The Ariel Helwani Show - Arman Tsarukyan, Joe Pyfer, Moses Itauma, Alexandre Pantoja, Michael Chiesa, Casey O'Neill, MASSIVE weekend recap

Episode Date: March 30, 2026

Ariel Helwani begins the show recapping UFC Seattle with Conner, who talks about his UFC Seattle experience live from the arena. Ariel discusses Israel Adesanya’s loss and Michael Chiesa’s retirement fight, they recap the post-fight press conference where Dana White talked Conor McGregor, and more (16:59). Arman Tsaryukyan joins Ariel, breaking down his RAF 7 win over Georgio Poullas and donating the $10,000 given to him by Poullas, teasing a new UFC fight, a potential Dillon Danis grappling match, wanting to fight six times per year, an Ilia Topuria fight, and more (1:01:19). Moses Itauma joins the show, reflecting on his knockout win this weekend over Jermaine Franklin Jr., discussing his next fights, not being nervous competing in Manchester, boxing keeping him sane, meeting Mike Tyson, and more (1:44:21). Flyweight great Alexandre Pantoja gives us the latest update on his recovery, his return to the title picture, his unfortunate elbow injury against Joshua Van at UFC 323, a future rematch against Van, and more (2:08:12). Joe Pyfer joins Ariel to reflect on a huge win at UFC Seattle against Israel Adesanya, discussing his new belief in God, changing his way of life, potential for a UFC Philadelphia fight, and more (2:40:14). The newly retired Michael Chiesa stops by after his magical hometown sendoff, discussing retirement plans, his last fight being perfect, continuing his career as a coach, the Kevin Lee beef, and more (3:19:51). Casey O’Neill joins the show to talk about her long-awaited UFC comeback, discussing her knockout win, fighting in two left-handed gloves, dealing with her knee injury, living in Thailand for two months, and more (3:50:11). Ariel then finishes the show by breaking down Dana White's response to Jon Jones and Khabib Nurmagomedov's latest comments about women's MMA, before answering your Super Chats (4:17:06)

Lazy! Welcome to the er! On this Monday, March 30, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is so great to be here on a lovely Monday afternoon in New York City. And you know, I was thinking about just seven days ago. Just seven days ago, here I am sitting in this familiar spot, this chair, this mic, this desk, this computer. You know the drill.

And we're sort of a little bit down. We're a little bit out of it. We're a little bit sad. UFC London didn't feel all that exciting. We're lamenting the state of things. And then all of a sudden, some seven days later, we get an all-time day. Saturday was an all-time day. Saturday is the kind of day that you are reminded after watching 12 straight hours of fighting.

If you watched it all, and I sure is heck did, you are reminded why you love this damn sports so much. Why you love combat sports so much? Because there was a little bit of this and there was a little bit of that. And we will get into all of that. Why you love the fighters. Why you have devoted your life to talking about this? Why you've been doing this particular show since 2009? While you still get excited about

the stories and the fights and the matchups and the personalities. Saturday was amazing. Saturday was incredible. Saturday was a breath of fresh air. Saturday was like spring has sprung. Saturday was breathtaking. It started mid-afternoon here in the

United States with Moses Itama, the 21-year-old phenom fighting in just his 14th pro fight. This guy has blown through everyone, usually winning in the first round or second round. This time it took a few more rounds, but it was against a guy who had never been stopped before, a guy who only had two losses on his pro record, both Anthony Joshua and Dillion White. That's Jermaine Franklin, co-op live, Manchester, and what does, what does Mosetama do? King Moses, what does he do? He annihilates him. He obliterates him.

He lands a beautiful uppercut. It was unbelievable to watch. This kid is on a freaking run. Look at that. Uppercut. Holy smokes. I was watching that with my son Walter. He said, that's aura.

That right there is aura. Taking the bow after knocking out Germain Franklin, that's Moz Satama. And so it starts with that. And then we roll right into the UFC, the UFC in Seattle, which was an all-time event. And we're going to get really deep into that in a moment. but what a great card. And for the first time since 2002, a six-fight main card

ended with finish after finish, after finish, after finish, after finish, after finish, after finish, six straight. And there were much more than that. But we haven't had that in almost four years, 150 events. That's how special it was. There you have it. First event to feature six finishes on the main card since Fight Night, Santos versus Hill.

2022, 150 events ago. It's just the sixth event in modern UFC history to feature six finishes on the main cart. That's how good it was and the prelims were just as good. That rolled into a little Sebastian Fondora against Keith Thurman. Now, that was probably the weakest event of the bunch.

But I love watching Sebastian Fondora. I love seeing him turn into the clinical finisher destroyer that he has become really using his length, his height, his reach to his advantage. Thurman wasn't really there, and I don't think many people expected him to give Fondora a really tough fight, especially at 154, but Sebastian Fondora is tremendous. And by the way, check out inside boxing. It dropped yesterday. They have a full breakdown of Fondora and Italmas fights and wins.

Tremendous stuff there. That rolled into RAF, which was another incredible event. These guys, Chad Bronstine, Izzy Martinez, Eric Bischoff, Hulk Hogan, They have put something together that is very special. I watched that. The crowd in Tampa was very hot, excuse me, the fights or the matches, roll right into each other very quick,

not a lot of fluff, not a lot of filler, not a lot of time wasting. And then you've got, you know, how they built these fight cards, if you want to call them, or match cards, whatever you want to say. I feel like they found the secret sauce. you've got the Olympians, you've got the All-Americans,

you've got the national champions, you've got the guys from overseas. That satisfies the appetite of the hardcore wrestling fan. And then you've got Kobe Cumberton versus Dylan Danes. And then you've got Armant-Srucian versus Giorgio Pulis. You've got the MMA fans tuning in. You've got the BJJ fans tuning in. You've got the wrestling fans tuning in.

You've got the UFC fans tuning in. And in the end, Kobe Covington defeats Dylan Danis, and in the end, Armant-Srucian defeats Georgia Pulis. and it was great theater. And they're rolling. They are rolling. They've got another event in April. They've got the May event that we talked about last week with Gable Stephson.

It's a nice little counter. And I can tell you over on Uncrown, the traffic whenever there's an RAF kills it. They were number one. Of all the events on Saturday, they were number one. And then the fifth event was a nice little PFL card. Can we give them their props? Can we give them their flowers? I know it's not the coolest thing to do, but we have to do that.

Those last two fights on the PFL card And there were some nice finishes early on But I mean Dalton Rasta got a massive pop in Pittsburgh Small arena, no doubt about it But was clearly the most popular guy on the card Local boy going up against Impa Kasangenei Firefight ends quick Ends in a vicious vicious fashion

And Impa gets the victory Tough blow for Dalton Who I think has all the makings of being a star Like he's the kind of guy that they can really get behind But that's two tough losses back back For Dalton Rasta And then in the main event Johnny Eblen does what he does best.

He went in there and just absolutely steamrolled Brian Battle in Brian Battle's debut. And now we're going to get one of the more interesting PFL title fights that they could put on this year. That's going to be obviously Costello Van Stenis versus Johnny Eblen 2 for the middleweight title. That's a great fight. That's the fight that I thought should have happened right away. But in the end, the rolling of the dice works out. Costello gets a great win at home against Fabian. Eblen comes back, gets a tremendous win over a Brian battle.

I mean, left it, like there was no question afterwards. Like you just completely annihilated him, finishes him in the first round, gets the RNC, and is next. I thought there was a chance. Maybe if Dalton would have won, they would have looked for fresh. No, it's Eblen, there's no doubt about it. And now you've got a big fight.

So it just went back to back to back to back. Five great events, loved all of them, enjoyed them very much, a little something for everyone, from UFC to PFL to RAF to two boxing matches, up-and-comers, future stars, current star, it was great. It was tremendous. I'm so pleased with how Saturday went, and I can't wait to get into it all. And we've got a tremendous show.

The great thing about having great events is that we can have great shows surrounding set events. We have six incredible guests on this program at 2 o'clock. Armin Surukian, one of your favorites, one of my favorites. Air Armin, as I called him on Saturday, the uncrowned king of the UFC, who's gone on an incredible side quest run. He's added another notch to his belt. He will join us at 2 o'clock to talk about the end of the rivalry with Georgia

and what is next. Is it a grappling match against Dylan Dennis? Is it something else? Is it finally an MMA fight? We'll talk to Armin Sruki and about that. Mos Sotomo will join us at 240 to talk about the big win over Jermaine Franklin, where he goes from here.

Love talking to the youngster. Mosetama, now 14 and 0 at just 21 years old. Hopefully he fights for a belt next or at some point this year. Alessandra Pantoja. Now, I know he didn't compete this past weekend, and I know the flyway title is set to be defended without him involved in a little less than two weeks.

But I've been trying to get Pantosia on this show since the Monday after the injury. And every couple of weeks I ask, and every couple of weeks I check in and send a text. Thank you very much to Pahumpa, his head coach. And finally, I got the word that he is ready to speak. So this will be Pantosia's first interview, since the freak injury against Joshua Van in December,

the final UFC pay-per-view, the final UFC on ESPN pay-per-view in late, late 2025. This will be his first interview, and obviously he is going to be very interested in what happens on the 11th of April when Joshua Van defends that title against Tatsura Taira. Good time to talk to him, can't wait to speak to him.

3.30 will be joined by Joe Pfehr, who had the massive win by far the biggest of his career against Israel, Desaña on Saturday in Seattle, huge, huge win. There's a lot to get into with Joe Pfeiffer. We'll get into all of that and more at 3.34 o'clock. Michael Kesa, the pride of the state of Washington, had the storybook ending.

I think 63 second win over Nico Price. Gets to put the gloves in the middle of the cage, gets to hug his wife, gets to hug his mom, gets the great moment with D.C. on the microphone, gets the video package as well. That is it. He says he is done. He's focusing on the media stuff.

We'll talk to the Maverick. at 1 o'clock Pacific, 4 o'clock Eastern, and then at 4.30, we'll end the day with King Casey O'Neill, friend of the program, one of our favorites, finally coming back, getting that great win on Saturday, emotional afterwards. She's been through so much. It was so great to see her back in there, especially victorious.

We have a lot to discuss. Look at that. Six amazing guests. So much to get into with them. Can't wait to get into it all. And it's a bit of a different show here today, my friends. New York Rick is on a well-deserved break. Pizzie Carroll is on a well-deserved break,

although I will tell you you will hear from Pizzi this week on Wednesday. Special edition of the crack on Wednesday. Hawani Show Monday, Tuesday, crack Wednesday. Nothing from us, barring breaking news, Thursday, Friday, back on Monday of next week with an uncrowned film and then other stuff Tuesday, Wednesday, have no fear. But our spring break is kicking off in earnest Wednesday evening after the crack.

And then we'll be back for the watch party for April 11th and the post show and all that stuff. So you'll hear from PTC on Wednesday. But for the next couple of days, it's just myself, G.C., Frankie, Andy, and of course, Dano back there. Give me a fucking break.

Yeah, I know. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, Dana. This is it. Are you ready for the big time, G.C.? I am. You, baby. Honestly, it feels like the olden days, the G.

The G.C. in Hawaii for that small little stint before Rick came back. I mean, we're already off and flying. We got the plane off the ground. I was a little bit worried about that. But, I mean, last I checked, we are streaming. Yeah, let me check real quick. Yeah.

Rick saddled you with all the extra stuff, huh? Yep, yep. You can just call me New York, Georgia, Connor today. And you are rocking the logo athletic, right? Is that the... Logo athletic throwback. This is authentic 90s Sonic merch. I mean, this was my uniform for the weekend,

and it was incredible, just walking around. you wore Seahawks stuff, Super Bowl champions, obviously. You got a couple, you know, hey, go Hawks, man. You wear Sonic stuff? It was like a slogan for the weekend. People would just be like, Sonics, man, they're coming back. They're like, they're fucking coming back. They're like, man, I really hope so.

It was like the amount of emotional connection. I had to have said it 60, 70 times over the course of Tuesday, too, most recently. It was incredible. So give us the quick breakdown here. And we're going to get a video blog, hopefully next week. Oh, it's going to be good, too. of your comings and goings in Seattle with Rick, with Casey. Is there a TST sighting?

Who's to check? We're not sure, yeah, maybe. TST is in there, yeah. Oh, shit. It's like the whole. I'm just going to sit from my space needle mug here. Don't worry. Went to the top of that, by the way.

Went to the top. Oh, my God. Okay, so you darted out of here. When was it on Tuesday, right? Yep. You darted out of here on Tuesday straight to Newark Airport, hopped on a jet, cross-country trip. Jet, love it.

No, six hours, 6-15. And by jet, I mean, economy of, United Flight, where as soon as I sat down, the guy hit full recline mode. Yes, yes, yes. I was eating my knees for six hours after a full day of work. It was fantastic. We met up with Casey at the airport, get the rental car. It's out to the muckle chute. Beautiful rooms. We pass out in the muckle shoot, everything like that. We get up. We do the Halwani show. It's a fantastic time. We tour around the casino. Next day, we do boys in the back

from mucklechlechoo casino and resort. It was fantastic. We played bingo on Thursday night. real exciting stuff over at Muckle Shoot Bingo. Shout out. Yeah, there we are. Yeah. Now, that right there, that thing, no, that's the bingo. Where's the ketchup? The ketchup machine is the real start of the weekend, if you ask me. It's very true.

We actually don't even have a picture of it. Golly. Shout out to the ketchup machine. Watch the video you posted over, what was it, like Thursday night, I think. Thursday night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The ketchup machine will also be in the vlog, the much-anticipated vlog that'll come out. And then we got up on Friday morning, drove into Seattle, took in the sights and sound,

record some fight-feast stuff. I caught the fish at Pike Place. Went to the top of the space needle. There we are. And, you know, it was just a great time. Then we got up on Saturday. Did some more fight feast stuff. You know, we ate our way through Seattle.

Went to the Mariners game on Friday night. And then it was time for the fights on Saturday. How great is that stadium? Team mobile. I was going to say which one. Climate Pledge was also. Oh, well, that's an arena, but Mariners Stadium. Mariners Baseball Stadium.

It was beautiful with the giant like bridge off in the distance. and it lights up in the T-Mobile color and beautiful ballpark, beautiful ballpark, beautiful city. First time, right? I loved it. First time, can't wait to go. One out of ten?

Nine. I was walking around on a high. Did a run on Saturday morning down at the water through Pikes Place Market. It was incredible. It was incredible. And then to finish it off. Oh, yes.

TST double fisting with the coffee. Oh, yeah. Look at this guy. That is a great shot. Wow. Yeah. And then to finish it off with, oh, we also went to Sean Kemp's dispensary. Oh, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

I think we got a picture of that. We did Dix. Yeah, we did Dix. Yeah, we actually, shout out to Jacob, a fan, gave us a PRJ before we got some Seattle dogs. Dan, can you show the bingo sig-pick, me and, me and Big E.K.C. Living it. Are we living it up or what, baby? Shout out.

That is amazing. Yeah, fantastic. That's at muckle shoot, right? That's at muckle shoot, yeah. We saw the gum wall too We did everything man It was a blur I didn't sleep much in Seattle

How many jackets you have That's the same one But you had another one You had the Seahawks one I got the Sean Alexander jersey We went to Glazers We did that too We did it all

They say sleepless in Seattle right That's right That's what I was We didn't do much And then we finished it off With one of the best cards I've seen in a while And far in away

The best card I've ever been into in person It was one of those ones Where I was leaving on a high It was just like God love this sport. Yes, so the curse is broken. Curse is done.

T-shirt curse is still, you know. Yeah, because you had the Yizzy. But yeah, the G-C-Eat event curse. I think I now have full approval at some point to go to a pay-per-view. You guys, 100%. You guys did a great post-fight wrap-up. Check that out. It's on the channel.

You've got the space needle behind you. Tremendous camera work from TST. He's not just an audio guy. I mean, I want to see Frank do video work like that as well, you know? It would be nice. Give me a fucking break. Shut the fuck up and watch the fights. It would be nice.

It will be nice. We shall get to him, too. Top to bottom. Did you go from the very beginning of the card? Nope. No, I am no longer a curtain jerker to... Wow. I've done it several times.

You're no no action bronzen. Look at these guys getting free tickets sitting on the floor VIP treatment. They're getting free food. So from which fight? Which fight? The Lance Gibson fight is when we got in there. You saw Lance? We heard the pop.

He's the reason why you're there. I know. I know we have the, I got the shout out, the Muckle Shoot ticket. This is now just a $68 bill. We can just go cash that whenever we want at Muckle Shoot Casino and Resort. This is our Lance Gibson Jr. bet. Yeah, we didn't make it in time. Wow, wow.

So you missed Casey O'Neill? I was always missing Casey. I was always missing Casey. It was a little bit of a longer walk than we thought. And then we also, we had to get tickets. Shout out to game time. Got them right before we walked in. It was a good show.

Use the code, what was it, on Crown, Hawwani. Well, promo code BITB for the Mariners game. Promo code Alwani. First time user. Shout out, shout out. Okay, can we get into this card? So you guys were there. Yes.

How high up were you, by the way? Bleaders, baby. We were close to the top row. Amongst the people. Amongst the people, man. It was the real diehards up there. Look, we were going to talk about Israel Destiny, and we're going to talk about Joe Piper. I cannot stop thinking about Alexa Grasso and Macy Barber.

I cannot stop thinking about that finish. I cannot stop thinking about that sequence. I cannot stop thinking about Alexa Grasso, the way in which she walked into the arena, into the cage. And then when they were doing the intros, she had this intensity on her face. She had this sort of like,

she looked like a robot. She looked emotionless. She looked unflappable. And then that one, two, and the speed in which she went in there and took Macy Barber's back. And now the debate is like, Was it a knockout?

Was it a sub? I think it is up there with one of the greatest finishes in UFC history. And there have been great ones, obviously, for different reasons. I think of McGregor-Aldo. I think of Edson Barbosa, Terry Edom. I think of Anderson Silva's kick. I think of John Jones and Leodemichita. I think of Korean zombie A.

There have been some great finishes. But to see that one, too, and to see how quickly she took her back and choked her out, she might have been out already. Like a bow constrictor. That's what it felt like. Like those nature videos, National Geographic, when you see the, the Python just kind of jump out at the freaking gazelle and eat it. I don't know if that could happen, but that's what it looked like. That's what it felt like.

And then to see what felt like 10 minutes of Macy Barber out, motionless, eyes open, staring at Alexa Grasso, it was equally breathtaking, equally mesmerizing, equally terrifying. I've never quite seen a sequence like that. From the one, two, she's probably out to her not resting on her laurels, Alexa coming in there choking her, and then that finishing sequence where it leads to Macy just, thank God, it's not the case, but she looked for a moment to me dead. She looked dead.

She looked like she had no life in her. Like in the movies, when someone's dead, eyes open, and they just kept it. And I have no beef with the UFC. I know some people are mad about it. I want to see the story. Show me the story. And it all worked out.

I want to see the story. Now, can we argue a little bit? I hate when they cut away. I personally hate, I want to see the story. I want to see how this thing unfolds. I want to see what is happening. And they showed us the story. And this is not, you know, this is not tiddly wings.

Like, it's a dangerous sport. Anyone, like, I'm so tired of people shitting on women's MMA. I'm so tired of people shitting on women's boxing. That is the highest of the high level. And by the way, earlier in the night, you saw tremendous stuff out of Casey O'Neill as well. There's always going to be sequences, stretches, highs and lows where there's not good fights, not enough finishes, all this nonsense. How could you watch that and say women don't belong? How can you watch that and say women's

MMA is boring? How can you watch that and say they are not as elite as their men counterparts? I mean, you can make a case right now. People crap on the smaller weight fighters. At 125 pounds, we may have seen two of the greatest finishes in the history of this sport. That one on Saturday and Demetrius Johnson, what he did with the flying, you know, arm bar, the slam into the arm bar. Those are two of the greatest finishes in the history of this sport, and they both happen at 125 pounds. Miss me with this lighter weight class nonsense. Missed me with any of this stuff. I was blown away. I keep going back to the video, GC. I keep going back to it because I am just so blown away by the one-two and the quickness in which she took

her back. And so the question is, first things first, what did it feel like in the arena? Were you seeing her out like that? Tell us what it was like in there. first and foremost, there were so many finishes on the card. This was far and away the biggest pop of the night. When she got that finish, I thought the arena was going to come down. I mean, it was massive, massive pop. And Alexa Grasso, when she made her walk out, obviously she's a former champion. She's a bit of a star in the sport. She was getting the love as opposed to Macy Barber. So for her to get that finish, that knockout, the crowd went absolutely crazy. From our point of view, it was like that. Like it was just like, like you said, it happened so fast. And you're just like, oh my God,

especially from Alexa Grasso, who had no knockouts in the UFC prior to this. It was, like, shocking to see. And then you talk about how she was laid out like that. From our point of view, we could clearly see into the octagon, sort of like, it was almost like the crime scene layout, the way that she was laid out on the match, just like laying there. And we could just, you know, Jumbotron was kind of showing what the broadcast was showing. And it got to that point where, like, you know,

once everyone had kind of settled down after the knockout, because everyone stands up and everything like that as she's, you know, grabbing the ref's leg and stuff. But once she was laid out and everybody sort of settled down, the murmurs start happening of like, okay, she's like not getting up. She is still laid out there. Like the nervous energy kind of starts building up a little bit. And obviously Alexis is sitting right there. So once she finally sat up, it was like almost just as big of like a clap and support to see her get up. It was crazy, though. It was, I have not heard an arena that loud for UFC since I was at the Sumadarji Matt Schnell fight back in 2022. It was crazy. all of this, by the way. That was a must win for Alexa Grasso. She had not won since March of 23 since her win over Valentina Shvchenko. It had been

essentially a little over three years since her last win. Had been shut out in her last two fights still. Yeah. Two, like the, against Natia Silva 3027 and then against Valentina Shavchenko 5045. Must, must win against a very tough Macy Barber. You know, knowing Macy's history

the health issues and whatnot, again, that's why when I saw her out there, I was like what is going on here? You know, you, we've seen people out. We've seen people asleep. We've seen people convulse. We've seen some scary shit. There's no doubt about it. I don't know if I've ever seen someone out for that long with their eyes wide open, just laid out like you said, like one of those like chalk outlines. It was honestly, it's unlike anything that I've ever seen. But the technique that she showed and then even like the compassion that she showed, just like kneeling in front of her, the whole thing was just

like equally why we love this so much and why this sport is so damn scary at times. it always feels like we're like that close away from a true tragedy. Macy Barber did post what we just showed you, but she also actually posted a video talking about how she's doing and about what she remembers of the fight. Here's that video. Well, this is not the post or video that I wanted to be making today. But I wanted to come on here and say thank you to the UFC

and thank you to Alexa for the opportunity. You know, I wanted to go out there and get my opportunity to get my rematch and dominate and get the win back. And unfortunately, it was not my night. I got caught and Alexa did an amazing thing. She is a phenomenal fighter. And I don't really remember a whole lot. All I know is that every time I go on social media, I look like I'm dead. And that's not a very fun thing to see.

I've been trying to stay off of social media, but I also wanted to come on here and at least tell you guys that I am okay. I am very blessed to live the life that I do. As tough as it is, as it is, going out there and being able to do that, what I did last night, was still one of the greatest nights of my life. despite all of that that's still one of the better nights of my life that I've ever had I've had some pretty tough days so that was still one of the greatest days of my life being able to walk out there and being able to do what I've done

so I will be back I'm going to heal up and put in the work and get back out there so yeah and she had been on quite the run she had not lost a fight since her lost to Alexa Grasso in 2021. So a huge win for Grasso. Is it a knockout or a submission?

I'm still not sure. My take is pretty strongly that it was a knockout. She knocked her out and then she just happened to get on a choke. Like the fight was getting called anyway. Who was it? Was it Beltron was the ref? Yeah. He legit couldn't even get over there fast enough to get Alexa Grasso off for the way that she.

She got under that chin and locked it up instantly. It was one of the fastest things I've ever seen. I think it's fair to credit it as a knockout. It wasn't like she tapped to it or she was out because of the choke. She was out because of that one too. I kind of go back and forth. I kind of want to give it the knockout and submission of the year. I mean, I want to give her that award right now.

There's a chance she might win both. Also, photo of the year. Like these photos of her just kneeling in front of her lifeless body is bone-chilling. Truly bone-chilling stuff. I don't know. I guess she was out. You know, sometimes we see people. people, you know, out and then they wake up at the way.

I just dropped a picture and we can show it in a second, but it like sort of, it shows the sequence of, like, she gets hit and then she does like sort of the banana split and she gets hit again. And at that point, the ref is he's coming to end it. And then like when she's getting choked, like there's nothing going on there. She is not there mentally. She's not trying to fight that. She's not awake for it. It's brutal, man. From Alexa's perspective, it probably felt like she was, you know, when you see someone working with a dummy and the body is obviously lifeless, I'm sure her body was lifeless in that moment. You know what I mean? A thousand percent. And one of the scarier parts is how she gets up and like immediately starts going for the takedown on Beltron. And like, you know, which is scary enough itself because she doesn't know where she is or what's going on. But then she kind of like flips back over and that's when we get the moment where she's laid out and sort of like lights are on.

nobody's home type look staring off into the camera. It was almost just like that. The fact that it happened and then re-hapened was what made it especially scary. There were five events on Saturday. Would you say that was the highlight of the day? That was the biggest moment of the day. Atalma's uppercut, tremendous, Armin,

you know, freaking throwing, Georgio, tremendous. All great moments. Yes. But Atalma, I expected to get a knockout, maybe not in such like a highlight real fashion, but I expected a knockout from him. Alexa Grasso, former champ, back against the wall, to pull out a highlight like that in the commain was,

was unexpected, and it was insane. Beautiful. And especially, we'll get into this later in the program, but, you know, just days after you see more comments from Habib about women's MMA, and I know he has his reasons and part of them are religious and all that stuff. I just don't understand how someone of that stature, how someone who is so successful, who is so smart, who is, you know, so great at fighting, who is so great when it comes to coaching, how he could feel that way about women's MMA. To me, like, it's 2026.

There's nothing that men, I mean, obviously from a physiological standpoint, there are things that women can do that men can do. I understand that. But in terms of like athletics, we should be celebrating women competing in both, you know, fighting and coaching and doing everything that the men do. do as far as athletics are concerned. And so to see that performance, just days after those comments, I thought was pretty profound as well. And just amazing. If you have not seen the fight, go and find it. It's not that long. How long did it last? It lasted 242. Tremendous stuff. Main event was a huge one

for Israel Desaena. He needed to get back on track. He had lost three in a row against the best of the best, no doubt. And obviously, the Imov fight was in February of last year. And so here he is against Joe Piper, who had not quite, you know, broken through just yet, but we all kind of felt like that was inevitable. And, you know, he loses the fight in the second round via TKO. And G.C., I don't know what you thought, but, like, I thought he looked pretty good early on. It's kind of my same takeaway from his last fight as well. Like, I don't think Izzy is washed necessarily. He's obviously not a title contender anymore.

And at least for the time being, Joe Piper looked like a freaking beast out there. He looked gigantic. he looks so strong and we'll get to the post-fight comments and all that stuff afterwards. But I can't sit here despite the four-fight losing streak. We have seen four-fight losing streaks from former champions before when they don't look like themselves, when they look like shells of their former selves, when they look like they're old, they're slow, they're just not as good. Obviously, Izzy isn't who he once was.

I think that's fair to say. But I don't feel like we need to sit here and bang the drum and say this guy's done. I know he doesn't want to be done. I know he says he's not done. I know he says he's not going anywhere. I'm not leaving all this. But I still think that there is a room for him in this sport and certainly in the UFC. How do you feel?

Yeah, it's sort of the same story over the course of these last three fights. Even the DDP fight when he was fighting for a title, he looked pretty good until he didn't, until he got finished. He was up 29, 28 on one of the judge's scorecards in that fight. Same thing with Imovov. He looks good in the first round, gets finished in the second. Same thing here. Looks good in the first round.

Gets finished in the second. I guess my concern is it feels like he's sort of. sort of straight away from the game plan a little bit. Like he was having so much success with those leg kicks. He seemed to be stuffing the takedowns, at least throughout the majority of the first round. And then, like, it felt like he kind of smelled blood in the water, and Joe Piper said as much and, like, sort of opened up on the aggressiveness.

And that's what led to Joe Pfeiffer landing that massive overhand right that sort of led to the takedown that got him to the finishing sequence. With the Imov fight as well, gets eye poked, sort of brushes off the ref. That leads to the finishing sequence. I don't want to call him washed either because he's still successful, but I just don't know where he goes from here, and if he's willing to have those fights where he has to stay on his bike for a full 25 minutes, stick and move, throw out the leg kicks,

not be that exciting. Like it felt like he was in there to give the fans an exciting fight, which it was, but unfortunately it ended in his demise. I just don't know where he goes from here. The four fights in a row, it's tough to, to try and match him up for the next fight, especially when we just gave him Joe Pfeiffer, who was the 14th ranked middleweight.

I saw you and Rick talk about this afterwards, and I disagreed with Rick. He's like, you know, I want to see more favorable matchups. Ooh, I felt like Joe Piper was a favorable matchup. I agree. He's not quite there just yet. And I know he threw out MVP, and I dig the MVP matchup.

They're friends, and I kind of think that MVP at 170 is better than 185, but ultimately they're friends, and I don't know if we'll see, like, what I definitely don't want, from MVP is a friendly sparring match. I don't think that that's good for his career at this point. Neither for Izzy.

I kind of feel like the UFC was giving him that matchup in Joe Pfeiffer. Do you know what I mean? They weren't giving him a top 5, 6, 7, 8 guy? You're giving him the 14th ranked guy and we can sit here and say, like, oh, we expected Joe Pfeiffer to be a top-ranked middleweight one day. He hadn't proven that yet. This was the stepback in competition.

