The Ariel Helwani Show - Anthony Smith, Fabian Edwards, Scott D’Amore, WrestleMania 41 reaction, more

Episode Date: April 21, 2025

Ariel Helwani and the crew kick things off with an honest assessment of WrestleMania 41 and preview Monday’s episode of Raw (02:19).Anthony Smith breaks down his retirement bout against Zhang Mingyang at UFC Kansas City, his mindset going into his final fight, the passing of beloved coach Scott Morton, post-UFC plans, and more (26:10).Scott D’Amore — Canadian wrestling legend, Uncrowned Columnist, and Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling founder — joins Ariel to discuss WrestleMania 41, John Cena’s heel turn, his experience in the wrestling business outside of the US, and more (1:03:49).Ariel and the Boys in the Back discuss international fight week possibilities, the latest gossip surrounding Khamzat Chimaev, Ilia Topuria, and other UFC stars, Jake Paul vs. Julio César Chávez Jr., Ben Whittaker’s grudge match, the long-awaited Benn vs. Eubank Jr. fight, and more (1:42:58).Fabian Edwards talks about his TKO victory over Impa Kasanganay, how the fight almost fell through, advancing to the PFL middleweight tournament semi-final against Josh Silveira, having his brother in his corner, the drama with the PFL, the quick turnaround and tournament format, and more (2:34:10).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Err-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r- 2000. And 25. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It's great to be back. I haven't been in here in almost two weeks since that Wednesday, Gunther press conference, Madison Square Garden. Then I went off to Montreal, did the post pay-per-view Monday and the post 314 show from Montreal,

but it is good to be back. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter Sunday. and the post 314 show from Montreal, but it is good to be back. Hope everyone had a lovely Easter Sunday. If you do celebrate, hope you had a lovely Passover. If you do celebrate, but it is good to be back. And you know, I think we actually picked a good time to change up the schedule just a little bit. Last week we had a show, Montreal, Tuesday,

Boys in the Back, Wednesday, Crack, Thursday, Classic Interviews. Some people are saying, by the way, we should call that Ariel's Archives. Ariel's Archives? Yeah, I like it. It's not bad, it's not bad. We don't really have a name for it.

It's like Classic Interviews, Look Back. I'm not sure if that really flows. Anyway, and then the WrestleMania preview show, the team did a great job with all of that, but there wasn't a ton of news. Sometimes I'm afraid to change up the schedule, to take a little break because massive news breaks. I thought maybe the International Fight Week card

would break, that didn't happen. Although we do have some updates, some things to chew on as it pertains to June the 28th, but there hasn't been a ton of massive news. Now as far as this past weekend is concerned, there was a PFL event on Friday, we'll get to that. There was a little thing called WrestleMania on Saturday and Sunday in Las Vegas and we shall get to that. And then there was a pretty significant boxing card on Sunday afternoon here in the United States, Sunday evening in the UK in Birmingham to

be exact. A nice Easter Sunday event involving Ben Whitaker and Liam Cameron too and we shall get to that as well. No UFC this past weekend, relatively quiet on the MMA front, but as always a lot to get into. And they are of course back this weekend in Kansas city and April 26, this Saturday is a really, really busy one. You've got the KSW event with Eddie Hall and Mariusz Przynowski on it. You've got the UFC in Kansas city. You've got a UFC in Kansas City. You've got a little thing called Ben Eubank,

Tottenham Hotspur. There's the NFL Draft. I'm pretty sure I'm missing another one. I think there's an Octagon event as well. There's a PFL event on Friday. There's a lot going on this weekend, a lot going on, but Saturday in particular, I've, a lot going on, but Saturday in particular, I've got a fun little trip planned for Saturday that I'll tell you

more about later in the week. I can't wait for that. And of course we're in the midst of the NBA playoffs as well. Big Knicks win on Saturday, game one, game two this evening at the Mecca, Madison Square Garden. Ah yeah, know yourself, it's an old-school slobberknocker between the Knicks and the Pistons. Pistons think they are the bad boys They're the they're the cat boys if you ask me. They're fake tough guys. All right, we call them fugazi around these parts All right, they ain't those guys They ain't as tough as they think they are and you ain't so tough when you're giving up a 21 to nothing run in the fourth quarter. You jabronis. Anyway, we'll get into all of that and more on the program. We shall be talking to Fabian Edwards back into the show.

The brother of one Leon Edwards had a massive win over Impa Kosangani this past Friday in Orlando. Universal Studios, great win for him. He moves on now. He'll be fighting Josh Silvera in the next round of the PFL 18 85 pound world tournament. Uh, prior to that, we're going to be joined by Scott D'Amore. Scott D'Amore, I guess I could say is a member of the uncrowned team,

former TNA president, former member of team Canada in world championship wrestling, and now the head man over at Maple Leaf pro wrestling. They have another event coming Canada in world championship wrestling. And now the head man over at Maple Leaf pro wrestling, they have another event coming up in May in Montreal, no, not in Montreal in Toronto in July in Montreal. And he's been doing great things since launching this new promotion. He is writing for us. And the idea was sort of like the old school Jim Ross, Ross report on www.com, which I used to love. I used to read it every Friday. I absolutely loved it, where he would give us his thoughts on the business,

running thoughts, news and notes, things like that. And he's been doing this for us now the last two weeks. Really good stuff leading up to WrestleMania. So I wanted to talk to him about his thoughts on WrestleMania, some mixed reviews out there. Get his thoughts. He's a man who knows the business. He knows what it means to put on a great card.

He knows what it means to be backstage and the whole creative process. And also talk to him about what he's doing with Maple Leaf. So looking forward to that. Anthony Lionheart-Smith going to join us at about 1.25 to talk about his retirement fight, which is happening this weekend. Co-main event, UFC Kansas City. Long time Chiefs fan, lives, trains, spends a lot of time in nearby Omaha, Nebraska. This is it for Anthony Smith this Saturday. And we will talk to him about all of that. Now we were supposed to be joined by Juliana Pena,

the Venezuelan Vixen. And unfortunately, literally three minutes before the show, she passed along some upsetting news that has nothing to do with us. This is a shoot. This is not, you know, kayfabe. This is not us having a feud. She cannot do it.

And it's a very, very valid reason. It's a personal reason. It does not affect her fight on June 7 feud. She cannot do it, and it's a very, very valid reason. It's a personal reason. It does not affect her fight on June 7. She will come back, but it looks as though that reunion will have to wait just a little longer unless... Yes, there it is. Okay.

Yeah, unless something changes, she is welcome, but this is a personal thing that she has to attend to, and it's a 1000% valid reason. So we will have to wait for that big... I wanted to start the show with a big reunion with Juliana, a mending of the fences, an extension of an olive branch, if you will. But that shall have to wait. an extension of an olive branch, if you will. But that's not the way. Let's talk about this past weekend. And I understand that the boys in the back were very much locked into WrestleMania. And one boy in the back in particular, I understand GC in particular, who when we first met,

you know, somewhat MMA fan, zero pro wrestling knowledge. Fair to say? Less than zero? No interest in it at all. Like, did you even know, did you even, you knew who The Rock was, everyone knows who The Rock is. Yeah, I knew like the really famous guys that had broken into like the pop culture sphere,

like the casuals, the movies, Hollywood, everything like that. The Rocks, Cena,s, the movies, Hollywood, everything like that. The Rocks, Sina, Hogan. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's pretty much it. Pretty much it. Like I didn't know who Cody Rhodes was. I didn't know who like a brawn breaker was or anything.

I mean, they weren't around back then. Brawn wasn't, Cody of course. And that's actually telling, cause you're a Georgia boy, Cody a Georgia boy, you've since bonded over your love of your home state. Shout out. But what's impressive is you watched everything. All, what, eight hours, seven hours,

seven and a half hours this weekend, and not only that. Free to post night one and night two. Wow, and not only that, we're actually quite active on the wagering front as well. Yeah, shout out to the Offshore Books. How'd you do? Five and one. Five and one. Five and one, the only one I missed,

I had this, they offered this parlay and one of the legs of it was Liv Morgan's tag team and at the last second they change it to the man, Becky Lynch shows up so they unfortunately lose. But I mean, that's what you get for betting on WWE. And so what was the bet? like you had to bet on who? It was John Cena, Logan Paul, Dominic Mysterio and Liv Morgan's tag team to all win their matches so it wasn't like to beat a certain opponent so because Becky Lynch showed up and

they lost I didn't get the I didn't get the thing but other than that five and one Jacob Fatu shout out little Jacob Fat Fatu money line. Look at you. As easy as it gets. Was he a dog? Was he a dog? No, no, no. He was like a big favorite. EO Sky is a dog. Plus 150. Triple threat match. Shout out. Yeah, no, I watched all of it. I am not a WWE fan, but Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, they're gonna get my full attention. SummerSlam? SummerSlam? SummerSlam, maybe you have to go this year over in New Jersey. Yeah.

So a lot of mixed reviews, guys, a lot of mixed reviews regarding WrestleMania, some highs, some lows. You mentioned the EO Sky Triple Threat match, people loved that. I think people loved the main event of Night One, another Triple Threat match, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Seth Rollins. Seth Rollins turns, joins forces with Paul Heyman. But there was some mixed reviews. I would say, my take, someone just asked me this via text,

what's your grade? How would you grade WrestleMania 41? I give it a solid B minus, B. Yeah, I'm around there with you. I don't think it was C level bad. No. I don't think it was A level good. WrestleMania 40 last year was incredible, and the crescendo, and I loved how

night one main event flowed into night two, and the crescendo with Cody going over. This, to me, just didn't feel... It didn't feel like it was as good as it could have been. And of course, part of what I'm referring to is the main event of Night 2, the fact that the rock didn't show up. Look, I said when John Cena turned heel in Toronto

at Elimination Chamber, you can't really grade it just yet because it's still a work in progress. It's still a storyline in progress and it still is a storyline in progress. Yet I felt comfortable at the time saying it will never be as big as Hogan turning. And I feel even more confident in saying that it will never be as seismic and as impactful and influential as Hogan turning in 96. In fact, over the break, I read and finished Mark Remundi's book that's coming out in June, Say Hello to the Bad Guys.

It's phenomenal, couldn't recommend it more, and so it's all fresh in my mind. There's no way that it will be as impactful. And my biggest issue with it is, A, it felt very telegraphed that he was gonna win. B, I don't think it was a great match. I don't think he's a great wrestler at this point in his career. And C, the thing that is kind of off-putting to me the most right now,

and I'd love to get your guys' take on it, it feels like he is playing pro wrestler. And that's my biggest gripe when it comes to pro wrestling. When people are playing pro wrestler wrestler when it feels like they are playing a character it bothers me why is it working for Logan Paul it's working for Logan Paul right now because it feels like he is just a dick why did it work for Hollywood Hogan because it felt like he was truly a dick we don't believe that John Cena is a dick we don't believe that John Cena is a bad guy we don't believe that John Cena is a bad guy. We don't believe that he wants to be, you know, all ho-hum and not answer

questions and do the thing at the press conference saying it's clickbait. He doesn't act, feel, look like a bad guy. And so for me it feels inauthentic. It feels forced. It doesn't feel special. And when you don't explain two months later the partnership, the union with The Rock, when you don't explain really two months later the partnership and the union with Travis Scott, it feels flat. This should have been the crescendo of a year-long story that really started on the Monday after WrestleMania 40 last week with The Rock and Cody Rhodes and it could have ended in a beautiful way yesterday a year

later with The Rock showing up and Cody getting his his revenge or whatever it is or even The Rock getting his revenge whatever it is The Rock doesn't even show up this whole thing had to do with The Rock dating back to last year in Philadelphia and then of course in Toronto and then he doesn't show up and why is, I still don't understand why Travis Scott is there. Still don't understand. Now again, this is fun. This is entertainment and I know he's doing the thing now.

I'm going to ruin pro wrestling. I'm going to take the belt and I get it. And I bet if someone was on the creative team listening to this to be like, just wait and see how it's all playing out. Well, I'm judging it right now. Monday, April 21st at 1.13 PM Eastern. Right now, it feels flat. Right now, there's too many holes in it. Right now, there was a thread and someone took a scissor and cut it.

There is no continuity anymore. There is no connection. What is the connection between Cena and Travis Scott? If you're telling us wait and see, well, what better time than WrestleMania to explain that connection? And we're supposed to believe that Travis Scott is going to be some kind of threat to Cody Rhodes, come on now. I mean, Travis Scott, he's like 145 pounds at best.

He's going to be a threat to Cody Rhodes without the rock there, without the final boss by his side. So the crescendo didn't feel as impactful, didn't feel as celebratory and didn't feel as impactful, didn't feel as celebratory, and didn't feel as authentic as last year's did, last year with the emotion and all that. And of course, you can't always have that.

That was a lightning in a bottle. That was an incredible build. It's not always gonna be like that, but I'm just not, I'm not buying what they are selling right now. Am I being too harsh, guys? I don't think you're being too harsh, and you don't even need to go back to last year.

Go to the night before, right? The storyline between Punk, Roman, and Seth Rollins. As somebody who just checks into wrestling for these big events, I knew what was happening there, right? I know the history with Heyman and Punk. I know how he's been the advocate for Roman Reigns for so long. They're all double-crossing each other. There's such an investment there that I bought in.

I really loved that match. I was captivated, I was thrilled by it. And then in the second night, I was just like, it's kind of just a match to your point, right? They haven't built to that. The one part I'd say maybe you're being too harsh on is maybe this is why they never turned John Cena heel from the beginning, right?

Because you're having trouble buying him as a heel, maybe this is the inevitable end of that, right? Like he just can't seen a heel from the beginning, right? Because you're having trouble buying him as a heel, maybe this is the inevitable end of that, right? Like he just can't be a heel because nobody buys he's a heel. Like- He's saying things like, you know, I saw him earlier today, he was on McAfee Show and he was saying, I'm gonna ruin wrestling.

I'm gonna take the belt with me. This is gonna be it, I'm not coming back. December is my last month. There's no money in the world that could change my mind, yada, yada, yada. So it's clear that he's gonna be the guy like, I built this up and I'm going to kill this. And I'm taking my ball and going home when I'm done.

But my thing is like, maybe that was what they saw, right? Because everybody loved when he turned heel, but then you have to continue that story over and over, and you have to get through the rest of the year. There maybe just isn't enough juice in the John Cena as a heel thing. Like you're saying he's unconvincing as a heel. I would ask you, what could he do

that would make him really be a heel? I would never buy John Cena as a heel because we have so much history with him not being heel. It would take so long. In a year, you can't make him a heel. I just don't see how it's possible. Well, it wasn't even a year. It was just a few weeks.

I'm saying by the end of this year, I'll still wasn't even a year, it was just a few weeks. By the end of this year, I'll still think of him as the make-a-wish guy. The Rock had to be there, right? Okay, that is my biggest thing, is that you have all these guys getting into the Hall of Fame, Stone Cold Steve Austin is there and everything like that, and right before the main event is about to start,

you send them out on the four-wheeler and just have them read the attendance for the two days and drink a couple beers, and then you start the main event. And then I understand that it's a PLV and they're not on any like real timeframe, but they ended night one at 11 and you kind of assume they were gonna go till 11-ish.

And Cena gets the pin on Cody Rhodes and it's like 10 37. And you're like, oh, okay. Well, they still have a bunch of time left. Like something's gonna happen. There's no way this is the end of the night. And then they're just like, all right, thanks for joining us. Uh, wrestle man in Las Vegas. John Cena has broken the record.

That'll do it for us. Then they just kind of fade to the post show and then it's Cena walking out and you're like, all right, something is going to happen. And then he just walks out and then they go to Joe Tess at the, at the desk. And you're like, all right, nothing happened. That felt like a major letdown. It felt like where was the rock? Where was anything crazy?

Especially because last year you got Cena showing up, you got Undertaker showing up, you got Rock showing up. Cody Rhodes wins in this insanely emotional fashion. The announcer's crying as she announces it out. It just felt so, it's like just such a letdown compared to last year. I agree and I'll also add that John Cena was on a pretty long losing streak prior to this year, right?

Prior to all of this, the thing was like he hadn't won a singles match in multiple years. Cody Rhodes just won the belt. Cody Rhodes is someone that you have strapped a rocket to and has become in many respects the face of the company and is the new Cena in terms of merch and make-a-wish and all this stuff. Cody Rhodes losing to Cena makes him look weak in my opinion. In a match where like it wasn't a good

match. You know it didn't flow. There was no sort of there was no sort of like chemistry between them. In fact there's all these videos of him calling out spots. Whatever I don't get into that kind of crap like the the the toxicity online when it comes to wrestling is so bizarre but if I'm looking at it from afar who who's sticking around? Who isn't Cody sticking around? Cody's the guy that got us here. I disagree with Scott DeMore. Scott DeMore said in his first article for us that Cena had to win.

I actually prefer the scenario. Cody shuts him up. Cody gets revenge. And now the rest of the year is Cena getting his revenge. Does he get it in the last match? Does he not? Who knows? Stay tuned.

Does he need it? Who needs that belt more right now? Is it Cody or Cena? It's a hundred percent Cody. It's a thousand percent Cody. Cena isn't believable as the top guy right now. He's way older. He's been there, done that. He's playing this heel character. I'm not buying what they're selling here with this. I'm not feeling it. Doesn't this put Cody back in the same place he was last year? The chase? To capture that magic? Against the old guy who couldn't win a match for six years?

Okay, alright. But he's John Cena! Here's what I think they're doing perfectly though, by this letdown and everything and like the- Us debating it and all that? Well not just us debating, I'm gonna tune into Raw tonight now because I wanna see what's gonna happen. Because you feel a little unfulfilled. I never watch Raw. Tonight I will be seated at 8PM. The Monday after, after Mania is always a must see Raw,

regardless of what happens. It almost felt like they were like pushing to the Raw. Like it just felt like there was nothing to happen, nothing happening, and then it just like kind of ends and you're like, oh, and then John Cena goes up to the, to the dais of the presser and he's like, is there a bunch of clickbait questions? Even that built for us.

He's like, here's the thing. Tune into Raw on Monday night on Netflix at 8PM and I'll ruin wrestling. But by the way, even the clickbait questions. Even that felt forced. He's like, here's the thing. Tune into Raw on Monday night on Netflix at 8 PM and I'll ruin wrestling. But by the way, even the clickbait thing, someone thought like, oh, we're cooking with this. This is Marshawn Lynch. It doesn't even make sense. It's not even the definition of clickbait.

It's not even the definition of clickbait. Someone's like, can you tell us about your routine? And he's like, that's a clickbait question. Like, what? What does that even mean? That doesn't make sense. Just say no comment. Just say I'm here so I don't get fined. Clickbait question. Even that felt like he that's a clickbait question. Like, what does that even mean? That doesn't make sense. Just say no comment.

Just say I'm here so I don't get fined. Clickbait question. Even that felt like he was playing a character. He's too wholesome. He's too nice. I'm sorry, they tried. This is what I'm saying. Big business, they're on fire.

It could be me versus you in the main event and they're on fire at WrestleMate. That's how on fire the brand is right now and the industry and all the stuff that they're doing. I'm not believing it. Can we just go back to the year long, like, you know, Kobe Bryant retirement tour, he gets a rocking chair, he gets a gift here,

he gets to go out on his terms. This feels forced. It doesn't feel legit. And to me, wrestling is at its worst when it doesn't feel legit. Two questions. I agree with that part. Like, you need to suspend disbelief, otherwise it doesn't work legit and to me wrestling is that it's worst when it doesn't feel legit two questions I agree with that part like you need to suspend disbelief. Otherwise, it doesn't work two questions one Why do you think the rock didn't show up? What what is the it seems like everybody was expecting that? I have why teaching it has to be strategic

What does that even so so they they have the ability to go back and say like ah, you see we've got you man Yeah, nah, man. It's've got you. He's part of the plan, yeah. Nah, man, it's WrestleMania. Yeah. It's the crescendo. But it can't be Monday, he's on the board. WrestleMania is where storylines come to a head. They're pointing at the sign for months. WrestleMania can't be the thing to get you to watch Monday.

Yeah. Monday is when you press the reset and everything starts anew. If we're using WrestleMania as a bridge to get to Monday, or the, now we've got a problem. And so if someone comes up and says like, ah, now the reason The Rock wasn't there is because now The Rock had to be there. Like he literally had to be there.

He was the thread of this whole story. He was the guy that said, you know, on the Monday after WrestleMania last week, last year he shook Cody's hand, all that, he disappears. He comes back on the Monday after WrestleMania last week last year. He shook Cody's hand all that he disappears He comes back on the first show on Netflix. He comes back in elimination chamber. He gets Cena to turn He says to Cody I want your soul Cody says no and see the two. How is he not there? What the hell's his point filming something is I just can't understand why it would happen. How are you filming something during their biggest product? It seems like everybody was expecting it.

