The Ariel Helwani Show - Can Ilia Topuria top Conor McGregor? P4P American fighters, voicemails, more | The Boys in the Back

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

The Boys in the Back return from Las Vegas and kick off the show with a debate about new UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria's star power and how he compares to Conor McGregor (02:17).With no event to preview, The Boys recap their picks (33:50) and jump into their P4P all-time rankings of American fighters (41:22), before listening to voicemails (52:55) and answering your Super Chats (1:19:54).

Buh buh buh buh buh boys in the back. Buh buh buh buh boys, boys, boys, boys. What is good? We are back with another episode of The Boys in the Back, this time on July 3rd, July 4th. Eve here in the States. I am one third of the boys in the back. Mr. Connor Burks, join along, sign me as always.

You can see the hand reaching in to the frame there. Mr. New York Rick, Mr. Eric Jackman. How we doing, brother? I'm good. I feel like we saw a lot of each other last week. Yeah, yeah. We spent a lot of intimate time together. You say last week, just like the last 10 days.

Yeah, but it was a lot of fun. And an absolute blast. This feels like the cherry on top and then we get a little extended weekend. This really feels like the last day of school. Yeah. Like we're heading into a holiday weekend, the commute in was a little bit empty,

the office is a little bit empty, 4th of July is tomorrow. This is like the very end, the last hurdle for us on this like insane stretch from a full week with Fanatics fest and a full week out in Vegas To write back into it. You know, it's crazy like this is the one to finish it We're heading right back into pizza coming into town and then we got yeah Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano to do the Up for did all the planning for pizza coming into town

And then the following week after that it's UFC 3 318, Dustin Poirier's final fight. And then the week after that, it's the Abu Dhabi card. Or is it the Saudi Arabia card? The Robert Whitaker, RDR one. Yeah, it just feels like August is when we can kind of relax for a second. Yeah, but then August is Hamza Shemaiah versus DDP. Hamza's in the US, I'm very excited about that.

Frankie, how you doing back there, brother? Couldn't be better. Yeah. A man of many words, Frank is. It is the Abu Dhabi card. A man of many words, yes. The Abu Dhabi card. That will be a great one.

No UFC card this weekend. We're still coming off. I feel like everyone's still recovering from UFC 317, in my opinion. Card of the year to this point, and it was highlighted by Ilya Toporia knocking out Charles Olivaire in the very first round. So a discussion we wanted to have on the show today,

thumbnail says bigger than Conor. Is Ilya Toporia bigger than Conor McGregor? Absolutely not, no, absolutely not. He is, if you were mapping it out right now, the dude is not even in the same galaxy as a Conor McGregor, how big he got at his peak. Yeah, and there is a question to be asked, can anybody ever kind of reach that?

With where the sport was when he blew up the phenomenon that he truly was at the time, can anyone ever repeat it? And I think a major reason for why that question would linger is he was the first. He was the guy that set the blueprint. Now there have been other big stars before him, right? And there will be other big stars after him.

But at the time that he came around in the way that he did it, it would be very hard to replicate that kind of lightning in a bottle. It was him and Ronda that were just these two outliers that like in the moment were perfect for what was needed from the UFC, from the sport, from the culture,

and they completely took the ball and ran with it. I don't know if anybody will ever do it exactly the same, but I think there are ways we can kind of compare Iliya Topori to Conor McGregor to see if he can do something else. Or if he can do something similar in the stance of just getting the awe of the public and really starting to dive into that casual group

to where he's fighting and people that rarely ever watch mixed martial arts are going to be watching. Because if you look at Conor McGregor, you mentioned it, like he was the first, like the first guy to get the double champ status, the simultaneous two belts, you know, be able to look up at it. Which we should note, Iliya Tseporia is not.

He vacated his, in my mind I consider him a double champion because he never lost that belt. I consider him a double champion. But on paper, he actually vacated that belt and is now only the lightweight champion. It's important to note that because there have only been a few people who have simultaneously held that belt. There have been more that have had championships in different weight classes. He is in that latter category. He is a two

division champion. Just looking at, you know, everyone's very high on alien to pointer right now. The recency bias can take advantage of people. You know, he's getting, he just hit 11 million followers on Instagram. He is now the most followed active fighter and he is now just widening that margin and he's just getting bigger and bigger. People- The active does some heavy lifting there.

The active does some heavy lifting. Conor McGregor has not fought in four years. Conor McGregor, 11 million followers. Conor McGregor is sitting at like 47 million. And then in addition to that, he's got another 10 and a half million on on Twitter his YouTube channel the Mac life run by the great Oscar Willis 1.61 million on YouTube like he owns a massive alcohol brand or had stake in a massive alcohol and with proper number 12

And then if you just go back and you look in one of the most insane statistics ever the top 10 most purchased Pay-per-views in UFC history this is according to Front Office Sports. Let's just start at number 10 UFC 194 Aldo versus McGregor. Good one to have. Number 9 Lesnar versus Meir UFC 100 tied for seventh Usman Mazvieral tied for seventh Alvarez McGregor number six McGregor Diaz number five McGregor Cerrone number four Poirier McGregor, number six McGregor Diaz, number five McGregor Cerrone, number four, Poirier McGregor, three, number two, Poirier McGregor, two, tied for number two, Diaz McGregor, two, and number one,

Nermaga Medov, McGregor. So of that 10, Conor McGregor was in eight of those. There's an obvious thread there. And the fact that he has eight fights of over a million pay-per-view buys and four of one and a half million plus. And then obviously the Habib almost two and a half million. And then, oh yeah, he also went and fought Floyd Mayweather

which did like another four million pay-per-view buys. Like the dude is box office. He is as big as it gets that this sport has ever seen. 2018, he was the number four highest paid athlete in the world. And then 2021, he was the number four highest paid athlete in the world and then 2021 he was the number one highest paid athlete in the world. He has reached echelons that we have never seen and like you said may never see again. If we are doing the comparisons based on money generated, if we are doing paper views and things like that, nobody will eclipse Conor McGregor and I find it

hard to believe that anybody will ever eclipse Floyd Mayweather in their sport of boxing. Those are the two standard bearers. Those are the guys that if you are looking at the top of the mountain, they're standing up there by themselves. And you mentioned pay-per-view guys in a way of viewing fights that I feel is starting to fade away. Starting to die out. We've seen WWE have success with their premier live events

rather than the pay-per-view model. There's a world where the UFC starts going in that direction as well. You see Turkey, L.A. Sheik in boxing, making pay-per-views much more affordable for the common fans. So it's not these $80 insane revenue generators that we've seen in the past.

And then one last thing about Conor McGregor, this screenshot of him just weighing in, just simply weighing in from UFC 229 against the Biberman-Raghamatov. Which I believe was in front of a packed crowd. Packed crowd is, it was, I think the entire arena was full. I want to say they were at MGM Grand in this one, and there is like 10,000 people there

just to watch the dude do a ceremonial weigh in. Yeah, we're not there. GM Grand in this one and there is like 10,000 people there just to watch the dude do a ceremony away. And like, we're not there. All of that. And then on top of that, the mic skills. No, my skills are just, were just unbelievable. Like he was just able to captivate an audience, not only in the octagon with the knockouts

with everything like that, but also on the microphone. One thing I want to point out about the pay-per-view thing, we talked about, you mentioned like maybe that model's going away. I have to imagine that that is, and that will not be the metric for success anymore. Because A, that model is kind of antiquated and was based on like the best way to generate money

when you were a fight promotion back then was to sell it directly and then take the profits from that. There's now so many things fighting for attention and so many other ways to monetize a product that the pay-per-view model no longer seems to be the kind of like silver bullet for generating money that it used to be. And also you have so many other different tools that you can leverage to make money, whether it be you're with a broadcast partner who pays you things upfront, whether it be the advertising that you're selling

against in some of those broadcasts. There are so many different levers that organizations and companies and broadcast partners and anybody involved in the business of it can now utilize in order to generate money. The direct sale of the pay-per-view is no longer probably the most efficient way. Now, certainly the UFC and boxing to an extent have kept it in the diet because there is still

a market for it and there still is a habit that is developed with consumers. But if we're going to measure anybody against Conor McGregor, or as I said in boxing Floyd Mayweather moving forward, they will not stack up because that model has kind of like shifted a little bit. Now, there are other ways to measure

how much money somebody generates, whether it be like, these are the top stars when we were able to get XYZ dollar broadcast deal. These are the marketing spends that people have. These are the number of commercials and the actual direct money that advertisers and other sponsors and partners are willing to pay this individual or even the UFC. There are lots of different ways to cut this. And so I think as the tools to measure this develop, there will be ways to measure like how big an impact a star like an Iliya Toporia or even

Tom Aspinall in the future and people like that are able to generate. All right now let's get into Can Iliya Toporia make an impact as as large as as Conor McGregor? Why don't we start with where the resumes stand and then we'll we'll go from there. Okay, so Conor McGregor When he became double champ. Yes after Eddie Alvarez. That was the Eddie Alvarez fight, yep. That is essentially where Elio Topoi is at in his career. He is 9-0 in the UFC. He won the featherweight title against Alec Volkonovsky, defended it once, vacated it, and then just beat Charles Olvera to become the lightweight champion. So he is now a two division champion, 9-0

in the UFC. Beat what is considered the best featherweight of all time at the time, or some people would still say Aldo, I believe I said the greatest, Volk, let's put Volk and Max, the two pack of those as at least equal to the best featherweight of all time, like Connor did with Aldo,

and then went up to lightweight to face a game opponent, a veteran, somebody who had been around for a long time and got that second belt. Again, just for the record and the clarity, Connor was holding both belts at the time. Ilya Toporiya is not due to circumstance, in my opinion, for all intents and purposes in my mind, those two things are equal.