This was sort of the moment where the UFC was like, all right, you're either still around at the top or this guy is going to take your seat at the table. And that's what Joe Pfeiffer was able to do. He capitalized on a massive moment. And I just, I don't know. I've been looking at the middle-wing weight rankings and beyond. You know, tapology goes 50 deep on those.

And I just like, I don't know what's next for Israel out of Sonia. I mean, we mentioned on Saturday night maybe a, you know, a legends like a Palo Costa thing. But Palo Costa's next fight is at 205. I just don't know where we go for a matchup from here. because at 36 years old, four fights in a row he's having lost, titles are out of the picture at this point. So I just royally fucked up, by the way, and this is so funny that it's happening when you're in charge.

I saw a function in the chat where I was like, oh, you can do a member's only chat? That's kind of cool. You can choose. Oh, God. And I think I just changed the show to a member's only show. You fucker. I think I just changed the show to a member's only show.

No, no, you definitely did. Why did I do that? I have no idea I haven't fixed but it's yeah we'll have to talk later no I know but is it back to normal now it should be hold on oh my god I can't believe I did this

I'm just gonna stay away it is not yeah members only has started what did I do we have to restart the stream we have to restart the stream wow I screwed this up this is what happens when

when Rick is in here I give me one sec I'm sorry guys I thought it was a cool little function this is all my fault by the way this is all my fault. Thumbs up to the chat.

Is there anyone watching? Because I don't even see it, by the way. Right, it's not live right now. So no one could see us? What's that? No, I know, I know. I'm breaking the fourth wall here. This is crazy.

Hey, maybe we'll get new members. Maybe we'll get new members. Yes, yes, yes. We're aware, we're aware. Wow. So I saw this thing pop up and I was like, oh, this is nice. I could do two chats happening at the same time. Maybe we'll get some fun discussion over here.

Meanwhile, I just nuked G.C.'s first day on the job. I'm sorry, G.C. Let me tell you about what did happen on, well, does it, maybe it makes no sense to say anything. Oh, I know. Okay, yeah, yeah. Let me know, guys, by the way. Do we just have to start a new stream? Okay. Alexia, good thing this didn't happen during one of the guests.

Why did I do that, by the way? I'm trying to understand. We all make mistakes. Yeah, that's a pretty big mistake on my part. There was a good number of people on there to start the show. I was like, okay, we're rolling here. One second, let me, I'm just going to write to them. Everyone's very mad.

It's all, oh, you mean the chat? Yeah. Yeah. But to be honest, they were probably mad before you did that. That's true. That's true. That's F and illegal. Okay, well, let me know, and then I'll readdress.

Hulwani 100% goofed up. This is all my fault. This is a thousand percent my fault. What do you got? What do you got? No, no, this is not my fault. No, no, it's not yours, Armin. It's me.

It's me. I don't know if we are back here. That's it.com. No. I'm waiting to see it on end to end. Oh, wait. We're back. Yep, hello.

Hi, everyone. Wait, wait. So what does this mean for the, actual clip afterwards. Are we back? We're back. Okay. Tell me when we're actually back.

We're back. We're back? Yeah, we're back, man. I just nuked the whole thing? Nuked the whole thing. We were rolling. We had like 3,500 people watching. Despite you saying multiple times that you did something, it's being believed on me. I love it.

Chat never change. Never change. We need that speech you gave once we went to members only about how you fucked this up. Oh, that's right. They didn't get to see it. They didn't get to see that speech that you just gave. You just, fuck us. The most humble we've ever heard, Ariel, and now he's just going to stay quiet.

I just want to make sure that I'm actually back. I'm waiting for this. Yes, bro, you're there. Okay, we're back. You're there. Thumbs up to the chat? Okay, we're there. Okay, everyone, I do want to let you know.

I screwed up. This is on me, a thousand percent. We were rolling. We were flying high. And then I saw a little thing. It's YouTube's fault. I saw a little thing that was a little, like, one that popped up and I was like

oh this is new I've never seen this and it said start a member's only chat so I was like oh you can have two chats at the same time for our OG fans for our number ones and so I clicked on that and then it turned the whole show at members only I'd even know you could do that at least don't touch anything

I'm done hey we got you just know Rick is watching from the air I made way too many plain references I was like all right we're on the runway people we're about to take this puppy into the guys. And then once we were off live, I was like, we got her in the air. We're good to go. We made it. And then I wanted he was like, gee. That jacket must have made you feel real hot. Yeah. Five new members. See my head fucking glistening over here. What was that, Frankie?

Not for nothing. We did get five new members because they were like, hey, it's members only. Let me join. That was not my intention. In fact, in fact, what I'm going to do, just to make it up to all of you, wait, wait, wait a second. I don't even know where, I think I might I've closed it. We talked about you not touching anything. I know, I know. Wait, wait. Do it later.

Show your support. Someone in the chat said, Ariel definitely clicks on those. You just want a free iPhone. 100%. How much of money have you sent to a Nigerian prince? I'm sending. I'm sending five memberships to everyone just as a Mia Kulpa,

as a I'm sorry for screwing this all up. This is good. So next time we switch to members only mid-show, they'll be able to keep watching. Oh, you see? It's fair play. I'm sorry. This is now Rick is just going to bank this one for the next time he has

he has a performance review meeting. What happens when I'm not there? Does that mean when the show is over, the VOD will be two clips? Yes. Oh. Yeah, it's a nightmare. It's a nightmare, bro.

There's going to be a, oh, I can't wait for the comments. Hey, your show is in two parts. So there's going to be like 30 minutes of us talking and then it's just going to pick up mid? We're going to have to figure something out. And it'll be 20 minutes of you reflecting on the mistake and then we'll go back to the show. I just feel so awful.

Yeah, we're going to be efforting. These things happen. We're going to be efforting. Well, back to the regularly scheduled program. I'm going to mention this at my review. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, these things happen. These things happen.

There's a first for everything. People make mistakes. Joe Pfeiffer wins. Joe Pfeiffer had a really interesting week where he talked about finding God. And then in the post-fight interview, he talked about being on the verge of suicide not that long ago. He said a couple weeks ago, I think he said. And then he talked about, you know, some personal issues in the post-fight. And I felt G.C., like people went through a different kind of roller coaster with Joe Piper throughout the week where they were like, okay, what's with all the religion talk?

Holy crap, what a win. Holy crap, you wanted to, you know, commit suicide. And then we heard about some stuff in the post fight. It was a strange journey for him this week. It's kind of hard. It's hard to, I'm looking forward to speaking to him about it because it seemed like he was going through a lot. whether you agree with the way in which he went about it, whether you agree with what he was talking about,

whether you agree with, I don't know, the stance, I don't know, but this is a big spot for him. And we have seen him in a big spot before. We saw him against Jack Hermanson, and that didn't go his way. This time, it went his way, and it was huge. And now he has arrived, and now he's probably going to get a really big fight next. One would think, I mean, that's Israel Destiny that he just beat.

But it feels as though the fans should be really behind him today. And it doesn't quite feel that way. Now, everyone's fickle and people move on and all this stuff. But that's some heavy-duty stuff that he was talking about. And so I'm curious to see where he's at and how he's feeling in the aftermath of all of this. And it does seem like Izzy, for the most part, is handling it well? He did post on social media, I think, this morning about it. He didn't do the Post-Fight Press conference.

We do have Pfeiffer's up on the page case he was there. I know it's hard on my people seeing me fall. I promise you it's harder on me. Regardless, we respond and go again. Izzy is showing no signs of wanting to depart the sport, stop fighting. And I do think that there's a place for him, and I do think he's very popular, and I do think he can win some fights. But this is a tough stretch. And I think the matchmaking has been fine.

Even the Imovov fight. He could have won that fight, in my opinion. I don't think that they're putting him in there against wrestlers. they're not putting him in there again. Like you can't sit here and be like, man, just give me a fun Izzy fight. Like, no, these are fun Izzy fights. Now, Joe Piper had a good game plan. He took him to the ground, and that's what you should do against someone who's as good on his feet as Izzy.

I don't know, you know, I don't know what else the UFC can do, but I still think that there's a home for him despite the four fights that he's lost in a row. And if he wants to keep going, we've seen fighters with five fight losing streaks, six fight losing streaks. There's no reason to part ways with him. Michael Kesa had a tremendous retirement fight. The stuff retirement fights are made of. The dreams.

People dream of retirement fights like this. He won in 63 seconds via rear naked choke. It was electric in there. You said that was the loudest pop. Louder than Michael Kesa? Grasso was louder than Kiyasa? Yes. Really?

Actually, on the walk to the octagon, I was saying to Rick and TST, I was just like, man, I hope they give him a better pop than this. Like his walk to the octagon, it was, there were some, you know, cheers, obvious respect and everything like that. And when he eventually did, you know, put the gloves down on everything and when he got the finish, it was big pop and people went crazy. But I think it was just how jarring that Alexa Grasso

finish was. That's why it got the pop that it did. But there was still a big, big, big support for Michael Kiesa. It was an incredible moment watching it live, the family, everything there. You know, cuts a beautiful promo after an unbelievable performance. Unfortunately, at the hands of Nico Price,

it was also retiring. And I don't know, I actually wanted to ask you this. I don't know if they were showing this on the broadcast, but Nico Price immediately took the gloves off, and then it looked like he was looking for an interview with DC, and they didn't grant it to him, and then he had to walk out of the Octagon when they played Keisa's video package. Yeah, so I saw some of that stuff. I was very focused on Keisa. I saw everyone talking about it afterwards. It's just a tough spot. I mean, I don't know what the right thing would have been that was obviously about Michael, and Kesa was, you know, had been talking about this for a while, this being the retirement

fight, essentially, not quite off the bat, but essentially since the fight was announced shortly thereafter, he talked about it with us, with other people. Niko was a late replacement. And, you know, this whole thing, the state of Washington, it was the Michael Kesa show. And it was unfortunate that his retirement fight had to be against the guy that was also retiring at home and winning like that. It would have been awesome to get 60 seconds with him. Michael Kesa had a better career than Nico, but Nico deserved 60 seconds on the mic to say goodbye and thank you.

One thing that annoys me is Michael Kesa got a video package and this guy didn't. Like everyone has a different relationship with the UFC. Some people, remember, Steve A Mietchich never said that that was a retirement fight. So the UFC isn't going to do a video package for someone who doesn't say it's their retirement fight. historically they do this when you tell them two, three months in advance, regardless of where you are on the pecking order. And so this, like, Michael Kesa deserves a retirement package. I'm sorry.

Michael Kesa deserves that moment. He was a great fighter. He had been in the UFC for well over a decade. He had some amazing moments, amazing finishes. He was at home. I don't understand why anyone would be bothered by that. And it was amazing to see. It was amazing to see the emotion, as I said on the night.

you know these are the moments that remind us why we love this so much for for for moments like that emotional moments exuberant moments emphatic moments it was beautiful to watch his family's there his mom's there we were introduced to him on the ultimate fighter when his dad was sick and then unfortunately ultimately passed away i was very very happy for michael i wish nico would have had his moment as well but unfortunately this whole thing was centered around him he wins he's at home and they were maybe caught up in the moment and there just wasn't, you know, I don't know, there wasn't an opening.

It would have been great if Nico would have had that 60 seconds or so to just get on the mic and thank his family, thank the UFC, whatever it is. But even his decision to make this as a retirement fight kind of came midweek when, you know, everything was really centered around Michael. So tough spot. I, you know, I definitely feel for Nico,

but to me the feelings were predominantly about Michael and everything that he had been through and him getting this moment. The question is, can you truly walk away from that? You know, can you truly walk away from that? You have to, but like, man, this is a drug. He's on a winning streak. I'm pretty sure, didn't they say that he tied

his longest winning streak in his UFC career? You have to, though, man. You go out on top, at home. You get the mom there, the wife there. It's this incredible emotional moment. I was like, I was getting touched. a little bit. I was like, this is fantastic for Kiyasa. You've got to go out like that, man. You've already established the career in broadcasting. At your age and like the wind streak that you're on,

like, it's not like we're going for titles. I understand you want to continue to fight and everything like that, but you have to go out like this. We're seeing the other side of it, unfortunately, right now with Israel out of Sonia. That's four straight now, and who knows how long he's going to go for. He got on the mic and cut a promo of, I'm not done. I'm never going to be done. You can never get me away. I might keep losing, but I, you know, I remain undefeated, obviously mentally and everything like that. So like, he aces it to get a moment like this. It's just like the Robbie Lawler.

Same thing at the hands of the same opponent. Just you got to walk away. I think it's very easy for us to say. I can't imagine someone in six months being like, man, I'm kind of on a roll right now. I'm kind of feeling it. Yeah, it's all he knows. For his sake, that storybook, it's amazing.

But I would not be surprised if at some point he's like, man, I got a little bit more in me. Like, I want to keep going. I'm on this run. I'm beating guys. I'm stopping guys. Maybe I'm not going for a belt, but I can still win some fights. I don't know.

That was incredible and not, I mean, like, not that many guys get those moments, especially at home. He's such a big Seattle guy, loves all the sports teams, reps them, reps the state of Washington, has never left the state of Washington, still trains with the same team, Sikh Jitsu, Rick Little. It was amazing, but golly, he's still kind of on a role. His post-fight interview was great with D.C., the package was great. loved everything about it. We'll talk to them about it later in the program as well.

Larry Ann Douglas with a great win over Julian Arosa. You guys were singing his praises on the post show as well. That was one of the finishes on the main card. That was finished number four. Ussri Balguri with an incredible win over Mansour Abdul Malik, who I have been very, very high on. Are you the Abdul Malik kryptonite? I feel like you've seen his two worst performance. As I was watching the fight, I was obviously that his UFC Atlanta fight. It ended up being like a wonky draw against Cody Brundage changed later on. As I was watching, I was like, man, two for two on being in person for Mansour Abdul Malik being like wildly cautious and patient. And against the guy who's an elite striker in Usyri has had kickboxing matches against Adasania and Pereira,

I don't think the game plan, being patient like that and waiting for Usyri to come to him and not really. going for the takedowns as hard as he possibly could. I just don't think it was a good game plan. I honestly don't even think he should have gone out for that third round. I mean, he got smoked at the end of that second round. He was wobbling off the stage. Belguri with Alex Pereira and Glover DeSherra in his corner, tremendous. I'm talking about biggest pops.

The biggest pop might have been after Eustri finished talking, he shouted out at Alex Pereira, you know, saying I'm going to go spar with him to help him for his heavyweight thing, they showed Pereira on the Chumbo Tron, and the audience erupted for that dude. He is, he is great. The smile on his face and everything. Yeah. It was great.

It was great. Seeing them working out of the background in the, in the locker room was great as well. And he has a history, by the way, with Izzy. Some people calling for him and Izzy to fight. What do you think of that? They fought in glory, right? Yeah, yeah. Is that what's next?

Like, we just, we're doing news. Those types of fight. Yeah. It's just, it's really tough. I'm really interested, because. from the way he's talking, we're definitely getting another Adasanya fight, if not a couple more, in the UFC. It's just like, yeah, who do you start matching up with?

I mean, where do you put him on the card? You know? It's just like, do we continue to have him? You can still headline fight nights? Of course. Of course, he's a star. I mean, co-made events. He's a star, but it's just like, man, I don't know. It's a difficult place for where he's at in his career. Terrence McKinney, another incredible, another quick seconds into the fight finish.

This time 24 seconds, defeats Kyle Nelson, still no bonuses for the guy. I don't understand how it's possible. He's only ever won in the first round. And even when he loses, it's like fight of the night type stuff. The Drew Dober loss should have been a fight of the night. I don't understand how this dude is this deep into his UFC career and there's been no bonuses. I know he tweeted that he got taken care of, but that should have been a quick 25K for the finish, 100K for performance of the night.

I mean, there were a lot of great performances. Of course, of course. Yeah, it was a tough night to get one, but man, it just feels like one of those nights. It's weird that he hasn't got him won. Yeah. It felt like Dana should have been like, we're going to give out a few extra the night because it was such an unbelievable card. I mean, I had friends texting me who I didn't even think watched UFC and they were like, man, that card tonight was incredible. I was like, hell yeah, hell yeah.

Card of the year, no doubt about it. Like, just what the doctor ordered for Paramount Plus, by far the best card of the Paramount Era and one that they desperately needed. It's going to be tough to top, too. Yeah. Card of the year, maybe knockouts. a mission of the year, photo of the year, a whole bunch of stuff.

Tofik Musayev defeated Ignacio Bahamundes that won the fight of the night. Great, great fight. Bloody affair, Lance Gibson Jr. Mr. Mucklechute defeats Chase Hooper gets his first win. And it looked like, I don't know, it sort of looked like Chase may have broken his orbital,

but I have no intel on that. Probably should have checked in, but it just felt like one of the shots that was that delayed reaction that sometimes we hear about when someone suffers an injury like that, that, but that was vicious stuff from Lance, who has fought obviously in that region, so a big win for him. We actually had two Bellator or ex-Belotor fighters fighting back-to-back, and both of

them won. Tirel Fortune beat Marcin Tibera. Initially, there was a bit of a mix-up. I was going to ask you about that, but apparently you weren't in the building for that one. Yeah, it was making my way over. Yeah. I got no shame in this. Call me Main Card Conner, man. It's all right. It's all right. I own that title with pleasure. Seven hours sitting in an arena is, it's just too long for me. Fuck no man, plug on her. Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Dustin. It's tough. It is tough. It was great to see Casey O'Neill, like I said, her first fight since August of 2024.

Her first win since August of 2024. She defeated Gabriella Fernandez in the first round. Tremendous stuff, a first round stoppage. So great, great, great stuff from her. Navajo Sterling got a second round win. So it wasn't completely a bad night for Team CKB, defeating Bruno Lopez, Ricky Simone and Adrian Yanis fought to a draw, a majority draw, and Alexia Tainara defeated Bruno Brazil.

You guys even went deep into that fight on the post-fight wrap-up. Off the top of the dome, you were breaking it all down. Yeah, I think that deep breakdown was Alexa Thinara beat Bruno, Brazil. Hey, shout out. All right, we're going to talk to Armin Surukian soon. Armant Tarukian had the big win at RAF, and was the Tauma. We have, of the five events, three, of the main event winners on this program.

In addition, tomorrow we'll have Johnny Eblen, so that's number four. Not bad for a little outfit that doesn't know how to go live and screws up the stream. Is the stream okay now? Stream's okay, man. Let's just not touch it.

Yeah. Who's to check? Let's just let it be. Let's just let it be. Dana White spoke to the media afterwards. We can squeeze in a couple of things here. Let's squeeze in this one. He was asked about Islam Mahachev

and Connor McGregor's future. future, Islam's manager, Ali Abdel-Ziz last week saying they're looking at July. Dana White came out and said, no, it's more like August. You know why it's August? Because they want Connor McGregor to fight in July. And to me, what he said about Connor, which you'll see in this clip, is as close to a confirmation as you'll get. Because if he really wants to say it's not true, he will tell you it's not f-and-true.

Listen to what he says. Look at him as he's saying it. Here we go. And I saw you post on Instagram on a page that Islam-Machachshed is fighting in August. Is that true? Do you have an opponent for Islam yet? Well, Ali was out there talking, saying in July. And that's August that we're looking at.

Is Colin McGregor fighting in July? Possibly. Nothing's done. Nothing's even remotely close to being done. But is that something you're going? But is that something you would look forward to doing that? Yes. Yes, emphatically, possibly.

Nothing's done, don't get crazy. Wait till we announce it. But the reason why Islam will not fight in July is because they want Connor to fight. And they're not going to have those two guys fighting on the same card. There's no doubt about that. So, you know, not quite there yet. As I've said the whole time, I've never said it was a done deal.

But what I've said is that's who they want on the July 11th International Fight Week card, Connor McGregor. Max Holloway's frontrunner, 170 pounds. Not done just yet. Let's wait, let's wait, okay. Talks have gone well. Everything's gone well.

Things are moving along in a very good fashion. And I feel like the way in which he said that was an indication that things are going well and he just doesn't want to announce it because they're not ready to announce it for whatever reason. Other people who may be a little bit newer to this would be like, no, no, no, no, no. We know when Dana feels very strongly about something

and that was him playing a little bit coy. And so a back-to-back stretch in the summer, White House Ilya Tuporia in June, Connor McGregor in July, Isamachev in August, is pretty much a dream for the UFC. And oh, by the way, Hamza Chimaev in May,

that's a pretty damn good stretch of numbered events. Business picking up. Love that. Now, he was also asked about John Jones, and you know what, let's save that part. Maybe we'll talk about the AI question

because everyone's going crazy over that. Here he is talking about some, I don't know, AI pictures, videos being used on UFC broadcasts and everyone's very upset about this. Let's take a listen. AI and the UFC in general, I've seen fans complaining about. Oh, yeah?

What are they complaining about? I guess I've seen people saying that the UFC should be paying artists and sort of using generative AI, stuff like that. Give me a fucking break. AI's comment, and if we're using AI, who gives it? shit. People are upset about it. We should use artists. So is it a UFC internal choice?

I don't know. It has no. It has nothing to do with Paramount. Paramount's not telling us how to run our production. We run the production. We, you know, so every time we change, you know, we go from Fox to ESPN and then we go to Paramount, people like, ah, ESPN's doing this and Fox is doing that and Paramount, they're not doing anything. They don't, they have nothing to do with our production. They do create some of their own spots for fights, but we do all our, everything from the artwork to production to music, everything is done internally and always has been at UFC. How about this? Shut the fuck up and watch the fights. I have a hard time deciphering what's AI, what isn't.

G.C., people who have a creative eye and are good at all this stuff have a much easier time doing that. And so when I see stuff, I don't know. Like we were talking about the Carlos Purchase, you know, a betting sponsor ads. Is that real? Is it not? Who knows? If I were Dana White, I would take it as a compliment that people care so much

about all the bells and whistles that go into the UFC. The broadcasts, the promos, the posters. Like, we love this shit. We love it just as much as you love it. You love it for other reasons. It's your baby. You're financially invested. We love it as fans.

Some of us are financially invested. we cover it. And so for the response to be shut the F up, who gives a shit to me is so, it's so tone deaf because the reason why the UFC is successful is because there are fans who love it as much as they do and care about the details as much as they do. Part of the reason why the PFL isn't successful right now is because fans don't care. If they use a smart cage or not, if they change it from PFL to a new brand, if they change the logo, they don't care. not connected to it. Fans love the UFC. And so, yeah, there are people online and, you know, they're like, ah, you know, multi-billion dollar company, like you could use better stuff.

Like, I don't think it's a bad question. I think the response is very tone deaf. Listen, I get it. You guys love it. We're trying out some things. There's a very good chance, by the way, he has no idea what you're talking about. Like, people think that Dana is so involved in every single facet. He has told us time and again, marketing, DVDs, in the day, merch, that is not his business. What he has told us is he's the bells and whistles guy. He'll put on the fight, he'll make it look nice, and then the fighters have to produce.

Well, this is bells and whistles, if you ask me, to be honest. Like the UFC Seattle logo, the way in which it look, it's like, that's bells and whistles. People love that stuff. This apparently is AI. Yeah, this is like textbook AI right here. And people are bothered by this. Yeah, I'm bothered by it.

you're a billion dollar company and like you're using like this this what is this this is the 326 promo who is this let's let's play the full thing i mean we got max holloway walking out to an octagon on the beach this is all fake this is all this is all they i look at this is the face off it's about to show the charles that's not them they didn't do this yeah 326 people get mad about this and so people people are into the art they're in the promotion that they have such an opportunity to make sick stuff. And for Dana just to like brush it off to like, someone asked him where it comes from. He's like, I don't fucking know. Who gives a shit? They're asking you because people give a shit. That is why. And for him to say to these fans that support this sport to be like,

how about you just shut the fuck up and watch the fights? Like, imagine any other commissioner saying that. Or owner? Yeah, owner, president, whatever, saying this. It's, it should be insulting to the fans. Like, it's just like, we're just going to put that slop out there and whatever the fuck we put out, you better watch it and shut up and enjoy it. It's just like, all right, man, for sure, for sure. Like, we, we care about this promotion and want it to be as good as possible. You want the fans to be apathetic. Do you want them not to care? Do you want them to be disconnected? No, you want them to care about every single facet from the posters to the fight order. That shows that you have a good product. And so to dismiss them because maybe you don't care

or because maybe you don't even know the answers to these questions and you're not involved is, to me, extremely tone deaf and disappointing because he should care that people care. It should mean something to him. Let's talk to one of the biggest stars in the sport today. He had a phenomenal weekend once again in his side quest journey, if you will. It's been an incredible run. He hasn't had to fight once. He hasn't had to have an actual UFC fight, but he continues to win doing these other things. And he was successful on Saturday at RAF7 defeating his now former rival, I guess you could say, Georgia Poulos, he's the one and only Armand Sarukian, the pride of Armenia, kind enough to join us. Hello, Armin. How are you, my friend?

Hello, hello. I'm good. How are you? Hey, Armand, people are now saying that you're a regular on the show, that it's like the Armine and Ariel show here. Yeah, yeah, I want to take over your show. I don't know if I could afford you, if I'm being honest. No, no, but I'm doing this for fun, so you can... I'm doing an interview for free and, like, you know, it's okay. No, I know. I meant you being the co-host of the show. You're a very busy guy, and so I know that you command top dollar.

Yeah, maybe when I'm down with my career, so we do something together. No problem, no problem. Well, congratulations on another great victory. I felt like there were no theatrics, there were no extracurricular, no issues. This one compared to the first one against Georgia was very clean. Would you agree? Yeah, it was so clean. He didn't even punch me once.

and I didn't accept I didn't I thought it's going to be kind of same a little bit cleaner but kind of same he is going to play a dirty game but he was

he was just wrestle like he's supposed to wrestle you know and I was surprised that he even when he was losing he didn't want to cancel and like one thing he did that

he was resting, like, saying, like, oh, my fingers, I got a tape when he got tired. And so why do you think that happened that way? Why do you think it was so different than the first match? Maybe because when they said, you want to rematch, I said, guys, I want to rematch. But first of all, if he's going to be clean, if he wants to fight, I can't fight anywhere, anytime. I'm a fighter. Like, it's a thing that I'm living for, you know. I wake up, I go to the gym, I fight, and this regular guy, he wrestled and go to the beach and do his influencer thing.

But I fight every single day, and it's my thing. And somebody wants to come and punch me in the wrestling. Of course, I'm going to punch him back. But, like, if you want to see me in rematch, keep it clean. Let's do the wrestling. And to show everybody who is the best wrestler, not just the best fighter. What about that throw at the very end there? That must have felt good, huh?

Yeah, that one was Armours, Ireland. Yes, Air Armine, as I say, or you say Armin. Yes, you should run with him. Armine Ireland. It was beautiful. And then you gave him a little hump at the end there, too. Yeah, I was thinking maybe something going to be again. I was waiting.

That day, I wanted. So nothing in the back, no issues, no theatrics, no. nothing, right? No, no, no. And then he came, shake my hand, said, I'm going to give you back your money that I lost first time. And I said, okay, and that money we give for the charity for the kid who is sick and the young kid. And yeah, and this money not going in my pocket, this money is going to help the kid.

Can you tell me this is the interaction right here, right, when he gives you the money? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was showing him who is exactly that kid, not just, I'm saying, or charity, and like, nobody's going to know. But exactly he got to see, like, who we help. And because of this video, a lot of people reach out with me and said, please let me help. And like a lot of famous people, too, you know. I'm so glad that this video went very viral and a lot of people now helping this kid.

Can you tell me about this kid? Who is he, and what's he going through? This is my brother's friend's kid, you know? Okay. My cousin, no, my cousin, he has a friend, and he has a friend, and my cousin's friend's kid. So it's like, I met them a lot of time, you know, when we celebrate something, and I know this family. And I want to say everybody, thank you so much, who, who, who, who, reach out me and send me money.

And thank you. Ali Abdulaziz. He sent me 10K for this kid too. Wow. I'm so glad that people helping me. Wow, wow, wow. Okay, this is very nice. You know, we have our website.

I'm very money from you too. I'll send you money, no problem. How can I send money? I'll send you the link. 500 bucks, brother. I got you. No problem. With pleasure.

If Ali says, sends money, I have to send money too. 100%. That's how we do it. Can I ask you a question? On the website, we cover all the combat sports. And RAF on Saturday, more traffic than UFC, more than PFL, more than the boxing. Now you've done it, I think it was twice, right? This was twice or three times for RIF? No, three times. Three times. Yeah. It seems like they've got something here, right? It It seemed like the crowd was very hot. It seems like they have something special. Yeah, they do so good show, you know, the firework, this, that music, and like,

they do a very good job and like promoting, bringing in like stars. Like there is a legit wrestlers, like can imagine Olympic, Olympic champion, a wrestle with Olympic champion. It's like one of the best card, you know, ever, like, a couple. Paldeg, Snyder, Tajudin, and then the Georgian, Hingirashvili. Like, maybe in this card was like six, seven, maybe eight medals from Olympic Games. It's like, and then, yeah, main event, common event, we're MMA fighters, but we can bring a lot of eyes.

It's good, you know, for promote this sport. And some of the MMA guys or some of the wresters say why. MMA guys is fighting, wrestling in the main event, why we're Olympic champions wrestling in the main car, not main event, but they got to understand we do this for them too. And because of all, their names is going to be bigger as well. Yes, I think it's very smart. More people are tuning in for you guys,

and hopefully they find out about the Kyle Snyders, the Kyle Dakes, the Kennedy Blades, etc. I watched the press conference, Armin, and it seemed like when he made the joke about Nina drama, you got very upset. It seemed like a different side of you came out. Is that accurate? No, I got upset before that when Kobe Covington and Dylan Dennis was there

and started talking about family, sister and mother. And one guy, the interview asked about Dylan Dennis' mom or whatever. And like when Georgia asked about Nina and I, said this guy who asked about the mom or whatever or mom or the sister and i tell him too like bro like you cannot like talk about family sisters daughters and uh like friends if you have something to me ask ask my my thing you know and yeah i was i was met on georgia too because you got to be respectful to the nina and uh she's our she's my friend and uh for my friends i can't I can beat anybody, you know.

