MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour: Mayweather vs. McGregor special edition, Day 1

Episode Date: August 24, 2017

On this special edition of The MMA Hour, live from Las Vegas, site of Mayweather vs. McGregor, Ariel Helwani speaks to Phil Baroni (00:24:05) and Stephan Bonnar (00:29:52), Malki Kawa (00:48:18), Michael Conlan (01:08:23), and Al Bernstein (01:30:44). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. It's the Mixed Martial Arts Hour with... Mixed Martial Arts Hour back in your life on this Wednesday. Hello, good, everyone. I'm Ariel Halwani. Not inside our New York City studio. Look at us. Wow.

Boy, oh boy. We're all growns up. This is amazing. For the first time in our eight-year history, my friends, we are on the road. This is the very first ever on the road edition of the MMA hour, your favorite show that, of course, airs every Monday right here on MMAfighting.com, but things are a little different this time out. Where are we right now?

We're in Las Vegas, Nevada. We are in Sin City, my friends. And right now we are inside the Mayweather-McGregor Media Center. You can kind of get a scope of where we are. There's a great shot right there. The entire scope of this media center, they call this Radio Row, and there's a bunch of radio stations, radio shows behind us. doing shows live from Vegas in anticipation of the highly anticipated Floyd Mayweather versus

Connor McGregor fight. Now, our show is a little different because, to the best of my knowledge, our show is the only show that will be doing this many hours of live streaming video from right here in Las Vegas. Two hours today from 3 to 5 p.m. Pacific time, 6 to 8 Eastern Time. We're doing the MMA beat at 1 p.m. Eastern Time right here from this set. The boys will be joining me tomorrow afternoon. Then again, same time, prime time, 6 p.m. Eastern time to 8 p.m. Eastern, right here, we're back doing another episode of the M.A. Hour. And then at 1 p.m. Eastern on Friday, as to not coincide with the weigh-ins on Friday afternoon, we're going from 1 to 3 p.m. Eastern time. This is amazing. For me personally, if I could just wax poetic for a little bit and get a little

nostalgic, this show started in 2009. When I first pitched the show to the folks over at AOL, they said don't go longer than 15 minutes. They said, no one wants to listen for more than 50 minutes. They said, give me an hour because my intro is going to take 15 minutes. And over time, it has progressed, it has grown, it has grown, it has grown, and it's now five plus hours, as you know, every Monday. But to do a show on the road, to get this kind of support from everyone at Vox, to have this great crew with us on the road doing this. And as you can see, a great setup, great streaming. And then most importantly, to be linked up with a platform.

like Twitter, which you know I am on pretty much 24-7, 365, is a huge honor for me. So we are exclusive on Twitter. We are Twitter's exclusive home for the fight of the century, Mayweather versus McGregor. Over on m-mafighting.tweiler.com, that's where you can watch us for the next three days, whether it's the MMA hour or the MMA beat. And this has been a huge deal for me personally to be a part of this fight, to be covering this fight, and to be doing this show for the next three days with a platform like Twitter. What a huge honor. It really is. And I'm so excited to be here. I'm so excited to be doing this. We've got a huge show lined up for all of you today. And it's funny because I've talked about on the program on Mondays, it's

tiring enough to book a show once a week, let alone four shows. And that's what we're efforting to do this week. Day one, I'm happy with it. This is the lineup for day one. at around three, okay, I'm going, I'm going Pacific time here because I'm in Las Vegas. I'm not used to that, so I'll go Eastern. 6.15 p.m. Eastern time. We're going to be joined by Malcicawa. Of course, we're here for Mayweather-McGregor, but as you may know, late yesterday, we found out that John Jones had failed his UFC 214 pre-fight drug test.

Now, it was in competition. It was the night before the fight. It was after the Wayans. And this came out from the United States Anti-Doping Agency, California State Athletics. California State Athletic Commission also confirmed the news. The UFC confirmed the news. Right now, we don't know what is the status of John Jones as far as his fighting future is concerned,

is facing a maximum four-year suspension. Also, what's the status of his light heavyweight title? I spoke to Daniel Cormier. He's not quite sure as of right now. There were some reports that John Jones was going to be stripped of the belt. That is not true, at least as of right now. Of course, if he is found guilty, if he is officially suspended by Usada for four years,

that will be coming. And so that is a massive news. And it seems like every time we're about to celebrate a milestone in mixed martial arts, and of course we're here for a boxing match, I know, but this is still a big deal in the world of MMA. Something like this happens. And it's unfortunate because John Jones has, of course, been through so much. And he comes back at UFC 214, and he's such a huge star.

And that show did so well for the UFC, 850,000 to 900,000 pay-per-view buys. they needed him to be back, opening the door for the likes of Brock Lester, opening the door to a super fight with a steep Miotich, and now this happens. But important to note, very important to note. In this sport, sometimes people are guilty before proven innocent. Look at what Daniel Cormier said. Look at what Alexander Gustafson said. You are innocent until proven guilty, and that's why he is provisionally suspended. They're going to test his B sample.

We'll see what happens there. But be careful before you bury him six feet under. Be careful before you sort of end his career and end his legacy. It's important to note that because we've seen some wacky things in the sport, especially in this USADA era. So yes, it's disappointing and yes, it's troubling. And yes, after everything that's happened, you wonder how he can rebound. And you wonder what this means for his legacy.

And you wonder what it really means about who he is as a fighter. This is LeBron James testing positive. This is Tom Brady testing positive. This isn't just a run-of-the-mill fighter. This is, you know, to steal a line from Floyd Mayweather, TBE, this is the best ever, in my opinion. But what does this all mean? So at 6.15 in less than 10 minutes, we are going to be joined by Malki Kawa, who is John Jones's manager in his first interviews since this news came out. Spoke to Malki earlier this morning.

He is fired up. He is somewhat emotional. This is an emotional time for them. They thought that they were turning the corner. They thought that the storm had passed them. And so I'm very curious to hear what Maliki Kawa has to say. So that's at 6.15 p.m. Eastern Time. At 6.35 p.m. Eastern Time, I'm really excited about this.

Joining me on our set will be two veterans of MMA, two veterans of the UFC. Phil Baroni, the New York badass, Stefan Bonner, the UFC Hall of Famer, the finalist on the Ultimate Fighter Season 1. They'll be joining us together. They've been doing some pro wrestling together. And these guys, I mean, they have some hot takes as far as this fight. is concerned. They've got some hot takes as far as the state of MMA is concerned. They are, they are characters, and I'm excited to be talking to them at around 6.35 p.m. Eastern Time. So, that's two guests that'll be joining us on the set. Afterwards, at, again, I'm saying 405 p.m. It's going to take me some time to get back and forth between Eastern and Pacific time zone.

At around 405 Pacific, 7.05 p.m. Eastern time, Michael Conlin, the 3 and O professional boxer, the two-time Olympian, bronze medalist in the 2012 Games, and oh, by the way, the young man out of Ireland, Northern Ireland, to be exact, who made his professional debut, St. Patrick's Day of this past year, who had Connor McGregor walk him to the ring at the theater, Madison Square Garden, he'll be joining us to weigh in, of course, on Mayweather McGregor,

whether or not he was a part of this camp, wanted to be a part of this camp. He's returning to action in September. Really excited to talk to Michael Conland. That will be at 7.0.4. 5 p.m. Eastern time. Then at around 7.30, we'll be joined by Al Bernstein. Al Bernstein is one of three men who will be calling the fight on Saturday night for Showtime Sports. Play-by-play will be Morro Rinaloa, Polly Malinagi, who we all know so much about, and Al Bernstein will be the third man in the booth. He'll be joining me to talk about the fight. Now, speaking of Pauli Malinagia, I should

say, Stephen Espinoza, the president of Showtime Sports. I spoke to him earlier today. prior to the press conference. They just had a press conference at the MGM Grand just a few minutes ago. And Espinoza told me, I asked him, is Pauly going to be still on the broadcast? He said yes. So that is good news for all you Polly fans. I think it's the right move. I think that he somewhat validates the $100 price tag.

I think people, whether they want to admit it or not, want to hear what he wants to say. Yesterday they had the Grand Arrivals, which is a boxing thing. I know a lot of MMA fans aren't really used to the grander. rivals. This is a boxing thing that they typically do. The fighters come to the host hotel. Usually, if it's a really big event, it's inside an arena. Yesterday, it was outside the T-Mobile arena, and it was sweltering. At one point, I actually thought that I was going to faint of dehydration. When I was talking to Connor in the back, there were actual, like, sweat buckets just dripping off my face. It was very hot. And after Connor met with the media, there was a bit

of a run-in with Polymolaniage. And we caught it on camera. In fact, I pulled out my iPhone and I captured it all. I was very proud of myself. I was looking to get a shooter credit on that, but unfortunately did not happen. We did capture the back and forth. You've seen it on our MMAfighting.com page as of right now. And so I was wondering, I asked Stephen Espinosa, you know, will he remain on the broadcast? And Espinoza said yes. So I want to hear from Al Bernstein as to what he thinks of all this, the fight, of course, and then the Pauly versus Connor McGregor feud. And then finally, how about this? We are going to be joined by Ice Cube. Ice Cube, the legendary rapper himself, the hip-hop mogul himself, O'Shea Jackson Jr. Ice Cube will be stopping by.

And this is a very exciting thing for me. I'm a big hip-hop fan. I have a ton of respect for Ice Cube. And this is very cool because he is a fight fan, but he's also the head of the Big Three basketball tournament. And you may have heard that the Big Three basketball tournament actually had the T-Mobile arena booked for Saturday night. It was the finals of their season, the three-on-three legends of basketball league that just launched this year. Well, they had the T-Mobile arena booked,

but they announced the fight, so then he had to agree to take his show to the MGM Grand. I wonder if there was some money involved. He was saying, look, if you want to pay up, you could pay up, but as of right now, I'm not moving. Eventually they did move.

So he's here promoting the event earlier, Kenyon Martin, former Denver Nugget, number one pick, Nick, former New Jersey Net. He was here. There's a bunch of basketball players just milling around. This is a dream for me. Basketball and MMA and boxing, combat sports. Brett Musburger is here. It's a who's who. This is all very exciting. So that's the lineup for today. I got here yesterday morning, early morning, went to the Grand Arrivals, captured the whole Polly thing. That was a lot of fun. Then got here and of course, and by the way, there's a rainstorm going on. It never rains in Las Vegas.

I'm here all the time and it never rains. It's very weird. Then we got the John Jones news. That was crazy. Still kind of trying to digest all of that. John hasn't talked as of right now. Did speak briefly to Dana White. Asked him a question. And he was very nice. In case you're wondering what my question was, I asked him if he felt like this was the breath of fresh air as a promoter. Because he could just back one guy. It's kind of reminiscent of him and Chuck Liddell back in the day in pride. Remember that? And so he said that he liked it, but it makes him nervous and his heart is going to be beating. It was a nice cordial little chat. And so that happened earlier today.

They had the press conference. The press conference, if you missed it, was very subdued. It was unlike anything that we've seen in the buildup to this fight, World Tour. There were no fans there, so I think that they were not really feeding off of anything. Perhaps the most interesting note to come out of the press conference, as I want to get this right. I want to get this right. they came out and announced that an actual belt will be on the line and it's called the money belt and this is a page out of ted de biasi and virgil back in the day i don't know if anyone even

consulted with those gentlemen but they actually came out wbc president maricio suleiman announced that the money belt will be on the line this saturday as floy mayweather junior and kana mcgregor compete against each other in the boxing ring 3,360 diamonds on said belt, 600 sapphires, 300 emeralds. Oh, and by the way, it's made of alligator leather. This is true. They actually came out and presented it and had a whole presentation. It was very, I didn't expect.

I actually spoke to Bob Bennett on my way out, and I was like, did you even know that there was a belt? And he kind of laughed at it all. I mean, it's not a real belt. It's kind of a fictitious thing to, you know, I don't know, give some credence to this fight. I don't think it's necessary, but you know these two guys. They like money, they like flashy things. Why not? I was talking to Floyd earlier today as well as I just casually dropped that.

And he was wearing the biggest ring I've ever seen with a thousand. I mean, I didn't ask him how many diamonds, but there were a lot. And then the watch, so much ice on that watch, you can skate on it. You get what I'm saying? Yes, you get what I'm saying. By the way, as we show the graphic. there. MMAfighting.tweeter.com is your home. Perhaps at the end of the show will take some questions. So hit us up using the hashtag DMMA Hour. I'll answer some of those. I do have my

computer here as you can see. And so I'd love to hear from all of you. Hopefully everything's working. Everything's good. Everything's feeling good. Everything's rocking and rolling here. And appreciate this, my friends. Behind us, it's all radio. There's some TV guys doing some hits, but no one else is doing two plus hours of live streaming from here and some. the media center. This fight is that big. It warrants it, in my opinion. Enjoy the ride leading up to the fight. It's an important time as you see the setup. It's an important time in our sport. It's an important time in combat sports. And it's going to be over come Monday. And in fact, Connor McGregor said that at the press conference that he's going to be a little sad when it's over

because he kind of feels like, all right, the buildup and then what's next? What do I do after that? I will be sad as well. Yes? Yes? All right. Let us move along to our first guest of the day, and it's a pleasure and a privilege to be joined by him. This does not pertain to Mayweather-Megregor, but it's the right way to start our live coverage for this week. As I said at the top, we found out late yesterday

that according to the United States Anti-Doping Agency, John Jones failed a pre-fight UFC 214 drug test, It was a drug test that occurred right after the Wands on Friday afternoon, July 28th. And as of right now, he is provisionally suspended. Again, as I said, not officially suspended. He is allowed a due process, and he will go through that due process. But we wanted to hear from a member of his team, and I'm being told that we are being joined by his manager, Malikiawa, on the phone right now.

Maliki, are you there? I'm here, buddy, but your connection is really shoddy. My connection is really shoddy. You can't quite hear me. Okay, we're going to work on that. We're going to call you back, Macchi, all right? We're going to work on that. As it got really loud in my ears there, we're going to... This is all a little news, so bear with us for a second, but we will reconnect with Mr. Kawa here in a matter of moments and hopefully get him back on the horn and speak to him about the John Jones situation. They did put out a statement yesterday, which if I could pull up, I will.

Here it is. This was given to us by John Jones' camp. We are all at a complete loss for words right now. John is trainers, his nutritionist, and his entire camp have worked tirelessly and meticulously the past 12 months to avoid this exact situation. We are having the samples tested again to determine the validity or source of contamination. John is crushed by this news and we are doing whatever we can as a team to support him. That was from John Jones' team on Tuesday afternoon right after the news came out.

