The Ariel Helwani Show - Arman Tsarukyan, Petr Yan, Joe Pyfer, Sergio Pettis, reaction to Conor McGregor suspension, On The Nose

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show with On The Nose, answering questions about Ronda Rousey's return and Gina Carano as a potential opponent, whether Alex Pereira vs. Jon Jones is good for Tom Aspinall, future projects for Uncrowned Films, and more (07:34).Petr Yan is back and believes he deserves the next UFC bantamweight title shot. He talks about Merab Dvalishvili's UFC 320 win, being willing to fight the champion on Dec. 6, only being 50% in their first fight due to an injured hand, and more (32:53).Joe Pyfer joins following his UFC 320 win, discussing dealing with a hand injury before the fight, why his game plan was so wrestling-heavy in the first round, his desire for a top 15 fighter next, his new nickname, and more (1:01:08).Sergio Pettis returns to talk about his highlight-reel knockout at PFL Dubai, what Khabib said to him after the win, training his spinning techniques, wanting to be PFL bantamweight champion, taking a boxing match in India, fighting for Rizin, and more (1:29:16).Ariel and the Boys in the Back react to breaking news of Conor McGregor's suspension for violating the whereabouts policy of the UFC's anti-doping program, and answer more On The Nose question, including Ariel's tortured fandom (1:50:52).Arman Tsarukyan is our final guest of the day, previewing his fight against Dan Hooker, explaining what will happen if they cross paths before the fight, reacting to Hooker saying it's on-sight, before talking about training with Khamzat Chimaev, his viral food videos, and more (2:30:58).The show closes with your Super Chats (3:10:25).

Hey, everyone. Thank you for joining the show once again. Thank you for checking us out. We appreciate you very much. We have a great show lined up for you guys today. Four great guests, a special edition of On the Nose, excited as always as we continue to unpack a very busy weekend in combat sports. I did want to mention at the top of the show that I do the show today with, I was going to say, a bit of a heavy heart, but an extremely heavy heart. You probably know that today is is October 7th. You probably know that two years ago today was an awful, awful day in the history of humanity. You know, there are two dates that will forever stick with me that will forever bring me back to a different place and send chills down my spine. The first, of course,

September 11, 2001, the second, October 7, 2023. I'll never forget that morning. I'll never forget that day. And for a lot of people, we'll never forget everything that has transpired. afterwards. That was a nightmare. And it's a nightmare that a lot of us are continuing to live, excuse me, whether it's from afar or directly impacted. And I say it's a nightmare and an awful day for humanity because I know a lot of people have been affected. Lives have changed. Lives have been lost since that day. And I do this show today to acknowledge the fact that on that day, over 1,200 people were not just murdered, but they were raped, they were beaten up, they were taken hostage. Some of those people are still being held hostage.

Latest count is 48. Half of those are not even alive anymore being held against their will. And I acknowledge the fact that in the aftermath of that, thousands of people have died, thousands of people have been um have been have been used as as you know pawns in this awful war casualties lives ruined lives cut short nightmare starvation heartache everything i struggled to come up with the appropriate words because i know it's a very sensitive subject and my heart breaks for everyone everyone in the entire region, not just one specific group of people, everyone, everyone who didn't want anything to do with this, anyone who didn't ask for any of this, people who were born into this, a conflict that dates back thousands of years. And I hope and pray that at some

point, and maybe the developments of the last couple of days, can lead us to a path and a direction of peace and harmony because I know just speaking for myself and people close to me, And I'm sure everyone who works on this show, all we want in life is peace, harmony in this region, in regions across the world that are, you know, that are affected by conflict. But I cannot do this show today without acknowledging what transpired on that day, on that, on that awful, awful day and what has continued to transpire afterwards. And so my thoughts are with everyone whose lives were affected, friends and family, colleagues, loved ones, lives who were cut short. that day and in the subsequent days pray that there is peace to come pray that there is harmony to come that that there is rebuilding to come and certain things will never be able to go back to the way they once were or even be rebuilt i acknowledge that um but for me this is a very sad and somber

day and i cannot start the show and just pretend like it's something that didn't happen so hopefully you understand that respect that and uh and And again, hopefully that we can, in the near future, move towards a world and a life where things like the stuff that happened on October 7th, the atrocities that happened on October 7th, and the stuff that happened subsequently will never happen again. May everyone whose lives were lost, may their memory be a blessing, and may those who lost their lives rest in peace. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the area of Hawaii show.

2007, 2025. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be with you on this Choochoo Tuesday, a four pack of guests coming your way. And they come from the entire world of MMA. We stress the world in about 25 minutes time. We'll be joined by Piro Yan. Is he next for Muraab Duwally Shvili? Is he next in line for a UFC bantamweight title shot? And will that fight happen in two months, two months from today, to be exact. That's the final UFC pay-per-view of 2025, just so happens to be the final UFC pay-per-view of the ESPN era. Will that happen? We'll talk to him about it. After that interview, we'll talk to Joe Pfefer, who had a big win this past Saturday against Abis Magamatov, huge win for him, solid finish, great finish, and he's always

a fun guy to talk to, so we look forward to that chat with body bags, Joe Piper, at That's 2.30. We're going to be joined by Sergio Pettis, who had the incredible knockout of one Magomed Magomedov on Friday afternoon. Friday afternoon here in America, Friday evening in Dubai. A big win for him. Comeback when he was losing the first round it out of the fire, so to speak. And perhaps he'll be next for a PFL bantamweight title shot in 2026. We'll round out the day with Armin Surukian, who we know by now will return to action on the 22nd of November in Qatar. against Dan Hooker. Can't wait for that fight. And by the time the fight happens, it will be about 19 months since Armand's last fight. He's done some grappling matches, pit bull, Ben Henderson. You know, he's had some activities, so to speak, but nothing like, you know, a UFC fight. And obviously he was supposed to fight back in January against Islamachev had to pull out on the Friday before the fight. And so it's been a very weird year for him, but I'm very happy that he's getting this fight. I think it's a fantastic match.

And Dana White said on Saturday that the winner will be the number one contender at 155 pounds, presumably fighting the winner of Ilya Tuporia versus either Justin Gaghi or Patty Pimblit. No word just yet, but it does seem as though we are moving in the direction of a return for Ilya to Porea because he did just post on social media today a little teaser, perhaps, of something to come. Here it is. On his Instagram, the king is coming, nobody is safe, line them up, the takeover continues. That feels like a fight announcement is nearing type of post.

All right, like I said, special Tuesday edition of On the Nose, why Tuesday? Number one, tomorrow's show, way too pack. Number two, I have been toying with the idea of doing the show on, excuse me, doing this segment on Tuesday rather than Wednesday, especially after pay-per-views because I feel like there are more pressing things to talk about on the Tuesday than the Wednesday. The Wednesday feels a little removed from the weekend. So let's try this out, shall we? Time now for everyone's favorite segment of the week.

It is time. It's time for all the nose. Okay. James the Tuna is first. Hi all, I had the pleasure of meeting Yuri at the Tokyo Dome this past May. I thought he was incredibly nice. I also thought he was very kind and generous toward the Japanese fans who asked for photos and autographs. I'm genuinely not a religious or spiritual person, but I honestly felt some sort of energy when meeting him. Very hard to explain, but it was there. I get it. I get it. First off, when you

interviewed him in person, did you feel that sort of energy? Yes, he was in studio, he was stoic, he was very powerful. And also with uncrowned films being a thing, any chance of getting a yury doc, I think it's fair to say he's the most interesting man in combat. There's like a list of 150 things that I'd love to do, just getting started. Again, we announced yesterday, Uncrowned films, Casey Leiden, joining the squad, BKFC dog coming out next week, the first of many, many different things that we'll be doing with him for the channel and for all of you. So yeah, a Yeri one would be phenomenal. Speaking of Yeri, how are you doing, Mr. G.C. after what happened yesterday, is anything different in your life? Are you feeling differently? Is there anything you want to

say about the interaction with Yeri? No, I'm good, man. I'm good. I feel like you're handling it well. Yeah. What am I supposed to do? you know, cheered on my guy, he didn't appreciate it. It's okay. Do you think that he is feeling bad about his response? No, not at all. I don't think he's thought about it since he left the gas station. Since it stopped playing. I actually think he stopped thinking about it halfway through the clip. That's a good way. Is this almost over? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's all good. No regrets, though. Absolutely no regrets. I think a lot of people are seeing us doing watch parties for the first time, but

have been doing these for three years now and nothing has changed over the course of three years. Like, Sean O'Malley clip, we freaked out about. Max Holloway just in Gagee, we freaked out about. Ilya Teporia, Max Holloway,

we freaked out about. I feel our reactions are pretty in line with the stakes of the fight and the way that the fight finishes. I couldn't agree more. We'll continue to do the exact same thing. That's a great... That's great news.

I don't want you to do. change any of it that's that i would be the first saying this feel it wasn't and also most people watch the show know that you are a big fan of his um here's hose was yeah that's a good point right right yes it is definitely team blackjack from from here on now for sure um and you could tell him that tomorrow he'll be on the show so that's good news uh ariel with the resurgence of your documentary series getting new life this wednesday i'm curious to know what are the chances these docks make their way to the UFC. I don't think they need our docks, to be honest.

And let's walk before we run here. I mean, we've just done one and we haven't even released it yet. But listen, we're open to collaborating with anyone. You know, we're staunch supporters of co-promotion and working together in harmony. So let's see. Berle-Perez says, thoughts on the smashing machine, bad opening week. Guys, have you seen this? Have you seen the reports of the low? Let me ask our resident cinephile expert, Mr. New York, Rick, who's really tapped into the scene. How bad are these

numbers? And what does it really mean? They're not horrific because the projections, I think, were in the 8 to 12 range. And they ended up somewhere in the 5 to 6 range. So, like, certainly not what they were looking for. But I don't think they expected this type of film to recoup its money immediately anyway. Hopefully good word of mouth can get people to go over the subsequent weeks and things like that. But, you know, the Rock put out a statement, which, you know, I think was pretty poignant in terms of, look, this is a project that he wanted to do and felt like his performance was, you know, worthwhile. And it's not necessarily about the box office return. Now, certainly you have to imagine that none of the executives involved, nor none of the people

who participated in it, whether it be the director of Benny Safdi or any of the actors wanted it to underperform. But at the same time, this feels like a movie that has some relevance and maybe some staying power and maybe a longer life. So yeah, look, it's not a popcorn flick. It's really not a popcorn flick. So you kind of have to just live with

what the results are. Just to be clear, no chance that affects its chances of winning awards, right? Zero. Zero. Like that doesn't... All the Oscar winners are like films you've never seen.

Sure, sure, sure. Do you think he will be nominated? Yes, absolutely. Do you think he will win? Don't know. Too early to say? There are some movies coming out. toward the end of the year that I think are going to give stiff competition.

Billy, Adam Sandler and Happy Gilmore, too. Exactly. No, Benny Safty. Benny Safty and Happy Good. But he will be nominated, and I think he has a pretty decent shot of winning. It's one of those dramatic roles that I think people wanted him to do for so long after having done the popcorn flicks. Like, The Rock has made the money making the popcorn flicks previously. I don't think it will hurt his negotiating ability or his leverage.

I don't think it will hurt Benny Safty. think it'll hurt Emily Blunt. I don't think it'll hurt the studio. But certainly they would have like to recoup, no doubt. But I don't think this will have any long-term effect. And it's a little bit disappointing. But at the same time, if you have never watched Smashing Machine, the documentary, I could see why this wouldn't necessarily appeal, right? Like, I would understand why it might be. Perhaps, perhaps these people should have watched the documentary first and then, no. Just educate yourself. You know? Okay, here's a question from James. Yes, I agree.

Hey, Al, question for Pizzi. When you know a pay-per-view or big event is coming up, how do you manage your sleep schedule for that day? And for the next few days as well, I genuinely don't understand how European fans watch these events live. Well, look, to break the fourth wall here, we did change the protocol this week.

No, I know. And I feel like you've been sort of catching up. Like you've been a dog chasing its tail ever since. We screwed it up. We screwed it up. I'm sorry. No, no, no. It's nothing to do with you.

But usually, I have no protocol. That's right. That's right. Thank you. Thank you. You know, I just kind of, uh, a raw dog it. I just go through the day. I watch the pay-per-view and then I show up and I do the show and then Sunday plays out as it plays out. Elaine removes herself from the house because I'm like a fucking lunatic. But this week, I was like, you know what? I'm going to have a pre-nap before the UFC event. And I execute the pre-napp. It was one hour, 45 minutes long. I woke up and I watched the fights. And if you don't mind me saying, I thought I was a lot more energetic on our Saturday post show than I usually am. So I think this is going to be the protocol going forward.

Yeah, I thought you're fantastic. Yeah, very happy to be sponsored by any coffee company or anything that wants to come my way for Saturday because, you know, perhaps Celsius. Yeah, actually, yeah, I already have one. What am I talking about? I take it back. Yeah. Thank you.

It was actually, Celsius is a massive part of me getting through Saturday. I forgot to mention that. Thank you, Celsius. What time do you take the nap at? I took the nap this time, Connor Brooks, at 9 p.m. Oh, wow, you go down at 9 p.m. Yeah. Until?

Well, this was 10.45. Yeah. So it was awake for the first fight. I mean, you inform me, as I'm telling you guys, new protocol. You were like, I nap this time, didn't the week before. Massive difference. The power nap is the difference between champions and never was. I'm a napper every time.

And the one time I missed it, we saw what happened on the Canelo Crawford one. Was that the one? Oh, wow. Yeah, instead of napping, I was gallivanting all over Manhattan, watching that, drinking coffees at 9, upsetting my stomach. That's bullshit, yeah. We're back to the power naps. We have to really lock back into the procedures at hand. Here's Nemesh.

Hello, Ariel, and crew. Long-time listener, I must say the show is a staple to my life and really helped me as I move to a new city, Charlottesville. I just, Charlottesville, aren't they known for, is it Charlottesville? UVA, that's what they're known for. Okay. I just want a moment to give everyone their flowers, and honestly

I love looking forward to the banter amongst you all between guests and the beginning and end of episodes. So does he fast forward through all the guests? I know I do. Here's Kyle, Ariel, which of these possible heavyweight fights are you most interested in and which one is the most

likely to happen? Okay, Jones versus Aspinall, Jones versus Pereira, Aspinall versus Pereira. I really think Jones Pereira has a good chance of happening. Call me crazy. And then the winner fights Aspinall. How about that? So I think I put Jones versus Pereira over Jones versus Aspenol. And then I don't think Pereira goes up to fight Aspinall right away. But as we said yesterday, a lot has changed in John's life in the last four days. So let's see if he even does want to come back. Here's PZ. Hi, Halwani. It's Is there really any chance that Rhonda fights in the UFC again? Well, I have said it's a thing, meaning she's not just working out for the sake of working out.

Now, is she tied to the UFC? No. I mean, conceivably, PFL could go and offer her $100 million. I don't think she's necessarily tied to them. Now, she does seemingly have a lot of history with them and a great relationship with them, so you would think. But I've never said, like, her coming back to the UFC is a done deal. I'm just saying this is a thing. Is there any, if there is any chance of a comeback, I think there's only one opponent that would peak Rousey's interest in making a return.

Gina Carrano. Now, Gina Carano's last fight was in 2009. There was a period. There was a period in time where the UFC, if you guys recall, I don't know, 17, 18, they, they, no, maybe it was before that because Rhonda, left in 16. So maybe it was 16 or so where they tested the waters on this one. Does anyone remember when Gina Carano came on my show in the ESPN era and she told a story about meeting Dana and the meeting didn't go very well. And then Dana texted, well, thought he was texting

someone about her, but by mistake sent the text to her. I sure do. That was a, do you remember the aftermath of that interview? I sure do. Oh my dear. That's chapter 17 of Highway to Hawani. Refresh the memory here. What was the aftermath? You know, you just... Okay.

Well, basically, um, as she told the story, they met, it didn't go great. And then he texted something that was not very complimentary about her, but texted it to her. Yeah.

And then we had a show and we had a replay show. Hey, Honor, Jordan might have been involved in all of those too, but I'm going to, I'm going to do my show. a favor and not tag him in on this one unless he wants to be tagged in. And then there was this whole thing where we had to get the

UFC side of it. All of a sudden we had to get their side of it on a story that was told on the show. And then there was a decision made to pull the show, the replay show on ESPN2. It was a mess. Oh, my God. You remember any of this on Air Jordan? I remember the polling of the show because it had already

been cut and we wasted a whole eight hours of our day redoing the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All because Because, I mean, to be honest, if I'm going to be a thousand percent honest, it's all because I think no one wanted to upset him. But, I mean, it was. Yeah. Anyway, can we continue, please? We're trying, you know, we're trying, peace and love. Peace and love. I think the fact that Disney recently settled the wrongful termination, bodes well. I understand the fight would have to take place under Paramount. I personally think that Crown hasn't fought in 2009, just for the record. But it's not a bad idea. I mean, who knows? Let's see. Let's see. P.S. Take it easy on. Frank, the comedic timing on his drop last week was hilarious when you were talking about trying not to swear and he hit you with your, that's F and BS drop. That was gold. I try not to swear myself and really appreciate your efforts not to. That was just really funny. Keep up the

good work, Ariel Boys in the back and the rest of the crew. So there you have it, Frank. I think my kid wrote that one. That window is fake, says, I'm sorry, but what is going on? Did I hear you seriously say it is good for Tom if John comes back and fights Alex? That is an all-time more say why tell me tell me tell me what okay i saw a lot of people say like oh if john doesn't come back and fight aspinall he's a he's a whatever first of all he had the opportunity to fight aspinall he didn't take that opportunity he was offered a gigantic bag to fight aspinall and he said thanks but no thanks okay so what's better for tom john comes back fights Alex and maybe he's feeling himself with a big win and or if he just stays retired tell me what's better for tom

staying retired nothing happens he's retired comes back maybe he feels you know what i beat this guy and you haven't looked good against surreal gun and jolting all made i'm going to beat your ass too that's what i mean obviously option number one would be to fight him but he has shown no interest he was paid a lot of money and i could almost assure you the ufc ain't giving him that money back right they're not offering that so that's what i mean by it what's better for tom to be in a division that has zero contenders, zero stars, zero draws, or to have all of a sudden Alex Pereira and John Jones vying to be the number one contender in his weight class. This is, what's good for the goose is good for the, what is it, the gander? Gander. Yeah. Rising tide. Lifts all boats. All of

a sudden, now the heavyweight division in boxing. You get a couple of drives. Now everyone's talking about the heavyweight division. You have no draws. No one's talking about the heavyweight division. I stand very firmly on business in this regard. I don't know if that makes any sense. Hunter Biden's crack pipe, I'm madly in love with Veronica Hardy and I don't care who hears it. Wait a second.

Who wrote this? Actually, it's probably not a great idea for Dan Hardy to hear that. Also, my wife. Don't want to poke those bears. Okay, that's two people I'd really prefer didn't hear that I'm head over heels in love with Veronica Hardy.

But as for the rest of the world, wait, my children probably wouldn't appreciate it. Fuck, I'm sorry. I need to reconsider this entire. thing. The more time that goes by, the list grows of people who under no circumstances should hear this, but I do. I love her. HBCP is

Frank's alter ego. I don't I didn't say that. I know, I just did. Can we say what happened? That's his name on Xbox Live. When he plays it on David. Jamal 2020. Congrats on Uncrowned Films. Are the

documentaries going to be free? Of course. Does Frank love heavy metal? Going to shore. Is Frank love a six snare? Yeah. I feel like you're looking. This is getting dicey here. You're searching.

