The Ariel Helwani Show - Arman Tsarukyan in studio, Alexander Volkanovski, Bo Nickal, Ed Soares, massive weekend recap

Episode Date: January 12, 2026

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show with reaction to Real American Freestyle’s fifth event, headlined by Colby Covington and Luke Rockhold, and Dana White’s recent media tour (06:08).Bo Nickal, who was scheduled to compete against Yoel Romero at RAF05, joins next to discuss the event, Romero missing weight, trash talk from Covington and Rockhold, wanting to fight Covington in MMA and end his career, potentially competing on the White House card, and more (58:41).LFA CEO Ed Soares is back to detail the promotion’s new broadcast deal with VICE TV, explain why they didn’t come to an agreement with UFC Fight Pass, the promotion’s plans for 2026 and beyond, considering LFA the No. 2 promotion in the world, and more (1:20:01).UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski returns to talk about Diego Lopes getting the title shot over Lerone Murphy and Movsar Evloev, where the conversation about his retirement came from, whether he’d ever want to challenge for the lightweight belt again, being able to really showcase his personality in recent years, and more (1:45:30).Top UFC lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan joins Ariel in-studio to discuss his potential next fight, hoping Paddy Pimblett loses against Justin Gaethje, his rise as a content creator, before being surprised with a massive assortment of pizza (2:07:41).Ariel ends the show by covering some news and notes, including Khamzat Chimaev calling for a light heavyweight title shot, Alex Pereira’s split from Tracy Cortez, Paramount’s new pricing, Kamaru Usman’s captured conversation with Anthony Joshua, and more (3:32:19).Plus, the answers to your Super Chats (3:55:16).

Lazy! Welcome to the er! On this Monday, January 12th, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you are doing well on this lovely, lovely Victory Monday. Yes, why is it Victory Monday? Because my friends, I will be honest with you. You come into my life, I come into your life. And sometimes my mood gets affected by things that happen over the weekend, my friends.

And in case you missed it, over the weekend, America's team, North America's team, dare I say, the Buffalo Bills pulled one out of the fire. Sunday afternoon in Jacksonville, what a time it was. And this is it, my friends, this is it. This could be, this could be our best chance yet. These boys right here, these boys, and this young man in particular, this young man in particular, The soon-to-be proud papa. Oh my gosh. I'm still buzzing.

I'm still having heart palpitations over what transpired. I had the utmost respect for Jacksonville. Shout out to Tony Klein. I never heard about the stipulation of us, you know, owning the team for a day. If the bills win, if they would have lost, he would have hosted. I never heard, so I'm guessing the deal is off. But truth be told, I wouldn't change much. I mean, maybe get rid of that one wide receiver dude who's killing us.

Keep Liam Cohen. he seems like a cool guy. Trevor, maybe trim the hair a little bit. For the most part, we would have kept things, you know, status quo. In the end, unnecessary because it's on to Denver. And, you know, I like a lot of Denver Bronco fans. There's two in particular in my life. One great guy named George Olfant who hosts a show called George to the rescue.

A big, big, big fan of his. And then another, as you may know, the man in the hat. Chuck Mendenhall is a longtime Denver Bronco. fan and so like I don't find them to be like an insufferable fan base like like the Patriots or some other fan bases out there but the truth is like all Broncos fans are avalanche fans are Nuggets fans they've won a lot and of course they want in the late 90s so save me all right you're you're not your usual number one seed you kind of got lucky bo necks I'm not trying to say anything I'm not trying to I'm not trying to produce bulletin board materials

But here we are, my friends. And there was a point in yesterday's game where I was like, maybe this is for the best. I'm going to be at the Olympics during the Super Bowl. Maybe it's not meant to be. And then there's Josh Allen, leading us to victory. And there's Trudevius White, turning back the clock. And there's Cole Bishop.

Oh, what a great interception that was. And here we are. Survive and advance with perhaps our weakest team of this era. But perhaps, perhaps, my friends, perhaps this is the way it was supposed to be. All to say, I'm in a fantastic mood on this Monday. I would have been in a pretty rotten mood on this Monday. And so I hope that you will get four more Mondays of very happy Ariel. Actually, three more Mondays.

Four in between if there's that, you know, by week during the championship game in the Super Bowl. So I think this is good. I think you should all be Bill's fans during this run. If you have no, you know, horse in the race, because that just means I'm in a better mood. That just means the show is better. And wouldn't you know it?

Today's show, my friends, is an all-timer. It's a super-stacked Monday as we return to our regular schedule, which is interviews, banter. Last week was great awards shows on Monday and Tuesdays. Obviously, we had the prediction show on Wednesday. Shout it to the backies on Thursday. Shout it to the crack boys on Friday. It was even on John Pollock's prediction show.

Check that out on the post- Wrestling YouTube channel. So now all of that is out of the way. Now we get back to the regular stuff. We're less than two weeks away from the UFC's return, UFC 324. And the more I think about it, they haven't outright said it. The more I think about it, the more I believe that they took this hiatus because CBS is very entrenched in the world of the NFL playoffs. It doesn't make sense to have a Saturday night game this past Saturday when you're going up against the Bears and Packers. Doesn't make sense to have a Saturday night game when you're going up against either the Bills, Broncos, or, I don't know, one of the other games, who the hell knows in the NFL?

And so the following week, you'll have Saturday off because the championship game on Sunday. So it makes sense to clear the schedule, return. We're less than two weeks away. And while the quiet schedule may be a thing for some, it's not a thing for us here. Why? Because we have a super stack show. Back end of the program, perhaps the most interesting man in all of MMA. And dare I say, combat sports, the pride of Armenia, the pride of Georgia, the pride of Russia, the pride of Florida.

the one and only, your number one contender and mine, the uncrowned champion at 155 pounds, the one and only, Armin Tsarukyan, will join us in studio. Armand Tsrukiyan in studio at about 3 o'clock. How about that? How great is this? Coming off his big win this past weekend at RAF, more on them in a moment. Prior to that, we're going to be joined by the one and only the reigning defending UFC featherweight champion, the pride of Australia.

I was trying to... I come from a land down and... The man who will be defending his title, UFC 325 on January 31st here in America, February 1st, over in beautiful Sydney, the one and only, the great one. Alex Volcanoffsky will join us at about 240. How about that?

Prior to that, we'll be joined by the president of LFA, that's Legacy Fighting Alliance. That's the one and only Ed Sores. And wouldn't you know it? Great nugget from our good friend Alan Murphy. It was nine years ago tomorrow. that they had their debut show. Legacy, they were called Legacy Fighting and RFA.

They came together to make the LFA. Here they are. And they just scored a big new TV deal on Vice TV. So they've left UFC Fight Pass. They're on Vice now. And he's going to talk to about all of that and more. And then prior to that, Bo Nicol, who was very much in the news over the past couple days

because of his involvement in RAF, the match against U.O. Romero didn't come to fruition. and we will talk to him about all of that and more. So that's a super stacked four pock if you ask me. Yeah, look at those guys. The great one. Armin. Easy Ed.

Big Bo. Love it. Can't wait to get all into that. But first we say hello to the one and only Pee C. Carroll, who's joining us over in Dublin town. Yeah, still buzzing. How many hours of sleep did you get last night? You probably were happy that the last game,

was the crappiest game. Of course, the Pat's in the worst game, because you can just kind of shut it off midway through and get some sleep, right? That is exactly what I did, actually, Joe. It just got the halftime and I was like, do I care? No. Do I care enough to stay up? And the answer was no. Of course, you know, it's interesting

you bring up at the start of this Ariel. Yes. A very true thing about your moods on Monday based on how well the bills have performed. Sure. And this dawned on me mid-game. And, you know, I was texting you. And then I'm like, I'm picking when to text you because I'm like, I can't text them on a Jacksonville driving case something

goes terribly wrong here. So I wait for Josh Allen to do something tremendous and then I'll write back, you know what I mean? Because I know he's going to be buzzing now. But this must be a fantastic feeling. I got to say, right, there's a, there's a fair few Pats fans in Ireland and all of them were talking big mess about Trevor Lawrence. Like all of them were going, oh, I think this one, I think this one is going to be too much for the bills. All they have is Josh Allen. And then to go ahead and deal with that must feel very, very good, Ariel. It feels unbelievably gratifying. As you know, a little bit nervous. Uptmost respect for the Jags. They're at home. They were, I think they had won nine in the last

10, something like that. Their defense had been very, very good. Trevor Lawrence, nice hair, all that stuff. But there's only one JA17, my guy. There's only one QB1. And it's a magical time. And I was enjoying it with my kids. They were getting into it. They were like, why is this so stressful. Why do you do this to us? I say, look, welcome, welcome to the mafia. This is the way it is. And how lucky are we? I say to them, how lucky are we that we have this? That we get to live and breathe and root for something bigger than us to have a communal feeling. How lucky are we that we get this gift called sports that I have given to you that now you will hopefully one day care? And I told them, I hope one day I'm not gone and you guys are watching the bills when the Super Bowl and say, man,

you know who would have loved this? Dad. Dad would have loved this. I hope we don't get to that point. I hope we'll get like a few of them and then we can all revel and move on with our lives. But who knows, Pizzi, who knows? I'm in a great mood.

I'm not going to lie. I'm in a great mood. I feel good. No Eagles. No Chiefs. No Ravens. I mean, thank God about the Eagles. Oh, my God.

It's an amazing thing. I was hoping for, you know, I was hoping for no Patriots, but you can't have it all. You can't have it all. I was just waiting to watch Bill Simmons on Netflix and congratulations. to him on a great, great achievement.

But you can't have it all, my friends. We will watch tonight, and then it's on to next week, and I'm very happy that I get one more week of consuming. I say this, like, I consume all the content, WGR, I watch all this stuff, I listen to all of it, all the podcasts, all the videos, the gift in the dead of winter to have something to be this excited about is one that I don't take for granted.

So, Pizzi, we have a lot to talk about, because if I'm being honest, there's a lot of, what is it, bits and bobs? I always screw this up. Bibs and Bobbs? Bits and Bob's, I'd say. Bits and Bob's. Frank is usually here to correct us and tell us his version of things.

Yeah. I don't know where he is. I think he's had a bit of a stressful morning. Yeah. It's actually been a bit of a stressful morning here at the HQ. Rick is not here at the moment. G.C. not here at the moment. So it's just kind of you and I.

I just thought they could be bothered there. No, no. They're very busy. They're doing a lot of things. And you'll see some of those things come to fruition later in the program, so stay tuned for that. So it's just you and I. You know, I wanted to start off talking a little bit about what was the biggest, at least for us, combat sports story. Look, I'll talk about Dalton Smith getting a huge win in Brooklyn over at the Barclays Center over Subreal-Mathias.

He is now the new WBC 140-pound champion, another champion hailing from the UK. That's a massive deal for the good folks over in the UK. Sheffield's own, Dalton Smith. Great win, great stoppage. Also, Agit Kabayel over in Germany. That was incredible as well. So as far as boxing is concerned, their schedule is up and running. I mean, they had the Puerto Rico show two weekends ago now, MVP, Amanda Serrano, Holly Home, all that stuff. These big shows on the zone, MMA slowly getting back into things. But as far as like the MMA community, I feel like a lot of us were locked in on R.A.F, real American freestyle wrestling, having their fifth event.

This time in Sunrise, Florida, home of the two. time back-to-back Stanley Cup champion, Florida Panthers, a venue, by the way, that has hosted many a notable MMA events. Probably most notorious is the Kimbo-Slic Sepp Petrazelli match back in 2008. One Demetrius Johnson fought Ian McCall there in their rematch in 2012, I believe it was, if not 2013. Anyway, they had this event, which was headlined by Colby Covington versus Luke Rockhold. But there were big names on the card, including Armand Suruki and going up against Lance Palmer, a multiple-time Division I All-American, including Yol Romero versus Bo Nickel, which was a dream match of sorts. For whatever reason, they went with Colby versus Luke. And I still think that

R.A.F. has something special. I'll never forget, one day being at my desk, at home, getting a text from Chad Bronstein, who's kind of the face of the promotion now alongside Israel Martinez, Izzy style. And he tells me, hey, I've got two guys here who want to talk to you, and it's Eric Bischoff and Hulk Hogan. May he rest in peace. And they're telling me about this league that they're going to start. And I'm thinking to myself like, yeah, I mean, I feel like there's something there. I feel like there's an opening. There's a path there. No one has really conquered the post-college post-Olympic wrestling scene. You either have to go to pro wrestling or go to MMA or become a coach. Basically, those are your options. So I feel like there's

something there, but I wasn't quite sure. And now here they are in the span of five months, putting on five events, and they already have their next one book for February 28th in Arizona, Henry Sohudo versus Uriah Faber. Now, do I know if they've found the secret sauce just yet? Do I know if they've found that just yet? Is the secret sauce a guy like U.L going up against a lesser-known martial artist slash wrestler like a Pap Buchanan? Is that the secret sauce? Or is the Secret Sauce, you know, legends who have graduated from wrestling into MMA, Faber Sohudo, going up in a wrestling, I don't know what the secret sauce is, but what I know is they seem to be growing, they seem to have captured the attention and the imagination of the wrestling community.

They're talking about it a lot. I see all the content. And it feels like there's something going on. They're doing all these like meeting greets with young kids before the events. And it seems like everyone who has competed for them really is enjoying it, not taking it like super serious in that. They're getting super stressed about it. They're doing media beforehand.

But everyone seems to be enjoying it. What I thought was weird, I'll be honest. I thought it was weird to go with Colby and Yuel, excuse me, Colby and Luke over either the Armin match, who's like very much a number one contender in the UFC or what I thought should have been the main event, Bo versus U.L. Now, that ended up falling through because Yol Romero ended up missing weight on Saturday morning by seven pounds.

Now, P.T., a lot of people are giving Bo a lot of crap for this because in the end he said, no, thanks. I'm not taking this match. Even Colby Coveyton saying, like, look, you know, Luke weighed 20 pounds more than me. What do you care? Like, you're a wuss. You're the P word, as he said. I got to be honest, I understand why Bo didn't take this match. There's a lot more for Bo to lose right now. This is gravy for Yoel. It's gravy for Luke. It's gravy for Colby. Bo's in the thick of his career. Bo's, you know, really, the career hasn't really gotten off just yet. I mean, obviously I know he's in the UFC, but we don't really know what his ceiling is.

Bo's bread and butter, what he's known for is Penn State Wrestling, Dan Hodge Trophy winner, all this stuff, one of the all-time great American wrestlers. You can't take the risk of losing to someone who is 20 years older than you getting work because he decided to not cut weight. He decided to come in seven pounds over. the wrestling community seems to be very mad at Bo or at least a lot of people, I don't know if they're truly wrestling fans or if they're MMA fans who dabble. I don't know what it is, but a lot of people are mad at him for not taking this.

Like, come on, man, sack up. You're one of the faces of R.A.F. Take this match. A lot of people are excited about it was the most anticipated match on the card. What do you make of this? Look, I can understand if wrestling fans, Booneickle being an absolute legend of that sport, I can understand if they're a bit disappointed about it. But this is a side quest for Booneckle.

his main job is being a UFC fighter and to sootract this with this kind of thing and take on an opponent that's heavier than you agreed I think of course and you're dead right about him having more to lose

than any of these guys I think that was very obvious even from the press conference before this event Colby targeting him straight away how many times we've seen Colby do this over the years as soon as you got a guy

with a lot of juice there a lot of heat he's immediately on them because he wants to attach his name to them so he creates all types of headlines which he did which is very good for RAAF. But honestly, I don't think Bo did anything wrong in turning down that fight, as well as just like, you know, a competitive edge being given to Y'all Romero. I know it's not a huge deal, but it increases the chance of injury as well. Wrestling a dude that's, that's heavier than you,

you need to be all on board for the UFC. Things can change. He only needs to talk to Armin Suruki, another guy that was on that card to realize how quickly fake and change with you in the UFC if you slip up or you have something go against you. So no, I don't think it was a bad decision at all. Colby Coventon, the way he addressed Bo, highlighted how big of a deal he is and the moment that he's in right now in his career. So, yeah, he protected his own interests, which he absolutely has to do.

There's no point in throwing your career under the bus for a soy quest, which is what this was. Yeah, and you know what? A couple of things there. Perfect tee up to the Colby clip, which will show you in a moment in case you missed it. Number one, I love the fact that the UFC is allowing these guys to do this stuff.

And I do wonder, by the way, I do wonder if this is a byproduct of the class action lawsuit. the UFC being accused of a monopoly seems to be a lot more willing to let their guys do this kind of stuff. Armand's been doing all kinds of things all over the world to where they can point and say like, look, the guys can go out there. What was the thing that I always said? If you're someone who comes to my house to fix my garage, I can't tell you what to do the rest of your day. And that's what an independent contractor is.

And it seems like the UFC is trying to play that game a little bit more as opposed to saying you can't do anything. because newsflash, there was a time where they essentially said, you can't do anything. You're our property. We're not going to have you there. In fact, Dana White did some media over the past week,

and we'll get to that as well on today's show. And he was asked, I think it was by, is it the Barstool interview? Maybe it was the Barstool interview. In any event, in one of the interviews, he was asked about the D.C. Jones stuff,

and he's like, oh, really? They're doing that sort of thing. Now, I don't believe for a second that he didn't know this. But I think the main stance is like, yeah, we're going to, we're going to let you do some of these fun side quests so that no one can say that we are a monopoly.

Anyway, back to Bo, Bo just got back on track. Bo just got the win at MSG. If he gets worked by a, and look how good Yoel looked in his last match, not this past Saturday, but prior to that. If he gets worked by Yoel, he loses a little bit of luster. He's in line to compete on this White House card, not suggesting for a moment they'll pull the plug on that,

but you have to be calculated. This is not his bread and butter right now. His bread and butter is being an MMA fighter, and so I don't begrudge him for a moment. I don't think that he made the wrong call, and I know everyone out there is going to be just like, yeah, go out there and do it because we want to see the match. I wanted to see the match.

I was very excited about this. I was going to watch this over to the Bears Packers game. I was legit buzzing about it. And I really wanted to see it was like old guard versus new guard, but you know, you miss weight by seven pounds. No, I'm not going to do that. I don't get it. I don't get the hate.

Put yourself in his shirt. shoes. Put yourself in his shoes. There's too much for him to lose. Now, prior to all of this, he was ganged up on by Colby and Luke. Luke and Colby made this sort of like unholy alliance where they were going to go after the face of RAF, the upstart, the youngster, if you will. And so I want to play you the clip of the exchange and then play you an alternate angle of this exchange. First, here's the official exchange via mMAfighting.com. I'm just here to save wrestling, you know, like you got some boring entitled bozos in this building that think they should be in the headliner.

My name's in history and Madison Square Garden for being the biggest draw there, you know. Pause for a second. Pause for a second? Obviously, this is not true. I mean, like, we could do the game where we like parse through every single thing that Colby says. Not the biggest headliner. Obviously, Connor McGregor is Madison Square Garden, but whatever. Here's Bo now retorting, and you'll see some, you'll see some subtitles, but he didn't have a

microphone, so he couldn't really hang with them. We continue. Didn't you get beat up by a Dutch K-Poc? I forgot. Remember your cardio, you were out, you got beat up by a Dutch kickboxer. That's right. Come on, Beau. Come on, bro.

Have you been a main event? No, you've never been a main event. By the way, you've been a bad, bro. Can we pause for a second? Why, Ptze does he say Dutch kickboxer, like, that's supposed to be an insult? Aren't the best kind of kickboxers from the Netherlands? You know what I mean? Like, he seems to say that, like, a Dutch kickboxer is like a bad thing.

He actually corrects this at the post for your press comments because he realized it wasn't insulting enough. insulting enough. Okay. And he goes, oh, I mean a Dutch grappler. That's what I was meant to say. Okay,

all right, all right. I guess I missed that one. All right, it continues. It continues. How many times did you shower at Happy Valley

at the Penn State with Jerry Sandesky? I got to know. I really got to know. Listen, it's a type of bozos like this that just killed the sport of wrestling.

We need stars. We need people that are willing to be vocal and call their shots. Yeah. Oh, I'd be too easy, bro.

You're a bum. Come on, dude. You got broken by a Dutch kickboxer, man. Come on. Come on. Come on, dude. No, come on, you're a bomb, dude. You're nobody.

You never been a main event. There's a reason. What are we talking about? We're talking about big money up here, not nobody's. We're talking about Luke Rockhold, first ballot hall of fame. Not some unproving kid in the corner that's never done anything. You should make the top ten before he stopped talking about a sport that built another sport. The reason our wrestling here is on the stage is because of MMA.

And you've done absolutely nothing in the sport of MMA. You quit. You quit before the knee even hit you bow. Facts. Facts, button it up. Look how bad he's good. He's crying over in the corner. How many world championships have I won?

What have you done on a world stage? Absolutely nothing. Nothing. You're a college bum. Bum, entitled Bum. Guys, move on. Why are they so mad at Bo? Why are they so mad at Bo?

I know it. The best part of this is, the excitement all over Colby's face that someone's actually agreeing with him. He's like, oh, what? It's amazing. Like, he's laughing. He can't believe it. Before we critique this, some amazing alliteration from Colby Covenant there.

Boring entitled Bozos. Yeah. Very nice. Beat up by a Dutch kickboxer. A lot of B sounds. He must have went over these because he is, I mean, his best vocal performance. But it's weird, right?

I feel like Luke's part of this Luke Rockhold, he comes in. Do you ever be out having a few drinks and someone's having an argument with someone else over the car? Like a friendly banter. And I'll be like, you know, Eric Cantana was never really a good striker. And then you'll catch the end of you. Like, hey, what you say? Eric Cantana is great. You don't really have the full argument.

You're like, that's what I feel Luke was doing there. Like he kind of caught. He's like, hang on, what did you say? He comes in talking about like this R. RIF is feeding off of MMA and stuff. I don't think he had the full context when he entered the argument. which worked in Colby's favor, I'd say, that time around. Which is, it's also a little bit confusing because ultimately, what are they talking about?

Are they talking about MMA or wrestling? When it comes to wrestling, I mean, his resume- Way predates, way predates MMA, you know? A and B, yeah, that was a funny thing that one sport was built off of the other, but, like, his resume is nowhere near. Like, he's here and as far as, like, wrestling is concerned. Obviously, MMA is completely different because they've just been around longer. Let's see where it ends up at the very, very end. And Luke's resume is better than Colby's.

Luke actually won undisputed titles. Colby never did. He won an interim title. Bo might surpass both of them. He might not. But let's see. What we do know is the totality of their wrestling careers, because their wrestling careers are essentially done at this point,

their collegiate careers. And Bo is one of the greatest American wrestlers of all time. So I get the idea of ganging up. Here's the thing. Luke ended up losing this match. Luke is about that life in the sense that I think he won. would take the bow match, because at this point he's just kind of doing all these sort of side quests. I feel fairly confident Colby's not taking this match. Like you think of RAF says,

all right, this is amazing. Like you see Chad's face in the middle. Chad Bronstein is the man that I was just talking about. He's sitting right next to Colby there with a smile on his face like, wow, this is exactly what we need. I feel like if he offered Colby this, all right, you just won, boating compete, let's do this in February. Maybe I'm proven wrong. Maybe I'm proven wrong. I feel like Colby finds a reason not to take the match. What do you think? Absolutely. And I think, let's be honest, this whole thing worked out great for RAF in terms of they had that, you know, they had a bit of a disaster in terms of the fights falling out before this. But in terms of the media imprint that Colby has given them over this weekend, it's, it's phenomenal. Like, it's been

everywhere. Every time I go on social media, I have Colby cutting one of his promos everywhere. That's all great. But I do feel like this is where you're running. into a problem with Colby and Ian Machado, Gary will tell you this quicker than anyone. Like, Colby called him out. He said some very personal things about Ian. And Ian went after the fight like a dog with a bone. Like he was like, great, this is actually exactly what I'm looking for. A guy who's ranked, a guy who's been in the title mix.

I can make a show of this dude and it'll work out really well for me. That's the feeling everybody gets when they come away from this event, R.A. If you've invested any time into watching any of the press conferences, even if you sat and you've scroll through your phone and you're an MMA fan. You saw this over the weekend. So the natural conclusion your brain goes to is, oh, Bo v. Colby, that'll be great. I'll watch it in wrestling.

All watching an MMA. Colby seems so confidently to beat this guy up. And of course, we had Bo sitting there saying, I will kill you. It's a perfect fight for Bo in that regard, too. Like, newsflash, Kobe Coventon isn't the most lurid guy in the world. In fact, the fan base kind of unite through their hatred of Colby Covindon a lot.

of the time. Bo Nicol is a dude on the way up. As you said previously, in wrestling, he's a G. Like, he is the man. But in terms of MMA and Colby saying he might be moving up the middle way, that's a perfect fight. The problem is getting him to agree to these fights, as we saw with him and Chad O'Garry, is incredibly problematic. So unfortunately, I think this is the maximum traction you will get out of Colby, him saying these things, but not following through and signing to wrestle or fight Boe Nickel. So anyway, Colby Covington did. Oh, there he is. New York Creek is back. Hello, sir.

Hello. That's a sick-looking singlet speaking of wrestling behind you there. Is that the Gable Steven? Oh, shit. Yeah, that's a nice little addition right there. 2026 end-a-year UFC champion Gable Steven. Yeah, that's him. Yeah, hell yeah.

That was the one that Craig Jones gave us, right? Yeah. Yeah, shout out. You weighed in on this. What do you want to say about it? Something similar to you, what you said is, like, in a room full of peers of Bo-Nickle, it's a bit odd to be calling him a bum, right? Like, when you're a Kobe Covington or even Luke Rockhold, like,

at a wrestling event in a room full of wrestlers it is a bit odd to be like look at this bum who's never done anything in his life when we all know like the accolades of Bo Nicol when it comes to wrestling

it made me think though have we crossed the line where this event is no longer for wrestling people have we reached a level where now it is purely to engage in MMA slash like casual

combat sports audience when Kobe Covington is just doing Kobe Covington shtick I don't know you tell me because I'm the one that I feel like has been trying to sell you guys on this. And I keep trying. You are completely sold to the point.