This is the point that the roads split. This is the point where Connor McGregregor decided, okay, I'm going to do the impossible. So just to point out like how similar it is, they were both 28. McGregor was 9-1 in the UFC. You said 9-0 for Ilya. 9-0 for Ilya. McGregor was 9-1, the one loss being to Nate Diaz, which he avenged in the very next fight, and then he goes on to beat Eddie Alvarez, all of that taking place in 2016. So both 28 years old, both two division champions, nine and one in the UFC, nine and oh in the UFC.

They're both at these points of like meteoric rise, as hot as hot could possibly get, have that aura of invincibility around them. I know McGregor lost to Diaz, but obviously he went up to Welterweight to take that fight. This aura of like, wow wow these dudes are are incredible They they were they're just gonna burn the brightest, but then to your point

This is where Connors career kind of started diverging Yeah And and it is tied to the idea that when you listed off those top pay-per-views of all time Conor McGregor was in a class of his own he was now on the back of selling multi-million dollar, multi-million buy pay-per-view events over and over and over to the point that even Floyd Mayweather in another sport is like how do we capitalize on this? The other best seller of all time says how do we capitalize on this and they do business

together and sell one of the biggest pay-per-views across all sports, across boxing or MMA or anything else that has come before. I believe it's only second to Mayweather and Pacquiao. Yeah, it is. And I believe at this point in both their careers, if you just went after the Eddie Alvarez, McGregor is much larger than Tapori is now. Certainly in terms of like, curating, right? Like when we're looking at like,

who is more in the mainstream consciousness? Who is somebody who has more pop culture? You could not walk anywhere without people Quoting Conor McGregor doing the billionaire strut thing like he just had developed this this cult of personality that people were magnetized to I don't think Ilya has transcended in that way yet certainly in the fight game I think people's eyes are now open to the idea of holy shit like Ilya is is the second coming is the guy that is Supposed to kind of carry this mantle forward.

But generally, pop culture-wise, is your mom texting you, you will get a text about Connor, I don't think at this point you're still getting that Ilya Toporia text, but you would for Connor. My mom knows who Connor McGregor is, my mom probably does not know who Ilya Toporia is.

But how far away are we from your mom? That's the question, that is what I wanna know. So 2015 is when McGregor knocks out Aldo, like Superstar in 2016 is when the double champ everything, nine years later. So Ingest, the Show Me the Money podcast, obviously Moikano's, which runs a great meme account, by the way, if you're not following them on socials.

But they sort of tweeted in jest, mapping out Ilya Toporia until 2035 if he went the same route as Conor. This would be him going to fight Canelo, essentially, lose but make $100 million, start a tequila company or some sort of liquor company. You come back to MMA and you fight Islam Akashar, you get submitted.

Then you come back and you fight a 40 year old Benildi Aries, this is akin to the Donald Serrani fight. You win that one and then you fight Volkonovsky twice, lose the first one and then break your leg in the second one. When you look at that on paper, it is a bit rough when you do obviously make the leap to what kind of And all that would have been done by 2021

and then we would have gone fightless since since 2031. You have to imagine that the path for Ilya Tupori does not go that way. Now maybe it does, maybe some weird circumstances happen, but you do have to imagine that it doesn't and he continues to be an

active MMA fighter. But it's something I said about John Jones Jones and I think it will apply to Ilya Taporyev is sometimes Conor McGregor's time out of the ring may have served him better to a certain degree and worse to one another degree. Worse because hey we want to see him fight and we want him to get reps and we want to see him continue to build his legacy. Better in certain aspects because the more you fight the more opportunities there is,

somebody to knock you off that perch. And so Conor McGregor was able to be shielded a little bit from that and capture the imagination. Certainly I think the Habib loss was a big hit, right? Because not to his star power, not to his career, but a big hit to can this guy be the magical guy that he was before. Then he comes back and the Saroni fight

kind of makes people go, oh shit, like maybe he is back and maybe that Habib camp was as bad as we had heard. And then the Justin Poirier fights happen and it kind of from there, the fighter aspect of Conor McGregor kind of became secondary to the celebrity aspect of Conor McGregor. But in that, in that intermediary period from that, like 2018 2019 period he wasn't super active and so we still had this this vision of Conor McGregor as this guy who could come in and left hand anybody and so if Ilya Taporiyah continues to stay active he doesn't have the benefit of that right every single time out for Ilya

Taporiyah now is gonna be an absolute killer it's gonna be the Habibs it's gonna be the Habib level guys if it gonna be the Habib level guys. If it is Islam Makacheb, it is nearly an identical kind of equivalent in terms of what we're looking at. And that is tough. That is the toughest thing to do. And not only is it gonna be absolute killers, to me the stakes will just continue to rise. Each time with that undefeated record on the line, you're just gonna become a bigger and bigger star. and each time you win, each time you ether a dude, you put a dude into the shadow realm where they don't know where they are,

each time you go out after that, it's gonna be someone hunting for your head and can they pull off the unbelievable and be the one that gives Ilya Taboria, or takes Ilya Taboria's O from him. Not only that, but there's more tape on you, right? Now we've seen you more times, and this is one of the things that happened to John Jones, which is like this dude's been fighting since he was five years old,

seemingly he was a champion, the youngest champion ever. There's a lot of tape on John Jones and now as your reflexes are slowing, these people are watching more tape on you. These title defenses, these opportunities become harder and harder and harder. So every time Iliad Tappori steps in there, he's giving more and more information to his opponents. This will only escalate. Now, to this point though, what we've seen from Iliya Toporia is, as

the stakes go up, he gets better, which is scary to think about. Now, not only is an opponent getting more tape on him, but he is also getting more octagon time. He is getting more experience. He hasn't fought that many minutes in the octagon because of how easily he's able to kind of do his work and it is seemingly getting easier. So there's this very interesting, very exciting thing happening with him that I can't say that I'm as excited to see how it plays out with anybody else in MMA right now. There's no one that's more fascinating to me right now than Elio Taporia. Like he's got the combination of the look,

the backing of Spain and Georgia, the way that he fights, the confidence, the charisma, everything is going his direction and then he's knocking people absolutely out cold, which is a very fan friendly way to win fights. Now, on the flip side of me saying, the stakes get bigger, the risk gets bigger, the reward also gets bigger.

Every time you go out there and you add another win into that column and that zero stays there and you're just taking out people and you're racking up title defenses, your star power only gets bigger and bigger and bigger and more people want eyes on it. Say he gets like three or four title defenses at lightweight. It starts becoming like, wow, this dude is, is undeniable. I think he would have a similar kind of rocket ship in the way that

Alex Pereira did, right? Alex Pereira was kind of this guy who was brought in to be the, the foil to Israel out of Sonia and ended up being his own thing. He ended up being a superstar in his own right, But it happened quick and as it happened he started burning brighter and brighter and brighter. You see him going to Korea and all these other places and there's an absolute mob just to be in the presence of Alex Pereira. People started texting me about Alex Pereira. We do that like tests, right? Our family and friends don't follow texting. I've gotten Alex Pereira tests. I've gotten Alex per test

I've still yet to see that Iliya toporia text but I have to imagine it is not far away because of what he was able to do to Charles and Now the people starting to pass around the viral highlights some of the colder lines that people have kind of latched onto that He said the aura the presence the double the picture just even the picture of him holding two belts There's going to be this kind of swell that's coming and now it's up to him to continue the job the aura, the presence, the picture, just even the picture of him holding two belts, there's going to be this kind of swell that's coming, and now it's up to him to continue the job. Can anybody ultimately eclipse Connor?

I don't think so. I just don't see a world where you can recapture that lightning in a bottle in that perfect storm. But can he do something in the sport of MMA, the legacy, the resume side, I think he has an opportunity to do something that nobody has ever done before in terms of like triple champ thing. If he can go up to 170 and he's been talking about it, don't get me wrong.