That's why I felt elected. Not to be like super degenerate guy, but there was a prop on who's gonna disrupt the main event and the rock was like minus 1000 to show up. Well also, he was posting things on social media about him being in Hawaii and it was like, oh, he's 100% showing up because he's posting so much about how he's not there. I don't know. I guess he really wasn't there The only reason I feel like it might not be strategic just because of how famous he is and like how busy of a guy is

That like I know what time his schedule conflicted to Ariel's point. No, you can be there for an hour You can fly in for a board. Yes on the board. You're the guy. You're the freaking man. I'm with you. I'm with you. Okay, second question. You had to be there. Second important question.

Are you saying basically that John Cena as a heel has failed for you, you would turn him back? Done. Done with John Cena heel. Yes. Wow. I'm not feeling it. I can't decide, because the pops are just so big.

Yeah, because he's John freaking Cena. Because people love him. The pop would have been big regardless. It's always big. I was in London when he showed up at the O2 and the place went freaking insane. He's John Cena. I'm just, I don't,

remember what I always say about Ronda Rousey? It always felt like she was playing pro wrestler. She would show up there with the oversized Roddy Piper jacket and she was like, that's what it feels like here. It feels like he's playing a heel. Dominic Mysterio, when he turned heel, people felt like he was a degenerate.

People hated him. Now they love him. People hated him. Now they love him, it's great. It took time for that love, though, to come. Love for who? Dominic. No, I'm saying when Dom turned heel, when he turned on his dad, people despised him.

Yeah. But we knew deep, like Dom is a sweetheart. We knew deep down who he is. We knew deep down that he and his dad were buddies, right? But he was so good that we were able to spend disbelief and be like, that's dirty dumb. That guy's a degenerate. That guy's a loser.

When I look at John Cena, I don't see any of that. In fact, I see him doing like the point thing into the eyes and I'm like, what is he? The three stooges? This is not good. Is there something he could do to be a heel? Is there anything? Is there any way for him to actually be a heel?

We need some sort of video of him back. Honestly, we need like a video of him backstage with kids who may be sick and they're all in on it. I mean, it's pretty incredible. And like, fuck you guys. That's what we need. We need him spitting at the kids. That's what we need. Otherwise, it doesn't feel real.

And I don't even know if that's gonna work, to be honest. I don't even know if that's gonna work. All I'm saying is, look, I'm not trying to be Mr. Negative Wrestling Guy. I hate those guys. It's supposed to be fun, all that stuff, but we're allowed to be critical. We're allowed to watch as we do and criticize movies and TV shows. And I also think a lot of people would agree with you that that it kind of felt like a letdown. It

felt like a letdown. It felt flat. There were highs. My high? My A-plus moment? I know where you're going. Say his name and he appeared, Joe Hendry is one of the most inspirational stories in all of entertainment right now. This guy, not that long ago was like pretty low in the totem pole, not even in WWE, in TNA. He was, I don't wanna say like a jobber per se, but he had no business being in the Royal Rumble, I don't know, a year and a half ago,

no business being in WrestleMania against Randy Orton and he manifested all this It's one of the greatest examples of just manifest destiny that I've ever come across in life The fact that he was a surprise Opponent for Randy Orton in a three and a half minute match Was the highlight of the weekend for me and there were other highlights Dom winning great the triple threat great Saturday night was great. although I will maintain, I know part of the story was punk main event day. To me, you gotta main event Sunday.

And he deserves that, and he has earned that. I don't consider main event Saturday the same as main event Sunday. Am I a stickler? Maybe. No, I don't think so. The last match is the main event. Yeah, of course.

Everyone knew it, they always make it the big one. The pop in my living room for Joe Hendry when those doors opened and it was him. And there were a couple people that we were with that had no idea who he was. And I was like, Joe Hendry, baby, I believe, say his name. And when he turned around and smiled at the camera and then got RKO'd and immediately finished.

The way they shot that, the director, the way he shot that with Ornata frame, brilliant. That was brilliant. So there were good moments. There were some, there were some highs, but overall B and you know, the more we talk about it, I'm thinking even B minus. I don't know.

We'll, we'll talk to Scott to more about it all. He has a greater mind for all of this than, than I, uh, and so he'll be coming up in about 25 minutes time. Let us, uh, move along though. Let's go to our first guest of the day. He is going to make that final walk, that last dance, if you will. It's an incredible story and quite frankly, it makes me a little emotional.

So I can't even imagine how it's making him on this Monday before his final fight. Just five days away from now in his beloved, Kansas City, Missouri Close to Omaha, Nebraska where he resides where he has called home for all these years He is the great Anthony Lionheart Smith and I'm very very appreciative that he's taking some time out on a very busy week for him He's kind enough to join us right now. There he is. Hello Anthony. How are you? I'm good. Ariel. How are you? I'm doing great. Honestly, I shot my shot here. I thought, and it's not like a thing like,

oh, you know, you're too busy to say that. I thought like, there's probably so much going on in your life. Five days before your last fight, I thought you'd say like, let's talk after very, very appreciative that you'd come on. Is it, is it more hectic than like, am I making it out to be a bigger thing?

Is this just a regular fight week for you, or is there more going on? No, it's just a regular fight week for me. There's no real differences, you know? It's the Monday, you start packing all your shit, you get everything ready, you get the travel plans and all that stuff organized, and then we just roll out tomorrow.

Are you having moments where you're like, this is the last time that I'll do this This is the last time that I'll experience that are you allowing yourself to be? Hyper aware of what is going on for the final time. Yeah, I've been doing that on purpose I've been I've been making sure that I kind of take it and you know, Mark Montoya always says he says real always says, he says real philosophical shit, like, you know, make sure you enjoy the journey and let's not focus so much on the finish line. And, you know, I think at the time when you're kind of in your career and you're in the heat of it, you're like, yeah, I get it. I'm having fun. I'm enjoying it. But I don't think

that I really have up to this point. So like, you know, the last, you know, when I first drive out to training camp the first time, and then I go back and forth on the weekends, like that first time, you know, like this is the last time I'm gonna be making this drive, you know, out to Denver, and then the last sparring session, and then, you know, so yeah, I'm making sure that I'm aware of them for sure. Is it accurate to say this is your 60th profite? No, no it's not.

What will it be? Cause there's a different, like some of the sites have different numbers. What are you going with? I don't know the exact number. I'd probably say it's probably 64, 65. Okay. You said something just before about like

that you don't usually smell the roses or are aware or enjoy the ride. Never, you never have, not once? No, no, that can be a dangerous place. And you kind of understand that from even a journalistic point of view. Like if you allow yourself to sit back and rest on what you've done or celebrate or

look around at how great you've done or or whatever you tend to get complacent and in this sport or whether it's you know on the broadcasting side or you as a journalist if you get complacent at all or rest like in the in the place that you are then someone else is going to take your job. So I've just never really slowed down. I've never given myself a chance to like just kind of look around and enjoy where I'm at because it's a really scary feeling if you if you start to enjoy where you are then that might be where you stay do you regret not doing that or do you think that was the way to go no I think that was probably the way to go you know I wasn't very good at this fighting thing anyway so what I had to kind of talk about I had to have my foot on the gas the whole time

40 something wins. How does that? How does that mean that you're not very good? Ariel I just try really fucking hard. I just try really hard I don't I don't know that anyone's gonna say say that I was this high level striker. They'll probably say that I'm pretty good at jiu-jitsu, but my wrestling game isn't anything that anyone's going to write home about. They're not going to... Do I have knockouts? For sure. But I was just born with God-given power and I find a way to land a shot. But everything that I've done has come off my effort. So anything in terms of looking back or being proud or slowing down at all, it takes away from that. So it's everything I've done has been off of effort.

We spoke to you after the fight in December, and you said that you wanted one more. Ultimately, was that a decision that you had to make with the UFC, with your family? Ultimately, why did you decide on one more and not just like, hey, I'm going to fight and then maybe I'm going to go fight for someone else? Or how did we come to the conclusion that this was going to be the retirement

fight on this date against this opponent? Well, I knew that I wanted one more. And really, I just wanted to do it my way. I just wanted to be in control of it. I didn't want it to be, oh man, this really sucks. And I'm going to put my head in the sand and then just hide and never do it again. I know that that's the way that some people do retire, but I wanted it to be on my own terms. I wasn't even, I'm not one of those like it has to be a win. I can't retire unless it's a win. It's, I wanted a favorable circumstance in terms of enough time to prepare enough of a training camp

Best case scenario nobody dies In the process, so that's that's kind of that was kind of the things I wanted. I of course I asked for Omaha and But Kansas City was as close as they could get so that's what we did You you referenced obviously going through some personal trauma the difference between you now and say the Monday leading up to the Dominic Reyes fight in December in terms of just how you're feeling about yourself, how you're feeling about life. How would you compare? Oh, it's, I mean, it's night and day. It's night and day for sure. I was, and I, and at some points I still am. Uh, but I, that Monday before I was, I was in hell. I was, I was in hell. I was I was in hell. I was I was living a I was living a

fucking nightmare. And, you know, like some days still suck really bad. But I really needed that fight. I, I and I kind of credit Dominic Reyes for that, you know, like he, he didn't show me like any mercy at all. He didn't show me any mercy at all. He didn't feel bad for me and let off the gas at all. He didn't feel bad for me and not fuck me up in those situations when he had the opportunity to. And I really needed that.

It was a cathartic experience for me. And so that's not that long ago. Is there a case being made that you're coming back too soon? Why did you want to come back? Is it because of Kansas City or because you feel like four months is enough between fights? No, it's just time to fight. Yeah, there's no reason to drag it out

and spend a year just sitting around thinking about it. Let's just get in camp and do it. Man, we- I'm a rip the band-aid type of person. I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And I appreciate always how honest you are. And so when you say things like, you know,

I was in a personal hell that really, that really hits home because I know that you're not BSing. And so can you describe what, you know, that's again, not that long ago, can you describe how you're feeling that that was a friend, a mentor, a coach, a confidant, a best friend, right? And so how are you dealing with everything? Yeah, you know, I made it really easy.

Him dying made it really easy to retire. Okay. Because I didn't, Scotty had wanted me to retire for a while. Just, you know, he would say like, what are we doing? Like, you don't have to do this anymore. You can just go be a dad and just like, why do we still keep running out here?

And for some reason I just kept saying, like, I'll feel it. Like when it's time, I'll know it. And, you know, I would convince him, you know, like, let's just do it one more time. And then, you know, we'd fight and I'd say, oh no, we can go one more. But I never had any, like, I had no retirement thoughts or intentions in any of that stuff.

But I'm not really leaving something that I liked that much anyways now. The game is different without him. And like it's been, it had been just him and I for almost 20 years. So and not just him and I, but it had been a he and I thing along with other people. But it was kind of like going through this journey together.

And now that it's not here, I don't really feel like I'm leaving something that I've had for a long time because it feels different completely. The preparation feels different. The lead up feels different. This isn't something that I want to get used to, if that makes any sense. But I think the Reyes fight helped a lot just in terms of my healing. Like I think I said it before, like if something needs to be destroyed,

whether it's him or it's me, that's how I deal with things. There has to be a tragedy on top of the tragedy. And that's kind of what I had to go through. Yeah, and I mean, it still sucks really bad. Like you said, it hasn't been that long, but it's better for sure. And I'm dealing with it better too. Like I think leading into the Reyes fight, I felt, you know, you watch bare knuckle at all, Ariel?

Yeah. So, you know, Carlos Trinidad Snake just fought for the bare knuckle title. No, of him. Really close friend. Like, he's been one of my training partners for years here in Omaha. And he got to the venue to fight, and it was the first time that he had fought without Scottie. And I think it kind of hit him.

It made what I went through make sense to him. Like he didn't quite understand how come I couldn't just push it to the side and then just do what I had to do. And I said something to him that I wish I would have said to myself. He's in Dubai and he calls me and I can tell he's upset. And I told him that he had to figure out a way to just set that baggage at the door

Go in that room and do what you have to do and then you can pick it back up when you leave But when I thought about doing that leading into the fight, I felt like I was being disrespectful to Scotty. I felt like if I'm not If I'm not allowing myself to be devastated in every moment of every day, then maybe I didn't love him enough. And I know that that's not true, but that's how it felt at the time.

Like my oldest daughter, she gets so frustrated, she's playing at the highest level of club volleyball. And when they lose or she plays like shit, she feels like she's supposed to be really upset and have a hard time letting it go or else she doesn't care enough. And that's not the case. it, she feels like she's supposed to be really upset and have a hard time letting it go or else she doesn't care enough. And that's, and that's not the case, you know?

And so like I've tried to like explain her, like it's okay to take the lessons from it and then move on or put it to the side so that it's not affecting you in the future. I wasn't able to put it to the side and I let it affect what was in front of me. And I'm doing a better job of compartment compartmentalizing it right now and Not allowing it to affect me moving forward. I Want to give your friend and longtime coach recognition Scott Morton is who we're talking about You speak now with so much clarity and I can listen to you speak about this stuff all day And I wonder if some of it is because of something

that I heard on SiriusXM when you were talking to Dean Thomas. Dean Thomas was in studio, and I'm driving, and I go to SiriusXM Fight Nation, and it's you and Dean, and all of a sudden, I stumble into what really feels like a personal conversation that you guys are having, and perhaps that's part of the magic

of your friendship and working together. that's when you have chemistry, and you were talking about therapy and just kind of tough times, and it was incredibly deep and it was incredibly powerful. In fact, I stayed in my driveway, I got home and I just kept listening to you guys, and that's probably like the best compliment that a listener can give to a host.

And well, A, I give you massive props for speaking about very personal things on the air, but I'm wondering if talking to a therapist has given you this clarity because you weren't saying things like this when we spoke a couple months ago. No, it definitely helps. And I don't know that, this is gonna sound like I'm going on the opposite side of what you're saying, but I don't know that this is going to sound like I'm going on the opposite side of what

you're saying, but I don't know that it's always the therapist or the therapy itself that helps. I think for me at least is I need someone to help me organize it and it's putting things in boxes. Like sometimes you get fixated on something that feels like it's really important. And then if you just have someone that's good at this stuff and they say, that's probably not something you can worry about right now, or you should worry about.

So I suppose I'm just doing a better job of figuring out what's important and what's real. I think when you get into pain and trauma, and this isn't just for when somebody passes, this could be breakups, it could be job losses, it could be whatever, it could be a bunch of different things. But whatever is super painful or traumatic that's in your life, you get so fixated on a few things and it's like you can't see forward because you're so stuck on that one thing.

And mine for Scotty was like, there was a lot of whys, a lot of whys. And I just couldn't, I just couldn't fucking get past the why. Like, why does this keep happening to me? How come everybody I fucking love dies? How, like, how's this, like, why? Like he has kids and people that he's responsible for.

Like, why him? You know, like there's a lot of worse people in the world that would be less missed, you know, and I know that that's in itself sounds super messed up, but I just couldn't get past the why. And once I was able to, the rest of it was easier to navigate through, for sure. Once I realized that you're never gonna know the why. You're never gonna know know the why you're never going to know the why you're never going to understand whatever this plan is and why things happen the way that they do.

Um, once I was able to get past that, it was easier to start managing the rest of it. You're a fighter. It's in your DNA. You've been doing it for so long. You know how retirements go. It lasts like six, eight months. Then someone comes back, all this stuff. Are you a thousand percent sure this is the last time? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not. If I was going to keep fighting, I would just stay with the UFC.

I'm not getting forced out of the door. Um, I would have just kept, I was like, you know, like I love Weidman, but it was funny where he retires and then signs with a new organization yeah there won't be any of that for sure I'm not gonna say that if there was some freak show boxing thing down the road you know a few years from now or something like I'm not gonna say that I would not do that you know like the rampage Rashad thing yeah you know for some reason Jake Paul wants to beat the shit out of me or something like I'd probably I would probably consider something like that, but I'm definitely done fighting MMA for sure.

I thought maybe you'd say a slap fighting thing. You get to know. I tried, they told me no. But even now, like if you're done, if you're tired. What I want to do is start like a regional slap fighting show, put it on Fight Pass and then like. Be like an LFA to the. Right.

Is that possible? Is that a real thing? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I brought it up before and they weren't, they were open to the conversation for sure. Plus, you know, you know what kind of crazy ass people I could find in Nebraska that'd be willing to do that shit? I'm saying.

And you would be, you would be the promoter. You'd be the owner of it. You'd be standing up there. You'd be selling the fights, all that stuff. Wouldn't that be sweet? I think it would be great because you have a genuine passion for it. We've talked about it a bunch now.

I know. I mean, you could do it with or without them, right? You don't really necessarily need them. Obviously, if you want to air it on FightPass, is this one of the post-fighting plans that you have? I don't know, I got a few plans, man. You know, I'm opening, I'm gonna start some businesses. I got two that are kind of in the works already,

which, and they've always, like, this isn't a new thing. It's, I have the time now. I just, up until this point, I haven't had the time. So, I'm excited about that part of it. Just because of my personality, like I always have to chase something. I'm too competitive. So, I think the business world, as competitive as it is,

is gonna be fun for me. Gives me something to focus on and have a baby to grow. And then- Non-fighting related, these things? Yeah, it has nothing to do with fighting. So that should be coming up pretty soon. I've been having a lot of fun with the podcast. On paper.

Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna continue to keep pushing that. And it's been really fun kind of watching it grow from nothing and trying to figure out what works, what doesn't work, what people like, what they don't. That part's fun for me. I'm gonna keep doing, you know, whatever crazy thing I can do to jump my adrenaline as much as possible.

I don't know if I told you, I've been like scuba diving a little bit. That's been kind of fun. Like trying to figure that out cause I'm scared shitless of the water. That's wild. It's wild that you'd be like, I'm not scared, but I'm not a big water guy.

The idea of scuba diving is like the least appealing thing to me. It's terrifying. So why do it? Why put yourself through that? Because I was afraid of it. And so you run to these things. So I run to it Yeah, why because I'm trying to check off as many of those things as possible. If it is really scary Then I want to do it. What's the scariest? Um, I don't know

I don't know. Probably the scuba diving thing. Yeah, I really struggled at the beginning. Really struggled. There was a couple times where everyone else in the group is going down and at like 20 feet I start to have panic attacks. And I try to push to 30 and then I start like really freaking the fuck out and like now I've got it I've gotten to the point now that I can still start to get those panic attacks and

I can I can manage them and clear them without having to come back up because I've never not been able to go to like complete the dive but there's been a handful of times where I've gotten about halfway down and freaked out and like had a full panic attack and like I had to try to like manage my breathing and had to come back to the top and slow it down at the surface and then slowly work my way down again. But now I can I'm to the point where I can clear it and calm myself down while I'm actively descending. I just have to do it slower. Geez, that sounds like a nightmare. Yeah, it is. A genuine nightmare to be 20, 30 feet below sea level and you're having a panic attack with all that gear on you. Yeah, yeah, it's fucking crazy.

But once I'm down, then it's, once I can clear it and I can fight through it and it's really just, it's a battle with myself. Most people, I mean, there's times I go with like, it's one like 80 year old ladies. It's like their third time diving ever. And they just dump down and they're fucking, they're at 70, no problem. Like it's crazy, but I'm, you know, I'm still,

it's still something I'm battling, you know? Do you think that you'll need those things in your life because the fighting won't be there? Yeah, I think so. Do you think that we hear need those things in your life because the fighting won't be there? Yeah, I think so Do you think that we hear about the drug and the fans and the walk and the itch and all that stuff? How do you think you'll deal with that? Are you worried about that? No, because I never I've never cared like

Not that I don't care about the fans But when i'm sitting around talking about experiences and things that went on in my career, I don't think about the fans screaming and going crazy. That's not something that I, it's not something that I cherish. And I'm not saying that I don't like it. Of course, everybody loves that, but that's not the core memory of things

that I think about memorable scenarios. It's always the actual act of fighting that I love. That's what I'll miss. Like the training, especially as I get older, fucking sucks. The injuries suck. Like I love doing jujitsu. I don't really look at jujitsu like training. It's just something I do.

It's just part of my life. But the training camps are hard and they're long. And as my kids get older, I want to do them less. And I think that's part of maturing. And I'm sure that you've experienced this even as you age and your kids start to get older and they start to care more about other things. The things that you care about start to matter less.

So I'm going to Denver, but there's somewhere else I'd rather be. I've never been like that until You know until the you know later part of my career where training and and chasing that thing Is always was always the most important part of of who I was and now it's not I there's other places I'd rather be there's other things I'd rather do it's time to put mine to the side You want to be that dad the dad that you just posted about that we showed, we showed the folks you were talking there.

Yeah. That's, that's never, I've never been more nervous than like in that scenario right there or, you know, like watching her competing for, you know, multiple state titles. And then like this weekend, watching my oldest daughter play volleyball, my hands have never, my palms have never been so sweaty. Like watching my kids compete. I've never been that nervous before a fight. And it's just time to do that, you know, and they deserve it. They've sacrificed and the fruits of that labor and those sacrifices, they live it every day.

