Video URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEgoztUtDqQ
[Music] Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. People get crazy, you know. People get crazy. Look, look, Rhonda's people got crazy, too. Everybody gets crazy. People get crazy. Like, why did Rhonda charge after Why did she try to stand with with Holly like that and charge after her? That's not the right attempt, right? You know what she did to Paige? What? So, Paige was also at that VIP party and Paige and I have spoken were friendly. Don't know her that well, but anyway, she felt the need. She came up to And she's like, "Mesha, Misha." She's like, "I have to tell you this experience I had with Rhonda." I'm like, "Oh, what?" And she's like, "Well, we were at a Reebok deal just, you know, recently and um she she's like, "We were at a shoot." And she's like, "I was trying to find her so we could get a picture." And the Rebok People were like, "Don't ask Rhonda for a picture." And she's like, "Why?" She's they're like, "Just don't do just stay away from Rhonda. Don't ask her for a picture." She's like, "Okay." And I guess Rhonda came later that day and like see her out and just like cussed her out and like they've never really had a conversation either. She's like I don't know Rhonda like you know other than hi bye that's it. Like I guess she came up Rhonda came up was like [ __ ] you you fair weather [ __ ] How dare you cross me blah blah blah. She's like cross you? What are you talking about? And she's like you congratulated Holly home for beating me so [ __ ] you. You [ __ ] fair weather 115 pound. like was just like went off on Paige and Paige came and told me and I was like, "Honey, welcome to my world." She's like, "Oh my god." She's like, "I'm glad that I saw this side of her so I know, you know." I'm like, "Well," and she's like, you know, cuz I didn't understand. She's like, "I told Rhonda like I'm sorry if that offended you, but you know, I'm allowed to congratulate whoever I want." And um she's like, because you know, I congratulated Rose Namayunes when she beat me. I was like, you know, congratulations. You whoop my ass. That was a badass performance. And she's like, you know, I just simply told Holly congratulations once and like wasn't
anything, you know, anti-Rh. But Rhonda gets just ripped her a new one. Wow. Like you have to be on team Rhonda for life. Yeah, I guess. I've never been on team Rhonda, so I'm good. All or none, but we have to assume she's evolved, but that's the best I think I've seen her look, so I have to assume like she's going to be better than that even. Do you have goals as far as like what you want to do with the title? Who how long do you want to hold it? Do you have any thoughts in mind of like must beat opponents like is getting Ronda back in the octagon? Yeah, that's important. I need that. Like that has to happen. That's very important to me. And I have Amanda ahead of me. I do not want to look past her because I think that would be a huge mistake. It's not one that I want to make as a veteran in my career. That would be a rookie move. Um, but you know, in the back of my mind, of course, like the fight with Ronda is something I want to happen and you don't know when it will happen. It could be anticipated for November. I've heard that be tossed around in the UFC that, you know, she's planning on coming back and maybe it might be Madison Square Garden. That would be great. I want to focus on that. I want to focus on Amanda, but I know in the back of my mind and I want I want that fight. Like, I want that to happen. I think it's so important to me in my career to go and beat Rhonda and prove everyone else like I've been an underdog in most of my fights. I've been the person that people have always counted out in my entire career, my entire life. Most people are telling me you can't, you couldn't, you shouldn't, you wouldn't. And I'm, you know, that's I'm fine with that. I'm perfectly fine with that. I am at the best point in my career and Rhonda is at the worst. You know, she's going through what I've already been through, you know, time and time again. And I have built myself back up from that point time and time again. I know that I can do that. I'm confident in that. Here I am standing the strongest that I've ever stood. And I've already been through that. I've already been headkicked and knocked out. That happened to me before. Like I picked myself up, pulled myself up by my
