The Hurt Business (2016)

1. Have you ever felt bad

2. about hurting anybody?

3. I broke a guy's orbital bone.

4. He insulted me a lot before the fight,

5. and I shattered his face pretty good.

6. His confidence was never the same,

7. but if they could do it to me, they would.

8. One thing I do, I pray for my opponents before the fight.

9. What we do for a living is a little taboo.

10. There's not many who have the courage

11. to go in there and be so vulnerable,

12. knocked unconscious in front of all your friends and family,

13. your teacher seeing your eyes roll back in your head.

14. No one wants to get embarrassed in front of millions of people.

15. So we train

16. to do the things that no one wants to do.

17. That's what makes great fighters.

18. Over the past decade,

19. mixed martial arts has become one of the world's

20. fastest-growing sports.

21. What began as a gathering of variously trained fighters

22. competing for the right to claim their technique as supreme

23. has become the household name known today

24. as simply MMA.

25. Big on top.

26. Most of the sport's growth in popularity

27. is due to its largest organization,

28. the UFC.

29. One of the most anticipated fights in UFC history

30. took place in April 2012

31. when two former teammates faced each other in the Octagon.

32. Months earlier, the older fighter, Rashad Evans,

33. was a mentor to his friend and rising star Jon Jones.

34. But on that day, the Las Vegas arena

35. was brimming with anticipation

36. for the two former friends to exchange blows.

37. Kept Rampage at distance.

38. Oh, big kick...

39. Unable to control his fury,

40. Rashad made crucial errors.

41. Jones remained composed,

42. unleashing strategic attacks.

43. Just threw Rashad.

44. Oh, he tagged him.

45. He would love to finish this fight.

46. Has it 49-46,

47. and Richard Bertrand scores the contest 50-45...

48. Five rounds later,

49. Jones is declared the winner,

50. retaining his title as the light heavyweight

51. champion of the world.

52. The undisputed UFC

53. light heavyweight champion of the world.

54. The UFC has found its new superstar.

55. Bones Jones!

56. Rashad left New Mexico

57. after feeling betrayed by his former team

58. at Jackson's Gym.

59. He's made a new home base in Florida,

60. where he lives with his girlfriend Beans.

61. After losing another fight in a split decision,

62. Rashad suffered a severe knee injury

63. that put his career on hold

64. for at least a year.

65. The climb back up is the hardest in many ways,

66. but I'm right there, right there again.

67. And

68. I hurt myself.

69. Do you have some on my knuckle?

70. It sounds like you walking up,

71. like you are trying to be sassy.

72. He's just defending his house.

73. He's checking you guys out like you are checking him out.

74. Wow.

75. Rashad's children from his second marriage

76. visit him once a month.

77. They miss their father and it shows.

78. On a pleasant afternoon like this,

79. the family enjoys their time together.

80. What was your experience like

81. fighting Jon Jones?

82. I felt mentally drained

83. going into that fight.

84. There's a big, huge story behind

85. the whole me and Jon Jones relationship,

86. and furthermore the relationship,

87. which was fractured because of the fight,

88. which was Jackson's Gym.

89. Greg Jackson was my longtime coach,

90. and I had some of my best fights

91. training under them.

92. And I felt like they sold me out.

93. At that point, I'm just like... like,

94. "What happened?"

95. And it's weird because you never know

96. at that point in which

97. you've lost that step.

98. And I'm thinking to myself like,

99. "Did I,

100. "did I lose my shit?

101. "Where did my shit go?"

102. You know what I'm saying?

103. Like "I can't hit the button.

104. "I can't find that thing."

105. It was a lot of soul-searching, a lot of

106. why I started to fight.

107. What it means to fight.

108. Keep your knee right there, right there, right there.

109. Good.

110. Three times a week,

111. Rashad does rehab to strengthen his healing knee.

112. One, that's it.

113. Your muscle's not even shaking.

114. That's great.

115. Two.

116. Now it's starting to shake. I spoke too soon.

117. His injury changes everything.

118. Does he have the ability to stand on his leg,

119. push off as hard as he wants,

120. and not have to worry about it collapsing or falling?

121. It's okay. No big deal.

122. Mentally speaking, that period of time

123. can take just as long if not even longer

124. to recover than just the physical injury itself.

125. For me, fighting

126. is always overcoming.

127. Always overcoming, always overcoming.

128. And now here I am

129. on the road to come back,

130. on the road to dominate

131. and

132. try to regain

133. what was once mine,

134. which is the UFC

135. light heavyweight belt.

136. He doesn't like me.

137. Okay, gear it up, guys.

138. Get geared up.

139. Since defeating Rashad Evans,

140. Jon Jones still remains champion.

141. He is 27 years old and now the UFC's biggest draw.

142. Huge endorsements with Reebok and Beats Headphones

143. have made him a household name.

144. International appearances take up

145. a lot of the fighter's time.

146. Now, with his next fight just five weeks away,

147. the champ returns to his training camp

148. at the famous Jackson's Gym

149. in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

150. Me and Rashad Evans, we were training partners.

151. He was somebody who I looked up to, growing up,

152. and he was one of the main reasons

153. why I came to Jackson's Gym.

154. I was teaching 'em all these cool, funky crazy techniques,

155. and they were teaching me some of their

156. veteran techniques and stuff,

157. and I think my passion allowed me to outgrow those guys.

158. I like that switch, Jon Jones.

159. I saw it.

160. They saw it pretty fast.

161. Every week, I was getting a little bit closer

162. to beating them, and eventually

163. I was beating them both.

164. Rashad got injured, and the UFC

165. offered me the opportunity to fill in for him

166. to compete for the next available world championship,

167. and obviously I took the opportunity.

168. He felt as if I should've

169. waited for him to recover,

170. but that's not really the way the world works.

171. I felt as if this was my time,

172. my opportunity to be great.

173. And I did.

174. I won that world championship,

175. really devastating fashion.

176. Put some pressure on him. That's all I wanna see.

177. Close the distance, you win.

178. He started his own team

179. and challenged me for the championship right away.

180. And we beat him up pretty good.

181. He badmouthed Greg Jackson;

182. he badmouthed the whole program.

183. Tried to twist the story to the media

184. and tell people that I had betrayed him.

185. And, really, I was just a kid following my heart,

186. following my dreams.

187. You're still shaking off Brazil a little bit.

188. You can see that travel's a little getting you,

189. but that's doesn't mean nothing.

190. Let's get you outta here, though.

191. When you told your parents

192. you were gonna become a professional fighter,

193. how did they react?

194. They were not about it.

195. My dad, being a pastor,

196. he always wanted me to go the route of

197. a spiritual leader,

198. and I never thought that was for me.

199. My mom thought that it would change my character.

200. She thought that I would become a violent person

201. or a person who didn't treat people fairly or arrogant,

202. but it's changed my life in a positive way.

203. It's given me a way to provide for my family

204. and to share myself with the world,

205. so now they realize that it's the best thing

206. that ever happened to me.

207. This is good.

208. Yep.

209. Take two.

210. What are the actual origins of MMA?

211. Where did it come from?

212. Originally it started

213. I think it's like 648 Before Christ.

214. I looked it up one day because

215. I had a real cool script about it.

216. And it was in the first Olympics

217. called Pankration.

218. Pancrase!

219. MMA's roots can be

220. traced back to ancient Greece.

221. A sporting event known as Pankration

222. determined who was the ultimate combatant.

223. Men faced off before roaring crowds,

224. garnering the respect of such figures

225. as Alexander the Great.

226. Contestants had the ability to submit

227. by raising an index finger,

228. similar to the tap-out technique used in modern times.

229. It was mixed martial arts pretty much.

230. Right there, in the first Olympic sports.

231. Back in the days, gladiators,

232. they would have thousands and thousands of people,

233. and they're killing each other

234. with swords and everything.

235. There's something about two men

236. that get inside of a cage

237. and compete against each other

238. that human nature loves to watch.

239. Every human being,

240. even my mother who's like a saint,

241. she wouldn't hurt nobody,

242. but I can still, even her,

243. put her in a situation of life or death

244. or even for defending someone that she love.

245. She gonna have to fight.

246. As a fighter, there's nothing harder than MMA.

247. You gotta do the wrestling.

248. You gotta do the kickboxing.

249. You gotta do the jiu-jitsu.

250. We're like a Rubik's cube. MMA is.

251. You gotta make sure all the colors match

252. at the same time to win the game.

253. In Brazil, the Gracie family perfected

254. the ancient Japanese martial art of jiu-jitsu,

255. molding it into a brand all their own.

256. This Brazilian jiu-jitsu would become

257. one of the key principles of today's mixed martial arts.

258. In 1914 Mitsuyo Maeda,

259. a jiu-jitsu instructor from Japan,

260. came to Brazil as an aide

261. to the Japanese immigration colony.

262. My grandfather was a very influential man at the time,

263. helped the Japanese gentleman get settled.

264. So to show his gratitude,

265. he offered to teach jiu-jitsu to my uncle Carlos,

266. who at the time was 13 years old.

267. My father Helio Gracie

268. was physically very frail.

269. Nobody knew exactly why.

270. And what my dad soon realized

271. is that the techniques he had spent a few years memorizing

272. by watching his brothers practice

273. require a certain amount of physical ability

274. and strength and speed,

275. which he did not have.

276. So through trial and error,

277. he started modifying those concepts

278. of the traditional Japanese jiu-jitsu

279. that he had observed

280. so that he could become proficient

281. in spite of his frail body.

282. And ultimately that was the birth of Gracie jiu-jitsu,

283. Brazilian jiu-jitsu.

284. If you're gonna rely on strikes,

285. if he's 50 pounds heavier than you,

286. there's a very good chance

287. that that guy can throw a punch and knock you out.

288. So in jiu-jitsu, we take that equation

289. out of the game.

290. The concept is to create positions of leverage

291. that enable a weaker person

292. to become highly proficient

293. even against somebody who's much bigger,

294. much heavier, much stronger,

295. because you're not relying on speed and strength.

296. My first view of a competitive match-up

297. between two guys that were allowed to do more

298. than just punch with their hands

299. or kick with their feet

300. was when I was with the Gracies,

301. when they were showing me fights that they had done

302. or other people had competed in from Brazil.

303. The UFC was something that was developed by me

304. when I came to the United States

305. with the objective of sharing the knowledge of jiu-jitsu

306. with the rest of the world.

307. I came up with a concept to develop a tournament

308. between different styles of martial arts.

309. A boxer fighting a grappler.

310. A jiu-jitsu man fighting a taekwondo guy.

311. I specifically did not want a boxing ring

312. because once they start getting beat up,

313. they slip through the ropes and get away.

314. In fact, John Milius, who was a student of mine at the time,

315. did Conan the Barbarian, a whole bunch of big, huge movies,

316. John and I used to have discussions on

317. how should we make that ring

318. so the guys would not get away.

319. And we discuss having a moat with alligators,

320. so if the guy tried to get away

321. he would be eaten up by alligators and stuff like that.

322. Eventually, we settled for what the Octagon is today.

323. One of my students had actually

324. picked up a flyer,

325. and it said no holds barred on it.

326. And when I looked at it, I just thought, well...

327. In those days, it was pro wrestling.

328. You look at no holds barred,

329. it was Hulk Hogan.

330. When they first brought the UFC on the scene,

331. it was billed as the fact that somebody could die.