My kids live a very privileged lifestyle. We live in an incredible neighborhood with an incredible village of people around us and an incredible school district. But now that I did that and we have that and they have that, how much more do I want? Could I make a few more million dollars? Yeah, I could, but at what cost? At what cost?

What are they gonna miss out on? My oldest is almost 14. Like, we don't have that many years left with her here, which is terrifying. Right. I feel that. I have four years left with her, like, in this capacity. That's it. And I have a three-year-old who isn't going to be old enough

to remember how cool I used to be. She doesn't give a shit about any of this fighting thing. She doesn't understand it. All she gets is, Dad's not here and I want him to be. And how much, is a few more million dollars worth another three years, two years of that? I don't think so. It's just not. I saw on your podcast, On Paper with Anthony Smith, that you... You'll be watching the podcast. Yes. And, uh, there it is.

Did you subscribe? I did. I already did subscribe. I don't constantly subscribe. I just press the button once. And no, that's perfect. As long as, as long as you're, uh, you, you got that button clicked, that's all that matters.

I like the, um, I like the logo and, uh, you guys are building it up on social media. Great job. These are all the things that you have to do. You can't just put out the, uh, the show and then just walk away, unfortunately. But you did mention with your cohost, Kelly, that, uh, you asked for Ming Yang Zhang, uh, who

is, you know, on a great streak, I believe 11 in a row, but maybe not a household name. And that surprised me a little bit. No, I didn't ask for him. Oh, you didn't. Uh-uh. Huh. No.

Okay. No, I didn't. I, I miss, I, and? Uh-uh, no. Okay. No, I didn't. I missed, and I guess I misunderstood. So how did we end up with him? Errol, your guess is as good as mine. Okay, so now it all makes more sense. Yeah, no, they brought me the name, and I'll just be very honest, I had no idea who he was.

I'd never even heard of his name before. And I worked there, and I'd never heard his name before and I've worked and I worked there and I I'd never heard his name before. I think just by happenstance I got stuck in Singapore after I fought span and I was stuck there for an additional day and night and I went to those events that they have that what the hell is it called the the road to UFC road to UFC? Yeah. I think he fought on that card. I was there, but I don't remember like really. I think he was there. I don't know. Maybe he didn't fight or maybe I met him there. I don't remember, but apparently so, you know,

we have some mutual people that we know and apparently we shook hands there and he said he was going to see me someday in the UFC. And I probably just nodded and agreed and told him good luck. And he was right. Here we are. Um, but yeah, I didn't, I didn't know him. I didn't, I never heard his name and looked him up briefly and liked what I seen. And I, I wanted a reason though. Like I, I wanted to know why that name. So I, I talked to Mick Maynard. I, we just, I just happened to be at a show and I

was working and met him down cage side. We watched a couple fights together and he explained you know some of their philosophy with the fight and I was good with it. There was a reason there was actual thought that went into it and I appreciated that. Is that a private conversation? Like can I ask what the reason is? A little bit yeah.. I mean, it's, it's a business decision, which I, which I understand. Um, but I think you can be honest with me and not hurt my feelings. Like he's a, he's a really tough up and comer,

but I think that they're unsure of where he is in terms of his skillset and how good he actually is. Um, he's hard to match up. You, because guys that are in his similar position. Those guys do that. All these young guys talk how they'll fight anybody. They'll, you know, I'll fight anyone anytime. And they're full of shit. They want the older aging veterans. They're trying to catch us on our way out.

Yeah, they don't want to fight each other that bad because they don't because they're unsure of the same thing. They don't know how good they actually are. Um, so I think the UFC is unsure of how good saying actually is in terms of like, does he have a high ceiling? I think so. How good is he right now? I don't know. We'll see in the second round. I think that that's some of it is you have to put someone pretty tough in front of him because you won't really find out where his level is and what kind of fighter he is and and who he is as a person until you can get someone to push him past where he's comfortable he just puts his foot on the

gas and goes hard as fuck for five minutes and usually in so far he hasn't made it out of the first round we'll really figure out where he's at in the second round and what kind of once he he slows down, you get him settled into a fight a little bit. Um, I think that's some of it. I think that, you know, I'm some of it's financial, like I'm paid really well and he's probably not. So it's a pretty big fight with, you know, you put two me's together and it's an expensive fight. You know what I mean? So yeah, I mean, there's a lot to it, but they think it'd be exciting.

They like that he likes to come to fight. Like I'm not going to have to it, but they think it'd be exciting they Like that he likes to come to fight like I'm not gonna have to chase him and go looking for him We're gonna come together right away. I think so stylistically I think it works because I'm not running from anybody and neither see So there's there's a science to the retirement fight if you will. Sure. There's there's a Theory that you know, if if someone is to steal like old pro wrestling game plans, if you will, if someone's leaving the territory, you wanna build a star off of that person's legacy

because that person's staying and the other one's leaving. So there's now business to be made with that person. And sometimes the promotion gets it right, and sometimes they don't. Like, I remember the Shogun Hua retirement fight was very polarizing because people felt like his opponent, you know, didn't quite deserve it and didn't have that star potential.

I purposely didn't look up his name just to hammer home the point that I don't even remember who that guy was. I remember him being somewhat disrespectful to Shogun and people thinking like, this guy didn't- Yeah, it was there. Yeah, it sucked. I remember him being somewhat disrespectful to, to Shogun and people thinking like this guy didn't, I was there. Yeah, it sucked. You know what I mean? Uh, Chris Gutierrez, Frankie Edgar, people

felt like, is this, is this the retirement fight? Is this the guy? And so my initial feeling when I heard it, just being honest was like, is this the right guy? Is this the guy who Anthony wanted in the retirement fight?

Like if, if the torch is going to be passed, is this the guy? And, And I wonder if you agree with that because you said that you didn't really know who he was. Would you have preferred if it was someone else in other words? I think at first, yeah, I think so. I would have preferred that it was someone else. It has nothing to do with this skill set or what I've seen. Because actually the more I watched him fight, the more I liked it. And then not, and not because, not because I'm not saying that because I think I'm going to win. I

do think I'm going to win, but it has nothing to do with how I felt about how I matched up with him. I appreciate the way that he fights. I appreciate his skill set and I appreciate his mindset. I appreciate his skill set and I appreciate his mindset. He's really confident, but has, and this is pretty typical with Asian fighters, very, very confident, but with a healthy bit of respect and understanding of what came before them. And even in some of the things that he said, there's a lot of, I'm gonna fuck Anthony up, but there's also an equal amount of, I respect him for what

he's done in his journey in the sport. And that matters to me. I know that's stupid, but it matters to me. It matters to me. And that, so if I'm going to pass it on and maybe he has a competitive fight and I still win, but he leaves with some lessons and more people know in his name even if it is with a loss then I think that I'd be happy to give that to him that makes me that makes yeah for sure for sure yeah

like it matters you know like it plus I've area if we're just being honest I've fucking given that shine to plenty of people already yeah like Khalil round tree went on to fight for a title right Rowntree went on to fight for a title. Lover to share went on to fight for a title. Alexander Rackich found himself in some pretty goddamn good spots after our fight. Like I've given enough back. I've given more than I've taken, I'll tell you that.

That's fair. Dominic Reyes is on a roll now and he was your last opponent. So I understand where you're coming from. Will you take the gloves off and leave them in the cage? For sure. I always wondered about that. Don't you wanna keep the gloves?

Or do they go get them and give them back to you? They'll give them, they'll give them. Okay, okay, all right. Yeah, it's just symbolic. Yeah, no, I get that. What do you, as you fly out, what do you think? Like, are you looking forward to this week? Are you just hoping it ends?

How are you gonna handle this week and then Saturday and all the emotion that maybe you can't anticipate is gonna hit you? Well, you know, like I was saying earlier, that I've done a better job of compartmentalizing things. So really I'm gonna focus on, I'm gonna focus really hard on just the positives of being able to, because a lot of guys

don't get these opportunities, Ariel. They really don't. That's true. Like I'm getting a pretty fair shake in terms of sendoffs. It's close to home. It's gonna be a lot of people there and I get the opportunity to know that it's my retirement fight going into the week. So all the people that I work with and all the blue shirts that work at the UFC that

have made such an impact on my life and made my life so much simpler when I'm in these scenarios. I get a, you know, I'm not going to make it this sappy, you know, real crying moment, but like just to give them a hug and just say, you know, thank you for everything you've done. The Heidi Deans who you know, Heidi, Heidi's been like a mother figure to me since I was like 23. You know what I mean? Like I'm almost 37. Like she watched me grow up in this game. So in, I don't know, just in order to be able to give a genuine thank you to her and her know that it's the last time, like I don't, I know that's crazy, but like, I know I'm going to see all these people again. Anyway, it's not like I'm going to fight and then you never see me again. Like I'm still work with them all the

time, but just to be in that role and not be their coworker and be the athlete and just tell them thank you and just go through that motions. Like I hate signing posters. Ariel I can't fucking stand saying it signing all those goddamn posters. I'm kind of looking forward to it. It's the it's it's a part of the fight. We deal when you show up like you check your weight and you sign all your paperwork and then you sign the posters like I'm Kind of excited to sign the posters for the last time like just shit like that, you know, just take Real account of of those experiences and just I can I got a lot of training partners and I go like old training partners And you know Scottie's the the guy that his name is Tracy,

Tracy and Scotty got their blue belts together and got their black belts almost back to back. And so Tracy's always kind of been like, like Scotty's older brother and Tracy's like Scotty's older brother, kind of. And so like Tracy's always been a part of my life. So like Tracy's coming all week. My best friend will be there, like brother, kinda. And so like Tracy's always been a part of my life. So like Tracy's coming all week. My best friend will be there, like old training partners. And we're just going to hang out for the week and just train together and just be this fun thing. And then we'll, I mean, there will be some sadness

Saturday night when it's all over. There will be moments for sure. But I want to just be happy that it happened and not sad that it's that it's ending, you know? Yes. And I don't know how I mean, I don't mean this to sound cocky or arrogant, but I've never until now felt like I've done something worth celebrating. I've never felt like I should be celebrated. It's never like a thing that I've ever looked for, but I feel like now I've fucking put in a career

that I should be proud of and I should deserve, I deserve to be able to celebrate it and be happy about it, whether I didn't win a world title or not. Like that was always the goal. Like I didn't think I'd ever be happy if I didn't win it. But I found myself in a place where I didn't win the world title and that's okay because it wasn't for lack of effort.

I tried really, really, really fucking hard. And I'm just going to celebrate what I was able to do. I came from nothing. I came from, I came from nothing, Ariel. People like me that come from where I come from don't do things like this. They just don't. And I should just, I should be happy that it happened

and not allow myself to just think about the things that I didn't accomplish. What a note to leave us on. I'm delighted that you are in this mindset right now and all the things that you say really hit home and we're supposed to remain impartial, unbiased. I'm very comfortable saying that I am 100% biased as it pertains to this fight on Saturday.

I am pulling for you, I'm wishing the best for you. I want you to go out with a victory. You deserve that. Even if you don't, it ultimately doesn't matter. You have done enough. You don't have anything left to prove to anyone, but I want you to have that moment. And I hope that you get your flowers.

I hope you get that video package and all the stuff that comes along with someone saying that they are done. Cause you have earned that and you deserve it. And most importantly, you're just a good dude in your class act and I appreciate that most about you. So thank you on this Monday for taking the time. I would love to talk to you on the back end of it all next week, when it's all said and done, hopefully after a win, but for now, good luck this week. So thank you on this Monday for taking the time. I would love to talk to you on the back end of it all

next week when it's all said and done, hopefully after a win. But for now, good luck this week. Enjoy every moment. And I hope that you get the heroes welcome that you deserve from those folks in Kansas City as well. I appreciate that, Eero. Does that mean you're not gonna ask me

to come on here anymore though? No, no, no, I just literally said I want you to come on next week. No, no, no, no, I mean like even after that one, if I'm not fighting. No, absolutely not. I will continue to bother you. All right, and you still have to come on, and you want you to come on next week. No, no, no, no. I mean, like even after that one, if I'm not fighting. Absolutely not. I will continue to bother you. And you still have to come on my party.

I'm waiting for the invite. Okay, all right. Well, I appreciate you, Ariel, as always. I've said this a bunch of times before. I remember a time in my career where being on the Ariel Hauwani show was like this unattainable goal. I didn't know if I would ever be cool enough. So it's kind of a cool moment to like-

Now you're regular. Well, as this life has gone on, now we're friends. We're like sending each other pictures of our kids cooking and shit. It's awesome. So I appreciate your friendship Ariel, I always have. And thank you very much. Good luck, Anthony. Thank you.

Thanks man. There he is. The great Anthony Lionheart Smith. So some places say it's 58, 59, he says 64, whatever it is, what a run, what a career. And it all comes to an end this, this Saturday. And, you know, sometimes people retire in the moment. It's spontaneous.

Sometimes they let us know before. I love when they let us know before because we could celebrate them. We could talk to them. Um, and, and, and it puts a nice positive spin on know before because we could celebrate them, we could talk to them. And it puts a nice positive spin on it all because otherwise it would be like, all right, what does this fight mean?

Is it do or die? Is it a loser leaves town match, if you will? It would be three in a row, all that stuff. He is such a genuine, thoughtful, sincere person. I appreciate him very much. And I urge everyone to check out and subscribe to his podcast called On Paper with Anthony Smith. Great, great job.

Looking forward very much to talking to our next guest. He will be making his debut on the program and someone who I have admired and wanted to talk to for quite some time. He is currently the founder and the brainchild of Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. It is his brainchild and he is also a person who has been in the pro wrestling business for decades and pretty proud to say that he's a part of the uncrowned team. Last two weeks, he has shared with all of us the DeMora drop, which is something that I was thinking about when we launched all this.

I always loved the, uh, the Ross report on, on www.f.com then WWE.com. The great Jim Ross giving us his, his thoughts, his, uh, his random notes, nuggets backstage little tidbits, if you will, on the business. And I thought when talking to our mutual friend, Aunt Evans, that he would be perfect for it. And I loved what he had been building and what started late last year with Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling and everything that he's done. And of course, I am biased towards the Canadians.

And so I thought it would be great on this Monday after WrestleMania to have him on for the first time, to pick his brain on what transpired this weekend and also talk about what he is doing, the great things that he is doing with Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. And so without further ado, let us say hello to the man himself, Scott DeMora. There he is. Hello Scott, how are you? Great Ariel, how are you doing? I'm doing great. It's a real pleasure. It's a real honor to have you on the program and a formal welcome to the Uncrowned team. I have loved the last two pieces that you've done for us leading up to WrestleMania and I'm so delighted that you are a part of this team in any small way because I think you are a brilliant mind when it comes to pro wrestling.

Oh, well, thank you so much. I was honored to be asked to be part of it. I think Uncrowned is filling a void that exists out there to cover all types of combat sports. And, you know, it's been fun. I think my high school English teacher would be shocked and probably a little happy that I'm actually out there writing something that's being seen by people around the world. I love it. I love it. All right.

So part of the reason why I wanted to have you on was to talk about the great things that you are doing with Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. We will get to that in a moment, but of course, WrestleMania's come and gone. And what I liked about the pieces in particular was how assertive you were with your thoughts. The first one you told us, John Cena has to go over. The second one you told us, Jey Uso has to go over. Both of them did go over, but as you know, in pro wrestling, it's not just about the result. Perhaps that may be the case in MMA and boxing, but here it's

about the story and the journey. And so could I ask you as it pertains to Cena first, did they get it right? What did you think of that main event on Sunday? and boxing, but here it's about the story and the journey. And so could I ask you as it pertains to Cena first, did they get it right? What did you think of that main event on Sunday? I mean, look, I thought it was interesting. As you said, like I expressed my opinion. I thought the Cena winning is the right decision.

WrestleMania doesn't often end with a heel, you know, with an unhappy ending. And I think this is the right call. Like I talked about in the column, Cody Rhodes at this point is a made guy. You look at what he did, he left WWE to go make his mark. He went and did that in Ring of Honor. He did it in Japan.

He obviously did it in AEW. Then he returned to conquering hero. I don't know there is as many fun places to go if Cody Rhodes comes out on top. And now you do a few things. One, you establish John Cena in the WWE version of history as having the most world title reigns ever at 17. So he eclipses Ric Flair in that spot, which is important, I think, for John's legacy. And you get to have John Cena have one last run, and you get to do it with a fresh coat of paint

with him as a heel. So it's been so long since John Cena has been anything other than, you know, the hero. And for a lot of those years, I think obviously it's no secret that the fans weren't behind them or a good chunk of the fans weren't behind them. They were vocally against them. So I think this gives good credence and a rationale for why John Cena would go this way. So I just think you have some great pivot points. I think that, you know, I know that people were disappointed, a lot of them with it. And I get it. You want that WrestleMania main event to be five star and you want that WrestleMania main event to leave you satisfied. And this was very purposely an ending that leaves you unsatisfied. And that sometimes is the right call.

Okay, so you say it was personally left unsatisfied, and I think part of the reason why people are unsatisfied is not only maybe because like how the match went, but mainly because The Rock didn't show up. And so the idea to not have The Rock, who kind of started this whole thing last year, Mania, the Monday after Mania with Cody, and then of course Elimination Chamber,

the thing that happened with the scene of turning heel and Travis Scott, him not showing up felt like a massive, massive void. Am I wrong? Yeah, you know, it's funny because for me watching it, I kind of knew the rock wasn't showing up, right? Really? It was a quote unquote inside.

Okay. You could just tell, like, not like somebody said, hey, the rock's not gonna be there, but it just, it didn't like not like somebody said, Hey, the rocks not going to be there. But it just it didn't feel like they were heading in that direction. But certainly, as a friend of mine told me who was at the show live, there was a large segment of the audience that stayed there and waited, because there's got to be something

happening here, right? The rocks got to be coming out at the end of this. So I certainly you know, not having rock there is a disappointing part of it. And the fact is, you know, booking wrestling, as Triple H said in his Hall of Fame speech, you know, Dusty Rhodes old quote, booking ain't easy. It's certainly not. So, you know, it's easy to play Monday night quarterback, say, Hey, I do this, I do that, I'd have the rock come out. Well, of course, you deal with, with the cards you were dealt, right, the do this, I do that, I'd have the rock come out. Well, of course. You deal with the cards you were dealt, right? The hands you were dealt. Not having the rock there, obviously, is a hindrance,

especially after such a powerful moment that happened at elimination chamber there with John Cena's turn and that whole thing, obviously, and the rock being a centerpiece of that. But for whatever reason rock is not a piece of this puzzle right now. Hopefully he will be in the near future. This would be a great way to have another chapter of it. Like what is going to happen when the rock shows up? You know, John Cena now is the world champion. John Cena has stated that

he's going to ruin wrestling. What's the Rock's take going to be on that? Is he going to show up and agree with them? Is he going to be against them? Is he going to show up as the final boss and ask his loyal soldier to kneel in front of him? Who knows? And who knows where it goes? So I think there's, while I totally get that not having the Rock there is disappointing to a lot of fans, and that's a very justified opinion. The fact is, I always say the card that we start with, the dream scenario, booking the blue sky scenario, always ends up so very, very different after all the changes and injuries and all types of issues that affect it. We call it the domino effect, right? Because it can't just plug and play one person

or one situation. So it usually has a domino effect through the card and the buildup to the card. So totally think that's a legitimate gripe by people, but let's see what the future holds. I said at the beginning of the show that the scene of turn now, two months in, has felt a little flat for me.

And the reason for that is like when it happened, people were comparing it to Hogan in 96. And I said it wasn't necessarily fair to do that because we know how that story plays out. And this was 48 hours old, but I felt comfortable then saying, I don't think it will be as impactful and influential as Hogan in 96. And I feel even more comfortable saying that now

because to me it feels like Cena is playing heel. And one thing that I hate about wrestling is when it feels like someone is playing pro wrestler. It's the reason why I felt like Ronda Rousey never really quite got it because it felt like she was playing pro wrestler. When Hogan turned, it felt to me like he was a true dick. Dominic Mysterio feels like a true kind of dirt bag,

if you will, although now people love him, and that's great to see that arc. It doesn't feel like Cena's fully comfortable being this bad guy, and I don't feel like he is this bad guy, and so it feels like he is playing pro wrestler. It feels like he's playing heel. It's inauthentic. Do you agree or disagree with that sentiment? Yeah, I mean, look, I think the turn at Elimination

Chamber was great. I think they did some good business last night. You can certainly critique all the in-between of that. I mean, it's a tough spot, right? John doesn't have a lot of experience being in this role. And as a guy who's been in that hero cast, not hero role for so long. It probably does feel a little a little awkward, right? It's probably something he could have dug his teeth into more, you know, a dozen or 15 years ago.

