googled him and it was legit. And I thought, okay, kind of put my suspicions at ease. Anyway, so he's getting me to go into all this stuff. And I didn't have time. I was busy. I had something coming up. I went, look, listen, why am I doing this now? And I started getting really shirty with the guy. I started being kind of a total dick because he was being, like, trying to get me to do so much stuff. And in the end, I was like, look, for sake. I said, listen, why are we doing this now? The thing is, it's scheduled for three days, right? If you want to do it in three days, shoot me an email. I'll jump on 20 minutes before and we'll do it then. And he pushed back a little bit. And again, I was really quite rude. I was in a bad mood that day and I gave the guy a ton of shit. And in my mind, I thought, if this was legit, people tell me to.

[00:57:06]

Go myself right now.

[00:57:08]

Right now.

[00:57:08]

Yeah.

[00:57:10]

You're not having that $2,500 for 45 minutes chatting about bloody whatever it was, but, like a total dickhead. Come Monday or Tuesday, I've got the email. So I sign in again and he says, right, to make this happen, you've got to go into your Facebook settings. And I know nothing about the back end of Facebook, but it's very complicated. And he's walking me through it and he's doing this and he's doing that. Then all of a sudden, I'm like, we're in, like, the admin. He can start. I went, what's going on here? I said, I don't like this. I said, hold on a minute. Because I have a Facebook manager, the guy that runs the page for me. I said, wait there. Let me get him on the, like, no, you don't need to do that. Anyway, I send him the link and he jumps on, right? And then I said, hold on a minute. Why am I talking. Why am I talking to a logo? Show yourself on camera, right? Show yourself.

[00:58:06]

Anyway, he turns it on, right?

[00:58:09]

This little troll sitting there like that, right? It was little pakistani dude, right? Sitting there, right? And he was. He was. And I'm like. And then as soon as my Facebook guy jumps on, he fucks off, right? And then my Facebook guy goes, what did you do? I said, well, I don't know. You tell me. He just told me to click a few things. I don't know about this stuff. And then he goes, oh, my God, he's taking control of your Facebook. He took it. He took control of my Facebook. And then he took control somehow of my email address, right? And I don't know how he did that, so I was panicking like crazy. Fortunately, through him, my Facebook guy, and through paradigm sports management, they had a good contact with Facebook, with meta, and they got right on it for it and dealt with it straight away. And the nerve of this guy. He tried to do it again.

[00:59:06]

No, stop it.

[00:59:07]

He tried to come back again.

[00:59:09]

What a day.

[00:59:09]

Anyway, so it's quite a tangent. We just went down there. But, yeah, you got to be careful online, guys.

[00:59:15]

Even some super legit things. It was too good to be true, and I should have just thrown it away like I do most things.

[00:59:22]

Well, at least I didn't give him 25 million bloody dollars. Could you imagine? Right? So what's Israel Adesanya saying about Sean Strickland? If you go down to match point number six, Brian, read this out for me because I'm blind at the minute.

[00:59:38]

So, Izzy Adesanya, his coach, says that Strickland wasn't anything special, and Israel was lacking a championship mindset in between fights. So here's the quote. The issue is, what's happening between these fights? In my opinion, as a professional athlete, Israel didn't do what he needed to do between those fights to not be burned out. To remain a champion at the highest level of our sport, you have to live a certain lifestyle, a lifestyle that reinvigorates you. You have to be focused on your goals in the four to six months between now and your next fight, instead of waiting for the UFC to call with a specific opponent to start the preparation.

[01:00:17]

So, basically, if I'm reading between the lines, he's saying that Izzy wasn't disciplined.

[01:00:24]

Party's too much.

[01:00:25]

Yeah, there you go. There you go saying he's partying too much. And this kind of goes back to what I said before about Volkanovsky. The fact it's so impressive. And Israel did the same thing as well. Let's give the man credit to continue defending the belt time after time after time. And then when someone. I know Sean's popular. I know a lot of people love the guy, right. And he's a true underdog story. So fair play to him and maximum respect. But I don't think Israel looked at him as a real threat. I just thought that. Well, no, he did. He did say that. And he probably thought he was going to school him and all the rest of it.

