Joe Rogan Experience Review podcast - 495 JRE Review of The UFC Paramount+ Event

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

For more Rogan exclusives support us on Patreon patreon.com/JREReview Thanks to this weeks sponsors: Download the DraftKings Casino app, sign up with code JRER. DraftKings Casino App Apple DraftKings Casino App Android New players can wager five dollars and get FIVE HUNDRED SPINS over TEN DAYS on your choice of Cash Eruption slots. Gambling problem? Call one eight hundred GAMBLER. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling call eight eight eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit C C P G dot org. Please play responsibly. Twenty-one plus. Physically present in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia only. Void in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. Non-withdrawable Casino Spins issued as fifty spins per day for ten days, valid for featured games only and expire each day after twenty four hours. See terms at casino dot DraftKings dot com slash promos. Ends March fifteenth, twenty twenty six at eleven fifty nine PM Eastern Time. Go to RocketMoney.com/JRER to help monitor your spending, find and cancel unwanted subscriptions. Go to HIMS dot com slash JRER for your personalized ED treatment options! www.JREreview.com For all marketing questions and inquiries: [e-mail] Follow me on Instagram at www.instagram.com/joeroganexperiencereview Please email us here with any suggestions, comments and questions for future shows.. [e-mail]

You're listening to the Joe Rogan Experience Review. What a bizarre thing we've created. Now with your host, Adam Thorn. This might either be the worst podcast, one of the best one a whole time. Two, one. Go. Enjoy the show. Hey guys, and welcome to another episode of the JRE review.

Bit of a special episode this week. We are reviewing the recent UFC Paramount fight. The just took place last Saturday. this was UFC's first fight on Paramount. I know a lot of UFC fans are wondering how it was going to go. I am joined by the expert that is Eddie from Pure Evil. MMA, welcome aboard. How are you, sir?

I'm doing good. I'm doing really good. You know, this wasn't just a show. It was really just, you know, a realignment of how MMA is consumed in 2026 right now. It really wasn't a debut. It was just a declaration. of rebuilding the spectacle. And there's a lot of people out there that have their opinions,

which I just cannot wait to dive into. So thank you for having me on this episode. Oh, it's a pleasure. Yeah, I mean, this card mattered before a punch was even thrown. So it was UFC 324, and it wasn't just another numbered event. It was the first real test of the UFC's New Paramount Plus era. No traditional pay-per-view, lower barrier to entry, and a new broadcast partner.

And immediately you could feel fans watching with two minds at once. Is it better? And what's the catch? I know I was doing it. And what was your first impressions, Ed? This is the most amazing thing. I do want to discuss a little before some of the things that did happen before that made me a little nervous going into this new era. but at the outcome with the two voices,

I think the fights really, they roared so much louder than, you know, we try to interrupt. You know, a lot of the ads people were upset about the weight cutting, the walkouts that weren't there. There are a lot of things that we need to get used to. But with any new adventure, we need to chop down things and we hope that Paramount's going to be listening.

You know, a big thing about this, this event was the new launch. And we lost Amanda. We lost Kayla. So everyone was in a panic. But at the end of it, the fights were roaring louder than any ad could ever interrupt. For sure. For sure.

And yeah. And who was that guy that passed out of the wayans, too? What was his name? So that guy, he actually took a face plant right in the middle of it. Brutal. It was actually, yep. What was his name? I had it written down.

I can't find him. But either way, that was, I mean, just think how devastating. Cameron Smotherman. That's it. That face plant. You know, weight cutting is such a big issue. You don't see it usually on camera. Usually going on backstage.

It's extremely dangerous. And you should know, you know, there's a high risk of concussions when you're cutting all that weight. Oh, yeah. Did he damage? You know, in 2015, we left Yang, Jang Bang from heart failure. It's 21 years old, 5-1 record, one championship. But no one really covered it because it wasn't the UFC. They tried to brush this away.

And I think the way that Dana reacted to this, because then again, there was another pitfall. We lost the co-main event. Now we have this right here at the way end. And we all heard just in complaining about money. So Dana try to dish it out, obviously backstage being like, we're going to give out 25K, which I appreciate because you're seeing what these fighters go through. There's little battles that are won way before you even get to the way in. For sure, for sure. And I mean, think about what that poor guy went through to get to that point.

He's done all of that training matched up with his fighter, you know, everything that he's been doing for weeks and weeks and weeks all through camp. did the brutal cut obviously did a lot on his cut to get to that point so much so drove himself to the point of that pass out and then whack done over all of it in that moment I mean devastating and not just that humiliating as well the poor guy well not only that you got to think of it from the UFC from paramounts you know the big bakeheads what they're seeing how to address it and i think the way they came out with it there was a lot of different things going on you know the money bonuses his fight was called off you know michael johnson with the betting odds there were so many things that were just out of tune

i think the ufc did an actual good job addressing everything at the end of it but there's a lot to say here you know the commercials were definitely a surprise for me i mean that's out immediately. And what was it? Mostly like, was it Dodge Ram pickups between every, like, nonstop? Nonstop. We want to see the fighter walkouts.