Daniel Cormier also released a statement exclusively to us first. He said, quote, it's hard to find words to describe how I'm feeling right now. I'm disappointed to hear the news. It's very emotional. We as athletes are entitled to due process and I will refrain from saying much more until I know exactly what happened. in my mind on July 29th I competed and I lost I thought John Jones was the better man that day

I don't know what to think anymore I can't believe you are all going through this again you will see what happens next thank you to all my fans who have supported me during this dark time I love you very much and it has to be an emotional roller coaster for one Daniel Cormier in fact I spoke to him on Monday

and he started to sound like himself you know that he was on the program just a couple of weeks ago and he sounded a bit dark a little disturbed. I mean not disturbed, but a little depressed, a little down. And it was obviously a big blow to him emotionally and physically to lose this fight to John Jones, especially considering how he looked in the fight.

And it felt like on Monday he was starting to feel like himself. He was starting to sound like himself. He was getting over it. He was going to Hawaii with his family. he was taking a bit of time off that's what it felt like at least to me and then he gets this news and in fact I was the one who broke the news to him

he did not believe it he kept asking me to swear on my kid's life because he thought that I was playing a prank on him and I don't blame him I thought it was a prank when someone told me about it and so as of right now he hasn't talked just yet

and it remains to be seen what this means for him what this means for the light heavy white title. And it's obviously unfortunate for John Jones, and you wonder how he's handling it. You wonder he has not talked, of course. But it has been a rocky road over the last two years, ever since that victory over Daniel Cormier at UFC 182. For the UFC, of course, from a business standpoint, this is a massive deal and a massive blows well because John Jones, without Connor active, without Ronda Rousey active. is their biggest draw.

Let's see if we got Malky now. Malki, are you there? I'm still very low. Okay, let's try there, because he's very low to me. Sorry, Malki, bear with us here for a second. Okay, we'll try one more time. Good thing we started off with a phoneer right off the bat. I wanted to get the breaking news, but have no fear.

We will figure that out. They are working very hard to figure that out. and then at around 6.35 p.m. Eastern time, as I said, we'll be joined hopefully in studio by Stefan Bonner and Phil Barone. But I know that here in Las Vegas, they do not handle rain very well. So it makes me a little nervous. The security here is nuts. We have to wear one of these little bracelets.

You see this? And there's actually a chip. There's a chip. Where is it? Right over there. Boom, boom. There's a chip. You see it?

Right there. and you can't go anywhere without sort of going through a device and you have to buzz yourself in and that's all well and good I don't mind that as you can see I don't really mind that but what I do kind of mind about this

setup is the fact that you can't take it off that's a big problem for me you can't like I have to wear this so that means I have to shower with it and everyone else that I see wearing it has to shower with it that feels a little bit dirty

to me, I don't know, but I do like the fact that we don't have to wear one of those credentials. This is not what we have to wear on fight night. Apparently on fight night, they are giving us our own credentials. But all week long, to come in and out of this media center, to come in and out of the press conferences and things of that nature, we have to wear this, which I think is kind of cool. I mean, this is the biggest thing that I've ever covered as far as combat sports is concerned. There's no doubt about that.

And I've been to the Olympics. That's probably the biggest sporting event that I've ever. covered and they had a media center like this. That media center was a lot bigger, but this is the exact same setup. In the front, right in back of me is Radio Row, but in the front, you have all these tables where a journalist can sit and write, there's food and things of that nature. This is a big deal, and anyone who feels otherwise is kind of kidding themselves. In fact, I asked Stephen Espinoza if he thinks that this is going to break the pay-per-view record. He actually predicted that it won't, but he did say that he's kind of the guy who, you know, is not really,

uh, is not one to make these bold predictions. He likes to err on the side of being conservative, but I was surprised to hear him say that it won't. Um, last we heard from Leonard Ellorby a couple of weeks ago, he said that the gate was currently at 60 million. The record gate is 72 million. And that was Mayweather Paci-Hale. The pay-per-view record is 4.6.5.5.5.5.5.5. 6 million and that's Mayweather Pachial and that was a little over two years ago May of 2015

so they were at 60 million there's been some talk of you know ticket sales not doing great last I heard there was around 1,000 seats left but these these tickets are so expensive that they're gonna blow by it even if it's not a sell-up

that's the thing where do we stand guys with Mr. Kawa it's not Don't have him? Is there still a chance of having him? We are trying, all right? Let's see if people are asking questions as we effort to get Mr. Kawa.

Oh, and we have our guys here. Hey, Paige. Let's bring in, as we try to fix the phones, let's bring in Mr. Philbrony. Can we do that? he's right over there what do you think about that do you think that's a good call but could we still try to get him

I'd still really like to talk to him and can you touch base with him and let him know that we're just going to move him around is that okay because I'd still love to talk to him let's bring in Phil Barone Phil Barone come over here

let's bring him in he's early a bearded Phil Barone Phil what's up my man my man Just got done training Did you take a shower?

Of course I shower Okay good You shower? I did Do I smell? Smell, sir Phil, how are you? Good, how are you?

Can you hear me? Do you want to wear this? Yeah, you can wear it I think you'll hear me better You hear me better now? Much better All right I don't hear them great in my ears

If we could put them up a little more Phil, it's good to have you here What do you think of this setup? How's my hair look? Your hair looks great I like this look for you I like this look for you it. What does it signify?

The real deal? Oh, wow. Fador and Mark Coleman. Is that from the event? Yep. Wow. It just got it sent to me. From who? Oh, so it's not like from you back in the day.

No, no, brand new. Okay. Talking to the mic there. And can we put him a little higher? Yeah, my mic sucks. Yeah, I don't think his mic is working there, guys. Are we on air? Yeah, there we go.

Great. Yes. You can hear me now better, right? Can you hear yourself in your ears? Much better, yeah. Okay, that's great. So what do you think of this? You just came in here.

I bet all the journalists and everything were crowding around you as an actual superstars here, right? Yeah, that's right? Yeah, that's right. We have a lot of things to discuss with you. We have a lot of, we have a lot of, you've got a lot of opinions on a lot of things. But first let's start with my opinions a little bit. Yeah, of course.

Let's start with Mayweather McGregor. Real quick, before I forget, I just want to say something quick. Please, please. I just got to get this out. When all the pride guys came over and started losing, do you remember and everyone said, oh, because there's another juice? That wasn't why. It's because all the UFC guys were on Jews.

Yeah, right. And the bride guys thought they couldn't take juice in America. Is that true? Yes. I'm telling you to truth. Oh, you believe that. This is not a joke. I know for...

Well, I live in Vegas and I know all the guys. Yeah. The reason they all thought you have to stop. Yeah. And they all stopped. They all looked like shit. I'm not going to name the guys, but you've seen them when they all lost.

The stupid fights. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's the reason is because they thought you can't do steroids in America. And that's before you saw it. Wow. And they were the only ones not doing steroids. I'm just saying that's what I'm going on.

Interesting. That's the real reason. Okay. So, okay, so since you brought it up, what do you make of the John Jones situation? Are you familiar with this? Yes, of course. This substance I was reported by TNZ. Tell us about it.

What is it? It's a steroid that was developed by the East Germans. Okay. Made it really good when they used that drug. And it's a drug that women and men can use. There's no angiogenic side effects, which is male secondary sex characteristics. Like aggression, deepening of the voice, those are male secondary sex characteristics. So it wouldn't turn into the drug.

turn a woman to a man, like testosterone. Okay. So it's an anabolic. It's not really endogenic. Okay. What about the fact that it... And if you're on that drug, you might need Viagra, because it's not antigenic. It's not like TRT.

It's a complete anabolic where a woman can take. So it wouldn't turn a woman to a man, so has none of those male's secondary sex characteristics, so it would make you anabolic, but not antigenic, not aggressive. Let me ask you, I want to get this right here, because I got some information about his tests, and I just want to get the days right. So on July 6th, I was... Listen, it's impossible. Let me say another deal.

It's impossible. Unless he took the fucking shit, the week of the fight. Yeah. Yeah. That he couldn't have been caught. You can't just... Do you know what I'm saying?

So he obviously was caught the whole time. Okay. They knew it, but it was a big fight. They had a lot of happening. He took a test. So the D.C. was expendable to the company. What do you mean by that?

Well, they don't give a fuck that he got a concussion and got knocked out. Because he got knocked out by a drug-drug-using fighter. They knew it. Yeah. There's no way they found it. I just know everything about this stuff. There's no way they found out just after the fight.

Okay. They knew the whole time. Really? Why would you take it just the week of the fight? It does not affect you. So you think that they knew and they let them fight? Fuck, yeah. Okay, so this is the information.

July 6, he took a blood or urine test past that one. July 7 took a blood or urine test past that one. On July 28th, the day before the fight took a urine test, and that's when it came up. Yeah, right. Those days right there came down and they just didn't say nothing. You think so? Guaranteed. Get that fat little skinny, bold prick on here. I'll go one-on-one. He wants to go. Which one? He wants to go, did the U-S.S. if he wants to go, if he wants to go one-on-one

with the badass, you know. And what did the, and, and this, is this a comment? Because didn't Frank Meera test positive for this as well? Well, yeah, I don't know. Well, maybe there's something in that, you know, Greg Jackson's water over in. I think, have you ever taken this? No, I've never taken anything. Anything? Come on. Oh, way. Come on. How do you know so much about this stuff? Well, actual. I'm a biology major, so you forget about Yeah, the degree of biology and psychology.

From where again? No, Central Michigan, and Hofstra. Halfstra? Yeah, that's right. Long Island's strong. Yeah. Would you ever go back to New York? Well, the thing with that was, when I came here, I lost to Matt Lineland in the UFC, UFC, something like that. I said, I'm never going to go back home until I'm a UFC champion.

I just never went back home. It's a UFC title. Okay. Or a world title. I tried to get it in pride, but so I'm stuck here. That's right. Okay. Okay.

Okay. So, John, what does this mean for his legacy in your opinion? Fuck it, he hides me. Go, go, go to overreem it up. Yeah? Uber Jones it. Yeah. And go kill everybody.

And then he liked that in Japan. Be the new fadoat. Be the guy that nobody can beat. But now, for real, he beat everybody already. Beating him in heavyweight. Now go to heavyweight and fight them all. Is he the greatest of all time? Fight you, ream there.

Is he the greatest of all time in your opinion? Yeah, without doubt, yeah. Even despite all this. What does that mean? Nothing. He kicks everybody's ass. Right. In a fight, he's the best.

That's what I want to see. I want to see the best guys fight. I don't give a fuck where he trains. If he does Jiu-Jitsu or not, if he does antibiotics or not, if he does boxing or not, I just want to see the best guys in the end of the beat.

You had a great tweet about... I would never do steroids, but I'm just saying, you had a great tweet comparing him to Dowell Strawberry. You believe, oh, and look who's here. Mr. Stephan Bonner. Things are getting fun.

Oh, the real shooters are in town. Yeah, the real shooters are here. Stefan Bonner, how about this? Look at he's got a pink shirt on and everything. Wow. What's up, Mr. Halwani? This is huge. Thanks for coming, guys.

I appreciate it. You know, this guy's responsible. You owe us. You made the trick, right? This guy's fucking responsible for the UFC being where it is today. You know, when the average show, him and what was that guy's name?

Who did you fight? That bomb my five? Yeah. To the mic. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the guy he fought? Yeah. You know, do regular guys.

Yeah. Before to be in the UFC, you had to be an Olympian, like Mark Holman or Randy Cole. You had to be Dan Anderson. Or you had to be, you know, a stupid-duper world champion, multi-world championship, then these guys

started coming in, and then the influx of bums enter DFC, a bunch of reality show stole. The average shows guys like Carriot-Hawaii. Yeah, yeah. Anyone could be D.S. Everybody who could be D.O.W. Wow, well, it's good to see you here.

We were just actually talking about John Jones, and you know a thing or two about John Jones, right? You fought him. Oh, yeah. What was your reaction when you heard the news? Honestly, I'm not going to believe it until they test that B sample. You know what? Fox News could put Trump

in the White House. I think Fox could find a way to get that title back to Daniel Cormier. I think it's, yeah. Wait,

so he's quick to say that it was all, you know, everything was tasted. I wasn't mad about Trump. Trust me. Me and Trump are friends. Yeah,

that part was good. He's from Queens. But to see him do this to John Jones just so they could get that title back in Cormey's hands. That breaks me out.

I mean, it was definitely experience. I know. Wait, I'm letting it break that. I'm letting it break that. I'm letting him break that. What do you mean?

What's the conspiracy? Well, go ahead. Are you kidding me? Like, the Fox is worse. The UFC's on Fox. Their worst nightmare is having Kormeigh lose the title and having John Jones is the champion. You think they're behind us?

Without doubt. Come on. 100%. And we talked to John Jones. Come on. We talked. Bush in the White House. He's front of the Trump in the White House.

He was behind on all the polls. He was behind on all the polls. And now they got Daniel Corny. Okay, okay. Okay. But really, he, you know. Go ahead.

I forgot. I was... Okay. Let me ask you a question, Stefan. You fought John Jones. Daniel Korme, yes. He's close to John Jones. He spoke to John Jones.

He didn't take anything. Oh, you spoke to John. Yeah, John told him. I didn't take anything. When did you speak? I swear to God. I spoke to him yesterday. I don't believe.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Wait. He called him. He's got a number and he spent three rounds. When you fought him and Melvin party together. When he fought him and Melvin party together. When you fought John Jones, did you think, I mean, no one ever thought when he was younger that he would ever do. He had kind of this frail body.

He was skinny. Did you think that anything was up? No, absolutely not. Yeah, that's why. Absolutely not. Yeah. Honestly, he's the type of guy that could go, you know, be two in lions and still be Daniel Kormier. So he definitely doesn't need any steroids to be Kormier.

He proved that before. And, yeah, this is definitely. He's innocent. He's framed. Are you kidding me? You guys disagree on this because you actually came out and said that you thought... Well, I just said it's kind of funny that all the guys from... Yeah.

Jackson's in Turinibo. That's the thing about Turinibal, too. It only has a five-day detection. Was he really taking it? Like, five days out from the fight? Have you ever tried it? It's not five days. Have I?

Yeah. No, no. Prescribed testosterone from a licensed physician. I do not break the law. Okay. All right. Well, we'll see what happens there. Do you still consider him the best?

Of course. Everyone saw what happened. But you know what? It's good about this. We're looking to sign John Jones at the Legend Room. We're having a huge view and party for McGregor Mayweather. Okay. Yeah.

