The Ariel Helwani Show - Anthony Smith announces retirement fight, Aljamain Sterling breaks down Merab Dvalishvili's UFC 311 win

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Ariel Helwani and The Boys In The Back discuss the status of Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall and react to the latest combat sports news (05:38).Anthony Smith announces his retirement fight, tells a powerful story of receiving support from Bryce Mitchell before his most recent bout, reveals he asked the UFC brass to compete in Power Slap and more (31:39).Aljamain Sterling discusses Merab Dvalishvili's big win over Umar Nurmagomedov, why Merab will be the 135-pound GOAT, a potential fight against Patricio Pitbull, Payton Talbott's first career loss and more (01:35:06).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Erya Hawaii Show! Back in your life! On this Tuesday, January 21st, 2020. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well on this lovely, lovely, lovely Tuesday afternoon. Oh, it is balmy outside. It's a magical, I think, 10 degrees Fahrenheit, which is, I think, negative 46 Celsius. Is that what it is?

Beep. Yeah, it's lovely. You know, I've often said the joke's on us. As much as I love New York, why anyone would choose to live in this climate from essentially like November to March is beyond me. The joke's on us. And everyone who is, you know,

down south, west, Australia right now. Those types of places. Basically, I've narrowed it down to three spots. The west coast, down south, or Australia. If you're living in those places, you're doing it right. Maybe also Brazil. I think Brazil is nice this time of year. I think.

Maybe Colombia as well. In any event, it's a great day to be alive. There's a lot to discuss. We had a fantastic show yesterday. Brazil? I think Brazil is nice this time of year. I think. Maybe Colombia as well. In any event, it's a great day to be alive. There's a lot to discuss. We had a fantastic show yesterday. UFC 311 has now come and gone. No UFC this weekend, by the way. But we do have the very first PFL Dubai Champion Series event, I think. Paul Hughes, Usman Nurmagomedov for some kind of belt.

Is it the PFL belt? Is it the Bellator belt? We don't know. We'll never know. Also, GFL draft this Friday as well, and we've got some information on that coming up later in the week as well. So much to be excited about, much to be thankful for, much to be grateful for.

If you missed anything on yesterday's program, whether it was Armin Sarukyan's first interview or Murad Dualishvili's first interview or Yuri Prochaska's first interview or Renata Moikano's first interview, or perhaps you wanted Josh Barnett in studio. Who knows? Whatever floats your boat, it's all up there on the feed. Give us a thumbs up in the chat. Give us a thumbs up on the little thingy. Hit the bell. Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, Follow, all those things and more.

Your support means the world. Now, as far as today's program is concerned, three massive names joining us on this beautiful Tuesday. And you know on Tuesdays we like to play two at 5 o'clock. We'll do the show on the DAZN channel with Adeola Depot. Much to discuss there. On that program, by the way, the much-talked-about Connor Benn is going to be joining us. He, of course, what we're told, signed, sealed, and delivered April. Sounds like maybe April 26th, Tottenham Hotspur.

Some good news coming to that stadium because there hasn't been a lot of good news this season. Commiserations, Honor Jordan, Big Spurs guy, but I'm sorry, you look at the table, they're all, I mean, what are they like 17th at this point? What is it? 16th? 15th at best? It's crazy. Everyone, stop shouting shit. No, no, Darren's an Everton

guy and they're doing even worse. So, you know, it's, actually, is Darren an Everton guy or a Liverpool guy? He might be a Liverpool guy. Yeah, Everton did beat the Spurs. Definitely a Liverpool guy. Okay, yeah, yeah. I get mixed up with all those scousers.

He's a Liverpool guy. Molly's Everton. Paddy's Liverpool. Okay, now we got it. Thank you for that, PT. Anyway, back into the show, we will be joined by Aljamain Sterling. Aljamain Sterling is going to talk about Merab's win, the state of the 135-pound division, state of 145.

Hey, sign me up for Aljo versus Pitbull. How about that? And I have some thoughts on the Pitbull situation as well. I feel after Dana White's comments this weekend that they, I want to say misplayed their hand, but everything's a negotiation. Everything is a game. Everything's chess. Everything's, and I felt like they just, they were too open with their feelings. And you see Dana White's response to the pit bull question at the presser on Saturday is like, yeah, we'll see. You can't tell, you can't tell the girl at the bar

that you're all in, you'll do anything, and you'll even take a pay cut to get her phone number. You can't do that. You have to play hard to get. I told him that. Anyway, prior to that, we'll be joined by Darren Till. He had a big win this weekend over Anthony Taylor at Misfits. Where does he go from here?

Is he now a crossover boxer? Is he everything that he always said he wouldn't be? We'll talk there after I mention. Anthony Smith going to join us at 1.30 to talk about this past weekend, UFC 311. He was working. The ESPN desk also has a new podcast, On Paper with Anthony Smith. Shout out to Anthony. Lionheart, making things happen. Also, what's the state of his career? Yeah, there's the trio right there. Quite the trio, quite the lineup. Just a regular Tuesday here on the program. You heard from Pizzi there. I want to bring in Pizzi. I want to bring in the boys in the back. Off the jump, as they say, because yesterday I felt like we had so many guest guys we had so much to get to

we went well over the five o'clock hour frank already put in for overtime actually i just left the rest was automated so i feel like we didn't get to a lot of the news and notes the nuggets if you will and this is the beauty of doing a show every day. You could save some stuff for Tuesday. In the past, we would go to like 7.30 because we had to get it all in on a Monday. Don't have to do that anymore. And so I wanted to talk off the bat about this return to London, UFC, March 22nd, O2 Arena. They're back. We know what the headliner is, Leon Edwards, Jack de la Maddalena. This has been discussed. It has been rumored. March 22nd, O2 Arena. They're back. We know what the headliner is. Leon Edwards, Jack de la Maddalena.

This has been discussed. It has been rumored for quite some time. No real surprise there. Love the fight. Amazing fight. Big fight for both guys. Tough fight for our good friend, Tim Simpson. Remember he was on the program back,

when was it, last year saying, you know, I only want one guy per weight class, and the one weight class that he had two guys in was 170, and now they're fighting each other. Well, you can look at it that way, or he wins either way. You know, like, you know, you don't want your guys. He didn't want this. Loses either way also, though. He loses either way, but he also wins either way.

Are you a glass half empty or a glass half full, you know? But, yes. It's either way, but it's either way. Are you a half? Are you a glass half empty or glass half full? You know, but yes, it's tough. I was talking to another great manager, Lloyd Pearson today. He's got he's got Eddie Alvarez and Jeremy Stevens in the main event of BKFC. It's just awkward. It's it's it's awkward, but it's a testament to the exact table. I was just about to say it's a good problem to have to a certain degree because you've got guys who are on top of the bill, you know?

Okay, so this is the lineup. They announced it. There was so much news on Friday between Weidman's retirement, obviously everything that happened with the 311 main event, they dropped this in the middle of the day as well. Leon Edwards, Jack Della Maddalena, Jan Bochovic versus Carlos Alberg, big fight at 205.

Molly McCann against Estela Nunez. It always seems like Molly McCann is fighting Brazilians. Maybe that's just me. Nathaniel Wood against Morgan Charrière. Jai Herbert against Chris Padilla. Nice one. And then the rest of the card is as follows. Alonzo Mennefield against Umar Sy.

Marci Taibura against Mick Parkin. Loner Kavanaugh against Felipe Dos Santos. Christian Leroy Duncan against Andrei Pulyev. Sean Abandon against Pooja Tomar. Nathan Fletcher against Kaelin Loughran. Did I get that right, Pizzi, Kaelin? Kaelin. Kaelin, golly, they're tough.

Kahl, Kaelin. Pizzi, you've got your finger on the pulse. This is your domain. This is your world right here. Rate the card for us. I actually quite like it. I know there's been a lot of criticism put out there about this card, but it's funny that for so long, the UK fans were like,

don't give us a London cardon card let's do something different they went to manchester did it in the middle of the night and suddenly it's like you know what those london cards they weren't so bad actually maybe maybe we should do one of them again um people forget that you know when i started going to these cards there there wasn't a leon edwards there wasn't a guy like that to put on the top of the card. Like, I think me and you, Ariel were sappy side each other for one of the many Jimmy Manoa fights that were in the O2 for many years. So to have a fight at the standard of Leon Edwards,

Jack Della Maddalena at the top of that card is absolutely outrageous. Yeah. But Hovich is a guy who was given Pareda the best, the best fight he's had at 205 in the UFC. He took him the distance. Pareda won a split decision. And I really like this kind of old guard versus the young lion in Carlos Alborg. Also, Mick Parkin, one of the Team BFG guys,

I know they love when I call him that, against Marcin Tabura, a guy who has previously fought Tom Aspinall. That's a real litmus test for Mick Parkin. Towards the back of the card, I know there's a lot of fights to get through, I won't go through every one of them, but this Nathan Fletcher and Caelan Loughran fight,

that's going to be a really bad blood kind of fight. You're going to hear a lot about that in the lead-up to it. It's a curtain-jerker. Both of these guys represent different teams. Why the bad blood? Give us the backstory. Well, it's the curtain jerker both of these guys represent different teams why the bad backstory well it's it's the the teams in liverpool one was um calvin till's former team well used to be with calvin and now nathan fletcher obviously is next gen he's with patty to body and molly mccann and luke royley and all those guys so there's always been tension between those two gyms and pitting

them against each other is going to be fantastic. I think also Umar Sy, a guy who we heard so much about in the lead up to his debut, I believe it was. That's an interesting fight there. Like, I'm looking to see this guy. I want to see him more. I want to see what he can do. And I think Alonso Manifield would be a good test for him. So I think it's a strong card. You know, you're coming off the big, big pay-per-view,

3-0-4, which had all the stars, everything we could have asked for in terms of a card. It's just the time it happened, that was the bad thing about that one. So I think this is a return to form. This is what UFC London's usually are in March. So I think it's a very, very good main event and a very solid card.

I'm happy to see Leon back. I like the opportunity for JDM as well. There were two big names that I was expecting to see on this card. One was Paddy, and I don't think Paddy not being on there is a huge deal, only in the sense that he is a top draw and top draws are on pay-per-view. And so Paddy, to me, is a top draw and top draws are on pay-per-view and so patty to

me is a headliner for ufc london um co-headline would be great but i just don't see it happening in this day and age because he's so popular i thought obon elliott would get on this card there was some talk of obon fighting in australia i know that and i see him pushing for the jorge masvidal fight in april which would be gigantic for him. But I think it would have been nice given how his star has risen over the past year to have him fight so close to home. Those were the two big omissions. Am I missing any? I mean, we obviously would have seen Arnold Allen and the guys on there.

But I mean, just to the point you made about Oban Elliott, the Welsh fans bring so much colour to these events, and they have for a long time. Right back to Jack Marshman, Brett Johns, we obviously saw it with Jack Shaw. Oban Elliott is kind of the torch that's been passed, and he is a guy that's causing a big stir in Wales. And I really love when those fans are there. They're so much fun.

They're great sports. Everyone loves interacting with the Welsh. So I would have liked to have seen that too. I think they always bring something a bit different to these events. And hopefully they'll look to do that again. Because honestly, they're some of the best fans, the most passionate fans in MMA. And obviously they can't do events in Wales because they don't have an arena big enough. Unless they're going to do like an 80,000 seater, right?

They have a nice rink. I went to see jack shore fight there in cage warriors back in the day i think it's about 5 000 so this is this is their home ufc event in a in a many ways so i would have loved to say that i think that's a great point you made am i crazy that the people's main event is nathaniel wood against morgan shahier oh so good right isn't Isn't there a backstory there too? Well, I mean, both of these guys were cage warriors champions. Of course, Jack Shaw would have taken over from when Nathaniel Wood left off in the bantamweight division. Nathaniel Wood was a guy who was, he really, he really helped them sell a lot of tickets and bring a lot of interest in London. You know, for a long time cage warriors had terror like they almost looked at like as a territory kind of thing um in london

nathaniel wood was that guy and he's also he's always very well supported there uh morgan charrier was um the featherweight champion of cage warriors so obviously nathaniel's moved up a weight class there so it's always good to pit the english against the french there's storied rivals and i can imagine there will be a lot of french fans coming over from paris etc to see this fight morgan has a huge huge fan base i know you spoke to him about it before he kind of became such a well-known commodity in france because of his appearance in this youtube video where he's helping an influencer lose weight he has a massive fan base because of that so i can imagine that will be a fantastic atmosphere when that fight goes down gc uh we've got jack della who i know you love

17 in a row lost his first two pro fights hasn't lost since of course hasn't lost in the ufc as well he hasn't uh you know he hasn't fought in quite some time. By the time this fight happens, it will be over 365 between fights for him. March of 2024, the Gilbert Burns fight, which was very, very entertaining. He's the favorite? Minus 128 right now. Wow. Leon Edwards plus 108. Does this surprise you?

I thought it would be lined pretty close, so it's not too shocking. Like you said, 17 in a row for Jack Della. Yeah, but Leon Edwards edwards man former champ first fight since first fight since the championship yeah didn't look great in that that performance look great you know middle of the night fight probably going to be striking as well and i fight it was middle of the night fight for all too by the way i still maintain That the Americans Had the advantage On that night And yes you could

Bring up Tom Aspinall Of course you did Tom Aspinall The Americans had the advantage I don't know He didn't look great In that fight man He did not

He absolutely did not It's also going to be A striking affair In my opinion I think this is going to be Mostly striking And that's obviously Where Jack Della thrives

So you like him in this It's also where Leon thrives I like him in any fight Yeah of course Sure sure sure But like people Who have found success Against Jack Della

Gilbert Burns Basil Hafez They went to the grappling To make it close To make it look like They were going to be able To beat him If you stand and strike

With Jack Della I mean yeah Not many people Have had much luck In the UFC Pete you don't like This analysis Well I mean

Leon's a very dynamic fighter i would say i mean all right let's make a bet on it let's make a bet he's taking down colby covington i mean he's i mean i wouldn't do that kind of thing i mean that's disgusting abusive power for me on this show to start betting on fighters i could never do that but i'm quite surprised he is the underdog i will say gc i think uh leon edwards in london all right so i will i will say this he didn't open as the underdog he actually opened at minus 185 jumped all the way that much yeah man that's kind of what happens when they release these lines uh do you think they release the lines knowing that it's going to change like it's a it's called a soft opener there's going to be limits on them and everything

see where people are going to play them then Then they'll adjust the line from there. Because that's an offshore book that has it at plus 108. But a more legitimate, legalized book. Open Jackdaw at minus 128. Wow. It's going to be interesting. I don't really know what to expect. Are we going to be there?

I'm thinking we're going to be there. Listen. Two months from tomorrow. If I go, Pete, can I stay at your crib? I don't have a spare room. Well, I have a room, but I don't have a bed in it. Also, there's another... That's bullshit.

We know about your 10 rooms. You live in a different country. You live in a different country. What are you talking about? That too, right? It's like a bus trip to London, though, isn't it? Can you actually take a bus? No, you can't.

One that you guys... The plane is like 40 minutes One that you guys didn't mention Hoping for Lerone Murphy on here as well Yeah, that's a good call That's a great show He would have fit in nicely On that main card I mean, now that I think of it

Lerone Paddy Paddy, Oban Oban, I was really hoping Oban Arnold Arnold, yes, yes, yes Great There's just so many UK guys though. Yes, yes, yes. Great job by G.

There's so many UK guys. This Loner Kavna guy is hot shit as well, a flyweight. This could be a big one for him. I think he's based in London. Really, really powerful

striker for 125. He came through Contender Series. Well, everyone comes through Contender Series. Right. But he looks really good. So this could be kind of a coming out party for him over there as well.