That's one of the biggest things. If you go back to UFC 189, right? You think about that. Connor McGregor, Chad Mendez. Oh, yeah. We had Aaron Lewis sing out, Chad Mendez. It made a spectacle. We have.

had Chenate O'Connor sing out Conner and I'm getting chills thinking about it right now. Massive, dude. It builds to the story. And Paramount, they base everything. If you saw all the previews before they launched this, it was about the story that comes with mixed martial arts. And we got a ton of that from this. But a huge factor, you take away something like a walkout.

You want to judge the energy. You want to see how the fighter's looking. You know, taking that away is something I hope that will change. And I think Paramount is actually listening because there's people out there like MMA Joey saying this was a disaster. You know, there's people out there, you know, they have their complaints. But, you know, life is a five-round fight all the time. Nothing is perfect, you know. We're in an imperfect world.

You don't just go in looking for a good camera shot, looking good in front of the camera. The noise is so loud. but when you hear your own heartbeat in between it all, like we saw on that main event, where the blows didn't mean anything, you just felt the energy and what it really means to be a mixed martial artists and the true entertainment of what it represents was what we got. Yeah, 100%. And, you know, there were going to be differences, of course. I think what was difficult for people is you only ever expect the differences to be positive.

right you're just like okay is it going to be better right everything has to be better because it's moved and it just isn't going to be that way i expected actually it to be clunkier i thought it really ran smooth i thought there was a fairly smooth transition now yes the walkouts were weird yes there were a bunch of ads but i already knew there would be a bunch of ads how the heck else were they going to make their money? I mean, how much did they spend on this? Like $7 billion? That's not cheap. They're saying that they're taking away the octagon ads in the center, which is a huge distraction. If we go back a couple years, I mean, decade, I'm getting old doing this. I have so many memories where you have people walking out with condom depot on their chest and stuff like that, which Dana was so against.

Oh, yeah. You know, even, you know, little ads right before, imagine being a championship fighter and having to hear about the new movie coming out from Bruce Buffer right before your fight or a monster. And, you know, you got to add it in somewhere. I do get that. You got to make it. But taking away the walkouts, I think a lot of fans are really upset with that. But like you said, you've got to expect it. You got to expect stuff like that.

For sure. But either way, I mean, look, it was a star-studied event. that was something that was really cool. This may have had the biggest set of celebrities we've had an event for a long time. Not surprising. I mean, this is a big event. First Paramount.

I mean, who was there? Travis Barker was there. Who was the Kardashian? Who's his wife? Which one? Which one of the Kardashians? Chloe? I didn't even see that.

I mean, Pete Davidson? Was Pete Davidson there? No, I didn't see him. Chris Rock was there. Chuck Ladell? good to see him miles teller uh steve aoki pretty awesome some fighters alex perrera um who else did they have uh oh kabib was there pretty dope to see kabib um yeah a surprise connor didn't make it but i guess he's just too famous to give a shit these

days but here's what here's what i got to say about when it comes to celebrities something that paramount could think about adding to these events You remember back in the day Eddie Bravo would do in between, you'd be like, oh, I think the round is a 10-9 for this guy. You know, now we have Dean Thomas. I would love to see them bring in fighters like rivals. Like when John Jones is fighting and DC is doing commentary, you're more in tune to what the commentary is actually talking about. This podcast is brought to you by Draft Kings Casino. Get cozy because Draftkins Casino is turning up the heat this winter.

Play more than 1,000 slots. Everything from Clarend. Classics like cash eruption to exclusives like Fire Buffalo. New players can wage $5 and get 500 spins over 10 days on your choice of cash eruption slots. Download the Draft King's Casino app, sign up with code JRER and start spinning. The Crown is yours. In partnership with Draft King's Casino, gambling problem, call 1-800 Gambler. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling.

89777 or visit ccpg.org. Please play responsibly. 21 plus physically present in Connecticut, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia only, void in Ontario. Eligibility restrictions apply. Non-withdrawable casino spins issued as 50 spins per day for 10 days. Valid for featured games only and expire each day after 24 hours. See terms at casino.draftings.com promos ends March 15th, 2026 at 1159 p.m. Eastern Time. This podcast is brought to you by Hymns. ED doesn't mean your love life is over. It means it's just getting started with personalized treatment options to help you take

back control and spontaneity thanks to daily meds. Hymns offers access to ED treatment options ranging from personalized products to trusted generics that cost 95% less than brand names if prescribed. To get simple online access to personalized affordable care for ED, hair loss, weight loss, and more, visit hymns.com slash J-R-E-R. That's Hymns.com slash J-R-E-R for your free online visit. Hymns.com slash JRE. Featured products include compounded drug products which the FDA does not approve or verify for safety,

effectiveness or quality, prescriptions required, see website for details, restrictions, and important safety information. Actual price will depend on product and subscription plan. That was a huge thing that people were talking about as well was the commentary. I think there's a lot of reasons that you could bring in all these people that are Caged side, the celebrities, and do something with it, especially the fighters there. You know, if you had Habeb Cade side, he fought Justin. If he sat in, that would have been, would have added a little, you know, a little spectacle there. Yeah, for sure.

