The Ariel Helwani Show - Alexander Volkanovski, Cory Sandhagen, Daniel Rodriguez, Sam Alvey, massive weekend reaction, more

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Ariel is joined by the Boys in the Back, fresh off their trip to Des Moines, to unpack the huge weekend in combat sports, including Cory Sandhagen’s big win, Bo Nickal’s shocking loss, the underwhelming Times Square card, Canelo’s victory and next fight against Terence Crawford under TKO Boxing, Naoya Inoue’s scary performance, and more (06:15).Cory Sandhagen is back following his main event against Deiveson Figueiredo at UFC Des Moines to discuss his injury-induced victory, his social media breakout and lifestyle changes, writing a sci-fi book, his claim to a title shot, Bo Nickal’s loss, and more (1:31:33).Daniel Rodriguez stops by following his knockout of Santiago Ponzinibbio to talk about why the result was so important, opening a gym in his hometown, recording rap music, turning his life around through MMA after time in jail, a fight with Jake Matthews, and more (2:01:49).Smilin’ Sam Alvey is back after shocking legend Tyrone Spong to discuss becoming a two-division Karate Combat champion, changing camps, his pre-fight traditions, calling out Eddie Hall, the possibility of fighting Jake Paul, his favorite cheat meal, taking on a gorilla, and more (2:59:21).Alexander Volkanovski returns as a two-time UFC featherweight champion after his win over Diego Lopes to break down what it meant to regain the belt, getting back on track after back-to-back knockout losses, a potential fight with Movsar Evloev, the state of his division, his relationship with Cristiano Ronaldo, wanting the Ilia Topuria rematch, Belal Muhammad vs. fellow Aussie Jack Della Maddalena, and more (3:31:08).Ariel and the Boys finish off by answering some Super Chats (4:12:34).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Err-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r- And 25 hello again everyone. Hi, sure, hope you're doing well. And if you are celebrating a very happy Cinco de Mayo to ya. Feliz cumpleaños? No. No. Anyway. That's happy birthday.

Wow. Listen. Let's do it from the top. Maybe lose the Feliz Cumpleaños. What do you say? What do you say? Feliz you say? What do you say? Feliz Cinco de Mayo. OK, pretty close.

I mean, I had the Feliz part, right? It's a celebration of sorts. You know, it's like you say Mazel tov for many different things, where I come from. And so we don't just specify. In any event, no good deed goes unpunished. If you are celebrating, I hope you have a great, great time. And if you're celebrating. I hope you have a great great time and

If you're like Frank and celebrate, I mean, it's really like your New Year's Eve May 4th I would imagine hope you had a great time yesterday, right? What do you do? What do you do? Do you go out there with the lightsaber? Original trilogy came out with 52 years ago. Yeah, I'm ready for it to to die. Yeah Like this I thought this was a big day for you. It's not. The fact that you would make that assumption is also... You're kind. My kind. Get on with the show, bud. Well, it's great to be here. As you can see, not a lovely day in New York City.

In fact, all week long it seems like we're going to get a lot of this. So it's good to be indoors. A lot to talk about. Holy smokes, what a weekend in combat sports. From Times Square to Riyadh to Las Vegas to Iowa and everywhere in between, a lot happened, a lot to get into. And I'm very excited about this show for multiple reasons. Fantastic four pack of guests, but also we have a lot of time at the beginning of the show to get into everything. By design, I'm looking looking forward to that very very much. I'll tell you who's on the show today back into the show a certain individual named Alexander the great Volkanovsky. Yes, the brand new UFC featherweight champion for the second time He is reigning supreme at 145. You'll recall just a few weeks back

in Miami he defeated Diego Lopez to win that title. He'll join us for the first time since that win. Always looking forward to to chat with Volkonovsky and also I have to always say this it will be 6 30 a.m in Sydney when he joins the show Tuesday morning. Mensch. Hall of Fame Mensch is Alex Volkonovsky. Loved the guy and appreciate him very much. So we'll talk to him at 430. What about Smilin' Sam Alvey? He goes out there and not just defeats Tyrone Spong, Karate Combat 54 in Abu Dhabi, he knocks him out. He knocks up there's a thing where some guys and gals leave the UFC and And just like Mike Perry where he found this groove in BKFC Sam Alvey has found this groove with karate combat He's now the heavyweight and light heavyweight champion there some way somehow and he knocked out Tyron Spong afterwards

He called out Eddie Hall what's happening he was on like a historic losing streak in the UFC and now he's crushing it we'll talk to him about that and a whole lot more prior to that will be joined by D Rod Daniel Rodriguez had a big impressive win over Santiago Ponsonibio on Saturday at the Wells Fargo Arena in Iowa and prior to that we shall be joined I gotta fix Tommy we shall be joined by Corey Sanhagen who had an amazing win over Davidson Figaro in the main event on Saturday in Des Moines. People say it's Des Moines but really if it's a French word it should be Des Moines D-E-S.

Anyway, perhaps the boys in the back can enlighten us on that in a moment. The Sandman, Corey Sandhagen will join us at 2.30 to talk about the big win. Where he goes from here, is he gonna be the backup fighter? Here in, well I was gonna say here in New Jersey, but across the river in New Jersey, on June 7th when we have the title fight,

is he gonna be the backup fighter? Is he gonna weigh in on June 6th when we have the title fight is gonna be the backup fight He's gonna weigh in on June 6 love talking to Corey He's really coming into his own with his personality and the YouTube channel on the social media and all the trippy things that he Likes to do. I feel like we're finally Getting a glimpse of the real Corey Sanhagen and it's a lot of fun And so those guests will join us on today's program, these individuals, but we got a lot to talk about as far as the weekend is concerned. Rick and I attended the Times Square fight on Friday. Quite the story on how we even got there to be honest.

We'll get into that and of course the action and the aftermath, I was kicking myself afterwards. We should have done like a reaction video from the area, but it was a little hectic in the aftermath so we didn't. So you'll hear our reaction on today's program. We also have to react to what happened in Riyadh 24 hours later as Canelo Alvarez defeated William Skull to become undisputed champion again at 168. And then afterwards Terrence Crawford walked into the ring. They announced September 12th.

They announced that Dana White and TK are going to be promoting it. It's going to happen at Allegiance Stadium. And now we are off. Some thoughts on that and this scene right here. Imagine Terrence Crawford flying all the way from New York he was there on Friday and getting to Riyadh and then and imagine Canelo Alvarez slipping and this doesn't happen well it did happen and I have many thoughts on it all we will also talk about last night at T-Mobile Naoya Inoue got a scare round, he was dropped for just the second time in his career.

He came back in the eighth to defeat Ramon Cardenas in a great back and forth war. If you're looking for a sure thing in combat sports, it doesn't matter what it is. MMA, boxing, pro wrestling, if you're looking for a sure thing, a guy who always delivers, it's the Oya Inoue. Killer be killed, all action, all entertainment, he's incredible. He really is one of my favorite people to watch in combat sports, compete, and he did it again, although it was scary, and he was a gigantic favorite. I think he was like a, what was he, like a minus 10,000? Something crazy like that. Cardenas came to fight representing San Antonio Texas in the best way possible there you see in a way on the mat and it was scary stuff especially with a big fight coming

up and planned for September against MJ Ahmad Ali of but he came back later in the fight he did the job a nice return to the united states for the monster the pride of japan Naoya in a way so we have to talk about all that plus some news and notes But I do want to start with demoine iowa because uh if you watch this show If you watch the boys in the back, you know That everyone was very excited about this card first when it was announced and then that morphed into a road trip If you will, I guess can you call it a road trip if no cars were involved I guess so maybe just a quick absolutely we're still hitting the road on the road a 24-hour sejourn

and they did it they did it they made it happen they even linked up with our old friend TST and they actually went to Des Moines so what I would love to do on this bank holiday by the way, sorry for taking you away from the festivities, Pizzi. I understand today is an off day over in the UK and Ireland, so commiserations for having to join us. Did you have a good bank holiday? I had a fabulous bank holiday, lads. Thank you very much. What is bank holiday? They have one like every three weeks over there. Yeah, I don't know what it is. It's a day off the work. I think, I guess the banks are closed.

I don't know. I don't know what this one is for, honestly. May Day. The first of May is usually May Day, right? Yeah. By the way, were you gonna scrap yourself this weekend? It looks like those knuckles are a little bloody. What's happening?

No, it was a garden. Garden. Oh, look at you. Your hand looks a little swollen too. What's the garden look like? Did you braze it? It actually is. It feels like it's raised here. GC, just for the record. Definitely does feel like that. Can I predict what happened? Wheelbarrow. Oh no, I thought you were so frustrated with the garden you punched the wall and broke your hand. No, I am. No, like that could be a reason, but we were, we had to move one point five tons of stone from the front of my house to the back of my house. So you had a wheelbarrow. But because we bought so much timber,

that there's such a narrow way to get into the back garden that I kept smashing my hand off the wall. But did it stop me? I really didn't fucking stop me. Two tons of muck out of the back garden, two tons of stone into the back garden. Did I do most of it? No, I didn't. My dad did and my brother did. But did I do a little bit at the end

and claim all the credit? Yes. When you say two tons, do you literally mean you moved 4,000 pounds worth of stones into your backyard? Yes. Like the, well, we did two bags. So like the first one was 1.25

and the next one was 1.25. So yeah, it was there. It was horrible. It was horrible. Well, look, it's looking terrible still that's to be honest with you I don't know. You're an inspiration. We'll get there. Thank you. We'll get there You're the working man and we appreciate you very much. Okay, so this is what I wanted to do Like I just want to know I kept texting in the group chat. I was getting very few updates I like I wanted to live vicariously. What are the vibes? What are we eating? What are we doing? Who are we seeing? Are we at the fights? Are we showing up just for the main card?

Take us through it gents. GC, Rick. Yeah, so you were texting, like we were out there living life. I know, I know. In Des Moines, Iowa. We were just experiencing all that Iowa has to offer. We've put together a bit of a slideshow, I'll say.

Like a bit of a presentation. We were on the ground for such a short amount of time. Like can't waste time like take oh you know instead of going to this are we gonna go to the text message? No I just wanted to know. I was into it. I was trying. We say 24 hours it was it was closer to like 21 and a half. Okay. We didn't even get a full 24 in beautiful DSM but yeah I mean it starts at LaGuardia. Just a delightful, I cannot stress this enough, such a delightful morning, paid extra for the parking pass, walk right in through security in maybe five minutes, camera guy Nick who's with us,

hooks me and Rick up with guest passes to the Delta Sky Club, we get breakfast, coffee, hangout, walk right onto the plane, empty as can be. I'm still sitting, Delta Comfort, shout out, Rick back in coach, camera guy Nick up in first class. It's me and one other guy in Delta Comfort. Plane is completely empty, they're throwing out snacks, everybody's in a great mood, we're all heading to Des Moines.

Like it's hard to come down from that. The morning started brilliantly. It should be noted, like three hours before that last picture that we showed, like I was in Times Square. Oh, great. I came straight from Times Square to the airport. Yeah, Rick texts us at like, flight takes off at like 9.30,

and Rick texts us at like 6.30, and he's like, hey guys, I'm getting to LaGuardia now. I was just like, brother, I just woke up man. I I'll see you in like an hour and a half Like I'm in no rush to connect the dots when we get into our Times Square experience Rick was Rick might be the only person In the world that went to the Times Square fight and the Des Moines fight. I put money on that I was thinking the only other person who might would have been stitched her in. I checked. No, Stitch, at a UFC. No, but he went to the In-A-Way one.

No, I'm saying, you're the only person in the world who went to Times Square and Des Moines. Those two, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's that floor at both, man. Life is good for New York, right? I have to say. Just wondering, when you guys were on the plane,

is there any indication that anyone else is making the trip to Des Moines, the pilgrimage for the UFC fights A couple of people in UFC gear. Oh love it love it. So it's like the vibes are high we're really getting excited. We have a video here of New York Rick first making contact with Des Moines. Okay okay. Obviously I got to play the Helwani role here. Oh, that's great. Very beautiful. Oh, it looks fantastic. Look at how the Des Moines gets there. Is it cold? 48 degrees here in Des Moines.

Didn't prepare for that. 48? Didn't think it was gonna be cold in Des Moines. It was rather chilly. There's an inside joke there in that camera guy Nick, when we land goes, hey Troy, cause Troy's on the ground. Hey Troy, is it cold there?

Do I need to get a hoodie? Like she's, camera guy Nick is asking about, is asking about the temperature. So that was the joke as I was coming off the plane. That's why I asked, is it cold? So we walk around the Des Moines airport, basically in search of a sign that lets people know that we are in Des Moines.

We settled for a desk at one of the gates and then we actually found the real sign, this. This is basically the archway to let people know you've arrived in Des Moines, positioned right next to the bathrooms and the trash cans, a beautiful indicator. You're in Des Moines, baby, you made it. Love it, love it. And then as we were on our way out, we also noticed we got to book our return flight

for the 37th annual World Pork Expo. I'm very much looking forward to that. Pretty much everywhere we went, we had pork. Just curious, the Pork Expo, is it about bacon and stuff? Because there's an actual live pig in that photo. Yeah, I think it's about pork farming and the industry of pork. It's awful. I wasn't aware of Iowa's pork exploits until GC filled me in.

I thought it was corn. Yeah, we thought it was corn, which Iowa is the number one exporter of corn in all of America. Pork is what really gets the people going out there. I didn't see a single stock of corn. I didn't see a single ear. It wasn't on any menus.

They're feeding the pigs the corn. I think you're nailing it, because the pork was running rampant around this place. I think at every location we had. Good thing I didn't go, basically. Not from my car. So then right from the airport, just a quick five minute drive

through the local neighborhoods of Des Moines, we go to Smitty's for a pork tenderloin sandwich. Wow, wow. Best onion rings in the area, those are the wards behind me, and then look at this sandwich. It's a monstrosity. What? What is that? Point of portion. Can't even keep up with the bun, just a giant slab of a pork tenderloin. Is it breaded? It's breaded. It's like a katsu. It was great. Okay. Now how much research went into this? Like local places in Des Moines? Yeah, pretty good amount.

A lot of people from Iowa chimed in as well. Love it, love it. Yeah, so. What are we giving that? Or are we gonna save the ratings and whatnot, the reviews for Boys in the Back fight piece? Okay, fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. Reviews for the fight piece.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. And then we just kind of looked at what Des Moines had to offer, some beautiful murals, local artwork here. Yeah, I mean, there it is. If you needed to know what Des Moines is about, that's it right there. Just a beautiful mural. And this was on the walk to our next location, Fong's Pizzeria, which is like an Asian fusion, which is where we linked up with TST.

The legend. Big Troy jumped in. There he is. Yeah, there he TST You know big Troy jumped in there Yeah, there is in the flesh in the flesh TST. You want the whole Colgan got a lot of love in Des Moines thongs pizzeria Hawaiian Fusion in there as well. We split a big tiki bowl me and Rick. Okay. Wow Little crab rangoon pizza Okay, wow. We've got the Kailin Park going now.

A little crab rangoon pizza. What? Yeah, man, it was wild stuff. And then we did a kamikaze shot. Wow. Us and all the boys. One Mac Life's Oscar Willis joining the party. You had to wear a helmet when you took it.

Really? Why? I don't know. Oscar Willis kept saying that we're supposed to smash the glasses on each other's heads afterward, but they didn't allow that in the restaurant. Was the kamikaze like the margarita type, but with vodka? Like it's a lime based one?

It was lime based, yeah. Shout out? Yeah, it was great. Here's a selfie with Fong's pizzeria, shout out. And then we were walking and there was a UFC bar where Misha Tate was having her after party afterward. Got a selfie with a 314 poster. Not sure if that's Diego or Volk, one of the two.

But yeah, it was great. We're walking around the streets of Des Moines, good times, you know, people are getting amped up for UFC 314 and then we hit our last spot. L'Chelle's, great burger place. Great burger place. Look at that. How much are you eating in the span

of like seven, eight hours here? A lot. Three full meals in like the span of like four hours. I was done eating for the day after this. And what was that? What was Lechelles? Burgers and tater tots. Oh yeah.

I have just simply divine. I mean, it was unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, the tater tots were some of the best that we've had. You'll see it on Fight Feast. They had one TV, it was playing Surf's Up, legendary movie, if you know anything about that. And then we were done eating and we went back to the hotel,

we cleaned up, on the way back to the hotel, this is TST with his corn helmet on. Love it. We ripped a couple of modellos, brewed for those with a fighting spirit beforehand, the boys are getting ready to go. On the way back to the hotel, I'm walking and there's this big dude in headphones and a Venom kit. And as we walked by, I was like, I'm pretty sure that's Reiner DeRitter. Didn't bother him. He's locked in. It's fight day and everything like that. But the

more I looked at him, it was definitely Reiner DeRitter just walking the streets of Des Moines by himself. Pre-fight. Yeah, maybe four hours before he was supposed to fight Bo Nicol. Love it. It was great. And then we went to the event, which was a good time in and of itself. Great seats, shout out. Crowd was pumped up.

They were energetic. And it was a good time, man. It was a good time. TST trying his first corndog ever. Wait, who's the guy giving the finger there? He just jumped in. Wow. It's just a dude?

Okay. Look at Colin Costa. The boy in love, right? Yeah, yeah, the boy in love. He was ripping a vape pen all night. It was great. Nice. It was a good time.

How was the Wells Fargo? We were accused a few times of ripping the Benjamin in the... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wells Fargo was a really solid arena. It holds up to just about any arena I've been to, like 16,000. Oh, wow. What do they have there? What do they do there? Concerts mostly. It holds up to just about any arena I've been to, like 16,000. Oh wow. You?

What do they have there? What do they do there? Concerts, mostly. WWE the night before. Oh right. Yeah, it was a good time though. All the top artists had some kind of representation there. They do a lot of musical concerts.

It was a great arena. And then we were out at 8 a.m. the next morning. Damn, what'd you do after the fight? Went back home. The streets of Des Moines were crazy afterward. Everyone flooded onto like one single street. Really? It was pretty late. You guys didn't partake?

Nah, I didn't partake. I was running on like an hour of sleep, so I was ready to hit that. Yeah, we were pretty wiped. Overall, are you happy you guys made the trip? Yes, for sure. No regrets. Would I return to Des Moines?

Absolutely not, unless there was a reason to do so. It's just like, it's this weird tier of city that like, there's not much there, but like it is a city, like a Birmingham, Alabama, a Jacksonville, Florida, a Hartford, Connecticut aptly named the Hartford of the West because of insurance ties, but it is also just basically a Hartford implanted in Des Moines. Yeah, it was a good time. It was a good time. You share this sentiment, Rick? Yeah, I mean, this is my second trip to Iowa and

I feel like I've seen Iowa now. You're good. I'm good. I can retire from my trips to Iowa. Unless we go back to the the pork festival. Yeah yeah yeah 37th annual Pork Expo. We're all gonna have to be there. The event itself, I like I think I am I am firmly in the camp now. It's a it's a better experience on TV. Yes. Yeah it's just like they do the the the spotlights dancing in between fights and there was like a first round finish and then it was like 20 or 25 minutes before the next flight. And it's just like, you're sitting there and you're just like every seven, eight seconds,

you're just getting blinded by this spotlight. And it just keeps coming over and you're just like, oh man, like this is kind of starting to hurt my head a little bit. This is getting tiresome. And then you kind of forget when you're sitting at home on the couch and you can like go and do other things and you can go to the bathroom whenever you want or you can cook food and like, you just kind of sitting when you're sitting at home on the couch and you can like go and do other things and you can go to the bathroom whenever you want

or you can cook food and like, you just kind of sitting there enjoying yourself. You forget how long it is. Like when you're just sitting in that arena for five, six, seven hours, you're like, man, I've been here forever. And then on the last note is crowd is like 95% male and like probably 95% of those male are also drinking.

So you go to the bathroom and the line is just like 150 dudes deep and it just takes so long to go to the bathroom that then you're sacrificing and you're missing some of the fights and yeah, I still have to go to a pay-per-view so I cannot speak on those but fight nights, I feel like are better from home. I'm going to Atlanta, call me a casual,

I think I'm just pulling up for the main card. Well, this time did you go from start to finish? We went like second or third fight in. We got there fairly early. So my stance has always been if you're a fan, hardcore, casual, whatever, you gotta go. You gotta experience it, maybe in a couple different cities.

Vegas is great, although Vegas, until you get to like the big fights, especially on a pay-per-view where it's typically, you know, it's typically at T-Mobile over there. I'm not talking about the Apex cards. You know, you're there for the prelims, there's nothing going on. There's no atmosphere whatsoever.

So in a place like Des Moines, who isn't used to getting this, I'm assuming it was pretty full from the early prelims, and I'm assuming the crowd was pretty hyped, but it is very long, and then you end up realizing like you kind of, you miss the commentary, you miss the replay, you miss the different angles, you just miss all of that in between rounds,

the coaches, all that stuff, that just makes it. I've also sat, I've sat floor, I've sat like lower bowl, I've sat upper bowl. I feel like I've had each level of seat and at each one I still find my eyes like going up to the Jumbotron. Just because that is the best view. Like it's, there's no, there's no cameraman,

there's no cage, there's nothing standing in your way. So it's just like, this is what I would be watching at home on TV. But credit to the Iowa crowd. They showed up early and they were loud. Like the Misha Tate fight, the Jeremy Stevens fight, they were hyped up. Like they were very loud.

It felt like in town everybody was there for the UFC. Like, and to that point, like a lot of the people we met and fans that came up to us were not from Iowa. They were from Minnesota or Michigan or somewhere else. Big Minnesota contention out there. A lot of people, I was just like, oh, so you're from Des Moines? They're like, nope, Minnesota. Drove down.

I'm with you, Ariel. I think there's a value to going to the event, especially if it's a first time. To me, it's about the energy, right? It's about if you're going to be in this crowd and experience a once in a lifetime thing and there's some huge knockout and you can say, I was there and you get that pop and everybody's in on it, that's the thing, you're hoping for one of those. But as far as like watching fights,

you're not gonna beat TV, it's too good these days. All right, so let us talk about the fights. I'm glad you guys enjoyed. And there were a few notable things that happened. Number one, Corey Sanhagan defeated Davis Infigureeto. Let's talk about the main event. I want to get to the rest throughout but I want to start with the main event. Corey Sanhagan defeats Davis and Figuereto. Brilliant fright from Corey Sanhagan. He had to come back. He was frustrated that he wasn't getting a fight. He had not

fought since August and he really had to sit on that loss to Umar and Amagah Madoff that happened last August And this is still one of the best bantamole to the world, but kind of feels like he's been forgotten about a little bit. So he had to prove a point. He had to make a point. And I think he did just that on Saturday. He was very dominant in the first round, extremely dominant, and ended up winning in the second round.

Figueredo suffering a knee injury. The vibe was kind of like, oh, it's a shame. Oh, Figueredo suffering a knee injury, the vibe was kind of like, oh, it's a shame, oh, you know, freak injury, no. And Sanhagen said it in the aftermath, and he'll say it today, he made that happen from the 50-50 position, the way in which he was positioned, the way in which their legs were tangled,

what he was doing on the ground was to create a sequence and a moment like that in which either Figureto couldn't get out of or gets hurt in. So he inflicted that damage. It wasn't a freak thing where he rolled his ankle or got poked or something like that. This is all Corey's doing. And so to me, this is a very, very, very impressive

and legitimate win and and when you look at his resume and you look at four of the last five and and you look at the fact that the title is being defended in a little over a month he in my opinion should be next there really isn't anyone out there with a stronger claim than him and I would I would love to see him fight for that belt and there's something about his intensity right now and his burning desire to finally get that shot. There's just something about the vibes that he is giving off. I said it many, many moons ago, maybe

2019 or 2020, this guy will fight for a UFC title. He fought for the interim, never fought for the undisputed, if you will. I loved what he said. I'll be the interim, never fought for the the the undisputed if you will. I loved what he said, I'll be the backup, I'll kiss their ass if they want me to, I'll do what needs to be done but I want to be next and if he wanted to be in that conversation I think he he did everything that he had to do. He did everything that he had to do on Saturday. I was really impressed with that victory. I was impressed with the the the tenacity, I was impressed with the aggression, I was impressed with the tenacity, I was impressed with the aggression, I was impressed with everything that he was doing. He has really come into his own.

And he deserves to be celebrated. You know it's also crazy that I never quite... So... Okay, why? No. Okay, that's... You haven't been? No, yeah. No, Okay, that's that. You haven't been?

No, yeah, no, you know what's weird? Because I was looking at his last few fights, he said in the, did he say it in the post-presser? Or did he say it, I think he said it in the post-presser, he said he never fought on a pay-per-view before. And I was like, is that possible? Corey's handing in never fought on a pay-per-view?

And his last few fights weren't on pay-per-view, but he did fight 250, 267. So I don't know what he's talking about. 267 was technically not a pay-per-view. Okay, but a number. Nice trivia fact there. 250 was a pay-per-view. That's when he lost to Aljo.

It was a pay-per-view. 241 was a pay-per-view. Maybe not in a long time, you know? Yeah, maybe. Said it, and then I was like, is that possible? Anyway, what did you guys think of Corey's win, and do you agree that he should be next? By the way, in case you're wondering

regarding the bantamweight division, you do have O'Malley who's fighting Marab. There's Yan there, there's Umar there, Sanhagen there, Figueredo there, Song Yedong, Marlon Vera, Rob Fon. The one who obviously has a claim as well is Peter Yan, who he did fight for the interim belt and who he did lose to.

But I don't know if you know Jan versus Marab is a tough sell but if it's if it's O'Malley versus Jan and if O'Malley wins does Marab get another crack who knows he's pretty damn close is all I know what you guys think of the performance Rick? Yeah flawless like this is as good as it gets from a guy who we've talked about it before is like he's always been right there but not able to take the next step. He's always been the guy who's one shot away from the title shot,

and he finds himself right back there, right? He's either next in line, one away, he's right back there, and he could never kind of quite make that next leap to get into the title fight. I think it's time, it really is time. This division has kind of like faded away a little bit. The clog, the logjam at the top has kind of faded away. We'll have O'Malley and Marab

resolve their issues. Then it's really, it's, you know, Yan, I guess Song Yedong is kind of in the conversation at least, but it's really Yan and Corey that I think are going to be the next men up. Maybe they fight, maybe they don't. I wouldn't have a problem with Corey Sandhaga getting a crack against either O'Malley or Marab next. What do you think, PT? Look, I think Jan has a great case too. He's beat Yedong Song and Figueredo back to back. He's obviously beaten Sandhaga before, but I do think you're right in terms of the Marab fight with him, a rematch. It's not making me jump up and down. If O'Malley wins, I love

the idea of Jan via O'Malley over five rounds we've talked about it lots of times here but just in terms of the performance it was brilliant and you know you talked about the leg entanglement situation there it's almost like um like a figurator was killed with a sword he brought himself you know he's killed with his own sword because he was the one who began the leg entanglements against Santhagen and anyone knows this kind of system this leg lock system there's a counter point to every move there's a counter to that counter everything like that so he stayed safe he put himself in the position to win and he's completely correct in what he's saying

like he made Figaro pay for going into that situation with him. Really really good. He's a brilliant brilliant fighter. We've been saying this for years. It's just a weird situation with O'Malley and Marab and the rematch. It's either Jan or him. I think depending on who wins, we can make up our minds then. I'd much rather see Sandhagen in against Marab and then Jan against Umar or something like that. Or the O'Malley rematch we've been talking about for so long. What he also has going for him is that he has never fought O'Malley or Marab, so it's a fresh matchup.

He's won four of five, Yan two of five. What do you say GC? Yeah, so I'm in 100% agreeance with you guys in the fact that it was just such an incredible performance, even if it is technically like an injury, the knee got hurt. Corey Sanaghan was dominating that fight, and I really do think that he caused that knee issue

for Davidson Figueredo, where I disagree is that he should be next, I think it is dependent on the result of the fight at UFC 316, I think if it's Marab, Corey for sure, we don't need to see the Piotr Jan rematch, it was 50-45 across the board, it was a dominant performance by Marab. If it's Sean O'Malley, I think Piotr Jan has an incredible case for it with how close their fight was and where he's at within the

division. I think if Marab wins, you do Marab-Korey. I think if Suga wins, you do Suga-Jan too. Interesting. Okay, so it's all dependent on what happens. It's not a done deal. And we know even if he does end up being the the backup, weighs in, that's not 100% as well. Ian Gary's trying to do that this week, but guys like Pavlovich in the past have done it and not been rewarded. So there's no 100% certainty.

I think it ends up being either a fight against Jan, a rematch, or he gets a title shot. And I know the winning streak is one, but if you look at the body of work, and I think what helps is that he's never fought these guys, so it's a fresh matchup. I don't know if Murab Yan is a sell because that fight was so one-sided.

A fight that I've always wanted to see is Sanhagan versus O'Malley, and I'm really curious to see Sanhagan versus Murab if he prevails. Honestly, the way Sanhagen has shown his personality and he's getting in on the YouTube channel and he's trying to really become a star, I think he's gonna play in his favor, I really do.

Do you guys think? That's it, he's always been a reflective, interesting guy, right? You've always loved interviewing him. But now he's really leaning into more of the like content that people are gonna start going, oh, I like this guy a lot more than just hey He's contemplative and can kind of speak a little at worst at worst. He is one away

Yeah, like at worst he's he's a yawn fight And if he wins that he's guaranteed a title shot or he is title shot next like that's that's how close we are to an Undisputed title fight for him. Do you guys think if O'Malley beats Merab that Merab is going to get a rematch? No, no, you think they're gonna move on? Yeah. I think he should. The Sugarra is back and we move on. At 1-1 I think they would give them one just because it would be 1-1. Oh boy I don't. I know they dislike Marab but it's like I honestly think O'Malley would be like yeah we need to we need to run that back. You're rolling the dice there. You got the outcome you wanted with Sean O'Malley and now you're like, yeah, let's just give the machine another try. I think O'Malley would call for it and the UFC wouldn't give it to him.