Yeah, it's getting a little. Okay, it's a little too close. How is this dicey? There's nothing dicey about it. You're saying it's doicy made it doicy. No, it's getting dicey. What is it getting dicey here? Fourth ball getting broken too hard?

What? on the nose next question okay this guy has asked a lot of questions oh oh oh i mean this name is crazy but i don't oh uh hunter biden's crack pipe was uh okay this guy's name is gc's gay roommate oh okay oh i don't know hey ariel i have a small suggested have a suggestion have you considered maybe putting the on the no segment on a short hiatus. Last week it seemed like a lot of the questions were frustrating or irritating, and honestly, I agreed that many of them were pretty ridiculous.

But when I heard Crazy Kev catch a stray, it made me think the segment might need a bit of a reset. I hope I didn't take what was said too personally as it felt like an unnecessary casualty in the moment. Maybe it's time to take a break from the segment. No, I don't think so. We're switching days. That's all it needed.

It made it sound like, is that Crazy Kev? I don't know. Why would he take it personally? Those GCs gave him. I think he asked the question, and I got mad. I know, but he's like, I don't want to take it personally. Take what personally? Wasn't a personal attack at you?

Speaking of which, Cori says, hello. My condolences to GC after that experience with Yuri yesterday. Do we have a video of GC reacting live? It would be hilarious. Also, who would you match Khalil up with next? I was thinking maybe a Johnny Walker rematch. Not bad. Get his W back.

But other than that, don't need to be seeing him take me. more heavy K-O losses. Yeah, it's true. Walker, well, I'd be down for that, or even the Ming-Yang fight. I still think they're high on him and, you know, they're both coming off losses. Do we have video of G.C. reacting? No, but can I just say that I attempted because, like, it got tweeted out by, you know, uncrowned aerial Jedi. Everyone, everyone clipped it off. In the moment, I was like, man, hopefully we can just bury this and talk about it and just keep moving on with our lives. By the time I opened Twitter, five minutes later, it was posted by every single account who's getting aggregated. So I tried to rewatch the clip again. I couldn't finish it.

I was like, this is too uncomfortable. I had to flip out of it. The amount of text that I got from friends that are not MMA fans that I guess saw on social that were like giving me condolences as if like I lost a loved one or like took like a big, a big loss in my life. It was astounding. That footage does exist, but did your parents see it? No, no, no, no. And I hope they don't. I hope they don't. They're still a proud mother and father of their son. I think that opinion might change if they... Perfect, right. Let's keep it that way. Colin asks

if Rhonda were to come back, which of these opponents would get you the most excited? Peña, Tate, or Carrano? Seems like a lot of Gina Carano mentions here today. All of a sudden, by the way, the Pena one is when we didn't consider. I've been considering that. I think that's a great opponent to come back to. I feel like if she does come back, it will be

more of a one-off than a deep run. Yeah. Could be. I mean, all three are pretty good options. By the way, there isn't really a deep run. Those three names are the names. Like, what else do you have? Like, there isn't a deep run. This division is a wasteland.

No, definitely not. One fight. Yeah, she hasn't fought in 16. Yeah, I mean, we have no idea. I have zero idea if Gina Carano was in fighting shape at this point. Like, you know, as you said, 2009, like, it feels like Ronda was forever ago, let alone Gina. But as far as names, like, that's a, that's a massive fight.

Grant says, Ariel, no question this week. Just wanted to give you and PT your flowers for Saturday's post-fight reaction show. I've listened to almost every post-paper-view reaction since the three-puck days. And Saturdays was the best. You were both in generational form. Bravo and thanks for everything you do. Do you agree with this statement, PT? I thought it was a very good buzz.

I mean, I think you kind of, you were a generational. Generational buzz. Yeah. But we had a very negative Friday show. And I think Saturday just allowed us to be happy and jovial about the sport for an hour, which was desperately needed after Friday's PFL effort. I agree. I thought it was pretty good.

It was a breath of fresh air. Here's Patrick McCraight. Favorite segment of the week with uncrown film set to take off. Will there be docs during UFC fight weeks as well, similar to the IFW one? Oh, like the behind the scenes? Let's see, let's see, guys. By the way, what a great reaction to all of this. This is great.

G.C. Blind rank These Atlanta Falcons legends. Michael Vic. Two. Ooh, controversial pick. What? I mean, how many are there? I mean, you went to jail.

Oh, I'm speaking strictly. Oh, I knew that was coming one. Wow, really? All-time favorite falcon. Okay, personally, but most people wouldn't agree with this. we haven't had that many great falcons Jamal Anderson three

Matt Ryan I would have put him ahead of Jamal Anderson 4 MVP took us to a Super Bowl 28 to 3 and the guy's got a statue outside of Mercedes-Benz if he holds on to that leaves so does Julio Jones so does Julio Jones

made the game winning catch in that Super Bowl Sure sure sure All we had to do was trot out kick a field goal Finally Neon Dion Dian Sanders Yeah, we'll go five. Oh, wow.

I mean, Dickomah, he jumped the run. Niners, Cowboys. He had a pretty good run. Time. All right. Peacan pie up in this. I'm sorry, Ariel, under no circumstances, should John Jones be fighting anyone but Tom Aspinall if he were to return.

I don't understand the flip-flop from the crew to now wanting him to fight Alex. Yet, you know what the flip-flop is? He doesn't hold the belt. He doesn't hold the belt. The issue was he held the belt. How many times did Tom Asperon have to say, I don't really care about John? That's gravy? I just want the belt.

He doesn't have the belt. He can do whatever he wants. The terms are different now. It's sort of like Canel Alvarez. When Cannell Alvarez held all those belts, everyone said like, yo, you can't be the super middleweight champion of the world fighting Jake Paul. But now you don't have any belts? Do whatever the hell you want.

How don't you understand that? John Jones was the heavyweight champion who both held up the division in Tom's career. The White House card is what lured John back. You're crazy if you think he isn't retiring immediately after this card. That's his storybook ending. Why are we letting the John Tom fight slip through our fingers? because he doesn't hold the belt because Tom got what he wanted and again we'd love to see that fight but now that he doesn't hold the belt he can do whatever he wants. I feel like this makes a lot

of sense. No flip-flopping. No flip-flopping. Matt Chiwiwis, hello Ariel and the crew, happy dyslexia day and also national pierogi day. Same to you. So following GFL's massive announcement over the weekend, what are your thoughts on their future? Will they rise from the ashes or was this a last-ditch attempt to stay relevant? I would say the latter. I don't even think it was a last-ditch attempt. I just think it was a social media post. I probably somewhat posted.

You all right? On a lazy Sunday. Hopefully Frank still has the protect-your-neck drop. Oh, yeah, we played it yesterday. Thanks, as always, peace and love. By the way, shout to all these people. I dropped this on you guys this morning and a ton of questions here.

Okay, this is a good one. I'm happy it was asked. Helge, Hi, Ariel and team, about the judging in the Paul Hughes fight, did I hear this correctly that one of the controversial scorecards came from a judge called Derek Minner? As in the same Derek Minner who got cut up at the whole James Cross? No, no, no, no, no. That was my mistake. I was very fired up.

Brian Minner. There we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks. PT did text me, but I think I was too locked in. You were flowing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You didn't see her phone.

Joe Shmoe says, Greetings, Gang. Is our guest here or no? As someone that has recently started following MMA, this show is a gem. Thank you. Most important question of the Jones-Pera breakdown. Who does Bruce Buffer introduce as, quote,

the one and only? Yeah, we really never addressed that. He bailed on the one-the-only for Alex Barrera. Obviously, Jones will get it. Can I be honest with you? I've never realized this was the thing. Neither did I. This is like you got you.

You kids and your, like, purple uniforms and shit. Like, there's this, there's this, like, subset of fans that pay attention to these things. Like, it's actually important. None of this is important. And honestly, none of it is a thing. John Jones and Connor McGregor get the one the only. And then in March, Bruce Buffer gave Alex Pereira the one the only, Alex Pereira. And then this fight didn't give it to him.

Did you know this, PT? No, didn't know I mean, if you were watching Connery If you were watching the watch party You would have noticed in real time We reacted to it Throw him to the curb like a piece of track

Now he gets his belt back He's the one the only again Okay, all right We'll address it with Bruce We're going to answer more questions In about 90 minutes or so So stay tuned for more How many did we get through?

What was that? 11, 12, 13? The counter's at 21 21. Damn, homie All right, Let's move along to our first guest of the day. He may, in fact, be the number one contender in the UFC men's bantamweight division.

He may, in fact, be fighting for that belt two months from today. Let us talk to the great Piotr Yan, who's kind enough to join us late Tuesday evening over in Russia. Hello, Peter, my friend. How are you? Hello, my friend. I'm good. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Welcome, welcome. Okay, thank you. Where are you? Are you, because last time you were in a nightclub, where are you now? Are you just at home? No, I am now in Moscow with a restaurant. Oh, wow, you're in a restaurant this late at night?

Okay, well, thank you. I'm sorry to bother you, but I appreciate you coming on. I said you may be next in line for a UFC bantamweight title shot. Can you maybe tell us definitively, do you think now that the title fight is over on Saturday, Do you think your next fight will be against Marab for the belt? Big boss, where are you? Where are you, Big Boss? Sayat.

You can, as you, as you, as well, as you, so far as you, say, that you're, in the next year, will be able to fight for the poise? I'm not sure that I deserve more who, or in our division, who the next year should Yeah, I hope that I deserve more than anyone in our division to challenge for the belt next and I'm ready and I'm just waiting for this opportunity. Did you watch the title fight on Saturday?

Yeah, yeah. What did you think of the fight and ultimately how Marab looked? It was a good fight. It was a good fight and Mirab doing what he did every time. He did pressure. He tried more times, do takedowns. So you think it was like same old Marab? You know, you think that it was the same era,

the old era, as usual? No, why? It's seen that he has, every time, on every other opponent, there's a certain game plan, and, you know, usually he does what does always, yeah,

it's one of the style, to which he works constantly, from something new from, I never, I didn't you can say he have a different game plan for each opponent that he tried to use but obviously his strengths is to put the pressure use a takedown make his opponent tired so this is what he did in this fight too did you think that he was going to win were you picking him to win going into the fight what is that he'll be it that he'll be able to do you know in most of the

Yeah, I was favor of Mirab to do. Yeah, I was favored in Mirab before he played. Did anything about what Marab did or what Corey did surprise you? What you did? What you did? What you did? Well, in the whole, I'm going to, Mirab does, at-boa-to-boa-bue.

In-Proof-Cartina-boa, in him always, with Cori. I was a lot of him a bit more, activity, more of him, more work. Yeah, overall Mirab did what I expected him to do, you know, what he did in his previous fights too. And I was expecting actually Corey to work more, to be more active, you know.

There was maybe one thing that was a little bit surprising. Marab not known for his knockout power, and it looked like he almost was going to knock him out in the second round. He hasn't had a knockout on the feed in the UFC. He hasn't had one since 2017. That had to have been a little bit surprising, right? Mirab not. He's not even known to his knockouturey motion.

This time he was almost it's almost to knockout to Corey, although he didn't do it from 2017-gold. Maybe it's going to be, it would be, to be it to be. No, no, I think that knockout, is when a total, It's a measured,

a small-uponemented, but, but Merae got a coravum out, he also, he got and he

not able to not even he's too him. No, I think it's too far from the knockout, you know,

to be able to knock someone out, you have to be able to land very accurate, you know, and then finish properly, but this time it was wasn't really accurate.

it short and then the ground and pound also wasn't like too much effect here. Okay. He said afterwards that he would like to fight again this year, that he wants to break the record for most title defenses in a calendar year. He now has three, eight other fighters have done it three times. He wants to get a fourth, and the last chance would be in December, December 7th, UFC. I think that would be 323. What do you think of that statement on his part?

Do you believe that he wants to come back in two months? Also, Mirab's I've said he wants to to fight with in December to do the fourth to take the title

in this vote, that's to go to go to record. Verish you do you

your is he's he's going to he's in the December? I think I think

that all if he no he's not he's he's he's he's same

he wants plus also if it's in the plan of the matchmaking, then why not?

I think it's possible if he doesn't have any injuries and he's one being pushing for it. And if it's line up with UFC plans, you know, it's possible. I believe it's possible. So that event, UFC 323 is December 6. So exactly two months from yesterday, would that be in line with what you're hoping for as well? Would you be okay to fight in two months?

It will be a tournament U.C. 323, right after two months. So, with your plans, is going to be you going to be you in a month? Yeah, I'm going to do that.

I'm going to I'm going to confirm from U.S.C. And I'm I'm sure it will a cool poedina which has history,

who also is a pre-story that in the in the past in my own poedinics, I was going to go to 50% and I'm aware, our next game, he will be with a second different.

Yes, of course. I've been waiting for this chance and I'm ready to fight in December, and I believe it's going to be a great fight that have a history. You know, last time I was compromised, I was only on 50%. So this time, it will be

something different, you know, it will be a great and exciting fight. So when you guys fought two years ago, that's what you're referring to, Just to refresh people's memory, you say you were a 50%. Was it your knee that was bothering you? What you did you bothering you? Well, if you want to look at the statistics,

elementary, it's fact. In fact, in the five rounds of our poitinco, I've got three or four times right, and the strongest hand. You know, you know, that this hand I'm not. No, I'm not to protect, not to be able to, not to beat.

If you just look at the stats of our previous fight, you can see that I only use my right hand, maybe like three, four times. And I couldn't punch with my right hand. I couldn't use it, you know, to defend the wrestling. So it's just facts, you know. And if you compare it to my different fights, it's the hand I use the most. Why ultimately did you agree to take the fight and do you regret it? Why, so you then decided to go out of and you're not going to go to?

I didn't I'm not from one of his poedink. There were many of the many of the problems that I had with traumas. If I say that I don't I'm not, maybe it will be

kind of, yeah, not so, but I want to take a revenge and I on the goal to You know, I never really turned down any fights, you know, many times competed injured. I cannot say that I don't regret it, but now at least I have an opportunity to change it, to have opportunity to win the rematch. Like when you see what Alex did to Magomed on Saturday, does that inspire you that, you know, just because a fight looked one way the first time around, it can look completely different,

the second time around? Gleady on the ball alex and Perreira with Magamette Ancalaeum, it kind of you're kind of

you've got in the first was a very different and this time was a different in the first point. But in

this point in Magamette and Perreira 2 not that me really really, it has been

being to be to be, you can't be, you can You can do submission, and the sort of, it's kind of, in our sport. So, but not that

me that motivates, I just as well I just as well, I can't be able to be able to every other supporter. I can say that it inspires me. It's just another reminder that in our sport, anything can happen, you know?

You can knock someone out, you can submit. And I believe, I believe, that our second fight with Mirabal go differently, that I can beat him. In a way, I wonder if you view the fact that you were injured in the first fight as a blessing because perhaps he thinks

that that's who you are as a fighter and he'll be preparing for that guy as opposed to the healthy version of you who's a completely more dynamic and different fighter. Do you see what I'm saying? Do you view it that way as well? Or do you think he's smarter than that?

Can you can't even kind of the first bollaslovian for because MIR will be doing to get to the same version of you

with which he's in the first point, or you think you'll be more and will understand that this time you will be a certain

a boyce. But I think that always in Ravansh you think that you need to get to

more userner because you also plus minus you know his opponent and, and,

it will be doing something other. But I am I'm sure that Mirab

it also is also that I for him a very a very very much. You know, usually

you train very hard for very much, you know, because you know what to expect, but I believe, you know, Mirap knows

better, you know, he knows that I'm the dangerous opening for him and he will prepare well. How do you feel about Marab? How would you describe the relationship that you have with him? What do you have to Marab, how would you, how would you, I write about your relationship with him? Well, we have no, no, we have no connections, I with him,

I'm with him, sportively-boil. I want to have won't have a title, which is Now he's now. So, number, there's a big a mission. I can't say that I have any relationship with him, except that it's so-called sport-fight relationship. I just want to take his title away, and there is a big target on him right now. I'm just curious, you know, we saw some footage of him

on Saturday night after his fight celebrating. When you see him at the club, celebrating the way in which he did after the fight with the shirt off and everything like that and we have the footage here in case you missed it how do you how do you how do you how do you react to this what do you think of this how would you see what I've seen you know how he's proud of his title here's this time He's disdivance. But he deserved it. He had long, he worked and he had won't

for the sportsman. Pobed when you put him up. It's, probably, one of the most new-preatenish of the

so he's doing. He needs. You need to get some and properly, correctly,

it's all energy. It's also You know, I think he deserved it. You know, he worked hard for this moment to be in this position. And, you know, you've got to enjoy the moment. And it's also the energy that can boost you and push you forward to. I love that.

That's a great response. Does that come from a place that perhaps when you were champion the first time, did you maybe not, like, I don't know, did you not appreciate it? Did you not enjoy it as much? And the second time, if you become champion, you'll view being champion in the experience differently? If you're from from the experience of

experience of the first first time you've been been a champion you've not not really from this and now the second

time you would have some other kind of a well, it's it's possible that it's more

a more an more a more a certain kind of kind of I think I think

that you need to if you do you love you what you do you you do you

it will be able to and you will be going to bring up more and positive

emotions and and actually the relationship to them and I'm there's some truth to that

you know now I'm more in a more mindful and more mindful age you know and I believe if you

love something that you do you know you will get you will achieve something you will have a good result in it

so you just have to love and enjoy what you're doing Is that part of your motivation? Obviously you want to beat Marab, you want to be viewed as the best in the world, but do you want to have another opportunity to do things differently as champion this time around? Is it a part of your motivation? Of course, you want to win myrabo, to say, that's what you're doing in the world.

But is it also a part of your motivation, to do this time, something to do you as a champion? Yeah, of course, I want to win. to be, to fight, to, to protect, to protect my poise. But I

would be today if I would I would not love this deal and not want to

do it do so I want to win, I want to defend the belt, and I want to be here right now I didn't love

what I'm doing. So right now do you think it's likely that your fight will be on December 6 against him?

Is that what you're feeling? Is that your hunch? How do you think you're pre-chustre, will you 206 December for the title?

I want it. I hope that it will be going to talk about this about the talk about UFC.

Yeah, I want it, I hope that happens and right now it's up to U.S. It would be quite the story. December 6 is just a few days removed

from the 11-year anniversary of your MMA debut. Siberian League, Baikal Cup, 2014, in Iqqqqqqq. Do you know this fight? Do you remember your debut? Yeah, yeah, I remember it.

Who did you beat? If it went to the war, it will practically 11 years from the moment of his debut in Irkutsky. You can't talk about this battle? Yeah, it was a spontaneous for me a fight. It was interesting I remember this I've been more

I've been more still I've been doing boxed in the time well, it was to achieve a victory, was a quite a non-standardous a superniquet. And it's a cool time

I think that I it was probably used and probably worked all these years. Yeah, it was good times you know, it was kind of spontaneous fight. At the time I was still

kind of a more of a boxer and I had some unorthodox opponent but I was lucky to win and I believe I used my time well you know taking this opportunities working hard and going for my dream

yeah you won via knockout in the third round 45 seconds in do you remember the name of your opponent that night remember the name of your opponent that night no name of my opponent I don't remember. Murad Bakkeyev? Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Murat, Murat Bakiev, yes. Do you remember, I always like to ask some fighters who are now established, like, do you remember if you even got paid for the fight? Some say no, some say $100. Do you remember if you even got anything for it? Do you remember if you even got anything? Yeah, me for this poitinic, they've got $20,000.

It's, you know, $200 dollars, so. It was a good time. Yeah. time I got paid like 20,000 rubles. I think it's around like 200 bucks. Okay, it was a great time. That was a big deal for you, right? That's a lot of you, right? Yeah, that's what you know, that?