332. They were creating that sensationalism.

333. I go, "Hey, it says no rules.

334. "Pull hair?

335. "Groin shot?"

336. He says, "Yeah, everything's good.

337. "Only thing you can't do is bite.

338. "Bare knuckle."

339. I wanna show to the world

340. that if you throw a punch at somebody's face,

341. it's very likely gonna break your fingers.

342. Versus the illusion that we see sometimes in the movies

343. where one guy walks in and chops everybody up

344. and 50 people drop dead.

345. That's not reality.

346. Eight of the deadliest fighters in the world

347. will meet in a no-holds-barred...

348. In 1993, the first Ultimate

349. Fighting Championship commenced.

350. I loved it. It was very realistic.

351. Where back then, there were a lot of

352. hocus-pocus type of martial arts,

353. it showed everybody what techniques actually work

354. in a real situation and what techniques don't.

355. That was the first time that I really saw

356. martial arts go out and do what they say they could do

357. and that was have a little guy beat a big guy.

358. Gerard Gordeau versus Teila Tuli.

359. That was as violent as it gets.

360. Gordeau kicks Tuli in the face with the shin,

361. and his tooth flies and they call off the fight.

362. It lasted like 30 seconds or so.

363. When I saw that a little guy like Royce Gracie

364. beating up the bigger and more intimidating guy,

365. I felt very inspired because they make me remember

366. my childhood when I went at school

367. and got bullied.

368. So right away, I knew

369. I wanted to do this and I wanted to be world champion.

370. The first pay-per-view did

371. like over 350,000 pay-per-view buys

372. on UFC 1 and just grew and got bigger.

373. They didn't realize the sport that they had

374. intrigued fans to watch.

375. Thank you very much for watching the first...

376. Michael Guymon has dedicated

377. his entire life to MMA.

378. Born and raised in Orange County, California,

379. he is 39 years old

380. and has fought 22 professional fights.

381. He never achieved stardom.

382. Throughout most of his career,

383. Michael has struggled with depression

384. and thoughts of suicide.

385. Yeah, I need to...

386. These refilled or filled.

387. Okay.

388. And, Michael, can you fill your address

389. for me on that one?

390. What was birthday, also?

391. 9/17/74.

392. Since we've got him on medicine,

393. it's kinda flatlined him in the sense of

394. he doesn't

395. like think of just picking up a gun

396. and shooting himself or driving off a cliff.

397. I think it's more of just like,

398. "I'm okay if I die."

399. And he says that occasionally,

400. like "I'm okay if I die."

401. So I know that that part

402. of the depression is still there.

403. I worried about him.

404. I don't want him to do anything drastic,

405. and I worried about all the injuries he suffer

406. when he was fighting,

407. because he had very serious broken bones

408. in all his face and his jaw and everything.

409. He got knocked out,

410. and he hit the ground.

411. And you can clearly see that he was out.

412. And the ref was coming in to stop

413. and do this.

414. And the guy came down and hit him one more time.

415. And the guy gave 110%

416. and just shattered his face.

417. I broke my orbital, my eye socket,

418. my cheekbone, my jaw.

419. I remember on the way to the hospital,

420. all of a sudden I see this pink fluid

421. coming out of my nose, and I'm like "Ah,

422. "what the hell?"

423. And it ended up being brain fluid.

424. The guy gets knocked out, he gets carted off.

425. You don't see him the next week, what he's like.

426. If you saw me the next day,

427. you would never have recognized me.

428. It's not a game.

429. Following his recent injuries

430. sustained in the cage,

431. Joker has been unable to compete.

432. This has led to a multitude of financial problems

433. and uncertainty over the future of his business venture:

434. his gym.

435. Stress for me is,

436. it's going through the roof,

437. and I'm trying to be, like, uh...

438. I'm trying to be as

439. positive as possible on the outside.

440. Inside,

441. inside

442. sucks.

443. Am I gonna be able to keep the gym?

444. How am I gonna make money

445. if I can't keep the gym?

446. Not being able to fight,

447. I mean I am able to fight.

448. It's just I'd have to force my body

449. through all that shit again,

450. which I don't wanna do.

451. For years, unsanctioned amateur fights

452. have taken place on California's Indian reservations.

453. This is how many of the fighters today got their start,

454. Joker among them.

455. Today he leads his student Luke along the same path

456. at this small amateur venue

457. miles away from the city.

458. Luke's trying to build his way up,

459. and this is the way to do it.

460. Build up your record here,

461. and then try and get into bigger shows.

462. He's the new breed.

463. Future, right here.

464. The past, right here.

465. When you hit pads,

466. it's not gonna be like that when you're fighting.

467. They're gonna be throwing at you.

468. It's like Matrix; everything slows down.

469. Aw, shit, he's hurt!

470. Hold his head.

471. I want you hold him so he don't move.

472. Chris, come here.

473. His teeth.

474. Put your head back, bro.

475. Gonna stitch his mouth?

476. I just had surgery. I don't wanna watch that.

477. Movement, movement, movement!

478. Make him commit, make 'em pay.

479. To my left,

480. from Joker MMA

481. is Luke Adams!

482. Come on, Luke!

483. Yeah!

484. Yeah!

485. Get up!

486. Get up!

487. Oh, my God.

488. Give me a thumbs-up.

489. Give me a thumbs-up, coach.

490. Wow.

491. Yeah!

492. Ranked number six in the world,

493. 34-year-old Sara McMann is an active UFC fighter.

494. Prior to joining the league,

495. Sara was a wrestler on the U.S. Olympic team.

496. She became the first American woman

497. to win a silver medal at the 2004 Olympics.

498. You wanna cut

499. and break a nose,

500. make some damage,

501. you gonna taper that tip.

502. Recently separated

503. from her husband of five years,

504. the future of Sara's marriage is now uncertain.

505. A devoted mother, she is constantly balancing

506. the demands of her fighting career

507. with the time needed for her daughter.

508. Do you have a lot of homework?

509. Were you a naughty girl today?

510. You were a good girl?

511. My brother wrestled since I was about three years old,

512. and I never really had an interest in it.

513. I did cheerleading for like one year.

514. And then when I was 14, I was like,

515. "I think I wanna go out for sports."

516. I wanted to do wrestling 'cause it just seemed like

517. the most natural sport.

518. But in North Carolina, that's just wasn't really accepted.

519. It was, "Girls should be

520. "cooking and cleaning for those boys,

521. "not wrasslin' with them!"

522. It was just a different time.

523. I've always kinda had a stubborn streak, so

524. immediately when they told me I couldn't do something,

525. especially 'cause they told me I couldn't do it

526. 'cause I was a girl,

527. I was like, "No way. "I'm doing this."

528. Like, "You don't tell me what I can and can't do

529. "and what I'm capable of."

530. And my mom was like, "Oh, you're wrestling."

531. And I was like, "Yes!"

532. Some guys on the team

533. didn't think that I belonged there,

534. like I was just there to

535. find a boyfriend or hook up or something like that.

536. You know, "If she's gonna quit, we'll help make her quit."

537. If they came after me, I just came after them harder.

538. So I just kinda proved that

539. "Okay, you're gonna stand up to me;

540. "you're gonna challenge me.

541. "It's just gonna make me a better wrestler.

542. "You're actually helping me."

543. There's a grasshopper in the mouth.

544. It's trying to crawl out. Grab it, quick.

545. Grab it. Oh, look at it jump!

546. Grab it!

547. Quick. Got it!

548. Don't squeeze it.

549. My brother was murdered when I was 18 years old

550. and he was 21.

551. And it was at my first year of college.

552. The guy got beat up by my brother,

553. and so he was insulted

554. and decided like, "You know what?

555. "I'm gonna solve this problem.

556. "I'm just gonna kill the guy."

557. My older brother was responsible

558. for me choosing to wrestle and my character

559. developing the way it did,

560. my stubbornness and my hard work and my drive,

561. and it was...

562. It was horrible.

563. It was horrible losing

564. somebody you looked up to and that was your hero.

565. And, um...

566. Not even just losing somebody.

567. Losing somebody's hard enough,

568. but having somebody taken from you.

569. It was really difficult for an 18-year-old to

570. process.

571. I didn't process it by like crying all the time.

572. I threw myself into wrestling, and when I wasn't,

573. I was just angry.

574. Angry at the world, angry that

575. that's the hand that life dealt me at that time.

576. I'm not a fan of women fighting.

577. I think it's gross.

578. But that's just me.

579. You know, you wanna,

580. you wanna fight like a man, you wanna act like a man,

581. then I'm gonna beat you up like a man.

582. There's room for women competitors, for sure.

583. There's an opportunity for women;

584. they wanna compete.

585. They wanna be fighters.

586. It's cool.

587. I mean I don't see it too sexy.

588. But that's just my sexist side of me

589. as being a man, I guess.

590. But if they wanna compete, cool. That's awesome.

591. You know, I've always had a fascination

592. with combat sports.

593. I can remember, as a little girl,

594. and I'm talking very little girl,

595. maybe six, seven, eight,

596. laying in bed, thinking,

597. "If I hit him like this, he's gonna do this.

598. "If I do this, he's gonna do that."

599. I think my mom thought I was amazingly crazy.

600. People like, "You're not

601. "gonna have your daughter be a fighter?"

602. No.

603. Maybe a ballerina or something.

604. I had parents that instilled in me

605. to try to be strong,

606. and martial arts really did help me,

607. because I got into it so young,

608. build my confidence.

609. It kinda gave me a voice.

610. As female fighters,

611. we do have a voice,

612. and we can make our voice heard.

613. Every time we go in that cage,

614. we earn more and more respect.

615. And I think that puts us in a position

616. of being the voice for other women around the world

617. that don't have the opportunity

618. to have their voice heard.

619. It wasn't until Strikeforce

620. that I had the opportunity to see legitimate female athletes.

621. For people that say that there's no place

622. for women in the octagon,

623. I just say, "Watch."

624. You know?

625. "Watch, observe.

626. "Have an open mind."

627. If you bought a ticket to an NBA game,

628. and you said, "All right,

629. "at halftime, there's gonna be a WNBA game,"

630. a lot of fans would be like, "What is this?

631. "We hate the WNBA."

632. You know how that is.

633. No one thinks twice.

634. The women's fights are just

635. as exciting and looked forward to

636. as the men's fights.

637. There's obviously a lot of women that wanna fight,

638. and there's a lot of guys that wanna see 'em fight.

639. Do you think women are finally

640. getting respect as fighters?

641. Yes, definitely.

642. Well, especially since there's Ronda Rousey.

643. She's definitely deserved the respect.

644. How hard she trains,

645. her mental and her physical

646. everything is so prepared.

647. And that's what make her a good fighter.

648. Ronda Rousey,

649. a reigning UFC champion and number-four

650. pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

651. She has viciously dominated her opponents,

652. beating many of them within the opening seconds.

653. Here is the action,

654. and there's not a lot of it.

655. Done!

656. That is the end, ladies and gentlemen!

657. Seconds into the first round, again.

658. Ronda Rousey looks unbeatable.

659. Phenomenal...

660. All right, y'all. Here she is.

661. Hi, everybody.

662. Hi. Nice to meet you, too.

663. I found a scrapbook

664. in our house when I was around eight,

665. and I discovered that my mom was

666. the first American judo world champion.

667. I just found out that

668. she was actually Wonder Woman.