I don't like disrespect because everybody knows that we are making content, we are good friends, and like we make the jokes, you know, that people think we have something between us, but not then we're just friends, good friends, you know, and making good content that people like it. So you and Colby would be a huge deal for RIF. Obviously, he beat Dylan Dennis. and at the post-fight or the post-match, post-event press conference, you're sitting right next to each other, and you're going back and forth, and he's saying he took you down

and you're saying you never wrestled him and all this stuff. Do you think that there's a chance that this could even be made in RAF, or do you believe that the UFC doesn't want it to happen because you're too active UFC guys? To be honest, I don't know. What's going on if you see let us do this?

Would be great, because we fight in the different ways. I'll fight in 155, he fights in 170, so we're never going to fight each other. And right now he's not on that level even like contender anymore. He's just a regular fighter who has a name and he can talk a lot. So we can bring a lot of eyes and make it something big. And it's easy money for me, you know. I just go to wrestle with bodybuilder.

And now I'm going to wrestle with Colby. It's like the beer guy drinking beer every day and doing extra exercises during the night never train. So easy money for me. Are you or your team going to ask the UFC if they'll allow you to do this? I think we just let the RAF figure out, you know. Okay, they'll ask.

Yeah. Okay. They asked them, yeah. Last time we spoke, It was before the event in Las Vegas, and you told us that you were gonna meet with the UFC out there. Did that happen?

No, but we talked about what's going on next for me. So you did speak, but just not there? Yeah, yeah. Okay, how did that go? Good, we, I'm gonna be like, I'm gonna train to be in shape if something happened in many events in White House, I'll be back up,

So I'll fight there. And then they announced my next fight after the, when Ile versus Gagee when they fight. After that, they announced my next fight. Okay. Will you weigh in at the White House and all that? No, no, I don't want to cut my weight. I'm going to be low.

Even if they call me like before four, five days, I'll make my weight. But I'm not going to cut and stay on the scales 155, you know. Okay. And is it fair to assume you're fighting the winner of that fight? Most likely. Okay. So are you okay with that?

There is a couple different things that can happen. Oh, really? Like what? Can you tell us? No, because they tell a bit. I cannot tell what I'm going to. Okay, okay. No, it's okay.

It can be good. Okay. Should be good. I saw you at the event. You had the handcuffs. on. Yeah. What were you trying to say?

What were you trying to say when you had the handcuffs? That I'm not going to beat anybody here. Okay. I thought you meant like the UFC was handcuffing you, not letting you fight. No, no, no, no. Okay. Yeah, people think like that. But my main thing was, okay, I go there with handcuffs and like,

and like if someone is going to talk shit, I cannot punch him, you know? My hands is like locked. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. That makes a lot of sense. So when you were there, you didn't meet with the brass, you didn't meet with Hunter or Dana or anyone? Yeah, I met Dana. I met everybody there.

Oh, and how did it go when you saw Dana? Yeah. Good, good. Good, very good. Did he tell you what? Hey, how are you? It wasn't like, hey, Armand, I'm not happy with you. You need to do this.

None of that stuff. No, no. But if they told me I shouldn't wrestle, they just going to call me and tell me. But they let me do this, I'll do it. You know? If they're going to say, Armand, you shouldn't wrestle anymore,

I'm not going to wrestle because my main thing is you see and it's just Syquest and I just make money, have fun, you know. Because wrestling, you don't get hurt and you don't get punched. So it's just go there, have fun, make money and travel around the US, you know. It's so fun, good show. And it's easy for my mentality, too. When you fight every month, you cannot because it's hard. If you lose, it's a lot of pressure on you.

But wrestling, it's no pressure. You go there, just wrestle, you know. Maybe because it's not my sport. That's why I take it easy. But did you hear Kurt Engel? He said he thinks you could be an Olympian. Yeah, maybe. Maybe.

That'll be another side quest. Imagine you do an Olympic side quest. It takes time, you know. And right now, if I was a UFC champion, I could think about that. But right now, no. And there is no money. There is no, just for the country, yeah, you can bring the medal. But I can imagine the guys training 25 years, 20 years, only freestyle wrestling.

They wrestled for 20 years and it's going to be difficult to compete with them. It's a different level, you know. What's brilliant about this is it keeps you in the news. Every couple weeks now, you're competing. So all of a sudden, people are following you and getting more into you. It's been a brilliant thing that you've done. We saw you a couple of weeks ago in the hype event.

And now, like, the moment this matches over, there's another report. Can you tell us, is this true? You versus Dylan Dennis in hype? Is this a real thing? It's not confirmed yet. still negotiation, doing regotiated. Okay. They still are going back and forth.

Because that's in like two weeks. No, that's next week, April 8th. Next week. But for me, it doesn't matter. I can wake up and go to Russell Dillon Dennis. He's like, really easy money for me. But this is submission grappling, right?

Yeah, yeah. So that's more his domain. Yeah, but he's going to get tight in three minutes. Okay. Did you watch him against Colby? I watched, yeah, I watched. Did he do better than he thought? He's better than I thought. I thought he has no wrestling, but he could get points from Colby.

And I was telling Colby, bro, your socks in the wrestling, how Dylan Dennis could get the points from you. Yeah, no, that was a little bit surprising to at least the true wrestling fans. And so what, like, what do you think the likelihood of this happening next week is? Like, is it close or is it 50-50 right now? No, it's 50-50 because R.EF wants me to wrestle. And again. If we're going to pick, yeah, if I'm going to pick the grappling or RIF, I'll pick RIF most likely.

We'll see. Who pays more? Yeah, of course. Like Rampage Jackson once said the Cheddar makes it better. Armin, you know what that means? Yes, sort of. More money makes it better. Yeah, of course.

I want to make money, you know, because I don't want to go there for free and they use me. Nowadays, I already made my name in U.S.C. You know, that's why they got to pay me. Who does RAF want you to compete against? Kobe Cormington. Yeah.

Yeah, Colby Covington and then Chandler. Oh. Just easy, easy fights, you know, just go there, I don't know, like kick their ass. Yes. And go home. Get their back. Get their back, go home. Yes, yes, yes.

Kobe very upset that he's not on the White House card. What do you think of the White House card? To be honest, main event and Komeni event, so good. But it's just six fights, right? Yeah. Yeah, six fights. Six fights. That's why like we see the names.

Six fights, that's why it's not like enough for us. If it was a 12 fights or like UFC 300, it was 14 fights or something like that. It was like a lot of people, like a lot of title fights, a lot of stars. But here you cannot bring a lot of stars. And you need the USA, especially. it's hard to pick like USA fighters right now because not a lot of superstar from US. John Joseph is gone.

Chandler, he's trash cane. Who else? Colby, trash cane. Sean O'Malley? Sean Amali, good. He's there. Yeah. Who else? Keila Harrison injured. Yeah, she's injured. Yeah, there's not a lot.

It's just gaugie. That's why they put gaugie there. And yeah, Sean Ameli. Co-niquet. Co-man event is so good and Manny Vend is good. And yeah, just people was thinking like it's going to be six title fights, six contender fights, that's why, but it's impossible. They cannot do that because they have different shows. So for me it's good because it's in my division in 155 the Manny Vend and who knows, maybe I'll fight there. for me is good. That's why I was happy when I saw many win. It has to be you next. If it's not you next, then we have a massive problem.

It has to be you, Armin. Come on. Problem going to have my fans with UFC. Me, I'll stay out of the problem. There's no one else. It's one of the biggest fights that UFC can do. You versus Ilya, if he wins and I think he's going to win. It's a gigantic fight. Yeah. Can imagine me versus Ilyle. on the White House, everybody's going to talk about the fight. White House, no White House. Yeah.

Who cares? Put it anywhere. Put it in Madrid. Yeah. Great fight. Because we are both on us, on our prime, and like 50% are going to think,

I'm going to win, 50% on the thing. I'm going to win, and it's going to be like a massive fight. What did you think of all the talk of Ilya moving up to 170 to fight? Islam? Did you think that that was going to happen? Do you think that would be smart? What do you think of that? I think it's going to be smart for him to move up and make a lot of money. And even if he lose to Islam, people say, oh, you know, he took the, he took the chance to fight for the third belt.

And can't imagine if he beat Islam, he's going to be, he's going to be a legend in this sport, you know, three belts. No one done it before. But that means if he would go up there and win, then you don't get to fight him. What about if he lose? He comes back and I beat him again and the UFC got him out. Yeah. That's the best thing. He just signed a big deal with Richard Millet.

You know Richard Millet? Of course I know. Yeah. So what about you? You have to counter with a big deal yourself. I already told about that it's one of the best brand. I like Richard Millie. And maybe I'll...

signed with them too maybe because i know i know the uh who runs out the richard mill so okay you could buy yes you could buy richard mile right like you don't need a sponsorship yeah for me it's easier to go there by and and i i shouldn't tag them and promote them and right but like if it's it's good marketing you know it's good it's good uh because uh if you tell me which which brand you want to work it's a Richard Mill. Okay. Because it's a sport watch, you know. We're in the sport.

It's easy for us to wear. So, for example, Patak, they never work with anybody. Maybe you. Because they don't need that. Right, right. It's like an OG band, you know. How many watches do you own?

After every event, I'll buy one. So I got this one. Okay, you just got it. No, no, no. the from the which one I got from the Maccaife okay yeah wow that was a good one

I'm looking for the new one every time you compete you buy a watch after yeah so how many you have now 20 something we gotta count okay and why do you need to do that

like what is it about competing makes you want to when I saw this watch oh this is this is what I did this is uh okay

Booker's neck. Right, right, right. What was it like? And like... It reminds you of your victories, of your conquest. Yeah. Yeah. Makayev was an interesting opponent.

No, really, but like it's better than nothing. Sure, sure. And it was a big risk. It was big risk for me. Can I imagine if I wouldn't shock him? I got so much hate. You were so much bigger than him, right? So you have to win.

Yeah, I have to win. And it was a risk for me. Because when people would expect you. Yeah, if I couldn't choke him out, can imagine you cannot, like, choke him out, how are you going to choke out ill at a poor? Right, right. No, that's fair.

That is a lot of pressure. You were there in Vegas for that BMF fight, and now I'm hearing that it's going to be Max versus Connor. That's what they want. How do you think that goes at 170? BNF Max versus Conner. No, no BMF. but you saw a Max fight

against Charles and now I'm hearing in July they want to do Max versus Connor that's a good fight but I think it's stylistically good fight for the Connor

you think and 172 Max you know doesn't historically fight it that way yeah Max is done already he's just going make a money and then retired

you think he's finished yeah he's not that max anymore okay what makes you say that because in his last fight so bad with yeah he last fight he looks so bad that's crazy you were surprised how I was surprised how I was surprised how you cannot wrestle like zero wrestling you've been in this sport like 20 years and like you you cannot even like the fan take down from charles aloeira charles alveira has no takedown He has good, like, jujutsu. But, like, wrestling, I've never seen him wrestle very well.

But he cut him down like a... He was like a masterclass, you know, from wrestling from Charles. Yeah. And I thought he went to Dagestan for two, three years and then come back. Or maybe he should go, right? it's too late yeah he has like three four fights left and then he's

going to retire the our division is going to change soon so and the king is going to be me and we're going to have the big new names that coming up you know because I don't know why they give these

old guys chances KG Al-Evera I wouldn't surprise if Valevera fights for the title again. Not before you. Not before me, but still, you know. Yeah, because they're known commodities. People love them.

They're their draws. Yeah, but we need new names, like the new names coming up and give them chance, you know. Like, for example, from top 10, top 15, someone who just got there, give them a chance to fight with top five and, like, maybe switch the names. Sure. like you. It's about freaking time. Bro, I was beating everybody. What do you mean? I was top 15. I beat top 14. I was top 14. I beat top 13. I beat top 10. I was top 10. I beat top 5. I beat top 5. I beat top 1.

And then I became the number one. No, I understand. But I'm saying you're a huge star and they're not booking you in fights. Soon, soon. Okay. They're going to give me a good fight. So you feel like you're in a good spot with them? you feel like you're in good standing now? I have no idea.

I got to see the contract first. Okay, that's right. Yeah, that's a good way to find out how much they want you. Yeah, so, but I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I want to, yeah, I want to, I want to become a star before I fight for the title and bring so much eyes. They're going to be shocked that people love me in U.S. I feel like you're there already I think you've done it

yeah but we need a little bit more I see you hanging out with speed I show speed that's big time stuff yeah speed he's so funny guy yeah look at you

you're big time you're a plus celebrity now I was wrestling you're gonna teach him a little look at the he's strong guy right yeah he's strong jacked. Jacked, yeah.

Natural, you think he's natural? Yeah, he's so young. Yeah, yeah. He's black. By the way, Armin, I wanted to ask you, so is your new team over in Southern California, you, Hamza at the Santos studio over there?

Is that the new team for you? It's not new team, I've been training there almost one and a half years but I still, I go to ATT, come there, I like to live in L.A. in the L.A. and train there because for my lifestyle it's easier. But when I prepare for the fight, I go to ATT as well.

Okay. But Hamzad is there. Yeah, but right now. Yeah, we train with Hamzad right now. He's preparing for this fight. Huge fight is coming up. I think this fight should be in the White House as well. And if they add him there, it would be great, you know, like three title fights and Hamza's there in the White House. Yeah, seeing you guys train together, I saw you doing the flips, the back thing that you do over there, and he was doing it too. Khalil Roundtree couldn't do it.

I think you have to be a certain type of guy to do that. You know what I'm talking about? These things right here. Yeah, yeah. This is crazy stuff that you guys just... It's from... Yeah, it's from freestyle wrestling, you know. Hamzat, he even wrestled

when he was young. He does like a lightweight that things. He's so flexible and explosive, you know? But Halil, he never wrestled. And of course, he cannot do that. Wow, what a room.

But he's a good striker. Yes, of course. He's a good striker. Will you be in Hamzat's corner? But he's getting better. Most likely, yes. Okay. Yeah, if they ask me to be there, I'll be there. Anyway, I'll be there.

Of course. But does this feel different for Hamzad? Like, it's become very personal. Do you sense that he's very upset? No, he seems so cool. And he never tell me, oh, I'm going to kill him there or something. I said, like, you've got to be so quiet, no matter what he's going to talk during the fight, try you make you angry and like you're gonna like do mistake and you shouldn't do that because

that that type of thing he can like he can beat you in that type of thing talking and like make you angry and then he can do mistakes so be calm and we're gonna try to keep him calm and do his job and get the victory the the the first following week, your cousin is competing on the MVP card in California, right? Yeah, May 16. David. David, David McGowan? Yeah, David, we're going there. He's preparing. He's so excited. Thank you, MVP, for that opportunity. A big fight coming up for him. His fighting was a good fighter, ex-UFC fighter champion, UNF. And I train with Albert, who he's fighting very tight. tough upon him.

Okay, yes. So excited. You'll be there to corner him? Yes, of course. Okay, that's a big opportunity for him. Big card. Yeah, big card, big money for him, you know. It's good.

There it is. Another Armenian. Yeah, another Armenian coming up to 145. But he's so young, that's why we just, he needs a lot of experience. He needs a lot of experience and then he can go to the UFC. Okay. By the way, you mentioned 145.

I know you tweeted after the Mofstar fight. Maybe I should go down to 145 to save the division. Is this a serious thing? Like when you spoke to the UFC, did this come up at all? Yeah, it came up. And I want to do that because I want to be a UFC champion. And I don't want to just fight just for fight, you know, because I have fought so many.

times and I deserve fight for the title. If they told me we're not going to give you a title in 155, we can give you in 145. I'll make it 145 and fight there and stay there as much as they want me. But now, I mean, like that feels like something you do after you win 155. No, no, no, no. If I win 155, I'll stay there. I want to break the record. It's like four three, four defenses. Yeah. How much Islam defend the title? Oh gosh, top of my head, I don't remember. Maybe five? Yeah, it's four.

Four or five? Okay, okay. Yeah, I want to do seven at least. And then we'll see, go down or go up. Realistically, how many matches do you think you'll do side quests before you have another UFC fight? Whatever you see. if I fight in August or July

so I'll do maybe two, three more. Wait a second, July, Armand. If you're fighting in July, you're not fighting Ilya. I'm just saying like... Don't tell me you're fighting someone else. Don't tell me you're fighting. Yeah. Nah, you're not...

You have to fight the winner of Ilya versus Justin and the winner is probably going to be ready October, November, December. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, August or September. When is it's going to be back at Gage or...

five months, six months. These guys don't fight every two months. Okay, I'll do 25 matches. I'm trying to get a gauge of when they told you, maybe you, Madison Square Garden, November, something like that. Yeah, but it's too long.

I know, but realistic. I'm going to break all these droppers, resters. It's too, that's what I'm worried about. So they didn't give you a timeline. Yeah, maybe if it's, going to be November I would like to box in Zufa boxing yeah you brought that up too but I heard the Donovite doesn't like that idea someone asked him what do

you think and he said no I want to you see fighter fight in the UC and yeah but it's I think it's good because like for example like me I'm so active I have nothing to do I love this sport and I don't want to wait like fight or two times I would like to fight six times, you know, and especially if it's going to be boxing or wrestling. Yeah, I think he wants to keep it separate. Yeah, but I think it's good for the boxing too if some UC stars can go there and box and make more money and make their name bigger, you know. What do you think of the boxers getting...

What do you think? I think it would be good, but I'm curious what you think of the boxers getting... getting paid a lot and then some of the UFC fighters saying, hey, how come you're not paying me as much as them? I don't think so. Boxers makes a lot of money. Just top top top boxers they make. I think when the Zufa boxing is signed

and they maybe get paid less than the UFC fighter. It's my opinion. I don't know the numbers. But top fighters, they make a lot of money. They paid one guy, Connor Ben, 15 million who's not a champion or anything. for one fight? One fight, yeah.

But let him fight and then we'll see if they pay him or not. So I don't know. Like someone like you is more popular than him, I think. Yeah, but boxing is like from when this boxing started this sport. Sure. Long ago, right? Yeah. Long ago and a lot of competition between boxing.

And then he can come here or go there, you know, he can do regurgiation. you know, and like, get the bigger check. That's fair. That's fair. Let me ask you a couple things and then I'll let you go. I saw you on the boat yesterday. Eating sushi, how many pieces you eat?

Yes. How many pieces is this? All of them. All of them, because I cut weight. I was on the diet two weeks. Look at this life. This is unbelievable. You know, now I want to do get the yacht

and do yoga on the yacht. That's what you're going to do today? No, today. I want to film with Nina something. Nina is here too. Okay. I'm going to take her on the fake date. Harmon, I thought I was your favorite interviewer,

and now it feels like Nina's your favorite interviewer. I'm getting a little jealous. She never get interviewing from it. What do you mean? Just one, two times, two times in my life. What do you mean never? 12 hours. No, no.

We just do the live streaming. That's an interview. That's a kind of an interview. No, no, no. But the interview is just you. Just me? Okay, because... Nobody pay as much as you pay me. That's true. That's a good point. I get you for 30 minutes. She gets you for 12 hours. She's more beautiful than you.

That is true also. That's fair. And she's my friend. Close friend. What, when you say things like this, Armand, then it makes people make jokes, and then she gets upset. I mean, like, best friend. Like, we're good friends, you know. Okay, okay. All right, all right. I don't want any problems with you or her.

I saw her go up to Giorgio. No problem. She went up to Giorgio, like, she was pissed. Yeah, she's like, she's so angry. Yeah. I thought he was going to slap him. She was disrespected. No, no, no.

And then we figure out he came and said, I apologize. Okay. I was wrong. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, he just said, I was. wanted to like to promote this fight this that and kind of he did so now we were talking about that that's true and by the way what's this off-roading i saw you doing off-roading with the rolls

royce that's crazy man what is this yeah what's wrong this is the this is the this is first rollo's off-roading yeah no one's doing that where was this yeah this is in big bear we went to big bear with hamzad for two weeks And I said, okay, here I got to drive Rolls Royce. Where do you get that? Where do you get that, Rose Royce? It's my friend's Rolls Royce. Golly.

Yeah, but it was so good. And my dad called me and said, well, like, you don't have even Rolls Royce. We don't have here Royce Royce in our city, and you're like driving in the mountains, Royce Royce. What was going on with you in the U.S.? When are you going back home? When I get the title.

Okay, all right. Oh, we lost them again. Did we just lose? I was literally just about to say goodbye to Armin. Maybe you've asked him the wrong question. Golly. Why does this always happen to me? Did his phone die or something?

It must have. Oh, my God. He lives on the edge, man. Why does he always do this to me? I'm constantly hopping in with like 15% battery. Did he tell you that beforehand? No, no, no, but it just feels like that. I feel like this is the third time now we've lost them due to a dying battery.

And every time just is about to say goodbye. Yeah. Yeah, and we're framing up Moses now. Oh, no. Traffic jam's getting caused me. What's happening? What do I do? We're...

About the time he gets his charger and everything. I mean, it took him like 10 minutes last time. Oh, no. I'm going to call him real quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Say goodbye on the phone. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's going to go straight the voicemail.

Oh, we're screwed now. Watch this. is he is he popping back in I don't see him yet oh this is my this is my worst nightmare a lot of nightmares today golly this is what happens when Rick leaves right this is the greatest thing to ever happen for New York Creek the PR on New York Creek because obviously it's two videos now the other one is done so people can comment on it oh no the comments it's like Rick leaves for one day and this is what happens oh never hate on New York, Rick again.

What do I do? Is he coming back? No, man, I'm pretty sure that phone died. Is our next guest there? Yeah, he's sitting right here. I'm looking at him. Oh, my God. What a nightmare.

Let me try it one more time. Let me try one more time. His phone's dead, right? It has to be. It's all I can think why. Zooms don't just shut out like that. This happened last time, too. I know.

Not last time, like five times. He's a regular on the show at this point. All right. Well, we'll reconnect. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. For now, though, can I go to the next guess? Okay, not in head.

Okay. She's hard. Absolutely not. Well, then maybe Armand can come back to say goodbye. I'm trying to see. He hasn't jumped back in yet. What a guy that Armand's freaking. He better, he better freaking fight for the beltnecks.

I'll tell you that much. Although him coming to New Jersey is exciting. Maybe we can have him in studio again. That'd be incredible. Looking at his tapology, it's just ridiculous how there's like eight fights now since the Dan Hooker actually UFC fight. It's just grappling, grappling, wrestling, RIF. If I'm RAAF, I try to sign this guy to an exclusive and say,

all your side quests are with us. You want to compete every month? We have a show every month. Don't let them go anywhere else. But maybe that's not something that they want to be, you know, and getting involved with because they want people to be able to go back and forth. They don't want to be tied up as far as UFC fighters not being able to compete on their event. so maybe they don't want to do the same.

But it does seem like they can have them on literally every month and get anyone other than a UFC fighter. Although he does bring up a compelling point about Kobe Covington not being in his way class. So it's not like they're going to make that match anyways, that fight anyways. So why can't they actually compete against each other? And that would probably do bananas. Shaheen telling me that RAF7 is going to be uncrowned.com's most trafficked event of the month. over BMF, over Izzy, over Fondora, over all those guys. All right, let's move along and say hello to our next guest.

Another guy who headlined this past Saturday. This time we're talking about an event that happened at the co-op live in Manchester. Oh, my God, what more can we say about Moses of Tama? 14 and 0 now, 21 years young, and he does what the likes of, you know, Anthony Joshua, Dillion White, many others couldn't do. And that is Finnish Germain Franklin. and he did it with an unbelievable uppercut. We showed it to you afterwards

a couple of punches, you know, just to add to the sequence at the very end there, but it really was the uppercut that was his undoing, and he looked so on point, he looked so relaxed out there. It was a beautiful thing to see.

He's kind enough to join us right here. And now, after the victory, what a pleasure it is to be joined by the youngster Moses Atama. Hello, Moses. How are you? What's going on there? You're doing great, my man. Congratulations on the win.

Wow. Have you come down from that? You're never really, you don't really get too high or low or anything. But I'm wondering from that, do you feel like you've come down a little bit? Or are you at a high? Where are you at? I've walked through the doors like five minutes ago. So I'm straight on the interview.

Fucking hell. That's what it's like being a superstar, right? I mean, I had a choice. But, yeah, no, I mean, I don't really get too high after highs and I don't get too low off the lows. You know, I was saying with people, like, in order to know what good days, you need to go for a bad day. And, like, obviously, myself, I've never lost, so I don't feel like I fully can appreciate or know what a win really is. When you say that you just walked in, do you mean, like, you just came home from Manchester? I literally just came home from Manchester, like five minutes ago.

Wow, wow. Well, I do appreciate you doing this. I'm sure you're tired and have some things that you want to, you know, attend to. So thank you very much. How would you describe the night and the fight and the performance? When I ask you about it, what comes to mind? It's a big blessing. It was a big blessing.

The knockout was just crazy. Man, I don't even know. I'm speechless because, obviously, I thought I could do it. I just didn't think it was going to be like that, especially against Jimenez Franklin. You guys can't do me with that a hairline picture like that. It's terrible. What's wrong? What's wrong?

What's going on? There's so many great pictures on the internet. He's the worst one. Golly, guys, why would you do that to Moses? He's kind enough to do the show as he walks in, and you're giving him that picture. Okay, we're just going to use the picture that's on the screen here, because you look fantastic here. How many times have you watched that knockout? It's not even about the knockout.

I've watched the fight, like, so many times. I'm happy I was able to, like, please, I guess, everyone. I pleased myself, I pleased my team, I pleased the crowd. Yeah, I'm happy. I'm happy. And if I didn't, if I didn't please you, then I guess, tune for the next one, isn't it? I have a feeling everyone left very pleased.

I heard the commentary team say something in between one of the later rounds, if you will. But I didn't catch it, so I wanted to ask you if it really happened. Did you tell your corner, hey, I need to slow down a little bit, that you felt like you were moving too fast and going for the finished in the first or second round? So no, what happened was basically when the first round kind of

obviously took off like I was boxing to the tactics but I was just thinking to myself like, do you know, if so I was just trying to that would do when I was boxing to the tactics but I was just thinking like

okay, like it's a 10 round fight. I have time. I was trying to prove a statement with trying to knock him out in like the first or second round and like he just took like my best shots and I was just like okay I'm going to slow down now because like it doesn't look like he's going to

he's going to be going anywhere. You looked so composed out there. I love the feints. I love that you were showing him upstairs and you went downstairs, showing him downstairs, going upstairs it every time I see you fight what blows me away is the speed

the power and just sort of like your ring IQ the way in which you you work out there like to be 14 fights in and I've heard you say it's happening a little bit quicker than you thought you look like a 30 to 35 fight veteran out there it's amazing no thank you very much I think

I think like the preparation that I have it's kind of hard not to be confident and I believe my team with Ben Davis and Lee Wiley I think we just have we have a solid team so obviously if your preparation has gone well

your team's obviously on putting everybody's being accountable for their own jobs I think it's hard to to not put on a good performance We've talked about how calm you are This one, Big Fight, Manchester, close to home, were you nervous beforehand

in the changing room during the walkout? Do you know what? My trainer, one of my SNC coaches, or my SNC coach said to me, he was like, you know, recall, when Moses, before the fight, I started getting nervous for you. And I was like, why?

He was like, I'll never get nervous, and I started getting nervous. And I was like, why is that? It was like, he said, he said, he was too relaxed. It seemed like you were just going in for sparring. And I guess my mentality is, like, I train as hard as I possibly can. And when we get to the arena, when we get to the fight,

it's like the hard work's done. It's the easy bit now. So I was like, there's no point getting nervous now. I'm like, if you don't win, God just didn't want it to be that way. Because obviously, if you've ticked every box off and, And you don't get the decision. Like, yeah, it just might not be on that. And you can't really do much about that.

You mentioned something in the Post-Five press conference about Lee Wiley. When you went to the back, he showed you, I guess, some of the footage that you guys worked on, some of the game planning, that sequence in particular. I think I, you know, deciphered it that way. Is that what happened? He showed you some old stuff and you actually, you nailed it to a T? No, so with every fight. I get a, what do you call it, a scam report. So before every fight, you get a scatine report.

And then once you start sparring, you start tailoring things down to the opponents. And like, so for example, when you start camp, you might get like a scant report that has like five things. And he'll be like, I'll be like, I'll look for or capitalize on these five things. And then as you start training, as you start sparring, Like, he'll narrow it down to two things. And then you just like focus on them to certain things. And obviously during the fight, I did. And then after the, after the fight,

he showed me a clip of the Scalver Report and then fight night. So, so, yeah, I'll box the game plan. And he's done that with Dempsey McKean, with Mike Balibon, he's done that with everyone. So, yeah, it's a big blessing being part of the Bend Davis and Stable because I like to, if I be completely honest, like, I say, I say Dembson McKin is my favourite knockout because I feel like it was a Moses-I-Talmer knockout. You can't, like, compare that to anyone. But I'm just doing what I'm told. I'm just doing like, I'm boxing to the

instruction. So, yeah, like I said, I've got, I've got, I guess, short appreciation to them guys because it's, um, it's not just me. it's a there's a whole team behind me. To that point, afterwards you said, quote, I got the knockout I trained for, not what I deserved, but what I trained for. Which again, you don't hear this type of stuff

from any 21-year-old athlete. I'm not trying to glaze, as the kids like to say, but like this is very profound stuff. Why don't you feel like you deserved it? I don't like to use the word deserve because it's just, I don't like to use the word deserve. of like, boxing is a numbers game.

It's about getting lucky. And the more you train, the luckier you get. But there's always a night that you can just be unlucky. So with just that fan, I just like, I say, okay, like I've trained so hard that the odds are in my favour. So I guess I've trained so hard that I feel like I should win the fight not deserve because I feel like a lot of people, They feel like they deserve something when they haven't put in the work, you know?

So I just like to stay away from the word deserve. That's fair. And I respect that. What about this story that when you were 11, you won your first national title in Manchester and then here you are 10 years later selling out an arena like that and doing what you did to someone like Germain? That is crazy. Do you know what?

