Best of the Bus: Michael Chandler On The Emotions Of Getting In The Octagon

00:00:00
Speaker 1: On this best of the Bus episode, we're throwing it back to the boy. Michael Chandler, three time bell Toor, a lightweight world champion and one of the most electrifying fighters in UFC history, joins us just two days after his war Charles Oliver. Fresh off the fight. Mike breaks down what it felt like stepping back into the cage after two years, and he takes us through every round, reflects on the moments he wishes he had back. He also opens up about the pain, the pressure, and the mindset it takes to perform on the biggest stage. This one's raw, boys, it's inspiring, and it's full of that classic Chandler energy and joy. Fellas. Now, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a bonus episode of Bust with the Boys. Our boy, Michael Chandler, to sit with us right now. Went to absolute war on Saturday night against Charles Oliver. Obviously didn't go the way you wanted. But even in a loss that you still win, dude. So let's give a ride of a pause to the legendary Mike Chandler.

00:00:52
Speaker 2: Riding applause to you guys. No place, no place I'd rather be a touchdown in Nashville yesterday. So we've got to get on the bus. Yeah, loser, draw, this is where we go.

00:01:00
Speaker 3: How are you feeling?

00:01:01
Speaker 2: How's your body? Body is A body is jat My heart is full. Let's talk about my heart.

00:01:07
Speaker 1: Okay, heart, let's start start with the heart.

00:01:10
Speaker 2: My heart is full. All right. I walked across the threshold yesterday. Happen ace put me in tears. I'm just happy to be home. Uh you know it was is good had I mean, I had a phenomenal training camp. We went to war, We did our thing. Body the most pain I've ever been in my entire life, like the most injuries I've ever had in a fight, for sure. You know peede blood inflammation all over my whole body swollen. I feel like you know, my legs blood.

00:01:35
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was it like a dense color of blood or it was like a light pain.

00:01:38
Speaker 2: The first one was very light, which was in my drug test New York drug testing me before the fight and then after the fight, just positive. I tested positive for blood, tested positive for going nuts. But yeah, so they had like a light tent and then the second one was like uh beat looking juice. It was dark there hurt, no really, I don't, well, like what is also my whole body hurt too? So at that point, you.

00:02:08
Speaker 3: Know, starting from the pissing blood, what does that, guys? That come from? Like a shot to the shot.

00:02:13
Speaker 2: I think it's I mean, I think it's a little bit of rabdough, you know, like rabdough myialysis or whatever they call it.

00:02:18
Speaker 1: Overworking the muscles.

00:02:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like you're overworking the muscles. Your muscles secrete blood and then your blood. You know, the doctor's out there, don't fact check me, but it's like, you know, blood, Their blood goes into the kidneys, slash, liver, whatever wherever your your urine goes, and it gets trace amounts of blood in it, where whereas mine wasn't really trace amounts. It was a large amounts. But yeah, I've had it before many times. Anytime you have a five minute fight like or a five round fight like that, twenty five minutes, even if it's an quote unquote easy twenty five minutes, you're still hyped. Your body is doing things. You're you're in fight or flight mode for twenty five minutes or really thirty minutes plus plus the walk out, plus the after plus the.

00:02:57
Speaker 1: Yeah when do you think that starts to hit the rush of like you know, you're not going to feel pain until probably twenty four hours later. Is that the walkout? Is that in the locker room right before you walk out? Is it the first punch?

00:03:08
Speaker 2: It's it's it's actually in the octagon. Yeah, it's like once you're once you're in there, because I try to stay pretty present, man. I try to stay pretty present and pretty myself and and really just focus on being a human being. And as soon as the cage door closes and then Bruce is in there, it's kind of one of those deals where it's maybe like a kickoff or like whatever, where it's like I'm in the games about to start, and then all of a sudden, then you all of a sudden're running down the field or the first play and you're like, oh, shoot, we're actually in it now. Yeah, and then you then you start you know, usually for me, it's it's like, oh, man, okay, here we go. We're actually walking toward each other. Okay, there's the five you know, there's the first handshake, we touched each other, clocks running, we're going, and then you're like, I'm kind of waiting to take that first punch to be like, okay, here we are, right. Yeah, hopefully it's not a big one. Hopefully it's just like a nice get the first hut there.

00:03:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I always into the age old phrase, get that first hit out of the way, feel a whole lot better. Then your nerves are huge right before, like all the doubts, the insecurities, the wondering, the overconfidence. I think it's all like a flush of emotions all at once to.

00:04:05
Speaker 3: Doubt your overconfidence in I too, like, yeah, yeah, why do I feel good?

00:04:08
Speaker 1: I shouldn't feel this good? And then you start feeling bad all of a sudden, all over yeah.

00:04:13
Speaker 2: And then once you're in it, you're like, okay, now we're in it. Now. Now the body's just doing your training is taking over your your reaction time, your you know, your spirit.

00:04:22
Speaker 1: So before the fight, so Will and I had a cool unique perspectives because Will was watching it over so he was able to hear the commentators. I obviously was there. We'll talk about all of it, but the but as you were walking out, Will was saying that Rogan's like, I know you're going to see a new Michael Chandler here. I you know, I don't think, I know. Do you think Olive Aaron knew you were going to strategically go about this differently? If Rogan was so so clearly understood the process.

00:04:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, the funny thing was, I knew I was going to but I also in my interviews, I didn't I didn't want to talk about it too much. It's like I did the whole I talked about the who Chandler two point oh Chandler one point oh. Maybe gave it a little bit of too much information because I still, I honestly wanted Charles Olivera to feel like he was fighting Michael Chandler for twenty twenty one. I wanted him to think he was fighting the guy who fought in my last fight against Poier in twenty twenty two. I wanted him to think that was the guy he was fighting. Therefore, when I switched the game plan up on him a little bit, you know, it would be a different fight and I throw him into a scenario. But I think, yeah, unfortunately the word got out that I was going to fight a little bit differently, and I, you know, and I did, Who's Who's the rat? I mean, I think it was I think it was me, your own rat. I think, well, that's what I'm saying. I was like, I, you know, but but no matter what I mean, the narrative was, you could not hide it from the fact that I hadn't fought for two years. You had to talk about the Connor situation, had to talk about, you know, the two year layoff, the training camp for Connor fighting at one seventy different mindset gun and then going down to one fifty five. And I was just speaking more. Yeah, I'm just more of an open guy. I just I want my story to be told. I want to wear my heart on my sleeve. If I cry, I cry, If I get mad, I get mad. I just want to be myself and be authentically me. And in that obviously I was just talking about my growth as a human being over the last two years, which was you know, hard times, tough times. You guys know, the behind the scenes stuff as the boys of like the ups and downs of all of it. But I grew as a human and became a better man and fighter and athlete because of it. And then yeah, I just wanted to go out there a little bit more composed and calculated. Also twenty five minutes is a lot different. It's almost like double the amount. It's almost double the amount of time as a three round four.

00:06:30
Speaker 1: When's the last time you went a full fight.

00:06:33
Speaker 2: Twenty five minutes, man, Benson Henderson, Like twenty sixteen or twenty.

00:06:38
Speaker 1: Eighteen, because every fight I think I've seen that.

00:06:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, peed blood after that one, for sure, Yeah, that's passed out. Actually that I passed out in that fight. My coach. I was unconscious on my feet. My eyes were open, but I was unconscious. My coach had to pick me up after the fourth round right at the end of the round. Woke up in the corner. Finally came to as my coach behind me. Neil yelled something at me, and I was like what And I looked at Hinry. I was like, do we lose or is it over? He's like, no, We're going into the fifth round. Go you got to go. And I'm like okay, and then uh yeah, we thought luckily luckily Uh yeah. I mean that was just like a pure exhaustion slash, you know, lack of blood flow to the brain or whatever the hell was going on.

00:07:18
Speaker 3: But do shout out, n F what a fucking walk out?

00:07:20
Speaker 2: Shout out. What a walk out. Yeah, it was good. He made that song specifically for you in this fight. No, it was a song. It was a song. I mean, it would be really cool. I would love to actually lie lie right. I was almost upset.

00:07:36
Speaker 3: Here in the commenting and going on because I was wanting to. I could hear the song and I'm like.

00:07:39
Speaker 2: God, everybody, shut up.

00:07:40
Speaker 3: I want to enjoy the lyrics happening, dude.

