MMA Fighting - The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani - Episode 354

Episode Date: October 31, 2016

NewYorkRic steps in as host to speak to John Pollock (00:04:54), Devon Sawa (00:33:29), Marc Raimondi (00:55:10), and Ariel Helwani (01:15:32), and then answer your questions (01:44:17). Plus, we give you the chance to win a ticket to attend UFC 205 in New York City with NewYorkRic (01:30:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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You may be wondering, who is that beautiful man that has replaced Ariel Hawani? It is I, New York Rick, the one from the back, now in the passenger... I'm sorry, now in the driver's seat, formerly the passenger seat. I am here in my Halloween get-up, let me know how it goes. Give me some feedback on Twitter. I think I've pulled it off nicely. The crisp Ariel Hawani shirt, the Montreal Airwani shirt, the Montreal Expo's hat, not a slight tribute to the great Ariel Hawani, who will not be hosting today. I am in

the host's chair, brand new chair. Some of you may notice that at the end of the show we have a squeaky chair. This one is brand new. They brought it in just for me. Ariel doesn't get that kind of treatment. That's what happens when I step in. So we've got a great show for you today, or I've got a great show for you today. This was all done by me, and I think I deserve a lot of credit for that. Now that Ariel is handed over the reins, today's show is going to be a little bit different. We're going to hear from John Pollack of the Fight Network. He's going to talk to us about everything going on in Canada. UFC 206, George St. Pierre, and a little bit of wrestling. I know some fans are going to tune out at that point. Guess what? You should stick around because it's

going to be interesting. Helen Asell, we'll be talking about that with John Pollock. Followed by actor, heartthrob, MMA shitster, betting pool, enemy. Devonsawa is going to be on the show, followed by the one and only fellow New Yorker, very near and dear to my heart, Mark Ray Mundy. Wouldn't have been a show without him. I'm glad to have made him, you know, a part of it. And then we may have some surprise guess. Who knows who's going to stop by?

Anybody could stop by. Alex from the back could stop by. Miles in the back could stop by. who knows what's going to happen, but I know there is one thing that's going to happen. And some of you, this is why you're tuning in, we are going to be giving away later in the show a ticket to join me. You're going to be my personal guest. I'm going to be bringing you to UFC 205 on behalf of a very special group, a very special sponsor later in the show. So stick around for those details. We'll be giving that out later. Now, some of you who are tuning in

for the first time or for, you know, or who are regular viewers of the show, maybe wondering, why is Ariel not here? Well, there's good news, which is that Ariel had a beautiful baby girl. Ariel and his wife had a beautiful baby girl. To add to the family, he had two boys already. So everybody, please wish him congratulations on that. We couldn't be happier for him here. I personally couldn't be happier for him.

And not only because I get to sit in this host chair, but also because he deserves it. and they're a wonderful family. And therefore, I got to step into this position. Let's talk, I want to go all the way back to the beginning, how I got here, just so that everybody's kind of caught up to speed. Nearly five years ago, it feels like a lifetime now, I sent one email to Ariel Hawani asking him if I could work on his show. And I believe that he's actually embarrassingly read this email on air.

I asked him, could I work on your show? you do it in New York. I'm a huge fan. I'll do anything. I'll get you coffee. I'll polish your journalist of the year trophies. I'll do whatever it takes. At the time, the show happened to, this very show happened to be transitioning from AOL to Vox to SP Nation. And they were in need of somebody. Ariel called me out and, you know, put my name forward because at the time, the show needed somebody who also knew about MMA. Now, some of you may be saying, he doesn't know anything about MMA. Hopefully that's not the case. I like to think that I follow it pretty closely.

So Ariel and Vox gave me a shot. And five years later, you know, we've gone the ups and downs. I've been the intern in the back. I've been the guy just reading the questions. Got my own camera. Now we've raised it. And I'm now sitting in the host chair. The first and only person to ever do that outside of Ariel Hawani.

I'm truly and completely honored to have been chosen for this. There's no other way to say it. It's been a long journey, but I am so grateful for the opportunity for Mario to be the only one to have ever hosted a show outside of him. So with that said, why don't we, you know, I'll lose the cap because the man bun is in full effect. And that's what the people have come to see. And we will go to our first guest via Skype. We're going to bring in the fight network to John Pollock. as I said at the top of the show, lots to discuss in Canada, but we're also going to talk about

Helen Asell, which I watched up until the very end. I don't know what the thinking was there. I had to step away, so maybe John can fill me in on the ending, get some spoilers out. John, there you are via Skype. How are you today? New York, Rick. I mean, what a sight this is. It's finally. Posting the M.MA hour. Actually, let's start there, rather than jumping straight into the MMS. M.A. Every year, Ariel Halwani comes on your show, the MMA report, and you do a predictions segment right at the end where he prognosticates on the upcoming year. He talks about, you know,

this person's going to win this title, how many people are going to be in this weight class, etc., etc. One of the things that you've been asking all along, very beginning, when there were no New York Rick fans out there, and, you know, hopefully there are some now, when there were no New York Rick fans out there was one day New York Rick would step into the hosting chair. And now Ariel has always flatly said no about this, but you've continued to ask the question. Do you feel that you've influenced him? Do you feel that you are the reason I am here today? Oh, without a doubt. I definitely take a lion's share of the credit for this actualization of New York Rick and the host chair. I started doing that game New Year's 2013 with a game called Likely Unlakely.

Every year I threw it out to one Mr. Ariel Hawani of Eric, New York, Rick, hosting the MMA hour and without fail, unlikely. Unlikely, unlikely. Well, this year, it became likely, New York, Rick. So I'm very happy to see that Ariel, much like sometimes change, it just takes a lot of time to shift the focus, to take that big step. And today represents that step for one. Ariel Hawani, as he steps aside and allows you to come in. Well, I thank you for that, and I do think a lot of the credit does go to you, planting that seed long ago. Let's talk about, actually, do you recall if Ariel said unlikely for this year?

I would have to go back and check. I definitely don't think he said like it was brought up on this past years. I'll be honest there. I feel like the last couple of years he's been waffling a little bit. He's kind of seen this coming and thought to maybe hedge his bets a little bit. as the slow player that he is. Yeah, I'm going to construct quite the game for 2017. There we go.

This 2016, I mean, the world has changed. It's a banner year. Okay, let's talk UFC. UFC 206. Last week, the UFC announced Max Holloway and Anthony Pettis. Fantastic fight for that card. Do you feel that that's enough to make this card a big seller as far as tickets, as far as pay-per-view as far as paper-views go in Canada, is this going to be an event that, you know,

was worth the wait? Is this Toronto event going to be as built? Yeah, I think there's definitely a difference between a great fight card and a very commercially successful card. And this fight to me, how could you possibly complain about this fight between Anthony Pettus and Max Holloway? But do I feel it's going to make any difference in the paper views with the Livegate, no, I don't. I think that this card is largely being bought and sold based on the main event. And I think everyone knows what the ceiling is for a rematch with Daniel Cormier and Anthony Johnson. And if you just look at this card on paper, there are a lot of entertaining fights on this,

Cub Swanson, Doho Choi. I think the main event, the fact that this rematch is happening now, I think there's a lot of interesting questions. But there is no possible way to compare this to the events that precede it with 205 and that will be happening a few weeks later with 207. The expectation was thrown out there with George St. Pierre. The average fan has heard, hey, George wants to be on this card. He's not on this card. And this card, it either has George or it doesn't.

And it's a mountain of difference between the numbers that this event's going to generate with him or without him. Is it almost too late to add George? Or would this be worth it at this point? Would they be able to drum up enough support in the final month coming into it? if they were to add George St. NPR right now. I would say, you know, the odds of George getting onto this card, you never discount that 11th hour deal being struck, but I almost feel that we are, the horse has left at this point. It's the tickets have been put on sale.

The promotion has started. And to fully maximize George St. Pierre's return, I know Luke Thomas brought up this point last week on the MMA beat, is that you want to fully maximize a George St. Pierre return. And I don't know if you can do that between now and December the 10th when you've already begun the promotion. It's not just this one-day thing. It's a multiple-week promotion to build something like that up. And I would almost hold off on George now until 2017 when you can present him properly and maximize that return and just take Toronto for what it is. It's going to be a card that will probably do in the neighborhood of 325,000 buys as is.

And you're intrigued, as you said, by the matchup between Anthony Johnson and Daniel Cormier? I am. I feel that, you know, there was, the first fight was very interesting in the fact that it was, you know, a very late replacement for Daniel Cormier to take that spot. We all saw what Anthony Johnson did in the first round, and here he's had that year and a half to look back at that. and how does he prepare differently for Daniel Cormier? I feel Cormier will be favored in this fight because of the first one. But Anthony Johnson, to me, he's the most interesting light heavyweight at this point in time. Yes, there's this shadow over top of them that is John Jones. That is going to be another, I think, distraction to this card.

Is everyone questioning what is next for John Jones? But the fight itself, I'm looking forward to it. But I think that this is a title fight that would have greatly benefited from being the co-feature on a card and being support to a bigger fight, whether it be George St. Pierre or something of that magnitude, which we've kind of conditioned the audience of what to expect now. Paperviews need to be big. They need to be very special and differentiate themselves from just your Fox cards, your fight night cards. And the bar is very high with 205 and 207. That's what you're telling your audience is pay-per-view worthy now. Yeah. And let's go back to George for a second.

Let's look ahead to 2017 if they're going to be able to bring them back into the fold. Actually, do you think that the UFC will be able to mend that fence, bring George St. Pierre back for 2017? I think so. Just that there's so much money involved for both sides and they can only make that with each other. I mean, the idea of George fighting this contract to get out, if he truly wants to fight, it doesn't make any sense to do it anywhere but the UFC. He is not even the lowest UFC offer is probably. going to greatly outnumber whatever outside competing offers George would receive.

That would make sense. So for George, I think it is in his best interest that he had this meeting in Las Vegas. I think cooler heads will eventually prevail because it's just, there's so much money to be made there. The issue that I brought up is that it's not just an isolated incident. It's how all these kind of big stories with the recent cuts and everything weaves together is that if George wants to create. create this precedent where I'm leaving all this endorsement money on the table in order to come in,

I want to make this guaranteed amount to compensate me properly. Well, that raises the ceiling for your other draws, your, your Conn and McGregors, your Rondas, who are all going to say, well, if that's the guarantee George gets, well, I want this much more than George, because I've also left tons of endorsements outside with this Reebok deal. So you're not just increasing George's amount because he will pay for himself. That is no question with the added buys he's going to attract. But then you're raising the ceiling at a time when we've seen the documents that have come out, the amount of debt that they have taken on. And it is cost-cutting time and not just proliferating your expenses for your top draws. But that's necessary for the UFC to keep all of these people

happy to meet these big expectations of earnings for the next number of years. Yeah, absolutely. And we just saw Fabrice over Doom coming out, making a social media post, you know, slamming Reebok and promoting Nike and being removed from his duties because of that. He may be, you know, and other fighters may be feeling this sense of, well, why not me? Why can't I have my sponsors versus being forced to have Reebok? If we get George St. Pierre back, 2017, for the UFC, and I personally feel he's at the age where he can't afford to do the legal battles, he can't afford to shop around, it just makes perfect sense for the UFC and him to come to terms. Certainly now they're not in the best of terms, although I believe Dana White recently came out and said they are on best of terms. Their relationship's never been better. We'll take that for what that is. If George comes back in 2017, is Michael Bisping, who recently called him out, and George

accepted that challenge, is that the right opponent for George? I mean, the thing is that middleweight is so fascinating at the moment that, I mean, that's the one thing. We have all these contenders that are going to emerge. November is just like this unofficial eliminator tournament with the top 185-pound fighters that Michael Bisping is going to have no shortage of opponents at 185 pounds. However, no matter who comes out of that sweepstakes with the next title shot, it will pale in comparison to what Michael Bisping can make for a fight with George St. Pierre. So there is a selfish reason Michael Bisping would want that fight. I think there's a reason George St. Pierre would want that fight because he wants to.

come back and draw as much as possible with a viable opponent. And that's why your Nick Diaz is, I think, cut the line. It's why Michael Bisping's very attractive to George St. Pierre. So I feel that's a style of thinking. If you're against the idea of George St. Pierre and Michael Bisping, these are the fights that I think we're going to be seeing more of, where it's not going to be one versus two, and this makes sense from a sporting standpoint. It's we've got to make these gigantic earnings. And if there is a fight that 10 people are going to want to see more than the other fight, we are going that direction every single time out. And to meet these earnings, you're going to have to be doing these fights that maybe don't make logical sense sport-wise,

but certainly do revenue-wise. And that's why I think it's been interesting how it's been quiet on the CM Punk front, because there's one school of thought, 100%. He shouldn't be back in the UFC. But is there an audience that wants to see him? Yes, there is. So 2017, I think the entire matchmaking game is going to be thrown out the window, and we're going to be going towards fights that are just our revenue makers. And St. Pierre and Bisping is one of those. And we've kind of been seeing this trend.

