Bills talk with Matt Parrino from Shout! and Eric Wood | Centered on Buffalo

Join Eric Wood on “Centered on Buffalo” with special guest Matt Parrino from the Shout! podcast. They’ll discuss the Buffalo Bills’ offseason moves, Josh Allen’s offensive support, insights from OTA’s, and the potential impact of Gable Stevenson. Plus, Eric’s epic golf marathon, training camp expectations, and a preview of the upcoming UFC event in Louisville. Don’t miss this action-packed episode!

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The official Youtube Channel for the Centered on Buffalo podcast, Hosted by Eric Wood. Smashing wings because we’re chasing rings in Buffalo Bills legend Eric Wood’s newest podcast Centered on Buffalo! This weekly podcast gives you a pro player’s perspective on postgame recaps, exclusive talks with your favorite NFL legends, and never before heard stories from the field!

hit us up on all social media at the Buffalo pod welcome back to the centered on Buffalo podcast today we have a special collaboration podcast with the shout podcast one of my favorite podcast to listen to weekly during the season during the offseason Ryan Talbert and Matt Pino do a great job today we have Matt on the show here with me Matt coversthe bills for syracuse.com he hosted the shout podcast as I mentioned he was formerly with the UFC covering that sport for four years one my favorite people to spend time with Matt welcome back on the podcast brother good to see you man and we got to chop it up last week I’m sure we’ll talk about some some chicken wings uh it’s it’s great to be on the podcast and talk about the bills I mean it’s said I’ve told fans for the last couple of weeks as they’ve been kind of pelting me with questions around town um on online this is like the most exciting bills off season that I’ve experienced probably since Josh Allen’s rookie season because you know the digs year when they got him was was pretty big but there’s so much unknown going into this year I feel like a kid in a candy store again it’s it’s a lot of fun it is and and that’s actually where I wanted to get to first because from the outside looking in and even as I was watching ESPN this morning eating some breakfast after a workout one of the topics is you know have the bills surrounded Josh Allen with enough Talent again all the departures is this a re rebuilding year and if you look at you know the Vegas Insider sites the you know spreads the the lines on what the bills over under on wins will be their Super Bowl chances the the betting folks don’t seem to think this is a rebuilding year I don’t either but what are your thoughts do you feel like with all the veterans they’ve moved on from within the organization and the people that they brought into uh this team especially on the offensive side of the football but overall do you feel like this is a rebuilding year for the bills not at all and there’s a lot of things that go into this um and it’s such an interesting conversation and I don’t think we’ll really have an answer until September but if you look on the defensive side of the ball that’s where most of uh the players that have been such a part of this thing have moved on the bills have moved off to those players michah hyen Jordan player travius white I mean that’s your entire secondary right from the outside looking in you’re really starting to question like all right who are these guys trying to get up on Christian Benford what rul Douglas meant to this team last year the question marks at safety uh Leonard Floyd had such an impact last year as a pass rusher how are they going to replace that those are all like real questions and and they they need to be answered but you look at the back to 2017 your last year with the team what has this team always found a way to do and that is build a defense guys that you didn’t have on your radar like last off season we spent most of the time talking about replacing taine Edmond and how was Terrell Bernard gonna fit into this defense was he even going to be the guy he goes out and turns into you know what looks like a burgeoning superstar at the position Shawn mcder knows the secondary he’s going to find I think they have already have quarterbacks I think um if Trey white was still on the roster he’d have a hard time beating out these two guys that played at such a high level in Benford and Douglas you have a young guy in Kyer Elum that I think think they’re still developing there’s questions at safety but you know they’ve gone out and brought in guys that they think are the next iteration of what they built with puyer and Hyde and you know they they took a couple stabs at it they drafted Cole Bishop they brought in Mike Edwards they brought back Taylor WAP who was already in their scheme so I’m not worried about defense I think most of the outside questions also come from the offense Stefon Diggs Mitch Moors two huge pieces that they have to replace but who was Stefon Diggs at the end of last season the last 12 games the last two seasons the last two seasons right I mean especially in the playoffs