The Ariel Helwani Show - Chael Sonnen, Erin Blanchfield, 'Cora Jade' In Studio, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, weekend news & notes

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Ariel Helwani and the Boys in the Back kick off the show with news, notes, and a recap of this past weekend’s UFC main event drama (03:31).Friend of the program and current "The Ultimate Fighter" coach Chael Sonnen joins the program to discuss his coaching style, working with Colby Covington, recent disagreements over social media with Ariel, interviewing Tom Aspinall and the Jon Jones dilemma, mending things with Valentina Shevchenko, working with Real American Freestyle Wrestling, and more (18:10).Jairzinho Rosenstruik calls in following his removal from the UFC after losing to Sergei Pavlovich and talks about signing with Dirty Boxing Promotions, his future in MMA, the passing of his coach Michael Babb, and more (1:11:32).Erin Blanchfield comes on after her last-minute main-event cancellation at UFC Vegas 107 to discuss Maycee Barber’s severe medical issues, fighting a big name next, learning from her loss to Manon Fiorot, and more (1:28:58).Elayna Black, formerly known as "Cora Jade," joins in-studio to discuss her shocking departure from the WWE, coming back from major injuries and hardships, dealing with intense negativity, dropping out of high school to pursue professional wrestling, her next move in the sport, and much more (1:57:14).Petesy joins Ariel and the crew to pay respect to Canadian MMA journalist Jordan Breen after his tragic passing. They wrap up by reacting to more news topics and answering your Super Chats (3:05:14).

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 great to be back in our New York City studio. It is June, amazingly, summer right around the corner. And probably for MMA fans, June as a month is a welcome sight. May a month to not really remember. And I do think that some of this has been a little overhyped.

Oh my God, the UFC is cooked. Oh my God, the UFC is washed. Oh my God, this is it, it's over. They've killed the soul. First of all, UFC 315 main event was way better than anyone expected it to be. Jack Della, Bilal. Card was actually, I think, better than than anyone expected it to be Jack della below card was actually I Think better than most people expected it to be

We knew on paper Just looking at the events like you didn't have to be Some kind of prognosticator to know that you know may wasn't exactly going to be one to write home about one for the scrapbook One for the year-end highlight reel we knew that that already. So it's not like this month was one where we're all saying, oh my god this is a murderer's row of events and fights. And yeah, main event falls through on Saturday. Weird, unique, somewhat unexpected. More on that in a second, but these things have happened before. Lest we forget, Matt Matrione and Stefan Struve back in the day, International Fight Week,

I think it was 2015, lest we forget, remember Sean Laughler against Buddy Roberts? I think it was Buddy Roberts, was it Buddy Roberts back in the day? It was definitely Sean Laughler. In the back, warming up in Omaha, Diego Sanchez with the cross, Jake Ellenberger in the cage, Loffler warming up, turns his ankle. Weird things have happened at the 11th hour right before a walkout. So let's not pretend that this is some sort of indication, some sort of sign that the sport the organization any of that is over the hill

Jump the shark wash cook whatever you say these days Wasn't great, but look at June June's fantastic June's amazing this weekend a pay-per-view that is very much flying under the radar. Those two title fights to me are great. Intriguing storylines, pretty good build. I saw they took my idea of Julianna Pena and Kayla Harrison doing the face-to-face. You're welcome for that one. Shout out to Kayla with the name drop. Did you guys see that? Name drop the Hellwani Show on the official UFC programming. We're back, baby.

Real ones now. Yeah. Suga, anytime he fights, we haven't seen him in what, nine months? So having him on there against Murab, Murab. Now, what's the storyline of the week? Is he the greatest of all time? Golly, can we just talk about the fight?

Can we save that for maybe after the fight? Can we save it for after his reign? Why do we have to do this every time? Greatest of all time, greatest of all time, Ga-li, can we just talk about the fight? Can we save that for maybe after the fight? Can we save it for after his reign? Why do we have to do this every time? Greatest of all time, greatest of all time, greatest of all time, greatest of all time, greatest of all time. Those two fights are great and there are other great fights. June 14th, very important fight in the welterweight division.

Kamaru Usman, Joaquin Buckley, a passing of the torch. Haven't seen Usman in quite some time. Buckley's on a roll. Debut in Baku. Solid card there. Solid, very solid main event. Khalil Roundtree against Jamal Hill June 21st. And then International Fight Week June 28th. Not to mention Jake Paul versus Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on the same day. Holly Holm debut. July's a great month too. So, can we chill? Can we chill with all... I know it's easy to do this. And I know May wasn't great.

But this is not an indication that the sport is washed, it's not an indication that the UFC is going down the tubes or any of that stuff. It was just a bad month on paper that, for the most part, led to a pretty bad month as far as results are concerned. But again, I'll go back to that main event, that pay-per-view main event, which is the most important fight of the month,

ended up over delivering, if you ask me. When I left on Wednesday, we went out for Frank's birthday. We had a grand old time. We were missing Andy, but it was great. We had a nice little steak dinner. Everyone bonded, enjoyed that very much, then had a very, very early flight to Montreal. I've not mentioned this on the program,

but I will be working the Winter Olympic Games for the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. And so I had to do a string of interviews in Montreal. They were having an athlete's summit, and they would bring, I think I sat down with 12 to 13 athletes, which, you know, like I don't know these people like I do some of the fighters.

So I had to do a lot of research, great conversations, great chats, they'll be rolled out between now and February, but I'll be stationed in Livigno. There's gonna be four spots, Milano, Livigno, Cortina, and one more. I'll be with the snowboarders, the skiers, et cetera. You know, the cool cats, if you will. Looking forward to it. More on that to come and how that will affect our stuff here.

But no shows will be missed or anything like that, so do not worry. Had a very long day there. Early wake up. Come home. Watch the Knicks beat the Pacers. Vibes are high. Emotions are high. Had a very long day there, early wake up, come home, watch the Knicks beat the Pacers, vibes are high, emotions are high, positivity is high. And then of course, everything comes crashing down

on Saturday night, but feeling proud, feeling happy, and feeling optimistic about the future. I was on the New York New York podcast, interviewed, did an interview with my guy, John Jastremski, a part of the Ringer network. And it was a bit of a therapy session. I actually have a rule that I don't like to do shows, interviews, podcasts, on, on a Sunday, if I can avoid it. But I was looking forward to this because it felt like a therapy session.

And so if you're interested in my thoughts on what transpired on my thoughts on the abomination, on my thoughts on the abomination that was the television broadcast, both the in-game broadcast and the pre- halftime and post, go check that out on the New York New York podcast. This is a combat sports show, okay? We don't need to talk about the National Basketball Association here, okay? We keep it locked in. Shout out to PSG as well for winning the Champions League final on Saturday. Shout out to Khabib and Islam who are on the pitch doing all kinds of things. That was cool to see. Now on today's program, we have a lot to get into with a lot of interesting people.

Back into the show, we'll have a young woman on the program actually in studio her name these days is Elena black But you may be familiar with her if you're a pro wrestling fan as Cora Jade She was a big-time prospect in the WWE in the NXT promotion And then about a month ago found out that she was getting her walking papers very very surprising 24 years young coming back from an ACL, someone that it seemed like they had high hopes for. A great story with her and CM Punk meeting him as a fan and working her way all the way up to the big leagues per se was NXT, but signed by WWE and then just released.

Well, today is actually the first day that she can talk about her experience, about the news and where she goes from here. And we've seen this before in the world of pro wrestling, young talent gets signed at a young age and then gets released and then works their way back to the big leagues, so to speak. So this is definitely not it for her, but looking forward to having her in studio and learning more about her story.

That will be at three Eastern. At 2.30, Aaron Blanchfield will join us to talk about everything that transpired this past weekend in Las Vegas. She was supposed to fight. She didn't end up fighting. At 2 o'clock, Jarzino Rosenstreich will join us to talk about leaving the UFC, what happened in Saudi Arabia when he last fought for the organization, signing

with Dirty Boxing. He's going to be competing on their card coming up in the next two weeks. What happened in Saudi Arabia when he last fought for the organization. Signing with Dirty Boxing. He's going to be competing on their card coming up in a little less than two weeks time, June 14th to be exact. The big man from Suriname will join us and in about seven minutes time will be joined by my old friend Chael P. One half of the coaching duo on the 33rd season of the Ultimate Fighter. And he's been rocking a great look. I saw a few photos. It's the jersey tucked into the jeans with the belt buckle. It's the full kit. Here it is. Yeah, the jersey, no shirt, no undershirt. There's Colby looking

great tucked into the jeans, the cool belt buckle. I like the other look where it's like sporty yet rocking the glasses. You know maybe I would suggest the glasses would have been better with the jeans look but this is like you know old trainer at the YMCA telling you about you know the the benefits of doing push-ups and sit-ups calisthenics this is why it's listen up he had glasses for both of them no there was one shot there that I saw where he didn't have glasses with the the jeans

he's shaking hands I think he's wearing glasses is he let me see this let me see go to him okay and then where's the other one there's another one there's another one oh this one another one. This one. This one, this one, this one. See, no glasses. See?

Those jerseys are great though. That yellow is calling. Well, which look is better in your opinion? Both these are pretty tough right here. Let me get the belt buckle. When you're saying tough, are you meaning like tough, like my kids say tough when it's cool? The ultimate fighter.

Yeah, okay, all right. No, no, no, I'm saying it's tough. It's difficult. It's difficult to pull off? The sweat fighter. Yeah, okay, alright. No, no, no, I'm saying it's tough. It's difficult. It's difficult to pull off? The sweatpants and the glasses. The DC black shirt yellow font is the best. Is the best. Just the straight black shirt, no jersey.

Just like, yeah, yeah, yeah. For DC, for DC, but chill looks great in a jersey. I'm gonna have to break my jersey out. Who do you have? Who do you have? Which year? I got T. McGregor from Tough Season 31. Does it say T. McGregor? No, no, no, no. It's just the color scheme Yeah, it's like that cool blue. I don't even think he ever wore it, right? No, only suits. He's the only one. Even dating back to the season with your eye favor. Guys, what about Saturday?

Everyone was losing their minds about Aaron Blanchfield and Macy Barber. In short, what we ended up finding out was they were supposed to fight, they play the pre-fight video package, and then we find out that Macy is not going to make the walk. And then we find out that reportedly, and still not been 100% confirmed, she suffered from seizures backstage. Now what was crazy about this is that Aaron, and we had Macy on the show last week, had been putting it out there that, you know, she may not show up.

They were supposed to fight a few years ago. You know, there's been a couple of pull-outs and she laughed it off. And then she misses weight. And then here she is literally a minute away from making the walk. And this happens. And you see her here. I mean, like, this is not for, this is not theatrics,

this is not a great feeling. I feel for her, I feel for Aaron, I feel for everyone involved. Touched base with her very briefly just seeing if she was okay, said if she'd like to come on and clear the air, more than happy to have her. But certainly feel for her. And Erin called it unprofessional. I mean, you know, she's emotional in the moment. And I can understand why she would be livid, missing weight. And then obviously not getting anything. Imagine being back there, hands wrapped, gloves on, your hair is all braided, you did everything you had to do, you got the kit on, you're seconds away from making the walk. You're probably anxious, you're probably a little bit nervous,

you're excited though, this is it, this is the fun part, and they say no. Like, how do you even release the adrenaline? Like, what do you do? Do you go for a run? Do you do some sit-ups and push-ups and pull-ups? I don't even understand, like... Gotta be an awful feeling. For her and of course for Macy. Here's Macy saying, not what I had planned for a Sunday post.

Thank you to everyone for the prayers and support. I owe an apology to the UFC McMainer Dana White, Sean Shelby, and Blanchfield MMA, that's Aaron. PS, my life is not messy. This is just a bad hand. We will get to the bottom of it all and be back. She's referring in that PS to stuff that Aaron said in her post, I guess, post-event press conference where she said, like, she's a mess. I don't want to fight her.

I'm not interested. I'm moving on this, that, and the other. So certainly feel for her. It's, it's, it's an awful situation. Uh, they, they joked on the broadcast, like, thank God this isn't in front of 17 or so thousand people because they would have rioted in the arena. One of the good times that it's at the apex. Did you guys happen to see when they went to DC, Sanco and Fitzgerald

and DC's like, oh, listen, listen, um, uh, they're about to make the announcement right now. They're about to listen, listen to the crowd. And there was like, no, there was no one there. He thought that there would be booing and hissing, maybe some tomato throwing and there was no, there was no reaction. They were fortunate.

They were fortunate. That would have, that would have been. It would have been a riot. Yeah. To me though, the story of the weekend was what transpired just a few minutes down the road at the Mandalay Bay event center. We talked about it last week.

We had Kayla Plant on, we talked about it with Ade on the Dizone show. Once again, boxing cannot get out of its own way. And the promoters and the fighters deserve the blame. You've got a money fight. You've got a rivalry that is two and a half years in the making. It's Jamal Charlo and it's Caleb Plant.

They freaking fought in the bowels of T-Mobile. Caleb slapped him, he said something about his wife, all this stuff. And then you finally have an opportunity to have them fight on the same day and you have them fight against different opponents. Charlo does the business, he gets the job done, Caleb does not in a bad performance, and now you say to yourself, all right, well, is the money fight up in smoke? Or do we just do it anyway? With less interest, less demand? Why couldn't they have fought each other? Everyone said, oh, Charlot, you know, he needed a tune-up fight.

Well, clearly not. Clearly not. Maybe he should have believed in himself a little more and just fought this version of Caleb Payne. Maybe he would have beaten Caleb Payne and it would have been a huge bounce-back victory for him. Why do they keep doing it? We just saw it earlier in the month. Times Square, Haney Garcia fighting on the same card, fight each other. One thing I'll say about the UFC, they never do this thing. You got the big fight, you make the big fight. Unless it's like, alright this guy needs to win to warrant the title shot. Unless it's that kind of thing and the money fight is against the champion. Okay obviously there are certain steps that sometimes need to be taken but if it's like a mid-tier fight, a mid-card fight if you will, or even if it's an appropriate rematch like Garcia Haney was,

which they may still do anyway, why do they tempt fate? Why do they insist on doing this time and again? They did it with Wilder and Joshua too. Like you have them ready to go. Why do the, we don't need it. We don't need the extra fight. You don't need it, we don't need it. I don't get it. I don't get why they keep doing this. Why can't they learn from history? Just make the fight. And if the guy isn't ready to go,

then make it again. But those two fights will do bigger business than these tune up fights. You put them on the same card, the biggest obstacle is always the timing. Can you get both guys to align their lives, align their schedules so that they can fight on the same day? And if you've done that, that's half the battle. To now book them to fight each other so that things like this don't happen. Again, they may still do it, but the intrigue is less. And maybe not. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe you say, hey. Maybe you say, hey, the issue is between the two of them.

Maybe you say, hey, the money fight is still there. Obviously, if someone loses, they lose a little bit of a little bit of momentum but I don't know. They have certainly done this in the past where someone loses and they say hey let's just make the fight anyway which then leads you to believe like why didn't you just make it in the first place they may just do that with Garcia and Haney by the way. What's this from Don Davis tweeting? PFL announcement, breaking news here Frank. Frank?

You okay? Everything all right? You know, we have a guest that you don't know. Oh, sorry, sorry, sorry. PFL announcement. PFL tried venue approach for World Tournament 2025 regular season at Orlando Studios, like the UFC Apex. Okay. I mean, you don't own the studios, it's a little bit different, but I get it. If you're looking for a soulless sort of like hollow atmosphere, we learned it was not as good for fans. So we will not be doing it again. All events will be on the road for the best fan experience.

Yeah. Wow. You. Wow. You need it, you need it to learn. You need to put on four events to figure this out. That's huge. He learned the same thing that, uh, 1995 WCW learned. Putting on events at the, uh, Universal studios in Orlando, ain't the best

experience for prize fighting. Good on you. I know, but that Velocicoaster though. Yeah, it was sick. Come on. Mr. Davis, we salute you. What are we doing? What are we doing?

What are we done here? Um, all right, let's go to our first guest of the day, what a treat it is on this Monday to secure the services of one of the hottest men, one of the most wanted men, one of the most desired men in all of combat sports there. I say, not just men, analysts, personalities, voices, talking heads. One half of the coaching duo for the ultimate fighter season 33.

You know, if I'm being honest, I had planned for this to be an in studio chat because I saw him gallivanting all over this great city just a couple of weeks ago, speaking to podcasts with about, I don't know, 36 to 37 viewers slash listeners. But in the end, we have to settle for good old fashioned zoom because that's how we like to do it. Let us say hello to the bad guy, the one and only Chael P. Sonnen. Hello, Chael. How are you? I don't mind that you didn't come. How am I? Yeah.

How am I? Yeah. I'm sitting here insulted. You got a producer over there named Eric. I come on and he's asked me He says can you count to five? Why would he think I can't count to five? I have a college degree I majored in sociology. Some people don't respect sociology. I like to see Eric try to spell social What does he mean? Can I count to five what an insult that was and you want to know another thing? I'm sitting over on the screen. I've been here two minutes and the screen's just me

So the way this works before you bring it's just me. I got this whole view of myself. Ariel, do I need to up my testosterone? What is going on? What? What? I do not. Where do my muscles go? I've got these big muscles and these beautiful, what is going on over here? Is old Chael falling apart? No. Does that happen? Because I'd be the last one to know. If you see me digressing as an absolute beautiful specimen. You need to tell me. People don't know these things. They have to be told by somebody. No, you look fantastic.

Your nipples are kind of showing through the shirt there. Is that bad though? No, I think it's- Is that bad? You know, it's, cause there's a different in pecs and then boobs. Yeah, no, no. And a man, particularly a man that does testosterone

can end up with boobs. Am I on my way to that? No. Or is that look I have chest? These are pecs. In fact, we were just admiring your looks on the Ultimate Fighter. We decided that we like the jersey tucked into the jeans with the belt buckle. We thought this was a good look. You went with the no shirt underneath. DC went with just plain shirt. This was sans glasses, which I thought was interesting. But I think in the end, my favorite was glasses, jerseys

tucked into sweatpants. I thought that was the winner. I appreciate you acknowledging that fashion statement there. I did not know that you could put a shirt under the shirt. That's actually, now that you say it, that's how kiesa and daniel did look every day it never dawned on me i guess i didn't pick up on that and uh i mean what a tough thing right i mean it's mum's the word you can't say anything is there anyone

out there that doesn't think i stomped daniel during this process of like even though i'm not supposed to peligian's gonna be so upset with me. But it's like Craig, of course I'm gonna beat Daniel. It's just Daniel. Did you enjoy this? You've done it before, multiple times. Did you enjoy doing it again? I'm just being a liar over here, Helwani. Is this on?

Can you hear me? No, no, I'm- I'm on fire. Already I'm on fire and I haven't even come to life yet. Yeah. Oh yeah, the ultimate fire is an incredible thing. Okay, hold on. I made a joke about sociology earlier, but it is a sociological experiment and not a lot of sociological experiences are actually done because people don't respect sociology and there's no funding for it. But I mean, this really, you get a group of people,

you bring them together, you take all their distractions away. And a big thing, go back to Craig Paligian, but he wants the guys to concentrate. He wants them to be able to focus and nobody have an advantage or something comes up, they get a call from somebody and it takes them in a different direction, maybe a negative.

So he wants them to be able to concentrate. And they provide all the food, all the housing, all the training, all the coaches. I mean, the equipment there's when I tell you it's, it's anything you could ever want for a training room. There's one rule I've done this three times, but each process they tell us this on day one look around the gym. And if there's anything that you want that we don't have, we will have it overnighted

in. So it is truly the nicest training facility you can get to. And you asked me if it's fun. It is fun, Errol. I'll give you an example though of a dog. I lost a dog, the lovely Danger. Danger Waffles got put down. I'm sorry.

And it was such a painful thing that I almost didn't get another dog because I didn't want, you know, 12 years later to have to go through that again. There, I do have that similar feeling with the Altman fighter. It is so hard to say goodbye. When we all go through this and then the last day comes and then we got to get to the airports

and go to our prospective homes. That is a very difficult day and that's the last thing that I remember from this process. So that part of it stuff I would not feel bad if I never went through that again. Who do you think felt worse you on that day or Oban Elliott the guy who idolizes you not to get the call to be on the coaching staff? I thought that that was that was a blunder. How do you get the call to be on the coaching staff. I thought that that was a blunder. How do you not have the Welsh gangster on the coaching staff?

It's funny that you say that. It's funny that you say, because, so it's limited who you can bring in. So Colby came in and he was just worth his weight in gold, but Colby has a very busy schedule. And I mean, all the way down to campaign stops and the president called him one day, by the way, while we're filming, his phone lights up,

Donald J. Trump, secret service got involved when they found out there was cameras on. It turned into a whole thing. But my point is, Kobe's so busy and Oban was, who would have been next? Oban, I don't want to bother Oban because he's got a fight coming up. And I wanted to present it to him as though,

bro, come out here. This is a training camp. But Austin Vanderfort didn't see it that way. Just for example, Austin had a fight coming up and it was right at the apex. I'm saying, hey, come right here. You'll have a training camp. It's your size guys.

And I just didn't want to put Oban in that spot, but I do agree with you. And I do wish that he could have been there. Okay, fair enough. I think that'll make me feel better. I just spoke to him, Arrow. I just got off the phone with him. He's the man.

I was in Vegas last week and for the premiere of the Ultimate Fighter. And so I was trying to, I was going to try to get to him if that worked with his coaches. It's always a position where I don't want to overstep because of the respect that, that they, they are to be shown. But sometimes when you're really hurting, like you're cutting weight, sometimes you

can just use a friend sitting in a sauna with you, tell you it's going to be okay. Sometimes you need those things. So I was going to try to get over to him and help him cut some weight. And he informed me that he's not in town cutting weight because his fight got moved to Baku. I wasn't aware of that. So I had to go back through, look that up, see what happened with the change, but just spoke to Obon and he's doing great by the way.

I'm happy that you checked in on him. I was kind of waiting by the phone. All right, I brought Chilt ESPN, I brought DCD ESPN. I thought one of them would extend, we were partners, the three of us, and it was actually awkward between you were jealous of, like we were partners, the three of us, you know? And it was actually like awkward between like, you were jealous of my relationship with him, he was jealous of my...

And I thought one of you would extend the invitation in the end, you know, it was sort of left empty-handed. I thought someone would just be like, hey, how long, like, for everything you did, for bringing us to the dance, for all the times that you went to bat, I thought one of you would extend, but. I was not jealous of your relationship. It was a little bit. I was surprised at how quickly you

bonded with Daniel. I felt as though my bond with you, which took 10 years, I felt like Daniel got fast tracked just because he has this little program with you and a little mon pod network out of Bristol called ESPN. I mean, these guys, they're still trying to get up off the ground and you, Mr. Fancy, I felt like it all of a sudden, oh, I'm with the two division champion. You know, I just felt you guys got a little cozy,

a little fast. It wasn't complete jealousy. I was bothered by that. Well, it all worked out for all of us. You two are now, you know, the hot new show. You're hosting reality shows. I'm very happy for you both. I'm very happy that it all worked out.