There was a time where the UFC was viewed as, you know, the preeminent organization, and the matchmaking and the rankings were something that was held in high regard. now we've kind of seen that they're willing to do these fights. So you're saying that you think that in 2017, these one-offs, quote-unquote, you know, not somebody who's ranked in the division or whatever the highest pay-per-view earning fight is going to be, are going to be more prevalent? And we might. So if that's the case, let's assume that that's true, are the rankings irrelevant at this point?

Are belts irrelevant at this point? Have we reached the point where nobody should even care where they stand in the division? I think that they're a roadmap, but I'm a, I don't think it's anything that the matchmakers are going to marry themselves to. I think in a perfect world, you get something like you did last year with John Jones and Daniel Cormier. It was a big box office attraction, and it was number one versus number two. It was a competitive fight going in.

You could debate for either fighter, and that turned out great. But those are very few and far between, and sometimes there are fights that don't make sense. And Michael Bisping and Dan Henderson, I mean, it wasn't this blockbuster number, but they went with the story over what made the most sense from a ranking standpoint. So I don't see your matchmakers handcuffing themselves to rankings and beholden to your fans that are typically buying all of your pay-per-views regardless of what fight is put out. It is what is the person that maybe only watches one or two fights a year. How do we get them to buy three or four pay-per-views a year?

Because we need to make more money than ever with our earnings in order to kick in all of these bonuses and I know MMA junkie's done a great job, I think, reporting the documents that are out there and what these expectations are and how you're going to make that money. And the days of seeing Demetrius Johnson and Kiyoji Horaguchi

headlining a pay-per-view, I think that's the old era at this point. I don't foresee those kinds of paper views cutting it anymore. And if Demetrius Johnson is a fox fighter, so be it. I think that that's the best platform for Demetrius Johnson. Not everybody

is going to be able to carry that at the pay-per-view level. And I don't think they want to be putting out, you know, sub-200,000 buy pay-per-views at this point. You need to be shooting for as many as possible. And pay-per-view typically means stories and stars. And competitiveness is a distant third, I think, in that ranking when it comes to people that are spending that money for a particular card. With Rory McDonald, now moving over to Bellator,

George's long layoff, having not fought in quite a few years, and the expectation being built up that he was going to be on this card in Toronto, do you have to hold George for a Canadian event? Is that what you have to do, or do you have to put him in the next available pay-per-view? I feel it'll just be the next available pay-per-view and maybe a Las Vegas card, maybe it's Super Bowl weekend. I mean, the timing was so perfect for this December card. I think you could have really ended this year off with three incredible numbers to finish.

It was just so perfect for the market. You had announced this date well in advance. Everyone knew, I mean, going back to June, we knew this card would be coming to Toronto, that it just seemed so tailor-made. It was George on board, and it just couldn't be done. So you kind of have to throw that out the window. I feel at this point, the Canadian market, it is certainly not what it once was. I think this would have been the necessary shot in the arm with a big special event built around George. But they're looking instantly to where can we best maximize.

George and you can do a lot of business with George in Las Vegas and that's probably where I could foresee this happening pending that both sides can get pen to paper but it feels like there is that both want the same thing now it's just figuring out how do we cross the T's dot the eyes and make this work for both parties absolutely let's transition to some of our fans favorite subject we're going to go to the world of professional wrestling a dear a world that you're a astute. Women headlined Helen S.L. I believe this was the, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe this was the first time that women had

headlined a WW event. Yeah, the first time, yeah, that they've gone on last, yes. Do you think that there was any inspiration drawn from the UFC, which I personally think the UFC has been a bit of a flag bearer, a bit of ahead of its time in terms of putting women on a platform equivalent to men? other sports have not been as accommodating as accepting in doing that. UFC has taken Ronda Rousey, you know, for obvious reasons. I'm not trying to say that, you know, they built somebody up completely and took somebody

who would not have been headlining otherwise and put them in the headline spot. But Ronda Rousey, a clear headline star, and put her in that position multiple times because they felt that that was the appropriate way to draw fans. Do you think that the WWE had any inspiration from that, or do you think this was something completely separate, just a swell that brought them to that same place. The WWE has definitely been influenced by the success they have viewed from the outside with Ronda Rousey. I mean, that's certainly a big reason for why they have gotten behind the women to the level that

they have. And they brought them up to the main roster last summer, 2015, and it was certainly a struggle to get to where they are now. I think that this was certainly, I don't know. how Sunday night is necessarily going to be viewed. I didn't really look at it as this historical moment because the difference being to use the MMA analogy with Ronda Rousey and Liz Karmouche. I mean, they announced right away that was going to be the main event. And there were some people that were, well, why isn't Dan Henderson in the main event slot? And that's kind of a

forgotten narrative that was live at that time in 2013. But it was clear. Ronda Rousey, Liz Karmouche is the main event. They put all the shoulder programming into it, all the advertising. Those two women did so much media ahead of it. You knew that was the main event. And this, it was essentially, you didn't know until Sunday that these women were going on last. It was a question if they were going on last. And I think that a lot more could have been done to signal ahead of time that this would be the main event. MMA and pro wrestling, it's the anticipation game. That is where you create the interest. That is where you generate the interest. And then the pay-per-view is the payoff. It shouldn't be you're tuning in. And then suddenly you happen to tune

into something that is of importance when you've squandered maximizing the promotion of it and building up that sense of anticipation. So I think the WWE, they still have quite a ways to go. I think they have the right women in place that they can certainly do this. But it's definitely been a struggle. And to the UFC's point, I mean, when they were with the women, there were people that questioned, should they be headlining this pay-per-view? Should this be on Fox to just kind of wet everyone's appetite and get a free audience tuning in? They were adamant. No, they are pay-per-view. Main eventors, it was a successful pay-per-view. And they went all the way with both women and the entire division. And look at the success that they had with that. So I feel the WWE, they're on that

track, but I certainly would give the nod to the UFC in terms of how far they've gone with it and the rewards that they've reaped from it. Recently, we saw the return of Bill Goldberg. To tie this in, I actually have worked with Bill Goldberg through Glory when he was doing a little bit of promotion for us. And Bill Goldberg, very ardent moitai practitioner, trains very hard in the gym with Simon Marcus. In fact, I think on Goldberg's return, Simon Marcus was in the crowd.

He gave him some love. Canada's own, Simon Marcus. Yes. What do you make of Bill Goldberg's return? Is this the right timing? And is Brock Lesnar the right opponent? I believe famously, I've never seen this, but I believe famously they had a stinker in their final match because they were both leaving the organization. And now they're being reunited for a redo.

You want me to tie in some incredible facts here, New York, Rick? Hit me. March 14th of 2004, it was WrestleMania 20 at Madison Square Garden. Not only my good pal Waiting's birthday, but two people live that night at Madison Square Garden, John Pollock and Ariel Halwani in New York City for a match that the crowd absolutely turned on. Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg. Yeah, it was pretty awful. I mean, the crowd, everyone knew that both guys were leaving the company after this show. So it was just, let's have fun with this.

And they totally just turned on this match. And it was, yeah, it was not good. So they're going back to this. I thought the return was excellent. I don't think Bill Goldberg's return could have been handled any better. He came out for the audience in Denver, who was just, they built up the whole show around clips of him, and he came out to his old WCW theme and gave the best promo of his entire career. This was not a guy that was known for his promos, but he came out.

He cut a very heartfelt promo. His wife and child were in the front row. It was just a real genuine moment, and those are the things that, you know, It makes you really get invested in professional wrestling when you can have those real moments. So that was outstanding. Now they have to do the match, which is next month in Toronto at the Air Canada Center. So it's going to be interesting how the crowd reacts to both. I think Goldberg's return's been handled well so far.

He's going to be on Raw tonight in Hartford as well. So they do have kind of the ghosts of their past match to overcome. And at this point, it's a one-off for Bill Goldberg. He said he's coming in for this one match, and he's treating. it like it's the last match of his career. So it's the right opponent for Brock Lesnar at this point. I think a lot more can be done with Bill Goldberg beyond just this one match at the Survivor series. I think you can maximize a lot out of Goldberg for a few select matches, maybe culminating with WrestleMania next year. But thus far, it was a hit with Goldberg's return. It was a miss last

week with Brock Lesner's appearance, which was a disaster on live television. And we'll see tonight how it is with Bill and Hartford for Raw. I'm just going to get you out of here on this. Do you think they'll play up the fact that Goldberg does have some fight training, some real fight experience? I'm not sure if they've done that yet. I saw his return to the ring. I didn't see any of that mixed in.

But Brock Lesnar has always been the guy that they promoted as, here's the real fighter. He's coming in with the MMA gloves. He's wearing the four-ounce gloves. He's wearing the MMA shorts. He looks like the professional fighter. he's a champion in both sports, as they say. Are they going to play up Goldberg, or is that going to take away too much from what Brock Lesnar has kind of cultivated over these last couple of years?

No, they haven't done any of that, but they absolutely should. And just send a crew to his gym and build it up like that as if it is a fight between these two. And that Goldberg is this guy that beat Brock Lesnar in their one meeting. And here he is coming back. and he's a guy that can go toe to toe with Brock Lesnar. That's how I would promote this. I think that would be a dynamite idea to do, and they should,

and not just go off of kind of the legend of Bill Goldberg for WCW fans. I think that that's a very viable way, and they should be doing that. But none of that has aired as of yet. But there's lots of time. And I'm assuming you'll be there? I'm actually not going to be there for the Sunday night. I'm going to go to takeover the night prior in Toronto, because they're doing three straight.

at the Air Canada Center with Raw as well. So with the law on Sunday night, I will be back. One of our other co-hosts, Dan Levransky will be at the show, and then myself and Jason Agnew will be doing the radio show afterwards. There you go. I went to takeover the last two years in Brooklyn. Best money, I didn't pay for it. Best entertainment experience I've ever had.

Nobody does a live show like WWE. Now, maybe I'm spoiled. Maybe it's because the NXT takeover shows are so fantastic. but I don't want to do live sports outside of that. It was the best experience I've ever had in an arena. Yeah, I mean, the takeover shows are generally very, very well received. They've done a tremendous job, I think, of just cultivating that brand. And, yeah, the takeover shows in Brooklyn have been excellent the last two years.

John, I could not have kicked this off any other way, as we alluded to at the top of the show. you've been predicting this rise to power for quite a long time. I don't know if you were able to see on the feed before, but I was wearing the Montreal Expos Ariel Halwani hat, the plaid shirt, made famous by you many years ago, maybe 2012, 2013 as the Ariel Hawanee Halloween costume. Thank you so much for coming on. It was a pleasure, and we'll catch up with you soon.

Tell people where they can find you. Yeah, you can catch the MMA report that you were so kindly to mention. It drops every Thursday at both live audio wrestling.com and fightnetwork.com. And yes, my face is all over Fight Network. And yes, I want to let everybody know that I predict these things with New York, Rick. And I've been calling it for years. So, Ariel Hawani, never take a day off. You never know what could happen. There he is. John, thank you so much. Thank you. That was, uh, That was special to me because, you know, we were joking about it, but John has been in my corner for a long time.

Always, always been a very, like, warm personality for me to bounce off of. And he has been asking Ariel about when this day would come and the day is finally here. I'm in the host chair. If you're just joining, Ariel Hawani, just had a baby, a beautiful baby girl. And old New York, Rick, from the back over there is manning the ship and hopefully doing a, a decent job so far. So we're going to get to our next guest. But before we move along, let me tell you about our friends at ZipRecruiter.

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That's right. 100% free. go to ziprecruiter.com slash MMA. This is somebody I've known for quite a while now. I looked back through my Twitter history. Devon Saw was been a fan of this show for a long time. Always been a loyal viewer slash listener. Checks it out every week, I'd like to say.