Like you, you are devastated. But I will say, I was devastated. I actually was. I will agree with Rick in terms of, we're all watching this because of the MMA guys that are involved. The thing I think that will make it more sustainable in the long term is having one, it's tough to do about having a guy,

a wrestling guy, synonymous of R.A.F. Fight through these guys. Almost like Jake Paul in boxing situation. I just don't know if you're going to get lads to sign up for that. If it's a really elite wrestler, like a borough, someone like that just tearing through M.A. guys. I don't know if they'd sign up for it,

but that's where I think the sustainable part of this is. Just getting MMA fighters in for one-off matches, I don't think wrestling fans would consider it at the highest level of the sport. And that's essentially what we're trying to do here, you know? I'm putting a poll in the chat here. Shout out to the chat. Thumbs up. Are you into RAF?

Yes, no. Pizzi and I are very much thinking the same way, which is like, you can't build a sustainable brand on just doing like crossover MMA people coming into it. And if your fan base, if your core fan base is wrestling fans, I don't know that they're more interested in Kobe Covington

than Wyatt Hendrickson. You know what I mean? Like, why would you lean this hard into it if that's not going to be the people that are there for you every single event. They'll be there for you for the one pop. They'll be there for you when you have something like this. And I thought Colby and Luke did a great job selling it.

And even Bo in his minimal involvement, I wish they gave him a microphone. But I don't know if those are the people who are going to be watching RAF 10 events from now, 20 events from now. You know, like you still want to be able to serve that fan base. And they're probably looking for higher level wrestling matches than necessarily like the MMA trash talk game.

Well, I'll say every time I speak to chill, he says it's the most fun that he's ever having. It looks fun. He's a diehard wrestling fan, so I think he's very excited about this. He works on the broadcast team, and they do occupy a nice little niche, especially during this quiet period. Yeah, they've done a nice job with the production. I wish for their sake, you know, they're involved with Fox Nation, hard to get. It's behind a paywall.

If they were on FS1 or something like that, meaning just cable TV, I do wonder if it could get bigger. In the end, by the way, Kobe Covington defeated Luke Rockhold via Tech Falls. 12 to nothing, so it was not very close. Armand Sarukian, by the way, defeated Lance Palmer via Techfall 10-0. And I don't know if you guys saw it or saw the highlights. Like, Armand just looked like an absolute freaking tank out there. Like, it wasn't even close. And this is against, again, Lance Palmer, who I know is old.

Look at this. A little bit older. But, you know, multiple time Division I, All-American. Like, he is just rolling through him. It's remarkable. No, Armand is a savage, man. He's an absolute savage. And there were other notable results, probably for us, most notable, Steve Buchanan,

defeating Yuel Romero via Techfall 10-0, and this coming off that event not that long ago, where Yel looked like he was 22 all over again. And so this again shows that perhaps if it's a true blue, you know, wrestler, and this was a match that was put together rather quickly, but that's not a big deal in wrestling. You know, there are day-long tournaments, and it's a little bit different than fighting. the true blue wrestlers who are very much in their prime are usually going to win these matches.

We saw Joaquin Buckley suffer a similar fate. In the end, though, my general thesis is, I like that it exists. I love that it's giving guys an opportunity to make a little bit of more money. I think it's great for the wrestling community. Wish they could get on a platform where more people can see them.

And they've got something going. In fact, Colby, to his credit, getting on the microphone afterwards, and calling out the big dog, calling out the big dog afterwards to, you know, to wrestle him in a match. He did so when speaking to the one and only Chil Sun. And here's the clip in case you missed it. But you know who I want next?

There's only one person above me right now on the takedown list in the UFC Welthaway history. That's Georgia St. Pierre. GSP, get out here on Real American Freestyle. Let's make it happen. I'll talk to my people and there come to your people. Let's make it happen. Can I tell you my favorite part about that clip?

Yes, the hard ass. How long has George been in the limelight? Long time. It's G-E-O-R-G-E-S. George's. St. Dash Pierre, right? Yeah, George's.

Mr. Kobe Cunnington still thinks that it's Georges? It's not George's? He both did it at the same time. One more time. Andy, one more time. Can we just make sure that he actually called him Georges? gorgeous georgias one person above me right now

on the takedown list in the UFC welfare history that's George's St. Pierre GSP get out here on real American freestyle the worst part of it is

he seemed uncertain too like he almost wanted to say George and then said Georges like he kind of like George like he swallowed it I think this speaks to what you were saying though in terms of is he going to accept the challenge

for Boe Nickel probably not not for a wrestling match? Is he going to accept a challenge from GSP? That seems more likely. That seems more. And by the way, I don't begrudge him for that. That makes a lot of sense.

I think that's the right strategy for somebody like Colby when he's doing this. There's a debate right now in the NFL about Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson has had a very bad back end of his career. Is Luke Rockhold in the Russell Wilson territory of ruining his legacy? Because every time he's showing up at these events, he's losing. Right? He's losing in misfits. He's losing in BKFC.

He's losing in RAF. Is he ruining his legacy? No. No. Two reasons. One, he's getting the bag. So congratulations, do that. Some kind of bag.

We don't know what kind of bag. Whatever that bag is, it's a bag. As you said, he's losing and still making money and headlining the show. Two, I don't think Luke Rockhold's legacy was this like world beater, was this slayer, was this destroyer. Like if this was a run that George was on, right, or Habib or somebody on the tail, end. I'll give, like, to me, he felt more like promise either unfulfilled or like he could have been the best on any given night. I think that's his legacy, right? His legacy is more like a BJ pen in terms of, man, you really had to see this guy. You had to be there. You have to know it.

If you know, you know, not like, man, can you believe how many great people Luke Rockhold be? I just don't think that was his legacy because I think his legacy is much more aligned with like, in that moment there was a moment where you felt like Luke Rockhole could beat anybody and if you saw him on the right he was an absolute demon

and I don't think there's like harm being done to that because it still remains true to this day like in his prime if you saw Luke Rockhold he would have you at certain points believe that he could beat anybody yeah it's

I mean it's uncommon for for guys in combat sports to do this I don't think it is like even as far back as Bob Sapp like you mentioned BJ Penn I think this is less upsetting than seeing a dude getting K-O'd all the time. And obviously I understand what happened with misfits and stuff like that.

But certainly, wrestling isn't as hard to watch, you know, in terms of seeing a guy getting bludgeon. But I will say, just back to the initial point that I was making about R.A.F, this is all great. Like, all these guys on the undercard, if you're, sorry, not on the undercard, all these guys in the card, if you're looking to drag in eyeballs from the MMA world, this is great. this stuff is going to work. But also on the card, we need to be looking for the wrestling equivalent of like a Gordon Ryan or Craig Jones.

A guy who people tune in to see. Like I, even after like when I wasn't trained anymore, I would get ADCC to watch Gordon Ryan if he was competing. Or, or Craig Jones. A guy like that comes along who's just a fiendom.

Like don't even, to begin what we don't even need to see them in very competitive. We just need to showcase, like, what is this guy? Like, why is he so popular? Have these guys, Colby, all these dudes on the undercard, have them have these big media moments. So it's on the timeline.

It is being consumed by MMA masses. But there needs to be a diamond of a wrestler there as well that you are marketing as this is the best wrestler in the world. He's won X amount of national championships. He's won the world. He's won the Olympic Games. We're going to get lads in from Russia who were around the same time as him or are under come up to wrestle him.

I just think that needs to be the key selling point of all this. All this is great to generate interest, but you need that one diamond. You need that Gordon-Royne equivalent, Craig Jones equivalent to be the star of this promotion as far as I'm concerned. He exists, but his name's Gabel Steven and he's an MMA. That's the problem.

The money is still not there yet, right? Real American freestyle is doing something that I think could maybe long-term produce that person, right? Which is if they can create an avenue where there's going to be enough money in amateur wrestling that people are not necessarily going to MMA straight away, then I think they could develop that person. I think there might be a person in a few years from now where they go, shit, this guy just wrestles and he's amazing. And there have been some of those over the years, right? Like Jordan Burroughs is somebody that, like, I think MMA fans have heard for a long time and kind of. Bring them back.

At times tuned in to find. That would be sick. But most of the time that people go to MMA because the money is still an MMA. I think if real American freestyle can actually be sustainable and produce enough opportunities for amateur wrestlers post, you know, collegiate or Olympic careers, they might get a guy like that down the line. But for the moment, that's where Gable is the gold standard.

Even though he lost to Wyatt Hendrickson, it's an example of like Gable's star power is still massive compared to Wyatt's. If Gable went this route instead of MMA, that might be how it gets done. But the money's still in MMA at the moment. All right, Jens. let's move along and and obviously we'll talk to uh beau we'll talk to armin as well he'll be joining us in studio so stay tuned for that

alex fulkenovsky and ed sours as well dana white was in new york city didn't get the call by the way i didn't get the call i thought that we were mending the fences logan paul told me that we were mending the fences he did some media back into the week i believe it was on thursday uh ahead of the big paramount debut and can i tell you like I saw him make a few stops. He was on CBS this morning. He was on with the Barstool Boys, Robbie, Robbie Fox. Shout out to him. He was on with Stephen A.

And can I tell you guys what my overall takeaway from this? Like this was a collective, I don't know, two hours of so or so of interviews that I saw. I think it was around two hours. And it's amazing how little we actually learn from two hours of interviews. And my general feeling. was. And I swear, I'm not trying to be Mr. Negative Nancy. I'm not trying to be that guy. I'm not trying to parse through every, I promise you I'm not. But I just couldn't believe how disconnected and how disinterested he seemed in the product. He seemed so disinterested in the product that I couldn't

believe he's on with, you know, the CBS this morning crew. And it's a very fluff interview. I mean, it's as mainstream as he'll get, right? It's their equivalent of Good Morning America. And And he's asked at one point, he says that Amanda Nunes versus Kayla Harrison is the greatest female fighter of all time. Now, you know, my retort to that would be like, well, then why isn't in the main event? But of course, they're not going to ask those types of questions. And of course, I get that. But he was actually, oh, God, I'm blanking on his name, the former wide receiver, Nate

Burleson. He's actually asked by Burleson, why, which is a great question. Kudos to him. Why is it the greatest female fight of all time? And he just goes, well, and we can't show you the clip because we don't want to get dinged for it, but he basically just says like, well, you know, Kayla's a, she's a medalist,

doesn't remember that she's a gold medalist, doesn't even remember that she's a two-time Olympic gold medalist. And, you know, she won in another organization, and, you know, she won in the UFC, and, you know, she's fighting Amanda Nunes, who's the goat. And so it's the greatest female fight of all time. Like, doesn't tell you about Olympic gold, doesn't tell me that their former,

teammates doesn't tell you that you know Amanda's retiring and coming back and wants to fight that like none of that stuff it's all it's so easy to sell this it is so easy to sell this he's asked about um the oh it's called CBS morning sorry not CBS this morning CBS mornings with gail king and Nate Burleson etc he's asked about the main event this is what he said regarding the main event everyone wants to fight uh excuse me everyone wants the winner of this fight to fight Ilya I would say some people want to see you know Patty versus arm. Anyway, we'll see how that plays out throughout the year. And then Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes fight. It's the greatest women's fight of all time. And it's just this kind of stuff,

which it's fine. It's an eight-minute interview. I get it. Then, okay, so then I see him on, I see him on, I see him on Robbie Fox, and I think Robbie does a great job, and he's on bar stool, and he's asked about Kobe Cunnington's ranking spot. Now, just my, I'm not trying to make this about thing, but like, if I'm sitting next to Dana White, I'm probably not asking about Colby Covington's rankings, but I'm not even asking about the rankings, but you want to see how disinterested Dana White is in all of this and how little he actually cares about the current state of the company. Take a listen to this clip right here regarding the rankings. In the latest rankings update, Colby Covington was moved down just one slot in the Welterweight rankings. The guy's fault

once in the last 752 days and lost. His last win was March of 2022. How does a guy like that stay in the top 15 for years after not fighting? It's a great point. Do you have those conversations about the rankings where it's why is this guy, like Jeff Neil was moved one spot above him. Strange, no? Yes. Yeah. Right. Great point.

This is what you say when you're like at a bar pizza and someone's telling you about like the JFK assassination, you couldn't care less to speak about and you're like, yeah, I guess there were three shooters, yeah. Do people talk to you about JFK at the bar? Is that something? It's just like. So embarrassed. It's a great point.

offers nothing. Offers absolutely nothing. First of all, I could not care less about the rankings or Kobe Covington's ranking spot, but if we're going to talk about it, can you give us something as the president and CEO of the company? Something. Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. Oh my gosh. You know what I love? He's on with Stephen A. Smith, and Stephen A asks him about meeting with the Paramount executives. He asks him about, you know, like this big meeting, and he asks them about, like, their big plans for 2026. Look at how good of a job, he says.

of saying absolutely nothing. He says absolutely nothing here regarding 2026 and his meeting with the Paramount Executive is. Keep this in mind as you're listening to this clip. Define kicking ass. Define taking this to another level. What does that look like? So obviously that's beating last year.

We got to beat last year. And I think I told you, next week I'm meeting with these guys from CBS and Paramount. And they have the five initiatives that they want to accomplish. accomplish in 2026. If we do, if we beat last year, as far as the UFC business goes, we achieve all of the

initiatives that that Paramount Plus and CBS want to want to achieve. Then we've done it. We, we, we set our goals for 26. We kick 26's ass. And now we're heading into 27. Wow. And there'll be a whole new set of goals. What do we learn from that?

We learned absolutely nothing. We kick their ass and we have initiatives and then we're kicking ass in 27. Nothing. There's a whole bunch of nothing. Am I crazy here? Am I being hypercritical, PT? What is going on? It's frustrating to listen to.

He seems like a man who's made all his money. That's what this strikes me as and that's probably not the look that the shareholders want. But Dane is an outraged success to the point where you got to wonder how much is he getting himself up for these interviews. you know, back in the day, he would have used this to ram an event down people's throat. Like he would have tried to sell the next three events with that one spot he was in. Does he need to, like, from his perspective, like, I don't think he feels like he needs that anymore. And even in terms of that answer there, like, he used to be so good at grabbing attention, right?

Like, you would force, you would be forced to listen to what he says, hear about all these fighters. that answer is just anti-audience. You know, like, it's like all these MMA fans tuning in to listen to get some kind of answer and you're talking about sectors. You know, Q4 is looking really good. Yes. Essentially, that's what he's saying. It's just the opposite of what he used to be in this spot.

And I think that's because he's been an outrageous success and he doesn't need to try anymore. I could see a new fan being like you guys are being hypercritical. You're making something at nothing. No, we lived through Prime Dana White. we live through one of the greatest runs of any promoter in the history of promotion. We live through 06, 7, 08, where he would sit through those scrums with freaking venom coming out of him with like the passion that no one can replicate on the planet. And now you see him sitting back and be like, okay, define success. What is success?

Well, we'll be 25, then we'll go through 26 and be better than 25 and then we'll be primed for 27. What? What is that? What is this non-answer? This is a nothing answer. Now, he's asked about, you know, the sanctioning bodies, about, you know, what he wants to do with boxing. And he completely contradicts everything that the TKO executives have been saying for the past two months. What Nick Khan has been saying, what Lawrence Epstein has been saying, what the great Mark Shapiro has been saying, completely contradicts it.

Here's what he has to say regarding the sanctioning bodies. Talk to us for a second about what you're doing in the sport of boxing from start to finish, your promotional arm and everything else within between. So I've been talking smack about boxing for a long time, and now it's time to put my money where my mouth is. I'm going to get rid of the sanctioning organizations. The best will fight the best. We're going to sign all the young up-and-coming guys. If you break into the top 10 and you're still undefeated, your undefeated record means something. You know what I mean?

Everybody's undefeated in boxing because nobody fights anybody. Right. Everybody will fight everybody. And when you're undefeated, like John Jones. John Jones is under nobody has ever beat John Jones and he fought all the best in the world, you know? Then he moved up to heavyweight and walked right through the guy. So your O will actually mean something in boxing in the next couple of years. How are you going to pull that off?

Are you going to have fights every month? Very good fall. Or is it going to be on Paramount Plus every month? How is that going to work? Yes, Paramount Plus. and yeah, just about every month. How are you going to be able to pull off getting some of these fighters who are under contract, obviously, whether it's... Very good follow.

I'm just speaking hypothetically the top ranks of the world, you know, the PPCs of the world and what have you. I mean, these fighters, some of the elite fighters are under contract with other folks. I mean, you just wait for the contract to run out. I mean, what's the deal? How is all that going to work? All contracts eventually end. And I need to get out there and prove myself over the next couple of years. And, you know, when these guys' contracts are up, they're going to want to sign with us.

You're doing a solo? You're doing this with, I know you did something before with Nick Con. Yeah, St.K.O, me and Nick Con, and a team of other talented boxing guys. And, you know, we've already done some pretty big things before the first fight. We're going to start making a lot of announcements here soon. And it's been fun so far. So back in August, and there's been a whole bunch of interviews regarding this from people not named Dana White, but here's just one example. Back in August, here's Lawrence Epstein, who's the General Counsel of the UFC, works for TKO, obviously, as well,

speaking about the complete opposite of what Dana White just said. Take a listen to this. This is on a shareholder call. I want to be very clear that this new legislation does not intend to change anything in the existing Muhammad Ali Boxing Act. every single word will remain exactly the same. We are proposing is adding some additional language to this legislation. So there you have it. There's all you need to know. And there's a million other examples where essentially Dana White just said, I'm going to get rid of the sanctioning bodies.

And here's Lawrence Epstein and others saying, no, we're not trying to change anything regarding the Ali Act. And that would be the biggest possible change that you can make. No, no, no, we're just going to add some other language to make it better. Well, which is it? Now, is he implying to someone like Stephen A. Smith? Is he implying that like, hey, we're not going to adhere to what they're saying. We're just going to ignore them because you can't be in the boxing business and ignore the sanctioning.

You just can't unless you're going to try to change the legislation so that no one's going to bother you and you can do your own thing and have your own belt. But it runs contrary. And a lot of these interviews have run contrary to what the previous guy has said. And so let's see. He did announce on this interview with Stephen A what the main event is going to be. They announced, I was on with John Pollock and I was like, you know what, I have a feeling. I know they have this date. I have a feeling that they're not going to keep the date just because they haven't made an announcement.

At that point, it was two weeks away. Now it's less than two weeks away. But they did announce on Friday morning that the first Zoufa boxing show is going to be January 23rd in Las Vegas, the night before UFC 324. It's going to be at the apex. and there it is and I just can't wait to see how they come out of the gates and how they make the impact

that they're expecting to make. Callum Walsh is going to be in the main event, someone who they've been very much behind, but like this is the debut. And maybe people got their hopes up when they found out about the players involved and they saw the Crawford-Conello card. I always thought that it was going to be a scale-down version.

They always told us it was going to be like a monthly show and there will be two to three mega event. events. Initially, I would have never guessed at the first event. And who knows, maybe the second, third, fourth, maybe all of them, who knows, was going to be at the apex. I never thought that it would be at the apex, that it would start at the apex. I just, I don't think, I think, I think I'm going to be even worse at the apex. The matches are longer. There's, there's a greater chance of, like, some real lulls in the activity. I think it's going to be worse. And I think that they're going to get a lot of their famous buds, influencers, podcasters, all that stuff. They'll

have them sitting around and they'll make it seem like an event and they'll probably spice it up a little bit more than a UFC event because they have to hopefully more like what we saw from NXT at the apex a couple of years ago but I think that this this is going to feel void of energy this is not I don't know this is not an exciting lunch no it's not and you usually want to launch in an exciting way right you think about the kind of things that we're saying about this project. It was like, this is going to change the industry. This is going to be a huge deal, all this kind of stuff. It's, there's nothing there about that that's shocking in any kind of way. It's happening at the apex, which we know has won the order of MMA fans for many years.

And it's Colin Walsh, a guy, the boxer you are most synonymous with is the guy headliner. And look, Colin Walsh doing great things. He's a big fan base here in Ireland that's picked up a lot since the show they did at the three arena that didn't go too well but he has picked up momentum and they've put them in good spots on the Crawford Canello undercard stuff like that but it is all very predictable and when you're trying to start

something new you want to be exciting you want to feel fresh you want to be have a buzz about it this does not feel like this on paper right now I have to say can I just play devil's advocate for a second yeah yeah

would it be preferable in your mind to pay for a massive show, make a big splash, and then the second, third, fourth shows are back at the apex? Or would that also kind of feel like, hey, we thought we were getting this one thing and we're actually getting these? Like, I almost feel like this is the better of two not great options, if I'm being honest. Like, to start meagerly, to start with this like smaller time thing, build up as you can and then try to make the bigger splash once you have those things in place. Sure. It's just the whole thing kind of runs contrary to how they all,

oh for sure to be in UFC. They haven't even put out a graphic of the card of any fight. It's been under the radar. It was a throwaway thing to Stephen A. who had never a revolution. This is going to be a revolution. Yeah. But for a fan perspective, I see why the other version

would be hard to swallow, right? If it's like, we're coming out, we're swinging, we're going to do the best thing. They do this massive card, big headliners, tons of money spent and then fight number two. Forget even big headliners. We have the benefit of seeing Dana White launch promotion very, very recently.

Power Slap, heard of it? And how many videos, how many hype videos, how many graphics, how many tweets do we see about those matchups? Fair. Very fair. What have we seen about this? Nothing. The crazy one announced two weeks out. I just saw you launch something that no one wanted.

This we actually want. This we actually, I'm interested in. I hope. And it's Morris Wheelhouse, right? Unfortunately, it's funny we're talking about this all together here, but what Zufu Boxing needs is 2007 down away. Yeah. Oh yeah.

They need him being like, where you see Colin Walsh, highlight reel going. Look at this kid. This is insane. There's another kid. You probably haven't heard from him, but this is what we're going to do.

We're going to bring you these fledging pros. No one's heard of. Wait, you see this other kid. Highlight reel. Bang. And so they're like, shit,

I can't wait to see these guys. Because that's what he's good at. That's what he's done for years. And that's what this needs. Right now it just feels like, I could have, you know, what could you have predicted about this

a million miles away? Like, right, the UFC have the apex is where to do all the shows. They find out what's going to be a league format. What box are you think is going to headline it? I would have guessed Callum Walsh, a million miles away. So I guess that it just feels a bit,

there's just no excitement around it. Yeah, they're mailing it in. They're mailing it in. Dana White is mailing it in, and this is a version of mailing it in as well. You're right. You're not wrong. By the way, breaking news,

breaking news. Frank, we got breaking news. Are we trying to zeroing? Is PT rocking essentials or what? Is that? Is that an asset? Wow. Fear of God, it said, well, I mean, I didn't know you knew ball like that.

Oh, mate, you joke of me. That's crazy. Yeah, I think Chisangama put me on to this, to be honest. Boy, what's wrong? No, that's like, that's hip stuff. You give me you credit. I mean, that's... Oh, you can remember once I wore a Fred Perry Polo to an event.

No, this is way cooler. And Casey and Esther were kind of looking at me like, I was like, what's going on? Start doing interviews, waiting for one American Florida to sit down. He said, he goes, oh, are you in the proud boys? I was like, what's that? Like, yeah, they all wear these shirts.

Google the proud boys. I was like, oh, well, that's probably not going to be a good look for him on my phone. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is good. This is good. There's no weird stuff attached to it. I didn't even know that. I didn't even know that with Fred Perry.

They did, right? Am I going crazy? There was a Fred. They were wearing, like, holosh. Yeah. is to check Bob who is to check Frank how are you we haven't heard from you you know I think you like it that way no no no absolutely not doing good man doing good everything good everything's great couldn't be better how about them bills how about them fucking bills yeah

yeah yeah I love I love Frank's messaging the group where the way we're all celebrating this no exclamation max no nothing just woo-hoo what is there to offer when you guys are enjoying a it was great circle you know and then I'm like what do I have to offer no a little bit of you know what I was going with that no no we don't why do you have to be so negative enjoying a circle it's not negative

your wife is actually from Buffalo is she not yeah and she was doing cartwheels and bouncing off the fucking walls you should care more than any of my text you guys are all freaking out I'm like you know what I mean

I get to eat some wings for lunch I appreciate you chiming over the past 24 hours if you looked at my phone in that group chat it's 95% blue it's just me like just flooding things and no one

There's another chat that's all blue. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard of that one. Although I heard PT got the... I heard PT got the boot after Wednesday's show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not liking. That's actually the fair of God. I'm actually a conservative Christian now.

Okay. Trying something new. What do he do to deserve this fate? He questioned things that he shouldn't be questioning. So he's been removed. Yeah. Sounds very accepting. Get my gun license.

I'm ready to start a new path. That was fun. That was fun when you dragged out that gimmick for like two hours of the prediction show. That's why I could see you getting annoyed. I was like, I just need to keep doing it. No, that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed that. I really did enjoy that.

We're going to be joined in a matter of minutes by Bo Nicol, very much looking forward to talk to him. I think he's in transit. I think he's flying home, but he's, he's mensch enough to stop by. Ed Sora is going to stop by to talk about the new LFA on Vice TV deal, which starts this Friday, by the way. Some lad name Alex Volcanowski will stop by at 240. And then Armand Sarukin in studio.

Spread the news. Spread the news. The most interesting man in MMA joining us in studio. Can't wait for that. I'm looking forward to talking to him. There's a lot more that I want to say regarding nudes and notes. Want to weigh in on the Kamar Ustman Anthony Joshua situation that transpired back into the show. Some Hamza Shami of tweets about Alex Perra.

We'll talk a little bit about the synergy that we saw at the Golden Globes. last night, Mackenzie Dern and Brian Ortega, we'll get to all of that post-Armin, so stay tuned for that. For now, though, don't want to keep our guests waiting any longer. Let us go to the man who we were just talking about the one and only Bo Nicol. Kind enough to join us, I do believe from the airport

as he is heading home from Florida. There he is. Thanks for doing this, Bo. I really appreciate it. Yeah, absolutely, Ariel, no problem. Happy to be on. Okay, so interesting weekend for you, Bo. Can I ask, first let's talk about the match that we were all so very much looking

forward to that didn't come to fruition. What was your perspective on the timeline? How did it all go down? And then ultimately having to make the decision to not compete. Yeah, you know, it was it was tough. It was a tough situation. You know, got there into Florida, had all my family, friends down, you know, a lot of people and was looking forward to competing Saturday morning at Wayans. I waited right at 9 a.m. I woke up around 203, ate and drank to get up to 205. And then waited for about 45 minutes for Yolda gets a weigh in and get there and he waited a while. So once he didn't step on the scale right away, I kind of knew maybe he was over. I expected, you know, two, three, four pounds and no worries, we'll get it going.