I'm going to put Instagram picture up soon. I want to look for the golden gloves that I won when I was in Manchester. I was 11 years old. I was 70 kilo so now I'm going back to Manchester we were sold out sold out crowd yeah I'm gonna put

I'm gonna put a picture up soon that that youngster what were his dreams like were you thinking of things like this or was this too far-fetched he didn't honestly he didn't have a dream like that he I promise you like

even like to like now to the day like the future that it just I don't feel like it exists like the reason why I do boxing isn't to like I guess kind of sell crowds and be an entertainer like I actually generally do boxing because it keeps me sane like um it's a habit that I've done for like since I was nine years old so taking take if you used to take boxing away from me like I don't think I'll be calm I don't think I'll be yeah sane so I do boxing for them reasons

and I guess it was the same when I grew up as I was growing up it was never I want to be this I want to be that it was more of the fact that like I was just in the gym and I was just training it and then I happened to enter the national title and I happened to win this and win that and then yeah

and so considering how it makes you feel and as you say it keeps you sane that was your first fight since August are you hoping to come back quickly so you can make up for some lost time and not go insane. Wherever I'm boxing or not, I'm always in the gym area or so.

You're able to scratch that itch regardless. 100%. Like even though I wasn't, obviously, although I've been boxed since August, I started training again end of November. So even though I haven't boxed for, what's that,

six, seven months. months. I've still been training for four months, five months. So that's why when I do get competition, but I'm ready. It is a different kind of itch though, right? Being in front of all those people winning the way in which you do than being in the gym. That's more than it's when you get the money, area. How is the money these days? Are they compensating you well? Of course. Let's not talk about that. Fair enough. You did mention Philip Hergovich and you know just a day before your fight we find out that he's fighting or maybe on the day of the fight

that he's fighting Dave Allen would you want to wait for that fight to play out or are you not interested in that? We're just going to go back to the draw on board like every heavyweight is right now occupied obviously Lawrence O'Coli's boxing Tony Oka

Adjicabayal just just fought Uzik's obviously boxing reclassing Tyson Fury's boxing, MacMoodov, Poundovich's boxing, Dave Allen, every heavyweight's occupied.

So we kind of just got to go back to a drawing board and just see what's best for my career, best for my development and obviously it's going to get me to the world title. So I wouldn't

rule out any fight. I think I ticked off a lot of boxes for my coaches so I don't think they're going to be shy about putting me in with anyone. There are a couple of names you didn't mention Anthony Joshua seems to be coming back. I doubt that happens. I think he's obviously, I didn't want to mention his name or because obviously he's in his

grieving period. But I don't know if that's a fight to make, that's a fight to make. So yeah, obviously I've got meeting with Frank Warren this week. So we just got back to a draw on board and see who's available. Deontes fighting this weekend as well if he wins. Yeah, Deonté, yeah. That could be interesting. There are options out there for you.

I think it would be a travesty if you don't fight for one of the major titles by the end of this year. Oh, 100%. I agree with you. Being a world champion, 21 would be good in it. Yeah, it probably could have happened already. But we don't have to lament that. You're ready now. You could beat these guys.

You say it. I have to do it, no. Sure. The one issue is the wardly one. That's the only issue. The other ones. it's wide open. Of course, like, I think I've said it before, Ariel, like, it's boxing, unless you're like Anthony Joshua Tyson, Fury, fluid, may over X, Y, Z, you kind of just,

you're like a bounty hunter. You just kind of get given a name and you're like, yeah, this is, this is who you're, you're fighting. Whereas obviously, when you are at that sort of caliber, at that sort of level, you pick your own fights. And at the minute, I guess I don't get to pick my own fights. So when I am at the level of Anthony Joshua Tyson, Fierry, X, Y, Z, then you not can put the blame on me. But as of right now, like, I'm doing my best with what I got. A video emerged of you seeing Mike Tyson.

I think it was like two years ago in Saudi. When you were just starting out, I think you were 18 at the time, so maybe three years ago. And you were telling him you want to fight eight, nine times. and a year, but you don't want to fight bums, and then he's telling you, hey, everyone's dangerous. You remember this, right? Of course.

Was that your first time meeting him? That was the first time meeting Matt Tyson, correct? What did that mean to you, that interaction? What do you remember from it? See, I don't want to come across as arrogant or big head to do anything, but, like, obviously, apart from success at a young age, me and Matt Tyson really didn't have much in common, so I never really looked at his career, if that makes sense.

I guess I was more appreciative when I was able to speak to people that are in similar votes as me like Anthony Joshua Tyson Fury X, Y, Z Mike Tyson, yes, obviously he's a legend in the sport and I guess it was an honour to be in his presence but it was just also a fact that it's like

I wasn't, I don't know, I wasn't, I don't even know the words to use. Like, I wasn't, I was appreciative to be in his presence, but like, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, it was, it was kind of, it was kind of, I don't know. You weren't starstruck, you weren't moved by it because you didn't grow up watching him. You grew up watching some of these other guys. Correct. There you go. You said what I'm, you. I get you. Okay. No, that makes total sense. He's not from your era. You know who he is. You respect him. But you don't have memories of sitting, you in your living room watching him. Exactly, exactly.

And I guess that's why when I met Nassim Hamid was in my era, but it was kind of one of the people that I was watching when I first started boxing. But obviously Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, even to take down the stare at Chisora, I know he's a madman. But yeah, these are the people that I kind of grew up watching. And I was just like, yeah, I always ask him, oh, what do you think about this or what do you think about that?

And like I said, I said it multiple times, I'll say it again, when I was training with Tyson Fury in Moulthar, in Saudi, and in Morkum, like, the biggest blessings was not sparring with him, but being able to learn from him. Because a great man learns, a good man learns from his own mistakes, a great man learns from other peoples. So being able to, like, be with Tyson Fury and train with him, speak to him, what we spoke about, everything, we spoke about, like, relationships, money, religion, um, you.

legals, loyal, like, so much stuff. And like, that was more of a blessing than sharing the ring with him, if that makes sense, because he's done what I'm trying to do. And it would be foolish for me to not ask the men that have walked my path. And obviously, like I said, same thing with Anthony Joshua. Obviously, he was at the bed day that's a stable and able to, I guess, pick his brains on certain things.

And it's funny because even though they're both from two different backgrounds, two different parts of England, they both gave me the same advice. So it's something like, okay, banked that and like, let's put it to work, do I mean? Can I ask what's the best piece of advice that they gave you? Are you able to share that's stuck with you? The best piece of advice that, or the one thing that I took from Anthony Joshua, I said it. all the time and some my Instagram

as well be you are a citizen of the world don't

tie yourself down to one entity and with Tyson Fury

man we spoke if he was to add up all the times we'd have

that three days worth what did Tyson Tyson tell me

um focus on your boxing and put people in the right position to to do the jobs that I guess you can't have your um your 100% mind on okay I've actually got a whole list of things on my phone wow um with Tyson what Tyson

fury said um but yeah it's uh yeah like I said it was a big blessing being with them it says a lot about you that you would take those notes um my son is 12 he's not a big boxing fan or fight but he loves watching you fight he watched the fight in August I told him hey your guy Moses is fighting, he sat there, watched the whole thing. And when he saw you do the little bow, he said, that's aura. This guy has aura right here. And I feel like considering your age and the way you conduct yourself, you are going to bring up, you know, people talk about influencer boxing.

You're going to bring so many new fans to the sport in the UK and around the world. And it's just a pleasure to watch you do it, you know, so early on in your career and the poise that you have. It's really a remarkable thing. Thank you very much. I do appreciate it. The one thing I must say is that I guess this probably goes to what Anthony Joshua said. Although I'm a citizen of the world and I turn myself down to one entity,

I also don't want to appeal myself as a boxer. I am a young man, I guess, kind of walking his path. And like, I want to, I guess I kind of want to be able to show people. people or show the younger generation that you shouldn't use an age as an excuse to not do something. So there's a lot of people that I would have said like, obviously I just turned professional. I'm 21, I shouldn't be taking this fight. When I was 20, I shouldn't be taking that fight. But like, if you're capable of doing something and you know you've done the work to achieve it,

like go do it like don't don't especially don't let fear I guess kind of contain your potential so I just kind of

want to be that I wouldn't say role model because that's a big big pressure on my shoulders I guess I kind of want to be that example of of chasing your dreams or walking your path

You're well on your way, my friend. You really are. So well done. Congratulations. And again, thank you for jumping on right as you came home. I really do appreciate it. We're going to let you go now and enjoy your time with your family. Thank you very much.

What a pleasure. And everyone, soon, soon, I promise, I'm going to come New York. We're waiting for you, my man. We're waiting for you. Can't wait for it. I'm going to come New York and we go do live in the flesh. I would love it. I would love nothing.

Nothing more. 100%. Well, thank you very much. Have a good evening. Same to you. All the best, Moses. And congrats again. Thank you so much.

What a guy. Moses Atama. Remember that name? We're going to be talking about him for a very, very long time. Let me just really quickly here, try to end this with Armin, because it's going to hang over my head. And then we'll get to our next guest who's patiently waiting. Oh, there he is. Armin.

Stop. We didn't get to say goodbye. You're live? We're live. I called you. Hello, Armin. Armand, we have our next guest, actually, Alex Pantoja, ATT legend, waiting. So I just wanted to say bye and thank you. I don't like saying goodbye to people. Thank you so much for inviting. It was a pleasure to talk to you. And now I'm busy.

Yes, say hello to Nina for us. She's here. Oh, hello, Nina. How are you? Hi, Ariel. Hello, wow. I'm doing great. Thank you. This is an exclusive. This is...

What a collab. Let's slip this out of context, but don't we? No, no, no, no, no. Okay. All right, well, you guys enjoy. You guys enjoy. Oh, it's fine on saying it. For you see.

For you see. Sure, sure, sure. Well, thank you. You see number one. Yes. Number one, you see. I can see you guys. Bye, bye.

Thank you so much. Bye, guys. Take care. Thank you. All right, there he is, Armat, Truchin. Golly. All right, let's move along. now. Our next guest is waiting. Don't want to keep him waiting any longer. I've been bothering

this man and his team for quite some time. I have essentially been bothering them since December, and it took a minute, but we are here. We are actually here. I'm sweating. Golly. We are here, and it's a great pleasure and privilege to be joined by the at least for now former UFC Flyway champion, but I have a feeling he's going to get another crack at that belt in very, very, very short order. He is Alessandre de Pantoja, and he's kind enough to join us right here and now. Hello, Alex. How are you, my friend? Very good. Thank you to wait in my interview, Ariel. I promise to you, I've talked with Parhump about that.

I wait a lot of time to talk about because I need to understand what's happening. Lose like that, it's very hard for me, you know. In that day, I'm so ready to fight and I show everybody and show to myself about my level, you know. Okay, so first of all, thank you for doing the first interview with us, and I completely respect and understand that you needed some time. I was bothering Pahumpa a little bit, and he always told me, you know, he's asking you in due time, and this seems like a good time with the flyway title on the line in two weeks, but I want to go obviously all the way back to December and even leading up to that fight. Were there any health issues, arm issues, were there any issues whatsoever leading up to the Joshua Van fight? Obviously, we saw what happened, and we'll get to that. but just curious if there was anything leading up to the fight that may have caused the injury

I don't have any problem with my arm you know I have some another injury in my body but very far to my arm I make a MRI to check in that point it's not serious I keep training yes I think like no nobody fight 100% it's very hard to go to UFC and the octagon and fight 100%, like a bud. And that day, I'm very good, you know, like I can tell Ariel, I try to figure out that so many times. And what's happening there is like something to I learn about my ego, about my goals and everything else.

I separate this performance versus Joshua Van to myself. You know, I train very hard. to complete that, like, that fight, you know. And all the time I'm in my training camp, I think after this fight, I want to rest, you know, because I'm training so much, like two years be a champion of the war, training to act down all the time, all the time, five rounds. And what's happening, like, I very believe in God and everything God talked to me. I hear.

And next day, the fight, I'm back to home, back to Florida and start to training because I need to recover my arm. I need to if I'm not back to the gym, I lose the time, you know. If I think I can rest for one month, I'm going to lose a lot of time. And what happens is after my injury, I'm back to the gym, I'm back to training. I talk about my ego, you know, I don't know. all the time I want to be the best fight all the world, you know, I want to be the powerful pound fighter. That's my goal.

You know, I think that's a good key, you know, you have something to catch. And I'm the champion of the war, and I want to be the best fight all the world. I want to be the pound for pound. And then I train very hard to this moment, you know, to fight with Josh Van, to make a very good fight.

And I want to show my strike to everybody, you know. I'm glad because Josh Yvon is a striky fight too. And, you know, that's happened. I think there's only way to Van win this belt in that night. And his destiny win this belt because when Manel Kapu out of the fight with Reval, Josh Van go to the fight. And in my vision, Josh Van win that fight versus Reuval in Ler.

last 10 seconds, you know. In the last 10 seconds of the fight, Joshua Van connect a good punching in Reval, and then he won the fight, you know. And then he come to fight with me, and that's happening, you know, that injury happening with me, you know. But I know 100% that's the destiny of Joshelvin's his belt, you know. And I know when I hurt my arm and he stopped a little B he

he know I hurt my arm you know and then when he understand I'm starting put my arm back to back to the fight

and then he understands I need to try to punch to Pontagia because Pontagia come back but in that point you know I trained MMA all my life you know and I know if I try to fight with my arm

dislocation like that can be worse to me you know and then I'm going to take a lot of time to be back you know and then I say to stop the fight and the time I say to stop the fight my arm back to the position and I say oh my God

why I stopped the fight and that's what's happening you know I think Josh Van feel my kick in the head and He make a good movement to try to catch it and put me out. But I know 100% his celebration because he don't fight with me, you know. I don't know, 99.9% in my soul believe I'm beached Josh Van that night.

But that's what's happy, you know. Wow, wow, wow. Okay. So I'm processing all of this. again, this is the first time we hear from you. Sorry, my English. No, no, no, it's perfect. Everything together.

No, no, no, no. It's perfect. It's perfect. No apology. Could I ask, first things first, in the initial aftermath of the fight, on the broadcast, they said it was an injured shoulder. I heard it was elbow.

Could you tell us exactly what you injured? Yeah, of course. Everybody see what's happening, you know. In the moments, I try to put my hands in the octagon and back to the fight because I know he feel my kick. And what I try to do is back to the fight very fast to finish my job. But in the same time, I try to, like a cat, put my hands in the match and back, he gives me a little bump and then my arm go to four.

And that's what's happening. I put all my body in my arm and dislocation, my elbow. But the doctors say I make a very good job when I put the elbow back, the bone back to the place. Because if I don't put back in the right way, it's going to be worse, you know. And that's what's happening. You know, make amuride, see some ligaments, some tendons, a lot of mass. But no serious, you know, no steam cell, no nothing, you know, just training very hard. And I love to training.

And that's a very good thing I do, is I start to train it with just one arm. And my first month is very hard. Second month is better. And in 45 days, I'm back in the gym, you know. Do you regret saying, you know, stop the fight now, three, four months later, or even in the aftermath, do you regret saying what you said to the referee? It's hard, you, you know, because if I, In like five seconds, you know, I say to the fights,

hey, I need to stop the fight because I see my bone out of my arm. And I try to put back all the time. And when the bone is back, I read saying, but, you know, I'm believing all the time, you know, maybe it can be worse, you know. Maybe I can fight with one arm, but my arm's going to be so much mass after that, you know. And I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay, I can. God give me a gift in that night, you know, what opportunity I have right now, you know.

I know it's a lot of hard work I need to do right now because to make this gift a dream, I need a work a lot, you know, because that's my life, you know. Because everybody can say, yeah, Pontorgia come back to the belt, and that's going to be a very beautiful history but I know I have a lot of work to do because in that night I'm the high level and now I try to go to that same zone

I have a lot of a mountain to climb and I know I can be that guy I can I can't you know but I'm okay with everything you know take time that's a great great opportunity for me. What I think is that, you know, I have a great opportunity in my hands. God give me this blessing, a beautiful history to make, you know. And that's it. I'm a full blessing.

How did you deal with it in the immediate aftermath? Like here you are a champion. Your career is going so well. You're confident, as you say, what were those days the Sunday, the Monday, the Tuesday when you realized what happened? It was one of the freakiest things that we'd ever seen in the UFC. It's so hard. It's too hard to think about that, you know. Because I'm lose, you know. That's hard. And I'm an athlete, but I'm a man too. Like an athlete, I know I'm lose because that's a part of the sport. You know, if you get injury, something like that, you lose the fight.

But like a man, I'm not losing that fight. You know, I'm 30 seconds happening. And I feel I can destroy Joshavan, you know. My first kick, he turned, you know, like I see him out, man. I'm going to smash this kid, you know. I'm very, very, very good shape. And now, like, I need the back all the way, you know, injury. I can lift with my left arm for one month.

I lose a lot of muscles. A lot to figure out, you know. And something I talk about my ego too, like I never get a K-O or submission finishing my career. And I love that. I love to see that. You know, nobody can finish me. That's so nice. But now I see in my record have a T-K-O, you know.

And all to learn, you know, Ariel. That's so hard to learn when you old, you know. but we'll still learn a lot of things. Was there any specialist or doctor that you saw after that said that you should have surgery? Sometimes when there's a dislocation, now all of a sudden, you know, it becomes susceptible to more injury and it's loose. I don't know the medical terms, but you know what I mean? Did anyone try to say it would be better to have a surgery? You know what Vinipanzanzas say?

You don't know how man I am. You don't know how carer man I am. No, but some doctors say it's better if I make a surgery, but one doctor is my doctor, Galb, he said, you don't need because if you open your arm, it's going to be more injury, you know. You're good, you recover fast, do your therapy, and I believe in him, I work very hard every day. That's why I can come to the zone, you know, be a champion of the war. And I'm still working, you know. I'm glad to be part of that. You know, I have amazing training partners. I have amazing people on my side and make all the happen for me, you know.

So right now you will not have the surgery, right? Yeah. How does it feel? You know, like I think we can talk about that. UFC asking me about the fight, you know. But if I can remember, this is like last day from January. and in that time it's like a like a two months ago

I say no maybe I can fight in June you know but after that after one month like last days in February March

beginning of the March I think I'm ready to fight if a guy asking me maybe I'm ready to fight in Miami but that's okay you know I can like enjoy enjoy watch

the fight. I think for that fight, that's the real chance to Joshua Van prove he's the champion of the war. That's the real fight for the belt because with me don't have a fight, you know. So you're saying that event, are you talking about the event at the end of January, the Paramount Plus debut? They were asking you if you can fight on that one? For April. In April. Okay. They didn't ask you to fight in January. No, no, Kim. In January, they asked you if you'd be ready in April, but it was two. soon. Yes. In that moment, like I'm very four, you know. Sure. Now that we're so close, do you think you could have fought in April or no?

If the guys maybe call me right now, say, hey, someone's out. Yeah. Maybe I say I'm in. But no, I respect the game, you know. I respect the game. I respect to myself. I know. I take 10 days off in Brazil. And I respect my. myself, I respect all the fights. I know to you go to, especially in my division, real. People don't realize that, but in my division, it's a more technique division in UFC. You know, the guys have amazing cordial, have a good all the wear. And, you know, something happened when I lose my belt.

It's like everybody from my division have a chance to be a champion of the world. nobody respects Josh Yavonne everybody say hey I can fight for the belt and this is nice in some point because

we have so many attention right now you know Flywati is on fire you have so many good names you know Kyosuriguchi come to the division you have Manel Cape

you have a revolt Taira so many good names the guy fight with Timoreana I forget his name he's a very good kid Kavanaugh

yeah, you know, we have so many good names now, you know, and that's amazing time for flight weight. I'm very glad to watch all that. And, but that's nice, you know, I think everybody has to pass for that, you know, Pontagia injury, lose to myself, lose to something happen. Josh Yvonne has the opportunity right now to prove, to everybody, he's the champion of the world with a very good opponent

Taira, very young too, we want to talk about that. That's the first title fight with both fighters born in 2000. That's nice, man. UFC proved a lot of things with that, you know.

I see so many fans right now, you know, special young kids, you know. That's amazing time for UFC. I love to be part of this. So, yeah, and I'm just, just wait for my time, you know, that's nice. That fight is here in Miami. I have one hour to drive to go to the fights.

I'm there. I will watch the fight and see who's my next opponent, you know, if I have a rematch with Josh Havana, or if I have an opportunity to fight with a new, new blood, very good Japanese skills Taira, you know. Have you been told that you are fighting the winner? I hope so.

I hope so. I think that's the best for the company, you know? Sure. You should fight the winner. You deserve it, but I was wondering if they said this to you or your team.

I'm not sure. Maybe talk with my manager. Okay. I'm just, I'm the, I'm the athlete, you know. A business with the business guys, and I'm thinking about myself business, you know.

training very hard. I want to be ready when the UFC call me, you know. That's something good. Both guys are very young. Maybe we can make this fight like very soon, you know. Do you have a preference? Would you prefer if Josh wins so that you can get the revenge? I think everybody wants to see me versus Josh Yavonne, you know, that's very interesting. But, you know, like a UFC fan, that's an amazing. things to watch. But Pantoja, myself, I don't care. You know, I just want to fight with the best

fights all the world. That's why I'm here, you know. I have this opportunity. A real high training for like maybe 1,000 gyms in the world. I have like 10,000 training partners. I have the opportunity to train and fight with the best fights all the world. I just miss one. It's Dementry Johnson.

I hope I can train him in the future. But I train and fight with everybody, you know, Henry Sehudo. I have Davidson Figuero, I have in my gym Kyoji. I have Emmanuel Kaip. I have Adriano Morais. I have everybody, you know. I have the opportunity to training and fight with everybody, you know.

I have training with Mohammed Mokkaev. I have training in fight with everybody, you know. For me, it doesn't matter who's going to be, you know, I want to be ready and fight with the best. best fight of the world. Some fans online were upset by his celebration, by Joshua reacting the way in which he did. Were you upset?

You know, that's the only way to him, Joshua won this fight, you know, the only way. His celebration, of course, he win the belt, but he win an opportunity to don't fight with me, you know. In the first 30 seconds of the fight, I score him so many times. He tried to grapple with me, you know.

And that's what's happy, you know. I think he's celebration to all that, you know. But I'm not judge, you know. I'm not judge because that's the dream for everybody, you know. And like I say, in his destiny, he has this belt, you know. And now everybody has opportunity to see if Josh Van's really, real champion of the world or if he just just like a ticket from Willy Wonka barrack you know a lottery ticket well okay man the kid is very lucky man I can tell

like a manual cap is off Brandon Heval needed the opponent Josh will come winning the fight in last 10 seconds fight for the belt win this belt like that he did fight you know if you can I'm not going to say because I know in the future I have opportunity to fight with him again

I don't know it's going to be the next fight but he's very young he's very competitive and that that's something I want to see what's what's happened with him you know if the belt

making him is more cocky and selfish you know or if you see this fight like a real opportunity to prove everybody he's the champion of the world. Tair is very good fight too, you know. He beat Moreno in the very beautiful performance. But that's a very good fight. I'm very happy to watch the fight and the opportunity to fight with both guys.

Does your elbow feel 100% now? Does it feel back to normal or not quite yet? You know, I have just one point. I feel uncomfortable, but I lift the same weight I lift before, you know, and that can prove a lot. Of course, I have some movements I take care about. This is like my inconscience, like I try to hold me. Yeah.

But I make a sparring. I make a wrestling. Guys throw me in the floor a lot of times. I lift you the same weight. And I can, oh, look this guy. Look this guy. Yeah, I haven't been working. I haven't been in work.

These are just a patch, like, I don't know, 20 days I go. Feel amazing. That's a great opportunity to know, training America top team with Kyosur Gucci, with all my teammates. Adriano Morais have a very good fight right now with Mokkaev. That's a very, you know. And Kyosji see my style, like I see, I try to recover fast. And I think this is good for him. And I tell Kyos all the time if he need a training partner to that fight with the Mario Cup,

he can pick me, you know, we can train together. Wow. 100%. I can, maybe I can train with Kyoji when he fight with me. It's amazing. All the top flyweight at ATT over there. I saw Makayev there with you guys. But Kyosje had a different feeling.

I think he doesn't have a different feeling. He don't like too much about that because maybe because he feeling comfortable. Because I learned so much with him, Ariel. I learned so much with Kyoshi. When I'm starting training America top team, he beat me all the time. And right now is a little bit different, you know, but he's still so competitive. And that's amazing to have a training party like him. and I tell to him all the time

if I have this belt because he helped me to come to this level this level of the fight he showed me the level when you're at the gym when you're grappling are you thinking about the elbow a lot

are you finding yourself doing things to avoid posting up landing on it is it still in the back of your mind no more no more okay no yeah I'm so so comfortable right now you know look at you

you're obese You're a beast. That's got it. That's the guy. Yeah. And that's what's happening, Ariel. I think I take a couple of months off after my fight to Georgiavan. But after my injury, I see I don't can take days off because if I do it that, I just back to the fight in the last year, in the next year.

and then I figured out that's very high very very very soon I need to take care about my injury and back to training I back in shape I don't have time to lose you know this is the first week after the fight

you didn't stay away for a second like we were seeing these you know a couple days later especially in that division we need we need to be good you know you need be in good shape you need your condition you know, you know.

I don't like to tell bad things about another division from UFC, you know, but some guys win the belts. You don't can defend. I see a couple of big guys have an opportunity to fight for the belt because maybe because he talked good or something like that, you know.

In my division, especially myself, I need to train hard. I need to train hard every day, everybody go to the gym training very hard with me and that's the level you know and i want to show that for everybody to you go you know have a lot of difference to to the top 100 to top 15 to top 15 to top 20 to top 20 to top 10 to top 10 to top 10 to top 5 and to be the number one you know that's a lot of training that's a lot of sacrifices a lot of details everything counts you know every inch

you know and I pay the price and I'm still here to pay the price you know and I want my chance again what is your message to Joshua Van this is the first time we hear you speak since that fight what would you like to say to him Ariel I don't have message for him you know like maybe

be a best like I want to see I want to have opportunity to fight with the best fights all the world and the day I fight with the Joshua Van if he win the fight I want to fight with the best Joshavan ever you know

that's what I want you know I make my own way I don't talk about the life about anyone you know that's your life doing what I want to do you with your life you know

I just talk with about two lives my two kids you know my two kids I can say something you know but everybody else

do what you want you know your freedom that's the the God man is like a liberal arbitrar. I don't

say that in English but you're free to do whatever you want and who is myself to talk about

something about everybody but I want to be the best fight of the world I'm still here I know

it's very far right now to be the powerful pound number one but I'm still here in a

I know especially because I'm in the flyweight is hard to go to there to the top but I'm still

brother everybody in my gym, see how much I'm training, and how much I see everybody training in this, like, make me inspiring every day. Glad to be part of the American top team, but everybody know how much I want, how good I am. People maybe don't realize, but I have very good striking. And, of course, my grapple is another level, and I want to show to everybody. I'm the best fight in M.A.

By the way, I didn't ask you specifically, but do you think Van wins the fight against Tyra. You know, he, Joshua van beat all the Japanese, Ray, Ray, Ray, something. He's a wrestling, very good wrestling. I forget his last name, but he fights with a very good wrestling kid from Japan. But of course, it's different, you know, Taita have a good grappler. It's not just wrestling, you know. He's very strong, very tall guy for, for, for, for, for, for, you know, he's very different.

fly with division. That's a good matchup, you know, and that's what I say. That's the opportunity to Josh Yvonne, prove to everybody who's the champion of the war, you know. I not can pick someone to, I think both in the same level, you know. And I want to be the guy, I want to be my best version and my best high level. I know I can beat both guys. well not that long ago he entered the cage

after one of your wins maybe you can do the same on April 11th if he wins yeah maybe if Josh Van win that belt like I can do do that but maybe if Taita win the belt maybe you UFC asked to me

but like we respect the moment you know that's a beautiful moment it's part of the show of course in my moment that's okay for me because I'm in that time I defend my belt for the fourth time. But if you are first time

win this belt, like if Taira win this fight for the first time, I'm not going to be very comfortable to go there. If he opened, if he feels free to do that, but I respect his moment, you know, that's... When the UFC belt is

special for me, I win this belt when I have 33 is a long journey, like to come from Brazil to this moment right now, to shopping and the public's market that's very far away

you know that's very far away from I'm from you know and people don't realize that how much work we did to make this happen but we did we make it

I'm gonna make again well I can't thank you enough for coming on Alex because I know you could have talked to anyone so thank you so much for coming on I understand why you wanted some time I can't imagine what you went through back in December

and maybe it's good to have that that distance between the accident because I'm sure that felt horrible and also internally your heart was was maybe broken as well so I'm sure there was a lot of emotions happening at the same time but it's great to see you smiling great to see you in good spirits great spirits and I look forward to seeing you at the event in Miami and I think you should be next so I can't wait to see you back in there and see a proper conclusion to this fight you versus Josh or Tatsura for the belt so thank you so much and all the best to you Appreciate you, Ariel.

Give me a good energy. Ready to go. Like, now I'm through 100%. Thank you so much, brother. Welcome back. Welcome back, Alex. It's a pleasure. And we'll talk to you soon.

All the best. There he is. Alessandre Pantoja, the now former UFC Flyway champion suffering that awful accident, that injury back in December, but clearly in great spirits and should very well be next.

Flyway, very, very, very interesting right now. Probably more interesting than it's ever been. obviously when DJ was the man and congratulations to him we're going to talk about him back into the show. It was interesting but there's so many good guys

with Horaguchi coming back and Manel and Kavanaugh look great. Moreno's still forced obviously Tyran and Van Pantoja so it's a great weight class but I'm happy he's back and he should be next. All right, still to come Michael Kesa and Casey O'Neill

but let's talk about the man who headlined UFC Seattle and was victorious in doing so. He had that headliner a few years ago against Jack Hermanson. We've talked to him about it. Didn't go his way. He righted all of those wrongs and then some with the performance on Saturday's second round TKO win over the former middleweight champion Israel, Destina.