Yeah, I, like, also, ambitious, in a very much, I think that in that moment, if I, if I had not had not much, I think that, I think that, much, I'm, I'm, and I'm going to, Yes, you know, I'm an ambitious guys and this fight meant a lot, you know. If I, like, because I won that fight, you know, I continue to train in the M.M.A.

And evolve in the sport, you know, that's why it means a lot. If you would have lost that fight, you think you wouldn't have continued? You'd say if you'd proigrant, then you would not continue? Maybe, maybe. Maybe at that moment I would think that it's not my history and that but, but

I'm happy how it's all that all the moment that I've continued doing these these by the

you never know anything is possible maybe I could have decided that it's not for me but I'm happy the way things turned out. things turned out. Arell, just from where I'm from, from where I'm from,

you know, to get to UFC, maybe it can do one of the million of the boys who's in sport. And, for me it was just not-de-sigable, even, that a man from the of the different places can get in the organization of the

first organization of the world. It was, of that moment. You know, from where I'm from, from a guy like me to get to UFC, it was something unthinkable. It's like one in a million chance, one in a million of athletes could get

who can get reached to the stage, especially from some small village far away in Russia. So for me, I couldn't even think about that it's possible. So for me to reach that heights, you know, it's something great. I was just going to

I want to ask you that. The name of the village, is it Dudinka? No, no, no, no. Where is it? What's the name of the village? Well, it doesn't mean the name of the village. Well, it just was... It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter? I know that really, from those places, but to get really,

in the Uigh of the world, it's very not just. And I'm gladden, I'm going to say that, and people have believed, and I've tried to do it, and what was to do it. You know, just trust me from where I'm from, it's very hard to reach those heights. I'm just happy and lucky that I believe in myself, believe in myself, work hard, and also people.

hard and also people, believe them around me, believe them myself, I'll help me to reach it. Did you believe, like, if I would have talked to that kid in 2014, would you have believed that you'd make it to the UFC and be a champion and be as great as you've become? If in 2014-year-old, you'd say that you'd say you'd say you'd say, you'd say, you'd would, you'd believe it? Mavowardom. Yeah, highly un-lifely. When did you start to believe?

But it's It's one of one of the examples when there's an great

and on it is it's hard it's a big for many people

people who are I think I should need to make

to make to and all in this life it's all

you all will all You know, it's kind of when you have like a really big target, such a big target that it's hard to miss, you know. And it's just a reminder for everyone else to dream big, work hard, and you be able to achieve it. I love that. Can I just ask, when did you start to actually believe that it would work out the way in which it did?

Do you remember how far into your journey? Yeah, when you started really verily, that you'll be able to. I had long, how it, two years, three years, in the Russian organization ACB. In the time it was one of the one of the strongest organizations in Russia, I think that I think that even in Europe. And when I started to come out,

I've got to win, I've got the title there, I've still more and more I've I've got to to, to say, in the world league, where I can show you know at the time I was fighting in ACB and it was the best promotion in Russia as a time and in my opinion was the best in Europe so when I was competing there winning there I started to believe that I could

compete even on a higher level let me ask you one last question yes I didn't I wasn't wrong yeah we we've got to USC in 2018 I for the year I've got over five of the fightings and all five had won't a victory. Yeah, and when I signed to U.S. in 2018,

I had five fights in one calendar year and I won all of them. Yes, I remember. Can I just ask, have you watched Patchy Mix? He talked a lot about being the best Bantamway and he's come to the UFC and now lost twice. I was just

wondering what you thought of, what you've seen from him, if you've seen his fights in the UFC. He's seen me watch. He's not very much grew up on, what will be top when when he'll come to UFC but at the moment I've got to go

in the UFC. No, I didn't see. I didn't see than more than than but as you

see, sometimes words are going to some sportsmen of some I didn't

see his fights, you know but as you see some athletes you know their wars doesn't match their actions

Did you get invited to Aljo's wedding? You were on the Stirling, you were brought? Yeah, I'm like Al Jermann said, when he was about, can you

remind me, where is it? He got married on Sunday in Las Vegas. He invited me, I just, I couldn't make it. I know you couldn't make it either because you're in Russia, but I was just wondering

if he invited you because you guys are closer now, it seemed like that. It was a week. It was a week. I didn't see. I didn't know, brother. I just, I'm just, I'm just,

I'm just, we're just going to come to come to Caljameen on a swive. Yeah. I'm working, still working on my American visa right now. I didn't have a visa and his wife. Okay, okay, I understand.

All right. Okay, final thing, how do you win? December 6, if you fight Marab, how do you win? Give us the feeling. What's the, what's the prediction? What's the prophecy? What's the prognose? How do you win Ramah?

Auree, I want to show to the viewers of smethings Yenoborst, a beautiful, a strong, I always strive to show to show you, I'm sure that it will

be a very much a big one that will all I want to show all MMA fans great and tough fight and as I always trying to do, and I believe it's going to be a really exciting one.

Can't wait for it. Thank you, Peter. Appreciate it very much. Spasiba. Good luck to you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, Syed, as always. Thank you so much, guys. There he is, Peter Yan, the pride of Russia joining us. Perhaps he'll be fighting. I said it was two months from today. It's actually two months from yesterday, December 6th, final UFC pay-per-view of 2025, final UFC paper view of the ESPN era. to see it. He's the one that makes sense. It's got to be him. Speaking of fighting in title

fights injured, obviously that fight against Maraub wasn't a title fight, but he said he fought at 50%. Got me thinking about Magamad Ancolaev. Some footage has surfaced of Ancolaev getting some treatment before the Alex Pereira fight. Apparently, he had a badly injured rib, and this has come out. And so Yeah, I would imagine those shots to the body were very painful, extremely painful. I had heard from people after the Pereira fight against Ancolaev, the first one that he was super sick, he took the fight and he had the luxury of getting the rematch. I don't know if Ancalive is going to get an immediate rematch, a trilogy here, but that sucks.

And certainly not the only fighter to have ever fought with an injury, but obviously a lot at stake. a lot to lose. And not for a second did I doubt. This came out afterwards. And I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't think fighters make this stuff up. But we also know that fighters are extremely tough and sometimes too tough for their own good. His manager said afterwards, he didn't want him to fight. But it was a big fight. You're trying to get in the good graces of the UFC. You're trying to deliver. You're trying to step up to the plate. Defend the title for the first time. You're the main event. And unfortunately, sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't. So. Our best to him, and hopefully he makes it a speedy recovery. I presume his next fight will be a big one. I just don't think it will be for a belt, or at least against Perez, especially if he moves up. But if he moves up, then it's going to be Elberg v. Prakowska. All right, a big winner from Saturday on the pay-per-view card. To open the pay-per-view card was Joe Pfeiffer, massive win for a very impressive win against

Avis Magamadov. He's kind enough to join us. Body bags himself. Always great to talk to him. There he is. Hello, Joe. How are you? How are you doing, Ariel?

on here again, bro. Always, always. You're looking good. I like this. A crystal clear setup here. What is it? Is this like your streaming, gaming room or something? Yeah, so this is my, this is my gamer room.

I would show you, but it's a freaking mess. But yeah, this is my gamer room where I put Call Duty. I got big-ass screens and stuff. I moved into a house, a new place. I got out of a condo, finally got into a nice home, like a month and a half. Oh, wow. First house? Very happy, man.

Yeah, fresh out, Snoop. That's amazing. Was that a big deal for you? Is that something that was on the list of things you wanted to accomplish? Yeah, bro. Like, you know, I've never had like a super nice home other than my wrestling coaches that I lived in. And I was living in a condo life, grind in and out for a little bit. So, you know, I had the financial stability to, you know, get a better place.

And I love it, man. So I'm very, very, very happy in my life right now. And, yeah, it continues to get better. through the hard work that I'm doing, and I'm just grateful, man. I'm very happy. Three, what is it now? Three wins in a row. You're active. You appear to be healthy. Does it feel like it's all coming together for you? We've talked a lot about your upbringing and everything you've had to overcome. Does it feel like life is starting to come together for you? I think it's always been coming together, Ariel. I think, you know, the goods, the bads,

through my bad attitudes, from my good attitudes. I think this is all part of my story. This is all part of me. This is all part of Joe Pfeiffer. And, you know, I think it's always been good. It's just, you know, I've been consistent. And fighting through injuries and fighting through back surgery and elbows and all these things. And I even have to get another little surgery right after this fight. It's a cleanup.

So it's not that long of a recovery, maybe like eight weeks. But, yeah, man, I think it's always been good. It's just now I'm starting to get a little bit of a reward from it. And I think the reward is just the satisfaction of, Like you said, being healthier than I've been and coming into my stride and just maturing as a fighter and as a person, man. So I'm always going to have that immaturity to me. I think that's the fun side of me. But, yeah, man, I'm grateful.

That cleanup, is that the elbow as well? Yeah, it's my left elbow. It's not my bad elbow, like the bad elbow that I broke. But I've had surgery on both of them. This will be my fourth surgery. It's just from punching, man, I just keep shattering. little pieces of bone and um yeah uh the best way to explain it is that my bone density can't handle the impact as much as we do it and i think that's kind of across the board for all fighters and um

but unfortunately with me my bones can't take the the power i guess i'm not sure did that bother you in the build up to the fight oh yeah oh yeah like if if my hand got pushed into me my whole hand would go numb and my arm would drop and uh yeah it was definitely a struggle man and like even the fight like on an extension my left elbow is just so sore and tender because the bone fragments are right on the nerve so every time I extend I'm like kind of digging the bone into the nerve so it's definitely uncomfortable so you said in the post fight interview with joe rogan you said essentially like you felt off like you felt like your body wasn't there or maybe your mind wasn't there but you just felt like a little bit lethargic was this part of the reason why no no not at all

I think it was my rehydration, man. I'm a big dude, and I cut a lot of weight for this division. And I hydrated well, but I think it was the, I don't know if it was too many carbs. I don't know if it, I was following the UFC, like nutritionist. I work with my guy Glenn over there a lot. Don't get me wrong. I felt good. Like, I felt so prepared mentally, and I felt so prepared physically going into the fight.

It's just, you know, sometimes you don't hydrate the best, and it is what it is. You know, it's hard, you know, when you're not able to have any AIDS. Like, it's not like we can IV. It's not like we can do anything to really help. You have to consume a lot of food. And I think it just made me tired, man. I maybe had, like, a sugar spike. I don't know, because in the back I was just, like, ready to sleep.

I felt like my body, like, no music got me excited. I couldn't, like, slap myself and get in the game type thing. Like, I was like, what the fuck is going on? Has that ever happened? Yeah, it happened against Abdulahasen. Okay. But, you know, like this fight, I was super nervous. I said, I was super nervous, but that's never what stops me.

You know what I mean? That's normal. I care about the sport. I care about winning. And I think that's just a natural thing. It happens sometimes. You get nervous? You don't strike me as the type to get nervous.

I'm always nervous because I care, like I said, I care about it. But I don't, like, bro, I can handle pressure. I handle the spotlight very well. I don't care who's there. I love the crowd. I don't really care for what they think or feel, you know, or anything like that. Like, I don't care for all the lights and all the extra stuff. It's just, you know, I don't care about that one person that's in front of me.

So, yeah, but absolutely, I get nervous. I'm human. By the way, one surprise for me was, you know, we've talked about the hair and everything. Why did you shave your head? You went through all of that to shave your head? Well, I have the option to grow the hair. That was the whole point of it, right? It was free.

And, you know, they hooked me up. and everything. But I always like being bald, man. Like, I didn't get hair because I was insecure about it. I got it because it was free. And, you know, if I want to grow up hair and have a nice hair line, I can have it. And yeah, it was just, I don't like having hair, man. It's easier to just shape the head and go, you know, balls to the wall type deal and not have to worry about my hair and things like that. So I got like I have the best hair care routine. I get it. I get it. Dana White told a funny story at the post-fight press conference of him, McMainard, Sean Shelby kind of texting with each other like what the hell is going on with all this wrestling

and then you ended up getting the submission in the second round and then they were joking about like whether or not you were reading their text obviously not but maybe speaks to what a lot of people were thinking at that time why would you do that considering how great you are as a striker why did you decide to grapple so much with him um so my coach told me like John Marquez told me right before first of all I had really good wrestling I want to say really good but I have good wrestling. And, you know, I'm not a cobs-s-out Shemaya, but my style works for me,

and I'm a strong dude, and, you know, we knew he would slow down at some point. So the game plan wasn't to wrestle that heavy, but it was like, hey, if you feel uncomfortable, which I felt uncomfortable with the kicks early, then we're going to tie him up and we're going to make him work, and it is what it is.

You know, he did a very good job of hooking my leg that I didn't even know he had hooked. I didn't even feel it. and he elevated his hips and got a good switch and that's what kind of put me in a bad position in the first round for the first couple of minutes but I was never, you know, in fear of getting submitted and, you know, I have good Jujitsu, man, so I'm a black belt

and I think it's just underrated because I don't use it. I prefer to knock somebody out. I prefer to swing and bang. It's just my, I think just my demeanor. I like to cause damage and even, you know, I got the submission. I would have knocked him out had he not. you know, fallen and then, you know, it is what it is, but, you know, he's such a dangerous guy and a good opponent that I wasn't willing to let him up like I did Calvin and let him off the

hook. Like, I think I could have done that to Kelvin too if I went to the ground, but I really wanted to be the first guy to knock out Kelvin. So that was a different, you know, a different game plan for that. But, um, yeah, make them work, man, make him tired and then start getting him to go on his back foot. That was the plan. Is that what Dana said to you when you left the cage? No. So a little backstory. I was supposed to fight. I got offered a boost. before I fought Kelvin and I said no because he was behind me and the rankings and I want to go forward you know what I mean I was out for a while I had the back surgery and everything like that but I was like look man I was like that's a good fight for me to um get any closer to

the top 15 um he was two and two at the time so I fought Kelvin and so basically Mick was mad at me and for a good reason you know he was like dude you don't you fucking you don't want to take the fight and I'm offering you a fight like if you don't take it then you'll just just kind of have to wait. And so I was like, okay, then I'll wait. Like, I just don't like to match up coming off back surgery. And that's fine. It is what it is. So if it was somebody that was in the rankings, I would have said yes, but I just couldn't in my brain, like, this is still a business, right? My brain is like, why would I fight a guy who's 28 and 6, 27 or 6, whatever he was at the time? And he's behind me and he's two and two. It's a big risk to lose my spot,

trying to get closer to the rankings and whatever. So that was my thought process. I fight Kelvin, Abu's fights Michelle Pereira for a ranking spot, beats him, I beat Kelvin, I'm not ranked, he's ranked, he's three and two, I'm four and one or five in one. So I was kind of like, all right, well, now let's run it. Now it makes sense, and he's got a ranking, and I'm

going to take it from him. And I also didn't like the narrative of, it kind of came off as like I was afraid to fight him. So I hit up my manager right after I beat Kelvin, and I was like, all right, now me and Abu's can run it. And that's what happened. So after I won, I was screaming at Mick that he was

wrong and I'm not scared of shit and blah blah blah blah and that was it you know I said it in like a like I told you so type of way it definitely could have came out the wrong way okay so he was clearing that up that's why he came up to you he was just saying yeah he Dana had no idea that that's how I felt about it okay okay okay he thought I literally like he was like did you like like I thought you were reading our text but then I told him the deal or whatnot yeah yeah yeah just kind of butt hurt towards a Mick because I don't like people thinking that I'm you know fucking scared to anybody. Of course. I'm not. Have you cleared that up with Mick? Oh, yeah. He called my manager multiple times. Like, my manager told him, you know, what my

position was on it and why, you know, I said what I said. And, you know, I was never really that mad about it. It's just, you know, obviously it bothered me a little bit. Um, because, again, I'm not afraid to anybody. And, uh, if it makes sense, I'll fight anybody. I saw you say afterwards that, uh, Powell Costa does a dream fight for you, but, uh, maybe a Vitoria or cannoneer next. Why not Costa next? You're on a roll.

He's back on track. I think that fight makes a lot of sense. You don't think they'll go in that direction? So it's not that I don't think they'll go in that direction. I'm not willing to take that fight

because I think Paul Costa is so inactive. And he's got a lot going on where it seems like he's in a fight, in a fight, in a fight, and then he's only fought like once in the last two years or twice in the last two years

or whatever it has been. So I don't really. really think it does much for me. But I think, you know, if I need a guy like Marvin Vittori, Jared Cannoneer, Roman DeLite, these guys are active, these guys are hungry, these guys are fighting. I think that makes a lot of sense for me and those are fights that I'm motivated for.

I think after I would beat one of those, then Apollocosta would kind of make sense. Okay. Do you feel like you're starting to get closer to where you need to be? Like, how far away do you think you are from those top dogs at 185? I think one more finish, honestly, if anybody

in the top 15 gives me the opportunity to fight anybody in the top 10 but I think I need to beat somebody in the 10 to 15 range the 11 to 15 range because now I'm in the rankings but I have to beat somebody in the ranking so I think I need to finish somebody in the top

five like the back five of the you know 10 through 15 range if I can get a finish there then that sets me up for a big fight you know we're seeing Marab dominate a 135, some other champions. Do you think, you know, Hamza just won the belt,

but do you think we're going to see him dominate for a while here? Yeah, man, I think he, you know, I think he Mabob is probably the best striker in the division, you know, as far as speed, power, and things like that. He's a very complete guy. And he's gotten so much better

since he was in the UFC. You know, he went from a close fight with Full Hall to, you know, beating a guy like Kyle Barrello and Brendan Allen and all these other guys where he's like, confident in himself and his skill set. I think he's going to be a good fight. I do think that Comzat

wins it though. I think he's just so relentless with the pressure of the wrestling. I don't know one the last time, besides Brendan Allen, who didn't have the best showing against him of Bob. I don't know how good Nasserdean is with the grappling at this stage in his career. So I would have to lean towards

Comzat, especially being as though he was able to put that pressure on DDP, who's a very good guy for all five rounds. So, man, I think he's going to be, I think he's going to be a champion for a little while. You think DDP could get back there and win the belt, or is that just an awful matchup for him? I think it's a bad matchup for him, man. You know, I thought DDP had a chance if he was able to get outside of the third round,

and Kamsah is just relentless. So I don't think that he's going to have the recipe to beat Kamsai. He'd have to catch him and knock him out, which he obviously has the ability to do, but I don't think it'll happen. did you happen to see the shot after you won you're celebrating and then they go to the crowd and there's a dude in there holding a newborn baby with some sort of headphones on that's a real that's a real fan right there man that's the guy's committed to the game that is insane that is insane that kid's got to be like three months old yeah yeah baby looked young that was pretty funny though I love it though you know it shows how passionate people are

about the sport and you know how much they love it so the fact that I wouldn't bring my kid there but you know props to him you said on fight week you you stayed off social media is that the first time you've done that leading up to a fight no I did it the last one too for Calvin and I just feel I just feel it I'm an emotional dude who you know I guess reacts to a lot of shit that he shouldn't and I've done a really good job lately the last two fights of just not, you know, give it a fuck what people have to say and disassociating and detaching from social media. And I realized a lot of my anxiety, man, a lot of pressure comes from social media.

And it's all fake, man. So, you know, I try not to, I didn't look at who thought I was going to win, who thought I was going to lose. I do enjoy doing it after the fact. But, yeah, no, I stay off during the whole week, man. You know, I just need to be with my team and concentrate on the game plan. I was so focused. I was so mentally sharp.

