MMA Fighting - Eurobash: Episode 78 (w/ Valentina Shevchenko, Sean O'Malley, Graham Boylan)

Episode Date: April 14, 2020

On this week's episode of Eurobash, flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko (15:00) returns to discuss her recovery and 'Fight Island'. Undefeated standout Sean O'Malley (47:30) sheds light on his emphatic return to the Octagon and the likelihood of him competing at UFC Dublin. Cage Warriors president Graham Boylan (1:14:00) comments how he will move forward with events when coronavirus restrictions ease off in the U.K. and how the pandemic could effect UFC hopefuls for the remainder of 2020. Hosts Petesy Carroll and Niall McGrath discuss the latest news including all the fallout from the cancellation of UFC 249.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's Eurobash episode 78. It is Easter weekend, but we are not going to see a resurrection for UFC 249 based on a halacious week in MMA last week. My word, Noel McGrath. There you are, my love. How are you? I'm good, man, not too bad.

Very quiet Easter weekend. No fights to talk about. Very little news. Not a lot going on in the world, but we are here. This is the main thing I think the people want. They don't care about the fights. They just want to hear us. They were just like, Dana.

we don't care about Khab and Tony. Just please don't, please don't cancel Eurobash. He's like, that's nothing to do with me. Like, thank God. Thank God. What a week, man. Crazy. Crazy worlds we have at the moment. Fucking bananas.

Finger pointing, backstabbing, cannibalism. Oh, it's all there. That's it. What a sport. It's all fucking happening, isn't it? It's gone right off the fucking charts. The world fucking gone mad. And MMA goes like fucking 20 times as mad.

Standard's weak and mixed martial arts. That's why I'm so shocked that everyone's so surprised. eyes that shit goes off the handle anymore in MMA because I'm not. What do you, what do we mean? People in MMA don't like each other. What is this?

Whoa. Oh, that's never been an narrative amongst everything. We've always been a peace loving, holding hands kind of people. It's like, it's like a gated community, Pete, isn't it?

Flowers and fucking teacups and fucking salmon sandwiches and shit, I don't fucking know, man. I'm talking to shit now here. It's a gayed community as to not let people out rather than not let people in. It's like the mafia. I was watching shit in your man.

You know, Michael Franchise there during the week. I've been just getting hooked and listening to his stuff when he was with the Colombo family and all. He was one of the guys in Goodfellas. He was portrayed by one of them. That's what it's like. That's what MMA's like.

Once you're in, you can never get out. Yeah, yeah. I know, man. It's a weird one. We have four news headlines. Do we even need music for this? Yeah, we do. All right.

we go. UFC 249 is cancelled. Fight Island is real. Cage warriors pressing forward with events in a private location but not until restrictions have calmed down in the UK. And Talpa Dutch broadcast for the UFC have refused. Say they refuse to show UFC events on ethical grounds.

That's the end of the news. Ethical grounds. Have you ever heard of the USC? the likes of it. Holy God, I laughed at that one, man. Did they realise what they're showing on Saturday nights? Yeah, like a broadcaster having ethical morals and high grounds? Get the fuck out of here, lads. It's not a hope. Unbelievable stuff. Actually, you should mention that was Marcel Dorff from MMADNA,

who broke that news initially on Andy Stevenson, who got the comment from the, from the broadcaster. So that was their work more than anyone else's. But, yeah, What a crazy week. First of all, I guess let's talk about the big one. UFC 249 being cancelled. It took Disney, ESPN, several politicians, but it is not happening. No major shock there for me, but I guess the killing part of it all was, you know, Dana was going after this like a dog with a bone.

And I guess the real people who get kind of put out a place with this is the fighters, the staff and the fans, you know, getting their hopes up and then suddenly it's not on. And it's been built up to be this, you know, Mount Everest of MMA events, basically, with all the stuff that's going on. And then it doesn't happen. I guess that's why we saw so much upset about it, I guess, on Thursday or Friday, was it? Yeah, Thursday.

I don't even know the days anymore, but yeah, it was started Thursday or Friday. But, man, are people surprised? That's what I don't get, like, even, especially the media members. Surprised by what? But the fact this has been all a big shit show, it's standard practice, like, you know what I mean?

It's not like, there was this sort of feeling on Friday or whatever day, the day after, and everyone was hopping on Dana and slating them and slamming them. You know, at the end of the day, what's,

you know, that's his job. And I know in the circumstances, at the end of the day, right, what people I don't think are looking at here, he obviously got the call from the Disney bosses.

The Disney bosses were told by the fucking government to pull it. So there's someone above Dane in all this chain as well, he's under pressure to deliver events to a certain degree as well.

So were people really surprised when the shit hit the fan and this was pulled? I wasn't. No, I mean, I wasn't but I guess, I didn't really see that much criticism for Dana, really.

I thought it was more, you know, obviously there was a few managers saying it was the MMA media's fault which was absolutely ridiculous. But, um, I saw a lot of stick from, from Dana. I know you probably went offline.

From Dana or four Dana. For Dana. I didn't. I didn't. And I saw more of it today. Someone calling from his head. What? Yeah.

What part of Twitter are you on me? Someone was a media organization was calling for his head today. What do you mean his head? Tell him he should walk away after the latest debacle. Oh, well, look, to be honest, man, like, this is going to be looked back on as a really bad moment for the sport.

Like, I don't, I don't disagree with that. But does Dana give a fuck anymore? No, no. Like, this is what we've been saying to the day one. I mean, this wasn't all too, like, I mean, this is pretty much power for the Corsair. This is what I don't understand. Dana doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that wants to be at home for that long.

He's fucking not hope. It's like a death sentence. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah, it was, we were, we said straight away that this shouldn't be happening. But again, we weren't that surprised he pressed forward with it. But, yeah, I mean, I didn't, like, there was so many fingers getting pointed in so many different directions. It was, it was just truly a rotten moment, you know, like, look, every. weekend, MMA, Twitter is a joke.

Like me and you come in there every Monday and we're like, what were they crying about this weekend? Whose job were they asking to fire? Kill Joe Rogan. Anic is terrible. Well, DC, I don't like DC myself. Listen, every week to something else. Totally agree with you.

And they use that. They have the same energy with that stuff as they deal with this coronavirus thing. You know what I mean? So it's like, oh, it's been a lot. It's been overwhelming. But yeah. I have a lot more to say in this and I think, go ahead, go ahead.

You know, I think there's, you know, it will be looked back on as a bad moment. But as I said there, Dana's not going to give two fucking shits, man. The whole world, if you go to any website, any sports website probably in the world, last week, what were

they talking about? The UFC pressing ahead with events, right? And at the end of the day, you know, it's a talking point. People are talking. It's still in the spotlight, it's in the mainstream. It's created a huge of interest this whole last two weeks. You know, he'll probably go, shit, okay, two four nine's off, bang, right? Fight Island.

People are talking about this shit now. I've created this little shitstorm, you know? There's other things there that this is going to lead to. People have their eyes on the mixed martial arts world now and the UFC because there's literally been no talks of anything else happening, barred the Belarusian Soccer League. That's still going ahead, by the way. And that's a win in many ways for a promoter because the eyes are still on the and people are still talking about it.

UFC's been fucking probably training all week. Yeah. And social media. No, like, you're right. Like, and I mean, it was kind of, it's funny, right? Because it, in media in general, like, in mainstream media, they've never treated UFC like a mainstream sport. And then they suddenly expect them to behave like a mainstream sport, right?

And I think they should have. Like, don't get me wrong. As the industry leader in the sport, I think they should have gone out and done that. But they didn't. It wasn't all that shocking. But do you not think that is where it's, you know, the pain comes from the hurt. There was so much obvious hurt.

The fact that he was pressing forward with this and making people believe it would happen. That's what I said. That's what pain is all about. That's what the hair comes on. That's why I think he was so desperate to get this card on. I'm quite frankly, I don't know if he gives to him fucking shades of a fuck

what the mainstream you think about is. And that's what's what's satious things. And I saw people question, you know, his stupidity and all this sort of stuff. You know, as fucking Frank and Lorenzo for Tita is this guy stupid. The guy is far from fucking stupid. His tenacity wouldn't have brought to the UFC

where it is there. I know we can shit in them at certain times. But this is a time where they deserve criticism, without a doubt. I totally agree with you. But at the end of the fucking day, man, you know, I think he's going to be looking at this. And obviously it was a shit show and it didn't turn out well. But, you know, is any publicity bad publicity anymore?

And the world was talking about this. Let's not, let's not forget that. Yeah, I think there is such things as bad publicity. Without a doubt. And I do, as I said, I do think it's going to be looked back on a very bad moment for the sport. But, I mean, we're taking the spotlight off day. I mean, I think the whole MMA community need to have a look at, you know, what we're putting out in the world and stuff based on the weekend of madness that ensued after that. And everyone kind of all overreach at. Like, I mean, it's been shitty on that online space for a long time. And I just think it reached saturation point with all this news. So maybe it's a nice time for us all to draw a line in the sand there and think about what we're putting out in the world. Like, I mean, if, if MMA Twitter was a, sound it would be Napoleon

dynamites exasperated soil like it's just oh everything like I mean let's just get over it's not like I mean Jesus Christ it's this is wild this whole situation is mental

and for people to be like out blaming each other and shit is just ridiculous it's ridiculous this whole situation is ridiculous yeah no listen it is ridiculous and um you know the one thing that really sort got to me during the week and the one person I you know

the people I felt sorry for this week were obviously the fighters and no more so than Tony Ferguson and you know it goes back again where I'd really criticise Dana is with the transparency and the communication the communication was absolutely dreadful even with I ain't telling the media nothing even with Habib we saw that you know him going to Russia when you know this event was in was two hours 45 minute drive from San Jose uh you know Lamor where tachi palace is and then obviously Tony Ferguson finding out 249 was cancelled again in a fucking interview um that he was doing instead of hearing from Dana White was didn't sit well again with me and I think Dana White has treated Tony Ferguson

very very poorly over the years and some of the stuff he said and again that wasn't wasn't cool with me that Tony had to find that out in an interview um yeah no I agree with you absolutely um I do agree I guess uh you know that you mentioned Abbe there that that's another great example of how shitty it is online I mean the abuse that guy took yeah ridiculous he's scared actually the fact that he is to come out him to make the made of and say like lads you really think I'm afraid like I mean the fact that they've

they're that annoying that he had to come out and say that is just like did they see that as a win like the fact that he's come out and he said something about they sitting at home with their little egg profiles going yeah you know what I mean like yeah it's wild it's wild and I don't think in any of their sport bar fucking

MMA, you see as many faking fake profiles. You've, you've guys can't even put their bloody picture on their profile because they're fucking keyboard warriors. But I think that's, that's also another thing that people get confused. I think a lot of people get confused by this MMA Twitter space and MMA media. They don't know difference, you know. I don't, you know, at the height of it when we're doing our shit, you know, all you do is just sort of put out fucking stories on Twitter and you put out interviews.

you don't put out the shit fucking toxicity opinions that float around and out. And it's outrage. Outrage is a currency in this MMA media, the MMA Twitter.

So everybody is obviously just throwing negative shit at the wall. Oh my God, I can't believe this. This is disgraceful. Just fire him. Fire this guy. I know more about this than that guy.

He's, you know what I mean? It's just, it's just rough. But I'm glad that it's fucking over. You know, like as in that incident, the 24-9th stag.

