I've been in this business for a long time, and you become desensitized, you know, fight
after fight, especially the run of fights that I've been through over the last six
weeks.
After that Frankie Edgar fight, I'm not kidding you, man, I could not stop thinking about
that fight the whole weekend.
It's all I kept thinking about, and what that kid has done is amazing.
It's the kind of stuff that you see in movies.
If you saw that first round in a movie, you'd be like, that would never happen in real life.
You couldn't take that kind of a beating and come back.
Plus, you know, when you talk to somebody like Ray Maynard, Maynard said, I hit that
kid with everything I possibly could, and he goes, I don't think that guy has a button.
And Maynard has never been knocked out in his entire, in his life.
Never in training, never in a fight ever.
And Frankie Edgar is an amazing human being.
And if you look at really what the pound for pound really means, I mean, the kid weighs
145 pounds, and he's beating everybody at 155, including, you know, BJ Penn, twice.
And everybody says, yeah, George St. Pierre beat, well, George St. Pierre beat him with
a weight advantage.
Frankie Edgar beat him with a weight disadvantage, you know, it's just, I think the kid is amazing.
He blows my mind.
I guess the other side.
And I love George St. Pierre.
It's not like I'm, you know, I think George St. Pierre is the most, I'll tell you what
George St. Pierre is, pound for pound, he's the pound for pound biggest pay-per-view star
in the world, you know, so I'm not alone in the fact that I love George St. Pierre.
I've always told you guys, every time I come up here, I don't know how this kid isn't buried
in blue chip sponsorship from Canada, he represents his country, his sport, and the title like
no one else.
If that fight happens, Super Bowl weekend, like old promoter Chail Sonan was talking
about, which is possible, you know, the kid definitely thought about it and, you know,
it is possible, but it would probably be Vegas.
If it went Super Bowl, it would be Vegas because that's our big fight down there.
And if, you know, anybody who's ever been to Vegas for the Super Bowl, it's incredible.
So it's the week, if it doesn't happen that weekend, you know, God knows what we'll do.
I do.
I do.
I definitely do.
I don't disagree with you at all.
I mean, imagine if we did that fight here.
It would be insane.
Yeah, I agree.
It would be insane.
But, you know, he said that we kind of went, huh, you know, that does make sense, but we'll
see what happens.
David, do you feel for Rashad in any way that he's having to step aside?
Do you feel he's kind of been cursed or is he sort of, apart from the injuries, brought
some of it on himself for these choices?
I told him he's the unluckiest guy I've ever seen, you know.
He definitely is.
You know, he, well, he's got a whole new attitude now than he did a year and a half ago.
You know, when he sat out and waited for machete or for a show gun, you don't wait.
You don't wait for guys in this business.
Nothing can happen.
When you get an opportunity, you got to jump on it.
And does Machita stepping up here and make up for 133?
I'm not mad at Machita about that, you know, and again, look what happened.
Machita said that and then look how long he's been sitting out and he hasn't been sitting
out because I've been punishing him.
You know, there weren't any fights for him and, you know, I'm not in a position to be
punishing anybody and having him sit on the sidelines, man, we're doing a ton of shows
and I need guys to fight.
So, you know, that whole Dana hates Machita because he said that it's stupid, very stupid.
I like Machita.
I apologize to be answering this, but why do you put Edgar above Jones for the pound-for-pound?
Because I think, again, if you look at what the pound-for-pound means, that kid weighs
145 pounds and he's been beating everybody at 155 pounds.
A lot of people make the argument that Jones should be at heavyweight, which someday Jones
will be at heavyweight.
I mean, he's only 24 years old.
He's only going to get bigger.
He's going to keep growing.
And with age, it's harder to cut weight.
And once he cleans out this division, I could see him going to heavyweight and fighting
at heavyweight.
I just think, I don't know how anybody could seriously watch that fight last Saturday night
and not go, oh my God, I mean, the kid is amazing.
It's the stuff that movies are made.
It's the stuff that legends are made of what he did last Saturday.
I guess people who would argue for GSP would say, though, look at the record of success
with title offenses.
Yeah, no, I don't disagree.
I don't disagree with that.
I think that George St. Pierre is on his way to being the greatest welterweight to ever
live, you know, and one of the greatest pound for pound fighters on the planet, too.
I just, I have to give Frankie Edgar his props, his credit and his respect, man.
I just, the kid blows my mind.
He's, I haven't seen anything like that since Arturo Gotti.
And you know what the difference is?
Frankie Eggers the champion.