The shakeout felt fucking amazing. so I knew even though my body didn't feel right after he slammed my shit with that back trip I was like all right I gotta wake the fuck up so do you go right after and say okay let me see who was who was picking against me like how quickly

do you go back on so my my media guy one of my close friends from like high school Chandler Henry that did the sorry my computer shutting off no problem that does all my like documentary and like highlight videos

and stuff, he goes through and gets all that stuff. But I would say relatively fast. I like going to saying what people got to say. For sure. I think it's funny. I relish in the fact that when people are like, man, I fucking hate this guy, Jim Piper, and blah, blah, blah. Like, it actually makes me laugh because

I'm just a guy doing what I want to do, which is fighting in the UFC, and, you know, I'm fighting the best guys in the world. So, the reason people are more upset than me is kind of funny. Okay, so you are still, it seems known as body bags. Are we going body cam off

or were you just joking with that one? No, I'm just joking with that one. I love it. I think it's hilarious. You know, apparently, like, this is why I, like, didn't,

not being on social media. Apparently, I must have upset some people. I don't know how extensively. Like, I didn't get to see any of that yet, but, you know,

I guess they were trying to spin it as like a racial thing or fucking, just like a not funny joke, but I'm like, dude, it's funny. Like,

well, the way I see it, the way I interpret body cam off is like, I'm going to kill a motherfucker in there and that's that's what i said i was going to do you know so um that's how i interpret it i don't interpret it as like police brutality i understand the joke behind it for the sensitive people out there but you know don't make it more than what it is it pertains to fighting only in my opponents only

so would you change it shit man if it became big enough hell yeah but i i'm um i'm uh you know if it was like a superstar type thing but it's i'm definitely not that level and uh so i'm stick with the body bags, man. I think the Joe body bags play for a spitting. I go out there and I try to body motherfuckers and, you know, I throw caution to the wind and I just go out there and I bang and I do, you know, what I've always done. So, and thanks

to my team, you know, we really didn't take any damage. You know, I've got to get some things checked out. Like I said, I've got to do that little elbow surgery and I also want to check the top of my right foot, make sure I didn't fracture it. So, you know, hopefully time-wise, I'm back in there January, February, New Year. Okay. I was just going to ask, January February, that seems

a little soon, no, with a little procedure there on the elbow and then maybe the foot. That's quick, no? That's in three months. Yeah, well, we'll see how the surgery goes and, you know, we'll see how my recovery goes. But yeah, man, I mean, I'm hitting my stride, right? The last thing I would want to do is, you know, I just got off the phone with my coach, John Marquez, and, you know, I, what motivated me a lot was seeing Jack Comanson get knocked out. Like, I was really upset by that because I know he's very good. Like, I know a lot of people are like, oh, you lost to him, blah, blah, blah. But, you know, I have a lot of respect for Jack, and I thought he was very good. I knew I could do that to Jack, like Gregory did, and it just made me

disappointed in myself, like, man, I missed that opportunity. But I needed to lose that. I needed to go through that. And, like, my point is, is that I've been training so consistent as a lifestyle now where I'm not taking off too much time. I'm also not training balls to the wall all the time, but I'm really, like, maturing with my schedule and, you know, how to improve as a fighter so I want to keep that momentum going and you know the fights only get harder right I'm fighting the top 15 in the world so

you know now there is there is no excuse what's up big guy who's that the first time my dog I'm on that I'm on an interview hold on oh my gosh come here holy smokes this guy's excited

come here come here come here come here wow oh my gosh look at this guy yeah I That is amazing. He's a Presby Canario, bro. He's massive.

Wow, so is he just seeing you for the first time? Yeah, it's the first time you seen me. Oh, my God. That's amazing. That's how he greets you? Bro, he's, yeah, he's so excited, bro. That's, honestly, I've never loved anything more in my life. That dog is my heart, bro.

That's the best. Best thing I've ever bought. Yeah, he's a big-ass pressing canary. It's like 145 pounds. but yeah that's my baby baby cricks his boy that's a man i never was a dog guy and then we got a dog and now i completely understand like i come home no one says a word to me my kids my wife the dog is acting like i haven't seen her in 10 years like she couldn't be more it's the greatest feeling yeah man well especially this dog too he's like he's a protection dog you know i've

i've had him professionally trained and everything like that so he's he's a killer in one sense and he's he's a sweetheart and another and i'm i always just hate when people talked about their I was like, I was like, man, shut the fuck. I'm nobody cares about your dog. But now I'm that hypocrite that where I'm like, man, my dog is my baby. I love him. I love him so much. I feel like I really do feel like it's all coming together for you, Joe.

You've got a great thing. You got a house. You got the winning streak. You got the dog. When you were here, we met your, I think your girlfriend, your wife, your partner, right? It seems like everything's coming together for you, Joe. Like, it's a beautiful thing. Given what you showed us where you came from and what you've overcome, it's nice to see it all

come together for you here. yeah man you know i think it's it's the people i'm surrounded by right you know they've all helped me stay accountable and responsible and my coach just grinded my ass so much about being in the gym and you know even if i'm not training just being in the gym and lovingness because if you don't you know you don't love it and you're doing this this is how you get hurt and this is how you get disappointed and we only have so much time to make the memories man and i think that's what's helping me perform is that I'm grateful for the opportunity. I'm grateful for the memories and, you know, still while, you know, being myself and, you know, not being a fake character and

saying some off-the-wall shit sometimes and have a good time while doing it. So it is coming together. It's always been coming together. It's just, you know, I'm getting older. And, you know, I want to try to make it. I'm trying to make the best run that I can. So if I fall short, fuck it. But at least I took that chance. You know what I mean? That's one thing I'll never grow old and regret is you know hey shit man i felt so nervous and so scared i didn't take that opportunity and i missed it fuck that i'm going to bite down and i'm going to bet on me every time by the way when are we going to see your boy sean back what's going on um i don't know if anything's released so i'm not going to put the business out there but my man my man's about to get active and

okay okay good for it um uh you know that's i want to get this procedure done and help him as much as i can and, you know, Sean's a dog, man. So, I'm excited for all the guys on my team, too, man. You know, we got a lot of up-and-coming guys, man. Our team's spent hot. We've been out here cooking and, you know, getting some good wins. But, yeah, Sean will be back very, very soon. Sooner than you think, I think.

Okay. I just don't know if it's released yet. All right, all right. We'll leave it at that. We'll leave it at that. We'll leave it at that. I know you flew in this morning, so I appreciate you doing this very much. Welcome back.

Congrats on the win. And congrats on everything and looking forward to the next one. Thank you, Joe. So, baby. All the motherfuckers that said I wouldn't be here. What's up? Love it.

Thank you, Joe. All the best of you. There he is. Joe Piper. A little Diaz in him in that final sign off there. That dog is gigantic.

Well done. Joe Piper. And sooner than we think, Sean Brady, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm. I mean,

Sean Brady's got to be on a pay-per-view, right? Do you put Sean Brady on the Islam jdm card there's no he's a tri-state area guy also you need a backup right just in case feels too soon no no

well oh tri-state area yeah close close enough close enough um well I guess you have Prachas and Leon too soon you think yeah I think they already have the entire main card announced too do they I'm pretty sure yeah I mean it's like five weeks away now well you got JDM Islam

that's one Valentina two Leon Carlos 3 Benille, Benoit, probably. But then, I mean... Blanchevild Cortez. You think on the main card? It says on Tapology. It's got the...

Oh, really? Certification, yeah. I mean... I mean, there's also Bo Nicol, Vieira, his main card worthy, although I think Bo might have said his next one wasn't going to be on the main card. I like that one on the pre-London.

Coppilov, Gregory, Rodriguez. Bison Gore? Probably not, right? I mean, come on. Let's circle back to the point here. Who? Who? Who?

Oh, who, who, who? Who? I don't care about the date. Who? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, let me just get my ranking. I mean, there's only a few names left, right? Wait, wait, wait, let me get my rankings here, bro.

I saw a tweet from Shafat. Oh, Shafkat talked about, I saw a tweet from Shafkat. Should have asked Siyat. He was right here. He's manager. That'd be a crazy one. The forgotten man. The forgotten man.

Well, here's the thing. I thought it was going to be Brady versus Ian. Like, I would have bet anything. It seemed like we were going toward them. Yeah. I would have bet anything it was going to be. And that's the one I really wanted to see if I'm being 100% honest.

Like I would rather see Shafkat versus Bilal and Brady versus Ian. But yeah, let's look at this. I'm fine with either. But yeah. Okay, Bilal, we know his book. Brady, we're talking about Shuffcutt right there. Leon booked Oosman?

Camaro. He's mentioned Usman several times. Ousman's not a bad shout. Hasn't fought since June. It's a good fight for Brady. Not Buckley. Not Ian. Morales?

Oh, man, that feels like not the one you want to take when you're the number two contender. I feel like it would be between Usman and Shavkat. Yeah. Could you put it on the December pay-per-view? Yeah, that'd be a nice little co-main right there. Marab versus Piotr, Van Pantosia, and a little featured bout, Brady versus Usman.

I did just get an unsolicited text. I think we mentioned one of the. names. Oh. Obviously unsolicited. My hands are right here. Right here. From one SP?

No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no. Not from Brady or his team or anyone like that. Just, you know, the streets, from the streets, okay? Streets are whispering, and we might have mentioned one of the names when we mentioned the entire top ten at Walter Waite. They may or... Wait, let me just make sure I'm getting the right.

Do you get text to your computer? no i i i put my phone here so in case i miss anything why why why why why why what just interesting that's all yeah why why why why um what i was trying to make a reference to something but i really don't have oh um no no no are are are repas only from venezuela uh no oh the origin maybe can you maybe have them in Ecuador Oh, Michael Morales I'm just asking about

Erepa's here Anyone? Sure, why not? All right. So let's see. Erepa's in December would be fantastic. Michael Morales, something in the December

favorite review. Did you see Erepa's in December? I also, by the way, I got a great text here but is Rick busy? Uh, he's finishing a game of magic right now, his headphones are off. He said, uh, someone texted me, I'm penciling in Ronda Rousey as comeback fighter of the year in 2026 on New York, Rick's ballot. I was getting, I was getting our guest. I was getting our guests. What did I hear that? You hear that? I can't even believe I didn't make this joke.

It's actually spot on. What happened? Someone sent me a text, I'm penciling in Ronda Rousey's comeback fighter of the year in 2026 on New York Rick's ballot. Yes. It's a little, you know what? A comeback fighter of the decade. No, no. If it's Gina Carrano. Oh, yeah, that's right. Right, that's right. You're right. So if she comes, if Rhonda comes back and gets her ass whooped, is she still come back Friday of the year? I have to weigh the evidence.

If she gets her ass whoop by Misha Tate. I still have to weigh the evidence. Look, Gina's now in the running. By the way, she got her ass whooped by Amanda Nunes in like 60 seconds that she wanted. You just have to see who the opponent is. I have to see who the opponent is. I have to see, you know, the circumstances. All right, right.

We could discuss it when the time comes. Okay. Is our guest here? Yes. Okay. All right. Let us go to our next guest. Massive, massive, massive win for him on Friday, afternoon, evening in Dubai.

Like I said at the top of the show, pulled it out of the fire. Looked like first round wasn't going his way. And then all of a sudden, in what has become, I think, the year of the spinning back elbow, Sergio Pettis, pulled a beauty against Magomed, Mago Medov. A huge win for him and a win that could very well line him up for a PFL, Bantamweight title shot. He's kind enough to join us right here now to talk about that big win. There he is the new dad, Sergio Pettis.

The beard is longer. You're looking more and more like your brother with this beard. Yeah, man. Actually, you know what? I had the beard first. Oh, okay. He's looking like you. All right.

All right. Congratulations on the win, man. Thank you. I appreciate it. It was a big one, man. Big old finish. I needed that. Yeah, you know, you've had some big wins.

Obviously, some titles have been won behind you. But that one, to do it. it like that with the stakes being what they were considering how the first one the first round went would you say that that was one of your more exhilarating moments of your career 100% i mean i've been trying to get a spin elbow for quite some time and 32 fights later uh losing a fight i ended up pulling out the fire like you guys been saying and yeah man landed a beautiful spin it an elbow one for the ages yo how many times have you watched this way too many times unhealthy amount of times every day waking up on that 5 a.m. Zetlaig, first-time watches. Yeah, man.

What a memorable home for me. I can't imagine what it must feel like. What was that move that you did there afterwards? Like the diamond, then you stepped on it? What was that? You know what? I've been watching a lot of conspiracy theories on Instagram. A little bit too much time on my phone. But, yeah, man, some crazy stuff going on the road right now and nowadays. And, yeah, I was just trying to send a message, you know? Okay. You were stomping out all the conspiracies with that? Yeah, stopping all the conspiracies out and, you know, putting up Jesus.

You know, Jesus, the only way out of all this, all this madness that's going on the road right now. Okay, is that what you were referring to in the post-fight interview? It was top of mind. It was like the first thing that you said. Yeah, you know what? I planned that speech about two weeks before I fought, and I was practicing in my car. It didn't come out as good as I practiced in my car. But it kind of gave me a reason to win that fight, you know, a reason to face some adversity and come out there and, man, have a killer performance.

It's hard after a fight like that to remember everything that you planned in the car two, three weeks prior, right? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, after all that adrenaline, you know, after even hitting that spin elbow, it almost felt fake. I felt like I had a soft part of his head and saw his reaction. And man, I had to put the, put exclamation point on top of it. And then right after, I see your legendary coach, Duke Rufus posting on social media that you guys have been working on that. This footage that he posted, is that from this training camp right here? Or is that just over the years?

That's over the years, actually. This was like in 2021. I didn't even look as good as I look nowadays. So, yeah, four years ago. And, yeah, man, I've been practicing like. lot of spins. You know, I feel like I put the SP in spins. So Anthony's got all the kicks off the cages. I got the spins. Why was this something that you wanted to pull off? Man, I'm just, you know, all my fights go to the decisions. And even before the fight, I was just

feeling very on point, you know, even mentally, physically, I was like, I'm going to win this fight in a spectacular fashion. And second round, it was not going my way at all. But, yeah, he fell right on to what he didn't expect, a spin elbow. He was very confident that whole fight, and it was talking to me the whole fight. I was first time I was like, I was like very afraid of somebody. You know, it was in my head. I was like, I feel like I was fighting Khabib almost. Wow, wow, wow.

I mean, he was a part of team Khabi, right? So he was right there. What was he saying to you? Ah, man, he was just telling me like pretty much everything that I was in a throw. He was like, I threw a jab. He's like, I know you got a good job, brother. He's like, I'm not going to let you hit me with that. You know, what is the accident and stuff.

Wow. And throwing some spin kicks and some spin moves. He's like, I know that's coming, do something new, do something new. and then when he had my back and I had me in his corner him his corner communicating the whole time and I just hear him he was so confident

I was like dang he deserves to be confident because he was definitely tearing me up that second round but yeah he got overconfident man just felt right on what I wanted to land something spectacular you said you were scared

like he was actually getting to you he was getting under your skin in your head 100% the first time I had a fighter in all 32 fights actually talked to me prior to the fight you know at the stare-offs

we were talking to each other you know we're kind of playing a little bit of mental battle. I usually don't play that game. I'm very quiet and humble, but I was kind of messing with him a little bit more like how he was messing with me. And the fight though, he kept doing it. I was just all go mode and he was just

confident, man. It was crazy to experience that all these doggestown fighters of legends. He's a legend as well and taught me a lot about myself, man. What a fight. What an awesome camp. Did you see him throughout the week? Like, I don't know, hotel or out and about and were there other mind

games being played? Yeah, I mean we saw each other a couple of times you know all for the media stuff we were with each other like monday tuesday not too much wednesday we obviously saw each other face-offs and stuff so um you know it wasn't like the whole time but we definitely were smiling at each other shaking it like shaking our heads like oh we're about to go at it man i could feel his competitiveness you know i was like wow i haven't felt that in quite some time and throughout my whole career actually having a guy that was that competitive and um hungry i feel like he really wanted that title shot next were you super nervous in the back before the fight?

100%. I always am, before every single fight, I get nervous. I have a weird mental habit of seeing myself getting knocked out or submitted. Why? I don't know. I literally don't know why. Every single fight, I think I'm like afraid of like what could happen and then most of the time it doesn't happen,

thank God. But yeah, my mental battle before the fight is definitely tough. Have you talked to someone about this to try to... I have, you know what, I have not. I have not. I feel like I was kind of one of those guys that was against that stuff. I did, talk to a sports therapist for a bit and did help out. But my last camp, I was so caught up being a dad. I just had a kid four weeks ago. So it was like bouncing out of fight camp,

diet, but also being a father to a newborn. It was a lot to balance out. And I'm glad I came back, you know, and not hurt, none of that. And I could come home and be a father full time. Yeah, these photos are incredible. So beautiful. Well done. Congratulations to you and your wife and your whole family. This, by the way, this is legendary. Is this real? Is this real? Is this real? definitely rare. Yeah, he said it about, we had a little photo shoot for him. As a mom set up like three photoshoots as soon as he was born. So, yeah. Yeah, what a Gie this guy

is? He looks so unbelievable. What's his name? Gianni, I named Gianni Sergio Pettis. GSP's my favorite fighter, so I had his initials GSP. Wow. What an honor. That's unbelievable. I love that. And where does Gianni come from?

You know what? We know a guy named Gianni out in Bali, and I was like, bro, I don't know what it is. I like her name. I think I'm going to name my son that if I have a son and, yeah, I had a son. That's amazing. Is this your first kid? First kid, first boy and our family, actually. We only got two, we have, my two brothers have two daughters each, so four nieces, first boy to pass on the last name of Pettis.

Wow, that's amazing. And so fighting just after becoming a dad for the first time, did you feel like the motivation was different? Did you feel like your mindset was different? Oh, for sure. I felt all that, you know, I felt like I had a reason why now, you know? my whole career was just off for myself before and um this time i'm like man i got to buy some diapers some formula i got to make sure my kids set up for the future when i was in there i was even thinking about i'm like man i can't go out this way and uh yeah i think here's a big part of the reason

i pulled it off you know just had a reason why and some motivation i want to get that belt too it's a a big um just a dream of mine to be a two organization champ just in my brother you know anthony's got the ufc and uh serger pettis is going to have bell to pfl will be the only brothers to do so Yes, I love that. And you're very, very close to making that happen. I'm just wondering, when you become a dad, and I'm speaking from a place of obviously experience and knowledge, I have three kids, I feel like the way you look at the world and the way you look at your job and everything, everything kind of gets balanced a little bit because everything gets put in perspective. Before you're selfish and you're kind of thinking about your career 24-7, 100% of the time, but now you have to care for another human being. And so in doing that, and because of the that you actually I think become a better person in in both sides of life because now not at all the pressures on this side of things right like it gives you perspective and balanced do you feel that same way 100% you hit it right in the head man you know I definitely felt balanced you know I knocked out all my milestones on life I got married um you know had a kid and was a boy as well

so I felt completely balanced spiritually mentally and physically and it showed in my fight you know I was able to face adversity and uh just come out strong and Yeah, a big thank you to all my people in my life that do that. My wife, my son, and my coaches, everybody in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my brother Anthony, Lloyd, everybody at VaynerSports. Shout out to Mike Hogan and PFL. This has been an awesome journey. I'm excited to keep going.

How was Dubai? Dubai was amazing. My first time I actually stepping outside the airport. I was there for a layover. But as soon as I stepped outside, the buildings, I'm completely inspired. You know, I was amazing. Also, the weather helped me make weight way easier. It's like 100 degrees out of day.

Amazing. I love it. Did you feel like, you know, obviously the, the Dagestani fighters are very popular there. Habib is very popular there. Did you feel like they were all rooting for Magamah? Did you feel like the enemies, so to speak? Oh, for sure, 100%. You know, the crowd was definitely on his side.