I don't think so. Leon Tremont. He'd get the Leon Tremont 100%. I think they'd go and do either O'Malley, or O'Malley, or Sanhagen at that point. Bigger fight, O'Malley, Yan, or O'Malley, Sanhagen? Yan, because I think Yan's more of a known quantity to the point that we're making, you know, Sanhagen not having fought on many pay per views, not none, but many. Yan has been a fight night headliner, pay per view guy for his entire UFC run. So it's, he's a more known quantity for everybody.

I think they go Yan. I think that fight is a bigger fight rather. Well, there's a great story to be told right because of how their first fight went and how close it was and how a lot of people thought Yan actually deserved to win. Great story to be told but man... Sandhiggen and O'Malley have had this like latent rivalry thing brewing for many years now and it might be time for that to come to a head. Yeah, good options, good options. No bad options.

Him winning definitely puts him... Then you've got Umar in that mix somewhere, like there's a lot of fun to be had at Bantamweight. Okay, so that's what happened in the main event. Now let us talk about the Chief Support, the co-main event, because it is one of those that reminds me of, it reminds me to a degree. Rick, do you remember when, and PT, you'll remember as well, because it is one of those that reminds me of, it reminds me to a degree. Rick, do you remember when, and PT, you'll remember as well, when Sage Northcutt lost.

Sure do. Everyone wanted to, like, this isn't new, by the way. This thing isn't new, where someone loses and the internet, it happened to Connor and it was on a much, much larger scale, but when he lost to Nate, everyone came out. When Rhonda lost, everyone comes out. People are just foaming at the mouth,

foaming at the mouth to see that hype train get derailed. And let's be honest, Bo, very confident. Someone would call him cocky, talks a big game, speaks about himself, being better than this guy, that guy with not a lot of fights going into this fight. He only had seven pro fights, obviously an incredible collegiate wrestler, multiple time Dan Hodge trophy winner, all-American national champion,

all that stuff from Penn State. But this was a massive, massive, massive step up in competition against Rene de Ritter. And you know, the odds wouldn't suggest that because he was once again a gigantic favorite and he lost. He lost fair and square. It was an absolute brilliant performance by RDR. The knee to the chest took everything out of him. It was a brutal shot to the solar plexus and there he is, the multiple-time one championship champion proving that on this Saturday there are levels. And so of course in the aftermath There's the fraud check stuff and all that and I'm not even gonna sit here and say Oh fraud check What does it mean? Like we don't even have to get so granular when it comes to that on Saturday Bo nickel was matched up against a very good fighter a

fighter who has been around the block who has had success in other organizations and and some early success in the UFC and lost some early success in the UFC and loss fair and square. And so now we get to find out who Bo Nicol is. Now you get to find out who Bo Nicol is. Does Bo Nicol brush himself off and work his way back up? Does he, does he eat that humble pie? Because everyone's coming after him. Everyone's kicking him while he's down. Does he use this as a teaching moment?

Does he use this as an opportunity to, to work on his weaknesses, work on his holes work, or does he just say to hell with all this? I don't need any of this shit. We're about to find out. Um, Henry Sahuoto, one of the very few guys who came to his defense, who offered some public support tweeted this, the wrestling world has taken a hit today, keep your head up. Oh, nickel.

This is not the end. I got finished by Demetri a bit of a cheeky shot, but overall I think he was pretty kind. There wasn't much of that. Everyone getting their looks in. And then I saw Darren Till, he was a little bit of a wimp, but he was a little bit of a wimp.

And I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I saw him, I bit of a cheeky shot, but overall I think he was pretty kind. There wasn't much of that. Everyone getting their looks in. And that's par for the course.

He's a big golfer, he's an avid golfer. He knows you talk the talk, you're going to have to take it if it doesn't go your way. To me, my definition of quote unquote fraud check fraud check is that like you're a never was. Bo Nichol is not a never was. Bo Nichol is going to be someone. That was just his eighth pro fight. He is going to be a player, he is going to be a force if he wants to be. If he wants to be.

There was once a time very early in McGregor's career that he lost. And look how he built himself back up. Like people lose fights. They sometimes don't lose in co-main events, on UFC, on ESPN, and with all that attention. But he has a lot of work to do. I'd love for him to be a little more active. Now you gotta take a step back. We were all waiting for the step forward,

the step up in competition, and it was not his night. He lost to the better fighter on the night. No ifs, ands, or buts. But now we get to find out. I don't subscribe. You could say whatever you want. You could say frau check. You could say he's he's he's a bum. He's a hype train, this or that. To me, my definition of frau check, the way people use it is you are not worthy of the attention that you receive. Bo Nicol was worthy and is worthy. Now we're going to find out. We're going to find out who he is and what he's made of. And maybe this is the breaking point.

Maybe this is the point in which he doesn't come back from. Maybe he'll never return from this. I have a sneaking suspicion that a guy who was that successful on the grandest of stages in collegiate athletics is going to be very successful. He is going to bounce back. And I will also say this. I think some people, you know, they get their jolly, they get their jolly, in collegiate athletics is going to be very successful. He is going to bounce back. And I will also say this, I think some people,

they get their jollies when they think that a UFC hype train gets derailed. I have to defend the UFC on this one. I don't think they rammed Bo Nicol down our throats. I don't think they put the cart before the horse with Bo Nicol. I don't think they were know in in main events when you didn't deserve to be in main events In fact top of my head. He has a main event at a single card for them Not even like a bullshit apex card, you know, are they putting him on pay-per-views?

Showcase fights. Absolutely. This wasn't one Had to fight twice on contender before he made it to So like this wasn't like you know again I think some people get off on the fact when it's like hey the UFC's pet project or the US's boy lost and there have certainly been like they felt that way with Sean O'Malley it blew up in your face it blew up in your face this wasn't one of those this was a seven and oh guy losing to a much more experienced fighter

and I personally think he'll be back. Will I be proven wrong? Only time will tell. But I don't think this is the end of Bo Nicol. What do you think, Rick? I think this was Bo Nicol's eighth fight. Not UFC fight, eighth fight. And he's in there with a guy who has much more experience, who's good. I did not think that Bo Nicol would lose this fight. I was very confident that Bo Nicol would win this fight. But we're going to learn about Bo Nicol. I think my concern about his future is not whether I think Bo Nicol can be a good fighter, because Bo Nicol is such a

decorated wrestler. He could win fights just on that alone. But I'm concerned about some of the growth and mixing it all together and those things. But he has so much time and opportunity to come back and work on that alone. But I'm concerned about some of the growth and mixing it all together and those things. But he has so much time and opportunity to come back and work on those things that I'm not concerned about that.

How he reacts to strikes, right? It looked a little bit like Brock Lesnar. It looked a little bit like he just did not want to be hit. And we saw it. Those are the things that I'm concerned about. But those are also the obvious things that if you're a Bo Nicol, you can go back and work on. Those are the things that you need to fix if you

want to be a top tier mixed martial artist. It was a wake-up call. And now, as you've said, this is the moment. It was not those fights before. It will not be the fights after. This is the inflection point. This is where Bo Nicol looks himself in the mirror and goes, do I actually want to do this? And can I be the best at this? I'm with you. And I would put my money this. I'm with you and I would put my money on him giving that a go. I would put my money on that. It reminds me of Aaron Pico.

It reminds me of so many guys who, you know, these hype prospects that come from the wrestling world and are decorated and you go, ah, look at them. They fell on their face. Fuck them. They're never gonna be shit. And just rushing to do it.

It's too early. It's too early to proclaim him as good as he said he was, right, where he's talking about fights with Hams and Shamayev and things like that. It was always too early. It's too early to proclaim him as good as he said he was right where he's talking about fights with Hams That's Shumai of and things like that It was always too early for that But it's also too early to close the chapter on a guy who is as talented in the wrestling game as bone Oh, I stand corrected guys. I stand corrected Shout out to the chat thumbs up to the chat who are very quick to remind me that he was put on the UFC

300 main card all the way down. the horror oh the horror hey guys just just to let you know Jamal fucking Hill headlined UFC 300 miss me with this thing that it was such a big deal that he was above Yuri and Alex guess what more people saw Yuri and Alex oh they put him against Cody Brundage in the fifth fight on the main card gives a fuck they didn't put him in the co-main or the main in fact I don't think he's ever been in the co-main of main or Of a pay-per-view like this nitpicking of where they place him on the card so quick to jump on this You're all just exposing yourself as as as Rick just said this has happened time and time again And it won't be the last time you get a guy you see the look you see the way he builds himself up

You see the way he talks yeah, of course he talked a a big game and he's gonna have to deal with those repercussions That's what happens. But guess what? The reason why we were drawn to him was because he talked that big game There are a lot of people who come from from collegiate wrestling who don't amount to anything who don't move the needle whatsoever Yeah, yeah, you swing for the fences and you know Maybe sometimes you hit the wall and you got to come back or you strike out but you're saying you're not gonna watch his next fight. That's what this whole thing is. This is prize fighting You're not interested in seeing how he builds himself up. You're too busy celebrating his demise You're too busy celebrating the fact that he lost to a really good fighter Don't be disrespectful to our to our DR and to all the media who is saying this as well

Where were you guys going on on a limb saying our DR is gonna smoke him? I'd see any of you say that I didn't even make a pick And to all the media who is saying this as well, where were you guys going out on a limb saying RDR is gonna smoke him? I didn't see any of you say that. I didn't even make a pick. So I'm not, I'm like, this is not me trying to like back anything up, but come on. I do think we have to zoom out for a second to just be like, this is a, Bo Nickel is in the position

he's in because of what he's done previously, right? It's not that Bo Nickel was like just some random schmuck in a line that they go, oh, we're gonna take this guy and rocket him to the top because he's a friend of some XYZ person or it's nepotism whatever Bo Nickle is one of the most decorated collegiate wrestlers of all time there's a reason why he's in this position and the fact that he's put into this position and everybody wants to see him sink or swim and both sides of it only benefits the UFC. It is not this like benevolent gift to a to Bo Nicol randomly by the UFC. There is a there is a method to the madness. There is a

reason this is happening. We look at Patti Pimblitt. People can't wait for this man to fall on his face. People can't wait for this guy to falter even a tiny little bit. And it propels him into bigger and bigger heights in the same way that it did bone nickel. This is not some like secret bone bone nickel agenda or strategy. This is just the fight game. Also it's a casual take to say that he's been fraud checked. Like any anyone who was watching now may know how good already are is he's only lost to a heavyweight that lots of people thought would make a lot of noise if he was to compete a heavyweight in the UFC and I told you Malik in, you know, he's

a savage and I guess look in his first two fights, we were probably saying, I thought I thought we'd see more of already our first fight that's a cause he did do a good job against Kevin on, but this is how dynamic this guy is. He's a savage. He like, look at, look at this game plan. Like coming with shots straight up the middle against a guy who you know is going to try and take you down. I thought he was absolutely brilliant. And look, he's a really interesting addition to the UFC middle weight ranking. I think a lot of people would have said this guy was going to have a big impact on this division when he signed, when he came across from one. I know he had a fight

in UAE or something before that. But to say like this is a fraud check when he's fighting RDR is a casual take honestly. I will say in defense of the people saying fraud check I don't know if it's as much as the opponent as it is the way that he went out. The second round where like to Rick's point like it just looked like he had no desire to be hit in the face at all. He didn't want any part of that fight and once the fire started burning he wanted out as as soon as possible. I think the performance is why people are saying it more. If he had gone in a three round war with RDR and it was a 29-28 or a very close fight and like he was impressive throughout,

I don't think as many people would have been saying that. I think it was the way that the performance went. And to your point Ariel, I actually think you say like you're not gonna watch his next fight, I actually think his next fight might be his most watched fight because people want to really find out. I am the most intrigued in this next one because to be totally honest I think I overrated where Bo Nicol was at and underrated where RDR was at and I really want to see like if Bo Nicol has it, if he can get in that dogfight, if he can use his wrestling, can transfer to MMA, if he really does have a future

at the championship level of this sport. Because after Saturday, I definitely have some questions around it. Some very honest stuff from his head coach, Mike Brown on Instagram saying, "'Was a tough weekend, but maybe one that was needed.' Things have been moving fast for Bo Nicol, and to this point, he has been able to make things happen

and secure six finishes and seven victories with the limited experience that he has. Bo has all the attributes that you want if your goal is to become a world champion in mixed martial arts. He has athleticism, a strong confident mindset, great family support system and he started combat sports specifically wrestling at a very young age. These are all the boxes that you want to check when developing an elite MMA fighter, but the one thing Bo doesn't have is live fighting cage time, and for this there is no substitution. MMA fight experience is crucial and actual time in the cage is extremely important. As a team, we had our concerns about moving so fast and we realized the dangers of fighting such high-level opponents so early, but Bo is a unique athlete and the UFC has him

on a fast track. This past weekend, Bo's lack of experience showed. His wrestling and athleticism wasn't enough to overcome what was in front of him. Rene DeRidder is now 20 and two, was a multi-time two division world champion in one FC, a very reputable organization. Props to him for coming with a strong game plan

and executing what was needed. This is the fight game and it's cliche, but this is where we learn. This is where we make changes and where we make the biggest gains. I'm confident that this is going to fuel Bo and it will help him direct his focus to another level. To all the critics, dogpiling,

remember Bo is nothing more than a man in an arena trying to support himself and his family. I love that from Mike not backing down and saying that he has a lot of work to do and now we're gonna find out. Now we're gonna find out who he is. At the end there he put it perfectly, the people piling on.

You mentioned McGregor losing to Diaz and everything like that, Ronda Rousey losing. When I got on Twitter yesterday morning sitting at the airport, every single tweet I saw was just people shitting on Bo, left, right and center. Like he was really getting a taste of the MMA world on Sunday morning. He slipped very early in his wrestling career and turned that into a positive and ended up having a legendary wrestling career. Again, no real dog in the race. Obviously love having him on the show, love talking to him, but taking nothing away from RDR. I think

RDR is brilliant and what a great signing he was for the UFC. Remember RDR's first fight, people were kind of like, you know, you remember that? The Mircea one kind of, people were shitting on him. Shitting on him. MMA fans are fickle as hell. Like the story is not done being written for Bo Nicol. Yeah, now he's being celebrated. I think that plays into it a bit too, because of that first performance, like granted he was really good against Kevin Holland,

but the reaction to RDR in his first fight was so bad, I feel like it's some kind of hangover into this fight too, you know? We do have to acknowledge though, like Bo Nicol is a wrestler and one of the best wrestlers. And he's spending a lot of time on the feet with guys who he's not gonna be better than. That's just a reality.

Like at the level that he is now fighting at in the UFC, he's not gonna have, I would expect that in addition to just sharpening skills and things like that, we're gonna see a strategic shift from Bo Nicol. Now fights start on the feet and you have to be on your feet, but quite frankly if you're coming in to be a kickboxer, like you're not gonna do too well. Bo Nickle needs to be a wrestler and I think he can be a dominant wrestler if he wants to be and so we'll

see how his style and his strategy looks from here on out. He's certainly gonna have to you know work on the hands as well and the striking exchanges as well but man if you if you had that Hamzat Shamiyev, put your head down, double leg a guy in the first 30 seconds, and dump him on their head and pound them out, I think he could walk through quite a few guys. So I'm not done with the bone nickel potential. But I think we need to see something different.

I would subscribe to the fraud check sentiment if he lost to a Cody Brundage, with all due respect. RDR is a multi-division champion in one championship, and you may not be someone who respects or watches one championship, but a lot of great fighters fight there and have come from there, who have come through there as well.

The UFC, if they wanted Bo Nicol to win this fight, it was a bad matchup. They messed up. The matchmaking was off. And if his management thought that this was the type If they wanted Bo Nicol to win this fight, it was a bad matchup. They messed up. The matchmaking was off. And if his management thought that this was the type of fight that gets him into elite territory at 185, they messed up too.

They underestimated who RDR was. He fought brilliantly and it was a brilliant finish and he deserves all the praise. And then afterwards he said he just beat the best of American wrestling and then he wants the best of American striking and in that brief moment I'm like who's he talking about who's he talking about obviously John Strickland what I was like what I mean I like it listen is he the best American striker in middleweight I don't know I mean it just it didn't quite hit the way I thought I like the I like the matchup

I'm okay with it. I think we all kind of like the idea of Izzy fighting Strickland again. But if that doesn't happen, I like the matchup, I'm okay with it. I just wasn't expecting it. I mean, look, you got Jared Kenanier out there. You got...

I feel like the- As far as American middleweights, yeah, you got Brendan Allen out there. There are a ton of choices. I think the name came first to his head, and then he tried to figure out how to tie it I don't think it was he's probably not getting that fight also what I think yeah just don't think so Sean Strickland's currently number two party ours well he's 13 but he's gonna move up probably not a ton probably move up like

you know to 11 10 I would do that fight that's no no problem. I'm down for the fight, I'm not saying I don't wanna see the fight, is he gonna get the fight? Sean's certainly gonna sign that. Ken and here feels like an appropriate step up. And an air fight, anyone, yeah. I feel like we gotta do like- I'm an Anthony Hernandez, that's on the ground. The Tory 10 seems like a little outdated, no?

Well, I mean, you know these things are sterling, you know they're bulletproof. I know. In a way, the Tory's 10, he's 10. By the way, can I just say RDR versus Robert Whitaker would be fun. Yeah, I mean, Robert Whitaker needs a fight. Kyle Bohaglio? No. Kyle's not taking that.

No, he's not taking that. Anthony Hernandez? I think it's more important to worry about who Bo fights next. Okay, fine, fine, fine. Who does Bo fight next? Michelle Pereira. Oh, geez. I mean, why can't he fight? Michelle Pereira. Oh jeez. I mean, why can't he fight...

Michelle Pereira. Why can't he fight like a 35th ranked guy? Like go back to the... You know, so he had the Paul Craig fight. So there was a bit of a... There was a jump up, yeah. If you're his team, do you take him all the way back? All the way back to where?

Like, again... Michelle- In your series? Michelle Perez lost two fights in a row. Bone Nickel is- Val Woodburn, rematch. I gotta be- Oh no, the Val Woodburn thing is not helping us. We're done? I have to be honest.

I don't think level of opposition was his problem in this fight. I really don't. I don't think level of opposition was his problem in this fight. I think it was an issue. I think it was- Ah, come on, man.

I think it was style, it was strategy, it was style, and it was that he has eight fights. He has not been in the cage a long time. If you put him in there with anybody who has a lot of experience, he's going to be at a severe disadvantage. It's not that RDR, because he's a high level, it's going to be a problem because Bo nickel has eight fights in he's in the top in he's in High positions in the UFC it did not used to happen this way you used to have to build up You used to have to get experience and then you could get into that position. He got fast-tracked to it I don't think it's I don't think it's the caliber of opponent I think it's he needs to he needs to drastically revise the style to

Have been on the feet that long with RDR Was a strategic error if if he was on top of RDR raining down elbows He'd look great like it you you need to get into positions that help you win and he didn't have the cage Experience to do that and I think he lost he lost a grappling exchanges Yeah, I was gonna say didn't they end up on the ground and bone knuckles on top and he got reverse off He's putting him off his game by countering his resting in the first round. He takes a clinch position off it, he's striking him there. So Bo's in a situation where he's like, right, fuck, what am I going to do with this dude? I don't want to end up in this, in this

a, in a disadvantage, uh, grappling situation either because everyone knows a wrestler doesn't want to be the guy on his back or in the weak position in these exchanges because that's very much a Jiu-Jitsu thing, right? That's more of those guys. They're not going to play it on the game. And he had not been in that position before because he has eight fights. He has never been turned away in that way before because he has eight fights. And now he has. Do you guys think if he never talked about the Khamzats of the world, the Darren Tills

of the world, et cetera, but fought the same guys in the same sequence and lost the same exact way that the reaction would be different. Yes, 100%. The amount of memes that I saw where it was just like, when me and Hamsa fight, I'm gonna be minus a thousand. The clip of him, I think it was at the UFC 300 weigh-in show where he's just like, don't be surprised if when I'm fighting for the title,

I'm a minus 800 favorite. I think it's things like that, saying how he's going to be the champion and when he gets there, it's going to be in dominant fashion, I'm not gonna lose a fight. I just don't think MMA fans take well to that until you actually are a champion, I think. Like McGregor, on his way up, people hated him

until he becomes champion. People hated Ilya until he becomes champion. Honestly, I'm seeing Patty getting this baby face turn now because he's winning and he's getting to that title contention and could potentially be a champion one day. People are starting to recognize how skilled he is. Oh, if he falls, it's gonna be miserable. I know, the hate watches will be there, but like the hate watches I saw getting off for Bo Nicola, I was just like, people really like, I didn't realize how much vitriol and hate there was for

him. It was weird. One thing I did want to ask you guys just with how big RDR is and the physicality that he used in that fight and I don't know how both weight cuts are and everything is there any argument to be made to consider 170 at his size well the only thing I'd push back there is like Paul Craig was also pretty big and he looked fine you know in the striking there to Pete's point like RDR is well-rounded-rounded, right? He's got the Thai boxing. He's fantastic on the ground, obviously, as we've seen throughout his career. Like, he's just a well-rounded guy. And I just don't think Bo was in there enough times with anybody

who had as well-rounded a skill set where he knows what to do. He's just in a position where he didn't have a lot of options. He didn't have a plan B. I think he needs for plan A and plan B to be taking people down. If he's going to be ultimately successful, I think the hands are just going to come along slower, but we'll see what changes he does make. We'll see what that looks like. But it was a wake up call for a guy with eight fights. He's got eight fights. You're right. You're right. It's just, you're right. And that like, I agree when I think about this more, he has never been in a situation where a guy is putting an onslaught on him, like RDR did,

right? He's never been in that panic where, oh, fuck, this is happening to me. I'm getting hit everywhere. I can't stop this guy hitting me. So I think certainly in that kind of frame, the inexperience certainly hurt him, you know? But I do think RDR had to do a lot to get in a situation where he could just be pouring it on him, you know? Yeah, he rose to the occasion big time. He showed up in a major way. Let's give props to the other winners on the card. Daniel Rodriguez, who is going to join us later in the program, had a brilliant finish against

Santiago Pantanibio, a five punch combo in the third round to win that fight. Very impressive stuff from the man they call D-Rod, Chataute Montell Jackson continuing his winning ways, picking up a unanimous decision win over Daniel Marcos. You see the rest of the main card results there. Notable, of course, Jeremy Stevens losing in his return fight to the UFC. It was a one fight deal he posted on social media. He's going to be back. The question is, is he going to be fight to the UFC. It was a one fight deal. He posted on social media. He's gonna be back.

The question is, is he gonna be back to the UFC? Is he going back to be BKFC? We'll see what happens. How big of a deal was Jeremy Stevens in Iowa, guys? Big pop. Huge pop. Huge, like, everyone around me was going insane. Anytime I went to the ground, they were like,

stand him up! Stand him up, ref! I mean, like, anytime he landed shots, the crowd up ref. I mean like anytime he landed shots, the crowd went insane. I mean there was like a, she had to have been like in her early 60s, like chomping on her nails, nervous, like anytime like Jeremy got taken down, she was just like no, no, damn it.

Like people were, if he had won, say and like he landed some big shots on Mason, like shout out to Mason Jones. His return looked great. He looked really, really good. But if Jeremy Stevens had knocked him out, that place, the roof would have come off of it. Like any shots he landed, that crowd went crazy. Tough for BKFC,

because here you had this guy who was on a roll, goes to the UFC in a somewhat under the radar fight against a somewhat under the radar fighter. And now, if I'm David Feldman, I'm like, golly, I built up Mike Perry, he loses Jake Paul, we haven't seen him back. I build up Jeremy Stevens, he goes back to the UFC, who knows if we're gonna see him back.

So it's tough. I agree with that, but I don't think their hallmark is like, we've got the guys on winning streak, so we've got the momentum. Their hallmark is we put in guys who are guaranteed to scrap, and Mike put in guys who are guaranteed to scrap. And Mike Perry and Jeremy Stevens are guaranteed to scrap. You just don't want to see those guys lose when you're trying to build them up as being Teflon.

But to your point, shout out to Mason Jones. Had a tough first run in the UFC. Had to go back to Cage Warriors. And I thought looked very good in this fight against Jeremy Stevens. I want to give a shout out to Yana Santos, who had a very, very impressive win over Misha Tate, just in the fact that she beat Misha Tate. I think a lot of people were expecting Misha to win that fight.

I think Misha was the favorite. She was a slight favorite. Crowd was going crazy for Misha as well. Yep, legend of the game. Seeing some of the results there. Shout out to Jillian Robertson, Canada's own, with a very impressive finish in the second round. And in doing so, she retired Marina Rodriguez.

Somewhat surprisingly, Juliana Miller with a win as well. Good to see her back in the winner's circle. Any of these performances stood out? Did the people go in? Bekoff. They loved her. Jillian Robertson went, like, not really from the fan perspective, but she's just, she's scary at 115.

What was that Pizzi? Bekoef, that lad who just came out and body bagged his boy. Yeah Ryan Loader. It was fucking crazy. Yeah he's uh McCoy have just signed up on Twitter. He's been tweeting his ass off over the last 48 hours. Shout out to him. If it is in fact him.

Got a performance bonus as well. So did Kwon Lee and RDR and Corey Sanhagen. So shout out to all of them. Not the Vermeis and then Jeremy. What's that? That should have been fighting the night. Not the Vermeis and then Jeremy, that should have been fighting the night.

Ah, jeez. They did the four performance instead of the fight of the night. Oh, that was unbelievable. Gents, I wanna talk about my Friday night. Let's hear it. Because Friday, there was a much talked about event that happened in Times Square.

There was a lot of talk about the personalities on the card, headlined by Ryan Garcia going up against Royale Romero, Devin Haney, Jose Ramirez, Tiafima Lopez also on the card against Arnold Barbosa. I have to be honest for for a moment there I didn't think that I would be one of the lucky ones who got to attend. Remember they didn't hand out tickets. Tickets weren't for sale. It was somewhat of a closed off VIP event. But at the, I don't want to say 11th hour, maybe the 10th or 9th hour,

we did get the invitation and I was happy to check it out because, A, I love New York City. I've been living in New York City since 2004 and never thought that I would see a fight of any kind in Times Square. Shout out to Beat the Streets, by the way, the wrestling organization, the amateur wrestling organization who has done events in Times Square before. So it's not completely unseen, but as far as boxing is concerned, never before has this been done. There was some talk of us doing a watch party for this event,

but my general feeling was the people want to, whomever is watching this, whomever is buying this, you want to take it all in. You want to see what it looks like to watch a fight in Times Square. You also want to hear the commentary. You want to hear, you know, Jim Lampley returning after all these years, all that and more. And so we decided against it and they certainly

rolled out the red carpet. You had the likes of Jim Lampley involved, you had the likes of Mike Tyson involved, you had the likes of Pat McAfee doing a pre and post show with the great Booker T and when we got there I was really curious to see how it all was going to be set up I actually got two tickets and I got to bring New York Rick with me. And so this is the setup. This is us sitting Ringside we had a really great vantage point and as you can see there's the action right there and there are the familiar Video billboards of Times Square if you're familiar with Times Square, there's there's the NYPD station Billboards of Times Square if you're familiar with Times Square, there's there's the NYPD station

To the right over here. There's a big American flag that's lit up. It was kind of in that nook It wasn't necessarily like smack dab in the middle was in the nook So in fact and and I have a video of this if you're walking I think it's a Broadway where the old WWF New York used to be you wouldn't even know that this was happening Because there's all this activity here on the left side where the old WWF New York used to be, you wouldn't even know that this was happening because there's all this activity here on the left side. There's the famous Naked Cowboy who was trying to get in my shot. There's the flag that I'm talking about,

and everything was happening to the right of that. Naked Cowboy just wanted the airtime there, but as you can see, there were some people who were disappointed that there were these red... I mean, the guy's flexing right in my shot. I'm trying to show something here, Naked Cowboy, for goodness sakes. There were these red walls up there. If you're just walking up and down that street, red, I mean the guy's flexing right in my shot. I'm trying to show something here, Naked Cowboy, for goodness sakes.

There were these red walls up there. If you're just walking up and down that street, you wouldn't even know what's happening within the walls. That's kind of how it was situated and tucked away. Eventually we made our way in there, and New York Rick was like a pig in shit. He was having the time of his life. I mean, look at that smile.

He was so excited, he even wore a little bit of color. It was unbelievable, Look at that. I picked the most humid day in history to rock a jacket. It was great. It was freaking hot over there. We got in there, the first fight was at five. We get in there at like, I don't know, 420, 425, and there were a lot of luminaries. Again, I think some people gave me shit on Twitter

saying that I was you know kissing ass. Trust me, if you only knew the road to us getting there, you would think the complete opposite. But I tweeted upon sitting there and watching, this is incredible, just because it was like the first few minutes of the first fight between the FDNY fighter and the NYPD fighter. They had an exhibition match and I'm sitting in Times Square and quite frankly you can't even tell that you're in Times Square if you close your eyes and not look at the video boards because it was so quiet. Other than the odd siren and like the odd ambulance or police, you didn't hear much.

And so that's what I was referring to. Like it was just kind of surreal to be sitting there. Within the first few minutes, you take it all in, you see like there were a ton of WWE production people there, you know, make what you will of that. Freaking Carl Anthony Towns is there, of the New York Ricks, of the New York Knicks, excuse me, not the New York Ricks, of the New York Knicks, excuse me, not the New York Ricks.

I'm like a pig and shit here. Cat was so friendly, such a big fight fan, so happy to chat, asked me to sit down. We had our little Mega Powers moment there, made a video for my kids, giving them a shout out. They were flipping out over that. That was by far the highlight for me. Cat was asking for your autograph.

