The Ariel Helwani Show - Alex Pereira to heavyweight? UFC 311 update, PFL woes | The Craic

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

Chuck Mindenhall returns to The Craic, joining Petesy Carroll to discuss a potential location shift for UFC 311 due to the California wildfires (03:07).The lads also give their takes on reports from Brazil claiming Alex Pereira will move to heavyweight (07:36) to take on Alexander Volkov at UFC 313 and reports that PFL will half the prize money for their tournament in 2025 (28:17).They also ponder why Dominick Cruz will not be taking on Henry Cejudo next month in Seattle (45:40), before briefly touching on this weekend’s Apex card headlined by McKenzie Dean vs. Amanda Ribas 2 (51:30).Join us on the bike: avironactive.com/uncrownedEXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/uncrowned Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee

Crackheads, we are back! 2025, we're gonna give it to you straight in the face! Thank you so much for enjoying all of our European previews, our European reviews, all of that good stuff. A lot happening in Crackland. You'll see our beautiful Celsius here in the background. Everything's changing. It's all changing for the better, of course. Lots of big news has just come in over the last, let's say, 30 minutes.

So we have a lot to get through here. First of all, I want to bring in the lovely Chuck Mendenhall, who is returning. We couldn't use him for all the European stuff, Chuck, but you're back now. My safety blanket is finally here again. Welcome back, sir. I don't even know where Europe is, man. I know it's east of here.

That's what I know. It's good to see you. Happy New Year. I don't know if we've, it's January 10th, so I don't know if we can still say that. I know some people get upset, but we haven't spoken to each other. So, Happy New Year, my friend. I mean, I saw you. You couldn't see my face when you made your video appearance on Ariel's show a couple of days ago,

but it warmed my heart. It warmed my soul. Of course, it is Bills v. Broncos this weekend, which we're going to talk about towards the back end of the show. But, man, you look great to play quarterback. I saw you in that jersey, and I was like, he's still got it. That orange does create a very warm glow, doesn't it? it's just there's something about that it does it's a beautiful beautiful jersey i saw them wearing it on sunday and we have to get into all of the 311 stuff i

don't know if you saw ariel hawani tweeting out recently obviously i'm going through a very situation serious situation out there with the fires and i've been watching the news coverage and we have some friends out there thankfully all safe we're wishing everybody the best out there with the fires um i've been watching the news coverage and we have some friends out there thankfully all safe we're wishing everybody the best out there and we're going to get onto his 311 news at the back of our ads here i just want to give a shout out first of all to avaron uh your workout routine shouldn't feel like a grind that's why avaron makes exercise more fun and easier to stick to using gamification. Yeah, you can play actual video games while you work out. Powered by their award-winning Averon World software and paired with industry-leading hardware,

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Go to avironactive.com slash uncrowned to end boring workouts. And with that said, guys, let's have a look at Mr. Ariel Helwani's tweets. Obviously, 311 due to happen in the Intuit Dome next week in Inglewood, California. So here is what Ariel has reported in the last 30 minutes or so. UFC has had talks about the status of UFC 3-11

next weekend, I'm told. UFC 3-11 is currently slated for the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. Obviously, that region is facing a devastating wildlife crisis at the moment. The NFL announced yesterday they are moving the Rams-Vikings playoff game scheduled for Monday at SoFi Stadium

in Inglewood to Glendale, Arizona. As of right now, 311 is staying at Intuit. The hope is it remains there, but they are monitoring and ready to move the card if needs be. No talks of delaying the card obviously that call needs to happen soon the event is eight days away vegas would be the front water worth noting t-mobile arena is not booked next saturday jan 18th well um very much developing

situation there chuck but um good to hear that um they do have a continuity plan should they need one obviously horrific scenes from uh los angeles obviously i'm a bit further away than you i know you used to live there but scary scary stuff yeah man i mean this this thing has uh and it's so weird because we i feel like we go through such crazy news cycles the the New Orleans thing that was happening, that you're never sure. Like when things start to happen, like the fires were going in Los Angeles, to what degree should you be concerned about anything? And then, because I've lived out there, there's mudslides, there's earthquakes, there's fires, all that stuff. But just the severity of what's happening, the pictures coming out of that, and just friends accounts, just like what you were uh before we got rolling here um just people that we know colleagues so many people affected by this what a uh what a disaster to have to navigate through and hopefully obviously like they get

this thing solved the benefit the ufc does have a little bit of a benefit in having all the way until next weekend right they've got eight days and we'll see how things shake out. It's good that there's a contingency plan. It's good that when you have a hub in Las Vegas, I think he said in that tweet that T-Mobile was not booked by the Golden Knights or a concert or something like that. So it seems like maybe they could slot themselves in there, but that's a potential nightmare. As you well know, man, anytime they switch venues in a situation like this, you have the whole ticket mess, all the travel mess ups from you know anybody coming in for this fight anybody has tickets los angeles etc so let's hope you know that the that everything stays on course and they're able to kind of christen that new intuit uh what is it called

the intuit dome or the intuit arena the intuit dome as far as i know joe yeah i mean it'd be cool for them to be able to do that. There was a lot of, you know, like refreshment to that idea, right? A new arena, a new year, all that stuff. So let's hope that they can get that done. And obviously, eight days out, things are

developing very, very quickly. And obviously, with the Rams and stuff moving, it felt as soon as that kind of report came out, it was like, we're going to have to hear something about this pretty soon. And Ariel has just garnished me with a text from Commissioner Andy Foster, obviously of the California State Athletic Commission. We are watching the ongoing world fires and the subsequent emergency and disaster response in the Los Angeles area. Our hearts are with the residents of that region and we appreciate the efforts of first responders in keeping the community safe.

At this time, no decisions have been made about moving UFC 311, but we will continue to work with state and local officials and the UFC to determine the best course of action. Thank you. Thank you very much for that, Ariel, for giving us that.