I had concerns about his size at 155. I have major, major, major concerns if he is going to fight somebody at 170. But he has long expressed that he's going to fight Islam Makachev no matter what. That is the fight that he wants to fight. He wants to go up to 170 and take that belt if he can. That, to me, puts you in a status and a company that nobody else is in and can start to make that conversation a little bit closer, at least, in terms of Conor McGregor. Because as we're talking about now, when we talk about Conor, we talk about the epic run and then the business. But the latter half, that's the part that kind of gets washed away because that's the downside of the Connor McGregor experience. That's the part that we don't

really want to talk about because there's not much other than bad stuff to kind of talk about. And so if Ilya Tuporiya can put some distance between himself and everybody else in terms of what the point from here looks like, he's going to be talked about as one of the goats, he's gonna be talked about as one of the goats if he's not already kind of in that conversation, but what he does from here has a major impact on that. All right, you mentioned Conor McGregor, the business,

and then you also mentioned Alex Pereira and how bright he started burning going to Korea, going to Australia, doing all these things. The bigger Ilya Tiporia gets, the more directions he's gonna get churled in. The more distractions he Toporia gets, the more directions he's gonna get churled in. The more distractions he's gonna have, the more opportunities he's gonna have to capitalize on this fame to make even more money,

generational wealth for him and his family. You know, you see the HBO doc, everything coming out like that. So it really is just like, the longer this goes on, the more just like each time he steps in, it's just gonna become that much bigger and you saw it with Alex Pereira, the star power was burning so bright, especially going into that Magomed Onkaliah fight. He gets a

loss and it's like, Poetan is still a massive star. Next time he fights people will be watching, but it dulls it heavily. Sure. There is no argument against that. So it's almost just like, does Ilya Toporia have that star power and that charm and that charisma to push through the losses because Conor McGregor lost loses, he loses to Floyd Mayweather, comes back to MMA, loses to Habib

Nomagomedov. But then you look at the Donald Cironi fight, you look at the two Porier fights, those are both top 10 pay-per-view buys of all time. People still want to see him regardless of him regardless of the wins and losses. Does Iliya Toporia have that star power? You laid it out perfectly because this is

a momentum conversation. That is how this thing works. When you have that rock, you need to run with it as far and as hard as you possibly can. And that is what Conor McGregor did, right? Every opportunity, he turned into a bigger one and then parlayed that into a bigger one and a bigger one and a bigger one even coming back to fight Habib Nurmagomedov that was a massive fight that was the UFC's

biggest fight so everything was an escalation even if even if you stumble he turned the rematch with Nate Diaz into the biggest thing and so that is Ilya Toporia's path even if he is gonna stumble and you made a great point that like there will there will be things that you can trip over that That is how this is going to go. He's going to be pulled in a lot of different directions. You're going to be trying to make all the money you can in the prime of your career, but there's going to be lots of opportunities for you to stumble. If Iliya Toporia can continue to sprint this way and not stumble, he's going to be golden for a long time. Even if he does stumble though, what he has to do is regain that momentum.

And you do that by getting back in the cage. You don't do that by taking the time off. You don't do that by disappearing. You need to... We saw this with Ronda Rousey, right? There was a call for her to kind of like address the media after her defeat and kind of talk. And she didn't want to. She was in a dark place and in a hole. And so there was a souring on her and Conor McGregor took an opposite approach. Like every time Conor McGregor had a stumble, he went back out there and was like, okay, I need to get my lick back against Diaz.

I need to hop back in here and show the people that I'm still the biggest fighter in the world. That is what Ilya Tupori will have to do. Now I'm not predicting a stumble anytime soon. I thought maybe coming up to lightweight, maybe the size was going to be a potential stumbling block. It was not. He was able to overcome that quite easily.

Charles Olvera, a rather big lightweight, and he made it look easy there. So I don't know. It doesn't seem like there's many obstacles in his path. Maybe one will develop. But either way, he needs to continue this momentum. And I don't see anything that could stop him from doing it right now.

Yeah, I mean, it really is just, it's mind boggling to think how quickly he's become this big. And I actually think because it feels like he's done everything right up to this point, even when he wins, the way he talks about the win, someone asked him if he thinks he's invincible. And he's like, nah, of course I'm not invincible.

I know I'm not invincible. That's why I work so hard to develop my craft. I do feel confident in him continuing to do the right thing even if he does lose. It's almost like when Izzy started losing, people were shocked by the way that he carried himself after a loss, being graceful to his opponent, having this sportsmanship about it. It feels like even if Iliya Tuporiya loses, he will handle that properly as well. The best thing that

can happen to Iliya from here is a true rivalry developing, right? And maybe Patti Pemblik can be that. Or maybe Islam can be that. I was going to say maybe it's him and Islam circling each other. Sure. But I am with you. A massive rivalry, a massive, like, the biggest thing about him versus Islam, and I don't know if the stars will align properly for it, but a pound for pound, one versus two type matchup. Because that almost feels like the fight for the face of the UFC. It feels like Ilya and Islam is right here. I think Ilya's style and charm and charisma is much more, you know, works better for the common fan as opposed

to Islam, but it feels like that could be a fight to be the face of the UFC. Yeah, and that's almost been Islam's problem to this point is he hasn't had that rival. Like the Volkanovsky first fight, I think made people go, okay, can this be the one? And then the second fight kind of quickly put that to bed. Maybe Ilya Toporia can be that for Islam and maybe Islam could be that for Ilya Toporia. We'll see, and maybe it's Patti Pimba, maybe I'm counting him out too early. Maybe the Patti Pimba versus Ilya Toporia rivalry is the one that has the most legs.

That will be the best thing for Ilya in the way that Nate Diaz in that rivalry was absolutely incredible for Conor McGregor. So the game plan is there, the playbook is there, the momentum is there. Elliot Toporia has every opportunity in front of him to put himself in rarefied air and make himself one of the legends of the sport, if he's not already

kind of considered in that class. And it remains to be seen how this will all play out, but I'm fairly confident that he will make the right moves in the lead up to those opportunities. It's gonna be fascinating to watch. It feels like for the latter, for the beginning half of this year, we have been questioning whether or not the EOC

has any stars and they're in this star drought. Here's one right here that has the potential to become a superstar. Yeah, and I think again, the metric for how we measure stars is going to have to change. It is no longer just like, does this person sell pay-per-views? There's a lot of other aspects that go into this. I would expect that the UFC maybe

starts to invest more now, right? They've kind of, in the early days, when we're talking about Conor McGregor, when we're talking about Ronda Rousey, there was a very clear push, even like a sage north cut. There was a very clear UFC saying even like a sage north cut. There was a very clear UFC saying, we want to market this person. We want to push them as far as we possibly can.

We're gonna put the power of the promotion behind them. We're gonna put the resources behind them. I haven't yet kind of like seen or felt that with Ilya Toporia necessarily. It feels much more so like the modern UFC is kind of a sink or swim. Like we're gonna give you the platform. You do whatever you need to do

and that will be the result, right? If you can capture it in the way that Alex Pereira did, if you can steal it away and make it your own, you will be able to run with it, but they don't necessarily kind of like put the chips behind X, Y, Z person. I think that will change because I think Ilya Toporia will force that.

It feels like it's starting a little bit. Posting the knockout after it happens. That's an example of why. By the way, is that like 13 or 14 million views? Yeah. But then if you look at Conor McGregor, he has like three of the top five videos on UFC channel of all time.

But like posting the knockout, allowing him to post the knockout on all his socials. As soon as the fights ended, he posts the 17 and 0 with the club of the knockout. Being able to bring Patty Pimblitt into the cage, kind of hyping that up, walking around with the two belts, everything like that.

It feels like they are starting to back them and really realize what they have on their hands. Yeah, and the other thing about Connor was that he was kind of like omnipresent at that time. It would be like, he's going to other fights, he's on Twitter kind of making noise. He just, it felt like Connoror McGregor was just like the presence over the sport.

Iliya Toporia can kind of be that. I mean, you know, he does a press conference every four hours so maybe that would be the way to kind of stay in the public eye. My hot take is that he actually doesn't do that many press conferences. I mean, I've seen quotes from 10, at least last week. He's making, he's doing his promo for WOW,

his fighting organization in Spain. That's the one that he walked out at. Which he's walked out at several times, I think he walked out with the president of Spain. Oh shit, alright, well, there you go. Continue to do those things, let those things kind of pick up traction. It's great, like if he has business ventures

like that promotion, it's perfect for those as well. It's now getting to the point now too where like he is such a star, he's backing up all the talk in the octagon, and he's starting to drop these lines, these cold one-liners, that now you want to hear him speak. You wanna hear what he has to say.

I will say that's the one area where the magic that Connor had is yet to be kind of like captured and replicated. It's such a separate thing. McGregor put together, you can sit and watch a 40- minute highlight reel of him just talking shit. I don't know if anybody will ever be able to recreate that. Not that way.

The smoothness with which he talked trash and the viruleness of the clips that he put out. I don't think anybody will ever be able to recreate it, but some of these lines from earlier are just like, God, this dude is cold blooded. This dude is cold blooded. The other thing, and we said it when we talked about like the run and the resume and the double champ,

he was the first. He was the one, like he was not the first trash talker, right? Chael Sonnen kind of had made an incredible name for himself, especially in the Anderson Silver rivalry. Before that, I know this will sound hard to believe, but there was a time where Tito Ortiz was like pretty good on the mic and trash talking those days long behind us

The he's not the first trash talker Muhammad Ali obviously if we if we go to the other sports But he did it in such a unique way that now has kind of become the blueprint like like everything else with Conor McGregor That that path is the one that kind of other fighters are trying to replicate It will be hard to do it again, But I like the way Ilya does it differently. I think that will serve him to not just be a Conor McGregor clone, right? To not just be the guy who we're making so all these parallel comparisons

about the way he's fighting and the knockouts and the resume and the record and the double champ. To be a little bit different, even if it's just as simple as the trash talk, even if it's just as simple as how he carries himself, I think that will help him because it doesn't have to be baby Connor, Connor Jr. I think this is where he'll really start to separate

himself and his career because the comparisons are there. Like the grabbing the belt against Volk, the chest tattoos, all these things, because I don't think there is an Iliya Toporia without a Connor McGregor. I think he was clearly inspired by the things that Conor McGregor was able to do. And some of that, copycat, best, sincerest form of flattery.