It seemed to have been a great turn of events for you. Chael, can I ask you about something? Like, when we did our program, we used to argue. We used to butt heads, but it was all in good fun. And, you know, I'll be the first to admit, sometimes, you know, I'm right, sometimes you're right, sometimes I'm wrong, sometimes you're wrong. We got into a little bit of a tiff recently from afar, and I actually think we're both on the same page. I actually think that you agreed with me and for some reason, I don't know, maybe misunderstood my stance. I don't know

what it was. Islam. I'm going back to Islam versus Ilya. You retweeted this, you said, not a word here is true. My stance was what Ilya was doing was far more courageous, dropping his title after beating Max Holloway, after beating Volk, not just beating them, knocking them out, going to chase the number one pound for pound fighter in a higher weight class. It is not the same as the champ at 155 saying, hey, I'm going to fight the new champ who just won the belt. And I was debating all this and also saying that, hey, if you're Islam, take the Ilya fight, take the biggest fight available to you, and then move up, win or lose. If you lose to Ilya, does anyone care if you don't have the belt

anymore and you fight JDM? No. If you're Islam and you beat Ilya, now you're red hot, supremely hot, and now you're going to fight for another belt. And I didn't understand where you were coming from. You did a little video in the car, and then you said, you started to do the whole gimmick, which I thought we were past like, hey, I've never made the walk, you're not an athlete,

you don't get it, you're insulting. I'm like, we actually agree on this. Am I missing something here? A little bit. Okay. A little bit. Okay. A little bit because, but we still do have a disagreement. Now I like the praise of Ilya. I mean, the rules of the playground

carry over to the octagon. The same way as two people are gonna meet at three o'clock after eighth period, and it gets through the whole school. Why, what happened? What did he say? He said this and he said this and he talked to his girlfriend or he got me,

whatever it is, that same level of excitement for whatever is going on with these two, like that carries over to the octagon. So one thing is who is more willing? Who is more sincere in their claim, I'm the best? If we have a pound for pound list that lists somebody as number one, and in this case they did, Islam. Then you got Ilija that I believe was number four and he said, no, wait a minute, I don't

agree with this list. In fact, I believe I'm all the way here at number one and to prove to you, I'll fight him. And then Ilija says to show his sincerity, I will take a punishment, which is the relinquishment of my belt. I will enter a division. That's how sincere I am to want to fight this guy. And I think that Ilya just deserved recognized for that. That doesn't mean if they fought that Ilya would win,

but if you don't have the head-to-head competition, then we have to go back to the rules of the playground, which is if two guys agreed to show up at three and one guy didn't show up for whatever reason, your classmates look at this guy as the winner. So you and I, we're in agreement. Now we're saying the same thing. I'll get to the point where we disagreed and we still do, which is you were contending that Ilya,

the day he gave that belt back, was promised? Yes. Was under the assumption that he for sure would get a title fight. And that part, which I haven't spoke to, I'm just saying, when I look at it, that would surprise me if that were true. The UFC hates with a capital H, it might be the number one sin in the whole company, you do not walk away from the belt. And this goes all the way back to a courtroom

in roughly 2006 with BJ Pitt on one side and Dana White on the other. You do not walk away from the company's belt. So for him to make that call and say he's gonna leave his division, which is news they don't want to get, I just can't imagine where when they're receiving news, they don't want, they make him a guarantee

Yes, if you do this thing that we don't want we guarantee you'll get a title shot I found that hard to believe so so you're right about the history Dana was very mad at GSP when he dropped the title after beating Johnny Hendrix in 2013 You are right about the history, but this time history did not repeat itself. He did get the guarantee you say you didn't speak to Ilya I Don't I think you didn't speak to Ilya. I don't, I think you know by now, I'm pretty good, Capital J journalist. I don't just speak, you know, like just making things up. I speak to people and then inform myself. And so I then say, informed opinion. He did get a guarantee. I know exactly where the guarantee was given. I know about the meeting, all that and more. I won't give away too much because that would reveal sources, but the point is he was guaranteed.

And you know how I know this to be a thousand percent true? Just a couple of days before UFC 315, Islam himself said, I'm not giving up my title and I'm going to move up to fight JDM. And then what ends up happening? Ilya is fighting for his title, fighting for the vacant belt. He was not going to give up his 45 belt for a number one contender and interim. It had to be either Islam or a new belt, a vacant belt. And that's exactly what happened. And so I think I was proven right with that. Also, the UFC I think recognizes this guy's a megastar. You don't want to make him unhappy. You want to keep him happy. You need a main event for International Fight Week, right?

You need that main event, and you need a title fight at the top of the main event. And so to go back to your earlier point, you say the one thing they hate is vacating the title, you're 100% right. But the other thing that they can't have are pay-per-views without title fights. And that's the reason why they had

Volk fight for a vacant title against Diego, and that's the reason why Ilya is fighting for a vacant title against Charles. And oh, by the way, that's why Dustin is fighting Max for a BM title against Diego. And that's the reason why Ilya is fighting for a vacant title against Charles. And oh, by the way, that's why Dustin is fighting Max for a BMF title. You need a title fight at the top of the main event. And that all makes sense. I wouldn't dispute it.

Now, if you're telling me that you were told by Ilya and that I'm just flat wrong, I'll stand down. I know if you claim to ever, that you do have it. Source is close to it. Yeah, but absent of you saying, Chael, this is a fact, take it from me. And I would, but, but absent of you saying that if I was to look at the evidence, boy, it doesn't feel that way. I mean, historically speaking, somebody like Ilya is going to leave a division the day

that that gets the press release, the day that that news comes out. They also announced the on sale and the date that that news comes out, they also announce the on sale and the date that he will be taking on Islam Akhilechev. It's generally not a conversation you're going to have if there's anything that we know about Islam. Islam will fight anybody, and he can play about fighting 45-pounders, but the bottom line is he'll fight them and then he'll even give them rematches on short notice. Islam will fight a guy like Money Moekano who he's never thought about, never envisioned. He'll fight him on 22 short notice. Islam will fight a guy like Money Moe Cano, who he's never thought about,

never envisioning he'll fight him on 22 hours notice. So my point is Islam did get big and strong to the idea that I'm going to leave 170 eventually, but he dipped his toe in that. And at the time that the belt came off, Ilia Islam was dipping his toe to the point of, well, not if it's blahal and I don't know what's going to happen. You know, that's my boy. You know, they kind of went back and forth. And then it was, well, I'm going to keep both belts.

So I could defend one here, but I want the chance to go later. I'm just saying for the situation that we were in at the time, the UFC could have come out, said, not even speak to Islam, come out in a press conference, say, Ilya is no longer at 45. He's now at 55. He's an undefeated world champion, which makes him go in front of our number one ranked guy, here's your match, and everybody would have said okay. But they didn't do that. And then I have a source too, and I will make it public,

because I interviewed him and put it on the internet, but it was Charles Oliveira. And Charles was in talks to fight Ilya before we ever got the result of Jack and Blahal, which allegedly, the way the story, at least they prefer it to be told, was the big deciding factor. So they could have stepped in at any time and just said, Ilija, Islam, and it would have been done. But they were still, they were talking to Charles and Charles never knew it was for a title. Charles always thought, okay, I'll have to go through

Ilija to get to Islam. I don't want to, and I don't think I should have to. I'm ranked number one, he's not ranked at all in this division. Charles was making his case. But Charles had no idea. It could be for the belt. Yeah, they do this sometimes. Famously, they did it to Khabib, UFC 205. He thought he was fighting Eddie Alvarez for the title,

and then he finds out that it's Conor McGregor fighting Eddie Alvarez for the title and then he finds out that it's Conor McGregor Fighting Eddie Alvarez for the title and he had to fight on the prelims and he accused me of not being loyal this famous They just used him as the sort of backup So Charles was being used as the backup But they wouldn't tell him that because no one wants to be called the backup in any event What we're getting is a great fight, but we are not getting what I thought would be the supreme fight Which is Ilia versus Islam, which is one of the biggest fights that the UFC could put on. Can we take a step back, because I just did a little monologue at the beginning of the show,

and some might be surprised with this stance. I saw a lot of people after the weekend say, you know, the whole Blanchfield, Barbara thinks they like, UFC is cooked, UFC is washed, what the hell, blah blah blah. And I was like, wait a second, everyone chill out. Like, we've seen this before. Guys can't make the walk at the 11th hour. I remember Stefan Struven, Matt Matrione, like he had a heart issue.

Let's not make this out to be a big- Kevin Randleman rested his soul. Kevin Randleman slipped, yes. Remember when that happened, he was warming up and he stood on like a pile of pipes and then the pipes gave way. Remember that story? Of course. That was a tough one.

There was another one with a guy named Sean Loeffler in Omaha, Nebraska turned his ankle on a fuel TV card. Point is on May 1st, Ken Shamrock, Kimbo Slice, different organization, same situation. Things happen. Things happen. My point is if you would have looked at the slate May 1st, okay, what's to come in May of 2025?

It wasn't the best of schedules, but hey, 315 main event below JDM. I thought exceeded expectations. I thought that fight was better than most people thought and I thought that pay-per-view card was better. Look at the lineup in June. My point is all this talk that the UFC is cooked, washed, that the sport is down, this and that, I don't buy that. I think it's hogwash.

There's cyclical moments. There's ups or downs. Is there a shortage of superstars right now? Yeah, I would say so. But look at June's schedule. Look at July's schedule, pretty darn good. Where do you fall in this? You see this talk online, right?

I know you work for the broadcaster. I'm not trying to put you, I'm defending the organization. I'm saying it's ups and downs. How do you feel about this talk? Well, I appreciate you saying that. And this is actually a little spat that we also had on Twitter a few weeks prior to that,

because you had Eddie Hearn on. Yes, yes. I like Eddie Hearn. I respect him. He's handsome. He's accessible. I like Eddie, but Eddie had made a comment which was in the defense of boxing.

And I think it came from a little bit of a competitive standpoint now that Dana White is in the boxing business. But Eddie had said, I couldn't name six UFC fighters. And I felt as though that you agreed with them in terms of the UFC is just on a little bit of a down. And I can just tell you, I check the TKO stock every day of my life at 6.30 in the morning,

9.30 East Coast time, never miss and never a minute late. And that just isn't a reality. We were doing shows at the Apex in front of nobody. Some of that was a pandemic, but some of that you just had a hard people, you can only hit Vegas so many times. And now they're doing $2 million Gates on a Saturday. They're doing a fight. The one where I cornered Colby Covington. I mean, this was such a big deal. It was 15,000 plus completely sold out in advance. Hulk Hogan's involved with it. Dana shows up himself. And this was for a non-pay-per-view. Like these non-pay-per-views, they're feeling like pay-per-views.

The UFC, shockingly, believe it or not, is not in the gate business. One thing that they did very early on to throw people off their trail is they would tell you the live gate and then they would hint at a pay-per-view while telling you, I can't tell you the pay-per-view because it's hard. But they did those two things to make people believe they were in the live gate paper view business, which hasn't been true since roughly 2011. But I tell you that because there's competitors and people coming in and people that want to piece it, they've thrown them off. The revenue streams when you're in this kind of a business, it's completely different.

If you did a zero gate, the stock still goes up. So that's really big money is my point. When you're not even counting on that gate, that's not even the business you're in, and you're still doing seven figures. Errol, business is pretty hot, man. The UFC is red hot. The UFC is red hot, but MMA isn't red hot. The UFC is red hot but MMA isn't red hot and I can I could

okay I could distinguish them. The MMA business as I continue to say is in a recession. Let's be honest, PFL not doing great. Is there another is there another option right now in the United States? Man, not really. You've got some outfits overseas. One championship is essentially out of the MMA business. They do more grappling and Muay Thai. Ryzen is having a nice little run right now. Let's see what happens. You've got the KSWs and the Octagons, Cage Warriors doing a little thing, more of a regional scene.

But it's, you have to admit, UFC is on fire. TKO is on fire. But the MMA business, we don't have, when I say we, the MMA business, like there is no AEW to UFC's WWE. There isn't even a close second to them, right? That's a little problematic, I think. When I say we the MMA business like there is no AEW to UFC's WWE There isn't even a close second to them, right? That's that's a little problematic I think there needs to be other for the boys in the back, right for the guys to have places to go

Look, you left the UFC. You had a great thing with Bellator right to round out your career There isn't that like if that if this is you ten years ago, where are you going? You're going to fight at Universal Studios for PFL in front of 600 people? You're not doing that. That is what concerns me. UFC is doing just fine. So when I have that conversation with Eddie, I'm not necessarily talking about the UFC. You are a fool if you say the UFC is suffering right now.

They are on fire. They could do no wrong. And it would take many more main events to fall through for them to start suffering. But the business of MMA, the rest of the sport, I don't think is in a great spot right now. Agree or disagree? Oh, you definitely make a great point. And it's not even a matter of just now. Pride, definitely, was a competitor to the UFC.

Bellator, as much as they tried to ignore, Bellator really was a fairy. I mean, they were selling out gates all over the world, too, man. They had a little thing in Ireland. They were going to Jerusalem. I got to go on that one of the best trips of my life. We go back, come back home, go to Chicago, shoot over to San Diego, sold out, sold out, sold out, sold out. Bellator really did a very good job. Now, if we can just go to the PFL, right before you brought me on, you had thrown up a tweet from Don Davis. I only had time to see that it was Don Davis, and I don't know what the subject matter was.

Let me make sure we have this right. We like Don Davis, correct? Who's we? You and I. You and I as people in this industry, people that watch how people work and how they treat other people. Don gets two thumbs up, right?

I enjoy him. I like talking to him, but I think he has lost a lot of goodwill with the fans. I think a major turning point was buying Bellator. I think they were on a nice trajectory. He called himself the co-leader. I don't think people bought that. And then I think he did an interview or two and it was a little bit exposed that he wasn't an MMA guy.

And I think MMA fans want one of their own. They want to believe that you're in the trenches, that that's what they love about Dana, right? He's in the trenches. He freaking lives and breathes this. And I feel like he's lost some of that goodwill with the people. Okay, now that's a fine example.

I never thought it from that perspective, but just to bring it in, aside from Dana, you know, Dale Ahoy in boxing, but Dale Ahoy wasn't really calling it. Richard Schaeffer was doing it. He just got his name out there. Eddie Hearn might be a fine example. His Highness Turkey is going right now. I mean, he never did these things. I do think the community is open. Vince McMahon wanted to be a pro wrestler and he got in there a few times, but he wasn't really one of them. I don't know. I'm just sharing for you. I don't know how much

of a requirement that was. Here's what I feel did happen with Don Davis a little bit. You come in with the best of intentions, and when they absorbed Bellator, which for business reasons made such good sense, but when they did that, that whole thing happened so fast that by the time they start going through the contracts and they start seeing what they got, they start swallowing real deep and going, what kind of a deal did this guy have? Then you've got X amount of dates. They got to play the venue game like everybody else, right? They don't own a venue. They've got to play this game. Then you got how many fights can you bring on? I mean, not for nothing. They just ended up with too many guys. The math just didn't work out. We've heard some guys

that complained, and they were top guys that we knew of, but there was plenty of others that are in the same spot. It's math. How many shows are you going to have? How many fights can we throw on here? Times two? How many guys are under contract? They just got put in a tough spot. In my opinion, I don't think there was anything intentionally that was done, and I think maybe they were naive to a couple of things because the deal went so fast. I don't think they knew how many Bellator guys were making seven figures, just for example.

Well, they should have done their due diligence, right? I mean, like you can't find out after the fact, but yes, maybe in retrospect, it wasn't worth that deal. By the way, they didn't have to pay for Bellator. They gave up equity to Paramount. So it wasn't like they had to give up millions and millions of dollars. But look what it led to, a lot of these guys have gone.

I mean, like Patchy Mix is fighting this weekend for the UFC, Kayla gone, Pico gone. Hey, I hear what you're saying on due diligence, but the price was so right on Bellator, but it was a timeframe, you've got to say yes, or this is going to go. I mean, not for nothing, there wasn't quite time to go through all of these contracts.

And there was some massive escalations that were with some of the Bellator guys. Yeah. When PFL got, man, we thought we had a handle on these purses, but now look at this. I mean, you've got to have something that's sustainable. You don't just have something to make people feel good. It's got to be something you can duplicate over and over again, much like your show right here every Monday, or you don't have a business. So I just feel that they got put in a wildly tough spot, did the best they could do with it. They're still doing the best they could do with it.

They're fighting as many people as they can do in as many venues as they can get, as often as they can get them on TV. But then you do have a game of math. How many guys, right? How many guys do you have? They took a lot of guys in. And they were once the place where like a Rory McDonald

or an Anthony Pettis could get a big deal. I don't think they're that place anymore. And so if I'm that type of fighter in the year 2025, where am I going? That's what concerns me. A guy who doesn't have to worry about this is John Jones. How does this story play out, Chael? You're in the content creation business.

Aren't you tired of this already? Can we just wrap the math on this real fast? Because math is very important. We wanted competitors so bad, and the story always got told so that fighters could go somewhere besides the UFC. But that was more of a line in the narrative. It wasn't as much a reality. And I'll just tell you from being on that side of the fence, what we really wanted,

we wanted competitors because we wanted more shows. We wanted more shows so that guys could get more fights, not necessarily more guys coming in or starting to play the game back and forth, just so you can get your three paydays a year. If you're going to be in this industry and make a living, that's what you have to have. The UFC when I started had five events a year. And then the day that I came on, they announced, okay, this year is going to be six, but next year is going to be 11. And next, and they go up and then I believe they're at 44 is what they, they just completed in 2024.

But the point is if you're not doing 44 events times 11 fights, which is 22 guys, that is a lot of paychecks that you're handing out. As a matter of fact, Dana White's writing more paychecks in total than when Pride was here and WEC was getting in every now and then just because of the number of shows. So it is important. Competition is so helpful, but it becomes less of an urgency if the UFC can sustain and keep everybody busy. And I just wanted to make sure that you at least consider that. Moving on. Sure. No, I understand. I understand, I understand. It's a fascinating topic that we could talk about

for a long time, but I wanna get your thoughts on Jones and Aspen. Can I get in front of something? Yeah, go ahead. Can I get in front of something? All right, I heard you say the magic words, John Jones. Yeah. I did an interview about three hours ago

with Daniel Cormier. It exists over at ESPN Plus. It's called Good Guy, Bad Guy. Please allow me to give it that respect. Sure, sure, sure. Because, Ariel, when I sit down, it's 7 a.m. Oregon time, and I'm not a huge morning guy, so I gotta back the alarm up two out, five o'clock,

so I can get coffee and shower, kind of move around a little bit to be ready. I go in my, I sit down, Tom Aspinal's on the screen. Oh, wow. Tom Aspinal's sitting there. Now, we tried to get Tom, but he told us no. So when I said, I got Tom Aspinal on the screen, and he's driving, he's in the car driving. It's clear that he just came from training. He's driving. So it was a great visual. It's like, it's early in the morning. What is Tom

doing training? Like what is so serious? John is very clearly letting us know that he's not in the gym right now. Here's Aspinall just on a whim that we get him in an interview. Here he is. So I just, I want to tell you that and I want to encourage people, if you don't mind me doing this on your platform, if I could just encourage people to go over and watch this episode of Good Guy, Bad Guy. We asked Tom all the tough questions, Ariel. Tell us, can you give us a preview? Yes, absolutely. He reveals in this things that we did not know. And he makes it kind of clear, look, there's only so much I can say, but this is ESPN and I'm here to say, and he pushes it.

And he gives us enough info that I do believe that we could make very reasonable guests on what the next move is for Tom. And it will surprise you. That's the only you're teasing. I got to leave you there. But I have to. I have to leave you there.

Well, Arrow, think about what I'd be doing. I'm popping on your show after I just did that. You know, it kind of matters which one came first, then you got to show respect to it. Same as I would do for you. I want to take something here or there. Sure, sure. I get it.

I get it. But I would like to plug them. You got the biggest show out there. If the fans wouldn't mind just clicking over and watching this episode of Good Guy, Bad Guy, it's good. It's good. Tom's good. I do want to say seven o'clock your time is 10 in the East and three in the UK. So it wasn't that early for him, but it was nice for him to pop on the show and give you guys the 411. How do you, based on this, you don't have to tell us what he said, but how do you see this playing out?

I've said, you know, I said, I believe, my conversations would tell me that John asked for a big number. The UFC met the number. I do not think the UFC is to blame here. The UFC met the number. Is it the 30 number? Is it the fame? They met the massive number. He would have been one of the highest paid fighters for one night in the history of the sport. And then he said, I'm cool. Now, did he shut the door? Maybe not 1000%, but that's the delay. They would have liked to have wrapped this

up a long time ago. Dana White gave us his guarantee that this was happening. My only gripe now is like at what point do we move on because Tom's career is just hanging in the wind the guy's young he's he's he's he's last fought you know in July it was a 60 second fight I know there's I think they're saving it for Madison Square Garden and so there's no real rush to force John's hand but John everything he's doing would suggest that he is he is not coming back. Do you think otherwise? I also, prior to speaking to Tom, I also strongly felt from information that I could get, or

maybe I even overheard it at places, that Madison Square Garden, and most specifically, November, and it was going to meet John's request, which was a very strange one when it came in, but he wanted 180 days from the day the bad agreement is signed and why he dug his toes in, we don't know, but it actually would satisfy this. And so you bring up a great point that nobody's considering. Tom has a family and is a prize fighter and is not at the point in his career where we can just wait. I mean, John Johnson had done so well financially, he took three years off one time, electively

on his own. He said, take the belt back, all the money that comes with it, I'm good and took three years off. That's just not a situation that Tom's in and we do need to be respectful of that, that Tom wants to stay busy. And Tom's a lot of things. They want to call him the interim champion, which I just think is such a beautiful word, Errol. I would have done anything to have a title that ended in world champion.

I don't care if you put it term light, heavyweight, WEC, pride. If it ends in world champion, I wanted it so bad, but when you're in Tom's shoes, he doesn't see it that way. He sees interim as a pejorative. And one thing that we do need to concede about Tom, he's the active champion, he's the training champion, he's the licensed champion, he's the accessible champion, he's the in the gym preparing his skills champion. And I think that is tough for him

to not have that recognition of undisputed. And Tom's been very clear about a couple of things. And when he first started, I thought maybe it was a little bit of an angle, but it's not. I take him as extremely sincere, which is, John, my gripe is not with you. I just want to be known as the undisputed champion. They can give that to me at a press conference, the same as they did it to Ronda and Jose Aldo. Or I will fight somebody else after you're stripped. Or I will fight you.

Whatever your choice, but no argument. He doesn't want interim. Interim insults him. Possibly it means something different in England. I'm just telling you where Tom's coming from. No, he's the longest reigning interim champion of all time. It's not a great distinction. Like you want, he's in the prime of his life.

He has always said, hey, beating John, John being the guy the first guy would be great But ultimately I just want to I just want to like advance. I want what John has and and John likes to do this thing It's like hey, I'm living my best life. I'm living my best life now You're stopping someone else from living their best life, but it's to be fair The UFC has to make the call John came out recently and said like hey the UFC has to make the call. John came out recently and said like, hey, the UFC is going to make the announcement. All right, so can you tell us what it is? If we're saving them for November, just tell us so we can all move on with our lives.

If you're not saving us, just so we put us out of our misery is all I'm saying because we all feel bad for Tom. Hey, maybe Tom's working all of us. Maybe he revealed to you in your interview earlier today that he already has a date and this is all just a build of the fight. I would argue that it's making the people a little bit apathetic towards the fight. would you not? Like, like it's...

Ariel, I've never seen anything like this. I've seen people resist fights that we all want. And as frustrated as we get, the truth is it builds an excitement and it makes us want it more. And we're willing to pay more for the shows or pay more pay more for like whatever it is it it does up as frustrated as it is it ups it i've never in my life seen it go it's going the other way this fight isn't getting headlines anymore i can't make any money as a guy that's on youtube i can't make money talking about this fight because i can't even be anybody to click on it i come with a thumbnail and a photo and even i come in with inside scoop, my numbers are going down. And I don't think that's anything that with the UFC

and their abilities, I believe they could flip that script really quick. I'm just sharing with you as I study this sport and I love to study it from a little bit different perspective, I've never seen anything like this. And you use the word apathetic, maybe that's what it is. I have my own hypothesis,

which is the audience is not convinced they're gonna to get it they don't want to get excited they don't want to hear about it anymore because they just don't believe we can get that fight to the ring whether I'm right on that guess or not I am right and I can prove it by numbers that this fight is losing steam there was a headlight on this last week, Ariel. I click and refresh the websites, the elbows and the manias and the junkies all day long. When it popped up and I saw it, this story, John Jones, Tom Aspill,

side by side was number three. It had fallen to number three. It couldn't even command the media for a day, not even for three hours of the day. It was the third story down. And I'm just sharing with you, you're completely right. This fight is getting smaller, not bigger. Two last quick things.

