The Ariel Helwani Show - Brandon Moreno, Renato Moicano, Scott Coker & Rich Chou in studio, news & notes

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show covering Brian Ortega’s withdrawal from UFC 331 (01:16).Ki MMA CEO Scott Coker and matchmaker Rich Chou join Ariel in-studio to discuss details about the new promotion, including their tournament format, how they plan to attract talent, utilizing a ring instead of a cage, the competitive landscape, branding elements like the name and logo, and more (11:52).Brandon Moreno stops by following his big win over Joseph Morales at Noche UFC, talking about bouncing back after a two-fight skid, dealing with demons and the pressure of remaining on top, still loving the sport, his unique walkout song, his prediction for UFC 331's main event, and more (1:27:06).Ariel and crew react to the brewing beefs between Jon Jones and Islam Makhachev, as well as Ryan Garcia and Terence Crawford (1:53:40).Renato Moicano is back to discuss his last-minute opponent switch, going from facing Brian Ortega at UFC 331 to headlining against Tom Nolan a month later. He also talks about his exploding popularity as a streamer, his UFC 331 predictions, and more (2:21:33).The show ends with your Super Chats (3:01:58).

Lazy! Welcome to the er- on this Tuesday, September 15th, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is great to be here on a lovely, lovely Tuesday afternoon in New York City. I am so happy that we get to talk. I thought my thing was hanging over my shoulder, but it is not. My IFB that Frank cares so deeply about.

Everyone does. Everyone does. We have a very exciting show. I had a very exciting night last night. I said goodbye to all of you. And then myself in New York, Rick, zipped all the way downtown, actually a stone throw away

from our old studio on Broad Street. We went all the way to like the tip of Manhattan. It was pretty much, it was like FIDI, Battery Park, I don't know. And we were in attendance for the big unveiling of Key MMA. And I even got this snazzy,

ah, chap, I should have put it a little, closer to me, if I'm being honest, why did I put it there? This snazzy glove. Look at this thing. And no, it is not Kai. And no, it is not K-1. It is key MMA. And if I'm being honest, if I'm being honest, it felt when I was in attendance, it felt like I was at a high school reunion. It felt like I was at a wedding for one of a, like an old high school classmate. And I say that in the nicest and warmest way possible, because yes, they were unveiling this. new thing that will essentially be born in 2027. We'll talk about all the details. But the amount of

people that I saw there, who I had not seen in so many years, some five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years was astounding and really warm my heart. It was like a reunion. Fyodor Emilienenko, Nathan Diaz, Gilbert Melendez, old managers like Alex Davis and Brian Butler, Dave Martin, Mark Coleman was there, Sean Grandi was there, Moro Rinaloa was there. Every single second I turned, there was another person there that had seen in forever. People from the Spike days when I was like,

my boss in 06 at Spike, 0607 at Spike, who I'd not seen in legit 20 years. Tony Hawk was there and his son. Eddie Alvarez was there and his lovely family. Every single moment I turned, I saw someone that I knew from, the world of combat sports and in particular MMA. And so the vibes were very high. Chris Cyborg was there.

I could keep going on and on and on. Tyrone Wilde was there. His son was there. In any event, the vibes were tremendous. Everyone seemed very excited. Everyone seemed very hopeful and optimistic about the future. But for me, I was just sort of feeling like, oh, it's nice to reconnect with these people. Rick was there. He was hobnobbing with the media members, got to see some old media faces and friends as well. It was great. Now, as far as the actual concept, as far as the actual thing that we were there for, let's see. Yesterday, they announced some details. We are going to talk about some of those details with the main two players involved in a matter of moments right here in studio.

But they didn't announce their first date. They didn't announce their roster. They did not announce their distribution deal. And so there are still a lot of things yet to be announced. Perhaps we'll get some answers today. or maybe we'll get clarification on things and the backstory on X, Y, and Z. I am looking forward to all of that and more. And so in about less than 10 minutes time, we will be joined by Scott Coker and Rich Chow.

They've been working together for many years. You'll recall when they first announced that Scott was coming back into the world of MMA. He joined us in studio. That was in July or so, maybe late June. But a lot of these details weren't announced, like the logo and the ring and the four. and the format, all that and more. We have more of those answers, and so I'm looking forward to talking to both Scott and Rich

about these things at around 115. At 2.30, we're going to be joined by Brandon Moreno, who, believe it or not, made his Noce UFC debut on Saturday. That was the fourth installment of Noce UFC, and his very first time competing on a Noce UFC card, he picked up a win, he snapped his two-fight losing streak, and he's always one of the, you know, the fun characters to talk to in the sport. And so we will talk to him at about 2.30 news and notes after that.

And then at 3.30, Hanato Moikano is going to join us. Hanato Moikano is joining us after the unfortunate news broke yesterday that his fight at UFC 331 against Brian Ortega, which was one of the better fights on that card at 155 pounds, was canceled after Ortega suffered a cut above his eye. Moikano upset. that he has been moved to the October 31st fight night, Halloween night against Tom Nolan, back at the apex. You'll recall he wasn't too happy competing at the apex in April against Chris Duncan, but it seems like, you know, them's the breaks. Anyway, we'll talk to him about all of that and more. We were supposed to be joined by Tony Ferguson. It sounds like that's not going to happen.

So, Moikano's going to join us, and we'll talk to Tony down the line. No harm, no foul. All good. Peace and love. Peace and love. Yesterday was a great show. Love getting Ryan Garst, see you on, and I think his only interview yesterday. I didn't see him pop up anywhere else. Maybe I missed it. And love the chats with Aday and everyone else that we spoke to. Tremendous stuff, MVP, Michael Chandler. It was all great. And I am very excited about today's program as well. All right. As always, I want to let you know that today's program is brought you by our good friends over at Cal She. Cal She is a marketplace where the price on something is basically the odds of it happening. And I know some of you may have just had a heart attack there

thinking that the show was coming to an end because that familiar song was playing, but rest assured, plenty of show to go, right, Frankie? Sports, politics, by the way, Frank hardly ever answers me in his actual voice. It's usually via drop or something like that, you know, so him chewing really has nothing to do with anything. There's a million different things that he could have said in that moment. Who gives enough? Or that. See? That price moves in real time based on where people are putting their money, so you aren't playing against the house like you would on traditional sports books. All you have to do right now is trade $25 with the code Helwani, and they will add another

$25 to your account right away. Trade responsibly. There's the QR code. Helwani is the code. The app is Kalshi. Please support them because they support us. Okay, a couple of quick things to get to before we start today's actual program, if you will. Frank is eating a muffin if you were curious. Okay, I'm excited about this. Frank, anything you want to say regarding this muffin? This is what I'm talking about. You don't actually have to ever answer me.

And yet I'm being, you could have done this 30 seconds ago. I was recoiling in fear. Okay. Because I had fucked up. It's all good. It's all good. Can we take a quick look? I just mentioned it regarding Hanato Moecoe,

the cut that Brian Ortega suffered. I'd love to see this real quick, if I can, and show all of you. Yeah, look at this. All right, this is the blood pouring out. Oh, yeah. That is gnarly. Oh, here are the stitches.

Not good. This one hurts. I have to pull out of the fight because the stitches in my eye, he wrote on Instagram. I'm on weight. I've been training my ass off. And this has honestly been one of the best camps I've ever had. I was really looking forward to fighting at home in Los Angeles in front of family and friends

and everyone who's been supporting me. My next fight is soon. So I'm getting right back to training. We've brought some new people into camp and I'm excited to show you guys a new side of me. Thank you to everyone who's been supporting me through all of this. I'll see you guys in November. So perhaps that means a return at Madison Square Garden, maybe. We'll see.

So unfortunate news, as a result, Hanazamoikano now fighting Tom Nolan on the 31st of October in Las Vegas, them's to breaks. Key MMA, this was announced yesterday. Actually, while we were live on the air, let me check these gloves out. Nice ones. A lot has been said about the logo, about the name. Starting to grow on me. Love the gloves. Look at these.

Very pride-esque. I don't know if these are the actual gloves. by the way. It actually does. And you know what they say? If it does not fit, you must have quit? Hell yeah.

What the fuck? What? Okay, moving on. I mean, you... I mean, it doesn't... You normally don't get me like this. You got me good. You said it.

Not I, all right? So if anyone's getting canceled, it's you, all right? You're going to cancelville. First event. We'll begin in the first quarter of 2027. The main focus for their debut year, if you will, will be a 32-man featherweight tournament.

They announced this yesterday. The tournament will feature eight fighters from four different continents. The winners from each continent will then meet in a finale event where they will compete in a semifinal and final on the same night. So two fights on the same night. Semis, final. The tournament is the promotion's focus, but will only make up around 30%

of the total fights across the year, meaning they'll have super fights. They'll have one-offs. So it won't just be the tournament, but that was definitely something that was pushed quite heavily yesterday. They're open for business, all free agents,

give them a call. Some of the locations that they discussed for their first year, San Jose, of course, near and dear to Scott Coker's heart, the backyard of strike force, no-brainer. Los Angeles, New York, Japan was discussed, South Korea was discussed, Spain as well, Italy, France, Dublin, Ireland, Budapest, Hungary, all these places discussed. So a very grandiose plan, some very important people behind the operation, and I'm excited to get into it

with two men that I have been covering and talking to for quite some time. Last week, I was scolded by the team when I didn't have my IFB in. So you are seeing me put my IFB in as we speak. It's about time. And I'm turning it on as we speak. Hello? Hi. This is nice.

This is how the sausage is made. All right. I'm super excited about this. key MMA officially born yesterday. They'll be competing in a ring. So many familiar faces from Scott Coker to Rich Chow to Chris de Blasio to C.J. Tuttle. So many are there. There's all kinds of activities.

And I am very, very excited to learn more about what they're doing. It's a great time for MMA. It's a great time to be a free agent. We have needed a shot in the arm. We have needed some excitement. we have needed some new blood in this sport. And so without further ado, let us say hello to some old faces who are bringing some new blood to the table.

Scott Coker and Rich Chow are here. Hello, friends. How are you? Great to see you. Nice to see you, man. Congratulations. Thank you. On the win, I'm talking about the 49ers win.

Oh, Rich, how are you? Great to see you. Everything good? I've been working out. I just want to flex on you. Scott, you stay here and Rich stays here, if you guys don't mind. How was everyone doing? I mean, I thought maybe you wouldn't show up

because you were such bigwigs up there on the table yesterday with your fancy suits and your Hollywood celebs in attendance. Get comfortable there, Rich. You can move it, whichever. Yeah, you've been here before. You can even move it up. Let me fix this for you. Frank was supposed to do this, but, yeah, you see that?

I don't want to break the furniture. No, no, no. Welcome, guys. Thank you. Thank you. What? Scott inside. Okay.

Does it really matter? All right, okay. I was just trying to put Rich in the hot seat here because I know he's a little bit new to these interviews. Congratulations, guys. All jokes aside, great to have you here. I appreciate you guys sticking around to do this. I'll ask you first, Scott.

You've been working on this for months. You finally get to sort of unveil it. You get to show everyone the logo. The gloves are sick, by the way. And I want to ask you specifically about the gloves in a moment. But this is the big unveil, the ring, the logo, the pomp, the circumstance. How does it feel now to actually? get it out there? It feels great, but we've been working on this for a long time and to finally

come out and just, you know, have it out in the public and the recession that we've got was overwhelmingly positive. So, feel really good about it. What about you? You know how hard it is to keep a secret? Yeah. I felt certainly excited, but also a sense of relief as we were finally able to get it out there because we've been holding onto it for quite some time. And we've had a lot of people, yourself included, wanting, you know, some clues, tips. You know, that's part of the gig. That's part of the gig. I wasn't trying to usurp your announcement.

I was just curious, you know? And just telling, you know, old friends in the industry to wait, because we wanted that maximum impact, right? So we really, we made this commitment to each other that we wouldn't. This pact, we were not going to share it with anybody that we wanted the world and even our closest friends just all see it at the same time. And so now that it's out there, Is there like a sense of relief, excitement?

How would you describe this feeling? This is a big deal. It's not often that you get to actually give birth to a promotion. I'm starting to feel it now as I'm getting caught up on social media and, you know, with the team and getting all the updates on how we perform, so to speak, you know, out there in the digital world. And it is a bit overwhelming. It's a really great feeling. This is different, Scott, than when you took over Bellator in the sense that, that was a fully functioning thing.

This feels more like strike force than Bellator, if that makes sense, right? Yeah, and I think the steps that we had to take to get to this point were a little bit different. This is the first time my career where you actually had to put together this amazing business plan and put all of the financials together,

go bringing a business development team, go talk to some, you know, basically some, you know, investors that we want on the cap table early. And so to go through the whole process of the fundraising was something very new for me. So that was a very good learning experience. And Peter Levin, who you saw last night,

being a main fan used to be in the business, but he was really the one pushing, you know, just pushing and pushing and pushing. And so we got to this point, and now we have a great team. So I'm really, really excited about, you know, the work begins now, right? So that's really the difference between, let's say,

strike force in here was that beginning stages. Strike Force was already an operation company, but it rolled into the M.M.M.A. Fight company and then it just kind of took off from there. This was a much different experience to get this point. But compared to Bellator and Strikeforce, I can see why you're asking that question because Belator, I felt like I jumped on a ship, right?

And I remember meeting with Kevin Kaye the first time, and I'm like, well, I don't know, Kevin, this is really like, you have a sinking ship here, really. And I don't even know if I could fix you guys right now. Because, you know, it was already having problems with many different aspects of that company. and, you know, it's one thing to jump on a ship and try to fix it, grow it, as you're trying to, you know, bail the water out of the bottom of the ship, so to speak.

And this is like a brand new fresh start from ground zero. And now here we are, you know, at level three, we're heading to level 10. So it's a little bit different. Tell me about the name. Yeah. How do we end up with KMMA? You know, we went through a lot of different variations of the name. And everybody, you know, we opened it up, and everybody had an opinion, and we hired a company to go search the name.

And at the end, I said, this has to mean, this has to have a martial arts significance to it. And to me, when I was a kid growing up in martial arts, the first thing you learned was what they call ki-up, which means inner, yell. And so I said key, energy, spiritual energy, the energy life force of martial arts is key. And so I said, that's the perfect name. And so that's how the name evolved into key MMA. And I'm really happy. I'm really happy that we got to label that something. Because how many names are out there about, you know, ground and pound this or, you know, fighting this?

Or it's always a certain color, certain scheme, certain logo. And now we have something completely different. It's very, I think it might be the only name of a martial arts fight company or MMA fight company that has a martial arts significance to it. What do you like about it? I think it really speaks to what we stand for, as Scott mentioned, that really passion and love for martial arts. I think the key word is authenticity. I just think it's a good fit for us. From a brand design standpoint, so to speak, it was no acronym, right?

The sport is littered. And, you know, to be honest, the U.S. kind of sports scene overall, right? from the NBA, NFL, everything's an acronym. We thought we want to do something different. We want to do something authentic and original, something that speaks to our love for the sport. And I think we nailed it. Hopefully you agree.

So I have thoughts on the name. I have thoughts on the name. I also have thoughts on your microphone, which I'm being told is giving us some issues. So guys, what do you want me to do with Rich's microphone? Is someone coming in to fix it or give him a love? What are we doing? Someone talk to me.

For the next 30 seconds, I'm just going to talk to Scott's Mike, but I don't think that's very comfortable for you to reach over to Scott's Mike. So we're just a startup operation here, guys. We have our own issues that we need to work on. But Frank, you're telling me you're working on this? Yes? Okay, perfect. I'm going to ask Scott about the name when I first saw it.

I'll be honest, when I first saw it, I thought it was K1MMA. And I'm sure you've heard this before. And so obviously it's not K1MMA, but I am wondering, were you trying to give a nod to your past? Was the K a nod to the past? Was there any sort of... I'll tell you, the key was always the name of the company. And key, if you look at the kanji, the symbol of kanji, that one word means key much different than K-1.

K-1 was named after karate, kung-fu, all these different martial arts. Key is an energy, a spirit, it's a spirit. It's a, the energy of life force. So it's a complete different meaning. And the company that we hired to do the naming rights or the name, actually, they came out with that logo, independent of anything that we did. Wow. Yeah, that's.

And so I said, wow, did it speak to you because of the past? I didn't look at it like that. Some people have brought it up recently, but to me we're going to have to create meaning in that logo anyway. And so we're going to go do a marketing campaign to educate the fans and people that this is key MMA is much different than any other company out there.

And by the way, for the record, I do not dislike it. You know, anything new. When we came out with Uncrown, what the hell is Uncrown? So, like, I do not dislike it at all. I actually love the fact that it's not a three-letter. acronym. I love the fact that it's unique, that it's different, that it actually has substance

and meaning behind it. And so I'm very much warming up to it. And I welcome new blood. I welcome newcomers to the sport. Can I ask about the gloves? Are these the gloves? Are these actual gloves? And I'm not trying to ignore you, Rich, but I just don't want you to speak to no one. So we'll get to the microphone in a second. But can I ask you about the gloves? Are these the actual gloves? Because they remind me the pride ones. Yeah, those are gloves made out of a California a company that we use for all the fights that we do in California. Okay. So, you know, we hired them to make, let's say, 100 pairs.

We would give them out to all of our guests last night. So, you know, we'll see if those are our gloves. Because they do have a bit of a pride-esque, like padding here. It's a little different than the UFC gloves. Yeah, we do use them in California. They're licensed in California with the state. And we've been doing extremely well because, you know, no broken hands, no injuries to the athletes using these type of gloves.

So we're happy with the company. What about the ring? Why ring? I think we've talked about this before, but, you know, I always felt like if you look back in the history of MMA, you know, to me the ring was the Genesis, right? And when I think about when I starts fighting the Pride days, to me that was really how I grew up watching MMA was when I was working in Japan for K1, I used to go to the Pride Pites, which we had to sneak out, by the way.

We were told, do not go to Pride. Really? Oh, yeah, it was very much. Because it was the competition. Very much the competition. Okay. So we get these, and so I would sneak out with whoever I was with, and we'd go see these fights, and to me, I just love the ring.

And you know what, when you're there, you can actually see, when you're, when you go to a cage fight, it's like two minutes into the fight, they go to the ground, whatever, you're like this. You're just looking at the screen, right? In the ring, there's more action in the ring. I was talking to Gilbert Melendez about this earlier. He said, you can't hide in a ring. You can't just pin someone against the round cage or whatever cage.

You can't pin them in a corner. It's going to be a lot more. action and and and and basically people have to fight um can i ask rich a question or not yet guys not yet okay frank is coming in so your time is coming rich uh can i can can i can can i can ask sure from a commission standpoint and you could probably speak to this as well whenever your number gets called is it different to get the ring sanction for m m mary in this day and age as opposed to the cage or are all commissions okay with the ring in in the world and in the united States? In the United States, I feel like we have, you know, we've already been approved in California,

Nevada, New York. Like, it's okay, it's okay to do it because in California, we've been doing a ring. All of the, the fight nights that we've been doing in San Jose have all been in the ring. And we've had kickboxing, we've had boxing. We had boxing. Chris Iwer had box for us one time. Right. We had MMA. It's so it's an open, you know, platform for all different styles of martial starts fighting. Okay, we're going to hook you up right here. Don't worry about it. We like to do things on the fly here on the show.

It's like the Howard Stern show. We're going to hook you up here, Rich, in a moment. So sorry about this. Working through the kinks. We're just a young operation. And now you will remind me of this when I'm critical of your first show. And I say the lighting is great. You'll be like, remember when we were on your show and your freaking mics didn't work?

You haven't here, what, 30 years, 25 years? I know, I know, I know. It's a building. Well, we came all the way back. Yes. I was here the first one. Crazy, right? Crazy.

Okay, so the ring is a big part of what you believe in, and I love it. You know, obviously in Japan we see it with Risen, we saw it back in the day in Pride. Is his mic working? Frankie? Okay. They're telling me, give them a second. And so that's going to differentiate yourselves, which I love that. The look, that ring, is it going to be like the white ring like we saw yesterday?

Okay, that I love as well, very clean, very nice. There's a lot of exciting things. What you didn't announce yesterday were any signings. Are there any people who have been signed to the organization yet that you're just not telling us about or no one has been signed just yet? Yeah, that's the next step. Okay. We're going to start signing fighters and start signing the 32 athletes from different countries that we're going to actually go out to Asia again and go out to Europe again and you probably go to Brazil at some point and, you know, and make the rounds before we start signing the athletes for the tournament. So as of right now, no one has been signed.

That's correct. Okay. Your first event, you said quarter one, right? First quarter of 2020-7. Do you have a date yet? We have a soft date, but... Tell us. There's no better place than now.

Well, the thing is that, you know, we're talking about the thing about going the beginning of February. Okay. In San Jose? That's the idea. HP Pavilion? Of course.

Okay, and would that be a part of the tournament as well? Yes. So what I understood yesterday was there's 32 fighters, eight in four different territories, right? And then the winner of, you know, Continental A, we'll fight Continental winner B, C, D. And then they meet, and then they have to fight twice on the same night, right? Yeah, the finals. Now, are those 15-minute fights, or those have to be reduced because of the fact that it's two fights on the same night?

Yeah, I think Rich can speak to that. I just wish his microphone works for goodness sakes. Does it work yet, Frank? Still doesn't work. Okay. Okay, so how are we going to do this? Because I don't want Rich to sit here and not speak. I'm not here.

