The Ariel Helwani Show - Alex Pereira in studio, Dan Hooker, Jeremy Stephens, Ben Rothwell, full weekend recap, more

Episode Date: January 27, 2025

Ariel Helwani reacts to BKFC KnuckleMania 5, Usman Nurmagomedov vs. Paul Hughes and much more from a loaded combat sports weekend (20:35).Ben Rothwell discusses his BKFC heavyweight title win and reveals he's a combat sports free agent — with sights on some big names next (01:29:42).Dan Hooker previews his UFC 313 fight against Justin Gaethje and discusses finding out from Gaethje's YouTube channel, his odd UFC 300 experience, Islam Makhachev's win over Renato Moicano and more (02:01:29).Jeremy Stephens discusses his BKFC KnuckleMania 5 win over Eddie Alvarez, the hostile reception he got from the Philly fans, his road to bare-knuckle success and more in an emotional interview. He also reveals that he, like Ben Rothwell, is now a free agent (02:33:17).Alex Pereira discusses his UFC 313 title defense against Magomed Ankalaev, his conversations with Jon Jones, his run-in with Jamahal Hill at the UFC Performance Institute, his sister's fighting career and much more in a special in-studio interview (03:04:25).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Area Hawaii Show! Back in your life! On this Monday, January 27, 2000. And 25. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It's great to be here on a lovely Monday afternoon in New York City. So much to discuss.

What a weekend it was. What a lineup we have. And of course, I come to you, a man with a broken heart. A man with a broken heart, but a man who is also filled with gratitude. Gratitude and sadness is an unbelievable concoction. You don't often feel those two emotions at the same time, but I do feel them on this Monday afternoon. And of course, I am talking about my beloved Buffalo Bills,

who lost a heartbreaker late last night against the Kansas City Chiefs, losing for the fourth time in five years to the Chiefs, losing once again before the ultimate goal is realized of finally, finally, finally, finally, finally winning a Super Bowl and it's a tough one to stomach. And I'm aware, trust me, I am aware that this is just sports, that it's not life or death, that it's not your health, that there are bigger and more important things out there. Trust me, I am very, very aware of this, but I cannot deny that I care deeply about my sports, that I care deeply about my sports teams, and that I take this for some reason so very serious. And I was thinking about why it hurts so much, because let me be honest with you guys. At the end of that game, I couldn't speak. I could not speak. I had nothing left in me. My wife tried to talk to me. I just, I had nothing. I was completely heartbroken. I went outside even without my dog. I went to take a walk at around, I don't know, it was 10 o'clock and I didn't even know what I was doing.

I was just walking and it's pitch black and I'm just walking. And I'm wondering and I'm asking myself, why do you care so much? Why are you so hurt? Why do you feel the way you feel? Life is great. You're healthy. Your family's healthy. You're a lucky man. You get to do an amazing job for a living. Why do you care so much? And the conclusion that I came to was simply that this thing known as sports and these things known as my sports teams, and in particular, the New York

Knicks and the Buffalo Bills, who I've followed since essentially 1990 when I was eight years old, they bring me so much joy on a consistent basis. It often ends in heartbreak, but joy over the course of eight, nine, 10 months is an incredible thing. And they can alter the sports teams that you follow, that you live and die with, that you're able to talk to your friends about, that you're able to go to a birthday party for your kid's classmate and meet another dad. And you guys can speak about sports for an hour and not even know what this person's name is or what they do for a living, where they're from, but you can connect over this thing called sports. This thing that can bring you so much joy, that can alter your mood, that can brighten your day, that can make you wake up with a

pep in your step, this thing that you love so much, that you care so much about, these players that you'll probably never meet, who don't know who you are, this thing that you love so much has to hurt this much if it doesn't go the way you want it to go. That's the only explanation that I could come up with. If it brings you so much joy for 10 to 12 months out of the year, if you care so much, if you spend so much time reading and listening and talking about it, it has to hurt this much. And that's the explanation. And so it does hurt this much because yesterday I was completely useless to my family. I was just sitting there, a nervous wreck, because I knew what was to come, and I knew what history, you know, usually presents itself in this way

to Bills fans and to Knicks fans, and I've been here before, and it's a familiar feeling, and I was feeling that feeling, especially in that first half. But then all of a sudden there's hope, and then all of a sudden it's 32-29, and we have the ball, and you think it's all going to work out. And I'm going to spare you. I'm going to spare you my thoughts on the game. This is not a football show.

I get it. But I'm just telling you where I'm coming from. I am filled with such heartbreak and sadness, not only for myself, but for the good people of Western New York, for Bills fans worldwide, for everyone who has been living and dying with this team over the years, myself since 1990, and some since the OJ Simpson days, and some even before that, who just want to see them once, win the Super Bowl, hoist that trophy, wear the hat, wear the shirt, see the confetti, have the parade just once.

And I thought yesterday for a moment that we were on our way to maybe getting that. And so it's an empty, hollow feeling and it's a daunting thought when you start thinking about going from July all the way up until this point and how long of a road it is. And again, I'll spare you my thoughts on what I think they should be doing with Coach McDermott

or how much I love Josh Allen or if that should have been a first down or if that should have been ruled a catch or if Kincaid should have caught it. I'll spare you my thoughts. That's for a different show. But I'll tell you why I'm filled with gratitude. And I alluded to this on social media this morning because I didn't know what else to say last night. And I thought about what I needed to say because I talk a lot about them. So I need to show up to some degree to the audience when they lose. I'm filled with gratitude because when I was a kid and I picked the underdog teams, I picked the Bills and the Knicks in a family filled with Cowboys fans and Bulls fans. I was always alone. I was always alone I was always alone When the season ended Crying

My brothers making fun of me Throwing the Kleenex at me Wearing my jersey I was always alone And yesterday I was with my three kids Who maybe didn't care As much as I did

Because they haven't felt the pain that I have But who were there for every snap, who were living and dying with every play, who went crazy when James Cook extended his hand like Michael Jordan in Space Jam, who were jumping up and down, who felt the pain, who felt the anguish, who felt the anxiety. I was surrounded by them,

my kids, who I have passed down my love of my teams to. Thank God they have followed suit. And I don't regret that as a parent. Some say, oh my God, you could have let your kids be Warriors fans or LeBron fans or Chiefs fans or whatever fans.

No, I want them to be fans of these teams because one day those teams are going to win and they are going to witness it. And maybe I won't be alive. Maybe I won't be around, but they'll remember their old man who they had these incredible moments with, these incredible memories with, and they will feel that much happier because their dad's team won and now it's their team. And I know the feeling that they felt yesterday. And my son is wearing the jersey and my daughter is sitting

there trying to understand why a touchdown is is six and not one and and and we're going through it together that to me is why i'm grateful because i could i could you know we could be a fan of a team that wasn't there and i don't get that moment with my my kids and so i'm so thankful as a parent that i was able to experience that with them that I was able to go through those three hours with them, that they were able to feel something as a result of sports that means so much to me. And I hope and pray that one day we will all be able to rejoice a victory when our team wins, when we are able to show up to school or to work the next day with our heads held high saying we picked the right team.

Our guys won. Our guys made it happen. And perhaps my favorite memory of all this is this morning, not a lot of talking, a little reminiscing. My daughter says to me while eating breakfast, did the Bills win? And I said, of course not. Did you not see what happened? And she said, well, how am I supposed to know? You turned off the game before it ended. And then for a second, I thought, this is incredible. Because yes, I turned it off with 40 seconds left. When Pacheco got the first down, I turned it off and said, we're going to bed. In her mind, there was still hope. There was still 40 seconds left. And I explained that to her, but it just, it reminded me of the innocence of children and how much they were locked in because of their dad, because they knew that it meant something to their dad. And so I know there are a lot of Bills fans out there that are

hurting right now, that are sad, that are heartbroken, that don't want to talk about the off season, that don't want to talk about next season, that just say, why not us? Why not now? Why can't we finally get it done? I know I was listening to WGR this morning. I could feel it. It's therapeutic to listen to. And my heart goes out to you all. Our time will come. We will be champions and it will all be worth it. And it's a nice reminder that sports, as much shit as there is in this world, as much heartbreak and as much depressing crap that we read every single day on our phones and on the news and in newspapers and on the internet, that it could be this amazing escape. And even if it doesn't end, I feel sorry for the people who say, what's the point of following sports? Because, you know, more often than not, we'll end in heartbreak.

Only one team wins and the chances are your team won't win. But man, that freaking experience, that bonding, that journey all the way till, till, till last night, I wouldn't trade that for the world. I really wouldn't. Um, I'm so grateful that I was able to experience that with my kids. I really am. So anyway, those are some thoughts. Uh will forever be go Bills, and we will get it done, and Josh Allen is going to make it happen for us. Today is going to be a great day on the show, and this is therapeutic for me as well because I'm able to talk about other things and be around my friends and talk to you all.

And if you're laughing at me right now and if you're sticking it to me, God bless. If that's the way you feel, God bless. I have nothing to say about the Chiefs. They're incredible. They played a perfect game. And your coach is unbelievable. And your defensive coordinator is unbelievable. And you deserve that win. We can nitpick certain things, but you deserve that win. So God bless you guys. And good luck in two weeks. Today on the program, we're going to be joined by one of the most popular fighters in the world. Alex Pereira is going to join us in studio with Plinio Cruz, which should be a great chat. Of

course, we know that at UFC 313 on March 8th in Las Vegas, he is going to be defending his light heavyweight title against Magomed Ankaleyev, a highly anticipated fight in which he is, at least as of right now, listed as the underdog, unbelievably so. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Jeremy Stevens, who had an incredible win over Eddie Alvarez on Saturday at BKFC. More on that in a moment. Prior to that, Dan Hooker, who co-headlines UFC 313 against Justin Gaethje, a five-round lightweight fight underneath the Alex Pereira-Magomed-Ankalaya fight. Dan Hooker will join us from New Zealand at 3 o'clock at 2.30. Ben Rothwell, who's the new BKFC heavyweight champion, an unbelievable knockout for Big Ben. Very happy for him. His first major title, really, of his career. He'll join us at 2.30. I do want to let you know that earlier this

morning, I had posted that Paul Hughes was going to join us. That was the case. I unfortunately got news just about an hour or so ago that he's not feeling well and that he will join us on Wednesday. So we will hear from Big News Hughes, who had an unbelievable weekend as well, and more on that in a moment on Wednesday, not today. I hope you will be okay with that. We still have a lot to talk about on today's show with a lot of great people. You see them right there, and I can't wait to get into it. Okay, let's bring in the boys, shall we? Because I need the group therapy, but also we're not talking football. Don't worry. Don't worry. I'm not going to make this all about myself. But we bring them all in.

We'll be alright, man. We're here for you. When I started on the show before the Braves title and then the back-to-back Georgia titles, I had no rings in my life, too. I was a ringless loser just like you, man. You're going to get there one day. Wow. Geez, ringless loser is a little hard. This is a much different tone than the uh i'm giving you uh you hope i was just

like you like you like to tell me like how how rich i am with championships i mean the 28 to 3 like i've been through it as well it's it's terrible but you'll get a title one day i promise yeah um i appreciate that i mean i wish you just would have started with that, if I'm being honest, as opposed to the first part of the statement. But you called me a ringless loser. It's, I mean, it's not guaranteed. It's absolutely not guaranteed. But, you know, we like to think. We like to think.

Anyone else want to say anything uplifting? Or is that pretty much, uh, no, PT was locked in. All right, listen, can we,

are we not allowed to say anything about the chiefs here? Because I feel like two decisions, uh, drastically changed what happened in that game. Um, first of all was the catch from Xavier worthy. And the second one was Josh Allen fought down. He crosses the line.

What is going on here? I mean, I saw everyone talking in the lead up to the game. Oh, Mahomes gets all the decisions. I was like, surely not. Surely not with the eyes of the world on this game. But alas, that's what happened.

You said Barrett team won. That's debatable for me. Well, I thought that they were incredibly prepared on a defensive and offensive end from a coaching standpoint. I thought they executed perfectly but yes uh the the first down killed me um i still don't understand why in 2025

it's just this arbitrary archaic method of an old guy just walking the ball up there and being like okay different calls like yeah you decided to feel here's here's the right let's just put it right here when when we have other sports, tennis, cricket, where there's actual technology in the ball, in the freaking stadium that tells you exactly if a ball is in or out. I don't understand why football hasn't adopted this. I don't know why they put so much of this trust

in the referee's hands. I'm not going to get into the whole rigged, not rigged. I don't fucking know. But the thing is- But they didn't get the chains out. They didn't get the chains out. Just this guy like waddling the whole rigged, not rigged. I don't fucking know. But the thing is... Get the chains out. Take the fucking chains out. Just this guy like waddling there and being like, okay, right here. By the way, there was a Kincaid first down that should have been

a first down that they said no wasn't. If Kelsey's holding the ball, they're 100% calling that a first down. But the point is it's archaic, it's arbitrary, and it makes no sense when it's literally inches away from changing the fate of an organization and of a country, of a city, of a fucking state. It's, it's just, it's mind blowing.

Um, the worthy thing is fine, but ultimately they, they, they, they made the plays and, uh, and, and, and we didn't, I will just say, I will never forget the feeling. It's, it's, it's, it's 2221 and I'm looking at my kids and I'm like, holy shit, I think it's going to happen and i'm so tired of saying that and then thinking you know an hour later damn we were so close i'm just so i was sick sick it's fucking horrible and i don't know i don't know what's better is is is it better to love and loss or lose or whatever the hell it is than to never love at all is that better or is it better to go through all of this

and end in heartbreak? I don't know. I really don't. Like I can tell you as a guy who's born in Manchester, you know, during the pomp of Alex Ferguson was there. All the titles in the world. I'm happy enough with that.

They can be shit for the rest of my life. Yeah. And I'll be happy enough. I always say you just want one. And I actually believe you because like my care, my fandom has decreased so significantly

since getting titles. A hundred percent. I agree with that. A hundred percent. Remember back in the day when we won everything? I saw it. I was there.

It's all good. I just want to know what it feels like. Just once. Here's the last thing I'll say is that the pain of the defeat like you're feeling right now is far stronger

than like the joy of victory. Like it's great to win a title. It's incredible. Really? But like God, it hurts so bad when it lose. It hurts so bad when you lose. Yes.

A thousand percent. Happen for you, Helwani? You will see this. This will happen. And it's going to be the Bills as well. I really believe it. All those daggers that you suffered will wash away. And they'll be positive memories because they were the path to getting you there.

And this will happen. If I knew that for sure, I'd be okay with all of it. It will happen. Dude, it's going to happen. I had a conspiracy theory up until 2021 that the city of Atlanta and Georgia sports teams sold their souls to get the 96 Olympics. They won the

World Series in 95, and then from 96 we had the 28-3, the second in 26, the pop fly with the Braves. I mean, the number one seed Hawks get swept. I was like, I think they sold their soul for the Olympics, and now we're never going to win a title. What a take. Number one seed Hawks get swept was nice.

I liked that one. Hey, Cav, shout out. It was like 0-16 against LeBron in the playoffs. I love it. I enjoyed it. I mean, I feel so bad for the people of Western New York. They are just such good people, and they don't have another sports team to be like,

all right, at least we have these guys. It's the Bills and the Sabres. Sabres never even make the playoffs, for goodness sakes. They had one chance in, I think, 99 against the Stars, and it didn't work out for them. Man, and you see Josh Allen after the game. The guy can hardly speak. I just want to hug the guy, because we're not even a playoff team. We're not even a playoff team without Josh Allen. We don't even make the playoffs, but we need some help. He needs some help.

God. Have you thought about getting him a celebrity girlfriend? Because I feel like that can greatly help your chances. He's got a celebrity fiance, for goodness sake. He's marrying an actress.

By the way, isn't it amazing that they never show her? Which I would only, I would like to think it's because she probably says, I don't want to be seen or she stays away. Like that's his fiance.

I love when they show Taylor Swift when Mahomes scores a touchdown. You can only show her when Kelsey does something. That's his girl. I get it. But she's not the fucking mascot of the team.

She's too famous. She is the mascot of the team. Oh my God. And don't get me started on Romo. Oh my God. I wanted to kill myself with this guy. I wanted to kill myself

with this guy. Tony Romo, man. Fucking horrible. Some say he's the go-to broadcaster. Fucking horrible, man. Oh my God. I wanted to kill myself with this guy. I wanted to kill myself with this guy. Tony Romo, man. Fucking horrible. Some say he's the GOAT of broadcasting. Fucking horrible, man. Oh my god, it was painful. It was absolutely painful. The whole thing was painful.

And I just want fucking one. And now we're getting this bullshit Super Bowl that we already saw two years ago. Can I say, as a casual fan, I have no interest. Like, I'm actually really disappointed that that's the Super Bowl. As a casual fan, you're the least casual fan I know. What are you talking about? I don't really have a team. Okay, you don't have a team, but you are not a casual fan.

You are as hardcore as they come. I'm interested to see if they can speak. Is that crazy? No, that's not crazy. I consider myself way more casual than you and I. Especially with the bullshit halftime show. Not even... I could not give...

The halftime show is the only reason why. I could not give two fucks. Tell us more. I could not give. The halftime show is the only reason. Oh, here we go. I could not give two fucks. Here we go. Tell us more. Tell us more. Why? I could not give two fucks. Could not give two fucks.

You picked a losing team on that one as well. Chiefs three beating with Kendrick at halftime. Of course you're a Drake fan. Yeah. I'm actually, you know what? You know what? I'm happy we didn't win because I was actually seriously considering going and then I'd be subjected to that shit.

So I'd have to leave the stadium. Nah, fuck that shit. Keep his name out of your mouth, Kendrick. Anyway, tough times. But you know what they say, tough times don't last. Tough people do. There was a moment there, last thing I'll say, I think it was like with two minutes left and I was just, man,

I was just looking. I was like, this is exactly as a youngster, I dreamed of this. I dreamed of watching my teams because they meant so much to me with my kids. And I always wonder, because my kids weren't really into sports at a young age, because of course they're like three and I'm like, why aren't they into it? And now you're like, wow, it actually happened. It actually happened. They're watching, even my daughter is watching and trying to figure out what's going on. And that to me, And now you're like, wow, it actually happened. It actually happened. They're watching. Even my daughter is watching and trying to figure out what's going on. And that to me is a blessing. So thank you to the man upstairs.

Let's talk fighting. And let's talk about what the biggest story I thought of the weekend was. And that transpired in Dubai. It was PFL. It was Usman Nurmagomedov against Paul Hughes. And it was a fight that a lot of us thought on paper would be fascinating. And it was a, it was a fight that, you know, some of us thought was coming a little too soon for Mr. Paul Hughes. Two wins in the PFL. He signs with them. He's a cage warriors champion. Can he beat the, the indestructible force known as

Usman Nurmagomedov, the Bellator lightweight champion, what may very well be the final Bellator title fight of all time. And Hughes was just a vision of self-confidence and just absolute stoicness and unflappable mentality. He was great in the face-off. He was great at the weigh-ins. He was great all week long. And he goes in there as he did against AJ McKee when some people were counting him out. And he brought the freaking fight to Usman Armagomedov. And not only did he bring the fight, there are some people who thought that he won the fight. And I'll be honest with you, I've watched the fight once. I was watching it and so captivated by it that I didn't really know how it would go. I thought in

the end that Usman would probably get the nod. He did get a point taken away from him due to a low blow. And I thought that obviously that could be a major factor. And in the end, it was a majority decision win for Usman Armagomedov. And one judge had it a draw, the other two 48-46. A 49-46, if you add the point on, feels like a wide margin, but you know how these things go. In the end, I think I could say confidently it was the best and most entertaining PFL fight of all time. It felt like the highest stakes fight of all time. It felt like you were watching two people who could easily be fighting for a UFC title in the not too distant future. It felt like

high, high level MMA. And it felt like one guy, Paul Hughes, who talked the talk, who backed it up and whose confidence kept on growing throughout the fight. And ultimately it ended in heartbreak. I was so impressed with Hughes. I was so impressed with Usman as well. But in the end, if you, if you listen to Usman in the post-fight interview and you hear the way he was speaking on the mic, this was a guy who was relieved. This wasn't a guy who was like, yeah, I'm the man. Of course I won that fight. This was a guy who was like, holy shit. It reminded me of Jones versus Gustafson won. Holy shit. I just dodged a bullet. Credit to him. He admits that he looked past them. He admits that he underestimated them and he won't do that same mistake twice. But he was like, wow, I won that via the skin them, and he won't do that same mistake twice, but he was

like, wow, I won that via the skin of my teeth, not necessarily a 49 to 46 or 48 to 46 type of demeanor afterwards. Huge, heartbroken, incredible theater, incredible back and forth war. I was locked in. I loved everything about it. I loved what we saw out of Paul. I loved what we saw out of Usman. I loved how Paul was switching on those takedown attempts. I loved his boxing. Usman digging down deep. It was just phenomenal stuff. I thought it was the best fight in PFL history.

So the next time Don Davis does an interview and someone asks him what's his favorite fight, just say that one, Don, because it qualifies. It's that damn good. Pete, we have to go to you first. You've been covering Paul Hughes since his MMA debut. You know him personally. You know his family personally. As you're watching this unfold, and you've been talking about Paul when he was in Cage Warriors

and saying that he could be the guy. He could be the next one to carry that Irish torch. What is going through your mind as you're watching this unfold? Everything I expected of this guy. He is different, and he showed the world that on Saturday. But what I didn't anticipate is this enormous sense of pride in Ireland about this guy you know I've talked about it ad nauseum I won't bore you again with it MMA isn't in a great place here it's not considered

a sport I think it should be the way people are talking about Paul Hughes after the performance he put on how he represented the country all week. I mean, I am actually, I cannot believe the sense of pride the Irish people have about him at this stage. Even in the result, I thought he won the fight. I could be wrong. As I said, everybody's getting on to me saying it's a robbery. It's not a robbery. It's an incredibly close fight.

There are several rounds I could have went either way. I don't think it's a robbery at all. But I personally had it scored for paul i wasn't throwing my uh my toys out of pram when the decision was read because i understood that it was very close i'll tell you i was talking to someone on friday and i agreed with them they made a point to me they said um paul hughes can only become the face of irish mma if he wins this fight but he's proven that to be completely wrong um he is the new face of Irish MMA everybody is incredibly invested in his career I don't know how Usman can show up at a press conference say he won't give him the rematch after that fight

because it was absolutely phenomenal I don't know how PFL wouldn't do everything in their power to make that fight happen again because again it was just a fantastic fight Paul Hughes the real deal this is a real rivalry between two fighters not two nations i hope they make the second fight as soon as possible so it was interesting afterwards a lot of respect and a lot of love shown between the two of them and then immediately you go to the back and usman's doing his scrum and he's like yeah uh three four more fights you know this guy was only two and oh uh three more and and actually i i like that he said that because it's a heel move to say that, because Usman should know that the biggest fight

for him in PFL is a rematch, and he should also know that there's no one really of great interest other than Paul Hughes in their 55 division there's people who can, you know, make a case there's names out there, but nothing even remotely close to what the interest would be going into

the rematch. And so he knows that, and that's fine. And then even afterwards, when you see Khabib go on social media and say, you know, great job to Paul Hughes and all this stuff. Come visit us in Dagestan. Paul's response was class. Thank you. I appreciate it.

But please, only after I get the rematch. Don't get sucked in to this nicey-nice stuff. Don't get sucked in into these pleasantries. Get the freaking rematch. And don't let people forget that you weren't just, I hate to say it, but you weren't here just to take part. You were here to win that belt. Honestly, you weren't here just to be a bit player in the Usman Nurmagomedov story. You were here to be the man.

That's the man right there. The story of the fight, when the story of the fight is the loser, you've done something special. And the story of that fight was the loser. The story of the fight was Paul Hughes showing up and bringing Usman to the brink of defeat, first time in his career.

And, you know, the stuff on the ground accepted the loss as well you know like no he was class he was a total class who's going to take that on the board like this guy he had every right to to give himself a million barry harowitz is there after that you know he could have been like oh i think i won that's bullshit they gave him the decision because he's in dubai the anywhere else in the world i win this fight like he didn't do he said look i thought i did enough but i could have done more i could have tried harder i think that kind of thing resonates with irish people as well you know like given respect this is a sport like uh give it up to the person who's just gone 25 minutes with you

rather than you know throw them under the bus um i think there's certainly an argument that he won the fight and i think nobody would have batted an eyelid if he had gone that route about it, but absolute class. And look, let's continue with what, what they built while they were in there. Everyone's very,

very happy and reasonable with each other. The reasonable thing to do there is to make the fight again. If you're a PFL, you want it to happen again. If you're a fan, you want it to happen again. If you're media, you want this fight to happen again.

It seems the only person who doesn't want this fight to happen again who's who's man i'm agamadoff and after he said in the cage no one has ever hurt me like this it seems a bit counter counterintuitive to go backstage then and say he needs three more fights yeah that seems ridiculous listen i give him a lot of credit to admit that you underestimated him says a lot shows a lot well done it's the biggest but he does play the villain role too 100 100 donna corby was on our show saying like he's actually better at than habib he he played it so well during the week which made paul look like this you know no armor yes he actually has a baby face paul like he he is the quintessential baby face he says all the right things he's so easy to root

for and i'm not saying usman is is a bad guy per se but you need the villain in the heel he does a great job his post-fight comments should be taken as such and and it should only make the the the rematch bigger you can make a strong case of everyone available in the entire organization this is the biggest fight that they can make and it's once again look they've had big moments cedric dume bay in France, big moment. Francis Ngannou's debut, big moment. But they've never had a rivalry like this and it's once again proof that seasons don't matter, standings don't matter,

tournaments don't matter. Because could you imagine if this was the final of a PFL tournament and now Paul Hughes would have to go through another gauntlet just to get back. Dare I say, it would be Josh Allen against Patrick Mahomes-esque. You know what I mean? That's the beauty of fight sports. You don't have to go through another gauntlet just to get back. Dare I say, it would be Josh Allen against Patrick Mahomes-esque. You know what I mean? That's the beauty of fight sports. You don't have to go through

training camp in July and go all the way to fucking January to try to do it again. You could do it right away. That's why we love this. Because it was that close. And by the way, historically, I'm not in favor of the challenger who loses getting an immediate rematch. But this was that damn good and that damn close to where I think you have to do it.

And let's be honest, when you're not the UFC and you have to play by different rules in order to get people invested in your product, you should do these types of things. You got something special, you do it. If it's the UFC and you've got three contenders waiting in the wings, okay, I get it. You have to build yourself back up. Other people deserve the opportunity. But who truly deserves this opportunity more than Paul Hughes? These are the fights that you have to make. And by the way, it looked huge over there in Dubai. It looked important over there in Dubai. It looked special. The environment was great. Once again, PFL in

Europe and the Middle East is a different product than here in the United States. And I don't know how they translate that over to here. I don't know how they bring that over. I don't know how they create that magic here. And maybe they can't. And maybe they focus on those regions for now because it's a completely different and better product over there. The walkouts were better.