I think that there is that, but now I think he's going to be able to develop his own individualism in his star. And we also kind of need those things to make sense of stuff. We need to compare it to something so we have like an understanding. Conor's the easiest comparison because it seems the most like it, it seems the most equivalent, but I like you believe that Ilya is gonna do things that Connor did not and is gonna put himself in a different category. It's gonna be

fascinating to watch. But no he is not bigger than Connor. Of course not, no no no. We will get comments on this video of people that watch six seconds of it and they're just like what a dumb conversation. Of course he's not bigger than Connor. Thanks for watching guys, appreciate that one. Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, it's going to be fascinating to watch. No, he is not bigger than Connor. Could he be bigger than Connor?

Probably not, but could he be a superstar with which the UFC has not seen in a while? Let me ask you something. Absolutely. When we talk about bigger, you got me thinking, when you said like, could he be, what is bigger, right? What if, what if Iliad Toporia goes on to be 25 and O, let's call it 30, let's say he passes up to you.

Let's say he's 30 and O. Okay. Has the most incredible resume we've ever seen in MMA, becomes an ambassador for the sport, like a GSP, right? Yeah. What if he just becomes somebody who is a representative of the sport and is somebody who is out there pushing the sport and showing people what can be

the positive route to success? Would you consider that bigger? Honestly, if he gets to 30 and 0, I think he will be bigger than him. Me too, and I think there's a way. Not 30 and 0 seems impossible at the moment, but he has made the impossible look possible. But I think there's a world where Iliad Toporia

or somebody else can come along and do something to impact the sport and to impact culture in a way beyond the fighting and a way beyond kind of like the things that Conor McGregor is known for in terms of the trash talk and stuff like that. But then there's other things that Conor McGregor is known for that are not positive, that are not a representation of what you'd want around the sport. And so maybe there's a package

there where Ilya Toporya can put everything together in the cage, be as good as anybody to has ever done it, but then also transcend that and be an ambassador and be an ambassador for culture and sports and all these things worldwide. Maybe that's the route. Only time will tell. Who knows what we'll be talking about him when we talk about Iliya Taborian three years, five years. I'm so excited to see it though. Oh, fascinating. I've been trepidatious, but now I'm all in.

Nah, I'm all in. I can't wait to see what happens. So yeah, time will tell. Yes. Time will tell, but there is a lot of potential. The potential is limitless. The potential really, truly is limitless. The potential really truly is limitless. Shout out to this IFB, Frankie.

It really is, it's something. What happened to our IFBs, Frank? Do we wanna get into that? All right, all right, we'll save it. All right, let's go to a recap of 317. We can talk about Parley, Pals, and my bets, both which included one Elliot Toporia. Yeah, let's do it.

Let's go to recap of the old bets last week. Not a bad week for old CB. Yeah, kind of a small picture there. I had a lot of action down on 319, but yeah, the only picks that I missed was Denise by KOTKO, which should have had. I mean, he, he, he should have knocked out Alvin Hines. He had several chances. And then the under one and a half in the Nico Price, Jacoby Smith fight.

Those were actually the two first fights of the night. And I looked at Rick and I was like, fuck me. Tough start to the night, man. I lost, lost two bets right out of the gate. Didn't lose another bet for the night. Finish up 9.11 units, biggest night of the year, up over 60 units all time, one profitable every single week in June.

Don't let the cake get hot, don't let the cake get hot. People love to, you know, sometimes jump in, clown the old boy on like, man, you suck at your bets. It's just like, do I? Cause like, it's just like the stock market. It's just like this inevitable rise. Yeah, we have the ebbs, we have the flows, we go down, but like at the end of the day, we always go up.

When I started tracking on this in 2023 on betnma.tips, cause people were like, you have to do this, you're lying. Even though we would give the bets out the week before. And then we would recap on Monday, every single week, got up over a hundred units on the MMA hour, that is what it is, you know, call me fake. So we started on better than may tips at one point started 2023 horrifically get down 32

units after Strickland versus Abis Magomedov. Two years later, we're up 92 units since then. So I mean, it's what it is. I mean, just proven profitability over the last four years, but continue to continue to tell me, I don't know what I'm doing. Please continue to tell mean it's what it is. I mean, just proven profitability over the last four years, but continue to tell me I don't know what I'm doing. Please, continue to tell me, it's all good, it's all good, continue to tell me.

Plus give them out for free. Give them out for free, week after week after week after week, every single UFC card for the last four years, but you know, it is what it is, it is what it is. No worries over here, no worries over here, you're just motivating me that much more. It's all good. Parley Pals. Also hit.

Let's go. Yeah, let's go. On top of the run, I mean, I've also hit like eight or nine straight Parley Pals picks. Everyone else says the same thing. I was on a nice run at the end of 2024. I think I faltered this year, but I'm doing all right. Yeah, there's a win and it looks like the next card we're gonna have another chance to get in the green.

UFC Nashville, is that when we finally get in the green? I think so fingers crossed fingers up PT in person has to give us a winning pick it is required he's gonna take KB Taylor money well I mean he's gonna be okay last time in person we got the Marab the famous Marab true pick out of him to start it off so very true yes it was a good week all around UFC 317 unbelievable card great results in the betting, had fun watching it, got three Apex posters signed.

But we weren't the only ones that hit big with our posters. We also had the big hitters for this week. Gotta shout out some people. What's new? Mr. Electrocute. Mr. Electrocute, Artzy and J. Singh made the big hitters because they are two of the sharpest guys in the entire space.

Up over $30,000 on this card. Here's his main card parlay. Plus 1393, Peyton Talbot, Benil Dariush, Josh Van, Alejandro, Bantoja, Ilya Toporia. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Five for five, 250 into 3,700. He sent me several other slips, but this is the one we're featuring.

Next up, the GOAT. The GOAT. Jay Singh, yeah, because not included in the track bets are also the takedown prop bets that I get from this guy on a weekly basis that have won me thousands. This guy strictly gives out bet slips. That's all he does. Follow him on Twitter for free. Jay Singh, all he does is post bet slips that you can follow

along with and I know you guys love parlays. Everybody loves a big payout parlay. That's pretty much all he gives out. He hits the Neil Dariouche 4 plus takedowns 800 into 10,400. He hits a takedown prop parlay under on Peyton Talbots, under on Josh Vann, under on Hanato Moicano, under on Kaikara France, under on Elia Toporia 1, 1300 into 11,000. Kaikara tried to blow that one. Kaikara tried to blow that one. I was actually riding that one with him. I was pretty heavily exposed on that. So yeah, when Kaikara grabbed the Pantoja, if you watched the watch party back, I'm like, what is he doing? Wasn't just about strategy. I was really hoping he wouldn't get a takedown. And then he also did supporting inside the distance, Rodriguez in rounds one and two, fight to go the distance on Jadamil and Jose Delgado and Terrence McKinney, Slava Claus under one and a half, plus 724,

1400 into 11,542. It's a weekly thing with this guy. Even if you don't take his bets, it's worth following along just to see what he's on. And he's very consistent, pretty much posts them every Thursday. Guy's a fantastic parlor, let's keep rolling. At wins and lessons. He goes Josh Van Pantoja, Ilya Toporia, a thousand into 3,200, and then he goes 7,500 bones on a Pantoja-Ilya Toporia parlay, turns that $13,331. No lessons this time, just wins for him. Let's keep it rolling. With, rolling takes $50 into $3,100. Vanille Theroux by decision plus $260. Josh Van by decision plus $170. Pantoja by submission plus $240. Iliya Topori by knockout minus 155. $50 into 3,100. Shout out to him.

Next up, Irish Springy. 200 into 6,700. Delgado. Talbot Lima goes the distance. Darius by points. Van. Pantoja Kai Kara France starts around three. Little bit dicey.

Elliot Tupori, inside the distance 200, into almost seven grand. A couple more here. JCR XITT, $100 into 3420. Delgado by KO, that one hit quick. Josh Van by points, Pantoja by submission. Parlayed them all up, turned $100, a bonus bet to, $100 bonus bet into 3,400 real American dollars.

Then we have PJ, SK, 788, yeah, you know, couple of McDoubles into 1653. He goes Talbot by points, Benil Dariush by points, Josh Van by points, Pantoja by submission, and no, the main event will not go the distance. So four for four on methods in the main card and then the main event. Not going the distance. Last one on the pictures.

Ruth Dogg, 250 into 412. McKinney Sub, round one. Cortez by points. Talbot by points. Toporia, KO, round one. Unbelievable stuff from all of them. We have two left though. Marky Nude.

So long we had to turn them into a video. Here he goes. Oh yeah, plus 10,000 turns, $97 into 10K. Look at all these, Liam Parrow, Jordy Smith. I don't even know what that is. Is that Track and Field? Western Bulldogs, is that Rugby? Gold Coast Suns, Hawthorne, Gilberto Ramirez.