First of all- Can I tell you one of the problems? Can I tell you, because John did have a very big number and my sources tell me the same thing. The UFC said, okay. But one of the problems with that, no fighter ever, and there's not an exception, you can go through all of their numbers, coming off a victory, fights for less than their next fight

than they did in that fight, coming off of a victory, never. So you get a champion, it can be a very tough spot. John doesn't have two fights out there. He doesn't have three fights that people would be excited about. John doesn't hold any of the records. He's got no pay-per-view, no live gate, no T-shirt. He has zero records.

And it wasn't a matter of Conor came in and beat it. John never had them. John was so good and so dominant. We would have lots of people dressed up as if the seats come to a John Jones fight. We would be told as the world what a big deal it was because what a once in a lifetime talent we have. At the end of the day, it was an expense and I'm only sharing this because if you

come to the table with 12 million dollars for this one fight, you're not going to get him again. And who's his next fight? It's with Curtis Blades. It's with Derrick Lewis. I'm just sharing with you. It's with Volkov. It's a much smaller match, but you got to pay him the same thing. No fighter can ever look at him objectively and go, okay, that night was a big night. This one's less big. We failed at our job of promoting. They don't look at it like that, man. They put that right on the promoter. That's where it becomes a problem. You could justify 12 million to John Jones for Asperal plus back end points, which is going to bring him to almost $20 million. McGregor has never even seen this much money.

But you can't give him that against Surreal. You can't give him that against Volkov. And I'm just saying that becomes the problem. If you are going to do that as a promoter, you better be goddamn sure that guy is going to get beat. And that's the side of it they'll never talk about publicly. Privately, if you're going to pay a guy that and you can't pay him at two and three and four times, you better be sure you got the guy that can beat him.

Do you think it happens? Heart of hearts right now in November, are they fighting each other? Tom's gonna fight. Tom's gonna fight and he will get his request that the undisputed belt will be up. I have a very hard time believing Ariel that, and I know John Jones had some fun with the media

and he came out and he said $40 million. And just to tell you where that came from, when John fought Steve A and he sits down at a press conference and he goes, $40 million, just to tell you where that came from. The night before Jake Paul had fought Mike Tyson and Jake Paul put out a false number, but the number that he claimed he got was 40 million for that fight. He claimed this

and nobody said it, but that's how this sport works, right? It's just whoever lies bigger. So now 40 million is like the highest number John's ever heard of. He's at a hot mic. He's excited. The president just watched him. He did a little bit of a dance and he just threw out the number. He just said the big, the same number that Jake Paul, who just broke records on Netflix, lied about getting it. And this is what's so interesting about it. Aside from that though, I have a hard time believing that John's done anything wrong. I don't believe that John did hold up the company.

I don't believe that John did tell him 40 million over the phone and put a gun in their face. I don't believe that John did tell him 40 million over the phone and put a gun in their face. I don't believe that. I cannot believe that if John Jones picks up a phone and they go, here's the Dayton venue. You already know the rules and you know the weight class because there's an interview. Here's the Dayton venue. I have a hard, I struggle as a person to believe John says no and puts the phone down. So if they're going to claim for us at this point, there's a big announcement for Thomas waiting for you right now over there on the bad guy. Thank you. Thank you. Good guy, bad guy. Yeah. The handsome guy. Whatever they call it. The show that I carry.

Old habit. Yeah. I have a very hard time imagining that John is going to walk away from that. I just, I can't believe I know publicly he likes to have some fun. I know, I know that you can hurt his feelings on Twitter and he'll change his whole outlook just for those 10 people that did it, but the real guy in here, that's a dirty grimy competitor. That's the same guy that busted his toe against yours truly. That's the same guy that had his arm extended against Vitor. That's the same guy that had his arm extended against Vitor. That's the same. He finds a way.

And I just don't think that that fire that he has is burned out. Look, when you're John, you jump in this business and you're like Roy Jones, you're looking around going, how come I don't have the big fights? How come I'm not the big money fight? I'm the best guy here. Well, because you were so dominant and but you do it anyway. You make the towns, you pack your bag, you check into the hotel, you make the walk, you do this over and over again, hoping to get to that one night. The highest paid, biggest check

ever written by WMG. Okay, it's going to be him and it's going to be that. It's not going to be them. It's not going to be Tom and it's just going to be John. Everything you've ever want every question to be answered. John took three years off, took three years off to put on some size and then he's going to move to heavyweight and spot an opponent 30 or 40 pounds. And right then he thought that was going to be Francis. He was building his body into Francis. He knew I can spot this guy 30, 40 pounds and I can finally create an idea in the audience's mind that the guy has

an event. Errol, that's what we've got. John Jones is in the position. Everything he's ever said he wanted, everything that he proved to us, showed us sincerity, set out to do, it's all right in front of him. And so many times this will happen at greatness. So many times guys will feel the pressure. So many times guys will go and have an opportunity to have everything they ever said they wanted and right when it's there, they're at the doorstep. They start to realize, I don't want it.

And I just don't think John's that kind of guy. I think John is as advertised. I think John's a badass and I do I think John is as advertised. I think John's a badass. And I do not think John Jones is walking away from anything. You could say the same about Valentina Shevchenko. What's going on between you and the bullet? I mean, what's happening here? I think we made up.

I don't know. I don't know what's... I tried to, I tried to like set up a meeting between you guys, shoot some guns. What's this beef about? What's happening here? Okay. I have what's known in the legal world as felonies because I am what they call in society, a criminal. So I can't shoot the gun.

So I had to turn down. I've got grenades and I got switchblades. It's the gun, it's the specific fire. It's a weird little nuance that the Second Amendment didn't quite cover. But the point is this, I couldn't accept that, but you had Valentin on. I thought she sounded warm to the idea. I thought that she was being kind of kind to Chayle. I actually went out this weekend, first time ever, I tried to do something for her.

Generally, I would be a hater, and I promoted her OnlyFans page. I mean, not for nothing. It's not like everybody went and did that. So I think the Bullitt and I are actually coming more together. And you want to know something? On a personal note, I appreciated her addressing me.

She's somebody that I have admired fight. She's a top five to have ever done it, not just women. She's a top five, possibly closer to a top three. I like that you got her to give a little shout out to JLP. So the fences were mended, another favor. I felt as though they were mended.

She would have the right to be very disgusted with me. She would have the right to be frustrated with me. In six years, I have never found it, I've never said anything good about her. No. But it's only because I keep finding myself in that position. Leon Edwards is another one. I've never complimented him, but it's not personal.

I just keep finding these positions and I look at what Leon's doing and go, why are you handling it that way? Even right now, Leon could be red hot right now. You must be the boss even after a loss. You must find a way to navigate this system that you're the boss even on a loss. A defeat does not bring you down. If you're the main event, you get beat your next fight, you're going to be the main event again, you're going to get paid even more. You've got to find that way. And when I look at Valentina, we have never had any, I mean, you don't want to know some of the records she's got. Here, I'll give you one of them right now, but you don't want to know this one. She's defended or fought for a world title more times than anybody in co-main event history.

We have never had a fighter have as many title fights not on the top of the bill as her. And that's not a record that's even even close. She's got that outdone, I think by a factor of four No one's even gonna touch that but it's because she doesn't build a fight And I just all my encouragement arrow has never been against her personally or her skills I like those things seems like a beautiful and nice young lady. I would really like to meet her She can't promote a fight She wouldn't hurt her to go out and promote a fight in her very last contest

Fiore says if I don't beat her i'm gonna retire and Valentina goes to the press conference says please don't honor that I don't want you to retire. It was just an act. It's an act to look nice. You don't have to act and look nice She's rough. She's rough around the edges. All I encourage come out and be yourself You don't have to do the little dance in the curtsy after you just bludgeoned a human being come out and be yourself. You don't have to do the little dance in the curtsy after you just bludgeoned a human being. Come out and be yourself. That's my encouragement. I don't think I'm so wrong for that. No, you would know.

You would know about how to sell yourself, about character development. You would know 100%. And by the way, love that you've teamed up with real American freestyle wrestling. You, Bischoff, Hogan. And Ariel, by the way, between us, you know that I have guns.

I'm just not supposed to have guns. No, you can't talk about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Are we still on? No, no, no, you can't talk about these things. You can't talk about these things. And also, I believe that you were just exonerated of all your, I saw something,

I saw a headline come through that. That's coming, that's coming, but not here yet. Thank you for that. You're gonna be working with these guys, this outfit. And I like the fact that they got they got a legit amateur wrestling legend on there because let's be honest with all due respect to Bischoff and Hogan, they're more on the work side of things. You're a shoot fighter. So what are you doing? What a team. Hey, what a team. As soon as I hear Bischoff and Hogan, I actually didn't believe

this story. And it was coming to me from Christian piles, coming to me from really good sources. And I think, no, if they're getting into wrestling, they're getting into wrestling and they're like, no, no, no, they're getting to Olympic freestyle wrestling. They're going to take Olympic and world medals. They're going to take college stars and candidates for 2028. They're going to put them together. And I mean, it was so exciting to think that somebody could tell the story. Look, we know this can be done in grappling because it's been done in grappling. When it came around in 1993, the internet wasn't even out. There's six Gracie certified gyms in all of America. In 1993, I tell you that because I went to BYU so that I could join Pedro Sowers gym because he was the sixth gym. His closest gym to

me. I had to go out to Utah, go to school, just for this. So I know these dates very well. And aerial, they haven't had much time. Wrestling is the world's oldest sport. Before there was bats or balls or courts or hoops, they grabbed a hold of each other and pushed in and pulled it. Wrestling is truly the oldest sport. And it got passed by grappling.

Fight pass, if you saw the numbers that they're doing, but the numbers that they're paying out, numbers that they can justify, because it's so big, Polaris has done a great job. Craig Jones, millions of dollars. Abu Dhabi comes once every two years. I wish it was once a month. How did wrestling get passed by?

And there's an answer. They didn't tell the stories. They just simply didn't let you know who the people were and that's where Bishop and Hogan come in. They're masters of that. That's what they do better than anything else they do and then they brought in a guy called Izzy Martinez who you might not be overly familiar with, but this dude is Midas. Whatever this guy touches turns to gold. He's done it with kids. He does it with the women. He does it with the MMA. He does it with the colleges. Whatever this guy,

I don't know. I've never been in the room with him. I don't know. I can only tell you, you say whatever you want about him. Don't tell me he's not a winner. He's a winner. Well, I like this. I like this a lot. I like that you're teaming up with them. I think they needed someone who has your creds, right? Your street cred. And I think this is going to be interesting. It was tried before real pro wrestling back in the day. I don't know if you remember.

05 or so, Cormier, King Mo were a couple of the guys on it. It didn't quite work out, so I'm curious to see how it all pans out. I was part of that. I was part of that. Those guys were truly wonderful people. I didn't know that. But they just only had so much time. They had X amount of money and they had so much time.

And they wanted to make it a real playful thing. Those guys were great by the way. But they wanted to make it a real playful thing. There was like energy meters, like a video game. And the meter would go up and the referee. I mean, it was this real playful thing. And I just don't know that wrestling has to be portrayed that way. Those are some rough and tumble guys man and they got rough

and tumble backgrounds and it's a lot like I was talking about the bullet earlier but the bullet doesn't have to apologize for being rough around the edges. Her mother was a fighter, her sister is a fighter, she is the greatest cage fighter the weight class has ever seen like she doesn't have to pretend to be somebody else. If she can speak seven languages, say hello to us in all seven languages. I mean, not for nothing, but that was a little bit weird. I speak seven languages.

Well, let's just hear one of them. Yeah. I mean, I just think it's a small thing. Then it turns out she's trained in military, she's good with the guns. She is one of the most dangerous people. If you only have one person that you gotta go to battle with,

it's probably Alex Piera, but it might be her! Those are compliments. Don't come out and hide from that stuff. If you're a scumbag fighter like the rest of us, just come out and be yourself. Chael, I love you. Despite the fact that you never show any love towards me and its constant conflict, I love you like a brother.

And if you do know I can count to five, right? You're not part of this little you like a brother and a- You do know I can count to five, right? You're not part of this little thing that Eric did to me. You're aware I can count to five. Why would he ask me, can you count to five? He apologizes, by the way. He apologizes. Oh. He wasn't sure.

He thought he was talking to someone else. We love you. We'll watch the episode right now. Thank you for the plug. Actually, we'll watch the episode. What did he think? Like it was gonna go one, two, three Arkansas potato? Like what did he think I would say after three? He knows I can get to three. One, two, three. What would he think? Like it was going to go one, two, three Arkansas potato. Like what, what did he think I would say after three? He knows I can get to three.

One, two, three. What would he think? One, two, three, 29. Goodbye, Errol. Love you, Chael. Thank you so much. God bless. And we'll see you soon. Oh my dear. Here we go. That was incredible stuff. That was incredible stuff. That was incredible stuff from Chael. And I sort of have, well, in a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by Jarzino, but I just saw something that has kind of taken my breath away that was just put in the chat. And it's kind of hard to process.

This is a tweet from Mike Bond Saying that Jordan Breen Who if you're a longtime MMA fan you will know Is is one of the the pioneers of MMA journalism MMA? Content creation whatever you want to call it work worked for SureDog for many, many years. Eccentric, colorful, entertaining character, proud Canadian, who I was talking about not that long ago about where he had been, what happened to him.

I see a tweet here from Mike Bohn saying, breaks my heart to share the news to the MMA world, or to the MMA world, that Jordan Breen has passed away. Jordan forgot more about MMA than most of us will ever remember. One of the smartest souls I've ever met, his passion was truly unique. Today would have been his birthday.

We'll miss you, buddy. Gosh, that just came here as we were saying goodbye to Chael and it sort of took my attention away and my breath away because Jordan was a great, great guy, very, like I said, very, very, very passionate about all things mixed martial arts and combat sports as well.

A pioneer was a part of Sure Dog when Sure Dog was Sure Dog dog if that makes any sense. When they were one of the leaders as far as MMA coverage is concerned and the site itself was a must visit with the fight finder and whatnot. To say he had encyclopedic knowledge of the sport would be putting it mildly. And so that's a hard thing to read, especially because I think he was less than 40. He was younger than 40. Wow. That is awful. So my condolences and my heart goes out to his family.

Do a little bit of research if you're new to the game about Jordan Breen and his contributions to the MMA world and MMA journalism and just a very very unique take on things and an entertaining mind when it came to how to present MMA discourse. Yeah I just can't believe that that he passed away that I'm reading this right now. So in any event, reading that in real time, my apologies for the slight detour there. Thank you very much to Chael for coming on. And in a matter of moments, hopefully, we'll be joined by Jairzinho Rosenstreich, who has some news of his own to share, who we last saw in February in the

UFC in Saudi Arabia and who we just found out is joining the Dirty Boxing Squad, the Pride of Suriname, kind enough to join us right here and now on the program. Let's say hello to Jairzinho. Hello Jairzinho, how are you my friend? I'm fine, how about you? I'm doing great. Thank you for joining us. I appreciate it very much. And I did I did want to offer my condolences to to your team. I saw that your your longtime coach had passed

away after a battle with cancer. Mikhail Bab, there's your post. So young and such an awful disease. I'm really sorry to hear this. I remember him being by your side for so many of your fights. Thank you. I appreciate it. It's hard to see what's happening. Let's say last year, everything he went through and then still it goes this way. Yeah. How are you doing? I'm doing good. Yeah, I'm here. Okay. Well the last time we saw you in action,

Jorginho was back in February, and that was a weird one. It was obviously a tough night for you, but I don't think anyone expected that you would part ways with the UFC after the fight. Did you think after that fight that there was a chance that you would part ways with the UFC after the fight? Did you think after that fight that there was a chance that you would get released?

No, I did not. There's so many things going on at the same time with that fight. And then for my own personal problems in the fight, I hurt myself and I thought I fractured my foot so I was trying to find a way. If you look at the fight you can also see I kind of stumbled a few times and fell like I stumbled on my own self, not even get hit or kicked. So when I found out, I was sleeping and everybody was calling me like, hey, is this true?

Is that true? And I'm like, I don't know. And what I do, I just call first round my management team and then we discuss it and then they're out. And what was the reason that you were given? No reason. They just like, they not caught you., just put it that way. And then I was like, all right, so why and what was the reason? Nobody can give me no reason, you know, so

and yeah. And so here we are some four months later. Do you have a reason now? Do you have any sort of understanding as a reason now? Do you have any sort of understanding as to why now? Well, I did not. I love it as it is. Life goes forward, life goes on. So I take some time to to recover, of course. And I feel like I'm missing the sport. So when I got this opportunity with dirty boxing, I grabbed it with two hands. I need to feel something, I need to do something back with fighting. So I didn't focus on the past. The UFC was good to me, it was a big opportunity.

I had a great run with them. So I can't say anything bad. If the UFC say we can't work together no more, then we don't work together no more. It's not like I have to say, no, don't cut me, take me back or whatever. No, it's business. And if there's no more need for each other, then let's be honest and we move on. And you are right, you did have a great run. Nine wins in the UFC, eight of those nine by KO or TKO. You were a very entertaining fighter. I did hear one thing about that fight card in Saudi Arabia

and I talked to some fighters regarding it about the paint in the locker room affecting some of the fighters. Did this affect you as well? Apparently it was freshly painted rooms and some of the fumes made the fighters feel a little bit nauseous, a little bit sick, a little bit off. Did you experience that? I experienced the same thing,

but I won't say it affected me. Because at the same time, it's a situation, and when something happens, the thing that you do is like, you just handle it and then you go from there. You will not say, I will not fight because I'm smelling too much paint or whatever, you know. So it was like, okay, that's the case. I step out of the locker room a few times to grab some brick ears and then go back, do my warm up. The focus was the fight. So what happened after is, or like this, it was a situation that I was like,

hey, I need to do what I have to do. That's what I came for. I came there to fight and that's what I did. After you got the news, was there a part of you that considered not fighting anymore or did you just need a little bit of time to get over the news? I needed time to get over the news

and of course I want to fight. I love my sport. I love what I do and yeah I never had that idea that I should stop. No, not yet. I had heard some rumblings that perhaps you would go over or go back to kickboxing and go to Glory. They've got this 32-man tournament right now. They've got glory 100 coming up. I've seen the likes of Jamal Benzadeq talk about you coming over to glory. Was that a consideration? Did you consider going back to kickboxing?

We had some conversation with glory and we didn't have like the official offer yet. So we had some numbers on the table, but we were waiting to get some stuff situated. And then, but in the meantime, I just want to get moving. I want to, I just want to go in there in the ring or the octagon and, and, and feel something, do something, you know, put down this one was just for myself.

Sure. And then everything after that, everything after that, we'll see. So, so are you still keeping that door open? Are you still interested in potentially going back and everything after that, we will see. So are you still keeping that door open? Are you still interested in potentially going back to kickboxing and fighting for glory? Yeah, I keep all my options open. I like the idea for dirty boxing, so that will be fun.

The rules are different, which is something else, and it's exciting. So how did that come about? Because obviously I know that your management team, first round management is heavily involved with dirty boxing and so how did the deal come about to bring you over there? At first I wanted to relax

and then I felt like I wanna fight. So me and Lou was talking about it and he was like, well, let me talk with them and then see what they can come with. And before you think it was a short consideration. So when I heard that I can fight there, I was like, I need to do something, I wanna fight. So let's do it.

And did you watch their previous two events? All right, I was there. Okay, you were there. And so what do you think of it? It's a bit of a different rule set But it seems like some of the guys who have come over like Andrei Olovsky like Yolo Romero Have enjoyed great success and seem to have liked it Alright, it's exciting. It's exciting. I was there

I watched the fight. I see some good fights and and as I as I mentioned before I like the rules is different But it's exciting. So you're fighting a gentleman who has competed in BKFC and Power Slap named Devin Schwan in the main event on June 14th at The Hanger in Coconut Grove. That will be DBX2. Are you familiar with Devin? Do you know anything about him? I did not, but then after I got the news

or I got the name of the opponent, we sit down, we watch him a few times and we're working. So yeah, let's go to war. They're adding a lot more names. There's Alex Kaceras on there, Jessica Rose Clark, Bubba Jenkins, Francisco Trinaldo. It seems like they have something going. Would you be happy to have several fights with Dirty Boxing and this being your home for the foreseeable future?

100% This month June 14 I'm gonna step in the ring put down a performance and I'm looking forward to go for the next one with Dirty Boxing I think you also did a you were also at the glory event in Miami, right? Oh, that's correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, what'd you think of that one? I have to watch. It was okay.

It's not what I was expecting, but it was okay. The performance was good. The setup was a little bit different, but the performance was good. What were you expecting? I thought it would be a different event because I'm used to what the UFC is doing. Ah, okay. And I thought it would be a different event because I'm used to what the UFC is doing. Ah, okay.

And I thought it would be something on a higher level. The performance, as a level as a fighter, that was perfect, but the setting wasn't what I was thinking it was. So Dirty Boxing is a unique striking organization. Glory is obviously kickboxing. Is there a chance that maybe you have fought your last MMA fight? No, I don't think so. Okay, I'll definitely go back to MMA. I love MMA. So No, there's no chance I'm fighting MMA

Once again for a few times. Do you leave the UFC with any regrets? No, I did not as I mentioned before I had I had a good run with the UFC and the UFC wasn't bad to me. The way they caught me was dirty, but as I say, if there's no need for each other to work together anymore, then we got to move on. But I can't say nothing bad of the UFC. Why do you classify it as dirty? Cause for an example, I flew down from Saudi Arabia. That's a long, it's a long trip. Came home tired.

I went to bed. It was a big time difference. So I was sleeping during the day and I got several phone calls. So it was on the internet before I know it. And I put it that way. Wow. And what about your management?

Yeah. Lou called me. So I got a few phone calls. And then I got the phone call from my management. And then, well, I really, really find out. Okay, okay. So that bothered you. You would have preferred a phone call in advance.

Yeah. Unless, give me a reason like, hey, this, this has happened, we don't like it, we're gonna stop this agreement and then we move forward. I think I respect that more than the way it happened. What I think was a little surprising was it's not like you were on a long winning, excuse me, losing streak. You had just won two fights in a row. You beat Taito Iwasa.

That's correct. Right. And so this, you know, maybe the, the Pavlovich fight wasn't one for the, the highlight reel for you, but it just usually a heavyweight gets, you know, released when it's like four losses in a row, three losses in a row, five losses. You was just one loss. That's correct. It was, for me it was surprising. And I really don't know what the reason was or

what the reason is but as I say I'll just move on from what I left there in the UFC. It was a great time, it was a great one and yeah I'm just moving forward. Do you think it was about the last question on this do you think it was about the performance specifically? Do you think they just didn't like that particular fight and that was it? Maybe, you never know. But you gotta see it as this. I'm a fighter. I'm not a computer.

You don't put a system and then you expect to do what you like. It's a fighter. every fight is different. You got to react what the opponent is doing. I'm looking for my opportunities. I will not run in there and get rocked by something that I didn't see coming. I have my own way of fighting. So the only thing you gotta give,

you gotta give me the chance to make it happen. That's how I see it. Okay, I know you had one fight for Ryzen back in the day and I feel like you'd be a nice fit with Ryzen over in Japan. Maybe that's of interest to you. Oh, definitely. As I say, I keep all my options open. I'm fighting at the boxing this month

and I'm gonna make it a lot of fun for myself and then yeah, we go from there. Okay, and when you're preparing for Dirty Boxing, are you using the gloves? Are you trying to get familiar with the rule set because it's a little bit different? That's correct. I have the same gloves. I think it's six ounces and of course I'm using them to practice and yeah. I don't think it's a six ounces. And of course I'm using them to repractice and yeah. I don't think it's a lot different than MMA.

The only thing is there'll be no kicking. Right, that is true. And the gloves just a tiny bit different. Well, looking forward to it and appreciate you coming on. Again, I just wanna offer my condolences to you and the entire team and to Mr. Bab's family. There's also a GoFundMe account I know that's being put up in his honor here.

It is over $20,000 raised. So if anyone wants to check it out and support, please do so. Thank you for coming on, Jarsinio, and good luck on June 14th. Thank you again. I appreciate it. Thank you for having me. All right.