They felt bigger. Everything felt more, this felt like the number two promotion. This felt like the major leagues. It didn't feel like what they look like when they're fighting here at Mohegan Sun or some, you know, small venue in Atlanta or San Antonio or even of fame when he was in cage warriors uh within orleans and stuff like that but in terms of this global thing cage warriors say themselves that they're a feeder league to the ufc pfl are trying to go up against the ufc usman and paul two guys we haven't seen in any

other major uh promotions so again that's another reason to be underlining this and spotlighting and showing the world these are our two guys this is not us living off the fumes of a career that was had in the UFC. This is happening right now. Two guys, one's 26, one's 28, and they're at the peak of their careers. This is a real sporting rivalry. I think they should play until the wheels fall off. Three fights. It's a phenomenal point. You're 100% right. Not homegrown in the sense that Paul Hughes was made in Cage Warriors and Usman is really someone that we were introduced to in Bellator. But hey, you acquired Bellator and you signed, some other light heavyweight or even a Vadim Nemkov. It's not some of these other guys who come across as castoffs or, you know, people who couldn't quite cut it or they weren't headliners here, but now we're treating them as headliners. No, they're your guys.

And that's what makes Doombay special as well. If you ignore, you know, his history with the UFC, never getting a chance to fight there. Invest in these three, four, five guys. Build them up. Make them feel special. Put them in situations and environments to shine. That's what they did this past weekend. You have something special.

You really do. Rick, what did you think of Saturday? Best PFL fight I've seen. I'm separating the Bellator from PFL. This was the best PFL fight i've seen right we're not obviously i'm separating the bellator from pfl this was the best pfl fight i've seen at the highest level with the highest stakes there might have been better wars i know pt picked a pfl fight for his fight of the year because of the the back and forth but the stakes in this one um matched with the performances of both guys uh it was the best i'd seen and the aj mckee fight already made me a believer in paul hughes right to to to uh be able to to outdo somebody who i rate as highly as aj

mckee regardless of whether it was like dominant or close he he clearly won that fight in my mind i thought he took the last two two rounds pretty easily and to clear that bar to me was was a statement maker this was another uh on top of that a statement that you're looking at one of the top 10 uh lightweights in the world um between both Usman and Paul Hughes um and I was I was blown away by the performance I thought on my scorecard it had to be at least a draw right i i there i had paul winning at least uh two of those rounds uh if not three and so i thought it had to be at least a draw but it does make for quite a story um if they are to run it back and i'm with you guys like there is no other option but to run this back it was it was so close uh also what better option do

you have right this this storyline has now built itself uh and there is nothing that i think that they could put together right now that will compare in terms of the drama uh that you've got here and you also know if they get in the cage together they've created magic once so uh blown away by hughes uh gritty performance by usman who i think could have had opportunities to to kind just go away with how good I thought Hughes was looking and stayed in there and was able to get the victory. And yeah, do it again. You have to do it again. By the way, in case you're wondering, Ramadan starts a little earlier this year than usual. It starts February 28th, goes up until March 29th. So, you know, the

Nurmagomedovs, and no problem with that, uh, usually don't fight or like to train for a fight during Ramadan when it's so close. Obviously if there's one like two, three months later, that's different. Um, but it isn't one where it's like March going into late April or something like that. And so even if they, they, you know, realistically are, and those guys got beat up and cut up and all that stuff. A May, a June, even a July, it's what they have to do. And it would be crazy not to do it. How did you score at GC?

Yeah, I believe I had it as a draw when I was watching it live. You know, it was in between cheesesteaks and everything like that. So I kind of just had one eye on it. But I went back and re-watched the fight yesterday. And after looking at the judges' scorecards, after rewatching it and scoring it live, I thought round two was Hughes, and I thought you could have made an argument for four and five as well. And the fact that on the judges' scorecards, we're all talking about how fantastic Hughes fought. There wasn't a single unanimous round for Hughes across the three judges' scorecards. I think it's a no-brainer. It's the biggest fight that you can have in PFL right now.

I think maybe my favorite part about it was not just Hughes' performance, but all the love that Paul Hughes was getting, even in defeat. We're all sitting here saying it. We're just like, oh, he just proved what we believed about him, especially after the A.J. McKee performance and everything. But now it feels like people are really on board with Paul Hughes as an incredibly legit lightweight, and there is a rivalry there and if they if god if they redid it in Belfast could you imagine the scenes there for Paul Hughes uh I think PFL has something with this and they they have to

have to do the rematch is there how big is the uh the arena in Belfast PT is like 8,000 like that like no it's more it's like it's 12 or 13 okay so it is big enough can you see who's been going there as champ no no i mean neither why would it would be no can i just say like no i agree with you rick uh belfast is a hub and um it doesn't get said enough about paul uses team for academy ireland uh lame shannon from west belast and Pat McAllister, guys who've trained up this group and have really stayed the climb as the best gym in Ireland. They've created such a hub. It's a hotbed up there in Belfast. It used to be the people in the north looking down at the south and going, geez, imagine if we had something like that.

It's the opposite now we're all looking up there and the events that liam shannon's putting on to kind of to to give the amateur fighters um a platform a lot of the early pros are fighting on these cards ryan curtis would have fought on this card um a few years ago many pros have um it goes it goes without saying that they have a lot of credit they deserve a lot of credit for what what's happened with paul and um it's just great to see it feels like a new story to be told about irish mma and i'm here for it yeah um i'm really curious to see what happens and i can't wait to talk to uh to paul on wednesday overall it was a solid event again it felt bigger than their usual events uh i was i was really impressed with ibrahim ibrahimov especially his you were

raving about him last week dude it no seriously i don't know if that's a joke or not but his uh his uh his post-fight interview was was just amazing i i really really loved him well i wasn't raving about him i think that was a joke right was that a joke was i talking about him on your show gc were you you know about the story about this guy, right? No, no, no. I thought you were talking about the rest of the card. He's just sassy today. I'm sorry.

Jesus Christ. I didn't think we were going to do a post-fight interview. Guy gets showered with praise in fucking Philly and all of a sudden taking shots at everyone. I thought it was a one-fight card. I must have been talking about him on the crack, but he is a guy from, much like Makayev, right?

He, he was, he's born in Dagestan, moves to Manchester. Two of his brothers play for the Manchester United Academy. And he had trials for Manchester city when he was young. Like this guy is from a genetic pool of freaks. Like,

and, and God love him. His brothers are going to make millions and millions. If they make it at Manchester United. And he's chosen to be the MMA fighter. But, you know, it could be a blessing in disguise because he seems to be absolutely fantastic at it. But, like, what a talented bunch of kids they are, right?

Like, two brothers in one of the most famous soccer academies in the world. He got trials for their biggest rival. I don't know if he chose to leave football to pursue MMA, but he's absolutely fantastic. He actually has the same kind of buzz Mikhaev did around the UK. He sounds exactly like Mikhaev too when he speaks, right? He's got that like mix of Russian slash Mancunian accent. But he just seemed so grateful and happy for the opportunity

and fought very impressively as well. Ahmed Magomedov beat Nathan Kelly, you know, submitted him via rear naked choke. The buildup was fun to that one. But Magomedov, you know, reigned supreme and Vadim Nemkov submitted Tim Johnson in the co-main event. Obviously, all the attention was on the main. And I thought overall for a card that was somewhat maligned and we didn't know where it'd be seen and where it would air here in the United States, it was a good day for the PFL brass.

And let's see if they can build off of this momentum. And I thought Brendan Locknane did great on the broadcast as well. Dan Hardy was great. Sean O'Connell, great. So there's stuff there. They need to be able to build off of this and make the right moves, make the right calls. for Khabib Nurmagomedov's post-fight comments, which, you know, again, you could do as you want. Khabib took the microphone in the middle of Usman Nurmagomedov's post-fight interview to say that everyone in attendance should be supporting Ireland, regardless of his history with a famous Irishman, because Ireland has been the number one country that has supported Palestine, especially over the last year, year and a half. And I have no real issue with that statement whatsoever. People should be supporting, you know, innocent victims who are caught in the middle of a horrendous war.

I support Palestine as well. I want Palestine, as he said it, to be free. I just want them to be free from the genocidal, maniacal terrorist group that runs Palestine, and that's Hamas. That's the part that he missed in the speech. But I'd like to think that that's what he was trying to say, and that was the point of the message, that we need to free them from the claws of the terrorist regime that runs Palestine. And I try not to get into this stuff, but it did strike a chord with me to a degree on a day where four innocent women, age 20, 20, 20, and 19 were released as hostages after being, you know, kidnapped and held hostage. And Lord knows what happened to them being paraded around the streets of Gaza. On Saturday morning, confetti thrown in their face,

made to dress up in front of everyone with guys covered, their faces covered, holding massive rifles and being kind of shown around as trophies. On that particular day to just say like, oh, you know, we need to support and not talk about what's going on over there, to me felt a little bit tone deaf. And on that note, I have seen Khabib speak up for the people of Palestine on many occasions, and he should speak up for them because there are innocent victims being used as human shields and people dying. And it's awful to see and it's heartbreaking. I don't know a single Jewish person, I don't know a single supporter of Israel that wants to see them falter. Most of us want just a two-state solution where we are left alone to live in peace. This country that is the

size of New Jersey engulfed by multiple countries who want nothing more than to eradicate them off the map. But I never see him speak about what's happening in his home country. I never see him talk to Donald Trump about what's happening in his home country of Russia. I never see him talk about the plight of the Ukrainians or even the plight of the innocent Russians who die. And I wonder why that is. And so the next time he gets on a microphone in the middle of a fight and gets political to a degree and talks about humanity to a degree, I'd love to see him give a shout out to the victims of the Russian-Ukrainian war who have been dying by the hundreds of thousands in the past two and

a half years. I'd love to see a mention of that. I don't know why he doesn't mention what's happening in Russia and in the Ukraine, but I'd love to see him mention that as well, because I think his heart is in the right place, and I'm just a little bit confused as to why he doesn't talk about them. Nevertheless, everyone who is trying to dunk on me, I do appreciate it. I would say that your values and your thoughts are in the wrong place because as the great Muhammad Makaev who reached out to me admitted, he has never seen me say a single negative thing about Palestine or Palestinian people. And I think most people who are in my circle and who are people that I interact with only want good things for those people, just like we want good things for the people of the state of Israel. Okay, so let's move on. That was Saturday afternoon, and then we move along to BKFC. And in the midst of the PFL event, the boys were on a road trip to Philadelphia. And I think that's why GC has a bit of a pep in his step, because I think he was treated as a king over the weekend, in particular on Saturday in Philadelphia.

They rolled out the red carpet for you at four major stops surrounding the city of brotherly love, a city that often gets criticized for not being uh loving enough these days i think they showed you a lot of love did they not uh one place in particular showed us a showed us a ton of love others you know we had to do the standard weight and everything like that everyone was very friendly though uh it was a great time uh i was on my my own for the first part of the day. We didn't get, you know, Rick or... Who the fuck is we? Exactly. There was no Rick.

There was no Frank until the final location of the day at about 6 o'clock. But, yeah, I got in at about 11, and from there it was just cheesesteaks up until the fights for Knucklemania 5. It was a fantastic day. Went to D'Alessandro's. Got pictures there.

This is at Angelo's, shout out. That's actually Bronson's favorite place. Here's John Roast Pork. I mean, it felt like the sandwiches just kept getting bigger and bigger throughout the day. Here's the crew at Shea's. Shout out to Scott, the owner. Legendary spot that you recommended. Yelp just named it the number three steakhouse in America. Come on. Not just cheesesteaks, the number three steakhouse in America. Like up there with fine diningesesteaks, the number three steakhouse in America. Like up there with fine dining restaurants. It was an unbelievable experience.

Me and Rick had to get some yinglings while we were out. We said we were going to do yinglings with the boys, a Pennsylvania brewery. And then we went to Knucklemania 5

and we watched the fights. Did the steps, did the Rocky statue, did the cheesesteaks, did the yinglings, and then finished it with Knucklemania 5, which was an unbelievable event. So we're going to get the full fight fees behind the scenes. It's incredible.

Here's like a small, short clip from it. I can't wait. When we were with Scott at Shea's, he brings out something called the Big Dipper. I think it's named after Wilt Chamberlain. And it is a 20-inch hoagie roll, which is full of cheesesteak. We have the video right here. Yeah, I mean, it's gigantic. It was unreal.

That's 20 inches? 20 inches. Filled with two pounds. And what's the other thing? That's a, what kind of steak was in there? Filet mignon quesadilla. Filet mignon quesadilla. He brought out shrimp just for Frank.

Didn't do cocktail, but grilled it up. Can we get the ranking? Nah, ranking comes Thursday. Ranking comes Thursday. I had to sleep on it. I had to digest. I had to watch back the tape. It was a very difficult decision to make.

Can I just say this? Tell me if I'm wrong. When I recommend, because you guys, you know, you were going to the hits, right? Angelo's, what is it? D'Alessandro's, right? When I recommended, oh, my friend's uncle, this, you were like, is this a waste of time? Like, Shays isn't known. They're like 10 months old. Was it worth the trip? Okay, so you are correct. I was a little bit nervous. I was polling some of my Philly friends, and a couple of them were

like, oh, go to XYZ Place. My boy owns it. I was like, you know, I gotta go to the big hitters. Yeah. The Google reviews confirmed this, and then the experience we had there, yeah, it was absolutely worth it. Took us back to the kitchen, no freezers in sight, fresh meat cut right in front of you, and then it's cooked.

In the history of Fight Feast, have you ever been treated this way? No. No, never went back into the kitchen. We made Fight Feast history by going back to the kitchen. Scott, the owner of the place, cooked up the cheesesteak for us personally right in front of us. Wow. What a legend. It was unbelievable the way that he rolled it.

He was actually offended When I called it a cheesesteak He was like It's just a steak sandwich Oh interesting With cheese on it Yeah he was He's very serious

Is that a common sentiment In Philadelphia No no no I think he's saying That's how they separate themselves Okay Did you try the chicken one No

Okay I don't know Chicken cheesesteak No it was So soft right Oh the bread is great I didn't realize How important the bread was

With all these different places. Golly. All right. Well, I can't wait for that. That's going to be on Thursday's Boys in the Back? Yeah, Thursday's Boys in the Back. This honestly feels like it needs to be like a bit of a supersized one, no? I think it's going to be a little bit longer, yeah.

Four stops. Four stops and, you know, it was a tough decision. How full were you by the end of the night? Yeah, Scott was the last place we stopped at Shea's. Oh, my God. And he just kept bringing out food after food after food. I was just like, I don't know how much more I can eat, man. Yeah.

And the other boys, they only went to the last stop. I went to the last one. I didn't see them until Shea's at 6 o'clock. I'm about to pass out because I've been going all around Philadelphia. And they're like, what's up, man? We finally arrived. Couldn't have done it better. Landed in the right spot. That's right. Yeah. i'm eating like i planned it better i'm eating my eighth

cheesesteak of the day and rick's like this is the first thing i've eaten all day starving i'm like good for you man and and i'm getting served up filet mignon quesadillas it was incredible oh my god yes i i was i was jealous i was having fomo because i've had it and i and i've never had anything like it since uh or really before i'm not a huge cheesesteak guy, but it blew me away. And, and I too, like my friend tells me to go, I'm like, all right, I'll go to support her uncle.

It seems like a cool guy. He's a judge in Philadelphia. And then you go there and you're like, holy crap, this is unbelievable. It's so fresh. It's so hot. It's so juicy. It's so soft.

Phenomenal. And then you guys get to the event. Yeah. Well, one last thing about Shea's, sneaky horseradish sauce to dip the cheesesteak in. Yeah. It was fantastic. I could just see like pizza, like just your salad.

Look at him. He's just like looking up. I was actually, I was hoping he wouldn't put pictures in because the jealousy was tearing me apart all day. You go to Philly and you tell him how long he sent you, it'll be perfect. He'll love you.

Yeah. He'll love you, man. Scott, again, if you're ever in the Philadelphia area, you're going, I don't know, what's coming up in Philadelphia? Obviously, they're playing in the Super Bowl, but if you're just there. They've got a big game coming up. Yeah, I need tickets going. I might as well. Yeah, but you're not going to Philly for the game.

Trust me. If you're in the Philadelphia area, if you live there live there if you're traveling if you live in South Jersey go to Shea's S-H-A-Y apostrophe S you won't regret it I'm locked into BKFC and from the jump watching it on DAZN no pay per view

it felt gigantic it felt big and I have to admit there's BKFC on there's Knicks and Kings, there's BKFC on. There's Nixon Kings on. There's Diego Pacheco against Steven Nelson on DAZN as well. Big night for DAZN. They also had the Dalton Smith fight in Nottingham earlier in the day.

There was a lot happening in sports. I'm alone. I have to take care of the kids. Every time I switched, I felt like if I switched for five minutes to something else and went back, there was an incredible knockout or they moved on to another fight. The pace of this damn thing was unbelievable, and then the sheer violence was just like, it was a 15 out of 10.

Rick, what was the atmosphere like? What was the energy like? This was your first BKFC event, yes? It was, yeah. How would you describe it? Okay, so for starters, and I mentioned this on Boys in the Back, anybody who had been to a BKFC event before has told me that the bar is pretty high because the crowds get rowdy. The energy at a BKFC event is high. And so I knew that coming in. When I got there, it exceeded expectations. For one, I've worked in this business for a long time. I've put on

events. I've been to events. I've worked events. I've seen all kinds of variations of this. There was not an empty seat in the house. And I say that to say, because there's UFCs that sell out all the time. What's interesting about that is sometimes when you've got a house like this, you paper it, right? There's tons of tickets given away. What typically happens in a lot of cases when you give those tickets away is people don't show up because they got the tickets for free and they're not really invested. They don't really care. So a lot of times what you see is when you see a papered event, there's nobody there in those sections because they kind of just got the tickets and then they didn't want to show up.

Not an empty seat in the house. I don't know how much was bought versus how much was handed out, but it felt like an absolute pack sold out crowd as they advertised 17,000 plus of people who were just in it to be there for Philly. The crowd was extremely pro Philly. When Stevens gets shown on the Jumbotron, they're booing. Their guys get shown on the Jumbotron, they're cheering. The energy throughout the night never waned, never dipped. BKFC did a great job of hosting it and making sure that an arena atmosphere was good and and that there was no lulls in the action from the pacing of the card but also just to like the uh the mc on the microphone and all the things they were doing in between i was really impressed i was truly truly impressed because i've been as i said i've

been to a lot of different events and um they it right. They truly did it right. Everyone played their part. Everyone played their part. Feldman played his part. They built the right type of card for that city, for that market with local guys. You get to the press conference on Thursday. Let's play some of the press conference sound because the press conference sound was old school UFC circa like 2008, 2009, where they just let the fans talk. And I saw some people saying like,

wait a second, aren't you the guy that says you don't like to disrespect fighters or have fighters be disrespected at press conferences? No, no, no, no, no. There's a major difference when it's credentialed media walking up there, speaking to Mike Perry or Nate Diaz saying, what are you going to do when you're, you're, you're, you're face first on the mat or you're staring up at the lights when so-and-so knocks you the F out? This is different. This is Conor Aldo in Ireland. This is fans walking out there and the opponents knowing exactly what to expect, supporting

their own. Take a look at some of this because I thought Jeremy was fantastic. The fans were fun. He even got a cameo from Joe Pfeiffer himself, and it just made you feel like you were in freaking Fight Club, like you were in the pit. You were in freaking Philly with the most hardcore. It made me feel like ECW

back in the day. These are the hardest of hardcore, most rugged, intense fans, and they're like, yo, welcome to Philly. You're now on our turf. Take a look. Philly, you guys are incompetent just like your mayor. You can't even spell fucking Eagles right, you know? I still stand on business.

I got to go prove to myself I'm the best in the fucking world. I'm going to fuck up your boy. Jeremy was great. Look at this. We'll give you a chance to get the crowd on your side one time. All you got to say is the letter E. Hold on a second. Hold on a second.

Jeremy, can you say it? He don't do shit in Des Moines, Iowa. Fuck you, Jeremy. Can't wait to see Eddie whoop his ass. Piper. I'm pretty sure that motherfucker can't spell. His haircut looks like shit, and Iowa ain't going to do shit in the football game. Good luck to all my Philly boys.

And if Lil' He even want to do something after, he can get his ass whooped by me, too. Let's go. Look at Jeremy. Stoic up there. More questions for Jeremy Stevens. Who's the worst performer, you or your barber? The best part is, look at all these haircuts. Poiper with the trompsclats getting very confident.

You chose when you came to talk a lot of smack on the city itself, not necessarily so much on Eddie. Was that a strategic choice? Is that just what came to mind? Why the reasoning? All right, I did try. He may weigh more, but, you know, he's old, he's slow, he's stiff. That's a great line, yeah.

I'm the faster, more consistent fighter. I'm going to go out and prove it. I'm going to put him in the fucking morgue. That's where the after party is, so see you all there. It's a great line from Jeremy because earlier they said, yodie where's the where's the after party and then he comes back with that jeremy stevens who we've been watching for a long time who you know didn't always have the gift of gab freaking own that moment he owned that moment he played it up perfectly i would dare say he's on the receiving end of one of the most iconic like verbal beatdowns in press conference

history a thousand percent and now he has risen to this occasion and he was holding court as as receiving end of one of the most iconic verbal beatdowns in press conference history. And now he has risen to this occasion and he was holding court as the heel. It was incredible. I loved that part too. We played that on Boys in the Back and we were both cracking up. It was incredible. They have something special with him because he's rugged, because he hits hard,

because he freaking seems to love this type of violence being involved. It's not for everyone. And just like they found something special with Perry, he's a little bit further along in his career than Perry. But I thought that set the tone beautifully. You get the weigh-ins on Friday. It just felt big. It felt a little raw.

It felt a little rugged. It felt a little rough around the edges like old-school UFC. But it was exactly, to me, as I'm watching that, like old school UFC, but it was exactly to me, as I'm watching that, like, that's how you build a fight. That's how you build a weekend. The other promotions don't get me started on the boxing press conferences, which couldn't be more dull and more boring. But even like the PFLs of the world, like stop trying to be something that you're not. Stop trying to be the quote unquote, you know, four major sports, the stick and ball sports. Lean into the

ruggedness of the fight game, and that's what BKFC is doing perfectly. And then we get to the actual fight. Go ahead. Can I just break the fourth wall on one thing? Yes. Post-fight press conference, Jeremy Stevens says the one who told him to take this approach? David Feldman. So shout out to David,

ever the promoter. He figured it out. Listen, if I were Jeremy, I wouldn't say that I wouldn't say that, but it was executed to perfection we're past it it's not going to be Jeremy versus, I mean maybe versus Philly again, but it seems like we'll move on from this and

both sides played it perfectly, the Philly crowd was all in let's see some of the knockouts because the knockouts were just like, it felt like. Hellacious, bro. They handed out bonuses to every fighter on the card because of how nasty everything was. I think it was like 10 of the 12 fights ended in knockouts, and like one that went to a decision that was seven knockdowns in. 41

seconds in, this is Travis Thompson against Zachary Pinelli, or Pinell, excuse me. Look at that. I mean, look at the faces when they're getting knocked out. Look at him. Look at him. I mean, look at the faces when they're getting knocked out. Look at him. Look at him. This is more courtesy of his own.

It is just vicious, this. This one, dude. The Montanez guy was a huge underdog, and he was talking mad shit on the mic afterward. Unbelievable. Look at that. Look at his face. I think dude in white shorts was a Philly guy, too.

Look at the way he... That's Brandon Meyer. Zedekiah Monten. The knockouts are just absolutely vicious. This one was scary. Is this Sullivan, is it? Yeah. Oh, that was gnarly.

That's the way he just turned it on. Look at that. Look at that. I mean, honestly, it looks like he's dead. Dude, he was down for a minute too. The way he hits the rope, that was gnarly. Kane Thomas. That's the way he just turned it on. Look at that. Look at that. I mean, honestly, it looks like he's dead. Dude, he was down for a minute too. The way he hits the rope, that's really dangerous usually when a fighter hits his neck off the rope like that. A lot of fighters have been.

It really was scary. He was down for a minute. But they said on the broadcast that they give more slack to that rope specifically for a situation like that, which I thought was very intuitive with them. Because that's usually the horror one in boxing, right? When you see the head hit the bottom rope. You can see it on TV, but in person, that ring is tiny. It forces insane action. They're in a phone booth, practically. You compare it to when you go to an event and you see a boxing ring, there is nowhere to hide in that ring. You will have to fight.

In terms of the production and the pacing when you're there, does it feel UFC-esque in terms of the energy, in terms of just like the adrenaline? Yeah, it moves faster even. It fell fast. It's like flashing lights and pyrotechnics and loud music and they have a hype man getting on the mic in between fights to hype you up.

So they're doing a good job. Oh, they're doing a great job. The energy was through the roof and it really felt like it was moving quick doesn't drag no and i mean you're getting these 30 second minute knockouts and then before you know it there's another fight coming right behind it i love it they don't go to a freaking desk they don't start showing you a million different packages or go to the back or go to this or go to this oh god just keep it moving, man. Keep it moving. And there's a lot of fights on this card and you're like, damn.

But they're all ending, you know, 53 seconds or 41 seconds, 37 seconds, a minute and 59. Very few of them. The women's fight, which was a fun fight. And by the way, two minute rounds too. Beck Rawlings defeated Taylor Starling, the unanimous decision. Then you get to the Ben Rothwell fight against the champ Mick Terrell. And Ben, again,

another guy that they found who is just perfect. Look at that. I mean, freaking right hook from hell. Look at Big Ben. You left him, man. This one was crazy.

Look at this guy. I love Ben. Boom. Oh, my Jesus. Look at it again. Look at it again. Kablam. Terrible.

Like Terrell had this big walkout and like, uh, the, the announcer was hyping him up so much on disputed. And he's wearing, what was he wearing? He was like wearing a magnet hat and some sort of crazy Philadelphia. I think he had an Eagles chain or something.

Oh yeah. Giant Eagles chain on like he's hyping up the crowd. And then 30 seconds just flatline. It was, that one was nuts. Ben's post-fight interview was great. Again, just saying

how happy he was, how grateful he was, how proud he was to be representing BKFC. It was a great moment for the promotion, and then you get to the main, and the main felt gigantic.

Eddie walking out to the Rocky music, Jeremy playing the role of the heel. Back and forth they went, and ultimately the fight was stopped by... Oh, look at this. Just look at these punches, man.

