The Ariel Helwani Show - Ariel Helwani reacts to UFC 331 results, MSG fight announcements

Episode Date: September 20, 2026

Ariel Helwani gives his immediate reaction to UFC 331, including the brilliance of UFC flyweight champion Joshua Van (00:40), Arman Tsarukyan's stunning knockout (04:12), Patrício Pitbull turning back the clock (08:04), Gable Steveson's shocking loss at the hands of Sean Sharaf (09:59), Marlon 'Chito' Vera getting back on track (19:38), and a highlight reel submission by Casey O'Neill (21:34).Then, he give thoughts on the newly-announced UFC 334 fight card, going down at Madison Square Garden in November (24:01).

All right, friends, as you may have seen, I wasn't able to be on the UFC 331 post-show duties. And as I said last week, I won't be on Monday show because it's Yom Kippur. Have no fear, there will be a Monday show. Rick will be there, G.C. will be there. Pizzi will be there. Andy will be there. Frank will be there. A whole cast of characters.

So all good. We're not leaving you hanging. But as a result of that, I wanted to come on this Sunday morning to react to what we saw at UFC 331 last night at the crypto.com arena, formerly known as the Staples Center. Of course, let's start with the main event. Joshua Van. Man, eight in a row for Joshua Van, still in his 20s, beating Alex Pantosia. That fight was everything that we thought it was going to be. It was fast-paced. It was technical. It was fun. It was relentless. It was frenetic. He drops him. He keeps going. He doesn't stop. The output. Give all the credit in the

world to Pantosia, he is unbelievable, but I think the younger fighter, the fresher fighter, perhaps, the more active fighter. You know, there's a difference between mid to late 30s and early 20s. But these guys are very, I mean, I think they're very evenly matched. And I know this pisses off, Joshua Van, but I throw out the first fight, meaning historically when you're 0 and 2 against someone, it's very hard to get a third crack. But I don't consider Alessander Pantoja O and 2 against Joshua Van. I consider him 0 and 1, to be honest. And I say this all to say that if he fights a couple more times and wins those fights,

I think he can be right back in there. And if Joshua Van is still the champion, I think that they can run that back. And I think everyone would be very happy and excited about that. For Van, I think Manel Kapp is next. And I think the build-up to that fight is going to be great, and Kapp deserves it. Massive winner over Horoguchi,

and they're just two great personalities and two great fighters, hard-hitting fighters as well. I think the flyweight division is on fire. We've come a very long way since the days of people saying they were boring. They were too small. They were little people. They should be cut. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Consistently, the best fights on cards these days are involving the 125 pound men. So shout out to them. And shout out to Joshua Van. It feels like he's really sort of, you know, sometimes a guy comes in to the UFC and there's excitement about him, but there's not like, he's not like, oh, this is a can't miss prospect, so to speak. And I feel like with Joshua Van, he has sort of grown into the role of being champion that ORA has come out. You see the way he dresses. You see the way he acts at press conferences. You see the way he speaks. He's come out of his shell. And he comes across like a superstar. You know, if the UFC were being 100% honest with themselves, and they would never admit to this, this is the better result for the UFC in that he is the younger, maybe more marketable fighter.

he's got an edge to him, crazy backstory. And I'm not trying to take anything away from Alex Pantoja. One of the nicest human beings and one of the greatest stories. That interview that he had after winning the belt talking about his father, talking about his trials and tribulations. He's an inspirational guy. And coming back from that injury and not even taking time off, you know, dislocates his elbow.