It was crazy. It was unbelievable. Connor Ben is there, Clarissa Shields is there, Keyshawn Davis is there, Nick Khan is there. Clarissa Shields is there. Keyshawn Davis is there. Nick Khan is there. Snoop Dogg was there. Snoop Dogg is there. Turkey Owl Shake is there. A lot of luminaries.

They did a fun thing. Instead of having ring card girls, if you've ever been to Times Square, there's these characters that you could take a picture with. The likes of Deadpool, the likes of Michael Jackson, impersonators, if you will. There was one.

For me? Ed Sheeran was fantastic. Snoop and Ed Sheeran were the two best ones. Snoop was amazing. There was a Hulk Hogan. Then they had the characters in the video game, the Fatal Fury game that they were promoting as well. And the entrances with the tax cabs and the batmobiles and

the trucks and all that, the drone shots, I would say all very memorable but I think the lesson that they learnt is two-fold. Number one, you know you could put fights on in the most unique places in the world. You could put fights on on the moon. You could put fights on in Alcatraz, in the world. You could put fights on on the moon. You could put fights on in Alcatraz, in Times Square, in Central Park, as they're rumored to be doing on July 12th, or any football stadium, anywhere in the world. And if it ain't scripted, if it ain't pro wrestling, and by the way, just ask WWE about WrestleMania 41, even if it is, the fights can fall short.

And that's what happened. The fights didn fall short. And that's what happened. The fights didn't deliver. They had the names, Tiofimo, Haney, Garcia. They had the names, but the fights didn't deliver. The fights weren't great. And how much did they not deliver? Some incredible stats from our friends at CompuBox

about how much they didn't deliver. Look at this, fewest combined punches thrown in a 12 round fight, not landed, thrown. Number five, Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia. Number four, Ryan Garcia and Rolé Romero. I think that that's meant to say Haney and Ramirez. I think you're right on that. Um, number one, Kenosco. We'll get to him in a moment. Three out of the five fights that happened in 24 hours this weekend. Three are on this list.

Fewest combined punches. Haney's Haney's fight was dreadful. There was no activity. Garcia's fight was dreadful. Very little no activity. Garcia's fight was dreadful. Very little activity and his performance dreadful as well. And so why did this happen? Why did this happen? And by the way, MVP got a

little shot in this growing feud between the two entities. Between I guess TKO and MVP. Punches landed this weekend. Canelo Haney, Garcia, Tiafimo combined 319 Amanda Serrano in her last fight against Katie Taylor 324 total the four dudes combined 319 landed she landed 324 by the way two minute rounds in that fight

incredible but why did this happen in opinion, as to why this happened on Friday, and as to why this happened on Saturday with Canelo's skull, which was also not a good fight, not an entertaining fight, twofold. There's a lot of money at stake right now in boxing, and there's a lot of fights being planned out. And they're not just being planned out like the next one, they're being planned out over the course of a year. There is so much to lose for these guys. And so when you talk, when you talk about Devin Haney and Ryan Garcia, they just in their minds just had to win.

When you talk about Canelo Alvarez with Terrence Crawford sitting ringside, he just had to win that fight signed, sealed and delivered 12th, Netflix, Allegiant Stadium, worst kept secret in combat sports. Haney Garcia, fighting October, Riyadh season, worst kept secret in combat sports. Those things were all done deals, but they all wanted them to have these fights beforehand. And so what happens when there's a lot of money at stake and even more money at stake down the line, and the next fight already planned we've talked about how we don't like this because

You try to plan two steps ahead two fights ahead someone slips everything gets ruined and this seems to always happen Right. It just happened on Friday It almost happened on Sunday with in a way They just need to win and so what you saw on Friday and Saturday Were guys who were just trying to do enough to win in order to get to the big money fight It can't be structured that way That's why I felt like it had to be Ryan versus Devin on Friday They had to beat each other up

They had to figure out who the man was. And so Haney did enough to win. Garcia certainly didn't. And he's gonna have to live with that. He's gonna have to live now with all the talk of, oh you were actually on PEDs. Look at the difference between you on PEDs and you not on PEDs. He's gonna have to live with the, oh you're better when you're crazy. You're better when you're drinking. Now he talked afterwards about the atmosphere, about it feeling off. You signed up for this.

Can't say that after the fact. Rolito Romero fought a great fight. The fight of his life, he dropped him. He did what he had to do. You can't take anything away from Romero. He won that fight fair and square. But I think part of the problem was these guys were looking at the next one saying, just get me to that fight. Don't screw up here and get me to

that big fight and that big payday most importantly. And when you position it like that and I think that's 1000% what happened in the Canelo-Skull fight. Canelo felt no danger whatsoever from William Skull. No threat whatsoever from William Skull. He just had to get to Allegiant Stadium. Remember Canelo was There was no danger whatsoever from William skull, no threat whatsoever from William skull. He just had to get to allegiance stadium. Remember Canelo was supposed to fight Jake Paul in this day, the deal happens and that's fine. But there was, there was a bit of irony in the fact that while the new TKO regime

is saying, we're going to get rid of the belts. The only reason why this fight happened was because William skull was an IBF champion. The only reason why it happened was because IBF has crazy rankings and they had him as the champion and he needed to get that belt in order to make the Crawford fight undisputed on September 12th. So there's a bit of an irony there, but ultimately what he needed to do was win the fight on Saturday at like five, six in the morning and then get to September 12th. And he did that. But when it's laid out like this, you're going to see performances like that. So while I sit here and say boxing is on fire and boxing dominated the weekend. Absolutely.

Everyone was talking about boxing and it's going to dominate in July when when Taylor and Toronto fight at MSG and and and July 12th in Central Park and July 19th, who's sick to one on and on and on it goes. But when you lay it out like this with the tune up here and the big fight there, you're going to get performances like that. I mean, there was something like, I don't know, eight, nine, 10 fights between Friday and Saturday, not a single knockout, not as like hardly any knockdowns. a single knockout, not as like hardly any knockdowns. Luckily the monster showed up on on Sunday and gave us an incredible show. And he too had a big fight waiting in the wings, not like a Crawford or a Haney Garcia, but a lot of people have been asking for this Ahmadalia fight and they announced afterwards that it's happening in September. But man, could you imagine if he would have lost?

Holy shit, an all timetime disaster of a weekend. Just made the fight more compelling. Got dropped in the second, ended up winning in the eighth. But I think ultimately what the lesson is here, look, I don't think, this is just my opinion, I didn't speak to him, I don't think Turkey Al-Sheikh left New York thinking, we blew it, that was a disaster.

I could understand why some media were upset that they weren't sitting in the pit. I could understand why some fans were upset thinking like hey I could just be walking up and down the street and I could watch a fight. That's crazy the way in which it was sold. I did ask around about this and I was told that part of the deal was, you know, because there is traffic going you can't have a spectacle like that because it could lead to distractions, accidents, etc. They plopped it in Times Square, they had it on some screens, and a lot of people got to watch from home. I think if the fights would have been great, people wouldn't have been harping on it so much But because of the fact that the fights weren't great and because of the fact that they thought it was going to be

Like right there in the middle like Times Square on New Year's Eve where everyone's just crowding around it People felt like it fell flat and then I saw some other people saying like oh you shit on the apex so much Let's see you shit on Times Square. Yeah, they're not doing 130 fights in Times Square. This was a one-off. The apex is a thing. What are you talking about? Are you stupid?

It's a thing, it's a one-off. World champions, world champions fighting, you know? Yeah. Big deal. It's a one-off but but Pizzi do you understand what I'm saying you had to stay up very late these guys were just trying to do just enough to get to the next one and in the end we see a just enough type of performance out of them yeah I was really excited to see what this looked like honestly I was buzzing to see it and it was just there

the just fights just didn't deliver it It was tough. It was a tough watch and I stayed up for Canelo as well the next night. Um, and just, I think boxing has been really rewarding for the fan base lately. Like I only have to look back as far as, um, Ben and you bank a fight that people are kind of railing against this, this fight means nothing. And then it was one of the most entertaining kind of culture moments, you know, rather than just boxing, like it was a big culture thing in England and the UK. It was a massive deal for completely delivered. But I don't know, it just really wore on me this weekend, the fights, you know, and it makes sense what you're saying about the lads.

They have that they have a carrot dangled beyond the night. They need to make that happen. And we saw Garcia afterwards, absolutely devastated by the loss to Rowley. But it was just tough. And I just felt it was going to be this really stimulating affair, given where it was and everything like that. But it was, it was a tough watching the end. And despite the all star cast, I have to say watching at home, it was, it was not the event or spectacle that I thought it would be, if I'm being honest. Rick, what do you think?

I thought it delivered a little bit more than maybe people would expect on the spectacle part of it, to the point that you've made. The walls were up, and that was what I was expecting. When we were told, fight in the middle of Times Square, I'm thinking open air, New Year's Eve, everybody's just gathered around, and there's a spectacle happening. And to that point, on New Year's Eve, they just close off the streets, and you're not driving through there, and the people can gather.

I pictured that when this was first announced. So certainly, when we're walking into there, and the walls are up, and it's hard to see, impossible to see from the outside, unless you're, and I think we have an image of this, unless you're a construction worker on some scaffolding, they were able to see it, which was a pretty incredible visual.

This one from, I don't know, I think it was the first time I saw this. It was construction worker on some scaffolding, they were able to see it, which was a pretty incredible visual. This one from one of the fights earlier in the night. The expectations got lowered for me, and then from those lowered expectations, I actually thought it was pretty good from that perspective. Like to be that close to, like whoever was there

got a very intimate experience, right? This was not necessarily for the larger public audience. It was kind of, it was almost like, I don't know if it was good, I don't know if it was bad, it was just surreal. It was surreal to be sitting in Times Square when you're looking past the ring, right? We're looking up at the ring

because there's only the one level. You're looking past the ring and you're seeing the billboards and the screens of Times Square. It can kind of be like, holy, and you're seeing the billboards and the screens of Times Square, it can kind of be like, holy shit, they're doing a fight in the middle of Times Square. And if the word of mouth travels about that, because I've heard people in my life

are like who don't follow combat sports, parents, grandparents, things like that, are like, hey, they're doing a boxing match in Times Square, I heard about this. That kind of serves that purpose, but the instantaneous, we're walking by, we see it it I did not deliver on that front but I guess at a certain point they had to realize it was not intended to because of the the way it was set up but it was surreal it was surreal to see like TFV Mo Lopez like in

Times Square and the third fight down on a boxing card and then you get a and Ian Garcia it was surreal I I want to add that, you know, and we got this sense, like it must have taken a Herculean effort to get this done, right? I'm not even talking about the cost. I'm just talking about the logistics. I mean, just like, I was curious about things like, where do the guys warm up?

Where are they getting their hands wrapped? Then they have to go in this car, and then they have to drive, and there's police escort. I mean, just the nightmare. When we left and we saw how traffic was blocked off, like the whole thing, Herculean, really, truly. And I don't know how much they want to do more of that because, you know, it's obviously a lot easier to do it in a controlled space. But I think what we've learned from Turkey and his crew is that they are looking to make an impact and they're looking to get people talking

and they're looking to make moments and fights that are going to break through and they'll get the attention, they'll get the shine, they'll get the credit and hopefully the fight's delivered. They got everything except the fights delivering. Do we think if the fight's delivered, people would have come away with like a different take on it. Oh, I mean, those were historically bad.

Yeah. I mean, just look at those stats. Yeah. So yes, I do think so. I mean, GC, you were watching from home, right? Yeah, it was a massive disappointment for me from home just because of the fights. But when you talk about the production, how it looked,

how did it feel? Did it feel unique? Did it feel special? Once the fight started, it didn't look like anything crazy, unfortunately, just because I would imagine from y'all's point of view, you're sort of sitting down on the ring, so you're looking up and you can see Times Square

and everything. Once they're down in the ring, it was sort of just like a ho-hum boxing affair, visually speaking. And then the fights themselves, it was just like, I mean, the Ryan Garcia fight, it looked like he was just going out there for, the Ryan Garcia fight, it was just, it looked like he was just going out there

for a sparring match trying to finish his workout. Like he didn't do anything. It was really difficult to watch. And then like, I think there was like two rounds of the Devin Haney fight where there was like no punches landed. It was, the fights, it's almost like the fights under delivered so much, it didn even matter how how it looked yeah I

think there's a lot of truth to that and like even the just the idea of it right if Ryan Garcia had went out there and won by incredible knockout and he's riding the subway the next day like he was doing in the Brooklyn one it adds to it it's just like I'm here in New York I'm in the biggest city in the world under the brightest lights literally in the middle of Times Square I got this knockout and he's on the mic cutting a promo. All that would have just added and built to the momentum and it just kind of just fell.

Probably would have faced them off afterwards and all that. That first fight was amazing. The pictures honestly look cooler than what the broadcast looked like because you can see like there's like a chicken joy and you can see like the rolling tickers of ABC and everything in the background and the big Jumbotrons. So yeah, I mean, I have to say to you, I appreciate the effort and the logistics and everything

that went into it and trying to do something different, trying to do something cool for the fans. I just don't know if Times Square was the best location for it. Also, by the way, now you're going to have to promote a Canelo fight coming off a dreadful Canelo performance and a super important one. If all the reports are accurate, I have no insider information, Netflix, Allegiance Stadium, America isn't used to these stadium shows. Crawford hasn't fought since August of last year and that fight wasn't great and that was a stadium show that didn't like sell out in seconds.

But here they are facing off afterwards. Dana White's going to be promoting it. P.T. what do you think? What's the level of interest in this? How big is this going to be do you think? It's a massive fight. Terrence Crawford is the guy. There was a lot of talk for a long time to this fight. It wouldn't happen. I think this is the hardcore boxing fan. This is a dream fight in many respects, but obviously we're going to be bolstered by a big Canelo performance. I think his opponent got a lot of stick at the weekend school and I think that's fine. But on the broadcast, it seemed like absolutely no blame on Canelo whatsoever here. And look, I know it wasn't his kind of fight.

He had to chase school down the whole time. He was landing nice body shots when he did land, but it was very uneventful. And look, to your point, if they were gonna use this as launch pads for Garcia and Haney and then obviously Canelo Crawford, it didn't quite do that. Like I couldn't wait to turn that off when it ended.

Do you know what I mean? Like once Crawford gets in the, there's some time, like certainly we'll move on from this. And I think there's some time to build that up. And you are talking about two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of the two of I think the combined powers of Crawford and Canelo, there's some time, like certainly we'll move on from this, and I think there's some time to build that up, and you are talking about two of the top pound for pound

boxers in the world, you'll be able to amplify that. I almost think from a more hardcore fan perspective, that Canelo performance might even the playing field a little bit. If he comes out there and starches them, we might be saying, man, Crawford's coming up, I don't know if he's going to have a little bit. If he comes out there and starches them, we might be saying, man, Crawford's coming up. I don't know if he's going to have a chance here. Now, granted, they look pretty similar in size

when they're doing that stare down there. But there might have been talk of just like, ah, Crawford's too small. I think this levels that playing field quite a bit against the guy in Bud Crawford who, to me, is my number one pound for pound and I think is the best boxer on the planet. I think it helps a little bit in that perspective. Now certainly you would have been able to sell,

hey, huge Canelo knockout his momentum into that, but I actually think from a fight perspective that might have helped a little bit. Yeah, to be totally honest, I mean, Canelo's still one and I think most casual boxing fans and the wide audience that is gonna be tuning in to Canelo Crawford probably weren't watching the skull fight anyway.

Yeah. True, 100%. I also think it's gonna be fascinating to see how it's promoted. You know, they posted a picture of Dana, I don't think it was AI, in between them, it looks like it was taken in New York City, and maybe it was when they made the announcement,

it looked like it was atop the Empire State or something like that, but like, is it gonna be like Dana in the middle of these guys, like a full on UFC slash WW production? Sounds like it. If it's on Netflix, it's going to be gigantic. I'm really curious to see what the rest of the card looks like. Is it gonna be, you know, like the Calum Walshes

of the world, or are they gonna try to stack the deck? Are they gonna try to get some of these guys that they've been working with, with the other promoters? Or is it just gonna be guys who are completely tied to try to stack the deck? Are they going to try to get some of these guys that they've been working with with the other promoters? Or is it just going to be guys who are completely tied to TKO? That's going to be very interesting as well. And how it's all going to be positioned, how it's all going to look, I think is going to be very, very interesting.

So what's your level of excitement for this? Because I am very excited. I'm extremely excited. Crawford versus Canelo is somewhat of a fantasy matchup. I'm happy for Terrence Crawford as well, because for the longest time, it felt like he was flying under the radar and not getting the attention that he deserved.

So I love that. I think Canelo is on a bit of a streak here. I think his last stoppage win was against Caleb Plant in 2021. And we're talking like five, six fights where it feels like he just hasn't put his foot on the gas. Still, to your point, one of the biggest names in all of sports and one of the biggest names, certainly in combat sports and definitely in boxing. So my level of interest is in the fight itself. It's great. I mean, of course, I was watching this fight on Saturday and I was into it.

I kept thinking like, God. You were into it? Well, I was just ready to watch it. Like once the fight happened, I was like I was and I was into it I kept thinking like God into it. Well, I was no I was I was just ready to watch it Like once the fight happened, I wasn't yeah, I was loving it but like I'm there sitting and watching fucking Bruno Saras against Jaime Mongia and Fas Jagba against Martin Bacol. Here's what I'm really interested as well So just one more thing before the night before we watch Ryan Garcia slip on a banana peel, right? There is intrigue for that Canelo fight regardless of of if he wins or, you know, impressively or not.

He could have slipped on a banana peel. We were standing right next to Crawford when he was saying that he's flying to New York, so I knew that a lot was going into this. To Saudi. And by the way, excuse me, to Saudi from New York, shout out to the likes of Michael Buffer, who was in New York, got on the plane the overnight, and looked fresh as a daisy in Riyadh. I guess he just, obviously it's easier when you get to stay on American time because this was happening in the middle of the night. And shout out to those fans in attendance

that were not on American time and watching. But here's what I'm really interested in from like a business standpoint. So it's September 12th, we know that now. It's a Friday night. UFC Noche is September 13th, Saturday night. That's at the new arena, Guadalajara, if I got that right. I saw a great journalist named Rodrigo Del Campo, who has been covering combat sports

for a long time, saying that the Guadalajara Arena isn't close to being done per a tweet that I saw of him. I think he wrote it this morning or last night. Is there a chance that they call an audible and move that pay-per-view to Vegas and now all of a sudden TKO is taking over Friday, Saturday with two gigantic events in Las Vegas? Oh man. You take a step back,

the power that TKO has in combat sports is breathtaking at this juncture. They own pro wrestling as far as the number one promotion in pro wrestling. There is not even a close second in MMA. They're jumping into boxing with this fight. This is their first offering on potentially the biggest platform there is. This is unlike anything we've ever seen, nothing even close to this in the history of combat sports.

No one has even dared to try to do like two out of the three. And now we have someone that is doing it on this scale, on this level, and you guys just said it, Des Moines, they had Friday, Saturday, we're starting to see this more, we had it a couple of weeks ago in Kansas City. More and more this is going to happen where the whole thing is being packaged together. The sheer power that they possess is unprecedented. And now it's all going to kick off. It's really going to kick off in earnest come September. I'm curious to see how it's all being promoted. Will Dana be the front man? Will it look and feel like a UFC fight week with the weigh-ins and the press

conference? very different than how they do it in boxing. Those things are equally as interesting to me as the fight itself. No, absolutely. And what is Netflix's reaction to this, right? We have seen them do Paul versus Tyson as a one-off, right? Now we're going to get Katie Taylor and Mendoza Rano.

Now we're going to get this, Amanda Serrano. Now we're gonna get this Crawford and Canelo fight. What is their stance on fighting after some of these shakeout, right? Do they work with a promotion? Do they work individually just to bring in these one-off events like they've been doing now? How does that shake out from a network and broadcast distribution perspective? There's so much that is potentially on the line here and to come from this, it's fascinating. It is fascinating. And then it's coupled with the fact that you expect that Noche UFC card to be incredibly loaded.

You expect Crawford and Canelo to be a great fight with probably some other great fights underneath. Yeah, TKO is wielding some unprecedented power at the moment. But I will tell you guys more so than Friday in Times Square, more so than Karate Combat in Abu Dhabi, more so than UFC Des Moines, more so than even Naoya Inouye in Las Vegas. My favorite thing of the whole weekend by far without a shadow of

a doubt happened in the early morning Sunday morning here in the United States Sunday evening over in Japan at the Ryzen event the opening ceremony which featured the legendary Mark Coleman and the legendary Yeri Brochaska doing their thing. Did you guys see this? I mean these two guys. I missed it. I was out of my mind in the Des Moines airport yesterday morning and I didn't know what I was looking at. Look at Yeri up there. Look at this guy. I mean just

understanding the assignment just all in. Look at Mark Coleman. Might have tripped almost here for a second but it got a little bit. Yeah Mark! Look at Mark Coleman. Might have tripped almost here for a second, but it got a little bit... Yeah, Mark A! Look at how good he looks, by the way. Fantastic. I love the camera angle, the tilted camera angles. I mean, this is just amazing. This is just unbelievable. What a duo Mark Coleman and Yuri Brasovsky is too. On the drums. Ryzen's great.

The boys are going to wax down for this. By the way, Ryzen also announcing that they have signed Ryan Bader. He's gonna be a part of their tournament in December, end of the year. I gotta say guys, KSW, Ryzen, like we need to do this. Stop man, stop teasing. We have to do this.

We gotta get a crew, we gotta film, we gotta spend a whole week. It is time. Throw octagon on there too. Max Holzer just announced this fight in September. Seriously, I am telling you, I have sweaty palms. I need to do this. I need to go, I want to experience that.

I need to experience that. Tell me the dates. I will book the flight the very day. This takes zero convincing on my end. I am there. ASW. I want us to shoot stuff. I don't want to just show up and take it all in. I want us to give the fans at home, around the world, a look at what makes these other promotions

so special. Easy, easy. I mean, Des Moines, the fight was just a little sprinkle on top. It was just a shooting day out there for Fight Feast. I mean, we can make a whole vlog of a trip over to Japan. P.T., you in? Absolutely. P.T., meet us there, bro. I mean we can make a whole vlog of a trip over to Japan. Pizzi you in? Absolutely. Pizzi meet us there bro. I would like to drive over to KSW from Ireland. That's right. Yeah. Can you? No. No. By the way I'd like to go to a Cage Warriors too. I've never been to one of those. I've been to loads of them. Yeah I know you have. It's not like a...

Hundreds. It's not like a... Thousands actually, I think. Thousands of them. Different experience every time. I'm in there. Bama? No, no.

Loads of them. I think Ryzen, KSW, and KSW should be the ones to be the last. Is that the top three? Ryzen, KSW, Octagon? Or Octagon if they did it in one of them stadiums. What are the top three? Do you know what we should do? We should take a promotion, an underrated promotion every year and do one. Yes, right year one KSW year two

I'm in your time in we just have to find the date. I'm I'm so fucking in it's not even funny. All right Just want to just want to clarify no no we know we know we appreciate that There's more news to discuss. We will do so in about an hour's time. Still to come, the great Alex Volkanovsky will join us at the ungodly hour of 6.30 a.m. in Sydney, 4.30 p.m. here. Prior to that, we're gonna be joined by Sam Alvey, who had that tremendous win over Tyrone Spong

on Friday night, shocking win, knocking out the great Tyrone Spong on Friday night. Shocking win, knocking out the great Tyrone Spong. Part of that will be joined by Daniel Rodriguez, but it is a great honor and privilege and very exciting to say hello to our first guest of the day. He was the man who reigned supreme in the main event of UFC Des Moines on Saturday. What a performance. The type of performance, like I said at the top of the show, that he needed, the type of exclamation point, the type of point that he was hoping to prove and did in fact prove that he is, in many people's eyes, including my own,

the next man up at 135 pounds, he's the great Corey Sandhagen, the Sandman, kind enough to join us to kick things off here on this Monday. Hello, Corey, you're back. What's up? It's like you didn't do anything. What's up, man?

Back in the same spot. I know, yeah, yeah, we're in my It's like you didn't do anything, back in the same spot. I know, yeah, yeah, it went my way. So yeah, lucky did not have gotten hurt because sometimes those things can just be a roll of the dice with your body, you know? Sure, sure, cage fight and all. By the way, congratulations.

I did learn throughout the week, your father's from Iowa. Do you think that's why they put you on this card? Did they know that or was that just a coincidence? Nah, I don't think that they knew that actually. I think that, yeah, I think that that was just a coincidence, but when they told me Iowa, I think most people would have been bummed, but I was like, hell yeah, I love Iowa.

And so I think you mentioned this in the Post-Fight Press conference, like used to do like road trips and stuff. You'd, the family would all pack in the car. You have great experiences, great memories. Des Moines or some other part of Iowa. Uh, it was a little bit more east of Des Moines. It was in a town called Manchester. It was a really, really small town.

My dad's from like farm country. So, uh, but yeah, we used to pack up and make that drive a couple of times a year to go see my aunt, my grandma, and then drive back. And yeah, we, that was like a big part of my childhood. You know, like sitting in the back watching like the little DVD player and listening to my little CD player. That's why I came out to Ludacris is because that was like around the same time that I was just

a giant Ludacris fan when he was in like too fast, too furious and when he like came out with Southern hospitality and all of his, his like real good albums and stuff. So, so yeah, that's why, that's why that happened. I love that. Um, you did also reveal that you wanted to walk out to enter Sandman, but they don't play Metallica.

What's going on there? Uh, I think that there's something to do with like the Metallica. I honestly don't know. I'm just kind of speculating, but I'm pretty sure it has to do some, because I've heard this in other sports too, they don't let you come out to Metallica without like some special thing or I don't know, they own the rights. So they don't let, they don't license it. Yeah.

Yep. I might be exposing myself here for being a music, um, noob, if you will, but didn't Brock Lester used to walk out to that song? Uh, Metallica? Was that not Metallica? Say your prayers, say goodnight if you're done. Is that not Metallica? I did, honestly, I don't know.

I was only gonna walk out to Metallica because the fans really wanted. I'm not really like a Metallica guy. Okay, and so this was a thing, they were pushing this. Pushing what? Like the fans. The fans were a little bit, you know, like, yeah, the fans for sure. I feel like that's what I get a lot of comments on and stuff like that.

It's that, yeah, yeah. So that was going to just be for the fans. Can I just say, Corey, there's just something and maybe you can expand on this. Something's different about you, man. Like the comfort that you are exemplifying in your own skin, being yourself with the YouTube channel, with the social media. I know we've talked a little bit about this, own skin, being yourself with the YouTube channel, with the social media. I know we've talked a little bit about this,

but like this isn't the same guy. And I'm not suggesting that that guy that we first met many moons ago was not the real you, but just, you know, people evolve, people grow up, people get comfortable in your skin. It is so much fun to watch you just kind of own all of this and be so happy, content and comfortable with who you are in front

of the world and just showing us these fun sides of you. How did this all happen? Like, you know, we're showing some of it here. Like, it's like, wow, look at this guy. Look at you. Look at the range. Look at the personality. This is so much fun.

Where, where, where did this all come from and how did you get so comfortable doing all this? Yeah. So, uh, it's, I think it's a couple of things. One thing is I stop reading comments so I can kind of be a lot more free of being myself. But dude, the second thing I think big time is I have like a quirky sense of humor, dude. It's really dry and I like to be edgy and inappropriate and it's kind of sometimes not the world to be really edgy and inappropriate,

but the world's kind of coming back a little bit. So I feel like I could be a little bit more funny, funny, or what I consider to be funny. But yeah, I mean, it just took me a little bit, dude. I mean, if it were up to me, I would just like train and fight every day. But I also think that it's really cool to try to show the fans a little bit more of a side of me, just because I do want to connect with them and I do want to inspire them. Some of my favorite athletes growing up, I wanted to know who they were. And so, yeah, so I'm just doing all that, man. But I think a big piece of it is I'm not reading comments anymore. And I kind of just, I'm at the stage where I'm just like, dude, you know, I don't really

want to feel like I'm trying to be a thing. I'm going to just kind of say what I say and then people can take with it what they want and all of that, you know. Regarding the comments, what was the turning point? Do you remember when you said, I'm done with this? Yeah, it was probably about maybe like six or nine months ago or something.

Oh wow, that's it. Where I, yeah, I kind of just had a moment, man, where I was like, my body was getting really anxious for like no reason, you know, and my mind was good, but I was just like, dude, why, why can I not like not turn my brain off? What's going on with me? So I kind of, uh, just stopped going on Instagram as much. Uh, I definitely stopped reading comments. I, um, I, you know, I was not using like a lot of like nicotine and, uh, like drinking, like I'm not like a casual drinker, but I would like go out and have a couple of drinks, like every couple of weeks with friends and stuff.

But I was like, I'm just going to like go cold Turkey on literally everything. And then I kind of did. And ever since then, man, I feel like my body and everything's kind of really realigned and I just feel kind of like more centered and just more free. I don't really know. It's kind of really realigned and I just feel kind of like more centered and just more free. I don't really know, it's kind of weird, but yeah, I guess about six or nine months ago, some between then I kind of just hit a turning point.

Did someone urge you to do that or was that just all you coming up with? No, it was just like, dude, for just like no reason, I was just getting like anxious and I was like, what the hell is going on? Cause I'm not a really anxious guy. So I was like, dude, what is going on here? And then I just was like, oh, all right.

Well, instead of just living with that, let me just change some shit. And then I did, and it went all the way. Wow. Do you think that this makes you into a better fighter? Yeah, absolutely. I think, yeah, dude, it's really tough. Like you get, you kind of get dragged into just weird stuff as, as like time goes on and like opinions, like you start

to care about them sometimes and all of that. And I mean, dude, like the inside of us and like our souls and what we're actually doing here is so much fricking more big than what we are like just online stuff and who we project ourselves as public figures. But also man, a big piece of it too is I don't really have a personality. I don't really like enjoy being a expressive person in my personality sometimes.