At least we know, now, you know. Oh my God. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was like, all right, there's been not a lot of fights going on, but I'm telling you, I've been mainlining MMA. Like, I mean, this is, this is like the busiest time ever. Like with that whole stretch there, it was, it was bad. It was mental. Um, so. Because there was something happening every two minutes. Or was a negative update. Even doing the show was a nightmare, wasn't it? Like, I mean, we were constantly like, oh, we have to go back and record it. Everything changed. Look for the last, what, what are we down now? We're down on.

about months. So we're down five weeks, right, in terms of this pandemic and what's been going on. Every Monday night after we recorded, we re-recorded a thing twice or three times. Totally, the whole fucking show again after it was edited.

Because new news was coming in and dropping, like, and I'd just be getting on to know, half, 12 at night. Here, Noel, we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it.

We're gonna do it. We're gonna do it. Listen, could be worth. Listen, I'm a wizard with my editing, so it's fine. The whiz.

You know, it's great. It'll take other people four hours to do. it takes me an error. Right, right, right. Let's move on with our first interview of the day. The champ is back. Valentina Schiafchenko.

We had John Calderwood on last week. And who told, sorry, the week before last, beg your pardon, who told us about, you know, the fight being postponed that was later confirmed. But of course, Eurobache were the guys who broke it. But we got Valentina on to give her take on this whole situation. And we picked her brain about a lot of things. And she made me feel really, really bad because she just seems,

to have this mindset where she's constantly in this growth. Like she's, she's learning different languages. She's, you know, learning how to play an instrument. Well, I'm just eating lots of cake.

So, I mean, I haven't really, I will love me. I will love me into. Do not get her to teach you the dance, man. Man,

I'll be afraid I'd pull something in me back on the phone and start screaming or something. So, no, I didn't, but I can tell you, I was very entertained. I love speaking to Valentina.

She's a real treasure, a real credit to our sport. And brilliant to have our back on. We'll leave you guys with this interview and be back in about 15 minutes to discuss. Fight Island. It's real, guys. You asked for it, and she is back. It is the Floyd Way Queen, one of the greatest fighters in the world that is competing at the moment.

None of them are than Valentina Shevchenko. Valentina, we are in a crazy situation at the moment with this coronavirus. How are you, first of all? How are you holding up? Hello, Peter. I'm good, good. as much good as I can be at this situation. And, you know, it's like that funny that like all lined up all together in one,

the coronavirus, staying at home, surgery, and everything like went in one. So I spend now like all my time at home and just trying to sharpen in my skills in something different besides the martial arts. Amazing, yes. Yeah, and just like trying to think about everything with a positive mindset. Yes, it's a real struggle to do that, I guess, with so much negativity around. But you, of course, sound as positive as ever, which I'm glad to hear. What did you think of this latest news?

Before we get onto your leg and the Jojo situation, of course, the latest news from UFC, that the UFC 249 will not be happening. Are you surprised by this, Valentina? Oh yes, it was taken like by complete surprise and you know the most because my sister's fight, it has to be happened a week after for in April 25th and of course now knowing all this situation, it's like all yuifies their postponed. So it's like it means that fighters there still will do like it's not kind of. So it's just postponed and they still have to keep their form, but to make this like top, the peak of their trainings, like to move for a little bit further. And it's more the most challenging in the fighter's life. Yes, yes.

And of course, your sister's fight on April 25th and Lincoln, of course, that's, that obviously isn't happening now on April 25th. But have you guys found out when they are possibly looking at doing that? Could this potentially happen on the great fight island we've heard so much about? Yes, it's such a good idea, such a great idea. And you know, from the first, I heard it from the first second, I said, like, I definitely would be in there. I want to fight on the island and I want to train there. I want to live there. I want to spend my time there.

Definitely island is for me. Do you want to live on Foyd Island? I don't know. You know, I love to do my training camp in the place that it's like more suited for the climate, for the like. And if I have to fight on the island, why I cannot train there for that probably it would be great to have training camp in there and then fight there and then stay a little bit extra time to recover after the fight. How does? For me, it sounds great. It sounds, yes, it does.

It sounds very good. I guess there is a possibility that if this happens, Dana White has said that Fight Island is something he's looking into, of course, and he will make it happen. You were meant to fight Jojo Calderwood in June. We know that a leg injury and the subsequent surgery has ruled you out of that. It might be a possibility that you guys, or you could fight your next fight on Fight Island, right? Yes, yes, it could be. And I think if it would be this possibility, I would be like, I would be most I'm glad to do the fightings there, definitely, definitely for sure. Well, well, well, how is your leg?

I know I saw your interview with my great friend Ariel Hulani and you were saying this is the first time you've ever had surgery. That must be quite a daunting situation for an athlete as elite as yourself to go under a knife. Was it a scary situation at all? Yes. you know it was a very first time i having like all kinds of surgery and i was not scared i was not like not at all because i knew that um the doctor who are like my surgeon he is a great specialist in this like all this kind of injuries and everything was so good the uc teams the medical team they are so great they have worked like so good that nothing was something like scared me or

something like that so right now i'm in the point when i have to make my uh not yet actually for now i still have to rest and don't do any kind of movements for the leg before it healed up all the way completely and then i will start to build my way back to the my fighter shape. Wow. Yeah. I mean, was it,

I heard that you said, you said that this happened, was it during your last fight or was it before your last fight? So, you know, it was like partially before, like in the fight, it was partially.

But in next, like one month after the fight, it's actually happened and it, it's actually happened why I had to do the surgery. That's incredible. the performance you put on against Caitlin Jukagan, right? That is, that's crazy. You know, it's like, it's injuries.

It can happen not only because of you are like doing something crazy movement or whatever. If in general, you are, if you are using a lot of kicks, like different kind of kicks, different angle of kicks, it's already put in the risk of being like in this situation. And you know, I love a lot to kick in all kinds of angles. So this is, this is, this, this, this happens. It's happened. You can just think, like, to prevent, but you never know what's actually going to happen. I didn't want this, like, injury to happen for sure, but it's happened.

Now I am on the way to my recover, and I definitely will be like in my fight or shape the same or even better for my next fight. Yes, yes. And I believe that you were saying that August was a realistic time for you. You think you'd be ready to compete in August? Is that still the case or have things changed? Yes, this is what like doctors told me end of August. And a little bit probably I have to rush things for the end of August.

But I think, yes, this is very real date to my return. And, yeah, it's just, I have to work a lot. Yes, yes. Maybe, so it could be later, you're saying, because I know a lot of Irish fans, they were going to do UFC Dublin. And when the news came out that you would be back in August, they're like, oh, my God, let's get Valentina Shevchenko to fight here. Oh, my God.

Why not? Why not? I think it would be amazing as well. So there is so many places that I still want to visit. And definitely Ireland, it's one of them. Amazing, amazing. I was just thinking when all of this stuff happened before I knew that your leg was injured, I was thinking it's a pretty good situation the Shevchenko sisters have

because they spend all their time together anyway, and they have two great sparring partners for each other, even if this situation was the case. I mean, I know you can't train now because of the injury, but it wouldn't have been too bad for you guys, right? No, definitely, definitely, yes, it's like, we have each other. We can train with each other. We have our home gym. We have our meds here. So it's actually not that, like, challenging for us because we have our coach. He's like 24-7 with us. So we have everything that we need for fight preparation. So yeah. So when you get injured, is your sister like, oh, come on, Valentina, you know I've got a fight coming up? Oh, no, no, no, no.

She's understanding she every time, like, injury is injury. It's not something fun. It's not something like that depends on what kind of injury. When, for example, right now she's understanding that to hail myself, she has to understand. it and luckily for us we have all this like help around like in general everything and she totally understand how things happened she was before in the same situation and she know what I feel yes of course of course this is I was wondering you know you have been on this crazy run ever since you won the title, you have become, in four fights, you've become the champion and now

we consider you one of the greatest champions in the sport right now. Is it nice, like, to be able to just relax and maybe take a step back? I know ideally you don't want to be injured, but has that allowed you to kind of take a step back and appreciate how far you've come in such a short amount of time? For me, of course, every time, number one, it was to be active, to be in the gym training to have this like fighter spirit every time to be able to perform myself and like to enjoy this like as a fight week the fight by itself after fight feelings everything but being in this kind of situation like you know i cannot i cannot change it i cannot turn time like back i cannot do anything that's why i have to think positive right

I have so much free time right now. That's why I was thinking like, why I have to sit and just like suffer and thinking, oh, why it's happening to me? No, take your time. For example, I decide to go deeper in my like, for example, studies that I'm learning right now. I every time wanted to spend more time doing like things, but I never had enough time. And now I have all three times that's around me. So I do in my ukulele plane, I learn in my Thai language. I every time wanted to learn how to sail.

And now I have an opportunity to study at least in theory, because it's a lot of studying in theory as well. And after everything will end, I hope I will be on the water and sailing and do the things that I, every time was dreaming to do. I think that's amazing how you can motivate yourself so much. I mean, like, I think it's pretty common for fighters to be hard on themselves if they've been injured, like, oh, I wish I could do this. I wish I could do that. I think it's amazing that you set your mind on all these things.

And I guess that's why you're a champion, right? I hope so. I hope because I think it's very wrong to sit and put yourself in the depression and think, oh how miserable I am or whatever. No, it's wrong. It's wrong because it's the life. It's so much. It's so much things to do, to learn, to explore.

Even like with internet, you can explore whatever you want, to study whatever you want. To see different things, for example, you never had time to do it. And now take your time and do whatever you wish. Don't sit at the house and be for like, frustrating and just eat and gain weight. No, no, no, no. Keep moving. The life is continuing. I needed to hear this, Valentina, because I'm eating way too much right now. It's like you're

speaking directly into my soul. No, no, you know, you can eat. You can eat whatever you want, but if it's make you happy, this is a point. Doesn't feel guilty. No. If you are happy, then everything that you are doing, it's right. cheese makes me very happy. So I'm going to take that as you telling me to go and eat lots of cheese after this interview. It's interesting, right? Like when I'm thinking about you, I think everybody sees you as the cream of the crop right now in martial arts. And I was just wondering, and I know there is other storylines involved here, but just from the point of view of the fight, do you get inspiration or motivation when you see?

Zhang v. Junjezecichek, that fight. So many people in the sport commented on what a great fight this is, one of the greatest women's fight ever. Like, I mean, even in the situation you are, the champion, the very top of your division, can you take something from that when you watch that fight and gain motivation or inspiration from it? You know, definitely, I feel good when people around, they're speaking so good about female martial arts. all we together, we are doing the same thing. We are, like, doing what we love. We love martial arts.

And, of course, man, like, majority, the whole fans, they are speaking about female fights, like, as a top, and, like, it's the best, what can happen ever. Of course, it's something that you feel good, and you feel very, very nice about it. And do you agree that it's one of the great fights in MMA? You know, definitely it was very good fight, very entertained fight, a lot of back and forth hitting each other, a lot of blood, a lot of swelling, a lot of all of these things. But in my opinion, like, to be, to consider a fight the greatest fight in the martial arts history, history, not like just a month, not just a week, it's a history. It has to be something more in there.

It has to be not just punch, punch, punch, punch, punch, punch. It has to be more technique when you see the tactic as well. When you see different technique, not just straight punch and straight kick. You have to see more. You have to see grapple. You have to see wrestling. You have to see knockdowns. You have to see like all of these things.

