MMA Fighting - The A-Side Live Chat: UFC 249 postponement, fighter reactions, Dana White’s Fight Island, more

Episode Date: April 10, 2020

In this episode, UFC bantamweight Brian Kelleher joins José Youngs and Petesy Carroll to discuss some of the top story lines in the world of MMA. Some topics include Dana White announcing the postponement of UFC 249, the UFC roster’s reaction, Fight Island, and more. Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Petesy Carroll: @PetesyCarroll Follow  Brian Kelleher: @brianboom135 Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. What is up, everyone, Jose, I'm here for another. What day is this? Friday, Friday edition of the A-Side Live chat on MAAfighting.com. As we always say, one day feels like a week at this point in time. So what has been? Two months since the last time I saw, we saw you guys then,

last, this past Wednesday, days, man. We had WW Superstar Jack Galaher on. Pizzi, I know it enjoyed himself. But for this week, The OG crystal fighter, Brian Kelleher, joins us. I don't know what side of the screening on. So, Brian, what's life been like in quarantine for you lately? Stuck in New York, Long Island, right?

Not in the city, I hope. Yeah, Long Island. It's been nuts, man. It's been a stressful time. I can't lie. Just we're trying to stay in shape and try to figure out, like, when will I fight next? Should I try to stay ready in case this fight island comes about or whatnot? Like, you know, it's a really confusing time.

hard to know what's coming up ahead. Pizu, what have you been up to since Wednesday? I think a little bit of news broke in the last 48 hours, I'm sure we'll get to, but how's your mental psyche across the pond over there? It's not great, Jose. There's been a slow deterioration in my mind for last week, and we're going to hit in the climax of that now. So, yeah, great.

Well, as always, I know Brian knows the routine. This is not our podcast. This is your guys' podcast. You can go ask any question you want. You can go on M.AFighting.com. Find the post on the site. Leave your question there. The ones in green, we'll get prioritized,

but I promise we'll try to get as many questions as we can. Or you can just go to Twitter because that's what everyone is using nowadays, because my mentions are constantly being blown up, being blamed for all sorts of things that I've had nothing to do with. It was you, Jose. It was you. We know it was you. Don't show you away from it.

My fault, guys. My fault. You can leave your question on Twitter. We'll get to it if we can. I always find a lot of questions after the fact that I wish I had seen before, so I promise I'll try and pay more attention. Casey, everyone's favorite, moustachioed, wimpy, soy boy director. We'll also be looking at the YouTube comments.

Maybe we'll pull up a few there. We just got a new one. Apparently Disney has called, and they have canceled our live chat. Thanks, man. Yeah, I thank you, Ice King. That's a bummer. That's just a bummer all around. Anyway, Casey.

Here we go. I don't even have like reactions. Yeah, I know. Here we go. Yeah, I'm dead. I'm dead behind the eyes now. It's just whatever. From Sean.

I didn't want to start off this one, but let's just go all in right now. Here we go. Oh, boy. At Denny Rants on Twitter, long time comments. We're starting things off hot. Hashtag the A side. How did Dana White manage to paint himself as the victim in all this? He strung those fighters along, knowing full well the event likely wouldn't happen.

He tried to keep the venue secret and make it impossible. to cancel. So for those of you who have lived under Iraq, UFC 249 is officially no more. It was supposed to be in Brooklyn. Originally, it was supposed to be, that seems so long ago when it was going to be in Brooklyn. It was going to be Habib Nirmulmeh

made up versus Tony Ferguson. Abid Mnir Madov flies back to Dagestan. First he was going to fly back to, I believe it was Abu Dhabi or something, because that's where the fight was going to happen amid the coronavirus. That's what he says. And then he couldn't get in, so then he flew back to Dagestan, and now he didn't have a location.

He couldn't fly back to the United States. Since then, Dana White then booked the interim lightweight fight between Habib and just, I mean, Tony Ferguson and Justin Gachey. And now it's supposedly going to happen at Tai Chi Palace in Fresno.

They were also building a... Linmore, California. Linmore, California. My fault. Come on, Jose. My fault. My fault. Fresno is the closest rural city. But yeah, Linmore. Yeah. Obviously. People know, people know the name Fresno, they could probably

kind of geographically put that in the same location. I'll just say up northern California. And since then, there was going to be a fight island that was supposedly going to happen. Our own German Cruz wrote this article that all the basically all the Brazilian fires on UFC 250 couldn't even get into the states, including Josealdo, Lil Nog,

Bechko Hea, Shogh, Shogun, Hua. That fight was supposedly Henderson Hoodo was going to fight Dominic Cruz. And then yesterday, apparently, UFC 249 is postponed and not canceled, as Dana White said, after what the governor called Disney, Disney called ESPN, ESPN called UFC, and said, probably shouldn't put this fight card on. And now is that. UFC 249 is officially postponed after weeks of will they, won't they? So, Brian, I'll start with you.

As someone on the UFC roster, what has the last 24 hours been like for you learning that a card is now postponed after so much? I don't want to say controversy. but like as I said, too many questions surrounding this event. Now it's postponed. Yeah, it's been crazy, man. I feel like, I feel like as like, you know, fight fans and the hardcore fight fans, especially like just completely forget about like the safety and the right thing to do. We just like selfishly want to see fights.

So there's a lot of people out there that are like, man, like we want this to happen. Like let's go, let's go. Like kind of cheering for Dana White. But then there's like the rational people out there that are like, well, this is not the right thing to do. This is craziness. I don't know why he won't just give in. And that's because, you know, he's got that ego and he's got that no-quit attitude. He wants to be the standout guy that pulls off some crazy scenario where, you know, he's the quote-unquote hero of the situation.

And I think it was just, you know, kind of better off the way that things ended off. I think, you know, let time settle, let this kind of, you know, come down and go away a little bit and then things will get back to normal. So you were in the mindset that this probably wouldn't have. Like, we've talked to a few fighters and they were saying that they can't even, they, they, They didn't believe the fight was going to happen, considering what was going to. Like Casey has been saying every day there is a different, like, more things happen. Like, we had all these interviews we did two, four to eight hours ago of fighters talking about, like, Francis and Gano was on what the heck with Mike Heck. And he was talking about fighting at USC 249.

And now he's not fighting the U.S. 249. So did you believe this fight was going to happen like, say seven days ago? Were you in the mindset like, I don't think this fight card is going to happen considering every. single day, more and more stuff comes out. I honestly thought it was going to go down with the way things were going, you know, about a week ago with the way Dana was acting. He seemed like confident you can't tell with him, you know. And I feel for the fighters, though, that were on that card that were like, you know,

cutting weight in that process where they're like getting ready to really fight someone and their, you know, their mind state and everything. And then they got to deal with like, when am I going to fight now? Like those are the guys that I really feel for, you know, because they got to deal with that whole situation first. firsthand. Pizzi, what's life been like for you the last 24 hours after learning? UFC 249 is canceled, considering many fans blame us, the media, for this cancellation.

I know you love that narrative. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it's, I don't understand how that could be the case. Last week, I think it was at this time last week, we were responding to criticism that we hadn't done enough for the fighters that were dropped from the UFC London card. We hadn't been giving out enough about the amount they've been paid, are they going to get paid, even though we had featured several articles on the site at that point already about that,

about the fact they haven't been paid. And many MMA media members have come out and spoke about that. This week, we're so critical that we've cancelled this whole thing. Which one is it? Which one is it? How did it change in a week? Was that just a rousing response to you saying we weren't doing anything for USC London? I don't understand it.