Jack Della number four, Leon number one. Do you think the winner of this gets the title shot after Shavkat? That's my question. If it's Jack Della Madalena, I'm sure he will. I don't know. I mean, there's Sean Brady out there who's number five. They got to do Sean Brady versus Kamaru Usman. In my opinion, it's just like sitting right there.

It's either Brady versus Usman or Brady versus Joaquin Buckley. I don't know what to really make of Usman. You still have Ian Gary. Gary's at seven. I mean, Gary is a good fight. That top seven is just as thick as it comes. It feels like it's this tidal wave of fresh blood.

Finally, finally hitting the one 70 pound division right yeah because like the split at seven you go to gilbert burns colby covington jeff neal wonder boy like it literally is just like it's such difference between once you get to seven and before and after it i think if jack dell does something spectacular like a knockout i could i could see that happening yeah i could see the uh i mean if you take out the number one guy, especially by knockout- I just don't think they want to put Leon in

that spot anymore. They get that feeling, you know? Okay, so that's on the flip side. If Leon does something spectacular, I mean, Leon versus Shovka, we've never seen. And I think there's a story to be told with Leon versus Bilal. This would be the trilogy.

I think he deserves that. I think you the trilogy. I think he deserves that. If he does, I think you're right. I think they're not running to try to make it happen like they would for other people in this spot. But I do think that

if he does something spectacular, if he wins via knockout, it's a great win for him. Emphatic win. He'll come across as a star, right? He's going to be the fan favorite at the O2. I don't think it's the craziest thought.

It's just all these young, new, fresh guys are just right there. Right I don't think it's the craziest thought. It's just all these young, new, fresh guys are just right there, right behind him. I also wonder if Bilal's keen on it. I get the sense that he wasn't too happy on how long he had to wait and Leon was the champion. I imagine he might want to give it back to him

and make him... You think he calls those shots? That's a good question. I don't know, but I don't know if he'd be rushing to sign a bout agreement with Leon's name on it. I think they're trying to do Leon Edwards v. Ian Gary. I mean, I want that.

So they're saying if Jack Della wins, he fights... Leon goes and fights Ian Gary. I could see that too. No, I think if Leon wins, they'll try and make him fight Ian Gary.

Oh, regardless. Make it a title eliminator type wins They'll try and make a fight Oh regardless Or just a fight I could see that as well Buckley's got to be in the mix Brady's in the mix Usman is still around there Those are the guys he's contending with right now Are you going to go PT?

Yeah I think so I mean what's going on here I might start looking at flights We're speaking in code here No there's no code I actually I was pulling out my Novak shirt today I've been at you know Von Miller yesterday Novak today big one over Carlitos Altacara

No big deal The Goat found my Jack Della shirt in there as well I got a couple of them You haven't used that one in a while I haven't dusted this thing off since March of last year I have to catch a flight across the pond I can tell you that Jack Della is going to be It's a really fun event You haven't used that one in a while. You haven't broken that one. I haven't dusted this thing off since March of last year. I have to catch a flight across the pond. I can tell you that Jack Deller is going to be. It's a really fun event to go to.

The London ones are really, really fun. That's what I'm thinking. I think it's like, because it happens every year, it kind of feels, well, most years, I know it didn't happen last year. It kind of feels like Pirate of the Furniture. And when it came back, the first one they did after covid was aspirin v volkov and that was that was one of my favorite cards ever march it was brilliant to be there for

that and to just everyone losing their shit like the sport was back it was magic um there've been so many good nights there and uh yeah it's a it's a good event to go to for sure. We'll talk about this more. Yeah. I'm serious. One of my two favorite events that I've ever attended in person, UFC 120 at the O2, Dan Hardy against Carlos Condit. Remember that one?

Yeah. The double knockout almost. They both landed at the same time. And Bisping Silva was there as well. Oh yeah. Magic. That was incredible. The crowd was so freaking loud for that fight remember when we thought that anderson had knocked him out yeah and he

celebrated the crowd was like what the fuck and then they restarted the fight i mean that that freaking that that crowd was so loud they were deafening that was an amazing atmosphere uh i can't tell you agent bull when the the camera starts spinning around when he's fighting sugar right that's what it felt like you know you were looking everywhere people were losing their shit everywhere when that in that in that moment yeah nobody knew what happened it was insane jack dell is going to join us tomorrow on the program waking up at some ungodly hour to join us from perth also robert whittaker joining us tomorrow as well looking forward to chatting with him. Some nice scenes with him

and Israel Adesanya, who of course will be in action on the 1st of February. So that card was announced, and we talked about this a little bit yesterday. The March 8th pay-per-view was announced. UFC 313, Alex Pereira, Magomed

Ankhalaev, Dan Hooker, Justin Gaethje. PT, we didn't get your thoughts on Gaethje and Hooker. You like this one? I love that fight, yeah. I think it's brilliant. I think it's going to be, it's one of those, and we kind of jinx it when we say this,

but it can't possibly not deliver as a spectacle. You know, like these two guys are animals. I really, really love that fight. I think it's going to be a great event. And did GC say yesterday that Pereira was the underdog against Ancaloia? Yes. Yeah, opened up at plus 175, dropped all the way down to plus 120 now, but still underdog Pereira. That's crazy.

It's just like Marab. I'm just going to have to bet that. I'm just going to have to bet. Yeah. I think everybody has it in their head that, and look, I'm an Ankeloia fan, but they have it in their head that he's this. You struggle to say that a little bit. I was going to say, you said that very light.

Yeah, like, I'm a fan. Because you're not really a fan. What are you a fan of? Not a lot, to be honest. Sleep. You lock in and say, yeah. MA's fighting tonight. Oh, sorry.

Are we talking about MMA here? Excuse me? What am I a fan of in MMA? No, he's saying, what of Magomed Ankalayev's recent performances are you like, that's my guy? Yes. All of them. I like them all. all look someone needs to do

on this show like you know what i mean but um what i was gonna say is i think a lot of people think that he is this 205 pound habib no matter made of and on the crack last week uh ben folks make a great point that like it is between like 135 pounds and 170 pounds that particular style seems to really work well um i don't see him like that at all um he is he's got a great wrestling skill set but for the most part every time i see him fight he he's looking to trade so that to me like you look to trade with with alex it's it's lights out so i'm quite surprised that everyone everyone seems to think that this guy is going to completely change his style be be shooting from the first bell. I don't see that happening.

I think he's going to trade with him. I think he's going to play that game with Pereira, and I don't think it's going to go well for him. I don't. Can I offer you guys a little stat or two? Okay. This is courtesy of UFCstats.com, right? Magomed Ankalayev's last fight against Alexander Rakic, and I know that was the one where he kind of tried to prove the point that he doesn't need to shoot to win, right?

Zero takedown attempts. Before that, Johnny Walker, zero takedown attempts. Before that, Johnny Walker ended 3-13 first round, one takedown attempt. Prior to that, Jan Bochovic ended in a draw, five rounds, two takedown attempt. Prior to that, Jan Bochovic ended in a draw, five rounds, two takedown attempts. Prior to that, Anthony Smith, zero. Prior to that, Thiago Santos, you would think, one.

Prior to that, Volkan Ozdemir, one. Nikita Krylov, three. Ivan Kuchylaba, none. Kuchylaba, 38 seconds. See, I just don't get that. I don't get where this is. So I understand that, and i have long been saying this right people had the wrong impression of maga medical life as a counterpoint what i would offer

you though is he is probably a better wrestler than many of alex perera's uh previous opponents right absolutely i would make the argument and there will be people who will call me stupid probably the fighters themselves i would make the argument that if you are anybody facing alex perera your best bet is to try to take him down and i'm talking if you're khalil roundtree if you're uh yuri if you are jamal hill you should be drilling your wrestling like your life depends on it because guess what it kind of does if you're going to strike with him you're going to lose that fight you should all turn into wrestlers and so i would make the argument that even though past history does not indicate that he's some Habib Nurmagomedov control grappler, that he should be in March. That is the argument I would make.

And if he does that, maybe he can be more effective. Because if you decide, look, we saw Khalil have early success. We've seen moments from you. If you strike with Alexlex perera sans one beautiful iconic knockout from uh israel to sanya if you stand with alex perera you lose period and so you should be wrestling even though past performance would not indicate that he's habib well the one who had the most success against them you could say in recent memory was yan bachovic right yan bachovic 205 debut in Utah.

And so that type of game plan, I think, would be his best bet. Here's the other thing. Yeah, you can say you should wrestle Alex Pereira, but you have to close the distance. Oh, yeah. You have to be able to take this guy down. It's easier said than done. But my point is it's worth the struggle

because the alternative is you have to strike with alex perera and then you're fucked period like you lose that's that's end game do not strike with alex perera period he's a big strong boy though like i i just yeah oh i don't think it's gonna be easy people have just convinced themselves that he's gonna go in there yeah and it's gonna be marab shooting 30 times and getting him down seven times it's just not gonna happen it's kind of what you have to do like i mean that it is that's what yeah jan behovich is so good at is um mixing things up he he has guys constantly guessing what's happening look you remember the fight when izzy went up to 205 i thought that was massive all the way he fought that fight

like he is he is he was at a point where he's coming in very confident and you can just see the confidence go round after round where he's like, I can't really get the timing on this guy. As soon as I think he's going to strike, he's going under me. That's what he's really, really good at. I think you're right, Ariel, that he should look at Bojovic and what he did, but you got to imagine that being at the level of the game that Pereira is at,

like he knows exactly what you're talking about, Ricky. Like he absolutely knows that's what people are going to do with him. It's a difficult task. I think he's better in the in-between moments than people give him credit for, as in stopping people initiating takedowns. I would say that the worst thing for Pereira is when he's actually down. Like he's actually good at stopping initial surges into takedowns, I would say that the worst thing for Pereira is when he's actually down, like he's actually good at stopping initial surges into takedowns, stuff like that, I just think

it's when his back hits the ground that things become very, very difficult for him, so I'm looking forward to seeing it, I think it's going to be a massive fight for Pereira's legacy, because it's been built up into this thing, like, oh, they don't want him to fight this guy, this is the boogeyman, this guy is going to ruin everything if he fights Pereira, so it could be a huge fight for him and on the flip side of that

i can lie after feeding this guy the guy that's the poster boy of the ufc that's saving multiple events last year it'd be a disaster it would be a disaster if we're being real it would be a disaster for the ufc from a promotional standpoint just because of how popular prayer is and how so sort of unknown Magomed is. It's no knock on him, but Pereira has been, I mean, you see that reaction when he's showing up to the weigh-ins on Friday. People are losing their shit when he's just showing up to sit in the crowd. It's also worth noting Alex Pereira's last fight was in March,

excuse me, in October, and he's returning in March. He's returning five months after his last fight, which wasn't an easy one. You can make a case that he lost the first two rounds. He had to dig down deep. Roundtree was game. After that fight and how active he was between April, June, and October, three fights in the span of six months,

I was the one saying, like, can he come back in July? I know he's 37. I know he isn't going to fight forever and he has to you know be as active as possible because he's so popular and he had a whole other career prior to this one he's coming back five months later to fight one of his toughest tests at 205 in many people's eyes he's the underdog it's really remarkable what this guy does he continues to lap all the other champions and just outwork everyone. If he does lose that fight, as you said, and it is a disaster,

at least he'd be able to fight for the vacant heavyweight title against Tom Aspinall. Ah, gosh. You're sticking with this one, right? Oh, definitely. I'm going to ride this out until they get in the cage, Johnones and tom aspinall no i mean no one said it was gonna read the tea leaves yeah no i know it was a great show 100 we were told when we're told 100 i feel like it's ufc 300 of this year when we're like you're not gonna believe this lads you're not gonna believe it and then we did believe we're like oh yeah fair enough and he

was like oh in your face like this is the same thing. Don't say it's 100% guaranteed and then don't deliver because. It went from 100% to very confident. To Islam is the best family. Yeah. We're fucked. We're cooked. It's over.

The dream is over. PT, we'll talk to you in a bit as well. We're going to talk a little more about the Darren Till situation back into the show, but, uh, and we will talk to Darren as well in about 30 minutes time. Uh, Aljamain Sterling going to join us at 2.30 to talk about his boy Murab. He was in his corner on Saturday night, big win over the one and only Umar Nurmagomedov, who of course will be right back in there in due time.

A man who was at the event working for ESPN, doing all kinds of great work, all kinds of great analysis. He's got a new show as well called On Paper with Anthony Smith. He's your friend and mine. He's the only Kansas City Chiefs fan that I'm allowing myself to interact with this week. He's the great line art anthony smith hello anthony how are you i'm good ariel how are you you're the only one you're the only one that i could stomach because i don't want to talk to any of you i don't want to see any of you taylor swift caitlin clark all that nonsense you have to admit no one wants so sweet i've been

so sweet to you about this whole chiefs-Bills thing. Like, even when we beat you guys in the biggest moments of football, I send you a nice text and say, hey, man, you know, it sucks. I feel for you. I don't ever rub it in, ever. No, there's no rubbing. By the way, I'm terrified because we're so close. You've tasted the fruit multiple times. You have to admit you don't want this as bad as I do because you've been there, done that. You've won. You've lost. Dude, I agree.

Like, of course, the more Super Bowls, the better. But, like, I have a friend that's a diehard, huge Lions fan. And so I feel for him. And I got another friend that's a big Bills fan along with you. I get it. I get it. I totally understand. My kids are asking me like

if they win are you gonna go to the super bowl like i can't talk about this we cannot discuss this we cannot jinx this we must get why don't you come to kansas city why don't you come to kansas city oh for the game yeah i got two tickets for you oh that's are you going oh probably yeah wow how far is it from your house because you're in nebraska right yeah like two and a half hours oh that's it damn were you there no you're in Nebraska, right? Yeah, like two and a half hours. Oh, that's it? Damn. Were you there? No, you weren't there this weekend.

No, I was working. Yeah, of course. I had to sell my tickets. I can't hang out with a Chiefs fan. I can't be seen. You'd get brutalized in my section. I'm good. I'm good in the confines, the friendly, warm confines.

We'll talk about New Orleans at a later date. Okay. Great work, as as always this weekend great stuff can i ask you by the way i wasn't thinking of starting with this but we were just talking about it before you you came on um your level of confidence so we were talking about dana saying 100 confident in jones aspinall then going to very confident a couple weeks later and then him saying islam is the number one pound for pound alerted all of us to saying like, oh no, is the Jones talks, are they going bad? Because,

you know, usually he's pumping them up. Did that make you think, oh no, we're not getting Jones Aspinol because of how it seems to be declining? And we might be overreacting. We might be reading the wrong tea leaves, but I'm wondering if you see anything there as well. Yeah. That made me nervous too, because because i felt very very confident about it when he initially talked about it and it seemed very very sure and you can kind of tell when when fights are getting close to being made when when fighters stop talking we haven't heard a lot from tom we haven't heard a lot from john which we and we typically don't hear a whole lot from john but uh tom aspinall has been fairly quiet um so quiet. So I was feeling pretty good about it. And then we've seen the switch with Islam. I think that there's a good chance that he's just really impressed with

the mindset and the moves that Islam made during this fight week, taking the fight on short notice, not having any questions. I'm trying not to look too much into it because he didn't seem to, it seemed almost like, okay, yeah, I get it. He's doing all these incredible things. Maybe I'll give him a rub. That's kind of how it seemed. Your level of confidence right now? That the Jones-Aspinal fight will happen? Very confident. Oh, wow. Okay. All right. I feel good about it. Okay.

That was emphatic. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. I feel good about it. Okay. I feel better. Were you surprised that Islam beat Moikano that quickly?