Let's transition. We're really looking to sign. The Legends Room is an adult. It's an upscale strip club that we take cryptocurrency. What's that mean? Bitcoin, Ethereum. We actually raise money to buy the club by selling these Legends Room on a site called BitTrux that sells digital commodities.

So this is a tradable. it's liquid. You buy a membership for life, and you own it, and you could rent it out when you're not in town a few years. You know, this Legend Drum membership is going to be worth a lot more than $5,000, which you could get it for now, and you could trade it. You could sell it back in and trade it when you're done using it. So most of the members at the Legendrums aren't these big strip club party fans.

These guys that have been collecting Bitcoin since it was down at 40 cents, with these accounts that have $6 million in it. And it's hard to spend it. In the United States of America, it's hard to spend Bitcoin. We got an ATM in a club. You can put your Bitcoin in and get money out. Cash out. Both ways.

And you guys own a club? So, yeah, we're part of the club. Look at you. Luckily, entrepreneurs didn't have to spend his, because he got 10 grand in Bitcoin back in 2009. He forgot about it. But fortunately, we didn't have to spend. Then our own money, we raise money to buy the club by selling these memberships on this site.

Wow. And that's the whole point, the beauty of the legend room. It's come watch all the biggest fights with legends with guys such as myself and Phil Barone. We signed Fleece Herring. We're looking to sign John Jones. We've been talking and talks with Misha Tate as well. Okay, this is exciting. And you're showing the fight on Saturday.

That's how you would be watching. Oh, you better believe it. And you're coming too. It's going to be the best place to watch the fight. Are you kidding me? You got 100. 100. What are the deal with trying?

Every roommate is tape on a bottle flip. Here you can. One. There's a soft opening with MMA fighter to do general cover now. I'm a married man. Yeah, so what?

There's a lot of married. By the way, are you... I'm not anymore. Are you... What happened? Yeah. I've got a strip club. Yeah.

You got divorced? He's up and in a strip club. Yeah. Yeah. Beat it. Really? Yeah. You're single now?

Yes. Oh, my. When did that happen? No, just when I decided to, when I got my Bitcoin together. Okay. Yeah. Got's to go.

Are you are you still I'm talking for? Okay Now are you guys in competition with Floyd Mayweather's

Girl Collection? It's technically yes But really it's not competition We're bringing in Bitcoin Millionaires He's been in the hood

Okay Okay okay Okay Now how do you How do you gentlemen feel about this fight You're in favor of it You like the fight

I like fights It's like back in the day There's a reason The circus has been around For hundreds of years It's damn entertaining And this fight It's pro wrestling

How about Ali Anoki? This is the same shit. Right now, real shooters soaking up pro wrestling. This is it. This is a perfect example of how pro wrestling. The fights are worked, yet they're selling out these arenas. Everyone's coming to see them. Same sort of concept.

It's all about building the fight, the hype, the talk. That's 90% of it. Connor was mocked for his workout, but you actually have a great take on the workout. What was it? He copied Hicks and Gracie. That was full of a smart mark. Smart Mark. Smart Marks.

Oh, you know, like me, I knew what that was. All the goofy boxing, you left no idea what he's doing. But if you know MMA, you've been following and watching it, you know what he was doing. Okay. Every M. M.M.A fighter. And my generation was watching movies like that and right to passers. You're trying to find him.

Yeah. Yeah, that was his workout. Yeah, it was his workout. Yeah, it was on the beach. You saw that and you were like, oh, of course. It was a winked for us. He was telling, yeah. It was a wink to the marks.

Okay. MMA marks. Could you believe these boxing guys? how much they're mocking him. There are some legitimate, respected boxing people who don't think he'll land a punch. Jealousy.

Why jealousy? Because everyone wants to get that kind of pay there. This guy's zero and zero. Has no boxing titles. Now one boxing fight is going to make more money than I hated my entire career. All my fights put together, even.

This isn't fair. This is a travesty. I'm going to start hating on Connor McGregor. Okay. I see. I see. Do you think he has a chance, Stefan? he's got a puncher's chance he's a big tall south bug who could crack

so yeah he does have a puncher's chance the most probable scenario Floyd's gonna give him a boxing lesson but there is that element of hey there's a chance and look at the Moseley fight mostly out of my queer street that second round Moseley was a champion many times he was 46 years old in that fight

think about it Floyd is what 30 back he's a young 46 okay so do you think that he has a chance Phil Do you think he has a puncher's chance as stuff? Well, anyone has a punch his chance, but no. No, not at all. Not really. Not really.

So his team, his coach, John Kavanaughamondi, told me that if Floyd engages and comes forward like he says he will, it's going to take one minute to knock him out. Do you believe this? Good, good talk. Imagine he cracks him? I mean, anything going to happen, but... Yeah, why would Floyd do anything different than he's ever? Right.

You know, and, of course, before the fight, you say all this stuff. Oh, we're going to stock him, then we're going to go forward. But it's... But it's Floyd, you know. It's just like some wrestlers in the UFC. You're going to refer to what you know best. Keep your gym down fight behind your gym. Floyd the best.

When I first moved to the ice, we go to top rank with Dana White to get sparring. Dana White used to accompany me the top ring. I mean, that video of it. And Floyd is a dog then and is a dog now. I'd go there do a whole box of workout. Spar five rounds, hit the bag, four rounds. And Floyd made it all the whole time. I top ranked gym back in the day when he was pretty boy, not money.

Yeah. We'd be jumping roll, 45. 50 minutes. The whole time, I got a whole workout in. Wow. He'd be jumping roll. He just started. So he works his ass off. He's a dog. I mean, you can see him running around Vegas at 5 in the morning, 4 in the morning. Really? Just running.

I mean, you go out to the club, you see him leaving, and you come home to the club, you see him coming home. You know what I mean? That's how he runs. And when me and Frank Meade used to work at the Rhino, Floyd was one of the best customers and never once they ever see him have one drink ever the entire time I was there. Wow. He'd be in there all night with his crew.

not even a sip alcohol a sip of alcohol do you guys a sip of girls but not a sip alcohol do you guys believe that if he loses this is a disaster

for boxing that his whole legacy comes into question I mean to lose to a guy who's own and all he does have a lot of pressure he is more he's more than Connor right

way more he's no pressure come on boxing he's money you wait better he's money but he's losing his fight I mean how can he lose this fight? I mean the big lap I mean

did he never before anybody with the big left before no yeah it's the first lefties, but a big one? Okay, I don't know.

But do you agree that there's more pressure on his shoulders? For sure. Everyone's like... By chance, counter lands a big one that's fluid out, then boxing dies.

Yeah. No, I doesn't die. Oh, you said die. It's going to turn into a joke. Die, come on. No, it doesn't die. The real fighters in the UFC. You don't subscribe to the theory

that boxing is dead and things like that. No. It's actually having a better year than MMA. Triple G. Canello. Anthony Joshua doing his thing. Yeah, well, big fights. It's a great fight. I like boxing.

I keep a boxing. I used to train his house. Are you guys fans of partners? I like what he's doing. Do you feel like what he's done for the sport is good? I think he's reading the book I wrote. But he has a way better. The NYPA?

It has a way better. He has a way better platform. I had no platform. I didn't think I had YouTube when I was in my prime. It's funny that you mentioned that. You know, 10 years ago back in June, you had that fight against Frank Shamrock. And to me, that was the beginning of using YouTube to promote a fight. Remember that?

Frank first. Yeah, he was brilliant stuff. He was good, yeah. You guys put out, they put out the brink. blueprint. Maybe, maybe, that was in a 2007.

Do you remember that fight? Yeah, of course. What a great fight that was. It's a good fight. I hated that fight. That was a co-promotion, right? That was a strike force of Lidixie.

Yeah, because Kokely does that. He's doing that stuff in Italy right now with the Q-boxing. That's right. He does that. He's willing to work. And it's better, you know? The local promoters

and get that whole fan base. It's easier. You know, he's a machine here. I need to do it. But someone like Kovranes. It makes sense. Are you surprised that Dana allowed this to happen?

He did it kick and scream them, but money talks. Yeah, money talks. And he's got new bosses. Who knows? They said, fuck you, we're doing it. You know what I mean? It might have been. You went to those guys, no.

I mean, come on, $100. Pay-per-views. They're going to do over a million easily. I mean, come on. We're paying $20,000 to show this fight at the legend room. How much? $20,000. We lost the left ear here.

But we got it free. Yeah, you guys can still hear yourself. They're giving us a deal. Oh, it's bottom. Well, he's got to give it free. He told me he's going to free. Just text me. But do you think that they're doing this because of the sale?

Like if they didn't sell and they didn't have the down in 2017. I don't think Lorenzo would be doing this. You don't think so? Why? I mean, maybe. Do you think it's bad? They never do it. They never do show like this.

These guys want to make money. These guys are into the game. They need to make money. They dropped a lot of money. How are they going to make that money back? Especially, come on. Look at the pay-per-dives nowadays. They're not even hitting $200,000.

So, yeah. They're trying to make some of that $4 billion back, for sure. Okay, so let me ask you guys about this. Currently, the UFC isn't having, you know, the best year, right, since the sale, if Connor gets embarrassed, is that disastrous for MMA or does everyone go, ah, you weren't supposed to win it. It's boxing. It's supposed to win a lot.

Yeah. I really don't think it hurts. And I don't see them really, like, the numbers, you have your hardcore fans, you know. I don't see the pay-per-view numbers dropping anymore. Okay. You guys are doing pro wrestling? What's going on with that? Yeah, we are.

We're the real shooters. The hotest team team, too. And we're, you know, he's still fighting. He's looking to go. get a fight in Risen. I was actually in Windsor helping Moose, the pro wrestler moose, he wants to do an Menae, and you know what, I'm considering coming out of retirement to fight King Moe. And I'm training me. Yeah. King Moe has a fight. Does he have a fight coming in? He does, but who's he fighting? Who knows? Who knows? Everyone knows. Everyone knows. They fight in Stefan

Bonner, and you know, you're going to get the main event fight. So you're still considering a comeback? Yeah, honestly. I never like... Show him. I never like Kigmo. Look at that. Look at that.

Look at that. 20 orange pythons. ATT now. Honestly, ATT, American top team there are a bunch of scumbets. Carlson Gracie's old rejects. You have Ricardo Laboreo.

You have Conan Sulverio. You got those guys. They betray Carlson Gracie and they team up with that low life Dan Lambert and go to ATT. And now King Moe is streaming there. I always had to have been. downed with the A2T, now I got an excuse to carry that that debt out. Yeah, and if he's fighting Queen Mo, then fucking Mo.

Let's call Spade to Spade. King Mo is just a little bitchy ass 85 earned that. Okay. Just two more minutes with these two gentlemen. What are you trying to say? Does he get on the T-ball? On Facebook recently, you had a really heartfelt post about MMA and the damage and seeing young girls and young kids, amateur, and things like that.

I just think it's bullshit. Listen, Dana White's the first guy that will say. The reason I never became a pro-fighter, because I seen these guys, they take the damage. I see them in the gym 10 years later in the rag and nobody around them. You know what I mean? And now, because only poor people fight,

for the living, really. Only people that have to get ahead and make it in life, you know, from the bottom really went to fighting boxing. Yeah. And now guys with the ultimate fighter and five minutes of fame, guys, you know, see, oh, I could be a fighter, I can get something out of it. It's way harder to make HBO than it is to get an ultimate fighter

and get you five into fame. It's easy. You have no fights. Two fights you're an ultimate fighter. See, what Brony's heart is seeing these average shows go in there and get their brains scramble. It's one thing you're just gifted athlete. It's a girl.

You're going in. You're fighting for top dollar. But yeah, these average shows, these girls going in and really getting the brains beating. Not really know what you're getting into. Not really know what you have. I knew the risks. I come from boxing. I'm from New York.

I used to train at least the gym. Tommy Gallagher's gym. You know, my father came out of the boxing gyms. I know. I know the damages. Like Dana White used to brag about knowing the damage. You don't want to be that fighter. You know, 10 years on a ride, you know, shadow boxed in the corner.

Nobody looks at you. You call it the ghost. Yeah. What do you think all these MMA fighters would be? Did you regret doing it? Oh, no. I'm a fighter. I love this shit.

Okay. How about you? Do I regret fighting? Yeah. Sometimes. Sometimes. Oh, well, I regret moving away from home and not seeing my family and my sister's kids. Yeah.

I have some regrets, but you got to make sacrifices. Right. I would have done something else fucked up, you know. Yeah, I'm one hand. Yeah, I'm one hand you do, but on the other hand, you know, I'm in part of the brain study here at the Lou Ruevo. Oh, and I'm some good hands. And I'm kind of anxious to see how this place out.

How fucked up you got? Yeah. It's kind of interesting. I hope not. Well, it's great to see you guys. Thank you for doing this. But the real shooter is number one, though. Number one tanking, fresh wrestling.

Okay. This dude was just, I can't even say where I'm going to do. Name one tag team who would beat our ass. Nobody. In a real life. The bullet club. Smash the little wimpy dude. Get right, dude,

cartwheels. Carra was a work on a real shooter is. Those were sucks. They're old and been Mabonner. Those are the old ones. The bullet club is pretending they're guys like us. This is great stuff. They wish they were us.

We're real shooters. Yeah, and you want it on the MMA beat too. I think you have a beat with Luke Thomas. I do. You've been calling him out for days. I know more than Luke knows. That's right. I didn't even know what the drop stuff is.

He called it in a need. It's a drop step, but you take a shot in wrestling. Not a deep pound, buddy. Guys, this was great. I'm happy that you did it. Thank you for coming by. This was awesome. Stefan, thank you.

No, shooters, watch out for us. Take it over. Press of wrestling. There you go. You're going down, Kimmel. Ashley, you're nothing. Dan Lambert, you're a piece of trash. Oh my gosh.

Oh my gosh. Look at this. There he is. Philbert on our name. Wow. Can we get a shirt off there, Stefan. Don't be shy. Come on.

Take off that shirt. Come on. Take the shirt off too. There it is. No other show gets it. that. All natural. Look at the 10 on the big hockey.

Big hockey's talking to hell. All natural. Wow. Look at that. Phil Barone and Stefan Bonner are coming to a square set in the circle. We're moving down, Moe. All right, guys. Thank you so much.

Hopefully that we're, okay. Hopefully we're not kicked off Twitter after that. That was great stuff. Thank you very much, Stefan Bonner and Phil Baroni. All right. Do we have him on the phone? Malki, are you there? Can you hear me?

Just a second. Second? Here and I can hear you. All right, Maliki, can you hear me? I can hear you. We did it. We did it. All right.

