The Ariel Helwani Show - Caio Borralho, Tai Tuivasa, Joe Hendry, Sam Alvey, Ben Shalom, plus major announcement with Buffalo Bills star Dion Dawkins

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Ariel and the Boys break down the latest Ilia Topuria title fight news, what’s next for lightweight’s biggest stars, preview the massive weekend in combat sports, and answer your burning On The Nose questions (18:24).Dion Dawkins — Buffalo Bills babyface, Pro Bowl tackle, and combat sports fan — joins the show to talk WrestleMania 41, his potential future in boxing, previews the upcoming season, and reveals Ariel’s big news regarding the NFL Draft (28:50).TNA Heavyweight Champion Joe Hendry makes his triumphant return to the program following his huge WrestleMania 41 debut against Randy Orton to discuss what led up to the match, his future in WWE, John Cena’s advice, his thoughts on the main event, and more (1:00:07).Smilin’ Sam Alvey previews his upcoming Karate Combat heavyweight title defense against Tyrone Spong, provides insight into his recent career resurgence, life as a Karate Combat fighter, earning his jiu-jitsu black belt, sparring Sean Strickland, and offers advice to upcoming fighters (1:27:46).Caio Borralho joins to discuss the Fighting Nerds' recent success, his back-and-forth with Khamzat Chimaev, difficulties with his potential next fight against Nassourdine Imavov, the state of the middleweight division, Carlos Prates’ massive headliner against Ian Machado Garry, and more (2:04:10).BOXXER headman Ben Shalom dissects Ben Whittaker’s win against Liam Cameron, Conor Benn vs. Chris Eubank Jr., the storylines surrounding the fight, his relationship with Eddie Hearn, Eubank Sr.’s comments, the state of women’s boxing, and more (2:36:11).Tai Tuivasa checks in to update Ariel on his hangout with Action Bronson, his new business ventures, touring around the U.S., adjusting his mindset before a return to fighting, his reaction to Alexander Volkanovski regaining the featherweight belt, training with Alex Pereira, and more (3:04:23).Ariel is rejoined by the Boys and they round things out by answering more On the Nose questions and Super Chats (3:39:24). 

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Err-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r- And 25. Hello again everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It is a lovely spring Wednesday here in New York City. We love Wednesdays. It's great to be back on a Wednesday. We have an ad one of these in a couple of weeks and we have a super stacked show for all of you. Six guests, a lot to get to, a big announcement, some breaking news, on the nose, we shoot on Wednesdays. I mean there's really no time to waste. Sometimes I like to waste time. I like to talk, I like to dilly-dally. There is no time for that today my friends because the show is so super stacked. I'm very excited to get into it and it's really, I say this quite often, a something for everyone kind of show,

because there's a little this, there's a little that, and there's a little, hey, we haven't been down this road before, allow me to explain. Back end of the show, our good friend, Bambam himself, not Action Bronson, but a man who is friends with Action Bronson, the other Bambam friends with Action Bronson. The other Bam Bam, Ty Tuivaso, will be joining us. Westside Zone. Yeah, there it is. Westside Zone. He's from the Westside. He's from Western Australia, not Perth.

From the area, you get the drill. He gave us those gifts. Well, today he'll be on the program and I'm looking forward to talking to him. That will be at four o'clock. Prior to that, we'll be on the program and I'm looking forward to talking to him. That'll be at four o'clock. Prior to that, we'll be joined by Ben Shalom, head man, founder of Boxer. Of course, he has a big event to take part in this weekend at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. His guy, Chris Eubank Jr., going up against Eddie Hearn's guy, Connor Ben. There's a rivalry.

You know, Eddie Hearn and Frank Warren are BFF now. Shalom and Hearn, not so much, and they're playing it up, and it's kind of fun, if I'm being honest. We'll talk to him about that, about Ben Whitaker's win this past Sunday as well. A lot to get into with Ben Shalom. He'll join us at 3.30. At three o'clock, you may have seen, you may have heard,

you may have read that Kyle Bohaglio has been in the news as of late, he will join us to talk about what is going on with his career. He's in Kansas City, by the way, his good friend, training partner, Carlos Pratches, he's fighting this weekend in the main event, UFC Kansas City, TKO takeover against Ian Machado-Garry. We'll talk to him, is he fighting International Fight Week? Is he fighting Hamza Chamayev?

Is it foreign interim title? What's going on? We'll talk to the natural Kaibohalio at 3 o'clock. Prior to that, at 2.30, we'll be talking to Smilin' Sam Alvi, who is still Smilin'. These days, actually Smilin' a lot because he is the Karate Combat Heavyweight Champion. Next weekend, he returns to action against Tyrone Spong. That's a big-time fight for Karate Combat. Also on that card Mohammed Mikhailov making his KC debut. Always great to chat with Sam Alvey

who's enjoyed a renaissance in his career since joining Karate Combat leaving the UFC. I look forward to that. Prior to that interview we'll be talking to Joe Henry. Yes, the reigning defending TNA Heavyweight Champion. The man who made a surprise appearance on Sunday, WrestleMania night two against Randy Orton. And then yesterday at NXT made a surprise appearance in the whole Trick Williams, Obafemi thing. Did you see that? He of course showed up Royal Rumble back in January, was in our studio. We love Joe Henry. We believe in Joe Henry and he'll be joining us to talk about a crazy few days for him at two o'clock.

And then prior to that, an actual superstar from the Buffalo Bills, my favorite football team, near and dear to my heart always, a team which I have been a fan of since 1990 when I saw them lose to the New York Jets, Giants I should say, Super Bowl 25, Tampa, wide right, Scott Norwood. I have loved them ever since. We have never had to the best of my knowledge. Maybe I'm forgetting, but I don't think I am an actual living, breathing player from the Buffalo Bills on this program. In fact, it was 30 years ago that I called into the Paul McGuire show on MSG. I was in the eighth grade and I, and I picked up the phone to call in and speak

to Reuben Brown, rookie at the time for the Buffalo Bills, number 79. I got a chance to speak to him. That was my first time ever being on TV in any way, shape or form. 30 years later, we get the left tackle for the Buffalo Bills, Pro Bowler, four times, pretty much the heart and soul of the Bills. Josh Allen's right-hand man, if you will, the snowman, Deion Dawkins is gonna join us.

And we're not just having him on to Dilly Dally. A, announcement, B, massive combat fan, was just at UFC 314 in Miami, was at Elimination Chamber. He said he was going to Mania. I didn't see him there, but maybe he was there. In any event, Deion Dawkins joining us at 130. Can you tell I'm excited? Can you tell I'm excited?

Oh my God, you know yourself. These are one of those days. And then later, I'm going to see my son's play at Red Bull Arena, now known as Sports Illustrated Stadium, in a soccer tournament, if you will. So it's going to be a great day, my friends. I am very excited. There's the six pack right there,

not to be confused with Sean Waltman, a lot to get to. By the way, speaking of Carlos Pratches, did you see him yesterday at Kauffman Stadium, throwing up the first pitch? Beautiful stuff from the Brazilian, the lefty. Look at this, rocking up there. Did you see him yesterday at Kauffman Stadium throwing up the first pitch? Beautiful stuff from the Brazilian, the lefty. Look at this, rocking up there, wearing the shades. He's got the Royals jersey number 25, headlining this weekend.

Top of the mound, the lefty, Carlos Pratches. Look at that guy, cool as a cucumber. I don't know if they play baseball in Brazil the best part about it is he was rocking the the meta Ray bands and so we actually got to see him throw the strike and it did look like a strike from his perspective look how cool this is this is amazing stuff Carlos is just so cool what I mean cool, I just mean he's like, he's never nervous. He's like Purvis Ellison back in the day.

Look at this, look at this. Brazilian, lefty, boom, down the middle to the mascot. Yo, shout out to Carlos Prochez. Very impressive stuff. When we said goodbye yesterday, and yesterday we had two shows, we had Eddie Hearn on the Ariel and Adé program. All of a sudden I'm looking at social media and I see,

hey, there's a little update from the man formerly known as El Matador, now known as the legend, the great Ilya Tupori is saying, what? What did he say? What did he write? What did he write literally hours after I told you he's going to appear at International Fight Week, come hell or high water, the camp has begun. Remember, I've said this once, I'll say it again, I'll say it 10 million more times.

We don't just talk here, we tell you things. And sometimes we have to couch it as opinion, but it's always informed, okay? It's always coming from a place of reporting, journalism, conversation. And I told you, Ilya's gonna fight. This is after Monday, we were thinking, journalism, conversation. And I told you, Ilya's gonna fight. This is after Monday, we were thinking, okay, is it gonna be the interim?

Is it gonna be a middleweight title fight? No, no, no, I've been told the plan is Ilya Tsiplorya, International Fight Week, June 28th, UFC 317, what is still up in the air as of right this second is, is he fighting Yassama Khachev for the undisputed lightweight title? Or is he fighting Charles Olvera for the vacant lightweight title after Islam moves up? Do we find out the answer to that question post-Montreal or do we find out before?

There's a chance we find out before. You know what's interesting, guys? What's interesting is yesterday we talked about the different permutations for Ilya and for Islam and how JDM could change all of that with a win over Bilal. You know what we didn't talk about? If you're Charles Olvera, you're kind of like, all right, wait a second, what if it ends up being Islam versus Ilya? What happens to me? I'm getting passed over again? Where's my, you know, kudos for good behavior for being a superstar and a company man? Because he was supposed to fight Issamukhachev a couple years ago, got the cut, never got another

crack at the belt. And then of course was scheduled to fight Armin. He loses that fight, comes back, beats Michael Chandler. You know the story. But if he's left without the title fight, who does he fight? He gets Balal Jadidem, right?

He gets the winner. He gets the win. He gets the win. He gets without the title fight who does he fight he gets the ball all right he gets the winner he gets the winner he moves up to 170 or just fucking around there's that's not a body pivot it's potty pivot oh now are you okay with that are you okay with that completely fine no no I mean I say are you okay with it I'm talking to Charles Olvera You as Charles are you okay with going from a title fight to a patty big-time fight massive name? Just as popular as you know the the majority of them, but not a title fight Yeah, I think it's the next best thing in terms of how do you make a big splash?

Patty is in that situation We saw McGregor in and his as, like where, oh, he hasn't fought this kind of guy. He hasn't fought this kind of guy. Charles being the guy who's the first guy to defeat Patty in the UFC, a guy that Patty has called for after his recent win over Michael Chandler. I think that that's a good consolation, bros. It's not quite Ilya. It's not quite Islam, but it's still a very, very big fight for Charles Olivera, as far as I'm concerned. And a huge opportunity for Paddy Pimblot on the flip side of that. Is it not true that Paddy Pimblot is the best name that you can get outside of Islam? But is Paddy fighting June 28th? So not only does he not know whether he's fighting for

a belt or not, but he also doesn't know when he's fighting. They've got to figure this out sooner rather than later. And I don't want to belabor that point, but all to say is he was kind of forgotten yesterday when we were talking about, okay, scenario A and B for this guy, A and B for that guy. He has to have an A and B as well. Does he though? A hundred percent. He's not. He has a tobacco plan.

He has a tobacco plan. Like all due respect to Charles, but like they're planning around Ilya. They're not planning around Charles. Charles is the option for Ilya, but this is all about Ilya. It's about Islam first. Islam is he gonna move up to 170? Then it becomes about Ilya. Then it becomes about Charles. He's just too low in the pecking order at the moment in terms of what the USC is focused on. He's the guy to fill in if it's not Islam. He is not the A side of that. He's a massive star but he unfortunately has a loss to Islam and the number one contender in Armin Sarukian as well. If they wanted to make a big fight with Charles Oliveira they could make it tomorrow. They could do Charles Armin run that

back, they could do Charles Gage. I just wonder how you say this to him. Hey, we need to figure out you're the backup to the back. You have to be self aware as Charles Olivera enough to know that like these plans are now happening, right? If, if it's just a day in the OG low, that's come on. That's how he's pointing out tonight. We're talking about it. It is out there. You have to, as Charles Olivera and his team, be aware of the fact that this is going to happen. You're either going to fill, you're either going to fill that spot

against Ilya or you're not. And what do you do from there? Plan for it. I still think he's won away, right? If he beats an Armin, a Justin, a Patty, he's still won away. And so I don't think it's a bad position to be in if you're Charles Oliveira, but you were just not the number one choice. And you just have to accept that reality. I think also like in the situation Paddy's in, he's on the chase now. So in terms of the date, Arielle June 28th, and I know I've seen all the headlines about, whoa Paddy's put on so much weight, like he hasn't done this every fucking time for the last decade. In fact it feels like he's putting on less weight than usual. Yeah it does, he's cutting. But I do feel as though in a situation like that, where Patty has offered the

fight he wants on International Fight Week, like he is, he's no stranger to building brands. He knows the power of showing up on a card like this. He knows the power of potentially being one of the big names and one of the big storylines going into this. I don't think that's as much of an issue as we as we were kind of thinking it might be. I think if he's getting the guy he wants it's June 28. To your point I think it's Charles is the guy who's gonna be the hard conversation to have. Well also speaking of social

media, speaking of the the platforms out there where people put out their news, X threads etc etc. We did get one from Conor McGregor saying, Hey, unfinished business, myself and iron Mike iron Mike Chandler. And then moments later, Chandler replying. So, so Conor's tweet 434 PM Eastern, I believe this one, the reply at 455 unfinished business loading. I think he then took two threads and added this dust off the old contract and add some new ink. I'm ready tomorrow. Connor also saying, what's that?

That's a unique post from threads to actually appreciate that channel. Yeah, no, he's, he's versatile. Connor also saying, Hey, I'm not coming back unless it's a stadium. I don't know how much stock we put into all of this, but it's a thing that's happening Well, it was it was a great play by him to go to threads Obviously, you know with UFC inking to deal with meta so just supporting the company support. Yes, brand

To me it means nothing. Yeah, also the quick response time probably has notifications on for for Connors tweets just for I would assume so, yeah. This makes that situation even sadder for some reason. Two and a half years. I take it with a grain of salt. I wonder if he even needs notifications. I bet the moment Conor tweets there's like 15 tags for Michael Chandler. Yeah, that is true. True or false? Also, I mean like unfinished business loading and it's a picture from tough over two years ago. Can I ask like how big are you guys on that fight right now zero like how couldn't be less interesting Connor McGregor is back that would be the only

thing that I take away from it I think you're liars I think you're liars I think if they announce I promise you no no no people would get hyped people would react people would talk about a thousand different shows with a thousand different thumbnails for it but is is that because Conor McGregor is back? Yes, yes, yes. So, if you were to offer, hey, it's Paddy Pimblitt instead, would you be more or less excited? Oh, you're talking about the actual matchup?

You're talking about the actual... Again. Yeah, no, it's lost a lot of its lusting. This is independent of Michael Chandler. It's Conor McGregor. It's all about Conor McGregor. Conor McGregor's calling a shot again saying, like, it's's Michael Chandler But this is not the Michael Chandler part of it this I feel like I had more interest in that specific matchup Before these recent for sure sure it was it was a it was a matchup that I really wanted to see now now

My interest has waned a little bit and I just I won't believe it till I see it with McGregor coming back I mean, yeah, I think like Grant Daw Like Grant Dawson and we'd do it. Yeah, exactly. Sure. Yeah. Like this thing, if it's not impossible enough to believe that McGregor can fight in 2020, 2025, he's adding the caveat like, and it has to be in a stadium. This isn't happening boys. Like, so fair enough. He's not fighting in 2020 for it then as far as I'm sure. False in the next three years, the UFC will hold an event in a stadium, like we just saw at

WrestleMania at Allegiant Stadium, a stadium in North America. True. You think so? That video of Dana White walking out of there? He's like, yo. I think the wheels got turned in. That's not true because the amount of stadiums that have enclosures now is massive. You wouldn't have to do it outside.

I think yes. He's had so many opportunities. He just he has said that he doesn't like the live experience when it's a stadium because it feels like you're so far away, the octagon looks so small. I don't know. He says that but like that's not the experience he has and those tickets will sell. And additionally for years it was him making those calls. There's a lot of cooks in the kitchen now. There's a lot of business to be done. You're right, you're 100% right. This is not Dana White's sole decision anymore.

There are many players who have done this before and know it can be a very valuable event. Can I tell you one of my favorite underrated things from a stadium show, and in particular, WrestleMania, because those are the ones that are usually in the stadium, Royal Rumble is sometimes as well. I love seeing the sunset. Do you know what I mean? Like at the beginning of the card, it's very bright. You could see through the roof, all that. If it's one of those where you can see

past and then it gets darker as the night goes on. There's something about it that I love. Like I remember the Pontiac silver dome, WrestleMania three, 1987, the beginning of the card some of those early matchups the the the stadium looks completely different the Sky the roof all that looks different and then by the time Hogan and Andre got in there. It was pitch-black I don't know why I like I'm actually with you my whole life I've loved Georgia football 330 kick in the fall 330 Sun still shining when you go back and watch the highlights the beginning of the game Sun shining bright and then when at the end when it's super intense you're under the light. Why do we like that? What is it about? I don't know

It just feels like it's more intense once it gets dark and obviously as a card goes on as a game goes on it's getting More and more intense and is there for that golden hour. Yeah, we got that golden hour kick off of the pay-per-view time Maybe yeah, give me like a Steve Garcia fight on the prelims during Golden Hour. Sign me up for that. And is it something because like if you do an event at any arena, T-Mobile, MSG, it looks the same throughout the whole night? Whole night. It doesn't matter if it's like, I mean when we went to Long Island a few years back, it started at like 1 p.m. in the afternoon and it looked the exact same at 6 when it ended.

All right guys, well we have 12 minutes before Dion joins us. And I'm so, can you tell I'm excited having Dion Doggett, a salt of the earth, tremendous guy, just like an amazing human being. Walter Payton finalists for, for, for the Bills and, and, uh, I love the way he supports Josh Allen and I love the way he supports and, and, and represents Buffalo.

Uh, but I want to get some questions as well. So, uh, time now for everyone's favorite segment of the week. It is time. It's time for other. And we'll get to questions throughout the day and on the back end as well. But let's, let's knock a few off here. Thank you to everyone who went to the Substack. ArielHawani.substack.com is where you leave the questions as per usual. La Mancha MMA has been prolific as of late. Sup Ariel, Matt Moen, Presha and I have ACP's. is where you leave the questions as per usual. Lamansha MMA has been prolific as of late.

Sup, Ariel, Matt Moe Impression. I have a simple question. Do you personally know who the person is that runs the Kaposa account on X? I'm not asking to reveal that information, but I'm just fascinated by the mysterious nature of that account. More mysterious than Frank, I have to say.

Yeah, you're right, because we don't even know, we don't even know how his voice sounds. I do believe, I would never reveal, he doesn't want to be revealed, I would never reveal. But I will tell you straight up right now, I don't know anything about him. I don't know his name, I don't know where he lives,

I don't know what he looks like. I don't even know if it's a guy, to be honest. I presume it is, just because he's watching, you know, currently he's watching Johannesburg Fight Night 37 live from South Africa, which is a big one. And he's probably live tweeting it as we speak. But he is one of the most important, honestly, he's one of the most important figures,

characters in the MMA space. And in some ways space and, and, and in some ways he's almost like, he's almost like a librarian of MMA information, knowledge, historic. What's that? The Oracle, like in the matrix. That's, that's what he is for MMA. He's tremendous.

He's tremendous. There was a period where he got, I think kicked off social media because of maybe some like footage. Too many highlights. Yeah. Yeah. And that was a sad day.

That was a dark day. I don't know him. I do believe Rick has spoken to him. I DM him from time to time, you know, just to like, he's a big kickboxing guy. I've invited him to glory events and things like that, respectfully declined and just never worked out timing wise, but I could not, you know,

at the end of the year we have our, or, at the end of the year, we have our, or at the start of the next year, we have our awards. I've named the social media award after him. He is an integral part of the MMA community. He's the best. Yeah. He's the man. He helps us out during the awards. He's helped us out in the past as well. Uh, just great. And, and, and what I like a lot about him on, on social, his, his handle his handle is at, Grabica Hitman, right? Grabica Hitman. Yeah. It's generally positive.

Yes, he'll be critical of this and that, but like, he just loves fighting. And it's not just MMA, by the way. He loves boxing, kickboxing, as you said, so. And usually the criticism is warranted anyway. Well, that's one of the most important parts. He's not here to like get takes off, you know? He's here to like be that Oracle

and he does a fantastic job of it. Yes. Let us move along to the aforementioned Matt Moe. Sup, Ariel. I know Bryce said some idiotic things, but given the fact that he has repeatedly apologized and has owned up, has he? Would you ever consider having him back on the show?

I genuinely don't believe he had ill will or hateful intentions when he said what he said and I doubt he'll just try to flaunt his guns again. I know not the same but the recent moment you had with Mikhail really warmed my heart and showed that growth and understanding is possible. Would love to see the same with Bryce. The thing that annoyed me with Bryce wasn't the stuff recently. It was when he came on the show and kind of tried to hijack it with all this stuff with, not really the, I don't care about the guns, who cares? But you know, the Sandy Hook thing is a very personal one

to me because it happened not too far away from where we live. My kids were around the same age. You don't even have to have kids to feel like that was one of the worst and darkest days in the history of not just the United States, but mankind. What transpired there was beyond horrific. And I just didn't like where everything went.

That being said, I have always tried to pride myself on having an open door policy. And if someone wants to come in good faith and have a grown-up, mature, sensible conversation, I don't want to talk to people who all believe the same thing that I believe. I don't want to speak into an echo chamber. And I don't think that's good journalism. I don't think that's a good show. I don't think that's healthy. I also don't want to have anyone on who's going to offend other people. Because what I think of is, imagine there's a family member

of one of those victims and they're listening to this and you're like, how can you have this person on? So that's what I thought of at the time. But ultimately, am I reaching out? No, would I be open to it? Yes. And it's the same thing that I say about the people who have truly negatively impacted my career.

I would still be open to having them on. Am I reaching out? No. It's just because I want to live life without grudges. I always try to fix it. I always try. You know, people always focus on the beefs and all that stuff. What they don't focus on is I always try to fix it before it gets to that point or even after the fact. I always do. So even after it gets to that point or even after the fact. I always do. So even after when people be like, oh, you know, you say you'd want to come on. It's not because I'm trying to get views. Like there's many times where I've settled the beefs on the phone and hung up and we've walked away. Not everything is content. Not everything is

for the show, believe it or not. And so, yeah, I just don't want to have that. I always sort of view that stuff as like a cancer that can rot inside of you. And I don't want that. So am I running towards it? No. Would I be open to it? Sure. Just like I would be with anyone else. I hope that makes sense. Crew, Cowboy Killah. what is the team's overall sentiment on this Gary versus Pratchett's main event this weekend? I feel like Ian can go from the biggest heel

to the most beloved fighter with a short notice win here, while on the other hand, a loss will put him two losses in a row. GC must be foaming at the mouth for this one. You know what's interesting about it? What's interesting about it is, yeah, I get what you're saying, but also Carlos is beloved.

So, so does Ian become a babyface by beating Carlos? I'm not so sure. Will he get the props? I hope. There are people who don't want to give him props, but I don't know. What do you guys think? P.T., how do you feel? What are we? Three days before? Massive fight for Ian. Yeah. Yeah. I'm very confident for Ian going into this fight. I think he is a more dynamic fighter, as I said. I do think that, and I think we agreed on this when it first came out, lads, I think I was saying, unfortunately, I think if Ian's, and I do think Ian will win, but if he's going to win, I think he probably has to take the fight to the ground. I think a lot of people, the reason why they love Pratchett so much is because of how he

strikes. He's a very violent guy on the feet, but I think Ian be very people, the reason why they love Pratchett so much is because of how he strikes. He's a very violent guy on the feet, but I think he can be very foolish to try with him, even though that's what he explicitly said when he was on this show. I do feel like his best route to victory is to make it a grappling match. I think he's superior on the ground. I think he's improved so much as a grappler in the UFC. I do think if he wins that way I can't imagine him becoming this below figure that we're mentioning here and but I do

think it will definitely fast-track him back into contention and he'll be a name in that mix the next time they're looking for a contender. I'm in lockstep with you Pete C. I think if he wins it's probably not gonna be the most exciting fight and he probably won't gain a ton of fans for it I think will gain a lot of respect and and be you know rocketed back into contendership right one away from the title But to me it just it just feels like he has to go to the grappling and it's it's either gonna be Pratchett's getting an exciting knockout victory and just like Rockets ship on the back or it's it's Gary fighting smart And it's probably not Gary fighting smart and it's

probably not the most exciting one I can't wait for it interesting like yeah what GC said there like that's the one thing that it wasn't mentioned that email for practice to be in given out a fan base feel about Ian if he does that in signature practice style he's dead right strap so that's the thing I think I think the Carlos went over Ian puts him on the rocket ship. I think that Ian win over Carlos doesn't necessarily make him into like a baby face. Definitely not. Obviously he takes the step and he gets back

on track and he's right in the mix. Both guys are going to be in the mix at 170 with a win, but I think Carlos, it's been consistent with him. Ian is still in that phase of like getting people to turn in his favor. Yeah. And I think this will go a long way, but I don't think it's like a full baby face turn. Do you

know what I mean? Oh, for sure. And honestly, to speak to Carlos, if he's able to do it and he's able to do it in the protest style of knocking this guy out in emphatic fashion, it will be so insanely impressive to me because remember, Shavkat went into that fight against Ian Gary 18 and 0 with 18 finishes on his record and wasn't able to finish Ian Gary. If Carlos Pratchett can do it, that says a lot. I also don't think it's best served for Ian Gary to be a baby face. I think Ian Gary is the guy that people continue to doubt in the same way they doubt Patty in the same way they doubt Connor is more beneficial to him. You get more people with eyeballs on it, hoping that you lose than you do with like,

we're all rooting for Ian Gary. I just don't think that works. And he can say like that, you may not like me, but you got to respect me. You have to respect me. I take all these short notice fights against absolute killers. Yeah.

All right. So we got the three questions. We'll get to a plenty more on the back end, but my friends, I am so excited about this. My palms are in fact, quite sweaty. We get a chance to speak to a lot of big names each and every day, each and every week, but this one, this is near and dear to my heart.