He is the one and only Joe Pfeiffer, and he is kind enough to join us right here and now to talk about it all. Hello, Joe. How are you, my man? Congratulations. Hello, Ariel. How are you? I'm doing great. What's wrong?

Is everything okay? Of course. Why wouldn't it be? I don't know. You seemed a little subdued there. I was expecting like fired up Joe after a while. win like that? No, man, I meant when I said when I really found God and I really have changed my ways and yeah, there's no high the ride. I'm very grateful that I won and it's one for the history

books. I'll always remember. It was a special moment, the walkout, the fight week, the fight, the respect between me and Izzy. I've written it better if I tried. So you didn't feel a euphoria unlike anything you felt in your career, considering the stakes, the platform, the main event, the opponent, you seem very chill, very subdued, like we're just catching you, you know, in between fights or something like this,

not on the Monday after the biggest moment of your career. It didn't feel that way to you. No, I think when you, you know, this is obviously going to be a pretty faith-based talk for me. No problem. So you got to bear with me. When you find what I have found

and you feel what I feel. It is something that I... Uh-oh. Do you guys lose me? It's a little frozen and choppy, but I can hear you. But the picture is choppy. Yeah, I'm not sure why I have...

Could be just... I'm sitting out in front of the outlets. But yeah, no, it's... I found my faith and everything, and I feel like it's not going to be something I ride a high on, Because, you know, nothing is, there is no high anymore. I'm living the high every day with my faith and with my connection to God and Jesus

and just burying myself in that and the trust of his plan. So I feel like that's the only reason I had victory because of the life changes that I've made and the trust that I put in him that whatever is supposed to happen was supposed to happen. And luckily this time, God was with me. I'm fascinated by that I love religion as a topic so I'd love to ask you about that in a moment but first can I just ask

I did see a picture of your hand I think you posted it yesterday I think this is it is it broken I'm not sure I'm going to find out but yeah I'm not sure but it hurts

okay now your audio sounds like you're underwater now we can't hear you anymore the picture is great but the audio got all messed up can you hear me yeah you sound here on the water to allow me. Okay, maybe we'll reconnect with Joe

because the picture is great now but now it sounds like he's robotic or something like that. So maybe we'll reconnect with Joe here momentarily and get him right back. I am fascinated to get into it with him. So stand by for more

from Joe Piper who did come onto the show when that fight was announced and yeah, seemed like there was a lot of respect, a lot of mutual respect leading up to the fight fight week, press conference, weigh-ins.

There didn't seem to be all that much bad blood. And truth be told, even in the immediate aftermath, in the cage, post-fight press conference, it was all very respectful. And when we spoke to him, what was his fight announced? Maybe two months ago or so. When we spoke to him about it, you know, we didn't talk a lot about faith and religion. And so all of this seems to be a relatively new. chapter in his life. And I'm always down to get into that sort of thing. So we'll reconnect with him

in a moment and get into it. Like I said, Casey O'Neill and Michael Keis is still to come. This is the UFC Seattle portion of the show. We've talked about R.A.F. We've talked about the boxing, Moses de Tatauma, obviously the return of Alex Pantosia. But we'll get into the UFC Seattle portion of things, which was a tremendous card. And tomorrow on the program, we'll talk to other people who were victorious. But for now, Joe Pfeiffer number 14 in the UFC's middleweight division, I suspect that is going to change come tomorrow. I think they come out with this on Tuesdays still. The question is how quickly does he climb the ladder now? Like, does he go into the top five? Hard to argue against it. When you beat someone like Israel and you do it in that fashion. And like we said,

at the top of the show. Is he didn't look bad. A common theme as of late, the Strickland fight, not so much, but then the DDP fight and obviously the Imavov fight and then this one, that's four in a row now for Israel.

And it's tough to see. The sport can change very, very quickly. And it feels like, you know, the guys from 19, 20, 21, you know, you hear Armand talking about Max Holloway and these guys puts into person perspective, how good Alex Volcanovsky is that he's still doing this at this level at his age, being the very best in the business. Joe Pfeiffer winning a performance bonus, his fifth in the UFC, first time that he ever fought against a former UFC champion, just his second UFC main event, 10th career knockout slash TKO finish, and now tied with Gregory Rodriguez for most finishes in the UFC middleweight division since 20.

2022. That's six in the last four years. And like I said, that was Israel-Decina's four straight loss. And obviously that's a first for him. But he says he has no plans of retiring anytime soon. Did see an amazing moment between Izzy and Demetrius Johnson. Izzy's walking into the cage earlier in the night, they had announced that DJ was going to go into the UFC Hall of Fame, which is long overdue and I'm so happy. You know, he's not the best of friends with the UFC, but he's not an enemy per se. They did trade him and, you know, he's somewhat critical and whatnot, but it was just so great to see DJ who, if there ever was a surefire first ballot, whatever you want to say, Hall of Famer, I know those things don't exist,

it should be him because of what he did for that company and for the flyweight division in particular. Izzy's walking up the cage, sees DJ and then goes and gives him props, which is an amazing thing. Here it is. Showing him love. Come on. that's pretty damn cool. So, you know, everyone respects DJ. And it was so cool to see him get that moment in Washington. He's another proud Washington resident slash native with his family. Two kids, I do believe, his wife there by his side.

I was so happy to see him get that moment. And so happy to see him go into the Hall of Fame. It's really, it's an amazing thing. And he certainly deserves it. Okay, I think we got Joe back. Let's see if we can reconnect with them. Is he there? Yeah.

Okay. Two time. Okay. There he is. Sound great? Look great. What were you saying about the hen? Yeah, no.

I don't know if it's broken. I got to go to the doctor tomorrow to go get an x-ray. It definitely hurts. So, yeah, hopefully it's not too bad, though. Okay. I want to ask you about the faith. You know, we spoke to you like two months ago when this fight was announced and none of this came up. So this is relatively new. What was the turning point? When did this all happen for you?

February 7th, it was a very dark day for me, but it was also one of the most rewarding things that happened in my life. It just took a little time to see. And yeah, I struggled with some mental health stuff and contemplated my life and things like that. And just from the mistakes that I had made, and I'm ashamed to say it, honestly, but it's a part of what happened. And yeah, I feel like God came to me in a dream and was able to give me this outer body experience where I could see who I was and I was disgusted and then I was able to see what I really wanted and who I really wanted to be that my soul was still pure. My love was still real and yeah. Then I was able to see my girlfriend now of six plus years as the mother of my two children, something I've always kind of been on

the fence with having and I couldn't see their faces but I could see hers and And yeah, it was a very powerful moment. Then I was drowning, and I feel like I saw Jesus' hand. And I took it and I woke up and I feel like my entire, like, life just transformed. And I couldn't even tell you how I said most of the things I said of the past or felt the way I felt of the past. It's almost like whoever that was done. Wow, wow. And so on February 7th was the dream, the day you had the dream?

Yeah, no. So it was like February 7th was the final straw of me being a piece of crap. And then about two days later, I had the dream. Okay. And since you bring it up, you can tell me to take a hike. What happened on February 7th? Can you tell us? You're going to have to go hike.

Okay, fair enough. Yeah, I just said that there's, I want to give you guys as much information on it as possible, but there's some things just out of. I respect it. Just out of, you know, respect for myself, too. It's just, yeah, I shouldn't talk. about those things. But just now I had some mental health problems and I needed to get through it. And about two days later, I had this dream. And then that's when the real journey started.

You alluded to stuff in the press conference and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand what you're talking about, relationship issues. Yeah. Well, one of the issues just in general that I wasn't happy with this, this wasn't something that happened that day. But just like the problem with women and the problem with just validation and insecurity and all these things, man. It's just I developed such a bad habit of coping through women, to be honest. And yeah, it was very hurtful to a lot of people that love me. And, you know, not just my girlfriend, but just everyone around me. You know, they hold me to a high standard.

And I just kind of wrote everyone off because I'm like, this is my life. I'm Joe Pfeiffer. And I don't have to answer to people. I need to do what's best for me so I can survive so I can live and be happy and all these things. But at the end of the day, I was unfulfilled and I had some demons in my soul that I had to cleanse and get rid of. And I've been able to do that and come back a better man for it. And I think that the victory of what I just did with the opportunity that I was given because of Israel was also placed in my life because God wanted me to go through every single thing that I have gone through good, bad, breaking your arm, almost losing my relationship and just all this other stuff. Man, it all came to one beautiful moment to show that no person is too far gone if they turn to Jesus and God.

You mentioned in the post-fight interview with D.C. that just a couple of weeks ago, you contemplated taking your life. You said February 7th. Did more stuff happen in between February 7th and a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, so about February 7th to about February 16th was a very, very dark, very dark almost two weeks for me. that's when you were dealing with everything and trying to figure out how to move forward. Yep. And are you and your girlfriend back together? Yeah. You know, our hearts are, you know, we're taking our time and doing things the right way

and putting God at the center of our relationship and repairing it. But, you know, she doesn't want anybody else. I don't want anybody else. And, yeah, you know, I think she needed to see what I could do. with my change. She had already seen it. She already saw my face. We'd seen each other before the fight and everything like that.

You know, we were in a good spot. But I think she really needed to know how much I loved her because I really didn't show it. I've always been somebody that doesn't know how to take love very well. And she loved me unconditionally and never spited me, never was vengeful to me, never was, never abandoned me, man. That girl is what brought me to where I am now. and I believe that wholeheartedly because I believe God put this woman in my life for a reason. And I think it was to bring me to who I am now as a man as a true man. I wasn't a man before.

I was a fallen man of the evil of the world. And for a long time, I think I was just so angry and so damaged and traumatized from things that I developed these coping mechanisms that just slowly were taking pieces of my soul away and my happiness. fighting wasn't it. I made fighting it. I made it all or nothing and it still wasn't bringing me happiness. So I had to really. And the greatest thing she ever did was let me go because she loved me so much. So that way I could work on my relationship. And if I was going to come back and be a better man, the only way it was going to be possible was through repentance and forgiveness and just surrending everything at Jesus' feet, man. So that's what I did.

That's what I worked on. And it was very tough to do because every day I had to get up and go train and I didn't want to. And I didn't have the best camp. But, you know, God willed it. And I got up and I kept going and I kept pushing through. And here we are. The biggest one in my career in the top five. Tough question to ask and I'm sure to answer as well.

I know to answer as well. But how close were you to actually going through with those thoughts that you were having? Very close. Very close. Um, matter of seconds. Seconds. Yeah. And how did you not go through with it?

What stopped you? I felt like I had a calling in my head. I felt like, uh, like that's not what I wanted to do. Um, but I was trying to escape again. Like I've always done, which has run away from pain and trying to bury it in something. and for once I finally faced it and I just cried out and ask God to save me and bring me to him and trust in him. And it's probably the hardest thing I've ever done because quitting is easy.

And I know there's a lot of things that come with proclaiming your faith to the world and I'm okay with that. At the end of the day, I have a very clear understanding of what matters to me and my life and what I'm supposed to do now. And I see very, very clear the path that I'm on. And yeah, so it was a matter of seconds. And that prayer is what saved me. Did someone... Did someone here save you as well? Did you call someone? Did you call someone? Was there a friend that came? No. There was people that definitely have helped me and guided me and been there and supported me through it. But yeah, no, it was all God.

you're a public person, you're well known. To the best of my knowledge, your girlfriend isn't. Is she, you may not know the answer to this. You're putting your soul out there, right? You're kind of putting all the cards out there and letting people in. You don't have to do that. Is she comfortable with this? Do you know if she's okay with you talking about what happened over the last couple months?

Yeah, she's only okay with it if, you know, my change is real and she knows it's real. So she knows I want her for life. She wants me for life. We're not going anywhere. We're not leaving each other. We're going to work on it. So I would say that we are back together. The only reason I was hesitant to say if we're back together is because, you know,

we went from living together and everything like that. We don't live together right now. And I think it's for the best. And, you know, we want to do things the right way with getting married and then moving back in. And, you know, just really following in the ways that we're called to live. So, basically, you know, we just started over. This is a clean slate. I feel like a different person.

She can see it. Everybody I don't even know that well has said that they feel like something on my face has changed or just like even looking at me, something's different. And it makes me feel very proud of myself because I feel different and I think different. And the way I'm approaching everything is just graceful. And so yeah, yeah, I think she's comfortable with it because she knows who I am now. Some people might have this internal struggle between being so faith-based and feeling the way in which you do feel now and hurting another man, fighting. Do you have that struggle as well now?

Do you feel that way? No, no, I think that's what everybody, you know, that's one thing I did notice because I wasn't on social media hardly at all. But one thing I did notice when, you know, my teammates or coaches or whatever would show me certain stuff, it was, I couldn't help but see how many people kept saying, like, oh, because he's, you know, faith it takes away that edge to hurt somebody and this and that like not for me i was born a fighter like you know i'm a bad person by nature i think all people are bad by nature and that's why we need um it's why we need god it's why we need to pray it's why we need something bigger than ourselves because humans natural tendencies are to take take take judge judge like we think that we can judge the whole world including myself you know so um

having that humility to constantly come back to the center and realize that vengeance isn't mine. And this is this is about this life is as a trial of faith. This isn't the end all be all. There's life after death. And there's also punishment after death. So that is how I am trying to approach everything that I do. And I will fail and I will sin again and I will mess up again. But there's certain things that I will never do again because I understand how upsetting they are.

not only just to God, but to the people that love me and care about me. And, you know, if I truly have repented and been forgiven, then who am I to go and do those things again in ignorance? So, yeah, no, going in there is easy for me. I feel very at peace. I think if you watch the fight, which I assume you did, I think I showed poise, maturity, respect, kindness, love, and a relentless pursuit of victory. You know, I am fighting now for the glory to give God and the love of my woman.

I looked at her many, many years ago since before I was ever in the UFC and told her I would change our lives. And this kind of fight will change our lives. And, you know, I am a man in my word to a certain extent of the past. And now I'm 100% of men in my words. So, yeah, man, I'm just, that's why I didn't want to talk about the fight. Even on here, I don't want to talk about what's next. I want to enjoy this moment. I want to enjoy this victory.

We can talk about this fight all we want, but I'm not going to taint a victory with the human mind of constantly consuming what's next, what's next, what's next. God gave me this victory, and I have a lot of rebuilding to do in my life. I do have some injuries, and I'm going to take a few months to get my life right. Or maybe not get my life right, but get my life in a better spot than what. it's been you know this was a lot on me and so I'm just grateful for area considering all that you've been through um over the course of a month and a half

or so did you consider pulling out of the fight no um no I think I think I think one thing I knew for sure because I definitely had some injuries going into this fight I didn't have the best training camp but I trained my ass off and I knew I had to go out there and do this regardless of how I felt or regardless of what was bothering me. And, you know, I had a strong mind going into this, a strong will. And yeah, I think this was God's opportunity given to me to show what kind of man I am. And I think I passed it gracefully. And that's why I was so respectful to Izzy. You know, there were certain things of the past that I probably would have tried to be a little bit disrespectful or whatnot. But you know what? He's a living

legend. He's the greatest middleweight of all time. He's been nothing but kind to me when I've seen him as I have been to him, even when I was my old self. And yeah, you know, I really wanted to share the cage with him and make it something that was memorable and special. And I feel like I got to do that. We got to compete and see who was better just that night. And I just happened to be better that night. But I have a lot of respect for that man. And I think what he's done is elevate the sport and he's one of the greatest of all time, no matter who he loses to now. I can never take away the legacy he's built. It was, and again, I appreciate you talking about all this. It was startling to hear you in the post-fight interview in this great moment. I'm thinking you're going to get on

the microphone, I go crazy, whatever it is. Like, you just won your Super Bowl. This is the biggest fight of your life. And when you mention that, you know, that you were considering taking your own life a couple weeks ago, it was extremely startling. And I was just curious if once you explained it more at the post-5 press conference, what I wondered was, this is a very heavy thing to talk about in public. Did your girlfriend know this? Or was this the first time she heard about it? And if yes, how did she react? And if no, how did she react back then?

So I'd just seen her the first time I came back. I just got back yesterday. So we'd seen each other. And it was beautiful. And no, she didn't know it. It wasn't something that I was proud to tell her while I was. going through this. You know, it wasn't something I wanted to put on her. It had already done enough damage to her. And the last thing I needed her to worry about was that. So, yeah, that was

the first time I had said it. I didn't say any of that to my friends. I didn't say any of that to my coaches. It wasn't something I was proud of, but for whatever reason, the moment, I felt like it was something I needed to share because I really feel that without this faith journey that I've been on, I wouldn't have been there. And it's a tough thing to say publicly, but it's not really that tough to talk about right now because I could never fathom doing something like that again. And hopefully it will be the last time I ever have to talk about something like this. So this is me putting it out there because I want the world to know that we're just people. I'm just a human. I breathe there. I bleed blood. I feel what you guys feel. I feel

what every person has felt, a doubt of disgust, of happiness, of sadness, of suicide, of depression. And it's a very selfish thing to feel and to do. Because even if there's just one person out there who cares about you, it's not worth doing it. And if there's nobody out there, it's still not worth doing it because we're all children of God. And we all deserve the chance to be happy and if you get right with God and you you get your life right with the way that we're commanded to live, you will be rewarded. And I think I'm a clear example of that because probably on any other night, I wouldn't have beat Israel out of sign you, but I did. And I'm just a kid from the sticks of violin in Jersey that had a rough life, not even close to the roughest life of some

people. So I'm not out here, you know, proclaiming that I've had one of the toughest journeys I haven't, but look at the beauty I was able to create through my pain. And it's only because I surrendered. How did she react when you guys met yesterday and you told her all of this? Well, that wasn't the first thing I had told her. I just told her I loved her and we cried and we hug each other. Yeah, that's really what it's been lately. It's just looking at each other and welling up and just crying.

It's like the love has been restored and just, I don't know. I feel like we're more in love with each other than we're. we've ever been even after six years like it's never felt this strong it's crazy um and it's very fast you know this has only been a change where February 7th those things happened and then like maybe February 16th 17th on is when my life changed like really like happened where I felt compelled to be completely different and um because I even after I had the dream I still tried to fight it a little bit, still wasn't willing to accept it. And then, you know, then I finally accepted it and just gave up and was like, hey, whatever you have planned for me, I'm just going to face it.

So, yeah, the interactions have been amazing. You know, she obviously cried when I said that because why wouldn't you tell me type of thing. But I don't feel like that was something while she's hurting and trying to heal herself that I should have played. on her. You know, I don't think that does her any good. I don't think it does me any good telling her. Yeah, I don't know. I felt ashamed to tell her. And so how is your life different now? Like when you say, like, you know, it's one thing to talk about finding God and whatnot, but like, do you feel like you live a different life? And if so, how? Yeah, man, understanding the importance of marriage, something I was on the fed's bell,

understanding the purpose of having children. That's my true legacy. It's not going to be anything I do in fighting. How I love my woman being Ashlyn and how I treat her, how Jesus treated the church. And so, yeah, it changed every single thing of the way I live my life. You know, not being hyperactive or hypersensitive to everything that makes me upset. And, you know, being a strong man is having patience and slow. to anger. So, but, you know, like I've tried to say, you know, there's times and places for the anger

is needed, you know, if someone disrespects my woman in public or tries to hurt me or tries to hurt her, you're going to have a side of me that you wish you never met. But, you know, I pray for those things not to happen. And that's the only time I will warrant violence in my life is if you threaten me, where I feel like I have nowhere to go, but through you, or if you threaten her where I feel like she's in danger, that's a man you're never going to want to meet. So those are the only two exceptions. And so, yeah, the way I live my life is I want to be peaceful. I want to be graceful. I want to have respect for everybody in my division and life in general and public. I just, and also my calling to try and bring as many people to Jesus as I can

because there's a lot of people that are going through what I'm going through. Look at the world we live in, Ariel, with all the pornography and all the pedophilia and all these things that are actually going on. All the, all the seclusion from each other and the division and the politics and this and that. And people are so divided these days. And I just want to be just a little glimmer of hope to say, hey, you know, we all bleed blood. we all breathe air and we're all children of the same God. Whether you believe that or not, that's fine. That's just what I believe.

And yeah, I think there's an insufferable amount of information that can prove that that is true. So, yeah, I don't know. So, yeah, it has. It's changed literally everything that I do because everything I do, I want to be God honoring. Did she watch your fight on Saturday? Of course. Okay. She was in a puddle of tears.

I can imagine. And even the song I came out to. What was the song? It's called Hertz by E-B-N. I don't know what it is. E-B-E-N, and it's called Hertz. H-U-R-T-S. It was a song that when everything happened on February 7th,

I was writing her a letter. And I was sitting in my game room at my computer, and I just had music on as I was writing the letter and I was crying writing the letter and everything. And this song came on and I was like, man, it's not a very happy song. It's a very sad, emotional song because it's basically like a woman singing about how she loved this person

and she promised, like I promised change, but I didn't change. And then love faded away and all these things. And it was just very, very strong. And that's why I came out to the song because I just wanted her to know that I recognize what I have done. But I choose her and I choose her every day. She's never not chosen me, even through all the bad things.

She still prayed for me and still wished it to be me. And so that's what we did. And I put that song out there and we went through that. I'm on an interview. Sorry. I'm sorry. Bye, bye. Back in Philadelphia, where the crackheads come up.

But even that, you know, that's sad. It's like, what did she do, you know? But yeah, so no, I came out to that song, Ariel, and it was just, I felt like if she could sing me a song, that would be the song at that time. And so I used it as something to be powerful. And I think that really struck her heart in a good way and a loving way and emotional way.

I noticed a very nice moment between you and Izzy right after the fight. Can you tell us about the words shared there? Yeah, I just told him, I said, hey, who cares about what happened tonight? Like, nobody can take away from anything that you've ever done. And in my book, you're still the greatest of all time. And I love you for giving me this opportunity. Like, you know, you're changing my life. And, you know, he told me that, you know, they need me.

And I'm here now and, you know, go take it. And, you know, so that's what I plan to do. But I also told him I would love to, you know, train with him and pick his mind. I think he could really help me and sharpen my skills. and yeah man he definitely has an aura about him where he's got an attractive personality as far as somebody who exudes good energy you know and uh i think a lot of people are being really hard on him it's it's really upsetting to see like all the comments you know it's kind of weird aerial because i think that's a part of why i'm not like super excited you know is because and one man's victory is another man's suffering and um you know i

know is he's set for life but like all the people that are saying you know negative stuff about him. This guy should just retire this and that. The guy had a competitive fight with me. I'm 29 years old. I'm young. One of the hardest hitters in a division. You know, I'm not a small guy. I'm a very powerful dude. And he did very well. And it's like he looked good. He looked hungry. He looked like he wanted to be there. Like the walkout, the presence, the aura, all this stuff. Like he did a great job. It's just when you're fighting at this level, anybody can win. And so I'm, I'm more. or less like not on the high because one, my faith keeps me here.

So I never make something bigger than, you know, God or anything like that. But at the same time, it's like I'm not going to sit here and be like, yeah, man. Listen, I'm very happy. I be one of the greatest people of all time in my division. That's great. That's awesome. But at the same time, you got everybody ripping Izzy and said, this, and this, and that.

So it's like, I'm not even getting praises or respect for what I just. did and people are still attacking the guy. I just feel like it's like, man, you guys, you guys don't understand that this dude was one of the best of all time. He still is competing at the highest level. The only guys he lost to before me were the top guys in the top five. So give the guy some grace, you know what I mean? Man, he's got other endeavors other than just fighting. So it's really rubbing me the wrong way and it's, um, it's just sad, man. I wish, I wish the fans would show more love than they do hate. It's easy to say, whatever. everybody's doing wrong.

It's not easy to stand by the people that are doing wrong. No, I agree with what you're saying, because I think he is still a UFC fighter. Like this idea that he is washed or anything like that is absurd to me. You know, he's... Did he look washed to you? No, not at all. Not at all. He didn't look washed in the Imov fight either or in the DDP fight.

These are tough fights and things that are happening at the end might be an indication that he's getting up there in age, but he can still hang. Like, I mean, and we've seen guys who have had four, five, six fight, losing streaks who have not looked good. That's not Izzy. I mean, yeah, I won't say names, but yes. Yes. Yeah, that's not Izzy.

It was doing good, man. It was a competitive, fun fight. It was a good fight. And so in the end now, it sounds like you want to take some time off. You want to, you know, get healthy. Yeah. You didn't mention this August potential Philadelphia, but that's down the line, and I'm not even going to ask you about who you want to fight or anything like that.

Yeah, listen, I'll fight anybody. This is what I will say, because I want to give you something. I would love to headline the UFC Philly card. If Sean wins, you know, that's, I consider him our team captain. So if they want to headline him, you know, I know the UFC doesn't care about my friendship with Sean. But, you know, in my book, Sean's the general. So if me and him could headline it and he's healthy, you know, depending on how the fight goes with Buckley, yeah, you know, I would love to, I would love to headline the August card against anybody.

I'm not afraid to fight anybody. I don't care who they want me to fight as long as I'm getting paid. And as long as, you know, I'm healthy, that's what matters. And that's why I want to take this time. I walked into this fight with some injuries. I really need to fix and make sure they don't keep recurring. I've had five surgeries and five years. And that's going to be my biggest problem in my career is overcoming these injuries.

So I've had four elbow surgeries, five elbow surgeries, a back surgery, you know, and just my body's beat up. So, unfortunately, I'm young, but I have a lot of miles on the clock. So, but yeah, no, I would love to headline the Philadelphia card. Last thing, Dana White was asked about what you said in the Post-Five Press Conference and, or Post-Fight interview in his Post-Five Press Conference, and he seemed startled as well by the statement. Have you talked to him afterwards? Did he reach out? Hey, man, Hunter Campbell, both came up to me in the back, and we didn't say much,

but, you know, I could see the emotion on his face. I don't know if that was after he found out or before. But either way, he seemed like it was pretty tired, but he was very, I could feel the energy of it being very, very genuine. He is very genuinely happy that I won. And I think even Hunter Campbell, I think a lot of people didn't know that I was capable of beating him. I think they thought I had a punter's chance, but the way I beat him, I don't think people really expected that.

So, yeah, no, they said some really nice words. I'll keep it between us, but it was very genuine to them. And even at the way ends when I thank Dana for the opportunity, he said some words to me. And he was just a very genuine. I think Dana really like care, like, I don't want to say cares, but I think he does care about me as a person. So, you know, that's my statement.

I actually think Dana White gives a shit about me a little bit. I think he has shown that since he first met you. and obviously, you know, uttered that phrase, that famous phrase. So I'm not surprised to hear that. Very, very happy for you, Joe. Thank you for jumping on. Really appreciate it. Congratulations on the win.

I hope everything works out and that your hand heals up soon and obviously your heart and your relationships and everything works out for the best. And, you know, I know it is not easy. We did talk about this earlier, but it's not easy to talk about personal things like this in front of the world and your willingness to do so is appreciated. and we thank you as always for coming on and talking to us after a big win. Of course, man. Thank you for having me on the platform.

Thank you, even if you don't agree, I don't know where your stance is, but thank you for allowing me to talk about it. I am keeping notes of the people that allow me to talk about my faith. I don't want to do platforms that don't allow me to talk about my change in my face. So thank you. And yeah, thank you to Israel. And the only thing I'll say, Ariel, is I just re-shared my one-buddies post. that I don't even know where he got it from, which was me as an officer locking up busy,

and I shouldn't have shared it. I was a little irritated to that, but I didn't mean it in a, in that kind of way. I was just sharing my buddy stuff and everything. Oh, the question that I asked him? Yeah. So if that was offensive to people and that was offensive to him, I apologize. I did not. You know, I probably shouldn't be making light of resharing stuff where people are calling me body cam off because, you know, there has been problems with that stuff around the world. So I retract that and I apologize for that to you, to Israel, and to the world. I'm okay with that, and I didn't mean to offend you, and I wanted to know what he thought of it, but appreciate you bringing that up and wasn't trying to, like, stick it to you or anything like that.

I will say, happy Easter to you and your family. I hope that it's a great holiday for you guys. Thank you, bro. Thank you, Ariel. You're always a pleasure, brother. Thank you. There he is. Joe Piper, kind enough to join us after a massive, massive, massive weekend for him and talking about, you know,

a lot of the things that he's been through. appreciate that very, very much. In a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by Michael Keisa, who also had an incredible weekend. And it's, like I said, one for the scrapbook, if you will. It's the stuff a fighter's dreams are made of. Every fighter, I mean, every fighter dreams to retire in their home state, in their hometown in front of their family, in front of their mother, wife, friends. I mean, that was it. In a fight like that, clean, 63 seconds, getting the package, getting the moment on the microphone. I mean, you literally couldn't have scripted it any better. D.C. said it in the cage. Even, you know, even the guys who write

movies don't even dare to do this. And Michael Kesa got that moment, and he is so very deserving of that moment. And now we get the opportunity to talk to him about that moment. He is kind enough to join us right here. And now the one and only Michael Kesa. The now retired Michael Kesa. Golly. How are you, sir? Congratulations on everything that transpired this weekend. Oh, thank you, Ariel. Man, what a week. What a week. You know, it's something that I kind of said,

especially after the fight, where, you know, if there's any question that I would ever come back, there's no way. It's like after how the whole fight week went, having my friends, my family, getting to retire at Climate Pledge Arena, Jackson Smith and Jigba coming in the octagon after the fight. I mean, come on.

Like, it's like, there's no reason to come back to fighting. This was so, for me, it was perfect. To get the win, I'm at a loss for words. I want to ask you about that in a moment, but I also want to ask about how you are feeling 48 hours later. I heard Alan Jovan ask you this on Saturday, but here we are a little bit removed. Like now you're back in normal life and society.

You just had one of the greatest send-offs ever in your hometown, essentially, home state, home arena for the hockey team and all that stuff, and soon to be, hopefully the Sonics coming back as well. How do you come back down to Earth? Are you even back down to Earth? Like, I could hear it in your voice. It sounds like you're lacking a little bit of sleep. How do you even process all of this on a Monday afternoon?