I think having Khabi would be awesome. And any time they have fighters in commentating, it's really good. It could go either way. It can. It can. But a lot of them are pretty good these days. And, you know, they trade him up really well. You know, Dean should talk more as well.

I really love his input. They just don't give him much of a chance. They let him talk like one time in a fight. And every time he jumps in, he immediately nails it. And I'm like, let that guy talk more. I don't know why they don't give him more air time. I guess there's because there's three of them already. But Daniel Cormeier is always waffling away.

So I would say cut him by like 30%. No offense, Daniel. And give some other people a chance. Here's the other thing, too. With the commentary team, we didn't see Kara Bryant. We didn't see Helen Lee. A lot of these faces, I remember back the day when they cut Stitch Duran, when they cut the backstage team with,

Let's Rock and I forgot his name. He's been on my show. Those are staples that fans returned to see. when you have people that you recognize all the time. And when you don't have people like Kara Bryant there that you're used to seeing, I think it does take away. They added some new people. And it does feel a little off.

There are kinks to work out. But there's a lot of things that they could just, you know, they hold grudges a lot, you know, especially with the Stitch-Duran thing. So I feel like there's a lot of movement here. And I feel like Dana for once is actually listening to what people have to say. This is probably his last hurrah. The UFC will not be the same without Dana. And the fans is a huge part.

Another thing I love seeing was the social media aspect. I was worried if they weren't going to bring in people like my boy, Big Marcel chiming in. You see the little Twitter things in the corner. Yep, yeah. Those are huge parts for engagement and what makes you feel even more included. Sure. So I think that, you know, people had a couple of things to say this and that. But for all in all, we got.

Knockout finishes. We got amazing fights on this pay-per-view. And I'm excited for what's going to be coming next. But if we rewind a little bit, we're used to all these things happening. You know, it's easy to pick out the things that are going wrong. But people don't tune into what's been going right. What did you actually enjoy about this card? Like, what was one thing that was actually surprising?

Like, oh, they did a good job. Well, I mean, just the lineup of fights. I mean, the card itself was stacked, I felt like. And, you know, even with the fights that dropped off, they still held the card together. And, you know, with a stacked card like that, you know, you were going to get some good fights. Some of the undercard fights were fantastic. I mean, luckily, I had enough time to watch the whole thing. I had the whole day.

You know, my wife knew that I was going to actually do a pod on the entire, UFC, so she gave me space to watch the whole thing, which was also part of my plan to have that time. So I really need to start reviewing more UFCs because it just gives me space to do that. And some great knockouts, right? I mean, just really across the board. Yeah, I can't say more good things about just. I haven't seen a UFC that I've enjoyed that much for a long time, even with the little changes that were happening with Paramount. I mean, me personally, because I was in it more as like an examining body rather than just even a fan, I was like, I know I'm going to talk about this and kind of analyze what's happening. So I wasn't

being too negative with the changes. I was like mostly, I watched it with a big group of people. So I was mostly curious to see how they were responding to it And just trying to take it all in Everybody seemed super happy with that event And the fact that nobody had to pay for it It's like that's got to be a fucking win right there Come on I mean people right when this card was announced

They were like why is Justin and Patty the main event And I think back you know I saw another influencer being like Patty Pimletton an industry plant. And I'm thinking back in my head going back years before Patty was even signed,

if you remember, with Cage Warriors, he had the chance, the opportunity to sign with the UFC. He said, I wasn't ready. He was a big star, huge star over there.

Same place Cona McGregor came from. And he took his time, built his way up to this point. And then, you know, the UFC, they know what they're doing when they say it's going to be an interim fight. You know the fans are going to react.

and be like, oh, it's an interim fight that we don't care. They do that on purpose. There's things like that they do on purpose here. And it didn't take anything away, even after when Justin was like throwing the belt. It just adds to the spectacle that is the UFC because you look at the WWE and the success they had. Going back to the prelims, we had Hawket doing that promo cut, which did you see that promo cut when he was talking like Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage? And then he threw in that one liner about that athlete. I was like, ooh, but that's what the fans love.

They know what they're doing there to get that reaction. So were you upset about the interim title? I mean, this really didn't matter to me. No. This was a championship fight at a championship level. Well, look, man, I'm British. So watching Patty fight is a big deal. And getting like, you know, half of Liverpool stoked for this fight.

