Following UFC Vegas 87, tune in to the Post-Fight Press Conference to hear the athletes take questions from the media.
um thank you so much so happy to be here have another opportunity to be here at the Apex the heart of the UFC to show how prepared we are to see and to face everyone in this division what did you think of your performance [Music] overall I think we’re able to show we’re complete here um uh very solid striking as you know also the the grappling piece which I thought improved a lot and also you know the stamina because we’re able to to to fight all three rounds could go five if you want what did you think of of Tyson as an opponent ped San and tyon Pedro is so experienced in the UFC it’s been you know fought a lot of fights uh in this organization has been in top 10 has faced so uh uh so prominent Fighters some of the best fighters in the world so he’s an honor for for me to have faced him tonight was there anything about the fight that surprised you did you anticipate having to go the three rounds uh no [Music] I know I I I knew this was going to be a tough fight um this is this is the UFC there’s there’s no easy challenges I knew that um this was going to be a tough a tough opponent um but I knew that we we also needed to study a little bit of what to do and I I knew that as soon as we were able to get comfortable and get things going I was able to take him down and actually impro my game you know he retired after the fight um citing that he had uh he wanted to be with his children wanted to be with his daughter um he talked a little bit about the sacrifices that Fighters have to make I’m curious if there’s sacrifices that you make everybody has them what are your [Music] sacrifices [Music] fore [Music] for I think um that’s exactly what what happen in not just an athlete but the fighter and the MMA fighter uh there’s so much time that is dedicated to actually do this so all the things that you that you that you have to give up to be here so this moment of leisure it’s family it’s it’s it’s it’s a it’s doing the things that you like it’s your diet everything else it has to change because you know what fighting becomes your first love so you dedicate it um you dedicate your your all to it and um you know that you have to continue to train you have to continue to improve at all times so you train it even more and you know time is cruel time passes by for everyone and and time is Relentless so um I think you just put it on the table how much time he dedicated to the sport and how much that he dedicated to the CRA how soon do you want to get back in there and do you have an opponent mind uh earlier the better um I know it has to do with the uh what the event wants um but I’m ready to go I ask for Anthony’s M somebody who’s got a journey in this place and and and has got a um a formidable he’s a formidable opponent somebody that be a great matchmaking um but the earlier the better I’ll ready to fight you know he’s here tonight working upstairs have you seen him yet would that be some a f like are you guys nice with each other or is there a little bit of animosity fore um yes I saw him when I was uh walking up in the anagon and I saw him there but actually it it’s pure coincidence because I already wanted to call him out so that just kind of refreshed my memory but just I want to say it out loud to everybody I have nothing against him it is just because I got exactly because I respect him so much because of this history in this organization cool cool I just wanted your thoughts on um Alex per versus Jamal Hill how do you see that fight going and and who are you picking to win [Music] for um a very interesting fight very good fight between a guy who’s who’s who’s been a champion and now you know the current champion Al Pereira I think I mean if you think about it um Alex for the lack of experience so a much more technical Striker but at the same time um Jamal has this uh more experience in MMA per se so I think it’s going to be a great fight and a great fight for the event but I can’t say good things about them too much because those are two people I want to beat up in the future okay fine uh is it safe to say we’ll see you at UFC 301 in Rio if it depends on me for sure congrats on the win solid performance especially as as the co-main event we saw it was very Tech tactical a lot of you know technique there and people might have said oh there was as much action but we saw that you guys didn’t want to expose yourself and get caught with something big was this part of the your evolution in your game to be able to be assertive but also think and not just go in there and give people what they [Music] want [Music] fore um fighting is about you know starting you have to you have to you have to see and and and get a feel for things we know that Tyson Pedro is a strong fighter especially in the first round so we do want to C get caught with anything so um I wanted to see he’s always kind of working to for for a Counterattack but as soon as my hands started connecting and um as soon as I I realized that I was dominating I was able to you kind of Let it Loose a little bit more and do more do more things and you know MMA is not about you just kind of throwing all your stuff out there and just just going for it all um is also understanding what you need to do at the right moment so that’s what we did excellent that was awesome just the evolution is so great to see um one thing I’ve never seen in my life and and I try to pay attention after decades you were able to get the sound bite from a buffer and put that in your walk out music how did you guys do that what was the idea behind that that’s so cool I’ve never seen such a [Music] thing [Music] [Music] foree I’m blessed to have friends um that have supported me and that motivate me in this journey and you know what they did this as a gift for me so they were able to capture all the stuff they