You see it right over there. You know that I'm a lifelong Bills fan. You know that I have lived, died, breathed, cried, everything in between with this team. And there are a few things that make me happier than the thought of a Buffalo Bills Super Bowl win. One day, while I'm still on this earth, we will experience that and it's going to be an incredible time.

I have never had the opportunity, I do believe I've never had the opportunity, unless I'm forgetting at some point in my career, never had the opportunity to have a living, breathing, active Bills player on the program. I said at the top of the show back in 1995, I called into the Paul McGuire show to speak to Ruben Brown. That was the first time I was on air

in any way, shape or form. And I got to speak to a Bills player. He was a rookie at the time. And now here we are 30 years later on my program, getting a chance to speak to the heart and soul of the team. How freaking amazing is this? And if you are unfamiliar by what I'm referring to, when I say the heart and soul of the team. How freaking amazing is this? And if you are unfamiliar by what I'm referring to when I say the heart and soul of the team,

here's Deon Dawkins just a few months ago during a playoff game in Buffalo speaking about his love of the greatest fan base in the world, Bills Mafia. Take a listen to this. Hey, yo. I know that you got a lock in it. But you ever just look at the fans like just looked at him

Give it just like took a second. Look at him So pretty is thing in the world It's beautiful Our people man, I love him to death the pride of Broadway, New Jersey left tackle for the Buffalo Bills Walter Payton finalists multiple, multiple time pro bowler,

and perhaps most importantly, protector of our leader, the great Josh Allen, number 17. He is the snowman, he is the one and only Deion Dawkins joining us on the program. Yeah! There he is! Deion Dawkins on the show! Wow, the heart and soul of Bill's mom, the other Bumblebills.

My man, how are you? Welcome. What up, man? What up, what up? Pleasure to be here, man. Pleasure to be here. One, your desk looks super cool. Thank you, thank you.

I love the wrestling. Super dope, though. What up, man? Thank you, and your setup is incredible as well. I've seen you on other shows, and I've been like, holy shit, this guy puts in the time, he puts in the work to make his setup look cool. Some people will join from like a car or something like that.

You take it seriously and I appreciate that. Yeah, man. I enjoy it. Us as players and it is weird because we have so much cool stuff. Like I got a Mike Tyson signed glove here. I got a Hogan boot. I got the Monster brand. You know, I got Anthony Edwards.

Like it's pretty cool. Allen Iverson and why not show it? Why not invest and show it? Okay, so we have a lot to talk about, but I do love and appreciate your love of combat sports. Can I ask about the Hogan boot? Is that from like a famous match or something? No, it's, I mean, you know, I don't know if it is, you know?

You should just say that. I have a friend and he knows I'm a wrestling fan. And as you get older, gifts get harder. And he was like, you know, he's a wrestling guy. I'm a wrestling fan and as you get older gifts get harder and he was like, you know, he's a wrestling guy. I'm gonna grab the boot. So wherever he got it from, maybe he got it straight from Hulk. Who knows? But it's a signed boot.

So let's say it's from WrestleMania. Nah, I don't know. All right. I mean, you could run with that, but it's all good. It's still cool to have. I saw you were at Elimination Chamber in Toronto a few months ago. You got to go in the back with the belt and all that and meet some of the guys.

Who was the coolest backstage? Oh man, Uso, J Uso was super cool. Triple H was really, really dope. Really, really dope. I would say Liv is super cool. Liv is super cool. And Ryar Ripley is by far my favorite. She is such a dope person.

She's a beautiful soul. And so I met her twice and I met her at UFC. 314. Yeah, in Miami. In Miami. And I usually don't ask people for a picture. I seen her behind stage and then I seen her out and I was like, yo, you know what? Let me just ask her for a picture. And I asked people for a picture. I seen her at behind stage and then I seen her out and I was like, yo, you know what, let me just ask her for a picture and I asked her

for a picture and I'm telling you, her personality was the same. She was super cool. She wasn't Hollywood. She was just down to earth and I could tell that she was a good person. So I really appreciated that. I really did. What do you like more right now? Like what do you follow more pro wrestling or MMA? Cause a month later you're at the UFC event, which are you enjoying more? WWE is elite. It is super elite because it's a, it's a live TV show. It's a live TV show all day long. So I don't want to compare them, but you know, as a combat, you know, like real violent UFC just does it because I understand the punching and this and that because I train.

I'm like I train boxing and I and I train with Maz Badal and I could relate to it. But that wrestling world, it's the true entertainment and I look at myself as an entertainer. So you know, I think it's pretty dope that it could be both, but they're both right there. They're both on the same line. Cause you know, you got Monday, you got Friday, and then you got Saturday. So it's like, I get it all week. I love it.

By the way, I saw when you were at 314, the move where you licked your wife's face. Yeah. Is that like one of your signature moves? Or is that just- It's one of my signature moves. That's, so when I did that, that's more so me telling her. I can't wait to get home.

We're going to have a great night because all that link is telling her that I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. And I can't wait to get home. That is amazing. I can't wait to get home. Also, you mentioned training. Have you ever trained with coach McDermott? Cause I see him, he's buff.

I think he has a wrestling background, like an amateur wrestling background as well. Have you ever trained with coach McDermott? Cause I see him, he's buff. I think he has a wrestling background, like an amateur wrestling background as well. Have you ever rolled with him? Never have rolled with McDermott, but I guess I can say we've trained because McDermott likes to sneak into the weight room and, you know, do his, do his stuff when we're in there. So, you know, every once in a blue moon, like it'll be a day and you'll peek in air and McDermott's in there. They will come in there and then McDermott will sneak off.

So we train at the similar times, similar schedules. He likes to hang with the young guys, he likes to show you that like he's still got it? You know, and he does, he wears his tight shirts and he has his Jordans on and he tries to, you know, stay hip, Philly guy, you know, like he's, he's upbeat with who he is and I respect it. So I saw when you tweeted,

when you had an elimination chamber, you said you were going to go to mania. Did you actually go to mania? And I missed mania. I was going to go to mania. Uh, I drift, I'm a big drifter, a car drifter, and there was an event, um, in Atlanta called fuel fest and I wound up going to fuel fest instead of WrestleMania. I said, you know what?

I have a team of people. they were excited about Fuel Fest, I can't just go to WrestleMania and just be one of two guys there when I have a team of like six. And I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna just be with the team, but my plan is for next year to be there. I think it's in New Orleans, and then the following year it's in Vegas again.

So I think I'm gonna have to go back to back so I can get that Vegas feel again. I'm assuming that you are aware of what happened. A lot of people were upset with how it ended with Cena winning. How do you feel? I mean, 17 time world champ. Cena going to do what he do.

Cena is my culture, right? You know, I came through with the Jeff Hardy, the Matt Hardy, the Rob Van Dam, the Rey Mysterio, the Kane, the Undertaker, the Edge, the Scottie Tuhadi, Rikishi, like these guys, right? And John Cena was one of those dudes. Brock Lesnar, like John Cena was one of those culture dudes. And I respect it, man.

Go be one of the greatest to ever do it. And John Cena, man, you can't see me. You can't see the dog. You can't see snow. you can't see me you can't see the dog you can't see snow you can't see me post post playing you're a ways away from that but would you be more interested a lot of guys have gone from football from the Great Iron to the wrestling ring but some have gone to MMA as well if you had to pick one route which do you think is more suited to you um Um, the WWE for sure. Yeah.

The WWE for sure. I'm an entertainer and I like to make people smile and I would enjoy, you know, having something like J U so you know, you like, come on, like you control the crowd. That is one of the coolest things ever, man. I would definitely be trying to do Swanton bombs off the top turnbuckle and you know, big boots to the face like JBL. Who knows? Okay. So here's the thing. If you can, if you can pick one dude in the NFL,

maybe from the jets, no one likes the jets. And let's be honest, I know you share the sentiment in the ring, like a WrestleMania main event, snowman versus who, who, who's the opponent? Who's the B side? Oh wait, wait, but in the the league if my opponent was in the NFL yeah yeah yeah in the league in the league like who we calling NFL NFL WrestleMania headliners yeah yeah yeah it'll probably be uh uh Deon Dawkins the snowman versus uh let's say Max Crosby

oh we don't like that Crosby you Oh, we don't like Max. Max Crosby. We don't like Max? No, I love Max. I love Max. I was trying to get a rivalry going. Oh no, a rivalry. I mean, I don't really be beefing with too many people.

Like the Jets, of course, but that's life. That's already there. I can't ever shy away from it. But if you want a match of two people that can compete and entertain, I think me and Max will put on a good show. Oh yeah. Me and Max. He's a huge fan as well.

I see him at like almost every UFC event. Exactly. He's a huge fan. Max, Max, Max likes a what? He also likes BK. BKFC. BKFC. Yeah.

You watch that too? Yeah. Like, so most of their fights are in Hollywood at the Hard Rock Casino. And I go, any fight event I go. I like to support. I like to be with the fighters. I like to enjoy. I like to support those guys because I know what it kind of feels like to go through a camp. I've never been through a true six week boxing camp, but I've, you know, four weeks, you know, three weeks, you know, I got to lose weight. I might do five, but when they're really grinding three or practices a day. It's the real deal.

Do you think you'll ever like, I just, I just saw yesterday, Michael Carter Williams, former NBA rookie of the year is going to have a boxing match. Uh, may 28th, I think it was Frank Gore had one, a former bill just a couple years ago, you think you'll ever do this? You know, I, I do. I really, really do. I've been chit chatting with Max. I told Max that I wouldn't mind sparring him

and having a, you know, like a train sparring match and have some fun with it. I know that I had an interview with O'Malley last season. I still have the clip. And I told Max, I was like, yo Max, I think that this will be like super cool. O-line versus D-line, we're both bigger guys, you know, see what happens, bro. Get the jab in and get the punch in and we'll see how it goes. You know, Max is, I think, still going through recovery from I think his foot and

you know, like we've been poking around at it so who knows maybe it might happen soon but you know all it's it's all love it really is I love it I love it and I would love to be I'm gonna send you the clip too okay I'm gonna send it to you so I appreciate that thank you I understand Dion you know you may know this I've been teasing there's a lot of things going on in the world of combat sports this weekend and people have been asking me where you gonna go you're gonna go to London for the big fight here there's a big fight in Poland there's other stuff and I've been teasing that I'm torn but I understand that you have the the official destination you have the

announcement as to where I will be this Saturday and so without further ado can I give you the floor can you make the announcement can you tell the world where I will be this Saturday? You know, because it's my birthday. Yes. My birthday is April 26th. I was born in 94. You know what we would all love, you know, as the mafia is if you could announce. The pick for the Buffalo Bills and the NFL draft.

I think that's where you should be. I think that's where it's meant for you to be. And I think that that is mandatory for the culture. The culture needs it and it'll set us off to a nice acceleration for the season. Yo, this is the beginning of the run. Breaking news from Deon Dawkins. I'm announcing a pick on day three, Saturday, Green Bay, Wisconsin for the people. Yes, for the mafia on behalf of the mafia. Be good, do good., Wisconsin, for the people.

Yes, for the mafia on behalf of the mafia. Be good, do good, God bless, go Bills. I'm there on behalf of the team. They've sent me over. You know how insane this is, man? I grew up- I love it. Bruce Smith, Daryl Talley, Cornelius Bennett,

Kenneth Davis, Thurman Thomas. You know how insane this is for the team that I grew up loving to ask me to do this? Of course I will be there. It will be the greatest honor of my life. Thank you. Thank insane this is for the team that I grew up loving to ask me to do this? Of course I will be there. It will be the greatest honor of my life. Thank you. Thank you to you and the whole team.

And thank you to Kelsey, Kelsey Sweet of the Buffalo Bills. You really pushed for this. The best. Yeah, KC! Do you have any tips? What do I do? What do I do? Listen, I'm telling you, be yourself.

Okay. You know, embrace the mafia, embrace them, let the world continue to know in a special way why they are the best fans in the world. Yes. Everybody's going to go up there and they're going to say, well, because we have the best fans in the world, but tell us why. We jump off tables, we shoot ketchup, we shoot mustard. We also light tables on fire and we stand outside in negative degree weather with no

shirts on and we throw snowballs in the air and make our stadium into a snow globe. Tell them that. I guarantee you they'll be an uproar and you'll have a statue up in Orchard Park talking about ketchup and mustard. At the new stadium? Golly, I can't wait. Can I ask, and thank you for this,

thank you for this, I am so freaking pumped. Can I ask, I know there have been some workouts, the guys are back in town. Can you tell me what the vibe is like? Can you tell, like what is the sense right now? What are we feeling? The sense is we have an elite group of men in one area. It is an elite group of people.

And you know, the names come across and you see who's coming in. And then when they get there, you see how they move. You see how they move their feet. You see how they, you know, da da da da da. Like you see honestly's coming in and then when they get there you see how they move you see how they move their feet you see how they you know da da da da da like you see honestly like how they lift if they're strong if they're quick if they're doing a little drill here and other that and it's all there and at this level honestly that's all you need that's all you need is guys that want to work our OTA percentage is high like the whole online

is here the quarterback group is here the receivingline is here, the quarterback group is here, the receiving group is here, the D lineman is here, the safeties are here, everybody's here, the corners. And that is a great start. And for the people that are new and for the people that are old, we know how to build a family here. And just to have a chance, it starts with building a family. And these guys are bought in already. It's day three and they're bought in. So I want to say I always appreciate how Bean and McDermid and Pagula run their business and they get the right guys here and it's cool.

And Josh is happy. If Josh is smiling, I'm smiling. I don't care about nothing else. As long as Scally Alley is smiling, I'm cool. You know, keep the kids smiling, keep them MVP, MVP Allen, but, and protected by Shneaux and the big boys, man. I love how loyal you are to him. Like truly, it is such a beautiful friendship and relationship when you talk about things, because sometimes you don't get a lot from athletes.

Like everyone wants to keep it, you know, PC, or they don't want to say anything. But when you talk about like, yo, look how happy he is in his personal life. That leads to him being a great player. Haley is the MVP. I love when you give us that kind of insight because we all adore him.

Like when he stands up there at the podium after the chiefs game, I want to win. I want to see the Bills win not only for me, because as a kid, I want to see them win for him because I know how much he wants this so bad for the community, for the fans. He just seems like the type of guy that you would go, you know, to war with that you want to be in the foxhole with. And I want to give you props, like when he walks up there to get the award and you're

doing even the, you know, the tackling thing for him, the protection, it's just so beautiful. It's great to see that bond. I feel like, like that's the type of stuff that makes teams into Super Bowl winners, having that kind of bond, going to war, wanting to do anything to get that guy to where he wants to be. It really is so, so true, bro. It is a, it is one of the most truest things because when you have a job and when you have a job title, and when you know the description of your job, your job is to keep somebody safe. My job is to protect Josh Allen. My job is to create holes for the running back.

But my number one goal is to protect the quarterback's blind side. If I have to protect somebody's blind side, that means he has to have full trust in me. I have to have full trust in him. He needs to be out on the field, not worrying about nothing on the left side, so he can do his job. And I take that with the most pride. And that's why I feel like I'm the way that I am and I speak the way that I speak because I live it. I put this cap on.

I try so hard to just keep it organic and real because it's what it is. I love my quarterback. We're here to love one each other and play ball. And I've been here for nine years. I've known Josh for eight and with an eight year relationship, the brotherhood is there. Yeah. And I'm here to protect my brother. I'm his bigger brother, but he's my bigger brother. And as brothers, we got to do what we got to do to get wins. And Josh Allen is my MVP. And I mean that cause he's made my life extremely easy of how good he plays football.

And hopefully I've made his job a little bit easier with how I play ball as well. I love it. I don't get to be a fan on this show cause I have to keep it down the middle. I gotta be Mr. Journalist. So it's fun for me for a moment to be a fan and to just tell you how much I love the team

and adore the team that night in January, you don't need to hear it from me, but I had to go for a walk around my neighborhood in the dark, it was like 10 p.m. Just to try to process what I just saw because I really thought this was it. I really believed in my bones that this was going to be it. I was sick to my stomach. Could I ask, does that feeling go away?

If I'm feeling this way, I can't imagine how you're feeling, how the team is feeling. Do you still feel that? Do you take that feeling go away? If I'm feeling this way, I can't imagine how you're feeling, how the team is feeling. Do you still feel that? Do you take that into next season or do you have to get rid of it? Do you have to move on? You know, eventually you move on, but you feel it. You feel it in every workout.

You feel it in every meeting. You feel it in every situation. Like, look, we're this close and we lost and the feeling will go away When the first snap of the regular season comes on because then none of that matters Even though it doesn't really matter now like it's over and they won it's over But this is the Eagles winning offseason. We still have to hear about the champion the reigning champions We did the reigning we have to hear that Like, we have to hear that all season, all off season long, and it's in our head. And as a competitor, it's always going to burn. It's

always going to be there until we get there and we cross that bridge. And until then, you know, the pain is always going to be there. But as of right now, we use that pain as a benefit to, you know, work harder and, you know, push out a little bit more sweat. But the burning feeling is mutual, brother. And my goal is to take that burning feeling away and for the off seasons to be nothing but full of joy, not 98%. 100%. Right? We could be at 90, right? Because we lost one game and before but I want to get it to a hundred right We like we want to get to a hundred percent But that day will come and we just have to keep working and keep you know entertaining and keep being who we are but I promise you it will happen and

The right guys are in the building and we have the right people to lead us You know, and I hate to put it all on Scali But like we have the best quarterback in the world. I have the best head coach in the world. My O-line coach is the best. The assistant O-line coach is the best. I have the best right tackle, the best right guard center, best left guard, best everything, best running. Everybody is top tier in my eyes and we have the right people to have a chance to get it done. And the good thing is that we're still here and we're gonna keep swinging at that ball. We're gonna keep swinging, man.

You're giving me goosebumps. Honestly, you're making me emotional. I can see it. I could see it with my eyes, a cold night in February, the confetti, all of you wearing the shirts and the hats, Josh holding that trophy. I can see it. The goggles, I could see it.

I could see the whole thing and I just want to see it come to fruition. I'm gonna let you go in a moment, just going back to the draft if I can see it. I have the goggles. I could see it. I could see the whole thing. And I just want to see it come to fruition. I'm going to let you go in a moment. Just going back to the draft if I can. And thank you so much. Once again, this has been incredible. Going back to the draft, is it the type of relationship? Do you have this relationship with being? Because I heard Josh can call up Bean and say like, yo, I want this guy. Can snowman do that too? Can you call up Bean and say, yo, I want this guy? Do you have that kind of relationship?

You know I'm not Josh. There's nobody Josh, bro. You can't compare me to Josh No, I cannot do nothing Josh Allen can do but I Do have a great relationship with the people in the building being as well I could call being and be like hey don't overlook this guy take a peek Oh, right I could call Bean and be like, hey, don't overlook this guy. Take a peek. Right? Like tell me what you think about him or I'll send him a clip of, of it, like of an Instagram video or something like, but I have the kid talking or anything, but no, I don't, I don't

get involved with any of that stuff. I let Bean and those guys do and what they do. And you know, if Josh is asking for someone, it's to help the offense probably. And, you know, and it's vice versa for a defensive guy. They'll probably ask for a defensive guy, but I like my guys. I like my guys. I like my guys.

So whoever comes aboard, I'll be happy to see you. Welcome aboard and good luck. And welcome forward. I can't wait. I can't wait. What a birthday you're gonna have. Are you doing anything special?

Anything big? What are we doing? Yeah, bro. So I have a beautiful friendship with Beth Hollis. She is sending me and my fiance to Puerto Rico for Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And we fly back Monday. So I'll be in Puerto Rico.

I shall be in Puerto Rico for the weekend and I will enjoy my 31st birthday with the love of my life. But you'll be watching me on the stage on Saturday. Yes, okay. I'll be zoomed in. I'll have my iPad up. I'll even hope that the TV has it,

but I will have my tablets and my smartphones, bro. Like I'm gonna be all right. I'm gonna make sure that I tweet and say you did a great job of connecting with the mafia dog. I appreciate it. I appreciate it, my man. We love you so much.

Thank you for representing all of us, all the fans all over the world, not just in Buffalo, but you do such a great job of flying the flag and the passion and the enthusiasm in which you are so proud to be a Bill is so much fun to watch, it really does come across and, um, yeah, thanks for everything that you have done. Yeah. The championships are not, man. You are such a great guy to root for and you're

the kind of guy that like, I want my kids to root for and I'm proud that they have followed in my footsteps to be a, a Bill's fan as well. Thank you for doing this. Thank you. Much love. You're welcome. Anytime.

And I can't wait for that fight. I want to be there when it happens. So let us know. Appreciate you brother. You're the man. There he is. The great Deion Dawkins, the snowman, golly, the left tackle for the, the starting left

tackle LT one for the Buffalo Bills. I'm kind of sweating here guys, cause it's sort of, it's sort of surreal for me. Like what I do as an escape is watch interviews with Josh Allen is watch interviews with Deion Dawkins, with coach McDermott, with Brandon Bean, the GM, all the players. James Cook, please come back, hopefully everything is okay. All that type of stuff.

And so to have a guy like that on the show makes me feel like a fan. The high water mark obviously, one day we will get Josh on this program. Come hell or high water, we are going to get Josh on this program. And I'm still waiting for the save the date to the wedding. I haven't got it quite yet. I'm not sure if you know the post is slow. USPS who knows I'm waiting. Maybe it's an email thing, a paperless post. I don't know.

I'm still waiting for it. But how about that, gentlemen? How about that? I wasn't able to do it back in twenty twenty two in Las Vegas. Here I am heading off to green Bay, Wisconsin. Never been, never been, never had a reason to go. I will be there. Hopefully, unless they trade a pick, unless they trade my pick,

I will be there on Saturday walking up. Why put that juju into the world? We're not, we're not talking about that. Round four? Round four? No, no, don't talk about it. By the way. So it's looking like pick 109. Yo, they got a bunch of picks in round four.

Oh, so we don't know which one yet? We don't know which one, but that's why I feel like the odds are in my favor. You'll get one of them. You'll have something. I'm going to get something. Okay. Okay.

I'm only seeing two in round, in round four. Well, I think three, rounds three and four are on day three. Okay. Right. Or even five. It's everything on day three. Okay. Right. Or even five. It's everything on day three. So round one is day one.

I think, no, excuse me. Round one is day one. Rounds two and three are day two Friday. And then the rest. Okay. Is it four? So you got three through seven. Yeah.

I, I, I don't have any round three picks. Okay. That's the thing. So four. Four through seven. And I think five as well. Okay I'm very happy to get three potential picks for you okay what are they what are they what are the numbers 109 yeah 132 yeah 169 nice 169 I feel like it's gonna be 132 okay yeah here's what's here's how it's

gonna play out though here's how it's gonna play out you're gonna draft's how it's going to play out. You're going to draft the player. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to announce the player. You're not going to draft them. I mean, you don't have Josh Allen's way. I'm going to you're going to announce them. Yeah. Yeah. That player is going to contribute to the Bills winning the Superbowl. And it's good. That's going to be my guy. Then no, well, yeah, they'll be your guy. But also that will be the thing that gets on Josh Allen's radar. And now you and Josh Allen become. So this is what I'm thinking. This is what I'm thinking. I'm going to rock up there.

I've already thought of what I'm going to wear. Yeah. Okay. What are you going to wear? I got my, my old school Bill's hat with the old school logo. Love it. My Zubas pants.

Love it. You know, for the, for the mafia, for the culture as, as Ian said, what a great guy, by the way. Golly. Ah, incredible. My Thurman Thomas Jersey, my Thurman Thomas Jersey to represent my favorite player of all time, number 34, Oklahoma State, the man, RB1. I'm going to rock up there.

And I don't want to make this too much about me because I understand that people are at home. They just want the picks to, you know, fly by like, okay, get to my, my team. But I have to say something. So I was thinking of maybe something like, on behalf of North America's team. And let's be honest, we all know that the Buffalo Bills

are North America's team, not just America's team, but we are Canada's team as well. I wanna remind you all to be good, do good, God bless, go Bills. Hi Josh, how are you? I'm waiting for the invitation. Let me know, arielhawani.gmail.com. Now, on behalf of the Buffalo Bills.

Have you seen Sinners yet? Oh boy. What's that, what's that? Have you seen the movie Sinners yet? What's that? What's that? Have you seen the movie Sinners yet? No, but I heard it's tremendous. You need to go watch it to show the support for both of them. Is it good? Is it good? I've heard...

I'm actually going to see it tomorrow night. Got tickets already. Continue with you. And then I say, this is the surreal part, with the 132nd pick in the 2025 NFL draft. Now, can I say this? Can I say whatever number it's going to be, I'll look it up, the Super Bowl, whatever, whatever,

the eventual Super Bowl. Future Super Bowl champion. Or is that bad juju? I think just future Super Bowl champion. Can I say like, if it's 57, is that bad juju? What are you gonna say, next year's? I'd ask someone about this. Yes, I'd ask someoneju? What are you gonna say next year's? I'd ask someone about this. Yes, I'd ask someone about this.

You're gonna say next year's? What is it, is it Super Bowl 60 next year? No, just say future so that we get, we're covered. Yes, Super Bowl 60. Future Super Bowl champ. The future Super Bowl, or just the future Super Bowl champion, Buffalo Bills select future Hall of Famer.

Oh wow, all right. Future Hall of, or is that too much? Too much pressure, too much pressure. You don't wanna put this on a young kid. Future third team all-pro. Oh jeez. Future Pro Bowl reserve. And I'm not gonna lie, according to Pro Football Focus,

mock draft, round four, pick 132. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Running back. Oh. Out of. Georgia? University of Georgia. Wow! Trevor ETN. That's crazy. If you draft a Georgia player you have to, you have to say from my guy. GC school. University of Georgia. The alma mater. Go dogs. Yeah, you got to get on your hands and knees and bark off stage. The crazy thing is, that's actually kind of brilliant.

That's actually kind of the crazy thing is the first time around the pick was going to be James Cook. Yes, right. Yeah, it was going to be James Cook dog. I was standing beside you in a bar as you found this out. Yeah, we all were. Actually, if you if you really did, if it was a Georgia player, you would win over a ton of Georgia fans by actually giving a little bark.