No, I finally got sleep last night. Ever since the ultimate fighter, I've always had this problem. Like, I get done with the fight. It was the Justin Lawrence fight, is specific, where, man, I just get done with the fight, and it just takes me a couple days to unwind. And there's a lot to digest. I stayed up kind of late last night. My wife, her and I, we ordered some Mexican food,

and we were just laying in bed, eating. And when she fell asleep, I kind of started watching some of my old fights. and just kind of reflecting. You know, it's, I'm proud of my body of work. You know, I spent the bulk of my career chasing a world championship. I mean, that was always my goal. And I always felt like if I never got to the pinnacle,

the sport and got, you know, gold wrapped around my waist, I feel like I spent a lot of my career thinking that that would be a failure, that all this would be for nothing. And as time has gone on, and I've learned about what's most important in life, I won. This all wasn't.

for nothing. And I think the most important thing is the relationships I've made along the way, the memories, all of that means so much more than what I thought was the most important thing, which was becoming a champion. And I really got to experience that on Saturday. Just the, that's like the number one feeling I've felt, you know, this last week is just so much love. I'm so blessed to have the respect of my peers, the respect to my colleagues, the UFC staff. that means so much to me and I just was overwhelmed with

with so much love this week and I got to get right to work I got UFC BJJ on Thursday and I'm flying straight to Philly to do CFFCBJJ so there's really not a lot of time for me to just kind of sit and bask in this win

and basking this moment like I want to hit the ground running I want to get right to work yeah I'm retired from competition but I feel like my career in the sport is just starting okay I'm curious about this this scene last night

you're in bed with your wife, you guys are eating, whatever, she falls asleep. And now you're looking at old fights, old things. What are you searching for? What are you watching and what are you experiencing as you're watching this? Just kind of like, each fight takes me back to a different chapter in my life. And there's been some really good chapters in my life. And there's been some really bad chapters in my life. And I think that we all go through that in our lives, each in their own way.

You know, and it's not a cliche thing when I said. You know, and my post-fight speech didn't go as well as I wanted it, too. I was, you know, it's hard to encapsulate everything into words when you're overwhelmed with the emotions of the wind and the crowd and there's so much going on. But, you know, I just have a lot. I'm not exaggerating when I say, like my wife saved my life. She came into my life at a time when maybe there's parts of fighting that can get the best of us fighters.

And we've seen it time and time again. And a lot of that has to do with the glitz and the glitz and the glens. and the glam and maybe not the best decisions you're making in your life. And 10 years ago, she came in the picture and changed everything for me. And I think as I was laying there next to her with a belly full of Adelano's Mexican food, I just got kind of worked up because I just, the woman laying next to me is solely the reason why I'm here. I would never have gotten into the, been able to get myself to have the character, to get myself into the broadcasting space and to pull myself up and kind of revamping.

my career and even had some, you know, some tough fights along the way and just having her to motivate me and just kind of give me a bigger purpose other than myself. It's a big reason why I'm here and I owe all of this to her. I really do. And I tell her that all the time and sometimes maybe things I'm exaggerating, but I truly mean it. Like I would not be here talking to you. I wouldn't have been able to have this moment that they just had this last week. I owe it all to her. She's an amazing woman. I love that they allowed you to go outside of the cage and embrace her, your mom as well. I mean, like, all of that stuff.

How many times have you watched all of this? And by the way, I thought the post-fight interview was great. I thought you nailed it. The whole thing was great. Well, I mean, what work did you want? Well, you only get one chance to do it. So obviously, it's like there's so many other things that I wish I could have said, but, you know, it's funny you bring that up about, you know, getting to have the moments run over it and

hug my mom and things like that. You know, I talked to my Uncle Joe about the fight. And I feel like every time I come on your show, I'm always bringing up Dr. Corella. He's the man. He's had a fact on my career as well. So Uncle Joe said well, you know, Nico's a friendly guy. We're kind of high-fiving and I'm having all these great things happening this week

and I'm just so happy. He also wanted me to remember that like don't go into this like it's your last fight. Go into it like it's this fight. Like make sure it's this fight because every time it's this fight, the next fight, you are focused and I don't want you.

He didn't want me to kind of get off my game a little bit. He wanted me to stay focus. So when, as I'm going through the course of the week, specifically, you know, ceremonial weigh-ins and then the fight, it's like, I didn't really take time to enjoy too many of those last moments. Take time to enjoy the walkouts, enjoy my time on the stage. Like, I wanted to just go about it like it was just another fight. But once the fight got over, I'm so thankful that the UFC was gracious enough and probably helps for streaming on Paramount. We're not on some time constraints of being on a channel.

They're gracious enough to let me have my moments jumping out of the Arctic on hugging my wife. They're actually guiding me towards Rubb, one of our producers, he's guiding me towards where my mom is at. So he's pointing me, telling me where to go. So for them to give me the time after the fight to really bask in those moments where now I can approach it like the last fight

because it's over. So for them to let me have those moments, they were very special to me. My family has been along the ride for this journey. And fighting is a very, very selfish sport. Any athlete will tell you that. This sport requires so much selfish attention, so much sacrifice and time away.

From the things you love, the people you love, the things you want to do, it requires so much sacrifice to compete at a high level. And now I'm excited that they can get the best of me. They can have all of me now. The last 18 years has been a very selfish journey, and they have been by my side the entire time. And now I'm excited for these next years going forward

that my family, they get the best of me and they get all of me now. I love that advice from your uncle Joe, but as you know, sometimes it's hard to put that into practice. So are you telling me when you're walking out there, you know, on Saturday night in front of those people, you're not thinking this is the final walk? You are able to block that out until the very end until it's over? 100%. Wow. 100%.

And I'll remember it. I'll remember it. That's another thing I kind of said this week. That's why I wanted to make this the last fight because I want to remember every single moment. Because when you fight so many times, like certain fights. start to overlap each other, you know, and you start to forget certain things. Like, you know, you'll be like hanging out with your coaches and your teammates and oh, remember the time we did this at UFC 173 and you're like, you know, that was so long ago and I've had so many fights

since then, you know, you lose sight of some of those memories from the past. But this one, I'll remember everything. But I wanted to make it a point to not let my emotions get the best of me in those key final moments. Like the walkout, I don't want to stop and pause and maybe maybe I start to cry and get those emotions to come out of me. I got to stay locked in. I got a guy. I have to walk to the octagon to get locked in a cage and fight somebody that wants to take my head off.

There's no way that I'm going to stop and let those emotions come out when I need to stay focused on the fight itself. That's what's most important because, listen, what happens if I pause and kind of marinate in the moment of the final walkout and I go in there off my game a little bit, Nico Price knocks me out?

Well, we don't have this fairy tale ending anymore. So it's best for me to just, just go about it like it's just the next fight just to maintain that focus and maintain that intensity that I bring to the oxygon that's given me the success over the last 18 years. And so now here's the thing. All of this sounds incredible, Michael,

and it is a storybook, and it's the stuff fighters dream of and don't even dare to dream of, dare I say. But here's the thing. You know fighters. You know the fight game. You've won four fights in a row. Three of them by finish.

That last one on Saturday, you slice right through him. You know how fighters are. No one walks away. And there's always that thought in the back of your mind, like, I can win six in a row. I could go on a run here. What is going to happen inevitably in six months when you are tempted, when you have that

it when the thoughts in the back of your mind say, you still got it. No one leaves on a winning streak. Dude, it's funny. That's what's going to happen. Yes. I know I've been around this sport long enough to know that that's what's going to happen is, look, the fight just got done. I have work to do.

You know, I got obligations. I got a busy month ahead of me. but it's always, you know, the struggle's going to come when I get the itch here in like a month or two, you know, I'll get back on the mats and start training. I love training jiu-jitsu. I love training my young guys.

I'll get back on the mats, I'll start training. I'll get the itch, but I have way too much respect for the game to come back. I do believe I can come back and compete at a high level. You know, I know I can. I know how this camp has been. I know how to prepare. I know how to train.

I have so much knowledge in the sport. and how to approach it now, but I have way too much respect for the game to come back and let the sport retire me. This is, you know, I like listening to Andre Ward when he said, like,

why do I have to come back and fight Canelo and fight these best guys, you know, when I can go out on top of my game, feeling like I could still win one or two more fights. He felt like he could probably win

a couple more world championships and everybody knew he could. He was still in his prime. I don't think I'm still in my prime. I think I'm on the back end of it. but I would like to retire on a four-fight win streak, having that last fight be such a good memory, then roll the dice, come back, get a loss,

and then guess what happens? Then I'm going to get in this chase of wanting to get that loss back, and we see how that ends up for a lot of fighters. This is just the way for me to go out, dude. My body's intact, I feel good. My brain's intact. That's what's most important.

And, you know, I talked about this this week. My hero's my grandpa. My grandpa Darrell is the reason why I have the, competitive nature within me to do what I do. I was not born a tough kid. I wasn't a varsity athlete. I got picked on. I was frail. I was fragile. You know, last time we talked, I kind of brought up my childhood a little bit. But if it wasn't for my grandpa, I wouldn't be able to compete the way that I do. But ultimately, competition took his life. You know, at 67 years old, he died racing, his motorcycle in a race that he wasn't supposed to do. You know, my family, every weekend, I would go

to the racetrack with my grandpa. I was a grandpa's boy. I didn't have friends. I just wanted to hang out him and that's all I did. And this was the only time that my grandma and my mom would not let me go with him to the track because they didn't want him to race. And that was the race where he ultimately died. Look, I know I'll never die in the octagon to fight, God forbid. But I don't want to stick around too long doing the thing that I love the most and then have parts of me taken away that I'll never get back. And that's not what that's and the repercussions really, it's not what happens to me. It's what my family has to deal with, you know. So I have too much respect for the sport. and too much respect for my competitive nature to let it get the best of me. So this is the right decision. Go out on top, four or five win streak. Maybe there's some people out there that are going to be wondering the what-ifs and that's fine, but I'm going to stick with my decision.

And by the way, I'm not trying to convince you otherwise. I've just been around this long enough to where you start to see someone say like, oh, you know, I could do this and that. I don't blame you. I think you should never compete ever again. You'll never top that moment. Like, is it possible no jiu-jitsu matches, no grappling, no wrestling, no rest?

like this is it for you because that is the ultimate? No, I'll still compete. Okay. That's something I'm also very excited about as well. You know, when I first got into MMA, I was more infatuated with grappling, obviously, and you can see in the way that I fight. You know, that's what drew me into MMA was I loved grappling so much. And I always dreamed of like want to try to go to the ADCC trials and try to compete for ADCC.

And maybe I won't do that. But I do want to compete in Jiu-Jitsu. I would love to compete in R-AF. You know, there's fun little side quests that I can still go enjoy because I have enough tread left on my tires to ride to those side quests. My tires aren't bald. There's a, I can still do something with my body. You know, I'm still fresh.

I still feel good. I'm always going to want to compete. I feel like I'm going to be like that psychotic 70-year-old guy that's at like master worlds for jiu-jitsu competing against other 70-year-old guys. Like I just, I love competition. it's just in my blood. I always say that I'm not a fighter. I'm a competitor.

I love to compete. So you can expect to see me on some side quest. And I think I could get myself into some fun wrestling matches with RIF. You know, I work with CFFC and John Morgan's always said, hey, you ever want to do a BJJ match for us? They would love to do it. I don't think I'll ever do UFC BJJ just because I don't think they have any interest in a crossover between UFC athletes and now UFC commentators competing in the bowl. I mean, that would be incredible, but yeah, there'll be some side quests, but none of them involving these.

These guys, they're retired. You know, one thing that I always appreciated about you, I remember this, I don't know, maybe, oh gosh, almost 10 years ago now, you always said you wanted to get into the broadcasting side of things. And once a time where the UFC was like super selective and you were maybe a former champion or Hall of Fame and you got that. And now obviously there's a million different places that you can hone your craft. and you really kind of like, you know, you put it out there, you manifested it, you scratched

and clawed and now you're one of the best at doing it. And so I'm wondering if for whatever reason that didn't happen, like you have set yourself up beautifully for life post-fighting, but if you didn't have the broadcasting stuff, what do you think this would have all felt like and what do you think you would be feeling like if you didn't have that ready-made job and career just waiting for you and you're able to, you know, you're able to work like. like what, two days later or something like that? Yeah.

Look, I'll be honest, it kind of helped. It went into this decision. It helped me with my decision. It makes it a lot easier transitionally for me to know, like, I have something set up for me, and it keeps me in the sport. I think we've seen with not just with fighters, but with all athletes, I think the biggest struggle with retirement is losing your identity. You know, you spend so many years as an NFL player.

Imagine being an NFL player. You play Pop Warner football, flag football, and then you play football through middle school, high school, college, NFL, you do this for so many years. And then you have to stop. And then it's like, what do you do? I've been a football player my whole life. Now I have to not only rediscover what I want to do,

not only discover what I want to do for a career, but rediscover a new identity. That's really hard. So for me, I get to be a fighter for the rest of my life. You know, I'm, so I don't, that made this decision very easy. But I will tell you this, if I didn't have commentating, if I didn't have broadcasting, the sport of wrestling and the sport of mixed martial arts

has taught me something. And that is, I can achieve anything I want in life. Like, it is, I was not supposed to do this. Fighting was the furthest thing from something I could pursue that was within my character and what I had physically, internally. I shouldn't be here. So the fact that I was able to get into a career that was so opposite of who I am and have success at it,

tells me and gives me the confidence, I can do anything I want in my life. Like if I want to be the best real estate agent in Washington, you know, I feel like if that's the endeavor I had to get into, I would do it. If I want to start a business, I would succeed.

Like I just don't think, and I say this humbly, I don't think I have the ability to fail at anything in life because I have learned that I can, anything I put my mind to, I have succeeded at. So for me, it wouldn't matter if I had broadcasting or not.

If I had to find a new career and find a new path, I know I would do just fine. I think the only struggle would be loss of the identity. I think we have that with a lot. Every athlete has to go through that. So I'm fortunate that I get both. And you never know. Maybe I'll get my real estate license and sell houses with my wife on the side. Like it's like the options are endless.

I can do whatever I want and I just don't think I have the ability to fail. And I just say that humbly, but I also say that very confidently. I spoke about this earlier, I'd love to get your thoughts. This was also Nico's retirement fight. And I did see some people say that they wish he got 60 seconds or so on the microphone as well. This was obviously centered around you. And my take on it was in case you're wondering, you know, you said this long ago.

It's in your home state. You won the fight. You've been in the UFC longer. You've main evented. You've just had a better career and that's just the way it goes. But I would have loved maybe if he had a moment to say goodbye as well because it was the end of a long road for him. your thoughts on on that sentiment do you feel like that would have been warranted as well yeah um yeah absolutely dude i i i think that i for one i have the utmost respect for nico i think he's a fierce competitor

he's had some great performances um just a fun fighter one of those fighters that you know whether it was in the prime of his career or the tail end you tuned in for a nico price fight because you know he's going to bring some chaos into that octagon and uh um maybe if i had it within myself to maybe give him the microphone. Like maybe I should have done that. Maybe I should have. No, I don't think so. That wasn't a part of their plan.

Like, you know, maybe I should have at the end, gave it to him. But I was so caught up in my moment that I just, I did, it didn't cross my mind. But, you know, he does deserve his flowers. But yeah, you know, it would have been cool for him to have his 60 seconds for sure. But I just think it's also kind of hard with everything that kind of went into this fight. The week kind of being centered around me, you know. Maybe if he wasn't coming in on short notice, maybe if it was like full camp, Nico Price, and he kind of told them he's retiring and it was kind of like maybe if they knew

more ahead of time, because who knows how much went into production headed into this fight? I don't know the ins and outs of it. He definitely deserved his moment, but this fight was about me. I'm not trying to sound self-centered. I'm not trying to sound like a prick or anything, but I do feel like he would have deserved this moment, but March 28th was about me. And it's not on you. I'm saying maybe, you know, you know how this works, and I'm not trying to blame anyone.

This was so much, I mean, it was just too perfect and there was so much emotion. It's a retrospect type of thing. Yeah. And everyone's sitting at home playing Monday morning quarterback. It would have been nice, 100%. Yeah. And it's a tough thing. There's no right answer, but definitely not.

You were probably on cloud 400, let alone cloud 9. You can't be thinking about someone else. I do want to ask, because it's out there today, have you seen the things that Kevin Lee has. Yes, I knew you were going to bring it up. I mean, it's all there. Okay, please. Let's talk about Kevin Lee. Okay.

My goodness. Okay. For one, I'll just start. Okay, because I know where we're going. For one, Kevin, I saw the tweet saying I had a hell of a career, whether he's being facetious or if that's the right word. I didn't think so. I didn't think so.

I thought it was genuine. But the comment where he said, I went into his locker room at the apex and tried to fight him, I, so I'm going back and looking and thinking like, I know he had two fights. at the apex. I know he fought Fokkerdinov and he fought D-Rod, okay? For one, throughout the course of my tenure with my beef with Kevin Lee, anytime we were around each other, a phone would come out. Anybody in the room, if we got into the same space, there is a phone coming out to film whatever the interaction is. So for one, if I ever tried to pick a fight with Kevin Lee, Well, for one, while I'm at work, because I was working when D-Rod fought.

No, I wasn't working. I was cornering. I think I was cornering. I was either working the event or I was there cornering Brainy at Houston. I would never go into the locker room and pick a fight with somebody. Ariel, you know me. You've known me for years. Do I seem like the guy, do it go into someone's locker room and pick a fight with them

before they are about to get in the octagon and fight? You can be honest. No, no. Because if I, I would never do that. the other thing he lied about and I've been sitting on this one for a long time when he came out and made this big long post about when I lost my opponent for UFC Miami

saying oh you know I threw my hat in the ring to fight Kiesa short notice in Miami and he said no do you think I would ever say no at the chance to fight that guy like we've squashed our beef I'm like me and Kevin are fine we've made some funny videos at the you know when we're at the PI around each other in like the training room, you know.

So this isn't me like coming at him with like with heat. Like I still don't like the guy. But what a stupid thing to say. Why would you come out and say two stupid things that couldn't be any further from the truth? Because honestly, I could text Hunter Campbell right now and be like, hey, did you ever offer me Kevin Lee in a rematch? Did you ever offer me that fight? I could text Sean Shelby.

I could ask them, did you ever offer me those fights? They would say, what the fuck are you talking about? So I can erase that one easily. I could bury that. And that was years ago. But for him to say that I would go try to pick a fight with him before he's about to fight, the only thing I did the night he fought Drod is like went up to Drod and was like, yo, whoop that ass, have some fun out there.

I would never go into a locker room and pick a fight with one of my former foes before they're about to fight. Do you think I'm that unprofessional? No. Can I ask you about this? He says, I beat Kesa in the most high-profile fight in the first round. He got a hero send-off in the UFC, fought another retiring fighter in his hometown, mom, wife, everybody there to watch his life story. My last fight in the UFC was on the prelim of an apex card during COVID against an undefeated, up-and-coming Russia.

And Kayssa tried to fight me in the locker room before the fight. As you say, I didn't say word, cold game famine. So he's saying, hey, I beat this guy, he got this, and I got nothing. Which maybe not the time nor the place, right? I mean, a lot of things happened afterwards. I like Kevin a lot. I like Kevin a lot. But to me, I like Kevin.

I retweeted the first tweet because I was like, oh, this is nice. It's nice to see, you know, the former foes show love, him showing love to you in the moment. But then afterwards, I was like, I wish he didn't go there. And I can understand there's feelings. And I can understand maybe there's some upset and regret. But this is about you right now. And something that happened 10 years ago doesn't really affect what happens today. Yeah.

And that's the thing, too. Like, for one, look, Daniel Cormier didn't even get a hero send off. He had to fight his last fight at the apex. And we're talking my favorite fighter, Daniel Cormier, my hero, the guy that got me into the sport. Like, yeah, he may have got his video package, but he didn't get a hero send off. He had to fight at the fucking apex. You know, like, during that time, unfortunately, that's what we were kind of relegated to it. But I just don't remember Kevin Lee ever coming out and saying that was his retirement fight.

Your career was much different than his. You stayed in the UFC this whole time. He came and, like, you worked for the company. Like it's a totally different. It's apples and oranges. It's just not. Yes. And he's come out and said very choice things about the company.

And I don't know what his position is like with the company. I mean, I'm not trying to like take shots here. But if I'm just going to kind of sift through what the possibilities are as to why he didn't get, why he didn't receive the treatment that I got. I know for one, you know, he hasn't been the easiest to deal with. You know, so who knows what his relationships are like with the higher up? You know, at one point he failed a drug test, you know, and that's not me taking a shot at him, but I'm just kind of breaking down the things like as to why maybe you didn't get these certain things.

Yeah, you beat me in my most high profile fight, but, you know, I won the ultimate fighter. You know, like, I have other things that you don't have. You have a win over me, but like I stayed here. I stayed here for 14 years, okay? Kevin fought great guys. Kevin had big wins. He got into title fights. It's like I will never say anything bad about who he is and what he's done as a competitor.

He beat me, you know. Was I stoked on the way he beat me? No, you know, but we're not even going to get into that because it's irrelevant. But there's just, I approached my career a lot differently than he did. And I got what I deserve, you know. And then there's the other people that are like, oh, Kiesimas has so much dirt on the UFC and they're just giving him cupcake fights because he didn't sue him or the Dolly incident. This is bullshit.

And I'm just like, dude, you go back and look at my career. I fought hitters the entire time. Big fucking deal if I got to fight guys in my age bracket for my last four fights. You know, like, sorry I didn't fight Jacoby Smith in my sendoff fight. You know, like, I don't feel bad at all. You know, I reserve the right to, you know what? Once I got out of the rankings, I reserved the right to take a step back. Just fight guys in my age bracket.

Enjoy the last few fights in my career. So what? I don't give a shit. But these people that think that, you know, I have dirt on the UFC and I could have sued them and the Dolly incident and all this bullshit that they think that that's why, you know, I am where I am as a broadcaster, all these things.

It's like it just kind of falls in line kind of with what Kevin's saying. Like everyone's wondering why I get this special treatment. I'm not getting special treatment. Okay? I fucking fought my home. I fought my last fight in Seattle. Whoop-de-do.

You know, like I just. I love you have nothing to apologize for you have nothing to but it's it's yeah I just love about a bit tinfoil hats on and just think that like why didn't you know Kevin why didn't I get this proper send off I was on the prelims in the apex like and then there's the other people like all the other fans clamoring about all this other stupid shit like screw that screw off I feel like like like Blake Bortle's like suck it nerds like sorry sorry I had sorry I got to win my last four fights and I didn't fight all the young up and coming guys on my way out of the sport what do you fucking do?

You know, like, I am where I am because I work hard. I've maintained good relationships with the sport. I've taken advantage of the opportunities. I've treated people with kindness and respect. And, you know, I earned everything I have. Nothing has been given to me. Everything I have has been earned. So that's how you earned your last fight, Kevin.

This is how I earned mine. Well said, and congratulations. I won't say goodbye or anything like that, because we'll be talking to you and seeing you on the broadcast and all that stuff. But what a career, man. Hold your head very, very high. It's been so great to cover you from Tough Live all the way up until now. And you mentioned, like, peers, colleagues, all that stuff and more media as well.

You've always been great to the media. You've always been open and gracious and all that stuff and more. So thank you so much for everything, Michael. Congrats. Enjoy every second. Congrats every component of all of this. You deserve it. You earned it the hard freaking way.

And it's really been such a pleasure. You got the Seahawks win, you got the send off. Now we can just get a Knicks victory and all ride off into the sunset. It'll be tremendous. Playoffs are coming up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think maybe you and me might have to catch a game and maybe. I don't feel good, but we're not going to talk about that right now.

Interview if I make it over to New York. That would be incredible. That would be incredible. The one last thing I'll say. Please. You know, every last moment I have to say thank you to somebody or someone. Obviously, I want to thank you for the way you have. have covered the sport the way you have respected us fighters and like at times you're an unsighted

majority for us and i feel like you've been such a great advocate and it's not just supporting us but standing up for us um so i appreciate you aerial very much your work um it's incredible um and it's an honor to call you a friend and us fighters are blessed to have a guy like you in our corner so i just want to i want to thank you for your contributions to the sport as well um and i love you brother Thanks, man. Love you too. That really means a lot. I really, really appreciate that. Thank you. You're a minch. You're one of the original munchesches, actually, I might say. I remember you coming up to me actually at a media day saying, am I a mench? I was like, wow, Michael Keisa. Definitely doesn't know what munch means, but wants to be a mench. That's incredible. I love that. That's incredible. So, yeah, man, thank you for all the memories. Amazing stuff. And I can't wait to see where you go from here. Enjoy it. Thank you. There he is. The one and only Michael Keesa. Wow, beautiful stuff there. Love that. And very much appreciate the kind words. What a career, what a send-off.

He has earned that, my friends. He did it. He did it the hard way. And, yeah, he deserves it and earned it. All right. One more guest to go. And so it was a lot of feel-good moments on Saturday. Kesa getting his moment was beautiful.

But what about earlier in the night? Casey O'Neill coming back after the long layoff, after everything she's been through. Incredible to see her get a win like that. A dominant, decisive first-round victory like that. Let's not keep her waiting any longer. Here she is. Back in the mix.

King Casey O'Neill. Yes, welcome back, Casey. How are you? Thank you. I'm good. It's good to be back. Congratulations. How does it feel? Thank you. Thank you. I don't know if it's like Philly said in yet. I feel like the whole week was kind of like a bed of a fever dream. Obviously, like you said, I've been out a long time. So I was waiting on this comeback. I've been dreaming about it. I've been thinking about it. So yeah, it feels like on cloud nine at the moment.

But it's one thing to come back. It's one thing to get a lot. a win, it's another to get a win like that. When you were dreaming about it and thinking about it, were you dreaming of a win like that, like a decisive first round finish like that? Yeah, I thought I was going to win decisively because, you know, I finally feel like I've found my stride again, like even in training and stuff, but I didn't think I was going to knock her out in that way. I thought maybe a ground and pound finish was sort of what I was envisioning and what we had been working on and that was the game plan. But I had that hook and I see that. her feet do the wobble and I was like oh just go just go I could actually hear my coach saying

patient patient and I was like no way I'm not being patient I love the reaction afterwards it felt like you weren't quite sure what to do can you describe what that feeling was like um honestly like I really need to start trying to like calm down after fights because I just let emotion take over and I always end up doing something that I look back on and I'm like this you know At least this time it wasn't the dancing, but the screams, I think that was just like raw emotion. You know, I don't want to like be always me, but I actually did have like a pretty hard year and a half, a pretty hard injury to come back from. And there was a couple of moments mentally where I sort of, I wasn't sure if I was ever going to come back. And the buildup of emotions as the fight got closer to realize that I was actually going to be back and I was going to fight on.

on like Saturday night, you know, I was like five days, four days, three days. There was a lot of emotions playing in my brain. So I think finally having it be over, that was just like me letting it go. So just for the timeline's sake, your last fight and your last win was August of 2024. What was the injury you suffered and when did you suffer it? Yeah, so I kind of haven't really talked about it publicly, but I will now. So I beat Luana in August and then was booked to fight on the Sedney card in January of 2025. Or no, I can't remember what month it was, but I was fighting on the Sydney card.

And then on January 8th, I actually completely blew my right knee, ACL, MCO, LCL, my medial menescus, lateral meniscus, and I fractured my tebia all in one go. geez louise in training so yeah what were you doing in wrestling i was wrestling yeah i wasn't and and even when it happened i was sort of like nah like this isn't real like because obviously i've been through a knee injury before so i was like there's no way that this happens to me twice same knee um other knee oh gosh yeah yeah so when it happened i just sort it was like no way and then obviously I was in Arizona when it happened, and I just got straight in the car and drove the four hours to Vegas to see Heather and talk to Heather and figure out what I was going to do. And I will say that, like, no matter what, Heather was a voice that kept me solid. Like, she was like, this isn't the end.

Like, we're going to come back from this. And she really helped me get through it a very dark time. That's Heather from the PI, Heather Linden, I believe. Yes. Yes. So shout out to her. And you had already been through it and for lack of a better word, survived it, came, you know, through. At the very beginning, knowing what would be, you know, be required of you to overcome it,

that must have been daunting, right? That must have been a very scary thought. The beginning was a bit easier than the medal. Okay. Because I sort of like obviously had been through it. So I knew like I was strong enough to get through it. I had done it. I think the hardest part was this time around.

I think obviously it was a worse injury. And I had to spend three months on crutches. So I couldn't walk for three months. I was non-weight bearing on my knee, so I couldn't put any weight in my leg. I couldn't drive. I couldn't walk to the kitchen and get myself a coffee and sit back down on the couch. I couldn't carry anything. I couldn't be on the phone and walk.

So it was very like back to the beginning. and then yeah there were some hard times there but I just kept reminding myself like you've been through this before you can do it again and I just yeah that was playing in my mind constantly like I've been through it before I can do it again and if it is the end like I'm going to try my best to make sure that it's not but if it is then you know I need to know that I've done everything I can to come back you had mentioned in the cage with DC that one of your surgeons your surgeon said maybe you will not fight again when did you hear that that and how did you process that when you heard it?

There was a few doctors that told me that, that it could be, you know, a career-ending injury. If, you know, I think that, I don't know. I think regular doctors look at people the same, whether, like, your athletes are just a normal person. And I think that maybe they thought you shouldn't want to do this again, like, with what happened. I'm not 100% sure, but, yes.

So they told me that. And then obviously I told Heather that. and she was like, fuck that. Like, we'll find somebody else. We'll make this work. So, yeah, I really just put, like, my trust into the UFC and to, you know, everybody that mattered to get me back. Like, the surgeon that I ended up working with did a great job, obviously.