And then two days later, you see video footage of him in the gym, doing whatever he can to get back in there and be in the best shape possible. it's really remarkable what he's done and him too, like another guy that I don't think a lot of us, if we're being 100% honest, I don't think a lot of us thought that he would be that guy. He would be one of the best flywits of all time. Now tied with Joshua Van for second longest winning streak right behind the great Demetrius Johnson. And Joshua Van, of course, has to get many, many, many more title defenses under his belt. So we're a long ways away from all that, you know, greatest civil.

all-time crazy talk. But what a win, what a performance. They go 25 minutes, and I'm a big fan of Joshua Vance. I just, I like everything about him. And most importantly, his fighting style is very fun as well. So shout out to him. Co-main event, Armin Sarukian. I said earlier this week, it felt like the deck was stacked against Armin again because he was promised the title shot against Dan Hooker. If he would have won, he wins, he doesn't get it. He's. He's He's got to travel the world to do RAF, hype, streaming, videos, everything. And then I reported, if you recall, back in early August that he was told if he beats Mrisio Hoofee, he'll get a title shot for whatever that's worth.

But they never promoted as such. They never say that. And then on Wednesday, I believe it was Wednesday or Tuesday, pretty sure it was Wednesday. Anyway, at some point this week, Ilya emerges. and he talks mad shit about Justin Gachie, and he accuses him of loaded gloves, and he says, I'm coming for you, and I'm going to get my belt back and all that stuff. And it feels like all the attention was taken away from Armament. And I said, yes, it was Tuesday. I said, I don't even know, like, a win, I don't think is enough. I don't think a decision win was enough

against Maricio. And I don't even know if a finish is enough. This is what I said earlier in the week. So much pressure on him two years ago in that same city, Los Angeles, different arena. He had title shot, he pulls out morning of the way-ins, the headbut, the fan incident at UFC 300, putting neon in his corner, like it feels like he was also helping to stack the deck against them. And I said, I didn't think that a finish was going to guarantee a title shot. And then you see what he did to Maricio Huffy. The elbow knockout, how was that not enough? How was that not enough at this point. Now, the UFC has a very tough and a very good decision to make. Do you run it back with Ilya, who they love, who's deserving of an opportunity like that, but that fight wasn't

necessarily the closest, or do you give it to Armin, who has now knocked out Maricio Hoofee, who was promised the title shot before the hooker won, who was promised the title shot before this one, what do you do? Armand Strikesby is the kind of guy who would be like, yeah, just give me another fight and, you know, I'll get paid. But it's time he fights for the belt. And so if I were in charge, look, you can go no, there's no wrong answer per se in that Gaichi, Ilya, Armin, Paddy, those are the four, is all blockbuster. But you have Gaichi Armin, Ilya Patty, winner of that fight, gets a title shot. That grudge match is like five years in the making. Feels like that's the move. Feels like that's the move. What about Armin, man? What about Armin, man? What

a freaking stud. This guy was in the doghouse, scratched it and clawed. I mean, a lesson to any fighter out there. You feel like you're in the doghouse? Dictate your own, your own future. And it's worth noting, RAF was a massive, like we talk about the videos, we talk about the social media, great. But without RAF, Armin isn't able to get into all those matches, those feuds, those highlights, Georgia Poulos, all that stuff. He's not able to remain. as relevant. Those videos only take you so far. R.A.F., Chad Bronstein, Izzy Martinez, Eric Bischoff deserve a ton of credit for what they did with Armin, a ton of credit. And I know he knows that. I know he gets some sort of equity and all that, but like that being a thing helped him tremendously.

Helped him tremendously. And so, man, that was everything that he needed to do and then some. a scintillating, explosive, outstanding, somewhat shocking. Oh my God, the elbow was beautiful. Armitruchin is a man-possessed. An incredible first-round knockout with just, what, four seconds left in the first round. Final answer, and there's no wrong answer. I think you got to go, Gaichi, Armin, Paddy and Ilya. Patty and Ilya would be so freaking good.

the beef, the animosity, the history, the backstory, all that, that's the one in my opinion. That's the combo, if you will. But shout it to Armin, not only does he get the win, he gets the bonus. Joshua Van got the bonus as well. He walks out with Neon. Like, he did it all. Funny moment, Hamza jumps into the cage. Armin jumps out to hug his pal Nina.