00:07:42
Speaker 2: The lyrics are so sick and it's and it's a little bit I mean the lyrics themselves, which we won't give I mean, any of them away because it's it's not out there yet, but but it's it's very much a uh. You know. I've always been the type of guy who's like, I'm not here to prove the doubters wrong. I'm here to prove my supporters right. I I don't really have a chip on my shoulder. I'm more of a you know, just like I just want to do my thing and be an athlete who works hard, kind of positivity stuff. And then over the last two years, I'm like, f everybody, man, F everybody. I'm a different man, and I deserve this. I deserve to freaking absolutely smash this life that we call you know, our existence, and uh I love the haters, love the haters. Man.

00:08:22
Speaker 1: There's a special place for him.

00:08:24
Speaker 2: There's a special special place from the special place in my heart for him. Man.

00:08:27
Speaker 1: So when you're walking out right now, are you? You look loose? I love you look you seem like you're about it, because we're all sitting there being like, yeah, as your friend, we're thinking he hasn't fought in two years. McGregor's out there. Two weeks before that fight, McGregor breaks a little tiny peaky toe. He's now out. He's dipped out for the first time in his UFC career. What's gonna happen to Mike? Now you're in this limbo? Do you wait for Connor? Still? UFC fighters are talking shit, haters are talking shit. And then all of a sudden you get Charles Oliver and now you're went from fighting on one seventy and now you're going to one to fifty five. So there's all these different things can allow you to stiffen up a little bit, and then you walk out and you seem loose, confident, poised, controlled like you just seem like Michael Chandler like the ultimate confidence. Yeah, man, are you actually feeling that? Or is that like I got to put this on a little bit ficketty and make it type of thing because it has been a while since I've.

00:09:16
Speaker 2: Been no I was man like, I I mean that. And that's when you just know you're doing exactly what you were called to don It's it's it doesn't matter if I was out for ten years. It doesn't matter if I was injured, it doesn't matter. If there's stuff going on behind the scenes, it doesn't matter. None of that stuff matters, man, because you're doing exactly what you were called to do. And and this is where you were supposed to be. There's nowhere else in the entire world. I was supposed to be then in Madison Square Garden at that moment, right, you know. And and I was built for this thing, and I was I was, I was bred for it, and it's it was an awesome you know. It was a little bit more like, hey, let's take it in because you haven't done this. You know. I've did a lot of visualization closing my eyes when I was in our octagon inside of our gym down in Florida, and like imagining the crowd and the lights and the feels and even during the you know, I hadn't been in the locker room like that warming up for two years. Needed to go out to MSG. I Like, they were like, you can't go out there. I was like, all right, cool, and then I like walked out anyway and they were like no, seriously, like come on, come on, and they were like pulling me out. But I went out to the arena smelled it, like you gotta smell it, you gotta feel it, you got to hear you gotta hear it. Because there's twenty thousand people there and they're all talking, and all of their hearts are beating, and there's a bunch there's an energy out there, right, and there's a smell, and there's a feel, and there's a taste and there's all of these different senses going on. And I hadn't smelled it in two years of actually being the guy who was going to be in the arena, and it all just came back, man, And you know, getting in there and kind of walking around, the first time I had touched the cage to my back in two years, the first time I had felt the canvas on my feet in two years, the first time I had been in an arena with all of those different emotions going on around me, Right.

00:10:53
Speaker 3: How hard is it to not get too high? Like once you do step in the octagen and you are drinking it all in, it's like, hey, I need to focus on my breathing.

00:10:59
Speaker 1: Here it is, it is, And you got your trump and musk.

00:11:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean I mean.

00:11:07
Speaker 1: The great tailor there, Yeah, the greatest the point.

00:11:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, the greatest crowd of witnesses. You know, man, I mean that's that's pretty. That's a freaking really really cool uh little row up there, uh cage side, And yeah, I mean I did have to pull myself back down because that was that was the biggest thing with me. Obviously, I will touch gloves and go balls to the wall until the wheels fall off and I go out on my shield and my heart explodes or whatever happens. But this fight, I wanted to be more present, and I wanted to breathe, and I wanted to feel my heart beat. I wanted to control my thoughts. I wanted to actually make decisions in there instead of my body just doing just doing and reacting, you know. And I and I did that, but I needed to come back down because I did get a little bit hyped up as I walked in. I'm like, hell, yeah, let's do this. I remember this, this is what I let's let's Then all of a sudden, you know, the cooler head prevailed where it was like, wait a second, bro, bring it down, you know, and breathe a little bit, and and and realize that you're about to go into a job, in a profession, and in a contest instead of a war, instead of a battle, you know, going back to the trying to win by a thousand instead of trying to win by one, you know, and and I just truly thought me trying to win by one, I was still gonna win by a thousand.

00:12:24
Speaker 3: And wait on the moment presenting itself.

00:12:28
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, the uh when all of air is coming out and you're pacing back and forth, so the music changes, Like does that affect you at all when you hear it? When you hear that, I just want to feel all the things you.

00:12:40
Speaker 2: Were Yeah time that uh yeah, I mean that's a little disappointing because then you're like, man, I'm having I'm enjoying my music, and I'm enjoying my moment and you're like, oh, shoot, okay, and I gotta have a five minutes where it's all about him and I gotta you know, now we're But I think that was when I started kind of get locked in where it was like, oh, shoot, now the guy who's about to try to take everything from me is walking into the arena.

00:13:01
Speaker 3: You're not only walking in the arena, but hugs you yet, huggy Yeah, any party you want to slip him And I knew.

00:13:07
Speaker 2: No, I I knew that. And in the back yeah, no, Me and Charles are very respectful, man, there's no doubt at that both Guystimately it's a big hug, you know, God blessed you type of thing. Like, dude, I'm just happy you're here. I mean, that's one thing too, like what you talk about. I mean, look at Chris Widman. Chris Whidman woke up on November sixteenth thinking he was going to fight, probably to a phone call saying hey, sorry, Eric Andres is injured, sick or whatever, pulling out of the fight. I'm just happy you're here because now we both get paid, we both get to fight. We both like this thing is actually happening, you know, So it's a there's part of that where you're just like, man, thank god it's here, because up until that moment, nothing is guaranteed, you know, until that cage door actually locks, like, nothing is actually guaranteed. So then then it starts to get a little bit more real. You hear his music. His music is awesome. I don't understand it because it's Brazilian or Portuguese whatever, but it's a totally different but it's a cool it's a cool song. Sounds like a worship song or something. I don't know, but it's it's a yesterday sometimes dang dude in the car over there, dude, but that, yeah, that's kind of the momentere you're like, Okay, now it's you know, it's it's no longer about my walk out. I'm actually in here. Oh and that guy's coming out, and you're kind of like, you know, are you make an eye contact? Are you looking at him? Are you now You're now you're also still questioning yourself, like how are you gonna play this? You're gonna like mean mug them, You're gonna freaking you're gonna lock eyes and kind of do one of those numbers, you're not gonna look him at all, which sometimes people are like, oh, he does not looking at him, looking at him at all, which shows lack of confidence. And sometimes it's a high level of confidence to not look at your opponent at all, like Jose Aldo was a was a perfect example of that. He would he would go face to face with the guy and just look down and kind of like look at his feet the whole time, would never never make eye contact. Yet he would go out there and absolutely smash somebody. He wasn't afraid of them, you know. So it was a it's an interesting it's an interesting vibe, but it.

00:14:57
Speaker 3: Was just a game being played at all times, right, Yeah, there's mental warfare, just like people just playing chess well their pieces in certain way.

00:15:03
Speaker 2: But it's but it's funny too, right, because we're all human beings, like we're we're all we all must play by the rules of human nature and and succumb to to just being a human and the thoughts that are going on, the biological things that are happening inside of there, where's your heart rate and all these different things. We're a human being, but you get looked at differently because you're an athlete, and then even kind of even more different because you're fighting in an octagon with a very little rules, you know, but we're just human beings trying to figure it out, and every single time is different. You talk about being thankful that he you know, he's there.

00:15:36
Speaker 3: You guys are both there, the fight's gonna happen, you're both gonna get paid and whatnot. When there rumors of him possibly backing out, Yeah, we're dropping out? Was it due to injury?

00:15:44
Speaker 2: It well, so I never really got any kind of confirmation other than my my manager called me like two days after that. That news rumor kind of broke, and I didn't even think anything of it. I think it was more there was some games misship I think happening because it's like, hey, this happened at Chandler three months ago, two weeks before the fight, let's uh, let's leak something. And it was Brazilian media, so I don't know if it was his coach saying something or what. But I wasn't worried about it at all. I just kept training and I knew it wasn't me, so yeah, it had to be him, But.

00:16:17
Speaker 3: I think it was all just the thing, and this is better than not fucking happened.

00:16:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, you got to because I.