And thank you very much to Commissioner Andy Foster. It's all happening. That's about all you can do, right? that's about all you can do at this point is kind of see how things play out but i would guess that they have to make a decision on this pretty quickly um if it seems like it would be in jeopardy of having to move i think you got to pull the trigger and make that happen sooner rather than later to deal with all the logistics that go with that absolutely um i'm sure we will here over the weekend or something. Like, as you said, time is key here, and if they need to move it,

they're going to have to get the wheels in motion very, very soon. Anyone who saw the thumbnail for this episode will have thought we were going to do a deep dive on PFL and Al Zolino's tweets that were confirmed by drake riggs for uncrowned pertaining to the tournament uh the prize money being split in half we will get to that later but we've also had some news um pertaining to one of danbury's own you might say yeah i mean it's my guy we're moving all over the place here. I saw, I think it was a couple of hours ago, I saw my old friends at MMA on Point put out a tweet saying,

per Brazilian reporter, Lierte Viena, a heavyweight bout between Alex Pereira and Alexander Volkov is being discussed for UFC 313. Since then, Mr. Kevin Aioli has put out a tweet, and I will read that to you now. Very short, direct tweet from Mr. Aioli. No truth to the rumor of Pareda vs.

Volkov. Zero. Move on. Well, guess what, guys? I'm not listening to Kevin Aioli. I want to break this down a bit further. I always liked your stubbornness. Yeah, I'm not doing it. I'm not moving on. I'm always going to tell you to move on. Go ahead, PTO. Sorry.

What I wanted to ask you is a lot of talk from Joe Rogan primarily over the last few days, and the lads went into this in great detail, and the boys in the back yesterday, and they raised some great points, which I will get your take on later, Chuck, but all this talk of heavyweight,

Aspen obviously waiting in the wings. Joe Rogan, two weeks ago, he recorded an episode that only went out this week where he mentioned that Jones was looking for 30 million. He does a subsequent episode with Theo Vaughn a couple of days, or in the last 24 hours, I believe it was put out. And he said that Dana White rang him

and told him that that wasn't true at all. And in fact, John Jones is thinking about retiring. Now we have, we have Freda Vyvolkov, which is not happening and we should move on. The reports of this, what's your take on all of this, Mr. Memel? These are so many different things. Joe Rogan could be like, you know,

30 million is just total BS, but by the way, I saw UFO last night. You know, he could just say something like that in the same sentence at this point, you know? The truth is, man, you try not to get too involved. And the John Jones, we talked about this. We said, now you enter into the complexity

of how this all plays out. We know what the most obvious thing is, which is just you have an interim champion, you have an actual champion, it's time to unify the belts. We knew that it wasn't going to be that easy, and we know that that R word is going to continue to creep up because Jon Jones, I think, likes the idea of negotiating in the public a little bit and planting certain seeds that he's happy to walk away, perfectly content to walk away from the game if he needs to it's just it's a leveraging um it's a it's a piece

of leverage for him to be able to do this where i disagree with rogan a little bit is just that you know let him take all the time he wants that that's always the thing that you're like well how much time is all the time he wants because he could just take and tell tom aspinall's not in the picture anymore right like he could just wait till tom loses to cyril gone or something like that um it's it's gonna be a it's gonna be one of those situations man where you know i i think weekly we may have a different idea of what's going on i seriously doubt that there's any kind of resolution you asked me at one point like what point would you be startled in 2025 if we haven't – and you said something like March or – I feel like that would be the early end. It's like March or April that we know anything more about what's happening with this.

You know what I mean? So we'll see. Hopefully I'm wrong. But – and you combined two different things there. What's the other thing we're reporting on? Of all the people, to win the Pereira sweeps this year, imagine if it was Volkov. I mean, that's as left field as it gets, isn't it? Of all the different people you could plug into that scenario,

that seems ridiculous to me. I do think it's interesting, though. It does say something to me about this situation in that, as you said, March would be early if we got any good news about jones aspinall no one is expecting this fight to happen in the first half of this year in fact most of us when we were hypothesizing towards the end of last year said it will be this time next year as in one of those end of year shows perhaps an msg something like that um the interesting element to it for me is,

and even like, again, Kevin Ayala has told us it's not true, but I had a feeling that Pereira would become a player in this Aspinall and Jones thing. It's because Pereira and Aspinall were kind of talked about in terms of with the fan base before, like could Aspinall fight him at heavyweight? Everybody's waiting for Pereira to go to heavyweight. And also Jones, like his, his kind of,

his narrative throughout the fight week before the Stipe fight was like, Pereira is a bigger fight than Tom Aspinall. He's the guy that I want. I think it's very interesting that suddenly you have this poster boy, the face of the promotion a guy who's dominating his weight class and everybody really enjoying watching this guy fight a light heavyweight suddenly it's like if this is true which only again says it isn't if he was to be to be entered into a heavyweight fight i would say that he will be the runner-up prize to either to aspinal if he can't get jones like if this is

dragging out right and it's constantly like oh is he retiring does he want 30 million i'd say that's when prayer is played if he has fought at heavyweight it makes it even easier to do that even though i don't think he would have needed to do that to to get a heavyweight title fight you know i think sometimes in the older ways of the ufc's dealings and you think well they they don't make super fights very often you know and and and honestly it's a lot of it is because you have two champions say and you don't want to put them together because you lose the sheen of one of them and i we saw a little bit of this with volkanovski versus islam where volkanovski is cruising along historically as a featherweight, moves up,

loses not once but twice in the end. And I think that took something away from the kind of mystique that was Alexander Volkanovski. I personally, like contemplating an Aspinall versus Pereira fight, I'm like, well, of course, in prospect, that's a big deal. It would seem like such a mega marquee fight. It would be ridiculous on every level. But honestly, your most iconic fighter right now is Alex Pereira, and you're putting him to the buzzsaw at that point. I really think that that's not the greatest matchup for him.

So coming out of it, I think that you've got something worse than what you'd get going in prospect. You may sell a lot of pay-per-views with that, but at the same time, I'm not sure you'd want to kill him off. Yeah. And I understand what you're saying about like, you know, it kind of being a good consolation. If you can't get John Jones signed, you know, for Aspinall, that would be the logical fight. And I think that would be the next biggest fight, if not the equal biggest fight.

You know what I mean? And so I could see it happening just given the circumstances, but that has traditionally not been the way the UFC has operated. Yeah. I don't know why I'm in this vein of thinking. I think it's because I look at Jones and Aspinall like that is the antidote to get everyone to forget about Francisis v jones not happening right and then as you said i'm looking at pereira v aspen if jones does retire as the shiny thing

to distract everyone if it doesn't go away which i think you've said there it's just if if this isn't resolved heavyweight's gonna feel very strange for at least a couple of fights right like if if jones magically disappears and you have aspinall standing there saying i wanted to fight that guy that was the fight i wanted it will still take some time as we saw when all the great champions um parted ways with their belts it will take some time to re-establish a pecking order and intrigue in the division wouldn't you say i mean it's already so confusing just given all of 2024 the way it played out the way that aspinall rose up um just the structure that's been in place that it's not because you're talking about it

like even the john jones that protected fight that lasted for a year we still the speculation was he could retire this whole time we we certainly thought that Miocic would or could. And so you still enter into the same kind of terrain. I just don't know how long you can let that kind of go on. It reminds me in some almost esoteric way or something of the 2017 GSP going up to middleweight, wins that title against Michael Bisping, but he vacates something like 35 days later. He vacates it because I'm sure he felt the pressure. He didn't want to hold up the division.

