Ben Askren IS BACK with Daniel Cormier to talk all the biggest headlines in the UFC, including the ongoing Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall saga, Merab Dvalishvili trolling Dana White and UFC with broken toe, and his massive championship fight against Sean O'Malley at UFC 316 in Newark, New Jersey! Askren argues that Dana and the UFC should move on from Jones, and give Tom Aspinall a fight for a UFC heavyweight championship. Don't miss DC gives his take on why HE'S SURE Jones and Aspinall will be fighting. And stick around to hear Askren and Cormier talk Russian TUF in Thailand, Ben's recent injury, and much more! #Volume #Herd
The volume.
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It actually was, I mean, honestly a you know, for wrestling coaches perspective, April and May Ared nuts. I mean, I was traveling so much, and so we got a few weekends where we're cooling off. Here we had last weekend off. I'm actually going to the bitcoin convention in Vegas this week and then so we're.
Rushing because you're going to a bitcoin convention.
Oh my god, it's amazing.
Remember I was trying to convince you to buy bitcoin when it was like thirty five I think, and then you want to send me cash so I would do it for you.
Yes, that was what you want to do?
Wild Bro, I would not do that.
Why why would you not do wild?
That's wild.
You could have hooked the boy up, don't you dividends?
Now, just just send me, send me your it guy. I know, maybe it's Luise is buying bitcoin for you. I don't know who it is, but send me somebody, Ben Cassandra, maybe.
It's been Yeah, yeah, she had you know, she bought bitcoin way back in the day and she bro John Fitch once took a sponsorship King Grant and bitcoin and now it's just worth this insane amount of money. Oh zan and nine. He took bitcoin as a sponsor.
And no, go did he save it all?
There's no way he bought a vast majority of it. He's done really well from himself.
Yeah, wow, that's impressive.
Hey, uh Ben. So we got a couple of things to talk about. One, we're gonna get into the heavyweight thing because dude, there's like a petition out there, which is crazy. And then but let's first start with the guy that's fighting next week in Dower Marob Dwash. Willie Fullsted a picture the other day while his toe. Now, Luis, I'm not exactly sure, but this isn't the first time that Morob has shared an injury going into a fight. What do you make of it? Ben?
He doesn't give it damn.
He's He's like, I did you ever enjoy that video about the honey Badger.
You've seen that, right, yes? I have?
Oh my gosh, that's like Morob. He's like a freaking honey badger. He doesn't give a shit. He just wants to bring the heat all the time. That's a little bit like Mitchell Messing Brink. Like he Mitchell could be like, hey, let's show up and do a nice light workout, and then all of a sudden, four minutes later, you're just brawling and you're like, what happened? And he, you know, like, that's what Morob does. He just goes hard all the time. I freaking love.
It, you know. Morob Duallas really said keep your mouth shut, you know, like, uh, well no, no, no, sorry. So people were talking about Morob and him showing the injury, and the vast majority of people think he should not say anything, right, but Rob told Michael Bismick and hey, my toes good. Uh he said if anything was wrong, he would cut it off. But he doesn't need to cut it off. It's good. It doesn't bother him. But the vast majority of people been, especially people like us who are talking about the fight. We see it like this is not a good thing. Remember last time he had staff and he was showing off the staff. Everybody was concerned, like, Yo, this dude needs even at some point, right, you got to keep those injuries to yourself. I mean I really do, Ben, I really believe you gotta keep it to yourself because here's the deal, maybe and you and I can really attest it is a toll. Might seem like a small deal for a guy that doesn't kick that much, but it is a big deal for a guy that has to wrestle without a shot. Imagine all the push off we generate when you punch in when you shoot as a wrestler. And that was one of my biggest things when I started, Ben, was I had a difficult time pushing off of my my back foot to drive into shots. That's why we just snatched legs and then pick them up because I couldn't figure out that drive without the wrestling shoot.
Well, honestly, stay high level in MMA is probably the way to go.
So you probably were great there.
You're that nice little jab Perry head outside, then pick him up and down yat.