669. People all over the world

670. gravitate towards fighting because

671. it's something that's in everyone

672. and it's an actual instinct.

673. It's not a man's thing or a woman's thing.

674. It's simple and it's natural,

675. and we're all compelled to do it.

676. It's in our blood. It's in our history.

677. We're instinctively protective creatures

678. because we're mothers.

679. So if you ever watch a female fight,

680. you see that

681. relentless passion

682. to dominate and to survive.

683. Recently, Ronda took on Sara McMann,

684. dropping her with a knee to the liver,

685. a stoppage that Sara still believes was premature.

686. It is all over.

687. She continues to train daily,

688. patiently awaiting her next fight.

689. Fighting out of High Ridge, Missouri,

690. the former Bellator lightweight world champion,

691. please welcome Michael Chandler!

692. Ever since I lost that belt a couple years ago,

693. I knew that it was only a matter of time,

694. only a matter of work,

695. only a matter of positive thinking.

696. Losing extra pounds

697. to make weight is never easy.

698. It drastically affects a fighter's mind.

699. I'm very disciplined for my whole training camp,

700. and I get my body down to the best physical shape

701. it possibly can be,

702. four or five, 6% body fat,

703. and then that last 15 pounds or so

704. is a lot of water weight.

705. Once you make the weight,

706. then you have about 24 hours,

707. and you can finally breathe

708. because that first fight was just making the weight.

709. Now you can focus on the task at hand,

710. which is going out there and winning that next fight.

711. Growing up in the Midwest, my mom and dad worked two jobs

712. to make sure us kids had

713. every single thing that we wanted.

714. My first love was wrestling.

715. And my mom worked two jobs.

716. My dad was a carpenter,

717. so he went to work throughout the week

718. and then would do side jobs on the weekends

719. just to scrape up enough money

720. to make sure I could go to wrestling camps.

721. They truly wanted to give us kids

722. more than they had when they grew up,

723. and now kinda coming into the sport of MMA,

724. it's really helped me keep my roots

725. very strongly planted in the ground.

726. Republicans' bamboo trees.

727. Even though he is completely different.

728. There was a guy that dressed exceptionally good.

729. Kicking and striking, it was unnatural

730. because I wasn't a fighter growing up,

731. I never got into fights,

732. and I never really had that adrenaline rush

733. of fighting and throwing punches and kicks

734. and knees and elbows,

735. but I wasn't afraid of anybody, and I knew

736. that I was already gonna be tougher

737. than a lot of the guys I stepped in the cage with.

738. I might not really understand

739. how a fight works, but I know

740. when it comes to hand-to-hand combat,

741. I've already done it at the highest level

742. in that Division I wrestling room,

743. that Division I grind,

744. where for 12 months out of the year

745. for five years straight,

746. you were literally putting your body through a living hell.

747. You cannot go from an elbow strike from 12 to six.

748. Now you can be on your back and throw it from

749. six to 12.

750. That is legal.

751. Having a loss is tough.

752. I've trained so hard and so smart

753. and surrounded myself with the right people,

754. the people I think that are gonna help me,

755. and I never envision seeing myself lose.

756. My first 12 fights I was 12-0,

757. ten finishes, and seven of those in the first round.

758. Alvarez!

759. Bleeding terribly out of the mouth

760. from Michael Chandler!

761. Now giving up his back!

762. - Chandler looking... - That's it!

763. There's the tap!

764. And we have a new champion!

765. Michael Chandler is Bellator's

766. new lightweight world champion!

767. My rematch against Eddie Alvarez

768. I lost by a tough, tough split decision.

769. A lot of people thought I won.

770. I was put in this sport to become a champion

771. and be put on a platform to reach people,

772. so I couldn't see how I could possibly lose

773. inside that cage.

774. And then it happens.

775. I came back from the dead almost.

776. Not many guys lose three fights in a row

777. and then came back and become

778. where I think that I'm gonna end up.

779. You step in that cage,

780. you have one goal and one mission,

781. and that's to dominate.

782. This is the hurt business.

783. Huge right!

784. I am pretty darn good at it.

785. I visualize myself on top of my opponent,

786. hitting him or putting him in a submission,

787. watching him crumble,

788. watching his facial expression turn from

789. looking like he thinks that he's gonna win

790. to that sunken-in facial expression of "Oh, my gosh,

791. "this guy won't get off me.

792. "Oh, my gosh.

793. "It's only a matter of time before I get finished."

794. Iron Michael Chandler!

795. You know what to do!

796. Lights out.

797. Chandler!

798. And it's over!

799. Michael Chandler came in

800. wanting to take the fight to the ground.

801. Instead, he puts Patricky Pitbull to the ground.

802. And we have a new lightweight world champion.

803. Let me amend that.

804. There definitely are still some troubled guys

805. who wanna get in the sport to channel their anger

806. or, "Hey, I wanna make some money.

807. "There's girls around.

808. "Maybe I'll get on TV,

809. "and my friends'll think I'm cool."

810. But it's starting to become such a high-profile sport,

811. it's not easy to get signed to these promotions

812. unless you are a quality fighter

813. and a quality human being.

814. It's interesting the way the sport has grown,

815. matured, and advanced.

816. Clint Dahl, a manager to many fighters,

817. studied the UFC formula

818. and soon began promoting local fights in Orange County.

819. These local events became a breeding ground

820. for some of the world's greatest fighters.

821. There's a good example of California's finest.

822. What up, buddy?

823. Time I had graduated high school,

824. a large number of my friends had been murdered,

825. and street fights were a common thing.

826. You know, you just did it.

827. Fight fans, 1,000 strong

828. in an Orange County college gym,

829. cheer on the bare-knuckle brawlers.

830. There are few rules, and gloves are not required.

831. The UFC had been going,

832. and we started wanting to be the UFC.

833. We started putting on fights that we called shoot fights.

834. Shoot fighting's not pro wrestling.

835. You really fight out there, and you don't go out there...

836. Orange County in the '90s was the mecca.

837. Orange County was truly the mecca of mixed martial arts.

838. Well, the less rules there are, the more intense it...

839. I have a scar on my palm

840. from when I hit a guy and broke his nose,

841. and I guess his skull went into my hand and just

842. blood everywhere.

843. One night this guy came in,

844. and he was a known badass.

845. He was like the guy on the street.

846. He wasn't a big guy,

847. but he'd beat up big guys.

848. Everyone would talk about him.

849. And I'm like, "Will you fight?"

850. And he's all like, "Who am I fighting?"

851. I go, "I got a 16-year-old kid back here

852. "who trains here."

853. That 16-year-old kid beat the shit

854. outta that street fighter.

855. Mangled him.

856. So this street fighter's sitting on the floor.

857. I go, "Are you okay?"

858. And the $100 that I gave him

859. were in twenties, and they were all crumbled up,

860. and he just reached and grabbed 'em,

861. and he just like pulls them into himself.

862. He's just afraid in that moment

863. that I'm gonna take his $100.

864. So there's a street fighting story.

865. Street fighters lose.

866. And that's where it started to progress.

867. A practicing minister,

868. please welcome Kimo!

869. In America, since it's the melting pot

870. of all different cultures,

871. I believe that same thing happens

872. when a martial art comes here.

873. Kickboxing, karate, taekwondo,

874. all of these things got mixed together

875. to make mixed martial arts.

876. The sport of mixed martial arts

877. has constantly reinvented itself.

878. Once dominated by Brazilian jiu-jitsu,

879. today's fighters must develop a more well-rounded approach

880. to stay competitive.

881. We learned about the Gracies.

882. A fundamental ground fighting system

883. was revealed to us, and we all went, "Holy smokes!"

884. But then when Stan Longinidis beat Dennis Alexio

885. with a leg kick, Muay Thai came around,

886. and everybody went, "Holy smokes.

887. "What's Muay Thai?"

888. Then you get a guy like a Don Frye,

889. who's a very good boxer and a good wrestler,

890. that could stuff a takedown

891. and then start punching and knock a guy out.

892. UFC 8, versus Gary Goodridge,

893. he was a monster.

894. UFC 9, Amaury Bitetti,

895. God bless him,

896. he almost died that night,

897. 'cause he would not quit.

898. There it is.

899. "More," he's saying "More."

900. UFC 10, Coleman almost killed me.

901. You got guys like Tito Ortiz

902. who reinvented the ground-and-pound

903. after Coleman pretty much invented it,

904. to a sprawl-and-brawl,

905. which Chuck Liddell mastered.

906. Oh!

907. Oh, and a big right hand!

908. Big left kick!

909. That's it! Oh, it's over!

910. It's all over!

911. There has never been a challenger like this before.

912. Knocking someone out, it feels great.

913. If you play baseball, it's like hitting that clean

914. line drive out of the park.

915. The young guys at that time

916. said, "Okay, we gotta be a complete fighter.

917. "Otherwise, if you have a hole in your game

918. "and I don't, then

919. "I'm gonna probably win the fight."

920. In our schools, we teach striking

921. and ground tactics.

922. You have to know both.

923. For a street situation you have to know it,

924. and of course for MMA.

925. And I would never put somebody in the cage

926. that's not well rounded.

927. It's putting it all together, making it

928. as one.

929. If you can make it all seamless,

930. then that's the art of it.

931. Each fighter gets to put his own flavor on it

932. and come out and express himself to the world

933. in a canvas that's painted in blood.

934. This sport started with barroom brawlers,

935. guys who were angry or just getting out of prison,

936. and it was taboo.

937. But now you see so many people coming into this sport

938. where they're just passionate about it.

939. I have my degree from Mizzou.

940. If I wanted to stop fighting today,

941. I could go use that degree

942. and do whatever I wanted to do with it.

943. But I choose fighting because I like it.

944. I'm not the kind of guy who goes out to a bar

945. and gets into a fight like an idiot.

946. I can't say I ever got in a fight

947. that I wasn't paid for.

948. Now you're coming in

949. as a guy who started training in MMA

950. as a 12-year-old and now you're 21

951. with all those skillset.

952. It's fun to look back at that time,

953. but that's wasn't sport;

954. that was more spectacle.

955. This is true sport.

956. All right, guys, let's go!

957. Let's get, get it, get it.

958. Rashad's knee has yet to fully heal.

959. But he's eager to begin his training.

960. Thank you, my prince.

961. Thank you, my princess.

962. He steps back into the gym

963. for the first time in ten months.

964. What's up, man, how you doing?

965. This is just the beginning of his comeback.

966. What was your childhood like?

967. I moved with my dad when I was three years old,

968. and I stayed until I was seven.

969. He had very bad anger issues.

970. You know, he whooped our ass a lot

971. to the point sometimes where

972. I didn't even fear the paddle anymore.

973. Ha!

974. My mother was a good mom.

975. She was very strict.

976. She would give you a couple warnings.

977. And if by the third warning you didn't get it right,

978. it was bop, bop, bop, bop!

979. "Rashad, go get that belt!"

980. And I'm like, "Damn!"

981. Okay, here we go!

982. I used to love to fight.

983. That was like the funnest thing in the world to me,

984. just to get into a street fight with some other kids.

985. It was natural for me

986. because I grew up fighting.

987. Back when I was four or five years old,

988. my brother Lance would make me fight

989. other little kids.

990. They would love to fight me

991. because I looked like a wimp.

992. And I had to always prove to them that

993. I'm 'bout it, and I'm not scared of nothing.

994. It helped me release a lot of frustration

995. and hurt that I had.

