Heated Conversations with Booker T
Episode 180: Conor/Khabib Fallout, HBK is Back, UFC Fighter Mike Johnson, “Ruthless” Ryan Davidson and more
Release Date: October 12th, 2018
Recap by: James Hayes
DIRECT LINK TO LISTEN/DOWNLOAD
Booker T and Co-Host Brad Gilmore invite you to the show!
Reality of Wrestling has a big show tonight. One of the headliners in the Fatal Four, “Ruthless” Ryan Davidson will stop by to discuss the match.
But first, let’s talk about Booker T’s physique. For weeks Booker has promised to post some pics of himself working out. He finally did it. Booker and Brad agree that you gotta be ready when opportunity knocks. When the chance comes Booker wants to be ready. He is putting the work in. In every way.
“I’m training every day. Well, at least 4 to 5 days a week. It’s therapy. Sometimes part of my workout is working outside on my lawn for maybe five hours, pulling trees, or in the back making sure I get all the leaves up. Just making sure the house looks good. My wife might leave and when she comes home it’s spotless. I’ve cleaned everything and cooked dinner. That’s part of the workout.”
It’s paying off.
Want to see it? Here it goes.
Booker looked so great Kevin Nash says Booker looked the same at 53 that he did at 35 and then asked to borrow some of his genetics.
Looks like Nash already has Booker’s genetics.
Brad wants to clear up that Booker is not training for a comeback. He’s doing it just to do it. Booker corrects him. “I do want one more match, but Reality of Wrestling is very important to me, and for them to know their boss, their trainer can still actually go. I talk a big game. It’s easy to talk a big game and not be able to go out there and deliver on it. I feel like I can deliver. Still. Can I do it every day? No. Do I want to do it every day? No. I’d rather be out flying my helicopter. Why not do it while you can. To be able to say I did it, that I left my footprint, is huge to me.”
Brad asks Booker what does he say to fans who are tired of seeing the legends return. The ones that are tired of them taking spots from the younger guys and girls.
“Those guys are not writing one check. It’s not their show. It’s not their business.” Booker says.
(Any industry that undervalues their audience’s opinion, no matter how unfavorable, could find itself by itself.)
Mike Jackson Interview
Booker: Mike Jackson in the house and I’m not talking about the one with Tito and Randy. I’m talking about the real boy. What’s going on, dawg?
Jackson: Nothing much. Thank you for having me back on. I always love being a part of the show. Everything is going well over here.
Booker: Everything going well, but what’s your status? Last time we talked it was up in the air. You still a part of the organization?
Jackson: I’m still under contract. I know Dana says a lot of things. I clarified it from the beginning, he’s gone talk, but he was in his feelings. I’m still under contract and they’re not gonna let me go after a win. Dana was emotional because I took his guy out. He had to save face a little bit. He had no intentions of cutting me or letting me go.
Booker: That is one thing that I really really like about the UFC, and that is there are so many guys at odds with the boss, but they still like Mark Hunt. All these guys are still working, they still got jobs. That’s really cool. That’s just part of the business side of it. Sometimes I don’t like it. That’s just my opinion. So much is going on in the UFC, that’s why we had to have you on. We just came off UFC 229. It was an awesome card, one of the best I’ve seen in some time, starting with Volkov and Derrick Lewis. Lewis was down on every scorecard but he pulled it out. What do you think of Derrick Lewis?
Jackson: It’s crazy to see someone I’ve been friends with for almost 10 years, and I watched him come up as an amateur fighter, there is always this talk about certain types of individuals that come around once in a lifetime, that’s what you get with Derrick Lewis. As a complete package, there are people who are skilled but not many that have it all together. He’s athletic for his size, a power puncher, and then outside the ring, he is charismatic and funny. Now he does cherry pick his ideas online. Following this fight, we heard what he said and that alone got him half a million followers minimum. I run his Facebook page and I see the numbers there. To find an MMA character that stands out in MMA is hard but he found his niche. And now he has a title shot in the next month.
Booker: Let’s talk as about that. Do you think that there is any way possible to be ready for a title shot in less than a month? Last week, I said if Lewis gets pass Volkov he should be the next person in line for a title shot. I did not think it would happen…
Brad: We thought Brock.
Booker: Is it fair to give Lewis the title shot this way?
Jackson: I think he deserves it more than Brock. With Lesnar, we all know what that is, and he’s an anomaly himself, he is more of an entertainer first than a fighter or a wrestler, and he’s the type of person who can transition from both. He can come whenever he wants to at the top level. Is he really title contender ready? No. We know why he’s getting the title shot, but still, with all that he brings to the table, it puts him in the conversation.
Booker: Definitely.