I'm not getting the sense that Jon Jones is just going to cough up his title. You know what I mean? If you have no intention of fighting at some point, if they can't, and obviously the negotiations, if they go south, I'm guessing there will be some moments where he's being leaned on to then vacate the title. You know what I mean? But this is just, it's such a different circumstance. With GSP, it was mostly the media kind of running around saying,

this guy's the GOAT and this will solidify him as a GOAT. Whereas this last year was a Dana White tour reiterating all over that he's the pound for pound GOAT. He's the consensus all time GOAT. He's all of that. So you've set the pound for pound goat. He's the consensus all time. You know, he's all of that. So you've set the stage for his negotiation power here. You know what I mean? He's operated four Jones. So it'll be very interesting on so many levels.

I love the layers of this, and I hope they find that resolution. But if they don't, I think that you have some very hard decisions to make. And Aspinall is the only one really twisting in the wind through this whole process. Yeah, I mean, incredibly frustrating. I've talked to his father, not recently, but about this situation quite a bit. I spoke to Tom about it, who obviously is very nonchalant about most things.

But his dad, Andy, he's like, this guy is in the prime of his career right now, and he can't fight. And like, you know, he only wants the belt. It's nothing to do with Jones. If they take the, if anyone else had that belt, that's who he'd be going after. It just happens to be Jones.

And that's great. It gives us great exposure if the fight happens, but they really have no interest for this standing on the sidelines, hoping for the best situation. When when by all intents and purposes like people see aspinal as well as the champ like it's the problem is there's two champions in the division and we have no way of settling it until they fight uh there's the great honor jordan giving us the tale of the tape again which we will use so much jordan that's one of the best graphics you've ever made me because that's going to be on the screen about three million times before we have any confirmation as to whether this fight will happen or not i wanted to give you a point that the lads made yesterday on the boys in the back and i thought

it was really really great from gc and rick um you know all of these things right let's take let's say i know rogan has walked back his 30 million comment right but let's be honest like that was the kind of figure we were talking about joke like we were saying it's going to be 20 30 million the way jones was talking on that fight week like this is going to be break the bank money all that stuff that was the figure we had in mind dana had previously referenced dionte were the money which is in that vicinity as well. But Rick and GC said, and I think it's a very good point. There's always this reluctance to pay someone like this because it's like,

we don't want to set a precedent. Right. But isn't, isn't Jones the best precedent to set because it's nearly impossible for anyone else to ever scale to the heights of John Jones. Like if anyone else on that roster, including Conor McGregor said to them, I want that money.

I want that John Jones money. But you're not John Jones. Nobody is. Um, I thought that was a very good point to make. Like it's a good kind of milestone to set people be an undeniable, undefeated champion in two divisions over about 20 years. I like that.

Then you can earn this kind of money. Then it's all settled. That is a really good point. And for years, I think that 100% that is true. Like, they don't want to set a precedent. I think that that's one of the reasons that the wrecking ball that is your countryman, Conor McGregor, coming in and basically changing the rule set, you know,

having exceptions made all over the place, rankling people who had complete tenure over him and maybe even better resumes for years and years and years, not getting the special treatment that he was getting. You can see how these domino effects work. Now, in this type of situation, like I was saying, you have hyped Jon Jones. And the public figures, especially in this last year, especially in the money being spent in the combat space, especially with Saudi Arabia being involved

and some of these numbers that you're hearing, it's kind of – it doesn't – $30 million at one point might have made you be like, oh, my God, that's such a staggering figure. But given that we kind of know what the Furies are making and what Jake Paul pulls in or whatever, like whatever these guys are, it doesn't sound that staggering for the type of accomplishment he has. So if you're going to, um, if you're going to make an exception, or if you're worried about a president, he would be the guy that you would do

that with. I fully agree with the idea that we may never see this again. It's such a perfect storm of different things for him to be here, to be in this spot. I just don't, MMA's volatility and the parity of everything that's gone on, the gyms working, everything, just everybody coming up, studying all disciplines, it's going to be very, very difficult for somebody to duplicate what Jon Jones has done. So I'm with you on that. I think that if you're, if, if you're going to make an exception, you're going to like, you're going to break your own rule. If you're going to pay, you're going to do this kind of payday. You could set the bar up here, but you'd say like, to anybody coming up, good luck ever getting there.

Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I thought it was a great point. And also like a lot of people I see when we talk about this Aspinall-Nuthugger, which, of course I am. I'm not trying to deny that at all. You're like a koala bear on that. But I'm not shitting on Jon Jones at all here. I hope he gets 30 million. Like whatever it takes to make this fight happen, like I want that to happen. I want, the UFC are to blame as far as I'm concerned if this fight doesn't happen. Same way as the blame for Jones and Ghanu not happening.

So by that logic. There's a couple of reasons though, right? Because I think that, like you mentioned, I think the Francis Ngannou disappointment against Jones lingers. And if you have a second glaring fight that you miss, it's such a bad look for a company that has prided itself on putting on the fights that people want to see, doesn't it? I mean, it's just, you will have missed in the most epic way possible. This also combines the biggest possible blockbuster element to it, two guys, the baddest men on the planet,

with the meritocracy. A lot of times we're like, well, is it meritocracy or is it the celebrity? You combine those things for this. And I think that when you look at that, you're like, well, this is about as good of a fight as you can get. This is about as big of a fight as you can make. Yeah.

It's, is Jones playing a stormer here to a degree where he's like, if you're his manager, like, are you playing it this way? Like, just, you've set out your stall here. We have the guts. They'll at least give him a year, right? Like, you'd have to say they give him a year to negotiate and give the idea that this is happening. I don't actually see a problem with him asking for this kind of money. So it's like...