Back in 2013, we crossed paths. I gave him some access at a glory event. He's a big, you know, combat sports fan, MMA, kickboxing, all that stuff. And ever since, he's been terrorizing me, talking a lot of trash about me because we are in an MMA betting pool together. And that type of trash talk never ceases with him.

He's a bit of a card in that regard. So I thought it'd be great to have him on. He's been begging me. Oh, please tell Ariel have me on the show. Please, please, please. I'd love nothing more in my entire life. And this is an accomplished actor. So, you know, I was, I was a little bit concerned that maybe, you know, he needed some help.

But now it's finally my opportunity to host the show. So I thought I would bring him in. And here he is via Skype. Where are we? Where is this set up? Whoa, whoa, where's Ariel? What's going on? I don't know.

This is supposed to be what happened? I don't. Who am I talking to? Who is this? I don't know. Yeah, see, you, you oversold. You should have done, you should have done the Connor McGregor, who is this guy on Jeremy Stevens. That would have been. What the fuck is that guy? What's up, man? You look good at my seat. Thank you. I'm going to get back to MMA now. Yeah, I think, it was like a pro wrestling stuff. Oh, come on. I think of, I know you're not a fan of the pro wrestling. I tried to keep it. I try to keep it. I try to keep it combat sports related. Goldberg was, you know, promoting Gloria in San Diego. He's been a big supporter, really, really into the moitai scene, been training for a very time. So I was trying to, you know, meld those two worlds together.

But is he back? Is he wrestling again? He is back. He is back in the W.W. versus Rock Lesnar. Really? Versus Rock Lesnar. There you go. See, I'll pay the nine bucks for that month. There you go. They got to promote it as a real fight. We were just talking to John about that. That's the way to go. Okay. Very good. Let's start with the beginning. did I did I encapsulate that correctly you and I we've we've been on Twitter

knowing each other since about 2012 2013 but was the first yeah I I did a TV show called Nikita and when I had to move up there I I drove there

I drove from Los Angeles to Toronto so it was the first time I kind of got into pocket this is like six seven years ago and that's the first time I discovered the MMA hour and like watched or or listened to

like four or five shows on the trip and I've been listening to it ever since. Every week I tune in and listen to what I can. I always listen to the end. I always listen to the last hour for sure or tune in for whoever I want to see. But, you know, I try to watch it all. And now, was I on the show at that point when you were doing that road trip?

You didn't have, I don't know. No, you didn't have the Rick's picks or you didn't have the ending. But it wasn't too long after when you did that, you did the P90X version of the U.S. thing. You're on that kick for like two months. You know what I mean? You're obviously off now. But you were doing that.

You were doing that. That was your gimmick. That was your first kind of thing. Yeah, that was a fun time. I am obviously off that. I need to get into shape. No, you look good. Let's transition that.

I was going to start with how your MMA fandom started. But let's actually start with, have you ever had to do anything similar to mixed martial arts or opted to do something similar to mix martial arts to prepare for a role, to get into shape, to do that type of thing. Well, I went to, I quit acting for, when I was with 24, I quit acting, went back to Vancouver, got into boxing, went over with my wife to Thailand and tried kickboxing over there, and then just got into MMA slowly, and then got back into acting, and it kind of worked out

that Nikita was a martial arts show, got into that show, did that for four or five years, and that's, I mean, that was a one-time thing. I don't think I'm, you know, I'm not the Van Dam, of movies, but it's a great way to stay in shape. And the best, the thing I like about training mixed martial arts is it makes the fights better. It makes it a lot more fun to watch the fight when you know what they're doing, especially with Jiu-Jitsu and Muntai. So, yeah, it's kind of been my journey with mixed martial arts. And somehow I just, I just started watching it.

I started watching the old pride stuff. And now I watch it religiously. I watch everything from Glory to Bellator to, you know, of course, the UFC and all the indie shows in and around town. And that's where the fandom started. You said that you started the training and then came watching the sport and consuming everything to get caught up. Yeah, I started boxing first and then kind of just started watching the old, I mean,

I'd watched the old UFCs back in the mid-90s. I used to get them on VHS, but I somehow, somewhere I fell off for a few years. And then I went back to it and I started watching the ultimate fighter seasons. And that got me into it. And then I watch the old Chuck Liddell versus Tito and Couture stuff all on tape. And just kind of caught up in it all. And then just now I'm diehard. Now I can't stop watching it.

It's scary. In your opinion, has there been a proper? Has anybody done the MMA movie in the right way? Now, let's exclude documentaries. Let's talk only, you know, fictional scripts. Has anybody done the MMA movie right? Oh, man. I think Warriors is close.

as they got, but it still got a little hokey in the middle there. You know, I don't think they have. I really don't. Of course, the documentary is Smash Machine and some of these documentaries are great. But no, I don't think it's been done properly yet. Are you going to be the way to do it? I'm too old to play a fighter. But I did read a script about a washed-up coach that was pretty good.

maybe one day I'd like to visit that you know I definitely disagree with you saying you're too old to be a fighter I mean these days you know the age of of competition has been pushed Dan Henderson damn near one the middleweight title uh just recently sure what about what about directing uh I just directed my first short wrote and directed it maybe you know who knows if there's a real market for it maybe I'd visit that I'd try the uh doing the MMA movie. The only problem is the ground game, and it doesn't translate well to the screen. You know what I mean? So it's got to be a lot of stand-up, and then it gets a little, I don't know, a little stunny.

Sure. But there's a story there somewhere. There's the climb, the independent climb and, you know, becoming pro. There's all that. It's there. It just has to be done.

I have faith that you can do it because I feel like it's going to take somebody who is very hardcore, is very passionate into the sport, but started in the acting world to bring that to light. Because I think, you know, bringing in people to advise is one thing, but somebody who's very connected to it,

I think will be what brings us to that next point. But as you said, there's so many incredible documentaries out there. MMA is definitely not underserved in that regard. And boxing as well, obviously. Compa Sports makes for good documentaries, the story of that struggle. Yeah.

It definitely highlighted well. Sure. Let's talk about movies. We're going to stick on the movie a little bit. Apropos, because it's Halloween. Now, I've told you this before. Final Destination is my favorite movie, bar none.

Number one, not favorite horror movie, not favorite, you know, suspense, thrill, whatever it is. Final Destination, Bar None, my favorite movie. Wow, man, thanks. Out of all movies, that's the one, huh? That's the one. It's not a good film, Feltz, or a Raging Bullets, Final Destination. It's Final Destination. Idle Hands all up there, but in the horror category, final destination is the one.

Okay. So in the horror films? Yeah. No, no, no. Final Destination transcends all that. Wow. Idle hands in the horror films up there. Okay.

Okay. Actually, we'll get back to idle hands, but let's talk about Final Destination. Okay. You travel, I imagine, for work, yes? Still? Yep. When you're in the airport, what are the reactions that you get? I don't think anybody's ever really put two and two together.

I've never been on a flight where someone's looked over and said, hey, hey, whoa, wait a second. I did read that script on a plane when I first, I was traveling back from Vancouver to Los Angeles to meet with them, and I read it for the first time on a plane, which is kind of interesting. But I've never been in a situation where someone's looked over at me at an airport and made a comment or made a joke or brought something up, oddly enough. Did it do anything to your thoughts on travel?

Did it alter your mindset in any way? it makes you think it was especially right after I had done it not anymore so much but it makes you think they need to do another film now I was just talking to the creator a couple weeks ago because there's so many things that I mean pexing and driving that's a

death scene that hasn't been done in Final Destination there's a lot more stuff that you know as we as we go on with time that we can put back into those movies so I love that you're I mean you're speaking to my heart as I said and not just the first one I've loved the entire franchise Yeah. It's really... The last one's great. The last one was actually my favorite, number five.

I don't know if you saw it in 3D, but it was well done in 3D. I did see it in 3D. I liked it as well, but I'm kind of a mark. I'm going to like them all anyway, so you have to discount me. And then let's talk about idle hands. I don't know if you're, if you've been watching Fox, there's a show called Scream Queens where... Yeah, I heard her doing something on that. Yes, there's a character played by John Stamos. If people aren't familiar, idle hands, replacement hand, taken over, is essentially the,

the quick summation of the concept. I got the whole idea. When I auditioned for that script, I was a huge Evil Dead 2 fan. We used to have a trampoline in the backyard. And me and my friends used to reenact the evil dead dishes and flip ourselves with our hands. And so when I went into addition to that part,

I just started throwing myself over a death in front of Fox executives. I was like 18 years old. And I just started slapping myself and throwing myself around the room. And it just kind of, that hand thing involved from evil dead too and and uh yeah how do you feel about uh john stately i imagine you haven't seen it that i just heard about it a couple weeks ago someone uh tweeted me about it and john stamos i don't know favorite it or something and and i haven't checked it out yet is it i mean is he just touch on or is he actually playing a character with a possessed hand yeah they're

they're alluding to essentially the storyline is i'm a big fan of that show uh essentially the storyline is that he's a surgeon whose hand was replaced. He lost his hand during a surgery. It was replaced by the hand of a serial killer. And it's, you know, they're alluding to certain things. He's, he's not in control of his hand. I recommend, you know, checking it out. But you were the OG of that, obviously. Okay. This is, this is what the people really need to know, and this is why I really brought you on. Let's talk about our betting pool. Let's talk about the betting pool. Oh, yeah. No, I was going to, you know, I don't usually like to look at cards this early, but your picks are usually way off.

Oh, this is completely untrue. You can't lie to the table. But here's how the betting pool started. I used to call Rick and ask him for advice on certain fights. So, you know, and I, mind you, I took it with a grain of salt. But I used to call him and ask him on advice. But then I started to notice when he joined the pool that his picks, I mean, he, you know, out of 25, 26 guys, he usually comes in around 17, 18. I'm usually at four or five.

He's getting, I mean, you've come up a couple over the last few weeks. Remind me, who's won more recently, me or you? I believe I have. Yeah, I won maybe like two months ago. I won an event. Did you? Yeah, I mean, you know, let's not get. Was it like three guys in it?

Was it one of the unmandatory events where three guys play? How did you get involved with the pool? I'm sure that's an interesting story. How did you get into it? Wow. Danny Roobes, he, I don't know how he got a hold of me. I met him in, where I meet him with Daniel Cormier in Toronto at the John Jones, the John Jones fight.

Who was he fighting? Glover? I don't remember. No. OSP? No. I can't remember. I can't remember who he was fighting.

Machita? It wasn't. No. Vitor Belfort? Yes. That's it. Yeah. He tore a bell for it.

You just made Daniel Rubinstein's life. He's going to be so happy that you name-checked him here. Okay. I don't know how he asked me to play. I can't remember how he asked me to play, but he brought it up. And then I started playing, and they were taking my money for a while. And so I felt like I needed to get some more people on it to take their money as well, kind of payback. Got you and got AJ Buckley on there.

But yeah. Lies. It's a good group of guys. It's lies, and we can prove it here today. We've, and people, you're going to want to pay attention to this. this because we're looking at UFC 205. This is obviously going to come into play later. We're giving away a ticket to UFC 205 later on the show.

So pay attention. Devin's going to give you the load now. First of all, I just watched the extended preview of 205. I don't like to look at the cards too much until they come, but this is, I mean, this has got to be on paper one of the greatest cards put together. I mean, it just is stacked. I know, you know, you hear it stacked, but it really is. I mean, even some of the pre-lim fights, the Miller-Alves fight is, I mean,

that is a great fight right there. Frankie Edgar. On the undercard. I mean, that's... It's a crazy card. So who do you have in the... Who do you have in the... Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Who do you have in the main event? This is what we're talking about. Uh-oh, you just got serious with the glass. Well, the main event, I have... It's interesting because you go either way. If he stands with McGregor, if he thinks that he can stand with him and go toe to toe, that's where he's going to go wrong. McGregor, I believe, has the best hands in M.M.A. He's incredible. The only reason

Diaz did so well against him is because he had obvious size on him. You know, and I can never bet against Diaz, but McGregor's hands are incredible. So, I mean, the wrestling, if the wrestling comes in, if he wrestles and takes McGregor down, that's the only way that it could swing the other way. But I have McGregor. Regger way in that fight. And you think it's... Because I think he's going to stand against him. And I really think...