There he is. Biggie Boy, Jersena Rosenstreich returning to action on June 14th. It's DBX2. Technically the first one was sort of a, I don't know, it was like a pilot episode, if you will. It didn't air anywhere. There were just some clips. Look great. DBX1 was a big hit. If you will it didn't air anywhere. There were just some clips look great

DBX one was a big hit and like I said some familiar names Georgina Rosenstreich Alex Caseras Phil Hawes Jessica Rose Clark Alex Nicholson Francisco Trinaldo Nice little thing streaming live on

YouTube on their YouTube channel, this is the outfit led by the likes of Mike Perry, the Kawa brothers, Maki Kawa, Abraham Kawa, Primo Kawa. John Jones, I think, is an investor as well. So looking to do their thing and create a lane for fighters like Jarzino. Hey, you know what's fascinating about the sport right now? Guys like Jarzino, guys like Alex Casares, the Jessica Rose Clarks of the world, etc., etc.

Five, six years ago, they would sign with another MMA promotion. But now, more often than not, they're signing with a dirty boxing, a bare knuckle, they're doing some grappling. It's a wild thing. So while I talk about there not being options post UFC, more so than ever there are options post UFC that don't involve MMA for these guys.

The influencer boxing stuff, look at Darren Till, Darren Stewart. That's a real interesting thing that I didn't expect to happen over time. I'm thankful for those organizations that there are those opportunities for guys like Jairzinho, who had a great run in the UFC. Remember his early run was fantastic. His debut, 54 seconds of the second round, 54 seconds in the second round, a TKO win over Junior Albini. His second fight was a nine second win over Alan Crowder. His third fight was a 29 second win over Andrej Olavsky.

Then he had a knockout win over Alistair Overeem. It all came crashing down when he lost to Francisco, excuse me, Francis Ngani, I was thinking of Francisco Trinado, on that first card back in the midst of the pandemic. He lost in 20 seconds, and then he was kind of trading wins and losses, but still getting, it was either kill or be killed, basically. TKO Junior Dos Santos in the second round, lost a decision to Cyril Gan. TKO'd Augusto Sakai in the first round,

lost a decision to Curtis Blades. So it was back and forth, knocked out Chris Dakis, TKO Chmiel Gaziev. Very rarely, actually just once, where his wins decision wins. So still some engine to be revved, if you will, if you're a Jairzina Rosenstreich and he is 37, just turned 37 back in March. So we wish him well. All right. Let's turn our attention to our next guest, who was supposed to be in action this past Saturday

at the Apex in Las Vegas. And it was an interesting road to this fight. There was some back and forth between herself and her opponent, Macy Barber. There was some talk. Hey, you know, she has a history of not showing up. Let's see if she shows up. The face-offs were a little bit testy

weigh-ins come Macy misses weight by 0.5 pounds. All right, that's a bit of a Red flag if you will didn't look great on the scale But seemed like everything was good to go get to the fight itself get to fight night get to saturday night Seems like everything is good. And then just as the walkouts are about to happen We get word on television Macy cannot walk and then we get word that she is out of the fight due to a medical issue Seizures have been thrown around we haven't heard that officially from her

But scary stuff and in the end no one fights a. Erin Blanchfield, kind enough to join us to talk about all of this. Here she is. Hello Erin, how are you? Hi, I'm good, how are you? I'm doing well, very sorry about what happened this weekend. And you know, when we were talking about it at the beginning of the show,

the part that I was sort of like having a hard time understanding was like, you're ready to go hands wrapped, gloves on, hair braided. I can't imagine the butterflies, the nerves, the anxiety, and then you get told you're not walking. What do you do with that energy? How do you come to terms with that? How do you handle that? Yeah, I feel like I was kind of just in disbelief at first. Like you said, like I had my hands wrapped, my gloves on, I was already warmed up, hip pads, I was drilling. I was so ready to go and I was already told like, oh, six minutes to walk

out. So I was like, already perhaps had my sneakers on. Yeah, and then Hunter came in and told me that the fight isn't happening. And I feel like I just don't, I almost like didn't feel like it was real because I still went and did some media right after. Yeah, it just kind of felt like deflating. I didn't really, I couldn't really feel it much then. I felt it more yesterday. Just kind of upset about it, but yeah, just got to keep going.

When you found out that she was having trouble making weight and ultimately missed it by 0.5 pounds, were you worried that the fight might get canceled? Yeah, I was worried that it might get canceled like that day if she came in like really like messed up from the weight cut. But, you know, even our face-offs and everything, she seemed fine. So I thought the weight cut just didn't go how it was planned and she didn't want to keep cutting. So she didn't get to the point where she didn't go how it was planned and she didn't wanna keep cutting

so she didn't get to the point where she wouldn't be able to compete. So I thought she kinda stopped it then and would still be able to compete the following day. Yeah, and it kinda seemed like that up until like the very end. Come Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, now you're at the venue, are you hearing any whispers,

any sort of talk that this bout is in jeopardy in any way, shape or form? No, no, nothing was said. Yeah, after weigh-ins, it seemed like everything was fine. All day Saturday, I wasn't told anything. It was just like normal, like, you know, show up to the hotel at 530 to get brought to the venue. Yeah, everything was fine up until like the very, very end. And so it's literally as you're about to walk out and Hunter Campbell comes into the locker room to tell you it's off. Does he tell you like it's in jeopardy or is it just, it's off?

No, yeah, he kind of came in. I could tell he was serious and I knew it wasn't good when I saw him because he's not usually in the locker rooms like that. And he just kind of came in, he's like, oh, the fight's not happening, you know, she's having problems. Yeah, there was no chance.

He was like, oh, we'll get your gloves off and everything. So yeah, he was straight away with me that it wasn't gonna happen. Did you happen to see her in the back? I didn't see her at all. Actually, I mean, I know our locker rooms were super close to each other because when I had to go do testing,

when I got to the venue, I saw where her corner was. So we were basically right next to each other in the locker rooms, but I saw like where her corner was. So we were like basically like right next to each other in the locker rooms but I didn't see her. One thing you said in the aftermath, I believe you called her unprofessional and she sort of addressed that. Now knowing that she went to the hospital, the seizures, all that stuff,

that's what it appears to be. We haven't heard it officially from her but that's the talk coming out. Do you still feel the same way? Do you still feel like it was unprofessional? I mean, no, I mean, she can't control medical issues that she's having. So that's not unprofessional. I meant more the weight miss, you know, on Friday, and kind of like the way she approached it, like, I believe she was like offered more time to cut weight and did in and, you know, missed weight and then still was acting the way she was like at weigh in. So that's more

what I meant about being Unprofessional and obviously understand where you're coming from. You're probably fired up in the moment. You said disbelief a little bit emotional I would imagine as well You also said that her life is a bit of a mess and she needs to figure it out You're not interested in fighting her Down the line What did you mean by that? Like do you because you also said at the beginning of all this, like, hey, let's see if she shows up, you know, you had your, your, your doubts as well. So where is all that coming from about her just sort of being unreliable?

Yeah, those that I still stand by. I mean, I wouldn't want to be matched up with her again. I mean, this fight was our second time actually getting like matched up. You know, she pulled out of the first one and then this one, I know she had issues, but I mean, if she does have that severe medical issues, she will be kind of an unreliable fighter. So that's why I wouldn't want to be matched up with her again. You know, the whole life thing, I definitely was caught up in the moment myself. I mean, she probably does have some issues because if she was having issues leading up into this fight, she should have pulled out sooner just so I would have been able to have like another opponent Or maybe told the UFC she's having some problems so they can have a backup fighter like been somewhat

You know honest about like her condition I think that definitely wasn't right of her to do either and then with everything that happened it it just kind of you know Kind of blew up Did you see her post apologizing to you? And does that mean anything? Yeah, I mean, I wish she would have apologized even at the weigh-ins. I thought she would have been a little bit more apologetic about missing weight instead of kind of doubling down.

Yeah, I know she's apologizing now, so I'll accept it. Okay. Your manager, Oren of KO Reps, Oren Hodak, he posted that you got paid your full purse. Just wanna ask you, I'm assuming that's accurate? Yeah, Hunter came into the room and he told me that, he texted me too, that I'll be paid everything for my show and win. Great to hear, and obviously the right call.

The one thing I was wondering about was because she missed weight, you were supposed to get 20% of her purse, right? Do you get that as well? Yes, I believe I still am getting like 20% of her like show money, because she did show. Got it. I mean, she missed weight, but she showed up.

Okay, so you're getting 20% of the show plus show and win. It's not a bad night, but you didn't get the fight. Yeah, you know, it's like bittersweet because it's like at least I was able to get paid so it's like I still be able to take care of myself in that sense but, you know, I fight because I do really love it, you know? Like it is a job and getting paid is important but it is a passion job for me so it was, it's still super deflating. I don't think I realized up until like, you know, yesterday and today, like how, how Saturdays I'm like so jealous that I wasn't able to fight or even like taking out my braids. I was, it's just, everything was so weird. Like having doing that without

like having fought. Um, so yeah, that was pretty upsetting. Did you on, on Saturday, did you go for a run? Did you do anything just to sweat a little bit to feel like you actually, you know, you earned getting your hands wrapped and braided hair and all that stuff? Yeah, I mean, it was already pretty late and I already had, I already was sweaty just from like my warm up. Chair warming up, right.

Yeah, like I was already like pretty ready to go. And then I had a bunch of like family and friends that came out for this fight. So at least I was able to kind of like hang out with them and like kind of talk it through with them just so I had some people to kind of, you know, like vent to, because it was pretty, it was just so deflated.

I feel like for everybody, we all had like so much energy and so much, like so much to go. And then it was just like dead, you know? So it was definitely a little weird. What did you do? Like, so now you're told you're not fighting, you did some media, then what happens? Yeah, I just, I mean, I had like an Airbnb, so I just went back and I saw like my coaches and like my family, my parents and like my friends that came.

We all just kind of like hung out. We got some food. We went out for a little bit, but it just wasn't the same. You know, I could tell everybody was, you know, a little bit more tired because it was kind of like an adrenaline dump with nothing, with no excitement from like a big win or anything. So yeah, I was kind of like hung out for the night. How did you think the fight was gonna go? You know, I was kind of expecting her to come out hard, like the first round or two, like kind of, I didn't know how her cardio was gonna be, those for five rounds,

and I didn't know if she was kind of questioning that, so I was kind of figuring like that she was to come out and try to like put me away like right away. So I was kind of prepped for her to, you know, come out hard and be able to be technical and try to work that aspect of my game and then kind of like beat on her as the rounds went. But yeah, I guess I guess we won't be able to find out. No, at least it sounds like not anytime soon.

We spoke to her last week and she was quite critical of you calling you boring and whatnot. Did you hear any of that stuff going into it and did any of it rub you the wrong way? I mean, she's been saying that for like years, that she thinks I can't finish anybody or that I'm boring. And it's funny because I feel like

y'all the lead up to the fight, they would like play those clips of her saying that followed by like all my finishes that I do have in the UFC or me cracking people. So for me, it was more funny. I kind of would laugh it off, but it would have been fun to get that fight. She also said that she thought, you know,

nice dominant wind gets on the microphone, calls for a title shot. Were you expecting to do the same? Were you thinking that a nice dominant win over her would put you in a position to fight for the belt? Yes, definitely. You know we're number four and five. I feel like the the division is very interesting. There's a bunch of girls coming up in the division but I feel like with a really dominant win on Saturday it would have put me right up there and I definitely would have called there's a bunch of girls coming up in the division, but I feel like with a really dominant win on Saturday, it would have put me right up there and I definitely would have called for it.

Sometimes with these situations, do you have to kind of use it as a win? Do you have any idea if they're doing so or is it just kind of like a fight that didn't happen, you're gonna have to get a couple more to get back in there? Yeah, I don't really know what they're thinking. I haven't really been told much yet,

just because I mean it was a lot to absorb on like Saturday. Um, but I mean, even if I do have to fight again to prove myself, I mean, I don't mind, but, uh, yeah, I'm right. I feel like I'm right there for that title shot. So whatever they decide. Is this one of those situations where you did a full training camp, you were ready to go and like if something, uh, you know, is, is, is open, if there's an availability, you want to fight in two weeks, in three weeks,

like you want to get right back in there or do you need to go through a whole new camp again? You know, it depends on who I'm fighting as well. You know, I feel like a couple of girls in the top five have already fought recently, so it might kind of match up well for us to fight, you know, hopefully like sometime like soon this year, but I would like to have a full camp,

to prepare properly for whoever I do fight next. I wouldn't want to just kind of like fight anyone. Doesn't necessarily make sense, I guess at this point. So yeah, I think I would want to get a new opponent and figure it out that way. Okay, historically sometimes these things happen and then the person who was left without a fight gets booked in it out that way. Okay. Historically, sometimes these things happen and then, you know, the person who was left without a fight gets booked in a week or something like that.

Doesn't sound like that's something you're all that interested in. Yeah, just cause I don't know like who it would be. I would still wanna, you know, fight within the top five. Yeah. Understood. The top five is very interesting and especially the champion, Valentina Shevchenko.

We think she might be fighting Zhang Weili next, although that's not 100% by any stretch. Would you be cool with that? With the 115 champ moving up to 125 and getting a title shot? You know, if that's what they're going to do, I know the fans would really enjoy that. I could fight like someone like Silva in the meantime or Alexa, like any of those girls to kind of keep, you know, proving myself. I did, you know, I feel like without fighting on Saturday, it would be nice to get another fight.

Um, but, uh, you know, I wouldn't say no to a title either. So I feel like it, it all kind of depends. I feel like with them may and fighting, you never know what's going to happen. Like I was supposed to fight Saturday. It didn't happen. Right. We, we and Valencia are supposed to fight, but you don't know if one of them get hurt or, or I think it's always changing. Leigh and Valenzino are supposed to fight, but you don't know if one of them get hurt.

I think it's always changing, so you always kind of have to keep an open mind. I feel like the three options are maybe Natalia, Alexa, as you mentioned, and Jasmine. What would you think about a fight against Jasmine? She's been impressive as of late. Yeah, she's been doing good as of lately. Yeah, I mean, I would fight her too.

I'd prefer someone higher just to get me closer to that title. But yeah, I mean, whoever the UFC chooses. We remember back in March of last year, the fight against Manon and then obviously Manon fights for the belt. What did you think of her performance against Valentina? Yeah, you know, I feel like she didn't fight to her style necessarily. I think, I mean, I think Valentina did a really good job. I think balance, you know, really like kind of baited her in. She's an amazing counter striker.

And she utilized that really well against Manon. Like Manon was coming in a little bit, you know, more aggressive that I guess we've seen her in the past. Usually she's more of like a like a point like fighter, like she'll hit and run, hit and run. But she was kind of coming in on balancing a lot and getting countered. And then she kind of went to wrestling once she realized she wasn't able to win like the striking exchanges

and was able to steal some rounds doing that. But I thought it was a little odd of a strategy. I thought she was gonna use her striking and like her length a little bit more in that fight. What lessons, if any, did you learn from the fight against Manon? Obviously you were on this great run, and it seemed like that was a number one contender fight.

It ended up being one for her. Didn't go your way, it was a big fight for you in New Jersey, and it felt like maybe the culmination of everything. Like this was the big showcase fight. What did you learn from that experience? Yeah, you know, it was definitely, it was a tough fight. I think I had to really learn how to, you know, use my distance better in my strike game. And no one really fought at her distance and was countering me and was definitely out pointing me that way.

So I feel like that was a lot to learn from that fight. And yeah, I just kind of want to play those improvements and keep moving forward, try not to think about it too much. Yeah. Was it tough in the aftermath? Like, you know, you had a bit of a break there between fights, your next one was, I think, in November against Rose. Was that a tough thing to swallow in the immediate aftermath of the fight?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, that was my first loss in the UFC, my first loss in like a couple of years. So it was a while since I had that feeling. And you know, it always sucks, especially like, I mean, in some ways, it was nice that it was home because everybody was there. So I kind of had like that comfort. But then it also sucked that I had a main event like in my in my home state and

didn't get the win. So it definitely was pretty rough, like immediately after but I think in the long term, it'll be really good for me that I that I lost that, because I feel like sometimes I don't learn unless the worst happens. So it really pushes you to improve. By the way, speaking of your home state, why were you, you're one of the most popular fighters coming out of New Jersey,

and they're in New Jersey this weekend. Why were you not fighting, I know it was main event, but it feels like you would be a shoe in for a newer card. Why was it done like that? I don't know. I'm not sure if they even knew that Newark was going to be that week when I first got this fight, because I got this fight noticed back in January. So it was a while.

I didn't even know that they were going to be in Newark that exact weekend. Yeah, it would have been cool to have been on the newer card, but it's also nice having the main event spots and having those five rounds, so I did really prefer that, but yeah, now it's not having fought and now Newark's next is, uh, this Saturday coming up, so I'll be there. Will you be going? Yeah, I plan on going. Okay.

You don't want to break from, uh, from fighting after this weekend. No, I mean, maybe a little break from training this week just to refresh, but I love going to the fights and Newark's super close. I can't miss that. If they call you up in a few days and say like, Hey, we really want this fight. We really want to run it back. What do you say? The fight with Macy?

Yeah. I don't know. Cause even like, literally, like as we were told, like in the, in the locker room that Macy couldn't make it, like my coaches were not, not about that. Um, it's just too unreliable, you know? Um, that's not something I would, I would love to do. Okay. Yeah.

So you'll say maybe thanks, but no thanks, maybe down the line for a book. Maybe down the line. Like maybe if she kind of gets like, you know, her health under control, she gets some fights, has been consistent. I think her biggest problem is like her consistency. She's just not very consistent. So it's hard to want to be matched up with somebody that's, you know, is not going to necessarily do the right thing.

Okay. Well, I appreciate you coming on and talking about this. I know it wasn't a very fun weekend. And hopefully we get to see you back in there very soon because the build was fun for this one. So thank you very much, Erin. Appreciate it. Enjoy the fights this weekend.

And again, sorry how this all turned out. Yeah, that's all right. Thank you, I appreciate it. All right, there she is. Erin Blanchfield joining us. She was supposed to fight this weekend as you can surmise and it didn't work out and I'm curious if the UFC is going to try to run this one back,

if they're gonna try to book it again. Doesn't seem like she is all that interested in entertaining that. Now, Chael got a few plugs in for his program on my program, which is okay, I'm happy to plug things. And I see that the Aspenall interview has made the rounds. Now I see some people have transcribed what Aspenall said to Chael in DC, and I think when you watch the video, it's a lot, the tone is a

little different. It seems like he's being very sarcastic when speaking to Chael in DC, but the quote is, John's retired, the guy's living his best life, he's had a fantastic career, we all know it, we know John's a religious man, so I want to say, God bless him, moving forward, and what he does with his life and his career, and you know we move on. But then if you actually listen or watch the clip, watch and listen to the clip, you will see that it sounds like he is being a little bit facetious, a little tit for tat. And they've been doing the tit for tat thing for a minute now. John posting something about his recent seminar in Thailand. Again, doing the tit-for-tat thing. Just wrapped up the biggest seminar in

Phuket's history. Half the crowd flew in from the UK. How wild is that? Massive shout out to my god Tom for all the free promo. Couldn't have done it without you. Seriously though, I'm beyond grateful for this new UK following. You guys showed up with so much love and energy and I felt every bit of it. Let's keep this momentum going. Make sure to sign that petition today. We're pushing 200k. How exciting.

And this is the scene. By the way, I think John Jones is generating this kind of crowd with or without all this drama. I actually do kind of agree. Sorry, I disagree with Chael who says that the interest is going down. It seems like in a weird freaking twisted way, this is making the interest greater. Although what does it lead to? I don't know. It's now at 178, almost 179,000 signatures the petition to strip John Jones. Tom then responding with his own cheekiness, my pleasure John, told you unmodded asshole glad you're enjoying retirement. Even mocking John Jones, the video that John put out on the bike in Thailand. Here's Tom and Craig Jones who always seems to find his his way into the uh into the mix here. I don't know what they're doing on the bike over there

but John's uh you know John's out there doing his thing and Tom isn't backing down. He's hitting him back. He's taking the piss I think it is I think that's what it's called he's taking the piss I don't know he's not taking a piss he's not taking a piss taking the piss is sort of like you know it's it's all just a big piss take you know you know what I mean I do now by the way some other news from this past Saturday during the event, they announced that the September 13th card, which was supposed to be Noche UFC in Guadalajara, is now moving to San Antonio, Texas, and it's no longer a pay-per-view.

and it's no longer a pay-per-view, it's now a fight night. So it's now a Noche UFC fight night, September 13th in San Antonio at the Frost Bank Center, home of your San Antonio Spurs, once again honoring Mexican Independence Day, but back to being a fight night, which was what the first one was. Now, when I saw this, I thought two things.

Number one, alright, all the talk of the arena in Guadalajara not being ready seems to have been very very accurate because they had to move it. They don't like doing that. Number two, it's going from a pay-per-view to a fight night. This to me now suggests that there's no competition anymore with the Canelo Crawford card. Now Canelo Crawford was supposed to be a TKO card, but it got a little weird. We thought it was going to be on Netflix. Then they say it's going to be on pay-per-view. We thought it was going to be TKO. Then they say it's Sela. Was there a rift? Was there something that happened? Who knows?

Now that it's not a pay-per-view, to me it would suggest that the fences were mended. Because if it's a fight night, it's no longer a competition. Then I saw a comment from Nikisa Bidarian, former CFO of the UFC, co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions. He writes, my bet is it's not a pay-per-view and they run it early and then live stream the Canelo fight to the fans in attendance. He put this in the comments of an uncrowned post about this news. And he's in the know suggesting perhaps that everything's going to be okay and that Canelo

Crawford maybe not on Netflix but on pay-per-view, but wouldn't face, because if they're both running pay-per-views, then they're not on the same page. They're not on the same team. But if one's doing a fight night, now you can, now you can, you know, you can, you could do them at the same time. In fact, there's like three or four WWE and UFC dates coming up where it's PLE pay-per-view. And again, the PLE is more of fight night in that it's not pay-per-view and the UFC is the pay-per-view.

So they are going head to head a little bit, or at least timing it so the main events aren't going head to head. But I think that that to me was a suggestion or a sign that all is gonna be okay in TKO boxing land, at least for now. The other thing is, now that it's a fight night, it has to be Diego Lopez vs. Yair Rodriguez. I mean, it has to be. If you're not doing Diego Lopez vs. Yair Rodriguez as a fight night main event for a Noche UFC,

what is the point of Noche UFC? I mean, I would argue like trying to pigeonhole, like they shouldn't just do Noche UFC in September, do it in May if you need to, don't always do it in September because you're trying, there was a time not that long ago where you had three Mexican champions, you had an interim champion, but like you had people holding belts, right? Now you don't have any. And there aren't that many at the top of their respective weight classes. So to try to like pigeonhole this to me seems a little bit funky. But here you have Lopez who reps both Mexico and Brazil.

You have Yair who proudly reps Mexico, having their tiff, having their rift in front of the world, on stage, in Miami, with Mexico being a part of the feud, how are you not capitalizing on that? It makes, I mean, it makes too much sense. Most are fights in July, these two fights, winter fights folk later on this year. That would see. Now, the other thing is, what's the pay-per-view in September? Because we thought the pay-per-view was going to be the Guadalajara one, but that was the little nugget that everyone missed. There's going to be a new pay-per-view date in September. Perhaps the location would

give us some sort of indication as to what it's going to be. Is that maybe Pereira versus Ankhalayev? Or are they saving that for Dubai? Excuse me, not Dubai, Abu Dhabi. Ankhalayev tweeting, hey, I think Pereira's retired. I think he's done. Who wants it? Alex Dunn, he's never coming back. Let's move on. June, July, August. I said yes. Well, I don't think it's happening in June. It's definitely not happening in July. August has its pay-per-view. DDP versus Khamzat. So maybe September. Maybe he gets his wish.

