MMA Fighting - Eurobash: Episode 77 (w/ James Gallagher, Artem Lobov)

Episode Date: April 7, 2020

On this week's Eurobash, James Gallagher (18:30) discusses the cancellation of his third scheduled bout with Cal Ellenor, which was set to headline May's Bellator London event. Artem Lobov (53:30) also features on the episode, highlighting the various options he has over a multitude of combat sports disciplines. Hosts Petesy Carroll and Niall McGrath discuss the latest news in the European sport, including Khabib Nurmagomedov's exit from the UFC 249 card.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It is episode 77 of Eurobache And once again From our bunkers on the north side And south side of Dublin we join you Myself and Noel McGraw It's getting It's getting lonesome on this show Noel

I miss you so much I just want to hold you I just want to feel you I just want to be in your presence again Enough enough enough of that I'm good man Yeah not too bad Hibernated still

Getting a little bit frustrated But I'm sure the whole rest of the world is as well But yeah no all good I can't complain working on a few things As I said last week that's keeping me busy. And obviously our sport is the only sport that there's only talk about of going

ahead. So that's been interesting as well. Yes, and of course, aren't we very lucky them keeping us in jobs with all this insanity that's been going on for the last few weeks? Absolutely unbelievable. We are still stuck on UFC 249. That is the talking point of this sport. It continues to be. Weeks upon weeks, the story continues

to develop. So let's take a look at these latest news headlines and we will come back and have a little discussion about where we're with that. UFC 249 to go ahead without Habibn-Magamatoff according to Dana White. Ariel Hawani has reported that Tony

v. Justin Gachey is in the works at an undisclosed location. As first reported on this show last week, Shevchenko v. Collarwood has been postponed from the initial June date in Perth. Also talked about last week, so UFC London fires have been compensated for what should have been

an event on March 21st they were supposed to take part in. John Jones has pleaded guilty to Drung DWI. He received four days house arrest and community service and he has revealed that he has an unhealthy relationship with the gargle. Bellator scheduled events in San Jose, London, and Temecula have all been cancelled.

And how about this? A bit of happy news. Tiago Silva and Rush is Yanna Kuntukyaya have a baby on the way. Huh? Amazing. Wow. She's not cool. I didn't know that. Yeah, I didn't know they were going. Gilerme text me, he's like, well, nobody knew Tiago and Yano are going out. I was like, well, this is the first time I've heard about it. Yeah, well, there you go.

There you go. A coronavirus baby. One of the first of many, I'd say. Jesus, yeah, I would not like to fuck with that kid on the playground in Florida whenever it starts going to school. My God. Hardcore. Fuck that. Absolutely, man.

But look, here we're still on UFC 249. I guess my first question to you is, with all that's happening, with all the changing pieces, the most essential thing, does this event happen? Well, listen, I think it's very hard to say, you steal, Pizzi, whether it's going to happen. We saw, obviously, with Bellator a couple of weeks ago, Belator was pulled right at the last minute after the way-ins, which is obviously the right decision in hindsight, and obviously a lot of upset fighters, but they obviously got their paid and they got their showmoney and all that. So I don't think we can 100% clearly say it's going to go ahead, because the government

could pull it. And if you're looking at the time, frame you're following everything that's going on with the coronavirus in the US and especially on the west coast they haven't hit their peak yet in terms of um you know testing in relation to viruses and contractions and obviously deaths so i think that's going to play out day by day by day and it could even be one of these cases where it gets pulled in the day it's it's hugely risky from the UFC to still go ahead with this but dan is obviously coming out with his cards and sometime this evening he said um obviously we're recording this um on monday we're trying our best to wait till the latest possible time so we can see it but it's still not happening exactly so um it's just

a tough one to call but yeah it seems as though they are putting together a card and you know i think of saying earlier on i think maybe colby covington and um turn wooding don't go there yet no we don't go there yet we've obviously the rumors of tony and and justin gauchy thrown down so yeah um if they get a location i believe a number of the fighters are willing to take that risk and go ahead but it's it's richly down to the government to whether this goes ahead and the local authority. 30s. Yeah, yeah, of course. And you're mentioning risk there, right? But, right, essentially the risk, when we're talking about risk, when everyone else is talking about risk in terms of this event, it's the risk of spreading coronavirus. It's the risk of endangering people's health, right? But then there's another risk that the subplot is, what if Gaichi goes in and upends Tony Ferguson and then there's no reason to really make Ferguson and Habib fight, the fight that this whole event was meant to be pushing forward for? because we obviously couldn't live without it. Like, I mean, that seems like a huge risk

just in terms of this sport, right? The fight, the one we've all been waiting for could go amiss here. Like, I mean, beating Tony Ferguson, right? You might say Tony Ferguson on paper, yeah, I think he beats Justin Gagee. I agree. This sport is far too wild to take it as a given.

Yeah, and I think if that does happen, that fight does, you know, get over the line and they go ahead with this one. And, you know, if Justin does go in and beat him, yeah. like it's it's going to put that fight in serious jeopardy in the future and I think you'd probably be looking at a summer event and I believe if we get everything cleared up between the winner of that fight and Connor McGregor that's how I look at it I think um you know what Habib obviously with Ramadan during the summer sitting out I think the UFC especially even in this market if they can get this event over the line if they want to go ahead in the summer and we're still in the same situation during the summer how big would it be to put on a fight like Tony Ferguson and Connor McGregor they wouldn't you know they're going to strike while the iron's hot and we've seen it's Dean in terms of putting this fight on and going ahead with one um sorry one four nine two two two three nine that he's two four nine two four nine Jesus that he's he's he's super um you know determined to get this on as I've said because of the money and imagine if this continues on

how big Connor and Tony would be in the summer of Connor and gauge he'd be huge man massive and they wouldn't sit out and wait for a beep to come back definitely not with that with the holes in the market okay but the but the one thing all right that's all well good. I mean, you're dead right. A summer fight involving Conradrigger and either Gagie and Ferguson would be huge. But if they destroy like I mean, the interest of Tony

and Habib is completely destroyed if Gagey wins. Like that's what I'm talking about. I don't care about what's happening in the summer. The fight that we've been waiting on five years for like that's gone. I don't care if that happens if Gagee beats Ferguson. Do you understand what I'm saying? Do you not feel the same way? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do feel the same way but I think we're at a point now where Dana's looking past that. It's about the books now

and the platform and the eyes that are going to be on the UFC with no sport on. It doesn't matter who's really sort of fighting at the moment. I think it's about putting on a good fight obviously something that's going

to attract the fans' interest and you're just going to get more fans anyway because the lack of sport that's on. I think that's what it's all about for the UFC and Dana White at the moment. Yes, yes. Is, did Habib play his cards right, right? Because I say this now,

I completely agree with what he had to say in terms of, look, you know, you told me to come here because it's going to happen in Abu Dhabi. I get sent I got turned around at Abu Dhabi I'm back in Russia now everybody in the world is on lockdown

but you think because I can because I'm a celebrity a person with a lot of stock behind them I can just get in the phone and fly over there and do this and look that might be true but he's risking a lot there right

his family his team's health etc I've seen so many people come out and say he's scared this is insanity it's such bullshit it's unbelievable but do you feel as though it could have been handled about his team? Yes, by both teams.

I think there seem to be... We'll get to Tommy next, but let's say on... No, no, no. On Habib's team, yeah, I'm talking about Habib and the UFC here. I think it was handled badly between Habib and the UFC. There seemed to be a little bit of lack of communication. I think Habib said with that interview with Brett Okamoto that he'd basically told Dana that he'd left the US

when he was basically in transit to Russia. And the one thing is I just don't understand with this whole thing, and this is sort of confused me. Habib returned to Russia on the, I think I believe was the 17th or 18th, of March. A day beforehand, Russia had put out the 16th, they announced that they would be putting land border restrictions, are blocking

spans in place. So you're just going like, you know, where's the contact between Habib and the UFC here of him going to Russia? It just seems a cluster fuck all over the place. It wasn't well organized. What happened was he went to Abu Dhabi first because they said it's happening in Abu Dhabi and then he got turned around in Abu Dhabi. So that's why he ended up in Russia. Just a lack of communication between both sides. it's typical UFC and it's just all over the place and especially in a situation like this you think to be speaking every at least twice a day to get this over the line and it clearly

wasn't the case so that's I think the UFC have a lot to blame with this as well I feel like yeah that their line was just like Habib isn't coming yeah Habeb's not going to travel and he kind of had to come out at that stage and say well I fucking traveled because you told me to it well it's typical UFC throwing guys under the bus it always happens it's just a regular can anyone say Leon Edwards well there we go absolutely exactly yeah exactly You know, so it's messy. It's all over the place. And I think it's just reminiscent of how the UFC of being over the last number of weeks with this coronavirus and trying to push ahead with the fights and everything.

It's just become a little bit too much. And I think, you know, as I said, I'm not sure if this is going to go down anyway. Yeah, it's, look, it is without a doubt creating more news in this sport, you know, every day where you have something new. And that's great for us people who are working on the sport. We know a lot of people who have lost work because of this. So, I mean, it's definitely keeping us on our toes. But I guess one thing I kind of wanted to talk about is seeing a lot of pushback against the media here.

And it's really kind of, we say it often on this show. It makes me feel as though the vast majority of fighters don't understand what our job is. So it's like we aren't going to come out and, you know, criticize Tony Ferguson for competing at this event or any fighter that's going to be competing at this event. Because as we said, people need to earn money. here. But there's a big difference between criticizing Tony fighting at the event and criticizing the USC for putting

on this event. If you look around the world, we saw today the PGA, the US, I mean, sorry, they cancelled the Open and they've come out and said, because this is what we have to do. They are leading the line for golf. The Champions League's been cancelled. The Premier League's been cancelled. Every

sport's been cancelled. Everything. All of these mainstream sports. The reason why people are kind of saying, well, the USC need to do it is because they are the identity of the sport worldwide. Global level, yeah. This is going to get a lot worse. There's no doubt about that.

This situation is going to get a lot worse. And if MMA is the only sport out there doing this and with the UFC, that's going to present a lot of negative pushback for the sport, which will affect everyone. Not only the UFC will affect the fighters. It will affect the media, affect everyone if this goes potentially as badly as it could. But I guess at the same thing. time you have people going like, you know, we're asking the USC to be socially responsible here, but the premise of this sport isn't really socially responsible, isn't it? It's so, what's such a

mind fuck this whole situation? Listen, it's, you know, for Dana White especially, and I've alluded to this quite fucking rigorously over the last few weeks that he just doesn't give a shit anymore. Like the sport, you know, in a lot of cases in the US and we see it obviously here the whole time. It's been like this for years and it's never going to change in Ireland, in my opinion, in terms of the mainstream media. the sports being shot on so much peter that it doesn't really matter it's not going to affect dana white what what anyone's saying about him it's he only gives a fuck about the eyes he's not a very socially responsible guys we're well aware of in many cases so i just don't think he gives a fuck that is the bottom line here he wants to put on fights he wants to put on fights for the fans he's battled against

the mainstream before getting the sport into the mainstream in the u.s it's not stopping now listen if you think he's going to lie down and if you're saying this for weeks he's not he's going to try and get, do everything in his fucking power to get this on. He does not give a fuck simple. That's really basically it. And, you know, these guys are sold contracts. You're dead right. You know, I've no problem with these guys wanting to fight because they, literally,

some of them are fucking going from fight camp to fight camp to survive. That's how they do it. And so, like, you can't knock a fighter for wanting to get in there and throw down and earn some bread to putting his table, you know? Yeah, absolutely. This is the final question I wanted to ask you on this, Noel. and that's why I stopped charity around we're talking with this

that we have had an onslaught of fighters trying to put their names in the mix for this card since it kind of it first kind of emerged that there's going to be difficulty with the location there's going to be difficulty

with Habib we've had Usman, Masvedal Colby Covington just to name a few do we see any of those three guys in this card? First of all, Cameron Usman? No.