No. And I don't... I know Joe has walked it back, as we keep saying, but I would put that out there. I have given the amount of money I want, and unless that's hit, I'm not fighting this guy. That way the ball is completely in the UFC's court. I mean, Jon Jones has done this for a while now where he kind of plants seeds through social media, right?

I mean, and honestly, like he's not even that great at it. He just, this is his natural default to kind of negotiate more in public. You know what I mean? And if you don't realize by now that this is a land of useful idiots, like whenever you say anything on social media, like and you're a fighter of that caliber, I mean, you're not playing the game. You know what I mean?

So whatever he wants, he should plant it wherever. It's like I think that that's just the smartest play for him is just to command the most amount of money. I honestly think because Dane's been so on record with this that they'll get a deal done, blah, blah, blah. Pressure's really on the UFC. It's like one of those weird situations where it's up to the UFC really. I don't think...

I mean, we know how it works. People kind of go against the fighter. They could say this any way they want, but I think that this situation's a little unique and we've seen it enough where you're like, okay, if they don't pay Jon Jones, I think this falls more to the UFC.

It would be one of those things you'd look at me like, that's the UFC's fault. It wouldn't be Jon Jones. You know what I'd do if I was Aspinall? If this kept ongoing and there's just this stalemate essentially where we're like latching onto Joe Rogan's, uh,

no voice pops with a bare hands going, um, I'd start calling up Pereira if I was him. Look, this guy doesn't want to fight for Alex Pereira. Like just the same way Jones changed the goalposts. He should shift them. He'd be like,

listen, this guy wants to fight me. I've talked to his people. They're happy to fight.. He'd be like, listen, this guy wants to fight me. I've talked to his people. They're happy to fight. Let's do this one. This guy doesn't want to fight me. He's finished. Yeah, and you know, the reason it works

is because then you're using John's own ideology against him because basically he was saying, well, you know who's more deserving is Alex Pereira. He's got a legacy. He's all this stuff, two-time, you know, two-division champ. Well, if Aspinall goes right through Pereira, there's no more argument, is there, whose legacy stands where?

It's just, at that point, it would make a lot of sense. I pointed out earlier, if they did that fight, it would seem spectacular. If Alex Pereira was able to go in there and actually make it a fight, or God, imagine if he won, it would just be ridiculous than what you'd get on the other

end of that you know um but i mean these are fun things to think about they really are but there's also the reality of aspinall being the size he is and as good as he is just making it light work of alex perera because he's just not big enough you know what i mean like prayer becomes the first three division ufc i, that'd be ridiculous. I mean. At that point. Shut it down. Shut it down.

He's completed it. Yeah, shut it down, man. Rename Danbury. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Poetan. Poetan, Connecticut. Right. So I think we should actually get on to.

No, before we go. Do you think he fights a heavyweight before the end of the year? Your boy, your Danbury. Oh, man. Your fellow Danbury local. See, this is why i really wanted i really wanted to get together with he keeps traveling i'm trying to get together with him to like uh to get some better instincts just what's happening man just stand on the side of the road needing your tire changed in danbury i'm sure he'll show up exactly um i would say yes if i had to guess man i and i pointed this out and maybe i'm just

doing it as a counter jinx measure but i'm like we you know we do our end of year beginning of year things and i'm like i said tom aspinall will lose you know you kind of come up with these things and that that strikes me as exactly how this probably goes all these scenarios we're talking about will come down to like Espinol finally takes a fight for whatever reason. It's Cyril gone. He comes in and somehow clips him and boom, now we're talking about Cyril gone. And I mean, all these scenarios

that are so fiery and everything are just kind of in the rearview mirror. I hope not, but that's way too depressing. Cheers. Sorry, man. Sorry. Before we move on to our PFL chat, here's another message from our partners at NordVPN.

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That's what I've learned. The thumbnail often lies, I find. Yeah. But here we are doing the show with said thumbnail. So, basically, we've talked about the situation with the PFL for a number of weeks because it was, of course, the Bellator fighters coming out first of all and saying that they weren't getting enough fights.

They weren't kind of... PFL weren't holding up their end of the deals in terms of giving them the amount of fights they wanted. And then we have this tweet from Al Zolino pretty much just like a few days ago saying that they're splitting their tournament prize money in half. Subsequently, Drake Riggs of Uncrowned, the great Drake Riggs, went on to confirm that. I'm going to read you some of this article now. PFL is making some changes in 2025, writes Drake Riggs. The promotion has historically been known for its season tournament format,

which rewards each division championship winner with a $1 million prize. Uncrowned confirmed with sources Wednesday that the payout for season winners is dropping in half to $500,000 beginning with the upcoming 2025 season in April. The championship 1 million bonus was previously structured to be, for example, if a fighter was on 50 and 50, as in $50,000 and $50,000 contract, they earned $900,000 more with a tourney finals win totaling 1 million. Under the new model, $500,000 will be rewarded in addition to fighter-specific contracts. Al Zalino was the first to report the change, sharing leaks of what new contracts will look like. According to sources, PFL is also expected to remove its tournament point system

and become more of a traditional grand prix-style tournament. Further down here, Zolino revealed more contract updates Wednesday, highlighting that PFL title challenges in non-season title bouts will receive $50,000 bonus in addition to their standard show pours with another $50,000 win bonus

along with what's in their contract. Champions like Usman or Magomedov will receive the same incentive but double those numbers at $100,000 and $100,000. Regarding backup fighters, those on standby will receive $10,000 if they show up, make weight, and go through the fight week without entering the cage. So a lot to get the head around there.

It's becoming very, very confusing, isn't it? The whole thing is just, even reading through that, I have no idea who's getting what amount of money here. Even though Drake has completely... It's obfuscation. You know, he's lined it up beautifully there,

but there is so many different facets to this. There is so many different things, and now we're hearing that the tournament prize money, the great draw, I would say, to every fighter who signs with them, that is now getting split in half.