It's... It is... It's gnarly. It is intense to watch. It really is. Jeremy was perfect. Shout out to Mark Henry, one of the best coaches in the sport. He's, he's egging on the, uh, the Philly crowd there. Mark Henry, who may be in more pain than I am on this, uh, this Monday afternoon, cause he's the biggest Bills fan I know. Um, and shout out to

his son, Pino as well. We were commiserating together. Um, he was wearing the Bills hat in the corner, which was nice. Uh, he was the one that stopped the fight and, and, and luckily he did because according to Dave Feldman, Eddie Alvarez broke his jaw. And you could tell when, who was it? Was it Mir Gliata? Mir Gliata said to him, like, do you want to continue? And Eddie said yes, because that's who he is. Underground king, legend, as tough as they come. But you could tell by the way in which he said yes, that he didn't really want it anymore. And I don't say that because he didn't want it. He had a broken jaw.

And he said yes, but just by his body language, he doesn't want to be on camera in potentially his last fight saying, I want out. And so credit to Mark Henry for recognizing that and calling it off. So it ends in the third round or technically end of the third round corner stoppage. Huge win for Jeremy Stevens. Gets on the microphone. Great post-fight promo. And then this happens. Pay me my fucking money! Let's go!

There it is, ladies and gentlemen. Jeremy Little Heath and Stevens. Connor, come here. I want McGregor right here. Connor, come here. Oh boy. Whoor right here. Conor, come here. Oh, boy. Who would have thought? Let's make a date.

Let's set a date. Who's going to stop me, man to man? No one's going to stop me. David, make the date. Let's do it. One down for the pro. Yes. One down for the pro.

This is wild. When you consider the fact that Conor is an owner of the company, now say, like, make the date. What? Yeah, he's like, Dave, make the date for me. Yeah, that was crazy. He also sent Feldman to the press conference to say, no, not the first thing, the last thing he said

before Feldman was done at the post-fight press conference, Conor told me that I have to say that he is going to fight Jeremy Stephens at BKFC. And he's like, I'm not sure, but that's what he's telling me. He's going to fight him. So I just love the man energy. But it's never going to happen. He's still under UFC contract.

No, but that's what's so great. We got the Perry moment. That's never going to happen either. He said something like, he was like, what man's going to stop me from getting in the brawl? And people were just posting the pictures of Dana White. It's just like, yeah, it's not going to happen. By the way, even if he never fights him,

Jeremy Stevens is elevated by the fact that his boss, you know, his boss, is somebody who he has a rivalry with, who did that moment at the press conference with him. It only continues to elevate it. It's perfect. How about the redemption arc for Stevens, man? Yeah.

It goes from who the fuck is this guy to doing a face-off at BKFC with them. Yeah. 100%. And now undefeated at BKFC and now seems to be like one of their faces, one of their stars. And that's the thing. You look at guys like Jeremy who went the PFL route and like, what happened? You look at a guy like Mike Perry who chose to go this route as opposed to

other routes. Ben Rothwell chose to go. And look at how they're able to prop them up and make them into stars and part of it is because it's just so brutal my question is and and we will not know the answer right now but like what is the ceiling is it too brutal to truly be as big as MMA I'm not saying the UFC but like can this be can it can we live in a world where it's bare knuckle MMA, boxing, kickboxing in Europe, pro wrestling, this and that? Or will it always be like here just due to the sheer brutality involved in the sport? I don't know.

You guys witnessed it. You guys saw it. Ah, man. Like it does feel like it will always have a cap on it just because of how like because there's mma and and some people are squeamish about that and turned off because of the violence and then it's like this is taken to a new level the knockouts are so vicious the cuts the bleeding and everything and then just like even when you're in the the arena like it does just feel more brutal and like more savage the way they even talk about it and everything i don't know if we can ever get to like pure explosion but man these these knucklemania cards like they have me wanting to

go back next year like for their like super bowl yeah i just feel like if people go to the events and the more they watch it and the more stars that they can create like with the heavyweight champ now rothwell like he he could have something there as as champion you know maybe they do a stevens versus mike perry fight, something like that. I think it can continue to grow, but I think it will always have a bit of a cap on it just because of the brutal nature of it. Seventeen thousand seven hundred and sixty two, which is a record for that arena. combat sports event held in an arena in Philadelphia has drawn more people, $2.3 million gate, which is phenomenal for a sport and an organization that felt like, you know, they would just hold events in Montana and Wyoming and Idaho not that long ago because

they couldn't get sanctioned in the major markets, let alone the Pennsylvanias of the world. And Dave Feldman himself has said, you know, he wants Nevada, he wants New York. It looks like they're making headway in California. They're a force. And this is why I say, like, if I could invest in one non-UFC promotion right now, given their trajectory, it's BKFC, more so than anyone else out there. Maybe even more so than any major boxing promotion as well, just because it seems like they have something that is so different and so unique. And in this sort of like TikTok, ADD, violence, give it to me quick and fast society that we live in, they're perfect. The fights are literally 50, 60 seconds long. And they end in the most vicious way possible.

I've been to Bellator, to PFL, to LFA, to UFC, to boxing events, and now BKFC. And I haven't been to a UFC pay-per-view, so that counts it out. But I think this might have been the most entertaining product that I've seen in person in combat sports. I think it's going to take some time. I think they've got

to the point you've made, I agree with everything you said. I think they've got a great product and that point of differentiation is a key for them. They are not trying to be UFC-lite. They are not trying to be the quote-unquote number two in MMA. They are trying to do something completely different. One of their gifts is one of their curses though. And their gift is you don't have to care about

the stories and this and that. When you watch a BKFC event, you know that two guys or girls are getting in there and they're going to scrap and they're going to try and knock each other out. What you lose in that regard and potentially lose in like not throwing to video packages and things like that is you don't build long-term stories, right? It's all short-term. It's show up to a BKFC event and you will have a great time. So you're selling the brand more so than you're selling the individual athletes, which is what the UFC does to an extent, but then they also are kind of doing that long-term storytelling. I think once they can kind of blend those things, it will be a perfect mix because they have it. What they were facing early on is like, it felt like it was kind of like an MMA cast off location.

It does not feel like that. It feels like now you look at like somebody like Jeremy Stevens, who can be the best at bare knuckle or Mike Perry, who could be the best at bare knuckle. And it does not have to necessarily be an MMA adjacent thing. It can be its own kind of thing. So I think they're in the right direction, 100%. The key for them now, build stars.

Don't just get people on the back end of their career. But here's what they have going for them. I know there are other bare-knuckle promotions. I know there's BYB and whatnot. But they could really have their own stranglehold on this sport. As opposed to, you know, Matchroom's doing great things, but they have to compete with Queensberry and Boxer and Top Rank and Golden Boy and PBC and on and on it goes.

These guys, like, you want to come to Bare Knuckle? You come to us. And that's the formula that helped the UFC for so many years. They were the one place where if you wanted to be an MMA star, especially in North America, you came to them. And so the whole thing is built around you come here, you fight for us exclusively. Yeah, we'll give you opportunities like we did Mike Perry fight fight jake paul i know david said that he didn't love that he thought that it maybe hurt his stock a little bit but for the most part they are the place to be and i think a lot of fighters like i could see a dan hooker watching that and being like where the fuck do i sign up for this you know i was just gonna say with them growing over time with them getting

bigger and creating bigger stars and getting more people viewing it more as a legitimate organization and growing in fans, imagine down the line, yeah, Dan Hooker ends it with the UFC and he comes and fights BKFC or a guy like a Dustin Poirier. Or what if a few years down the line, Conor McGregor actually does end up fighting BKFC after his UFC contract? It feels like the more they grow, the more opportunities they will have to land those big names and just continue to grow as well. You just hope that it's more 20-somethings as opposed to late 30-somethings in the organization

because it's so brutal and because you don't want to be a place where careers go to die. You need to do both. You need to build just like an MMA promotion. You need to build your own stars and you need to capitalize on the stars of today and maybe even yesteryear to a certain degree and kind of build those things up in parallel. And look, you know, let's be honest. There's not a lot of competition in MMA right now. There's PFL out there and obviously UFC is just such a behemoth. There, I think, is an appetite for something a little bit different. And this was perfect for them. There was no UFC this weekend. There was

no other major MMA going on on Saturday. PFL was earlier in the day. Who knows what the numbers are in terms of viewership in between the two. We don't really know how PFL does on max. And I think that might've been their last one on max because I think they'll be moving over to prime video, at least some of those champion series events. The other ones are on ESPN plus, but there's something very interesting there. And, uh, I'm really excited to see, I'll, I'll be honest. I was one of those who thought it was too brutal, who thought it was too hardcore, who thought it would never, you know, it would just be sort of this sort of like carnival rugged uh underground you know just very early early early mma hard to watch don't really want to tell people i was telling my kids about it on saturday they're like what bare knuckle that's that's insane um but they have they have found a formula one of

the best things that happened to them was uh powerslap coming out to be honest you think so now they look like not the the ones in town who are just rolling out like the violence machine powerslap's not even a sport you're just standing there taking shots at each other's head bare knuckle yes the knuckles are bare but there is defensive tactic it's like yeah right you are trying to dodge punches and you're trying to land offense um i think that helped them honestly because they no longer seem like this crazy outlandish. Now they're starting to get licensed in different territories and commissions and states. So yeah, I feel like they're closer to mainstream

than they ever were. The one thing I wish they would do, and far be it for me to tell them how they run their business, they have so many events, and a lot of them are the lower ones and then the European ones, and then they have a European title. Don't go down the path of boxing. Keep it neat. And I wish it was

like eight shows and it's just the best shows possible because honestly, I'll see stuff. I'll be like, oh, there was BKFC last night. It's BKFC in Newcastle. And then it's BKFC at, you know, Mohegan Sun and it's BKFC in Hollywood, Florida. And then it's BKFC in Bulgaria. Like I don't really know what the distinction is between all of these shows. If they could keep it nice, tight, neat, and easy to follow with the weight classes and the belts, I think that they will find that a lot more people will follow them. It's good to have the DAZN deal. That's huge. They didn't have that before. So let's see where they go from here. So it's a big... Yes, go ahead. I was just going to say one counter to that. Not pushing back necessarily. Well,

counter to that is it's such a good local product. It's such a good in arena experience. I imagine they sell good tickets in these places because you show up and it's a great show. As I said, you sell the brand, right? BKFC is in town. You know, you're going to get a good show like we did in the Philly. They can't all be these big arena shows. I think Philly was a special one, but I do think they probably have some good road life out of doing these little shows. And maybe you get talent from the area that you could kind of scout. So outside of the TV product element of it, maybe there is like a service to that, you know? Yeah, you do get the local fans into it.

Like they can come and watch and be like, oh, wow, this is a super legitimate product. Like it's fun to go to. Like I think they're at Mohegan Sun this weekend if you guys want to go. Yeah, but to Aria's point, I to. I think they're at Mohegan Sun this weekend if you guys want to go. To Ari's point, I had no clue. They're at Mohegan Sun. I think Parker Porter's on the card this weekend. I want to know

because I think they have surpassed any expectation with that event. In terms of Wells Fargo, massive arena, 17,000 people. It felt like a lot of people were watching if you were just online more than usual, right? To Ariel's point, like how many of you got, like you've been there, you love the experience.

Are you tuning in this weekend to watch Let Me Bang Bro in his Huge Man event, which they advertised throughout? No, no. Genuine question, like because would it be the end of the world if knuckle mania was a wrestlemania where people like me who don't have a clue what's going on in wrestling they'll throw on wrestlemania for the the pageantry and the ceremony of it all the darts at christmas right right he watches for the whole year yeah i mean at christmas would that be the end of the world if knuckle mania turned into their banner event where everyone goes oh

let's let's stick it on. I think that would still be, that would still have blown our expectations out of the water when we were first introduced to this. You'd like maybe at least four major ones to start. Obviously you want every single major one to be a major one, but I don't think that they want once a year. Also knuckle mania, the last

four were around April. This one's in January. So you want some consistency there as well, unless they're doing more than one a year. Also, Knucklemania, the last four were around April. This one's in January. So you want some consistency there as well, unless they're doing more than one a year. But regardless, it's almost like you have to throw all that out the window and a big one comes about. Like you would think the next Mike Perry one against whomever he fights is going to be a big one. And they just have to do a good job of capturing

the same type of attention that they captured going into this one. You need the right personalities, the right venue, the right market, the right card. And let's see. And the UFC is so consistently on. If you can find those weekends where your big event is happening when they're not on. Like imagine this card happened last weekend when 311 was happening. Or even this weekend when 311 was happening, or even this weekend when, you know, Izzy is fighting.

I know that's a day card here in the United States, but still it's going to dominate a lot of our attention. It doesn't maybe get the same type of reaction. Maybe we're not speaking about it as much on this Monday. Yeah, I think the scheduling is huge because a lot of these fans come from being UFC fans and they just want to see it maybe taken to another level. One last thing I will say about Philly and Knuckle Mania, incredible event. The only fumble, we didn't get the Sean Brady face off. Oh, yeah.

We had to get an artist rendition of it from WV. Damn. Yeah, I don't know. I can't believe he's scared, Jason. I know Manager Rick said he'd handle it. He told me Brady was ducking, Brady was scared. I don't know what happened. What happened? I don't believe he's scared, GC. I know. Manager Rick said he'd handle it. He told me Brady was ducking. Brady was scared. I don't know what happened. What happened?

What happened? I don't know. I kept asking Rick. I was like, Rick, bring the contract. You have to set this up. I can't DM my opponent and ask him to meet up. The greatest call out, GC. You superseded moment of the year with that call out, Brady.

False. False. When the sands of time settle, everyone will know the tuxedo is above that. Did he try to meet up? Did he try? Listen, I can't speak with him. He's my opponent. He was busy. He had his guy who was cornering. You know, look, maybe it wasn't meant to be then, but it will

happen. Yeah. Rick was concerned about finding a 12-pack of beer. Oh yeah, Rick found a 12-pack of yingling. Don't worry about that. We're comparing. I't worry about that. It was like the only thing he said. If we're comparing. Said Brady's scared.

I didn't say that. I didn't say that. I know he's not. No, it's clear. Leave it to Frank to throw somebody under the bus. It's never happened before. It's a new one. It's a new one.

Rick said he was scared. All right. I do want to move along, and we'll be talking to Ben Rothwell in 13 minutes, but we do have to talk about the GFL draft that expired on Friday night. So we were locked in 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday. It took some time to find it, but we did, thanks to the Zone Sport YouTube channel. I think it was Pete C who found it for us.

I love that all of us were looking for it, though. I love that all of us were like, we cannot wait for the GFL. I was locked in from second one. So all of a sudden, I tweet about it, and all of a sudden people are sending me screen grabs of the whole draft. And this is, you know, 758. It hasn't even started yet. And then apparently we find out that some way, somehow, the whole thing was, I don't know, broadcast. It slipped through on the YouTube

channel before they went to the slate, before they went to the quote-unquote live broadcast. And it all ended up being accurate. They did switch around the order, but it did suggest that all of this was predetermined and that there was no real draft involved. Like they already decided who was going to go where, which is fine. You just kind of wish, and I felt for them, I'll be honest, I felt for them that all of this was revealed beforehand, taking away any sort of, you know, drama or intrigue, if you consider there to be any sort of drama or intrigue beforehand. And so in the end, you know, a lot of people had fun with it all. And in the end, I maintained that this doesn't work

and that the fight game isn't built to... Hang on a second, mate. Look at this video. This won't work. What are you talking about? I wasn't expecting this to play. Imagine how much this costs. Because you come next.

Yeah. Something, something, something. Protect your neck. Yes. No lyrics better than me, Peter. This was it. What was it? Protect your neck?

Protect your neck. Then he said he's going to Make a mess on someone's chest Or something That's when I got confused That's what I thought it was too Cause you're gonna be Made a mess on your chest I was like what the fuck

Look they had this amazing intro With a lot of familiar faces Yo Romero Incredibly they got all these guys On this spaceship To film it All fours I like this one

Chris Weidman Luke Rockhold And they played it over Did they show the Bulldog Gayguard yet? Why was there? There's JBS. Paige Van Zandt. Hey, imagine the amount of money they spent on all this wardrobe.

Listen, it's a lot of well-known fighters. Now, a lot of them who are a little bit older. But it is an impressive roster. Oh, here it is. What's the Bulldog? Oh, is that Gayguard Massassi? I did Oh, was that K.G. Massassi? I did not know what that was. How did you not recognize him?

There's Rashad. I don't know, man. Easy again. And there's your team, Dubai. Number one pick overall, Tyron Woodley. I just don't know how any of it is sustainable. And then you have the stories come out where one guy was slated to fight on the PFL event and a part of the draft.

And then, of course, Rashad Evans saying he was put in there against his will or something. That's why it says TBA. Yeah, that one, John, big pickup by a lot. You had the drama surrounding the Dylan Danis situation where he kept falling and falling and falling. I mean, even in a rigged draft, guys, Dylan... There's your team. There's Team New York, GC. There we go!

Dylan couldn't escape embarrassment, even in a rigged draft. We got a Gracie and a Danis in our welterweight division. You fucking boys had a team to avoid in the GFL. Everyone's talking about it. Killer B in the Adam weight? Yeah. Not bad. New York's so good, we have to see it twice. Mike Goldberg involved, Robin Black,

Brendan Schaub, Caroline Pierce. Honestly, guys, serious conversation. What did you think of the GFL draft? Did this make you any more interested? I thought it was pre-taped until they're just like, oh, we got some tweets from Ariel Helwani. I was excited to finally make an MMA broadcast. That was big.

It was very exciting. Can I start with the positives? Please. Yeah, rip them. I know the broadcast. That was big. It was very exciting. Can I start with the positives? Please. Yeah, rip them. That should be quick. Pete's seat. Is that it? Number one.

No, no, no. Pete's seat had a comment. Number one, we will forget about this relatively soon, right? Like, the draft happened. The teams are set. There will be, hopefully, a move toward an event, and this will kind of, like, fade away. This will be one of those like, I remember when.

Number two, I kind of thought Brendan Schaub did a good job. Like out of everybody, I was like, damn, Schaub's actually like carrying here. And shout out to him. I thought he was he was quite good in that spot. The rest, I don't know if we needed to go to the desk. I don't know if we needed that kind of like desk. I don't know if we needed that kind of in-depth analysis. I did like the interviews. The things to avoid would be leaking the draft results and the AI.

Pretty major issue there, all right? I still don't understand, and there was a lot of confusion. Okay, what happens if you don't get drafted, right? Because they said that they had signed like 400 or so fighters. And I asked Darren Owen, who, by the way, will join us tomorrow, credit to him, to talk about how the draft went.

So I'm looking forward to speaking to him. He is the commissioner and founder of the GFL. I asked him what happened to the fighters who weren't drafted. And he said, any fighters that are not selected remain free agents, both sides. The fighters in the GFL can terminate their contracts before February 1st, so any fighters that were drafted can even change their minds if they do not want to follow through after seeing their team's rosters. Perhaps that's what's happening with Rashad Evans.

So that's that answer. The other thing is, like, okay okay so now you're on this team I still don't really know how these fights and fight cards are going to be constructed do you know what I mean? like what does it even mean? is it going to be Dubai versus Los Angeles? and I don't know

and is it just Adam Waite versus Adam Waite Welter Waite? like yeah it's all so very confusing to me and it just runs counter to what I think fight sports should be. And where are they going to take place? And when are they going to take place?

Like we don't have an active schedule or anything like that for it. So it's sort of, I feel like I can clear some of this up for you guys. I don't know. Oh, clear it up, please. Host cities,

right? They'll, they'll fight in those cities. All right. So we're going to show it in New York, Dubai, who, who will fight each other is the,

they have the weight classes laid out and they have two people per the weight classes on each roster. They will square off and then there will be, I assume some kind of final showdown after that. And whoever the team that has the most wins. Does this make you more interested in the product? 100%

watch it. Yeah, the amount of names that are there, not less. If I just want to see the first GFL event, then amount of names that are there. Not less. If I just want to see the first GFL event, then I can really go from there. And obviously, the positive was the song. They played it 18 times

an hour. They played it 18 times and then I played it another 1,800 the rest of the weekend. I already got it downloaded to my iPod. Somebody drove by in Philly

and they were bumping it and we were like, holy shit, are they? Yeah, I don't believe it. Check it next. Because you come next. Who made it to the end? Who made it to the end? I think the fourth time

the song hit right after the second Ray Longo interview, I was like it's time for me to tap out. I'll see the results. Once they stopped doing the actual draft part and we're on to like, okay, now we're just going to show you who's on the teams, that's when I checked out. Can Joe Rogan just send Goldie a text?

Do you know what I mean? Can you just send him a message? Just give him something. One of the lads from back in the day, just give him a text. He shared a nice moment with some people there. Yeah. There were several nice moments from his time with the UFC. I felt every time they went to him, he had a story about his time with the UFC. Were we surprised by Woodley

1-1? No, because it was predetermined. Actually, no. The Woodley slot was open, if you saw on the pic. No, I'm not surprised. He's the chosen one. It's built in. That's a good point.

I think all of this was predetermined. Woodley gets a distinction. Maybe he was one of the guys who signed up early. I don't know how they determined that. Well, Weidman got the short shrift because he's watching somebody go ahead of him with his coach, his own coach. Yeah, that's right. By the way, Kevin Lee, Alaya Quinta, that was the whole thing. Oh, yeah, you got that straight. Ray Longo was just like, yeah, I'll take Kevin Lee

and Chris, you could be second. It started some drama over here. Ray Longo was on the thing. I love him wearing the GFL hat, but I think he was wearing a UFC shirt. He was wearing the Venom UFC championship hoodie. Oh my god. Listen, I want there to be so many options for fighters. I want them

to make as much money as possible. I hope they're all making seven figures. I've talked to a lot of managers. I'm like, how long do you think this will last? And they said, please just get us to one. Because the one is so much better than anything else out there. That's the kind of money that they're spending. And then the other side of me is like, well, if you're spending that kind of money on fighters who

are a little bit past their prime, this isn't a good thing. It does not bode well for the future. You're talking about options that have got to be sustainable and viable options. Yes. That will be sticking around that aren't going to overspend for one or two events. We've seen this with Affliction. We saw it with Elite XC.

We've seen promotions come and go. I wish if they had this money, if they had this backing, if they had this type of investment, and you got these fighters, just make the best fights possible. Because to be honest, there's a lot of names there that I think people would be interested in watching one or two more times. But if it's. Tony Ferguson.

Yeah. Yeah, of course. Like, but they'd have to be able to make the fights. They'd have to be able to manufacture the card and we'd be like, oh shit, that's going to be great.

They actually have the, the hardest part for most promotions is getting the roster. They have the roster, but they're putting them through some weird labyrinthine tournament schedule, which might obscure them from actually making the fights people want to see. Ariel's completely right. If they could just make cards for the rest of the year with this roster, I think they'd have a lot more chance of being successful. There would have been no need for this draft situation,

which has come under a lot of ridicule, rightfully so, based on the draft that didn't even happen. So if they hadn't have gone this way, they would have avoided their face being read from the jump. But can't they? I mean, in theory, they can make these fights. They're not limited in any way. It's not a traditional tournament structure. It's just teams, and the weight class is the weight class. So they will make these fights. They're not prohibited, right? Tony Ferguson is a lightweight for one team.

Kevin Lee is going to be a lightweight for another. They'll just make them fight. It's not preventative. But the cards will be constructed as New York versus LA, as opposed to just putting on the best cards possible. Yeah. I mean, yes, you can mix and match. I get that. But ostensibly, not every you can mix and match. I get that, but

ostensibly, not every one of those is going to be one we want to see. So you pick the Glory weight class and you go, okay, the Glory is not the promotion Glory, Glory as in the one you're trying to spotlight and you just, hey, Tony versus Kevin, top of the card. I just need to see an event.

That's where I can really give my... I need to see Kevin v. Tony. We need to see the production. We just need to see an event. That's where I can really give my... Don't really know where to go. I need to see Kevin V. Tony. Listen, we need to see the production. We need to see how it looks. We need to see... Also, where's it going to air? That's what I was just saying. If you don't have a broadcast deal,

you're kind of... You're a little bit behind the eight ball. You need that money. You need that production money. And so you will run out of money very quickly. You can't just put it on pay-per-view, on traditional pay-per-view anymore because people will just stream it. There has to be some sort of deal where people are going to watch this and you're going to get paid as a result. So I don't know.

I do wish them well. And I really genuinely, you know, we do this every day. We put on a show and there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes and there's discussions and there's graphics and this and that. And imagine working so hard on this thing. And this is your big unveiling, right? This is your big unveiling to the world. And the whole thing gets leaked before you start.

Like imagine the pit in the stomach of Darren Owen and the people working back there. I really did feel for them. Don't wish that upon anyone. It's a shitty, shitty moment. And then everyone's just kind of having a laugh on social media. I don't know if the reaction would have been the same had it not leaked beforehand. You know what I mean? Like, I think a lot of people would have been very, all right, let's kind of see.

Okay, all right. Okay, there's a name there. But then when it just was kind of playing out as the script suggested, the whole thing felt a little bit off. So let's see. We'll talk to Darren about it tomorrow. David Feldman's going to join us tomorrow as well to recap an amazing night for the promotion. Chris Weidman too.

But we've got, we're just getting started here on this non-Victory Monday, on this program. We've got Alex Pereira joining us at 4 o'clock in studio. Still to come, Jeremy Stephens, who won in the main event of the BKFC Knucklemania 5. Amazing event that transpired Saturday night in Philadelphia.

Dan Hooker in about 30 minutes. But first, let us go to the man who, in the co-main event on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Center, won the BKFC heavyweight title. Dare I say, first major title of his illustrious career, and he has been a perfect, perfect fit for BKFC. Undefeated, he goes out there and knocks out the defending champion, Mick Terrell.

Great entrance, great fight, great post-fight interview. He's one of our favorites. He's the big man himself, Big Ben Rothwell, who's kind enough to join us. Yeah, with the belt, Kenosha's own, the pride of Wisconsin. Hello, Ben. Congratulations. Very much appreciated. Thank you.

What does it feel like? Is that fair to say? First major title for you in your career? I think that's fair. I won some smaller stuff prior to the UFC, but I was always after that UFC title and I was on that four fight win streak. And, uh, you know, I blew it. I took that bad fight that you go, Ben, do you really want to take that flight? And I was like, yeah, man, I got it. And, uh, my career took a major hit after

that, because then I had a series of other things that happened after that loss that put me in a pretty bad spot. I wasn't even sure if I was going to keep fighting again. Wow. First round management pulled me out of a hole. Said this guy still got a fight left in him. Got eight more fights in the UFC after that. But there was a day you brought me on your show. I came on.