I mean, there were so many guys from Liverpool there supporting Patty. And, you know, a good USA versus England matchup is always solid. Of course, I was supporting Patty. I love Gagey. I'm a big fan of him as well. But I've got to support my countryman. And but generally, you know, whenever I watch a UFC, and this is why I love the UFC so much, it's like even when I go into a fight and I'm watching it,

even if I have a favorite, I'm always cheering for the person that wins or the person that displayed the best skill, the best heart and just overcame. It's like, that's always who I'm cheering for at the end anyway. And so there's never a loss for me as a fan because it's always a win, right? Whereas, you know, I've got Broncos fans that can't leave a game when the Broncos lose feeling good at all. Their whole weekend is destroyed. That doesn't happen with me with UFC ever. So no, it didn't matter that it was interim. I mean, to me, that it's as much of a world title as is anything else. And it was amazing to see Gagie win it. I mean, you know,

he's older now. This definitely would have been towards the end of his career. Well, it still is, in a sense, but it gives him another run. I think, Paddy is a stronger man because of it. You know, he's learned a lot. And one thing he's definitely learned is don't play into Gagey's game. And I think that's going to help him a lot in the future because if he ever gets overconfident like this again with another fighter that's very strong in a particular area

that Paddy is just not quite that elite in, then Paddy's going to fall back on what he's. He is best at, which is grappling and submissions and, you know, his ultimate strengths, which I really wish he had played into a bit more. He just didn't lean into it. And you could tell his punches did not have anywhere the impact that Gages did. There's a thing, you know, especially when he's ducking out of the way, you know, you think you're escaping by sliding out through the cage.

right there in the first round, Justin catches him. He did not expect the way that Justin was moving here was amazing. Patty, an amazing fighter, but I've seen Justin ringside back when it was World Series of Fighting. Right before the UFC even signed him, I even interviewed him years and years ago, which I discussed with you. This is a guy, and even back then, backstage at Foxwood's Casino, I was like, when are you going to sign with the UFC? He says, well, World Series of Fighting is paid. me the best amount of money for where I'm at right now. And that's what I want. And now here you have Justin, like you said, at the end of his career, he has the opportunity to actually speak up and say

something, have an impact. You also have the opportunity for a rematch with Patty, which builds up a whole new spectacle of something exciting. Like you said, the country that Patty is from, everyone comes, even the Americans. We followed both of these guys for so long. That's the beauty of what the UFC has to offer. I've been ringside for regional fights. This podcast is brought to you by Rocket Money. I used to spend many hours each month trying to sort out my finances before Rocket Money. But now with Rocket Money, I get to save all that time and I can put it towards spending time with my family, my friends, going to the gym, reading books is truly wonderful. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that helps find and cancel your unwanted subscription.

monitors your spending and helps lower your bills so you can grow your savings. You can set budgets and goals, get personalized insights and regular reports, and receive real-time alerts for large transactions, upcoming bills, refunds, and low balances. It's super useful. Let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Join at RocketMoney.com. slash jrr. That's rocketmoney.com slash jrrr. Rocketmoney.com slash jrr. Seeing guys coming to the UFC, have good luck, bad luck. You know, Brendan Allen,

Belaw Muhammad before he was champion, I interviewed. That is what makes this exciting because I personally, I struggle with my mental health a lot, you know, to get out of bed, to feel motivated. look into that with the stories. And it's really inspiring when you actually see what these guys go through. You know, when the crowd is so loud, but you just feel your heartbeat, you don't count the punches, but you feel something special inside. That's that spiritual awakening that I love, that represents the ultimate fighting championship. And this is what that was, ultimate fighting. We had finishes, we had storylines. I think this is a great start movie. to 2026.

This was the perfect main event, no matter what anyone has to say. But then again, I would have loved to see Amanda go in there, you know, with the big comeback. Yeah, that was a bummer. That one got canceled for sure. It's, and it's kind of surprising to me, the schedule. Have you seen it? They're literally, it's almost like every weekend they're going to do a UFC fight. and I can't even make sense of how they're going to pull that off.

I mean, it's almost overkill. Like, I don't even know how I'm going to be able to keep up with the UFC anymore. And I almost, I mean, I probably haven't missed even a couple of UFCs for like a decade. And now I'm going to have to because there's just going to be too many. I got to do some stuff on a Saturday other than watch UFC. you know my boy big marcell he posts up or caposa which i'm good on with twitter you guys can follow me at ex evil eddie x on there you know a lot of these things are posted on there you look at the schedules and the roster that the ufc has the paramount plus feature back then we had ufc fight past you didn't know

where it was airing fs1 it was on spike tv the paramount you have all of these fights to access all all the ultimate fighters. There's so much content out there. And this day and age, it's hard to keep up with a 10 second video. The UFC that is now that separates them from Bellator, PFL, World Series of Fighting, is because they're so active,

it gives them a chance to get in there with new fans. And I think that the, you know, the streamers like Jake Paul, you know, people can say what they want. But I think that they did such a good job bringing a whole new generation in right now. Yeah. And it's peaked at the perfect time where Paramount is affordable.

You know, we don't make much money hour to hour. This is affordable. You could watch it wherever. You know where it's going to be. So I'm not too upset about it. But it is difficult to keep up with all the new names, this and that, especially with all the drama online, you know. But some people live for that.

Some people, that is the reason they wake up in the morning. Yeah. I mean, dude, it probably was, I would say, five years ago now that I realized I couldn't keep up with all of the fighters. It used to be that there wasn't a fight. Like someone would bring up a fighter. I'd be like, oh yeah, I know who they are when they fought last, what they're about.

