The Ariel Helwani Show - Alexander Volkanovski, UFC 308 aftermath, Dana vs. Francis beef deep dive, Darren Till, Lerone Murphy

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

Ariel Helwani and The Boys In The Back react to UFC 308, whether Ilia Topuria has a case for Fighter of the Year after his knockout of Max Holloway, Khamzat Chimaev's pursuit of the title after his demolition of Robert Whittaker, and more (18:15).Lerone Murphy discusses his UFC 308 win over Dan Ige, sticking with his "The Miracle" nickname, challenges in the lead-up to Saturday, Ilia Topuria's knockout of Max Holloway, Topuria vs. Volkanovski 2, wanting Brian Ortega or Josh Emmett in March 2025, his chief hater, and more (01:00:58).Ariel Helwani dives deep into the Dana White vs. Francis Ngannou feud following White's latest comments (01:25:23).Darren Till discusses the latest in the MMA world, why UFC/PFL needs to make Francis Ngannou vs. Jon Jones or Tom Aspinall, Khamzat Chimaev's win over Robert Whittaker, why Chimaev deserves the next title shot over Sean Strickland, his mental health, what's next for his career, and more (02:34:17).Alexander Volkanovski discusses his weekend at UFC 308, Ilia Topuria's knockout of Max Holloway, his in-cage conversation with Topuria, how long he's willing to wait, the future of his "Old Man Volk" character, whether he regrets decisions that led to him losing the title, the Fighter of the Year debate, and more (03:05:21).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the L.Y.D. show! Back in your life! I had to wait there. I had to wait for it to play out. I would never speak over the great Lenny Hart. On this Monday, October 28, 2024. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Monday afternoon in New York City. A great day to be alive. I have been foaming at the mouth. I have been foaming at the mouth as far as this particular show goes.

And a little bit rocky out of the gate here. It is not day three. It is, in fact, week three of the Uncrowned Era. We are commencing week three of the Uncrowned Era. Our intro didn't play, but we heard from Lenny, and I was very happy about that. Everything good back there? We good, guys?

Frank, give me a thumbs up to the chat. Thumbs up. Thumbs up everywhere. Yeah, thumbs up to the chat. I have been foaming at the mouth to get to Monday because so much has happened since we last spoke on Wednesday of last week. Of course, we had Boys in the Back on Thursday, another tremendous show. We had The Crack on Friday.

We had 308 on Saturday. But I have been foaming at the mouth because I knew there would be a lot to talk about post-UFC 308. I knew there would be a lot to talk about in the aftermath, where we go from here, but also a whole bunch of stuff has happened outside of 308, which I can't wait to get into. First, let me just say off the bat, a very happy eighth birthday to my beautiful daughter, Claire. Today is her birthday, October 28, 2016. One of, dare I say, the third best day of my life, because her brothers are going to watch this right now and say that she is the favorite. She is

not the favorite, but she is my favorite daughter. Today is her birthday. Can't wait to get home and eat our... What kind of ice cream do you think we got, Frank? Ice cream cake. What do you say? What do you say? What's the favorite? Ice cream cake. What time should it come up? Oh, strawberry. Neapolitan. Strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate. Mint

Oreo is what we got. That is her favorite, and that is what we will be having. I should have known that. Yeah, yeah. That's what we'll be having later on today. So a very happy birthday to my daughter, Claire. Thumbs up to Claire. Thumbs up to the chat.

Thumbs up to the chat. In the chat to Claire. And I'm just so proud of her. I love her so much. So great day today. We have a lot to discuss. We have a lot to discuss, my friends, on this post-pay-per-view Monday. So much has happened since we last spoke.

On Thursday, there I am after our great Simchat Torah celebrations. I hope you had a wonderful holiday, all those who celebrate. I come home and, wow, there's all kinds of content out there. There's all kinds of stuff to react to. There was a Dana White press conference in which he spoke about one Francis Ngannou following the highly anticipated Power Slap event. And I noted on Twitter that, you know, I could go 60 minutes right now just reacting to that three-minute clip. And believe it or not, somewhat to my surprise, I happened to see a lot of response to that, a lot of reaction to that.

People say, please, give us the breakdown. Give us the deep dive. Break out the receipts. That's what I heard. And so today on this program, we will do a deep dive because even after that moment, Francis responded, Dana responded, a whole bunch of more stuff happened, a whole bunch of stuff was said. We are going to do a deep dive unlike any other program. No one does deep dives like us.

No one tells you the truth like us. No one breaks it down like us. No one presents all the facts, all the examples, all the history. And then you decide, like this program, we've done it before. We'll do it again. Stay tuned for that. In addition to that, it was one of those rare, great weekends for me as a sports fan. We had a massive Nottingham Forest win on Friday afternoon against Crystal Palace. Very sorry commiseration, Stevie Cooper.

But what a scene that was. For a moment, we were fifth place, believe it or not. I don't, but what a scene that was, for a moment, we were fifth place, believe it or not, I don't know if you guys know that we were fifth place, we were in Europe, you know what I'm saying, we were playing in Europe, it was unbelievable, now we're seventh, but tied for sixth, really, so it's a great time, Knicks win their first game on Friday, Bills win on Sunday, a bunch of soccer that my kids had, and then, of course, we had 308, we had the watch party that was a great time the guys did amazing everyone did great in the back as well we had a post show all of that is up on our youtube channel right now in addition to that we uh were able to premiere

all of our helwani vision fights uh all those are up from the main card Last weekend, well two weekends ago now In Riyadh We've got The Francis fight, and these are the full fights But it's the Helwani Vision version of them So it's myself And Jake Paul for Francis It's myself and Chael for the Johnny Eblen fight It's myself and Tyron Woodley for the

AJ McKee-Paul Hughes fight It's myself and Megan Anderson For the Cyborg fight, myself and Tim Welch with a great prediction on his part. Those entire fights are up right now on our YouTube channel. So you can go right now and check them out. May I suggest after this program, do it after this program.

And I thought the shows and the fights and the broadcasts went great. Very, very proud of them. So we're able to give them to you now in their entirety. I thought the shows and the fights and the broadcasts went great. Very, very proud of them. So we're able to give them to you now in their entirety. So all that happened. And then we get to today's program. And of course, we're going to talk a lot about 308,

what transpired on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Ilya Tuporia, still the featherweight champion. More on him in a moment. You saw afterwards Alex Volkanovsky stepping into the cage it appears as though they're going to run it back they first fought back in February it's been a long layoff for Vogue by the time this fight happens it'll probably be over a year and so we'll talk to Alex Volkanovsky later in the program about his trip about the fight and about that rematch prior to to that, we are going to be joined by Darren Till. Of course, Darren Till knows a thing or two about Hamza

Chamaev and Robert Whitaker. What a co-main event that was. So we'll catch up with Darren Till, get his thoughts on that and more. And at around two o'clock, we're going to be joined by Lerone Murphy, the miracle, who had one of his biggest wins against Dan Ige this past Saturday. He had to overcome some adversity, but he remains unbeaten in the UFC. He remains undefeated and is champing at the bit, as they say. Or is it chomping? It's champing, and I'm very proud of you right now. Thank you.

Well, I do think it is chomping, but I think it's pronounced more chomping it's chomping and i'm very proud of you right now thank you well i do think it is chomping but i think it's pronounced i think it's champing but i think it's pronounced more chomping i think um people have just thrown caution to the wind to just say whatever the hell they want but it's actually champing so it so are you making a reference to another misnomer when you say caution to the wind i am actually yes which one's that like? No, I misunderstood what you're asking. I thought you meant another. You know what? I thought there's a couple of them like nip in the bud.

Oh, what is it? Irregardless? Yes, couldn't care less. Legit? God, I hate that one. No, I say that one a lot. I'd say legitimately. What's wrong with that?

That's true. I say legit a lot. I don't know if that's a knock on me or anything. But fine. Anyway. Still got that aura. Yeah. Champing.

Champing at the bit. Anyway, Lerone Murphy, he'll join us as well. So stay tuned for the Francis Dana deep dive. That comes in the second hour. And I think it will be of great interest to a lot of you. But let us talk about 308, what transpired on Saturday at the, people say I'm pronouncing Etihad Arena incorrectly. Etihad.

Is it because I'm saying Eddie? Etihad. Do you prefer Etihad? It's sort of like Toronto. Like we don't say Toronto. We say Toronto. So if you prefer Etihad, then fine. By the way, speaking of the united arab emirates and

abu dhabi slash dubai are you guys familiar with this dubai chocolate anyone hear about this no tell us well i was walking by a store yesterday like a chocolate slash nut store and they were they were uh they were advertising dubai chocolate were advertising Dubai chocolate. And, uh, my son, Walter told me that, uh, this is what everyone's talking about on, on YouTube in particular. There's a ton of videos, people reviewing them, trying them. It's, uh, it's a huge hit. And so we had to buy it. And then I told my sister about it and she too said, uh, she's heard all about it. And then my dad went to buy it so anyway it's it's uh it's a chocolate that is sort of um it's sort of like has a hard shell

and then it has pistachio and kataafia or something it's not quite my son told me baklava in between but it's not baklava but it has that sort of peanutty pistachio paste, almost like a little of a wetter texture than if it was like a Reese's. But it has like a peanutty coffee

taste. Phenomenal. Phenomenal for real. Have you tried it? I haven't tried it. I'm looking at pictures of it and like this looks right up my alley. It's all the rage. You're bringing some tomorrow, you said. Have you tried it? I haven't tried it. I'm looking at pictures of it, and this looks right up my alley. It's all the rage. You're bringing some tomorrow, you said. Well, we ate it all. Let's go get some tonight after the show.

I don't know why it's such a... What was that? No, no, no, no, no. Francis, you're wrong. It's fantastic. You've got to try it. You have to try it, because I don't know where he found out that it's all the rage and why it has become, but if you Google Dubai chocolate, there's all these reviews.

There's all these things about it. So, in honor of 308, actually, you guys should have done a fight feast on the Dubai chocolate, there's all these reviews, there's all these things about it. So in honor of 308, actually, you guys should have done a fight feast on the Dubai chocolate. We'll do a makeshift one after the show tonight.

All right. Yeah. A little review. Do you think your dad's on TikTok? Is that maybe where this came from? Oh, well, no,

my son was the one who confirmed, but my, no one uses TikTok more than my dad. All right. I believe it. My dad is a hardcore TikTok user. All day sending me stuff from TikTok. So I don't know if you were mocking him.

No, I follow him. Oh, wow. That's good. He doesn't post much, but he's certainly all about it. Okay, so we have the Dubai chocolate, but 308 has come and gone, and Ilya Teporia is the man. Ilya Teporia is the still reigning and defending UFC featherweight champion. What a

performance against Max Holloway. He becomes the first man to knock out Max Holloway. He hands Max Holloway his first stoppage loss, believe it or not, since his UFC debut back in February of 2012. And again, this is an Ilya Tepuria who is still relatively young, just 27 years young, goes in there, talks the talk, walks the walk, said he'd be the first one to knock him out. No problem, goes in there, third round. Now you can make the argument one, one going into the third, but I mean, the action from the get-go was as high level as it got. The boxing was great. The kickboxing is great. The oblique kicks the calf kicks i mean just look at these shots right here it was everything we wanted this fight to be and more he hits him

with a right hand a just absolute vicious right hand that clearly rocked max holloway goes to the body left hook to the face ground and pound that. That's all she wrote. He gives off the bow, a show of respect, reminiscent of Mayhem Miller and Kazushi Sakuraba back in the day. That's what I thought of. Certainly not the only time it's happened. And then in the middle of the cage, a little tea drink. I guess it could have been an espresso, but it was certainly this. I thought of Kermit theit the frog that meme and then you got the whole family in there you got sergio ramos in there and and to me this felt a little different than what transpired in february february was his arrival there were still questions about

him going into that fight and there were still some questions let's be fair going out of that fight going into that fight he had you know really one super high profile win, and that was the Josh Emmett fight, which happened eight months prior. He fights an Alex Volkanovsky that took a fight on short notice just about four months prior. He gets knocked out. First time, you know, we ever see him in danger like that. The questions were, would that change him? The questions were, would he, you know, would he be coming back too soon? Would that affect him? And so even though Ilya won decisively, I still felt like there were some questions. Fast forward two months, Max takes the fight against Justin Gaethje and it's a one-sided beatdown. It's a knockout of the year as of of right now, still, in my opinion, the knockout of the year.

It's an iconic moment. And they do flash Ilya on the screen. And everyone's like, oh, he's scared. He's spooked, this and that. Never believed that for a moment. But there was this doubt that he is meeting a revived Max Holloway, a Max Holloway who's enjoying this resurgence, all this stuff. And Max looked great.

But in the end, this is Ilya's time. And so to me, February was the arrival. This past Saturday was the birth of his superstardom. This past Saturday was him announcing to the world that he is one of the faces of the UFC, that he is an actual superstar, that he can back it all up, that he can talk the talk, that he's got the aura, he's got the, that he's got the aura, he's got the charisma, he's got the look, he's got the branding, he's got the backing of two major countries. He's got a whole freaking market that has never enjoyed any kind of success as far as MMA is concerned. Spain, he's the one leading the charge from Georgia as well it's such a unique he's he I mean you look at that guy you don't there's no one that is indifferent towards Ilya Teporia you

look at Ilya Teporia and you either love everything that he's about you love that he's talking to talk you love the way he dresses the way he talks or he bothers you you think he's cocky you think he's he's he's disrespectful this that I don't think he's cocky. You think he's disrespectful, this, that. I don't think he is, to be honest. I mean, you saw what he said to Volk afterwards. You saw what he said about Max. I don't think he is, but I can see how people may feel that way. But you feel something. And it's also very reminiscent of a few years ago with Conor because of his age. He's just 27. He's just getting started. And again, as I said in the post-show, I do have to give massive credit to Malki Kawa and Abe Kawa. They told me years ago,

they found the guy in Spain who's going to be the next big deal. And my initial reaction was like, yeah, this is just another, you know, another example of an agent manager saying, I got the guy, this is going to be the next, he's going to be the next big thing all that stuff and more like who comes from spain like who who emerges from spain to be a ufc champion and and they were right and they were right i mean he is an absolute stud a superstar and it's exciting it's exciting to see where he goes from here and as i said before the fight this was really a win-win for the ufc from a standpoint, better for the UFC to have Ilya as champion right now because of the keys that he holds to all these different markets,

because he's fresh, because he's young, all that stuff. Max is still the BMF champion. They can promote it whichever way they want in his next fight if, in fact, he defends it. But Max is so popular and has done so much in his career, he doesn't need the belt. He doesn't need to be in title fights he could still headline espn plus shows espn shows uh pay-per-views with the bmf title he doesn't need it ilia does need it at this juncture if he would have lost he would have gone all the way to the back of the line and people

would have said he was a fraud and all this stuff and so so I think this is a win-win for the UFC. You know they are just giddy over the possibilities. Dana White already revealing that they've talked to Madrid and Barcelona. I think they need to do everything in their power to figure out how to go to the Bernabeu. If they can't go to one of those markets, he'll be treated like an absolute superstar, like an absolute stud. Max will be fine. There are plenty of options out there. He said, give me Dustin. Who wouldn't sign up for that? If the Conor fight is out there, who wouldn't sign up for that? If there's a litany of other people at 55 or even 45, who doesn't sign up for Max at

this stage of his career? He's still relatively young as well. He's taking shots. He's been around. It's incredible his longevity is because he entered the UFC at such a young age, 20 years young, but he's still so very popular. On Bill Simmons' show on Thursday, Bill asked me who to compare him to, and I was struggling in the NBA, and I was struggling with an example, but the next day, Rick hit me up, and he was 100% right. He's Steph Curry. Everyone loves him. Everyone wants to be like him. Everyone admires him. No one really truly hates him. And so he's still that guy, whether

he's a champion or not. So I think this was the absolute best case scenario for the UFC. Now the question is, will Teporia's next fight be in Spain? Will they bring him somewhere else? There doesn't appear to be a ton of questions as far as who's next for him. That appears to be Alex Volkanovsky and I can't wait. And I think Alex Volkanovsky deserves it. Uh, you know, he gave, he gave a second chance to, to, um, to Max actually a third as well. Um, you know, the, the, the Aldo fights, all that stuff. Like he has been that guy for the ufc and um and has

done everything that they've asked of him and more showing up to be a backup fighter here to be a backup fighter they're traveling long distances it's got to be alex volkanovsky and and and there's no guy waiting there it's not like a magomed on kalayev situation with roundtree fighting where you're like oh gosh they're skipping over over this guy. Diego Lopez was the backup fighter on Saturday and he's probably one away at this point, but he's not getting screwed here. There's plenty of time for him to fight for a belt as well. So featherweight alive and well. I've reacted to it. I didn't get a ton of reaction from everyone on the team. So let us say hello to everyone on the team on this beautiful Monday afternoon. Ah, yes, there are the lads.

Hello, everyone. Hello. Well, we had actually Rick and GC reacting to the Teporia win on the watch party. This would be a good time to show that in case you missed it. Here are the on the watch party uh this would be a good time to show that in case you missed it here are the boys live watch party redecorating our beautiful studio here reacting it looked great it did look fantastic it did look we gotta iron them next time but the flags no i thought it

was a great look it was just like we don't care yeah uh here they are reacting to to pour his win over max holloway is raw i feel like this is the first time I've ever seen that. Another big right. Max is... Oh! Oh, my God! Max Holloway just finished him! He just knocked down Max Holloway!

Wow! This dude is a fucking freak! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Holy shit! Oh, my God! I cannot believe this he slept max holloway he slept max holloway oh my god gc's i cannot believe that he's he's a freaking freak he's been on his knees for 30 seconds my god holy shit what's going on in your mind there gc

i just i just couldn't believe that we were actually watching it and a lot of people pointed out the uh he's a fucking freak straight into dropping to my knees like uh yeah i just kind of like blacked out i couldn't believe it i was i was in shock man i mean to pour you just he just does everything that he says he's gonna do he said he was gonna be the first guy to knock out max holloway uh and that's what he did he he gave us an insane moment uh and yeah i don't really have much much else to say i mean you saw the reaction right there this guy's a fucking freak is an all-time call it's like uh he just nailed that i mean he is a freakish right hand and a left hand. Shades of Semtex Daily, PT.

We've all kind of weighed in at this point. You haven't had that opportunity. Your thoughts on what we saw Saturday from Emilia Teporia. Absolutely brilliant. I agree with you on that. It's a superstar moment. And, you know, you talk about Malky and the lads fighting Teporia.

And your dad wrote there was something about the guy very early on. I remember he popped up in Cage Warriors to fight Brian Boulon, a really, really good Belgian bantamweight in 2018. Ilya missed weight, but we'd never heard of him on this scene, and we're like, oh, this must be some guy they're serving up to Brian Boulon for a big win to put him in the title picture and to pour you went through him like a knife through butter and ever since then he's just been that finisher been that guy kind of believing in himself talking out loud about how

he's the best and then proving it and really it's a testament to him and how big he is what he's doing how how incredible it is that you know for all the talk over the years of stadium shows be it cowboy stadium be a crow park uh allegiance stadium las vegas it seems like the most likely stadium show the ufc is going to do is either in santiago bernabeu or the camp new at this stage so incredible stuff i just really hope we get that moment like this is something that we talk about very often when something like this happens we're all focused on let's do the stadium show let's have that big moment for the sport especially in europe where it's you know bounds

behind where it is in in the us if they did something like that would be incredible i just hope they actually make it happen and i know there's a lot of things to go along with that. Like, you know, stadiums in general, open air, all that kind of stuff, just the logistics of having that many people at an event, but surely they have to strike while the iron's hot here. Correct me if I'm wrong. The, the new Bernabeu doesn't have a retractable roof. That's right.

Yeah. That's what I've been told too. Um, they made, they made all these renovations to it, right. And this thing that the, the, the that the pitch opens up and all that stuff. So it seems, and he is such a staunch Madrid supporter. Yes. That whole thing on Saturday where this just so happened to go, you know, head to head with El Clasico, Barcelona versus Madrid,

and then the president of La Liga weighing in. Have you seen that? It's unbelievable. He's weighing in saying like, hey, don't take it out on us. We didn't know this was going to happen. It's just completely absurd and just speaks to how big of a star he's become in such a short amount of time. And what about Daniel Cormier, that troll? We see the moment of him whispering in his ear. This guy's over the moon. He's a hardcore fan. And what does he whisper in his ear This guy's over the moon He's a hardcore fan And what does he whisper in his ear in that moment? He whispers that they're down 2-0 at that time

Why would you say that to him? You know what that is? That's a Max Holloway friend Trying to rain on Toporia's career On his parade If I had a great moment in my life And someone's like, yeah, the Knicks are losing by 20 to the Celtics That would kind of dampen my mood.

That would annoy me. Why would he do it right then and there? Also shows how big of a football fan DC is these days. This is the middle of the pay-per-view broadcast and he's up to speed on the score. Yeah, that's what I thought myself. Fair play,

Cormier. But the tea drinking thing is actually a Sergio Ramos celebration. So Sergio Ramos was in the building and he did a kind of a variation of this tea drinking thing he used to do with another player where they'd link arms and do the tea. So I think that was great.

Wow, I love that. Okay, thank you. See, it's good to have a European on the team here too. How big is the Sergio Ramos link up between him and Teporia? And look, you just mentioned La Liga there a minute ago, Ariel.

They're actually partners with the UFC, the league, as in when they're showing games over there, they'll have, um, you know, the likes of to pour you there. They'll be referencing,

uh, upcoming UFC events during the little league of broadcast, which makes it an even more open goal. You'd imagine for this to happen. Um, Ramos thing is huge. Like you're talking about one of the, the icons of Spanish football, World Cup

winner, you know multiple time Champions League winner, the legend of Real Madrid, one of the greatest football players from one of the greatest football nations, you really can't get much better than him and a true icon of Madrid I think he's really put

Ilja over to a whole new fan base and things like this don't happen very often, you know, like when you have a guy from MMA getting that kind of mainstream approval, I guess you'd say. So it's massive. It feels like it's closer than ever. I want to ask you, though, how likely do you think it is? Because you tend to shatter my dreams every time I'm getting very hyped up

about the possibility of a European stadium show. I mean. Which has never happened to be fair. Sure, sure. The fact that Dana said they're talking to Barcelona Madrid is promising. He also said he was talking about the stadiums, Bernabeu, Camp Nou, as the backups, which was wild. Like he said, you know, we'll look at the arenas and if we have to do a stadium, we'll do a stadium. But I think he just likes the intimacy. i think he likes to be able to control i think he doesn't like the fact that

the octagon looks small in the midst of a sea of people but it just makes him out to be such a big deal and such a bigger star i i could be wrong i mean i certainly know that there's never been a major mma show one of these stadiums has there been boxing or something like that? I don't know. I doubt it. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's so tribal and he's such a Madrid supporter. I do sort of think like it will hit a little different if it's at Camp Nou, right? Where Barcelona plays. Like it has to be Bernabeu or nothing, right?

Yeah. This is like, these are like the two biggest rivals in world football. Yeah, you can't bring that up. You know how toxic it is in the football world, Ariel, if anyone knows you enough. Yeah, sure. You know, even, like they are, it's a funny moment.