Horahe Mazvedal. No. Cobby Coffington? Yes. Oh. elaborate. I just think from what he said to us in the show a couple of weeks ago

that he's ready to go and he's eager to get in there. He went on a tirade against Taran Woodley and Tyron obviously did the same to him. They both seem to want this fight. We've seen Taran Woodley what he said the other night on Instagram and I think that's just somewhere

where the UFC needs one or two sort of really good fights here to really catapult. And Dana's going to try and do it. We obviously want to that's, you know, the main events that's falling out. But this is another fight there that's going to captivate the audience and captivate the people even more. He wants to smash records.

This fight gets over the line, dude. That's what's happening. The UFC are smashing records here if this pay-per-view goes ahead. And I think both ways... I don't think so. Oh, man. People are going to tune in for this. Like, Calby, man.

A lot of people like Colby as well. He's grown... He's going to do more numbers than Habib from the Magamato and Conor McGregor. I would not be surprised in this current climate. People are going to... People are going to tune in to watch anything. I'm telling you, that's what I agree that there's definitely interest, but like I just think in the current climate, you're going to have, you'll have a lot more boxing

fans churning in, you'll have just general sports fans across the world, because there's fucking nothing on Pizzi, like, I'm a massive sports fan, you know, you know, I love my soccer, I love my rugby, I love everything, love my golf, I watch fucking Aniston man, and I've, I'm literally sitting here most evenings now, right? And I've nothing to fucking watch. And I want to watch sports, you know, no, no, so. I'm going to too much. This, shut the fuck up. Right. this is what we want to do and the UFC are going to try and execute something good here and I think you know just from going along what both guys have been saying I think it's a really good time to get this fight over the line because the UFC have obviously had that fight fall out a number of times

in terms of Woodley and Covington and for to believe both guys from speaking to both them that they've said you know he pulled out he pulled out if they're both fit and willing to throw down let's do it you know and I think Tyron's given Malki free license to negotiate a fight for him so I think tyrant's definitely going to be in this car the UFC are announced in my my opinion. I want to agree with you. I want these fights. If this is going ahead,

I want it to be the biggest thing. Yeah. It can be, but I just haven't feel none of these guys are going to be on it. And it's going to be Tony V. Gagey and whatever else can throw together. Well, listen,

I do hope for Tony Ferguson, if he's taking this fight, he's getting a large, large payoff. Yeah, absolutely. And what do you think of what? Like, I mean, Tony hasn't done a huge amount of me,

and he did that interview with Ariel O'Anne, obviously speaking about this, where he said that, you know, he thinks that Habib should be stripped, and I think that's absolutely preposterous. But what do you think of the way Tony came out and spoke about it? Like, I mean, I thought everything else he said was very good. He seems very focused.

Doesn't seem to be thrown off by the situation at all to me, but what did you take from it? Yeah, I sort of told, as you're saying there, because I think he's just so used to this fight not happening, that, you know, that was the interesting thing for me coming into this fight, and we're two weeks out again and there's another guy

have fallen out we're not going to see the fight we all want to see but I think they're so used to that now that it's sort of brushed off on them like fuck it someone else is going to have to

have to fucking step in and fight me I think that's the way Tony's looking at and it's the way you have to look at it in situations is this five times you know what I mean it's five times that's crazy like if you know what I mean so I think he's stupid

if he takes this gaatchie fight I think he should just sit off you know I'm sure he wants to get in there and fight but you know for what he could be getting coming up in the summer even like i think they will do connor mcgregor and him in the summer

they'll try and do that because i think john came out and said that connor's going to be fighting in july and during the week there um on on instagram with someone and that was initially meant to be for gaughey yes so i think they will do ferguson and mcgregor in july if or gaiti and mcgregor yeah i i think yeah not a bad call either but i think they'll go all out especially for it's going to be either one of them right if they're going to be fighting in two weeks yeah but no no i'm saying tony shouldn't fight i'm I'm thinking Tony should just sit out to July and try and get Connor or something.

I don't know. I don't think it's the wisest decision to go in and throw down with Justin Gaichy on two weeks notice. Oh, I don't either. Absolutely not. But look, there is more news to talk about. As we said, at the top of this show, Bellator have had to cancel their London event, which was to be topped by

James Geller v. Cal Elinor, the third time it's been booked. The third time it's been cancelled. James Galaher is all the way in Dubai, and he caught up with me to have a chat about this. And when this was called, I swear to God, I got so many messages off people, this is turning into the European, a BV Tony, it's curse, it's never going to happen. So I got his take on that.

And look, I got a fantastic story out of James Galaher. And when we were randomly kind of shooting the shit about UFC Dublin, he talked to me about a time when the UFC reached out and peaked their interest in James Geller, which isn't all too much of a surprise. I just never heard him talk about it before. Really interesting stuff with James. always a real pleasure for us to have him on the show. So we'd be back in about 20 minutes.

And now I am joined by James Galaher, a man who has just found out in the last week that is toured-sched-scheduled fight with Carl Eleanor will not be happening due to obvious coronavirus concerns around Bellator, London. But you're in Dubai now, James. Tell me how you ended up there. What a place to be in isolation.

It's nothing worse, no. No, what happened? So I was here. I came here to do, like, rehab on my back. So I did a few weeks ago. Just before the New York press conference, I came over, and I just stayed for a week, I think six nights. I was supposed to say for a week.

I think I stayed for, like, five nights, because Belletor needed me in New York, so I went straight to New York. But then on my way back from New York, they were saying, oh, the places are going to shut down, they're going to do this, and they're going to do that, like, back in Dublin. So I was going, all right, so the gym's closing.

and I was like so I landed home on the Wednesday night and by Thursday I had flights book back to Dubai and I was gone by Friday morning so I think that's the way it went so it was because I was thinking I was self-fightings you know what I mean so I was thinking if I go to Dubai I can get in myself a nice suite

in an apartment get training in get everything in need do you know I mean under kind of one roof so I just put a lot of money into it and I was like fuck this I'm fighting you know what I mean so I want to prepare the best that I can and I thought that it's the smartest thing to do. And now it's all got cancelled.

So it's just the way it is, and it's, you just get on with it. Is there any kind of sour taste in your mouth after, as you said, spent a lot of money, invested a lot into this camp? Is that a sore point at all,

or is this just how it is? It's just how it is. Do you know what I mean? You can't, it's no one's fault. It's not, do you know what I mean? It's just that everyone's in the same position. And thankfully, I'm in a great position. Do I mean, my family's healthy.

I might hear himself training. I'm healthy. Everything is good, you know what I'm saying? So I've got, actually, I've got nothing to complain about, only that I wanted to fight. And, do you know what I mean? It means a lot to me, the headline in London, and it was a big moment for me,

and I wanted to fight Cal, and I was feeling good, and everything was smooth ceilings, you know what I mean? And then for it just to be whipped out, but I'm in a better position than a lot of people, you know what I'm saying? So I just kind of, I don't focus on what I've lost out on, I just focus on what I've got because that's all that really matters at this stage. Yeah, I mean, what's it like, right? So it's such a different culture over there than in Ireland.

Has it been strange to be stuck over there? And I'm sure there's certain things you can't do, like everywhere else in the world. Is it a different experience? No, not so much like I said. You're not allowed out, you know what I mean? So I've just got, I've got a big apartments that I do. And I have a big terrace down, but a hot tub. and then I can train here on the terrace

and I've got guys come down and do pads with me and I've got a high level PT as well that comes down that I was using for my back rehab. So I'm just keeping on top of all that. They come down a few times a week and then I go and see the doctor also

and get looked over by hand and I'm playing with him in the morning again and I've got a masseuse that comes down and massages me and stuff like that so I'm getting the best under in a bad situation, do you know what I mean? I've got it all under one roof So I haven't left in my apartment in over a week or something.

That's amazing. That's amazing. Far from slowing it anyway, James. Yeah, no, I'm not enough. You know what I mean? I'm definitely not. And I'm not being lazy and I'm not getting, you know what I mean? I'm making the best of a bad situation.

And I think that's what we all need to do, rather than focus on what it don't have, just make use of what you do have. And thankfully, I'm in a really good position that I have a lot. Yes, yes. And I was wondering, right? Because, I mean, this is becoming a hard. whole thing now with you and Cal. I can remember when it was called six days ago, people were like, this is like the European

Habib and Tony. This is three times now. I mean, does it start to feel like this fight might be cursed at this stage? Yeah, 100%. It's just, I just find it weird, you know what I mean? Because at the start, like, when I, how he pulled out at the start was that he just fucked up on his brain thing. Do you know what I mean?

And that was just a weird. That was crazy. I just find... Completely out of left field. I've never heard of anything like that. It's preserved. Me neither, you know what I mean? It's really creepy the way it happened.

I was just strange, you know what I mean? And that's why I don't know what... Actually, I don't know what do you think about it. I think so many different things about it. That I don't even know how I'm thinking about it, you know what I mean? Because it chops and changes, the more deeper they look into. And then the second time I had an injury,

I had a tear on my back, you know what I mean? It's a legit reason not to fight this scant. and the medicals and the doctors so they don't fight, you need to rest up and you need to do the rehab on your back and I'm still doing that. Even though I'm feeling good and I'm back 100% training, I'm still working on that and still

keeping that right. And then now it's, you know what I mean? It's not me, it's not him, it's not Beltor, it's not the one, it's just the world pandemic that we're all in and it's just I don't know, it's just also I'm thinking about it's that my parents are safe and

I'm good and I'm getting what I need and I hope the best to everyone's, you know what I mean? It's kind of one of them. I'm not one of these guys that think it's this, and you read online, and everyone's complaining, and they're giving out, and people need to do this, and people need to do that, is where I'm just kind of going, I'm just doing what I can, you know what I mean?

I'm just staying inside and stand safe and getting on with it, you know what I mean, and that's all you can do. Is there any sight to you, right, James, because I know, I know you for years now, and ever since you're a young teenager, you had big dreams, like huge dreams, and I know you have many things you have many things, you want to accomplish before you're going to hang up your gloves.

Is there any part of you when this fight has been booked and hasn't happened three times that you're like, is this holding me back? Like, am I stuck here? Like, I want to move on. Is there any sense of that? Yeah, yeah, 100% that I'm thinking that's the level of them on here. But I can't make calls yet until everything gets back up and going because no one knows anything.

Do you know what I mean? No one knows in the next fight. There's no one knows what's happening. but I'm thinking of maybe just going back, fighting in America again and getting the bigger fight, Sergio Pettis, or I've got Dublin as well, Dublin's coming up, you know what I mean?

But that's Peter's gig, so he's going to do that. And, you know what I mean? So I actually don't know, do you know what I mean? So at the minute, rather than thinking about all these things and about getting somewhere and grabbing this and getting that as we, do know what I mean? You can just a bike block the door to get her shopping.

So I'm just focus on Stanford. fit and staying healthy and when the call comes cold, I think we're all going to be in a position that we don't give a fuck who it is, where it is, what it is, just fight, you know what I mean? And that's the mindset that I'm on is I really don't give a bollocks, you know,

because it's kind of saying like, oh, there is, there is bigger fights and there is bigger things to move on to, but I'm the big, I'm the biggest do you know what I mean? I make, Sergio fight is, pet his fights and

fucking anyone. It's kind of like, oh, it's cool he's fighting. But if he fights me, it's massive. I agree. Do you know what I mean? Cal fights. No one gives one ball to the fuck he is. Do you know what I mean? No one gives a fuck about him. But if he fights me, it's a big fight, do you know what I'm saying? So that's just how I'm thinking about it. So no matter what the fuck I do, it's going to be a big, it's going to be a big moment and I'm just going to be ready for it. And I told Bell, I said, look, listen, even on the, like when they were, no one knew and everyone was like, oh, we need you know, we're flighting we needed no list I said I don't need to know I said I'm getting ready

I'm gonna be fit I'm gonna be in shape let me know if it's on or let me know when it's off when he's now you know what I mean and that that's how I left it and I was all night then after when they said it was off I says well anyway I'm I'm I'm out I'm I'm out in Dubai and I won my flight I'm I've got I'm set up out here with digs and so so I just I'm chilling you know I mean I'm chilling training just give me the call when the time's right and I'll be ready within two three weeks notice you know I mean, if you even, I'll be ready in two weeks, like a week, do you know what I mean? I just think it dropped the weight and that's it, and the wood's good, do you know what I mean?