Look, Dana White's fault, all of this stuff. like Dana White wanted to go ahead and do all of this stuff. And he told everyone, we're not going to get, this isn't going to stop us. We're going to do it. We're going to do it wherever we can. We're going to make sure it happens. That gets the fighters' hopes up. That puts the fighters through this whole situation where Brian pointed out, cutting weight,

mentally preparing for a fight amid a global pandemic. The situation is awful as it is. And, you know, the fans hopes are up because they're like, oh, we're so bored, we're finally going to get to see these. fights and then it's gone and somehow that's our fault. I don't I don't know how people have come to that conclusion and particularly people within MMA who've come to that conclusion is mind-blown to me, is mind-blown to me. I don't know how Dana Hoyt's portraying himself. I don't know if he is portraying himself as a victim, but if that is the case, I don't know how he could possibly do that

because, you know, we were pretty sure this wasn't going to happen like every other sport in the world. question for everyone on this panel. So Casey, Pizzi, apparently me and Pizzi's name's flipped because Pizzi's name is under me. Oh, yes. You're right. You're right. It is. But question for everyone.

Can you remember a time where I'm sure Brian has experienced this? It's been, but not in this sense, pretty severe fan backlash across the board. Some people blaming the media. Some people complaining that fighters that didn't want to fight weren't real fighters. if they didn't want to fight during a pandemic. Like you see Pizzi, like you see Petsy in case for all their eyes. But like we were getting people in the chat saying Habib was scared of fighting Tony Ferguson. And that's why he pulled out of the fight.

So Brian, I'll start with you. Can you remember like I don't know the phrase toxic maybe, maybe such a severe sweeping backlash just across the board. Like everyone's trying to blame everyone. Am I wrong? No, yeah, you're right. I feel like everyone's just going crazy right now. this situation being isolated and just, you know, it's a mental health issue, too, to be stuck like this and have to deal with this kind of life after, you know, never experiencing something like

this. And now you're just getting frustrated. You have no entertainment and this and that. So I think people are just getting, you know, uptight about that. And it's coming out on social media. And there's a lot of hate that already goes on with, with MMA and fighters and stuff like that. But this is just, you know, making it a little bit more intense, I feel. And, you know, I think It's kind of ridiculous, though, like, to say that about Khabib, that he's scared to fight. You know, a guy like that that has never lost a fight that's fought pretty much anybody that's been thrown at him. And now they're talking, oh, he ran away to Russia and this and that. I don't know.

It's just craziness going on right now. Is it a good time to, like, just, like, it's been toxic for a long time, right? But it feels like it's reached saturation point with this incident. Like, I mean, the things I see written on their articles about certain fighters, say young, upcom. women fighters and, you know, go and kill yourself, this kind of shit. Like, this is, this is pretty normal for MMA on Twitter and stuff like that. And it's ridiculous. Like, it's horrible.

At this point, like, people can't even go on Twitter. It's that annoying what's happening. I think, you know, whoever contributed to it, maybe we all contribute to it. Whatever happened, I think this is a nice time to draw a line in the sand and really think about, like, what are you putting out in the world there? There's a reason these people don't have their names and their face attached to these accounts because they wouldn't be employed. If people look them up online and they're shitting all over some 21 year old's dreams because they have nothing better to do with their lives,

you know, like, it's just, I think it's time we kind of, we, we have a look at the way we're behaving online there because it's, it's, it's a cesspool at the moment, to be honest. You know, I actually had a couple people actually go to me, like tweet at me or whatever and just say things like, hey, this is just Twitter, it's just the internet, this isn't real. I'm like, What are you talking about? I'm a real person. Are you a real person? The other people, like, there was a couple other journalists, too. They're real people. Like, this is communication in the modern life. Like, this is real. Like, like, in like, in 1910s when someone, like, said something rude on a telephone, you know, where you're like, oh, this isn't real,

it's just audio. It's like, no, this is, this is real. Like, when you say things, these are, I don't know, I'm a real person. I'm assuming you're a real person. So I just don't, I don't know, it's just, it's a bad time. It's a bad time. I used to think, oh, the worst MMA Twitter got was like, oh, I thought this fight went the wrong way. I thought that was a good decision. And then people were, oh, you're a stupid idiot. You know, and that's about as worse as I got.

But now I'm all like, yeah, I don't think we should have this fight because I don't want to see, you know, a couple of other, no, 100,000 people might die from the spread. And like, oh, you, you know, it's like, we're talking about something so bigger than price fighting right now. and I just It's not a good time Brian if these fights were going on Would you have still going on And this wasn't postponed And the UFC called you up for a fight

Would you take a fight? I mean Stephen Thompson spoke with our own Mike Hacking He said he doesn't know if he would Because his reason was he lives in South Carolina And there's a quote unquote A lot of elderly people in South Carolina And he also teaches kids classes he didn't want to bring that back.

Same as Joe Loves on. His wife is actually a nurse and he didn't want to get sick and then possibly give it to her. And then she brings that to the hospital. So you see these fighters are thinking of more than just fighting. They're thinking of like the bigger picture. But you yourself personally, would you take a fight if the UFC called you right now? Yeah. Well, it's hard to say because like with this, you know, fighting is such a selfish sport.

We're like we're used to being selfish with this. But at this moment, it's kind of like you've got to take yourself back and look at the big picture. And with me, you know, I got my parents here and stuff. And I think that's my main focus is like it'd be selfish for me to go into the gym and get, you know, some training partners together and try to really prepare for a fight and take the risk of me getting sick, which I might not, you know, I might be asymptomatic and not feel a thing. But then I pass it on to like my parents or someone else I come across. And, you know, then you got to deal with the guilt of what happens if you get someone else sick.

And that's my main fear. So for me, it's hard because at one, at one. point I look at it as this is my job, you're going to tell me I can't go to work. But then at the other side, I'm like, well, I fought in January. Like, for me personally, I'm okay, like money-wise. I have a lot of money saved and I've been smart, but some people aren't in that case. Like, they have, they're desperate to fight for money to feed their kids. So how are you going to tell them don't fight? Yeah, like, I mean, we've talked about this a lot, Brian, over the last few weeks. And there's a major difference the way the athletes in MMA are speaking about this compared to

every other sport, right? Like I was saying Wayne Rooney, who's a famous football, a soccer player, he's on probably like 100 or $1,000 a week. And when they asked him, like, oh, we're desperate to come back and play football? He's like, no, like, not until everything's safe. I don't care. But like, I mean, we don't want to go back until everyone's safe. If MMA fighters were getting real money, real proper pay, we wouldn't have a lot of these complaints happen. I really believe that. Like, I mean, if they were compensated the way other professional athletes were, I don't think we would have MMA managers on Twitter saying, damn you, media, you know, you ruined it all. I think I think that's a big factor here as well.

There is it, like, as you said, you've got that a bonus there. So it's not, it's not as a pressing issue for you. But I can fully understand fighters being online and getting frustrated. Like, we want to fight. We want to earn money, right? Like, I think that's a big situation, a big part of this as well. Yeah. And it's a scary time with that said because of the fact that, you know, the, the unknown.

the fear of like when will I fight if I don't fight right now you know how many months will go by and then they got to book a lot of these guys that were already booked they got to put them first on the front line so anybody else is going to be put on the back burner and might have to wait even longer to get a fight well yeah well I got a lot like I've been look I follow a lot of my I have a lot of friends in like other sports uh covering various other sports as pizzi said like Wayne Rooney wasn't in a rush to get back. I know there's some basketball players in a rush to get back, considering their season was paused midway through,

and they were like in that mile. It would be like a fighter in the middle of fight camp. Their fight gets canceled. They're obviously going to be upset because they're in the middle of their sport. So like athletes like LeBron James saying like, this is a bummer just because we were clicking on a certain level and now we're off. But baseball hadn't started. Football hasn't started.

but those contracts, a lot of them are guaranteed. I think a lot of contracts and basketball are guaranteed. The NBA actually just said that everyone's getting paid, you know, the staff, though. They just... The thing with baseball was a lot of the minor leaguers make so little money during the season that a lot of them have jobs outside of baseball, and they weren't getting paid because they weren't on the major league rosters or anything like that. I don't know the exact why.