Let's transition there from those two fine gentlemen to talk to you. I appreciate you doing this and sorry about the technical difficulties at the top. When did you find out about this? I found out. You found out. You can get found out about it. Okay, so let's talk about that for a second. You found out via TMZ, no one from the USADA, no one from the California State Athletic Commission,

known from the UFC called. The UFC called you. No, nobody called me at all. I got a phone call from this. You know, I'm probably saying, hey, you know what you think about this drug test? Actually, we have a certain around a look and check to the email, because usually they send us an email. I don't find us on the truth.

And then the email got sent at the same moment that two problems. And then it was already all over the place. So that's how I found out of you. How do you feel about that? Disappointed. I mean, I'm very disappointed in the idea that, you know, instead of us at least getting a heads up and being able to, uh, to, uh, uh, you know, know, know, just at least to wrap our heads around it and, you know, just at least to wrap our heads around it and get some information out to the public. So obviously, we can put up far.

We were just, we were completely blindsided by it. Have you talked to John Jones? I have. I did. I just was on the phone with him a few hours ago. How is he reacting to this? He's devastated. He's devastated and he's hurt.

I mean, he's, he's, you know, he's, you know. you know, it's amazing that you can go from being the very top of the mountain, you know, doing everything you can possibly do to gain the respect and admiration of everyone involved. Fans, family members, the people of the UFC, you know what I mean? It's everybody, teammates, other fighters. And then, you know, to go from there, everything he's been through, but finally do everything perfect, right? Because the last time he was being negligent, right?

This time he was being perfect and double-checking everything to still have something like this happened to him. It's unbelievable, it's unreal, and we're all pretty much shot. Ross stopped. Does he have any kind of idea as to how this happened? You know, last time, you know, we talked about the tainted pill and you Sada agreed with that and gave him the suspension because they said he was reckless, not because he was cheating, so to speak, right?

Correct. Correct. And I think, I think that, you know, that this time we've double-checked, everything, done, everything has had to do. I can almost bet my life on it that this, this is another tainted supplement, some that he often pleased that, that, you can't have a disruption. You know, you gotta just take a look at the testing and how this thing went down.

John passed two tests July 7th and July 8th, or 6 and 7th. Yeah, 6 and 7th. Right, the 7th was the, was the urine test that would have tested for the stuff. And in passing those two tests, they test for all of that stuff that he failed for. So, therefore,

you're talking about from the day he passed that test until the day before the fight he would have had to have ingested something that would have caused this test to come out positive. The problem that we're having with that is that he passes all the random tests but then the one test that we know about

the one that we sure know about is the one that we fail. So something here doesn't click it's not sitting right. I'm assuming it's the supplements you took. We just obviously got to get to work on and to see what was taken that month that ghost in the period

that week of the fight to figure it out from there. You are going to test a B sample, right? I'm definitely going to test a B sample, and then what I'm also doing is I'm sending out an expert as well to make sure that the handling of the B sample

and everything like that is improperly. Do you believe, we just had a couple of guests on prior, and they think that there's a conspiracy to get John Jones. Do you believe that there's a conspiracy to get John Jones? You know, Ariel, at this moment, I don't see, I'm out of those theories and, you know, this half in there,

happened or you know at this moment what I'm saying is that anything is possible okay I'm not going to about anything that has to do with this test the sample or this thing all I know is that my my common sense tells me that the way this works is that they have an A sample that came back with the thing we're going to test the B sample I'm going to have an expert there witnessing the thing make sure that this is being done correctly and then we're going to go down the process if the B sample comes back positive then we'll go through the supplements and obviously they go down the line until we figure out where this came from. I want to state that John, us as a team, first-round management,

Jackson and Lincoln, John, the whole entire group. Now, one of us know where this stuff came from. We all know John doesn't cheat. We all know that John doesn't use steroids. And I want to state that loud and clear so that everybody out there in this world knows that we're 1,000 percent denying any allegations of stairways. As of right now, he's fatim maximum would be four years, correct?

If they found him guilty, if they deemed that he's guilty, correct correct worst or best case i should say just a public warning correct correct the range either what can he rebound from this do you believe he can rebound from this because already as you know i'm sure you've gone on social media people are calling him a cheater he's done he ruined everything you know how it is guilty until well i mean listen you know what again here's the thing we've we've come back from so much already ariel why would i sit here and tell you something different absolutely we're going to come back from this if if we can find the source of this this uh substance, okay?

And it is definitely, again, another situation where it's because this time there's no negligence. We've turned everything in, we've done what we're supposed to do, that I'm aware of, that I know of. My brother stayed on top of this thing the whole time. I know the coaches, everything that was being done to John, giving to John, any advice. John was calling us.

You know, John was talking to us. He was communicating with us. And we were doing our job to make sure that everything was cleared by you saw it on the whole nine yards. And so there's a lot of things that, you know, that obviously go down between the time. You know, you get to a fight week and the end of the fight and all that other stuff and there's stuff that, you know, happens before. So I just got to get through all that stuff and figure it all out.

Once I do that, I'm confident that we'll be able to vindicate John Jones again, because the reality of it is, and this is the thing. You know, everybody texts me today. The whole world called me, oh, my God, I'm so sorry for you. Trying for you to drop him, this guy's this and this guy's that. And the reality of it is that I told every single person that called me today, I'm doing perfectly fine. Just like when you text me, I'm perfectly fine. I know this man doesn't cheat. If he was cheating, then I would be worried.

I'd be more concerned because then I would know that there's, you know, a reason to be afraid. But we know deep in our hearts that John Jones didn't do anything wrong here, or at least knowingly do anything wrong. So I just have to get to the bottom of it. And once we do that, we'll be fine. So to me, if the fans don't understand it, I can't help them. I mean, this is like my third client that, you know, it's him, Yuel, and my other client had the same thing happen.

It was thanked his supplement. We proved it every single time. This is the second time for John. So does he come back from it? I think he does. You know what I mean? Is it an easy task? I don't think so.

Do people probably don't believe in them? Probably. I mean, you know, look, it's tough. I get it. But I know John better than anybody, and I'm telling you, this man does not cheat. He has no reason to.

What's the state of his title right now? Is he still the champion? He's still the champion. And I think from what I understand, they're going to allow the due process to happen on this thing first before they make any decisions as far as the belt's concerned.

And how is the UFC handling this, in your opinion towards you? Are they being open? Are they answering your calls? Are you in contact with them? What's the experience been like this time with them? It's been the same. I mean, at the end of the day, they, you know, look, again, I'm encouraging everyone to go out there

and take a look at the test he passed and the test he failed. It's a three-week window the month of the fight. John has passed seven unannounced test. And the one that he's going to fail is the one that's announced. You know, it's weird to me. There's a lot of things here that don't add up. And to the UFC, it doesn't add up. They've all, I've spoken to Jeff Novitsky, we've spoken to Donna.

You know what I mean? I've spoken to Hunter. I've spoken to everyone that would, you know, I've spoken to Ari Emanuel numerous times today alone. John spoke to Ari Emanuel. So, I mean, there's people that are actively involved

in helping us figure out this stuff and see where, you know, they can also help in other things. But, you know, when you look at it, nobody's going to help you if you're cheating. I'm not going to help them if he's cheating. I don't care what it is. People don't understand.

I put my face out there because I know my clients. I'm not sitting here doing this because, you know, it's my job. Sometimes the money is just not worth it. You understand? So I tell people, you know what I mean, that this guy is not cheating. That's why I'm put my face out front. I'm defending him.

I'm standing by him. And if people don't like it too bad, the whole team is. But with that being said, at the same time, you know, the UFC knows. They looked at his test on the six and the seven. Yeah, the six and the seven. And he passed both of those. There's nothing in his system. So for him to start doing steroids,

especially the steroid they're saying he took, he would have had to been doing that steroid for a while for it to actually do it. anything. So he just took it to take it. I mean, it's, it's, to me, it's just a lot of, you know, there's a lot of issues with all this. That's why I just wish that they would, you know, if you're asking me how they've been towards me and what's, which is what you've asked, they've been great. I haven't had a problem with them. They've been helping. But if you're asking me in another way, what's, you're not, but I'm going to say it anyway, that I wish they would change

the way they released information, absolutely. Because I think that if the B sample comes back negative, then this man just got crushed again for no reason. And in the end, this dude. is a good dude, man. It just doesn't deserve this. How long will it take for you to find out the results of the B sample? Well, I got to get a different arrangement. The expert has to fly out there. I don't have a, you know what I mean? It's time for when it'll be open, but we'll get that done. Hopefully, in the next two weeks where it'll get opened, looked at, you know,

examine the whole nine, and, you know, we'll figure it out and go from there. Have you asked the UFC why they come out with it when he's just provisionally suspended as opposed to waiting for the entire process to play out so that you are not labeled the cheater, you're not labeled guilty until proven innocent? Yeah, I actually was screaming at them about that when it came to you old Romero the first time it happened and their response to me was it's just, you know, transparency. They didn't want to not, you know, release the information. But I've had enough of it, to be honest with you.

Ariel, this is something that personally I'm going to start working towards, which is getting these fighters to start understanding that there's some rights that they need to have. And until it happens to you, it's, you know, F. John Jones and this and that and this and that, and F.O. Romero and every other guy that, that, that, you know, goes through this. And then, you know, when you figure out, hey, you know, you saw that plainly said it. We know he's not cheating. You know what I mean? But he was negligent.

People don't want to hear that. When they said, you all, Romero, you know, was not cheating. And his whole punishment was that he didn't, you know, like this on a doping form, which most of my clients now do. But before at that time didn't, you know what I mean? They gave him a harsh punishment. So I have a problem with the program being, you know, punishing people that are not cheating as opposed to, you know what I mean? the people that are cheating. Like when you know somebody's not cheating, for example, in John's

case, when the tribunal came and said he's not cheating, his punishment was the same as if he was cheating, so it didn't matter. You get what I'm saying? And that's the issue to have with this whole USADA stuff. Why do you guys let this information out? Why can't we just keep it under wraps and wait until we get the B sample cleared? Why can't we wait until

we go through a process if we choose to go through a process? Sometimes it's six months, sometimes it's less. So for me, I try to expedite this as fast as I can so that, you know, my clients obviously can back to their normal routines and fight. And for whatever reason, they just said that from a transparency standpoint, they just want to do it this way.

TMC came out and put out what the substance was, Turinabol. Can you confirm that? Is that it? That's what I understand it, is Taranabaol. Okay. And why do you believe John? Like, for those that say, Maliki, you know, once, why do you believe John?

Why do you believe that he didn't do anything, you know, knowingly, that he didn't cheat knowingly? Because John has never lied to me. And because in every single situation John has ever been in, John's always told me the truth. Nothing that John has ever told me if I ever come back to him and said,

hey man, you're lying about this. You get what I'm saying? Yeah. So when a guy that I know for a fact, all the hard work that I've watched him do, but when I watch this man go through the motions of calling and saying, hey, I'm taking this, let me send you the label,

let me make sure this is okay. Hey, can I get more of this supplement? You know, and just go through the system, the way it's supposed to. When you watch a man mature, the way he's matured, When you watch a guy works so hard to win everybody back. My question to you is, why would he?

Why would he? What do you, if you look at it on Oro-Toranaba, what do you get out of potentially using OroToranabaugh for three weeks from the seventh or, let's call it, the 8th, until the 28th? What do you get out of that? There's no, there's ultimately almost zero. There's almost zero benefit from doing this. So, I mean, in all honesty, area, it doesn't make sense.

And anybody who understands that system of doping or taking steroids or in the system out of your body, whatever, it just makes no sense. You have to be on a cycle for a while. Correcta really start to show results. So he's clean all the other time the rest of the year. And then those three weeks he decides to do this. It's not John Jones. Listen, I know everybody he has said before. He's reckless.

He's this. You say whatever you want about him. The man's not stupid. Okay? And he was not being reckless for this fight. So I believe him because he's never lied to me. And I have every reason in the world to believe him. Just a couple more things, Maliki.

A lot has happened to John over the last two years, ups and downs. Do you have any concerns right now about his well-being, about how he's handling this? Are you going to go see him? I mean, just mentally, to come back and then do what he did two weeks ago. Absolutely. I'm very concerned about him, man. You know, he's got, you know, listen, everybody in this world has problems that we don't know about. This is a problem that we know about, right?

And it's just hit the new thing. And one thing about John, he's always done with me and everyone is he puts up this far. Like everything's perfectly fine. When deep down the side, I know sometimes he's not. You know what I mean? So I do worry about him. Absolutely we were going to go up. My brother was just with him yesterday.

So, you know, he left before the news hit, but we were up there for a photo shoot. And, you know, we're going to be on our way back up there probably next week. His brother's going up there. You have to think that something's, I mean, John, you don't realize what's going on in the last two months of this guy's life. His mom passes away. He goes and fights the biggest fight of his career. He gets the knockout. He was emotional.

He left it all out on the line. I think you guys saw a real, real. real emotional and then all of a sudden he's enjoying life again he's back to being on top he actually missed it he likes it

he loves the sport he loves the fans in it and then with one announcement it's back to the to the zone but all it back at the bottom of the barrel and it's tough to watch this happen to this guy

it really is I know that there's been a lot of mistakes and people say well he made a lot of mistakes listen he did but this kid never did it you know this is nothing he's done has been intentionally

to harm anyone ever have you read the statement from Daniel Cormier, and if so, what do you think of it? I appreciate Daniel Cormier right now at this moment. I thought that Daniel Cormier, deep down the side has always known that John doesn't do steroids. I think Daniel Cormier knows that John doesn't need steroids to win fights. I think Daniel Cormier knows that steroids didn't help John win his fight. I think that Daniel is a very professional guy, and I really appreciate him right now instead of, you know,

piling on, waiting and figuring out what happened. Because in reality, the first time he piled on, when the first time he called him, the power lawn. He knew he was wrong then. It was clear that John was just being reckless, that he was not cheating. And how's the sponsorship situation going? Are people, you know, I know after the hit and run, there was issues, but is everyone staying with him as of right now? Everybody, everybody that I know of has called and reached out, especially his sponsors,

and said 100% they're standing by and that they support him. I think they all, you know, you got to think that nutrition is one that would probably take the biggest hit from this, Monster being a UFC, you know what I mean, a sponsor. And they both called, the Monster. Mr. Guy was there with him, said there's no way that this man did it. I can tell from when he got the news. It just, unless he's the greatest actor, he needs to go to acting then because it was just emotional.