you go back and look at his play off um numbers and they are not worth what they were going to be paying him this year they had to reimagine things and so you look at what they invested in a first round weapon last year in dalon concade they got him a supporting cast member in Keon Coleman at least at the start we’ll see what that looks like as this thing goes along a veteran in Curtis Samuel are they like household names not at all but household names aren’t household names till they do something to become that so I think they’re really high on on on concade what he’s going to mean for this offense and oh by the way they still have Josh Allen they have Josh Allen James Cook had a pro bowl season last year and he was voted into the Pro Bowl this wasn’t like there was eight running backs that opted out of the Pro Bowl and he got in he had a great season last year he’s Dynamic out of the backfield as a receiver as well and so to me um we’ve seen this kind of go both ways in the NFL right now you have teams like Philadelphia and Miami who are willing to spend north of 20% of their salary cap on the wide receiver position and really just two guys for both teams take up over 20% of their salary cap and then you have teams similar to the Chiefs and now what the bills are doing at the receiver position and there’s others like this in the league that have been successful where you’re saying look we can draft young guys that will come in and they can make an impact these young receivers are making an impact earlier and earlier in their careers they’re super cheap at that point as well and then we can have some role players and look maybe you know it’s unfair to compare Donan Kade to Travis Kelce who may be or Pro likely is the best receiving tight end in the history of the game but we’ve seen Kansas City win Super Bowls with him being their number one threaded receiver and then guys with different skill sets and that’s what I’ve liked about the way they’ve built this receiving Corp is the different skill sets you have size in some instances you have speed you have guys like CLE Shakir who are are craftier and he’s he’s kind of deceptively fast you know you saw him break away against the Jets for a long touchdown he broke the one against the Steelers but he’s kind of shiftier in the middle of that field I like the skill set I think Dawson KNX coming off of a season last year where he got the injured wrist and he tried to play through and then he came back and you know he did have that catch uh for a touchdown the playoffs which uh a Surefire bet moving forward is Dawson Knox in the first round of the playoffs catches the touch catches the first touchdown pass I feel like that’s happened maybe three years definitely two years uh here for the bills but I’ve liked how they’ve built this I have not had boots on the ground in an OTA practice but I’ve Loved what I’ve heard from Chase Claypool I’ve Loved what sha McDermot said about him and whether he’s just trying to build up a guy who’s maybe lost some confidence or he simply means his comments when he says his character is high his work ethics High he’s trying to bounce back trying to get back to kind of what he was early in his career what have you seen from Chase Claypool out at OTAs I’ve been really impressed and when they made the signing I was on the side of the fence that was take a shot on a guy like this a guy that they did their due diligence on back at the draft uh when the Pittsburgh Steelers took him in I believe it was 2020 um when those kind of guys become available no matter how things panned out for them if they’ve had some success in the NFL I think it’s worth a look inside your building so I was Pro the mo the move since I’ve talked to him since I’ve seen his kind of imprint in the building I’m all in on the signing I think he’s going to be a guy that’s going to be on the this roster I think he’s going to have a role what that role ends up being we’ll find out but he can block he can play all four phases of special teams he’s a deep threat go back and watch some of his highlights as I’m sure you remember when he was with Ben rothberger in that last year before the last year when Ben still had a little bit of something left I mean they were cooking up down the field in some of just the most unbelievable like kind of plays because of the size that clayo has like you don’t think that he’s going to get on you and run past you the way that he does and I think he’s almost like the perfect replacement for Gabe Davis not that he’s going to have that kind of volume in this offense I I don’t think a lot of guys that you have high expectations for are gonna have the volume that Diggs and Davis did last year because they want to move things around they want to be unpredictable a little bit everyone eats is the phrase that’s been kind of baned about at OTAs but I think Claypool has a skill set that they’re going to lean into and sha mcder you know this better than anybody Eric he loves tapping into chips on shoulders and there’s not a bigger one in the NFL right now or there shouldn’t