And I would say we had fights, like female fights. It was something like probably the duration less, but in their like meaning of like techniques applying there, it was more. Even if we are speaking about two fighters, Joanna and Bailey, I think the fight Joanna and Michelle Bauterson, it was much more. to watch, you know. Yes, it was everything in there. It was grapple. It was the moment when Michel was on the back of Joanna, almost had the rare naked choke on her.

So these, like, details what makes the fight really great fight. When it was like, here, just a little bit more, just more. Even the fight, Misha Tate against Holy Home, you know, you never know how it ends. and it ended fifth round like the situation when Misha had to do whatever she had. The fight, Rhonda,

with Holy Holm, the same thing, you know, it's like more technique, more, more tactic, more technique, more intrigue, something like this. Not just like street fight, you go and punch it as her, like blood and swelling. And maybe it's something that surprised the majority because

female fights, it's more like kind of like not that much swelling in fights involved in female fights, I mean. But I think for the greatest fight, if we are comparing

male and female, it has to be the same, the same scale. Because you never say about male fight is just like if it's just punches in straight kicks, straight punch, straight kick. That is the great fight, right? No. You say the great fight of male fights when you see grapple, wrestling, technique, tactic, all everything. I have to, I have to say that

if you scale great, you have to scale the same, the same things that you have to consider. That's amazing. Thank you so much for that insight. It's really interesting to hear you speak about that. I completely understand where you're coming from. Just two more questions, Tina, before I let you go. And thank you so much again for speaking to us. It's a great pleasure to have a champion look yourself on the show. I guess the next question is, do you know that it's going to be Calderwell next? Or is that still up in the air? Do you not know who the next opponent is? Or do you guess it will be Calderwell? Callerwood. I think it's still going to be Jojo because why not? This fight, it still should be heaven. it's going to be fair for her as well because she was one next on the line and like she has to be the same person that's why i'm more leaning towards that it's going to be she amazing and is that is that an interesting for you like i mean does this i'm sure all the fights are interesting of course but is there anything particularly interesting about jojo's style for you uh you know um right now

I'm not focused on studying Jojo. I just like every time that I have my opponent, I'm okay, it's good. And when I start to like about two months away from the fight, two and a half, then I just start to open her fights and look for her technique, tactic and everything. But before that moment, I try to enjoy my life. And of course, definitely, Jojo, she's a great fighter. She has very good experience everywhere. And I mean in martial arts, in the ground, in the stand-up and everything.

And I have to take her very serious, definitely, yes. But to be at the point where I have to study her very carefully, I'm still not in there. Well, that's amazing. I hope you have the best time ever now. don't have to work at all. You keep on doing your ukulele, learn how to sail, do all the Thai language you can. I think it's amazing. I think you're an inspiration inside the octagon and outside. So it's a great pleasure for us to speak to you again, Valentina. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Peter. Have a great day for you. You too, you too. And I hope that leg gets

fixed very quickly. Thank you. And eat a lot of cheese. And be happy. And be happy. This has made me very happy, Valentina. Thank you. goodbye. Bye. Bye, Peter. Bye. Thank you. And wasn't it a pleasure

to have the champ back? What a legend. My God. She's a really inspirational person. My God. Valentina Shevchenko. Always a pleasure to have her on the show. Amazing, as always.

Was she in Peru? No, she is in. I think she's in Vegas now. She was in Arizona for a while. But one place she definitely wants to be, Noel, is Foyne Island, as she told us. She's telling us, if there's a Foyne Island, Island, I'm moving to the motherfucker.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised with her. Like, I mean, this Fight Island thing, right? This is, this is one of those moments that completely kind of sums up how absolutely bat shit this whole thing is. It's like something from an 80s B movie. But it's one of the things that Dana White said over and over again throughout this cancellation is. Fight Island is real, guys.

The reaction to the UFC 2-4-9 cancel, forced words out of his mouth on the Instagram page, Five Island is real. Always after the sale, Pizzi. Yeah. And to be honest, you can talk all this shit you want again about him and I'm repeating myself here.

But people are fucking talking, like this has gone all over the world. Again, Dana White, Devon, Fide Island, it's real, it's real, it's real, guys. You know, people expect, like, listen, I wouldn't be surprised with that fuck. He'll pull off something,

like it'd be on a boat or something. Like, I think we're thinking it's like fired. Remember that documentary in Netflix? the release last year. Some shit like that. And I guarantee it'll be some crockish shit in fucking Hawaii and some fucking

crap area or some shit like that. I don't know. Given Hawaiians abuse there, holy shit. But no, I can understand. Let's be real about it from now. I can understand, you know, what, obviously, he wants to do an implement a safe fighting environment so he can put on fights,

get into that mainstream, make a shitload of money, be the only fucking sport in the world with a vent on. As we said for the last four or five weeks, but the question is, I think, is where fighters are going to buy into this and want to go out there and live on this fight islands. Man, the thing is, every single fighter I've talked to once ago and do it.

Now, granted, I think the payment issue, the remuneration situation in MMI is very different in most sports. Like, I mean, as we've talked about, every week, Wayne Rooney, all these other big celebrity athletes from different sports, like, they're in no rush to go back.

They want to stay safe. They're earning plenty of money. They don't need to fight for a living like these guys do. But I think the problem there, what that is, and that situation is, is there's so many big organizations losing money at the moment. If the players aren't paying, they're going to have to look at wage cuts,

all that sort of thing. So it is in their interest, obviously, to get back in there and start playing. I think we're going to see. But it's very different. I know, I know it's very different. But, like, I mean,

a lot of these fighters aren't making a living wage. I know. Yeah, I understand that. But these guys get paid in a week, what a foil? could only dream of getting paid in the year. I mean, it's, it's very different. But the, the thing I think about this is, I do believe he's going to try and do this.

He's a madman. Like, he's going to try and do Fight Island. He's 100% going to do it. He's going to, everyone's going to be talking about it like they were talking about UFC 249. And I think he's going to try and load the cards. I think, like, he will try and put on the most outrageous fights he can. There's obviously going to be travel restrictions. We're seeing Jose Aldo likely can't travel if that.

fight is to happen against Henry Sudo, excuse me, they're already talking about Dominic Cruz coming in there. But I mean, is there a danger? Like, I mean, we're talking about the guys lower on the food chain, right? The people who don't, don't make an awful lot of money out of this. Is there a chance that those guys are completely left in the darker? Because Jane is too busy putting on all these blockbuster fights just to underline that he will do this and he will do it in the most emphatic way he can.

Yeah. It's simple as that. Yeah, they are because, as you said there, when he has that spotlight and that empty space, he's going to put on the best fights he can possible, or the best athletes that are available to him. And it's not going to be, you know, the guys that are fighting on fight nights at the bottom of a card that are going to get selected for these cards, certainly not, in my opinion. And maybe sort of you took me up wrong what I was saying earlier on. He has to put on fights. If we believe the reports that were true coming out, the WM, E, IMG or, you know, financial sort of restraint,

it puts more pressure on these businesses and organizations, as I was saying, like the smaller clubs like we're looking at in the Premier League that are obviously paying these guys a lot of money. I know it's a different scale, but in terms of WM, M, E, I'm G, that's their business. They're in the entertainment business, and there's not a lot of that going on at the moment. So there is going to be

pressure on these organizations to get back in business as soon as possible. And listen, it's not that much out of the ordinary, Psy, because you know, the Premier League are talking about doing it now today, putting up you know, Wembley and around St. George's Park is a quarantine base for the players so they can go in and finish the Premier

League because there's clubs literally hemorrhaging money at the moment. They live on a week-to-week basis. I think Bournemouth were a prime example of that. I think their whole playing staff have had to take 30% pay cuts. I know it's a different level, but they've let go a lot of people that are working around the football club as well in terms like secretaries, ticketing and sales and stuff like that. So yes, there is the pressure on these guys to get back in as quickly as possible. And if this quarantine set up in the Premier League, they can do it. You know, as you said,

who the fuck is to back against Dana White? with all these contacts as well, all these guys like fucking Harry Emmanuel and all these dudes up top and these guys that can make shit like that happen, as ridiculous as it may seem. And that would be brilliant for them. They're in the entertainment industry. Fight fucking Ireland

for fuck's sake. Yeah, I feel like like, I mean, they'll be able to be better prepared as well. Like I guess, like you were talking with the transparency earlier and to a certain degree the terrain was changing so quickly you could nearly understand not being able to keep

every single person in the loop but I do think that's a real problem if the lesser paid for voters are left in the dark and they aren't going to get to compete they're not given some type of a wage to get by and I can see that being a serious PR problem for the UFC and what fights

like I mean this is like we're not we're not saying like yeah fight Ireland we know we understand the gravity of the situation around the world, but that doesn't matter. It clearly doesn't matter if the owner of Disney and ESPN have to get on the Dana to stop the event. So he's probably going to go ahead with this. What points would you want to see there if this is going down?

I don't, I'll be honest. I don't want to see Tony and Habib there. I want to see that in a stadium with people. Yeah. You know. Sometimes it could be a long time before we get back to that, but just in my head for the sense of occasion. I mean, what's the point?

What's the point in rolling the dice on it in such a mad situation? and we don't even know how the beep is fixed, right? I agree. I think, you know, that's the fight. Everyone wants to see in it. Imagine that in, you know, Las Vegas Stadium being the first fight there. It'll be unreal off the charts.

We want to see that with a crowd, obviously. But, you know, I think there's a lot of things that obviously have to happen yet. And, you know, Dana City's very close to getting this over the line. I don't really buy into that that he's close to getting this over the line. I think it's going to take a month. It's going to take him two months before he even really knows how to sort out this logistically.

What kind of fights would like to see? you're looking at the guys that are training at the moment, the guys that have had fight scheduled around this time. You're looking at Colby Covington. You're looking at Tyron Woodley fights like that. So Leon and Woodley is gone because your mate wants a fight, and that's terrible for him. Well, listen, I think it is gone. And I think you've the visa issues as well and getting over to the US. Yes, that's a real issue. People get into the US. I think that's, I think we could see all US fights or whoever's in the US, basically all that's happening, right? Totally. That's all I see happening is US-based fighters fighting. I don't see anyone

really else from around the world. It's too much for risk bringing people in, having the quarantine for two weeks. And if anything else was to happen, if they're on this quarantine island and spread, it would be an absolute fucking as much as a bad as a POR disaster as it probably is at the moment. It would escalate. Quarantine Island, there you go, yeah. There you go.

Quarantine Island. They'll start eating. It's a port of quarantine. You're flying people all over from different states to come together. They'll start eating each other and like, who knows what would happen? You know, I don't know. But yeah, that's how I feel about it. And I think we're looking at, you know, maybe Alistair Overeem, Alistair, I think actually flew out to fucking.