00:16:24
Speaker 2: Mean your thoughts go there, You're like, well, shoot, would I take another fight? Who would who would they match me up against? It's it's a short notice fight, so then people think we'll shoot, it's an easy fight because a guy's probably coming off the couch. But actually it's not an easy fight because you're like, it's a brand new opponent and that guy's got nothing to lose. Like, I love that idea. Like if Hunter called me and was like, hey, you want to step in and fight this guy on two weeks and I said be like, hell, yeah, dude, I got nothing to lose. What are you gonna pay me? Let it sweep, just let it fly. And if after a round and a half my gas tank goes, you don't really lose because you weren't training for the It's you know what it is, it's Nate Diaz versus Connor one. Yeah that it was on a level in days notice. Diaz had nothing to lose whatsoever. Connor had everything to lose because he was training for ten weeks leading up to the fight and he goes out there and loses. He gases out and Diaz doesn't somehow, and he had nothing to lose and went out there and won shock the world.

00:17:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, dude, round one. So you're coming out with the new mic two point zero. You get in there and you feel it from like the beginning, the first ten seconds of fight. You guys are floating around a little bit. He does a little leg kick, you kind of move it out of the way, and it already feels in the building like, oh, this is way different than we all expected. Yeah, what at what point do you think he fully realized that this is a new mic he's fighting.

00:17:37
Speaker 2: Well, I know we went to the ground at some point in the first round within like the first two kansas at time. So I think that first the first couple, the first couple exchanges, just just navigating and actually letting the fight progress instead of instead of forcing myself into the fight, let the fight progress and if he lands a shot or I land a shot or whatever it is, let's just you know, let's just get in here, move around a little bit, rather than rather than going right into the fire. And yeah, things were going well until that, you know that uh first takedown really and then got on the ground and then he but then even then I also it shows my growth instead of trying to force my way out of the position, I was completely okay, saying for the first time in my life, I concede a day a round. I let him stay on I let him stay on top, and I let him win the round because I had twenty more minutes to fight.

00:18:31
Speaker 3: And in your in your head, are you thinking too, like, don't force anything here, you need your gas stake. Yeah, we're preparing for a five round fight.

00:18:37
Speaker 2: That was exactly what it was like I was. I looked over at the clock. I've never seen a clock ever in my thirty two fight career. I've never looked at a clock, never wondered what time it was, never heard my coach say thirty seconds, one minute, whatever. I've never never worried about it because I'm in there fighting. Whereas there I was not really fighting. I was strategic. I was I was like chart Well number two. Even more importantly, the greatest submission artists in UFC history is on top of you with your leg and my left leg freaking up in a knee bar type of position where you're one second away from him attacking that and snapping my leg off. Plus he's on yeah, plus he's on top, and and you know he he you know, I went back and watched the fight and Joe and and like the commentators like those elbows he landed, he didn't land it one one elbow on me whatsoever. They all looked like they landed, but they all glanced off my arm or glanced off like the side of my head. And I remember laying in there like he threw one. I was like, oh, thank you Jesus. That was good, because there was freaking, like three different times a couple of those elbows were absolute fire balls coming at me with his bony, freaking long elbows, and none of them landed. And uh, I was just like, I'm gonna sit here, and then pushed him like as soon as the bell ring pushed him off me, walked to my walk to the to the stool.

00:19:52
Speaker 3: Are there ever times where you feel like you're in trouble when he's got your back because you're talking about rewatching it and you're hearing the commentator like Chandler could be in a lot of trouble here if he just you know, he can't give him his back, he can't do this like this is a very dangerous spot for Mike to be this.

00:20:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is that is his favorite spot to be in a fight, right, I mean he finished, poor finished Gaechee finished. So many guys. He's got, however, many twenty something submissions or something like that, over a million dollars in bonuses. The guy's got, right, You guys are probably looking at how many freaking rear naked chokes he has. It's probably half of his submissions are rear naked chokes because he's the perfect body type. If you go back and watch how long his forearms are, it's crazy, and they're not big. They're bony and they're skinny, but he's still strong. So he's got really long arms and he's got really long legs. So he's gonna he's gonna lock that figure four up around the body. Yeah, and freaking squeeze your guts out, separate your freaking rib on the right side. And that one was happening. Oh, I mean I think he got it.

00:20:50
Speaker 1: And uh is that the one we had fully stretched out over there?

00:20:54
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:20:54
Speaker 3: That's when I think DC and Ruggan we're going back and forth like, oh, he's been here before. Yeah, And then I think somebody corrected the other. So you got to remember that was in the first round of the last fight. Like this is different because tanks, you know, guys are wearing.

00:21:05
Speaker 2: Out a little bit. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was good. It was good once you start getting sweaty, because I do remember that too, being in that first round. He gets on top of me and you can you can feel the guy you're holding onto and it's like it's sticky and you're sticky. Is not good when you're fighting Charles olavera second round, third round, fourth round, when the sweat is flowing, everything gets a little bit more slippery or obviously and then you're in a better spot. But you're also always in danger against Charles. But I've got good, you know, pretty good defense and keeping the hand control and.

00:21:36
Speaker 1: When you're when in those three rounds when you're on the ground all those times, you always talk about being aware of him, how good he is. Was there ever a point where you're like, oh fuck, Like yeah, because there's a like you talk about hand control all that, there's just things that I don't understand. Will you do a little bit because you did wrestling, but like I'm watching in the ground, I got JP in my air being like he's doing this well and that well. I'm just thinking to myself, I know he's good on the ground. Were you ever like if he does this.

00:22:01
Speaker 3: One thing I am fucked was because one time he like had Mike's face it seemed like.

00:22:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, and in the fourth round I think it was or third round, third or fourth round, Yeah, he had he had a full on rear naked choke in there two different times and I was able to pull pull the arm down, and then I also planted my elbow and did this number. So I had kind of a kickstand going on there where he couldn't get the elbow when he any shorter. But I definitely had a moment or two where because you know, when you're about to go out, if you can feel it where the crowd goes, you know, it starts to get starts to sound like you're in a tunnel type of situation where you're like, okay, I'm not that far away from being choked out right now.

00:22:44
Speaker 1: You know the crowd understands, I should understand.

00:22:46
Speaker 2: While your heart beats going one thousand miles an hour and your body's doing all kinds of biological stuff, but that was, but I just remember, you know, I I wasn't you know, there was just things weren't going well in there as far as and movement and and my footing and all that kind of stuff. And then even being on the ground, I was like, I'm not moving well on the ground. But I also don't want to force positions I'm I was. When I walked into that fifth round, I thought, Okay, this is where right where I was supposed to be thwart off all the attacks, let him do his grappling stuff, let him wear down, and I'm going to finish him in the fifth. I had the plan of being being there later in the rounds to finish him in the fourth or fifth, and I knew that's right where I was, you know, wanting to be. But so I was just okay with those positions. Yeah, because we go ahead.

00:23:36
Speaker 1: You you brought up I mean, obviously before we get to the fifth that's the money fight, the money part of the fight. It was unbelievable, but you talked about like you're losing your footing. You didn't feel like you were moving around too well, like what you took a bagel blee kick in the leg, and it seemed like that. That was wobbling like crazy. And then I see you. I think it was after the second round, ja second or third, You're doing like the foot thing in the corner. It seemed like you were just trying to grab some sort of grip, so you it seemed like you were under saying that like maybe you weren't mechanically working correct. It wasn't your legs, was your shoulder? Like what was going on?

00:24:04
Speaker 2: Well, I'm not I will not say anything until I get an MRI. But yeah, so I think something happened to the knee in that first exchange where he had the leg and I did like a full three sixty. He did like a little knee bar thing because I walked back to the stool and I looked down on my left leg and it was not working right. It wasn't stepping, it wasn't catching, it was unstable. It was weird. And then and then yeah, during the fight, it was like the because you spar all these rounds and you know what it feels like. I've been fighting for fifteen years, you know what it feels like to be on a solid foundation to walk forward, plod forward, move forward, attack, and I just wasn't moving backwards, it was no problem. So my body and my brain was telling me moving backwards is cool, but moving forward planting and being in his face and being in that pressure, like even if you go back and watch the fifth, if you really watch the fourth and fifth, whenever I was kind of pursuing him, my legs were almost just my left leg was just like almost like flopping rather than stalking and moving forward, you know. And I remember and Robbi Lawler is such a freaking badass Hall of Famer in some of the craziest fights ever. And I was just like, guys, I can't get my footing. I'm trying to figure out my footing. And He's like, well, you better figure it out. And I was like, you're right, Robbie. Shit, It's like and yeah, it was uh yeah, man, I mean we'll we'll see, we'll see what happened. But yeah, essentially, for about twenty three minutes of that fight, I don't know if the leg was really working that well. How does it feel right now? Not great, not great, not great?