And, you know, his teams from there, I think he lives there now, if I'm not mistaken. But they could definitely feel that. You know, they're supporting their people, and it made sense there in their country. It's my third time doing this now. And I fought in Japan last year against Horguchi. and I fought in India against a boxer from from India. It was really good. And now over here in Dubai,

I fight in Mago Med Magamato. It's been a crazy time exploring the world. I want to ask you about that in a moment, but just curious, did Khabib say anything to you after the fight? Yeah, he did, man. He came up to me, shook my hand. He said, good job, and I tell your brother, I say hello. You know, the Dagestani fighters are amazing.

I feel like they're very much like how our team is at home. You could see they carry by each other, big family, trained very hard. You know, obviously it shows in their performance. and yeah man it was it was cool man a great experience uh shout to mygo man i hope you're all good brother you know it was uh business and uh you know on to the next one i hope you're all good uh loved seeing your brother react on twitter to the knockout i don't know if you saw afterwards but he's like reacting in real time like like a fan right but obviously you're his

brother and he means so much to hear some of the tweets you have a new superstar pfl title shot don't ever sleep about that that's amazing stuff did he bet on you is he allowed to bet on you i know he's a big better do you know if he did yeah you know what i don't know if he did actually I'm not sure if we did this time around. I know he has in the past. I'm usually the underdog, so, yeah. Yeah, this one I know is a big underdog. So, whoever bet it on me, they definitely got paid, thank God.

Incredible. Okay, so going back to that fight, I remember hearing about your boxing match in India. I'm working for DeZone, and they say, oh, you have to read this promo, and I'm like, Sergio Pettis is boxing in India. What is this all about? Where did this come from? How did this come your way? You know, my brother, Anthony, was actually doing, like, a promotion out there,

just co-promoting some boxing cards. And opportunity fell on my lap, man. You know, I didn't have anything going on as far as MMA at the time. So they allowed me to stay busy. I got to go over to India, box it out, have a pro debut against a three-time champion. It was like the Middle East champion, India champion, Australia champion. Also up to 147. So he's a way bigger dude than I was.

But it was a great experience, man. It was a great time. Is combat sports, boxing? Is it big over there? Yeah, it is pretty big. I mean, not as big as it is over. I was in the States or elsewhere. but uh you know they showed a lot of love out there they're trying to help it grow the

sports so i went out there and put it on the line against one of their top athletes helped them grow it a little bit uh it was a great event though they had a great job really good time and how was risin i've been really impressed i know obviously the fight was it was a tough night at the office but i've been really impressed with what they've been doing as of lay what was your experience like fighting for them it was uh epic man it was like a movie you know you go over there the crowd's completely failed from the beginning of the card so the end of the card the production everybody over that rising was a risen was a great time um you know it's actually crazy to talk about that uh in a way uh naoki in a way he's been calling me out a little bit

so oh if i get this f a but f f fl belt and possibly uh go over there and fight him as well okay you'd like that 100 percent i'm i'm here for it all man i'm in the sport for the long haul and uh i want to face some of the top guys all over the world so um i think pfl is turning the corner in a big way when they're starting to you know crown these champions in these divisions. We saw, obviously, Usman, win the lightweight belt, Corey Anderson. Now we're starting to know, okay, who's the top dog in all these weight classes? Costelves, seen us at 185. It feels like you should be fighting for a bantamweight title. Have you, and you refer to that in your post-fight interview as well. Have you been told that that's going to be next for you?

I haven't been told that's going to be next yet, but I'm assuming that's got to be next, man. You know, they fought me against one of my old teammates, Rafian Stats, who was one of the champion the tournament or the belt when I wasn't there was a interim champ I mean Magamette Magamatov's a beast you know I feel like I'd definitely not earn that spy you know they almost have to give it to me at this point honestly what Elvis you know winning the tournament it makes the most sense for both of us to go at it and show who the road champ is over here at 135 yes do you think that could happen this year or probably getting a little too close it's October already

yeah I mean it's October so I'm assuming it's not gonna happen this year I'm okay with that you know I do need some time of my son and uh hopefully beginning the next year or um you know somewhere around that time i'm healthy nothing really happened this last fight as far as injuries so i'm ready to get back into it uh get back after it and chase his belt man that's what i'm here for you know these uh these titles man that's you know team pettis could i ask you know i saw the new ceo john martin there like i said it feels like they're turning the corner what was the vibe like fight week among the you know the company the employees everyone at pfl i was excellent man they do an excellent job in the back you

know, and in the front, I feel like everything's coming together for them. You know, things are a little iffy in the beginning. Obviously, purchasing a new company's hard, and you obviously got to go through the rough times and build up. And I think that they passed those times where people weren't getting any fights and they're on the high end of things, you know, where I just got a fight too back-to-back-to-back fights within three months. So I'm very happy.

You know, I know everybody else is happy as well. So, yeah, things have been doing really well. Organizations are great, very organized. Very excited to be a part of this and see the future of it all. Yeah, you're active now. of this, were you worried that, you know, things wouldn't work out, that you wouldn't be able to be as active as, as you've become? Yeah, for sure. I think everybody was around those times that weren't having anything going on. And especially, you know, my girl being pregnant

and all this stuff, I was definitely a little stressed out. But, you know, all that got a race as soon as I got that fight, June 28th against Rafion, bounce back quick October 3rd. You know, I can't ask for anything more. This is what I'm here for. 32 years old. I got to take advantage of this time. Yeah. How awkward was the Stats fight for you? man that was the most awkward fight ever i never want to do that again you know rapfans actually my good friend good teammate i was training with him for like at least like seven to eight years in total so yeah just having him uh be on the opposite end and trying to hurt me and me trying to hurt him it just felt so wrong and uh yeah i did not like that fight at all are you cool now

yeah we're cool man we talked after the fight right after the fight it's crazy um i walk out of my hotel room and he's in the room literally across from me and his wife and his daughter come out and you know we shook hands and just laughed about it you know on to the next one you know okay you know we're so friends yeah 2013 you had the the spinning back fist knockout uh and and and now you get this one which is one of the contenders for knockout of the year comeback of the year as well considering how the first fight went pretty remarkable to have on the resume like that what were you thinking just curious going into the second round considering how the first round went what are you telling yourself what is your team telling you

to try to get this back on track you know i think we did pretty good in the first round actually you know i think um we were both figuring each other out you know a good standing exchanges he took me down towards the end so obviously yeah they were like i don't let that happen anymore you know he's a dynastown wrestler and that's his style so yeah i mean i went out there you know second around um he caught my kick and i tried to do some flashy move try to hit him with something and yeah ended up waiting me in the butt i was on the floor the whole fight and um you know my corner does a great job. I've been with them from here. So they're just, you know, telling me to stay calm, stay on the mission, and someone's going to happen, something big. They believe in me.

Absolutely. And it paid off. And I think what you said earlier was, apropos, do you think, and I'm curious if you can expand on it, do you think he was starting to kind of feel himself? And that's why he was rushing in the way in which he did, and you were able to catch him. And was that something that you were trying to bait him into? Yeah, I mean, I definitely could feel and feeling himself. You know, like I said, I hear him talking this corner talking me the whole time laughing you know having a good time in there so i was like man i wasn't having the greatest of time but yeah you could feel him uh definitely overpressing i think even the corner before i hit him with the

spin elbow you'll hear in the corner could be even them say you know calm down a little bit or don't push too much from what i was told on instagram and uh yeah he came at me we got a little caught up with that's been uh with that psychic man landin uh that spin obo was devastating it was amazing uh lorone murphy says he wants five percent of of all winnings from spinning elbows. Are you down with that? I laughed at that, man. My spinning elbow compared to his, you know, I know, no, no disrespect to Pico, but Pico's

been slept before. He's 13 and 4. You know, I did it against a 21 and 4 Mago Med, Mago Madoff, who's never been slapped once, a whole different, whole different situation. Okay. So you're asking for 5% is what you're saying. I'm saying, man, he didn't even have to say none of that. Keep my name out of his mouth, you know what I'm saying?

I think my mom was a little more devastated. Fair enough, fair enough. By the way, great time for Milwaukee sports. What about the Brewers? Are you a fan? It's been going off. You know what? I actually went to a game this year.

I don't really tune in on in other sports besides fighting, but it's always good to see my home team doing good, brewers, the bugs, all of it. But, yeah, Brewer's been going hard. Yes. Are we going to see your brother back? Any word on Anthony? You know what? I feel like he's been itching to get back. After seeing me, I get that knockout.

He texted me right away. Like, man, I miss it. I miss training camps. I miss prepping for fights. And he's still young. I think, you know, he stopped at M.A. around like 35, so I think he should be good to go again, man. I see him back in the camp and get him back in there. He's still a beast. Two last things. Did you watch the main event on Friday? Did you watch the Hughes and Magamato fight?

You know what? I actually did, and I started celebrating it right away. I grabbed a couple of drinks and beers, and yeah, I was with my team. Okay, so I want to ask who you thought won the fight. Did you see the Marab title fight the next night? Just because it's the same way class. I was curious if you watched it and had any thoughts on you? his performance. Yeah, you know what? I was on an airplane. So I had my wife FaceTime me. I caught like bits and pieces of the fight.

It was a little hard to see. Obviously, I was in like pairs, so the signal wasn't great. But Rob's a beast, man. Honestly, Corey St. Hagen's a killer to go out there and shoot that many shots on him, get those takedowns. What a beast. But yeah, I did see the fight, man. I'm very impressed.

Always impressed with Rob. So wait a second. You're in Paris on a layover. Your wife calls you on FaceTime and holds the camera up so you can watch it via FaceTime. of FaceTime? Yeah, she keeps me informed. You know, she's a great wife. And I was like, please, please let me see this fight. So she let me watch all the five rounds. She held the phone up there for five rounds? Yeah. She held the phone up for five rounds and had my newborn with her too. So yeah, she's a team player. Okay, she's the real G in the family. That is, that is impressive.

She's a big part of the reason all this is happening. She's been helping me out a lot. I love it. Well, congratulations, Sergio. Very, very happy for you. Love the setup behind you as with the gloves and the belts you've been doing this for so long and it's great to see you still doing it at the highest of levels thank you so much for coming on really really appreciate and again congrats on the winning congrats on everything going on in your family as well the new addition and everything which you guys the best appreciate you for having me out thank you so much there he is the great Sergio pettis so happy for him what a great win what a great family obviously his brother a legend of the game and really amazing to see him doing this at such a high

level and yeah i mean magumman magumato has a win over a guy named pierre yan by the way in case you don't know. A very, very, very tough out, very tough fighter to pull that off an incredible win. And what was that with this? And I thought it was, I thought it was about like Jay-Z or something, the Rock. Rockefeller, the dinners. Yeah, that's what I thought. Do you think that's what he was doing or no? For sure, yeah. Okay, that's what I thought. I heard Sergio's on Rockefeller Records. Yeah, no, that would, no, but he stomped on it. Oh, okay. So I think he was saying like, I end down with Rockefeller Records. Let's see it one more time, one more time. How about the DDP?

That maybe it was DDP. Do we have the footage here? I think he, uh, he did the, the thing, and then he stomped on it. He stomped on it. Did you guys see that? He did the thing. We're queuing it up right now. He did the thing.

He did this. Here it is, here it is. What is that? I think it's a little anti-illuminati or something. Okay. I don't know what that was. No, no. Over the eye.

Yeah. Maybe one day we'll get to talk to Sergio. We can ask. I did ask him about it. I did ask him. He didn't want to go in. to it. You should have had the Illuminati line in the back pocket. It feels a little anti-Illuminati, you know.

What is the Illuminati? I know about the... What is the Illuminati? Uh-oh. I'm gonna, I'm gonna check out of this one. Do you remember when people thought Benson Henderson was doing that? Yes. You remember that era? That was a good era. Could have been... Remember Jay Z? JZ used to throw up the...

Oh, my God. This is awkward. P.C. joined late. This is awkward. No, no, give it. Give them grace. If we can rewind 45 seconds, we live in... Sorry, I was on this way. You're not listening. I was listening, but there's a fucking gap between YouTube and what's on here. So I had to go from one chair to this chair and they get turned off.

So I missed about 30 seconds, okay? I'm sorry. For fuck sake. Hey, guys, some breaking news here. Yes. And I'm getting, um, I'm getting some texts in particular for my nephews who are freaking out right now because news has broken that Conno McGregor has been suspended for 18 months. I would like to explain to them that it's retroactive. So, here it is, from Uncrowned, the great Drake Riggs, writing,

Connor McGregor's return to combat sports has been further delayed. On Tuesday, UFC announced that the former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion has been suspended for 18 months after violating the whereabouts policy under the Promotion's anti-doping program. Through combat sports anti-doping, which is CSAD, that's the new anti-doping. Doping organization that they're linked with after moving on from Usada, McGregor missed three testing samples within a 12-month window on the dates of June 13th, September 19th, and September 20th, 2024.

McGregor 37 was initially to be suspended for 24 months until further cooperation prompted a reduction down to 18 months. UFC stated, his suspension will be retroactive to the last date of his missed testing. This is the very important part, meaning he won't be eligible. to return to competition until March 20th, 2026. So if you are a fan of Connor McGregor and you just want to see him fight on the White House card, this is much ado about nothing because you say to yourself, oh, he's good until, you know, he's good as of, I should say, March 21st, great.

If you are someone who believes that, you know, he doesn't play by the rules, yeah, okay, this is significant. So it just, it's kind of the way in which you want to slice it. But this doesn't, so when my nephews are texting me, it's like, oh, now he can't fight on the White House card. No, if you just read suspended 18 months, you're like, oh, shit, he's not fighting on the White House card. But then you have to understand that it's retroactive to June, or I guess September of last

year, and now you realize that he's good to go as of March 20th. But there's no, you know, there's no beating around the bush here. You recall in 2023 when the relationship with U.S. and the UFC fizzled, he was kind of at the center of all of it. And he has talked openly about, you know, removing himself from the testing pool in order to get back to 100%. Missing tests or not being where you are supposed to be will result in strikes. And if you miss three, as they are saying he did, you get suspended. Any thoughts on this, guys? What do you guys? What do you guys say? What do you guys think? Much ado about nothing? Much to do about nothing, but I do

wonder why 18 months. It does feel particularly harsh. I went back because I did remember that there were some other people. Yair Rodriguez got six months for the same offense, and Nick Diaz got 12 months for the same offense. So why is Conner's 18? It just feels... I don't know... Sorry, that it was 24 months and they're actually going down here? So why was it initially 24 even? Yeah. Well, that part is like you can kind of negotiate. negotiate that, right? And then accept the terms. That's where they... Well, by the way, if it's 24 months, he ain't fighting on the White House card. Yeah, exactly. It's convenient that it would be 18 as of 24. But why even either of those

numbers when previously we have seen athletes in the same organization, be for six and be for 12? Is it possible that this is the second offense, meaning the six? Yeah, the second time that he has done 12 months of whereabouts. I don't know. I don't know. P.T., what do you think? I think, you know, once he's able to find the way I was kind of don't think anyone really cares, you know? Yeah. But, I mean, it does, it does add to what people were saying about his physique and the testing and all that stuff.

But did he not at the time basically say, this is all above board? Like, I felt at the time, like, he was going to like, yeah, this was happening. I broke my leg. Yeah. Well, yeah. You know, so, I mean, missed the test. That doesn't shock me at all. Yeah, I know

I understand that I always feel weird about the the mistesting thing if only because none of this is collectively bargained so for those that don't know the UFC fighters have to

if Armant Sirukin decides to go on a trip to Cancun he has to update his whereabouts on an app so that they don't go to his home ring the doorbell he's not there and say what the hell. They need to know where you are every single day. Like if you go on vacation

with your family, if if some fighter decides to go on a road trip and doesn't tell them where they are, it doesn't say, hey, I'm not going to be at the gym on these days and I'm not going to be home and I'm going to be actually in Vermont, you get a strike for that. And I just think that's wild. I think that's wild. As an independent contractor having to tell your promotion, not your employer, because if you were having to tell your employer, you would be an employee, having to tell them 24-7, 365, where you are, and oh, by the way, they also tell you what to wear

when you do compete for them. That's pretty damn strict. I always make this comparison. The guy who comes to my house, my freezer, I have an upright freezer in my garage. It broke. There's a guy coming to my house on Friday. I can't ask that guy to tell me where he's going to be

between now and Friday every single hour of the day and I can't tell that guy what to wear when he comes to my house you know why? Because he's an independent contractor because I hire him to do a job and when he's done with that job he has no ties to me whatsoever and yet these fighters have to tell them where they are 24-7-365 that seems harsh does it not it's untenable but at the same time if you are collectively deciding you

Now, again, collective bargaining would be a key in this scenario. If you are collectively deciding that you want to pursue a clean sport, there's no better way to do it, right? There isn't an alternative to random testing to showing up. There is an alternative. The alternative is in the NBA, the NFL, Major League Baseball, they have testing, but they can't be tested 24-7-365. This is-

Premier League as well? Yeah, that testing doesn't work. This is collectively bargained. They come to an agreement, hey, you can't. By the way, in those sports, you think they're going ding-dong on LeBron James' doorbell at 6 in the morning and waking them up? That's a great example. I don't think they are. And I think I'm being pretty clear about what I think.

Do you think they're ringing Josh Allen's door? No. But you're a million-dollar athlete, multi-million dollar athlete. You don't want someone showing up to your house at 6 in the morning. No, nor do you as the player or the league want somebody to pop hot because that damage. your value and returns. Hang on, are you saying some of these lads take drugs? Pizzi, you're putting words in my mouth.

I'm saying all of these lads take drugs. Oh, my God. The reality is you can have two options. No testing or this type of random testing, and one will produce better outcomes than the other in terms of catching cheaters. The middle ground of like, hey, after the event or after the basketball game, we're going to test you,

it's never going to work. That's not going to catch anybody. That's not true testing. I don't think it has to be right after the game because that's too obvious. But I think you could say... So how do you do it if it's not random? I think you could say between the hours of such and such, I think you can say between the months of such and such or I don't know. Between the months of such and such, what happens though?

How do they test? We can't or we can't go to your house or we can't go to your house? So they are going to their house? I'm on vacation for a week. Don't come near me. Yeah, yeah. You know, because you're going to get you either so at that window anyway. Right.

It's not like you can take some steroid that comes in and out your system in a week and we'll have. I mean, naturally, you can understand why that would lead to some obvious ways to skirt the system, right? Don't come to my house for this period, but I'm good for you to come this time. Like, you know, there is not a better way to do it if you are in support of a clean sport. At the same time, maybe that's not the objective. And clearly that's kind of like we're all seemingly moving away from that. Can I ask you guys this? Can I ask you guys this? The word of the day yesterday was performative, right? That was the word of the day. Do you think this is performative on the UFC's part? Do you think this is to say, hey, we're catching people? The McGregor one specifically? Absolutely. Yes, yes. Because it's not going to stop him from fighting him from fighting. If his goal is to fight on the White House card, it's very convenient, like you guys said, that they're cutting it down from 24 to 18. Oh, now he's off at March instead of being off in September, which would stop him from fighting on the White House card. This is, this is, causing no issues for Connor McGregor. He's not really serving anything. It's just for the UFC

to put out. Or the UFC, right? 18 months. Line them up. White House, no problems. They get what they want. He gets what he wants. Yeah, you know, I see sometimes Jedi tweets he's out. He has been tested recently. I think it's three times, four times, and it's on the website, and I don't even know what the website is. It's CSAD or something like that. And it says all has been good, but this is dating back to last June. This is 2024. It's June and September. So, you know, I don't think anyone is surprised that he would be attached to something like this, but again, it feels very convenient to do it because you could say, hey, look, we're going after people, we're trying to catch people, and look, this is the biggest fish, but then you say,

all right, it's not really affecting when he was going to fight. And also, I do have a problem with them showing up or having to tell the UFC 24-7-365 where they are. I have a problem with that. And if that means, by the way, that it's not a quote-unquote clean sport, well, them's the brakes. But then there's no clean sports. But I don't think anyone should have to tell their employer

where they are at 24-7-365. What if I asked you? If they're not an employee, rather. I just text you anyway. But you mean like both. I guess that's fair too, yeah I don't want to be telling my employer Yeah, you're right

It's crazy Again, it's in pursuit of something If we acknowledge that We don't care about that Then I'm fine, like, I don't care either I think both can be true I think you can still care and not Have to do this

How can you test them? This is what you sit at a table And talk about You sit at a table and say Okay, you're going to give me this And I'm going to take that And you're going to say this And I'm going to take that

Like that's just, that's the bargaining process The other sports have it And nobody gets caught We have it already. This is also a sport where taking these drugs makes a massive impact. Like, it has impacts in other sports. In this sport, it has a huge, huge impact. Yeah, it does.