Yeah, that was. Yeah. The poor fella. So he's quarantined in two ways. So he's a month out of action. Like, I don't know, man. It's, it's all over the shot. We shouldn't really be entertaining any fights we've said for weeks. But this is bad shit. Like, I mean, what do you want to say? With this days, like, we've been going on for a month about like this shouldn't happen, blah, blah, blah. I mean, this is so fucking crazy now. We don't even not, like, we've no idea what's going on. Dana has literally said he's not telling us anything. I mean he said I'm not telling them anything Well I think he needs yeah like I think he just needs to Just be a bit more transparent

If he's telling people what to do They can make arrangements They can make plans they can Instead of just having this lingering Fucking doubt in your mind And I imagine like it's bad enough for us But imagine that as a fighter Having a deal with that as well

Like Tony Ferguson man You gotta get like that guy's had so much fucking shit to deal with in the last two weeks And he still couldn't wait The mad bastard apparently Like what the fuck You know what I mean Like unbelievable shit that's going on

Um That is the most time The only person thing ever. Like, couldn't wait for a fight that isn't even happening. You gotta love the guy. And I think that's why people are finally coping on to what a great character he is, what a unbelievable fighter he is. And he's getting a lot more traction.

I'm happy for him because he deserves. He gets through to like shit by the UFC as well, which pisses me off. Out of all the things out of Dana White's mouth, there is one thing that I think we can take to the bank, that he will be the first sport back. Oh, yes. I mean, he is like a man possessed. Home run.

If you can bet on that, betting it now, lads, because it's definitely going to happen. And listen, what fights would you like to see them, Pete, right? Because I think, you know, like, realistically, you're looking at people that are based in the US. No one outside of it, literally. And I think that's a fair enough statement to make

because quarantine and all that bollocks would flying and trying to get there as well is going to be an issue for everyone. I don't really know, man. Like, I don't, I don't know. Like, I guess they're going to try and do Sehudo and Cruz. That's the word anyway. I love that fight. I like it better than the yellow fight, to be honestly. I don't know about either of them, you know, but I think, I think it's going to have to

be US-based fighters. I honestly don't have a fucking clue. They might do that H.E. Ferguson again, if Tony's down for it. I think Tony should sit out now and just hold his horses and maybe even wait for, you know, that, that McGregor fight they might do in the summer if this shit clears up. And I think that's the way they are going to go if this shit clears up. They'll do Connor and Tony for the interim title. That'd be it. There'll be a huge fight. It just feels like, it just wouldn't feel right watching Conner McGregor walk into it at some type of empty. Island. Empty room to have a fight.

You know what I mean? It's just, he's so big. Like the show with McGregor is so huge, you know. Well, listen. Let's fingers cross. We're out of this by July. We're not probably going to be. But yeah, listen, we can always hope and pray that we are.

But yeah, you know, I'd love these fights to be in front of a crowd. But, you know, as they say, business must go on. And business is television at the moment and that craving for live sports. that's why I think Dana's going to totally press ahead with this. And I reckon the biggest fight we'll see in the next number of months, if we see any fights at all, is probably going to be, you know, Kamara Usman and Kobe Covington that well-to-way picture, in my opinion.

Yeah, it would be huge. It will be huge. Well, let's get on to our interview with Sean O'Malley, who stopped with, but you guys have been pestering us about the UFC Dublin situation with Sean O'Malley. We've had a lot of fighters on here talking about. We've had on the Asoe, we had Brian Keller talking about. we had Mirab, Devalashvili talked to Mike Heck about Sean O'Malley.

He is a wanted man at 1.35. And you can draw a lot of parallels between him and McGregor, as far as I'm concerned. The guy who has yet to kind of get into those rankings, and he's already the first name on a lot of people's lips. A huge deal. A great guy. We got to pick his brain for about 20 minutes and we were very, very happy to get him. So here's Sean O'Malley. And we're going to have a discussion about prospects outside of the UFC and how they much.

be affected by this when we come back. So listen to this with Omali and we'll be back in 20 minutes. And now we are joined for the first time on Eurobash by one of the biggest prospects in the whole sport. One of the most charismatic fighters in all of the UFC. It is none other than sugar, Sean Omali. Sean, how are you, sir? Thank you so much for joining us.

Yeah, I'm doing good. It's Monday. I love Mondays. Really? Mondays. A lot of people dislike the Monday. Why do you like Monday so much? I just, it's a good week ahead, you know, Saturday, Sunday you don't really train as much.

So, you know, you kind of just recover from the hard week. And now my body feels pretty good and I'm ready to train. So I enjoy Mondays. That is a fantastic mindset to have. And I know that extends a lot more beyond Mondays for you. But how was this whole isolation treating you? You seem to be in good form. Yeah, I'm doing really good.

I, you know, I feel bad for, you know, a lot of people. are suffering. I just, you know, I don't really. My life hasn't changed much. So it's, you know, I just been training and chilling, not doing a whole lot. So just, you know, my life hasn't changed much in a sense of I just pretty much do the same thing I would be doing whether this, the whole situation was happening or not. Yeah, I understand. I understand. I actually love your attitude. I was reading recently your, your interview with my colleague, Damon Martin, and you know all that stuff with us sad i'm not going to get back into it of course i know you're blue in the face talking about at this stage but i mean the fact you hope not you hold no ill will

towards them you're just all about what's in front of me rather than what's behind you and but as much as i commend you for that you were one of the first guys i thought of when this whole thing went down and it was into this lockdown situation we don't know when the fights are going to happen like does it nearly feel like a cruel joke sometimes like after getting back to winning ways in such spectacular fashion to have this new roadblock that of course is affecting the whole world but just for yourself and is it like this this is crazy how how am we getting all these blocks put in front of me yeah i don't feel like that yet because even after this fight my you know i talked to sean shelby i said i want to be on the april 18th card he said no we're going to we're going to save

you for the international fight weekend in july so so far it hasn't really affected me in a sense to where i'm not going to be able to fight again so hopefully Hopefully by July we'll be of the fight. But yeah, I feel I feel I'm just going to keep improving. And coming off that big win before everything got locked down was huge. That really put me in a good headspace and a good mindset. Just finally getting a show that all this talk, all this stuff, you know, all this hard work's paying off. So it was good to be able to prove that before all this got shut down.

If I wasn't able to fight, that would have really, you know, that would have been tough. I would have to dealt with some different emotions, but right now I feel good. Yeah, I was actually, I was actually thought, it was, you know, obviously such a, such a emphatic performance against Quinonez. And I was kind of laughing at the fact that you seem to think it was, you know, it was like anything. Yeah, it was good. Yeah, I enjoyed it. But now that you've got a bit of time, are you more like, wow, holy shit, I really did. I turned it on that night.

Like, I mean, it seemed like it didn't shock you as much as it shocked everyone else. I know you, uh, poo-poohed the talk of ring rust and everything, but, um, it seemed that the time. This was what you expected, you know? Yeah, I expected that, you know, my first two UFC fights, too, to just go in there. You know, I feel like I'm a first round finisher kind of fighter. You know, look at my record and it kind of shows that. But I was healthy for the most part. Like, I was the most healthy I'd ever been going into a fight that night.

So, and I was strong. I felt strong. I felt confident. My first two UFC fights, I definitely didn't feel strong. I never really did a strength and conditioning. did condition, and I'm always in the best shape I can be in. But for that fight, I really felt like a world champ, like world-class athlete. So, I, you know, I've been out for two years, two years and, you know, four days or whatever

it was. And then I go on there for two minutes and two seconds. And I was just, I wanted to fight more. I wanted to show more skill. But at the end of the day, you know, you really can't complain about getting in a fight, make it a good amount of money and not being injured. So it's, I got nothing to complain about. I just really wanted to show more of my skill for myself, you know, because I watched, I've watched, I literally, I watched my contender series fight, and then my fight against Andre this morning.

I'm just a huge fan of that character, that, that, that superhero I build up, and then I get to go perform. It's like, I build all these superpowers, and then I go to perform in the cage, and then as a fan, myself, I get to go watch that. I've watched my fights more than anybody's ever watched their fights. I watch my fight more than anybody's watched my own fights. So I'm a fan of myself and I was just hoping, you know, I've watched that last fight so many times because it's two minutes long. So I have to start watching the walkouts now. It's enjoyable. So, but it's fun.

I enjoy it. Yeah, I enjoy it too. Believe me, I've watched it a number of times. Maybe not as much as you have. But one of the things that really sticks out to me is the composure for that fight in particular. I mean, like, it's like you're in the matrix. You're sitting way back. Your eyes are really open.

You're so focused. And it's like you're seeing everything he's coming with before it gets near you. Is that something, like, is that a mentality thing? Or is that just from Moyles on the clock and sparring sessions and stuff like that? Where do you get that kind of composure for? I think that really came from the two years out, just the meditation and the breathing and the cold, the cold plunge and the, you know, and just learning so much, like, on the inside. And I just, I feel like I can let go and just let my higher self take over and not,

not think when I'm in there. If you're thinking when you're in there, you're not, you're too slow. So I feel like I'm really good about just letting go and flowing and just letting whatever happens happen in there. And I think that that was just a really good showing of all the hard work I've put on the inside of myself, not just the training on the outside, but the inside work I've done in the last two years dealing with the stuff I was dealing with, getting in trouble for something I've never done, not being able to fight for something for some reason that I never, I never cheated. I was

getting called this. I was getting called that. I was suspended twice. I was, you know, all this stuff. I really had to dig deep into myself and, you know, figure some things out and try to figure out how can I still be happy with all this going on. So I think I was just able to show a lot of that. Yeah, I mean, it was great to see you bouncing back like that because all of us, the media, the fans, we have so much promise for you, right? Like, I mean, we were just hoping it would all go that way and then, of course, it did. But I mean, I'm wondering, Sean, you seem like a very fun guy as we talked about. But this whole thing about Foyd Island, is this exciting for you? It feels like something of a throwback from an old kung fu film or something.

How do you feel about all this talk? Have you been keeping up to date with this stuff? Yeah, a little bit. I would 100, Fighting on an island, you know, would be insane. I would have, I would be stupid just that I wouldn't want to. You know, I really enjoy fighting in Vegas. There's not a whole,

much four fights have been in Vegas. So, you know, if July comes around, that fight will be in Vegas. Hopefully, if this is still going on, I would for sure fight on an island. I think that would be a really cool experience. I think it would be a really cool vlog, you know, getting on the plane, flying there, just hanging it. Like, it's probably just you and one coach. So me and Tim, just cruise.

and I don't know, it would be insane. It would be super fun and I would love to do it. Did you have any feelings? Obviously, a lot was made. I mean, politicians getting involved, the New York Times writing about all this, like scrutinizing the UFC for pressing on with 249. I know obviously it didn't happen,

but, you know, how did you feel about them kind of going against the grain, so to speak, and pushing forward till the very 11th hour, really, until Dana's hands were forced. I couldn't really put on the event. I mean, was that just, did you admire the way they went about that, or how did you feel about it? Yeah, I haven't been paying attention too much to all of it. I know, obviously, Dana was trying really hard. And I think, you know, I look at Dana and I think that's so sweet.

I think it's sweet that he's trying to continue to put on the fights. I don't think he was putting anyone else, anyone in danger. You know, he's a businessman. He's, that's what the UFC's built on is just risking it. and I was excited for the fights. I thought it was sweet that he was continuing to try to put them on. And if the fighter, you know, if a fighter doesn't want to fight, all they have to say is, no, I don't want to fight.

Every single person on that card, I guarantee was like, hell yeah, I want to fight. So I don't think, I think it was just got, they should have been able to fight. But I also haven't been paying attention to, you know, where's a hot, like who's testing, how many people, the death, or I haven't paid attention to any of that. So I don't really know.