So like, it's kind of weird to like even consider myself a public figure at all. Cause I'm like, dude, I'm just a fucking guy, you know? But yeah, so that's just a little bit weird. So I think it's just a personality thing too. Even when you post like a great skit, a great video, something you don't want to see what the reaction is, you don't want to see how people are receiving this?

Nope, don't care if they like it or if they don't like it. That's what I think is funny, so that's what I'm doing. Wow, are you sending this to someone to post on your behalf? Like are you completely out of it? if they like it or if they don't like it. That's what I think is funny, so that's what I'm doing. Wow. Are you sending this to someone to post on your behalf? Like, are you completely out of it? I have a YouTube guy who, like, shoots all of them, but I write all of them. I think it's fun to write them, too.

A lot of them we didn't do, but yeah, I like writing all of them. Writing's kind of been like this new thing that I've been really getting into. So yeah, so I've really been enjoying writing them. And I also feel like too, like I'm kind of a creative person. So having like a creative outlet and not just skits,

but just like kind of writing in general and just being creative, man. So I read this book by Martha Beck and Martha Beck is really big on if you're stressed out, just start creating things. And when I heard that I was like, oh, okay, I'll try that. And now I do that. Anytime I feel stressed, I just start working on some type of creative writing something.

And then a lot of my stress goes away. I've heard you refer to yourself as an unathletic blue belt in writing. I don't believe you. I think this is part of your charm. This is you being self-deprecating. No, I think I, I mean, I don't know. I've been kind of trying pretty hard at it

for maybe like two years, but I'm still, I'm definitely really unathletic at it because they used to take me to a different room to read. So like, I'm definitely really unathletic at it because I like, they used to take me to a different room to read. So like, I'm definitely not good grammatical. Like I would like in the first grade, I was like, mom, why do I got to go to that room to read? And they were like, ah, don't worry about it. You know, but it's because we were reading easier books in that room.

But, but, uh, but yeah, but yeah, I definitely don't have a natural talent for it, but, but I do think that if I'm not gonna be self-deprecating, I will say that I do think that I have interesting ideas about the world that I would like to put onto paper. And if I could figure out how to do that in a cool way, I think that people will really like it. If the apex of your fighting career is becoming a UFC champion,

what's the apex of your writing aspirations? Like what would be the top of the mountain for you? Yeah, I'm not there yet. No, I know you're not there, but is there something that you say like, I would love to write a movie, I would love to write a book, I would love, you know, like is there something

that you're striving for? Yeah, yeah, well I'm currently really trying to write this sci-fi book, but I don't really, I don't wanna put any pressure on myself or anything like that to actually make it like, like, I just want to keep it kind of this thing that keeps me free and fun or whatever. But, but now like I've been working on that for about two years now, which is quite some time and I feel like I'm kind of almost done with that.

So I think that it'll be really fun to sit through and read that and maybe send it to a couple other people and have them just see what I did too. So I'm only asking you this because I'm a, I'm a journalist, capital J journalist. And I just want to know, do you, are you taking mushrooms before your fights or is that just a, a skip? What, what is that? No, no, no, no, no, no. I really like being, um, like I like trolling what people think that they might have like

a grasp on what it is that I do. But now dude, I'm not really a mushroom guy, a weed guy. I don't do anything fun actually. I'm actually like a very boring guy. You can't not be a fun guy and come up with this. Like, well, like look at this production value here. This is top level stuff.

I actually made all those with AI. It's way easier than you think. Oh really? All right. Well well I'm impressed. Also impressed with your performance. When you were, and we should probably talk about the fight now I guess. When you were thinking about the fight

and you've had a lot of time to think since your last fight, obviously you find out about the opponent a couple months ago. Did you think the fight would play out like that against Davidson? Honestly, yeah. I thought that I was gonna for for sure when I thought that I definitely believed in my skills a lot to beat Figurado.

I also allowed myself to be a lot more confident than I ever have in the past. That was something that kind of Trevor was one of the first things that he kind of started planting seeds in my head. He wasn't like, hey, Corey, you need to start being more confident. It was more of like, hey, man, like, you know, yes, when you say things, say things with confidence. So Trevor kind of has been planting a lot of seeds. Trevor's really good about turning people into champions, like from the inside out. Um, he's definitely super knowledgeable, but I can definitely that, like that part doesn't really go unnoticed to me. He's, he's really good at that. So I kind of just let myself be a lot

more confident in this one. So I did think that I was going to beat him pretty handedly. But also at the same time, this I've seen really crappy stuff happen to people in this sport and you know, fighters lose when they were better than the other person. So I always kind of had an edge edge of it, you know, but but no, I thought that the fight was going to go pretty much exactly how it did. I didn't really think that there would be that much grappling in it. But there was because Figgy kind of was shooting on me a lot. But but yeah, I mean, he was giving me reversal. So what am I going to do not take them? So so, yeah, I mean, I thought that I was going to dominate. I think I said that a lot. And I

and I think I said that I was gonna finish him too. Like the entire plan was to finish him and look better against him than Yan did so that I could call my shot and have it not be Yan. And that's what I did. I love the way you phrased that. You allowed yourself to be more confident. Not the typical, I was more confident going into this fight.

So does that suggest that you were stopping yourself? You sometimes were confident, would say like, don't be too confident. What does that suggest that you are stopping yourself? You sometimes were confident, would say like, don't be too confident. What does that mean when you say you allow yourself to be more confident? Yeah, I'm kind of humble by nature. You know, like my parents just big time raised me like that. Like I was not allowed to be arrogant,

like growing up playing sports, I was not allowed to be arrogant. I was really not allowed to like uh, like just be really both boastful and all of that stuff. So my idea of being humble is not giving myself hardly any credit at all sometimes. So I'm kind of just working on that a little bit, but also being like, Hey man, like you are that good, you know, like you are one of the best fighters on the entire planet and maybe in all of humanity. You've dedicated your life to this thing. I know that I work a lot harder than people because I've been around the sport long enough to understand that I'm more of a consistently

way harder worker than a lot of people. And I've been that way for like my entire life. So just kinda, just letting myself know that about myself and just be okay with saying that and letting that be the case instead of me just being a little bit over humble because I'm just trying not to come across arrogant. The performance was fantastic. The finish was fascinating

and I loved the post fight interview. Bisping says to you, it's a shame that it ended like that. And you're like, no, it's not a shame. I did that. That's what I was trying to do. That's Ryan Hall. That's 50-50. Can you explain for those that don't understand

what is going on there, how you dictated all of that and how that was not done by accident, that was on purpose? Sure. I also, I just did a breakdown of it on my YouTube. It won't be up for maybe a day and a half or so, but I'll go more in depth with it on that. But yeah, so there's inside heel hooks and there's outside heel hooks.

Outside heel hooks are pretty much ass for MMA. If you ask me, you know, like you have to be an extreme expert to pull those off against really good guys in MMA. So for the most part, it's not a really good idea in like the top five, top 10. So Figgy was going for a bunch of outside heel hooks, which just are not going to work on me, especially me coming from 50 50 gym, which it's like leg lock, leg lock, leg lock, leg lock, leg lock, you know, it's a lot more than leg locks, but it's a lot of leg locks and you're just not going to beat me there. Um, and then so 50 50 is an inside heel hook position, which attaches us to

each other a lot more. Um, and in the exchange where I won and Figgy got hurt, I was in 50 50. I took a crack at his heel, but you know, sweaty, um, no shirt, no shoes, nothing like those are really tough to finish. So the answer to not getting the heel is just to build yourself up. But when you build yourself up, if I keep my body orientation in a powerful shape and you keep yours in a less powerful shape, you're going to the mat or you're going to fight against your body, um, to not win the position,

you know, and to hurt yourself. So in most cases, if we were in that spot in training, I would have stopped and I would have said, Hey man, like go to your butter or else your knee is going to pop. But obviously it's a fight. So I was like, and we're powering through this. And when I powered through it, um, he obviously had to go down. His knee made a really loud, nasty, like pop rip noise. Wow. Um, and obviously I knew that he was hurt from there. It was the same thing that happened to TJ except I didn't hear the pop against TJ and I wasn't experienced enough in the position to like hold the

position all the way to the top. So it was, it was one of those spots where it's like, Hey, Figgy, like you can concede to going on bottom or you can fight the position all the way to the top. So it was one of those spots where it's like, hey, Figgy, like you can concede to going on bottom or you can fight the position in a really dangerous orientation for your body and probably get your knee popped, which is what happened. And honestly, it's happened to a lot of my training partners too throughout the years.

And so it's not that it wasn't an accident, you know? You said also in the aftermath that you're willing to be the backup fighter for the June 7th fight. I'm assuming if not necessary, you'd rather not be, right? You'd rather just get the title shot and not have to go through all of that? Or do you really want to go through all of that? Like the reason I ask is last week we had Ian Gary

on the Monday after his win and he's like, I'm going to Montreal, I'm gonna be there. It's all gonna work out like X, Y, and Z. What would be your preference? Yeah, I mean, after talking to some people and kind of thinking about it a little bit, I think I try to just be a little bit of a tryhard. You know, that's kind of,

that's what got me this far in the sport anyways, is just doing stuff that sucks that other people aren't willing to do. But I also think that I'm in a position now where I think that I've earned it. So and the backup fighter is really like not a good deal for the backup fighter. It's like you got to prepare for two guys on the on a whim that you might get it and you might have to take it the day of. So it's a really bad deal that I feel like I have earned the right to maybe not have to do, but at the same time, you know, I will be staying pretty sharp these next couple of weeks in case something does happen or whatever, but

I'll definitely be at the show. But I think that I've certainly earned my shot at the title, especially being that Umar just fought for the belt. The only other guy is Jan and I hate to be a politician and have to like shoot down someone else to put me up a little bit, but Jan has lost to the both of them. for the belt, the only other guy is Jan. And I hate to be a politician and have to like shoot down someone else to put me up a little bit, but Jan is lost to the both of them. And he went five rounds with Figgy

in a really competitive fight. And I went around and a half with Figgy in a super uncompetitive one-sided fight that I won. So, and that I finished. So I think that I'm the next guy, no doubt. What's the sense that you're getting 48 hours later? There's people there. I know your agent, Lloyd Pearson, is on it as well,

but do you get the sense that you are next and you're not gonna have to go through all of that? It's really hard to say. Honestly, I think it's gonna kinda matter what happens in that fight and then the fans, what the fans want after that fight too. I think that I've definitely done everything that I needed to do to put myself in the best situation,

but I do think that a lot of people are calling for that fight. I think that if O'Malley wins, I think a lot of people are gonna be asking for me in O'Malley. So that's something that I'm certainly anticipating. And I think when it comes down to it, probably after this one is you're gonna have,

I think that I'm down to it, probably after this one is you're going to have, I think that I'm logistically the most deserving, but also I think on paper, like what's going to do better for sales and who's going to get more viewership. Me and O'Malley and me and Marab is going to do way better than the only other guy in the conversation who's Jan. You know, Jan already lost to O'Malley and he already lost to Marab. I'm coming off of a win a month before the title shot. I don't really see how you can't choose me.

Well, in potential curve ball, we were discussing this earlier, is if Marab loses to O'Malley, but I don't get the feeling that they'll give him another crack even though he probably deserves it because he's doing the same for O'Malley. What do you think? Your smile makes me think that you agree. Yeah, I have the same feeling. I think if Marab loses, he's not going to get a rematch.

Right, right. That's that's the sense. What if they say we want you to fight Yan to figure this out? Yeah, sure. I mean, I'm not going to commit to that until after the title fight for sure. But I mean, I'm not opposed to fighting on. I would love to fight Yan, especially because he likes kind of spreading the narrative that, you know, like remember what happened, you know, like last time we fought blah, blah, blah. But it's like, Yan dude, I took that on four weeks notice on your side of the country

in a fight that I like only had a month to get ready for. And he's a really good fighter, you know, so he's, you need more time than that to get ready for the guy. And not to mention that I was winning that fight all the way up until I got hit with like that crazy, spinny, weird shit that he hit me with that I'll never let him hit me with again. So let's not act like that was like a one-sided fight

because I was winning that fight until I got dropped at the end of the third. So if it means fighting Yon again, then for sure. one sided fight because I was winning that fight until I got dropped at the end of the third. So if it means fighting Jan again, then for sure. But I mean, the title should be next for me. I saw you guys going back and forth on, uh, on IG story there. And this is Jan tweeting. We could find out who deserves it more in July.

Same place. No more short notice. Excuse for you son. Is that Jan tweeting that calling you son? I don't know. I don't, I don't know. You know, I, I like Jan though, you know, like me and Jan are cut from the same cloth. Like, and I know that he feels that too.

He's kind of those, he's like a gritty, mean guy when he fights and I'm a gritty, mean guy when he fights too. And I think that we're both like about that life. And yeah, I like Jan, you know, if I was gonna entertain Jan for anything, just to throw out maybe like a teaser or an idea, if I don't get the title shot next, maybe a me and a Jan for the baddest motherfucker, Bantamweight Bell would be cool.

Okay, okay. By the way, I like how you had to qualify, gritty mean guy in fights. You didn't want to be known as a gritty mean guy just in life, in fights, but in life you're okay. You know, in the, in the press conference, you said something like, you know, it's crazy. I've never fought on pay-per-view, but you know, you fought on pay-per-view before, right? I think maybe against a Sunset once though.

Aljoe as well. No, Aljoe was during COVID, so it wasn't like a real deal. Okay. All right. And then I guess the Yan was a numbered one, but it wasn't like a real deal. Does it count? Okay. I don't count. Alright. And then I guess the Yan was a numbered one, but it was like an ESPN Plus one. Anyway, is it weird that you're not more on Pay-Per-View in your opinion? No, I'm cool with main events. I like main events, but yeah, Pay-Per-View cards are cool too. I just feel like they really pump up the Pay-Per-View cards. And so I kind of, that's why I wanted to fight figure on a pay-per-view is they had nothing to do

with the amount of rounds as much as it had to do with. I just, I just like all of the attention that you get around pay-per-view when you're, when you're on those ones. Can I ask, and I feel like you'll have great perspective here, what Bo Nicol is going through, obviously your backgrounds are different, but like he is getting it right now and some you could say self-inflicted. He talked a big game and that's just a sport.

But what is your perspective of everyone piling on him after this loss? Yeah, I got to catch a little bit of it. I don't ever feel bad for guys that make big claims and then get shit on from the internet because that's the gamble that you're taking. But Bo and Nichol is still a bad-ass fighter, but I mean, that fight just kind of showed

that he's still really green, which is okay. You know, if I went and started to decide to wrestle competitively, I'd be really green too, you know? The problem is that Bo was talking a lot and he made some really big claims and, you know, could ask Karma a little bit, you know? Like, you don't get to talk like that and then have, and then have things not go that way and then have some

people come out of the woodworks and say some stuff to you. So you know, I don't like watching people get trashed like that, but I also don't feel too bad for him either. Okay. No. And I, I completely understand. So I said self-inflicted. Do you think he has what it takes to rebound from this?

Yeah, I think I think that he definitely can he just you know, dude and also let's not pretend like Rainier isn't a phenomenal fighter dude, like the guy was a one championship Held the bell at two weight classes I actually trained with that guy in Holland like 10 or 11 years ago or something So he's been around the sport for a really long time. He was really good back then also I actually trained with that guy in Holland like 10 or 11 years ago or something. So he's been around the sport for a really long time. He was really good back then also. So, I mean, it's not like he just lost to one of the worst guys in the UFC. He's he lost to a guy in the UFC that probably is going to maybe one day fight for the belt.

So it was just it was just too much of a of a mouthful for Bo. And there's no shame in that, dude. It's just like you got a mouthful for Bo. And there's no shame in that, dude. It's just like, you gotta experience and you gotta earn your skills and you gotta earn all of that stuff. And it's nothing against him not trying hard. It's just sometimes trying hard, you still need more time. And perhaps going back to the beginning

of this conversation, the best piece of advice is, don't read the comments. Dude, do not read the comments. Yeah, especially just don don't read the comments. Dude, do not read the comments. Yeah, especially just don't ever read the comments. Have someone else read them and then just have them give you a summary of what people are thinking. That's how I do it with my YouTube guy. Oh, so what does he give you like a file after?

These are all the positive comments? Nah, I mean, I'll just ask him. I'll be like, hey dude, people like him. He'll be like, yeah, people like them. They're not getting many views or whatever, but people are for sure digging them. And I'm like, all right, cool. As long as they're not like too weird.

I know I could be a little bit like too weird with my sense of humor, so. Are you working on a sci-fi book that talks about like, portals being open that you're able to speak to God through? Kind of, yeah. It has a lot to do with religion and God and stuff like that. Yeah, more or less, yeah. Wow. Is it because you would like to speak to God? Why does that fascinate you? I think that religions are super fascinating to me in the sense that I

think that we all are humans that have a bunch of identities on top of us that we really latch onto big time. Sometimes you can't hear other people talking because it's so against the identity and the ideologies that you've created for yourself. I think that our inability to recognize that in ourselves sometimes is fascinating to the point where we'll start wars and kill innocent people over it over and over and over again is incredibly fascinating to me and a really weird human trait. So a lot of the book isn't just about talking to God, it's talking about like, what is it that we are without all of these identities? And if there is a God, what types

of things would God actually care about from my perspective? And what questions would he actually care to answer? And so yeah, it's not like crazy, crazy out there. It was like an explorative thing for me to try to put on paper how I think the universe could be organized. Can we read this? Maybe one day, maybe one day. It depends how much it sucks. Why, if it sucks? If it doesn't suck that, because dude, it's one wouldn't you want to see it? If it doesn't suck that because dude, it's one of those bone nickel things, man.

It's like, you don't get to be good at something after like a few years. Okay. You know, like you just flat out don't. So like, um, you don't get to like say that your stuff doesn't suck. Maybe that's mean verbiage, but you don't get to say that you're good at something because you've like worked really hard at it for a few years. That just means that you just got a little bit of time underneath your belt. But to be good at something, man, takes like 10, 15, 20 years. But I also use that word because I'm not afraid to suck. I'm totally fine with being horrible

and embarrassing myself and doing all of that stuff In the name of trying to get good at something I don't think that anyone can get good at something without a bunch of embarrassment So I'm gonna kind of just I'm gonna treat it like a hobby But if I give it to enough people that I know are gonna shoot it to me straight and they're like a do this ain't too Bad then I'll send it to you fair enough a Malcolm Gladwell said You need 10,000 hours in order to master something. So you're probably well on your way

as far as martial arts is concerned. The writing, you're getting there. I love it all. I really do. It's so much fun, man. It really is. From the first time we met, you talking about just not liking paper towels,

which I still think about because I overuse paper towels. I have to say it's one of my great faults in life. To the character that we see in front of us now and the performances that you're having, it's a lot of fun. I hope you get that title shot and I hope it happens later this year. Thank you, Corey.

Appreciate it as always and congrats on the win. Heck yeah, man. Thanks, Ariel. I'll catch you next time, man. Yes, sir. Can't wait. Always a pleasure. Love talking to Corey and check out his merch page too. CoreySanHagan.com.

He's doing some great things over there. It really is. It's GC approved. GC has said that it's some of the best merch in the game. We've talked to him about this as well. Like the stuff. That tan hoodie is fire. The hats too.

I think he does it all independently as well. I think his mom helps him too. He's told us he has. Yeah, because you don't wanna support a family business. Have you copped any of it? Good shit, no, but actually, you know what? I think I might order some right now. I think I might.

I mean, it's a great interview, a great one. We actually saw him in the airport yesterday. Did you say hi? Didn't want to bother him, it was very early and like. Did he have the hoodie up, the headphones? Hoodie up, no headphones on, I don't want to reveal anything, but me and Rick were in the TSA pre-check line.

He was? Bro. The other one, so I didn't want to reveal anything, but me and Rick, we were in the TSA pre-check line. He was? Bro. The other one. So I was like, I didn't want to like have to yell across, like, yo Corey, big one last night, big one last night. You know, I don't want to, what is crazy though, we were there at like 7.15 in the morning. Like the flights booked, like what if you lose?

What if you have to go to the hospital? It's like, in and out. We went to the game, man. In and out. Tied now for fifth most finishes in UFC bantamweight history. That's six that was his sixth and Obviously currently ranked fourth, but he might move up and could very well be fighting for a belt next All right, so that was one big winner on Saturday now

Let's talk to another had a phenomenal win over Santiago Ponsonibio a knock knockout in the third round, a beautiful five-punch combination. Still improving, ever evolving is D-Rod Daniel Rodriguez, and he is kind enough to join us. Not only did he have a great performance, he had a great walkout song as well. There he is. Hello D-Rod, looks like you're out of Iowa. This does not look like Iowa. Are you back home now? Yeah, man. I'm back in Vegas right now. Man, I couldn't wait to get out of Iowa. Hey, all the way up to Iowa, but I'm a big city. I'm a big city slicker, so.

It wasn't your speed? No, man, it's super quiet. But if I ever retire in a day or two, that's somewhere I definitely consider. It's very quiet and peaceful out there. Man, congrats on the win. And the stoppage was just absolutely vicious and beautiful to watch.

And you talked about in the post fight interview that like, I think you said one of your coaches told you like, just add some threes and fours and fives and you'll be able to take them away. Did that happen between the second and third round? And what were you thinking as it was all coming to fruition? Actually, yeah, that was kind of a part of the whole game time. We knew he was very one

and ones and twos, maybe one, two, three. Not very, had like a volume with this combination. We knew that coming in. We did know that it was going to be the long combination. If I wasn't, I had any success with it and getting the knockout, it was going to be that third, fourth, fifth punch and sure enough, it stayed out perfectly. That was your first stoppage since 2021. Did you feel a bit of a weight lifted off your shoulders getting that? Man, that felt so good, man. I've been on quite the roller coaster lately and the past few, you know, these past couple fights have been going my way. I've been facing some of the best

dudes in the world, you know, some of the biggest names and it feels great to get it finished. And then in that fashion, it was just with everything leading up to it and everything that I have riding behind this fight is only just the win. The win was in the game plan, but the knockout was just the cherry on top, man. When you say everything riding on this fight, what do you mean by that? Like even more so than the win? Yeah, yeah, man. I plan to buy and open a gym in my hometown in LA. And I started to dabble in the music and I felt like a knockout was definitely gonna help catapult and help the trajectory. And it's gonna get me, it's gonna get people buzzing,

it's gonna get my name out there again. And what better way to do it with a knockout? I could go out and start just networking know, just networking and getting them doing my entrepreneur stuff, you know? Yeah, I love that. Regarding the gym, your story is one that you have talked about, obviously, you know, tough upbringing, growing up in the hood,

as you say, I think you went to jail some 20 or so times as a kid before finding MMA and turning your life around. Are you gonna put a gym in the area that you grew up in to help kids not go down that same path? Yeah, man, that's the ultimate game plan is to, I am definitely a staple in Los Angeles and my story has impacted so many people's lives.

I mean, I get messages and fan mail and stuff and people telling me how much that I've motivated them and inspired them to pursue MMA. And yeah, man, I've been in and out of jail for a long time. If it wasn't for MMA, I'd be lost out here, and I wouldn't know what I'd be doing. It probably wouldn't be anything near as amazing

as my career has turned out to. And yeah, man, I've been in jail. And the ultimate goal for me was to be like, eventually, I've said this before in many of my interviews that I would like to go to like the juvenile hall system and speak to them and kind of be that person that they could look up to. Cause when I was there, man, I didn't have no one like me.

And I mean, I look just like these guys. I've been through it all. And I would like to, if I could impact somebody's life and make them to change their mentality. Cause it's crazy out in Los Angeles, man. But if I could help somebody and help somebody not go to some of the things that I went through and just channel all that energy

into MMA, it would make it all worth it for me. Have you tried to do that yet? Have you done any of that? I've reached out. I've reached out to some places. I mean, there's definitely some stuff still in the works, but I feel like the gym would definitely help. It would be like my home base where I could, you know,

do all these things from my gym, from the home base, you know, and I got so much stuff lined up along with that, with the gym and getting a kids program going, maybe even working with the city one day and creating some kind of program for the inner city youth and troubled youth. And ultimately, I just want to have a place where people could come and be safe and work on something awesome with their lives. What a 180 that would be for you to give back like that. What would be the ideal neighborhood for this gym to be in?

We're aiming towards, I'm from the San Gabriel Valley, so we're aiming towards, right in the heart of it is the city called West Covina. The gym is already established, actually a good friend of mine who, you know, he made me an offer and I told him, yeah, sure, as soon as the fight's done, definitely, you know, you could count me in to make this purchase. And you know, this gym's also gonna be like my home base. Everything's gonna be in house. I'm gonna do, I'm obviously, there's a ton of stuff that I need to work on.

Obviously this fight camp, I was back and forth from LA to Las Vegas, Orange County to Las Vegas. And I kind of want to keep that mix, man, because, you know, of course Las Vegas does have its benefits. You know, there's some of the best gyms in the world here. The UFCPI is here. I just, I was just at the UFC PI getting worked on doing my recovery stuff. And and then, yeah, when I go back home, it's more centered on me and I get a lot more focused

back home. So that's, that's kind of like the flip side of Las Vegas and LA and Las Vegas. It's saturated with fighters. You know, there's, there's a ton of coaches, but I feel like when I'm in Los Angeles, I do get more attention towards me. And this time around this fight camp, uh, it was like the right mix of the sparring, the strength conditioning stuff going on in Vegas and then going back home, working on all the technical stuff, all the, all the other conditioning stuff that I do. And, and, and I was talking to Sean Strickland earlier at the PI and he even said like, Hey man, there's some guys

that honestly do a lot better at smaller gyms, you know? And I was explaining to him that I go back to LA and I work on all the technical stuff, all the conditioning stuff. And I come to Vegas and you know, and, and I put it to work. I spar with some of the best fighters in the world in this fight camp. You know, my teammates told me that this is the sharpest that I looked, this is the best that I looked. And honestly, this is probably one of the most dedicated fights that I had.

I mean, a fight that I could compare this one to, where I came in in shape like that, was the Kelvin Gaston fight. I mean, of course, the weight difference made up of difference in the fight. You know, I did end up getting tired in the last round, trying to, trying to, trying to, you know, trying to finish the guy, trying to put up, you know, the best spot I could do it. But you know, at this level in the game, you know, those couple of pounds make all the difference, you know? So, um, you know, this, this is,

I'm just excited for all this, for everything that's to come. And on top of that, the music thing is looking good too. Okay, so I was just about to ask you about that. So where does this come from? You walked out to your own song, you said you wanna be the first UFC fighter to wrap yourself to the cage.

Where did this music dream come from? How long have you been working on this? Man, it's been like a little personal hobby of mine, man. I, well, growing up, my dad, he used to rap. He has like a few songs and my dad was always a kind of dude. Again, he was a gang member, but he was always like break dancing, doing graffiti, and rapping. As long as I can remember, my dad was always rapping, always like break dancing, doing graffiti and rapping. As long as I can remember, my dad was always rapping, always like, you know, so I spent, you know, I'm from Los Angeles. I love West Coast rap.

I love rap in general. I spent so much time in the gym and listening to music. All I do is listen to music. And especially, and a lot of times when I'm running, a lot of times when I'm running is when I come up with a lot of the stuff that you know I've always wanted to do it man and my dad passed away and I always felt like if I had a passion for it I always like when I was younger at like parties and stuff I was always like in a circle busting raps with my friends and I just always I was like always rapping no matter like throughout

my whole career, my whole fight career. So, you know, as of lately, one of my videographers, his cousin is a producer and you know, we got to talking and then I showed up to the studio one day and I had already had a bunch of stuff written down. I always write raps on my phone and I was just like, you know what, I'm going to go for it. I'm going to try it. We got in there and the producer was already willing to work on me and I was telling him, look, hold on, bro. Let me just hear me out real quick. And, and you know, he threw on a beat and I spit a couple of raps from him and he was already excited to work with me

after he heard me, he was even more excited. So I went in there, man, and it just, it just felt so natural. It felt, it felt, you know, it felt good. And even the people that were there, they were hearing it, they're like, man, this is your first time in here? I was like, yeah, they're like, man, it just feels, it just feels like, you know, like you've been here

before, like you're, as you're naturally known. And I've been getting nothing but good, good reviews. And, and, and, you know, I feel like it's definitely a possibility. I feel like this could work, man. I feel like I got the look. I have the background, I already have a good fan base. So I haven't put anything out yet because I know that once it does, a lot of people are gonna hear it. And I just want it to be good. And really I just wanna have fun with it, man. And if it takes off, it takes off.

It's not like one of those things that I'm banking on it. Like I need this to happen. I'm just gonna have fun with it, man. And just like I'm having fun with fighting and if you having fun with it, man, it's just, it's not a bad thing if you having fun with it. Who would you say your style is like as far as your rapping?

My style with that rapping is, man, I would say, I want to say I'm gonna keep it like a lot of West Coast stuff, a lot of like my upbringing. I wouldn't really know what style because I mean. Who's your favorite? Who do you think is the goat? Oh, obviously Kendrick Lamar. Number one, Kendrick? Yeah, Kendrick. Come on, what about Tupac?

Yeah, yeah, well, alive. Okay, okay, I just mean the greatest of all time, greatest of all time in your opinion. I'm gonna have to say, I'll have to say Tupac, Big E, for me, Nipsey Hussle, Ice Cube. I feel like Ice Cube is one of the most underrated rappers coming up. We're like the best there, sis. Hey, you know. Snoop, Dre?