I'm sticking on the diets and staying fresh and sound fit. So I feel that this is going to show who's the true fighters when it's all over, you know, who's ready to come out to get running. Yes, that's very interesting, actually, yeah. I've been talking about that with a fair few people because it's like, you know, it's like any profession, if you don't actually do it, if you don't putting into practice, you might come back, not as good as you were.

So that is a good note. But what you're saying there, James, is there is, like, I mean, it's not set in stone that Carl is the next guy you fight at all. I don't know nothing, mate. Yeah.

I don't know, I don't know when I'm fighting again. Do you know what I mean? And I don't, no one knows when I'm fighting again. You don't know belt or I don't know when the next event. Is it this thing that he going on for the next year? Is it going to be over in the next month?

You know what I mean? it's kind of so that's what I don't know I hope it's over in the next month or two and then we're straight back in the end of the summer and ready to go you know what I mean I could get two three more fights in then that's that's what I'm hoping for you know what I mean but I just don't I kind of it's like I don't talk about what I don't know yes you know what I mean I only talk about I'll talk about what I'm doing now and it's like I can't predict what's going to happen because I have absolutely no control over it you know I mean it's kind of like I'm going to try I think I'm like I'm

I've got a big apartment here now until the 10th. So I do, but I might keep it for another two weeks and then fly back home and see me man all and stuff because you miss home comforts as well, you know what you're away, even though it's luxury and everything's good. Do you mean, you got some fella coming in and rubs you out every day

and everything happens to me. And I didn't even got to cook, do you know what I mean? I get a little meat delivered to me door every other hour. Is there any jobs going? I'll come over and cook your food for you if you need, me to you know what I mean you just see the food be delivered to the hotel and it's just it's easy you know what I mean it's easy so the only broken thing I've got to do is get up

and stay fit stay healthy and stay in top of myself yeah you know what I mean and and that's what I'm did I'm going to come out of this like a machine so I'm coming out of this better than ever that's it than everyone else also I was on I was a guest on a podcast recently and I was put on the spot with a question they asked me um you know, if UFC could sign anyone ahead of this Dublin card in August, who do you think it would be? And the first name straight away, I was like, if they could sign anyone, be James Geller. I was like, he's the biggest draw. He's the biggest star. He's sold out arenas. He's an accomplished fighter already. He's one of the biggest names on Bellator's books.

I mean, it's just something that isn't talked about, obviously because you are with Bellator. You are synonymous with that brand. But, I mean, do you agree with that? If they could sign anyone in Ireland ahead of this Dublin card, it would probably be you, if there was no, contractual obligations, etc? Well, if they want the crowd, do you know what I mean? If they want that big show and they want to put on something big that's going to draw attention and yes, do you know what I mean? And if that's obviously as smart promoters, that's what they want.

If they want to make loads of money, then there's no matter of man to bring that kind of crowd to the table. Do you know what I mean? I feel like that it's obvious what I do with Belthor. You know what I mean? So it's set in stone, you know? I mean, it's set in stone what I bring. I don't need to explain it.

They know what's what. Everyone knows what's what. It's prudgeon. I don't need to say it, you know what I mean? Everyone's like, oh, you talk a lot of shit and you talk this as well. Just go back and look. You know what I mean? I'm not saying nothing.

Just go and look. The person that's putting is there. The numbers don't lie. And that's the fact of it. I mean, if they want to get that big draw, because they don't have anyone on it from Ireland, it's a big draw. And I don't think there's,

especially probably obviously they have Connor but like I mean he he won't be fighting yeah but Conner's Connor you know what I mean Connor's not Conner's not this talk you know what I mean Conner's Connor is UFC Do you know what I mean? Connor is UFC that's that's how that is Connor is bigger than Conner's bigger than USC that's that's how that is and but so but if they want to bring an Irish fighter in like on the local scene that it's going to bring mixed to that kind of attention

it has to be me do you know what I mean but I'm happy where I'm my belt or the belt are great do you know what I mean you've seen how it played out with the the last card where Pedro was fighting for the title and it got pulled on the day they got paid full

on win bonus and show money do you know what I mean so that that's that's that's the promotion that I'm in and that's where I'm comfortable and but I'm open for anything. You know what I mean?

I don't turn down. I don't turn down what's best for me. So what's best for me at the minute is what I'm doing and where I'm at. Absolutely. But this is something I've never asked you before. And I don't know why I've never asked you before. Have they ever come looking for you? Have they tried to ever get James Geller's signature UFC over the year?

Yeah. Yeah, there was talks. They reached out from my management after the Ricky fight, after I got beat. Wow. That's incredible, right? That shows how big you were after your first professional lost they're coming after, that's incredible.

Yeah, so it is they came after the Ricky fight and we were like, everybody makes him a big star. I just got the voice now. They got it sent over for me from the management from their matchmaker at the USC and he sent me it over and it was a big fucking 15 minute voice note. You know, it was and it was

kind of like we want to be doing this and we see the potential and blah blah blah and they want to do this and I do that and stuff and then the contract of the elder came with me then after when I fought after like Stephen good the Stephen grain fight was the main event in Dublin and then I got do you know what I mean I'm they start I'm sorry do you I mean I'm not I'm not sorry but I was I was just there wasn't any there wasn't any other way or I was going you know what I mean the contract wasn't even up and they put this table or like you want that and I was like fucking right you do you know what I mean and I wasn't getting any better no one was offering any

better than that and I don't think anyone will for for a while so you're happy with your decision obviously the best fucking right now I'm I'm good you know what I mean like this is for times like this is why you got to be smart about your career and everyone people to just jump the dog come off a loss and whatever but and doubt themselves and not believe themselves and then the UFC just because it's a big name, he would jump at that. Do you know what I mean? And I was like, I was fucking at rock bottom there,

but I still had that vision on my head as like I knew what was what and knew what I was capable of and knew where I was able to go, I've seen the star power that I had. And that's what you have to keep, and always in your head, you know what I mean? If you see that vision and don't get complacent and like when you're feeling good

and don't also get complacent when you're feeling down, do you know what I mean? Don't doubt yourself when you're in your bad times and just see for how it is. And that's something that I feel like I've been very good at and just get on with it. You know what I mean? And just keep that dry, keep that vision. I'm, they kind of mean.

I'm sorry, especially in those situations like this, you know what I mean? I haven't fought since September and I'm still able to do all this shit. And I'm still content and I'm still content and so happy. And I'm still just getting on with it and being looked after. And I'm good, you know what I mean? I've got no stresses, no worries. It's only about getting my body fit and getting my body in shape and getting ready to go again. and Balthar said to me that as soon as it's back and gone, I'm first in line.

You know what I mean? If you're ready, you're first in line. So I'm happy. I'm happy with that. I'm happy with everything else goes. And as you see me, other people and fights get pulled. They don't know if they were getting this. They don't know if they were getting that.

They didn't know anything. And I just, I'm not about that. You know what I mean? I like to know what's what. Yeah. And people being in your situation needs to be celebrated more in this sport because it's rare. People don't understand how rare it is, you know? It's not everybody that's in a situation where,

they're comfortable after so many months without fighting. I think that should be applauded for a guy your age to be in that situation. It's unbelievable. Just two last questions, James. You've mentioned Reese McKee on the phone to us before. Would you be happy to see him get that call up to the big show in August if it comes? I know you're a big fan of his fighting. 100%.

I think he's probably the only guy. Maybe I don't mean to disrespect anyone else, but I can't think off the top of my head. No, I agree. He's the most obvious, without a doubt. Yeah, I can't think of anyone off the top of my head. who else they become looking for. Do you know what I mean? He's the first in line.

I feel like he's a free agent, isn't he? Yeah, pretty much. Like, I mean, if he gets a contract out from UFC, I think they have to open the door for him to go, you know? Yeah, yeah. So if he's not locked, right? And I think he's, he's the first in charge. I mean, he's been on a, I'm sure he's on a good streak right.

Does he? I'm not 100% sure, but I feel like he's on a good win streak and he's been making statements in every other fight. Do you know what I mean? He's made a few big stipends recently. the last few years or so, and I feel like he deserves it. The skill set talks for itself,

do you know what I mean? And finally, I just wanted to ask how everyone is at home in Straban. You know, some of our favorite people to see at events are your family, of course, and we just want to make sure I know, you know you've mentioned it a few times, but is everyone okay?

Is everyone in good spirits? Yeah, no, everyone's brilliant, you know what I mean? It's kind of like, no one's really changed, you know what I mean? Only that everyone's been locked down. you know what I mean and that's it but I've been speaking them every day but I be speaking to me man I'll be like telling her how I have good things are here and I've got everything she's like but I'm still worried about you just come home and I'm going like there's no

it couldn't be any safer possibly like because when you look into front of ours it can't survive in like heat so it's not it's like and all this shit I've been reading out on it and apparently I'm like in the device one of the safest places in the world at the minute I think she's just I'm trying to I tried I tried so it was but I just

I just the bike got in after that they shut the place down so it is but I was gonna do that I was good thing to send him like I'll rent out a big place and I'll just come over and stay

for a couple months or whatever but I couldn't I couldn't do it they wouldn't let anyone they wouldn't give anyone a travel these in you need to work here you need to do something

so it just was too much hassle then but I don't know I'm feeling homesick so I might just get over and bounce over and look hard to see you know me well obviously I can't either so I mean I'll be chilling back here as if nothing's even going on you know what I mean I'm sitting in my

yoke and then I'm like oh I'll just bounce back and see around and I'm going but I'm not allowed outside you're not like to fucking do anything you know what I mean so I don't know I'm just picking at my stride pizza and staying in shape and be coming out of it as a better animal than I went into it and I'm going to show up come out of that trap like a fucking greyhound do you know what I mean come out sprint

and I just want whatever he's next to mind you know what I mean with a call thing it's whatever do you know what I mean fuck fuck him I just

I don't care you know what I'm just focused on myself and want to fight and this list do you know what I mean this list I just want that walk again

I want to cry I want to get back in there it's do I mean but probably by the time of fight again it's probably gonna be August do I mean

I think that a year yeah yeah yeah since I thought do you know what I mean and only that I'm still staying so relevant in it's like

do I mean There's not very many people that don't fall off the ladder after a year of not fighting, should I mean, but I've stayed solid all the way through it and kept hitting the working and kept going and kept driving, and that's what I'm going to do until it's done. Would you say your dad's enjoying the fight that he can go and spin around the America while you're away, though? He won't drive it. He won't drive it, so he won't. I keep offering it.

I'm like, oh, I took the car. I say, nah, no, no, nah, nah. My case I hit at her or something, you know yourself. You know yourself. Andy, go and take that car. Take it on a spin. Yeah, yeah, he's mad. He'd rather go out on a bike.

I said he doesn't feel to ride on a bike if it's just around Strabant. So he does. He loves, yeah, he loves them fit. I bought him a bike for one for Christmas a few years ago. And now he doesn't even use his car. Amazing, yeah. Nord-Norland's huge for the TT racing motorboys. They all love them, right?

Need for speed. No, no, I'm on a, I'm on a cycling bike. Oh, wow. Wow. Yeah, a healthier man than me. me fit, man. As I goes, keep me fit, man, keep the weight off and also,

he's flat out into that, and every time I've got one as well, so anytime I go back, Emma, go and do a proper spin. That's how he gets around, no, yeah, that's his transport. He doesn't pick the car, and he won't drive the mark. Well, look, James, you've given me plenty of time today.

Thanks so much for getting on, and I hope everyone stays safe. I hope you stay safe, and I hope everything stays sweet for you, my friend. Nice one, boy, you too, Pete, you look after yourself. all the best one. I'm just getting back into my hot tub. Same, same here, same here.