But you want to hit the but like I wanted to be able to to do it over but I couldn't because I never quite could figure out how to drive off my foot without the shoe on, because I was so used to wearing the wrestling shoe. But again, a lot of that general push is generated off of that pinky tot. Yes, you drive off of those feet. So Morob, this is a much bigger deal. Ben, then he's letting on. I'm sorry, Nah.
Rob, you know well, I'll tell you that there was one comment I was worried about that he made. He made some comment I'm gonna get the exact word draw, but some of the effect of, like, I'm not motivated on board by having to fight Sean O'Malley again, I don't think he deserves it. Essentially, that kind of like threw me off, Like because you know, Morob, one of the things he's known for, he brings the heat every single time he shows up, and he fights his ass off every single time.
So that kind of worried me that he said that.
So here's here's why I think the problem is with these guys in Sean O. Malley. There's this idea that Charano Maalley sells a boatload of pay per views, and al Jamaine Sterling said publicly that that wasn't the case, right. He said, the numbers weren't what he expected him to be. Granted that could be something way more than what most people are selling today, but we just don't know that number. Publicly, he said something to the effect of, it wasn't what I thought. If I knew it would have been, that, I wouldn't have fought him that fast, because you remember he returned quickly. Maybe Morob is now on the A side of this thing and going, well, this isn't gonna generate as much as I thought, so the risk is not as appealing as it may have been if I knew we were gonna sell six hundred thousand pay per views. I think maybe that is where that motivation comes from. And honestly, he won four out of five rounds in the first fight, so it doesn't really feel like if me being honest, doesn't feel like a fight that had to happen back right now.
I mean, I agree with that fully, but like we said, he just doesn't give a shit.
He wants to get there and fight.
There's not a lot of people like him left, So I mean, I I do truly appreciate someone who's willing to fight that frequently, Alex Pereira, but there's not really a ton of them.
That warrior mentality is kind of lost in the world of mixed martial arts. Wese guys don't fight that much. I was talking about Islam and uh and uh Ilia, and they're two of the most active guys since like in the last three years, and Ialy has fought six times or four times that is on spart six. That's only an.
Average break recently, right, hasn't he? Ili has kind of had a little break since his last fight.
Well he knocked out Max and he knocked out Max in Abu Dabi in October. Yeah, so it's been a little bit. But but he still fights, right, he fights more frequently than most of He's fighting again International fight Lee. But in terms of a rob I think at times you keep that those injuries to yourself. Man, and he better be motivated because O'Malley, O'Malley has a lot to prove in this fight. But Ben can he can he do you think he could have improved the wrestling that much in that short period of time to stop the guy from taking him down over and over again.
Well, it's gonna be really hard for him to do that.
But you know, the one thing I think about Sean O'Malley, and this is why it's like I didn't like the fact that Morob said he was not super motivated, was that you know in wrestling too, I don't need to beat you by points if I can pin you, right, I don't need to beat you in a five round fight if I can knock you out.
And Sean O'Malley, is you guys.
At that weight class that can put people down on a semi regular basis.
Well, yeah, and Marob beat him by decision, right, So like, if you got to beat the guy by decision, it's twenty five minutes every time, it can prove to be very difficult. So O'Malley does have a chance here against uh Morob because he can knock you out and because and also for O'Malley, it's about getting out ahead of you and putting damage on you early, because if he puts damage on you early, then you're less effective. Right once you start taking damage, it's harder to wrestle. You get more tired. While you might be a cardio machine, wh start taking that damage, it starts to take a toll on you. That ain't uh, that ain't fun.
Especially if you know you can clip him, clip him in the eye or something and affect his vision. And now you know, Morob is really heavy on the entries, right, He's great at entering into the strikes to the takedown, and so if his vision is affected, that can be really problematic. Man, who did Sean start training with that? I was like, there's someone. I was like, oh, man, that's a that's a really great move by Sean. I freaking blanket who it was right now.
Isn't it funny?
Though?