No. No. No. I thought that if he stood out on his feet for too long, Moikano's tricky. He's very slick on his feet. And I thought thatikano's tricky and he's very slick on his feet. And I thought that early Moikano looked very, very good on his feet and it looked like Islam got uncomfortable and didn't like it. And he kind of said as much in his post-fight interview

doing his kind of media car wash. They're like, okay, let's go to this grappling and see how he does there because he's super sharp right now. Islam gets on top of anybody in any kind of dominant position and he can get a hold of something he's gonna finish you he's so good on top which is why it's so frustrating that we didn't get the Saruki and matchup um it's such a he's just such a tough I mean look how fast Charles Olivera tapped when when he got to that arm triangle right away. And the squeeze that guy must have must be incredible. Your thoughts on Armin not getting the title shot. It sounds like he's not. He kind of seems to be at peace with it, which was a little surprising to me. And I guess it would be

Charles, if not him. I was surprised. I thought they'd go right back to it, but I could sort of understand their disappointment. And Dana seemed to imply that ultimately he felt like he could fight without fully saying it. That was the implication. At least that's the way I read it. Are you surprised that it doesn't appear as though he's getting the next shot at Islam? No, no, I'm not. I'm not surprised. I'm disappointed though, because that's the fight that I really wanted to see. That's he's, he's the rightful challenger. He's the next guy. He's, he's the, the one that presents the most problems for Islam. We've seen it once before where he can compete with him in the grappling and the wrestling. And I think he may be the sharper, better striker. Uh, he'll, he'll present different problems that no one else can, but there's, you know how this works, You know, that he talked about wanting to,

to get a title shot and that he was, he was the guy that was going to be Islam, you know, when he was leading into the Charles Oliver fight, then he gets it, you know, he gets the win and then they offer him the fight and then he doesn't take it. I'm not saying that I would take it or I'm not saying that he should have taken it, but we know, we know how this goes. Like you got, you offered an opportunity. It was a quick turnaround a quick turnaround i totally understand i'm not i wouldn't hold that against him but there was a no and then you know he punched the fan on the way like the implications and the problems behind the scenes that the punch in the fan causes is a big deal that's a it's a big problem behind the scenes well i don't think that it was uh it didn't seem like a huge deal got made of it in the media and broadly, but, um, internally that was a huge problem. So there's that. And then,

you know, now we get, they, they invest millions of dollars in the marketing promotion. They put him in LA where he's crazy popular. Um, and then he doesn't go not, I'm not saying that he should have, I don't know how bad he was or wasn't hurt. I would never say that, but it doesn't change the fact that that's millions of dollars in marketing and advertisements down the drain. I'm acknowledging that this is an impossible question for you to answer, that it's almost unfair, but you're a fighter. I'm not.

And so I'm just curious when you see this situation play out, knowing what you go through, knowing, I'm sure there's horror stories that we'll never find out about and you know we've heard about you know derrick lewis throwing out his back dc told me he sneezed before a fight and he threw out about were you ultimately surprised that the plug was pulled that he didn't just gut it out because as you know like you get one shot you may never get another one again yeah i was I was. I was. It also depends on who you are and what is your life like outside of this. If this is your dream and this is the thing that is going to take you on to any kind of success and opportunities that you're going to have

and that this is your only opportunity and you're not going to be that successful otherwise then you probably go if there's opportunities and if you don't ever get another title shot but you don't need this to feed yourself and you're successful and and maybe affluent in other ways maybe you don't but it's it's really a circumstantial thing but i i was i was surprised yeah but he didn't he didn't push through and again, he's probably a better man than me because I would have probably pushed through. But that doesn't mean that that's the right decision or the right choice. Do you get into the whole pound for pound stuff? Do you have a say?

A little bit. A little bit. Do you have him as number one? Sometimes I think it's a silly conversation. I do get into it. I still think it's a silly conversation i think that each and i do get into it i still think it's john jones but wow i think that it's it's really the the body of work over a long period of time i know that his inactivity is hurting them though the the amount of times

that he's run out there and done it is is damaging to the pound for pound conversation. But I mean, he's gone through three different generations of fighters and has continued to win. It's just, it's tough. And again, Islam's taken a legitimate loss and Jon Jones hasn't. I still think it's Alex, just because he's won belts

in two different weight classes in a short amount of time. You know, Jon's last light heavyweight fight was in 2020. And so I feel like that still matters. Islam goes up to 170 you know the way that chael the way that chael under like understands and explains it is if you were to shrink them down or make them larger all and make them all the same size who's going to win that fight and and i've i still believe that with his skill set compared to alex's skill set, I think Jon Jones wins that fight.

A lot of people will say you lock him in a room and see who comes out of the room. I think you take them all and you put them in a room, Jon Jones comes out. Fair. And you would know. You were in there with him. Could I ask, did you think Armin had a shot? Were you picking Armin?

Did you feel like he was going to beat Islam? Or did you think maybe it doesn't end in the first round, but ultimately Islam comes out on top? No, I think Islam was going to have to work really hard for that one I really did I who else is going to offensively wrestle and threaten I mean look we just seen it with Umar versus Marab those guys aren't nearly successful when they're put on the back foot and they're having someone that's that's walking them down and being offensive wrestling wise towards them and attacking them. Anyone else that fights Islam, they're very defensive.

They're trying to get back to their feet. We're just trying to do all we can do to not get submitted. That's not how Saruki approaches his fights, and that's not how he approached the first fight with Islam. So I thought he had a legitimate chance to have a lot of successful moments in that fight. Okay, so speaking of Murab, what impressed you most about what he did? He wins three rounds to two and according to most people, some gave him the first round, but I don't think there's a lot of debate that, you know, in favor of Umar winning that fight, unless you're maybe a part of his team or a part of his management team, if we're being honest, what impressed you

most about what Murab did to him on Saturday? When's the last time we've seen any of those guys on Habib's team get tired? Yeah. Never. Yeah. It never happens. And Murab, that guy's just different. He's just built different. He was born different than everybody else.

The tenacity and even at this point in his career, I thought it was striking. It looked like it was a little more honed in, a little sharper. And just the pace that that guy puts on people. He fights the hardest possible style. I also think it's so interesting how it wasn't that long ago when Murab was beating everybody and Aljamain Sterling was the champion. And historically in MMA, I think we love to see friends fight. We love to see those rifts and friendships burned over money and title belts. No one even wanted to watch Murat fight.

They didn't even want to watch him fight Aljo. And now we fast forward to now and he's a goddamn superstar. It was a lot of fun to watch. We're watching guys get takedowns early on in the card and the whole arena is booing and it's a goddamn superstar it was a lot of fun to watch we're watching guys get takedowns early on in the card and the whole arena's booing and it's a fairly exciting fight marab gets a a snatch single and sits umar down to his butt doesn't even complete the takedown and the crowd goes absolutely crazy it's it i was so happy for him just seeing him not change anything not really change who he is not change his fighting style to appease people. He got booed out of the goddamn arena fighting Jose Aldo. Fights the exact same

fucking style versus Sean O'Malley and Umar. And he's a superstar. It's amazing. You just kind of, it's cool to see someone just withstand the bullshit and just stay true to who they are. And eventually it'll work out. Why do you think that is? Because the last name, you know, people may not know a lot about Umar, but the name is very popular they know about khabib he's right there and to your point historically that style doesn't get that kind of praise why do you think they love him so much i i think it's just he's genuine yeah i think i think eventually he just is like that thorn in your side that just doesn't go away and people just start to pay closer attention I think he was very like an impassing type of judgment on him

like okay the pure young fight was all right and then you know the the aldo fight went the way that it went and then you know it just it wasn't all super pretty but like eventually you just have to figure out like he's not going away so then people start paying closer attention he's pretty funny like he's got a really good sense of humor especially if you follow him online um and he's just grown on people and i think that he's just stayed true to who he actually is he's unapologetically himself and and people are just starting to figure out who the real marab is i think that they i think his emotions being out there i think really helps him i think people believe the things that he says when he says them and i don't know i'm just i'm just happy for his success feels like we're getting marab versus sugar too what kind

of a shot do you give o'malley i mean sean o'malley's got a shot against anybody you know i i kind of i think i talked about this on the post show if you're going to beat a to beat a guy like Marab, you're probably not going to win the decision. I think we're just kind of figuring that out. He's going to come forward for 25 minutes and you're never going to get him to take a backward step. You've got to have serious finishing abilities. You've got to have one punch, one kick, knockout power to be able to sit him down and back him off. I think Sean O'Malley is one of the few guys that has that kind of lightning strike type of moments or is capable of those kind of lightning strike type of moments at any moment in a fight he's had 25 minutes he's felt him he's

he's got some data that he can go back and take in the lab and figure it out so he's got a great shot um i wouldn't favor him probably i just even even now marab's done so much heavy lifting it would be almost disrespectful to to not favor him in a rematch but um sugar sean o'malley is as dangerous as it gets i'm sure you were watching uh yuri versus jamal very closely because of your relationship with jamal also your weight class and so i'm just wondering going into the fight is that how you thought it was going to play out? We all thought it was going to be entertaining, fun, crazy. The buildup was fun.

The walkouts were fun. The stare downs were fun. Everything about those two together, fun. Did you ultimately feel that Yuri would catch him? And did you see an evolution in Yuri's game? We're talking about protecting himself, putting the hands up. Did you see that from him as well? I didn't think it was going to go like that at all really um what do you think i didn't uh yuri

is historically very hittable he's defensively irresponsible he might be the most irresponsible guy defensively in the division i thought he fought an incredible fight he was so calculated he was so defensively he was much better better. He moved his head. He was hitting angles and circling out after his combinations were finished. His hands were up at times. He was methodical in his approach. Like typically he's, he's like, you know, this is like the guy that throws darts and he just throws five or six at a time and sees what happens. Like he kind of systematically broke down and approached that fight and broke down Jamal. He's never really fought like that before. Uh, I thought that he

looked absolutely incredible. And I say that to say, I thought Jamal looked pretty good too. Like Jamal, Jamal had a tough first round. He, his timing was off. His movement was off a little bit. He was reaching versus bringing his feet with him like he typically does. He got caught watching a little more. He wasn't nearly as aggressive, and I would credit a lot of that to the things that Yuri was doing because he did give a different look than I think all of us expected him to give. Second round, I thought Jamal made a great adjustment,

but he couldn't get to his head because, again, Yuri's so easy to find. He always has been. Alexander Rakic, love that guy. Love his game. Love his style. He's not a great boxer. He's just not. He's a great kicker.

He's a great kickboxer. But just with strictly his hands, he's not that technical. He's not that clean. He had no problems finding Uri. Dominic Reyes had no problems finding Uri. dominic reyes had no problems finding yuri alex pereira's had no problems finding yuri and then he gets in there and he's got this this new wrinkle to his game and so jamal was struggling with it he went he made the adjustment went to the body in the second round i thought that that was a great adjustment by him um and then yuri readjusted and and ends up getting the finish in the third. I honestly, I, I don't think there's any negatives coming out of it.

I thought they both looked really, really good. Um, people are going to say that I'm making a bunch of excuses for Jamal because he's, he's my friend and I'm going to, he, uh, if you take out the couple minutes that he was in there with, um, Alex Pereira, which wasn't long, there wasn't much of a sample size. There wasn't much experience and time he gained out of that. He hasn't been in a real fight since he fought Glover before he tore his Achilles. So I think there's a chance that he was a little bit of a slow starter

and it took him a little while to get his bearings. But I think it was good for him. It was a great experience. I thought he looked good. I thought Yuri looked absolutely incredible. Really no negatives are you surprised uh magomega onkolaev is the favorite going in there against alex at least as of right now yeah that's crazy yeah that's and and and what do you think what do you what do you feel about that fight you don't have to give us an official prediction but like it seems like everyone thinks he's just going to go out there and and wrestle f him when

historically that's not necessarily his game. It's not his game. That's really not his game. The only time he really, really went heavy wrestling, a little bit in the Paul Craig fight, and then the Jan Blachowicz fight when he was essentially down two complete legs. So it's not really his style. Does he have the ability to? Yeah, probably.

But it's not something you typically do. It's not where your instincts are. I don't suspect we see him go there a bunch, but I don't think you have to look any further than his own words. He's not going to wrestle Alex Pereira. That's what he says. He doesn't seem like – I don't have any reason not to believe him. He says he's going to stand in front of him.

He's going to knock him out. I mean, maybe he'll double-cross us, and I don't think that would be great believe him. Says he's going to stand in front of him. He's going to knock him out. I mean, maybe he'll double-cross us, and I don't think that would be great for him. But is there anybody that you would favor in a striking match versus Alex Pereira? No. Yeah, me either. And it would be incredibly ill-advised

if he does not at least try to wrestle him. At least try to close the distance and try to get him up against the try to close the distance and try to get him up against the cage and frustrate him, but easier said than done. And I believe him. Yeah. I kind of believe him.

So, so you can get this great analysis each and every week on the brand new show on paper with Anthony Smith. How many, how many times a week do we get this? And, and tell us about you launching this. Cause we know you were doing the show with Bisping. We also know you're still doing the work with SiriusXM, still with ESPN, but now this is your own baby, right?

Yeah, this is my own thing. It's been in the works for a long time. We've been talking about it for a long time. I think it was after my last fight, I decided to kind of pull the trigger just on my own my own little project here uh so we're recording once a week so we're recording mondays it'll definitely drop tuesdays um so this week's episode will come out tonight around 6 p.m eastern nice

um but yeah it's fun man it's just it it'll be largely fighting but like sometimes i just like to ramble and get off on other topics. And if you don't want to listen to it, you can always turn it off when we get to that point or whatever. It's just my own little fun project. It's been cool. It's been fun so far. We've only done two episodes, but so far it's going well. And where can people get it?

YouTube and then the usual podcast? Yeah, it's on YouTube. So jump over there and subscribe and and uh check out some videos like them if you like them don't if you don't um and all your regular your regular uh podcast platforms love it okay on paper with are you subscribed ariel uh i am subscribed in fact i i uh hit you up about it when i saw the the trailer yeah right away yeah right away i i saw you talking about doing some scuba diving stuff in puerto rico and having like this epiphany uh do you mind telling us more about you go scuba diving you're like thousands and thousands of meters under sea

and it's not that far okay maybe hundreds of thousands i don't know i've never scuba died before i'm too big of a wimp point is you go under you're among the the the sea creatures the sea life and that's when it hits you that you need to keep going i know i'm paraphrasing but is this yeah no i just i have so many things going on in my life i got four kids three of them are in sports i coach my seven-year-old wrestling team my older two are in or are in two club sports at the same time I have this desk work you got the ESPN stuff I've got a billion things going on and then you know Scotty dies and then I go into the fight and the fight goes the way that it goes and just everything sucks you know and so I just kind of disappeared to Puerto Rico and I've been the last year I've

been doing the scuba diving thing and when you're're, when you're down there, you know, and you're like 70, 80, 90 feet underwater, like the only thing you can really focus on is just being where you are and focusing on your depth and, and how much gas you got left in your cylinders and your dive partner. And you're trying to look around and like, you just have to focus on each breath in and each breath out. And it's like this real therapeutic thing that I found. Um, and so while I was down there, it was, I went there the day after Christmas, we took a, took the family down to Puerto Rico and I don't know, I just couldn't wait to get in the water. Wow. And typically the, the ocean's like a very, I started doing the diving stuff because the ocean has been so terrifying for me. I was, oh, I've always been afraid of like deep water in the ocean.