00:25:39
Speaker 1: How did you How did your knee feel before the fight?

00:25:42
Speaker 2: The right knee, the right knee. You had some stuff going on and I think, I think we're gonna get that cleaned up for sure. But I've had that for like two years. But the left knee is like the worst, the worst I've ever felt on any kind of injury whatsoever. But it's you know, it's a fight, man, it's you. You figured out. And I'm also, uh, my default is never okay, where where's my excuses? Where's my where's my excuse? Buttons? You know, like I don't have those. So I was just I was like, well, it must be my fault. It must be my footing. It must be you know, the canvas. It must be like I got to get my feet wet, you know, I was trying to getting my feet wet in between every single round, like spitting water out, pouring water out, getting water on my feet because and then now when I go back and watch the fight, because I know how I move, I know what I look like. I got my my last couple of sparring sessions of how I move and what my foundation looks like on my feet, and it just was not the same at all. So it's a weight bearing issue, slash balance issue, slash whatever. But I felt like, how many times did I fall in that fight, like I'm I'm a pretty I'm a decently athletic guy. Like I'm pretty, I'm pretty athletic.

00:26:52
Speaker 1: And if you look at the softball game, you you made things. We're also more difficult to show off that you were at.

00:27:00
Speaker 2: And like I've got a fly ball and then just jumped out and.

00:27:04
Speaker 1: Catch it.

00:27:04
Speaker 2: And I'm better at fighting than I am softball. But like I I just kept falling, like and I'm like, I don't, I don't really fall I'm like.

00:27:14
Speaker 3: You know, you you talked about even the second round that you know you ultimately had to kind of concede and figure out, but ultimately it let go into the ground because you tripped on the cage.

00:27:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, I cut my foot, freaking just did something my damn hand here. I looked down at my thumb because I think my thumb went back and touched my wrist. Yeah, I know. So I got m R on that on that as well. But yeah, I mean, it's, uh, that's why we love the sport. Dude. You got two dudes just freaking braving the unknown to bodily un bodily harm.

00:27:42
Speaker 1: Right, So when you.

00:27:44
Speaker 3: Go down three to oh and you're going to that fourth round, are you thinking, all right, Chandler one point, oh has to start coming out because I'm starting to run out of time because he's had he's had me on the ground, whether you can. You talked about conceding the first one, and second one you kind of tripped and he had his way within the second round, third round, he's on top of you the whole time. Are you starting to like feel the conditioning were off of me? Like, all right, I gotta start taking some chances here.

00:28:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, because also I didn't take any damage. I mean right, I mean that was the one thing I mean to me as an athlete, and I'm the hardest on myself, and obviously my wife is my biggest fan. She's gonna you know, she's got a skewed version and vision, as do you guys, probably, but she's like, yeah, he got on top of you and controlled you. But like, I mean, look at my face. I got a black guy. Part of the black eye too, was like I came down and headbutted his knee or something in the fifth round, Like I've jacked my face up more myself by going in and trying to throw punches and running into limbs more than actually getting punched in fights sometimes, but he wasn't doing damage.

00:28:42
Speaker 3: He was just getting on Like if it was wrestling. Yeah, you're showing the ride time and everything else.

00:28:48
Speaker 2: Yeh, control time, So like it when it comes to that, I, if you actually look at it, I landed more strikes in the fight than he did, even though he controlled and had, you know, because because he would just take the back, do the body triangle and then kind of just do this number. And we were just playing hand fighting for you.

00:29:02
Speaker 1: Know, when you're doing the back in the body triangle, Who's who's exerting more energy in those positions?

00:29:09
Speaker 2: I was. I was resting a lot, you know, like I and I and I and I say that. I used to hate that word because I think guys pussy foot around. They don't fight hard enough, they don't you know, their two point fight tactically. But I was just like, well, hey, when Charles Olivera has your back, I can choose to force this and put myself in a bad situation. I can choose to exert a crazy amount of energy with a fifty to fifty shot of getting out. You don't get out, you try to create a scramble your your cardio goes down, maybe you put yourself in a bad spot, get Armbard triangled some something silly, or just let him, you know, let him do his thing. And I still got I mean, at that point in time, you're in the third round, You're like, dude, I still got twelve minutes left to fight. Twelve minutes is like an eternity inside of there when one punch can finish a fight. And and I say that as as a guy who I Got'm proud of myself for actually being in there and fighting tactically and making conscious decisions rather than you know, the you know, Dana calls me the arturial Gatti of the UFC type of you know, it's like, that's great. I do love that. But also, man, I I was one hundred percent confident, one hundred percent positive that this is exactly the way it was supposed to be. I was going to be Charles Olivera. I was going to fight for the title next and this is the way it was supposed to be. And I had to fight that way as a real professional rather than just a guy who goes out there and entertains in a crazy, badass fight. Get a bonus fight could be up for fight of the Year type of situation, which is all great, but man, I'm here for championships. So now that that ship is sailed.

00:30:37
Speaker 3: In defending off one of the best ground guys who's known for finishing on the ground.

00:30:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and it, you know it, it needs to be said as well. It's like I've only got I've only lost the three guys in the UFC. You know. It's like I've lost to Charles. Every single guy that I've lost to has been ranked top two or three in the world at at that moment. It's Poorier Gaichie and Olivera. Olivera choked out and finished a and Gaegee, you know, and he wasn't able to do it to me. So I mean, it's all all of those things. And it's either way. People can draw the conclusions that they want. People can love me, they can hate me, but we're having fun, we're winning, so thank you.

00:31:14
Speaker 1: I mean hard pressed to find hard press to hate me.

00:31:16
Speaker 2: I mean that fifth round was crazy.

00:31:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, you go ahead, No, no, you were sizing up.

00:31:20
Speaker 3: I was just gonna I was gonna say, like after the fourth round and in your mind you're like, all right, I'm down for like, this is it. The guy gotta empty the clip. However, I can you go into that fifth round?

00:31:31
Speaker 2: Buddy, I came up off of Mike.

00:31:35
Speaker 3: You're sitting there like you know, we're watching from a different perspective, like you're talking about with Bree. It's like you're watching your brother. Like you know, I remember watching Cody all the time, wrestling those feelings, and you're sitting there watching the fight unfolding, like he's losing the fight. But all he needs is just he just needs a land of shot. He needs a land of shot. And you were being patient, like you're defending them off. You're happy every time. It's like he's got you for most around on the ground. It's like, all right, if he can last two and a half minutes here, then you end up doing it. He's checking the clock, he's get into the corner. You can tell you're breathing. Fine, It's like, all right, he has to go in. This fifth round has to go. When you landed that first one, dog and I tell you, I was so mad when you missed those two.

00:32:11
Speaker 2: I was like fuck because you.

00:32:12
Speaker 1: Had him, Yeah, you had him on the ground. I thought they were gonna call the fight because you're right, Like.

00:32:18
Speaker 2: Because I got my phone out, I'm recording the TV. I'm like, come on, bro, you got it, you just go keep going.

00:32:22
Speaker 1: JP and I got our arms around each other. We're jumping in the air, like leaning over people, screaming like this is fucking eat because yeah, the first four it's like it seemed you had your game plan. You did the game plan. It was what it was. But like you said, it's like you one punch and when you cliss one moment he like puts his hand like that. You're like, oh, he's fucking hurt, and then it falls down and then you start coming in with the elbows and the punches. I'm just staring at the Red fight fucking goll goll it like screaming, bro.

00:32:51
Speaker 2: Yeah nobody, yeah, no, Nobody in the last couple of years has put Oliver in that position. And I put in in that position twice in the first fight and in the second fight, and obviously he got finished Islam, but that's his only loss. Well arming, but that was a kind of a hug fest, right, yeah, man, it was. And yeah, hindsight is always twenty twenty man. It's so it you go back and you're like, God, if you could just put me back in that moment, I would have just pushed off and I would have made him come back up and just But the other thing too, was I think I also knew. You can just tell the way I was pursuing him. It was almost like I was like just tripping toward him. Yeah, you know, Like I said, I'm not making excuses, but like it was. It was a weird.

00:33:31
Speaker 1: I was on the field and.

00:33:33
Speaker 3: Still trying to be like, yeah, I could just go back to this.

00:33:36
Speaker 2: Last night I watched it and I was like, I was not happy.

00:33:39
Speaker 1: You could tell something was up on your legs because it seemed like you were walking on uneven surfaces.

00:33:43
Speaker 2: It was yeah, you know, we'll see. We cannot say anything until we get the MRI results or whatever, but yeah.