bootstraps, put one foot back in front of the other and worked. Got my Strikeforce World title. I lost Teronda. Picked myself back up. Put one foot in front of the other. Got back on the horse. Fought fought. Fought. Fought Rody Galloc. Was devastated. crushed, thought my world was just falling down around me, coming to an end. Got back up, you put one foot in front of the other, got back on the horse, and now here I am, the world champion. You know, I know that I'm tough. I know that I have what it takes to beat Rhonda. Many people don't believe that. That's okay. I've been in this position before. Many Most people didn't think I was going to beat Holly. Most people didn't think Holly was going to beat Rhonda. It doesn't matter to me what other people think. It matters what I believe and what I know. And um the question mark is is what how is Rhonda going to come back from this? I know what I've been hearing from Rhonda in the media and the press. Um she's been a little quiet lately, but before that it wasn't what I would have expected to hear from someone who really wants to come back and who's really really a fighter at the core. She's a great athlete. She's a great fighter. She's accomplished a lot of things. Credit where credit's due. You know, I give her a round of applause for everything she's been able to accomplish. But I'll tell you what, every time I've ever lost in my career, I went bananas to get back in there. Ballistic. I was like, I have to like right now. Just like Holly was like, they're like, when do you want to fight again? She's like, tomorrow against Misha now. That's what you want to hear when someone has a devastating loss. They want to get back in there right now and face that person right now. Or or someone else. Just get that loss off the record. Erase it. When I lost to Cat Zenano, I freaked out. I freaked out. I called Sean Shelby and I was like, "Get me another fight right now." He's like, "Your nose isn't even healed." I don't give a [ __ ] I want to I want a fight. I want it now. I want to know it's when it's coming up like right now or I'm going to freak out. I don't know what to tell you, but I'm going to lose my [ __ ] if I don't have like a fight on the
horizon. I'm lose it. And then I hear Rhonda like, "I'm going to take a year off and I'm going to, you know, I'm going to do this. I'm going to I'm like, that just doesn't sound like someone who really wants this anymore." And I think that fight might have broke her. I could be wrong, but I think something inside of her is different than it was before. Um, maybe she's not broken, but it's different. How much do you think a factor is? How much of a factor do you think success is in the per in terms of she's doing movies. She's she was the the darling of all these late night television shows and everybody wanted to hang out with her. She's doing the these commercials with, you know, Seth Rogan on television. Like how much of a factor is that? Well, she has security now. She has job security outside the UFC. So, she doesn't really need that anymore. And I think maybe that's also something on her mind is like, does she really want this? Because winning is awesome. It's great. It's easy. It's like when you win, everybody loves you. Everybody supports you. Everybody's there. Everybody's on your train. When you lose, it [ __ ] sucks. It sucks. And only the people that really love you are still really, really there for you. everyone else is just like whatever loser. And then you have the social media, you know, white knights that come out and want to tell you what a, you know, piece of [ __ ] you are and how you're never going to accomplish anything and you'll never win another fight and you might as well just quit and retire, blah blah blah. So, you're those people and you have to make a choice, you know, and and my choice has always been to do to to to keep fighting, you know, to and and I just don't I don't recognize there's a lot of things I recognize in Rhonda that I can I can recognize her greatness. I can recognize, you know, her championship. I can recognize things. I don't identify with that. I don't identify with sitting on that loss for a year. I cannot understand it. If it was me, it would have eaten me alive inside and out 10. I couldn't have done it. I couldn't be making a movie. I couldn't be doing that. I would It would have just But does she I don't think she has a
choice. I think if you have movie contracts, I think you have to fulfill them. Do you Does I don't know. Does Connor have to show up for But it's different. But showing up for press conferences is one thing. Yeah. But I don't think I think she could have she could have fought because they they said they had anticipated for her to come back at UFC 200. They wanted that and they and and Dana said she could have, but should she? She could have, but should she? Well, I think the could have and should she was because she had to do a movie for three months. So like doing the movie for three months would have taken three months outside of her camp. And you've done a movie before. You know what it's like. You're on the set all day. It's 16-our days. is it's long and grueling. You don't have time to train. Yeah. And after a loss like that, I think you really have to have enough time to actually focus. And then on top of that to getting getting flatlined like that, like you have to have some time to recover to recover your head. Yeah, absolutely. I just don't know if a year that would I'm just saying that would crush me. I wouldn't be able to do what she's doing right now, right? I wouldn't physically be able to like to deal with that for a year. And and if I had to, I think it would eat me alive. Like I think I'd be so depressed and so I'm pretty sure it's eaten her alive, too. Yeah. But but how do you sit on it for a year then? How do you do that? Do what you got to do. I can't I couldn't Well, you know, it's all speculation. We only we don't know until she comes back. And then but the other thing too is like, you know, she's like, you know, she had her, you know, her downs her her really really low, which I empathize with. I've been there. Um, you know, but then she said, you know, I was thinking about, you know, these all these negative thoughts and and um then I looked up on she said this on the Ellen show. I looked up and I saw Travis Brown and I realized, you know, I've got to stick around to have his babies and I