I don't know. I thought it was sweet that he tried to put it on though. Yes, yes. I mean, I can remember directly after UFC 248, they were talking about International Fight Week, and you were like, maybe that's even too late. You know what I mean? You were trying to get in another fight before then.

But I'll tell you one thing, Sean. The fact that you're talking about International Fight Week, which of course is July, it's upsetting a lot of Irish people because they really wanted to see you on this UFC Dublin show. I can't tell you how many times we put up, who do you most want to see on this show?

Your name was one of the most prevalent, along with the likes of Gunner Nelson, who's an honorary Irishman, basically. People would be more than happy to see him in the main event over here. UFC Dublin, what are your feelings? It's August, obviously mid-August we're looking at here. I'm guessing you don't want to really hold on to August

if you can fight in July, right? Yeah, definitely. You know, international fight week in Vegas is just too perfect of a card to miss up, to pass up on. But I always, I've been saying, like, there's one other place I'd fight, and that's Dublin, then Vegas. I think it would be, you know, that would be insane. That would be just as insane as fighting on an island for me.

I think it would be so fun. And it'll happen. You know, I'm 25 years old. I have a long time, you know, have a lot of fights left in me. So I think it will definitely happen, you know, when the time's right and the card's right. the opponent and everything's right so it'll happen there's no doubt about it but maybe not this time in august who knows i'm not going to say yes or no i just i don't i just don't know what's how everything's going to playing out yeah it's incredible i can remember the first time i spoke to you was

just before your full ufc debut and you were kind of saying to me at that stage already like you were like after you know my hometown and a few other uh u.s cities i mean dublin i mean ireland is one of my biggest kind of spots for followings uh is that still the kind of do you still get a lot of fans from Ireland tuning into your feed? Yeah, it's more just like everywhere. Like when I stream on Twitch, there's people literally just from everywhere coming in on and saying what's up and greetings from everywhere. I can't, I don't know, it's insane.

It's so cool that it's, you know, my fan base has grown worldwide and it's exciting because it's just getting started. Like this is literally just the beginning. I felt like that last fight was my debut. And I feel like we're just getting started. So I think it's going to be, you know, a fun career. I feel like the Irish fans feel like they've got a special bond, which is because of your second name, because of the green shorts.

So I feel like it means even more to them, right? Like they've nearly, we've kind of been starved of UFC fighters from the region. We used to have like nine, now we've only got two. And now it's like they're looking for everyone they can take onto Team Ireland. So you have definitely been embraced by the people over here. I'm sure you know that already. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.

And, you know, I get a little crap from that. Like, you haven't even been to Ireland and stuff. And I haven't, and I would love to go. But, I mean, my last day is O'Malley, and I am Irish. So it's, you know, and how could you not love the Irish fans, especially from watching, I've been watching Connor all his fights, and he comes to Vegas, and the whole crowd is Irish. And, like, how could I not embrace those Irish fans?

How could I, like, not even for a business move, but just for, I love being connected with my fans. And when you got a whole, you know, Ireland, you know, travel to Vegas for, it's so cool. And it's awesome that I can, you know, be a part of that in a way. So I think it's really cool. You remind me of Connor in many ways in the fact of the implications you're having on the division before you're kind of right up in that title conversation. Like I know you're not going to respond to the various callouts, but I mean, it's crazy how many people are.

calling you out right like Brian Keller, Merab Devilschvili, Nathaniel Wood even expressed interest recently on this show. Like I'm not going to ask you to respond to these guys, but surely that's a good sign, right? You know, when you're a wanted man in this division, you're only after getting back into activity and everybody in the division seem they want to fight with you. Like, what does that say about your standing in a bantam way here, Sean? I got called out by nine guys when I was out for two years. There was nine bantamways that called me out.

So, yeah, some of them are going to help my career fighting someone like Brian Keller is not going to do much. I think he's 10 and 5 or something like that. He looks like he smokes cigarettes. He just, he doesn't, he's not going to do anything for my career. So I'm definitely looking for smart fights and people that are going to up me not, you know, I go smoke him, then what? They're cool, that kid sucks. So it's like pointless to talk about guys like that. But yeah, it's good to be getting called out by a bunch of people.

Like, you know, that means that's a good thing. It's exactly what happened to Connery. He was called out by everyone. I think the more I fight, the less I'm going to get called out, the more dangerous people realize I am. Right now, people still think, like, oh, we just, I'm going to take him down, and that's going to be the end of the fight. That's not the end of the fight. I will choke someone if they take me down. I train jujitsu more than I do anything.

Jiu Jitsu is pretty much my life. I love Jiu Jitsu. I train it all the time. I train with really, really good people. And no one's really, you know, I haven't really really. got to show that too much besides when I grappled with Takenori Gomi. I went eight minutes with Gilbert Melendez. I've been really consistent with my jiu-jitsu. So for people that think that they just got to take me down, like that's just not the case. I'm either going to stand right back

up and knock them out or I'm going to finish them on the ground. So my confidence is just as high on the ground as it is on the feet. And it's nice that I kind of really got to show that yet. It's still kind of a secret. I can talk about it and people know it, but until it happens, if I go out there and choke the next guy, you know, it's not a secret anymore. They're like, okay, that's, that's real now what? So it's still like in my, still a weapon I have that people are going to try to take me now and they're going to go unconscious. I saw, who I see speaking about this, you are quintet. I saw another foyer, like, maybe a better known for grappling, say, than yourself, an established blackbell kind of talking about, holy shit. Sean O'Malley can grapple as well. He was

like blown away by this is is that a mark to how much you've improved again over the two years rather than you know from where you were when we first saw you in the UFC to where you are now is that a completely different story when it comes to grappling as you say it's night yeah it's night and day difference

it's it's so much different like Augusto Mendez won um no deep worlds the Mendez brothers one half yeah 80 since C last last year and I was one of his main training partners we're doing 10 minute rounds Holy shit.

We're going Monday, Wednesday, Friday. We're doing 10-minute rounds. You know, not just one, not two, three, four, five, six, ten-minute rounds. And we're going hard. We're doing competition training, like, with real Jiu-Jitsu. So when you see another high-level black belt talking about my Jiu-Jitsu, they can see that, oh, that's real Jiu-Jitsu. That's pretty high-level.

That's not just, you know, a lot of the fighters don't have good, real Jiu-Jitsu. They have kind of M-M-A. jujitsu, which is fine because that's what they're doing, but I think it's important to have real jiu-jitsu in a fight. I'm very much looking forward to seeing that I'm looking forward to it a lot. I'm just wondering, you know, in terms of you saying, you know, you need to strategically see, like, you know, build yourself, you need to be selective about who your next opponent is in terms of what do they offer me? Is there anyone that you see there yet, or is that something that will wait and then, like, do you, are you happy enough to just take the opponent's UFC give you for

the time being, or is there someone where you're like, I would like, I would like, I would like, is that I would like him because that's going to move me to the next stage. Yeah, when we're about two months out, I think we'll kind of decide. We'll talk with the UFC and then figure out an opponent. Right now it's just pointless. There's just so, if we have, say we have an appointment right now, he could break his arm, he could get sick, he could do this. So it's, for me, it's about getting better right now. It has nothing to do with who should we fight next.

Once we're about two months out, we'll say, okay, this is who, this is, we're going to talk with the UFC. We'll figure out who's coming off a win, who's available, who does. doesn't have a fight booked, um, and all that. So I, I think that'll be good. Do you set yourself,

like, in terms of like time milestones, I want to be in the title conversation by this time? Is there any, do you have any idea, like in your head when you map it out, when you will be kind of in that conversation on the verge of fighting for a title or knocking on the door of the title?

Yeah, it's just so hard to say with fighting, especially after I broke my foot last fight, and then I get suspended for two years for no reason. So it's hard. It's so hard. hard for me to determine, like to guess when,

when I'm going to be doing that. If everything goes as planned, as everything goes as should, I should finish three more dudes, two or three more dudes, and I'll be knocking on that door for a title. You know, you have,

when you have a lot, when you have a good fan base, like you can, you know, you can get, you can get those title fights. So I think, yeah, three more finishes,

and I'll probably be right up there. There's just, the division's so stacked right now. There's so many guys, deserving of a title shot that it's you know i don't want to i definitely respect everyone in the division um and i just feel like i'm going to come come i'm really going to take over the division like connor did and just be the be that guy be that one that everyone wants to watch fight so i think that's what's going to happen next year and a half so and do you have any feelings on there just finally

do you have any feelings on the likes of crews and aldo being drafted in for a title shot i know a lot of people were upset about this given like you know the meritocracy they were saying aljo should fight yan should fight and do you have any um do you have any bones of that situation like do you would you prefer to see them going the the meritocracy route than drafting in these big names to fight se hoodo yeah i mean personally really i don't care um it doesn't matter it doesn't matter to me who who fights who right now at that level right it just doesn't really matter. As a fan, who would I rather watch Henry fight?

I don't know. That's tough. I think it would be sweet to watch Cruz and Henry fight. Henry's going to be hard to beat. I think he's going to be hard to beat. So I'll watch, you know, if he fights Aldo, if he fights Cruz, if he fights yawn, I think it'll be a good matchup for all those fights are sweet fights. Well, Sean, it's been an absolute pleasure to pick your mind once again, my friend.

I'm glad to hear that you are staying positive. And congratulations again on your emphatic reemergence with the UFC. I wish you all the best, and I cannot wait to see you back in the Octagon, my friend. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Let's hope it's in Dublin, eh? Could be. I never know. You never know. It could be. All the best, sir. Talk to you soon.

Thanks. Bye. I'm going. And thank you so much to the Sugar Man. Sean O'Malley. Great to see him back, man. Holy shit. And what a way to return to the Octagon against Quinones. Their absolutely devastating performance. And I'm really happy.

Like how many times have we talked about this on the show, just how worrying the situation he was in, given his time away. And, you know, for a long time, he was saying, oh, I'm going to be back. I'm going to be better than ever. And I got to say, I was kind of like, are you, though? I mean, two years off. And so happy that it's all worked out for him. and he seems to be still there as potentially one of the next great bantam weights, right? Yeah, 100%.

Like the guy, as you said, is two years out and, you know, obviously a total fucking nightmare for any guy, especially his age when he's just had a couple of UFC fights. The height was real. But he's come back out and the, you know, the maturity he showed with that performance, you know, came in, Starche Canones. And in the interview, as we just heard there as well, to put it all behind him. behind him, not be bitter, not be negative, just shows the maturity and shows what kind of fighter he can become in the future with a mindset like that. And it's pretty scary to think

how good Sean and Molly can be if he can keep this momentum going on this run. Listen, I'm surprised he doesn't have a massive chip on his shoulder. Yeah, I would be such a septic prick if I was in about the whole situation. I'd be, you know, me, no, it doesn't take me a lot to get on me high horse. But it is. It's an amazing mindset to have and it's something that will get him places in that division and obviously killers row in that division as well and there's so many good fights you can make for that kid man it's it's scary to think of what the UFC

can put on in terms of numbers going down the line and I'd like to see them go sort of the Bellator James Galaher S Bush where you know he's missed two years or I think he's 26 now he's no kid anymore but I think still those two years out we could have had four or five

Sean O'Malley fights and Sean could be on that sort of level of Ronda Rousey Connor McGregor if we had that time back and I'd like to see them just level it out a little bit and ease the push. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I guess everyone's push is going to be eased in this situation, but I guess it's going to break some Irish people's hearts that he has this international fight with. As he said there, Sean Shelby told him it would be international fight week the next time

he fights. And of course, that's so close to that August 8. But on a positive, no, he does say he definitely wants to fight there. He said, I want to fight there as much as I want to fight and fight Ireland. It's just, you know, you can understand from his point of view. It's huge for him to fight international fight week. A hundred percent. 100 percent.