Talk to you soon, man, be safe. And there he was, the strob animal himself, having a good old time. Great interview. I enjoyed that one, Pete. He was good. How has been no one ever asking that question before? That was pure ramble that I asked that question.

I thought about it once or twice, but I was just like, I didn't expect that response from, yeah. He's so, synonymous with Elator, I guess, that you just don't even. Yeah, you don't think about it. about it really. Yeah, very interesting, but not surprising either, like. No, not at all, man. Listen, I think

he's one of the few guys, the UFC would generally try to pouch off off Bellator, MMA, and I think especially around that 35, 40, 45 pain division, they've a lot of killers there and he's, you know, he's the biggest name. And it's mad coming off for a loss as well. Fucking hell. Yeah. Well, that shows

you the value. Like, I mean, I only actually thought about this, I was on, I was a guest on a podcast, the energy of his podcast, and the lads were like, who, if you're the UFC, who you sign if you're coming to Dublin. And I was like, what do you mean? They're like, anyone, you can sign anyone in Ireland. Like, what would you do?

And I was like, if you could sign anyone in Ireland. Yeah. There's a young guy here who's selling out arenas. He's linked to Connor McGregor. I mean, like, who else would you sign, you know? So, I agree. Like, because he's one of those guys, he just captivates people. And I think, you know, maybe the UFC saw and the bill looked at that Bellator event

in Madison Square Garden, especially. I think it was before that fight Was it was before or after? It was it was when he smoked Machita's brother Yeah like we basically got Them to put that on YouTube And the numbers were fucking insane on YouTube And that was like an hour before

And he had like 50,000 people watching it live or something And I can only imagine the numbers went up more than that after the fact When people started talking about it But I love the fact that James come out and And back Rees as well I think that's really novel And that was cool, it was cool Yeah and I think he was spot on about Rees

Obviously he'd been saying it for years but he's uh he's sort of just backed up what we've been saying and thinking and i think he is hands down sort of the front runner obviously in uh in in in ireland to get signed by the ufc if that card goes ahead sure who knows what's going to fucking happen so many yeah so many pieces i play here but um just a just the speaking of galahar and that london card um you know there there is some uh fights that can come and go and there's some fights that need to happen or i feel like there is an appetite for that we're on that card. And starting from the bottom, working my way up,

the definite keepers for me, I think you've got to keep Saul Rogers and Robert Weiford because that was just a really high-level fight. Wasn't that? I can remember when it came out, you were really excited about that fight. Yeah, man, it's a crack and fight. We know Saul, obviously, from his stint on the European scene here before he signed for one of the bigger promotions,

obviously Bellator and, you know, Robert Weiford, obviously a vet as well. Two guys who just love to throw down, swing and bang, and Saul's obviously very handy on the ground as well and it was just a fight I think people were very very excited about because they're both sort of explosive guys and guys that have been

obviously with the UFC at some point in their career in some sort of aspect did Saul fight for the UFC to get one fight in the end there was the visa issue remember he was meant to compete the top final and couldn't and never got the fight couldn't get that visa issue

sorted and I believe it's quite similar to the situation Till finds him in here where he accidentally incidentally said something that he shouldn't have said on their visa he should have foiled in something he didn't and then it kind of blew up in his face yeah so I think that's a must

do you know what I fight that like maybe people aren't going that fight needs to happen that was a good fight and I'll explain why and many people have already the Leah and Janay Harding fight was particularly interesting because Janay had beaten Shanade before right she has a win over

Cheney Kavana and I think the fact that people know that and then to put Leah in against her it's a good sell and it's a good nod to the level she's at right because we know how good Sheenade is we saw how good she was against Leslie Smith I think that was a fight that made a lot of sense

if you get me and sometimes Belator don't make fights that make sense Yeah and it was a gradual You know step up and progression from what Leah's faced so far in Bellator MMMA And a real tough test and I think that was a fight Where you could sort of Probably tell a lot more into where Leah's going

In her career in terms of her trajectory Which I can never say properly and I think you know that would have right now you nailed it. Yeah what would have been a tough tough spot for

for both ladies that was a fight it's a very very competitive fight in a fight I think hopefully I want to see them put on down the line in the future along with James and Carl obviously

yeah I mean this is this is the one of the great pities of this card for me when I look at the main event and comment event it's four fighters that they have built from nothing like I mean they've built these guys

from the ground James Gala at Cal Eleanor Fabian Edwards, Kostlo van Steens. None of these people were names for European fans, like before they went to where they went. I know obviously James was a huge name as soon as he went pro. Fabian was a huge name as soon as he went pro. But they have pushed on and gone to a completely different level. I think James Gallagher and Fabian Edwards is two biggest success stories of this whole Belator Europe situation. And I feel like that would have been just a great marquee for them to have and say,

look what we did here. We've made these guys headlines. And I know James has had headlines, etc but this just felt like well look at what we've done here you know what I mean I think Van Stenis and Fabian doesn't need to happen in London you can do that in Amsterdam I heard they were thinking about that but I think that has it needs to stay as well and Bellator should have put more work in so people would have realized how I was just I was literally going to say that what you're saying here and now they should have put more work in shipment of Vanstina's happened without anyone even knowing definitely and and that should have been that should have been able to compound the result of affid into the Fabian

V it was Mike Shipping in the end but Kostlov and Stina's beat him. So they're kind of confused the situation a bit but I still do feel like this is going to crown the the number one hottest guy out of Europe and middleweight. Yeah, I just want to add some of what you're saying there like a lot of the guys if you look at them and we've been critical of the way

Bellator have marketed these guys individually and I think if you look at James, if you look at Leah especially those two, they've done a lot of their own, you know, marketing, you know, Leah is obviously very popular up north with the media there with UTV and BBC, James for God knows how long since he was 16 years of age has sold himself.

So if they had to put some extra weight in behind them and done it a little bit differently, sort out the TV deal for things like this, they could have guys that people are generally talking about in their houses, household names here. And I know Leah probably is getting there to a certain extent up north. James is very well known here, but they could have even taken it to a greater level,

which is the disappointing thing for me with this European series of Bellator. Yeah, absolutely. This was going to be a big one for them. but I will ask you about what James said. Yeah. And look, James, he known to a fight that you have been talking about since Sergio Petis joined the Bellator ranks. He's saying, like, look, there's bigger fights out there for me.

Like, do I have to fight Carl Eleanor? You know, he's saying, like, Sergio Petis, people get excited to watch Sergio Petis fight. But if I was to fight Sergio Petits, that would be out of this world. And he says, Carl Eleanor isn't known. he's only known because of this. I'm fighting him to make this a big fight. He feels like he is the traction generator, so to speak,

for all of these fights. Do you think Eleanor v. Gallagher will happen, or do you think Galaher, as he said, potentially could move on to a US fight or something else? It doesn't have to happen, Pizzi, but I think with all the beef now that's being created between the pair

and going back and forth, one guy's pulled out, the other guys pull out. It's actually getting to a situation now where it's getting like Habib and Tony, but in Bellator. I think people are... It's an appetite, right? There is an appetite there. People are generally interested,

especially after the fallouts now to see it more. There's the shit talk has escalated. Ten Fulcens originally fell out. So, yeah, like, I still really want to see the fight. I think Cal, a lot of people are writing off Cal ridiculously. I think it's a really good litmus test in terms of James, you know, going up to that next level and really getting a really sort of high-level progression opponent

the whole time it seems to be building, even since that loss and he's taken out everything he's put in front of him. But you've always have that Pettus fight for another day because listen

all great respect to a lot of the guys there. Pettus is probably going to beat them from because he is one of the top guys they have in their division at 135 and I think that's something you can do that to line sell guys once more

maybe towards the end of the year end of year show and I think they want to put this on Galaher and Pettis down the line because I think it's such a big, big fight for Bellator in terms of getting eyes on their promotion from Europe, from the US. It's one of those real sort of marquee year fights, like an international fight week for the UFC. This is the kind of fight that that would be down

the line. And we spoke to Duke an interview that we actually didn't air before. And he spoke about his desire. He said he'd love to have the two of them throw down. So yeah, why not? Like, you know, it's a quality, quality fight. But I would like to see Eleanor and Galaher go out of first. And Sergio have another fight in Bellator definitely before it happens. End a year, I'd say. Get over this shit first. It doesn't even need to be the end of the year, I guess. But you're right.

Like, that can be on the long-arm. But I also think, like, as I'm talking to James, I'm always acutely aware that, you know, we think we're on... Like, you know, we think we're on the same step here when we're talking to Gallo. Like, we're all finding out what's happening. But it always feels like he's maybe a couple of steps ahead. And the further I get from that interview is, like, maybe he's just kind of saying. this thing about Eleanor to basically highlight the fact

that he is the brand name. Of course he is. He is the power guy. He is the guy that Bellator want to keep happy in all these situations. He is the gravy train. He is the guy that he is one of the key components of making this European series of success.

There's no other way to dress it up. Absolutely. He has been the big story out of this whole thing. The likes of him and Fabian. I mean, is he just saying this to remind Cal like I don't have to do anything I can do whatever I want 100% and there's no guarantees this fight's

going to happen down the line and you said it 100% spot on there totally agree that he's the biggest draw on Bellator MMA and there's no doubt about it and if anyone else wants to say otherwise they're wrong and listen maybe he does want to fight in the US maybe he does want to push on his brand more because everyone knows him in the UK and Ireland now in terms of MMA

as we said I think Bellator could have done a slightly better job with the marketing but everyone knows James and I think if he wants to go to the US he's he's putting more stock behind them and behind his brand behind what he wants to do. And listen, if I'm a fighter, if I'm in that position, you know, I'd want to

fight in the US. No disrespect to the fans here and stuff like that. There's going to be a Bellator card here every year, at least one you'd imagine. So we can be picky and choosy about that and fight in the US as well. And like, fuck it, man. Like, why not do the Sturgio fight next? I don't think it should be. But

if Bellator want to go down that route, who's complaining at this point? I'm not. Yeah, and I've never heard Gallagher before referred to a card as that's Peter's card. He was referring to September in Dublin. He said that's Peter's car because Peter's obviously fighting Patricio, sorry,

Patrickie Pitbull. So I thought that was a bit of a tale too. Like I mean, maybe his plans aren't for September. But look, he's kept us guessing. He's done his job, as they say, in the game. That's what he does. And that's why I think people want to tune in. You know, breaking down the interview for 20 minutes after, you know.

But that's it. It was a great interview. I really enjoyed it. And, you know, I've known but, you know, hats off to James and what he's done. And I think he's a great representative for the sport of mixed martial arts. And he's exactly what we're talking about earlier on, PETI, in regards of fighters not understanding how to deal with the media. He's certainly someone who does understand what the media are there for. He's one of the guys that I think, and for such a guy at such a young age, it's very impressive. And, you know, and guys, fighters that aren't good with the media and don't understand the media's role that should listen to what James says and how.

he sells himself because he's fantastic at it. Hats off to him. I've never seen a media member walk away from James Gowler like, ah, didn't get anything there. You'll always get something off games. But that's it. That's what, that's what, you know, that's, he knows the drill. And, you know, fair play to him and I'm very mature for

his age. A man beyond his years, definitely. Yeah. I wonder if he'll give you a land of that Mercedes, whether it's just sitting up here and I'll just get you to go and rob it for me. I'll give you, I'll give you 600 quid for it, yeah. he'd be so job fucking hot wearing that yeah it was like the batmobile right from one man who was who rarely leaves us um with no headlines from an interview to another it is the debut of the the

russian hammer artem loboff and we have never had him on this show and for the amount of headlines that have come out over art him over the last last year or so this is about 12 we went through particularly yeah i mean it's it's mental from ksw to bell at to bare knuckle, to boxing, to Habib. Unbelievable. Unbelievable amount of stuff to get through here with Artem. And it was an absolute pleasure to be joined by him. So happy that he has finally joined us on Zabash.