be than Claypool who was three years removed from being on a podcast I think it was the pivot where he was talking about being a top five wide receiver in the NFL and it’s just falling off of a cliff to get back any semblance of what his career was I think he knows this opportunity is massive let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsor Danos seasoning and it’s never been an easier or better time to Yum Yum get you some for a limited time they were doing a buy one get one free sale at Walmart if you buy two bottles of Danos seasoning then you upload your receipt to the link that will be in the show notes and from that link you will get ven mode back the price of your second bottle go out and get you some today I think so too and I’ve loved his approach I love how hungry it is he is and I’ve loved that he said look I was a beast on special teams at Notre Dame after my rookie year and I had that production I kind of got away from it and he was excited last year in Miami to get back to playing special teams whether he has that role in Buffalo or not guys that are willing to play special teams and even talk openly about it like you wouldn’t say that in the media if you really didn’t want them to shove you on special teams here in the preseason and early in the regular season and those types of guys are rare because it’s a violent I mean there’s a reason that they’re trying to take the kickoff out of it that they’re constantly maneuvering these special teams plays because those are the most violent plays generally throughout an NFL game and for a guy like him who had that success early in his career and sitting here at what year five now for him to still be hungry to play special teams and say look I was a beast on special teams that’s one of the things that was so appealing with me coming into the league and what I could do for the Steelers okay I’m willing to go back to that that says a lot to me and hopefully it means something but you mentioned the defense side of the ball you mentioned pass rusher what they’re maybe missing in Leonard Floyd the bills just got an extra 10 million in cap space which didn’t kick in till June 1st with the Dre avius white release so that was a post June 1st they get $10 million off the books that they can now spend and I think that bean throughout the summer will be active similar to last summer when he signed Puna for and Leonard Floyd both over the summertime when you look at who the bills could potentially bring in with that extra little bit of cap room what what what uh what’s hitting your eye here so the one big issue that like for a Leonard Floyd C like in June I don’t see a lot of really enticing options on the free agent market for positions of need so like I think right now they’re pretty set on the offensive side of the ball I’m looking at Edge rusher specifically maybe defensive tackle but then in the secondary I think cornerback is still a a position that after those top three that I mentioned earlier you you go to a guy like Jamarcus Ingram who’s right now your number four there’s not a lot of vets in that room you have a lot lot of young players and there’s a lot out there still to be had I mean you look at the xaven Howards of the world um I know that a lot of uh websites have talked about James Bradberry in Philadelphia he’s still on their roster but he’s coming off of a bad year they can add some cap space if they move on from him Brandon Bean drafted him uh was part of the team that drafted him in Carolina all those years ago so that’s a name that makes sense but I also don’t think that this money is going to be burning a ho in their pocket listen $10 million in cap space is great right you get you need about three or four of that to take care of your draft class so then you need about two or three of that for the practice squad that you because now it’s 16 players so there’s not as much money right now as I think that fans are you know you see that 10 million Mark and you’re like you know go make a trade go get Marcus ladimore go get you know whoever one guy that I’ll throw a name out there that I think is really interesting and I don’t think that it’s going to happen anytime soon I think it might even go into the season maybe looking at a trade deadline deal matth judon at 32 years old with the Patriots if they come out and they’re really bad and they’re like you know Drake May either isn’t ready to hit the field and they’re rolling with jacobe brette or he does play and it hasn’t been pretty they got a lot of young pass rushers there Josh uch is there um maybe they want to deal judon for maybe a day three pick get something back get him off the books the bills wouldn’t have to pay the total tab there and I think that’s a guy that you could add if you get through the first couple weeks of your season and you’re like man we need somebody on the outside that’s a name that I think could be really interesting I just don’t think it’s going to be available until then because they probably want to get through training camp and listen Maybe Drake May hits the ground running