We could hope that this is the dawn of something new, Chuck, and something positive, but it's not been a good few months. I like that pun. Is that a pun? I didn't even realize. Have you been involved with companies that the signals start going up the red flags start going up and you're like uh-oh you know so-and-so just got axed oh yeah or uh you know they're cutting travel budget down pretty far over here or something along those lines where you're like something's not right like you start to see that inclination that was the

first thought no matter how no matter if you figure out the the kind of salaries i don't think anything's going to add up to more than the million dollars uh that was the dangling carrot of this thing and you start to like that's when you see these kind of restructures it's always kind of the first red flag you know like where you say unfortunately we we've talked about this quite a bit over the last six months and especially heated up down the stretch of 2024 like what's going on you get a lot of uh you know complaining fighters and everything going on negative publicity and you start to wonder what is this all heading towards and i think that we have a sense of doom with it because we've been in the fight business for a long time and you've seen other organizations start to show these signs of distress and they eventually just

go away like they don't really last as long but the biggest thing for me is like it's almost business 101 when the focus becomes and i saw that don davis had put out a um you know just kind of a new year's thing where he was saying like there's a list of five things right like the list of five things yeah here it is you's a list of five things right like the list of five things yeah here it is you know the list of five things that are going on when the foot when it changes when the focus changes from growth to survival this is the biggest red flag of all the biggest red flag to me is when it when it comes down to this and it's here we are here it is just written out you know what was this on like a linkedin but i saw it i saw it through twitter um once this kind of thing is becomes the case

it always feels like it's a matter a matter of time until the next drastic thing until the end you know now i'm hoping that that's not the case and uh i know that you know i think that i've been critical of the pfl just like most a lot of us have, because you see the complaints, you see some of the broken promises, things going on, and you're like, hey, where's the deliverables on this? This was supposed to be different. This was supposed to be the, you know, the raft that these guys got on that took them back to a safe land where they could, you know, all fight and have this kind of, this new league that was going going to compete with the UFC co-leaders, all of those, all that language. And it starts to go away when you see this kind of thing. And I think that that's the feeling I get. It's like, we've been in, I've been involved in companies. I was, I used to work as an editor, uh, at the alternative news weeklies, like LA weekly, IE weekly, they were like, uh, entertainment arts, um, you know,

papers at one point really flourished. In the early 2000s, late 90s, they really flourished. But we saw it whittled down, whittled down, each thing, each cut, everything you knew that the writing was on the wall. And I've been through other ones too. But, I mean, that's just, it's just an example of how the industry, like, you know, how you present it to the industry and how you want to be perceived and what the reality is. Yeah. I mean, it's a great point you make when the focus switches to survival, because that's essentially, you referenced this post that Don Davis put on LinkedIn, and our good friend Jason Hagum put it up on social media for all to see. And that's really

the moral of the story here. I'll read it to you very quickly. This is from Don Davis, obviously the founder and chairman, it says, of the Professional Fighters League. Building companies is really hard with many setbacks, filled with uncertainty and pain, requiring creativity and perseverance. Most social media posts celebrate the triumphs of success.

I had a great time last week doing that PFL post. This post is opposite. this post celebrates survival we all took hard punches in 2024 and are still here to fight we had bad things happen and survived five bad things that happened to pfl in 2024 this could be an uncrowned article um number one numerous potential new investors wasted thousands of hours of our time and time is so precious. Two, major new advertiser agreed to deal, was in final contract, and then new management came in and stopped deal. Three, some Bellator staff orders complained on social media about not fighting, making PFL look like not meet our contracts. That is amazing framing there.

Four, we are growing so fast with our new international leagues that costs in some regional areas are way too high and uh five new major new initiative and expansion is delayed one full year by one of our partners through no fault of pfl again through no fault of pfl like all entrepreneurial companies pfl battled navigated, and solved. PFL enters 2025 in our best position ever. Do not let others foil you, keep you down, stop you.

To all entrepreneurs, you survived. Declare victory. It's a changing of the narrative there, you know? The battle cry is now for survival. It's not to flourish. But again, that's the kind of thing that to me, and I mean, this is just an experience.

No, you're right. No, you're right. It's like you see stuff like that and you now see, you know, the sense of doom attached to that is always, it's always been fairly legitimate. Like it just always seems to be that case. I would still root for it. I mean, we've talked about this ad nauseum where you're just you want there to be a flourishing second option you know you want that to be so bad we absolutely are dying for it to

happen honestly like a real legitimate up and running this thing is in the black every year it's great that's what the sport needs yeah and it just it doesn't feel like this is heading that way the restructuring of the you know know, basically the identity of the PFL, which obviously from the World Series of Fighting all to the PFL, and then, you know, picking up and, you know, getting Bellator and putting them into the fold, the super fights, all these things that are supposed to. It just feels like when they start to take

away their, the tournament structure, you know, or the season, you know, like the season structure and stuff like that, like now you're just, now you're tinkering with the very things that was your identity. And I mean, maybe that could be a good thing if you have a definitive plan that you're going to execute. I just don't feel like that exists. So we'll see. I know that I've rankled, I personally rankled Don a little bit. You. And I mean, I try to tell him like, hey, you know, you try to be fair in these situations, but you get a little jaded from many, many attempts in the previous thing. And maybe jaded is not even the right word.

You get a little bit skeptical, right, that the things can work. And it's going to be natural that we're going to, you know, that kind of scrutiny will turn darker and darker as you go. It'll be ratcheted up, and it's going to be more and more negative as time goes on. Yeah, look, I have to ask, what was it that won the hour of the great one? Oh, it was – The co-leader.

I mean, essentially just one of our end of the year list where uh it was one of the ones we voted on as a team and i was writing about i forget which one it was like along the lines of uh the biggest surprises or something along along those lines and uh i just kind of laid out like some of the promises weren't kept essentially um in a tone that was maybe a little bit you know well i mean that's what tends to happen when people don't keep promises right yeah and i mean it wasn't that bad honestly it was just it was a it was me being quoted back to myself essentially it's uh you're like reading it going geez this whoever wrote this is fantastic. I have commended PFL for so many things they do well,

including a lot of stuff that US fans can't see. In Europe, they're doing really, really impressive things. In Paris, as I said, look, I gave that crowd of the year, walk out of the year, all this kind of stuff. The stuff I saw there was absolutely unbelievable. Yeah, we had a ton of that. We had a ton of that. Paris is a hotbed because of them, things like that. There is a lot of positive things there, but you have to put equal weight

to the criticism. We aren't just here to be like, oh, this is great. I could talk for hours about Cedric Dumebe. I could talk for hours about Dakota DeChaver. But the problem now is the reason you got the likes of Dakota Deceva to sign the dotted line, the reason you got Paul Hughes to sign the dotted line

was to earn a million dollars in this tournament. And you've already got to a stage where Dakota Deceva is saying, I have no interest in competing in this tournament. I don't want to compete. So how in the hell are you going to turn that into somehow now fighting for half the money paul hughes is fighting usman and magomedov in in two weeks time in dubai