And so I just kind of a year ago decided I was going to chase this thing down and find out why. Turns out I'm not really afraid of the ocean. I'm afraid of being on the surface. And so once I'm down deep underwater and can kind of see around me, it it's it's really really comfortable and safe feeling so um i don't know once everything was shut off and i can just focus on myself and whatever's going on in my head how do i just decided like i can't go out like that you know crying on on the way to the cage where you know having a goddamn panic attack and just upset and sad and going in there and letting dominic reyes punch me in the face just to feel something other than grief i just didn't want to

do that so um yeah we're gonna go one more time ariel one more and and and that's it for me okay so i i have to say as someone who likes you and respects you dare i say calls you a friend we've had some nice conversations oh yeah you know on on a personal note. Stop questioning that. I don't know why you do that. Well, I don't like, I don't want to show like a bias. I don't want to show a bias to people. Be biased. It's inevitable. We're human beings, right? Yeah, you can't help it. Okay, fair enough. My good friend, Anthony Smith, I'm watching you emotional walking down, you know, to the fight, emotional after the fight. It was hard to watch. And I can't imagine what it was like for your family and very, very close friends, you know, to see you in that state, it was very hard to watch, but you did stop

short at saying it was it, um, I think the word you used was maybe, or probably something to that effect. So now it sounds like you are, you are going to go and are you saying that the last one, the next one is the last one, sort of like what Dominic Cruz just said. Like it's one more, no ifs, ands, or buts. Are you saying that that's one the next one is the last one sort of like what dominic cruz just said like it's one more no if ands or buts are you saying that that's yeah okay yeah yeah it's one is the ufc win win loser draw that's it is the ufc on board with this yeah oh yeah okay you have that assignment i do oh wow yeah is it is it out there no no you want to make it out there no i yeah i do but i you know i'm not

trying to get in trouble you can't get you can't get fired on the last one bro it's your retirement fight do whatever the hell you want yeah it's true like what are they gonna do fire me break it on your pod break it on your pod that's the least they can let you do that's that's a good you know what that's what i'm gonna do i'm gonna ask him like can i at least announce it on my own podcast hell yeah you should and everyone will credit your pod i'll get some pub for your pod yeah and you'll do it on here you'll credit don payne smith there we go can i ask time frame at least just that um yeah april okay and are you happy with the the opponent are you at peace with this yeah yeah yeah okay so it's less about the it was more about the the final time it was more about the. The final walk. It was more about the time and place.

Okay. Interesting. Time and place, time and place. Yeah. Okay. Anthony Smith is headlining the UFC's return to Nebraska where the Cornhuskers. Shit, I wish. 90,000.

That'd be sweet. Yeah, that'd be cool. Do you regret fighting in December? No, no. You know, I cried every single day on my way to practice and on my way back and

I was, I was like in absolute grief. Like I, I couldn't even think straight. Like I just, and I, like I,

I still like I miss my friend. But after the fight, I've, I've cried very little. It was like, I think I needed that to heal. Like that was, I don't know. I kind of did the same thing after my mom died. Like I just, I went and fought.

And maybe I shouldn't have. Maybe I should have. Who knows? But I was better leaving the octagon than I was going in. Why do you think that is? I'm a fucking psychopath. There's something wrong with me. I don't know what it is, but there's something wrong with me.

I don't know. Did you really say to Dominic, you know, what he said in the post-fight, you know, hit me so I could... What did he say? You know, he said that you told him to hit him. Sorry, you told him to hit you so that you could feel something other than grief. I don't remember saying that. I don't remember saying anything, though. To him?

I don't. I'm not saying I didn't. But you said it just before that. You said it in this chat. Yeah, I've told him that before. Before we even got in there. Oh, so maybe he was just, okay, saying that you you told that to him on fight week yeah wow you you where were you guys like when the fight was going like i i realized immediately he was

in a mixed martial arts competition and i didn't that i didn't want to be a part of right i wasn't i wasn't there for a competition i was, I was there for some healing and to get into a fistfight. So once it was like, I don't know, I thought, I thought the first round was going pretty well. If the plan was to win the fight, that wasn't the plan though. Like I wasn't in there for like, if I, if I did, if I was able to exercise whatever demons I was trying to exercise and accidentally won and great. But, um great. But there was like healing and some real chaos that needed to take place. And he wasn't interested in it. And so then we just had to go a different direction.

What were you like in the locker room? Like we saw you walk out emotional. Were you emotional in the locker room too? I was when I first got there. Because there's like some things that happen that are like inherently habit that you don't really realize until it's happening. It's like something you that happen that are like inherently habit that you don't really realize until it's happening. It's like something you never think about before, but then when it happens, like, oh shit, like this is when Scotty would do this. And this is what I, you know, like,

so that threw me off a little bit. I will say though, I owe, I owe Bryce Mitchell a, uh, like a debt of gratitude. He was, he was in my locker room and I don't know that he could tell something was going on, but he was like, he had this other room that was kind of off of mine a little bit. And I don't know if he could tell something was off or like, and I was a little bit emotional, but I was kind of holding it together, but I'd have to go like back in the shower area and I'd kind of lose it for a second and then pull it together. And then Bryce moved his whole team into my space. Didn't say anything. Didn't ask.

Like just walked in and I remember he said something like, I just want to be closer to you, brother. Like I don't – it was like – it was the oddest thing. But like I felt more comfortable. Wow. For some reason. And then right before they said, Anthony, you're walking in two minutes. And I just felt like, I don know bryce is is you know really faith-based person yeah and and i'm not like a big prayer a

big church guy but i just felt like i needed something from bryce and i kind of went over and i put my hand on the back of his head and i said i need one for meal and we just kneel he knew exactly what i meant like we kneeled down and had this, I have a picture of it. Um, someone snapped a picture and we had this amazing prayer. And I don't remember exactly what he said. Um, but I felt, I don't know, a little, I don't know. I felt like very unsure the whole day and I'm not sure what I was unsure of, but leaving that moment with Bryce, I felt like, okay, you're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing. Wow. I don't know. I just felt, I felt good about it. Good for Bryce.

Like still, still sad and still, you know, whatever, because of just the moment. But like, I felt very, I don't know, vindicated. Like I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. Like you're, you are where you're supposed to be and so i it was that meant a lot to me at peace perhaps yeah yeah sad but but definitely where i was supposed to be okay by the way that was um at least officially your 59th pro fight am i right so this would be your next one 60 which is an incredible number to to go out on um just curious of those 59 was scott a part of all of them most of them yeah there was a few early on like in like maybe 08 and 09 that maybe on and off he missed like a few here and there um but after that generally no he missed one he missed one ufc

fight during covid when i fought devin clark um he tested positive for covid on our him and danny tested positive for covid on my on our remember we used to have to test do those pre-departure tests yeah before you flew out you had to test negative. He tested positive. Him and Danny were positive for COVID before they flew to Vegas to corner me. So he missed that one. Other than that, he's never missed a UFC fight. Wow, so like 98%? Yeah, never missed a UFC fight, never a Strikeforce fight,

never even Bellator when I was in Bellator back in the day. Yeah, most, 98% of them. I know it's still fresh, but do you feel like you're, you're getting back to yourself? A little bit, a little bit. Yeah. Um, I guess it's just getting used to the new normal, like, and there's a lot of things that come along with that. There's, I'm as high as ranking black belt. So there's, you know, this whole jujitsu legacy and there's the entire team that, you know know like i wasn't ready to take all this over but i i just wasn't prepared for all of that i wasn't prepared to be that guy um i i always thought that i'd be pushing his his crippled ass

on in a wheelchair and dumping him onto the mat still and kicking his ass but um and him just kind of being the guy but so i i guess i So I guess he prepared me for it, but I wasn't necessarily prepared myself for it. So there's a lot of that stuff of just figuring out how to be him without being him to the rest of the team. A lot to it. Are you taking over the team? The jiu-jitsu program, yeah.

Wow, okay. so you're adding another another duty to the uh to the pile yeah yeah yeah there's a lot wow and and there's other there's other black belts that are under me that like they're like i'm not going to pretend that i'm teaching all these classes and doing all this stuff like those guys are taking on a large portion of that but in terms of overseeing the team and the promotions and and making sure that it's being ran the way that it needs to be in the curriculum and and all that stuff yeah that's that's on that's on me no could you have ever believed that you would make it to 60 pro fights no no never never it's crazy too like this shit happens overnight where it's just

like i thought before scott died i was saying i had three or four months three or four left that's that was kind of my plan and i i never even had a number i didn't until we just took this last fight hunter was actually the one that said 60 that's a good number to end on i said holy shit i didn't even realize this one's 60 but it happens really fast when you're just grinding but yeah before scott died i thought i had three or four more left and i definitely don't have three or four more left i just i don't know just kind of done like that was kind of it for me you know when like habib said that is when he didn't want to do anymore without his dad yeah it's kind of how i feel it makes all the sense like it's so why even do the last one just because you don't want to go it anymore without his dad. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of how I feel. It makes all the sense. So why even do the last one?

Just because you don't want to go out the way you looked in December? Yeah, yeah. I think I would just regret not doing it for me. Like the last one felt like it was for him. Like this one, I just want to do one more that's for me. And give everyone, I don't know, give, give myself an opportunity to do the things in training camp that maybe I haven't done before. And like, even the last training camp, I spent a little more time at home with Scott and

like, I bounced around with Dean Thomas and went to Arizona with Javier Torres. And like, I'm sure I'll do a little bit of that for this next training camp and just get a little bit of time and like, go spend a few days with Longo and bounce over to, you know, wherever I've always wanted to and be a pupil to a lot of people that I have a lot of respect for. And just give myself, give myself the opportunity to do that. And then just go into it knowing that this is it and have no reservations and no second thoughts and no guesses and and just i guess just finalize it when you're done you think you'll really be done or you think you're you'll be one of those guys who's like in a year there's this there's that there's this no i'll be i'll be done you think so yeah oh yeah i just i kind of got out

of it with all my faculties yeah And I got other things I can do. I have a three-year-old that doesn't, she'll never remember how cool I used to be. So I have another shot to just be a dad. My older two didn't get the same dad that my younger two will. So I have to take advantage of that. And I don't know, Ariel, I can just tell, like, can I still win fights for sure?

There's a lot of people that I'll still be, I'll be most of them. You know, like we're talking all the top guys in the top five, maybe I'm, maybe those days are past me, but in terms of just generally at 205 pounds across the world, I'll beat most of them. But there's just things I can tell that I don't like, like I get in just fine. I don't always get out as quickly, you know, like there's just things i can tell that i don't like like i get in just fine i don't always get out as quickly you know like there's just little things that that i don't like and i don't want to have to start adjusting my style about to my age at least one power slap event i tried they told me no straight up even if you retire i asked hunter he told me no why

he wouldn't even bring it to dana damn i don't know he said no i still don't understand why you're not a commentator for those you actually i get it i get it i understand why why i'm i'm more analytical in my analysis in my commentating and let's just be fair. There's not a whole lot of analysis going into PowerSnap. Bisping is a, he can be just as analytical as me, but he can do something that I can't. Like he can sell things.

And I like, he can make you care about something. He can promote it. He gets wild and and he he gets you very excited for i'm not the big crazy promoter and and i i can't do both i just have to stay in my lane and do what i do best he's just better at that than i am last thing did you get rid of your uh your ex your twitter i did yeah what happened a fucking dumpster fire yeah i just my life is a lot better without it okay like my my view on the world is totally different without it you should try it what was i you know what it sounds great i feel like i need it for news just to stay up to date on things but yeah it's you're tricking yourself yeah what was the breaking point i was seeing actual murders

oh wow on x yeah like where because like you scroll it and then you look at one yeah you know what the hell is that yeah and then like then they just keep popping up and they're like oh my god i'm like watching literal gang shootings like this is crazy um and i just i don't know, man. I got obsessed with it. And I was just in the bowels of the world looking at some of the worst possible things. I was like, I got it. Like every time I opened it, it was just something negative going on in the world and a lot of sadness. And I don't know. I just didn't want to see it anymore.

It does feel like really like the depths of hell. It does. And you try to search for some fun stuff. And there's like, oh, there's a moment here. Oh, there's a, like, you know, I'll watch the Bill's highlights. There's great stuff. But you could probably get it anywhere else. And then you get sucked into this negativity and this toxicity.

Yeah, it's just toxic. And I just, I'm a whole lot better without it. That's for sure okay great you should just delete the app for like a week and see how you feel i'm gonna work on that a lot of changes coming let i mean come on dude you got like 40 people working for you you got all these people running your socials yeah right uh we'll get there just have someone else run it and just try it for a week and see how you feel. Okay.

Okay. See? I'll tell you what. If the Bills win the Super Bowl, I'll do it. How about that? You get rid of it completely. I'll do the one week thing. Two weeks if they win the Super Bowl.

You got a deal. Okay. That's a deal. Yes. If the Chiefs win a month. Chiefs win, I'm going into a dark, deep depression. So it might... You wouldn't be able to handle twitter if the chiefs win no it'd be awful yeah it'd be terrible not as bad as the ravens

fans they were a bunch of assholes leading up to they were so cocky so uh i was i was happy to be how'd that feel it felt fantastic i mean honestly i felt exhausted i felt truly emotionally exhausted and i and i said afterwards i can't even imagine what it would feel like if we won the Super Bowl. When Mark Andrews dropped the ball, I didn't even react because I was frozen.

I couldn't even believe it. And I had just sort of, I'd come to the conclusion. How do you think that guy feels today? Oh, I feel horrible for him. And he's a Ravens legend and he had a horrible game

and it sucks. And I'm sure the fans aren't too nice to him right now. And I'm sure social media is awful for him. He needs to get rid of Twitter. Oh, I can't even. Honestly, my heart goes out to him.

But we had a minute 33 left and I felt like, all right, just score. Get it out of the way and we're going to come back. And this will be a great Josh Allen moment. It didn't have to go there. I just want one, Anthony. I just want to know what it feels like. I'm not going to give it to you. If you get it, great. I just want to know what it feels like. Well, I'm not going to give it to you. If you get it, great.

I just want to know what it feels like in February when you're sitting there on that Sunday night and it's snowing and it's freezing outside and your team is holding that trophy and there's the confetti and the parade and the t-shirt and the hat. I just want to know what that feels like. What does that feel like?

Do you think you'll cry? Oh my God, I felt like crying on Sunday. I was telling my kids about what it meant and they're like, why do you like them so much? It's the Bills and the Knicks for me. And I started getting teary-eyed just thinking of the 10-year-old kid who was crying in his parents' bathroom

when Washington beat us in 1992. I was crying because I was like, why do they have to lose twice in a row? And then it ended up being three in a row and then four in a row torture. But, but most importantly, and I think you could, you could sympathize with this. I don't really want it for myself. Those people in Western New York and Buffalo in particular, it ain't Puerto Rico over there in February and January. They have a tough life and I, and I really would love it for them. I would really love it for them. That's a good fan base.

Great people. Kindhearted people. They donate. They do all the great stuff. I would be so happy for that community. I hope you get one. I just hope it's not at the expense of us. I appreciate that.

That's fair, right? Oh, 100%. Listen, someone has to win. I think you've beaten us enough i said this is this is this is josh allen's bulls pistons moment this is where he has to get over the hump the guys who beat him three out of the last four years we'll see it's gonna be great theater uh appreciate the invite appreciate you coming on congrats on the new show you're gonna come on my show ever i would love to am i allowed because there was of course i think there was a ban on your previous show has the band been lifted it wasn't me no i mean you're good i'm kidding you're good i never have

any problems of course you're stirring the pot that's what you're doing i owe you 150 interviews so yes anytime anyplace i'm there all right sounds good take care of yourself all right you too anthony thank you so much and good luck is it too late is it still too late to say happy new year 21st yeah it's too late yeah all right have a good january rest of your time all right later bro there he is the great anthony smith leinhardt smith uh what a guy so uh uno mas for him are we going to see a few uno mas this year? Justin Poirier talking about it as well. Are we going to see a few? That was tremendous stuff. I'm going to... Yesterday, yesterday when I called Darren, it was like the easiest booking of all time.