What? You're saying it works now. Rich, speak for a second? Test. Check. Is that working, Frank? Okay, it's working. All right.

Now you can put it back. Sorry about that. Okay. Okay. So in the past, we've seen one-night tournaments. Sorry about this. No problem. It's a mess.

In the past, we've seen one-night tournaments where the fights have to be shorter, I think, because it's semis and finals. Will that be the case for these? Yes. Okay, so what is that? are looking at a rule set we had used previously that we feel good about. Which is what? That would be the semifinals.

So the first fight of the night would be two rounds. Okay. And then the finals would be three rounds. Five minute rounds? Yes. Okay. So you have to stay within five rounds and 25 minutes of fighting. Okay.

In total. That's right. Ah, interesting. So two and three. That's right. Okay. And elbows? Yes.

Elbows allowed? Yes. Oh, even if it's in the semis on the same night, because sometimes we've heard about tournaments. Is that just a promotional thing where they don't like the elbows because they don't want cuts? Well, I mean, I think it's something we're going to discuss, but, you know, Scott's here in my vote here live with you.

You don't like elbows? Oh, I don't mind. Okay. Well, you know, Strike Force didn't have elbows because when it was so new back then, MMA on television, we were getting kind of dictated by the, the network at that time you know we don't we don't want any you know elbows because we don't want any blood on the mat that's really what that was about okay you know so to me if you're going to compete

with elbows all year long you have to continue the tournament with elbows in my opinion i agree and it's just a massive weapon that you're taking away right from the fighters okay yes yes yes okay yeah and the tournament is getting a lot of attention obviously and you guys know how i feel about tournaments uh and i love them right i i i i it's probably my least favorite word in mixed martial arts. I see. I don't like the tournament, but I'm happy to hear that it's not the identity of your promotions, right?

It's not just tournaments. And I think it's important to stress for people like me who are so fixated on that word that, like let's say your typical card, that first show in February, there'll be tournament fights, but they'll also be non-tournament fights, right? Correct. Okay. So before I ask you a question, I'll just say that 30% of our total bouts next year will be, dedicated to the tournament.

So 70%. That's a lot. Are non-tournament fights. Yes. Okay. That's important. Okay. I don't like tournaments

because we've sort of seen and done it. You know, throughout the years, from Pride to even IFL had a bit of a tournament format with the season. Bellator had the tournament. PFL had the tournament. And I feel like the biggest and best fights in MMA history have been grudge matches, right? Like, you highlighted Diaz daily on your. your social media this past week. Did anyone really truly care that that was for the Strike Force

Walterway title? I would argue not. They cared because these two guys are freaking battering rams that don't like each other and they knew they were going to produce a great fight. Maybe the most lucrative fight or feud in UFC history was Diaz McGregor. There was no belt on the line. No one cared that there wasn't a belt on the line. It's about grudge matches. And more often than not, I think back to the very early days of Bellator where they had Eddie Alvarez and Roger Huerta on their roster. And everyone said that they were going to meet in the finals. And then what happened? Roger loses in the first round.

And now all of a sudden, you don't get that money fight. And so I feel like more often than not, you don't get the fight that you really truly are sort of trying to make the tournament end up with the final matchup because someone gets, you know. But don't you want to make money. You don't want some guy in the final that just wrestled his way to the final. Here's the thing. But then you could, you know, promote that as a super fight in two or three months. I mean, you know, we have that option to do that. But let me ask you, why do you like tournaments so much?

Because tournaments build new stars. When I was in K-1 and I watched this tournament format all year long, they fought three times in one night, actually, at the very end. I mean, it was brutal, and they had to dig deep, and these athletes earned their money. So to me, I have always enjoyed tournaments. And when I was doing martial arts competing myself, you line up, you go and you fight in a tournament.

You go to jihistur, you line up, you fight in a tournament. Martial arts, to me, culturally, has become a tournament format, or is a tournament format. So pride, tournament format. UFC was a tournament in the very beginning. To me, it just seems very natural. And my argument, too, like you have the super fight you're trying to put together,

but once in a while, not at once in a while, but I would say in every tournament, you're going to have that match that you didn't know was going to be that fight. DC versus Josh Barnett, right? You're going to end up with a fight that's going to be like, wow. And stars rise from these tournaments,

and to me that's what this is about. We're looking for the next big star, and we're going to go find the next big star. We're going to put them into the, this 32-man tournament, and single elimination means they're going to fight because you go home if you lose, and you watch, we're going to have some amazing fights. If they don't get the fight they want because then we'll just do it in a super fight in two months. It's no problem. It's ambitious, though, 32-man. Absolutely. Like eight-man, 16, 32 is on a whole different level.

Are there 32 good enough fighters out there who aren't signed by the other promotions? Absolutely. Yeah. You believe this. A lot of talent out there, a lot of young talent. Why 32 and not 16? I think that's the key. Or eight. Well, we wanted to get the world involved. We wanted to do something, you know, to make this World Grand Prix truly grand and global. So as we sat down and thought about this return, this comeback, we had to do something big, something that hasn't been done before.

So absolutely very ambitious. But I think that's noteworthy, that it is historic. Nobody's ever done anything like this. I think of the World Cup sometimes. with this format. Sometimes I think of the Olympics, but, but Ariel, we've always made tournaments more special. And I think not all of them are created equal. And I think the Strike Force Heavyweight World Grand Prix with DC coming out as an alternate number two. And that being his breakthrough moment to the Bellator 16 man featherweight tournament with AJ McKee, having that fantastic moment beating Pitbull in his hometown to win the featherweight.

weight title along with the Grand Prix title. I even think about the Bannamweight tournament, where that was patchy mix's big breakthrough moment. So to Scott's point, this is just a really special platform that creates storylines and really does make these fights bigger. Are you the head matchmaker? Is that a fair thing to say? Scott, what do you think? Rich's, yeah, he's head of global fight relations. I just want to know who's signing these 32 featherweight. around the world. We're just going to have some help. Okay.

Also scouting, right? Like, is it all on you? We have a team. Okay. We have a global network that's growing and growing and kind of hopefully we'll turn into a galaxy eventually. But this network consists of promoters from all over the world, old friends of ours, new friends, obviously coaches, fighters, trainers, and even some other, some new resources that we're

tapping into. some data analytics, some, some media even. There's some guys on the media side that are helping us out that, that I think are doing a great job out there. So we're visiting gyms ourselves or doing it old school. So we are doing everything possible. There's no ego here. If we see something or somebody that can help us, we're going to tap into it and look into it. So we have several resources here dedicated to scouting and recruiting. Because to your point, we're going to going to need it. This is going to be a tough challenge, not only for the fighters, but for us as well. I'll tell you what, though, one thing about traveling to Europe and going to Paris, specifically, or Japan, or there's just so many fighters out there. You wouldn't believe it. I mean, when we were there three years ago or with Bellator, we went to all the gyms, said hello, and every gym probably had 20, 30 people, like fighters, and there's only like maybe six, seven gyms. Now, we went to, what, top 12 in Paris, 75, 80 fighters in that gym.

The amount of fighters that are out there is unbelievable. Japan, too. These guys, there's only so many slots for these fighters to fight in their region. And then after that, they're going to be looking. So there's so many unsigned fighters that we took a look at that were fitting in our, in our tournament format and our weight class that just are, you know, it's just, they're an abundance of fighters more than slots in big leagues. And that's where we're going to come in

and we're going to sign them and we're going to bring them in because Japan, we went to a couple of gyms, one outside about an hour and a half outside of Tokyo. And when we got there, it was late at night, it was like 10 o'clock in night, and they must have had 60 people training in there. It was unbelievable.

That's just one gym. And we went to Asakura's gym, we went to this gym, we went all of them and they all have at least 30, 40, 50 fighters. And in the past, I never saw volumes like that. So there's an abundance of fighters. I went to AK the other day, 60 athletes and they're training the fight.

It's, you know, it's unbelievable. I think that the sport has continued to grow and the gyms are growing, the fighters are growing. So there needs to be more promotions like us to come and take some of these athletes and bring them into our company. At the end of year one, how many fighters do you think you have on the roster?

I can answer that. You know, to me it's like, you know, we're gonna have this 32 man tournament, and we're gonna, the fighters that we like, we're gonna keep and the fighters that lose, And if they basically don't, you know, fight hard or, you know, like they don't move the needle in one way or another, then maybe we have to say goodbye. So at the end, I believe we'll probably start with about 10 fighters in their contract. Oh, really?

At the end of, but what about like the non-tournament fighters? Like, how big is your roster? Yeah. As you say, 70% will be non-tournament. So do you think I have 150 guys? Do you think I'll have 100? Do you think I only have 10? If I can weigh in there, I'll say, we've talked about Scott and I,

when we initially got together, we talked about some of the things, perhaps that we did in the past that we don't want to do again. And what I mean by that in this case is arbitrarily creating weight classes for us to, like you have to have seven weight classes and you must sign 20 guys to each weight class to develop.

I don't think that's the right move for us right now. Okay. I really don't think so. I think we need to focus. and identifying here is where scouting and recruiting comes in big time. We need to identify the weight classes that have the right amount of talent right now for us to invest in. We all know that talent in certain weight classes, there's a cycle here, right? The heavyweight division now isn't what it was when we assembled the Strike First Heavyweight Grand Prix.

And there's just, you know, I feel like the lighter weight classes are stronger now than the heavier. So talent, it shifts. Yeah. So I don't want to put us in a situation where we're forcing ourselves to go into certain weight classes knowing that we're going to be challenged there. Like let's find and identify what weight classes have more talent and are the right ones to invest in now and see where that takes us. Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes sense. So do you think that you'll have a featherweight champion and possibly not another champion by the end of year one?

When I say 10, I'm talking about like in the tournament, well, we'll find 8 to 10 good athletes in that featherweight. way. Sure, sure. I mean, in total. Yeah. In total. I mean, it really depends because, you know, now if we signed, like, say, a superfight or a free agent, right, because we are going to sign some free agents and, you know, maybe we'll sign them to two-fight deals, three-fight deals. It doesn't have to be long-term, right? You're not necessarily looking to crown a champion at heavyweight, 205, middleweight, walterweight, lightweight, lightweight, bantam weight, etc., right? We'll see where the talent is. Okay. So that's going to drive it, not just, again, making these decisions based off certain things like, again, who says you have to have

seven weight classes to launch? We really don't believe you do. If you look back at some of the, well, Pride and K1, K1 had two weight classes. That's right. Heavyweight and then they launched K1 Max because of Masato around one guy and they built an entire division around him and it was successful. So I'm just using, and Pride, Pride had the heavy weights and then they brought in some of the lighter weights later on. But I think if we focus, because I think where you also, in addition to sometimes the lack of depth in those weight classes, I think it just gets too crowded of a space in terms of something that we don't talk about often is the lost art of storytelling. There's just too much going on. And fans get confused and it's just too hard to keep track of all these things.

I firmly believe there's only one company out there that's really built for that. that's built for, you know, 400 guys, and it's because they have the schedule they have. Sure. And so speaking of that, like, when you guys talk about Strike Force the early days or even the tournament, the Heavyweight Grand Prix, as you know, the UFC roster is way more robust now, right? And not only do they have this massive roster 400 or so fighters,

they also have contenders series where perhaps in the past an Aaron Pico or a Daniel Cormier, Luke Rockhold, is coming to you, they're scooping these guys up who are 1 and 0, 2,0, putting them through contenders, maybe signing them to a deal, a bellamere, if you will, and then bringing them over to the UFC. Do you believe that there's enough fighters in this marketplace that the UFC isn't snatching up early like they weren't doing back in the day for you guys to get to first? In addition to that, you've got MVP now doing their thing slash PFL,

Ryzen's doing their thing focused on that region. I'm just wondering, and you would know way better than I, it's not that I'm questioning it. I'm just wondering, are there enough guys out there for you to sign? I say, of course. I mean, you know, we just talked about as we were traveling, looking at the gyms. But when you go back to Strike Force, thinking about this, I talked about this last night to somebody. It was UFC, Strike Force, Pride. Pride was the monster back then.

You know, it had the best fighters. WC, IFL, Affliction, King of the Kate. I mean, there was, I think, more leagues back then than there are now. MVP and, you know, PFL merged. So that's one. you got, like you said, Risen, you got UFC, and then you have some other little ones, but then, you know, we're going to be a major player,

so we're going to go in there and we're going to, you know, the top talent, I think, is going to migrate this way in that way class, because if you're a young fighter and you come to our fight company, you're going to make more money in this year than you would make in UFC in your early years, let's say, or any other league, you'll make more money in this company than you will anywhere else.

How so? How do you explain that? Is it because your minimum is, greater? Is there a prize at the end of the tournament? What do you mean by that? Yeah, we're, it's, it's, it's significant, it's going to be, you know, significant pay for the fighters. Let's say for instance, you know, and, and we're still fluid on the exact numbers, but let's say we gave 10 and 10, 25 and 25, 50 and 50, and then you're fighting for half a million dollars or 750,000, whatever it is. You can maybe make a million dollars as a young fighter, you know, that's, that's a lot of money. You're going to fight that often if you're out of the

tournament or in the tournament? This is in the tournament. This is in the tournament. Is there a prize at the end of the tournament? Yeah, that's the $500 to $750,000. Plus, we give significant bonuses along the way. So if you're a young fighter, right, you're not going to make that at the UFC. You're not going to make that anywhere, but you can make that here.

So you'll be a set of advice to come here to this league. And like I said, back in the day, people say, oh, how are you going to, there's so many leagues now compared to, no, no, there was just as many before than there is now. So to me, it's really, you know, it's really an opportunity for a young athlete to come here, fight in that weight class. And if it works out and we decide to keep them, you know, whether they win or lose, you know, they can stay on the roster and then we'll continue to find them, you know, for the next year and put them in superfights.

That's really what the thought was, was put these kids into super fights and help build their career. And when I think about weight class models and, you know, like the model that Rich and you were talking about, what I think about is like this, like, we have the tournament, we're going to switch weight classes every year, right? We'll be in the superfight business, we'll be in the free agent business, and to me it's going to be we're going to handpick certain fighters

and we're going to try to build them into big stars, more like a boxing model than traditional weight class model, weight class model, weight class model. Any particular reason why you chose featherweight off the jump? Yeah, a few reasons. Number one, I think that weight class is really where speed, skill, and power really start coming together.

If you think of certain athletes, McKee, Pico, Patricio Pitbull to Holloway, McGregor, it's a fun, very fun weight class, right? Those guys are all superstars and some of our favorite fighters and beloved by fans for that reason. So you have all those things in play, really high-level competition. Also, it's the deepest division in the whole sport. Thanks to our friends at Tapology who had been helping us. As I mentioned previously, we're tapping into a lot of resources. And the guys at Tapology helped me identify that featherweight.

There are more featherweight fighters, active feather weights in the world than in any other weight class. And we really wanted this to be a true, you know, we wanted to get the world involved, a true world grand prix. So that was important for our decision making. So we are kind of playing into a little bit of data analytics, analytics, a little money ball every now and then, so to speak. So yeah. So as you know, Scott, it seems like the tournament's kind of going to be like the heart and soul of the promotion. But off the jump, it's those names that you sign and acquire. That's what's going to get you the headlines.

And I saw some very recognizable names and attendance. yesterday. Some may be towards the end of their career, but some of the biggest names in the story. You see Nate Diaz there. That's very interesting. I know you have a longstanding relationship with him and his team. And there's guys out there just yesterday on the show. We had MVP on. You have a history with him. And so those types of names, even though they may be a little bit older, but they are the names that the fans have an emotional investment in. You're interested in these guys. We're going to talk to everybody, Errol. And, you know, when you talk about free agents, like you said, there's only a handful right now, but we're going to talk to everybody and see if there's a

fit and we can make something happen. You know, some will work out. I believe some won't. But the tournament will continue and we're going to grow the tournament. That's going to be the main focus of the company. The super fights, which I really believe in because, you know, like you said, they have an emotional attachment to these athletes. And as I do, as do I, right? I mean, these are, you know, fighters that used to fight for me.

A lot of them fought for me in the past. So I'm going to go out there and start talking to, you know, to these guys and girls and see what happens. You know, it's interesting because, as you said, there's not that many of them available, but I do think it's never been a better time to be a free agent in the MMA. Maybe not never, but certainly like in the last, I don't know, eight or so years. And so I'm wondering, like, even since yesterday, are you getting a lot of people hitting you up? How has it been since you guys have really now emerged?

Are a lot of people interested? Because I would imagine for the managers, this is a blessing. Now you have someone else to hopefully negotiate with and try to up the value of your client. its purse. Yeah, absolutely. There are, free agency is a little different, right? It's, it's going to, that's a process. It's going to take time now that people know we're back, but there are a lot of fighters out there, Ariel, and there will be, and there will be more free agents. So to double down on what Scott said, there are young, talented prospects all over the world, a lot of them. We have in-depth scouting reports that reflect that. So again,

And we're really doing our homework and our research around this. Free agency, I think this is getting people excited. This is getting managers and fighters excited as they should be. Options are good. So, you know, when you say, hey, are you guys talking to so-and-so, I would encourage, you know, free agents, they should be talking to us too. It should really be a two-way street here. It's in everyone's best interest to pick up the phone and have a conversation, right?

Are you guys interested in women's MMA? Well, you have female fights. I know Cyborg was there yesterday, but that's a whole other beast. as well. We haven't talked to Cyborg about fighting, but I invited her to the event last night, and she came, and it was great. She's always been really supportive. But we will talk to her as well at some point because, you know, superfights doesn't matter female, male. You know, if you're a star, you're a star in the sport. Okay. So you will put on probably women's MMA fights. Is that an accurate thing to say? For sure. Okay. I could help but think of you last week,

Scott, as I was watching the PFL Rise-in showdown on a Thursday. day in Osaka because I feel like that's the relationship you built when you were there with Bellator. And so is that something you can pick back up? Are you looking to have a relationship with Ryzen to co-promote with them? Is that PFL's thing now? I would say, look, it's Japan's always complicated, right? It's always a fluid situation over there. But our, my motto has always been to collaborate wherever we go. And if it makes sense, then sure, why not? We would collaborate different promoters, whether it's Asia or Europe or Brazil. We're talking to promoters all over the world.

And, you know, let's see what happens because, you know, we have a lot of work cut out for us to do. And we're going to go out and we're going to start executing because that's really the next step for this company is we had the big announcement, the big name, the logo. We talked about the tournament. We had all those great videos. But you know what?

Now it's go time. Now it's time for us to go out and start executing these events all over the world, which is going to be a tough task. And, you know, I think we're built for it. We have a great team of staff members we've hired. We're going to hire some more, and we're going to go out and we're going to execute these events. And, you know, as far as collaborations, I would say the answer is yes. Who, who, what, where, when, it's undecided.

When you guys first came out with the announcement that you were coming back and we didn't know the name and all that, but we just knew this was the thing that was going to start in 2027, the MVP PFL deal hadn't been announced just yet. And so can I ask you, Rich, what do you make of this? What do you think about it? How is it going to play out in your opinion? That's a really good question. I haven't really thought about them too much to be honest. Come on. No, really.

Serious. This is competition, is it not? Well, you know, what Scott mentioned earlier is funny. To put it in that perspective, you know, we used to look at them independently. Okay, those are two guys you got to worry about. Well, now there's just one. So from that perspective, does that make sense how, okay, instead of worrying about two people, you only have to worry about one now. You kind of took someone off the board, so to speak. And here's the thing, Errol, you know, we've been in this business a long time. You know, we have decades of experience, right? And we have, now we have somebody like Peter Levin that's our chairman and running the financial, you know, strategy of the company. We have a better staff I think I've ever put together in the history of my promotions.

And to me, it's like, I always looked at like, look, when USC was trying to crush us and we're growing strike force. And yeah, do you keep your eye on them? Sure. But you know what? Every day I woke up, I didn't really think about them. I thought about, what is it that I need to do today to grow this company? So, yeah, they're going to make moves. U.S.C. is going to make moves.

Everybody's going to make moves. But you know what? We're going to make moves too. And so we're going to go run this company. We're going to grow this company. And we're going to get after it. And we're going to make it happen. How many events in 27, you think?

13. 13 events. Okay. Have they been laid out yet? Internally, yes. Okay. Venues as well, all that stuff? I'd say half the venues have been booked already.

Oh, wow. Okay. And so that's essentially one a month we're looking at. Yeah. The big question, you don't have anything if you don't have distribution, right? A TV deal of some kind, streaming, whatever you want to call it. Where are we at with that? Yeah, I would say the phone's been ringing.

Okay. We've taken some meetings, preliminary meetings, but we just brought on an agent, John Rosen, who's been out there actively today, you know, starting to talk to all the different distribution partners. I would say the reception has been very good. So we'll start that process of taking all these meetings in the next, I would say, a couple of weeks. Does that have to be finalized for your first event? No, we're going to go.

Serious. Wow. So where would it air? Well, you know what? Maybe we'll air it right here. Hopefully the mics work by then. That would be a problem. Wow, okay.

So you don't feel like you have to have that signed sealed and delivered before the first event. I feel we'll have a partner before that. Okay. I feel very good about that. But yeah, if these break down and what does negotiations don't work out, then, yeah, we're going to launch. You don't have to tell me the answer to this, but I'm just curious, is there like a dream destination in your mind? Is there a place where you're like, man, I really would love to partner with these guys? Are you mean as far as a network?