in these pay-per-view events i believe the hope was that he would go on to fight in this tournament if you're paul hughes and they've slashed why would you yeah they've slashed it in half you're like well you've completely shifted the goalposts. The deal I signed was, I will be fighting for a million dollars. I am no longer doing that. Well, again, this, this kind of restructure,

usually this is where the dissension, we haven't even seen the true, you know, repercussion of any of this yet. We haven't really heard from a lot of the fighters and, you know, and how that's going to be affected. But again,

this is like one of those things where you like it, it going to be affected. But again, this is one of those things where it seems to be, it starts to remove, I guess, the incentive in that sort of way. You know what I mean? And I guess we will see kind of how that plays out. But logically speaking, it's not a good look. Aunt Evans reminded me yesterday yesterday i believe it was that it's two years since do you remember the jake paul announcement jake paul i'm gonna fight now yeah we're still waiting for him to like he'll make his debut late uh 2023 i've heard so that's good

well i mean i guess the point that was making was like they had so much momentum then do you remember how like we were we we were buzzing about it. We were like, this is, this is really impressive. This is going great. I believe four months later, it was May,

I think 2023 and Ghanu signs. And it's like, this is like, wow, these guys, these guys are doing amazing things. And right now you've got a situation where Francis and Ghanu was fought once. Are we having Francis and Ngannou's purse now

I mean that was the big headline what about the 2 million dollar purse to his opponent that they negotiated that we have no idea who could possibly be his opponent for the next fight we're talking about will Deontay Wilder fight in MMA like that's where our heads are going you know

I think there's that's like you would think right like that is one of the most expensive situations for them right when in Ghanu fights

based on everything they said like based on the money he's getting all this kind of stuff would you be surprised if we do see him fight in MMA

this year under the PFL banner based on all these kind of cost-cutting measures that seem to be or are reportedly in place yes I think i would be surprised well only only the drastic you know only given the

drastic sort of shift in thinking you know you know i just don't know how you would afford that if you're really kind of going through the things and again there's a lot of passing of the buck going on here too a lot of excuse making about as to what happened and why there were setbacks money not coming in like it was supposed to i mean any anybody in a small business has these kind of complaints but like that lack of i guess vision or uh uh you know security like as you're building something is alarming so i don't know if they what they've got up their sleeves but i to be honest man i don't i don't really see how that's going to work that francis and gana is going to fight here and in a weird way i mean maybe that

opens the sweepstakes if it happens like that maybe the sweepstakes reopens for a john jones and gana fight in some roundabout way down the line here, which is crazy, isn't it? Like, that'd be nuts if that's really what happens. But it's no longer the improbable scenario that it once was. I think the GFL need to push out this draft day a few months. Oh, my Lord. I know. Hold on, hold on. Like the vultures circling the sky.

Like, this could be actually like we're they're doing these announcements and we have we have our skeptical heads on already because of what's happening with pfl they come out and say they're the new promotion and suddenly you're like are these guys are these guys geniuses did they see this the whole time they become the bona fide number two on entry into the market dude when when was the last time you saw jake paul like i was trying to remember this and maybe it's happened i just haven't seen it but when's the last time you saw Jake Paul? Like, I was trying to remember this, and maybe it's happened, I just haven't seen it, but when was the last time you've seen Jake Paul talking PFL or tweeting about PFL? 2003. I know, I mean, it's really weird. 2024 was a vortex, you know? Oh my god. Oh, that's right. They out the uh the helwani vision right right he was part

of that whole thing with francis and ghana so you're he did orbit um you know for the biggest fight of the year the big super fight so that is true yeah that is um thank you for that reminder on air jordan he's become such a hardcore now he's so sick of watching all those jets games he's just like you're not gonna watch jets games you're gonna definitely switch gears you know what i mean and watch something else i guess mma was the winner here oh wait was that was that in fact uh was that in fact frank look they're bombing me in the message column here i'm trying to do a show here guys i don't know if you you realize you know all this chit chat come on don't be ridiculous um chuck wanted to ask you moving swiftly on from the PFL chat did you see

the Seattle card and Henry Cejudo and Dominic Cruz getting fights but not against each other Henry Cejudo fighting Yedong Song Dominic Cruz fighting Rob Font the whole world scratching their heads as to how this happened

and Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting spoke to Cruz today just a brief I'll give you some like a brief one of his quotes here

but at the same time I wanted a fight I wanted the Henry fight I wanted the rematches they weren't going to give it to me so I've been training really hard in Mexico City

and I've just been preparing my body to stay ready so I don't have to get ready and wait for the right opportunity. When the right opportunity gets asked of me, I can take it or I can't. Well, they're not giving me.

Henry won't take that fight. He just won't. So they put him on the same card with me, which is funny to me. I'm glad somebody's laughing. Well, maybe they'll get into it in the lead up. I feel like we've got a 55th chance of that yeah oh yeah that's a good show actually like i look yeah those are good fights i like

both of those fights but yeah but i mean if you got dominant cruz so i think i you tell me man maybe i'm wrong i always feel like i kind of hold dominant cruz in way higher esteem than maybe the general public does but i saw him as one of the the great champions you know like one of these guys who was there forever derailed obviously by uh injuries and all that but legacy wise still very high up there in my book um and if you have a guy like that and i in that high of regard you kind of want to give him especially if this is the last fight which we think it is you kind of want to give him the fight that you know that's kind of a legacy type fight that would be henry suhudo so i would have liked to have seen that i i don't think you're you're overblowing what cruz did in his career like he's an absolute innovator like the style the actual fighting like that's not we're not talking about like mcgregor kind of influence here like in terms

of eyeballs but for hardcore fans of the sport, like how many guys have we seen? Oh man. Um, with, you know, trying to do his style. Corey Sandhagen openly spoke about it for a long time.