So a lot of professional players are like paying. or like giving money to like from their contracts like two minor league baseball to pay them because they remember that grind. So, but MMA like Pizzi said, it's a weird sport. Like Ashley M. Smith, she was on our show and she flew to London for the fight and then had to fly back when if she found out her fight got canceled on social media, flew back. And now she's like, I don't even know if I'm getting paid. And I flew all the way to London and didn't fight. Like it's not her fault she didn't fight. So she stole medical supplies.

So she deserved that. No, I'm kidding. You know, it was so convinced. I was like, well, buckle in right now. We got to go. I imagine, Brian, you're probably happy you weren't in the middle of fight camping. You got your fight in before this pandemic hit. Oh, yeah.

Like, honestly, like, timing-wise, it worked out perfect for me. And it's crazy because I got, I got, like, badly sick on the way home from that fight. I think I mentioned this. But, like, I might have, for all I know, I had it because it was, I was, like, 102, 103 fever. then it was like sign of stuff and a cough, you know? And it's like all the symptoms that I'm like, maybe I had it before they named it. I don't know because I was coming home on the plane

and I started feeling sick. But yeah, like timing was, you know, it was perfect to get a fight out of the way in January, get the bonus. Like I cannot fight for like until the end of the year and be okay. But, you know, a lot of people can't save the same. So I feel for them. And a lot of fighters are finding out.

They're no longer fighting the same way we're finding out. I think Eddie Weinland found, He was supposed to fight Cheeto Vera on the Columbus card and then found out he was no longer fighting Cheeto Vera at USC 249 when Dana White unveiled the card. Like UFC.com put the graphic out and I think it was like Ray Borg versus Cheetah Bear or something like that. And Eddie Weiland's like, well, I guess I'm not fighting Cheeto Vera anymore. Like thanks for letting me know. Oh my God, man. That's terrible.

What? Why doesn't UFC call fighters? I mean this has been like this has been a reoccurring. thing seriously for the last decade I remember this just working in the MA media and it's always like every level of fight big fights small fights you know curtain jerkers

main events everyone's like I found out through the media I found out through Twitter I was taking I was taking a dump I looked at my phone and like oh fights off you know like yeah what I'm not that about WFC and the USC and manager and he didn't know like that like

that's what you're saying like big fights I mean that was the common event the UFC London and when he was on Eurobase she was like, I didn't even know that was off. So it's, you know, it's crazy. Brian, like, we're like the outsiders and like the managers kind of do the middle work. And sometimes we don't even know like what is what. Like are we getting the truth here or like, you know, did they negotiate this the way we wanted it or what happened in the middle?

Sometimes I like fights fall through and like I don't really hear anything. And I have to almost like, hey man, like what's going on with that? Oh yeah, no, it's not happening. Jesus. like going back to Ashley like when her fight with Molly McCann fell out on the UFC London card like they started DMing each other like are we

still fighting? And then that's like so they were finding out the same way everyone was finding out but when I when she said that I just honestly didn't surprise me like it's a problem but I've seen that like Casey said it's happened enough times that it didn't surprise me.

Casey any other questions from our lovely listeners? Oh we got a bunch we got a bunch we got a bunch Hold on a second. I definitely don't blame us. You know, but actually, we never really answered the actual main question, but Dana White painting himself as a victim. And actually, I don't think he paint himself as a victim. I think if anything, he painted himself as someone,

I'm working tirelessly to get this to happen, which I believe he did. But my only actual real criticism for Dana White is that I really felt he gave fighters and fans false hope. in the sense that instead of just saying, like, this is a long shot, but we're going to try our best, rather than saying, you know, which is the truth, it was a long shot, but he was trying his best. And I just, it was just a lot of false hope. And I feel the fans kind of got little hurt by that. Yeah, I don't know if he, I don't know if he paying himself as a victim at all.

I mean, I went on that Instagram live he was doing. And when he hung up, he looked so heartbroken and dejected. And his words were like, I'm going to go sleep for three days. I'm really tired, guys. Like, he generally looked like he hadn't slept. in a week and then when this fell apart, it broke his heart. So I don't know if he painted himself as a victim. That I've personally seen.

Is this a question that you're putting up here? Yeah, yeah. From Ice King on our YouTube comments. Which three current active MMA fighters would you pick to save the Earth realm and mortal combat? Who would you pick? Keep in mind that the final boss would be Goro, aka Francis Ngano, with Henry Suhudo on his belt.

Well, I have. Never played Mortal Kombat in my entire life. I've never, like, I didn't grow up with a video game. So, uh, I understand it's a ladder process where you fight and move up. So, PT, I'll start with you. Three current MMA fighters would you pick to save Earth in Mortal Kombat type tournament? I'm going to bring, uh, boom, first of all, because maybe he can, like, we can evade the violence and he could wrap to them to, you know what I mean, and calm them down a bit and

be like, oh, hang on, you guys are actually all right. And I'll be like, yeah, we don't even need to beat the shit. these guys. I'll sing to them. Get them relaxed. Beautiful. You know what I mean? We don't even want to start the ones here.

Play them a little, you know. Oh, whoa. Hey, I want to hear some notes. Let's leave that for the promo. Let's take that you, Celalia, out again for the promo. So that Brian Boom, I'd need some kind of lunatic. Give me like, Paul Daly be good to have because he just needs to touch a guy with his left hand. They're dead.

So I'm going to pick Paul Daly, Brian Boom. Let's not try and get them. not to fight each other as we're going around saving the world. Do I have one more? Yeah. Neil Siri. Neil Siri. Irish Floyd.

Keep me in check. Brian, your thoughts? Three fighters you got to pick to save the world in Mortal Kombat-style tournament. I'm going to go with John Jones because he's going to have a little carry-conceal action. We know that. I'm going to go with, let's see.

Kabib, because he could probably hold anybody down for as long as we need. And then one more, one more. Let's see. I'm going to go with Demetrius Johnson because he's got that speed, that versatility. You can't catch him. You don't know what's coming, so unpredictability.

Casey, your thoughts? I don't know if you've ever played Mortal Kombat. I'm going, Mr. Brian Kelleher. Oh, thank you. You guys, we feel so strong. The man's a badass. The man's a badass. The man's a badass.

I'm going to go Izzy. And this is the third one that everyone forgot, Roxanne Modifari. Because she's actually dressed up as moral combat characters for a way-ins. Sure, sure. She knows the move. She knows all the combos, you know, so Roxanne Modifari. They'll underestimate her for sure. Yes.

I'm going to say Daniel Korme would make a great addition because when he's not fighting, he'll be on the sidelines being a phenomenal coach. he'll be like watch out for this what who is mortal combat's the one with uh what sub zero right yeah scorpion yes is scorpion the one with the chain that's come over here yeah he'll be like watch out for that chain move guy and then he'll like probably break it down for me phenomenally so uh definitely adding daniel karmat to my squad as he can play coach too he's a player coach if you would

i'd say stoilband is a good show he's definitely played mortal combat before there's no doubt about that oh uh jared can in there too chris the the Crystal Captain right there. He's a big DVZ video game fan too. So I'll add Jared Kahneman and my team. I don't know. I honest to God. Demetrius Johnson's a good one.

He probably's played Moral Combat a thousand times. He knows what to look for. All right. Thanks a question, by the way. Thanks always king. All right, here we go. From Trumbo on the side. This is a best.

Can I just say before this happens, I can't even keep up with the shit that's going on outside of the coronaviors thing. So I'm actually fine now. But I know I've heard it before, but I haven't been able to really put a lot of energy into it. So give me time on this one, please. Well, it's Brian's weight class. So we'll let him answer first. Bantam White's title.

So Aldo was booked, dropped out to travel restrictions. Cruz jumped in and then the card was postponed. The card resumes. Question is who gets the next shot? Cruz, Aldo. Cruz has been inactive for almost three years. Aldo has one fight at Bantamway and lost a split decision. Who deserves it?