You know, I think there's some validity to the playing wrestling aspect that you talk. That's one of our favorite terms, right? Like we guys aren't wrestlers, they're playing wrestling. But I think really, I think part of it comes down to when Hulk turned and WCW was such a different world, it is so hard to keep people's attention span. And there's so many more critics out there on a daily basis critiquing it. So is Cena been the perfect heel? No, he's playing it by the book. Part of it might be that people just don't want to accept him as that. But I think I liked him coming out with no video wall. I liked him coming

out with the bare bones entrance. I like that he still goes out there and rocks the jorts. So he's representing for all of us, people who are still out there rocking jorts in 2025, including myself right now. And I think that, I mean, let's see where it goes. It probably could use a little spice and a little intrigue. I thought going into Mania, it was important that John win because that seemed to be where the stories unfolding in the future are. And hopefully that involves The Rock and hopefully that brings that emotion

that people are looking for. But I think in general, I mean, we've got Cena in this new role. Let's give him some time to get his legs. And hopefully as we build towards SummerSlam as the next big show, then hopefully we see a little of heating up, as we like to say. Jay Taps Gunther, did you like that? Yeah, I do, right?

I mean, look, I feel really good today in the sense I was three for three on my predictions. And I even throw in a Joe Hendry reference for for those paying attention. Yeah. Yeah. So look, I think it was important. Gunther has been booked extremely strong through his entire run there. Jay is an organic baby face. It's that Brian Danielson, It's that Joe Hendry and I really think that

that J needed that win and that tap out really kind of cements the legitimacy of it. I mean, he got boot there to blink in that in ring on on TV there. Was it a couple weeks ago now? He showed that he had no fear and we saw really for the first time some real cracks in the armor of Gunther. So I like I liked it. It's different. I think that in 2025 tapouts are completely acceptable.

Finished to matches I think when used right they add to matches. You know, I came into a wrestling business where you'd be told a babyface never taps because, you know, why would the hero ever give up? But I mean, the rise of mixed martial arts has certainly changed people's perception of that. We know there's no real cowardice in it. But I think in this instance with the heel and Gunther tapping, it shows, it cements that fact that Jay showed up and didn't just eke out a win against Gunther. He beat him, he beat him down and he made him give up.

And I think after everything we've seen with Jay getting the crap beat out of him by Gunther with Jimmy, and you know, getting beat up while Jay had to watch and stuff with their mother. I think it was the right ending. And I think Gunther's back up and running whenever they want to. You give him a break for a few weeks or a couple months, or you drop him right back in something. It's not going to hurt him in the long run, and I think it meant something to James. So you referenced my favorite moment of the whole weekend and that's Joe Hendry.

I love him, love what he stands for. Love the sort of like manifesting your own destiny, how far he's come. He shows up at Rumble and he starts talking about a potential mania appearance. He starts talking about defending his belt against, it's all just beautiful. It's what makes wrestling so special. You know this man very well, I would imagine.

You used to be TNA president and you were a part of that resurgence or that revitalization or maybe that just like breakout in his career. What are you thinking when you see him walking out at WrestleMania to go up against Randy Orn as a surprise entrance and the crowd reacting to him and having a positive reaction to him?

Yeah, I was, look, I was really happy for him. at WrestleMania to go up against Randy Orton as a surprise entrance and the crowd reacting to him and having a positive reaction to him. Yeah, I was, I would look, I was really happy for Joe, brought Joe into impact first in 2018 on the recommendation of a longtime buddy of mine, Jeffrey Scott, Jeff Kavanaugh, effectively referred to in the industry as drum boy. We brought Joe in then, Joe likes to tell a story that in 2018, we were in the UK. And he heard me in an interview say that there's three people on that tour that I saw as world champions.

That was Moose, that was Josh Alexander, and that was Joe Hendry. And I did, because once I saw Joe, you saw that he gets critiqued for his wrestling, quote, unquote, wrestling talent, which is ironic since he's an accomplished amateur wrestler. But Joe's such an entertainer. And having him, he left in 18, came back, signed a long-term deal, was excited to sign him to a long-term deal in Impact TNA wrestling. Look, from a booking perspective, we had Joe slotted to be a world

champion. You know, but like, if we hadn't, he still would have ended up here because the organic way in which he connected made the job easy and booking Joe like I think we might have put the belt on Joe a little earlier, I think TNA decided to wait a little bit and that's okay. But having Joe walk out there, this is a guy who is fun and in a business that sometimes lacks fun in the right ways, I think Joe's fun in all the right ways. And seeing a great guy like Joe who works so hard and is so hard on himself, so incredibly

hard on himself. We had many talks in gold position or gorilla position where he was stressed out before he went out or still beating himself up when he got back, even though we felt he had done well. So to see Joe go out there and have that moment at WrestleMania, I think that's pretty damn cool for him.

And I know there's lots of people on both sides of the coin. Was it good for TNA? Was it not? Well, their world champion in the world title was on Mania, that's pretty cool. He got beat in three minutes, that's not. But it was against Randy Norton, which is a pretty acceptable one.

And most importantly, it was a lot of freaking fun. Amen. Can I ask, and I'm not trying to drum up old feelings, or as John Cena said yesterday, hit you with a clickbait question, but I'm someone, I don't know if you know this, I used to order the 9.99 TNA pay-per-views, the weekly pay-per-views when I was in college,

and that's how big of a fan I was when they're happening in Nashville and Alabama, and I really wanted this thing to succeed because it was filling a void that WCW left when it when it disappeared and when it was bought by by WWF. I still can't understand Why you're no longer the president you I remember I remember a couple years ago checking out being like wow TNA is not only back but it's like thriving and building talent and it looks cool And it looks like a place like people want to go and perhaps it's the alternative to AEW where there's different stuff going on here but this seems like a place where people are having fun and then one day I wake

up and you're no longer there. Can you explain this to me? Is it annoying for you to explain this to me? I don't get it and it seems like you're happy and in a great place. I do not understand this one. How does this make any sense? Well, it makes two of us, buddy. So, I mean, look, it's, you know, decisions get made. You know, I can be a strong cup of tea or, you know, a biting sip of

whiskey, whatever analogy you want to use at time. I was passionate about Impact Wrestling. Yeah, here's one for you. I spent a long time fighting to make Impact Wrestling, TNA Wrestling again. Because TNA Wrestling mattered to me. Impact Wrestling never really did. I was happy to tackle it. But in my heart, it was always TNA Wrestling. I fought hard for that branding because there was a lot of... If it was left into Anthem Upper Management, I don't know you'd ever see TNA again, because they went back to all the old stuff about the,

the connotations with TNA and, and, you know, tits and ass and everything else and wanted to focus on impact, which I understand. But me and a small group really believed in the, in the TNA branding. And I think that, I think that's what led to it to a lot of the surge, right? I mean, if you're doing a lot of the things now that you're doing is TNA wrestling, and you're doing them as impact wrestling, I don't know if they bite the same TNA has a place it's aged very well. Whereas at one point, it was the whipping child of a lot of people in the wrestling business. It's now thought of as something fondly when you think of the the 2002 to 2009, TNA Wrestling, which is my era of TNA Wrestling, I like to say is, you know, that was some really great counter programming.

I think we made a lot of mistakes, a lot of mistakes, but we worked real hard to try to do right the next time out. And I think we did a lot. I think we were good for the business. Would I like to still be there heading TNA Wrestling? Absolutely. Do I feel like it got pulled out of my hands? Absolutely.

Does Lent Asper and Anthem Sports have every right to do that? Absolutely. So I get a little frustrated. There's times where I look at it, and especially when I see them pulling the trigger on Joe, which was part of our plan, moving the temple pay-per-views to bigger venues,

that was part of our proposal. And a lot of the decisions we see and the talent that we signed and fostered being featured, but that's the name of the game. The guy in charge that's holding the purse strings made a decision to make a pivot and he made that pivot. And is it frustrating? Sure. Especially as the guy who made the reach out for the WWE relationship, it's bittersweet to see the stuff with Jordan Grace when she went there. It's bittersweet to see the stuff with Joe, because it's great to see. And it's like you're seeing your vision seen through in some ways. But it's it's it kind of it kind of kicks you in the gut a

little too, to have it happen without you. But the end of the day, I was I was a paid, I was a paid executive, I was a paid consultant technically, I think was my title for Anthem Sports. I think myself and Don Callis and Jimmy Jacobs and Eric Tompkins, and there's so many people, I can't name them all, did an amazing, amazing job of taking a brand that was completely f-ing dead and putting life into it and bringing back that TNA name, no matter where it goes from now, if that's part of my legacy, I'm comfortable with that. So would I like it to have continued?

Yes. Do I think I would have done good with it? Of course I would, cause I have an ego, but you know, wasn't the case. That's why I came in and do something different. That's why we've got MLP and that's why we got some other stuff cooking around that's going to pop up in the next little bit. And the wrestling business, you know, the business is bigger than one person.

I always say, you know, the business is bigger than one person, the company is bigger than one person. So my number got pulled and, you know, I was I was removed and is what it is. Do I like the call? No, but I like to kick some dirt on somebody's shoes one day about it, sure, maybe, but it's not what I want to wake up and be bitter about. I had seven plus great years with Anthem Sports,

mostly great years, and that's what I'll choose to dwell on. I appreciate that, Kander. Can I ask you about that call? Cause cause I don't, I don't think the WWE has any interest whatsoever in working with TNA if you didn't revitalize it. As you said, it was a dead brand and it felt almost like a, like a toxic brand. Like then no one wanted anything to do with it. What's, what's that call?

Who are you calling? How do you, how do you start building that bridge to where we are today? Where they're acknowledging the belt, they're acknowledging the athlete. And there's this partnership between NXT and TNA. What's that call? Who are you calling? How do you start building that bridge to where we are today where they're acknowledging the belt, they're acknowledging the athlete, and there's this partnership between NXT and TNA? Yeah, it started with me reaching out to Ed Norholm, who was my primary contact on a day-to-day basis, you know, from the senior level of Anthem Sports, and saying, what do you think about this? It's something that had been discussed and even Richard Schaefer, who was with Anthem at the time,

he was very well known in boxing and pay-per-view circles, it had been discussed and it's like, I think the time's right. Like, let's reach out. So I won't say the name of the person who reached out to, because I'm not sure they would want to, but I reached out to somebody at WWE, had a conversation and I was actually sitting at this very table in my pool room overlooking the golf course when I got a text from a number I didn't know. I had to send the number to somebody and say, is this really Hunter's

number? And they wrote back, yeah. So then I had a nice chat that got the ball rolling. A lot of the stuff that we talked about in those initial calls is still going, which is great. I wanna be very clear about this. I'm the person that reached out. I wasn't the only person that was involved in the process. I was able to get the conversation started, get Jordan in the rumble, get Jordan, get Jordan on NXT, like some of these things, I was able to get them into the works. But the relationship has been picked up and handled without me since then. And I think, you know, there's been there's certainly been, you know, some upside to it. There's some people that argue some downside as well. But if you look

at it, the relationship is growing. And I think you judge this relationship, I always say don't judge us today don't judge us tomorrow judge us in a year two years five years so so so we'll see where it goes so it was exciting to be one of the catalysts for that it was exciting to be the point person on that uh Triple H was great to deal with um you know uh for the period in time in which I was that point person. He was good, even after, you know, one of the first people to reach out after the news broke that I was let go. I think he's doing an admirable job in a pretty tough spot. Like that's that seed he sits in. You're always going to get criticized. And sometimes it's going to be justified, right?

When I was on a much smaller level, you know, overseeing things for TNA wrestling, you know, there's times you look at something and you just go, that's not exactly how I wanted that to play out. And you, you know, you work hard to fix it after that. So I'm proud to be part of that process. I'm proud to be the person who is, you know, at the, you know, you know, the point of contact there and, uh, I'm interested to see where it develops from here. Considering what happened with TNA, have you told yourself you don't want to work for anyone anymore because my understanding is you own Maple Leaf,

right? You own Maple Leaf pro wrestling. And so is that it for you? Are you going fully independent in the sense that like, you don't want to build some, something up for someone else and then have it pulled from you? I mean, look, I guess I guess I'll say, like, I'm always willing to look at to look at opportunities. Am I am I gung-ho looking for a job? No, but I wasn't looking for a job when I went back to when I first went in for for anthem in 2017, it was Jeff Jarrett who called me up

and asked me to come down for a couple of days. And I said, no. And then he was able to convince me, come on down for a couple of days, Dutch will be there, J.B. will be there abyss. Two days turned into three, three turned into come back for another three. That turned into come to Orlando for four.

Then next thing you know, I'm flying to Japan and I'm on behalf of Anthem and Impact Wrestling and it goes from there. So I wasn't looking for it last time. It's one of those things that was always like, am I really independent on a certain level? Yes. I think one of the problems for Anthem is like,

I'm not the guy, I'm not loyal to the paycheck. I don't wanna be condescending about the paycheck at all is a very good paycheck. And I appreciate it. But my life's not changing. Based off of what I make in professional wrestling. It's been very good to me. But in a, in an industry that talks about multiple revenue verticals, I've looked to do that outside of the wrestling business as well, right? Like it's not like just MLP, it's not just the K&M wrestling school,

it's not just these things. Like to me at the end of the day, I take the skills I learned in professional wrestling, I've used that to move into, you know, property real estate development on a pretty big level. It's something that I started with my father. My father spent decades in construction. So I get the same excitement out of announcing

160 unit condo project or like, it's funny. I saw you talk about John Cena's quick bait line. My favorite quick bait line for me was when somebody posted, I saw a headline, I saw it on Facebook or something, and it was like Scott D'Amore announces new $200 million project in Canada, which everybody thinks is a wrestling project. And I'm sure people clicked on that and went, it's an effing shopping center. But those type of things take up a good chunk of my day. And MLP is obviously a passion of mine. And I still connect and do consulting work

with people in the wrestling business behind the scenes. And I'm always open to hear, but I mean, at this point, I'm 51 years old. I've had a career that I'm very proud of. Most importantly, like when I get messages like I got from Alex Shelley the other day or getting to chat with Joe Henry late last night or communicating with Jordan Reyes or like so many of these people or even like Bozilla, one of my students who's a young German female wrestler, you know, has just spent a year in Japan and just had a

big match with Megan Bain. Like those are the things that get me excited. So I don't need to be the president of a company or I don't need to own the biggest, you know, companies. What I want to do is I want to have fun. I want to put out good wrestling and I want to help, you know help people chase their dream. Cause without the Terry Taylor's who Triple H referenced in his hall of fame speech, without the Jody Hamilton's, without the Doug Chevaliers, without the Mickey Doyles, without just so many fricking people,

Bad News Allen, like all these people that took the time to help bring me along and to try to teach me and to slap me on the nose when I needed it and to give me a little encouragement when I needed it. That's something that I'm so appreciative of. And, you know, I consider myself one of the guardians, one of the holders of some of the last secrets of the wrestling business. When you talk about the Terry Taylors and the Jodie Am tailors and the Jody Hamilton's, the bad New Zealand's, the Rick Martel's, the people who I got to learn at the feet of, um, I want to pass those on because I don't want those, those secrets to,

to go away that, that knowledge to go away. Um, you know, wrestling evolves always needs to evolve, you know, like Kenny Omega is the perfect example. Unbelievable on, on all levels, you know, like it's not levels. It's not just about the athleticism, it's about the storytelling, it's about the selling, it's all these things. AJ Styles, the evolution of AJ Styles over the years, he's not as athletic as he once was, but in some ways, he's so much better than he used to be in some areas. So as long as I can contribute, I'm going to be in and around the wrestling business., you know, Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling came to exist because it's hard, especially

in this hyper political market we're in right now. You know, I didn't know that so much in August when we announced the launch, but I knew it's very tough for non-Americans to get an opportunity. So I wanted to help Canadians. I wanted to help people that are not American get an opportunity to be seen, to build their brands, to learn and be nurtured so they can have those opportunities at a higher level. And if you want to be at the top levels in wrestling, most of the time that's going to involve having to go to the US. So I wanted to give a platform that people would pay attention to, to teach, to nurture, to develop and to showcase Canadian and other talent.

So they could go out there and say like, Hey, look at the skills we got. I know it's going to take longer for the Canadian talent because it's such a process that the visas and everything else, the work permits. But if you look at it, like Kevin Knight, who rocked it in the main event at MLP last time, and the next thing you know, he's signing, he signs with AAU. He's has that barn burner at the pay-per-view there at Dynasty. Like it's like, and seeing him, you're seeing late Christian go out there, you know, great young talent.

You've seen a lot of them in GCW, you've seen a little bit of them in AEW, but you've seen a lot more of them in Ring of Honor. Seeing him coming out of the MLP stuff and being showcased on AEW, that's cool. You're seeing people in MLP and then you're gonna see them at the higher levels. And I think just like you saw, people come from Border City Wrestling and go to WWE and Border City Wrestling, go to TNA. I think MLP will become an even better version of that in that we're more experienced, we're smarter, we're more organized, we're more tied in. And we're gonna look to develop and give opportunities to talent out there. And at the end of the day, if I can do that,

then I don't really care what the paycheck is. The payment to me is helping those people and being part of their stories, you know, like, like Joe's last night. And so you announced the plans last August, you debut in October, you come back in, in March, and then you've got this big show May 10th, I do believe in Toronto at Maple Leaf gardens, what was once known as Maple Leaf gardens, but it will be, uh, for all the old time fans. Beautiful poster, by the way, the promo that you guys put out was fantastic. Also, an early July show in Montreal, which I love I'm from Montreal and you have more of a now like you mentioned border city and no knock on those, but

like this feels like a professional product. It doesn't feel like any sort of indie show. It doesn't feel like a feeder league, if you will. And so we are not quite as well known as the, as the, but like, this feels like a professional product. It doesn't feel like any sort of indie show. It doesn't feel like a feeder league, if you will. And so we are not quite even close to a year in. How are you feeling about it? A couple shows in, big shows coming up.

How are you feeling about what you guys are building at Maple Leaf? I'm really proud of what we're doing and what our team's done. And we have a murderers role people from Tim Walbert to the legendary Keith Mitchell to Kevin Sullivan. Just so Jeff Borenstein, best lighting director in wrestling history and just so many people. And even down to like I mentioned him early, he was one of my first interns for Border City

Wrestling, Jeffrey Scott, him running the ground and handling, you know, merch and promotions and stuff here, and just so many people coming together, the amount of people that have came together to make this something important. It's people that have been at the highest levels of wrestling and it's people that are just, just, you know, starting to cut their teeth.

And I think it's been, I think it's been a great ride so far. And I've said for 20 frickin' years at this point that I was going to run Maple Leaf Gardens. I don't know that it ever really made sense before this moment. I got really close in the late 90s into the early 2000s, right around that time period. We almost did it, which I think probably would have been the wrong time. But now to go in there to have this event at the Madamee Athletic Center, which is the historic Maple Leaf Gardens, that yellow bricks outside is the exact same. That marquee still says Maple Leaf Gardens. And on May 10th, it'll say Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling,

tonight, 7 p.m. You'll walk in there, you'll go to it. So 3,000 seat arena now, not a 14, 15,000 seat arena, but you'll walk in there and I saw it and you saw that video of me entering the garden. That's the first time I've been in it since they redid the entire building. And I saw that ceiling, that iconic ceiling

in Maple Leaf Gardens, it's still the same ceiling, right? It's on the third floor. So you've got that same ceiling, same domed roof from the outside. So to me, it's a special night. It's something that I promised people for many years we were going to do.

I think it's gonna be an unbelievably amazing show. I think we put together a great roster of talent. Like you see, you know, we just announced Gabe Kidd, just announced Zach Saber, Dave Finley, so many amazingly talented people coming together for this. I'm excited for it. I think it's gonna be a special night for Canadian wrestling fans. I think it's gonna be a special night for Canadian wrestling fans.

I think it's gonna be a special night for people who grew up going on Sundays to Maple Leaf Gardens to watch Maple Leaf Wrestling. I think Maple Leaf Pro is gonna give them an opportunity to relive that experience, to share that experience with the next generation or really even for some two generations down the line. And I think we're going to hook some new fans that are going to say, some are going to say, hey, that was cool.

I went there. It's kind of like reminded me of when I was younger. That was cool. Some are going to come in, I hope, and I believe in the thing. Man, that was so much fun to go down memory lane. But did you see, you know, those women go up there and knock it out of the park?

Did you see, you know, so-and-so with that athleticism? Did you see, you feel the emotion of this? And I think we'll hook some new fans and, you know, rebuild the Maple Leaf brand from the bottom up, which is what we've been doing since August, and have an unbelievable night there, May 10th in Toronto. And then, yeah, then it turns to Montreal,

your hometown, PCO's hometown, where I think we step it up even to another level. You know, we're going to have thousands of fans there, I feel strongly about that. And I think we'll have, you know, a great card because as much work as it is to put it together. As Triple H said, Dusty Road's line, booking ain't easy. The whole group here at MLP is gonna work hard to make sure that every time somebody spends a dollar on Maple Leaf Pro, they get that money back and some in enjoyment and memories.

I love it. I love everything about it. And as I said to you privately, I love everything that you have done and I've long been a fan and an admirer. Anyone who flew the flag on national television, this one right here, I was a fan of. So we are rooting for you.