996. You know what I'm saying?

997. We grew up kind of poor, very poor.

998. And it was just,

999. it was hard.

1000. Bop, bop!

1001. Once I got old enough to really start to understand

1002. that I was poor,

1003. then I had a lot of resentment

1004. for my father, even resentment for my mother,

1005. because I was like...

1006. I used to think like, "Why the fuck do I gotta

1007. "grow up like this?"

1008. It was one of the things in my life that

1009. always gives me drive

1010. because I can still remember that feeling.

1011. That's the business, you know what I'm saying?

1012. I got one chance in my lifetime right now

1013. to seize this opportunity and make the most out of it,

1014. and I gotta do what I gotta do

1015. to make sure I'm doing that.

1016. You know?

1017. I been in this game since

1018. 2003, man.

1019. When you met Rashad,

1020. did you know he was a professional fighter?

1021. No.

1022. I had no idea what I was in for.

1023. He tried to tell me,

1024. and I asked him,

1025. "A fighter, what do you mean?"

1026. And he said, "Mixed martial arts."

1027. I was like, "Okay, that's a nice hobby,

1028. "but what do you do for a living?"

1029. He asked how you do it and cut off,

1030. you not only controlled

1031. but you cut off blood supply.

1032. He's trying to prove something. That's why.

1033. No, no, no, no, no, I'm just showing him.

1034. I just wanna feel it.

1035. Hold on, let me finish my tuna, man. Come on, damn.

1036. Was it difficult seeing him

1037. not able to train?

1038. Yeah, it's difficult because

1039. it's like a child that's not able to play.

1040. Don't hurt his neck.

1041. Out of all the sports out there,

1042. it's the hardest one to be connected with,

1043. to watch him want to do so much but

1044. you can't.

1045. With his upcoming fight

1046. against Daniel Cormier looming,

1047. Jon takes time away from training

1048. to fulfill his fatherly duties.

1049. Oh, look.

1050. Jon Bones Jones doll.

1051. I let my kids watch my fights, but

1052. never live,

1053. because you never know what's gonna happen out there.

1054. I've had some fights where I've gotten pretty bloody,

1055. and I've had some fights

1056. where I've gotten other people pretty bloody.

1057. And I don't really like them to see that type of stuff.

1058. Excuse me, Bones.

1059. How's it going?

1060. Pretty good, pretty good.

1061. Good, good to see you, buddy.

1062. Do a lot of fighters

1063. bring their families along during the training?

1064. That seems to work for a lot of fighters.

1065. I've also seen a lot of fighters

1066. come down here by themselves.

1067. And those guys really,

1068. they don't really seem as happy.

1069. They seem to get burned out a little faster.

1070. They miss their kids and

1071. just having my kids run up to me

1072. screaming "Daddy, Daddy!"

1073. things in the gym just don't seem

1074. that serious.

1075. Daddy!

1076. Guess what?

1077. Got you guys some toys tonight.

1078. Yay!

1079. Yeah.

1080. Your opponent, Daniel Cormier,

1081. keeps saying that you're gonna poke him in the eyes

1082. during the fight.

1083. Why does he keep saying that?

1084. So Daniel Cormier is saying before the fight

1085. that I'll end up poking him in the eyes

1086. at some point,

1087. and the reason why he says that

1088. is because I do poke people in the eyes.

1089. And it's very illegal.

1090. But I do it.

1091. Livies.

1092. - She hit me today. - Did she?

1093. I react to people

1094. trying to punch me in the face by

1095. usually sticking my hand out

1096. and pushing their face away,

1097. kinda like you see on TV

1098. where the big brother's holding his little brother

1099. and the little brother can't hit him

1100. 'cause his arms isn't long enough or whatnot.

1101. And I do that in real fights.

1102. Like if someone's coming at me,

1103. I'll just put my hand on their forehead.

1104. And a lot of times they end up missing the punch

1105. that was intended for my face.

1106. And sometimes it lands in people's eyes.

1107. And people hate that.

1108. They're like, "Jonny, you're a very talented fighter.

1109. "You don't need to use an illegal tactic

1110. "to be successful."

1111. And I try to tell people it's not intentional,

1112. but now I'm kinda known for it, and

1113. it's working.

1114. Mwah!

1115. Thank you.

1116. What gives you the most stress in life?

1117. My MMA career.

1118. Definitely.

1119. Not only winning, but performing at people's expectations.

1120. Being called the greatest fighter in the world

1121. pound-for-pound,

1122. not only do you have to win

1123. but you have to be impressive.

1124. And I think that's what causes me stress.

1125. Oy!

1126. Seat belts.

1127. Seat belts, seat belts, seat belts.

1128. In August, the press conference

1129. of the upcoming UFC 182 was held.

1130. Jones and Cormier finally got a chance

1131. to size each other up.

1132. Things escalated quickly

1133. as the two fighters met face to face

1134. at center stage.

1135. Despite the melee, the status of the fight

1136. remains unchanged.

1137. However, both fighters were given serious fines

1138. as well as community service.

1139. You're the scum of the earth.

1140. You are a terrible human being,

1141. but you can sure turn it on, huh?

1142. Thank you.

1143. I actually admire that you can actually be this fake

1144. and, like, when the TV comes on, how you can just change.

1145. It's like you're a chameleon.

1146. Both managed to exchange

1147. obscenities and even live threats to the mainstream media.

1148. The fact that you're a pussy hasn't changed.

1149. Including ESPN's SportsCenter.

1150. I wish they would let me next door

1151. so I could spit in your face.

1152. You know I would absolutely kill you

1153. if you ever did something like that, right?

1154. You could never kill me.

1155. Oh, I bet you I could.

1156. Cormier is a tough opponent,

1157. and previous confrontations

1158. have made it personal. I would literally kill you

1159. if you spit in my face.

1160. Yeah, let's try that, Jon.

1161. - Literally kill you. - Let's try that, Jon.

1162. I'm not saying I would fight you;

1163. I say I would kill you

1164. if you did some stupid shit like that.

1165. So Jon, do you think I'm just gonna sit there

1166. and let you kill me, Jon?

1167. I mean, really?

1168. Harder, harder, harder! Higher!

1169. Go, go, go! Five seconds, finish strong!

1170. The best liver kick that I see is

1171. from catching a kick or parrying a kick...

1172. Earlier in the day,

1173. Sara received a call from the UFC matchmaker.

1174. She has been offered to fight Miesha Tate,

1175. one of the top-ranked fighters in the world.

1176. It will be the challenge Sara has prepared for.

1177. Reset, back neutral!

1178. One step back, come back in!

1179. That's it.

1180. Is she accounting for elbows and down pressure?

1181. Pull him into the ground.

1182. In college, you had a fiancé.

1183. Was it easy for you to get along with him

1184. because he was a wrestler also?

1185. Yeah. He understood everything, you know.

1186. Like he knew the stress and pressure I was under.

1187. There's so many things that go unspoken

1188. between two athletes.

1189. Like I would never have any question

1190. of how he was feeling, what was going on,

1191. what was he experiencing.

1192. And the same things vice versa.

1193. You just have a different understanding of it.

1194. What happened in September of 2004?

1195. He'd gotten into Columbia Law School.

1196. And we were driving to go

1197. move all of my stuff there.

1198. And for whatever reason, the car veered off the road,

1199. and I tried to correct it.

1200. And I overcorrected it, and it rolled, and

1201. I got injuries,

1202. we were both ejected from the vehicle,

1203. and he passed away.

1204. We were planning on getting married.

1205. So I lost him and everything that he brings to the world,

1206. and then I also lost all of our future plans,

1207. children we would've had together,

1208. all the things that happen throughout

1209. the course of a lifetime, so

1210. I just went through a really, really bad time,

1211. struggling to come to terms with things.

1212. Like this is what happened in life.

1213. This is your life,

1214. and whether you like it or not,

1215. this is how it's going.

1216. I really started to review and realize

1217. what life really is all about.

1218. You gonna brush your teeth?

1219. You want help?

1220. No, ma'am.

1221. You kinda grow up thinking that

1222. certain things are expected

1223. like, oh, if you work really hard,

1224. good things will come to you,

1225. and if you're a really good person,

1226. you'll find somebody to be with and it'll last forever,

1227. and we don't realize that we're living...

1228. envisioning the fairy tale,

1229. but we kinda are.

1230. And then something happens that

1231. just kinda wipes all that out.

1232. And you just have to figure out

1233. "Okay, this isn't something that is

1234. "outside of the range of life.

1235. "This is life.

1236. "This is what it's about."

1237. Life offers some really, really wonderful, beautiful things,

1238. but it's almost pretty much part of the package

1239. that you go through the really extremely

1240. difficult ones, too.

1241. I love you.

1242. I love new!

1243. Do you ever get scared

1244. that if you get injured fighting

1245. you might not be there for your daughter?

1246. It's something I definitely worry about.

1247. You only get one brain,

1248. so will I be able to be there for her?

1249. The winner!

1250. Throughout professional MMA's existence,

1251. maintaining a fighter's health

1252. has always been a challenge.

1253. Many careers have been cut short

1254. as a result of injury.

1255. When I first refereed,

1256. the real two rules there were was

1257. no biting and no eye gouging.

1258. Everything else was allowed.

1259. I was put in there by Rorian

1260. not because he thought I was gonna be this great referee.

1261. He actually told me, he goes,

1262. "You're not squeamish about people getting hurt."

1263. So I guess that was my qualifying factor.

1264. His corner will probably throw the towel in.

1265. The corner could stop the fight

1266. by throwing in the towel,

1267. or the fighter could stop the fight

1268. by tapping out,

1269. but in no way

1270. was the referee supposed to stop the fight.

1271. And it got to the point where I had guys getting hurt

1272. in a significant fashion,

1273. and they did not have the ability to defend themselves.

1274. I was screaming at corners to throw towels,

1275. but the fighter said, "Don't you ever throw the towel,"

1276. so they're not gonna throw the towel.

1277. And now the fighter is unconscious.

1278. And I'm supposed to just let him get hit.

1279. It was ridiculous.

1280. And it was to the point where

1281. when it got all over with,

1282. I said, "Hey, thank you very much.

1283. "I will never do that again."

1284. It was not sport.

1285. The show itself back then was a spectacle.

1286. And as a spectacle, it shocked the world.

1287. And when it shocked the world,

1288. we created a lot of critics.

1289. One independently was a politician

1290. who said we were human cockfighting.

1291. John McCain, the senator from Arizona,

1292. piece of dirt.

1293. "It's the most brutal thing in the world,

1294. "and it needs to stop immediately."

1295. And then when he was asked if he'd ever watched one,

1296. he said no.

1297. McCain can't straighten out his elbows

1298. to wipe his own ass.

1299. So what's he gonna know about mixed martial arts?

1300. Don't trust a word a politician says

1301. especially when he's trying to save you from yourself.

1302. We were in a lot of political pressure.

1303. We ended up in federal court.

1304. The cable networks took us off the air,

1305. with the exception of DirecTV.

1306. So we went from the fastest-growing pay-per-view in history

1307. to now lucky to get 50,000 buys.

1308. You can't tell me that anything is a true sport

1309. if you can kick somebody in the balls, basically.

1310. I can see you taking deep breaths at home.

1311. I saw Gary Goodridge fighting The Pedro,

1312. going in his cup, squeezing his cojones.