Yeah, a little bark. Is that it? From the University of Georgia. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll probably, by the way, I wonder how long, like how long I probably only get like. Is he ETN's brother off Jacksonville? Yeah. Wow. Do I'll only get like two, three minutes. I'll only get like two, three minutes to

process the pick, right? Oh yeah. Cause like the thing is flying by. So like if, if it's an LSU tiger, I have to think quick. Oh yeah. The buyer angles. You better be by your phone.

Cause you know college football. You got to give me the thing to do. do like do I go like this if it's a Texas guy oh for sure welcome to the Mafia GC said the videos of 109 they have Isaac Tesla from Arkansas you could give a whoopig suey oh what's that how does that go that's like their chain you literally just say whoopig sue okay okay okay man I'm nervous. Woo pig suey. I'm actually nervous.

All right, the good news is all of the mock drafts I'm seeing so far for these picks are like skill positions, wide receivers, running backs, quarterback. That's what we want. That's what we want. No offense to Deion Dawkins, unbelievable off the blind. We want someone we can rock up in the jersey. We can be supportive.

And that's gonna be my guy. We pick him in the fancy team. We're picking him in the fancy team. He's gonna be all of our guys. He immediately becomes the official NFL player of on ground. You're 100% right And I have long said that I don't wear jerseys, right? I don't wear jerseys of younger people because I think that's weird. I gotta get this guy. Hopefully you're drafting a 44 year old. Well, yeah, hopefully not but this guy I think I get his jersey. You have to the whole

Yeah, yeah, the whole crew has to get it thousand 1000%. We need to get a freaking cool ass guy. We need to get, and by the way. I think that would be pretty cool. Do I get to give him like the, do I get to? Okay, so that's probably not gonna be there. He's probably on Zoom, we're gonna see him like, the delayed, like he'll be texting and then look up and be like.

Yeah, do you think he's like, this guy's gonna be like, who's this, Jabroni? Or is he gonna be like, yo, Helwani called my pick? Yo, imagine if he's an MMA fan or something. Maybe, maybe, or he watched, you know, Jake Paul, Mike Tyson. That's true. That's true. But it put in a good word, Ariel, there's rumors, the Bills are going to be playing around Dublin there.

So just have a word. Yeah, I'll talk to them now. Yeah. BVIP. Yeah. Wow, guys, this is big. This is big. I'm excited for you, man.

Thank you. Green Bay too. Green Bay. It's cool to go out there. It's not quite a hop, skip and a jump. It's a couple of flights, but it's worth it. Do you walk out? Two flights. Do you walk out with the cheese head on and

then throw it? No. Punt it? Piss off all the green bay pants. Step all over it. Really play the heel? Yeah. Rip it up. Uh, no, I can't do that. I don't want to. Yeah, listen, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to play it cool here for the most part. You know, we could cut a heel promo. Um, but I'm, I'm. to play it cool here for the most part. You know, we could cut a heel promo. Um, but I'm, I'm, what's going on with James Cook?

You let, you let me some breaking news there. What the hell happened to James Cook? He seems a little bit unhappy. He seems a little bit unhappy, but we'll figure it out. Yeah, we'll figure it out. Thank God. Um, guys, that was always last year. That was big.

That was big. That was big. Okay. We'll process this. We'll talk more about it back into the show, but let's move along now to our next guest. This man, uh, made massive, massive, massive news, massive headlines all over the world of sports entertainment, AKA pro wrestling, on Sunday when he showed up

as Randy Orton's surprise opponent. And what a freaking time it has been for Joe Hendry. He was in studio on the Monday after his surprise appearance at the Royal Rumble. He has manifested all this. I said it was the highlight of WrestleMania weekend for me because here's a young man who honestly not that long ago had no business dreaming of all these things, had no business to chutzpah on him to dream of all these things and they're all coming to fruition.

Royal Rumble back in January, WrestleMania on Sunday, NXT yesterday. He is doing all of these things while still being TNA heavyweight champion. He returns to action this Sunday for TNA. We want to talk to him about all of this and a hell of a lot more. We have said his name and he has appeared. Let us say hello once again to the great Joe Hendry. There he is. My mansion.

Hello, Ariel. How are you? How are you? I'm doing very well. Thank you. How are you? Once again, to the great Joe Hendry. There he is, my mansion. Hello, Ariel. How are you? How are you? I'm doing very well, thank you. How are you? Are you like, I just picture Joe Hendry now just sort of like flying in the air.

Like your feet don't touch the ground. If there was a cloud nine out there, you're on cloud 32. What is your life at this point, Joe? The great thing about my life, and it's kind of similar to when we last spoke about it, things are just so crazy and so busy. You have no time to overthink things. It's just like alright, okay We're we're wrestling Randy Orton at WrestleMania. Let's go. Let's go They only really start to dawn on me when we were getting close to the stadium. I was in disguise and

You know how it is in pro wrestling to be able to keep something secret. It's very hard nowadays. We managed to do it, very proud of it. What a weekend. Can I ask, when did this first get on your radar? When did the possibility of this, you at WrestleMania, first come across your desk? So I've actually never answered this question. I've evaded this question every time someone has asked it. But Ariel, because it's's you I will answer it

Thank you. I found out about a week before I had to sit on this for a week Wow tell me tell me tell me What's that call like? Where are you? What like you can you paint the picture for us? I can't imagine what's going on in your mind when you get this call. So I was in the airport and I got a text from Triple H And I got a text from Triple H saying, can you talk? And I was at WWE World, I was scheduled to be there to be signing things. I thought it may be something to the effect of they've got the Slammys or it might be like doing a promo at WWE World. So I'm kinda expecting that's what the call is gonna be.

And Triple H says, listen, I'm sure you're aware that Randy needs an opponent. And yeah, that threw me off completely. I was in a state of shock. But I just, I knew there was a job to be done. I knew in my mind. But when I approached these things, I just thought I want to bring as much value as possible. And I want this to be the best moment that we can possibly make it.

And I'm so proud of what we did out there. That shot of the spin around into the RKO, it's now been made into a trading card. I think it was a really fun moment for the fans walking to the ring in front of 60,000 people. It was a huge moment for me. And what an honor to share the ring with Randy Orton. I just wrestled Randy Orton at WrestleMania. What is going on?

It's incredible and I loved your tweet right after saying that exact same thing. Can I ask, and we'll get to the match in a moment, who's the first call when you hang up with Triple H? You can't tell anybody. I had to sit on this for- Can't you tell your brother? You can't tell someone, I don't know, a best friend? I had to sit on this for- You can't even tell like your brother? You can't tell your someone? Like, I don't know, a best friend? I had to sit on this for a week. As far as I know, on our side of things,

there were, I believe, two people that had to know. Business wise. Incredible. And so what is that process of hiding you, like that whole thing where they try to cover you up and get you, what is that all like on Sunday? The cool thing, the cool thing. So here's what my schedule was like. I had a 12 hour media day for TNA, 12 hour media day. We had our event at a TNA event in Vegas, Unbreakable.

Then the next day I had a WrestleCon for like the full daytime. Then I did West Side Gun show that night. The Saturday, I did WrestleCon from, and that show wrapped at like 3.30 in the morning. Then I'm up to sign at like 8.30 at WrestleCon until mid afternoon. Then I go to WWE World. Same again on the day of WrestleMania. On the day of WrestleMania, I had WrestleCon from like 8.30 until 1. I had WWE World from 1 until 3 three and then went straight to the building, got my gear on and then we went.

And so there was a lot going on. But the cool thing is because I was at WWE World, I was booked there for weeks. So all we had to do get me in the car and I had a disguise. I had a dark hoodie, I had shades. I had COVID mask. I had, um, yeah, we did very well. And the speed of these go-karts. I got out of the vehicle. I'm on this golf car. I'm on the golf car right down the corridor through me in a room.

Nobody saw anything. Nobody knew. Incredible. And how nervous are you at this point? This is the crazy thing. Sometimes in life you. Nobody saw anything. Nobody knew incredible and how nervous are you at this point? This is the crazy thing Sometimes in life you have situations that are just bigger than you can kind of imagine and this was one of those

So there were no nerves Wow right up until I got close to the building because I was so busy It just it didn't feel real and then I start to see the the WrestleMania Advertisements on the way to the venue. I was like, oh, okay, this is getting pretty real now. Did you feel like Randy, I saw he gave you props. I liked the reaction when they showed him on camera after you make the initial appearance. Did you feel like he was happy with,

he had a big program with Kevin Owens. There was a lot of intrigue and all of a sudden he's left with no opponent, which added some intrigue. Who's it gonna be? Did you feel that he was happy with the way this all turned out for him, you being his opponent at WrestleMania?

So that would, I don't wanna speak for Randy. That would be something that he would answer, but from my perspective, I can only speak from my perspective. My understanding is that he was extremely happy with how it went and we clicked immediately We just we were on the same page and which was an awesome thing. He was so amazing to work with so

Again, I often find this with top top tileset when I worked Kurt Angle They're just so great to work with there and look, you know, people are saying well Joe Henry lost quickly John Cena lost quickly at WrestleMania It's about creating moments and if you know if you really like any you know what this business is at the end at the end When Randy does my spin and then does his pose people who know what wrestlers know that was Randy giving me his seal of approval Yes, one thousand percent. And so let let us address that because I couldn't believe that people were saying, oh, you got buried. Oh, it was too quick.

Oh, you made, this was an incredible thing. Ariel, if this is being buddied, keep it coming. Keep it coming. You know, let me tell you. Yeah. Look, this is, we understood the assignment. At WrestleMania, we were the fun, the surprise. When you saw Randy's promo after the match had taken place,

that's what he talked about, about this being fun. This is Randy Orton's 20th WrestleMania. There was a video package before it. This was a featured match. This, and as Triple H put it in the post event press conference, this was about giving Randy a fun moment for his 20th WrestleMania appearance. And for me to do that, I remember being 15 years old, walking back from high school talking to my friend about Randy Orton.

And when he was going to win the world title as part of Evolution. I remember having these conversations when I was 15 years old. So for me to be a part around his 20th WrestleMania, this is what people don't understand. But I was at the Performance Center, William Regal gathered everybody around. And he's like, listen, if you wanna work with Roman Reigns, he literally said this, if you wanna work with Roman Reigns and Randy Orton, you need to show that you can be professional, you can be relied upon, you can do the job.

This year I wrestled Roman Reigns in the rumble and Randy Orton at WrestleMania. That doesn't just happen. That is a huge responsibility and I'm grateful for the opportunity. Yeah. And then you hear what Triple H says about you in the post-event press conference saying this isn't going to be your first one. This is going to be the easiest one, maybe because there's no expectations. But he essentially said, Joe Hendry is going to be back. And I know you're very proud to be a part of TNA. You hold that belt extremely proudly,

but to hear him say that this is going to be the first of many for you. What's the feeling that goes through you when you hear that? What's the feeling that goes through you when you hear that? Well, it's a huge compliment. Wrestling on WrestleMania is the pinnacle of our industry. And again, this is something that nobody would have thought possible. This is where I'd like to give credit to both WWE and TNA Wrestling as well. I've said this before, TNA or WWE could have turned around at any point and gone, Matt, you know what, but both parties worked together to give fans an amazing

moment and to help me as well. I feel like we're in a situation where everybody's working together and everybody's winning. And that is what great business is. And that's when the professional wrestling business is at its best. I've said this before, different title reigns are about different things. And this title reign is bringing as many eyeballs to TNA wrestling as possible.

This is about big business. And I believe that I'm helping facilitate that for TNA wrestling in collaboration with WWE. Very grateful to both parties and the fans for allowing it to happen. This is a win, win, win, win for everybody. Couldn't agree more. You're a thousand percent right. And one of my favorite moments of the whole thing was the reaction from

the crowd when your music started. They all knew exactly who you were. You weren't some like, Oh, you know, Indie non WWE guy. And they're like, okay, who's this? They reacted as though it was the rock's music playing. That pop was incredible. That must've made you so very happy as well. It's honestly the, I mean, the rumble was incredible. That must have made you so very happy as well. It's honestly, I mean, the rumble was insane.

The way people asked me about it, it was almost like having a VR headset on. It's like, it just doesn't feel real. But WrestleMania, that's a completely different spot. And that was like a literal, it felt like a physical wave of energy coming towards me. It's unlike anything I've ever experienced in my entire life.

And I'm so grateful that I got to have that moment. I'm also very grateful that I had, you know, I've got, I had, afterwards I got to meet up with my amazing friends and my representation. I've got an amazing team working with me now. We all got together after and we had some food and it was just, you know, called back home. Like I just, I, you know, it couldn't have been a better day. It was the perfect day.

Incredible. It's such an amazing thing to watch. You're so easy to root for because you could tell how much this all means to you. And, and like I said, you've manifested all of this, like to have the, the chutzpah as we say, to even dream of all of this stuff. Like when you were in the studio in January after Rumble,

would you have believed that you'd show up this quickly again on WrestleMania as opposed to somewhere else? Like a, a, a role model? to even dream of all this stuff. Like when you were in the studio in January after Rumble, would you have believed that you'd show up this quickly again on WrestleMania as opposed to somewhere else like a Raw here or something? Like did you think in the back of your mind that this was possible, truly? Ariel, this is the truth. After the last Rumble,

not the one I was in the one before when Jordan Grace appeared, I walked in, we've got a training facility back home where we all trained together. I walked in, I says, guys, I was like, Mark my words. There was a swear word in there. I said, Mark my words, I will be in that next rumble. And I was. And then I remember I was watching the previous WrestleMania as I was by myself. And I just went, I was watching, I believe it was the video package between Rhea Ripley

and Becky Lynch. I think it was, and I just thought, I should be there, and I should be there, you know? And I was. It was unbelievable. And after the rumble, one of my best friends, I was talking to my friend, my friend George, and he reminded me that I actually said to him a couple of months ago, I was like, you know what, mania, I still think I can do it. I still think I can do it. I still think I can do it.

And it's weird, like just anything that I'm thinking just seems to be seems to be unfolding. And let me tell you, I've got a couple other thoughts of things that I think could happen this year. Can you tell us, can you tell us more? Well, you know, the match I'm going. Yes. And it just now makes more sense than ever. And this is all I'm going to say. All right.

He's got some he's got some back He's got Travis Scott in his corner can you imagine if a Huge star in music just reached out to Joe Hendry someone in the same ballpark as Travis Scott reached out to Joe Hendry and said maybe they might might want to start backing me. That's what I'm saying. Wow. That's what I'm saying. What genre?

What genre music are we talking about? Hey, maybe it's the same genre as Travis Scott. Hey, it's all just thoughts and rumors. Did that happen yesterday? Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't. Who knows? Wow.

OK, I love this. And you have talked about that. Did this person say that I could go at and at one of their concerts and and we could Hey, wow Okay, okay. Okay. Let's not get too crazy Yeah, let's not get crazy. You you did have a bit of a Run in and I don't mean a run in as far as like a fight like you crossed paths with John I do believe after yes, he's went over Cody Rhodes. Can you tell us about that?

When I so I was, I was backstage. There's, there's filming going on all the time. And I hope John doesn't mind me saying this because John has spoken publicly about conversations we've had, so I will, I will do the same. Not, not everything, but respectfully. Sure, sure. John went, came back from Gorilla

and he came right up to me and there were multiple camera crews. And he said that, basically what he said on Pat McAvee, John said, you did'm going to be a major player, that was the biggest compliment. And I really did take his advice to heart. It was very important to me to show John that respect because he, in my opinion, John Cena is the greatest professional wrestler of all time. So when he tells me that there's a certain path that should be going down or focusing on, that's exactly what I'm going to do. Because I think when he's giving me that advice,

he's giving me advice to help me and to help me contribute to the professional rest of business in a positive way. So for John to take the time, he's literally just won the title. And I said, you know, John, congrats on it. And he went, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, look, that, that he, he, after just becoming the greatest of all time, took that moment to go sure sure, but let's talk about this

Wow gave me that moment Wow, and you're just good. That's the type of guy that John Cena is wow That's the dream match. That is incredible. How much closer do you think we are to that happening this year? Look I just wrestled Randy Orton at WrestleMania. How much closer can you get? Yeah. You're pretty damn close. Although he has 27 dates left, I do believe. So.

Yeah, 27. Not too bad. 27s, that's a decent amount. Do you think that what, what are you feeling now as the king of manifestation? Are you thinking third quarter, fourth quarter? Are you thinking second quarter? We're kind of in the second quarter now. the king of manifestation? Are you thinking third quarter, fourth quarter?

Are you thinking second quarter? We're kind of in the second quarter now. What are you feeling? I'm thinking what I'm thinking. I'm thinking that TNE Rebellion is this Sunday. That's what I'm thinking. I've got a title match coming up and I need to defend against Frankie Kazidian

and Ethan Page. I need to get through that. I need to get through that. And then we can start to dream some more. It is this Sunday. I was gonna give it a little plug. April 27th at the Gallon Center in Los Angeles, I do believe I pronounced that correctly.

Yes, against Ethan Page and Frankie Zarian, two legends of the game. I think you did hint that maybe there's a potential superstar that might show up. Is that accurate that there might be a WWE guy showing up on Sunday as well? Well, Ethan Page is showing up. He's part of the match. Sure.

All I'm saying is I, I had a conversation where it was made clear to me. There was a lot of enthusiasm about TNA wrestling and you know, it, look, who knows what could happen there's, there's been rumors, there's speculation. I think it would be awesome if someone showed up, but who knows? Okay. All right. Yesterday you showed up on NXT, uh, with, with trick Williams and Oberfemi, uh, and so what, what do you think?

Are you, are you going to go back and forth now? Are you going to be there for a considerable amount of time? What is the plan? What can you tell us? Who knows? We're in an era where anything can happen. I love it. a considerable amount of time, what is the plan? What can you tell us? Who knows? We're in an era where anything can happen. I love it. All I'll say is I do worry about my traps and my shoulders because this shoulder is getting a little bit more of a workout than this one. So maybe we need to add some weight to this one as well. That's all I'm saying. I love it. Okay. This is great. What a life. What a life you're having right now. It's amazing It really is amazing. Was there some talk of you

competing on on on one of the RAWs in Europe Over the last couple of weeks and it didn't happen and they said like we got you we're gonna make good on this and obviously Like there's no greater make good than WrestleMania Was there some talk about that and if it is in fact true where you disappointed at the time that it didn't happen about that and if it is in fact true where you disappointed at the time that it didn't happen. Ariel, I just wrestled Randy Orton at WrestleMania and I'm the TNA world champion. Does this look like somebody that's disappointed to you? No. Things worked out pretty well for Joe Hendry. Whatever happened, things worked out. Okay. What was that on the table? Was that a potential? Okay, what was that on the table was that a potential I?

Mean that look is professional wrestling anything and everything's on the table, especially nowadays Okay, speaking of professional wrestling. Could I ask your opinion as a wrestling fan now? Sure take off the Henry hat the the TNA champion act. All right, I'm gonna take off. Okay here it is Yes, the the finish the finish on Sunday has been much discussed And honestly, I don't think it comes from a bad place. This is fun. This is barbershop talk. People love to debate this stuff. That's what makes being a pro wrestling fan fun, at least for me. What did you think? We saw the rocks reaction to it yesterday. We've heard that, uh, Triple H talked about it as well. Seen it going over the way in which he went over no rock. What's your like expert analysis of how it all went down?

You're putting me in a spot here. Because to me, John Cena is the greatest of all time. Cody Rhodes is someone who I have great respect for. I've worked for, I've worked with, sorry. He was gracious enough to text me about performing on WrestleMania. With everything he had going on for Cody to take a few minutes to send me a nice text was very, very cool.

So that was very cool. And the rock is the rock. The rocks, my favorite wrestler of all time is the reason I got into the business, you know, and, you know, I'm sure we can manifest things about that later down the line. All right, we'll get to that on another day. But for me, this is just my opinion. I'm just, again, we're putting the title for a second. For me, John Cena is the greatest professional wrestler of all time. And that has been made official. Okay.

And that's, and that is, to me, that's, you know, John Cena is the greatest of all time. And yeah, never sufficient. Did you get to watch any of wrestling? Obviously you were kind of the secret surprise, but even on Saturday when people didn't think that you would be there, did you get to watch any of it from the, you know, from the stands, if you will? I was not at the event on Saturday. I was, obviously there was a lot going on

to prepare for the next day so I did I did watch parts of the event what was very cool for me was after it competed I got to go to just a little room where I got to watch the the end of WrestleMania with with William Regal with his son whom I'm good friends with and with Josh Barnett as well. So that was pretty cool. William Regal was one of the first people who I met in the first year of professional wrestling. William Regal sat me down for two hours, and I was a nobody, sat me down for two hours and told me this is what this business is and the lessons and the principles that he gave me on that day,

I've carried forward every day in this business until now. And I was able to thank William Regal personally for that as we watched the finish of WrestleMania that I competed on. And that was maybe my way of letting him know that your advice was a big part of this journey and I'm grateful for it. Thank you, sir. So that was very cool.

And anyone in the immediate aftermath of the match, maybe even a Paul Levesque himself come up to you and offer you praise that really stuck with you? Yeah. Again, I don't want to speak for other people, but honestly, what is unreal for me is to be able to stand there with Randy Orton, and with CM Punk, and with John Cena, and for them to tell me that they thought

that I was the right person for the spot. And I did my part in helping create the moment that they felt was the right moment for the show at that time to contribute to the show. For them to tell me that is as rewarding as going out there in front of those people themselves. These guys are legends. So I'm very grateful for everything that's taking place. I continue to be grateful and yeah I'm so thankful to the fans and it's them that are putting me in this position

You know when I arrived at the venue, I didn't even know about this They just presented me with my own Wrestlemania merchandise that I got to wear to the ring And now Tops made a card for me. I have a card with Tops It's only available for like one more day and then and then it's done like my matty any card is going for like four or five Thousand dollars so grab yourselves these cards and you know what? It's a joint card with Brandy or I mean come on look at that, you know, it's yeah Yeah, and again, so it was just it was yeah, I can't show enough gratitude for what's happened.

I also do want to take time to thank my colleagues at TNA wrestling because, you know, working with, you know, uh, you know, I really don't want to miss anybody. There's so many names, but you know, working with Moose so many times and Eddie Edwards and even Brian Myers, I got to put him over a little bit. There's just, I'm gonna miss out a lot of names, so apologies guys. There's so many people, Eric Young, there's so many guys at TNA who have helped me. Ace Steele has been a big part of my journey. RD Evans taught me everything I know in professional wrestling.

These people have helped me get to this point. And my colleagues in TNA, it takes an army of people to put me in this position. So I'm getting a lot of the spoils and the benefits that come with this, but it really has been a team effort. All the management and crew and TNA, that everybody that's contributed to this,

it's a team effort. And I'm grateful to every single one of you for putting me in this position. And I hope that I can repay that by taking these new eyeballs and bringing it back to our company and bringing eyeballs to TNA and making it bigger, helping make it bigger and better for everyone. And you know, and also for Matt and Jeff Hardy to take the time that they've taken to, to help put me in the position that I'm in. I'm very sorry. I know I'm going to miss it. It's just, it is what it is.

But you know, Matt and Jeff, when they came back to TNA, they could have, they were given the microphone and the first thing that Matt did was say, Joe Hendry is the next guy, you know? So that again, these talk talents, like I could be more grateful. I'm the most fortunate guy in the world. I love it. There was a tweet that you retweeted from a young man named Tom Campbell about a conversation that you guys had. Could you tell us that story? Because again, it just speaks to, there's the tweet from Tom that you retweeted as well. But could you tell us the story?

Because again, it speaks to just how incredible your story is. Well, that is, that was what I was talking about. You know, when I walked in the next day to my trainees, I was telling them, I says, I'll be in that next rumble. And then I was trying to imagine if I was able to get in the rumble, what would the pathway be to WrestleMania? And I did tell Tom while we were on the road, it was about two in the morning, and I remember

telling him, and again, there's a bodybuilder that I went to train with called Dorian Yates for Mr. Olympia, one of the best of all time, and he says something, he's like, it just got to a point where he says, well, why, well, why not? Why not? And that's the approach that my view that you have to adopt and go, well, it has to be somebody. Why not me? What can I do to put myself in that position? So here I am very grateful. Yeah. Just gratitude. Delighted for you. Well done, Joe. Really. It's, it's a beautiful thing to watch. And again, you make being a fan fun. It's so fun to go on this ride with you and to know how much it means to you.

You did fantastic. You did fantastic. It really was great. And for me, the highlight, it really was. I'm not just saying that. It was the thing that put the biggest smile on my face this past weekend. Really, really happy for you.

And love to hear what Scott Demore said about you on our show. I don't know if you saw that on Monday. He was delighted for you as well. That's great to hear. And againMore said about you on our show. I don't know if you saw that on Monday. He was, he was delighted for you as well. That's, that's great to hear. And again, I just want to thank you for having me on. It was great to be in studio. Hopefully we can do that again soon because I just have a feeling.

I remember thinking how could 2025 possibly be bigger than 2024, but you know, I've just got a sneaking suspicion that we're just getting started. So I think you're going to need to keep a few slots aside for me. I can't got a sneaking suspicion that we're just getting started. So I think you're going to need to keep a few slots aside for me. I can't wait. Six months, my friend. You're welcome anytime. And I know you're coming to New York in July, so hopefully that could be it. If not sooner. Absolutely. TNA Wrestling at the UBS Arena as well. Go check it out. Thank you, Joe. All the best. Keep it up and good luck this Sunday at Rebellion. We shall be watching. Thank you, my friend. There he is. is Joe Hendry what can you say about this guy

the pride of Edinburgh Scotland the reigning defending TNA world champion look if you're not even a wrestling fan I get it you gotta love a guy who has put it out there who has dared to dream and who has said, you know what, I'm going to believe not only in myself, but in the world, just kind of working in a mysterious way. And it's all going to work out, work out for me. Uh, love it, love everything about it. And it is working out for him. Uh, TNA rebellion is this Sunday in LA.