and he’s what they think he’s going to be and the Patriots compete and this idea looks stupid in two months um but either way another part of this why I don’t think it’ll happen in June like any Marquee addition is because I think they want to get to training camp and get a lot of these young guys reps like at Edge rusher at uh cornerback you bring another veteran in at corner say like a Stephen Nelson that’s kind of hanging around there as a free agent now all of a sudden KY Elum dips back um Jamarcus Ingram dip dips back and I don’t think you can learn as much about them if you bring in a guy that takes a lot of those reps not to mention a lot of those vets that have been in the Years League seven or eight years rep don’t want those training camp reps to begin with so I think this is something maybe later in the summer early in the season where you’ll see Brandon Bean make a move yeah that’s a great take there you mentioned KY elim a couple times and I’m interested to see what he looks like this year I mean it was pretty well known from people that were around training camp practices I mean you could watch John Butler just crushing this kid he has obvious confidence issues he’s talked about that now he tried to regain some of that at the end of last year he had the interception to the playoffs he made some plays towards the end of the year and hopefully he can carry that into this off season but I’m excited to see what he can maybe do with a different position coach maybe someone who’s building him up on a consistent basis as opposed to I mean look I and look I’m not in the building on a day-to-day basis I’m simply saying what I’ve seen and heard from you know people reporting on practices and what they’ve seen and how he was treated uh by his position coach so I’m interested to see if he can step it up this year and and maybe come into that first round draft pick mold which we all hoped we’d see with his size and skill set and all that let’s give a quick shout out to the hottest Sports string on the planet that’s Prime and we’ll make sure to get someone sent to your house we get your uh baseball team stocked up for this uh summer travel baseball schedule Matt all right so big news this past week and big news based upon the name not necessarily maybe the impact but the bill sign Olympic wrestler Gable Stevenson he was recently with the WWE and you that didn’t work out for him so he’s going to give football a go I guess he had already worked out for the bills once and he came back worked out again and they felt like they could sign him I I’ll say this first that’s a dude that you don’t want to get in a training camp fight with and I mentioned that on Twitter the other day and it got some traction and I’m like look we’re football players and like yes we’re great with our hands that’s what we do especially offensive defensive line when they get in scraps like we do hand battle drills every single day but you have a helmet on you know you get in a training camp fight it’s more of a wrestling match than anything and that dude is going to drop some people uh I don’t think we’ll see it because sha mcder does a great job of managing practice but I think back to Brock Lesnar came in and he got in those big training camp fights when he came into the NFL but when you look at this Gable Stevenson signing do you think I’ll just say this do you think he plays a snap for the bills in the regular season this year no uh definitively no like he’s going to have to learn the game from the ground up and I mean starting from scratch unless he’s just some you know super athletic freak that they can kind of come up with a like a like a package for um and kind of shows an ability to play the game I just think it’s it’s something that you sign him to a three-year deal you’re thinking about long-term developing a guy who is obviously like in in a class of rare athletes and I think that Brandon Bean has never been shy about betting on those kinds of guys Spencer Brown was that kind of guy right like um he went in the third round NE didn’t play as last year at covid 68 315 like just the intangibles that he brings there’s certain guys that are just special athletes Spencer Brown’s not even on the level of a Gable steveson I mean this guy is Olympic gold me medalist a wrestler we know Shawn mcdermit loves those as well the one hold up here that I had when this was happening so Ariel helwani big Bills fan MMA uh journalist love that dude yeah he’s awesome reported a couple weeks ago that stevon while he was kind of waiting to see what materialized in the NFL was doing some MMA training like thinking about like maybe a career in that which is another level of like all right I really don’t want to start a fight with him during training camp that dude all of a sudden get some hands but um I was kind of on offense about this when I first heard like the WWE thing didn’t work out started kind of you know toying with the I idea of um MMA you got to be all in to play these Sports at the highest level like if you got one foot where you’re dipping your toe in you