And oh, by the way, they released, if you care about these things they released the posters for International Fight Week 317 318 this is 317 June 28th. We'll be in Las Vegas. You love this one? I like it. You like the International Fight Week feel with the flags? It's their better work. It's better for what they-

What's good about it? The gold? Yeah, I like the gold. I like the way the fighters look. I like the flags behind them. I'm not sitting here saying it's the best. I'm not saying they couldn't do better. Independent designers could probably do better, but by the UFC standards, I like this. You know what? I agree. I think it's clean. I think it's clean. Interesting Jordan grabbed the Spanish one. Yeah, you know I was just gonna say I think it's actually the Portuguese. What are you gonna say? What are you gonna say? Is this Portuguese? We're a worldly program. Because of International Fight Week?

Exactly. Two Brazilians? One in the co-main and main? You know we have viewers all around the world so I figured sometimes I should go to one. I thought it was interesting too. I thought it was interesting too. Very cultural of you. What about 318? I saw some people like loving this one. I thought it was interesting too. I thought it was interesting too. Very cultural of you. What about 318? I saw some people like loving this one. Really?

I disagree. You know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of Volk versus Islam. I think the first one, 284, just like using like way too much neon. It's not the neon that bothers me. It's just a lot of writing and crossing out. Like why is Gaethje's name there? Why is there no tie to New Orleans?

Also, is, I mean that's- Tie in New Orleans, man, please. You know, you got the Fleur de Lis, you've got Bourbon Street, you've got Mardi Gras. When I think of like the Super Bowl in New Orleans, those are the easiest logos to come up with, right? Yeah, it's just also formulaic at this point. Yeah.

It's just the two guys and then you put some shit around it. By the way, um, this might be the first time that there are names on a poster and, and, and those fighters aren't competing on the card. You know what I mean? Like if I'm Gaethje, if I'm Aldo, if I'm Olivera, I'm feeling some kind of way about this. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Obviously past opponents. Yeah, I get it. But it's like, it's like right there, by the the way it looks like his name is Gaethje. Right? It looks like Poirier's name is Gaethje. Olivera versus Gaethje cancelled. Yeah. Although not available. So we're getting. That is green. By the way also no belt. Oh there it is. It's around his waist but not very prominent. No not prominent at all. I didn't notice that until now

Yeah, yeah, I mean have like I have the BMF belt on Bourbon Street or something. Oh my god get fun with it There's so much you could do I ain't old fight Not even a mention that it's Dustin Poirier's final fight and that's why they're going to New Orleans in the first place. Yeah Some might say it's tough It is tough, you know, It's not their worst work. I just know that people out there can do better. Alright, great stuff there. We'll have Pete C on in about an hour's time to recap some of these news and notes, but wanted to welcome in our next guest actually joining us in studio. And this is a big one for us, for her, for everyone in the world of pro wrestling.

It's a fascinating story of a pro wrestling lifer who always wanted to be in the business, got a chance to realize her dream at a very young age with World Wrestling Entertainment was climbing the ladder in NXT, seemed to be one of those names that was going to be a prominent fixture on the roster. Then at the very beginning of May of just last month, the beginning of last month, early May, we get the word that she is no longer in World Wrestling Entertainment and NXT to be exact. She was known in World Wrestling Entertainment and NXT as Cora Jade. She is no longer known as Cora Jade. She is now known once again as Elena

Black, which was her name, her moniker pre-WWE, and she is now a free agent. Although she has booked a ton of dates, we're going to talk about all that, what happened and more. Let us say hello to the artist formerly known as Cora Jade, now known as Elena Black. Here she is joining us in studio. Hello. It is nice to meet you. Welcome, welcome. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming in. You just came in today. I did, yeah. Bit of a crazy travel day, but. Was it bad? We're here.

Got a flight delay and then change. Oh, geez. And then almost missed my other flight because it was at the opposite terminal. Oh, God. But we're here. So now you did the thing of flying in on the day of the chat.

Yes. Risky. Risky, but. It worked out. We gotta do what we gotta do. I got my two little dogs at home so they got their little babysitter for the day. Okay, oh, you're going in and out. Yeah, I'm out after this Okay. Yeah, so we can't do like a five-hour interview cuz that would hey, I'm down for whatever I'll change it

Yeah, my dogs love their babysitter. Well great to have you. Thank you for coming in I know a lot going on a very exciting time in your life. Is it fair to call it exciting? I would say so I would say so I feel like obviously it comes in waves. Obviously the initial shock of it all is, even though I feel like I knew it was coming. I'm just very weird with my intuition. I just always have been. I just always have that gut feeling. So like, was it maybe in November? I kind of had a feeling like I was going to be gone and then just stuff, you know, I was like, it's always the up and down. Like you're like, okay, like it's good.

It's good. And then maybe like two weeks before the cuts, I was like, I think it was in Vegas. I was like, well, I'm going to make it good because I'm not going to be back here. So really? Yeah, I just had that gut feeling and it's like, obviously you don't want that to be right. And I like, oh my God, don't manifest it. But I always have that gut feeling so that day I was like in the car going to hang out with a Bea Priestley now formerly Blair Davenport and she called me and she's

like Josh just got fired her husband so I was like okay I'll keep my ringer on and sure as hell like two minutes later I got the call and I was like okay is what it is. Okay so going going back to November, because from afar, you're very young, 24, right? Yeah, I'm 24. You've only been in the business a few years. You seem to be someone that they were behind, that they were pushing, working your way up.

Obviously you have the setback with the injury, which we'll get to as well. Why in November did you start to feel like you were potentially on thin ice? Honestly, obviously coming back from that knee injury was horrible, I had only been wrestling for like a month at that point in November. Like coming back from that injury is just crazy.

Like I've never experienced anything like that. I didn't play sports before wrestling, so I never had like a major injury like that I had to come back from. So like even just getting to like a month like after that and just feeling like I was in a good place, I kind of had a conversation with somebody who I won't name but someone I kind of feel I would have had a better experience there if it

wasn't for and not Sean or Hunter or anybody. I can't praise them enough in like my time there and everything like that but there was a conversation with somebody where I was kind of like okay like this is probably not gonna probably gonna be weird in a few months and okay it was so that unsettling I guess yeah at times like because I feel like I can look at it and be able to think about like things that I could have changed or like what I could have done different and then I guess when you think about it like there really is nothing because I feel like I Did I was there every day? I was cleaning

up the locker rooms with Roxanne after the shows because we're from indie wrestling like that's what you do like till the day I was gone like that's just like what you do and I just felt like you can always look at it and think like what I could have been different but at the end of the day I feel comfortable in like the fact that like I got to do so much stuff I got to do with my best friend like so many of my best friends and I feel confident that I got to do so much stuff, I got to do with my best friend, so many of my best friends, and I feel confident that I stood on my morals and things that I spoke up about maybe

that other people wouldn't have. Like what? Okay, for example, I'll say this because I did put it out there, the body shaming stuff. And again, I don't want this to be bashed up to be because it was my dream, it still is my dream. I have no doubt maybe one day in the near future I'll be there again. But it just is what it is. But I feel like, I don't know, thinking about my dream was to be a WWE superstar. And then I become a WWE superstar. And then Icomplish all these goals. I meet all these people like my best friends I got to like me and Roxanne became like even closer than ever like doing these storylines together I got to work with Bailey who's like a hero of mine like me and punk became like he's like a mentor to me now

Which I grew up watching your interviews with him Like it's just crazy to like see all these things that like happen and I got to do so much So I don't want it to be like bash WWE at at all, because I'm so happy with my time there. Like really, when I think about it, I did so much stuff that I was writing about in my notebook as a kid. So I'll never be like, oh my God, Bash WB. But I definitely think things could have went differently if it wasn't for certain things, like the body shaming thing. I came in at 19 years old. I was like 110 pounds.

I was so small and it was just constant comments, whether it was from guys who think they're being funny or I'm not gonna name names again, but I remember specifically being told that I wasn't and wouldn't be champion in that company because I looked like I couldn't crack an egg. Yeah. This is when you're kind of coming up,

you're in the performance center and all this stuff. We just put up the tweet here because it's kind of hard, here it is, you're responding to someone, can't forget having to go to my own gym outside of work after strength and conditioning that wasn't doing anything for me other than get me body slammed by my bosses, coworkers and fans crazy, body shamed, excuse me.

So like they're, you're being told that like you need to. Yeah, multiple conversations about my body. Okay. I don't think anyone, especially as another man, should be saying that to a female. Yeah. Like especially as I was like so young and it created like a lot of issues for me body wise.

But obviously I gained so much muscle after that like I worked my ass off and then I Would go to the strength and conditioning classes, which in my opinion are more geared towards like college athletes and like people who are coming in from college and they're like working on like Just like getting into that type of strength and conditioning and stuff It never felt like it was like doing anything from my body. So I'm like, you guys are yelling at me for how I look, but you're not really helping me out in the strength and conditioning that I need then. So then I would just go to my other gym afterwards. So it's like your own personal gym outside of. Yes, I was working my ass off. So then when I saw like that, that dirt sheet, whether it's who knows,

maybe I shouldn't have, it was heat of the moment, shouldn't have responded to me because who knows who even said that and if there was any truth to it at all. But seeing that, I was like, if you only knew like what I dealt with and like how much I had to like progress because of those things, you know what I mean? Like it's just crazy to me. Like people just, they say so much and then when you finally say something back, they're like, whoa, like it's like, yeah, like, like God forbid I say something back like they're like, Whoa, like, it's like, chill out. Yeah. Like, I like, God forbid I say something back like once, you know, but it was just very frustrating. And I like, again, like I, when I said that I was like, I don't want

it to seem like I'm bashing WDB because I loved my time there. I really did. And I loved everybody there. But like, there were certain things that in specifics that is just like, I'm like, damn, like, this is my dream. Like, I didn't go to college. Like I dropped out of high school at 15 and like finished in a year online, so I could like start wrestling training. Like, I don't know anything else. So it's like, damn, this is my dream. I didn't go to college. I dropped out of high school at 15 and finished in a year online so I could start wrestling training. I don't know anything else.

So it's like, it is defeating when things like that happen, but it's like, you can only look at it as everything happens for a reason. So that's how I feel. On social media, on Twitter, when you're working out, you're talking about respect and things like that.

Is that kind of what you're referring to? Put some respect on my name, that's what was driving you to show these people that they were wrong? Yeah, a lot of times, like most of my tweets are always in character. I feel like people like took me like too seriously. Like a lot of the times where I'm like,

I'm the best like, well, it's like, I know I'm not like Ricky Steamboat. I'm not the greatest wrestler physically, but like the way people would speak to me, it's like, come on, it's just ridiculous. It's a funky thing with the social media and the fans, especially with maybe some of the younger fans where they take it, I'm not saying too seriously,

but they don't know that you're just trying to extend the persona. Yeah, exactly. And then now when this happens, we kind of go back and see, wait a second, was she telling the truth here? Was this a work, was this a shoot? What was it? And then some things could come back to haunt you,

so to speak, because when you were just trying to be a heel, now they're thinking you were disgruntled. Yeah, and I feel like there's little truths behind everything that you do. I would obviously find motivation in my character and persona and stuff like that, from real life frustrations, but never, obviously before that tweet,

was I actually tweeting, I think I'm this, I think you guys are this. I love character work. That's why I fell in love with wrestling, obviously for the wrestling itself, but I was always so invested in the promos and the characters. That's why CM Punk was my favorite,

because he starts talking and you're immediately captivated. That's what I wanted to be, so I felt like that's always what I was drawn to with wrestling. So that's what I tried to be, if that makes sense. Yes, between November and then say April or so, WrestleMania, you're in Vegas. Are you feeling any different, any better, or is it just a continuous gnawing feeling

that something's amiss? Honestly, it's so weird because I say I had that first feeling in November that I was getting fired, but I will say for some reason, even though I had that in the back of my head all the time, those last six months of my career there was the best time I ever had. I don't know if it was because I was in the back of my head,

I thought I was going to get fired, so I'm just trying to live it up while I can and just really, really soak it in and enjoy it. But those last six months from like October to what like May, like those were the best times I ever had, like I got to work with Bailey. Like I became super close with Stephanie and Julia. Like obviously Roxanne's my best friend.

So like we got to do so much stuff together inside and outside of the ring that like, I'm so happy that I had those last six months. And like, I look back at it with like, I'm so glad that ended there with all of that. Like, it had such a good ending for me, I felt like, if anything. Where were you when you got the call?

In the car on the way to hang out with Bea Priestley and her husband, and he had just gotten fired. So he was in the car too? No, he was at the house. Okay. And I was going to hang out with them and she texted me and she's like, he just got fired.

I was like, okay, I'm next. Called me. Okay. And I was like. Were you given a reason? I asked, I said, was there a specific reason or is it just the budget cuts, because I feel like that's what they typically say. And they said it was a company decision,

so I'm not gonna sit there and argue it, it is what it is. How did you react? I felt like, at first I like chuckled, but it was a weird chuckle because it was like oh I knew this was coming like type of thing but then like I remember I was like maybe 10 minutes later I pulled into Bea Priestley's driveway and she opened the door and when I saw her I started crying and then she like hugged me and we're just like talking and then like Josh was in there and obviously just happened to him too so you know it was like a weird mix of emotions because it's like I knew it was coming, so to speak, but also like this was my dream so it sucks that it's coming to an end. But I don't even want to say an end because I don't think it is. It's a chapter that's over right now. I'm really excited to go and do all the things that I haven't been able to do in the past

four years with the platform that I have now. I didn't have this platform when I was 19 like trying to make it like so there's so much I want to do and like I do want to be full-time somewhere else again. Like I am a professional wrestler like at the end of the day like people can say what they want about like releasing and OnlyFans whatever which is out today now if you want to. Okay congrats. But I feel like everyone has something to say about like those types of things but it's like now I can do what I want and still continue to wrestle wherever I want, while also making whatever other income I want to make myself.

So I feel like if anything I'm more excited about the future, if anything, because I feel like I have so much freedom now. Even if there's things I don't want to do in wrestling, like other opportunities, I don't know what that would be. I would love to act or do something like that one day. So I feel like now is a very good time. I'm 24. I have all this experience under my belt. I've been wrestling since I was 15. I feel like right now is like, I feel like, like I said, it comes in waves here and there,

but I feel excited, if anything. Sure, and this is sort of like your big reintroduction because you have 30 days where you can't do anything, right? Sometimes it's 30, sometimes it's 60, sometimes it's 90. Why is it 30 for you? I believe NXT is 30. Okay. Yeah, if I'm correct, I think main roster might be 90,

but I believe it for NXT is 30. And so I would imagine a couple of days you're maybe licking your wounds, you're feeling down, but then all of a sudden, like even just looking at your social media, like you're revving it up, you're building to this, you know, this moment of freedom, right? Early June.

And then you've got all these bookings. Like we have the list of the bookings. It's crazy. Look at these bookings here. We've got some of them. Okay, here we go. That's my first match back. This is June 14th, so we're 12 days away.

Yes. Okay, then that's Black Label, right? That's pretty close to home for me too. I think my family's gonna come. Okay, then we've got this one. It's my first time out of the country. Never left the country. So I'll be in Canada. You never left the country Never left the country. Really? Yeah, I just got my passport back from WWE and that I never used What does that mean passport back you give it to them? They have like a copy of it. Okay, so you get it back

But I never I never got nothing. Yeah. Wow Canada's great place. I don't know if I'm from Canada I don't know if like Alberta would be my first stop, but you know. Toronto, I'm there I think in July or August. Okay, well let's go. We have the list. We're going through it here. Here we are in Phoenix, June 28th. I've never been to Phoenix. Okay, we're knocking them all out. And then we continue. Here's GCW in Hartford.

I'm excited about this one. Why is that? Because I've seen a lot of her work and I think she's good. And I think she's, I feel like I see similarities like in in myself and her like I know she was like a big wrestling fan like she has a great look She has a great yeah, man. She has I seen all the clips of her. She looks great So I'm excited to work with her. Okay, and who are you talking about here? We say to steal. Okay, yeah We continue there's more Which ones this is AIW in Ohio. In July, July 18th in Cleveland.

Yes. Okay, first time in Cleveland? First time wrestling in, I believe in Ohio. Okay, geez Louise. This one is interesting, relatively close to here. Coney Island at the ballpark. Yeah, that'd be fun. Another GCW event.

Coney Island has a lot of, are they famous for hot dogs? Hot dog, the eating, the hot dog eating July 4th. Okay, you gotta go on the cyclone too. It's in the outfield there in the back. Any other ones or was that it? Here's another one, July 27th. Yeah, this one actually I'm excited for too because I'm, it's only like an hour away from my house

but I'm also wrestling Izzy Moreno. Okay. You know, if you remember the big Izzy Bailey fan. She was a big kid. Oh yes, yes, yes, of course, yes. So I think that's sick. She's wrestling now and like she's killing it. Like I train with her sometimes and I think it's sick when someone comes up like the same way as me. Sure, sure.. She's wrestling now and like she's killing it. Like I train with her sometimes and I think it's sick

when someone comes up like the same way as me. Like she's a wrestling fan, like it's all you ever wanted and now she's great. So I'm excited to work with her. Okay, any other ones? Oh, there's another one, August 1st. Yeah, I don't know who I'm wrestling here. Jersey?

Jersey, SummerSlam Weekend. Oh, love that. Is there another one? Another one. Yeah, this was the Toronto one, I think. Okay, this is it. And there's Godfather, Legend. Yeah,, Miss Saga, pretty close to Toronto. And I think that's it for now. Oh my gosh, there's more!

Another! September 5th! This one's in the famous Burwen Eagles club. Okay, what is that? I mean, it's like, it's just like this bingo hall in like, Burwen, Illinois, but it's like, it's forever been like a famous wrestling venue, like, A.A.W. has has ran there, like Shimmer and Rise used to run there, like these famous like women's wrestling companies. So it's just like a historical little building.

I love it. Just like a little bingo hall. Was that the last one? Oh, there's more. OK, no, this is the complete. OK, so, man, this is unbelievable. Yeah. I feel like most people when they become free agents don't have this much booked.

I just wanted to get right back on it like that. I don't have time to waste like yeah I so but I still want to do other things and just like creatively like just find myself at this era in my life but like I have all weekend free are all week now free to like Create myself and create what I want to do and now I get to get to go wrestle wherever I want like travel a country And like meet new people for like on the weekends now I feel like this is like the best thing for me right now like what I need so what I think is interesting about this is obviously you have incredible work ethic because you wanted to get right back on the horse and Maybe you've got like a little bit like I'm gonna show you right which is fine. That's okay

Yeah, but I saw some people like implying that you were lazy, right? Which would run counter to this attitude Yeah, so where did this come from? I have no idea that you were lazy, right? Which would run counter to this attitude. Yeah. So where did this come from? I have no idea. That's what I think that's why I made that tweet because it was just like you people have no idea. Like you hear whoever it comes from, you hear one little thing and you run with it.

Like you know like me and whoever and like our lives. And it's like, I can't express to you enough. Like I didn't, I don't know anything else besides wrestling. Like I would wake up, go to, sometimes go to my gym before the PC my own gym then I would go to the PC do the ring training do the strength and conditioning training then we would have TV on Tuesdays then we do it again on Wednesdays and do like skull sessions we call them we're like watching matches back and we do it again

on Thursday and then we have live events Friday Saturday and my only off day is Sunday and then I'm like training other places too so it was just like this weird thing and it's like if you guys only knew like how often I was going in with ideas that were never used, how often I was going in and like talking and like trying to like make connections and make story and just do all these different things and it was like I was just constantly shut down or like just oh we'll get to it we'll get to it and it's like I tried I feel like as much as I could have and it kind of gets to the point where it's like I kind of like throw my

hands up it's like what more do you want from me like and then another thing which I feel like the lazy thing I feel like it also comes from like I always see people tweet about like oh you're so injury-pr're so injury prone. Like you've had multiple injuries, like blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, I've had one knee injury, but people I think go back to when I got my boobs done, like the three months or like right before that, cause I was out for like three months.

So I could, I was out for three months and then I had only been back for like, I think like maybe a month if that before I tore my knee again. But it was like, I never like talked about this because I feel like it's just like a very personal thing, but like, I feel like I do want to say it because like, it's like one of those things where it's like, if you only knew what I was going through, you're pretty messed up if that's what you're saying to me. Because like, so in January of 2023, it was like the very late January, I was supposed

to wrestle Lyra Valkyria on TV on Tuesday. And long story short, I'll spray the details. Long story short, I ended up in emergency surgery in the hospital the night before, literally almost dying and bleeding out because I had had an ectopic pregnancy that had failed and it exploded and like made me internally bleed and like I was rushed into emergency surgery because I was like this close to bleeding out. But thank God I went because I literally was thinking

I just have to get through the match tomorrow. Like I knew something wasn't right but I was like I just have to get through the match and I'll get through the match, I'll get through the match and then like I'm like bleeding., I'll get through the match, and then I'm bleeding. And I'm like, I have to go to the hospital. Wow. And I got there, and it was an 11-hour wait,

they told me, and I was like, I can't. So then they checked me or whatever, and then immediately rushed me into emergency surgery. So I dealt with that, so that was, I was like, Jesus, I'm gonna miss. And how does that happen? So what had happened was I had, I don't know if you're familiar with the IUD birth control. Okay, yeah.

It's like some, it's inserted in you. It's like a 99.9% like success rate, but they warn you beforehand because it's like a five-year thing. Like the, so you like are protected for five years. But they warn you of ectopic pregnancies beforehand, which if you're not or anyone else isn't familiar, it's where like the egg is implanted outside of the uterus in the fallopian tube and that causes the fallopian tube to explode. Obviously you internally bleed and it's very extremely life-threatening, obviously to the baby or whatever it was, but to the woman.

So I was always scared of that in general because I have health anxiety anyway, so I was always worried about that. So again, my intuition, I was like this I know what's happening like I gotta go. So we did that, had the emergency surgery, they ended up having to remove my left fallopian tube because it was that bad and then I was just I was just bummed about missing stand and deliver like I was like I can't miss like I cannot miss stand and deliver but then like after that I felt like I guess nothing has ever happened like that

to me before. I never realized like the effects of it and stuff like that. So like after I came back, like those few months, I was just the most mentally depressed I have ever been in my entire life. Like I remember calling like one of the WWE doctors and being like, I need to like go somewhere like I'm not okay Like I'm not okay right now. Like this is not okay. I don't know what it was because nothing was really wrong But I guess like I learned later

It's like you deal with like the even from that like the postpartum like depression and just stuff like dealing with that is so intense And I was like 23 years 22 years old like 23 years old. I had it was insane like the craziest thing I'd ever experienced So then I went back to work and I was just not there mentally. Like nothing to do with work, I just like, I literally didn't realize like the toll that that takes on you, like as a person.

So I was like, obviously I had always wanted to get like my boobs done, I'm not gonna sit here and say I didn't, but I needed to go away and take time off or I don't know what was gonna happen to me. Like mentally I needed to take that time off. So I did that in my time off, like that's what I chose to do. And I took that time, like over those, I was out for like a month and a half

and then when I got that done, like three months. So like I took that time to like really get myself mentally right. I felt good. I was ready to go. Like I was so excited. I felt good like mentally, physically, emotionally. Like it was probably the best I ever felt. And then I came back and then I, what was it, right, it was like I had just went through a really bad breakup and then it was my birthday

and then I tore my knee. So it was just like back to back to back to back to back. So I was like I was just, I just came back, I was so excited and then boom, boom, then everything like goes horribly. And then my dog died like right before I came back from my knee injury So then this time I was like, okay, like I'm so excited. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go I'm ready to go like this time is gonna be my time like this time and Six months later. Yeah ACL MCL

And meniscus and meniscus golly Medial and lateral meniscus. Surgery. That's what it was done for. You came back in eight months. Oh, sorry. You all right? Yeah, it was nine months. Nine months. Which is kind of crazy,

because usually for an injury like that, it's closer to a year. Yeah, I really pushed it though. I did not want to be out. I was just out. After all the stuff I had dealt with mentally, I was just so ready to prove to myself, to them, to them,

to the fans who wanna say it lazy or whatever and have no idea what I was going through, I was so ready to prove myself. And then it's just like, I got hit again. It's like, Jesus. How did you handle that mentally? The injury, in addition to all these things you have just been through,

now you know that it's a long, long road back. In the early stages. It was rough because also when I had just torn my knee, like I'm newly living by myself, I lived on the third floor of an apartment complex with no elevator. And I have a dog that it was before he passed away, but I needed, so by myself, I can't do any of this.