Hey, Ariel, how's it going? going great can you come on at seven yeah no problem okay look the call lasted 25 seconds darren and i speak on on did you know that you can make phone calls on on twitter oh yeah how do i get rid of this thing i could call up darren till you can make phone calls on twitter no seriously did seriously. Did you know that? I know that because we've had this exact conversation. When we were searching for Darren Till? Yeah, this might be the third time that we've had the I communicate with Darren Till via phone calls on Twitter. Yeah, but did you know?

Before this, no. I had no clue, actually. We don't care. I'm calling him right now. There's too much stress in my life. Oh, yeah? Booking Darren Till every week on the show just adds to the stress. You beat Anthony Taylor, you know.

Top of the world. You're too big. This is what happens, by the way, when you call someone on Twitter. Pretty sure you demonstrated this the last time as well. The music? We did this whole bit. We did this entire thing, man. I don't believe you.

What happened? Did he pick up? No. He didn't pick up then either. I think they're still efforting. No, no, no, no, no. The last time I did. He's calling him right now, Frankie.

What, you're talking to him right now? No. Jesus. Frank is deeply confused back here. Honestly, I'm shocked that you can call someone on Twitter. How does this work? Well, your Twitter calls your Twitter. Are we going to get demonetized for this sound right now?

No. I'm just going to let it go until he picks up. The next interview is going to be like, what's that sound you're like let's see it's not bad music we can't hear it anymore oh it kind of sounds like the skype music remember when you used to have yeah by the way whatever happened to skype it just uh it wasn't room for them anymore got beat out zoom uh took advantage of the pandemic and that's all she wrote does it even exist it does still exist but uh no one really uses it you know there used to be a time where oh it was such a pain in the butt because now if someone comes on the show you just send them the zoom link so much easier before it

would be like hey anthony can you come on the show? Yes. What's your Skype name? I don't know. Then they have to look it up. Then they forget to send it to you. By the way, we need you, you know, we need you to send your name. Then you have to call them and track them down as opposed to just clicking on the link. And then there was a period towards the very end, I don't know if you guys remember this where they changed the names where it stopped being like at ariel hawani or whatever it was it ended up being like live colon six seven nine two four two way two seconds like what and then you have to put that in there makes no sense the one thing they did really nice is they had like dedicated Skype hardware.

So like if you had the ability to call, you'd have an actual unit. So that's like, that's the Skype unit. So we don't have that anymore. What do you mean? Like a box? Yeah. And in fact, they have some here in the equipment room. They're all unplugged because no one uses it.

Oh, really? Wow. I didn't know that. Was Skype always owned by Microsoft, Frank? No. It is now, though? It is, yeah. I don't think... Has it been for a while?

It has been for a while, and that's what you're referring to, that live dot thing, or your Microsoft Live account numbers. If they have Skype, why do we have Teams also? That's probably the same thing that board meetings at Microsoft involve

every time. Like someone asks, like, why do we do this? I don't know. It's just what we've done. I'm surprised that Skype didn't pivot to just a sense like everyone steals everyone's ideas. Right. Instagram took stories from Snapchat. Instagram took reels from TikTok.

Threads from TikTok. No, threads from Twitter. It feels like instagram just steals it what about uh facebook still twitter tried to do story anyway point is skype should have just adapted the link model where it's like hey just you know click on this and you can join patents and stuff like it's not as easy as like not everything is so easy like that. Do you think if the pandemic never happened, would Zoom still be a thing? No, in fact, weren't there people investing in Zoom

right before the pandemic went like, yeah. What are you trying to say? I'm just saying, some people knew. Who was it, Fauci? That's a little insider. Wow, those are damning statements right there. I'm getting it, I'm getting it. He's been pardoned, he's all good.

Shaheen just messaged me, maybe I crossed a me. What do you need to be pardoned for? What did he do that he needed to be pardoned? Shaheen does want to make sure that the building behind you is not on fire. He invested in Zoom. What building? Yeah, this is Steam. He's in Arizona, right? Wait, did he actually?

This is New York City right here. This right here is New York City in January. So just address Shaheen directly. Say, look man It is cold as shit outside It is disturbing Fauci really invested in Zoom? No I just made that up because I went from A to Z

It's currently 19 A to Zoom Your calculation on Fahrenheit to Celsius Was way off the mark What was worse that or me thinking That Anthony Smith was scuba diving a thousand meters? Both are just

objectively horrible. Wait, actually, did I say meters or feet? You said thousands and thousands of meters. Meters, okay, so wait. They said it wasn't thousands of meters

and then you're like, oh, hundreds of thousands. And I was like, how deep do you think the ocean is, man? So a thousand meters is 3,280 feet. Yeah, you thought he was that far down? I thought it was 10,000 meters is 3,280 feet. Yeah.

You thought he was that far down? I thought it was 10,000 leagues under the sea. What's a league? I don't know. A league is like an acre. Also, that story is notoriously like you're so, so, so deep under the ocean. It's not about someone going scuba diving. So 1,000 leagues is 1.548 e plus seven foot no so it's referring

to like an acre like a square so it's not how deep it is it's how vast it is i always thought that was fun but what is the what is it in terms of under you're that under that it doesn't matter like it could be 20 000 leagues but only 10 feet under the sea. Oh, well, why is it called 10,000 leagues under the sea? It's 20,000 leagues, first of all, and it's referring to how vast of an open ocean there is. There's just so much land and so much unexplored area. Depth doesn't really matter. What's the under?

Why put the under? Why not just put 20,000 leagues of the sea? Because it's under the surface of the sea. Okay, so let me ask you this. One league equals 15,840 feet. So 20,000 leagues would then be like well over 30,000 feet. So technically I was right. What's a nautical mile? I saw that pop up too. Darren, look what you're doing to us.

I'm actually not sitting at Google right now. Oh, that pop up too Look what you're doing to us I'm actually not sitting at Google right now Oh that came up Yeah but even the leagues thing like Anthony Smith Could never be that deep no one could You don't think? Scuba diving? No I've never been Pressure sites crushing you man What about the people that went down to see the Titanic

Stop You think they were scuba diving when they did that? I thought James Cameron just threw an oxygen tank on his back and was like, all right, I'm going to see the Titanic. I'll be back. Peace. I don't know what he was doing. He was under the sea.

And by the way, isn't it funny that my whole life I've been called Ariel and clearly, you know, the Little Mermaid? Yeah. And clearly, I know nothing about any of this. Have you ever been even, like, snorkeling? Sorry. You just got big time uh have i been snorkeling i can't believe you even have to think about it you know i did like surface stuff by the way i used to have a big stuff is snorkeling like the little let me tell

you the real reason like you have a straw you must know You're scared of the water. No. I used to have horrible ears. I would always get, when I was a kid, I would inevitably, anytime I went in the pool, I would get an ear infection. Oh, damn. Inevitably. That's rough. By the way, this is the reason why I can't ride a bike. Because your equilibrium's all fucked?

Exactly, yeah. Now, has this been told to me by a medical professional? No, but this is the- Oh, this is like the fruit. Is this because you had microwave food once and then everything got thrown out? No, it's not anything to do with the microwave. Okay, don't be cheeky. The point is the idea of going that

Frank is really He's really tickled himself. He's really tickled himself. The idea of going that underwater Yeah. A death sentence. You can wear like earplugs. Nah, it doesn't work. It always seeps in. Nah, nah, nah death sentence. You can wear earplugs. Nah, it doesn't work. It always seeps in.

Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. It's the pressure. Nah, nah, nah, nah. So you can never do the sensory deprivation tanks, huh? Sounds like a nightmare. I've been wanting to go and do one of those. That's the one where you float? Yeah, in the darkness.

It's what my wife asked for for her birthday present. She's like, I want to go on another float. Oh, she went and did it? No, she's done it several times. I've done it several times. Oh, oh. oh they are the best what's so good about it it's just so relaxing man i'm gonna have to go literally feel like you've just unplugged from the world really yeah i highly recommend it not for you because i don't want you to get your infection although you do what put your plugs in i might go do that soon are you by yourself yes you're completely do like a couple's version

because then you're not you're not unplug Yes. You do like a couple's version? I don't know. Because then you're not unplugging from the world. Yeah. Then it's like, I can still hear you. How long? You buy it in like 30 to an hour. What?

Yeah. Like a massage. What did you think it was? Five minutes? Yeah. No. I thought it was like an ice bath. You start floating around. Like you move while you're settling in for like the first 10 minutes.

And then it's just pure. Naked? Yes. Hell yeah. For real? Yes. Yeah. I don't want to feel my drawstring.

You get naked during your massage? Sometimes. Sometimes. Usually not. Really? You? Absolutely. I'm paying.

Throw the towel on. They're good with it, man. They move that towel in magical ways where like nothing ever gets exposed do they change the water yes they change the water every time and you see the giant bags of epsom salt

these are premium places man it's not like you're like this is where they drain how much water is in this tub they drain it then it gets purified. There's a recycling system. I'm not just chucking it out in the street. It's like a bathtub. Literally.

It's like a pod. Oh, it's that small? Yeah. I was thinking of a massive water tower, and you're just kind of floating. See, that's the shit you'll think about while you're in there. You're like, oh, am I in a water tower right now? Your ideology is around water, like what you have in your head around the ocean, these float tanks. I was thinking of this massive, massive tank.

Like, you know, like a water tower you would see in like some small town in America? Yeah. I think that you go up that and you're just floating at the top of it. Can you see one behind you? I actually think there's one right there behind you. Where is it? Look at it. Right behind you. Right. Right behind you to the left. Yeah, there's one right there behind you. Where is it? Look at it, right behind you.

Right. Right behind you, to the left. Right there, right there. Yeah. I mean, that's a smaller one. But then I was also picturing Frank on like a donut floatie. You're imagining Frank's big ass in a small town water tank. Just floating around.

That's more of an expression on the donut floaty just like kind of just like sitting there drinking a mai tai like i wonder what ariel's doing right now naked naked jesus ariel we are still co-workers and there is a line you're the one that said it you're the one that said it i didn't think it was naked. You've just told me about the naked part. You asked. What? How's the Twitter call going? Naked? Let's try it one more time. Three o'clock hard out?

Yeah. Oh, you know what? There's a video component too. Oh, wow. Here we go. Do you think he's going pick up no no that ship has been sailed here we are wow by the way we've definitely not talked about this there is no video like did you guys know this what you could call people video i did not know that but i'm not surprised. We don't care.

Well, I'm just going to leave it here and he can watch me. Aljamain Sterling is going to join us in four minutes, hopefully, to talk about Murab, to talk about where he goes from here. We had him on after the Moffstar fight. Always very honest. Always very...

I think he keeps it real. He shows up. He talks about the wins. He talks about the losses. And he was quite vocal about Murab fighting Umar and the last name stuff. He talked about it on this show. He's got the Funk Harbor rum. We dusted that one off. We polished it off in short order. The boys loved it. I think mostly GC. I'm waiting on the bottle of the white rum. Oh yeah. Fun cover white.

Yesterday we talked a little bit about Darren Till's win. I'm very curious to know. He's full time with Misfits now. He was quite critical of this world, this crossover influencer world, whatever remains of it. And now it feels like he's arguably like the second biggest face in Misfits. Here he is going up against Anthony Taylor.

Look at the size difference. Also, I was curious about the socks. He went with the tall black socks, but it looked a little bit like, I don't know, did it look like negligee to you guys? Usually you see like tall white socks. It almost looked like something

you'd wear under a suit pant. Yeah. They were like a little bit see-through, right? Why do you think he went with the tall socks? Too tall, no scrunch ratio there. under a suit pant. Yeah. They were like a little bit see-through, right? Why do you think you went with the tall socks? Too tall, no scrunch ratio there. Also,

is he wearing soccer cleats? Nah, nah, they're just Adidas. But they look like they're they're like not high tops, low tops.

Yeah, they might have been low tops. Like most boxing... I don't know, I feel like those might have been boxing shoes. You think so? It's hard to tell where the shoe starts

or where it ends in the socks. Where the shoe ends and where the socks start is tough. But look, he's a massive, massive name in the UK in particular. People like him. People are interested in him. There's no one with his fight credentials

in Misfits, obviously. UFC title contender, main eventer, et cetera. To me, like they have just fallen into a KSI versus Darren Till fight. That is the fight to make. No ifs, ands, or buts. That is by far the biggest fight that they could put on right now. And KSI seems to be moving further and further away from Jake Paul. KSI versus Darren Till in Liverpool, in Manchester, in London is massive box office.

Now, the question is, can KSI beat Darren Till? I don't know. Darren's pretty big, A. KSI's smaller than Jake. That's part of the problem with the negotiations. But, you know, it's hard to really truly know who Darren Till is as a boxer right now. But I think, I mean, would you guys agree, Darren Till probably beats

KSI at this juncture, right? Yeah, I feel like. I would love to see it. I think the build-up to that would be tremendous. I don't know if they're going to do it. I mean, I found out yesterday on the show as I was trying to set up a whole discussion about KSI versus Wayne Bridge, I found out live on the program. Yeah. You exposed yourself for being a casual for sure there.

That Wayne Bridge was out. Yeah. Devastated. I've been looking forward to that fight for quite some time. Since Saturday. Yeah. Since I had to Google him after seeing him, I thought it was a skit. First an old guy walks out, then Wayne Bridge walks out, and then I thought, alright, someone else is coming out. But no, it ended up being Wayne Bridge.

That fight's off. Till loved the Wayne Bridge fight. He did? Yeah. No, he crapped all over it. Yeah. Till versus KSI. Who's the favorite in that one? Maybe we'll hear from him about it at 3 o'clock. Or maybe at 5 o'clock without it.

Maybe that's what he's confused about. Since he's a boxer now, he wanted to go on the boxing show. That don't make sense. Yeah, that's for sure. That don't make sense. No, look, I'm happy for Darren. Good for him to get back on track. Obviously, no real options right now other than the UFC.

If you're trying to make a career and make serious money in MMA, I don't think PFL. PFL hasn't really signed any. The last big name that PFL signed, Paul Hughes, but obviously he had not really established himself just yet. They haven't really signed any big names like they were a couple years ago. Obviously, it was the Francis News, so I don't think he's going that route. There's the GFL situation. This is the move. He was supposed to fight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on the Netflix card.

That didn't pan out. Still think he has some travel issues that need to be sorted, but if he can find a lane here to beat a few guys and then get to the ksi fight he can make a lot of money when a lot of people were counting him out a lot of people thought he was done the thing is is he at peace with all this is it just a gimmick for him to be like, I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm above this. I can't believe I'm around these people.

That's his gimmick. Is it just a gimmick? Or does he really feel that way? Because if he really feels that way, he's going to be unfulfilled. Because Darren himself says he doesn't fight for the money, right? He isn't arse. I think that's what he said one time. Can't be ours.

Which means he doesn't care. We don't care. We don't care! I tried to set you up for it. I mean, Till's just late on everything. Yeah, he's just like, you know what? When I die, we'll just late on everything. Yeah, he's just late. You know what?

When I die... We'll have Darren Till there, too. I'd like Darren Till to be one of the Paul Perrers. I'd let you down one last time. One last time. It's going to be Darren Till, Frank... Just all the people that consistently let you down? Yes.

Wow. Who else? Who else should we add to the list? How many leagues deep should we bury you? Well, what do we... I think it would be like – We've determined that leagues are not depth. 0.1? No.

0.1 leagues? I'm just joking. But no, I think that would be gigantic. I would love to see it. I am very curious. I have a confession though. Yes. Jordan is saying that I should tell you that the Bills should be there as well.