But he stepped on at 212. So that was just something that I was like, wow, seven pounds over. Like, this is a tough situation. I obviously want to compete, but I spoke with my coaches, my team, and we felt that it was best to you know, move on from that just because part of wrestling is making weight. That's just something that you grow up doing

and it's just part of the sport. There's any other tournament, it's not like, oh, you don't make weight, oh, you still get to compete. It's not part of the sport as, you know, as it is an MMA. It's very common in MMA, but, you know, as a wrestler and I wanted to have respect

for the sport and also just feeling like, you know, him probably coming down from 225, 230, me, at 205, I'm just like, man, like, I felt like I signed a contract at this way. That's what I expect to do. If it was two, three, four pounds over, like, we could probably make it work. But that was just kind of a lot to accept. So as a team, we felt like it was best to just, you know, not take the match.

How much did you kind of stew over this? Because like you say, you fly there as a big match. Your family's there. It's not as easy as just being like, hey, I'm out, right? No, it was a lot. I mean, it was like I obviously wanted to be respectful to RAF and let them know what we decided to do, but I tried to take a couple hours and figure it out. And, you know, we threw out there about an opportunity to have him keep his weight down for that evening and stay, you know,

right around that weight that he weighed in at. But that really wasn't in the cards given his situation, you know, and I think that had he stayed down and we competed, it really wouldn't have been the match, you know, it's, to have somebody hold his weight down like that all day is not really even a great representation of, you know, him. So I still have a lot of respect for YOL, and it is what it is. But the reality is he's a heavyweight, you know, he probably should just be competing at heavyweight. How does it work with these way-ins for RAF, relatively new to all of this?

So is there a commission involved, or is it just the promotion running the way-ins? It's the promotion running the way-ins. And in wrestling, you know, you have day of wands. That's very typical. I mean, even in college wrestling, international wrestling, it's usually one hour before. So that's why you don't see as much weight cutting in the sport. This was, you know, 9 a.m. weigh in, so 12, 13 hours before competition, but still day of. And yeah, RIF is the ones running it.

Were they offering like we see in MMA, hey, you get 20% of his purse, something like that? Or is it just, hey, do you want to take the match? No, they, it's the same. They handled it the same way that MMA handled it with the purse and stuff like that. Okay. You have received obviously some backlash for this. People are like, come on, man. Just Colby Cunnington, of course.

And we'll get to his comments at the presser in a moment. But like, hey, just take the match. People wrestle guys who are 20 pounds over. What is your response to people who say you should have just taken the match? I mean, I think most people that say that have never competed at a high level in their life or maybe even competed in general. The response from every single one of my, I guess, peers in wrestling is like they were shocked. And they were shocked that I was even considering taking it because it did take me a couple hours to really figure it out.

And every single person I talked to, you know, coaches, teammates there are like, man, this is just, it's part of the sport. And you don't make weight, you don't wrestle. But yeah, I mean, it was hard for me because I obviously am a competitor. Like I said, I spent a lot of time prepping, getting ready, had a ton of people down there. So it was difficult. But I didn't think anybody that's competed at a high level that has respect for the sport, they all understood where I was coming from. I think a lot of people that, you know, they obviously, people want to see me compete. which I do too, but they don't understand what it's like to be in that position.

And this isn't all fun in games. Like, this is not a charity match. This is a professional sporting event. So, you know, I came in professional and unfortunately, like I said, he didn't, but it is what it is. I was ready to wrestle. If he made the weight, like, we're going, obviously. So, you know, that's not on me. Are you interested in revisiting this matchup or are you done with you all?

I think I'm done just because I don't think he can make the weight. If he can make, I'm an 85er, I'm coming up to 205. I got to go up another seven pounds. Like I'm already giving concessions to try to make it happen. And yeah, I mean, to me, I think that he should just compete a heavyweight, and that's fine. We're different weight classes. It's no big deal.

But I would love to train with the guy. I love to get some work in. But this is professional sports. Like I said, it's not all, it's not just, you know, fun charity match. Did you ever train with him at ATT? I was never able to. But we spoke a lot during the week and after the way in and everything was all respect. Like I told him, dude, I really want to get some work in with you.

I know you're going to, you could help me a ton in my MMA game and love to learn from a guy like that. So, you know, like I said, everything was very respectful. I've never trained with him before, but we're definitely going to get some work in in the future. Okay. Now, was there any talk? Because he stayed on the card, right? And he went up against Pat Buchanan. Was there any talk of you staying on the card and going up against someone else?

Yeah, that was brought up to me. You know, I think that for me, I want a wrestle matches that I'm excited about. And there really wasn't an opportunity to do that. But with the conversations with Chad Bronstein and the RIF team, I'm looking to get on either the February card that they have coming up or the March card. So, you know, I want to compete. And we just got to, you know, figure it out. Like I said, I always come prepared.

So, you know, I think we'll get a new opponent and figure out who wants to compete. He got dominated, you all did, in that Buchanan match. Were you surprised? A little bit, but Stephen Buchanan is very good. He's a guy that's, you know, and Cable A champion and high-level guy. I think that, you know, he's been under, he's been multiple time All-American.

He's just underrated. And so, yeah, I mean, I think that obviously Buchanan's very good. And he showed, you know, that he's one of the best guys in the world after that performance. And I apologize to Stephen. I call them Pat. Not sure why I called him Pat. But, yes, he is Stephen Buchanan. He looked great in that match.

And, I mean, considering how good you all looked in his last match for RIF, very, very impressive stuff. Let us talk about Mr. Covington. I have to say I was watching that. We just did a whole breakdown of it. This press conference is going on and Colby and Luke start to team up on you and talk about all this stuff.

Your reaction is this is all going on. Were you surprised that they started sort of verbally going after you, attacking you? I say that in quotations because it wasn't, you know, like I know you can hold your own. But you weren't up there with a microphone so they're kind of talking to you via microphone and you're sitting there without much to be able to amplify your voice?

Yeah, of course. You know, I think that I wasn't super surprised, but just the way they handled it, I felt like, you know, a little bit unprofessional. But that being said, everything they had to say, I was like, all right, you guys, you say I'm not any good. You say I suck. Like, both you guys turned me down in RAF. That was, I know that for a fact.

It was offered to them. They both said no. and then, you know, I said, I'll wrestle either of you, I'll fight either of you. You got a problem? Like, let's, let's handle it. And so, you know, I don't really have too much of a problem with Luke. It is what it is. Colby's obviously still signed to the UFC. So he's a guy that I would love to get into the octagon with. And I feel like, yeah, the way they carry themselves, the way they handle themselves, it's pretty low class. It's disrespectful to the sport. A lot of the stuff that they were saying, I felt like, was just super,

unnecessary unwarranted and just blatantly not true because they're talking about oh like you know we're putting wrestling back on the map like shut up dude are you guys were begging to come on an raf card because uh you want to stay irrelevant so you know i think that um obviously the sport raf it's bigger than them and they were just super disrespectful to the entire wrestling community which is what they started out as which is sad to me because i've always just loved and appreciated the wrestling community a ton and I felt like they were just kind of just crapping on it and yeah I felt like I needed to say something. Why did you feel like they were crapping on the wrestling community? Well they were just again Colby talking about how you know nobody cares about wrestling nobody wants to watch it.

The only reason anybody's watching is because of him which is blatantly, you know, disrespectful to the community. It's disrespectful to every single world class guy that was there. And you know, Luke, he was just super inappropriate making a lot of like weird sexual innuendos and stuff up there and I was just like what's wrong with this guys? He's like just so low class so I mean anybody that heard it was just like what's and every single wrestler that was around me was just looking at these guys like they're straight up idiots and honestly after that uh I thought that you know there was a chance for Colby to come in and you know keep it class and keep a professional and every wrestler would have respected them and

he didn't have to you know try to play those games but obviously he did he brought up the you know Penn State Zandesky stuff which I wasn't even at Penn State when when that was going on right I came five years plus after that. So he's just totally trying to troll. But at the end of the day, I think that guy's a bum. He's an idiot. I would love to get in the cage with him. And for me, that fight would be personal.

It's not something that, you know, every single fight for me up to this point has been for sport. And this one would be a little different because I would love to just cave that guy's head and I think he's an idiot. As far as RAF is concerned, like you just mentioned they're talking about you in February and March, feels like if I'm Chad Bronstein, I call you up today and I call him up today and say, let's do this in February. Like everyone's talking about this.

Have those talks happen? Well, again, I asked for either, I didn't even specifically ask for either of those guys. I said I would have a match with either of those guys prior, and they both said no. And then when everything happened with, Y'O.L. not making wait, I said, I'll wrestle Colby, and I'll give him my entire purse

to take the match. I'll take, I'll do it for free, and I'll give him my entire purse, which he obviously knows how bad I'd embarrass him, and it's not worth it for him. So I think we do it in the UFC. in June and I can just absolutely rip that guy apart and send him packing and end his career. So, you know, that's what I'm looking forward to doing because I don't think that he would ever in a million years wrestle me.

But as far as fighting, the UFC, I think, isn't super happy with him. So they'll probably, you know, there's a chance that they'll just make him fight me. Wow, wow, wow. So you're saying White House card, you versus Colby. That's what you're referring to. Yeah, absolutely, you know. As we were doing the press conference post-epent, he said that he would, that he's coming up to middleweight.

And so, wow, all the wrestling people there asked him, said, why don't you fight Beau? And he was like, I don't know, he's not on my level.

It's like, all right, bro, I'm not on your level. I'm an easy check. So let's get in there and I'll embarrass you in front of the entire world.

Oh, my dear. I feel like one call to the commander in chief and this fight gets done. Yeah, I mean, I'm definitely going to hit him up

and tell him to make it happen because I think that guy's a fake. He's a phony. He always talks about supporting President Trump and this and that. He only does it to try to, you know, antagonize other people. He doesn't do it because it's what he's actually believes in.

He's just, this guy's a fraud. He's a juco bump. He couldn't hack it in wrestling. He was fortunate to get into MMA at a time where, you know, a lot of people didn't have the wrestling skills to stand up to him. But, you know, he hasn't want to, other than beating Luke the other night, he hasn't want to anything in seven years. So I think the guy sucks and I would love to just end his career.

I don't think he gets it out of the first round with me. Did you have any conversations with him? I don't know, hotel behind the, Like, did you see him backstage any run-ins with him? No, they keep, they keeps his own security team. They keep him in separate rooms. It's like, it's crazy. It's like, dude, I've never seen anything like this.

They always got to keep him in a separate room, keep stuff in between him and other fighters. And that's not even specific to me. It's everyone because I think everyone thinks he's an idiot. So, you know, he won't show his face around anybody. He can't even really be part of the community. Like, it's honestly sad. But, yeah, like I said, you know, I really hope the UFC wants to make this

happened. He's the one that said he's moving up to middleweight. He said it earlier, I think, in 2025, and then he said it again in the press conference. So he's kind of dug himself a hole. You know, I thought it was interesting. He kept saying that you lost to a Dutch kickboxer, RDR, sort of implying that like a Dutch kickboxer is like an inferior type of fighter. We all know that, you know, people from the Netherlands, Holland, are some of the best kickboxers in the world. And early in his career, he lost to someone named Worley Alves, who is nowhere near the fighter that RDR is. So like the, the trash talk was, was a little bit off point. But it's been a while since he's been in the limelight. So maybe he just was a little bit rusty.

Yeah, a little rusty or maybe the guy's always had like single digit IQ. So, you know, I just think he's not very smart. You know, he's had to be put in a position where he has to act a certain way to get fights. And it's a little bit sad, but I just don't think he's the smartest guy. I mean, if he's really dumb, then he'll take this fight. It kind of just depends on how dumb he is, I guess. Were you surprised that he dominated Luke like he did? No, I mean, Luke is really bad. Luke's a great fighter.

Honestly, Luke, as far as fighting goes, I have a lot of respect for Luke. He was able to accomplish a lot, and he's a guy that actually competes across a bunch of different platforms, you know, different sports. So Luke's, I've jawed at Luke and he's came back at me a few times, but to be honest, I don't really have a problem with him. And yeah, I mean, Colby has more wrestling experience. He's more of a wrestler, so I wasn't surprised at the result. Regarding your actual fighting, is it safe to say that your next fight will be at the White House? Is that the plan as of now, that you won't fight until June?

Yep, that's the plan. Okay. And have they even started talking to you about opponents before all this came up? No, not really talking about opponents, just bringing up what the plan is for getting me on that card and stuff like that, which as far as the communication has gone with me, that's been the plan, and I'll be ready to go. So I'm a pumped and excited about that. And this situation kind of just came up organically because I never really had Colby on my radar, but with him talking crazy and the presser and then also saying he's going up to middleweight,

it's like, I think it has to happen now because, yeah, I think everybody wants to see me beat that dude up. And it would just be, it would be fun. It would be electric. I know when we spoke after MSG, you had said maybe try to get one in beforehand, and then fighting the White House, are you okay with this timeline basically not fighting for seven months? Yeah, seven months. Yeah, I'm okay with it.

I think that this is a historic event. It's going to be obviously bigger than fighting. You know, the amount of media attention and hype that it's going to get is incredible. So I feel like I would love to be part of that card, and it would be a big honor for me. If the UFC isn't interested, will you try to push RAF to make the wrestling match against Colby? Because I think it would be huge for that promotion,

or is that not something that you're going to pursue? Well, he would never in a million years wrestle me. I mean, it would be terrible. I think it's more likely that he would fight me. But that being said, I'm sure that he's going to not want to do that. So the UFC is probably going to have to just say, hey, dude, take this fight or you're done. Because, again, they haven't really been enjoying working with him from what I've heard as of recently. And he's on his way out already.

Everybody knows that. But, yeah, I think that, I mean, I would just like to compete against him in anything because I think, you know, smashing that guy's face and we're just be. fun. I'll enjoy it. And I'll let you go in a moment because I know you do have to make a flight. I know how stressful it is to fly with young kids. So I really do appreciate this. I just want to ask you a couple more things and I'll let you go very quickly. I'm sure you heard your head coach Mike Brown's comments about you being moved a little bit too fast. He spoke to MMA fighting about this. What did you agree with the assessment? The quick quote is he was moving

a bit too fast. We all knew it. He knew it. I knew it. We all knew it. Management knew it. But you also getting paid very well. You're not going to get the big bucks if you're fighting guys on the prelims. If you're going to get bigger paychecks, then you have to go out there and get pushed and not give you layups, experiences so much in the sport, experiences everything. What did you make of that quote from Mike? Yeah, you know, I agree with Coach Brown. I think that in the moment it's tough because, you know, you're trying to make the best decisions for your career and you're also just, you know, wanting to compete at the highest level. And for me, I think that I look at the Derriter fight that I lost

and the reality is I feel like I just wasn't as well prepared as I should have been. I think that, you know, making adjustments and figuring certain things out that I learned in that fight, that's going to help me so much down the road. And Coach Mike is an amazing coach. And I think that anybody can look at my trajectory and when I started this sport and where I'm at now and say that it's gone fast. I don't think that's like a crazy take. It's pretty much objectively true relative to anyone that's ever competed. So I feel like, yeah, I'm taking all those lessons that I've learned and I'm grateful for them.

And I'm even grateful for the loss that it's just going to help push me forward. So, you know, everything that Coach Mike said, I think is on point. And it's really nobody's fault. It's just the reality of the situation. And I'm never going to be one to cry about it. It's just is what it is. And I'm going to get better from it. And lastly, just wanted to ask you about Gable Stephson, everyone freaking out over him.

everyone's saying that he's he's inevitable for the UFC some predicting he'll be a champion by the end of this year what are you seeing out of him and are you surprised at how well he's doing so quickly in MMA I'm not surprised at all I mean Gable's a freak athlete he's Olympic gold medalist wrestler he's a guy that I think you know with very little training can compete with the best guys in the world so you know a lot of people obviously have have compared us both coming from wrestling backgrounds and I hope

gable you know does bigger and better things than me and does and is the champ and continue to improve. And I think representing wrestling as a sport, you know, him doing that is huge. Because I want to see the best guys in wrestling come over and get into the MMA scene. And it's exciting. So overall,

I feel like definitely going to be rooting for him and excited to see his career progress. And, you know, I think he definitely has really no ceiling on him. Last one, and I just need a name. You're very much a part of RIF. I like what they're doing. Jones, D.C. and R.A.F. Who wins?

Oof. That's tough. I think that's tough. You know, obviously... We just need a name. We just need a name. No fence sitting. Don't do that to me. No, bye, five, five, fine. But it's intriguing, right? Great. You're so good at this journalism stuff, man. It's intriguing, right? No, they got to do it. They got to do it for sure. 100%.

That would be incredible. All right. Well, thank you for coming on. Appreciate it very much. Didn't love that exchange. Thought you held your own. Tough to do so without a microphone. Respect to you. Hopefully they make that fight. Most importantly, thanks for doing this before boarding.

Again, I know how stressful it can be. So thanks so much and safe travels home. Thanks, Ariel. Everybody tweet at Colby and tell him to fight me. Tell him I said he's a little puss. So let's get it. All right. Thank you, Cole.

Thank you, Bo. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. The great Bo Nickel joining us. And yes, do as Boe said, if you'd like. and I kind of feel like that's a doable fight, by the way. I sort of feel like that's a very, very doable fight. Both of them have connections to the Commander-in-Chief.

By the way, the Commander-in-Chief that I was speaking of was Donald Trump. I feel like they have a great chance of making that happen. That would be very interesting. We spoke about Gable Steven. He has competed for the organization that, and I said that in a very Canadian way, I apologize. When I went to Syracuse, they told me, don't say organization. I stumbled there because it was like, I'm still stuck with organization,

organization, and against. They told me, say against an organization. Not zai-e-e-e-any. Anyway, he competed for his organization. They've had some big news recently. They're moving off of UFC Fight Pass and going to Vice TV. Their first show is going to be this Friday,

and they're going to be every Friday night. So a staple on Friday nights, and it's going to be for approximately 25 Friday nights, this year, which if my math is correct, that's almost half the year. If there's 52 weeks in a year, 52 divided by two, that's 26, minus 1 is 25. In any event, we speak to the legend now, the CEO of the legacy fighting alliance, the one and only Ed Soros. Kind of up to join us right here and now.

There he is. My old friend Ed, how are you? Oh, I'm great, man. How are you, Ariel? I'm doing really well. Congratulations to you and the team on getting this deal done. I know you guys have been working hard on it. I know it's very exciting.

Can we take a step back, though, because I remember end of last year, news started to percolate that you guys were leaving Fight Pass, and people were starting to like almost, you know, eulogize LFA, not really understanding what was going on. Could you tell us how you came to the decision of saying, hey, all right, we want to see what else is out there. We want to explore our options for the promotion. Yeah, I mean, I got to be honest with you. 100% UFC FIpass has been an incredible partner to us.

They've been an incredible partner to us over the past six years. We've really been able to grow throughout the world. Our brand has grown. And, you know, it was just basically the details of the deal. One of the main details that we left was basically because we wanted to own our rights. all the organizations that are on FightPass, they don't own the rights. And actually, I'm not really upset with UFC FightPass about that because if I was in a Fight Pass position, I would be doing the same thing.

So I 100% respect what they wanted to do, but that business model didn't work for us. So that's when we chose to go the other way and see what else is out there. because, you know, us, yes, we're the LFA, but at the end of the day, we're a media company. And I felt that for us to be a media company without owning the rights to our content, really doesn't make us a media company. It makes us a producer. And that can work for a lot of people, and it's not a bad business model, but for us, it just didn't fit into what we wanted to do.

By the way, to the best of your knowledge, is this how Fight Pass is going to, you know, do business moving forward? if you're on Fight Pass, they have to own the content? I don't know the details of every deal. I just know the majority of the organizations that are on there. They do own their content. So, yeah, so I'm not sure. And, you know, I can tell you if I was them, I would continue to do that. I mean, I understand why.

And I think it's a very valid point. Once again, they've been an incredible partner and we still have an incredible relationship. You know, I was on the phone with Hunter last week speaking and it was speaking to him about everything. He congratulated me. He told me that he felt that Vice would be a great partner for us. So I'm super, you know, super excited about our future and super excited to continue to be the number one developmental organization for the UFC, but not only the UFC because we develop talent for people that go to the PFL. we just signed two of our athletes to one also. Okay, and I want to ask you about that in a moment.

I'm fascinated by the world of sports media rights, not just as it pertains to MMA, but combat sports and all sports. It's such an interesting time with the streaming platforms and whatnot. And in combat sports, it's very interesting because I've talked about this a lot on the show with top rank still not having a deal, Golden Boy doesn't have a deal with DeZone, et cetera, et cetera.

And so you were just out in the wilderness. What was it like speaking? to people. What is the appetite like? How did this experience go for you being out there talking to all the different platforms and networks? You know, it was a different experience for myself. With my experience of being an agent in the past, it was very, you know, I kind of want to grab it and do it myself. But, you know, early in the middle of 2025, we signed with, with UTA, which is our agency that represents us. So it really gave me a new perspective to have someone representing us versus, you know, in the past, I've kind of represented us. So it was definitely a different experience, but I really enjoy it.

And, you know, working with a big entertainment agency like that, it really helps to understand because I really felt that we were getting into an area where I'm not a specialist at. And, And it was really nice to have the experience and have the knowledge of an agency like UTA to basically guide us and navigate us through this experience. All right. So you mentioned in the end you've gone to Vice and it's a great fit. Why is it a great fit for the LFA? Well, it's a great fit for the LFA here in the U.S.

because we're back on network television. We're going to be, you know, the potential of being in almost 45 million homes across the U.S. And that's just our linear deal. So we're still in the market and we're still talking to different people about shopping our digital deal for the U.S. So that's why. I mean, just the exposure being back on network television, the exposure of being in 45, potential 45 million households. We're going to be getting Nielsen rated. So we're going to get ratings.

So we're going to have data to be able to really see what we're doing and try to improve. Okay, so you mentioned that it's for the U.S. Some people were asking me about this last week. What does this mean for all the other parts of the world? Brazil, I know you guys are very big on, but Canada as well, Vice is an American network. Where can people watch you outside of the U.S.? Yeah, so what we're going to do currently now, our goal now is we wanted to lock down the U.S.

And that was our first, it was our first piece in this huge jigsaw puzzle, right? And so right now, slowly by surely, I think every few weeks, or we're going to be announcing new partnerships in different markets all over the world. So there's approximately 200 markets all over the world where we can license our content to. So I think, but for the rest of the world right now, this week, we're going to geoblock our YouTube channel for the United States. so everyone can tune in on Vice, but then for the rest of the world, we're going to offer it to all of our fans. You just log on to the LFA Fight Network on YouTube, and everyone can watch it. As we start to close these deals throughout the world, then we will be geo-blocking those particular markets and then working with the partners that we have in those markets.

Love that. You said that your digital rights in the U.S. are still up. Will that be finalized by Friday? You know what? I would like to say I hope so, but I don't think so. I don't think so. So as of right now, in the U.S., you tune in to Vice. And, you know, like I said, it's in 45 million homes. So when you think about that sort of exposure, I'm really excited. You know, this really feels to me very similar. After, you know, getting on a few calls with Vice and their team over there, They're extremely excited about having us on their platform.

And I feel this feels a lot like when the UFC did the deal with Spike. You know, it really feels like that. The excitement, I really think this is going to be huge for mixed martial arts, huge for all the athletes that are there. And like I said, we're going to continue to be the number one developmental organization, not only for the UFC, but for the sport of MMA. Yeah, I was going to ask, what could you tell us about Vice and their appetite regarding combat sports? They have this series called Dark Side, Dark Side of the Ring, Dark Side of the Cage.

They signed a deal with BKB recently, Your Deal. They've dabbled in combat sports, and I see it kind of ramping up. Are they going to get more into combat sports now? I think, you know, they have their whole division of Vice Sports. So I haven't really dug in too deep to what the plan is. But as from what I've seen, I see this happening. You know, I see them getting into more life sports. It's definitely their demographic.

I watch their channel. I've known about Vice for a long time. As a matter of fact, back in the day, back in the day when I had sinister brand clothing, I used to do ads in Vice magazines. I've always been very familiar with Vice. And I just like their kind of cutting edge sort of. of vibe that they have. The demographic is perfect for our sport. And like I said, just to be on network television and to have the potential of being 45 million homes is extremely exciting

for not only for the LFA, but for every athlete that's fighting on our cards, it's going to be a huge exposure for them. I was going to mention the Edsores that I first met in probably like 06, 07. I feel like he was very vice, you know, like California guy, the board, like you are, you are vice. So I think this is perfect for you. It's great for, it's great for your brand. It's great for your image. I'm, like I said, we're really excited to be with vice. I'm happy that they, you know, that we did this partnership. And, and I, and I, like I said, our first shows this Friday, I'm just excited. I'm super excited to do this and, and, and, and, and see what, it's going to come up this year. I think 2026 is going to be a huge year. We came off of an incredible

year in 2025, you know, just like when you look at some of our stats from 2025, basically looking at that, you know, every single UFC card last year had at least one of our alumni fighting on it. You know, we expanded into Europe last year. So we did 25 shows last year. We did It's six in Brazil. We did our first show in Spain. And across the United States, we've done, out of the 50 states, we've done events in 30. And I believe this year we're going to expand that too. So I'm just really excited to keep growing the company. Keep, you know, I've got a lot, you know, I've really fell in love with developing this young talent and helping them, you know, sharpen their tools and prepare them for when they do step up into the big leagues,

they've had the experience, the knowledge, and to be able to be successful in the next stage in their career. I like Friday nights for you guys because I feel like there's no other competition. It kind of fits, like you say, developmental leagues. So like UFC Saturday, your Friday. I like it a lot. Will all these 25 events for 2026 always be on Friday nights? for the most part yes that's what we spoke about and you know last year we did a few shows here

and there on a Saturday but as of right now when we spoke with vice they're really excited about having Friday nights like you mentioned early you know there's 52 weeks in a year if 25 of them are filled with LFA that means almost 50% of the year Friday nights on vice you're going to be able to tune into an LFA and and see you know like our slogan We're the future now. You see the future superstars today before they become the big superstars that the UFC's turn them into. I'm not sure if this occurred to you, but it's actually nine years ago tomorrow that the LFA held their first event, January 13, 2017. So what a journey it has been for you.