You think McGregor's power is going to translate. That's what it is. Coming up from 155, he's still going to have that pop, and Eddie's going to get hit. It's the accuracy. It's the power. I mean, a lot of people have power, but McGregor's accuracy and not to sound like a complete nerd, but that guy floats in there. He really just kind of floats around the octagon and they just come out of nowhere, and it's

beautiful to watch. And I really think that if the fight stays on its feet, McGregor just toys with him. I really think it's going to be like this. Eddie Alvarez is a tough customer. Don't get me wrong. He really is. And I doubted him when he first came into, you know, over from Belator.

I did a lot of the Strikeforce guys when they came over. But he has impressed and he's no shit. But I just don't see that fight going. I mean, McGregor's a star. You heard it here, people. McGregor is going to toy with Eddie Alvarez. Lock it in. If it stays on feet, if Eddie Alvarez.

If Eddie Alvarez decides to use his wrestling, you know, it could be a rough night for McGregor, but I still have him winning. What about the other title fights? Do you have any strong picks on those? I got Woodley for, you know, just because of his power. Woodley is an underdog. You know this, yeah? Woodley is the underdog in this fight, even though he's the reigning champion. I think I think Alvarez is also the underdog in his fight, and he's the champion. champion as well. It makes sense.

It makes sense on the Alvarez fight. I'm surprised with the Woodley fight that he's going to be the difference there. And if it comes to standing, he has enough power to get it done. It's going to be, I'm thinking the Woodley fight is going to be a one lucky punch and it's going to, it lights out. I think that's the way it's going to go. At this point, it's almost hard to call it lucky. I mean, Woodley's, he's been landing that punch, the knockout of cost check. But no one's, no one's landed that one punch.

You know what I mean? He's very, so he likes to move backwards. No one's landed that one, that one strike. And I think that's what Woodley's going to need to do and will do. And what about our final title fight on that card? Your J-check is no shit. Wait, actually, we have four title fights on that card? Am I underselling it?

Where's the fourth? No, that would be at three title fights. Yeah. Your J-check is no shit. That's my girl. That's my girl. I love her. I think she's incredible.

Do you see that training video where she's hitting Mets with elbows? Of course. My God. She's no shit. Is she your favorite fighter? She's one of my favorite fighters. She's up there. She's up there for sure.

I feel like you're not alone there. There's a lot of people who she's turned into fans over the last couple of years. She's proof that women's MMA is now on par with men's MMA. Her striking is tight. It's fast. I mean, she's the real deal. Yeah, absolutely. It's fun to watch.

Anything else on that card, just if you look at it quickly, anything else on that card that you're feeling particularly spicy about? Gatham, he's the sleeper. He, I feel like that guy comes around. He kicks ass and he goes away. They don't hear about the guy. He just disappears. But whenever he comes in, you know, no one knows a lot about him,

and he just, he does his thing, and then he disappears. Who else? I got Tate, I got Egger, Nir Magnavera, Roshad Evans is a tough one to pick. I don't want to pick Tim Kennedy. But Rashad Evans, you know, I don't know, sometimes he shows sometimes. He's great on, he's great on Fox. But he is great on Fox.

It's going to be a middleweight debut for him. Is that going to help him or hurt him? What do you think? I didn't. I don't know. I don't know. Rashad Evans is hard to, he's really, really, who knows? We will see.

But we will see at UFC 205. will be there. Hopefully you will be there as well. Devin, thank you so much for coming on. I'm glad I could, you know, make your dream. Wait, wait. Whoa, whoa, one last thing. Did I just give you all my picks and you, and you just, that's it? Like, you're silent?

Did I just give you all my picks? You've seen the show before and you know that this chair does not weigh in. You know that that's the case. This chair. Wow. So, uh, we're in a pool together. Not only did you give me the picks, you gave everybody the picks. Daniel Rubinstein is cleaning up

and circulating them via email. That guy never wins. Danny. All right, cool. Devin, thank you so much. Before we go,

tell the people where they can see you next. Tell us what's on the horizon. I have the movie coming out with John Travolta and Sharon Stone. Wait, who was that? John Travolta and Sharon Stone

actors. Never. Never. Yeah, they don't fight. Anyways, A movie comes out. November 18th. It's in theaters as well as on demand like you're doing nowadays.

It's about electrical linemen. It's kind of like the backdraft for electrical line working. Great little movie. It's got a lot of heart. I love it. Yeah, that's it. There it is. How about that, folks?

Devon Sawa finally. And also, Ariel Hwani, congratulations, man. And I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of your show. Wait, wait a minute. I brought you on the show. Do I get any love? You're a huge fan of the show. I like watching your bits.

Oh, God. All right. Let's cut the Skype feed. Thank you, Devin. All right, brother. Take it easy. Bye, bye, bye. That was fun.

He's been wanting to be on the show for a long time. He actually, he's been on the show one time. He appeared in the video for Ariel's 300 episode. He was one of the people that I requested, you know, weigh in. he's a good he's a good dude and a m m-ma fan as you can tell he knows what he's talking about maybe not so much in the picks you know i'm obviously the one always winning the pool and he's always in last place but he definitely follows the sport even though he's not he's not making the best picks in it but it was a pleasure to have him on and no joke final destination i mean it's it's my favorite series if you haven't seen it what are you doing it's Halloween go rent some movies final destination idle hands go do it and go see his movie on november 18th We are moving right along to a native New Yorker who, you know what, I've kind of, I've given him a little bit of crap over the last couple of months for moving to California, which he now calls home.

But I'm looking over and seeing his Halloween mask. But a native New Yorker, one of New York's sons, very much like me. And somebody I'm very proud to call a friend and a colleague here at MMA fighting. MMA fighting's Mark Raymondi joins us via Skype with Floyd Mayweather. Excuse me, Mr. Mayweather. Would you be able to fetch Mark for us? Oh, there he is. Happy Halloween, everybody.

Happy Halloween, it's you. You don't look like Ariel Hawani. Is this your, is this Ariel's costume? Is he dressed up as New York Rick? Is this better? Is that what's going on? So now your Ariel Hawani dresses New York, Rick, dressed as Ariel Hawani? I'm very confused by it.

It's the inception of MMA hour Halloweens. We've got a very strange show here today. But we do have a lot to discuss. And I know you're on a tight timeline, so let me get into it. Let's start with some of the non- We're always on a tight timeline, sir.

Yeah, I mean, busiest man in MMA, no joke, always working. All those posters in the back, he personally drew those, he went to the events, he covered it, he did the poster I recap. This is the Panda Dojo Studios. The famous Panda Dojo Studios in California.

For Esther Lynn and Casey, our videographer and photographer here at MMA fighting, also the best in the business, Mark the best at what he does. So, probably. No, come on. You're a New Yorker. You've got it. Let's talk about the non-UFC moves. Let's start with those. Just in the last week, Shane Carwin, signing with Risen.

Yeah. Halle Gracie, signing with Bellator. Kayla Harrison, signing with WSOF, but not committing to fight just yet. she's going to be on the commentary team. What do you think about all those moves? Is that a sign of, you know, the times? Is it a sign of the fact that these people that would typically have been signed by the UFC are now kind of going elsewhere?

I'm actually interested in every single one of those things you just mentioned. Probably I would put corn at the top of the list because those New Year's Eve shows in Japan have always been a real staple of MMA. I remember watching those in the middle of the night, you know, years ago when I was just a and getting really excited about it. You know, the Faders of the world, you know, pride, the whole deal. Adding Carwin to the mix of this Grand Prix, I think, makes it that much more exciting. You have Crow Cop in there, you have Benley-Silva in there.

You have Baruto, who has my favorite pre-fight videos ever with him getting, you know, the waterfall coming down. He's doing the shadow boxing. Come on. It's fantastic stuff. I'm very excited about Carwin in the mix. I'm excited for New Year's Eve. There's actually a lot of good fights on that card. Caligiri against Crone Gracie being one of them.

It's going to be fun. Moving on to Halle-Gracy and Belator, that's very interesting. I didn't know that Hollick was interested in coming back to fighting, but he actually had a really good record. I think he's 3-0 in M.A. That's correct, yeah. In the past, he fought for Dream, has a win over Sakarabha. Yeah, I'm very curious to see what he can bring to the table.

I think he's going to fight most likely in L. He's an LA guy. There's that the Tito Chale show in January in L.A. Very curious about that. Now, I would like to see in the future, Chale versus Holic. And if Chale wins, Halleck, Hale, the money that he owes him for Meta Morris. That would be very cool. I'd appreciate that.

Do you think that the, wait, before we get to that, do you think that the meta, he competed at his own event, Meta Morris, the last event, he competed against Gary Tonin. Do you think that that gave him the itch to come back to MMA? Part of me wonders if he already had that in mind and he was doing the Tonin matchup as kind of a warm-up to see how he would do, how he would look. He's actually still a pretty young guy. He's only in his early 30s. He's not, you know, he's still relatively in his athletic prime. So, yeah, I'm curious to see who they'll give him. Belator is very good at matching up guys when it comes to people who, you know, have had a long time off. They know how to kind of give the right matchups, showcase fights, so to speak, if people want to call it.

So curiously who they're going to give them the fight and curiously how he'll do. I think it's another just interesting, you know, fight for Bellator, which I think there's a lot of interesting fights coming up for them. And Harrison, she hasn't committed, you know, one way or another, whether she's going to do MMA or not. She did sign for World Series of fighting in kind of like a brand ambassador, like announcing role. She's still kind of on the fence about MMA.

She's training in MMA. I would really love to see her fight in MMA. But I think that she really makes a good point when she said, it's not really necessarily, the sport is not really about merit. I've written about this and talked about this so many times. It's really not. I think that she was actually on point when it comes to who does well in MMA as far as getting the big fights, getting money.

It's people that have big mouths and people who talk and people who draw interest from the fans. Now, I'm completely okay with that and comfortable with that, but I can understand why someone coming from that world of legitimate martial arts, of judo, of the Olympics, would not want that. Sorry. Yeah. And I was going to say, especially somebody who, she was on the show last Monday,

somebody who says that they're not much of a showboater, they don't like to be the focus of attention. They want to just come in, compete in their sport, do their business, and be the best in the world. You know, they also don't have her weight class. It's going to be a difficult thing for her to essentially, you know, jump right into the MMA fray. But I'm also hoping for it to happen. I mean, she's the most accomplished American judo player.

So I'd love to see that happen. Let's jump quickly to New York event here coming up in November. Recently, the insurance policy was made, the numbers and the figures of how much the UFC is going to have to pay for their event was made public. And it also translates to the fight night in Albany on December 9th. It's not only for this upcoming UFC 205 card. And it also applies to WSOF in December. Can you talk about the impact of the numbers? that were revealed. Was the USC prepared for that number? Or was that something they were anticipating?

Or is that something that has kind of caught them off guard? They knew about this insurance provision for sure. No one knew exactly what the number would be because this, and of course what we're talking about is New York's $1 million traumatic brain injury insurance policy that every promoter needs to take out on every single fighter, on every single card in the state. So the UFC knew that was going to happen, but no one knew how much it would cost because this is an unprecedented insurance policy. No insurance company has ever even written a policy like this until now. It was written last week. There is an insurance company selling it now in New York. And as I reported, as Brett Okamoto reported over the weekend,

it's roughly going to cost the UFC about almost $1,700 per fighter to ensure the New York UFC 205 card in Madison Square Garden. So that's about 16,000. 75 per fighter, and that is, you know, over 13 fights, 26 fighters, that's, we're looking at almost $45,000 in terms of just insurance money. Now, if you compare that to the amount of insurance that promoters have to pay in other states, it's really only about $4,000. Of course, it varies per state. California is about $4,000. So you're looking at an increase of more than, you know, 10 times the amount of what promoters are spending on insurance in other states. If you're asking me the impact is that the small shows, the regional promotions, the local promoters, just can't

afford to do it. Boxing promoters are already pulling all of their fights out of New York the rest of the year. Lou DeBella did it last week. So it could be possibly crippling for the grassroots MMA and grassroots boxing in that state because it's just too expensive. Is this going to impact WSOF's show? Were they also aware? Do you happen to know how this might impact their show? Obviously they canceled the two previous shows, which in hindsight now looks good. you're saving purses, you're saving event costs. Now you can funnel all that into New York, but they're going to also have to pay this same feed to host this show, which was already on an iffy date, you know, as a New Yorker yourself, but for those that may not know, New York on New Year's Eve is a very difficult place to navigate. It's going to be tough to get people in the building.