know my my first reaction to him getting released by the WWE was like okay was that because he was thinking about other things like you can’t come to an NFL training camp as you know thinking about other things or not being all in but on the other side of that Brandon be and sha mcder they’re not bringing this guy in unless they have full buyin so I think that he’s coming in he’s going to make the NFL the center of his world try to become a defensive lineman and listen from a size profile standpoint it’s interesting he’s very similar to to Ed Oliver so if you want to come into a spot and learn from a guy what better than a guy ahead of you that plays Pro Bowl level at times an all pro level and especially it does it at your size I think it’s a really interesting signing it is it is interesting and look at this point you can now get 90 man rosters heading into training camp you used to be 80 when I was with the bills and so you get an extra 10 guys for training camp only 53 will make that active roster so you have a good amount of guys on the roster where you know you you could take a a trial on a guy like Gable Stevenson he brings a work ethic he brings a presence can he speak into you know some things of competing on an elite level within this team I don’t know I don’t know his personality that well he seems to have a great personality already reached out to Harrison Phillips and he’s going to work with Harrison some a former wrestler used to be with the bills now with the Vikings fan favorite still in Buffalo especially for all the work he’s done in the community and continues to do in the Buffalo community and so uh he’s reached out to him it seems like um it seems like he’ll have a shot to come to training camp to learn and we’re going to find out quickly he he may look like a complete fish out of water out there but if he’s working against the two and threes on the offensive line in the second and third string he might be able to go out and make a few plays where I could see early on especially if he gets in late in a preseason game and he’s going against some guys that really don’t have a shot to make an NFL team on the offensive line position where he makes a couple plays and then all of a sudden it’s um who’s the running back Christian uh Christian Wade yeah who came over the the rugby player and everyone like oh we got to get him on the act of Ross he’s making these plays against guys that aren’t necessarily going to be playing on Sunday but I could see where there could be a hype train formed around Stephenson whether it’s training camp whether it’s preseason when he makes a couple plays but I I’m with you and you know that’s like when people now now I have a career disqualifying neck injury I can never play football again but people all the time will say oh man you lost 60 60 pounds or so you should come back and play tight end I’m like tight end’s you and I even played tight end in high school but there’s no part of that is arrogant enough to believe that I could just switch positions and make an impact immediately much less completely switching a sport to a new sport where I have no familiarity so we’ll see how that shakes out we’ve mentioned training camp a few times uh I don’t have to be at training camp on a day-to-day basis I hope to come visit this year for training camp take it all in check out the roster get prep for preseason games have a little fun hopefully play a little golf at o kill but I don’t I’m not there on a day-to-day basis like you are what’s one aspect of training camp that you look forward to each year being uh in Rochester up at St John fiser so for me as part of like my coverage I’m I’m I’m kind of like an atypical beat reporter right like a lot of like the old school like thought process around how to cover a team is it’s about like this one-way stream of information right like the reporter gathers the information they talk to somebody they uh write a story or they do a podcast they send it out to the world it it’s done for me though I I’m from Buffalo like I know how much this team means to the community I was this DieHard Bills fans for for 35 years of my life like I always thought it would be super cool to have like a back and forth like experience with a beat reporter so I try to give that to the fans in so many ways our live shows our Insider chat line and to me nothing takes Center Stage more for that piece than during training Camp because I’m out walking the fence I’m taking in training camp I’m talking to fans I’m walking through you know the little village that they create there up at St John fer and that to me is the the coolest part it’s like the togetherness of like the community whether it be with the fan base whether it be with my peers and the media playing some golf hanging out at night being in the dorms this year’s going to be another level because I I’ve heard through the gra Vine it’s a rumor at this point Josh Reed’s bringing the Winnebago we’re gonna be grilling out there he’s gonna he’s G have the TV going maybe even a little campfire we’ll see what we’ll see what