Frankie Eggers the champion.
He keeps the feet like Arturo Gotti was in those type of fights every time he fought.
Frankie Edgar's doing it as a champ.
What did you think of the Sonan retiring thing, kind of a pro wrestling thing?
Did you?
You know, you know, people were saying that I don't know if it's pro wrestling.
The guys are not.
I mean, everything this guy says is crazy.
You know, you never know what's going to come out of this guy's mouth next.
And you know, I don't think that, you know, I didn't know anything about what he was going
to do or what he was going to say.
I mean, I don't know if you guys watch the press conference after, but I mean, the press
conference was just as nutty as leading up to the fight and during the fight and everything
else.
You know, when the Frank Camero versus Antonio Rodrigo Noguera fight was first announced,
it was rumored it could be a five round fight.
With the addition of this title fight, will that be a three round fight?
Yeah, it's a three round fight.
No, the title fight is five.
And only, I mean, if that was the main event, yeah, which it was never planned to be the
main event.
When you talk about health and safety and the UFC, we go overboard on health and safety
when it comes to the fighters.
The difference between this sport and a lot of these other contact sports is these guys
don't take the constant pounding to the head.
NFL, every play you're getting hit in the head.
Boxing, every, in boxing, the goal is to win the fight.
I either hit you in the head more times than you hit me or I knock you out.
You know, that's not the same.
I mean, most of these fights here, you know, can go five or six minutes long and not one
punch be thrown to the head.
It could be a complete submission fight.
But yeah, I mean, there's always concern about, and I understand this too.
These guys aren't just, yeah, we got these guys who come in and try, I care about most
of these guys.
I have personal relationships with most of our fighters.
I'll be honest, there's some guys I don't like at all, but that doesn't change the fact
that we want everybody to be safe and be healthy.
That's why I'm asking the question.
I mean, they're discovering now that a hockey player named Rick Martin, in his late 50s,
wasn't a fighter of any kind, had one noted percussion in his career, and they found CTE
in his brain.
Michael J. Fox has Parkinson's disease and has never taken a punch a day in his life.
I mean, as human beings, there's all kinds of different things that happen to us.
These guys are men who are athletes who want to compete in this sport, you know?
Are there some risks?
Are there risks in every job?
Go talk to coal miners and see what happens to these guys.
Go talk to construction workers and see what happens to some of these guys.
We're human beings.
This is life.
There's risk in everything we do.
These guys are professional athletes, and this is what they choose to do.
And as a company, we do everything we can to go overboard on health and safety, not to
mention the fact that we're the most regulated sport on earth, the most regulated sport on
earth.
And what I mean when I say that is, every time we put on a fight, the government regulates
us.
The government comes in and makes sure we're doing the proper medical testing, drug testing,
the proper medical staff is there during and after the fight, et cetera, et cetera.
So for guys who want to be competitors and guys who want to be in mixed martial arts,
this is the safest place to be and the safest place to do it.
Dan, I just want to ask a quick question about Brock Lesnar.
Yesterday they released the WWE video game trailer.
He's doing the shadow boxing saying the gloves are off right now.
Do you feel that this deal at all confuses the marketplace, so to speak, with Brock?
And why did you allow this deal?
The WWE deal?
I am to be in the video game.
You know what?
They asked him if he could be in the game, but what does it hurt me if the guy's in
the video game?
You know, Brock gets to make some money over on the WWE side.
They make a great game where Brock's in it and sells some games.
He's still in my game too.
It's not a big deal.
It's one of those things.
It's an easy give for me for a guy like Brock to say, yeah, go ahead, you can do the WWE
video game.
It doesn't affect me one way or the other.
Does the line then get crossed if when WWE wants him on a pay-per-view, so to speak?
I mean, if next weekend he wanted to wrestle in the WWE, that'd be a whole different story.
He'll never wrestle in the WWE while he's under contract with me.
But to be in their video game, and you know, that's part of his history.
He came from the WWE, you know, and I would have no problem with them making any kind
of deal that they wanted to do with him as far as merchandise goes.
Why would I block him from making money and, you know, giving the WWE an opportunity?
Think about it.
I brought Brock Lesnar into the UFC, right?
I had one fight.
He was one and no.
You know, I battled with it for a while and then I decided, you know, the WWE built him
up into the star that he was.
And for me now to sit back and go, no, he's my, I don't care about that.
It doesn't affect me or my business personally, and it helps my athlete and, you know, I'm
cool with Vince too.
But I have a good relationship with him.