And you have always tried to tout the promotion as the developmental, the college football of MMA, all that stuff. And I think that you have accomplished that goal, quite frankly. What I'm wondering, though, is the landscape here in America is much different today than it was nine years ago. At some point, is there a possibility that El Faye stops being the developmental and just tries to be, at least for now, the number two? I feel like it's wide open. It's PFL and no one else. And PFL's going through a lot of changes right now. Why can't you guys be the number two and no longer feed your talent to other promotions?

Well, the reality of it is, is that there's nothing that stops us from continuing to be the number one developmental organization and us be the number two show in the world. And I guess it would, the way I look at it is it depends on how you really, what makes you the number two show in the world? What makes you the number two show in the world? Is it the talent? Is it the amount of shows you do? I mean, when you want to get down to the business of it, let's look at the financials. I'll tell you right now, let's look at our financials. I'll go up against one in PFL, and I guarantee you we're the number two show in the world now.

Okay, okay. So you consider yourself number two, but in addition to that... Here's the thing. Depending on who you ask, some people would say that we're the number two. I don't like to claim that we're the number two show in the world until there's no factual doubt in anyone's eyes. So to me, you know, I'm very grounded. We just keep our nose to the grindstone. And, you know, for us, I would love for there to be other organizations because I really

enjoy the process of developing the talent. I love getting these fighters at a young age early in their career, developing their talent, basically, you know, kind of explaining to them and helping them develop to get to the next level. In a perfect world, I would love there to be two or three. shows that we could really send people to. Currently, yes, we are sending people to PFL. As a matter of fact, in the Bannamweight championship last year, you know, two of those, the two guys that fought in the Bannamweight, for PFL fought in the Bannamweight championship, both of those athletes

have competed for us. And the interesting thing is, is that they're great fighters, but actually both of those athletes have had losses in the LFA, and here they are at the PFL fighting for the championship. No, it's a very valid point and an accurate point. And so I'm just curious, like, given the fact, you know, I've known you for so long, you've seen and done it all in this sport, can I get your assessment on the state of MMA in particular in this country, but also around the world? Like I said, when you first started the LFA, the landscape was different. When you first started in MMA, the landscape was completely different. The fact that there's one behemoth, and they've always been there, but kind of less two, three, and fours around them, what do you make of that? I make of that is that, you know, the UFC, they're the best at what they do.

You know, I really admire what they've done. I've always had a great relationship with Dana, with Hunter, with Lorenzo back when he was there. I have a great relationship with everyone. I feel kind of like I'm Switzerland. I get along with everybody and thank God for them because, you know, the UFC has invested so much money in this sport, developing this sport, you know, getting it. what just what they've done when you think back in 2001 when they when they came on board and and to think that you know this sport was almost illegal almost banned and for them to go through and invest the money and put all the time in to get it to get it um you know to get all these

states to sanction this you know to sport it's just what what they've been able to do for our sport i mean if it wasn't as we all know if it wasn't for the ufc uh ariel you and i probably wouldn't be here talking about this right now. Absolutely. No, 100%. And my question wasn't necessarily about the UFC, was necessarily about the fact that there aren't other organizations out there. Does that surprise you that it seems like there's, you know, back of the day we had the IFLs and the elite XCs,

affliction did there one little thing, Bellator. All these guys strike force no longer around. Yeah, well, you know, unfortunately, I think there's people that, you know, the fight business is extremely sexy to a lot of people and a lot of investors. And the story, when you look at the story, of the UFC to investors especially. It's a very exciting sport to get involved. And these companies do that.

The problem is, I think a lot of the people that have been put into place to run some of these bigger organizations don't know the fight business. They might have extremely impressive resumes in their particular things that they've done. They might be excellent TV people. They might be excellent at something else.

But they don't know the fight business. And you and I both know that the fight business is a different business. And if you don't come from it, if you don't understand it, if you're not involved in it, it seems easy. But if it was easy, there would be more people doing it successfully. And there isn't. LFA 224 from Mystic Lake in Prior Lake Michigan this Friday, that's January 16th, the Vice TV debut. Then you've got another show, January 23rd in Brazil, which is near and dear to your heart.

And then February 6, LFA, 2,000. 26 in Clarksville, Tennessee. I'll put you on the spot. There's the early lineup right there. I'll put you one fight that everyone needs to talk about, that everyone needs to watch out for from these slate of shows. What's the one fight that you're most excited about? Well, you know, always when there's a title fight,

and in these next three events, we have title fights in all three of them. But, you know, one of the fights that I'm extremely excited about, if you were to, I mean, I'm excited about all of them, But like watching, you know, a very impressive person to watch is in Brasilia. We've got Marcus Degley, who's our interim flyway champion. This kid is a sniper, extremely talented. I really believe, I really thought he would have been in the UFC by now. This kid doesn't back away from anybody.

He goes out. He fights. And in his last fight, he, you know, in his last fight in the LFA, he actually, he was actually losing the first two rounds. He, you know, this kid didn't show any respect to him when in there was banging. And, you know, he was focused, determined, and he ended up coming back in the third round and knocking him out. Okay.

So that's a really exciting fight, the main event of Brasilia. But like I said, you know, our events, you know, we've been known, we've been known to always put on grade of fights. And this week, you know, there's so many, you know, we've got, we've got this guy named Josiah Horell, who's basically, who's, who's, who's basically, you know, undefeated talent, a prospect. He's going to be in our co-main event. We got Giovanna Canuto, who's like a, basically, you know, a protege in jujitsu, and she's six and one. Her only loss was to a, in a title fight. She's young. She's very talented. And she's like a, she's a little powerhouse. You know, she's a go-getter. She's, she doesn't back down and she's a very exciting fighter. But like I said,

the beauty about, the beauty about tuning into the LFA is you're going to see at least a handful, at least at the very minimum, a handful of athletes that, that you're going to see in the UFC or in another big organization. Like you said earlier, the problem is, is I'm the biggest cheerleader. I want the PFL to succeed. I want one to succeed for our industry. The athletes need that because we develop so much talent. We can't develop only for the UFC. So it's super important for there to be other organizations that are ran properly that are going to be sustainable so we can keep developing talent and hopefully keep this sport growing. I wanted to be respectful of the fact that you're here for one reason and one reason only,

and that is to talk about the big deal on Vice as CEO of LFA. One last question that I'd be amiss if I don't ask you one question about your guy, Alex Perra, if only because I woke up today and Chamsat Shemayev was tweeting that he wanted to fight him, a series of tweets that he wants to fight Alex. Can I just get your thoughts on that idea? And regardless, when could we see Alex back in there? You know, hopefully Alex is training now. He's ready to go. I, you know, I'd like to see, you know, maybe early in the second quarter, potentially. I don't know. We don't have anything set up yet. He doesn't have anything set up yet. But, but I could tell you about, you know, Shama, he's, man, go defend your title first, bro. Yeah. I mean, you haven't even defended your, your middleweight title yet. I think, I think, I think. I think he's kind of, you know, he's just, he's trying to create, and who wouldn't.

Alex right now is the biggest star in mixed martial arts, active star in mixed martial arts. So everybody wants to try to do something to instigate something because you talk about Alex, people pay attention. No one really pays attention to him unless he talks about Alex. True or false, we see Alex fight at heavyweight this year. Potentially, potentially true. Okay. Do you think the Jones fight could still happen? It doesn't sound like John thinks it's going to happen.

You know, anything could happen. You know, anything could happen. We still have hopes for that. But at the end of the day, man, we'll have to see how it goes. I mean, he's got, you know, he's got, you know, a few fights left on his contract. And we'll just see how it goes. I mean, we would love for that to happen. But he also would need some time because, you know,

So, you know, he does walk around at about 230, 235 pounds. But once he starts training, you know, he would like to put a little bit more muscle on if you went up to heavyweight. But, you know, Alex, man, he's a gangster, dude. He's going to go there. If you put a fight in front of him that interests him, he'll do it. I mean, to think that he was in Australia doing seminars and doing appearances and he defended his title on 14 days notice. It's incredible to think that the guy does that. And that's just the way he is.

He's a true fighter. He's going to take challenges and not back away. Love it. And also love the fact that you got this deal done. 9 p.m. Eastern this Friday, 6 p.m. in the West. There you have it. Three shows coming up back-to-back week, 16th, 23rd, and then early February as well. Good luck, Ed.

Congratulations. Love to see this. wishing you guys all the best really appreciate you coming on and talking about this. Hey, thank you. Thank you so much. You know, when we broke the news of, you know, when the RFA and legacy fighting championship merge, we did it with you. And I always appreciate the support. And once again, you know, so many people are like, oh, they left like our relationship with the UFC is flawless. It's great. It's just as good. And, and what I excited about for all those fighters and managers and coaches out there is just that now we're going

to be on a huge platform and now we're going to be able when guys go to the UFC, I'm hoping that these people are going to, these guys are going to be much better promoted and seen by a lot more people around the world before they take that big step into the biggest organization in the world, which is a UFC. Amen. Thank you, Ed. Appreciate it. All the best to you guys. forward to it. Thank you, man. That's a voice. There he is the CEO of the Legacy Fighting Alliance. Nine years tomorrow, they celebrate their ninth birthday, and I think that is significant in an era where we're seeing promotions come and go. They're doing their thing. They had their plan,

they had their vision, what they wanted to be. They have certainly, I think, accomplished that goal. And, you know, they're a place where, you know, UFC likes to do business. They like to do business. they like to do business with them. They like to get them opportunity. Wow, thank you for that, Frank. Other promotions like do business with them, and now they're in a good spot. They're in a good spot.

All right, let's not waste any more time. Still to come in studio in about 20 minutes time. Armand Sarukian, joining us in studio, the potential, in my opinion, number one contender at 155, the uncrowned champion at 155. We don't have to add those qualifiers to our next guest.

He is the best featherweight in the world. He is the champion of the 145 pound division and he is defending his title once again in what uh less than a month january 31st here in america february 1st over in sydney back home in australia once again he's the one and only he's the great one he's alex volkenovsky kind enough to join us here now hello alix how are you my friend great to have you on i'm good i'm good good to see you it's great to see you it's great to you it's great to you know an old clip of us uh doing a little cooking has resurfaced online have you seen this you opening the cap yeah i do i do remember i had

I've seen that actually. I've seen that a couple of times. Can I tell you something? Makes me laugh every time. Yeah, I'm sure it does. I showed that clip to my wife, who's a lot more comfortable in the kitchen than I am, I must say. And she, to my credit, said she has never seen that move done before. So I know you were taking the piss, you were taking the Mickey, but, you know, maybe it's an Australia thing. I don't know, because over here, I've never seen someone still to this day pull that move, where you like kind of open it and dip it in. I've never seen that. Yeah, I don't know. Look, it's just something that I've always done. I don't know if it's been in the household, like with my parents did that, or I don't know.

I just thought it was maybe a normal thing. Maybe it's not, you know what I mean? But we're having a good laugh, mate. You know, it wasn't really, like you said, taking the pitch, you know, just having to have a laugh. Of course, of course. All right. I wanted to talk to you, obviously, about this fight against Diego Lopez. And I know you're locked in, and I know you're almost there, and you don't want to go backwards.

But this is the first time that we are speaking in. So I'd be remiss if I don't ask you a couple questions about the making of the fight. When you were told officially they're not going with Lorone or Mufzer, I got to give you all the credit in the world, Alex. You went out there multiple times and said these guys should be fighting next for the belt, but in the end, you're going to fight who they tell you to fight. Could I just ask what your reaction was when you found out it was going to be once again, Diego, the guy you beat in your last fight back in April? Well, we sort of eased into it, right? If it was just all of a sudden out of nowhere,

they just told me that's who was going to be, I would, I guess I would have been a little shocked. But after Lorone, well, mobs are straight after the fight, after my fight, we've Lopez, I mentioned you know, it should be mobs are, but then that wasn't going to happen.

I couldn't turn around quick anyway. My plans was to have a quick turnaround. I just couldn't. A few things after the fight, like, you know, were just things I had to take care of. But then he was going to fight and then all that stuff happened. And then I was like, I mean, I'm not if they're going to give it to him now. Then Lorona stepped in and that happened.

Then I obviously called him out. And I was thinking like, yeah, I think they were a little interested in maybe that as well. But then they just wanted to wait to see what happened with Silver and Lopez. So when I've seen that, seen that they're waiting for that, I was like, oh, okay, so obviously it could be one of these two. I was thinking it would be more if Jean Silver wins. and then Lopez won and then we're like, all right, so what's happening? Is it going to be Lorraine?

We're like, oh, we don't know. Leave it with us. I'm like, oh, crap, all right. So maybe it could be Lopez. So I started thinking that that could be the case from there on. And then when I got told us, yeah, I wasn't too surprised. Obviously you're the champion you want to defend the belt. That's enough motivation.

But considering you just beat this guy in your last fight, and it wasn't a controversial fight or anything like that, did it take some time to get, you know, a little bit revved up, for this challenge? Not really. I mean, I'm going to fight whoever. You know, I'm just, whoever it is, I'll step up.

Obviously, I'm going to look at how people, you know, maybe legacy-wise and all that, you know, would I rather an undefeated fighter like a Mobsar or, you know, Lerone Murphy or something like that? Yeah, maybe. But I know this is still going to be an exciting fight. And I can just, you know, fight, if they, I think they might be fighting.

I'm not too sure. I think Lorone, Murphy and Monsa might be fighting. And if that's the case, I'll just fight the winner of that. You know, obviously I've got to take care of business first of February. I'll do that. But, yeah, I guess, for me, at least I know it's going to be exciting. One thing that I will say, and I know a lot of people are going to always go to, you know, rankings and all that sort of stuff, which I'm a big believer in.

Everyone knows I'm a big believer in that. But I'm also a big believer in taking your opportunities. As you know, I'm a guy that I'll step in on a short notice if I have to to take an opportunity. I'll be the backup fighter to take an opportunity. I won't say no, you know what I mean? So, you know, just things like that because we know we are going to get favoured if things that happen. If you are saying, no, or, you know, I've got a little injury. I'm all right, what about, you know, you fight this day?

No, I can't. And you start doing these sort of things, you probably ain't going to be rewarded. And we all know that, right? We all know that. So that's why I'm like, you know, are we that surprised in a, you know, but for me, again, I'm a big believer in rankings and earning your shot and all that sort of stuff. But in this day and age, in this business and this company, we know that taking your opportunities, going out there, having exciting fights, saying no to, like, no one's stepping up and I'll fight anyone,

you know, like I'll say, yep, yep, yep, yep, whatever it is, we know you're going to be rewarded. We actually know this, right? Like, it's no surprise that you are going to get favoured if that happens. So that's why I can't act like I'm that surprised because, you know, he definitely is that guy that will fight anyway. I know that for that September card that he fought when he fought silver, they threw every name at him and he's yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And a lot of people were saying no.

So I'm going to have to, you know, at least have his back on that one. But at the same time, for me, I plan on doing what I'm going to do. to do? You know, again, he's a dangerous guy. He's tough. We know, we see now, you know, he can take a good punch, but I plan on going out there. I don't take any damage and I want to have a quick turnaround, try and have the quick turnaround that I wanted last time. And then maybe we can do it with someone like Monsalorne Murphy. And then, again, I'll know that they'll be disappointed, but their fight ain't won't be too far away because I'll make sure that happens. Last thing on all of this stuff, were you given a reason as to why they chose Diego over the other two?

Um, no, I wouldn't say a reason. Okay. I was just like eased into it. Obviously, that fight was an exciting fight. Yeah, big finish as well. So maybe, I don't know. I didn't know. It wasn't, I just knew that I was sort of got the feeling like,

I think they might go here, you know? They might go with Lopez on this one, which I was almost preparing for, you know, as soon as I could go back to training or when I was starting to work on things, it was up Monsar and just training for things that you know might need to use for him then it could be Lurone and then I'm waiting to do things like that then after I started figuring that out I'll go okay it could be Lopez so let's start maybe preparing for that again as well I feel like there are three themes going into this fight for you the first was the one we just talked about how they got to this opponent the second being being back home in Australia first time since 2017 fighting in Sydney

one in 13 fights for you fighting back home obviously the the some fight was back home. That was the one since 2018. Just getting to do the camp back home and not having to travel and being the man and finally getting this big fight back home, what does that feel like for you? Do you love this? Yeah, of course. Awesome. And literally hometown. So you've got a, you know, Fort in Perth, as you said. But I didn't defend the belt. I get to defend the belt here in Sydney, literally an hour and a half away from where I live. I'm going to treat it the exact same. You know, a lot of people are like, oh, you can just stay home. come up and I won't be doing that. I'll make it feel like it's a five week. I'm going to go there

the week before and, you know, just go through five weeks as I always do. But yeah, to have it here, it's pretty good. That's why I waited a little bit longer as well, right? Because I told everyone that I wanted a quick turnaround. I couldn't do the quick turnaround for, you know, a couple of niggilys and things that we had to look after. Then it was like, all right, I wanted, you know, whether it's going to be October December. And then they end up saying, look, Sydney may be February. I'm like, okay, I can wait for that.

So, you know, I didn't want to wait, but, you know, if it's going to be for a Sydney fight, maybe I can wait for that. And then the other big theme, and probably the biggest of them all is your retirement, your status as an active fighter. And it seems like everyone's weighing in. And I have to be honest, I'm trying to figure out where it all started.

I've seen people, I've seen Tom Aspenal say, he thinks you should retire if all goes well. I've seen Lorone say he thinks you'll never fight him, not because you don't want to, but because you're going to retire. It seems like everyone has kind of dubbed this a retirement fight, except for you. And I don't really know how it originated this way. And so could you tell us, you know, very matter-of-factly, is this a retirement fight for you? Are you going to be done after this fight? Yeah, I don't know where that came from exactly.

Obviously, I guess whether people are just going off what I say, like I'm like, how many more do I, have. If I was to get beaten up, am I going to, you know, come back to a fight? No, you know what I mean? But that's not my plans, you know, unless something, you know, things go horrendously wrong. You know, I'm planning on going back out there. You know, whether the next one, you know, taking on an undefeated fighter in the UFC or something like that, I mean, that's appealing. Maybe that could be one that I finish up on. But right now, I plan on everything going well, get my hand raised, hopefully take a minimal damage so I can have a quick turnaround and still fighting. So the plan is definitely to retire, you know what I mean? So I don't know where that

come from. Okay. You know, there was a talk straight after my last fight. I'm like, oh, you know, how many more, you never know there were talks like that. But as soon as I started training, I was like, ah, let's keep going. You like it. You still enjoy this? Yeah, I mean, it's hard. You know, it ain't easy. You know what I mean? Especially everyone knows how hard I train and that. That everything that comes with it, especially now I'm doing so many things outside of fighting, and they're doing so well. I guess I don't need to fight, but I mean, let's be real, you know, a lot of people are going to see, oh, he's fighting for money and all that. It's always been like that. It's always been about the money looking after my family.

I mean, you were never going to make the paycheck, you're going to make fighting, right? So it's, and I still feel like I can go out there. And, you know, even in the training room, you know, you've got people coming in the camps and, you know, seeing a harbour trainer, like, how does he do this? Even at 37 years old. So, you know, I'm still going strong, so I'll just keep going. I guess we'll see. I wouldn't say I keep going.

I think I can't promise another three, four years. But, I mean, I don't think I'm retiring this one because I plan on getting my hand raised and take a minimal damage going out there and, yeah, setting a statement, put on a show for the fans. And maybe we'll see what happens after that. who we're going to have after that and then maybe that's going to be a little more appealing

fight to retire on. Maybe it's people have dreamed up of this great scenario for you. You're back home, you win, you put the gloves down in the belt, all this stuff, but very clearly I don't get that sense from you. In fact, I did hear Patty Pimbley say if he wins against Justin Gichi, he could see a world where you'll want to go up

and fight him at 155. What do you make of that? Yeah, yeah, seen that. I mean, if it's offered to me, of course I'm going to, you know, I'll fight for the lightweight title. But I mean, you know, as if I knows, I'm pretty real with everything. Right now, it's like, do I deserve a shot out in a lightweight title already? You know what I mean? Like right now, it's like, no, I know I don't.

So it's not something that I'm planning. And like I said, I'm not planning to fight for another, you know, two, three years. So I feel like for me to deserve a show like that, I'm going to need another two, three wins. And then, you know, maybe I'm back in a position where I can fight for, you know, I deserve a shot at that lightweight title. You know, I don't believe I deserve that right now. So that's why it's not, that's not something that I've even thought of it. He mentioned it.

I was like, oh, I'm surprised he thought that because that's not something that's, you know, I feel like is could be in the near future. Unless the UFC are like, oh, look, someone's got injured. I need you on 11 days notice. Come, all right, sweet, no always. I'm there. Can I ask, you know, it's crazy now. you see Islam as welterway champion,

you're featherway champion and you were so close to beating him in that first fight. Do you think about that fight a lot? Do you think about those final seconds? Is this the one that keeps you up at night? Ah, man, I'm all good with it. Yeah, I'm all good with it. And a lot of people are going to talk about the second fight.

Why'd you do it on 11 days' notice and this and that, and why'd you do the quick turnaround after that? It's just, man, like a, man, that's just who I, AM anyway, but no, I don't. I don't. Like, I think we put on a great show. You know, we thought we did enough. We know it was a very, very close fight.

A lot of people still talk about this all the time. Everyone that was at that arena, you know, it's a, you know, people always talk about moments and that, and everyone's still got a great moment there. Obviously, me getting my hand raised would have just been perfect way to end that, you know, perfect bit of entertainment or whatever, however you want to call it. Yeah, so I mean, I'm all good with it I'm all good with how everything is You know people are gonna as I said

People are gonna keep bringing up Why'd you do it in 11 days notice Do you regret that? I don't That guy that that would take on anyone On 11 days notice Will take on any challenge Is why I'm in this situation anyway This is why I'm a yeah

This is why I'm a defending champ You know what I mean? They've done what I've done You know it's because I'm that guy That's a guy that turns up in the gym Every single day And I'm proud of it. of that and I wouldn't change the thing.

You're one of the first champions to be competing in this new Paramount Plus era. Kayla would be the first, you're the second. And I'm just curious, you know, I love the business side of things. I know that there were once pay-per-view points attached to, you know, championship fights. How are they offsetting that now that there's no more pay-per-view? Not exactly sure, just yet, to be honest. So, yeah, I think we are in talks with them. So we'll just see, but yeah, I mean, it is different, right?

So that's why them conversations are going to be had. But yeah, I'm not sure. I'm just focusing on what I do and I'll leave the, I guess, the rest to hash. Fair enough. And you're in capable hands, no doubt. Are you confident it will be all sorted and it will be in a good spot that you're comfortable with? Yeah, yeah, definitely. Okay.

I think for sure. You know what I mean? Yeah, for sure. You did mention you've got a lot of other things. Obviously, cooking with Vogue is exploding. I see all the success you're having on social media and YouTube. I kind of laugh when I see all of this and the way people talk about you. I see so many great memes and videos about you walking down.

There was once a time we had many of these conversations where people said like, where's the personality, you know, he's just another vanilla guy. And now I feel like everyone gets and loves your personality. Do you laugh about that? It just took them a while to figure it out. But now I feel like you're one of the most beloved personalities in the game and everyone can't get enough of your content out of the cage. Yeah, it is.

It's weird because I guess I've always been that guy, but I just wasn't able to really be that guy when I was going through, you know, when I was chasing the dream and, you know, wanting to be champion and, you know, everything that comes with it, you know, you don't really, it's hard, like, you know what I mean, because a lot of people are going to be like, you know, I guess where they come from. That's always been me, but while I was chasing the dream, it was just like, I don't know, it's hard to explain. So it's almost like you start losing yourself a little bit because you've got this tunnel vision.

And, you know, people talk about the fighter's identity. It's like, yeah, it's a real thing, especially if you want to be successful, you want to be the best. I don't have any, I don't have time for anything else, but be in the gym and, you know what I mean? You know, I don't get to hang out or do all this sort of stuff. I'm just in the gym or I'm dad or I'm on the fighter. Every, you know, conversations usually revolves around just fighting and, you know, and back then I'm just like, oh, they want to know about the fighting. That's all I'll sort of give them.

So it was just, I know, it was just, that's just how it always was. And I do remember people like would say things like that and, you know, yeah, whatever, I guess. It's just like, I'm not going to talk. I thought it was because they didn't talk trash. But then I understand it now. I was like, yeah, because I didn't really give too much back then. And I don't think I could because I was just so dialed in on what. I had to do and I didn't have any time for anything else that, yeah, you lose a bit.

Then I obviously had that, no, I guess you started seeing a little bit before I had the big break, but you started seeing me get a little bit more comfortable with everything and confident inside the octagon and outside and then having the break and then really getting to spend a lot of time doing those things and having the camera in your face doing things outside of fighting was awesome. And even that break was, you know, I was able to hang out again and just beating me again, if that makes sense, which, you know, sometimes can be pretty hard when you are chasing the dream. And that's what I mean. And the reason why I talk about that is because I want people to know that, you know, if they are going to chase the dream, like, you know,

if you really, really want to succeed and you want to be elite and you want to be the best in the world, you might, you know, you might lose a bit of yourself for a bit. You know, that's what I want you to know, like, because if you really do want to do what you need to do to be the best, I believe there's a lot of time, sacrifice, a discipline that comes with it. You won't have much time for anything else, but you can get it all back. That's sort of one thing I want to leave it with. I'm very glad that that's the guy I was because I wouldn't have the opportunities I have now. I wouldn't be where I am right now if I wasn't that guy and I'm just glad that I'm who I am today.

Adversity is a privilege, as you said, back in Miami. One last quick one if I can. I saw you link up with the great Paul Hughes who were big fans of and think the world of what was that like and how did that come together? Yeah, yeah, really good dude. He just was in Australia and then he reached out and he's like, oh, you know, I don't know what he reached out earlier.

I leave like he leaves in a couple of days. I'll leave in a couple of days. Can we come, you know, maybe get a bit of training and catch up? And I said, yeah, of course, man, for sure. So he popped in and, yeah, it'll be good. Next time he's in, I go, mate, just hit us up straight away, come in. Really good dude. Really good dude.

Yes, I agree. Can't wait for this. Welcome back. Looking forward to it. And so happy that you're getting this opportunity back home in Sydney. It's an amazing thing. Thank you for doing this so early, Alex. As always, appreciate you very much.