I would know their fights. But, you know, there just wasn't that many to keep track of. Now people become champions. And I'm like, I don't, I can't remember like one of their fights. You know, or I just miss some of the undercards or I'm not ashamed to admit it. And I still watch a ton of them. And it's just, it's the, the divisions are just deep now. I think that's a major issue right now.

When we go back, we look at Ronda Rousey, Conmer Greger era, go back even further, Chuck Liddell, Rampage Jackson, right? Right now we don't really have anyone to fill in that gap. You could say Justin Gachy, if I go to the mail, if I go to the bank, if I go to the store around the court. People don't know these guys. A lot of diehard fans barely know all the champions right now or half the fights they went through. I think that is a huge issue. So what do you, what do you think is missing? Because it's not the UFC. It's not social media. You know, there's so many things that distract us. And you see, look at somebody like sugar, you look at somebody like Patty, they get a little spark. But what is the jump to make someone like my mom or my dad,

my sister tune in. You know, there's something missing. Well, you know, a big part of it is something like this, going over to Paramount, making it more accessible, you know? I mean, when there's a paywall like a pay-per-view, that obviously is shutting people out, right? So now there's no excuse. People can get to it. Also, I love the way that Paramount has a setup. I don't know if you spent much time on the app.

It's brilliant. Like, forget Fight Pass. ESPN Plus bullshit, whatever all that crap was. You go on now. You can split it up into, literally go year by year. You can go to every single UFC. You can go to every single fight. I mean, I mean, I could spend all day on that. Seriously. Like, if you gave me one thing to look at, I could just, you know, give me a flight to Australia that's 14 hours and just give me the UFC app on that. and I'd be in heaven.

I would just watch that constantly one fight after. It's laid out so nicely. And that's a really good way of kind of breaking it down. As it comes to just keeping track of like who the champs are and what, you know, they, I don't know. They just need to be putting up like who the hell is the top 10 more often. You know, sometimes they throw it up at the end of the fights. Like somebody wins and they're like, oh, they're probably move up.

to top five now and they switch them around and they show kind of who's in the top 10. Just do that more. Keep us like kind of more up to date. Whether they put it on the UFC Instagram, whether they're showing it during the fights, like just flash it up for a second. Show us who is the top 10 of each division every now and again just so people are kind of, you know, it's all about education. Right. Remember Joe's role. and why he, why Rogan is so important and integral to this sport and why he's done so much for the UFC because unlike other commentators in other sports, everyone already knew the rules. Everyone knew what the hell was going on in football before the commentator got there.

The same with soccer, the same with baseball. Well, that wasn't true with the UFC. He literally would teach people jiu-jitsu while they were watching it. I remember when I first was watching the UFC. I didn't even know what a triangle or an arm bar was. He would teach you. He'd be like, he's setting it up for a Camora. A Camora is when you do this, this and this.

And you're like, oh, shit, I know what a Camor is now. You get excited about it. And then when you see it the next time. Two weeks later, someone's doing it. And you're telling your buddy, you're like, oh, he's getting a Camora. And that guy's like, I don't even know what a Camora is. And you're just like, well, and you're taking credit for knowing. It's just that Joe told you.

there's a training aspect, right? It's all about that education. The more the viewer knows, the more invested they are in what is going on, the more invested they will be in the UFC. And it just adds that much more to the whole experience. It adds more impact for a physical sport. That's all about impact, right? That's the missing gap there. For sure, for sure. did you hear or see the Mark Smith bit, the referee when they had to carry him off?

I did see a clip of that afterwards. He sprained his ACL or something like that. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Freak injury, dude. I mean, that's not the first time that's happened. You know, Bruce Buffer, like, blew out

his ACL or something while commentating. He slammed his leg down. You know? The 360, right? Something. And it's like, man, to say this sport is dangerous. You can't even be a referee and announcer without damaging yourself.

But there we go. Hopefully Mark makes a swift recovery than that. That's brutal to even see. Again, some of the undercards I really enjoyed. That was a great lineup, some brilliant fights down there. And, you know, some of some vicious animals that I can imagine are going to be main event fights fairly soon. Some that really stood out. Let's see.

Who was really good? Josh, Hokic, that was great. Anything stand out for you on the undercards? Well, you bring up the Hokic fight. There was a point in that fight. He had like 65 punches to zero. Yeah, yeah. You know?

Insane. I'm defeated on a tearing spray. Yeah, that was wild. That was absolutely wild. I mean, just some really cool things. Also, the Gutier versus Pollitt fight. You know, that guy, he had such a buildup of, you know, beating everybody. We never saw him leave the first round.

We were getting a little nervous. Then, boom, we had three buzzer beaters right there in the prelims. people getting paid left and right. But I do want to address something here. When we do discuss these kind of fights, we can't forget the Hall of Famers like Dom Cruz that got inducted to the Hall of Fame right in the middle of the prelims.