I said, yeah, I'm going to ask the UFC for my release. They're like, why would you do that? I'm like, I'm going to go to the BKFC. Wow. You saw it. You felt it. What was it about? Because this was in a much more hardcore... They're not selling out Philly arenas back then.

What did you see in them that made you interested? For me, it was the sport i mean i got you know a contract that was going to compensate me and allow me to keep fighting i liked a flat rate so that was very appealing but i was also told i wasn't going to have to worry about weight classes at the time so i was like oh this is awesome i can just fight the way I am this is gonna be great and uh that didn't end up sticking but you know I really enjoyed the idea of using bare knuckles uh it was a known thing that I don't wrap my hands you know my corner men and coaches always like for years were like kind of always astounded by that so for me I'm like this is a natural fit I bet I'm gonna

be pretty good at this and yeah the very first event i got sent to louisiana in front of about 2 000 people and uh did my first i got a viral knockout that was cool and uh i wasn't i really wasn't sure where this was gonna go i didn't know and then i just got blown away by each year now that's gone by watching david feldman the bcfc continued to absolutely blow this sport up to a level i couldn't believe and then last night i got to fight in front of 17 700 fans so it's a pretty pretty incredible incredible road that we're on right now by the way you were just talking about the weight classes and smiling um was this way cut a tough one for you?

Honestly, it was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. How much did you weigh at the beginning of the week? 306. And how much did you have to weigh on Friday? 275 on the dot, so it was a 31-pound weight cut. And so what happened? Why were you so heavy? I'm just

around 300 pounds a lot. That's just kind of where i'm at now i have two you don't have to make excuses but you know i have two very young children and to keep my family together i have to help so that is like its own stress outside of you know i wasn't like like when i went to denver i got to leave for a whole month and just focus on myself you know that was great and you got to do that. That just wasn't in the cards. I couldn't leave my wife. The children are too hard to deal with right now.

And I had to make that work because she's dealing with her own stress. So we just opened our brand new facility up right here. This has been ongoing for a year, but it just so happens in the month of December, it has to be done. My current gym, I was getting kicked out january 1st so like this gym has to get open or we're gonna lose our gym we're gonna lose our business and everything so i'm scrambling every day trying to make sure the painting is getting done and doing all the stuff with the general contractor trying to make sure people get in here and get this place open. Because the major thing that general contractor couldn't help me was, is I had to move my old gym to this gym in two days.

I had a two-day window to move everything, get everything set up in two days. And while I'm training for a BKFC title fight. And I pulled it off. I did it. We got the gym open December 26th. I kept my family together. And I won a BKFC title. Wow.

With all that going on, I tried my best to diet and do well. And I thought I was on track. Like, I was in California, and then two weeks out, you know, I'm heavy. I'm heavy, but I'm just like, hey, I got to get this done. And then a week out, I'm 306, and I'm like, this is going to be tough, but I think I can do it. But I actually, my friend had George Lockhart's phone number. And I'm like, you know, I'm just going to reach out to him.

Let's just see what he says. And I did, and he responded. He's in Ireland right now. And he's like, Ben, I've been watching you for years, man. I'm going to help you out. And did he ever. That guy is a genius. He's like, Ben, I've been watching you for years, man. I'm going to help you out. And did he ever. That guy is a genius. He's incredible. And he's very much a part of me winning this title

because he got 31 pounds off of me and made the weight on Friday. George Lockhart is arguably the best in the business. He's working with Joseph Parker right now before his massive fight. He's the man. No argument there. And I love the guy. And he's worked with some of the biggest names. But usually when he's working with you, he's there by your side.

And so how did this happen? How did you figure this out, and how were you able to trust the process? And are you freaking out? Because if you don't make weight, maybe the fight doesn't happen, right? I have known about him for years, and my guy had went to one of his seminars. So just the little bit of knowledge that he learned at that seminar, he's been helping my guys for the last, like, four or five years. So I already trusted George. I knew I trusted his process.

He stepped in over the phone, and he gave us detailed instructions that my guy didn't know that, you know, nobody knew. Like, George taught us so much the week of the fight like these are trade secrets as far as i'm concerned i mean george was very open to me he gave me everything but the way he got the weight off the way he got the emergency weight off and the way he recovered me are top tier i can't say i've worked with anyone at his level he's incredible how tough was thursday night like you, it was the hardest thing you've ever done. How dark did it get? Because it went into Friday at 3 a.m.

And George had us on a Hail Mary. This is how you get the last four pounds off. It's a 10-minute story that we don't have time to. But when I accomplished, when I went to, the mental struggle that I went through was the hardest thing I went through in my life. And when I got on the scale and it said 275.0 that night, I knew I won the fight. Wow. Did you, any, any thought to pull out? Any thought that you weren't going to make it?

It was unacceptable. Absolutely not. It was going to, I was going to get it done. It wasn't about making the weight. It was how I was going to recover. You know, I was getting on that scale. George is brilliant in the way he recovered me.

You've seen how fast I was moving around. He looked fantastic. Just curious, you don't have to get into specifics, but I think it's important to note, given you're 43, you've been fighting since back in the IFL days, for goodness sakes. The money that you're making now, is it comparable to what you since back in the IFL days, for goodness sakes. The money that you're making now, is it comparable to what you were making

in the UFC? I'm doing very well. Okay, so you're happy. This isn't like, oh, you're just kind of hanging around. You're able to provide for your family with this money. Yeah, I've tried to be smart enough. We've had the gym. This is going to be

14 years. This is a commercial is going to be 14 years. I just, I just, this is a commercial building that I purchased. So now we are on our own. Um, the gym is, you know,

Kenosha is providing for me with memberships and we're, we're taking care of ourselves and we're giving back to the community. But these fights are definitely to set up my family for the future and myself. And, uh, I'm being very well compensated. It makes it worth

fighting for sure in in the back of your mind did you think to yourself i need to finish this quickly because i don't know how depleted my body is if this fight goes into the the championship rounds and i know the fights are shorter it might no you're saying no you you weren't thinking you felt 100 friday morning we do a shakeout and it's about 30 minutes long it's about the length of the full fight and before i'd even finished it but but when i finished it my corner men and my training partners go my god we've never seen you like this ever so i i knew it was it was a good i was in yeah i loved your post-fight interview and and i loved how happy you were and how grateful you were and you did say i think that it was the most insane crowd that you've ever fought in front of.

And you've fought on some big stages before, you know, major UFC shows. What was different about this one? They were into it. You know, it's cool. You get a knockout. I've heard the crowd roar before, but I heard that crowd in the back room all night.

I mean, they were into it. And I dropped them and bam, right there, you could just hear the crowd just going nuts and it was just great energy it's a great fight car fight fight city energy you know what I mean like they loved it they were into it and then when I in my post fight interview I told them that they were a part of it and they blew up again so that's actually made me happy that was cool they got into it they were behind it and I felt like they were with me can you even describe what that feels like to drop a man with

your bare knuckle um you know with a bare knuckle punch a right like that a big boy like that the champion like what does that moment feel like when you connect especially that quickly in the fight it's it's kind of a combination where in the moment my brain's like, yep. Like that's what you're supposed to do. That's what I, we, that's what I've known I'm capable of. You know what I mean? And I'm only, I'm only upset when I don't show the world how precise and how powerful I am. And that was just me showing you like, that's why I say I'm one of the best in the world.

But after I'm in the back room, theness comes in like oh god damn did I really do that like it was so smooth I didn't get touched I don't even feel my hand right now and then there's that part that comes into it too or you're just like grateful for everything I'm grateful for every little thing that's in my life right now, and I just try all that stuff and more. Like I said, you've been around, you've seen them all, you've fought for them all. What do you think the ceiling is? Can they, I don't think they're, it would be crazy to suggest they're going to catch the UFC.

The UFC has a 30-year head start. They are behemoth, they're Kleenex. But in terms of how much more popular the sport can get, how much more popular BKFC and successful they can get, what do you think the ceiling is? See, we see combat sports. So, you know, it's always like about the UFC though, like the UFC is MMA. Like that's their brand. So I felt like Bellator won PFL.

Like that was the competition for that. This isn't, we're not MMA. You know what I mean? Boxing is big gloves and like boxing is a thing. So then like, you know, it's its own thing. And and it's like we kind of get put in like we're always compared to the ufc i just think that alone is like an accomplishment that hey we're even like we're even getting compared to it around the same table and like that um but obviously the ufc is a is a monster in the combat sports realm boxing's been around even longer and it still has its pull it ain't going anywhere bkfc i think is new it's something new and it can rise up to the highest ceilings um world and that's the thing

is it's being watched worldwide so i feel like just the fact that it's doing it worldwide i feel like there is no ceiling right now we just keep perpetuating this thing and follow suit right behind you know people get bored with a couple boring matches of the ufc they'll tune into us because you're going to get i don't know how many knockouts was there saturday night a lot yeah so people understand us easier you know a lot of times we people are getting wiser they're understanding mixed martial arts but they don't understand two guys what's going on on the ground a lot. They understand two guys throwing punches, hitting each other in the face. People, like, everybody understands that. That's what 17,000 people said.

And to kind of show where we're at, I think last Saturday was, like, really showed where we're at. I don't know if the PFL and the Bellator and one in the United States have sold anywhere to 17,000 people ever. That's UFC type stuff. And we did it. And they had the crowd on their feet on top of it. We made a lot of fans Saturday night.

So I don't want to be compared to them, but I think we're right up there with them. Like we're on our own trajectory. We're doing our own thing. And we're bringing eyeballs to combat sports in general. I love it. I also really enjoyed the press conference on Thursday because it did feel like an old-school UFC press conference with the fans.

What is it like being up there as they're coming up one by one, primarily to roast Jeremy Stephens, and you guys are just sitting there watching it all? Do you enjoy this? Are you uncomfortable? What's it like? Honestly, God, I was sitting there going, I have five hours to make this way i have i have to go to this way cut i got the places like 20 minutes away i got to get there

i have exactly to the dot this amount of time to do things and the press conference was supposed to start at three o'clock all right everything's down to the minute oh it's now getting pushed to four o'clock. Conor McGregor is sleeping. They don't want to wake him up. So now we're going to start the press conference at four o'clock, but Ben, this should only take 30 minutes. So be out of here at four 30.

And I'm watching that line of people get longer and longer to ask questions. And I'm just like, freak it out. I'm like, oh my God, like everything's going to shit here. And then it's like five o'clock. And then Conor finally comes on the stage and says all this stuff. Like, that's all I'm thinking about. I got to get out i'm like oh my god like everything's going to shit here and then it's like five o'clock and then connor finally comes on the stage and says all this stuff like that's all i'm thinking about it oh my god i gotta get out of here you can't even enjoy it right you're too stressed out couldn't even enjoy it any conversations with connor in the back he's just you know he's being connor he's awesome full energy you know wishing me the best and go on and fucking

kick ass and put on a show. And then after the fight, you know, he was very congratulatory to me and super excited. And it was pretty cool. I think a lot of people are surprised how into it he is, like how involved he is and how genuinely excited he seems to be to be involved. Are you surprised by how, like, you know, sometimes you hear about a celebrity investor, it's like, all all right you'll never see them again but like he's there front and center yeah he's a fighter i mean he loves fighting and the idea of bare knuckle i mean he's he's from ireland i think i'd be kfc in ireland i think he's going to do very well too and i think it's in his blood i mean he i think he genuinely enjoys this he likes watching it

and uh he relates to it so i think uh he's all about it i i think i think maybe if he's gonna get one more fight in before he's done i wouldn't be surprised if he's doing baron off yeah no i could see it i mean he's he's in there he's going face to face with jeremy stevens he did it last year with mike perry even before he was involved in the promotion um i'm curious to see where you go from here because two names were discussed. You mentioned Francis Ngannou and also Mark Hunt was discussed. We all remember the UFC 135 fight against Mark Hunt.

Do you feel confident that either fight will happen in the near future for you? That's an interesting deal because right now I'm a free agent. Oh, wow. Really? I very much love to be kfc i love david feldman and i would like to continue and even finish my career you know how much time do i got i don't know maybe a year or so it really depends but francis nagano anthony joshua guys that beat them guys any of those like to put gloves on and prove how good at boxing I am would very much kind of be like a bucket list.

Like, I just don't feel like I got to show the boxing world how good of a boxer I really am. Right now, even the BKFC fans, UFC fans, they just say I'm a brawler. They don't understand my precision. They don't understand how precision. They don't understand how capable I truly am. But if I got to fight one of them, I think that would be a huge opportunity for me to show the world how

good I really am. That's what I mean. Before I'm done fighting, I want to bring the most amount of respect to this belt as I can. I mean, beating someone that's around 17,000 people, this belt's getting elevated, but I need some names like that. I need to beat some guys like that. I mean, beating someone in front of 17,000 people, this belt's getting elevated, but I need some names like that. I need to beat some guys like that. I think that'll really prove to the world just how good I really am. So if I just have to step away for a fight or something

to get some of those guys, you know, I think the BKFC would back me. Now back to there, I believe we're going to get something figured out and I'll defend this belt. And then Mark Hunt is kind of in the realm to do BKFC. So, you know, that's on the table too. That's another name that I think could bring more respect. I don't want to fight nobody. So I want to fight the guys that are going to help us elevate this. So give me the big names, give me some big paychecks, I'll get it done. So they didn't try to sign you.

Usually when you're about to fight for a belt, there's a conversation about an extension so that you're not in a position to leave the promotion with the belt. Did that not happen? That didn't happen. That seems like a misstep. Yeah, even Melty, I think when I talked

to the Saudis, and that was kind of in the table too with PKFC being involved with them as well, where the money's coming from, from you know stuff like that uh i think there's some opportunities for some big fights over there um mark hunt though you know they're they're bringing up bringing it to italy um so i think they they would like to have a big event me and mark i think would be the kind of event they would have there in that place as well. So I think it's just about finding, you know, places to bankroll this stuff. But as, so you can walk away today? Like if someone comes to you with a, or is there, is there like an exclusivity period?

Is there a negotiation period, all that stuff? I don't think so. What? This is crazy, Ben. This is crazy. You just won their belt. How could they put you in a title fight and have a moment like that and not have you locked up beforehand? That just seems like bad business.

Because then if I lost the fight, he'd fuck out here. I know, but you don't put someone in a title fight without some sort of contract extension in place. That's like UFC 101. You know Joe Silva would always try to sign you before the final, like two fights left so that you don't even go into the last one as a free agent. Look, I shower them praise, but this seems like a business misstep. It almost seems like there was so much going on that they forgot. Because I think a lot of people thought you were going to win. Now your stock is at a super high level.

Oh my gosh. This is crazy. For what I was told, kind of told, is like, yeah, you know, Dan Felton was prepared for me to win, and, you know, he wanted to do something good for me for winning the belt. So I think he's prepared to make it good and help him carry the company and continue to beat some of these major guys and elevate the sport.

Maybe bring this to Wisconsin. Maybe an event this summer because Wisconsin's ready to legalize it. And by the way, I say it's crazy, but it's tremendous for you. This is amazing. You have a massive bargaining chip on your shoulder there, so this couldn't have worked out better for you.

Hey, man, it's a good time to be Ben Rothwell. Yes, I love it. You think Mark Hunt would do Bare Knuckle? Mark's a fighter's fighter, man. I don't think he cares because he should have bought anything. He'll fight. Do you think Francis would? Francis fights,

but Francis is also a businessman. I think he's made quite a bit of money. I don't, he's in a position. He doesn't have anything. I think Francis is confident. I don't think a lot of people would give me a chance. So I think Francis has a lot to lose if he fights me.

So if he loses, it'll be detrimental to him. There's a stock, know he just he just bounced back at the pfl fight uh you know gloves do protect us to a point um i know there's an argument about damage and brain concussions and stuff but the gloves the gloves there's quite a bit of protection i mean the bare knuckle is another beast it's unlike anything i've done before and i've gotten very in tune with it. I have an advantage over all those guys because it's going to be really hard for them to practice it.

My practice has been in the cage doing it. My knuckles had to get adjusted. Really? Like I said, I hit him, and I don't feel anything. I don't know that I could have said that. It was my very first fight. How do you adjust your knuckles? To use them.

So when you're training, you are training in bare knuckle? I train a lot of boxing to protect my hands, but I have some other, with my strength and conditioning, I also have to condition my knuckles, my hands to take the abuse and to make sure that they can take,

busting someone right in the teeth, the forehead, things of that nature. I mean, I can see it. You know, it's pretty easy for someone to break their hands in this, I'm sure. And just curious, I picture you, you know, punching a tree trunk or something like that. What do you actually do? Yeah, why not? Do you do that?

I used to do that as a kid, so I stopped now. Okay. Is there any sort of unique method that you do to train the knuckles? I have, without giving away too much here, Ariel. Okay, sorry, sorry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm just fascinated by it. I did a little video of an orangutan has crazy grip strength.

And the Milwaukee Museum had an orangutan grip strength. And a lot of the men were going up, and they would get to like 90, 100. And the orangutan is 180. And I would instantly hit it to 180. So I have, I got high grip strength. So I make really hard fists. I love it. By the way, can I ask, as an aside, I mentioned IFL.

Have you paid attention to any of this GFL stuff? GFL reminds me a little bit of the IFL, yeah. A lot, actually. It reminds me a lot of the IFL, and we know how the IFL panned out. Do you think that it's going to suffer the same fate? There's a lot of them and there's not. So in the IFL, all the guys trained together. They would train in one gym gym and they would get the city

behind them and the city would sell merchandise so now us in the iowa the iowa and we were the the quad city silverbacks every time they brought a show there dude we would sell out that little you know it was like 10 000 people we'd sold it out both times and you would see in the crowd tons of silverback stuff people got behind the team and the team all trained together in the quad cities so i think there was and that's like all the teams were kind of trying to do something like that i don't know i don't know if any team got to it the way we did but we really like if they could have got more of that going on i think they had a thing because they were selling lots of merchandise and they were getting the cities behind the team and that i think that concept was like the difference the gfl that doesn't they're a team but they all get to train wherever they train

they just show up to the event and i don't know that they're going to get the individual cities behind the team like the ifl did do you have any interest i only knocked why they're different but for the fighters to make more money, another organization throw money around, hey man, I'm happy for them. It's awesome. Do you have any interest in fighting for them? I mean, at the end of the day, I'm a prize fighter,

so if they want to throw me a prize, I'll make the weight. But the bottom line is, it seems like if the rest of your career is in bare knuckle, you'll be very happy. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, this is not MMA. This is bare knuckle is something I feel like I've naturally gotten awesome at.

Like, I think I've proved I'm the best in the world at this. So there's that $25 million tournament going on. I'm confident I'm going to win it. Are you going to be a part of it if you re-sign? I very much hope so. Has this been discussed? At the press conference after the fight, someone said, David

Feldman said, I'd make a good fit for the tournament. Okay, wow. But you have to get a new contract first. Dude, I guess you're working on it for me. Well, I'm honestly kind of blown away that they would let this happen, but it's great for you. I'm delighted for you. This is even better than I thought, because if they try to sign you beforehand, okay, maybe your stock is here. Now you just knocked out their champ, and your stock is all the way up here. It's tremendous. It's a massive massive massive turn of events for you and i love it 43 years young here you are you just opened up this this new gym you're right life is good and and it does it also proves like you you've made the right moves and you mentioned first round management one of the best like the career doesn't have to die if you leave the ufc there's there's

there's a spot for guys like you that That is the most awesome part of this. Because that didn't exist, say, 10 years ago, five years ago even, barely five years ago. It's a big deal. Like, we need to have, fighters need to have other places to go. And there are. They're making money other places.

And I hope the other organizations can keep their stuff going. They're doing a good job. Yeah, it's important. It's important for guys to be able to keep going. When're doing a good job. Yeah, it's important. It's important for guys to be able to keep going. When would you like to fight again? I said an early summer fight here in Wisconsin would be incredible.

Okay. Chance to defend the belt if that works out. Or if one of those major boxing fights got made, I could do this summer. That would be great. And what do you, so 275 on Friday, like what's the walking around weight? No, you should ask me what I was, what I fought at.

Oh, what did you fight at? Yeah, I was 303. Wow, that is wild. And what do you think you're at now? I don't want to know. That is crazy. Shout out to George Lockhart. That is amazing.

Were you able to eat anything on Thursday? I mean, it was rough all Thursday, the day of the weight cut. Yeah, yeah. It's next to nothing. Yeah. I didn't eat until Friday at 1 p.m. Damn. And you've never felt that before?

Felt as good? No, meaning like you said it was Damn. And you've never felt that before? Felt this good? No, meaning like, you said it was the hardest thing you've ever done. You've never had a weight cut like that. Not that high. So in California, I was like 292

and got to 275. And I handled that pretty much on my own with our normal protocol. I got it done. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't bad um the extra 10 pounds was a big no no so pretty much i'm the champ now and my goal is to get my weight down to at least 285

i mean i always say that and then i keep getting older and i don't know what my problem is man i i got mick perrell's like, he likes food. And I'm like, I do. Yeah. Well, delighted for you, Ben. Congratulations. Well done. I mean, it's just, it's amazing to see what you've been able to do. I think 4-0 now, right? Under the BKFC. Yeah, four finishes. Four finishes and very quick ones as well. So really, really impressive. And I loved how you owned the moment. Obviously the walkouts are always fun. The post-fight interview was fun. Everything about it was fun. So enjoy the belt. Enjoy everything that comes

with it. And hopefully you get a fat new contract with it as well. It will be well deserved. Me too. Thank you, Ben. All the best. Talk to you soon. Thank you so much. There he is, the great Big Ben Rothwell. Been in the game for quite some time, some 25 years. And here he is, the great Big Ben Rothwell. Been in the game for quite some time, some 25 years.

And here he is winning his very first major title. He made his MMA debut in January of 2001. January 6, 2001, Freestyle Combat Challenge 3. He beat Rob Schinkel via first round TKO, 21 seconds. Second fight in April, won in a minute, won later that night in 16 seconds.

Danger Zone Auburn. Came back in August, minute 7 seconds. Had a couple kickboxing fights the bare knuckle fights 19 second debut corner stoppage in the third round in the second fight against Josh Copeland

knocked out Todd Duffy in 43 seconds back in LA in April that was knucklemania four for those keeping track. And then knucklemania five on Saturday, 36 seconds. Amazing. Had a long run in the UFC. M1. So I love, I love looking at some of these names on like the real, real vets some of these like they just don't

exist even these types of resumes don't really exist iowa challenge 2 extreme challenge 42 sc8 fight night freestyle combat challenge usmma he won their heavyweight title by the way in 2002 against Jonathan Ivey. Damn, between 2001 and 2002, those two years, he fought 16 times in the span of two years. Freestyle Combat Heat FC Ultimate Throwdown Euphoria GFS King of the Cage ISCF GFC Then there was a long run

In the IFL He is right about the IFL's Merch They did do a great job with the merch We'll see if GFL does the same Fought Andrei Arlovsky at Affliction Band. Adrenaline MMA was a fun one in Iowa. And then made his

UFC debut at UFC 104 against Cain Velasquez. We all remember that shot of him at UFC 135 with Mark Hunt. Hands on the knees. Remember they were tired. High elevation. Tremendous stuff. Alright.

In about an hour, Alex Pereira is going to join us in studio. He is headlining UFC 313 March 8th, Las Vegas T-Mobile. We found out about that last Saturday. We also found out, same card, co-main event, chief support,

five-round lightweight fight between two of the most entertaining, most violent men in the lightweight division, dare I say, in the entire roster, in the entire sport, Justin Gaethje against the hangman Dan Hooker. Dan, kind enough to join us on this Tuesday morning in New Zealand.

Let us say hello to Dan Hooker. There he is. Hello, Dan. How are you? How are you, brother? I say hello to Dan Hooker. There he is. Hello, Dan. How are you? How are you, brother? I'm good. I'm good. Look at you.

It's summertime over there, right? Kind of. I've just finished training. That's why I'm hot. I'm not going to say it's too hot here in New Zealand. Yeah. What is it? Is it like 40 celsius over

there now heck no man heck no what is it uh we get we get you know high 20s on a good day okay because i i was seeing in australia the numbers were crazy but i know it's a different country so different uh climates here it's freezing so i you guys. We're cold-blooded here in New Zealand. Well, congrats on the fight. Fun one. When you were told about it, were you into it off the jump? Yeah, the UFC mentioned it a while ago.

The UFC was the ones that wanted to put this fight together. And then, yeah, both camps agreed quite a long time ago. And we've just been waiting on a date, really. So I knew that that was the opponent that we were going to come across. But, yeah, just kind of waited on a date to get locked in. So to have it finally locked in, yeah, we're all roses. How long were you waiting for? Oh, it's been, like, I think, think like suggested since december i guess but just just haven't had

a a date to really lock in and focus on but yeah i found out about like a week ago last week and so it's um well i actually found out about it on justinagey's YouTube, which was... What? What do you mean? Like, Gagey, a few weeks ago, probably like two, three weeks ago, was like, yeah, yeah, Friday, Dan Hookup, March 8th. And I was like, everyone was sending me the clip of his YouTube. And I was like, oh, that's cool. Did that annoy you, that you found out that way? Nah, that's cool. Did that annoy you that you found out that way? Nah, that's what you get.

He's worked very hard to have his position. You know what I mean? And that's why I'm on the outside of the top five getting my way in. Because at the end of the day, I want what he has. I want the perks that come with everything. I want us he has. I want, um, I want the perks that come with everything. I want us to cage side. I want to, um,

I want to find out about fights before the other guy. Like that, that, that's a position that he's in the hard way. And so I want, I want what he has just like the guys beneath me want what I have. This is, this is still about not getting the tickets for UFC 300,

right? That's what this is all about. If you know me, brother, you know I hold a grudge. That one's burning a hole in my back pocket. By the way, where did you end up that night? Nah, I just bought

one of those stupid long- ass drinks of, uh, smushy. And then just like walk down the, I was just walking down the strip drinking the, the ones that have like, you need the shoulder strap. Yeah. You're just walking. I was just walking down the strip. Cause I actually tried to go to, uh, Buffalo wild wings to watch it.

I was like, Oh, I'll just watch it at Buffalo Wild Wings. And then Buffalo Wild Wings was full. So I couldn't even get a seat at Buffalo Wild Wings. And so I just stared into the sky and said, for me, UFC 300 is not meant to be. I'm just going to enjoy myself in Vegas. Wow. So you didn't even watch it? I didn't even watch it, by the way.