I know you don't do a lot of these right now. Ash told me that many times. He doesn't do a lot of these. So be grateful, you son of a... No, I'm kidding. He was very kind about it, but I bothered him a lot. Just really wanted to talk to you about this big opportunity, so we really appreciate and wish you all the best.

No worries, man. I appreciate it. Thank you. You're the man. Thank you, Alex. All the best to you. There he is. The great Alex Volcanowski, the reigning, defending UFC featherweight champion

returns to action on the 31st of January here in the United States of America, February 1st over in Sydney. What a scene it is going to be when I come from a land down on. When that plays on the That beautiful arena over in Sydney, it's going to be a great time. Summertime over in Sydney.

I mean, you know yourself it's going to be a great scene. So I'm looking forward to that very much. Speaking of Paramount Plus, some information has been released as to the subscription hike that we have all been waiting for. I'm going to tell you about that after our next interview. So a lot of news and notes to get to regarding MMA, some boxing to discuss as well. So have no fear, we will get to all of that and more. But my friends, I have said this a couple of times now.

I have said that the most interesting man in MMA is Armand Syrucian. And why do I think he is so interesting? Well, his career has really gone down an interesting path. He's doing incredible things on social media. He's blown up. He's doing all these side quests, these grappling matches, these wrestling matches, all these really interesting stuff. And, you know, he's being talked about as much as anyone. He isn't fighting as much as anyone, but I really feel like he has exploded.

You'll recall this time last week, the Great New Yorker gave him the Caposa Social Media Award of the year. So I'm sure he's very excited about that. The award is right over there. So we could perhaps present it to him. He's absolutely blown up. And when I was told that he was going to be in New York and that he was willing to come in studio, I freaking jumped on that opportunity. So let me put this in here, Frank, because I need this.

I almost forgot. Frank was going to kill me if I didn't do it. Let me put it in here right here and now. It's going to bother me. And then I'm going to put this thing up. Do we have it? Do we have it? Do you hear me?

Do you hear me? Not about us hearing you. It's about... Oh, I hear you. Oh, I hear you just fine. Okay, let me fix that. Without further ado, my friends, he is here in the building. He is the number one contender.

in my opinion, in the men's lightweight division. He is the uncrowned champion at 155 pounds. He should be fighting on the 24th of January, but have no fear. He'll have his time. He fought this past weekend or competed this past weekend at RAF number five in Sunrise, Florida. He is the pride of Armenia, Georgia, Russia, South Florida. There he is. Armin Sarukian is actually here.

My friend, how are you? It's great to see you. Wow, this is so nice. Thank you for coming. And you've got your guy here with the... Is this the man behind your page? Yes. You're the man behind your page.

Welcome, Armin. Thank you. Thank you. How are you? I'm doing great. Thank you for coming in. Is this comfortable for you? Yes. You've had a very busy last few days.

Yeah. You've been doing a lot of different streams, but none bigger than this one, my friend. None bigger than this one. This one is the most important one. This is most important. Thank you. By the way, you won this award last week. You know that, yeah? No, what is that? You didn't know about this. The 13th annual Halwani Knows Awards. You won one. Really? It's mine? Well, we only have one, but you can have it, you can have it right here. You know why you want?

Why? You know what you want for? For what? You were the best at social media in 2025. You won the social media award of the year. Thank you. What do you have to say to the people? There it is. There it is. So, yeah, there it is. So you didn't necessarily win UFC gold, but you won Halwani gold last year, even more important. Yeah, it's the U.S. You add to the collection. Yeah, for sure. How are you, my friend?

Good, good. It's nice to see you. Me too, me too. How was Florida? Very quick trip for you, right? Yeah, one week. I was there one week. Did the wrestling fight and the hangout and then came here.

Okay. From here, I'm going to L.A. and then probably back to Miami. So we'll see. how it's play out the fights and everything okay i want to get into all of that but i do want to ask you r a f your first time there you absolutely i mean you steamrolled lance palmer like it was crazy watching you do this it was unbelievable so um i like wrestling a lot i wrestle a lot and when they when they told me do you want to wrestle like a freestyle wrestling i said yes right

way because I know it's a good sport and like nobody like trying to break you like in the grappling or in MMA and you don't get damages and it's a it's my one of the my favorite sport and I have I have a lot of friends who wrestle there are Olympic champions in Russia and I train with them but I never like compete on the high level like I did last week or like Saturday were you expecting it to be that one-sided Yeah, because I know my freestyle wrestling on a different level. Right. Yeah.

Frestle wrestling, like, they're mostly fox style. Okay. And on the ground, they're not that good, like a freestyle. And I believe I can be a champion in rough. Yeah, we showed some of the highlights right there. We showed again to Armin, that clip that you just played. because I mean you were throwing him around there this is Lance Palmer

I mean a multiple time all-American Division 1 and you're just ragdolling this guy yeah and it was easy and I didn't even shoot double legs or single legs my the best thing I do like a single leg okay in the MMA is bad

in the grappling is bad because someone like can choke you but in the freestyle wrestling they just defend and they don't want to try to choke you because my head outside. But it's the best move. So sometimes that's why when I wrestle in MMA, I give my neck. But in the freestyle wrestling and when I'm going to compete the next time, if it's going to be like some good wrestler, not like, yeah, if it's going to be Chandler, I'm going to play like same game, you know, just play around on the upper body.

But if it's going to be good wrestler, I'm going to do a lot of single-x, double-ex. What did you think of RAF as a promotion? How did they treat you? They're relatively young. This was their fifth event. What was the experience with them? Experience was very good. And it's like kind of you see, but in the wrestling.

Okay. Same media, press conference, wake-cuts, everything. And I'm so happy that wrestlers finally can make money and be famous like a UFC fighters because they work more than, more than us, you know, and they never like, make money like UFC fighters, you know. And now from Russia, from other countries,

they can come and compete here because this promotion, I think, going to be big. When you do this, do you have to ask the UFC for permission, or do you just do it? If you don't have a fight coming up, you're allowed to wrestle. Okay. Yeah. Does that include the grappling, jiu-jitsu, all that other stuff as well?

Yes, but you cannot box, you cannot strike. Okay, okay. But wrestling, you're allowed to wrestle. So if you don't have a fight on the books or anything being discussed, you could do whatever you want. Yeah, before eight weeks, even if you have a fight, you're not allowed to do competition before eight weeks because you can get hurt and, like, pull out from your fight. Are you active, like, in the last couple months, since your fight against Dan Hooker, you fought ACBJJ, you did the Shara match at the end of December, you did this one. you're, you know, I know you're probably not getting paid what you get paid in the UFC, but it's not bad to do all this stuff.

Are you actively seeking out these opportunities, or do they just come to you? No, they just come to me and ask me, you want to wrestle here? Because now I got two events in February. I'm thinking, like, which one I should pick, and then now there is a freestyle wrestling as well. There is, like, a gropplings and in the hype, in ACB.

And they pay good. and, you know, we wrestle every day in the gym. It's better to go there, like, perform, make money, and, like, a lot of people who loves you can come and support you. I think it's fun because right now I don't have a fight, you know, and I stay busy. It's better than sit in the gym and, like, just train, you know. Your level of preparation and the way you approach these matches,

like, of course, I saw you with 8. on Friday. Maybe if it's a UFC title fed or big, you're not doing media on the Friday before a match. So are you even like, I know you're always training, but are you like really, are you game planning for Lance Palmer? Are you training even 75% as hard as you would for UFC?

How seriously? Or are you just kind of rolling up and doing your thing and it's just like another training session for you where you don't really have to game plan? To be honest, it's like training session. Even like, because I don't cut weight. Yeah. If I lose, okay, I lose.

I don't care. Right. But you have an ego, right? You want to be successful. But it's not my sport, you know. Yeah. If I lose in the freestyle wrestling, it's okay, you know. But you see it's, I like, I locked in before two months.

Right. And I think about that fight all day because that sport that I live for, you know. And it's my goal to be UFC champion. And I treat my training camp myself is different, you know. But in the wrestling, you don't yet hurt, you know, and it's easier to wrestle, you know, for me. But MMA is hard. And pressure, media, and, like, if you lose, you're done, you know. Everybody's waiting when you lose.

That's why you want to be the best. And, yeah, it's completely different. If you want to compare UFC and these wrestling fights, it's just like a training set. What are the opportunities that you're weighing for February? For the rough? Yeah, I got the rough. I got the rough. They want you to come back?

Yeah. February 28th. Yeah. Against two? Against Michael Chandler. We'll see what he says. So they offered it to you? Yeah.

No, no, no. I told them. Okay. Give me Michael Chenner because in the UFC he was running out always. He didn't want to even say my name. And I know we never. going to meet in MMA so just crack his neck in the freestyle wrestling I would love to okay do you think he'll say yes on the social media he said yes we'll see oh he did yeah he did

okay he weighed in yeah he said yeah he said yeah he said uh he wants to smash me but I can give my leg even like just playing you can even like say what's how many points you want me to get from him right yeah if you want me like to five and no and stay five and no or like right away ten o whatever you say i can do it it who's writing these tweets by the way for you is it you me me yes my you wrote good joke no no no i didn't know mike is a comedian your tweets are always on point yeah yeah so uh my english knows the best right i think about our armenian or russian so i sent to my friend okay so he explained english better and then put it and he puts it in okay um did you see michael there no you didn't see him you didn't cross paths yeah and then i didn't

I didn't understand why they didn't give me a mic, so I wanted to call him out. Why did it they? I don't know. Chale? I don't know. They didn't give him a mic. I was waiting there and I was looking where's the mic so I can call out his name. But no.

So we'll see. That's the, I think we're going to make a good hype, like for the social media. It's going to be big because he's a wrestler, right? He was competing on the Americans and competitions. and he was, I don't know, American champion or else. University of Missouri. Yeah, Division I. So he has more chance to beat me there than in MMA,

because M.M.A. No. What did you think of Colby and Luke teaming up against Bo? Were you watching all of this? What did you make of it? Boe shouldn't talk that moment. Really? Yeah. Why?

Why? Because they both of them, they don't. like him probably and they started like talking shit about him that he had he didn't he didn't do anything in the UC and how you can talk you know just shut up and see yeah and he wanted to call out or Bo wanted to call out him I think

Colby yeah yeah so but yeah in the in the wrestling Bo gonna beat him both on the same on the same night you know but in you in the MMA it's it's not yet because he's new. Right. He didn't accept the fight against UL. were you surprised? Would you have accepted

if your opponent was seven pounds over? In wrestling, yes. Yeah. In wrestling years, but in UC or MMA boxing, no. Okay. All right, so those are the opportunities that you're weighing,

but of course everyone knows and loves you as an MMA fighter. I have a theory for you, Armand. Now we get into the good stuff. I have a theory for you, okay? Okay. Do you want to hear it? Yeah.

I actually think, about this a lot this weekend. I actually think that this situation that is playing out, you're not getting to touch all this, is actually the best thing to ever happen to you. Really? Yes, I have a feeling. I actually feel very strongly about this. Yeah. I feel like it has now made you into a very sympathetic figure. Everyone is talking about you, pulling for you, people like me and other people as well. And I think it has made the desire. Sometimes when you don't give people, I don't know if they did this on purpose. In fact, I don't think they did it on purpose. But I think that the by-propos, but I think that the by product of them not doing the right thing, which was putting you in this title fight on January

24th, has actually made you more popular and more beloved. What do you think of that? No, if I get the title January 24, I became more popular than now. Yeah, so. Maybe, but you know when you don't... You know, they boss, they're not, they're not, they shouldn't be there. I should be there versus I. Even not Ely, I should be there. I should be there. But, you know, I know I'm the best there, so I'm supposed to be there. If not, I know, like, I cannot do anything right now, so I just got to wait. And of course, like, people always ask me about, like, when like Donna gives interview, everybody is asking. That's good. You know, people like, they know who is the real contender. So before you're fighting against Dan Hooker and

guitar, Dana White did a media day and he was asked, is this a number one contender fight? And he said yes. Yeah. And so why aren't you the number one contender? Why aren't you fighting? The number one contender, if there's a number one contender fight and that person wins, they should be fighting for the belt next and you didn't get hurt and you said you were ready to turn around two months later.

It wasn't like it was six weeks later or four weeks. It was two months. Yeah. So why, in your opinion, did they not go to you and say, all right, Ilya can't fight, will do you versus Patty for the interim title. My opinion, right? Yes, my opinion, because it's a first paramount fight. And second one, I'm too dangerous that I pull out from my fight from the title fight.

And then I did a head bat on the hooker. And then, like, I'm too dangerous. The thing with the fan, AFGFG? Wait, you believe this or you think that? what they believe no I think that what they right it's their opinion sure my opinion just it's a they won they want they want a Piedi Pimler to be a champion yeah my opinion but their opinion they they saying that that had butt pull out punch that I punch a fan but I didn't punch him I just make

him made made him scared you know and yeah because of that so I can just say yes and just wait my chance. I'm wondering if you think that because I saw when they did the press conference and Patty was there, he was asked about this and he went down the list of reasons why you're not fighting and it felt to me like the UFC told him this and he because I was like how is he remembering all these things like he was going boom boom boom do you feel like that's what they're saying to others including him as to why you're not next? Probably probably why they maybe his manager told me I I haven't talk to you to anybody from

UC, I just, my manager told me because of this, because of that, you're not getting the title fight. I said, it's what it is. Is that fair in your opinion? I mean, for them it's fair, you know, but for me, you know, I want to be a champion as soon as possible. Do you regret any of those

moves on your part? Which one you regret? So pull out was real deal. Yeah. Headbut was so bad. I shouldn't do that because hooker, he's a man. If was some different guy who said, oh, I get hurt, I don't want to fight. So can imagine if many went like, like what happened, you know?

And so, yeah. Yeah, it's so bad. So hopefully it happened and nothing happened. But I couldn't control myself, you know, that moment. Why? Why were you so fired up? Because I hate the hangar. And they knew that.

They knew that. Did he say something to prompt the headbutt? Or was it just him being in front of it? Like what made you in that moment? No, he wanted like, punch me or like, like make me scared. And that's why I like, it's like automatically. My hand was down. Yeah.

Because who was there? And we just showed the picture. Who was in between you guys? Was it Dana? No, no, no. Oh, McMainer. Mick Mayer. Yeah.

My hands is down. So I could push him instead of. of headbut. Did that hurt you? No, no. No. But do you feel like you can't control yourself sometimes? Sometimes, yes.

Yeah. First five seconds. Even on the street? I heard this guy laugh. Like, no, no, no. People test you on the street. No, no, no. On the street, I control myself.

People don't try to test you. A famous fighter who has a short temper. Let me try to get something out of them. Let me try to. They're scared because they know they can get hurt. Sure. But they could also maybe get hurt and sue you or something, you know, bait you. Yeah, yeah.

That's why I walk around not alone. Okay, you always have someone. Do you do that to try to protect yourself too, so that you don't put yourself in a bad position where you're getting into a fight or something? So hopefully, like nothing happened, like last five, six years. Nobody like trying to do something and always like asking to take a picture and that's it. When you were younger, were you getting into a lot of fights? Yeah, on the street, yes.

Because of your temper. Yeah, yeah. I cannot talk. I like to fight just. Like about what? Like, what are the, like, someone looks at you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, I never start first, you know.

Never, never, yeah. When's the last time? When I fought in the street? Yeah. Like, good one. Good one, yeah. Maybe 12 years ago. Okay.

Can you tell me about it? No, it was just on the street. Okay. Where was it? In Russia. How about us? Do you ever get in trouble? No, no, no.

You ever get arrested? I've never had like serious problems in my life. So I'm trying to control myself. When you were in school also, like when you were a kid? Yeah, but when I was a kid, yeah, we fought a lot. We just, I like to fight, you know. Sure. When I was young, we just, with my classmates, you know, what are you talking about?

Let's go fight. just like that just for fun. Yeah, we just go out and fight, you know. Yeah. The reason I asked that is because, like, at that UFC 300, the guy flipped you off, right?

So that, like, sparked something in you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, he, like, showed me middle fingers. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, you go into, you go to the, to the octanone so red and, like, someone, like, trying to, like, make...

Sure. Make a joke with you, you know. What did you have to do about that in the end? Did you have to make a video? No, I paid 30K. Oh, that's it. Yeah. And who did that...

And I made the video. About what? I don't know that I'm never going to do again that shit. Okay. Like, it was, the video was for the Nevada Athletic Commission? I think so. I don't know where they send it. And who does the money go to?

To them? To Athletic Commission. Okay. Yeah. So, so when you were, when you were like in Qatar, you beat Dan Hooker. Did you think that night truly? All right, my next fight is for the belt? Yes.

And so when you found out that they were, because it was very shortly after, It was like five days later. What was your reaction? I couldn't believe it. Couldn't. Yeah. So my manager told me, I said, no way that happened. He said, yeah, it's going to be happening.

I said, how? And I couldn't believe. And then when Donna said, yeah, yeah, it was like three or four days before he told me about that. And they said, maybe they're going to change their mind. No way, it's going to be happening. But it's happened. Did you consider speaking to them face to face? I feel like people have success.

When they go face to face, they go to Vegas, they meet with him, and then he changes his stance. You mentioned before you haven't talked to them. Did you consider doing that? No, when I'm going to be in Vegas next weekend, so I would like to talk to them because we'll see what they want to do with me. Sure, they're going to do with me. So you've got to figure out that I'm fighting for the belt or what I'm doing with you.

Do you think that there is an opportunity to clear the air? Because I heard him, he did interview. last week he was speaking to barstool sports and the interviewer said like you know did the headbut have anything to do with it and he said yes so maybe there's an opportunity to clear the air like to just kind of speak to him man to man and him not feel like you are a liability

no I don't think so is going to be a problem I think they're going to figure out with Elyr if Elya is not going to fight they're going to put me for the belt and I'm going to tell them nothing going to happen I mean with fans, headbats, I'm not going to fight to anybody before the fight. I'm not going to touch anybody,

but I don't know about myself. You know, we are not ensured that we can get hurt, you know. Sure. So I cannot say 100% because it's a dangerous sport. You can get hurt any day. So, but I can be promised that nothing going to happen again. So for my next fight, so they're going to be, they, they got,

got to trust me this time. But you know what the weird thing is? What if Ilya comes back in the summertime, right? And now you've got an interim champion. Yeah. And usually the interim champion will fight the actual champion. You're neither of those. That means we're talking about another fight happening

and you're not fighting for the belt and now we're talking about the back end of the year. Yeah, but maybe BMF title. Okay. So we'll see. You don't want that, right? You want the real title. Yeah, I want that real time. but I don't want to wait until the end of the next year.

And then, Eli, he fights once a year. Maybe he defends his title in June and then say, okay, I'll fight next year. Right. In June. And then what I can do is just stay. And I'm not that young to wait a lot too.

So if they give me BMF title, it would be great too. If Charles Aluera wins, so it's going to be good. We got the story and just get that belt. and then the real belt. Okay. Just stay busy. Yeah, the grappling, wrestling is okay, it's good, but, you know, I'm here for the UFC.

If I have a fight, I wouldn't do this. What if they say to you, we want you to fight someone else? For example, who? I don't know. I'm either going to come up with someone. No, there's two names, Olivera or Holloway, who are going to be a champion over there from that fight. or put me on the but the best the best that Ila is not going to fight this year

so I'm going to fight for the for the belt in June versus the winner the winner of this fight yeah yeah I'm even looking at the rankings like Charles as you said you have the history and the win against Max with Max is a good name yeah yeah if Max beat the if Max beat the yeah Justin and Paddy are fighting down but you see likes Max so Benoit Saint Denis I mean He has a fight coming up But maybe He lost

Yeah Last fight or No no He had a great He lost last His good fights You know He never beat the top

Guys So he never been on the top So And the UFC Likes him a lot UFC likes him And they're not going to put him Against me

Because He can't They Everybody know he's going to lose Do you get tired I know you say That every interview is about this But like

Do you get tired Of the politics You're in the prime of your life, the prime of your career, and you have still yet to fight for a belt, interim or not. Does it ever get to you? Does it ever wear on you? No, because everywhere is like in the job, in the sport, and even our sport is more better.

In the Olympic Games, you go there and someone like from other country that has money or whatever, they just don't give you a victory. So you see even better than everywhere. Okay. So, yeah, everywhere is politics, even. business sport everywhere everywhere everywhere is like that so you got to take that and like wait be patient and get your thing what do you make of what's happened with Ilya you said the best case scenario is that he doesn't fight so that you fight

the winner is the swing was his wife so maybe he's going to be busy and cannot fight in June and I hope Patty is going to lose because if Patty wins it's going to be problem for me again why why do you think so I think he's going to try and avoid me. You say if he wins against Justin or if he wins against Ilya? No, against Justin. Against Sela, he never can be Dela. Okay.

No way. So you think if Patty wins the interim belt, he'll try not to fight you. Yeah. You've got to push him probably. Really? And the UFC going to like try. So you see loves him, right? How are they going to put me against Petty?

They're going to know. Who else would you put it? against them at that point. I don't know, they're gonna bring someone from Max? Max or Charles from top 15, you know? Right, right, right. That he can beat and make money, bring money. So you're actually rooting for Justin? Yes. You think that's the best case scenario. Do you think he has a chance? He has. You do? He has a chance. Yeah, he's, so he has a lot of experience. He's not that old, but he has no chin like he used to. Right. But he has a good experience. and not bad defense of takedown

and the better striking than Betty when these pictures showed up last week of like a thing on his neck did you inquire about it did you know if something real happened they're never going to post they never post like these things sure sure sure but sometimes there's like a there's like a staff infection and the internet find everybody's fighting with staff infection

picture. But if they called you, let's just say, hypothetically today, to fight on that card, could you do it? I'm here because of that. You're here to wait. You're not a backup fighter. You're not going to weigh in and all this. Because I did it on the June and nothing happened. Just a waste of my energy.

You did make some money, though, right? They pay you for this, no? I mean, yeah, they pay, yeah. But nothing to sneeze at, as they say. Yeah, it's hard, you know, to make your weight. Right. And as you know, like, I'm not looking for money right now. I'm looking for a belt.

Sure. Did they promise you, hey, make wait in June, you're next? Was that said? No. They just said, do you want to be a backup? Yeah. You thought that it would put you in position? Yeah, I thought he's going to help me, but nothing happened.

Nothing. But they give me hooker at least. Okay. Yeah, I think they pay him good to fight me. You think so? Yeah. To convince him? Yeah, for sure.

because they already know that I'm going to beat hooker. Do you think he knew that? Because he seemed very confident going into the fight. Everybody is going for a win, but UC knows, and people knows that there is a level in this game. Sure, sure. And they know that I can beat Eli too. Right now he's a big name,

and that's why they're trying to stop me. Do you think Ilya beats Patty? Yes. Do you think he beats Justin? Yes, he will. But he doesn't beat you, obviously. there's like a thing going on between Patty Ilya you and even Islam sometimes

it's like a four-headed monster I know he moved on to 170 hopefully he moved but can we rank them for a second alright let's rank from from the one you dislike the most to dislike the least I feel like you dislike all of them though no I don't like Patty Patty number one Ilya Ilea number two Geiji Geci no from the fall

well I didn't you don't have a problem with Gigi you right no no no ilia no no patty no ilia Islam no Islam no Islam I'm good with Islam you're good with Islam but when he was champion you wanted him yeah I won't I won him but I don't hate him okay there wasn't a beef no no beef just just a competition you see him you're all good shake hands no problem hooker it was yeah you moved on yeah so it's really just Patty and Ilya and Patty is number one yeah I hate the guy why why I don't know I just hate him something about him

no I just don't like him he's nothing I don't know I feel like he has done a lot better than most expected like the win over Michael I know you may say that Michael

is like past his prime but he looked really good in that fight I thought who beat Michael who beat Michael like other people he beat Ferguson he beat Ferguson and yeah

Michael beat just Ferguson Dan Hooker and Dan Hooker in his But he looked stronger. Like I thought he... No? I mean, you're not impressed.

Bodybuilders look strong too. But how does you versus Patty go? Five rounds. You think so? Yeah, I'm not going to even try to choke him. Wow. Just cut his old face. Is this the most like sort of personal fight for you?

Yes. Really? Yeah. But you don't really know why. It's just something about him. Yeah, I just don't like him. He didn't say, I saw he said that he wants you to break your neck in the wrestling match with, you saw that. He hid me.

I hate him. Yeah. Yeah. So. hopefully one day it happened and Ilya what's the like was Ilya nothing just trying

try to joke with him what do you mean I mean trying to call out sure sure sure but it's not a personal thing no no no but it's such a weird thing because Ilya and Patty have their thing you and Patty have your thing Illia and Islam you and I mean

there's a lot going on and none of you are fighting yeah so it's for frustrating. We'll see how it plays out. So I'm so interesting what happened after January 24, what Dana says. Will you be in attendance? Will you be at the fight? If they allow them? You think they might not? No, no, no. You're going to buy a ticket or are they going to give you one? No, no, they always take care of me. Okay. You see they take care of me very well and put me on the good seat. Yeah, yeah. Business class. Treat you well.

Yeah, always change me contracts. Okay, you get paid nicely. Yeah, yeah. They just change my contract before the hook was fighting. Okay, so the idea that they don't like you or... No, no, no, they always, I'm good with them. Just they're trying to stop me right now because they want to push paddy. You think they want to protect him?

Yeah. But I think it's very smart of you. You sit in the arena, be front and center, maybe they bring you in? I don't think so. I think with you, maybe they'll be afraid if they're going to jump by myself. Oh, gosh. Then you're not getting anything. You're not getting anything.

And that's why sometimes it's hard to watch you in that fight, you know, because you're supposed to be there and, like, you're just sitting and you know you're better than them, you better than everybody there and like you deserve more. You did more. And like, you're just sitting and then making money and becoming champions. Right. Because you would have been okay to come back in two months, right? Yeah, of course.

No problem. They told them right away. But they said too risky. Too risky. And do you think ultimately it's because of the title fight last January? Yeah, that's because of title fight, because of pullout. And they thought, like Donna, I think until now, I think that it was a way issue. But it wasn't a way issue.

If they won't, I can show you my. MRI if they wanted to know like what happened real sure so and the doctor doctor shouldn't say should me send me to do MRI and see is it real back back injury or is a fake like a wake-cut because I never have a way I don't have a problem with way cut so I'm not too big for one one 555 So maybe one day I'll go down for 145 even. You think so? Yeah.