So my mom, she's like, I wouldn't, nothing in my life would be possible without her she like she's one who like drove me to my wrestling training like when I was like 15 and couldn't drive and stayed like all night but like I was like you need to come here like I can't do this by myself like mentally or physically so she ended up quitting her job and she lived with me for like maybe like two months and just like helping me with my dog helping me mentally because I was just a wreck from everything and like taking care of my dog

because I couldn't go down the stairs. Like I couldn't put any weight on. I could barely get in the shower. Like it was horrible. But like if I, I don't know what I would have done, would have done if I didn't have her there because she just let me like, I'm also a very like guarded like person.

I don't like to like cry in front of people or like, like express like emotion like that. But she was just there and like just let me cry. Like she took care of stuff I didn't like to cry in front of people or express emotion like that, but she was just there and just let me cry. She took care of stuff I didn't want to have to take care of when I couldn't do it mentally. Until this day, she's just always there. I definitely could not have done it without her. Were you worried, it's a very competitive industry, were you worried that the time off

would be an out of sight, out of mind thing and you would lose your spot? Definitely. I feel like that's just natural. But obviously, I'm also not, I didn't come from another sport. I didn't come from a crazy college athlete, which props to all of them. They can do the craziest stuff. The way Kalani picked it up like that, I love her to death.

There's so many talented women there. And it was watching these people and it's like, I didn't do any of these sports. I can't do crazy flips like I can really do a cart wheel like I just love wrestling and like I just want to like be a wrestler and like be a creative storyteller like all this stuff so obviously that did like come in the back of my head like am I getting like passed up but like I always feel so like confident in my passion for wrestling because my

passion for wrestling got me here I didn didn't have, my parents didn't have money. I didn't have a lot of resources. I made it because I loved wrestling, so I felt like that's just always been my thing. If I love wrestling, I'm gonna make it. So it's like, obviously it's scary to think about, but I always had in the back of my head, this is my dream, this is like, I'm here for a reason.

I'm meant to be here for a reason. So I feel like that's kind of always been my mindset, but it does seep in every now and again. So tell us about the beginning. You grew up in Chicago. Yeah. You say tough environment, you said your parents didn't have a lot of money.

No, I don't wanna say, I don't wanna make it seem like we were like poor and like struggling, but we just, they, like my parents did, like regular people jobs, like we lived in a townhouse, like it was pretty small Like we didn't have a lot of money like but they were always So supportive and like made it work even when they probably couldn't like they found ways to make it work like I remember When I told them I wanted to drop out of high school and become a wrestler because the training place

I wanted to go to was like an hour away and they trained from like eight Indie wrestling is like they have their own schedule, like it's crazy. So they would train from like eight to like sometimes midnight or like one in the morning. So like I was like, I can't go to school at like six in the morning the next day. Like I want to be a wrestler. Like, so I remember like I wrote them, I either wrote them a note or made them like a PowerPoint. I've done both in my life. I think it was a note, but I like wrote them like a really long letter.

And I was like, this is why I need to leave school. I'll finish online. I think I had found a place where I could finish online in a year. So I was like, please let me do this. I'll try college for a little bit, but just please let me do this. They were reluctant, but they did, and they helped me.

I got out of school my freshman year, and then I did this program. I don't remember what it was called, but I think I finished high school two years early. Yeah, a year and a half. So you did finish. Yeah, so I have a high school diploma, but I was doing it online,

and then working at Culver's, which is like a burger place in Chicago, to make money for tickets to go to WrestleMania, and then training. Which WrestleMania? It was the one in Orlando, so about 33, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So where. Which WrestleMania? It was the one in Orlando. So it was about 33 I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So where does the love of wrestling start? It's so weird because now I'm the only one who like loves it like that, but it started because of my younger brother. Okay. So like I remember, I have like a very specific memory. It was like my dad and my younger brother like just flipping through the channels.

I remember him showing him like SmackDown or something. So this was probably like 2009. So I was eight, my brother's three SmackDown or something. So this was probably like 2009. So I was eight, my brother's three years younger than me, so he's probably like five. And I remember him showing it to him, and I thought it was like, oh, this is so stupid. I don't care about this, ugh, whatever. So maybe for like a month, they would watch it,

and I was just like, oh, this is so stupid. And then eventually I started watching it too, and I was like, wait, this is kinda cool. And then I was invested in it, and then my brother was like, this is stupid, I'm not watching this. He's never been into it again. But for some reason, I remember sitting there, my dad was like, you know, real people do that.

For some reason, it just didn't click in my head that those are real people that can just go be wrestlers. So I think from that moment on, I was just like, I'm gonna be a wrestler. Like, so it was just. From that age, from like eight or so. Yeah, I literally. And are your friends into it? No. So you're the. From that age, from like eight or so. Yeah, I literally. And are your friends into it?

No. So you're the only one? Yeah, no, I got made fun of a lot for wanting to be a wrestler. But I think it's- By other kids. Yeah, because it's like, oh, it's fake, that's stupid, but I never cared. I just wanted to be a wrestler.

Here you are with the belt back in the day. Oh yeah, there I am. How old are you here? That was in 2011, so I think I was 10. Okay, where are you? Are you at an event? Yeah, I believe it was a house show I think it was in Indiana which is like an hour from my place

But I remember my parents took me and my brother and that was like I think one of the only ones he ever ended Up going to but was your dad into it He wasn't into it himself, but he thought it was just something cool that like we would be into I think every parent Like watches it like early on but like he wasn't like a super fan I think he just thought it would be cool and then I was the one who was like I love this I want to be a wrestler which I think is the opposite of what they thought was gonna happen. And was Punk your favorite off the bat? Yeah. Okay. I feel like I had a few I think Edge was my one of my first favorites as well as Punk and then like Mickey James I

remember her being like my first like favorite female wrestler but I remember the reason Punk became a favorite of mine is because at that time that we all started watching it together like my dad and my brother. It was when Punk was feuding with Ray Mysterio and he was like singing Happy Birthday to like Dominic and his sister. I don't know if you remember that, it was forever ago. But I remember

my brother was obsessed with Ray Mysterio and he loved Ray Mysterio. So just out of spite I was like, okay well I like this guy and then it just ended up with like, oh, he's from Chicago, and he has like tattoos, and he's cool, so just became like- Straight edge? Yeah, just became my favorite wrestler.

Wow. Yeah. And the famous clip where you meet him, was that the first time you ever met him? Yes, and it was after, so here it is. Actually, no, that's actually the second time. This is an autograph signing,

it's part of a documentary series when he was going to fight in the UFC Yeah, it came out like a year and a half later and I had forgotten about it and I was like, oh my god It's me. That's you right there. Yeah, but this was the second time We had met I had met him at like a random house show where I just like snapped a picture with him but this was like After he had like left WDB and I took that so personal for some reason like that was the worst day of my life Like so I was like, oh my god I'm never gonna see him again and I needed the signing and I took that so personal for some reason. That was the worst day of my life. So I was like, oh my God, I'm never gonna see him again.

And then he did the signing and I was like, oh my God. That's your dad there. Yeah. And he's talking about how much punk means to you. Yeah. What kind of a role model he is for you. Yeah. What did you say to him when you went up to him?

I don't really remember. I remember I had like, I made him like a basket of gifts. I think I had a letter for AJ Lee in there and like I saw on his website I don't even know if it was like him that actually wrote it that like his favorite candy was starburst I gave him like a bag of starbursts. It's like loser. I put the bag down I was just like I love you so much and he started crying I don't even think I really said anything Else to him, but I know my dad was like she like really looks up to you

And I like I did anything I would do is like in the back of My head I'm like seeing punk would hate this like I don't want to get in trouble like I don't want to do something bad But did you watch him in the UFC? I did and so even you probably weren't a UFC fan But you were supporting him no, but I actually was doing MMA at the time myself Oh wow because I was I think I was like 15 It was like right before I first started wrestling training because I was no other place would train me I was too young so I was like I'll just do MMA for now instead I did Muay Thai for like a little bit and it was like at the time that he was doing okay

I don't say I did it long enough to like actually say I did it but like I did it for a little bit and he Was doing it so I was like you do because he went to the UFC. I don't remember I feel like I just was gonna do something like that in general But him being in the UFC definitely pushed me to like want to do it even more But I remember watching his do something like that in general, but him being in the UFC definitely pushed me to wanna do it even more. But I remember watching his fight and again, I took it so personal when he lost. I'm crying, why am I crying on the couch? But I thought it was cool because I also did an MMA,

or it was a Muay Thai bout and I lost too. So yeah. And then when I- An amateur bout? Yeah. As a teenager. Yeah. Golly.

Yeah. And then we talked about it maybe a few months ago. I was like, hey, you know what? I did an MMA fight too right after you and we both lost. And he's like, hell yeah. How did you lose? It was a TKO, I think. Oh gosh.

Was that your one and only? Yeah, I was like, I'm not doing this. Yeah, I don't like it. So when you're 15 and decide to do this, why do you think, okay, right now I wanna do this as opposed to, all right, I'm gonna finish school and then 15 is super freaking young. Why do you decide right then and there?

I don't know, I just feel like school was never really like my thing. I just like, I was always like pretty decent in school, but like, it just never interested in me and like I could never, like, I need to be invested and like passionate about something, like to be able to focus and like actually do well on it. And there was just nothing like school wise that I felt like I was like

gonna feel fulfilled with so like when I was like watching wrestling I was like this is all I want to do and like obviously I would do research on like other wrestlers who made it and like a lot of them started training like when they're 18 and like as soon as they like get out of school they do it but I was like I need to get a head start like I don't want to wait till I'm 18 I want to like be wrestling I want to be in WWE by the Like I don't want to wait till I'm 18. I want to like be wrestling. I want to be in WWE by the time I'm 18. I think I got my try out when I was 19.

So it was like a year off, but I was like, I want to be there sooner than later. I don't want to waste my time going to school and getting a degree that I know I'm not going to use because in my head, I was like, if I have a backup plan, that means I'm ready to fail at this, which I don't plan to fail at it. So like, why would I go get a college degree? I don't want, I don't need a backup plan. Like even now I don't like, I'm not like upset that I don't plan to fail at it. So why would I go get a college degree? I don't need a backup plan. Even now I'm not upset that I don't have a college degree because I'm still gonna keep wrestling

and just doing anything I can just to keep my brand up and just exploring different avenues too. What did your friends say when you left school to pursue a wrestling dream? I think they, I had always told them that I was gonna drop out. I remember my one friend specifically, her name was Taylor, she was like my best friend

in like all through middle school. And all freshman year I was like, I'm dropping out. Like I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna do this, I don't wanna do this. And she would always be like, Brie, no you're not in my ring. And I'm just like, you're not doing that. And then I just never showed up at school again

the next year. And I think I told her at like the month before, I was like, I'm not coming back to school. And she's like, you were serious? I was like, yeah, I'm serious, I don't wanna do this. So even in the beginning stages, and what was the school called'm not coming back to school. And she's like, you were serious? I was like, yeah, I'm serious. I don't want to do this. So even in the beginning stages, and what was the school called that you first went to? The wrestling school.

Oh, the wrestling school. It was not, there was no name for it. It was just, I guess they ran out of a building where Galli Lucha Libre. It's like a smaller. Where did you even find this place? I had a crazy experience. Like the first time I found a wrestling school was like,

I feel like my whole career has just been like crazy from beginning to end. Because the first time I ever wanted to wrestle, I did the Muay Thai thing and I was like, I don't want to do this then because no one would train me. But then I remember my uncle, he had a friend from like high school or something. And at this time I didn't know anything about anything really like I never really watched indie wrestling I knew of it but I never like really watched her like knew anything like how to get into the actual like schools I just like knew I wanted to be a wrestler and I remember he like called me one day and called my mom he's like I

have this friend he like runs a wrestling school like he says he can get her to be wrestler like six months until trainer for free so I was like okay hell yeah like it sounds good to me. Like, and obviously my parents didn't know either. Like it's my uncle's friend. Long story short, I like go to this place. It wasn't even like an actual school. It was just like they, they don't exist anymore. Also like just, they don't exist. But this, it was just like

this guy in a ring and he's like, I'll teach you. I was like wearing jeans because I thought I was just going to like learn, like just like meet everybody. everybody and like I thought it was like gonna be like my first day I don't know but like no one's there it's just like a ring and like an empty building and I think their school was like they would have training like once a month before the indie shows but it was just like a random bunch of indie wrestlers that like didn't really know how to teach and when they were teaching me how to bump for the first time is when you learn how to fall,

like for the first time, the number one rule that you're supposed to be told and do when you're learning how to bump and fall is to tuck your chin, because if you're not, you're hitting the back of your head and that's a whole world of problems. Um, but they didn't tell me that. So for like three hours, I was slamming the back

of my head on the mat and I ended up having a brain bleed Oh jeez because I got out of the ring and I was like mom I don't feel good like she was with me and then she's like try to eat this trail mix and like I just remember the Left side of my body like went numb and I was like she's like yeah, you're going to the hospital So I went to the hospital day one day one. Oh my god scene went to hospital had a brain bleed because I was slamming my head for three hours and I have like a video of it like because my mom was like excited to like me recording me but we didn't know later

on we were gonna be like oh my god like because it's just my head like slamming on the mat slamming on the mat but I didn't know that that was the wrong way to teach somebody. I thought that I just wasn't strong enough to be a wrestler like I thought that that was just how how it is and like I was like I'm just I'm just not strong enough to be a wrestler. Like I thought that that was just how it is. And like, I was like, I'm just not strong enough to do this. So like for probably like six months after that, like I stopped watching wrestling. I was so heartbroken, like, cause that was my dream.

And I was like- So it was just that one? Yeah. Okay. And you couldn't go back? Yeah. I was like, and my mom was like, absolutely not. You're not going back there. Like, so- You go back to school or you were just chilling at home?

No, I didn't. Okay. But despite the fact that you weren't training. Yeah. So I. No, I didn't okay, but despite the fact training Yeah, so I'm gonna give it like another shot. So then I Ended up I don't even remember how I ended up finding like my actual trainer His name was Bryce Benjamin now they call it's the freelance wrestling Academy is they like become like a brand now, but I Remember I just like I think I like googled it or something and I just like found him in like this place It was like at the time it wasn't, it didn't even have like a school title. It was just like Galley Lucha Libre was like this wrestling place and then they would train in like this place

that was also like a half indoor soccer field. It was like half indoor soccer field, half wrestling ring with like no air, no heat like in Chicago. So we're like dying or freezing like at all times. But I remember I went and I told him the story and he was like oh my god like and he knew of the guy I didn't know but he was like oh yep like that makes sense like that's who it was but he obviously trained me the right way and like I was like terrified because I was like traumatized. Sure you didn't think maybe this wasn't for you after that one horrific experience. I did but then I was like like, I think I watched more wrestling training stuff and I started

to realize that that just wasn't right. And I was like, I don't want to just give up on my dream. I'm 15, I'm not just going to give up. So I was like, I think I just tried to hope for the best and hope that it was going to go better the second time. And it did, thankfully, because I had good trainers and actual who like knew what they were doing and taught me the right way and like made sure I was safe so please anybody if you're going to train go to somewhere that knows what they're doing because it was a rough first start. How

long before you have your first match? Honestly I trained for like a year and a half before I had my first match. I think it's because I had like a lot of fear because of that like just a lot of mental fear and stuff like it always held me back so then I remember I trained for a while of fear because of that, like just a lot of mental fear and stuff, like it always held me back. So then I remember I trained for a while and I also just like didn't do any other sport really before that besides like the MMA thing for a little bit. So I was super unathletic. Like I didn't know what I was doing. I was like a deer in headlights.

Like it was so bad. So like, it took me a long time to like feel confident enough to like have a match. But then I remember my trainer, his name was Bryce Benjamin. He doesn't wrestle anymore, but he had like a spooky kind of little group at like, or I think it was freelance too at the time that they had that group. It was like Bryce and then like two other trainees

that were doing like this little spooky gimmick and he was like, you can just come do that for your first match, like, so it'll be with him and like people I know. So it was like, I turned heel in my first match. Gosh. It was me and- Started as a face.

You turned heel in the middle of the match. Yes. It was me and this guy named Juan and we were baby faces. And then we had this match against my trainer and another trainee. And I ended up turning heel on that guy and then joining like my trainer in the group, and then we became like the spooky group. So I feel like that's kind of how like the origin of Elena black came anyways, you know, Lena blank black off the jump Yeah, those your name. And where does that come from?

Um the first Elena is because I was a huge fan of vampire diaries when I like wanted to become a wrestler and that was Like the main character So I did that and then black is because I was a huge Seth Rollins fan and his indie name was Tyler Black. So I stole that. Wow. Have you ever told him that? No I haven't. Wow. But he'll hear now. You're a disciple of him. Yeah. There's a your YouTube channel is a thing that you had for a while maybe bringing it back now. There's a match up there I think it might be your third match that we have we'll show to you here. Here you are, what is this? Oh yeah, this is my first ever singles match.

First ever singles, wow. Yeah, but I believe it was like my third actual match. Okay. Something like that. And it was against Kylie Rae, who like I trained with at the time, so. So you're a little bit dark and disturbed here. Yeah, a little bit. And this is Elena Black.

Are you nervous? Oh my God, yeah, to this day I am. Always. Like, it's never changed. If anything, it's gotten worse. Really? yeah, to this day I am. Always. It's never changed. If anything, it's gotten worse. Really? Yeah, I don't know why. I'll never be able to just be like chill before, I don't think.

Wow. Yeah. So here, even though it's technically your first singles match, you're supremely nervous inside. Are you proud of it? Are you happy with it, like looking back now? Now I watch it, I'm like, ooh. But at the time, I remember being really proud of it

because it was my first singles match. I loved working with Kylie. I'm like, ooh, but like at the time I remember being really proud of it because like it was my first singles match Like I loved working with Kylie. I think she's great like We got along great. And so we had like good chemistry like I was a great person to have like that first singles match with and like I Remember feeling like accomplished and I felt like it was really really good and then like I watched it like now and I'm like, yeah At the time then you're feeling like you're on your way? Like the dream is coming to fruition? Yeah, definitely. I'm curious as to why you still get nervous,

and nervous is okay, but more nervous now than back then? Yeah, honestly, I feel like, I don't know if it'll change now that I'm back on the indies and doing stuff like that, but I feel like maybe it did come from just like, WWE is a lot of pressure, and like at times it's like, it makes you, like the adrenaline and the pressure like feeds you but sometimes it's like at least for me it's like debilitating like I think a lot of like I feel like I started to say that stuff didn't really bother me like what people would say on the internet and even if I felt like it did it and even reading it I feel like subconsciously it's always in the back of your head whether like you actually believe what people are saying or not or if you think it affects you or not if you're reading it's gonna be in the back of your head subconsciously so I feel like just once I like started doing more in WDB and

getting more eyes on me and like more hate and like everything like everyone everyone's a critic so I felt like I'm trying to please Sean and Matt Bloom and everyone in the back and I'm'm also trying to please these fans online who hate every single thing that I do. So it started to just like- When you say hate, do you mean like legit hate or part of the storyline hate? I think legit hate.

Really? Yeah, I feel like I do get a lot of legit hate, and I don't know what it is. I don't know. Even from the get-go, from the beginning? I feel like in the beginning, when I was doing the babyface Corajade stuff, people were really, really with me, but I feel like they do that a lot was like doing the babyface corrugate stuff, people were like really, really with me,

but I feel like they do that a lot. Like they root for you, root for you, root for you, and then randomly it's just like the switch flips. Right. And it's like for no specific reason. You felt that. I feel like I did, yeah. I don't know when it was or whatever,

but like I tried, I think that's why I started to get so nervous. I feel like now that I'm like kind of just, I feel like now I let it more roll off my shoulders than anything, but there was a period of time where I was just so nervous all the time because everything was just in my head at once like the pressure of the fans out there the pressure of the fans on the internet the pressure of shot

pressure of my peers who like you know like having great matches too it just became like so much like at once so I felt like that's probably why I became more nervous even though I had been doing it longer I didn't have all that pressure like back like in these matches like with like me and Kylie. Like you don't have everyone telling you your shit. Like you just, you're like having fun and you're like I'm doing my dream, like I'm having fun. Like you have your own ideas. So like I felt like I always felt like invested in my ideas and stuff.

So I just feel like it's a different, it's a shift. Like I guess. Well now I wonder if you're experiencing, so like when you're coming up, everyone's rooting you on, rooting you on, you get to NXT, you're the fresh face rooting you on, then they try to tear you down. But now that you've had this big thing happen to you and you're kind of building yourself back up, I feel like you're getting a lot of support again. Yeah, I feel like everyone jumps on the bandwagon like when just at random times, which is fine. Like I, I love like my fans, like the ones who actually support me.

Like when I just had like a two-hour long meet-and-greet at WWE world like and that so many like little girls were coming up to me in their shirts and like That means so much to me cuz like that was me like only like ten years ago Like that was just me so recently so like that really does mean so much to me. So that's why I try to like Remember not all of them are out to get you like there's so so many fans and that's what I try to focus on now. Like the people that actually want to support me and like if you don't want to see what I'm, if you didn't like me in WWE, you don't have to watch what I'm doing now. And like if you did and you want to continue to watch me now, thank you.

And I appreciate it. And like I'm excited to like bring those people on the journey with me. But it's like the people who are like just like hating it now on every single thing I'm doing after it's like you don't have to watch like if you're a WB fan go watch WB I'm not there anymore so you don't have to you don't have to follow me you don't have to comment on my stuff you don't have to follow with my journey you know so I feel like now it's like the people who want to stick with me are gonna and like the people who want to just watch WB and don't want to know what I'm doing like you don't have to like but I like the

support that I do see has been like very overwhelmingly good recently like especially from like people who are saying like hey I've watched you from like when you were trying to make it to WB and I'm still watching you now like that means so much because like there's some people who like I don't I've never met and they've been following my journey since like the beginning and they genuinely want to see me do well and like that means so much to me so I feel like if anything more now than ever, I focus on that because like it doesn't do you any good

like reading the bad. Like even if I said, you need to stop responding to the trolls. I know I do, but that's what happens. And by the way, easier said than done, I look at it too. I know, but it's always like right there in your face. Yeah, but there's like the thing I was saying earlier,

where I kind of felt like. Just block them. Yeah, my block list is longer than you can imagine. The only thing is that I would say, because I read it too, we all are at fault here, the more you respond, I feel like the more it comes. Because then it just gives other people the green light to try to get noticed by you, right?

And you're never going to get anywhere anyways, even if you're 100% right. They'll twist it. Exactly, it's never going to get anywhere with them. So it's like For you. This is like a shitty part of your day for a lot of them This is the highlight of their day that you responded to them Yeah, don't give them someone once told me our minds are not hotel rooms Don't let people check in and out of your of your mind, right?

And so, you know, don't give them don't give them that satisfaction And and again, I bet the guys in the back are laughing because I let this get to me too. So I'm being a bit of a hypocrite here. Definitely easier said than done, but you are right. It's just, it's a weird world. It is a weird world. Now, how did you get the call to join WWE? It's first a tryout, like how did this all come about?

I was doing AEW actually for like that few weeks or a month or two before like my WWE tryout. And I thought I was gonna end up at AEW. Dark matches? Yeah. Okay. Yeah I was doing I did a few dark matches and I loved it there like I thought I was gonna end up there first I remember like I had like because it was just at the time like it was like 20 the end of 2020 like I was kind of picking up steam on the indies and like people were doing dark and stuff and I was I felt like I was gonna end up there and I wanted to end up there I remember I had like I'm very big into like manifestation and like just like I told you like my

intuition stuff I remember I made so stupid for me to like an embarrassing for me to say now but I remember I made like a fake Elena black is all elite logo and I put it above my bed Wow so whenever I went to bed I would like manifest every night before bed and then it just ended up being like I got the WWE tryout the same month that I was doing AEW and WWE made me an offer before AEW so I took it but Either way, I knew I wanted to be in a big wrestling company. Okay, like obviously I've always been a lifelong WWE fan So I wanted to be there as well But I knew at that time I was manifesting something and I knew I was gonna end up somewhere

So it's been you said at the beginning you want to be full-time again. Yes, I feel like I'm born to be a wrestler. Like sure. But like it for you know there are some people make a lot of money just being on the indie scene. Yeah. Do you want to be you know not to beat around the bush but like would you like to go to AEW? I would. I would definitely be open to go to AEW. I loved my time there. I have a lot of friends there. Like I watch all the shows. Like I love the fact that they have as much creative freedom as they do. I would definitely be open to going to A to B. I loved my time there. I have a lot of friends there. Like, I watch all the shows. Like, I love the fact that they have as much creative freedom as they do.