Jackson: We understand why, as appose to, say if you bring out Bobby Lashley. That wouldn’t make sense. With Lewis, it does make sense because we see what he’s done in his past. I think he is like 9 and 21 in his last 10 fights.
Brad: He’s been great.
Jackson: He’s been knocking people out.
Booker: He’s been expected to lose in a lot of those fights. The thing is putting Lewis in a title fight less than one month from his last fight… with a guy like Lewis, he may only get one shot at this, to be him against DC, one of the best wrestlers we’ve seen in the sport in general… um… I just think it’s unfair. There’s no way he’s gonna be able to prepare. Just like he said at the end of that fight, ”I’m not looking for a title shot. I’m looking to go sit down and do some cardio.” I don’t know how he’s going to sit down and do cardio, but that’s what he said. It’s not fair but when opportunity knocks you have to take it. This is a chance for him to go ahead and pay that house off like he was talking about doing on the show.
Jackson: I don’t know if y’all seen the house but it’s pretty big. I understand what he’s trying to do.
They all laugh.
Jackson: Here is the thing about Derrick. He’s here to have fun and knock people out. I don’t think the title means that much to him, as much as it means to like a DC or Jon Jones. Derrick is here to fight. He loves the violence that it provides for him. The title is more about recognition and the pay increase that he is looking for. We are prizefighters. We are not fighting for free. Is he ready for this fight? Probably not. He’ll tell you that he’s not. But just like with Volkov, he can change at any given moment. It doesn’t matter who that man is. Look at Francis. He didn’t want to fight. We saw what he did just standing across from him, without throwing a punch. We know what caliber a fighter that DC is. He will force him to change how he fights. One punch can end his night and his title reign, in one punch. It’s a wrap.
Booker: I’m gonna be pulling for him. Go out and KO that boy. Let him feel the pain!
Brad: If Derrick wins I would love to see him against Brock.
Jackson: That’s the money fight! I said this a while back.
Booker: Let’s talk about it. I knew how this fight was gonna go. How did you see this fight?
Jackson: I saw the fight happening in two ways. I…
Booker: No, no, no. You can’t have two ways. You can only have one way in this scenario.
Jackson: My top pick would have been the Jose Aldo moment, where he would have starched him with one shot.
Brad: A lot of experts, Michael Bisping, Kenny Florian, thought that.
Jackson: That’s why I didn’t bet. The second was that Khabib would beat him up for five rounds. No finish. He got him out in the fourth.
Booker: I put myself in a corner. I said I’m gonna pull a Muhammad Ali. I went out and said it would go three, and half a round.
Jackson: What made you think that?
Jackson: I felt like after the 8th round in the boxing match, I felt 3 rounds in the octagon, is like 8 in a boxing match. He’s not gonna have energy after the 3rd round,
Jackson: I felt like Floyd carried him.
Booker: I feel that way too.
Jackson: Floyd could have gotten him out in round 2 or 3. If he wanted to. That (your theory) makes sense. I was surprised that Khabib was working the body.
Booker: More stunning than anything. People say Conor won the third.
Brad: He did.
Booker: People don’t realize Khabib stood straight up in front of Conor for that whole round. He didn’t run. He stood in one spot at one point.
Jackson: He did.
Booker: And people don’t talk about how good Khabib’s footwork was. He didn’t get hit throughout the whole fight really.
Jackson: Did you expect that?
Booker: I expected the fight to go exactly…
Brad: I don’t think you expected that 3rd round.
Booker: That was a round off for Khabib. Fighters fight strategically. A fighter might throw ten slight punches and you think he can’t hit worth a crap, and then he hits you with a big shot. Fourth round the pressure went back up to ten. Conor did not appreciate that. You notice it when he is on his back. He was a man depleted. On his back. I told Brad that we’ve seen Conor quit before. We’ve seen Conor quit. He didn’t even try to fight the tap.
Brad: We’ll talk about that in a second. Mike, what did you think Conor did well in this fight?
Booker: Nothing.
Brad: I did not ask you. I asked Mike “The Truth” Jackson. I’m asking him the truth.
Jackson” Early on he did well keeping the distance. But I feel like Khabib allowed Conor to get away with the things he got away with. His head movement was good too. He wasn’t taking a lot of punches flush. It came down to Conor hitting him with that left hand. It didn’t happen. He may have hurt Khabib once.
Booker: I’ve watched the fight several times. I didn’t see it.
Brad: He was never rocked.
Booker: He was never shaken. The first round he just wanted to show he could take him down.
Brad: Conor had some good takedown defense. He blocked him 5 times.
Booker: That was nothing.
Brad: Khabib was the superior fighter but I feel… Let’s not just throw Conor under the bus because he lost.
Booker: He’s a bum!
Brad: You did this with the Nate Diaz fight. You threw him under the bus.