Yeah. I really don't want to answer to that because, you don't have to tell me the network. I'm just wondering if there is one in your mind. There is, okay. Have you talked to them yet? Yes. Okay. And how did those talks go?

They're going well. Tell us more about these talks, Rich. I'm very excited. Have you, look how happy. I've been working with this man for quite some time. You know this. I haven't seen him with this much happiness and joy as we get into this very difficult business again. He's inspired.

It's very contagious and he's just genuinely happy and I love it. You know, we go to wake up and we go to war every day, so to speak, in this very difficult. business, but, you know, here we are. We're happy after all these years. But grinding, getting after it. Don't get me wrong. But I've really noticed this, you know, Scott, Scott's, different. Come on, you see it. No, I see the happiness. I mean, there's a permanent smile. I thought it was just happy to see me. No, I am for sure, Arrow. But, you know, but I'll be honest with you, you, I mean, Bellator, especially at the end, was a grind. Yeah. It was really a grind. Soless. It was, it was, it took a lot out of me. Let's put it that way. And so, you know,

when I started this new process, I started mapping out, you know, okay, what is it that I want to do? Right? Because, you know, I could go back and do a lot of different stuff in the fight business. And if I do start a fight company, what does it look like? And so I started mapping this out. I really want to go do back in the tournaments because Ariel loves tournaments. And then I want to do super fights. And I want to, it has to be global. Because one of the things about Bellator that I should thank them for is Kevin Kay said to me, go out and start doing it all over the world. We want this to be a global brand, right? Not just fights in the United States.

And so we started doing fights in, you know, Ireland and in London. We did fights in Tel Aviv and Moscow and Japan and all over the place. So, you know, to me, we have global relationships. So I go, why would I just throw that away? I mean, we should utilize those relationships. So anyway, I map this thing out of my mind, put some numbers behind it with our business development guy. And his name is Lauren Stewart, super smart. And Rich is the first guy I brought in, and I said, okay, Rich, this is the plan.

This is like a year ago, I think. This is the plan. And this is what I want to do. But I want you to pressure test this thing. What are the holes in here as a manager or as a fight coordinate, you know, like fighter representation? And then as a promoter, what are the holes in here? Just start poking holes at it. Then I brought in different people from different countries in the fight business.

And I said, okay, poke holes at it. tell me that I brought in some analysts, financial analysts at Peter Levin arranged, and they came in and they started poking holes at it. So finally we got to the point where the plan was great. Okay. And then, so this is like an 18-month process or maybe a year process to get to this point. So, you know, this has been a lot of thought, a lot of strategy. I love it. And once we got the plan, we said, okay, what are the pieces we need to put together? And who are the pieces, you know? And I said to Rich, I said, Rich, I know you came here just to pressure tested, but when I'm ready, I'm going to come to you first. And when we're ready,

then I call them first, and that's how we made the deal. And you were out of the business. You had been out of promoting. I was doing several different things. Still in the game, around the sport, but not promoting. And, you know, when he called, I wasn't quite sure if he was being sincere about working on something. I just thought, man, you live up in Las Gatos and you're golfing and you're happy. Why would you want to come back into this, you know, the pressure cooker that is the fight game? And, He asked me to come up to the house, and I remember going up to the house to see him. And he goes, why don't we go into the theater room?

Like, huh? We sat down, and he showed me exactly what he was working on. So it was a very pleasant surprise. And then that's when I knew it was real. He kept telling me, we've stayed in touch the whole time. He would just tell me, I'm working on something, man. And I just thought, ah, man, he's just bored. That's what retired guys say.

They're always working on something, right? But lo and behold, and I'm grateful for it. and I think it's going to be great for the sport, but he actually was working on something that whole time. Oh, do you, Scott, if you mind me asking? 63. And so there is a fair question to be asked there. Why go through this all over again?

You've been there, done that? You know what? I don't think age has a limit. My martial arts teacher, he was at the show last night. You know, he's 80 years old. Wow. So it works out every day, still doing his thing every day, and still has that drive.

He runs his association, and, you know, Ernie Reyes, senior is his name. but to me, it's, you know, I have a lot of energy. I think I have a lot to give. And we're going to build a team of people around me. I'd say unlike any time in my past, Strike Force had five people that worked there. Wow.

I think about that. Five people that worked at Strike Force. Is that true? At its height. At its height. Yeah. It was a small company filled with people that really knew what they're doing, right? We would have a lot of independent contractors and, you know, that sort of thing.

And so what we would do is we would, the company would swell up when it's, fight time and then it would just get dissolved back down to to you know like the five people five core people that would help and then the sharks would help they would you know they ran our backbone finance and legal so they they added took some weight off of it but the fight operations was five people and rich was which was one of them so to me you know bellator had an army of people but you know you kind of get lost in that vortex of vicar right it's it's a tough tough gig because everybody has has their own agenda, everybody has their own budget.

It's like there's not a lot of synergy or everybody's working in silos instead of working, you know, in alignment, let's say. So, you know, when I think about this proposal from Peter who pushed me, pushed me, and pushed me. And in fact, Peter was on me 10 years ago before I went to Bellator. As I was coming out of my strike versus non-compete, he was on me about, let's go, let's start a new company. And, you know, so he, and I, and I went to Belator because I really,

really like Kevin Kay. So I went to Bell to her instead. Peter didn't talk to me for about a year because he was so mad, right? He wanted to start something new. So when this opportunity came about, he said, look, you're going to have, we're going to create a situation

where you have tremendous support. You'll be able to hire whoever you want to hire. You can have a great team around you. You can do, you know, make the moves that you know that you need to make and not coming from a corporate standpoint only. Because, you know, things have to make sense. They have to make, this is still at the end of the day of business, right?

You have to be fiscally responsible, but, you know, sometimes people are in this business that don't know the business. And they're making decisions on a business that they have no idea how to run it. So, you know. One thing I learned recently, Peter has been involved in the MMA world, like dating back to like the WFA days? No pride. Pride. He represented Randy Couture, Mark Coleman, Rampage Jackson. Who else he remembers him?

Shammrock. Oh, Ken Shamrock. Wow. Him and Jeremy Lapton had a management agent. Oh, battle management. Yeah, battle management. Before Jeremy Lappen went to Elite C and pro lead in that. Yeah, that's right.

Wow, wow, wow, okay. So he was, I would run into him in Japan. I was working for K1, he was working for Pride. But sometimes we did the same hotel, and I would run into him in the lobby. And, you know, you have two Americans over there, and you start, you know, hey, what are you doing? I'm here representing these guys. So that's how we met, actually, in the very beginning. And now he does what?

He's a venture capitalist? He is a, he runs the number one fund. in the video game space called Griffith Gaming, and they manage about $1.6 billion of fund money. Okay. And for those that may not know, Rich, you've been in this game for a very long time, dating back to the Hawaiian MMA days,

to the pro-elite days, to Strike Force, to Bellator. But one of the few guys that went from the promotional side to the managerial side, you worked with Dave Martin and his team, and now you're coming back. And I know you did other things as well. Yes.

Alta, MMA, Inc. We've talked to you about that in the past. What was it like on the other side of the fence for a moment? Oh, man. I like people bugging me, boy, then I like bugging people. Okay. That's what you came to the conclusion.

Yeah, but you know what? It was a great experience, really. I've been very fortunate to be involved in just about every aspect of the business. You know, I'm not the smartest guy out there, but I think my history and my resume and the, the various things I've been able to do in the sport. I fought, I've refereed, promoted, been on the media side of, you know, I've just been involved in so many different things in this sport.

I think it's really helped me. I think it's become very valuable now at this stage in the game, working with Scott again, all that experience. I learned so much over the last five years or so being away from the game, being on that side, dealing with promoters from all over the world and just kind of, you know, it kept me, I still had my finger on the pulse. And so Scott would check in with me, be like, hey, man, what's going on out there? You know, what's cooking, man?

What's the scoop? And so I think Scott realized, like, hey, he still knows what's going on. And that was important because that's a long time in this game, right? Imagine if you unplugged for five years and then plugged back in, it's a whole different industry. It's a whole different sport. So many moves are being made, you know, from the business side of things. And so I think being on that side was, I learned a lot, and it's, and it's very helpful. It just adds to all this experience and this instinct that we have to make, to make the right decisions.

Was there ever a point where you thought you were done that you would never come back? Or in the back of your mind, did you think you would come back in some way, shape, or form? You know what? When I left Bellator, right? You know, I was like, I said, I'm just going to take some time off and not even think about this. I didn't watch any fights. I didn't watch it. I watched zero.

And then, you know what? Within, I would say, eight months, we started fight night with Gilbert, right? Which, you know, he did an amazing job. And I was, you know, helping. And we put this thing together. And so I was never really out of it because we did five fights in the Bay Area. And I really felt like I owed it to the community there to do these fights because there's not a lot of activity in the Bay Area. So kept the guys going.

And, you know, we were doing our local. local level, but I would say about a year into it, then I'm like, okay, I really feel like I could do this again, and I want to do it big and do it right, and Peter and I were already talking, and, you know, he provided the opportunity. He's surrounded me with some really good people, and, you know, I'm thankful to him for his efforts, because really he did this easy to do that Peter's doing just fine on his own, believe me, but he loves MFA, and he and I have been friends for a long time, and until the first time he said I was a terrible golfer. I'm not going to forgive him for that.

But, you know, we've been friends a long time, and now I get to work with a lot of my close friends and go build this thing and do it properly and do it the way I wanted to do it, right? And I think last time you and I talked, we were talking about, you know, like the investment, you know, people say, oh, is it enough? Is it not enough? I say, look, we turned down a lot of money, you know, on the back end of this opportunity because we didn't want, I didn't want to get diluted to the point. where I didn't have control and ownership

because I think that this is something where if the right people don't make the right decisions from a, not just like the corporate, but also the martial arts part of it, right? Or the fight side of it, it's, you're going to be in trouble. If people start making decisions about this company or a company that don't know this business,

you're going to be in trouble. And think about how many times that's happened, right? Corporate America comes in, it's a different animal now, right? People come into the business, they're learning the business. I don't have to learn the business. He doesn't have to.

I already know this business. And we hire people that know the business. There's no learning curve. I always say that to, you know, to people that are working with us. I said, I love working with you guys because there's no learning curve. We could hit the ground run, like CJ, right? Hit the ground running, bang. You know, Chris the boss, hit the ground running, boom.

It's like, we've been in business through 90 days. Think about this. And we pulled off an event like we did last night only because we hired. people that know this industry and know this business. And then we bring in corporate America to support us. But if you end up running a business in the fight business, think about how many people have been successful in this industry. Not that many, right? And sometimes there's too many suits, right? You bring in too many suits. They don't know the fight culture. They know the fight business. They don't understand, you know, the mentality of this industry. So a lot of people have a

hard time. And they don't even know why they're having a hard time. And before you know it, they're either selling or doing this or whatever they're doing. But, you know, we know how to do this. And now I have a group of individuals that really know how to do this. And we're going to hire people that really know how to do this and support us. So I'm excited because this is the first time I've had that kind of support and that kind of, you know, backing to go out and do it the way I want to do it. When you guys were boots on the ground, you were in Paris, Japan. Am I missing a spot? We were in Southern California as well. What was it like to be at the gyms again to see, like, was it nostalgic for you to be out there, you know, where these guys are probably meeting some new faces in the sports, some new coaches, some new gyms, a lot has changed over the last few years.

What was that like for you? Just a lot of fun. Exhausting, but fun. You know, traveling the world and having these tight schedules, but so much fun. You know, we've been greeted so well, right? I mean, the amount of love and respect we're getting globally. it's a really great feeling. It keeps us going.

That's what tells us that we made the right choice that now was a good time and then seeing for ourselves. There's a lot of fighters out there. Yeah. It's been great. And you know what? It's like Rich has been doing this a long time. This isn't something that now we just happen to be filming it, right?

But how many gyms is Rich walked into in his lifetime and myself? That's how I started my promotional company is walking into different gyms and different martial arts back then it was kickboxing but I would walk into the gyms we didn't film it and so now we're filming the only difference is

you know we're shooting it for content but when you talk about connecting with our community I think that's one of the best ways to do it and just to add to that if I may

we don't have to do it right I mean this business we've done it before can just be done over the phone right right just send me a list

of your guys yeah yeah hey nice to meet you yeah send me your roster You could easily do it that way. We don't have to do this, but we want to. It's important for us to go out, meet new people, share our vision, just reconnect. So we've been having fun with it.

Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun. I appreciate it because when we walk into a gym, we understand the culture of the gym. We understand the teacher. We understand the students, the fighters, the practitioners. And it's very comfortable for me to be out there, and I'm sure if we're comfortable for rich too. It's a good feeling. And they appreciate it so much.

that we're actually going out of our way and coming out there and doing it. So there's a lot of love in the room. Okay. Those videos that you talked about, I've enjoyed them a lot. We played a few on the show because it's kind of whetted the appetite,

constantly giving you guys love and respect. I was surprised, though, that you highlighted Diaz daily, and I'll tell you why. There was a video that just came out where you were talking about, like, this being one of your favorite fights. Because when I think of that fight, I think about it from several components.

Obviously, the action itself, the one round, Hagler-Herns is one of the best one-round fights in UFC, excuse me, an MMA history, but the big man was there. And that to me was the almost death of strike force. Now, I know there was a Stockton event the week before that everyone forgets. That was the post-sale event where I think someone from Zoufa

might have been there. Maybe it was Sean Shelby who spoke to everyone. But then the real like first one of the new era, was in San Diego and he showed up with the Strike Force T-shirt sitting cage side after calling you guys

strike force and all that and so I would imagine there was probably mixed emotions when you think of that fight, no? Oh, well, the fight itself I really just, you know, thought about the fight itself. I didn't think about that other stuff.

I think about it. Am I crazy? I did a little, to be honest. Okay. But that that card was actually set already. I consider that the last real pure, true strike force moment because essentially the company got dissolved a week later.

But that was it. Is that your last event? Yeah. Okay. What a way to go out, though. Wait, I thought Oklahoma was the last event, was it? No, well, for a lot of the guys left. Oh, I see.

You stay. Fewer strike force. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And what a way to go out, you know? What a way to close. For sure. That's really interesting. So you still think of Oklahoma as the last strike force.

Well, I think like you, the last strike force was Stockton or San Diego. Or even the, I think it was Columbus in March. Do you remember there was a march event in Columbus, which might have been Dan Hendo versus Babalu? No, phageal. Fayial. Yes. This is crazy stuff.

Hey, not bad. Well, you know, Aaron, you're right. Forget that fight. We're going to pick another fight. I was just wondering when you think of that is, are there any, like, sad feelings associated? Yeah, of course. I mean, you know, that was like my baby, you know. So to me, it was, you know, it was meant to be, but it was a very, very, like, you know,

tough time, you know, for me personally. And, you know, listen, from there, I went on to be coming, like, you know, going to the UFC office, which I went to probably twice, right? And I'm walking in the room. It was so awkward. And I'm like, okay, nobody really wants me here anyway. How weird was that? I went to one meeting, I think maybe one or two, like management meetings where they're all there, right? And I'm like, okay, there's going to be a beginning, a middle, and I enter this relationship. I can always tell because, you know, it's just different cultures, you know and so but but I was there and I experienced it and I'm like okay this is you know it's it's it's it's gonna be an and and going back to like I went they gave me a little office

one time one time wow I was there for a fight and I literally I literally just played Angry Birds like four hours because I was like there's nothing for me to do here like no one talked to you oh no people are super friendly yeah I mean everywhere was great you know I mean everybody's respectful you know it's like you know the like the like Mark Ratner was great. Sean Shelby was great. You know, I'd run into Dana once in a while in the hallway. Hey, hey, hey, how you do it?

But, you know, it's like, look, we all knew. Like, you know, this is just a business situation where, you know, that, you know, that we're in right now and there will be an ending to it after the three years and then I'm going to move on. So, you know, I probably went to that office probably twice. Wow. three years. But they were respectful.

If I wanted to take us to a fight, they would take care of me. And, and, you know, to Lorenzo's credit, it's like anything he said that he would do, he did for me in my deal. So, you know, it was, it is what it is. But it wasn't like, and maybe it was more me feeling like a little bit, oh, this is kind of awkward, right? Like, you know, we've been going at it for a lot. Battling them.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They were trying to kill us. Come on. Yeah. You know, when Gina said, hey, they approached her to, pull out of the fight, you know, with a, with cyber

I believe, and they said, we'll pay your legal fees. I was like, that happened with Fador, too, right? That wasn't the first time. Did it? Oh, yeah, Fader. Which one? Fader when they flew to a vacation spot up and said, you know, we'll pay for your legal fees if you leave the company.

And, you know, basically they wanted to breach his contract with me, right? Wow. Well, and the thing is, like, Brock. But let me rephrase it. So it's not, and I don't want to go down this road, like, because it's like it passed, but it's, it's, you know, Vadim, I believe was telling them, hey, he's a free agent, right? But we sent him some legal notices and then all the communications stopped. But Fader, I don't think, would have left anyway because of our relationship, right? Gina neither.

She said she didn't entertain it. Yeah, because we have such a good friendship, good relationship. and, you know, it wasn't even like a contractual thing. It was more of a personal thing, I believe. But it just showed you, they're trying to kill us, right? Yeah. We had deals where we had signed. They, you know, torture's interference meant nothing to them at that point, you know.

And it's all documented in the antitrust lawsuit. Right. Right. And so that's, this is nothing new. This is all stuff that's, you know, been out there already. So that's just how life was back then. The, the PR answer is like there's no competition. we're worried about ourselves, all that stuff.

I get that. But they are the 500 pound gorilla that everyone tries to compete with. Ultimately, if you get in the MMA business, you are in some way, shape, or form competing with UFC. Whether you want to admit it or not, they are the standard and everyone else is trying to take some eyeballs away from them.

Are they ripe for the taking? Can you take any sort of market share away from these guys? They are such an institution. How do you do that? I feel like, you know, why would you want to like bring them down because if let's say they went under, right? What does it say about our industry as a whole? This could change everybody's lives, right? Because- I'm not saying to bring them down, but you are competing for eyeballs, right?

Yeah. And I've always believed this, though. If we do what we do well, which we're going to, right, we're going to get the eyeballs, right? You know, the thing about, you know, Belator, built its own fan base, strike force had its own fan base. But there, you know, analytics proved in Viacom when I was running Bellator, you can have a successful business and have crossover fans and pollinate them, right? Because fans of UFC were fans of Bellator, and there was across, you know, pollination that I could see on paper from the analyst group,

you know, coming to me with all these papers, you know, in charts and this and that. And basically, you know, MMA fans, some are just UFC hardcore fans, but there are a lot of them that are MMA fans and love MMA. And to me, I always use the word additive. We're going to be additive to what they're doing.

We're going to be additive to what other people are doing. because like I said, this will be a global product. So whether we're in Japan and, you know, RISE is doing their thing and then we're doing our thing or here, they're doing their thing, we're going to be, you know, in the market, but we're going to be additive to what they're doing and not so much, you know, trying to destroy or be destructive. Saturday nights? Saturday nights? Oh. Hasn't been decided. Okay.

Yeah. Because one could argue if you don't want to compete with them, you go maybe on Friday or Thursday. What do you guys think? Well, you know, when we're doing Bellator fights, we would go head to head with them on Saturday sometimes. Sometimes, but not often. Yeah, I mean, especially when we came to Showtime and CBS and they had boxing. It's like, you know, we had to go on Friday night sometimes.

But it's not that easy just to get dates that you want because you want that date in venues around the country. Sometimes, you know, you have to go on sometimes a date that the venue has. Right. But there's not a night or a day of the week that you say this is our best day. Like we'll be a Friday night company, a Saturday night company, a Thursday night company. Yeah, you know, listen, I even think Thursday nights would be a great night. I think Saturday nights would work too.

I think if you put on a great show, great product, and, you know, I think that you could go on any one of those nights. I've always liked Thursdays. You didn't ask my opinion, except for in football season. You don't want to go up against the NFL, right? Yeah. Well, it depends who's playing. But I feel like NFL is king. I get it.

But if you're starting in February, you don't have to worry about that until September. That's right. So you can maybe be that type of company. 13 events in 2027. How many outside of the U.S.? There's going to be 12? No, 8, 8. Yeah.

Oh, 8 will be international. No, no, 16. So we'll have 12. 9. At least 9, right? Outside of the U.S. That's right. And 4-ish in the U.S.

Because of the tournament structure, which is, again, another reason. why that's really helpful. It does create this structure, right? So we said four continents. And which are the four? North America. Yeah. South America, Europe and Asia. Okay. So three events and the other three continents. Okay. And Canada? We've been talking about Canada. Yeah. Man, I feel like Canada.

You don't get any love. We all know. Exactly. You don't get any love. Very underserved. No one comes. PFL doesn't come. UFC comes maybe once or twice a year. What's the deal? We've been talking to people from Canada. You have? Yeah. Okay.

Can we get an event in Canada? Maybe I'll pull up. What city would be best? Montreal. Well, Montreal is a tough one because Montreal tends to support its own. So if you don't have a Quebecois guy at the top, they'll come out, but if you don't have one, it's a tough.

Sure. I would say Toronto probably at this point. Toronto or Vancouver. Well, Calgary and Eminton have been doing good crowds for the UFC. I would just like to see Canada get represented. I feel like we produced a lot of great talent. These markets that used to be. You know, the sport thrive there.