Neither? Also, imagine a future Aldo v. Cruz fight? Crazness. Bantamway goat versus featherweight goat. First of all, I love Aldo versus Cruz. I've always wanted to see that fight, even back in the WECD. So, Brian, this is your weight class. What do you make of, before you answer the question, what do you make of this never-ending drama at the top of the 135-pound division right now?

I'll tell you what. There's a whole lot of blue balls going on in this Bantlew City right now. Everyone's getting let on. It's unbelievable. And then you got to feel for the Sterlings and the Yons, the guys who really, like, earned their number one contendership, essentially. And then, like, you know, no, we're going to bring it out, though. And then he gets wiped out.

It's like, oh, no, Cruz is feeling better now. So we're going to bring him in. He's a legend, right? So it's just wild, man. And, like, you don't know what's going to happen. Because when all the dust settles, like, they're probably going to go back to the original plan if they could still make it happen. And then Cruz is probably going to get left out and have to fight some.

someone else, maybe a number one contender fight with one of those two. Maybe for Al Jamin and for Jan, this is a good thing because who knows if maybe they get a chance because now they're ready to go at that point. So it's really confusing stuff. We don't know what's going to happen when everything gets settled in. Pisi, your thoughts on, you're saying you're learning about this stuff via our commenters on the site. So what do you make of this drama? the 135 pound of vision.

Quite a pickle. It's in all right. Let's be honest. It's a situation at 135. I've been saying Piotr Yan deserves it for a long time. And I feel like

he is going to be the odd man out here because he, you know, what's the usual excuse? He can't speak English as well as the other lads. He's not allowed in.

I think it's a mess. I think it was messy straight away when they put aloe in. Allo's a legend. I'm not trying to criticize is Al-Loh at all. I'm not trying to get his career canceled or anything like that before people jump up and down. I just feel like it already kind of started off in a tricky situation. And now with Cruz being involved and they've left Aljo and Yan out again, it's

kind of like what is happening here? Like, how are you deciding who is the title contender in this division? It's a messy one. And I do agree that Cruz and Al-Lolo would be a hell of a fight, but I think it's messy all over the place, like 55 as well. Justin Gatesy's got his hopes up for a title fight. Like, you know, what happens there? I mean, the guys killed himself. The guy made, like, lost 12 pounds in a couple of days when we heard from him last week. I mean, it's a very messy situation.

And the UFC owe a lot of people favors, but will they actually pay these guys back these favors? This is what Al Jermaine Sterling was saying to Damon Martin, I believe, early in the week. Like all these fighters going, oh, yeah, I'll do it, jumping in a short notice. you know, will they ever get, like, any kind of compensation for that in terms of favor, in terms of fights? I don't know. I don't know if I answered the question either, but yes. Like a Bannonway tournament, something like that.

Like, they could probably make a really cool one, you know? It would be, it would be, like, if they had a Bannoy Grand Prix, I would love it. Because Peter Rion was supposed to fight Marlon Moraes in the main event of an upcoming card in June. Marlon beat Josie Aldo, and he's still the number one fire. So if you're just going off the rankings, like how is he not number one contender after knocking off Albo? Alzerman was supposedly fighting Corey Sandhagen, who's now kind of on the outside looking in. Frank Yedger still hasn't made his Bantamweight debut. I personally want to see Dominicruz versus Frankie Edgar. I've been asking for that fight forever. Two of the best people, two of the

best footwork, cardio, five-round fight on a fight-night card. Sign me up. I want to see Al Jermaine fight Peter Jan very badly considering those like if either one of those two were given the family if either one of those fighters were given

the title shot over Aldo like I know PT has been calling for Peter Yon's title shot longer than anyone I know but if they gave that title shot to Al Jermaine Sterling I don't know if he would complain because he's also put in a lot of the work no Darren level pagan they are right there one A one B

if they fought the winner of that there's no question they get the next Bandomay title shot. And I just selfishly want to see Frank Hager by Dominicruz, two guys that had, like, Frank had never fought Bantamway. Cruz wants a big name when he comes back. It doesn't get bigger than Frankie Edgar. And then Cordy Garbrand supposedly solicit

to fight a Sunsout and then he's going to go back down to flyweight. So there's a lot of things that can happen in the Bantamway picture. But I like Brian's idea. I want to see a Grand Prix so badly. Because you can't argue with the tournament, right? Like, we always talk about these rankings. You can't really argue like you beat this guy. You move on.

Yeah, I love it And it's also a great way to It's also a great way to introduce fighters like the top The higher echelon fighters to the broader public right? Because I think a lot of Casual fans would tune in to see a tournament in that respect and then like they're seeing

These big name guys like even if there's a favor involved You know, although these guys are legends of the sports And honest with the sport And it gets to bleed in a whole new generation of Bantam White's out and it's a brilliant idea, Brian You're genius. Also Brian, Brian, before, I know this isn't going to be a question from the fans, but we have this question,

who is it two, when Joe Lozahn was on, someone asked, T.J. Dillishaw says that the UFC's going to give him an immediate title shot. Whenever he returns, you're already shaking your head. What do you think about this? Well, the funny thing is I completely forgot about Dillishol. Like, he's another one. Like, that's why the tournament's such a good idea because they can clear up all this confusion in a legitimate way. Like, you know, after the tournament's set and done, nobody can really complain what happened. at the end like okay you you deserve it like you are you ended up here from beating all these guys so man what like what is a real punishment here like get paid millions of dollars right like and then you know get pop for steroids have you know multiple businesses due to having all those millions dollars and then coming back and getting an instant title shot like great like put some EPO in my

system also I just want to say if this whole scenario that we've talked about like people are going to comment like oh who does josie aldo going to fight your scenario josea aldo versus your eye favor 2 at bantamway i i wanted that fight in December i thought that should have been the fight in december rather than aldo marlin and uh favor yes i love aldo favor that's 135 that's wbc day wc never die i'll say i'll say that forever case is having a blast i'm just waiting for some with the chop of uh brine just talking about EPO and put it under every USADA article ever put us put some EPO and me for Christ saying I can get a knock on my door any second now so um so Brian if they do that tournament I think you and

a tj first round I think that sounds pretty good hey let's do it man let's do it I wonder what's going on too with you saida right now because I'll be honest like nobody's showing up at my house in quite some time I don't think they want to deal with any uh you know closed distance We released a statement from them on our site. They basically said there's no USADA testing right now, right? Is that correct? Yeah, doing their best. They're doing their best.

Luckily for us, like you can't test positive for crystals, Brian, and we know that's all you're taking into your system. That's fine. Yeah. 100% tigers are right here. Unbelievable. Oh, man. I just discovered the sound effects button. Sorry.

It's amazing. Go on. Can you say any more questions we got? I know you said we had a bunch. I quit paying attention. Sorry. Hold on. Just joking.

We got a lot more. Let me take that one off. Thank you, Trumbo. I'll always look forward to your questions. He's one of our commenters, every single episode. From Coffee Man 808, the world of MMA aside, since it's not existing as present, any Netflix recommendations at Jose Young. There's an S in Jose Young's, by the way.

People always forget that. Pizzie Carroll, Brian, boom, hashtag the A side. So Pizzi, I'll start with you this time. Any Netflix recommendations? I have a feeling I know what you're going to say. I mean, we've gone through to Tiger King. Everyone that knows that it's important viewing in this time. I still haven't seen it.

Boom! Play the sound effects, Casey. Wait, wait, wait. Say it again, Jose? Have you seen it? I still haven't seen that Tom Foolery that you call a show called Tiger King. Feed him to the Tiger. That's exactly what I needed.