But yeah, so we'll go over to this interview and we'll be back in about 30 minutes. This is quite a long one, but we only have the two interviews today. So I'm sure you'll be more than happy to listen to what he has to say. Here's Artem Lobov. And now it's a man we have been. wanting to join us on the Eurobash for a long, long time. It's the legendary Russian hammer, a man who has kept MMA media in jobs, really,

for the last year with the amount of headlines he's produced. Artem, how are you? First of all, how was isolation treating you? And welcome to Eurobash, finally. I'm good, I'm good, Pizzi. Thanks for having me on Eurobash. I've heard a lot of good things, so it's good to finally, you know, be on it myself.

Amazing, amazing. Yes, the lockdown, I mean, the same as everyone else, I guess. all in the same boat now. It's boring. It's frustrating. It's annoying, but it has to be done. You know, this is what we have to do in order to bid this virus. So I'm just obeying the rules and staying at home. Yeah, I mean, how is it having, you know, a very young child, you know, your son? I mean, what is that like having, looking after a child in this situation where I'm sure, you know, a lot of grandparents want to see him all the time and things like this? Is it a difficult thing to negotiate for you?

Yeah, I mean, I suppose, yeah, but for the kid himself, I mean, he doesn't really mind. I don't think, you know, I still bring him out for walks, you know, so he is happy. The only thing, he probably wants some new toys, but everything has been closed, and I wasn't unable to order anything online, you know, all the toy stores here are closed, and so that's been the only kind of downfall for him. But other than that, he's been loving, you know, we're going on walks every day, two, three times. He loves it, you know.

he doesn't seem to mind, you know. So, yeah, once he's happy, I'm happy. Well, I want to ask you, right, because I was saying to before we got in the line here, like I was kind of just making a list of things that I wanted to talk about. But, I mean, it's so, it's amazing how many stories you've been linked to since you've left the UFC and the things you've done, you, I believe, were the driving force behind Bernuckel getting the start off. It did get with the Polly fight.

That was the biggest fight. that was one of the biggest fights of the year when it happened. I mean, even my friends, I hadn't heard them, oh, I want to come around and watch a fight for a long time since Conner's heyday. They all were trying to come over and see you fight Pauley, which was huge for a bare and uncle. But, I mean, you know, in hindsight of everything that's happened, is leaving the UFC the best thing you've ever done?

Because it feels like you have shown them the power of your name, the power of your brand emphatically since you've left, to be quite honest. I mean, yeah, certainly. I mean, don't get me wrong. The reason I was able to make all this headlines, one of the reasons, anyway, is the fact that I was a UFC vet. You know, if I was coming out of any other promotion,

I don't think there would be as much interest as there was when you're a UFC vet. So, you know, I have to give them credit for it, of course. At the same time, yes, when I left the UFC, that has allowed me to be proactive. That has allowed me to, you know, work and get in all those headlines. You know, because when you're in the UFC, you're just sitting waiting for a phone call.

You know, you're sitting and waiting until they decide for the time for you to go and fight. But as soon as I was outside the UFC, you know, I was able to negotiate with everybody. I was able to search for my own fights, you know. And that's exactly what I like to do. You know, I was very proactive. And to me, that's the way a fighter should be.

You know, I remember, I think last year at Bellator, you know, Team Reino guys were all moaning and complaining about Reds are not being on the main card or something like that. To me, you know, don't think. phone and complain, you prove to Paloitor or to have a other promotion that you're worthy of the main card, that you're worthy of the main event sport. And it will happen. And look at, and look, it did happen to Reds down the line. But he won that fight, he destroyed the guy. And he was then the main event. I mean, it was unfortunate that you have to pull out with the injury.

But, but, but, you know, they, they noticed him and they wanted him to, to be on the main card. And the same with, if you look at Connor, you know, when Connor first time fought in the UFC, he, wasn't on the main car, he wasn't the main event, he was on the prelims, but everyone was talking about him because he made sure of that, he gave people something to talk about, he gave people something to look at, and that's the only way forward, you know, there's no point moaning and complaining, oh, I should be there, I should be here. You know, you go out there, put the work in, give people something, you know, provide good fights, make sure that you're entertaining, and that's it, and those main events, sports will come. So, that's what I've been doing.

Yeah, I mean, it's essentially the purest form of prize fighting what you're doing now. I mean, you're available across multiple disciplines. I mean, you are ready to fight MMA, you're ready to fight boxing, you're ready to fight bare-knuckle. Does this feel to you the truest sense of what a prize fighter is? Absolutely, absolutely, yeah. And to me, like I always say, I'm not a moan or a complainer, I'm a hard worker, I'm a go-getter. So to me, I enjoy being in this position. You know, somebody else, maybe they would rather be signed to a promotion,

just, you know, kind of be relaxed and just sit and wait until the call comes and they tell them, okay, it's time to go. But not for me, you know, I'm ready to work. I'm ready to put the work in. Yes, it's a little bit uncertain at times. You know, you're not sure when the next paycheck will come. Will it come? You know, you're not signed to anyone.

But I don't mind being in that situation. You know, more risk demands more reward. And it has certainly been the situation for me. Yes, you know, I wasn't guaranteed, you know, a fight. Yes, you know, I wasn't sure it was able to be fighting or not, but I made sure I kept working and I made sure that when those paydays did come, there were a lot bigger than the majority paydays for the rest of the fighters throughout the world. Yeah, no, absolutely.

It's been amazing to watch what you've done and deliver for these promotions. But I've had to compartmentalize my questions into different disciplines just to keep my head straight for this interview. So, I mean, right, so we'll start with MMA. First of all. There was very recent talk about you and KSW, you and the Polish zombie potentially fighting. You know, was that close to happening? There seemed to be a lot of intrigue online.

I know you posted about it. I saw a few different people from KSW talking about it online. I mean, was this ever close to happening? Is this still potentially on the cards? Oh, yeah, certainly. It was very close. I mean, where we got was, you know, I told them what I want to get paid. You know, everything seemed to be going fine.

kind of last bit of negotiation that was left was the fact that I just wanted to do a one-fight deal with them, whereas they wanted to sign me for an exclusive contract, and that's where we kind of wore. We were just negotiating the terms, you know, because, I mean, I might not mind doing an exclusive MMA contract with them as long as they allow me to fight, you know, boxing and bare-knuckle, and they seem to not mind that. So that's where we were at. But, yeah, it was very close. You know, to me, KSW is a huge promotion, and to me, it's one of those things.

that's on my list of things I want to do as an Momei fighter, you know, and I think that's for any European fighter. It is the case. You know, I want to fight in like Japan, you know, UFC, I have already done that, Ultimate Fighter, I have already done that. And KSW is right on that list as well. Because if you look at it now, for example, KSW, they are the, they basically have the second largest attendance record in the world. Yes. Losing only to Pride. And pride doesn't exactly anymore. So from the active promotions, they are the number one. You know, to me, that's something, you know, they are one of those promotions that seem to never compete with UFC. They just have kind of selected their own path. Their shows are always sold out. They're always on mainstream

TV stations in Poland. They always make money. And they never kind of look at what other promotions are doing. They just doing their own thing. Whereas if you look at other promotions, they seem to be in competition with UFC and all of them are clearly, you know, losing that battle. Yeah, no, I agree with you more. I'm a huge, huge fan of KSW and I mean, just even thinking about you going in there and even if it is the Polish zombie first,

but they have some amazing prospects of Federalweight as well, like Saladin Panas, one of my favorite prospects in the world. Putting you in there with him is a huge fight for him, the biggest fight of his life. I feel like, you know, that's definitely something we would love to see you in. But as well as that art, him, Like, I mean, Bellator come into Ireland and the UK.

They snatch up all the talent. You were a free agent at this time. And we were like, this is the guy, man. If there's ever going to be a guy who sells tickets, compels interest, and really gets Bellator brand recognition, it's Artem Loboff. I mean, was that ever close? Was that on the cards during this European expansion? I feel like you would have been top of the list, the first name they tried to sign.

Yeah, well, to be honest, they made me an offer. When I first left the UFC, they had made me an offer. And it was a very good offer. I was very thankful for the offer and I was kind of ready to sign for them. But, you know, at the time, the bare-knuckle FC were literally throwing money at me. And I just, you know, I just couldn't turn that down. I tried to ask Bellator to, you know, up the cash a little bit just so, you know, it would make a little more sense for me to sign with them.

But they didn't. And it was a no-brainer for me. I just could not turn down the paydays that the Bear Knuckle FC were trying. going at me, so I ended up signing with them. But, you know, I'm still not ruling Belator out of the equation completely. You know, they come to Ireland twice a year. It seems nowadays and always a great show, a big promotion. You know, you could certainly see me in Bellator Cage as well.

But, you know, KSW have seemed to be very close to signing me at the moment. And like you mentioned, you like a lot of the prospects in the KSW roster. But there's also, you know, Arthur Savinsky, you know, is a fight that I wanted to put right for a long time. That win was stolen from me. I bet that guy, you know, and his friend was a promoter, a Polish promoter at the time,

and they overturned it, you know, but that's a win, you know, in my books, that is a win that was stolen from me. And at the time, you know, I went on even Polish TV and everywhere, I was calling him out, saying, look, forget that, whatever. You guys fucked me over, you stole my win from me, but I'm willing to forget it. I'm not a moaner.

Let's meet in the cage and let's make it right again. but for some reason he didn't want that fight. Of course, now that I'm a much bigger name, he probably would be interested. And in my opinion, he doesn't truly deserve that fight with me, you know, because I'm a big name now, and this would be a big money fight for him. And he doesn't really deserve it, because they stole the win from me. He turned down the rematch at the time when I was asking him, he doesn't really deserve it. But at the same time, I really, really wanted to make that right for a long time, and it would, you know,

it would be so sweet to finally knock that guy out. I almost knocked him out that first fight. I dropped him twice in round one and round two. But, you know, we didn't get the finish that time. I feel if we met now, it'd be game over for him. Wow. Well, look at this. You're already perking my interest with several storylines inside KSW for Christ's sake,

Artham. I'm intrigued. I'm definitely in there. I definitely want to see this. But I got to ask as well, it's like, did you tell me at one stage that, you know, you would put yourself forward to step in to fight MVP in London? Is this a bad recollection I'm having? or is this accurate?

Did you tell me that at one stage? No, certainly, yeah. I would love to fight MVP. I mean, of course, you know, I understand, you know, with different weight classes. But I feel, you know, it's a very winnable fight for me. You know, I kind of understand his style. I know keys to kind of beating him, you know. To be honest, I thought that when he fought Paul Daly, you know,

I thought Paul has the style to beat him. But for some fucking reason, Paul decided that he is a wrestler. that night. I honestly don't know what he was thinking or who gave him that idea. That was the biggest mistake. In my opinion, he's got the perfect style that kind of tight K1 style where, you know, back the guy up and when the guy has nowhere to go, has nowhere to move, you know, that's when you strike. And Paul has that style and a lot of power in his hands. I feel if he had stood with him, he would have won that fight. But he didn't. So to me, it's something that I would be happy to do in our Belator were interested.

I'm more than happy to do it either in Dublin or in London. Was that ever something you tried to get before, or am I confusing this with something else? For some reason in my head, when MVP's opponent dropped out of London a while ago there and they had the drafting an opponent on Fight Week, I don't know why it's in my head, but I thought you were in the conversation for that. Is that true or no? Well, when this happened, I messaged John Kavan, of course, he has a very close relationship

with Bellator. So I messaged him shortly. I said, look, tell them it's one million and I'll step in for one million. That fight is probably worth more than that. But, you know, I like Bellator, so I thought I'd give them a little discount. Yes, yes, indeed. Brilliant. I would have loved to say in that, man.

That would have been absolutely electric. But, yes. And look, you know, I'm not just taking that fight for no payday. You know what I mean? This is not just a payday for me. I never take fights just for money. If that fight was to happen, you better believe it. I'm marching forward.

I'm not going to go. back, you know, I'm bringing the fight to him. It would be a proper knock, you know. I'm not doing a pole daily on him and fucking start grappling him out of nowhere. No, it's going to be a knock if it was to happen. Wow, yes, yes. Right, let's go from MMA.