And Heather and Ryan and Bobby, Jenny, everyone from the PI did a great job. And then one of the guys out in Arizona, Austin took over at one point as well. So I had, like, so many people behind me pushing me to come. back and like giving me their time day after day to come back. So yeah. In those moments where fighting in a cage against another human being couldn't have felt further away, how did you get over those moments? Was it Heather? Was it someone else? How did you get over the hump? Because I'm sure there's moments where it's like this feels like a million miles away. Yeah. I don't know if I did get over it. You know, I think I did feel like that for a long time. Like I think maybe four or five

months I was like, I might never do this again. Like not because of my brain or anything and I was on the right path and doing all the right things, but I knew that I couldn't like stop focusing on rehab. So every time that I watched the fights, I didn't really picture myself in there. And I think that was a hard thing. Like it almost came, became a little bit of imposter syndrome again because you are so far removed and you are just like, I'm fighting in the youth. I'm the top 15 in the world, but I can't walk right now. Like, I'm learning how to walk on a treadmill. So it is, it's hard, but, but yeah, I just stayed, kept telling myself that if I can get

through this, I can get through anything. And a fight would never realistically be as hard as nine months of rehab and getting yourself back to the possession to fight again. I think that's what kept me going. Were you able to watch the sport? Was that painful? Did you need a break from it all? No, I kept like a very, very close eye on it.

Like I watched everything that I could. I watched everybody that I could. And I really kept a close eye on my division. Because I think like obviously I came into the UFC. I won four straight fights and I had a lot of momentum. And then with my first knee injury, I did a lot of things wrong. Just out of like, I think being young and immature and also like having never lost. So then when I fought Jennifer Maya after the first one, it was nine months after surgery and

everybody told me to wait a little bit longer and that I would feel a lot better. But I was like, no, no, nine months is what the doctor said. I'm doing it at nine months. And in hindsight, looking back, it was too early. But I think that learning all those things then, this time around, I was a lot smarter with it. I was like, yeah, I'm not going to rush it. I'm going to wait until I feel good because I know how good I am and I don't want to give anybody the opportunity to beat me because I'm not 100% of where I can be.

So this time I really, I waited it out. And I think that those past experiences helped me out. And this time around, I knew I was 100% ready to get in there. When did you feel like you were 100%? How long ago was that? I felt like I was 100% around September last year. Okay. So what took so long?

Other life stuff and then just training and then like wanting to, figure out where I wanted to be because I know I didn't want to train in Arizona anymore. I wanted to leave that team and I was figuring out the logistics of getting back to Thailand and being with the guys at Bangtai. Your original team? Yes, yes. So when did you go to Arizona? I was in Arizona for the whole Luana fight.

Okay, so you weren't in Vegas anymore. No, I was in, I was there for like seven months before the Luana fight, and then I fought the Luana fight there a couple months after the Luana fight. a thing and then left when I hurt my knee. Okay. And so you went to Thailand. How long were you there for? I was there since January 2nd this year. Oh my. So what, two and a half months or so? Yeah, pretty much two and a half months. And it's pretty crazy because I went there and

said like, okay, I know the UFC will be calling me soon for something. They had they had called me and I was considering Sydney, but it was still just a little bit too early. me and all the guys decided it was a little bit too early from my knee. So I went there and I knew they were going to call again soon and then they called me and I was there and I was like, let's do it, let's go. You were in Vegas for a long time. Why did you leave? Yeah.

Oh, you know, I originally came to Vegas just because of COVID. Like that's why I left Thailand in the first place. I couldn't get back in. And I love Vegas. I still like, I'm here right now probably for a month or so and it will be always. was my second home. But I just feel like the relationship that I have with the guys in Thailand is like something really special. And I've not been able to recreate that with anybody else. Like they just understand me. They know how to coach me. They know how to push me. And they

know how to make me better. So I need to be with them when I'm fighting. Will you be living there full time now? I'm not sure at the moment. I'll definitely be there for my next camp. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I'm hitting you with all the life questions. here. Yeah, yeah. At the moment, I think I made, there was a lot of things that I just pushed to the side in order to get back into the cage. Like, first I was just worried about my knee and then I was worried about just fighting. I found out about fighting Gabriella, I think, on like the 15th of January or something like that. So I knew I was fighting her for like a really long time. And I was just focused on that. And this week I have to go and renew my driver's license, go renew my car registration,

go do like all these adult things that I just pushed off to the site. So as far as life questions, I don't have a lot of answers at the moment. What about getting your Instagram password back? Yes, I did. I finally got it back. What's going on here? Your sister locked you out. Why?

You know what? It was great. Like, because people on the internet suck half the time. I'm like very grateful for all of my fans and everything like that. But sometimes people just say the most ridiculous things because there's no consequences and I was already in a heightened state you know I was coming back off a year and a half off there was a lot of questions and uh I was just trying to stay focused in locked in and my sister just said you know what like give me your phone I'm locking you out uh you're not going on

Instagram anymore and it helped me a lot I didn't go on at all so how long I'm really really locked in I don't know I think it was pretty much the whole fight week okay okay yeah yeah so um she was still like I was going on there and posting but I was doing the whole like posting ghost and then I was completely locked out once I put the post up. There's probably a great feeling of freedom that comes with that. Is there any part of you that says maybe I stay off longer? Yeah, but I want to have like an interaction with the fans. All the, like, the good fans and stuff shouldn't suffer from like crappy people. So I definitely want to get on there and like interact with everybody who is awesome. But I just need to do a better job at like

not giving a fuck what people say. And I think that is something that I'm actually getting a lot better with now, I think. I was in the UFC really young and immature and I let a lot of it get to me. And I, you know, maybe reacted in ways that I kind of regret now. But, yeah, I think that there's a lot of power in not having that social media constantly. You know, you get dopamine from other things. Like, my fight gave me the craziest rush of dopamine ever. And maybe that was also because I had been on.

social media for like a week, you know, so. I was looking at you as they announced you as the winner and the referee holds your arm up and I can't imagine what that felt like considering everything you've been through. There was probably a part of you at one point that thought you would never experience that again, that dopamine. So this of all your victories must have felt the best, I would imagine, right? Must have felt the most rewarding. Yeah, it definitely did.

And I think that even at the back, I think the whole week I wasn't like super nervous. but I think out the back, I don't want to say nervous, but I was just like a little bit more on edge almost. And I was like, just go out there and do what you can do. Just go out there and do what you can do. I just kept talking to myself. Maybe it just because it had been so long, you know, it felt like my UFC debut all over again.

But as soon as my name got announced by Bruce Buffer and then we went, I just felt like I was like on. You know, I felt like I'd been training so hard for this. And I felt like this was inevitable. Like I was going to make sure that I got the win, no matter who was standing in front of me. And I think that it was actually my best performance yet. I felt really composed in there. And I felt like I was seeing everything.

And I felt really sharp. So I was really happy. And what about this fun maxing that you're talking about? What is the... Have you ever seen the girl? She's a figure skater. I forget her name. Lisa Lou.

Yeah. So she did... I watched some of her interviews and stuff and it was awesome. Like she retired at 60 and I think from a lot of like, I don't know if it was like internal pressure or whatever. But yeah, she just didn't want to do it anymore. I wanted to live a regular life. She went out and lived a regular life for three years and came back to do it for the love of the game. And, you know, everybody said she wouldn't win and then she won.

So I took a lot of inspiration from that too. And I think there is like a lot to do with the sport of like just having fun, you know. Like it's why you start doing M&A in the first place. You don't just go to a gem and start getting punched in the face because you want to be, like, stressed out or something, right? Like, you do it because it's fun. And then, like, as the stakes get higher, obviously, and the rest get more, you start putting more pressure on it. But once you come back to, like, the fun of it, it is a lot of fun.

So I did have a lot of fun on Saturday night. And so she obviously rose to prominence during the Olympic Games, which was about a month and a half or so ago. And this is as you're gearing up. So this probably really spoke to you as you. you're trying to get mentally prepared for this return, right? Getting into the right mental place. Yeah, she has like a really good mindset, especially for being, I think she's only like 21 or something or not even 21, but she has a really good mindset for sport. So I took a lot of inspiration from it. What about the hair? Are you into

the hairstyle or? Yeah, I mean, look at my own hair. You know, everyone keeps telling me to cut my hair. I'm like, no. So I think she's a, she's someone who's really good at expressing herself and being free. I like her hair. As do I, by the way, just for the record. Can I ask you about the co-main event, your weight class? That's one of the, I mean, I said earlier, I was mesmerized by what Alexa Grasso did. From your perspective, what did you see there? And were you impressed with how she did it? Yeah, it was kind of unbelievable, to be honest.

Like, I was sat in a bar, like, across the road from the arena, watching the rest of the fights. And when it happened, I was just like, oh my God, well, there goes. my bonus. Like I knew straight away that she had went out there and won up to me. So, yeah, no, she looked good and it was a crazy finish. And yeah. Knockout or submission? Oh, man. I don't know. I think that it has to, I think it has to be a knockout. And I know that I'm probably the minority here, but she was already like out before the choke went in, you know, so there was no way to tap or anything like that. I think that Beltran just didn't have the opportunity to get there.

Like she was just too quick. I think you're actually the majority. I think most people are saying knockoff. Oh, really? Yes, yes. Shows how much you're reading online. I'm trying not to be on there, yeah. Even after the victory, you're not going on and trying to get like that affirmation?

I'm definitely, I went on and tried to respond to as many people who sent me messages as I could. I want to say that to like, and the year and a half that I had off, there was actually a lot of people who like stood by me and had my back and send me messages of encouragement a lot. So yeah, I went on there to, you know, show my gratitude for that. A lot of them kept me going, whether they know it or not, like just kept me going on hard days. So yeah, I wanted to go and show us gratitude. But I'm trying not to read the dumb comments because there is just people who are like

unhappy with their own lives and want to, you know, shed on people winning or losing in the cage. I don't feel like anyone deserves to be shed on for putting themselves. out there, so I try not to read that stuff. Yes, great advice. Considering the layoff, how quickly do you want to return? I definitely want to be active. I feel like I've spent enough time out of the cage over the last, like, four years.

I've been sent to the UFC for five years, and I've only had seven fights. So I'm like, let's get the ball rolling. I'll talk to 10, and I'll see what's next. But, you know, he was very excited on Saturday night, and he told me, like, let's give it a couple days. It's been a long time. So can your moment. and we'll talk about what's next during the week, so we haven't spoke about it yet,

but something soon, I'm sure. Is there anyone that comes to mind, I have to ask? No, you know, I want to see that, I think this month, there's so many 125 fights. Like, there's a lot of girls in the top 15 that are booked at 125. So I want to, like, see how these fights play out. There's a couple. I think there's one next week or this week.

No, when is Canada? Whenever Canada is, there's the Jasmine, Jazz, DeViscius Karini-Salva fight. Yeah, there's a couple of people that I have my eye on. And obviously, I was watching the co-main event as well on that night to see. So we'll just have to see what the UFC has planned. I believe Canada is April 18th, if my... April. Yeah, so not too far away.

How was my favorite Australian promotion doing, Eternal MMA? How are things over there? Yeah, you know, it's going great. I think my dad has a show again. in a couple of weeks. He seems to have a show every weekend. And actually, my little sister, not sure if you saw,

but she fought two weeks before me and got a second round knockout of her own. So, yeah, the O'Neill clan is doing good. Okay, amazing. We wrote a great feature on Eternal MMA on Crown. I don't know if you saw that. Yeah, I did see. I think I sent it to you and you gave me the old double tap.

So I was like, okay, maybe she didn't like it. Last time on my phone area. All right, listen, listen. Just like on my phone. Yeah. We don't forget over here, though. You're still here. Casey, even though you gave us the old double-tub.

Here you are. Here you are still here. I was wondering. I was looking for it. I couldn't see it. Yeah, it's on the corner in the corner there because we wanted a nice little spot for it, but we haven't forgotten about you. So maybe others, you know, jump off the bandwagon, not us here.

Yeah, I'm very grateful. You definitely stood by my side and I'm grateful to be back. Hopefully we get on the show a little bit more with some more activity. Absolutely. We look forward to that. For now, though, enjoy this victory. Congratulations. Welcome back.

happy for you. It was amazing. It really was amazing to see. And just like knowing everything that you've been through and even a part of it, not all of it, it just really warmed my heart. So I hope you're able to enjoy all of this and we get to see you more in 2026 and beyond. Congratulations and great to have you back. Thank you. I appreciate it. There she is. Casey O'Neill, King Casey in the house. I'm going to put the picture back here. Every time I put things or take them off, I am reminded of how Dusty it is I was wondering if maybe Frank could come by or something

Maybe Eric when he's back What did you do? I was saying goodbye to our Oh sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry What's to get you a Swifferman? Did you switch it to members only again? It's been such a stressful day Yeah

How's it been back there? Easy breezy man Shut the fuck up and watch the fights I wish she had said watch the stream Gosh Seeing the stream and Armin Who gives a shit Everything gets delayed

Everyone showed up, though. We got him there. We got him there, man. Oh, my gosh. What are we going to do about the double video? That's just what it is. Who the fuck is we? Part one, part two.

He doesn't have to worry about it at all. Lots of engagement on that first video. Let's go back and read some of the comments, yeah. What do we have over there? I'm sure Frank was blamed several times throughout the course of it. The amount of fired Franks, I actually... I feel like not a lot of blame for me, even though I am. the sole person who should be blamed.

Because I think they were commenting not knowing yet. Because remember, once you hit it, we were off. So the explanation didn't get seen. Yes. New York Rick has gone for one day and this happens. That's the top comment. Need an in-studio view of the panic ensuing right now. Tony Ferguson must be in studio and just chipped over the wire.

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. That's not nice. UFC said, shut it down. Damn, I'm never going to hate on Rick again. Rest in peace, New York Rick is really the goat. Episode was a little short today. Good one, Bill Starr. Good one, bro.

Golly. What do we do? Do we put the full one in the comments and maybe pin it or what? We'll figure it out. A little pin action. Link here, link there. We just got to eat it. We got back up the 5K with Armin, though.

Yeah. It's tough when EP Eric is gone. One said, Miss You, Rick. Like, frowny face. Frank's fired. Ariel must have pushed the red do not push button. It was pretty much that.

I'm like, oh, wow, a member's only chat? They didn't tell me that it changes the whole freaking thing and turns it off. The problem is that when you were alerting us to it, you were DMing me directly and I thought it was going to everybody. So I wasn't telling them what was happening because I thought they could see it.

So for a few minutes there, I'm just working on it silently. Someone said Frank's Revenge, N.Y. Rick, the glue. G.C. and Rick come back from vacation and wreck the show. It was all my fault, guys. Although, I just got a crazy text from Casey O'Neill. I'm calling her back. Stand by.

What is it? It's already a weird show. You don't know the half of it, bro. Hello, Casey. We're still on the show here, but that text was very weird, and I'm an inquisitive mind. So you text, do you mind me saying this? No, I wanted to talk about it. I actually completely forgot.

But when I got out of the back to take my photos, we realized that both of my gloves were left-handed gloves. So I somehow fought in two left-handed gloves. What? How does that happen? Yes. I don't know. They said it's never happened before because they usually come pre-packaged. So I guess that might be my new thing now. I'm going to fight in two left-handed gloves every time. But isn't there like a thumb part? Like wouldn't you have noticed? I had no idea. I hadn't fought in a long time, remember. We just put them on and we went out there.

Wow. And then when we got out of the back, we realized. Well, that makes the win even... Somebody messed up, but it made me win better, so we're okay with it. And maybe you should keep fighting with two left-handed gloves if you're going to fight like that. Yeah, there we go. Wow, okay, well, well, well done. You should put those in the UFC Hall of Fame if there ever is one.

First ever fight fought in two left-handed gloves. Unbelievable. Well, I've kept them, so we can. Well, thank you for that. I just wanted to get that story out there. That's incredible. Well done. Thanks, Ariel.

All right. Talk to you later. Casey O'Neill fighting in two left-handed gloves. That's pretty incredible, right? Do you want to show the picture, Dan? Oh, do we have it? Dan. Dan, are you there?

Yeah, look at it because you see how there's a white spot where the thumb usually comes out. Okay, well, that's the actual left hand. Look at her right hand, and you see where the thumb would normally be? It's, like, obviously the pinky hole that her thumb is out of. Hmm, tough. Right. On the right-handed glove, how can you change? Yeah, how can you tell?

You could see where she's punching her underneath her chin, right? All right, though, on the right-handed glove, the right-hand looks somewhat normal, no? Yeah, I stand corrected. Yeah, I mean, it's a tremendous story. It's a tremendous story. Wouldn't the, would the letters look different on the... They did say they're using AI, you know. Yeah.

Hold on. Anyway, let's continue with the program here, because we do have a lot to get to. I talked about, oh gosh, where, we're... where should we go? We've got so many different directions. Ian Gary is still waiting for a call from the UFC. We talked about Issa Mahachev and a potential return in August. Here he is. Tossing and turning.

He's going nuts. It's always old school phones, huh? Last time it was like a really, like, fat cell phone. It's always old school phones. I'm told that there's new Conn-Megger training footage. Is that accurate? Oh, yeah. I wonder why he's training.

Looking nice on the heavy bag. Okay. Bing bang, boom. Bing bang, boom. Bing, bang, boom. And those are the non-champi chip shorts, right? Those are the, just the sort of B-side, if you will. John Jones has been out there.

He was in a, what was he, in a bit of a fracas? And a bit of a brouhaha? Here he is. IBA bare knuckle. He's the man in the middle. Now here's the question here. worker shoot. At first I thought work, but now it seems like it's, wait, wait, wait, what happened? Okay, wait, wait, wait, there's a whole part afterwards. But are we going to get

the whole part afterwards? Because now there's a kick. Okay, there's a kick here. Look at this, look at this. That seems legit. That seems legit, right? G.C. Work or shoot? What Frank said earlier? I think they shooted themselves into a work. I think they worked themselves to do it, shoot. Yeah, I think this is real at this point. You can't be throwing punches and kicks like this and not be real. I mean, the dude with the red hair got like smacked across the head. What is IBA bare knuckle?

Isn't that the Russian bare knuckle promotion that John Jones is like... Oh, and you're well competed in? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. A part owner of or something. So there's an actual Russian bare knuckle promotion now? Yeah, I think so. I think so.

I wonder what he's getting paid to just, like, stand there. Hopefully the arena is close to his house in Chechnya. Do you think that? I forgot that he's a resident of Chechnya. Imagine you're at the grocery store in Chechnya and John's just there. Can he get his produce? I don't think that's how it works. Yeah, that's a good point.

That is a good point. Dana White was asked about John Jones and the negotiations. This story will not go away, but there are some new developments. every time he speaks. I do want to say, I find it amazing that Dana has yet to be asked about anything Ronda Rousey said at the press conference a few weeks ago. He's yet to be asked this, but he continues to be asked about John Jones, and these are very fair, pertinent questions. So you saw what Dana said about AI, who gives the crap, who gives the shit, just watch the fights. His mood very similar regarding John Jones. Here's what he had to say.

Just one quick one for me. I hate to bring him up, John Jones. I know he was never in contention to fight on that White House car. But he did say that he was offered $15 million and it came down to money. Is he lying when he says that? Who gives a shit? Let's pause right there. What do you mean who gives a shit? John Jones is saying he was offered $15 million.

You, Dana White, are saying we never negotiated with him. John Jones's team is saying, hey, we were open to maybe not the $30 million that we originally asked for, but somewhere in between. This kind of matters. This is John Jones. This is John Jones refuting everything that you have been saying. So I guess to answer the question who gives a shit, we give a shit. The media gives a shit, your fans, the paying customers, the ones that, you know, help make UFC Seattle the highest gate in fight night history. Every time he says who gives the shit, the answer is very simply us.

Fans, media, people have been watching, people who buy tickets, people who show up. people buy X, Y, and Z, that's who gives a shit. I don't understand this who gives an F mentality. And so you could say, as he says later on, you know, he knows the story, whatever. That's fine. He doesn't want to go into it. I get it. I understand why.

Ultimately, you don't want to tell the White House you couldn't get a deal done with the biggest American star out there. But the who gives the shit is such a cop out. It is such a cop out because we can rifle off a lot of people who care about this story, including John Jones. We continue. Did the negotiations fall out over money? I've already talked about this a million times.

Not wanting to answer. John knows what happened. John knows what happened. Yeah, and John tweeted about it. I don't know. So, first of all, leading up to this, whatever this is, you know, all I do is John Jones, the goat, he's the greatest. And everybody's talking about how I'm blowing John Jones all the time.

This has nothing to do that. No, this falls out what I do. fucking hate John Jones and I'm trying to destroy John Jones now or whatever. John Jones knows exactly what happened. And this happens every week at the UFC. There's all kinds of negotiations going on. Negotiations? I thought there weren't. You know, you think John Jones is clamoring to fight?

Like, John Jones is like, we have to give this guy three fights a year if he really wants to fight. Oh, my God. By, like, legally, we have to give him three fights a year if John Jones is chomping at the bit to fight. He wants to fight on this card. You negotiated with an $50. And if we don't, we have to pay him.

No, you don't. You don't. Because are they offering Kobe Covington three fights a year? I mean, like, how many guys don't get offered three fights a year? This three fights a year thing, which no one challenges them on is such hogwash, such hogwash. John Jones couldn't be more clear about the fact that he wanted to fight on this card. Now, if what you're saying is, hey, we didn't want his services on this card, but we did offer him three other fights on this date. that date and this date. All right, cool. Have they offered Conn McGregor three fights a year for the past

five years? Something tells me they haven't. What about Colby in the last year? So what about Jorge Mosvedel who came out recently and said, yeah, I got offered an MVP fight and they said no. This three fights a year thing is such nonsense. No one's fighting three times a year. Are the other guys who aren't fighting three times a year? Is he just turning down fights? Like, what's going on? What are we talking about? How many times have we heard from fighters now saying like, hey, I want to fight, I'm ready. So that's silly and this who gives an F thing is silly. That just, that answer comes when you don't have anything else to say, when you don't want to get into it, just like the AI thing. Nothing to say, don't want to get into it. I know there are very smart people who run the UFC

who are in the day-to-day grind of the UFC. This is their life. And I know they, they see this and say, this is so crazy to speak to our customers this way. These are our customers. This thought of like, just watch the stupid fights. No, that's everything that is wrong with the UFC. We felt the way in which we felt about Saturday's fights because we know who Izzy is. That made us feel something. We know who Michael Kias is. That made us feel something. We know who Alexa is and what she's been through. That made us feel something. It's not just watch the fights. Because I tell you what, if it's just watching the fights, then it's all about those crappy apex cards that you put on that no one's watching. These reports came out about the

pay-per-view numbers that were tanking and why the deal was so good for Paramount and not good for ESPN anymore is because people aren't just willing to watch the fights. They want to care about the fights. And he knows this. I'm not telling him something he doesn't know. He's in the caring business. He's in the emotionally invested business. He's in the business of prize fighting. This is a cop-out. I don't even know like what's the point. I don't even know what's the point. And I have to sit here and dissect it because this is the job. We make you care about these fighters on this show.

And we'll talk about the good and the bad. And 95% of today's show has been the good. But we'll also talk about the bad. This is embarrassing. Like, okay, John Jones, your biggest star, came out and said he was offered $15 million. And he feels disrespected by it and he wanted more money. You said recently He was never going to be on the card

And you guys didn't offer him anything Well, who's lying? John Jones knows the story Yeah, the story he told us Refutes your story. These are all very fair questions. Dana is a As a company, you've never used AI before

and we have noticed a difference. Is this a new approach? Mentality? How do you feel about this? do you feel about certain fans who feel like a company that is as big as the UFC should have higher standards than using, as the kids like to say, AI slop? Right, Frankie? Is that what they call it? Exactly what they call it. These are fair questions. Now, what I asked Dana White about AI if I had the opportunity to speak to him? Probably not. Not top of mind for me, but I know there's

people who care about it. It's pertinent. And his response is, hey, AI is coming. We like it. We want to use it. If you don't like it, I'm sorry. That's fine. But like, hey, who gives a crap? No. I mean, at least one person gives a crap, the guy who asked the question. And I know others do as well. It's just weird. It's just weird.

It's just weird. I don't understand the approach of telling your fan base, your consumers, yeah, we don't really care what you think. Because I know he doesn't truly feel that way. And I know the people in the UFC don't truly feel that way. So why say it in that moment? Other than you feel a little defensive, you feel like you're being threatened, and this is the best way to shut people down.

Because you know everyone turtles up when he says that. What else are you going to say? You're in a freaking UFC press conference. What are you going to be like, well, start arguing? No, it's not going to happen. Speaking of weird, Habeb Nurmaga Medov was asked about women's MMA. Let's play the video in its entirety.

The answer in its entirety and react. Here it is. First, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Valeria. I'm a real estate agent at IPG property. Would you be willing to come with me? to look at properties and buy real estate? Okay, that's a weird question.

Second question. No problem with that. The second question is actually serious. There are a lot of men in this sport. What is your general attitude? Maybe you could give some advice, your view on the development of women in MMA. Can you pause it for a second, Andy?

Obviously, I'm going off of the subtitles here, and so I'm taking a leap of faith that this is all accurate. I don't speak Russian. And so I do want to say that because, you know, I hope that everything is translated correctly, but we know that there are times where things aren't translated correctly. But I'm going to trust, because this has been out there and hasn't been refuted for several days, that it is accurate.

Okay, we can continue. About women. How do you feel about getting hit in the face? He asks. You personally. Can I just say something? Keep a pause, sorry. How do you feel about getting hit in the face?

Why did that elicit that type of laughter? Like, he is a fighter, and the idea of women fighting isn't like an old sort of unique, weird thing. Like, I don't understand why that response to that question. Should women feel differently about getting punched in the face? They have been fighting for a long time. Anyway, we continue. The most precious thing on our body is our face, right?

Every day we all look in the mirror and we want to look good. Men maybe once, but if women have a mirror with them, they look a thousand times a day, at least 100. Okay. How do you personally feel when you go to the gym and get him in the face? You haven't been hit. But you don't need that. There are women who choose the sport. It's their choice.

They choose it. If you ask me, I wouldn't choose the sport for women. It's brutal even for men, first of all. For women, I don't even consider it. If they want to come to the gym and train to be able to defend themselves, there are women who think they can come train, and if someone attacks them, they can defend themselves. Well, there are such women.

Let them go and train, no problem. But for me, it's still something wild when a woman gets hit in the face. whether it's a man hitting a woman or a woman hitting a woman. Let's pause it right there. Let's pause right there. Man hitting a woman is a completely different thing. Woman hitting a woman. Does he have an issue with it because he's saying women care about how they look

and they don't want to get their face messed up or they can't take that type of pain? They don't know how to inflict that kind of pain or absorb that kind of pain. I don't really understand it. Man hitting a woman is crazy. That's physical abuse. That's assault, brother. That's a totally different thing. There are no men versus women fights.

Women versus women is very common and happens all over the world, including in the UFC. Is he saying it just because of a sort of vanity thing or because he feels like physiologically they can't handle it? Is this like another Lou Debella thing where it's like, hey, they can't last for more than three minutes in a boxing match? I'm not sure. We continue. Especially if a woman is a mother or has a couple of kids. She spends the whole day getting him in the face and then comes home. Where I grew up, I didn't see anything like that.

Every person in life has a mission. For a man, it's to raise children, take care of the family, take care of loved ones, neighbors, relatives. There are very few women who take on big responsibilities. It's very hard for them. Let's pause it right there. Again, I'm submitting to the fact that this is all accurate. women don't take on big responsibilities is an absurd statement. First of all, you just said in the previous statement that they take care of the family, the kids, the home.

That's a very tough job, if not tougher. There are times where I come home and I feel guilt because I see, you know, my kids are acting up, especially when they were younger, everything's in chaos. This job is a breeze compared to that job, even when I turn the stream to members only and guests don't show up. So what does that even mean they can't take on big responsibilities? There's a lot of women who are moms and CEOs run companies, lead businesses, lead groups. This is, this is, listen, I understand that religion comes into it when it, when it comes to certain ideologies and ways of life.

But the way in which he is setting this up is hard to come to terms with it. I'm trying to keep my words very succinct and precise. because I don't want to get things misconstrued here. I respect every religion, I respect everyone's decision to live their life the way in which they want and their families live the way they want. And there are some people who say, I want to do X amount of things

so that my family and my wife and my partner doesn't have to do certain things. That's totally fine. But to have a sort of blanket stance that, A, a woman can't, you know, she cannot assume certain responsibilities. She does not want to get punched in the face because she is vain or looks at the mirror and doesn't like how she looks afterwards,

can't handle these certain things. To me is just, it's just very old-time thinking. It's prehistoric. It's not who we are as a society in 2026. It just isn't. And I don't care where you come from. That shouldn't be the way it is. Let's continue.

It's not without reason. Even God created it this way. A woman is weaker. A man is stronger. People want to change. mix all of this. I don't know how you feel about it, but I like what a man does men's work

and women does women's work. We pause right there. Man versus woman, obviously the man is stronger than the woman historically. Woman versus woman is equal. So what does that mean? What does that mean?

We continue. I don't know how you feel better, but I like one. Could we go back? Sorry, I just want to, can we just, I just don't want to. lose that last day. I don't know how you feel about it, but I like what a man does men's work and woman does women's work,

okay? So you're not kids. Decide for yourselves. I'd love to know what the woman who asked that question felt about the answer. I don't want you to just hear from me. I'd love to ask Andy, who is a woman, how she feels about hearing one of the greatest

fighters of all times speak about women this way? You know, disappointing, but not unexpected, unfortunately. I feel like a lot of people, still feel this way. And it's simply wrong. Like to your point, it's dated. Like if we, look, if we can birth kids time and time and time again, don't tell us we can't willingly decide to go fight. Period. You know, I feel like childbirth is one of the hardest things that anybody

would have to go through. And if we can go through that, we can certainly choose to be in a sport where we know we're going to get hit in the face. We know we're going to break our bones. We're no, all these things are going to happen. This is just dated. And people who use, in my opinion, people who use religion or anything like that to make it sound more reasonable, like revisit your books, you know?