He's in a triple threat match. So a couple of those that were very fun over the weekend with Ethan Page and Frankie Kazarian, the likes of the aforementioned Hardy Boys, Nick Namath, Matt Cardona who we like as well, Elijah Moose and many more. Go over to TNAWrestling.com to check out more on how you can watch and the guys killing it not only on TNA but NXTling.com to check out more on how you can watch. And the guy's killing it not only on TNA but NXT as well. He showed up yesterday. Great job by him. Later in the program we're going to be joined by Kyle Bohaglio to talk about what is going on with his situation regarding International Fight Week. We're also going to be joined by Bam Bam, Taitui Vassa, Ben Shalom from London,

site of this weekend's massive Chris Eubank Jr. versus Conor Benn fight. I said this show is a little something for everyone, so we go from the NFL to pro wrestling to now the wild and wacky world of karate combat. We get a chance to talk to the man who will be competing on the 2nd of May in Dubai, defending his Karate heavyweight championship, the longtime veteran of the sport who's enjoying a Renaissance under the karate combat banner. The one and only Smilin' Sam Alvey, who goes up against Tyrone Spong.

He's kind enough to join us right here. Now there he is, still Smilin'. Hey, how are you? After all these years, prolific on TikTok, he is. Smilin' Sam Alvey. I saw that you even responded to a, a response Right here now. There he is still smiling. How are you after all these years prolific on tik-tok? He is smile and I saw you even responded to a recent interview on my program with Ian Gary. You're everywhere You're just you're just reacting to everything. I

Would have had no career if not for the fans of the sport anytime I can give back to him. I give back to him I love it. I love it. Well, thank you for joining us. This is a big fight Tyrone Spong is an incredible fighter, incredible striking background, obviously kickboxing, boxing as well. Could I ask first and foremost, how's your time going? I suspect well, but tell us karate combat, this, this new chapter in your life. How is it going over there with this promotion? I am having so much fun with karate combat.

They take, so, so I like to say when BKFC first started off, they, they kind of embraced the WWE atmosphere to it. But then I think they went too far with it. Now you've got people flashing each other. It went a little too far. Karate combat has a dab of that WWE into it where they let the fighters have a personality and it is so much fun working with the promotion and being able to perform on such a big stage.

And so, you know, it was well documented. We talked after the losing streak in, in, in UFC now to go on this streak. I believe you've won a three in a row. You're three, three and O with one, no contest, right? Two KO wins under the karate combat umbrella to get your mojo back, your confidence back, does it, does it feel that way after getting these wins in a row here? Yeah. So since leaving the UFC, I've won, I want to say six fights. And I had won no contest somewhere in there. Uh,

but I walked away with the belt. So I say it was a win. Yeah. Um, yeah, no, I feel good. I feel great. I, I, I, a while back on Tik TOK, I brought out, I asked the question, said, how many of you think you could still beat the person from 10 years ago, who you were 10 years ago? And I am still that guy. I still feel I could beat up. How old am I? A 28 year old smile and Sam Alvey.

I've changed my game. I've made some adaptions and my alarm saying, I got to get on the phone with you is going on. What, what have you changed. What have you changed? What have you changed? Yeah, so I started this training program, it's on school, S-K-O-O-L, and it's the Smile and Striking program.

And I've just kind of readapted what I'm doing. I'm going back to the basics, but then I'm adding some of the future parts of it into, I'm staying to a structure as opposed to doing Everything is supposed to throw in some rice at the wall and stay with sticks Which is what I started doing a little too much of at the end of my UFC term I've gone back to the basics I I'm working the stuff that worked for me at the beginning and then I'm just tweaking little things little new things

I'm adding into it and just having a blast doing it. I Little things, little new things I'm adding into it and just having a blast doing it. I've talked recently about how there's like a recession in MMA where I feel like there's no real number two promotion out there. PFL I think is going through a bit of a tough time. There's no Bellator anymore. We don't really know what one is doing, what not.

Could Karate Combat be that second promotion? I know it's not MMA, but do you think that they have everything in place to fill that void right now and to give MMA fighters that option if they're not in the UFC don't want to be in the UFC don't have a place in the UFC. program. The way it's designed, the pit itself, it's very fan friendly. So I really could see the rise in Karate Combat. How more people are tuning in, especially now they're getting a Robelis is the heavyweight that everyone's looking at. I'm in there. They've had Luke Rockhold. They've had Hendo and Pettis fight again, they're doing a lot of the right stuff and that they're making a name for not only themselves, but the fighters that are fighting for them.

And I could see them if they aren't there already being the number two promotion in the world. Correct me if I'm wrong. This is Tyrone Spong's debut for karate combat, right? That is correct. Yeah. See he's, he's got, he's one of the few fighters in the world that have more fights than me. I'm at about 80 and he's at like 150, so it's not even close.

But this is his first time in karate combat. Do you think that is to your advantage? Just the fact that you've been there, you've fought in the pit, you, you, you, you, you, you know, you've competed with the skill set and whatnot. Do you think that's to your advantage? The pit, the pit itself, it takes some getting used to. you know, you've competed with the skill set and whatnot. Do you think that's to your advantage? The pit itself, it takes some getting used to. You would know, you've watched me fight,

is my game plan was I walk backwards and I catch him on the way in. I can't do that in karate combat because if I hit that wall, if there's no cage, I fall over and it's no good for me. So going into the first time, he hasn't trained in it. I mean, he hasn't fought in it. It will be an advantage for me. So, so when you're, when you're training for these fights, are

you just training open mats, like you do not train in a ring or in a cage because you don't want to get used to something breaking your fall or having something to lean on. I I'm still old school in that regard is I train wherever, you know, wherever somebody else has a pair of gloves. Okay. But I do the best I can. And I have my coaches watch me and say, listen, I don't want to back up. If you see me backing up, you yell at me.

Cause if I back up, I get taken down. I fall over. So it's really from the outside them saying, stay away from the cage. Stay away from the pit walls. You're still, you're still doing, um, other forms of martial arts. In fact, I think you just got your, your black belt, right. And you just do. Yeah. Yeah. away from the pit walls. You're still doing other forms of martial arts. In fact, I think you just got your black belt, right? In Jiu Jitsu?

Yeah, yeah. I was like a six year brown belt or something like that. Wow. It's really, there's my wife. My wife is the one that got her black belt. I was. She beat you to it. Oh yeah, she's better than me.

She is, I'm just bigger. No, I didn't know I was getting mine, which is why I'm in the shorts and I was wearing my karate combat gold. I love is. I'm just bigger. No, I didn't know I was getting mine, which is why I'm in the shorts and I was wearing my karate combat gold. I love that. I freaking love that. And so what does that mean to you? Lifelong martial artists to finally get that black belt after six years.

It's just, it's, it's just kind of weight off the shoulders. It's like I said, I wasn't expecting it, but it is something I have done with my wife from day one of fighting, was learning how to grab, learning how to do it. And now that I have that black belt, I no longer have to say, well I can roll with black belts, but I'm only, no, I can go out there and say, I've dedicated the time, I've been choked, I've choked,

I've been armbarred, I've armbarred, I've done it. I've put in the work and I have it. You know, I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit this, but I didn't realize, so does the champion of Karate Kombat get to wear a gold belt? The one around your neck? I wear it everywhere I go.

This is, I love it. I even, like you said, in Jiu Jitsu, more times than not, I wear my gold belt over my brown belt. I'll probably switch to the black belt because people know what that means. Yeah. But I love this gold belt.

It's one of the fun things that karate combat does. We did the gold gloves before the UFC tried and failed at it. And, uh, we've got the gold belt too. So you'll compete with the gold belt. I will compete with this belt around my waist. Okay. I love it. Now karate combat often holds events in unique spots.

Anything unique about where you'll be fighting karate combat 54, May 2nd. I leave for Dubai on Saturday. Okay. Okay. Yeah, man. I looked at it's like a 16 hour flight. It's a good guy. Yes. I'm hoping they find me first class, but we'll see.

What do you mean? You don't know yet. You're the champ. I, I, I'm in training mode. I, my, my wife takes care of all the important stuff. Okay. Now, uh, you leave on Saturday. Uh, I believe that's the, that's the, you're the champ. I think I'm in training mode. I, my, my wife takes care of all the important stuff. Okay.

Now, uh, you leave on Saturday. Uh, I believe that's, that's a week out, right? Yeah, it's a week out on Friday. Yeah. So is that enough time? Cause sometimes people say, you know, you need two, three weeks to get acclimated. That's, you know, that's seven, eight hours from where you live as far as time zone. Uh, no, it'll be, it'll be, it'll be fine. I'll be fine.

Honestly, the only time I've ever noticed a time change bothering me was when I fought in Brazil. I lived in California, it was about a four hour difference and it was just enough time change to mess with my sleep cycle. Anytime I've fought in Australia or Poland or I fought in Abu Dhabi on Fight Island before, the time zone didn't bother me at all.

On the way back, it gets me though. Okay, yeah, well, at that point, it doesn't really matter, right? I've already got another belt around my waist. Are you done with MMA? So I, you called me a martial artist earlier, and I guess technically I am, but I consider myself a prize fighter. I go where the prize is. I like karate. I love them. I hope to finish my career with karate. I hope I'm done with MMA.

I hope I'm done with MMA. I hope I'm done with MMA. I hope I'm done with MMA. I hope I'm done with MMA. I hope I'm done with MMA. I hope I'm done with MMA. I hope I'm done with MMA. I hope I'm done with MMA. I hope I'm done prize fighter. Um, I go where the prizes I like karate. I love them. I hope to finish my career with credit.

I hope I'm done with MMA. I hope karate combat and I stay together forever. But Jake Paul says, Sam, I'm going to beat you. See how we'll see. We'll see son. Or if Sean Strickland keeps running his mouth about me, I'll have to show up in the cage one day too. What's he saying about you lately?

Not a thing. He and I are best friends. I'm training with him all week. I'm out in the cage one day too. What's he saying about you lately? Not a thing. He and I are best friends. I'm training with him all week. I'm out in the extreme couture right now. Okay. Okay. And, and how's that gone? Oh, it's so, so I moved to Tennessee.

I spent my most of my career out in California, moved to Tennessee, just loving it. But the intensity is different. You have to go where the fighters are. I've got an incredible gym. I have one of the best jiu-jitsu gyms I've ever worked with and their MMA program is growing and they're movie tied. They just have a new instructor. It's fantastic.

But the sheer intensity of working with these guys at Extreme Couture, they're my size. Some of them are better than me at stuff. Some of them are worse. I'm just having good everything. So I really enjoy this Extreme Couture experience. I'm getting beat up every day and trying to beat people up to and as far

As what you're actually training in You're not doing MMA right at this point. You're just doing striking Yeah, so most of the guys that they've been you know, the guys have fights So I'll give them MMA rounds as well, but they've been real good with it karate combat They can get the takedowns, but then they can only punch. There's really no jiu-jitsu involved So anyone I've been sparring sorry, I'll take you down or I'll try to take you down and then I'll just beat you up from there They can get the takedowns, but then they can only punch. There's really no jiu-jitsu involved. So anyone I've been sparring, I'll take you down, or I'll try to take you down,

and then I'll just beat you up from there. I won't grab you. I said, okay, and vice versa. So we just, that little tweak makes all the difference. Some people have said, Sean is quite aggressive when it comes to sparring and whatnot. What's your experience with him? So Sean Strickland, he is exactly the same in person as he is online. Okay. I love the

death, but he is the hardest spar I've ever worked with, which is gold for me. He's the one that broke my jaw forever ago and I got him back. I broke his knee not long after, but he's the one that wired me shut. He is a hard spar. He goes in there with the intent to prove he's better than you and It helped get me to where I am today. So you're okay with that. I Love it. I love it. It's I do I love it. He hurt me the one time and then other than that We've just been great training partners Okay, there's a guy who has obviously been in the game for quite some time who has talked about wanting to come to karate combat Uriah Hall.

He has expressed some interest. Have you seen this? He even talked about a potential matchup with you, and he said, quote, what's he going to do? Smile at me to death. So it doesn't seem like he has a ton of respect for what you're bringing to the table. What's your reaction to this?

You know how many people have said that exact same line to me? Yeah. Like 80. I hope he goes in with that thought isn't he with the GFL right now, which by the way I I'm hoping that takes off is that it's such a good idea, but no bring him on. I I love fighting I love fighting anyone at all times your eye haul I've met him once or twice super nice guy incredibly talented and I it would be my honor to knock his ass out I I presume

you were being facetious regarding the GFL no I thought it was with the GFL I am I missing something well the MMA world so fast oh well the GFL is is all but dead it's it appears I mean they can't cancel the two cards well I mean let's be honest it's is not a good sign. Not a good sign. They have said that fighters are allowed to leave if they want. They'll be released with no issue. I don't think a lot of people are holding their breath at this point.

Were you a part of the GFL too? It was hard to keep track. I was not. No, no, no. I'm very happy with Karate Kombat. As long as I'm working with them, I'm not interested in anyone else, but I did want to see it. There were so many fun fights involved. Yeah, there were.

What do you think about the state of MMA right now? I talked about Karate Combat potentially filling a void, but as you know, there aren't a ton of spots right now. There aren't a ton of B, C, D, E promotions. How do you feel about the state of the business? Um, I, the, the UFC has done a good job of being the biggest and best. What I think in the PFL, I liked the idea, but they're trying to compete with the UFC. These are the organizations and Karate Combat is not trying to compete with the UFC. They're just doing their thing and if the UFC fighters or fans watch

That's awesome but I I Wish PFL would do more of their own thing and not keep talking about the UFC being the next big one Just go out there have your good fights grow your organization And that there are cut, you know LFA still around, Fury, everyone, everyone likes watching Fury too. And I enjoy the Fury. It'll grow, but UFC is such a, such a grip on being that number one spot. Everybody just, every time a promotion kind of gained

some steam, they'll say, I want that number one spot and they need to avoid that. Yeah, just try to focus on themselves, but also try to be a little bit different, right? Don't, don't come across as UFC light. Yes, and and that was a BKFC I loved it at the beginning when they kind of really embraced that WWU-ness to it like everybody had personality. Karate Combat is doing similar they're highlighting us as opposed to the the big spectacle that is us they're they're letting us be us and then they're

putting it on a platform that looks really sharp. And again, they're not trying to compete with the UFC. They have all the respect in the world for the UFC. And they're just, you know, we're pure strikingly. We are the greatest striking league that has ever existed, which I completely agree with. I mean, you say that, but then I think of like a glory kickboxing. Why would karate combat be above them as far as a striking league is concerned? Honestly, because we add a basic Greco wrestling.

If you take, if you take something like glory or K one or any of those big ones where there was no wrestling, it was just strike over striker. So everybody could stand in front of each other and kick each other. Crowdy combat, because they introduced that, some judo, a little bit of Greco involved, it changes the way they have to move. There's a far more lateral movement than there was in any other, um, pure striking sport. And I just love it.

It has added a new dynamic that, that I haven't seen anything before. Have you watched a lot of Tyrone Spong fights to prepare for this one? Uh, I, I've been watching Tyrone Spong for as long as I can. He is maybe the greatest kick boxer that's ever been. Uh, I huge fan and he's, he's always been more power than speed. And that's not that he's slow, but the power he brings, I mean, he was the hardest puncher in the world before Francis Nogano. Yeah. Yeah.

I'd like to point out, I've never taken the test. So which test, which test are we talking about? hardest puncher in the world before Francis Nogano. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to point out, I've never taken the test, so which test, which test are we talking about? Who punches harder? Oh, right. Right. Right.

Yes. If this, I was just wondering, because this is a little different than your typical kickboxing match, I know he had some, some time in world series of fighting as well. Are you able to, to take away any sort of, you know, uh, and any sort of nuggets from watching tape on Tyrone Spong at this point.

Yeah. Tendencies and whatnot. So anytime that was one of the things that happened to me is I had so many fights, people could always just watch. Oh yeah. He does this. He does this Tyrone. He's a very simple striker, but he's very good with everything he throws.

And he doesn't have throw anything Wait a lot of times you can rely on people not to actually kick you They're gonna use the kick if he's gonna kick me. He's gonna try and break me if he's gonna punch me He's gonna try and knock me out And it's it's a very it's a fun style to watch because you know any strike every strike He's got that ability to end the fight. By the way, without getting into specifics, how's the pay compared to UFC? How's Karate Kombat paying these days? Nothing compares with UFC, but I'm making a living.

I'm making a living. I've got a ranch with, I just got pigs the other day, and I've got goats and horses, and so like, you can't compare it to the UFC because the UFC is the UFC, but I'm making a living with them. I'm doing well for myself and I'm very happy with it. Where'd you get the pigs from? So a friend of mine moved to a boat in the Caribbean, so I got his pig and then we just,

Facebook marketplace said, hey, my community says they have to get rid of my pigs. Can someone take them? Say, yeah, we'll take them. So now I've got three pigs. How many animals total? So we counted by heartbeats. We've got, I want to say 113 heartbeats on our ranch.

Wow. What do you mean by heartbeats? What does that mean? Uh, kids, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, but as a heartbeat, we count it. Wow. And, and, and is it just you and your wife taking care of everyone or do the kids help out as well? We make the kids do everything hard. Yeah.

How many kids you have now? Six, six are half the heartbeats, just about. Yeah, we've got six and we're not taking any precautions. We'll see what happens next. Oh my dear. And what are the age ranges? So it's 11, 10,

eight, twin five-year-olds and a 2-year-old. Golly! And you wouldn't mind having more? Yeah, we give us all the kids. We've adopted one of them. We are foster parents and so we adopted one and we'll adopt more. We're just getting a grasp on Tennessee life first. Wow! Yeah, we're just thrilled with them It's it's I tell every new parents that they are the most infuriating and joyful thing that will ever happen to you in your life I recommend you hang all of them

That's my advice for all young fighters get married young and have a lot of kids your career will go so much better. Why is that? I so The there are four things that ruin all fighters, okay Work women wine and weed if you can stay away or pick the pick the ones that that help you The most you know carry on what you're trying to do. It will help you you can avoid weed You can avoid wine. You can avoid women. You can't avoid work So you got it? You got to come up with the job as you're getting into it.

But if you find a good woman, someone that supports you, somebody that helps you, that like you said, my, my, my wife has been in my corner for over 80 fights. My wife, she's the one handling everything that's hard so I can just go on train. She is the back one. I would have had not any career had it not been for her. And I found a good one. I married her as young as I could. Wow. How old were you when you got married? Uh, so I, we've been together for 20 years. Wow.

Wow. Wow. So you're 38 now. I'm 38 now. Yeah. Okay. Look at you. I mean, 20 years, if my math is correct, you, did you get married at 18?

No, no. So I say we've been together. Okay. Okay. I got married. Oh, I, okay. I got married, oh, I was 26 or 27. Okay, all right.

Way too long. But she went on, she won America's Next Top Model, so she lived around the world a little bit. I was always, we were always together, but not physically. The moment that it worked out, we need this done now. Just curious. I know you have the four W's there, um, work you, you, you mean like, you know, another job that can take you away from training, right?

When like fighters have no money until they have money. Sure. Uh, when I was trying to get into the UFC, I'll bet you I had three or four jobs at any given time. Uh, but they're all jobs that let me train. They're all jobs bouncing or bartending or waiting or, uh, I, uh, roofing was a good one because I could get, I could spend three or four days getting a roof done and then I could go train and tell it because you get paid a bunch of money.

Um, so, so work is the one that, that you, you can't not have. You have to be able to live. You have to be able to eat. You have to be able to live, you have to be able to eat, you have to be able to pay your trainers. And when you say wine, is it just because it's another W? Like why wine and not, okay. Alcohol. Alcohol. All right. I just thought, is there something wrong with wine in particular or? No, no. Just alcohol, but alcohol doesn't work good. That doesn't have a W.

Did someone tell you this or did you come up with it? Like did someone instill this? This is all me. This is like, I, like, that's all me and I love it. What's happening on the TikTok page these days? I am shadow banned like a mother right now. You think so? Really? Why? Why? If you go and look at my views are down so much, I, TikTok hates fighting.

It hates the word fighting and it hates any sign of damage being done to anyone. And that's what I do with everything is I'm fight breakdowns or whatever I've got going on fighting. And I, I'm, I forget not to say the word fight because I use TikTok all day long and I just ended up posing. Ah, damn it. I said fight again. I try and use words like competition or my next match, but, uh, you get on that

list with, with TikTok. When I don't like what you're saying. And they say, I will just make sure no one sees it for a while. And, and, and so maybe you go to Instagram then maybe you go to reels or YouTube shorts. No, why stick to TikTok? I do use all of it.

Just TikTok pays me. I don't make it to make something. A reels, reels doesn't pay anymore. They used to, I made $10,000 in a month with reels right. When it was coming out and then they saw that and said, nah, no one's going to make't pay anymore. They used to, I made $10,000 in a month with Reels right when it was coming out. And then they saw that and said, nah, no one's gonna make any money anymore. Golly, well, you're prolific.

You're very fun. It's always great to get your insights. And I'm very happy to see that you are enjoying this great success over in karate combat. So all the best to you, Sam. Thank you so much for stopping by. Good luck on May 2nd against Tyron Spong. What a, what a freaking fight. He hits very hard as you, as you alluded to. Good luck on May 2nd against Tyron Spong. What a what a freaking fight He hits very hard as you as you alluded to so good luck out there

Get it done. Thank you so much. Thank you so much And hey with karate combat one of the ways they do things is you can bet on all the fights They're big into the crypto world and so they've got karate coins. I believe I'm the underdog So if you bet bet some of your karate coins on smiling Sam, I'll make you a lot of money I love it. I love it. Good luck to you Sam. All the best to you. Thank you very much my friend. Appreciate it There he is the karate combat heavyweight champion. He returns to action on the 2nd of May in Dubai karate combat 54 He goes up against Tyrone Spong Spong by the way 14 and Owen boxing has over a hundred kickboxing bouts

glory Grand Slam Tournament Champion has massive wins over the likes of Remy Bonjeski, Melvin Manhoff, Ray Cefo, Nathan Corbett, Peter Ertz. And this card, as I said, also features the debut of Mohammed Mukhaev. The event will stream live on the Karate Combat YouTube channel and they're doing some things. They've got some momentum. So shout out to the good folks over at Karate Combat and to Smile and Sam who never doesn't smile. It's unbelievable. Could you imagine being that happy all the time?

I can't, but I appreciate him being that happy all the time. I can't, but I appreciate him being that happy all the time. In a few minutes time we'll hopefully be joined by Caio Bojaleo, Ben Shalom will join us as well, and Taitui Vassa will round out things. I'm gonna chip away while we have some some time here at a few more questions if I can. So let's go back to the sub stack. Yes. Alex Weber, our good friend, A-dub. Do you get the sense Ariel, that John may have never intended to fight Tom and that the 30 million figure, a $30 million figure was thrown out expecting

the UFC wouldn't come close, giving him a built-in excuse not to move forward with the fight, almost like the UFC has called his bluff. It's a fantastic theory, Alex. I don't know. I really don't know. If it was a, you know, I'm going to see if they bite, a call your bluff type of thing, they, my understanding is they have met, they have met his number. And it's on him. The ball is in his court. That is my understanding.

Does anyone have a take on this? Does anyone think that John never had any intention of fighting Tom Aspinall and was hoping the UFC didn't meet his number and then he could say, look, just like the Francis fight, I was ready and willing, they were just being cheap. I don't, because why even entertain that? You know, just- I mean, they haven't entertained it in the past.

So, you know, like history would show that they wouldn't meet his number. But why, as John, why even go through the exercise? You know, just, just be like, I'm done. If that's, if that's the case. And I think anybody, as I said yesterday, like I feel like anybody would understand if John was like, I'm not fighting Tom because I'm not fighting

anybody. I'm done. My legacy set. I don't need it. I think it'd be fine. So I, I don't, it. I think it'd be fine. So I don't, it just doesn't make sense why I go through that exercise only to have the number met.

Um, but it's, it's precarious. It's a precarious situation that he finds himself in. Ultimately, I think it will happen if I'm being honest, I'm actually more helpful. I'm more hopeful now knowing that the, the UFC is willing to meet the number. That's where I'm drawing my hopefulness from. That is good news. 100%. Here's Baklava. Perhaps it's action. I don't know. Hey AH, did you see what Mr. Paul Felder had to say about you?

He seemed pretty fired up about you in this clip. Always thought Paul Felder was above all that stuff. How do you feel about what he said? I did not see the clip that you are referring to. Cowboy killer responds to him and says, he seemed to be on the fence, but Bisping was begging him. Hope Ariel addresses this one, curious his thoughts. I'm sorry to disappoint you. I guess if it's the whole Bisping thing, who knows?

But I think if you have watched the show before, you have only heard me say it.. I'm sorry to disappoint you. I guess if it's the whole bisming thing, who knows? But I think if you have watched this show before, you have only heard me say very complimentary things of Paul. I think he's one of the best analysts that they have. I've always enjoyed my conversations with him, my interviews. I thought we were in a great place.

I don't know. I've even gone as far as to say that I think he's one of the best, if not the best, post-fight interviewers in the game as well, because he listens, he asks really good follow-up questions, so I don't know. I know you guys are begging for me to keep this going, but I don't have much interest. And so if it is pertaining to that, I'm sorry, I missed it, but I'm not looking for any type of beef with Paul Felder, I can assure you of that. And I don't think I've said anything that would or should make him upset.

Tyler, hello Ariel and the crew. Suppose Ariel runs a grocery store, Rick GC, Frank and Pizzi are the only employees, everyone gets one job. Who is doing what? One cashier, two stock, what is this question? This is a silly question, I couldn't care less about this. Left leg cemetery, question for Goat Connor, a few quick over unders for you. Islam's remaining fights at light heavyweight plus or minus, excuse me, not light heavyweight, lightweight, plus or minus 1.5. Under. Poetans remaining fights at light heavyweight

plus or minus 2. Push. Push. That means 2? Yeah. Okay. the fighting nerds combine belts when it's all said and done, plus or minus two and a half under. And then he writes, we're saying we're going to get three champions from the four guys. Well, I'm not saying anything. He's, he's throwing out the lines. Anyway, then he, he rounds it out with it's tough. It is. It's definitely tough.

Um, Eric has a question for New York Rick. Is he in a position to answer or no? Yeah, I think so. I'm here. I'm here. You might need a little more than 10 seconds or maybe not. This question is for New York Rick. Did I hear you correctly that you said you married your first girlfriend?