[01:00:58]

Right.

[01:00:59]

And the worst thing you can do is underestimate somebody. Somebody like Sean Strickland. That's had it hard, that's had it tough. Do you know what I mean?

[01:01:05]

Absolutely.

[01:01:06]

That has had a shitty know, because they will push themselves to the absolute limit. And Sean is disciplined and dedicated and does work his goddamn ass off. That's nobody's fault but Israel. Adesanyas, though, didn't he get arrested for drink driving throughout the training campaign, like, two weeks before the fight?

[01:01:25]

Oh, I'm not sure.

[01:01:27]

No, he did. He did.

[01:01:30]

Because I thought Sean Strickland would have had a field day with that, but he didn't really get mentioned he went more down the dog route.

[01:01:37]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Pleads guilt. September 24, 2023. Earlier in the year.

[01:01:44]

Yeah. So, look, listen, is he had a.

[01:01:51]

Bad night at the office. Sean Strickland had a tremendous night at the office.

[01:01:57]

It was probably the right day the stars aligned for. You know, I'm a fan, so it kind of sucks to say it like that, but I think that was the exact right moment, right time thing for Sean. Kind of like Sarah.

[01:02:14]

Well, yeah, you could say kind of like me when I beat Rockhold.

[01:02:18]

You could go on all day.

[01:02:20]

You.

[01:02:22]

But.

[01:02:22]

But you're right. But that's not to say that Sean couldn't beat him again, because he's already proven he can beat him once. And not only beat him, he almost knocked him out in round one. He sat him down to one knee pretty hard. But that's nobody's fault but Izzy's. And I guess Izzy's coach is going to say things like that because as a coach, it reflects on you. It just does. And even though the coach shouldn't allow their ego to get involved, they just do. And when their fighter loses, they lose. And when they win, they win. That's Coach Eugene exercising those demons a.

[01:03:01]

Bit on that front. Yeah.

[01:03:04]

Anyway, you make more money. You don't get coach of the year by losing fights.

[01:03:10]

You do not you do not.

[01:03:12]

Indeed.

[01:03:13]

All right. Today's episode is sponsored by Chalk, that specialize in all natural testosterone boosters. Listen, I talk about this a lot because it's true. When you start hitting your mid thirty s, the testosterone drops every year by about at least 1%. And apparently you lose about 3% of muscle mass every year if you're not using it. Men's testosterone levels are at an all time low, and every day you see evidence of it. When you go to the gym, you see people being tired. They're not getting the results that they're craving. They're tired. They can't be bothered. They're unmotivated. The libido drops. And if you're feeling any of these symptoms, then please, you need to boost that testosterone. Okay? And Chalk Daily is the cleanest research based testosterone available on the market. Okay? You know exactly what you're getting in every product because they use full disclosure labeling, okay? Every ingredient measured to exact clinical standards. There's no label fluffing or underdosing, and as I say, measured to exact clinical research. So you know what you're putting in your body, which is very, very important. And chalk daily, as I said, is the cleanest research based testosterone booster available.

[01:04:22]

And along with Chalk daily, please check out their male vitality stack and the stack ultra. All right. And of course, we have a tremendous offer for you at the believe you me podcast. All you got to do is go to the website chalk.com. That is ch oq.com. Use the code bisping. You're going to get 35% off your entire order. One more time. Chalk.com. Ch oq.com. The code is bisping to get 35% off. Let's have a look. Oh, this is hilarious with Cole Froch.

[01:04:54]

Oh, I got the video.

[01:04:56]

Cole Frock and John Fury. So, no. Man alive. And I said to myself, I was not going to say that this entire episode because it has been getting a bit out of hand. Okay.

[01:05:05]

All right.

[01:05:05]

And I'm aware of that, but it's kind of become a meme at this point. But it's run its course. Don't worry. So John Fury, as we know, is always looking for big fights. He's never had one. He boxed a few times, but he's not like some legendary boxer.

[01:05:19]

No.

[01:05:19]

And he's constantly calling out people who are retired or peripherally in boxing. He's not calling out a fighter.