If you have one watched it, I know it's been out of oil already, but I thought it was brilliant. That defiant one's documentary with Dr. Dre and Jimmy O'Vine or what says that name? It's amazing. I thought it was really inspirational, actually, when I watched it. For anyone who loves the history of hip-hop, that is a phenomenal guy. But even not hip-hop. I mean, it goes right back to Bruce Springsteen, John. John Lennon, things like that.

I mean, the whole connection of that rock and roll moving to the 70s to the 90s, the early hip-hop movement is incredible. I thought it was brilliant. I'd really recommend that anyone who has even a vague interest in pop culture or music should watch that, definitely. Could not recommend that documentary enough more. Brian, any Netflix recommendations for our listeners? I'm not a huge Netflix guy.

I watch more like podcasts and stuff, but I started the Ozark, which I know a lot of people are on that now after Tiger King. So I started that and that was pretty interesting so far, but I'm only like one episode in right now. So I got to get watching. But I'm watching more like podcasts like below the belt with Brendan Shab and Joey Diaz and Kill Tony. I watch all those funny podcasts. Yeah, Lou Gehue Diaz crazy. Casey, our phenomenal cameraman director, any, I don't, you know as well as I do.

I don't watch a lot of TV. So I'll let you answer this one. Netflix. I'll even throw Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBO, anything you guys want to talk about. For Netflix, I would just recommend watching all of Bojack Horseman. I think that's the best one of the maybe top two or three best anime series ever. Actually, on Amazon Prime, I really recommend if you're into sci-fi, which I'm not into sci-fi, but it is such a good series. I am into sci-fi now.

This series is called The Expanse, and it's super good. They have four seasons up there. Expans is super well done. And what else did I start watching? And there's a bunch of stuff. I mean, like, just fine things. I mean, the stuff I like, you may not like. So, I mean, there's a lot of great nature.

Like, I love planet, the planet, all the planet Earth documentaries that are on Netflix. Those are great, all the, what is it called? Blue Planet documentaries, Frozen Planet, all these just incredibly well-made, well-written, incredible cinematography. All the planet Earth, blue planet documentaries. I highly recommend watching those on Netflix. All the Attenborough stuff, right, Casey? The what? David Attenborough doing all the narration on those. He's amazing. Yes, sir. I would say, I finally, what's the, what's the vampire show that I watched to your house? I forgot. Yes. It's on Hulu. Watch on what we do in Shadows. Hang on, that's a, that's a series. I watched the movie. I didn't know it was a series.

The movie and they made a series. The second season is about to come out. That show is so funny. Oh, man, that is hilarious. Check that out, Brian. It's so funny, man. It's ridiculous. What's that called?

What is it? What are we doing in shadows? What is we're doing in shadows? A bunch of like millennial old vampires that live on Staten Island. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'll check it out. It's on who.

If you're, if you are from or have spent any long extended period of time in New York, specifically Staten Island, it is so funny. But it's also like. But it's also like, it has vampires and what have you. But I can't recommend enough. It is so funny. Those same guys made Floyd at Concord's as well. That's brilliant.

That's very funny. I think that's brilliant. And another very funny thing, if you haven't seen it, I'm so jealous of you. Eastbound and down. I think that's one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. Like,

oh, he's crying. The first time I watched that is just like, like shouting and crying. Like, watching it. It's hilarious. I heard they based that character off of John Rocker, the baseball player.

And that, I hate that guy. So I was immediately turned off by it. Big hit almost I watched. Ooh, I started watching Legion, which is based off of an X-Men comic book. Holy crap, Casey, you got to watch that. I watched the first season. I wasn't, I didn't like the lead. The lead character, kind of the actor, kind of annoyed me.

The first season is the worst season. Oh, it is. Okay. By far. That's their fault. That's their fault for doing a shitty first season. Why are we going to watch the second season if the four season is shit? Well, I'm pretty sure they thought I was going to get canceled after season one.

And then people really liked it because it ended after season one pretty much. Well, it almost did. It has a lot of characters from what we do in the shadows is in that too. And the documentaries on Nas on Amazon Prime is phenomenal. He's one of my favorite musicians anyway. And the documentary on Chris Claremont, one of the great X-Men creators, also on Amazon Prime. I couldn't recommend those two enough. But that's pretty much all the shows I watch.

period anyway. Thanks for the question. Casey, any more? Oh, yeah, I got a great one coming up. Hold on, hold on. I can get rid of that one. Where'd that question go? I lost it.

Do do, do, do, do, do. Talk amongst yourselves. So everyone noticed that pizza is not wearing a hat? Oh, wait, this question is so small. Can you read it? From Frankfurter, Golden Grams, Lucky Charms, or Fruity Pebbles. So Fruity Pebbles is immediately out of the race for me. I'm not a fruity pebbles guy. They've got the fruity pebbles with the marshmallows now.

That's my jam right there. Serials change so much. I don't even know. I don't really eat much. Yeah. Lucky Charms and Gold Gras are two 10 out of 10 cereals. So I couldn't pick this one right now. Pizza, your thoughts? This is going to hurt a lot of people. I have never eaten any of those cereals in my life. Have some more. Lucky Charles. Now, yes, of course, my family owned the brand, but I haven't tried it before. Are you like a drug dealer? You don't eat your own stash. Don't get high off your own store.

Shit, man, I'm all fucked up on Lucky Charms again. Brian, can you name all the marshmallows and Lucky Charms? There's names for the marshmallows? Yeah, they're in shapes, man. They're in shapes. Are they like Fiacra and like Padder? What's it? Is the Irish name?

No, there's actually in the old commercials there was. like a little, uh, uh, uh, jingle that they would, he would sing. So Casey, can you name all of them without looking it up? Oh, no, no. Oh, it's, horseshoes. That's what I mean. It's horseshoes, clover, horseshoes, something, Clovers and Balloon, Pots of Golden Rainbows and the red balloon. I can't remember the second one. I remember I was younger. I love the marshmallows so much. I would eat around them and like save them for the end. So it was just straight marshmallows. And you drink the milk afterward? Yeah, you drink the milk is delicious. man. Can you explain to me what the charms are again, just so I can tell you is if these are

actually anything to do with Irish culture whatsoever, because that's what it's, it's a, go for it. It's, uh, it's, is it horseshoes some, no, horseshoes, clothes, something, Clovers. Yeah, we have them. Uh, diamonds, moon, pots of gold. We're all broke, lois. Ramos. Rain, not rainbows. Yeah, go ahead. And a red balloon. What the fuck is a red balloon all about. Why it wouldn't be a green balloon? Because they already have green because they had a clover. So they wanted to get all the clothes.

Chams, give me a call. We can make this more authentic. Okay? A million dollars. I'll sit down with you guys for 15 minutes and we can make it happen. All right. There you go. Win or learn,

pizza. Of course. Jose, we got a comment from a YouTube, YouTuber. From Esther Lynn. I'm partial with cinnamon toast crunch, Santa Tens cereal,

instead of Golden Grants and Turns and Turns of Square cereals, but Golden Graham is great. Phenomenal comment, Esther. Could not agree more. Oh, like, eggs. Scars, that's the one I couldn't remember. Let's go eggs. Let's go eggs. This is the best breakfast.

Oh, man, we got a lot. We have a lot of opinions on cereal. You guys ruin cereal. You serious to be cute. You fucking ruined the whole thing. We could have been eating cereal this weekend if it wasn't for you guys. If they said pick any cereal, I would have to say Waffle Crisps was the best cereal growing up. That was by far my favorite of the square cereals.

Or the French toast crunch with that had that limited time around. That was also a 10 out of 10 cereal. And now I understand why a lot of Americans are obese when I'm hearing all this stuff. What's you going to say? We can't all have... I used to like mix cereals, like three different cereals in one bowl and just get all these different flavors. I may or may have not hit the pipe before that. Why not get creative, man?