Now they're facing this increased insurance costs. Do you think that that shows in any jeopardy? Do you think they anticipated this? What's their outlook now? I can't imagine that they didn't know this was going to take place. And the thing that I want to get across, too, is that I wrote that story over the weekend about how the UFC has to pay X amount per fighter insurance. And people were like, oh, they can afford it.

They're going to make so much money on UFC 205. Well, yeah, they can afford to do that for UFC 205. But how about that Albany show? How about WSOF show, like you said in December? Those shows are going to be hit very hard. How much does one of these local promotions actually make per show? How much does WSOF actually make per show? It's not a huge amount of money.

I mean, we're talking about local promoters kind of living card by card and basically barely even breaking even a lot of these cards. And it will be tough for WSOF because, as you know, as a New Yorker, man, on December 31st, you want to stay as far away from that area of Manhattan as possible. No one, unless you're going to go watch the ball drop or if you're working, which I've done on New Year's Eve in Manhattan, which is not fun, you're out of there. You're getting the heck out of there at a very early hour

because people start filling up that area in Times Square where the ball drops in the morning. Like in the afternoon, like noon. They're there for hours and hours, and you can't even go to the bathroom. It's terrible. I would never do that anyway. It'll be hard.

I'm not sure what kind of attendance they'll get. There'll obviously be a lot of people in Manhattan that day, whether that translates to the foot traffic in front of Madison Square Guard, and people going in as needed, I'm not so sure about that. Sure. Let's look quickly ahead to Fight 998 coming up in Mexico City. Anything on that card that particularly stands out to you, we can talk about the main

event specifically, but is there anything that you've had your eye on on that card coming up? Oh, I love that card. That's actually, I'm very excited for that card. I think it's really a really good card. Alessa Grasso making her big UFC debut against Heather Joe. Clark. I think a lot of people, EFC fans probably don't know her yet because she fought for Invicta. Maybe if they had fight past, they checked out her fights there. But she is, I mean, for all intents and purposes, one of the best 115 pounders in the world right now. She's still incredibly young in her early 20s. I think what is she, 22, 21. She's really young. Heather Joe Clark is very good, but Grasso is someone that we could be looking at as a possible champion in the future, at least a contender for a very long period of time. I mean, Diego Sanchez returns on this card. I like that fight.

I mean, I really enjoy it. I mean, I love the main event. I mean, that's going to be so much fun to see Ferguson against Dosanjos. Ferguson is, he's must-watch viewing, in my opinion. I love to watch that guy fight. Absolutely. Sanchez facing Marcine Held, who's making his debut. Lomas and Oliveira.

It is a really, really good card. I think there'll be a lot of showcase fights there. People will come away with a good taste in their. mouth leading into UFC 205. Any possibility of this kind of being overshadowed just because we're on the verge of what might be the biggest UFC card ever? I would say normally it's possible, but because there's been this long layoff in between fight nights, I mean, it's been like four weeks. It's been, it's been so long. I can't, I don't remember the last time. Yeah, how much free time did you have? It's been a few years since they've had this big of a gap. So I think people will actually

come out for this card on Saturday in Mexico City. I think they're going to they're going to tune into FS1. It's a really good card. And I think people are, you know, it's one thing to have it every week, but to have that big gap, I think people are feeding a little bit. They need their UFC back life. It's the appetizer versus, you know, having a meal before you're going to have your meal. This time they're setting the table a little bit. I almost said not show this joke because it's in Mexico City, but that's just terrible. I never ever make a terrible joke like that. Let's talk specifically about the main event. Yes. Potentially a title opportunity, even though Rafael Dos Angeles just lost that belt.

Potentially a title opportunity. Tony Ferguson's been on a really, really long streak. Hafeo Dosangos was a champion that most people thought was going to be champion for a long time. He looked like he had the tools to kind of stay on top. Do you think if Hafeil won this fight that he would deserve a title shot? Or do you think only Tony Ferguson should come away with a title shot with victory here? That's a good question. I mean, certainly if Dos Andros can beat Ferguson, he has to be.

be right back up there, right? But I think that they have to look at first what happens between Habib Nirmig Mettadoff and Michael Johnson at UFC 205. The winner of that fight, if Dosanchos wins and Habib Nirmig Mettov wins, I think you have to give a title shot to Nirmagamatoff next, right? I mean, even though D'Ambedos has the win over Johnson, Nirmagamadoff, I think, you know, it's been a long time coming for him, even though he's had the injuries, the guy's undefeated. I think a lot of people feel like he might already be the best lightweight in the world. He can beat Michael Johnson, which is no easy task, by the way, because Johnson looked so damn good against Porriere. Fast, fast hands.

I think it's Habib's fight. RDA met the win, you know, one or two more. Interesting last week that he said he's leaving King's M.A. I was pretty shocked by that. Do you think that will impact him? That was my next question. Do you think that that will have any impact on it? It seemed like, you know, it was a cordial thing.

He was opening his own gym. But do you think that split will have any impact on, let's say this fight and then maybe in the future? It's hard to know. I don't think you can ever judge a gym change on that first fight. I think that's something you get to look at as a long-term thing. So I'm not sure if we'll see really anything. I mean, this guy that's been training at Kings for a very long time, but isn't like he's going to forget any of that stuff leading in this fight against Ferguson.

But I think it's going to be great. I think we'll see, you know, Dosanjo Su is as good as ever probably in that fight. Yeah, but, you know, at the same token, he's spending his time and his energy opening this new gym. That could be something that has occupied him a little. bit to keep him away from training. We'll let you go on this. I know you have to run. Bisbing versus GSP, is that the fight to make should GSP come back to the UFC fold? I don't know if it's the fight to make, but it seems like the fight that makes the most sense right now the way things

are positioned for UFC 206. There isn't a lot of other fights that make that makes sense that would kind of fit on that date. Obviously, they want GSP to come back in Toronto. Just makes sense to have the Canadian legend, the superstar fight there, where he once held the highest gate in UFC history. Actually, no, he still has the highest gate. It was the high attendance. It's still the highest gate. I mean, I think that it wouldn't be the fight that I would do. I still want to see GSP versus Anderson Silva personally. I haven't heard much about that. I know there was some rumors a few weeks ago about that possibly happening, but it was shot down by a few people, Dana White included. That's the fight that I would like to see personally. I mean, I think that's the fight that we wanted to see for a very long time. Would not mind,

GSP versus BISB. To me, I just hope the GSP, I hope they can come to some kind of an agreement with GSP, hope he can come, you know, get the money that he thinks he deserves

and he can come back and fight again. If that's what he wants to do. If he doesn't want to fight, then, you know, he can ride off into the sunset and still be one of the best of all time. But if he wants to come back and fight, and it seems like from everything that he says,

that's what he wants to do, hope he gets the money he deserves and I hope he gets that fight and, you know, in his home country at USC 206. Prediction, does he come back and fight? And is the opponent Bisping, Anderson,

what do you think happens? I think he will come back and fight. I do. I don't know. I mean, we're getting pretty close to USC 206, even though 205 is right around the corner. It's only a couple weeks away now. 206 is not that far away.

If GSP is going to be in that fight, if BISB is going to be in that fight, they need to start training like now. Like you need to start that training camp like almost right now. So time is ticking on a fight being put together. Now we've seen it happen before where a fight, a big fight gets into a place a month before the card. It's not completely out of the question.

but GSP is a, you know, all about preparation, right? That's the guy that really needs to have that full, structured discipline training camp. I assume that if anything is going to happen, it's going to happen, you know, this week or next. Otherwise, I probably will not. Mark, I can't thank you enough. Thank you so much for coming on this very special show,

special to me. I hope special for everybody else out there. Are you coming to New York for the event? Am I going to see you or are you fully immersed in California culture and you're never going to come back? Are you crazy? Are you crazy? Of course. How could I miss the first ever UFC card in New York? There's no way. I'm a New York guy, even though Luke Thomas wants to take a crap on me because I moved to L.A. Can't miss Madison Square Garden, man. I've covered more games at Madison Square Garden between St. John's basketball, Knicks basketball, Rangers, all kinds. I mean, college basketball. I've covered so many things at the Garden. How could I not come back and cover the UFC at the garden? Of course, I'll be there. I'll see you next week. in that studio, sir. I'll be there. Breaking news from Mark Ray Monday. He will be in studio next week. I don't know how to let me on the show, but I will be in that, I'll be in that office on,

well, I mean, it's not, it's not, I'm going to be running the show. So at that point, we'll just have you back on. Yeah, we'll have you back on. It'll be, it'll be. You get two of these? Yeah, look, this is forever now. We'll do a continuation and, uh, never going, ever going back. You may have Wally pipped, Halwani. That's it. I mean. Look, I'm giving away in just a few minutes. We're going to give away a ticket to the event to UFC 205. They're going to get to sit with me. They're going to get to share a popcorn with me.

Maybe share a soda. Definitely UFC 205, but I don't understand the sitting with you part. I don't know why anyone would want to put themselves through that. That doesn't sound like a prize to me. I'm going to get them. Absolutely. It's a hot ticket. But sitting next to New York, Rick, as I said, I'm coming to.

share popcorn, possibly share a drink depending on, you know, how, how sanitary the situation is. I'm going to give them betting picks. They're going to be able to, you know, be on their little phone and submitting their picks and making some money. I think it could turn out to be the steel of the century. They're going to get to go for free. They're going to get to be put up in a hotel. And yours truly is going to make them some money. It's going to be fantastic. Speaking of steel, how did you acquire these tickets exactly? We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that a little bit later. Let me give up the show. That went off air? All right.

No, no, no, no. We'll talk about it on the show. They were provided to us by a very, a very kind sponsor of the show. I did not, I did not acquire these by them falling off a truck. As a New Yorker, you might know that. On Canal Street, maybe. Exactly. These are not wolf tickets. These are the real deal. But thank you so much, Mark. We're going to be giving those away right now. Thank you for coming on and I know you have to run. So go continue to be the hardest working man in MMA. Thanks, man.

Thanks for having me. Thank you, Mark. There he is. Mark Raimundi. The guy never stops. I forget he told me he's on his way to some hearing or something related to MMA. The guy is in constant motion, so much so that he fled New York to California. I am completely with you, Luke, Tom.

He's had his New York status revoked permanently. I don't have the heart to tell him yet, but when he comes to New York, I'll confiscate his card, maybe confiscate his driver's license. He's going to have to get the Cali one. So now we're going, oh, wait. Alex is telling me that we're going to take a fan call before we do the ticket. So hang tight. We're going to do, we're going to talk to this fan. And then in a few minutes, you know, two or three minutes, we are going to go and give away.

A ticket to UFC 205, we've been teasing it all show. I hope you paid attention during Devin Sawa segment because it's going to involve picks of some sort. It's going to be Rick's picks and Rick's ticks. But before that, we have a caller. Hello, what's your name and where are you calling from? Well, well, well, what do we have here? What do we have here?

What is your name and where are you calling from? What a day. First off, I love the fact that we're pretending like we didn't actually plan this. at the end. It is a surreal time. The student has become the teacher for one day only, a day that has been five years in the making. Finally, New York Rick puts on his big boy pants, steps into the host chair, sits his

ass down in front of the lights. And let's be honest here. I mean, I've been listening to the show from the start at 1 o'clock, and I'll tell you the range of emotions that I've felt. But I've seen and heard all the pot shots. hardest working man, you know, unlikely. I've seen all the pot shots and I'm reminded of, look, you know, when we all, when we all say goodbye at some point, when we all take our last breath, I mean, we're,

you know, we're yesterday's news a minute later. Everyone moves on. Life moves on. And it's been fascinating watching. Everyone just sort of move on without me. But I'm here. I am watching and I will say in all honesty, you've done a fantastic job. I'm very proud

and let the record show that this offer was on the table maybe two and a half years ago and I had my second child but you said you weren't ready and you know what? You weren't ready but you are ready now and I think you've done a great show

and you've asked fantastic questions you've had fantastic guests I mean it's been a nice tight show so well done. By the way this is Ariel in case you didn't. Everybody welcome Ariel Hawani to the show there's the lower third. Ariel Hawani on the MMA hour

via phone with a lower third. I mean, it's... I couldn't even get on Skype. I mean, you couldn't even get me a Skype. Don't even start with me on the Skype. Because then your Skype's not going to connect. Then I'm going to have to call you back.

I'm going to pull the Ariel. We're going to reconnect with you. Hang on one minute. We're going to reconnect with you. Thank you, first of all. Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for all the kind words. And thank you for coming on the show.