The guy is just one of a kind. He really is one of a kind. and to hear the pop in L.A., massive Armenian population, that was just tremendous stuff from Armitzuki, and that's where I'm leaning towards in terms of the top of the lightweight division. Incredible, incredible stuff. What about Patricio Pitbull? First round knockout of Duhu Choi. That felt like the first time we had seen Patricia Pipel, the Patricia Pipel that we had seen in Beltoll in the UFC.

No knock on his previous performances. but it never quite felt like he had arrived in the UFC just yet. It never quite felt like we were getting that guy. And yes, he's older. He's in his late 30s, I think 39 off top of my head. That was a clean, old school Bellator Pitbull knockout. Beautiful stuff out of him. Much needed.

End of his contract. Needed that win. Needed that performance. A beautiful right cross. And it was just so clean like a missile. He's had a few of those before back in the day in Bellator. and beautiful to see. Like the way he stunned Duhu Choy

and then finished him off, just vicious, vicious stuff out of pit bull. So shout out of him, a great win. Sean Chiraph, Gable Stephson. Man, I could do 30 minutes on this fight. And there will be plenty more to say. By now you know, Sean Chiraph, who is a massive, massive underdog,

who a lot of people viewed as just an opponent, who a lot of people thought, Gable Steveson would just completely dismantle. Let's be honest, we didn't think much of the matchup as well. The guy was on a two-fight losing streak, didn't show much, didn't seem like he was going to be much of a threat, especially not against someone like Gable Steven. They picked the wrong guy. And I say, so you know by now that he wins in 12 seconds, shocking stuff. I say that they picked the wrong guy, not so much because of his skills. Here's the thing about Sean Chiraff. Sean Chiraff was hungry. Sean Sharaff was desperate.

The more we learned about Sean Sharaff this week, the more we realized that he was going for broke. Sean Strickland reveals last night that the guy was sleeping on the floor, not that long ago. The guy was desperate. He was hungry. And when he was at that press conference and he's talking about the rape accusations and the loophole and all this stuff that Gable has had to deal with and it's in his head. and he's talking about it out loud on a microphone. You could see Gable was rattled. You could see he was dying inside.

You could see that he was completely thrown off by that. Sean Choraph got in his head, got under his skin. And here's the thing. Gable Steven is a supreme athlete. He is an Olympic gold medalist. He's a national champion. He is, you know, in some respects a once-in-a-lifetime athlete. but there's a lot of issues here.

And I'm not even talking about the stuff that he's been through, the legal issues. Since Gable Stephson won the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021, 2021, 2020 Olympics delayed a year because of COVID, not much has gone right for him. He signs with WWE, flames out, doesn't take to it, they don't love him, is essentially released a few years later and doesn't make much of an impact. tries out for the Buffalo Bills, tries to go down the Brock Lesnar path, a lot of similarities between the two University of Minnesota.

That was a Hail Mary, but it doesn't work out. Goes back to college, tries to win the national championship again, loses in the final to Wyatt Hendrickson, finally goes to MMA, which almost felt like it was the last thing that he wanted to do at that point, but he does it, starts off pretty well.

But when I saw him get rocked with that spinning heel kick in Mexico, in February, we were there, we filmed it, that was eye-opening. That young in your career against an opponent like that, you can't be getting rocked with the spinning heel kick because if you start to fight better opponents, you will get knocked out by that spinning heel kick.

First UFC fight, look good, but like, you definitely saw some signs that, oh man, this guy can get hit, chin up, not protecting himself. And then you see what happened yesterday in 12 seconds. He didn't respect Sean Chiraph. He didn't consider him a threat. And here's the truth. Gable Stephson needs to humble himself.