I'm trying to do this TJ Dillashaw before the rivalry kicked off. Um, it was all, that's what made the Garbrandt fight. So shocking was that you had a guy solve it. Right. Like I remember, do you remember how shocking

that was when that happened? So, I mean, like, that kind of thing is always, it's almost like, it's almost, like, the magnitude of that in the moment was so big. I know that, like, people kind of lose grasp of all that stuff as time goes on, bigger things happen, other things happen, we kind of forget, but at the time, man, it man it was like such a big deal because we all looked at Dominic Cruz and his style as something completely unsolvable if not unsolvable it was so problematic that you you had to kind of theorize as to how to you know penetrate it because he was elusive his footwork was very unorthodox his striking was unorthodox it was just everything about it was almost aesthetically counter to what we're used to it was like it was like watching an old time video i always said there's like

watching one of those old time video reels like his movements was all sped up and slowed down and stuff like that just very different and i couldn't get enough of it back in the day man i gotta say like he was one of those guys i'd watch with fascination every single time oh it was that his fight when he returned like like i think the long when he was out for like three years yeah i think he returned on a mcgregor card because i was at it or else maybe it was that i can't remember exactly which one it was but he was like at the curtain jerker of this card and he went down and starts to do it and i was like oh my god oh yeah yeah he came back it was like on a prelim yeah and he hadn't he wasn't big

finisher either and so like him I forget who it was too. I'd have to look this up. But yeah, he went in there and destroyed him. Just destroyed him. And it was like this, like, here he is. That's the guy, you know. Yeah. That was fun.

Yeah. And he's an interesting guy. Like one of the best moments, one of the best sound bites ever was the, and I was standing. I'll never forget that I was standing. I think it was in Boston. I was standing right beside Ariel as he was interviewing him. And he said that the greatest moment of his life was, you know, realizing he didn't need the belt to be happy.

And he made that. Remember how profound that was? But the dude, like, that's the kind of thing he had. Like, he had, like, some kind of stake in the game that was bigger than most other champions even. I felt like he was, like, one of those guys, you know, on the Mount Rushmore for a long time. Yeah. No, it just feels like Cej would have fought was the right way to go especially where the first fight went he was disgusted by the way it was stopped there was the whole um

the key peterson situation he gave key peterson a lot of abuse and i should say uh the quotes i gave a little bit like cigarettes and alcohol smells like me i mean what's wrong with that smell it's my signature scent. I just want to say the quotes I read out earlier were from good guy, bad guy on ESPN. Thank you for telling me that, Honor Jordan. Please keep furnishing me with these comments in the chat so I can correct myself.

Reprimanding is the word you're looking for. He told me I'm getting a verbal warning immediately after the show. But yeah, I mean, it just made sense. Before we leave this, do you think Cejudo is going to play this off like, well, I'm trying to get back in the title picture. This guy's retiring after this. Is there any way to play this off where he comes off smelling like roses? Or do you think people are just going to be-

I mean, that would almost be like the textbook way of handling something, right? Like the way you're saying it. What is the cringey way of doing it? I don't know. We haven't really seen too much of Suhudo recently, and maybe it's all been tamped down a little bit from his champion days. I don't know. It would be interesting to see.

I think that the lead-up of that could be really fun based on those two guys who aren't even facing off. However, if somebody falls out you never know like you seem to be absolutely adamant this is happening this isn't like you've said it twice now this isn't do you know something i've got i've got a guy working on it oh my god well isn't it delightful chuck that uh we actually have the ufc back this week i mean it's a mendenhall classic it feels like a card that Chuck Mendenhall would

love to be there drinking howler head in the Apex 4, and that is where this has taken place. Mackenzie Dern via Amanda

Hibas, and a card just stacked with talent, as you can imagine. I see you squint and just even recognize one name.

It's not that bad. I was looking for one for not that bad. I was looking for one fight in particular. I mean, I have to say, there definitely is times where you're like, oh, I do miss the fights. Despite this being my life, I was giving shit to these Apex cards. Some Saturday nights over that Christmas, I was like, oh, I'd love to see some lads beating the shit out of each other tonight just wasn't there in fairness like a week away from this

right it's like i think one of the better cards of the year i know we're in january no but like it is it is such a good card that one in uh in los angeles ufc 113 or uh 113 311 that you basically can look past it a little bit. And not that you should, but anytime that they have, like, a headliner where it's like, you know, this is the rematch when the first fight was 30-27 across the board, and not too many people talked about it in retrospect, you know, like, I don't really think anybody was pining for it. It feels like a filler a little bit, you know?

Well, I mean, this is a bit harsh. I mean, if Don Davis was in your DMs for this, I mean, Dana White, you better wait, mate. He is coming. There's always somebody complaining at me. You know what I mean? I'm always saying the wrong thing, PC. He is coming to get you over this one.

Yeah. Yeah, it's... The main event, I'm not too... These aren't your friends, PC. No. That's what Lester Bang said in that movie. Remember, he was talking to that kid. I need to remember that. It's just me and Dana's relationship. These aren't your friends. We's what Lester Bang said in that movie I need to remember that

Me and Dana's relationship We've been so close for so long I like Chris Curtis v. Roman Kopylov Roman Kopylov being One of the guys that has broken my heart So many times Chuck you've heard me say this name so often There's been a lot of guys like that

Usually they're Irish though In fairness this is a rush i take a rush and under my wing and uh the fluffy hernandez fight i pick against fluffy he fucking chokes out roman coppola from the second round he's got chris curtis this time he's coming off a split decision win against cesar almeida handing him his first defeat i will say so maybe it is but uh i really like that fight um yeah there might be some good ones on there i'm i'm saying filler just based on like the main attraction you said what you said i said what i said i'm not gonna run it back now but like at the same time it's the there are some you know panzanibio right like he's in the co-main i mean these there's some

there's some decent names on here it should be fun yeah yeah um with that said but i need to ask you um i mentioned that you made an appearance on the helwani show on wednesday and you're wearing that beautiful bonics jersey and of course it is sunday i believe is it sunday it is sunday yes eastern time ariel v chuck and look trick i want to say like they were abusing your jersey they were saying oh he shouldn't be wearing a guy younger than him's jersey and I was like hang on a second, lads. Chuck is not here to defend himself, but now you are here, Chuck.

Now you are here, Chuck, so please tell me how you felt when you go out of your way to do something for the show. Out of your way. You're on holidays. You're on vacation. I'm on vacation. It's fun. It's kind of fun I had to do this thing. Tell me how you feel.