Super weird to hear myself say that. Let's talk. It's fun. Wait, way, way, way, wait. Uh-oh. We have to actually soak this in. We have to digest it. Someone told me last week we have to unpack the moment.

That's my word of the month. Let's talk about it. When you were given the offer, first off, you know, I'm a father of three, so thank you for the congratulations. I guess I missed them there in the intro. I was going to get to that first. I mean, really. Okay. So you get the offer last week.

My beautiful baby girl, I still can't believe I am a father to a daughter. now. Three children in total, in case you're wondering. She's born early Friday morning. Quick side note. I have a lot to say. I haven't really talked to anyone, so just allow me to go on tangent here. I hope you guys aren't stressed for time. I was in the, I did the MMA beat on Thursday, and I got home. Actually, we were eating at the place next to the box media studios, Kobayaki. That's one of our favorite spots with the A team. One day you'll learn. And I get text, okay. It's looking like it's happening. So I rush home. I take an Uber and I get home, but it took a little

while. And at around 10.30, we went to the hospital and now we're in the hospital and now things are getting real hot and heavy. There's a lot of yelling. It's very stressful. All kinds of things are going on. I mean, it's really happening. And we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, but I presume since I already have two boys, most of my family, boys, everyone I know has boys. I presumed it was going to be a boy, and I was fine with that as long as it was healthy. And a minute or so before my wife gave birth, before the girl came out, I looked over my left shoulder, there was a TV on, and you know it was on the TV? I kid you not, I swear to God, I don't even know what it means, but I know it was a good sign from above. Highlights of Chris

the Apsost Porzingis were playing literally a minute or so before my daughter entered this world. I mean, if that's on an omen that something was good in the air, I don't know what. is. And then the baby comes out. Now here's the interesting thing. We're old fashion. So we didn't, you know, we didn't want to know what the sex was. But I was waiting the moment where they're like, it's a girl, it's a boy, you know, that moment you see on TV? Well, the girl comes out, the baby comes out and they don't say anything. I'm like, okay, yeah, I'm like, I felt like an attorney and and they're like, she's here, she's here. No, no, no, no. They didn't say the sex. I can't really recall. There was a lot of emotion, a lot of going on. I was like, okay, well, what is she? And then they

lifted her up and clearly I saw that she was a girl and I just I was I was shocked I was literally shocked so it's been a very fun time and then I extend you the offer but I told you about this a couple weeks ago but when you realize that this was actually happening I mean what were the range of emotions what were you feeling were you nervous wait a minute then explain to me like five minutes before the show when you're sitting in the chair the lights are on it's happening there's a countdown clock the music hits I mean what's going through your mind at this point wait a minute You were not the interviewer on this show. We're going back.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're going back. We're going to, I will address it. We're going back first. We're going back first. You've had a beautiful baby girl. You knew, you knew that it was going to be a boy, especially when they didn't say anything, right? You were thinking, here's my third boy.

I'm going to start a basketball team. It's going to be, you know, all my little boys. And what was that range of emotions when they did? I imagine they were the ones that told you? Or did you just, kind of? of figure it out on your own. I just told you the whole story. Were you not listening?

What kind of interview are you? All you said was, oh, they didn't tell me this. They didn't tell me this. Now they've told you. The moment is here. It's a little girl. Yes. Talk me through it.

I couldn't believe it. I really couldn't believe it. I really couldn't believe it. And in fact, my wife was telling me after that I was so fixated on her that I forgot to go check on my wife who was in a considerable amount of pain. She is a trooper. She's a saint. All natural, all that stuff. And she's a pretty small.

woman and for some reason we have uh i don't know a great ability to make very large babies my first son oliver was around 9.8 pounds second son walter was like 9.2 9.3 and my daughter whose name is claire by the way um was 8.12 and these are these are large babies so she was in pain but i was just so fixed i couldn't believe i had a girl um first you know for my parents and and uh and my wife's parents first granddaughter and it was just very special and yeah it's just it's very surreal so uh i just kept staring at her and uh trying to take it all in and this is like 12 30 in the morning so it was just it was just the whole thing is the moment i'll never forget absolutely and we want to welcome baby claire to the world i believe that's breaking news right this hasn't been uh said anywhere yeah yeah yeah

yeah yeah yeah uh us weekly asked me uh you know for the exclusive uh ufc dot com asking for the exclusive even UFC tonight, believe it or not, after these issues, but I had to keep it for MMAR. I mean, you know, you're not in the chair, but we're going to continue the trend of breaking news. I mean, that's, you know, the show has as a standard to uphold, so we have to continue that. Now, one more thing before we move on to my range of emotions, that highlight package of the Knicks, was that a winner or a loss that they were showing on the screen?

Well, as you know, we won. Actually, Claire's 1-0 as far as being a Knicks fan, because we won on Saturday, you know, a very dominant win over the Memphis Grizzlies. For some strange reason, it was, and I couldn't really tell what was going on. It was the Scotch Van Pelt Sports Center, so it was like the Midnight Sports Center, and it was highlights of him

playing one-on-one with Darren Ravel. You ever see this clip where he crosses him over and, like, Ravel falls backwards. I have seen him. And I just couldn't believe, like, I didn't know what the context was. Why are they talking about the Knicks and Chris Epps on a Thursday night?

I didn't really quite understand it, but it just was weird. You know, I've told you my story about meeting Chris Staps on my 33rd birthday at the JFK airport. I was there. You didn't tell me this story.

Yes, I know. Oh, yes. You took the picture. I took the picture. I took the picture. That's right. You took the picture, that's right. What a moment that was.

And now here he emerges once again in my life. I tried to make a, you know, a small play to name her Chris Staps, but shut down rather quickly. Oof. That probably did not go over. Or Carmella.

You know, Carmella would have worked. Not bad. I think you landed on a good. one with Claire, though, versus Carmela. Okay, let's talk about the show. I feel good here. It feels, it's definitely a departure. It's definitely a departure being in the share.

By the way, I don't know if you heard this at the very top, but they've replaced the chair for me. No more squeaky chair. Yeah, I heard. Completely gone. Well, we got Miles in the back there. Miles has made it his personal mission to change that chair, which I appreciate greatly.

I mean, it's been squeaking for at least four years. But Miles has come in and really reinvented that studio. He gets the chair done in a week. and of course, you know, just my luck, you're the first one to use it. How is the chair? This is no accident. It's beautiful. It's very comfortable.

But I've noticed that I have much, much worse posture than you. You sit very high. You sit very proud and tall. I have a very slumped over posture. I just don't... Well, if I'm being honest, the desk is a bit of a mess. I mean, really, I mean, you couldn't have fixed up those chotchkes in the front a little better.

They're all over the place. You know, I don't know how I feel about getting rid of my nameplate there, my black belt, but we'll address that later. you're kind of like tilted off to the side, but I mean, these are things to be expected. Overall, I'm giving you a solid C-minus. I mean, you know, I was expecting, you know, that now I'm kidding about the C-minus. No, overall, I'm giving you a solid A. I mean, this is a tough thing to do.

I don't think a lot of people realize you have a lot more appreciation for me and what I do on a weekend, weekout basis. And not only that, I mean, booking the show, I mean, you had some heavy hitters today. You had an actual Hollywood movie star. It's tough to get that. It's true. realize this. Yeah, and, you know, of course, when you're asking the questions to me, of course, it's a question related back to yourself, Ariel Hawani, if I have a greater appreciation. I do have a greater appreciation. You don't know it until you've done it, but

I'm loving it. It's a great opportunity. But I'm ready, I'm ready for Ariel to make his triumph in return and for me to get in the back there and do what I'm used to doing it. And and let the big boys yourself. I'm going to give you a little bit of shine here. I'm going to give you a little bit of wrong. Get back to it. You know, also, when someone steps in for, like, you know, a radio host or whatever, there's commercial breaks.

You can gather yourself. You've been going strong now for 80 minutes, and you never hosted anything before. No, first time. It's been great. It really has. I appreciate that. I hope everybody. You know the best part.

Sorry to interrupt you again, but I got a lot to say. It's Monday afternoon. I have nowhere to say. I'm reminded of that great. You see that new Russell Westbrook, Nike commercial, the George commercial, with that song, now I can do what I want. That's kind of how I feel.

Like, this is a great day. I'm a father of three. I have a daughter, and now I can do whatever the hell I want. I mean, I don't have to feel beholden to the show. If I can't make it, you'll just do it. It's a luxury that I never had. Yeah, it doesn't get better than that.

You've comfortably turned over the keys. I haven't crashed the car yet. Maybe I'm swerving. Maybe I'm not, you know, going the perfect way that you might be. But I haven't crashed the car. It's still intact. I'm bringing it home at midnight, like we agreed.

But what I wanted to say was, I mean, maybe you just take the rest of the year off? You let me too. Well, the truth is I was planning on taking two weeks off. But that was because I was planning on missing last week because my wife was a little bit late. Yeah. But since next week is UFC 205, I don't think. I don't think I can miss that. I got some people that want to be on the show.

We need to keep up with tradition, if you know what I'm saying. So there's a lot to do. There's a lot to talk about. But yeah, again, you know, worst case scenario, the truth of the matter is if anyone doesn't actually realize, like, my wife can't drive for two weeks. You know, that's step by law. You know, after your discharge,

they give you this whole rundown of things you can and can't do. The woman goes through a pretty traumatic experience. So I'm really here on, you know, on her schedule, helping her out as much as possible. And I went to go by a lot of things from the CVS store, diapers, things of that nature. And soon it's Halloween, which actually, you know, this kind of works out nicely because I get to take my kids. I was going to miss Halloween if I was doing the show. But now she can't go, obviously, because she can't walk. So now I get to go for Halloween.

So it's all, you know, it's funny how things work out. It's all working out for the best. But this week, I'm on, you know, Daddy Daycare, and I'm very happy. It happened, obviously, twice before. The first time, if you recall, you made that video about Ben Folks and his band being uplifted. And we missed that show, which was pretty funny. And then the second time, we missed two weeks, and we did the, you know, MMA hours on fire. So the third time, you get the host.

I feel like we do something a little special each time. Yeah, we like to, you know, not miss shows. We've kept the street going. Yeah. And I'm pretty proud of that. Let's talk quickly about these UFC tickets. Do you want to hear what the... Now, you didn't know about this.

You had no idea when I brought this to you. Do you want to stick around for that? Do you want to hear what the method of winning these tickets is? I do want to hear that. And now, you realize we've set this up previously in the show. They're going to sit with me. They're getting this incredible opportunity. Opportunity.

Host of the MMA hour, Eric Jackman, aka New York Rick, they're going to be able to sit with me at Madison Square Garden and watch UFC 205. I might be mistaken,

but I don't feel like we've ever given away tickets to... Have we given away tickets to UFC event in the history of the show? I don't think we've ever done a UFC event.

I think we've done WSOF, but I do not believe we've done... Let alone the biggest show in UFC history. It's the biggest show in UFC history. Yeah.

And well. Let's hear it. We've got Ariel Hawani, new father of Claire. Congratulations to him on that, on the phone. New York, Rick, is hosting. And now you have an opportunity to accompany me to UFC 205. This opportunity comes to you on behalf of our friends at Draft Kings. So everybody who's tuning in, you have Draft Kings to thank for this incredible chance for you to go to U.S. 205.

Rules, super easy. If you've ever been a fan of the show, you may be familiar with Rick. picks. I fancy myself a bit of an expert in terms of picking fights. We had Devin Sawan, who's in a betting pool with me. I fancy myself an expert when it comes to all things fantasy and MMA betting and all that type of stuff. It's very easy for you to win this ticket. All you have to do is you have to join our Draft Kings fantasy pool. So what we've done, the fine folks at Draft Kings, have set up a pool, a league, as they'll call it, where you can enter and pick the fights for USC 205.

So you're going to enter that pool. You're going to get your, you know, picks in. You're going to win that pool. That's your goal is to win that pool. Now you're saying, well, that pool happens after USC 205, so the winner of that pool can't win the tickets. And if you were thinking that, you're right, of course. That wouldn't make sense if you had to pick the fights for 205 and then win the tickets.

So you're going to enter that pool, but you're also, you're going to send me at New York Rick on Twitter or Instagram and draft kings at draft kings. on Twitter or Instagram, a one-minute video. And in this one-minute video, you're going to make your best case for why you should sit with me at UC205. Now, Draft Kings has graciously offered to fly you out. Now, I'm sorry, unfortunately, this is open to U.S. residents only.