Gable Steven acts and conducts himself like he's John Jones. He's not John Jones. He's nowhere near John Jones. John Jones had a lot of demons. John Jones did a lot of bad things on Fight Week. But John Jones had incredible MMM. talent. And before he started doing those things, he had a bunch of fights under his belt. Gable doesn't have those fights under his belt, and he's conducting himself like he's been there,

done that. The walking out of the cage thing I'm not going to get too mad about, but it does show, like, to not have the respect for the game for your opponent and just leave the cage like that, like he is that beneath you, it's just a bad look. He has a ton of work to do to win the fans over, and quite frankly, I don't know if he'll ever win them over. Now, I know, like, the internet is one thing, but did you hear those booze? Did you hear the way the people reacted to him? He does not come across as someone who is willing to be humble, to win over the fans, to do things the right way, the way he speaks about his opponent, the way he acts up there, all the nonsense with looking away, like, dude, you're not John Jones. You are not John Jones.

It's one thing to be mentored by John Jones, but don't play the same hits as John Jones because you're not him. You don't fight like him. You are not as good as him at this stage of your career. And I feel like he got humbled yesterday. And now the big question is going to be, how does he rebound from that? How does he bounce back from this? Where does he go from here? Obviously, the talent is there. Obviously, there's skill there. Obviously, he's a supreme athlete. But does he really want this? Does he really want to be an MMA fighter? Does he really want to go through the process? John Jones had to fight on the regional scene. He was fighting, you know, he didn't have an all-star coaching staff, you don't have any of this stuff. And it just, it increasingly starts to come across.

I mean, even their, even their personalities are like, like, there are two peas in a pod, John and Gable. There is like some sort of like, there's a similarity there. John Jones is a once in a lifetime virtuoso athlete, MMA fighter. Gable is not right now. And he doesn't have the background. He jumped right in. He doesn't have an extensive amateur background. He doesn't have an extensive regional scene background. He jumped into the UFC 3 and L. And I'm not blaming. Like, the UFC gave him the right opponent. Skill-wise, they didn't give him the right opponent verbally. That guy broke him. And I don't know if it's just, you know, some guy who doesn't say a word or some Brazilian fighter who can't speak English if the fight goes any differently. But there's

no doubt about it. Sean Chiraff broke Gable Steveson before that fight. He got under. under his skin. He rattled him. He upset him. He annoyed him. And that messes with you. That messes with you 100%. So what a story. What a win. I think he got like the mob land bonus. I don't know how you don't get the 100 kids. Who the hell knows? But hopefully now, you know, he'll be able to buy a bed and a lot of people are behind this guy. And everyone loves a rocky story. Everyone loves an underdog. And there's actually a lot of similarities between, you know, like, it reminded me a little bit of the Philip Hergevich, Mosetama fight in that, and I'm not comparing Moses to Gable. Moses is not Gable. Moses is way better than Gable. But Moses tried to break Hergevich.

Hergevich broke him. Hergevich got under his skin. Hergavich got in his head. Both fights were very different. But there was, I mean, we saw it a little bit with the Bellamere thing. Like, we need to stop in MMA when someone is 3 and 0, 2, 04, and, and, and know, making these astronomical odds. We need to stop doing that. Not because it affects the fight. It's just, it's like, we don't know. We do not know. We don't know who's who and what's what and with four ounce gloves and that kind of raw skill and talent. Yeah, crazy things can happen. And that was absolutely shocking. And he's got to build himself back up and he's got to do a lot, a lot of work to get the fans on his side. And most importantly, he has to humble himself.

Like he could have started in that moment. Like the first act could have been stay in the damn cage and be there when your opponent gets his hand raised. That was like act one. He does not do that. Go win yourself some fans. As his cornerman, Greg Jackson said to Donald Seroni. I just thought that was a bad look.

I don't really care ultimately, but it just speaks to how he views everyone else, including the guy who just knocked him out. before the fight and after the fight. I thought the looking away thing was corny. I thought it was, it was just like, John's like, don't give him the respect. Like, what is that? What is that nonsense?