Yeah, yeah, Kendrick Lamar, Dre. You know, I keep, I keep looking past the Kendrick. I'm a big Drake fan. I'm sorry. So, you know, I got to. No, Drake's awesome. Don't get it, don't get it. I gotta be loyal to my guy, you know?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, Drake's good. I still put him Drake, you know, just not as much anymore. Yeah, I feel you. All this week, all this week, I've been like, boom, boom, boom, bam. I get it, I get it. Would I be putting you on the spot,

can you freestyle for us? Can I freestyle? Yeah. I can try something, I can try something. Okay, okay. All right, look, yo, I'm out here on the Arial, Arial, Hawhani show, I'm about to blow. I just beat the, out of, on Zenebio.

Wow, I like it, I like it, I like it. I need you to beat there. I'll it. I like it. I like it. You need a beat there. I'll just do it, dude. I'm just getting started. I feel like if I really put my time and energy, obviously I could have did more with it, but fighting is the main focus.

And like I said, this rap stuff is just, it's all for fun. And you know, since I mentioned it, actually there's a lot of people that want to work with me. And actually one of the producer, the producer that has been recording my stuff, he's one of the producers of upcoming rapper named Lefty Gunplay.

And he's actually on one of the James Plunker songs. And you know, we've been in the talks of doing a track together. So I already recorded a couple of songs and the producer sent it to him and we're gonna go over it and maybe he might jump on one of the songs. And then from there on,

we have had talks about possibly doing it together. Have you asked the UFC if you can wrap yourself to the cage in an upcoming fight? I haven't asked a man, to be honest with you, I was so excited to hear my song because I turned it in on Wednesday and I turned it into the UFC and they're like, we're gonna have to review it

and we're gonna have to, you know, so I didn't know what I was gonna, it was either my song or I picked Check Yourself by Ice Cube. So when I was ready to walk out, I was getting ready to hear some Ice Cube and then I hear my song. Oh wow. They didn't tell you in advance.

They didn't tell you before. Yeah, they didn't even tell me. Wow. They didn't tell me. So I'm right there and I got so hyped as I was walking out and I'm like telling people like, this is my song. This is my song. What the hell is my song?

So that gave me a whole nother energy and honestly I felt like it added to my energy coming into it once stepping into the cage. By the way, you're so proud of where you're from of LA. How come you've never fought on any of the Southern Cal fights in the UFC, like they were in Inglewood. I was begging, I was begging to get on the, when they went to the Intuit Dome.

Yeah, I was begging man, but That would have been perfect, you know, but ultimately my like my dream place if you ask me where's your dream place to fight and For me man, it's the same. It's the Staples Center and now it's the Staples Center again It's not even crypto crypto anymore. It's what they changed it Yeah, I guess I guess crypto is going bank. I'm damn Yeah, so is they're changing it back to the stable center. So it's what it should always stay there Yeah, my dream my dream place to fight. I already fought at the forum, but my ultimate goal dream place is Staples Center

By the way, you're a Lakers fan, right? Of course, man. What happened? What happened? How did this happen? Man, I'm asking the same question, man. How did this happen? I was asking the same question when we got Luke Adansi. He was like, how the hell did this happen?

So I'm excited. We signed LeBron one more year. I mean, we'll see what he could do. He's at he's acting like busted his knee. I got like, y'all hurt. I man just stop already. LeBron the flop. Yeah. I'm, I'm, I'm Laker fan. Dodger fan. All LA fan, you know? Yeah. I love them Lakers. I, I, I. I'm still a little hurt. I don't even want to watch basketball, but I'm a true NBA fan.

If you ask me what's my favorite sport, it's truly NBA. I love it. And I understand when your team gets bounced, you're kind of like done with it. You don't want to watch anymore. So I get that. I was kind of hoping.

I was like, man, hopefully the Clippers. And I was like, nah, not the Clippers. Nah, you can't do that. You gotta pick one, right? By the way, I was like, man, hopefully the clippers, and I was like, nah, not the clippers. Nah, you can't do that. You gotta pick one, right? By the way, I'm fascinated by your tattoos. We were talking about this earlier. The lipstick kiss over here, that's a tattoo? Yeah, yeah.

Are those someone, look at that. Okay, so you got the new one, but I wanna ask about the lipstick first. Is that someone's lips? Yeah, it is actually. How'd you do that? I get questioned out a lot. The girls with that at the time,

I can't do nothing about it. I can't be like one of those things that can go take off or anything like that. But I get questioned about it a lot. And then people ask, whose lips are those? I'm like, it's my mom's. That's my little cover up. It's my mom's, y'all don't trip.

Yup. But really, whose lips are they? My third baby mama's. Okay. So how did that work? Like did she legit kiss you and then you go to the guy and then he goes over it? Yeah.

Yeah, well she put lipstick on and then she kissed like a piece of paper. Oh, got it, got it, got it. Is that her way of saying this is my territory? Get out of here? Yeah, I guess in Los Angeles a lot of people do have that. I've had it before. I've had this on my neck, but when I was way younger and I guess the ink wasn't good, so

it faded away just like the girl did. Well played. and I guess the ink wasn't good, so it faded away, just like the girl did. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um.

Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um.

Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um.

Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. Um. That's a secret hearts like the little Jesus heart. Oh, I wanted to get and I also got no right here Like a rose. Oh, yeah, that's it. That's it for the face tattoos. I'm done. Actually, I'm lined up I'm gonna get the top of my head cuz my hair kind of thinning out man on top and I Was gonna I was gonna jump shut off the Bosley. They was gonna do a procedure on me I don't because I don't think it's worth it. The reason I said no is because that was gonna do a procedure on me. I don't think it's worth it. The reason why I said no was because

they were gonna mess up the back of like. You just got a back one, right? This one? Yeah, yeah, I just got that one. Damn. And man, that shit hurts, bro. I was just gonna ask, how much did that hurt? Is that the worst one?

The worst one for me would definitely be like right here in my chest, like my solar plex area. Like that little bone part right there, like probably the worst one. That's the only one I've ever had to stop. And also like my side, they all hurt at this point. I don't know what it is, man. I feel like the older that I get,

or it just hurts so bad, you know? By the way, isn't that like the Atlanta Braves logo there under your? Yeah, man, I get that question all the time. Like, yeah, you're an Atlanta Braves fan. So I'm gonna try to adjust and see if I can turn the a like into an LA. But, um, the reason why I was growing up, um, the street, uh, like my main show, of course I was gang affiliated growing up. Uh, the main street was Atlantic street, you know? So like the ATL symbol is like, that's usually what we wore,

like the Atlanta A's hat, like that would tell that that's like the telltale sign that you're one of us, you know, and I went ahead and got a tattooed on my face. You know, I look, I'm never shy. I'm, I'll never shy away from my past, from my upbringing, from my upbringing. If anything, I'm gonna live up to it, you know, and in true LA fashion, man, this is just, I'm covered in tattoos, it's just like LA culture, man. It's like, it's just how it is, it's how we are in LA, you know, especially like,

like, you know, giving my background and, you know, just my style in general. It's, I love it. I think, you know what's the best with it? I think it's because I have so many tattoos. That's the only reason why I'm not in the video game right now. I don't understand how I'm not in the video game. Yeah. Cause every time, every time I fight there,

like you got any new tattoos? I'm like, of course I got some new tattoos, bro. You know, and it's, and I feel like they're just having a hard time keeping up with my tattoos. By the way, when was the last time you were in jail? I'm keeping up with my tattoos. By the way, when was the last time you were in jail? Hmm.

Last time I was in jail, I would say like, a little before my contender series fight, I had got like a DUI or something. I spent like two weeks in jail. And I remember at the time, because I was already traveling, I was already at the BMF ranch doing all kinds of stuff. And I think I was at a moment I realized like, you know what, like, my life is not the same as it used to be. Like, I'm so on the go, I cannot be in one place like that, you know, like,

time is precious. I'm against the clock, you know. So for me, it felt like I just, I just made the decision there. Like, yo, this is, this is it, bro. Like this is the last time I ever go to jail and I haven't been since. Wow. Good for you. Good for you. Yeah. You hear from a lot of people.

It was kind of like one of those experiences, man, where I'm sitting in the cell. I'm like, dude, this isn't it anymore. It was like, I can't, I can't live like this. This is not for me. You know, like I have already done, I had already had success, little success and being around people and then the fight life and all of this stuff.

Man, I truly decided there, like, yo, I love this fight game and I will never risk anything. I never want this to end, you know? So I try to walk a straight line from that day forward, you know, and sure enough, it's been working out. And now, you know, I went out there, I got two fights, two wins in a row.

I mean, I lost three in a row. So it was like real tough on me, but you know, it pushed me to work even harder to not give up and you know, to just keep grinding and you know, that's kind of like the message I want to, I want to tell people that's the that's that's what you know, I want to tell these people. Like when I get this jam, I want to, I want to be like, you know, the role model I want to, I want to be there to help

them. I want to be there every single day to help them, you know, be better and improve. And not only just fighting, man, I want to give them little life lessons, you know? And my little story, use me as an example that you can make it, man. Like you could be from nothing. You could be helpless.

You could be at the bottom. You could, and you just gotta fucking work at it every single day, man, and not give up, and just truly believe in yourself, and just know and believe that this is gonna work. And it always does, man. Do you hear from people that you were, you know, crossing paths with in a previous life,

saying how much of an inspiration you are now and how you're helping them to turn their life around, seeing the success that you're having? Man, just today I was over at the PIs and doing my recovery stuff, looking past my DMs on social media. And the amount of fans that tell me that I inspire them and that I inspire them to actually start training MMA

that people believe that they're not that old. I didn't walk into the gym until I was 25 years old. I didn't have my first fight until I was 27. I turned pro at 29. I got signed at UFC at 33. And out of nowhere, bro, out of nowhere. And there's so much people younger than me that are that that are like that think that they're old, you know, that think they're like 20 years old, like, man, is it too late? Like, no, man, like, you just got to give it your all, man. If you're going to do it, you got to you got to be all in, bro, you know, and there's going to be obstacles is going to be there's going to be there's going to be, you know, life life's the history,

bro, you know, but I tell people like for me Like I was always going through shit coming up, you know, I would like it wasn't easy Everybody knows starting off from your career. You don't get paid shit, you know, and I was like there I was scraping by man There was times where I wanted I was like man. I gotta get a real job You know, but you know, I stuck it though I start I stuck through it and, you know, stayed true and stayed consistent. And no matter what was going on,

I just never took myself out the gym. I just always left my problems at the door. I always knew that if I came to the gym, there was people genuinely happy to see me, genuinely wanted me to be better. And, you know, so I just, you know, did myself a favor and just made all the right sacrifices and, you know, just left all my problems at the door.

And no matter how lost I got at life, I always found myself in the gym. You know, I always knew who I was because there's times where shit hits you so hard, life hits you out of left field, and you forget who you are as a person, you know? And sometimes you, like the fans and the gym and team are what keeps me grounded, you know?

So if it wasn't for MMA, like, I don't think I would, I don't think I'd be doing anything good, to be honest with you. You know, I don't think I'd be doing bad either, but I think it wouldn't be, I'd just be living some normal, you know, just regular ass life, you know. Do you also have a coffee company now?

Oh, yeah, yeah. I got, yeah, we're working on some things, you know. I'm a heavy coffee drinker, like, you know, and some good friends of mine over in Arizona with Dos Bros Coffee, we're doing a collaboration and we're starting, we're actually starting up a website and I'm gonna start pumping out merch. Like I said, right now,

things are going real well with the knockout. Things are hot. I'm working on some merch. Obviously the music thing. We're gonna set up a little coffee shop in the gym, you know, and sell my coffee and all the merch and all that good stuff. And, you know, I'm just, at this point in my career, man, I'm looking at the future. I'm trying to build something for the future. You know, I've, you know, I feel like I've, I'm at that point already where I'm just like, you know, everything I do now is just for the future.

And, and, you know, for my family, you know, I'm trying to, I'm trying to build a legacy. I'm trying to make sure that after fighting, we're good and everything's in, everything's straight. Two last quick things that you said in the post fight. Jake Matthews been talking that mess. He's on your radar. What's he been saying? Yeah earlier this year Jake when the USC went to Australia I believe it was mm-hmm. I think that's where he's from. Yep. Yeah, he kept calling me out

You know right after the Alex Morano Alex Morano fight He's calling me out for a while to And it kind of died down after the fight. But I mean, he's the first name that came to mind when they asked him, would you wanna fight? Obviously everyone knows I don't care. I'll fight anybody. I'll fight on short. You know, I'll fight anybody.

I never say no. And that's one thing that they know about me. I think that's what they, that Gasserman fight, it's a good banner to that, because they know it's still gonna take the fight. But yeah, I mean, there's some good masters for me. There's, you know, Jake Matthews. I think Kevin Holl is a great master.

Oh, that trippy thing happened. When the phone dies, the trippy thing happens where it's like, do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Maybe San Egan slipped us something, huh? Seemed like it, seemed like it. The second time it happens where I have one question left and who's the other person? There was someone else.

Oh, Fabian Edwards. I feel like it's most of the time you only have one question left. Yeah, but it's true. Do you think sometimes you think of another question while you're asking your last question? No. So at any given time it's been just one more question.

I say that, no, but I just said, I have only two things left. I say that to let them know that we're rounding third here. So we're almost done. What a great chat. What a fascinating guy. What a likable guy. What a guy that you want to root for.

Very open and honest. And yeah, I can see why he would be an inspiration to so many people. And I hope that he gets a chance. It's funny, I was thinking, this guy should go and speak to juvenile detention centers, to jails, to prisons, to people who are incarcerated. They could look at him and say, like, that could be me.

Why can't that be me if there is that possibility out there? And then he mentioned it, that it's something that he would love to do. And not a bad freestyle as well, if I do say so myself. No, the working in the Ponsonibio was incredible. He's on the Ariel Hawhani show, he's about to blow. He just knocked out Santiago Ponsonibio. I mean, that's- Far as. That's tough. Rich, you saw him on Santiago Pantanibio, I mean that's... Fars.

Fars. That's tough. Rich just saw him on the streets of Des Moines after the fight. You saw him too? Yeah, him and his team was rolling around smoking blunt, so I was like, D-Rock, congrats bro!

He's like, thanks man. That's amazing. I feel like Des Moines was so small that you just see everyone. All 16,000 people, I shit you not poured on to like a single street, and everyone was just walking home. And the fighters are just like walking. He was walking, I think he had already been back to the hotel, he was walking into the fray of Des Moines.

He was getting ready to turn up. Yeah, if it's even possible to do so. Oh, it's possible. There was one like main street stretch, they were turning up all day. Okay, what, by the way, what's the name of the street do you remember hmm no it was that memorable huh maybe it wasn't quite Beale Street there was like a one one city block the state capital was beautiful oh yeah Gold Dome is Des Moines the capital Des Moines River was a site to behold University of Iowa where is that I was city I was city okay so that game where Caitlin Clark played against Brazil that was not in

Des Moines definitely not but I I think Caitlin Clark is from the Des Moines area and how did the people react to the Iowa State hat? While Rick was wearing the the Caitlin Jersey big pop for the cyclones people liked it Yeah, big Marcus. I think it was Marcus Fizer. Do you remember him? Iowa State? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Sinica Wallace. Sinica Wallace, of course. That's football, but yeah, for sure.

So are we getting D-Rod back or? Efforting. Okay, do you think his phone just died? I think if his phone died, it could be a minute ago. He was chilling poolside, so who knows if he's got a charger? Oh, that's right. I do like how you asked.

You were like, are you still in Des Mo charger? Oh, that's right. I do like how you asked you were like, are you back? Are you still in Des Moines? No, I couldn't I could not wait to get out. Yeah All right. Well, I would love to there's a part of me that doesn't like the the abrupt tidiness Abruptivity yeah abruptness abruptness. Yeah of the way in which we said goodbye. So I would still love for us to effort if possible. But what a great chat. Really, really enjoyed that and appreciate him being so open and honest and candid with everything

and wishing him the best. And I hope that he does in fact get a chance to rap while walking to the cage. Rap himself, which could take a lot out of you, right? I mean, that takes a lot of energy. Couple other things we wanted to discuss. I mentioned all the weekend results. Shout out to Phil Davis.

Phil Davis, who was on the show just about, I don't know, a month or so ago, defeating Rob Wilkinson via second round TKO. It had been quite a while since Phil Davis got a stoppage. To be exact, when was it? I was looking at it. It might be like 2021 or so. Bellator 200, 2018. Was there another one? Yeah, 2019 was his last win via stoppage. Bellator 200 2018 was there another one yet, but 2019 yeah 2019 was his last Was his last win via stoppage Bellator 231 against Carl Albrickton

And then since then one two three four five so that was a six fight so good for Phil Davis getting the dub Very very excited for him and he's one of those guys that could benefit from this PFL format. He's definitely one of those guys that can, you know, that can use this as a way to get back in the mix, get back on track, have one last great run, get a nice little payday. So shout out to him.

Some other news that happened over the weekend It appears as though the Benoit Saint Denis versus Joel Alvarez fight is off That was supposed to happen at UFC 315 now the UFC Is promoting their press conference last night? They say that this guy this guy that guy's gonna be there Alvarez was on there, but I think that was just a mistake according to reports Alvarez was on there, but I think that was just a mistake. According to reports, Alvarez is suffering a hand injury. Interestingly enough, like 30 minutes before this news came out, I had asked Benoit to come on the show today. I felt like there were some interesting things

to talk to him about. And now it seems like he's up in the air. His status for this fight card is up in the air. Mateusz Gamrot tweeting that he was offered the fight and also tweeting that Benoit turned down the fight. BSD turned down the fight next week. What's wrong with you guys? Grow some balls, cowards. Is Gamrot developing into one of the most,

if this is in fact is true, I didn't have time to verify, if this is in fact true, one of the more, if this in fact is true, I didn't have time to verify if this is in fact true, one of the more, I don't know, avoided fighters right now at 155? I don't know. It feels like no one wants to fight him. That was a really good fight. I really liked that fight. And a very important one for BSD, looking to get back on track. We haven't seen him since September of last year, when he lost to Hen back on track. We haven't seen him since September of last year when he lost to Hanata Moikano.

Oh, is that? No, that's Rick and Frank. Just chatting? Yeah, just discussing production needs. Efforting, as they say in business. Were you able to speak to him? Trying to figure out, no, they haven't been able to. The theory is right now, phone died.

Yeah, speaking of the 155 pound division, Armin Tsurukian a little fired up, in fact he too spoke about Mateus Gamrat and said that the UFC offered me a fight, but I turned it down, he is below me in the ranking, so I don't see any reason to fight him. Armin Tsurukyan was victorious also at that karate combat event, as was Mohammad Mukhaev

getting a stoppage win. So I'm not sure what they're gonna do with Armin. Armin in the doghouse? Yeah, it feels like Armin is kind of in the position that he should take any fight, just to get back in the winning ways, just to kind of put that 311 mishap behind him. Do you think that he's sort of like, trying to weather the storm in hopes

that he'll be the number one contender? Do you foresee any scenario in which they're like, all right, we'll let you fight for the belt? No. It feels like they're pretty adamant. I think Dana White came out. And honestly, Armand seems like he's down for it. I just don't think he wanted the the Gamrot fight just because of how far back he is in the

rankings. I think he wants to take a fight and know that if he wins that fight then he will be fighting for the belt afterward. What is Gamrot right now? Gamrot is... I believe he's eighth. I don't know, he's seven right now. Seven. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think he moved up. By the way, they're gonna keep pushing him up. Closer, there he is, number one versus number two. Yeah, and I can't imagine he's gonna fly up too high if he gets the win over one Ludovic Klein at UFC Apex. Right, well, you know, sometimes it's more of a

what have you done for me lately type of biz. You win a fight regardless. I've always said this, it doesn't really matter who you beat, it's just how many times you win. And that seems to do the trick. Speaking of the 155 pound division, late last week, I believe it was on Friday morning, we did get a video message from Ilya Tuporya,

who did in fact break the news that he will be competing on June 28th. But as of right this moment, we have yet to get an announcement regarding his involvement, an official announcement, and we still don't know who he's fighting. And to be honest with you guys, UFC 315 is five days away. It might actually end up being what we were kind of talking about, which is they're going

to wait and see what happens, which is wild that, you know, we may find out at the press conference. Is it possible Dana is going to rock up at that press conference on Monday? Excuse me, on late late early Sunday morning in Montreal and just say, all right, as a result, it's this guy. Is Islam training for June 28th? And is Charles training for June 28th? And if it ends up being Islam, is Charles fighting someone else? And by the way, isn't it kind of wild? And correct me if I'm missing something that, you know, I mentioned the the Paulo Costa fight that I heard about,

but there's not, usually when a fight card hasn't been announced yet, there's still a bunch of fights that are sort of rumored, people talk about it. Like there's not much going on for, other than maybe the Pantosha KKF fight, right? And that still hasn't been confirmed. No, that hasn't been confirmed, but I don't even feel like there's a lot of like,

bandied about rumored fights. Yeah. At this point, let's just do no announcements, mystery card, show up international fight week. You're gonna see some great fights. I'd love it. See you there. That officially ties the TKO WWE merger.

It's Royal Rumble-esque. I'd love it. I think we got Tracy Cortez. Oh my God, the Julia DePoria's music. Yes, yes. Oh, she's on there? Yeah, I think they just announced that today. Yes, yes, oh she's on there? Yeah, I think they just announced that today. Okay, oh today.

Yeah, not UFC, I think I saw Big Marcel tweeting it. Okay, on threads or X? I'm still on X, man, haven't made that switch over to threads. Oh, we're crushing on threads. I know you're pushing hard. I actually want, you know when you guys do my lower third there? Oh, you want threads?

Yeah, can we get that? Okay, so. What do I have now, Instagram? You know when you're blue sky? third there? Oh, you want threads? Yeah, can we get that? Okay, so. What do I have now, Instagram? You know when you're blue sky? Nah, nah. You might have TikTok. What do I got, what do I got?

Do we have it? You might not have anything. Oh, after this. What does Ariel's name ID say? Oh, it's just that Ariel. Oh, yeah, that covers them all. Oh, it's universal. That covers them all.

Does it cover them all? Yeah, I guess it does. What do you mean, does it? Yeah, of course it does. Actually, I went on, I went for a brief moment on that woke Libra, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, Blue Sky, and it wasn't available. That's why I never went back.

Wow. Do you think Ariel Hovani got your Ariel Hovani? I changed it to like, I did like Heelwani or something. Also, would it not have been- It wasn't even accepted in my friend request. It was somebody else. Wouldn't it have been like ariel.bluesky. No, like at ariel.hawani wasn't available.

It was weird. No, what Connor's saying though is there's different servers. No, I know, but just like whatever I wanted to do to make it look, and by the way, it looks so weird. Bsky.social.com or something like that. Bsky. Definitely not as weird as X. No, X is weird.

No, Thras is where it's at. Is it? Where you're at? Oh look, Mark Cuban's active on Blue Sky. Oh yeah. Political tweet. Yeah. How's your truth social working out these days?

You know, it's touch and go. It's touch and go. You see less and less repost of your truth socials. We're sad, like all the guys are losing. There's like a thing, people are saying it's a curse. The curse? Yeah, so we're sad about that. Is Threads big on desktop?

The curse? It's good on desktop, it's clean, it's nice. They do a nice job. Not a ton of engagement going on over here. What, what are you talking about? We're building, we're working through the kinks. How many followers you got on threads? There you are.

Yeah, what are we doing? 103k followers, not bad. We're doing something. Oh wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, you tweet the lineup and everything, or thread the lineup? Yeah. You're big on threads. What is it called?

I think it's called Posted. Yeah, you posted it. Oh yeah, wow. Wow, I'm really missing out on the harmonic threads. You are active on this thing. Thank you, thank on the harmonic threads. You are active on this thing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You are active on this. It's a conscious effort.

We're trying, listen, the UFC told me to go on threads. I listened to the UFC, I went on threads. Are we just duplicating, just like, tweet for thread? Put them side by side. Okay. Hardly tweeted about. It's too much content over there. Hardly tweeted about.

I don't even think I even tweeted about it in a way. Uncensored. Yeah. There are more threads than you are X. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We streaming on threads? No, we're not. We're streaming on X.

And we love X by the way. This is all a big joke. We do love X and we love them all. We love everyone. We're big fans. Except Blue Sky, right? It sounds like you're- Blue Sky, you know what?

Fuck Blue Sky. Fuck that woke shit, you know? I mean, Frank, what's your blue sky handle? The blue sky. Frank is like, Wow, you're Mr. Blue Sky. Let me go on there and tell you all about life, okay? It feels good to have a social platform

where I can complain about all of you and not have any worry that you'll see any of it. I actually went on Frank's, it's just him and Ben Foulkes talking on there. It's just him and Ben, yeah. I think Ben asked for his nameplate to be Blue Sky. Ben's big on Blue Sky. Yeah, shout out.

Well, there you go. What a bad, it's bsky.app. It's your at and then it's.bsky.social. Nah, that's wack. But there's different servers that doesn't have to be.social, that's the thing. Oh, it's horrendous. What about John Jones, guys?

He goes on social media and he teases us once again. Johnny, just get, all we want is one more. All we want is one more. One more. Look at that wall. Oh, look at this wall. Big shout out to his teammate, Javier. Look at this, they got him all the framed posters.

But if you scroll down just a little bit, I've said it before, my career hasn't been perfect, but it's been undeniably legendary, epic, special. Sounds like Corey Sanhagen. Just a few words that come to mind. Legend after legend, era after era. What I'm most proud of, I've evolved. I'm so much more than just a fighter.

I'm a man growing stronger, my faith, a family man man a loyal brother to my teammate a businessman a leader a man for my community And I know without a doubt my mother would be proud of the man. I've become The walls almost filled but trust me the story still being written the best is yet to come look at that strategically placed bottom, right What is it? What is it? But but you have three? Are you still being written? The best is yet to come. Look at that strategically placed bottom right. What is it? What does it mean? UFC 323 or something? No, UFC 309, he hasn't hung it yet.

Up above, he says it was a steep fight. He hasn't hung that one yet. Oh, I missed that. Yeah, he hasn't hung the steep one. So that's it? He's done? Was that a retirement announcement? The steep one's going there.

Is that how you guys took it? Yeah, he's never fighting again. Really, is that really how you took it? He's done? Was that a retirement announcement? Is that how you guys took it? Yeah, he's never fighting again. Really? Is that really how you took it? Yes. That's how I took it. I just took it as some cryptic shit from John. Why are we talking about the Stipe poster

if that's not what he's saying? I didn't see the tweet or the post. I might be blocked on Instagram by him. I've been blocked. I'm on threads. I don't know if he posted on threads, but did he accompany that with the song staring at the blank page before you

dug it out the rolly with. Mm mm mm mm. Cause the rest is still unwritten. Yeah, that's what he did. Not gonna lie, it was the music to accompany. This reminds me of the, in the movie Lawson translation. Oh, I love that movie. Where the therapist has all the awards, but he's run out of the, in the movie Lawson Translation. Oh, I love that movie. Where the therapist has all the awards,

but like he's run out of room, so there's one like on the ceiling. I feel like, why stop there? Like it's already wrapped around the room. Yeah. To all four walls. If you look a little bit closer, it does look like the wall has a slight curve to it.

I can't tell if there's a door over there, so it looks like there's gonna be room for additional ones. You know, the wall is complete, but then he does finish it with the wall's almost filled, but trust me, the story is still being written. I do love this idea that John Jones is dictating his career by the space for posters on his wall, that that would actually be.

It is a great wall. It does look good. That's why I said, the rest is still unwritten. They played that at the Burnley matches, yes, go ahead. And then they sung it afterward. Yeah, you saw that, right? Or he never hangs the poster because this is just the wall for his wins.

Oh, yeah, I mean, if it's just for his wins, we have to see, is the Matt Hamill one up there? Or maybe he's gonna... That doesn't look like it. Let's count, one, two, three, four, five, six. Oh, there's 19. Oh, you can't. Does he have 19 wins?

I feel like he has more. Staring at the bank page before you open up the dirty window. On recount, there's 23. Mm, so there you go. Well, maybe some of those early fights. I mean, let's see. Did I count that wrong? He has 28 rational victories, 22 in the UFC,

so one of the DC one must be up there. Mm-hmm. And that would make sense, 23, yeah. Who said 19? You did. Incorrect. Very confidently as well, as I was trying to actually count them.

Gentlemen, there were some somewhat surprising releases in the world of WWE. Let me know if any of these shocked you. Braun Strowman, no longer in the WWE. Shayna Baszler, no longer in the WWE. Dakota Kai, no longer in WWE. Katana Chance, Kaden Carter, Gigi Dolan, Jacarra Jackson, Javier Bernal,

Orah Mensah, Wolfgang, Mark Coffan, Jakara Jackson, Javier Berno, Orah Mensah, Wolfgang, Mark Coffey, and Joe Coffey. Also Cora Jade, Eddie Thorpe, Riley Osborne, all announced or reported, a lot of them via Fightful. Sean Ross Sapp does a great job with this, that they're gone from the company. I'd say the one that surprised me the most was probably Kota Kai.

Shayna Baszler, legend, what a great job she did reinventing herself, going from MMA fighter pioneer, trailblazer to WWE wrestler, and I think she'll still have a great career. Her mentor, Josh Barnett, has done an amazing job with this blood sport promotion. She's perfect for that. Competed for them last year, I believe, for WrestleMania week.

Braun Strowman has been up and down, was in WWE, got released, got brought back. Paul Heyman said recently that he was sad that he wasn't on WrestleMania and he cut a promo on him. I'd say the one that probably got the most attention was one of the names that I mentioned last week on On The Nose. If you recall Someone asked me on on the nose if there's any Women that we would want to have from the world of wrestling on the program that we haven't had yet and I mentioned Cora Jade

Who was in NXT and viewed as somewhat of a top prospect and and she got released so always surprising is this something they do yearly, like a mass cutting of athletes? Yearly, biannually, like it's not just once a year. But, historically it has often happened after WrestleMania for whatever reason. Interesting. Yeah, and it becomes like a whole thing. It becomes like a Black Friday, if you will.