And I'm like – Wow. Dude, there's no way I'm going to say that. I will get fired. That is awful. I mean, coming from a Jets fan, I expect nothing less. But that's – Maybe Aaron Rodgers could be a year. And by the way, not this week.

Not this week. If they lose, you could say that joke next week. Right now – You see what they do to me? I'm the bearer of these cheap shots. And yet, I know you're that joke next week right now you see what they do to me i'm the bearer of these cheap shots and yet i know you're still frustrated with me right now it just it felt like a cheap shot actually speaking of which my son today said i hope they lose wow yeah wow i was like you guys been fighting full and i'm finding nemo i was like this like this that really stings

they don't like the Bills at all. No, they're just doing it to piss me off. Were they like, can I go stay the night at my friend's house? You're like, no, the Bills are playing on Sunday. No, nothing. It was literally in the morning. They're like, yo, what's up, Onk? Yeah.

I hope the Bills lose. Not exactly, but that was the implication. I'm not your uncle. Yeah, bro. I'm your father. My daughter, I was like, you want to come to New Orleans If they make the Super Bowl She's like no I don't want to go to the Super Bowl

Wow okay alright Geez Wow must be nice Now I won't feel I won't feel guilty When I leave you all behind You're going to go solo I might

Financially this makes sense You and Frank Die hard lifelong Bills fan He'll wear that all black Josh Allen jersey Oh yeah that's a great one I hate that jersey Frank Why do you diehard Lifelong Bills fan? He'll wear that all-black Josh Allen jersey. Oh, yeah. That's a great one.

I hate that jersey, Frank. Why do you... That was a gift. Why do you hate it? Well, okay. First of all, who gave you this? My wife. Ah, you know what I... No, she's watching this right now,

and now she's like... She's actually the only significant other of any of ours who watches the show. Shout out. Actually, I'm not sure about Andy's husband. Does he watch the show? Damn it. Okay.

But sometimes it's not. Oh, he's watching right now. Well, hello. So tell me how much you hate the jersey. Well, you know what? I think it really brings out your eyes. No, I'm not a big fan of those alternate one-color jerseys. That they never actually worn.

That too. We wouldn't know if you look good in blue. I've never seen you wear anything other than black. Don't look good in blue. That is the weirdest. He's only ever worn black, ever. Because we work in production. Oh, that's the rule.

That's right. Why don't you go tend to it, man? Yeah, go tend to it. All right. Appreciate all that. Let's get to our next guest. Kind enough to join us. He was in Murab Duwali's corner on Saturday. Victorious get to our next guest. Kind enough to join us. He was in Murab Dwalishvili's corner on Saturday.

A victorious moment. A happy moment. Some nice scenes afterwards. You see their friendship. You see Murab being asked afterwards, are you the Bantamweight GOAT? He goes, no. It's Aljamain Sterling. I'm not listening to anything else. That's the kind of bond these two have. Aljo's kind enough to

join us right now to talk about what transpired on Saturday. Hello, Aljo. How are you? Different spot this time. Yeah, I'm in LA right now. Ooh. What brings you there? Well, technically I'm in Santa Barbara. Went to get some PRP shots from my

shoulder. Got banged up a little bit from the last fight. Didn't notice it until later that night. Yeah, so this is supposed to help so even like helping around through the training camp was pretty painful But I was able to give him as Best of looks I told him was like I can only do one session a day Because if I do two sessions is gonna run me into the ground and then I won't be able to help you at all

For the rest of the camp, so let's make sure we take our time and I want to make sure I'm training smart I don't get a full tear on my rotator cuff did he really drop you with a body shot in the locker room is that real well he's he made me stop it wasn't like a drop where i hit the ground yeah but he hit me so hard i had it like so the room was really small so just to give people perspective a very small room lockers on both sides the mat on the floor as he hits me we're towards the end where you can go to the bathroom and i had to run to the side real quick before i ran into the coach because he just started coming at me pow pow pow and i hit those ones in the body as i'm about to back into ray and then I ran off into the locker room, well, to the bathroom side.

And I had to take a second to breathe. Damn. Yeah. I was like, man, I hope he hits Umar with one of these because that did not feel great. I feel like just now he's truly getting his flowers for A, how good of a fighter he is, but also the cardio has become this thing.

Like he has become the poster boy for insane cardio. You've known him forever. Have you ever trained with anyone like him that has cardio like him that could go 12 rounds like we're hearing about now? With me training with anybody like that? No. And, uh, I've been saying this probably since either 2016 or 17, I think 17. And, uh, people would ask me about my conditioning. And this is when i was smaller i 135 it wasn't as big and i would say get yourself a marab like there's interviews of me saying that in the the pressers post fight get yourself a marab if you want to get yourself into

great shape because even back then the guy was just an absolute machine. And now people are starting to recognize, oh, his cardio is actually a weapon. It's pretty rough. How are you feeling going into the fight? Obviously, that's your guy, confident. But now we find out about the back. We find out about the shin. There were some things to potentially be worried about. What was your level of confidence?

The only thing I had any issues with coming into this was the quick turnaround. And I was very, very wary about the leg because I know Umar kicks a lot. And Murad likes to kick sometimes. And I had a feeling he might kick. Well, not a feeling. I felt if he did right. I think from watching the tape, um, coach John Wood and I were on the same page. Uh,

we had Kassane out there helping us, Chechen fighter, um, has a twin brother, also really, really high level wrestler and a bigger guy. So I think between the combination of Hussain, myself and,

um, wean, who also had a great performance over undefeated fighter as well two undefeated guys beaten by the same team um yeah man this my confidence was through the roof i told him like the only thing that could go wrong is if you just get flustered with all the animosity and you make a mistake if you keep your head on i just don't see how this guy beats you like you watch his tape even the sandhagen fight it's a a great win. And I've said this on my podcast. I just don't think there was anything that overly stood out that you could go, wow, this kid is scary. Good.

He's good, but he wasn't scary. Good. And I'm, I was just telling him like, dude, look at the guys you be in, look at the guy he's beaten and how he's beaten him and which one stands out to you as overly uber impressive, you know? So I think he just comes out to doing the right homework. And I think Murad did a great job of that. And I think the team helped him very, very well in preparing. Ultimately, do you think Umar will get there? Is it possible that this just happened too soon for him?

Or do you think he's at his ceiling? I can't say he's at his ceiling uh i can't say he's had his ceiling he's still young he's still a young guy i mean it was still relatively a close fight um but at the same time it wasn't a close fight and that's that's kind of how i look at it was close but it really wasn't that close um like you knew who was winning from round around um pretty convincingly at least in my perspective. I'm sitting in cage side and I'm watching and I can see just about everything. And I never really felt, other than rounds one and two, that it could have possibly gone one way or the other way. But there was never any point where I was like, we're in trouble here.

But I think Umar has great potential. He's still a great fighter, young, talented. I always felt like his gas tank was a little bit questionable in my personal opinion, but obviously going against a guy like Murab, that's no easy feat for anybody, so I don't want to be unfair to him. And I just didn't like the whole thing.

I broke my hand. I'm like, you broke your hand by punching him in the wrong spot of his head. Like, that's on you, you know? So if it was Murab who broke his hand, I'm like, you broke your hand by punching him in the wrong spot of his head. That's on you. If it was Murad who broke his hand and he stoked, anything can happen in a fight. It's just, that's what happens. It's a fight. What were you thinking going into the third?

Oh, he's slowing down. Okay, so you weren't worried that he was down two rounds to none, potentially, Murad? I thought it was potentially 1-1. I couldn't see how it could have been 2-2, 2-0. But for Umar, I felt like that would have been a stretch. But we didn't technically rule it out. But I just didn't feel like there was a lot of likelihood

that it was 2-0 going into the third. But I did like that in the third round, you could see Umar slowing down towards the end of round two. And we were letting him know, hey, this is where we take over convincingly and let everyone know who's the real champ. And Murab got the showdown. By the way, yesterday, Murab told us this crazy story about when he was being checked out by the commission.

Oh, my God. Were you there? This is the craziest thing ever yo how good is that it's unbelievable this is like out of a movie were you watching this yeah no i i wasn't i wasn't watching it but i heard it i i was panicking in the back thinking oh my god the fight's off they're gonna look at the leg and say it's gonna bust open from one strike and then i hear him on the podcast and on the show and i hear that i'm like so that's how he got out i had no idea that's unbelievable that's a savvy move in the moment

to do that yeah um it's kind of like the dc towel trick now wants to catch out of the bag i think everyone's going to be onto it now that's a good point uh i'm still unclear no one really wants to tell us what happened to the leg it seems like it was it wasn't quite jumping into the frozen uh pond but it wasn't the smartest that's that's what i'm i'm starting to decipher here did did he not tell you what happened uh he was like he was kind of playing coy john wood did the same uh but but but i saw the video of him after it happened that he posted where he's like oh i did something stupid so i mean it sounds like you know i kind of have some insight on it but if rob's not telling the story i'm not gonna i can't okay can't do that. If he didn't tell it. Is it as bad as jumping in the freezing pond?

No, that was like silliness. You call it stupid. Most people probably call it stupid. But this is also stupid, but not like that. It's different. It's in a different light. Do you think everything's okay? And you know,

we talked about this last month. He's fighting the promotion. He's fighting this and that. I feel like maybe, maybe this could be the turning point. It seemed like Dana was happy, showing him love, showing him praise.

He's saying all the right things. He showed up, he fought. It was the fight of the night. Do you think this could be the turning point for him where the UFC really gets behind him? He seemed like a superstar. The crowd seemed to love him.

Could this be the moment? Yeah, I just hope people stop with the stupid ducks commenting stuff. So I'm just glad Dana gave him his praises, gave him his flowers. Yeah, the guy's beating a killer's row of opponents. I mean, from John Dodson, a former title challenger two times, Casey Kenney, Cody Stammen, Petey Young, Jose Aldo, like he's beaten a lot of good guys. Umar, Henry Cejudo, like the list goes on and on. I mean, what else do you want from a guy who never says no to a fight you know so i think it was a little unfair that some of the fans kind of gave him a unfair shake um saying that he was

ducking and whatever i'm like my man just won the belt like give him an opportunity like every other champion has gotten some time to enjoy their their time in the sun before they have to go back and defend the belt again in another tough, tough fight. So I think now people can remove all doubt. They can't say anything anymore. They beat the boogeyman, the new boogeyman. There's always a boogeyman. And he just keeps beating him. So it's good to see. And it's good to see and it's good to see dana giving me shake his fair shake and uh you know the fans seem to turn around whenever dana gives some type of compliment so it's nice to hear that nice to see that and we'll see what's next for him um i don't really there's really not that many choices for him right now sounds like they're leaning towards o'malley

versus him again how do you feel about that? It'll be a nice payday. I think it'd be a really nice payday. I mean, the toughest fight will probably be the Piotr Jan rematch and probably the most deserving in terms of what has he done lately. O'Malley fought Jan. He took 10 and a half, maybe 11 months off. And these are all facts. You guys can look it up. Call it salty if you want. But these are all facts. Then he fought me in August. And then he took more time off, a bunch of time off. Came back in

I think March or April. I believe it was March to fight Chido. And then he fought again in September. And then he hasn't fought again and he won't fight again until probably July or June I mean that's people talk about activity that's not what people on one on one one time they say they want to see this and then on the other side of it they let people do this and they don't say anything about it. So it's just such a weird thing. I think the most deserving guy is Piotr Jan, but in terms of probably the better paycheck,

potentially, especially where Morab is now in his career, I think it might be the rematch with O'Malley. I just think it's, in my opinion, it's just a hard fight to sell. You're not selling me that O'Malley does anything differently other than hoping to catch him once in 25 minutes again. I don't know. Maybe he goes out and tries to toe kick in the first round or something. One thing I wanted to ask you about, we spoke to John Wood about this yesterday. He actually brought it up. I was asking him about the celebration, not the showboating, but he was playing things up, Murab, towards the end.

He was talking to the corner and all that. And he said, maybe the next thing that we can focus on now is just like, if you have enough time to do that, we should be looking at finishing the fight. Like, let's go. Now let's get rid of people.

Do you think that that's something that Murab needs to work on? Does that help his popularity if he could go out there and get a couple finishes in a row? Of course. Finishes help everybody, everybody right everyone wants to see a finish to get a definitive answer right um but it's not that easy when you get to the top of the division not everyone is as i say like islam islam is a freaking like like i don't know he's just head and shoulders

levels above the competition like marab is definitely beating these guys and bulldozing them. But there's something to be said to be able to dominate somebody for 25 minutes or even 20 minutes. It would be nice to get finishes because it's just nice to have on the highlight reels. And I think it burns a little bit more for the fans to kind of have like that definitive moment to kind of really get behind you in that regards. But at the end of the day, you're fighting the best of the best. And I still think Bantamweight division is one of the most skilled divisions. So for Rob to go out there and do that to these guys like that and still show that he's head and shoulders above the competition is still pretty damn impressive, if you ask me. I mean, look at the guys he's kind of taunted and made look silly in the in the cage um look at the picture right here like he's

he's styled on all these guys man yeah there's something to be said about that you know so that's got to count for something um we were actually supposed to celebrate with some funk harvard so then i gotta hold him to that we're supposed to take a shot because he doesn't drink um but he said this is the only thing i drink is funk harvard so i'm gonna hold you to that. We were supposed to take a shot because he doesn't drink. But he said, this is the only thing I drink is Funk Harbor. So I'm going to hold you to that, Murab. We're going to have a shot together of some Funk Harbor rum and celebrate the good times, man. So hopefully he gets to enjoy his downtime this time and maybe make a return in June or July. Okay.

You know, it's amazing to see the two of you interact because it's rare in life when you see two people who are in the same field, the same universe. You're not just two fighters, but you were in the same division for so long. You were friends, teammates, people were trying to pitch you against each other and then see the genuine love and affection that he has for you and you have for him like there's this one picture that was passed around everywhere you looking at him being interviewed and then that was passed around of him look how happy he is for you and that's the belt that ultimately he wanted but just didn't want to take it from you or didn't want to fight you for it this is love right here this is like you people throw on brother like this this feels like a brotherhood that you guys have yeah man it's our team is so different like even with iaquinta like we're all so close man we've we've gone through so much with each other and had to do we've seen the ups and downs we've seen the insides behind the scenes and to to go out there and to want to fight someone that you you eat with you break bread with you you you met their family and that's just such a hard thing that i don't think people actually can um put into perspective but i think now it's starting to resonate with a lot more

people like you're not just fighting anybody you're actually fighting someone you actually truly care about and i think that's the difference man i truly believe morab if he does the right work which is what he's been doing and continues to work hard and stays focused, he's going to break the band and weight record, which is three title defenses. You know, so I know it's myself and Cruz. We've got the highest between three and two. And I think Murab has all the skill in the world to do that and break the record and make it even harder for anyone to reach again you know so yeah man i'm just proud and just happy to have a guy like that that has helped me so much in my career and i've been able to help him and it's just nice to see how far i've gotten to see that he's been able to replicate the same success and and more you know so um long live the king man

long live the bantamweight king feels like the the only thing that could stop him right now is himself like i said those exact words to him really those exact words after the fight in the back room and i said i i i think you could you i think and know you will break the bantamweight record and he's just like wow he's still like he's like wow because he's not even thinking about this but i'm thinking about it's like yo look what you just did and i said like the only way you lose to anybody is if you get in your own way um i think the only person who could stop you is yourself it's like if you keep doing what you're doing i think you're going to be the champ for a very very long time and he's willing to fight till he's 50, 60 years old.