Is that a humbling experience? You're one of the most popular fighters in the UFC. and you're walking up and down the strip like a mile away from the arena probably less drinking a big like slushy margarita thing with a strap that was fun it was actually a really um and then because all the ufc it was actually really cool because then all the ufc fans were watching the watching the UFC. So then I could walk down the strip of absolutely not a single person recognizing me or knowing who I was. It was cool. That sounds like a dream. But one day, very soon, that will end because you have these big fights coming up.

By the way, I'm assuming you've watched the fight since, right? The Gaethje fight since? Yeah. I watched. You know, I felt like he just slipped on a couple of banana peels. I don't think you can take. I feel like the common conception takeaway from that fight is that Max Holloway outclassed Justin Gaethje. But for me, watching it back, I feel like he just slipped on a few banana peels.

Obviously, the spinning kick hit him. He was doing really well. Spinning kick hit him. Bro, you throw that kick 100 times, it doesn't land perfectly on your nose and just spread that thing across your face. You know what I mean? It's just one of those things. And then, obviously, you can't breathe, can't see.

And then there's a couple of eye pokes after that. So now he can't breathe, can't see. And then there's a couple of eye pokes after that. So now he can't breathe, can't see. And he was like, obviously Max is an absolute killer and just put the pressure on and poured it on him. Yeah, so I feel like if they were to fight again, I don't feel like Holloway's just that much skill for skill better than him. I feel like if they fight 10 times, probably five and five each way.

But yeah, so I don't feel like there's too much you can take away from that fight. Okay. I wonder if you subscribe to the theory that knockouts like that, because that was a vicious knockout. Does that change a fighter?

I know he hasn't fought now. By the time this fight happens, it will be 11 months. But does it change you to the point where you never are the same afterwards? Or is that enough time for him to get back to who he once was? That's just not something that I can even take into account. I adore my younger fighters when they start thinking about their opponent too much. And going, oh man, I wonder what he's...

And they're asking questions about their opponent too much and going, oh man, I wonder what he's, I wonder, I wonder what, and they're asking like questions about their opponent. Like, oh, I saw him having a Coke last week. Like maybe he's not preparing properly, you know, like stupid stuff. And I go, look over your opponent and I go, make him raise his left arm. See, you can't, you have no mental control. You've got no Jedi mind power to control your opponent. So why even think about it? I can think about myself. I can think about the things that I can control. But my opponent is, besides being a body and a skill set, that's all I can consider. So where he's at mentally is absolutely none of my business. I have to account and expect the best Justin Gagey. Yeah, Justin Gagey at 100%. Justin Gagey mentally locked in. That's what I'm training for. Correct me if I'm wrong, Justin seems like the type of fighter that you would respect and enjoy watching. I don't want to say it's a bucket list fight for you

because he's on your level. You're around the same ranking, but is this a fight that you have been thinking about and wanting for some time? Yeah, I don't really get caught up too much in opponents. So at the end of the day, it's just a huge test for yourself. But I, oh man, I'm a fan of Justin Gagey. watch him I've met him um at UFC Sydney we were both guest fighters and so we were like on the bus together as guest fighters

and I had uh my wife there my daughter Zoe and you know we're talking to each other he's talking to my wife uh Zoe's mucking around with him

he's playing with her and then we're on stage and we obviously had 10 different fans go you guys you guys, you guys fight each other, fight each other. Like we were going to do it

then and there on the stage. But yeah, I just said, brother, I just seen him, you know, playing with my kid and being cordial

with my wife. So it's very, you know, this fight is not about talking. I, you know, I'm expecting no disrespect from Justin Gagey, and there'll be

none hitting that way. But inside the cage, absolute killers. I respect them for taking this fight. It's a dangerous fight. I feel like there's a lot of tough fights out there, but I feel like there's a lot

more low-risk fights, or potentially less dangerous fights, I guess. But I feel like there's a lot more low-risk fights or potentially less dangerous fights, I guess. Any particular reason why it's five rounds? I just think the UFC wants to see someone die. I don't see... Yeah. I think they just want to finish.

They want this fight. I feel like for the fans as well, just want to finish. They want this fight. I feel like for the fans as well, they want to see this. They want to see someone go down. They want to see blood. They want to see round four and five. And you're happy to oblige? I'm happy to oblige for money.

Okay, so you do get compensated for this, yes? Even though it's not a main event? I'm happy to oblige for money. Okay. So you do get compensated for this, yes? Even though it's not a main event? Fuckin' A, Bubba. If you work overtime at your job. Yeah. I would hope so. If I was back in the kitchen factory and I stayed an extra couple hours,

I'd expect another couple extra bucks in my back pocket, Bubba. Yes. That is common sense. Sometimes it's not common sense, so I'm happy to hear that. I'm not here for fun. I'm not here because I like you guys. I'm here prize fighting. Prize fighting, brother. Can I ask,

did you take any sort of joy in seeing Hinata Moikana lose to Islam so quickly last week, considering the back and forth between the guys? The amount of hundreds of messages, when he took the fight, of people going, call him a turtle in a tree now, call him a turtle in a tree now. And I was just like, nah, I don't kick people when they're down. I kick people when they're standing up.

That's, I don't kick men when I see that they're, yeah, I took absolutely no joy from that. You know, we can go, me and Moikana can go back and forth all we want, but at the end of the day, like, I respect them for stepping in there. I respect the skill set. And, yeah, he would have learned the same lessons that we all kind of took away from that fight. What kind of lesson did you take away from it? That the myth is bigger than the man.

If you ask Moikana next time he's on the show, he would have fell for the myth is bigger than the man that, that he, if you ask Moikana next time he's on the show, like he got, he would have fell for the myth. But I feel like the, I feel like there was a mistake in the weekend. Has Paul Hughes been on yet? Uh, no,

not yet. Not yet. Tell me, tell me. I feel like a, I feel like a mistake has been made. Um, when have they ever,

I feel like Uzman made a mistake when, when he got on the microphone. Tell me. And what do you mean? He admitted, and he admitted that he was, when have you ever seen one of the Dezik mistake when he got on the microphone. Tell me. What do you mean? He admitted that he was... When have you ever seen one of the Dazikstani boys get on the microphone and say that they were tired, they got hurt, they got pushed to the absolute breaking point?

We've seen them in tough fights before, but we've never seen one of them get on the microphone and admit it. I think that was an error. All he had to do was do what the others did do, do what the myth that Khabib built and creative and the Islam and, and guys like Hamza were able to carry on. All he had to do was get on the microphone and say, smash.

Yeah. I'll smash anyone. I'll smash anyone, put the microphone down and walk off. That's all that Hamza has to say. That's all Islam has to say is to shut up, keep it short, keep it simple. And say he smashed everyone. And then everyone would have forgotten that Usman and Paul Hughes had a close fight.

Enough time passes by. Usman is still undefeated, this big, crazy, scary Russian dude, but he humanized himself. And that's the thing that guys that have been in the War for Islam, you fall for the myth and you're not fighting the man. And that's with any great champion for a long time. We're in the sport of monkey see, monkey do. We see long reigning champions and then we see them get clipped or we see them get dropped

and we see them be humanized and you see that myth shatters and you see, you take that myth away. Once you see a fighter get knocked out, you're like, oh, well, if he knocked him out, I can knock him out.

And it becomes, you're just fighting the man. But once you have to fight the man and the myth, it becomes like very difficult. And they've had, that team has done an incredible job of protecting that myth and, and keeping themselves with very impressive records and not looking compromised and safe and fighting in a style where they don't get dropped

and they don't get cut and they don't get hurt. But yeah, I feel, I just feel like that was a mistake. This is incredible insight and I appreciate it, especially coming from a fighter's mom who's been in there with Islam. I'm wondering, did you, in retrospect, feel like you... Time is the devil of any fighter. If you tell me what fighter can't be beat is time.

That's why Kavi did it perfectly. He went on the run. He went on this incredible run and then dipped out and left with that myth completely intact. And he was able to pass that myth on to his teammate. And that's what the team was planning. It was, you know, then Islam Re reign until he's obviously done an incredible job of carrying on that myth of shutting up just saying smash and he was going to hand it to uh uzman when he finished his contract out and then he was going to come over and continue that kind of myth in the

lightweight division but he made the mistake of humanizing himself. Did you feel, in retrospect, like you fell victim to the myth when you fought? I know a lot went into that fight, short notice, COVID, all that, but did you... Yeah, it becomes a lot more difficult on short notice. It's not even necessarily the... It's not even necessarily the short notice in terms of just physical

preparation, but in terms of mental preparation, like he's fought a lot of guys that like, you know, Volk was kind of thrown in there last minute. I'm not criticizing Islam. Like these are of no opponents to getting injured. There's nothing he could do about it.

This is no way a criticism. I'm not saying he picked to throw these guys in last minute. It's because the other guy he was supposed to fight was injured and pulled out. But you know, we saw Bobby Green, myself, Alex, not necessarily

the physical preparation, but more the mental preparation. Seeing what went into Volkskamp when he pushed Islam to the absolute limits in Perth was, I feel like a big part of that mentally was a guy like Craig Jones, because we all know Craig Jones, or if you're a FI fan, you're probably aware of Craig and his mental approach to the sport. You know what I mean? And having Craig,

having Craig every day in the gym and, you know, they're, they're going, Islam's grappling, Islam's grappling. And you've got a guy like Craig Jones next to you just being like, this is shit.

You just do this. This is what? Like they suck. You can just, you know what I mean? Just, just making, poking fun and, and,

and breaking it down and making their game seem silly. Like, and, and, and, and having such silly nonchalant answers to the game just puts in the back of, you know, Alex's head.

They're just like, Oh, he's not this big, bad impervious, um, grappling machine because Craig Jones said that he sucks. 100%. 100%.

Can I ask, did you think Paul Hughes won that fight? Oh, close, close. Oh, I don't judge. I saw it at the time, and that's just the way I watch fights. First time I ever watch a fight, I watch it for entertainment. If I want to score a fight, you're going to have to watch it two, three times

and break it down properly. Okay, so it speaks to just how tough the judges have it, right? It's so hard to do it in real time when you're up there. I do not envy these guys, Joel. By the way, speaking of training. I'll make it easy because usually when I lose, I lose big.

Yeah, that's right. Swing big, miss big, baby. Can I ask, what was it like in the gym when Robert Whitaker pulled up? Yeah, it was cool. We got the heads up from Eugene. He obviously has a group of the like the more experienced guys in the gym,

the older guys in the gym. He kind of just, he's obviously asked Israel, like, are you comfortable? Ask the other boys, like if anyone has any concerns and we're all happy to have him over.

I've known Rob for over a decade, longer than that. I probably saw, I saw Rob fight in Sydney maybe his second pro fight. decade, longer than that. I saw Rob fight in Sydney, maybe his second pro fight, maybe like 15 years ago. So I've known Rob for a very long time, and then

when he started having his rivalry with Israel, obviously I have to jump on Team Israel, but before that, Rob was my favorite fighter. It's been cool to get my favorite fighter back did you hang out with them was it interesting to just watch them you know now form some kind of he was just uh he was just coming over to the gym just to like scope just to see how he um fit in with everyone so he was was just here for like half a week just to see if he fit in.

But he definitely fit in. He brings a lot to the table. He's got a great style and heaps of knowledge and a great coaching team behind him that are rolling with him. So I feel like

he'd be an incredible addition to the team having him down here. He's from New Zealand. He's got family here. It's a two-hour flight. There's from New Zealand. He's got family here. It's a two-hour flight. There's so many reasons why

he should be able to come over here and cross-train with the team here at City Kickboxing. Back to your division, do you think Armin would have beaten Islam? I think I think it would have been close

or yeah I don't know they're both pretty similar style they both don't get hit a lot on the feet I feel like it would have been

a really tentative chess match I think I think it would have been good I think probably would have lended itself towards Islam.

Yeah, if I had to pick, I would say Islam would have beaten him. But I don't think either of them would have finished each other. I think probably a close decision to Islam. Obviously, the first fight was very close, but Islam was training for, I believe, Trinaldo at the time, who's like a heavy-handed, striking southpaw.

And then he fights Aman, who's an orthodox wrestler. Even though Aman took it short notice, that's a big change for Islam and his camp coming into that first fight. So more time to prepare, more time to calculate. They're a very smart team. Do you agree with the decision to not give the title shot to Armin?

Oh, yeah. You got to like, that's... The UFC... If you know the UFC, you know that you just piss them right off bro so you're not surprised by this

that he doesn't get an NBA title shot yeah well like we'll have to see

for like like Oliveira's turn to fight down before I don't know

well like you have to see how it plays out like if Oliveira

turns it down then it's yeah I don't know. You have to see how it plays out. If Oliveira turns it down, then it's... Yeah, I don't know. He could be up there. If the next guy in line gets injured or turns a fight down, then he might slide in for another title shot.

But yeah, the seriousness of the injury is... Yeah, there's a... The UFC don't like people who pull out of fights. Especially title fights. Especially the night before the fight. Yeah. It's a tough one.

It's definitely a tough one. I did notice, I saw you on Submission Radio and you said something to the effect of, like, your daddy can't buy you, I think it was a spine you said or something like that. Yeah, just a smart cunt. I just kind of like... I just give people shit. It's like, you can't tell me that you go around getting punched in the head for a living and then a couple of words are going to hurt you. No, no, no. I didn't know his dad was a billionaire.

Is that true though? I don't know. Is that a real thing? I don't know. dad was a billionaire. That's cool. Is that true though? I don't know. Is that a real thing? I don't know if that's like some. I wish my dad. Yeah. But I guess what you're trying to say is. I would not be fighting if my dad was a billionaire.

Right. But I guess what you're trying to say is if you don't possess that like thing, because everyone's banged up, then maybe, you know, it's going to be tough for you to make the walk when you're banged up. Right? Like if you have.

Just give him. I'm just giving him shit. He's ugly. Don't like the guy. Would you say, cause earlier you said you don't kick a man while he's down. Would you say that Armin was down when you were, is that down?

No, I don't know. Is that down? Like he hurt his back. Like, is that down? Well, he didn't get the title shot is what I mean.

I don't think. Oh, boo hoo. Would you, it's still ahoo. You're still a number contender. Shut up, bro. How is that down? If you're ranked ahead of me, then you're not down, Ariel. Okay, fair enough.

I don't want the smoke. If you're ranked ahead of me, if you're ranked ahead of me and my words upset you, we can fight. That would be a good one. After this. Maybe you're the one that he fights. People say mean shit to me all the time. I get over it.

On a positive note, how about the YouTube channel that you and your daughter have started? This is tremendous. What is it called? Adventure. There it is. Zoe Hooker TV. Bro, I legit got kicked off. It used to be Zoe and Zoe Hooker TV. Bro, I legit got kicked off. It used to be Zoe and Dan Hooker TV.

What do you mean? And then she pulled me aside. She's like, dad, quiet word. Quiet word, dad. And she's just like, you're going to have to take your name off. That's ruthless. I just wanted to be Zoe Hooker. I love it, though.

You're already six years old and you're not in dad's shadow. How cool is that? You're already six years old and you're not in dad's shadow. How cool is that? You're player one. That's the way that I want my daughter to approach it. The way that I view it, I'm not going to tell her what to do. I want her to think that anything is possible and the world is her oyster. She's the quarterback and I'm just running offensive line. Whatever way she wants to go, whatever the players,

anyone trying to stop that, I just have to smash them out of the way. That's the way that I view it. And, yeah, she's just like, because we had the UFC countdown team here, and they actually interviewed Zoe. I'm looking forward to that. Oh, wow. It's funny that she got asked about that. The YouTube channel and she's like, yeah, my dad just kind of helps out with the camera.

And I'm like, where is my credit? I'm a one man band back here. I'm doing editing. I'm doing camera work. And all she does is just do a cheeky smile and taking all the credit. Is she the creative director? Is she the one saying, like, we need to film today? We need to talk about this?

I can't. I can't. Yeah. Harassing me constantly. Harassing me constantly about making a new video. When's the new video? I can't put an emoji in a headline without her authorization. Wow.

She authorizes everything. She's running the ship, man. How old is she? Six. And whose idea was this? Oh, we kind of came up with it,

um, together. Like she was watching her YouTube. I was watching my YouTube and she's just just like why don't we do a YouTube? And I was like, oh shit. I actually kind of know how to know some stuff about that and she really kicked you off I'll let the boot me. I got the sack. I'm just I'm just I'm just a cameraman. No That is unbelievable. I love that. She's a star And you're soon going to be welcoming A new daughter to this world

By the way when you were saying And we'll let you go in a moment But you were saying that you were waiting for the date This one's happening right after the due date And I believe that's a replay Of when Zoe was born You fought Edson Barbosa right after Any lessons learned from that

experience that went fucking great um yeah like definitely learned lessons like it was the birth of my first uh child like three weeks before the etin barbosa fight and yeah like obviously the mind and and the subconscious mind especially thinks about and processes the most important thing going on at that time. And at that time, the birth of my first daughter or the birth of my first child was the most important thing going on in my life. And Edson Valboza was second. So obviously, I was physically putting in the work and physically ticking off the boxes. But mentally, I was not thinking about it at all so i remember like the i and then i just hadn't slept because obviously you you get just shell-shocked by your

first child and then uh got to fight week slept the whole week because i hadn't slept in a month and just kind of like opened my eyes in the ring i was like edson barbara how do i fight edson barbara i was like i was thinking i just hadn't really thought about it but obviously you learn lessons from that like i know now to be like mentally aware of still doing the the stuff outside of the gym and doing my homework and doing my study and and mentally preparing for fighting justin gagey as well as that so So now I'm focused on two things. And I'm not just completely disregarding my UFC fight. Good man.

And I hope it all goes smoothly. And now obviously I didn't have much money then either. But now you can get night nurses and cleaners and help. And get people, you know, family involved. And it's, yeah, yeah yeah i'm far more prepared i'm more prepared this time i don't think it's gonna go as bad as that time i hope not i hope not uh you've come a long way you're on a roll now confidence is high you've got the momentum uh what a difference yeah it's it's a beautiful thing to see are you going to saudi arabia with

izzy or no no no no no no There's nothing for me over there, bro. How's he doing? Nah, he's actually looking incredible, bro. Yeah, he's looking really good. The skinny boy is back, as El-Khattas said. I love it.

Well, I could see you sweating up a storm over there. I feel bad. I am. By the way, last thing, did you watch BKFC on Saturday? I saw the result. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jeremy Stephens getting the big knockout. Eddie Alvarez.

The reason I asked this is because we were talking earlier. It was like, there's got to be a part of Dan Hooker. Your type of personality was like... That's my retirement fund. That's it, right? You're going to do it. Like I'm just going to not fight anyone when I stop fighting.

No, I'm going to fight people without gloves. That looks like, that sport looks like the funnest thing for me to do in the world. Fuck. I don't know what everyone else is into, but that looks like fun. I love it. All right. Well, you got plenty of time before you get there, but we were saying like Dan Hooker's

got to be watching that on Saturday with some of those insane knockouts. Like, did you see the one where the guy hit the ropes? Did you see that one? Love it. Love it. Can we show this to Dan real quick? This one, this one right here. You know the one I'm talking about.

When his neck hits the rope. Man, if someone goes down bad, I've seen it. You've seen it? This one right here. If someone looks like they died, I've seen it. Every knockout looks like they died. I love how his neck whips off the bottom rope.

Don't stop. It's terrifying. Look at that. It's terrifying. Look at that. It's terrifying. Go play cricket then. Fuck. Yeah. Dan,

you're a gent. Thank you so much. Good luck with the upcoming birth. Hope it all goes smoothly and healthy and everyone's okay. Look at that poster there from Engage. That's tremendous stuff right there. They always make quality stuff. Shout out to Ash and the team.

And I can't wait for it. March 8th in Las Vegas. Appreciate you very much. Thank you, Dan. Thank you. You're the man. There he is, the great Dan Hooker. What a joy to talk to him as always. What an esprit, what a joie de vivre he possesses. And he is on a roll. It's been quite the turnaround for him as of late. Currently ranked sixth, so he's right there. Three-fight win streak over Claudia Poyes, Jalen Turner, Mateus Gamrot. He did go 4-0 between 2017 and 2018, went 3-0 between 2019 and 2020.

But this would be the, well, at least tied for the second longest streak of his career. If he wins on the 8th of March, it would be tied for the longest winning streak of his career. And he turns 35 on February 13th, so dare I say he is just hitting his prime. If you refer to Bare Knuckle as your, what do you say, his retirement fund, you're a special kind of cat. I think most athletes would say, I'd like to spend my retirement on the golf course, you know, just relax a little bit. 18 holes here, nine holes there. Dan Hooker wants to engage in bare knuckle.

Do we have our next guest yet or not quite yet? Oh, yeah. Is he there? Yeah, let's do it. All right, wow. Okay. In about 30 minutes or so time, we're going to be joined by Alex Pereira in studio.

Looking forward to that. He'll be headlining that event, UFC 313 in Las Vegas, T-Mobile Arena, March 8th. But now let's go back to Philadelphia this past weekend. The main event, of course, was Eddie Alvarez, Philly's own, against Jeremy Stephens. We had Jeremy on the show on Wednesday, and it was a tremendous chat. He goes in there. He faces the Philly crowd on Thursday and Friday at the Presser and Weyands, and what does he do? He goes in there in enemy territory on Saturday and beats Eddie Alvarez, perhaps in his last fight. We didn't hear from Eddie afterwards, but he did so in impressive and vicious fashion, winning via third round, TKO, corner

stoppage, and now he's 3-0 in bare-knuckle fighting and has the face-off with Conor McGregor afterwards and he's saying, show me the money, and his stock has never been higher. It's a great story and he's kind enough to join us right here. Now let's say hello to Jeremy Stephens. Hello, Jeremy. How are you?

Man, thanks for that introduction, big dog. I appreciate it. Yeah. I mean, I meant every word. You've been doing this for a very long time. It feels like the Jeremy Stevens stock, if there was such a thing, has never been higher. Do you feel that same way? Exactly. It's here in the present right now. It's an amazing feeling, man. It's a lifelong journey it's taken to get here. They say, don't ever compare yourself to others.

You've got to trust in the timing. I feel like God's timing. There's multiple times, trust me, along the way I thought about giving up, packing it, and no better time than right here, right now, baby. Let's go. So we spoke to Ben Rothwell

about an hour ago he doesn't have a mark on his face his fight ended in 51 seconds you win your fight but you did go three rounds and so just physically after a fight like that how are you feeling how's your face how are your hands how's your body feel yeah the only thing i really is uh my voice you know snapping out on that philly crowd afterwards you know to kind of like have the last laugh you know they they can dish it but they can't take it it was uh it was awesome so i just my voice is a little bit and then uh what you see a little bit of the wear and tear on on top of the face but you know the juice is worth the squeeze hands okay

yeah yes sir my uh if you notice my right hand is a-okay i think my left hand might have been the one that did the damage is a little bit swollen but there's nothing like uh major it's just you know i've dealt with this when i was throwing cap kicks back in the day just flush it out you know do the do the rehab gotta spend a little time recovering and it's like uh who's the champion at 135 how do you pronounce his main name marab marab davali feel yeah yeah try to try to get back on that dude's type of cardio get right back after it keep the body moving uh can i ask so we spoke on wednesday great chat and then i see you thursday at this uh press conference and i thought you handled it very well you spoke when you needed to speak and then you just sat there and didn't speak when you didn't want to speak. But I was wondering what you were

thinking as fan after fan, Philly fan after Philly fan is just walking up to that microphone and taking shots at you. What is going through your mind? How are you dealing with this internally and not losing your cool? Yeah, thanks. Thanks that. That's called a power move, self-mastery, years of experience of not reacting, not getting emotionally involved, and I executed my game plan. You know, if you look back at the press conference, this may sound kind of vicious,

so too hot for TV shit right now, right? If you go back to the press conference, I go, my hands break jaws, homie. I'm going gonna break your fucking jaw and just you know everybody taunting me uh when i pulled up you know his family's out there just like you know i'm trying to get into the arena his his butt his boy right there uh piper everybody just down there chatting it up dude just able to kind of just get out of my emotion be like an eagle looking down

at a chessboard and i made my moves and i played it right you know the talking when it was the the right time not to react and go out there and you know smash someone's and break his jaw to to you know have that type of revolve is like adesanya said you know when he was snapping out like fortify your mind yes and that's that's the that's the monster mentality that a lot of people think i have just powers whatever this and that speed the footwork faints but people always ask me you know it's i always tell them my greatest weapon is the mind so to to go out there and have that dark psychology and and bring it into the light and, you know, have the last laugh, you know, it's beautiful, brother. Are you thinking of something else? Like, if I'm sitting there and people are just taking shots at

me and there's nothing I could do to really respond or shut them up, I can see someone's blood boiling to the point where you may snap and lose it. Are you taking your mind somewhere else so that you are not affected by the words? Yeah, I just take myself completely out of it, you know, to be able to channel that pain to purpose. And it's a lot of self-mastery. It's not taking it personal, you know, read the four agreements, don't take personal uh i i'm able to kind of just take myself there and use it channel it to the to the right purpose and you know i'm able to get reads inside of people's minds just by you know people just because i don't react doesn't

mean that i'm not listening that i'm not calculating every move and uh i did what i said i was going to do and it's beautiful, man. It's like, it's mind games, baby, mind games. We were talking to Ben, and he was saying he was stressing out because he had to cut a lot of weight, 31 pounds, and he was stressing because they kept delaying the presser. They said to him, at least, that Conor McGregor was sleeping. They didn't want to wake him up.

It starts an hour earlier, et cetera, et cetera. Were you annoyed by any of this, that it was delayed because apparently Conor? I want to wake them up it starts an hour earlier etc etc were you annoyed by any of this that it was delayed because apparently i want to go back yeah like you know looking at people you you look at them in the eye and i want to tell you this you know you look at people in the eye and then you know what's funny is when you go down sometimes you're around fans and you're doing interviews and i'll look at people right in their eye and they don't they don't have shit to say like they can dish it but like when they really look at my eyes, I can stare through a soul. So they don't, they don't have anything to say.