And what ends up happening is a lot of them will change their name on social media, going back to their original name or maybe the name that they had prior to WWE. They'll post a video. The interesting thing is a lot of them can't speak. So like if someone got released from UFC, like they could come on a show, any show, do an interview the next day. Often in WWE, it's 30 to 90 days where you can't do anything. Like they could come on a show any show do an interview the next day Often in WWE it's it's it's 30 to 90 days where you can't do anything

Now you're usually compensated for that, but it's it's part of the it's part of the deal Which which is a bit like I remember when we wanted to have gable steveson on he couldn't come on and then by the time they do surface the story isn't as big of a deal. Like I would imagine that a lot of the wrestlers would want to speak right away because they're in the news right now, right? Like everyone's talking about them, but they can't. So anyway, we'll see where they go. But that is good for, you know, it's part of the reason why, part of the reason why I always say that I think it's great that there's the AEWs out there, TNA is enjoying this resurgence, New Japan Pro Wrestling, obviously Ring of Honor is under the AEW umbrella, the fact that there are multiple options out there for the guys and gals is tremendous. Look at a guy

like Mikhail. Mikhail had to go to a different sport essentially to just stay active. Not great. Not great. So wrestling is a lot healthier I would say in that regard. I saw some people saying like over the weekend about boxing and the fights and then like taking a shot at me like like I have some sort of dog in this it's so crazy how this gets painted this way and saying like, oh, you said UFC is in a recession. I never said UFC was in a recession. MMA. There's a big difference.

I'm talking about the business. And when I talk about the business, I'm talking about the fact that there aren't options. And by the way, I even saw a tweet from Ali Abdulaziz, my number one hater, saying the same thing. This is a man who's in the business. And I'm not just saying it like sitting here in this chair. I'm talking to managers. I'm talking to people who are in the business, somewhat lamenting the fact that there just

aren't a lot of options. And when there aren't a lot of options, you don't have the same type of leverage to negotiate and you aren't able to see and seek the best deal out there for you. That's what I mean. How many times have we said on the show, the UFC is on fire. They could do no wrong. They're the only place that can go to a Des Moines and just sell the UFC is coming to Des Moines and have an incredible gate and an incredible crowd. There's a big, big difference.

So don't try to twist it. MMA as a sport, but the brand UFC, which I understand to a lot of people is Kleenex, to me I view it as almost two separate things. Everyone else is in this bucket. They're in this bucket. Do you understand the difference? And it's actually somewhat unfair when we do the boxing versus UFC debate. This is one singular entity versus an entire industry. So it's not even fair, to be honest. And you could say I'm part of that because I'll have that conversation with Eddie Hearn. UFC is on fire. Make no mistake about it. So I'll see the bootlickers getting upset when we talk about MMA versus boxing or MMA being in a

recession. No, I've never said that the UFC is in a bad place business-wise. In fact, I continue to say they're in the best place they've ever been, and they're about to get a billion dollar plus TV deal. I know it's complex sometimes, but don't get it twisted. Two separate things, two separate things, two separate things. One thing I wanted to bring up a story that we found out about last week that we only officially got confirmation on late last week. So didn't want to talk about it until we found out what was true and what wasn't. And on Friday, TMZ did in fact report the very unfortunate, the very sad and heartbreaking news

that Francis Nganu was involved in a motorcycle accident that resulted in the death of a teenage girl back home in Cameroon. He did in fact release a statement to TMZ which read, from the very beginning I have been by the family's side offering support, comfort, and deepest condolences during this time. I met with them privately to share in their grief and I will continue to stand with them every step of the way I carry their pain with me and my unwavering thoughts and support remain with them as they face this heartbreaking loss. This is from an article on uncrowned.com written by Ben Foulkes according to reports and guy who was driving a motorcycle through the Omni Sports District of Yaound. I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly, when he

allegedly struck a 17-year-old girl identified by news sources as Natsama Bridget Manuela. The girl suffered serious injuries in the crash and Nganu transported her to the Yaound General Hospital and paid for her medical treatment, but she later died of her injuries. Cameroonian authorities are reportedly still investigating the incident. So I was able to communicate a little bit with Francis via WhatsApp after this came out and obviously heartbroken. He has had a tough couple of years and yeah it's it's just a it's just a horrific thing that unfortunately you know he's gonna

have to come to terms with. My heart goes out to the family, 17, just unimaginable. Hard to wrap your head around it and I feel awful for everyone involved. So Yeah, my heart breaks for for the family my heart breaks for Francis I obviously don't think that this was done on purpose and I'm happy to To read that he has helped them out that he has offered support both emotional and financial We'll see how this plays out but just just a horrific financial. We'll see how this plays out but just a horrific, horrific story and we remember not that long ago seeing him in in October in in Riyadh and the the pain that he was dealing with following the loss of his son. Yeah I'm sure this

is just an unbelievably difficult period for for Francis but also right now for the Manuela family having to deal with this. So very, very sorry to hear this. But appreciate him coming out and addressing it in some way, shape or form. Still to come on the program, we're going to be joined by Alex Fulconovsky. Looking forward to that. In a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by Alex Fulconovsky Looking forward to that in a matter of moments We're going to be joined by Sam Alvey who had an incredible win over Tyrone Spong

I think he was a pretty big-time favorite by the way. I think he was a pretty big-time favorite excuse me underdog Yeah, it was like 350 can you so can you bet on karate combat? Yeah, I think in some places and definitely on offshores you can So don't they have their own internal like coins and things that they created? I believe I think they have an ecosystem for wagering as well And by the way speaking of which I think we tried to verify so so crypto is not becoming staples again I haven't seen anything on that I don't think it's gonna return because that was also a name by name like that's a partnership That's a branding thing. Yeah staples with staples with staples so I don't think it is not so much

better it'll always be staples to me I think a lot of people still call it staples that's for damn sure but I don't I think it's still crypto and and will be for the foreseeable future well you know not a lot of sports being played there these days the king Wow I'm just, maybe by the time they come back in October, they'll be able to, it just goes to show you can't buy yourself a championship, you know? What is this? Where is this coming from? Next is going to be...

Why all the vitriol for the Lakers? Big one, big one tonight, guys. Game one, who's locked in? I know On Air Jordan's locked in. We're going to do this. Cat and I had a nice chat, felt the confidence oozing out of him Nixon six Nixon six, baby Actually, he you know what he told me Nixon five

I'm cool with that. He said he said hockey sticks fish sticks Thundersticks Nixon five. No, you know, I tried to I tried to do that one my kid Nixon five. No, you know, I tried to I tried to do that one my Got a rhyme with five. Well, no, it's actually it's not I got it wrong I guess it was the thing that Shannon sharp did which they told I I didn't even know Lakers and five but the whole thing is it's like I don't care if it's okc UFC KFC Lakers and five exactly. So so the rhyme has to be about the opponent KFC, Lakers and five. So the rhyme has to be about the opponent. You know, it's like Boston, Losten, Schmosten,

mixed in five. Well, you know what? It all started back in the day with the LeBron meme where he had the cigarette out of his mouth and the do rag on. And it was like the Warriors, whatever. In front of the greatest NBA title ever won. Exactly.

I remember that meme. Exactly, where it came back from three one. He ever won. Exactly. I remember that. Exactly. It came back from three, one. He said it. No, no. It was a meme. He didn't say it. It was a meme.

The image was so iconic of how little stress he was under. He was so zen and it was just like this, this, this. We win. Captain Seven. Wow. So I needed like a Celtics, Smeltics. No, it's not a word. It doesn't have to rhyme with the

with the last line you just like three rhyming things and then a boom like like six I don't care if it's Tatum yeah exactly late them we're almost there made him not a lot of things rhyme with Tatum so that was a rough yeah I don't care if it's Chris steps we need D need D-Rod back to do this sport. We need D-Rod to do it. D-Rod, where you at D-Rod? You're about like a brown. I don't care if it's brown.

You're gonna drown. You're going down. Nixon five. Ah, there he is. Thank you, Honor Jordan. I needed that. Thanks for helping me out. All right, let's go to the aforementioned Sam Alvey, who scored a shocking, dare I say shocking,

maybe he'll take exception to that, knockout of one Tyrone Spong on Friday at Karate Combat 54 in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Last we saw, Sam Alvey was a plus 350 underdog, Tyrone Spong a minus 550 550 favorite and now he is the first ever karate combat double champion he's kind enough to join us let us say hello to the smiling one who was so great the last time we spoke there he is still smiling hey by the way are you the light heavyweight and heavyweight champion now what's going on here I am I am I'm the first double champ in karate combat history so how did this happen because they split the titles or something? Yeah, so yeah, so originally they They're very foreign league like there when they started up. They had a lot of foreign influences

The heavyweight was 205 and so I won the 205 belt then it explained to everyone Well, I'm actually light heavyweight in every other league They just changed president awesome got in there said he got tired of explaining it So he said my original, which was heavyweight, is now light heavyweight, and this current one is the true heavyweight. Damn, look at you. All of a sudden, double champ.

Who would've saw that coming? Now if I get that fight with Eddie Hall, maybe I'll be a three champ. I'll be the super heavyweight champ too. Yes, and we will get to that in a moment, but what about what you just said? In your illustrious career, was that the high moment to knock out a guy

like Tyron Spong who has that history in kickboxing and in boxing, the way in which you did, is that the highlight right now? With all of my UFC fights included, I have never had so much hype online after a fight as I do with this one. Maybe even leading into the fight, leading into the fight,

and I read so many times, Sam's gonna die, this should be illegal. It's like, oh, on paper, I don't think it's a bad matchup. I don't know if I deserve, or if death is a possibility. But I mean, people had me counted out. Like I said, plus 350, that might be the biggest underdog I've ever been. And then I was just thrilled to go in there

and make my fans a lot of money. How were you feeling? How was your confidence going into it? You see him now, you're around him on fight week, you're in the UAE and people are counting you out. What was going on in your mind before the fight? I was just having a blast. Dubai is a good time. Just a beautiful city. So I was out, I went out to the desert for a little bit. I went to a flower garden. I just saw the city. I had a good time. No nerves, no nothing. And because I didn't have to diet, I was eating all week too, which was wonderful.

So what did you weigh in at? I was 240, but I was dressed also. So I was probably about 235. And what was he? He was 230. Okay, so pretty similar. And then as the fight is progressing,'m sure your your confidence is building up I'm sure you're feeling good leading up to the knockout

Yeah, you know I felt good. I wanted to move I round one was not an important round for me I said, you know round one if I win lose whatever I just want to move I want to feel him because I know I mean he's the hardest hitter in the world into new got until new Ghana took that took the title So I said I don't want to trade with him. And he did such a good job of cutting off the ring like I couldn't get away from him. So that's when I started kicking,

is I needed anything to try and interrupt his rhythm because he had my rhythm down and the kicks worked. In over 80 fights, that was the first head kick I've ever thrown and I landed. I'm 100% as far as head kicks. Wow. What compelled you to do that after all these fights? I went, you should see me practice.

When I practice, I don't fight like I fight. I practice, I do everything I want to do in the pit, in the cage, in the ring. Um, and then I get out there and I kind of go back to just my boxing. I finally clicked it. Finally, my, my feet started working with me. And I just, I didn't have any hesitation to throw it. What was that moment like when you dropped them and then added a couple of extra punches for good measure?

Yeah, so I dropped him and then there was a moment, like he was done after the first punch. So I was slow to throw the second punch. I gave, you know, Mr. Mark Gutter that the chance to tell me to stop, but he wasn't there, so I threw the second one, just to make sure he stayed down. What's that feeling like? It's an immediate, I did this, it's an immediate,

and it's ever not gonna, I've ever had it. You feel it when you hit them. Before they hit the ground, you know they're out, you know the fight's over, and it's just an overwhelming, oh, and then you have to, if you have to, you have to throw that one more punch, but you just feel it immediately. How do you explain all of this?

You're turning 39 tomorrow, I do believe, right? Happy- I do, yes. Happy early birthday to you. Oh, thank you. Obviously, we talked last time about the losing streak in the UFC and now this incredible success. Who could have saw this coming? How do you explain what's been happening

to your career as of late? You know, my entire career has got a little mystic to it because I was probably five and one as a pro before I ever learned about the UFC. I mean, I was four and always a pro before I started training even. I wasn't supposed to be a fighter. I wasn't supposed to be in the UFC.

I wasn't supposed to do any of that. And it just worked itself out. It's hard work and dedication made it happen. And that's what I blame it on now too. I've got hard work and dedication. I've changed camps. I'm still very much Team Quest, but the gym I train at most of the time is Guardian MMA

here in Tennessee, Murphy's Bar. If anyone wants to train with me was trained at madham train with you uh... and uh... it just changed the way i do things i focus funny i'm in karate combat michael kismore and you get to know that i've ever focused in my life uh... what's the point of that uh... it's what we're best at guardian got a good at good kickboxing program

good everything but they're just to a top-notch so I get the most athletic rounds out of the Jiu Jitsu. The head coach, you know I'm a black belt now and I'm a big dude. The head coach, I've never had him in a bad situation or a bad position and I've tried, I've tried to, when I don't get submitted, that's a good round for me. Chad Hardy's his name, he's just incredible. And because I can have

so many good rounds doing that, it's really helped my athleticism. I've never been a particularly athletic person, but doing as much jiu-jitsu as I'm doing now is just helping. It's made my hands speed faster. It's made my footwork more. It's made me be able to fight the way I always knew I could. So since leaving the UFC, now it's four wins in karate combat, one in MMA, one no contest. Does this coincide with you joining that gym? Have they been the missing ingredient? It must be. Guardian MMA is the missing ingredient because I left California and I had one or two fights left in the UFC where I started kind of finding a gym.

And it was after I left the UFC, I went full hardcore. I heard I'm guardian. And it's been the case ever since. I haven't lost since working with him. Wow. Overall, what was the scene like? What was the venue like? The experience?

I'm assuming every time you're fighting for or working with Karate Combat, they're getting better and better. It seems like they're making great strides. They had the likes of Mohammad Mukhaev on the card. He was victorious, Armin Tsurukian in a pit submission match as well. I feel like they're making some real nice leaps here.

What was the experience like over there fighting for them? They took care of us. We were in a beautiful hotel. They took at least the main card. We all got to go out to the Red Desert. We had a whole photo shoot out there. We got the dune buggy and stuff. It was, they took care of us. They made us feel like we were the best on the planet. Like I truly believe they think we are. And after, if you watch the whole show, not just my fight, the whole card was incredible.

There was, there is so much talent. I was telling you, I really think credit combat is the premier striking league in the world, maybe of all time. And they do everything they can to treat us, the athlete, like we are the greatest of all time. I liked what you wore at the weigh-ins. The overalls there with the American, look at that look there.

That's a nice look. I had to bring democracy to everywhere I go. I like this. Yeah, every time, even in the UFC, every time my wife and I, she's been with me for every fight everywhere, we come up with a theme of what we're going to dress like. Yes. And now with Karate Combat, no exception. This time, if you look at our walkout together, she was dolled up head to toe in the flag

and I had the Apollo Creed American jacket on as well. Where'd you get that? She brought it, we kind of discussed what we wanted to do and then because she was at home and had access to everything, she got it and packed it and brought it. But where do you buy such a look, such an outfit? Amazon. Okay, easy enough. Yeah.

I also saw that on Instagram, I think before the fight, you did like a prayer on IG Live. Am I right about that? Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, it's something I've always done. Before every fight is I always have a team prayer, but in my team prayer, I invite my locker room, anyone in the locker room. When I fought in South Dakota, I invited the locker room, and I'll bet you I had 40 people circle up with me. I was more nervous to give the prayer in South Dakota because they were so, so, oh God, this better be a good one. And so I do it every time. Now I knew I was in Dubai,

I knew the locker room may or may not speak English and I wanted to invite everyone. So I run a program school, S-K-O-O-L, where I get to teach people online. With school and Instagram, I put everything out there. If you want to pray, you can do it. I'm a good person. I'm a good person. I'm a good person. I'm a program, school, S-K-O-O-L, where I get to teach people online. With school and Instagram, I put everything out there. If you want to pray with me, please come pray with me.

And I think we had like 40 or 50 people online praying with me before the fight, as well as the locker room. And it was a really nice moment. Is that the first time you streamed it? It's the first time I remember streaming it. I'm probably going to do it forever more though. Yeah, and are you leading the prayer? Yes, yes, sir. Yeah, yeah, I know every time I lead the prayer and try and just let everyone remember what we're doing this for, who we're doing it for, and why, more importantly, why we

have the ability to do it. Without Jesus Christ in our corner, we wouldn't have made the trip. Do you think of what you're going to say beforehand? No, no, I don't. I go out there and I just let the Good Lord speak through me. Whatever comes out is what comes out. Now, I have noticed that a lot of my prayers do remain fairly similar to one another, but every now and then there's little tweaks that just come to me, or that just come out at least.

So, after the fact, as you alluded to, you called out the great Eddie Hall, the beast. I called out the Eddie Hall. Yes, the former strongest man in the world, UK strongman, Britain strongman, who just had a big win over Marius Pujanowski a week or so ago. Why him? Why did he come to mind? A couple reasons. One, I love him online. Like he seems like just a fun dude. He's very much like me, just a little stronger. Like if somebody says, hey, you want to do this? I want to do this. It's like somebody asked him, hey, you want to fight two people at once? Yeah. He said, yeah, let's fight two people at once. Hey, you want to fight this other world's strongest man?

He said yeah, let's do that too. Well Eddie Hall you want to fight me as I said in the in the pit Said I'm gonna kick your ass Respectfully, so sign the contract and let's do it. So any response from him yet? Not yet, but I do know Karate Combat loves the idea. I do know they are very willing to make it happen, and I believe they are gonna try to make it happen. I believe we're reaching out to them, we're gonna do everything we can.

And Eddie Hall, if you're watching this, quit ducking me, quit running, son. Let's go, by the way, so that could be super, because he's a gigantic guy, I think he's like 315 or so. I think he's like 415 or so. I think he's like 415 or so. Okay, okay. So what would you do?

How big would you get? I would say, I have no prayer of ever being as strong as him, just like he has no prayer of ever beating me in a fight. No, I wouldn't try and get that big. I would be about what I was in this last fight, between 330, 340. Eddie in the pants and those gloves,. I would be about what I was in this last fight between 330, 340. Eddie in the pants and those gloves. Like that would be quite the scene.

Oh, it would be, it would be great. I tell you what, Eddie, if you sign the contract, you come out in your, uh, uh, UK suspenders and I'll have my American suspenders and we'll see what happens. So do you think it happens or is that more of a pie in the sky? I think it does. I think he's the type of guy to do it. I think I'm the type of guy. I mean, how nuts do I have to be to accept the fight

against a guy like that? Like, I've had the thought, could he squeeze me into a submission? Literally, if he were to bear hug me, could he squeeze me hard enough where I would tap? I don't know, but I would like to find out. Yeah, oh my gosh. That would be something.

And I think he's somewhat of a free agent. Like, he can kind of do whatever he wants I I get that feeling because he seems to have just done everything like he is Strongest man in the world days are behind him He's still now just one of the strongest men in the world and he's just been doing everything I watch him and I watch everything he's he's just a man of the people with a gift He was on my show last weekend. We got into this whole 100 versus one gorilla debate

and he said that just two of him could beat up a gorilla. And this created quite the reaction. What do you make of that statement? All right, two of him versus a gorilla. So we've been talking about it all the time in Dubai. 100 men would crush a gorilla. Like I don't think, it's not a fair fight. My wife was saying, yeah, she by herself could beat a gorilla.

The gorillas don't know how to tap. They don't know how to defend a weird naked choke. Said she'd get on her back. Eddie Hall, he'd get, one of the Eddie's would die. Maybe two could beat the gorilla, but one of the Eddie's would be gone. Okay, how many Sam Alvies? More than two it would take a few Like it would take a few Sam Alvies to get it done. Well, we'll say 10 Senate Sam Alvies could that's it, huh? I thought you were gonna say 50 60 just No, just that I hit really hard. I've got a gift. I could, I mean, I may not be able to concuss the grill,

but I can break its jaw. Yeah. And make it not want to fight anymore. Look what we just saw on Friday. That's a big boy right there. I do my own, the whole little Alvy shuffle. Do you think he was looking past you? No, I didn't get that impression of him.

He seemed to truly respect what I've done, who I am and who I fought and beat in the past. I think he took me seriously as anyone could. Like a lot of people, especially recently, they just weren't ready for it. Do you think he'll do karate combat again? Yes. He is maybe the greatest kickboxer to have ever lived. The only two people you could argue were, I mean, two people you could argue were better

is Go Kansaki and Henry Hoof, and they were his corners. There's no way he goes out like that. He's going to fight one more time, at least one more time. Maybe a lot more times, but he will go out on a win. Last time we spoke, we spoke about Uriah Hall, uh, kind of trying to pick a fight with you. Is that a possibility if the Eddie Hall thing doesn't, uh, you in the halls, there's a lot of beef with the people at Last Man Hall, it just occurred to me. Um, is he a possibility for your next one?

I've never said no to a fight. I, I'm, he, he's a great dude. I've met him a few times, a wonderful fighter. I, I'm in, you, you tell me who you want to fight and I, I've met him a few times, a wonderful fighter, I'm in. You tell me who you wanna fight and the answer will always be yes. They want me to fight, Robelis is probably my next heavyweight title defense. The dude's like, I don't know, 7'12 or something.

300 and whatever pounds, he's a big dude too. And he's an Olympic gold medalist in karate, in taekwondo. But I'll sign that contract the moment they give it to me. I love it. Where do you think you'll feel more comfortable? At 205 or 265, heavyweight? Probably 205 I'll be more comfortable, probably. Them heavyweights, they get big.

Oh, they get so big. I know, I always think I'm a big guy until I see an actual big guy. It's like, oh, I guess I'm not that big. And like when I always think I'm a big guy until I see an actual big guy. And so I guess I'm not that big. And like when I'm around Rebellis, I've been around him once or twice, he's a big dude. And I think I will feel more comfortable, but I'm very happy to continue fighting and defending both titles. Did they get new titles? Did Karate Combat redesign their titles? Yes. I wish I had it with me. I've been taking the title to all my gyms today to show it off, so I don't have it with me right now.

My wife has it. My kids are taking it to school tomorrow, yeah. But yeah, they redesigned it. So my first belt, I love what the first belt means. It means a lot to me. But it's as cheap as it looks. Ah. At this point, there's more glue on it,

let me glue it back together, than there is metal. But the quality of the belt was never the issue. But this new belt, this new belt is slick. This new belt is, I'll bet you it's 30 pounds, and it lights up. And I love that you're wearing the gold belt around your waist there. And I love the fact that your kids

are bringing the belt to school. Yep, they're bringing it to school. They're fighting with each other and who gets to bring it first? That's amazing. The school okay with that? They, what are they gonna do? What are you gonna do?

Yeah, what are they gonna do? Yeah. By the way, is that a cat that I hear in the background? Yeah, I've got a couple of them. I got one kitty that's gonna give birth today it's supposed to. Come on. I've got, here, I see my got one kitty. It's gonna give birth today. It's supposed to come on See let's see yeah, you're gonna Giving birth oh

My god, I've got a couple sphinx cats. That's one has one eye one eye. How'd that happen? I Birth defect. Okay came Came out and uh. Where's all its hair? It's a sphinx. It's a sphinx, okay. That's like, I've seen that in um, in what's it called, in Austin Powers. Yeah, yeah.

Mr. Uh. Bigglesworth? Bigglesworth, yes, Mr. Bigglesworth. Oh my God, you like the hairless cats? I love them. They feel like felt, yeah. Wow.

Are they all like that? Uh, yeah. I've got three of them, and then one of them's They feel like felt. Yeah. Wow. Are they all like that? Uh, yeah, I've got three of them and then one of them is going to give birth today. Giving birth like the, it'll be today or tomorrow. And how does that work? Does she just give birth in the house or what do you do? I've never experienced. Yeah. Yeah. Just give birth. Shoot my wife gave birth in the house. Cats are going to give birth in the house. Oh my gosh. Wait, how many, how many kids do you have? Six, seven?

I've got six kids, yeah. Six, your wife gave birth to all of them in your house? No, just one of them, just the last one. Okay, why was that? It was too- We did a home birth. Okay, okay, you planned on this? Yeah, we planned on this last one.

The other ones we had a hospital for, but one of them was adopted. Would you prefer home or hospital? Home, now it's not important what I prefer because I'm gonna be playing Pokemon on my phone She's given birth anyway But she said she much prefer the home birth actually my wife is in school now to be a midwife Wow, she's helping other people give birth at home all the time right now

So that she said the problem with the doctor's office is you're not allowed or given food for the entire time you've been there, whether you're there for 24 hours or two hours, you're not given anything to eat but ice chips. Said at home, you're at home, you can do whatever you want. That's a good point, that's a good point. I also know that you've been, you know, you were sort of banging the drum on the Jake Paul fight.

Do you think you're getting closer to it now with this success? I think this success is putting me further away from it. I think when I was leaving the UFC is when Jake Paul would have liked to have fought me. Okay, so now it's no longer on your radar. I would take that, like I said, you put a contract in front of me, I want it.

I think Eddie Hall is more likely to sign a contract than Jake Paul is to fight me though. Okay, and you always have a good take on the state of the game. How do you feel about the current state of MMA as a business? I said recently that I felt like the business of MMA was in a bit of a recession because there just weren't a ton of options out there in MMA specific. I'm not talking about the karate combats of the world. I'm talking about MMA options for MMA fighters. How do you feel about it? MMA options for MMA fighters, how do you feel about it?

We kind of talked about this last time. I'm optimistic. I think that the promotions are starting to figure out, don't compete with the UFC, do your own thing. BKFC does it, Karate Combat's doing it, PFL is getting, they're trying to not do with the tournament format, but tournament format is so hard to do if you don't do it all in one night. And then 1FC is doing, I don't know, whatever they're doing overseas.

Yeah. I wish I could watch more 1FC, but they're just all at like one in the morning and I don't want to be up then. Yeah. I feel like you would be a great fit for Ryzen. I feel like they would love you over in Japan. Yeah, in Japan, fighting in Japan is a goal of mine. Like every fighter wants to fight in Japan because that's where pride started. That's where some of the biggest and best names in fighting have ever been. So I would love the opportunity to fight over there.

Hopefully Karate Combat gets over there. They tend to travel the world, so I would love the opportunity. When's your next one? Hopefully soon, I gotta, I'm gonna take a couple days and eat whatever I want. And I'm gonna start dieting back down to 205 because I assume that'll be my next one.

What's the big cheat meal when you get home? Like what's the thing that you look forward to? Cereal. Cereal. Yes. There's not a thing on this planet that's as bad for you as cereal. And so you can't eat it most of your life.

And so I will eat box of it. I love the charm. Lucky Charms with the Crunch Berries is my favorite. Okay. Cinnamon Toast Crunch is on that list. Golden Graham, I like a good Golden Graham. You almost feel healthy while eating it. Sure, sure, sure.

Honey Nut Cheerios? I do like Honey Nut Cheerios. Honey Nut Cheerios, you can almost justify eating it at other points. Yes. It's almost, it's like, honey's good for you. Yes, yes, yes. It's probably good for you.

Do you give it to your kids? No, I try not. Do we usually have a box of cereal in here. If I can't get up early enough to make them breakfast, we try not to. We keep cereal limited. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's the thing. Like you'll, you'll just go, you'll go ham on cereal. Yeah, I, yeah, I haven't yet today, but it is my plan. I've got to pick up the kids from school here in not too long, but I'm going to stop and get two or three boxes. Good for you. All right. Well, I'll let you do that.

Congratulations on the big win. It's amazing to see what you've been able to do as of late. And that was, that was really impressive stuff. So well done, Sam, appreciate you. And congrats again, looking forward to the next one. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And we'll chat again as soon as the next one's lined up.

All right. Looking forward to it. There he is, and one Sam Alvey with another big win and this time calling out Eddie Hall They should They should go for that What do you guys think Eddie Hall versus Sam Alvey Anyone down? No, I'm down. I Think could you imagine I can yeah I mean yeah I'll tell you this what are you eating over there

cereal carrot yeah that's why it was a little okay yeah any hall almost any hall fighting Sam Alvy yeah or fathomable then Sam Alvy knocking out Tyrone Spong. So he's already accomplished the impossible. Were you shocked? Yeah. Were you crazy? I've seen Tyrone Spong hit a man so hard that I thought he wasn't going to get up.

Yes, I remember that. Crazy. Yeah. I could not believe that. When we were in Times Square and you showed me me that I was like what like my mind was blown What what what a turnaround top five pound-for-pound cereals? That's a good one. Yeah, that one could get contentious. I love it What's number one? Special K Reese's both special K is such a classic Rick pick

I love just like a number one by far cereal run-of-the-mill cereal rice the rice flakes. It's just you can't touch it. What was yours Frank? with almonds also It's good, it's fine. I agree, but it's like you can't give that to a kid you get it to a kid Is it my taste or is it a kid? What are you saying? What are the top? That's the litmus test for how well cereal is yes give to a kid kind of Reese's bus number one for me No, lucky charms then because lucky charms captain crunch Candy for with the crunch berries with the crunch berries. We take a breakfast grow up

This is the cereals become a dessert for me Frosted flakes your frosted flakes are good fruity pebbles no I'm going to grow up eating cereal cocoa cocoa cocoa tricks tricks are for kids okay for the change them from just the balls to like you know cinnamon toast crunch elite get the milk afterward. Corn pops. No. Special K. It's always gonna be special K. Corn pops are great.