Wow. Can make it just for the title fight. Just for title fight? Yeah. You versus Volknoffsky? Oh, easy. Upskig. Short, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Like you see the video, I was sparring with a guy. Oh, I saw that, yes. Easy ups kick. Yes, I know. Who was that guy, by the way? Oh, he's a strong guy. Is he? Yeah, he trains with us.

And when I saw him in the mouth, I said, I got to train with you all day because I got to get used to shoot the short legs. Sure. You know, regarding the weight thing or the supposed weight thing, why do you think he thinks that? Because weren't the UFC doctors there? Like you spoke to them, right? So where would that even come from? They would relay it to him, no, the information? Yeah, she probably told wrong information that I could cut my weight.

I'm guessing I don't know what happened because she's he talking about my way issue always he doesn't say it was a pull out from my back

because of my back probably she said she was faking and she could cut weight wow wow yeah but if she was if she wanted to know she could like send me

to the doctors and like do MRI and even now I have my MRI I can send to everybody and to show like what's going on with my back even now. Do you ever have moments where you're like, man, I should have just done it? No, no. I can be that guy. You don't regret it. Oh, no. I'm here for the long time.

I want to take over and I want to be a face of you. You see? Who did you like ultimately, who did you ask for? Like, who did you speak to and say, I don't think this. Who did you lean on in that moment? That's a hard call to make, right? No, in my head. I always speak to me to myself.

You knew. Yeah. Yeah. so in my mind I'm very strong. Nobody can stop me. Because some fighters starting fighting in 30 years. They started fighting in 30 years and signing in UFC 35. But right now I'm just becoming 29 and I'm number one contender,

so I got maybe six, seven years. No rush. You're okay. No rush, yeah, but this year I got a fight for the title. If it happens this time next year, you still haven't fought for the belt. What can I do? Right. Jump from the...

No, I know, but you're in the prime life. Yeah, of course. You want it. So I'm going to do wrestling fights. Just make fun, make fun, spend my time, you know. I have the best life in the world. I travel around the world, do whatever I want. What a life.

Yeah, so... By the way, so you are Armenian. I was curious about this. You are Armenian, but you were born in Georgia. Yeah, it was born. Born in Georgia. Never spent time in Armenia. Never spent time in Armenia.

Three years so, you move? Move to Russia. Yeah. Why did you move? For the opportunity. My father moved to the opportunity. Okay, your whole family? Yeah, my whole family.

How many? No, no, just my mom, my dad, and my brother. You have one brother? All my parents is still living in Georgia. Oh. So my home, my, still my grandpa's home is there, and like, we go there. My father is going every month there. Okay.

But your parents now are, where Russia? No, no, in Georgia. They went back. Yeah, no. My parents. Yeah, my mom and dad? Yeah, no, in Russia. They're in Russia. Yeah, my relatives in Georgia. How many siblings do you have? Brother and sister. Your brother, he's very involved in your team, in your camp. I see him doing interviews about you and stuff. So what we just did the first interview? I saw, okay, maybe one. He shouldn't do anymore. Why, why, why? No, no, no. Why? Because he's new and Unauthorized? And people ask him a weird question and he doesn't know what he said.

Okay, okay. You didn't like it? No, no, he got to be. What's his job? Like, what's his role with you in your career? Was me? Yeah. Just to be close to me.

Okay, he protects you. Yeah, yeah. Older brother. Yeah. And what does your sister do? She's young. She's 18. Oh, she's 18.

Yeah. She studied at the university. Does she compete? No, but she could. She could. She's good. She's strong, yeah. Okay.

Did your brother compete? he used to freestyle wrestling okay yeah and your dad competed too right no no no village village wrestling have you seen how he I saw him the Parumpah my gosh I thought he almost broke his back no no no hopefully nothing happened

so he was a village wrestler I saw I saw an old interview of yours where you talked about like your dad was very supportive of your desires to be an athlete and there was a time where you dabbled in hockey right yeah I used to play hockey yeah I wanted to be a hockey player NHL player

Yeah, but because of political, I couldn't be a good hockey player. What do you mean? So there is a, I wasn't be that good that US NHL or like a big big teams that could buy me. But still I could play very, very well as well. And then they wanted to talk to my father about that. I said, no, he's not going to come. If you take me, take me. If not, I'm done. Wow.

Yeah, so, and they didn't take me, and I went to the grappling school. Okay. Did they talk about maybe the KHL? That's the Russian League, right? Yeah. Would you have been good enough for that? No, KHL, it's a KHL, and there is one more league. That league I would be good, and then moved to KHL because I was just 17 or 16 years old. Which position?

I'm a left forward Okay, left wing Yeah Yeah Because I'm on righty Okay Did you enjoy it? Yeah

This was your dream at one point To be an angel player Yeah yeah I was I was fighting a lot there too You were on the ice No on the ice I wasn't good

When we went to the locker room I started to fight there Okay golly Because I saw a video of you doing Like a grappling thing On ice Over the break No I was just

I was doing the drills No I know But I saw your your skating skills were very impressive. Yeah, I used to play 10 years. No, I know. So my goal is go today to the, what's the call?

The park, center park. Yeah, yeah. I was skating. You're going to do that? Yeah. Man, your social media stuff is something else. Is this all your ideas? Yes.

No one helps you. Who put the UFC in the ice like that when you did the skating? Oh, the guy who invited me there. Yeah, yeah. He did that. It's good stuff. Yeah, he said, I'm a big fan of you, you see. So, yeah, he did that.

But sometimes I came here and I asked, what should I eat here? And my friend said, here's the pizza. And New York pizza is, who said that? He said that. Oh, this guy, yeah, okay. He said that. Did you eat? Yeah.

Okay, how was it? It was good. Yeah, which one did you have? All of them. All of the pizzas? Okay, but from where? From no, no. Okay, someplace.

Yeah. Yeah. And what do you think? Because people say New York pizza is incredible. Yeah, it was good. You loved it? Yeah. Yeah.

but I'm not big fan of the pizza, but I should try once. Sure, of course. I know how's them? The thing about your popularity, the social media has clearly helped. Yeah, the eating, you mean? Everything.

Everything you do on social media, I feel like it explodes now. That wasn't always the case, right? Yeah, the last one year. Yeah, what was the turning point, do you think? I think first it was a pull-out. You think that was the turning point? Yeah.

You think that made you popular? Yeah. was popular when I pull out. Why? People were talking about you. Yeah, because it was a big fight. When I pulled out, they started talking about my, someone started support me, someone started to hate me.

And then from that, I started getting bigger. And then I went to the Hamzot's camp. It asked me too with Hamzad. How did that happen? We just became friends. Okay. Yeah, from Thailand. And then we started to train together.

And then I wanted to come to L.A. To prepare for the UFC fight, for the belt. So he came, he liked it, and he stayed there. We won the belt. So now I'm looking for his fight. Help him and to be close to him. Back in the day, did you ever work in, like, the gaming business? We have it until now gaming cloud.

What is it? It's my brother's business. Okay. What, people go and play video games? Yeah, they go there and play. Because my brother, he's a video game player. Okay. Which game?

There you are. Look at you. Locked in. Yeah. I was trying to play. Are you good? I'm not good. You're not good?

No, I hate computers. I bought my computer last year, and I opened once, and now I forgot the password, so I couldn't get in. I thought you were going to say then you smashed it. No, no, no. No. I'm just sitting on Instagram. Twitter. That's your favorite. Telegram. Yeah. Do you have that

Telegram deal too? No, but I'm getting... Yeah. I see them sponsoring a lot of fighters. Yeah, because I got Telegram three months ago. It's getting bigger, so I need the sponsorship from them. What's the difference in Telegram and WhatsApp? Telegram, when you send the video

quality stays same. Oh, okay. And it's like kind of Instagram and you can chat, you can... I don't know, I don't know. It's like kind of WhatsApp, but plus Instagram. Okay, fair enough. I like, I like that. I feel like the turning point for you was the Dave's Hot Chicken. That was like the first video that I took.

Oh, yeah, from the eating, yes. Whatever happened with them? I had the deal. Okay. It's gone. How did it come about the deal? No, no, he got this deal. Oh, he got it for you. This is your guy right here.

This mysterious man over. I feel like that was the first one where you had like a lot of food. No, I used to have a... I started with In-N-N-Out from the... Oh, this one right here. This is the... This is hot chicken.

But I started... I started one, two years before that. Okay. It was in-and-out. Yeah. After the Damir-Ismogula fight. Yeah. So we put a lot of in-and-outs,

and I ate, and it went like 2 million views. And I had maybe 300,000 followers. And then I went to Nobu, I ate the sushi and like 8 mil. And I said, okay I gotta do something and then we started to do a little by little I don't know why what we have a group chat on on our team and I'm not trying to glaze you here as the kids say you know

what glazing is no that's uh not trying to like but uh basically like every time you post one of these videos I don't even watch I send it to them because there's something about how serious you are you're so locked in and you're just enjoying it with I don't know why it's so it's so captivating I don't know what is it I don't know I like eating I like eating too but why is it that it's so interesting watching you eat. No, maybe I eat a lot and there's big portions. Like this, why is this so interesting for me? Oh, this is a beautiful place.

Yeah, where is it? It's in Sochi, Russia. Okay. What are you eating here? It's a fish. It's a fish from the black caviar. Wow. So this fish gives the black caviar.

And you're just sitting there? Just sitting. By yourself, eating. Yeah. You're so into it. You attack it like a tiger. Like everywhere. In the sport, in the eating.

Yeah. In the business. I don't know what it is. I actually want to play you a couple of these. What about this one? What about this one? This one was so good. What is this?

Like how you are. Yeah, I know. But how do you get so much of it? Paid, bro. Pay money. You get whatever you want. How much does that cost that little tub? Not a lot.

This one cost $1,000. $1,000 what? $1,000. U.S.? Yeah. Okay. And you just like... But for the one KG of black caviar and like we had the breakfast for five people.

Yeah. So 1,000 for the black cover is not, I think. So you just, you go to this restaurant, you say... They know you're coming. They know you're coming. And I had a guest from Brazil. Glacentibar with me there. Legend.

So... ATT. Yeah. I want to ask you about some other ones. What about the paella one? Paella. Yeah. Yeah.

that one the the the the Spanish how do you get such a big plate like that this is not paella what is this this is uh i went to my friend he's from dubia yeah so it's like a kind of arabic stuff oh i love that olives in there it's a good one yeah what is that lamb it's a lamp yeah it's a whole lamb yeah and uh yeah even the head look at um oh my the way you attack it Yeah So yummy So good I still can't get over the camel

No Every time I see a camel now I think of you Like look at this This is Who eats camel like this Bro where do you get this Small small

Small camel How many humps Multiple humps Two humps What is humps You don't like the Oh two Two

Is that the best part Yeah It's the juicest Yeah very good I like it a lot You never tried, huh? Never tried. You know, I'm from, there's a video that...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Salamadikum. Why do people give me shit about this? Because you're saying, we're the same, we're the same. We're the same, we're brothers. Yeah, brothers. Why do people get... Because you said wrong. Salamalama al-ah.

So what? I could say that about it. Like a corner like making joke. No, no, no. I never do. I never make jokes. My family's from the Middle East. People joke about this.

Yeah. And I say, Salamalalikum. out of respect. Yeah. So maybe I thought that you were Muslim initially, obviously you're not.

Christian, right? Yeah, I'm Christian. But we could all say Salam al-a-a-a-a-huh. Why not? It's like a high. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

And you know Parumper, right? Parham, yeah, my friend. So he's always. Coach of the year, by the way. I gave him coach of the year. So he always, when I came first time in American top team,

he always like, he was, he thought I'm a Muslim. Salam-al-al-a-a-oh. Inshallah, we're going to win this war. I said yes yes what can I do it's like good words in words yes and always he and he worked with the Muslim guys from Dagestan and he knows the words and he always means saying in that words always before fire stays that and one day he came and said bro like I don't understand are you Christian I said yeah like it left it was like maybe

one year he was wow and then he said I would Christian I said yes but why you didn't say anything about like yeah I was always when I see you, I say someone, because it's good, you know, nothing, it's the same words, you know. Right. Yeah. That's what I was doing. Yeah.

But people make fun. It's always people want to make fun and do some vital things. And from this interview, they're going to find something. Of course, of course. What about, what about, you had a massive plate of crab? It was in, where was this? It was in Dubai. This, that one, I ate all of that.

You ate the whole thing? Yeah, it was easy. It's probably pretty easy for you. you, right? Yeah, this one is... How many crab legs is that, you think? I don't know, maybe six, seven, cups. That's easy work. Yeah, the view is good.

Beautiful. Have you been to Dubai? Yeah, I like Dubai. I've been to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi, okay. Dubai, you like better? Yeah. Favorite place in the world?

Oh, it's tough. I feel like you're a south of France guy. I'm going, actually. See? Which part? Which part? Nice? Can.

No, now I'm going for the ski. Oh, you're going to the Alps? Yeah. Okay. Khrushu. That's a France. Yes, of course. Yeah, yeah.

I'm going to be in the Italian Alps next month for the Olympics. Oh, nice. You like the Olympics? The Winter Olympics. Yeah, yeah, I do. It's in Italy? Yeah, yeah. Milano.

Oh, wow. Next month. Wow. I'm going to be covering it for Canada. Wow. So you're Canadian? Canadian. I'm Canadian and now American.

So when you moved here? I became citizen three years ago. Oh, wow. Congratulations. You like Canada? Yeah, I had my second fight. My first winning U.S. He was Canada.

I was super happy. By the way, you have two kids. Yes. I never see your, you don't post about your kids, huh? No, no, no. They live in their lives. Oh, back home?

Yeah, by home. No, I mean, they travel with me. They do? Yes. How old are they, if you don't mind me asking? Six and three and a half. Wow. Boy, girl?

Two girls. Two girls. It's always the wrestler. There's always the tough guys that have all the girls. Yeah, why? I don't know. I think you have so much from wrestling from all girls right all girls it's you have so much testosterone

that it turns into girls somehow I don't know maybe we spend too much testosterone and that's something like that are you married yes yes oh really wow you never speak about any of this yeah no not official mate not official what does that mean not on the paper but in life yeah how long together 28 No, no, no, no, no. 10 years. 10 years. 10 years.

And where does she live? She lives, Russia. Russia. Because, again, I was looking at some of your old interviews, and there were times where you said, like, five, six months you didn't see your kids. When you would come to the States. Yeah, I can see even one year. One year. That's hard, no?

Yeah, it's hard, but we got a, you know, sacrifice for something. Yeah. Yeah. So, I mean, but right now they got the, we. so they can come and go. No problem. Would you rather live in the States, or do you like living back in Russia?

I like wintertime here, summertime there. Okay. Six months here, six months there. Okay. So when you come to ATT, do they come with you? No.

No. But sometimes, but it's too much headaches to have a family close to you if you're preparing for the fight. You want to lock in? Yeah. Did they go to the guitar fight?

No, no. They don't go from a fight yet. You don't want? Not yet. Maybe in English. gonna be 10 years sure 11 years they can understand you know something but like I don't picture you as you know some fighters they'll walk in with like their wife or girlfriend to the fight you know when they show them on the TV yeah I don't I don't picture you as one of those

guys I mean our culture is not good you go to you're going to work we came for the work and like well like kind of different our wives and it's different than here you don't mix yeah we don't mix you have a job and then you go celebrate um another one This one at the top of a mountain you were eating bread, some kind of bread. What is this bread? Oh, this is the, some, like, you know Hachapuri? Is it Georgian? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know Hachapuri. Is it cheese? Yeah, there is a, but it's supposed to eat one, but I put three of them. It's meat, cheese, and potato, smashed potatoes. Wow, so where are you, though? It's in Russia, Assetia, Assetia. So you go to the top of the mountain. mountain or some point of the mountain so I had a training camp for the wrestling for the for the

grappling versus mehdi by do life yeah I went there for the I suppose to wrestle with taisumov he pulled out okay what happened he heard his knee okay before three days I was there and every weekend we went to the to the mountains and then as you know I like to eat I said you got to bring something and uh their traditional uh uh Food is that thing. Okay. I don't know how it's called. The match that you had...

Asitinsky peregi. Okay. Oh, perogi? Perogi. Like, wait, you said, it's Georgian or Russian? No, it's Aetian. Okay. But it's in Russian.

The match that you had against Shar-Bullet, why were there so many people up against the ring like that? It was like... Stupid people. Yeah, yeah. Who were those people? I don't know. They just jump in.

They're supposed to be on the... And you know what? And people who came and bar for the $1,000, the ticket on the first row, second row, they couldn't see anything. Crazy. Yeah. Because it's first time in Armenia they don't know how to behave there. But next time they're going to control that.

Was it true, the Tom Hardy thing? Was that really true? You versus Tom Hardy? They told me, yes, but I don't know. I can't imagine how. I mean, that would be very one-sided, no? With all due respect to Tom Hardy. No, what about if they do the, like, just the,

Like we did with Chara, only submission, like three minutes. I don't know. Okay. But he's a legend. Just too like for the people, not just for the... How do you say that when you go like Jake Paul and Tyson? What they do? What's called that fight?

Exhibition. Exhibition. Same in the couple. Okay, okay, okay. Just a couple of, what's the Starbucks at the top of the mountain here? Is this a real thing? Yeah. Where is this?

Same place. I said you're Russian. It's an actual It's like a little phone booth. Yeah, it's a Starbucks. You can order the coffee there. Come on, stop it. Is it an official Starbucks?

Yeah. No, no, it's called different, but I put Starbucks on that. Oh, you put it? Yeah, yeah. You guys are so good. Who's doing all this? Not you. No, no.

You have a whole team. I got the camera guy. Brilliant. It's brilliant. Yeah. But it's called Alanis. Oh, that's the name of the coffee company. No, it was Starbucks and the Starbucks sue them or something happened.

and they put Alanos, but the log is same like Starbucks. Yeah. Okay, we got to put Starbucks there. It's brilliant. Yeah. So you could just drive up there and stop and get a coffee. Yeah, but you've got to drive three, four hours to get there. Really?

Yeah. Just for that one. Yeah. But, you know, on the top of the mountains, like... It's unbelievable. Seven or 800 feet. Okay. Yeah, it's too high.

It was in September, October. Wow. Wow. Too much snow over there. Yeah, over the, over the, the, uh, the, uh, the break I saw you you were like shoveling out snow and doing the thing oh that's in Armenia insane amount of snow yeah it's army golly what about this one I saw you you had all the McDonald's you don't really like McDonald's right not yet I'm

ready for the country when they send me country it's too like it it's greasy no once a year once a week once a month it's okay it's okay but I like it you like this one? Which is your favorite one? The Big Mac. Big Mac, yeah, the best one. The McDonald's on the private jet is the ultimate flex because it's like the most luxurious thing and like the worst kind of food. It's my idea. That's your idea? Your idea is all my LDAs almost. Okay, what about this one? Driving in, okay, this, we actually watched this video 10 times on the show because we were, we break down the videos here, okay? We do big journalism. You're driving and you're not wearing shoes in this video you put this not my idea that's one guy he does this

video and this is something he gave me this clothes and he does this video so I mean look at this you're driving barefoot because it's not comfortable and it's like a flip flops how could you drive barefoot like you you don't have the grip no no easy it's a nice driving you're driving in roll throws but you don't need even like you can go like a five miles per hour how many how many cars you own where oh no in total i don't know maybe 11 best one i saw today you posted one just this morning i was worried you weren't on the flight by the way i saw you posting in the morning i hit up danny i was like what's going on here no no no it was yesterday yeah i know yeah but what was that one that was a Ferrari yeah yeah what about uh this haircut how much

this haircut cost? This one right here with this lady. Why am I so interested in you getting a haircut? No money here, no money. There's just other different things. But my point out, why am I so interested in this? I don't know. You're interesting.

Yes, I don't know why. It's so silent. There's something so like serene about it. This is professional. Did you like this cut? Yeah, yeah. There's some good spots here. York.

Really? I should go because I need the fix my... But I'm worried, you know what? You can't just go to any guy, then he's gonna like, you know, he's gonna mess it up. Yeah? Yeah. What about the cupping? I've seen cupping from athletes.

I've never seen this many cups. A lot, right? This is Dagestani guy. He wanted to do everything on me. Why, why? Why so many, though? I've never seen that many cups. He too.

How did it feel? Feel good after that. after that you like that I like it okay everything is so excess with you something happened I always happened something with me I don't know and then you know what I have to give you props you with the young fans I thought it was very nice I saw the fans coming up to you after this meal this looks like a nice place where is this it's in Moscow Moscow we had the good Armenian food over there yeah and one key he was he was he had a dream to meet me and he

He did the note for the Christmas, so I want to meet Armand. Wow, wow, wow. And then he came, and he's a good kickboxer. How does that make you feel to hear something like that? A kid's dream is simply to meet you. That's crazy, right? I don't know. Humbling.

A lot. It means a lot. And they might await me. After that, I went to the gym right away. Really? Yeah. By the way, his skills. Yeah, I'm saying he's a good, I think he's a European champion of kickboxing.

How old is he? Like a young guy, right? Yeah, 12 or 13. I don't know. Okay. Yeah, a lot of Armenian kids now train. It used to be like a lot of Dagestani people, Chechen, train a lot of martial arts, but now it's Armenian, it's coming popular too.

Okay. Yeah. So you know I'm obsessed with you eating. That's why. Driving. The driving I'm not so into. What about the snowmobile? Yeah, the snowmobile was good.

I thought it was cool. Yeah. I mean, the snow was, I'm not a big. like a... I got new video too. Oh, what do you got? What do you got? I got the... What, this is a world premiere? I got the sushi on the yard

yesterday. Oh, you haven't posted this yet? No, no. Like, what, you have like a whole backlog of stuff. Like always. Okay. Oh, look at this. Wow. Look at this one.

Holy crap. How many rolls is that? I don't know, but I ate almost all of that. Who's setting this up for you? My idea. Okay. Always. Yeah, my idea.

You eat most of the food? You don't waste it, right? No, no, no. We never wasted it. We gave it to someone if they couldn't eat everything. Okay. So, yeah. But I want to do my own eating video with you.

Let's do it. You ready? What do you got? Well, you said earlier you had pizza, but there's no way you have pizza like I have pizza. I just had pizza. I know, bro. Why did you have pizza? You know, well, you should tell me before.

Well, you have an unlimited stomach. I'm trying to surprise. you. Oh, what's this? This is the pizza. Now, we're going to do a better pizza. Yeah? Yeah. This is good pizza in Times Square, but this is not excess. You're about excess. Okay. Rick, come in. Come in. We've got Rick here. Look at all this pizza. Look at all this from our good friends at Lucia. Why isn't this told me going to have a line? Look at this. Look at this from our good friends. Hey, Richie's here. My guy, Richie. Wow. Oh. Armand, Armand. Number one pizza in New York.

Number one, brother. Pleasure. But watching your career since the start. This is Richie from Lucia of Soho. Richie, why you're so skinny? You don't eat your pizza. Too much. I'm at the oven source.

No way. You don't eat your pizza. You're too skinny. I got to get the, you know, the Excel sizes. And then you're going to be, you're going to change your old clothes for the Excel. That's it, man. What do we have here? Come, come speaking to the microphone.

This is Richie legend. He's miked up. Oh, he's miced up. Okay, okay. Listen. Wow, look at this, Armin. So I'm telling you right now, I would only do this for Ariel. Only he texted me this order.

Yes. I really wasn't sure about it, but you know what? Only for you. My guy. What is it? What is it? Tell the world. Look at this, Armin.

Look at this. The Helwani. You see that? That's called the ORA. That's called class right there. Yes. With chopped green olives and pineapple. Only this goes...

My nutrition is Italian. This is how I feel. This is number one. Have you ever had a Italian? All right. He literally made me go against everything I believe in. Pineapple on the pizza not allowed. It's me and you, brother.

I should be on that side of it. I can't wait. I can't wait. You actually did it. You want to do the reveal? Okay, let's try it. Exclusive for Ariel. Let me tell you, when I was growing up,

I used to have pineapple and olives every Sunday night with my family. I feel it right here. Really? I'm so excited. And Richie's doing it just for me exclusive. This is going to be the number one seller over at Lucia of Soho. Oh my God. Listen.

do a, they just can come and say, I got his pizza. Armin, look at this. Only for him. Wow. Let's try. You got to try? Look beautiful, but maybe it's not taste good. Do you want to leave this for the last one?

I'm a brother. I'm Armenian, Russian. We say truth. We try if not good, we say no good. If it's good, we're good. Listen, I want the opinion on these pizzas. Yes, yes, yes. Tell us what we got.

What do we have? What do we have? What do you have? What do you have? Come around. This is exciting, Arm. I got most of the menu here. Can we open, like, like, we do a lot on eat, like we do a video.

like that's how we gotta do it brother yeah so let's right here we got you know the classic pepperoni the cream of spinach was inspired by peteruga's wow grandma the salsica which is ricotta red onion sausage which one you want arman which one you want clabine chewy yeah this one is good yeah it's the classic which is your favorite my favorite yeah give me a fair honestly i think right now you might have to go with the grandma vodka pepper oh the grandma vodka is tremendous you have a plate their arm in I just gave you one wow wow square form oh oh oh no problem it's my flag don't worry about it this this guy looks like a lagin-lige Putin why this is uh this is randy coutur oh but this right here oh g this is uh this is uh fjodor i see we got kimbo up there

too your friends with vladimir putin yeah yeah he's my friend that's your guy okay you're gonna have this richie you're gonna eat with us why not come on oh richie come on this pizza this is this is your this is your number one right right now this is the number one for sure then the business it's a combination of two of our most popular pies and we did it in grandma form so it's nice and thin okay I'm gonna have the corner here all right I'm gonna try arm and you know the line for this place the line is where is this place it's on canal street can now Westbrook close to man what's it called the main thing central no no no no we're close

man is square um time square no so if you take the one of it if you take the one train and then transfer at 14th you're like two stops away oh wow yeah you ready for this let's go let's go let's go yeah that's really yeah the vodka is what we're most famous for and just put some pepperoni on it and doing it different form better than the one you had right for sure the vodka sauce is different armin what's in the vodka sauce so it's heavy cream tomato sauce and you obviously put vodka in it but it cooks out It's just like classic New York. I gotta leave U.S. because I'm going to get...

This is different, right? You don't have this in Russia. No, pizza in Russia is not the best. Listen, we gotta talk about franchising out there, right? Yeah. We'll figure it out. We'll do some business. What about L.A.?