Yeah. Yeah. We're underserved these days. Canada underserved. So we are paying attention to that. The resurrection of Japan, though, has been an amazing story. Did not see this coming. Like Japan had an incredible rise, an incredible fall.

But now, 50,000 on a Thursday in Osaka this past week. Yeah. That's impressive. Yeah, I mean, listen, they built a nice brand there. They're doing a great job. Obviously, he knows what he's doing. And having Asakura doesn't hurt the roster. I just, I just, I didn't know if it would ever come back to where it was in like the early 2000s, you know, Pride, New Year's Eve, Bob Sap, all that stuff.

Yeah. It was great days. Great days. Great days. That, that era between, let's say, when Pride was fighting K1, the dynamite show. Oh, the best. But the era, I think, between, let's say, you know, 2007 to, you know, was it 2006? 2000, no, 2003. So, let's say 95 to 2007. and then seven was probably the golden era of MMA in combat sports because it was one era but there was a

I mean there was a great era that came afterwards strike force yes oh no I'm talking about Japan oh Japan okay got you oh yes yes yes of course of course yeah have we not mentioned anything that is worth mentioning have we talked about all the details 32 man tournament featherweight four continents semis and finals on the same night I think it's worth noting that the feather wits we are looking for this is a youth movement it's prospect driven. So the ideal fighter, let's say 25 or younger, less than 10 fights. So I think that's important. That matters.

And there are a lot more of those young prospects, you know, than trying to find, you know, to your point earlier about, man, are there enough guys? Well, I think there are a ton of young prospects. And youth is always, you know, we are happy to invest and even over invest in youth, right? Youth is always in vogue. Youth is always, you know, it's just so fascinating to see a young prospect rise. And, you know, I think that if you think about, like, the past of Strike Force, and Rich is a part of this too. And in Bellator, you know, I think we've been able to continue building the next group of stars in this sport.

Strike Force had its run and, you know how many great fighters we came out of there. But even, like, when we started Belator, I said, I told the guys, they said that we've got to build from the ground up. We have our fighters here now, but we have to build. So what do we do? We go, Javier Mendez says to me, you sign Uzman and Rigged Madoff, right? I ran into Rampage Jackson.

He goes, oh, come to my show tonight. I go there. I see A.J. McKee. We signed him. Bob Cook says, go sign Aaron Pico. And so to me, those are stars that are now just starting to flourish, right? And, especially Uzman and AJ,

they're getting into their prime. And we're going to do the same thing. We're going to find these guys, and we're going to build them. And I don't think anybody's done it better than we have in the history of the sport of how many young, talented fighters that we've developed from scratch, even.

T. Wood had no fights. Luke Rockall had no fights. Daniel Cormley had no fights. So this is all by coincidence. This is all like, this is kind of, this is planned out. This is something that we've helped them get to that point. So I think we're very good start identifiers

and star builders. Usman, by the way, a free agent. Have you talked to him? We have not. We have not talked to them. We're going to start engaging now and see what the deal is with all those guys. Just do me a favor. I lost the tournament battle clearly.

No uniforms. Right? We're not going to do uniforms. Yeah, there's no uniforms. For the love of God. At this point, yeah. At this point, yeah. No, please.

You of all people should not want uniforms. You want the individuality, right? The uniqueness. I mean, to me, that's when you, you know, when you say you're fighters first and has to work for both sides. Amen. You want to say something? No, he... You're, you're anti-uniform as well? Rich! What? I like fighters expressing themselves. Okay, thank you. That's what I scared me there for a second. You know, we... I want the banners back with all the logos. Well, I don't know about that.

That looks a little bit sloppy. A little bit sloppy. Let's take it back. There's some things that that we enjoy from, you know, the past, yeah. Yeah, from the past that might not have been the best look or, you know, Condom Depot. Come on. Those were great days. Those are great days. I think we moved on from that. You think so?

Yeah. We've cleaned it up some. And I think we've, you know, we've always looked at it. Yes, you must embrace this as a sport. There's certain, you know, that's important, especially from a competition aspect. But let's have some fun, too. Amen. Yeah.

It's supposed to be fun. When do you think we'll start to hear about some of the signings? I was thinking in the next 45 days. Okay. Yeah. So relatively soon. Yeah, because, you know, as we go into next year, it's going to be right around the corner. Yeah.

So I'd say the next 30 to 45 days, you'll probably start seeing some. First event, when do you think you announced that? Probably in October sometimes. Okay. And February is what you're shooting for. Yeah. All right. You see, we have the belt right over there.

I love it. I see. How about that? By the way, that was Rich's idea, actually. I love it. You know? It's not going to. replace this great black belt that I have because my name is on fair so shout out to these boys

for giving me this way back to the day hallick racy yes yes Morris yeah that's been with me for a long time but I love this and I'm going to put the where should we put the glove let's put it on we have a lot of what about Kimbo right here right oh man yeah legend may you rest in peace maybe I'll put it here for now and then we'll find a good place for it but I am I'll fix that later very very happy for you guys this is the Larry O'Brien trophy by the way the NBA champion The reigning defending NBA champion gets this. We're glad that you get to experience the feeling. We're a little spoiled on this side.

The two of you have been on this journey with me, and I've been very jealous of you guys, Golden State Warrior fan, so I'm glad to be able to know. We were rooting for the Knicks and in March part, and we talked about you a lot. I appreciate that. Thank you guys. That's old friendship right there.

Congratulations, Mazel Tov, well done. Thank you. Very excited for you guys, looking forward to all the great things to come. The website is live. KeyMMA. I think it's key-MMA. if my memory serves me correct, right? CJ's been hammering it.

He's been hammering all the links. He's been sending me all the links. Best in the business. CJ Tuttle, shout out to him. So, and of course, Chris de Blasio, I love him as well. It was great. See Esther in attendance, a lot of the old faces. Yes, we love Esther around here.

How fun was it last night? I said it before the show before you guys got here. And I think you guys misunderstood me yesterday. I left, I told Rick, who came with me on the team, it felt like a high school reunion slash wedding where you come back and you see all your old friends that you hadn't seen in so long. Like I didn't see Alex Davis in maybe 10 years,

Brian Butler, some of the managers, Dave Martin, but also Tewood, Morrow, Sean Grandi was there, love Sean, Nate Gilbert. You don't see Fador every day. Fader, golly. Fador comes up to me, shake my hand. Only guy asked for a photo, by the way.

Speaking of weddings, I was one of the last people there last night. I don't know if you guys noticed. I couldn't leave. I didn't want to leave. I had such a good time. So if nothing else happens with Key MMA, thank you for last night. It warmed my heart.

What a great start, right? But I did understand what you said about those, you know, comparing it to those events that sometimes aren't always spoken of in a good way. But when you said a wedding, I said, well, you know, Scott said this is his and our love letter to the sport. Yeah. So, yeah. It's fitting. It was 100% positive and sincere. And I think it said a lot about the way the community feels about you guys.

That so many people came out of their way flew in to be there in support. I don't think you see that often. Very, very appreciative. Yeah. Because everybody's busy, right? They didn't have to come, but. No, they all showed up. I was like, wow, this is amazing.

Yeah, really good. Yeah, Nate Diaz there just hanging out, like. Yeah. Tony Hawk? Amazing. I know, that's crazy, huh? Amazing. I was like, wait a second.

Tony freaking Hawk. Yeah. And his son, amazing. Congratulations. Well done. Thank you for coming in. Can't wait for all the new updates to come and all the exciting announcements. We'll say goodbye to Rich and to Scott.

Be back with Brandon Moreno. Also, Hanata Moikano. don't go anywhere. All right, back on the program. Great conversation with my old pals, Rich Chow, Scott Coker. I wish the key MMA guys, nothing but the best. Can't wait to cover this. We'll be talking about it, dissecting it, all that stuff for more. And we'll talk about it more and about 30 minutes. I want to get Rick's take on the event. He was there with me yesterday, but for now, let us go to the man who was victorious on Saturday. Noce UFC, fourth installment for the UFC, but amazingly, his first time a part of it. And when you think of Mexican

in MMA and especially the boom and the representation within the UFC, you would think Brandon Moreno had been a part of Enoché, but the timing never quite worked out. It worked out on Saturday. He got a big win over Joseph Morales, and he is kind enough to join us right here now to talk about it all. The assassin baby. There he is. Hello, Brandon.

How are you? Yes, so. Como isazza? What's up, very? Nice talk with you, but again. Very bien, hermano. A brazzo. Brandon, usually we're in a cool room with your Legos and your toys.

this time no cool room, no Legos, no toys. I know, man. You got me in the middle to do something, but I mean, ready to talk with you, excited, healthy and happy. Amen. Isn't it amazing? Four, no Ches, but that was your first. Did it bother you that you had never been a part of one in the past?

I mean, kind of, you know, like the ones heard me the most was that one at the sphere, you know. know. That one was a super special event. UFC came with me and offered me to fight and everything, but I was in the middle to an injured recovery, so I wasn't able to fight. And it is what it is. It was kind of painful.

But finally, 2026, I had the opportunity to fight Noche and what a kind of event. I mean, I just feel super grateful with everything, with God, with life, with destiny, whatever you want to call it, I had the opportunity this year. And, you know, what's special? And so to be a part of this one, how would you describe it?

How authentic did it feel? Did it feel almost like you were fighting in Mexico? How did the UFC do in terms of paying homage to your home country? Yeah, I mean, I've been saying that in the last years. Like, I think UFC's been doing an amazing job, doing a big effort to represent the Mexican culture, you know, because we really love combat sports in my country. And, you know, watching all day the effort JVC is doing to me, it makes me feel super good.

Obviously, at the same time, it's some kind of pressure. We have to respond to all those kind of events, like JNC, Mexico, not too what you say right now. So obviously, it's 50-50, but at the same time, I don't let any other bad feeling that bother me at all. Like, I was so focused to enjoy every single process of this event.

I enjoy too much five-week, the interviews, all the colors, the Mexican flag everywhere. So I just enjoy everything. I agree. They do a phenomenal job. It's really a lot of fun.

It's aesthetically beautiful to look at. Just all the little details, the colors, even the octagon girls, what they're wearing, the fact that it's different and it's paying homage to your culture. I think it's brilliant.

And for you, it was a big fight. You needed to get back on track. Did you feel the pressure of the two-fight losing streak? Was that something that was weighing on you a lot. Uh, well, I mean, yes, for sure.

But again, like, I did an amazing, uh, mental work for this training camp, Mario. Like, I, I, I start saying this in five week, like in the interviews. Like, sometimes in this sport, you are your worst enemy, you know, and I have, uh, some uh, battles in my mind with, with my demons. But I think I did an amazing job taking the control of the situations about it. you know, and my mentality was to win. I was ready to die against Joseph Morales. At the same time, like, I don't want to, how you say in English, like count out Joseph

because I know his motivation, you know. I knew Joseph was ready to rock and die as well. And obviously, try to take me my spot in the rankings. So that motivation is powerful, you know, because I know it because I feel in the past, you know, when you are coming back from the, from the, when UFC release you, they're coming back and you're trying to show to the world you deserve

to be at the top again. So I know it just was coming for everything, but the same time I wasn't in the same mood. I was in the same mood. I'm fascinated by what you said regarding the demons and what goes on in your mind. I feel like

this is very interesting and relatable, actually, to all kinds of people. Is this something that you only started to battle since the fight earlier this year against Lonnie Kavanaugh or has this been something that you've been dealing with for quite some time?

Yeah, I mean, everything is being like this, you know? Because sometimes I feel amazing. Like, for example, I remember the fight against Amir al-Basi, my mind was just like super on point with Erics like the same. But then against Tatsu and Loner,

my mind was like everywhere. And obviously, that Ariel does that an excuse, you know, because I know every single fighter has mental battles every single time. But it is what it is. Like, I would love to perform in the best way possible and my mind wasn't ready to do it. But this time, I put a lot of focus on there, you know. And I say that these are the post-conference. Like, like in some point in this career, like everything is about your mind, how you can control your emotions,

and how you can keep a focus under pressure because in other sports like Michael Jordan or Habibn Maghometdo, I mean other sports, everything is about the mental part at the end, you know? Have you talked to someone about this? Yeah, I mean, obviously with my close circles, you know, with my wife and with my coaches, like, and again, I feel always stupid because it sounds like an excuse,

but I don't have like any... necessity to say that, you know? I just like, fuck, like, I would love to just feel free again inside of the octagon like before. But yeah, I did an amazing job. I started to work with my therapist, Jasmine from Mexico, and she's working so hard with my mind. And this process, all this training can was amazing. Okay, yeah, that's what I was referring to. I was wondering if you spoke to a therapist about this because we've heard about these. Ah, okay, yes. Yeah, yeah. And was this the first fight that you worked with someone like that? Yes.

Wow, and you felt the difference. No, I mean, I worked in the past, you know, but for some reason, maybe, I mean, because you don't put a lot of focus on your mind, I stopped doing it. I was working with a trip like a long time ago, with Aletia, but now I'm starting again, with Jasmine, and she's been doing an amazing job with me. The fight in Mexico earlier this year, how did you react to it in the aftermath, the immediate aftermath? Like my emotions after the fight?

Yeah. Man, I mean, I was sad. I was super frustrated. Like, you know, you know what's the most frustrated part? And you talk with other athletes and because, again, it's a bad problem, but it's a normal problem. But you ask another fighter, like, I know it's super frustrated because you know you can do more and you, you know, you can make a better performance.

but something, just something happened and you're not doing your job or the job you know you can do. So yeah, I mean, my emotions after the last five against a loan was a lot of frustration, a little sadness. Every single time when I'm passing from this kind of struggle, I'm always thinking like, man, I mean, why I'm continuing this career?

But, man, I really love this sport. I mean, I'm still waking up in the morning, super happy, going to the gym and go with my training partners and training and talking with my coaches, you know. I really love the sport. So that's what. And thanks God, I'm still like a young and healthy. So that's what I'm still doing it.

Can I ask you, Brandon, are you on Wi-Fi right now or on like LTE? Because your face is just like a blob. We can't, we can hear you, but we can't see you. Sorry. Yes, it's Wi-Fi. I'm so sorry. Is it possible to go off the Wi-Fi and maybe just try the cell or does that not work? Just like

Off your phone On their phone Oh let me Just one moment Okay okay Maybe we We'll get to him in a moment I just want to try to see

Maybe if we go off Wi-Fi Interestingly enough Brandon now has moved past Tim Elliott for most wins In UFC flyweight history Elliot also on the card on Saturday he's now two wins behind Pantosius records for most wins in UFC flyweight history. This fight, this doesn't make any sense what I'm reading right here.

This fight put Brandon Marino above Timale for most wins in UFC flywood history with 21 total. He's now two wins behind Pantosia's record for most wins in UFC flyweight history. How does that make any sense? Okay, I'm misreading that. His total fight time, five minutes, excuse me, five hours and 55 minutes and 52 seconds, the most in UFC flyweight history. His total significant strikes landed, 1375, is the most in UFC flyweight history, which is pretty remarkable. And you may recall that Moreno had won the UFC title first in Glendale and has also fought a bunch in Arizona prior to joining the UFC.

So perhaps this was a bit of a homecoming of sorts for him. You know, Joseph Morales was a guy who, like Brandon had been in the UFC, left the UFC, had to work his way back, so it was really interesting to see them fighting each other, and it was a really great fight. It was one of the more entertaining fights on the card. Moreno won via split decision, by the way, 30, 27 times 2, 28, 29.

We'll go back to Brandon here, see if it's a little bit of there. Okay, he's back. Hello, Brandon. How are you? I was just... Hello, I'm sorry. No problem, no problem. Thank you for doing that. Can I ask you,

won the title in Glendale, right? What was it like being back in Glendale to fight on this card? Did it feel a little nostalgic for you? Yeah, for sure. And obviously, all the media asking me about, hey, you remember 2021 when, I'm sorry? No problem.

Yeah, like asking me all the time, like, hey, you remember that time when you won the title the last time? Like, for sure. And bring me a lot of memories. And actually, Friday was everything so similar. Like everything I was doing going to the arena, the boss and, you know, arriving, the locker rooms. Everything looks so similar.

That was insane. But yeah, the memories, you know, all the good memories around. Do you ever have a moment, you know, it brings back good memories, of course. But did you ever have a moment, Brandon, where you were doubting yourself, where you were doubting if you can be one? of the best flyweight in the world still, if you were still one of the best fly weights, if you could beat the best flyweight, did you ever have that sort of crisis of confidence

in the buildup to this? Yeah, I mean, and it's very similar what I was talking before. Like, I've been living, I've been living with my own demons. I think in a really hard sport like this one, every single time you are fighting with your mind, you are fighting with your thoughts.

And I had those fights in the past. But man, That's why actually I say I'm the best flyway in the world after the post-conference because that to me is like a compromise, you know? It's like a compromise with myself, like, hey, you say that in public, you have to hold that, you know, you have to back up your own words. So that's why I did it. How did you feel about the fight itself?

Your performance in the fight, you want to be a split decision. Were you happy with your performance? Did you think you had done enough that you were going to get the nod before they read the scorecards? Yeah. So, actually, I saw the replay. yesterday and I mean I knew the fight was close

because Joseph was doing an amazing job with good combinations. She tried to catch me in the middle with the opera cuts with the with the kicks at the same time. But man, I was very confident with my performance and I knew

I won at the end of the fight. Again, I knew Joseph Morale was ready to die to trying to get the victory. And that's the thing with the UFC, right? Like, you know every single guy is super tough, every single guy has the best skills ever. And, man, Joseph Morales has an extra motivation because he came back to the Jets.

He won the ultimate fighter. And, I mean, he's trying to show to the world. He's ready for the big stage. But, man, maybe Joseph, with this mentality, with the old Brandon Moreno, maybe the result will be different. But, man, again, I was ready to die as well. And you really mean that. When you say you were ready to die, you really truly mean that.

That's not just the figure of speech. Brother. Wait, I'm ready. That's why? I'm ready to die again. But you have so much to live for. What does it matter? When, lose, why are you ready to die?

Man, because you have to. You have to be ready, you know, for sure. I'm not trying to. How do you say in English, like, I'm not seeking that dead, you know? Obviously, I'm super happy. I have a lot of things to be grateful with life. I have a beautiful wife, a beautiful daughter's. So I enjoy life too much.

But at the same time, man, I'm ready to get the victory in my fights again. And, man, that means a lot to me. And you got that victory. And now you're in Fat Week, I read. What is fat week? What are you indulging? Brother, so normally So normally

once a fight week finish Fat week starts Okay, okay So my goal right now is to visit some restaurants here in Vegas And then if I have the possibility I'll go to L.A. This weekend for the fight

I have a few meeting and grids So I'm going to have some good food there as well. So I'll be ready. What do you love to eat? Like what do you really crave after your fight? So I want to hear your top three after me. Okay, okay. But my top three, first of all is tacos.

Yes. Second one is pizza. Yes. And third one are burgers. Wow. Okay. That's my top three. So I always try to find that.

Pizza for me, sushi. sushi is my four. Sushi's your four. And for me, burritos. Love burritos. Really? Okay. Why, you're surprised?

I mean, because normally, I don't know why, because I love burritos as well. But normally the people doesn't talk about burritos. But I mean, yeah, for sure. You don't think, why? You think, Brandon, because I'm just a gringo, I don't like the burrito? Is that why? Maybe. Wow.

I don't know. I'm part of La Raza. I'm part of La Raza. Viva la Raza. Thank you so much, Ariel. I'm El Niz. You know, I have a luchador persona. No, no. La Naree is that mean big nose?

The living nose. I have a very big nose, so I'm El Niz Grande. Ben, you say it. That's my guy. I'm fine with that. I'm okay. I'm the greatest Canadian luchador of all time. La Veta.

Have you been watching? By the way, did we lose them? We were vibing. Every time we're viving, Frank, I get excited. And then... By the way, shout out to Brandon. He's got a budding YouTube channel, and he's got a new show on the YouTube channel

called Un Café Conmigo. And I believe he has coffee with very famous people. There you see, Steve Ayoki, Alexa Grasso, Chirovera. What does Conmigo mean? That means, like, with a friend? With me. With me. It's like, have a coffee with me.

Or a coffee with me, technically. Wow. I love that. It's a great idea. I wonder what his coffee order is. Is Mexican coffee popular? I've heard of a Mexican hot chocolate. So good.

So good. Spicy. A little spicy. Spicy, lots of cinnamon? Yes. Mexican coffee, is that a thing? I don't know if they're as known. I know there's other parts of South America, Brazil, Costa Rica.

Columbia? Colombia? Venezuela? Not really. Not as much as the others, no. But I'm curious. about his thing. And I saw the production and the numbers. I know he's doing a lot of big things on kick as well. Everyone's on kick these days. Should we get on kick? Is that what the cool kids are

doing? It feels like every single day I'm seeing all kinds of kick stuff. Here he is. What is it? Fiesta de corte de Pesso. Is it maybe the way cut? Wakeup party? Wakeup party, yeah. Hey. Da-na-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-na. Look at this. All kinds of kick content these days with the UFC fighters. Kick really making a present. What was that? Ring of Fire is what they play at the Wake Up Party. I don't know.

It feels like a thing, right? I don't know. Johnny Cash. Not very. It felt like very mariachi-esque that rendition of it. Moikano too has a very popular YouTube channel and all kinds of social media that he's doing. So did we lose Brandon? They'll tell me we lost Brandon.