Can I give you a couple other ones that I really used to love? I used to love oatmeal squares. That's a cereal? When I was older, like I'm talking 2004, 2005, thinking it was somewhat healthy, little squares. They're never healthy. Oh gosh.

And then he was just like, pads of wheat. By the way, I was a big fan of puffins. Have you ever had puffins? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So you're seeing all these and you're criticizing my specials. I was trying to be, I thought it was being healthy. There was that time where it was like, actually cereal can be pretty healthy.

Yes, yes. The Honey Nut Chirros are like, it lowers cholesterol. You know what was the number? Your blood sugar spikes. You know what was your blood sugar spikes You know is the number one during that time kashi. Oh kashi came out everybody was like oh, this is the healthiest thing that's ever existed Yes magic spoon get at us. We'd love to have you Frank Frank another fake healthy cereal What's magic spoon? What's magic spoon?

like protein health What's magic spoon? It's like protein healthies Yeah magic spoon never heard of them raisin bran crunch Watching after they heard my little you know yeah, I have the the crunch you guys ever had Wheaties. Yeah, of course They are at wait you never had many weeks. Oh Many weeds aren't bad. I prefer a flavor over just the Frosted. I could picture Howani buying Wheaties all day

because of the athletes on the boxes. No, but it tasted like crap. Oh, you're saying it's just not good. Cargo all day. I don't remember if I liked it or not. I'm thinking the Gains area. Cocoa or Fruity Pebbles for you guys? Fruity.

I was a big Fruity guy. I'll tell you two other under the radar really solid ones, in my opinion, Count Chocula. No? Cookie Crisp? Cookie Crisp was straight up cookies for breakfast. Yeah. Those were not cookies.

Don't try to tell me those were cookies. No, I know. Trash. I was also 10 years old. No, he said cookies for breakfast. That was not a cookie. Not for Cookie Crisp. Trash.

Now can I tell you when I was older, my go-to? Not like... Raisin Bran? No, it said cookies for breakfast. That was not a cookie. Cookie, grits. Trash, trash. Now can I tell you when I was older, my go-to, not like. Raisin Bran? No, it was worse. It was worse, but I, it just had to be done. And that was a Fiber One. Oh wow.

Wow, had to be done. This is in the Kashi. Regular. No, but it was awful. But it was. The zeitgeist of all the shit. Regular Wally over here. The kislias you told us.

There was a good stretch where I had to go to CVS to get the 501. Dracidia light as well? Did anyone ever have Oreo-Os? No. That was hot. Honeycomb? Yeah.

Honeycomb, not bad. Apple Jacks. With the crazy mascot, Apple Jacks, the cinnastic. By the way. Chris Manning, shout out Chris, sent me a picture of what looks like a heinous cereal called Truly Cereal, French Canadian protein cereal. Oh.

It's purple. Seems up my alley. Sounds horrible. Anybody ever have Honey Smacks? Those were like kind of like an awesome path with the frog on it. The frog, shout out to the frog. My favorite cereal is Soylent Green.

I looked up, I forgot. I know it's all, I forgot, I forgot Fiber One's name so I just googled Fiber Cereal and that's the first one that came up. But now I've just learned that there's actually a cereal called Poop Like a Champion. Who wants to eat that? Fiber One legit looks like dog food. It is dog food. It tastes like dog food too, but it's just like I said. You could just eat like some broccoli and like psyllium husks, like a fiber powder. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm trying to get the whole control room on it. No one wants in. That's like Metamucil. That's like Metamucil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Every night. What about cricket? You do Metamucil every night?

Not Metamucil, just psyllium fiber husks. That's it. For as long as I can remember, I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this, my dad has drank Metamucil every night for as Metamucil, just psyllium fiber husk. For as long as I can remember, I hope he doesn't mind me sharing this, my dad has drank Metamucil every night for as long as I can, for 40 years. Greatest thing I ever did was get on fiber. Yeah, yeah.

Another one that I liked was Cascadian Farms Hearty Morning Fiber. Bullshit. What the? I swear to God. I believe you, I believe you. I'm just saying. Are you their only customer? Nobody's ever heard of this.

I just wanted you to eat fruit at night. Okay, now it only needs to be. Believe you I believe you. I'm just saying are you their only customer? Nobody's ever heard of this Okay, I don't know how Wani is starting a cereal brand and he's just he's just promoting it There it is Ultra-fiber cereal I love that you're just like I need to get some more fiber. Yes. Why don't I turn to process cereal? I can't wait till we get a picture of Helwani on the box. I can't wait till he's just on the cover smiling. When he's doing the finger thing like he does when he poses with people for pictures. Is poop like a champion made by Magic Spoon?

It looks the same. Well if they are, get at us. We're a big fan. 23 grams of protein is, or excuse me, of fiber is tremendous. That's heinous. You wanna know the worst one of all time that I did dabble? All brand buds. Oh, those are horrible.

All brand buds is dog slash like bird food. Fuck me, even the marketing for it just looks. There it is. Free-easing your damn cereal. It looks so bad. It looks so bad. Yeah, you know the Raisin Bran Clusters one, that was a good one. Oh, there was also the Raisin Bran clusters one. That was a good one.

Oh, there was also the Raisin Bran high fiber that was tremendous. You're a big high fiber guy. Then there was a period where I went into the the Irish cut steel oats. Yeah. Remember that period? You guys remember that?

No, I don't remember that period, but I like oats. This reminds me of when I was a, listen, when I was an intern at HBO living at the 92nd Street Y, you all think it's fun and games. You've gotta make choices. And I'm hanging out in the communal bathroom with Giorgio and Alexi and all these guys

who are like 50 and 60 years old. and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... and uh... You guys wanna go see Ballerina tonight? That's on June 6th. I love the pinky while you're talking shit. Talking shit. Enjoy your fiber suit. The best part of that shit talk is that only like five people understood it. Yes, the old people in the fucking control room. The fact that you remembered it was called Ballerina is out, kudos to you. Thank you, thank you.

All right gents, in a matter of moments, our final guest of the day and what a day it has been and What a show we have planned for tomorrow, but more on that to come in a matter of seconds We're going to be joined by a man who made some kind of history just a couple of weeks ago But coming once again the UFC featherweight champion Defying the odds on several different fronts and like I I said, on the Monday after the victory, it was inspiring. It was inspiring to see Alex Volkonovsky dust himself off, work his way back and do so by spitting in the face of all the doubters, not literally of course, but

everyone who said, oh, you're over 35 historically, that doesn't work. Oh, you just got stopped a couple of times. Historically, that doesn't happen. He checked off all the boxes but everyone who said, oh you're over 35, historically that doesn't work. Oh, you just got stopped a couple times historically, that doesn't happen. He checked off all the boxes, he went in there in Miami, he defeated Diego Lopez and now once again he is the reigning defending UFC featherweight champion and it's six thirty in the morning so let's not waste any time and say hello to Alex the Great Volkanovsky. There he is, the man himself. I have to do it every time, Alex. I'm so sorry. But just the fact that you come on at this hour means the world. So thank

you very much. I really do appreciate it. I know you're going to tell me you wake up early with the kids and all that. You probably don't want to talk to me at six in the morning and you still do it. So thank you so much. No worries at all, mate. No worries at all. All right. Yeah, I'm used to it. Obviously, I get the whole time zone thing. So I'm all good with it. Thank you so much. Congratulations. I rewatched your post fight press conference, the interviews that you did in the immediate aftermath of the victory. And you kept saying it hasn't sunk in

yet. It hasn't settled in. Maybe in due time, what I just accomplished will settle in. I'm assuming now less than a month later, three or so weeks later, it has settled in. And if so, how do you feel about what you accomplished a few weeks ago in Miami? I don't know if it has. Wow. Like I don't know if it's just, I think it's just, I'm not too fast about it.

I guess the whole, you know, winning the, being champion again and all that type of stuff I guess I just I Don't like it saying it like this, but care too much about that. You know, there's so much more things that are I sort of Enjoy with what happened right like, you know define all the odds as you said and things like that I think that stuff means more, even just the support coming back

and then all the people that have been backing me from the start and then just to see the smiles on their faces for me getting it done. And just things like that means so much more to me. You know, even going into that fight, you know how I always am, you know, we talk about define the odds and all that, but I've always go into fights and I try and even if I'm not the underdog, I try and find

reasons to be the underdog if that makes sense. People doubted me, counted me out. I've just always done that. I don't know why. I guess I've just always been the underdog growing up. So I've wanted to use that for my whole career. So I always look for things to, you know, I don't know if it's underdog mentality,

I don't know what it is, but always look for things to put me there. But it's just good because this time I didn't have to, I didn't have to look for anything because it was all pretty much fact. Like people in my situation before that fight just don't get that done. Coming off 2KL losses and things like that, it just does not happen.

So it was for me to be in that position and have all these people supporting me, they were worried themselves, but I felt like they were a part of that journey with me. It's hard to explain. Everyone's always supported me, but this time it was more than that. It was like they were very emotionally connected. And to see the smiles on their faces when I come back, bringing the belt back home to them, to people that I care about, even just supporters. I've even seen a few of the random supporters, their emotions through the process. I just feel like I've done it for everyone else as well, because I don't really care. It's weird, it's hard to explain. I'm not too too fussed about

being champion again but I think it's just a story around it is what's really important. And I guess that still hasn't properly sunk in either. Did it not feel like when you were fighting in the past and defending the title and beating all these guys, did it feel more of a personal thing and this time it felt like it was bigger than you, that you were inspiring your country, people who are told they can't do, people who are older, like did you feel like you were doing something even greater than you had in the past? Yeah, I think so. I think definitely more this time. I would never say that I always

did it for more of a personal thing. I guess it was just go there, win it, and then on to the next. Because it was my goal, I was chasing these goals, and on to the next. I guess it was that. I would always do it for my family, winning and being successful for my family. I guess that's always been the case. But I know doing it for the people, supporting me, I guess I've always done that a little bit. But this was a whole nother level this time. It was just, I think, just cause I wanna,

I've always wanted to set a good example. I feel like I do that with who I am, but to be able to be in this situation. And, you know, I think a lot of people, you know, talk about adversity being a privilege and all that. And, you know, a lot of people really understood what I was trying to say there. And yeah, I know, just see, I felt like

it was a great message, you know, when a lot of people can get a lot of it, a lot of stuff out of that. Hello, darling. Who do we got here? We've got Rain. Poor darling's a little sick at the moment. So she's all right there.

And by the way, congratulations, number four coming up. That video was tremendous. Kudos to you for posting the video. I mean, well done. Yeah, I mean, like, you know, having a bit of a laugh. Obviously, I was expecting it to be a girl. I was like, just, I'm destined for girls and that's fine. I'm a girl, dad.

But I was like, oh man, and then I'm just like, couldn't believe it. I'm like, how does that happen? I'm four times in a row, you know what I mean? But anyway, all good. Happy, obviously I'm gonna be very happy no matter what it was, but I'd be lying if I was saying

I wasn't hoping it would be a boy, but very happy that it's a girl, it's fine. Historically, I have learned that the toughest human beings always seem to have girls. I think Kale Sanderson had a bunch of girls, Mark Coleman, so I think that says something about you as well. That adversity is a privilege line. Golly, what a freaking line.

Did you think of that on the spot or is that like a mantra? Is that something that was told to you beforehand? Yeah, it was just something that I just said. Like I wasn't even planning on saying it. It was a, it's funny because I thought I just said it after the fight and then I realized, what's the video?

One of the videos while I'm walking around, you know, warming up and I was saying stuff. I ended up saying it backstage. I didn't realize that I actually said it. Because you hear me walk around and because that's when I was talking about, you know, I'd say out loud, I always walk around and I'm like, there's no way they're taking the belt away from my family. So I'm doing a similar thing. I promise my girls I'm bringing the belt back. And then in my head I'm like, who cares about bringing the belt back? You know what I mean? Like bringing a shiny gold thing

back. That's nothing. I mean, like me being in this position and rising to the occasion and getting through this adversity is what my, you know, that's what I want to teach my kids and the younger generation or that's what counts. And then as I sort of thought that in my head and I'm like adversity, and then I just like sort of walk away and I'm like, it's a privilege, you know what I mean? I'm like, I said it something like that

and I'm like, oh, I didn't realize I said that earlier. So it was pretty cool. I guess it was something that was in my head through that process, like, you know, on the night. Cause I'd be lying if, you know, you talk about, you know, why is it hard to come back from this situation? You know, the most proud thing I am is probably getting back from the two knockouts, the 35 year old curse

and all that type of stuff. That's just a number. You know what I mean? Like I've always's just a number. You know what I mean? Like I've always said I was different. You know what I mean? I've always said, I'm different. I don't care. Like, you know, I'm a, people can whatever.

But then the two knockouts coming off the knockout losses, that's something that scientifically can sort of be proven almost that, you know, it is hard to come back from that confidence levels and easier to get knocked out and things like that. And I'll be lying if I wasn't thinking of that. You know what I mean? I'm pretty good at not letting it break me,

but at the same time, it's still a thought that's there. And for me to get through that and to get through that adversity as well of even just trying to stay confident and even when the confidence wasn't there just stay on path and just do what you had to do like you know what i mean even when things were telling you like oh they're saying don't move you know what i mean like uh shut up you know i mean i can't you know just do what you had to do anyway um quite proud of that i mean i'll eventually get more into that in time. But yeah, for me to get

through that and you know, you hear people talking about it and you know, like a lot of people, that's what they say, right? They lose confidence and you know, they just struggled after KOs and it's a thing. I mean, I'll tell you right now, it's a thing. And for me to, I think it was great for me to get through that, even to get hit, even for me to get dropped, I'm glad that I was able to get through that because that's just gonna help me even more going forward. Now I can be like, hey, you're not just gonna go to sleep as soon as you get touched.

You know what I mean? Like, so that's pretty cool. And again, that was probably something I'm most proud of through this whole process. By the way, when you say that i'm probably gonna get more into that in due time what do you what are you referring to there feels like there's more there so i'd be remiss if i don't ask that. Yeah fair enough but i mean like again like you know when we talk about that sort of stuff like is obviously a lot more details but i mean that's something that i guess i can save. obviously a lot more details, but I mean, that's something that I guess I can save for later. Do you know? Okay. I just, yeah, I don't really want to touch.

It ain't easy being in that position. An easy way of putting this is, yeah, I'm usually rock solid. You know what I mean? I'm a problem solver, even if there's adversity in the cage, I'm usually pretty rock solid where I'm like, don't let that get to me, I just focus on what's ahead, you know what I mean? But yeah, I was battling, I wasn't just battling Diego Lopez, you know what I mean? So I lock on through the head while we're going at it.

So it was a, but for me to get through it was pretty good. But again, I won't get too much. Sure, I understand. And was that- I mean, it gets, yeah, it's a, yeah, I guess that's cool, that stuff, I guess I could save for. Sure.

You know, if they're ever, you know, I guess my channel maybe, you know, selfishly. I get it. Or maybe if there was documentaries or anything like that, you know, you can really get into the details. I think that's stuff that people would really want to hear. So, sorry. But I mean, I think he's got the gist.

No, I get it. I get it. Totally. Just have to ask when that door is open. Can I ask, were you starting to doubt yourself on fight week? Were any of those doubts there? How was your confidence? Not really. So obviously, yeah, I mean, there's always gonna be doubts.

You're always gonna go, you know, even when I say I'm rock solid, I've always been rock solid. That doesn't mean doubts are never there. But I was very good at like, you know, why I don't like it, I was about to say voices, you know? But I mean, it doesn't sound good if you say voices. But those doubts and everything else,

pretty good at just being like, you know, you can stay over there, you know, I'm not gonna listen, I don't care. Yeah, you might be in the room, but you're quiet. You know, I don't care about you. Where, yeah, so like, they're always gonna be there. But yeah, it's, yeah, again, don't want to get too much into it. Okay.

But it's, yeah, they're always going to be there. But I mean, fight week, it was, I guess, the same as normal. Like I'm pretty good at while you're getting them doubts. That's right, I've got to do this, you know, this is what I need to do and things like that. And I can sort of brush that off. So I wasn't too bad. Fight week, even back in the backstage. But you know, in your Ilya to to porio fight. And this one, like, you know, it was different. Do you, there was some talk afterwards that you may have broken your hand very early in the fight.

What is the status? Yeah, no break. No break. Great. He's got a hard head. He's got a hard head, so it was pretty busted. I mean, you're always going to get banged up hands, but it's fine. But I thought it was, but I mean, it was pretty painful.

But it wasn't long until I usually know when I've broken something. So at the end I was like, I am not sure, I could be, I'll get it checked. And then the next day I was like, okay, it's not broken. I'm pretty sure it's not broken. Still painful, but I mean, I don't have ligaments and all that in my hand anyway. Like it just flops around like literally like,

but that's just normalops around like literally like. Wow. It's, um, but that's just normal. So it's, it's fine. And your face has healed up quite nicely. I mean, I saw that video that you posted the next day and you know, there were some marks there. You look great. Yeah, yeah, it was, uh, I was pretty backed up, mate.

Like, uh, I was asked straight after the fight, did Diego hit hard? And I'm just like, oh man, like obviously they, you know, when you're putting everything in every shot, it's gonna be hard, but he must have hit hard because I'll be honest, I was in some pain for a good week, you know what I mean? So yeah, there's a couple of other, you know, little things that I need to take care of right now. But, yeah, he's, yeah, I guess he's pretty

solid. He does hit hard. It's weird because even his style, like sometimes when he's punching, it doesn't look like it's the most textbook punches, but yeah, he does some damage. And as you can see on the face of war You can see it So so when you talk about all that I'm reminded of when we spoke before the fight and you said like I want to Be active. I'll jump right back in there and fight most are and then I'll fight again in 2025 You were asked some of these questions in the immediate aftermath, but here we are about a month later How do you think this plays out? When do you foresee trying to come back?

I'll definitely go in again this year. As I said, I wanted to try and get straight back into it, but yeah, just not allowed. So yeah, that's just gonna have to wait a little bit. But I mean, I think, you know, look, you got straight after the fight people were mentioning Yair Rodriguez obviously all all camp or like you know before the fight I'm talking about Mosvah and you know obviously he's in a

position where and if you look at who deserves the most being undefeated and you know who he's fought and ranking I't know, what's he ranked now? Would he be ranked right up there? He should be, but I don't know how it is. He's, Max is one, Diego two, Ilya three still, Yair four, Movzar tied for four somehow or five. They're both four. Oh, so they're tied a year in Movzar, okay.

So yeah, so they're both in that same position. Obviously I've fought a yeah Yeah, it's weird because I like your year. No So when he was calling for it, I before the fight, I wasn't really expecting it I was like didn't expect like you know how you had like off people one I'm sure he would call for the shot. Maybe the UFC would maybe want it and then Like who else was there?

Yeah, all Mosva. Like, I thought they were, like, pretty much the only options. I thought it'd be pretty clear. But then the Yai won, and then he was called out. I'm like, oh, okay, well, I don't want to be the guy to turn Yai down because I like the guy, you know what I mean? So I don't want to rob him of an opportunity if that comes forth. So we'll see what the UFC brings forward. But again, I do like that

undefeated record that I'd love to take down to zero, especially for legacy and where I'm at. You're taking out an undefeated guy, you'd still say, I don't know how old he is, but he's still that younger generation, younger than me anyway. And you know, that rest of that sort of different style as well, you know, going out there taking, because I'm sure, you know, when it's all said and done, you know, Mosvah I think is still gonna be up there. I can see him being a problem for a while. And then I go take him out and you know,

he keeps building his resume. To have that name on my resume would be good. So I definitely want to take that zero. So we'll see what happens. Yeah, this was his tweet in the immediate aftermath. Congratulations on an excellent performance. You're a true champion. Now let's see what your word is worth tagging you there. So it sounds to me like he would be your top choice if it was up to you. Yeah, yeah, of course.

He was my top choice going into the, before the fight and after. But again, I just feel bad. I'm too nice, that's what I want. But then I feel bad for Yoyu, when I'm just like, I've already fought him, but you know what I mean? It's a tricky one, but I don't want to say no,

because you know, I like the guy. But again, from my legacy, what I mean? It's a tricky one, but I don't want to say no, because you don't like the guys. But again, from my legacy, what makes sense? You know, that's definitely Mosva. But again, we'll see what the UFC want. We'll chat to them and we'll see what that day works out. Like obviously, again, there's a couple of little things that we've got to take care of. And then we'll find a date and then whoever it is, it is.

Obviously everyone knows, I'm not scared of nobody. And then we'll find a date and whoever it is, it is. Obviously everyone knows, I'm not scared of nobody. But I mean, we'll see what the UFC bring forward. What I find interesting is if you just kind of look at the upcoming schedule, they've already announced in July they're going to New Orleans for Dustin Poirier's title fight, or excuse me, BMF fight, retirement fight.

August sounds like it's gonna be Pere Pereira against Ankeleyev. September is this Noche UFC card, which unless you're fighting a year, I don't know if it makes sense and I don't know if it's fair to you to go to Mexico. And then we're getting into October, Abu Dhabi. Are you going to fight Movstar there? I'm worried that you'll only get one more this year when you were hoping for three and that'll be back into the year. Yeah, like, I mean, getting three in is going to be trickier than I thought. Yeah, like I mean, getting three in is gonna be trickier than I thought now. Like, you know, that's something I definitely wanted to do.

So that's why I'm like, ah, you know, I said that I was gonna do this. But then you're like, I'm not that active guy. I said, but then I'm like, even if I fight late this year, I mean, that's just normal, right? Like that's, I think I'm used to how regularly I usually wanna fight and I'm used to how regularly I usually want to fight I'm making that like the standard I'm like no me fighting even at the end of

the year is pretty much a standard if not still reasonably active you know what I mean so it's um yeah but I mean again you go into the fight you know hoping that you don't come out with any injuries and things you need look after so but that's the sort of the situation was, as I said, there's a couple of little nigglies. They get my hands, all right. Just a couple of other things. On the Monday after the fight, I was a little surprised.

I had John Silva on the show and he had a great win. And we talked obviously what's next. And he said he wanted a title shot and laid out a case as to why he should be next. Did you hear that? And if so, what did you think of that? I didn't, I didn't hear that, but I mean, he's another guy, obviously, you know,

he's not ranked there yet, but I mean, he can't be far off. Like what he's doing, you know, you can see him tracking real quick to get there. Yeah, so it's just tricky. Like imagine if you're, like I want, again. I like him to he's actually good as well You got to be meaner Alex. Okay, you got to be meaner stop worrying about these guys Yeah, but I mean it's just again at the end of the day. I'll just fight whoever but uh

What makes sense? I need to you know, I've always been like that Like just what makes sense and you know fighting so I don't even know if he's ranked. He should be ranked now. Right. He's ranked. Yeah, he is ranked. He's he's 11. Yeah, exactly. So it's a, you know, it's a it's a it's not a hard sell in this. In the case that people are hyped up about him. But, you know, everyone knows what I've always been about.

You you earn your shot next in line. I've always been about. You earn your shot next in line. I've always been a big believer in that. And obviously the UFC, with how they are, obviously it's not just rankings that get you a title shot. It is more than that. I've never really played too much into that. Whoever earns it, that's how I've earned, not given. I've never really played too much into that. I mean, whoever earns it, that's how I've earned, not given. I've always said that, right? And that's always, I'm a big believer of that. So it's just hard for me to not want to give Mosvah the chance when you know that he should be next, right?

Like it's, yeah, so it's hard. And then just giving guys that are ranked 11, it's just, it goes against what I've always wanted to do. But again, I like everybody. So I don't want to turn anyone down. I get that as well, and that's what makes you so special. I was wondering before the fight, given the fact that you told us that some of those, hey, you know, life is okay, why go through all of this? Should I just call it a day? Thoughts were creeping in before all of this, should I just call it a day, thoughts were creeping in before all of this came to fruition? Was there any part of you, any sort of thought that if for whatever reason it didn't go your

way in Miami, that that would be it for you, that you would call it a career? I guess I didn't look at it that deep enough. You know how I talk about there's always going to be doubts, you're always going to have doubts creeping in. That would only go as far as, oh, what if you get caught? I didn't let it go any deeper than that. I didn't let it be like, oh, you're going to retire and stuff like that. But I guess I would have had to wait. But yeah, if I was to get knocked out again or something like that, I'm not going to do that to my family. You know what I mean? So I'm sure I would have been thinking real hard of, you know, there could have been

a good chance if I was to get knocked out in that cage, you know, hang up the gloves, definitely. Because yeah, you know, my family, obviously, they're like waiting for me to hang up the gloves and then I'm like, oh, no, we all right, we all right, we a little bit more. Come on. Would your wife like you to retire now? Is she ever saying this to you? Yeah, yeah, she's sort of like, all right, you know, you got it back now, like what are you doing?

Like, nah, come on. You know, especially championship money, you know what I mean? Like, you got to capitalize on that. I get that, I get that 100%. And the one fight, go ahead. Sorry, and just like, yeah, again, like, you know, you talk about, you know, the adversities and, you know, again, you know, I didn't want to get too much into it.

I want to, you know, I get, I've always been rock solid. I want to, you know, do I, yeah, do I want, I want to get, like, you know, I want to get, I want to work around that, you know, whereby I use that as get like, you know, I want to get, I want to work around that, you know, whereby I use that as a challenge, you know, like for myself to be like, all right, we can, let's make this all right again. You know what I mean? If that, again, I don't want to get too much into it. But yeah, again, a lot goes through the head, You know, I want to, yeah, the doubts

and all that type of stuff. You're not as confident. The confidence isn't exactly where it needs to be. I want to go out there and be like, you know. You're the man. I've got this. You're back. Yeah, exactly.

All good. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You told us that you cut out the cheat meals, the drinking, all that stuff. Did you allow yourself to have a little fun the last few weeks? Yeah, yeah, well, man, I don't think I went that crazy, but I put on a few kilos.

I mean, I've got real, I got real used to them six pack. I was like, even straight after I'm like, I'm gonna, or even actually maybe before and after, I didn't eat too much straight after the fight. I couldn't eat because of the stitches in my mouth. But I'm like, I'm just gonna make sure I stay lean, you know, and I wanna keep this six pack. And I really enjoyed that six pack.

And I was very, very lean for this one. I was like, man, I'm gonna keep dieting. But that sort of went out the window. But I mean, I'm gonna bring it back. I'm back to dieting again, but I want them cheese great abs like I had last time. I need them back, you know what I mean? Especially if I'm gonna do any photo shoots and all that.

I couldn't keep my shirt on for the last few, well, mate, for the last six weeks at camp. Enjoyed that, you know what I mean? I ain't usually full of myself, but every fight camp, like the last couple of weeks when you start getting really getting lean, the shirt comes off quite a bit. But this time I was like six weeks out

of that shirt was coming off. Um, but I mean, I wouldn't mind, you know, 24 seven all year round, not being, uh, being okay with getting that shirt off whenever. So I might, I'm going to stay, try and stay a little bit leaner. So during the week, uh, diet weekends, enjoy yourself, but I didn't get too crazy, but yeah, I've been, I've been eating. Can I tell you something that I love? I love how Cristiano Ronaldo seems to be such a big fan of yours and really truly care about you. That footage came out after the second Islam fight where he went to Izzy and was asking about you and then I see one of the

the top things after you know one of your victory poses Cristiano Ronaldo showing you props do you have a relationship with him? I've chatted to him here and obviously he's a busy man I'd love to chat to him all the time but I don't want to be a pest sure but I mean yeah he's um he's great like you could see exactly what you said you could see you know him asking how I was doing yeah after that fight obviously was that you know that that time was a little bit emotional and vulnerable so he was just checking up on me which was cool to see then you know chatting to him he really wanted me to fight in Saudi Arabia and but yes I've kept you know little chats with him to see that was awesome you know let's you know just to know that he was keeping an eye on it as well, like, you know,

I want to see, you know, I want to watch Boggs fight. He's back, the champ's back, you know what I mean? Like he actually, not just, oh cool, you know, you won the chip, like he obviously understood the story, like he knows that, you know, come off two K.O. losses, you know, a big break, you know, can he bounce back and like, and he knows I was away and then to get it back.O. losses, you know, a big break, you know, Kenny bounced back and like, and he knows I was away and then to get it back, he's like, oh, the champ is back. Like, how good is that? Like, that he understands the story.

So it's not like he's just, oh, you won, oh, cool, how good. Congratulations on the champ. It's like he knows that last year or two, whatever, journey. And, you know, and I don't know, I think, you know, it feels like he does care, like what you said, like, it does seem that way. So that's cool. I mean, he's one of the most, it doesn't get much more famous than that when it comes to sportsmen, you know what I mean? So it's pretty, it's pretty cool. Especially

when you could imagine how much he's got on his plate. And yeah, for him to be at least keeping a little eye, or a close eye, but keeping an eye on my career, that's incredible. You get a lot of people, everyone's, there's so many Ronaldo fans, so a lot of my mates and family, seeing Ronaldo come and they're like,

what, they're like blowing out, like, are you serious? And I'm like, yeah, man, it's pretty cool. I love the way it all works, because right after your win, the Australian boxer Tim Zou posted a message that you had sent to him. He lost to Sebastian Fondora. He then lost his subsequent rebound fight.

And this is your DM to him, telling him essentially on paraphrasing that like, you'll be back, no problem. Just again, shows the type of person that you are but what compelled you in that moment to send that to him? Oh man just uh we know we know how it can be like you know people are you know he's he's still young still a great fighter and you know it's only natural for you know you to get a couple losses and everyone doubt you and then all of a sudden oh yeah he's done and that's it and you because he was, there's a lot of hype and then all of a sudden

that can go so quick and that can, yeah, knock people a bit, you know, I mean, he's a pretty strong, he's strong mentally in that anyway, but I want to let him know, it's like, hey, like, don't worry about it, this is, adversity is a privilege, right?? Like I know the type of guy you are, you know, you challenging yourself like the way you did and that's why you're getting these losses because you actually challenge yourself. Taking fights that people wouldn't do, but that guy that, you know, challenges himself, because you've been doing that throughout your career

and that's who you are, I know you're gonna bounce back. This is gonna be another challenge and a bit of adversity that I know you're gonna rise through. So like, don't worry about it. And that's what I was trying to explain to him, like, oh yeah, look, you challenge yourself and you pull up short, don't let that guy get to you. I'm sure everyone's gonna knock you down and think you're done.