1313. They started realizing, "We gotta change something here."

1314. I made up a list of 18 different rules.

1315. And those 18 rules, some of 'em were stupid rules

1316. just for me to try to give fluff to say, "Oh, you can't do this."

1317. Some of 'em were good rules.

1318. All these were just

1319. an attempt to try to get people to understand

1320. "Yes, there's rules involved with it,

1321. "you can regulate these rules,

1322. "and this is not the barbaric

1323. "action that you think it is."

1324. The conclusion was

1325. not only you have to put time limits

1326. to control the amount of time, which I understand and respect,

1327. not what I think is best for a real fight,

1328. but it's necessary for the show.

1329. The other thing is you can't

1330. no longer put a huge fighter against a little guy,

1331. because if it's a five-minute round,

1332. by the time the big guy gets tired

1333. the round is over.

1334. So it, for me, lost its purpose

1335. because it's no longer a comparison of styles.

1336. Became a show of entertainment.

1337. This is why I decide to sell my interest in the company,

1338. which I don't regret.

1339. My name is Lorenzo Fertitta.

1340. I'm the UFC's chairman and CEO.

1341. And to my right, of course, is Dana White,

1342. our president.

1343. The greatest day in the history of mixed martial arts

1344. was the day that Dana White

1345. and Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta bought the UFC.

1346. Had they not bought the UFC

1347. and done what they did with it,

1348. even suffering in the beginning themselves

1349. with trial and error,

1350. we would not be where we're at today,

1351. the sport would be dead in this country,

1352. it would be underground,

1353. we wouldn't be having this interview,

1354. and I truly believe that.

1355. They are the saviors of the sport.

1356. Gonna let it all go.

1357. The opening of tonight's show, the bigger...

1358. Any entertainment business,

1359. there has to be a balance.

1360. I used to this to gyms:

1361. "Hey, you need to support me, too.

1362. "You can't just send all your fighters to the UFC.

1363. "You need to support us because

1364. "if you only end up with one buyer,

1365. "what's that gonna do to the industry?"

1366. The league can control the marketplace.

1367. Right?

1368. Bellator is a relatively new organization

1369. that started in 2008.

1370. I came in in the infancy stage.

1371. My first fight, the cards were getting jumped over

1372. by like high school girls' softball games,

1373. and then Scott Coker took over in 2014,

1374. who ran Strikeforce very successfully

1375. until the UFC bought them out.

1376. And now we're on this worldwide platform of Spike.

1377. Don't underestimate the power of network television.

1378. He's about building stars and building guys

1379. and building people.

1380. This is a business of star power.

1381. At the end of the day, we put fighters into the cage

1382. that people want to see.

1383. What was Michael like as a child?

1384. Wonderful. Very good.

1385. Everybody like him.

1386. He was friendly all the time.

1387. Are you, as a family,

1388. trying to help Michael

1389. to get over his depression.

1390. Yeah, we try whenever possible,

1391. but sometimes he doesn't let you.

1392. I have to drag things out of him.

1393. He say, "No, Mom. "I'm okay."

1394. You know.

1395. I know he has gotten to counselors,

1396. but I don't know how good they are.

1397. I hate doing this.

1398. Basically lie to the guy a lot,

1399. because if I told him the truth truth,

1400. he would probably lock me up.

1401. Are you still using the Xanax?

1402. Xanax, yeah.

1403. I used that a lot over the last, like...

1404. I'd say over the last, like, month.

1405. Oh, and one thing... You say "a lot."

1406. Do you mean more than two a day?

1407. Yeah, more than two. Yeah.

1408. I get concerned if you say "a lot" meaning...

1409. No, no, no, no...

1410. That you're taking...

1411. - Oh, no, no, no, no... - No, no, not like

1412. taking it to kill yourself,

1413. but just taking extra pills...

1414. No, like I'll take two at the most a day,

1415. and then there's a couple days I took three.

1416. And I'm dead serious when I say

1417. I've never had,

1418. I guess, a panic attack?

1419. But I was riding, I was cycling,

1420. I cycle a lot,

1421. and I'm cycling this one day,

1422. and I literally

1423. felt like I was gonna break down, start crying,

1424. and frickin' I just couldn't catch my breath,

1425. and I was literally about to stop

1426. in the middle of the ride

1427. and just lay on the side of the road.

1428. That's not normal.

1429. Like a panic attack?

1430. Yeah, yeah, like, "Oh, my God.

1431. "I'm gonna be 40 years old.

1432. "What do I do?"

1433. Yeah.

1434. Mid-life crisis?

1435. I hate traffic.

1436. Just wish I could mount cannons on this thing.

1437. I'd shoot that guy.

1438. I'd shoot that guy. I'd shoot that guy.

1439. I'd probably shoot that guy twice.

1440. Look at you guys!

1441. Hi, honey.

1442. Hey.

1443. Hey, babe.

1444. Huh?

1445. I love you, babe.

1446. You got nice melons.

1447. How would you describe your marriage?

1448. You know, it's marriage.

1449. It's up and down. It's constant work.

1450. We've been through a lot.

1451. You know, that attempted suicide

1452. and kinda dealing with that.

1453. And sometimes it's a challenge

1454. because with that name Joker,

1455. he's always got this smile on his face

1456. and constantly joking around

1457. so that he doesn't have to,

1458. I think, a lot of the times, face

1459. his challenges inside

1460. and whatever he feels that he needs to accomplish

1461. within himself.

1462. How was your day?

1463. Great.

1464. What was great about it?

1465. Just another day in paradise.

1466. As a way to make extra cash,

1467. fighters often make appearances at expo events

1468. and stage meet-and-greets with their fans.

1469. On a late afternoon, Joker takes a drive to Las Vegas

1470. for an MMA trivia game.

1471. Tell me about the day you attempted suicide.

1472. I had my.45.

1473. Put one round in the chamber.

1474. I'm walking out to the car.

1475. My friend Jim Arabino,

1476. one of the heads at the sheriff's department at the time.

1477. Nicole's got his number,

1478. calls it up and says,

1479. "Mike's tried to kill himself.

1480. "I got the gun from him,

1481. "but he's gonna find one of you guys

1482. "to shoot him."

1483. He said, "I'll take care of it."

1484. A sea of patrol cars

1485. pull into each side.

1486. Bullhorn like "Come on, man.

1487. "Everybody has a bad day."

1488. My phone was ringing off the hook.

1489. It was Jim, and Jim's like,

1490. "Don't get out of your car.

1491. "Don't do anything.

1492. "I'm coming there to personally get you."

1493. This little old guy.

1494. Gets out of the car.

1495. Officer's like, "Jim, step back."

1496. And he's like, "Nope.

1497. "Nope, no."

1498. "Nope. I'm gonna go get my buddy.

1499. "That's my friend.

1500. "He's not gonna hurt me, not gonna hurt himself."

1501. He gives me a big hug.

1502. Tells me he loves me.

1503. Yeah, that was,

1504. that was that day.

1505. I get people crying in my office,

1506. falling apart in the office,

1507. thinking their life is over

1508. 'cause they've lost a really big match.

1509. I've even worried about a few people, suicide.

1510. I've worried.

1511. Because they're more prone to depression.

1512. A lot of athletes are perfectionists.

1513. But the problem with perfectionists is

1514. they can drive themselves mercilessly

1515. to the point where

1516. they're seeing what's wrong all the time,

1517. not what's right.

1518. They have one little loss. Okay.

1519. Another little loss. Okay, another one.

1520. Now by the time the third or fourth one pops in

1521. or they have one really big, bad one,

1522. people around 'em are telling 'em,

1523. "You're in a slump.

1524. "You're messing up; you're going down."

1525. Those negative thoughts take seed.

1526. "Maybe you aren't as good as you thought you were."

1527. Negativity can be the most powerful emotion on Earth

1528. if you don't take care of it.

1529. It's the highest highs, the lowest lows.

1530. You feel like Tarzan when you win,

1531. and you feel like Jane when you lose.

1532. After the third loss,

1533. I actually went and saw a sports psychologist.

1534. People will tell me,

1535. "I look around at my other competitors in MMA.

1536. "They don't seem nervous at all."

1537. And I say, "Well,

1538. "how many of them do you really know personally?

1539. "If you were to really know those people,

1540. "and they were to tell you the truth,

1541. "they would probably tell you

1542. "they're actually as nervous as anybody else."

1543. But there is such a thing as bluster

1544. and bravado and faking it.

1545. Especially in a very macho sport like the combat sports,

1546. does anybody wanna walk around dropping their head

1547. and looking like a hangdog?

1548. No way.

1549. Because people are gonna key on that

1550. and use it against them.

1551. So they're gonna puff up, and they're gonna walk around

1552. like they're all that and a bag of chips,

1553. because they wanna show the illusion that

1554. "I'm Superman."

1555. But inside, they could be very fearful.

1556. So don't assume

1557. what you see is what you get.

1558. Toh-gee Wan Kenobi...

1559. Did you sustain a lot of injuries

1560. when you were fighting?

1561. Oh, yeah.

1562. Yeah.

1563. But you know what? That's part of being a man.

1564. I never have been scared

1565. because I like my job.

1566. When I walk for the cage,

1567. I smile because I'm happy.

1568. I like this moment.

1569. All people have fear.

1570. If anyone says, "I'm not afraid

1571. "of being in that fight,"

1572. they're lying to you.

1573. I have experienced fear in every one of my fights.

1574. There's two things I do before my fight.

1575. I throw up and I cry.

1576. When I'm in the locker room about to walk out,

1577. there's a lot that goes through my head.

1578. I try not to overthink things

1579. 'cause that's the worst time to do it.

1580. But

1581. part of me is telling me

1582. I'm gonna go out there and kill it.

1583. The other part of me is saying,

1584. "Oh, what if this happens?

1585. "What if you lose?"

1586. I think about getting injuries all the time

1587. because these girls,

1588. they're not just going in there trying to win.

1589. They're trying to maim me.

1590. They wanna be the one that

1591. maybe they didn't beat me but they gave me

1592. a big enough gash on my face

1593. where I wouldn't be able to work in Hollywood.

1594. It's not a bad thing to be scared.

1595. It's a bad thing to doubt.

1596. I'm full of fear but without any doubts.

1597. I got 28 stitches.

1598. I shattered this whole knuckle out here.

1599. Broke the hand and shattered the knuckle.

1600. People don't understand what it's like to have back pain

1601. unless they have it.

1602. They have a ruptured disc in their lower back.

1603. I went through seven years of competition with it.

1604. Eating Vicodins every day

1605. just to make my pain go away.

1606. Excellent kick by Rob...

1607. Oh, my God!

1608. His bone is gone.

1609. You think people are

1610. drawn to violence generally?

1611. Absolutely. It's in our DNA.

1612. His leg's broken! His leg's broken!

1613. Dana White once said that you could have a corner,

1614. there's a tennis match,

1615. soccer on that corner, baseball game over there.

1616. A fight breaks out in the fourth corner,

1617. everybody's gonna go watch the fight.

1618. It's just the way it is.

1619. Everybody wants to see blood.

1620. Who doesn't wanna see blood? You know what I mean?

1621. That's why they pay the tickets. They pay to see

1622. two guys in there bloody, sweaty,

1623. one guy get knocked out.

1624. That's what the sport is.

1625. - That's it! - He's down!