Then you see Pantoja, Jake Paul, Elliot Tappori inside the distance, and some more track. I track I mean unreal stuff and then he hits one more this guy sends it To me every week. He's like, oh who else was it 20 like parlay's? I'm like, I don't know man you I guess Here's $70 into 3000 Talbot Dairy Oosh Gilberto Ramirez Josh van the Melbourne storm. Who the fuck is that? Elliot de Pore a late crows Adelaide Crowes. Adelaide Crowes, shout out. And then Freemath. I mean, the guy's a nut.

The guy's a nut, shout out to Marky Nude. Impressive. Shout out to all the big hitters, man. Always get really good ones after the pay-per-view. There was some good action after that one. Always get some good ones after the pay-per-view. Shout out to everyone that hit big, including myself. Yeah, no big deal, whatever.

Keep down, keep down the kid. All right, let's move on to pound for pound rankings. in honor of the 4th of July here in the States tomorrow We will be ranking the best American fighters Frankie. What's the order? Well, I'm glad you asked because the order today is Rick Connor Wow and Frank Wow That's exactly right Wow, I'm going for a loop here. This is developing. He said best list has to go first, has to go last, and he put himself last. Alright, I'm looking forward to this. Alright, let's kick this off here. Okay.

Let's put up a schnitzel here. A what? Schnitzel. Ariel always calls beers something and I can never remember what. Oh, I don't know. Starts with an S-H. Schnitzel. No, it's not Schnitzel. It's like schnoodle or something. Oh, I'm sorry.

The Nathan's hot dog shirt. Can't wait for that tomorrow. That is an impressive one. Did you get it at the Nathan's? At the event, 2022, I went. Don't recommend to anyone going. It's really shitty. You can't see anything.

It's overcrowded, but sure, it's great. Shout out, can't wait for tomorrow. Have way too much money on the Patrick Bertelli over. Who's Patrick Bertelli? Just one of the... He's the guy that won last year. All right, shut up. Wait, isn't Joey Chestnut in this one?

Yeah, but he's not going to win, so I just took his over. Oh, yeah, that's right. Okay. Joey's going to win, right? We think. Yeah, it took it to 50 and a half. It's up to 53 and a half. I'm a sharp number.

All right. Number five, kicking it off. I mean, it had to, there was only one person that could kick this off for me. When you talk about undisputed, there's only one name that's done it in three different weight classes. Men, women, aliens, doesn't really matter. But she is born right here in the US of A.

The one, the only, the quote, Clarissa Shields. Woo! Thank you, Frank. I mean, that's how I feel too. Maybe you're off the Amanda Serrano bandwagon, you can join me on the Clarissa Shields bandwagon. That's American greatness right there, and that's an MMA fight that I was pointing out before.

Two and one in MMA. Two and one in MMA, tested herself. Tested. In MMA, but also, I mean, look at the hardware. The quote, I mean, this is not even counting, you know, the big gold medal. Olympic gold medal. Um, so.

Nice pick. Claressa Shields, the quote, uh, had to be on my list, had to kick it off. Number four for me, New York's own legend of the game. Saw him fight recently against one Jake Paul. That is Mike Tyson. Iron. Iron! Mike Tyson. I obviously was not around during his prime. It came more as I was older and going back to the footage and then obviously I saw a lot of the Lewis, Holyfield, that era of Mike Tyson. But even as a youngster, I was aware of Mike Tyson,

the ferocity, the knockout power. There was enough out there that I was able to kind of like quickly understand who Mike Tyson was and what Mike Tyson was about. And one of the scariest fighters on earth at that time, now one of the like cuddliest uncle dudes that we have and like this very reflective kind of interesting character. But when I thought of knockouts at that time, when I thought about boxing, Mike Tyson was the name that came to mind. I was a little later,

Muhammad Ali was never like, I have a lot of reverence for Muhammad Ali. I've like since becoming older, going back and learning a lot more about Muhammad Ali, I have a lot of reverence. But as a youngster, it was Mike Tyson that was more like solidified in my brain. Number three, this is was my favorite fighter. I think it's become a little more complicated, but BJ Penn, BJ Penn, an absolute prodigy like we talk about the Conor McGregor's and we talk about the Elliot Taporias and anybody who's come, even John Bones Jones. This was the real, the real, the real absolute prodigy. Like we talk about the Conor McGregors and we talk about the Iliad Toporias and anybody who's come, even John Bones Jones, this was the real

prodigy. This was the guy that at 1920 was making a splash on the grappling scene and in making a foray into the UFC and MMA and just completely took it over. One of the most talent, naturally talented guys, there was a there was lot of questions about motivation, but in terms of natural talent and his ability to just perform at a young age way beyond his years and advanced quickly, he was the guy and the prodigy was a completely fitting nickname. He is the one who made me fall in love with the sport of MMA. So although it has gotten quite sad and kind of dark in recent years, especially with the mental health issues that he's very clearly going through, he meant a lot to me and my fandom and was an absolutely incredible fighter. BJ Penn.

Number two, and this one is akin to, I did my British boxers list and I kind of just did like my favorites and and the ones that I remember the best and excited me the most this guy is akin to like the prince not seen for me he is the American prince not seen he is the one who put on the most exciting shows that you could see anywhere now record for record he was putting on way harder fights and beating way better competition especially in multiple weight classes that is the one the only

Roy Jones jr. if you've if you've never seen the Roy Jones jr. highlight reel if you're too young to have known what Roy Jones jr. was like in his prime it was quite simply magic the things that he was doing the way he was moving the knockout power also the flash the being partnered with Jordan Brand he was doing, the way he was moving, the knockout power, also the flash, the being partnered with Jordan Brand. He was just so effortlessly cool. Roy is a legend and one of the greatest fighters ever. And I also just love this picture of him with this rooster. I don't know what the concept was behind this photo shoot, but I love this picture as I was looking for it on Getty. But yeah, Roy Jones Jr. highlight reel is one for the ages

and a great musician and also an incredible musician. Y'all must've forgot about Roy Jones, Jr. Number one, um, another person who's had a, you know, kind of a, uh, complicated career and a complicated, uh, recent run John bones Jones, John bones Jones to me is, is the apex of fighting. He is the one, if you point to anybody who has fought the best at any point in time, across boxing, across MMA, across anything, John Jones is the gold standard. He is the best that we have ever seen.

And so while the end of this career has been twisty and turny and not looked good for him. Inside the cage, the product that he put on, John Jones is my number one American fighter of all time. Love it. Solid, man. It's a solid list. You got something playing back there, Frankie. I know you do.

I don't know what it is, but to put it, I'm skeptical of what's going on here. You're not going first for the first time ever. All right, let me rip my list and then we can get to Frankie's. Number five, double champ. Oh, okay, all right, yeah, I was gonna... Quick trigger, sorry, sorry, sorry.

I was gonna have a bit of a build up there. Is that double champ DC? Well, it's Daniel Cormier, double champion. One of the greatest we've seen in this sport has fought the best of the best, light heavyweight. Heavyweight at one point was like 19 and 1 in his career. Truly one of the best mixed martial artists, one of the best fighters that America has ever seen. One of the most accomplished as well, Daniel Cormier coming in at number five. Number four, my exact same four as you, oh Mr. Mike Tyson. You know, maybe he's not one of the best boxers ever, but one of the

most entertaining, one of the most captivating, one of the most hard hitting power punchers of all time, must see television. Mike Tyson, rep the stars and stripes very well. Number three, on the Mount Rushmore of mixed martial arts, one of the best to ever do it, Demetrius Johnson. 11 title defenses over in the UFC, goes over to one championship, wins their bantamweight championship of the world. Just an absolute killer, one of the

most accomplished mixed martial artists of all time, respected throughout the entire field. Your favorite fighters? Favorite fighter? Demetrius Johnson is is one of the most respected combat sports athletes in the history of the game, American or not, so he makes my list of top American fighters. Number two, again, similar to Mike Tyson, maybe not the greatest of all time, but the cultural impact that this man had, the way that he captivated his audience,

the way that he grew the sport, Muhammad Ali. Number two, for my pound for pound best American fighters. The impact that this man had on boxing is something that cannot be overstated. And we probably will never see again with the popularity that boxing currently has. He changed the game, period. I mean, one of the biggest stars ever

and to do it, repping the stars and stripes. Changed culture. Just changed culture. It's a legend. I mean, still, biggest stars ever, and to do it, repping the stars and stripes. Change culture. Change culture. It's a legend. I mean, still, people that have never watched his fights know exactly who he is and the impact that he had, Muhammad Ali, number two, and then my number one, we're just going on best fighters, it's Sheckard, a man.

He is, if not the best, one of the best to ever do it, John Jones. I mean, he's just unbelievable. His resume within the confines of the best to ever do it, John Jones. I mean, he's just unbelievable. His resume within the confines of the octagon speaks for itself, John Jones, best American fighter. I love it. And there's the list. Damn solid list.

All right, Frank, let's see what you got, man. All right, well, I think for my list, starting at number five is not too similar to yours, Connor. I actually got Demetrius Johnson on there, Mighty Man himself, love it. Then going into my number four, Dustin Poirier, because nothing says American more than Dustin. Other than these other three above.