So happy that we're able to work together. So happy that Ant made the introduction and so happy with the work that you're doing for us. And you'll always have a home here, but I will be watching May 10th, July 5th, and anything that we can do to shine a spotlight on Maple Leaf Pro, just consider it done.

Because I love everything that you guys are doing and I love that you have Moro on the call, greatest of all time. I mean, you're just checking off all the boxes. So continued success. Congratulations on a great launch, debut, a couple events so far, and I can't wait for next month in Toronto. Thank you, Scott. This has been great.

Love getting your insights into the backstage world and I can't wait to hear what you have to write about Josh Alexander debuting in AEW. And one of these days, I need to know more. I told Ant, you dropped a WrestleMania 3 reference, you were in attendance at the Pontiac Silverdome. I wanted more on that. I can't believe you were there, you just dropped,

like talk about saying like, I've been there, done that. Holy crap. You were at WrestleMania three. That's unbelievable. Yeah, it was, it was awesome. So thanks for all those kind words, Ariel. And thanks for having me a part of this. I'm excited, looking forward to getting together

and hunkering down and doing the next more drop coming out of mania. And if you're not in Toronto, which you can order on Triller TV on May 10th, check out our YouTube page. You know, you've mentioned him a few times, you know, he's never going to let me forgive, he's never going to let me forget it or forgive me if I don't say Ann Evans has kind of been steer heading our YouTube, making sure we get out there helping this content get out there. So there's so much stuff on our YouTube, both the current stuff that you've seen from, from, you know, forged in excellence and mayhem our events so

far, but also some classic stuff in there. You get to see some amazing old classic footage in there. So give it a, give it a check, check it out. Even if you're not a fan of classic wrestling, go watch some of it and see, I think, I think you'll have a little fun just diving into some of that stuff. Thank you, Scott. Good luck next month. Appreciate it. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Take care. There he is. Scott D'Amour, the founder, the president of Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling. Great insights. And he's right, the YouTube page is great. And if you actually go on Uncrowned.com right now and at the top, there's a search bar, you type in his name, D'Amour Drop,

you'll see his first two articles. Some, you, some a little bit dated now because they were about Mania, but others, some great little nuggets there and the little nugget that he attended WrestleMania III. I mean, could you imagine attending WrestleMania III, getting to see arguably the greatest match in WrestleMania history, Ricky Steamboat against Macho Man, of course, one of the most famous matches, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, do we have that? No that's WrestleMania 4,

sorry screwed that up, but that was Hogan Andre the rematch. Well not really the rematch because they had wrestled many times before they just kind of pretended like WrestleMania 3 was the first one. Anyway it's great stuff, obviously I'm a proud Canadian, I'm gonna support a Canadian brand and you know I felt for him there talking about getting the rug pulled underneath you I know what that feels like when it's when it's kind of out of your hands but for him to dust himself off build his own thing and and kind of be in Charge of his own destiny in my opinion is is supremely

Impressive and and also inspirational in its own right. And I know a lot of people within the business respect his insights. So we are very lucky to have him a part of the Uncrowned team and looking forward to more drops in the following weeks. All right, one of the big stories. Let's turn our attention now to mixed martial arts.

And still to come in about 45 minutes time will be Fabian Edwards, who had the big win over Impa Kasangane this past Friday Bellator middleweight Tournament first round he faces Josh Silvera in The next round what the hell is going on with International Fight Week June 28th, Las Vegas. We know that Is anyone else getting a little anxious about all this? Because because I think a couple months ago, we felt like Ilya Tuporiya versus Islamukhachev was a shoe-in. Now it seems

like, all right, last week I said they're going to wait to see what happens in Montreal, Bilal Mohammed versus Jack de la Maddalena. If Bilal wins, Islam stays at 155. If Jack Della wins, Islam moves up, and now maybe you get Ilya versus Charles. Chuck Mendenhall, speaking of Uncrowned.com, wrote a great story talking about how Jack Della and Madelena affects so many different lives, multiple weight classes, 145, 155, and 170 in many respects. It's a bit of a mess. And I had heard that if it

wasn't going to be Islam al-Khattab versus Ilya Tupori then perhaps it was going to be Drikus 2 plus C versus Khamzat Shemayev. And as I continued to hear that they were going to wait for Montreal, surely they weren't going to wait until May 10th or 11th to announce the main event for June 28th. I mean, I guess they can, they can do whatever the hell they want, but that feels a little bit too late, especially when you have people who want to travel for International Fight Week, go to the Hall of Fame, go to the Expo and all that stuff. You kind of want to know what you're getting. Ticket prices are high, it's Vegas, T-Mobile, etc. And so then I started to hear DDP versus Hamza, and I was like, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Cup, I'm going to go to the World Vegas, T-Mobile, etc. And so then I started to hear DDP versus Khamzat, which I think is a very suitable main event, a great main event. A highly anticipated main event and a very good one for International Fight Week. Then all of a sudden we see all kinds of madness on social media yesterday. Well, it actually started a week ago today.

Hamzat tweeting this. Good news. All right. Great. Then a few days later we get this. All right. Things are happening. Great picture, by the way.

AI? I don't know definitely is it no doubt whatever it is it's good stuff then we get this yesterday 1027 a.m. Eastern time this guy biggest bullshit SMH emoji that's the emoji that comes up when you type in smh then we get this a reply to that tweet today from dricus himself let's take a look at the last 2.5 years and tell me who's bullshit and so he puts and by the way dricus topology guy that looks like topology right definitely topology shout out so he he's got the whole lineup there.

On the left. Yeah, it's just him winning a bunch of fights and Hamzat having cancellation. Yeah. Strickland, Izzy, Strickland, Whitaker, Brunson, Till, not a bad lineup. On the right, Whitaker, Whitaker canceled, Usman, Costa canceled, Not his fault. They DS canceled

his fault. Kevin Holland. That was replacing the DS fight. Anyway, one's been active. One hasn't. Then we get this from Kyle. Don't forget guys, I'm ready. Last four Russians on my record. This time is going to be no different. I'm ready. He's been on quite the run as his whole team has fighting nerds. You've heard of them.

Then we get this. Hamza said, yes. The only thing that makes sense is the interim belt. This fight is going to be a big one. as his whole team has, fighting nerds, you've heard of them. Then we get this, Khamzat said, yes. The only thing that makes sense is the interim belt. This fight is going to be bigger than him versus Drikus. Mark my words. I think there was one more, or maybe I'm wrong. And then we get this from Khamzat,

an Instagram story of him choking out, I think, Kyle, they've trained together, right? Oh yeah, he also posted a picture of him taking someone for a ride. I don't know if that's Kyle. That could just mean like, I'm working, I'm doing things, I'm training. And so that's where things stand. I've reached out to the particulars, radio silence. I think PT is there.

I heard the laugh. What do you make of all of this, PT? Nice hat, a one nothing. Thank you, appreciate it. Yeah, Deloitte for the boys, you know what I mean? Thank you. Nervous. I just plugged myself back into the NBA.

Thanks again. Welcome back. Fantastic. Well done, Rick. Well done. Yeah, I mean, you know, light work. Everyone, yeah, expect that. We don't celebrate the first round. That's international fight week. International fight week. Um, yeah, I thought it was going to be, obviously you've said that the start of thought was going to be

to Tupori and Islam. Now we have this situation with Islam. Um, I mean, sorry, with Tupori on Joe Rogan, we were confident that we would get something out of that two and a half hours that would guide us towards a conclusion. Didn't get that. Very confusing. I said last week to Chuck that even though it's International Fight Week, that's obscured slightly. I don't know why, but I'm confident, I'm more confident that we are getting one of these fights than I have been.

I just don't think it's that date. And I don't agree with Kyle that it would be bigger if he fought Hamzat Shemayev. I think this kind of back and forth there haven't seems a bit artificial given how much he was singing Hamzat's praises when he was training with him. It's all a bit messy and we want something to sink our teeth into. We want something to get excited about. I agree with you. It should be announced now so we can get the juices flowing, Ariel.

OK, well, here's the thing, guys. You know, we all love International Five Week. In fact, we're bandying about the idea of taking the show on the road, a road show, if you will, a Helwani show and other shows of ours here at the Uncrowned Network. Instant City is a Kyle Boholio versus Hamza Chamayev interim title fight, perhaps coupled with a Alex Pantoja versus Kai-Kar France flyweight fight.

Is that International Fight Week worthy? What are your thoughts GC? What are the vibes? No, it's not worthy of it when the expectations were people thinking it was either gonna be Ilya Taborov versus Islam Makashev or Dregis Tupacsi against Hamza Tjermayev because I am in agreeance with Pizzi in that there is no way Kai Obahalio versus Hamza Tjermayev will be bigger or even close to as big as DDP versus Hamza.

You can't have an interim title be bigger. I also think DDP is currently a bigger name than Kai Obahalio. I don't think that this would suffice in filling and then having the flyweight title fight as much as I love Pantoja, as much as I love Kai Carre France, if that would be his opponent, it just does not feel International Fight Week worthy, does not feel big enough. Let me throw out devil's advocate. I agree with everything said. Let me be clear.

I do not think that Kaio versus Hamzah does a huge fight. Because let's speak in specifics, Hamzah, big star, Kayo not yet, right? Great fighter, fantastic fighter, I think potentially a future champion in the sport, not a big name, not a draw. But if you get Hamzat Shmaiev, another opportunity to watch him fight as the UFC, to put him on a pay-per-view,

which then, let's say he has the performance that you would hope he would have as the headliner of International Fight Week To then parlay that into his next fight against DDP I think that even further enhances that fight now. I think that's a massive fight already I think that's a huge fight already, but if he goes in there and absolutely blows the doors off Kyle I think you have something that at least wasn't a huge loss because if you're not getting Islam if you're not getting Ilya You're getting you're not getting John

You're getting one of your bigger stars to headline that event sure you're getting it's back in America where we thought back in America But here's the thing like this is International Fight Week and and we remember there was a time remember there was like a three Maybe four-year stretch where it felt like International Fight Week was cursed I remember there was like a three, maybe four year stretch where it felt like international fight week was cursed. Yeah. Where the main events were always falling through and the fights didn't feel so big.

And maybe we have put so much emphasis, so much pressure on that weekend when in reality is we've always talked about it's a timing thing and whatnot. Last week, excuse me, last year look great on paper, but ended up being somewhat of a mess. But then it was salvaged by the guy. I feel like we need something else. Now I'm not saying, I don't have the intel right now

to suggest that there's a rabbit or not, but I feel like they recognize this as well. Or is it possible that the brand is big enough right now, it's hot enough right now where they could get away with a Hamzat International Fight Week event, a rising star, another title fight, Paulo Costa's on the card, he's already said that. Is that enough? with a Hamzat International Fight Week event, a rising star, another title fight, Paulo Costa is on the card.

He's already said that. Is that enough? That's my concern. I think they're in that spot regardless though. What are the options? That's the thing. There are no options. Can we just convince Islam to stay?

One more fight, one more fight at 155 pounds. Look, you beat Ilya. You can make the claim that you've cleaned out the division and, and yes, someone will say, what about Armin? Well, no, I beat Armin. All right. I'm giving him another crack. I beat him way back when he had his chance.

He had his second chance. He didn't show up. I did. Ilya now moves up. Can you make the claim? I'm just asking. I'm not saying I necessarily subscribe to this. Can you make the claim that if you don't stick around to fight Ilya it will forever be somewhat of an asterisk?

No, can you make that claim? No? The number one pound-for-pound guy who gave the featherweight champ two shots at it No, you cannot make that is there anyone other than Ilya though pizza Is there anyone other than Ilya right now that that is really like a strong threat to his throne? I don't know about all this strong threat. I don't even know if Ilya is a strong threat, if I'm being honest, but that's the that's the one that everyone wants to see. And that's supposedly the business that the UFC are in putting on the fights that everyone wants to see. Right now we have two fights that everyone wants to see. And they would have been suited perfectly the international fight week. We know it's more complicated with John Jones,

but you've you had to have the feeling that this is what they were aiming for. And now we're talking about another year where they're coming in short, which makes me feel, and to Eric's point earlier, and yours, you know, is there such thing? GC said earlier, International Fight Week worthy. Is that even a thing anymore? We have heard complaints this year about the pay-per-views. 314 was great, don't get me wrong,

but there was complaints earlier on with the quality of the pay-per-views. They are playing with the house money as we've said countless times on this show. Is there even an impetus for the UFC to stress themselves out trying to make this happen, trying to lay out the red carpet for Islam so we'll fight Ilya? Is the juice worth the squeeze for these guys at this stage? That's something that I'm debating and they don't need to they are an absolute Goliath they are gonna make a lot of money they're gonna sign a huge deal at the end of this year is the juice worth the squeeze I really that's what I know I ultimately we've ultimately we've had worse main events yeah then that one and

we've had worse International Fight Week main events than that one. I think if Hamsa gets announced, it's going to be a big deal. And if Hamsa has a performance, now again, this is on the back end, right? This is not going to solve the problem of the people going, this is not an International Fight Week caliber main event. But I agree with Pizzi. I don't think that exists.

And also, for what it's worth, the UFC has run out of the last couple of years of the golden parachute, the break glass of a case of emergency of just call Alex Perera for anything, right? Anything fell off, call Alex Perera. That's kind of on the side for now, because he's not even the champ. He has to.

Perera and Onkaliyev, too? Yeah, but Onkaliyev is the one in control of that destiny, right? It is no longer Alex Perera holding that belt and saying, here, come take the shot. So they've lost that option There's pizza. Now we're thinking what'd you say? Who is even worthy of that

Please no more I think BMF might be on the line at 318 yeah, it's for you Holloway. Mmm. Yeah, either way are they do. All right, would they do that? I mean you have to think Max all we retains the 155 BMF Bell right now Is it isn't is it is it way class isn't to pour you the BMF chap Talking to linear but that fight place took it 145 Or hey never lost it didn't know Tomorrow he did lose it Leon who is the lineal BMF? Oh fuck

Lineal BMF champ Put on the lineal BMF champ. That is amazing. Shout out to Bala Muhammad. Put on the linear BMF title, Bala versus Islam. There you go. There's no good options here. There's no good options here. I think Hamzat is the best of a bunch of bad options. And as I said, look, any time we can get a Hamzat fight, I'm in. That's the only thing I hope for at this point

is can the guy actually even fight? I would love to see Hams I fight and so I think that's the best of a bad option It's not great, but there's no there's no standard I know I know Ilya and Charles and Islam are all saying they don't want to fire right now Is there any chance of adding like an Ilya versus Charles five round? Co-maid of himself. He said it himself on Rogan. He's not here to fight an interim fight. He's not here to fight for a number one contender fight and

We've said this from the beginning. I said this from the beginning Can I ask you guys did the UFC make a mistake by putting? Sugashan marab in New Jersey should they have saved that for international? Yes in hindsight, maybe yes Yeah, that might have been the proper call that would do and you do that one would have been fine Right, you do Pantoja KKF in Newark in Newark. It would have sold Kayla Juliana. Yep sells and then now you've got if you had by the way if you had a Marab sugar to and then a Hamza Kyle

Intern that's international fight, Right? Yep. That's blockbuster. But imagine we're waiting this fucking long for Hamza Chamoyev to come to fucking America and then we fight for the interim title. Like, come on. And by the way, should he be fighting for the interim title? As opposed to? Well, Drikus didn't fight that long ago. He fought in February.

Yeah, that's just a marketing ploy. Just like slap the interim on because D.E.P. is- That's even more annoying. But are you, from a business perspective, truly, when we get to brass tacks, you're now detracting from the Newark pay-per-view in terms of your ability to get a gate, right? Because I think that that fight is going to,

Sean O'Malley and Marab is going to do a better gate for that Newark card. The pay-per-view buys, all you're doing is shifting them to June. June is going to sell out, even if it's just Hamzah and Kayo and the Pantoja fight. You're going to sell those pay-per-views. Ultimately, this is just a shuffling. It's just a moving of beans.

We're not really doing anything here at this point. International Fight Week just was not meant to be. This date in June or July, depending on the calendar year, just has not had the good luck of being what it used to be. And I just don't think you can count on that anymore. Well now Imavov's getting jumped too. Well that was a weird one because didn't Kaio say that he was offered Imavov and then he said Imavov,

turned it down? Oh did he say that, I missed that. He did a whole thing, It was Miami Fight Week. He's like, he turned it down, he didn't want it, and then he moved off, said, not yet, I don't know. Can we just get a freaking main event so we can see? I feel like we've been talking about International Fight Week with nothing really there.

It hasn't been one of those like, will he, won't he? It just feels like we're spinning our wheels on this one. And this has been positioned as their WrestleMania, as their Super Bowl, and by the way, maybe that's the problem. What the hell is international fighting? Anyway. That is the problem.

Also. Is it just another event at this point? I don't wanna believe that. I don't wanna believe that. Especially if we're gonna have boots on the ground. You know, we gotta go to UFCX. We gotta do the whole thing. But can't we be honest with each other? MSG is the bigger card every year.

MSG is always the bigger card. MSG is the card of the year, every year. Can you make the argument that Miami is the bigger card? Yeah, Miami! Miami is always stacked to the gills. That is true. Here, hang on. Like, you tune into WrestleMania, it feels like WrestleMania.

Is it redundant at this point? Is it the new Ultimate Fighter International Fight Week where we're kind of like, oh we've seen this before now it's just becoming stressful. Every year it's like raging against the machine. Who's gonna end up on Dana White's video saying, oh you won't be able to get us a main event. Me please, I want to be two years running. Other than the Hall of Fame and this UFC X. Hey FanFest, shut up. What is it? Yeah. Are we just, are we just marks? Yeah.

It's an international week to celebrate fighting. Yeah. It used to be a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. That was like, when there were two cards, Hall of Fame Friday. Slap was going to be on Wednesday. Oh Jesus. came Friday. Slap was going to be on Wednesday. Oh, Jesus.

BMF belt, slap, double championship, two title fight card. It's sorted. Yeah. I'm back. I'm back. Which BMF belt? There's like six out there. Which one are we doing?

Matchmaking ain't easy. Booking ain't easy. We just did it right here. Man. What about Scott Saddle, by the way? My God. Yeah. Oh, just sat by my pool house.

I was going to say, out in the prairies, man, my man's got land. If Hamza Chamayev storms around that week with a belt saying, Drikus didn't show up, I was ready, it will feel massive, it will feel massive. Now is there any concern of, I guess Hamza could do it in October in the Abu Dhabi pay-per-view, and they unify the belts. Meaning he fights in June and then fights in October? Yeah but

it's just a concern with how often Hamza Tirmaya fights. There's two, we need some clarity and I've tried I keep getting I keep getting the stiff arm. I've never wanted a Dana White IG live more in my life. We get an can we get something on threads? Can we get an IG live? I'll take a thread. Can we get a Facebook live? This Wednesday night, this Wednesday night. Don't live on threads, I'll download threads. Come on, can we get something? It's Wednesday. Can we get, can we get?

But what is the something? Is there even a thing? Just, I just want a resolution. I just wanna know what it is. We're gonna book flights, we're gonna buy tickets to UFCX, like we gotta, you know. You have to buy tickets to that. If we gotta plan the Hall of Fame ceremony, we gotta get moving. We're two book flights, we're gonna buy tickets to UFCX, like we gotta, you know. You have to buy tickets to that. If we gotta plan the Hall of Fame ceremony,

we gotta get moving. We're two months out. Hall of Fame set, Hall of Fame's good. You know what's the crazy thing about it? Like in a vacuum, Kaio versus Hamza is a tremendous fight. Fantastic fight. You know what I mean? For sure.

It's better than most main events, certainly better than your typical fight night main event. It's better than many co-main events. It just feels like you're talking about Islam versus Ilya. Other than, as far as the realistic fights right now, other than John versus Tom is probably the most desired fight. And I'm excluding Connor. I know I talked last week about Connor and Patty and all that stuff. It doesn't feel very, you know, it doesn't feel very real at this point

Connor fighting in 2025. So other than Tom versus John It's that and and could you make a case that it's close or is that is that crazy? No, nothing's bigger than Tom versus. No, not not not bigger. But it's like if Tom versus John was here Like it's not that it's pretty close. I would be pretty damn excited Superstars I've got homes as as I said on our show. I've got a Hamsa and DDP right up there with that one That's that's the trio right now of the fight. I don't have that near those two near it's There's a bigger gap between

Ilia and Islam and DDP V H Hamza for me than there is between Islam and Islam. I've got that soul difference. I'm really just excited to see either A, Hamza Tshemayev get a belt, B, someone hand him his first loss, and then just like the star potential surrounding Hamza Tshemayev is fascinating to me. And if he's fighting in America too,

I feel like that opens some doors for him to be a long-running champ. I think Hamza moves the needle in a big way. It's also super annoying that we've been waiting so long for Hamza to fight for a belt. And his first title fight is for an interim title. An interim title in a weight class where the belt was defended four months ago.