And then, you know, when, when Conor McGregor beat the fuck out of Eddie Alvarez in the second round and he took the paycheck and he quit, you know, like all his people from his hometown were like, just straight gagging on Connor. Like, you know, like I get it, but they're all just like, they were so like supportive of Connor. Connor was supporting him. And just to have that type of endearment to really see it all. Like, I hope leave, like you come to my town,

like people are going to try to fuck you up and snatch his gold chain. Like real shit. Like you come like just loyalty, right? Like, come on. You know, like, like I was reading people. I'm like, bro, you guys are like, you guys are soft, low key. You guys, there's nothing there. So I was able to get those reads. I was even able to feel that from the hometown dude himself. Like I felt that exact fucking nature. You know, my, my boy,

Josh the dentist near, he texted me and was like, dude, this dude's got mad, quitted him, you know, uh, just put that pressure on, you know, it's like, you can dish it out, but you can't really take it. And I stare at those people and I just, I take what they're saying. And I just, I take the emotion. I don't, I don't really react. And I'm able to channel that and, uh, use it in fights and bring and bring you know the thing about bare knuckles people are having to force like you talk about bringing that shit like you're just feeling me up like now i get to bring that pain to your fucking homies dome piece and his body like you can't you can't shoot which jimmy rivera and him both like try to double it because they're feeling the

fucking pain that i get to use to bring to these motherfuckers. Like you talk all that stuff, all this, but like, I just fucking like, dude, that shit pisses me off. You know, like I've, I've, I've been a young kid having to grow up in different types of schools and, and, you know, people cheering for the other guy screaming his name, you know, like, even if it's Eddie, you know, like I use that fucking pain. And then like, what happens when I put that fucking pain on you and you start feeling my pressure, I'm breaking men and bare knuckle because it's raw. It's primal. It's fucking my sport. You know, like I'm, I get to bring those fucking pains and I broke his jaw, you know, like, Hey, I I'm glad he's home with his family. He's home safe, but I broke his fucking jaw. Like I said, I would, because I bring and channel that fucking pain. So

all his boys, his teammates, you know, they caused him more fucking pain. So that's what you get. Deal with it. That is intense stuff. But I see where you are coming from, and you certainly channeled it in the right way. I'm just wondering, what did Josh and what did you see to suggest that Eddie has that quid in him? What were you seeing?

What were you feeling from him? Real simple. The eyes, Chico. They never lie. You know, that was the movie, but, you know, that's the real shit. You know, people can understand that. Okay. If you know, like, it's hard to explain because, like,

you're not going to understand me, big dog. Like, when you've gone through real fights and, you know, the emotional shit and like unwell being that you have to deal with like this like one times like i can just explain it when i first got into a fight i beat the dude up and then like i was like crying and screaming at the dude like i didn't want to go there you know my adrenaline was going nuts and i had to like i had to hurt somebody and i was totally capable of it i was trying to channel it but it crossed the line to where i had to like defend myself.

So, you know, I have years and years and years of experience of that, you know, high level games, you know, 65,000 people in Montreal when I fought Sam Stout, I mean, shit, dude, it was like, I was, it's, you know, I'm in a hotel, kind of like a casino in Vegas. You know, they're always showing the foods and the how to play poker and this and that. Like it was just constant like every channel i turned was sam stout sam stout 65 000 people just you know screaming the

name to you know using that pain from when i grew up in childhoods having to transfer schools all the time and people always on the other guy's side and until i either beat them up they became my friends or i beat them out in sports and people gave me respect so you know it's like I told people I don't need people's respect like I've had to like learn this mentally and painful which like seems harsh ways but like I embrace the good the bad the ugly and I'm like super grateful because look look at where I'm where I am now look at me now like now everybody's starting to kind of see my story. It's coming full circle, you know, God's timing, trusting in God's alignment, fortify your mind. It's the most powerful thing you can have in life. And I think that's, what's really kind of starting to inspire people. But I tell people I'm not no fucking role model.

Like you have to put a pound of flesh in this game in order to have that. Like I can give you the best advice and tell Ariel, but bro, like if you had to street fight somebody for your paycheck right now, Ariel, you know, like, do you have that experience to do it? Most of it. And that's no disrespect is some people just never had to go there. It's just my path. And, you know, it's, you know, even though I have this in fighting, like, I feel like if you put me in like financial sales, I'm still going to have this type of mindset, dog mentality. So, so when you're in the fight and I actually heard that he may have broken his jaw early in the fight, could you tell that something was off? Could you tell us that he was a wounded animal or is it, is it impossible for you to know?

You know, I, when I went back and re-watched the fight i couldn't even tell they were saying fuck you stevens i was so locked in wow uh the only thing that i saw was blood bro you know it's it's that's a different mindset when i'm in there i knew i was hurting him uh and he was still fucking coming so that's that's all i needed to know right there i wasn't thinking about i was keep you know uh mixing up my boxing and then landing fucking hard shots when i had to bro when i when i had him set up and know, I knew that just it was a matter of time that I was breaking him and just masculinity, bro, just fucking conquering him. Like I knew it right there when I knew just keep putting it on, bro. Like, let's see if guys can really take that beating.

You know, my last opponent, you know, like people talk about a decision, but I've broken three men in there and here's the here's the reason why is because in in that last few seconds uh odb took a took a knee and i ran up on him just looking at him put my fucking balls in his face so he could feel my presence because he was on a knee and he didn't want to take that last little beating i had broken uh a man you know jimmy river the first fight, he was looking for a way out and he got it. I fucking broke him. He was stumbling. I turned him into the competitor that I said that he was. He's not a fighter. He's a competitor. At the end of the day,

when I put that fucking pain on him, he turned into double A wrestling and he got a doctor stoppage. This last one, I broke his jaw. I fucking embarrassed him in front of his hometown. I slayed a king like now I'm the dude like Achilles just riding my horse and in the carriage I'm dragging fucking Philly and a jaw broken dude and I just I just roll on I didn't even know they were saying fuck you Stevens I was so fucking locked in you guys starting to get it now it's right here damn this is incredible stuff Jeremy and it's again it's amazing to see your evolution, especially when you consider the end of your MMA run. What is the difference between this guy and that guy who fought in the PFL and the UFC? Let's be honest, like the results weren't

quite there. And now I'm looking at you and the confidence just oozing out of you, the things that you're saying, you're coming across as a superstar. You're so sure of yourself and and you're you're talking the talk and then walking the walk as i said earlier what is the difference between this guy and the one from 2022 2021 this bare knuckles it's a primal game bro it's a primal game i've even switched over my team my coaches i've been boxing over for two years i fell in love with the process right everybody talks about the discipline and falling in love with the process. I'm actually learning a lot more in boxing, things that I didn't really know about. I'm able to utilize it. And it's kind of been like a resurgence in my career. It's also too, you know, as a fighter, sometimes, you know, you don't know

what's really going on behind the scenes. I've had a lot of like life just hit me a lot more harder than fighting and a lot of channeling just hit me a lot more harder than fighting and a lot of channeling and that pain and just never giving up you know at one time i told you i called jorge masvidal you know after he knocked out ben askred and you know his best advice was like bro just don't give up dude like one day you're gonna have alignment like he fights and then like you you're gonna you're gonna be there and uh just don't give up and i'm really glad i reached out to him we've only met like a few times and helped each other train for Gilbert, that way of being. I didn't give up, and it was hard.

I broke down crying today because it finally started to really hit me, life-changing. It's my time, bro. I really just had to endure a lot of shit and just never give up, truly never give give up. And I'm glad that I got that advice from him and it kept me going. And my buddy, Miles Jury, dude, like almost packed up my house or like, or just moved to Iowa, quit, you know, like there's multiple fucking times, like it challenged me. But again, you know, I had to trust in God's timing and fortify my mind. And I'm trying to give this back to you because this shit ain't about fighting, bro. This is like value.

And the best value you can have is your mind. I can use this, what I got, whether I lose all these fucking millions of dollars or whatever, bro, like I'll always have this value system. And my mom once told me when we were in a car one time, she's like, you know, I got it once i can get it again i never understood it but now i know what what does she mean by that your mind you know if i got it once i can get it again it's a mindset bro you know i've lost i know what it's like to to lose and i've been able to channel that. And I know what it's like to win. Like, like I said, out of Sonia to, to, to, to have this resolve, you know,

like scary going into people's backyards and just pissing all over their territory. Like, you know, it's, it's, it's in your mind. It's, it's a mind frame. It's amazing because you talk about when again, over and over and over again, like I said, after the fight, you know, I've been broken a thousand times. I put myself back together a i said after the fight you know i've been broken a thousand times i put myself back together a thousand and three times you know i i could have quit you know i was in tears this morning to my wife like i could have quit i could have packed it up you know hell of a career awesome job jeremy you know i got flying knees spinning

back fist fucking uh elbows just uh putting motherfuckers in body bags and stretchers of a highlight career and you know even though i've lost and people fucking always talk about your losses but yeah you know i've really learned from that and you know i've came back a thousand and three times who can say that they put themselves together and continue to do this and show up in each and every fucking way 34 time vet 36 time weigh-in vet at the ufc at 21 you each and every fucking way. 34-time vet, 36-time weigh-in vet at the UFC at 21, and still fucking doing it and looking good. I'm not aging or slowing down. It's the mind frame, bro.

I'm in a wholly different place and space. Come on. You still there? I'm in a different time, place, and space. And I feel like it's truly my time, brother. I'm getting what I've earned every step of the fucking way. Can I ask you, Jeremy, when you say that you were close to retiring, why did you keep on going? What was the turning point for you to say, you know what, I'm not done, even though the results may suggest that you should be done?

My purpose, bro. My family. Seeing my mom in a rehab facility through years of experience that I've had to endure alongside with her, dude. And she's in a rehab facility in a diaper. And she's good now. And I'm so grateful.

My mom took a lot of abuse. throw her in a diaper and she's good now. And I'm so grateful. You know, my mom took a lot of abuse and you know, like she's not here to enjoy my million dollar home. My family, I fucking built, you know, to, to,

um, having my own family, bro. It's, uh, it's just fucking bigger than finding a bro. it's my purpose so when you ask me that just i mean yeah i can cry but like i love taking the fucking shit i've had to fucking endure for years bro fucking humiliation like this i think i'm a fucking loser. You know, I can't fucking win. Like, oh, dude.

It's the greatest gift I've ever gotten is just being a fucking father, bro. That's why I play so fucking hard. Because it's like they're relying on me, dude. You know, this group right here. Brian Ortiz wrote me a fucking check when i had nothing dude and i had just kept going and i'm putting myself in fucking opportunity bro because this is the american dream right here dog like it's just land of opportunity bro like i i gotta do it because that's my purpose so so we saw the emotion afterwards in the ring where you're saying you know give me my money

do you do you feel like now you are going to be compensated fairly do you feel like you were compensated for this fight do you feel like you are getting paid what you're worth i'll take you fucking deeper bro i i signed the contract like on wednesday you know and i really wasn't happy about it i had a session i signed my fucking contract on Wednesday. I got fires going on in San Diego. I got fucking Philly against me. You know, I took in a pay cut to get here. You know, I had to put that shit aside too on fucking Wednesday or no, it was Thursday.

Thursday, I signed the contract. You know? Why so late? I wanted more money. You know? They weren't willing to budge. And, you know, like, you probably hear me after the fight. Like, I told Feldman and fucking Conor, too, bro, it's time to get paid.

You know, I feel like I've earned it every step of the way. I told him, you paid the wrong man, so I got to go break a motherfucker's jaw and embarrass the motherfucker and do what I got to do to to get my turn, bro. It's my fucking turn. You made millions. I told you. I fucking told you, bro, like you. It's easy to quit when you're making millions dude there's a difference between a man who is hungry and a motherfucker who is seriously starving every step of the way dude you weren't willing to go there i broke you do you do you seriously think that they wanted him to win yeah david philbin called me to fucking day bro that's funny i'm so glad this interview's happening right now dude thank you he called me today hey Hey, you want to reduce your jaw shut? You know, we were kind of betting on him. You know, we paid him. He paid the wrong man. Still doing it, you know, and you want me to fight the fucking king of the king of violence? I've been I've been calling for that one, too. There's a new king of violence,

barbarian in town. Like, I got to go up fucking weight classes, you know, face a power man, or you guys think fucking Conor can beat me, bro? I'll go to Ireland and do the same thing. I'll break a man. He's got shaky legs. He quits. He can't fucking endure. There's a difference between men who are starving and just hungry. I'm fucking starving. Give

me somebody, bro. Anybody. I'll fucking kill him. I'll murk him. And bare knuckle, dude, you cannot fuck with me. I'm telling you. You can't fuck with me in this game. So I was thinking of that. I feel like now you versus Perry is the biggest fight in Bare Knuckle history. Is that what he's implying?

Is he saying that's what they want to do next? People are talking, bro. I'm hearing Conor and fucking Perry. Which one do you want to step up? If I got to I got to go back to UFC, you know, I've been, I just tried to hit up Dana for, for tickets. You know, I was like, Hey man, me and the family want to come up. You know, I haven't heard from him, but you know, I'd like to talk to him too. You know, if like, we got to go over because he's under the contract, even though he owns bare knuckle Connor, you know, um, if I over to an mma fight you know calf kicks are my game too you know i got power in the hands you know i've been telling motherfucker for years you know i just it just wasn't the right timing yet you know this guy's value system is really far off bro there's a difference between a man who is starving and hungry i'll fuck up connor and mma and uh bare knuckle and yeah there's maybe bigger names and you can probably get a hell of a payday for,

for Logan Paul and all these guys, bro. But these guys ain't fucking skilled like me, bro. Especially if it really truly does come to fucking MMA. Like I'm, I'm better than Jake Paul and MMA. You know what I'm saying?

Like he's a good boxer. He's got things going on, but if it really comes to like diversity, I can, I can, I could do that. I could go to one MMA. If like that's maybe one bare knuckle

fuck he's part of both like why not that sounds interesting lots of fucking fair play you know i can get my shot to fucking break his fucking jaw break break his fucking legs you know he's got weak legs bro you know cocaine fucking booze you know like no wonder your bones break mine don't bro it just gets swelled up i'll go next week check the fucking check my fucking record bro uh from the very beginning i'm about 20 years deep in the fucking game right now and my record i used to fight like weekly monthly you know still going no one's doing it like me i fucking told you motherfuckers bro you know so perry connor you name it bro i have to fucking be the one stepping up weight class you, you know, whatever it is.

I told you, motherfuckers, I'm willing to go there. No one's earned it like me. No one's as skilled as me. No one's fucking crazy. I'm not stupid. No one's like me, bro. They don't build them like me no more. Born, built, and I told you I was going to do big, big business here in Bare Knuckle, bro.

This shit's mine. When we saw that face-off with you and Conor, it was incredible stuff, but then you're reminded Conor has two fights left on his UFC deal. Do you think it's actually feasible? Do you think this is a real thing, or do you think it was just, you know, him getting excited in the moment?

He's just cocaine counter, you know? Like, he's excited in the moment. He's doing promotion. I get it. Like, I could see it in his eyes. Like, I was just eddie he's he's totally cool he's not he's emotionless out of it and it's promotion bro but like if we're really talking like who deserves it and who really could do both if we had to do that and as far as the contract i'm actually that guy you know mike chandler you know like they're talking about him like bro there's no one better

than me you know i used to train with chandler bro he's good but he's not as skilled as me he there's there's nobody more deserving earn it and now people are starting to realize bro like i'm not just all talk like i'm one of the most exciting fighters in the world check my highlight tape versus connor's i got uh flying knees head kicks spinning back fists you know uh elbows you know ground and pound, one of the bloodiest fights in history. Like, I mean, check the fucking history books, dude. I mean, my name, Stevens, is forever etched in the fucking history, bro. And I'm the one still going, you know, I'm the one that doesn't have a contract right now, big dog. And yet I'm still working. So

I could either go with UFC down that route, bare knuckle, boxing. I mean, I'm a price fighter. You're a free agent right now. You don't have another fight on your deal. I don't. Bro, did I just not tell you, bro, I just signed a contract Thursday. No, I thought the contract was like the bout agreement. I didn't realize it's your actual contract.

Yeah, welcome to the fucking wild ride of the heathen, bro. This is it. This is life right now. Oh, my God. I'm really being authentic, bro. You got me crying on your fucking show. I'm telling you the real, I'm telling you truthful dog. I have no fucking restrictions. No one can take my, my, my free freedom of fucking speech. I'm my own man, dude. I'm talking for myself. I have no, no contract. I've, you know, with, with BKFC, bro, that there,

I just told you my promoters were against me. He just called me. I don't have a contract with him. He was betting against me. He just told me that, yeah, we thought Eddie was going to win, bro. We were betting on him. You paid the wrong fucking man. This is what I'm trying to tell you live on the fucking show. No better here place than now. This is real shit.

You guys are crying on this motherfucker. I appreciate it. It's an incredible position that you're in in it's even a better position than you were in before because uh you bet on yourself and now here you are stock higher than ever as i said at the very beginning of all this bet on myself listen to this area i'm gonna even throw you in another fucking little bone here bro gfl they paid me bigger money than what i just made and and uh i didn't sign the contract you know i'll honor it but, I didn't sign the contract, you know, I'll, I'll honor it, but listen, I did not sign that contract because I was betting on myself this fight. Oh yeah. You know, this is what I'm doing it for, bro. Like I took a fucking risk, you know, I'm a father out here, bro. Like I'm like, bro, I took a fucking risk, a gamble,

you know, because like I told you, bro, like no no one's no one's fucking paying my bills around here you know like i've had to earn every step of the way and so like i knew that like i mean this couldn't be better timing i didn't sign the contract i want more money you guys gotta fucking pay me now bro i'm tired of doing shit for fucking cheap or free you know i'm still willing to go back to ufc you want to sign me for one two two? You want to go to fucking Bare Knuckle, bro? I'll break and murder a man in that fucking game, dude. This is my life. I'm betting on me, bro.

And I took a fucking huge risk. So you're welcome. And so how do you think this plays out? Your next fight, do you think it's with Bare Knuckle or do you think it's somewhere else? I think it's for a big bag, Errol, and a big name, and a big, big fucking night. I'll do another sellout bro it's going

to be big like i said bro i'm betting on me i didn't sign a guaranteed contract like most men you ask them bro they'll go to ufc get a five five maybe you know contract bro they're not willing to fucking risk it as big as me bro they're not willing to bet on themselves i i could have just maybe waited it out till april and got a bigger payday than what I got now. But I told I told this this last opponent, I said, bro, I'm not here for the check. I'm here to break your neck and the opportunity that comes with it. That's on the show when we're sitting down. So you want to get into the fucking mindset and the real raw dog, bro. I'm live here today.

Like this is I mean, my life day by day, bro. I bet it on myself to get a fucking big bag so that me and my family, we can live good, bro. So I'm not having to struggle. So I'm not having to fucking rely on sponsorships so I can fucking make my dream a reality, bro. And now we, here we are, bro. We're talking about the fucking biggest name, the biggest bag sellout crowd. I just did it. I went outside the box and I authentically kept it raw dog me and, and had to sell the fight. And I've really never had to do that before. I've always just been there. I'll go in there. I'll beat the fucking shit out of you. And I go home to my family. Now that doesn't get you paid, bro. It doesn't. And now I'm learning, like in my experience and in my journey, the more I sell the fight, you know, the bigger the fucking payday I'm looking up to guys like biz bank, uh, Josh Koscheck, you know, like they got paid because they were the villain. I just watched the Vince McMahon. I'm like, dude, life's hitting me right now.

Use this. You know, Feldman is the guy who told me, hey, bro, we're second best. You know, we absolutely fucking blow it. We suck. And I went there and used his lines against his own fucking people and it absolutely we just played that motherfucker like a fiddle i had no emotional involvement just like i've been saying and completely detached and i could tell you know uh eddie's shaking his fingers he's making broken promises like he's gonna embarrass me and that's what i'm saying go back to that little convo and i i told him when we went face to face i go i see i heard your little story about your brittle bitch hands my my fist break jaws homie

i'm gonna break your jaw and that was a promise truly kept he didn't fucking get it when i was telling it to him i got him all emotionally involved and when i finished the fight mcgregor was like hey jeremy ruffled his feathers. You know, that's been done before. You know, I could sense when I was even weighing in at that fucking time and process that McGregor, he steps over here to get a look at the fucking care package, bro. You know, he felt it all week, the fucking eyeballs. You know, he was sensing it. He wants to be around it.

He's just fucking geeked out, cocaine Connor, biting his lip, you know, stepping back, checking out some asses some asses bro the dude's jazzed up and i just went out there right in fucking front of him still doing it bro like you know like yeah you can be a dana white but you really want to be in that ring the man in the arena bro like you want to be me you want to be there like let's fucking go bring it on the intensity is is phenomenal good for you jeremy well done congratulations authenticity that too that that too uh the realness uh very very happy for you i can't wait to see how this plays out but you have put yourself in prime position to get paid there's no doubt about that so uh good luck in this uh in this new chapter congrats on an incredible win thank you for coming back on and and thank you for keeping it real i appreciate it

i told you man let's go dude thanks for having me there's probably one of the best interviews an incredible win. Thank you for coming back on and thank you for keeping it real. I appreciate it. I told you, man. Let's go, dude. Thanks for having me. It was probably one of the best interviews I've ever done, bro. Thank you. Thank you so much, Jeremy. Really appreciate it. There he is. Little heathen, Jeremy Stevens. Again, just like Ben Rothwell, putting himself in position to get paid and post-UFC

now enjoying perhaps the finest hour of his career. What a story that is. Unbelievable. All right. That was intense. Now let's go to, you know, from one man who has been knocking people out in the world of bare knuckle to a man who has been knocking people out in the world of mixed martial arts. He is the reigning, defending UFC light heavyweight champion. He is the pride of Brazil. There he is. Poiton himself. How do we do it? Yes, there it is.

My guy. Rawr! Rawr! Rawr! Oh my God, he scared the shit out of me. Chama, how are you, my friend? Obrigado, thank you. You see Connor wearing your shirt? Bom, pra ver meu amigo.

Você vê o Conor vestindo sua camisa? Sim, eu vi. Eu vi, ele é o homem. Oh meu Deus, isso foi intenso, por favor. O grito? Eu não estava pronto para isso. Obrigado por vir. Eu estava tentando olhar para ele no olho, mas então eu tive que olhar para fora, porque

eu senti o Chama. Ele estava tentando encarar você, mas pô, não conseguiu ter que olhar para o outro lado, porque sentiu o Chama. Aí, boa. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo.

Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar você, mas eu não consigo. Eu não sei se eu vou conseguir encarar ele, mas tive que olhar para fora porque eu senti o trauma. É uma energia forte, uma vibe forte. Ele está feliz por estar aqui fazendo essa entrevista. Eu estava treinando um sempre é uma surpresa. Na última vez foi uma tarta. Então eu falei, deixa eu ter certeza que eu estou no ponto.

De acordo com o que eu sei, você parece menor do que normalmente. Você perdeu peso? Não, estou bem, acho que ele está com 105 quilos hoje 135 quilos Ele parece com 235, 230 quilos Ele está em forma Talvez seja o t-shirt ou algo assim, mas você está bem Foi o sol da Flórida, você estava na Miami O sol da Flórida deu uma clareada.

Parabéns para sua irmã, ela ganhou no Karate Combat, eu vi vocês lá, incrível. Quando você vê ela competir, quando você vê ela ganhar assim, e eu vi vocês se abraçando depois, quais são as sensações que você tem vendo sua irmã, viu a vitória no Karate Combat, viu a gente lá. Quando você vê sua irmã ganhando, ela vem dar aquele abraço em você, qual o sentimento que você tem ali? Ah, o sentimento de um trabalho bem feito, né? Trabalho bem feito, se dedicou bastante aí, tá com uma grande evolução, tá bem interessada, né? E agora, pô, com o Karate Combat, pô, valorizando ela do jeito que tá valorizando. Então, com certeza ela está mais motivada. Mas o sentimento de um trabalho feito bem, de ativismo e também de a Karatecom estar fazendo o que ela está fazendo para ela, cuidando dela, então a gente sente que ela é apreciada.

Você fica nervoso quando vê a sua luta? Não, um pouco, porque eu sei dos riscos de estar ali dentro. É um pouco diferente de quando a gente vai lutar, fica nervoso também, no meu caso eu fico, mas sei controlar isso. E também quando ela está lutando, eu sei controlar. Um pouco, porque eu sei os riscos de estar lá dentro, eu sinto os riscos da mesma forma quando eu luto. Mas eu sei que ela consegue controlar e eu sei que ela sabe o que fazer nesse momento. Quando vocês eram mais jovens, vocês eram bem próximos um do outro? A gente sempre foi bem próximo, os irmãos assim, bem unidos. Os irmãos eram muito unidos.

Quantos irmãos você tinha? Hoje, tem três mulheres e eram quatro homens. Aí um morreu. Três mulheres, costumava ter quatro homens, um morreu. Ok, então você é um lutador, ela é uma lutadora, quantos outros lutadores eram lutadores? Bem, não, eu comecei e trouxe as mulheres. Na minha família não tem ninguém que estava dentro da arte marcial. Não tem ninguém. Na minha família ninguém estava na arte marcial, eu fui o primeiro. E ela seguiu o seu caminho. Sim.

Seus pais estavam ok com isso aí? Porque uma coisa é o homem lutar, mas a menina, entendeu? Sim, igual quando eu comecei, vi a mudança de vida, igual todo mundo sabe, falando da bebida, então eu vim melhorando. E também ela não tinha uma vida muito saudável e eu vim trazendo ela e ela veio melhorando também. Sim, porque ela começou a mudar a minha vida, para mim era o álcoolcool e eu comecei a mudar e ter uma melhor vida ela era boa mas também alguns hábitos ruins aqui e lá então ela viu todo mundo envolvendo se tornando melhor como pessoa então tudo bem com você ok é o objetivo para você e como alguém que está procurando e vendo o sucesso que você teve na ufc você quer que ela esteja na ufc ou não é necessariamente o caminho que você quer para ela. um pouco diferente da dela, então ela está com um cartel negativo no MMA, está indo bem agora no Karate Combat e, bom, os meus planos sempre foram, tipo, ela está junto com o UFC, comigo, mas por causa disso é um pouco mais difícil, ela vem do kickbox

também, então teve essa transição para o MMA. Bom, com o Karate Combat valorizando ela do jeito que está fazendo, pode ser que ela fique só no Karate Combat, talvez, não sei, mas vamos ver. O objetivo é sempre colocar ela na UFC, mas diferentes carreiras, sabe o que eu quero dizer? Ele está cuidando de si mesmo e agora eu acho que ela tem um recorde negativo, um jogo negativo, então é meio difícil colocar ela agora, mas estamos no processo. Vamos ver o que acontece, mas talvez nós mantenhamos a Karate Comet porque a forma como eles estão fazendo com a gente e cuidando dela, nós estamos felizes. Você está feliz com isso. Eu ia só perguntar, você gosta do show do UFC, da forma que todos tratam a gente ali,

mas eu vejo que o tratamento é igual para todo mundo. Isso é uma coisa que eu valorizo muito. Eu realmente gosto, não só por mim, que eu sou o campeão do UFC, mas eu vejo como eles tratam os outros atletas, os caras que estão construindo os seus nomes. Então, isso me faz muito feliz, de toda forma, como eles tratam todos e como eles cuidam do esporte. Ótimo. Então, nós acabamos de descobrir com você que você está voltando no março 8, UFC 313 in Las Vegas against Magomed Ankalaev.