When you see the clip of him at the press conference when someone says, like, are you the bantamweight goat or whatever, and then he's quickly saying you first, how does that make you feel? It makes me feel, like, definitely humbled. But, you know, it definitely makes me, like, I understand because we've trained together a lot. Our training sessions, I know, over the years have gotten a lot closer. I think he just appreciates what I've been able to show him in terms of skill level. I've seen Merab destroy people in the room it's it's actually it's it's devious to watch I just think he appreciates a lot of the things that I bring to the table in the training room and I think he just respects it a lot

you know so you know I don't like talking about training i think we both know that we're both really good and we're both comfortable in our own skin and like i said i think marab with a winner too i think will remove all doubt that he is truly the bantamweight goat you know so um i know some people look at defenses some people look at strength of schedule how you're winning so um i think even in these next few wins, I think he'll get a couple finishes. And I think that will put him over the hill and there will be no more debate. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with being one or two or even three.

Between myself, Dominic Cruz, and Murad, that's a pretty great group to be amongst. So I'm okay with with any of that by the way you talk about how close you guys are tight knit you are uh when when you saw chris's announcement on friday chris weidman's announcement that he was retiring from the ufc what were the emotions and did you know that that was coming i did i did we spoke about it after his last fight and he was at a crossroads and he told me like the day, the night before that he was going to be making his announcement. And I was like, damn, you made it. You made the decision. And it's kind of rough because I kind of wanted him to do one more.

And I kind of wanted to be a part of it a little bit more in depth. Obviously, we've all moved moved so we're not all in new york anymore um but we still go back from time to time but it would have been nice to be a part of that to really make sure that everything was being done the right way because i feel like with from our conversations that there were some things that he could have done a little bit more of or could have done that I think would have put him in a different spot in the last fight. That's my personal opinion. He might feel differently, but that's just how I felt based on what he was saying in terms of the prep and stuff like that.

But the emotions, man, just super happy for him, man. Another kid from Long Island, not having much, not having much of anything. And the way he's done for himself his family set his legacy up um put his kids in a great position for the rest of their lives as well so it's nice to see um good things happen for really good people he's a great guy great family man um he was a great fighter uh and he even said to me it's like yeah i just don't feel like i'm that guy anymore and it's hard to even say that because i'm still having great sessions in the room but then when i go out there i'm just not able to to do what i'm doing and that's not a comfortable feeling and i don't want to be a guy who sticks around way too long so

i can respect that and um i think there's a lot of great things on the horizon for him whether he decides to compete somewhere else or takes like some exhibition fights for fun or just do some color commentating or work the analyst desk um i think the sky's the limit for him and there's gonna be a lot of opportunities for him when you hear that and when you talk to him about it do you do you start to think of yourself that day many many years from now do you dread that do you get like you're like fuck man it it comes for us all do you think about it like that yeah it's like the grim reaper man it's um he's we've had conversations about this too and he's like dude you've got so much more in the tank don't don't look at me and and compare to where i'm at you have a lot more fight left in you.

And I know I do. I just know that sad day is going to eventually come. And that's what I'm dreading the most. I'm going to miss this because, you know, he's right. This sport becomes your identity. The UFC becomes your identity. And to not have something to look forward to in the future is a scary thought of, well, what the hell am I going to do with myself now? You know, obviously, I got my business, the rum company, my Funk Harbor, but fighting is what I truly am the most passionate about. And I like coaching. But yeah, it's father time comes for us all eventually.

Right. So I'm just trying to make the most out of my run. And this is why, this is my only thing why I said this about Amalia. I feel like at his age, you want to be active, man. You want to get in as much fights as you can. Cause when that door closes, that's it. Unless you just don't really like fighting as much as you have put out to the universe. Right. Um, but for me, I truly do love this sport, man.

I don't like the weight cutting, but I like to compete, love competing. I would compete week after week if I could, just the same way I did with wrestling. It's just you physically can't because you get injuries, you get bumps and bruises, and I've had a lot of injuries and surgeries. But I want to try to hopefully get in 10 fights before it's all said and done. That'll be nice. 10 more fights. If I can do that, I know that's shooting high, but if I can get something

close to that, I'll be more than content. I want to get into 20-win club. I think I'm at 19. Yeah, I think I'm at 19. I don't know, man. I'm just trying to enjoy the ride, Ariel.

I get it. I get it. I just want to enjoy the ride. A hundred percent. Can I ask, just talking about, and we'll let you go in a moment, just want to get your insight on this because it is the weight class that you resided in for quite some time. We go from someone who's ending their run to starting. Peyton Talbot. I'm sure it's not very fun for him right now.

And, you know, we throw around, oh, he was fraud checked. He was overhyped. He's a bust. Look at him. You know, people are coming after me because I love talking to him, and I love his fighting style, and I love his demeanor, and I think he's a lot of fun. He's unique. If you could offer him any type of wisdom or advice

after what he went through on Saturday, what would it be? I would just tell him to keep it in perspective, man. I remember losing my first pro fight in the UFC. I was 4-0, three finishes in a row, and I lost to the one guy I should have smashed in Brian Carraway. And it was a great learning lesson. I think that's what he's got to take away from it. What did you learn from it? You weren't completely schooled, you know, not until that last minute of the third round, but other than that, it was very competitive.

He was able to escape and get back to his feet a few times. And even the same stuff I said on my podcast, like, i don't think he loses much stock and if anyone's saying he was fraud check i'm like i don't even think you understand what the what the phrase even means anymore um i think he's just saying that if someone loses and that's pretty silly i think the kid still has got still has a lot of talent and um at the end of the day it's got to be perspective right you got to look at the end of the day, it's got to be perspective, right? You've got to look at the pros. You've got to look at the cons. What could you have done better?

And at least he's now, like, he took a tough fight, a grappling-style fight earlier in his career than some other people have done. They've taken only favorable matchups, so he tested himself, and I think that's only going to benefit him going forward. Like, yeah, you might not have the pretty shiny aura of having the undefeated record, but you're still that guy if you believe it. And those would be my words to him. We all take losses.

It's how you is. And it's not losses, man. They're learning lessons. It just depends on how you handle it, how you bounce back from it. You know what just occurred to me? There's been all this talk about Patricio Pitbull coming to the UFC. We'll see if it actually happens. What do you think about's been all this talk about Patricio Pitbull coming to the UFC. We'll see if it actually happens. What do you think about Aljamain Sterling

and Patricio Pitbull? I don't know. Dan Ige really wants that fight. I know he called dibs. I mean, I'm not opposed to it. I was kind of hoping to fight Arnold Allen because I don't know if he's fighting Yair Rodriguez anymore. And he's ranked ahead of me.

I don't know where Patricio Pitbull would be in the rankings. That's the only thing. Yeah, I want to fight a lot, but I also want to fight fights that make sense. He's a big name, I guess. So there's that. Was the champ at 145 there. He comes over. There's going to be a ton of buzz surrounding his debut if he signs.

I don't even know. I actually think, and I told this to his team, I think he's overplayed his hand a little bit. You can't tell the UFC, I want to come no matter what. It's not about money. The UFC hears that and is like, all right, what do we need to negotiate with you for? They're going to play hard to get now. And I think that's what's happening. They thought that they were going to scoop him up right away.

It's a business. You have to, you know, you got to play the field a little bit. And so I don't know what happens. But if he does come over and I'd love to see it, I thought that that would be a cool sort of dream fight, if you will. You were a champ at 35 for so long. He was a champ at 45 in Bellator. He's coming over as the champ. He never lost

the belt. You're at 45. I don't know. It's a fun one. It is a fun one. I'm more than game to backpack him up and welcome that ass to the UFC because I will be coming for all their asses. So you don't have your next one, right? No, I don't have anything yet.

I'm hoping to find out this week, man. It'll be nice to shake it up with Arnold Allen. I think he's a tough striker. And believe it or not, I'm interested in seeing what my striking game looks like at 45 with a guy like that because i don't have to force the wrestling um or worry about being taken down as much i mean maybe he will be the one shooting on me um i mean i go always have that right but i think it gives me an opportunity to work on my striking at this point in my career and see where my striking is actually at uh without the threat

of having to get taken down with most are i was worried that he was going to try to take me down um i think he only got reversals i don't even think he actually got takedowns on me like now that i think about it yeah so and it's just so instinctual for me to get the, like, Schufer to take down all of my strikes just because we drilled him so often that I wanted to stand up with him and keep the fight standing. And I didn't get to do that. We worked so much on the stand up. And I think he said the same thing. And it ended up just being a big grappling fight. And I think with Arnold, now that I have the comfortability of knowing in my back of my mind he's not going to be looking to actively take me down.

I think I could have some chance to show the world my striking. I think it would be a fun fight. I really do. Have you guys talked to the UFC about this? Have you or your management expressed this to the UFC? Are they into it? I don't know. I've called him out. And then he said he was fighting, I think, Yair.

I think he's the one that actually said that. But from what I hear, Yair's fighting somebody else now. So, I mean, hey Arnold. Hey Arnold. We're going to have a little fun with the call out. I think we're going to do something like the hey Arnold, I'll be Gerald.

He'll be Arnold, obviously. And Dana could be like Helga. I know hey Arnold, but I lost you after that. I don't know Helga. Helga's the one with the ponytails. Oh, yes. Okay, okay.

Got it, got it. All right. He's like the mean person that really likes Arnold. Whatever. We'll figure out who Dana would be just to make it funny. Yes, yes, yes. We need to get on that because Cause I feel like, you know, he's in,

he's not fighting in London. That's, that's good news. I don't know about Mexico city, but you know, Arnold's not fighting in London. Yeah, he's not. No.

Ah, okay. Realistically, when could you fight? I was looking at March, man. I want, Oh wow.

That's soon. I was, that's soon. Yeah. I was hoping for March. I'm not in terrible shape Oh, wow. That's soon. Yeah, I was hoping for March. I'm not in terrible shape right now. I think I would only need, I mean, how far away is March 8th? That's T-Mobile, right?

Yeah, but that's like a month and a half. Is it? Yeah. That's like six weeks. I think realistically I could be in prime shape in six weeks. Well, I just need two days off of this. Oh, okay. That's it.

Yeah, and I can start training again. But I've been training with Murab for the majority of the time, other than when I went to El Salvador, right? So I think I'm in a really good spot. If not, then April in Miami. I'm like, what's up? I would love that. Okay, my people.

Okay, what's up? You don't do all that. Yes. By the way, I'm being told Dana is Harold. But I don't know who Harold is, so I can't confirm nor deny. Yeah, he could be Harold. Okay. You think that's apropos?

I think it's... I just think you just need someone from the UFC to be all these different characters while we're making the yeah wow you guys got that quick this is not Aljo doing it okay we don't need to get Aljo in trouble here alright we're not calling him fat that's the last thing we're calling him

he's just the tough guy you know alright well let's see always appreciate the insight weekly scraps you've got all kinds of breakdowns on there. You did a great breakdown of this past weekend. Also saw one where you were rankings, I think, the best female fighters in the UFC, like your women's ranking. No, no, no, not that one, guys. Not that one.

Not that one. Top five baddies. That was Rebecca. She did that one. Okay. That was in you, right? That was your fiance. I mean, I did a little ranking at the end

based on the list that Jake gave me, but for the most part it was Rebecca doing the rankings. And I was just kind of like, yeah, yeah, that's not a bad pick. Yeah, that's not a bad pick. Yeah. Listen, if the fiancé says it, it's all good. Yeah, it's all good. Yeah. I'm just piggybacking, you know?

Right. So there you have it. So great content up there. Appreciate you doing this from out there in la thank you very much aljo and congrats to you and the team on a another massive weekend for not only you guys but marab great to see john wood in there with ray longo it's all working so nicely uh love to see it thank you i appreciate it and if you want to get some more funk harbor make sure you go to funk harbor funk harbor spirits.com we are now a.com website wow and we got the white room coming in february 16th so it's going to be here shortly the boys were saying they dusted off the other one they're waiting for the white they were saying this before yeah it's going to be good man it's going to be good all right looking forward

to that thank you good luck thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. All right. There he is, the great Aljamain Sterling, the funk master himself. Of course, former UFC bantamweight champion and now current UFC featherweight contender. Tremendous insight. And his YouTube channel, Tremendous as Well Weekly Scraps. Just type that in there or his name and it will come up. I did get a message from Team Darren.

What did he say? A family matter has come up and he needs to reschedule. Okay. These things happen. Yeah, of course. Wish him the best. I hope everything's good. I hope everything is okay.

Team Till was right there though, I have to say. What's up? You said Team Darren. Team Till was right there for you. Yeah. I feel like we refer to him as Darren. Like I would say... He too.

Would you say Team Sterling or Team Aljo? I don't know. It doesn't matter. They don't flow as well. I think given the circumstance. The alliteration. Team Till? Team Till.

I feel like we're missing the point here, you know. Yeah. You've got a family matter as well. Best to Darren. Hope you're all right. Yeah. Best to the family. Best to Darren. I do appreciate of the family. Best of Darren.

I do appreciate them getting back to us. So sorry about that. You know, we don't like to promote and not be able to deliver. We did have six guests on yesterday's show, two today. Jack Della Maddalena on Wednesday. Robert Whitaker on Wednesday as well.

Jeremy Stevens going to join us from Philadelphia. Sight of this weekend's BKFC Knucklemania 5 event at the Wells Fargo Center. What a weekend in Philadelphia, by the way. BKFC making its debut at Wells Fargo

on Saturday. Eagles Commanders on Sunday. I believe many members of the team going to their first BKFC, yes? Yes, sir. It's the final head count. Final head count? Me, Rick, Frank.

You, Rick, Frank, Jordan on vacation. Jordan on vacay. That's a permanent. Andy couldn't be bothered. Andy couldn't be bothered. You also could not be bothered. I wanted to get the invite. Yeah, I didn't get the invite. Andy couldn't be bothered. You decided you also could not be bothered. I wanted to get the invite. Yeah, I didn't get the invite.

But there's more members. Isn't Tracy coming too? Yes. Tracy and then another Yahoo employee is coming. Shout out to Nicole. Shout out to Nicole. Not only shout out. I've been meaning to do this.

I'm coming. Yes, that too. What about our good friend, Nicole, who's really the heart and soul of the team here? Wait a minute. I was the heart and soul. No, absolutely not a minute I was the heart no absolutely not look at this you can sit with us she gifted me this after everyone got a copy by the way I was last on the list but you know what it looks like you're using it a lot yeah normally not only have I used it today this morning my wife and I were

going through some of our our favorite recipes so you joke. What's on the back? What was it? Give us the number one. What was your favorite recipe? By the way. We can't see it anymore. I got three copies. This one's for the set.

We were hoping to find out what's your favorite recipe. No, no. It wasn't here. Give us your number one. It's funny. Oh, you weren't talking about your favorite recipes in the book because you haven't read it yet. I literally just. First time you've opened this book.

Not this one. I got three copies. I know. I said, First time you've opened this book. Not this one. I got three copies. I know. I said, what's your favorite recipe? And you said, no, no, no, not from this book. Quiet down. He is about to give us his number one. That's the matzo ball suit. The matzo ball suit. Second after the matzo ball. That's obviously a given

because you love matzo ball. I'm a gigantic shishito pepper fan. That's exactly what you just turned to. What? I actually made the shishito peppers this Sunday. Yes, I did a turd to it. I was on sweet balsamic brussel sprouts, which I don't like. I don't like brussel sprouts. They're like mini cabbages.

Frank's wife Tracy loves this book. It's all gluten free. And did I not say to you, Frank, one time that I'm a huge short rib fan? You did say that. So I folded a couple of my favorites. The slow cooker? I don't see the fold.

Taking a trick out of my wife's, you know, you haven't seen that video. She literally is dog-eared like every page. That one actually, the short rib actually requires a microwave. Can I be honest with you guys right now? This is your first time opening it. No, no.