What's your, what's your favorite? Some cereals have different, they have different levels. Some cereals taste really good in the first, like, 15, 30 seconds. Some cereals taste better after they've been kind of soaking toward the bottom, you know, at the bottom of the bowl for a little bit, you know, like, there's different levels. Yeah. Yeah, fruity pebbles tastes good for your first spoon, and then they're terrible.

Yeah, but three good bites of fruity pebbles. Then it just goes downhill. Yeah. And you have zero scathing up. Fruit loops are the worst. And I like Captain Crunch, but it cuts my mouth up too much. I know Pete's care so much about it. Fucking hell, they put your mouth up.

Yeah, man, they're all like jagged. It's like eating a bowl of shrapnel with milk on. A bowl of jelly ranchers or something. Captain Crunchmouth? Yeah. See? Exactly. Casey knows what I also got no.

It's hard. I have scars on top of my mouth. mouth, I think. Yeah. Just have scrambled eggs, guys. So, Pizzi, here we go. Here are all the marshmals. I got them.

It's hearts, stars, no. Clovers, yeah. Pots of golden rainbow. Pots of gold and rainbows and the red balloon. Literally clover and nothing else. That's all you got right there, guys. They just must have got an Irish fella, shit face, and they're like, here, what's Ireland?

He's like, red balloons? I don't know. You're going to keep on giving me. drinks if I keep on run randomly named Are you suggesting an Irishman Got shit-faced? What is going on here? They should just have like fucking Guinness With the trademark issue would be

It would be a horror Estherlin also chiming in Captain Crunchmouth is a real thing 100% it's a real thing Every time I eat it I just don't want to eat anything For the rest of the day because my mouth is just All carved up like a fucking Jackalanta. Tins of

Tins of Coca-Cola do that to me It feels like my teeth are talking to me after I have one Like it's just like zah You know so by your mouth. Oh, wait. You know what? I like this question.

And we can adjust it for Brian. Can you read it? Ooh, best and worst fight night meal while covering events or fighting. So Brian, what was best and worst fight night meals for a fighter, I'll say? Fight night meal? Well, for a fight, like if I'm actually fighting that night? I guess your post-mill maybe. Oh, post-fight meal.

We're talking like all the carbs, like pastas, pizzas. Is there one in particular that you just kind of remember, like that one like, oh, that when you had that first bite, like this is my favorite food I've ever had. Not one specific because we go to the green room and there's like a catered whole, you know, like all different variety of foods there. But I'm like, I'm a dessert guy. So I go to like the cakes and the cookies and I'll be dipping them in milk and stuff like that. So.

Yeah. When we had the green room, I mean, the, the, uh, the, the, the, uh, the, the cake. catering for a media room. I'll get my plate, but then I always eat a dessert first. But then you don't even want the plate after. I got it. I always like being in the

media room, I don't know, like I'm sure Pizzi's seen it too. I have no case to see it over the years, but as soon as a fighter walks by depending on, they don't do it much in Vegas because the catering is in the back and the fighters come in from the other side. But if they have to bring in the fighter from the back past the food, almost

all of them grab a cookie, a They always grab a cookie or a can of soda because they haven't had sugar in like nine weeks. Yeah, it's something we normally would never eat during fight camp. So like we're like, oh, we're going to have that because we never get that, you know? We're like to try. We're all just going to town on like an entire box of pizza during the press conference in New York. He's like taking slices cold in them. I love it.

Brian, have you ever like just, I guess, messed up and like after maybe after a way ends and just ate the wrong meal? and like that night or that morning you're like oh man I fucked up oh yeah yeah I have an experience where after a way in I went deep but like my mind was just eating for me like I was eating boneless wings from like buffalo wild wigs and like just like sweet potato fries and like all these fried foods and this was like after my post fight meal which was at an italian restaurant so like I had already you know filled up on Italian pasta which I don't even eat that in fight camp I just wanted that because I'm like oh I don't eat that this and I threw up all night.

Like I was like throwing up to like three in the morning. It was crazy, man. How'd the fight go? I'm trying to think which fight that was. If I won or I lost. I don't know. I probably lost that fight. I don't know.

But that's got to kind of, I always feel like the one, you know, when there's big weight cuts and everyone goes, well, I guess that fight's happening. You know, when they weigh in, I go, do. Wait till you don't know that fights happening until the morning. because these big weight cuts and stuff because I always, do you get scared?

I mean, not scared, but do you get nervous? I guess like, oh, man, like, I'm, I had to get in a fist fight in a cage in a few hours. You know, it's like, is that like really weighing your mind as you're eating that night? Brian? Yeah, you know, actually not so much because, like, I feel like we're, like, from the weight cut,

we're, like, so excited to be back to our normal selves that, like, weight cut night, we actually kind of, like, forget that we're fighting the next day. And then after like you get back to normal, you're rehydrated, you're feeling, you know, fully like yourself, then you realize like then it hits you because now you're no longer focused on that. You're like, oh, okay, like tomorrow, tomorrow's going to be a serious day for me. Like this is going down. Then like the nerves come in waves, but I feel like the weight cut night, I'm like just so happy to be drinking fluids and like eating real meals again. So it takes my mind off of it.

Well, the one of the interviews I've had in like, this was a long time ago, this is when Ryan Bader was still in the UFC and it stands out of my mind. When he cuts weight, he was saying he doesn't like to have solid food for a little bit. Like it's just all the liquids. And then he was going through his Instagram and he was fighting that thing on the same card as like Bigfoot Silver who cuts from like 300 down to like 265. And Bigfoot was eating like a deep dish pizza right after weighing in. And Bader got visibly ill looking at it because he can't, because his stomach. shrivels up so much that he couldn't even think about eating pizza without getting sick. That's crazy, man.

Artem Lavo has a great story from like a second fight and he went in, he made weight. Did he make weight? No, it was that he made weight on the Thursday. They say he was weighing in the Freud and he's like, delighted with himself. Like, oh, this is great. I'm on weight. Woke up in the middle of the night and drank two liters of soda. Just down the hatch, whack, whack.

Had to do a separate wake good then the morning of. And he said, like, he thought this was fun. line, like, because he had hit the number or whatever, he was inexperienced. And, like, hell's the guys. It's, like, four o'clock in the morning. And everyone's like, what the fuck have you done? People are, like, running over to his house and trying to do a second coat, whatever and everything.

Oh, fucking madness. But this is the game we're in. All right. I got a, I got a question from the comments. From Joseph Boza. What date do you think cards will be put back on? Brett Okamoto was on. Get up this morning and thought UFC 250.

So Hudo versus Cruz would be the earliest he could see UFC back. We talked about this a little bit on our reaction video. And I think... That's May 9th. Yeah. Yeah. So someone, I can't know. It might have been Alex K. Lee or Mike Hack.

I can't remember which one said Memorial Day. They wouldn't be surprised Memorial Day came back. I said international fight week would be, I bet they don't want to miss that. So, Brian, when do you think the earliest will see UFC back on TV? be. I don't know, man. I wishful thinking. I'm going to go with June, hoping that, you know, the weather heats up a little bit and things died down, you know, if people, you know, do the right thing and isolate themselves. I would imagine, you know, they say it's, this is like the peak of the virus and it's the worst time. So I imagine people are kind of like, you know, staying inside their

houses and keeping away from people, social distance, all that. So if everyone is doing the right thing, I would hope by June. I hope by, because if it's by June, that means we've gone past the worst part. I think Casey said that. Said it best on a reaction video. Like having it back by, I hope it's back by May because that means we've gone past the worst of this scenario. Pizza, you weren't on the reaction video.

So when do you think we'll see fights back on TV? I know a lot of people are going to find this hard to believe, but I in fact, I'm not a scientist. So I don't know. Guess what? scientists don't even fucking know. So, I don't know. September, fucking, maybe July. June.

Who knows? I don't, I don't have a clue. Like, Jesus. I'm just in the business of getting MMA events canceled. Not deciding when I'm going to kick off again, for Christ's sake. You don't know until you know, right? Because science just keeps changing. Yeah, yeah.

