[crowd chatter]

>> Jon: Oh, H-Town, Houston, Texas.

What's going on?

Thank y'all for coming out.

My name is Jon Anik.

We appreciate every last one of you

making some time to get over here on Wednesday.

Please welcome Dominick Reyes, Katlyn Chookagian, Ilir Latifi.

Alright, let us start with Mr. Latifi on the end.

It's good to see you, man.

So, you're the underdog here against Derrick Lewis

on Saturday night.

Do you prefer being the underdog

or the betting favorite in a fight?

>> Ilir: I started fighting the 205 division.

Everybody thought I was too small for that weight,

and everybody was saying go down to 185.

And, you know, I proved a lot of people wrong.

[laughing]

>> Saturday, let's see.

I'm fighting a tough opponent,

but I love the challenge

and I have no problem being the underdog, you know.

>> Dominick, right here, and same for Katlyn.

What do you have to do to keep

from being sparring partners

with these great fighters that y'all fighting on Saturday?

>> You gotta put yourself in danger.

It's the biggest risk makes the biggest reward.

So I'm ready to go out there and throw down, man.

I'm ready to bleed as much as necessary.

>> Same for Katlyn.

>> Katlyn: I think when there's a dominant champ,

then everyone goes in there and tries to play their game,

and I think most important part in there is to go in there,

and for me, and just play my game.

[applause]

>> Jon: We gotta bring out a couple athletes

with definite ties to your fine city.

So right now, one of the most popular fighters

on the UFC roster today and man does he own this H-Town.

Let's hear it for the perennial heavyweight contender,

The Black Beast Derrick Lewis!

[cheering]

>> Jon: Alright now, please welcome the one, the only

Valentina "Bullet" Shevchenko.

[cheering]

>> Jon: Derrick Lewis, this is your city, my man.

I know these fans have been waiting a long time

to see you back here competing at Toyota Center.

You will kick off the pay-per-view main card.

Any thoughts on Latifi moving up

and what type of fight might be coming your way here?

>> [bleep] I'm gonna look for the knockout in the first round.

[cheering]

>> But yeah, it's gonna be-- I have to put on for Houston.

You know, we been through a lot,

with all the flooding and all that,

and so, I gotta come in swanging and banging the first round.

>> Valentina, I wanna ask you, is there anything unique

that she does that you haven't seen before,

anything you saw that said, "Hey, this is one thing

I gotta be really, really careful about in this fight"?

>> You know, the fight is fight.

You have to be really careful about everything.

Doesn't matter who you face.

And I know Katlyn, she's hoping her reach and her like head

is gonna help her during the fight, but she's mistaken.

She's mistaken a lot.

[cheering]

>> Jon: We're now gonna say hello

to one of the greatest of all time,

chasing more history Saturday night:

Jonny "Bones" Jones!

[cheering]

>> Jon, Dominick Reyes was here earlier, of course,

and he was asked about your boxing.

And he said that he feels like that's something

that he can exploit, the he can capitalize.

He thinks he's the better boxer than you.

Your thoughts on that?

>> My job is not to go out there and get in a boxing match.

My job is to be the better mixed martial arts fighter.

Like I said, I'm very aware that his best counters

come in boxing combinations,

and my job is to make his chances extremely slim

through hard work, faith, focus.

And at the end of the day,

it won't make a difference on Saturday night.

It's gonna be who has their head together,

who's more prepared mentally and physically,

to get the job done.

And I believe that's me and our team.

>> Jon: Alright, let us hear it once more, folks.

The champions Jonny "Bones" Jones, Valentina Shevchenko,

and Houston's finest The Black Beast Derrick Lewis.

We'll see y'all Saturday night.

[thumping]

>> Katlyn: You know, I try to work out a little bit later at night,

since I'm fighting later.

It's right now 9. I'm gonna go a little bit,

do everything we've been working on, all technical stuff.

Kinda just running through everything like a rehearsal,

I guess.

Get a little bit of a sweat going.

Just have fun.

I always fight better when I fight better opponents.

And Valentina's definitely the best opponent

that I've fought before.

Valentina's dominated her recent opponents

but a lot of her fights were decisions.

She's a counter puncher.

I'm not gonna just go in like a bull,

just charging right at her.

I'm gonna be moving my head, moving my feet the entire time,

so it's hard for her to find me.

So, I definitely think she's gonna bring out

the best fighter in me, and it's gonna be a really good fight.

[crowd chatter]

>> Hi, how are ya. >> Good.

>> What's up, how are you?

>> Good.

Let's do it. Let's do it.

>> I gotta ask you, you talked about

being the female James Bond.

The other week, The Schmo talked to Ben Askren.

He called you a spy.

Can we denounce those rumors right here?

>> I'm not a spy.

>> Where do you stand out?

Where do you have an advantage going into the fight?

>> Katlyn: Definitely my reach.

I mean, my height is a huge advantage for me.

I like to-- sometimes I like to watch Jon Jones

and see how he uses his length

and I try to mimic some of that stuff.

But yeah, I just think my range, my movement, my endurance,

and my height, volume, are all advantages

I need to use throughout the whole fight.

>> Valentina: I'm prepared for the hardest thing.

I think my mentality, if you are ready for the hardest things,

it's easy to finish the fight earlier, right?

Whatever she want to use in the fight,

it's fine with me because I'm ready for anything.

I'm ready for any thing that she will have.

>> Where's this real confidence come from?

I've been around a lot of athletes, NBA, NFL, boxers.

You can tell when someone has some fake swag.

Your stuff's 300% legit.

So where's it coming from?

>> That's the only way I know how to do it, man.

It's legit and that's it.

This is is just me reaching my dreams,

me reaching the pinnacle for things I want.

I believe everything I've done in my life has led to this.

I think that's where the confidence really comes from,

just feels like fate, man. It feels like destiny.

>> Jon: Yeah, I think he's reaching.

He's trying to hang onto these ideas to,

like, talk himself up, and my job is to take his ideas away

and send him into the fight with nothing.

And it's easy to do that because, you know, when you say

things like, "Weidman beat Anderson and I beat Weidman.

This is gonna give me the magic that I need."

What are you freaking talking about?

Mm-hm.

The fact that he just ran his face like that,

out of his mouth, is just...

He's [bleep] really.

What I do, why I do it.

Woo.

[theme music]

♪♪