That's right. He's a true legend for anyone that doesn't know. WEC, UFC, UFC, Taurus, was out for two years, came back to fight T.J. Dillashaw with Team Alpha Mail, always the enemy. The story gives me chills still to this day. I think that was a great induction for Dom Cruz there.

Yeah. Yeah, well deserved as well. And, you know, some of my favorite clips are him and Michael Bisbing talking mad shit to each other, which they even did in the post-fight panel. And I think he accused Michael Bisbing again of interrupting everybody, which is one of my favorite things. Those two together, you can tell they're really good friends, but the shit that they talk to each other is just brilliant.

And, yeah, super well-deserved, and it's just so great to see. I mean, you know, just like the leagues as well, that's another thing. They should put out the whole list of the inductees. It's like I don't think many fans could name all that many people that have been inducted into that thing. You know, here's another sad thing. You have somebody like Frank Shamrock I interviewed not too long ago.

I think at the beginning of last year, you know, undefeated champion for the UFC still doesn't get inducted to the Hall of Fame. I don't even know if there's an actual Hall of Fame that you could go to. Like I've been to the Basketball Hall of Fame, Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown. The UFC, that's definitely something I would like to see them expand on and also not have so much sassiness. people who actually deserve it. Like the last Rogan episode you were talking about with Benny the Jet.

A lot of people don't even know who he is. Yeah. Well, if you listen to Rogan, you do. I mean, he talks about him a lot. I mean, Rogan's a huge fan. But you're right. Yeah, they're just certain people. And I don't know.

I think Dana's relationship with Shamrock's is kind of similar to Tito's almost. Did Tito ever get inducted? I'm not sure. They had a huge beef after he wore that t-shirt and they were supposed to allegedly fight. Yeah. Yeah, that would have been interesting. But it was kickboxing only, right? He wasn't, Tito wasn't going to be able to grapple. Yeah, well, Dana Way also used to manage Tito, used to manage Chuck Liddell and all of them before. You know, if you remember, Danaway had to leave the East Coast running from a Whitey Bulger back in the day. Yeah. There's a long history of things that are totally interesting. But the one thing I do want to discuss here is the UFC White House upcoming. Derek Lewis on this card had expectations was upset that he was an underdog. Goes in there. Somebody like Derek Lewis. He gets the fans attention. This was a big loss for Derek Lewis. Yeah, it was a bummer. It's really hard to swallow. Yeah, he just didn't get going. He couldn't pull the trigger. I mean, Waldo is he could just. He could just. he had the range, he had the movement, and Derek just couldn't get one off. He just couldn't close the

distance. He kept swinging big bombs and was just doing no damage. He was just hoping for that one big haymaker and he was putting everything into it. All his eggs in that one basket and it wasn't going to break through. I kind of feel like the way he went down at the end, he realized he wasn't getting anywhere and no disrespect to Derek, but it looked like he kind of gave up a little bit, honestly. And we've seen that before in fights with Derek Lewis, where it looks like he's about to give up, and then boom, knocks you out. Right. But that's what makes the ultimate fighting championship, ultimate fighting championship,

because you know he does have that heart to put on to get a finish. So if you look at the figgy versus the Maga Madoff fight, one thing I posted on Twitter was this is something that is an issue for the UFC. like we were discussing a minute ago with not known champions. You have people in there that are just getting decisions, not putting on the most exciting fights. Yeah, Normaga Madoff beats a former champion, but do we remember that compared to the knockouts that we had,

left and right, the heart that was in there? There's things like that that make a fighter special that separate the UFC from other leagues. What did you think about the figure Nirmagamadoff fight? Was it enough for you? to remember even at the end of the month? What do you remember from a fight is the question here? You remember the heart, the grit, being at the edge of your seat?

Yeah, usually for me, it's like when they're putting it all in. You know, if there's a lot of stalling, a lot of circling, you know, when people are putting themselves in dangerous situations to finish fights, that stuff always stands out. because it looks scary. Anything that looks scary, when people are being safe, even when they're dominating, it's just not,

I don't want to say forgettable, but it can blend into all the other fights. When people go at them, go at their opponent, and, you know, put themselves even really in dangerous positions by trying out wild things. It's why John Jones is always amazing.

And I don't want to say that he necessarily is always putting himself. in a dangerous position. But I mean, here, spin at a time when you don't think so for throw out an elbow. He'd do a flying knee when it doesn't even make sense, but he pulls it off. You know what I mean? He just does it. And you're just like, whoa.

It's that stuff that really captures me. I mean, you know, take the Arnold Allen Gene Silver fight, where at the end, he just, like, decides to stand on his back for some reason and just hop off. It's like. Yeah. It's like the whole rest of that fight, kind of take it or leave it, even though it was a great fight.

They were really hammering each other. They were doing some solid work. It was a great fight. But you throw that in at the end. And even when most people were like, well, that was stupid. Why even do that? Well, I'll tell you why to do that.