If you go back and watch the press conference on Thursday, Dana... I feel like if they want to put him, you know, if they want to put his best foot forward, they do it in Madrid. He knows all the players. Did you see him walking on the pitch when all the players are running over to shake his hand to be like,

Oh my God, this is great. I'm getting to meet Ilya to pour you. It's insane. Um, one, one issue. Um,

I do feel like they have opened a state of the art arena in Madrid too. I don't know if it's opened that long but you're talking exactly what the UFC look for when they're trying to do events I think it's like 18 to 20,000 you know absolutely perfect for a UFC event so I fear that that would

be a way too appealing option for the UFC to pass up instead of doing this gargantuan stadium which will have to change their production everything probably to the scale of what we saw the sphere to be fair because just the sheer size of this thing so so rick you know you guys were freaking out over what we we saw should it be that big of a surprise like i i felt like max's when max lost the third fight to volkanovski, I didn't see this renaissance coming. What he did to Calvicator, to Arnold Allen, certainly to Justin Gaethje. But at some point you had a feeling like it could come if he fought a heavy puncher because of all

the damage he's taken, because of all the shots he's taken, and because of his just longevity in the sport, it gets everyone at some point. so this is not me monday morning quarterbacking but i i felt like to porio was the favorite and rightfully so and i felt like he was tailor-made to get max because of how hard he punches i wasn't there uh personally i can't speak for like what the general sentiment is like elliot to porio was a was a pretty Like Ilya Teporia was a pretty decent-sized favorite, and Max was a pretty decent-sized underdog. So I think the general public sentiment seemed to land in that spot. For me, though, Max has one of those chins that's like god-tier, legendary,

top of the top, cream of the crop. And eventually those go, but you kind of have to see it. And for me, I needed to see it, and we saw it on Saturday. Now, I will say for the record, like it seemed like Ilya had to land like three nukes on him before he really went down. So it still speaks to the durability that Max Holloway has,

even after absorbing like the most strikes ever while dishing out the most strikes ever. I needed to see it. I definitely did not discount that possibility. I definitely thought ilia could knock him out there was no doubt he's just so clean technically it's not like a it's not like a francis and ganu just like touch of death dionte wilder it's that he is so technically clean and his hands are so fast and he's so crafty that he just puts you in these

positions where you can't avoid the big shot. So I thought it was a possibility, but I had to see it because of how much respect I have for Max's durability. All right. So I have a revelation to make. Yes. Three weeks ago in our Pardon Our Dust post-307 show, I believe it was – Oh, boy.

Yeah, no, I believe. I think I know where this is going. I believe I was very decisive in my stance that I don't care what happens at 308, Alex Pereira is the male fighter of the year. Not only that, he's the MVP of the UFC and on and on it goes. And I believe I even named check Shaheen Alshadi

who said, if something like this happens, it's, it's a Ilya or if Max wins. And I was like, there's no way, there's no way. Now, here's what I want to say. And, and, and I have no problem, you know, putting my hands up. And by the way, I don't know if you noticed after the show on Saturday, I went for a run at like 9 PM and I tripped on the sidewalk, uneven sidewalk, face plant. Luckily the moneymaker's okay But I'm I don't know

Can you guys see that Yeah Knees all beat up I mean it was Wow that's That's tough right there It was It was ugly

It was face It was like this How about the post event run Yeah Had to clear some steam I was I was Amped up

Fired up yeah Total faceplant Knee Shoulder Hurting Should have posted pic It was so bad Write it up there With Whitaker's picture You know We were amped up. We were fired up, yeah. Total face plant, knee, shoulder, hurting. Should have posted pic. It was so bad.

You write it up there with Whitaker's picture, you know. And it all kind of happened in slow motion. It was tough. It was tough. It was tough on the body. It was tough. Okay, let's get to the revelation though. Okay.

What is the revelation? Let's hear it. You did some digesting on Sunday. After you witness it, and after you see the superstardom, and after you digest the two fights, I do believe that there is now a discussion to be had. There's absolutely a discussion. There's a discussion to be had between who is in fact the male fighter of the year.

Is it Alex Pera, who won three fights this year, who defended his title successfully against Jamal Hill, who defended his title successfully against Yuri Prokhaska, and then of course against Kalo Rountree, or Ilya Teporyaoria who defeated volkanovski to win the title in february and then defeats max holloway to retain the title three versus two which historically you always you always favor three but i feel like there is a very strong discussion to be had and and and and very strong points be made for both guys. And I was going through it, the pros and cons yesterday. And so I want to ask you guys about

this because I will lay it out. Alex Pereira won three times, Ilya won twice. If you do like a strength of schedule thing, you can make a strong case that the two wins given who they are and and and their their resumes and their stature in the sport outweigh are greater than the three combined here now you can also talk about Pereira taking a fight on short notice 300 super short notice 303 and relatively short notice 307 one of those wins against someone he already beat another one of those wins against a guy coming off an achilles injury another one of those wins coming off a guy who was ranked eighth as opposed to this guy ilia taporia who's beating arguably you know the second greatest featherweight champion of all time if not the first and then if if if Volk is the second Max is the third and if Volk is the first

Max is maybe the third or the second and then of course Gisele those in there you know take your pick and so I think there's a discussion to be had I feel confident though in where I've ended up but I think it was was it was it Rick or there that said definitely? I think it might have been GC there. You agree there is now a discussion to, you said it. It's the quality of these two wins. He won the title against Alexander Volkanovsky, who had never lost at featherweight. I understand everyone is pointing to the Islam Makachev head kick. He's coming back too soon. This guy had never been defeated at featherweight before,

and he knocks him out in the second round. And now he goes against Max Holloway, who's 18-3 at featherweight over the last 10 years, those three losses only being to Alexander Volkanovsky, who he defeated earlier. And then just to call a shot, I'm going to be the first to knock out Max Holloway, and he does so in the third round. It's the fact that not only are these guys all-time greats in the division, it's the way that he's winning as well, knocking out both these dudes, being the first guy to knock out max holloway he's become this superstar of the sport he's had i mean like back-to-back wins like where like in in ufc history this has to make a short list of like the greatest back-to-back

wins ever to say that it's that there's not even a discussion it would be would be ridiculous in my opinion okay so as of right now, and feel free to say, nope, our show is in January. Do you have a pick in your mind? I'm like you. I'm trying not to have recency bias after watching that insane event on Saturday, that insane moment,

because everything that Alex Pereira has done this year is also unbelievable. Three title defenses. I think it's the fastest time to get to three title defenses in UFC history, if I'm not mistaken. He beat Ronda on that. And just the way that he did those as well. All three coming by knockout, all three in massive spots, saving cards for the UFC, saving the promotion. It's amazing that we get to have this discussion, that we have these two unbelievable fighters, these two superstars of the sport. I have not decided yet.

I need to digest more. I need to get away from Saturday. I need to get further away. My official decision will come in January. PT, how did you feel before Saturday and any pause on the Monday? I felt like I was a bit all shoddy. I thought it was an open book when Ilya could have

knocked, I actually thought he would knock Max out as outrageous a prediction that is given Max Granich in. He's like a lighter weight Mark Hunt. But look, is it just about fighting? Fighter of the Year?

I'm asking you. Is that rhetorical or legit? Yeah, I don't know i'm asking you is it is it just about fighting no i think there's there's other factors i i agree i think it's i think it's the context i think it's the story it's not just the result i think so too well that's when you you know you look at pareda becoming the cultural residence he's had a guy who can't speak english becoming the face of this promotion a guy stepping up on short notice when the supposed superstar of the group conor mcgregor can't deliver here comes pareda then he shows up again on a with the same injury it appears that mcgregor had to pull out

for and wins by ko i do not put the same amount of value on pareda's wins as i do to Bury's. I don't think you can correlate Jamal Hill, Prohaska coming off an injury, and then, of course, Roundtree. I don't think you can correlate that to Volkanovski and Max Holloway when it comes to featherweights. I think Ilya is leaps and bounds ahead, but

as you say, it's about much more than fighting, and Pereira has been an absolute you know he has been the guy all year I think he's the face of the promotion I agree with GC it's fantastic that it feels like they have superstars in different regions here now because Tapori is blowing up over here he's obviously blown up in the US but not to the level of a Pereira I feel so yeah I think it's very much in the air, and I'm looking forward to the show in January. What about you, Eric?

I'm still on Alex Pereira, and I don't think I'm going to waver. Did what happened on Saturday give you any kind of pause? By the way, just for the record, I put up a poll Saturday night. 22,418 people voted. 69.6% for Alex Pereira.

Oh, wow. 30.4%. Why is that on Saturday? On Saturday. Yeah% for Alex Pereira. Oh, wow. 30.4%. And that's, why is that on Saturday? On Saturday. Yeah, that's fresh off. An hour later. I would imagine it would only get larger as we get closer to January. All right.

So in case you're wondering right now in the YouTube poll, 67% for Pereira, 33% for Teporia. I will obviously get into this as the year goes on and into January. For me, the context matters. The story matters. I had Alex Pereira as the fighter of the year in 2023 when most people had Sean Strickland because of the story, because of the context. And it is about more than just what on paper the winds say. To me, headlining UFC 300 when they were scrambling for something on short notice to me

coming in with a broken toe and fighting again to me headlining once again in Utah on short notice Alex Pereira goes in there and delivers every single time the strength of competition is not equal but you can kind of just do a little bit of the math of the three gets close to the two in my opinion it still does not surpass it I think those two wins are monumental and and the math still favors ilia zapori there but then when you consider the context to me alex gets the edge and and i remain with alex it is such a fun debate this particular one because usually three versus two the debate's over usually it's a three versus three and now you have something interesting to talk about. But because those two wins were so impressive, so decisive, and against two of the three greatest champions in that weight class, man.

But then the short notice and the way he saved the UFC and the way he beat those guys, it wasn't like there was any super close fight there. Those were all decisive as well, but against top eight, top five, top whatever. Man. One thing I just want to add. You mentioned Volk and Max's all-time greats. I think that's a very important part of the convo, but I think more important is to also point out

the best right now as well. That's the thing that makes it so impressive for me, is that Volk and Max are still the best guys now. Right now, in this moment in time, and he has those wins over them. Um, it's, it's astonishing stuff. It might be the best two back-to-back wins I can think of off the top of my head. Like I don't, I haven't really like thought about it much since Saturday. Um, but to, to knock off those two back-to-back is, is up there all time for back-to-back wins. Yeah, no, there's been a lot.

Jon Jones beating Shogun and then beating Rampage in their prime, 128 and 135 was incredible. There's been some, but to beat literally two and three is pretty damn remarkable. I'm still leaning towards Alex because it's three versus two, because of the short notice Because of what he did It's a conversation And I'm reserving the right to make my final decision

On our award show in January I'm not I'm no longer saying you're an absolute You know I never said buffoon That's how you felt though Do you think you would have felt the same way if Max won Do you think that would have gotten in the way if Max won Do you think that would have

Gotten in the convo It had to be Volk and Max dropping Do you think if Ilya had won by decision You would change Closed decision or dominant 49-46 Probably not To be the first one to knock out Max Holloway

I think the context matters I think it does matter We had this exact conversation last week and I was just like, oh yeah, if he knocks him out, there's a discussion. Yeah, I know.

We clipped it and I got told, I was told I was absolutely insane. Once you see it, once you freaking see the guy out there. I'm not talking just about you on Instagram. My notifications all week were just like,

get this fucking guy off the show. He doesn't know shit. No, no, no. Once you see it, it's 100% a real thing. Anyone have an issue with Volk being next? No. Nah, come on, man. He's the greatest featherweights of all time.

Diego? What's the next? Yeah, it would be just Diego. Nah, Volk is next. Earned it. I like the dynamic. No, I like it. And I like the dynamic as well.

I think we're going to see it in a different way you know he's always been the kind of fired up guy seemingly with this chip on his shoulder as these people just don't understand how damn hard i hit but volk obviously does and they seem to be quite cordial with each other so i like that and before we move on from holloway i thought he did a great job in spells in that fight too i I mean, I think it makes Ilya's win so much better when you consider he had to come through Holloway looking vintage early on. You know, like really disturbing any kind of rhythm that Ilya was trying to establish. He was hitting with beautiful shots.

I thought he looked on fire early. You know, I was like, geez, this is going to be a tough night for ilia go ahead sorry rick i was just gonna say right before the knockout that that last oblique kick looked like it really did some some significant damage to the leg too like that was a that was a hell of a fight by max but i mean ilia just next level his game plan was great uh we did note that it seemed like there was some sort of welt that formed uh a lot of people reminded me afterwards that i guess there's a scar that i just never noticed i'm sorry i haven't examined i was with you i thought it was a well too i mean just the i guess the way it hit and then i just was looking straight at it i didn't notice he also had an

adverse reaction to that that was the first one that really like buckled it. Yeah. And so, yeah, Pizzi's right. Like that was not like a diminished version of Max Holloway. The Volk fight, I think some people will say, you know, the Islam fights and he came back. There's always going to be some kind of reasoning. That looked like Max Holloway that I've seen before in there. And he dismantled him. Pizzi, could, you know, we were just talking about stadium shows, maybe an arena in Spain. Can we commit to a boys

trip if Ilya Tepoya fights in Spain? I've been saying this. I know you'll be down. If it was going to be Holloway-Tepoya there, I was like, I'm going. I'll break the bank. I don't care. If he fights in Spain, I gotta go. Surely we can write this off, Ariel, right?

100%. We need a five-star hotel and a suite to do five fees from them. To really get involved. We'll do a reaction right afterward. Yeah, it'll be good stuff. Great content for the company. Thanks, Ariel.

Cheers. Looking forward to it. Pleasure, pleasure. Salud or what do they say? I don't know. We'll take Spanish classes leading up. That'll go on the company. That's also on the company.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. One-on-one tutoring sessions. Is there any part of you guys who thinks that they try to do Teporia versus Conor? Not next, you mean. Next. Oh, no.

He said call me. What weight division is it going to happen in? Why are we still talking about Conor McGregor? This is mental. How many times do we have to do this?

I mean, I've been doing this for three years now. Every time. Oh, the fight's booked. He's coming back. He said, call me. Did he not retire yesterday? I don't know what that was about. Like this morning, I feel like.

No, he's not. Like every time he goes on one of these tweet storms, you go back the next day and they're just all gone. Like it's like some of them aren't even back. What the fuck are we talking about? What is this? The featherweight champion of the world. He's about to fight in Spain. What's the fuck are we talking about what is this the fed away champion of the world he's about to fight what's the worst thing we can do let's put him in there with connor

can you not acknowledge if they did wait the worst thing could you not acknowledge if they did book it it would be insane business right if they did book it i'm not saying they are i'm not saying it's a thing but i'm just my mind went there because there's so many similarities between them in terms of and i don't even subscribe to the notion that not every cocky person is a conor mcgregor impersonator right it drives me nuts when he's like oh he's just playing a car like there there have been cocky people out there prior to conor mcgregor not everyone is he may have been the best at it i don't think to poureporia is playing. He's not playing. He's not playing Conor McGregor. He's his own guy.

He is how he is, and he backs it all up. I'm just saying, if they did in fact figure that out one day, it would be gigantic. You have to agree on that, right, PT? Look, if he fought like, you know, Moe Ma, it would be huge. It's Conor McGregor.

I mean, is he going to fight? Like, you know, I feel like we just get worked up. Is that the biggest fight that they can make for Conor McGregor? Versus my ma? Is that the biggest? No, Islam. Islam would be bigger. Islam.

I didn't know what you were saying. Now I get it. My ma. Islam having the Habib angle would take that too. I don't know, man. I think Teporia is more popular. Do I agree with Ariel? I think it's bigger. Are you guys out of your minds? Habib in the corner. The build to Teporia

versus Conor Williams. You guys are losing the plot here. I think globally Islam is still a bigger star. There's no way. Can I also say, I think there will be more people who would think that it would be a more even fight. Yeah, but that doesn't matter. This is not about...

Is Conor McGregor's career now sold on what is a competitive fight? I don't think he's in that. I think both Teporia and Islam are likely sizable favorites over him. Islam especially. To me, that's not even... If Islam versus Conor was even a possibility in the world, to me, that's going to crush anything. But Ilya would be the next biggest.

Yeah. I think it's going to be Vogue. It has to. They have a show scheduled for Australia in February. I can't imagine that happens. Even Toporia was saying, like, nah, it's on my time. He did have a kid recently.

So I'd be surprised if he comes back that soon. And credit to Voke, he also even said like, I'll go to Spain, I'll go anywhere. He just wants his belt back. Hamza Chamayev, let me just say, there was a guy who looked exactly like me on the Boys in the Back program on Thursday who said, and I'm not even gonna joke about this.

I said it, I did not see this coming. I wish I said how I felt like the main event was going to go because I felt just as confident. But I was – remember, Rick, do you remember I was about to say and you were like, no, no, no, don't say it, don't say it? Do you remember at one point? Well, because I know you don't go out on the limb this way. So I tried to be a good producer. I'm going back to that stance. I'm not going out on a limb anymore.

The limb was – I don't know the right word for it. You didn't just go out on a limb. I felt it, man. I really felt it. There was one sentence you don't know the right word for it. You didn't just go out on a limb. I felt it, man. I really felt it. There was one sentence you said, no path to victory for him. Yeah, no path. Rob Whittaker felt it too.

You definitely felt it. I felt it. And I have to give him all the credit in the world. That was an incredible showing against one of the best fighters of all time in that weight class and of all time period.

That looked like the Hamza Chamayev of 2020. That looked like the Hamza Chamayev that we all thought was going to be a champion by now two three years I don't know if anyone beats him at 185 if he looks like that I think they should do Hamzat versus DDP but I do want to make this very clear if they already promised it to Sean Strickland I'm not in favor of breaking promises so they'll just have to wait now everyone seems to think that the travel is

going to be okay let's take their word uh for it and and just move on from that obviously if it's an issue then it's an issue that needs to be addressed and that might preclude him from becoming a champion or even fighting for the belt but i was absolutely blown away i couldn't have gotten it wrong there's nothing that i can say say to rectify my bad pick. People make predictions. You go out on a limb, you screw up, you say, I fucked up, all credit to him. To take Robert Whitaker down that quickly, he looks evil in that photo. To take him down and terrifying, and then to do what he did to him, to break his jaw, to neck crank him, where Robert Whitaker is tapping that quickly, that's the guy that we saw in 2020 that we were all blown away by.

And I don't think there's a middleweight on the planet that beats that version of him. I don't, including the champion and including Sean Strickland. I was absolutely blown away by how quickly he did it, how vicious it was, how decisive it was, how one-sided it was. It felt like those videos, Ben Askren squeezing a watermelon and the thing just pops.

Blown away by that. Does anyone feel like they should call an audible and just make that title fight now, DDP versus Hamzat? It's by far the bigger fight. You do. My hand is up. So if you're Sean Strickland, how do you feel right now? Too bad?

I don't give a shit. If I'm Sean Strickland, I feel like I got done wrong because I think he felt like he deserved it already. Tough cookies. I don't know what to say to you. Hamza Chamayev is the champion of the division. Everybody else is fighting for his belt at this point. You can understand there is some issues here right you know we talked about it before like it's to make this guy the champion and look i i was blown

away by the guy i wanted this guy to fight for a title for so long but the inconsistency the issue with locations there was a lot of things to consider when putting Shumayev in that spot. Does he deserve the shot? Absolutely. He's terrifying. He's brilliant. He's explosive. Like, I mean, I am blown away every time I watch this guy.

Like, a guy of Whitaker's level. Like, a champion. One of the great middleweights. He knows exactly what Hamzat is trying to do. And within 15 seconds, Hamzat did it to him. That's crazy. That is really crazy to be that good at your number one skill set that everybody knows it's coming, but they cannot do anything about it.

And the explosion, the distance he covers with these shots, he's absolutely brilliant when it comes to actually fighting. But there are a lot of issues here. And if I was Sean Strickland, I'd be very annoyed with New york rick after what he just said yeah no 100 but if you if you actually look at the body of work like sean strickland he he he gets a title shot against izzy off a win over abu magomedov prior to that he had a win over ima vov at light heavyweight short notice fight prior to that he had two straight losses to jared kennedy and alex perera he beats izzy of course he loses to ddp he beats paulo costa that's the body of work it's it's not exactly like holy shit what a run as opposed to hamza at this point went over robert whittaker

went over kamar usman i know he's a 170 pounder moving up to 185 but he's still one of the best fighters of all time short notice went over kevin Holland, win over Gilbert Burns, win over Li Jingliang. I know Burns is 170, but still like the, and then we get into the Gerald Mearshott run. It hasn't been as many fights because he's been out for so long. He's been averaging pretty much one a year. Hamsat's resume is just as good. The winner for Whitaker versus a winner for Costa is just as good, if not better. I mean, it's Robert freaking Whitaker. It's the span of time. It took Hamza too long to kind of compile those. In the meantime, Strickland had that fight that some people believe he won, I thought was a very, very close competitive fight with DDP,

which is his best case, right? His best case is, I think I beat this guy. There's other people who think I beat this guy. I deserve a crack. And it's a compelling argument. But for business, man, it's Hamzat. But to Pizzi's point, like, the mystery around could it happen, where could it happen, when could it happen, needs to be resolved until we can put a pin in that. There's nothing to say.

Yeah, I mean, there's a chance that they run strict on DDP early 2025, and then, you know, we see Hamzat again around this time next year fighting for the belt. But I think Pete's right. Like, there's implications. If the timing works that way and then we have it in the Middle East, what happens after that? Where does he defend it?

How many times can he defend it? Do you schedule fight nights in the Middle East. What happens after that? Where does he defend it? How many times can he defend it? Do you schedule fight nights in the Middle East just so he can fight? Well, this is something that I thought was interesting during the week. Like on several occasions, Dana was asked about, you know, are you going to broaden the Middle Eastern schedule? And he said yes. So part of me is like if they are going to have concerted, you know, efforts multiple times a year there, it does make it easier to cordon off a division, like, you know, a division's champion if you are going back to this location.

Like, let's not be, let's not be disingenuous. There is, Russian guys always on these cards. That's what they want over there. I was speaking to Dennis Gojko from Red Corner last week and he was like, these are our home cards. We can't go to Russia now. Russian he was like, these are our home cards. We can't go to Russia now. Russian MMA fans feel like these are our home cards. So it wouldn't be absolutely wild to have Hamza on Abu Dhabi cards, Saudi Arabia cards, all those things.

I guess we just need to see how broadened the schedule is in the Middle East. Could he reasonably defend his title every six months from that location if he cannot go to the US? If he can, is it really that big of a deal? And I'm genuinely asking, is it really that big of a deal if we knew? There's an even bigger problem. Sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say there's an even bigger problem, which is

if he gets hurt, if he gets injured, you've got one window and then the next one comes around every so often. The same thing we just saw with Islam, right? Islam was supposed to headline this card. Now we're pushing off Islam's fight many, many months. It's just when you try to thread the needle like this, the best laid plans just never go. They never go the way they're supposed to.

And so you can do that. You can schedule that. But then what happens if his opponent gets injured? Now what? We're holding Hamza again. So there's a lot of complications with this and you started in the right spot whereas like it is complicated to make this happen if we don't have clarity on what else could be possible safe to say though Hamzat versus DDP is infinitely bigger from box office pay-per-view all that stuff and more than DDP Strickland 2 DDP Strickland 1 wasn't that good of a fight

it was it was fine it was close but 1 wasn't that good of a fight. It was fine, it was close, but it wasn't like, holy shit, fight of the year. It just was kind of there. Would Hamzat be the A-side? Against DDP? Yeah, is he a bigger name? Oh, 1,000%, but he wouldn't walk out second. No, no, no, I'm not saying

he gets a different corner. I'm just saying, is he the biggest name in the division? Globally, Hamzat is huge, and he has this aura about him, as much as people tried to write off the aura last week. Und'm just saying, is he the biggest name in the division? Globally, Hamzat is huge and he has this aura about him as much as people, you know, tried to write off the aura last week. Undefeated, wins in such dominating fashion.