Two months ago, but by the time the fight happened. This should represent the beginning of the era of him returning to the U.S. This guy's gonna be fighting regularly. We're not gonna have to wait till they go to the Middle East for him to fight. This is what it should be. It would be like booking Tom in our interim fight now when there's one obvious fight. You know what I mean? Like it's all bullshit.

Islam in our fight that isn't Ilya at the moment is bullshit. This is what we're dealing with. Even 170 for Islam? Yeah. Honestly, when it's there, you got to make it. When it's there, you have to fucking make it. We know this historically. We historically, if you fucking lift a gift horse in the mouth, you're going to come up with shit in your pockets. Like that's what keeps happening. You know what I mean?

Wow. Every time. That is such a good one. Kind of free ball that one. Um, but you know, like if we don't come away with all this, with these, with either of these three fights, it's going to feel fucking a bit shit. Yeah. That's who this is for.

That's who this is for essentially, right? These are the people who make the fights. Don't forget, UFC make the fights. So fucking make the fights. Can I tell you something that concerns me as well? Where are the, and again, Hunter Campbell, he's cooking. Yeah. He's always wearing a Yankees hat by the way.

Do you think he's an actual Yankees fan or does he just wear it? That's kind of just become a costume. Let's always wearing a Yankees hat, by the way. Do you think he's an actual Yankees fan or does he just wear it? That's kind of just become a costume. Let's fly him out. Let's go to Yankee Stadium with old HC. Where are the superstars to litter the card? You know what I mean? Like, I feel like a lot of those names,

like right now there's only three fights that are rumored for this card, not officially announced, and that's Pantoja KKF, that's Menell CapagF, that's Manel Cap against Brandon Royval, and Justin Taffa on here as well, against John DeDenise. That's it.

There's nothing, and Costa, I guess you could say, rumor, but we don't know against who. Actually, he told me, but he told me not to say anything, and BD, but the point is. Who is it? Like, like okay I'm now look okay there's there's Michael okay one that you could add right now that I get very excited about yeah Sean Strickland versus Israel Adesanya now your your issue is happening why not in June yeah oh you're are you saying you're hearing

this or it's what you know what I'd like I mean it's all for both of them I just don't I don't think is he's training with David Goggins I think the biggest obstacle is if that does become a middleweight headline card if you're Israel to Sanja You know probably love fighting on a hums a card on a DDP card It seems like it's not gonna be D. Yeah, you probably don't love that, but I think that's juice I'd love is he is he versus it's it's all right, but the fight wasn't good like a Hope it'll be a better this nobody all the easy fights that I want to I want to see again You don't want to see Izzy versus Strickland again. My whole thing is thinking that that was the worst of Israel put it this way I'm canceling our plans of going to

By the way, sorry I was saying like as a feature. No I know, I know, I know. Yeah I know it's fine. Oh get out of here. It's fine. It's a good fight. Alright Izzy's confirming it, it's Costa versus Izzy too. That's why he's no showing. Alright, I would sign up for that rematch. So would I.

Okay so sorry, Strickland versus Izzy was a bad fight But the one where Izzy finished Costa in five seconds because he was wine drunk was a good fight That's what the UFC standards that that is what they consider a good fight now like honestly no with the build would be fun That first fight was just a say I get it There's a great story by the way not not to hijack all of this, but we do have some breaking news. Oh, whoa The national point we baby here we go. What is this? What is it? There's a great story, by the way, not to hijack all of this, but we do have some breaking news. Oh, whoa. Oh. With a national point, we baby, here we go. What is it?

Yes. What is it? No, just that it's 1-0 at the city ground, four scoring. On the board. No, this is a big freaking game. You know, we're slipping away. We're slipping away from the top five. We're slipping away from what is actually breaking news.

No, listen. Elliot Anderson with a massive, massive goal. 1-0, it's on the screen. I mean, that's gigantic. Guys, we're, Pizzi, you know this, we lose this game. You're getting into the Champions League, mate. Not even close. I don't think it's slipping. I think it's getting close to slipped. Yes. No. It actually kind of pissed me off. It pissed me off like three, four games ago when everyone was like, well, that's it, it's elementary. I'm like elementary There's still ten more games. What are you talking? No, they're talking about the league being doing what Liverpool know They were saying about forests in Europe. They're saying forest champions league. I'm like, what are you talking about?

Anyway, Elliot Anderson, we love you. He's one of our own. He's one of our own Elliot Anderson. He's one of our own Oh, the other thing I forgot to mention about April 26 is is FA Cup semis April 26 and 27 So this weekend is is massive anyway Back to International Fight Week. Let's see Hopefully we get a run. Do you think we get a resolution this week? I was thinking it was it was it was it was late UFC I'll tell you right now. We got to know by May the latest we ever found out the latest we ever found out Okay, UFC 197 took place on April 23rd, 2016. Today's April 21st.

John Jones had to beat OSP for the interim belt. And then on the Monday after, which would mean April 25th, Jones and DC were on Good Morning America and they announced the main event for UFC 200. And that was kind of, but UFC 200 was July 11th, I believe. So a little bit later, UFC 200, July 9th, July 11th was when they announced the sale. That's what that's 11 days after.

So we're pretty damn close to like the latest that's ever been announced. If you get what I'm saying. International fight week by then. I don't even. Oh yeah. It was international. It was.

They had, they had freaking Eddie versus RDA on the Thursday. That was before 200? Claudia versus Ioana on the Friday and then 200. Okay cool yeah. I'm sitting in the I'm sitting in the in the uh in the MGM Grand media room having the spread having the little creme caramel and DC texts me to say I think I'm fighting Anderson in two days because of the whole John Jones thing happened on Wednesday I'm like get out of here he's like no I think I'm fighting Anderson Silva like what the fuck and then Eddie Alvarez beats RDA they had a great spread at the MGM over there the studio a that's when International Fight Week

was really International Fight Week I don't think it has been since. The Invicta one with the Soyfark. No, that was at the Cosmo. That was at the Cosmo. And then Frankie and Mendes and Dan. That was the greatest spread of all time. Are you talking about the Prime Rib? I was going to say the Invicta Card or the Invicta Spread? What did they have there?

No, the Invicta Spread was pretty good. That was the Prime Rib. Yeah, the Invicta Spread was at the Cosmo. The Cosmo. Prime Rib and an Invicta Card? Yeah. It was wild, dude. It was fucking wild.

It was really weird because they were trying to make a splash at the Cosmo. They had that one and then they had, if memory serves me correct, PT, they had a, did they have an- Ericsson on Barbosa, what was that one? No, I think they actually did, did they do the Page and Sage card at the Cosmo?

I think so, yeah. The Page and Sage, aljo had a big win He showed up with the the gold chain and then the next day was the the Mendez Edgar thing. That's right and No, actually, I think Mendez Edgar did that happen? I could look this all up. But hang on was this after yeah Hang on No, because you trying to figure Connor be Connor beat Aldo and then we all thought it was going to be Connor versus Frankie. Why do you bring up Mendes? Mendes had nothing to do with it.

He had lost. Did Frankie not... Did we do one on Sunday as well? How do we go from Prime Rib at Invicta to Frankie Edgar versus Conor McGregor? The Prime Rib, GCG, I don't know about the Prime Rib. All the Irish lads were there for the McGregor fight, all the guys from the mainstream media. And I went obviously because I'm an MMA nerd, went to this and I'm covering MMA for a living. I go in, I realize that there's fucking prime rib on the menu.

I get in touch with all the boys, I'm like, get over here now. You got in the troops. Next of all, right? At the door, about 15 minutes later later there's 15 members of the Irish press Don't even know who's fight. They're just there for the dinner and people like where the fuck are up? There's not enough chairs for these people. I was just dead quiet watching my boys feasting like kings That's where I remember and Victor's just like man. We are huge over in Ireland. We get so much press coverage It's not even funny. Can I tell you something?

Horseradish dipping sauce with it I PT I can't remember dude Make it breaks it by the way by the way breaking news. No, this is legit. This is legit Chrissy Chrissy would Chrissy would Chrissy would to nil at Spurs to nil at Spurs No, this is crazy to nil at Spurs? This is gut check. They needed this. Back in third.

Done and dusted. We'll see you in the Champions League. It's over. We may as well stop talking about it. I think you bottled it. You're confusing two McGregor fights. The Invicta Cosmo was in July before Mendes. Okay.

Actually, Rick should know this. You were doing PR. So I have Piz pizza to thank for everybody showing up looking for food You're the one that booked the prime rib. No, I didn't I managed the media So all the people who are submitting last-minute, hey, yeah get in pizzas today So thanks. No, but I had nothing to do the December Cosmo event with Al Joe page and sage That's the one with the prime rib the Invicta one didn't have the prime rib. The Invicta one- So it was the Aldo fight?

It was the Aldo fight, yeah. Yeah, okay. Oh, so it was the UFC spread that had the prime rib. It was the UFC spread, yeah. Well, what did the Invicta spread have? It was bare bones. The Cosmo had a fucking prime rib. They were both Cosmo, they were both Cosmo,

that's the thing. July Cosmo, bare bones, December Cosmo, Jesus, was crazy stuff. You need to talk about this flag, by the way. Oh, geez. Okay, December Cosmo, Jesus, was crazy stuff. You need to talk about this flag, by the way. Oh, geez. Okay, so if you, like, next Thursday is May 1st. Yeah.

Do you think if we don't know by then that there's a chance they wait through UFC 315? Oh my gosh, could you imagine? I feel like I could have. At that point, I'd rather them do so. That's what I'm saying, because at that point you're close enough to UFC 315. I feel like this week's gotta be the week.

Can't wait for somebody to get injured in camp and then it all doesn't matter anyway. Well, here's the good news, guys. Well, DDP already did. Here's the good news, maybe the pressure is off, because if you don't like what they are serving on June 28th, you can go just a hop, skip, and a jump over to the pond in Anaheim where we found out on,

I think it was Thursday or Friday, it's going to be Jake Paul versus Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on the same night! There it is, Puerto Rico versus Mexico. Are you guys buying or selling? Honestly, maybe this is why we haven't gotten the announcement yet. You think they were waiting?

You think it was a chess match? I think it's fear of the UFC, of just getting outdone by Paul Chavez Jr. You guys into this one? Let me go to Rick on this. Into it? No. Why not?

Not at all. He means yes. He means yes? I don't think I could be clearer about my Jake Paul position. Spectacle, don't care about real boxing. Don't care about his career as a quote unquote like championship level boxer first I don't think Julio Cesar Chavez

jr. is at a level that like is competitive at this point in his career not not it for me. Sell me on it Frankie go ahead Frank. Oh you see you got Jake Paul right yeah yeah and he's good at what he does mm-hmm yeah and we need to see him do that thing over and over again. We can't just keep waiting for the big buildups. So I, for one, I will be watching it. Now give me the JCC breakdown. Who's he fighting? Who's he fighting? Thomas Jr. Tell me the problem with this is Anderson Silva beat this dude. Jake beat Anderson Silva many moons ago and now we're like, I wonder

what's going to happen here. Everybody beats this dude that's the problem he's almost 40 years old did you guys see the community notes where Jake was like Canelo barely beat him and then the community notes was like a hundred twenty one oh eight on all three judges scorecards oh yeah did not barely beat him beat the brakes off him the the first choice was Canelo then there was the tank stuff even that I'm watching more than this Although I think that's silly. I think he I think he was left though. I don't know if there were any options I don't know how difficult is it for him to book it being an opposition to all these? This big boxer movement like with the TKO and everything like that

I do you think that's made it substantially more difficult for him to get that is a great question, but I don't know if anyone is being You know he kind of resides. I know, I know he often fights people who are, or are much smaller, but he sort of resides in like the, the 200 pound range, you know, there's Jai Opatai out there, he's not fighting him. Zerdo Ramirez is in the co-main event, who's a big star and, and really the fight that we all want to see at, at cruiserweight. And this is a co-promotion with golden boy, which is kind of interesting, but I don't know what's going on. Like there's a these reports now that Eddie has fallen out and Frank has fallen out. Who knows what's going on? It's a wild time.

And then we found out there's a report via the ring, which, you know, obviously is owned by Turkey. They're going to do an event on July 12th, which is the same date as the proposed Dubois-Usik three fight, which is the next day as the proposed Dubois-Usik 3 fight which is the next day from the Netflix card which is in the same city in New York City but all the venues in New York City are booked. It's a weird one. It's compounded. I don't think he's being boxed out of any fights. I mean obviously he was boxed out of the Canelo fight. Then the tank thing happens.

And then I don't know if there's anyone else out there. There was KSI, there's Tommy Fury. This is the bigger problem. If you've boxed Mike Tyson, the list of names you can then box after that is like four people and one of them is Canelo and it's gonna be, Canelo has just signed a massive deal to do something else. Like's Logan it's KSI and that and the KSI one if I'm being honest like loses steam by the

minute there's not a lot of names out there so like if there are names Pizzi they probably are boxing in that Saudi in the fights the fight cards that are happening in Saudi Arabia so it's like what else is left? Do you think it's a mistake to go up against International Fight Week or is this, this is, this is Puerto Rico versus, there's no MMA component to this at all, right? Yeah. So it doesn't really matter? Doesn't matter, yeah.

I wonder if this is just to keep Jay Paul busy. Like, I don't know how much they're really banking on this. You know, slight name, keep them busy, give them another fight. Keep it rolling. Right. Yeah. I feel it's less, it feels less like, uh, I don't know if this is gonna, I feel like it's more like one of those ones where you were like, look, he's

fighting real boxes, we don't know who they are, but look, he's actually doing it. I feel like it's more on that side of things than an eye catcher or something that my mates are going to walk up to me and say, Jesus Paul Chavez Chavez fight on tonight you know well the uh the last time and you know there's all it's hard to keep up the the uh yeah i don't know the it seemed like the Chris Wood goal was taken away and now it seems like he scored again now he seems like he scored again is that possible because because i was good Chris it sounds like it got called back and now according to my update he has just scored again is this possible legend yeah I'm seeing 17th minute this is insane anyway also it back also

seven minutes later scores again are unbelievable what a freaking legend okay and at the same time my daughter is texting me incessantly that she's not going to her soccer practice at four. I mean it's a tug and it's a pull, you know what I mean? Because she watched Chris Wood score. What's the point? What's the point? Or maybe she was upset about the VAR. We'll never know. We'll find out. I'm sick of this game. Yeah, the damn politics. Here's the thing.

The last time we saw JCC was against Uriah Hall on the, uh, the undercard of the Perry fight and it was a very underwhelming performance. Do you guys remember that? Like it just wasn't, there was nothing to really write home about it. So to think that he is going to be some kind of massive threat a year later with very little activity and we know about some of the extracurricular stuff, it's going to be a, it's going to be a tough sell. Now a fight that we were looking forward to happened last night, the Ben Whitakerurricular stuff, it's going to be a tough sell.

Now a fight that we were looking forward to happened last night, the Ben Whitaker-Liam Cameron fight. I said in the aftermath, it was just what the doctor ordered for Ben Whitaker. And we'll talk more about this with Ade on Tuesday's episode of Aero and Ade, but he looked great. He looked aggressive. He looked focused. He got the win.

He got the stoppage. A lot of fans upset with the stoppage, feeling like it was too quick, feeling like if it was Cameron pouring it on Whitaker, it would have never been stopped. And then in the aftermath, Whitaker can't seem to buy any love because he got super emotional, super fired up. And it seemed as though he stuck his head through the ropes and, and yelled at Cameron's corner. Some said that he spat on the corner. They showed the slow mo. I did not see any spit. I think you would have seen spit, but just not the best of looks.

He has Andy Lee in his corner who seemed to have calmed him down. And afterwards we saw great scenes with the two camps embracing and saying no hard feelings, but I was, I was honestly really surprised at the amount of hate that he was getting. You know, you hear the things like helmet, sausage. We don't want him. We don't like him. Go to America.

They'll like this more. You know, just like all this vitriol. Like, it wasn't like, wow, he's back, the prodigal son. It was almost like, get away. And even aftermath, in the aftermath, P.T., he was very emotional, crying about the abuse that he's received since October. I know this is a question maybe for Adé,

but I'm really surprised at all the hate this guy gets. And maybe ultimately it's a British thing of like, hey, we don't like the showboating, we don't like the hot dogging, we don't like the extra mustard. But I was like, Holy shit. Why all the vitriol? Why all the hate? Did you notice that as well? Yeah, absolutely. And look, I think to talk about how serious it is, you just have to see Lee rushing into the opposition corner, chasing Ben when it happens. You rarely see

Andy Lee with that kind of look of concern in his face. He went over and grabbed him. He heard something. He saw something he didn't like and it is rare to see that. My read on it is right in the first fight they saw a side to Whitaker they never saw before and you know that he's put through the ringer. It's a weird ending to the fight. They're like, Oh, this fight is going to happen again. It's going to be good. This guy tested them in ways that nobody ever has. And I think when they didn't see him get put in that hot water again, into that deep water, and they didn't see him struggle at all, I think they felt a bit hard done by it because that's

what they've been gearing themselves up for. That's nothing to do with Whittaker, right? But they had themselves kind of trained for Cameron's going to put it on him again. Can he get through that? Can he answer the questions that that was posting before but he wasn't asked the same questions He came out and kind of bulldozed him yesterday. I understand people's frustration with the the finish But from the referees point of view, he is just eating shot after shot there It's complete barrage and it doesn't look like it's gonna stop at any time I think also Whitaker's let this affect them more than people, you know, if you let these things in, that's, that's an issue. He's already at that career arc where AJ was after the Usyk fight when he's kind of has this moment where people are kind of like, well, is this

guy losing it? Like it's not a good sign for him to be here this early in his career, but I do think his performance was excellent. I do completely understand an outpouring of emotion after all of the things he suffered after the first fight and I do think that the audience were booing because they felt short-changed they wanted to see the same questions asked and Cameron just couldn't do that on the fight night. And it was a partisan crowd it was it was in Birmingham which you know was was a hometown crowd for him it was supposed to be a favorable crowd and maybe in attendance they weren't showing him any type of vitriol, but I was just really surprised

because I thought that people, and Cameron, we spoke to him on the show, very endearing, great story, said all the right things. I mean, it was like a true Rocky story, like just a guy who was supposed to be an opponent, had no business winning that first fight, or at least they didn't want him to win the first fight. He was just a guy that was supposed to be the next step

in his, you know, in Whitaker's rise. And obviously he gave him a tough fight. It ends controversially, and here he is getting a chance to, you know, to really shock everyone. And so I thought, you know, people would be, you know, with him and backing him, and that's a very relatable story, especially for a blue collar nation, sports nation. The UK seemed to like that type of personality

a little bit more, but he is one of your own. He won a silver medal for, for Great Britain at the Olympics. He's excellent. And they tend to back those guys. I mentioned this last, um, last time we spoke about him, like I was blown away with him when I was in London over the summer. He's in all the subway stations, he's got

a deal with Adidas, and I just couldn't believe at how many people were upset that he won. And I know some will say it was the stoppage, but I actually thought that the stoppage was fine. I don't know. It kind of reminds me of how people reacted to Nassim and Eubank in their, like I mean Eubank senior in this sense. Show boaters, guys who put themselves out there, it's kind of part of this pantomime atmosphere for them to be ridiculed. The fans think that's part of the show.

They certainly did back when Eubank was in his pump with that Sky Sports deal in the early 90s. Like that was part of the game. You're kind of laughing at how ridiculous this guy, but then marveling at his brilliance in the ring. And I think there's a bit of that. And then when he reacts in the way he does, people are like, hang on a second, this isn't what we signed up for. I thought we were all in agreement what we were doing here. It does remind me of Johnny Fisher's situation against David Allen to some degree. I felt the same kind of after the Allen fight, he gets a nod and everyone directs this kind of abuse. Fischer and his dad like,

you guys, you aren't real, blah, blah, blah. And they're having that rematch too. It's a big spot this early in his pro career, I guess. And against a guy he probably never thought he'd be in this situation against and probably similar with Fischer and Allen, although Allen was this guy that people thought was shit off for a long time he just never hit that next level and now Fisher's running into trouble when people feel as though they've kind of paved the way for him to success I think there are a lot of parallels between Whitaker and Fisher's situation yes although I will say Whitaker's hot-dogging puts him in a different

category right I think some people think it's a little bit too much you haven't earned it you have the big elaborate entrance and the last couple fights didn't quite deliver. The big entrance at Crystal Palace, the fight wasn't great. The big entrance in Riyadh, the fight wasn't great. This time another big entrance and the fight was great and he was aggressive and he seemed super motivated and if he's able to, you know, if he's able to weave the two, the showmanship, the, the, the entrances, but also that type of aggression. I mean, I still think he could be a superstar.

I still think, I mean, he's still very young. I think like nine fights, 10 fights. He's, he's a neo fight in this, uh, in this program. Uh, we're, we're going to talk more about U-Bank Ben. It is coming up this weekend, but this has been Rick's fight that he's been dreaming of. Levels of excitement, do you feel like the promotion has been good? Are you feeling the buzz? Not quite yet.