L.A.? L.A.? L.A.? L.A.? Well, listen, of course, all the Armenians are at. That's right. You know, but yeah, we can figure something out. We'll chew your pizza of Glendale.

Can I get out on this, too? The three of us. That's it. We got to make a franchise. my partner salad. I don't know about him, but... What else? I want to know, could I try the other ones?

Dude, get in there. That's why I'm going to say. What do we go? What do we got? Don't be shy, Armin. We got the bubblano fungi, so this is one of the more popular veggie slices. Armand, now we see if you really can eat, you know? Can I try yours?

You want to go in. Wow. This is going to happen. We're going in, Armin. Let it be no, only for Ariel. Do not come into the pizza shop asking for this pie? You're not going to get it. It's going to be your number one seller.

Holy crap. I can't believe I'm actually staring at this. Richie, you're a freaking legend. You want this? Rich, you want to try it? You can't do it, huh? Ah, goodness. Why? Armin. Because he says it's against all his beliefs. Look at this, Armin. Sicily, they would shot my head off, forget it.

Yeah, right? They would not be having this. What's your bedroom? Italian. Italian American from Brooklyn. You're like, my neighborhood's called Garrison Beach. So we're like Marine Park, Sheepshead Bay, Gravesend, Betzeneris, Coney Island. It's very different from above Prospect Park. It's a different Brooklyn. Right, right, right.

But you know, it's... What do you think, Armin? Very good. We gotta do good content. You don't know how to do that. What, what? Get in there. We got more pies to eat. Armand is. What are you doing? He's taking it for the Casa. That's it. I got to open this, bro.

I think you're like this one, the spicy sausage. Holy crap, that one looks incredible. We need more space here on the desk, huh? You asked me to make the giant pizza, but I figured. I know, I know. I know. This is great. We're having a great time. Wow, you're putting them all out, Armine. I love this. I got to do the video, like I'm hitting everything.

Yeah. Oh, look at this. Okay, I'm gonna move all my stuff, Armin. Just for you. Only for you. Wait, one sec. One sec. I told myself I won't eat pizza after the new year. I'm broken it.

No, it's okay. This is a once in a lifetime with the uncrowned champion of the UFC. You know what that means, Armin? Almost. No, uncrowned. You're the people's champion. Oh, that one. What is that one?

That's the vodka pie. That's what we're most famed for. Oh. So my partner, Sal, I've known him since I was 13 years old. His parents had a pizza place in Brooklyn. And they were famous for this slice. And when they closed down, years later, when he started Lucia, he brought this slice back.

And everyone was like, oh my God, the Baca slice is finally back. We've been missing it for like seven years. And now we were able to bring it to Manhattan. It's amazing to see the people get the same exact reaction. It's, I gotta have this one. And Armand, don't forget, you have to talk into the microphone. Now, they're getting mad at me. Listen, why didn't tell me that we're gonna have a pizza?

Because I went there and ate pizza from the Times He should have told you. Yeah, like... Now, what's like... I wanted to surprise you. I wanted to surprise you. Thank you, but you surprised me. Cheers, guys. This one is amazing. The vodka is tremendous. It's got the nice creaminess to it, the basil and the olive oil, fresh pecorino.

Armin, I have to say, I think you like the olives and the pineapple. Pineapple's good. It's not bad... I'm telling you, Richie. I'll try a slice. I'll try a slice, just for you. Give me a chance. I keep talking about the olives and the pineapple. This is crazy. This is crazy. Nope, not this one. I just want to let you guys know.

I'm 31 years old. This will be the first time in my entire life I ever have pineapple on it. Oh, it's pretty good, right? Very good. See? Not so bad. Come on, Richie. I hate that we're on camera, but I have to admit that this is a very good slice of pizza.

This is... Because it's yours. Don't quote me. Please don't quote me. Unbelievable. It's gonna be under the table I said that. Wow. No, but this is amazing.

is amazing because as you know I've been watching the show since you in DC no problem I've been watching Arman since his first fight with uh Islam how about that that's a real fan right there yeah no I mean we live for this stuff man who is this this is a Poetan oh Poetan yeah Alex Pereira a little bit we need to get one of yours here yeah I think I think Armin what do you're versus I John Jones no Hamza oh wow Oh yeah, today Hamza was tweeting about him. What do you think?

Easy money? He's a little small, no? Not easy money, but Hamza. He's a little small, no? Really? He's resting in that level. Speaking to the mic. Hamzat's resting in...

Different level. Different level. But this guy, one punch. That game over. Yeah, but Hamza's too smart, you know. He's not going to try to be in the close distance. Sure. Where he can hook him. You think he goes out swinging?

Yeah, like he did with Uncle Ives, same. Same grandpa. But Hamzad, he's wrestling. Uncle Life cannot wrestle like Hamza. Yes, obviously, yes. Hamzad, not small too. He's big. How big? How big? How big? 220?

I don't know about the pounds. I know KG. 1003, 105. But he has to defend the title. at least once, no? Yes. Yes, but there's no big names to defend the title.

Imov. He's a big name? No, I mean, he's deserving. Yeah, he deserving. And I think Hamzad wants to fight him too. But if you see, say, you can choose, go up and fight with Poitam, make a lot of money and like,

if he beat Imam, just money, that's all. But from the media, everything, Poeta is different level. Richie, you're the man. Thank you. Thank you so much. So good. My hands are dirty, so. No, no, like I said, I've been watching. It's crazy to be on this set while I'm literally watching it grow every single time. I should have brought a knick-knack or something. No, you're good. You're good. You're good. I got the hat, too, and we rock it all the time. Lucy Pizza of Soho. Go check them out. They do big, big stuff. Look at that. I appreciate you guys. Thank you, Armin. Thank you. Sorry, thank you, Richie.

Armand we'll leave you here for a couple more seconds. Aren't you having fun with us? Yeah, I have fun. This is worth it, right? Yeah, for sure. For sure. Thank you for inviting and I hope. By the way, the other streams that you go to, they don't give you food like this. No, nobody gave me like this food.

They made money over there, though, with Aidan Ross. Easy money, right? 40K? All that was... You want to wrestle with me here? I'm good, I'm good. I don't do that type of stuff, you know? I have respect for the craft.

Yeah. I would never try to even... Would you wrestle with me right here? For 40K, yeah. Yeah, no, I don't... I wouldn't do that. But that was all in his... house? It's a yeah.

Can I, one thing I always wonder, that room with the bed? Is that actually his room? No, no, no, no. It's a fake room. It's a fake room. Oh. It's a fake room. It's a no, it's like a big warehouse. Yeah. He, like, do streaming, training. He has a jail there. A what? A jail? A jail. What do you mean? I don't know. He just built a jail over there. To put who? You know, maybe he's workers. Okay. Wow. Okay. So he has a, um, boxing boxing gym, lifting,

basketball. Wow. And then you can play ping pong. I beat him on ping pong and won $5,000. And then he has video games. It's like big warehouse. You can do whatever he wants. And he has a room.

Yeah, it's not in his house, but you can sleep there as well. Okay. Yeah. He was wearing the Kippa. Yeah. Yamika. You're your guy.

That's my people, my people, yeah. You see. I took from your people 40,000. That's fine. We have a lot to give out. You have a lot to give out. You know, it's no problem. There's no problem.

But he's a, he's pretty good guy, so. Pretty good. Good guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good guy. See, this is what I mean. I feel like the star power is growing. Everyone wants to talk to you about title fight, no title fight, and it's okay.

Ultimately, what do you think about the streaming? Is it good or no? I think I have kids that are younger, 13, 11, they love this stuff. right? Yeah. Some, I don't hate on it. I think it's great, but like 24 hours or 12 hours, some things get said, which I think sometimes shouldn't be said.

You know what I mean? Yeah. But ultimately, what these young men have built for themselves, I think, is unbelievable. Yeah, but not a lot of people can do that. No, it takes a great skill to keep the conversation going, to keep people's interests. I don't hate on it at all. Obviously, what I do here is a little bit different. And sometimes I think the questions aren't, you know, I'm critical, as we all,

of each other's stuff but i have no hate you know towards them or yeah everybody does what they can do i ultimately appreciate people who just work hard if you work your ass off and you want something god bless you get it right yeah everything so that's why so what's next for you now you're you're here i'm here and then i'm going to l.a uh are you here just for this yeah and that's it you leave tonight or tomorrow i'm going to one more shop one more shop what what do you mean No, like a watch store, RM. Okay, what are you looking for? Oh, RM, okay, that's Richard.

What is that? Richard Millet. Richard Millier, yeah. You have to say with a bit of a French accent. If you're really, where are you going? Where you going? Here in the city? Yeah, you're about 20 minutes away from here.

Okay. So hopefully I'm getting something. You have to go to Jacob the Jewelor also. There's a bunch of guys here that have. Yeah, but I want to buy from retail price. Okay, right. Yeah. Okay, so you're doing that.

that and then it's on to LA. Yeah, I'm going to LA tomorrow. So many Armenians there. In LA, yes. Glendale. Glendale. But I'm staying in Newport. Okay. You know, locked in Newport, train with Coach Kyle. Okay. And then he's going to see these pizza. He's going to be upset. He's going to kick my ass and I got to do like 300 watts, 20 minutes nonstop on the back. Yeah. The problem is for you, it just like it falls off your hips. For me, it kind of stays. I'm a little bit older, you know? Yeah, but you know, you can work all day, but if you eat a lot, it's not going to help you. You got to always control yourself.

For sure. Eat clean. Yeah, we can eat once a month like this. Yeah. But like other days, we got to. But this is top tier. This is good? Yeah, yeah, this is top tier.

Good quality. It's the best. This is the best in New York. And our taste is so good. So good, right? I'm not big fan of pizza, but especially the first one was so good. You're going to see Carl Peresia in there? No

You ever meet him? No Mani Gamburian Yes You know? Yeah, I know him This is the Or what about Edmund

He had Edmund He moved to Vegas He did Tarverdian Yeah Okay No Oh Shabazian

Shabazian Yeah Yeah He's in L.A He's in Glendale Okay So I go there Sometimes

I hit pets with him Um What Tell me Predict the year for me How does it play out Last thing Became a UFC champion

When 2026. Anytime. Your next fight is for the belt, you say? I said one year ago before two. Yeah. Who knows? Okay.

Hopefully yes. Yeah. Champion 2026. Champion hype. Champion ACB. Champion rough. Wow. What else?

I already a CBJJ champion. Do like grappling, wrestling, enjoy travel around the world. I want to go to. to Antarctica. Where's that? Antarctica. Antarctica. Oh wow, all the way up there. Yeah. Why? Just to be there. Okay, why not? Yeah. How do you even get there? Are there flat? No, you go to Argentina. Yeah? You get the, on the yacht and then go to, not yet, the cruiser. Yeah, yeah, cruise. Cruise? Yeah. And you go to Antarctica for eight days. Wow. So you just enjoy. Okay.

Because where you should go to get new like emotion, I don't know. Maybe Australia, I've never been there. You never been there? Eat king guru meat. I want to eat king guru. Have you been to Korea? I've been Korea. Japan?

Japan? No. I'm going to Japan in March. Okay. To do what? What a life you have? Yeah, I don't know. I just told my friend today, so I can go any place, do whatever I want.

and just enjoying life. But if they call you to fight, everything changes. Yeah, I'm here, and tomorrow I'm going to lock in in the gym and be ready, bring my weight down, and to be in shape. If they call me, I'll jump in. Okay. What a pleasure this was, Armin.

Thank you. Thank you for inviting, and I hope next time I'll come with my belt. Yes. I'll put it here. That would be amazing. Please. You're welcome anytime. We had a great chat.

You said the one in New Jersey when we had. Newark was your favorite maybe this one is up there too remember you said that was your favorite in front of the people what do we go what is this what is this what do we go oh this is the presence for you wow wow wow this is new i saw this this this is full violence yeah wow these guys are great arman's lunch and diner look at this lunch and dinner excuse me this is brilliant who's in who's in charge of this who's making this you for the longs you're doing all you're doing the design no no they doing that it's all hitting for you right now belt or no belt or no say again it's all hitting like everything's hitting everything you're doing is hitting yeah it's it's doing

well yeah i need just belt to to get everything sometimes you're the people's champion it's even better really yeah maybe i should buy a belt and put it in my life you just walk around with it walk around i'm a jam yes you're the man thank you so much there is a bmf title too if something happened there i'll jump in there as well you're ready to go yeah what do you what do you weigh right now on 176 so no problem to make 55 25 or 20 pounds or 20 pounds I don't think so. It's too big. Okay. And if, when you do the meeting with the UFC, you're going to say you're going to do a meeting? Yes. Hopefully. If you need me to come to talk with them, I'll come, no problem.

You're good wisdom, or no? Of course. Yeah. Who, who? I heard. I heard your bad wisdom is down, no? No. This is all for cameras for show. How could he not like me? Look at this. Yeah, you're, look at this. You push UC to another level. Of course. Yeah. But there is a belator too, you see. I love everyone. Pride, Bellator, everyone. Boxing, Glory, BKFC.

But you see number one? Of course. Yeah, you want to... WWE. You watch WWV? No. No. But I would like to compete it.

Yeah. It's owned by the same people now. To throw some crazy kicks there. Yeah, yeah. Be broke Western. He's still doing that. He's still there, yeah. They're making good money, too.

Big money. But they get hurt too, right? Of course, it's insane what they do. They go, you know, at least once a week, if not twice. They put their body through crazy. They have to be in shape all the time. You can't be out of shape. Yeah.

This is the mask from the WW2, right? No, this is from Jessica Aguilar. You know her? Female fighter, she gave me. She gave it to me. But I have some WWU stuff here. Me and Chell. You know, we've been, but I want something from you.

Is there anything from you? I mean, I have the shirt, but like any toy or any poster or anything, I'll get you. Look at that shot right there. That's a shot. I'll get you something Okay What about the black belt

You black belt one Yeah What Black belt and journalism Oh This was given to me By um Halic Gracie

He had a promotion called Meta Morris A grappling And he said You are the man Do you train? I do train I box

I box I box twice a week Nice You want to come see I have like They say the Halwani hook Is starting to become The left hook

Nice Legendary. Beautiful. Box, I like box. Yeah. Boxing is good. I try to keep in shape. I mean, I'm 43 now.

Really? You look like 30 years old. Really? Yeah. I'll take it. I think you look younger than me. No, no. You got a nice beard.

You got a nice hair. I think growing your hair out has really done wonders for you. Like letting it. No, no, both. Like, you used to have short hair. Like that photo of you on the video games? Yeah, yeah. Shorter.

Shorter beard. Now I changed. No, this is better. Better. Better. What about beer? Better. Keep it like this.

Like this or bigger? Not like Hamzat big. Too big? But I like the... Shaved here or not? No, keep like this. What is the difference, by the way? I don't know.

No, they do it because the... It's cleaner. When you eat, it doesn't like... That's why they do it. Yeah. I didn't know that. I think so. You didn't ask?

I heard. Okay. Yeah, I heard because when you eat, you know, you have the hair here. Right. It's not that good. And Putin's really your friend. Of course, he's from Russia. I know.

I saw a picture of you guys together. I compete twice in his... Look at you how young you are. Yeah. You're like a baby there. 19 or 20 years old. Wow. I compete twice there.

What is this? It's an MMA. He has his own... He had his own promotion. Really? Yeah, I compete. So he had... They had like one times a year, just one promorion.

And he always come and support us. Wow. So Putin's team versus USA. Oh, I'm not USA. Versus is around all world. Okay. We always beat them. And it was pro or amateur?

No, all pro. Okay. And so now you still keep in touch with them? Like you can call them? No, no, not yet. I can call his helpers. His office. Yeah.

Maybe you on the White House representing Russia. Yeah, I can represent Russia in the White House. Sure. I can change every fight, one Armenian, one Russia. Right. Rank them for us. No, I'm kidding. You don't have to rank.

That would be weird. That would be weird. Armand you're the man. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for inviting. We're going to take a break and we'll say goodbye. But here you are the great Armets Rukin.

The uncrowned. You know why I keep saying uncrowned, by the way? Because our whole network here is called uncrowned. You're a fan of it. Of course. Thank you. Uncrowned. lightweight champion, the man.

There's more pizza back there too. Unbelievable. We've got tons of... Look at this pizza. It's unbelievable. We'll be back. News and notes. Don't go anywhere. Back on the program, you know, I'm a... And the desk is a bit messy. I mean, how fitting that Josh ends up

in the middle here. But if you get the shot... What is it? Camera 2, camera 3. Like, you can see, it's a mess of a situation. It's the Chuck as well. What did you say? Would you say? We lost a soldier there, Chuck. We lost a soldier. I actually broke.

How did I break Chuck Lidale? I don't know. Better you than me. Who's to check? Who is to check? You know, I'm a warrior. And so from the moment we ended the year, the episode with Harley Cameron as the last guest and all that, until today, I was like, all right, how do we get back on track?

How do we, you know what I mean? Like, I worry, I worry. What a freaking day. What a day. a dream return to normalcy, if you will, because we did the awards last week, but like Armin in studio having this kind of fun, the pizza is unbelievable.

I'm going to be dreaming about the pizza until the show is over it to weekend. I didn't want to eat on camera. I know some people like to do that, but like I think I want them over. Did you guys try the Hawani? Did anyone try? No, I have it right here, though.

It's, oh, tell us, right now. You're going to eat it right now. Please. Live review. Be honest, be honest. I will. Now you have to remember, I love pineapple on pizza.

Oh, you are one of those? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, you've ever had green olive? Mm-mm. Okay, okay, what do we got? What do we got? One bite. Everyone knows the rules, right?

Gotta be one more because I got to get the pineapple. No, no, you got to get everything. Come on, be honest. Be honest. You got to be honest. The sweet and the salty. I knew I was going to like it. Okay.

I love bacon and pineapple. This is not as good, but it's still good. No, it's better. It's better. What is that? What is that? Oh, well, Congress. I don't even know what that is.

Frank. If we're going to use one, we're going to Armin earlier. I'm sweating, man. Why are you sweating? They're running around, got this overcoat on. I know. You got to go to Lucy of Soho, right? Oh, yeah, man. What a spot. We floated in, Richie treated us like royalty. We were in, 10

pies out, back, grabbed Richie. We stole Richie from the pizza shop and brought him back here. I love how Richie's, he comes in with the Knicks track pads. He's as New York as it gets. As New York as it gets, Mets, knit hat on. Tremendous. I hope that we can we can like feed the whole office here.

Oh, legit. Like everyone's grabbing slices. Rick's actually, I think he just walked in. I think he's about to try the Hellwani too, Rick. And he walked out. He said, no, no, no, no. Buggy. Okay, all right, all right. Well, that was amazing. How great is Armin? That was great. I mean, going from Volk to Armin is pretty much the dream return show for us.

So that was amazing. It's bothering me that, Tom. I wanted to keep the deaths sort of carnage-like. It's so, like, Jorge's on the ground. But this is the way it should be. Yeah, this is the way it should be. This is the way it should be. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. We got to catch our breath, but there's a lot to get to.

So let me get to some other stuff again. Thank you to Armin for coming in. Thank you to everyone. Much love, much love, peace and love. Let's go through some news and notes here. Okay, so I mentioned Paramount Plus Price, Paramount Plus Price hike. They announced this during the show. I saw this, and it's important to note because the first event is coming up in less than two weeks.

Try to find it. Okay. This is the announcement. Who broke the news, by the way? Let's see. It's, well, I'm seeing it on MA fighting. I don't know if they broke the news, but shout out to them. Okay, here it is.

Okay, so the price changes on January 15th. Does that mean that you could get in on the old price if you sign up now, perhaps? The essential plan, which is ad-supported, goes from $7.99 to $8.99, a buck. the Paramount Plus premium plan, which is ad-free outside of live television and sports, goes from 1299 to 1399. The yearly subscription prices are also changing with a 12-month subscription under the Paramount Essential Plan going from 5999 to 89-99 per year. The annual Paramount Plus premium plan goes from 11999 to 139-99.

So we all knew that there was going to be a price like, Here's what I don't understand. If it's a dollar a month in the essential plan, $7.99 to $899, why would the year, the 12 month subscription be going from $59 to $89? That's $30 more. What am I missing here? Let me see, let me see. Let me pull out the calendar.

You typically get a discount if you pay for the whole year at once. Yeah, but this seems more. Wait a second. Wait a second. So if it's, let's say it's $8.99. right? If you pay monthly at nine, let's just round it up to $9 a month, that's $108 for the year. So you're actually saving $30, 20 bucks. Yes, thank you.

Okay, so that's not bad. That's significant. That is significant. All right, so there it is. But what's interesting is it says it goes into effect on January 15th. Does that mean you could sign up literally now? I believe if you sign up for the annual, like the annual one, 12 month or, whatever it is right now, $59.99, you get the $59.99 for a year, but if you pay monthly, your next month is going to be a dollar extra. Okay. Interesting. All right, well, there you have it.

We talked about Hamza Chamaev wanting to fight Alex Pereira. Just for the record, here are the tweets that at least I woke up to. Let's go, White House. Don't worry, I will finish you fast, Alex Pereira with the coffin. Next up, all Brazilian fans tell this boy, if you're not scared, tell him to fight. At Sora has kind of cut a pretty damn good promo on Hamzat, if I do say so myself. I'm not sure if that's going to happen. I do think Hamzat should fight Imov, defend the title a couple of times, and then we could start talking about these, you know, these super fights, if you will.

I don't think he'll have any issue fighting with 205, he's a big guy, but I think Yimov has earned it, and I feel like that. is the fight to make. Obviously, Alex Pereira in the news recently. Hopefully we see him soon, but, you know, I don't know. He made it public so we can mention it. We talked about the relationship with Tracy Cortez. It appears as if it is over. It appears as though he is at peace. He posted. Thank you, my fans for all the love. I would like to communicate with you guys that even though me and Tracy shared great moments together, we decided it would be better for the both of us to go our separate ways. I wish her nothing but the best in her journey.

moments later he was on Instagram running in the rain locked in no longer in love rain is blessing God is good that's it loose

by the way I mean a little bit dangerous to be running when there's some lightning out there what a scene that is huh it was like like Stan by Eminem yes

it's like Dito should be playing Ditto Dido? Dido Dido Dio The tears fall on Yeah exactly Exactly.

That's funny. But I don't... Speaking of potential future fights, Michael Morales, the talk of the MMA world this time last week, was doing some media, saying that perhaps

the former champion Jack Della could be next. What a fight that would be? Now, I'm on record saying I want him to fight Carlos Parchas, but here he is telling Carlos Contreras Lagaspi, quote,

they told me about a possible fight against him, JDM, for March or April, but they also wanted me to fight in January. I told them I wanted the vacation. They also proposed the fight to Machachev for January, and he didn't want to accept either if I get a fight against Madalena, even better. One more fight to gain experience, and if it's Machachev, I'll accept it too. All right, so let's see. Maybe he's just putting it out there. Speaking of Paramount Plus, a lot of

corporate synergy guys yesterday. That's what we call it in the business. Did you happen to catch the Golden Globes? McKenzie Dern and Brian Ortega featured. There they are. And there they are. They walked out wearing the Venom kit, McKenzie holding a UFC belt. They just kind of walked out.

They said, and now here for a little bit of security, it's UFC superstars, McKenzie Dern and Brian Ortega. They even say the names? I think so. Oh, okay. And then they were just like,

here's security provided by the UFC. No, I think they said their names. and they played like some variation of Face the Pain, which was kind of funny. Can I tell you what this sort of like reeks of, if you will? We've seen this in the past. In fact, like we saw it when Bellator went to Paramount and UFC on Spike and even UFC on Foxx.

Like at the very beginning, people have some time, they have some time to think, they don't have events, they're not in the thick of it. They think, okay, what are ways that we could cross promote? What are ways that we could get our names out there? And so they come up with things like these. I can guarantee you by year three, none of this stuff will happen. You know why?

Not because it can happen. Because they'll come to the conclusion that none of this matters. None of this sells anything. No one is sitting watching the Golden Globes and says, oh, I got to see that guy. Oh, I got to see that girl. Ultimately, what will always sell our fights are rivalries, our stories, not even title fights, rivalries. That's what sells. This guy doesn't like this guy. This girl doesn't like this girl. That's why when I talk about Dana White not selling Amanda Nunes and Kayla Harrison doing the easy thing,

this is the greatest fight of all time, which might resonate with some people. Ultimately, when you have a story like this girl is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and then she moved to MMA and then she went to this gym and this other one was seeing her and this other one said, I'm out of here, and then she retired and then she came back with she won the belt. Like there's a story to be told here. Oh, wow, what happened? There were one training session that last it a round and a half, all this stuff, that stuff matters. That stuff resonates. This stuff doesn't. So we kind of laugh at it. We say the cringes, you know, is palpable, all that stuff. But it really, none of it really matters. None of it really matters. It's an effort. And we've

seen other networks do this with fighters in the past. And fighters aren't like wrestlers. So you'll see like wrestlers pop up in these things. Wrestlers compete every week. Restors are on TV every week, sometimes twice a week. This stuff doesn't matter. It's, you know, A for effort, it's nice. You know, they walked out, oh, someone had a good idea. Let's cross-pollinate. Let's do all these terms that they mention on conference calls,

but none of it really matters. I'll tell you one thing, though, that got me really fired up. One thing that got me really fired up, and I wrote a couple tweets and then I deleted it and then I wrote some tweets and I deleted and I said you know what I'm just going to save this for when I can speak about it because this one I will admit did not sit well with me around a month and a half or so ago you know we got into the little back and forth

with Kamar Usman and I realized subsequently after he blocked me on social media which is totally fine but he wanted to you know he took he took issue with me talking about him not deserving a title shot. Not doing enough. Not taking any shots at his legacy, his resume, but just not doing enough. Meanwhile, you know, like people are,

you know, they're talking about Kobe Covington's ranking. Like, yeah, I know he's coming off a loss, but like, Oussman has one win since, you know, he fought Kobe Covington in 20, what was that? 21? You know what I mean? Like, he's pretty much in the same spot.

We've gone into the back. and forth, he's talking about my nose, all this stuff, whatever. But then I see on Thursday, I see a video of Kamar Usman sitting cage side at some event, and he's very clearly speaking to Anthony Joshua on FaceTime. And in case you haven't been following the Anthony Joshua story, obviously you know he's been in the car accident. Other than one Instagram post at that point and a tweet which said the same thing, I am my brother's keeper, he had not said anything.