But hey, because that's who you've been your whole career, that's how I know you're gonna bounce back. So get back to what you gotta do and I'll see you on top soon. And we're both in the similar situation, right? Like I was there and like I was thinking the same thing. Like, you know, people are doubting me. They have every right, right? I said that, I'm not angry that people are doubting me.

They have every right to doubt me. Like I've got, but with my situation, I had more things against me. I'm like age and then just to see people like, just think, oh yeah, Tim's done. I'm like, what, he's young, challenged himself. What, now you think he's done? Like, he can't bounce back from that?

Like, what do you, like, that's just, that's not how my world works. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, that's just not how it works. But I understand people will think that, but for me, if you've got the right mindset, you know, you're, I don't care what's, what's happening in the past. Like, um, you can change that depending on the each individual.

And, uh, yeah, he, he's, uh, again, like he w I think he won the week before. Yeah. A few days before. Yeah. Coming off the two, yeah. Coming off two losses, uh, a little decent break, bounce back. And then, you know, same reason we're sort of on the same sort of journey to get by a similar journey. So it's pretty cool. But yeah, that's why I just thought I'd send that to him. I'm sure

he got a still got a few messages from people, but I just, I thought it maybe means something because I'm in that situation and just be like, you know, let's bounce back. You know, I think I've chatted to a couple of people in a similar situation, like, you know, when things aren't going their way. And again, adversity is a privilege. You know what I mean? Like I've used that, it's funny actually,

because now I was saying that I haven't really, it just come off the top of my head. I never used that phrase, but I'll always explain that to people. And there are people who have a couple of, you know, a little bad run, wherever it was, even in the F1, Formula One, like I know Isaac Hudja, you know, chat to him, like he had a, you know, a bad little run with a, you know, a couple of fights and a couple of races. And I'm just like, nah, the bounce back, you know what I mean? I'm always talking about the bounce

back, you know, that's what people are going to remember, you know what I mean? I'm always talking about the bounce back. That's what people are gonna remember, you know what I mean? That's the shooting, you being here and then getting through that verse and then getting here. That's where you can shine, you know what I mean? Capitalize on that opportunity. It's an opportunity, go and capitalize on it. So I've always sort of talked about it, right?

And that's just who I am and what I'm all about. I'm glad I come up with the actual phrase because I didn't think it'd I'm glad I come up with the actual phrase because I didn't think it'd be something that I'll just grab. To be honest, I didn't even think it hasn't been said before. It was just something that I just said at the time and then all of a sudden it was like, oh, that's great. And I'm like, oh, no, okay, cool. Because I know you hear that pressure is a privilege. So yeah, it's like, I guess it's a similar sort of phrase, but then being in that position, adversity, you know what I mean?

When you think you're down the bottom, your rise to the top is only going to make you stronger even if you don't get the result you want. But if you get that result that you're looking for, that shit can make you a star. That shit can really make you shine. So use it. Just a couple more and I'll let you go. Before it's all said and done, do you want, do you need that Ilya rematch or are you content, are you at peace if you don't get it?

It's just, you know, again, we talk about legacy. It would be great to get that win back. It's just that can't happen right now because if that opportunity was to come next, all right, let's do it. You know what I mean? It makes sense. But you know that he's moved up, he's committed to that, and he still needs to fight for the title. And then, yeah, so it's something that I can't focus on right now because if it does happen, it has to be what we're talking at least a year away, you know what I mean? Because by the time that he fights and then he's fighting again.

So I'm planning on being a bit more active than that. I wanted to fight again this year. So I'll focus on that and then we'll see where we're at. But I mean, it'd be great. Perfect World would have been having that rematch to get the belt Yeah. But you know, that just wasn't the case. And you've got to respect what he's doing. You know, he wants to chase the lay, he's done with the featherweight,

he wants to chase the lightweight, let him do his thing. And then if we do do it, maybe we would do it a lightweight, you know, double champ again. Maybe does that, you know, I win, I defend again, does that put me in a position to imagine that if he was to win and then we have a rematch. Oh God, that'd be incredible. Oh man, like it doesn't get much. Oh God. That'd be incredible.

Oh man, like it doesn't get much bigger than that. That's perfect world for me. But again, you just, a few things need to fall into place for that to happen. And that's obviously in time. So let me just do my thing until that happens. Cause yeah, again, I want to, I still want to be reasonably active.

One thing that I love about the aftermath of this fight, I remember not that long ago when you were on the way up, there was this thing like, oh, you know, does he have the personality? Can people get behind him? All this stuff. Not only that, now you've made history, you've inspired people. You made even like, you know, I'm 42. Like old guys like me say like, you know what, I could still do it. Look at folk out there. Like you've inspired fighters and non-fighters. You're an inspiration to fellow fighters, of course, the likes of Tim Tzu and others. But then we see, you know, the ads with you and Beverly and you're doing the singing and you're doing the cooking with VULK. Like it's comical to

think back to when you were first entering the UFC fighting the Chad Mendez's of the world and people are like, ah, he doesn't have it. He's too vanilla. Look at you now. Now you've become one of the most beloved and popular fighters in the UFC and like with this range, this personality where you're doing all these other things. There's a great irony there, isn't it? Yeah, it is, you know, and I still remember that. Look, it was tough, like you go through the process.

I get it, I've always been that guy, but I guess, you know, I didn't have a camera on me all the time. I was just focusing on fighting, right? So you go and do interviews and people ask some questions about fights. You know what I mean? And then that's all it is. And at that time in my career, I was just so invested in the career. That's all I'll do.

You know what I mean? Like, you know, that fighter's identity that people talk about is like, yeah, I'm either dad or I'm a fighter. You know, there is no real Alex. So very rarely you would be able to see that guy. I wouldn't even see too much of him either because I was just so committed to training

and getting better. And you know, and that's not a bad thing. A lot of people have talked about that as if it's a bad thing. It's, you wanna be the best, you know what I mean? You have to, you have to fully commit. And that's me fully committing. You know, I didn't have time for myself.

So, you know what I mean? So I didn't really get to do that. But as I started getting more confident in me as a fighter, more confident in me as a person, I was able to sort of still show a bit of that, get the camera in front of you and touch on that, and especially with the break. So you've seen it really come through, even though you've seen a bit of it before that,

you've really seen it start to come through with that break because I was able to spend so much time on me being me, you know, and fighting wasn't coming first, you know, it's not family and fighting. I was doing family myself, then fighting. You know what I mean? And that's, I haven't done that for 15 years. So it was cool.

So I was able to really grow so much outside of fighting. You know what I mean? So that's why I'm like, yeah, before that I was, you know, am I going to be okay after fighting? Now I know I'm going to be okay. I'm great. Like, you know, So that's why I'm like, yeah, before that I was, you know, am I gonna be okay after fighting? Now I know I'm gonna be okay, I'm great. Like, you know, during that process, I'm like, am I gonna be able to fight again? Like, that's a part of that adversity as well.

I was like, man, am I gonna be able to get back into this? You know what I mean? Like, so there was so many things, so many different situations and things to get through. But yeah, it's, it is cool to see. It is really, really cool to see. Cause yeah, I was hated at one stage and I just, which, as you can see the person I am, right? Yeah. You can see that I'm a pretty caring, I don't want to offend anyone. You know, that's just the type of guy I am, a respectful guy. I don't like to be controversial. And then for

people to hate me was just like, what is going on here? Like, what have I done? It's just because I'm fighting loved fighters that people just absolutely hate you. And I'm like just going, it was hard. Like again, I didn't get that. Like, you know what I mean?

I wouldn't, I'm not gonna show people how much that was, would hurt me. But I mean, it was tough, you know, to get through that sort of stuff. And you didn't know what to do. Then I start trying to be, oh, maybe I'd be defensive and then act like I don't care. But then it's just not who I am. And then I'll just be like, I stopped caring and then just started, just focusing on, um, me fighting and just doing, doing what I do. And then it all just started to change after that.

But yeah, it's, it's crazy now because I feel like the love. As an athlete, like it's incredible. I mean, it's not just like people are a big fan of what I do, like just big fan of who I am as well. And that means a lot to me. It's wonderful to see. It truly is. Last one, quick one.

What do you reckon? This weekend, another proud Australian, Jack Della Maddalena going for the title? How do you feel about his chances against below? Yeah, yeah, so it's obviously a tough fight. You're gonna give a credit, you know He's a lot of people, you know, my not like a style or or something like but he's very well rounded But I mean Jack Della, I think he's a great matchup for it I think because he's scrambling abilities But I mean, Jack Della, I think he's a great matchup for him. I think because he's scrambling abilities, he's got a great scrambling ability.

Even if Bill out was to get a takedown, I can't see him holding him down for too long. I feel him bouncing back and then I feel just his boxing is just going to be, you know, he's got great variety and great like range of his strikes, you know what I mean? Like he can go body, head, like he's got a great mix of boxing and that. So he's a powerful, strong dude. So I feel like he can start to, I won't say break Balau, but I'm seeing a finish in sort of the later rounds. Wow. Which is, yeah, so a lot of people would be thinking that Balau will start taking over the

later rounds. I think it gets better for Jack in the later rounds. I think Jack's going to get a little bit more comfortable with the takedowns, going to get stuck in to his feet more and then he starts to let his hands go more and more as the fight goes on and then he starts to catch him, you know, body rips, whatever it is, big shots and then actually can put him away in like the third, fourth round. I can actually, that's what I'm thinking. Again, Belair's a great fighter, so it's gonna be a tough fight, but I think we're gonna have two belts in Australia.

So that's incredible. Love it, love it. And I loved seeing Rhea Ripley out there supporting you. I love all the Australian pride right now in sport. It's great to see. You're an absolute gent. Appreciate you very much, Alex, and delighted for you. You've done it the right way, and you're being rewarded for it. And it's really lovely to see you're an absolute gent appreciate you very much Alex and delighted for you You've done it the right way and you're being rewarded for it and and it's really lovely to see so so well done

Thank you for being an inspiration. Thank you for the great fights. Thank you for that performance Go ahead one thing exactly. You just said a lot of people asking what's my greatest accomplishment? Through this whole process. I maybe said it to you before it's me It's the fact that I was able to be myself through the whole process. I maybe said it to you before, it's me, it's the fact that I was able to be myself through the whole process. A lot of people lose themselves and wanna follow different blueprints and put on characters, whatever it is,

and all let their fame get to them. I've been able to be myself through the whole process and it's something I'm most proud of. And I think a lot of people can see that and appreciate that. And that's why the love has never been, like the support has never been so big. You know what I mean?

And I really appreciate every single one of you because I felt your connection in there, in the cage. And I really appreciate it. The love has been unreal and I thank you all so much for that. Well deserved and earned. Thank you, Alex. Appreciate it very much.

Congrats. Looking forward to the next one. Enjoy the time at home. Thank you. Appreciate it. You're the man. There he is. The great Alex Volkanovsky. Alexander the Great Volkanovsky. The once again reigning defending UFC featherweight champion. Two-time champ now and he is creeping very close to Jose Aldo's record for most successful title defenses. He's one away now and he's really, I mean just the first man over 35 coming off back-to-back losses. It's quite the resume and how could you not be a fan of that guy? One of the true salt of the earth legends of the UFC, the kind of guy that you want your kid to be a fan of.

That's Alex Volkonovsky. Appreciate him waking up. Love hearing the family in the background. Wish him and his family, he's had some great footage riding around in the ATV with the family, the kids in the belt. Look at this stuff. I mean, this is wholesome AF.

A real girl dad. Guy's just surrounded by girls. Three and he's got a fourth on the way as well. Wish him nothing but the best and appreciate him so very much. You'd think I'd forget that there are some super chats. We gotta get to them. So let's hit it. Daddy-o!

You're so good. Thank you. Best in the biz. Thanks. Kiernan writes, Yo, watch everyday was lucky enough to catch Corgan Zola in New York Make ironically separate times and catch pictures. Appreciate you guys love watching heart emoji Hey, by the way, speaking of which and and and thank you for that a lot of people come up to you guys

I would imagine not a lot of celebs just roaming about in Des Moines at the Wells Fargo Arena What kind of reception did we get? There were a lot of really nice people who came up to us and we thank them all for doing it. And the best part, everybody, every single person, hi, we love the show, thanks for coming, love you guys. And that was it. There was no lingering.

There was no just like overstaying the welcome. Everybody was super kind super giving wanted to say hello and then we went our separate ways it was fantastic I thought you were gonna say best part everyone was like where's howani there's howani yeah actually that never came up surprisingly yeah I don't even think they had mentioned that shout out to Kiernan though shout out to Kiernan they did they did mention mysterious Frank though there were a lot of like literally the best part of meeting people was that they excuse themselves quickly yes you know what you see you see

mysterious Frank you come talk we'll chat it up TST he get recognized he was a celeb man well he wore that corn helmet like all night and like a bunch of people take pictures because of the corn hat but there were some diaries there were like TST in the corn hat eh eh? I'm like, wow, you know tight ship. No ball. That's a deep cut if you're a- Everyone in Iowa's incredibly nice. What else?

Mo writes, GC, how was your sober year and what did you learn? It was fantastic. What I learned is that it's incredibly easy to go a year without drinking or smoking or doing anything like that. It's great. It was the healthiest I've ever been. And I'm probably, I did two months earlier this year.

I'm probably about to hop back on the train. It's great and it's much easier than you would anticipate. That Volk diet. I highly recommend it. Yeah, I need to get on the Volk diet. He was inspirational at 314. I was like, man, I need that. I need that going on. I need the washboard to go on the Volk diet. He was inspirational at 314. I was like, man, I need that. I need that going on.

I need the washboard to go with the bald and the beard. But yeah, if you're considering doing it, I highly recommend trying it. My brother, I actually, from the sober year I inspired my brother, he has completely quit. Wow. Yeah. What else? MJ Anderson writes, dying to see Sandhagen versus O'Malley.

Yeah, me too. I'm also dying. I didn't want to mention that force was playing because it's been a bit of a rough patch. Had a very important match today against Crystal Palace. In the end, one-one draw, but we're on the outside looking in, GC. We're on the outside looking in at the Champions League.

I mean, we're close. It's all, there's three matches left. It's all coming down to the final, final fixture against Chelsea. That could be winner goes Champions League, winner stays home, or winner goes to Europa League. Kind of crazy. Yeah, we get the clutch of the five Champions League spots,

correct? Five Champions League, six goes to Europa. I think seven is Conference League. Who the hell knows? But we want that Champions League, someone was trying to, listen, if you would have told any of us, May 5th, we're sixth, sitting at 61 points,

we all would have taken it, all of us long time supporters. Is that at the Stanford Bridge or is that? That's at home, that's at the World Famous. That's huge. Yeah. That's huge. There's three fixtures left. Next week against Leicester City, should a dub at home should be West Ham away Could also be a dub and then Chelsea at home it we should get six points from from less

Let's go nine and then and nine we're in down to the final on May 25th 11 a.m. Yeah. Oh my gosh can't be crazy when either Tottenham or Man U qualify for Champions League because they win the Europa League and they're like 15th and 16th in the league. I know. That is crazy. Can't wait. That's fine. No, those fighting words. Yeah. What else? This guy is actually celebrating his six months with us on the chat.

Mason. Mason Bickner. Happy six, ladies and gents. Shout out to Volvo. Shout out to Volvo. Got the XC90 myself. Shout out. Safe car. Oh yeah, what color? The safest. Actually, we wanted they got rid of they got rid of this color So we have to get this gray, which is I'm okay with gunmetal or like it's just like it's a bit dull If you what was the color that the oh it was like a like a bluish gray. There was a blue you to it

Yeah, blue you what else Frank? What are you important? Where's the excitement? Come on yeah. What else, Frank? What else? Where's the excitement? Come on, are you not into this? What else? Oh, no. Trey Portner, happy Monday, Ariel and boys in the bag. Fun fight that would never happen, but would win fight of the night.

Jeremy Stevens versus Michael Schellner. It's not a bad shout. You're pretty sick. Don't hate it. Actually makes a lot of sense for both guys. If Jeremy sticks with the UFC, I don't know man you had all that success you're headlining a sold-out Wells Fargo Center in Philly

no knock on the Wells Fargo Arena like do you need all this I can guarantee if Mason Jones and Jeremy Stevens fought in BKFC Jeremy Stevens probably won it so there you go but yes I do like that shout what else another one from Mason Bickner hey Ariel I just got news that a former There you go. But yes, I do like that shout. What else? Another one from Mason Bickner. Hey, Ariel, I just got news that a former coworker of mine during a high school job just got drafted to the one and only Buffalo Bulls.

Drafted? You mean maybe free agent? I mean, signing? Sure, sure. Drafts doesn't last 10 days. Drafts. Uh-uh. One weekend.

Wanda Owens. Yeah, you know him? Don't miss him. Yeah, New Hampshire. He's the mafia. One weekend. Wande Owens. Yeah, you know him? Don't miss him. Yeah, New Hampshire. Hell yeah. Well, we do know that our boy, Darien Strong, is also DB, so he might have some competition, but love that.

Wande's safety. I know he's gonna put safety. All right, okay, well, no more competition. Love it, and welcome to the family. And I'm excited. He's one of our own, he's one of our own. One day Adams, he's one of our own. What else?

Plot Team Shake One, Ariel. Been watching the show since 2014. Thank you for everything you do. New fighter curse, instead of GC merch, it's now the man in the hat. Oh, oh, oh. Talbot, Proches, Diego, and Bo, all lost. Wow.

Uh-oh. That's a hot take. Uh-oh. I mean, come on. The guy, I hate this. I hate when people do this, this curse nonsense. He had a great, he had actually two bangers this weekend. We're talking about Chuck Mendenhall. He had an amazing, okay, first of all, he had an amazing article on the Times Square

fight and I haven't asked him if he came up with the headline or or Shaheen or one of our great editors over at uncrowned slash yahoo sports, but the headline was Ryan Garcia drops the ball in Times Square and I was just like that is high level stuff right that's incredible I mean that's incredible and then he wrote another one saying that perhaps the UFC in 2025 stands for ultimate fraud check. And I was like, ah, this guy is just, he's the best in the business. Anyway, shout out to the man in the hat.

There's no curse. He writes about a lot of people who stop nitpicking. The real curse is me going to events. That's stupid, too. The car just got of eh, and I always lose money. I got washed on- Wasn't there a curse also about TST going And the main event ends like unceremoniously it ends in an injury

He did third did a UFC Long Island and it was Brian Ortega versus Yair injury next week London He goes to London Tom Aspinall injury next week London he goes to London yeah Tom Aspinall injury and then Davis Vangareto on Saturday night that's his last three oh my gosh he can't be allowed back in Atlanta wow that's weird I think he's going to you see that I'm walking Buckley come on with you watch out he's pulling up I think so yeah wow what else ZZ Biggs says what do you guys think of the yo-yo pullout will you UFC find replacement for BSD?

I paid a lot when I thought it was gonna be Burns, so I'm bummed out. Okay, so first I thought Yoel Romero's on the card. I believe it's pronounced Joelle. Anyway, so this individual's saying he paid a lot when he found out that Gilbert Burns was gonna be on the card, like that was the deciding factor. I don't know, I haven't been online.

You guys tell me if they've announced a replacement, but as of right now, I haven't heard that there's going to be a replacement. I know they're trying, clearly, Mateusz Gamrot said, but yeah, that was one of the fights that I really liked. I think it was opening the main card. Yeah, so that is a bummer. By the way, speaking of Montreal,

they just did a face-off at a spot that I know very, very well. This is actually called The Lookout in Westmount. I've been here a million times, actually lived not that far away from there. It's an amazing view. There is the boys, there is the lads. Funny story, back in the summer of 1999, I was dating a girl, her name, Jacqueline, and she had just come back from camp and we decided to stay together during camp,

but didn't see each other. She comes back and actually, believe it or not, dumped me upon returning. Wow. And we went to the lookout to have a bit of a heart-to-heart as I was trying to maybe salvage the relationship. And it was all for naught at that exact spot, that place right there.

Sometimes the bucket just isn't bucketing. I've actually been there myself as well. At the lookout? I sure have. I've been to the lookout. In Montreal? Yeah, right before going to a Canadians game. I'm actually scrolling my Instagram right now to try and find a picture, but I don't think I've been to the Lookout. In Montreal? Yeah right before going to a Canadians game. I'm actually scrolling my Instagram right now to try

and find the picture but I don't think I'm gonna have enough time. Did you smoke a fatty boom baddie? Fatty boom baddie. That's what people do there. Fatty boom baddie up on the Lookout straight to a Montreal Canadians game. There it is. The lightning. That's a good spot. It was great. Anyways what else? Do you think Bilal appreciates that he's in my hometown? Kyle! No. Just thought it was nice. Do you think Bilal appreciates that he's in my hometown? Kyle! Yeah, shout out to Kyle.

What else? I was just saying, he's in my hometown. The least he could do is stop by the family, break a bed, Shabbat dinner, that type of thing. You think he does any of that? Absolutely. The Shabbat dinner. Check your phone.

What else? Love Quinn. Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp. Oh. What is this? Gulp it up, whatever you guys are pouring thought I thought we did a thing where it's like Don't do that. We're not doing all of them We curate some paying customers we even go through how to pronounce some things correct us

I don't need Frank going gulp gulp gulp gulp. In fact The next time, you know, Rick or GC are glazing. And I want to get that one. Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp. By the way, some breaking news. Glazing one. Actually, what timing. According to Aaron Bronstetter of Sportsnet in Canada, Windsor's Kyle Prepilek will replace Joel Alvarez on Saturday to face Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 315. Kyle Prepileck? He is 4-1 since his first UFC stint, and he was in camp to face Michael Duford

at Samurai MMA on Friday. So there you go. Prepileck, Burns, same, same, same. Well, Burns was fighting Morales, and then, you know, Alvarez was fighting BSD, but hey, if you're a BSD fan, you're happy. What else? Toon Joe.

Bo has dealt very well with the incredibly high expectations. Look at Pereira, his record prior to UFC and what he has achieved. Bo will go far. I agree. In fact, I can tell you that tomorrow on the program we will in fact be joined by Bo Nicol. Also, old friend Juliana Pena gonna be joining us. Oh yeah baby. Let's go. And the pride of Nottingham, the great Lee Wood is going to be joining us.

He returns to action this weekend. I thought we were going to get a little frotch on fighting. Yeah, that'd be fun. We spoke to Juliana briefly on the phone on the weekend. Well, that's right, a friend of hers. Yeah, we made big plans. We're back. After party in Newark with the belt.

I love it. We have a photo of GC at the aforementioned lookout. No, I don't think Jordan got it right. Oh, well, he literally put it in the chat. No, no, no, I put it in the chat. Oh, that was you. No, it's okay. Wait, someone put it in the chat.

It's the details. Yeah, there I am. There you are. Usually when it's in the chat, it's like an indication that it's in. Oh yeah. No? Maggot hat?

Look at you. Yeah, what is that? It sure is. By the way. Turn it around. Do we have this side by side? That was when we were going for 2020. What year is this? What year is this for?

What is going on? Oh yeah, look at this. 2019. Look at you. Yeah. Little did you know. Yeah we were hoping to just remain 45. We're cool with 45, 47.

Yeah sure, sure. It is, I have weird feelings about like, the UFC being back in my hometown and I'm not there. I'm not gonna lie. It's a weird one. Not too late. I was trying to go get some skeady. No, it's too late.

What's skeady? Skeady at the Orange Julius. Oh, Julep, Julep. Julius is like the Dairy Queen. That's the name of the restaurant. Shitty one. Spaghetti at the Orange Julep. Julep, Julep, yes. J Spaghetti at the Orange Jewel. Jewel up, jewel up, yes.

Spaghetti at the Orange Jewel. What else? Andrew, before this year is out, we need uncrowned hoops. Ariel versus Connor, 10 free throws each to see who makes the most. Frank can take the video. You know what? Easy work.

I think we go more than 10. I think we go like 30 or so. I dropped a couple videos in the chat. No one even reacted to it. I reacted in 0.5 seconds. I was schooling kids more than 10. I think we go like 30 or so. I dropped a couple videos in the chat. No one even reacted to it. I reacted in 0.5 seconds. I was schooling kids. Not even. My son's birthday party.

Not even one second. It was a video of you playing basketball with children. What did you want to say? Yeah, yeah. It was like me and, it was me having my Billy Madison moment. Now you're all in deep, deep trouble. I was crashing the boards.

I was orchestrating. I was distributing. Crashing feels like a bit of a stretch. The best was like when it was like a one-legged, and I would be like, and I'd tip it to myself. I felt like a prime Victor Wemba Nyama out there. Was it an Olympic-sized court? No, it was legit, and I made a vow not to shoot.

I was just distributing. Olympic-sized court. I have to say, Frank doesn't quite know that Olympic is not like the gold standard for basketball court measurement. I'm embarrassed at how have to say Frank doesn't require that Olympic is not like the gold standard for Basketball court measurement. I'm embarrassed at how sore I am the next day. Hmm. I'm embarrassed. I get you on that treadmill What do we got Frankie? What else? Dy sends in two dollars. This is a waste of everyone's time. No, what else?

American dollars. Thank you. Oh my god, really? That's fine. Are we that desperate? Hey Brian We're thankful anything else we are thankful one dream Oh, how about them jets last night game seven down three one and the third score with 1.6 seconds left I said it into overtime then to win it and double I was actually thinking of you a large one dream as this was transpiring I was actually thinking of you Lajuan Dream as this was transpiring an unbelievable goal with 1.6 and then to win a double overtime and what about that Sea of White the supporters so so so happy for the good people of Winnipeg and happy that the Canadian teams are well represented in the final what is

it eight we've got Edmonton we've got Winnipeg we have Toronto three out of the four series have a Canadian team in it. So we haven't had a Canadian champion since 1993, guys. Would you believe it? We almost had one last year with Edmonton going seven against Florida. So I'd love for it to be the Jets. That would be great.

Mostly because the Lajuan dream is from there. So let's go. Shout out. What else? Jake from Windy City, Ariel, curious outside of the US and Canada Which countries do you attract significant audiences for the show any that surprised you over the years? Yes, England So so if I were to break it down it would be I think it's US

England Australia Canada Ireland, I think that's the top five. Um, any surprises? No, I mean, we were big, you know, we, we, we, uh, we're on in primetime over there. We come from a land down under. We obviously are can am. So like we touch a lot of, you know, corners of the world. We're very international around these parts

What else Daniel's act finishes us off Eric back off my boy Frankie Yeah, man's a king you you didn't read it fully Eric Jay. He's he's going full Last like first name last initial I don't was I was I bad to you today Frank. It's every day Well his birthday's coming up, so you can- Oh, I'll be there. I know you won't be there. No, I'll be there.

I'm not gonna be there for the second ride. For the part that we're supposed to do. Other than the part we're supposed to do, you'll be for the other part. Then you were like, can't you move it? Yeah, I'll see, I'll move it next year. No one loves a team dinner more than this guy. No one, all right?

What are we going? We going to Baskin Robbins? Number of team dinners you've been to with us versus number of team dinners andes. We've had amongst ourselves Oh, that's so crazy the the the 15-minute powwow at 1230 as a Just saying say it man your face. I'm here working. Okay Yes, so our times are different you guys guys are working before. I'm working after. It was like, you know, I'm not wearing, you know,

we go to school to learn, not for a fashion show. All right. We'll see you at the Alamo Drafthouse. All right. We'll see you at that one. Parents just don't understand. Will Smith, circa 1989. All right.

It's time to go. We've got a game one to watch, guys. Oh, no we're not. We're not. We're not. We're not. How we feel? How we feel, boys? Rick, how you feeling? Cavaliers game one to watch, guys. How we feel?

How we feel, boys? Rick, how you feeling? Cavs lose game one? I'm a little worried. Garland's hurt. Deandre Hunter's hurt. Oh, Hunter's hurt, too? Yeah, he got banged up a little bit.

But I think we'll still squeak past Indiana. I'm not loving our chances in the East anymore now. Just a little too banged up. Even against the Knicks. Knicks no we'll smoke the Knicks but the Knicks are not gonna beat us up do the NBA favor come on come on boys get in there no one's no one's believing in you everyone's counting you out I feel like they could do it I've convinced myself we can win I believed more last year than everybody got hurt what's the serious price than you guys the serious price? I don't plus 550 I Feel like we could do it here. Oh my lord you nailed it. What's my 50? Hey?

Can't be bothered with the old hoops anymore you're done You went from hosting a hoops podcast. Yeah, those are my old days. Now you're all about the fight game. Now you're more inclined to do a karate combat podcast. You're damn right. You probably know more about it. I want to go to a Ryzen event more than I want to go to the NBA fun. That's crazy. That is an earfully in. Well, what a day it has been. Appreciate everyone for tuning in. Thank you so much. Hey, by the way, give us a thumbs up. Hit the subscribe. Let's get those numbers up. We appreciate you and we are growing and

it's all because of you guys, but I haven't said that in a while so I felt compelled. Also sub on the pod platforms as well. Thanks to all of them. Thanks to all of you. Thank you to Volk. Thank you to all our guests. Who else was on the show? Sam Alvey, Corey Sanhagen, and there's one more,

Daniel Rodriguez! Hey, he called us back, he says goodbye, we thank him as well, BACK TOMORROW'S THE TIME OF SISTER, and peace out of here. Who, me?