A lot of this is stuff that was interpreted to begin with. There's tons of women and religious who are deities, who are seemed way more important than even like a male figure in some religion. So, like, this is just interesting to me, people use it as a reason. You know, I think we talked about this briefly once, but when we were talking about the amount of rounds that women's fights should be in,

like, what can't we, if we're already stepping in there, why can't we decide? You know, that's also like another part of this. Like, why is it that men have to control what, or are trying to control what we want to do with our own bodies? And the thing about looking at a mirror 100 times, what is that? Right?

Like the level of, vanity that we're being held to when clearly there's so many like look at the women champions that we have right now. Kayla's a badass, you know, like, I mean, show it to Habib, I would say, like, show some respect to the sport. And like, these are your, your colleagues, you know? Very well said. And especially you come off a weekend where Alexa Grasso did what she did, where Casey O'Neill did what she did, look, if someone would have said to him as a religious person, hey, how do you feel about coaching women. And he said, look, for me, I don't feel comfortable. You know, there are certain things that I believe in, and I have nothing against women's fighters. I wish them all the best. I may enjoy it.

I may not. But for me, as, you know, a practicing Muslim, I don't want to, I don't want to do that. If that would have been the answer, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. I don't have a problem with it. But to now say in 2026, after, you know, women's MMA has been in the UFC since 2013, women's boxing has really become a very, very popular thing since 2012, since the Olympic Games adopted women's boxing. You know, to say that now, after all the great things that we've seen women do, where do you draw the line? Like, can women not play hockey?

The Olympic hockey tournament for women was phenomenal. Can women not, you know, do track and field? Can they not do pole vault? Can they not do hammer throw? Can they not do all these things? Like, where are you drawing the line? Is it because they get punched in the face and you think that they just care about their looks? And so you think that, hey, I'd rather not. Because, like, all this is sort of mixed up. On the one hand, you're talking about the looks. On the other hand, you're saying that men are stronger than women. It's a, it's deflating and disheartening to hear this. Imagine, to me, it's the same way. I don't view it like this. Maybe I'm naive. I don't view it like, oh, punching. This would be the same as Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant saying, WNBA players shouldn't play basketball. And the great thing about what happened to Kobe at the very end of his life, may he rest in peace,

is that he really fell in love with women's basketball. And it was because of his daughter. And you would see him there with that orange WMBA sweatshirt. And it was so amazing to see a guy who was such a hero and legend in the sport of basketball in the NBA, embrace the women who are trying to make a name for themselves. It was amazing to see. And so when you see strong leaders, men go out and say, no, they deserve just as much love and attention and pay and limelight and spotlight as we get, that's incredible. That's progress.

That's evolution. That's change. That's leadership. To hear this is not. It just isn't. You're telling me Ronda Rousey shouldn't be in there. Again, if he says it from my perspective, I don't like watching it. It's not my thing.

I don't like coaching women. It's not my thing. different strokes for different folks. But what he's saying is, like, at least that's the way I'm interpreting is, like, women should not be in the cage because they should be at home cooking and cleaning and doing women's things and not even having jobs. Just don't agree with it. Just don't agree with it. And he is such a role model and hero for so many people. I know this puts me out there. Trust me, I know. But I don't even know how this can be an argument. I don't even know how this could be an argument, especially after this weekend. I know it's the cool thing online to

rip on the women and say women's MMA ain't shit. You've just got here. You haven't been watching. Look up hook and shoot. Look up Elite X's strike force. Look up these UFC fights from the early days from 13 years ago. And look at what a lot of them are doing now. You just pick and choose because the standard has gone down. But the elite are incredible. Valentina's elite. Kayla is elite. Amanda's elite. Jean-Wea Lee is elite. McKenzie is elite. Speaking of Valenti, Tina, she took exception to this. She's one of the few that I saw. Maybe I'm wrong.

But she said, women are weak. Tell that to my sister, an airline captain, or tell to the night witches, the all-female bomber regiment of World War II, who draw bombs under the cover of darkness with their engines off, then landed in pitch blackness without landing lights. For this, they earned a reputation

for being elusive and deadly. Go ahead. Tell them who is stronger. It all depends entirely on one's upbringing. You can just as easily raise a man to be a helpless milksock who is incapable of doing anything. Martial arts represents a warrior tradition where there is no distinction between man and woman. There is only the art itself. That is precisely why people train to become more graceful, stronger, and wiser,

and to ensure that no one gets the chance to punch him in the face. And to his credit, he did say, hey, if someone wants to come to the gym to learn out to defend himself, he's not precluding that. But I think he's talking about it from an actual, like, prize-fighting competitive standpoint. And I just think, as Andy said, so very well, it's a dated mentality. Now, I'm not trying to sit here and, you know, stand on my soapbox and say, oh, you know, I'm just saying when I saw that, I was like, and not the first time I've heard him say it, as he alluded to as well. I know that there are a lot of fighters, up-and-comers, prospective fighters, who are women who really admire and respect Habib and what he's done, as they should. And that's got to be disheartening and deflating.

Don't worry, there are a ton of other fighters who are tremendous legends who do feel like you believe. long and should be able to pursue a career just like they did in the octagon or any other promotion. But for someone of his stature to say that, it's, with some, you know, old time ideologies attached to it is, uh, is a bummer. The most disheartening thing for me, if you like notice at the very end of the clip is all the clapping. Yeah, what is that about? Yeah. And that's why I said, I wonder how the woman in, in the room who asked the question felt about all the clapping. Yeah, I mean, I bet you not very good. Yeah, because they're all just saying, yeah, we agree with you.

That's what I assume the clapping meant. Like, what is this? The Phil Donahue show, everyone starts clapping when you say something? That's an old show. Frank may remember it. Oh, yeah. Anyway. Bit of a bummer.

Not everyone has to agree. I get that. But I don't know how you could be a fan, a female fan of this sport and not feel some sort of way about it. Speaking of Kayla Harrison, a fan on X sent me this video. He saw her at the PFL Pittsburgh event this weekend, and she dropped a little nugget for him. Let's take a listen. Kayla!

Here she comes. Here she comes. Let's go! Let's go! Kayla offering it up. He says, Kayla, let's go. She says September. Kayla in September?

Can't wait. Let's go. Mofsar Evloev is waiting for the call. My understanding, everyone, is that they're going in the Mofsar direction, that it's going to be Mofsar versus Alex. That's my understanding. That's what I've heard. And that's the right call.

Here he is training, doing some rope technique. What is this? This is absurd. Upside down. That's got to hurt the feet. Right? The rope burn? Whoop.

Touching the top. and then back down. No socks, no shoes? So that is my understanding. Mofsar versus Alex. Not saying breaking news is that don't get crazy, but my understanding is that is the direction that they are leaning towards,

and that has been expressed. Right call, right, guys? That's the right call, right? Thousand percent. Ten fight win streak. Undefeated, 20 and up. What are we doing? Give them the title shot.

Alex is calling for it. Jean-Silva can get it next. Wait or have him fight someone else? Have him fight someone else. He is coming off of a loss to Diego Lopez before his last fight. Right. It's not like he's on a long win streak. Hamsa Chimaev is fighting on May 9th in New Jersey, Newark to be exact.

Sean Strickland. Look at this training technique here. The medicine ball to the freaking stomach. And kind of to the ribs as well. Like right there, that shot was to the ribs. Golly. This is craziness. They're not holding back.

Oh, especially that dude on the left. He's loving it. You ain't going to be loving it when he breaks a rib. This happened to someone, by the way. Someone broke a rib doing this. I remember it. I don't remember who was. James Tujano?

No, it wasn't him. I didn't show this to Armin because we, you know, the whole thing, but he got a haircut recently. Guys, what do you think of this technique here with the haircuts? He's in the chair, and some people do it. I'm not a fan in the chair with the phone. Okay? Yeah, here we go. All right, with the phone is a good technique.

I mean, people do it. I'm not a guy. What about getting the beard trim while looking at the phone there? Unacceptable. Unacceptable, right? I wish the barber had stepped in. Yeah. I'm not a phone during the barber guy, but I mean, I'm exclusively getting the beard.

Obviously, nothing to cut off the top. I'm not on the phone. I'm letting the man work. Yeah. See, that shot I've seen, this shot I've seen, right? Yeah, this makes sense. I still don't do it. I'm also not a top-tier content creator like Armin.

But the phone in the hand while getting the beer trim is, I mean, it's just, you know, I'm not judging. It's just not a technique that I've seen before. We're judge. No, we're judge. Connor over there is judging. That's that bullshit. Yeah, yeah, it is a bullshit. It's a great look.

The quaff. Ever since he went to the quaff, I feel like the aura has gone up plus 5,000. Yeah. I'd pay good money to have a quaff like that. He's phenomenal. What a guy. And he did call us back, so it was nice to reconnect with him. A lot of people shared this video guys on Saturday morning.

This is Fox News reporter Abby Hornacek and Kennedy Blades, tremendous freestyle wrestler, part of RIF. She competed on Saturday and won. Look at this scene over here. She's doing a little like morning Fox News thing and saying like, hey, there's RIF tonight in Tampa, and these gals really know how to wrestle. By the way, tell Kennedy Blades she shouldn't be in there, huh?

tell her she's not good enough. She's not strong enough. Look at this suplex. But also, everyone went crazy over it, and rightfully so. Look at the way in which Kennedy protects Abby Hornacek. Daughter of former New York Knicks coach, and more importantly, Utah Jazz and Philadelphia 76er legend. Jeff Hornacek, look at the way in which she protects her here with the landing. Let's take a look.

Let's take a look. Here's Abby. Okay. Boom. The way she turns at the last second. She is going to show me his signature move. It's called a suplex. Let's try this.

Look at this. All right. This is wild. How does this work? Okay. What do I do? I'm so nervous. Okay.

It's okay. She's got her here. All right. Bang. That is impressive. Do you see the way in which she turned there at the last second? Amazing. I don't think I can be a wrestler.

All right. A lot of pressure on Kennedy in that moment. Teams looking back, freaking out, Fox News. I just got to say, that felt like being thrown off of a skyscraper. and I don't know if I want to do that. Golly. Are you okay? I feel great.

I feel like a million bucks. Frank, you were watching that on Saturday, right? I know that's part of the routine. It is. Fox News in the morning. Got to see what's going on. That was amazing. Great, I mean, great job by Kennedy, great job by Abby,

great promotion for RAF. I'm telling you, man, RIF's got something. Scary stuff. You guys think Kennedy's tough? Yes. Or do you think she should be a home, you know, barefoot making a paella or something? I don't know. That's that bullshit.

What was that? Hey, can we show some love to DJ? DJ gets into the Hall of Fame. That was amazing. Love DJ getting that announcement. Incredible stuff. We talked about Izzy showing him love, but I didn't want to mention it again. I was so happy to see that.

I was so, so happy to see that. And hopefully we'll be able to talk to him. He's a very busy guy. He's gallivanting all over town. But I was so, so happy to see that. Really, really warm my heart because I thought it would be one of those where it's like, oh, is he ever going to get in? This guy deserves it. He absolutely deserves it.

A lot of fighters like to go to Bruce Lee's grave when they go to Seattle. It's just outside of Seattle. Did you guys go, Rick? Nah, not as big of a Bruce Lee fan. What's all the laughter about? I'm not certain. You asked Rick if he went. No, no, I meant like Rick, G.

Did you guys go? Like, I was talking to DC if you were... Hey, Ray. How are you? Anyway, Israel Desaigne went, as did Navajo Sterling. Some really cool pictures here. Also, that's Brandon Lee, buried next to his dad. What's this?

Walking Buckley went too. Let's see his tribute to the great Bruce Lee. Oh, hmm. A bit of a different vibe, right, Frank? What do you make of this vibe? It's not really my vibe. Jekundo was one of the first things as a young martial artist that I read about that really introduced me to what mixed martial arts was.

Jikundo stands for the intercepting fist and it literally means, right, intercepting somebody's attack, right? in between every explosive blow and every explosive maneuver that you stop with your own, right? Bruce Lee was one of the best instructors when it comes to the philosophy of mixed martial arts. And I truly believe that without Jekundo and Bruce Lee's impact to martial arts, that the UFC wouldn't even exist. So with me being here, me and being able to just really be able to be surrounded by his press, presence, right? At his burial, I feel like, man, you know, I didn't complete it's something that's only going to level me up now, you know, so it's a beautiful thing. Respect to Bruce Lee. Can I just say something real quick? I saw a lot of people clowning Joaquin for that, you know,

because it was so different than Izzy's. But I'm happy we played the whole thing because I do think that that was heartfelt. I do think that that was his way of paying homage. So, yeah, I'm happy that we played that. Everyone has their own way of paying respect. Maybe some people vibe more with Izzy's approach, but I do, I mean, he very clearly knows a lot about Bruce Lee and Jit Kundo and his, you know, his mentality, his body of work. Not as bad as just playing the clip of him shadow boxing next to the grave. So, you know what, Frank? I think you should take that back. I do take it back. Yeah. Once I saw more context. So I was like, you know what? This is why I wanted to play the whole thing. This is why I wanted to play the whole Habeeb thing,

too. Maybe just a small suggestion. Okay. Start with the homage and then say, and in respect to that, I'm going to do this thing where I'm shadowboxing next to his grave. It's very fair. To put a cherry on it? Just start with the story. Or even just introduce it. Or like, hey, I'm Joaquin Buckley and I'm about to shadow box next to this person's grave and his son's grave.

At a respect. And I'll cover why I'm doing that once I'm done shadowboxing. Yeah. I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that constructive criticism. Thanks. I think that's good. You know, context is everything, as they say in the business.

I did want to mention that Alex Purr is en route to 250, 265 maybe. Here he is showing us how he's looking. He was in Seattle, shaved head. Rumors of him being on the next UFC, what is it, UFC 5, 6? G.C. definitely knows. Yeah, UFC 6. Yeah, there it is. What do you think of heavyweight Alex Perra?

Fuck, man. He was scary when he was in the low 200s. Now he's 245. Are you kidding me? He looks... He looks... He looks... He looks big.

He looks ready to go. We're only like two months away from that now. Golly. Less? No. A little more, yeah. By the time we come back, we're going to be two months away.

Yeah. Crazy. Amazing. Speaking of crazy, what about this boxing match that was announced over the weekend? Tommy Fuhrer. versus Big Eddie Hall in a misfits

boxing match June 13th AO Arena what are they calling it Beauty versus the Beast this is some faceoff right here you in

sure is it boxing yeah boxing yeah yeah no no no I'm in I'm in yep I'll be there Eddie Eddie Hall will be on the show tomorrow the Beast himself to talk about this and why he's doing it.

Maybe that's not your thing, and I can understand. If you're a boxing fan, this is definitely your thing. It was announced this morning that Xander Zayez is going to be going up against Geron Boots Ennis, June 27th, New York City, to be exact, Brooklyn, Barclay Center, big-time fight, unified, super welterweight fight. This was the fight that was supposed to be Virgil

Ortiz against Boots, and that's a great fight. But I got to say, just like I said to Todd DeBo, this is a tremendous plan B and perhaps the first byproduct of the top ranked DeZone deal. Zander Zayas versus Boots Ennis is amazing. Huge step up for Zandersaias. Obviously, big time fight for boots,

which people have been clamoring for, 154 pounds. What a fight. We going, guys? Road trip, bro. You can crash in my crib. How far are you from there? 20 minutes?

Walking distance? 20 minute walk. Oh, my gosh. If we catch a, if we catch a, Uber, it's eight. We can hop on the subway, man. We can hop you back on the, on the old MTA. That's a tremendous fight. I love that fight. I love everything about that fight. I'm there. I'm not kidding. I plan on being there. Sandor Zia is our guy. He's a boy in the back after the Super Bowl. Unbelievable. Got to be there to support. All right. Do we have any super chats, Mr. Frankie?

I think I saw one or two. What do we got? What do we got? First one. And I do want to say, sorry for going a bit long. This is more for the crew. You know, we're taking some time off and everything got screwed up with the stream, no fault of my own. So who the fuck is we? We go a little bit longer. You know, this is old school. There was once a time Rick and I were there till like 738. Really? We're coming up on that.

Yeah, all right. What else is? That was only one day a week. Classic. Glad. Glad. Walked up the hill. Both way. Yeah. What else, Frankie? What else? What else? We haven't even started. Shout out, Ariel. Go Bosnia and Herzegov. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes.

hoping they get it done tomorrow against Italy and punch their ticket to the World Cup, not just for the team, but for all of my Bosnian family and friends. Ariel, if Bosnia gets the win, I'm inviting you to the Bay Area. Bring the boys to come and try my mother's authentic Bosnian food. My house is open. Are we going? Well, Led, thank you for that invite. We do appreciate it.

I'd love to try your mom's Bosnian food. I will say, though, full transparency, I was rooting against you on Thursday. Bosnia was playing Wales, and I love the Welsh. team, in particular Brennan Johnson, my guy, Nico Williams, Nottingham Forrest, both of them

missed back-to-back PKK guys. Oh, it was tough. At the same time, you guys were locked in on Ireland. I couldn't get the Ireland stream, but I was feeling for you and I was watching

the commentary on Fop Mob, so it updated in real time, and both teams that I was rooting for in PKs, both lost. Obviously, I was gutted for PTC, very, very disappointed for him. It was awful.

But Wales, Wales was up. They were up 2-1 in P-Ks, and then here comes Brennan, and then here comes Nico, and they both missed. And then Bosnia wins. Great story for Bosnia, rooting for you guys. In fact, if you win, by the way, I just want to let you know, I'm pretty sure the winner of Bosnia, Italy is playing Canada in their first game. I'm pretty sure it's like June – it might even be June 14th, to be honest. I'm almost 100% certain.

The date I'm not certain of, but I'm pretty sure that you're playing Canada in Toronto in that. first game. So good luck to you, but then to hell with you. If in fact you passed. I do think it would be their first time in the World Cup. I'm almost 100% sure. So amazing stuff. What else, Frankie? What else? Ariel and boys in the back suggest for a future fight feast. Next time UFC goes to Canada, why not visit a Canadian institution that is Tim Hortons, eh? You're always on point, Jake. In fact, wasn't it just last week, guys, that I brought some Tim Hortons, timbits. You certainly did.

And you guys mocked me, bit them, started chewing, and then spit them out. Vosiferously. Someone almost broke a tooth. There were a couple of days old, but I thought that they were...

David, it's the proverbial is this member's only chat going to affect the stream situation. Gosh, I'll never forget that moment. We'll never let you forget that moment. You'll never forget the timbits, or that one time you... Stream, stream.

The stream. What about the timbits? Have you guys ever tried actual fresh timbits? I have and I love them. They are good. Tim Horton's coffee, tremendous too. It's way better than Duncan. Yeah, I've been to Tim Hortons in the city before.

Not the same. I've been in Canada as well. Same. What else, Frankie? What else? PFL pit was fire. Kayla Harrison was so nice. PFL pit was not bad.

It was a nice little tight show. I'm going to talk more about PFL tomorrow. I'm going to save it for tomorrow. I have some things to share regarding the PFL, but I thought it was a nice show. Johnny Eblen looked great. Impa looked great. I felt bad for Dalton.

Brian Battle debut. Ariani Lipski debut as well. Was it her debut? She did win. BFL, yeah. Yeah. What else, Frankie? What else?

Why do reporters ask tough questions, and as soon as Dana gets angry, they shrink in a shell. Not trying to be negative, but come on, they could do better sometimes. It's intense. It's... It made a fucking break.

It's intimidating. It's intimidating. I don't know. I'm too hungover to deal with these people tonight. That one comes in really hot. It's the favorite part. Who gives a shit? I'm too hung over for this shit.

Gosh, how many do we have of Dana at this point? Too many. Do we have a Dana? It's a great point. Yeah? He's so dropable. That's fucking illegal. Yeah, that's an old school.

Federal fucking prison. I used to have a Jake one. Yeah, yeah. What are the three from Saturday? Oh, my gosh. Who gives a shit? Yeah. Shut the fuck up and watch the fights.

Yeah. Give me a fucking break. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think the middle one is my favorite. Shut the fuck up and... Yeah, yeah, that one. What else, Frankie? What else?

Can we get Nico Price on for a proper send-off? UFC did him dirty, not letting him say buy on the mic. Dog won me $500 versus Tim Means 2019. Wow. Is that the only reason why you gave her? And by the way, I don't mean to speak over you there, but... I think you did. You're right.

I am right You were there Like I don't want Michael Kesa To feel like I should have done this and that There are people with You know Ear pieces Hey go over to Nika

I don't know It's a tough spot It's a tough spot I'm not gonna sit here and be like You know They should have done this or that That was the Michael Kesa Retirement fight

Yeah and also remember It wasn't supposed to be Nico Price It was supposed to be Carlston Harris Right So I mean like Nico Price just happened To come a part of it

Yeah maybe like One question. He did have like 20 UFC fights. There's just so much going on, right? That was the video package and the cry. There's a lot going on. Where do you squeeze it in? I feel like there was just one, there was one moment that I thought I saw. I can't say if I was certain, but it felt like he did like was like,

was like, yo, do you see, let me get a question. Oh, really? Yeah, like I saw from the above view and then he walked out during the package. Also, I've been there before when someone's like, you know. We know, yeah. You saw that? Yeah. They're telling you New Year.

Like, they turn off the mic. I don't know what to do. It's very awkward. No, you're on fucking global television, and there's a producer in New Year's screaming to get off. They're telling you, if you ask a follow-up, you're dead. Yeah. Two questions.

Don't ask a follow-up. And those are producers you actually have to respect, not, you know, me and Rick. Yeah, no, that's crazy. That's crazy. By the way, I did get a picture of Casey O'Neill's gloves, because maybe she heard you guys. here we go Yeah I actually grabbed one from the portrait

to show that it is that it is the two left-handed gloves as well Let's see, let's see Oh we don't have that, okay Oh we did we had it one by there it is So what Oh yeah How can you tell?

I actually can't Oh okay I just want to prove That those are the two gloves she was wearing And then here they are The two lefties Yeah Actually how can you tell

Probably could cut her another thumbhole, I'm sure. I was trying to see them from... Yeah, yeah, that side angle. Can we rotate? I believe it. Of course, of course. What else, Frankie? What else?

Grasso hit DJ's move right in front of him in Seattle that he was finally at because he wasn't there at the first Seattle card. What do you do? This is more of a joke, right? It has to be. What part, the Superjointed? chat or Frank reading an entire paragraph and then you'd be like

What else, Frankie? What else? Shout out Frank. Thank you. I appreciate that. I love Frank. We getting Dylan Dennis back on the show before his match with Armand? That's that bullshit. Yeah, I mean, according to Armand, it's not a done deal, so...

What is that? What is that? What was that? What was that? What was that? Were you trying to say something or what? Did you just snort? What's going on back there? He let out a big sigh, but I don't think he knew his mic was off.

Is it because it's 603 and you've got plans or something? It's just the whole Dylan Dennis thing. Oh, what? Tell us. Will we see him on the show again? Oh, right, right. Who is the check? What else, Frankie? What else?

In regards to the Macy K.O. Considering her history, I'm pretty sure what she was having was an absent seizure. You should get Brian Sutterer on to discuss. I know I thought of that. that as well. There's just, you know, it's a short and weak and there's so much to get to. I mean, we could do that. We could do that. I can ask him. But I did think of that as well. In the moment, I thought, this isn't good. It was not good. After the fact people can make memes and joke about it, but it was scary. I've never seen someone out there eyes open after a combo like that,

getting rocked, and then getting choked out. Like, think about what the brain is going through in that moment, the CO and then the strangulation, essentially. What else, Frankie? What else? What do you think of Mike Beltran's timing on the Macy COS slash? Sorry. Also weird that the doctor didn't touch her for a while. Yeah, I'm not going to pretend to be a medical expert. And I didn't think that, I didn't think that Mike was like super late or anything like that. It all happened so fast, so fast. I had no problem with it. What else, Frankie? What else? Shout out to the boys in the back. my buddy and I were able to get a pick with them. What a way to cap off a great night.

Thank you. You know Seattle's finest? I don't know if I do, but... Were you guys getting a lot of love? Yeah, yeah, definitely some love from the fans in Seattle. All of them, super nice, fun to talk to. I mean, we had some people come to the shoot, come to the muck, baby, and hang out for a little bit as well at the sports book there.

Yeah, everyone that came up was super nice. What else, Frankie? What else? After some Googling and some quick math at his current average fight time, McKinney would need to fight 171 times to match Edgar's Octagon time. Wow. Wow. Let's start with a bonus, huh? For goodness sakes.

Give me a fucking break. What else, Frankie? What else? Dana's answer to the AI artist, one of the reasons why I love the UFC. Ariel only makes a huge deal about it because he's a pro wrestling fan. Chill, bro. Really? Oh, this guy again?

What is it? What is being a pro wrestling fan have to do with just like? a shit answer. How about that? I mean, it's also just a shit take from this guy. Shit take, shit answer. It's all shit. That's why I love the UFC because they're low effort. Yeah. They don't care about it. Or because, like, the owner swears and he, like, doesn't give an F.

It's very edgy, you know. There is something about that, right? Like, even, like, my brother-in-law, like, oh, I don't really watch UFC, but that day in a white, he's something else. I'm like, okay. What else, Frankie? What else? Was telling my boys all week, I just wanted to find Rick and G.C. in Seattle, and Woody, you know it? You were at the same gate. I manifested this. Ryan is the man, longtime friend of the show, and he sent me the picture, actually. This is the guy that fought, and he did the who me?

Yes. Yeah, he came and said, what's up? Yeah, it was amazing. Legend. Legend of the game. He said he's recovering from a shoulder injury, and he should be back soon. Ryan is a very loyal viewer-slash-listener, and he sent me that pick. another thing that warmed my heart on Saturday. What else, Frankie? What else?

That was actually the last one. Oh, okay. It was very super. Wow. You don't usually... Yeah, I usually would hear when someone says it's the last one, but I was too busy talking. Okay. I wanted to show something real quick, but maybe you guys didn't get the message.

Or maybe you did? No, we're efforting. Okay. Let me just circle back with you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, tomorrow on the program, actually, it's a very interesting. day working on some other guests. I hear his microphone, by the way, maybe he's...

We're just efforting back here. Hold on just one second. We'll circle back. Eddie Hall is going to join us, as I said. Johnny Eblen is going to join us. Lance Gibson Jr., the man who put the muckle chute casino and resort on the map is going to join us, perhaps one or two

others. And also, very interesting chat in studio. We will have Vladislav Harris Kavich. This may not be a name that you know off the top of the dome right away, but surely you have heard of his story during the Olympic Games. He was the Ukrainian skeleton racer who had the helmet with pictures of fallen Ukrainian athletes, and he wanted to honor them. And the IOC said, you cannot do that. He was banned from competing. He is in New York.

I spoke about him. It kind of went viral. He's going to be joining us in studio. I look forward to that chat so very much. I'm really, really looking forward to that. Others potentially joining us as well. I did want to also mention soon to come. On Arielhuwani.com is the merch that we've been speaking about for over a year. Do you have it? Yeah.

Look at that. Uncrowned merch. It is here. It has arrived. Hopefully by Monday it will be up there. If you want to represent the number one unbiased team in all of combat sports, grab yourself a hoodie, grab yourself a shirt. Is that fire or what?

Yeah. How's it feel? How's it feel? How's it feel? You just put it on, right? Cozy. Cozy? Comfy. It's like a nice hug. Bit surprised you weren't wearing it all day over there.

How many times? Yeah. It's actually warm, man. It's like 72 outside. I don't even know if we got the AC going. You were sweating earlier in the show. What was going on there? What was going on?

There was a bit of a glist, and I was like, is the AC on it? No, it is. It is. It is. It was a stream. Oh, it was the stream. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Me screwing up the stream before an arm in interviews, an all-time blunder. But we survived. And we've got hoodies and shirts. And also an old-school shirt is coming out as well. The original Halwani No shirt. That's soon-to-come, aerialhawai.com. I think we're at 20% off on the site.

That might be old. That might be new. Anyway, check it out and get yourself. When it's out, I'll let you know when it's out. But I was very excited about that because I feel like I've been talking about the Uncrown merch for quite some time. And, you know, there was once a time that Habib came studio old MMA hour days and we gave

an MMA fighting shirt and he would wear that shirt all the time. So I'd love to invite him on. We could talk about all sorts of things and he can wear the uncrown merch too. What do you guys think? All right. Time to go. 609. What do you guys think Rick is

doing right now? Do you think he's watching us? Can we put a code word at the end of this five hour show and see if he gives it to us like we do to Frank? He is texting, man. He is? Oh, what? He's texting.

me about work-related stuff. As we speak? Rick, are you watching? Text, bro. Shoot a text, man. Yeah. He's texting you about work-related stuff as we speak.

He's probably like, why is the video split two? Did he ask that question yet? No, I texted him and was just like, give me your thoughts on what we should do with the double video. No, just leave it up. Well, yeah, of course we're going to leave it up.

We leave up our warts for the world to see. Just right now, they're the exact same name, thumbnail, everything. I say just do part one, part two. I say we do part one, part two, but we update the thumbnail in the first one, and it's you and you're like... Just write... Why the... did I click that? Here it goes row.

Yeah, you... You smashing the big red button. Sweating. I'm telling you, the way in which they position it, it's so clear. It's like, it's like members-only chat. It never says anything about, like, members-only stream. It doesn't make that very clear. I thought that that was...

They do it on purpose. Yeah. God, what a feeling. It's glad it wasn't me. Yeah, no. Can you imagine? Whatever else is it? Oh, shucks.

Oh, yeah? All right. I'll remember this. The fire and brimstone that would have laid down about us. Wow. This is incredible slander. Thank you very much to everyone who joined us today. Armantarukian, Mosita Tama,

Alex Pantoja, Joe Piper, Michael Keesa. And, of course, King Casey O'Neill. What a day it has been. Thanks to you. Thanks to that. Back to Mars. what the hell is a miss in peace everybody what the hell is this