We got him back. Okay, we got him back. Frank's figuring out. Oh, we have a question here. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes. Okay, Brandon, hey, how are you? You hear me?

Man, I'm so sorry. I never imagined the reception here will be that time. No, no, don't worry. Where is this? Is this your manager's office or something? Is this an important place? Yeah, it's an important place. Okay.

Let me ask you, Lucha Libre. Do you like AAA? Do you watch AAA? Yeah, man, like two years ago, I was part of an important card. of... Oh, that's right, yes. Yes, yes.

You remember. I remember, yes. But have you been watching it recently? El Grande Americano. Do you know this guy? No, I don't know. You're not watching it? No.

You know, it's all part of the TKO. You have to watch this. They own it now. That's true. That's true. I will. I'll do my homework. They have a German guy playing a luchador in Mexico, and the fans love him.

And they call him El Grande Americano, and he's like a huge superstar. Okay. Go check it out. I don't follow too much a Lucha Libre right now, but I'm going to check it. I promise. He sings, Ah, yeah, yeah, y, nah, nah, y, you know that song? I know the song for sure.

Okay. I don't know the Grande American. We were just talking about Café Conmigo, your YouTube show. Oh, yes. I like it. I like it a lot. Thank you. So, man, like, normally out of, out of camp, I'm just trying to distract myself, brother.

So I start doing a streaming. I have a channel on kick. Yes. And I did that streaming all my five week. Then I start my podcast, A Café Conmigo. I will have like a season. The first season had 10 episodes. Then I do streaming playing video games.

I just like to do different things to distract myself. What kind of coffee do you like? What's your coffee order? I drink Americano. Okay, so just water and coffee. That's it, black. Black Americano. But I know how to make latehs, Americanos.

I can do a cappuccino for sure. Sure. Spes, double espresso, espresso macheteo. I know how to do some things. But you love coffee? I love coffee in general. You know, actually I took like a little, how you say, English like cruise of

A barista. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't have the title, but I just finished all the the theoretical part. You think one day you'll own a coffee shop? Maybe, man, you know, like, maybe when I'm retired, like, I can open a coffee, a coffee shop, but it's a really

competitive market, you know, like you can find a good coffee everywhere. For example, in my city, in Tijuana, some neighbors have like a coffee shop every corner and it's crazy and you can find a really good coffee there. Is coffee popular in Mexico? Super popular.

Okay. And actually a coffee from Mexico, especially from Chappas, from Veracruz, from Puebla, super good coffee. Okay, okay, I'd love to try. We had a fan yesterday that asked us this question. His name is Toronto, Mike. He said, Brandon Moreno is my favorite fighter. Can you please ask him about his walkout song?

It's written for him. It's like a ballad they make for. for cartel bosses. What can you tell us about this song? Damn, no, it's not for

cartel bosses. It's my song. Come on. Why do you think that? So, with call it, maybe you hear about this, but we call it Corridus.

Okay. And that kind of music is starting to be very popular because a lot of singers start to do corridos for cartel bosses. But, I mean,

it's about who, you are singing, right? So my song is about me, my career, and everything I've been doing in the sport is not about a cartel boss. Okay, okay, but it was made for you. Yeah, 100%.

The group is not exist anymore, but the singer, Ariel Macias, he, and the song and he writes the letter for me. His name is Ariel del Bebesseino. His name is Ariel?

Yes. With my amo. same like you unbelievable yeah yes Brandon can ask you're going to L.A.

you said maybe Van Pantoja who do you like oh man a lot of people ask me that question like first of all

I love the fight I think it's going to be a super good fight um Pantoja Pantaja he was a champion for a reason but I don't know

man I have this feeling where I think Joshua is going to win obviously you never know, maybe Pantoja finds the way to win. I mean, he always finds the way to get out of trouble

and finds the way to get the victory. He gets the takedown and control and everything. So I don't know. You never know with those kind of fights, but I have this feeling where Joshua's winning. Some of the fans think Joshua Van is like a little cocky. What do you think of him?

Maybe, but I understand he's young and he's enjoying life, you know? He's been doing a lot of good things. in a short period of time. So I understand. He's a good character, right? He's fun. Yeah, he's fun to watch and everything.

I mean, he's cool. You want to come back in December? Man, yes. So I talked with the UFC. I talked with Hunter that night. And I talked with Mick, actually yesterday. And I mean, the plan to me is to push for December. Hopefully they give me the opportunity to do it.

If it was up to you, who are you fighting in December? I don't know, man. I mean, I would love to fight against someone in the top 10 at least. But, I mean, I don't care. I just want to be active. I just have this necessity right now to just fight, you know, and make good fights for the people. And if this is against a ranking opponent, it's perfect.

If not, I don't care. A lot of people was saying maybe Horiguchi, I hear Charles Johnson call my name. I mean, I don't care. I was just going to say Horaguchi. That would be a very fun fight. That would be nice. I asked for him before, but I think he was busy.

I don't know, but let's see. Let's see what happened. Okay. And last thing, what's the latest Lego that you're working on? Tell us, what are you working on these days? Oh, man, I did that. So before to go to Glendell, I built a little Lego set. It was an arcade machine.

you know, the old ones? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like 1,000 pieces. It looks super nice in my office. But yeah, it's the last one. Okay, next one. What's next? I don't know, man.

I have a Pikachu. Actually, my accountant gave me a Pikachu set. That one is huge, so I need it sometimes to build it. So I think it's going to be the next one. And my daughters start to get in love with a Lego set. So I think it's going to be a nice activity to do together. Yes, you passed on the love of Lego to your daughters. That's amazing.

I love that. Congratulations, Brandon. Always a pleasure to speak to you. Very happy for you. Thanks for coming on. Enjoy Fat Week and looking forward to the next one. Love it, brother. Thank you so much.

Han. I'm missing day, right? Same to you. You're the man. There he is, the assassin baby. Brandon Moreno. Would you say, Andy, would it be Semana Gordo? That's the literal translation, I would say, yeah.

That's, so I'm right. Semana Gorda. Well, Gorda is for you. Gorda is for you. Gordo is for him. No, Semana is is, is a feminine. Yeah, it's a feminine. But so it's not the person who's saying it.

It's more about the actual noun. In this case, yeah. Okay, that's very French. La Semana. La Semana Gorda. Yeah. And did you like when I threw out con my amo? Como

But I smiled I was like yay You knew what I was saying I did and he did too That's all that matters He did too It's that duolipe You know what I'm saying

I was gonna say I'm proud But It's that duolipe You know what I'm talking about All right well Great to hear from Brandon Moreno He is the man Such a great

Such a great spirit He always has this beautiful Joad de Vive As they say in the business And I always enjoy talking to him, very happy for him, had that two-fight losing streak, now back on track, big win over Joseph Morales, solid fighter, and it's a fascinating time. I won 25. Some people like to think this is the greatest time ever for the flyweight division.

And of course, you know, Van Pantosha, tremendous. What's better than that? The rematch, Joshua Van, as cocky as can be, love it. The dynamic between them, tremendous, very fun. The press conference, very fun as well. Can't wait for that. fight. That's the main event for UFC 331. And tomorrow, Mr. Chal's son and will join me on the program to help preview UFC 331, so I am looking forward to that very much. Hina Tamaicano was supposed to fight at UFC 331 this weekend, September 19th, Crypto.com Arena, but that fight isn't happening. His fight against Brian Ortega canceled because Brian suffered a cut. We showed it you earlier, pretty gruesome. It's bleeding. It's gnarly. It's a huge gash. So now Moikana is going

to fight Tom Nolan on October 31st. October 31st, a tough, tough date if you're in combat sports. We talked about this with Canello last week. It's just, I feel like a lot of people are out and about. It's Halloween parties and whatnot. You guys still go to Halloween parties? Yeah, all the time? Yeah? No doubt. With your kids or like for yourself? Leave them at home. Leave them at home. They can go trick-or-treat by the themselves. I'm going to the party. For real? No, of course not. I'm taking my kids trick-or-treating. G.C. for sure goes to Halloween parties.

If I'm invited to one, yeah. What do you mean? This year, Saturday. A big one. That is a big one. Last year was pretty good, too. I remember it was a Friday, Game 6 of the World Series. Yeah. First time... Last year, first time I never, I didn't go trick-or-treating with my kids. Shit, we got to work on our costs. I officially kicked out.

Yeah. I forgot about that. So you are invited to a party? We'll see. I was told Halloween, like, in your early 30s, late 20s, best night. Greatest night, I never experienced it. I was more of a, like, you know what, let everyone else have their fun. Halloween in college, crazy?

Yeah, fantastic. The greatest ever? Better than now. Look at the smile on GZ's face as the memories are just coming back. Better than it is now. But that's why I'm saying why late 20s, early 30s as opposed to, like, college age or? I don't know. I feel like you're a little bit smarter.

And no choices are... That's what makes it worse. That's what makes it worse. And also, you have more responsibilities. When you're in college, you could just... I'm saying pre-kids. Pre-kids. I'm...

Yeah, I know. 20-something years old where you've got no responsibilities and you don't even care if you're going to class and all this shit. Like, that's the time. Yeah. Those parties are incredible, I bet.

I don't think I've ever been to a good Halloween party. It's a shame, man. I mean, I've been to, like, fun ones with my kids, but I've never been to, like, an adult Halloween party. Yeah. Oh, okay. You don't value time with your kids.

I got to... Yeah, I guess I just wasn't about that life, you know? Yeah, you know, you're either about it or you're not. Yeah. I guess it appears you're not. No, no. I mean, love Halloween, love taking the kids. Well, sometimes get.

Just not as much as, you know, if you didn't happen. I'm just not one of these people who, like, I don't know. I don't know if I have it in me. I don't know if I could pull it off. What's the last costume you wore? That's great for it. Probably on that ease. No, that doesn't count.

Why? Putting on a lucha mask is not a costume. It's one of the best costumes you could possibly have. I have. Not like a real costume. You're not wearing the spandex. You're not actually dressing as a luchador. What is?

2005, I dressed up as Allie G. I'm pretty sure I've shown you guys this photo. Pretty damn good one too. I mean, the movie's coming back out. It's time. It's timely. You're right. It's time.

You guys remember it. It was pretty good. It was very good. I had the du rag. I had the beard. Was the goate yours or was the goatee put on? I didn't have this thickness. I wasn't fully formed you.

Got it. Is that what they call that? thickness. I mean, triple C. You know what I mean? Gentlemen, we do have a lot to talk about. Hanata Mokano is going to join us. Quick thoughts, Mr. Rick, on last night's key MMA event, which you sort of dipped out on. Little Irish Goodbye S. Never said goodbye. Roll in with me. Usually you roll in with someone, you roll out with someone. First of all, that is not true even a little bit. Like, people are on different timelines. Second of all, I mean, you were shaking so many hands and kissing so many babies. There was no way we were going to have a conversation before I had to leave.

Like, it just wasn't going to happen. Okay. As far as the event itself, some fascinating characters there, for sure. But I thought it felt, it felt not as MMA as I thought it was going to feel. Is that fair to say? Like, it felt more like a business type thing, right? Like, there was obviously the stage where they had the announcement. But there were many, like, people in suits, well-dressed, you know, hors durs, like a cocktail-type thing.

It was very high-level execution and professional. And then you obviously see, like, the luminaries walking around, whether it be legends of the game, like Fador, Cyborg, Nate Diaz. I mean, we're looking at some of them here. Shamrock's there. Coleman's there. Rich Franklin. Bert Watson. You know, all those players.

Rich Franklin? Is that Rich Franklin? That is Rich, yeah. Wow, I didn't see him. Randy. But then you also had guys like Tony Hawk, which made it like kind of insane, the fact that Tony Hawk was in the building and could kind of like be within arms reach of you. So fascinating thing.

And cool to see the logo, cool to see the ring. I was actually saying to the key MMA people that were here, the branding looks very pro. The branding on the website, the assets, the explanation of assets that they've had, like the videos and the images, feel very like high level marketing as opposed

to like what I would expect from the combat sports space. So I think they did a good job with it. I agree. I feel a lot of positivity. And of course, they're not going to come in here being like, ho-hum, we're going to screw up. This is the honeymoon period.

I just, I feel a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of possibility, a lot of excitement, positivity. I've said my piece on the tournament. I still feel like it's the backbone, but they say it's only going to be 30%. A lot of focus is being put on it. Who are these other fights, fighters, free agents that they're going to sign? Let's see. The distribution deal is the biggest part, right? I mean, interestingly, Coker said we're going with or without it. Very interesting. I thought you'd have to have it in order to to kick off. But thank, like, thank our, the MMA gods that we have something to talk about. You know, boxing is just dripping with this promotion, that promotion, this promoter, that promoter,

this guy's going to sign here, he's going to sign with the network. Like, we have all these possibilities in boxing. MMA has none of that, or I should say had none of that. MVP, PFL, been pretty quiet. I would imagine they're working on their future plans. But I feel like for the first time in a very long time we have something interesting to talk about when it comes to the business side of MMA and I love the business side of MMA and I welcome this type of discussion. I was looking for my I like the glove. I like the yellow and the blue, the backstory key. It's fun. This is all very fun. All right, some news and notes. Who had an Islam Machachav John Jones feud on their bingo card? Not I, but I'm here for it. I like it.

Samma Chachev said this on John Jones's winning streak, his UFC record. I'm not denying that John Jones is one of the greatest athletes in history, but he was caught doping twice. He went into a fight while on PEDs and won. That's where a new count should have started. Interesting. John Jones saw this and responded. Let's start this week by dispelling rumors that have been spread by people chasing me. If you believe you Sada for finding a picogram in my system, then you must believe you Sada when they say it was not found to be performance enhancing or intentional. You can't have it both ways.

Last I checked, my hand got raised every time I was in the octagon since any of you can remember. Your own coach said I was a gift from God. Let's not forget you've been caoed, flatlined, went night night. He's talking about Islam. DC, I kicked you in the head, L.O.L. Keep telling yourself it was steroids. Whatever you need to tell yourself to sleep better at night, go for it. Keep chasing. It's the only at the top.

Islam, hopefully I'll see you up here one day. And so what's interesting about that is, John Jones was caught, and they did the picogram thing, and they did the salt in the Olympic-sized pool thing, and then later, you know, the suspension was reduced because Yusada got involved, and this has been so long now.

And the wording did seem to suggest that it wasn't intentional. And now, ultimately, like, how do you know? How can you ultimately prove that? There was also the whole, like, remember the whole dick pills and the gas station thing that came up, which was a little bit weird while you're a high-level athlete taking that when you know that your stuff is being monitored. So if you want, you know how I feel about this. If you got caught, you got caught. And I believe that there should be two lists.

I believe that there should be a list of, you know, fighters who, you know, the greatest of all time who got caught. And then I believe that there should be a list of everyone else. Meaning you want to have a list that includes everyone, great. You want to have a list that excludes anyone who ever got caught. I'm cool with that too. It's really up to you. I do want to look something up here real quick.

Just one second. Yeah, this is from an article law and sport. I was trying to bring myself up to speed. 2016, Issa Machachev had an out-a competition test, which found a very small amount of meldonium in his system. Usada ended up clearing Machachiev of any wrongdoing and assigned no fault whatsoever. He took the substance legally in 2014.

to treat a heart condition before anti-doping authorities banned it January 1st, 2016. You can read the official details here. Jeff Novitsky said the 2016 incident was a mistake by the anti-doping authority. Mahachev has since passed over 50 clean tests. So I remember this coming up, but had to remind myself of the details, this about 10 years ago. Anyway, back to this little fun drama, if you will. Islam then replied with this tweet, John, comma, I'm not trying to diminish your achievements in any way, but your whole life seems to be tied to breaking the rules one way or the other,

and somehow you're never the one to be blamed. Now, over under that being Islam who wrote the tweet. Over. Over what? I don't think Islam wrote that. No, no, it is a weird one, is it not? What do you mean? I don't know.

I thought it was a good line. I just, I don't think it was him. One of Islam's manager, managers, Rizvan Magamatov, this is the manager who's allowed to leave the country and come back. So just in case you were wondering, he quote tweeted John's tweet and wrote one of the greatest to ever do it, but such an insecure person. So we've got a bit of a Islam, team Habib, dominance versus John Jones feud that I didn't see coming. Seems kind of random, no? This kind of popped up when Habib was on the way out too. When Habib was on the way out and he finally was number one pound for pound and the calls for Habib to be in the goat conversation popped up.

I remember John did like the Instagram video and he's wearing the goat chain and he's making the noise and all this stuff. Like John takes it personally when people are entered into this conversation. Oh yeah. He hated me. He hated me because I was on, he got really mad at me when I was on, what was that called? The Daily. Do you remember that podcast, The Daily? ESPN?

Yes. Yeah. And actually, Pablo Tori was the host of the time. And we talked about, this was in the early days of the pandemic and he had gone in trouble of something. And we talked about his history. And I said like, oh, you know, there's this thing, that name. He's one of the greatest of all time.

But there are some infractions. Never forgave me. Never forgave me. You guys were good. I saw you guys at the event. You dapped up. It's all good. We did dapp up, and he did say that I'm a hater, but...

But it's all good. But we're all good. We're all good. So what happens here? Do they wrestle R.A.F? John versus Islam? Chechnya wrestling event. What happens?

Nothing happens. Who's right? John, always. When John says he's the goat, he's always right. There's no conversation to be at. There's no PD list. non-p-ed-less. You're welcome to have a non-PED and a P.

You don't have this. But there's only one goat. And it's John Jones. Do you agree? I don't know. John Jones's career is unbelievable, but yeah, Pico-Grams, swimming pools. They're both great fighters, man.

They're both great fighters. All right. Yeah. I don't. Should Mark McGuire be in the Hall of Fame? Yes. Barry Bonds. Yes.

Roger Cummins. Yep. Pete Rose. John Jones to goat. Pete had a different story. but yeah, Pete should have been there. Pete has a better case than all. It's crazy.

I mean, in this day and age, it is insane that Pete is still not in there. He'd be doing promos at this point. Oh, my God, it is crazy. May he rest in peace. John Jones active these days on social media. Here he is weighing in on Tom Aspinall's unfortunate news.

We talked about this yesterday, the vacating of the title. The Honest Jones fan tweets, This confirms that Tom's injury wasn't that big of a deal and the UFC was confident that he could defend his belt in due course. Aspinol, however, however, knows he can't beat through a gun, so took the easy way out.

It means just absurd. And John quote tweets with my sentiments exactly. Do you really believe that, like, one of the baddest human beings on the planet, in any way class, heavyweight to fly weight, is afraid? Like I just, I have a hard time believing that any fighter who dedicates their life

to fighting in a cage against another human being with four-ounce gloves, no shoes, tights, and a cup, that's it. Is ever afraid of anyone? Is ever afraid, like, is ever trying, and especially you get to the very top of the food chain, the top of the game, and you say to yourself, you know what, I'm going to sit on the sidelines for a year and a half, I'm going to have surgery on one eye once, the other eye twice, maybe a third, and I'm not going to get any money for about a year, and by the time I come back of maybe a year and a half, two years, all because I'm so worried about fighting this other guy.

Already signed the contract to fight him, entered the Octagon to fight him. And you think that those four minutes now has Tom Aspinall so scared that he's vacating his heavyweight title and running away from Cyril Ghan. It's absurd. It's absolutely absurd.

You might as well retire at that point. If Cyril Gahn is this unbeatable figure, Do you know how many guys? We already have Ilya who got beat to a pulp by Justin Gaichi, and he's just like, let me back at him. Let me get back in the octagon with him. You think those four minutes from Tom Aspinall altered his whole brain chemistry, and he's like, I can't fight him.

I can't do it. I got to vacate the title. Fighters are so unique, they will break their leg in a fight and say, like, put me back in there in six months. They'll break their jaw, like in the most gruesome way and say, like, yeah, I'll be back in like, I don't know. Eight months?

I want to do this again. You and I, we break our jaw, we break our leg, we break our ankle, we say we're not doing this again. Most of the time. Yeah, one of the ones that stood with me recently was when we had Hafeo dosanjosan. And he was talking about like when he thought it might have been over and it was after he had his jaw broken. Meanwhile, you fast forward, he's got 20 more fights after that. Like they're just different. They are just completely different from the average person.

I don't believe that any fighter is afraid of another fighter. It's absurd. It's athletics. It's not a street fight. I don't think any of them are afraid of anything. John retweeted this pertaining to Tom Aspinall. Someone tweeted fact John Jones has won a fight more recently than Tom Aspinall and he just retweet. So I don't know if, like, at this point I feel like Tom lives in John's head rather than John living in Tom's head.

Who are these accounts he's retweeted? I know it is sobervaded John Jones. What does that even mean? Sobervaded Connor. Oh, that was sobervated Connor? Where's even finding this, though? Is someone sending it to him? Is he searching himself?

We're still going with Johnny Meat as the name. That feels very like 2000. Where did that come from? Where did that's like originally? He just randomly changed his name to Johnny Meet. So weird. Everybody has in John Jones's head. He does have a chip on his shoulder and he takes all these slights as a

an offense. He is a maniacal competitor. He is Michael Jordan. If you even mention him or think about him in any way, shape, or form, he's going to let you know that you shouldn't be and that he's the goat. And it's part of the charm of the John Jones experience. Like, I don't know. I'm, I'm okay with it, but yeah, maybe just let it go with Tom. Like, Tom didn't do anything. It's a weird one because I honestly don't remember Tom ever truly being disrespectful towards. Tom respects, John. Yeah. Okay.