I mean, I would say it has a huge impact in the National Football League as well. They call it a national football league isn't... An impact, but not as big as one-v-one combat. So are you guys saying, are you in favor of the fighters having to tell the UFC where they are 24-7-3? I'm in favor of the fighters deciding if they want it. The collective, that's what I'm in favor. But I do very firmly believe that there's only two possible outcomes. There is we do it randomly and we can drop by whenever or let's not do it at all.

The middle ground just doesn't produce anything worthwhile. It's a waste of time. I just want to know, ultimately, it doesn't matter what I think, what you think, what any of us think. I want the fighters to decide this. 100%. I want them to decide what they wear. I want them to decide what they can or cannot wear, where they can. where they can and cannot be, how much they have to tell.

Like, I just wish we could get to that point. Is it that hard? By the way, I'm not even asking for 50% of the revenue here. I just want them to have a seat at the table. I just want them to have a shake. On decisions like this. Yeah, exactly. Is there any chance of that happening?

No. There's no one who's raising their hand. There's no one spearheading this. There's, I mean, there was a moment in 2016 where it looked like something was going to happen, but it died pretty quickly. It's such a specifically individual sport. And especially, like, obviously, like, there's individual sports where they have kind of associations and things like that, tennis, golf. But it's a sport where the failures of your opponents are your benefit and is the most optimal way for you to get your opportunities.

It's inherently very hard for somebody to want the success of the other people. And so I just don't see anybody foregoing their own benefit collectively to do it. It's very hard to envision right now. on air jordan has provided me with the uh whereabouts policy for tennis players so is this the ATP and the WTA covers yeah ATP WTA i believe olympics so they have the same type of policy so it's a world anti-doping so it's similar policy similar policy which was adopted from usada and and wada world anti-doping um they have the similar whereabouts policy it's an essential tool in upholding

clean sport by providing their daily whereabouts. Players ensure that the ITIA can operate a notice testing program and maintain the integrity of the game. Whereabouts is a requirement of the WADA code and is filed using the WADA

Adams platform. And so by the way, I'm all for clean sport. I just, and I don't know enough about tennis to know if any of this is, like, is there a tennis association? I think there is. I think there is. that there is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, meaning, like, is there a players association? The union. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean? I believe there is, yeah. Yeah. So, I don't know if they

collectively bargain this. But it's got to be annoying as hell. And by the way, some people have gone infractions, not because they're trying to hide. And I'm not suggesting that's what happened here, what I'm about to say, but just because they forget, you know? No, totally. And, but that's why this is the grace of three times and 12 months, right? Like, if you did that, if you did that if you made a mistake, it's only after three. But there doesn't seem to be consistency. As I said, Nick Diaz, a year, a year, Rodriguez, six months. Like, there's no rhyme or reason for any of this. Now, those were for USADA. Yeah. This is the new organization. So perhaps they're even stricter. Oh, yeah, for sure. Than USADA. Even more, even more sign of performative.

If you don't care about any of this, top line, it doesn't affect his involvement on the White House card or any sort of return past March 21st, and there was no sign of him fighting anytime between now and March 21st. Let's go back to the question, shall we? Armand Saruki is going to be joining us in 25 minutes. Looking forward to that very, very much potential number one contender fight, November 22nd, Qatar against Dan Hooker. El Peruano asks, is Dave Feldman with Eddie Hearn a close second the most likable and forthcoming frontman in combat sports at the moment? Not the biggest BKFC fan, but hoping he stays this way.

I don't know. I mean, who are the options? You've got Eddie Hearn. Over on the boxing side of things. Who's that? Who's that? DW, Dana White. DW, of course, DFW, to the hardcores.

You've got Frank Warren, Ben Shalom. You've got Jake Paul, Nikisa Baderian. You've got Mr. Dave Feldman. You've got Mams Taylor. You've got Oscar Delahoya. I mean, I think he endeared a lot of people, John Martin over on the PFL slash Don Davis, PFL side of things. He endeared a lot of people to him, I think, when he was very open about his his background, everything that he's been through with his mom and his family. I mean, it's a mind-blowing

story. If you've never heard it, it's up on the channel, just search his name. I mean, it's straight out of a movie. It's a shocking story. It really is. And it's unbelievable that he was able to do this. So, I mean, really, when he's talking about the story, it's, it's, we use the word unbelievable very loosely in life. This is truly unbelievable. So yeah, no, I get that. And I think a lot of people are pulling for him. And I'll be honest, there are some people who say, ah, you know, this, that, like no promoter is ever going to be everyone's best friend. But it does seem like he is that rare promoter that everyone seems to, at least the fan base loves and respects and wants to see succeed. And I'll also say, being at that BKFC show with Casey on Saturday, his workers,

I don't know if they're employees or not, but the people who work for BKFC all very much believe in him and all very much want him to succeed. I mean, I had so many people come up to be like, I believe in this. None of us make a lot of money, but we believe in this and we love this and we want this to succeed. We've poured so much into this. And we got to shoot his speech to the fighters beforehand, which I thought was a very, a very cool moment to experience. And every fighter is clapping it up, and it felt like a team. It really did. You know, use the word family.

It's a bit overused, but it really did feel like everyone was in it together. Jeremy, hi, Ariel. You mentioned the good viewing numbers when Tom Aspinall turns up. On the other hand, huge stars like Diego Lopez don't have great numbers, even though he speaks English. How do you react to the numbers in general? How important are they for you? and do you see a pattern? Mainly YouTube, not sure if you see Spotify, Apple, Best Jeremy.

I don't really look at the audio numbers because they're not staring at me in the face. I wouldn't look at the video numbers either. It's just they're staring at me in the face. I'd rather not. I wish we didn't. I don't want to, I don't want to make decisions, programming decisions based on YouTube numbers, but you can't ignore them because they're staring at you in the face. and I'll be honest there was a time like I remember it's so crazy to see how much YouTube has changed like when we were doing the MMA hour back in the day we didn't have thumbnails we didn't think for a second about breakouts or titles I'm talking about like the first iteration of the MMR even the ESPN show I didn't think about any of this stuff and now I feel like there's so much

focus on thumbnails and and headlines titles and what is on the thumbnails and what is on the thumbnail what words you're using oh my god i mean we used to do these interviews with fighters at the events we wouldn't even have a thumbnail it was just like the screen grab of the video the platforms have changed so drastically oh it's it's so annoying and so then you start to overthink things and overanalyze things and why did this hit and this didn't hit and and then you get the you know like we're guilty of it too all caps this and exclamation point that i don't know what the fuck we're doing i don't know any of this shit i don't get any of it so i try not to tom asked was on during a period over the summer where he was very much in the news tied to John Jones

people wanted to know what was going on and so that stuff is always going to hit but like you know there are interviews that I love that it's just different and I you know I I see people like breaking down the channel and trying to like by the way there's there's a lot that's going on here just for the record a there's on crown dot com B there is our YouTube channel uh you're not also looking at all the social media views as well and that's how people are are watching a lot of things. So go look at the views just from yesterday on Twitter. Go look at the views on Instagram. Go look at the views on TikTok and Facebook as well. Don't forget about those. It's not just one place where people consume this. The show also streams on on X,

not Twitter anymore, X these days. And so there's a million different places. Oh, by the way, there's the audio feed as well. So it's broken up in a different, in a bunch of different ways. but I know that number there is what everyone fixates on. Plus there's the live number and then that gets broken up and all this mesh you guys. Can drive you nuts, no doubt about it. Try not to overthink it. Definitely talk about it.

But you just try to do the best that you can. And you want to try to cover the sport the best that you can. And, you know, I don't look, you see like we don't, I'm not straying away from the interviews because the interviews are important. I love doing the interviews. I like this as well. And that's the beauty of getting to do a daily show three days a week, myself, boys in the back on Thursday, PT on Friday, to where we can have the banter, but also bring you, to me, bringing you Yuri, bringing you Armin, bringing you these names, Sergio Pettis, after their big moments, is extremely valuable in what sets us apart from everyone else.

so um hey ariel from a's i was wondering if hughes versus nirmaga madeoff was rigged in one way or another wouldn't it have been better to make it less obvious for example they could have scored the fifth round for hughes to make it three two or four one and the theories wouldn't be as strong as they are now would love your thoughts i mean i don't know i don't even know what happened there we have no idea and maybe we'll never know but the fact that it was 5-0 is definitely very weird

definitely very weird Dom Burnetti Hi Ariel Would you rather have the Knicks win the NBA championship Or you can choose to watch all your Watch your all-time dream co-main and main event fights I mean, come on 100% Knicks win the championship

I mean the fights are great we get most of the fights that we want to see the Knicks winning the championship I'll be good if the Knicks if I ever get to witness the Knicks and Bills win their respective championships I was actually talking about this with one of my friends over the weekend

I would take a Nix excuse me I would take a Bill's Super Bowl win in exchange for Owen 17 for the rest of my life and then my friend who's also a Bill's fan it was like really oh and 17 for the rest of your life yes because i'll tell you what i go to bed now after a game like sundays game against patriots i kid you not i go to bed depressed because i keep thinking this is all going to end for me soon i'm now at the point like i can't say i'm 15 and like

oh i still have a long like i may never see them win and i've devoted all this time and energy i just if i just see them win once both teams i will these losses won't mean anything ah nobody deal. We won a championship back in 2025, 2026. It was great. It was amazing. I felt it. Ah, who cares if you lost to the Patriots on Sunday night? No big deal. But now every loss feels like, oh my God, it's not going to happen. Oh, my God. They're going to lose two in a row. They're not going to get the number one seat. They're going to lose on the road in the second round, and we're going to have to go through this all over again. Every loss feels so much bigger than it really is. You start to, you start to hyperventilate. Oh, my God. Oh, they got injured.

Oh, this guy didn't do well. Oh, this guy's not performing. oh, they stumbled, and now they have this game coming up, and now they have this, oh, and they're going to, oh, my God. I wouldn't care any fan whose team won, like, I'll talk to Giants fans, like, oh, my God, the Giants suck so bad, and my wife was making fun of me, like, oh, they're never going to win. I'm like, excuse me, never going to win. They won last decade.

They won in 2011. You were 25. What are you talking about? Oh, the Yankees suck. They're never going to win. What are you talking about? The Yankees won like eight years ago. What is this?

16. Who cares? How old were you when they last one? What was it? 2009. I was 18. You don't remember it? I remember every moment.

Exactly. Can I... Give me more. Yeah. Now you're being selfish. Spread the love. I don't think watching sports is good for your health. Yeah, really?

Me specifically? Have you ever done the... It does? It doesn't sound like it. It does not. It doesn't... Let's do it for you right now. Okay, let's do it.

All right. We're going, so this is just professional teams. So are we counting Blue Jays? Like, we can't really count Expos. I know. I guess we're going to count Blue Jays. I mean, like the true childhood trauma, Nix Bills, Expos.

So one of them is dead, by the way. One of them will never win. You can't do the expos. So bills, we'll throw it on there. 15 plus years, yeah. We're at an 86 right now, and then we'll do Nix 15 plus years. So then you can't put Blue Jays.

because Blue Jays won in 93 and I was not even rooting for them in that series. Okay, so I can change, I can change the Blue Jays to you being like a fan for like, I put, I put five to ten years. Of the Blue Jays? Yeah. Yeah, 2015 plus for the other ones. Okay, so five to ten is right. Yeah, final rating is, uh, is an 87.

Oh, uh, you are woeful, uh, in the ranking. Oh, no, no, no, please. I would make a strong case that I'm the worst luck sports fan on the planet. Things are grim. My baseball team doesn't exist. My basketball team was a laughing stock throughout the early portion of this century. My football team was the last team in the NFL to make the playoffs in the 21st century. And then once they became good, they find a way every single year to win, excuse me, to lose in the most excruciating way possible.

None worse than 13 seconds. But every year, it's more heartbreaking than the next. I got nothing. So when you say great joy. I get great joy in the. this sense. Like, when the bills beat the Ravens in the playoffs, I feel like I could fly. I really feel like I could fly. When the Knicks beat the Celtics, game six, and I'm there with my kids, I feel like there's nothing anyone could do or say to me that would ruin my day. I wake up

the next day feeling like the birds are chirping like I'm literally like floating through the air. When when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hits a grand slam, I watch it a million times. And it gives me great joy. And so the joy that I get from it will always outweigh the pain. The problem is the pain seems to feel a lot more impactful than the joy. You just said it outweighs it. So how does it outweigh it? The pain of losing is stronger than the joy of winning. Probably. I mean, I wouldn't know. I wouldn't know. You've laid out a scenario where every year you are finding some kind of joy, right? But it's all for the pursuit of that happiness. But you get it. You were there with your kids. You watched the same. You watch the

I need that moment. I need that moment. I need to watch the confetti. I need the hat. I need the shirt. I think you got the trophy. I need the anything is possible. I think you got to see my guys. And do you only want the one? What is the one? He's saying if he gets one. What is the one you want? Oh, no, no. No, I need one for each. I need one for each. One bills and one. Yes. No, it's not that. Fuck, I don't think you're being greedy. I, I stand by that the pain of losing is stronger than the joy of winning. But I do also agree with you. Once you see, see the title, like it actually is all good. Georgia lost the Bama last week. I was just like, yeah, I got to see back to back. I thought, by the way, I thought you were going to say, yeah, I would see the title, you want more? I promise you I won't be that person. No, no, no, I am like good. I used to rage when Georgia would lose these close games. Now it's just like, well,

I did see that back to back. And I got to be in person for one, so it's all good. Because I was exactly like you up until 2021. And now they're like their impact. I swear it, I went to bed so depressed on Sunday because they're impacting me more because every game feels like a referendum on the state of my life. It's like, that might be taking it. What have I devoted? And you know what? You want to know what I'm saying?

If they win, it's all worth it. If they don't win, if I die and don't see my teams win, what did I just, what did I just devote? So you're essentially saying you'd rather root for the J.P. Lossman bills where you're like, you know, I know we're not that good, but like a ton, I can go in an hour. No, we're close. We're close. That's why I'm so anxious. That's where all the heartbreak is, is what you're so close. No, but I can.

I don't want to go back. You could go back and find, Rick might remember this. I used to, the way I used to speak about the NFL and the bills, I hated him because they, they were, it was so painful to watch them play such bad football. And I was like, why, I'm now early, you know, I'm a dad, all this. I'm not going to spend my Sunday watching these losers. I laugh at people being like, oh, you're not a real fan if you don't suffer through the 0.5 jet. No, you're a loser. You're an absolute loser. You get one life.

You're spending your Sunday watching a loser franchise and a bunch of players that don't give two shits about you. Now, if they're winning and they want to win and you could tell that they want to win, lock in and enjoy the ride. Yes. I'm with you. 100%. There is no sort of like badge of honor to, and by the way, I've not jumped off the bandwagon.

That's the best part about like the soccer fans that like the same of plastic fan. Like, I have suffered. I am a sufferer. I'm not leaving this team. even though they're in shambles. When I'm in, I'm in. I could have, I could have, I didn't watch a single pitch of baseball because I was mourning my baseball team leaving for 11 years.

2004 to 2015, I refused to watch baseball. I did not watch a single pitch. The Nationals won in 2009. I wanted to jump out of my window because I couldn't believe that they had won the World Series five years after leaving. I will never leave the bills. I will never leave the next. But I just want one.

I just want to know what it feels like. I just want to know that all this effort, all this time, all this angst, all this. this anxiety, all of it, was worth it. I think you've got to just check out until they're one game away. When the bills are in the Super Bowl or when the Knicks are one game away from winning the title, then you check back in. It's also fun to watch your team when they're sick. Not to this guy. The bills are sick.

It's the moment they lose, it's doom and gloom. Let me tell you, Sundays are very free now in the Jordan household because I don't have to lock in on the Jets anymore. They're 0.5? What do you want to do once? Do you want to go apple picking? By the way, that was me when I was early in my fatherhood days and all that stuff

I ain't watching this crap why? But now I'm like no one bother me I'm putting on the Thurmond Thomas jersey you're either sitting here watching with me and if you're sitting here watching get the Josh Allen jersey and wear that thing for the next three hours

and God I mean thank you God he gave me two sons who loved the teams as much as I do and who now tell me did you see this did you see that and I'm like oh this is the dream this is exactly, it took a little while, but they've, you know, they're proud. And I just think, you know what? Maybe this is the way it was supposed to be. Maybe God didn't want me to, I've told this to myself, maybe God didn't want me to see them win a championship in the 90s when I was a

teenager because he knew that they were going to win later in the 2020s and my kids would then get to enjoy it with me as well. And it would be so much better if I get to enjoy it with my kids. think that he sacrificed those 90s teams for this moment. And by the way, there could be a, there could be a four-month stretch coming up in 2026. Legit. Shoot. Where I get to cross both off the list. That's how close we are, right? It's not a crazy thought. Not at all. I mean, the bills. The crazy thought is, is God sacrificing yourself in the beginning so you could enjoy the championships. Remember yesterday when I was telling you, I was at synagogue Yom Kippur and I was feeling clear. I said, as I'm here sacrificing, I just ask for two things. Lord above.

Bills are going 0 and four. Four straight Super Bowls? Why, God. Howan he's got away from self-deaf kids. Thurban Thomas. Why? Why did you do this? Chip Kelly. This 12-year-old needs to have his kids first. There's this guy. You don't know him. Patrick Ewing. Why did you make me miss that figure-roll? Wait, so as soon as he has kids, it's going to happen, right? No, it's going to be like 30 years. That's fine. That's fine. Can you imagine the scenes.

By the way, I'm so sick. I've thought of this. The Super Bowl is going to be when I'm going to be in Milan for the Olympic. Oh, Christ. I've thought of what the scene is going to be like. Me watching the Super Bowl in the middle of the night in Italy, probably on my laptop on a shitty stream. And that's how it's going to happen. Now, you'll be able to get an international feed for it.

I've even thought, like, is it better? when they lost against the Patriots this is the thought that went through my mind I was like maybe this is better maybe it's better they win next year so I can watch it with my kids or be at the game that's how drastic the thoughts are

like PT when you say to me like oh man United tux I feel for you we had a fight about this but they won the treble in 1999 I'm sorry how old were you in 1999 oh we won fucking so much now hang on to just say we won the travel in 1999 is overlooking so many years

of complete dominance I mean it was unbelievable it was the greatest time So am I an A-hole for saying, I don't feel bad? I don't feel bad at all. Yeah, you shouldn't. Ever. And all my friends are Liverpool, and they love ripping on me and shit, but I'm like,

you know, you've never felt that joy and you never will. So they have. They've won. Not that joy. Not that extended period of joy every fucking year. Ten years of dominance? Oh, more than that, me. Decades, decades upon decades.