happens but I just love the togetherness the camaraderie that that two weeks is like it it feels like you’re going off to school or something well now I know where I’m staying when I get up to Rochester this year for training camp unless we bring the family I won’t I won’t stick Josh with my wife and two kids taking over uh his RV but uh that’s awesome that he’s going to do it what’s what’s one thing during training camp or what’s one aspect of training camp that you dread heading into it um I don’t think that there’s any that I dread I I will say that by the end of the two weeks in the dorm room that that like bed and I say I use the term bed Loosely the little C that they give us right it’s taking I’m taking a beating dud my back is absolutely shot by the end of that I’m trying to do like yoga in the morning when I wake up anything to kind of get the everything kind of straightened out so that part of it is tough I could probably just stay in a hotel like it’s not the end of the world but like I don’t know it’s part of the process and I love like piing up getting a run in or or or I bring some uh blex like uh 50b interchangeables and I’ll just get like a quick workout in and then just like you wake up and you walk out on the field you remember those days like just being there like it’s all it’s so all inclusive and I like that part of it it’s almost like I work from home almost all the year like now I’ll go to the stadium I’ll work out of the media room but a lot of my my show and not just like my podcast but like my whole beat coverage it’s it’s moving part it’s in different places it’s you know I’m I’ve got the kids at home sometimes and I’m doing a million things being there at St John fer it’s like I can concentrate on the job and I feel like that leadup to the start of the Season like I’m as locked in as ever and and it gets me like on a good starting point for the season yeah that’s really cool yeah the beds were an issue um at training camp so I got some Insider information my rookie you’re heading into training camp that you needed to call Rena Center and get a bed well then when the pagul SP the team I don’t know how exactly this came up with Terry and Kim but I had mentioned that yeah a lot of us rent beds from Rena Center and they’re like well shouldn’t everybody have one so of course the poulas which it’s different the Wilson family Ralph this is not an indictment on the Wilson family Ralph was on his deathbed towards the end of his ownership with the bills he’s not around on a day-to-day basis the boulas were and so then they just got everybody a nicer bed when they figured out that oh just some people well that’s not that’s that’s unfair advantage or you know we should have everybody in a comfortable bed so the poulas did that uh for us at the end I would also rent a mini fridge from Rena Center so that I could just have it there in the dorm probably could have bought one it would have been a lot cheaper after nine years of Renning a mini fridge but just having like cold Gatorade and pedite in the room I would rent a huge TV and uh and and again by the time you ran a TV n straight times it would have been way cheaper just to buy one but did not have to Lug it up there and back it was it was all about the convenience in the dorm room there all right I mentioned in the intro that you covered the UFC for four years I’m going to my second UFC fight uh here this weekend we’re we’re hosting in Louisville which is a pretty big deal like I was listening to sports sock radio on my way home this morning from a workout and they’re talking about how you know the list of cities that the UFC is going to Louisville seems to be fairly small compared to others so it’s it’s awesome that we get to host it this weekend I went to one in Buffalo back when I was still playing um that was when Daniel Cormier fought and Bones Jones who’s from Western New York area was out in the audience you know antagonizing him there with his two brothers I went backstage afterwards and uh I can tell you the uh the trash talking that people saw out in the arena continued into the back and it was real it was not it was not for show uh because when the cameras were off it continued uh but we had a we had an absolute blast being ringside forward feeling the energy in the crowd got to meet Dana White got to meet Joe super cool uh I need to get prepped for this week though and I’m not asking you to break down the entire card uh but when you look at like if I want to sound smart in front of my buddies I always say on the broadcast I proud myself in making other people feel smarter uh based upon hearing some stuff that I say in the call how can I feel smarter this weekend uh around my buddies okay first and foremost the the headliner um and it’s funny because now that I’ve been six years removed from MMA like I’m not as up on it as I I even should be it it the bills dominate my life it’s like anything else and um but I will tell you Jared caner who’s in the one of the headlining Fighters is one of the most explosive um dangerous knockout artists that you you