If so, how did you know she was best for you, the one? How did you handle the idea of one needs to date a lot of people to find the one? Did that ever bother you? And Matt Moe just adds that she filled your bucket. Buckets are filled. It's a good point. It's actually a really true, like valid,

truly valid question. Um, I confirmed I married my first girlfriend. Now when I was, you know, this valid, truly valid question. Um, it, it, it confirmed I married my first girlfriend. Now when I was, you know, this is, I met my, my now wife in high school, senior year of high school. We started dating freshman year of college.

Had there been like, you know, flirting and fooling around with like other high school girls when I'm in high school and whatever before that? Yes. Did I ever have a girlfriend? No. So this was my first girlfriend and then became my wife. I hope that makes that clear. And then beyond that, like how did I know after that? There certainly had to be some doubts, right? Like if, as I said, this was my first serious girlfriend and all of a sudden I'm like committing to a long-term thing, you do have to wonder like, is there other things out there? There was a point where I, I had some of those thoughts.

I tried to talk to her about it and she like, maybe didn't feel exactly the same way. And we had to get through that period. And, and I can't say it didn't, it didn't cross my mind. On the back end of that, I had a realization that ultimately the things I wanted in life were not to like find somebody else when I had the person I wanted already, right?

When I thought about my long-term goals, it was to have children. And I thought she'd be the best mother. Turns out I was correct. She's the best mother that there ever was. And so I had to commit to that even in spite of the idea of like maybe there is something else out there, maybe there's a way to do it. out, I was correct. She was the best mother that there ever was. And so I had to commit to that even in spite of the idea of like, maybe there is something else

out there, maybe there's somebody else out there, but I had such a good thing in front of me. I came to my senses and figured out that like, that was what I truly wanted. And I have all those things that I wanted and it worked out perfectly. So I can't say that that's like a, a easily replicable thing, but I do think you have to really do a soul

search. You have to analyze like, what are your long term goals? Is the person you're with able to fulfill those goals? If so, it's probably, you know, the grass greener thing is, is probably not something to pursue. It's probably better to just stick with what you

got, appreciate what you have. And ultimately it worked. It worked, couldn't have worked out better. Love my wife, love my family. And it were all worked out perfectly. Incredible. I remember when you were just, appreciate what you have. And ultimately it worked. It worked. Couldn't have worked out better. Love my wife, love my family. And it were all worked out perfectly. Incredible.

I remember when you were just a bright eyed bushy tailed guy with a, like with a lineup. Yeah. I had hair like you. You had freaking diamond earrings. I still do. You do? Like right now?

The entirety of the time I've known New Yorker. I've never taken this thing out. My, My girlfriend, now wife, went with me to get my ear pierced when I was... Is it the same diamond? I've had the same stud for... Wow. 20 something years. You never take it out? Like are you supposed to clean? No, no. You gotta clean it. You gotta wash it every once in a while. Wow. Not every night though. I'm not like taking it in and out because it's the same one. It's become like such a part of your- Part of the, yeah, yeah, of course. The package, wow, okay.

Hutt, Ariel, real thoughts on the Pistons Knicks series. Little nervous, thank you, love the show, go Pacers. Well, you guys are doing really well, up two-oh. I'm terrified, I don't feel great. And I'm not trying to be like Mr. Negative, I adore the Knicks, I'm rooting for them, but I have to be honest, the Pacers are really good. I didn't want great. And I'm not trying to be like Mr. Negative. I adore the Knicks, I'm rooting for them, but I have to be honest. The Pacers are really good.

I didn't want to play them. I would have much rather played the Bucks. They're young, they're hungry, they're aggressive, they're tough, they're deep. And I don't think we're matching their intensity. We have now played them for a combined eight quarters. I think we've won one of those quarters. They punched us in our mouth at home, and I'm terrified to think what's coming tomorrow on the road.

We have to dig down deep. There was great symbolism in the fact that, look, I adore Dante DiVincenzo. I think it's one of the greatest seasons that a Knick has had, a one-year season, a one year tenure. The other one is Xavier McDaniel back in 1992, 91-92. The symbolism of Devo hitting that shot in game two against Philly last season, last playoff season. And Mikael Bridges missing that very similar shot on Monday to tie the game was palpable.

It was hard to stomach. Because honestly, I would be very into the idea of trading them straight up. Straight up. Like one for one. That's how much I missed Evo and how disappointed I've been in Mikael Bridges. We need to be tough. We need to dig down deep. We need to meet them in the freaking middle of the ring, so to speak. And they're doing that and we're not. It can't just be on Jalen. He's trying to carry the team. He needs help. He needs to trust his teammates.. Josh needs to step up cat needs to step up The bench needs to step up

Deuce mcbride needs to step up. They all need to step up and if not, they're losing in six What's your confidence on them winning the mba finals this year? Come on Well, then you know why delay the inevitable? I want Well, then, you know, why delay the inevitable? The real reason, the real answer to that question is, it's so much fun watching with my kids. I would love for them to get a run, to experience a run. I would love to take them to a playoff game. I just don't see it.

The difference in the confidence that I have in, it's not, look, if it's always just about, if they're not gonna win, what's the point, then I wouldn't exist as a sports fan because my teams never win. But that journey, the ups, the downs, all that, them being in the mix, them being still alive, it's the most fun part.

It's the springtime, it's New York, it's the Mecca, it's MSG. If you would have asked me after game seven last year when they lost to the Pacers if you'd have asked me all right what's going to happen next year I said we're going to regroup and we're going to make it at least to the conference finals that's the you know that's like the the bar now I'm worried

we're not making it past the first round makes you feel any better huh minus 250 to win the series. Still? Yeah. Have you watched the series? I watched game one. Couldn't be bothered with game two. Game two was a disaster.

They fought back, great, but, and game one was a disaster. It was, it was. Little Caesar Arena, gonna be on fire. Nah, I'm done. And by the way, no, tomorrow, and they're like not selling tickets to people

from New York or Tri-State area, which is total bullshit. They're like afraid of the Knicks fans invading. Listen, I will always back my guys. I believe in them. I'm just worried about the lack of grit and toughness over the last month or so. It has been alarming. You know who we're missing?

We're missing Hartenstein also. Doesn't get mentioned as much as Evo and Randall, but Hartenstein was, moved the ball well. If I could pick one guy to bring back, I think Hardenstein also doesn't get mentioned as much as no and Randall but hard inside was If by the way if I could pick one guy to bring back of those three, it's Hardenstein. I just have like Hardenstein it was impossible to keep him because of the the salary cap and all that we traded Devo So that's why I bring him up. He's one of my favorite Knicks of all time He was the glue there the the passing, the rebounding, the intensity, the fight, like he would never give up. And you know what I missed most about him? He backed his guys. He freaking backed his guys. I remember when Divo got into it with Miles Turner in the second round. He got up there in his

face. He was an enforcer to a degree and we don't have that. So yeah, I miss him. Those freaking floaters, they're beautiful. I'm always so sad when I see him in Oklahoma City. Anyway, more questions to be answered, more to come. For now though, let's go to one of the very best fighters in the UFC, one of the very best middleweights in the world. And he's been in the mix as of late, and we want to figure out what in fact is going on. He is in Kansas City right now with his good friend,

training partner, teammate, the great Carlos Prochez. He's the one and only Caio Bohaglio, and he's kind enough to join us, so let us go to him. There he is. Hello Caio, how are you my friend? What's up guys? I'm very good brother, happy to be here again. By the way, are you wearing the meta glasses there?

No, no, this is not the meta one, this is mine. Okay, those are your, oh, I like it. Because you know what? I saw your friend Carlos is not the meta one. This is mine. OK, those are your oh, I like it because you know what I saw? I saw your friend Carlos yesterday at the baseball game. Did you see him throw that ball? Perfect strike. I was impressed. Perfect one. Yeah, we were making fun of him like don't do it like Derek Lerner is Connor and all these guys. They did like shit, bro. So please make us proud. Then I that's that's why he got it.

You know, he was afraid to miss, so he just throw it to get into the point. So please make us proud. Then that's why he got it, you know? He was afraid to miss, so he just tried to get into the point. It was on point. Did he practice beforehand? I don't think so. He practiced his left hand all the time, punching people. So that was easy for him.

Okay, well done to him. Let's talk about you. What is going on, Kyle? Because over the last maybe week or so, there was the back and forth with Nasodini Mvav. We'll get to that in a moment. But as of late, it has grown exponentially because there was a back and forth between you and Hamzahd and some talk of an interim fight, International Fight Week. Where do we stand right now as far as your career and your next fight? I'm just lost, brother, to be honest with you. Because everybody's ducking.

I'm not the one to come here and say, everybody's running from me and they are afraid of me and all that. But all of them know it's a hard fight for them. And they're all ducking. Robert Wittke ducked, Imovov ducked, all these guys. And I just don't know what I have to do to fight again, you know? So this fight against Hamza, I saw the opportunity when I saw the, when I heard that Drikus was injured.

And I, and I said to me like, this is my shot. I need to go there and show them ready. Then I'm willing to face anyone. Doesn't matter who. And I asked the UFC for this. Uh, we're still waiting for this. We're still waiting for them. I'm still waiting for Hamza response. I think he's just fighting me if he's for the belt. If it's not for the belt, he doesn't want to fight me. So we're still waiting.

What's going on? So, so has the UFC called you and, and offered you this opportunity against Hamza? No, I called them. You called them and what was their response? They're going to figure out, they need to see how bad he took his injury, to see if they're going to put the injury belt or not, to see how long he is going to be out.

So maybe Hamza will wait until he's coming back. So no response at all right now. So we're still waiting. I'm willing to fight anyone, you know, it can be him of all. I'm just willing for this guy to say yes, or can be Hanzo or anyone. But now to be honest with you, I'm kind of lost a little bit because I mean, without my last fight was August. So eight months ago. So everything that I want is just fight. I'm a fighter. That's what I do. I never say no to fights.

And I think, so with Hamza, it makes sense to fight him cause Imavov didn't pronounce himself. And he's like the number one contender. He didn't say shit. And so this is the fight to make. I don't know if the UFC is gonna put the belt or not. If they're gonna make this fight or not. Depends on how bad Drikul is.

But I think the fight that makes sense is me against him of all. You know, he's the number one contender. He fought good against Israel. He got an early stopper against Jared. I almost finished Jared. Actually was supposed to be a finish, but I think the referee didn't want that. So that's a fight that makes sense. I'm 10 years and beaten seven fights in the UFC, undefeated, nine fights with the two on the container.

So I'm doing my job and I deserve the opportunity to fight the best guys in the world. That's what I want. That's why I joined this sport. Just waiting. Okay, so let's talk about Imavov for a second because that came out and correct me if I'm wrong, you were offered a fight against Imavov and he said no? Yeah, let's do it. I said, yes, right away. I didn't even like, no, give me a time to talk with my team. No way. I said, yes, right away. We're waiting, waiting for him to respond. And it's be like one week, one week, one week, one week. And then I said, yeah, let's do it. I said, yes, right away.

I didn't even like, no, give me a time to talk with my team. No way. I said, yes, right away. We're waiting, waiting for him to respond. And it's been like one week after they offered me this fight, they did not heard that he said no, that he doesn't want to fight, that he wants to wait for the bell, that I need to face a top five guy first, but he's a top five guy. So it doesn't make sense what he's saying, you know. I just think that he knows that's the hardest fight for him, the division, and he doesn't want us to take the risk.

So what's interesting about it is you just alluded to it. You're currently six, he's currently one. Obviously we know that DDP and Hamzat are going to fight and he said this regarding why he doesn't want to fight you or why he thinks the fight doesn't make sense. Let him beat a top five guy, let him prove he's worth it. Like I did, that I'll knock him out. He is a top five guy. He's exactly that guy. He's talking about himself.

Exactly. And like it doesn't even make sense. You know why this guy's running, right? So I fought Jericho Nune, he was a top five. And I dominated Jerry Kononi like no one ever did. If you see the fight against Jerry Kononi, it was five rounds and I dominated four rounds. I won four rounds. All the judges gave me four to one, only one judge gave me three to two. So, I think there's not much guys that stay

close to Jerry like I was, you know? And the best thing that they know that I'm I think there's not much guys that stay close to Jared like I was, you know, and the best thing that they know that I'm I think I'm one of the I'm the only fighter or maybe one of the few fighters that had a change in his game into the UFC, because every time something coming to UFC and they stick to their sport. Like if it's a good wrestler, almost never is going to be a great striker. If a good striker is now almost never going to be a great wrestler or a great grappler. So I've shown in my three first fights, amazing grappling. I dominated Dagestani guys. I dominated striking guys with grappling. And then with my fight against Paul Craig, I knocked him off with my fight against Jerry Kanon here. I didn't shoot one take down in the entire fight. So I'll be showing my improvement. I'm showing how complete I am, how well rounded I am. And I think these guys know, you know, so that's why they don't doesn't want that risk.

Do you think that the UFC is going to, you you know some people can say no, but the UFC will ultimately say like no We want you to fight this fight Do you think ultimately the UFC will force him to take this fight because to your point it makes so much sense I Think they should do it, but well actually to be honest I think they already did that because what I heard is that like they offer him this fight He said no and fight he said no and then he said okay you're gonna lose the number one contender sport and he said okay I'm okay with that you know what I mean? Wow. It doesn't even make sense you know like

and then he came and wait how this guy is bad he I spent the whole week talking about him, challenging him and try to have this fight. He didn't say shit. And as soon as I challenged Hamza, he came with a response. It doesn't even make sense when my focus wasn't on him anymore, he responded to me. Like, and he said, stupid shit,

like I need to face a top five guy or when he when he fight me he gonna KO me and people gonna say okay Kyle uh face the number one it's good to lose he's gonna come back stronger he's worried about me this is crazy bro doesn't make any sense you know he just can say like I don't want to fight this guy. He's too good. I cannot lose to be. We will be better like that. You know, take this ego out of your brother. Do you have any sort of sense as to how long DDP is going to be out for? No, actually, I don't have a clue.

I heard, but it's just like rumors, you know, that he broke his shim. And I don't know how much time he's gonna be out. I think they came saying that he might be back in October or something like that. So we still don't know. Okay. You also said that Dagestan is ashamed of you to Imavov. Those are big words. You said this to Full Send MMA.

This is something that could cut deep. Yeah, because you know, like I've ever told him respect for these guys. They'll be fighting for so long since they were little. They fight in the streets. They grew up without love for them to be tough. They always want to fight and all that. And I think a guy that is from Dagestan that is picking fight that doesn't want to fight, like doesn't want to fight to see who's going to be number one contender,

Dagestan should feel shame for him. You know what I mean? Are you still, ultimately, if the fight comes back to fruition, are you interested in this fight? Of course. Okay, okay. I want to fight this guy. He's the number one, you know, and I think I deserve this fight. He needs to get this fight. He's the number one, you know, and I think I deserve this fight. He needs to get this fight because his last performance against Easy was good performance, but he clipped it.

You know, he was getting pissed it off in the first round. Against Tarrant, he was losing the fight. Against Brandon Allen, awful fight. So I think he needs to prove himself a little bit more, you know, and what better guy to prove himself against me? I'm coming a prospect undefeated UFC seven straight victory is the biggest in the division With Anthony Hernandez, so I never lost in the UFC I've been without a loss in 10 years. So I deserve it. That's the fight that makes sense, you know, and and so in 10 years. So I deserve it. That's the fight that makes sense, you know. And so, Hamzat isn't from Dagestan, he's from Russia. He's from Chechnya to be exact,

but there is a relationship that you guys have. You've trained together, we've seen the footage. How would you describe the state of your relationship with him now? Because we've seen you guys go back and forth a little bit. And so I don't know where you guys stand. Yeah, but we were having fun. He was posting funny pics. I was posting pics. We were talking about Dan. You know, he posted this pic like he was picking me up, like killing me. But that this one, the other one that he must be like submitting me or something.

We were drilling. We're doing the film for like for embedded, you know, so when and when i'm somewhere to help a guy i don't care to get beat up for five rounds for 10 rounds for how many rounds it is i was there to help him to him to get the win that's all when when it comes to fight that's a real fight you know so i'm willing to fight the best guys in the world i think hamza is one of the best guys in the world the hardest fighter the division and that of the best guys in the world, the hardest fighter, the division. And that's why I'm this sports for, to test myself.

And I use all these martial arts and all these fights to get better as a human being, as a father, as a brother, as a son, as a man, you know? So I want to get better. I want to fight, you know? In your heart of hearts, who do you think your next opponent will be? Who do you think you ultimately fight against next?

I think him above, maybe I think they're actually going to try to force him or something like that. And, uh, if like, and he's interesting because if Draco is going to be out for so long, like they think about October, November for him to come back. I think we're going to wait like more than a year to fight again. Cause the next one will be what?

1026 like middle of 106 beginning or something like that. So is he willing to wait that much just to don't fight me? This is crazy, anything, nothing makes sense, bro. Nothing. It is weird. It is definitely weird. Do you think, I asked this question because I remember when we spoke at the beginning of the year, you said you were hoping to return May-June. May is rapidly approaching and then of course International Fight Week. So I can understand your frustration. Do you think you will fight on that card? Do you think you'll be on the

June 28th card? To be honest, I don't know. If they call me and want me to be in be honest, I'm a no. If they, if they call me, you want me to be in this card. I'm a hundred percent. I'll be training already. I'm a good shape. My weight is very low. So I'm just waiting, bro. To be honest with you, I'm just waiting.

Your teammates have been very active. Yeah. Yeah. And it's hard because that's why I'm seeing all these guys being so active. Since my first fight, Carlos already fought two times. Gian ready for two times. Rufio ready for two times. You know, it's rough because I'm on my prime.

I have no injury. I'm training a lot. I'm working a lot. I'm traveling all around the world with DOC. I've been to Australia, Abu Dhabi, Miami, everywhere. Las Vegas, everywhere. I'm doing my job. I'm doing my part.

And now I just wanna do the rest of my job. I just wanna fight, cause that's what I am. I'm a fighter. So I'm just waiting. I feel like this sometimes happens. You know, you're a little further along than your teammates. You're right there on the cusp.

And I feel like it's easy to get fights to be active when you're coming up. And then when you get to the top, everyone tries to be so selective with their spot and their next fight and stick with their ranking that we, we often hear from fighters in your exact position who get frustrated because they can't break through because those guys are trying to hold on to those top spots. You know what I mean? Yeah. He's shit, bro.

This, this thing is shit, bro. You know, like Michael Chandler lost four in a row. He's number 12. Still, he's still in the top spots. You know what I mean? He's shit, bro. This is shit, bro. You know, like Michael Chandler lost four in a row. He's number 12 still, you know, there's Paulo Costa. He's busy. He didn't fight for like two years already. He lost four for his last five fights. He's still in the rankings. Like this is crazy. This ranking is shit, bro. So I'm almost like that. So I don't care about rankings.

Give me a ranking guy. Give me a guy coming from Cotanda. Give me anyone brother. I don't fucking care because this ranking doesn't mean shit. You know? So I'm willing to fight. That's all. You can see how desperate I am to fight, right? So that's what I want. I just want to fight because I'm a fighter. That's all I want. I love it and respect it. We have talked about Hamza. We have talked about obviously the issue with Nasruddin. You have also mentioned Anthony Hernandez. He would be someone that you would be interested in as well.

In this guy I respect. Because as soon as I tweeted his name, he came to me on Instagram because he doesn't have Twitter. He came to me on Instagram because he doesn't have Twitter. He came to me. He came to me and said, Oh, I just saw that you call me out. What data are you thinking about? I'm down to it. And then I said, Come on. That's what I was trying to hear. You know, someone they're going to set the challenge and then we go there and going to fight. But I think they said they will see it has all the plans to him. I think they're ready book

I'm so happy to him and all that so I think this fights off right now Okay, a couple of other things and then I'll let you go because I know it's busy over there. Thank you very much for the time How is Carlos doing? What are the vibes massive fight for him main event with Ian? I'm gonna show you that this year over there. You can see over there in the end of the hall. Yes, yes. So this is the energy now with us. Carlos is very good. He's in his best shape physically, mentally. He's ready to put another man to sleep. I think no one can take the power of Carlos. I think Ian and Gary is a hard fight for both. I think no one can take the power of colors. You know what I mean?

I think he and Gary is a hard fight for both. I think he and Gary are gonna out and out that, but I think he and Gary didn't get that there was calm, collected. They just want to hurt him in the beginning. And then after that going to the, to finish the fight. So I think it's a hard fight for both. I'm 100% confident that Carlos

is going to pay one more time. You think a knockout early, late, what are you feeling? I think a knockout second to fourth round. Okay. Maybe like that in the middle of the fight. Yeah. Cause the first round, he ain't going to be jumping in and out, not trying to engage and all that. Cause he knows how Carlos is powerful. And I think this fight will go a little bit further. I feel like I've asked you this again but just you know since then John has won, Maricio Hufi has won, Carlos, can you just even describe the vibe now among you guys? All you do is win, it's one of the best stories in the sport right now, the Fighting Nerds. You guys must be like, the confidence must be at an all-time high, right? sport right now, the fighting nerds, you guys must be like, the confidence must be at an all time high, right?

They're always confident. Even when we haven't these guys, like winning all the time, that was just me, we were confident already, that we're gonna put a lot of guys in. I can tell you, we have like six or seven more guys that is actually ready to the UFC, you know what I mean? So we're just waiting for them to have the opportunity. We're going to dominate the UFC just like the way we're doing right now.

There he is. The super. Hey, tell him I was very impressed with the throw with the left hand. I was very impressed with your game. I was born to be a baseball player, but I chose to play. What do you want to see John Silva do next? Who do you want to see him fight next? I think you can fight Volkanovski next. Five fights, five finishes. I think you can fight for the bell next, you know, because you see Diego. Diego had crazy great five fights. No all finishes.

And they gave him the opportunity because he said yes to every opportunity. Gian is the same thing. He said yes to Drew Dobler two weeks after he fought Charlie Jordan. He's finishing all his fights so I think he deserves you know. I think he can be the first one to get the belt actually so the expectations are very high. We're very confident. We're happy with all we are doing but we're focused we need we know that we need to keep doing What brought us here and this is hard work? Who's what what attic and a lot of study? That's what we're gonna do and is is Michal Oleg Shayshok an official member of the team now

Yes official official Wow this guy is amazing amazing amazing human being first of all amazing human being family man fight for the for his family one of the easiest guys to work with Because he's always there with spirit with energy. He always wants to do what they are told to do He's a very good fighter and I I think we just, we were just like closing the holes that he has in his game. And I think he showed in his fight against Cedric, he was calm, he was collected, he didn't rush. And when the time came, he took the opportunity and finished the fight. So I think he's a better athlete already,

but even better human being. I love this guy. Last thing, I saw you in karate combat against Brendan Allen. Did you enjoy your time there? Did you enjoy the experience? Yes, I love it. I love it, you know, I just wanna fight

and I have, I was so many months without a fight, nothing booked. So I wanna go there and risk myself against great, great letters in the UFC by these guys. And I had a great time. It was good. I tried to finish, but he's very good at Jiu-Jitsu. Actually, he has 25 wins in 17 by submission. And people don't realize that. People are saying, oh, you'll break him. Like it wasn't easy and all that. But people don't have a clue how good he is. I put good positions on him and he was defending very well.

He defended my guillotine. That is my best move. So I was honored to share the defeat with him. Well, I hope we get to see you compete very soon. I'm sure it's very frustrating. I could feel that, but it's gonna happen soon. And I appreciate you coming on to clear the air and let us know what's going on for now.

Good luck to you and the team on Saturday. Really appreciate your time, Caio. Great stuff as always. And thank you for coming on on this Wednesday. I know it's busy over there, so thank you very much. Yeah, it's all good. Thank you so much for having me as always, brother. Hope to be back soon announcing my next flight.

Can't wait, Can't wait. There he is. Kyle Bohaglio, the natural they call him. 17-1, 7-0 in the UFC, ranked 6 as you saw on the screen. One sub, one KO and he is on a roll as is the entire Fighting Nerds team. It seems like every time there's a big card, one of them is competing on there. We just saw John Silva, Michail Oleshechuk here is an official member of the team, Rishio Hufi as well. And Carlos Proches is up next.

And he, I mean, to me, I remember, I remember when Imovov beat Izzy in February in Abu Dhabi, we came on this show on the Monday after, what did we say? That's the fight to make. It's the number one fight. I don't get that quote from him. I don't understand the quote. The quote was beat a top five guy and then we'll talk. He is a top five guy. What does that mean?

I understand the quote. What's the quote? I wouldn't want to fight. Fight someone else? No, I don't want to fight Kyle. I'll tell you that. I don't want to fight Kyle. I'll tell you that. I don't want to fight Kyle. That dude after the performance he had against

Cannoneer, I wouldn't want to fight his ass either. Who's the favorite in that fight? Kyle? Or Seemovov? Yeah. I don't know. I bet it would be Seemovov. You think so? I don't know. Kyle's probably lined pretty closely. Yeah, I bet it would be Imovov. You think so? I don't know. He'd probably be lined pretty closely. Yeah, I bet it'd be close. Kyle's on a roll, but Imovov just knocked out Izzy. Yeah. Wow. I'm just saying he is right about his assessment of the fight. Izzy looked great in the first round and remember, I thought the

the stoppage was a little, I don't want to use a controversial, but you remember with the, you know, the eye poke and then he switches stances and then he could have taken the time, he didn't take the time, he did the prayer and then he got knocked out literally 10 seconds later. Who knows what would have happened? The cannon year fight was a little bit, you know, there's been a couple,

as they're not. They're half. What'd you say, Sussie? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sussie makes us? No, it's absolutely accurate, but even- not? There are half. What'd you say, Sussie? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sussie makes Suss? No, it's absolutely accurate, but even- What do you mean I say what my kids say?

You said it, not me. You said it. You immediately perked up. I mean, I was like, what? I've heard that one. Want to just drop a Sussie? I think they're both extremely well positioned prospects that people rightfully are backing.