Not me. That was Ben Davis. Yep. I quote him. Shout out Ben Davis if anyone else on Twitter. You know, we love to play the game,

the Instagram followers. I mean, Hamzat Shemya has like nine million Instagram followers. He's competing with like the Jon Jones, the Stylebenders, the Islam Makachevs of the world. world like he is incredibly popular who wins that fight

hamza shemai oh okay look that is obviously the natural reaction after what we just saw yeah and yeah he probably he's going to be the favorite and everybody will favor him but i found myself going back over dricks's body of work after this fight. Robert Whitaker is Shemoya's best win. Drix's duplessy has also knocked Robert Whitaker out. I think this is nearly more impressive than submitting Robert Whitaker, to be honest. Not in the way that

Hansa just did it. Robert Whitaker didn't have a second in that fight that was positive. We don't need this nuance. The Sean Strickland fight was a bit, you know, come on, winner learn moment. Robert Whitaker didn't have a second in that fight that was positive. We don't need this nuance. We don't need this nuance. The Sean Strickland fight was a bit, you know, come on. Winner-learn moment. Israel Adesanya, though.

Yeah, it was a great performance. Incredible. Like, they are massive wins. Like, that's nearly, like, not commensurate because, obviously, we just talked about how great Ilya Tabori is. But it is, like, a diet version of what Tabori has done. Whitaker was the champion for a very long time. Adesanya is the champion for like, you know, a generation of fighters basically there.

I think those wins are so impressive and to simply be like, oh, Shemoya's going to come in and fucking ragdoll this guy and it'll be over. I think that's really, really being unfair to DDP. My hot take is that actually I thought the Strickland was one of the more impressive ones of that because

the whole rap on him was the same rap that Hamzat has. He can't last more than two rounds. What happens if he goes into the fifth round? And it turns out he's fine. You know, open nose, full airway breathing nasal passages. DDP is a monster. And so

I was impressed by that. You're right. The body of work is there for him. I just don't see anybody on this planet who stops Hamza Shamaya from doing what he wants to do. I'm so impressed with that version of Hamza. It's great to see that version back. I think a lot of us, or at least I did, thought maybe that we would never see that version again. That is the boogeyman that we saw in 2020. Terrifying.

I would love to see that fight against DDP because DDP is so unorthodox, unconventional, somewhat awkward at times. I feel like he'll be able to, you know, scramble and do the things that he does that sometimes don't look great, but he just kind of figures it out always. Credit to him. He did tweet saying that he wants to be the guy

to take away his O, so it's not like he's shying away from the challenge. And the fight would just be so much bigger. I tend to think that they'll ultimately just do Strickland versus DDP because they promised it to Strickland. I tend to think that, but crazier things have happened. And then hopefully at some point next year, and the timing may actually work out for Hamzat, at least for next year, where they do this DDP fight some point, you know, first quarter quarter and then we get to you know october and now it's time for another title fight and they're back in abu dhabi it may actually work

out without them forcing the issue we know that january is going to be arman uh versus islam and that will be in mid-january and it will be in california and it will most likely be at the new clippers arena the intuit dome i believe it's called. Is it the Intuit Dome or the Intuit Arena? Is it the Dome? Is it Intuit Dome? Yeah. Which is beautiful. It looks unbelievable. February we know is Sydney, TBD on that. And then we get to March, April. I can't imagine them doing Strickland versus DDP in Sydney. There was all kinds of drama surrounding Strickland. The last time he went, political drama of him saying stuff. And I don't think, even though he was a favorite over there, I don't think they go back to Sydney with him. So maybe they do it March or April. And then if they do that fight, then October works out

perfectly. By the way, shout out to both Robert Whitaker and Max Holloway, both handling the losses incredibly well. Whitaker messed up John All. Like, to me, if I messed up my mouth like that, whatever it was that I was doing that messed up my mouth, I would just say, yeah,

I'm not going to do that anymore. Here's Robert Whitaker, smile on his face, double thumbs up to the chat. Thank you everyone for all the love and support. It's a tough gig sometimes, but that's the business. Big congratulations to Hamzat. He was the better man tonight and that's all there is to it. I felt great. Everything was on point and I was ready. My jaw is good, but my teeth were moved in. Just like, you know, my teeth were moved in. It's a good excuse to fix them properly now. Ha ha. I mean, what a guy. I'm disappointed, but I come back better from every setback and every challenge. So this is no different. I want to thank my team and everyone who supported me to get here. Time to go spend time with the family

for a bit. Be back soon. How do you not love this guy? And then here's Max Holloway with a similar sentiment, showing grace, showing class, showing respect. Sometimes you get a highlight, then sometimes you're the highlight. This is why MMA is the craziest sport in the world. Congrats, congrats, excuse me, to El Matador. As to my family, friends, and supporters, we good. The Blessed Express ain't stopping here. We on our way to a new destination. Make sure you have your ticket. Get excited.

Thank you all for the love and support. Much respect. And by the way, yes, in fact, Ilya did point to the center of the cage and Max's response was, here you go, you know, doing the matador bull thing. And I thought Ilya's response to that was very interesting as well, saying like, you're supposed to be the bull.

Bull doesn't do that sort of thing. So all of that was great. And credit to all four fighters, really, for how they competed. But then, of course, the aftermath as well. Our first guest of the day, and and a reminder in about 30 minutes time, we will talk much more about UFC 308. We have to talk about Magomed Ankhalaev. Shara Bullitt was a revelation as well.

Jeff Neal with a huge win over RDA who unfortunately got hurt, but, and we'll also go into the Francis Ngannou Dana White stuff. So stay tuned for that deep dive. But our first guest of the day, I'm sure was very interested in the main event. That's his weight class, but he had a great night as well. A massive win over Dan Ige.

He remains unbeaten. He remains undefeated. The Miracle Man continues his run in the UFC. We're talking to Manchester's own Lerone Murphy, who's kind enough to join us right now. Hello, Lerone. How are you? What's up, Lerone? I'm good, man. I'm good. How are you? What's up, Brouwer?

I'm good, man. I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. Congratulations on the win and congratulations on the decision. I heard yesterday, excuse me, no,

I heard on Friday on The Crack with PT Carol that you were sticking with The Miracle as your nickname. I was a little concerned. I'm not going to lie. I was concerned that we were going to go with Iceman. You are The Miracle, my man.

No one could say that. That's yours. That's unique to you. So thank you for sticking with that and well done on that choice. Yeah. Yeah. I have to stick with it, man. Like you said, it's got its own meaning.

I've just kind of got bored about telling the story, but I guess that's what people want to hear, isn't it? Sure. And like I said, it's a part of your story and what makes you so likable and so easy to root for. And so you gave us another reason to do that on Saturday with that hard-fought victory against Dan Ige. Was that fight tougher than you thought

it was going to be going in? Yeah, it was. I didn't underestimate Ige. He's been in there with the best of the people I highly rate him actually so um I expected a tough fight but I made it harder for myself and I'm not even I don't want to make any excuses but there was a few other factors that I believe played into the into why the fight went like that but yeah i believe i just made the fight harder than it was but obviously dan brought the fight to me early and yeah he done well and the knockdown was pretty sick when you say uh you made it harder on yourself what do you mean by that

i just believe yeah i gave him the opportunity to knock me down it was a sloppy swing from the from the southpaw and he counted it well but uh yeah i made the fight hard even just the transitions in the third in the third i kept falling off the back and then giving up position it was just a sloppy fight from my from me i believe and and uh i know you say you don't want to make excuses you won the fight so there's no real excuses when you win could you tell us about some of those things that you were dealing with and are you referring to things before the fight or during the fight yeah i just i think it was just a few different things yeah but uh one thing i will discuss is the weight is the weight cut i had a good weight cut leading leading up to the fight i've done well and i had like a kilo to cut in the morning or something,

something small like that, and ended up cutting, ended up weighing in about 143 or something, high-end 143, and I was just like, and I depleted myself for nothing because my scales were broke, and then my rehydration was going wrong, I felt sick. And I didn't end up beating until about 1 o'clock and I weighed in at 9 o'clock. So it just didn't feel right. And then obviously that affects the mental

and stuff like that. But it's all part of the game. And I'm guessing a lot of fighters go through it as well. So I wasn't even going to mention it. Has that ever happened to you before? It hasn't. It hasn't. It hasn't it hasn't it hasn't and i don't want it to happen again these are things i need to tighten up because again it's a top

opposition them little one percent there you lose them little one percent and you lose the fight how do you think that affected you on saturday in terms of just like your energy and how you were feeling overall just warming up and stuff like that i just didn't feel like i had that pop didn't feel like i had that that zip energy and i think i think it's shown in the fight i think it's shown in the fight but listen it was a good fight it's a good scrap entertaining back and forth and competitive fight so it's like i show it in really big mention it really no it's all good we appreciate the honesty sometimes you see that when when someone comes in you know a couple pounds lighter that means you know i guess to the the untrained eye if you will you'd say like oh easy wake up but

that's usually a telltale sign that something went wrong right because those if you're weighing 143 for a 146 fight no one wants to cut extra weight right so that's usually a sign that something went off yeah exactly it don't really make sense and like i said i had a smooth cut up until the fight i don't cut stupid weight i do it professionally and then i woke up on on the morning of the weigh-ins one kilo over that's nothing that's 2.2.2 pounds or something. And they ended up cutting double that. So it's a mistake on my part.

I had the dodgy scales, so I can't blame nobody but myself. What were you thinking going into the second round after what transpired in the first? Oh, I just thought it's on now. It's time to go to war now. I believe in myself. I always believe in

myself I made a mistake I've been there before and I've come back I've come back so it's just like for me I've been there twice now so it's just like and I don't want to make a habit of that either but um it's just like it's a fight man it happens and you can't you can't dwell on the past in a fight you just gotta get get cracking and get back it. And I felt like I turned it on in the second, third round and made a sloppy takedown attempt and he counted it. And then that's what kind of evened up the round. But other than that, he didn't land a punch after that, after he dropped me early.

You're trying, and your record would certainly back you up, you're trying to take that big step in the weight class was there any part of you that felt like you were you were putting yourself out there to try to get an emphatic victory a stoppage so you know usually you know how the game goes you get one of those it tends to vault you up a little quicker as opposed to several decisions in a row did that creep into your mindset at all yeah of course man i wanted to go out there and put on a clinic i wanted to put on a big fight i wanted to put on an excellent performance and get catapulted into the top of the division it's all performance based in the ufc i believe once

you're in the top 15 you're two fights away from a title shot you just need two solid performances nobody's ever finished danie gay is tough and i knew that i knew that going into the fight but i believed i could have got could have got the job done um so i went in there with that mindset and he even said it in the in the in the interviews before i just wanted to point out there that that's what i'm going for and i wanted to make a statement that night What were you thinking before they read the scorecards? I knew I wouldn't fight. I knew I wouldn't fight. But obviously, you never know, right?

You never know. I looked at the statistics, actually, and it was 16 significant strikes to me to his three. He had control time, but he didn't throw a punch. In MMA nowadays, if you don't take him down, it's just a change of position, right? If you don't't take them down it's just a change of position right if you don't throw a punch it's just a change of position so um i knew i wouldn't fight i knew it was close but i definitely wouldn't fight did you stick around to watch the main event you're away class like i said eventually you want to be in that spot uh did you get a chance to watch it live

i watched it at home yeah We got back to the hotel, we put it on, but yeah, it's a great performance by Tepori. Our mats look like he's picking up momentum as well, so,

but Tepori touches guys to go down and to stop him and vote back-to-back, it's like, the kid's on fire, man.

The kid's on fire. Were you expecting that? I don't think, I think everybody knew it was a 50-50 fight well, you have to have to expect that with with him it's like He doesn't it's a vote. So it's like of course he can do it to max to the guys got power. I Felt like there were some people even after the first folk fight who weren't giving him the respect and credit that he deserved and now i don't know like you're just a hater if you if you do that like how can you not respect this guy after those two wins in particular not to mention

the josh emmet win how did you feel about him post folk going into this one and and is that any different than how you feel about him now no i've i see i've seen his skills from a while back. I watch fights very deeply and the technical aspects and from the Josh Emmett fight, I think he gave my respect there. I knew it was the real deal from that fight. The skill

set is shown in that fight, his boxing skills, his range, his footwork and his power and I just knew from then. So going into the Max fight, I knew it was and his power. And I just knew from then. So going into the max fight, I knew it was a 50-50 fight. And I knew it could knock him out. Who would you fancy in a Volk rematch? I would have to go to Poria again, just because he's KO'd him before.

And the confidence in fighting is just different. It's like your attributes just times by 10, um and i think he's just on fire and i think it's just his time right now yeah folks coming off two ko losses now listen provokes a goat and i respect him highly but i just believe it's it's all his time right now when you see toporia when you see that fight on saturday do you think about yourself in those fights do you say to yourself like that's where i it's Teporia's time right now. When you see Teporia, when you see that fight on Saturday, do you think about yourself in those fights? Do you say to yourself, like, that's where I want to be.

Obviously, it's your weight class. And in your heart of hearts, how far away do you think you are from being in that discussion? Of course, I'm looking at the champion. I have to be. I have to be. What am I doing here?

If I'm not, I have to be looking at them guys. And that fight was, for me, was like, boom. I had to watch that fight and see the levels and think yeah right that's where I need to aim for I've got a lot of work to do a lot of work to do I can't be making the mistakes I was making on Saturday night against guys like that and you're going to sleep straight away so um go back to the drawing balls got a lot work to do. And I believe I'm still two fights away. I just need to make some small changes. And I'll be back to me. And I'll be back making noise again.

So you did call out or say at least that you're interested in Josh Emmett next. Why was he the name that came to mind? Do you know what? Looking at the rankings, he's coming off a big knockout win over Bryce Mitchell. I would have called out Brian Ortega. But he's coming off a loss, and I don't really believe in that, but I think it's a good fight, him or Josh Emmett.

They're both, what, number five and six maybe? I can't remember the rankings now. But anybody in that top ten, to be honest, I don't really discriminate, but I just believe that Josh Emmett's a scary match-up. Power puncher, again, light to Porio, and I believe he'll bring the best out of me. That's why I called him out. I just believe that Josh Emmett is a scary matchup, power puncher, again, like Teporia,

and I believe he'll bring the best out of me. That's why I called him out. But I think the Ortega fight's a good fight too. Do you feel confident that you will get a name like a Josh Emmett or even a Brian Ortega? Ortega probably more popular, famous, but to your point, Emmett coming off a win, I think either one would be fantastic for you. Do you feel confident you get someone like that next? sure bro i'm 15 and all now 15 and all i can't be denied now

i've had eight fights in the ufc half of my professional fights in the ufc like i'm solidified now in this division they have to have to give me they give me a good shot now. I believe I can perform much better than I did, like I said, and give me another opportunity to do so. Give me Brian Ortega or Josh Emmett in March. Let's go. That's a couple of times now

that you've said you feel like you could have done better. Are you unhappy after this fight? Are you unhappy after the performance? I think you have to be uh you have to be listen i rate dani gay's skill set i rate him highly i've been watching him for years now but i believe the fight shouldn't have been that close if if i believe i'm as good as i as i am it shouldn't have been that close i made it hard for myself and even just a lot of mistakes i made when i watched it back i watched it about 50 times already they're not mistakes i should make in it and everybody all

all the people that know me all the people that around me and my coaches they know that that that was 50 of me so that's what gives me confidence knowing that i've got more in the tank and i can show it and i'm gonna show it does that piss you off when you see those mistakes? You watch it 50 times, you say, since Saturday. That's like less than 48 hours ago. Yeah, it does. It hurts me bad because as a fighter, we only get 15 minutes to get everything perfect,

almost like 15 minutes. So in sparring, you're getting five rounds, maybe twice a week. So these mistakes, you get to watch it, you get to go back, you get to correct them. But this is test day, right? This is test day and you've got to get it all right. And it's just like, it's harder, man.

You're under a bit of pressure. And actually, Topore come up to me in the changing rooms actually he said he said it's just another day of sparring and that's kind of stuck into me his mindset going into fights is different and that's why he's performing um and maybe that's how i look i need to look at it it's just another day of sparring uh you so you you shared changing rooms with him well i was getting ready to go out and he come in so okay pretty much interesting and was there anything you were able to observe about his demeanor or was it too quick

bro he's relaxed he he he he was already counting his money before even going into going into a fight that's how that's how relaxed he was he was. He had his top off. He's chilling, cracking jokes. And for him to come over to me and say that, he's like, you're relaxed, bro. He's relaxed. Are you not that way?

What's that? Sorry. Sorry. Are you not that way? Are you a ball of nerves before your fight? It's not my nerves. I'm just like

in some mad kill mode. I'm just like, like pumped. Like, I don't know. I don't know. But he just seemed chill chill i'm not cracking no jokes in the back i'm thinking about this bro i'm like maybe i put too much pressure on the winning part of it like boom like because i put too much pressure on the winning part side of it that's what it is and it's like these guys are just like boom i've already won i'm not bothered that that to me is fascinating especially since you win so often do you think

that you put pressure on yourself because you have the zero as well and you don't want to lose that um i don't even think it's that i just i just know when we climb in this ladder a loss is a long way back and i'm trying to i'm trying to be champion as soon as possible and maybe i'm thinking too deep on my deep thinker anyway but um yeah i'm definitely thinking too deep into everything i just need to take fight fight by fight and just go in there and perform and just let it all go and relax and i think that will bring the best out in you this idea that it's just another day of sparring, you've never thought of a fight like that?

I've not, but it's weird because I believe every fight I have a different emotion, and the fight against Barbosa, I think I was most relaxed, and I performed probably the best in that fight, and it just goes to show. And I think I was even thinking about things like, oh, the crowd, I've not fought in front of a crowd for years. What's that going to be like? I'm overthinking all the little things.

I shouldn't even be thinking about that. And I think all these things are just clouding my mind and affecting my performance. By the way, going from a five-minute fight now back to three five-minute fights because that fight against Barbosa was a main event. Was that an adjustment? Like, oh, it went by a lot quicker? Yes.

So when I watched the fight back, I believe that was Ige's game plan to push the pace earlier because of that, maybe. Because you see, as he come out, I'm trying to get rid of him. He's coming forward, he's coming forward and pushing but nobody can nobody can i use the words they use gas pedal me because i've got i've got extremely good cardio nobody can do that and i knew after a round it gas out i knew he'll get tired i said that to my coach he's gonna wrestle hard first first round and he's gonna get tired and he did you You posted on social media

afterwards a message to the haters saying that you're not going anywhere, that you're just getting started. Do you have a lot of haters? Who hates Lerone Murphy? I feel like you're such a likable guy. Who's hating on you? You just hear them. I shouldn't even be paying attention to them, but you just see them guys in the internet

that talk rubbish and Nathaniel Woods of this world that would love to be in my position but never will he's always got something to say I always see him commenting on things but it's like bro leave it out

you had a tough you had a tough split decision against a guy that's just retired what's his name what's the guy you fought in London I can't remember his name I'm looking it up. I'm drawing a blank.

Bro, we're fighting on two different levels. Daniel Pineda, of course, who just retired last week. Stop judging me, bro. You had a very close fight with him. Come on, bro. We're in two different worlds. Is he commenting on your stuff a lot? I know you guys have a long history.

Just saying, bro. The guy's because weird it's weird because i won't leave me alone just just bro get on with your life don't train go and get some fights under your belt get into the top 15 then start calling me out bro it's unrealistic you're not gonna fight me i'm 50 you know i'm going into the top 10 now they're not gonna give you me bro simple wow it because there's juice there because there's a history there if they did offer it to you what would you say now right now yeah yeah next i'd say respectfully after the minus come on'm just saying, because there's a history there and there's a rivalry, I'm not trying to insinuate that you're not worthy

of a top 10 guy, but you see how fired up you get. People tend to gravitate towards you. I'd retire. If they sent me his name, I'd retire. I'd be like, yo,

I put in all this work and you're giving me this guy. This guy. Come on, bro. And I might just spank him just for the sake of it easy money and and uh man i don't know if he's got anything planned no it's it's probably not going to happen i listen i can understand why he's talking about you right i can understand

it just gets a bit weird when you're fascinated with one person and you know what let's move on because this this we shouldn't be talking about him i've just beat dan egate yeah dan egate on ufc 308 in abu dhabi um and a tough fight and and there's so much other things to talk about other than that i think you're getting so worked up that we don't see you in the frame anymore i think they're they're telling me that you're completely out of frame is that better now can i can i see how he looks okay there you are uh i think you were getting so where i was i was looking at the monitor and i was like where did he go you were getting where did you go you were getting so mad i think you were leaving the interview lauren i'm sorry i don't mean to for the record you brought him up not me so i just

want that i didn't know So I guess that one tweet was about Nathaniel more so than anyone. Yeah, because he tweeted about it. It's like, bro, leave me alone. Just leave me alone. Fair enough.

I totally understand. I know you're still... You're still over there in the United Arab Emirates, right? Yeah, I'm in Dubai. I'm going to go and get some food with the boys and just chilling out, enjoying the sun, Emirates, right? Yeah, I'm in Dubai. I'm going to go and get some food with the boys. I'm just chilling out, enjoying the sun,

winding down, recovering. Because usually I just fly straight back home. Last time I flew straight back home and it was kind of bad and my body started swelling up and stuff. I'm just going to enjoy Dubai, eat some food, relax, and then go

home to the family. I don't mean to dampen the mood, although maybe I did already with the Nathaniel questions, but I don't know if you heard earlier, the sad sack Manchester United Football Club has sacked Eric Ten Hag. Have you seen this? I don't know. Forrest, I don't know if you saw, we were in fifth place on Friday,

now seventh. I think United is in the relegation zone. It's crazy. But what do you make of this move, them sacking Ten Haggen, bringing in Van Nistelrooy? I think it's a great move, and I believe it should have happened a long time ago. But United are slow to do it. They've done it now. Let's see if things change.

I hope that things will, and I believe things will as well. So let's see if things change I hope that things will and I believe things will as well so let's see a lot of players have complained about him so there must be there must be a cancer to the club

and we've got some new life I hope things start going well now So you're a fan obviously everyone loves Van Nistelrooy right?

He's a legend so you're a fan of this man? Of course of course man he's had history with the club. One of the best goal scorers the club's had.

And I believe the players will respect him. By the way, did you go to that event in July, the Manchester event at the Co-op Live? Yeah, I was there.

How was it for you in the middle of the night? Were you struggling to stay up? Yes, I was, but we got through. Yeah, we got through. I had a coffee. I ended up having a double espresso shot at about 1 o'clock, and it got me through.

Okay. I know you wanted to fight on that card, but maybe for the best, right? Who wants to fight at 4 in the morning, you know? Yeah, it was like a bittersweet for me. I was watching in the crowd. I was thinking's not it's not a bit sweet for me i was watching in the crowd i'm thinking yeah it would have been cool to fight in manchester first show in manchester but i don't want to fight at this time so it's just like i'll enjoy the show and they'll give me a better opportunity and look they did yeah uh big win on the abu dhabi card uh another one for you remain undefeated well Well done, Lerone.

Looking forward to the next one. I hope you get one of those big names next. Thank you so much for the time. Appreciate it. Thank you. Anytime, brother. Thank you.