It becomes one of the most memorable moments of the night. And that counts for something. It really does. Remember, this is the ultimate fighting championship, but this is also entertainment. ladies and gentlemen and that is a real thing if Connor McGreg had told us anything

that is a real part of this I've said this a lot over the years on my podcast that you know 70% of what makes a fight remember isn't even the fight itself it could be the post fight speech where you see these fighters they go in there they put an amazing fight

but they just don't know what to say you could blame it on the past being like oh they didn't know English very well they need to learn no if you know what to say at the end of a fight people will even remember that you know it's a huge part of this generation as well to gain more rise there's money to be made there's a reason why there's no more pay-per-views because there's other ways we could make money and i think that's something that paramount needs to hone in on especially we got the easy access we got promotion for big cards you know

there's so much to look forward to the ufc white house card everyone that doesn't even watch ufc knows that's coming. So with that being said, I want to know what would be the fight on that card that you would want to say? For the White House card? For the way, off of this card, if one fighter deserved a spot from this card to be on the White House card, who do you think? I mean, if Patty had won, it would have been Patty, right? I mean, for me, but he didn't.

So I have to say, no, you don't get it. You don't get that. of those that won yeah I mean probably the most interesting for me is going to be gaugy

but who you're going to put him against I'm really going to be pumped to watch probably the champ right I mean bring him back and once he sorts everything out with his what was it his ex-wife or his wife soon to be ex-wife

yeah I mean that's that's doable I mean look if they can stack that whole card with title fights, then that will be amazing, right? But it won't be the fight that I'm necessarily tuning in to the White House card for. I'm tuning in for John Jones versus Pereira. I'm tuning in for if they can get Connor McGregor to fight anybody, right? It's going to be those sorts of fights is what's going to be permanent sin. There were rumors.

Connemar Greger, Jorge Masped, but all could be on that card. You know, you bring up John Jones, and I do want to say something because people do give them sweat. One of the greatest of all time. Never lost, except to Matt Hamill, never lost a fight since he was, what, 19 years old in the UFC coming out of here in New York. Unbelievable. You know how difficult that is.

Unbelievable. The last is. Yeah. I mean, he truly is the goat. And even his loss to Matt Hammer was a disqualification. I mean, he was pounding, beating the brakes off him. I mean, it wasn't even worth even the idea of a rematch because he was just smashing him. Well, Tom Aspinall was trying to beg for a fight with John Jones.

And what I said, it's not about rushing your meal to get. It's not fast food. This is the highest level, the championship level. John Joe needs time to get ready, know his opponent. Yeah, Tom Aspinall wanted the fight, but John is the one who can pick and choose. He is the actual goat of the UFC. He is the mainframe. And yeah, you could say it's not, you know, he's not active, this and that.

But he puts on, he has to be on that White House card. Oh, for sure. For sure. And, you know, I mean, it's probably going to be his last fight. as well. I mean, he's going to step aside and let, what's his name, Stevenson, that new guy that's just an absolute murderer, just step up and just start walloping. Look, Jones versus Aspinall, would I love to see it again? Yeah, a Brit versus, versus an American. I think Aspinall is excellent. You know, he's so tough. But what has John got to prove at this point? There's just nothing.

to gain for him on that fight. Nothing. He needs to just go out, blazing glory with another win against a champ. I mean, it only makes sense for him to come in and just smash Pereira and then leave. That should be it. If he does it like that, then quits, then rides into the sunset, that will be the most legendary exes strategy of all time. If he does any, anything else, it's ego, and I'm sure he'd be making a mistake. I do not need to see John Jones get knocked out. I don't need to see him. He doesn't need to extend the longevity of that.

That's why Habib, you know, there's an argument that Habib's one of the greatest of all time, but I have a lot to say against that. There's so many other fighters, but he did exit at the right time, which was smart, which is what puts them there. Just like GSP did, you know? And then GSP even came back for that one fight, moved up a weight class, all those years later, you know, beat Bisbing, beat him in style, like took him out fast, which was unbelievable, rea naked choke. I mean, the whole thing was just so epic, retired again. I mean, excellent.

So he did it right, Khabib did it right, Jones needs to do it right, and I hope other champions in the future start doing the same. thing. You don't need to just stay in there and get completely destroyed. I mean, I wish other champs had done the same. Fadour. I wish Fadour had done it like that. I mean, man, if he had just finished on top, it was so brutal watching him towards the end of his career just getting flatlined by people. It just, it's heartbreaking. I just,

it still makes me sad, honestly. Especially losing the people like Matt Mitrio and I mean, Belator used to do such a great job with promotions. You know, their biggest fight was Kimbo, Data, 5,000. You know, and right now it feels like the UFC is pulling

all attention and it feels like everyone else is kind of dying off right now. And it's kind of sad to see. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's finish up with a couple more. I want to cover Rose Namibunas fight.