can kind of get as a headliner I mean he can literally put your lights out with one single punch and he’s fighting a guy that he’s been a little bit up and down Naser deine imol um decent fighter out of France it’s going to be a good fight but that like threat of The Knockout in the main event to me is the only thing you can hope for at an event like and a lot of these names like big MMA fans might look at this card and be like ah there’s not a lot of star power whatever in my time at the UFC Whenever there was a fight card like this where you were trying to put it together piece to puzzle pieces together and understand who who’s fighting those were the best fights like every time without fail you show up and it’s unbelievable you you mentioned JN Jones um in the co-main event Dominic Reyes who’s now the number 15 light heavyweight trying to make his kind of climb back up he fought Jon Jones years ago in one of his last light heavyweight fights and gave him a really tough fight so I mean that just that connection to him I think is really cool there’s some some younger um lighter weight fighters on the card as well the kid uh Ral roas uh bantamweight he’s really fun to watch I think he was on The Ultimate Fighter uh the reality TV show but the big piece of advice show up early get there for the first fight there is a dynamic to watching the fights on the the first two or three when the Arena’s still kind of empty you hear the thud of every shot and you hear like the the corners screaming out in a way that you don’t hear when there’s the hustle and bustle of a soldout Arena it’s an experience every fight’s an experience and you will be shocked a four-hour flight card will fly by like this and a lot of people especially in LA or Vegas even would show up for like you know the last three fights and I’m like yeah you missed two and a half hours of just absolute savagery like it it starts from the beginning it’s it’s an unbelievable experience you’re gonna have a blast yeah I I’ll do that for sure uh last one for me and last one on the UFC as well Dana White recently said that he believes that Jon Bones Joan is the baddest man to ever compete in Combat Sports what’s your opinion on that he’s right he’s right 100 percent I mean Jon Jones what he’s done to come up to heavyweight and win the um his his heavyweight fight uh after dominating the light heavyweight division in a way that we’ve never seen a singular fighter dominate a division the only thing holding Jon Jones’s Legacy back is all the out of the Octagon stuff right like the you know uh the drug stuff the you know there was a brief time where they you know he got popped for a drug test um pag grams of uh a substance uh that he wasn’t supposed to be using if he was competing that’s been kind of stricken off of his record so that’s not as much part of it but he’s just been his own worst worst enemy he’s a party animal and you know part of it like when you’re the heavyweight champ the light heavyweight champ in the UFC I mean there’s a lifestyle that comes along with it that it’s hard I mean I think Conor’s Conor McGregor’s Fallen victim to it a little bit at times uh there’s a picture that’s come out he’s supposed to be returning in a couple weeks and he’s out at the club’s partying like I saw that partying hard partying hard well he doesn’t party any other way yeah I guess yeah that makes sense I got a start I got a story um it was my first year in the UFC and I was on the road uh UFC Boston it was before Conor had ever like fought for a title I think it was his second or third fight in the UFC maybe the fourth he fighting Dennis Siver first main event and I was there fight week I was at Peter Welch’s gym uh classic boxing gym in Boston he was training there I went to watch uh him Spar in there and then I went to the hotel he was going to the open workouts so I drove over to the open workouts and like his limo boss dude the stories I could tell in 20 30 years from the stuff that was happening in that limo um it was a wild time but it that I I just say that because the all it’s not like football or baseball or basketball where even the Stars like you’re part of a team like in in MMA in boxing like you are the attraction you are the team right it’s it’s just a different Dynamic and I think what Jon Jones has done over the course of his career in the octagon considering all of the you know out of the Octagon stuff that I mentioned it’s just um it it almost in a weird way makes it more impressive it doesn’t like negate all that part of it but he’s just been unbeatable by the best I thought Daniel Cormier was gonna win one of those fights and he never got close yeah he’s a bad dude his brothers both badasses too Arthur I played against in college at Syracuse competed against him in the league defensive tackle and then obviously Chandler Jones has made a heck of a career for himself U one of the best artist in the NFL for a long time Matt I appreciate the time as always always look forward to catching up with you appreciate you coming on the podcast brother thanks for having me buddy