It's upside down. This is like Fightville. You know Fightville? You've seen it. Have you seen it, GC. No, no. It's upside down. This is like Fightville. You know Fightville? You've seen it. Have you seen it, GC? Yeah, oh yeah. Watched it before the Islam fight. You know the scene where he's cutting weight

and he's watching the Food Network? This is what I feel like right now looking at this book because I don't know if you guys know this, but I'm currently in the midst of a 24-hour water fast. It's me, Dana White, and that other guy, Gary Brekka. We're doing this together. Normally you put pictures of food on the cookbook, right? We're holding ourselves accountable.

This is the food right here. Wow, Frank, you don't like Nicole on the cover is what you're saying. I've told her this before. No, no. So I'm saying all I'm drinking is water with sea salt for the next 24 hours, starving. And I'm looking at this short rib. Is that why there's salt all over the desk? Absolutely. Yes. I missed the bottle. The pumpkin pancakes. starving and i'm looking at this short rib is that why there's salt all over the desk absolutely

yes i missed uh i missed the bottle the pumpkin pancakes in any event if you want to uh learn more about this book and the uh the great recipes in it like patatas bravas and red wine mushroom cavatapi and don't forget about the nonatinas bolognese ah yeah know yourself what about the eggplant orchidi which i did find out was her dad's recipe um where's the website there should be a website here rick you know the website i believe it's on amazon but let's double check uh it's it's called you can sit with us all proceeds Proceeds. There it is. Oh, there you go. NicoleGartner.com, N-I-C-O-L-E-G-A-R-T-N-E-R.com, All Proceeds.

Go to a great, great cause. What is the cause? What is the cause? Here I am trying to. Dude, you're a promo. I know. This is all happening off the cuff. I know that goes through a cause.

I just don't want to say the wrong one It goes directly to feeding America It goes directly to feeding America All the proceeds are a portion of the proceeds Proceeds I didn't say all or a portion Not all You can actually do a PDF download as well

I got the PDF first And then I got the With links to her Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Anyway, if you want to support a member of the team, a valued member of the team, go to that website or go on Amazon and you can get it. And I love the name, by the way. You can sit with us.

Only 10 bucks. It reminds me of the scene from Forrest Gump where he's on the bus and everyone's like, you can't sit here. Remember? And Jenny? Yeah. Sort of like our Jenny who says on the bus, and everyone's like, you can't sit here. Remember? And Jenny? Yeah. It's sort of like our Jenny,

who says to the world, you can sit here. You know, it's actually a reference to a movie, though. Forrest Gump. No. Mean Girls? Mean Girls.

Is it really? I haven't even seen that movie. You can't sit with us. Yes, yes, yes. Dan, you can sit with us. Cafeteria? Yeah. She also has,

you can sit with us, The Thankful Table, and it's all Thanksgiving recipes. Blee part of your book club, right? She's in the book club, yeah. Did you guys read the cookbook as part of the book club? No, God. What are we reading this week? Dark Matter meeting this Thursday.

Ooh. Yeah, yeah. Are you finished? Oh, God, I've been done. I'm about to finish my first book of the year, Project Hail Mary. Wait a second. So you're like ahead of the race? Oh, way ahead of the race.

Is it fresh? Yeah. You can remember? Of course. Do you take notes? Yeah, jot a few things down here and there. Highlighter? Are you Wikipedia on your way there?

Highlighter. Start my next book, Onyx Storm, on Thursday. Onyx Storm. Yeah. Third in the Imperium series. Wow. Is it about the famed 90s hip-hop group, Onyx storm on thursday onyx storm yeah third in the imperium series yeah wow is it about the uh the famed 90s hip-hop group onyx no you you say that and then i told rick about it and he's like is that a wmba game onyx versus storm wow hey hey when did you show up he's been here he'll do it so i just came back. Oh, okay. Nice to see you.

That sounds a bit disingenuous, to be honest. We've been shooting the shit here for 15 minutes. You really could have popped in when Gil wasn't here. How much of the proceeds go, though? Have you gotten a copy of the cookbook yet, DT? No, I don't get... You see, this is the thing. You guys

get perks that I don't get. The action bronson shoes etc makes me very jealous yeah sorry about that yahoo blanchardstown is gonna be great it's kind of like you know out of sight out of mind around these parts you know you're either here you're you know yourself yeah uh i did also want to mention while we're plugging things if i can since you know we have a hard out of uh 3 30 i can go another hard out was three o'clock just reminding you. That was before Till left us at the altar. One second.

Shouldn't it actually be moved up at that point? I wanted to give a shout out. You wanted to give a shout out? My good friend, my new best friend. Hopefully you guys were speaking while I was... Yeah, we were repeating everything you were saying. You could have gone to the... Did you go to the security cam shot there? No.

I guess... He's getting very annoyed with all of us, isn't he? I guess we only use it for the watch parties. It wouldn't have shown anything that you were doing. Anyway, my good friend Matt Cardona, look what he gifted me. A box of all the toys. Every single one.

That's sick. Big rubber guys. We've got Animal here. Look at this. I love Animal and Hawk. I used to have them when I was a kid. Magnum TA. We got that one. Look at this. Look at this. I don't know who that is. Look at this. Look at this. I don't know who any of these people are.

The British Bulldog and Dynamite Kid. Okay. And Davey Boy Smith. British Bulldog. British Bulldog. Is it the same guy? It includes Matilda. No, they were tag team partners.

Oh, okay. That makes sense. It includes Matilda. You can see. Who's Matilda? You're all over the guy. There's Matilda right there. You see Matilda?

Oh, that's fun. Why would they? That's fun. Wait, wait. We're not done. We're not done. Matt Hardy. The Immortal. Wait, wait, wait. We're not done. We're not done. Matt Hardy, The Immortal. Wait, wait, wait.

There's more. There's more. Look how many he sent me, this guy. Wow. Barbarian. Sick. Legend. Legend.

Okay, okay. GC. Okay, this one's for you, PC. I'm saving it for you. Oh, that's awesome. Hawk. Oh, that's sick. Of the Road Warriors, a.k. of the Road Warriors, aka Legion of Doom.

Legion of Doom. LOD, baby. Brendan Johnson's favorite player, Jeff Hardy. Player, wrestler, same thing. I thought it was

Papa Shango. He did the celly. He did the celly. Remember Papa Shango back in the day making the Warrior? Formerly known as the Godfather.

Of course, who could forget Sergeant Slaughter, one of the dark days in our country's history when he turned on America and sided with Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Remember that? I do remember that. Sergeant Slaughter follows me on Twitter. Yes, during Desert Storm.

Speaking of a great American hero, the one and only Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Uh-oh! There it is. And finally, last but not least, maybe the best one of all, the Macho Man. Oh, yeah. He comes with a Slim Jim. Oh, yeah. Macho Man.

Not Ultimate Warrior? No, no. He had a deal, I guess. Kind of surprised that Macho Man didn't have a deal. Did you ever get to meet him? Macho? No. A little bit before my time.

Oh, no. Sorry. It's right there. Yeah, yeah. Come on. That's pretty good. You have to admit. That was pretty good, no. A little bit before my turn. Ooh, no. Sorry. It's right there. Dig it! Come on, that's pretty good. You have to admit. That was pretty good, actually. Great movie.

You're practicing all day for this. No, no, no. I was just excited. This came in the mail in the post. They've got Andre the Giant here. They've got Matt Cardona, of course. Axe and Smash. Marty Jannetty.

Ric Flair. So I guess I didn't get all of them. Sean Michaels, former teammate, wasn't it? Kicked them through the barbershop window. Could we ever forget Brutus the Barber Beefcake? It's one of the all-time great moments in the history of the biz. Kidding me?

I'd agree with you. Anyway, thank you very much to Matt Cardona and the crew over at the Major Wrestling Figure Podcast. Also, these are called the Big Rubber Guys, and the company is Major Bendy's. MajorBendy's.com is where you can get these.

If you're an old-school LJN wrestling fan, I think they should get into MMA, to be honest. No one's really cornered the MMA toy market. Used to be round five if you recall is he really yes all at the end of last year i remember texting you and rick about it todd mcfarland is is mcfarland toys yeah i don't believe this todd mcfarland mma ufc pose figure reveal at san diego comic-con told you about this and you were like, oh, that's really cool, Frank. Let's talk about it. Yo, these are actually

kind of nice. I was hoping they would already be on the desk. Yeah, no. You've been immortalized in doll form, haven't you, Helani? No. One person took a round five and turned it into me. I forget. I think it was a Dana round five and turned it into me.

Turn of events. Other than that, no. Oh yeah, how about this? UFC.com even wrote about it. Okay, these are not bad. Everyone on the team could contribute. They're a little skinny based on what I'm seeing here.

What I liked about the round fives, none of them are here, but they're behind me. They're robust. Yeah, they just, you know, the fists were big. The feet were big. These are anatomically correct. What you have is. Nothing will.

Look at this Aldo one with the scar, right? Like nothing will be better than this. Nothing. This, this, this, this is when the UFC was the UFC. This is when we were. The Aspinall sack boy is pretty cool. That's a custom though. Yeah, it's a one of one.

Oh, this Patty Pimbley one looks pretty cool. Does it? It is very like accurate. All right. If you say so. PT, you going to join us at five to speak to Connor Ben on the Ariel and Ade show on the Zone Boxing? Yeah, I can't wait.

Who do I invoice when after our show? Wow. Boxing? Yeah, I can't wait. Who do I invoice after our show? Wow, okay. All right, excuse me for living. Here, just make sure you keep Rick away from him. That's the main thing.

Yeah, that's right. Rick's got a list how to let. I'll be there no matter what. He's going to have to go in one of those tanks afterwards. Yeah, but that fight

isn't even official yet, is it? What does that mean? Like the deprivation he's talking about. Yeah, just like, oh, reset, reset. Yeah, that fight isn't even official yet, is it? What does that mean? Like the deprivation he's talking about. Yeah, just to like, cool off.

Reset, reset. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Going to the dark room like Yuri for five days.

It is not official just yet. They haven't officially announced it, but everyone seems to be implying April,

late April, Hotspur Stadium. You know. Are we going? I think, it sounds like we're going. Rick is like adamant he will be there. It sounds like we're going to a lot of places.

We need to go. London, a lot of London action for the boys. We're going to London March 22nd. We're going to WrestleMania in April. We're going to this the following week. What else are we doing? There's a lot going on. Super Bowl.

Super Bowl, who could forget? Yes, there's a lot happening. There's a lot happening on Super Bowl Super Bowl Who could forget Yes there's a lot happening There's a lot happening In all our lives A lot happening On our YouTube channel A lot of content A lot on uncrowned.com They're smashing it over there

Led by our fearless leader Shaheen Alshadi The whole team All coming together As one Tremendous Tremendous content Yes there it is

Your home for combat sports Uncrowned.com And I do want to let you it is Your home for combat sports On crown.com And I do want to let you know arielhawani.substack.com Is the place to send in all your questions For On The Nose And tomorrow we'll go supersize On The Nose Because last week I totally shortchanged you all

I didn't get to enough I think I only got to like 10 And I'm riddled with guilt When I feel like I shortchanged the public So we'll go supersized Get your questions in right now On anything and everything Over at ariahawani.substack.com

Also, Super Chatters Do we have Super Chatters, by the way, before I go? I seem to Am I crazy? Or was that last week? Last week Yeah CreateLikeMike Welcome to the squad or was that last week? Last week. Yeah.

Create Like Mike, welcome to the squad. Someone wrote Marab a message yesterday saying that he works a blue-collar job and he's an inspiration. Someone named Aaron Johnson said, Islam versus DDP is a fight that he wants to see. Clearly a troll, I would think. Why did you pay $9.99 for this, Aaron?

You shouldn't have paid $9.99 for that. That wasn't worth it. What do you think? No, silly. Yeah. This is like when Usman was going up to fight Jan Blachowicz Like we're good on these These nonsense ones

Oh you remember that Yeah I remember it I just said it That's just like a thing you say Jeez you know you're like ah remember that I do and unfortunately I do I wish I didn't Usman was calling him Canelo as well Yeah Usman's gonna box Canelo

And fight Jan. It was the dumbest era. Usman Canelo, Ronda Floyd. I'm down for both of those. Joe Rogan's age. That one aged well. The Ronda Floyd one aged real well. She's on the cover of The Ring.

She was on the cover of The Ring. I think maybe the only MMA fighter ever to be on the cover of The Ring. You think Turkey's going to bring back a Ronda cover? Maybe you can. Somebody needs to get a t-shirt of the ring. You think Turkey's going to bring back a Ronda cover? Maybe you can. Somebody needs to get a t-shirt of that one. Oh, that's a GC. Yes. You would look.

I'm already in it. I'm already on it. I'm already making it right now. Is it on, what's that site again? Redbubble. Redbubble? No, but I mean, I can make this myself. Go down to my local mall.

GC, you need to start a t-shirt business, mate. You should have like a little shop going, you know, all this kind of stuff. What would I sell, man? Ronda Rousey ring magazine cover t-shirt? Hey, listen. For four people. There's been some talk of an uncrowned

full violence collabo. Whoa. Yeah. Conquered MMA, boxing neck. Is it an uncrowned full violence collabo? Well, what are you implying by saying that? Helwani. Full violence collabo.

I am uncrowned, and uncrowned is me, all right? I try to include everyone. I try to bring everyone along for the ride. Have I not established this already? So, yes, it is uncrowned. It hurts when you say it out loud. Yeah. What is the aerial parentheses on crown?

Or on crown parentheses aerial? No, it's just Helwani. It's Helwani Hexpool. I'm so invested in what we're doing. Did I tell you guys that Matilda was involved in this? Look. You did, yeah. That's so awesome.

Legend. I'm going to put it right here. On the bus? On the bus. Let me buy the Jeff Hardy off you How much? 20 bucks Swanton box What does it smell like?

It smells like Toxic paint Let's backtrack off the toxic paint Every time you bring it up you're like It's cancerous. Oh, my God. My favorite. Matt is regretful.

Do you think our friends at DAZN would mind if this is front and center to start the I Day Show today? Why not? Just to put only wrestling toys. Why not? Let's talk boxing, guys. Yeah. All right. Now let's talk about-

The chat will love that. Let's talk about a fake sport. Is this your sign that the show's over? You putting the chair down? This is his way of saying, I've had enough. Or maybe Frank's way of saying it better. Look, man, I'm just anticipating when we should push the button. You know what?

Can I just say something? I like the fact that you took initiative. Yeah. Someone's got to. Kind of like when I sent the text about McFarland doing your pizza. Clearly we were floundering. Nothing was happening. Well, time to go. He's making sure we hit the 3.30 hard up.

We're going to make it with a couple minutes to spare, it seems. And that's very exciting. Now, how am i going to survive 24 hours with just water what's going on with that when did that happen his trainer my trainer his physio my physio told me how long he said my hrv is extremely low my hrv was at 29 and my body hates me heart rate uh variability variability he says i'm at a 29 he says i should be at a 70 My body hates me. Heart rate variability. Variability. He says I'm at a 29. He says I should be at a 70. Oh, mate.

By the way, he says that it's in large part due to stress. Guess what's stressing me out right now? This song? Frank. No, not eating anything. That's stressing me out. How is this going to help me? I thought HRV was something. You have to trust the process.

Vehicle. Yeah. Trust the process. Not CRV. by the way it sounded like you just said i had hiv there for a second things get lost in the mix yeah h hrv what are we all doing team colonoscopies uh this year i i have to say this is the most bizarre ending to a show that ariel's been on the colonoscopy train for a few years now four months it's happening are you are you getting one too?

We're all doing it. In the tank. We're doing it in the tank. Thank you, Aljo. Who else was on the show? I forget. Anthony Smith. Anthony Smith.

Back on Wednesday, same time and place as hippies. So we're out of here.