You're not John Jones. You're not. And it's going to be very hard to be John Jones. And John, if he wants to be a coach, shouldn't try to create a mini him. Taylor, your coaching, your advice, and he's got incredible people, Greg Jackson and Brandon Gibson,

incredible minds. Don't try to, make a John Jones light, a mini John Jones play the same hits. Everyone's different. And that did not work. And Sean Choroff deserves all the credit in the world. He got under his skin. He got in his head and he freaking knocked him out in 12 seconds. What? Unbelievable. What a night. We keep going. Alonzo Menefield with a split decision win over Ivo Baranovski. His freaking thumb was cut open and a bone was sticking out. That was a big dog. There was a period where it was Sean Shoraf, Alonzo Menefield, and Cheeto Freakened Vera with the third round left hook. You know, we spoke to him a couple

weeks ago. He was calm. He was relaxed. He was happy. He was in a good state of mind. He had a new team. He left Perillo. He's training with the Rosas family. That was old school Marlon Vera. And that wasn't a give me fight. Charles Jordan had looked great since moving down to 135. Marlon Vera looked incredible. Wow. I won't lie. I am happy for Marlon Vera. That was so, I mean, you saw the emotion afterwards. I can't imagine how he felt how happy he was. What a win. He looked amazing. He looked on point. He looked fast. He looked sharp. He looked aggressive. Marlon Vera, back on track. The losing streak is over. I loved it. I loved everything about it. It was beautiful to see, and I'm so, so, so happy for him.

So he was a dog as well. Three straight dogs winning at the same time in succession. Unbelievable. Robles to span. Tai Tui Vasa. Ties Tony Ferguson's eight-fight losing streak record. I don't know, man. I don't know.

It's so tough. It's so tough. Big tie. Bam, bam. Wasn't the greatest fight. There were fun moments. Robles back in the UFC gets a split decision win. I don't know what happens to tie.

I say give him one more. Give him one more. Give him one more. There's enough dudes at heavyweight that Thai could bang with. Come on. Just give him one more. Everyone loves Thai. James Tihuna. Come on, man. Shout out to him. Michael Aswell Jr. beats Zhu Sang Yu. A great win for him. Split decision afterwards saying, can you please keep me in the arena so that I can watch the fights? That's absurd. They used to do this, by the way. Pre-COVID, everyone got to stay. They would put him in the back. They'd have ice cream. You get to watch. You could go in the arena. Now you got to leave the arena. Can you believe that? You have to leave the arena. You just

fought in the dam arena. Now you've got to leave the arena too? Absurd. Ryan Gandra with another incredible win. He beats Ozzy Diaz in the first round. This dude is someone that we need to start really taking a look at. Now 11 and 1 right hook and he knocks him out in two minutes and four seconds. Edmund Chabazian gets the unanimous decision win over Bruno Faheda. A solid win for him. Casey O'Neill. King freaking Casey O'Neill. What would was that arm bar? What was that? So at this point, are we looking at a world where Alexa Grasso is knockout of the year and Casey O'Neill is sub of the year? For everything that people say about women's MMA, is that possible? Is this the sub of the year? This was what, this reminded me of like

DJ's flying arm bar. What was that? She goes from almost getting sub, I believe in Anaconda, to then pushing her off transitions into an arm bar? What the fuck? That was, that was, I had to keep watching that over and over again. That was outstanding, sensational. That was exhilarating. Casey O'Neill, I'm happy for her. She had a really tough two-year stretch, injuries, the knee,

you wonder how she's going to come back. King Casey reigns supreme. I freaking love that. What a submission, and she got the bonus as well. That was amazing. and Joe Anderson Brito knocking out Giga Chikaze. Fun fight as well, some bad blood between them. He gets the knockout to start the night.