00:33:50
Speaker 1: Right there, man, Yeah I was done.

00:33:53
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's uh. And and the referee was right there, dude, because I mean he took like fifteen shots of the year fifteen, and I was like, is he gonna is this for? You're gonna freaking step in? Dude? What do you think?

00:34:06
Speaker 1: Are you thinking like it's over?

00:34:07
Speaker 5: Like is that?

00:34:08
Speaker 2: Because well, so the herd. The hard part is there's kind of an unspoken rule at this point. It's like it's got to be pretty definitive, like if if, because I would want the exact same thing if I was up three rounds, four rounds to one or none and Charles olivera clipped me, I would want the referee to not step in unless it's like life or death situation because I'm up. Just let me survive and I win the fight type of situation. And this is where, you know, this is where the my humility comes in, where I'm like, hey, this is the sport, and this is the way things are supposed to be. Like I completely get if it was a different fight. I think Keith Peterson finishes, finishes, or steps in and pulls me off of him after he takes those fifteen, maybe twenty shots if it's in the first few rounds. Yeah, but he's already up a couple of rounds there. So it's kind of like an unspoken rule, let this guy serve vibe unless I need to save him, unless you know, but he was in a bad Yeah, he was in a bad spot. I remember when he turned over and he looked at it. For some reason, his eyes were red, like I don't know if freaking like they were red, like bloodshot, and he was looking at me, but he wasn't really looking at me. He was like looking through me, cross eyed and and just he was he was looking at God. He was all just head right there. He's like, I need to come back. You're good.

00:35:25
Speaker 1: That's a that's supposed to do that.

00:35:28
Speaker 5: When you're on top of him and you lean back and he Mike like took a few deep breasts and then just starts going back in.

00:35:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well yeah, And that's and that's one of Charles Charles's good things because he's he's been He's not the most dominant guy. If you watch him, you know, he he gets in bad positions and guys hurt him. But he's but he's long and lanky, and he's and he could close his eyes and and and use his feet like hands, you know, and and tie you up and do these things with his big old long limbs. So it was it's a tough position to be in because he's so good at being defensive in those positions because he's been in those positions so much. And that's what you have to be as a jiu jitsu artist. You are going to concede the position and let a guy be on top of you so you can triangle him and armbar him and do these things. But you still have to be very good. Whereas me, I'm not that way because I'm not ever on bottom like that, you know, with a guy on top of me usually. So you get in a position and you make one little movie, you let him advance a little bit, and then he's got you tied up and he's just hugging you with his legs or he's doing something, and then you can't land a good shot, right, so remind me.

00:36:35
Speaker 1: So you have him, you have him down. I forget what happened next, because we thought it was over and then he was.

00:36:41
Speaker 2: Like putting it.

00:36:42
Speaker 5: He was like trying to go for your arm in some weird way. And then that's when I feel like it kind of got.

00:36:46
Speaker 3: It's when you started to see a little like you know, the conditioning as far as like it's the fifth round and you're just unloading the clip on him, yeah, whereas your that's where you're like looking back and back if I have just stepped away and make him get up.

00:36:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, but obviously you have to follow him. I mean that was when I, you know, that's when I I go back to it, and I had no weight. Like when you're on you when you're throwing a left hook, you want both your weight planted on both of your feet and if anything, a little bit more on your front foot, because that's where you're all the powers coming from your left hip, which for me is my front hip. And I threw that hook with my left foot in the air because I wasn't putting weight on my left foot, and this whift fell. We did a complete three sixty, and we landed in a good spot for me to to land good damage. So I wouldn't have I wouldn't have stood us up. I wouldn't have stood up then right away. I would have tried to finish them right there. But as soon as the as soon as the action kind of stopped and I and I wasn't just dominating raining punches. It would have been nice to be able to just push him away and make them stand up.

00:37:44
Speaker 1: But here we are, and then it gets you to the ground what like a minute forty five, a minute thirty left, And yeah, that's the point we kind of knew, like all right, like did you know, like all right? He's got me on the ground. This guy's the best ground.

00:37:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:37:57
Speaker 2: Here we are again. Yeah, here we are again. You know. And he didn't do any damage. He just held me and hugged me and did his thing.

00:38:04
Speaker 1: And yeah, at that point, for him, he doesn't have to really do anything, right he control.

00:38:09
Speaker 2: And then Chandler Chandler two point okay or Chandler one point oh, reverted back where I was like, Hey, now we're like, hey, I'm about to take this one hundred and eighty pound man with one leg and stand up.

00:38:22
Speaker 1: Wattle ass wattle is.

00:38:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, we can't do it right here. We got to walk to the middle of that monster can and freaking slam them twice. And I know it's like it's not like, hey, I let me see if I can knock him out with this thing. I mean, it would have been actually the craziest thing ever if his he lost his breath or he freaking went unconscious. But obviously there was a zero percent chance of that happening. Really, but I was like, this is just for the fans. I looked right at freaking Donald Trump and Kid Rock on the first one, and then on the second one, as I was getting up, I was on three points and Hunter Campbell had his hands like this, and he was just like looking at me like this is freaking nuts, and we like locked eyes and I was like and I smiled at him and just did it again.

00:39:07
Speaker 1: Again, dude, when you fucking that. The fifth round was maybe the most electric fifth round you could ever ever watch. You had him in the corner, he gets you on the ground. Like the range of emotions was crazy because we're screaming he's gonna do it.

00:39:20
Speaker 2: Then he gets you in the.

00:39:21
Speaker 1: Ground, like man, it's over. That sucks. And then you sort of stand up and you're like, hey, what's he doing? What's he about to do right now? And you literally like it was like it was cinema. It was absolutely because you're like struggling to get up and he just holding on your back and you can see your legs shaking and your body shaking. You're like just the the power of an alpha male standing up from the people. Everyone's like oh, because you can feel the crowd. The crowd was like all right, they got his back. Everyone and their mother's like all right, they're gonna be on the ground for the rest of the time. This fight's over. Let's get ready for the John Jones fight. And then when you start to quiver your way up with him. When I was back, I was like, wait a second about it. They were like holy shit, and you stand up and then when you mouth fuck it yeah, and then on the back, I was like, holy shit, Yeah he might not. I in my dumb brain, I'm like, he might fucking knock him out.

00:40:15
Speaker 2: You might fucking do it. Well, what's really funny is we already have history. I did it in the first fight, right, And I think when he had my back that thought went through my mind a couple of different times during the fight. But I'm like, no, it takes a lot of energy. It's there's a one percent chance that it helps out and does something cool. It's just a cool it's a wow factor type of situation. But with forty seconds left in the fight, You're like, let's wow one, let's give the seconds if you yeah, go back to the other clip. Yeah, it's like thirteen seconds left. Thirteen seconds left. That was the second one, Yeah, was it? Yeah? Dude?

00:40:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, just walking through he's got your leg. You're just fucking hobbling over. Yeah, And I hey, did you tap at the end?

00:40:52
Speaker 2: Well, so that I thank god because you were so technically I kind of did, but it was more like a good job, buddy, he freaking did this, uh and kissed me. It was like a show of respect type of thing. It was like a good you know, like you never heard.

00:41:08
Speaker 1: Of a man seeking his tongue respect.

00:41:10
Speaker 3: You just do the body things twice. He's hanging on You're both just being showman.

00:41:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, what that was. That was like a moment for us. And I look back at it and people people are like, oh, he tapped, you should and like and but and that's where the referee did not. I guess you would say, like follow the rules. It's like if he saw a tap, he should, but he knows what's happening. He He's refed thousands of fights. Charles Olvera does not have a submission. As a matter of fact, his arms are loose around me. I'm not tapping. It was a it was a pat on the competitor, right. But yeah, I look back and I'm like, dude, thank god, that would have that would that would have sucked.

00:41:45
Speaker 1: I mean, bro pulls it off left on the clock.

00:41:49
Speaker 2: I know, right, you know, and it's but it was I think he knew what was happening there. We're both smiling, we're both DA's the fucking the It was late.

00:42:03
Speaker 5: Before the fight, Bruce Buffer, did ad read for a Gladiator too? And then your fight happens. I'm like, whoever's in charge of Gladiator to put Mike in the trailer?

00:42:13
Speaker 2: Yeah? I don't think that's a coincidence that they waited till my fight to do that, you know, because obviously Gladiator. Yeah, well yeah, I guess are you not entertained? That's a freaking Gladiator. Damn dude, Yeah, I need to I need to holler at the freaking they filmed that coming out im out this week day man kid rocks losing.

00:42:32
Speaker 1: You see Jelly's arm waving around.