they they edited and they made this song for me and all I mean the best what I could do is to honor them and to come out to the song to which I would love to continue to honor and come out to for many years to come in the UFC oh abely absolutely you have to come that’s your song now no no question thanks congratulations on the win good job sir thank thank you so much thank you guys see you soon you never know what question is going to and get one ofing I’ve never in my life never in my life such a how did someone else do this right and that sh would have been the followup but that was you post tyon Pedro anything on Twitter or Instagram like awell well congratulations how are you feeling thank you I feel great did the fight go the way that you had expected it to or were there some adjustments you had to make in there um yeah the fight go the way I expected to go except um I didn’t think I didn’t think it’s going to it will take that long like he had a big hat strong hat let me say that they had a strong hat and eventually we still got the job done but takes longer than we thought there was some confusion I think from the viewers about what was happening you know between or at the end of the fourth round did you know what was happening could you hear what was happening can you tell us what you saw and what you heard yeah I noticed that cuz the third round I I already saw that I kind of broke him so he was kind of giving up he was late reacting too late of the jab so I was was in there you know um stick to the game plan uh I was setting traps he he he didn’t really go for it but I noticed that what did you think of him overall as an opponent I definitely think he’s a great opponent strong guy um as as we all are you know um after a defeat you’re going to see a lot of things you could have do different you can work on a lot of things so I definitely think he should go home work on this game and come back stronger and and and yeah hopefully it will get good for him you know we’re all fighters one somebody has to win so what did you think about fighting at this time of day and it was a little different um the fight’s being over it’s not even dark outside yet did you like that or did it affect you at all in any way it didn’t affect me it’s like it’s the same Mission um it’s only a different time you got to uh uh set your your your time better like for an example my meal uh I woke up like 5:00 a.m. get my first meal uh go back to bed wake up at 8 get my second meal and my last meal was like around 10 so I know like that’s how I supposed to set my uh fix myself to get ready for the fight what are you eating before a fight just car uh I like uh pasta dry uh pasta with Tom um tomato sauce bolog s meat balls so a little bit dry on the dry side and then cuz that that burns fast so about five time I’m a little bit hungry so like now I’m really hungry where you going to go eat now I don’t know I see one of my coaches eating there so I’m gonna I’m gonna join him in a s so who do you want to fight next and when would you like to fight next when would I like to fight next will be close July August and who I want to fight you know what it is I never say a name because then when that person doesn’t got time to fight then you stuck out of the game so that’s why I never called someone out but there’s a couple of name that I didn’t face yet for an example taasa Derek SJ speac uh there someone someone else Tom Aspen I’ll name it they’re all there but I never call someone out because I don’t want to wait on their time so I want to be in shape come back who’s available let’s get in that’s more for me let’s pretend the UFC came to you and gave you those four let’s say those three names let’s take Tom out cuz I think that’ be obvious he’d want to fight for the title yeah who would you fight out of those three all all of them like any one of them y okay thank you no problem congrats on the win biggy boy thank you just and kind of to pigy back off of Amy’s idea and we’re brainstorming here in a couple of weeks you have that main event with taiu iasa you know to more you do you stay in shape do you stay kind of hovering around to say you know in case they needed somebody to step in there uh you know biggie boy ready if they give me a peak I definit definely stay ready like you know I like the sound of that so so I I’ll make sure I’ll be ready so if they need somebody else I’ll step in you’ve had the experience with being on Main Events you you can youve shown people you can go 15 20 minutes 25 with overing tonight we saw almost another 25 how proud are you just of your just the putting everything together regardless of the layoff your game planning your conditioning you know getting better with your wrestling in it show tonight no I’ll say I’ll never say I’m proud of myself yet but my coaches probably say it a million times now because I’ve been putting the work in my cardio you know go to the gym do what I have to do make the necessary adjustments but I’m always like I’m a fighter that I’m I’m I’m hard to myself so I always think like I should do a little bit more and and tonight was a great work but I definitely think I could do better give me one thing that you can do better in like what’s the one thing right right out the gate you saw you got in the back you talked to your family you’re like I missed that that’s I I should have got that one I’ll go to wrestling classes every day yeah I think wrestling more because wrestling is is for me Isn’t like um you be wrestling and then you got it or nobody got you taken down and then you got it no is you got to be do it consistently uh feel be in the bad position get back up and you never had the blood pressure it’s never the same so if you stop you’ll be at zero again so you got to keep doing it consistency so you can be at the level that you can get taken down get back up and you can able you be able to strike and then go