Then there's number three, a love or death, Kayla Harrison, Olympic gold medal Gotta love it. Here's an image of her That's the image You're right, then then my number two I'm trying to figure out what happened there my number two Can't get any more American than this. It's old Chuck Norris himself Okay martial artist extraordinaire and Yes, it counts. I mean it counts a lot. This guy is a fighter and he's all-american

He even is looking out for a best interest after his retirement How do you not have to make sure of him and check it American flag with the gun? I'm Chuck Norris, and this is my wife Gina. We are here to talk about a growing concern we all share. If we look to history, our great country and freedom are under attack. We're at a tipping point, and quite possibly our country as we know it may be lost forever if we don't change the course our country is headed. We have to

show respect to Chuck Norris. He's all American. What's the rest of that though? Yeah it's not important. What's the rest? He says something about if we don't change the course of history we're going to take a first step. No he can't. He says that we will take our first step into a thousand years of darkness. Okay but what do we need to change? That's the most important part. He's outlined that there's a problem. What is the problem that we need to change? Whatever it is, I'm down for it. Okay. I'm not gonna lie Frank My stomach got a little bit naughty there when you were playing that I thought you were gonna let the entire thing put Number one and this is kind of a newer addition

to the American fighting roster, is the US postal worker. Which the best way to describe this is. Oh wow, what a segue. What a segue. Now I see why he went last. My favorite thing about Frank's list is, just in general, by the way, great list, Frank. You did very well and I appreciate the segue there.

My favorite thing about Frank's list is, there's a certain point where he's run out of things to say and he always goes, you can't get more blank than blank, and then there's three options left to go every time. Is there anyone that is worse at describing things than Frank? Just like the absolute lack of detail. Yep, Demetrius Johnson, so there's that.

Number four, doesn't get more American than Dustin Poirier. And then two picks later, you can't possibly get more American than Chuck Norris. It's crazy how it works. Oh. All right, voice message. Hey, what's up, boys and girls? I'm trying to get out of here, man. This is Colana from Big Island, Hawaii. Jug Norris crazy how it works Shout out On a hill on a hill hey what's up guys this is hiding and Michaela from North

Carolina well a couple couple come we love listening to you guys what the fuck let's go we just have something to say about the mountains versus hills thing okay here we go come on it's in the name Mount St. Helens mountain One's rocky and tall and pointy and might kill you if you fall a hill If you've seen hot rod, you can fall down for pretty much ever be okay. You just have a fun time rolling down Yeah, they're very different things mountains even have foot hills rolling down. They're very different things. Mountains even have foothills. Anyways, I know you guys did a great job. Foothills leading into bigger hills. We love watching y'all.

Fight feasts are great. Well, shout out. Pound for pound ranks are great. Oh, shout out. And yeah, peace. Wow. We've had two people before. Remember the Australian dudes who did like the song together? We've not had a couple yet. That was pretty incredible. That was it. Yeah, well, 24 inch dub, couples, yuck. I hate it, cringe. What? No, I love it. Fuck off.

Shout out to you guys, thank you. Boys, I'm watching the show live right now and Mailman Hunter versus Mailman Matt, book it, okay? We're ready. We'll get the contracts out to whatever there you know we can make some room on the upcoming card at the Bojangles Coliseum get back to us let's make this happen thanks Don sounds like mailman fight Lee could be a thing if we partner up with Don thanks Don what's up boys in

the back this is Evan the mailman again let's go I just need to to address a few things first off the records wrong I've had 11 MMA fights in two boxing matches to to be specific and I'm not a wrestler. It says Foundation is wrestling That's wrong. Everyone. My loss is from wrestlers stalling against the cage Look up look up Evan Hayes versus Robbie Colum or Evan Hayes versus Luke Wilder. Everybody knows Evan Hayes versus Robbie Colum. Everyone, I found it. And to the guy who mentioned he doesn't carry dog spray, it's company policy to carry dog spray buddy so I think I'll be calling HR. Anyway GC, don't worry about flying us out to New York. If you don't mind, just

give me their route address, fly me out there, I'll whoop their ass and then I'll finish the route for them. I'm currently watching Robbie Collin versus Evan A's Conflict MMA 35, February 20, 2016. Is it in Georgia? Cannot confirm or deny. 1300 views. This is big time though. We looked up Evan's record on Tapology last time and sounds like that's the right guy. Sounds like he's legit.

Tapology's gotta fix it though. Not wrestling based. Unfortunately, no Evan did win that one. Congratulations on that dub Evan. Good job Evan. What's up boys in the back? Yeah what's up man? You all right? It's been a long time. It's Postal Pete also reporting from South Jersey throwing my hat into this MFL, Mailman Fighting League, 6'1", heavyweight division, 250, 260, depends on the day, you know?

I like to say I'm trying to educate these people a little bit. Some of these male carriers, they claim to be good. They're all rural carriers. All they do is drive around all day. Respect to that one guy who said he walks 10 to 12 miles a day. Shout outs to you.

That's a real, that's a real man's man right there. Reporting to you day after the Juneteenth holiday, truck full of 220 packages, a bunch of newspapers ready to go and I'll be the first one to say, not an easy job, but shouts out to everybody doing it, but I'm down to go. And I'm down to show up in the Tucson baby

in that big old truck. Shout out to Andy. Shout out to Andy. Shout out to Andy. Get okay me ham to the Santo Domingo Dominican Republic, ya tu sabe. Shout out. Shout out to him. That was great.

I feel like MMA or MMF, L, I feel like it should be like MMA, like mailman attack or something like that. MMA, we have to use MMA, mailman something with an A. I like it. What's up boys, James. What's up James? I hear those other mailman talkers, but I'm the final boss. Overtime list? I'm the CTA. Pound for pound. How many fucking mailmen listen to this show? For 70 hour weeks. People with a carrier couldn't carry my mailbag. Or at least my USPS approved work boots. And not carrying your dog spray?

Better not let your union rep hear that. Anyway, so on the outbound, I'm ready. Oh, fuck, mailmen probably better not let your union rep hear that. We just need a one night tournament, 16 mailmen. Winner. I'm telling you, this is gonna go viral. I'm down.

And the tagline for us is the fights always deliver. Oh, fuck, that's great. Sun, field, deliver. The fights always deliver. We need to shore up the name of the league. I'm thinking we also have an offshoot similar to how BKFC has an offshoot of like on ice. Ice wars, ours are truck wars and they fight in the back of a moving mail truck or during like rain, seed or snow

Yeah, never gonna get sanctioned packages packages flying around while they're like swinging and the truck is Question should we go to the GFL route teams DHL gets a team FedEx? Okay. I've said this idea before thanks for listening Jordan But yes, I'm 100% on that. This is my first day on the show, so sorry. US SPS, I hope you enjoyed your day off yesterday. USPS, DHL, FedEx, UPS, I feel like we can have a lot of teams. Can we throw some Amazon in there too?

Yeah, Amazon could have their own team now. We could even throw like a, we could get Bezos. We'll have some people from delivery service. Yeah, delivery guys, we could have some, we could have Bezos being invested. Yeah, we could have someone people from delivery service. Yeah, delivery guys, we could have Bezos being an investor. Yeah, we could have someone from Instacart pull up in like a fucking dumpy camera and let it rip.

If Zuck starts his own delivery service, we get Zuck and Bezos in there. No, that's the drones, they have delivery. Hey, what's up, boys in the back? It's Mark here. What's up, Mark? I'm calling from Iceland. Iceland? I'm just calling to let you know

who the real mailman of the day is. Shut the fuck up. Mailman here, writing about working 10 to 12 hours shift I don't know five hours and then I'm gone I have a background in Muay Thai and BJJ and with my experience as an airman I'm ready to deliver my scene to these pretenders heads I'm born in Spain and living in Iceland I've got two whole countries behind me. I put the international in International Mailman's League. Let's go, Don. Give me a call, bro. Icelandic mailman.

Island Posterin. Posterin is the name of it, of the Icelandic post founded in 1776. Wow. Incredible. America. HQ in Reykjavík. Wow. Number out. Incredible. America. HQ in Reychavich. Wow, number of employees, 580. Mark is one of those. I'm on the website right now. Did you guys know that Iceland, instead of.com,

it's.is? Yes. You did know that. I did not know. Find your package. This is, oh my gosh, look at this. Pink packaging. Is there tracking?

This is- There's a pink? It's like pink packages and their number and their colors is red. This is, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in, Mark, you're in. Muay Thai trained. Come on down, kid, welcome in, you're signed. We need a mailman contender series. Okay, are you the face of it?

I feel like that's how you do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We need a bald white dude to be the face, for sure. It worked out so well for the UFC, I'll do it for us. I'll be Hunter. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're the behind the scenes, the puppeteer. You're Hunter Campbell here and Frank will be Sean Shelby.