What did you think of that because there there was it wasn't a bad fight i mean rose you know she's taking some shit recently i mean what was it i think her last fight or fight before last was just um terrible and um she came back and at least was actually fighting this time um and a lot of fans thought she did enough to win i mean it was close um what was your what was your feel and take away on that fight. When you're fighting at the highest level, it's so difficult, especially if you're battling mental health, if you're battling this outside, they have distractions. I thought Rose went in there, did her thing. And there's a lot of people that will say she should have won

that fight. But you're fighting at the highest level. You're getting older. It's difficult to see. You know, I might be a little biased because I've watched her grow up since the ultimate fighter. I've watched her little videos with Pat Barry. I've watched the whole thing unfold. It makes you care. And if you look at it outside of it and take all of that away, you got to remember, this is the highest level. It's so difficult to get a finish even at that level. You know, people, it's second, third, fourth, fifth, you know, that's still the highest level. You might as well be champion. So I take nothing away from Rose. I do want to see her get back in there. But that's the, that's how it goes at that level. If she's not prepared or got,

knocked out or submitted in an awful way I would say I would never actually say hang it up to a fighter that's not for me to say but I think she did what she went in for yeah yeah I couldn't agree with you more honestly and then the last fight on the main event card that we have not covered is Montana's own Sean O'Malley and song your dong and you know Sean what a legend okay great to have him back in there. I mean, song, your dong, it was stout. That guy is just a ball of muscle. He looked terrifying.

I mean, but you see Sean next to him. And once again, Sean just has so much reach, so much length over these guys. And he's so fast, so precise. It's so difficult to get close. He moves so well. I mean, man, it would be a nightmare to spy. with Sean O'Malley. I just couldn't imagine how frustrating it would be.

I just feel like he could punch and kick you from every angle. You would never even get close to him. It would be just terrifying. There's an expectation for somebody like should have Sean O'Malley because going back, if you look at his very first fight, he threw one punch and it was a spinning back fist, I believe, and got the knockout. His whole career has been situations like that. This is a guy that dives deep.

He's different. He's got the face tattoos, the hair color. He's taking psychedelics and training, smoking. He's somebody to watch. He's a spectacle. But just like betting, you can make one bet on your favorite football team soccer. But when you build a parlay and try to picture this, when you're fighting like Sean O'Malley throwing these random things,

these surprising, it's more difficult as you build up that parlet. So when you get to this level and then you finally lose, you take it in. And then you get a little humble from that. I think Sugar was actually smart here. He did what he needed to do to move forward, gain the confidence back. Because a lot of these guys, when they lose a fight, they're never the same again. I saw Sugar show up, did what he needed to do without doing too much. And I'm excited for him to move forward here because he's somebody that the UFC and Paramount can build off of.

For sure. He looked great. And, you know, actually, now that I think about, it going back to your question I'd love to see him on the White House card he'd be the guy yeah I don't know why I blanked on that earlier when I answered that question but yes him after that performance you know it it was just very calculated he was playing it safe but also super technical he was going for the win he wasn't doing anything stupid he was really composed took the guy seriously knew he was dangerous respected him and And, you know, picked into pieces. And by the end, it was just very, very clear that Sean was just a much better fighter. And that power that song had just wasn't going to make a difference. And yeah, it was very clear to the judges by the end of that. And especially with the layoff, you have to consider that the UFC being the ultimate fighting championship,

unlike boxing, you're not getting warm-up fights to show off. and you're jumping right back into the fire. I think they did a great job on this and going to the UFC White House Guard, sugar would be a perfect person. However, I don't want to, I don't buy into the rematches. I'm so tired of the rematches for a title.

I'd rather see them fight someone interesting. It doesn't mean that much to me. Even the rankings at this point, it's give or go. I think it comes down to the right matchmaking. Yeah. I mean, look, The UFC 324, it felt historic.

And not because it was perfect, but because it showed where the UFC is headed. The fights delivered. The main event absolutely delivered. The fighter pay improves and is real and it's meaningful. But the broadcast needs some refinement and fast. All the fans are going to turn away, I think. Well, some of them will through frustration. We're going to see what happens.

moving forward. I think Paramount has a real chance to make this excellent. I think that there's signs of huge improvement from what ESPN Plus was doing before. It's going to do so much for the fan base. So many more people are going to have a chance to watch it. I don't know about you, but it's going to save me about $1,000 this year on pay-per-view, so I'm happy. I'll tell you that much. And many other people are, for sure. Yeah, I'm excited. excited for it. And Ed, it's been a pleasure having you on. We've been talking about getting this together for some time. And I think 2026 we're going to be doing quite a few of these recamps and Rogan MMA reviews. So yeah, first of many. Let me end with this. Like I said at the beginning, you know, this wasn't just another fight night. It was the day the UFC actually flipped the script, you know. With everything aside in the end, UFC 324 wasn't just a debut. It was a declaration. We're rebuilding the spectacle of combat for a new era.

And like all great revolutions, it stings a little on the first pass. So we'll see what the next one has to bring for us. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. It means a lot. And I'm looking forward to the next one. You guys can follow me on Twitter, X Evil, Eddie X. And I hope to talk to you guys soon. Love it.

And excellent. And after that, thanks for listening. And we will talk to you guys next time.