Motherfuckers keep evolving the game. I don't think, I think it's going to be at least six months before at least six months before fans are actually able to see fights though. Oh yeah. I mean, I was like, like I have a friend who is one of like high up in the social media department for IHeart Radio and I was just talking because we have like he's always having to travel to concerts.

And we were talking just like comparing like being off the road covering fights to being off the road covering like concerts and festivals. And he's saying that he's talking to like managers of musicians and they're saying October is when they're going to probably start having concerts again. So if there are fights in the UFC I think Casey hitting on the head They're not going to see fans in attendance Until like late 2020

Like if they are If it happened in 2020 Late 2020 So uh But if fans In terms of actual fights inside the apex Or empty arenas or wherever I hope by June

I really do It's gonna be weird for a while right Yeah well here's the difference between Fighters and musicians There is no music island There is no music island That's true That's true.

Sorry, musicians. Sorry you don't have a president who cares, but we have Foyder Island, guys. So God knows. It's probably going to turn into like an annual thing too. That's what I was about to ask, Brian, what are your thoughts when you hear Fighter Island? Like, would you want to fight on an island like that? I would be pretty cool. Like, that's an experience to tell your kids one day, like, hey, man, like, I went off to this crazy island.

I had no idea where I was going. But I fought for the UFC and one of my fights was there. I feel like it really might become a thing where it's like once a year. Dana likes to, you know, be an innovator. That's what we were saying. Like, I wouldn't be surprised as if this island is built. Like, there are questions, obviously, like, is there a hospital on the island? Like, is there an ICU?

What's the medical situation? Where is it? Like, that's the first question. Like, is there, like, hotels? What's the arena look like? Are fans going to be allowed to go in the future? But, like, if this gets off the ground, Like in five years, are we going to have like Fighter, Fight Island Five?

Like every year on the anniversary of the first one, is there going to be an anniversary show? I don't want to say guarantee, but I would not put it past Dana from holding an annual event like Brian. It would be fucking cool. Let's be honest. I mean, if this whole situation wasn't going down where there's a pandemic going down and there was something like Foiter Island when everything's back together, no, be fucking crazy. It's just the situation that we're in that is making us go, okay, guys, is this real life? But people will keep thinking when you think island, you think tropical paradise. Most islands are not that.

Most islands are just, there's a reason no one lives there. Apart from Ireland. Apart from Ireland. Beautiful tropical place. Well, you know, actually, the movie, Peter, do you see the movie The Lighthouse? You remember that? Oh, man. That movie is based on a story about an island that was off Scotland, I think.

It's basically shit-holl islands. And that's what most islands are. If no one's there after all these years of human civilization, if no humans are there, that means it's just a bunch of rocks. So it's not, it's got to be like decent weather, right, at least? We have loads of islands off Ireland. Like, we can just walk to them when the tide goes out. And all there is on them is rats on a lighthouse.

Usually. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. And those are islands. So I'm just saying. And you can get stuck on them. You can actually get stuck in them. It happened to me, my uncles, when we're kids, they live up on that.

by the coast and scurries, they'd walk out with a bag of cans and then start drinking cans on the island and then the tide would come back out so they had no way of getting back so they just had to stay there for the night. Oh, islands. Brian, the last time

we had Brian on, we missed this question but how Irish are you, Brian? I don't even know. I'm going to give myself, yeah, we'll go with half, you know, just in case, but I know I'm half Italian and then I would say probably like 20, 25% Irish.

But the color, her name is like... So what you're saying is we have four Irish media members on this podcast right now. Yes. Yes, yes. Well, one of my best friends and unfortunately passed away many years ago. His second name was Keller.

So, yeah, you're one of us, definitely. We need... We've only got two four years in the UFC now, for Christ's sake. You know what I mean? We need as many as we can get. I hope by August things are back. I know you've been calling them out.

Imagine you and O'Malley in Ireland. That's where I was going to say. say you've been calling Al Malley for that doubling card right? Yeah, that's the plan. I hope so I don't know if he wants to fight me at this point, but that would be great for my career, you know, right now to steal all that hype and take off. Well, we brought, someone brought his name up to you right after, I'm sure you saw the, you saw it, but like he was backstage for his post-vite scrum and someone goes, Brian Callagher brought you up. And before the questions you've done, he just goes, and then next question.

Yeah, I saw that. He has heard you're chirping at him. Yeah, he gets annoyed with me. He's not a fan of me. Bruin had the best line ever, and he said it off camera after his last win, because we were just chatting. We were actually trying to organoids if he could come on the A-soe, because remember he was going to Amsterdam?

And he said to me, he goes, I'm going to steal all his momentum, then I'm going to steal his weed. Yeah, I said, I'm going to smoke all his weed. And then in an interview later on, I was like, I'm going to smoke all his weed, but I'll let him take a hit. I'm not that mean. But not anymore.

Not with social distance. it's all Brian's now. Is that Dublin card even going to happen, Pizzi? I'm not going to stay one way or the other in case I started getting fingers pointed me. I still have to go for an hours worth of exercise a day around Ireland for Christ's sake. I mean, enough shit as it is.

Well, hopefully Brian can get that fight because as an Irish-American, I'm sure he's all. Have you been to Ireland, Brian? No, I've never been. There you go. Might as well get your seat of place for it. I'll bring you guys around the place. And show his, so is the ropes.

Said, Celtic Warrior in the YouTube comments, says, well, Brian means high or noble in Irish. Well, that's a great name for you, Ryan. Hey, that's perfect. That's too funny. Any other questions, Casey? Let me take a look. Let me take a look.

A lot of stuff about, you know, fights that are canceled, who's going to win, you know, all that stuff. like uh man um i don't know what this anonymous dude one two three gsb a slice of pizza off the floor after a fight i ain't mad at him i don't know what that means okay fair enough thanks mate x m james i'm just curious what are your guys thoughts on juliana pania versus aspen lad i know it got canceled but that's a fire of a fight i love that fight i really i thoroughly enjoyed that i when they announced that fight i was excited but i thought that fight fell through even before the coronavirus happened, right?

Didn't one of them get hurt or something like that? I have no idea. I have no idea off the top of my head. There's been a lot of other crazy things in the world than I may. But I thought that was a bangor of a fight when it first announced. Those are two very contrasting individuals outside of the cage thrown down, too. Juliana Payne is one of those guys, fighters. I'd skate people's face.

And Aspenlade is very not, doesn't say a lot before she fights. I know I'm really bummed because um for this pandemic because I really wanted to visit Asman lad and um do a video about her dogs yeah she loves her dogs and like Brian yeah I got two chocolate labs oh funny that the one's a boy one's a girl the boy is like obnoxious and then the girl's like real calm and and she listens you know so I'm I play favorites Chiron G. Oja, I apologize and mispronation.

Question where Izzy and Yol just practicing social distancing before it was cool. There you go. That's a I love you. Very good.

Yeah. Amazing. Amazing. Cool. Brian, you ever been in a fight that's turned into something like that with just you and your opponent staring at each other

for, like, I don't, maybe even just three rounds? No, I cannot allow that. I don't think that's ever happened. Like, that would, like, piss me off, you know? Because it's like, what am I doing here? Like, I would just start going after the guy, like, hardcore trying to finish the fight. Because, like, for me, like, I always want to try to finish the fight no matter what, you know, whether it's a mission, knockout.