I love this. We need t-shirts fast. We need a logo fast. What's up boys in the back? Matt the mailman here from South Carolina. I see you going all shout out, James Winston. Shut up. All right, I got a few things I need to address here. Not the mailman here from Winston I need to address here first off harder. I

agree to your terms to meet you inside the pfl smart cage I Consider myself a UFC caliber fighter But I do agree with you Don Davis needs to get his shit together and PFL needs a big super fight So I'm going to play ball map Yeah, it feels like everyone is into that While we're calling out multiple people the amateur fighter Just took a local class that is playing a fitness

This guy's got like 15 fights oh he just oh is that it oh he just ended it I think he called back not the best my work there from at the moment how's it watching the back my name is Cortez what's up Cortez long time first time yes you see I was a dude that met you at a Penn Station had the real awkward gap I think I was just really excited to see you. Oh no no I fucked that DAP up. I'm from Hawaii and I just came back from Hawaii and I was enjoying watching cards not at 10 o'clock at night. That's the best. New Yorker, just curious, where did your wifey go to high school and what podcast did you listen to this morning? And then for GC and Frank? What book are you guys currently reading? Shout out Andy. Shout out Jordan and shout out Don Davis. Yes Shout out to all of them. So the story the DAP

He came in for the like DAP DAP. Yeah, and I went all you have knuckles But I wasn't fully committed to the knuckles. So I went you like slap it. No, no, no I wasn't fully committed to the knuckles. So I went, you like slap it? No, no, no, no, no. I wasn't fully committed to the Knuckles. He said, what's up? I turned and I was like, what's up, man? And simultaneously I would go Knuckles, he goes hand. And then we realized the other is doing that.

Switch. So we switch. And then what I do, I don't try and power through it. I was just like, I just laugh it off and say, damn, we fucked that one up. We fucked that one up. I've been a man who's had many countless great daps in my life where it echoes through the hall we had a good one the last one in Vegas and then we did it fucked it up and then you go again and

it echoes through the halls of eternity the DAP is so good we did not do that at Penn Station we certainly did not do that at Penn Station my wife and I went to the Bronx High School of Science and this morning I listened to the Zach Glow show and the Bill Simmons podcast. That was my morning. Shout out. Didn't he have something for you too, Frankie?

Books, something about a book? He was, the books we're reading. Oh, honestly, I've just been reading Conan the Barbarian lately. I'm reading Simple Path to Wealth. Let me get that investment home, baby. It's the first the first page like you should have saved your five dollars on this book And you would have been one step closer to wealth you're gonna have to read it Two from Hawaii this week or last week rather out two from Hawaii and one from Iceland

Boys kind of switch it up on old double-d, huh? boys kind of switch it up on old double-d huh shows on a Tuesday well the street continues last week was a great card this past weekend tough to see that happen to a prospect like Kevin Lee but great and he will be back this Friday 830 p.m. we are of course in the wind trust Okay, this is from last week. There's no pfo. Wait, is there like an event? Just quickly going through the line of edward severa davis Not me collie pettis socks You got the return of shoeface for simian powell. Oh, uh multofsky versus ramanov So it's going to be a great

sloppy weight match. And let's first off shout out Andy, shout out Jordan, shout out Frank, shout out camera guy Nick. I am out of the PSL SmartPak case. Okay we determined what happened. It wasn't AI, body double. And Coach Man and Robin, my producer extraordinaire, have encouraged me to return to society. I am walking around out with the people and playing video games again. So Frank, all is forgiven. You know, as you said, we all make mistakes. A friend of mine made a mistake once getting an event in France cancelled.

And, you know, everyone understood. So Dune Awakening, great game. Playing that. Sean Brady's killing me. Have you heard of the Exit 8? It might be up your alley, Rick. It's a walking simulator Japanese subway pathway surreal horror type of game has apparently been adapted into a feature

film that was received something like an eight-minute standing ovation at con so tell them about a Frank and you know help me get through it because I am pretty much stuck on the first exit. The exit eight walking simulator. How did you find this? In the glorious Chicago, Illinois and stay cool out there on the East coast.

Oh my God. Escape the endless passageways in this atmospheric walking simulator. Shout out to you. You're a wild one Don. This reminds me of this game called Desert Bus. All you two would just drive a bus from Tucson Arizona to Las Vegas. There's no adventure It is just one constant shot Penn and Teller did a whole thing on it. It's pretty funny. Shut up and tell it

Thank you, Don. Yo, what's up boys in the back? It's your boy mark from Richmond Calling in about the heavyweight division. Is anybody else just not feeling Aspenol versus Zero Gone? I mean, it just feels like a lose-lose situation. John Jones is going to tweet out, oh, you didn't finish him as quickly as I did. Error, Aspenol beats him, well, John Jones did it first, two is zero, gone anyways. God forbid that God beat Aspenall. That absolutely just nukes Aspenall's star power.

And God did lose to Volkov. You can't tell me otherwise. So I'm just not really sure I'm feeling it. I know we're all big Tom Aspenall fans. I am as well, but I'm just not feeling the fight. You know what I mean? Also, Ariel gets your son a cell phone man Your son just became a man and now he's got to be chasing girls with an iPad. Come on

Don't get a man. Let him be a man Lastly childhood and I haven't got my mail and days name. What are y'all doing? Stop bringing in from six fights. Wow, so now collectors of mail. They're organizing. Mail receivers are getting pissed. Okay, let's do the zero gone part. There's no better option.

There is no better option. I agree with you that he lost to Volkov. I scored that fight for Volkov. I think he should have won. Yeah. Played devil's advocate. Tom Aspinall already fought Volkov, ran right through him. Probably would be a similar outcome this time, and then it's

just like, oh okay, well he just beat a guy that he's already beaten. Now he can fight Cyril Gahn, which is new talent and a big name in the heavyweight division, probably the biggest name in the heavyweight division other than Tom Aspinall. I get what you're saying on the John Jones having already beat him thing, but if he just dusts Cyril Gahn, it's just like, hey man, did the same thing to Cyril Gahn gone that you did to him, like I am on your level. The worst case scenario is- Or even if he doesn't, he still beat him.

Yeah, the worst case scenario is him losing. Like that is the break glass in case of emergency scenario, but I don't foresee him losing his finishing capability, his grappling ability, he just has all the advantages. I think he gets it done. And then you go from there. Then it's just like line them up. The key is just getting as many title defenses now. There was two, two routes to me to get to Aspinall's superstardom. It was fight John Jones and win, boom, rocket ship blast off, or rack up a ton of title defenses, finishing everyone in your path and become the greatest heavyweight of all time.

There's only three fights I care about for Tom Espinall at the moment. There can be any that emerge John Jones, Francis and Ghanu, Alex Prer. Those are only three. Those are the biggest names. Those are the ones that I think are going to be the most interesting. Everybody else, I'm kind of just like meh, but to your point, if he racks up six of those, seven of those, eight of those, all of a sudden it becomes something completely different. Say he gets to four or five title defenses. point, if he racks up six of those, seven of those, eight of those, all of a sudden it becomes something

completely different. Say he gets to four or five title defenses. That's already the record by the way at heavyweight. Record, there is always the potential of someone coming out of nowhere. We don't know, heavyweight looks bleak so they might not, but we just don't know. Josh Vann came out of nowhere.

He made his debut two years ago. Tom came out of nowhere. Someone could his debut two years ago. Tom came out of nowhere. Tom came out of nowhere. Someone could come along to challenge for that belt. You just, you really do just never know. It's too early for the, it will, he will never have a contender, but I am equally uninterested in the Serial Gon fight. To me, it is a means to an end.

It is a means to getting Tom Aspinall finally now back on track. I am interested in that fight for the sole reason of I want to watch Tom Aspinall fight. Yeah, exactly. Yo. Yo. Boy in the back. What's up man? Jammer. Jammer. I was watching the Ariel show the other day and something flew across the quote-unquote window in the back what I'm called or something and Ariel said did something just happen to the screen behind me kind of giving away

that it is not a real window everyone has a scream bro you know but can you guys confirm or deny is that a real? Can you just open it for us, man? Can we see if it's a real window? We're way too high up to open it. We all gotta know. It's really windy out there. That looks like a real window to me. If I've ever seen one. On top of that, this is how we have to tell everyone.

Would you rather retire an undefeated champion or become a double champion simultaneously? Thank you guys, have a great day. I didn't hear what he said. I Didn't know what he said undefeated champion or simultaneous double champ Double champ simultaneously, I think it depends on how you retire, right? If you're Habib, it's like, okay, my legacy is pretty established. If you're like 14 and 0 and you retire, probably not. It depends. Double champ is pretty cool though. Pretty cool. Pretty cool.

What's up, boys? It's Jake from Collegeville, Pennsylvania. What's up, Jake? I've got a few things to say. I don't want to take too much of your time here. Let him read. Favorite two fighters, Sugar and Charles Lovera, got to go to 316. It was a lot of fun, but super disappointing.

But we're here to help you. We're here to help you. We're here to help you. We're here to help you. We're here to help you. favorite two fighters sugar and Charles Rivera Got to go to 316. It was a lot of fun, but super disappointing But we're here we are two days before prior the biggest play of my life I treat this near life Super Bowl. I've only cried three times today so far about ten this week The champion has a name I've been learning my Portuguese a little bit on Duolingo. O companhio? Ignore me.

The champion has a name and the name is Charles of Nevada. One last thing. GC met you at Bare Knuckle. You're the man. And let me just say, that Eagles jacket, the unlimited aura I got to watch you just walk through that building was ridiculous. But that's all I got to say. Haven't missed this episode since you guys went to Yahoo. was ridiculous but it's all I gotta say

Unfortunately the champion does have a name his name is Iliya Toporia and that did not go well for one Charles Lovera I'm very sorry for you I hope you did not cry too much after that meeting you at BKFC was sick. Appreciate the love for the jacket that actually Sold for several hundred dollars fight feast worn Authentic Eagles jacket. I no longer have it the jacket was sick though. The jacket was fucking sick I wore it every second for a weekend and then I never wore it again told it game more This guy would have bought it if you... Yeah, it's a fucking sick jacket. All-timer.