You're the man. There he is. Lerone Murphy, the pride of Manchester. Yes, a tough day for all the United supporters. I don't think he got my, my jokes about the sad sack,

Man United. I mean, I could talk shit now, because I think they're actually like 14th or something. And Forrest is... Yeah, I mean, Forrest on fire. Your defense is terrified of Forrest on fire. Your defense is terrified of Forrest...

Actually, we have a long-time Man United supporter on the team here, I think. Isn't Pizzi? He might have left. No, I'm here. I'm here. Oh. Your thoughts.

Just listen to you so jolly when you know someone's going to come along and take Chris Wood in January. And then what he's going to do. You mean Chris Ronaldo? I think third leading scorer in the Prem. I think second This season But third Since Nuno took over

Last year Around this time Last year What a time What a time To be a Forest of Forest of magic On and off the pitch

I mean a huge win Over Crystal Palace By the way Happy birthday to Elaine As well Pizzi A big weekend Of birthdays

For the entire team Okay so great stuff there From Lerone Murphy. Still to come, Darren Till going to join us in a little over an hour, and then Alex Volkanovsky. We will talk more about 308 in a bit, but my friends, let us talk about the latest chapter

in the Dana White-Francis Ngannou feud. You guys ready for this? Is everyone ready for this? Pull up the popcorn, grab a chair, maybe a blankie. Who, me? A nice drink, a coffee, a tea, a peppermint tea, might I suggest. Let's get into this because on Thursday, my friends, I come home and I see a bunch of clips from a press conference. Didn't think that there would be a press conference on Thursday evening. I believe it was Thursday evening. It was more like Thursday afternoon and I saw it Thursday evening. But there was a power slap event and Dana White met with the media at this power slap event,

after this power slap event in Abu Dhabi to talk about a whole host of things. And this was his first time meeting with the media since Francis beat Henan Fajeda last Saturday in Riyadh. We wondered if he would show up at the post-fight press conference at the Apex event, which happened shortly after the PFL pay-per-view. That was the Fluffy Hernandez, Michelle Pejeta fight, but there was no post-fight press conference with Dana White. So this was his first time.

And so much has been said since, but there were in particular, you know, three clips that I wanted to play for everyone. And I wanted to react to them and try to explain why so much nonsense, so much BS was spewed. And I don't think this is going to be the final chapter.

I really don't. But I do think it's important to debunk some of these things because as time goes on, you can spin a narrative any which way you want. It is important because so much is available. There are so many clips and receipts and moments and press conferences and interviews available to us. It's actually quite easy to do so. I know there's a lot of new fans. And so I feel like we are doing you all a great service by providing this. And so you may watch these current press conferences and clips and interviews and say, oh, of course, this is the way it is. Oh, yes, absolutely. Well, let us, you know, let us break it all down and you make sense of it. How about that? And so let us begin this journey, this deep dive, if you will. Starting off this Thursday at this press conference MMA Fightings Jose Young's asks

Dana White his opinion on what Francis Ngannou did in his PFL debut take a look Francis is all about the money Francis left because he knew that if he fought John Jones and didn't win it would hurt his chances of making the money that he wanted to make. But realistically, his deal was bigger here. Okay, let's pause it right there. So right off the jump, right off the jump, it's Francis is all about the money. Francis is all about the money, right?

That's what he says, which is an unbelievable thing to say about a prize fighter. Every prize fighter should always be about the money. That's what they're programmed to think. It's all about the money. They are literally prize fighters. Yeah, belts are nice, pay-per-views are nice, but it all comes down to how much money you make. And for someone who is a multi-multi-millionaire, who came from being a bellboy at the Boston Harbor Hotel to the position he's in now, to put down a person, an individual who came from the sand mines of Cameroon, who's making $1 a day as a youngster digging ditches, who's had to survive so much just to get to this point and we've gone

through what he's had to escape and and and and being in prison and and and and living in a in a in a parking garage and and you know going through the ocean and all that stuff to say that that guy is just all about the money to just paint him with that brush even if that was truly the case even if he didn't tell us 30,000 times that it wasn't just about the money, who would rip him for that? Who would disagree with that stance? If he came from a dollar a day as a kid digging ditches in sand mines, if he truly was all about the money, just like every other pro athlete on the planet trying to maximize their earnings, their worth, their potential. How is that a knock? How is that a shot on a prize fighter to say that he is all about the money? You then hear him say, he's all about the money. Literally 10 seconds

later, he says, but the deal we offered him was more. The deal he turned down, he should have said the deals, because there were multiple, probably five plus towards the end. Who knows how many different iterations. We can end this whole clip right now. In one breath, you say this man is all about the money. In the next breath, you say our deal was better. If it was all about the money and your deal was better, why didn't you take your deal? Again, it's like you listen to this stuff and initially I had to watch it a couple of times because I thought it was satire. I thought it was some sort of,

I don't know, some sort of skit. You just listen to that first 30 seconds. He's all about the money. And even if he was, period, yeah, and? Everyone is. We're all about the money. And even if he was, period, yeah, and everyone is. We're all about the money. No one is doing any of this out of the kindness of their heart, including the promoter of this multi, multi, multi-million dollar company who's sitting, billion, who's sitting in front of a sign for a new entity that he's trying to grow, who he touts has these numbers and this social media and does this and that, that's all about the money too. You're trying to sell off a new entity, to create a new entity, to make it into a successful behemoth like the UFC has become out of the kindness of your

heart, to give back to the world, to give back to society. Is it charity? No, that too is an endeavor, pardon the pun, that is all about the money. All of this. We live in a capitalistic society. All of this is about the money. And we've heard it from you tens of thousands of times that it's all about the money. It's the prize-fighting business. We continue.

The deal was bigger here if he stayed in the UFC. I think I've told this story a million times. They can deny it all they want. Why the fuck would I lie? What what do i care it doesn't matter to me one way or the other by the way anyone who always like this is this is this is a rule of life take it to the bank if someone says why would i lie they're lying that's number one go through history anyone says why would i lie i don't care a they care b they're lying and and he says that he says that like with such smugness like you know it was let me tell you something let me tell you something our deal was better yeah francis told us that when he walked away the deal was

for about seven million combined all the fights combined do we really think right now that tyson fury anthony joshua and his pfl debut those three fights alone do we think that they are worth seven million you really think he fought tyson fury and joshua alone for seven million come on guys like come on we're gonna sit here like come on how was the deal better? Explain to us how the deal was better. Of course, that doesn't happen. Francis has gone through it like a thousand times, and we will get to some of that in a moment, but do you really believe that? Now, maybe you could say the upside, you could break it down and say, oh, if you beat Jon Jones and you do a rematch this way, pay-per-view, carry the four, carry the three. Okay, maybe you could

do that type of mental gymnastics, but you really believe a fight with Turkey behind it against Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua, that alone, forget about the BFL debut, which he then later says is a horrendous deal and they're hoping that he loses so they could get out of the deal. You think that was less than 7 million?

Come on, continue. And I was going to cut Francis when he lost two in a row. I was going to cut him. That was after the Derek Lewis. Yeah. Somebody around here begged me not to do it. Pause it right there. So now he's going back to 2018.

He's going back to July 7, 2018. In case you didn't know, Francis Ng ganu fought stipe miyacic in january of 2018 he lost that fight he won the first round and then essentially gassed out and was dominated for the next four and lost that title fight he came back in july of 2018 and it was one of the worst fights of all time him versus derrick lewis both of them hardly threw anything francis lost fair and square but both guys didn't up, and both guys have said it's a horrendous fight, and there were such high expectations. They always wanted to run it back, but it never worked out.

Dana says that he wanted to cut him after that performance in 2018. Now, what do they do with Francis next? So you think, okay, you want to cut this guy because you didn't like the way he fought in that fight, and as he says later, you didn't like his attitude and some stuff happened. He keeps alluding to these cryptic things that happened but never tells us what they are. So you would think they'd put him in the doghouse, right? You'd think that they'd put him in the doghouse and they'd bury the guy, put him on the prelims and, you know, not push him, right?

Because the boss wants, you know, wants to cut him. Yeah, he refers to two people that told him to keep Francis around. But you'd think ultimately they'd bury him, right? His next fight was in November of 2018, 11 months later. It was a headliner in Beijing, China. A bit of a small market, right? A tiny, it's kind of like equivalent to Jacksonville or something like that.

Beijing, China headliner against Curtis Blades, a rematch against Curtis Blades. That was his next fight. The fight after that, headliner, Phoenix, Arizona, first event main card on ESPN. First main card on ESPN. I remember, Chell and I were in Bristol.

We did SportsCenter right after. Cain Velasquez, Francis Ngannou, and Ngannou wins in 26 seconds. Oh, by the way, he beat Curtis Blades in Beijing three months prior in 45 seconds. So you would think, yeah, you want to cut him. You're speaking so confidently. I wanted to get rid of him. Next fight, main event in Beijing. Next fight, main event of the first ESPN main card in Phoenix,

Arizona. Next fight, just a few months later, January of 2019. Main event, Minnesota, fight night on ESPN, knocks out Junior Dos Santos in a minute and 11 seconds. Again, we've seen them bury people. We remember what they did to Andrzej Arlovski back in the day when he wanted to test free agency. They had him fight Jake O'Brien on the non-televised prelims of UFC 70. Like we've seen this before. Or was it 68? It was 68, excuse me, in Columbus, Ohio. They ain't burying this guy. You wanted to cut him. You wanted to get rid of him. thought he was garbage main event beijing main event espn phoenix main event minnesota the next time francis fought was on the first show back in the pandemic may of 2020 that big show empty arena jacksonville the whole world was

watching that there was literally nothing else going on again Again, Jairzino Rosenstreich starches him in 20 seconds. You'd think if you want to bury the guy, if you don't want to be in business with him, if you don't believe in him, if you don't think he's worth it, you're not putting him on that card. Certainly not. You're putting him,

you're sticking him at the apex maybe a few weeks later when the rest of the world is coming back. You could have literally picked from any fighter on the roster for that card. They all wanted to fight on it. If they could get into the country, you pick Francis. Main card, by the way, pay-per-view, Starches, Jairzinho, his next fight, title fight against Stipe, and then Cyril Ghosn. So this idea that they wanted to cut him is hogwash. And this idea that they were going to bury him or didn't want to be in business with him or wanted to hold him back hogwash and even if that

was true we know how the story plays out we know how this story goes would have been one of the worst decisions in the history of fight sports if you would have cut this guy who then beat curtis blades in 45 seconds beat kane in 26 seconds beat junior dos santos in 71 seconds beat jarzino rosenstreich in 20 seconds, beat Stipe Miocic second round 52 seconds, and then did what he did against Cyril Ghosn. That's the rest of his UFC run. How is that something to be proud of?

He later addresses that. We'll get to that. We continue. So it wouldn't have mattered to me one way or the other. There's a much deeper story to this whole thing. He does this all the time. And he would have made more money if he stayed in the USA. Now he goes back to that misnomer.

Pause right there. He goes to the much deeper story thing all the time. He has been doing this for the past couple of years, but he never tells us what the deeper story is other than the fact that they wanted to sign him and he didn't want to stick around and now we get to another lie that's a fact my friend and uh you know we're moving on okay so that's not the entire clip i think we played the wrong one there you guys know what i'm saying there's a portion there at the end, which I would love to play because I do want to give Dana White credit.

It's very important. But he says, he says, John Jones, Francis Ngannou, Francis didn't want to fight John Jones. That's a fact. Based on what?

Based on your opinion? Or based on history? Because if it's based on history, the facts would suggest it's the complete's based on history, the facts would suggest it's the complete opposite. That's what the facts would suggest. But he just says these things and he thinks that the media

that he continues to say are a joke, don't exist, are hacks, et cetera, are just going to eat it up. Not here. You can't do that. Now, I do want to give him credit for what he said right after that. Do we have that portion?

There were two clips. There was one short one, one long one. I do want to give him credit for what he said right after that. Do we have that portion? There were two clips. There was one short one, one long one. I do want to give him credit for what he said right afterwards because it's very important. It doesn't pertain necessarily to Francis, but I want to give him massive credit for this just to be as fair and balanced as possible. Here's what he says in continuation, that same clip.

And you know, we're moving on. Obviously everybody loves Tom Aspinall and wants to see Jones and Aspinall or Stipe and Aspinall, and I feel like when Stipe and John were young, John was 23, youngest champion ever in UFC history, and somebody gave him an opportunity, and I think that Stipe and John, whoever wins, should give Aspinall the same opportunity they had. So all these rumors of, you know, John and Stipe both retiring, have you talked to them

about that at all? Yeah, I think that both John and Stipe will say they're going to retire because they're going to start negotiating and whatever the negotiation is, we will get the deal done. So I want to give him credit for that because yes, he's right. Someone did give John an opportunity. Someone did give Stipe an opportunity and the winner of that fight needs to give Tom an opportunity. And if they don't, they should be stripped.

I mean, that's it. And he's right. Everyone does want to see Tom at this point. And the best thing to happen to the UFC in this Francis Ngannou feud is the emergence of Tom Aspinall because he takes a little bit of the pressure away because Tom is supremely popular.

He is right. And there is a great demand to see him fight. So everything that he said on the back end, and this is why I wanted to play it, was a thousand percent right, in my opinion. Now, it really has nothing to do with Francis, but it was a nice way to end that statement, that answer with a positive spin and with a bow on top. Dana White continues to say that he doesn't care, that he doesn't think about Francis. I will prove to you that that is not true in a moment. I will prove to you that this is not true. And I will prove to you that everything that he said in that clip prior to the Aspinall part is not exactly comme ci, comme ça, la vérité, as they say in France, the truth. But we continue. The very next day,

Francis Ngannou is on Sirius XM radiom radio fight nation and he's speaking to the hosts over there i believe uh one of them was ryan mckinnell it's possible the other was dean thomas i apologize if i'm not getting the host right uh the show's uh called mma today and he was fired up here's what francis and ganu had to say i i think dana is making uh trying to trying to make things up to buy a good face in the position that he has lost. Dana has lost in this situation. And the only thing is that he can't understand it. Like, bro, I want everything. I left.

We get apart. It's been, what, almost two years? And the guy is still out there. He can't live without it. He can't live without it. He can't hinder me. Regardless of everything that happened, I'm not about him. I went out there, did a fight,

you know, have a great fight for my son memory, but the guy can't stand. I don't know what is his problem. Pause it right there. That is a very important thing. The story going into this fight for Francis Ngannou was how is he dealing with everything that happened to his family and, of course, to his son. To have this stance, just take the Thursday stance, to have that stance after what happened to Francis Ngannou and what he's been dealing with,

and then to have the stance that he had on Saturday, and we'll get to that in a moment as well. That's the part that kind of blows me away. And God bless Francis Ngannou for seemingly taking the high road. This guy just lost his son. And as he's about to say, what is wrong with just saying, God bless, he doesn't work here anymore, I don't care. Why the need to make up these lies? Why the need to spin this narrative? Why the need to call him a bad guy? Because he didn't sign with you guys. Now the UFC has had the luck of every time they make a decision, it seems to go their way. I remember when Dan Henderson won a UFC 100 and said, thanks, but no thanks, and then went to fight for Strikeforce and he lost to Jake Shields. And yes, you will be surprised to know if you're new to this game, that at one time, Jake Shields

was a great MMA fighter. He wasn't just an out of his mind anti-Semite who rages about conspiracy theories online. He was actually a tremendous MMA fighter and he beat Dan Henderson and he completely, you know, rained on that parade of Dan Henderson leaving the UFC and going to sign with Strikeforce. It worked out. Dana White was happy about it. They tried to sign Fedor. He loses. He's happy about it. It just seemed like every time they made a move, the ensuing move worked in their favor. This is one of the few times in history where it did not work in their favor, where the guy bet on himself, said thanks but no thanks, and is thriving. The Fury fight, getting the Joshua fight from a monetary standpoint, and then of course what happened two Saturdays ago against PFL. So he's right. It does seem to

bother him because this is one of those cases where it didn't come up UFC. But then when he mentions his son, you think to yourself like, man, how could, like, just say, God bless. I've mentioned Mark Cuban in the past. When Jalen Brunson decided not to sign with the Mavericks, you didn't see Mark Cuban, and this has happened a thousand times in sports, you don't see the owner say that guy's X, Y, and Z. You say, say all right it didn't work out god bless mark cuban is an example i've talked about over the summer mark cuban was on jalen brunson's podcast just chopping it up what's wrong with just saying god bless it didn't work out why the need to bury this guy slander his name smear his name just because he didn't sign with you guys, just because he chose to walk away. We continue. You know, and he can make everything up like as he want. That is problem. I think he needs,

he needs to make a peace with himself. You could have just say, we couldn't, we didn't find a agreement or something. We couldn't find a, yeah, we couldn't come to a deal, but good luck to him. That's it. You know, good for him.

And we continue our life. What's the problem here? You know, but I think the problem is that he can't handle this loss. You know, basically like he been praying for my, I'm sure he been praying for my downfall. Then I'm just keep doing my thing, rising. You know, since I left the UFC, in any senses, I'm more than what I was. And which money he's talking about? Pause it right there.

He's 100% right, by the way. If you think for a second that he is not praying for his downfall, you're kidding yourself. I mean, take it from me. Take it from me where he was able to throw roadblock after roadblock after roadblock in my way and try to change the course of my life. That's the kind of person that he is. So take it from me. He's a thousand percent. Now, he can't do that over there. When I was at ESPN, he could because I was in the same playpen as their world. So that's exactly the

kind of person that he is. And he has told us in the past that that's the kind of person that he is. So yes, he is praying for his downfall. And yes, it's not working out. And here you are. You get these types of responses. We continue. Money that he owes me. Because let me tell you, remember, all this ended with like, they say, oh, we're going to back pay you from the money that we owe you from the Stipe and Syriacal fight. All that,

they never back pay me. Pause it right there. Pause it right there. This is where it gets complicated in the next clip and you'll see, he's explained this to us. He said in the negotiations,

we are going to back pay you because you fought Syriacal for 600,000. You fought Stipe for less than that. And so we are going to back pay you because you fought Cyril Ghosn for 600,000. You fought Stipe for less than that. And so we're going to make it right. That's what he's referring to here. He's referring to in the negotiations, they admitted that he didn't get what he was deserving of. And they tried to sign him to a new deal before the Stipe fight. They tried to sign him to a new deal before the Ghosn fight. He said no to both because he wanted to bet on himself and test free agency. So what he's saying here is they admitted to me that I wasn't getting

what I was deserving, what I was owed. And so he's talking about, you know, now the money and whatnot, he's saying, okay, you guys admitted to me. You want to talk about money? Like you admitted that you owe me back pay. Of course, that's never going to happen. He's not saying that they owe him money from the deals. He's referring to negotiations, and Dana knows exactly what he's referring to. He's referring to the negotiations where they said, we're going to make it right. Yes, you were underpaid against DP.

Yes, you were underpaid against Cyril Ghosn. We're going to make it right in this new deal. The new deal never came. No chance to make it right. Remember that, it comes up in a bit. We continue. More money than I would have ever made in the UFC. I would say maybe twice the money that I could have ever made in my entire UFC career if I had continued in the UFC. Pause right there. And again, important to note, he is saying more money in the last couple of fights outside of the UFC than his entire UFC career times two.

He's not saying in the fights post-gun. He's saying entire UFC times two, the last three fights. Think about that. We continue. From the moment that I stopped. Right. I don't know. But either way, if I have made less money, if I'm not making less money,

enough money that I could have made in the UFC, that would be my problem. Why is it so pissed about me not making that much money? Like, come on, man. Live your life. Live your life. All he had to say on that Thursday was, didn't watch it, waste of time, B-leagues, God bless. Or even, God bless. Or even, God forbid, hey, the guy's been through a lot,

we did business, God bless. Because I don't remember a lot of slinging dirt that press conference in 2023, in January of 2023, when Dana said goodbye. Remember, Francis came on our show, there wasn't a lot of slinging dirt. Like there hasn't been a lot of insults, right? So he could have just said, you know what, God bless, all the show, there wasn't a lot of slinging dirt. Like there hasn't been a lot of insults, right? So he could have just said, you know what? God bless, all the best. That didn't happen. And so Francis Ngannou says that on Friday, Saturday night after the Abu Dhabi show, after 308,

Dana White is asked about what Francis said on Friday. Now he is asked by Mike Bond of MMA Junkie. And part of that first answer is Mike reciting the quote from Francis but as you will recall I just explained to you what the back pay is all about look at where Dana takes that back pay comment and another thing you mentioned at PowerSlot the other night was stuff about Francis Ngannou and that stirred up a lot of reaction from the MMA community and from Francis himself and he had a very interesting quote. Can I read you a little bit?

He said, he can't handle this loss, referring to you. I'm sure he's been praying for my downfall. Which money is he talking about? The money that he owes me? They say we're going to give you back pay from the money we owe you from the steep and surreal gone fights. All that, they never paid me back. Now I've made more money than i would

have ever made in the ufc i would say twice the money in my entire ufc career yeah when have you ever heard a story in all the years we've been in business even when it was upside down where we owed somebody money never happened um so he's full of shit there pause right there so you see what i mean he he is interpreting that as uh you didn't pay my salary you didn't pay my my purse you didn't pay what you said you were going to pay me that's not what francis was saying and he would know because he was part of the negotiation i know hunter campbell is the main one doing the negotiation but when it's something as top level as re-signing francis and ganu he's a part of it. And again, what Francis was referring to was the revelation admitting to the fact that,

hey, we know you didn't get paid what you were owed against Stipe and Gunn. This deal is going to serve as somewhat of a back pay, right? He's not saying you didn't pay me for those fights. It's a back pay. Dana takes it in a completely different direction to make him seem like an asshole, quite simply. We continue. Then I lost. I didn't lose anything. I was done with Francis after the, uh, he actually, actually he owes me money because we had to watch that fight with him and the Black Beast. He actually pay me back for that fight pause right there i'll give him credit i'll give him credit good zinger good zinger it was a bad fight he's 100 right um and i will also say he is correct

in this regard the ufc is doing just fine make no mistake about it that's what makes this so crazy the ufc is on fire the uf UFC is about to score a massive, massive TV deal next year. They are doing just fine. No one is bigger than the UFC, and that includes Conor McGregor. No one is bigger than the UFC. They are doing just fine. That's what is so crazy about all this. He can't help himself. And yes, of course, I know he's not going out there and willingly, you know, talking about these things. He's being asked about them. I will say, though, there are instances, especially in the last couple of days, where it's very clearly he's telling the media to tee him up on questions. Like the PFL power slap thing was 1000% a tee up. Trust me,

from someone who's been there before, I know exactly when he's got the paper there with the stats, you know, that was teed up. He's just walking around with stats. Francis, I don't believe that's the case. He'd probably rather not talk about him. And he's probably right. He's not just walking around with stats. Francis, I don't believe that's the case. He'd probably rather not talk about him. And he's probably right. He's not sitting at home saying like, oh, my God, Francis, I've lost. He's 1,000% right. But all the other shit is a complete fabrication. We continue.

You. And me praying for it, trust me. I don't think about Francis that much. You guys asked me the question about the PFL, and I responded. Other than that, the only one who's praying for his demise is probably the PFL because they signed a shitty contract with a guy that doesn't deliver any numbers in ticket sales or pay-per-views. And they've got to keep paying this guy for however long.

And good for him. Not good for them. What was the other question? I know you said he's all about the money, but then you also said he would have made more money to stay here. And that's a fact. He can play those games all he wants. He would have made more money here. How is that a fact?