Well, I felt like I was kind of looking forward to that segment because I thought I was going to catch Ariel going back. Instead, it became this study of the jersey, which by the way, I did just, it was my son's jersey. Okay, I'm not, I don't have a Bo Nix jersey. The jerseys I have are john elway those

are like that i do it the correct way on the premise that everybody was laying down um i was wearing my son's he he had it with him and i'm like here let me put that on i'm gonna do this little clip for ariel only to get attacked like that because i don't hurt man yeah and can i just say it was only ariel because myself and gc stood up for you immediately and we were like it's completely fine for him to wear whatever jersey he wants ariel i think it is i think it is i don't have have that premise you know what i mean like bo nix is the savior of this franchise i don't know if you've paid i know you have paid attention actually i shouldn't say it that way you've paid immense attention to this but uh the broncos have been they've fallen into one of those franchises

that's basically resides between ineptitude and laughing stock over the last eight years since Peyton Manning went away they've had a rotation of quarterbacks guys who are journeymen draft picks that were just jokes of the league

Russell Wilson, these guys I'm like it only could happen like this where you get a guy who everybody's kind of sleeping on, Bo Nix, and now he's got them resurrected. The culture is changing in real time. They got a young defense. It's fun times, man. I mean, I know that some people will say like, you know, some Bronco fans are like, hey, this is good enough. They projected us at 5.5 wins. Here we are with 10 wins. That's good enough. That's the Super Bowl.

We made it to the playoffs. And that is true. And trust me, in a month from now, if we get blown out in Buffalo, and yes, I said we because I'm part of this franchise too. If we get blown out in Buffalo, I will say that too. I'll be like, hey, what do you want from us? We made the playoffs. But right now, man, I'm not thinking that way.

You know what I mean? This is a fun one. My guy on the Broncos, and ever since you told me you were a Broncos fan and I decided I was going to get really into NFL, my guy has been Javante Williams. What are they doing? Why aren't they? They have this like four running backs now,

and I'm like, every time I bat like an over on Gervonta, it's like. Don't take the overs on any of the running backs. There's so many running backs on that team. What you're mentioning is the red flag maybe of the Broncos like postseason. Because it's going to be cold, dude. It's going to be so cold. I think it's like it's below freezing. It's going to be hovering in the mid-20s from what I understand.

No snow, fortunately. But Josh Allen is 11-2 in those situations. He's one of the best quarterbacks in cold weather. So you're like, you're already dealing with what used to be the trap of Buffalo. Like you get teams to come in there in January and you smoke them like in the early 90s because they can't acclimate. Meanwhile, you're like, hey, this is our terrain, you know? So you already have all of that, but the Broncos would need to run the ball. And that has been the, that has been kind of a scary thing. And I think it's basically because Sean Payton, it's, it's almost like Leonard Garcia in the fight game, right? He would just throw away the game plan, start swinging, right? Like, I think he does a little bit of that. It's a little

more controlled chaos than that. Like he, he wants the passing game. He likes that surgical passing game. He's got a guy who can execute it. He can, uh, he can do a lot of the timing routes very well. He's got good touch on the football. He can hit you long, but he does, you know, he can do it. They always, he's a, uh, um, you know, he's going to throw these screens or he's going to, you know, do those little passes. Yes. He'll do that too, but he does all of that. And I think Peyton loves that, but I do worry a little bit about like guys like giovanni where do they go where is estimate going to get the ball is it gonna be mclaughlin those types of things i don't know that's the big mystery man and if they can't run the ball can

they compete in the game we have to wait and see i want to be uh completely honest with you chuck i put a hundred dollars on buffalo bills to win the Super Bowl this year. I just want to let you know that. Right. That happened. Who did you have last year? Ravens. Okay. So your track record is not very good. That's exactly. So I'll take the silver lining from that.

Although, hey, I didn't want to make that video I sent to Ariel a big long thing. I tried to make it short and sweet. But the one thing that I will say is I a big long thing. I tried to make it short and sweet. But the one thing that I will say is I've told him, and I mean this genuinely, he needs to experience it at some point. This is where I'm like, get rid of the cocky attitude, man. Just be hungry for it. Like when you're, ah, Pittsburgh, that's a slam dunk if we'd got them and all this stuff.

I'm like, dude, every game you've got to be as hungry for that thing as a fan base and as a franchise. It's got to be every single game. You can't look past anybody. Maybe that's their shortcoming. Maybe that's the Bills' shortcoming. We're like, ah, Ravens next. They get a little good.

They're like, MVP Josh. You know, all this stuff. And then next thing you know, he's scraping himself off the ground after Nick Benito strip-sacked him and sealed the game. It's like Jordan at the start of the year. Oh, we're going to win the Super Bowl. Aaron Jones. I mean, sorry, Aaron Rodgers.

He's the best. You know what I mean? I love his mind as well as his arm. He was saying all this stuff. That franchise. That franchise. We better get back to MMA here because the people. That's why I tied in the Leonard Garcia thing.

I was trying to keep it in track. Very nice. I like that you did that. Well, that's it actually. Jesus. We've had so much fun there. Will you and I will still be able to be friends after this? I feel like it's going to get the vitriol to come out on Sunday.

You're going to be in each other's DMs. You know, man, truthfully, if the Buffalo Bill goes on, they win it all. That'd be great. That's what I was trying to say. And I would feel very happy for him because he's a Knicks fan too. He's like, the Broncos have won it three times i think that the fan base is just kind of like at this point like yeah it'd be fun if we got there again no they're not like that at all they want it really bad but i do i do want him if it's the bills who beat the broncos

i think that would be my team that i'd be rooting for it's either them or the lions right like you want one of these suffering franchises to break through but um i don't know if it goes the other way though he may not want to talk to me anymore so we'll see we'll have to unpack it i'll be friends i'll be friends like if they beat denver because we're a young team and all that stuff but he may not want to talk to me anymore yeah i don't really i'm not looking forward to monday's show um ariel show on Monday, if they do lose. He's going to be more insufferable if they win, trust me. No, I'll be happy. Whatever happens,

I'm with that team for the rest of the playoffs. I promise you that much. Lads, thank you for joining us on The Crack today. We had some things we decided we'd talk about. They went right out the window because of the breaking news. Thank you to Ariel Awani for furnishing me with all that beautiful information.

Thank you to Andy Foster for furnishing Ariel Awani, who then furnished me with some information. Thank you to Kevin Aioli for telling us to move on from that Pereira stuff. We only spent 28 minutes talking about it. Nothing much. We're moving on now. We are moving on now. PFL stuff. Apologies

to Don. Don't be in Chuck's DMs over this. I goaded him the whole way. He didn't even want to say anything. Don, you can contact me if you want. I told you criticize me all you want. And look, go and enjoy Dern V. Hebas. Yes, the first one was

emphatic. Catch your howler head on. Four fingers of howler head. A little ice. Have a great weekend. Enjoy the playoffs. We'll see you on Monday. Thank you.