And this guy thought, like, literally, it was a joke that this could not have happened to him. He just didn't, he didn't believe it. And he saw that. Guy nutrition knows how much John, you know, tries to, um, to be healthy and to take care of himself. And, you know, let me say this. A lot of people say to me, why is he doing taking supplements anyway?

Well, John Jones also trains four to five times a day. He trains more than any other fighter I have on my roster. Okay? It's not that easy to tell a guy who's working that hard constantly, don't take any supplementation. But it may just have to come to that at this point with all my clients, just stay the hell away from all supplements. It's just not worth it anymore.

This is too much risk. You know what I mean? And the reward just isn't worth it. It just doesn't make any sense. So be clear, you don't know what that supplement is just yet. I don't have no idea where this could have came from, none more so ever. But like I said, our protocol for us in our office is to immediately, collect all the samples of everything that he took from the fight backwards for that past two months

we will collect it all we'll get it all what you call tested by our labs and then you know send it out to usada so they can test it as well have their labs tested and just go through the process once we flagged something that has something that could have caused this um positive then we'll obviously make you know the public aware and go from there and just two last quick things yesterday Dana White said that they were considering doing John versus Steve Amy Eochich in December. Is that accurate from your point of view? Well, we were discussing heavyweight title

fight or a Gufferson rematch. You know what I mean? The option was left to us, and I coincidentally, my brother was up there with John. They were discussing you know what I mean? Who he wanted to fight? What the route we wanted to go? And, you know, we just never were able to get that back to the UFC in time because

the news hit the same night my brother got back. So what do you think happens now? What's the game plan? What's your prediction? does it all play out? I think that we're going to end up finding the supplement that has this stuff, and then John will end up getting a public one. Okay, you're confident. 1,000%.

Malki, I really appreciate this. Thank you. I know it's been a whirlwind, but I really appreciate you coming on, and thanks for bearing with us with the technical problems. Appreciate you, brother. Thank you. All right, there he is. Malikawa, the manager for one, John Jones,

the CEO of first round management. Really appreciate him coming on, and you can hear it in his voice. He is fired up. He is certainly standing by his man, he certainly believes that John Jones is innocent. And again, we have been through this before as it pertains to John Jones, but this is the disclaimer that you always have to remember. They are innocent until proven guilty. And that's why they are provisionally suspended.

I think it's very interesting that he said that TMZ came out with the news first. We know that the UFC has a very cozy relationship with TMZ. If that is in terms, we know that is in terms of the fact true that they learned this via TMZ, how could you not have a problem with that? How could you not have a problem with that? John Jones, regardless of what you think about him, deserves the courtesy of getting notified first. I mean, that's just mind-blowing. Now, maybe they couldn't reach him, maybe he was unavailable, I don't know, but Maliki Kau was telling us that they found out via TMZ, that is a bit of a shocker. And so we'll see how this situation plays out. We wish him the best, Again, I urge you, just remember, innocent until proven guilty.

All right, let's move along now and welcome in our next guest. I'm so very excited to be joined by this young man, just 25 years young. He is the pride of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is 3 in O as a professional boxer. He competed in the 2012 Olympic Games and boxing won a bronze medal. He competed also in the 2016 Olympic Games. And back in March, prior to his pro debut in New York City at the theater, in Madison Square Garden.

He was led to the ring by the one and only Connor McGregor. They are good friends, and I thought it would be great to pick his brain. We are being joined now by Michael Conlon. Michael, are you there? Oh, good oral, hurts things, my brother. Oh, it is a pleasure. Thank you so much for joining us. Very excited to be picking your

brain. And by the way, congratulations on all your early success. It's been a lot of fun to see you rise, you know, just a few months into your career. Thank you. I appreciate that. You know, I keep up to date on MMAR too, so I'm seeing your stuff and it's great. I appreciate that very much. When did you meet Connor for the first time?

I met him, I think it was before. He reached out to me on Twitter and congratulated me after I won the World Championships in 2015, I think. And then I kind of met him the following summer when he was rematching Nate Diaz. We kind of kept him touch for social media, but I met him in person. and I got him the sparring partner, Connor Wallace and the guy who kind of replicated Nate, he was a stick spot, whatever he was, Southball. And, you know, he kind of had the same style as Nate.

So I got him then, and then we just kept in touch and kept in contact and, you know, became friends. Have you ever sparked Connor? No, no, he's too big for me. I'm only a little 120, 126 pounder. I'm not a 145, 15, 170, whatever he said that. That's right. Just curious if you ever wanted to mix it up or tried to mix it up with him in the ring,

but I certainly understand that. So you guys kept in touch, and I know that you both are competing in different sports, but from afar, is it fair to say that you, you know, you kind of gained some confidence, inspiration from what he was doing in MMA as you're beginning your career to see what a fellow Irishman is doing. Did that inspire you? 100%. You know, I look at Conner's mental, mental capacity and mental ability,

and how he kind of focuses in on his opponents and in the States, and how he handles himself. And, you know, I took a lot of ways. I took a look at his self-confidence and told him, myself, I should be as confident as that myself. So, you know, as a fellow Irishman, he's from the same country as me. I want to be like him. If he's from my country, I'm able to do it.

So, you know, that's one thing I definitely took away. And, you know, someone here I've been looking up to you for the last, load of years is Connor McGregor. Last summer, you were in the Summer Olympic Games in Rio, and of course there was a famous moment where you thought that you were essentially robbed by the judges, correct? And you had this interview on Irish national television,

I believe, where you went on this rant about the Olympic judges, right? Did he ever say anything to you about that, about that experience? Did he reach out to you? Did he try to lift your spirits after that? Because anyone who is just a marginal sports fan saw, I think, that moment. Yeah, he reached out and he says, listen, fuck them.

You know, sorry, excuse my language, but he says, he says what he says, and he says, this is what happens in sport, and, you know, you know what you want, everybody else who watched, know you want, keep your head up, you're going to be a world champion. And, you know, I can be some good advice. And, you know, I took it, you know, coming from a guy like him, you know, you can be nothing but thankful. Do you still believe that you were screwed? 100 million percent. anything come as a result of that?

Did you file an investigation or some sort of appeal? Yeah, well, every single judge who judged at the Olympic Games, they got suspended, and now they have been expelled, so, you know, they're not the judge no more. Aiba tried to fine me because I came to set up to them. They tried to fame me $10,000 or something, and I just said, listen, I'm not paying no fan. I don't want nothing to do your organization, so see you later. Wow. And what about the best?

Did they find you for that? They were claiming that you were placing bets? Yeah, I was placing bats. I'll be honest, I was placing bets, but I was erred of competition. I had lost, and, you know, I wasn't cheating or anything. I was betting on faith, and, you know, it was, it's, apparently, you know, it's, apparently, you know, it's, I didn't know. But, you know, that was my mistake. They didn't fame me enough, and they just gave me a warning.

Okay, so no fine, no punishment there? No. Okay, after that incident, is that when you decided, all right, I'm going to go. pro it's time to go pro now? I was going to pro no matter what, but that kind of just made the decision a whole lot easier. If I had won the medal and one goal, you know, I would have been on a lot of money from my national government body and I could have stayed amateur and had the kind of the easy route,

you know, without having to even go through the hard stuff. You know, we just done it easy and got paid a lot of money. How did you come to the decision of signing with TopRank? From what I understand, even Mayweather Promotions was interested in signing you. Why did you go with Top Rank? Yeah, I looked at everybody who had the offer to say, well, and there was a lot of people, and a lot of money being thrown around. But I looked at the best deal.

I looked at the team who does the best taking Olympians from the Olympics and then turn them into World Challenge and Superstars. And, you know, Top Rank have done a time-and-time game, so, you know, I know him with the best team. Did Connor try to sign you? He has his McGregor promotions. Did he talk to you about that at all? You know what? Before he even had the McGregor promotions up, he talked to me, he sent me a message on Twitter, he was saying about he's going to be starting to promote Fates and getting big shows and stuff. And I was like, okay, but there was nothing on the table there.

There was no McGregor promotions, but he was talking about that back in 2015 after it won the World Championships. Wow. That's how long ago that goes back. Wow, that is amazing. Okay, so then you decide to go with Top Rang. You have your debut set for St. Patrick's, St. Patrick's. day, and then you get Connor, who's a very busy man, he's all over the world, you get him to walk you out. How did that come to pass?

You know, we were both doing an event in Belfast, and I asked him in front of the room, everybody on the stage. I had one or two pens in me, and I said to address him, Connor, how would you feel about walking me out in a professional debut? They just stood up and, like, says, you got it, no, 100% I want to do that. So, you know, when he said that, you know, he stuck his wife. word. I was completely honored. Okay, so it's one thing to ask him while you've had a few pints, but to actually, you know, get it done, to actually come to fruition, how did you get that done? Like, how difficult was it to actually get him to fly out to New York to just to walk you out?

It wasn't difficult at all. You know, he says he would do it and he done it. He stuck to his word. You know, I'm a fellow Irishman or proud of Irishman, and so was he. And, you know, I think it was as much of an honor to walk for him. walk in front of a boxing audience for the first time. On the Padre's Day with like 5,000 Irish people with me as me in advance of my group day. You know, I think it was great for our country and great for us together. I remember talking about that moment.

It was a great moment. And some people felt like you would be upset because he stole some of the attention before and after, especially that moment with the boxing media when he went up to them and said that I'm going to shock the world and things like that. Did you ever feel like you were being overshadowed by Connor? No, I did not. No, I didn't. You know, listen, even in the ring, people were saying, like, Connor over here, over here, and he says, no, it's his moment, let him off it. And he did he let me out of my moment. Obviously, he has stuff he has to do himself, promote himself, and he can do it. It doesn't bother me. I did not feel overshadowed at all. You know, I was, I was just so happy with how the event went, so happy with the walk-out and so happy with how to say it went. And, you know, that was it. It was, there was no anything against them. I was really happy. that he came and done it and if I would do it again tomorrow I'd want him there tomorrow

Did he say anything to you before the fight to get you motivated to talk about the moment anything like that Were there any words of advice shared? Yeah, he was always just telling me to be calm, be calm and the chaos

and just control yourself live for the sit make it like it's sparring think of a sparring session and just go in there with that kind of mentality don't worry about anything like use the crowd to your vandis and stuff

And, you know, it was all very good stuff at that point because I was listening to a guy who's been there and done it in a very short piece of time. And he's been in front of probably the biggest MMA crowds there's ever been. So, you know, it was great evasive from him. I can't imagine having him in your corner. What about afterwards?

Did you guys go out in New York and celebrate? What did you do with him? He had his own after party set up. I had my own after party set up. So we came and went our separate ways. But he was waiting on me in the chain room, but I had a lot of media obligations, so I didn't get to see him,

but he sent me a message and stuff, and he loved it. So that kind of ignited the whole Connor Floyd thing because he went up to the boxing media. Did you think at that time that this was actually going to happen, or did you think it was just some kind of crazy media stunt? No, listen, I thought it's going to be happening for so long, because when I first got mentioned,

he kept telling me it's definitely going to happen, it's going to happen. And I was like, saying, okay, well, if a guy who he says, he's going to do something, keeps doing things, and now he's saying this is going to happen. I believe it's going to happen. So, you know, once he said to me, he said to me, I think back in, it could be in January or something,

that the fight was going to happen towards the end of year, and it did happen towards the end of the year. We'll possibly agree more or less, but, you know, I believe him as soon as he mentioned it was going to happen, he's a guy who gets what he wants. Have you been watching the buildup to this fight? Have you been entertained by it? Yeah, I've been entertained.

I think it's been fun. You know, there's no salesman. Connor McGregor, and, you know, he sold this show himself. Mayweather hasn't needed to do anything to sell the show. Connor has done everything. Yeah. What do you make of the whole situation with Pauli Malinaghi, the sparring? Do you believe that was a knockdown or a push?

Well, I watched it, and I've watched it many times now. And I do think it was a knockdown. I do. I think if it's a fake, it's called a knockdown. Even if there was a push in it, he hit him punches. and he went down. In a boxing match, that will be justified as a noctrine. So what do you think?

Do you think Polly's angling for a fight even yesterday here in Las Vegas? They had a bit of a confrontation. They were going toe to toe. Do you think that's what Polly's trying to do here? Yeah, 100%. You know, I like Polly. I've spoke to Polly many times, and I have nothing against him. But I do think that he's pushing a fight with himself.

And Connor, I've seen the incident yesterday, and, you know, it was entertaining. You know, it's kept Polly relevant. and, you know, Connor kind of just looked like he took the higher ground and became a daddy of the situation. Was there any talk, considering your relationship, considering who you are, considering your resume, of you being a part of this camp? Yeah, he asked, he said to me, well, he never said, like, you needed me or anything.

He just said, if you want to come down and join in the camp, just let me know and come down. But I had to start my own camp, so, you know, I have a fate coming up here September 22nd, which is, for me, my own career is going to be more important, so I just had to focus on myself. Okay, so this wasn't something even at the beginning that you felt would be valuable to you to be a part of?

What would be really, really, really valuable? It's just my detainments of my fate. Okay. You know, my own camp, it came at Christ. You know, to be part of the biggest sports event, I probably think in history, definitely biggest box match in history, like media attention ways,

and, you know, I'd say everything would be, numbers that are going to come up. It would have been very good to be a part of. So if you didn't have your fight, you would have been a part of it? 100 million percent. You're in Los Angeles right now, right? Yep. Is that where you train these days? Yeah, I've based himself out here in L.A., you know, I'm training with Mani Roblese and spawn world champions every single day. I think out here for boxing, you know, I think

Southern California is probably a hot day for boxing at the minute, and all the great champions are coming here, and they're getting the best sparring and the best competition. outdated in the gym and I think it's the smartest for me to be as part of my career

So Conner's team has been criticized for not bringing in any boxing trainers boxing coaches It's the corner is a cut man John Kavanaugh

Owen Roddy and Ardom Lobov What do you make of this decision Do you think that would have been smart To bring in a traditional boxing coach I think You know

For Connor Maybe not What's worked so far If it's not broke Don't fix it And I think that's kind of the attitude He's kind of went for the state. It could have been a big help.

It could have been a help or it could have been a hindrance. I'm not too sure, so I'm not really going to comment on that. Okay. And so it's interesting because in the boxing world, and I'm sure you hear this, like, what's so fascinating about this fight is everyone's mocking him. Like you hear from the Max Kellerman's of the world saying he's not going to land a punch. You see guys like David Hay and Terence Crawford making fun of his training. Everyone's mocking him. But yet in that team, they're talking about, oh, one-minute knockout.