Sometimes my fight start a little slow. But, like, once something happens, like, the fire gets lit and I'm like, go. So as a fighter watching that. fight in the main event of the last pay-per-view we've had like it's going to be the last pay-per-view for a while are you getting frustrated watching that happen you know not really because i'm so i'm such a fight fan and like you know i'm looking at details and like specifics and and i'm completely understanding of the stakes and the styles that they they fight like and you know israel doesn't want to pull the trigger because the power that yole has but then yowel doesn't want to just jump in because israel's a

counter striker, so I get it. Like, I get the technique to it and why it was happening. But you're like, man, like, this is your chance to win that title. And, like, eventually you got to go take it. Like, you can't just expect that you're going to get a decision by doing barely anything. Well, like Casey was saying before this pandemic and fights are being canceled, the most toxic I've seen Twitter in a while was the fall out of that fight. Some fans blaming Yowell, some fans blaming, is it? Dana White blaming Yowell.

it shows that was a bad time all around too and then the pandemic hit and it feels like that was a year ago and that was only just last one that was like a month ago now did you think about it like was the way that fight went down was that the mime media's fault as well i think it was i think it was matchmaker's fault could have been you never know no it was our fault again i thought we we built it up too much yeah we're assholes anything else else we got, Casey, comment section, Twitter, otherwise. Let's do rapid fire. Oh, yeah, it's a little rapid fire.

This is where I'm showing goes. From Max L. Kukui Holloway, and it looks like their profile picture is an amalgamation of Max and Tony Perkins, Max Holloway and Tony Ferguson. Do you think Dana will try to have Tony fight instead of rebooking Habib Tony? No. No. Six times the charm. Also, before we move on, I put out this, I think it was November.

I tweeted if Habib and Tony Ferguson falls apart for the fifth time, I will lock myself in my room, eat my body weight in Oreos and listen to only a mortal technique for 24 hours. Don't think I have them. So many people are now tweeting. When are you going to put this video out? I haven't forgotten. I just don't want to go to the store and buy Oreos right now. You got to order them, man.

They'll bring them out to the car for you. also i don't know brian if you've listened to a moral technique or if casey or pizzi has your day is kind my day is ruined after listening to him i just feel sad for a long time yeah some negative stuff the negative would if only it were negative then i could deal with it it's more like a horrifying life i just don't particularly want to listen to outside of maybe one day of the year is a moral technique the mma media of hip-hop no he would be the, I can't, he's on a league of his own. I couldn't even describe how just demoralizing his songs make me feel.

Also, I tweeted that, didn't even tag him because I didn't know he was on Twitter and he found it and retweeted it. So he's searching his name on Twitter, by the way. So that's a moral technique. We're looking for looking himself up and retweeting me because now all of these people are asking me for that video of me eating Oreos and listening to his music. So do you think the one, positive thing that comes out of this, though,

is that Tony Khabib actually get rebooked and now that happens. I like ruined it. That's silver lining right there. And also, I think we've talked, like, I know Alzeman Sterling has said, like, you really think the UFC's going to do favors. You have to wonder if Justin Gage's willingness

to step up on short notice kind of, like, benefits him down the road. Like, does he win the quote-unquote McGregor sweepstates now? Like, he was willing to save a car for the UFC. Will the UFC now give him that McGregor fight? So I like where your heads are, Brian, silver lining. Positive Outloat. Yeah, man, I think that's possible.

I think sometimes they do look at that, you know, guys that are willing to jump in and risk it all. They, like, they remember that sometimes. Well, I said, I've been asking fighters for a while. Like, you see Kamar Uzman cut weight as a possible filling for Darren Till, Tyne Woodley. And then he fights, like, Hafeuil de Sano's on a tough finale in December. And then he offers to get a quick turnaround to save that card in January that eventually just didn't happen. And then he fought Damien Maya down in Chile. And then the next thing he had knows he's fighting for the UFC title.

Basically leapfrogs Colby Covington. So the precedence, I don't know if that's exactly what happened, but in my mind, that might have probably played a factor, his willingness to help the UFC out. Yeah. Esther Lynn says for a sixth fight, that I assume she means Habib, Tony. I think I said the fifth, book it for the fifth time.

It's booking it for the sixth time. Yeah. it's six times of the charm right yeah that's the that's the phrase the anticipation i feel like helps you know to an extent i know it's craziness six times but how much anticipation that builds makes it better like we've said this a million times like the first time they were going to fight was a co-main event of like a tough finale like the the fact that this has fallen out so much like their stock is only risen and risen and risen and risen and risen and risen and now if this is the first fight back after a pandemic, like big pay-per-view, it's going to be massive.

Yeah, and the sense of occasion would have been completely stripped away. You know, like, with no crowd there, like, people need to understand what it means to people that these two guys are finally fighting. And if it's like a silent backdrop, and like, I know we can make all the references to the game of death as we want. And oh, how cool would that be? It's way better when there's 20,000 people freaking the fuck out that this fight has finally happening, you know?

Right, right, rapid fire. Rapid fire. Come on. Who will come back first? Dana or Scott Coker? Dana. Next. Dana.

I'll say Dana. 100% Dana. Next. Oh, sorry. That was faster than I thought. How many days a week are you training and do you have a part-time job boom? Seven. Oh, sorry.

Okay. Six days a week. Sometimes seven if I get bored and part-time jobs with MMA fighting out of the Aside lunch. I like that answer. Next question. Next question. Give you a pizza. Does Tony, does Tony's dars choke keep him up at night?

No. No, it helps him fall asleep. There you go. That's how it works. Submissions don't keep you up. They make you go to bed. There you go. Question, can Tony roll out of Habib's ground and pound?

No. Next question. That's a real rapid fire right there. I think he has a potential to it. Who wins the Nets Chango tree? Europe wins. Chef Chango. Next question.

I would, I'll say Valentina, because I think she won the second one anyway. Yeah, I'll say Valentina. Why not drop Tony Hibibib on Fight Island and not let them fight until they fight? Could be a reality TV show. What does that even say? Not let them leave until they fight. Basically just throw them in the jungle and have them fight like Predator? I don't feed them.

So whoever wins has to eat the other one. Well, you know, Khabi said he really. street fight he could eat him so I eat your face that was terrifying that was scary man what you talk street fight Ahman's face getting eaten is quite a visual Tony Habib

What is this Oxford? What is this Oxford? World's most dangerous game style on Fight Island I love it Yes All right we're good Oh we know one more one This is an important one

Dog person, cat person, or ferret person from the ice game. Dog person. Dog person right here. Dog. I've never owned any other animal besides a dog, so I'll also say dog person. Team dog. Yeah. That's a wrap on questions, Casey? Yeah, we wrapped.

Well, thank you so much everyone for joining this. Promo. I was getting to you. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. Sorry. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Wait, hold on. Put egg on your face, Casey.

Well, thank you so much, everyone, for joining this Friday edition of the podcast. We put this episode together because we got, Pizzi and I got tagged in a few comments, asking one, Mr. Brian Keller, was going to rejoin the A-Side Live chat for a regrouping of the original Crystal Crew. So Brian, as the guest of honor, as a phenomenal member of the Crystal crew, the floor is yours, whatever you want to talk about. I know you've cut in a promo a few times on the show, so the floor is yours. Shout out to Team Crystal, first and foremost, the Tigers. This whole pandemic started because I forgot this thing in my car and my gym bag. I hadn't been wearing this thing, you know, until I realized shit hit the fan.

I'm like, oh, I got to put my necklace back on. But yeah, man, thanks for having me on again. and uh oh oh oh some way over yes that was amazing that was fucking amazing I kind of fucked up the plane but it's that was amazing that was brilliant

that's by far the best promo we've had on this show 10% to a glass oi this is beautiful I had to bring the yuk back yeah well for those of you who joined joined us this week. Thank you again. This will be on all the usual

Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, Stitcher, you name it, it's probably up there. We'll be back Monday. We'll figure out who our guest is going to be. Maybe we'll even do it on Facebook or Twitter. Who knows? Or we'll stick to it on YouTube. We have all the time in our hands to play around on the A-Side laptop. But thank you so much

for joining us Friday. That's Pizzi. That's Casey. I don't know where I am because Casey moved my orientation from the last few weeks. And of course, thank you so much, Brian, for joining us. Monday. We're out.