1626. Is MMA brutal? Yeah, 100% it is.

1627. Sometimes, especially when I'm cornering a fight

1628. and I'm watching these guys hit and kick each other,

1629. I'm like, "Shit! I gotta do this?"

1630. "That's pretty brutal in there."

1631. It's very barbaric. I'm not denying it.

1632. That's the problem,

1633. is that other guys try to deny it.

1634. It's not a form of entertainment

1635. that is made for everybody.

1636. We're willingly putting ourselves through this

1637. to see who's the best in the world, you know?

1638. It really poses the question:

1639. What do you want to do?

1640. Do you want to take a chance and risk

1641. getting knocked out!

1642. Some critics still argue

1643. that the sport is too cruel

1644. and has no place in modern society.

1645. I recognize it's a tremendously popular sport,

1646. but what point in a civilized society

1647. do we draw the line

1648. on violence-inducing sports?

1649. And I think the whole concept of the cage

1650. is also rather disturbing.

1651. We all have brain damage.

1652. You don't get into this, thinking like

1653. "Oh, I'm gonna be fine."

1654. We're gonna get lacerations,

1655. but lacerations are not a severe injury.

1656. It gets sutured together,

1657. and the guy is gonna be fine.

1658. Hematomas where we have swelling,

1659. it's gonna go down.

1660. The things that we really try to mitigate

1661. is that concussion.

1662. We talk to a lot of former fighters

1663. who are not all there, you know, mentally.

1664. How do you feel about that?

1665. That's life.

1666. Good morning.

1667. I'm Gary Goodridge.

1668. Okay, come on over.

1669. Have a seat and they'll call you.

1670. Many injuries leave a permanent mark

1671. on a fighter's physical and emotional being.

1672. We're gonna go ahead and have you sign in

1673. right here.

1674. And then they got one more form for you to sign...

1675. I already did this, didn't I?

1676. Gary Goodridge is a retired fighter

1677. that has competed in both boxing and mixed martial arts.

1678. A veteran of the infamous Pride and K-1 fighting leagues,

1679. he shows the scars of numerous battles

1680. both mentally and physically.

1681. I became the boxing champ of Canada with

1682. eight months of...

1683. from the time I walked in the gym

1684. to the time I was champion.

1685. And then I had my fight with the best in Canada

1686. to face the best in the United States.

1687. And I fought this guy David Bostice

1688. in Florida.

1689. And man, that was,

1690. that was the first concussion I ever had.

1691. I won the first round.

1692. The second round was probably about even.

1693. And the third round, I don't remember at all.

1694. The purpose of this study

1695. is to help us identify brain injury in professional fighters

1696. and to create testing to help better treat it.

1697. 'Cause, you know, for concussions

1698. the diagnosis is not quite that clear.

1699. So this will help create testing

1700. which will help catch that earlier.

1701. My coach, he told me, "Gary, I can't come with you,

1702. "'cause I can't afford it,

1703. "but after the fight,

1704. "right after the fight, I want you to call me."

1705. After the fight,

1706. the only thing I could remember is "I gotta call Norm.

1707. "I gotta call Norm. I gotta call Norm."

1708. My brain didn't know anything else.

1709. I didn't know where I was, what I was doing.

1710. The only thing I remember is,

1711. "I gotta call Norm. I gotta call Norm."

1712. So I told everybody, "I gotta call Norm."

1713. I told everybody who was listening, "I gotta call Norm.

1714. "I gotta call Norm."

1715. And we went to the phone, and I called Norm.

1716. He says, "How you doing?" I say, "I don't know."

1717. Said, "Did you win?" I said, "Win what?"

1718. "You fought; did you win?"

1719. He said, "Put somebody else on the phone."

1720. And, uh... Sorry.

1721. And I put somebody else on the phone, and

1722. that's when he decided,

1723. that's when he said,

1724. he told them to take me to the hospital.

1725. And, uh... I'm sorry.

1726. I'm a little emotional because,

1727. just 'cause

1728. that's when he...

1729. Nobody around me knew that I was,

1730. that I was messed up.

1731. There you go.

1732. Side effects are

1733. mental lapse,

1734. forgetfulness,

1735. the speech,

1736. aggression.

1737. So in your career,

1738. do you have any sense of how many concussions and

1739. things you've had?

1740. I had over 14. Over 14 concussions.

1741. - That you know of. - Yeah, that I know of.

1742. We've been very fortunate to have funding for this study

1743. by the major promoters, the UFC and Bellator, boxing.

1744. And this allows us to really do the work we're doing.

1745. All these organizations really truly

1746. have an interest in the safety of the sport,

1747. and hopefully, as our findings come out,

1748. it will be useful to the sport, not only of MMA

1749. but our society at large,

1750. including military and other people

1751. that are exposed to head trauma.

1752. It all worked on being knocked out.

1753. When you see somebody pow!

1754. He's knocked out, drops on the floor.

1755. Their eyes roll in the back of their head

1756. and they don't wake up for two minutes.

1757. Everybody sees it, "Wow!"

1758. Cheering in the stands

1759. and everybody getting up.

1760. And it's a good fight,

1761. and they're shaking the guy's hand,

1762. and everything's going on.

1763. And really the concern

1764. that everybody don't see

1765. is the damage being done to this individual.

1766. And with every applause,

1767. there's just as much downward spiral.

1768. And so is the UFC and Bellator

1769. and all the rest of them want it out?

1770. Hell, no. Of course they don't.

1771. Because that sells tickets.

1772. When you see somebody gets knocked out,

1773. when you see this happens,

1774. that sells tickets.

1775. And because it sells tickets

1776. and it sells to the public,

1777. why stop it?

1778. You know?

1779. All but one state

1780. has accepted mixed martial arts as a legal sport.

1781. New York remains the last holdout.

1782. Many fighters still dream of fighting under the lights

1783. of Madison Square Garden.

1784. Anyone that can get over watching this

1785. for any extended period of time

1786. has to become desensitized.

1787. We regulate a lot of things to protect our children.

1788. New York City has been a world leader

1789. in arts and culture.

1790. Is this the type of arts, culture, and sports

1791. that we want to be known for?

1792. The owners of the UFC, the Fertitta brothers,

1793. own the Station Casinos in Nevada.

1794. We want to send a message to a Station Casino:

1795. We are not second-class citizens!

1796. For around 15 years or so,

1797. the Station Casinos have been battling

1798. the culinary union in Nevada,

1799. because the culinary union wants them to unionize.

1800. The biggest company doing MMA is the UFC,

1801. so in order to essentially stick it to them,

1802. the culinary union's parent company,

1803. they're stopping MMA from getting legalized in New York.

1804. So this has nothing to do essentially

1805. with a moral issue?

1806. Nothing. Nothing to do with it.

1807. Nothing to do with the sport.

1808. If all these other commissions

1809. from California to Nevada to New Jersey to Florida,

1810. all of them sign off on it,

1811. this is a sport that would bring

1812. millions of dollars to the state,

1813. a state that would sorely need that revenue.

1814. Do you think bringing MMA to New York

1815. would help at all to boost the economy?

1816. I don't. I don't.

1817. I don't see MMA

1818. as being something that's gonna provide jobs

1819. for a great mass of Americans,

1820. good middle-class jobs

1821. that we need to have in this country,

1822. so I'm not much into the economic argument for it.

1823. My top issue is the injuries,

1824. particularly the concussions and related brain injuries.

1825. The best study I have seen on brain injuries

1826. is coming out of Canada,

1827. which raise serious questions.

1828. What we really were doing

1829. in the study was twofold.

1830. One was just actually to document

1831. the frequency of knockouts and technical knockouts,

1832. then identifying any patterns

1833. associated with the injuries.

1834. What we were finding

1835. was that almost one in three were either

1836. a technical knockout or a knockout.

1837. They're being struck in the head

1838. quite frequently prior to that time

1839. and also for a certain number of strikes

1840. after that decision or the outcome of a knockout

1841. or the match has ended.

1842. How many is too many?

1843. When should we stop playing?

1844. And it's kind of like this golden question

1845. that really no one has the answer to.

1846. I think what is best practice at this point

1847. is to say, "Listen,

1848. "if you're starting to sustain these injuries

1849. "in closer proximity to each other

1850. "and they're causing you to feel worse,

1851. "you're probably not in the best environment or sport."

1852. You're always going forward to fight.

1853. You're always going forward to fight,

1854. although you've had enough and you're ready to die.

1855. Your feet are burning. Your hands, you can't lift them.

1856. "No, nothing's wrong. Don't stop the bout."

1857. Fighters will always say that

1858. because you're always chasing that rainbow.

1859. It's gonna shine. It's gonna shine.

1860. If it lasts one more second,

1861. you can probably win.

1862. You can win.

1863. I couldn't stop myself.

1864. I lived by the sword, and I basically died by the sword.

1865. And do I regret it?

1866. It is me.

1867. It's my story, my legacy.

1868. It's who I am.

1869. I loved my sport.

1870. I would die for my sport.

1871. And

1872. that's what I'm doing.

1873. When I got married

1874. and became a fighter,

1875. I was pulled in so many different directions,

1876. and I really didn't know how to handle it.

1877. I have a career

1878. that, any given moment, can just be over.

1879. So I always found myself trying to seize

1880. every opportunity that I had,

1881. which ended up being the downfall in my marriage.

1882. And I didn't really know how

1883. bad and how hard it was gonna be

1884. until

1885. it set in, like "Damn, I can't,

1886. "I can't see my two children

1887. "that I have with her

1888. "every morning when I wake up."

1889. You know, I gotta go sometimes

1890. a month or a few weeks without seeing them.

1891. You move us.

1892. You speak to us and we listen.

1893. And we give it back to you.

1894. Being away from the cage

1895. means no income for a fighter.

1896. Luckily for Rashad, his name still bears recognition.

1897. With the UFC's help,

1898. Rashad travels to Los Angeles

1899. for a paid appearance on a weekly Fox Sports show,

1900. where he serves as co-anchor.

1901. You and Rashad have this Fox gig,

1902. but what do you think about other fighters

1903. and their opportunities after retirement?

1904. Well, there's the thing.

1905. Hey, you have to think of the future, obviously,

1906. 'cause the big checks aren't gonna keep coming.

1907. I've always been doing teaching and fighting hand in hand.

1908. My first two UFC checks,

1909. I opened up my first jiu-jitsu school,

1910. little, modest, little school.

1911. Now, 43 kids, two big schools that are over

1912. 12,000 square feet.

1913. Once in a while, I'll get a gig like this.

1914. And I'm whistling to work every day.

1915. I could pull this off!

1916. That's all we got here, guys.

1917. Back to you, K.B.

1918. Dude, what's the matter with me?

1919. I knew I should hit the steam this morning.

1920. He's kvetching like a hah-zuhm.

1921. Look at this.

1922. Look at this. Is this normal?

1923. Holly.

1924. I like your little bun.

1925. We know that, Jon.

1926. Rigorous training

1927. is an everyday practice for the champion.

1928. Today, he's going for a resistance run

1929. with a close friend and new UFC contender,

1930. Holly Holm. I've done 12 before.

1931. - See? - Took me about an hour.

1932. No. I already know better.

1933. Holly is chasing her own dream

1934. of facing off with the champ Ronda Rousey.

1935. Ready? One, two.

1936. It's been crazy

1937. training both of them and just

1938. watching them push each other 'cause

1939. there's nothing else like watching two champs

1940. really truly thrive and push off of each other.