[01:05:31]

Mike Tyson, Cole Frock. I mean, there's been a few. There's been a few along the way. In fact, there was one just recently. What was his name? What's his name?

[01:05:40]

God, John Fury call out.

[01:05:43]

Yeah, John Fury called someone out as well. He's doing the rounds and the guy came back and said he wants to do it and he wants to fight him on misfits and misfits are going to put up millions of. Oh, what's his name? What's his name? He's an actor. He acts in a few movies. I think he might be.

[01:06:02]

Bit of.

[01:06:02]

An ex gangster type. I forget his goddamn name.

[01:06:05]

I'm looking it up. I wasn't aware, John.

[01:06:09]

Hold on. Oh, Joe Egan. Big Joe Egan.

[01:06:13]

I don't know who that is.

[01:06:14]

Just look that up. Yeah, Big Joe Egan. Yeah. But anyway, so them two be going back and forth. Cole Frock and John Fury. So what's going on with Cole Frock? What's he saying?

[01:06:25]

I have that video up because he got called out by John Fury and he's an actual former title holder, so he thinks it's absolutely ridiculous.

[01:06:34]

Yeah, no, he does.

[01:06:35]

John Fury, the fighting man, 100 and hard roll. I think he had a professional boxing career and I think he lost more than he won. And I'm not going to disrespect him if he's got in the ring in the professional capacity, fair play to him. He deserves respect for that. But come on, don't be calling out the cobra.

[01:06:53]

You and me, Wembley Stadium, 93,000 crowd.

[01:06:57]

I'm up for that. My friend, you've had plenty to say.

[01:07:00]

I have. I'll stand by every word I've said.

[01:07:03]

You don't like me, let's see what you can do about it.

[01:07:06]

So get your people to contact me directly. Just me. I'm a one man band. Let's talk about the business side of it. Get the contracts drawn up and I will fight you. Wembley Stadium this year.

[01:07:17]

Don't worry about that.

[01:07:19]

John Fury will not back out. My fight with you, my friend. Hey, look, listen, he's 50. I think he's 59 years old.

[01:07:30]

Oh yeah, that makes more sense because I was like, he's a rough looking 50 59. He's doing all right.

[01:07:36]

He hasn't boxed since 1995. He had a record of eight wins and four losses. I am not here to shit all over John Fury, the father of a legendary boxer, Tyson Fury, Tommy Fury, but out there calling out Carl Frock, who was a champion, he was a legendary know. And all these it. I get it. He wants to get a payday. That's what he's looking for. One of those big misfits YouTube Jake Paul, KSI paydays and why not? But he ain't going to get it.

[01:08:07]

I'm not sure what the back end on those looks, uh, because I feel like they don't sell as well as they are purported are. I feel like there's a lot of smoke and mirrors that goes on with those freak show boxing fights, the influencer boxing stuff.

[01:08:23]

I feel like maybe we've seen the last of that stuff now because Jake Paul's moved on. He's got another fight coming up, another boxer. He was about the same height as him. I think he's got an all right record for a young, up and coming boxer. Obviously fought that other boxer recently, knocked him out with an uppercut. Great shot, great shot, fair play. And if he was, obviously he's going to move and progress in the boxing world, right? But no one's really talking about these matches because they don't have a big name. They ever got the cachet of the mixed martial arts world. Who's the guy he's fighting?

[01:08:57]

Ryan Borland.

[01:08:59]

What's his record?

[01:09:02]

19 fights. Hold on. I'm going to pull up his record right now. It didn't say it in the article, so I'm sure it's not.

[01:09:08]

Yeah, it just got box wreck, but yeah, no, listen. 17 and two.

[01:09:13]

There you go. Yeah.

[01:09:14]

Not bad. No, it is now. 17 and two in MMA. That sounds amazing. Okay. Yeah, 17 and two in boxing could mean you haven't fought anybody. And I looked at his record recently and there's a few people on there with a bit of experience. So he's not a total can, he's not a total bum, but he's still a young boxer that hasn't really got a name or a following. So that's why we didn't hear too much about Jake Paul's last one. You know what I mean? But to get the credibility that he wants and strives for, these are the type of matchups that he's got to have and work his way up to the rankings. And if he does that, then you got to give him his respect and give him his due. But going back to our original point, I mean, I think that last one, I think that was the icing. The nail in the coffee, should I say KSI versus Tommy Fury, the Logan Paul and the Dylan Danis thing. I don't know what the back end is, but I fail to see how they generate these massive paydays that they all talk about.