Let me tell you what. There were two guys here. I wanted to cut them. Someday I'll tell you what there were two guys here i wanted to cut them someday i'll tell you the story again with this francis was like i was all about francis in the beginning and then i found out who francis was and i told the two guys who asked me not to cut francis when somebody shows you who they are believe them so pause it right there and pause it right there when when when when the story is and francis has talked about it because i've asked him about it in the past apparently the story was when he was about to fight stipe francis said something like you

know get the jet ready for me that's as far as we've gone as far as something that kind of didn't sit well with dana right that's as far and and this has been discussed this is a story yes there are interviews where dana says like after the stipe fight, I was mad at him. After the Derek fight, I was mad at him. Never says cut. Now we get to this revelation. But Dana says he showed us his true colors. Okay, so what? Was it that? Was that the true colors? In a business where you've got the cockiest guys, sometimes criminals, people who beat their wife, people who do really bad things. Like this is the guy who showed you his true colors. He was saying, get the jet ready for me. And then, and then of course, and I'm not going to go too far deep into this, but like

to have someone like him sit up there and say, like, when someone shows you their true colors, believe them. I mean, the irony is just, it's, it's dripping. It's, it's, it's, it's somewhat mind blowing to sit up there and speak like this about a different human being. That irony continues in a second. Yeah. Believe me, I have no sleepless nights

over Francis leaving. I believe that. So just two more things on this. You wanted to cut him, but he went on to become the UFC heavyweight champion. So I guess what does that say about that thought process? Does it show he should have started?

Well, no. I didn't like Francis as a person. He wasn't a guy I wanted to do business with. My boys were telling me he's misunderstood, and I told them, when somebody shows you who they are, believe them. Yeah, it wasn't about him becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. Francis isn't a good guy. He plays the good guy.

Duh, duh, I don't understand the language. And, you know, so he seems like he's a nice guy. Pause right there. He's not. Francis plays a good guy. He's not a good guy. And then the duh, duh, I don't understand the language. Like that one, I think, went over everyone's head.

I mean, how that is not just deemed offensive is beyond me, but has Francis ever on this show played the duh, duh, I don't understand what you're saying card? Maybe behind closed doors he's done that, but I mean, the fact that this isn't even his first language and he speaks about business as eloquently as he does is somewhat mind-blowing. He's not a good guy.

When you consider the people that the ufc has done business with continues to do business with will do business with and and and the the non-issues that they have with those human beings and francis isn't the good guy because he didn't sign their deal because he said get the jet ready for me unless there's some other issue out there and please let us know educate usate us. Tell us right now. And I'll say, okay, I didn't know that that happened. But I mean, we've been talking about this particular story since 2018, this particular incident. Francis isn't the good guy. And he wanted to cut him because he wasn't a good guy. But look at the roster. Today, yesterday, five years ago,

we could point out a lot of people with checkered histories and pass and resumes who I would say are a little bit worse guys than Francis, and they have no problem giving those people fights. But Francis isn't a good guy. This is where we've arrived. Now he's a bad guy. Now he's a bad human being because he didn't take their deal. Incredible. We continue. And he's just not a guy that I wanted to be in business with. Period. End of story.

Whether he became the champion or not. And I assume you don't want to be in business with him ever again, but. We won't be. We'll never be in business together. I mean, you can tell. We don't like each other. And this goes way back. This goes back to before the first steepay fight he pulled some

shit before the first steepay fight and i said i'm done with this guy and then steepay beat the shit out of him great night and then uh yeah we we never had a relationship after that well i know you said uh john jones would walk out of any room so wouldn't it be gratifying to put him in a room with francis he didn't want that fight. He could have stayed and took that fight. He didn't want that fight. Tom Aspinall deserves that fight. So, he says that Francis Ngannou didn't want that fight.

We have debunked this. We will debunk it again. He said that he pulled some shit and he wanted nothing to do with him. Here's what I can say is true about that. There are multiple interviews afterwards where I asked Francis, have you and Dana spoken? Have you guys cleared the air? And he continued to say no.

But the idea that the UFC and as a company wanted nothing to do with him and even that Dana was done with him is not true. Maybe privately they never got on the phone, but as you'll see in a moment, not the case. And so let us go into the time machine and let us go back to December of 2018, right before that fight against Stipe. That fight where all this really starts. Francis is coming off a knockout of Alistair Overeem. His head almost flies off in Detroit, Michigan. He comes back a month and a half later to fight Stipe for the belt in Boston. Remember, he takes that fight

on supremely short notice, his first title defense. The Overeem fight was in early December. The title fight was in mid-January. Supremely fast. He takes the fight. At the pre-fight press conference, this is how Dana White is speaking

of Francis Ngannou. Francis Ngannou has the world record for the most powerful punch. His punch is the equivalent to 96 horsepower, which is equal to getting hit by a Ford Escort going as fast as it can. And it's more powerful than a 12-pound sledgehammer swung full force from overhead. Holy shit. It's amazing going back to those clips

because if you recall, or maybe you don't know because you're a newer fan, the whole narrative going into that fight was how they were disrespecting Stipe. Stipe ended up winning the fight. Stipe took the belt from Dana and gave it to his coach to put around his waist because he was so mad about the way he was being disrespected. About his pay.

About the way they were hyping up Francis. There are tons of interviews. Just go in there and look up UFC 220 Stipe with myself and others where Stipe is clearly seething before the fight and after the fight. Francis loses the fight. And then he comes back and he loses to Derek Lewis. Somewhere along the lines, things got so bad that we find out six years later that Dana White wanted to cut him.

It was that bad. He wanted to cut him. Of course that bad. He wanted to cut him. Of course, as I've just told you, he then headlined Beijing and ESPN and Minnesota and the Jacksonville COVID card and fought for the belt. So, you know, they wanted to cut him. Like, why are they giving him all these opportunities? All right, let's go to May of 2020 now.

Now this is right around the time that all this is popping off. He has just beaten Jairzino Rosenstreich. And all of a sudden, May of 2020, April of 2020 was all about Gaijin Habib. May of 2020 was all about Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou. And everyone believed Francis was the guy. And everyone believed it would be a huge fight. And everyone believed that Jon Jones wanted nothing to do with the fight. I didn't believe that. It's just, you know, he had just fought Dominic Reyes and they didn't want

to pay him what he was owed. How do I know that? Well, you're about to find out. Here's me talking to Francis Ngannou in May of 2020 and here's Francis backing Jon Jones in his stance to be paid what he is asking for and what the UFC doesn't want to pay him for this mega fight.

I think he asked for something which is reasonable and like what he is asking for and what the UFC doesn't want to pay him for this mega fight? I think he asked for something which is reasonable. Reasonable. I don't know how much that was, but I think he asked for something reasonable. Reasonable. People say, Jones, he doesn't want to fight me. I think he wants. Backing him. Because he makes himself clear and he wants

money. He tells the UFC he wants money. He tells everyone that he wants money. We know all what a guy can do with money for money. Once again, it's not like a middleweight or water weight john jones is a light heavyweight he walk around as a heavyweight he has to cut weight

to go to heavyweight to light heavyweight so um and he's been around he He's a world-class champion. He's been in the top for a long time. He has this experience. I think he won the fight. I believe that. See how he's backing John? See how he's backing his desire to fight him? See how he's backing his desire to get paid more? Bad guy, Francis.

You'll see from that minute clip, the whole narrative in May of 2020 was, John doesn't want to fight Francis. Not the opposite. Not that, not the, Francis was scared. Francis looked for the easy fight. That whole narrative that you hear now wasn't a thing. When it was actually happening.

What do you believe more? What people were saying in the moment or what they're trying to say four years later after a divorce? Come on now. We'll move along and we go to May of 2020. Same month. Here's Dana White.

Pause it for a second. If you could just replay it. Here's Dana White talking about Jon Jones and it's important to listen to this. When you hear the way he talks about Jon Jones now, listen to how he was talking about John Jones, and it's important to listen to this. When you hear the way he talks about John Jones now, listen to how he was talking about John Jones back in May of 2020. Go ahead. John Jones and I have always had this.

I'm always looking at what John Jones could have been. He could have been the LeBron of the sport. He could have been literally that big. The stuff that he's been through to show up and basically demand $15 million or $20 million or $30 million. It's crazy. So two things to know here. Again, the whole thing was about Jon not wanting to fight Francis, not the opposite. It was never brought up that Francis was the problem here. A. B. You know how many times John Jones has won? Forget won. How many times John Jones has fought since that comment? Once. The surreal gun fight.

That's it. But yet you hear the way he talks about him now, greatest ever. All that is to stick it to Francis. Greatest ever, greatest ever. That's just to stick it to him. He's fought once against surreal gun, a fight that lasted two minutes. Supremely impressive, incredible fight. But your stance changed so much on the guy. Could have been LeBron. Now he's like the greatest thing. Since sliced bread, they've never promoted him in a more positive light.

But again, more importantly, everyone was talking about John being the issue, not Francis. I'm not saying John was the issue. I think he deserved 20, 30 million. Make no mistake about it. But it's just important to note, it was never brought up that Francis was a part of the problem. It is now, not back then. We fast forward, March of 2021, Francis Ngannou just beats Stipe Miocic to become the heavyweight champion. He's doing an interview with Joe Rogan. He has

asked of John Jones. Here's what he says. I want you to enjoy this, and I want you to celebrate this victory, but I also want to talk to you about the future. Jon Jones sent a tweet out. It said, let's play, baby. What do you think about a potential? Oh, another one was show me the money. What do you think about a potential fight with one of the greatest, if not the greatest, mixed martial arts fighters in the history of the sport,

Jon Jones, now moving up to heavyweight? That will be your first title defense. Absolutely. I mean, for my opinion, Jon Jones is the greatest of all the time from mixed martial arts. No, that ends too soon. There's more to that clip if we can get it.

He talks about, and it's very important if we can get that full clip, he talks about his desire to fight Jon Jones and he talks about his idea that like, hey, I'm ready to go.

I'm ready to go in July. I'm ready to go in August. I'm ready to go, you know, the next pay-per-view. Like, never does he says, he says, show me the money for John. Never does he say like, ah, I don't know about that. Like, look at his response. He just beat Stipe Miocic and he's ready to go. You never hear that. Now, of course, people say things in interviews and maybe behind the scenes, it's different. I get that. I acknowledge that. But you never see any kind of hesitation.

You never see any kind of public negotiation. You never see him or hear him say, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. They've got to show me the money too. Do we have that full clip or no? We don't have that. I think it's important to play that. Do I have to play it off my phone?

What happened to it one second i'm going to play this on my phone because i want everything to be seen and heard from greatest of all the time uh from mixed martial art um and him moving up is going to be a good thing he's a challenge that i will take and put it on my record will be a very good challenge for me very good thing on my resume uh but for this time he's going to be the challenger. I am the champ. He's coming up and looking for me. I'm ready anytime soon. Even summer, I'll be here ready to fight in July or August, whenever

they are ready, I'm ready. He said something like, show the money, show the money and we go, baby. I'm here. Show the money. He's talking about him. That's my interpretation. July, August, I'm ready to go. Never, hey, we got to negotiate. We got to get a new deal.

I don't want him, this or that. You tell me your interpretation. That same night, post-fight press conference, this is Dana White, who tells us now three years later he wanted to cut him, who he wasn't all about Francis. He wasn't a fan of his.

Didn't want to be in business with him. This is his immediate reaction to what Francis did to Stipe. Dana new uh heavyweight champion of the world pretty impressive stuff from francis nagano i mean i think everybody's still soaking it in but give us your initial reaction to that yeah no he looked damn good he looked incredible man and uh obviously you saw a lot of things from him tonight that we hadn't seen from him in the past. Head kicks, leg kicks, really good grappling, takedown defense. Scary.

Yeah, look at that grin. A promoter's dream. He should feel that way because you've just got a guy who's chiseled out of stone, who's a freaking comic book character as your heavyweight champion. You should feel that way. And if you're wondering, did anyone ask him about the Jon Jones fight? Can we confirm whether or not it was Francis the issue or Jon Jones being the issue? Here's what he said when asked about Jon Jones fighting Francis moments after that win.

The idea of a Jon Jones fight seems awfully exciting right now. Jon came out, tweeted, said, show me the money. What appeals to you most? Because it seems like that would be an amazing super fight. If I'm Jon Jones and I'm home watching this fight, I start moving to 85. You think that's a fight that you'd like to put together next? I know we don't matchmake, but that sure does seem exciting.

Listen, I could sit here all day and tell you what show me the money mean. I tell you guys this all the time. You can say you want to fight somebody you know but do you really want to insinuating that the greatest of all time now the greatest fighter of all time as he continuously says is scared of fighting francis ngannou or doesn't want to fight francis ngannou we'll we'll leave it at that that's all you need right there that's the only clip in this whole thing. In the immediate aftermath, he says, John's talking nonsense about this. Show me the money.

He doesn't want the fight. And if I were him, I'd move to 185. That's all you need. And I'd love for someone to ask him that question. That's it. That night, John Jones is tweeting through it. Look how mad he was. Look how many tweets.

Shout out to Andrew Feldman. Go to 185. He's responding to that. The answer is yes, I want to get paid if you're wondering if I want this fight. People are saying I'm afraid. Everything, afraid, afraid, afraid, afraid. The whole thing. What an insult. Why does a fighter have to be afraid the second he asks for money? Conor McGregor wants big money. It's expected. Jon Jones, no, he's afraid. Look how many tweets. Look how he's rolling through it. This is all in the same night. Look at the time stems. We're now at 2.56 a.m. Derek Lewis

being used as a negotiation. Look how many tweets. Look how upset he was. We're now at 3.09 a.m. 11 a.m. 11 a.m. This is how mad he was. There was nothing being suggested that Francis Ngannou was the problem. It was all about John.

Because you would be afraid to fight Francis doesn't mean I would be afraid to fight Francis. You're probably not like me. Remember that. After Francis's win, I had him on the show and I asked him, hey, all the money, all the talk is about John wanting to get paid. John wanting more money. What about you? Don't you want more money? Here's what he said. and i'm just curious because a lot has been said about him wanting to get paid more and all this stuff but what about you francis you're the champ now like are you is it just a matter of all right you know francis here's your next fight or are there talks that need to happen for you because you're the champ now

well i want to get paid more obviously if that if that's the question. I think everybody pays more. You know, I want a good term for that fight. I want it to be in a good term, in my favor, or at least with more benefit. But listen, I'm in the contract. I have to fight You know Pause it right there

I don't wanna Listen I'm in a contract I have to fight Of course I wanna get paid more We all wanna get paid more Andy wants to get paid more GC wants to get paid more

Eric wants to get paid more I wanna get paid more Jordan Frank Is thrilled with his pay I'm told Everyone wants to get paid more But what does he say right there?

Listen, I'm in a contract. And he continues. I think the best is to come. My future is just there. I have a big space to take everything that I want. A big staple of those pandemic interviews was his fire alarm. It kept beeping.

It was incredible. Does that sound like a guy who's holding out, who's playing games, who's afraid, who's trying to negotiate, who's looking for a way out? Of course I want to get paid more. Everyone's talking about him getting paid. Of course I want to get paid more. But I have a contract, and if they offer me this fight, does it sound like a guy who's going to put a roadblock up?

Of course he doesn't fight Jon Jones next. He fights Cyril Ghosn. Bum knee. They try to sign him multiple times before the Stipe fight, before that interview, and then leading up to the last fight on his deal against Cyril Ghosn. January of 2022, all the marbles, Anaheim, Pond. You win the fight. You're the champ as a free agent. You lose the fight. You lose all your leverage, all your momentum. They flick you off to the side. They kick you to the fight. You're the champ as a free agent. You lose the fight. You lose all your leverage, all your momentum. They flick you off to the side. They kick you to the curb. Torn ACL, they tell him, don't do it.

He does it. Down two rounds to none. Turns it around. He becomes Kale Sanderson, and he wins three to two. Dana White doesn't put the belt around his waist. Says afterwards, oh, I had to go deal with something in the back. Maybe someone else was getting banned. Mick Maynard puts it around his waist and then he rides off into the sunset. This is what Francis Ngannou said to me after the fight when I asked him, what do you want? Do you want more money? Are you being a nuisance?

Do you want to get, what do you want ultimately? What would make you happy? This is what he said. So does that mean when you say freedom, does that mean you want to get what do you want ultimately what would make you happy this is what he said so does that mean when you say freedom does that mean you want to be free that you don't want to fight for the ufc anymore you can be free and fight for the ufc how i just want to be free how can you be free and fight for the ufc in your opinion i mean so we are supposedly an independent contractor. Independent contractor technically is a free person. Sure. But you know how it is, right? The contracts are very restrictive, right? You can't go box.

You can't do this. And that's the reason why they need some adjustment in that contract. That's what I'll be fighting for. So when you say it's not just about the money, you said that, right? It's not just about... Could you say to the world, what do you want? What is it about them? Freedom is, but like, what are you looking for? Is there anything specific that you can share?

I know you don't have to go through your whole entire like, you know, life goal here, but what is it that's really bugging you about what they're offering and what maybe they're not offering? The term of the contract, everything that they put into, they hold you like in captivity. Like you can do anything. You have no right. The contract is one-sided.

Although you still don't have nothing. You don't even have a health insurance while you're doing this, putting your body on the line to provide, to put on the show, risking everything. There's a lot of things, man. We have no insurance. Nothing. Like no guarantee. Does that sound like someone who's all about the money?

Does that sound like someone who's afraid? Does that sound like someone who's a bad guy? Does that sound like someone who was looking for a way out? No, that sound like someone who's a bad guy? Does that sound like someone who, you know, was looking for a way out? No, that sounds like someone, by the way, does that sound like someone who's dumb? Does that sound like someone who doesn't understand the language? Duh, duh, duh. Or does it sound like someone who reads contracts, understands labor laws, understands independent contractor status versus employee status, understands freedoms and lack thereof, understands insurance or lack thereof,

understands the ability to bet on yourself and live one life. Well, what does it sound like to you? You tell me, I'm offering this to you. What does it sound like to you? Does it sound like the guy who's all about the money? When you hear that, does that sound like that guy to you?

Doesn't sound like that to me. We continue. March of 2022, two months later, Dana White speaking to Michael Eves of ESPN. This is two months later, talking about the guy that he didn't want to be in business with, that he didn't want to have around, that he wanted to cut in 2018. Four years later now, this is two months after Francis's last fight. Here's what Dana White says about his interest in re-signing Francis Ngannou. Any progress made

in that regard? He's been in Cameroon visiting his family, so he's supposed to get back here in the next couple of weeks, and we're supposed to get together. From your standpoint, would you like to get it soon rather than later, or does it matter? Listen, in the history of this company, the only guy that we've ever not signed was Fedor.

I mean, it's the only guy we could never sign. So, you know, I'm hopeful and confident that we can get a deal done with Francis. And you're not worried about it, whether it's next week or eight months from now? Yeah, no. As long as we get it done. All right, fair enough. As long as we get it done. Hopeful and confident.

Does that sound like someone that they wanted to just disregard? Does that sound like someone they didn't want to be in business with? That's two months later. That's now two months into his exclusive negotiation period. Does that sound like someone who was happy he was out of the Francis Ngannou business? If you wanted to cut him, you'd think they would let him go. You'd think they'd let him go.

You'd think they wouldn't keep him around for that whole year. His last fight against Gan was in January of 2022. His next fight was in January of 2023 because there was a whole year negotiation period because he was champion whole year negotiation period because he was champion a whole freaking year and then they tried to sign him multiple times leading up to that and then he comes out with the press conference saying we've released him you didn't

release him the clock expired does that sound like someone that they did not want to be in business with and and and they say he's all about the money he left, and they say that there's a better deal on the table. And Dana White also said, I don't care about Francis. I don't lose sleep. Doesn't bother me one bit. I could care less. It should be couldn't care less. You tell me if they are bothered by his success. This is August of 2024. Israel Desenya is about to fight Drikus Duplessis. He talks about Drikus a few months prior at the on-sale press conference. They then put it together for a countdown.

Look, shout out to Andrew Feldman who caught this. Look at how they scrub Francis Ngannou's name from his answer. Look at this. There'd be a bit of tension between yourself and Drikus. This is the countdown. Can you just run through why that is? There's always tension whenever you fight anyone. This is a fight at the end of the day.

We're not playing chess. We're fighting. So there's always going to be tension there. But then him discrediting me, Kamaru Usman, he came in the UFC. I knew who he was a little bit, but I didn't go, oh, what the f*** is this fake dude coming in? I just said, cool, he's another African in the UFC. That ticked me off a little bit. So that's what started this.

But again, I'll finish it. That's what they aired. This is what he really said. He tried to discredit the Three Kings and say that he's the real true African champion. And I was just like, it's a weird mindset, bro. Like, he came in the UFC. I knew who he was a little bit, but I didn't go, oh, who the fuck's this fake dude coming in? I just said, cool, he's another African in the UFC.

But then him discrediting me, Francis Ngannou, Kamaru Usman, that ticked me off a little bit. So that's what started this. But again, I'll finish it. They literally edited his name out of the answer. Edited his name. Izzy was bothered. Danaway was asked about it at a press conference. You know, Faintinger said, oh, I have no idea. Oh, Lene, do you know anything? Oh, Chris, do you know anything? He does that whole bit, calls up Kevin

Aioli, says, no, my troops were, you know, being good soldiers. And let's take him at his word. Let's believe that there was an editor or producer out there who said, oh, no, no, no, no, we can't show anything about Francis Ngannou, right? We can't do that. He's persona non grata. I know what that feels like. Trust me. Let's do that. Let's scrub his name out. Even though it's quite obvious that when you talk about the three kings, you're talking about Izzy, Kamaru, and Francis. Let's scrub them out. Let's just, you know what? Let's just let's just you know it was a mistake it was an honest mistake the producer went into business for himself the editor tried to you know score some brownie points he went into business for himself or herself who knows the problem is

almost exactly a year prior kamar usman before the hamza Chamaia fight On Embedded is wearing A Francis Nganou t-shirt October of 2023 He's now long gone Why is that t-shirt Scrubbed out Why is it blurred out Hey bro Usman that's a nice shirt you have there But I can't see what is in front

Oh if you're wondering It's that shirt Nganou, Cameroon, Africa, courtesy of our friends over at Roots of Fight. Oh, surely that's a mistake. Surely the countdown edit was a mistake. If it was such a mistake, why are they scrubbing people's t-shirts? Why are they blurring out? Come on. This is next level pettiness because he walked away. Because he said, thanks, but no thanks. You you guys are winning you're the big behemoth you're the number one organization in combat sports no one went in to business for themselves those are the marching orders

and oh by the way in case you're wondering when Tafan Nikuchi is fighting, Nchukwi, I screwed that up. Only Cameroonian fighter in UFC history. Remember that? You might say to yourself, damn, that's a shot at Francis. He was from Cameroon. Actually, it's a shot at Francis and Ramo Thierry Sokuju, the legend. Francis noting that Thierry Sokuju was the first Cameroonian in the UFC. I was second. Don't let them lie and erase history. That's two months prior. That's two months prior to the Usman thing and a full year prior to the countdown thing.