so that that’s more for me fantastic we saw your jab tonight probably the best weapon I mean you were just you know sticking sticking sticking just kept that stick in his face do you think people will try to immediately say oh I’m gonna put him on the ground so that he can’t knock me out so you really have to maybe mix it up with the wrestling and the grappling and the Jiu-Jitsu to really really put everything together be a complete Fighter for the guys who don’t want to bang with you that’s correct I’ve been living that for the the the past five years you can say say I’m in UFC people try to take me down because they’re scared that I’m going to knock them out um but it’s part of the game so I’m developing my game you know today was a piece of the P today was a part of the puzzle pieces that I put together um now right now I’m going to take a couple of step back go back home recalibrate reconnect back with siram u my real power source and then I’ll come back uh soon as I mentioned July August I will like to be back in the Octagon that’s excellent and just you know shout out to that the the puzzles coming together and at the highest level too also being the main event so you’re getting that edge that other Fighters might not have to be on the poster the 25 minutes all the media you had a beautiful moment with with some family who was that it was so everybody was so proud of that Mom Auntie with the flag what happened there that’s a friend of mine it’s also the conso general of suram so we always fly out to see my fight and he support me from every kind in a way so today that was a part of that that is excellent well congrats on the big win lots to light out enjoy Vegas and Well Done sir thank you I appreciate that you talk about the work you’ve been doing for your wrestling defense you know definitely that jab was hurting him you could see where he wanted to try to go for some takedowns to get away from that but you shut him down every time could you tell his frustration and could you tell that he was kind of feeling a little bit lost because he wasn’t able to go to that taked down yeah uh I felt I felt like I broke him like after the third round he was start getting slow and caught him up guard every time with that jab so I know exactly what I what I needed to do to keep the fight going the way I wanted to go so he he tried to control me on the cage and then he was hanging there and it’s like he’s close to me so I feel the energy I he the heavy breathing and I wasn’t that tired so I was like okay let me see what’s happening put the cup on the knee hit him a few times with the back hands on like close to the cage I was hit him in his nose and I saw that he wasn’t really reacting so when I get off the cage start hitting him back with a jab and then yeah eventually the fight got got where got to did was the J was the gab the big sorry the jab a big part of the game plan did you know that the jab would be so effective tonight on him without jab no glory it’s always it’s always a part of the game plan with a jab you can do so many things you can set your distance you can you can knock someone out with a jab I did it in the pass you can yeah with a without jab no glory that’s that’s that’s the the real talk of fighting I mean I if you had to rate yourself I know right now you probably have the chance to look back at the fight but you know Fighters tend to be a little bit hard on themselves but what would you rate your performance and I know you said you wanted to get him out of there but when you look back on this performance where would you rate yourself you of an a is a passing gr you know a is the best B is a passing grade C is like hey I need I there’s some work to do what would you grade yourself to I was say c yeah I got much work to do you know so I will say a c and then I go or a B I think a b uh right my coach saying no that’s not true but you know I’m hard on myself so I always will rate it lower so I work harder and then the victory will be nicer that being said I know you wanted to get a quick finish but there were it seemed like there was some maturity and experience in there too because there were points where you heard him and it I think maybe the old jerse you know would have rushed in there a little bit but you kind of held back a little bit and made sure that it was effective you know was that is that part of you just maturing in the sport that you don’t rush in there too fast and he’s obviously very dangerous you don’t want to catch something but is that just part of the experience that you’re getting in there what I want to say you just mentioned the old Jersey in your right now is the new era I have more experience now um I ran I ran in the past I ran to a couple of walls so me and my coaches work on my game plan work on my style so we we not in a rush anymore so if it’s there we are able to finish it but we always been there have athletic system have the cardio so we can get the fight where we wanted to go take the pace as today so right now we’re focusing on that and be more be more flexible yeah what I was going to say maybe it’s part of that too but you could definitely tell you did the work on the cardio as well because you look like you had the cardio and the stamina all the way through has that been a big focus of the in the camp leading up to this as well yeah as well uh I always have a good stamina I have to say sometime people say I look tired but I don’t feel tired you know but um today was a part of that but more or less was more my food work get my half movement read the fight better so I understand MMA better I can say now so tonight was a good was a good was a good performance yeah overall how you going to celebrate uh go back home get some good food maybe a beer that’s it um just chill maybe two you get you can have two maybe too much I’ll be good my no I think one is fine congrats on your Victory thank you sir