We're like, but if he can do this to Morob, or if he can do this to Morob, it's like Morob really has kind of separated himself to where it's like something horribly wrong has to go, has to happen, or most don't believe he's gonna get beat because of his ability to just really drown you over the course of twenty five minutes. I mean, a dude shot fifty times, been fifty times in a fight against that's crazy. That is crazy. Hey, so John Jones and Tom has it's as the world turns this story. I saw a video the other day. Well, Robert Whitaker said, no one cares anymore. Like, no one cares anymore, let's just uh, let's just be done with it. Yes, it is, I agree forget those guys. But but but clearly been people care. There is a signature to strip down Jones, U seventy did you did?
I'm gonna go. I'm gonna search the database.
I didn't search it.
I don't find your email on.
That seventy thousand signatures.
Man, it's annoying. It's so so I'm not done with Tom Aspinall. Tom Aspinall clearly wants to fight. I don't know why DFC just doesn't let them start knocking people down, right, Like, go to the next guy, go to the next guy, and hey, if John wants to come back, and you know, Dania is really big on negotiating power. So if you show John, Hey, John, we're gonna move on. I'm gonna have commas fight this guy and this guy and he starts rolling.
You know, John essentially has.
Almost all this power taken away. So I'm almost puzzled that Dana has not used that maneuver to this point.
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I think what is happening is this right? First off, you can't just have a heavyweight champion and the interim champion is just defending the belt over and over again. That is absurd, Like, come on, man, you can't have an interim champ. You can't have an interim champ defending a heavyweight champion who won't defend his belts kind of absurd. Also, have an interim champion as defending the belt while the heavyweight.
Champion is which one's more absurd that the interim.
Champ will just be defending the belt. If the head has the white.
Champ will fight just say say he's injured or say he's sick. I don't know, say something to say like, hey, we're get more break.
He wants to go play around Thailand and roll. That looks like a great time. He jumped off the roof and he was roll aroad.
He jumped off the rule.
There was one I saw where he like jumped off like a into the pool, you know.
So it's like he's having a great time. Cool and listen.
If John Jones wants to live his life, he's always welcome to go do that, right. But that's why I'm like, let's just move on that. And that greatly increases their negotiating power. So I just don't see why they haven't done it. It almost makes me think, now I'm a conspiracy there should know that.
Yeah, you are bad, bad.
It makes me think John's got something on data.
You're like, yeah, been way too much time on X. Oh X by the way, what X by the way called me? X called my phone yesterday?
So oh this is a hack? Hack bro.
I swear so like I'm like put on target for hacking because I'm old and like I'm like giving communications. I told you the story about that time I was at a sponsor at Anderson Ord and they were hacking my bank account, and I was just giving all the info. Finally, because I was sponsoring, the sponsor had a mic on me. The guy goes, I think DC is getting hacked right now. As when the guy walks over and he's fucking goes, I swear to god, I was giving him up my address, my info because I thought my bank account had gotten stolen. Because I saw iPad bought in Miami. I was like, I'm in to Miami, so my loge, my logic tells me that that happened. Bro. The the audio guy starts cussing at the hacker.
The hacker, your daughter was buying all that stuff and you thought you were hacked there too?
Crazy? So anyhow, Yes, so X called me yesterday, but X called me a while ago, and finally I didn't answer and said X, I denied it. They called back.
Here.
I'm with X and formally Twitter, and we're calling because I said, no, I go, there's no hacked. I go, you're trying to hack me. And I've gotten through this before. So what I have done is I have notified the authorities to know that when this number calls, they're going to be calling you. And I'm like, just fu he hangs up the phone. He hangs up the phone on me really fast because I got their asses. So next time you trying to hack DC, I got my phone tagged to where you can get called by the police. I'm telling you, I'm getting them. You'll ex me trying to get it. Yeah, it's a trick. I'll tell you how to do it. I've got some friends in high places that got me.
Now, So man, it was, I mean, I just get an incessant spam. I don't I don't know about you. I don't answer my phone the number I know. I'm not answering.
Ever, Well, you never answer the phone. You don't answer the phone, even when I.
