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1:01

Wireless. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

1:21

Welcome back to the Fighter vs. the

1:23

Writer. I am Damon Martin. He is UFC

1:25

legend Matt Brown. And Matt, we are back

1:28

with another week post UFC 303, and you're always a busy man,

1:32

so I always appreciate you jumping on to the

1:34

podcast. What's new in your world? Well,

1:37

I did finally get to watch a pay-per-view

1:39

event. Well, half

1:42

of it. So, from

1:44

what I understand, the first half wasn't much to

1:46

watch anyway, but got to

1:48

witness history with Alex Pereira. That was amazing

1:52

as always. Yeah, got

1:55

to watch Dan Ige step up, which

1:57

was pretty badass. Somehow,

2:00

you know, I stayed awake the whole night

2:02

too. So I'm pretty impressed with

2:04

myself, dude Maybe I'm not as old as

2:06

I think I am ever for those curious

2:09

Usually Matt you watch pay-per-views on Sunday

2:11

because you fall asleep on Saturday Well,

2:15

I just don't even order it on Saturday because I

2:17

could watch it for free on Sunday and it's

2:19

like What am I

2:21

really missing out on? I can just go to sleep

2:24

and wake up and watch it in the morning versus

2:26

staying up half the night and Then

2:28

miss it out on sleep. I got rather miss out on

2:30

the fight And

2:37

I can look through Twitter or Instagram Yeah,

2:40

sometimes it kind of ruins it if you see the

2:42

wrong tweet or whatever, but you know, you

2:44

might see Okay, that fights not

2:46

worth watching And

2:48

then you just save yourself an extra, you know

2:51

15 20 30 45 minutes The

2:55

only time I ever got mad about a fight getting

2:57

spoiled and this was my own fault Was

2:59

back in the day you were back in the day when the

3:01

UFC used to show so like the UK and so they would

3:03

Time delay him so they'd have them in the UK and then

3:05

they'd show him in the States like 8 o'clock at night So

3:08

you had to avoid you had to avoid

3:10

the results during the day and I'll never

3:12

forget It was when Mirko cro-cop

3:14

fought Gabriel Gonzaga and I was working at

3:17

the time like a regular day job I

3:19

was working on a regular day job And

3:21

I I did everything possible to avoid

3:23

the results that day and then Someone

3:26

texted me and they're like,

3:28

holy shit Did you see that knockout and I

3:30

was like what what and they like cro-cop got

3:33

knocked down. I was like you mother I

3:38

know it's like I avoided this all day It was like

3:40

it was after though It was like two hours after the

3:42

fight was over like I was maybe like an hour hour

3:44

and a half away From the show airing

3:46

and somebody texted me that and I was like you

3:48

mother That's

3:51

a pretty bad spoiler too cuz no one

3:53

expected that no, that was a huge

3:55

fight Like no one saw that coming. I was watching it.

3:57

Like thinking this is gonna be like the crowning achievement of

4:00

Crow Cop becoming UFC heavyweight champion. Said he gets

4:02

knocked on his head. Did that Crow Cop's debut?

4:05

That was his second fight. He beat

4:07

Eddie Jordan, I think it was the guy's

4:09

name, his debut, and then he got knocked

4:11

out by Gonzaga in his second fight. Yeah,

4:13

yeah. I remember, yeah, that first fight, he

4:15

fought some guy that probably shouldn't even have

4:17

been in the UFC, if I remember right. Yeah, no,

4:19

not at all. He was just a guy

4:22

thrown in there to lose to Crow Cop. Yeah,

4:24

and nonetheless, in the UFC

4:26

fighting freaking Crow Cop. Yeah, but

4:29

dude, because I was a massive Crow Cop fan.

4:31

I mean, I loved Crow Cop, dude. That dude

4:33

was so vicious, man. I loved watching Crow Cop

4:35

in the Pride days, and I was convinced he

4:37

was gonna come over, just wreck shop in the

4:39

UFC, and didn't work out that way.

4:41

Did not work out that way. And there was

4:44

something about his aura too, man. You

4:46

know, not even just he was so vicious and everything, but

4:48

there was something about his aura in Pride. I

4:51

don't know what it was, but there was like, like

4:53

when he walked in, there was something in the air.

4:55

Yeah. Have you ever met Crow Cop? I

4:57

never have. So I met him once.