And I think it'd be a fantastic fight. It's the fight to make. Great fight. It's the fight to make. I don't, I don't understand if he truly feels like they should not be fighting, but I do understand why you'd posture not to fight Kyle. It's such a perfect international fight week

fight and, and Humza DDP, we don't know what's going on with DDP, how, how accurate all of this is. I've asked his team. I haven't heard much back if I'm being a hundred percent honest. That's the next fight. And so if you're Imavov. That being Hamza versus DDP.

Yeah. Hamza DDP is the next fight. Let's just say it doesn't happen. International fight week. Let's just say they're saving Hamza for October. Imavov is going to wait a year? I don't know if there's that kind of momentum, not suggesting that hasn't

happened before. It has happened before where someone waits a year and gets a title shot. But I think this fight makes a lot of sense. I mean, Imovov. Like if you look at the rankings, man, like inside the top five is, is Strickland, Shemayev, Adesanya, Whitaker, and then it's Kyle. I mean, it makes complete sense. Whitaker and Adesanya and Strickland, Shumayev, Adesanya, Whitaker, and then it's Kyle. I mean, it makes complete sense.

Whitaker and Adesanya and Strickland are all coming off of losses. Kyle is 7-0 in the UFC. If Imavov doesn't feel like he needs a fight to stay busy, he probably should wait, if I'm being honest. Like, you think he would get next? I don't, well, here's what could happen in that time. If Kyle doesn't want to wait, and Kyle takes a fight,

and Kyle loses, now you're next. Right? So... What if Kaio takes a fight, looks incredible, gets a knockout, now he has the momentum. And you get past. You're rolling the dice. But fighting Kaio and losing to Kaio is an automatic putting you at the back of the line. So it's one of these things where you have to weigh the risk. You have to weigh the risk and the reward. If he feels like sitting out, he might be able to maintain his spot. I would kind of get it. But if you're that number one guy, the best way to put a stamp on it right now is to eliminate Kyle because he could have a claim to it.

And to your point, if he gets a win and a really impressive one against a big name, it will be an even bigger claim. So it's a, what have you done for me lately type of thing. It's a who's available at the time that it's made. He has to kind of weigh the options here, but I think the fight makes a ton of sense. And it would determine a real true clear number one contender after Hamza Tshemiah. I didn't mention this and I'm kind of kicking myself for not mentioning it, but what about Kyle versus Sean Strickland?

I like Izzy versus Strickland better. And we've heard Izzy now come out and say he wants it as well. So you think they want to do it? Yeah. kind of kicking myself for not mentioning it, but what about Kyle or Sean Strickland? Or I like Izzy versus Strickland better. And we've heard Izzy now come out and say he wants it as well. So you think they should go in that direction? You have to, it probably makes most sense to go in that direction only because like you don't necessarily want Strickland to beat Kyle. Now you're kind of faced with Strickland being a top contender. A hundred percent.

Yeah. Yeah. Lost to DDP twice. Although it's Strickland versus a Hamza could be intriguing if Hamza like certainly the DDP side of it. I'm no interest in seeing Strickland to DDP twice. Although Strickland versus Hamza could be intriguing if Hamza like certainly the DDP side of it. I'm no interest in seeing Strickland versus DDP again. But Hamza versus Strickland. So you said Kyle Whitaker, if you're Whitaker, is that the fight to take right now? I don't know. What is the fight? Yeah.

I mean, it looked great against Dallas Garof, but then he got caught up against Shmaaya. I think the biggest takeaway from that interview was how sick that jacket Carlos Prochaz had on. Yeah what was that? I don't know like that neon venom but it also had the Fighting Nerds glasses loaded on it. It didn't have it, wow. That was legit stuff right there. They're on fire. They could do no wrong those guys. By the way a fight that is completely flying under the radar this weekend. Oh no, is it next weekend? That's probably why it's flying under the radar. Yeah, it's next weekend. I screwed that up.

Taffa, Tuco Tacos? No, uh, Bo'Nicol RDR. For a second, I thought it was this weekend, but it's next weekend. I mean, the next two are fun. A, because they're in actual cities, like, you know, non-apex cities, uh, outside of Vegas, different locales, Kansas city, whatever. Uh, Des Moines, you guys excited? You guys getting ready, uh, outside of Vegas, different locales, Kansas City,

whatever, uh, Des Moines, you guys excited? You guys getting. Can't wait. Revved and ready to go. Cannot wait. I am ready to go. Any plans, any plans that we can share or? Go to the fights.

Uh. Aren't you doing stuff beforehand? Do a fight feast. Uh, we still haven't solidified the restaurant on which we're going to do it at. Okay. Uh. One or multiple?

Probably just one. Just the best that Des Moines has to offer. Okay. Not gonna have a ton of time. We landed like 11. Flights start at 6. Was there any consideration going the night before? No. This is in and out. This is a business trip.

By the way, how's it possible that there's direct flights to Des Moines, but not to Green Bay? What's a bigger city, Des Moines or Green Bay? Des Moines. Is it really? Sure. Like there's more people who live there. Oh, I would argue, yeah, 100%. I guess I just think of Green Bay

because it's an NFL city. Yeah, well, only 210,000 in Big DM. Okay, okay. Green Bay population, 105,000. Des Moines reigns king. Holy shit, that's it. I mean what even is Green Bay? I don't know. Is the Bay actually green there? Nobody knows. No one knows. Have you ever been? The Green Bay? Yeah. No. Rick? Never been. No. What is it? I've been to Des Moines though, but never been to Green Bay. Have you been to Des Moines? Yeah, when I went to Iowa for an Invictus show, okay, but Des Moines specifically. Yeah, I went to Des Moines

How was the spread at the Des Moines Invictus show? Yeah, no, it wasn't in Des Moines. It was in I Went to Des Moines, but it was in oh boy. I'm gonna get killed. I don't remember which city in In Iowa was I'm not gonna lie, I'm looking at pictures here like the Bay is pretty green. It is green? It's not blue, it's definitely more on the green side and it's appropriately named for sure. What's it like being like Aaron Rodgers walking around

Green Bay? God. In his prime, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Super Bowl winning Aaron Rodgers. Yeah, like a Brett Favre. A Brett Favre, yeah. It was Davenport.

The event was in Davenport. What a fighting town that is. The city of Green Bay is called Green Bay because of the greenish hue of the Bay's waters during the spring and early summer, particularly when the water is shallow. Early French explorers like Jean Nicolette in 1634 noticed this color and named the area La Bay Verte, the Green Bay. The name stuck even when the area came under

British rule, though the French initially referred to it as La Bay. So there you have it. I'm looking at the Green Bay skyline. Nice. Not much to it. I'm literally, if all goes according to plan, gonna be there for less than 24 hours. You staying in a hotel? Yeah of course. What do they got a Motel 6 out there? Don't worry about it bro. Do you have the lights on? Listen, I stay with the Buffalo Bills. They have a W Green Bay? I'm a VIP guest of the Buffalo Bills, all right?

They do it right. Ritz-Carlton Green Bay? That would be nice. I don't think it's that. No, they don't have one in Green Bay, unfortunately. That does mean, of course, that I will not be in London. I will not be, I wouldn't dare show my face at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium,

but we are very excited about that fight, and I'll be hoping to watch it all. That, the freaking Marius Pujanowski against Eddie Hall fight. I'm going to sit back. Where should I go? Where should I go watch Carlos Prochez versus Ian Gary?

Should I go to a local watering hole for that or should I watch it in the room? Oh, watering hole for sure. Any recommendations? Let me know in the chat or let me know on the socials, where should I go? Should I go to BBW? Buffalo?

Wow. No, BWW. What is it? Just B-dubs. B-dubs. All right. Yeah, B-dubs. Uh, perhaps I'll go to, uh, to one of those spots.

Um, but we are getting ready. We are getting excited for, uh, the fight on. Saturday, the open workouts are happening right now. Let's take a quick look at Chris Eubank. How's he looking? Is he looking, is he looking svelte? Is he looking in shape? Is he looking revved and ready to go?

Look at that little body shot action. What we got? Once again, let's see, let's see. Uh, the weight is coming off. Same spot as the grand arrivals, I do believe. 160 pounds, hydration clause, 170. Next day, looks like quite the scene. Looks good.

What about Mr. Connor Bend? Oh, there he is. Beard still on, letting the hair grow. Power. Everyone's saying great things. Everyone's saying that he's switched on, that he's training the likes of William Skull and Bruno Suarez. He's training against all of them. He's sparring them all. And so we are rapidly approaching one of the most anticipated fights on the 2025 calendar. The man who is promoting it alongside his frenemy Eddie Hearn is the one and only Ben Shalom, the founder of Boxer. He is kind enough to join us from London, site of this mega fight. There he is. Hello, Ben. How are you?

I am very well. A very busy week over here in London, but looking forward to an absolutely enormous fight. Yes, a very busy few days for you. Obviously on Sunday, you had the Easter Sunday show in Birmingham. Can we start there if I can? Obviously it was a big one for Ben. There was a lot at stake, a lot of pressure.

I kind of felt like a lot of that emotion came out in the post-Fight Press conference. He was emotional. What did you think of his performance, the win over Liam Cameron? Oh, first of all, the build up over here, this was a story, this rematch that captivated British boxing. I mean, you have Ben Whittaker, the Olympic silver medalist and flying high. We've never seen the numbers of someone at this stage in their career and what he's been doing.

But he devised an opinion and the night on October the 12th, where the two of them fell out the ring and the controversy that came, it was crazy. And, you know, at that point, you know, we said to him, do you want another fight? He said, no, we want to go straight back into the rematch. And he had to do a lot of soul searching, but I'll tell you what, the pressure he was under, the ridiculous amount of pressure that he was under. He came through and his statement was, was emphatic. It was a super performance.

It was, to be honest, everything that we expect, you know, his talent deserves that sort of performance, his talent deserves that sort of performance. His talent suggests that he's a lot better than the level. No disrespect to Liam Cameron of where he's going to go, but the pressure, that was what most pleased me. He showed, you know, he's not just an elite level athlete, he's got elite mentality and he was himself during the ring walk, he was himself as he came in and then yeah, an unbelievable stoppage as well. Okay. And so what about that stoppage?

Some have said it was premature. What's your response? To be honest, I feel like fans sometimes want fighters to be literally stitched to the canvas or have that, you know, those knockout real moments, you know, are fantastic and they're fantastic for Ben and maybe part of Ben's camp feel like it would have been nice for it to go on to get one of them. But for me at ringside, when you see the fighter's eyes roll

and you see he's got a perforated eardrum and he's hardly standing up and it's only getting worse and worse, I actually feel that sometimes referees should save the fighter from for another day. And that's what fell by to me. It was only going one way at that stage. So I don't mind it, you know, when it when it's so when it's so one sided. You know, I was I said this on the show with Adi yesterday, I was very, very surprised

at the reaction to the win because I thought here's one of your own, here's a silver medalist, he has flown the flag, he represented Great Britain, and I couldn't believe the vitriol that I saw afterwards. And I know he was emotional and I know in a perfect world you don't want him going after the corner like that, but look, you spoke of the pressure,

you spoke of everything he's been through. Why does it seem like the British public aren't backing him? Like they have some other former Olympians. Ariel, honestly, it's crazy over here in the UK. I think in the US and I've seen bits of what was said in the US, this guy would be celebrated like you wouldn't believe. But over here, because of his flashiness,

because of his confidence, because of his background, because of his, it sort of brings out the worst in people and the worst in fans at times. And, you know, I scratched my head. You know, you've got a 27 year old here that's giving us entertainment like you wouldn't believe. Every time he steps in the ring, there's a talking point. He's amassed millions of followers

He's bringing new eyeballs to our sport that we love and he's putting on massive events I mean that was his 10th fight in a sold-out arena doing over 350,000 viewers on sky which is huge over here. I Can't understand it and look I think over time as he proves more and more people wrong that will start to shift but yeah, the the the hate mentality that the British boxing fans sometimes have to someone that is a bit different, that is himself, that doesn't fall into line, that isn't just a prim and proper, you know, guy. And in the sense that he doesn't fit in with the rest of the bunch. And I just don't understand it.

This is what the sport needs. We need characters like Ben Whitaker, you know, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Furey over here, they've been the ones flying the flag. They've been the ones filling the stadiums. They've been the ones selling the pay-per-view events. They're heavyweights. But we've not had a superstar like this in a long, long time. And you think back to Nassim Hamad, people love him now.

They love him now. But during his career, there was a lot of hate as well. And I think it's one of those things. Last thing on Ben, when do you want to see him again? When would you like to see him fight again? We're going to headline again in September back in his hometown again. And look, to be honest, the change I've seen with Andy Lee in such a short period of time

just gives me so much more confidence in that he's got the right people around him so it's going to be strength to strength now we're going to allow him to to learn allow him to have different opponents different styles but definitely stepping him up each time and look what I promise you this is a seriously exciting journey for me he's going to be the biggest star in British boxing and possibly world boxing in a couple of years he's got that much potential so yeah it was an amazing night Sunday to be honest a relief for everyone involved and for him after after what he had been through it was a special night and one will remember as a massive moment in his

career as well. Do you have an opponent for September? We've got a couple in mind. In the domestic light heavyweight scene, it's decent over here. You've got Louis Emerson, you've got Dan Aziz, you've got Willie Hutchinson, you've got a lot of guys in and around that British level. It's perfect. It's ready made for a star like Ben. So we'll see, but we'll sit down now over the next couple of weeks and we'll see what's next. They'll be queuing up.

He's the biggest payday in the division. And yeah, I just say, I'm so excited. I'm so excited for what's to come. Okay. Now this weekend, Tottenham Hotspur, it is, U-Bank Ben, finally we are getting it. Knock on wood, no issues. It seems like all systems are a go. They both look great at the workouts.

I have to say, one thing that I've really enjoyed in the buildup is the back and forth between you and Eddie Hearn. You are not shying away from it, my friend. I mean, I saw on Instagram just a couple hours ago, you're posting a very nice edit of him going back and forth as far as the bet is concerned. I saw yesterday when he was talking to Sky, he said, oh, this is just like the FA Cup.

Sometimes the small club gets a chance to play with the big boys. Like, the Jabs are back and forth between you two. What is the state of the relationship between you and Eddie? Because I feel like, OK, we get the kumbaya with him and Frank, but with you and him, there's feel like, okay, we get the kumbaya with him and Frank, but with you and him, there's none of that. And I like it. And I want it to remain that way, if I'm being 1000% honest,

because it's very entertaining. Look, it's definitely healthy. It's competitive. There's no love lost 100%. I don't think it's too malicious, but at the end of the day, with the young promotional company coming through that maybe it was definitely frostier, but has just developed into something very competitive. But I agree. I think it's great that promoters can make fights, but you don't have to be best friends. And I think Frank and Eddie,

sometimes it can be nauseating from where I'm sat. But I enjoy it. I have Frank and Eddie from sometimes it can be nauseating from from from where I'm so But I enjoy it after say Eddie is good fun. He's a is a big character in boxing He talks a lot. He contradicts himself a lot. He He says a lot of things Which make it fun to to go back and forth with. But look, the pressure's on on Saturday. This is a huge star of his, Conor Ben, one of our biggest clients, Chris Eubanks Jr., going head to head.

I don't know how the size of the fight is in the US, but this could be the biggest British fight in a long time. Definitely the biggest British fight of the year. It's the biggest story in British boxing of the last 30 years So yeah, this is about the fighters But of course to to get a win over those guys and we've got another fight on the undercar between the Dow Riley and chef Clark, which is a huge fight in the Cruiserweight division over here as well. It's good

But yeah, I'm enjoying it. It's it's it's fun, you know ten years ago I was watching the shows of Frank Warren and Eddie. And so to be competing day to day now and to be going out is great. And long may it continue, there's some massive fights to be made as well. At the beginning of their relationship with Turkey El Sheikh, it felt like Frank and Eddie were very happy to sort of box you out. Now you are very much in good standing and do business with them as well. Do you think that they would prefer you not be involved in these fights?

I think you know the answer to that question. They hate it. They absolutely hate it. They hate me being there. They hate me turning up. They hate our fighters on the shows. They hate our brand on the shows They hate the relationship we have but thankfully Turkey ala shake and boxing, you know, it will it will it's meritocratic in a sense now and and And they can't stop it and I credit to credit to Turkey because he's not got involved in the politics You know, it was difficult at the start for us.

Frank Warren was the main man and it made it really tricky for us. I happily say that. It was all sorts of fun and games that you can imagine. And it was tricky but now our stable has grown. We had to wait. We had a young stable. They're maturing now. People want to see them in the big fights, on the big nights, in the big stadiums.

And it's hard to ignore it. So look, of course I'm under no illusions. If they had their way, we would not be there. But we're here and our fighters are doing the business. And yeah, it's a great time, especially in British boxing. I know in the US it's had its detractors and it's probably going through a little bit of a transition period, but in British boxing, you've got big fights every single week at

the moment. It's heart property. For me, it's the second big most popular sport of football now in the UK. So it's big business and it's great to have three big promoters now and, and, and, and three big stables and the rivalry and the competitive edge. And if it's two against one, then it has to be two against one. No problem. It's wonderful to see. It's wonderful to see how the sport is covered over there and the,

the fandom and the excitement surrounding it. Another aspect that I've loved in the buildup, I find Chris Eubank Jr. to be one of the most fascinating people in combat sports, and I love the fact that the public, we talk about the British public, they're finally backing him because, you know, I love pro wrestling as well,

and when a guy goes from a heel, a bad guy, to a baby face, a good guy, it's a wonderful thing to see, and now it feels like I look at all the comments on the videos, they say, I've never wanted someone to win more than Chris Eubank I've never pulled for someone more than Chris Eubank not that long ago. They hated Chris Eubank Have you noticed this turn and why do you think this is? Well, it definitely has something to do with Connor Ben, let's be honest But I think Chris Eubank jr. Has you know, he's been a big name over here for a long

time. People know him, people know his story and they've seen him mature and they've seen him develop and they've seen him handle himself very, very well in very difficult circumstances and he's such a character. He's so articulate, so intelligent. And he's almost like the fighter's fighter, you know, he has those Moments about verse he says what he thinks a lot of the fighters in the UK actually look up to him You know sometimes fighters don't want to say what they think or afraid to say what they think was Chris You know, we'll do what he wants and that I've found working with him so far

And it's been a while now, an absolute pleasure. He does what he says. And he says what he does. And he's a character. And yes, he's been hated. But right now, this is what happens in Britain. They'll build you up and they'll tear you down. So we can't get too carried away. I think, of course, in this fight, given the history of it, given the, the, the, the previous failed tests and what happened before and what Chris has had to go through and the way it cuts and people saw that. And as I say, the way Chris has handled himself the past couple of years in some big fights over here, he's definitely one of the most popular

fighters in the UK right now. And for me, the biggest star outside the heavyweight division. How do you feel about the the the rehydration clause? I don't like it. It shouldn't be allowed. You know, if it was, it would be in the rules if it was meant to happen. But ultimately, you know, Chris was presented it as a very late sort of demand, but he was financially incentivized to take it. And we've looked at it and looked at its previous waste, you know, it's not going to be easy. It's

not going to be easy, but it will be safe. I didn't like the way it was handled. I didn't like the way it was put in. I don't think we'll be ever agreeing to something like that again. I think if you agree to fight at a weight, you agree to fight a weight. You don't try and limit a bigger guy's hydration. That's when you get into all sorts of problems and all sorts of safety problems really. And I don't like to see it. It makes it even more interesting given Conor's able to put on so much weight and And not have to worry about weight whilst obviously the weight is the is the main focus for for us this week Um, but yeah, I have to say I don't like it. I don't agree with it and I don't think it should happen again What was your reaction? We we we played the clip yesterday

And I said it was hard to watch as a human being, as a father, as a son, as a fight fan, as someone who admires Chris senior and junior. When you saw senior last week, call him a disgrace and say he would be nowhere near his corner. One thing for a trainer to say that, a manager to say that this is his father at the end of the day. What was your reaction when you saw that? Look, I have to say, and I can agree with a lot of things

senior says, but I thought that was disgraceful. I think Chris should be extremely proud of his son and what he's achieved in his shadow and then gone on to achieve and the big nights that he's done and the adversity that he's come through. Yeah, I really didn't like it and sometimes I have to, the only way I can rationalize it is, you know, he's been through extremely hard things in recent times, and he hasn't been well at times. And I think the media therefore need to be careful around a very delicate situation and perhaps a fragile state of mind.

You know, no father should say that about the son, but particularly when the son is a very honest very dedicated and a great role model so yeah I really didn't like it. One thing I know for sure is Chris's ice cold and this close to a fight it won't affect him but will it affect him when when he hangs his gloves up and moves on? Maybe, maybe it will, but personal things for me have to stay out of the cameras. Chris would love his dad to be there, but that's the difference. He wants a dad, doesn't want a trainer. He doesn't want an advisor. He'd like him there as his father. And I think that's what I found most uncomfortable about watching it, but

believe me, it won't make a difference on the night. What's your official prediction? It's it's like you by junior stoppage. I've said round five or six. It's gonna be a firefight You know what these two guys? They're not They don't box on the back foot. They're not technical fighters. They they they're their best when they're fighting technical fighters. They're their best when they're fighting. They're fighters. And I think they've got too much ego of anyone to box on the back foot. I think they're going to meet each other in the middle of the ring and it's going to be an absolute shooter.

That's why the fans are going crazy for it over here. Because it's not just the names. It's not just the story. It's not just the animosity, but it's the actual styles of the fight. And it is going to be absolute mayhem from round one and people are talking about kind of Ben starting fast. Believe me, he went to Union is going to start fast. And I think there'll only be one winner as it gets later in the fight. Do you think if that result comes to fruition that we see a rematch or do you think if it is that one sided, then it's not, it's not a warranted.

Listen, I'm not saying it's going to be one sided. What I'm saying is I think Chris is proven under this amount of pressure at this level. I think that's going to be the difference. Conor's Conor's not been boxing in big pay per view. Now it's big stadiums, big arenas for very long. Chris has done it time and time again and had to come back and I think that's what we'll see him through. It will definitely be a two-fight deal. It's what both fighters have agreed to. It's what both fighters want. And I think the entertainment of Saturday night is going to demand one.

But I just can't see how Chris Eubanks, Jr. doesn't win this fight. But many disagree with me. The Buckees disagree with me. It's a very even fight with them and yeah, it's a real monster. I just wanted to ask you about a couple other things and then we'll let you go appreciate the time. I know it's a busy time over there. Um, this, this TKO entry into the world of boxing and potentially having their own belt and not, not working with the, you know, the, the sanctioning bodies and whatnot. What is your feeling on how this will all play out? Do you think they'll be successful or do you think the sport is too ingrained in its way and it's not going to ultimately work?

Um, I can speak from a UK perspective. I think the sport is extremely successful over here and it's built on stars and it's built on names and it's built on, um, big nights and fights being made at the right time and fighters earning absolute fortunes as well. So what I'd like to see it work. I think it definitely will have a place in the sport. It's going to take a very, very long time, which I think they're all prepared for, for it to really overthrow the establishment just because, you know, boxing is pretty healthy at the moment and boxing is doing major fights.

In the US there's probably a big opportunity right now. You know when you don't have fights on mainstream networks and TV networks ultimately that gives an opportunity to grow a new product, to have a new way of doing things. Do I think there's so much in boxing that could change, that could be better, that could be more entertaining for a young generation? Absolutely, and that's the opportunity that they'll see. And I honestly wish them all the best with it.

I think it'll be fantastic. But you know, boxing's been going for hundreds of years. I expect it to continue as well. And hopefully, I think maybe side by side, there's no reason, you know, you've got thousands of professional boxers all over the world that don't get the opportunities that they deserve. It isn't always meritocratic. It sometimes is about what training with do you

know the promoter? Do you look right for the for the broadcaster? That's a that's a major thing. And so something where you can climb a ladder from any part of the world in a meritocratic way, I think is very compelling and can be really successful, but you can't get away from the money that the top boxers earn. It is eye-watering in comparison to other combat sports and when boxing does get it right, it sort of dwarfs everything else. So definitely in the UK, it's healthy. In the US, big opportunity, but I think they can exist side by side. You have been a big proponent of women's boxing, you have had all female cards, and now it seems as though MVP Nikesa Baderian and Jake Paul are going all in, they have a big all female card here in New York on July 11. And it seems like they're really trying to scoop up a lot of the big names

How do you feel about them going all in on women's boxing and is that a threat to your stable as well? But you know what? when we were we've been doing women's boxing at the very top for years and I think definitely for me have the best table of fighters coming through but We have been very much focused on the UK, but because we've been so successful, Clarissa Shields' biggest nights, Michaela Mayer's biggest nights, even Alicia Baumgartner's been on our shows. A lot of the American fighters, because there wasn't any opportunities over in the States for women's boxing, there wasn't any interest in it, they would have

to come over. And that didn't always work. And I guess boxing is struggling so much in the US because we've had so much success with it in the UK. We've had some absolutely massive nights. We've built some amazing stars. We've got some unbelievable talent coming through in Lauren Price, Caroline Dubois, Caris Arting-Store now coming through the ranks, all Olympians, Olympic medalists, gold medalists, and always looked to the US and it was really tough. And so when Michaela would come over, when Clarissa would come over, they'd come over and they'd be shocked. They couldn't believe the attention.

They couldn't believe the size of the crowds and the broadcast interest in women's boxing. So I credit it to them because I want women's boxing to do well in the US. It needs to be healthy in the US. It's sometimes difficult because you reach a ceiling with your fighters and there's not those big transatlantic fights or that if they are, they can only happen in London like we saw with Shields Marshall. And so look, if they can have success they are, they can only happen in, in London, like we saw with shields Marshall. And so look, if they can have success with it, if it can be consistent, if the U S audience buy in and think that's the key, like, you know, clearly the U S

market isn't boxing isn't top of their priority right now. And so the key is how can we, how are you going to get women's boxing to have that interest? And that's the challenge that they've Got and with the with the power of Netflix and the power of the main event that they're putting on I think they've definitely got a big shot and it's just whether it can be maintained When it's not Taylor Serrano, etc, etc

So yeah, it's great to see and hopefully women's boxing can be healthier in the U S and it will make it healthier for us over here as well. One last thing. And it's, it's ending where we started. Can you clear up what happened with the rounds with Whitaker Cameron? Cause I saw everyone getting some shots in on you, uh, in, in the buildup. It was the longest week of my life. What happened?