I feel like, like I said, I'm so much for like storylines and like character and like stuff like that. So I feel like they are very like, creatively free in that way. So it's definitely be something I would be open to. Have you talked to them yet? My 30 days is just yesterday, so not yet, but you never know

Maybe by the end of the day. Yeah, maybe what about TNA? I'm not closed off to that by any means I just only feel my only hang up is I feel like I was just there and like now they're like kind of doing like them to be in sure TNA so I don't it almost feels like I need to like step away from all of that for that world for a second. Like I love TNA, I would definitely work there again in the future. Just right now in my time, I feel like they're too close-knit together right now. Like it will be better for me to like kind of branch off, just kind of figure it out.

Japan, overseas, open to all of this. I would love to go to Japan. Yeah, actually right before COVID, I had written up an email to Bea Priestley. It was before we became friends because she was like super into like with all the girls at Stardom and like ran training and stuff. So I had drafted up an email to send her. Someone had given me her contact information to see if I could come do like a Stardom tour there. But then COVID happened and everything stopped and then I never sent the email because everything got shut down. And then I just never ended up going there

because then I got signed. So I definitely wanted to go there and it's always been like a goal of mine. So maybe now. Have you talked to, you know, there's a lot of examples of people killing it on the indie scene now, indie scene. Have you talked to any of these people

or are you just kind of doing this on your own? Yeah, I've talked to a lot of people. I feel like Matt Cardona is a great example. Like the indie god, like he's just made such a like great life and brand and stuff for himself. So like I have his number, like I talked to Chelsea because she's one married him and two, she got fired. So she's the best example of this door hasn't closed for you.

Exactly. And she had great advice for me. So like I look at her as like an inspiration. Wherever I end up one day, I don't know where, I don't know if I'll ever be back in W. I have no idea where I'm going to end up. I just know that wherever I do end up, I don't know where, I don't know if I'll ever be back in W. I have no idea where I'm gonna end up. I just know that wherever I do end up, I want to make sure that it's better than what I was before and use this time to really blow up and make people be like, oh shit, like this is the better version of Elena Black than we've ever seen. Like and I

feel like that's exactly what Chelsea did. Like she took the time away, built herself, did all this stuff, she took all the indies. She was invested. She loved wrestling. She really built herself, and now look at her. She's way better than she ever was. There's so many examples of this. The greatest example is probably Cody Rhodes, who left and built himself back up.

Drew McIntyre did the same. And then Chelsea did an incredible job, and look at her now. Matt's still in the, I feel like his story's still being written and he's trying to work himself back up. But it sounds like you're not closing the door on WWE in the future, you're not trying to burn the bridge. You're not trying to-

Absolutely not, like I said, I feel like it's only normal as a human and as someone who is a passionate adult in their workplace, there are gonna be things that bother you and frustrate you. It's only nature. And if there wasn't anything that bothered me or frustrated me, then I don't care enough. I cared and things bothered me and frustrated me

because I loved it so much, and I still do. So I'm definitely not closing the door on that ever. If I loved my time in WB, I have really nothing bad to say other than there were a few things here and there that yeah, I didn't like, but did that mean that I never wanna be back there and that was the worst place I absolutely not it was my dream like I still like all my best friends are there like it's there's no like ill will or anything like

that I feel like if I like if anything I need this time and like I'm excited for this time now right like the stuff that you could do now the creative freedom that you have now is going to take you to another level because you don't have to rely on a writer or a company to tell you what to do. So I think this will be beneficial. The one promo that you did that really opened my eyes, which I thought was supremely impressive, you were talking backstage at NXT, and this is right when you came back and Punk came back. You know the one where he walks up and you went from, at least to me, tell me if I'm wrong, like you were in character,

I don't know if you knew he was gonna show up, but then you get super emotional and so then like the real you comes out and then you go back to in character all within the span of 90 seconds. You know what I'm talking about, which one? I do. That's not easy.

Especially when you're like on the verge of tears again. That was super impressive and I think, at least for me, opened eyes. Yeah, I knew he was there. I didn't know what he was going to come up and say to me, but when he said like, look at me, I was like, oh, I think he's being serious. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just for this. And then like just hearing that from him, like that he's proud of me, because I grew up watching like your guy, I would wait for your guys is like yearly interview.

Like every year I was like, yes, like it's time for the interview. And it was like long too. So I was like excited for them always but like I just yeah I don't know I just I was giving you props because of the talent that you showed going from oh yeah yeah I totally forgot. I forgot what I was saying. But yeah it was just so weird to like and cool at the same time like this person I grew up like watching and now he's like coming back at the company together exactly it was like my return and his like return to NXT or whatever but just I feel like that also is credit to him like he I was I watched him like being able to million ranges of emotion he would go from you sometimes you didn't know if he was being serious or

if he was being like the character but I feel like he did such a good blend of like meshing both of them that I feel like I just maybe like kind of picked it up from that. But just like hearing that from him and like having your idol tell you that like they're proud of you is like not everyone in the world gets that. Like I always say like he's my answer to like if people said like if you could have like dinner with anybody dead or alive who would it be? It would be him like I would have given the answer and now like me him and like Roxy and like Ace will all go out to eat and it's like I am doing that like It's just so weird to have that person in your life that like literally shaped me who I am like I was the biggest fan

of him like so and like to have that person as a mentor and like Be there for like all my big moments always give advice, always just be there to like... He was the first person I talked to after I got fired. Okay. Just on the phone, talked to him, literally the very first person. Good advice. He's been through ups and downs. Yeah. He's like, I feel like the best person you could get advice from. Obviously he's been through it all. He knows what he's doing. And he always tells me to... He always gives me advice to not do necessarily what he's doing and like he always tells me to like, he always gives

me advice to not do necessarily what he's done and like say things like too early or like say things when you feel them and like just like to control your emotions. So I feel like that's what he's always been very good at like helping me realize is what I need to do and like just always gives like good advice in those times and just I like couldn't be more thankful for him. So I feel like he shaped me so much as a wrestler and growing up and as a person, but the promo skills. I feel like all of my promo skills are him, AJ,

Jon Moxley was another great one. I always watched people like that who were able to be real but also be so deep as a character. So I feel like that's where I pick it up from, I guess. A lot of people reach out when you got the news. A lot of people offering support. Yeah, yeah. That must have felt good.

Yeah, definitely. Like, I said it, I think I said it to Roxanne, it kind of felt like I was like, it was such a weird feeling. It felt like being alive for your own funeral. It's like, I'm here, but everyone's tweeting, like I'm not here. It's like I'm like here but I'm everyone's like tweeting like I'm not here it's like I'm watching like the death of like Corajade essentially like so it's like weird and sad but also like so many like good things and like so many like memories that maybe I had like not

forgot about but like people would put like all my like NXT stuff together and like send me stuff and it's like stuff like I forgot about my call like that was so fun like it was good to like get the support and then like just be shown like everything I really did do like that I was only in my wildest dreams like as a kid so I don't feel like obviously there's so much more I want to do and I'm only 24 years old who's to say I'll never do it sure but I'm very happy with how my career went. Like, I feel like I really did, like obviously I would have liked to win that NXT title at some point, but I feel like other than that,

like I got to do so much, like I'm really like, I have nothing, I had an action figure, that was like always my dream, I had shirts, like I had so many dreams like that I know like I'm happy and proud of that I got to accomplish, so I don't feel. I would say you're speaking in past tense, when had, I think there's a lot more Yeah to happen and you posted something today

Sort of implying that the Cora is dead for now. Yeah, what are you trying to say with this teaser that you put out? Yeah, so I kind of Videos coming out June 14th. Okay, the day of your first match day of my first match. It'll be out before then. But I had had this idea, kind of similar. In WB I had this kind of idea that I had presented that I wanted to do. I'm not going to give away too many details because it's going to be in this new video. But a little bit of aspects, I had these ideas and it never really went anywhere. So then after I got fired, I was like, obviously you obviously you have all these emotions and all this like time and everything. There it is.

So I had like so many little, I had a vision, but I didn't know how to put it together. I had like little aspects here and there that like I knew I wanted to like do and put a video out to like get people's attention and like more so I don't know if it's like a rebrand or like maybe a mix of like the old me and like the Corajay the current Corajay But I had this idea and then I had talked to this videographer. His name's Kyle He's worked with like a bunch of done like music videos. I've worked with other athletes whatever. He's done a video with Matt Cardona He sent it to me Because I posted I needed a videographer. I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. I just knew I had like some type of idea He hit me up, we

started talking. I gave him a very loose kind of rundown of what ideas I had. And then he's incredible. He took the little pieces that I said and created a movie. Everything he said to me was like, I couldn't have said it better. That's exactly what was in my head and you just created that. So I flew to Chicago like

two weeks ago because he's from there and I wanted to see my family. And then I he said to me was like, I couldn't have said it better. Like that's exactly what was in my head and you just created that. So I flew to Chicago like two weeks ago because he's from there and I wanted to see my family anyway. So we rented out a studio and got like videographers, we got like props, we got like, his sister was helping with makeup. Like we got like all these people to help us.

We got like all these different little scenes. Like we were shooting for like 12 hours, like all these little different scenes. But so that's what that is. But I don't want to give away anything else because the whole video is going to come out. You can create all of this. Exactly. Like this is the stuff that I love. Like being creatively free like this and like being able to do. I feel like a lot of what was kind of taken from me when I got signed because I felt like what I was when I got signed isn't what I was in WWE because I feel like I was

kind of molded and like they didn't really like some of the stuff that I was what I wanted to bring back from like my previous court or Elena Black character so now I feel like I get to like do all of that now and like have my own like vision like all of that was like my vision in my head that he put together and like just way better than I could have ever even imagined. So I feel like it's like peeling back some layers and some vulnerability that I feel like

I've never shown before. So it's a mix of the new me, the old me, and like presence, something like that. Are you getting crap for the OnlyFans? Yeah. You are? Yeah, yeah. More than you expected? Oh, no, as much as the OnlyFans? Yeah. You are? Yeah, yeah. More than you expected?

Oh, no, as much as I expected. Okay. Yeah. What's your response? That's all I gotta say. Like, it's ridiculous because I, it's just crazy. It's 2025 and people are still trying to tell women what they can do with their bodies.

In my opinion, it's ridiculous. And like, people can show what they wanna show is their bodies, but it's like, if I... I feel like people are only mad because now they have to pay for it. Because if I was posting a bikini picture on Instagram a month ago for free, every guy on there is like happy about it. But now if I'm not going to be posting that on Instagram and now you're going to go to my OnlyFans, now you're mad because you have to pay for it, but you were going to do it anyways Instagram and now you're going to go to my OnlyFans now you're mad because you have to pay for it but you were going to do it anyways for free you're just mad that now I'm profiting off of it and I'm still have being able to make other income other places and still wrestle at

the same time so it's like what if you think that's bad that's on you don't subscribe I'm not asking you to like you don't have to like I've never been concerned with what other people are doing with their body and how they're making their money. Power to you. It is what it is. What's the 444? So this is, I always heard about angel numbers. I don't know if you're familiar with that.

I know 1111. Yes, some people will say if they always see a certain number all the time, always very coincidentally. And that never really happened to me. and I would always see people like have those numbers and stuff like whether it's like 777 or like 1111 whatever and I was like that never happens to me like I guess I'm just missing something I don't know but a week before I got fired I started seeing 444 everywhere. Wow.

Everywhere and then I looked up the meaning after I had gotten fired because I kept seeing it and it means like I'm probably butchering it now but like it's like a basically essentially a like a growth or rebrand period a rebuilding period like essentially you're being like shown that like you're on the right path and so I was like well I keep seeing that at this time in my life that's really weird and for the past like four weeks I keep seeing four four four and I feel like it's like a. And for the past four weeks, I keep seeing 444, and I feel like it's a weird thing,

so I got the necklace, because I feel like it's my lucky number now. A lot of signs. Yeah. A lot of signs. So what we've learned, Cora Jade, at least for now, dead. Yes, dead and gone.

But she can't come back. She can't come back. Maybe be resurrected one day. One day, one day. Did you like the name? It grew on me. Did you come up with it? I did. Why?

Because I wanted to do Elena Black, they didn't let me keep that. I don't know what the reason was. They had to give a list of like ten or five to ten names. I don't remember, I think this was my second option. I don't remember what my first one was. I know it was Jade something. But this is my second option because I'm a big fan of the movie Coraline. Are you familiar? It's like a creepy little like cartoony kind of like creepy little movie but the girl's name in it is Coraline Jones. Okay. So I was like Cora Jade is close enough to like Coraline Jones. Okay. And I didn't think that they were gonna pick it but they did. So yeah. And the whole like biker not like like skateboarder and stuff like that, was that your idea or theirs?

A little mix of both. Like I remember talking with like, his name is Katz. He's like super creative and like helps you come up with like any idea ever. But I don't know how it came up. And then we were just thinking about something that like really wasn't being done like in NXT at the time. And I was like, well, I have this like, me and my brother used to like ride skateboards, like when we were kids. And then I was super into like like pop punk music at the time too. So we're like, let's just do this like spunky, like little skater girl. Like there was really nothing like that at the time and like little grungier but like. Avril Lavigne-esque. Yes, yeah. You know Avril Lavigne? Yes.

I'm a big fan. Yeah, I used to be obsessed with her clothing line. That's all I would ever wear when I was a kid. Really? Yeah. What was it called? I don't remember. I just remember that it was at Coles and they always had like black skulls and stuff on them

and I thought it was so cool like wearing those all the time. And did you prefer being baby face or heel? I prefer wrestling as a baby face, but character wise I prefer being heel. Got it. That makes sense. Makes sense, totally, totally. And now you'll be heel?

I don't know. I kind of want to try being baby face, but I feel like it might just depend where I'm at know. I kinda wanna try being baby face. But I feel like it might just depend where I'm at and who I'm wrestling and stuff now. But I would like to dabble back into, that was one of my ideas that I gave, actually I had a meeting two days before I got fired and I gave that idea.

Oh gosh. Yeah, so maybe now I'll be baby face. Yeah. Well this has been great. Yeah, thank you so much. Was there anything, I know this is like your sort of big, you know, coming out as a new person, as a free agent, anything we didn't touch on that you wanted to get out there? I don't think so, yeah.

I feel like we touched on a lot. My video's coming out June 14th, the OnlyFans is out today. I'm not lazy. I'm not lazy. I've gained a lot of pounds of muscle, so I don't wanna hear it. Okay, all right.

Yeah, I guess just seeming. You're not going anywhere you're you're gonna be all over the states and Canada. Yeah and I have some other countries coming up too those aren't announced yet so I'll keep those quiet but I will be going to a few other countries. Yeah I'm just excited to be on the go now. A new lease on life. Yeah I feel very like free like I don't wake up and feel like anxiety like I feel like feel good. Yeah, that's most important Yeah, congratulations. Thank you for coming in. Thank you very much Safe travels back home. Thank you. I gotta get back to my dog. Yes, good luck with everything coming up

We look forward to watching you mentioned one of those classic punk interviews. What did you know it? I had one Waiting as we were gonna say goodbye. So we'll take a quick break, we'll say goodbye to Alaina Black, here's an old school punk interview, and we'll be back to wrap up the show, don't go anywhere. All right, we are back on the program. Classic, I think that was the first one. Myself, Casey, Esther, At the Crib in Chicago,

I do believe that was the first and we did I think it was 2012 2013 2014 2015 UFC debut was 16. There was a good run there And then there were a few years without one and then he came back obviously In studio last year that in studio interview that everyone remembers appreciate Elena black formerly known as Cora Jade, for jumping in, that was a lot of fun and a great story. And you've seen this a lot in the world of pro wrestling.

Youngsters, you know, maybe having a few years and then going elsewhere. And then getting an opportunity to develop their character, their personality, and then come back. So I don't think it's the end of her story, whether it's in AEW or in WWE or somewhere else. Yesterday, there was some news regarding some releases. The one that made the most headlines, of course,

was R-Truth, Ron Killings, who announced that he is no longer under contract. I'm sorry to inform you all, I just got released from WWE. I want to thank WWE for the ride, but mostly I want to thank each and every one of you who was along for the ride. Thank you for the love, support, and appreciation you have given me over the years.

Thank you. Look at that, 14.6 million views, and that was some five hours ago, 11, 12 a.m. He had just been involved in a feud with John Cena, and the timing is a little bit interesting because you would think You know, maybe if they were planning on Parting ways after all these years, I think he's 53. Maybe he would have you know beaten him up And ended him ended the R-Truth character and gotten Cena some incredible heat

For being the guy to end this beloved character's run, but it doesn't seem like it was something that was in the works back then. So it's a bit of a surprising one. Carlito also announcing that his contract wasn't going to be renewed. This is a thing in pro wrestling. It's not uncommon, but what differentiates pro wrestling with other forms of combat. And in particular MMA, like now someone like her has a litany of places that they can go sign with

and make a pretty damn good living in addition to the big dogs, the AWs, the New Japans, the TNAs, et cetera. As opposed to say a Jarzino Rosenstrike who I understand is 14 years older, but now he has to go Into a completely different sector go down the dirty boxing route or go back to kickboxing. I'll keep repeating this It's just another indication of how much more

How much healthier the pro wrestling business is in the sense that there's just other opportunities for the athletes to To make money and to gain experience. So it's a, it's an interesting dichotomy. Pizzi is here. Pizzi, are you there? I am. How are you, man? I'm absolutely devastated to hear about Jordan Brin.

Can't believe that. Such sad news. I was going to make a joke here off the bat, but Pizzi, I saw that as I was saying goodbye to Chael and it took my breath away. It took my breath away. What yeah. It took my breath away. What do you remember about Jordan? Tell us. I spoke about him like in the moment there, but what a character, right? Wow, unbelievable.

And look, like you, Chuck, Ben, so many others. One of the guys I would have looked up to very early on and thought, like, wow, this guy is really doing it. The stuff he did with Sherdog, which you mentioned earlier, like when Sherdog was Sherdog, the all violence awards, the press rose like I owe an amazing amount of my career to people like you and Jordan, who were bringing me on shows from early on and like I can remember the first time I met you. I can remember the first time I met you, I can remember the first time I met Jordan

and I just couldn't believe, you know, he looked like he could be a magician or a rock star or, you know, so many different things. Just this cool looking motherfucker knew everything about MMA and he was bringing me on his shows pretty much from when McGregor made his debut or just beforehand, I believe Graham from severe. I may had kind of linked it all up and you know, put me over like as they say in progress and right like this just amazing mind a bit like a journalistic compulsive. He seemed to watch every single fight. He seemed to know something about every fight he could bring up and just a just a real pioneer. I feel like in the media space as well, obviously he was on the podcast very early on like yourselves.

And then he had the the all violence awards. I think we're just a real piece of like iconic journalism in this sport. Like it was a different kind of ranking system. And he was a big player in that. I'm not the guy behind it all. And yeah, just, just such sad news. And out of nowhere, I think, I think about a month ago, just before we went live on the crack, we were me, Ben and Chuck were just discussing

like, well, geez, where is Jordan? Like what's going on with him? So sad, man. on the crack. We were me, Ben and Chuck were just discussing like, what, geez, where is Jordan? Like what's going on with him? Um, so sad, man, honestly, God, just, just, uh, like a gut punch seeing Mike Bond's tweet earlier. I, um, I was thinking the same very recently as well, cause he was one of those guys. If you saw him, uh, during fight week, it was, it was a lot of fun because not only was he an encyclopedia of MMA

knowledge, but he was very eccentric, but he also had an incredible vocabulary, right? Like he was very well read, very, very smart. And you're right, in case you don't know who we're talking about, because I understand there are a lot of newer fans, here are some photos of Jordan Breen that we've been able to gather, just to give you a sense.

Here he is with the great Esther Lin. From back in the day, he was very close to Esther and Casey. There he is with the aforementioned Casey. And you could tell, he's got the long beard, he's got the rock star hair, he had a very, very sort of like eclectic wardrobe. Avant garde. Yeah.

And I do believe here he is speaking with the aforementioned Mike Bond, two Canadians from back in the day, just a great character and you're a hundred percent right. The sort of written spoken word version of Capoza and I was thinking of that when we were talking about him or when I was talking about him early on there. And that's the ultimate compliment, because to me, Capoza is like the most knowledgeable MMA slash combat person that I know.

I've never met him, but I've never heard him speak. And so Jordan was kind of like the walking, talking version of him. Yeah, a proud Nova Scotian. And I don't know a Yeah, a proud Nova Scotian. And I don't know a lot of people from Nova Scotia and a proud Canadian as well, and just did great work, man. Did really great work.

And I don't know if there's a cause of death that has been reported or anything like that, but just feel awful. And yeah, man, there are people that we've met along the way. I think of my friend, Snax Geller, who passed away at a very young age. There's another MMA journalist.

He was a Toronto radio personality, did great work named Jeff Roman, and who was a big MMA and pro wrestling fan. He unfortunately just passed away, I think at 41 after a battle with colon cancer. Like these things are tough to take and, uh, I just hope that his family is okay. And, and, um, yeah, I hope Jordan knows how much he was appreciated and respected in this community, uh, because he really was, he really, really was. Those press row shows were great because they were so freaking extensive.

Like you had to block off two and a half to three hours. And it's like, all right guys, let's get into the first fight of the night. And by the way, no chance we could do that in today's UFC. Like back then it was when there were like 12 or 13 shows, you know what I mean? But it's like, oh yeah, let's go into like the first. He would be doing a press row for Apex 107, breaking down, you know, the curtain jerker from Saturday night. That's how DP went into it. So yeah thank you for allowing us to talk about it. I remember he yeah I remember this is how much he knew I'm pretty sure this happened and Graham from Sevier would be able to tell me. I was doing a show for like a Norman Park fight as you said like just it's a random

fight right like not a big not a numbered event, nothing like that. And I think I was talking about Norman Parks, like pre ultimate fighter career. And he corrected me on something like this guy who's fighting out of Northern Ireland in the UK. I didn't think anyone did. I I'm pretty sure he like corrected me. He's like, no, I believe that was actually blah, blah, blah. And I was like, Oh shit.

Yeah, you're right. It's a, he was, he knew so much and I had a great night out with him. Um, in Vegas with Graham again, very early on I was in my, uh, my old home base of Hooters. You'll remember. Oh yes. And then let's be clear for those that don't know the Hooters hotel and casino, not just the Hooters restaurant.

It was the only hotel we could afford to stay in. It was across from the MGM. So the, the location was, was, was very convenient. But you guys are rightfully so with like, you know, poke fun at it. It was a shithole. It was an absolute shithole. It was a shit bucket. Yeah.

And I can remember I was talking to all of yous and again, I'm blown away. Like these are my first few events in, in America. This is my first time in America and all you guys are being so nice to me and taking the piss about. Those are your first time. When was your first time in America? I think, uh, I think silver. I think when Connor, come on, that was your first time. Yeah. Yeah. 2000, 2015, 14, oh wait, no, well then no, yeah. 2000, 2015, 14. Oh, wait, no, well then, no, sorry. Poirier 4 was probably my first one then. UFC 178.

September of 14. That was your first time in America. I didn't realize that. Wow. I'm saying, I'm saying in Hooters or whatever. Yeah. And he was like, oh yeah, I'll be over. I'll be over later.