He's talking about, you know, one round, run round. It's not going longer than that. Kavanaugh's saying maybe six if he's lucky. I've never been a part of a situation where, all right, here we have a team that is so, and you know when someone's BSing, you know when someone's saying something, but they don't believe it. This team really believes it. I have no doubt.

But then yet everyone in the boxing community is laughing at him. Don't you feel like that strange that no one's giving him a chance in the boxing community? Yeah, I think the reason they're not good enough enough chance is because not one person before has stepped in the ring and be throwing any better and, you know, I think if there's anybody else he'll probably give him more of a chance, but at the same time, I feel that when they're mocking him with his training techniques

and what he's been doing, like, he's not, he's not spinning his shadow box, he's getting warming up his arms and loosening the shoulders. I understand what he was doing. I know people probably are making fun of it, but listen, it's his method of Harry warms up his body. So I

wouldn't mock him on that, but you know, with decomfeiting it, Harry's going to how he's going to perform. Logic says the Floyd Mayweather is going to win. But it's a different animal. Connor McGregor is a different animal. He's defied logic so many games, like against Albu, against everybody who he's fought.

He became the double champ. You know, if he says something he's going to do, he usually does it. So, okay, so right now the odds are kind of getting closer, but, you know, the deck is stacked against him. Clearly, he's doing something that a lot of people don't think he can get done. If you were his coach, what's the game plan? How do you actually beat Floyd Mayweather?

How do you do it? The guy's never been knocked down, never been defeated as a pro. What, in your opinion, should be his game plan? I feel he needs to put it on Floyd early. I don't think he's trying to back Floyd. I think he should get in there or rub him up and just work his ass off and try to land that big left arm, going to clean, because he needs to land clean.

Floyd is a master of the fence, but at the same time, Connor is very sharp. been very strong and very powerful. So, you know, who knows if he cast him clean, he could get him. And it could be laid out. And, you know, I do hope so. I hope Connor goes in here and wins. I'm sure you think, or at least you hope that he's going to win.

But what do you think? What's your prediction? What's the official Michael Conlin prediction? It's a horrible. I don't even want, I don't want to even put a spot out there. Negative, which I'm just going to say, I'm going to say, I'm very good to win. I don't want to put my negative.

thought there in the area. Okay, sorry, I lost you there for a second. Could you just repeat that? My headphone went out. Could you repeat that answer? Yeah, I just says that. I don't want to step that lane and throw out some negative thoughts of that. Coming into my head, from a logical point of view, you're going to say Floyd Mayweather's going to win.

But Connor McGregor is different and he can do things that people can't do when he says he's going to do something. I think it's the mental came out. I don't know. His mental illness, he goes in an attack state, and he beats points. and he beats opponents with his brain before he does anything. So, you know, I'm not going to make any predictions. I'm just going to say I won kind of the winner.

Okay, fair enough. And do you think that this would be disastrous for boxing if Floyd loses? If he loses to a guy who's O&O, who's never competed professionally in boxing, do you think that that would be disastrous? No. No.

Not at all. Really? You don't think it hurts his legacy? I've been asked this person so many times. Yeah? Boxing continues. boxing's bigger than one person. It's a sport, and anything can happen in this sport.

You know, it's not out of the question. If you can see it and you can imagine it, it can actually happen. So, you know, I feel like if it does happen, boxing takes, well, Floyd Maybara takes a blow, his ego takes a blow. Boxing probably takes an ego blow, but I don't think it ruins boxing. I think this event itself is huge for boxing,

huge for M&A, huge for sport in general. the general fans, the general people, non-sporting fans are talking about this event. So I feel it's good for boxing and good for him in there. Fair enough. Where will you be watching it? I don't know. I may make the trip to into Vegas, I'm not too sure,

but if not, I'll watch it here. I'll watch you here on my fiance. Could you imagine if he actually pulls this off for what it would be for Ireland, right? It would be unbelievable. The world would explode. I'll be dancing around my living room, drinking paint for Guinness and doing anything, Harry.

I think that if he wins, it would be unbelievable. And I think he'll shock the world. It would be the biggest upset in sports history. Oh, my God. I agree with that as well. I would have loved to see you on the card, maybe Katie Taylor as well. It would have been nice if there was a little more. That would have been nice.

Right? I know top rank in Mayweather. By the way, did you meet Mayweather when he was in Rio? No, I didn't bother, you know. I didn't bother to meet him. Even when he was in Rio, I didn't meet him, no. he was kind of surrendered by his big entourage. Okay.

Where do you consider him? Is he the greatest of all time, in your opinion? I don't think he's the greatest of all time. I think he's the greatest of this generation. Okay. You know, I agree that he is the greatest of this generation. He's not of all time. You've got to look at faders like Sugar Ray Lanner, Muhammad Ali.

You know, it doesn't matter if you lose. I don't feel a loss and a record means anything. It's how you come back from the loss to defend you. Mm-hmm. Two last things for you. Who won? Jeff Horn or Manny Packia? That was your last fight card that you were on, right?

In Australia, who won in your opinion? I thought it was really close. You know, I didn't argue with the decision, so, you know, I'm going to say Jeff Horn won that fate just because he can outwork money a bit more. People were crying it was a robbery. I don't think it was a robbery. I think if money had to get the decision on a close decision,

I wouldn't complain. Or if Jeff had got it on a close decision, I didn't complain either. Okay, fair enough. next fight is September 22nd in Tucson, Arizona, correct? Is that all on ESPN, part of the new top-ranked deal? Yeah, that'll be on ESPN. Tremendous. Well done. Now, from what I understand, no opponent yet? Do you have an opponent? Can you break some news for us? No, no opponent yet? Come on, Michael. Come on, I wish. I knew myself. You know, what's going on? You're preparing for no opponent? Yeah, I'll know in the next few days. I think I think Cobbaring have a guy, but I don't know here it is yet. So, you know, they can put anybody in front of me

the same thing's going to happen that's what happened to the first three dare I say you're not here to take part you're here to take over 100% you know where else what is the path like how long before you're fighting for belts what are you thinking

I think between in the next two years anyway next two you said yeah next two to two and a half years I think fair enough and finally Michael what's the what's the message to Connor if he's listening what do you want to say to him?

Just go in there, believe in yourself, and do you do best, and just upset the odds and upset the apocard, and get that victory for Adam. This is great. Thank you so much for doing this, Michael. I really appreciate it. The Irish fans were very excited to hear from you, and again, congratulations on all your success, and congrats on that interview afterwards. That's kind of when you came on my radar for the first time,

and I thought it was incredibly entertaining, and I give you a lot of credit for speaking your mind, doing your thing, and sticking to your guns there, and it's been a lot of fun to watch. to rise in the last few months. Always make it a point to check out your fights, and thus far you've looked flawless. So congratulations, keep it up,

and we'll look forward to watching you on September 22nd on ESPN in Tucson, Arizona. Thank you, Ariel. All the best, too, Michael. We'll talk to you soon. There he is. All the best. Mike Conlon, Michael Conlon,

the two-time Olympian bronze medalist in the 2012 Olympic Games. How about that? Very exciting stuff. Northern Ireland's own. I know a lot of the Irish fans are big fans of his, and it was very cool back in March when he was led to the ring by one Connor McGregor. Remember afterwards, Connor went up to the boxing media.

Told them, I am boxing. Trust me. Trust me. You're all going to laugh. That was a great moment. We broke that thing down for like 20 minutes on the M.M.A. hour afterwards. That was a lot of fun. Thank you very much to Michael Conlon.

Appreciate his team for hooking us up. With him, in a matter of moments, I'm being told we're going to be joined by Al Bernstein, the veteran boxing announcer for Showtime. I hope you're enjoying this. I'm having a blast. And then after that, I think we're going to get a brief appearance from one Mark Romandie. I'm not sure if Ice Cube is going to be joining us today, but there's a lot going on. Let me see what's going on back here. got Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review Journal

in the house who got a bunch of radio guys some out of shape guys it's a who's who you got Showtime over there they're doing something I think Telemundo to our right CNN has a setup over here

Series XM I'll run down the lineup oh let me pause that thought well this is very exciting welcome in veteran sportscaster, long-time voice of Showtime boxing. Mr. Al Bernstein is here. How about this? This is so exciting.

Have a seat, Al. Welcome to my world. Very nice to see him. What a pleasure. Can you hear yourself? I can't, yes. You can or cannot? I can't. Okay, I can't hear him in my headset, so let's work on that. This is a big deal. Now I can hear you. We're live on Twitter right here. We're the exclusive home for Twitter for all things. Mayweather McGregor, and I appreciate you doing this because I know you're very busy man. let me ask you this when you first found out about this fight

and that it would air on Showtime, your first thought? You know, we had a little inkling as they were negotiating, getting ready to do it. And my first thought was that it would be something of a spectacle, and guess what? That's exactly what it is, huh? Has it exceeded your expectations

as far as the magnitude of the spectacle? Yes, I think the amount of attention that's being paid to it, the amount of energy concentrated on it is actually more than I even thought it was going to be and to be honest, even more than for Pacquiao-Mei with me. Really? You feel like this is bigger?

I do actually. Why? And I'm not, you know, for the you know, the hardcore boxing film watching and say, oh my God, he's equating it. I'm not equating it in the ring necessarily, but just the sheer amount of attention it's getting. I mean, I can quantitatively, this is maybe doesn't, not a scientific way to look at it. My phone's blowing up more than it did for Pachial Maeweather.

Okay. So that's a, you know, and I have a friend of mine who has never watched, he's not even a sports fan, has never watched, doesn't watch a Super Bowl every year. He's buying this fight. Wow. Was there ever a point where you thought, all right, you know, with the world tour and everything, this is getting to be a little uncomfortable, like it's kind of reaching, this is bad for boxing. I don't know how much, like, did you ever feel that? Well, I think it, look, I think it was so over the top, obviously.

And I think less is more with most things, right? So as we kept going with the, as they kept going with the tour, clearly there was this need to somehow ramp it up another notch. And I'm, you know, so clearly it was over the top. But I think that, you know, people kind of expected that from these two fighters, especially expected it from Connor, who is known to be, oh, how shall we say it? I'm Blaine? Yes.

Are you a fan of his? Like, did you know who he was? Did you go out of your way to watch him? Well, I watch MMA. Yes. I remember you doing Elite XC, show XE back in the day on Show showtime. Yes, I have done about six or seven U.S. or MMA shows, you know, play by play, which I enjoyed thoroughly. And so I watch MMA and I follow it.

You know, I'm not an expert like you guys, but I watch it. And so sure, I was keenly aware of them. The boxing community initially said this was a mockery. How can he go for 50 and O against a guy who? lose O and O. I mean, what if he loses things like that? Where do you fall in line as far as the matchmaking here? Yeah, I see it as a one-off. So I'm not worried about the 50 and O. I don't even consider this like, oh, if you're going for a record, you don't fight a guy that's 0-0 if the record is the idea, you know. Although it really isn't the record. That's ironic, too,

because Ricardo Lopez finished his career 56-0-1, great champion, Hall of Famer, you know, and that draw came after 49 and 0. So, you know, but I think that this is a one-off. This is a specific event that you can look at on its own and decide whether you think it merits your attention or it doesn't merit your attention and look at it that way. So I'm not, I understand why people look at and say, oh, you know, boxing's had, listen, boxing's had one of its best years in 2017.

Yes. 2013 was great. This year has been almost as good. So my feeling is this doesn't diminish boxing. It doesn't diminish MMA. It doesn't do any of that. It's a one-off event. So let's say Floyd wins.

Do you not consider him 15-0? Do you consider him 49-0? I guess he's 50-0, but to me, I don't equate that as something that merits saying, oh, my God, he broke a record. He's 15-0. No, because he's a fighting guy that has never had a professional fight. So I don't see it that way. It doesn't diminish what he did, and I'm not saying it's not an achievement.

Do you subscribe to the notion that if Floyd loses, this is disastrous for boxing? How could he lose, arguably the greatest fighter of our generation, to a guy who's O&O? Well, here's the thing. There's two things about this. I don't know if it's disastrous for boxing, though I believe that if he should lose, if McGregor's able to pull off a miracle, I do believe it's very much like when Bobby Riggs beat Margaret Court. Okay. And then Billy Jean King had to come back and win for the honor of women.

tennis. Yes. That will be exactly the way it is for this. Now, one of the caveats to this, and I'm not making an excuse, but I'm just saying, Floyd Mayweather is pound for pound, you know, the best fighter in the last couple of decades in the sport of boxing. But he is coming here off the longest layoff of his career at age 40. Yeah. So he's not an active participant in boxing as he was. Still, however, if he should lose to Cona McGregor, it would be certainly a blow in general, I think it would be one of those things.

It's like, the reason that Margaret Court analogy is perfect is nobody expected, there wasn't that big of hoopla, nobody expected Bobby Ricks to beat Margaret Court, and by all rights, he shouldn't have. But something that day made her just free as at all his annex,

and he won the match. But you don't believe, like, there has been a conscious effort, and I talked to your boss, Stephen Espinoza today about it, also Floyd earlier today, conscious effort to not show any training footage, him eating Burger King, him going out roller skating. I think they want the people to think that he's not taking this seriously. Floyd is taking this seriously, right? Oh, I think he's he's training like a madman. Yeah, I'm, listen, Floyd Mayweather is a perfectionist. And one thing you can say about Floyd Mayweather, even though, you know, he's had his moments in life where maybe

he didn't comport himself as well as everyone would like, the fact of the matter is he has been, he's meticulous about the way he prepares and what he does in boxing. So I doubt very much if he would take this lesson seriously. So to play off your analogy earlier, is Pauly Malinagi Billy Jean King? No. That's an interesting comparison now that I think about it. He comes in and saves the day. I don't know if it would be him, but whoever somebody would have to come in and save the day.

I'm done to ask you about this. Pauli is your partner. Correct. He is a cohort on the broadcast. However, he has very much been a part of this story. In fact, I think that he is doing more promotion, better promotion, than Floyd himself, as recently as yesterday. Did you see the clip yesterday? They had a little run in.

I did actually see the clip, yes. What do you make of this? Well, look, I haven't talked to Pauli since our last fight was when we did Adrian Brunner and Mikey Garcia, a very good fight. And I haven't talked to Polly at all since all of the most recent stuff began. So I don't, you know, I don't have any new interest.

Would you prefer that he didn't get so involved? I will take the Fifth Amendment on that. How's that? Let's pretend for a second that I am, that you are on the Intel Committee. Okay. And I am Donald Trump Jr. What's the line of thinking? Way to go political.