Let's sidestep in the boxing for a second here. Because, you know, like, this is what I'm trying to say to you. You don't even, it's just your name has so much kind of, you have so much cloud at the moment. When Brave put on that event in London, and it was like,

The suggestion that you could fight Ameri Khan in the future was basically the headline fight of that card. Like, you just showed up on the day and everybody was like, what is going on here with this Amir Khan thing? We never heard anything about it beyond that event. But do you understand what I'm saying? That was nearly the biggest talking point of the event and it was just a negotiation. I mean, what happened there? And was that ever close to happening? Yes, so I flew over for that event.

The event was great. It was a private event. It was really actually interesting. It was my first time being at such an event. There was tables everywhere. We were literally having, you know, four or five course meal as to fight were happening, you know.

I felt like royalty or something like that. It was really weird. It was good, interesting. You know, I met him there. I met His Highness as well there. We didn't really get a chance to speak too much there with him. But, you know, that was my understanding that they were going to try and make this fight happen.

They knew that I was in. And I guess the only party that they had to agree with was American. And I guess it just didn't happen to be for some reason. I'm not sure exactly how it went down. Did they have those conversations with him? But, you know, I was ready to go and just never heard anything back, you know, from about that. Yes, yes.

And of, of course, there was also talk of, you know, you obviously beat Polly when you guys fought in bare-knuckle. And then there was talk of you maybe fighting him in a boxing. about? Has there been anything else added to that situation? Is that still something that could happen in the future? Potentially, I was approached by someone earlier this year, boxing promoter asking me, would I be interested in boxing poli? And at the time it was suggested that the fight would take place in Egypt, of all places. And they even sent me, they even sent me pictures of what it would look like. you know, it was going to be like an outside, an outdoors event, just with the pyramids on the background. It looked actually pretty cool, you know, and I was more than excited to do it.

But I haven't heard more about that. I'm not sure whether it's the corona has something to do it. I mean, obviously, the corona has something to do with everything. But I'm not sure whether they still will be interested in putting that fight on after this whole thing blows over. But I would certainly box poli. No problem, you know, to me, he's a very safe first fight for me, you know, even though he's, He is a two-time boxing world champion. He is not a guy that was ever known for his power.

He's more kind of like technical guy, you know, score points and move around. So to me, you know, someone with as hard of a head as mine, you know, that's nothing. You know, I felt his power with bare knuckle or I should say his lack of power with bare knackle. You know, if he was, you know, coming at me with fucking pillows on his hands, I certainly would not be afraid. So yeah, I definitely was interested in that fight. You were even looking at one stage. This might have been last year. I can remember you kind of throwing your name in the half of the Ryan Garcia fight.

Like, I mean, these are big, big names, right? But, I mean, at the same time, I can understand where you're coming from because these guys, these prospects need big names like you to kind of get their cloud up, right? Absolutely. And especially, you know, you know yourself, I've always been the advocate for no record patting. You know, I fucking hate the partying of the record.

And if you look at Ryan Garcia, he is right now the most parted record in the hall of boxing. And how is this guy star? For what? Based on what? You know, he's never won in the Olympics. I don't even think he's had that much of an amateur car. I'm not really sure exactly, but, you know, I certainly haven't heard him, you know, winning Olympics or anything like that. He hasn't beaten anyone in boxing.

So how the fuck is this guy a star? Like, what do you mean he's a star? You know, the sport of boxing, I love the sport of boxing. The sport itself is absolutely amazing. It is one of the toughest sports on the planet. It takes so much courage. It takes, you know, so much balls to be able to participate in it. But yet, it is riddled with all this fucking pirate record poises, you know what I mean?

How the fuck is here a star? Where are the guys that are actually taking real fights? You know what I mean? Like, guys that are going to war every time. How come somebody that's doing all these fake fights where guys are paid to basically lose and he's a star and getting all this money? That's unfair, you know? I mean, I don't mean no disrespect that.

sure, you know, I'm happy for him. He's successful. Great. But it's time to prove yourself. You know what I mean? Let's go. And everybody knows that when I step in there, I'm not there for just a day. I'm going to give it my all. So if he can get past me, well, then in my books, that answers the question. You know, then he is legit, you know. So if he can put me away, then he is legit. So let's make that happen. I'd be willing to make a cut to 140 for him. Wow. I can remember, and I've seen you down in Celtic Warrior a lot with Paki Collins, a great man, a man I spoke to many times over the last few years

but I can remember when Neil Sear used to go there in Spar he was like MMA fighters won't go down here because it's hard man it's like you're coming in to do something else and you know you're gonna take a few licks before it gets good to you and you know you start to feel the improvements from it but this is

something I've seen you doing a lot maybe over the last one two years how much does that kind of prepare you for the boxing world although I know you've always said like, you know, it's pretty much the same things. It's just sharpening incremental little things to get yourself ready for it. But has the time of Celtic Warrior benefited you a lot, Artem?

Certainly, of course. It's been absolutely incredible. And I'm very thankful, you know, to pack you for allowing me, you know, to come in and inspire his guys. And also, I went in to spark Pete Taylor's guys. He's has a big, big team of very, very strong fighters. So I spire there as well. So, and also Steve Arrourke is a lot. another one that I have gone to spark his guys, you know, Victor Rabbi and the Tianan brothers are there as well.

So I've been going there as well. Yes, it's helped me a lot. You know, this is the only way to get good, you know, you go in there and you spy these guys. And to me, I was just curious myself, because whenever you hear, you know, a boxer talk about MMG guys coming in, they make it sound like, oh my God, this is not going to be a fight. There's just going to be, you know, game over straight away. It's not a chance. So I wanted to see what all the fuss is all about, you know, just.

see and try it with the best guys in the world and I did that and look don't get me wrong I got my fair share of us whoopings but you know I felt I held my own just just fine and one was well wait able for these guys you know and it was a great I made great improvements as a result you know yes yes um obviously UFC Dublin coming and look I'll be perfectly honest I understand exactly why you're saying like you know if I was going to do do that Zubaira fight, I'd want a one-fight deal. Let's look at all the options we've talked about for the last 20 minutes. I mean, of course, of course, that's the situation you would want. But I could see the UFC not really being interested because they'll want to have you exclusively.

Like, as much as you would love to fight on UFC Dublin, as much as the fans, media, everyone would love to see you fight in UFC Dublin. Is that one-fight deal the only way it can really happen for you when you look at all the other things you have going on? Yeah, absolutely. And the thing is, you know, you have to I have to be realistic here. You know, I'm not getting any younger. I have a baby as well now, you know, so I need to be making money. And then the UFC, you know, I just can't afford to just be sitting on the sidelines waiting

when my next paycheck will come. So one-fide deal, that's why I'm proposing. And like I said, I wouldn't be taking the money. The full purse would be donated to charity. And the UFC, they can do whatever they want. Let's be honest. They've done crazier things than that before. So, you know, if they wanted to do it, it would just be.

convincing them. If they wanted to do they can make anything happen. You know, there's nobody can say no to them. Nobody you know what I mean? Can I can say don't do this or the other. They've done crazier things. We've seen what they done with you know what's his name? I see him pump. You know, they brought this guy in that never fucking fought before for a one fight deal. So you know

I mean, so why not allow me the one fight deal? But of course I will understand if they will not go for it. But for me personally that that's the way I would love for it to happen. Yes, yes. And I mean like that would you say that is the one that you know in terms of you know personal an issue you need to resolve that that is the fight that you still is on top of your list in terms of personal beefs absolutely 100% that's a fight that i will not take any money for and that's a fight that i would be interested in no matter

where it takes place and what promotion you know what i mean or what rules it just has to be a fight you know what i mean i wouldn't grapple him you know what i mean that i wouldn't be interested in that but i would definitely do like i'm a may fight boxing fight against him very not or boxing fight against him, whatever. You name it, I'm ready to go. Yes, yes, yes, indeed. I was thinking, like, today, I mean, I know there's obviously a lot of history there, but do you understand that the fact that Habib Normaga-Madoff is not willing to travel

to this fight at UFC 2-4-09, the fact he's kind of come out and said, you know, I'm not doing this. The whole world is shut down. Do you understand that logic he's kind of had there? Yeah, well, to be honest, I mean, if, I mean, we have. have to be I think fair here and think that's probably the only pullout of his is where I can kind of justify you know what I mean the previous ones in from both sides Tony and and Khabib you know there's no justification for those pullouts but for this one here I mean you

have to kind of go and say look the world it has come to you know close you know it is very dangerous for people to get infected or whatever the travel bands are in place you know it's making it extremely difficult so you know here it's kind of I mean And probably, yes, we could have made that fight happen probably, but at the same time, you can't really, you know, fall the guy for not doing it in such circumstances. You know, it's one where I don't really want to put everything, you know, on him here, because look at the situation, you know what I mean? The world is stopped.

You know, everybody is telling us to stay indoors and here we are trying to, you know, put a fight on. And to be honest, we still don't even know will it take place and we still don't even know where we'll. will take place if it will you know what I mean there's still no location for this fight there's still no no details you know if you're a fighter preparing for this it would probably be absolute hell you know what I mean everybody's telling you doors and you're not allowed to you know you have to do social distancing and all this you can't see people and all but yet you have to somehow train you have to grapple you have to wrestle plus you have to make weight you know it's it's a

very very tough situation so here you know you can't really I don't think you can really put it on him, you know, fully here. Yeah, no, I agree with you completely. But I also think, like, there's so much talk of Habib and Tony now, and the fact that it isn't happening, Ariel is reporting that Gachi and Ferguson is likely going to go ahead in an undisclosed venue on April 18. But I'm kind of thinking now, like, I mean,

Connor and Habib rematch is probably going to happen before we ever see Tony and Habib at this stage. You know, like it feels like that's the fight Dana once. That's a fight Connor has said he's wanted for a long time. I know Habib isn't interested, but I don't see why not that probably could happen before the end of the year before Tony and Habib, because that feels course now. Yeah, yeah, you might be right. But to be honest, I don't really want to see, not that I don't want to see, I do want to see Tony fight Gache, but I would like to see Habib fight all those three that you mentioned. I'd love to see Habib fight Ghaja. I'd love to see Habib fight Tony, and I'd love to see Habib fight Connor again.

You know, I feel those three out of everyone in the division. probably have the best chance of beating Khabib, you know. So I don't want them two fighting and then Khabi won't have to fight, you know, one of them anymore. I would love to see all three of those fights, Habib, you know. To me, those are very interesting fights. Each present their own set of challenges for Habib, you know. So those are the fights I would like to see him in, you know. But, yeah, you're right in saying that we're probably, I didn't even think of that, actually, until you said it now.

But we're actually probably closer to a rematch with Connor and Habib now that, Gage is stepping in against Tony. Yeah, no, I think that is the case. Artem, I need to ask you. We've been talking with the fight game for nearly half an hour. I was going to take it away from that and I ask you, what would you recommend people do to pass the time here? I mean, do you have any recommendations?

Have you already gone through everything on Netflix? Have you already, you know, done all the activities you set out for yourself at the start of these few weeks, or do you have any recommendations? Man, I was going to suggest you ask people to give me some recommendations, because I'm going to go and. I am going crazy in here. Man, those home workouts I'm telling you, like, they are not for me. I just, I'm not, I can't do them.