I do. I totally understand that. You know, Vegas cards, not far from him, from home. One of the biggest fight weeks of the year. But, you know, saying that, we'll take him in August as well. No fucking problem if you want some of the main event spot. Definitely. And listen, I think any UFC Dublin cards, it's pretty big.

Obviously, it's not as big as an international fight week, but the eyes of the world would be on them there as well. So, listen, it's only good things for Sean O'Malley down the line. and I just, I'm really interested to see who they're going to match him with next. I think that's, that's going to be crucial in what they're going to do with, which the sugar, Sean,

by. Yeah, and he is, like, you can tell he's even strategic about that. Like, he's poo poo and Keller. He's poo and all these guys.

He's like, I need to take something from the person who I'm fighting next. I need it to do something for me. And look, I think Keller and him in Ireland, two lads with him were second names. I'd fucking love that man, but definitely,

like, and I think he's doing, and you mentioned it there, you know, it's sort of the McGregor thing. he has that in his his locker he's separating himself from the field exactly and he and he's picking at these guys on Twitter

and seeing where what can I get out of this guy where can we sell this it's always a very very cent right when you see a fighter like thinking like that definitely 100% and we don't see enough of it and I think he's one of the guys that certainly knows and how to elevate his brand

and he's done it outside of the octagon as well I think sure he's making fucking treble the amount with his gaming and all that and his his branding with the cannabis companies and shit like that he's done an amazing job and you know his two years out

he was cleaning up by the looks of it from what he was doing online so very smart guy and I'm just I'm just pumped to see him back in there man I really like the kiddies go a lot we still have a really really big talking point left in this show

but it was brought fork by the great Graham Boylan Cade Warriors chief who came on and he clarified a lot of things I mean, I think when he put out this tweet about a private location for events, people are like thinking he's going to put them on next week or whatever. He's saying, no, like, I mean, there's restrictions in place. Did he send you a location?

No, he didn't. But I mean, no, but I think this is important because people are kind of jumping, jumping down his throat saying like, you're, how could you do this? Blah, blah, blah. He said, when the time is right, he did say this in the tweet. I guess it was everyone's just so worked up and they were pressing fast forward on everything, just trying to get to the, get to the, yeah. the brass tax of the situation,

but good to hear that he has no intention to put on an event with these current restrictions in place. And to be fair, he talked about the situation for the Manchester card. Like, as far as he's concerned, they didn't break any laws. Like, as we know,

Noel, the UK were deemed to be a bit behind the curve, right, in terms of lockdown and stuff like that. They called for lockdown on the day that event was on. That was March 20th, and it would have come into effect at midnight, so March 21st.

And as Mason Jones told, as a couple of weeks ago, they were out of the arena quite a past 11. He won the world's toilet, like, go home. But just interesting to hear him talk about this.

And again, look, Cage Warriors is one of the biggest feeders to the UFC in the world. Nearly 100 fighters have gone from Cage Warriors to the UFC. So very, very interesting to hear Graham Boylan's take

on how this could slow down the process of signings for the rest of the year, which makes perfect sense. But we're going to let him talk to you guys about it first and then we will have a little chat about it afterwards so here is Graeme Boylan

always always entertaining never fails to deliver on Eurobatch and this is no different we'll see us in 20 minutes and now we are joined by Graham Boylan a man who is one of the most talked about promoters in the sport at the

moment of course at the helm of Cage Warriors Graham first of all Easter weekend how did you find it under these unique circumstances say. P.T. I actually love these circumstances. I can't praise the government's enough for locking

everybody down and telling everybody to stay at home. It's sad that has taken these type of circumstances to make everybody just stay at home and do it at all. And it's a bad state of affairs that everybody's

in, the economy, people's health, etc., etc. But on a personal lot, I couldn't fucking love it anymore. I'm sitting at home. I got nobody calling me. I'm doing my own work. I'm getting my task list. Knock down five, six, seven a day, which is unheard of.

And I'm going to end up at the end of this with nothing to do. Wow. That sounds a bit depressing, though. A man like you with nothing to do, it seems... I'd say that would lead you to a lot of trouble very quickly. It will. It will get me very bored and I'll start looking at social media, trying to annoy people and wind people up.

so you've did the social media people better hope that my task this stays a little bit full otherwise they're all dead right so i guess we'll um we'll we'll get to the pressing issues i guess the last thing we heard was cage war warriors had a private location set up and you you're playing your cards quite close your chest saying you could pull the trigger on it at any time um is there any more information you can give us about this is the the um the location still secured is this something you're still looking to go forward with. Yeah, I think that when we put that out there, it was taken a little bit out of context.

I think the words were when the time is right in that message. We do have a location. I have two locations that I could use. And they will be used when the time is right, which, you know, what happens in social media these days, It's taken out of context. It's red wrong. It's not red in full.

We have two locations. They'll be used when the time is right. The time being right is when restrictions are lifted and people can freely move around. Now, people can actually work right now. If you cannot work from home, you can go to work. Fighters can't work from home, can they? No.

You know, what are we going to do? send a fighter to another fighter's house and say, have a fight in your living room and we'll send a cameraman to look at. You know, fighters have to go somewhere to work. I know it's not a key job, but it's their work.

The end of the day, when the restrictions are lifted and people can move around, we'll put shows back on when the fighters are ready. The issue being, the fighters have to be ready for these shows to go on. And with Jim,

closed and fighters not able to mix with other fighters to get the sparing in and get that type of training aspect of what they need to get ready to compete done and dusted it's going to take a bit of time

so when the time is right we will pull the trigger and we will put the shows on there's no slowdown from us we're ready to go the team is ready to go it's a case of when the fighters can get back in the gyms it's that sparring. You know, we're giving six to eight weeks,

and as soon as they're ready to go, we're good to go. I understand. And that makes more sense now that you've, when you talk about it, because the first thing in that tweet, of course, was, like, I don't, you said, I don't think we're going to see crowds at events for a long time.

Is that still the way you think it will go, Graham? Yeah, yeah. I don't think there is. I'm sorry for interrupting, but to nail it in the head. I don't see crowds in arenas till after October, November time. Wow. And I think that's even being optimistic.

you know, this social distancing that's going on globally, I don't see how they break that down and within two or three weeks go, okay, you can all go back and mix together now again. We can all have full arenas again. I don't see it happening, you know. It's got to be a gradual process. But what I do see happening is people being smart about what they do

and, you know, going by the rules and regs that the governments are putting in place, following those guidelines to as much as you possibly can and you know get on much of your life yeah yeah i mean tell us about first of all i forgot we have to go back here we had that uh the event in manchester course um at the last second uh moved to manchester cage warriors 1113 a lot of casualties to the car but it still went ahead um you know and we

we talked to two of the forders from the event mason jones patty pym that they said they couldn't have been happier with the safety standards, but you came under a lot of heat for that. Was that a difficult moment for you in terms of, you know, you were telling us earlier that week it was the most challenging time for you as a promoter trying to go forward

with that. Was that a particularly difficult time with people all throwing their oars in where you guys tried to put this event on? PT, you know as well as I do. I don't give a flying fuck about anyone. How long have you been writing about Cage Warriors or have I been on your radar? Do you

think that anything I've done in the past means I give a fuck about what anyone says. No, you know, we follow, yeah, we follow rules and guidelines, all right? And we followed rules and guidelines right down to as tight as we could possibly do

within our means to do so. We put on an event in a country that was open for business. The UK was open for business. We carried on doing what the government, allowed us to do. We took government advice, we took medical advice. And what happens is because other countries were shutting down and other countries were cancelling events and businesses were closing down, the UK wasn't. And because people weren't living in the UK, they didn't get it. So they were all jumping on my back and on Cage Warriors back and saying it was wrong and this and that. But,

you know, we just carried on business as usual because the country was open. The country was open for business and we carried on. The country got a six hour notice. I think it was like 5.30 or 6 p.m. on Friday the 20th of March saying everybody

is now restricted to social distancing in lockdown. Businesses are ordered to close. That happened at half is five, six o'clock on the day the event. And you were told to do that by midnight that night. We were in the arena. The fighters were in the arena.

And we were out of that arena by 1115. We did nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong. We were advised by the medical team. We went along with the event. Everybody was tested. Everybody was kept separated, apart from when they fought.

Yeah. You know, the event went along. The media tore us apart before. The media shut their asses and loved every second to what we did while it was on. And the immediate tore us apart again afterwards. You know, it is what it is. Yeah, it's certainly,

an interesting thing. And this, like, as you have pointed out, like, I mean, even from Ireland, we've been kind of, a lot of people have been talking about the fact that the UK has been a bit slower to lock down the process. And that's all accurate, what you said in terms of the restrictions they had put in place at the time. And so that's what you're basically saying. Until those restrictions that went in at midnight then, they've, they've come more stringed than the last few weeks, I believe. But until those restrictions are gone, you have no intention to put on an event. Until those restrictions are finished. But we're at the same boat as everybody else. We're a business that's closed.

We can't do anything until the restrictions are lifted. And when the restrictions are lifted, then people can move around. We put shows back on. You know, it's, P.C., there are builders working, construction workers, builders. I drive by them every day. I'm still going to my office to do work or I'm going to my gyms to pick up mail. I have to do that for the circumstances that are going on with the businesses. So I'm out and about and I'm driving around.

mixing anybody. I'm in my car. I'm going to my office or my gym, whichever one it is, and I'm driving home. There are construction workers still working today in the UK. They're not abiding by social distancing or whatever guidelines that are put in place. You know, I see them. I see them working on driveways. I see them on scaffolding. There are people still working, okay? That's going to get lifted in say, oh, I don't know what, three, four, five weeks, that gets lifted. People will be allowed to go back to work. They may stop mass social gatherings like arenas, concerts, everything

that goes on along those lines, football games. They can do them behind closed doors. That's where I see this going. We're going to have a restart with maybe four or five events that will be private closed door events. We will be doing the same type of specific medical testing

over way-in day, split weigh-ins, event day leading on to events to make all this happen. yeah that's it that's that's um very interesting i know a lot of people have been talking a lot about these events i even saw all the fighters foiling in underneath the tweet going put me on the card put me on the card lots of them and i was wondering right because there was pivotal fights over the next couple of months of course you guys announced to postpone with the birmingham and the belfast shows but the anticipation for the belfast show was unbelievable as uh as noel mcgraham my colleague was saying he said it's nearly like the semi-final before