And there was a lot of talk leading up to this announcement about when you would fight against who, et cetera, et cetera. And so let's just start with, there's many places where we could start, but there was one point where a story came out of nowhere

that you were going to fight Alexander Volkov at heavyweight. This is before the announcement. Was there any truth to that whatsoever? A história veio de fora que você iria lutar com o Alexander Volkov no Heavyweight. Isso foi antes da anúncia. Havia alguma verdade nisso aí? Não, nunca vi, nunca chegou em mim, entendeu? Acho que ele também falou que não chegou nada pra ele. Pô, não sei, esse cara do Brasil aí tá, sei lá, que é mídia e começa a falar qualquer coisa ali pra chamar atenção e esse é o mal do que tá acontecendo no Brasil. Não, absolutamente nunca. Eu acho que nem ele. Eu estou desculpando, mas tem jornalistas de mídia no Brasil que dizem coisas de forma normal para a mídia, para seguir, e isso é uma das coisas ruins que acontecem no Brasil agora. Eles pensam muito em visibilidade e não vê as consequências.

Eu não estou dizendo que todos estão lá, mas alguns deles. Eles só se importam com a visibilidade, mas não se importam com as consequências. Igual no caso do Guilherme Cruz, quando ele fez uma entrevista com a minha irmã, e tipo, pô, não tinha muito o que interessava ali pra ele, quando ela falou a parada lá de fazer a entrega e tal, pô, ele já quis cortar a entrevista, não quis... Pô, se ele fosse um cara assim mesmo, que queria uma matéria, se preocupando com ela pra levar pro público, né, a história dela, já tinha falado assim, pô... É... Mas e seu irmão? Não te ajuda e tal? Mas não. Quando ela falou a parada ali, ele sabia que ia dar essa polêmica se ele fizesse essa... Esse cortezinho

aí e jogasse lá e deu no que deu. ou qualquer coisa, e assim que ela disse, ele cortou a conversa, não perguntou mais nada, mas nunca perguntou se o Alex estava ajudando ela, sabe o que eu quero dizer? Ele estava pedindo apenas para ter cliques, para ter vistas e coisas assim. Ele sabia que ia dar no que deu, por isso que ele fez. E se ele não tem essa noção, o que está trabalhando nesse ramo? Por exemplo, ele é um jornalista muito aposentado, um repórter muito aposentado. Ele mandou mensagem para Alex Littler dizendo que era um desculpa, não sabia que ia acabar assim, mas ele sabia que ia acabar assim, ele é aposentado. Você, Ariel, sabe quando as coisas vão... você entende sobre o jogo e...

Por que ele faz coisas assim? when things are going on, you can, you know, you understand about the game and why he just does stuff like that, you know. I will just say about that one, I didn't want to bring it up because I'm friends with Guilherme.

I used to work with him 10 years at MMA Fighting, so I was, I was sorry to see that I like you and respect you and you very much and I respect him as well. I consider him a friend.

So, I hope that you guys can, you know, figure it out and there would be no hard feelings because I do think out of Brazil,

historically, he is one of the best, históricamente, ele é um dos melhores, se não o melhor, eu chamo ele de o besta brasileira, então, eu estou desculpado por tudo que aconteceu e, e, esperamos que ele possa, sabe, ser resolvido entre vocês. Espero que vocês consigam aí se entender. Ele acho que é um dos melhores, se não o melhor jornalista do Brasil. Mas é triste que acontecesse um negócio desse. Ele tem que fazer, sei lá, ele ajudar essas pessoas. É amigo dele.

Fazer uma reciclagem com essas pessoas, entendeu? Como ele é um cara experiente. Eu tenho certeza que ele sabe que o Guilherme fez, pô, foi errado. Então ele pode, já que é amigo, ficar mais fácil de dar uns toques pro Guilherme. Não só dar uns toques mesmo, e colocar ele em um curso de reciclagem, certo? Para entender como o jogo funciona, como isso funciona. Para que as situações não aconteçam assim. Você é um cara muito experiente, você é o melhor. Talvez um dia você possa ensinar como ser jornalista. E se é muito caro, porque os dólares são da América, ele também pode ir e aprender do Alexandre,

do Alexandre do Connect Cast Brasil. Ele faz um trabalho incrível, ele é jovem, mas eu acho que ele tem muito o que ensinar Ok, isso é certo, vamos deixar isso aí Então voltando ao seu próximo luta potencial naquele momento Houve alguma discussão sobre a divisão de pesado para você? Houve alguma conversa sobre isso antes de chegarmos ao Magomed? Isso tudo estava sendo discutidos. Eu estaria muito tempo ali treinando e tipo, falar assim, pô, pra quê? Pô, aproveitar, né? Igual eu falei, 37 anos, então eu tenho que aproveitar. Hoje eu peguei o telefone, depois de um bom treino assim, o Glover falando ali de como

eu tô evoluindo, aprendendo, sabe, esse meu interesse, eu falei, pô, vou falar com os meus empresários e, pô, pedir essa luta com a Kalev no próximo evento, que dê o mais rápido possível e deu certo, dia 8 de março. Mas foi eu que pedi a luta, eu já queria essa luta, vai ser uma luta muito boa, eu sei que é uma luta muito dura, respeito o adversário, falaram muitas coisas aí, mas mesmo assim eu respeito o vejo de trabalho que ele vem fazendo, mas eu também estou fazendo um bom trabalho. say, look, give me a fight next month, whatever the case may be, and I want to fight on Kalayev. I think this fight happened. And they made it happen. You know what I mean? He's training hard. On Kalayev and his people say some stuff here and there, but at the end of the day, he watches his training,

he watches him fight, he respects him as an athlete, and he's getting ready for it. Okay, so you said you wanted on Kalayev. There was some talk that maybe you didn't want on Kalayev, but you're saying that you did. At one time, you tweeted something like, it won't queria Ankalayev, mas você disse que você queria. Uma vez você tweetou algo como, não será Ankalayev. Eu acho que foi isso aqui, dizendo que não será Ankalayev.

Você estava apenas tentando enganá-lo? Então, foi você que pediu, você quis Ankalayev, então é porque chegou o sumô de você que não queria Ankalayev, não queria Ankalayev, aí depois você até fez o tweet e falou assim turismo assim não vai ser uma cara é isso aí foi você trocando mais na cabeça dele é não ali foi que eu não postei nada ali eu postei contra o calil nessa semana foi esse vídeo do calil que foi na época que o cara leve tinha falado que me nocautear algo do tipo assim que chamou a minha atenção e eu falei pô é o calil ali por um cara vou à trocação mesmo que mostrou um bom trabalho eu falei pô não foi esse carail ali, um cara da trocação mesmo, que mostrou ali um bom trabalho.

Eu falei, pô, não foi esse cara, pô, não vai ser o Ancalav. Até postei o vídeo, ia fazer isso e fazer aquilo. E aí eu voltei do meu coração e encontrei o Kaleo. Ele disse que em termos de chute, não vai ser o Kaleo. Ok, então agora você vê que você é o sub-doga que vai para essa luta. Isso te incomoda?, te surpreende? Cara, eu nem vejo isso, de verdade. Em várias, acho que no UFC, pô, eu também tava ali como uma zebra, mas, pô, eu fiz só o meu trabalho, eu foco no meu trabalho e é o que eu vou fazer.

Não importa qual vai ser, quando vai estar na casa de aposta. Eu não quero abandonar a DM, eu sempre estou fazendo meu trabalho. Os caras que me dizem que eu sou o underdog, não sou o underdog. Eu não me importo mais com quantos vão ser os atos. I don't care about none of them I always keep doing my job Guys can say you're the underdog I don't care less How much is going to be on the odds So I just do my job The interesting thing about the fight is People think the UFC doesn't want to book this fight

Because they don't want Ankalayev to beat you Because he's going to wrestle you But if you actually look at his fight stats He doesn't actually shoot for a lot of takedowns He's not the typical Dagestani wrestler Who goes in there and just tries to take you down Do you agree with that? ele não atira muito para fazer takedowns, ele não é o tipo de jogador da Agostini que vai lá e tenta te levar para baixo você concorda com isso? Quando você o vê, você acha que ele está sendo overrated por algumas pessoas que olham para onde ele é e acham que ele vai ser como Khabuta porque eles querem proteger você porque é um cara que vai vir pra te botar pra baixo mas o Aliá falando assim, você olhar

nos status dele, ele não é um cara que bota os outros pra baixo, não usa o wrestling nas lutas, o pessoal às vezes fala um pouco, talvez pelo ensino da questão, pensa que ele vai chegar e fazer com você o cabide, fazer com os caras saírem grudando, fazer aquela luta travada você acha que vai ser assim? Como é que você acha que vai ser?

Eu não sei como vai ser eu sei que eu tô treinando muito já pra essa luta, e não é algo surpreso pra mim, não é algo que tipo, o UFC chegou e empurrou essa luta, falou, pô, você tem que fazer, eu fui lá e, pô, muito feliz com essa luta, eu escolhi, falei assim, pô, lógico, escolhi, ele era o próximo já, e falei, pô, quero lutar, falou quem? Pô, Ancalaev, entendeu? Se tivesse outro, de verdade mesmo, se tivesse outro cara ali na frente, que falasse Ancalaev ou esse strike aqui, pô, Ancalaev, agora eu tô no meu melhor momento. Bem, quando eles...

É difícil predicar como o jogo vai ir, eu não consigo predicar, eu só sei que eu estou levando meus melhores momentos, estou no meu prime. Se eles botarem esse jogo e o Nkolaev for número 2, eu vou escolher o Nkolaev porque é o cara que eu quero jogar e estou vivendo meu melhor momento. Ele falou algo que te incomodou até o ponto que você está sendo desrespeitado por ele? Não, foi algumas provocações, mas acho que não foi nada disso. Ah, vou nocautear o Alex. Isso aí, pô, ele pode falar, entendeu? Ele está treinando, está confiante, pô, é isso, a gente vai ver lá no dia.

Não é nada, só algumas falas de droga aqui e lá, ele vai falar que vai nocautar o Alex, ele está treinando, ele pode dizer isso, mas depois nós vamos ver o final. Eu achei engraçado quando ele tweetou algo com o efeito de, oh, você vai bater o Alex, ele está treinado, ele pode dizer isso. E depois nós vamos ver o final. Se você ler quando engraçado, porque é claro que a companhia te ama e talvez não queriam colocar de jeito nenhum. Bom, ali quando ele falou isso, porque eu pedi, se eu pedi eu fui o primeiro a saber se eu pedi a luta. A minha intenção era lutar em maio, junho, então eu pedi e quando ele ficou sabendo, eu acho que, não sei como chegou pra ele, mas falou, ah, pô, os caras estão querendo colocar o Alex. Então tipo assim, ah, o UFC, acho que ele pensou, o UFC está me obrigando. E aí depois ele fez o comentário. Bom, você é um empregado aí, pô, você tem que fazer o que eles pedem, entendeu? Você só é um funcionário. Mas eu pedi, eu dei a chance de ele falar isso, só isso.

Ele disse que a empresa me disse o que fazer, mas eu sou o que pediu para lutar. Eu disse que queria lutar em março, em maio, em junho. Mas eu sou o que veio lá e disse que queria lutar contra o Kalayev agora. E ele descobriu isso apenas porque eu pedi pragunte para ele. Eu sei que 100% ele vai dizer que eu perguntei para ele. Impossível dizer outra coisa. Eu lembro quando falamos em outubro depois da luta contra o Khalil Roundtree,, I was thinking, okay, he's fought a lot, three times in six months, better to rest, maybe May, June. As his coach, were you okay with him coming back so soon? Absolutely.

For me, I think it's better He's 37 years old, he's on his prime He's a kickboxer at first He's used to fight on a regular I'd rather him fighting more often Than having big gaps Because I want his body and his mind To stay used to the adrenaline

To the competition I want him to be on a constant fight pace 5 meses mais ou menos, não é rápido. É, isso faz quatro meses, não é quatro anos. Eu falei, eu quero continuar com o constante, pra continuar no ritmo. Você lutou três vezes em seis meses. Mas não me machucou. Nesse peso que eu estou, cara, se eu não me machuco em uma luta, eu faço uma luta cada mês.

Não me machucou, não estou nada. Com esse peso que ele tem agora, com esse peso, ele pode lutar todo mês. Uau not hurt. No, bro. In this way that he is now, in this way, he can fight every month. Wow. By the way, you like that? It's nice. You saw that guy? You have one? I don't have one.

Well, we give it to you. How do you not have it? That's crazy. How come you don't have it? I don't know. I don't know. That's crazy. Okay, so you come back in March.

Was there any talk of you fighting in Brazil? Because we thought maybe later in the year you'd fight in Brazil. Isso é louco. Ok, então você voltou em março, foi falado de você lutar no Brasil? Porque nós pensamos que talvez em um ano você lutar no Brasil. Foi isso que foi na mesa para você? Eles falaram de maio ou junho. Tempo bom também. Bem, vamos ver. Primeiro eu tenho que fazer essa luta e depois... Eu quero lutar no Brasil. Não, parece ser um bom momento. Eu acho que é a única coisa que tem que fazer, certo? Talvez tenha duas coisas a fazer. Brasil e pesado. feel like that's the one thing left to do, right? Well, maybe there's two things left, Brazil and heavyweight. The only two things left to do is fight in Brazil and fight in heavyweight.

Yeah. Yeah. And so, just curious, you look at the heavyweight division, or light heavyweight, I should say, Khalil, if you beat Magomed, Jan Bacovic, Yuri, Jamal, there's not much left for you at 205. Do you think

this could be the one that gets you to heavyweight? Is it possible that the next one is heavyweight? Jamal, não tem muito para você no 205. Você acha que esse pode ser o que te leva para o pescoço? É possível que o próximo seja o pescoço? Eu não sei porque eu quero lutar com um peso pesado. Hoje eu já parei um pouquinho e falei, pô, pra que eu vou? Tudo é um risco, cara, luta, entendeu? Então, pô, sou campeão, John Jones campeão, então teria que ser essa luta. Bem, eu não sei porque, sabe, não é apenas um jogo de pescoço, no início eu fiz um barulho, mas agora eu acho que pode ser um risco, pode não ser um risco. Eu sou campeão, eu quero ser campeão, então vamos fazer o jogo de Jon Jones. Sim. É o jogo que eu quero para o pescoço. É o que você quer. Você acha que pode acontecer esse ano? Ah, não sei, tudo é possível, né? Pô, muitas coisas aí que eu achei que não ia acontecer e aconteceu.

Ele tem espaço, a Laura tem um... não aconteceu com ele, então quem sabe. Depois da sua vitória contra o Stipe, houve alguma conversa com você sobre lutar contra ele? Depois da luta dele com o Miotti, teve alguma conversa entre você e ele, você lutar com o Koto? Não, a gente só falou antes da luta dele com o Miotti, que teve alguma conversa, você e ele, você lutar com o Koto? Não, a gente só falou antes da luta dele, a gente falou algumas coisas, mas aí depois não falamos mais.

Antes da luta com o John Jones, eles realmente falavam, né? Uma luta impossível, algo assim, mas eles não falavam mais. Quem são eles? Ele e o John Jones. Oh, vocês falaram juntos? Você falou com o John Jones. Não, eu não falamos mais. Quem são eles? Ele e o John Jones. Oh, vocês falam juntos? Você falou com o John Jones? Não, eu falei por telefone. É, mas você teve uma conversa com ele.

Não, foi uma conversa bem aleatória, nada de luta, não. Mais uma conversa random, não muito sobre luta, não por telefone. Você fala por telefone com o John Jones? Você é amigo? Não, não é meu amigo, mas é um cara que eu respeito. Eu gosto dele, eu vejo também que ele gosta de mim, a gente se respeita. He's not my friend, but he's a guy I respect. I like him, I see that he likes me, we respect each other. But he's not a guy I look at and say, how are you?

How are you? How was your week? No, that doesn't exist. Not a friend, not somebody that I talk to on the regular, but somebody that I respect, and I know that he respects me with this mutual respect. He says that he wants to fight you next, and he would rather fight you than Tom Aspinall. E eu sei que ele me respeita com muito respeito. Ele disse que quer lutar com você em seguida, e que gostaria de lutar com você mais do que com o Tom Aspinall. Quando ele diz isso, você acha que é porque ele acha que você é um luta mais vencedor do que o Tom Aspinall? Por que você acha que ele diz isso? Eu acho que isso significa mais do que o momento, mas também o risco. O risco de lutar com o Aspinall. Eu acho que foi isso que ele falou que eu entendi.

Eu acho que é porque, sabe o que eu quero dizer? É sobre o momento e também sobre o risco. O risco de lutar contra o Aspinall é que você vai ganhar daqui. Como ele disse, é uma luta de título, certo? Mas lutar contra o Alex é uma atividade muito maior. Então, eu acho que é o peso da luta, certo? E eu acho que depois disso ele disse que ele pode derrotar todo mundo. E é uma luta maior. Eu acho que é isso.

Você estava lá quando ele lutou com o Stipe. Você estava impressionado com o que ele fez com o Stipe? Não, não. Você não estava lá? Não, não. Ele falou assim, você viu a Ludo Stipe sentado? A gente estava lá, mas ele não estava mais em casa. A gente não viu depois.

A gente não assistiu, a gente viu depois. Nós vimos a luta depois. Você estava impressionado? Não, assim, pô. Assim foi. Porque assim, o cara ficou um bom tempo parado, né? Mas, pô, a experiência o cara tem. Mas também mostrou que treinou bastante. Ele foi impressionante. Ele fez um junte giratório muito difícil. Ele fez coisas que não se fazia antes na carreira. Isso é impressionante, ganhou, fez uma performance impressionante, o jeito que ele jogou, o kic de espinheira,

quem é iniciante e olha isso, sabe que é difícil, então foi uma boa performance. Você acha que o John Jones vai ganhar ou o Tom Aspinall? Eu acho que o John Jones. E para você, você está interessado em Tom? Is he in your thoughts as well? Is he a fighter that you would like to have in your mind? Who? Tom Aspinall. Well, like I said, I would fight anyone, no matter how heavy.

But John Jones is the champion. I am the champion. If it were Tom Aspinall, it's obvious that I would fight him. I would fight anybody anyway. But I'm the champion, you're the champion. If Aspinall com qualquer um, mas eu sou o campeão. Se o Aspinall fosse campeão, eu gostaria de lutar com ele. Você viu aquela foto quando você estava saindo e o Tom estava olhando para você? Ele estava sentado ali, acho que era do USF, e aqui ele está, olhando para você. Você viu essa foto? Você já viu?

Eu já vi essa foto aí. O que você acha disso? Eu não me lembro se eu fiz esse fórum, mas eu vou postar porque todos estão falando sobre isso. Nós queremos ver o quão de barulho eles vão fazer. Quando você vê isso, você se anima? Você vê a intensidade, o jeito que ele olha para você? É esse tipo de coisa que você acha ok, eu gosto disso? é como se ele estivesse tentando te matar, ele está olhando para você Eu não quero mais lutar contra qualquer um, eu quero lutar contra um pesado, não importa quem. Mas hoje eu vejo também a importância de estar fazendo uma luta contra o Jon Jones e de não estar fazendo com ele. Então eu vejo a foto ali como uma foto comum. Não mais porque não é um cenário real agora, a gente gosta de lutar contra o Jon Jones, então o Luke Carey é um jogador normal.

Se fosse a sua escolha, quantas vezes você luta esse ano? Três vezes. E a primeira é Magomed, e depois talvez alguns meses depois... Quem seria os dois e três? Com meu coração, eu não tenho nomes, quem for disponível. É, vamos falar, vamos trazer um cara lá do oitavo, quando for com o Khalil. Pra mim não interessa, traz o primeiro, o segundo, quer trazer o oitavo, quer trazer o vigésimo, pra mim não importa, eu quero lutar. Como o Khalil, ele está no 8, os rangues dizem que vão me trazer, sem problemas, se ele é o primeiro, o segundo, se o cara é o número 8, se ele for o número 12, eu não me importo, eu só quero lutar.

Obviamente, na semana passada nós vimos o Yuri, foi uma ótima luta para ele. Você foi impression depois, tava dando entrevista, tava do lado. Foi uma luta boa de assistir. Cara, como eu falei, são estilos diferentes ali, oponentes diferentes. Eu vejo uma outra luta. Como eu vi ali, se fosse comigo eu viria de outra forma, diferente. Foi uma boa luta, eu até falei pra ele mesmo, porque ele estava lá esperando para fazer uma entrevista depois de nós. Sabe o que eu quero dizer? Você faria uma luta diferente? Eu faria uma luta diferente ali? Com você.

Comigo. Eu acho que foi uma luta impressionante, mas... Eu acho que com mim seria um luta diferente. Ok. Mas em termos de sua evolução, ele falou de talvez ser mais paciente, e mais calculado e defender a si mesmo. Você viu uma evolução, ele falou que talvez ele tenha sido mais paciente, mais calculado e defendendo a si mesmo. Você viu uma evolução na luta do Yuri? Quando o Jamal passou direto naquele último golpe ali onde aconteceu o nocaute ali, bom, ali ele foi bem inteligente, eu vi uma evolução, mas também vi o Jamal um pouco mais lento,

um adversário mais lento ali pra ele, então ele conseguiu fazer isso muito bem. Definitivamente viu a evolução, ele pegou os golpes, foi um pouco mais paciente, sabe o que eu quero dizer? Muitos ataques counter, mas ele também conseguiu fazer isso com o Jamal que era muito mais lento. Eu não sei qual ponto ele foi mais forte. Você tem algum interesse em lutar contra o Yuri em algum ponto? Eu vou lutar contra ele, eu vou lutar contra o Jamal, eu vou lutar, qualquer um. Comigo não tem essa não. Eu vou lutar por ele, eu vou lutar por Jamal, eu vou lutar por qualquer um. Ah, mas já lutou três vezes, cinco vezes, dez vezes. Cara, eu quero lutar. Se o cara quer lutar, já lutou dez vezes. Quer lutar, vamos lutar.

Você jogou contra o cara três vezes, cinco vezes, cem vezes, não importa. As pessoas querem ver o cara, querem lutar, eu vou lutar. Jamal falou muito sobre você. Você foi feliz em ver ele perder? Jamal falou muito sobre você, né? Ele falou aquele barulho inteiro, você ficou feliz de ver ele perder? Jamal, mas se uma mão do Jamal entrar ali, vai ser meio difícil pro Jiri. Mas eu não fiquei assim, pô, não fiquei contente, eu só assisti uma luta ali, não tava torcendo pra ninguém, tava só assistindo, simplesmente. Não, eu não estava feliz em ver ele perder.

Eu vi que o Jamal tinha mais poder do que o Jiri na luta, ele conseguia conectar mais golpes de uma forma diferente, ele provavelmente estava mais feliz. Mas não que eu fosse feliz, eu estava apenas assistindo o que o Farah fazia em outras lutas. Se eu pudesse escolher a forma como a luta terminaria, seria pela decisão. Ok. Só uma pergunta, quando você ouve o Jamal falando as coisas que ele diz sobre você, você só riu considerando o que aconteceu na sua luta em abril? Ele não tem essa maldade, mas ele tem que falar, ele tem que vender. Se ele não tivesse falando tudo isso, eu acho que ele não estaria onde ele está. Ele é um cara esperto, é um cara inteligente.

Honestamente ele parece ser um cara bom. Ele fala porque ele tem que vender os partidos, ele tem que fazer as coisas. Porque honestamente, eu acho que se ele não falar muito, eu não acho que ele vai ficar com isso. Então, posso perguntar a sua parte da história do que aconteceu no P.I.? Nós vimos ele entrar na sua cara e eu não sei se você queria lutar ou não. O que você sentiu dele? Você sentiu que

ele queria lutar naquele dia no PIA aquele dia lá, que quase teve a briga lá, você acha que ele queria lutar mesmo com você ali? Cara, eu acho que quer, entendeu? Eu acho que tem tudo, como eu posso dizer, não é... Todas as lutas são difíceis, entende? Mas tem uma recompensa, ele lutou comigo uma vez, eu acho que ele tem uma boa recompensa

e ele sabe que se ele lutar comigo novamente, ele vai estar recebendo mais. Você acha que ele queria brigar com você ali? Ah, brigar? É, lá. Eu acho que não, ele só fez mesmo só para a mídia ali. Como eu falei para você, ele é um cara muito inteligente, né?

E, pô, é da forma dele trabalhar, mas eu acho que ele está sendo esperto. Eu não acho que ele realmente queria me encontrar lá, o Abraão, eu acho. Ele só encontrou uma maneira de vender outra luta. Ok. Você estava ficando bravo? Eu me sinto tranquilo, mas as pessoas às vezes não interpretam, porque eu sou esse cara, sabe? Esse cara que fica com a cara feia e tal, então se eu estender minha mão as pessoas acham que eu sou agressivo. Talvez porque eu estou com a cara feia, mas as pessoas acham que eu sou agressivo. Eu não sei, eu não sei. Eu acho que eu estou com a cara feia, mas as pessoas acham que eu sou agressivo.

Eu acho que eu estou com a cara feia, mas as pessoas às vezes não interpretam, porque eu sou esse cara, sabe? Com esse rosto de pedra e tal, então se eu estender minhas mãos as pessoas acham que eu sou agressivo. Talvez por exemplo, você é um bom cara, você vai lá e joga o globo para alguém, talvez eles não pensem que você tem esses sentidos ruins, mas porque ele está calado, ele estava realmente tranquilo. Não, pega aí, desse jeito E se você pega a luz vacia, então toma aí e tal Eu fui mais agressivo, entendeu? Se ele vai e joga a blusa assim Mas você vai e joga assim Ele é o agressivo Certo, certo, certo Certo

Tudo bem aí Quando você estava fazendo a entrevista E o Yuri estava olhando para você Na backstage Você estava sentindo a presença dele? Você sabe esse clipe que foi No after fight? Sim, no after fight

Sim, nós temos o clipe aqui Vocês estavam falando na backstage O Yuri tinha apenas lido E ele estava sentado lá Você conhece esse clipe que foi... O After Fight? Sim, o After Fight. Nós temos o clipe aqui. Vocês estavam falando no backstage, Yuri tinha apenas lutado e ele estava lá e ele estava como stoico assistindo você lá. Você sente ele assistindo você? Cara, eu... sério, não foi uma parada igual tava no octógono aquela vez que ele tava me encarando. Nesse momento ali ele não tava assim tipo, pô, eu quero lutar com esse cara, eu quero... pô, eu vou matar esse cara e tal. Não. Ele tava ali, tipo, com o pessoal dele e eu vi que não tinha isso não.