A great, great win for the Brazilian as well. UFC 331, I said on paper, was amazing, was very fun. We also had the Moikano-Ortega fight that we were hoping for. You know what happened earlier in the week, so we lost that. Every single fight was fun, was exciting, was entertaining. It felt like there were stakes, great performances, shocking upsets. highs and lows and it culminated with a great main event. I enjoyed it immensely. So again, I won't be there on Monday. The boys have you covered. I will be here with you all on

Tuesday and we'll have plenty more to talk about. But much love to the boys for holding it down, the whole crew holding it down. Thank you to Ben folks for joining us on the post show. And I'm actually going to do another video where we talk about the Madison Square Garden announcement because that was the other big news. So go click over there and watch my thoughts on that. For now, though, shout out to all the winners. Congrats to all the winners. I still can't believe that sub by Casey O'Neill,

that knockout by Sean Chiraph, Cheeto Vera, back on track, Armin Sarukian, number one contender, Joshua Van, Alex Pantosia, Fight of the Year contender, incredible stuff. What are the... Oh, Patricia Bidball turning back the clock. What a night. UFC 331.

All right, so the big news on... Saturday, not pertaining to UFC 331, was the announcement regarding UFC 334, which goes down in Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena, the home of the 2026 NBA champion. Yeah. New York Knickerbocker is November 14th of this year, and we already know what's headlining UFC 332. We already know what's headlining UFC 333. Those are coming up in October, but this was the big question, and now we know.

And there's a lot of weirdness attached to this main event. So the main event is Surreal Gan versus Josh Hokit for the undisputed UFC heavyweight title. Co-main event, she is back. Queen Kayla is back defending her women's bantamweight title against her bitter rival Amanda Nunes. Let's start with the main event. Last Monday, we find out Tom Aspinall vacating the title. Left Eye isn't 100%. has had two surgeries on it, one on the right, the right is doing better, the left is not doing well,

he needs to go back in January. I say not doing well, he's not clear just yet, and they're hopeful in January he'll be cleared. He doesn't want to hold up the division, so he's giving up the belt, and he's going to chill out and hopefully get better. So that's on Monday. Everyone just assumes at that point that Cyril Gan became the undisputed champion. Historically, when someone vacates the title, and there is an interim champion, you know, already in place. The move has always been the interim champ just gets elevated. If there's a

vacant title, if there's a champion, he vacates the title, and there isn't an interim champion, historically the move was two people will fight, like we're seeing at UFC, what is it, 332 with Natalia Silva and Wang Tong. Those two fighters will fight for the belt. But no announcement came. Dana White didn't talk about it, didn't do contender series presser and all that stuff. stuff. So there was a thought, all right, maybe they'll just do an interim title fight and not acknowledge the vacancy. Maybe they'll just keep him as interim and fight. Who the hell knows? On Friday, Dana White is speaking to Sportsnet, Roger SportsNend in Canada, and says, after clearly understanding the question, I don't buy this nonsense that you didn't understand the question,

says, and is almost like shocked by the question, it was very, very strange. He's talking to Diana Belbita, former UFC fighter now works for Rogers. Is Cyril Gan now the undisputed champion, or will he, and I hate using that word because it's very disputed, but you get the point, official champion, or is he going to remain interim? He's like, no, he'll be interim. And it just, it just kind of goes to show he has no clue what is going on. He is not. tied to the business. He is not locked in. And there was a part of me that actually kind of liked it because I thought to myself, all right, maybe, look, there's no sanctioning body. There's no WBC, WBO deciding who's doing what. It's the UFC. They could do whatever the hell they want. There's no

rhyme or reason to any of this. But maybe they thought, all right, God caused the injury. Tom had to defend his interim title. Why don't we just have Gunn defend the interim? Or Or why don't we have him go into the fight as the interim champ and is essentially a vacant title fight? I actually kind of liked it. It made no sense. Historically, it made no sense. There's no precedent for it. But I kind of liked it.

It was like, all right, this is a bit of a weird one. The guy who caused the injury is now the interim champ because he won in January. And the guy who he injured can't fight. But he's the interim champ. So let's have him either defend the interim championship because the other guy had to defend it or maybe most fair. you're an interim champ, but the belt is vacant, you win, you become champion. That's what I would have done. That's probably what I would have done.