Speaking of fun social media tweets and whatnot, yesterday you may recall Ryan Garcia was quite fired up when talking about Terrence Crawford and other people. Well, those clips went all over the place. Terrence clearly saw them and then he weighed in. Here we go. Ryan Garcia, you're one funny guy, I tell you. You're really a movie character. That's why I'm entertaining you.

You have absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing to be jealous of, kid. It seems like you're the jealous one. Mad because I retired my way. It's okay. Just take note and you'll be okay. That second line tripped me up because it seems like he's saying like you have nothing to be jealous of, but I think he means like I have nothing to be jealous of. Definitely.

Yes. Anyway, he continued. It's okay, Ryan Garcia. I'm going to let you live because you got way too many people to work. about other than me, boy. Devin Haney, Kishon Davis, Chaucor Stevenson, Richardson Hitchens, Tifima Lopez, them guys who you need to worry about, not me. I know you want that check, though, winking emoji. He continues. I remember when I was younger, I felt as if I had to prove everyone wrong all the time. I've learned along the way that's never possible. There's just people in the

world, no matter what you do or who you beat, that never going to give you credit, and I'm fine with that now. He continues. I be loving the people that say I'm a nobody and haven't fought anyone, this and that, but everywhere I go, they there. Y'all really my biggest fans and really just want to see me come back so y'all can witness greatness again, that's all. I mean, yeah, I think we do want to see him again, because he is one of the greatest of all the time, and it did feel like he retired a little prematurely. It felt like Terence Crawford was the guy. who scratched and clawed his way to the top, who fought for recognition, for respect, notoriety,

and got it in that fight. Really, the Spence fight was the first one where it felt like he truly, truly got it. You had some other ones. The Madrema fight was fine. It didn't feel like that big of a deal, but it was, you know, for, I think it was for 154 and it was in a stadium and all that.

But Spence, big deal. Canelo, Netflix, Allegiance Stadium, gigantic deal. And then he went away. And remember that performance was incredible. That, like, he clowned Canello. It was as good of a performance as you can ever get on such a big stage. Out 168! This guy's a 47-pounder.

Cup of coffee at 54. And so, yes, we do want to see him back. And I maintain Garcia-Crawford the biggest fight that can be made in America right now. Am I missing one? Like, that's bigger than Garcia-Haney. that's bigger than Shakur Gaintaini That's bigger than...

Are we talking like... Literally, period. I can't think of a bigger one. I think Jake would have to be one half of any biggest fight conversation. I don't know who the opponent is, but yeah. It takes two to tango. Yeah, I still think.

So if it's Jake and Tommy Fury. Jake and Tommy Fury. No. Okay, so it takes two to tango. Jake. Not any Jake. Jake and Terrence. Man, it wouldn't even be a pro fight.

Not that anyone really cares about that. He was about to fight. I know. I don't know how good that would have done, to be honest. I agree, but it's, Jake is half of the equation. Tank Jake? I think that would have done well. You think tank Jake does better than Garcia Crawford? Probably. Jake's appeal is different.

It's going to be interesting to see what Jake does upon returning. Yeah. I mean, Jake Joshua, right? That's bigger. Big, but he got knocked out. So we finally, like for the fans that were dying to see that thing. No, no, I'm not talking about forward. I'm saying that is a bigger. No, but I know, but I'm just saying now in the future, does he still have that drawing power?

Yeah, of course. You think so? For sure. Wow. There wasn't some aura around him of this, like, invincibility. Like, he lost to Tommy Fury already. I've sat here for the last few years saying losses do not matter with Jake Paul. It has no effect.

Also, like, this was a fight he was supposed to lose. Let's eliminate Jake Paul. Sure. These are, this is one of the biggest fights that you can make. I know. I'm cool with keeping him. Am I missing one, though? Like is Tank Ryan's too.

Tank Ryan is pretty good. Bigger than Crawford? No. I think Crawford and Ryan would be bigger. Boots Crawford, not bigger. No. Chacore. No.

Chacore's not bigger than Ryan. What does bigger business in America? Garcia Crawford or A.J. Fury. Garcia Crawford, I bet. Yeah, I think it's close. I actually think it's pretty close. AJ, with the fame that he. garnered from the Jake Paul fight against Tyson

Fury who's one of the most well-known boxers here in the States, heavyweight clash. People don't really care about the belts being on the line. It'll do very good numbers. One other thing to remember, though, is like Tank was the A side of Tank versus Ryan. Now, I think Ryan has done a lot in the time since that fight happened to elevate himself even more.

But, man, people love Tank Davis. Like, people come out to support Tank Davis. He is one of the, like, few boxing commodities that you know that people will come out for. People show up for him. Garcia now is more famous than Tank was when they thought. I agree. I think Ryan has done good work in the time since that first fight happened.

But if you combine those two, it would be a massive fight. He's in a good position. Yeah, it's gigantic. I would love to see that. And then add to it like there's no love lost, right? They'll sell the crap out of it. That would be incredible. God, I would love that.

By the way, speaking of boxing, we did get some news regarding Henry Sohudo's misfits debut. Did you guys know that Henry Sohudo was going to be competing in a boxing match under the misfits banner against Dean the Great? Well, Dean the Great is out. And in enters Juvena Walton, Javon Wana Walton, who historically has fought under the MVP umbrella. He's stepping in. This is someone that a lot of people were very excited about when he crossed over to the pro. ranks, you may recall. He has appeared in the series Euphoria. Any Euphoria fans out there? I watched it. Do you remember Wanda Walton in it? Yeah, of course.

He was just like a kid. A kid, yeah. It's crazy. Yeah, so he is a great boxer and has slowly but surely built his career up under MVP. And so he's fighting for misfits, but he's still an MVP guy because I saw that they were, you know, talking about it. Here's Nikisa saying most valuable promotions will never stand in the way when we are presented with. the meaningful opportunity for athletes, even when we have no involvement in the event. Misfits offered us a significant financial guarantee for Wanda to step in on short notice against a Henry Suhudo, an Olympic gold medalist, and two-division UFC champ, Wanna Wanted to do it?

So the answer was absolutely. How about that? You would never, ever see that in the sport of MMA, but here we are. One of the many reasons why it's a lot of fun to follow boxing these days. All right, that is coming up next weekend, I do believe. this weekend is UFC 331, and one of the more anticipated fights on the card was Hanato Moikano against Brian Ortega at 155 pounds. Unfortunately, though, we found out yesterday, fight is off, Ortega suffered a cut.

He is out. Moikano now fighting October 31st, Halloween night against Tom Nolan, had to get him on to talk about all this, and so he is kind enough to join us right here now to do so. Hello, Hanato. How are you, my friend? Very good. How about you, Ariel? And, Atto, you know, I have to say I was a little nervous to reach out to you because you have become such a big star on YouTube and social media.

I thought maybe you'd say, you know what, Ariel, it's been fun, but I don't need you anymore. So thank you for being here. No, I could say that. But look, right now I'm live with 8,000 people watching because we are doing the stream of the Supreme Court judgment. One judge was indicted today to a corruption crime. So maybe he's going to get, they're going to open a case against. So if you can see, but I cannot say no to you. But if you look at, I'm online in Portuguese.

I have 8,000 people over here watching over there. Look at that. That's amazing. Okay, so are they listening to us right now? No, because I'm muted and I put a guy, like I have an editor that is talking to everybody. I'm going to do the stream with you and then I get back to my YouTube channel. But if you see right now, I have over 8,000 people watching this. This is a big deal for Brazil.

But if I say no to you, let me. Later, you would say, hey, Moikano, what's up? You don't like me anymore. So this is what it is. You're the man. Thank you, Henato. And I won't keep you too long. By the way, can you tell me a brief history on this story?

What is the story? What's going on in Brazil? I'd love to hear it. I mean, the Supreme Court judge, they got him in messages with a shady banker, you know? So there is a lot of allegedly could be cases of corruption in the Supreme Court. So today, he's a story. peers are judging if they're going to indict him or not. So it's a big deal, especially because next month we have election and we are super, I don't know how to say the word, but we have

right and left and they are fighting really heavy to get to the office. So this is a big deal for today in Brazil. This is the first time that Supreme Court judge could face being like, how do I say, when they like fight it. That is an awarding in... They could be what, impeached? Like he can be kicked out? Yes, impeached. Wow, wow, wow.

So, Henato, now you're doing political stuff too on your channel? I do what I can to get views. People like to watch that shit, so I do my best to talk shit about politics. You enjoy it? No, I like it. I like, but I like money more. You know, if people like, I will talk. Is it more about this type of stuff than MMA on the channel now?

No, no. I do MMA streams. I do very good. I'm doing very well on the MMA. Probably next Saturday will be my biggest live stream. If you go to my YouTube channel, my biggest live stream was UFC 300. I got over a million

views. A million views. I got like 6,000 people live all the time. The peak at 60,000. And I got like 40K like constant. What was the biggest dream? But I think this UFC 3-3-1

would be huge. Okay, so when did you find out about Brian Ortega's injury? Friday. Friday, okay, and what did they say? Did they say that they were going to try to keep you on the card? They were, like, Hunter called me and he said,

Hey, Ortega is out. What do you? And I say, let me think about it. And I thought, and I said, okay, maybe I can be on the card, but maybe I'm going to have to face somebody that doesn't have a name, somebody, because nobody with a name and that was favorable, going to get the fight in a week's notice, you know what I mean? So I call haunted and I say, hey,

I don't really fight anybody else on Saturday. Let's try to find somebody on UFC 333, and I think that would be nice. And then he said, Tom Nolan. And I say, okay, let's go Tonne Hollande, UFC, October 31, let's go. Okay, so had you left to Los Angeles yet? No, no, I'm home, I'm home. Okay, I saw a video, and you were speaking in Portuguese, so I didn't understand. But it seemed like you were upset about Brian Ortega's injury. Is that accurate?

Yes, 100%. Brian Othega, he's not in a good place mentally, and I think that would be a easy fight, to be honest. You know, easy paycheck, money on my fucking pockets. So that would be easy. would be harder, but it is what it is, you know? Why do you think that he isn't in a good place mentally? Because how the fuck you hurt yourself a week before the fight, you know? Maybe he's trying to push too hard.

This is just like somebody that didn't study too much for the test, and he wants to learn on the last day, you know what I mean? That's why I'm saying that. Do you think he looked for a way out? No, I'm not saying that. Okay. Maybe mentally, you know, I'm not saying he proposed, like, was looking for a way out, but I say, you want too hard to train. I want to sport like a week before.

I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think this is smart. But sometimes it happens. It happens to Charles, too, and people talk a lot of shit about this. Why do you think that he is weak mentally? Because 100%. I don't know if he is weak mentally, but I think right now he probably is. in a bad position.

Coming off four losses on the last five fights, two years without fighting, fighting in his hometown against a guy that he beat once, you know, I would not be walking on his shoes right now, you know what I mean? And just curious, for you, you're about to peek, you're about to leave, you're about to go to L.A. You just had a whole training camp.

Mentally, how difficult is this for you to get the plug pulled out? No, it's easy because, you know what, it's not what happens, it's what you do. You know, it doesn't matter. She's always going to hear at you and you have to know, you have to be ready to that because to think that everything is going to be perfect and you're going to make money and everything is going to play out just the way you want. That's naive, that's not good.

So I don't care. Whatever it happens, it happens. And I just have to look in a way to make it better. You know? And I think in the end of the day, I respect Nolan a lot, but I think I'm better than him. And I think I'm in a better spot right now. Main event again, Apex against a tough opponent, but I think I'm much better than him. Brian Ortega said in his statement, he's going to come back in November. You're fighting October 31st.

Why not just rebook the fight in November? To be honest, Hunter asked me that. Why don't you do the Ortega November? And do you want me to wait for a guy that twice got, how do you say that? Like, was not fighting? How do I say that? He withdrew two times. So my wife is pregnant.

I have a lot of stuff to do. I have an MA show in November. So I got everything, put everything aside, training for two or three more months, and then try to fight the same guy that withdrew two times. I don't think that's logical, you know. The first time is okay. The second time is no deal for me. I don't want anything to do with Ortega.

And if you are fighting, you're fighting your tag. Be ready to fight somebody else. So you never want to fight him. You're done with him. No. Maybe. I don't know. Maybe it's a short notice.

But right now I have just one focus. Tom Nolan. Tough guy. And by the way, congratulations. Number one, Papa. You've got another one joining. Boy or girl? Two more boys.

Two more boys. It's twins. Twins. Yeah. Parabance. Very happy. Thank you. Wait, how many now?

How many now? Now, with the twins will be four. Wow, wow, wow. A lot of fighting. A lot of fight. I will have to make a lot of money. How was your wife feeling? She's feeling great, you know?

This is the best thing about being a fighter. I have a lot of time to spend with my family and to spend their home, to see my kids growing. And to me, I don't want to sound like one of those douche bags that say, Yeah, money doesn't matter. I love money, but family is just more important, you know. I love money because I can be with my family. And if I was younger, and if my wife was younger, I would keep pushing. We'll keep having more kids because it's just me.

I don't have family over here in USA. And I want to build a large family, you know, to be just like in Brazil. When I went to my grandmother houses and everybody like my uncle was, everybody was over there, I want to do the same thing, but this time in America. And with my own family. scared about twins. Twins is tough, no? No, I think it's easy.

I think it's easy. It's going to be tough for my life, you know. I just have to make money and work. And your other kids are how old? One is six and the other one is one and a half. Oh my God. One and a half and then twins coming. God bless.

What's happening? Something happened? Did the guy get impeached? What happened? No, no, no. They are counting the vote. But don't worry. Don't worry.

I'm worried about you. because I don't want you to miss out on the big moment on your channel. No, I'm not missing anything. After that, I will be keeping making live streaming and talking. So it's always a pleasure to have your audience, to have your platform since the beginning. You're helping me a lot. And I know I'm missing on the English content and the commentary

because I'm just focused too much on the Portuguese channel, but I will get back because you make so much more money doing English content. But nowadays, my stuff is doing well in Portuguese. It seems like you're killing it. The shift to going Portuguese only has been brilliant. Yeah, yeah, I think so. Because in English, you have so much people, so much good guys doing content, you know. And in Portuguese, you don't have a lot of guys with the same personality.

Like, because most of them don't watch broadcast, don't watch, they don't like that shit. You know, I am a fucking nerd. I like that shit. I like to, to understand how algorithm works, how, who is doing well. So that way the YouTube works very well for me. I like that you wear a suit as well or at least a jacket. It's professional.

It's just a jacket. It's just to feel important, but it's nothing. How do you get the feed, by the way, in the courtroom? How do you get the video? Oh, they are streaming. All the sessions are streaming on YouTube by the they called Justice TV is a governmental TV, so they

they have to show that, you know, because it's a Supreme Court judgment. So, it's live and free on YouTube. Okay. And so just going back to 331, did they, to the best your knowledge, did they ask anyone to try to step in or did that not happen? Yeah, they asked, actually, they come, Hunter asking me, what do you want to do and say, I want to fight Nolan? You know, why I thought that?

Because he's, he's young, he's coming off five weeks. He called me asked, he called me. out less fight and I say, okay, that's a good guy, that's a guy that's young and that's a guy that needs and deserve a chance. Let's make against him and let's go. But I don't want to do on a week notice. Why? And to be honest, he was willing to fight this Saturday, you know? So props to him, he's a fucking savage.

I respect to him, but I'm going to beat the shit out of him on the fucking Halloween night. Okay, Tom Nolan, you'll be fucking ready, my brother. You'll be fucking ready. Do you think this is fucking easy money? I'm going to show that sometimes you ask for it's too much. It's fucking too much. I'm going to beat the shit out of you, okay? But he's a fucking man because he wants to fight on the next Saturday.

But you have to realize I'm fucking 37. I was training to fight Ortega a jiu-jitsu guy. No fucking takedowns. The guy is fucking done. Tonola is a tough challenge, so I have to prepare myself. Can you understand that? I'm not running off the fight. I just need a time to adjust because I'm old man.

And in 30 days, you'll be fucked, my friend. Can I ask, were you familiar with Tom Nolan before all of this? Or have you just learned about him now? No, I watch everybody. I watch all the, like, because you have to remember. I do this MMA content, so I watch every fight. I do live streams on every card. And I know he's very tough.

He just beat Farisian. Farisian was a hot prospect coming out of, I don't know how many wins, beating everybody. And Tom Nolan just. and just annulling him. So he's a good fighter. And I remember back in April, you're supposed to fight Chris Duncan at the apex.

You weren't very happy about being at the apex. Now you're back at the apex, but the apex has been renovated. So are you okay with it now because there's more seats, more fans? Yeah. Listen, I just talk shit about apex because people like it.

You don't know how it works, Ariel. You talk shit about UFC, everybody loves. If I talk shit about apex, everybody say he's right. But it doesn't fucking matter, you know. I just fight for money. It doesn't matter if it's a crowd, if it's small. I'm happy that they gave me the fight.

I'm happy that I'm fighting Tom Nola, a very good fighter, and a guy that's ranked and these meta rankings I like, once I beat him, I'm going to be, I'm going to address one or two spots, and that's good for me. But have you noticed the difference? Because I will be honest, I was one of the loudest critics of the apex, but now I don't mind it at all. the crowd, the buzz, the camera angles, they've done an incredible job.

They deserve a lot of credit for updating it. Have you noticed a difference? Yes, I have noticed the difference. I think it's much better. And I think eventually they're going to keep even growing more, you know, because they have the demand for that. And I think it's a easy way to do fights like that, to put people to fight. They have everything set up. So eventually they can go bigger and bigger.

and then we can have like a small arena. One day, I bet they will have a small arena and it's going to be easy to fill out. It's going to be easy to put these guys to fight. So I just talk shit about the apex because it makes people too mean, you know? No one got mad at you for saying that, right? No one told you, hey, Renato, don't do that.

Who knows? Don't ask me that. Uh-oh. You got your hand slapsed? Penato, you don't listen to anyone. I don't know, no, I don't know. You do your own thing. You're the man.

Yeah. You march to the beat of your own drum, I thought. Yeah, yeah. But to be honest, I am being honest. I talk shit of the apex because it makes view. If you ask me, do you prefer to fight on Apex on a number card? Of course I will be on a number card. But is the situation.

I was supposed to fight in 3 through 1. And now I am a main event in Apex. That's okay. It is what it is. Are you still the host of the Show Me the Money Pod? No, no. What happened? What happened?

One day, I called Gilbert Burns oil burial, and since then he doesn't... Wait, what'd you call him? What'd you call him? Oil barrel. I don't even know how to say that. Oil barrel? Why? Because he's big.

Yeah, he was fucking huge, brother. I think he was like 300 pounds. And I just look at this motherfucker. He's just like, he's just looking like a fucking oil barrel. Since then, since then, no good business. You got kicked out? No, no. I'm joking, Ariel.

Oh. I made this comment. But, you know, Gilbert Burns now is doing his stuff. Like, he's a very good manager. He's a friend of mine. He's a father. And Marty Betts is a fucking gambling addict. The motherfucker loves casino.

And I'm doing my thing, you know? So it's just too much to meet every weekend to do this. all the stuff going on. Okay, okay. You know what I mean? Okay, okay. By the way, yesterday I saw some people pushing back on you, Hennato, because you did bring up, like, Brian Ortega's past.

And was that too, like, was that necessary to bring up his past? Was that too much? What did I say? You know, his relationships and things like that. No, I was not talking about his relationships. I talked about he said. He said there he was in a bad, in a bad... What's happening?

What's happening? Did he get acquitted? What happened? Impeached? No, no, no. No, I got this track. He said, I don't want to bring that shit about it. Forget about that. I don't want to talk about that. No, I'm asking because I think you did reference it, so I didn't want...

Yeah, I did, but that was a mistake, you know? Okay, okay. So you regret it? Yeah, of course. Okay, okay. You were just fired up. I was mad. I was fucking mad because I thought it was a good fight. Okay. Who's the Calvo Master? Now, this is calvo means bald. So everybody calls me Calvo because I'm balding.

And this case that they were judging is about the master bank, you know? So that's why they come to Calvo master. Oh, because you're commenting on this. Yes. I feel like at some point very soon, Hinato, you're going to leave the MMA world. You're going to be such a big star for news and info. This is amazing what you've built. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. Maybe.

Okay, okay. I feel like things are happening here. I think I need to let you go, right? No, no, it's okay. It's okay. You can keep going. I don't want to bother you. I feel bad. No, you're not bothering me. You're not bothering me. Are you sure? Yeah. What about Mauricio, uh, Hufi and Armetsuruke? In your weight class, what do you think happens?

I think it's a fucking great fight. I think it's a huge fight. I think, uh, I think Maricio has more chances than everybody is giving him. You think he wins? Because yesterday Michael Chandler was on our show and he told us that he thinks that he wins as well. That Maricio. You know, I think, I think Amar should be the favorite. But I think Mauricio, like, if he connect the hands,

he's going to knock him on. What about your boy, Pantoja? You think he wins? I think Pantoja wins. I think he's a stud. He's a savage. Okay. And let me ask you, Aspinall.

What do you think of what happened with Tom Aspinall? I think he fucking sucks, you know? I think how much he should be. What? Yeah. Tom Aspinna? No, no. Fucking sex, what happened to him?

Okay, okay. I thought you said he. I'm sorry. Okay, okay, okay, okay. It fucking, okay, got you, got you. Go ahead, go ahead. I think he's, like, it's sad to see such a great guy, and I'm not a great guy because I don't know him, a great athlete, you know.