00:42:34
Speaker 2: I will say I've been getting sent videos of the second slam because obviously the first one happens, and the whole entire Madison Square garden is on their feet. The entire Madison Square garden is on their feet, because especially when people saw me getting like struggling my way to my feet for the second one, people were like, oh shit, he's gonna do it again, Like he's gonna do it again. We're about to see it again, and It was a Devin, uh my buddy Devin, who sent me one where he's a little bit far back where you can kind of see twelve thousand of the twenty thousand people and they're all standing up and half of them were waving their hands in there. They're like they're like, he's gonna do it again. You know.

00:43:14
Speaker 1: It was insane.

00:43:16
Speaker 2: Mike United America.

00:43:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, good brought it back.

00:43:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's that's ah, that's where the that's where the fight was out the window at that point. It was just like, hey, we're I'm living my best life, Like I'm doing this right now and I'm gonna live my best life and we're gonna do something spectacular. What was it Dana said? And I love that he said it. He said, I'm in the business of making holy shit moments. You know. That's what he does. That's what he sells. He doesn't sell fights, he doesn't sell competition, he doesn't sell the UFC. He's selling holy shit moments, you know, Like that's what he does. And you're six for six, I ain't going anywhere, you know, like that's where and that was one of those things. Yeah, So what do you think's next? Well there's only one the call out. Yeah, yeah, I mean I had my whole I had my whole speech lined out. You know, I was gonna I was gonna win, do my job. I was gonna call it Islam or Max for the BMF belt or Connor obviously, but obviously I was. I was one hundred percent said I wanted to fight Islam next or Arman could win that. But I think his Lam wins. But and I was gonna be cage sided for it. Still might be go out there to do some appearances. Everybody loves La. We'll go to l A Boys. Yeah, you know, so looks like it's gonna be Connor next.

00:44:35
Speaker 1: Do you what do you think the reality of Connor is guys on the yacht, five hundred million dollars whatever he's got, breaks the pinky toe.

00:44:43
Speaker 2: In court, in court right now. Yeah, tough week for the boy, tough week, tough week.

00:44:47
Speaker 1: Do you think this is is a real reality that he comes back to the octagon.

00:44:52
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's a real reality, but I am saying if he does, his road comes straight through Nashville, Tennessee. You know, like his road back to the UFC. We have to finish the Ultimate Fighter. The UFC wants to finish the Ultimate fighter. Connor wants to fight me, like there's he can fight anybody. But he made a commitment, you know, And I've said this numerous times. I have no problem giving my opponents props like I think he is. He's more sentimental and romantic about the sport than people give him credit for, because he has become this big, infamous, you know brand, right, But he knows he's nothing without that UFC octagon. He knows he's nothing without the UFC. He was a plumber on welfare, sleeping on a couch, and without the UFC, he's he's nothing, you know. And I don't say that to taking anything away from him. We all know, you know, we need our we need our employers or our brands or whatever to take us to the next level and create the life. Right. So I think he wants to see through to his commitment. Quite frankly, I mean, he needs to come back, he needs something to chase, or else he's going to keep chasing the wrong things. And if he does, there's a guy waiting. And it just so happens that I think I'm one of the top draws in the UFC, like there, people will pay good money to watch me fight no matter what. It's OH ship moments NonStop, dude, because I I will give them to you, like I am guaranteed to give them to you. And I and I might be the only guy in the UFC who will guarantee that you will have an O ship moment. And I wear that proudly. And uh, here we are so Connor's gonna come back. If he comes back, he's fighting me as.

00:46:31
Speaker 1: You uh exit the octagon E sifting and a left tack, a hard right because me Jelly JP tailing Brie. We're all waiting for you. Take a hard right. Go see old forty seven?

00:46:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, would you say them just shoot? You know, shook his hand and he he said, uh, he said awesome fight you're a warrior or whatever, and he whispered him. Yeah, he he whispered him. Do There was a really cool shot actually of him whispering in my ear and he was just like you were one bad mone type of deal, you know, Like it was pretty freaking cool. And I was like, well you are, thank you for saving our country. And then from there it was like the entire Avengers squad was there, Like the entire group of people that is going to set our country in the right direction is there. Plus, my one of my favorite people is Tulsi Gabbard.

00:47:19
Speaker 1: You see what's up to her? Yeah, that was obviously the first time I met her. She is she's got a calm confidence about her. She's got to know her about her, like when she speaks, she just sounds like I was in O eight when Obama was running for president. I didn't know shit about politics, still really don't, but I would watch Obama and be like, Yo, this guy just sounds amazing when he speaks, has no idea what he's actually saying. Tulsa gives me the same vibe. It's like she just holds herself very confidently. She had a great energy about her when we were sitting there, and when she speaks, she just sounds like she really just speaks very well.

00:47:51
Speaker 2: Tulca Gabbard is going to be the first female president. That's that's what that's my hope. I hope Toulsi Gabbert is the first female president for you States. So the streets you're saying.

00:48:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, the whispers, the CLAMBRANX.

00:48:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's is which is great. I mean, I love that she's what is she Director of National Intelligence, which is really funny because they put her on like the terror watch list and all this stuff. It's just like, what's really cool from the political side is to see the political establishment start to freak out about how unqualified, dangerous, and scary all these people are because they are threatening the bureaucracy that has been there going on for the last one hundred years and had us taking steps backwards because those people have been in power, you know, the left has been in power, what twelve of the last sixteen years, you know, And so it's exciting. And either way, whether you voted one side or the other or you're upset about one or the other, either way, it's a change. Like, hey, let's just give it a shot. Right, It's no different than your seven years into your NFL career. Let me, let me just try this thing. It's a little on the fringe. It's a little some people hate it, some people love it. But let's just try this thing. Like, let's try to have a freaking rocket scientist. Let's try to have a guy who was independent in the middle, he was on the left and has now come over to the right, like, let's just try it. Let's try this thing. It's a little bit different than just a bunch of suits who have been living the public service life for the last forty years and don't have a lot of actual moving the country forward to show for it.

00:49:24
Speaker 3: And they got everybody they went in like if if it's gonna happen, it's gonna be now.

00:49:27
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then and then if a guy like me, who is one hundred percent on board, I look back and be like, yeah, rocket science is he's an idiot in politics, he should he was the wrong guy. RFK, Yeah, he's an idiot. Never mind. We had high hopes, right, But it's like, let's just try something different. That's what America does, dude. America makes innovations and they take big risks, and that was what then the country was founded upon. You know.

00:49:51
Speaker 1: He brought up a good point of the hope thing. And it's like, regardless of left or right or whatever, whoever wins, wherever side of the aisle you lay on, you you want hope, Like, hey, if it wasn't my choice, let's hope this works out for the best, because a the end of the day, we just want our country to do as well.

00:50:06
Speaker 3: I'm still gonna be raising a beard before July.

00:50:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think Trump said it. He said it and maybe his uh acceptance speech or whatever, you know, uh, and he said it. It's great. It's like success brings people together. And if if we are successful with the boys, get you really right exactly?

00:50:25
Speaker 1: You know it's what you watched.

00:50:27
Speaker 2: I did watch I Can Forget, which is freaking amazing. You know, like success brings people together. Dude, it's like love me or hate me. If I make your life better, you gotta give me props for that. You're happy about it?

00:50:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of the fear and a lot of the stuff, like hopefully everything just calms down the next couple of years.

00:50:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's been. It's been pretty pretty good and cordial. Don't watch the news and just live your life and.

00:50:54
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, we're gonna keep doing what we do, just having people on Tuesdays, come on, the froom comes out on Thursdays, right.

00:51:02
Speaker 2: Dan, play video games?

00:51:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, at one o'clock today, right now? So em I would have you already gotten the MRI.

00:51:11
Speaker 2: I No, I'm hounded him. I'm like, I want it today.

00:51:14
Speaker 1: You should have they should have given it to you, like right after the fight, but the next morning.

00:51:18
Speaker 2: Well yeah, I mean that was that was partly me because like I wanted to get I wanted to just not be held hostage in New York. And you know.

00:51:26
Speaker 1: You should have got them, Mikey.

00:51:28
Speaker 2: Maybe be a professional. I know, you need to do it the next day.

00:51:31
Speaker 1: I wanted to play game a little OUCHI they give you a nemoraiah the next day, I know, but get an amor. I don't go on a plane. Yeah right, inflamation going exactly, That's what it's. Just maybe have a little fun with you.

00:51:44
Speaker 2: Look, maybe it's just the inflammation from the plane. Maybe that he's fine. That's what I'm saying.

00:51:48
Speaker 1: We were not making any excuses little red light therapy.