1941. That's what these two do.

1942. Training as hard as you do,

1943. do you ever worry that somebody who's using steroids

1944. can take your title away?

1945. You know, like in all sports,

1946. people want to get an advantage,

1947. especially once millions of dollars get involved.

1948. People want to do anything they can

1949. to be the top dog.

1950. Fighting means everything to me

1951. and I work my tail off

1952. to make my body work.

1953. So if I can do it,

1954. other people should be able to figure it out, too.

1955. I would call it an epidemic at this point.

1956. Now that they are trying to clean up the sport,

1957. we're starting to realize that it's pretty ugly.

1958. I've heard fighters say that

1959. 60 to 90% of the fighters in the UFC

1960. are using something.

1961. I'm in the business.

1962. I see what's going on, and it's insane.

1963. These guys aren't going out there

1964. and hitting a baseball over a wall.

1965. They're punching and kicking each other in the face.

1966. Steroids is something that's very real in the UFC.

1967. Dan Gable, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time,

1968. said, "Once I found out

1969. "that my opponent's done steroids,

1970. "I knew I could beat him,"

1971. 'cause he didn't have that dog in him

1972. to become victorious.

1973. There's no shortcuts to greatness.

1974. The penalties are stiff.

1975. Year's suspension,

1976. that's a year of not getting paid.

1977. I peed positive for steroids.

1978. It did affect my career.

1979. You're put into that whole category.

1980. You're not no longer your individual.

1981. Now you're labeled.

1982. You don't want a father to tell his son,

1983. "This is not for us. "We shouldn't be watching this.

1984. "These are just roided-up guys beating each other up,"

1985. 'cause once that happens,

1986. it's hard to regain that trust.

1987. Look at the view.

1988. Yeah, it's beautiful.

1989. Spiritual, for sure.

1990. We're doing the Muay Thai class.

1991. This is Nadeer,

1992. who's advanced.

1993. He could fight professionally if he wanted to,

1994. but he's smarter than any professional fighter

1995. and got a real job

1996. and makes real money

1997. with, what do you call that,

1998. security and

1999. job stability.

2000. Switch partner!

2001. After months of uncertainty and unpaid bills,

2002. Joker receives news that he will be forced

2003. to close his gym.

2004. He finds the strength to tell his wife

2005. that they are losing the business

2006. and that the only way out of their financial problems

2007. is to restart his fighting career.

2008. Michael told us

2009. that he wants to get back into fighting.

2010. Oh, no, my God. I hope not.

2011. So you don't want him to?

2012. You know, I been praying to God every day

2013. and several times, late in the night,

2014. "Lord, please give them a retirement,

2015. "a good job."

2016. He's not that old.

2017. He can start all over again.

2018. You know?

2019. But it's his life.

2020. It's his decision.

2021. Do you think this business

2022. is fair to the fighters?

2023. No, no, no, no. Not even, no.

2024. Not close.

2025. The only people really making money,

2026. get that ass outta my way,

2027. are like the top three on the card.

2028. Look at the UFC and how much they bring in.

2029. They're paying the fighters out

2030. less than 2% of what the total is.

2031. If you put in all your hours,

2032. training, dieting, all the sacrifices,

2033. I guarantee you I'd fall under

2034. two bucks an hour.

2035. When I first started fighting,

2036. I basically had to pay for my first fight.

2037. I paid $25.

2038. You know.

2039. Then when you walk away from it,

2040. you look back and go, "God, I'm stupid."

2041. There will always be someone that says, "What I didn't get,"

2042. but it's a business at the same time.

2043. It's a league and a business.

2044. And the athletes sometimes forget

2045. that it's a business

2046. and that the UFC has to make money,

2047. to be profitable, to put on more shows,

2048. to continue.

2049. So there's a lot of emotional feelings

2050. that get mixed into the business.

2051. Of course, the most money's gonna go to the promoters.

2052. The promotion, the promoters.

2053. The fighters get a little piece.

2054. I mean, what are you gonna do?

2055. I've gotten plenty of raw deals.

2056. I'm still getting raw deals, I'm sure.

2057. Especially, I did not start off drawing the most

2058. professional, upright citizens of the world.

2059. If you put on exciting fights and you win,

2060. they take good care of you.

2061. 2012, I retired with the UFC.

2062. I got sick of getting bullied by Dana.

2063. My mind wasn't there anymore.

2064. I didn't like to train.

2065. I didn't like to fight.

2066. I didn't like to be around any of it.

2067. I was empty. I was a shell of a person.

2068. Dana White.

2069. Dana White is the current president of the UFC.

2070. Brash and opinionated,

2071. his running feuds with fighters past and present

2072. have made him a lightning rod for controversy.

2073. Contrary to popular belief,

2074. I really respect everybody in this industry,

2075. everybody in this industry, other promoters...

2076. I give the owners a lot of respect.

2077. Dana White, he's just a face.

2078. He's gained a lot of experience along the way.

2079. That I gotta give him.

2080. He semi-knows what he's talking about now.

2081. He's one of those guys that if you piss him off,

2082. then he's just turn his back on you

2083. until you tap out to him.

2084. My free agency period was very political

2085. in nature.

2086. And obviously with one Dana White,

2087. he's told so many lies about me,

2088. and because he has the largest mouthpiece,

2089. a lot of people believe what he's saying

2090. even though it is very far from what the truth is.

2091. A lot of people don't like him.

2092. They think that he's mean and stuff.

2093. He is absolutely passionate

2094. about the UFC.

2095. He's a great businessman for UFC.

2096. He's awesome.

2097. He's great for the sport,

2098. making everybody know who it is.

2099. He turned himself into a celebrity out of it.

2100. The UFC was sold for $4 billion, right?

2101. So since there's so much money to it,

2102. that's a fantastic thing

2103. 'cause people like myself can earn a living

2104. from the sport of mixed martial arts

2105. where, say, you couldn't in wrestling.

2106. But at the same time, there's a very negative side

2107. 'cause people are greedy, sneaky,

2108. and every other negative term you wanna throw out there.

2109. They've come to a point where now,

2110. now meaning within the last year, two years maybe,

2111. that they're,

2112. they're respectfully taking care of the fighters

2113. adequately.

2114. People get excited like,

2115. "Oh, I'm gonna make $20,000 in this fight."

2116. Well, $20,000 is a fart in a windstorm.

2117. And I'm not saying that

2118. to be like, "Oh, I am better than everyone.

2119. "I have way more money than everyone."

2120. No, just, you know,

2121. in this world, $20,000, are you kidding me?

2122. There's very few people that actually

2123. have something when it's all said and done.

2124. I look at so many athletes today,

2125. especially on the men's side.

2126. They have nothing.

2127. They have spent their life in this career, and

2128. they haven't saved money,

2129. they haven't done things, and

2130. they are out there with nothing.

2131. So many guys continue to fight

2132. because they have to make that paycheck

2133. because they already spent all the money

2134. that they already had.

2135. Me, I can literally say that I've put away

2136. 90% of the money that I've made in the last four years.

2137. Some athletes are fine,

2138. and they've saved their money.

2139. Some spent the money

2140. as if it was always gonna be replenished

2141. It's tough to see these guys go through it,

2142. but it's just part of life.

2143. It's a rough sport. It's the hurt business.

2144. They don't call it the hurt business for

2145. no reason.

2146. You gotta weather a lot of storms

2147. inside the cage, outside the cage.

2148. I don't care if you're paid a million dollars to fight

2149. or 10,000 to fight.

2150. It's the hardest thing to do.

2151. It's the loneliest sport in the world.

2152. Once you've left your team and walked in that cage,

2153. and that door closes,

2154. it's only you, brother. That's it.

2155. And they deserve every bit they can.

2156. I want all of 'em to be millionaires.

2157. Have you studied

2158. Daniel Cormier's previous fights?

2159. Yes, I've watched his whole career

2160. maybe six, seven times now.

2161. Just from start to finish.

2162. I've had some opponents where I've watched them

2163. 50 times.

2164. And so when I get into the Octagon,

2165. I kinda feel like I already know him.

2166. Freshman year, I got invited

2167. to my first pay-per-view fight.

2168. Chuck Liddell versus Randy Couture.

2169. All these people were just so obsessed

2170. with what was going on on the screen.

2171. People were looking at this Chuck Liddell guy

2172. as if he was a god.

2173. The most memorable fight was my UFC debut.

2174. I watched the UFC as a fan for so many years,

2175. and to finally hear Bruce Buffer's famous voice say,

2176. "And the winner is Jonny 'Bones' Jones!"

2177. And to lift my hand up

2178. and the people cheer.

2179. I'm like, "Oh, my God, I'm on TV right now.

2180. "I just won a fight in the UFC."

2181. Like, "It's so obtainable.

2182. "If I made it here, why not be the best?"

2183. I've been fighting some of the most

2184. dangerous men on the planet.

2185. Daniel Cormier is an amazing athlete,

2186. but I've been really fortunate to make

2187. a lot of great fighters not look so great.

2188. I'm a winner, he's a winner,

2189. and one of us is gonna have to give in.

2190. But I don't think it's gonna be me.

2191. Closing in on full recovery,

2192. Rashad suffers a devastating setback,

2193. as his reconstructed knee gives out.

2194. A second surgery is now imminent.

2195. I had an offer to fight.

2196. I felt a little pop,

2197. and I was like, "Damn,

2198. "did my knee just go out?"

2199. I'm just like, "No."

2200. And sure enough,

2201. the ACL snapped.

2202. Man, I cried.

2203. I cried; I was frustrated.

2204. I'd never been injured before.

2205. And I never thought this'd happen to me,

2206. 'cause it just seemed like

2207. not too long ago

2208. that I was

2209. just starting this sport.

2210. Like I was the new kid on the block.

2211. And now, I'm the old guy on the block.

2212. Have you had anything to eat or drink...

2213. It's really just put me mentally in a bad place, like

2214. "Is this it? Is this how an athlete dies?"

2215. I don't know when I'm gonna fight.

2216. I don't know

2217. if the UFC's gonna stand behind me

2218. and give me another great fight or

2219. have a chance to headline a great card again.

2220. This is definitely a sport of

2221. "What have you done lately?"

2222. I'm missing too much action.

2223. People forget.

2224. Should I go in?

2225. I don't wanna go out like this.

2226. So ACL's torn completely?

2227. Injured on the sideline.

2228. Forever wondering what it would've been like if

2229. I could've been able to get healthy

2230. just one more time.

2231. Once only open to the biggest boxing events,

2232. the MGM Grand in Las Vegas

2233. is now a major attraction for MMA.

2234. McMann countered with a nice right hand there,

2235. caught her.

2236. Sara finally faces Miesha Tate

2237. with millions watching her skill in action.

2238. Better watch out.

2239. As Joe talked about, that big right hand

2240. for the Olympian.

2241. Oh, she hurt her there, Mike.

2242. She's pushing forward.

2243. Miesha's in trouble early.

2244. Big, powerful punches by Sara McMann.

2245. After dominating the first round of the fight,

2246. Sara begins to lose on the ground,

2247. as Miesha catches her in a guillotine choke,

2248. a move the calculating Sara did not expect.

2249. Those are hard elbows to the face

2250. with the point of the elbow.