It was crazy. What happened? What happened? So what happened was we we did the first fight with liam cameron and he was promoterless um and this was a ben whitaker liam cameron fight and then the rematch came around and we went to make the rematch and and we felt like we'd agreed a deal and then obviously he signed with queensbury. Queensbury signed him and I know his manager went to work with Queensbury. Well he's now working for Queensbury so it all made sense fine but

at that moment given their animosity towards us it was going to become difficult and so it's had all sorts of controversy which ultimately made the fight bigger. It came down to the contracts. Um, and on one of the forms that someone had done in the office, one of the, one of the forms that went over to them, the rounds was a 10, 12 rounds rather than 10 rounds, even though it contradicted everything else. And so it was noticed a couple of days after we felt like it would be dealt with quite swiftly. But ultimately it was used to get one over on us really. And it was much ado about nothing,

but it created a big storm in the media. And we were saying it's 10 rounds, they were saying it's 12 rounds, we felt like we agreed. And then afterwards we agreed a number and it became 10 rounds and then they sort of reversed out of that and it was a big story in the media to be honest. It made the fight two or three times bigger and it put more pressure on us, definitely put more pressure on Ben and he was able to deal with that But anyway, it ended up ten rounds and it ended up in a beautiful night on Sunday night an unbelievable night And and looking back it was a it was definitely part of a of a great story and a great night in the end Not needed much to do about nothing. So so well done to yeah, I said to Ben I said to Ben

You could have saved me a few quid there. Exactly. And he, but it was a, but yeah, it all well, all is well. And he finished the job in two rounds. So fair play to him. And we move on. Can't wait for this weekend. Great job in the buildup. Well done. The video was fun. The bet, that whole thing back and forth. That's a good edit. He needs to bet. Tell it to Ariel. Yeah.

He made that bet with me. Make sure if he speaks to me, he sticks to me because suddenly he's trying to rip us out of it and I don't know why he brought it up. He made the bet. I think. No, no, keep going. So for the record, it's a million, right? It's a million on, on his guy. Yeah, it's a million on his guy. Million on my guy. Yeah. It's a million pound bet. And he made it. He's been told he can't do it. Have you been told you can't do it? No, I've been told I can do it.

Oh, we can do it. Okay. And so, and so, and so he doesn't want to do it now, but he's a big boy with a lot of money and so we should stick to it. He should stick to his word and we should get it on. Wow. All right. Let's see. Let's see what his response is.

I'm sure he'll have one. Uh, thank you, Ben. Good luck to you and the team. Good luck to Chris. Looking forward to it very much. There he is. Ben Shalom of boxer. Massive, massive night for him. Massive night for the sport of boxing on Saturday at Tonim-Hotspur Stadium.

New York Creek has been waiting like 70 years for this fight. It's his most anticipated fight ever of all time. And we may get two of them because there's a rematch clause. Uh, so cannot wait for that. All right. One more guest to go on this super stacked six-pock Wednesday. And it is an individual who we thought for a moment was going to join us in studio. Last week, unfortunately, the stars did not align.

We were not here, but, uh, he and his crew, my friend Yaniv, they hooked us up with some gifts. The Bam Bam B- What? What? What? What? What? What? What? The Bam Bam Buds. Bucket Hat. The Jersua here with the number 18. Helwani. GC got one. Rick got one. I'm told Frank's getting one.

PT's getting one. Andy's getting one. The whole crew are getting him. I'm just waiting for my, what is it, an e-cig? Is it a, I don't know, is it a wacky tabacky? What is it? Maybe we'll get some insight from the great Bam Bam himself. What is this Bam Bam Buds that I see him promoting all over the world with the likes of Action Bronson at WrestleMania, all these different places and more. Do we have Bam Bam? Is that I see him promoting all over the world with the likes of Action Bronson at WrestleMania,

all these different places and more. Do we have Bam Bam? Is he there? Yeah, here he is. There he is. My guy representing Western Australia, not Perth. Western Sydney, you always get this wrong. Fucking hell.

I'm not from Perth. I'm sorry. What up, Ous? What's happening? I thought you were going to be in studio with us. I've been looking for you. I've been searching for you. You've been too busy for me. You had a whole American tour

and you skipped on us. You were hanging out with them. I actually went there. I was in the city. You were with Action Bronson, right? That's my boy. Can I say something though? I know you. I was in the city. Fucking hell. You were with Action Bronson, right? That's my boy, yeah, yeah. Can I say something though? I saw you guys, I don't know what you were doing,

but whatever it was that you were inhaling, it seemed to have hit you kinda hard there. It felt like you were rookie status. He's definitely on the heavy shit. What is it? What is that? What are you guys doing over there? Abs.

What is abs? Fuck him, just strike oil. Strike. Intense? Fuck him, yeah. What is that? What are you guys doing over there? Abs. What is abs? Fucking just straight oil, straight. Intense? Yeah. Have you ever experienced that? Yeah, I've had it a few times. It's just a bit too much work for me, I think. I hate it, I'll put it in, all that.

I'm more of a on the go type of guy, you know what I mean? Yeah. And for him, does he cough like that? I don't think so. I think he's had like fucking 60 different glowing things. He's unbelievable. Definitely professional.

That spot, I went to that spot in 2019. It was like 10 in the morning. He was doing something with some type of like, I don't know what it was, like a, like some sort of like thing that he stretched out and then spoke. He was watching PFL prelims from two days prior at 10 in the morning with that stuff. That's how hardcore he is. I love you. He's incredible guy. Have you ever met him before?

No, that was my first time. We've talked for a few years on Instagram and stuff, but we've never got to meet. That was the first time. And then I saw you, uh, training with the great weird behind me, just looking over my shoulder. The girl. Yeah. It looks, it looks kind of cool. What do you think? Creepy.

I don't know. Little bit. I was just looking at me. Uh, where are you now right now, by the way? I'm in Vegas. Oh, you're back. Okay. I'm about to finish up this tour, uh, and then head home and get back in the training.

And so what was the tour? Was it to spread the word about BamBamBuds? Yeah. So we dropped BamBamBuds. I would see a legal THCA marijuana company and I was just doing a bit of a tour, getting the word out, trying to get some sales. There it is. So what is it?

Where can I get this? Is there a website? Where do I go? You can go to the website, bambambuds.com. If you type in Bam Tour, you get 20% off before the tour ends. Oh wow, Bam Tour. Actually, I'm gonna send you a whole bunch, yeah?

Oh yeah. So, all your vape pens, we got some six packs. The BamBam six pack, I got a six pack now, everyone, I told you. What is that, what is the six pack? What do we got there, what is that? Well, some people usually have abs, but I got a six pack of pre-rolls.

Pre-rolls, wow, and what is in there? What is that, was E-cigs, what is that, Wacky Tabaki? No, no, so these are little, these are like little on the roll, on the go joints. Oh, with marijuana in there? Yeah, yeah, THCA. Yeah, what's THCA? It's a... that's a good question.

Yeah, it's pretty much THCA. Look at that. Oh, it's already done. So you don't have to do it yourself. Yeah, yeah, you don't have to do it yourself. Yeah, yeah, you don't have to do anything. You're just on the move, you know what I mean? Ah, yeah, look at that. And this is your own company. You started it.

This is me, me and my boy, Jan, obviously. Janiv, you know him. The man, yes. He's got my name. I'm too legit to quit now, Ariel. Look at you. Too legit. This is incredible. You're like, by the way, you're like a proper,

you're a proper businessman. I was, I wrote this down. Owner of Bam Bam Buds, co-owner, let me know if I'm missing any, co-owner of Drink West Brewery. You're involved in the new startup, All One Protein. You're involved with 27 project studios in Sydney. You're the host of the Hotline Tings podcast owner of the Bink BAMFA boat.

I mean, you're all over the place. Am I missing one? Definitely been busy. Am I missing one in the portfolio? No, I think you got it all. I'll probably forget some, sometimes I've always kind of been into business and trying things and I've definitely had a lot fail along the time on my journey, but I'm still trying. And so how did this come about to have your own, would it be a cannabis company? Is that the right way to call it? Yeah, it's a cannabis company.

Well, it's something that I've always had a, you know, I've always had a, had a passion about, and I love how it helps me recover. And I just like the feeling of being high. Well, when you, when you, yeah, no, the respect when you, when you're in a training camp, when you're preparing for a fight, you stop smoking or do you use it all the way through? I slow down. Okay. But it definitely helps with recovery, especially after getting bashed.

Sure. Sure. Is there someone at the door? Yeah, probably. Housekeeping. Probably kicking us out to be honest. We've got to check it out. Okay.

Okay. Let me ask you this though. You know, I remember when Nick Diaz beat Takanori Gomi in Pride, and they, you know, remember that Go Go Plata, he beat him in Go Go Plata, and then they said afterwards that he had marijuana in his system.

I don't think marijuana is a performance enhancer. I think it's like a performance de-hancer. The fact that he beat Gomi with weed in his system actually makes it more impressive in my opinion, does it not? Definitely, yeah. I don't think it's, it's definitely not an enhancement, definitely it's more relaxing.

Yeah. I would- I like to, I like to spar and stuff, stone. Really? Is that not dangerous? Dangerous? Well, in- We get punched in the head for a living. But in the sense that you're, maybe your reaction time, your focus is a little off.

No, I feel like it's more, you're more calm, more you see more coming. Okay. I don't know, everyone might be different though. Yeah. I think that's just me. I saw you were at WrestleMania. WrestleMania was sick. Yeah.

We bloody drove all the way from LA. So we missed half of it. Oh, come on. You missed half of it. Oh, come on. You missed half of it. I was so angry. I got my chair though. They weren't gonna let me take my chair.

I took my chair. Yeah, I love those chairs. Those chairs are great. Did you walk out with it or did you do the thing where they ship it to you? Oh no, I walked out with it. Oh, they can ship it? They can ship it, yeah.

Oh my gosh, I'm probably gonna have to pay bloody hell much. But it's worth it. It's worth it. Trust me. I've done the same. I've done the same. I took one from Brooklyn and I went on the subway, the New York City subway, just, and everyone was looking at me. What a setup, though. What a production. Unbelievable. It's just crazy. You just walk in there and it's awesome. Really cool. Which night did you go? The Friday.

There was no Friday. It was Saturday and Sunday. Saturday, sorry, this tour, it's been a long tour. Yeah. I don't know what day it is. And you missed half of it. We did. We had to drive from LA and it took us some

bloody weird way, but we ended up getting there. We got there for the main event. Yeah. The Mosul Rowing and Rains. Did you see, so you missed the fellow, Jey Uso winning the title. I missed that, I missed that, I was spewing. Yeah. Are you a wrestling fan?

Oh, I wouldn't say, I wouldn't say a full wrestling fan. Back in the day when I was a kid, yeah, for sure. But now probably not so much. But you have an appreciation for it. Oh, of course. They're athletes, they're performers, they're crazy. They do some crazy shit out there. Yeah, I know.

The athleticism is off the charts. And so what about you? So this whole tour, you're getting the word out, but eventually you said you got to go back home to start training, right? Are we training for something? I can't wait to get back home. I miss Australian food.

This food here in America is making me sick, man. You notice a difference. You notice a big difference, huh? Oh, hell yeah. Australian food's beautiful. We've got the best produce of meat, it's real meat. All that. Okay.

Is this the longest you've spent in the States in quite some time? For a little bit, yeah. One of my favorite stories of yours is, wasn't it right before the pandemic when DC was buying all the meat? Well, I didn't know what a pandemic was. I was like, why? Why are you buying all this stuff? Everyone was buying like toilet paper and stuff.

DC was just buying all the meat. Well, yeah, I can wash my ass if I go starving. I don't want to eat. 100%, 100%. So are we going back to train for something in particular? I'm gonna go back into the cage. So I'm going to aim for start of next year. OK, so still a ways away.

Yeah, I need to look at me. I need to get back in the gym. I need to get fit. I need to get ready. What are we at these days? Oh, shoot. I'd be 140, easy. 140 kg? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, that sounds good. I don't know, I don't know what that is in pounds, but it sounds pretty lean. It's big. Okay. Whatever it is, it's,

oh no, it's big. Okay. How do you feel? You know, obviously it's a bit of a tough time now as far as the record is concerned. How's the confidence? How are you feeling? Oh, definitely. That's why I needed this break. Yeah. I feel much better now I've had this break. Uh, it's kind of given me, you know, grounded me a little bit in what I want to do. I've been going hard in, in my businesses and stuff like that. So it's definitely give me some time away from the, from training and from fighting,

but we're fighters, so it's naturally in me and I away from the from training and from fighting, but we're fighters, so it's naturally in me. And I'm kind of missing it now. So I definitely want to get back into it. But I want to come back and come back with, you know, I've got something to prove. I'm not done yet. After the last time we saw you in action was in August in Perth. After that, did you feel like, OK, I need the break? Was that a self-imposed break?

Yeah. Okay, someone- I should have won that fight. I should have won probably the two before, like, I should have won most of those fights, but I think after the last fight where I was like, fuck, I should have smashed him, I was like, I need a break. I need to get back to why I want to do this. Winning is winning and losing is losing, but going out there, it takes a toll on you, it takes a toll on your team. I needed to just get back to ground level. I kind of feel like I'm back in there, but the only thing is I'm just got a big kilos on.

Does it take away your love of the sport for a minute or your love of training? Of course, you train so hard, it's like anything, you know what I mean? And then you don't get the reward you want. It's fucking, it's tolling, it takes a toll on you. But it's, you know, you got to get up and dust your shoulders off and go again.

And just because I've been sitting still, not training or not fighting, I've been busy. We don't have a long window to fight. You know, I don't want to fight forever. So I've been busy doing other things. Is that what this is all about? Do you feel like you want to be one of those guys who is prepared for life after fighting because there are so many fighters who aren't? Who don't have it? I will be.

Yeah. Is that something you've always been cognizant of? That you've always thought? Yeah, well, I've had a, I've gotten the, I've gotten a good run of, of having good people in front of me, like as in professionals, James Tuhuna, Mark Hunt. And being close to these people, seeing what they've done. good people in front of me like as in professionals, James Tehuna, Mark Hunt. And being close to these people, seeing what they've done, it's also kind of given me like what do I want to do?

And I've got to take some good and bad from both sides. Yeah, hey, James looking good in the boxing ring. James Tehuna? Yeah, you saw him. When did he fight? He fought a few, maybe like one or two months ago. He had a big win and then he called out Jake Paul. James Tahuna?

Yes. I think you're talking about the wrong person. James Tahuna, boxing. What am I tripping right now? You're tripping. No, it was James Tahuna. Am I crazy? I think you're crazy.

James Tuhun is like the first Aussie US. Yes, I know who James Tuhun was. Guys, didn't James Tuhun have a boxing match? He had a boxing match? Yes. And now I'm like losing my... He got me, yeah. Maybe I've lost my mind.

What are you talking about, Tyson Pedro? I'm talking about? Tyson Pedro? I told you I was right. See, that's how I've been on the air for three. By the way, the best part about this is, is you lighting up the, the, the joy while correcting me. This is amazing. How is James doing by the way? Oh, now I think you're starting to scream.

What is that called? The contact height? Second hand? Yeah, Third hand. Yeah, I guess he's not boxing. I think we established that. No, that was Tyson Pedro. That looked good.

He's boxing now. And he did really well. He got a belt. And then, but James Juno, he's been gone for a while now. Would you ever want to do that? Do some boxing? I know... Oh, definitely. I've still got a lot more years of fighting in me.

But the UFC's been good to me. I've enjoyed working for the UFC, so I definitely want to... I think I've got a fight or two left on the contract. I definitely want to just get back in and get a win and then go from there. I saw you were in Miami, right? For Volk? I love my Volk. What a legend. You can't beat that, huh? Are they kicking you out now? What's happening?

I think they're probably kicking us out. I don't know that. Tell them you're talking to me. Yeah, we're talking to Ariel. Yeah, come on. Leave us alone. Look at you. You're up there so happy. Oh, bro, that was, that us alone. Look at you, you're up there, so happy. Oh, bro, that was, that's like, he's the best. Yeah. And he's Aussie, that's big, that's big.

And I love that guy, man, he's a really good guy. Inspirational, really. Fucking very. You can get knocked down a couple of times, you come back, still be the man. By the way, I like your hair long like that. It's nice. You can see my hair through the hat?

No, in the video, it was nice. I'm growing it again. Yeah. I'm growing it again. What are we doing? How long? I'm gonna grow it long again. Yeah.

Like really long? I liked how it was in the video here. I'm trying to like, I saw Roman Reigns the other night. Oh yeah. And I was like, that's it. You know what I mean? That's a good looking man. I was like, that's it. The hair's coming back. I'm getting skinny.

You're going to look like him next time we see you. And then I'm in the bloodline. Yeah. Did you get to meet him? No, no, no. Come on. No, I'm not that big. You are big.

Did you get to meet Rhea Ripley? She was at the fight. She's an Aussie. I met her in Perth actually, when they not that big. You are big. Did you get to meet Rhea Ripley? She was at the fight. She's an Aussie. I met her in Perth actually, when they came to Perth. All right. I didn't know you get down like that.

Yeah, I get down like that. Yeah. Did you like Miami? I love, I think I might move to Miami. I love Miami too. What did you like about it? I definitely could live in Miami. It's definitely my favorite state in America.

Hmm. It's a city. City, whatever you fucking call it. Smart ass. I have to get you back for that. Trying to get me back to fucking James DeHuner. It's a city in the state of Florida. Exactly.

You liked it. What is it? Alligator State. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a city in the state of Florida. Exactly. You liked it. What is it? Alligator state. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is this a new one by the way, or is this the same one? Same one. Okay. Do you like the flavored ones?

These all have different flavors. Oh yeah, like what? Yeah, so here we've got blue milk. Blue milk. We've got the banana rum, we've got the candy land. Come on now. So it actually, like there's a candy taste? Yeah, whatever you desire we got. Wow.

I didn't know you, what about gummies? You guys do that? We do. We actually, well it's actually one of our baby projects. It's still waiting for it to be perfected. We've got the chewy shoey. What's that? What's that? So we're doing the edible shoe, like a chewy shoey. I love it.

Yeah. And what kind of flavor? Is it like beer flavor, shoe flavor? No, we haven't, we haven't got it. We're still perfecting it. Okay, okay. Once that comes, it's going to be heavy too. Hook a brother up. I'm sending you everything. All right. Can you do that? Can you actually send that? How does that work?

Yeah, you order, we send it to your door. Okay, because they told me Bam Bam Bam left you some gifts the thing I was like, okay, like this is cool stuff. But like where's where's the product? You know, like where's they said you gave us a grinder, but I thought that that was like an app for dating Has your boy an easy has he taught you any Hebrew? Bro, come on. You gotta go to Israel to sell this stuff. They love that stuff over there. It will be worldwide soon. Don't worry about that.

Okay. This might be so good that you don't have to fight. Fucking that's a plan. Is that the dream? You don't have to fight. Fucking that's a plan. Is that, is that the dream? Oh, definitely. I want to do something that I enjoy when I finish fighting. So of course I'm passionate about marijuana and cannabis and I like the business. So definitely something I want to do long-term. Were you in amazing race?

I was. Well guess what? I won it. Yeah. This amazing race? I was, guess what? I won it. Yeah, this is crazy with your brother, right? Right. They put a bunch of hoodlums in the amazing race and we won it. Unbelievable. How many days? I think it was a month all up shooting.

Yeah. It was really actually, it was actually a really good experience. I didn't think I would. It definitely wasn't something I wanted to do, but once I got into it, it was actually really cool. And was it difficult? Like was it truly hard? Was it truly taxing?

Not really. Oh, they're long days sometimes, but it's more like, we just had fun. I think that's why we did so well. Me and my brother were just, but we're two boys from Washington city. We were just glad to be traveling the world

and meeting new people. So we were just, it was so much fun. I haven't spent time like that with my brother since we were kids. So it was awesome. How'd you get in? How did it happen? How did it come to fruition?

So I got approached about it And I was like, oh, I don't really like cameras and all the time But then they said that you have to pick someone and it has to be a family member and I was like damn I don't think I would ever get an opportunity to fly around the world with you know or someone again. So I took it. And was this just in Australia? So the races, they're all Australians, but it was around the world. We went to Argentina, South Africa, Namibia, Thailand. It was fucking sick. You know what I'm laughing about?

What? What? What are you laughing about? They're showing me. Look your stoke. Your boat your boat is incredible. Look at this thing. Did you see that? That's the band. What is that? What is that? Just a little love project. But this thing is amazing. I want to turn it into a floating podcast like studio. Is that the Pink Panther?

That's the big band. Yeah, he's stoned. Where is this? Where is that boat? That's the paid river right there. That's the fucking heart. Yo man, you live the life. What a life you have. Oh, that's pretty cool.

It's very grateful. We're blessed, that's for sure. What about this Waldo Cortez? He called you out, you saw that? Who's that? He's a guy, he... He called me out? Yeah, he beat Ryan Span at the apex. He said he wanted to fight, fight you next. He, he wants to say, what did he exactly say? Um, he said he wants, uh, Derek Lewis or Taito Iwasa. I'm ready for them. They will push me. Buh, buh, buh. I don't know. I didn't know if you saw what's he look like. Yeah. He looks like he's a big boy.

He just beat Ryan Spann via knockout. Golly. You don't watch any of this, huh? I don't watch fighting. You know that nothing. No, what am I going to watch these guys? I mean, Sunday morning over there in Australia, right? I'm sleeping.

I'm not going to watch this. I'm not going to watch this. I'm not going to watch these guys for? I mean, Sunday morning over there in Australia, right? I'm fucking sleeping. I thought it's perfect because like the Europeans, it's in the middle of the night. But for you, it's literally like at 11 a.m. You're still sleeping. Yeah, we've got good. We've got a good time for USC. Yeah, I want to. Man, I'd like to go on that boat. Let's do it.

I don't, I don't, unless I, unless I know the, unless I know the father, I don't, I don't really follow. How was Luke Holmes? No, that's my boy. I love Luke. You're a country fan. Oh, I love country. Look at you on the stage.

How many people were there? Fucking heaps. And what, he invited you up there? Yeah, I've gone to every time he's come to Australia. Wow. I've got a few friends on Instagram. I'm an Instagram friend. Who do you got?

Who's your most famous friend that you like talk to on a continuous basis? I don't know. The Rock? No, my uncle don't message me, I don't know why. Hey, by the way, am I, I was talking about, am I, am I an unc status? 42, am I an unc?

To young people, yeah. Like would I be an uncle to you? You look like a pop. I'm pop? What, older than that? Nah, I think. You're only 42. Yeah, man.

Cause Joseph Parker calls me, he calls me his little oose. Little oose. You know Joseph Parker, right? Of course. All right, I wasn't sure. If you didn't know about Parker, right? Of course. All right. I wasn't sure if you didn't know about him, I would get worried. I know people, but I just don't know people.

He's the man. What was it like training with Plinio? Really good. I think I might go back there. Oh, really? Yeah. You liked it that much? I really, I really liked the boys.

I like, I like, I like Alex, I like Plino. And I like his style. Yeah. Well that means you'll be coming back to this area. FTA, FTA baby. But what a dump of a place, huh? New York. You don't like it?

Fuck me, oh my gosh. Was that your first time? No, I've been a couple, it's just full on. I think it's just full on for me. You didn't like it, you didn't like the vibes. Fucking horns, sores, people beeping, just nonstop. Pollution. It's a big much.

All that. I can't have some bare-bared six packs that just cool me down a little bit, you know what I'm saying? I know, all that. You had to be a big six packs to just cool me down. You know what I'm saying? I know, I know. By the way, we were talking about this. Well, by the way, my favorite, my favorite Bam Bam moment was your fight prediction when you were on the streets of Paris. You remember that?

Yeah. Remember when you did that video? Yeah, what I do? I don't know. It was just a great video of you say like from the streets of Paris and you're making predictions on fights that you had no idea about. I think it was UFC 279. I didn't have any predictions that do it.

But that fight you were like seconds away from stopping surreal gun. You beat surreal gun. You fight John Jones, right? I've heard this a million times. Do you think about this a lot? I'm sorry. I don't mean to bring it up, but we were talking about, imagine an alternate universe where you beat him, then you beat John,

and now we're talking about youth getting 30 million to fight Tom Aspinall. Could I, should I, would I? But fucking ended up getting the honey. Right, now listen, it's not over yet. Of course I was thinking about it, and it's definitely been something I've been thinking about a lot since I've been having this time off.

It is definitely, I want to, and I'll be like, I don't watch the fire, but I watch some things, but the heavyweights shit. They're all shit. Except for John Jones and Tom Aspino. Right. Other than that, fucking everyone's pretty standard. That means there's a path for you to get right back there. Exactly, so that's the thing.

I've had my time off. I'm gonna get back in the training. I'm gonna get myself ready. I'm gonna get myself around a good team. And I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna get back. That's all right, they know. That's all that I know. That's all right. I'll be back.

Who wins that fight? John or Tom? Ooh, shit. I think if anyone was to beat John Jones now, it will be Tom. Well, hopefully we get to see it. More importantly, congratulations. What do you reckon?

What do I reckon? I think Tom wins and I'm not quite sure that we get that fight, to be honest. You don't. What I'm, I think the UFC has made the offer. I think the offer is a very, very good one. I think Tom is in, I think the UFC obviously wants it to happen. I don't know if John does. What's he asking for? Fuckin tapes around 30.

He just wants the party. I think he asks for that number in hopes that they don't give it to him so he can say, hey, I want it in, they just didn't want to pay me? Or do you think he just wants to get paid and is willing to fight if he gets that number? He might think about it, but I don't know. I think if anyone deserves it, it'd be fucking him. I agree. I think he deserves it. As much as whatever he does

in his own time, he's a bit of a, you know, whatever, but as a father, fuck, he definitely knows what he's doing. No, he is the, if everything is allowed, meaning you don't get taken off the list if you have tested positive, he is the greatest of all time, he has the greatest resume. If you're excluded, why are you laughing? What a funny kind of... He's off his head. He's just off his head. Yes. If you are excluded from the list if you've tested positive, GSP is the greatest of all time.