I think he's the best that the heavy rage can bring, you know? Good grappler, good striker, solid, every way, very good. only lost on UFC one time to blades and because of knee injury. So, I think sucks that because of an illegal blow, he maybe is retiring, you know?

Yeah. Are you going to do a live stream for UFC 332? Yes. Even for that one? I don't know. I have to check. I have to check my scam. But maybe. You know that one, right? That's the one. Yes. Everyone's upset about it.

The people shit. on the card. The card is not strong. It's not a great card. But you'll still do it. You'll still show up and do a live stream for it. Maybe. I have to see. First, I put a video, like a batting video, and then I see if the numbers are good. If it is, I will do it. Maybe not the whole card, maybe the name card. Okay, okay. Hanato, you're the man. Thank you for squeezing us in. I appreciate it. I appreciate you so much. And congratulations on all your success. I'm sorry this happened to you, but we'll see you on Halloween night. Thank you so much. Ariel, can you put my YouTube channel on the live stream?

Yes, of course. What do you mean? What do you mean? Okay. Now put my... We show it. I think we showed it, right guys? Didn't we show it? Put on the chat so everybody can go over there and give me hugs. Thank you so much, everybody. Everyone go to Hanato's stream and give him a thumbs up and say Halwani sent you, all right? Thank you so much, Halwani. I'm so sorry that I'm busy. No, you're the man. Thank you for doing this. We appreciate you. Bye-bye, bye, bye. There he is.

The great Hanato Moikano. I mean, the guy is a real entrepreneur. He's unbelievable. The guy's got, what? He's got over 12K people watching him talk about, Frank, what do you got? What is his trial that he's talking about? I actually don't know. Sounds scantilizing.

Scantilizing? Sintillating. That is amazing what he's built for himself. You look at his social media now. It's all in Portuguese. He really pivoted. You know, it's interesting. I was asking about the live stream for 332.

We're going to do one too, right? Like for 332? Do you guys think? What were you saying, man? That Moincano is great, isn't it? Love Hanato. He's such a good guy. You know, he could have told me, hey, Ariel, I'm busy.

He knew I was going to hit him with the You're So Famous, but he still showed up. He double streamed us. I went over to the stream during it, and it was the, the, the, the, the, Ryle was over his face and he was muted. You can see him? You just see like his arms and shit moving.

That's great, man. He's been streaming like the entire day. Since I got to work, he was streaming. Do you think these people that are watching him know that he's hit into Moikano M.M.A. Fighter or are just finding a stream? Yes, a thousand percent. It's crazy.

Good for him, man. All right, jents. A couple more things to do. Tomorrow's going to be a fun day. I'll tell you about that in a moment. But we just spoke about U.S. C3-3-1. So let's see what our good friends over at Calshare are saying regarding Joshua Van and Alex Pantosia, highly anticipated UFC flyway title fight rematch, sort of. First one never really

got going. But nevertheless, the youngster, Joshua Van at 56%. How do you guys feel about that? Fair? Fowl. I wonder what this would have looked at. Like we're only seen in the market all the way back to September 6. I wonder what this would have looked like in the aftermath of their first fight because I'm not sure that everybody was sold on Joshua Van then as far as in a matchup with Pantosia. But what he's been able to do since, I think people started to understand that like despite the awkwardness of how that first fight went, Josh Van is a bad motherfucker. Like he is, he is a bad boy.

And the market reflects that. I'm not surprised just based on how. how hot Josh Van is right now. Most anticipated flyweight title fight since I would say, is it possible? Sohudo T.J. What about one? There was some Figgie Moreno. There were some Ficky Marinos that people got excited about because the first one was so magical.

Maybe Figgie Moreno, too? Figueroon 2 might be the last time, but maybe this is more. I can't wait for this fight. I'm very. Actually, he was more than a two-to-one dog going into that fight back in December. I know dislocated elbow, didn't require surgery, immediately got back in the training room. He's incredibly motivated. This is a 50-50 fight, dude.

I can't wait for Josh Van Fight Week. Yeah. I love Josh Van right now. Presser is going to be incredible. He's very fun. He's so cocky. He knows his role, which is perfect. He knows what he's supposed to be in this fight.

He knows he's the young brash guy. be stupid if he comes in and is just like super respectful and what kind of he's the champ he needs to command that i love how he's been playing it and i love how pentosh has been playing it like i'm back for blood this this ain't this ain't all fun in games anymore i lost my belt i've seen the consequences of this i'm coming to kill you like i'm just loving the dynamic you know that might just be who josh fan is when we were at the m mhm a awards you know him and roy vall won the fight of the year and roe val was like i just want to say thanks to josh fan blah blah and he's just like yeah man Fuck Brandon Royval

Walked off Wasn't like Yeah, joking Bro, joking Like all jokes I wonder if in the back He did that Maybe but it was so good

When he walked off No, he's great Everything about him Is very fun There seems to be A movement right now There always seems to be like This doesn't always happen

But there's a fight Where everyone thinks One guy's gonna win And then as a fight Get closer People are like You know what I'm going with the other guy

And I feel like That's happening With Hoofi and Armin Interesting Chandler yesterday I know Moe Kahnel is going to back his fellow Brazilian Brazilian, Brasiliero.

Let me just say on Calci. It hasn't moved out. I don't know. I'm starting to feel like it's the like, you know, you know ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The people that really know, no. Yeah.

And you talked about this recently. In the lead up to the White House, there was a surprising number of people who were kind of like, but don't sleep on Justin Gingachie. And all of a sudden it happened. As someone who doesn't know ball, I think Armin is going to win.

After watching the people, BSD fight? I love Hoofie, but man, Armand's takedowns are nasty. He's such a beast. Have you seen how he looks? Dude, it is, if I ever looked like that, you would never see me with a shirt on. I used to have... This is fucking absurd. I mean, I used to have these pro wrestling toys, LJNs, they were called. Oh, shout out to the LJNs. And they used to have abs like that. Yeah. That's what the abs look like on the toys. He's got the Gambit comic book abs.

He's got the eight-pack. That is a legit eight-pack. great there. If I looked like that and could fight like he does, you wouldn't be able to say shit to me. I'm not listening to anything. And what is he? Not for nothing. Custom shorts as well. Custom shorts. Wait, those are custom? All right.

So it looks like black. Okay, they're super black, but they got the Armenian flag on the one side. Why, usually you don't get that? You don't get your flag? No, no, you can do whatever you want. Come on, dude. Wait a second. What a second? Choners are casual over here? No, there's no flags on the shorts. Wait, so.

standard shorts don't have the flags So every fighter's gonna ask for that Don't they all want the flag on there? Not because people want something different He's got the flag on it But then he's also got there's like Batman touches on it There's like a Batman And like the waist looks like the Batman belt buckle

I want to see these in a good light I want to see these in a giant bear Yeah what's the bottom He's officially he's officially the Batman Wait wait on UFC.com he has the Batman nickname now? Yeah, he, well, he said he dropped. He introduced it on our program. He said it to the world. Alchemats or whatever he was beforehand. Yeah, yeah. So, Buffer is going to call him that.

Yeah, and he said he's not the Armenian Batman. He's just the Batman. Wow. All right, shut up. I mean, it's kind of hard to see the details on that shorts. Josh Van also got some shorts. Let me see those. Kind of feels like copy paste. They just put the Myanmar flag. Dude. Oh, I see. I feel like everyone's going to ask for that now. Everyone's got the same shorts. Well, they're going to get denied, okay? Look, I gotta be honest, the Venom shorts are way better than the Reebok shorts ever were.

Right? They've come a very long way. Oh, yeah, so long. It's still whack as hell. Yeah, all right, okay. As long as you arrive there, then we're on the same page. It's all shit.

It's all shit. All right. No. The Pantosha's are pretty nice. The Reebok are legit terrible. Oh, like they're legit. You go back in time and look at, like, McGregor Diaz with the black and white shorts,

and it actually kind of ruins the fight. that Diaz is wearing those ugly-ass shorts. It is so bad. Also, Pantoja's shorts go so hard. Pantosia and... It's his tattoo on the shorts. Pantosia and Zhang have really good shorts, and that's about it.

It feels like the custom shorts, they're starting to get less, like, they're starting to put in less effort. You think so? You think there were... They just copy and pasted, the armin and the... Could be just a coincidence.

...in the van thing. It was just... By the way, speaking of Josh Fan, I saw him hitting Mitz. Look at this. Look at this. Floyd Mayweather-esque here. Look at this.

Oh, look at the aura. A little no look. That's not easy, by the way. Okay. It looks easy. It ain't easy. Love Josh fan. Best Boxer at 125.

Like, he's disgusting. How much is the Padman assisting him there? Two degrees. Okay, but the Padman's also not looking, which... Oh, Patman not looking. I didn't notice that. I didn't notice that, too. I didn't notice it.

You guys know ball or not? Do you guys fucking know ball or not? Pay attention. I was so focused on Josh. Oh, wow. Attention. Padman's got big to. Okay.

All right. All right. Respect to the Padman. They're helping each other. That's work right there. Big fight for Cheeto Vera. Yes, go ahead. I just want to say, we talked about Armin.

Man, some of those hoofy videos that are coming out from the move down, like he looks good, man. I'm very excited to see this new version. What do you mean the move down? He's training with Volk now. Oh, yeah, yeah. But he trained last one in the move down. Vogue too. Yeah, but now he's even longer the game.

I've seen him training with Israel at Asana. If he can keep it standing, it's going to get crazy. His striking is ridiculous. His striking is ridiculous. Those two fights are as good as anything we're probably going to see all year. I love both of these. Also, I want to give a shout-out to our good friends over at Engage. We love Engage.

They've always been cool to us. Hoofee, an engaged guy training with Vogue, represented by Ash, Bel Castro who rips the likes of Izzy and Alex Volcanovsky, whofie now, like I said, Carlos Oberg, et cetera, et cetera. Joshua Van? No, not Joshua Van. That video was from Engage. I know, I don't know why. Maybe they sponsor him,

but Joshua Van's an Oridium guy. In any event, they're going to be having an engaged Fight Week clubhouse, a three-day fan experience taking over Level 8 at Moxie downtown Los Angeles, September 17th to 19th. It's directly across the street from the crypto.com arena, home of UFC 331.

And there's going to be all kinds of stuff there. Athlete appearances, exclusive merch, giveaways, post-wayne celebration, food drinks, fight week, energy, all that stuff and more. They're going to have limited edition, official fighter supporter t-shirts

created for Joshua Van, Mauritio Hufi, Volk, zombie Jr., and Duhu Choy. Does it say? which fighters will be in attendance. It does not, but there's going to be all kinds of appearances and whatnot. So if you're in the area and you want to hang out, it's level 8 at Moxie downtown Los Angeles, September 17th to the 19th all day across the street from crypto first,

come first served, and subject to venue capacity. Wanted to give them a shout out. Big, big, big fight for Cheeto Vera against Charles Jordane. What are they saying? What are they saying? 65% for Jordane. Not surprised, right? Not surprised. No. Cito needs one.

Chito needs one right now. Yes. Massive. This is a fight that I think he is capable of getting one, right? Like, I don't think this is... This is a very fair opportunity for Cito Vera to get back in the wind column. Charles Dordane has been hit or miss. Now, lately, I think he's been looking much better than he has in the past. But this is an opportunity for Cito to get back on track.

And for Jardine, this is a huge name that he can add. Like this is one of the stalwarts of the division that he can kind of now continue to build upon. So I think this is a perfect kind of time to see where Cheeto stands and where Jordena is at. Absolute must win, I would imagine, for Tai Tuva. No, Tai Tuva. Also. Is it? How many can you lose in a row?

No, this is it. This is the one. That's what we said last time. I got to be honest. I don't know if it is. I think Cheeto needs a win more than Ty does, if I'm being honest. Ty is. Ty is Derek Lewis.

No, he is. He fucking won or lost. Isn't Derek Lewis. I don't. Derek Lewis never lost seven in a row. And it's also like, to be honest, like, when Derek loses, it's kind of entertaining, even when he Oh, yeah, you like the- When Ty loses sometimes these days, it's not been the best. It's been hard.

The Hokit loss and the Wal-O-Corps is he's not getting knocked out. I'm just saying recently, but in general when he loses. Not. Ty, Ty is good. Ties gold. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. It's seven. Would that be a record, by the way?

I think Alvi had eight, I believe. So he's going to tie it. I'm looking at it. He's going to tie it. Derek Lewis. Yeah, what the hell? Yeah, what the hell, man? You're on the despond bandwagon?

Is it the despond bandwagon for believing that he's probably going to win the fight? Bro, Ty's our boy. I love Ty. Yeah. Come on, man. Come on, bam, bam. Let's go, Babam. Derek Lewis never lost more than three in a row.

Okay, so Alvi went out on eight losses with a draw in the middle of it too. So he hadn't won. Nine fights. Nine fights. Wow. But eight in a row. Eight losses in a row, yeah. Would that be a record?

I mean, as I said. Because the draw in the middle breaks it up. If Sam Alvey gets eight and still gets another fight, then we're going to give my boy Ty another one no matter what. Yeah. Ty gets one more no matter what. All right. So it's not a most one. It's not must win.

What is this? Yeah, let's go. If he loses his again, that's eight in a row. Why are we like, yes. I like Ty. Why the hate? Dude, I love Ty. What do you mean?

Why the hate? I'm tired of watching him lose. I don't want to see him continue. I'm happy that they're giving him another chance. One of the good guys in the game. Let me ask you one thing, though. This is a genuine question. I actually think we talked about it before his last fight.

Couldn't he be better outside the UFC? Like, wouldn't it actually be beneficial to him? Think about Sam Alvi as a perfect example, right? When Sam Malvi got to karate combat, he became a champion in their promotion. It kind of added some new sheen to him. I wonder if Ty, like, leaving the UFC, could be beneficial, right? You go to BKFC, you go to karate combat, you find a new home. I mean, even think about Despon.

Despon kind of went out of the UFC not looking like the prospect that everybody thought he would be. He goes to MVP for a fight. He was in karate combat. And all of a sudden, there's a new coat of paint on it. I don't know. Maybe it's doing nobody any favors for Ty to be in the UFC at this point. On-air Jordan tells me Tony Ferguson lost eight straight. So, wait, so what is he at?

Seven, this was the eight. Yeah, okay, so he would be tying the record. He needs a dub. Or he pulls off the upset. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. What a story that would be, right? Hell yeah.

Against the guy that looks like to spawn, too, it would be unbelievable. Oh, my God. Like, the height difference is going to be massive. Never forget when he almost knocked out Serogun. That's when there was the ripple in the universe. We entered a different timeline. It's a fun card. It's a fun card.

We look at other things for Kalshi. Heavyweight title holder by the end of 2026. Obviously, the Tom Aspinall News big yesterday. They still haven't, by the way, officially announced that Surreal Guyne is either going to be the interim champion by the time he fights or has been upgraded. They haven't actually acknowledged this news whatsoever. Surreal 70%, Josh Hoke at 11%, Pereira 9, Aspinall 2%. I wonder why Aspinall 2?

What would be... Maybe that's just like high in the sky, yeah. But no comment. Oh, I wonder if we get it on Contender Series tonight. Dana will definitely be asked about it. Are you surprised no statement, no acknowledgement? Yeah, after Tom released essentially an official statement. No, I'm not surprised because they're always so late on everything.

Yeah, I mean, I guess because it's the UFC, I'm not that. surprise, but I guess I was, I was wondering, like, I was trying to think about this this morning. If Jalen Brunson suddenly, God forbid, announce his retirement, would the Knicks respond right away? Uh-huh. Yes. There would be a thank you video up within 30 minutes. Right. It's the U.S.

It's not the same. Think about the gap between when we knew Brian Ortega was out of the fight and then the official announcement or all these things. Like, it's, there's always a some. Was there a big gap? Because we only found out yesterday, right? Oh, maybe I'm, okay. So maybe they.

Detectives. Right. Someone's Instagram story and he had a cut and they started putting two to it into it. That's just one example, by the way. Every time there's a change in a fight, the official article comes out three days later. So, you know, it's just...

Honestly, I wonder if we found out so quick because A, they immediately booked Moycano and B, the fight is this weekend. Right. That is true. I expect they will say something. Honestly, do we get an official statement? If Dana White's asked about it tonight and Dana White in a press conference goes,

yeah, we're moving on, you know, yada, yada. I don't know if we even get an official statement. What are he confused about? Yeah. Where's the confusion? Love Tom. Yeah.

See him later. Hey, Dana. What do you think of Tom Assela not being your heavyweight champion and actually announcing before you guys that he is now vacated the title? Oh, I thought you were going to throw to Connor to start licking the lips. Do it, do it. How does he do it? He just did it perfectly, bro.

How does he hold it? the mic. Well, he does the, he does the, this is the Dana. Yeah. I need, I need a higher table. The Dana thing, he leans over in the... Yeah. And then he starts reading it now. Oh, Leanne, this thing's working great over. Lenay, Lenay, Lenay. Come on, Lenay, this thing's working great over here. Linnae's like his, like, his wife that he calls over for...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah? Go ahead. Askeety. God, I love it. I hope we get more boxing. questions tonight with Garcia. It's going to be great. By the way, artist series. I've always said artist series not to be included in my poster of the year discussion. We don't allow you to make this is my personal rule.

This one is pretty freaking sick. I do have to say this one is pretty freaking sick. Bang. Do Ali? Do I don't know. Let's find out. That is sick. It's so fucking good.

Oh my God, that is good. Just hang that up around Los Angeles. See a crypto This dude has 19K followers His art is I mean I'm looking at some of his non-MMA stuff Or her actually Does this even count?

Does this even count? This guy seems like a pro's pro No, all the artist series Are for some pretty legit artists It's almost always John Galang we saw him yesterday Yeah He's done a few of them

The artist series is always pretty good I'll say I've never seen this This individual's art before But they got it They got something That page is pretty nice Wow Okay

year-long look at the heavyweight division. What are they saying? Still the same. Surreal, 70%. This is the one we just looked at. And then you can see as it happened, Tom. Oh, yeah. Last one, AJ Fury, they got a fight?

50%. Wait, I think it went up a little bit since last week, right? All right. It's been bouncing around, man, because every time we get an update, I don't feel like we got an update. We hear something, and then it's like we don't know what to expect. I'm hearing all this. this stuff about Cardiff.

I'm hearing all this. Cardiff. Then I'll still know Cardiff. Yeah, man. What do you think right now? Sitting here right now. I say they figure it out. Where?

I don't know. That one I don't know. I think they figured out. I think they figured out. It's been very quiet. Before 2027? Yeah, yeah. I feel.

I hope so. Do we have any super chats, Frankie? I shall pull this up real quick. Oh, no, not that one. Yes, this one. Ariel. I love and respect you like a brother. This is constructive, direct feedback.

You have a great team. Just say the mic doesn't work and let them fix it. Otherwise, it's an uncomfortable watch. Okay, that's interesting. Do we want to talk about this here? Do we want to talk about this after the show? Because this was included here. Now, let's do it on air.

I'm all for, yeah, open communication. Okay, okay, okay. So let's play this out, right? I'm sitting here. So we've got two guests here. It's a big moment for them, right? It's a big moment for them. But if we're going to talk about it,

we have to talk about it and feelings can't get hurt. Is that fair? Just letting you know Frank's eating a muffin so he will only respond with drops. Perfect. Two guys here. It's a big deal for them. This interview was booked for like three weeks. I have my IFB because I've been told I have to wear the IFB.

It's good that you did. The IFB actually was the gift and the curse in this regard because the IFB is what alerted me that I could hear Scott perfectly and I couldn't hear Rich at all. Actually, could we take a step back? Could we actually play this whole thing out? All right, let's go. Without people being like, oh, Ariel's berating. No, we're, we're, you asked the, what is his name?

The Confront? Careful, careful, careful. Careful. Yeah, what's his name? The Confront? What's his name? It's cut off. Anyway, this dude asked.

I'm waiting for what the curse of the IFP was. Okay, no. It's the confrontationalist. The confrontation. Okay, perfect. Perfect. I'm going to say this guy nailed. Let's take a step back.

Yeah. They come in. Yeah. I'm told Scott should be at the end of the table. rich on the inside. They sit down. Wait, who told you this? This was discussed beforehand. Now we're flipping them.

Now we're flipping them. Well, now I need to take a step back because I was told Scott inside. Yeah, we had said Scott inside guys closer to you. Oh, okay. So you have it wrong. All right, I just wanted to confirm. Me? Yes. Oh, do you want me to say, are you serious right now? Yeah. It's okay.

No. No, no, no. Can I say why the. reason was. No, I don't want to do that. No, come on, ma'am. Okay. That's why he had to be on the outside. More space. No, he walked in. More space for him on the outside to come in. Rich is sitting here. I said I wanted Rich in the hot seat, right? Rich in the hot seat right over here, why did we have to switch them once they sat down? Because we have assets and things ready in that orientation. Okay, that's awkward. Off the bat. Could we not flip that rather than having them switch? There was two, that's

a good question. Now, we'll continue the transparency. Our entire comm system wasn't working. And so I can't ask, do we have the ability to do that? Like, I'm going, hey, can I do that? Not getting a response. And then going, I need to make a call. I'm going to make the call because we have no comms that will go back to the original plan. Whatever the original plan was, stick to it. It's like, if you lose your kids at the shopping mall, right? What's the plan? The plan is to go to the thing. So my plan was I execute, we get them in the same orientation that we had originally discussed, and that was my thought process and why that happened. Let's go back even a step further.