Like, I mean, I try and do something, you know, like push up this, but my God, like, they're just, it's just so hard to do them. Like, it's, I don't know, I just, I just can't find the motivation to do them. And I'm a professional athlete, you know. Because when you train normally, you know, you're like grappling or wrestling or boxing, whatever, it is so much fun, you know, time just flies by, and it's a great workout for cardio, your strength, everything. But when you're just by yourself trying to do this fucking home workouts, oh my God, I just, I just, I just, you know, I do a few push off from now. I, I just can't

do it. You strike me as a time to go, like, as you're describing it there, like, when you're sparring someone, when you're graphing with someone, it's the fact that you've got to fight, right? Like, I mean, you can't just take a round off and take a beat, like, inside yourself. You got a fight, right? Like, I mean, someone is making you fight for your life all the time there. So it must be very different. Exactly. And he's just. I am doing fucking burpice in my living room and I just see a packet of crisp staying at me You know what I mean like I just I found that I find this way hard honestly I find this lockdown

I'm not even gonna lie you know I try and read all the positive things online and try and motivate myself and get motivated somehow But you know I'm not gonna lie I find it very very hard to get motivated to do any exercise and And and just kill time you know for me my my main thing was been my key you know just he's the only thing that i'm motivated to to kind of you know to engage with you know i play with him a lot you know we're going walks all the time so he he's the only he's been my savior you know he's the only thing that's been keeping me sane in this crazy time that's amazing to hear man that's great um so but you're basically telling me that you're never going to make featherweight again after this is what you're saying yeah no well you see well once you give me the right motivation you know like i said

if rang garrs see takes the fight let's do it 140 i'll make you them for you no problem i'll put all the crisps away i'll even start doing the workouts i'm telling if ryan accepts the fight now i'll start doing the home workouts i'll start uploading my own ones you know what i mean all those you'll be an influencer that'd be amazing art him i'll become an influencer just for that fight alone that's beautiful man come here i really appreciate you getting on and thanks for staying on the phones are along we had so much ground to cover with all of your options Missed our options at the moment, man. It's great.

I hope it continues after all this madness calms down. Me too. Thank you so much. I really enjoy the chat. All the best, man. Stay safe and all the best of you and yours. Back to the couch I go.

See you, man, boy, boy. Chew two motherfuckers. See you after Adam. Good look, man. Thank you to the great Artem Loboff. What a pleasure it was to have them on the bash. Let's hope we can make this a regular occurrence. And look, we talked about...

The goat's pety. You got it wrong. What? The goat. Oh, yeah, of course, of course. But as I was saying, we talked a lot about this whole UFC 249 situation with Artem there. And now it's just been made official. It's Tony V. Gaci.

No word on what the rest of the card is yet they're going to clash for the interim lightweight title on April 18th. On ESPN Plus in the US, probably BT Sports here. I'm guessing I doubt they're going to put a pay-per-view wall in front of it here, would you? Nah. I don't know, you know, maybe. It's going to be interesting, Pete. You know, money talks at the end of the day. But, yeah, I doubt it because there's no other live sport on,

especially here. This model has never traditionally worked. So I think people would be very fucking pissed off if they put it behind the wall here. But, yeah, no doubt it. Thank God we covered this all in the previous segments of the show because over the last month, we've had to re-record the show twice. Like, literally from start to finish.

It happened while we're recording. After I'd edited. as well. Yeah, which was fantastic fun for you, I assume. I was dead, yeah, loved it. UFC 2.9 is not the only thing that's going down

in Dana White's life at the moment. Did you hear this? He's been a bit of a dirty dog. Yeah, I read it. Let me just read through this latest we have here on MMAFighting.com from Steve Morocco. A man at the center of a 2015 extortion case against the part owner of a well-known

business has named UFC President Dana White as the central figure and alleges he was wrong by the promoter in the lawsuit. The suit filed this past Friday on behalf of Ernesto Joshua Ramos in Clark County, Nevada District Court alleges White and UFC attorneys broke a contract to compensate Ramos for signing a non-disclosure agreement that shield the promoter and the UFC from potential financial losses and embarrassment months before the company was sold for over $4 billion. Ramos via attorney Ian Christofferson alleges the NDA he signed was in exchange for pleading guilty, to a single felony extortion charge

which prosecutors filed after he was caught accepting $200,000 for a video of White having sex with his girlfriend, an exotic dancer at the Spearmint Rino Club in Las Vegas. Jesus Christ. What do you say? I don't even know what to say to that.

It's pretty hardcore shit. And this is the day after he's on a conference call with Donald Trump. Yeah, I know. Yeah, the timing was superlative, but yeah I really don't know what you say about that one it's very fucking um just fucking all over the shop like it's it's it's a cluster fuck it's like the UFC at the moment what is going on and pardon the pun in terms of cluster fuck but it fucking is like it's it's all over the shop it's hardcore shit uh-huh another one but like you know what I mean like it's who knows who knows man there's so

many fuckers out there that try to extort people we you see it the whole time these days and we don't know I think it's very hard to pass judgment on any of this until maybe this escalates or it'll probably end up getting thrown out or something like that. It's just, it's just Dana White really, isn't it? It's only in the life of Dana White this could happen. It kind of, I was kind of wondering

why he's out there making so many headlines and then this happens and I'm like, right, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's Pety, it's his alias. It's the one. It is wild, man. It is wild, but it's Dana White. What a fucking sport. That's mental. Jesus Christ.

There's nothing like it. Like we're in a global pandemic pizza, right? There's no other sport in the planet even like thinking about going ahead with anything. And here we are having like fucking sex scandals. There's fucking, you know, fights going on. There's medical issues. Like where the fuck else would you get this? It's like a fucking soap opera.

You can't write this shit. It really. It's unreal. Let us continue the trip onto the wild side here. So poppers. Here comes Jones, his punishment for this DWI. negligence use of a firearm, possession of an open container, driving without proof of insurance. He will get house arrest and probation.

Jones will be required to wear an ankle monitor during his house arrest, complete 48 hours of community service, pay a $500 fine, complete a 90-day drug treatment outpatient program, and install an ignition interlocked device in his car for the agreement obtained by MMA fighting. This is, of course, Steve Morocco's report on John John. Jones pleading guilty to DWI and receiving four days of house arrest and community service. What's you think of that one, John? Like, I mean, I thought it was like, I mean, I don't get that the house arrest thing seems like a piss take in this day and age where we all can't leave our houses. Oh, it's ridiculous.

You couldn't have written the script any better. Like, this just gets better the whole John Jones scenario. It's fucking crazy. Like, at the end of the day, you're talking about a guy who's had multiple run-ins with the law and they're giving him another slap on the wrist. like they might as well just throw them in detention for a couple of days and it's like literally going to school, going to the principal's office.

That's what it is. Or getting, you know, you're on board in school or whatever and getting fucking thrown in detention for a fears. That's what it is. It's slapping the wrist. Like John Jones is never going to learn if the law are implementing things like this

so lenient in terms of a sentence and punishment. Like the guy needs a real rude awakening and this really isn't going to be it. The UFC need to do something, I think. probably won't because he's a draw. Do you strip him? Did they even strip him? I don't think they will, but, you know, I would.

I don't think maybe not strip him, maybe it would suspend him. Isn't that be worse if they suspend him? Because, like, if you keep him with the belt and you make him a fight, then he's, like, in theory, they're making, they're telling him, go and prepare, go and be a fighter. Well, I'll tell you what I probably think they will do. They'll probably suspend him for six months, and he's not going to fight for six months anyway. So, you know, it makes him.

them look good to a certain degree. You know, we just bended him, Daniel, go on, nah, nah, nah, nah, we punished him. And then really he hasn't been punished, because he only fights once, twice a year if we're lucky anyway. So, I don't know, man, I think John Jones is at a point now in his career where, you know, we've seen probably a little bit of regression in him. And, you know, maybe it would be a blessing in the skies

if he just goes up and fight Steepey and Steeper Starchism because it's getting to the point now where you, do we really want him around the sport anymore? He's more hassle than he's worth. That's what he's. I'm thinking. It's tough. It is. Because it's just the same fucking thing time and time again. There's no learning process

here. That's what's frustrating for me. Yeah, yeah. Look, like I mean, yeah, I think the, like I certainly think we need him in the sport just because he's that good and I think it's a fucking pity. I agree, but how many times does this happen, Petey? It's no learning.

And he's getting older as well. He's 32 years of age now. Like, come on. Imagine me in 32. Fucking hell. Oh, God. I couldn't. Perish the thought, lads. Jesus Christ, you know what I mean?

Fucking fresh, fresh face 27 year old you're looking at here, Pizzie Carroll. Yeah, of course. It's, it's just,

I'm just glad to see that he's found a new hobby and he's out in a scooter in the desert. That was sort of concerned about, oh, thank God. What a Zarpos is coming out from his way, man.

I mean, he needs, I don't know. You know, you know what? Even maybe moving to heavy way for him, maybe he needs a fresh challenge. Maybe he needs a challenge where he's like,

yeah, fuck, if I don't, If I don't say in this gym 24 or 7, I'm going to die. Steve Miochich is that challenge. And I've been calling this fight two years. You know, I think now is the time to make this happen. But is he that way, though?

Like, Noel, like, Daniel Carmier knocked him out cold. And John Jones has battered Daniel Carmier twice. But yeah, it's a different challenge. It's a different way class. But is it really that much of a challenge? Yes. For Jones. Man, Steve A, no one has defended the heavyweight title more times than Steve Mioch.

I know, but like three times. but still it's still a record you have to look at it like that we know guys can get caught at heavyweight it's not like when you're fighting at 125 pounds you know it's one shot and you're out and like obviously that happened to steep

and listen I've often spoke about that fighting and you know the the eyepokes they were a crucial factor that weren't talked about because a lot of the media seem to like DC and I think these lads give them the media go no no no no no no our colleagues you know what I mean I think there was a lot of sort of maybe favourism towards towards DC

in terms of the fight when we looked at it afterwards because those eyepokes 110% had an impact on the outcome of the fight. Yeah, it's, I just, like, I do feel as though Jones, as in, like he hasn't been as convincing as he was, that gives me greater hope for Steepay if they were out to fight, not the fact that Steepay is Steepey,

if I'm going to be honest. But I think there's so much on him that he's going to go in and beat these guys. You know, it's just becoming, it's going around, you know, Alana, Reyes, and we had Santos and don't get me wrong. He meant to be drinking the week before he fought, like Silver.

I mean, I just think he's bored. Jago Santos. I do. Yeah. What about T.J. Dillishaw's claim that he's coming back to fight for a world title and his first fight back. I think it's a disgrace if the UFC do that.

But they don't know with Jones before. That's true, yeah. But yeah. That's what I'm saying. It is, but nothing surprises me with the UFC. I'm like, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised it did it was, but it's fucking stupid. It's great, it just sets the wrong president

the whole time. And I think, you know, you have to question whether, like, Dana gives a fuck anymore, everything that's gone on. I think this sort of feeds into what we were saying earlier on, what we've been saying the whole way through the last number of weeks.

It's all about money for him. Like, that's just, let's just accept that. Like, it's not really, is the passion gone from Dana a little bit, you know, doing the right thing. Maybe he did the right thing a little bit more back in the day. That was suggesting the passion is still there and all. Yeah, okay. shut the fuck up.

Right. I don't like, I don't like Dilla Shaw, particularly as a person. And, you know, I'll show. Yeah,

he just annoys me. He, him and, you know, Dwayne Ludwig and they're pretty painful when they're together. Jesus. Let's be honest,

man. I'm not, it is, like, who wants to listen to, to Dwayne Ludwig talk, Brown for, like,

oh, Jesus Christ, he does my head in. Like, it's just like, Dwayne Ludwig on Eurobatch. When he comes on the TV, it's just like, just, oh, jeez,

just get this lot off the TV. Like, he's one of those. Like, imagine if he was in the pub. I'd probably clear out the pub. He's the type of way that doesn't drink. Yeah, that's what I mean. Like, yeah, I'd say, yeah, I'd say, okay, I'll just shut up here.

Just, I fucking dig in house. We get it. Don't like, you don't like him. Okay. I watched WrestleMania at the weekend. You said you love all sports, but I didn't see you tweeting about wrestling nine

so what the hell are you talking on now? It's fake. People are going to hate me for that. It's fake. What, what do you mean?

The F word. It's scripted pizza. What? I hate wrestling. I don't give a shit with anyone fucking thinks. It's, yeah,

I'm not a fan. I wouldn't be a, a religious watcher. I usually try and go in for these. I was particularly interested this year because of the whole behind closed doors thing,

but when I was watching it, like I wasn't invested at all. I actually need, I was saying to this to you before I came on here, I need the crowd there to actually understand who people like, who they dislike, what the impact of them is. And this behind closed doors was, I had no fucking idea. Like, I was like, all right.