I would have said you're going to remain interim champion until November 14th. You fight for the title and if you win, you become the official champ. If I were in charge, that's what I would have done. That doesn't happen. Broadcast, they announced the two fights. Joe Rogan says, Dana White misspoke, he can't hear, he's deaf. What is this nonsense? come on guys he has no idea just call it what it is he has no idea what's going on he probably

didn't understand the question because he doesn't even know you know dana white continues to say that he doesn't look at social media he doesn't know this down and the other he's very selective with what he knows he heard what tito said he knew about the just of gaitchy gloves he's very selective about what he knows and yet shout out to ben folks who brought this up every single time he talks about power slap what does he talk about he touts the social media numbers so when it when it helps him, he touts social media. It's the greatest thing. Look at these metrics. Look at these numbers. This is the reason why Power Slap is so great. And then when he's trying to say, I don't follow MMA. I have nothing to do. By the way, if you are true, like, you're the freaking president of the

UFC. One would think you at least follow the UFC and interact with things that they do and look at things that they do. So the algorithm alone would feed you MMA content, UFC content. Oh, no, no, no, I have nothing to do with all that's nonsense. It's all bullshit. I don't listen to any of that. But then let me tell you about Parasap and all its great social media numbers. Which one is it? It's all a bunch of bullshit. So he's just not tuned in. He's not locked in. He has no idea what's being asked of him. He doesn't even remember. You notice the references, even at the presser on 331, he's talking about Forrest Griffin walking out of it. His references in his brain are like 09 to 12. The last few years, I don't know what's going on up there.

It's a wild thing. It really is. He is so much more locked in and boxing. And you can tell the passion is there, the interest is there as opposed to MMA. And this is exhibit 3,569. He has asked if Surreal Gan is going to remain interim or become undisputed. He says no. And then he says, no, he's not going to be undisputed. He's going to remain interim. And then the next day they're like, ah, he misspoke.

The president misspoke. Surreal Gan, congratulations. You're the undisputed champion. Well done. What a beautiful and ceremonial way to become undisputed champion. And so it's Surreal Gunn versus Josh Hokit, and Surreal is going to walk in there as the official champ. Finally, he's the official champ. Amazing.

And so they go with Josh Hokit. There was a part of me that thought maybe they'd go with Volkov, because remember, they said that they'd make it up to him after everyone thought he won. And I don't know how they're going to make. I think it's Volkov and Calgary for UFC 149 will forever wait to be, you know, made up to. I thought maybe they'd go with Volkov, even though that's the least sexy. of the options and then go with Pereira and Hokit and the comate as a number one contender fight. And then you saw the picture with Pereira and Hunter Campbell. And then you heard Pereira campaigning for the belt.

And it seemed like all signs were pointing to Pereira versus Gunn. Hokit remained steadfast. He kept putting out clues that he was going to get good news as well. And so now here's Josh Hokit, who a year ago today had yet to make his UFC debut, who a year ago today was just coming off Contender Series, absolutely skyrockets to the top. And look, some things broke his way. It's like Jamal Hill.

Some things have to break, and you get that title shot. And so good on him. Dana Way was asked about this at the 331 press conference. Like, oh, my God, could you imagine Josh Hokka as champion? Oh, I can't imagine. What do you talk? Like, the UFC made this decision. We know what happens when they don't like someone.

Just look at Armin Sarukin. They don't have to give you a title shot. Look at Mofstar Evalov. They don't want him to fight for the belt. Look at Ballal back of the day. They didn't want him to fight for the belt. Leon Edwards, they didn't want. They could keep you on the sidelines waiting, waiting, waiting.

They love Josh Hokit. Are you kidding me? Don't believe for a second, oh, we don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what he's going to say. They're putting him in the Madison Square Garden main event for the heavyweight title. They love this freaking guy. They love him. They absolutely love him.