I didn't know when I created the double name graphic where they'd be, so I made them both. We were prepared if we needed to be. So all to say, we didn't have to do the thing of them switching chairs. But there was the lack of comms and all the everybody troubleshooting at the same time. Why didn't anyone tell me in my ear? Because everybody back here was trying to get it all figured out, and we couldn't We didn't know the mics weren't working just yet, but I could hear you guys because we tested it when I put the IFB in.

So someone could have said to me, don't worry about it. I'll let them sit rather than having them stand up and do the docee dough and switch spots, right? We could have avoided that by just saying, because Rick, you came in and said, actually, and I understood why you said that because I know there's the nameplates and whatnot. But in my mind, I'm like, just change the nameplates on the fly rather than having them get up and that being awkward. So again, I actually have to pre-create the system. Take a step back. Let's go back even further to make the two names. So we have to go back further.

I have to export them from my computer, get them into the system. So it would be a process if we only had the one version. But I am prepared. I have both. I prefer that than having them get up and switch seats. That was awkward. And so would I. But when we can't communicate on that, if I'm on the other side of the building.

But someone could communicate with me. How does that help me? Okay. At that point, it was too late. They were already getting up. You realize we're now talking about a different issue? you. But no, these things are related.

Because you're the one who brought up that issue. You brought up the switch of chairs. That's when it started to get awkward. So I'm already in a thought process like, oh, that was a rough start here. I'm trying to get this off the ground here. I'm trying to get these guys excited about the thing. Fine. I realized because of the IP that his mic is working, his mic isn't.

I'm told in my ear, hey, his mic isn't working, so don't ask him questions. So, all right, I can do that for one or two. He at some point is going to think to himself, why isn't he asking me questions. This is freaking awkward. And let's be honest, Rich doesn't do a lot of interviews. I consider him a friend. I didn't want him to think. So my thing is always like, let's just make it transparent. Things happen. Let's make a joke about it. Except that they have to switch chairs. Well, that wasn't on me. That was on you. No, you said, let's make it transparent. But if in that case, you don't want to make it transparent. We could just be like, switch the chairs.

Yeah. And it was freaking awkward. And I still did it. Yeah. I didn't like it. But I did it. Point is, I had to tell him your mic isn't working. And I'm going to focus on you. Yeah. At that point, it's one question, it's two question. I'm not getting any updates. So my way of telling him that I haven't forgotten about you is talking to you guys. I know you are working on it. I know you're not twiddling your thumbs, but I'm sort of trying to tell him and the audience like, hey, are we good? Now, could someone tell me or come on the thing?

Like, we're getting, sure, sure. But I was trying to kind of give him a subtle thing that like, we're going to get to you at some point. We're still working on it. They tell me it's not good. I'm going back to Scott. at that point, the suggestion of have them share the mic just doesn't work. It doesn't work.

What are they going to do? Like, they're sharing an ice cream cone? It doesn't work. Share the mic, and I don't know if it was on full screen at the time, but Rich is speaking to you and you're like, have them share the mic, and you're just like, nope, I'm not going to have them share them. You literally did it. Well, you know why? Because I'm

doing a no to you, and he's wondering why I'm doing it. It's a nightmare. Share the mic. But it was hilarious. Share the mic is a product of your visible discomfort share the mic was presented as a solution I immediately said no immediately there was no hesitation I said that's not happening

that's what was told to me I understand that okay okay because as your frustration is growing the panic starts to the panic starts to set in right the more you're checking in back here to be like hey do we have it guys do we have it guys when we are working on it then

bad solutions come up then bad ideas like hey let's share the mic in the middle them starts to come up, even though I've already shot that down. So the spiral continues based on the agitation. Eventually, we get to the IFB, not the IFB, sorry, the love, which worked as a solution, but actually didn't work off the bat, because I could still hear that it wasn't working. I heard it kick in, right? Am I right about that, Frank? When we put the I, when we put the love, Why don't I keep calling you that? We put the lob mic on Rich.

By the way, I was just, we have a heart out of four o'clock. I don't know why we're opening this can of worms here, but you guys want to do it. You put the love on him. Am I wrong that it didn't work off the jump, Frank? I had to run back to the control room to get it turned on. Okay, so I was still hearing that. So I'm trying to buy my time. I'm trying to buy my time.

It's easy for the confrontationalist or for you guys to like critique me. I have two people who are having a big moment in their life. lives and I know that no one is able to hear them. And so I'm trying to do whatever I can to make light of it, but also to like get some sort of update and to break the fourth wall. I was getting no updates. No one was telling me, hey, we're getting to it. We're working on what. I was just saying like, I was just hearing like, have them share the mic. That's not a good solution. I don't know what's going on. You got to make a call whether you want me to work on solving the problem or direct the show. It can't. It can't. There's more than one person back there.

Exactly. So I'm the wrong person. And maybe you were asking. When I say, say Frank, I'm not talking to you specifically. It's to the capital F, Frank. You know what I mean? And this is a blanket statement. Like, if you're saying that to like the guest feel less comfortable, or more comfortable that you're just trying to get to a solution. That's a huge part about it.

That's a huge part about it. There's a reason I get quiet, which is I need someone to speak up on my behalf. Yeah. Like, if I'm just sitting here twirling my thumbs and not doing anything, like I need to speak up for myself. But in this case, I had three issues that I was working on. And I'm trying to also give you something. and it wasn't the right call.

And it's never happened before. I'm not this guy who wrote the comment. Like I have taken no issue with how... I think this is fun. This is Howard Stern. I'm cool with all this. As long as feelings don't get hurt. My two weeks notice is now one week.

So you have a little... This is also never happened. Forget the week, Frank. You're good. It's never happened. So it's not like it's like, fuck, Frank. How many times this is going to happen? Taking a step back, why did it happen?

So there's a several issues. Yeah, that's a much more complicated version than this. One that I think is fun right now is... They put ceiling tile over the antenna for the comm system when they were working on the studio next to you. Wait, so that's what caused the problem? Not the mics, not the mic, one of the cascading issues. That's the, that's the comm system. The second part, I'll just say, like, I fucked up.

Like, I could have been more diligent during testing those three mics. It should have queued me when you asked, what are we using for the third mic, that we were missing something. So I fucked up. I can learn from this and move forward. but I talked to Rich. He told me not to look him in the eye that he'll be back sometime. Oh, Rich Chow.

I was thinking someone back there. All in all, he'd ask for Frank to be. All in all, we fixed the plane while it was in the air. That's a very, very tough thing to do. And people, I think, like, they don't be, like, I don't know how to do that.

That takes a great skill. So I'm not mad at anyone. And I don't know why this gentleman is, like, saying, like, it's on me because it's an uncomfortable watch. I'm sitting here talking to people and I'm not getting any feedback I'm not getting any information

I need to let him know that we're working on it I need to let the audience know I mean like Shaheen's writing in our chat it's not working we all know it's not working but they don't know that we don't know so everyone's trying to weigh in and help

and he doesn't know and his team is sitting here and they don't know and so I'm trying to let everyone know that there's an issue I'm trying to let the public know I'm trying to let the audience know that we recognize this

without making it into a big deal so I'm trying to balance that as well I don't think I lost my cool No, I didn't take it that way I think it's fair for people to call question to it and you're handling it fine and there's no issue honestly

If this was something that I could take more responsibility for I would and I would admit to it I have no problem with that Is there something I could have done better In this situation? To be honest, I've worked with you for long enough I know when to just turn it off and get to the product

Right? Like get to the end result We can have a conversation later Whether it's a hey man or a phone call Whatever I know you get an address There's nothing to do This is my favorite, though. It's just the assumption that if we had an update, we'd give you an update.

I, and now you're asking for, like, my process, I would appreciate if someone is in my year giving me a play-by-play. I want to know, hey, we're working on it. There's got to be a body in there who's not doing anything. No, it's not about a lack of bodies. It's about there is no update to give. He's working on it. We're getting to it. Don't worry.

There was a period there that felt like an hour where I heard nothing. That's what you really want. You want us to be like working on it, working on it. He's still working on. He's typing on the laptop down. That would make me feel so much better. You have no idea. It just gets a point where we're just sitting here and I'm like,

don't worry. I'm like, Frank, anything you want me to do, man, let me, let me know. And he's just like, please, please just let me cope. There's no update. I get that. But that update means, it feels, I know it's not an eternity. It feels like an eternity because I can hear nothing.

I can hear nothing out of him. And I'm thinking to myself that his wife is watching somewhere, his business partner. And they're like, what's, it's not working. And so if I could just be like, I get you, I promise. You could say that without us telling you that. But at some point I think like maybe the thing burnt down. I'm not hearing anything. But if that did, we tell you.

Rich, the whole control room's dead. We got to go check on them. If someone happened, we would have said that to you like as quickly as possible. Here's the thing about life and partnerships. If someone is asking for feedback, you can't tell them that they are not worthy of the feedback. I want, I want to hear the updates. And then you guys are telling me, no, we're not going to give you an update. Well, then I'm getting mad when I find out that I can.

Not one. Not wanting to give you an update. There is no update. What you suggested, Connor, what you suggested is exactly what I was looking for. That isn't an update, though. Like to risk point, no we're efforting on. I'm asking you for a cookie and you have a cookie and you're like, I don't have a cookie. There is no cookie.

I'm telling you. What you have is what I want. No cookie. You're not giving it to me. At one point it's just like, is this Mike Fix? Are you good now? Dude, I'm not asking for anything. Yeah, it is fixed.

If it needed 30 minutes, take the 30 minutes. It is what it is. We got an hour plus. All I'm asking for is no. signs. And then when I say, guys, is there anything? And I don't hear a word. I don't hear everyone jump in and be like, he's working on it. Just shut the fuck up. I don't even hear that. I'm like, is anyone there?

Is anyone there? Just make a joke. Say, Ariel, we're working on it. Shut up and keep talking to Scott. Perfect. Now I know, the first time you ask, Ariel, we're working on it. Shut up. Is there a required update after that update? Yes. Okay. So again, shut up. It's a 60 second interval. I need an update. Shut up. No, no. Not every time.

Hey, he's working on it. Okay. 60 seconds. He's working on 60 seconds. Thanks in the bathroom. You ever, I hope he's on the bathroom. I hope he's on the bathroom. Hey, he's back now. We're continuing to work on it.

You ever, like, have a guy that tells you he's coming to your house between 10 and four to fix your internet. Yeah. It's nice to get the text. Hey, we're 30 minutes away. We didn't have a time frame. Well, hey, we're working on it. It's going to take about five minutes. You got a text.

I said, at some point I'll be there. You'd throw your phone in the fucking ocean. A thousand percent in the comments, I'm being painted as the bad guy. I don't even have to look. And all I'm asking. asking for is we're working on it. Okay. You have to understand.

I understand your point about... How am I the bad guy here? No, no, listen, I understand your point about the relationship. You're asking for something that we can meet you on. What we're saying to you is, out of protection for you, it does you know good to hear that. It does you know good to hear we're working on. It does. I'm telling you as a human.

You can't tell me how I process feelings. It makes me feel better when I hear that when I say is, is it close, are we working? And I hear zero, nothing. I don't hear a peep. that's a bad feeling. Can I just say all this to say, one, the confrontationalist, thank you for the compliment, we are a great team, we know that. Two, this is like, this pales in comparison to the guy crawling behind you on the ESPN set.

Dude, I love all this shit. Fix the wire and we're like, please don't go on the set. And he's just like crawling behind you with the buzzing. 100%. The buzzing was a nightmare. To that point, we had a gentleman come in to give the lob mic to Scott. and I could tell he was unsure. I was like, come in, come in.

Please. Like, I don't mind. Let's just fix it. He was so afraid to get in. And so we have to tell him, just fucking bolt right in there. I don't care. How many times I have to say, I don't care if you are on camera, if you walk in, I don't care.

Just get it. Just make it happen. I don't mind. Ultimately, we want the people to hear. By the way, the next one is sort of about this same issue. Oh, perfect. The fact that Rich and Scott don't have clear, solid answers is beyond worse than the mic not working,

L.O.L. How do you not have an answer to the elbows? All right. So you see, now we're off the hook. It was worse than the mic. I just want to say our weekly meeting is scheduled for 5 o'clock today. So we'll talk to more about it. Everyone wants a meeting. We've got to break this out. Do you guys want, does the audience chat,

do you want meetings to be live stream? Let us get to the resolution here. I want to be clear on the terms of this agreement now. No, no, no. You're not accepting the term. No, no. We will give you the update that nothing has changed. We are working on it. and you are going to give us the update that when you're asking, hey, everybody in the back,

that's for the audience and not for us. When you're saying, hey, everybody in the back, you're doing that for the audience for the people sitting there. I still want the answer. But the answer is going to be nothing. The answer is shut up. Shut up, we're working on it.

Yes. Okay. There was not actually for us unless you have an update. The tension you could just cut with a knife. And like people are just coming in. I'm like, Frank Man, anything. He's just like, he pulled up computers.

I've never even seen. seen before. He's like, someone guys running in and he's just like, brand diagnostics on it. I'm just like, oh, my God. Ultimately, I just hope you guys understand. I'm on an island by myself. I have no idea what's going on there. 30 seconds to me feels like an eternity.

A minute feels like an eternity. So, yes, how many times have I said overshare? How many times have I used that term? Nobody is confused about this. Tell me more. There's nothing to share. Overshare. There's nothing to share. If there's nothing to share, tell me that.

Share the nothing. Share the nothing. Hey, we're working on it, no update. Okay. Okay. We're going to be a few minutes. Just, it's going to be okay. Just keep going to Scott.

This is going great. It's like a coach in the corner. Nothing's working. Just tell me something. All me something. Done. All this to say, Frank worked his ass off. He was really like working.

He was stressed. Frank. Frank was very happy that we were supportive of him and not, you know, getting down. Hey, what's going? I think Frank deserves a lot of credit. Sure, the problem was created by Frank. But he fixed the problem.

Andy and I worked on a project before where I didn't have Joe Biden's wife's microphone working. He thought today was awkward. They were like, why can't we hear the first lady? I'm like, fuck, but I wasn't going to bring that up. Listen. Dr. Jill. I would say today was worse, but, you know, neither here or there.

Sure, you had all these venture capitalists here. She was also reading to children or something. It was some very whole thing. Jill Biden, you know, who cares what she has to say. Doctor is. What I said. Old news. Old news.

All right. Can we move on? Have we said everything that we need to say? One more day. Oh, yeah. Tell me. Oh, no. There's not.

Okay. All right. Let's, let's offline the rest. We'll circle back. Eddie said to Dana, Tom will vacate if A.J. Fury is in the UK, even though Tommy was going to vacate anyway. I doubt that happened. Who wins if gone and Hokkaid fight? That's a good fight.

Yeah, it is a good fight. Eileen, I don't freaking know. I'd like to see that fight. I'll go with Hokka Oh, this is a fun one Wow, this is amazing When was the last time, if ever You guys saw Ariel eat a burrito?

Today! Today? No, yesterday. Yesterday? Yes. Wait, what was today then? Today was my usual tuna and... But yes, literally yesterday, I brought a breathaler.

You put the egg salad on the tuna salad? I noticed that as well. Yeah, is there anything wrong with that? No, it's just a new thing, I've never seen it. Salad on salad? Oh, wow. On egg salad. It was just tuna.

It was just tuna. It was just tuna. It was just tuna. So it wasn't double mayo. For being honest. Oh, tuna in egg salad? Yeah, yeah, that's common. I like a mix.

I like a mix. As the tummy felt better. I was just going to say, man. I was going to say. I just say. It's not the taste that I'm worried about. It's the racket. As the tummy felt better.

As the tummy felt better. Okay, so you're in there. Rich Chow's Mike doesn't work. And you're just like, uh, update, please. Nothing to yogurt. Everything makes sense now. Let's hear in there ripping ass.

I mean, let's not go that far. Let's not go that far. If we look to the weekend, you know, the high rocks athlete, she completed her tax. Despite the issues. That's actually a very dangerous thing she did. 65 and 95 weight class.

No other promotion has those divisions. So they won't be seen as lesser. Like it's always been with the UFC or with the fighters and champs that aren't in the UFC. I actually was saying that to someone recently. I didn't say 95. I don't think there's enough for 95. But I did say,

why doesn't someone do 65? In the past, Coker had to do women's MMA to be different. Now, obviously, it's in the U.S. C-65 would be an interesting one. You boys flying out for Glacier Fight Night 3? Hell yeah. Oh yeah. You kidding me? Are he Bering

versus Robin Christensen? Yeah. Where is it? Iceland, dude. What you mean? Oh, shit. All right. G.C. BITB fell off or what? Are we going to get a good pound for pound or what? Or what, bro? The answer is what? We fell off and you're never getting a good pound for pound again. Oh, fuck.

By the way, I do want to let you know next Monday is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, our holiest day. And so sadly, I won't be here. But there will be a show. It will be BITB meets a Halwani show. A BITB show on a Monday. So you'll get the full 331 breakdown, but no Haldi. So I would say they've leveled up, if anything. Frank, what Rayquan and Conway projects did you do? I worked on a documentary with Rayquan that's still in production. Oh, Rayquan the chef. Yeah. And then Conway the machine, funnily enough, the name of the album is, God doesn't make mistakes. Wow. Why is that funny enough?

Because I made a bunch of mistakes. Oh, wow, wow, wow, damn. Don't be so hard on yourself, Frank. That's fine. Abomatomically, Socrates, philosophies, and hypotheses can be fine when I were dropping these mockeries,

lyrically performed on, you know what song? Your mic cut out. What did you say? Don Carlo says, oh, I love Don Carlo, do a leapae. Dulepe.

So I read this as time, but I think it's Timé, right? So do the wash. Oh, okay. He's doing your standard. Okay. Oh, Dolipe time. Okay. I was trying to hit him back.

So do Washington Heights. Soi a platano. What does platano mean? Platano is planting. Okay. I was told the food that he was referencing yesterday, Dominican food. That's correct.

The Mofongo, yeah. Yeah. Said as much on the air, but, you know. Compre a house, two acres, two acres, two acres. Acres. To rent. One, I love this guy. And build another, and me queda on Los Poconos.

Okay, okay. And me ques in those Poconos. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So he's got, he has a house that's sitting on two acres to rent. And he's also building another. with his girl in the Poconos? Well, no, he stays at the Poconos. Okay.

You guys are always welcome Guilla Touristico para. Guilla Touristico. He's saying he will be a tour guide. Sick. In the Poconos? In the Poconos. So we got guns.

Yeah, okay, what are the emojis? A water gun. That's a water gun. No, it's a gun. It's a gun. Is it? It looks like a water. They don't have to keep you.

They don't have a normal gun. Okay. So it's a gun. It's beer. Six. Sigs, it's kisses? Leafs that are like... Oh, I thought that was a little...

Smoking weed. Smoking weed. Shoot guns, drinking beers, smoking cigs, smoking weed in the mountains. Yo. Beautiful views. What a time. Just let us know, Don Carlo and we'll be there, all right? See you then, Donnie, see you then, Donnie, see. Tomorrow on the program, Chale Sunnon, joining me, Tyron Woodley in studio.

Titor Ortiz, a little OG version of the show. And then Sean King the third, definitely not an OG, had the big knockout slam of Jesse Rosas on Saturday. O-TN as well. Ariahawani.com is where you can send in your questions. And I want to let you all know the uncrowned newsletter in the works. So soon the substack is going to be turned into an uncrowned newsletter. This is in the works. If you're interested in that sort of thing, hit me up.

Also, if you're interested in social media, hit me up. And I think that's it. I think that's it. We got to go. We got to tape our other show, and you can watch it on Amazon Fire TV. Tomorrow I'm going to explain to you how to catch it on Amazon Fire TV. What is going on? What is going on?

Nope, no. I mean, there's good days and then there's maybe so-so days, would you say, right? It was a throwback. Yeah. Oh, that was a callback. Today was a great day. Got you. I was in Montreal this weekend, and I saw this in my room.

You guys didn't happen to notice that UPS. now join the... No, I noticed. Yeah. I noticed. The desk continues to grow inside. Yeah. It's like it's just going to be like you, your head.

I love it. Yeah, you, I notice on BATB you take stuff away. I don't know. Why do you feel the need? I just reorganize it. I can't have the belt. Like, it's your name place. No, I know the belt, obviously.

But I mean, you can just take the belt and leave everything else. Then I got to have a wall for the laptops or the laptops just not naked. You know what I'm saying? I understand. Okay. It's a little wall in front of it. Yeah. You take the flags away.

I'm not Canadian, you know I was not American for a long time I had American citizen Now I am But the little city, you know But the longest We are an international show We are an international show

What is that? Am I going to have a Spanish? Do you not love Canada? Representation Pound for pound countries This week It's not a bad one It's not a bad one

It's not a bad one Pound for pound impeachment playing off of Moikano? Was that guy getting impeached? That's what he said. Clinton, Trump a couple times.

Nixon? Nixon. Clarence Thomas? Was he impeached? Frankie? Was Woodrow Wilson impeached? No. Who's to check?

Thank you, Rich. Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Hanato. Thank you, Brandon. Thank you to our mics. Thank you, Frank. Whole team. Thanks to them.

Thanks to you, Beck from Raze.