Video: Ariel Helwani Interviews Kevin Casey, Spencer Pratt and Alistair Overeem on The MMA Hour

(Video courtesy MMAFighting.com)

Ariel Helwani was back yesterday with his The MMA Hour, which is arguably the best Internet radio show out there right now. (Sleep with one eye open though, Helwani. We’re coming for you.)


First up in this edition was pompous Strikeforce fighter Kevin Casey, who is set to take on Matt Lindland at the May 21 Strikeforce Challengers event in Portland, Oregon.

Casey touched on a variety of topics including awarding himself a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, his terrible rap video and allegations that Marc Laimon threatened to bring gunplay into the equation when he challenged him to a street fight.

Basically, Casey felt that it was up to him to uphold the integrity of the Gracie name and when he heard that Laimon had been slagging on Royce et al, he decided to challenge Marc to a fight. He alleges that when he called Laimon on, the Cobra Kai founder threatened him with gun violence. As a result of being “disrespected” in such a manner, Casey spit in Laimon’s face and called him out for not being man enough to do anything about it. Now I get where Chael Sonnen is coming from when he says respect is a word made up by street thugs.

*Editor’s note: When contacted today by CP, Laimon said that the allegations and story by Casey were "All lies!" and that he didn’t want to waste his time dignifying them with a response. I sense an angry, poorly-written King Casey rap song and video directed at Laimon in the near future.

For his part, Pratt talked about his relationship with Casey, whom he revered growing up for his superpowers and impressive entourage and how he decided to use his power in the media to help the Rickson Gracie protégée’s career.

Ariel struggles at times to keep a straight face while Pratt rambles on about how important he is, his thoughts on MMA and the mystical entity that is “King Kevin.” For a guy who proclaims to know as much as he does about BJJ and MMA, saying that Matt Lindland got “tapped out” in the Olympics when he won his silver medal in Greco Roman wrestling. I pray to Crom that Pratt’s claim that he is going to step into the cage to compete within two years is legit, especially when he continues to call out fighters like Jason Miller, Lindland and Jason Chambers.

Points to Ariel for admitting that the Pratt segment “was the biggest mistake of [his] life.”

The interview with Overeem was a nice contrast to the previous one with The Hills’ biggest douchebag. Watching Alistair talk seriously about his career and future in MMA while wearing a party hat and holding a big “Birthday King” balloon was another MMA moment akin to Ariel’s “How’s taste my pee pee”  interview with Andrei Arlovski. He’s definitely a humble,  down to earth and likeable guy. The Strikeforce heavyweight champ talked about his fight with Rogers, potentially facing Fedor, sympathy he has for his opponents and where his future fights may take place. I found it very curious that he isn’t allowed to talk about how many fights he has remaining on his Strikeforce contract.