2251. She has got to get up.

2252. The fight ends and they go to the scorecards.

2253. Majority decision,

2254. Miesha 'Cupcake' Tate!

2255. After months of training and trash-talking,

2256. it's finally on.

2257. Nice knee to the body by Jon.

2258. Kick to the body.

2259. Caught.

2260. Good uppercut by Cormier.

2261. The fight seems even at first.

2262. - Both men... - Elbow in tight.

2263. Motivated by the other's verbiage.

2264. Cormier appears to be strong and aggressive.

2265. Stop.

2266. Oh, the first eye poke.

2267. Stop.

2268. That's what a lot of people are worried about.

2269. But as the fight progresses,

2270. Jon puts his skills on full display.

2271. He's looking to take him down again.

2272. And he does.

2273. Wow.

2274. Momentum

2275. is rapidly rising in the corner of Jones.

2276. It's looked at as a moral victory for Cormier...

2277. There it is!

2278. But Jon Jones springs right back up to his feet.

2279. As one of the few fighters

2280. to take Jon the distance.

2281. Whew!

2282. Perhaps maybe all the bad blood

2283. has not boiled over.

2284. The winner by unanimous decision...

2285. Jon has another title defense

2286. to add to his flawless record.

2287. Three o'clock in the morning,

2288. things get a little bit outta control.

2289. Right now, I would describe my current position in the UFC

2290. a pretty darn good one.

2291. A pretty good one.

2292. Amongst the masses, I'm considered the number-one

2293. pound-for-pound fighter in the world right now.

2294. Working at something so hard

2295. to becoming the best in the world at it,

2296. it's a phenomenal feeling.

2297. Derek, why you punching like this?

2298. Look at his eyes, too.

2299. - Come on, dude. - Wow.

2300. Feliz said he couldn't go 25 seconds.

2301. Ooh!

2302. Why you gotta put me on blast like that?

2303. 'Cause I can!

2304. It's a tough loss.

2305. A defeat that will lower her ranking

2306. and potential salary for the next bout.

2307. UFC may even terminate her contract.

2308. This is the reality of the fight game.

2309. When you realized that you lost,

2310. what was going through your mind?

2311. I wasn't upset

2312. hearing the decision.

2313. I was upset during the third round that I didn't

2314. get back to a good position,

2315. and that's on me, so I'm not gonna

2316. be upset at judges for something that's

2317. my job to take care of.

2318. I'm always looking at my own fighting,

2319. and win or lose, even if it's a dominant fight,

2320. I'll go out there and find something

2321. that I need to get better at.

2322. My daughter's kindergarten class.

2323. Aw.

2324. Bunch of little hand prints.

2325. "Win, Mom!"

2326. Win.

2327. "Don't give up, Sara."

2328. Aw, that's really sweet.

2329. Yeah.

2330. Good.

2331. You ready to go.

2332. - Mm-hmm. - You strong?

2333. I'm ready to train.

2334. Wow.

2335. What are the chances

2336. that Rashad might injure his knee again?

2337. There's always a possibility of that.

2338. There's no ACL that you put in

2339. that can never be re-torn.

2340. Otherwise, we could just do 'em once

2341. and you'd never hear about it again.

2342. So, going back to the sport gradually, following protocol,

2343. that's the best thing,

2344. but Rashad, he's like "Ready to go.

2345. "I wanna go. "I wanna fight."

2346. It's the attitude of the athlete.

2347. But it's definitely against medical advice.

2348. You always end up with Brett Favre, for example.

2349. He had such a great career and then

2350. he just kinda played a little bit too long

2351. and then people remember those last

2352. couple seasons that he had.

2353. He was injured, or he had some bad performances.

2354. I would hate for my legacy to be tarnished because

2355. I'm 37 years old, and I'm slow,

2356. and I shouldn't be fighting,

2357. and I'm doing it just to collect a paycheck.

2358. Do you remember the moment

2359. when you decided to retire from the sport?

2360. Actually I had

2361. a dinner meeting with Dana White.

2362. He was worried, actually, I was coming to tell him

2363. that I wanna ask for another fight.

2364. And I was actually coming to tell him I wanna retire.

2365. First of all I wanna thank my fans.

2366. It was a tough decision for me.

2367. The career of a professional

2368. MMA fighter is short,

2369. an average of nine years.

2370. Many are forced to retire due to injuries,

2371. while countless others are dropped by the league

2372. after suffering multiple losses.

2373. I love this sport.

2374. I was always training for something.

2375. And then now, that's done.

2376. And it's kinda weird.

2377. There's people that need to stop.

2378. Find another way.

2379. Maybe you can create something new.

2380. But they don't have the right people around them

2381. to tell them just that.

2382. The fans, they're always gonna want you to fight again.

2383. They're never gonna be happy when you retire.

2384. That's a decision that myself and Brie and my team

2385. are gonna sit down and say,

2386. "Hey, maybe it's time to hang 'em up,"

2387. because of health issues,

2388. or maybe I just don't wanna continue to

2389. juggle family life and fighting life, you know?

2390. People talk about "Oh, this guy should retire.

2391. "This guy should retire. He's done.

2392. "He took two losses," or whatever.

2393. But the thing is, at the end of the day,

2394. one, they're fighting 'cause they enjoy it,

2395. and two, it's work.

2396. They're getting paid, so

2397. for you to tell a guy to walk away from

2398. making money is basically,

2399. what are you telling him to go do?

2400. What up, Zach?

2401. I'm doing good, buddy.

2402. Hanging out here with the Danes.

2403. Well,

2404. I know I told you I'd get back to you.

2405. Got some not-so-good news.

2406. Decided not to pick you up on the next Bellator fight.

2407. It's really quite bad for you,

2408. but just with your injuries and everything.

2409. I know that's not what you wanted to hear,

2410. but your safety's first, and we got another guy to...

2411. 911, operator 3830.

2412. Where is your emergency?

2413. Yeah, there was a car accident right here

2414. on Juan Tabo and Southern Boulevard.

2415. Three-car accident.

2416. Anyone injured?

2417. I'm not sure.

2418. In April of 2015,

2419. Albuquerque police respond to a report

2420. of a suspect fleeing the scene of an accident

2421. involving a pregnant woman.

2422. Which way did he go? What direction?

2423. He's going onto a gated community.

2424. Okay, we'll get somebody out there.

2425. Yeah, there's cash in here.

2426. Yeah.

2427. True Honor?

2428. Dude, I wonder if this is that fighter's car?

2429. - Hm? - Jon Jones?

2430. They did?

2431. Pro MMA, bro. Right there.

2432. Where?

2433. Pro MMA. It's right here.

2434. Pro MMA.

2435. Yep, that's him.

2436. Well, he's.

2437. Yep, he is.

2438. Jones turned himself in

2439. and was later arrested.

2440. He almost killed both these people.

2441. Where's that pipe at?

2442. Following the aftermath,

2443. the UFC suspended Jon,

2444. stripping him of his light heavyweight title.

2445. This year had so much great MMA for the fans to consume.

2446. Right, guys?

2447. There really was.

2448. And honestly there's so much more to come.

2449. Where do you think MMA's headed

2450. in the next five to ten years?

2451. Right now, it seems to be exploding.

2452. Women's MMA is getting to a point where it's

2453. pretty independent of me,

2454. and they won't really need me much anymore.

2455. You're seeing guys switching organizations

2456. a lot more than you used to.

2457. There's no longer that clear distinction of

2458. what organization is better.

2459. Maybe one's bigger.

2460. Maybe one takes care of fighters better.

2461. It really matters what your personal goals are.

2462. Jon Jones said, "He's considering going to Bellator,

2463. "because he heard their president is a Coker."

2464. If you think about ten years ago,

2465. there was no MMA on TV

2466. outside of Spike TV.

2467. Because it was like, oh, taboo.

2468. Now it's on almost every network.

2469. We've seen a sport be created

2470. and go to mainstream.

2471. I can't name another sport

2472. that's ever done that in my lifetime.

2473. It's become just a normal thing.

2474. Not just in America but worldwide.

2475. I went to the Super Bowl this year,

2476. and it was like

2477. a whole different level.

2478. Even our biggest events in mixed martial arts

2479. aren't even a speck compared to the coverage

2480. that those bigger sporting events get,

2481. so we have that room for growth,

2482. but there's no secret this is the fastest-growing sport

2483. in the world.

2484. We're not quite at the level of the Big Four,

2485. which I considered to be NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL.

2486. But it's on Fox, it's on free TV,

2487. Bellator's on Spike,

2488. and if you go to any major UFC event,

2489. you'll see ESPN there.

2490. USA Today is there.

2491. All major outlets are there, as well.

2492. The UFC is sometimes obsessed with this idea

2493. of it becoming the number-one sport in the world,

2494. surpassing soccer.

2495. That's never gonna happen,

2496. and I think that's okay.

2497. Folks, one of the things

2498. that's not gonna go tumbling this year

2499. is worldwide expansion of MMA.

2500. From Sweden to Japan, Macao,

2501. this thing only grows further.

2502. Now, unfortunately, there's one guy

2503. you guys won't see here tonight...

2504. Oh, get off me.

2505. These guys give me great joy.

2506. I'm trying to get more positive things

2507. 'cause it can't just be fighting alone

2508. and kickboxing or wrestling or jiu-jitsu.

2509. I understand that now because

2510. my body, I'm losing it.

2511. I can't do it for the whole time,

2512. and I need to figure something out.

2513. Any time I look off into long distances,

2514. I sit there and I try and imagine, like,

2515. what normal people think.

2516. From my eyes, I think that everybody's better than me,

2517. and I'm trying to figure out how I could be like them.

2518. Oh, my gosh.

2519. 50 to 100 years ago in this country,

2520. life was probably more real.

2521. People were born at home,

2522. and people would die at home.

2523. So people would see the whole cycle of life

2524. from life to death.

2525. Very real.

2526. As we've progressed as a society,

2527. it kinda seems like we're becoming more sterile.

2528. There's not a whole lot of things

2529. that are more real than MMA.

2530. It has this kind of graphic, raw quality to it

2531. that maybe people are longing for?

2532. Life is a little too plastic, maybe.

2533. And MMA is very, very real.

2534. Simplify it.

2535. Simplify it, simplify it.

2536. A lot easier.

2537. Don't have a choice now, do we?

2538. Bella, do you wanna hand 'em some?

2539. Here's a long one.

2540. You can go hand it to one.

2541. Walk slowly.

2542. For those that put

2543. their bodies and minds on the line

2544. for the sake of pride, glory, and entertainment,

2545. whether they travel steadily along that journey

2546. or their bodies and minds fail them,

2547. they are always fighting,

2548. because for these men and women

2549. there is no defeat that keeps them on their backs,

2550. no referee to stop their fight.

2551. Make any other promises to you about this matter...

2552. No corner to show them the way.

2553. Yes, sir.

2554. According to this,

2555. you are to plead guilty of one allegation

2556. of leaving the scene of an accident...

2557. They must find the strength to carry on

2558. within themselves.

2559. That's a fourth-degree felony.

2560. A fourth-degree felony...

2561. And that is why we follow

2562. their stories so intently.

2563. Their magnificent victories and crushing defeats.

2564. So that just for a moment,

2565. we can put our own struggles on hold

2566. and witness the triumphs of another.

2567. Kimo-san.

2568. Banzai.

2569. Kamikaze!

2570. Osu!

2571. Didn't even look like you had to that time, dude.

2572. Coconut head.