He's not excluded. He's not. He knew Jones. But he never tested positive. Yeah, I get it, but like, I get all that, but as a bluer, fuck, it's hard to get near him. I think. Yeah, no, DJ's up there, Khabib. Yeah, of course, and then you got all the, like, those technical people, but John Jones does it and he fought animals. Anderson, Phaidor.

That was the time of, that was the time of fucking mad fighters. Yeah. Phaidor versus Bam Bam would have been an incredible fight. Not like wrestling jujitsu and shit. Yeah. Imagine Phaidor, prime Phaidor versus Bam Bam to Ivassa. Phaidor, that would-Jitsu and shit. Yeah. Imagine Fado or Prime Fado versus Bam Bam Tuiwasa. Fado. That would have been a good fight.

Yeah. Well, big fights are to come. Thank you for all the gifts. We appreciate you. I don't know if you see. I'm rocking the gear right now. I can't see. Thank you, Arnold.

It looks good, right? Yeah. It accentuates my noses. You definitely look a bit suspicious. If I rock up to the area, you know, this with the jersey, the hat. You have white shoes on, then you're looking for kids. I'm actually wearing action bronzes. If you have watch, oh my gosh.

No, these are action bronzes. These are action bronzes. Oh, they are. Yeah, don't talk shit. Oh, shut your bit. Hey. I wasn't talking shit. Am I invited to the barbecue dressed like this?

Of course. Yes. You're always invited. Ah, the freaking man. And that's where, that's, that's Western Perth? Yeah. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I will forget it. Western Sydney.

Big ups. Come on, man. I feel like Ali G wearing this thing. It's great. Much love to you. What's the website? BamBamBuds? BamBamBuds.com.

With a Z. Yeah. And you're going to be wearing this. Yeah. And you're going to be wearing this. Yeah. And you're going to be wearing this. Yeah. And you're going to be wearing this thing it's great much love to you what what's the website Bambam Buds? BambamBuds.com with a Z. Buds. B-U-D-Z. Check it out support the man. You like the website? I like it I like the logo I like the website it's interactive it seems easy

to use I wish you guys nothing but the best with this. So go check it out, go support the big ooze from one ooze to another. We wish you the best. Sorry that we couldn't link up here, but so happy to have you. Normal time zone. Cause I know like sometimes over there, we ask you to come on at seven in the morning,

you hate us. So this was a little bit more, you know, easy to coordinate. Yeah, yeah, I think so. You're the man, safe travels home. Much love. talking to you my brother. Much love. Thank you so much. And we'll talk to you soon. See you my brother. There he is.

Bam Bam. Tai Tui Vasa. You broke me there with the, you broke me with the boat. I mean, I wasn't ready for the, the pink Panther boat, you know? The, the pink Panther. So good. I should have went to this shot.

There was also a lot of good moments in that interview. Golly. When you, when you were, when you were, when you were, their boat you know. The Bink Bantha. So good. I should have went to this shot. There was also a lot of good moments in that interview. Golly. When you when you said Western Australia and he's like fucking no man. I fucked it up. Sydney is all the way east on the content. So it's all the way east but it's the western side of the eastern part of the country. Sydney? Yeah. Sydney, if I'm not mistaken, is literally on the eastern coast of Sydney.

Western Sydney. Yeah, so he's in the western part of the most eastern side of the country. That's correct, yeah, Western Sydney, the area. Yeah, the area, fuck. I'm gonna go to this shot right here. Also, what was the boxer? I was fucking dying back here this is that was very Davi Ramos esque view James de Huna he's like James de Huna fine he's like man what the fuck are you talking about? He's like, am I tripping?

And he's Tyson Pedro. As he's lighting up the joint, he's just like, he's just, oh man, I was dying back here, dude. I could not stop laughing. He's lighting up the joint, he's like, you talking about Tyson Pedro? I looked up James Tauna, he's 44 years old and hasn't fought in 10 years. You know what's so great about that seed?

I feel like that's a seed that you have with your boys, but you are smoking like, no that's a seed. Yes, literally. You just finished smoking a blow with your boys and it's just like, man did you see the James Tahuna fight? Everyone's like, James Tahuna fucking fought? It's like, yeah, it's crazy. It's like yeah, it's crazy They're like no no not you be Tyson Pedro

Sweating so much golly. I was legit dying back here. I was rolling Do we have that video of him on the streets of Paris? Yeah, it's one of the greatest videos of all time Here it is the one that I was referencing. Oh No, we're cute. Oh, we don't have it it. Oh no, we got it. We got it. Oh, Jesus. The amount of like liquid coming out of my eyes, my nose. It's just such a great video. I was thinking of it in the moment when I saw him with the thing. I was like, oh, I've seen this scene before. Here it is. Here it is. sick well great analysis I'm a fan of both but I'm gonna say for old times sake I'll go Diaz then we got Jing Lang with Ferguson I reckon Jing Lang is gonna give him a little

bing bang you know what I mean then you got Holland and Rodriguez I'm gonna go over It's a funny can't makes me laugh. Then we got our rain a lot of now this is Nice e nice nice. You can't done Macy gray Macy, hey Cut that out And Johnny Walker and cut live off Go to Johnny Walker at shapefetalline.ag Oh my god what a legend by the way he looks tremendous in that video very

svelte I like the hair that was a few years ago god what a legend holy crap how am I gonna get it together that was great stuff okay we need to answer a few more questions because I haven't gone to many of them and I have a soccer game to get to. Yes. This is a question from Matt Chewewe's happy national picnic day to you and the boys in the back and the gang in the control room.

Secondly, say his name and he appears. Yes. So following watching, uh, WrestleMania and seeing a lot of the UFC stars, it got me thinking in this current climate, who would be the best to crossover from the UFC to WWE? Who would stand the chance from going from WWE to UFC? Uh, I feel like Colby's trying to make this happen, right? Who told us yesterday that they wanted to go?

Am I crazy? Someone told us yesterday that they wanted to go? Am I crazy? Someone told me recently. I don't know, honestly, I don't think that we're gonna see it as much as you may think we're gonna see it. I don't think it's going to be as prevalent. Gage, what are the odds of getting uncrowned posters? I don't know.

What are the odds? Are any posters in the works? Plus, plus 500. I mean, I guess. What would the poster be of? Um, the logo, the squad. Yeah, we can maybe do something. Um, Evan one to 10. How uncomfortable do you think Dana White was having to both attend

WrestleMania and be shown on camera? I don't think he was uncomfortable. He's been there in the past, Ronda, et cetera. YFG94, in an alternate universe, yourself as the athlete, what sports win slash achievement would you have liked to have been done or been a part of? Golly. Heavyweight champ of the world. King of the universe. Puddingboy was at my live show for UFC 281, November of 22, he said one of our guests was Laura Sanko, thought we had a great chat and she hasn't been on

the show since. Is that true? I don't know. He said why? Actually I tried to get her on. There was an angle recently and she was on vacation just a few weeks ago. So there's no issue. It's just one of them things. But we'll get her on. I actually really, I really did reach out to her very, very recently.

Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, It's just one of them things. But we'll get her on. I actually really, I really did reach out to her very, very recently. Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. Uh. Hey, lads, from Jimmy. I have my first date with a girl this Friday. I just told her to get ready and I'll pick her up by seven to make her think I have something planned. In reality, I have nothing planned and I have no idea what to do. What's

the essential first day checklist? Flowers, nice dinner, I'm 20 years old. I've never really dated anyone before. P.S. she's not a stranger. We've known each other for a while now. Well, I think that's actually good. Less pressure, right? You don't really have to have that first impression moment. You know her, be yourself. I don't think you have to go too over the top with the gifts and all that stuff. Because think about it, you give the flowers, now she's gonna have to be worried about the flowers for the rest of the night.

Is the move maybe the flowers at the end of the night? But then maybe they're dying in the back seat of your car. If you are picking her up via car, you didn't specify. I think you just go out, you be yourself, don't pour it on, don't put too much pressure on the moment. Go to dinner, pay for dinner, have some nice dessert, go out, do something fun, I don't know, a little walk, a little mini-putt, a little bowling, I don't know,

a fun activity, and you walk, a little mini putt, a little bowling, I don't know, a fun activity and you call it a night. Flowers on a first date, huh? No, I mean, he brought up the flowers, not me. It's a little extra. It's a little. Too much. Yeah.

But I said, as I said, I don't think you need the flowers, especially if you know the person, right? It just feels too forced. Just be yourself. Yeah. Just go do something fun, because at this point it's just like,

you're kind of in this odd territory that you already know them, but now you're going on a date, so like the vibe is going to change a little bit. So yeah, just go do something fun. Yeah, I agree with that. David, Ariel, why is Oban Elliott fighting in the Apex? It's a great question.

He was fighting in the Apex, he announced it yesterday or they did. Is it possible they weren't happy with him? Why is Oban Elliott fighting in the apex? It's a great question. He's fighting the apex. He announced it yesterday or they did. Is it possible they weren't happy with him saying no to the Jake Matthews fight in February? I don't know. But yes, you have an electric personality. You have dates in Europe. You have a guy who feeds off the crowd, who the crowd seems to love.

And you put him at the apex. His last one was at MSG and you put him in the apex. Bebin, does Danis fight in the UFC ever? Yes or no? I don't know. What do you guys think? I'll say yes. If it was going to happen, why hasn't it happened already?

I know. And, and, and, and like Connor had more influence, right? The ultimate fighter thing made the most sense to me. That's it. That would have been the perfect way. If it's not that, then at what point? With DC and Chael too? That was perfect. Because they're getting him on a discount, right? Like to sign him out, right? It's probably gonna be more, you know, cost them more money. Tough would have been perfect. You get him, you get them on the cheap. I don't see, he should, I think he should, I think they should give them a shot.

I just don't think if they haven't already, what, what would change? Yeah. I'm just going to put out some positive vibes, but yeah, I generally agree. Jacob says that we never got to hear GC's raw after mania thoughts yesterday. And I was generally curious as to what they were. Yeah, I teased it, but we didn't get back to it. Jacob says that we never got to hear GC's raw after mania thoughts yesterday

and I was genuinely curious as to what they were. Yeah I teased it but we didn't get back to it. You watched the whole thing right? Oh yeah, pre to post the countdown and everything. Yeah it was alright you know they kick you off with Cena right off rip. He gave a nice speech, Randy Orton with the RKO. Thought it was nice to have someone there. And then my interest started waning as the evening went on. By the time it was over, I was like, all right, I'm good on wrestling for a minute. I felt like there was going to be more storylines from the weekend. We just got to see more title fights. Like EO Sky fought again and Dominic Mysterio fought again.

And like Becky Lynch came out and got her belt on Sunday and then loses it the very next night. Yeah, it was fine. It was fine. And then the end it was Seth Rollins and Heyman and all them. Ron Breaker maybe next for Heyman? That was big. That was big, yeah. I thought it was alright. And you knew Alliance, if you will. Yeah for him. That was big. That was big. Yeah. I thought it was all right. Alliance, if you will. Yeah, I thought it was all right.

It was, it was fine. Uh, Smokey Joe Leeds is asking if any of us are going to support Leeds now that they're back in the premier league. No, no, I mean, we're, we're pretty loyal around these parts. I don't know if you know this about us, but we're pretty loyal.

Uh, by the way, I forgot to mention to Bam Bam how he celebrated 420. I mean, that seems like a pretty big miss on my part. Anyway, Julian asks if any of us celebrated 420? No comment. Okay. Muscle Shark is asking, who are the Uber Eats drivers that ask the questions at the post-fight press conferences? I mean, I wouldn't be so disrespectful to Uber Eats drivers. Nah, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I mean, I don't know, I actually think the questions are fine.

No? I don't have a big problem with them. Just a couple more here. Ariel, what are your thoughts on WWE's acquisition of Triple A? Yeah, I think it's pretty cool. I think it's great, I mean, I'd be long if I said I follow AAA or CMLL, but maybe they're gonna

breathe new life into them. I can understand people who say like, oh, this isn't good, this is monopolizing, but man, the wrestling business is so much healthier than the MMA business. It's, it's wild. Think about what TNA is doing. Think about what AEW is doing.

Think about what's happening in Japan. Think about what's happening in Mexico. Obviously WWE, like we don't have any of this, not to mention all the other smaller promotions, the GCWs of the world. Mikey Z, life question for you and the crew. Do you have any tips on juggling the everyday grind in your personal life? Specifically for Pizzi.

No, he's not here. It's tough. It's not easy. I often say my favorite part of the week is like Wednesday at about six o'clock. Because at least I could breathe and honestly, I've put a lot of the other stuff off to the side in terms of Monday, Tuesday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I like put all my life things off to the side. And then I try to like pick it back up back into the week because it's so hard going from show to show to show.

Not complaining, but everyone's got their things and you just try to balance and you try to to be the best you can be, try to be in the moment. Someone said it recently to me, it was, oh yeah, it was Lex Luger. Don't be a, don't be a, what was it, a back shield person? Be a front shield person? I'm completely screwing that up, but you get the point. Just keep going. Keep swimming.

Someone's asking where I get my inspiration when I put the substack titles. usually it's a lyric from a song. This one was Rock me gently, rock me slowly, take it easy, don't you know. It's honestly the first thing that comes to my mind. First song, first lyric, I don't know. Sometimes there's a hidden message there, usually the picture there's something, this week it was Lambo, there's some, I try to give you some sort of taste about how I'm feeling, but not much else to it. And I'm so thrilled that people continue to write on the Substack and that we've developed a very good audience and community there.

Sometimes we get to go to a lot of questions today, just 24, but I appreciate everyone who wrote in and we'll try to get to more next week for now, though, let's go to our super chats. Do we have any super chats? Yes, we do. By the way, conspicuous by his absence. Who's that? Bro took the day off.

Oh, okay. By the way, I just want to validate Frank randomly. I was just thinking of Frank because, uh, yesterday I didn't see it But as soon as Connor turned the brim up on the bucket hat It did give me blossom vibes and he said that about Jordan yesterday and I kind of didn't see it or sell it Blossom vibes hundred percent. Okay, and in my opinion we don't have to talk about Frank anymore. He's gone from okay from Jordan

Oh, sorry. We're starting with Andrew. Okay, good start Okay. Uh, from Jordan, oh, sorry. We're starting with, uh, Andrew. Oh, okay. Good start. If Claire Hawani, oh, chose the life of wrestling, which WWE manager past or present would Ariel choose to guide her all the way to the WWE title?

Who's managing Claire if she's easy. Who? Heyman, of course. Yeah. The greatest of all time. I mean, that, that Saturday, that Saturday match. He, he. He's unbelievable. Plus it's not just about the stuff in front of that Saturday, that Saturday match, he, he. He's unbelievable.

Plus it's not just about the stuff in front of the camera. It's the behind the scenes stuff. He, anyone who he guides, anyone who he deems a Heyman guy or gal skyrocket. Yeah. He protects you. I got a taste of it that one time backstage and I just saw like how he runs everything.

It's unbelievable. From Jordan, I'm 27, watching MMA since 2011 gave WWE a chance three years ago because of this show and I honestly really enjoy it. Thanks for introducing me. Listen, the bottom line is like even the rofter mania, like we're not here breaking down Ross back down and exceed this and that, but I love those chats with Joe and I love the characters and I love the personalities and I love the stories and the backstories, but I've never considered myself a wrestling journalist.

I've considered myself obviously a long-time fan and a journalist who loves speaking to wrestlers about their careers. And so I hope that some people could get past some of that. If not, you're not going to. I hope you've realized that the evolution of the show is just like your Lebatards or your Dan Patricks or your Rich Isons, they can have an anchor,

they can have something that maybe they lean towards, but they like to talk about the NFL and the NBA and the NHL and Major League Baseball. We like to talk about all forms of combat. And I understand that some people may think that, hey, I just want MMA, I just want MMA. Well, there's plenty of places where you could get just MMA. And guess what? Even with all the other stuff, we're giving you more MMA than anyone. Even with all the other stuff. Strip away all the non-MMA stuff. This channel and this entity and this empire that

we have is still giving you more MMA Monday through Saturday, Sunday, Monday again than anyone because Thursday is a hundred percent MMA. Well, I'll say it's probably like 95% MMA. Friday is usually 98% MMA and Monday through Wednesday. I mean, look at today with, with, with Ty and with, uh, Caio Bahalio, smile and Sam is obviously a former, we're still giving you so much MMA. So I get that some people aren't a fan of the other stuff,

the boxing, the wrestling, et cetera, but it's not going away and I still feel like we're giving you more than anyone. And I think if you can open your eyes and heart and mind, you'll see that those industries are super interesting. They compete in different ways, but there's a lot of similarities and ultimately what I'm interested in is good stories, good personalities, interesting things to speak about with all of you, with the

team, with the crew. It doesn't matter to me what they're doing. There's a common thread, the fight game, if you will. I love it and I like that we have the freedom to talk about it all. What else? From Joey Jojo Shabadoo, does anyone know if Amanda Nunes is in the testing pool yet?

Also odds of getting the wise man on the show sends in seven. So we've got another Paul Heyman, uh, related thing. Um, hit me with that one again. Amanda Nunes, testing pool. Why is this a Paul Heyman thing? Oh also, odds of getting the wise man on the show. I would love to get the wise man on the show. It's been a little tricky lately with those, not with him, but you know.

Nunes. Love that, Nunes is coming back, yeah. In the testing pool, but you know, um, since the seven, love that Nunes is coming back. Yeah. In the testing pool. Do we know? Oh, I don't look at that stuff. Well, by the way, what is the testing pool? Honestly, what is the testing pool?

Well, I don't know since they switched off USADA what that even would be. When is the last time someone even got popped? Yeah, I don't know. Everyone's a thousand percent clean now. Come on. What is the testing pool? Enough with the testing pool nonsense.

When they, when they sever ties with USADA, it pretty much, they could do all the little ceremonies in the jackets and the things like that. It ain't what it was. And anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves. From the Real Madrid, lots of talk about this weekend, but no mention of the Copa del Rey final. Real Madrid versus Barcelona, A la Madrid. Yeah. Tios. Uh, yeah, that's another big one. It's a massive, massive weekend. Uh, you've got that one. You've got, uh, the, the FA cup semis. You've got the NFL draft.

You've got a TNA rebellion. You've got, uh, Ben Eubank. You've got UFC, Kansas city. You've got KSW. I mean, it's just insane. All in the span of 24 to 48 buckle up. What else? Friend of the show, Jason Hagholm.

Oh yeah. Ariel, hopefully you pick a quality player. Kyle Brandt called Terrell Bernard's name in 2022. Bernard. Oh, he left off there. Lots of pressure here. Listen, it's not on me.

It's on the team. I have full faith going to rock up there. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do 2022. Uh, he left off there. Lots of pressure here. Listen, it's not on me. It's on the team. I have full faith going to rock up there. Do do do do do do do do do. And, uh, let's now go to, uh, Ariel hell, wainey, who is, uh, gonna announce the next pick. I can't wait to see that. By the way, does this mean it's like sort of

like my return to ESPN? For sure. Wow. This is big. Back in the Disney, uh, universe here. This sort of like my return to ESPN? For sure. Wow, this is big. Back in the Disney universe here. This is big. Yeah, so let's see. No pressure on me.

Only pressure on them. I just have to hopefully pronounce their name correctly. So I hope I don't botch that. From Districkland, In Green Bay Meet and Greet. He wants to do a meet and greet with you while you're in Green Bay. Let me know. Let me know. Pull up. Maybe just, so you're saying just him, right?

Districklin, you and him. Tap in, yeah, me and Districklin. Okay. Private watch party. That sounded weird. Yeah, it did sound weird. That sounded weird. I'm sorry, you know what I mean, like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, Jake from Windy City, Ariel, can you bring back your basketball show? Yeah. So, you're talking about the diversity. Now we want even more, we wanna do- We want more, and then more people will bitch about it. Oh, where's the fighting, this and that.

We had the basketball show for show time. If I add another show to the portfolio at this juncture, I might die. So I would like, listen, you get the takes here. I'm worried about the Knicks. Lakers looked good last night. Pacers are gonna win in like five, it seems like. Okay. See he's going to sweep.

Um, you know, Hawks had a nice little run. They, they, they fell short. Uh, he'd have no chance. Magic have no chance. Warriors are going to win my big upset. It's not really an upset, but words are going to beat the Rockets in the first round. That's an upset.

I count that as an upset. Yeah. They won game one. Um, I think nuggets are going to beat the Clippers. Ultimately. I know a lot of people are high in the first round. That's an upset. I count that as an upset. Yeah, they won game one. I think Nuggets are going to beat the Clippers. Ultimately, I know a lot of people are high on the Clippers. The Darlings right now. Yeah, and Cavs are going to roll. I think, you know, ultimately it's going to be a...

It's probably going to be a Knicks-Cavs Eastern Conference Final. And it's probably going to be an OKC, Lakers, probably Lakers are going to beat the Lakers are going to beat the, uh, Timberwolves in my opinion, and the Warriors are going to beat the Rockets and then the Lakers are going to beat the Warriors and then OKC is going to beat the Lakers.

Knicks will beat the Cavs, Knicks beat the, uh, Thunder and we're, we're, we're, we're strolling down Broadway. We're strolling down Broadway in like a month and a half. Wow. Ticket tape? Yeah. Canyon of heroes. What a run. Yeah.

Benjamin Turk, Halliburton versus Dame MMA fight, who you got, go Knicks. Hey, shout out to MC Dub, Michael Carter Williams, making his boxing debut. Uh, Halliburton, Dame, by the way, Halliburton, chill out, chill out with the, the Dame stuff. All right. Dame's a legend.

We're always going to, where's my Dame? Where's my Dame? Where's my Dame? Oh, here. We're always going to, where's my Dame? Where's my Dame? Oh, here. We're always going to be a Dame time. Also, Dame like boxes. Like, Dame's the man. Dame will probably beat him up. 100%. Last one, Gabriel Sedano. 30th birthday today, would love a shout out. Hashtag 10-7. Yo, happy birthday, Gabriel, uh, the big three

O that's a huge one. Uh, but you're just scratching the surface. You're just getting started. You're just getting warmed up a lot to be excited about a lot to be thankful for. I hope a lot to be grateful for, uh, let us know, let us know where the party's at. Should we pull up?

Should we tap in another one? Let's go. Where we got, should we bring the bam bam buds? No, we come on. Oh, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, we, One on one, another one? Let's go, let's go. Where we got, should we bring the Bam Bam Buds? No, all right. Now we're talking. We come on. Put the James Tihona fight on. We swim by in the, what was it, the Bing Panther?

Yeah, the Bing Bamfa. Yeah, hell yeah. So let us know, tap in, all right? I think we're going to the tap in well too many times. Too much? I thought you were hating on it, bro. I'm trying to I'm trying to you're almost happening more than they tap in. What do we got tomorrow what do we got tomorrow boys in the back? Oh KC preview deep dive. U-Bank Ben obviously. U-Bank Ben I mean the guy we've been

waiting centuries for this fight and like he's just kind of like yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, Edwards yeah so we got that top five top five pound for pound so because it's fatal fury the sponsor for this weekend top five fighting games of all time oh okay yeah I'm looking forward to that one could get contentious also want to mention uncrowned calm on fire the coverage WrestleMania was unbelievable was that one crowd I got blazing on fire. On fire. There's a great, great feature up right now, um, regarding Eubank Ben, uh, entitled Born Rivals, Chris Eubank Jr., Connor Ben and boxing's fiercest 45 year old blood feud written by one of the

absolute best in combat sports, Elliot Wurzel, who I am so, so, so happy is a part of the team. You gotta read this, tremendous. And a quick tease, in addition to all the great stuff on there, I'm so proud of the site. I mentioned this recently on X. Sometimes I just sit back and look at it. What Shaheen has done is unbelievable.

Mixing it all together, the wrestling coverage, great. You don't get that type of coverage in other places. Obviously the boxing, Darshan and Elliot and others doing such a great job. And then on the MMA side, Drake and the whole crew over there doing an incredible job. Tomorrow, Ben obviously and Chuck and Pizzi. Ben, no Chuck, is, Ben wrote a great one last week about WrestleMania and how it got him into combat sports, but tomorrow Chuck has a great feature on the Fighting Nerds.

Spent some time with them in Miami leading up to the Gian Silva 314 fight, spoke to all the particulars. You're going to want to read that in anticipation of the big fight this weekend involving one of their own, one of their own, Carlos Pratchett. So stay tuned for that. Uncrowned.com. A place to be, very proud. We're rolling along. We're building an empire.

We're working through the kinks. We're thumbsing up to the chat. We're doing our thing. And we appreciate you all very, very much. It is time to go. [♪ Music playing. Chatter of the King's Choir. Shout out to the area. [♪ Music playing. Chatter of the King's Choir. Shout out to the buds. [♪ Music to the buds. Shout out to the bucket hat.

Shout out to our friends and partners who essentially leave us alone which is the best thing anyone could ever ask. We've got some big plans. Maybe a trip and on the road a few shows in the works some other things in the works but we've got a trip to to Green Bay to settle. Green Bay Wisconsin. Cheese country. Is that what it is? I think that's what it is. I mean they have the cheese heads. The next time you see me, most likely, I'll be walking up onto the stage with a little card probably, wearing my Thurman Thomas and in case I don't mention anyone on the team or who watches the show, in case I don't mention anyone... We know you. Just know that I'm thinking of you in that moment.

For sure. And maybe I'll do a sign, like a this or a nose thing. I don't know. I don't want to commit to anything. Be good, do good, God bless, go Bills. Should I drop an iron? Should I drop a something? Just let everyone know?

I don't know. And I was hoping that whoever you draft the guys name name will be on it. What if I show up rocking the BamBamBuds hat? Imagine. Who would be like, what the fuck is this guy? And the jersey? I'm like, yo. Anyway, we'll see how it all plays out. For now though, very very excited, very very happy. Thank you to Kayo, Ty, Joe, Sam, Ben, Dion. Thanks to all of you. Thanks to all of them. Back to Marseille, tell everybody this, Ben, Dion. Thanks to all of you. Thanks to all of them. Back to Marseille, tell everybody this is it.

Peace, somebody here.