Yeah, that was good. What's the line? Why do you not want to talk about? Is it too sensitive? No, not too sensitive. It's just been, you know, it's obviously been part of, it kind of goes hand. hand in hand with the whole this promotion because it's so unorthodox right it's very rare that somebody that's going to be on broadcasts with so it would spar with somebody and i think it took you know

took a couple of weird turns and i don't know all the details about it so that's a pushdown pardon was it a knockdown or a pushdown you've seen the footage i saw the video you could go either way on it i think you know but but you know clearly mcgregor had some good moments there you know whether those good moments were spent over 12 rounds and paulie made the point that uh you know he came in light and they sparred 12 rounds. Normally, I think one of the things is he probably shouldn't have sparred 12 rounds because if you're not ready, you can't. Well, he thinks he was being set up.

Yeah, well. Yeah, I don't. That it was more of a fight than a spar. You know what? I don't know the details of that, so I can't speak through. Can I ask you about this? What do you make at the Nevada Athletic Commission's decision to allow them to wear eight-ounce gloves in a 154-pound fight?

Well, the group of the ring, a group of ring physicians has criticized. Yeah, they have criticized them. for it. Part of the thing is that eight-ounce gloves, of course, are worn up to 148. And Floyd Mayweather has

worn eight-ounce gloves most of his career. And McGregor, of course, has fought with four ounce gloves. So their theory was that even though they're fighting at a very slightly higher weight, this would still be within safety bounds. I don't think it has that big an impact on the fight. I just don't. I just don't. Because, I don't know

people are saying it could help McGregor, because at least or not 10-ounce gloves, and I guess to that extent it would. But Mayweather is very comfortable with those 8-ounce gloves. What's the game plan to meet Mayweather, in your opinion? What would you tell Connor? What does he need to do? It's a little tricky because Connor McGregor, as you well know, the people that have done well against Floyd Mayweather, Marcos Maidona, Jose Luis Castillo, are boxers who are very good at an aggressive style.

I thought the first fight with Maidana, in my opinion, was a draw. Maidana did very well, getting inside, crowding him, throwing a lot of punches, working the body. That's not really who Connor McGregor is as a stand-up fighter in MMA, correct? He likes to counterpunch, he likes to standing outside. He's more of a boxer type. But he's going to be the bigger man. You know, he's fought at 154 pounds, really 155 in MMA.

Ten times, Mayweather's only fought at that at 154 twice. He's going to rehydrate and weigh 20 pounds more than Mayweather at least. he's going to need to be physical with him, but he's going to have to find a way to do it within the confines of what he does as a fighter. He can't turn himself in 14 weeks of training into Marcos Fridana or Jose Luis Castillo. So I think the way to do it is be physical when he can,

and Pat MLETTU was on a video with me, the great MMA... Absolutely legend, living legend, said he believes that when he can do it, he's got to get really physical with him. He's got to be physical with him, wear him down a little bit, and land a good straight left hand.

What's so fascinating about the fight is that his team is beyond confident. Like, I believe that they believe. So is McGregor. But everyone is mocking him. The whole boxing community says, like, you're not even going to land a punch. You're not even going to hang in there. It's that dichotomy. Like, when Peter McNally fought Tyson, he said, I'm going to knock him out.

No one really believed that he was going to knock him out. But they really believe. Like, they truly think they're going to shock the world. Yes. It's a fascinating thing. It is really intriguing. And I, and Conner McGregor's confidence is kind of a relaxed confidence. Not when he's over the top and doing his shtick.

But even today at the press conference, it's subdued, but it's actual confidence. He actually thinks that, you know, it's going to happen. And listen, if you don't get to that stage, you can't get to the next stage. So it's going to be very intriguing. Mayweather is, he says, we had a fighter meeting today with Mayweather. Oh, wow. And he said, I'm going to knock him out.

He says this fight's not going to business. He says he's going forward. Do you believe him? No, I don't believe he's going forward. But I think he believes he's going to knock him up. I think not at the beginning of the fight. Okay. Because I think he, Floyd Mayweather is kind of like the Borg on Star Trek.

I don't know if you remember that. Where they would get, you could shoot them with the rays. And at the beginning, you could kill him. But then after about five times, they adapted and you can't do anything to him. That's, he is the Borg. He cannot, after three rounds, you can't do anything to Mayweather. So I think that he's going to try and do what he's always done. Figure it out over the first three weeks.

rounds, then move on and win the fight. But I think in this fight, because I think he is convinced McGregor will be tired by around seven or eight, I think he's going to become more aggressive. So you're calling for a Floyd stoppage? Well, that's what he says is going to happen. I don't make a prediction when I announce a fight. I don't like doing that. But if Mayweather, but that is certainly one of the scenarios that Mayweather believes can happen. Are you shocked at the odds? That they're so close? Yeah, I am. You know, at the beginning, but I I think the reason for that, and I'm not a gaming expert by any stretch, the reason for it is that they, when the odds first started, of course, a lot of money came in on McGregor because they were so high, and then they bet it down at the end of the day. I think smart money will come in on Mayweather closer. Closer. Closer to it.

Two last things for you, and this has been great. Thank you so much for the time. For you being a part of such an event like this, the next couple of days, what's it like? It's a zoo. It's a zoo. You get nervous? Today week, no, not really because, not for this. Okay. I mean, I do a lot of musical performing. That I get nervous for it. Okay.

But I think that, you know, for us, we're now into the part of the week where it's just very intense preparation. We have, when I leave you here, we've got two production meetings, one for the way-in show and one for our regular show. And tomorrow we'll interview all the undercard fighters. Okay. We'll get back. We'll have another production meeting. Then we'll do all our preparation. know, finalizing all our notes and everything.

So this last time before a big fight like this, I kind of get sequestered. So a lot of times when I'm doing a broadcast, I don't feel all this as much as if I were just covering it or were there. So this early part, and that's another thing. Normally, I'm not even a part of this part. I mean, I'll do 8 million radio on TV shows, but mostly by phone or go like I went to L.A. and did it last week. I don't feel this part of it so much.

I'm feeling it for this fight because here we are on Wednesday. And the energy is already pretty big. That's amazing. Did you meet with Connor yet? We haven't. I don't know that we're going to. Why? I don't know.

He's not a big fan of showtime. Pardon? He's not a big fan of showtime. I don't think he is, I feel bad because I would have loved to talk to him. And I have absolutely nothing in any way, shape, or form against him. So I'm, and let me say this. I'm going to say this to all my MMA can. Please, please.

At Showtime, when we do a boxing broadcast, and I hope mostly the MMA fans understand this if they've seen our show. And I'm not saying this because I'm giving some kind of performer speech. We do not pay favorites, and we call fights the way they're supposed to be called. And that's the way this one will be called. So there is no, no matter what, even if there's animosity flowing somewhere, that means nothing to me. Appreciate that.

And let me say, from Pauley's standpoint, you know, he had issues with Adrian Bruner. when they fought he's done several Adrian Brunner fights since then and I think been very fair but I can only speak for me and I can only speak for the way Showtime does boxing we do not look at a fight

from one vantage point I appreciate that favorite fight you ever called Jose Luis Castillo and Diego Corrales and a close second was Marvin Hagler and Tommy Hurons which I did when I was 10 years old yeah that's right favorite fight my nose growing favorite fight Castillo and Corrales.

Favorite fighter? Sugar Ray Robinson from way, way, way back. When I was a youngster, I watched him. Favorite non-boxing event you ever called? Oh, okay. I announced, let's see. I did a lot of college basketball for ESPN during that period. And I'm trying to think of a specific game.

I can't think of a specific one. College basketball you like. I enjoyed doing it a lot. Bucket list event that you'd like to call before it's all said and done. one event that you'd say, you know what, I'd love to be there. I would like to be a part of the broadcast of the Kentucky Derby. I think that would be a wild. I've never even been to the Kentucky Derby.

You're being a horse racing fan? Well, and I'm a horseman. I ride horses. You know, I've been involved with horses on my life. And so I love that, but I've never been to the Kentucky Derby. Do you have, cloud? Can you arrange that? No.

No, just in the MMA world, and it's very minimal. Even in the MMA world, you can't get to me. But I did, by the way, I really. enjoyed doing the MMA shows I did. I love I remember you back in the HAD. I worked with Stephen Quadroft, the fight professor. Let's get you back. I did one with Phil Barone It was fun. That's right. He was here just a couple

minutes ago sitting in your seat. I got to find him. He feels a good man. So I love I have great respect for mixed March Lards. One thing that I've always appreciated about you as an MMA fan, but also as a big boxing fan, you aren't one of these boxing guys who try to disparage MMA and say that there's only room for one. You've always given

a lot of compliments. Plenty room in the combat sports tent for both and there are many more crossover fans than I think people assume there are and some people are not going to listen I wrote this in my book I said I'm not here to make I wrote a whole chapter about mixed March stars I'm not here to make somebody believe

that they should like one or the other that's personally that's a personal choice but don't denigrate the other just for the sake of it but isn't this fun the two worlds coming together I think it's intriguing you know once in a lifetime Some people distressed.

But you know what? Right. It's a one-off event that is kind of fascinating. And the only reason we're here is because these two larger-than-life personalities are able to make it happen. And what I say is there's a lot of things that you could be upset about in this world today. This is not one of them. Let your hair down. That's a very good comment because there are plenty other things in life that are difficult.

What an honor this is. Thank you so much, Al. Best of luck to you on Saturday. I appreciate the time. There he is. Al Bernstein of Showtime Sports. He'll be on the call alongside More Rinaloa and Polly Malinagi as he heads off there. That was a lot of fun.

You know me. I love the broadcasters. I'm a big mark for the broadcasters. They do a great job and have been watching and appreciating his work for quite some time. That was awesome. Great to have Al Bernstein on the set and wish him the very best on Saturday. All right, this has been great, but we continue to go. How about this?

The biggest guest of them all. The biggest guest of the mall is coming here. We had Malki, we had Michael Conlin, we had the shooters. But now we've got Mr. Mark Romandie. Wow, my partner in crime sitting here. Five foot 11 inches tall of manpower sitting down. What an entrance. Taking his time.

What's wrong with you? You never put on some headphones? Oh, hey. There he is. There he is. You know, one thing that we've been doing on the show, like we're so close to each other, let's space it out of it there. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, let's space it out. There's another third chair over here. Yeah, maybe we get rid of that chair. Mark, this has been fun. Yeah. We've talked to a lot of people today, but I think I'm most excited to talk to you. I'm going to keep my shirt on. Is that okay?

Did you see that? That was great. How could I not? Mark, I don't know if you know this, but we're live on Twitter right here. See that? Yeah, scooch over. Mark, look how much space you got over there. Scooch, scooch.

This is great. Was Bernstein that close to you? Yeah, he was close, but I think he really liked me. It's possible. I'm just looking around and see if there's any bigger guests that we can get I'm just kidding, Mark. Come on, lighten up. Bigger in terms of height?

No, in terms of stature. So Ice Cube not coming, right, Adam? What? The audacity. Where's Kenyon Martin left? We got plenty more to come. Let me run down for everyone. What's to come the next couple days?

This is good that you're here because tomorrow at 1 p.m. Eastern time, Mark Romandie, Luke Thomas, and Chuck Minn and all, the man of the hat, and myself, of course. We'll be doing the M.A. Beat. Live from this very set, we have another backdrop, so it won't say the M.A. I'll say the M.A. Beat. And then we're back in prime time at 6. It's p.m. Eastern until around 8 p.m. Eastern, doing another show of the M.A.R. Then back on Friday, 1 p.m. Eastern for the last on-the-road episode of the M.A. hour.

So how has your day gone, Mark? We talked yesterday about day one. How has day two gone? Well, John Jones didn't test positive for anything today, as far as we know. Yes. Although if I checked my phone, that, I'd change. Don't joke about that. That was a good interview with, Malcolm earlier. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's just a crazy story.

I was saying the exact same thing that he was saying about... Put the mic a little closer. There you go. About the drug tests early in July, Jones passed those, I think it was July 6th and 7th, passed those tests. And then three weeks later, the drug test that he knew was coming.

I mean, the fight night test, the Incompetition test is a given. That always happens. So you know you're going to get tested that day. Yeah. And that's the one that he failed. It's a strange thing. It's really a strange thing.

Yeah. Again, I saw my friend the Jedi Goodman saying to me, Like, you get what I'm saying. I'm saying, don't break the guy over the polls. Let's just see. You know, let's just see. And they seem confident. You heard it in his voice and you expect nothing less.

So let's just see. Now, let's talk about Mayweather McGregor. Today we had day two. Let's recap, because we did recap day one. Let's recap day two. Today was a pretty subdued day. I mean, we had the press conference. You and I went to, we went to L.A., we went to Brooklyn.

We went to Toronto. So, you know, we've essentially been on every step of this journey. And today was the one that sort of lacked the most amount of energy, maybe because there weren't any fans in attendance. What did you make of the press conference? Yeah, for sure. There wasn't a lot of energy in the room. It's a big theater.

If any UFC fans have come out to fights in Las Vegas, they do, they use that theater for some of the bigger fights. Like, for instance, the John John Donovan made last year before UFC 200. That's right. That was in that same room. but fans were there but exactly fans were there

it seats probably a thousand plus fans it's a really big theater so to have that theater and then not allow fans in have it just be media and the media is not clapping the media is not cheering

when Connor McGregor says something you know audacious they're just taking it in so I think I think that especially Connor because he's used to it with UFC press conferences

he feeds off that crowd if the crowd is on his side and even if it's not, he feeds off it and he uses that to fuel him. And it was just the energy was dead. It was very much a formal press conference just for the press. No back and forth. Nothing. No fireworks.

I'll tell you what my favorite part was. Two favorite parts. Part number one, the face off. And in particular when they squared off to the press, because Connor said this is Bruce Lee shit right here. And he did the pose. And I feel like, again, 50 years from now when they're writing books about this, especially if Connor pulls off the upset.

that to me, that pose right there signified what this fight is all about. This is martial arts versus traditional boxing. Floyd had the traditional stance. Connor went Bruce Lee's style. And that was the cover of the book, in my opinion. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. And Connor gets that.

He does. I mean, he said he's watched Ali versus Inoki multiple times. That blows my mind because that's not even a hard fight to find on the internet. And also, it's just hard to watch because it's kind of dull. It is kind of dull, but he was able to kind of recite what happens almost in the on a round-by-round basis. He knew exactly what happened. He knew specific moments of the fight. So he's a student of the game and not just the MMA game, but he's a student of all the martial arts. And he's a student of promotion. And he's a student of any of the events like that.