Booker: My point is do you think that Nate Diaz could last 3 rounds with Khabib? No. There’s no way!
Brad: Let me ask Mike a question. We only got him for another minute. What did you think of the brawl?
Jackson: McGregor is a thug. He was literally trappin (drug dealing) before he got signed to UFC. So, all the trash talk is his mentality. He’s about that life. What he didn’t understand is that Khabib is also about that life. But he is far more. He has Putin behind him. A military. Conor has a street thug mentality. Khabib has that political assassination mentality. So, when you have this dude talking all crazy, to Khabib it wasn’t just about the fight. That’s why Khabib was so chill the entire time. He was waiting. In that moment you make this dude tap out, but your adrenaline is still going, and then you remember the other dude that was talking spicy too, so you wanna,… Khabib is about that life. He made a post today, “Y’all can keep the money. I don’t care. You talking about firing my man for snapping on Conor…” He’s ready to ride for his man. He’s ready to lose the title. That tells you the difference. Was I surprised it happen? I would have been more surprised if it didn’t happen. At the weigh-in, a McGregor fan hit the girl of a Khabib fan. They went at it.
Booker: This guy is Muslim. When you talk about that… You really don’t want to go to that place.
Brad: We all know that kind of behavior after a fight isn’t acceptable.
Jackson: That’s what Conor wants. For Conor, this is part of the fight game. He’s talking about the dudes family. And you have to take that? Khabib takes all of this personal.
Booker: Do you think Conor wants a rematch.
Jackson: I do. After what we saw he’s not gonna win the second fight.
Brad: We had somebody on the show a couple weeks ago. He had a lot to say about Mike Jackson. That was Daniel Bryan. Did you hear Daniel on the show?
Jackson: He was speaking hypothetically and hypothetically I would smash Daniel Bryan.
Laughter.
Booker: Let everyone know where they can find you.
Jackson: All the social media sites.
#Wrestling practice at #FortisMMA was legit!… If a Coach @sayif_saud post training talk doesn’t get you hype and ready to fight, this life isn’t for you. #MMA
— Mike Jackson, Esq. (@TheTruthJackson) January 12, 2018
https://www.instagram.com/thetruthjackson/?hl=en
For an interview with “Ruthless” Ryan Davidson, who discusses going to Japan as well as working for/with Booker, click the link at the top.
(Ryan Davidson is great and you gotta hear Booker stir the pot against Rex Andrews. It’s shaaaaameful!)
Shawn Michaels IS Officially Out of Retirement
Booker says, “Sometimes you come out retirement then go right back into retirement, like Floyd Mayweather. Terry Funk done retired 50 times!”
Booker feels if there is money on the table you pick it up. And he feels HBK is truly one of the best ever.
“The one guy I never got to wrestle one on one. Just to see how good I really was. I always felt the one guy to test myself with was Shawn Michaels.” Brad chirps in, “He was the measuring stick.” Booker agrees and even thinks that The Rockers vs Harlem Heat could have been a classic.
Booker says it plainly, “Shawn is gonna stick around as long as he wants to. He’s part of the fabric in WWE. He truly is.”
Both guys are looking forward to DX vs The Brothers of Destruction.
Before the Final Bell:
Conor and Khabib got suspended 10 days. For now. It’s pending. It could become more come October 24th. Booker thinks it’s fair. Brad is not convinced.
“If you were on the athletic committee and two fighters broke the rules after the fight., started a brawl, one was fighting people in the crowd, you don’t think you would hand down a suspension? Especially when The Governor was in the building?”
Booker says, “I understand truly in what Khabib said, if Conor was not suspended, after throwing the dolly at the bus, no one should be suspended.”
Brad retorts, “I don’t like that Conor did that. I don’t respect him for doing that. But he did face punishment. It should be 6 months for both of them.“
Booker, “Khabib will not sit quietly in the back and take it. Bellator will pick him up and pay him to do nothing. Khabib is the UFC champion and he has leverage.”
Brad counters, “This is the product of Dana White’s doing. This is the product of when you let the inmates run the asylum. Conor throws bottles, talks trash after a fight, and then throws a dolly at a bus. When you set that example, you set yourself up for the behavior you got from Khabib Nurmagomedov, where he jumps the octagon to fight guys in the crowd.”
Booker says, “It’s not like he was fighting a fan. That’s fair game as far as I’m concerned.”
(Booker said what? I think he’s wrong about that, but he might be right about Bellator and Khabib.)
Interesting article below.
Scott Coker pumps brakes on 50 Cent's pursuit of Khabib Nurmagomedov for Bellator
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
Overall Observations
Fine show. It went a little long especially the interview segment. However, if you are an MMA fan, it’s worth checking out. Brad, in particular, made some great points regarding the UFC brawl.
He actually won this debate against Booker.
See ya next week
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