Eu senti que não tinha isso, ele simplesmente tava parado ali. Se tivesse outra pessoa dando entrevista ali, ele estaria da mesma forma, tenho certeza. Não, não foi como o descanso que a gente teve na cadeira com o outro. Ele tava só... só assistindo, só... Eu acho que outra pessoa dando entrevista ali daria da mesma forma, tenho certeza. and even a little bit afterwards talking about the sort of like, I don't know, the aura that you put out and maybe some voodoo or something like this. Have you ever partake? Where does he come up with this stuff?

Have you ever partake in any of this? Here we go. Before the fight and after, he came to talk that we do black magic, that we do that whole mandiga there and such. Where did that come from? If we do any of this stuff. This is good. Vem falar que a gente faz magia negra, que a gente faz aquela mandiga inteira lá e tal. De onde que isso aí, se a gente faz algum desses negócios aí? É, isso aí é...

É que a galera veio ali, né? Pô, eu pintado, né? Parte da cultura indígena. As pessoas associam alguma coisa assim. Sei lá, pensam o que elas querem. Mas, cara, eu acredito muito em Deus. Tenho Deus no meu coração. E pra mim é isso que importa.

Pô, não mexo com algo do tipo, magia, voodoo. Bom, se ele acredita, pega esse bonequinho aqui e amarra minhas mãos e tal, eu vou olhar ali e pô, vai pegar esse bonequinho aqui. Aí coloca minhas mãos, amarra minhas mãos pra trás, amarra minhas pernas e fala assim, pô, na hora da luta esse cara não vai conseguir me chutar. Eu vou olhar ali e fal tanto que eu treinei, tanto que eu me dediquei, por causa que ele tá amarrando a perna do meu boneco ali. Cara, eu tenho um Deus no coração. E esse cara só colocou essas coisas, mas a gente nunca participou de um desses prêmios, nós somos pessoas regulares. Se você realmente acredita nisso, pega essa bolsa, corta as mãos aqui ou para trás,

e eu vou cortar as mãos e os pés e vou lutar contra esse cara, porque isso vai funcionar. A gente nunca... Bom, eu acho que assim, no caso, se a gente luta de novo e tal, eu tô sendo sincero, não quero nem mexer no psicológico dele, do Gilles. E, pô, isso não existe, assim, no que a gente tá fazendo. Eu tô bem concentrado. Como eu falei, eu tenho Deus no meu coração. Acredito muito em Deus.

Eu acho que se a gente lutar novamente, ele esquecer isso, que ele vai conseguir ser um atleta melhor. Vai conseguir fazer um trabalho melhor. E a gente vai fazer uma luta melhor. E, pô, vai dar um show pra todo mundo. Com todo o respeito a ele, e honestamente, se nós vamos e lutamos de novo, uma terceira vez, e eu sinto que se ele colocar tudo isso de lado e só se concentrar em habilidades de luta, em performance e só lando um com o outro eu acho que vamos poder dar uma luta muito melhor para o público Eu não quero lutar contra um cara que está bem fisicamente, mentalmente e isso vai me deixar bem, porque eu vou provar que eu sou melhor batendo um cara que estava complicado, um cara que treinou pra caramba e isso vai me fazer bem. that because of cheating, this, cheating, then no. I want to fight the best at their best. I don't want to fight a guy

and think, oh, I hope he gets hurt. No. I want to fight them at their best. I want to fight them at their prime. I want to fight a guy

that he's ready. He gets that fire in me and say, okay, I want to beat this guy. Like, I want to fight people at their best. There's no reason

to do this kind of stuff. So, I think they should do Yuri versus Khalil. Você conhece os dois? Quem você acha que vai ganhar? Eu acho que o Khalil... Cara, é difícil. Acho que meio ali mais que... Um pouquinho mais acho que o Khalil ganha. Não sei.

Vai ser uma luta muito difícil, mas eu acho que se o Khalil ganhar um pouco, vai ser difícil. Quando eu lutei com o Khalil, claro que eu cansei, foram quatro rounds, mas eu bati bastante, bati forte, e tudo o que aconteceu no meu campo, que eu não quero usar como desculpa, entendeu? Mas eu posso falar porque ainda eu ganhei, se eu tivesse perdido eu nem comentaria aqui, mas eu não estou inventando, todo mundo que estava do meu lado ali viu, como duas vezes em menos de um mês tomando antibiótico por sei lá cinco dez dias cada vez costela ruim ligamento do dedo ruim ainda do dedo que eu tinha quebrado o problema de visto no Brasil tava no

Brasil não tava aqui depois vem para cá depois vou para para para eu tá então pô tá bem complicado então eu não consigo ver o como que se eu não põe a habilidade porque ele quer a 5, certo? Foi muito difícil, mas eu acho que ele conseguiu. Mas às vezes é difícil, porque quando ele joga o Khalil, ele não põe a habilidade porque ele quer a 5, certo? Foi muito difícil, mas eu acho que ele conseguiu. Mas às vezes é difícil, porque quando ele joga o Khalil, ele não põe a habilidade porque ele quer a 5, certo? Foi muito difícil, mas eu acho que ele conseguiu. Mas se bem aconteceu o que aconteceu na luta, ele falou, não, pô, certeza, o Khalil vai ganhar do Gilles. throughout those weeks. He couldn't train. His ribs were cracked. He just based there a little bit of that camp in Utah.

So it's hard to know on a different scenario how he would have done with Khalil. To say, okay, I fought Khalil my best, but Khalil definitely win. So we don't know. Each fight is different. You know what I mean?

Okay. Your old foe, Israel Adesanya, is fighting this weekend. And we saw a couple weeks ago he was training with Robert Whitaker. And it got me wondering, would you ever consider that as well? Israel Adesanya está lutando neste fim de semana e nós vimos há algumas semanas que ele estava treinando com Robert Whittaker e me fez perguntar, você também consideraria isso? Eu sei que você está em um bom lugar, parece que vocês são amigos agora mas você quer treinar com Israel? você aí e aparecer agora treinando com o Robert Whitaker. Pode ser que no futuro a gente pode ver vocês treinando?

Vocês parecem que estão em bons termos agora. Algo que talvez pode acontecer no futuro? Não, com certeza. Quem está vendo a forma como eu me comporto, até com pessoas que eu já lutei, estou trazendo para dentro do meu camp, que é onde eu aprendo muito. E com certeza, estar treinando com o Israel, com certeza eu vou estar aprendendo algo.

Ou vou estar passando algo para ele também. Porque muitas coisas ali que a gente começa a ver, assistindo a luta. E às vezes as pessoas falam, pô, o Israel, isso aqui, ele machuca o adversário. Mas eu, diretamente, posso falar, não, isso aqui, pô, isso aqui tem que continuar. Então eu acho que, às vezes a gente sabe que a gente faz de melhor, mas as vezes a gente não acredita muito ali. Mas se eu que tava tomando as porras da lixa, chegar e dizer, meu, vai aqui, vai aqui que você vai machucar. Então acho que vai ser bom pra mim, vai ser bom pra ele, se ele for um cara sincero e falar a mesma forma que eu vou falar pra ele, eu acho que a gente vai só ganhar com isso. Sim cara, eu não vou trazer os velhos rivales para o campo e treinar eles, eu acho que vai ser algo muito bom e algo sincero porque às vezes alguém pode olhar do lado e dizer ok, olha, eu acho que você

pode fazer isso melhor ou eu acho que isso é bom, isso é ruim, mas ninguém sabe melhor do que o Alex ou melhor do que o Israel porque eles lutaram um com o outro, então o Alex pode ter uma opinião sinceramente aberta para dizer, olha, continue fazendo isso porque isso realmente funciona, sabe o que eu quero dizer, e vice-versa, e eu sinto que se o EZ tiver a mesma abordagem, aberta e honesta com o outro, eu acho que eles podem ser ót um com o outro. daqui meu atrapalha muito então é bom ele saber disso entendeu porque com isso você consegue montar uma estratégia e não se vai ganhar o do cara só fazendo tal coisa mas aquilo vai abrir várias várias oportunidades de você está colocando outros golpes por exemplo não o verso ouça israel Por exemplo, Israel vs Sean Strickland. Não, um verso. Ou Israel e o Sean Strickland. Mas não quando eles lutaram. Não, não. Tipo, eu já lutei com os dois.

Por exemplo, ele lutou com ambos, certo? Ele poderia ir para o Strickland ou Israel e dizer, olha, isso funciona por causa disso e disso e ele pode ir para o outro. É o mesmo jeito de ir para ambos porque eles têm uma perspectiva interna, certo? E não deixar algo que talvez possa ser um golpe, uma mudança de vida na luta, mas algo que pode, pelo menos, abrir a caminho para ona, certo? E não deixar algo que talvez possa ser um tipo de mudança de vida na luta, mas algo que pode, caramba, se esse cara continuar vai ser complicado. Então, tipo assim, é uma preocupação. Então, é bom ele saber disso. Quando eu falei para eles, eles pensaram, se esse cara continuar fazendo isso, vai ficar complicado para mim.

E no final do jogo, eu posso dar a opinião sobre o que está acontecendo. Você tem amor por Israel? Quando você vê ele competir, se você está assistindo no sábado, por causa do tempo que você gastouutar, você deseja ele ganhando? É assim, eu acho que eu não vejo eu torcendo para outra pessoa quando o Adenciano está lutando. Porque eu agradeço muito a ele, porque acho que se não fosse esse cara eu não estaria onde eu estou hoje. Eu acho que eu já entrei no UFC ganhando um bom salário, coisas que poucas pessoas têm que ter uma história.

Então a história que eu tinha era com ele. Então agradeço e acho que a forma de estar contribuindo é estar torcendo para ele o mínimo. Não, eu não vejo a mim mesmo chorando contra Israel Desania. Eu desejo o melhor para ele e eu acho que talvez sem ele eu não estaria onde estou hoje. Eu não teria conseguido o bom contrato que eu fiz com a história que temos. Então, eu quero o melhor para mim. A terceira luta na UFC com Israel ou John Jones?

Se você tivesse que escolher apenas uma, qual você escolheria? Por que? Porque, bom, já lutei quatro vezes com a Adesanya e como eu falei que era um desafio, um outro desafio, lutando no peso pesado, e falando do campeão. Então acho que é o melhor cenário. Porque já lutou quatro vezes em Israel, e falando sobre o John Jones é um novo desafio e ele é o campeão. De acordo com a gente, parabéns, você sabe que você conhece parabéns você conhece que você ganhou meu anúncio do ano de lutadores você sabe que você ganhou aqui eles fizeram deles aqui você ganhou o

lutador do ano ganhou o troféu aí Awani sabe isso é 2024 você sabe isso agora obrigado e você sabe que Plinio e Glover ganharam meus coches do ano. Eles também. Obrigado. Thank you, brother. A lot of people said, oh, no, Ariel. This is my nose, yeah. Look, it says Helwani Nose. Olha lá, o prêmio do Ariel Helwani Nose Award,

o prêmio do do Ariel. Chama. A lot of people said, I'm crazy. They said it should have been Ilia, fighter of the year.

Muitos falaram que ele é louco, que eu deveria ser o lutador do ano. Eu não falei no dia lá, mas acho que a gente ficou ali, pau a pau. E acho que vou dividir essa premiação com ele, que ele fez um bom trabalho. Até minha premiação que eu ganhei lá no... Quando o Príncipe estava junto lá, no MMA Awards. Estou dividindo com ele, porque ele também fez um bom trabalho. E é isso. Estou levando alegria para o público, ele também da mesma forma, então ele merece esse reconhecimento. Ele fez muitas coisas incríveis, eu acho que eu fiz meu trabalho, mas sabe o que? Quando eu ganhei o Emmy Awards, eu não disse isso, mas eu digo agora, eu vou compartilhar isso com ele, porque ele também fez coisas incríveis,

e ele é um grande cara que traz muita alegria para as pessoas, então ele merece o prêmio também. him because he's also did great things and he's a great guy that brings a lot of joy to people so he deserves that award too wow so we both are the best fighters of 2024 okay wow respect um i'll let you go in a minute but i want to ask you about a photo you posted a photo uh in december i think it was you were eating in your parents house like four years ago and then you showed uh their new você estava comendo na casa dos seus pais, há 4 anos, e aí você mostrou sua nova casa. E é uma transformação incrível. Nós temos a foto, essa é você... Você postou em dezembro aí, ele quer falar que você postou essa foto comendo na casa do seu pai,

depois de alguns anos você comendo... Qual ano foi essa foto? Qual ano foi essa foto? Acho que 2018. Estava no Glory. Eu acho que talvez 2018. Eu postei ela uma vez, quando ele foi para a Glory. e não reboca a casa dos pais deles, tipo assim, criticando, entendeu? Mas o meu plano já tava lá na frente, eu tinha comprado uma casa já pro meu pai e pra minha mãe morar, né? E a casa tava em reforma e por isso que eles ainda estavam ali. Então, isso foi, eu acho, em 2017, 2018, 2019, em algum momento daqueles anos, no Glory.

E o jeito que ele trouxe, porque eu me lembro que naquele tempo alguém comentou e disse 1819 somewhere around those years at glory and the way that he brought back because he remember back then somebody commented say bro this guy is eating his parents house glory chamber not even pushy rock don't take care of his father's parents house wall but they didn't know that he was already on plans to buy a house for their parents smaller house back then years ago now we see the new house Era uma casa pequena naquela época, anos atrás. Agora vemos a nova casa. Incrível. Essa é a casa nova dos seus pais? O que significa para você poder uma vida melhor para a gente. Fizeram tudo o que eles puderam fazer e foi muito difícil, mas acho que a educação que a gente teve, o ensinamento que a gente teve, foi a melhor coisa. Meus irmãos, todos pessoas assim que sabem respeitar,

pessoas de bom caráter, e eu poder fazer isso pra eles, eu acho que é uma troca, uma retribuição. Então, isso significa muito porque nós crescemos em momentos difíceis, eles tentaram So it means a lot because, you know, we grew up in hard times. You know what I mean? They tried as much to give a good life for us financially, but they couldn't. But at the same time, they did a great job raising us, raising all the kids with our manners, our education to a certain way. Like raising us like men, raising us with good family values, raising us as good people. So for me to buy this house is it's a good way to retribute all the hard work that they put to make us where we are.

Your story has been talked about, but it's amazing to see like in Los Angeles, when you show up to the weigh-ins, everyone goes crazy. I see you in Korea at the airport, everyone's going crazy for you. And I'm wondering just how do you keep your head from getting too big? How do you not almost get intoxica com todo esse amor? Porque você pode fazer o caso que você é o mais querido lutador da UFC, todos adoram você, então como vocêia milhares de pessoas em cima de você e você é um cara que fica centrado fica com o pé no chão, como é que você

consegue ser assim, porque pode-se falar que hoje você é o lutador mais popular do UFC você não leva tudo só pra cabeça, como é que você consegue se manter assim? Ah, eu acho que eu tô aproveitando a minha vida acho que agora um pouco mais tenho mais condição as pessoas que me acompanham vêm ali

eu tenho um carro bom, tenho uma casa boa. Hoje eu consigo viajar para qualquer lugar. E, pô, acho que de onde eu vim, de onde eu vim, eu acho que foi muito difícil. E, pô, não vou sair gastando assim. Pô, não vai sair gastando assim? Pô, eu compro um carro, pô, de tantos mil dólares. Cara, eu posso fazer isso, estou trabalhando pra isso, né? Mas

eu acho que mesmo dessa forma, pra mim, ela tem uma forma inteligente, é uma forma de investimento. E como é que você consegue manter o pé no chão em termos, assim, com as pessoas, sendo um cara educado? Você não é essa mesma pessoa que você não deixa subir pra cá? Eu acho que eu sou a mesma pessoa, eu trato todo mundo bem, eu tenho consciência disso,

sempre quando eu vou pro Brasil, eu tô vendo as pessoas que eu sempre tive, só que agora ficou um pouco mais difícil, às vezes eu tenho alguma reclamação da galera, pô, você veio aqui, cara, agora, pô, um pouco difícil, só fui aí resolver algumas coisas e tal, mas eu acho que vai ser mais fácil depois que eu parar de lutar, quando eu for voltar para um lugar ali com os meus amigos, onde eu nasci, eu acho me grounded. I like my nice things. I have my car, I have my house. I'm able to travel wherever I go, but I try to be smart with my money. And character-wise, man, I try to just stay the same.

Some friends sometimes complain that I don't have too much time. Or like, you know what I mean? It changes a little bit, but it's impossible to make everybody happy. Sometimes it's just hard. But I think after I stop fighting, I can have more time to go and come back to everybody. But I try to stay the same person, stay grounded. Mas eu acho que depois que eu parei de lutar, eu não tenho mais tempo para voltar para todos, mas eu tento ficar na mesma posição e ficar no campo. Mas oficialmente, seria justo dizer que você exced sabia que eu poderia fazer algo assim grande, entendeu? Mas não como está sendo. Absolutamente, eu não imaginava que eu ia conseguir isso. Eu sabia que eu poderia fazer algo grande, mas não como tudo está acontecendo agora. is going right now right it's crazy it's really beautiful to watch seeing the reaction overseas

korea all these places uh it's amazing and it's amazing to see you uh enjoy it all but still it appears to be the same guy and you would probably know best because you've known him for so long same guy hasn't changed my brother from back in the days i love it i love it um so obrigado thank you for coming in parabens on everything and good luck how do you say good luck in uh é um, então obrigado, obrigado por vir, parabéns por tudo e boa sorte, boa sorte, boa sorte, boa sorte março 8, UFC 313 contra Magomed Ankalev, que você revelou no show hoje, você pediu para ele, eles não disseram para você lutar contra ele, você pediu para lutar com ele, não foi ele que pediu. Sim, chama. Chama. Chama. Obrigado Alex, obrigado.

Ele tem que me agradecer. Ele tem que me agradecer. Ele tem que me agradecer. Ele tem que me agradecer porque eu sou o único que pediu. É isso aí. E se esse cara não fazer o que ele falou, pô, as pessoas já viram eu zoando os outros adversários, às vezes eu brinco e tal, mas esse vai ser o cara que eu vou zoar. As pessoas me trocam de vez em quando, dizem que vão fazer isso e aquilo, mas esse melhor fazer tudo que ele diz que vai fazer.

Porque esse eu vou trocar. Então eu digo спасибо em nome de Ankelaev. É obrigado no russo. Como? O russo ele falou assim, spasiba. Em nome de Ankelaev. Em nome de Ancalayev In nome do Ancalayev Obrigado

There he is Alex Pereira, Plinio Cruz Unbelievable gentlemen, they returned to action in March Quick break, this is the clip From Robert Whitaker last week And then we'll come back to wrap up the show Don't go anywhere Alright, that was a great chat with Robert Whitaker

That was last week. You can see it on the YouTube channel. And what about Alex Pereira? And what about Plinio? Two gents. I offered him the Big Shots toy, but as you can see, probably, yeah, it's still there. He said he wants...

Shama! Yeah, he wants everyone to see him when he comes in. He did take the trophy, though, as you can see. He earned that trophy. He did. I mean, he absolutely did. It's a one-of-one, I do believe, right? Sure is.

Well, we make one every year. Is that the first one given out? So a little-known fact in the ESPN days, I don't know if we had a bigger budget back then or whatnot, Corporate Jake, who was a producer on the program, good friend of Honor Jordan, and his future wife, Elizabeth, actually, I kid you not,

produced every trophy. And not only that, shipped them to all the winners. Wow. Regardless of where they are. That's a good task. All 26 categories? I mean, listen.

Jordan is opening FedEx right now And he's trying to take care of it I'm thinking we start making some gold noses for it That's not bad Like a trophy Completely in the shape of a nose It's not bad And when you say we

Who the F is we Who the fuck is we I'll take the lead on it And then we can go from there this is i thought you were gonna get down in the trenches what in producing the trophy um what he means by lead is he came up with the idea and now someone else yeah i got the i got the trophy this year you did make it i can make them uh by the way yeah and it was engraved too yeah where'd you do that i should have just done alexira. Oh, listen, man.

I know people in the trophy industry, so the nose will be no problem. That's true. It's not a bad point. Almost took the plushie, too. Almost pulled the McGregor and took the plushie. We did get a great picture out of it, though. Ah, look at that. Alex and Alex.

Yeah, smiling. The Peter doll. God. Kind of smiley, this interview. I have to say. Several. I was thinking the same. Throwing a lot of teeth.

I was thinking the same. a lot of teeth i was thinking the same he seemed to be in good spirits uh playing the papa shot i heard in the back uh was there any talk of a rick poiton showdown back there rick being of course the papa shot champion rick rick actually said he wanted to have mercy on him oh wow jesus okay i don't know man seemed like he uh he really wants that Jon Jones fight. Yeah. Yeah, I was back here. When you teed it up to him, I was like, oh, please say Jon Jones. He's just like, Jon Jones.

And it really seems like he wants to beat up Magomed on Kalev. Obviously, you know, the fight has to play out. But I think that fight week is going to be spicy. Oh, it's that and then Hooker Gaethje? Yeah. It's going to be a fun one you actually mentioned the the underdog he's he keeps getting bet down he's like barely the underdog now i can't even oh really did you jump on that nah i wish i had you didn't no i said you were gonna i know i sent you when

it was plus 175 yeah i just haven't i forgot to do it i'm still gonna bet him though is it true that he went from underdog to favorite during this interview? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was actually once he got the big shot. The line was on the move. Gosh. I was saying, my nephew came in, and I was saying to Connor as well, there was like a two-hour period during the show today. That's why the show is the best for me psychologically, mentally, health-wise, where I forgot about the bills.

And then it was around the Jeremy Stevens interview where I was like, damn it, that happened. And then I got that pit in my stomach again. It's great because you don't go on social media. I need to do the detox. This show is my detox because you're not on social media. You're not scrolling. You're not looking at the videos. You're not heartbroken. It's a gift. It's a beautiful thing. And it's a gift that keeps on giving because we come back tomorrow. Tomorrow on the program, Chris Weidman talk about leaving the UFC and of course signing with GFL.

Darren Owen will recap the first ever GFL draft. We'll talk to, I was gonna say Andrew Feldman, Dave Feldman. Shout out to Andrew Feldman though. Prolific on social media. Dave Feldman. Shout out to Andrew Feldman, though. Prolific on social media. Dave Feldman will talk about the event in Philly on Saturday. Knuckle Mania 5. Congratulations to Eagles fans worldwide on their big win.

I don't really have, I guess. I don't want to be a hater, so if the Chiefs are going to make history, I don't know if that's better. It feels like I'm living through the 90s with the Knicks and the Bulls all over again. I can't believe this is happening 30 years later where my team would maybe be champion if not for one particular guy. And it just keeps happening over and over again. So I don't really have a dog in the race.

But I will tell you that tomorrow on the program, we will have, is it the third annual? I think it might be the third annual. annual yeah third annual royal rumble lottery yeah pizzi for the first time ever joining the crew and what is the royal rumble lotterytery? The Royal Rumble Lottery is when myself, Rick, GC, Frank, and this year for the first time, Pizzi Carol, will all pick a number. Yes? Oh, I was excited about the music.

You think all 30 balls made it through the move? You know what? It's a fantastic question. I'm hoping they did. It's a fantastic question. I'm really hoping they did. And so if you don't know, it's very fun. There's 30 entrants into the Royal Rumble.

We each pick a number. So if I get, let's say, what is this? One? That means... That's crazy. I just got one, by the way. You really just picked one out of there randomly? Yes. If I get one, that means when we're watching the Rumble this Saturday, and Kevin Owens comes out as number one john

cena whatever and they win i win so you're tied to a number as opposed to a pick and then let's say gc's next and wow two this is very weird uh really just pick i swear to god one and two what are you doing tonight you're going to atlantic city with me? Let's see. Is this three right here? Let's see. No, this is five. Anyway, so it's very fun. Same number for the men and women. So there's a men's rumble and a women's rumble.

That's this Saturday. And by the way, this past weekend was an incredible weekend as far as an eclectic mix of things. It ain't getting much bigger for at least us at Uncrowned this Saturday, February 1st, Izzy in Saudi Arabia against Imovov and MVP against Shara Bullitt. David Murrell against David Benavidez in the evening, T-Mobile Arena. And in the late evening, sorry, late afternoon, early evening, you get Royal Rumble from the sold out, what is it? What do they call it now?

It's not the RCA Dome. Oh, Lucas Oil. Yeah, Lucas Oil. The Big Dog Stadium in Indy. So that's going to be an unbelievable day. Nick Slaker is also on ABC that evening as well. So a lot to look forward to. Also, the way the schedule lines up is amazing.

It actually goes like boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Because I think Rumble's at like 6 or something. Yeah, 6 o'clock. You get like an hour and a half break between UFC Saudi and Rumble. Yeah, it's crazy. It's amazing. Yeah, because on this past Saturday, it was kind of all happening at the same time. I was watching the

boxing on DAZN and BKFC and all, but here it's like I mean, it does, you know, it does lead to like 14 straight hours as opposed to a condensed, you know, six or seven with things happening at the same time, but nevertheless, we are blessed, we are lucky, and we'll be back tomorrow to

do the damn thing again. Thank you very much to everyone who tuned in. Thanks for listening to me as I, yeah, you can play the music. Did you hear me ask that out loud? No, but I just kind of felt like we were sort of in sync. Thank you to everyone who indulged me at the beginning of the show.

It's a weird thing. I feel emotionally exhausted after yesterday. I really do. I never had to take a... I told my kids that if the Bills won the Super Bowl, I would go streaking in the nude in our neighborhood. And I was never so heartbroken where I had to go for a walk by myself at 10 p.m. Oh, man.

But I had to do it. And then you're getting texts from people, and it's like a funeral, you know? And obviously, this isn't life or death, but you just don't even know how to process it. It's a tough thing. I think you've handled it well. You think so? Yeah. Now I get to go home and experience it again with my wife.

Yeah, how's she doing? She's holding up as well as you can. You know, when you're from Buffalo, when you're from the 716, which she is from, right? Correct. You're built different. You have the battle scars. When she slapped the bottle of ranch out of my hands when we tried to have wings, I figured it out. You guys went with ranch?

That was the problem. No, not yesterday. Oh, okay. This is years ago. Never again. Blue cheese, right? That's the only thing. That's the only thing. That's the only thing, yeah.

Frank, what are we going to do? It's just the thought of going through the whole thing all over again that really stings, you know? Did you not even listen to Jeremy Stephens when he talked about the trials and tribulations and getting through it and how much spirit made it? This is you. This is me.

You're right. Thank you, Rick. I appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you to Alex. Thank you to Plinio. Thank you to Dan Hooker, Jeremy Stevens, and Ben Rothwell. Thanks to you.

Thanks to them. Back on Tuesday, same time. We swear.