[01:10:09]

Yeah, I just don't think it's.

[01:10:11]

Yeah, no, I don't think it is either. But you know what is real? Do you know what is real? What's that? There is a fight card this weekend.

[01:10:20]

Oh, yes.

[01:10:20]

Let's have a look. Jack Hermanson versus Joe Piper. We got Danny gay versus Andre Feely, Robert Burzek Brightzek versus ejor Pateria, Brad Tavares, Gregory Rodriguez, Michael Johnson, Darius Flowers, Hadolfo Vieira, and Armand Petrosian. Not a bad main card. I just went through a few picks here quickly. Jaco Manson. I really like Jack O'Manson by Jack. The good submission skills. He got a good win over Chris Curtis last year in London. Joe Python is like the bell of the ball right now. The man hits harder than Francis Nganu. He's driving around in bloody ferraris at the minute. Have you seen that on social media? Yeah, on social media. Is that some exotic car company? He's renting a car. Of course he. So I hope so. But, yeah, I think he said that the UFC rented it for him as well, giving him the main event treatment.

[01:11:21]

Oh, shit.

[01:11:22]

Always doing an Al Jermaine Sterling. Remember Al Jermaine claimed that the UFC bought him a Ferrari Lamborghini?

[01:11:31]

Oh, yeah. Look at that.

[01:11:32]

Driving around, rocking around in a.

[01:11:35]

Exactly, exactly. So anyway, no, he hits harder than Francis Ngone, according to that punching machine, so that should be an interesting one. Joel Pytha. Two wins in the UFC so far are probably going to lean towards Joe Piper, although technically, Jacob Manson is probably a better fighter.

[01:11:51]

When it's all said and done, there's less looks on Joe Piper. I know Harrington is very excited about Joe Piper's fight, and I'm pretty sure throwing money down on that.

[01:12:02]

He will be Danny gay. Andre Feely. That's a good one as well. Michael Johnson getting it done, and Rodolfo Vieira as well. Versus armin patrol. Michael Johnson still going strong.

[01:12:14]

Go on.

[01:12:15]

It's a long career Michael Johnson's been having right now.

[01:12:18]

It's a hell of a career. You got to respect that, man, being around the game so long. But, ladies and gentlemen, I've got to run off. Do you know why I got to go? I've got to go to a doctor's.

[01:12:29]

Appointment because I can't swallow.

[01:12:33]

I've been waiting for this appointment for months. Yeah, I've almost choked to death several times, and my throat is all inflamed. I choke. Rebecca's always going crazy at me. She's always shouting at me. I'm like, babe, I'm almost dying. Why are you giving me shit. I'm now scared to eat steak because it gets trapped in my throat. When I was commentating with Rogan one time, the security had told smack on my back and everything and give me the Heimlich because I was almost choking to death. I almost choked to death in a hotel room eating a sandwich at like 02:00 in the morning. I eat a slither of cheese, it gets trapped in my throat. I swear to God.

[01:13:10]

What is happening? I don't know.

[01:13:12]

I'm going to a doctor. Apparently my doctor said that, well, my GP, general family doctor, he said, yeah, you need to see an ent, which is where I'm going in a minute. I've been waiting for two months for this appointment. I'm like, but I might die. In the meantime. Could we just speed this up a touch? Apparently there's a very simple procedure. I think it's because I get a lot of heartburn and the heartburn causes the osophagus to swell. So we'll see. We'll go get that one checked out. But Monday we're back with Anthony with the guests, yet still to be determined. Big thank you to president, also from karate combat. And a big thank you to you, Brian. And I mean that. Without you here today, we would have had no show. Or it would have just been me rambling, touching myself in the eyeball every 5 seconds, going, I can't read anymore. I'm choking to death. Anyway, thanks a lot, guys. We'll see you soon. Bye.