We had not heard his voice. No interviews, no media. He had said nothing about the accident, which tragically took the lives of two of his best friends. And so here's a video of Kamar Usman speaking to Anthony Joshua. You're hearing Anthony Joshua talk about it. You're hearing him talk about his friends.

And I'm thinking to myself like, did Anthony Joshua know that he was being filmed? He clearly did not want to speak publicly just yet. Did he know that he was being filmed and did he know that this would be out there and would essentially be his first words about a life-changing, shocking, tragic, scary event? I was like, this seems very, very odd. What also seems odd is in that video, Kamarou was talking about like, oh man, crazy that we meet this way. They had never spoken before. Not only had they never met it. in person they had never spoken before on the phone or anything oh man it's crazy and then he's saying like

man you had a scared there you had a scared there for a moment oh man you had a scare if i was so happy that everything was okay like bro the guy lost two of his best friends what are you talking about this is nothing to celebrate all of it was so weird so then i'm thinking to myself like something seems off about this so i ask you asked around and I said, hey, I asked some people, did AJ know that he was being filmed? That's a massive breach of trust, especially when it's coming from someone that you just met. And what I was told was not going to bother him, but highly, highly unlikely, he did not know that he was being filmed.

And certainly, if he did not know that he was being filmed, he did not know that that would be disseminated to the world on a video blog. And I was like, there's no way, man. There's no way. He had to have asked him. He had to have asked him. He cannot be that oblivious. He cannot be that big of a, as the kids say, clout chaser that he was so excited that he had the great Anthony Joshua on FaceTime that he had to film it and then post it.

And then lo and behold, I see this tweet. After seeing what's being written, it's quite heartbreaking. Being on camera that whole day in preparation for the A.K.O. show, it completely slipped my mind that my mind that my My conversation was recorded. I realized after and was asked about it. I take full responsibility for not properly watching the video that was released and keeping my private conversation with my brother, my brother, AJ Private. Brother, just met him.

Says it in the video. Says he just met him for the first time, just spoke to him for the first time. SMH, big L on me. Kudos to him for owning up to it. That's not something I would ever do to a friend slash brother. Friends slash brother who we just met. by the way, don't believe for a second, don't believe for a second that this kind of just slipped his mind. And also, it was brought to my attention that on his podcast feed, his show with

Henry Sehudo, it's right there in the title, Usman meets A.J., they speak about it, all that stuff and more. So if he was so, you know, cautious and it slipped his mind, all of that, you know, how many conversations are, have? You know how many conversations we have? You know what conversations we have, you know many conversations happen behind the scenes that you never speak about if you're going to do this. If you're going to do this job of speaking into a microphone, speaking on camera, and I know he wants to talk about what's journalism or not, if you're going to play journalist, if you're going to play media guy, know the rules. Because if someone did that to him in his career, at the prime of his career, he'd be pretty pissed off. Not to mention someone coming off

a life-altering, tragic event, like the one his friend slash brother. just experienced. And so like I looked at that and I was like, this freaking guy, man, this freaking guy has the audacity to talk about journalism and media. And here he is playing, you know, faux media guy, just wanting to get the video blog up, just wanting to get the clips. What a joke. And then kudos.

Bigel ownership didn't let. And I'm sure some people would say, this is old news. my first time getting a chance to talk about it. The friend brother, the sanctimony, dripping from that tweet. Golly. You know what that is, Frank? You know what that is?

Frank, do you know what that is? It starts with a D. And it ends with an S. That's what it is. Thank you, Jamal. That's what it is. What a joke. And if I'm AJ, I never speak to that dude again.

Talk about a breach of trust, a face time that you. had recorded, get that out there, get those views, no matter what, by any means necessary. What a freaking joke. Speaking of the heavyweight division, what about Agat Kabil, back home in Germany, huge fight on the zone. Look at this. Third round, this man may be next for Fabio Wardley.

He's long been considered a player in the heavyweight division. And the fight's about to get stopped in a matter of seconds, just absolutely battering. Some people didn't like the stoppage. I was okay with it. Place goes insane. Here's the post-fight interview with our friend Adeo Lidipo. And the reason why I want to play this is because, holy crap, we talk about France. Listen to the crowd.

Listen to the noise. Listen to the buzz in the air. They were absolutely electric on Saturday. Take a listen. There are many fans here in the crowd to see you fight in Germany all the time. Is this now Agat Cabell's home, all the fights in Germany? Why not? Why not?

I think so much people come here, why not? I will every, next every fight in Germany. Let's go. But who's the next? Who's next, Agit? Who's next? Say the crowd, who's next? I think I hear Usik.

That's the name I hear, Alexander Usik. Is that the name you want next? I mean, there's Lawrence Okori, there's Tony Yoker, there's Fabio Wardley, World or fight is it Usik or any other name? Brother Luke, I wait so long for this title shot, you know. Last time I beat three monsters, you know, in the Riyadh season.

You know, give me the world title fight. I'm ready. Really I'm ready. Let's go. That crowd is unbelievable. The opponents that he went through during Riyadh season, Arsumbeck, Mahmoudov, Frank Sanchez, Jilajang.

Knocked them all out, hasn't fought in about a year. They want Ussik. I don't know if he gets Ussik. Maybe it's someone like Worthley, whatever it is, put him back in Germany. German boxing, which was once

on fire with the clitchcos and whatnot. You know, they had massive events there back in the day. That would be incredible. Shout out to him. Shout out to Dalton Smith, as I said at the top. He had a massive win

over Subriel Matias. There was a lot of passion. There was a lot of drama heading into that fight with an adverse finding in a drug test. He went out there and he stopped Matthias and Eddie Hearn afterwards saying that was his best away away day win ever. And what I mean by that is on the road, wasn't his show, going into someone else's backyard and pulling off the victory. And now Dalton Smith of Sheffield is another UK champion. He's now

the WBC 140 pound that's super lightweight or junior welterweight, depending on how you view those things champion. Speaking of WBC titles, I do believe it was just announced Mario Barrios. And you know what? First of all, Mario Barrios versus Ryan Garcia is a great fight. Crazy that Ryan Garcia is fighting for the belt coming off a loss, but them's the brakes. That's a fantastic poster, by the way. What a poster. I love this poster. Is it a ring card? I see the ring there. I see Sela. I see Golden Boy, TGB. That's a big time fight. That's for the 147 pound WBC title. Barrio's coming off of back-to-back draws most recently

fighting Mani Pachial to a draw over the summertime. So shout out to them. By the way, Anthony Joshua has since posted on Twitter a message. I did want to read it very quickly if we can. I'll get to that, and then we'll get to to super chats. Thank you all for the love and care you have shown my brothers. I didn't even realize how special they are.

I'll just be walking with them and cracking jokes with them, not even knowing God kept me in the presence of great men. 100% it's tough for me, but I know it's even tougher for their parents. I have a strong mind, and I believe God knows their hearts. May God have mercy on my brothers. Awful. And I can't imagine what he is going through at this time. have a bunch of super chats.

So let us get to them. Frankie, what do we got? Well, this first one says, Ariel, who do you think is the Japanese MMA goat? Wow, the greatest Japanese fighter of all time. I'll say the first one that came to mind, Kazushi Sakurava, who we have proudly featured over there from the poster of Pride 10. What a great poster that was right at the top. I'll go with Sakurava, but, you know, it's still perhaps the first Japanese fighter

to win a UFC title gets the nod, but he was once known as the Gracie Killer, the great Sakuraba, so I'll go with him. What else? Hell bad was the Dern Ortega Golden Globes bit laughing emoji. What do you think? Frank, you saw it, right? Yeah, I thought it was perfectly fine. It was fine. It was fine. It was absolutely not fine. What the hell are you guys talking about?

Thanks, then. What are you saying right now? It was not fine. It was an abomination. I saw it, and I saw it and I kept it moving. Were you watching live or scrolling? I'm a big Golden Globes guy. You are a big Golden Globes guy. Should be told. I was happy to see McCulley Culkin back for the first time in 32 years. I thought that was nice. What you think of? Timmy, Timmy Shaliman. Timmy won.

Commiserations to Duane Johnson. He did not win. And I thought, you know, ultimately I was watching, you know, for the Allens. Obviously, you know, Haley, pregnant. Two Globes for the Sinners film, which I thought was fantastic. She didn't win, though. I mean, the film won. Yeah, the film won. She didn't win, though.

I thought you were watching for the extra security. The screenplay. For Ortega and... Yeah, I rewatched it. They didn't say their names. Oh, they didn't. Extra security. Oh, that's actually worse.

The UFC. It was bad. I don't know what you were trying to do here with this. It was terrible. It was fine. It was really bad. There was no reason for that to have to have. The walkout in the Venom gear with the gloves on,

and then they scan the crowd and they look at each other, and they're like, all clear. And then they left. I should make it very clear. This is not on McKenzie or Ryan. No, hell no. No one could have done it well. Whoever thought of this.

This was horrible. Of course, it's like a producer that then pitches. You know how these things go, right? Yeah. They're sitting around and they're like, how do we integrate them? Here's the thing, like we showed the pictures. They looked fantastic. Like the two of them look like a million bucks, right?

In their regular outfit. Why don't you just have them walk out like that? Why do you have to have them walking out? Have them present something to them. Just have them announce an award. Yeah. Yeah. That would have been so much.

That would have been fun. Also, the sunglasses on Ortega are fire. Yeah. You think that they didn't have them do that because they were like, oh, this is prime real estate. This is our special night. Can't do it. It's Hollywood. Yeah. What is the Golden Globes anyway? I'm like, you're the biggest fan. What's the Golden Globes? It's perfect. I couldn't be bothered. I couldn't be bothered. What was the plot of sinners? I didn't see sinners. You think I saw anything? I haven't seen. Oh, so we're just like, I'm a big fan of that.

Yeah, of course. I thought you guys would call me out on that. I was teeing it up for you. I mean, I'd be calling you out on it. What is the one year and a year and you. I started watching Jay Kelly. Oh, are you having the Helwani? Tell us. Tell us. Come on.

This is the first bite. You just did it nonchalantly off camera. The first bite? The first bite only had olives. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah. Get the whole thing. Get the whole thing.

Trust me. Trust me. It's so good. It's good. I'm feeling you. It's good. Will I like ever specialty order it? I was talking to Richie.

Richie's still here. By the round of applause for Richie. Richie had to go to the grocery. Richie had to go to the grocery store and pick up pineapples for you. Shout out to Richie. Legend. I was like, Richie, he's going to do this. I feel it on my throat thing.

Not bad. Not what I'd go for first. Let me be clear. But not bad. It's not as bad as everyone makes it up. No, no, no, no. It's a sweet and salty. And by the way, salty works.

Do they always have the green olives there? Because what I noticed about that pie, those were the real green olives. I don't like when they do the Kalamata. He says, Rich, Rich, we always have green olives. or do you usually have Kalamata? Like, do you usually have the... Because I like the green. He's always got green.

See, that's why it's my spot. That's why it's my spot. The merch is fired too. Merch is fire. Did you get any merch? They were all sold out. They were clean sold out. But that four is green.

Yes. Also, the storefront is beautiful. The line was out the door when we got there. They got something going over there. Pizza's sick. Well, anyway, that's sick. The cross-promotion with Paramount wasn't sick. I was not bothered.

I was on a high. I was bothered. I was pissed. You were actually pissed. You were actually pissed? Oh, okay, Jesus. I was like, what the hell? Everyone's all fired up over this.

Like, all right, I get it, I get it. It was a little clunky, but most of that stuff is. What else, Frankie? What else? Ariel, will you cover the Winter Olympics? If yes, will there be a break of the Ariel Juanis show as I'm a big fan of both. We'll be hard to choose. Well, Sammy, the good news is you don't have to choose.

We will be there. When I say we, I mean myself, but I feel like all of you will be there with me. I will be there. Okay, so I can tell you a little bit about this. My last show here will be February 2nd. So we'll have the post-PL or whatever we're calling it. We can't say post-numbered event Monday. I mean, it just sucks.

But anyway, our last show will be February, my last show will be February 2nd. I fly to Milan on February 3rd. I land in Milan and then I go, or Milano, and then I go four hours train ride to Livigno in the Italian Alps. My first show, so by the time I get there, I land on the fourth, my first shows on the seventh for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Why is it so dark outside?

Like usually you could actually... The sun goes down. No, no, no, no, no. Usually you could see the freaking... Breaking news on CNN, the sun has disappeared. No, seriously. Usually you could see the Empire State. It had to have turned off on something must have...

Okay. It must be a tech issue. Anyway, wait, with the Empire State? No, no. with the window behind you. How could there be a tech issue with a window, bro? Oh, you're talking about that. There's going to be a blackout.

Someone put a curtain down. As if you didn't reveal it. Seventh, seventh, my first show. Yeah, keep going. I fly back on the 23rd, okay? And may or may not be back on the 24th or 25th. It depends on how much I, you know, I struggled during those 18 straight days of shows. I'll be doing a show every single day.

It will be called Olympics tonight. Actually, I think it's going to be called Olympics. Olympics today. It was called Paris tonight in Paris, but it'll be sort of like a variety show of all the things that are going on and I'll be in the mountains. I'll only be in Milan for one day, which is the final day, the 22nd, which is the men's gold hockey match. Hopefully it'll be Canada, USA and may the best team win. Now, as far as this show is concerned, have no fear. We will have something for you every single day. It'll just be a little bit different. So that particular month, because it's kind of a month, it's more like three weeks,

but it's a short month. The boys in the back will be picking up some of the slack. They'll be doing a version of the Monday show, and I'll always be contributing, sometimes live, sometimes not. If a big thing's happening during the weekend, I'll send in a video. If I can join live, I'll join live.

So they'll be doing a show on Monday. They'll be doing a version of their show on Tuesday and a version of their show on Thursday. So they'll kind of be splitting it up. PT will help out. Obviously, he'll do the crack on Friday. And then on Wednesdays, the plan is every Wednesday will have a different uncrowned film. Some sort of content from Casey.

So that will fill the gaps. And then I'll be back in no time. So again, if big things are happening, if big moments are happening, I'll weigh in, might send in a video, if it's the middle of the night, whatever, whatever. but you'll see me, you'll see them. Obviously, the shows will be a little bit different. You won't have the interviews and all that stuff. But the Olympics are a big deal. By the way, the lights are back, see?

The Olympics are a big deal. It's a massive deal to represent my country working for my country's public broadcaster, meaning my home country, Canada. I'll put this back. And the first time I did it last year was a great experience. It's actually the third Olympic Games that I'll be covering because I did 2010 with Casey in Vancouver.

and yeah, I'm looking forward to it. You know, it's a long time to be away, and I'll be missing my son's birthday, and obviously the show. The last time we did this, I'll recall, was right between the switch from MMA fighting to all of this. So it actually worked out. The timing was nuts that it worked out like that.

It was fortuitous for us, but the train will roll along. We won't be going anywhere. It'll just be a little bit different for that month, and then we'll be right back to it by the time, you know, March rolls around. What else, Frankie? Can you get some karate combat guest on to talk about the pay scandal? I know you've had awesome on in the past, and he's coming off super scummy.

Yeah, you know, I was thinking about having him back on to address some of this stuff. I've seen a couple of people ask about it, so I was thinking about that. Let's see, I'll probably reach out and see what the appetite is. What else? Did you see the clip of Liam Cohen on the jazz reporter yesterday? What's your opinion on it, and what did your take on it? And what did your take on journalists crashing out on it? I sure did.

I saw the post-game press conference where Liam Cohen, the coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, fielded a question from a local Jacksonville newspaper journalist. And the woman basically didn't really have a question, but she said, like, keep your head up. You guys had a great year. You should be very proud. There'll be another year you did well. And I obviously do have several takes on this. First of all, I thought that Liam actually was a little bit uncomfortable in the moment.

Like I felt like he, you know, listen, post-game press conference, you just got eliminated, playoffs, great season. It ends prematurely. I'm sure they thought that they would be able to go on. And they had every right to think that way they had a great year. You kind of want to just do your thing and leave, right? You don't want to talk to anyone. And so there was a part of him that was probably like a little bash. a little bit like, all right, I want this to end, but appreciative, no doubt. My take on it is this.

And it's kind of like they're multi-takes. It's complex. Number one, I do believe that it is not the role of the journalist in that moment to express those feelings. I believe being a credentialed media member, especially for the NFL, is a privilege. I believe that there are are rules and regulations attached to having that credential issue to you. And I believe that when you are issued that credential, when you are in a media room, there are certain, you know, unwritten rules or even written rules. They're actually read the back of one of those things. But, you know, everyone knows how to conduct themselves. I think that's a conversation that should be had in, in private. I think that if you have a relationship with Liam Cohen, you could

pull them off to the side. Congratulations. Hey man, it was a great season covering you guys. Enjoyed it very much. Thanks for the access. Thanks for the time. Congratulations. Keep your head up. We'll see you next year. I don't think there's anything wrong about that. But to take the microphone in what was like a five, six minute post-game press conference and do that, I think is inappropriate. I don't think that is the role of a journalist. When I saw it, maybe it's because I'm desensitized because we cover a sport where this type of stuff is happening all the, all the time with the leaders of the sport. I was like, oh, that's kind of silly. And, you know, let me move on and keep watching Bill's highlights. I wasn't like hot under the collar. I wasn't like, how dare they? How dare they? This is,

awful. This is, you know, this is, this is, this is a sign that journalism is dead. I'm not, I'm not getting that bothered. But I can understand, by the way, why an NFL reporter would feel that way. They have every right to feel that way. They work their ass off to get there. You have limited time, limited questions. Use the best stuff. Use the best stuff. So, you know, I saw it.

But again, we see this type of stuff all the time. Like literally all the time. And the train keeps rolling. No one even bats an eye. It's kind of funny to see it happening in a different sport. I also think, look, I saw Pat McAfee weigh in on it. And I love Patrick. I love him.

But he made it into this whole thing about, like, you know, love seeing the, you know, the old curmudgins crying about this and, you know, this is new media and this is new journalism and all this stuff. And like, I don't think it's that deep either. I don't think it's that deep. I think the question was silly. I think the interaction was nice, but could have happened in a private setting. And I think the reaction in both directions is silly.

And I don't think that you can begrudge any old guard media for being like, look, not the time nor the place. not the time nor the place. Is it the greatest offense of all time? Is it worthy of having your credentials revoke? It doesn't always have to be so absolute. No, it's not the greatest offense, and it's not worthy of getting your credentials revoked. But if you want an absolute answer, yes,

that stuff should not happen in a press conference. Those types of sentiments. Hey, congrats on a great season, move it along. It sounded like a mother sort of like, you know, trying to make her son feel better. You know what I mean? Like it was genuine. It was with that kind of love. And I don't think that is the role of a reporter in that moment.

And by the way, I watch all this stuff. I watch every Sean McDermott, every Josh Allen. Very, very little is said of substance and note. I get it. But those people work hard. They have that credential. They've got deadlines. They've got all kinds of stuff.

Like, it's just not the time for that. It's not the time. I don't know if this woman, I think her name was Lynn. I don't know if she's a beat reporter. I don't know if she's there every week, every day at the practice facility. Maybe she was just there because it was a press conference for the playoff game, and she usually covers other stuff and they send everyone over to a playoff game because it's a big deal in Jacksonville.

I don't know. It's not that deep to me. It's not that important. I don't think that the outrage was crazy. I think that making fun of the people who were upset about it is a little bit, is a little funky if I'm being. honest, it's like everyone wants to have a say on media. Everyone wants to have a say on media. But if media ever has a say on anyone else, like if media tells, you know, a quarterback how to

throw a football, everyone's like, whoa, whoa, you know, like, hey, stay in your lane. But everyone else can weigh in on media, right? This is a real job, by the way. Like, we actually do work hard to get to this point where we can speak and, you know, be considered credible. Like, it is an actual thing that you could go to school for. I know everyone thinks it's easy because you can turn on the microphone and talk and do it. But, and I'm not trying to say it's brain surgery or even construction or even being a school teacher or anything. Like, it's a privilege. It's a blessing to do this. They call it the toy department for a reason because it's fun. I get that. But it is a real job that people care about and take pride in.

And, you know, hey, Ariel, what do you think of this? Yeah, I wouldn't have done it. Thought it was a little bit silly. Yeah, Liam seemed a little bashful. He seemed like he could, he'd rather be anywhere else. no big deal we see it in MMA all the time you know welcome to our world that was pretty much my thoughts what else Frank

well said thoughts on Sunday conversations of Caleb Presley and the unique comedic style interviews a big fan enjoy them very much enjoyed the one with the Rizzler and Hasbula

he's had some other good ones who do you have on have you asked the Drake one Drake one was great that's kind of old now right Yeah, it's a little bit older, but it's one of his best. That is a tremendous one. He had one that was really funny.

I don't remember with who. No, I mean, the guy is great. What I don't understand is, maybe you know better than I, does he work for himself or does he work for Barstool? What is he? He's not with Barstool anymore. They split off. Oh, wow.

So is it his own thing? His own thing, yeah. Brilliant. And he brought Lenny balls, you know. Yeah, yeah, that guy's great too. Sunday conversation is great. Obviously, a playoff, the old sports center. the delivery is great

the questions are funny the way they edited it he had Dana on recently he had the the Indiana fever girl on Sophie Cunningham that was a pretty funny one that was recent as well

he gets big names he gets massive names so yes all to say very funny big fan he's very very talented so shout out to him what else Frankie what else you guys are the best

the arcade drop last week made me feel guilty at how hard I was laughing at the awkwardness of everyone else. Frank equal goat emoji. Wow, yeah. A lot of people like that one, Frankie. I want to let you know, Frank.

You have carte blanche. You have carte blanche. Like, I like when you surprise us. But some, I will say some of the decisions are... You reel it back. Well, some of the decisions are a little com si comso. You know what? I was feeling my feelings, thinking about old RK.

That's what came out. I thought you were teeing it up. What was the one you just made with Armin? Armine one. I still don't even know what he's saying. thing. Oh wow, congrats. You were like, just became a U.S. citizen three years ago. That was a great one. That is good. Yeah, yeah. It's just the most nonchalant. We need to clean up the audio, but it is a good job. Can I say also, I had no idea you can produce these so fast. You're producing them on the fly.

No, no, no, no, no, no. They had to go through a whole QC process. I had to put it in the mail in. It's a great point. It's a great point. Oh, that's from the Colby. Okay. Oh, wow. Oh, you Is that one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's good. Ain't that what journalism is? See, you're on fire now, Frank. You're on fire.

Frankie is on fire. Moving on. I was hoping Ariel would explain glazing to Armin. Mm, mm. We kind of moved past that one. His buddy liked it. Armand's great. What can I say?

I wasn't trying to glaze. Did you think I was coming off glazing? No. Well, you said, I'm not trying to glaze. You know what that is? And Armand's like, no. No. And then you move on.

No. Yeah, then you keep it moving. Oh, well. What else, Frankie? What? Pineapple is acceptable. Olives are a disgrace. What?

I don't know. The take is usually the opposite, Slito. It's usually. Pineapples are... What? I feel like most Italians would say olives are okay. Hmm. Yeah, Richie gave the thumbs on it.

Who's to check? Yeah, who is to check? Who is to check? What else, Frankie? What else? Lastly, need an aerial cross-arm, cross-action, Bronson fight feast. Man.

Throwing Vulcan there, too, huh? Yeah, that's it. It's actually there. man yeah he said he was short man dirty man shoddy boxing no huh surety bad diddy boxing damn why did i say that that's crazy i i will say sometimes it feels like there's too many out you like now we're like bringing in 10 many clubs you got to you got to simplify you don't get enough suggestions though what we should do yeah any more of those is that sarcastic but by the way um i did a a poll three hours ago about R-A-F.

I forgot to look at the results. Are you into R-A-F? Yeah, voted on it, man. 56%. Said yes. What did you vote for? No. Oh. 44 said no.

I'm one of the 44. All right. What else, Frank? Or was that the last one? That was the last one. Would you look at that? All right. I think we did a lot today.

We did a lot today. We accomplished a lot. I do want to let you know. tomorrow we are back. We'll be having top flyweight contender Charles Johnson on the program. The aforementioned interim champ Agat Kabilel representing

Almane, Germany, will be joining us and the face in many people's respects and eyes of the PFL, one Dakota Ditcheva will be joining us. She'll be joining us. Wednesday's program is shaping up to be a very fun one, but I will tell you about that on Tuesday. OTN this week will be on Wednesday.

So the post will go out tomorrow. We'll answer your questions. You hit us up. Peace and love. Peace and love. Peace and love. All right, Frankie. Does it just like scratch an itch?

This shirt is nice. This shirt is fine. XL, just my size. It's, no, I like the, I like the box cut. Oh yeah. Full violence knows what they're doing. I like the box and I like it's,

what am I trying to say here regarding the heavyweight? Heavyweight. Yeah, real. Yeah, Super Max Heavy. Designs fire. World famous heavyweight T-shirts. Full violence is the day it's doing. I might have to order one.

Yeah, this is nice. Park of Armenia. Yeah, it's nice. Listen, when it's nice, it's nice. All right. I'm a little bit sad about Chuck. You can salvage that with a little Frank, I feel like you can salvage that with a little bit of

I saw the damage, I saw the injury. Bad? I think he's... Got a little super glue back here. Yeah, but it broke at the foot. Yeah. And like the, all the weight. Yeah.

It's tough. We lost Jorge, too. That would have been a disaster. Armin thought that I had a Vladimir Putin bubblehead. Do not. I wish to check. That one very much does look like Vladimir. Yeah, I guess so.

Which one is it? Is the Randy or the Frior? I forget which one? The Randy. And I'm like, oh yeah, that's your friend. Oh, yeah, my good friend. There's no problem. By the way, when you talk to him a little bit, I don't know if you got this, you could sort of see the way his brain starts to work, right? Yeah. It's just certain things about... I do love how immediately when he walks in the beach.

He looks at Rick. He's like, what the fuck, man, money? I'll be not to eat. Yeah. Get a little. It was a little bit. No, no, no. No, no. No, no. No, no. It was a great day.

No, no, no. It was a great day. Thank you, Armantarukian. Thank you, Alex Polkanovsky, Ed Soros, and of course, Bo Nicol. Thanks to you. Thanks to my guy, Richie, Lucy of Soho. Check him out. Don't forget him.

The best in the biz. Thanks to the guys in the back. Peace. I'm out here.