UFC Dublin and that's the final. Obviously, Rees McKee was a guy we talked about before Graham and then there was Morgan Chariy who was meant to compete on 113 before his opponent dropped off. Is there a priority here for some fighters over others like some fights,

some situations that need to develop before others when you're thinking about those four or five events? No, we have to do what's right mate and we have to go by the rotation that was in place. If we just turn around and say are the fighters have

priority over other guys just out of no specific reason whatsoever, we'd be complete another fucking assholes. You know? We have to go by the rotation that was in place. So the guys in the Birmingham

car, we've got to look at that for us. We've then got to look at the guys in the Belfast carer. That's got to be looked at second. So we've got to try and stick to where guys were booked. Obviously, guys were only booked up to I believe the Belfast show

so the guys booked on Birmingham and the guys booked on the Belfast show that of both being rescheduled to dates further down the line those fights

will get looked at as a priority before anything else right right in terms of a promoter like do you feel like I know we've already talked

about the challenges for that specific event but this period here do you think this might be like testing you more than any other situation you've ever been in because I mean it's a tough job to keep these guys and work as you pointed out right it is but you know chaos is like a red flag to a bull to me that that that that that show that we did in Manchester that happened to what March 20th for me that was two Christmases in the space of three months

it was just absolute chaos and there's nothing more I loved than chaos. There's nothing more I loved than being kept up laid into the early hours of the morning trying to keep things, trying to keep things afloat. You know, when things are going normal, that's when I get bored. That's when I get switched off. That's when I decide, that's when I decided to open up Twitter and stick something out to piss someone off. You know, I just get bored. When I'm kept busy, I'm at my best. And when I see chaos, that's when I rise. And that Manchester show, that was chaos. That was Christmas to me. That was, here comes St. Nicholas again. He's down. He's going to look out.

after me again. He gave me another gift. And it's only March. You know? So, and he's not stopped. I've got more. There's more coming. So I've got to see which one's coming, which present I'm going to open next to see what we've got to do. One thing I wanted to ask you about, right? I think one of the great things that you managed to

happen there was get the the Darren Stewart and Fabinski fight on. But, I mean, do you think that could be an option for these shows? I mean, if there is restrictions in terms of travel and stuff, could Could the UFC potentially let their contracted fighters play out their contracts on Cage Warriors' cards because they can't travel across? Is that anything like that been discussed?

I'm sure something that can be looked at when the time is right. You know, nobody has a crystal ball at this time. So there's nothing we can do to look into to say X, Y, Z is going to happen. You know, I've been saying to the guys, a lot of the fighters are the guys who are on the UFC roster. or guys in Cage Warriors roster, there are only two things in life you're guaranteed. And that's the tax man and death. Aside from the two of them,

everything else is unknown. So until we get to the stage, we're just locked down lifts and we can see what type of restrictions are in place who can get where, what we can get done, then, you know, nobody knows. It's an unanswered,

nobody can answer that question might know. possibly, well, even more than you, Dana White, obviously, came into huge scrutiny, New York Times, politicians getting involved. Crazy situation, really, in the lead up to him trying to put on UFC 249. I mean, what did you think of that situation? I mean, you were in a very similar one, right? Like, do you sympathise with White in that situation, or how do you feel about it? I sympathize with the whole staff there. White, the matchmakers, the logistics team behind it,

everybody that was involved, the fighters, the coaches, the managers. Because once you get that bit between your teeth, it's very hard to let go. The closer and closer you get, the more you think you're going to make this work. And when it gets taken from you, part of it is kind of, it's bittersweet, right? Because partner's like, okay, well, we tried.

and then the other part of the, fuck you, we're almost there. And it's a tricky situation we're in because you got asymptomatic guys, you got people who test positive, you got people who are contagious, you know, the list goes on. But I strongly believe they would have put the highest of medical standards behind checking everybody

that would have competed on that show or worked on that show, just like we did. You know, they're taking medical standards. advice just like we took medical advice. Our show went ahead because I was speaking to my medical team every day, sometimes two or three times a day. At any point, if my medical team said to me, you can't do the show, I would have stopped the show.

But if my medical team are on side and the government is open for business, the country's open for business, we're going ahead doing what we're doing, you know. And I do sympathize with the work they put into getting that show going. But, you know, the US is a far bigger, more political country than what we did here in the UK. And I do believe that would be the first ones back too. Yeah, I have to agree with you. Yeah, absolutely. One thing I wanted to ask you about, this might be a bit left field, is Mads Burnell.

Because when Morgan Sherriere was on, I think it was two weeks ago, he was saying, I think I'm going to fight for the title next because I don't think Mads is going to fight for Cage Warriors again. Now, I've heard nothing more about this, but Morgan was kind of, of saying, you know, he was supposed to fight me. He didn't want to defend the title. I think he can only do that once. But if it comes down to the next fight and he says, I don't want to defend it again, he'll probably have it stripped.

I mean, is that just Morgan kind of spitballing essentially? Or is there a situation there with Mads? I have no idea where Morgan's Intel is coming from. But from our point of view, Mads Burnett is a Cade Warriors champion. He's a contracted Cage Warriors champion. He's got three, maybe two or three fights on his contract with us. Our understanding of the situation with Mads was he was taking time out to let his injuries heal. And he needed a break because he had three or four fights too close together.

He went from camp to camp to camp. And the reason he wasn't going to be available for the Morgan fight was because he wanted to take some time out to let his body rejuvenate. do some rehab and have a break from going from camp straight into the camp again. That's the situation that I'm aware of a Mads Brunel. So unless you know something any different than I do, I'm happy to hear it. I'd rather hear of directly from Mads or his coach. But, you know, if you know something else, I'll happily pick it up with them tomorrow. No, I don't.

I don't. I was honestly, I just thought Morgan was hinting at something. But that's a taste, you know, fight, right? That Morgan v. Mads, that would be an insane fight. and the traction that guy, Morgan brings to the party, is absolutely unbelievable, right? Yeah, it's big. Morgan's got a huge, huge online following.

So him and Mads would be a crazy, a crazy fight, something that we'd happily put on. But like I said, this all comes down to when these restrictions get lifted, the moment we can move around, give me 48 hours and there'll be a date put up in the domain. Yikes, that's incredible. I've got to ask for the Irish MMA fans about Reese,

like, as this situation probably obscured Reese from the, from the UFC call up in August, if that event goes ahead. I know we're doing a lot of ifs and butts here, but unfortunately it's just the situation we're in. I guess a lot of people thought he needed that big win in Belfast to catapult him into the contract situation with the UFC. Would you rule that out now, or do you think it's still on?

I think Reese needs, I think Reese needs that belt. Unless there's some last minute seven-day notice fight that pops up on the rider that you can step in on. I think that that fight for the belt and to get that

that belt and move forward from there is definitely on the cards for Reese. The way you've got to look at this, look, you guys follow the sport 24-7. Okay? the UFC's roster when they eventually get the green light to get a show on is going to be a full roster. And when I say full,

there's got to be at least 30% of the UFC's roster out injured at any one time. Everybody is coming back on injured. Everybody is coming back ready to go. now if everybody is ready to go and events are every other week or every week and there's a backlog of guys that need to get fights in because they haven't fought. Think about it.

If somebody hasn't fought since, I don't know, say December, November, December last year, it could be a year before they fight again. Yeah. So if they got injured in December or November last year, they're now going to be fully recovered and ready to go and rehabbed. come July, June this year. Yes.

So they're going to have a full roster. No injuries, a full roster to choose from. How in the name of God does anybody get into the UFC for the rest of this year? Yeah, it's a good point. I didn't even think of that. Yeah, well, yeah, that is a really, really good point. How does that, where's the door open?

Because there is no door open. If they need a replacement, everyone's going to be ready. Everybody's going to be coming in, injury-free. Everybody's rehab. all they're going to be doing is coming and getting their spar in. They're all going to be fit because ain't no UFC fighter that's on that roster right now, not going to be doing their training,

their S&C and their cardio work, which they can do a home in their garden or go for a run or whatever to do it. They're going to be doing stuff. They're going to be doing all the rehab. When this starts up again, you're talking a full, complete, un-injured roster. What room is there to bring new guys in when you've got everyone to choose from on your books,

on your cards, fit and ready to go. Yep, that is a strong argument. Yeah, I mean, it's going to happen. There's actually no doubt about it.

When you put it like that, but Graham. Nobody, I honestly do not believe anyone's getting into the UFC or the UFC contract going out this year. But yeah, well,

that's, I'm sure that's going to be bad news for a lot of prospects on the youth, but I mean, it is what it is, I guess. We're all, we're all kind of being pushed back.

in some way or shape or form because of what's happening around the world at the moment. There are people going to lose the houses. There are people losing the jobs. This thing hasn't even started yet. When it does actually start to unfold, how is there a room to bring new guys in?

Yeah, I agree with you. I agree with you, Graham. And come here, thank you so much for getting on to us and clearing that up. I think a lot more people will understand the situation and will be behind it. now that you kind of clarified that and I really hope.

KT. Just do call me and see you next Tuesday. May you don't worry what I? But you love it. But Graham, thanks so much, man. I hope you have a great, the rest of your Easter and only a few hours left. But thanks so much for getting on to us. And I hope you and your family stay safe and stay away from that virus as much as you guys can.

We'll do our best, man. You take care. All the best, Graham. Bye, bye, bye. Bye, bye. Well, never fails to deliver, as I said. Graham Boylan. The International Man of Mystery.

Yeah. Forever the last time we had him and Lewandowski on. Everyone thought they were the same person. Has anyone ever seen Graham and Martin in the same room before? The Bond villain. Well, man, like, I'm glad I asked him about this. In the Reese McKay and Morgan Charié situations. Yeah.

Like, he's fucking, he's dead, right? Isn't he? Like, I mean, everybody is going to be ready to go. Yeah. When the EOC kicked back into gear. And I'd say adding talent to the roster will be probably far, far, far from their list of priorities at the moment, right? Yeah, we spoke about this. You told me, obviously, after the interview what happened, but what Graham said, and the first thing I said to you is, Jesus Christ, that's an excellent point.

How did we not think of that? And you look at the whole... There's just too much to actually think about at the moment. But, like, I mean, he is the guy, right? He is the guy that's play so many great fighters on the doorstep of the UFC. If anyone knows, he knows. Of course he does. He's the guy that's produced, what, 100 fighters for the promotion,

for the world's premier mixed martial arts promotion, or whatever the figure is, it's somewhere up around that ballpark. And, you know, if you consider everything and you put everything into consideration in terms of what we spoke about a few minutes ago in terms of, you know, these lower, maybe up-and-coming fighters that, you know, aren't going to get a shot

and these fight island cards, that just has a massive overflow for the UFC at the moment. and why would they be looking at taking more fighters on their roster when they can't even guarantee these guys' fights? It's not going to happen. It would literally be, it's like the worst time to sign for the USA right now. Yes, and then you have the visa issues as well, especially if you're an international fighter,

predominantly you are if you're fighting for Cage Warriors, you're from Europe or something like that. There's a lot of barriers that they're going to have to overcome to accommodate someone. This fighter, if there is to be a fighter or fighters signed from Europe, I think it will be after this whole pandemic dies down because there's just too many.

hurdles and the way to make it worthwhile for the UFC at the moment. Listen, I don't think they're going to sign anyone. It's a point I haven't really had much time to think about and you only, you know, said it to me a couple hours ago. But on the face of it, like, it makes sense. And look, it's a shit situation for the likes of Reese McKee who are knocking on the door. Mark Charier, who seems like Mads Bernel, all these guys, like incredibly talented voters who seem to be just there or thereabouts.

but as Boylan said as well like I mean people are losing their houses people are losing their jobs people are dying you know like there's there's there's a lot worse sacrifices out there than maybe adding a few more months onto your to your weight list to get to the UFC definitely instead of you mentioned

there are people losing their lives exactly like we can overcome this and you can wait a little bit more time it'll probably be all the sweeter as well that little bit of a wait for guys you know and as much as it's not nice now the rewards could be a lot greater in 12 months time. And listen, you know, maybe if they come to Dublin, maybe they'll add one person, but listen,

we don't know what's going on from one day to the next. And that's the... You don't even know if Douglin's going to happen. There we go. You know, it's very unlikely that it mightn't happen. So who knows? And yes, especially with this Fight Island thing, there's going to be no fighter signs. And, you know, the roster is big enough as it is with the UFC. And, you know, having guys on the roster that they can't accommodate for fights is going to be a huge, huge issue. And that is going to be a knock on effect. It's not having fighters signed. and from other promotions during this time. So it's unfortunate,

but I think it's just a reality of this situation we're in. And listen, maybe Graham, you know, was speaking to Dana White. We don't, we don't know. Yeah,

he wouldn't tell us that anyway if he was. So, um, that could be very well the case coming from the UFC even, you know? Yeah. I mean, like I asked them as well about the,

um, you know, the fact that they were able to put on for Binski and Stewart, um, on the Manchester card. I was like, would that, would that likely be a situation,

say for UK, our Irish fighters, so any of the UFC are UK-based fighters, Europe-based fighters to maybe play out their contracts on cage wars

until, you know, travel is back up, everything is, you know, running smoothly again. And he said, that could be something they might look at.