00:51:52
Speaker 2: If you had, if you knew what the m ri I would say, what would you guess? It would say, I don't know, I don't I really don't want to.

00:51:58
Speaker 1: Let's let's play doctor, let's play doll te med.

00:52:01
Speaker 2: I really don't want to know. But uh, I don't know. Either way.

00:52:04
Speaker 3: When the mri I comes up for your knee, put the pit bull on it the game yeah yeah.

00:52:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah we can uh we can break it down on the next episode of Busting with the Boys. But I don't even if there's a road to recover, there's a road to recovery, the timeline will work out fine, you know. I think I think me and Connor International Fight Week is the next fight. That's what I'm throwing out there, Like I think in July.

00:52:25
Speaker 1: When do you think, when do those conversations start to happen? Give us a timeline on that? When do you know if that's a reality?

00:52:30
Speaker 2: Uh well, I mean I got to see what's up with the body right.

00:52:34
Speaker 1: Now, which you should have done a couple of days ago, I.

00:52:35
Speaker 2: Know, But uh, I'll talk to Hunter in the next couple of days. You know. Well, I'm sure he's given me a little time right now, are yeah. I mean, no matter what it's like Chandler versus anybody is is a thumbs up for the UFC right now.

00:52:49
Speaker 1: So okay, So let's say Connor's done, he rides off in the sunset.

00:52:53
Speaker 2: That's it.

00:52:54
Speaker 1: What in your perfect world? Who are you fighting next?

00:52:57
Speaker 2: Max Holloway for the BMF belt? You know, I mean, I'm I don't know what my ranking is now, probably still seven ish or whatever. He's number five because he beat Gai Chie. You know. So like you got two guys inside the top ten BMF Belt one fifty five Chandler versus gay Chee two. That's a big fight. You know, that's another banger.

00:53:19
Speaker 5: You know.

00:53:20
Speaker 2: That was fifty five. Yeah, I would love to fight a one seventy as much as it suck to just get to it's like a different human. Yeah, it's you step on the way in and everything else. I'm like being around you as much as we have the last few years. It's you can just see how much work and effort it is to get down there. It's yeah, it's calorie restricted every day. Like I did not have one day in which my calories exceeded my burning calories. Like my resting metabolic rate was like thirty five hundred to thirty eight hundred or something like that, and I was ingested like twelve hundred and fifty hundred calaries.

00:53:54
Speaker 3: I mean, you look at working out three times person right now compared to when yeah.

00:53:58
Speaker 2: Well I'm a little swollen. Yeah, I'm a little swollen right now. Yeah, like just my whole body, Yeah, my whole body has inflamed.

00:54:06
Speaker 3: He didn't let any damage on he's got a black guy.

00:54:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, my head's fine. Look at me, like, yeah, look at you. I was like that. People like, yo, what happened?

00:54:13
Speaker 2: Well yeah, but you forgot what I got on the bus after Getchee, even freaking after poor Yeah yeah, you know, like face was much more.

00:54:20
Speaker 1: Do you take on Holloway? You're standing up with him? What's the deal? You swing out? I don't want He's literally giving guys, you know, pointers during fights. Yeah, he's looking away while throwing jabbies.

00:54:30
Speaker 2: You don't want to now because you just came home and hugged your kids. Yeah, I know when you're in that cave. Oh yeah, that guy's a psycho. That guy. That guy will stand with Max Holliday for five rounds and be willing to die in there. You know which is you know, it's great. I know I got an Emmy and uh we'll never lose it. So yeah, that would be a fun one. I would love to fight at one seventy though, but it's gotta be the right fight at one seventy.

00:54:53
Speaker 1: You know what you didn't do in your last fight?

00:54:56
Speaker 2: See it, that's up? No, I didn't be fest Oh dang it, you're right. We talked about it because I had to go forward to do that. I was fighting backwards the entire free.

00:55:07
Speaker 1: You say, you don't have an excuse, but we did talk about We talked about it the day of the day before before, Hey bro spinning back first.

00:55:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, dang, it didn't happen, he laughed.

00:55:19
Speaker 1: He goes, yeah, I could do that. I'm thinking myself, do.

00:55:21
Speaker 2: It, seriously? Do it?

00:55:24
Speaker 1: I need Could you imagine a little spin.

00:55:27
Speaker 2: That would have been awesome?

00:55:28
Speaker 1: Get in there at one two? Stomach? Should you got should you have got Charles's body a little bit more? Get his hands down?

00:55:33
Speaker 2: Yeah? I didn't know the body at all. I mean part of that.

00:55:37
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what you need to have. You gotta have. You gotta have JP in your corner. JP was falling things out. He's like, if he goes to the body a little bit more, Oliver, his hands are way too high. Right now. JP is on his ship.

00:55:51
Speaker 2: Yeah he is. I needed you to break down the footage. We can do that.

00:55:55
Speaker 5: You'll check out Mike's YouTube channel. We'll be on there, break there, break it down for me. This could be a crazy one and maybe it's a bad idea of but no bad ideas and brainsworm for next fight. Wise, if Vulk loses this, it looks like he's going to get a rematch. Yeah, like maybe a Chandler Vulcan Chandler Vulcant fifty five. He would love to He would probably even love to go to one seventy.

00:56:19
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that would be fun. I mean yeah, we should just we should just normalize. We should just normalize fighting at our our normal weights, like that would be great.

00:56:27
Speaker 1: You know you hated that, Yeah, it's uh, but but I'm so damn good at it though.

00:56:33
Speaker 2: That's that's what's crazy. Is like, even the hard stuff for me, it's just it just from it needs to. I wish people could see what I went through the last twelve weeks, and it's like, yeah, it sucked. But if you just stick to a plan and you do it, and you have discipline and you do not cheat whatsoever, it's all doable. Like I honestly had a very very easy weightcut. Did it suck absolutely? Was it painful, yes? Was it uncomfortable. Was I ticked off? Yes? But it was a it was an easy weightcut. But the weight cut doesn't start the fight week. Weightcut started twelve weeks prior. I mean the weight cut started when I I mean, I had that conversation with you about Hey, dude, here's the options here, what's going on. I was like, I don't want to go to one fifty five. I was in the middle of like starting to calorie restrict. I'm weighing like one ninety something, one ninety one, and I'm like starting a calorie restrict because they wanted me to fight October fifth. And I was like, Hunter, I dude, you I will make I will make weight. I will make weight if I give you my commitment and I signed my name on the down line, I will make weight. I just think I'm gonna be a shell of a human being inside of the octagon, and I'm gonna be frail and it probably banged up because of this hard weight cut. For it's too soon. Can we do Madison Square Garden? And he said no at first, and then obviously we know how it played out. I fought at Madison Square Garden, but I was in the middle. I started way soon because I needed to go from a one to seventy body type down to a one to fifty five bud cut. Let's get down to like two hundred or so.

00:57:57
Speaker 1: Wait till wait after the holiday season.

00:57:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, dude, let's were the boys about. We're about to have a fun couple of week month and a half a right, just fired me up. Hey, I gotta ge, dude. I can't give up the dark chocolate buttercuffs. Man, they crumble me.

00:58:12
Speaker 3: I know their peanut butter pretzel bites.

00:58:15
Speaker 2: God, well that you yearned for them. That's where Yeah, that's why I yearned for them. That's where I'm getting my head wrapped around. Like if I got to get you know, any kind of surgery or something, I'm like, Okay, I'm going straight carnivore the whole time. I'm a freaking gonna be in my red.

00:58:29
Speaker 1: Because we have the most buttered turkey, oh, the most buttery. We're doing a competition this year in the one household. Anybody who comes over who wants to participate will have a scale, right Yeah, yeah, winner take all.

00:58:41
Speaker 2: I'm gonna win. An I can manipulate my weight so well, I can manipulate my weight so well, I'm gonna show. Yeah, he went back.

00:58:49
Speaker 3: She went from three to ten to what are you like to forty?

00:58:53
Speaker 2: Then'll be disrespectful.

00:58:56
Speaker 1: What are you talking?

00:58:56
Speaker 2: Great, dude, thank you, it's phenomenal. It wasn't that. It wasn't shot you lost you.

00:59:01
Speaker 1: There was there was when I was in the two forties. We'll give me the whole hate you doing the home shoulders forward. You're getting a little too skinny.

00:59:08
Speaker 2: He looks a little sick face exactly.

00:59:10
Speaker 1: He sat me down a little bit, and I was like, all right, I gotta put like ten more pounds on it. It's gonna be five, but I think I'm gonna try to I'm gonna wait. Cut it's like two forty five for Thanksgiving, which is the week.

00:59:18
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. I'm gonna have to do that.