Yeah, that's the guy is this guy, whatever. It was just very stale for me. They did do some big kind of feature bouts. They were good. They were good to watch because it was like nothing you've ever seen before, obviously. But just kind of gave me a bad feeling about this whole two four nine thing, man. Like when I was like, this isn't going to feel the way it should feel, especially when it was meant to be. Bebe and Tony.

Yeah. I mean, like, are we going to, the sense of occasion just wasn't there at WrestleMania. This is an event famed for its pageantry, for its spectacle,

everything like that. It just wasn't there. Like, my missus, Mr. Mr. Ryan's gone to bed in about half an hour each night,

like, fuck this. So, I mean, if you're going to really put on this, Ferguson and Habib fight, in a situation like that, it really kind of diminishes it for the casual viewer.

If they're tuning in to see this so-called, the fight that all of us diehards have been waiting for for so long, long and it's like there's a cactus rolling by the fucking octagon what that's going on. It just doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel like what I thought that would be. So there's a part of me that's kind of glad. You know,

we're not going to see this fight in that, with that backdrop if you get me. Yeah, well, who knows with the UFC? They might have taught exactly the same way and pull this on purpose. I wouldn't be surprised, you know what I mean.

Go too happy to Abby. Just get him out of here. Get him out of here. Like, we don't want this to happen. Who fucking knows, man, who knows with Dana White?

like, with the gate and things like that. it's it's it's it's going to be bizarre i think we saw it what obviously you know kevin lee and charles olivera a few weeks ago and that was odds in itself to watch it was very surreal when you could hear the corner so vividly you could hear obviously the uh i think it was the um what fight was um it was yeah damar hasovic and um when anato moikano me mokano yeah that was absolutely hilarious why did you submit me all this sort of shit but that's yeah you know it would be great to have a crowd for Tony and Habib

and I think I'm spot on with you there. I totally agree. And yeah, just put it off for another day if they had to. And I wouldn't be surprised if that was to thinking from Dana White and the brass to get a cool 2 million through the gate as well. Another thing I just wanted to mention about

WrestleMania, Shanea Basler, former UFC fighter, competed on the card against Becky Lynch, Ireland's own Becky Lynch. I just wanted to say she looked fucking brilliant. She, like, you know, you're expecting, like, you know, three years ago we were watching her in the UFC, I think. And now she's doing all this stuff. It's, it's unbelievable.

One of the true pioneers of women's mixed martial arts as well. Absolutely, man. It's great to see people kind of having a new life outside of our sport and transition to the different things. We obviously know, Kane Velasquez is over there now as well, as well as Brock Lesnar, Rousie. But it's just great to see. And I'm glad that they have an option that maybe doesn't limit them in terms of, or age or maybe physically to some extent.

She's getting a hell of a lot more money as well, you'd imagine, with the WAA. So she'd be on big bucks. That's another thing I was Googling, man. Like, as I said to you, I don't know the people who are in there.

I don't know the names of the wrestlers or whatever. So as the wrestlers were coming up, I was Googling how much money they make a year. Well. Oh, yeah. Like, I mean, this is what they should be fucking paid.

This is what MLAA fighters should be paid. Like, I mean, these guys weren't the top of the car by any stretch. Like, these guys were like opening cards. And I'm Googling on their name. names and are on like two million a year, 1.5 million a year. Like, yeah, that's probably what you should be earning for something like that. Oh, definitely. These guys' bodies to get bashed around, they're on the road 365 days a year nearly. And I think I remember speaking to CN Punk in Cleveland

when I cover that card for severe MMA back in the day when he met his debut and he spoke about the differences between training for mixed martial arts and being on the road 365 days a year. And, you know, he was getting obviously a huge, huge contract from the WWD at the time. And he even said himself that, you know he actually preferred training for mixed martial arts because his body was just getting knocked around every day every night being in the ring having to you know take those hits and bumps so that was a real interesting point for me and you know obviously the money's a lot like bigger and wdly and so it should be and it should be in mixed martial arts as well definitely agree um how did it feel to uh beat a j stills in that bone yard match i didn't know if you were

going to do it for a minute i'm for you to show up on the harley davidson without the the minions and terrifying funeral march you usually bring it's just a warm up for that field It's a warm up for the young fella in a few weeks time when we get him here in Dublin. So, yeah, that's pretty much it. It's just preparation. I was just, you know, getting the, I don't fight as much as I used to these days. But, you know, he's fucked. And I think we might have seen on that video that I put out the other day for the young fella that, you know, I'm coming for that.

The youngs are youngs? Yeah. Rest in peace, bitch. There is, you know, there's been a fair few barbs being exchanged. I mean, we had fighters asking about who, why are you guys fighting each other? Well, he started it, man. He mentioned my name in vain and, you know,

what the fuck are you down? Like, don't be fucking, don't be talking shit, mate, because you talk shit about me. He'll come back. Yeah, that's it. You know, knock the fuck out. I'm glad, like,

my favourite by this whole thing. You know, Dave, when the A-Sar starting, you're retreat and you're on, watch this to see the fella. I'm going to knock the fuck out. Did you like that one? I was crying.

I'm laughing halfway through the show. Listen, I am. I'm fucking owning him. He knows it as well. I don't know. He's talking about parm chick and whatever the fuck that is.

Listen, I don't give a fuck. I've had it once. Very nice. Also, I think I should just keep doing that pizza. What do you reckon? Every time he appears,

just have a look at this guy. This guy, I'm going to knock the fuck out. That was funny. All right. That was funny. I don't see, my first initiative was to end the Civil War,

but neither you or Jose are listening to me. I'm what would just. So continue on the way is most Oh yeah definitely We of course I'll be on the A side On Wednesday on Freud this week The great AK Lee is doing on Mondays with Jose Because we're doing the bash obviously

But I also wanted to point out that What the heck By the great Mike Heck The newest member of the MMA fighting team Has begun on Thursdays He's already put out his first show His second show is this week He's doing great work

He is milling out the interviews And check that out if you will I'm sure we are all looking for more content to consume and he is getting on some great, great fighters there every week. But yeah, Noel, what,

anything you've started to do in your quarantine, in your isolation that you haven't done before? Jesus. That's a tough question. Hit me with that right here and out. At the very end of the show. Nah, I'm just, as I said to you,

I've literally been answering the door every morning to a new fucking package. It's like I'm selling drugs. I actually think they might be after me soon because I've had so many boxes coming into the gaff in the last two weeks. I've actually, hang on, one, two, three, four, five, six. Seven deliveries so far, I've another four or five to come.

Savage. That's a lot. So unboxing things is your new way. Nah, fuck that. They're all stupid. You was thinking about it for a brief second. It wasn't my bollocks thinking about it. No, I'm going to show people how to use equipment

because I'll tell you what's being madness, right? And listen to the radio and watching TV and stuff. How these fucking, some of the, shite these stations are putting out in terms of the audio. You can't even hear guys around. It's brutal the production. It's not that hard to work from at home. It really isn't.

If you know one or two things, it's madness. Well, doing for the fucking best part of a decade now. That's true. Yeah, I've been doing this shit for a decade. So yeah, fuck it. Like, but no, fuck all, mate.

Yeah, as I said to you, you know, working on a few little bits and bobs in terms of all that sort of technical audio and broadcast and remote gear. So we're going to be at home for a long time yet. But yeah, that's pretty much it with me. I actually haven't been drinking much either, I have to say. I've had fuck all to drink. I two small cans in ten days.

That's all I've drank. If anyone knows the makers of whiplash, can you please tell them that I've cleaned out three off-loids? Okay, right, right? I don't understand right here is right. Remember we were on the phone the other night and I was in, and I sent you a picture of the whiplash? Why was that the wrong one?

It's the same colour can and stuff. No, no, it's not, it's not the wrong one. It's just the ones I drink are the double IPAs, like 8% and stuff they were like a session ale you had or something wasn't it like a 3.8% or something was when you were looking at it yeah where they louder there's just so many different kinds of ones they have

but what's the one you drink the one you always go on about them that's uh there's loads of them set and sun was my favorite one that's gone now that's obsolete they just constantly make new ones so the one I'm drinking now is called eventually um and there's a and a one called telephone something or other I can't remember what the fuck it's called I literally have a picture

over here. I'm going to tell you what it's called. But I've cleaned this blanche out of this stuff. Like there's none. It's all mine. Nobody else can have it. I love Brooklyn Larger. That's nice. Yeah. I really like Brooklyn. I really like Brooklyn. Heavy. Telephone line it's called. So that's the ones I'm after. I must try that. I need to actually stop buying them because I'm a fucking degenerate. Because they have it across the road there. They have a load of them once. Telephone line. She's love a, I'll have a go with that. So you know what we should do. We should start doing this. Get six cans. Fucking stream live every night. I'll be, I'll be on my ear.

We should start a craft of beer, a craft of beer show with Bradley Wharton as well. Brad's mad for it, with the neck warmer, is it? Yeah, the neck oil. Neck oil, I saw that over there. I must grab a can of that name the next day. That's Beaver Town.

That's pretty low percentage as well. But I only have like two cans of this at night time, and I'm fucking in bits like. So that's the way I've been going. I just, man, I'm craving from me, Guinness. Like someone has to. say so. Someone has to, it's not the same out if I can. Like, someone has to start

going around now. This is a great business idea. We were chatting about it last night. There's a couple of me mates there are Guinness Hounds as well. And, uh, why doesn't someone go around in a fucking van and like put a protective thing up and just go around like serving points Guinness? I don't know, man.

Good idea. Surely. No? I don't know. I'm trying to think of why people wouldn't want it to happen and I guess they'd be afraid people would congregate at the van. I don't know. I don't know. to stand around drinking points after. Yeah, I'm sure they can put out some device where people have to stand a meter, two meters. Just like, just like get the fella to carry a gun and start, like, if you're here after 10 seconds,

we're going to start popping off shots. That's the way they do in Blanche. What have you, all right, let's turn this question around. What have you been fucking down on your, your down low time? Just drinking. Fucking today was unsuccessfully getting guests on the show. But, yeah, I'm not doing much, and I'm reading a lot. that's about it

but I wanted to start working out today and I didn't bother me ar, so I blame WrestleMania on that because I stayed up to watch that Pollocks last night, so that's my own fault, but tomorrow I'm going to do it tomorrow I'll start. I need to get into some kind of rhythm here because I'm fucking I'm getting fierce fleshy boy.

I find it very hard to sleep and I've never been a great sleeper unless I'm drunk and I haven't really been drinking much at all and I'm literally, I can't sleep at 5am and I'm waking up at like half seven and half eight and just getting up like. Get yourself a bag of grass. It's not a bad idea.

Send him over with you. I don't know where to you get anything like that. But, um, we're going to be back next week. And we'll have a star-studded guest once again. Thank you so much to James Geller, to Artem Loboff. Everyone stay safe.

Everyone stay isolated. Stop fucking going out and seeing your friends. Have you been doing that? He's dickheads. Any words you want to pass on there, Noel? The police are coming. Look. My light.

The pow- The sound of the police. It's the sound of the police. Five-oh, motherfucker. us. Nah, fuck all else. You should stick that on top of your fucking drone. Right now, Noel is flashing a siren, a blue and red siren.

And he's been doing this stuff with drones where he flies them over Church Town and stuff like that. Imagine putting that light on the drone and then just lowering it on a group of teenagers who are standing around. That's good. That's a great idea.

You know what else we think about? Putting toilet paper on the top of the drone as well. And I can't gain us. Just dropping a piece of out. someone at saying enjoy. I'm going to have to start doing shit like that. I need a bigger fucking drone. I need a bigger fucking drone.

I'm going on. Just call the drone surprises. Yeah, start a series. I could start. I'd be, fuck. People enjoy my shit. I should start anything in a vlog or something. Maybe a crack.

Oh, I mean, fucking. Yeah, absolutely. People love your shit now. But anyway, I'm going now. And Noel is going. And we hope you are all at home, being nice people and washing your hands. Love is loads.

See us next week. Be good.