And they probably want him to win as well because he talks shit. he sells fights, he's a showman, he's divisive, he's polarizing, he's a promoter, he's all that and more. Don't believe for a second that he's feeling some sort of way about this, because if he truly was, he wouldn't be getting a title shot. And so now the question is, what happens to Pereira? Volkov? He clearly wants to stay at heavyweight, so maybe that's the move, Pereira versus Volkov. What a story. Josh Hokit can win this fight, but here's the thing. Josh Hokut is a supreme athlete. He's one of the best athletic heavyweights. wrestling background, football background, Suril Gun's a very good athlete as well. It's a fascinating

matchup. It's a very good matchup. And I like the fact that they're not running it back. You can't keep running it back. I know it was a little bit controversial, but I'd like to see Perea get a win. Maybe it gets lesser. Maybe go all the way back. Just get a win at heavy weight and then put them in there. I don't mind that at all. But to go right back in there against Surreal, I think might have been detrimental to him. Surreal was big, he was strong, he was quick. It wasn't the best of matchups. I mean, personally, if I were in charge of his career, I would rather him fight at light heavyweight if I'm being 100% honest. Perera, that is. So that's the main event, and it's a fascinating one. And who the hell would have thought six months ago? Surreal

Guy and Josh Hockett, main event, Mattis Square Garden for the official UFC heavyweight title. Insane how this sport evolves. Comane, Kayla Harrison, Amanda Nunes. We haven't seen Kayla since June of 25. We haven't seen Amanda since 2023. This was supposed to happen in January. Thank God, 11 months later we're getting it. Neck injury for Kayla. Can't wait for it. I don't know what version of Kayla we're going to get. I don't know what version of Amanda we're going to get.

Here's my hot take. I feel like this could be a double retirement fight. If Kayla Harrison wins, there's literally nothing else for her to do in this sport. You win your final fight against your bid arrival, the go to many people's eyes at Madison Square Garden. Walk away. There's, you got the neck. Like, that's it.

And if Amanda wins, what, like, who's coming up at 135 right now? this could be a double retirement fight. And conversely, if they both lose, I don't see what's the point of going on. Meaning not both lose at the same time, but like, if Kayla loses or if Amanda loses. This could be a rare double retirement fight. What is the, like, what is the point? Kayla, there's no point. Amanda might say, I came all the way back, like, let me defend a couple times if I win.

If I lose, then I don't see what the point is. And then if Kayla loses, like, what, I mean, maybe they run it back. That's maybe the only other one. It's such a great fight. We run it back. But it's great to get a, you know, a legit, anticipated women's title fight on the books. I'm very happy that Kayla was able to come back. There was a little bit concerned, like, how is she going to look, how is she going to feel, what's going to happen?

She is apparently good to go. Can't wait to talk to her about it. And so that's your co-main event. Two intriguing fights at the top of the bill. Let me know what you think about them. Other fights, we know about Balal Hassan. They announced Kyle Bohalio against Yusri Balgur. that's a great fight at 185. Uros Medich against Kevin Holland is going to be great.

Medich coming off that great win in Serbia and Kevin Holland always fun Nassim Sadiqov against Jefferson Nassiamento. Those are the fights announced. Is it missing like that that super duper A plus plus main event? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Like last year you had Islam moving up, Connor back in the day, Pereira, DeSanya. It feels. a little, it feels like DC Derek Lewis-esque, you know, kind of cobble together less than two months away. But it's MSG, it's going to be great, everyone's going to be hyped. And hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, Tom Asperall gets to fight the winner. And I'd love to see him in attendance. Honestly, I'd love to see him sitting there. I know he doesn't like to travel, leave his family and all that,

but it would be a nice touch to see him in attendance. And it's going to be great to see Kayla fight Amanda, finally, one of the most anticipated female fights of all time. What do you think of the card? what are your thoughts? Let me know below. I appreciate you all very much. Like sub, all that stuff and more. Thank you for watching and we'll see you on Monday.