5:00

This was years later, he was in the UFC, and I can't

5:02

remember what show it was. I was covering, he was there. And

5:05

like, I don't, I'll be, and I'm not saying it's like,

5:07

oh, I'm so cool or anything. I don't really get nervous

5:09

to meet, like, do interviews with people, because I've been doing

5:11

this for 20 years, and like, it's just

5:13

part of the job. Like, you know, like I've interviewed

5:16

everybody. I've hung out with Ronda Rousey, Connor McGregor. Like, none

5:18

of them, I just, it's part of my job. I do

5:20

what I do. But I got a little

5:23

nervous with Crow Cop. I was like, this is fucking

5:25

me or Crow Crow Cop. And boy, I tell you

5:27

what, I feel like totally justified, because as intimidating as

5:29

he looks on TV, he's

5:31

equally as intimidating a person. Like, you can't get a

5:33

read on this guy. Like, I was kind of like

5:35

asking him questions and talking to him, and

5:37

he was responding, but he's kind of a little bit like

5:39

grumbly. And I'm just like, oh shit, did I piss him

5:41

off somehow? No, that's just Crow. When

5:44

it was done, he shook my hand, thanked me. And I

5:46

told him, you know what, I've been watching for so many

5:48

years, whatever. And he's just like, oh man, thank you

5:50

so much. He was a really nice guy, but in the moment, I

5:52

was just so intense. And I was like, oh shit, he's

5:54

about to head kick me right now. Dude,

5:58

there's definitely a... I

6:00

don't know. There's an error

6:02

about someone when you know that they've

6:04

murdered people and they're like, okay with

6:06

it. Yeah. And we, we

6:09

got to see him like halfway murder

6:12

people on TV, but

6:14

like he's like murdered people and cold blood,

6:17

like face to face. And you're like, yeah,

6:20

there's something, you know, there's something about that.

6:22

He's got a thousand yard stare. You know,

6:24

there, there's something about being that close to

6:26

someone. We're like, dude, you would do that

6:28

and sit

6:30

down and eat an apple, you know, right

6:33

after doing it. Do you remember,

6:35

dude, I know you had to see this. Do you

6:37

remember the video they did with the prank they played

6:39

a Maro Ronaldo back in the day with cro-cop? Do

6:41

you remember that one, the pride video? Oh

6:44

dude, you got to see it. As soon as we get done recording,

6:46

go see this from back in the day. And

6:48

Maro was interviewing cro-cop before one of his fights

6:50

and cro-cop started making reference to something he had

6:52

said during commentary, but it wasn't Maro was a

6:54

different guy, but Maro kept like trying to keep

6:56

it. It was like one of those pre-fight like

6:58

before the event, you know, so they show it

7:01

during the, during the event. And so like he's

7:03

interviewing him and he's like, you know, so I'm

7:05

here with Mirko cro-cop, blah,

7:07

blah, blah. And cro-cop's like, you said that thing about me during

7:09

my last fight. And it was, it

7:12

really wasn't Maro was another guy and Maro kept

7:14

trying to explain that to him. And

7:16

Mirko just kept like agate on and getting

7:18

more and more and more and more pissed

7:21

off. And you could tell Maro was sweating bullets. Like

7:23

he was, this dude's about to kill me and it

7:25

was boss root and set him up. He had him joking

7:27

and the cro-cop laughed and like they were fucking with

7:29

him. But you could see like beads of sweat just

7:31

pouring down Maro's face. Cause he was like, I mean,

7:33

cause Mirko is like dead serious. He's like, yeah, why'd you

7:36

say that? And he's like, no, that wasn't me. He's

7:38

like, but I heard you say it. And you're like,

7:40

Oh shit. Well, I gotta leave

7:42

a better one for you. Have you ever seen the

7:44

cro-cop movie? No, I have not. I got the DVD somewhere

7:47

where I found it at a bootleg, you

7:51

know, in New York city, you know, like those little bootleggers on

7:53

the side of the street. Ryan

38:42

Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. With the price

38:44

of just about everything going up during inflation,

38:46

we thought we'd bring our prices down. So

38:49

to help us, we brought in a reverse auctioneer, which is apparently

38:51

a thing. Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium Wireless. I bet you get 30,

38:53

30, I bet you get 30, I bet you get 20, 20,

38:55

20, I bet you get 20, 20, I

38:58

bet you get 15, 15, 15,

39:00

15, just 15 bucks a month.

39:02

So, give it a try at

39:04

mintmobile.com/switch. $45 upfront for three months plus

39:07

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39:09

Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month. Mint Mobile Unlimited Premium

39:11

Wireless. can

50:00

knock him out. Dude, take the fight. Take

50:02

the title fight. Yeah.