00:59:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it isn't. You stay where you're at, buddy. I'm gonna I'm putting fifteen pounds on the day of Thanksgiving. Calling it now you're sleeping on Mitch, Mitch. But mitche here's here's Mitch. Mitch stays with the carbs. When you cut carbs, you lose water weight so fast. So when I if I have no carbs, I did fuck up in New York big time.

00:59:41
Speaker 2: Hell carbs cars.

00:59:45
Speaker 1: But if I have no cars from now till Thanksgiving, I'll have like a free seven eight pounds that literally will be like a piece of bread and I'll be done. And then it's all about endurance. Brother, And you boys have seen me eat when I eat?

00:59:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean yeah, you're a big boy.

00:59:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're fucking.

00:59:59
Speaker 5: After it, Roster. I'll make some odds on it. We'll get it out there if people can bet on it.

01:00:03
Speaker 1: We got to just do that one day in general, like Thanksgiving. I know everybody's got their thing, but we should just see if you can eat the most one day.

01:00:09
Speaker 2: Everybody could a poster, dude. That would be morning contests, can you get it? The bust and busting bowls just like bowls of freaking whatever you decide.

01:00:20
Speaker 1: Spaghetti Tailor makes these like cinnamon rolls, dude, I'm telling you. She made him a week ago, and I was like, first off, you fuck yourself. You should never make I've told you I'm not doing a car until Thanksgiving up to New York. But I told you sure Thanksgiving, I was like, make one for everybody, and then make a whole sep one because I'm meeting the whole thing. I'm going Those Simon roles are insane, Bro're so good.

01:00:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, those sour dough ones even put it full. We had him last year, right, I mean you know, I don't think.

01:00:50
Speaker 3: You could Thanksgiving with Thanksgiving meals and everything else. Dang, just letting you know, I don't think you can't.

01:00:55
Speaker 1: I love it. No, I love I love this. You're probably right, but I'm like.

01:01:01
Speaker 2: You too.

01:01:02
Speaker 1: There's like twelve of them boys. I'm kind of excited about that challenge.

01:01:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, those comes and people down the bus, even fans included too. You have a way in at what seven eight in the morning, post your scale, Yeah, post your scale, and then what seven pm, eight pm?

01:01:19
Speaker 2: Twelve hour window, twelve hour window.

01:01:25
Speaker 1: Hashtag busting bloated boys. We'll come up with the hashtag hashtag. Yeah, you gotta do a water five to twenty busting busty boys.

01:01:32
Speaker 2: Yet to do a water cut busting turkey games.

01:01:35
Speaker 1: Ye yeah, I'm a Wednesday next week. Let's do it.

01:01:38
Speaker 2: When's it next week?

01:01:38
Speaker 5: Yeah?

01:01:39
Speaker 2: It's like me when I went in one fifty six fifty five points six and then twelve hours later I was on seventy five, So it's like twenty pounds.

01:01:46
Speaker 3: What basically just explaining that that.

01:01:49
Speaker 2: Was more just dehydration, yeah. Dehydration. Well, water fast means you're really only drinking water. This is more like not drinking much water. I think. I think that the last twenty four hours, I only drink like thirty two ounces of water sixty four hours.

01:02:02
Speaker 1: And we should do that next Wednesday. How long does it take?

01:02:07
Speaker 2: I mean you just basically do a twenty four hour one where you're not You're just dehydrating yourself for twenty four hours.

01:02:12
Speaker 1: Can I have nicotine?

01:02:13
Speaker 2: Yes? Okay, you get a coffee? Yeah, I mean coffee dehydrate you? Right, Yeah, that'd be easy for me.

01:02:22
Speaker 1: You smacked that.

01:02:22
Speaker 3: I'll be pissing gold sometimes, brother, should I got drinks?

01:02:27
Speaker 1: You got that brown?

01:02:27
Speaker 2: That's super water. Let's get to the water. Drink the water.

01:02:32
Speaker 3: I love how you think I just sit on the couch and I'm that at home. Well, sometimes no, I take it.

01:02:39
Speaker 1: I text it Will last night and he's like doing dishes, just going after this.

01:02:43
Speaker 2: I'm saying everything he said.

01:02:44
Speaker 1: Steel was out there, he's getting Will is running the scoreboard up right now.

01:02:47
Speaker 2: At home. He's crushing.

01:02:48
Speaker 1: He's doing what he's got. That's grind, yeah, fun grind. When you were doing a water cut, was that you right there. That's severe dehydration. No, my uh, I've been in that little brown. I've been in that, the third one. Yeah, I've been in that.

01:03:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been in the b Yeah, I've been the dehydrated. I've not been. I mean, I don't understand why this severely dehydrated is red. That looks like blood, right?

01:03:09
Speaker 1: That blood one time was thirteen. It was kind of painful. That's why I was wondering if it was painful for you.

01:03:14
Speaker 2: I think, well, I think my whole body was in pain, so I just wouldn't have really noticed. But but yeah, it's definitely a different density, you know, because blood compared to just urine, whole urethra, whatever that thing is.

01:03:30
Speaker 3: How was it?

01:03:30
Speaker 1: How was Brie after the fight?

01:03:33
Speaker 2: She was good man like she she was. It was tough before the fight because she hadn't done it. Twelve weeks is over? Yeahah yeah, I mean that's four boards.

01:03:42
Speaker 1: Yeah.

01:03:42
Speaker 2: I remember seeing her Halloween. I was like, how are you doing? That's right? We're in it, yeah, because she Yeah, she she had a tough time with this one because she hadn't done it in two years. I mean we would have been together for ten twelve years, married for ten, but she's been she's been used to you know, she's been used to me fight every six months or so. She didn't she wasn't used to it for two years, you know. So it was a little bit out kids. Yeah and without Yeah, so's she's handling all that, and then she's also handling the emotions. Like even when we were in New York, like she on fight day, she was just sitting in her hotel room by herself for like five six hours. I was like, you're good. She's like, yeah, I just hanging out. Just want to be by myself, you know, because you're also not yourself. Like that's how I am around fight week and stuff. It's like, hey, dude, let's go do this, Let's go do have dinner. And I'm like, now, because I'm going to be there, I'm not going to be myself and I'm gonna be second guessing how am I handling this interaction. I'm not myself. I don't really want to be here. We're having a conversation, but I don't really care about this conversation. And I'm completely okay with giving myself permission to not care about this conversation. Because I have to go fight in a cage and twenty four hours type of thing, and she's the same thing. It's like we had twenty five friends there, probably, right, But she's like, I'm not the normal breed that you guys are used to because my husband's about to go fight in a cage and my body's doing weird things and I don't have an appetite not sleeping well. And you know, so she was happy after because once again, I've never lost a fight. Like every time we're going up right, like it's win, loser, draw. It's like whatever, it sucks if you lose, but it's also like, hey, the future looks bright. So you're just happy it's over, you know, just happy. You're happy it's over and and it and it worked out decent. Whatever, it's fine, you know, and I'm home now. You're excited that I get to come home and just be dad and husband for a little while. Yeah, and uh yeah, so she was good after.

01:05:35
Speaker 1: Well that's awesome, brother, We're happy for you, regardless of man. You put on an absolute show.

01:05:41
Speaker 2: Oh ship moments, dude, Oh ship moments, win lose, Right, we don't go gently, Yeah, we do not go quietly into the holidays.

01:05:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, get plumped, get excited. One we'll focus on the body.

01:05:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're moving to the new house in a couple of weeks.

01:05:59
Speaker 4: So it's December fifth, before Christmas house. Yeah, so celebrating. So yeah, we've got to move to all that stuff. That'll be fun. Yeah, right down the road.

01:06:10
Speaker 5: Maybe that won't be with the recovery, all the injuries, having to move.

01:06:13
Speaker 3: Yeah, you almost gotta hope for a surgery, right.

01:06:17
Speaker 2: I am not. Yeah, I'm like, I do not want to be that guy because I'm like, God, yeah, babe, grab that box. Yeah that's good. Is that heavy good?

01:06:24
Speaker 1: Well, put your back into the perfect time. That get her one of those little weight belts that the movers had. Let her start. Get her dolls.

01:06:30
Speaker 2: She's got to be a back surgery, and then we're both we're both on the freaking injured reserve.

01:06:33
Speaker 1: That would be the worst. You're coming off of recovery. She's going into recovery. It's like, now I gotta do what I saw her do.

01:06:39
Speaker 2: It'll be doing the j hoole workouts. Gotta get right moving. Tell you what, thanks for coming on, bro, of course I appreciate it. Always back on the bus. We love you, guys, appreciate you

01:06:50
Speaker 1: See you at the subscribe right five stars.