Ollie versus Oni-Zanoki, that is, that's a mixed fight. It's kind of a special thing. And I think he feels like this is something that will, and it will go down no matter of the results as an historic fight. You know, as the biggest name in M.A. In mixed martial arts against the biggest name ever in boxing. And I would probably say McGregor is the biggest name ever in MMA, too. That's fair to say, right? Yes, of course. From a business standpoint, certainly.

Yeah, of course. So, I mean, this will, regardless of, I think, and I think people who are talking about what happens in the ring, that's important, but it's still significant. No matter what happens on Saturday night, this is still a massive fight, right? Huge fight. Yeah. I think that's an understanding.

Yeah, I mean, but I'm saying historically. Yeah, of course. Obviously, it's huge, you know, we're sitting in a, yeah. People will be talking about this. People will be talking about it regardless of years and years and what happens. Now, along those lines, my second favorite part, the money belt. The WBC president comes out and says it's the money belt that's on the line and there's 3,600 diamonds and sapphires and blah, blah, blah. What do you make of this? Is this just part, like, does this just add to the spectacle?

Is this a little too much that there's an actual belt-making? by a WBC, like they're an actual sanctioning body. I'm so glad you asked me this because just before I came up here, I was on the phone with Mauricio Suleiman from WBC. You didn't even know this. I didn't even know that. That's how we vibe. All this traveling together the last few months, man.

It's like, okay. So you got him on the phone? I did. And what did you ask him? What I really wanted to know was how much that thing cost. Okay. But he did not deliver. Alligator?

How many alligators died for that? I don't know how many alligators. Peter is not going to be used with that belt. but he did say he would not tell me exactly how much cost, but he said it was priceless. I was really trying to pull it out of him. What about why they're doing this? Like, how did he...

I was talking to someone, I won't say who it was off the record, said, this guy, WBC President Jose Luis Suomo, right? Mauricio Sotom. Always finds a way to sort of nudge his way into the story. We didn't know that WBC was a part of this. How did they get involved in this? Well, apparently they, according to him, And we don't follow back when we do.

Yeah, of course. They did belts for the Canelo fight, special belts, and the Pachial fight as well. I guess it was a gold belt for Pachial, so now they've upped it to the money belt with just diamonds and sapphires and alligator leather. This is just a completely over-the-top belt for an over-the-top fight. So, yeah, I think it's just them. It's good PR, but it probably costs a lot. I'm sure that costs a lot of money. Yeah.

But it gets them right there on stage, and he gets to stand there with that ridiculous-looking belt and gets PR for it. So it didn't bother you? Doesn't bother you that it's a part of it? Bother me? What are we talking about here? This is a, it's a crazy fight. It's a different type of fight.

I think any kind of weird, different, unique stuff is good. And I think that fits along with it. It's being guarded, by the way, in a vault somewhere. He wouldn't see, he said, I asked them where? I'm like, where is this being guarded? Where is this being secured until fight night? I love it. And he said, yes.

If I told you, I'd have to disappear you. Oh my gosh. That's verbatim. Wow. How about that? Yeah. I'm still here, so I didn't find out the answer to that. Biggest event you've ever covered in your career,

because you've covered non-combat sports, worked for the New York Post, etc. What was the biggest event prior to this that you ever covered? Oh, man, that's tough. I've covered NCAA tournaments like Elite 8. That's pretty big. I've covered some NFL playoff games deep in the NFL, NFC conference games. Nothing compared to this, though, right?

No. I have covered the world. series. Okay. I've covered the world series. Is that you heard of this in terms of media? It's very, it's very reminiscent. I've also covered the U.S. Open. This reminds me a lot of the U.S. Open where tennis or golf? Tennis. In Queens, my hometown. Yes, of course. Flusher Meadows. Yeah. There's a media center and everything in the media, everything is given to the media center. You study you just stay there all day and then you go out to the courts when the player that you're interested in covering is out there. Okay. And it's actually great because there's like

cubicles like the US Open Media Center has like cubicles like an entire room of cubicles and you and you sit down there and work and there's a TV in every cubicle and you can watch every court in the in the USTA National Tennis Center wow from that cubicle so you don't have you can just sit there all day and you can go to the media center grab some food there's really good cookies and hot dogs and they have they have coffee and alcohol they have a bar in there too did they have fresh brewed coffee like they have here they did have they did and they did and And I've been using, like I said, I've been using that coffee bar. Yes.

I have said that this has been one of the highlights of my career covering this every step. And just sort of early on us saying we had that conversation, let's just try to do as much as possible. Let's try to go to every single thing. And again, we missed one, the London one. But I must say it was physically impossible because, yes, Esther was there, but she had to miss the Brooklyn Presser. So I kind of feel like we equal out there, right? I think so. but she was technically

broke the thing, she had to leave before the whole thing really went off on stage. But I do think that we get an A for effort. We did the best we could. We could have done a private jet though. Yeah, could have. We looked into it for a second in Toronto. We did, we thought about it, but let's be honest.

It was a little. How much was it again? $37,000, something like that. I think Fox would have done it. I don't know. Jim Bankoff, are you watching right now? Here's my point. I have loved it.

I have really enjoyed covering such a big event and not having to go to the Olympics to do it. Like, there's Connor. Like, it's our world. I thought he was actually over there. No, no, that would be fun. I would have kicked you off the stage so fast. But it has been a lot of fun just covering this

every step of the way and it's been great. So tomorrow there's... Good company too, I right? It's been a bit of pleasure hanging out with you guys, and Esther and Casey. It's so nice. This whole summer. As we wrap this up,

I want to look at the schedule for tomorrow as far as the media stuff. And you could throw a couple questions our way and I'll try to tackle those before we say goodbye here in a couple of minutes. This is the schedule for tomorrow. So we're approaching day three as we say goodbye to day two. We're prime time now back home. Prime time.

This is prime time. This is great stuff doing this on Twitter. Again, thank you so much to Twitter for this opportunity. Thursday, August 24th. So there's going to be a pay-per-view in Fox prelim undercard final press conference. That's at 12 o'clock. And that's pretty much it as far as media stuff is concerned. Although there is a UFC 215 and 216 media day later in the afternoon.

I think that's a very smart thing by the UFC to try to capitalize on the amount of media here. Oh. Can I get this too? Yes. Even better than that. Okay. There's a shuttle from here where we're sitting right now. Wow.

That goes right to that media day. Okay. I forget what time, but they're being very smart about it. They're servicing the media. They're going to send a shuttle right here and send it right to the UFC. The new campus. The new campus. The Institute.

The Institute. some people, so we have a question here from Lil Mariachi, what's the fan representation like more Mayweather fans or more McGregor fans? It's kind of hard. It's hard to judge. Not a lot of Irish fans so far. I haven't seen a lot of Irish fans, but, okay, so yesterday was the outdoor deal where we were all melting in the 99 degree heat.

And fans came out for that, but you could understand why there wasn't a huge windfall of fans for that, right? Because who wants to, I mean, even if you're a big, Connor or Floyd fan, that's a tough ass to sit in the sun for three hours in Vegas heat in August. And then today, it wasn't open to the public, right? Right. So,

we really haven't been able to gauge yet. Wayne's is always the day. And, yeah, I mean, I feel like as Conner's career has gone on in Vegas, the Irish fans have been arriving a little bit late. It's expensive. And it's a hard ass. There's not even a direct flight from Dublin to Las Vegas.

So it's a hard ass to have them out here on a Tuesday. People do have jobs. People do have jobs. They have to do, you know, their thing. But I do believe they will be here by Way-in Day on Friday. Yes, I hope so. At least by the actual live way-ins. By the way-ins, there's a question here. What do you think about Pauli Malinaji? He should not be calling the fight. He's still talking about Connor and can't stop. I think he's like a crazy ex-girlfriend. But honestly, do you think they should pull him off the broadcast as he crossed the line? No. No, no, why? Why? All right. Again, what are we talking about here? This is a different type of fight.

This is not the standard. This fight breaks all the rules, right? Yeah. It's entertainment. Yeah. And having Polly on the broadcast is part of the entertainment. Some people were tweeting at us after our reaction video yesterday saying that we're, well, I don't want to say what they were saying about how we feel about Pauli Malanagi. But we're on the internet.

This is a family show. Okay. So I would let to believe that. Yeah. I mean, I don't understand why people are so upset about this. It's become part of the promotion. You think Connregor's really upset that Paul I. Malinacci has helped him promote a fight where he's bound to make over $100 million.

No, of course not. It's all part of it. So there's no reason to be upset with Pauli and Malanaji. He's trying to get a fight. They're going to fight. He's trying to get a fight. Can't break grudge that. That guy is trying to make $50 million of his own.

Synchronic Sync 1 asks, will Bruce Buffer be a part of A-Mac? No, he will not. Jimmy Lennon Jr. We found out yesterday that Demi Lovato will be singing the American. national anthem, but what about the Irish? I don't know. That's a good question. I'd like to know. Chennavel. That'd be great. That'd be great.

It's actually a sad story. You heard. There's a report that she's living in a motel in New Jersey. I did not hear that. That's sad. Yeah, a couple weeks ago that came out. Just a couple more. I'm sorry to hear that. Me too. Who is notorious M.A.'s major sponsor? This is from Joseph Cotella. Well, he just came out with a great spot. Beats by Dre today. Do you see this? I did see that. Really well done. Very well done. His smile is another one that he had, the toothpaste company. People were giving him proud about that.

I thought it was great. I thought it was funny. Bet's safe. I thought he kind of did that with a twinkle in his eye. Like, look how silly this is. Of course. But this is awesome. No?

Joe Nam is posed in panty hose. Like, what are we? Come on. I don't recall that. Last one. Last one. Did you notice Dana was wearing a McGregor sports and entertainment? Sure.

What are your thoughts? Yes, I did. In fact, I asked him about this to a certain degree. I said, have you enjoyed just being able to, you know, root for one guy. Right. And he's promoting UFC 214. He can't root for Jones or D.C.

He has to keep a neutral. But here he can go full on promoter. He could go full on Don King. He could go full on Bob Aram, full on Delahoya. And he sort of said, yeah, it has been, but it's been different. It's been nerve-wracking. But I think this is the best kind of Dana White.

When he could just back one guy and just go full on. Hearing Dana say that he is going to knock out, Connor's going to knock out Floyd, like we don't hear him say that, make predictions. So I think this is actually rejuvenated Dana a bit. Like he's kind of filled a little bit, I don't know, lacking motivations of dude. I think this has been the best day in a way we've seen in quite some time.

I do agree because I feel like there are times in a UFC fight where he does want to say stuff like that, and he just can't because he's the promoter for both fighters. Yeah, but just having him in that sort of Chuck LaDelle role, you know, like in pride, where you could just be like, this is my guy, like Oldsport Pro Wrestling. I love it, I love it. It's easier to promote that way, honestly.

It's easier to promote for a promoter if you only, If you have one person in the big fight, it seems to you're promote. Someone wants to know how tall you are. Did you tell him? I am not 5-2. Did you say that? I did not say that.

I think it might have been Luke. I think it might have been Luke Thomas. I think that was... That was pinned on me. It was pinned on me. Unfairly. But that might have been fake news that I heard. Don't even...

That might have been hashtag fake news. I don't even like... I don't even like making that joke, right? I'm okay. I'm sorry. I apologize. Now we've... Can I get a better thing?

Now it's all gone bad. But the answer is... Five foot six. Five foot six. You heard it here first. Breaking news. That's the first time I've actually heard you say in your eyes. Five foot six.

I know. This is, it's a big week. It's a big week here. Okay, last one to end on a better note. What does McGregor do after this? When lose your draw, what do you predict he does? Pauli Malinaghi, St. Patrick's Day. Get at it.

2018. Boxing match. Madison Square Garden. Paul, he's pushing for Barclays. He's pushing, well, he is from Brooklyn, but. you gotta do that at the garden, right? You gotta do that at the garden. Yeah, for St. Patrick's Day,

because if you know anything about St. Patrick's Day in Manhattan, in New York, it's just bananas. It's just craziness. Many a night, many of St. Patrick's Day night, I spend out in New York in the old days. Tell us more. In the old days.

No, please tell us more. Maybe tomorrow. As most people who watch the show know, I like to go five, six hours, so it's kind of weird for me to be going two hours, and I feel like I want to go more. I got more in me, Mark. This is exciting.

Get excited. I'm tired. This is just day one. I need to more that coffee. Adam threw away my coffee. Adam's saying no bus. He threw away my coffee. Why?

I don't know. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what's going on over here. I've had a blast. I've had a blast. You hit my music rock. All right, let's do it. This has been so much fun.

Thanks for doing it. I appreciate it. You're back next. Tomorrow, I should say, not next week. I'm used to doing a show a week. I'm not used to this. I'm not used to this. I'm kidding.

I'm kidding. I'm excited. I'm excited. I got many more hours left in me. So again, MMA beat, 1 p.m. Eastern time, MMA hour, 6 p.m. Eastern time. There's Mark. Look how happy you look. That is just great.

That is just great. This has been a blast. I appreciate everyone who's tuned in. I appreciate all our guests that we've had today. Malki Kawa, thank you so much for the time. Philip Baroni and Stefan Bonner, I thought that we were going to get kicked off the air. I thought that this was it. I thought that we were done.

What is the terms of service for Twitter? I don't know. I think they might have broken every single one. Thank God. Thank God we got him out when we did. Thank you very much to Michael Conlin, and thank you very much to Al Bernstein tomorrow. It's another slate of guests.

We'll announce those on our respective Twitter feeds. Again, thank you very much to Twitter for the platform. Hope you've enjoyed the show. And thank you very much to our crew, both here in Las Vegas and back home in New York, Scott, Rob, Page, and, of course, my main man, Adam. Thank you very much to Mark Romney over here and everyone back home for sending in your questions and comments.

We're only two days in, my friends. We got plenty more to come. Way more to talk about. Way more to break down. More questions to be asked. More time to spend with all of you. MMAfighting.com. Look at all these other shows.

They're not going two hours straight. They're not streaming to the world like all of you. This is the only place where you can watch exclusive coverage of Maywey and McGregor leading up to the fight. Then after the fight, we've, I think, have come to establish ourselves as one of the leaders. We're doing that again once again, right? 100% Yes, I'm getting excited here You are so

psyched right now Even Casey's here This is incredible This is incredible It's something Yes, it is something All right once again MMA beat tomorrow

At 1 p.m. Eastern time With Man in the Hat Luke Thomas, Mark Ramundi and I Back here on MMAfighting.com And then it's 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. eastern Right here. Another episode of the M.A. hour Back on Thursday

Same in time and place I'll see you there. I'm out of here.