Obviously, they haven't talked about it yet, but it's going to be interesting that way everything, you know, comes back together. It's a, it's a crazy, crazy time, man.

Yeah, it's just a lot of shit in hold and, and it's on hold for a perfectly good reason. And I think, oh, yeah, you know,

these guys have to look at safety first. and you know that's obviously what dana's being criticized for but it's something it's totally out of our control and listen um as i said it could be a sweeter sweeter time in 12 months when this shit's all over for these guys to get sign and go in there listen it's it's better than losing your life certainly yeah um how was your easter anyway it's a bit of a bizarre setup i'd say your house is always full with people big you know with the family and the kids uh your niece and nephews um was it was a bit of a weird one this this year yeah yeah it was

sister called up but they're 20 metres away in the car you know it's not the same thing and my nephew throwing shit at me and stuff like that yeah listen mad little shit he said I won't even tell you what he said he said F coronavirus which was very funny and you know very much

in my thoughts coming from a three year old but you know I didn't teach him to say that I wouldn't do such things as you know but listen yeah it's been a weird one it's been you know like groundhog day really as I've been saying to you a lot of the same shit every day but you know what the what fuck can we do man we'll come out better people at the end of this and i think you can learn

a lot from situations like this and you learn a lot about yourself you know what you're what's gone through your mind what you're thinking about you've a lot of time to do shit you wouldn't normally do and i think that's you know for me it's probably fucking ordering the shit load of equipment than waiting on i order a computer well you hear this pizzi and you know how excited i've been about getting this fucking computer every week people have been updated with the many parcels and many things the main parcel i've been waiting a month for i got a fucking email right well you hear this oh sorry your your parcels delayed three weeks it's not heartbreaking

listen mate I ordered an Italian 90 jersey in January What's the situation Philisame with that fucking and No no contact

I'm like They have a thing On their Sorry Sorry we aren't Getting back to emails The moment We're very busy

Well three months ago I emailed them So yeah Oh man Fuck it I don't give a bollocks I mean Jesus There's a lot more

to be worrying about Now Especially the fact That I'm shit At Jenga I brought out The Jenga last night Because me and Lainer

My man Das Because we're saying We're saying We're the posit At my house At the moment What a time

to do that. But anyway, got the jenga out. I only won one game. Like, got smoked by me ma, got smoked my dad. Elaine battered me twice. In the end, I won a game against Elaine, but she's like, she's like the fucking Anderson Silva of Jenga, man. It's unbelievable.

I'd say you're just shit out of it though as well. That's probably the rain. Impatient, as you can probably imagine. So I'm just like fucking punching the thing. I can't even play 21 on that fucking impatient. Do you know what I mean? That's a quick game. That's what I'm saying. Fuck those board games. I swear to fuck, man. They don't say well with me. Christ.

The lads are playing poker every night. Oh, do you want to jump on fucking Zame? No, I have no interest. Nah, get out of here. Not my fucking scene. Not a hope I'm playing poker, man. No way. This is what, like, I bought Monopoly.

I have loads of games there and he does, I'm not playing the fucking game every time. It's like, he starts crying when the name has even brought up. So we had a bit of, I tell you one thing that's fucking really annoying me is people that are still walking around in groups of like 10. Yeah. Well, today, we were down the canal. We brought Reggie for a walk. And, you know, we're keeping our distance, all that kind of shit.

And next of all this group of 10 people fucking walking towards us. And they're all trying to have a bit of crack. Like, they're pretending like it's a family. Yeah. I'm like, they're all teenagers with these three mothers, I guess. Three, three people that could have been their ma'am. It's about 15 of them. They're fucking a tree dogs with them.

They chased Reggie into the river. Like, so the dog is terrified of war and he's in the war. And they're like, oh, we have to keep our social distance. And I was like, he's a fucking dickets. Like, this would all been avoided. My poor little dog. Soaking way. I'm like,

I've got a serious anger problem. I need to, I'm not dealing very well with that situation. All the time when I'm out Yeah, now it's pissing me off. Like,

I mean, I'm gonna end up smashing someone's face in. Yeah. No, it is bad. No, I agree with you.

There was parties going on as well in town apparently. Yeah. And stuff like that. On these are weekend, man. Crazy man.

So, someone had the parties going on. It's crazy and it's bullshit and it's putting everyone else at risk. And you know, we're all the ones fucking, you know,

doing it right? and your assholes like this, you know, making the environment's, you know, more septic and spreading this shit. Yeah, it's making everyone stressful. And it's, yeah, it's mental. Like I saw numerous amounts of posts of people going to parties and going with their neighbors.

And I'm like, what the fuck is going on here? Have you not been watching the news? You dumb motherfuckers. I swear to God, man, some of the shit, and it's the same in the UK and it's the same of the state. It's the same all over the world. Some people are just bono, idle fucking selfish pricks.

And they deserve a slapin a fucking beating. You know what I mean? It's really grinding me at the moment because, you know, it is. It's very close to home, you know? A lot of these cases. And, you know, you're only three, four people away from, you know, picking it up yourself.

You could be walking across the shop and some fucker in a group of five could give it to you, you know? Mental stuff. And, yeah, it just needs a bit more responsibility. And I'm pissed off about that. I'd like to beat the fucking tire out of some of them as well. it's it's uh it's oh let's do it's become like vigilantes again again yeah shit

don't tell anyone just the fuck up we'll have to maintain her social distance so you go like two meters in front of me we'll get the e i'm getting an e-scooter i actually am you need kendo sticks on e-scooters so we just crack people on that's what i mean we'll do that like fucking the new bikers of dublin on fucking e-cuitors with our hoods up right and fucking bathroom pricks but no listen we'll get over this shit i'm confidence i'm confidence i'm confidence but uh outside of long walk. How's the carol families? What?

How's the carolers? Oh, they're all good. But I'm just kind of disappointed myself. I still haven't done a proper workout. I've done long walks and stuff. I do one every day with Reggie or whatever, but the workout, the proper workout has not,

but I've told Elaine that tomorrow we're going to do what we're going to do with fucking Cattlebell circuit and something else. That's the one thing I could be doing as well, you know, doing a little bit more exercise and shit. I haven't been eating shit. I still haven't been eating meat meat.

No, you look good. You look good. And no, I'm eating shit during the day. I just can't stop fucking eating just like crackers and fucking you're just like fuck what am I fucking eating this shit for it again I just can't fucking eat

that's what it is 100% so I need to start just fucking I know I need to start to start to start to be honest you get all that fucking gear sorted and shit and I'll fucking start building and painting and all that bollocks then so but yeah it's

it's a shit time Pedy it really is it is bud um finally how did you I was going to ask how did the quiz go you did a quiz right yeah it was a great crack

yeah yeah Andrew McGrathen failed miserably which was brilliant come on now that's class on that's so cool he was fucking he was going on about

oh I'm gonna win this I'm gonna win this and then he got like fucking like 15 questions and then rang me telling me one of my questions is wrong which it wasn't

um this is brilliant I would have loved a bit of fly on the world there was actually a lot more to came on I think people are just that fucking bored they'll even listen to me house in the fucking quiz.

And how do you, how do you kind of keep it transparent as in? How do you know that people aren't Googling these? Is there a certain time period? No, you just have to be. Just to trust people, Peter. You put your trust in their hands. A good Samaritan. I said, I said, lads, don't cheat.

Listen, if McGahn didn't fucking cheat, I reckon we're all right. In fairness. Do you know what I mean? Fair play, Andrew. No, it was good. I'm actually, you know what I'm going to do during the week? I said it to my other mates going, oh, will you deal with fucking general sports quiz? I don't know. rough about MMA and in fairness two of them did it right and their scores were dreadful.

Well, I'm glad they're here to everyone to keep it. 5 out 40 and I tell you, it took me a whole day to come up with questions. It's not an easy thing to do. So I might do one on Wednesday. I might do a general sports quiz on Wednesday for the crack because people are bored, man. It unbores me as well. No, I think people are really grateful for it. You know, they're fair play.

So I might do something on Wednesday. But yeah, that's fucking it, man. Now nothing else really. So we'll be back next week for, another adventure of MMA in coronavirus times and it's what an insane

It's like an episode of SpongeBob It feels it does kind of feel like Groundhog Day But like I'm so great for all the fighters For coming on and talking to us And of course the The listeners I mean we get great numbers Well this is on to be fair

It's it's great And I hope we are helping you guys And get through the boredom I guess It is it's a tough time. There's no doubt about it. And I know it's it sounds even selfish to be talking about, oh, it's so boring given what's going on. But it is

a, it is a crazy time. I'd also like to say, rest and peace to Anthony Cozy of the New York post, a sports photographer, good friends with Esther Lynn and Casey Lloyden, our great video on photography duo.

Terrible news. A really talented guy losing his life of 48 of his things. It really brings brings it crashing home how serious the situation we all are in we would have shared a media room with that gentleman as well you know at the new york cards we were at so uh yeah it's just shocking man and it just shows you that you know no one's susceptible to this uh this forest young man like that everyone's susceptible even it's uh it's it's it's susceptible is that mean everyone can get it yeah does isn't it yeah all right cool it's um yeah it's terrifying and like we have had a few reminders

really close to home for MMA, right? Like with Rose Namayune, as two of our family reportedly passed away and now Anthony, like, I mean, it's kind of crazy that we're, you know, only last week we were so desperately trying to plow ahead with this. But this is the game we're in. We aren't going to change things.

We can simply, you know, Bob and we with the punches as they continue to come in. Sorry, I thought you were going to talk there. Was that it? No, no, no. I thought you were to end it there. I thought you were going to say something. I looked at the screen.

Yeah, no, 100%. Listen, Bob weave, do little head movement, back and forth, use your feet. We'll avoid this shit. We ain't getting no one to knock us the fuck out. We are. We'll be here every week, every Tuesday morning, as always. Stay safe. Stay quarantine.

Stay away from everybody and wash your hands. Peace. And listen to your flash. We love your loads. Stay safe.