This is not deliberate. Excuse me. This isn't a coincidence. It is very deliberate. It is extremely deliberate. No way is this a coincidence. They are trying to scrub him. They are trying to paint this new narrative, this new story that he's all about the money, that he was afraid, that he's a bad guy. And it's hard to watch. And it's uncomfortable to watch because all of this could be eliminated with one statement we're not in the francis business we wish him well in his future endeavors goodbye and ultimately what kicked all this off was the first comment that he was all about the money right that's what kicked this all off back on thursday and they've gone back and forth and

stuff about the pay and we asked him about the pay and all, but that's what like really ignited this latest chapter, all about the money. And remember what I said about being a prize fighter? Remember what I said? How could you knock anyone, even if that is their sole intention, to make as much money as possible? How can you knock anyone, even if they come from the best background possible? You're going in there with four ounce gloves to punch another man. Of course you should be all about the money. Of course, let alone someone who is from Cameroon, who grew up in a hut with no electricity, with no running water, who wore, he told us recently, he wore the same pair of shoes for years and years, who used the same toothbrush for 11 straight years, the same toothbrush. That's how poor he was. Escaped, slept in a parking garage. Of course that guy should be all about the money. But why does he have that mentality?

Why does he have that thought process? Why should he be all about the money? Why is he right to be all about the money? It's because the man that he is feuding with, the president of the UFC, is the one who tells fighters to be all about the money for all intents and purposes. What does Dana White always say? This isn't a career. It's an opportunity. You've heard him say this, right? Put that in YouTube. Put Dana White career, not opportunity, and see how many different clips come up. This is a career, not an opportunity. Excuse me. This is an opportunity, not a career. Did I screw that up? I've been talking for a long time. This is an opportunity, not a career. This is an opportunity, not a career. A career is something,

oh, it's a long race. It's a marathon. No, no, no. He's saying this is a sprint. Get yours, get in, and get out because you rarely come out unscathed. Not sound familiar? Let's go back to 2020. Let's go to June of 2020. Let's go to Dana White talking about opportunities and careers. You know, when you're a professional athlete, you have a very small window of opportunity, a very limited amount of time.

You know, we get into all this money shit and the stuff that's going on right now. Everybody acts like this is a fucking career. This isn't a career. This is not a career. This is an opportunity. Anything can happen in any given moment. Knee can blow out your back. You're this, you're that, um, COVID-19, you know, who the hell knows what's, what knows what is coming down the pipeline. So you have to take every opportunity that you can get. And you could blow out like it did for Francis, COVID-19, like it derailed Hamza Chemaev's career. Take every opportunity.

He's telling you right there, fighters, take every opportunity. Get yours. Be greedy. Obviously, you have to work within reason. But if you have that mentality, and if you told us time and again this is an opportunity not a career meaning an opportunity for me is a very very very small window a short-lived time frame not a career that lasts 20 30 years and he's right he's absolutely right i agree with that mentality every fighter should have that mentality how could you shit on a guy for trying to improve his life trying to improve his family's life trying to get the freedom that he so wanted trying to go out there and live a

dream in his late 30s to box that was where this all started he wanted to be a boxer first trying to grow something like pfl africa to give other fighters from his country an opportunity. Where's the bad guy? How could you sit there and shit on this guy and attempt to smear his name and attempt to make him out to be the bad guy, the enemy here, the greedy, scared, didn't want to risk his pristine record. And we could go through that whole thing all over again. We did it once. It's on YouTube. Enjoy yourself. The idea that he wanted easy fights and he didn't want to risk his record. He didn't want to take chances. He goes out there and fights the number one heavyweight in the world. And then he goes out there and fights Anthony Joshua. That sound like a guy

that didn't want to take chances. That sound like a guy that didn't want to take risks. The whole thing is ludicrous. The whole thing gives me a headache. I say, Lord have mercy end all of this. I don't know if he can help himself because going back to Francis's point, in this particular battle, not the great war, but in the battle of, okay, I say no to you multiple times, I'm going to go out there and live my best life, Francis wins quite easily. He wins in the personal battle, not in the war of UFC versus Francis. Of course, the UFC comes out on top. Even Dana White's life, he's doing just fine. They're all doing just fine. Why can't you just be happy for the guy?

Or at the very least, just say, God bless. I'll never understand it. We're all wired differently. But I hope in the last hour or so, I've explained to you why when I saw that first clip on Thursday, I had to watch it a few times because I couldn't believe all the bullshit being spewed. I couldn't believe all the nonsense.

Is this the end? Is this the last chapter? Probably not. But I hope you now understand who's telling the truth and who isn't. I'll let you guys make that decision. Coming up in a moment, we are going to be joined by Darren Till, hopefully by Alex Volkanovsky as well in about 30 minutes time. Still much to discuss as far as UFC 308 is concerned.

And tomorrow on the program, we'll have much more regarding 308. Remember, we're Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday these days. Boys in the back on Thursday, crack on Friday. Weekend off, no major event. That's kind of nice. Shout out to Magomed Ankhalaev. He did everything that was asked of him, and I'm happy to hear. As for the comments in the post-fight press conference, I'm very happy to hear that he is going to be next. That should be the fight. You can make a strong case that he should have been next after the Johnny Walker win. They didn't give it to him then. At some point, a decision has to be made when someone is on a streak like that. We got to give it to him, right?

And it's somewhat reminiscent of the Bilal Muhammad streak. And so they are going to give it to him. Love that. That's the way it should be. Is it going to be the most exciting pay-per-view of all time? Is it going to sell the most pay-per-views? No. But unbeaten in that many, I think it's 12 now, he's got to get it. Solid win over Alexander Rakic. It would be a travesty if he's not next. He even tried to speak English in the post-fight interview. Love that. Shower bullet with a massive win. Never seen anything quite like that.

Double spinning back fist. Did you guys see at the open workouts he practiced this? Do we have that clip? He practiced. He showed it to us. He showed us his hand, spinning back fist, right then left, and he nailed it in the second round against Armin Petrosian. This guy's unbelievable. Look at this. Bang, bang, bang. Okay, that's a spinning back elbow to a spinning back fist, but close enough,

this guy's incredible, what a vibe he has, what an aura he has, afterwards he talked about Izzy, I would love to see that, Izzy with a great response, he was doing the, the watch party thing, and he's like, what'd did he say Leave my name out your mouth I think he was Is he so good with the references I think he was talking about The Will Smith thing I think he was paying homage to that

Will Smith and And Martin Lawrence Absolutely Is that what he was saying Will Smith from the Oscars And then Yeah 50 Cent

Did I say Martin Lawrence Yeah No Who am I talking about Chris Rock Chris Rock Fuck Yeah all the time Wait why 50 Cent 50 Cent. Did I say Martin Lawrence? Yeah. No. Who am I talking about? Chris Rock. Chris Rock. Fuck. Yeah, all-time moment.

Wait, why 50 Cent? 50 Cent because then he said, what do you say fuck me for? Oh, what's that from? 50 Cent was doing something, but it's a super popular meme. Someone said something about 50 Cent, and he was like, what?

Why do you say fuck me for? Oh, the one where it's like this one he's like yes yes yes i've seen that i've seen that yeah he's making those reference yeah it is funny as hell that he's sitting on his couch just like chilling and like watching the fights and then he gets called out yeah and people are like uh i mean i i would love to see but yes it's amazing to see it from that perspective right you're like in in in your pajamas yeah he's like all of us just chilling watching the fights and then some crazy scary looking dude is just like adesanya come back i'll whoop your ass um i always love those those izzy clips because

the the events happen in the morning in australia so it always looks like he had just woken up. He's eating breakfast or he's in his pajamas. He's chilling. He's half asleep. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. That's my dream is to live in Australia so I can just watch these fights at 7 a.m.

Sunday morning? Like you're watching The Prime or something. Oh, my God. Can you imagine? Can you imagine waking up every weekend and it's like 9 a.m. and UFC is starting? I think that's when it would start. It's incredible.

You like that fight? Shara Bullitt against Izzy? Yeah, I don't know. I've got to think on that. Do we throw Shara into the fire like that? His first ranked matchup is against Israel Adesanya. Too soon? Yeah, I feel like it's too soon.

Too big of a jump? Too big of a jump. Anyone come to mind? For Shara or for Izzy? For Shara. Let's get him a ranked matchup for sure. To win emphatically like that, I definitely think we get him a ranked matchup.

Let's take a peek at the old rankings. Chris Curtis, 15. Michelle Pajeda, 14. Michelle Pajeda. That ain't a bad shout. Anthony Hernandez, 12. Well, I don't know, man. I feel like Anthony Hernandez is... Is gonna take him down? All the way up, man. Yeah.

Paolo Costa? Char versus Paolo? Oh, hey, Frank. Yeah, we're, uh, we're working through Big Darren Till right now. Uh, I seem distracted. Marvin Vittori, Jared Cannoneer. It might be too big of a jump.

I mean, Izzy is ranked number two, so that might be insane, but credit to him. Jack Ramanson. That's not a bad show. Man, they tried to do Jack Ramanson against Joe Pfeiffer, and he screwed it all up. Hamzat Shemaev coming in ranked 13th. Yeah, that's not going to last. And by the way, do you disagree with my Magomed Ankalayev take? Is there anyone else?

No, it has to be him. Yeah. If the next fight for Alex Pereira is for the 205 strap, it has to be against Magomed Ankalayev. And by the way, if I'm Alex, like this idea that he's just going to get completely steamrolled by him, I say like, no, hogwash. Absolutely not.

Right? He's not Khabib. Magomed Onkelayev didn't attempt a takedown in the fight on Saturday. Sure. Do you think that was on purpose? I don't know. It is kind of crazy that, like, if that was true, that, you know, he had to sort of say to himself, don't do this because if you do it,

I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to get the title shot. I mean, it's not like the, we saw was like some like performance that that locked it in like it was like wildly exciting so yeah i don't think he did it on purpose i think the fear was more if i lose i'll never get the title shot right he just likes to strike good for him yeah if i'm alex i'm not i'm not too bothered. All right, let us go to Liverpool. Our old friend Darren Till is standing by and I wanted to have him on because he obviously knows the man who competed in the co-main event quite well. Different reasons, of course, different relationships, but always nice to catch up with Darren. Darren, are you there? Yeah, there he is. How are you, Darren? You doing all right? Darren, can you hear me? Can you hear me?

Yeah, how are you? Can you hear me, Ariel? I can hear you. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Oh, yeah, sorry. I can hear you. How are you? I said your name, Darren, like that yeah. Sorry. I can hear you. How are you?

I said your name, Dadan, like that. Isn't that how they say it in Liverpool? Dadan? Yeah. What? Dadan. Dadan. How are you?

Dadan. I'm good. How are you? I'm doing well. I didn't know you were a big Utah Jazz fan. Yeah. Wow. Have you just noticed this T-shirt?

Yeah. This is a company in Liverpool called Lost Souls. And they've done like, you know, kill. Excuse me. You alright? Did you just have dinner? I feel like I've just bathed. I don't know which holeocaust this is weird sorry no no no problem what did you have for dinner i had uh a pasta like a macaroni and cheese pasta it was absolutely glorious uh yeah it was it was nice how was life

i always hate it when you ask me this question Ariel Why why I ask from a Point of sincerity And genuine interest Well I haven't heard of you for a while So I can't I'm not going to believe that I'm going to take that with a pinch of salt What does that mean

I didn't have a show for like three months In fact When I announced my comeback, I was so excited about it. I showed off my new studio and the top comment was you doing like a yawning emoji or some shit like that. There I am.

I was like, are we going to do this again? And truthfully, I really wanted to reply with a zinger about like, are you referring to the state of your career? But I was so afraid that you would you know you would you know release some uh personal information about me again i left it alone i mean give me credit i showed some restraint some maturity well you know with me was bad but yeah i'm sorry i actually didn't actually can i just explain something i feel like people are really confused with me on twitter sometimes i don't actually look at stuff sometimes i just put stuff and deal with the consequences like so i didn't actually know what he was putting up i just put a yawn and think that

i'm sorry like i shouldn't have done that i'm saying sorry again it was a big deal i'm walking out i'm feeling all good about our new set here. We got a new show, new studio, and fucking Darren Till back in my comments. Top comment just shitting all over it. I'm like, man, I thought we got over this. I'm so sorry. I've got MMA Guru on the back foot at the moment because of Habba's phone number.

I think he's scared I might release it. Who knows? No, I don't condone that. He's a huge fan of me. Just by this comment alone, he's going to do a 90-minute breakdown on just this alone. Anytime his name is mentioned, he does a 90-minute breakdown. It's amazing.

Of a 90-minute breakdown of me and you or this conversation? Anytime his name is mentioned on my show, he does a 90-minute breakdown because he's figured out that if he puts my name in the title, he's able to get over 100,000 views. So he watches everything out that if he puts my name in the title he's able to get over a hundred thousand views so he watches everything so closely and and he does a breakdown he'll put my face i'm feeling like you have a beef right now so my license saying you guys beef or there's no beef i've actually given him props but but anytime his name is mentioned so

you just gave him a hundred thousand views well done there is actually no beef how could you have a beef uh never met the guy no i don't have a beef with emma may good i think he's he's okay i mean he rants a lot yeah he's he's cool i don't know why why every time i go on twitter i always see you like fighting with like models or people like why do you get into these arguments with people why do you feel the need to waste your your your mental space with this stuff do you know what that's a good question because i actually don't judge people to be honest i'm i am a very not judgmental people you know when you just have them days and you hate the world and what it's become and especially social media i just can't help myself sometimes but i think you're referring to the ellie brooks situation so there's more clout for someone else

yeah i don't think she needs it she's broken actually quite big now but yeah she was just annoying me but she she she she said that all is good between me and her now so yeah is she the boxer yeah no no there was another one where you were referring to the girl the sweetheart and she's like sweetheart and she's saying like oh you know that what you were you there was someone all of a sudden i see because i see your reply and you're fighting with no no no no she like i think something happened where somebody released like something about her like like, naked pictures. And she's just, like, a normal girl.

So, but she does put herself out there. But then she was saying, like, oh, you know, whatever, would someone do this? So I just made a comment, not even to her. I was, like, made a comment on the thread. And I was like, oh, my God, like, guys should not be doing this because it's so bad towards women, especially. I have four daughters So I'm all like Gail power and then but I said something along the lines of like but she loves the attention So and then she replied back to me just like oh, yeah

Another guy trying to get me and I was like, it's not that type of party lovely. I wouldn't know disrespect I wouldn't look at you twice if you ever seen you in person. And then she replied again, like, lies, lies, something along the lines of like, we know you want me. And I was just like, I don't want your love. You're 40. Like, you know, whatever. I don't want to say something nasty, but that was it.

Like, I was like, I've happily got a girlfriend. I am not looking at you in that way but okay and then she just come back at me again like yeah yeah and i was just like love just just please stop and she did so i won with kindness yeah no that's what i'm saying why even why even like take the real estate in your mind and and you're off instagram as well yeah i got deleted on Instagram for posting a Donald Trump click. No way. Serious? Yeah.

Mark Zuckerberg, I've come to the conclusion I know Paddy goes at him. Mark Zuckerberg's not a good guy. Why do you feel that way? I just don't think he's a good guy. I think he's a fan of fighting.

That's all good. But he is literally, I think he is literally trying to censorship the things we are trying to say and do and all this. And like, I've had trolls in the past come at me on Instagram and say mean, hateful, nasty things. I have then sometimes replied with an even nastier thing

and I have been suspended deleted and i've like twitter's probably a little bit too much far the other way but at the same time why are we getting censored for for saying stuff and speaking our minds and and stuff like that i don't know do you agree with that well yeah well what did you post it because i see stuff about donald trump on instagram all the time. I actually didn't realize it was like an AI-generated thing, that he was at a rally. It was something fake, but it was something that he was saying.

I think it was him and Elon Musk or something to do with Andrew Tate. And I posted it, and straight away it just said, we've deleted your account, and stuff like that. Damn. And is there any way to get it back or are you done with it oh i just don't care as you've just said i shouldn't care enough to comment on these stupid people's things sometimes i just don't care enough like social media is just not a big part this is what i do with twitter you have to realize how much i do not care. I delete the app off my phone for long periods of time. I have the team BlockAsset.

Shout out BlockAsset, by the way, Ariel. We're still here. We're still going strong. Come on. Come on. What's the rate on a gorilla having a pizza party these days? What can you get?

You can not get nothing. That sells out. Okay, fair enough. But we do have our online casino now, Blockbet. We are all over the UFC. We're obviously global partners with the UFC now. We just got back from Singapore. The online casino is absolutely flying, might I say.

Manchester United want to get involved with us and for us to be their Asian betting partners, hopefully. So, yeah, Block, Block, I said Blockbet. Blockpix is really doing well, Ariel. I yeah, block, block, asset, block, bet, block, pitch is really doing well, Ariel. I would love to have you on board, but you didn't support. Listen, no, no. Are you trying to say that there's no room for me now

because I didn't jump on the giraffe playing ping pong bandwagon? There's always room for you, Ariel. By the way, on this day of all days, to tout that Manchester United wants to be in business with you, I mean, that sorry state of a club. Not exactly. You know what I mean? It's just a tough go for them.

By the way, what about that win Nottingham Forest had against Liverpool at Anfield earlier this year? Did you see that one? I've seen that one. You're trying to cause some beef? No, no beef. I love you. Okay, so the reason I reached out to you before the weekend was I was like, oh, Whitaker, Hamzat, the perfect guy to talk about this fight is Darren Till. You obviously fought Whitaker.

Great fight in the midst of the pandemic. We always remember you walking out, no music. It was chilling. And then, of course, your relationship with Hamzat. Can I ask, what were you thinking going into the fight? How were you feeling about the matchup going in? Not what happened, but just what were your thoughts going in? Analyzing the fight area, like doing a breakdown on...

I actually did a really good breakdown where a guy who works with Block Assets, Saul Jahion, the Block picks and the Block bets. So we done five picks for the fights. I got all five right. I was very happy with myself. But my breakdown with Whittaker and Hamzat was literally

as how you see it if Whittaker could stay bouncy on the feet and use his bounciness striking sort of evasive movement and drag Kamzat maybe into four

and five right because sometimes Kamzat has got tired he could potentially drag out a decision win I could never see him knocking Kamzat out Kamzat's got a great chin could potentially drag out a decision win. I could never see him knocking Kamzat out. Kamzat's got a great chin and great, like, he's very resilient.

You know, all Russians are, Chechens and, you know, all stuff like that. So that was my breakdown. But I was sort of just like, how can Witter keep Kamzat off him for five rounds, let alone two, three, one? So that was the breakdown. And I was like, well, like, obviously obviously i'm always going to pick cams because he's a brother but at the same time he's going to go for the takedown and i feel like he's just going to get it but i didn't expect the submission i thought he was going to beat him up so he's clearly been working a lot more with alan finfo who's a jiu-jitsu coach. He was a very dear friend of mine. And it was fucking so relentless.

And again, me and Kamzath are really close. We speak a lot. We FaceTime a lot. I've been close to him and he's been having his personal troubles outside the octagon. You know, I send him messages of love about his family and stuff like that.

So now it's title time. I feel like he is going to be the champion. And I'm going to be very happy for him. I'm like, I am sincerely happy for him. Ariel, as much as I'm a fucking lunatic, I'm happy for everyone who does well. I'm happy for the likes of, you know, I remember way back when me and Leon Edwards

had a beef and he was the champion. I'm so happy for him. I'm happy for the likes of my old teammate, Tom Aspinall, being the champion. I am genuinely happy for all these dudes succeeding at Army. What about Bilal? You've taken some shots at him. Are you happy for him too?

Yeah. Why not? Why not? He said he was going to come to Liverpool and spar me striking only and that just would not go down for well for most people recently he said that on my twitter spaces i'd done a huge twitter spaces and you know he said he was gonna come to liverpool and beat me up that's that's not happening um back tozat just to do that to Robert

to where you're cranking his neck and breaking his jaw that's absurd I think that was his best performance since that introduction in 2020 I know he fought Gilbert and Kamau but like that was the guy that we all thought would be a champion in a year right? Hamzat Tumayev is going

to be the champion one way or another that is a given. I literally spoke to him about five hours ago before. He was shouting down the phone at me because I never came to fight. And then he was asking for some winter clothes because he knows Liverpool has fashion. But he is going to be the champion 100 million percent in fact i'm gonna probably do a bet now on the site for him to be championed by let's say first quarter next year is that possible is that would you say that

i think it'll be a little too soon just the the the sort of the way the schedule will play out do you think that they should skip over sean strickland and and make him fight robert would occur excuse me make him fight ddp next yeah no no disrespect to sean got nothing bad to say about him i know him comes out to be for now i actually do like sean i think he's done very well but he's fought he's done a great fight i actually thought he won that fight against ddp i actually do think he won the fight but we've seen the fight yeah like let's just watch comes out now and see how that plays out like we've seen us we don't want to see that again just like sorry to say we don't want to see John Jones and steep a steep he hasn't falls for 25 years we want to see the best greatest Emma may

fight of all time this John Jones it, sorry, versus Thomas Small, and then after that, we want to see everyone stop chatting shit and talking about my ego this, my ego that, as much as I love Dana White, there's one thing that pisses me off,

just make the fucking fight with Francis Ngannou, we don't care that you don't like Francis and Francis doesn't like you, guess what, wow, we don't care. No one's asked. Let's just watch

John Jones vs Tom Aspinall, Francis Ngannou vs John Jones and let them all fight and everyone say, right, he's the best right now. We don't care that, oh, he said something mean to me one time. We're not asked. Who cares?

I don't care. Why do care ufc has always been the best because we give the best fight now take all the chic is coming along and making all the best fights in boxing that all these divvy promoters because they all lie through the teeth couldn't make take all the chic is now doing that now people are still chatting shit but we're getting the best fight we just want to see the best fights do you agree Ariel? couldn't agree more, thank you for saying that and by the way, it's so easy to make this fight because of Turkey

and also, they're both on ESPN PFL and UFC are on ESPN they have the same broadcast partner, everyone wins it's never been easier look, look I speak to Hunter a lot I have a great relationship I speak to Hunter a lot still. I have a great relationship. I think he's a fucking terrific human being.

And I love Dana White, I do. People can chat shit. I love him. But this thing, I know he's got a being as bonnet as Francis. And guess what, as I said, I don't judge. I don't judge the shit that Conor does outside the cage, or Jon Jones, or myself. The shit that you don't know that I get up to, that I use as vomiter.

I just don't care. I care about the fight. I don't care that Jon Jones is on the cocaine a week before the fight. I couldn't give a rat's ass. I'll get on the cocaine with him to make us all happy. I want to see Jon Jones versus Tom Aspinall, Francis Ngannou versus Jon Jones,

and then I can sit there as a fan, like you, Ariel, and say that's the best guy. Do we agree with that? Go and get your ego and shove it right up your ass where we can't see it. Sorry for ranting, Ariel, but I feel so strongly about it. I love this from you. I love

this from you, Darren. It's about time someone says it. It's like, because I didn't give a fuck like i couldn't care like because people know what kind of guy i am and what i'm about like they can say what they want about me but i know i speak sensitive and like every time a boxing promoter is asked a question about another boxing program it's like well he did this and he said that and we don't care. You're just a promoter. Shut your mouth. Shut, sorry,

shut your mouth and make the fight. Eddie, we don't care what Delahoye is saying about you. We know he's a crazy cocaine head but at the end of the day can we just work together

to make all these fights? Javante Davis is still fighting absolute bums. Bums. Why is he not fighting Devin Haney? Why is these rematches Ryan Garcia,

Tanker and Maid? Why? Why is Anthony Joshua in a four-tice in Fiora yet? Can I tell you? Now that fight's gone because Joshua's just been fucking absolutely done

by fucking Dubois. This is brilliant. It's not because now I'm just going to get talked shit about in Britain. Everyone's going to come at me and call me a bum. No, no, no. I know I'm a bum. I don't care. Can I ask you this, Darren?