50:05

And then the more we talk about the channel

50:07

is going to take that fight. Like I said,

50:09

I think he maybe he was trolling Connor, maybe

50:11

just, you know, poking, robbing him a little bit

50:13

or whatever. But I mean,

50:16

unless there's some gigantic thing that we're missing

50:18

here, you know, he's got to be taking

50:20

the fight. There's something behind closed door, some

50:22

secrets we don't know about or something. Yeah,

50:25

he's got to be. He's

50:27

got to be going this route, which, you

50:30

know, isn't honestly isn't a terrible matchup

50:33

either. I mean, you know,

50:36

I think there's worse matchups out

50:38

there for Michael Chandler. I think

50:41

the Islam fight is it is at

50:43

least an interesting matchup. I think Islam

50:46

is going to be a heavy favorite, rightfully so.

50:49

But it does make for an interesting matchup. And

50:52

I'm not sure if we've seen Islam get

50:54

pushed the way that Michael Chandler's going to

50:56

at least try to push him. You know,

50:58

Islam might just get a takedown and dominate.

51:00

You know, I would fear if Islam

51:02

is able to control on top at all. But

51:06

if you're Michael Chandler, like you

51:09

probably got one of the better, you know, on

51:12

paper, you got one of the better matchups out

51:14

there against Islam. Well, I said

51:16

this for years when when Chandler was in Bellator. And

51:18

the reason I always said I wanted to see him

51:20

fight could be was because he actually does have really

51:22

good wrestling and he actually uses his wrestling. Now, while

51:24

we all know Michael Chandler likes to go out there

51:26

and bang it out and have these crazy wars like

51:28

remember what he did to Dustin in that second round.

51:30

He took Dustin down and beat him up on the

51:32

ground. Now again, Dustin came back and beat him in

51:34

the third round. But Chandler

51:36

has wrestling and he actually uses it. Unlike

51:39

Justin Gaethje, who just he's like allergic to

51:41

his own wrestling. Chandler

51:43

actually does wrestle. So like that's a

51:45

weapon that Islam hasn't really

51:47

had to defend against a whole lot. I think

51:50

it would have been issue with Armand. I think Armand is probably

51:52

more in the peak right now. But for whatever reason, it doesn't

51:54

seem like maybe Armand is ready or not going to get the

51:56

shot. I don't know what the deal is why Armand is not

51:58

getting it. But dude, Run just

52:00

you the contracts in your inbox right

52:02

now sign and send it back immediately

52:04

because you may not get this opportunity

52:06

again And and as I agree with

52:08

you Matt, you could get Connor again.

52:11

You absolutely especially if you win Oh my god, Connor would

52:13

jump at the chance to fight you for a title Yeah

52:18

Like I said, I really think He's

52:20

down for the the fight and

52:23

if it's a real thing I don't know why it wouldn't

52:25

be a real thing, you know if it's a real thing

52:28

then that fight's gonna happen He's gonna take it and we'll

52:31

see what happens. Yeah, it's interesting. I mean

52:33

listen I'm not saying he deserves it But you

52:35

know my feeling on the word deserves Matt strike

52:37

of removed vocabulary in this sport because that shit

52:39

don't matter You know

52:42

Hamza, Chamaia is the top 15 ranked middleweight right

52:44

now and he's beaten no ranked middleweight So his

52:47

last one was over a welterweight. So don't tell

52:49

me deserves ever matters this fucking sport Yeah,

52:52

this shit Real quick before we get

52:54

out of here We kind of bounced around as we went to

52:56

Chandler Connor which we're gonna get to anyways But I did want

52:58

to mention this because I talked to him today Dan

53:01

Ege stepping in to fight Diego Lopez, which was a

53:03

cra actually had to be the crazy good fight really

53:06

good fight You

53:09

tweeted like you said like I love this like

53:11

let's just have more cards where we just show

53:13

up and fight and show The day of the

53:15

fight, but dude you've been around the sport. I've

53:17

been around the sport I talked to Dan today

53:19

and I already liked Dan I've known Dan for

53:21

many years incredibly good dude Like you'll never hear

53:23

anyone say a bad word about Danny again Like

53:25

one of the nicest hardest working guys in the

53:27

sport. I Don't care how

53:29

much they paid him. I don't care

53:33

He gets a new contract which he did he told

53:35

me got a new contract I don't care what perks

53:37

you get dude I don't care who you are you

53:39

step the fuck up and fight a guy on three

53:41

fucking hours notice on a pay-per-view And

53:44

you're not fighting some bum. You're fighting

53:46

a legitimately dangerous guy like Diego Lopez,

53:48

dude You got a fucking balls the

53:50

size of fucking like like wrecking balls,

53:52

dude It's insane to take that like

53:55

insane Yeah, I mean

53:57

fighters fight you know I