thought like what would have went through my mind is like I got to get back and get my title back. I got to get back and like win a fight. Like it it just seemed like her mindset was different than what I would expect a fighter's mindset to be. Does that make sense at all? Like what I'm trying what I'm saying is like it didn't seem like her motivation was to to fight and win again. It was there was other things. Now I'm not saying she's not going to come back and be great or come back and and fight. Not questioning that. I'm questioning where her true motivation is coming from because I think while she was winning it was so awesome. Like she's like well yeah I want to keep doing this. Of course I want to keep I keep I'm crushing girls. I'm demolishing. I'm I'm the star. All these great things are coming. Now she already has that. She's already making movies. She already has millions of millions of dollars. Is her true motivation. Was it just, you know, keeping that undefeated streak? Because she talked about that so much. You know, I will retire undefeated. And then she she even said like, I don't, you know, I'm questioning what am I doing now? Like, you know, now I'm not going to ever retire undefeated. So, what is my, you know, maybe I'm meant for this? Maybe I'm She doesn't really know. That was her identity was like to be undefeated in this sport. So, if if that's not the goal anymore, I just don't know. Like, I feel like I sense something off. I sense something is not right in her mindset. And I think she's going to come back and I think she's going to fight. I think she'll fight hard, but I just don't know if she still has it after a brutal loss like that. You know, is she still hungry enough? Those are fighting words, Tate. Is she hungry enough? That's the question. But it's what you're doing right now is you're you're throwing up the bat signal, right? Yeah. Well, that's how I feel. You're laying it down, man. I get a lot of [ __ ] because people are like, "Oh, you know, that's not what I don't I don't apologize for anything that I say unless I really say it's something that was that I didn't mean to say that was hurtful to someone and I'm like, I [ __ ] up." But honestly, if
it's my opinion, it's my opinion. If you don't like it, I'm not I'm not going to apologize for my opinion. I'm gonna apologize for anything that I, you know, that I have to say about the way I feel about Rhonda, the way I feel about any any of these situations, you know? So, I'm just I'm I'm going to be as transparent as well. I don't I don't think you're saying anything disrespectful either. And I don't think you're saying anything you should I think as a champion and that's what you are. You you're analyzing someone's mindset and you're totally entitled to that. Yeah. And I have a lot of respect for Rhonda as an athlete, you know, a lot. Do you guys think you'll ever be friends after all said and done? No. Never. I don't think so. No. I think she thinks that I've done so many things and like I don't think she would ever I think she blames me for things that I didn't even do. So, I mean, how do you even get around that, right? You know, like I heard when you guys did your interview, she said something like that I called a promotion and like tried to get Chris Beiel like um mess with him before like his fight or something that that that I guess he I guess he was contracted to another promotion and he wasn't supposed to be while he was on the Ultimate Fighter. And I guess that that Dana received a call and then they thought that I she thought that I like did that. I'm like first of first of all like I didn't even know he signed to another organization at all. And if he you know like if he was it didn't even wouldn't have even crossed my mind. Like I'm too like you said I'm too easygoing to even think of something like that. And I'm not malicious by any means. I have nothing against Chris Beiel but I think she thought that I tried to like mess with him. Like I called the promoter of whatever organization, little small contract. Don't even know how I would have known that, right? How would you even know that? How do you know? But this is the same girl that ripped Paige for for congratulating Holly. Like, she has her way of thinking
and she's going to hate me until the day she dies. And I'm okay with that. That's fine. We don't need to be friends. That's okay. You know, I'm perfectly fine with that. All right. Yeah. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]