So if you are... They're going to fly up to $500 credit airfare and they're going to put you up in a hotel for two nights. You're going to come on Friday. You're going to stay through Saturday. You're going to come with me to the event. We're going to have a great time. You're going to share some popcorn.

We're going to watch some great fights. Ariel will be there too. He wouldn't miss it. And then you're going to go home having the best experience of your life. So you have to send me and draft kings one minute on why you should be that person selected. And now this can be, you can cut a promo on me. You can tell me you're the biggest fan ever. Why, you know, you have to be at this Madison Square Garden event.

If you're a New Yorker, tell me this is in my backyard. I have to be there. I couldn't miss it for the world. You have one minute. Get as creative as possible. I'm expecting some really damn good videos because this is an incredible opportunity for you to go to UFC 205. This doesn't just happen. I don't think anybody else is doing this.

So you damn sure had better give me a good video. I'm expecting up to one minute. It doesn't have to be a minute. If you can get it done and shorter, do it. But I need those videos sent to me and draft kings. And here's how we're going to track it. the hashtag is Rix R-I-C-S-T-I-X-205. That's Rix T-I-F-O-5.

So you're going to send me, Draft Kings, your video with that hashtag, and may the best man or woman win. And you're going to be sitting with me at U-S. CO-205. Ariel, your reaction to that. Wow, that is, honestly, that is a really unbelievable gift, prize, whatever you want to call it. I wonder, I mean, I wonder what the, you know, if I'm someone who's trying to get into this, you know, if I'm trying to win this thing, what's, what's the play here? You know, do I come on? Do I try to butter you up? Or do I just try to slay you with, you know, a promo? Do I cry? Do I tell you some sort of story about how this is, you know, my lifelong dream and my family? And by the way, is it open to Canadians as well or just Americans? I think we have to limit to U.S. residents just because. Oh, I mean, what the heck. Really?

Sorry, no, no, no, no. Honestly. Honestly. Honestly. that is unbelievable. Thank you very much to draft kings. And truthfully, I had nothing to do with this. This was all you. You did it all. So I'm curious to see. Now, where can viewers, you know, let's say I live in Canada or Europe, where can I just

check out all the videos, just probably just use the hashtag. Just use the hashtag. Yeah, use the hashtag. And now, so here's a little bit more on the contest. So, our entries are going to close next Tuesday. The reason for that being next Monday, we will. give you one last opportunity. We will say, this is it. This is your last shot. If you haven't gotten it in, you need to get it in because you're about to win a ticket to UFC 205 if you do it right.

So this contest is going to end next Tuesday. And now, that's not all because the winner, obviously, so somebody's going to be attending 205, but there's also going to be somebody who's going to win the pool. They're going to win this entry at Draft Kings because they have to enter and they have to play. So somebody has to, you know, win that. they're going to get, obviously, some love from old New York, Rick, who has an affinity for man of the people. Yeah, man of the people. But also somebody who has been in that position, having all the pressure in the world on

you to make these picks, and you've successfully navigated those waters and made some good picks for 205. Well, I don't know about successfully. I mean, historically you have not successfully navigated them. But anyway, continue. I can appreciate that. So somebody is going to win that. What we've decided, and Ariel, you don't even know this.

You're going to have to grin and bear it and play along here. Here we go. If they are able to make it, they're going to be able to visit us on the MMA hour set. That's the first prize is you're going to be able to visit us on the MMA hour set, and I am going to give you that shout out on a subsequent show. Now, if you're not in New York, if you're not in the tri-state area, that may be a difficult thing for you to do. So, Ariel and I will record a personal message to you. Now, he doesn't even know that this is happening.

I've co-opted, I've made it a thing, it's already done. Ariel and I are going to send a personal message to you and give you that shout out on the show if you cannot make it to the studio. Now, for this one, unfortunately, Draft King is not footing the bill to send you to the MMA hour set. So you have to be local. Second prize. Wait, I just want to say one thing about that.

If they do visit the studio, as long as I don't have to show, shake their hand, that's cool. And, you know, I think that we can call them on the phone. Why do we have to record? Like, let's just get their number and speak to the person if they can't make it. That's fair enough. We can work that part of it out. But we will contact you personally.

We will address you. We will acknowledge your victory. You are a champion. Second prize. You're going to win some item of memorabilia. Now, at this point, I've indicated that we're going to give away one of these figures that we see over here. Let's cut to the Skype shop for one second.

You're actually getting rid of some of my toys? We have the round five MMA figures over here. We're going to give away one. This is from the set. Very rare opportunity. Just kick me out of my show and just start giving away my stuff. We're giving away one figure. Ariel has no say in which one it is.

Ariel has no say that we're doing this. And we're going to sign one of these programs over here. Oh. We're going to sign one of these programs. And that is for... Wait, my programs? Yeah, your programs. are relics. People would die for that.

Somebody's getting... I've been holding on to those for years. One is actually signed by Alistair Overim, the one where he beat Brett Rogers. Probably wants that one more. Well, we'll see. We'll see how it shakes out. But there's going to be some props from this set that are going to be given to the second

place contestant, and we're also going to give a shout out, obviously. And third place, draft kings, once again, stepping up to the plate, they're going to give away a swag bag full of draft king's gear for the third place person. So, there's two ways to win. You can win the ticket by giving the best video, the best one-minute video.

Who picks, by the way? Who picks the video? I mean, are you the one? Yours truly. I mean, I have to sit with this person, so yours truly gets the selection. Can't wait to see who you pick. And also, please try to win the pool. We'd love to have you in studio.

We'd love to greet you. And who knows, maybe you end up posting one day. That's how it happened for me. I ended up in the studio. And look, now I'm in the driver's seat. So we cannot thank the. the people at draft kings enough. It's, I mean, needless to say, this is an incredible opportunity.

I think you out there can recognize that and are going to be stoked to accompany me to UFC 205. We'd love to have you there. So get those videos in by next Tuesday. I mean, it doesn't get better than that. Ariel, can we do better than that? Yeah. No, I don't think we've ever done better than that.

Quite frankly, I think it's all downhill from here. Might as well close shop after today. That's it. No, draft kings, seriously. Thank you very much to them. And I can't wait to see who wins. And, you know, as I'm burping my daughter in the middle of the night, I'll be checking out those hashtags. I mean, I hope people actually put some thought into this because I think that you're going to be, you know, looking for something pretty special.

And, man, 205, I haven't gone on Stubhub in a while, but like, what's an average 205 ticket going for these days? An arm and a leg, I believe, is the actual quoted rate. So you need to be entering this contest. And look, if you give me bad entries, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to take that ticket. I'm going to take my wife. She's been dying to go to this event. Is that allowed?

I told her, no, you cannot come to this event. We have to give this away. Draft Kings is giving us this prize to give away to a fan who's shown proclivity for playing Draft Kings, an incredible fantasy player, and at the same time, desperate to go. They need to be there. And I had to tell my wife, no. So guess what? Give me some good entries.

Otherwise, I'm swallowing it. That's it. My wife's going. Too bad. Maybe take my daughter, you know? Nah, I don't want to expose her to the MMA too soon. That's true. Also, she doesn't need to take it.

I mean, under two, I think. At MSG, you don't need to take it. So you take her anyway. She can work the event. I mean, she can go with you and, you know, be backstage. It is a trip, I'll tell you. One day, hopefully you get to experience this. Like, you have kids who are born, two,

and you sort of reach a point. And then you go all the way. back and you start over, you know, with the spitups and all that. I mean, it's kind of like I equated to having a VHS tape and finishing it and then, you know, it just rewinds to the beginning and you get to do the whole thing all over again. My wife is watching this live and you've planted seeds that cannot be unplanted. So let's wrap with this. Ariel, thank you so much. That's it. You're getting rid of me? I'm kicking you off. A pretty short spot. Not a single question. Nothing about M.M.A. What do you know about M.A.? What do you know about MMA?

I know absolutely nothing. No, in all seriousness, you did great. You did better than great, really. I'm probably more excited than you are right now. And it's been a long time coming and you've been asking for, you know, the big opportunity and the time just fell right. And you always remember that you got your first shot hosting the show, you know, just a few days after my beautiful daughter was born. And I like that as well. I like that synergy as well. So enjoy the rest of the show. Thank you very much for doing it. I'm happy that we can give people a show that are, you know, this is. one of the most underrated streets in M.M.A. right now. I mean, you talk about Max Holloway, Tony Ferguson. We have not missed the show in 2016. That's the first for us. We have not gone this far into a year without missing a show for whatever reason. I'm very proud of that, and you made it happen. So thank you very much. You did amazing. A plus, my man, enjoy the rest. And... Last thing before I let you go. Last thing. Last thing before I let you go. Keeping with tradition. I don't know if you even know this. You may know this. Your mother texted me

to wish me good luck that she'd always text you before every show. So keeping tradition alive one more time. It meant the world to me. And I'm so happy. Mama knows gave me that text and it meant everything to me. Ariel, congratulations. Thank you so much. And one last thing.

I keep interrupting you. One last thing. Everyone for all the nice messages, you know, my family read them. They love reading them. Thank you so much. People are so kind. Such great people. I saw the way they were supporting you and, you know,

trying to give you confidence, just amazing people in the SMAic community. So I really, really appreciate it. I know you do as well. And I hope everyone who's about to celebrate or have to celebrate, I hope you have a happy Halloween. Thank you, Ariel.

Peace, I'm out of here. What a way to end it. Couldn't have ended any other way. But it's not over yet. So let me just recap this for anybody who missed it in the briefest possible way. You're going to enter at draftkings.com. I'm going to tweet out the link right now

for the MMA hours, league. You're going to join that league. So that's step number one. Let's tweet that out right now. So the link to that just went out on my Twitter at New York, Rick. So you're going to enter that league. Then after you've done that, you're going to tag me and you're going to tag draft Kings at New York Rick at draft kings on Twitter or Instagram, not open to any other platforms, not open to Facebook, Snapchat, anything like that. So you're going to tag me on Instagram or Twitter. If you don't have a Twitter, if you don't have an Instagram, just make one. It's a contest. You'll be fine. Don't worry about it.

Make one of those accounts or use your existing account. Tag both of us. Also, include the hashtag Rix Tix 205, R-I-C-S-T-I-X-205, and send me up to one minute of video why you belong there, why you need to be at UFC 205. You need to be there right next to me watching these fights, getting an incredible experience on behalf of our friends at Draft Kings. I mean, that's it. It's that easy.

It doesn't get better than that. Get creative. Send your videos to me now. So over the last couple of months, there's been a lot of messages. I see them. Don't worry about that. I do not miss these messages. I've seen them.

People have been asking for questions. We're going to do some questions. What kind of MMA hour would it be without some fan questions? We're going to answer questions for last 20 minutes of this show, and then we're going to say goodbye. So we're not going to have them on the screen because guess what? That's my role. I'm always doing that. This time I'm here.

so I can't put them up on the screen for you, but I'm going to read them out on Twitter. So Christopher Kit came to the studio, incredible, one of our hardcore fans. Did Matt Mitreone come across like a meathead over his unprovoked attack on John Jones? No, he was selling it, and he did a damn good job.

John Jones, you know, when somebody says, you mad? John Jones, guy, he got a little agitated, and he probably hit him with the, I don't really care, you're beneath me. he was clearly upset. He kept going on and on about it, and Matt Mitrione got what he won.

He got a little extra exposure, and now we're talking about him in a possible fight with Fadour. Matt Mitrione did not cross the line. He was promoting in a very smart way. Also from Christopher, will McGregor be in the pound-for-pound conversation if he wins two belts?

I think McGregor's already in the pound-for-pound conversation. I don't know how much that actually means anymore. you know, you typically associate the champions with that type of thing. I don't know how, I don't know if the rankings, if the pound for pound rankings, if any of that really has that much significance in modern day MMA. But if you are the champion simultaneously, never been done before. If you're the champion simultaneously in two UFC weight classes, you are clearly one of the best fighters on the planet and you are clearly somebody whose skills translate across

weight classes. It's never been done. BJ Penn and Randy Couture have. held belts in different weight classes, but not simultaneously. If Connor can pull this off, nothing more needs to be said. The guy's got an unassailable record. Do you think Bisping, this is from Chris Welsh on Twitter, do you think Bisping has a big enough name to bring Nick Diaz back or will have to be somebody bigger? We had John Pollock on the show, I asked him about it. We had Mark Raim Mundi on the show. We asked them about it. I like the Bisping versus GSP fight. I do think it

makes sense at this point. But Mark brought up Anderson Silver versus GSP. We have waited so long for the potential of that fight. Now, it's a bit of a Mayweather Pachiaus situation. We're not getting them at their peak powers, but it's been bandied about, it's been talked about for so long that I think that that's what we finally have to see. I would love to see GSP versus Anderson Silva. And I think this is the only time we would have gotten it. People who are really, long-standing champions are not inclined to leave their weight class and chase a super fight because they have everything to lose. If they end up losing that fight, they potentially look weakened.