Why can't I have that? Why can I have that? Because God chose me. Why can I be the fan? Janice is now flirting with us. The Knicks currently plus $8.50 to win the NBA finals. The bills. I'm putting $100 a quid on that as well.

Plus $4.75 to win the Super Bowl. So you're dream of the scratching them off. The bills are the favorite. Scratching them off within a four-month span right now is 53 to 1. Feeling good about that bet, by the way, GC. Are you? Which one, which one? Yeah, that plus $700 on the bills? Yeah, I am.

Wow, it went from $700. to 475? I mean, they've looked good, man. One loss in the NFL is all right, dude. It's a bad loss. I don't worry in them shitty jerse as well, so I mean. I disagree. It was a bad loss.

Did you watch the game? Of course, I did. Yeah. It was a bad. I'm a bad. I'm a tractually obligated for 2025. I started to get worried when he throws in receptions. When they, when you, when you...

All right, it's all right. It's all right. It's getting sacked by a freaking losers. Patriot losers. Falcons lost to the shit Panthers, 30 to nothing. And then the next week, they came out and beat the commander. Yeah, man.

I love Bejean, by the way. He's my favorite player. It's a week to win. It would be all right. Just get the one seat. That's all that matters. The one C would be huge. Get the buy.

To wrap this up, I'll just say, sports has given me so much joy. I mean, I've devoted my life to sports. And so I would never think of, like, removing myself from it. I just want one. That's all. That's all. The pain is worth it if in the end, I get the one.

If I'm 85 and I'm that guy who's like, golly, I wasted a lot of energy and a lot of sleep. nice over then yeah maybe we could say but then what about you know the memories along the way we've had some great memories i feel like you're talking out of six different sides of your mouth i know i feel like he's talking on his deathbed by the way yeah that too it's like i don't have much 40s relax right we lose a sunday night football game to the patriots and i start thinking about my death bed and i'm going to die without seeing a title i really how one he's like i don't have much time left i'm like oh shit all right i wasn't expected that was in that case you realize the thoughts

that go through my mind. I'm literally sitting in bed at whatever time that was 11.30. No one's awake and I'm like, oh, this is it. It's another year wasted. We're finished. We're done. The joy. Sounds joyous. Nothing matters. Nothing tastes good. We're all done. The world is coming to an end.

This is definitely worth it, I think, in my opinion. There might be a touch of taking it a little too serious. Trust me. If you're in the bowl, I'll float them along to watch that shit as well. We will turn it into something. We will fluk it. But then, but then what about the joy? What about the joy when freaking jailing goes between the legs and hits that three over the Detroit Pistons in game six?

Is there anything better than that? When Mark Andrews drops the ball in the end zone, is there anything better than that? There's nothing better. Other than a Super Bowl. I just want that. I'm going to say. I want that February one. Is there anything worse than the 13 seconds?

Is there anything worse? I still have stars. It's the craziest game of sports I've ever watched my life. That 13 seconds game. I still have stars. Should we talk more about that? Let's recap that. Let's talk about that.

Oh, my God. That's not, that's not. Just coursing through my veins. Nah! G.C., when are you coming back to Manchester? God, whenever. I was just thinking about that last night, actually. Oh.

This is coming from Danny Doyle. I'd love to. Are we doing uncrowned films at the Champion Gym with... Oh, that would be sick. Tom Aspinall. That'll be the next time I go. Kenny, Aloha, Ariel, and team. It warms my nostalgic heart that you and Casey are reunited.

I also want to shout out the Uncrown Writers. Yes, you should. As a kid, I would go to places like Walden Books and Borders to buy sports and music magazines to read in-depth articles on favorite athletes and artists. So did I, by the way. I used to go to a place called Coles and Multimags in Montreal. And I really appreciate you guys

keeping thoughtful feature articles alive at Uncrown. Quick question, which magazines did you and the team read back in the day? Oh, this is a great question. Well, I used to subscribe to Sports Illustrated. I used to love Slam magazine. I used to read sport magazine Those were some There was inside sports as well

That I used to buy I used to buy all of these Later In my older days I liked 442 Yeah The soccer mag You know that one PC?

It's a great one I loved stuff magazine Hoop magazine I love the basketball one Slam was probably my favorite Don't forget about those highlights mags From childhood Those were the best

I still have a slam subscription. What? That's unbelievable. And you want to know the craziest part? What? I have no idea who's paying for it. I think my grandparents bought me like a lifetime subscription. I haven't changed the address on a website or anything.

They find you? I just recently moved. And a couple days ago, I got one to live. Wow. They just keep coming. Do you read it? I flipped through it. I used to read it like page by page.

I would rip the posters out and put them up on my wall and everything. Like, I loved Slam growing up, but yes, still, to this day, get it. Like, when I was moving out just, like, a couple months ago, I had to get rid of, like, a stack of slams. Oh, my gosh. While I was living in my apartment, yeah. Is it Slam and Slam kicks as well, or just Slam? It's just Slam. Kix is, like, the special edition issue every once in a while.

Oh, I love Slam. I remember, I mean, we have a Slam up here. I tried to write for Slam out of college. You did? Yeah, I, like, I reached out to, like, several editors emailing them, and they, every time it was just like, nah, we don't have any jobs available. My favorite part of Slam was the noise ticker at the beginning.

Oh, yeah. You know, it's just like random thoughts. Yep, from like the editor-in. Yeah, Russ Bankston? Yeah, shut out. Yeah. Got the Slam, dude. I used to be an NBA diehard.

It is crazy how much my fandom has dropped. Oh, I love Slam magazine. Love Slam. Sports Illustrated was great. Oh, yeah. Every Thursday is that, that's when I got it in Georgia. I don't know what my day was. I feel like it was Tuesday or Wednesday.

I also used to subscribe to the Wrestling Observer News. letter. That was more of a college thing. And yeah, those are the days. I was never like a big Thai magazine or political magazine guy. I was more just a sports fan in particular. I would say those two were my two favorites. All right, great stuff. Thank you very much for all the questions. Love you all. Go bills, go next. One more guest. And he's a massive name. And we just found out last week that he's returning finally November 22nd in Qatar against Dan Hooker. And then Dana White said on Saturday, it's going to be a number one contender fight, which he rarely says that. So let us talk to the great Armand Saruki about this. He's kind enough to join us once again

on the program. Hello, Armin. How are you, my friend? Hello, hello. I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. It's great to have you on. Thank you so much for the time. Okay, so can I ask, why November 22nd, why Qatar, why Dan Hooker? How did we end up here? so i was asking about the title fight and uh they said this year illy he's not going to fight so that's why i said i'll fight to anybody because i haven't fought a long time so i want to fight and then hooker gaigi uh works for me these names and uh Finally, Geji, like I heard, like Gage said no, and Hooker said yes, so we're in. Okay, so was Gaci the top choice?

Genshi would be better, but for me, doesn't matter. It's both of them, it's just easy money for me. Sure. Do you know why Gachi said no? I mean he knows he could lose to me Right Do you think he's going to get a title shot As a result of saying no That seems to be the rumor

Oh it's going to be so bad to me You mean it's going to be a one-sided fight I mean We'll see how I fight How like My fight goes But for sure our fight is number one contender When you accepted the fight

Did they tell you that? Did they say okay it's done November 22nd and it's going to be number one contender or did you find out like all of us? No, they didn't say like this is number one contender fight, but like Donna said last weekend

it's a number one number one contender fight. But you know like we know they can do whatever they want to do so. Sure. I was just surprised that he said that because he usually doesn't say that. They usually never actually say this fight is number one contender for whatever reason.

I mean, I'm a number one contender about two years already. Sure. I mean, someone can make the case that you should be fighting for the belt next. Hopefully I go and beat hooker, perform very well, finish him, show my level, and after that get my title fight in January or February. Okay, so you'd like to, in a perfect world, make a quick turnaround. Yeah, I got to go there, chock him out, and be without any injured and without any damages. Just do my work, finish, and then ask about a fight for.

There has been some talk of Ilya returning at the beginning of the year. Was there any talk about you just waiting and fighting him rather than take this fight in late 2025? you know on my head just right now it's a hooker i'm thinking about him because uh every fight is a tough fight and you know he he's a tough opponent he has a good striking so that's why i got be focused on him and then after the fight i i can keep go and think about the title fight or earlier or somebody because fight is always it's not easy job

like you think guys especially our training camps sure I don't think it's an easy job I know you guys go through hell in these training camps yeah so that's why I'm just I'm not thinking who is going to fight in January or February with

Ilya but on my head go make a good statement in Qatar and call out Ilya and fight for the title beginning of the next year. Is this fight against Dan personal for you? Because, you know, the tweets back and forth between you guys, do you feel like this is a personal fight? I mean, no, it's not personal fight because it's just a... You remember this one?

It's just a business, you know? Yeah, okay. Yeah. It's a business, yeah, of course. on the real life on the real life I know he's he's going to shut his mouth

and like he couldn't say anything about me but when he's going to be media or a lot of people of course he can do something have you ever seen him have you ever talked to him in person

no no I haven't seen him but I'm going to see him in Qatar but you know He knows media and security and everybody is going to be there and he's going to behave like a hooker. What does that mean? Like he's going to behave like he behaved with commerce, you know, because he knows nobody going to touch him.

Okay. So the energy you think, you don't think there'll be any drama beforehand. you think it will all just play out in the fight we'll see we never know especially we are fighters you know sure maybe he's he's not he's gonna talk a lot but a lot of brothers coming and uh hopefully he's gonna they they they're gonna stop me you know oh my and uh yeah i shouldn't i shouldn't do some crazy things i just got to be focused because i'm gonna have 25 minutes to beat his ass when you say brothers you mean your team, right?

Yeah, this time a lot of people comes, a lot of people comes to Qatar. They don't need a visa. So this time we're going to have a bunch of people from Russia, from Armenia, so I'm going to have a big team. Okay, and I would imagine you liked it when they said Qatar as a location,

you liked that idea because of this reason. The best thing, my father can come and watch my This is the best thing. Wow. When's the last time he saw you live? It was in a fire with Islamakachar. I mean, the fight that didn't happen. No, no, no.

It was a... Oh, the first one. First one, yeah. In Russia, yeah. It was last time when I fought in Russia. Oh, wow. Okay, so it's been what? When was that?

2016 or something? 26. Yeah, six years ago, 19. 19. Okay. Wow, that was the last time. Yeah, so he's super excited to come and watch my five. I love that.

What about your grandfather? I saw a picture of you and your grandfather, 101. Yeah. What a legend this guy is. What's his name? Artash. Amazing. Where is this picture?

It's in our home in Gillingjik. It's like in Russia. Okay. Wow. Yeah. How is he doing? He's doing great. He's telling me I'm a boxer.

I'm saying I'm not boxer. I'm an M.A. Does he know what M.MA is? I was trying to explain what is the M.A. I'm saying like it's a street fight without rules. And he said that it's still boxing. I said, okay. Has he ever watched you on TV?

Have you ever shown him videos? Yes. Yes. When he was 90 years old, he was watching my fights but right now he's like sometimes he you know he watch but uh sometimes he couldn't recognize you know okay and by the way you said that the the best part is that your father can be there what about your mother my mother no she's gonna stay home uh it's a it's a man's sport you know okay woman should be at home

what do you mean what are you talking about i mean it's a i don't know how my mom can come and watch my father it's uh you know a lot of blood sure her son can get hurt you know it's i i think it's not uh it's not good place does she watch you on tv or is it hard for her no she she doesn't she she she just are waiting for the resolve and after that maybe she's just waiting when I'm fighting she's just waiting for the result

okay she can't watch I can understand that Dan spoke to a website called a submission radio a show submission radio and he said if Armin comes in arms range of me I'm going to hit him that's the long and short of it

he said the fight's going to be off and I don't care about that that's what I'm saying if you put me near the guy the fights off and I feel like he feels the exact same way if you put me near the guy I'm going to try to hit him

and throw shit at him and push him off the UFC wants this fight to happen so it's on them to keep us away from each other oh he's just talking a lot but if you see

you're going to put us on one room without rumors without camera without bodyguards he's not going to he's not going to do

anything. This is spicy stuff. He also said he wants to kick your teeth in. He can do whatever he wants to do. He's going to have 25 minutes. And if he wants, we can fight and after fire, we can fight again. But not before.

No, that's right. That's right. After fight, probably a bad idea, too. Yeah, because we got to keep, we got to keep that fight safe, you know, before the fight. Have you ever been to Qatar? No, I've never been there, but I'm so excited. I heard a lot of good stuff about Qatar.

And the best thing, it's the same time zone as Russian. So when I fly there, I'm not going to have jetlight. Okay, yeah, that's amazing. And could I understand, so we all know what happened in January, and we've talked to you since then. Did you ever think that it would take so long to get a fight? You know, it's been, it'll be 19 months between fights for you in the end. and it will be 11 months since your fight

that was supposed to happen in California. No, when I got injured, I thought I'm not going to have this year a fight because I thought my injury is going to take a while but I could be a back up. I had a training camp. I cut my weight very well and so my back it doesn't it doesn't bother me anymore and I'm super healthy so yeah uh when I got hurt I thought I'm not gonna fight this year but you know you see I'm back and

hopefully I'm fighting next month any any restrictions at all with the back injury no good so just the best thing it's not overtrained and don't push too much you know sometimes I want to do as much as possible but right now I know I already had that situation so I got to take care of my body

more than before we saw you with Hamzat when he won the belt was that your first time doing a training camp with him like that no this is second time we already had training camp versus

versus who he fought before? He fought, why am I blanking? Australian guy. Australian. Whitaker. Whitaker, that's right. Yes, when he... We had a training camp.

I had a training camp with him with Whitaker. And then this is second time, Robin. Okay. What is his work ethic like, being around him and training with him? I mean, he's super professional. art worker and yeah so the best the best thing that he's a hard worker will he be in your corner for this fight I hope so will you be training with him yeah he wants to come and help me but I'm saying I'm like your

weight is like more than 200 pounds you're gonna hurt me no No, no, he's going to come and help me. And he has always asked me, like, when should they come? And if you need spying partners, just let me know. I'm going to send everybody from Cheshire to help you. Wow, wow, wow. So these are some of the brothers that you're talking about. Yeah.

Okay. And because of the time difference, are you not going to go to ATT to prepare for this fight? So I'm supposed to go to ATT. We talked to Dan and my coach, Porumpa. So, but they told me, like, last week that I'm fighting in Qatar, so it's seven weeks left. It's going to take a lot of time to get there, like, and then go back to Qatar is going to be difficult. So we decided to stay here in Russia, and, yeah, here is going to be better for me.

Okay, will they come to you early? Yeah, they probably are going to come before two or two weeks. Okay. And is this enough time? You say it's seven weeks. Are you okay with that? You know, for me, yes, because I always train twice a day, three times a day. For me, it's like a lifestyle training.

When I train, I feel very good. And I like to train when it's an off-season, you know, because no pressure, you just do whatever you want to do. And like a lot of play, we play a lot, like, tennis. Even wrestling, we play, not like go hard life, you know. We saw that you competed in some grappling competition. That's why for me seven weeks. Oh, sorry. it got cut out

now you're back yeah can you hear the picture is frozen oh now you're back now you're back so seven weeks is okay

seven weeks is okay my weight is okay my weight is good I always try to eat clean okay okay now you're smiling now what's going okay arman can i tell you something my favorite thing on the internet i have to say i'm not even saying it i've said it without you here are these videos of you eating where did this all start this is you with the croissant what is happening here with the quassan

the the big cup of coffee it's unbelievable why i don't know what honestly i don't know why it's so entertaining but it's so entertaining this one too why is it so interesting watching you eating and how did you come to the conclusion that people enjoy watching you eat? I don't know, like, people like, they text me every day, please send something when you eat. I don't know, people like enjoying to watch my videos. So sometimes I spend a lot of money for, like, professional video when I train or, like, do something like lifestyle and, like, one million views and spend a lot of money. And then just someone, like, filming me from the phone and I'm eating in, like, 10, 15 million views. so I gotta keep doing

yes you got to where did you get that quasson that was so big I told my friend to cook it really that big and where did you get the cup that big I we ordered that from the restaurant that is a restaurant

oh really was it good the croissant it looked good it had like Nutella inside or something yeah it was nutella was good yeah I ate all of that Yeah, right. And like the hamburgers. How many hamburgers is that?

It's like 25 or something, but I had maybe five, six. And what do you do with the rest? I gave to my friend. Okay. I was with my friends. We just made them for the video a lot of burgers. Sure. It's still a lot of burgers, even with your friends.

And you're sitting inside of Rolls-Royce, right? Is that a Rolls-Royce that you're sitting inside? Yeah. There's just something about those videos, man. They're brilliant. They really are. I don't even know why I'm so captivated by them, but they're very entertaining. Yeah, I got to do something, you know.

What's the next one? Fish. because I'm on a diet so I can eat junk food so now I got to eat some healthy healthy things and it's going to be fish the next one big fish yeah the fish that gives

the black caviar oh black caviar yeah that fish that gives black caviar is a black caviar what kind of fish is that Acetrina Okay, is that popular?

It's in Russia it's most popular one and the most expensive one. How much? How much is that? No, I mean the cargo is expensive the fish is not expensive. Oh, really? But you would think the fish which gives you the caviar would be more expensive

than the caviar itself, no? No, no, no, no. Some people, they don't even use the fish they just need the caviar because caviar is way expensive than the fish you like caviar yes i do you did a video once with caviar too right yeah what about you you like caviar i love caviar i love it but you got to come russian try here i would love i've never been to russia yeah you've got to come because we you got to come here because we have about 10 different caviars oh my gosh 10 different fish okay which is the how much would the most

expensive one be uh for us it's free no words kind of wow you would welcome me yeah so here in russia everything free for you wow are you speaking on behalf of everyone or or just your crew no no just my crew okay well that's that's all i need really Which city? Which city should I go to? Any. Okay. Come to Moscow. Moscow. Is that where you are right now?

No, now I'm in Krasnodar. Wow. Where's that in relation to Moscow? It's close to Moscow, two hours later. Okay. Is this where you live? Yeah, I do. I do live here. I cross and that. I spend a lot of time in Moscow as well, so I had a grappling fight that you saw. Yeah. Benton Henderson.

Yeah. You like doing that stuff? He was relaxing, like sleeping. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Petriki Pitbull, too. Yeah, which Pitbull was harder. Really? I mean, you know why harder?

Because it was a three minutes round. I couldn't have a time to make him tired. Ah. How long were the rounds with Benson? Benson was nine minutes, non-stop. Oh my gosh, wow. Yeah, but I took him on the fifth. So, yeah. When you take those matches, do you have to get the UFC their clearance,

or are you allowed to do whatever you want? If you don't have a contract and you don't have a fight coming up before eight weeks, you can do that. But if you have a contract for the fight and it's less than eight weeks, you're not allowed to wrestle. Okay, okay. So, like, you couldn't take one this weekend? No, I cannot take anymore.

Okay. You enjoy doing that? And I'm not going to... Yes, but I'm not going to, like, take a risk, do that because I can get hurt, and the main thing is you see it, just I'm doing that for fun, you know? Sure. They are active.

When you were with Hamzad and you got to hold the belt and see him realize his dream, did it inspire you? Did it make you feel like I'm so close to getting this too? I mean, no, I was just happy for him because he was training so hard. He had a hard life

and he achieved that he wanted so much and I was just happy. But before the fire, I knew he's going to be a champion because I saw how he trained and how's his conditional and everything. Did you think it would be so one-sided? Say again, please.

