The Daniel Cormier Show - DC & Ben Askren REACT to Ronda Rousey SUBMITTING Gina Carano, WILD Francis KO, Nate Diaz

This is Daniel Cormier from the Daniel Cormier Show. Bonus time after the Netflix card—Ben, I waited for you to wake up so you could tee off first: what did you make of the MVP event overall?

It was a wipeout from start to finish. Fans love highlights, but nothing beats a real back‑and‑forth, and you cannot build or sustain stars without worthy dance partners—I lived that after I left Bellator, and Francis is feeling it now outside the UFC.

This was not prospect-building like boxing; most of these names are already on the back nine. You could see the mismatches—older elite versus undersized or overmatched opponents felt inevitable.

I hate saying it, but Junior needs to be done. The main draw leaned on pioneers, and Gina’s been out since the late two-thousands with only a handful of fights, which is a different era entirely.

I remember Ronda’s Strikeforce run and that armbar stopwatch vibe, then early UFC when she blew through people; later, the division learned to defend. Gina wasn’t around for that evolution, so the finish looked like a day‑one armbar—sit, slide, extend.

That whole sequence was simple and went unanswered, so the issue was defense, not Ronda’s technique. And I’ll say it straight: if Ronda wanted the smoke, Cyborg was right there, and even someone like Pacheco at a higher weight made more sense than what we saw.

I know you and Ronda are oil and water, man. I’d just have preferred a matchup with real jeopardy, but she says she’s focused on family now.

Nate Diaz and Mike Perry—what did you see?

Nate got routed. I figured he might outlast the early storm, but he never made Perry work hard enough to fade.

Perry never felt anything coming back to slow him down, and even in the brief grappling spots Nate looked a step behind. Folks love to clown Nate after nights like this, but Perry keeps cracking people in bare‑knuckle for a reason.

His stand‑up is legit; it was wrestling and grappling that capped him in the UFC. In bare‑knuckle he’s in his element, and the Jake Paul talk is silly because of size.

Nate’s post‑fight rant was classic Diaz—funny, raw, and confusing all at once. Big picture, are you in on MVP?

I hope they stick around, but they need a pipeline of younger talent and a strong promotion partner, because Netflix seems built for big tentpoles, not the weekly grind. Competition that pays fighters better would be great, but climbing that hill is brutal—and DC, come to my wrestling show in Milwaukee on July eighteen, bring your kid.

He just turned fifteen, so we might pull up. Ben, appreciate you—go play ball, I’ll land the plane here.

Ben’s right: if MVP wants to matter, they cannot rely only on ex‑UFC names; use them, but build fresh ones and book true coin‑flip fights. A heavyweight main event like Francis versus the guy who just fought Junior has juice, but you also need depth beneath it, and you cannot keep leaning on Perry versus Diaz to carry a show.

Production felt big, the action did not, and in our sport what happens in the cage is everything; last night didn’t deliver that. I respect Ronda, Gina, Nate, Mike, and Francis, but if I’m Hunter Campbell, I’m not losing sleep over passing on that matchup—nothing I saw said that call was wrong. Thanks for riding with us—Ben Askren, Daniel Cormier—we’ll catch you on the next one.