It is Monday. I think they have Grand Arrivals tomorrow. It was super hot when we had the press conferences and things.'s now cooled I'm ready to ramp back up that's where I'm all right. I walked in this morning and I was just like oh you banker Ben man he's like is that this weekend? No. Wow. He's lying it's it's slander actually and disrespectful and and I'm quite offended. But no, it got hot and now it's cooled, and now I'm ready for it to build back up. Once they're together, I think it's going to build right back up, and yeah, I still love it.

It's been a long time. It's been a long time since I've had so many people ask me about a fight. Oh, wow. Everybody has switched onto it here. know, this happens just with geography, you know, this is on prime time TV shows. You can see the advertisements, premier league games, the advertisements, and even the Whittaker card. It was all over that. This kind of felt like a pre-courser to it, right?

Like you're getting hyped up on the UK scene and here we go. It's going to be absolutely massive. Every time I see any of my friends, any family members, they're talking about this fight, will you be going over blah blah blah? Who do you think is going to win? It's going to be huge. And I do agree with Rick, I think probably from the US POV, it was huge during all those press conferences and it's going to ramp up a lot because if you've seen all your promotional material here, Connor Ben has just been frothing at the mouth since these exchanges.

It seems like he's the angriest man in the world. You bank based on what he said to you on the show in that brilliant interview, he has them exactly where he wants them mentally or else is Connor Ben playing a game with all of us. It's gonna be huge. It's a great weekend of sport and I can't wait for it. I'm just concerned because I don't know how much of how much of it I'm going to be able to watch

is my, what's going on. Why? Yeah. What's up with that? Well, you kind of teased us earlier about this, man. Yeah, there's things in the works. Okay. There's things in the works. I may be doing something that I've never had the chance to do before that I never thought I'd be able to do. Well skydiving? And as great as it is, it does take me away from these things. So I'm debating the two. It's kind of at around the same time as the great Eddie Hall versus Mariusz Pudzianowski fight, at the same time as Ben Eubank, not quite at the same time as UFC Kansas City, at the same time as Ben Eubank not quite at the same time as UFC Kansas City at the same time as FA Cup although four is playing on Sunday so no big deal. Is it attending a wedding you've been invited to? No no. That's Jordan's back. If you're putting Ben Eubank on the side like this is massive.

Not only that. Attending Ben Eubank. Attending Ben Eubank. the side like this is oh no what it is no Knicks game on Saturday attending Bennu bank attending Bennu bank like that I put a shelled for that yeah that's a nice show the decisions made that decision is bad yeah that's how big it is then you've already decided where you're gonna be at and you're and you're gonna have to VOD Bennu bank that's okay the next 24 to 48 will will determine whether or not this will come to fruition And felt draft this weekend the next 24 to 48 Whether I will be in London or not in London or

So you're gonna start me with you're either in London or Not or not or not wow the next 24 to 48 if you don't do XYZ you're gonna go to London oh yeah Wow I mean these these are, I mean, it might be London and then it might be FA Cup semis. Wow, wow. Tickets. Yeah, I remember when we talked about all going out of the team. If you need company out of this. Nah, there's big things happening.

There's big things in the works. And so we'll see, we'll see. The next 24, 48 max, max, hoping less than 48. Do we know the plans for this weekend before we know International Fight Week? Oh gosh. Yes. I think so. I think Wednesday boys.

It's the day it's it's been the day. And I think fucking Wednesday. You think we're getting a Wednesday? Well, I'm going to beat them too. And the boys. International Fight Week fights or GTA six, which one first? That's a great one. That's a great one.

At this point, just the Oblivion remaster. Yeah. Have they even announced GTA 6? Why does everyone want it? Why does everyone want it so bad? Because it's been so long since the previous one. And it's historically never been this long in between. When did GTA 5 come out? 2012? 2013. 2013.

Okay. PT. Red Dead Redemption, just going around the prairie. Stay tuned for that. Release is just Q3, Q4, 2025, that's what it says. It's gotta be 2026. Okay, we're late. More on that to come, but PT, let me ask you,

before we bring in Fabian Edwards, your thoughts on his big performance. You wrote a great story on him. You've been following his career, obviously his brother's career as well. Big win over Impec Asangune this past weekend. Your thoughts? I thought, look, he's capable of this ever since this guy was an amateur. We used to, it's funny, right?

Because when he was this sensational amateur and people were like, this guy is an archetypal uber prospect when he was coming up and Leon was already in the UFC and stuff I think or at least on the verge of signing for the UFC it kind of as Fabian went into the pro realm and he became shit hot the boo-birds start coming up for for Leon so Fabian was enjoying these fantastic successes as he's as he's plotting his path through the professional realm of the sport. And meanwhile, Leon's doing amazing things, but it's just not happening for

him. It's the situation like Gunnar getting booed for fighting Gunnar Nelson in London, which seems crazy based on the scenes we've seen around Leon in the UK since. But I just find it very ironic that Leon's had these two tough fights and here comes Fabian now, just with this sensational performance. He was known for these stoppages, and I think that got away from him for a while. But when I spoke to him that like last week, he was like, not like it. I've never seen him so adamant that he was going to KO someone. And we know the fighters say this all the time, but I've never seen him put this kind of pressure on himself where he was like,

yeah, like I'm definitely KO on this guy. And I just love the way he fights for me like he's gonna walk onto something I really am confident that he'll do that and Impa's no snouch obviously won the tournament at 2.05 and I think Fabian's just in this moment I picked him to win the tournament I think he will he has wins over other lads that have been in the bracket Shipman did go out though in fairness and look I think it's a great great platform for him there's a little a lot of guys the blue chip guys that were with Bellator haven't been getting a lot of love but he seems happy with this situation he seems to be slightly

concerned about Evelyn's situation given their kind of roving over the years and oh Evelyn's oh and two he's two and oh against Fabian so I don't know if that's a potential fight that would happen if Evelyn was active within this promotion. But great things for him and a brilliant performance from Alfie Davis as well I thought. A guy that's been a prospect people have been talking about for a long long time and he got a massive KO on the night as well. Great night for the UK albeit Shipman's loss and of course UK fans be big fans of Mads Brunel as well who came up short on the night.

Well what a great table setter that is for our conversation. Thank you very much for that, PT. That was the PFL event this past Friday at Universal Studios in Orlando. Now let us speak to the man that we were just speaking about, the great Fabian Edwards, who scored a very impressive second round TKO win over Impa Kosangani. He's kind enough to join us right now to talk about it all. There he is. Hello, Fabian.

How are you, my friend? I'm doing good. How you doing? I'm doing great. I understand. Were you also at the boxing match this past weekend or yesterday in Birmingham? Yeah, yeah.

We just landed off the plane and I thought I might as well go and support the boys. Yeah, I was impressed that you were there because I figured maybe jet lagged and whatnot. Can I ask you though, very quickly, before we get to your your fight because you were there you saw what what Ben Whitaker did? What did you think of the stoppage in the aftermath? Um, I think the stoppage was early, you know I think it was early but I do think Ben would have went on a window fight anyways, you know

So whatever the ref saved him from more damage or not, it was a bit early. What'd you think of the aftermath with the corner? I didn't really see it too much, you know. I couldn't really see that much, you know what I mean? If I'm honest. Okay. Like once I seen Ben won, I was like,

I need to get out of here. Yeah. So you know the six-word that I won, I just bounced. I understand. I was half asleep, you know what I mean? Yeah, no, I get it. I need to get out of here. And I, so you know, the sword that I won, I just bounced. I was half asleep, you know what I mean? So. Yeah, no, I get it. I'm not trying to put you on the spot. We were just talking about the fight.

I was very impressed. I thought it was the right call, the right stoppage. And it seemed like he was very emotional. People were saying afterwards that he spit on the corner, but I don't think that was the case. I think he was just talking some smack back. It happens. They've since, you know, embraced and we can all move on.

Um, let's go back to your fight and, and actually I want to take a few steps back. Could you explain what was going on? First, we thought you were out due to an injury. Then we heard it was like a visa issue. Were you always in and were these false reports? What was going on in the buildup to the fight? Yeah, no, I was always in. I was always in, but my visa, you know,

and it wasn't so much visa issue that I couldn't get it. It was the time that it would have take. You know what I mean? So I knew that was potentially a problem going into this. Well, we had hope that it would get sorted out in time, but Ali was able to jump on it and sort it out. So I'm grateful for that. Okay. And so were you always continuing to train just hoping that it would be sorted

out or at one point were you actually out of the whole thing? Yeah, I think it was like the Sunday before I flew out. I mean, so it was only about like 12 days or so before I flew out. They said to me, yeah, you're out. They said, yeah, you're out. And then the day after, I was back in. You know what I mean? But the public didn't know that. But yeah, like the day after I was back in.

But so like I said, I'm grateful because if it wasn't for Ali and his contacts, I didn't know that, but yeah, like the day after I was back in. But so like I said, I'm grateful. Cause if it wasn't for Ali and his contacts, I wouldn't be here, you know? And so I'm curious, if they would have told you you're out, was there a route back into the tournament or are you, would you have been like, you know, on the sidelines for several months? Yeah, I was out. Oh man.

I was out. I was out. I got told that they'll be able to fit me in a show like later on this year. But in terms of tournament, I was done. So they said, we'll get you like one or two fights in this year, and then hopefully next year you can jump back on the tournament. That must have been devastating in the moment,

but luckily it didn't last very long. This was one of the most intriguing first round fights I thought, given how good he has done in the PFL. And I noticed in the buildup, like fight week, you guys doing the face-offs and the post interviews, like he had an intensity to him and a high level of confidence about the matchup. What were you reading from him

as you guys were doing these things, building up to the fight? Personally, I read that he was nervous. You know what I mean? I didn't see no confidence or anything like that. I kind of saw a bit of nervousness from him, but he's respectful, he's very respectful. So I didn't really read into it.

I kind of knew what I needed to go in there and do and yeah I got that I got that done so yeah. Every fight is must-win for a fighter at this stage of their career but considering what's at the end of this tournament what's at the end of the rainbow and considering your last fight I know you wanted to you know very much beat Johnny Ebelin in the rematch. Were you feeling any of that pressure? Because here, if you slip in the first round, you're out for a considerable amount of time, you don't get the pot of gold at the end.

Was that weight on your shoulders? Were you feeling that? Nah, if I'm honest, nah. I didn't think, I'm very, I don't know, I got a great mindset to not think about the past. You know what I mean? So that's a very good thing that I can do. I kind of just watch that way and focus on what's in front of me.

You know, so I never allowed, like I said, my past fight or what's at the end or anything to distract me. I just kind of knew that I had to lock on to impact and that's what I done. You mentioned in the post fight interview that you know some of these PFL guys aren't used to fighting with the elbows and obviously that's something that you had in Bellator. Did you really feel like that was an advantage in your favor and do you think that is an advantage for the Bellator guys or the non-PFL guys in these tournaments? the Bellator guys are the non-PFL guys in these tournaments. Yeah. You go from not fighting, doing elbows for a couple of years.

Now you've got someone crashing into your elbows. You know what I mean? And I really feel like that's what made a difference in this fight. It was a bit hesitant coming in. He still did. But when he came in and I met him in the middle and crashed him with elbows, I felt like that's what kept him off a little bit. That was your first stoppage in about three years.

The Leona Machida fight. Did that feel like a weight lifted off your shoulders to get another, you know, another like blistering, hard hitting stoppage? Um, not really. You just, I've been fighting fucking wrestlers for the last three years. You know what I mean? Everyone's trying to, everyone's trying to fucking hold onto me and sniff my crotch and just make it boring.

You know what I mean? So like I knew it would be a fun fight because Impa is a banger. You know what I mean? And he's one of those fighters that go out and he's chill. So I just knew it would be a fight where I could show off my striking. In the aftermath, you had the face off with Josh Silvera, who you'll be meeting in the next

round. Do you like doing that stuff on fight night? You just want to fight and now you know who's next. You see him, you have to do a face off. Do you like all that stuff? I don't mind it. I don't mind it. I don't mind it. It was all right. You know, I mean, it wasn't like he came into my face and he was bringing mad energy. So it was pretty okay. You know, if I just fall and I had someone in my face acting silly, I probably would have slapped them. You know, so it was good.

It was good that he came with good energy. And yeah, it's good to see the man that you're fighting. You know? Did you happen to watch his fight against Mike Shipman? Nah, nah, I didn't watch him. Because you were focused on yourself? Yeah, I was in the back room focused. you know, just chilling with my team, zoning out, listening to music.

So I weren't really watching all the rest of the guys, the other guys, you know. Obviously he's been a PFL for, for a little bit now. What, if anything, do you know about Josh at this point? I know that for input twice, um, I know that he's southpaw. I think he made it to the final at one point. So that's all I know. He's southpaw and he's made it to the fight and he's fought him for twice.

And that's all I know right now. When you look at the field, you feel like you should be the favorite? Do you feel like it's tailor-made for you to win this whole thing? If I'm honest, I don't look at all of the favorite and all of that stuff, you know, like, I don't think I'm the favorite anyways in my own eyes.

You know what I mean? So, I never look at the odds and all of that shit. I just believe I'm gonna win this thing anyways. You know what I mean? Regardless of what anyone thinks. Beautiful moment in the immediate aftermath and subsequent photos that have come out with you and your brother on top of the cage celebrating.

And I'm just wondering, like, when you see those photos now in the days afterwards, and just in that moment to celebrate a great moment, I know it's been a little bit tough for your brother as of late to have that moment to celebrate, to rejoice. How did that feel? It felt amazing. You know what I mean?

Obviously I suffered a loss. He suffered a couple and it's just, to have him on my journey, he's just second to none. You know what I mean? And like, you know how this sport goes, you lose one or two fights and people write you off, you know, but it's still one of the best minds and athletes in this sport. So like I said, to have in my corner, that's a second to none. You told me that you didn't feel the, uh, the pressure of the tournament or the pressure of, uh, you know, coming off the Evelyn loss and all that stuff.

What about the Edwards name just to like put some respect back on the Edwards name, uh, given what you just said about people running you off when you were in the game, what off the Edlin loss and all that stuff. What about the Edwards name, just to like put some respect back on the Edwards name, given what you just said about people running you off when you're on a losing streak. Did you feel, did you feel that burden to remind people that you are, you know, two of the very best in this world and that, that name still very much means something in the sport?

Nah, nah, you know, like, I don't give a shit about people's opinion. I like it. I mean, that's just how I am. Like I don't really give a shit about anyone's opinion. So I regardless, me and my brother came from fuck all, you know what I mean? And like even if I was to go out there and lose, I still have done way better than I was supposed to do in life. So that's just how I look at it. You know, so obviously it's good.

It's good to go out there and get a stoppage and get all of that done. But we've already done such amazing things in this sport anyways. You know what I mean? So everything else we're doing is just an extra. I love it. I wish, I wish we all possessed that mentality. Don't listen to the critics. Don't listen to the haters.

Focus on yourself, you know, blinders on that. That is something that is going to, to serve you very well, not only in fighting, but the rest of your days. So well done in life. I mean, we saw it just yesterday. I saw Ben Whitaker get very emotional in the aftermath talking about the abuse that he received

after his, uh, his last fight against Liam Cameron. Uh, you guys have to deal with it all the time. And so I know that people try to maybe get you off your game or tear you down or make you think that you guys aren't worthy of any type of attention, love, hype, et cetera, but much respect that you don't let any of that get to you. Could I ask about maybe some of the, you know, there's a lot of noise surrounding PFL right now with fight about maybe some of the, you know, there's, there's a lot of noise surrounding PFL right now with fight, not just

media, but you know, the fighters, the Patricia Pippos of the world and, uh, the Aaron Picos of the world and the patchy mixes of the world. There seems to be some unrest when a year and a half or so ago when Bellator is brought over, it seemed like there was a lot of excitement and, and, uh, enthusiasm and optimism. Now that you've been there, Fight Week,

you've been around the employees, you've been boots on the ground. Could you tell me what the vibe is like in the promotion among the people working there? The vibe is good. For like, for myself, the vibe is good. You know what I mean? I feel like the operation was run smoothly. Yeah, I feel like everyone's run smooth. And that's it. But in terms of

like those guys, I've said it in my interview. It's shitty. You know what I mean? Because I don't know, as an athlete, I can't sit here and be like, I'm fighting so it doesn't matter. You know what I mean? That's a shitty attitude to have. You know, like it needs to be sorted out. So I don't know what's going on. That's obviously a conversation that PFL and those athletes needs to have.

And it needs to be sorted out, you know? I know that some belts or athletes were asked to take pay cuts or restructure their deals and whatnot. Could you tell me about how you've been treated? How do you feel like you've been treated by the new regime? I've been good. Right?

Honestly, I can't lie. I've been good. Like they've sorted me out. Everything's been bang on. You know, my communication with them has been good. I kind of know where I stand with them and that's good. But like I say, just because I'm good, it doesn't mean that fuck everyone else.

You know what I mean? That's not my attitude. It's like, I'm good, but let's sort everyone out, especially the champions, you know what I mean? Yeah, because right now we don't really know who are the champions, right? Like is Johnny Eblen a PFL champion or is he just like a king without a crown? especially the champions, you know what I mean? Yeah, because right now we don't really know who are the champions, right? Like is Johnny Eblen a PFL champion

or is he just like a king without a crown? Do you have any insight? Is he the guy, like if you win this tournament, are you getting another crack at Johnny Eblen? I don't know. I know, I don't know. That's in my head, in my head, that's what I think. I mean, no one's told me anything or let me know,

but I'm like, that pretty much makes sense. I wipe everyone out in this tournament. It's only right that they set up a third fight with me and him. I mean, especially the last fight was about three rounds to him, two rounds to me. So it makes sense. What motivates you more, the 500K or another crack at Johnny? Johnny.

For real, is that true? You seem like a straight shooter, so I'm not gonna question, but that's still 500K. Yeah, but I'm gonna fucking, regardless, it's what it is, you get for everyone, that's the prize anyway, isn't it? That means, so, like, that's gonna, for me to get a crack at Johnny,

I have to get for everyone. So like naturally, the 500K comes, you know what I mean? But if they said to me, okay, then you can pass on the 500K or you can have a crack at him. I'm having a crack at him. Like, I mean, I'm much rather try get a loss and get a loss back than money, you know what I mean? Will it piss you off if he leaves

and you don't get that third crack? Yeah, I'll be wounded. You'll be upset. Yeah, I'll be wounded. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah. I'll be wounded. I will be wounded. Did you feel like you needed this win on Friday

to get over the fight in October? For myself, yeah, for myself, not so much to get over the fight, you know what I mean? Because I got over the fight already. It's just more so it's a winner's sport. You know what I mean? So you got to go out there and win. Otherwise you don't get these opportunities. So it wasn't so much that I needed to get over it because I'm over it, you know what

I mean? Um, mentally and everything. So I needed to win because I need to carry on doing great things. And that's it. This tournament format, as opposed to the old season format with the playoffs and whatnot, which format do you like better? I think I like, it depends on it. I like this one. I like this one. I think it depends if you're a winner or loser, you know, because I think if you lose, you'd

be thinking, I wish it was the old format, cause maybe I could have come back and I may be able to still get a chance to get to the final. And I mean, with this new one, it's like, it is what it say it is. One shot, you move forward and that's it. Yeah. I personally like this better. It feels like every fight is more it say it is. One shot, you move forward and that's it. Yeah.

I personally like this better. It feels like every fight is more important. There's more at stake, do or die and the standings, the points, all that stuff, it can be a little convoluted. It also means you guys return relatively quickly. And so you'll be returning end of June in Chicago. Do you like that quick turnaround? Yeah, especially I got no blumps and bruises, you know, I'm fresh.

So why not? I mean, I've always said I want four fights a year. So to be able to get free, potentially free in five months, I'm over the moon with that. Love it. Well, I'm looking forward to that. The other side of the bracket is Dalton Roesta against Aaron Jeffrey of Canada. Both of them looked solid in their fights this past weekend as well. And so things are moving along. And they haven't quite told us that who you get

if you win this, but it would make a lot of sense if hopefully Johnny is still in the company that you would get another crack at it later on this year. So I appreciate you saying that that means more to you, even though I feel like you can't, you can't go to the bank and deposit a Johnny Eblen, you know, you have three kids, I think, right? Johnny Eblen doesn't necessarily put food on the table, but I understand beating Johnny Eblen would do that.

Yeah, definitely. Like beating him and what comes with it. Oh, we lost them. but we'll get him back, okay That's June 27th, by the way Fabian Edwards versus Josh Silvera Dalton Rostov against Aaron Jeffrey lightweight tournament also on That card as well Do they have another one Thursday?

No, it's next week. I had a feeling when I was saying that there isn't one this week. It's next Thursday. That's the one headlined by Phil Davis versus Rob Wilkinson, Valentin Moldovsky on there, Antonio Carlos Jr. on there, Simeon Powell. It's light heavyweights and heavyweights. The big boys. Antonio Carlos Jr. on there, Simeon Powell. It's light heavyweights and heavyweights.