Keep my phone permanently on silent, so like I would obviously if I saw you were calling, answer for you.
But hanging out. Back to John Jones anyhow, Back to John Jones, Back to John jos Back did you.
See the video of them jumping into the pool and time.
The video of him? Luis run the video of him jumping in the pool? Okay, Ben, so, yep, that was John Jones jumping into a pot. That was John Jones. So John Jones was jumping into a pool. John Jones was riding a motorcycle on Thailand. John Jones was uh. He says that he's living his best life. What does that mean it's over? Like it's fighting done for him? I don't know, because he said something about being happy, but he wouldn't say he's retired. And it's a weird. It's a weird place that he's at in his career right now.
Message message yesterday, that was weird.
Well what he did, Yeah, he was.
Saying heavyweight news coming up soon or something, and then later he clarifies that that wasn't my my it's not my fight. So it's like, does that mean they're they're stripping John and they're moving on?
Like what does that mean? Like what else?
And when John Jones was in that pool, they're like dipping in his thought like he's just heavy. He's smiling. I ain't never house so big in my life. He's smiling. Man, he's so happy. What's wrong? What is that?
He's living his best life?
Man?
Just let them let him go.
So just give tom asthmhal damn fight.
Tom Asmall has been sitting on the bench for I don't know ten months now.
We have other heavyweights.
Volkov was recently speaking up about how he would like to be more active. We have plenty of other heavyweights who want to be plenty active.
Just get these guys fights.
But what if Tom as his beat, then he just doesn't John Jones fight, But then he just didn't deserve to fight Jones in the first place.
Absolutely, if you think about think about what happened with Michael Chandler, how.
Long did he wait for freaking Connor?
Connor? Like, do not do that?
So you have, man, you have a bunch of younger, fun heavyweights, like, let's these dudes start mixing it up.
Yeah, I mean, I don't know, man, I just have a really bad taste when it comes to having a heavyweight champion and then having a interim champion defending the bell. You know what's crazy? John Jones and Tom aspinall have the same amount of title.
Defenses one heavyweight tael defensive.
Heavyweight title defenses. How is that possible? How does your interim champion have the same type amount of heavyweight title defenses as you're active champion. It doesn't make sense.
Yeah, I mean that's that's that's kind of the John's I would love to be able to like pour some truth eruimed out down John Jones's throat and actually just like talk to him and just you know, get some real answers because he puts all these different like vibes out there, and I mean, I would have to sow just looking at his resume and people can argue this obviously one of the greatest ever. Yes, based on one you have some of the drug stuff, which you could argue, but he is. But then it's like it feels almost like the prophecy wasn't fulfilled or if you see what he was doing in you know, uh, we'll say what twenty eleven. I think it's when first won the title or twelve somewhere in there. That's a long time ago, and he was crushing dudes and he was fighting a lot, and then it was like gap after gap after he was young though he was young, absolutely, but there's probably I would venture to guess, I'll get a dress Maine. I would venture to guess there's by four gaps in John Jones resume that are a year plus between fights.
Well between yeah, him and I had there was like two years between our fights because of this stuff. So we fought in twenty fifteen then he got in trouble in fifteen and then I won in May. Him and I were supposed to fight in jail. He fought back again a year after that against Events, so that was a year, and then we were supposed to fight at UFC two hundred and then he got in trouble there, so from sixteen to seventeen that was a year. And then after he fought me, he fought gustuson like a while after that. I won the belt back in eighteen, so when the belt back in eighteen, so I had that until the end of I think he took the belt back in eighteen when he beat gusted in Los.
Angeles, and then he was actually super active there.
He fought between December and December of eighteen and February of twenty, which is that's you know, fifteen months he fought four times. Yeah, three years off after that, right, and the next one is a year and a half off, and the one before that was a year and a half off, and so it's like, you know, you just see this resume and it is absolutely one of the best ever. But then it's like, man, he's got to feel some remorse about, you know, missing so much time, you know, because he does talk. He talks about legacy probably more than just about anybody.