Did you think that the fight would be so one-sided? Yeah, because he has a very good wrestling. If he wrestle, I said no one can stop you because nobody can wrestle like you in your division. And I told him, too, if you just, if you're going to try to like knock him out and like stay on the feet a lot and then you're going to have maybe you could have a problem but it's better to wrestle and be safe yes very very dominant do you think he could have finished him he could but i don't know maybe he saved his energy

okay uh by the way two guys that you know very well charles olivera and matase gamrott are fighting this weekend. Who do you like in that fight? It's a good fight and to be honest I don't know who is going to win because Oliver got knocked out

a few months ago like three, four months ago and his chin is not there for sure and Gamrod he's going from the like a three weeks notice and maybe he's not in good shape as well

so it's like 50-55 okay you know with your situation I know that you said you're focused on the fight and not title fight and all that stuff

but could I just ask I think it it should be Ilya versus Patty if it wasn't going to be you Patty is such a big star and obviously it's not going to be you right now

because you're booked do you think Patty can beat Ilya no no way do you think yeah no petty

Elia just me can beat Elia that's all for now in our division you're the only one right now

yes and everybody knows that even the EUC knows that that's why they're trying to they're trying

to push him as much as possible you think they're trying to keep you apart keep you away from him yeah yeah but

if I go and like perform very well and a finish Hooker, they cannot avoid me anymore. Do you think you have to do something spectacular

against Hooker, like get a finish or something so that you're undeniable? I have to. I have to, yeah, to show that I want to fight for the title and and I deserve to be there. And you go into this fight,

Armand, with a chip on your shoulder because of everything that's happened this year, and everything that happened at the beginning of the year, do you feel like you have to remind people that you have to prove something to them that you are who you say you are? Yes, of course, you know. But I know right now, yeah, I had a problem with my back,

everything, a lot of rumors is that. But I feel very good and nothing on my shoulder. I'm just going there and do my job. And I don't care what they're going to think about my performance. I'm just going to do my job, what I think I should do. And when you accepted the fight, which I guess it was offered you last week, how big did you get? Like, how big were you, and how much do you have to cut to get to 156?

I'm not big. I walk around 180. Okay. Because I was competing 175 a couple of weeks ago. Okay, so that's not too bad. So that's why I wasn't big. And I knew that they're going to give me a fight in November. So I already started like train hard and and be a leader.

by the way i saw a picture of you and tony ferguson in thailand yeah we haven't spoke a long time huh yeah me and you yeah it's been a minute you're hard to get you're your hard guy to reach no no i'm always open did you oh i appreciate that what was that like hanging with tony oh tony he has so much energy i don't know from where good legend you know but I wish he could have a better career

and the end of his career on the new U.C but it is what it is you know did you watch a legend did you watch the Usbander Magamadeov Paul Hughes fight on Friday

no I didn't I just watch on Kalaf what did you think of that. Oh. His phone shut off. And we entered the Matrix. I only had like one question left for him.

I really enjoy talking to Armin. He's such a lovely guy. It seemed like a lovely interview. I think he was enjoying it as well, right? Absolutely. When someone says, you know, we haven't talked in a while, I've missed you. I think he invited me. Do you think he wants to do a film in Russia?

Yes. You got to do all the different kinds of caviar. Casey and I and... Yeah, the caucus tour is going to be great. Oh my God. Tablisi with Mara, Moscow with Armin. Yo, you know what? I think a Russia trip is all of us.

We'll go to Manchester first leg with you, and then you guys... And then Tbilisi, too. I would love to go there. And then we'll let you round out there. Do our thing? Yeah, to Moscow. Do you think they'll welcome us with open arms? Absolutely.

Yeah, so do I. All very nice people. I know a few people over in Georgia, Russia. I mean, we had two Russian guests on today. I think Peter Yan was inviting me to his village as well. You don't think so? Is Army gone? Is that how we're ending this?

Why do we like... I haven't gotten him back yet. His phone may have died? Why do we like watching him eat so much is the thing? I don't know. He makes it fun. Is it the sheer volume of food that's there? I don't know.

You know, he doesn't break character. How many cheeseburgers is that? 25. He doesn't break. character. I think that's the beauty. He just kind of sits there and smiles. Is there a character? Or is that just him? No, I mean, like he doesn't break, you know, like even he'll have like a little smile there when he talks about the food, right? But nothing. Has Armin's Rukin ever laughed so hard, he cried? Do you think I should ask him that? No. Armand, what gets you emotional the way I get emotional about the Buffalo

bills? Not necessarily emotional. I'm saying you're laughing so hard tears streamed on your face. Oh, yeah yeah like does he ever just like just dying like us on the show here it's an absolute rib roast thing you gut hurts you're laughing so hard moment i just can't imagine it feels like the most he gives is just like a a nice little chuckle a little smile yeah a rye smile um yes i would like to ask him that question actually can you get him back just to ask him that we're working on it man we're efforting efforting back here we'll circle back in just a bit okay all right By the way, I got a text. We were talking about the...

This is my new thing. I put my phone here, so I see what's going on. There's a lot going on. Someone told me that there is a huge players association in tennis. They told me that... Novak Djokovic is the head of the executive committee. They filed a massive class action

against the ATP and WTA earlier this year. The drug testing in tennis is problematic, not consistent application of the rules slash fine slash sanctions. It's a big issue right now. I rep tennis players. Oh, this guy's telling me, and I was clear. Okay. Well, that answers that question.

Yeah, there was some controversy with Yannick Sinner tested positive and some of the players were not happy with the enforcement of the rules. Sinner and Sweet, Sweet, Sweet Tech. Where's he from? She is Swiss, I believe. No. No, not Swiss. Polish.

Number one player in the world. I guess she's good. I guess Saba Lankas. By the way, the two number one players failed tests? She's no longer number one, but yeah, yeah, yeah. At the time. Oh, yeah, she's a legend. She's a beast.

Listen, baseball had there, Barry Bonds, McGuire. Everyone was tuning in with steroids. You know. Everyone likes the long ball. Yeah, and of course. A little Bash Brothers action. Okay, we got it back. Okay, let's wrap up with Armin

because I know it's late over there, but we did want to ask him, oh, you're in a new location now. My phone is that, I'm sorry. No problem. I didn't see that I have no bother it. You were having so much fun on the interview you didn't notice.

Yeah. I thought 20% is going to be fun enough for you, but you see we have a long conversation. I'm sorry. We were just asking, have you ever, Armin, laughed so much that you cried? Have you ever been so happy laughing that you cried?

Yeah, maybe, yes. I like laughing. What, like, do you know what the circumstances were? I was in the one show. So you drink water on your, so you're with the water. Yeah. and you're watching the video and the

like a comedy video you know from the YouTube or somewhere oh yes yes and you got to try to keep on your mouth of the water and don't like laugh and then yeah we watched some crazy videos

and I was laughing so much and almost crying okay and the water came out yes Indeed. By the way, this scene behind you is beautiful. Where are you? And is that a real window?

Yeah, it's, I'm in Venice. Wow. It's amazing. It's a whole different vibe. Yeah, yeah. I'm in San Diego. Okay. Somewhere in Europe.

It's beautiful. Yeah, you are somewhere in Europe. And also, I like the beard is a little longer. The hair is a little longer. We're letting it grow? Yeah, yeah. Change my style a little bit. Okay, so it's going to be longer for the fight.

You're not going to cut it until the fight? A little bit, a little bit of hair, because it could bother me. Sure. But I got to be still not too long. Okay. Yeah. Because I'm going to focus on my camp, so no time for the barber show. Nothing.

Yeah, not a lot of media here in Russia. No, you're not talking to anyone, just us. Yeah, but no one wants to get interview from me. Serious? I don't believe you. When I'm going to be a champ, a lot of people want to do that. You think people, they don't talk about you because you're not champion yet? You feel that? I don't believe you. No, that's crazy.

We love talking to you. We had you on our show in New Jersey. Remember that in front of all the people? Yeah, that one was the best interview in my life. really yeah because with the crowd energy but you didn't post it right well because i i wanted the um the people who paid for it i i didn't want to like them to feel like i wanted it to feel special for them but we put the the audio on our podcast yeah it was good yeah yeah but the point is when you become champion don't forget about us okay no problem because you know what happens everyone becomes champion and then oh you know i'm too busy i have this to do i have that

that to do and everyone forgets about you know the little show here that was caring about you when you weren't champion well you gotta put my uh that toy on your on your you have one i do i gotta give it to you okay can you send us one or i could where can i buy it from you have a store or something no no no i have my oh my i'll give it to you when i see you are coming to catar or not no i don't think so you're not u.s No, I am U.S. citizen. I'm U.S. and Canadian. Nice.

But it's far for me. Okay, no problem. We're going to have a Zoom. Okay, yeah, we'll do Zoom after the fight. After the fight, after the fight. I knocked out Hooker and then Monday or Tuesday we're going to have a good interview that Dana said I'm the next for the title.

for the title in January or February and we're going to discuss about that. Love it. Okay, it's a deal. So that's the official prediction? Knockout. Yeah, knockout. Knockout with the hands, maybe hooks, I don't know. Anything. I can't wait. Last thing, Dan is going to be on our show tomorrow. Is there anything you want to say to him? anything to him. Nothing. Just, tell him to train how to defense wrestling. Okay.

Because I'm just going to wrestle 25 minutes. All right, well, that's different than the knockout prediction of a minute ago. No, no, no, no, you never know. You know, I'll be like tricky. Sure, sure. Show wrestling in a punch. You're right. You have to give him different things.

things to worry about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but he got a thing about just wrestling. Okay, all right, deal. Thank you, Armin. Great stuff. Appreciate it. All the best to you, and good luck on November 22nd. We really appreciate your time.

Thank you, bye-bye. Bye-bye, there he is, the great Armin Sarukin. How great is Armin? I mean, he's just such a lovely guy. And yes, in fact, we will be joined tomorrow by Mr. Dan Hooker. In fact, tomorrow's show is a banger. Is a stacked affair. That's what we had to do on the nose today.

my friends, Carlos Elberg on the show tomorrow, Dan Hooker on the show tomorrow, Eddie Hearn in studio on the show tomorrow, Raven on the show tomorrow. Do you guys know who Raven is? That's so? No. I got him. Quote the Raven, never more. Raven is a legendary, legendary pro wrestler, aka Scott Levy, who in the 90s really rose to prominence in ECW Extreme championship wrestling as a sort of grunge frank you would love him grunge mysterious you got to see the doc i'm going to send you the doc the doc is amazing it's uh coming out i think it's called never more talk to him about it my first time talking to raven and the flannel tied around his waist it was incredible he was like this is frank in a nutshell yeah yes is the key to my heart he was like 90s

seattle grunge he wasn't a seattle but like he was playing that nirvana you know he literally has a shirt a nirvana shirt where the word nirvana's changed to raven Oh, it's, he was legendary. He was always in the, he was always, like, in the corner, and they would shoot interviews with him, and he was all sort of like dark and disturbed and say, what about me, what about me? And then he would end every promo with, quote, the Raven, never more. Ah, it was legendary.

The DDT, one of the best. Oh, yes, yes. I am so psyched for that one. Also, some guy named Channing Tatum on the show tomorrow? He's an actor. A.K.A. Magic Mike? No, not in studio. Thanks.

Thanks. There's many acting credits. I'm wearing my Magic Mike outfit. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. And another guest, but I'm not going to say... Hey, what's a Magic Mike outfit? Connor's favorite movie is...

A hateful eight is. We do have another guest on, but I'm not going to say who it is because there are forces out to get us. James Tehuno? Yeah. Let the bodies at the floor. Okay.

What are we doing? Let the bodies... He's holding the... There ain't no stopping me. Okay. Frankie, any superchats or what? You know it. Oh, let's go.

Miles comes in with a blank one. Thank you, Miles. Oh, yeah, cool. Thanks, Miles. Miles writes one. Frank, are you going to Brooklyn Steel to see Swans? Yes, I am tonight. Serious?

Yes. Stop looking at me, Swan. What? I was wearing a Swan shirt the other day. What the hell is Swans? A van. And what is Brooklyn Steel? A venue.

Wait, wait, wait. Are you going to Brooklyn, Steele. Where is Brooklyn Steel? Williamsburg-ish. My hood. Should I stop by? Yeah, man. Let the bodies hit... Do they sing that? You gotta stop doing it. No, all right.

All right, well, maybe Miles is going to be there. Yeah, maybe. Shout out. What else? Say hi, if you can recognize me. A.Z. Ray videos, for the record, I think Bellator's legacy was cross-promotion. Also, the creative concept of including champions in the Grand Prix tournaments was very dynamic. I mean, cross-promotion, yes. sure a few here and there.

He continues, though. Oh, okay. I didn't realize. Bjorn Rebney in his own right was able. B-J-O-R-N, for the record. Not B-Y. But yes. But I pronounced it right, right?

Yeah, hell, you nailed it. All right. Jesus. Bjorn Rebney in his own right was able to successfully foster stars like the Pitbull brothers and Chandler and gave recognition to... Megumi Fuji, two eyes. You can make a case that he actually built more stars than the following era, the Coker Cogan era

So yeah I mean Those things that he mentioned Though existed in pride before Like it's not like 100% yeah But he's right about Chandler And Pipple

And AJ McKee And all those guys came up I know And it's strike force I mean definitely there Sure sure sure But that's not Bjorn Ripney He's talking about

I think he's trying to give Beltor it's flowers Oh what else Frank What else And then Chandler Wurton Rebony Yeah well actually they came in Yes

Chandler beat Eddie Alphrey and AJ came in with with Bjorn it was just wow really AJ's been fighting that long holy shit yeah um Chandler was 2011 when he won the belt uh what else what else Eddie Alvers too too degree uh what else frankie what else are you are you done yeah yeah yeah Ariel is a fellow diehard bills fan oh yeah jason I was in a bad place Sunday night after Buffalo lost to the Patriots but I'm in a better place after the chiefs lost to Jacksonville and it's a much needed wake-up call for Buffalo I will be honest I didn't watch the Chiefs Jags game

because I just needed a break you know I just needed a break from it all it was tough Sunday night you know what good ridden Sunday night football

for the Buffalo Bills this year I'm tired of those games they're just they you spend the whole day nervous and then you know it ends like that anyway yes I do agree

who would have thought Chiefs three losses Ravens four losses who the hell would have thought I mean shocking stuff you know this is how negative of a person I am

I feel like we're going to end up playing them because they're so bad and we're going to be so good. I feel like we're going to end up playing them in like the first round. We're going to end up being like the two seed and somehow the chargers are going to pull it off for some craziness or the Jaguars and then we're going to have to play the Ravens in the first

round. That's what's going to happen here. Ravens might not make the playoffs. They're going to figure it out. They're probably going to lose again this week and then they'll go to the Biden and they get Lamar. Who they got the Lions? No, Chiefs have the Lions. They got the Rams. Nah, they're going to be the Rams. They don't have Lamar.

They're eight-point underdogs. On the road? I don't. Nah, the one. Did you watch the Texan the game? No, I know, I know. But, like... You do realize, like, half of their, like,

cornerbacks and safeties are out. They're top players on defense as well. Yeah, you know what? 44 points to the Houston team. Guess what? Ed Oliver is out, okay? I mean, like, we're suffering, too, all right? That's good.

Tyler Bass is out, all right? Although our boy, Prater, has been great. What else? What else? That was everything. Oh, okay. man how fun was that with armin when i'm talking to armin like that you're like at first you're like

does this guy like me and then you're like you know what he likes me he really likes me he's he's great man he mentioned that jersey show uh when i went to go grab him i had to bring him through the lobby yeah couldn't get him to the back and the fans were like going crazy trying to get pictures with him and stuff yeah he got to do it again he didn't say much to me but i was wearing the uh don't be silly jump the gilly shirt and all he said he was just like your boy's going to get choked out tomorrow night i was like oh all right wow damn teammate also yeah actually technically his prediction was correct yeah are you going to tell dan what he asked you to tell him uh work on the wrestling yeah and only the rest only the wrestling

for 25 minutes maybe we'll play the clip for him smart people love when we do that the buildup to that fight is going to be fantastic that's going to be very very fun weekend before thanksgiving i mean gc the vibes are going to be great we're going to do a monday tuesday Wednesday show to react to it all, three days? It's going to be great. It's going to be great. This is my PTO request getting in right now. It's going to be fantastic.

I was actually saying that to Rick, though, when we were reacting to it last Thursday on the boys in the back. Yeah? I mean, the Saturday before Thanksgiving. You're kidding me. The vibes are 10 out of 10. It's amazing. Afternoon card.

Oh, my God. Crispy November afternoon. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm in. The leaves. Oh, yeah, everything. Gary versus Muhammad.

It's a great one-two punch. Hooker versus Saruki and I'm in, man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How about that window behind him? The window is fantastic, yeah. How about you not thinking I was going to ask him if he's ever cried laughing and he had a pretty good story? And it might be a new addition to the drop repertoire is I love laughing. Or what do you say?

I like laughing. No, he said I love laughing. Yeah. I love laugh. Who? Live love life. The arbitrar. He shows up next time in a new place,

and he has one of those corny signs behind him that says live, love, laugh. Yeah, little laugh. The armandserugues. It's just that the laughs are so short-lived. He comes back and he's like, he's like, sorry, sorry, my phone died. And you're immediately like,

you get that unsettling feeling of like, does this guy hate me? I had 20%. I thought it would be enough. Yeah. No, he smiles for just a second. I had the 20% I thought it would be enough.

And his deadpan is so serious, too. Oh, my God. Love it, love it. The quaff on point, too. The quaff is fantastic. The quaff is so good. I love that it's longer now. It's great.

Uncrowned.com, your place to be for all things, combat sport, number one on Bias platform and the history of combat sports. Tomorrow's a big day. We have to go, you know why? We're doing the Bill Simmons pod at 4.30, so we have to go.

But also... Fuck as we. Also, I just have to... I mean, I have nothing else to say. All right, see you tomorrow, man. By the way, how do we feel about OTN on a Tuesday as opposed to a Wednesday? It hits. I kind of like it.

Sign me out. What do you guys think? Yeah, I'm in, man. Feels the same. It feels exactly the same. It's the same thing. It's because he only came in the MMA hour time. Yeah, he was only...

He was never actually here. Yeah. Should we play the other clip from Uncrowned Films that we have the other teaser? No, no. Next Wednesday that debuts? Yeah, next Wednesday. I'm looking forward to it, man. Never, by the way, just for the record, I never actually said the day because I was trying to not put too much pressure on Casey, but you said it. No, you did.

No, I said next week. I said next week. No, you said 10 days. You literally counted out the number of days. No, no, I did not. No, I did not. No, I said next week. That might have been internal conversations. What are we doing tonight? Yankees, J's, what do we got? We'll be there, yeah?

You're going? I thought about going. They asked me to throw out the first pitch. I was going to bring my jumper, but... I thought they asked you to do it. Some other rapper that threw out the first... I thought they asked you to do a Drake song in the outfield, like that show. Started from the bottom now we're here.

Imagine I walked out at Yankees Stadium. Drake! Do you think they would spit on me? Yes. As I'm walking out of the bullpen. If you healed off on the New York crowd, they will spit on you. If I showed up wearing my Jay's jacket, do you think they spit on me just as a spectator? Probably not spit on you, but like I went to a Braves Yankees game and went to extra endings.

The Braves won an extra endings, and I was just cheering like a normal fan, and I got several expletives thrown at me. Kind of want a few threats as well. Probably won't. Go, Jays. Sweep these punks. Thank you, Armitzuriken, Peter Yan, Joe Pfe, Sergio Pettis. Back tomorrow, State Times, but I said, peace about here. Thank you.