Hey, this is Lindsay from Nebraska. Oh, what's up, Lindsay? Shout out my fiancee from Nebraska. I was gonna say, this is Brett. So I went to my first MMA event, the PFL Wichita, and I have a top beat. First of all, $15 for the club level tickets is pretty good. That's a nice price.

But why are the fees on the $15 ticket $21? Brett told me to direct my complaints to someone named Don and he said that he could get me in touch. That was great, thank you. Drink for good. That was fun, frozen, that was fun. Why is Alfie Davis so handsome? Shout out to Alfie Davis.

Just on that story when he's getting punched in the face. The fights are pretty good overall. Although I did have the best seats in the house for the fight that happened two seats over from mine Shout out to the like six year old that got his ass whooped by some twenty year old kid. Not sure how that happened. Homie got taken out obviously. Shout out our guy Archie Colgan our guy, Archie Colgan. Shout out Archie Colgan.

Shout out my career. Shout out my career. And lastly, shout out to all the girlfriends who are forced to listen to this. Thank you. Forced to listen to this? Forced to listen to this, god damn! Chill out.

Alfie Davis has like a Robert Pattinson thing going on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's just quite handsome. Nah, shout out, shout out. The only place you missed on that phone call representing your great fiance, Brett, was we didn't get a random athlete. Yeah, you got a shout out on a random athlete.

That has like loose ties to the Midwest. Otherwise, great stuff. What's up, boys in the back? This is Cody with a T. First time, long time. Cody with a T. Just wanted to give a special shout out to my favorite podcast and GC I know it ain't easy putting best out every single week especially in the MMA

community week you do not want to give them more free content but shout out to you shout to Rick you did something nice for a random stranger on the internet and then you didn't even try to take credit for it I got your back for life big dog you ever need a body buried let me know you don't need to add me back on Xbox but you do need to let me follow you that's why I found your back for life big dog. You ever need a body buried. Let me know You don't need to add me back on Xbox, but you do need to let me follow you. That's right I found your private Instagram Wow Approve that request big bro. He's making threats black man Wow Wow. Shots fired.

Shout out James Tejuna. Shout out James Tejuna. Wow, that man came ready to roll. That was great. Man, a lot of love for everybody. Andy and Jordan, best looking producers in the game. I mean, I believe it. Pete's gonna be mad about that one.

What up, boys? What's up, bro? This is Jay from Orlando. What's up, Jay? I think you guys are fucking hilarious Remember But I do have a question. Oh god, what is good? What's good with Rick's? Outfit choice. Oh the drip is coming into question

Don't match the colors are crazy. I'm talking about the Vegas. It's wild. It's super wild. Um Do you think brother? I just I just want to know where the inspiration comes from. Another thing. 2002. What happens in your opinion is Dustin and Max happens in a few weeks and Dustin tails Max now that Aaliyah already kind of checked his chin. Does Dustin actually call it quits? Yes, please. And do you guys think that Max's chin is going to be, you know, diminished in any way because of the Iliya KO? It's hard to tell bro. Cause he, he, you know, took out Charles.

Now I'm concerned for Charles' chin too. It's crazy what this dude is doing. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks guys. My man. I mean, we saw, you can't read too much into the chin thing because like we saw Alex Volkonovsky get knocked out by Islam, get knocked out by Ilya, and then against Diego, he's eating shots left and right.

Like it's one of those things that's hard to, like, really know. You know when it's gone. Yeah. I can't say just off one knockout that, like, Max Holloway's chin is gone. It's one of the most legendary chins ever. So let's just see. I imagine he'll be able to trade with Dustin for quite a bit.

It's really crazy that Ilya knocked him out. Yeah. That dude's chin was historic. Yeah. One of the best ever, if not best ever it's it really is insane Um the fat I mean come on it look good the drip the rig drip That's that's awesome to the socks pulled all the way up tight the scrunch ratio is atrocious I'm big on the scrunch ratio

What do you what what is your like? Give me the ideal? Pull it up and then like, I got the Vamero's on today. Like, get that up. So you want a little scrunch in the middle. Gotta get a little scrunch in there. This is, this is wild work right here. Yeah, that's what I do.

This is crazy shit. I go higher even. This is crazy shit. I feel like, uh, I feel like I should be playing like football, I mean, uh, soccer or something right now. This is wild. Yeah. The Jedi asked Rick,, after he got to Vegas, I was like, those socks that high for like compression or something? Something wrong with the cast? No, there's a look.

It looks like an old man that's like too cold. Did you see his garter belt? He's inspired by King Vador. Garter belt, Frank? I know I already did it one voicemail, but I just wanted to say shout out to all the boys, Connor, Rick, Frank, On Air, Andy, have a great July 4th. Don't eat so many hot dogs. Come out again.

Oh, appreciate you, bro. That's all of them. All right. Sick. We're rolling today, huh? Hour 20 in. We're going to be a short one. A, B, Sandu3 with the GC with the Vermeer 5.

Shout out, shout out. Yeah, I wanna get these in a couple color ways. These things are comfortable and they go hard. Do we have any super chats, Frank? So much it's. We absolutely do. And to start us off, it's Tech Knows with a shout out to the boys in the back crew.

Thanks, man. Appreciate you, Tech. Is he not just Tech? Tech always cashes in on those free ones. As you should, because, you know, Alamance sends in $4.99. Connor is the first to bring entertainment to the UFC. Ilya will be the first to show the best athleticism of what MMA has. Appreciate the $5. That's a decent take.

I mean, he really is showing levels so far to this game. NeNe Hurtey, 499. Amazon of one championship are not renewing such a tragic ending for the US expansion goals. I don't think there was much momentum there, to be honest. That probably was either a time buy or Not much being paid by Amazon there just to have it

Have broadcast content Yeah, one's a I don't know man. I don't know. I don't know how much longer they're gonna be around and how much of a player They're gonna be US expansion I don't think was ever like really gonna happen I don't think it was ever really gonna happen and I also just don't think they're fully committed to MMA at this point It feels like the the Friday night fights with the Muay Thai and the kickboxing and the grappling is where they're they're shining And lastly Nathan Garcia sends over $20 GC and Rick love you guys But when you bring up John Jones in your ranking and you say oh, it's a checkered or he's had his problems out of the cage

But in the same list you mentioned Mike Tyson he was imprisoned for three years for rape that's true certainly something to acknowledge the point I was making was those are recent for Connor and John yeah like Connors in court right now John Mike Tyson was many years ago but certainly that is part of the story so acknowledge her play appreciate the $20 and appreciate So, that's up to you for acknowledging. Fair play, appreciate the $20 and I appreciate the comment. But wait. That's fair play. There's more, we got one more chat.

Let's do it. We probably won't have it up on the screen, but it's Cigar Patel sends $10. Who do you think will be the UFC 319 co-main? Armand Justin, what you think? So I saw somewhere on DDP saying randomly that it was gonna be Patty versus Gaethje, but obviously that's just like him chatting shit behind the scenes. It feels like

they need to add something. I saw rumors of Jeff Neal, Carlos Pratchett potentially being in the work but obviously that hasn't been confirmed but like right now you you need something. Right now the other fights on the main card are Tim Elliott, Kaya Sokora, Jared Cannonier, Michael Venom-Page and then Edson Barbosa, Drukkar Close. So it feels like you need one more solid for a kill man. Yeah not only that but we also saw a Patty Pimblitz X account say like I ain't fighting in August. So I'd pump

the brakes on that one. You had it if you had Armin Gagey that would be it. That'd be a banger pack of five fights. I like that one. That would be a banger pack. five fights. I like that one. That would be a banger pack. Let's go with that for now. Arm and Justin. All right.

I feel like that'll about do it here. A little shortened holiday show. Nothing to preview, so it went quick. Breaking news here on the back end. Shout out 54, so that's 55. Shout out, shout out, shout out, shout out, shout out, shout out out shout out shout out shout out shout out shout out shout out shout out shout out That should get us there. No one say it. Let's go. Nice.

Breaking news here on the back end. Molly McCann returning to fighting. Damn fuck off Jordan. In the boxing space. Yeah, she's signed with matcher. Congratulations to one Molly McSee big news. Other breaking news. Oh yeah.

Rest in peace to actor Michael Madsen. Wow. Yeah. Rest in peace to Michael Madsen. That one hurts. Yeah. I didn't even see that. When did that happen?

Probably right here. Damn. Yeah. 67 years old. Shame. Yeah, I didn't even see that when that happened. Oh Damn Yeah, 67 years old shame incredible actor That is that is that is quite sad Rest in peace to Diago Jota of Liverpool tied in a car accident with his brother. That is a horrifyingly sad news Just got married five days ago. So Yeah, sad sad news today on the program. But that will do it for us here on The Boys in the Back. No programming tomorrow, 4th of July, here in the States.

So we will be off back on Monday with the Ariel Hawani show. Pete C. Carroll makes his return to the US of A. Not a minute too late to celebrate the 4th of July. It's gonna be a big week with him crescendoing into Amanda Serrano, Katie Taylor III, over at Madison Square Garden. Until then, if you're in the States, enjoy your 4th. If not, enjoy your weekend.

And we'll see you back here on Monday. Thanks for watching. Peace!