So he's one of the best. Right, But like, think about this, right, And Luis Uh just kind of made this point because we've spoken about it a little bit. When John, when I fought John, I was thirty six years old. He was twenty eight. Then we fought again and I was thirty eight. He was thirty. Right when he fought Stepe even now he's thirty seven. Steve Bay's forty one. All those guys were older guys, right. I just feel, Ben, Yes, like it's a little different. So when you walked out to the mad against Tyrone Lewis right out of college, you're a twenty two year old kid, fresh face, not.
Making the glory days yet. I appreciate you so much.
But Ben, think about this though, Ben, when you walked out there against Jordan Burrows and he saw a younger athlete, Like, no, dude, But I'm just saying, though, you're kind of going, oh, it might be a little bit different, especially when he's good. Yes, John now is a thirty eight year old man looking at a thirty year old man. That's bigger, that's younger. That's fresher and going. It's flipped. Yes, I don't see the wearing tarror on their face anymore. On his face. I see the wearing tarryl mind right, he saw Steevee writ Steepe looks older. He looks like, you know, he just looked older from all that time away. Now he's looking down at a young man and it's like, Eh, he's not scared, make no mistake about it. But I think it's enough to like question it. And you know what the I think a big worry might be for him because with ASPIRINAU, he could potentially get knocked out, like legitimately knocked out and put on his back in out cold. And I just don't know that he wants to have that visual of him in the world.
Yeah, yeah, I mean that's uh yeah, that's probably probably nailed it right on the head right there.
You did, like, because I mean, he's knocked out a lot of guys and he's never had because I've seen myself get beat and I'm like, God, that's such a horrible visual every time.
Yeah, had that happened one time?
I know a few times it sucks, But so what do you think happens as we were.
Oh God, I think it dragged My guess.
My guess would be it drags on for a while longer, which I'm not in favor of.
Do you think they strip him.
I think they let him walk on his own. But I think he drags it on, and I don't I don't really know what you know, I said, I would love to pour some truth sermon and talk to him, like, I don't know what his motivation is in dragging it on. It seems counterproductive to everybody involved, rather than just saying, hey, man, I'm done. I had a great career, I'm the best. Like I'm out here at peace. I'm gonna go with my life. So I bet he drags it on, he vacates, and then tom Asthmaal moves on, and I would think, uh, basically heavily picture tom Asmnal is going to have a relatively successful you know, crazy things happened, but I would I wouldn't be surprised. See if tom asmalill win, I don't know, three to five in a row more something like that.
So my whole thing is this, and then I'll let you go on this. I don't know that he vacates without fighting him, because I think the visually, I think the lasting thought would be that he ran from him, and I don't know that his ego could handle that he ran from someone. I think that the the the idea that people would think that he is afraid means more to him than going out there and fighting him and taking the chance, especially when there's a real possibility and he's just fucking he just out classes Tom Aspinal, like there's a real possibility. Then he goes out there and he just out classes Tom Aspinalut, you don't know, right, So I think that he'll fight him. I don't think they'll need to strip him. I think he'll fight him. And even though you're right, you can walk away and go I'm the best. I don't need to do anything else. That that idea that you ran is gonna be too strong of a pull for him as he goes into the next phase of his career, and I think he's gonna fight him. Uh, you have to all right, Ben, Well, hey have fun at the Bitcoin Convention.
Guys are coming to Vegas.
I'm doing on there just today for like three hours. I go, We're doing an Ultimate Fighter, a panel and a premiere party and I'm once.
I'm isn't there a fight coming up soon?
Saturday? There's fight Saturday? So I'm working this week. But are you in town this weekend?
I'm leaving Friday night.
Oh, I give you some digits to the Apex. Have you ever been?
I have been to a fight in the Apex, unfortunately Ricky and lost. Very quiet, very almost strange, almost like it almost felt like a little bit of an inner squad duel meet you know where.
Yeah, it's an amazing facility. Probably my favorite place in the world of work, honestly, m M nice and easy, all right, got it? Until next time. Peace,