Hamza DDP, you know DDP as well. How do you think that goes? I just can't see past Hamza. Again, Ariel never excuses on me. DDP beat me fair and square. I just can't see past Kamzat like I've like again Ariel never excuses on me DDP beat me fair and square you know he's the champion now

so it just shows that you know I was one win away from being the champion against him but I just felt like if I was a little bit more stronger than DDP at the time

I could have beaten me easily I do know that you've seen what I was like in the second round I just don't see how DDP stops this unstoppable force like Kamsa. And, again, DDP is so shit. He's so good. Would you agree with that?

Okay, Ariel. Would you agree with that? What does that mean? He's so shit that he's so good. Like, everything he does is wrong or just wins fights is it is is it the most awkward unorthodox style that you've ever faced well no because when he was doing a stupid shit to me in the second round i was just moving on just elbowing him and kneeing but then he does these like weird like i don't know do you think he drinks before the fight

i don't know but like on that night would you have ever guessed that he'd like i don't know do you think he drinks before the fight i don't know but like on that night would you have ever guessed that he'd become a champion who defends his title like would you would you have ever foreseen this well no because one of the best guys i fought in the octagon was whittaker and then he done that to whittaker and i was just like yeah i can't look past this guy anymore then he beats fucking strickland and Adesanya. He's currently the greatest middleweight on the planet. He's better than Johnny Abloh. He has to be, to me.

We were talking about Hamzat, and I would love to see it next. I think it's infinitely bigger than the Strickland fight. I think he beats DDP. That version of Hamzat, I think is one of the best fighters pound for pound on the planet. Forget about 185. But there's all this like ambiguity with his travel situation.

And I said, and let me know what you could say on this. If 45 becomes 47, meaning if Donald Trump becomes president again, all those travel issues go out the window. Just ask Darren Till. He helped you get to New York City, right? Is that not true?

Donald Trump helped me get to New York City, yeah, two days before the fight. I was making weight. I was down in the embassy. And Dana White made a call and was just like, yeah, I'm going to get you into America. Donald Trump this, that, the other. And next minute, the boss of the embassy runs down all anxious and hands me my passport and was just like yep and then i was on a private

plane to new york so yep there you go so that's a true story yeah so he probably can fix any issues that hamza has traveling if there are any yeah donald trump's the man would you agree he's gotta be the man are there any issues for comes out that you know of no i don't i know he has a i know he has a swedish passport and i know he has a russian one now i don't know whether to do with like obviously there was trouble with russia and ukraine way back when i don't know whether that hurts russian citizens but he's been in America before, so I don't think he has troubles. I was there for the Gilbert Burns fight and Nate Diaz-Kevin Holland

fight, so I don't know. Okay. Why weren't you in Abu Dhabi? You said he was mad at you for not being there. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. You couldn't be arsed? I'm not going to give any excuses.

I just don't know. I should have been there, to be honest. Well, you know what? I'm waiting on a few things at the moment myself. I've got a few juicy offers on the table. Oh. Anything we'll hear about soon? You already know.

I'm sure you know. You infiltrate all these places. That's why Dana hates you. Infiltrate? What the fuck? Infiltrate? What does that even mean, infiltrate? When we're speaking, you usually know shit.

You know shit before I know shit. Listen, but here's the biggest thing. Am I ever wrong you've never been wrong with all that because you're so good at that yeah thank you the only problem with you sometimes is you do like to when you're beat you beef with a lot of people you're like me but you always try to make out that you you've never done any wrong that's where maybe accountability comes into play sure but i actually think that that's a misnomer that I beef with a lot of people. If you think about

how long I've been doing this and how many fighters are out there, thousands upon thousands over the years, you can name the beefs on one hand, but they're just so pronounced

and they're so out there, you know what I mean? That it makes it seem like larger than it is. And then, of course, when you have an issue with the big boss, it feels even bigger. yeah today dana's it's hard when you be for ten years than dana is he's

you know he is a powerful guy isn't he and obviously all the fighters are going to want to make him happy and when you have like i know you be for like ali when you have ali that makes no sense none of that makes that's just Ali being a brown noser. He's being a house manager and he thinks that being in Dana's, you know, good graces will help him get better deals. Yeah. As I say, I don't know why you two guys beef. I don't even know if you do beef still.

No, no. Listen, that's not important. What's important is you. So there's some things coming down the pipeline. Do you think that we will see you back in there in the next few months yeah um are you are you can i ask you are you dreading the jake paul mike tyson fight because initially you were supposed to be on like you just want that to be over with because that was something you were linked to yeah yeah it's been a minute or two years i'm not gonna lie it's been a fucking it's been a tough two years, Ariel, I'm not going to lie, it's been a fucking,

it's been miserable, to be honest with you, it's, it's been miserable, it's been a, it's been tough, Ariel, to be honest with you,

a lot of personal shit as well, like, I could probably bring up, but maybe it's, probably not the right time, but like, it's, it has,

and I've been, I've tried, like last year, I really tried to fight, and I was really, I was probably in the best shape of my life last year, I was tried, like last year, I really tried to fight. And I was really, I was probably in the best shape of my life last year. I was literally like just on fire boxing, like just so ready. And then this year, the start of this year, I had a great year.

Then I had that fight in Dubai, which is sort of a gimmick thing. I wasn't so happy about it, but I was like, okay, whatever. Let's get the fight down now. I feel like I'm going to be getting the real fights that I should be getting in boxing and so you know but yeah it's fucking it's uh the last two years has been really tough in the area really tough because I don't not want to put stuff out there like I'm not one of these who wants to portray the perfect like on social like I just portray anything on Twitter and let people run away with it like people for some reason on Twitter think that I'm stupid or something.

Like, I'm stupid, yeah, okay, I've built a business in crypto along with my partners that I know potentially one day in the next few years is going to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I am not a stupid person, but I just let people think whatever they think because I don't really give a fuck.

So, that image of portraying that I'm some, like, beast who trains five times a day on Instagram or Twitter, that life's not for me. I just portray the normal type of life. That's why probably so many people like me. But the last two years, I've really, really trained my fucking bollocks off. The past two months, I've been a lot, like, sort of demotivated,

and I've just thought, what the fuck's going on? I need a fight. Is a fight coming? Like, whatever. So, yeah. But if everything goes well in the next week or two, and I nail this fight, it should be massive.

You'll probably want me on the show again. Okay, I would love that. Can I just ask, how's your mental health? I don't know. How's your mental health meant to be, as a fighter? Are you meant to have good mental health or bad? This is how I look at mental health, yeah.

Okay. This is how I look at mental health, and I don't know whether fighters would agree with this or not agree. So we train for years upon years to perfect our craft, whether it be whatever. And we can just go in the gym every day and do that.

Like, it's instilled in our brain, our muscle memory, like, stuff like that. So there'll be days, Ariel, where you could have an argument with your girlfriend or you could have a car crash or something would happen and you still go to the gym, yeah, and get that shit done. But even though you've had a bad day or you whatever's happened yeah okay so why when we're fighting do we all of a sudden change our whole mentality and go oh my god like i've i've had an argument with my

girlfriend just before the fight or or this happened or that happened on am i going to be able to fight well i don't get it we've for eight weeks. We've done the same thing every day. We put our body through here. We know how to fight. Like, we don't stop. We don't automatically forget how to throw a jab or to do a takedown. So why does it change on fight day where everything has to be perfect and your mental health has to be intact?

So I don't know. Like, for me, being mentally strong is probably the most important part of it but that's a different side of things like mental health like if you're depressed does that mean you're just so if i say to you now if i'm depressed does that mean i ought all of a sudden can't throw a jab or a kick no no i wasn't necessarily even referring to that just you said you were lacking motivation last two months and this and that. So I was just asking, you know,

do you feel like you're healthy up here? Do you feel like it's a cloudy time in your brain? Do you feel like it's a bit of a gray time? You know what I mean? We all go through it. No, I'm definitely not healthy up here. Like I am,

I am one of the most mentally disturbed people you will ever come across. What do you mean by that? I am mentally disturbed. In what regard? Every regard. I am not a well person in the head. Is that troublesome? I love it.

Oh, you do love it? Absolutely. Are you worried about when you can't fight anymore, how you're going to be able to, you know, live a productive life? Oh, no. Like, no. I love the chaos. But who the fuck, Ariel, wants to come home,

not to fap and sit there and watch Netflix? I don't want to do that, mate. Fair enough. I want chaos in my life. What makes you happy? Chaos. Okay. Training hard, being chaotic, causing lots of stares on Twitter, getting my self-cancelled nearly every week, getting my Instagram deleted, and doing all the other shit that I can't comment on yet.

That makes me happy. This makes you happy. Because you're making makes me a bad person probably not i'm not a bad person i like to see everyone doing well and i'm not an evil man but i'm just yeah i'm very troubled in the brain there's no part of you that's like you know what it would be nice to just kind of float by and and not be involved in all these issues no no no not even a bit just for like a few months in what regard because if i get this fight next week this week sorted for the next three months aerial i am gonna do what i i have always done really well. I have always taken my camp and my training very seriously. I take going to the gym seriously. I train really hard. I really do.

So after that, then I go completely loopy and then back into camp, train really hard, then go loopy and just keep it going until I retire. Okay. Boxing or MMA? what do you mean uh this big news boxing hell of course all right hell yeah do you know who i don't know anything don't say anything now i'm gonna say something i could just blurt it all out no don't do it I'm hearing someone saying no Is there a pirate in here Is there a pirate in here or something

Don't do it I don't want you to get in trouble But do us a favor When it is time When it's out Come back on and we talk about it more 100% because I know you only like to speak to me To benefit your show

That's fucking crazy You asked me yesterday What do you even want to talk to me about? Why are you asking me on? And I said, cause I just wanted to chat with you, Darren. Don't be such a,

don't be such a hater. All right. Uh, we do have to move on, but we love you. Let's move on. But you do know 90% of the time I'm just trolling. That's my mojo.

You know that, you know, you know, aside from the beef we've had, you know, I'm a good guy deep down here sure sure most of the time um i wish you the best day god bless thank you for coming on and we'll talk to you soon we'll speak in a few weeks ariel okay yes sir looking forward shout out to everyone who

still supports me i appreciate the support and everyone who hates me i couldn't give a lot to us thank you as well amen here we go uh we we say thank you very much to darren till and now we say hello to our next guest uh he is uh arguably the greatest featherweight champion of all time he has these stats and resume to back it up it's been a while since we uh spoke to alexander the great he was there in abu dhabi on saturday obviously he's the one we want to talk to on this monday after what transpired saturday night he's kind enough to join us, I believe, back home in Australia. Is he back home? Yes? Yes, back home. How are you?

It's great to talk to you, Alex. It's been a while. I don't know if you've missed me as much as I've missed you, but I really have missed you. Yeah, actually, I thought that just before when I woke up when I knew we were doing this. I'm like, man, it's been a while since we last chat. Yes. So thank you so much for doing this, especially early over there in Australia. And so let's get into it.

You were there in Abu Dhabi, and I have to give you credit, Alex, right off the bat. I love the way you handled Fight Week. No one does this better than you. You make your presence felt. Videos of you going up, letting everyone know, I'm here, shaking hands with Ilya, shaking hands with Max. That felt very deliberate, like letting them know, hey, much love, much letting everyone know i'm here shaking hands with ilia shaking hands with max that that felt very deliberate like letting them know hey much love much respect but i'm here i am next i'm waiting was that done on purpose on your part

yeah yeah of course it was you know i um you know i've been told i was next but you know i want to go go over there and uh make sure of that and that and let everyone know at the same time. I wanted to be respectful with it. So actually how that happened, I guess I'll give you a bit of the inside. Please. I end up just letting the boys and the hunter and Dana, I'm just like, I really want to get in the cage. And then they're like, let us just here dude let

dana do his thing first like you know do the belt and and we'll see you see what's happening from there so when he come out i think he was a you know a little unsure look his family was in there um which i totally understand right like he's like look man i don't know i want to give him his money steam he's in there you know i don't want nothing that you know to happen and i just have to sort of you you know, tell Dana, look, I've been good with his family. You know, he's got a beautiful family. I've actually been talking to him all week.

I've even been hugging him and I've been real cool with him. I go, look, nothing's going to happen. I'm going to go there congratulating and just, you know, let everyone know I'm next. And then Dana's like, all right, no worries. So, yeah, so it was good to have, you know, Dana and Hunter, you know, let that happen. Obviously, they don't usually like people getting in there.

They've made that pretty, you know, they've been pretty vocal about that. But as they said, they don't really like saying no to some people. I've done plenty for them and they've been great to me as well. So that's why I just wanted to go in there. I know this game can be crazy. You know, you think you're next and sometimes you just don't know. So I'm just like, I want to go over there and make sure I'm next. So I just went in there and was able to get in there.

Shake hands and congratulate him on the impressive performance and just let the world know that I'm next. I'm ready and keen to get in there. Do you recall what he said to you or even more what you said to him? To Ilya? Yeah, in that moment, what you guys were saying to each other. Yeah, just congratulated him. Congratulate him.

Well, he said most of it on the mic anyway, just saying, obviously, great team and I definitely deserve the rematch. Just before he said that, I'm just like, you know, we'll make that happen. You know, just sort of wanted to be like, congratulations. Just say, we'll make sure, you know, just sort of let him acknowledge, which he already did on the mic. And he was good. And then obviously just shook heads. And all respect.

I know a lot of people, you're going to be unsure how things are. Look, this is a business. Everyone knows how this game works. He does say some things, but he's a respectful kid. No one knows those two fighters better than you. What were you thinking going into the fight as far as how it was going to play out? And then your reaction when you saw it actually play out was that different yeah um look uh we all know ilia is good you know i was picking uh max i thought uh i thought max would win i was like i think he's gonna make it

hard for ilia and even if he lands on the uh on max i feel like max let's see if that invincible chin holds up you know what I mean? But I knew Ilya can crack, so I knew that was still going to be always a chance that he gets the finish. I'm surprised within the third, you know, Max showed Ilya that respect and didn't really pour on the pressure

because he knew, you know, I can get hit if I pour on too much pressure, so he wasn't able to really wear on that gas tank uh Ilya uh gas tank uh held up and and found that finish which was was impressive so did did uh Ilya show me anything new nah that's uh that's the Ilya that I knew was always there you know he's always he's always been good so we always knew that he's got that punching power and he's good at setting it up.

So, yeah, nothing surprised me in that sense. But to do what he did to Ilya, maybe, sorry, Max, that probably surprised me. I was thinking maybe that chin, because so many people have tried cracking that chin. I just thought, you know, this is going to be a test for him because he's probably going to go in the later round. He's going to, you know, maybe his power might not be as effective

as it always is. Let's see how he handles that. And he handled it well. Was there any part of you from what you were seeing out of Max in terms of the success that he had with Ilya that thought, okay, this is good to know? Like, did you learn anything about what max was doing to him um no i didn't i wouldn't say i learned anything new i wouldn't learn i didn't learn anything new uh it's sort of uh if you look at my breakdown i sort

of um talk about you know ilia right now i was saying even with me like you know I've been pretty vocal with it as well like I don't believe I've you know really fought my fight but I was still able to land and still make Ilya miss but the thing is with Ilya like he will stay like he don't care like he might miss you might start landing you know while he's fresh, he's still just going to – he won't be phased. You land, he'll just keep coming forward. He won't care about things not going his way. And that's sort of what I'm saying in there as well. Even though Max was having some success, so was Ilya, he didn't go off task.

He just was pushing forward. He goes, I need to eventually find it. Even though I haven't found the KO shot yet, I'll stay on course. You know, I'll be, you know, you know, wasn't, doesn't, yeah, maybe stoic through it all. Like, you know what I mean? Not phased, you know, he would just be,

even though I was, as I was saying, I was landing every one of my jabs, most of my jabs were landing clean. I landed some clean shots, but, you avoid things straight away at the same time, which I probably could have capitalized a little bit more, but he didn't care. He would just be like, I'll eventually find it. I'll eventually find it. So that's impressive when things don't go your way, but having that confidence to know

that I'll eventually get there. Did you have a favorite as far as who you wanted to see win? Did you think it was better for you if one guy won as opposed to the other? Obviously, I want that ring match with Ilya. That's something that I want more, but at the same time, I don't want to wait too long. So I was thinking with Max, do I fight him sooner? That's why I was saying that you know uh i that's all i

was uh talking about in a lot of the interviews you know a lot of people thought who i thought would win and who i wanted to win um and it was a tricky question because i'm like i want that rematch with ilya i want to get that win back but at the same time i don't know when he's going to fight next uh if max wins, does he do BMF? And then that means I can fight sooner, maybe for the interim. Or do I fight Max in February in Sydney? Because that would be great. But with Ilya, I don't know when that fight's going to be, to be honest.

So that's why I wasn't sure. But Ilya was great in the off-the-court. He said, I deserve that fight. Let's make that happen. I just don't know the timing of it. So we'll see what happens. Were you surprised? I thought he was very respectful towards you.

And he said, no, this is the guy. Did any of that surprise you? Were you expecting him to say otherwise? Yeah, maybe. Because he's in front of the cameras. You know what I mean? But, you know, obviously he was happy, he was wrapped. His job was done, you know, he didn't have to say too much, you know what I mean?

He put on a performance. Now we could just, I'm just going to enjoy it. So he seemed like in a pretty good mood. So he didn't have to try and hype up anything for the cameras. Maybe he's in a position now where he's like, I don't need to do any of that. So, yeah, I guess I was a little bit surprised. Like I said, we're good.

You know what I mean? A lot of people are going to see things being said, but we're cool. You know, we're all good. But you've got to hype up fights and whatnot, but yeah. After the fight in February, you very clearly wanted to get the first crack at him were you ultimately upset disappointed annoyed that you weren't his first title defense um i sort of knew that was a going to happen just the way things were rolling because

uh i i was uh i made everyone aware that I wanted to have a good break. A lot of people are saying I should have done that before the last one, but I did that now. I had a really nice, long, well-needed rest. I've never had a break like that ever. It was good, but then I was like, so I was talking to the UFC then, letting them know that I want to, and then it was looking like they might fight earlier in the year. So I was like, yeah, no worries.

Let them do the thing. I'm happy to wait. But then that fight just getting pushed back, pushed, pushed, pushed back. And then before that started happening, I'm like, man, this fight's going to end up being sort of when I wanted to fight. Right. Whether that was on purpose or i don't know but um but yeah so like in the ufc were you know they they wanted me to rest as well so they probably think this timing was was better for me anyway uh i would have loved to fight around now or early next year you know

what i mean but no later than that you know that's you know, but again, I'm not in a position where I can just call the shot, especially make someone who just fought for his title, make him fight sooner than he wants to. But hopefully he wants to be active and get back in there. We'll see what happens. So as you said, Sydney in February,

obviously that'd be perfect for you. He said afterwards, like, you know, I called the shots, I'm the guy and i want a break um so does it sound like based on what he has said and and and you know it probably would have been a long shot for him to turn around in three months that you've kind of forgotten about sydney at this point and not expecting to be on that card yeah it's a yeah i guess i look minutes it's too early you know yeah it's going to be tough you know to get him over to sydney i always knew that that's why i was saying maybe i'd prefer max winning just purely for that sense but um at least i know i'm uh garren you know guaranteed next.

We'll see where it is. Remember, Madrid or, you know, a stadium or something, sounds great. You know what I mean? But I'd fight in enemy territories. I don't think I'm an enemy anywhere in the world at the moment. I hope not anyway. But, I mean, obviously, he's going to have a massive crowd.

I'm okay with that. I've fought enemy territories how many times? Been booed plenty of times so it's uh that's and that'll be huge imagine a massive event in spain it's just when is it is that later later in 2025 and i'm like waiting like you know two years before i find it you know i'm not getting any younger everyone knows that um i've got one last crack at this title and I'm going to put everything into it so hopefully earlier next year we can make it happen if it is one of those things where it's going to take a while to find a date if they want to go to Madrid etc do you have a period where you're not going to wait does does being active mean more

than getting another crack or are you are you waiting indefinitely until they say okay now it's time cool question um right now i'd say uh i'm waiting you know uh because i'm not thinking it's going to be too long and i don't want to put other things out there you know if it's going to be a crazy weight or there's injuries or something like that that we're not aware of, and then they want to do an interim or something like that, we'll see. But yeah, I think he's pretty healthy and we could make it happen sometime early next year. We all remember what you said leading up to the Islam short notice fight about just getting sort of those itchy knuckles and wanting to be back in there, right?

By the time this happens, let's say it's February. Let's just say, it seems like a long shot, but let's just say that'll be a year between fights for you. Most likely we're talking 15, 16 months, right? Most likely. Yeah. 14 months. How are you dealing with this?

Already we're at eight months since your last fight. The prospect of 12, 13, 16 months that period was three months when you came back to fight islam how is that guy going to deal with this layoff yeah it's uh it's fun because i i um i made the choice like you know what i mean it was clear to me that i was having a break that i was having a rest that was clear to me you know i didn't feel like you know I didn't have a uh I don't have a belt that I feel like uh you know responsibility that I need to defend I need to be you know what I mean right now I don't have the belt my next fight is for the belt so it's clear to me what's next and how it is you get what I mean so and it was clear that I wanted the rest so that was fine I really

enjoyed the the break you know which a lot of people I don't know if they can understand what I'm saying there because I'm like wait you couldn't handle that but that was a different circumstances where um I was still the champ and I was expecting the fight soon I wanted to still stay active um so yeah that was just uh you know I felt like like, you know, I still had a job to do as a champion. Again, it's a responsibility where now I don't have that responsibility. But and I knew that, yeah, I knew I wanted that break. Now I'm starting to be like, all right, I want to get in there.

But at the same time, it's still clear that it's not too early next year. So I'm not, you know, I'm not a, yeah, I've got quite a, you know, I'm more uncomfortable for me last summer, which was just weird. I think, you know, you've got to remember I had a newborn, sleepless nights, you know, just things like that. So the pressure's on. But now we're good. Got a new farm, enjoying myself, enjoying the time off a lot. You know what I mean?

Especially because I haven't had a fight locked in. It's been quite, you know, almost hard to get to training. Like, because I'm like, I want to be on the farm and, you know, do all this. I've been enjoying it a lot. I've obviously been training, but I haven't been doing the full schedule, which has been good. It's been good to not do a full schedule. If I did a full schedule this whole time, I'd be worn out.

I'd be almost over it. So I'm glad that I haven't done that, especially knowing that it's still going to be a few months away. But after being there last Saturday or a couple of days ago, now I'm like, all right, let's get back into it. Let's start picking up that training and get back to where we were. Did you move to a farm? Yeah, I got a farm. Wow, with animals and stuff? Yeah, yeah.

What kind of animals? 16 or 17 cows. Actually, we've had five calves in the last couple of weeks, a few weeks. Wow, and is this in Sydney? Yeah, we're just south of Sydney, yes, near where I live. So, mate, it's beautiful. It feels like I'm in the middle of nowhere, but I'm still close to everything. I'm only like 20, 25 minutes from the gym, 20 minutes from the girls' school,

and everything we need is just around the corner. So it's cool. Was this a dream for you? Did you always want to live on a farm? Yeah, I've always loved the bush. Always loved the bush. Always loved the bush. I used to do a lot of camping, a lot of hunting with my dad and my brother and family and stuff like that.