The big boys. That'll be the end of their run at Universal Studios in Orlando. I was actually, I was like literally going to say goodbye to him at that point. Don't you want to be able to say goodbye to him though? Yes, is he here? Not yet. Okay, well it was like, when that happens, to him at that point. Um, don't you want to be able to say goodbye to him though? Yes, is he here? Not yet.

Okay. Well, it's like it's when that happens, it's... I know, yeah. It's... Well, this gives us time. You see how the American flag is lower than the Canadian flag? That's like a... It's a big note.

Oh, wow. There it is. And it was, um... It was before you knocked it over. So I don't know what's going on here. You're a grand old flag. You're a grand old flag, you're a high flying flag, and whenever in peace may you weigh, you're the emblem of... I just got a DMCA notice for the song.

The land I love. I try to, you know, I'm actually very particular about that. I tried to get them perfectly symmetrical. Well, I think it's actually a rule that the American flag can't fly lower than another one. Says who? Says who? The flag rules? The administration? The current administration? You can't put it on the ground, you can't light it on fire. Oh yes, yes, yes, that is accurate, that is accurate.

One of the great moments in baseball history. Should we just text him? Ariel says goodbye? Oh, no, I don't like that. Well, has he not reemerged? I know you That's unfortunate, let's see what the score is in the forest game. Oh, no, that's actually why he got out I was gonna ask him. I Was gonna ask him really I was gonna say goodbye. No, actually I was gonna ask about the forest game. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah no, I would, I would like to, you know, properly, it feels like an Irish goodbye. You know what I mean?

He's a Villa fan. So he's actually rooting against us probably. What if he just turned heel and was like, I'm done with this interview. Yeah. I've had enough of these questions. I've had enough of this guy. That wouldn't be very nice. You know what was nice guys?

Max Holloway landing in South Korea, getting a hero's welcome, led by his former foe, the mensch to end all mensches, or menshin, the Korean zombie, Chan Sung Jung, did you see this? Wearing a Holloway Jung t-shirt. Look at this.

I mean, isn't this guy a sweetheart? And look at this welcome in South Korea for Max Bliss. Look at this. Look at Korean Zombie showing up with the flowers, with the bouquet, telling him to say hello to everyone, sign some autographs. How did they know when he landed?

Was it broadcast? Looks like a really nice airport too. I always wanted to go to South Korea. I thought that was the wonderful. I loved that. That was beautiful. Chan Sung Jung seems like one of the nicest human beings on the planet. I mean, obviously I've met him. There's a, there's a language barrier. He's always been very pleasant to, uh, to speak with. I enjoy that man very much. And, and, and what a class act to show up with the t-shirt of their fight. And I think that's the best thing about him.

I think that's the best thing about him. I think that's the best thing about him. I think that's the best thing about him. I think that's the best thing about him. I think that's the much. And what a class act to show up with the t-shirt of their fight, a fight in which he lost. Zombie lost that fight. That was his retirement fight. By the way, also announced over the last couple of days, I said not a lot of news. I'd be remiss if I don't mention Vicente Luque

versus Kevin Holland announced for UFC 316. That's here in New Jersey, June 7th. I mean, that card looking not bad. Kevin Holland coming back after a fantastic performance. Holland not ranked Luque is. Is that a 14? Can't tell. It's not bad. I'm gonna look great against Gunner Nelson. That was just a couple of weeks ago. Well, about a month ago. That was announced, so I'm looking forward to that. Any sign?

Not yet, but what if we did some super chats while we wait patiently? We could do that. ["Super Chats while we wait patiently. We can do that. Super Chats. Yeah. What do we got? Yeah, so we have the, from Jake from Windy City says, the women's three-way and EO winning was my match of the whole weekend.

Just disappointed in this entire Cena run. What's the point now? Also, Hall of Fame was too late and long. Move it to another night. Oh yeah, Hall of Fame. I think I saw some people tweeting at like 4 a.m. Eastern which is about 1 a.m. Pacific. Well it's not about but it was like 416, 417. I was like this thing was still on at that time. I watched highlights after the fact. I love the Hall of Fame but even I think some of the stuff wasn't even stuff wasn't even broadcast.

Like, I don't know, was the Lex Luger speech broadcast? I don't know, but I can tell you this, some breaking news, Frank. Tomorrow on the program, we will have not only Diamond Dow's page, but also the total package himself, Lex Luger, to talk about not only being inducted into the Hall of Fame, but he has a crazy story over the last 20 years. He's been left paralyzed in a wheelchair. Diamond Dalles Page said, no, not on my watch, determined to get him back on his feet, doing DDP yoga with him, physical therapy.

He went from the penthouse to the jailhouse to the outhouse to the streets. The narcissist, the former WCW champion, the man who slammed Yokozuna on the USS Intrepid. Do you remember that? Oh yeah, the Intrepid right over here. Anyway, he'll be on the program tomorrow. That's program that's exciting actually I did not know that he became paralyzed and I remember him as a so like technically he could stand up he

could take a step or two and he did stand up well while giving his speech eight or so minute speech but yes he is he is bound to a wheelchair so I'm looking forward to that. What else? So next up we have one from Andrew. Question to the panel, Wilt's listening from week to week. It comes across as a viewer that, of the entire group,

Frank has the most amount pure intellect and culture. Would this be a correct assumption? I'll go first. Yeah, yeah. Is that your burner? Yeah, I was gonna say, my question is, how were you able to send a Super Chat in pounds? Someone said something nice about me,

immediately you guys are like, oh, let's just shit on Frank. Well, it just seems like a lot. If someone said this about you guys. It's okay, it's just like, the most culture, the most intellect. Andrew sent in 10 pounds. How could I even do that, you know?

That's what I just asked. That was my first question. Can you choose how much? No. You can choose how much, you know that's what I just asked that was my first question Can you can you choose how much no you can choose how much you can't choose what currency right? Okay? That's what I thought all right Whatever with Nord VPN no all right. Oh, that's a good shot Tanner writes it. I will I will I will say You do have great intellect. I don't like to rank these things, but I appreciate. Just blink twice if it's true. I appreciate your intellect.

I appreciate how well-read you are. There's two, all right. And I also appreciate how on the pulse you are. You know, if I ever need to know about something that's going on, especially in the Reddit interwebs, you're all over it. The conspiracies, the good, the bad, the ugly. And so I think you bring a lot to the table,

not just from an audio technician prowess. Technician. But also- All right, we're moving on. All right, so Tanner writes, Ariel, what initially inspired your interest in watching MMA? Oh dear.

How much time do we have, Tanner? Did you say watching or covering? Watching. Oh, well, I was always a big boxing fan. I was always a big pro wrestling fan. I remember being at my grandparents' house. They happened to have one of those boxes that allowed you to watch pay-per-views views legally or not. And they used to replay a lot of the stuff.

I actually remember one particular Thanksgiving Thursday, but remember I grew up in Montreal, so we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving end of November. When, uh, WWF used to do survivor series on Thanksgiving Thursday, actually slept at their house so I could watch it live and that was a big deal because the pay-per-views weren't available to us for the longest time. Then there was something called Viewer's Choice that came around and it wasn't available in Quebec,

it was a mess of a situation. But once they got this box some way somehow, they would play a lot of the things over and over again. And so I remember being at their house and all of a sudden this thing called the UFC popped up, the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Now I didn't watch it live, I'm not going to be one of those guys, but it was in the vicinity of maybe like if UFC 1 happened November 12, 1993, it was maybe December or January. It was in between one and two. And I remember seeing this thing and I remember not quite knowing if it was a work or a shoot. I remember not quite knowing if it was pro wrestling, if it was boxing.

What is this? But I remember being captivated by it. I remember liking the pageantry, the presentation, the production. I remember seeing Jim Brown, and I remember being enthralled by the fact that this skinny guy in a gi was beating up all the bigger guys, Art Jimerson with the one glove, all that. And so I was captivated by it,

but make no mistake about it, it was very hard. We're talking 93, 94, it was very hard to follow it. Internet wasn't really a thing. Websites weren't really a thing. No one was really covering it. Maybe you could find something at your local video store, your local magazine shop would have a write up like two months later.

And so like you would see UFC one and then you would maybe see like UFC three. And also there was like two to three events a year. It was nothing like it is today. UFC four, five, 96, 97, 98. But for me, a real turning point came in around 2000. 2000, I'm on a radio show called In the Ring, Friday nights, CFMB 1280 AM.

I really start to enjoy being on air, the production. I was the intern, I was the franchise, they called me. And I would answer calls and we would talk primarily pro wrestling, but also a tiny bit about the UFC. And so I dug that and it made me, and at that point the internet was a thing. UFC.TV was a thing.

And so it was a lot easier to follow, you know, what was going on, the comings and goings. And then I've told everyone about the story of being in Syracuse and telling my parents that I think this thing is going to be a thing. And I want it to go all in. And at that point I enjoyed it, but I also felt like the coverage was a little subpar, lackluster. And so the ideas in my brain started to go all in. And at that point I enjoyed it, but I also felt like the coverage was a little subpar,

lackluster. And so the ideas in my brain started to, you know, circulate like, hey, maybe I should do this. Like maybe I should try to do this. Actually talk about it full time for a living. And so that's how that all started. And then a major turning point for me, there were a couple others later down the line, watching Ken Shamrock and T Dor T's

on the best damn sports show period and thinking like, holy shit, and this was at this point, I think, 2022, no, sorry, 2002, thinking like, holy crap, Fox Sports, Fox Sports net is talking about the UFC, this is insane, the sports going to be huge, watching G, holy crap, Fox Sports. Fox Sports net is talking about the UFC, this is insane. The sport's gonna be huge.

Watching GSPB, Matt Hughes in 2006 was a huge turning point and then getting to work on the Ultimate Fighter season three pre and post show for spiketv.com from a production standpoint and getting to go to my first event live really hammered home that I wanted to do this for a living. by tv.com from a production standpoint and getting to go to my first event live really hammered home that I wanted to do this for a living. So I know I went from watching to covering to you know kind of going all in but that's

the arc. And in fact when I was at the Ultimate Fighter season 3 finale it was at the Palms. Those Palms are hard rock. I always get them mixed up. Dana was walking around the casino and there were a couple of people who went up to him and took a photo with him. And I stood in the line and then I left.

And I said, I'm not gonna take a picture with him. The first time I meet him will be when I interview him. And that ended up happening, UFC 97 in 2009 in Montreal. What else? Thank you for answering that by the way. Yeah, sorry, it was a long one. This is Shone Plant, I believe in Chuck Mendenhall.

Okay, wow. Hashtag Bosch. I believe that's a kind of a mix between the I believe in Joe Hendry and just his love of Chuck Mendenhall. I mean Chuck is the man in the hat. He is. A large one dream finishes this off with go Jets go cut Jets plus 950 to win Lord Stanley. I'm sorry it's so funny. I have an eye on the preview screen I just see you go out of frame. Yeah I know I was. After what happened with, wow.

Fabian. I'm like is everyone just sleeping? Is everyone just sleeping? Yeah, where is Fabian by the way? Is he just gone? What's happening? I'm gonna let Rick fill this out. Rick, what happened?

Haven't been able to reconnect with Fabian. Do you think his phone died or something? Do you think he didn't like the questions? Yeah, he just, he's out. He's mad at me? Yeah, he messed up. Villa fan. No, that seems weird.

It seemed like we were having a lovely chat. Oh, I just got a message from him. Oh. Please stop testing me. He might still rejoin. Let's hold on for one minute. I mean, he's going to rejoin for me to say goodbye. Yeah.

That's crazy. By the way, I explicitly said that. I said, like, just wanted to say, you know, farewell. So what are we doing? Well, let's wait a minute to see if he jumps back on, and then otherwise. I can't wait for the timestamps on this one. Maybe it rejoins after the super chats.

What are you cooking up, a little thirst in there? Yeah, and I just spilled all the stuff all over me. Which is great. Shout out to thirst. Is that great? No, all over my pants. Does anyone vacuum around here? Oh, they have a sign that you tore down that says no food or drink. No, that's not true

That is such a lot right in the studio. Yeah, you were doing the vacuuming me who me no I just said me at that point Let's just watch anyway, by the way, the Jets are plus 950 that surprises me. I thought they were favorites Yeah, I have no idea who is the favorite Let me think Vegas you think Vegas I Got you right here. I got you where my devil's at They lost yesterday hmm they're in the playoffs? Avalanche plus 600. Avalanche?

Hurricanes plus 600. Hurricanes? Maple Leafs plus 800. Maple Leafs? What about the Habs? Playing tonight I think. Habs are plus 10,000. Alright, well there you have it. What else?

That was it. I Did want to bring up something unless Fabian is here. No, I would be coming but not yet. Okay, he's on what about the story of Ahmad Hassan Zada, have you guys heard this I? Have yeah This is according to the New York Post and mixed martial arts fighter has been charged with child sex crimes Just days before he was scheduled to make his UFC debut. Ahmad Hassanzadeh was scheduled to make his UFC debut in the octagon this coming

Saturday as the winner of Dana White's Contender Series in September. However, the 28 year old team alpha male fighter from Sacramento turned himself into authorities over the weekend according to jail records obtained by the Sacramento Bee. He is facing two felony charges. Lude acts with a child under 14 and Lude acts with a child 14 or 15 years old where the defendant is 10 years older than the victim, the records show. However, Sacramento police have not offered additional details about the case. Given its sensitive nature, a department spokesperson confirmed to the Bee that the charges stem from a probe launched

early last year. Hasan Zar is bail was set for $400,000 and he is scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday, jail records showan Zada is a 6 foot 1 inch lightweight and a member of team alpha male Scheduled to fight 32 year old Mitch Ramirez on April 26th this Saturday in Kansas City His debut is listed as April 26 2025 But he does not appear on Saturday's fight card Hassan Zda had one contender series in the fall which won him a contract the post reached out to the UFC for a comment has the UFC said anything about this or they just kind of hoping it goes away I mean obviously they have been blamed for something like this but that is that is that is shocking stuff you

supposed to fight Evan Elder this weekend. Oh not Mitch Ramirez. At one point it was supposed to be Ramirez. Ramirez with Drew and then it was Evan Elder. Wow that is shocking. Yeah not good stuff. Awful stuff. Yeah. Well oh wait is that him? Yeah. Well at least we can end on a good note. I mean, you guys let me know.

Yeah, now's a good time. Okay, hey Fabian. What's up? I thought I offended you or something. You just left me. What happened? No, my son rang me and like, because on Zoom, it's cut off.

No, it's okay. I feel bad because I was just kind of wrapping up the interview, but I hate not being able to say goodbye to someone. It would like kind of be a hole in my heart. Can I ask you this though? While I let you, before I let you go, there's been some talk of, you know,

we had Jorge on the show, Jorge and your brother have a history. Would you be into that? Do you like the idea of Jorge fighting your brother? It's an easy fight, isn't it? It's an easy fight in my eyes. But it kind of depends. If it's just for a money fight and Leandre's not interested in doing the title, then yeah, it makes sense. But there's still a chance for him to regain that title. So in my eyes, it wouldn't make sense unless he just wanted to do money fights. I understand it's more of a question for him, but how is he doing after the Sean Brady fight?

It's good. It's good. Obviously when you go through your losses, it doesn't matter what anyone says. You just got to go for it. You know, and, but he's all right. He's in good spirit. He was over in Orlando with us. It's that training, um, helping the guys and, and help coaching. So he's, he's moving in the right way. Do you think we'll see him again this year?

I think so. I think more so towards at the end of the year, you know, um, just take some time off. That's our, that's our advice. Just leveling up and fixing why we need to fix it and coming back. That's our advice, just leveling up and fixing whatever you need to fix and then coming back. Cause like I say, he's still in his prime. Sure. He's still one of the best guys in the world.

So yeah. Did you get to go on any of the rides at Universal Studios? I would have, but everyone was scared. What? Scared? Everyone that was with was scared. You know, I like rides, but all the coaches and everyone was just like, nah, we're not doing that.

Really? Even like, there's some kiddie ones. There's some like not really scary ones. They weren't trying to get on anything. Damn. You got, Leon too? Everyone. You know what I mean?

You just told us you came from a hard part of town. You had a tough upbringing. You guys are afraid of roller coasters. I'm not scared of roller coasters. No, the crew. I like them. The crew, I don't know why, but they don't like not being able to control things.

I get it. And that's why it was. I get it, I get it. Well, congratulations. Looking forward to the return. Thank you for coming back. Appreciate it. And we'll see you again on June 27th in Chicago. All the best to you. And thank you, Fabian. And I appreciate it, man. Thank you for coming back, appreciate it. And we'll see you again on June 27th in Chicago.

All the best to you and thank you Fabian. And I appreciate it, man, thank you. All right, there he is, Fabian Edwards punching his ticket to the semi-finals of the PFL middleweight tournament. Could you imagine going to Universal Studios and not going on one ride? Not even the Back to the Future. The Back to the Future one,

I went to it when I was like eight years old. I don't know if it's still around. It usually swaps them out. Forget the Back to the Future. I think we just got confirmation that it is still around. It is, I loved it. No, forget that.

People have been talking about this Velocicoaster that I'm dying to go on. Is that a scary one though? Oh yeah, it's like one of the best coasters in the world. Okay. And jealous. A roller coaster's not really a big thing in England. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't know, I mean, do they have? I'm sure they have amusement parks, I just don't know if they're like a coaster-based thing like they are here in the States. Working up the biggest roller coaster. Do they have like a... They got this one called Hyperia, looks crazy. They have Euro Disney, right? Yes, and they're like a Paris, got this one called Hyperia, looks crazy. They have Euro Disney, right?

Yes, and they're like a Paris, there's a few Disney's. Yeah, no, isn't Euro Disney in? Oh, is that the name of the Paris? There's gotta be some roller coasters over there, but I- There is, I'm looking at them. Yeah, I saw you guys clowning. What was it? The Tower of Doom or something?

Tower of Terror. I thought it was Clowning. Clowning. Oh, we were actually calling it that. Aw, look at Haewani. You didn't watch the episodes? Eyes closed. Oh, yeah, yeah. What we were saying was respect.

Yeah. Rick wearing the pink shirt. Haewani. It was a pink hoodie. I don't think you were watching. I was definitely watching. I was definitely watching. Did you see a pound for pound wrestlers?

Yeah, I saw it. By the way, 1,000% I was closing my eyes and have no regrets doing so. Scary shit, man. That thing was like, like you feel your stomach go up into your throat. It was awful.

Yeah, no shit. I respected that you even did it. I did do it, yeah. I did do it. Was it just me and you or was there anyone else there? We were there with a few other people, but you and I rode that. Yeah, yeah, there were a bunch of people on the road.

ESPN folks, it was August of 2019, right? It was the DCE Stipe II. Yeah. Was that three? Two, I forget. It was a DC steep a two. Yeah Yeah, was that three two to get to he was at the apex. Oh Jesus the pressings Yeah, the pressing. It was a good time. Yeah, it was a good time today was a good time Want to send our best to Julianne apanea Not not not ideal, but we will get her back on and looking forward to tomorrow DDP Lex Luger Cheeto Vera joining us as well

He's coming up in a few weeks time his next fight and perhaps others as well But for now, we shall say goodbye. We have a busy busy evening ahead of us game to Madison Square Garden and Nick's Pistons Who's locking in who's tapping in I tell you one of my great? pet peeves? You tapping in, tap in. Latest episode, tap in. Why do people say that? What does that even mean? You say all these phrases that your kids say,

but tap in bothers you? Tap in bothers me. Yeah, what do I say that my kids say? Unc. I don't say unc. And by the way, unc is like like, I see that in Jess. How are we supposed to know? How is anyone supposed to know? I feel like the glazing is real.

They all started in ingest as well, and then it became a part of the vernacular. Can you guys see this? Wow. This is what we can do. I actually can. It's actually a great skill to have. What an ending. Everyone can make fart noises with his hands

for those that are listening to the podcast. We see you. We hear you. I can't do it at all. He's not farting directly into the microphone. I just hope someone's logging onto the Yahoo Sports app right now. They're in the kitchen trying to eat their snacks

and are watching you two. I can't hear anything in the kitchen. By the way, this used to be a hit in high school. Like, I used to do this all the time. Oh, I'm sure you were super popular. The boys loved it. The girls not so much. I can't hear anything in the kitchen. By the way this used to be a hit in high school like I used to do this all the time. Oh I'm sure you were super popular. The boys loved it. Oh there we are! Yes! Is it even possible to close your eyes harder? Oh I was... It looks like painful. It's actually impossible. What does that guy hold it? The other two people make me look like such a loser by the way. I actually think everyone in the photo makes me look like that.

Like, literally everyone is just chilling, and you're like... Does Rick have a sweater around his neck? What is going on? No, it's a hooded, pokey OG sweat thing from my intramariner. Short sleeve hoodies, great. It's crazy. That's crazy. Thanks to all the guests, thanks to you.

Back tomorrow, stay tight, boys. This is a piece. Go for it.