Now we've come to the point where GSP has stepped away for a long time, even though he hasn't lost. His last official fight was a win. And Anderson Silva since has lost his championship reign came to an end. We're at the right cross section here. We're at the right point where that fight. could reasonably happen, and I'm still at the point where I want to see it. I don't know about you out there.

You know, let me know on Twitter if Anderson Silver v. GSP is still a fight you want to see, but for me, that is still the fight I want to see. Nick Diaz, I like that fight. I think obviously big money fights are what Nick Diaz is interested in, and George St. Pierre is big money. It's not a fight I'm dying to see. It's not a fight I'm dying to see. but it's certainly a UFC pay-per-view headliner.

No doubt about it. George St. Pierre versus Nick Diaz would be big box office. It's just not the fight that's getting me going for George St. Pierre. If George St. Pierre is coming back, I want to see something special. I want to see. Bisping, because he's the reigning middleweight champion, that's special. That's something that has significance in our sport. Anderson Silva, these two were at the height of their powers together.

They are considered two of, if not the two. two best mixed martial artists of all time. There's significance there. That's the type of fight I want to see George St. Pierre come back for. Fits, MMA fits on Twitter comes to us with the question, how and when did you meet Ariel? Are you an MMA fighting employee?

I met Ariel via email. As I described at the top of the show, if you missed it, I sent Ariel one email saying I wanted to get him coffee and shine up as his MMA journalist of the year trophies. And at the time, my timing could not have been better. Vox was taking over the show from AOL. He gave me that opportunity. He put me in touch with the right people at Vox. I've been here ever since. I'm one of the, you know, the OGs of the SB Nation studio family. And it's been an incredible ride. And now here I am sitting in this seat.

I couldn't ask for more. So I met Ariel, the first time I met Ariel face to face is a different question. I don't even recall, which is insane. I probably should. I don't know if Ariel does. doubt it. But we might have just, you know, met in the original SB Nation studio when I was interviewing for the position. And it wasn't Ariel who interviewed me. It was the studio team who did that. Ariel just knew that I, that I was a big MMA fan. In my email and he's read it on air, unfortunately, I referenced the Marcus Brimidge interview. He had just fought at, I want to say, you see a Fox, maybe it was a Fox. It was a Fight Night or a Fox event. Marcus Brimmy I just thought. It was the interview where he talked about bringing home bigger girls and Rampage Jackson crashed it. It was probably one of the most off the rails interview Ariels ever done. It stuck with me so much in my mind that I had to email him. And it was my perfect segue for trying to get in the door here. And guess what it worked? So if anybody's out there and you're trying to get into the MMA space, it's a very difficult space to get into. But my advice, and this applies to anything that's not just MMA.

Give it a shot. Send one email. What's the worst that could happen? They can say no. And then that's it. It's no big deal. You can face it and move on. But, you know, chase that. I wanted to be on this show. And now I'm hosting it. It's crazy. How many belts change hands at UFC 205? So we talked about this earlier with Devin. We previewed the card a little bit. This is from Connor Huff on Twitter. How many belts change hands? So these are my Rick's picks. I'm thinking that Eddie Alvarez is going to. keep the belt. Now, Connor has proven critics of his style, of his resume, of everything about him, that he's all talked, that he's not tough, that he gives up when it counts. Every single thing that somebody has said about him as a detraction, he has proven incorrect. He has gotten and done every single time in there. And I think that counting him out is obviously a mistake.

The guy is clearly one of the best fighters on the planet. That said. Eddie Alvarez is a very, very different fighter than some of the guys that Connor has faced. He's going to be aggressive from the start, and he's been in trouble. Eddie Alvarez has been in trouble in some of these high pressure title fights. He's been through the wars. He's done it all over. There's not a single thing that Connor McGregor can do that will shake his confidence.

There's not a single thing that Connor McGregor can do that he might not have seen before. I'm thinking that Eddie Alvarez's his experience in the cage and the ring in previous fights is what's going to ultimately keep him there. That said, Eddie Alvarez has been tagged before. He's gotten clip. The thing about Eddie Alvarez is he seems to always recover from it. Now, we're going to see if Connor McGregor's power translates at 155 and especially against a guy who's as tough and durable as Eddie Alvarez. Eddie's taken those shots before and he's been put on Queer Street

but he's recovered we're going to see if Connor can put him down and that's what's so intriguing about this matchup. I love this matchup but I don't think there's going to be any psychological warfare that Connor McGregor is going to be able to wage that's going to shake Eddie Averas. The guy is as tough as they come.

Ariel did that walk and talk with him. We've seen what he's been through. There's not going to be something that shakes him. So he's not going to be defeated before he comes in the cage but that said, Connor McGregor still has a damn good shot of defeating him inside the cage. I see that as a razor close fight. I am a little surprised that Connor McGreg is the favorite there, but it's very hard to predict. I see it as a coin flip in my

eyes. Did I watch Helen a cell yesterday? If so, what did I think? Jordan Walsh. I did watch Helen a cell up until the final moments of the main event between Sasha Banks and Charlotte. I got taken away by a phone call. I missed the apex of the night. I missed. I missed, you know what we were all here for. I typically come out of these and we've talked about WWE on the show before. I typically come out of these very impressed with the WWE product. I always have a good time. This one didn't really do it for me.

I think maybe it was too much of the sell stuff. There were too many matches that looked, you know, essentially identical. I like the storyline. But overall, you know, this might have been one of the lower WWE events that I've tuned in for. And they're, you know, few and far between. but this one wasn't that great for me, but I am very much looking forward to Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg. And I think, you know, there's MMA fans that will be interested in that as well.

It's not just WWE. Ryan Hobbs, how would you compare modern-day Bella toward a strike force at its peak? It's a good comparison. I mean, clearly, you know, the Scott Coker thing is the most obvious and rich, the matchmaker. I think that the strategy is clear here. You know, you build up the up-and-coming prospects with, you know, fights that, you know, fights that, you know, there's no, there's no two ways about it that, that build them up with, with can crushing.

They're, they're going to beat up some, some fighters that might not belong in there with a, with a fighter of their caliber, and they're going to move on to the next one. Eventually, then you just put them in the, you know, the title position and then the title fights. But do, I see the comparisons. I get it. It makes sense. It's what you have to do when you, when you don't have the UFC's depth, when you don't

have the roster. Now, that said, they're bringing in guys. like Rory McDonald's who are going to make a splash in that division. They're bringing in guys like Benson Henderson who are going to make a splash and maybe change up the way that goes. But for now, I see the comparison. It makes sense to me. If you had the chance to have anybody as your guest in studio, who would that be?

I'm tempted to say Ariel just because it would be such a weird, unique experience. But we just had them on the phone and it was fun. Who would I like to? Fans of the show know BJ Penn, very special place in my heart. Would I like to sit across from BJ Penn and have a conversation? Yeah. And I think it would be damn interesting because I'm most interested when it comes to BJ Penn in talking about the motivations and, you know, what happened throughout his career.

Tell me about these highs, these lows. And I was on that journey with him as a fan. So comparing experiences would be absolutely incredible. let's go with BJ Penn for that question. We're going to take some questions from the website as well. Can't wait for the best episode ever. Rick is going to host this episode. This is from Abdel Riff.

Congrats to Ariel and his family with the new addition to family. Good look, Rick. I always have faith in you. Not a question. I thought I selected a question, but thank you. He's always in the comment section. We really appreciate that. Here's his question.

Can we talk about some kickboxing? How much you look forward to Glory Collision? Glory Collision is going to be massive. Glory also has an event coming up this Saturday on the 5th, and it's going to be Glory 35 in Nice, France, and it's going to be a great card. Glory collision, RICO versus Bader is huge. In fact, there's going to be a press conference tomorrow with Rico and Bader at 11am on the Glory YouTube channel for that to promote that event. We talked a little bit about kickboxing earlier with Devin Sawa and John Pollock. We talked about Bill Goldberg.

He had been involved with Glory at one time, a moitai practitioner himself, super excited for Glory collision. No pressure. You've got the big boy seat, New York, Rick. We all have faith in you. Ariel better watch is back. Who should face Yonna champion if she can use her dominance at straw weight? That's from K-T-E-W-KS. I wouldn't even try to pronounce that.

Who should face Yon a champion? It's got to be Jessica Androge. That's the fight to make. She's proven herself at that weight class. There's no other fight I want to see. We talked about the fighter insurance with Mark Raymondi. Next lightweight challenger, Tony Ferguson manages to beat RDA and Saturday and Habib meets Michael Johnson at USC 205. Who do you think will be deserving of the next lightweight title shot?

That's tough. I'm going to have to go with Habib with the caveat that he has to make it to fight night. I mean, obviously the health is an issue and it continues to be one that we raise with him. but I think he's earned it. I think going undefeated this long is a feather in his cap that Tony doesn't have. Now, Tony's on a very impressive win streak of his own, but I've got to give it to Habib. I think he's the next in line. Congrats on the chair.

Happy to see you getting the nod to host. Is this something you'd like to do more of? Sure, I love this. This was a really, really fun experience. And I can't thank Ariel enough, but I can't thank you guys enough. all the love and support that I got on Twitter and on the show post before the show. This is something I've wanted. And don't forget, I'm still going to talk to Ariel.

I want the preview show in New York. I want the USC 205 preview show. That's still the spot I want. But this meant everything to me that Ariel would leave this opportunity with me because this is his pride and joy. He built this from scratch. And I'm, I was always just happy to be a part of it. But now he's given me this opportunity.

I would love to do more of it. But this show is, is Ariel Halwani's show. And it will remain that way for the foreseeable future, hopefully forever. I hope forever because he's the best at what he does. He's the best in the business, no doubt about it. But other things like this, I would love to. I'd absolutely love to. T.J. Dillishaw.

T.J. Dillashaw isn't going to get a title fight against Cruz. What would you like to see him do next? Should he fight another top challenger or wait it out for the winner of Cruz and Cody Garbrandt? T.J's in a tough spot. This will be our last question. I think T.J.'s probably best trying to keep his tools sharp and take another fight. But if he waits, he's right there. And I think he'd be deserving of a title shot.

And also, he's got the storyline with both guys. So if I was TJ, I'd probably hold out and see what happens, see how it shakes out. But he's likely next in line. So I'd probably see how it shakes out. Now, we've reached the end of the show. We've had John Pollack on. We've had Devin Sawa on. We've had Mark Raymondi on.

We've had Ariel Haldian on. And I can't even describe. I've talked about this a few times already. I can't even describe how much it means to me that you guys have tuned in for this show and show me that love and support. So I thank you. And now, as is tradition,

hit my music. Thank you, everybody. For sticking along on this journey with me. Hopefully, you know, I know we had a lot of talk. There weren't fighters on. I hope we addressed all the MMA topics that you were hoping to hear. I didn't want to, you know, just dive into the deep end and start trying to do what Ariel does.

I don't do what Ariel does. Ariel is one of a kind. There's a reason he is where he is. And trying to replicate that would have been impossible, not only impossible, but just a bad idea. That's not my position. That's not what I'm here for. I hope you enjoyed the engagement. That, you know, that's what the fans say that they love so much about me and Ariel.

I hope you enjoyed the engagement with some of the people that were on. today in John Pollack, tooting the horn and ringing the bell for a long time. In Devonsawa, a friend, a tremendous actor, Go see Final Destination, if you haven't. And Go see his new movie on November 18th, but a really knowledgeable MMA fan and somebody who's, you know, tuning into this show every week, much like some of you. And then Mark Raimundi, the New York boy, my New York boy. and it's indescribable that they would even grant their time to me on this show. Anyway, enough of that.

Most importantly, this is what we did. We set up a contest where you can win tickets to UFC 205. And it's easy. It's not hard at all. Just have to send me a video. Tell me why you deserve to go. I want you to win. So give your stuff.

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