So it's something that I've always wanted to do. I would remember just driving past. Every time I drive past, like from out west, well, that's what we call the country. If I'm in the country and I'm, you know, seeing farms and, you know, that beautiful lush green land, I would always get this like, oh, man, like this feel. Like I don't get that when I go past oceans and beaches.

You know, don't get me wrong. They're great. I love a sea view and things like that, but it's not the same as when I'm out in the country. So I'm lucky enough where my veranda i can see the lake i can see the ocean i could i've got a whole escarpment um and farmland like you know so i'm pretty lucky i've got the best of uh both worlds and i'm uh you know obviously blessed to be in a position where i could finally buy

somewhere so close home because it's not cheap not cheap not cheap really let me tell you that but it's um sorry no no go ahead go ahead please yeah that's it yeah so it was like it took me time like a to want to be able to spend money on myself i don't usually like doing that it's not myself actually it's for the family obviously the big part of why we do this for the kids as well but um i don't you, I've always been about investments and, you know, looking after us for later. It's always been about that. So I'm not, I'm a bit of a tight ass when it comes to money, you know what I mean?

Just because, you know, that's why I do what I do. That's why, you know, I beat my body up. I've been beating my body up for so long that so I could look after my family forever and I'll keep doing that. But this is the first time I was like, all right, let's splash out and sort of treat ourselves and get something that we want. So I've got my dream location and I'm just going to put the dream house on here for the wife. If the wife wants a dream house, I'll get my dream location.

We're both winning. I love it. And congratulations to you guys on that i also saw uh did you open up a deli as well uh or is that a joke no so that's now that's um that was with a sports bet yeah so that's just that was just a little activation we did for a race day so a lot of people thought that so i'm like here i'm glad we can make that clear that was just a activation so they had a hundred thousand dollars up for grabs that day so all you had to do is come to volks delhi uh sign up and um if uh you know they picked 18 18 people if whoever won whoever horse won they got um they got a hundred thousand dollars so that was the whole thing so

yeah it's not not legit a lot of people congratulating me on the regulations on the on the deli i'm like oh man how do i tell everybody you know but uh yeah i was i was excited about it i thought maybe some uh some takis uh with the the chicken wings some some steaks you know like you you're so i mean the cooking with vogue instagram page is one of the best right now. The production quality is fantastic. And now I'm not surprised about this because the old man Vogue stuff that you do with that, that's the same sports betting partner, right? Sports bet?

Yes. Yeah? Yes, yes. That stuff is amazing. Yeah, they're good. They're great. So I did another old man Vogue with them. You'll be seeing a bit more of the Old Man Vogue.

What's the girl's name? What's that's all? What's your rival's name? Oh, Beverly. Beverly. It's fantastic. Who comes up with these things? Is this you and them?

You are so good in that role and of course, you played the role before the Ilya fight but those skits are absolutely amazing. It's some of the best stuff out there. Yeah,

well, the stuff with the Old Man Volk sportsman, especially their mads, that was all their idea. They come up with that. But I mean,

you need a good talent to pull it off as well. So, you know, they did a great job of that. Like, they came up with the idea. I said, I love it. And we just smashed it out. And, you know, obviously, everyone loved that. But, I mean, a lot of the – we do a lot of my own skits as well.

So, the tradie vault, the concreting one. I don't know if you've seen that. There's stuff like that. Like, I enjoy it. I love the little acting skits. And, yeah, I don't know if you've seen that. Stuff like that. I enjoy it. I love the little acting skits. Yeah, I don't know. It comes really comfortable for me. I even did a couple while over there in Abu Dhabi.

A couple of media guys. I was like, you know, but Ken and I had the shits with them. I saw that, yeah. Stirring them up a little bit and just having a bit of a laugh. But yeah, I love doing that sort of stuff because, yeah, I find it,

I wouldn't say easy, but yeah, I'm that sort of stuff because yeah I find it I wouldn't say easy but yeah I'm comfortable doing it all so yeah It was reminiscent of, I don't know if you ever saw the clip of Mirko Krokop back in the day in Pride scaring the shit out of Mauro Ranallo he was pretending like he was really mad at Mauro and Mauro was getting super nervous

so that clip that you're talking about with the media guys was exactly the same thing except I hope you know that i'm saying this with the utmost respect you're not as scary as intimidating as prime miracle crow cop back in the day because that guy looked like you wanted to kill uh morrow i mean it wouldn't it wouldn't be uh for guys like that it wouldn't be much acting would they can just sort of keep that that normal face say a couple things if you're gonna you know you're gonna think they're mad i'm usually pretty pretty happy and and chirpy so i'm gonna go way out of character to um to do that so that's why a lot of people like wait is this really happening what's going on here and you only you only let it go like a

minute or so six if i'm lucky so i don't know how scared they were yeah and you only let it go like a minute or so because i don't know if you have it in you to be that mean for that long uh if i'm being honest can i ask you alex though again as we acknowledged it's been a while since we spoke a year later do you regret the islam fight do you regret coming back so quickly after to fight Ilya no no I don't think I don't regret it that's um that's who I am that's uh what's made me the champion I was you know uh yeah a lot of people think it's just a bad idea but I mean if you look at it going in that's me challenging myself you know me uh taking on Islam obviously the timing thing was there, but the only thing I regret is I wish I was, especially before the Islam one, I just wish I was more prepared.

I wish I was training more and in a better position, but I do not regret taking them fights because, as I said, that's just who I've always been. If I wasn't the guy that would take on them challenges and wouldn't do that, I wouldn't be talking to you right now. I'd be just another guy here in Wollongong, in Le Wara, that's maybe still playing rugby league and at a lower level maybe. You know what I mean?

But the fact that I am that guy that will challenge myself, that same guy that challenges himself in them moments, when so much is on the line, he's still doing that in the gym. That's a guy that turns up in the gym every single day. So, you know, it's easy to look at it in hindsight and be like, oh, you know, that was a silly decision. But that's who I am. And to be honest, you know, people respect that.

And, yeah, I think a lot of people can learn from that as well. You know, a lot of people will sit there and be like. You know, a lot of people sit there and be like, you know, don't make silly decisions. You can probably learn both ways. But at the same time, don't be afraid to challenge yourselves. A lot of people thought I did other things that were crazy and I did pull it off. And you know what I mean?

And I put myself in a better position because of that. But again, that same guy turns up in the gym every single day, challenging himself and putting it all on the line in the gym every single day, challenging himself and putting it all on the line in the gym and I wouldn't be where I am if I wasn't that guy. This may be a dangerous game, but do you credit what happened against Ilya to the Islam fight?

Like, do you think if that, if you just would have gone from the July fight to Ilya, do you think it's a totally different result? That's a tricky one because Ilya can like I've always known that the only way I lose is if I get caught that's just how I've always, you know, like maybe with Islam he can take you into deep waters and then you might be able to have a close fight like we did. There's only very very few fighters

I don't think anyone in my division that can do that with me to beat me the decision actually beat me but i don't i've uh always known everyone can get caught so uh i just wish you know i think uh me fighting so soon later maybe i just didn't get to fight my fight doesn't mean he couldn't catch me it doesn't mean i wouldn't be able to be knocked out and i was only knocked out because of what happened with uh islam but i mean i would have been a lot more comfortable and happy with myself if i was able to in a fight you know fight my fight and um yeah going to camp you know uh not avoiding you know contact and you know being careful with things and uh you know what i mean so that you know maybe you're building habits maybe you are subconsciously uh losing confidence that way

you know you would never been able to you wouldn't have told me this beforehand there's no way so a lot of people are like you know your team should have said this and all that because no one was going to tell me anything i had it in my head that trust me we're good this is you know it ain't going to affect me. And, you know, a lot of people were saying that it can rock with your confidence. It can do this. It can do that. And I was sitting there laughing at them pretty much thinking, yeah,

maybe you guys, not me. You know what I mean? And no one could have changed me. So, yeah, a lot of people are going to be hard on the team saying it was the team's fault, but let's be real. Everyone knows what I'm like. And at the end of the day, it is going to come down to what I say. You know, your team are going to do the best they can to tell you otherwise. But everyone knew I wanted that fight, and, you know, the team I have around me,

they're going to accept, you know, the challenges that I'm willing to do and take it on. There's a lot of people that were unsure about Islam the first fight. Right. Telling me, like, you know, do we really want to do this and um i'm like yeah and then okay sweet let's go let's get let's get let's get to camp and we almost almost pulled that off what has it been like the last eight months you know the belt becomes part of your identity being champion because and you were champion for so long i see it behind you over there just being the sort of

you know the the the hunter instead of the hunted, the guy who has to go out there and, and, and, and, you know, we remember you going to Edmonton and, and doing the things.

And even when you were champion, you were going, you know, a short notice in Abu Dhabi. You didn't mind your backup fighter, which was absurd, you know, to even think of a champion,

put number one pound for pound, but now without any belt of any kind, has that been at all difficult nah not really like a lot of people like how easy like being there fight week and all that and i was just sort of a fan but that had a job to do at the same time um i think there was one moment that i was uh doing i think i was doing tnt uh sports i was doing the weighing show and then it popped up and i had ilia wearing the belt with Max there. And I'm like, oh, yeah, they're fighting for the belt that I had for so long, you know.

Like it was just like that. But it's – for me, it's – I'm all good with it. You know what I mean? I'm okay with that. But, you know, watching Ilya go out there and take Max out and knowing that I'm fighting next, I'm back in a position where I felt like I was the hunter. Even though I was getting, you know, I was a hunter, like anyone was chasing me. I always felt like I was chasing the contenders at the same time.

But it is different now. Right now, I feel like, all right, we've got some work to do. You know what I mean? You know, like a yeah so like it's a I'm sort of in a position now where I feel like this kid's good we we can't we can't mess about we've got we got work to do and you know what I mean I'm gonna look at it that way and I'm gonna keep that there I'm gonna try and remember what you know my last I remember remember his fight give him

that all that respect. And you know what I mean? Like sort of how it was with Islam and some of the other guys. We'll max the first few times. We'll max all three times. Give him that respect where he's like, we need to prepare. We need to go all in on this. So I'm back in that position position which is going to be good so i feel like uh we'll

be seeing that that same hungry uh bulk that we've seen for for many years i'll let you go in a moment but i'm just wondering because we were debating this earlier and i think your opinion on this would be fascinating male fighter of the year alex prayer or ilia taporia some say that those two fights are two of the best um in in recent, but what Alex did, incredible three fights, short notice, all that. Who would Volk vote for? I mean, a few things come into play, right? When you're saving cards. Put it this way, if it wasn't Pereira saving cards and

putting his belt on the line while he's saving cards, it would be clearly Ilya. Like, yeah, you've had three defences, but the two that Ilya took out, man, and finishing us both, you know, it's hard to say. Man, it's hard to pick against Ilya, to be honest. And I thought it was like before the weekend, I was like, how does Pereira not get it? It was pretty clear.

But then you go out there and have two massive wins like that while I was champion, you know what I mean, while I was a defending champion, and then Max while he was still on a tear. Like, you know what I mean? That's pretty impressive, man. You know what I mean, while I was a defending champion, and then Max while he was still on a tear, like, you know what I mean? That's pretty impressive, man. You know what I mean? I think that takes over. It's tough for me to say because I was saying probably different last week.

I was thinking it couldn't be beat, but now if you think about it, you think of the guys that Ilya beat, it's, I don't know. What do you think? What's everyone saying? ilia beat it i don't know what do you think what's everyone saying oh man we we did this whole thing where honestly like a week ago if we would have talked three days ago i would have said there's no way um alex perra alex perra saved ufc 300 they had no main event and he knocks out jamal hill the the former champ then he saves 303

on 10 days notice he was in in Australia on a seminar tour. Conor breaks his toe. He jumps in there and saves the day and then knocks out Yuri Prochaska and then takes another fight on relatively short notice against a super tough Khalil Rountree and stops him. Three stoppages, saves their butt,

three wins, all that stuff and more in a span of time from April to October, six months. But then you look at the level of competition, you and Max, two of the three greatest featherweight champions of all time, right, with Jose Aldo. You can argue one and two, one and three, two and three, whatever it is, like legends in their prime, not past their prime, in their prime.

After the run that Max was on, obviously the run that you were on at Featherweight, two wins like that in the span of eight months, it's really a fascinating debate because the two wins are greater than the three in terms of quality of opponent. But that's three versus two, and then it's short notice and all the stuff you have to deal with. I said anyone is crazy if they give it to Ilya or Max

leading up to 308, and then I saw what Ilya did to Max and I'm like oh yeah there's a strong case to be made here yeah I think yeah there's a few the fact that Pereira was saving cards and doing things on such short notice

and putting his title on the line to save the day on such short notice I did that right on the line to save the day on such short notice. Yeah, I did that, right, and I was chasing someone's belt. Pereira did that, putting his belt on the line. You know, so that's impressive. But then you look at Ilya, like who he's beaten, I mean, sometimes it's going to have to come down

to level of competition as well. And, you know, myself and Max, it's impressive, man. Yeah. By the way, after the fight, Conor McGregor said, call me. Is there any concern that he gets this fight before you? Nah. I mean, if he wanted it, if he wanted it, he's not getting down the featherweight. You know what I mean if he wanted it If he wanted it He's not getting down to featherweight By the time that happens that'll be two years

If he was going to get down to featherweight But I reckon he's probably It's Conor McGregor If he told him I'll make feather I'm fighting nearly a next Me going in there Doing the face off on the weekend probably doesn't matter you know what i mean and but yeah like that'll be a long time waiting so uh and it

ain't gonna happen i don't you know i don't know what he what he meant with the call me but whether they do that in a different division you know what i mean but i don't even know why we're you know fair enough i think we all know that that's not happening anytime soon anyway. And could I ask you, Ilya says he wants to submit Islam. How do you think he would do if he went up to 55 and fought Islam? Yeah, the submission, obviously, you know, I don't see that happening. Can he knock Islam out? Yeah.

Yeah, of course. He could knock anyone out in them two divisions. Like I said, like I've always said that, and it's going to be the same for Islam. The only way I see these guys losing myself is getting caught. And, you know, who can catch these guys? It's guys like Ilya. You know what I mean?

It's guys like Ilya that can do that. So, yeah, I mean, he could go out there and land. But, I mean, I think that's his only chance. Going out there and actually beating Islam or even submitting him and controlling him, I just think that isn't very, very unlikely. But I definitely can catch him. And I think

Ilya can catch anyone in them two divisions. So you can never count Ilya out in them fights, but they are going to be tough fights, especially for you. If he can't knock them out, if he's not knocking them out, they're tough fights for him, obviously. Very tough fights.

So it's Ilya versus Volk too. Can't wait for it. It's a fight that should be made. He's rocking up with Sergio Ramos. You seem to be happy to see Sergio Ramos. What a legend he is. Who's Volk rocking? Who's going to be your celeb plus one?

Is it Jamal Murray? Is he that guy? Or are we going bigger than Jamal? I love Jamal. Fellow Canadian. He's the man. He's incredible. I feel like you need a guy. That's my boy, mate. That's your guy? Is we going bigger than Jamal with all I love Jamal fellow Canadian he's the man he's incredible but like I feel like you need a guy that's your guy is he gonna rock up with you yeah he already has you know what I mean like look man I'm I'll be with my team you know

what I mean if other people are going to be there cool uh Zach walked out with me last time that that's right that's right that's right that's But, I mean, you know, there's people that I know and I get along with. You know, I get along with Zach. I consider him a friend. And Sam is a Jamal, you know what I mean? So, you know, they're the guys. Mate, put his with me. Ramos and all that's there.

Like, you know, I don't care if he's walking out of Italy. I'm still shaking that guy's hand, you know what I mean? Like, I appreciate everybody, whether they're rude for me or not, you know what i mean like a i i appreciate everybody whether they're they're rooting for me or not you know what i mean like it's i don't hold any any grudges you know what i mean he can be cheering for you i'm still shaking the man's hand you know amen uh and much respect to you that's why so many people respect and love you as well uh delighted that you're getting it hopefully we get it sooner rather than later, maybe first half of the year. That would be ideal, right? Oh yeah, of course. Definitely, it's not ideal last part of the year, that's for sure. Yeah, so if that's the case, maybe we are talking

about something else. Oh gosh. We'll see what happens. So good luck with all that and great to see you out there and you continue to crush it. Again, shout out to your whole team, the Cooking with Vogue stuff. I mean, I see the way you're cooking that meat. It's troublesome. If I'm being, everyone's going to get sick. It's a big problem. I just want to let you know. You and your well done meat, man.

It kills me. Far out. I mean, look at this. You and Jamal out there with the meat. It kills me. I love you both, but I just don't know what you're thinking doing all this.

But it's fantastic. My burgers are more well done mate my little smash burgers yeah you might enjoy that i saw that one you were in the you were in the country i saw that you were somewhere you were camping or something right that's my farm oh that's where you were actually out in your i saw you out there i was like look at this guy there's there's mosquitoes all over you and stuff and you're just enjoying a smash but i had a bug oh i had a bug on the brick i don't know if you've seen the bug yes it was disgusting the burger what about

the fact that you were smashing a burger with a brick the first thing I thought of that can't be sanitary Vogue I mean where did you get that brick that's all right I had that next to the fire for a while so with the kill or it did look that the burger look fantastic I will give you that it's all great stuff

And it's great to catch up With you again Appreciate you doing this All the best to you And hopefully we get that fight Sooner rather than later It's great to see you And get experience

Yes please If I'm cooking you something What am I cooking you? What do you like? Because I refuse to do A well done steak for you No no It's going to have to be

Something else What are we cooking? Does it have to be meat? Does it have to be meat? No It could be anything Well yeah It's going to have to be something else. What are we cooking? Does it have to be meat? No. It could be anything. Well, yeah. As long as it's not too complicated, I'm not that good of a chef.

I like it. I'm a big fan of Italian food, like pizza. That's easy though, right, for you? I could do Italian. Sushi? I can do sushi. I just did a a sushi i just did it on my my ujo i had help with that but like i said we can make we can make anything i would love it you know i mean if i if i need a if i need a hand the beauty of editing you know it'll look like i did it anyway one of my favorite segments was when you were here and you did it for us with the air

remember that with the air fryer and everything it was fantastic it blew my mind i never even heard of takis i thought they were an australian delicacy yeah well they go even uh so like you know how i do the crumb with the packets of chips yeah like my one of my biggest videos that i did uh you know would have got like 14 or maybe more plus million views was the chips. I think I did a Dorito chicken burger. So it was like Dorito crumbed chicken burger. And, yeah, that went nuts.

See? And I did that first on your show. Everyone's shopping on that. I'm seeing everyone do that now. I'm seeing everyone do the crumb and the chickenumbing their their chicken with chips um i think i don't know but did i see that i don't think i've seen that anywhere i'm claiming that you claim that you claim will you open a restaurant i feel like you could at this point i could i mean i don't have the time to be there i mean but i could definitely uh i could definitely open one up through something

like that yeah for, for sure. We've got our eye on a few things anyway, so stay tuned. Okay. I love it. You're a man of many talents, and also the Engage stuff looks fantastic as well. So everything's hitting right now. We're in the hat right now. Yeah, look at that. Shout out to Ash and the team.

Well done, Alex. Appreciate it very much. All the best to you, and thank you for coming on as always. No worries. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. There he is. Alexander the Great, Volkanov thank you for coming on, as always. No worries. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. There he is.

Alexander the Great, Volkanovski. Great to catch up with him. Been a while. Been a while since we caught up with him. The sun is setting here in New York City, and we've got a lot to discuss tomorrow on the program. As it pertains to the featherweight division, tomorrow on the show, the aforementioned Diego Lopez will be on.

How about that? Diego Lopez is going to join us. Marlon Chidovera is going to join us. The reigning defending UFC flyweight champion, the one and only Alexandre Pantoja is going to join us as well. We haven't talked to him since, of course, the announcement that he's going to be fighting kai asakura

in december and i'm very excited about a debutante on the show tomorrow uh dr brian sutterer i hope i'm pronouncing that correctly uh he does fantastic stuff on youtube as far as breakdowns for medical injuries we saw what happened to robert we saw what happened to chris barnett we saw what happened to hafell dos an happened to Chris Barnett. We saw what happened to Rafael dos Anjos. I would like to get his take on these injuries. He does amazing stuff when it comes down to breaking down sports-related injuries. Something happens in the world of sports, like Shohei Otani gets injured on, when was it? Friday, I think it was.

And that was an unbelievable game. No, it was Saturday night. Yeah, it was game two. Yeah, game two Saturday. He's got a video up in like 30 minutes. It's unbelievable. And I think game three is today, right? Who are they coming out with?

Are they coming out with Jay-Z? It's not on the air, so you'll have to tell us. That's what they're saying about Fat Joe? All right, they're saying Fat Joe. I'm cool with Fat Joe. I'm cool with Fat Joe. But they've got to do well. And it has to be like they're saying Fat Joe. I'm cool with Fat Joe. I'm cool with Fat Joe. But they've got to do well and it has to be like they're not copying

because the Ice Cube bit was phenomenal. I mean, it was just like, I'm walking from the outfield. It was incredible. They've got to respond in a big way. So let us see. Still to come this week, Wednesday shows well.

Thursday, boys in the back. Friday, crack. And Saturday is a under the rated, under the rated? Fucking hell. Under the radar. Yeah, crack. And Saturday is a under the rated under the rated? Fucking hell. Under the radar. Yeah, it is tough. Under rated card in Canada. In Edmonton. I love this card.

A love letter to Canada. Headlined by the great Brandon Moreno. The return of Rose Dumbunis. But there's a ton of Canadian talent, including our friend Jasmine. Yeah, she's on there too. Mike Malott as well. I love this card in Canada.

One of the great arenas in North America, Rogers Arena. So we have much more to discuss as the week rolls on, but for now, Frank, it is time to go. I've got a mint Oreo cake to get to. That's exciting. What time should I come over, by the way? Nothing gets in between me and my birthday parties.

You know that. Great taste. Except for mine, by the way. You like that? Ah, she's going to love that. You like that pick? Mint Oreo? Yeah.

Oh, yeah. That's a mature palate right there. I know. I was like, are you sure about this? Like, the cake is green. You sure? She's like, yes, my favorite. I stand with her.

I love men ice cream. Did anyone order the Dubai chocolate? Yeah. We haven't been able to leave the studio yet, but... Okay. Well, you can order it online. There might be some... Oh, you have to order it online?

No, I'm just saying. I don't know. I'm sure there's... Listen, there's a chocolate shop near here that I'm going to go check out after this. Why do you sound like you're underwater right now? I'm hearing it in my ear. It's been a few things. Working out the kinks.

Still working out the kinks. Just made a sick save. Mouse was about to fall off. Everything could have shut down if I hadn't made that catch. For real. The reaction speed is impeccable. We stumbled out of the gate there a little bit, but we found our footing. I want to ask you guys your thoughts on my breakdown of Francis and Dana.

Good? Yeah? Man, as the outro music hits. Yeah, no, no. Yeah, please. Hour-long breakdown. Give me your thoughts as we're pressed up against the air. Anyone?

Quick? Comprehensive. Comprehensive. All right, fine. By the way, special shout-out to Jedi Goodman and Andrew Feldman. Without them, I don't know if we could ever find these receipts. So thank you to them and the team in the back for all the work in putting that together. Of course, thank you to Lerone Murphy.

Thank you to Darren Till. And thank you to Alex Volkanovsky. Thanks to them. Thanks to you. Back on Tuesday, same time and place. Peace. I'm out of here. same time and place to those