At what time? Yeah, give me your number there. We'll go get some food. I'm out with him all night. And it was a it was brilliant. He was just such a character and Hadn't hadn't seen or heard from him in a very long time and just out of nowhere seeing that today from like just an absolute Go-punch man. Yeah So long Jordan Breen that really really really hard to see in real time Some other unfortunate news ptc BJ Penn arrested again on Friday in his home

state of Hawaii in relation to his ongoing claims. This is from Uncrowned that his family has been murdered and replaced with imposters. It was Penn's third arrest over a six-day span. Penn's latest arrest occurred as a result of the former two division UFC champion failing to appear in court and thus violating his bail agreement. In a fighting first report of the news, Penn was previously arrested on Sunday and then again on Monday, both times on charges of abuse of a family or household member. He is 46 years old and was once again released on bail following his latest arrest. The Hawaiian news outlet KHON2 reported Penn unsuccessfully claimed he missed court due to being ill with COVID. Penn's request to the court to recall his warrants also denied. Penn's mother, Lorraine Shin, 79, filed for a temporary restraining order against her

son this past week. Judge Jeffrey Eng approved the order on Tuesday, which is to remain active for at least 180 days. According to the DNA finding, Penn is expected to go to court again on June 10th for a hearing on the matter and must remain at least 100 feet away from his mother. He's also not allowed to contact Shin while the temporary order is in place. It's a heartbreaking story and yeah, it's a very sad thing to watch from afar, especially when it involves family, it involves his mother. His mother was a fixture at all of his events, at all of his fights.

They're wearing the merch, selling the merch, his mother, his father, his brother, like it was a Penn family affair anytime he fought. And so to see this story play out this way and the arrests and the social media posts and whatnot. Again, I think we all hold BJ Penn, the fighter, in the highest of regard. Rick telling us in the past that he was one of his favorite, if not his favorite fighter, traveling to go watch him fight. I at one point thought he was the greatest fighter

in the world. I still think he's the greatest lightweight of all time. To see this is awful is, uh, is awful. It really is. Um, yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, some of these posts are disturbing. I don't think you could ever imagine it could go this wrong for BJ, you know?

Um, if you consider when you're, when you started covering them, right? You were over in Hilo covering that, that a pre-GSP fight, right? Like you were part of that documentary and it was appointment viewing. Um, this guy taught differently. He was a one of a kind kind of guy. Like to see it go, to see a legend become in many ways a cautionary tale. And obviously there's a lot of layers to this. There's I think issues as well with the brain.

I can't imagine. Yep. It's it doesn't have anything to do with that. Like this is one of the true hazards of the fight game. I just never thought I can remember even very early on in my BJ Penn fandom people like well he's from a wealthy family and all like he doesn't have to be doing this. You know, if this doesn't work out, he has a lot to fall back on and stuff. It's just you know, these things, these things can come after anyone, you know, if this doesn't work out, he has a lot to fall back on and stuff. It's just, you know, these things,

these things can come after anyone, you know? And it's really, really sad. And as you say, his family always a massive part. Even that documentary I just mentioned with GSB, I believe his brothers were all over that as well. Like that was him taking control of his camp. Oh yeah. To see it going like this is, it's really tragic, honestly.

We usually come to you as the sort of the bright light in our days, but. Sorry guys. No, unfortunately we have more unfortunate news to bring up here on air Jordan alerting me. Remember that young man who the fighting nerds brought out Carlos Proches prior to the Ian Gary fight. He was a big fan of his.

They made him an honorary member of the team. This was back in late April in Kansas City. His name, Randy Murphy. Well, Carlos Pratches posting that unfortunately, he has passed away of esophageal cancer. Today we lost a guy from our team. Just wanna say thanks to this guy for teaching me a lot of lessons during the week of my last fight.

Also, thanks for all the single words and energy you sent to me, brother. One of the best fighters I ever meet. And I am not talking about the fight in the cage. We are proud of you, bro. You fought so hard. Now it's time to rest. Randy, rest in peace at randog816. It was a huge honor to meet this guy.

I will never forget. So thank you for telling me about that. That was a great scene and they really embraced him and and made him feel like part of the team prior to that fight against Ian Gary. Is there any positive news that we could talk about? Is there anything happy and and warm and fuzzy that you wanted to bring up. What about the anti-trust lawsuit? There's a couple of new ones. Brighten our day with this. Phil Davis. You guys want to talk about that?

Yeah, what a joy to end on. An old man showed up to me today in the park. An old man? What did you do? I didn't have Reggie on the lead. An old man? What did you do? I didn't have Reggie on the lead. Oh, that's a big problem. Hey, it's not. I don't think you're one of those.

He's 15 pounds. Uh, he needed to have a shit. So he needs to be freed to do his business. You know what I mean? Is that how you do it? He doesn't, he doesn't, he can't be restricted. He does not want that. He wants to free Rome and then get into a squat position.

So we drove to a posh part of Dublin that should be mentioned. We're not in Blanchardstown. Nobody would ever speak to me like this in Blanchardstown. Walking through a park, Reggie is on the grass. He's on the grass. There's a path. We're walking down the path. There's a 70 year old man in Lycra running and it doesn't look good. It's an eyesore if anything. And he's coming towards me and I'm not really paying attention. I'm talking to Alain, talking absolute bullshit as usual. Reggie's here. As he comes past, he roars in my face. He goes, on the lead! But I thought like he was having some episode or something. So I turned around to Alain

and laughed. I was like, what did he say? And like he said on the lead. I was like, what's he mean? It's just like the dog and I was like, ah So we kind of won I feel got away from me. I didn't retort. Yeah the last man Yeah, I just I was like we were just walking and I was just like I should have said about a hairdom I would have said blah blah blah and I was like just listen take the L And that's all I said on the lead and he just kept going it was it was the way he said it. It was like game of Thrones. So he's like on the lead He was like coffee words and just kept on moving. Yeah. Yeah gone like he was shifting dude He was like he was fucking he was on turbos man for that. Yeah, that happened to me. Don't know if that's funny But I mean, no, it seems like a great experience.

It's an interesting experience, you know what I mean? Like, it would have been weird if I had gotten a fistfight with a seven-year-old man. No, I don't think that would have been appropriate. Do you think it would have happened in a non-Poshparton town? Or because you were in the Poshparton town, did they take that more seriously? They took it more... like, he was the only one. Everybody had their fucking dog off the lead. You know what I mean? This fellow is just an old codger, a prick,

if you will, fucking running around with his leg on. Someone needs to tell him, listen, mate, you're not built for that shit. You're not you're not Lance Armstrong. It's like, you know, what the fuck are you wearing? Like who bought this for Christmas or whatever? I was like, here, grand, that fucking run down the promenade with on you. No one will say a word. I would have said something.

Hopefully, no one says. Hopefully he sees this. Oh, he fucking he'll see it. It'll get to him. If you live in Black Rock, find that old prick and loiter and send this video next fucking week, mate.

Next fucking week. Oh, Reggie, we'll be on his lead next week. So do what you're going to do. Respect. He was wearing a full bikers outfit he was in a fucking lycra like he was nothing short to have one of those little straws coming around but yeah yeah fucking stay I thought he was like having an episode of some kind I didn't realize it and the episode is get your dog on a lead

and don't make him absolutely not like you know I mean I'm not doing that doing that. The dog is not a threat to anyone. He is a beautiful little angel. Well, what about Mateus Gamarot, I mean he looked he looked dominant in his win over Lou Dovid Klein for sure He wants to fight Ben was a Dini Did he do nothing right or Patti Pimlet, right? Or Paddy Pimlet, but it doesn't seem. Did he do enough? Yeah. Yeah. He's ranked higher than BS.

I know, but you need style points. Short notice main event. You're right, you're right. He's got the main event. But it was only three rounds. It was an Apex main event. It was only three rounds. He only needed the three rounds.

What are you trying to take his shine away for, Ariel? He's a fucking UFC Apex main event there. All right. He's paid his dues. Drop the three rounds. What are you trying to take his shine away for? I really is a fucking UFC Apex main event there. All right. He's paid his dues. Drop the Apex. He's just, he's just a UFC main event. Did you enjoy the show? Apex one Saturday night?

Yeah. No, it wasn't, wasn't much to enjoy. There were a couple of actually between that and the Knicks. Oh, don't even care. Don't know why you remind me. Uh, Ramiz Brahimaj. Yeah. Great sub. Great sub. There were a couple of actually. I was thinking between that and the Knicks. Ah, don't even, why do you remind me? Ramiz Brahimaj. Yeah.

Great sub. Great sub. Great sub against the massive favorite and short notice Billy Ray Goff. Jacoby with the only KO slash TKO didn't get an award. I saw he was a little bit of a bonus, I should say. Aniak, legend. Jordan Levitt with a nice sub as well.

He got a bonus monkey. I do love Jordan. That's it. Legend. Yeah. There were a couple of good. It's a great, this is a great review. And he says the fucking fight was like, yeah.

Yeah, come on. That happened. We've got a great, we've got a fight. Apex card. We've got a great, by the way, all apex cards should be nine to 10 fights. All it needs to be a legal mandate that they start at 4 PM Eastern. The nine fight apex card. We've got a great, by the way, all apex cards should be nine to 10 fights. All it needs to be a legal mandate that they start at 4pm Eastern. Or that.

Or that. Just fucking lock it into a 15 minute hoiler reel and just post it. You know what I mean? I mean the pacing on Saturday was tough. Why? Why? Lost a lot. I'd go to the bathroom.

I'd go eat. You know why? By the way. It's just like this, the next fight hasn't even started yet. I'm sitting around waiting for Ketlin Vieira, Macy's Shazan. You know, you know You know why? By the way. It's just like this, the next fight hasn't even started yet. I'm sitting around waiting for Ketlin Viera, Macy Shazan. You know what the difference is by the way? You know the difference? No joke.

It's because it was a linear card. So when it's on ESPN linear, there's commercial breaks and all this stuff that they have to take into account. When it's just a plus card, you can roll right through it. It's actually better. I am with you. I think people were too like, sky's falling. It was a bad card. We're moving on. Our boy Ant Evans had a banger.

What did he say? He just had a tweet that said like the UFC is washed or something and it went super viral and I was like wow Ant, he finally did it. No one is a master of negativity more than Ant Evans. I was rough as a dog's ass boys. I agree with you. But Ant Evans being negative about it is not a barometer. I'd be worried if I was the UFC and Anstack being really positive about something I'd be like what the fuck you know what I mean? The Hall of Fame is all these he's giving credit for and that's because he actually built the fucking thing you know what I mean? You get one thing wrong about the Hall of Fame. Oh he will come for you he will come for your

neck. Speaking of Patti a bit of a back and forth with Armin Tarukin. Armin Tarukin was a victorious over the weekend in a grappling match against Patricki Pippel. Um, so good to see him, you know, back in there, although I want to see him actually compete. Like what the hell, man? He was supposed to fight in January, uh, by all accounts, he seems to be okay, but a little back and forth here

between Armin and Patty. Here's Patty speaking to BBC Sport. No one cares about Armin. He's an absolute tool. My next opponent will likely be, more than likely be, Justin Gaethje. And here's Armin replying. It was obvious you were talking trash with zero intention of backing it up. Your UFC career is built on handouts, hype, and shortcuts to the top. Great punctuation. And I do believe here's Patty. Yeah, a lot of commas there. Rich Boy talking about handouts. You've been handed everything on a silver platter your whole life by Daddy You Clown.

I think that's a clown. Never said I wouldn't fight you. It's just nobody cares about you after pulling out against Islam because of a quote unquote back injury. We all know you was the sausage. You know, you know, it's interesting. When did this whole thing of Armin being a rich boy come up? You know. That's the first time I heard it. I didn't realize that was a thing. No, it's been a thing this year. This year it's

been a thing, but I don't remember being a thing like two, three years ago. Like where did this come from? Did someone unearth some secrets? And by the way, what kind of an insult really is being a rich boy? I mean, like, is that really the worst thing that you could say about someone? And if it is the worst thing that you could say

about someone, is it really such a bad thing? You know what I mean? I don't know. Anyway, we've entered a weird period where a lot of people are talking smack and not fighting, you know? Yeah. Ilja, Islam, John, Tom, Patty, Armin.

Is this new? I feel like this has been ever since Connor McGregor came into the sport. This has been the nature of it. What do you guys think of this Tom, John? How many used to fight people? No, no, I'm not saying Connor himself. After Connor, everybody's done some, I'm calling

out 17 different people Not really like targeted kind of trash talk everybody gets it. It's just all bullshit in the air. There's no real things anymore What do you what do you guys think of the the latest with Tom John? It sounds like Tom is is done with it. It sounds like the way Or do you think he's just trying to hit him back with his version of trolling? I think that's right Yeah, what I'm exhausted by it. This is no longer in the hands of Tom and John at this point. There's nothing to be done.

The ball's not moving. It's staying wherever, whatever yard line it's on, it just sits there. I said I was- Didn't John say something in Phuket? Like the UFC have the something or other and the something or other is going to- They have their thing and he said legally, he said legally I can't talk about it. I don't know if that's exactly true. What a lot of can't talk about I don't know if that's exactly I don't know if that's exactly if you're done you're done if you're done you're done

I don't know what to make of it all and again. I don't think we will know until they have to make a call about MSG and That's a long old fucking time man. Yeah, like I was there You know we're talking about this and I think you're right in terms of right now. How do people feel about that fight? It's lost Sheen. I will say though, like every time we post something about it on social media, like on YouTube, it goes crazy. So I don't know what Chael is doing, but we're having a bit of a different, right? Yeah, but I do think like regardless of that sentiment, if the fight was made, the week of it's gonna be fucking crazy you know what I mean like we can we're a bit pissed off because it's all this fucking foreplay and tickling the balls you know without any climax you know I'm saying you know I'm saying yeah sure when we

get when we get when we get the ball rolling here we'll all be very I don't think it would even need to take till fight week I think if they just make the fight the excitement will be right back. If you get that official announcement with the graphic and everything, and you get a date and a location and everything on the books, the excitement will immediately return.

What's the reaction, right? 100%. It's just annoying right now. It's annoying right now, but. Oh yeah, it's just, it's getting to the point where I'm just kind of ignoring it. I just kind of keep moving whenever I see anything about it. Yeah, they're both. What if they announced they're both very much leaning in they're both very much leaning into it, too

Right like they're both. Oh, thank you for the petition. I'm retired. You know what I mean? They're both John essentially I mean Tom essentially was saying on social today's like alright. I'm done with this We're moving on UFC. Yeah time for me to fight for the undisputed belt Yeah, good night John. Yeah, I don't know if he's trying to like, just put that out there. I don't know. Because, yeah. It does join every angle. It may as well.

I don't know. It doesn't really matter what they say at this point. There's nothing to say. Other than we're fighting or not fighting. Maybe Tom should try to retire to see what happens then. You know, like we've tried every fucking angle. No, John will come out of retirement instantly then. We'll see what happens.

Does it happen? Does it happen? No, of course it doesn't happen. You're saying it's done? It's completely done. Not happening? Dead? John has been pretty clear at this point I feel like, unless I'm misreading what he's putting down, he's been pretty damn clear about I'm not fighting anymore. Yeah. Without announcing he's not fighting because he says the UFC has

some plan and whatever the fuck. But if he's protecting his legacy, Rick, this is a terrible way to go about it, right? Because even though like his legacy is intact, we all agree on that. You're not going to forget this though, this year-long pursuit. I think we will forget it, but I don't think it will be completely erased. We will forget this whole thing that's happening, but it will be part of the story. I just don't think it's going to change too much. part of the story. I just don't think it's gonna change too much. No. Yeah, okay. No.

Just like, by the way, there was a hit and run accident back in 2015. Like, did that change his legacy? No. People are climbing for him to fight. But it's just, if you're telling the story properly, and it ends like this, you have to say, and then at the end... How much Johnny Hendrix, GSP duck Johnny Hendrix do we hear about these days? Like, left the sport, win the... Yeah, it's like none zero It doesn't even know what nobody gives a shit. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa GSP. Duck. Duck. Johnny Hendrix

Yeah, didn't didn't he bought him after that? Yeah, and then left after right after the controversial one or am I misremembering the order? No, no, yes, but how could you say he ducked him if you fought him? Yeah. Well, he the rematch thought he won that no Yeah, sure. Sure. Yes, but he didn't, maybe the rematch, but like he- Right, do you hear people talking about he didn't rematch Johnny Hendrix? You heard about it then, I remember it at that time, you don't remember that, I remember that combo. I'll type in like MMA hour episode like 107,

and you're like, holy shit, you know what I mean? Like what was the news of the time- This is my point, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I get it, I get it, that it. I get it. I think a lot of it on how much we remember it has to do with how Tom's career plays out. If Tom ends up being like one of the greatest heavyweights ever, you know, it'll be like, yeah, he ducked Tom. If Tom ends up getting, you know, loses his next fight, loses his next fight, then it's just a wash. It's a fantastic, you know, four or five fights in his career. People will definitely be like, well, John would have beaten him anyway.

It's a fantastic point. If he slips and falls in his next fight, or even in the second. Yeah, it doesn't have to even be next. Yeah, let's say he gets two title defenses and then never gets the belt back again after that. It'll be like, well, John was probably going to beat him anyway.

100%. But when he goes on to have 15 title defenses, breaking up direct. If Tom doesn't have a sterling record, John will feel like have 15 title defenses, you know, breaking it up. If Tom doesn't have a sterling record, John will feel like he won that exchange, you know, just by sitting it out. What do you think, Awani, is it going to happen? Tom Aspinall loses, John is getting immediately on social media. Yeah.

You asked me this question, Pizzi, do I think it's going to happen? Honestly, because if I say something people will take that as reporting No, but like you're in no man's land like the rest of us right to a large degree 100% Do I think that it is 1000% dead no because if it was they probably would have moved on but again They don't need Tom yet, so they don't have to move on. Do I think there's like this much chance? And this is not me hedging, by the way.

This is not me hedging because trust me, everything I've heard about this story, it's like the stance changes as the wind blows. So is it trending in the right direction? No, obviously not. But can I say with 100% certainty that it's dead? No. I'm just waiting for anything. By the way, everything that I've said is 100% accurate too.

Like, he did ask for a lot of money, they did meet the money, he did say thanks but no thanks, he did go to do this reality show. By the way, remember way back when I said the six month thing and now everyone's just repeating that like it's like it just was said from, I don't know if he said it to someone else, but that's a real thing too. But since all those things have been said, there hasn't been one shred of evidence that makes me think it has improved, right? There's not been one piece of evidence that's in the positive direction like Okay. Since then, it's moved on. I'll give you one. I'll give you one.

Hit me. The fact that they're kind of flirting with each other, especially John referencing Tom, you know, there was a period where he never even mentioned him. We did this with Francis, though. I don't know, man. We did this with Francis.

I'm trying to convince myself of this. Yeah. I don't know. All right, fine. Every new interview where he talks about how happy he is with life and his legacy, I'm just like, there it goes. There it goes. That fight ain't happening. It is kind of funny.

To be honest, how ridiculous this is that we're still here on every interview. We want it to be true more than there is anything there. How about the fact that for the longest time, you know, we would kind of laugh at boxing and be like over here, man, we don't have to deal with this stuff. And it's like this, Ilja Islam, you know, fights falling through. It's like golly. I guess this is like five years ago. Yeah. Like what the fuck is this? Like you guys, PT, do you subscribe to the wash stuff? I don't think it's washed, but it's, it's just not as good.

So I mean, I think like we've done this before. I can remember when the fight night started to get diluted. Remember they used to put around that picture of Pori and Alvarez like headline on the fight night card or whatever it was and all the big names that used to be on the fight night cards. Like it's happened before. I just think it's kind of compounded a lot of things because of these two massive fights not being made. Yeah.

I think that's kind of kicked us in the dick a bit this year. And yeah, it's just this a new business model and we kind of have to get used to it, but as well as that, like I'll say the law, the loyalty, the fan base had this new fan base that came along of late or came along in the pandemic is crazy. Like they are, I've never seen a fan base support a league or a company the way these guys support the UFC. Like I've been watching football my whole life. I don't even really hear people talking about the league, like Premier League, La Liga.

You don't really hear about it unless it's like referee situation or something like that. Meaning it's all the clubs and not the league itself? Is that what you're saying? Like in terms of the teams? And like even when it does come up, like the fan base are very openly critical. Like they don't mind, like these are the least important people in terms of what I am enjoying. These are not the guys out there doing the sport. Um, they, they take, they, they're openly criticized by everyone pretty much.

Same as the NFL. I feel like, um, as I've been watching that, like the league gets a lot of shit as a good elder guy, he gets a lot of shit. Um, the owners get a lot of shit. You know, um, I've just never seen it in a sport where the worship of the league and the powers that be rather than the athletes. And I feel like that's where we are with the UFC. My only counterpoint to that is that I feel like the UFC is the team though,

because all your favorite fighters are on that team, right? Whereas across the other sports, all your favorite players are on that team. And then there's that larger infrastructure over that's the league. There is no thing, right? They're all the UFC. Yeah, but even club owners, teams, teams, like. You don't see the support for the teams themselves?

Maybe I'm. No, the, the, the, the, the. Oh, like the ownership, the executive. Yeah. The executive. The managers, the coaches, all this kind of stuff. They get shit. Like, so, you know, I'm like, I'm. The, the, the, the, the. Oh, like the ownership, the executive. Yeah. The executive.

The managers, the coaches, all this kind of stuff. They get shit. Like, so that's why I just, I think it's unique to this sport, honestly. Well, I think, uh, we'll be sitting here on a Monday next week, maybe after an all time classic between Sean O'Malley and Marab and an all time classic between between Kayla and Juliana and then we'll look and then and then we'll be in Vegas for International 5K and it's just it's just a talking point du jour. I saw one interesting talking point on on Twitter and it was is this the worst start to a UFC year other than 2020 in in your mind? Yeah might be.

Man there were some there were some pretty bad ones. You guys would obviously know much better than me. But they're capable. What's the most significant thing that's happened? So January was unfortunate with the arm and injury. Yeah, but the end to it dumb shunned. 100%. That's right, that's true.

Legendary. February's pay-per-view was DDP Strickland. Didn't love that one. March on Kaliapura was just a blow to the organization, right? That was significant though, at least. That was the first moment that I was like, oh shit. April was a good pay-per-view. Big Onk was born.

People loved April. April was good. Miami. May was better than it was what people thought it was going to be, right? Yeah. Expectations were so low. Over-delivered.

Yeah, I mean, it's not been great. The expectations were so low. Over-delivered. Yeah, I mean, it's not been great. I mean, I wish, by the way, can someone clip this off the next time someone calls this overly negative, can just this whole show? Just don't put my back in. Yeah. But it's not been great.

It's not been great. Top of mind. It certainly ain't 2016, tell you that much. 2016, 10 year anniversary next year. And a book coming out, 10 year Annie, that's a good call. 17, 17, you know, the McGregor era obviously was very, very special. Yeah, no, it hasn't been great, hasn't been great.

And by the way, and then you think, oh, could you imagine right now if there was like a good number two, putting on like some, putting on some like strike force circa 2011 fights? It's crazy how little competition there is. There's no competition in my mind. Could you imagine if someone was like, come over here. There's fun happening here.

You know what I mean? The schedule is responsible for both ends of that. The schedule, their aggressive schedule is responsible for one, us not enjoying things as we used to, because there are too many events. There is no time to marinate on anything. There's no time to enjoy anything before having move on to the next thing. And there's no time to set up actual storylines and care about anything because you're coming off another event and all of a sudden it's like, oh shit, there's a pay-per-view this weekend.

It just hit you after we just had another event. But it's also the thing that keeps the competition down because you cannot penetrate that. If the UFC never stops that train, that momentum is going to keep going and going and going. And there are no weekends for you to carve out. There's no time for you to grab a spot and say, Hey, we're shining here while the UFC is off. The UFC is never off. And they've got those

three letters that everybody's going to tune in for. So it's the, it's the best thing. And it's the worst thing for the UFC because it crushes everybody else. There's no way to get on that track anymore, but it also leads to these events that just come and go and nothing significant is happening and we don't care and then we're on to the next thing it's it's a gift how many people are watching these apex oh ton direct oh a ton what is it on what is it on I mean every time every week at ESPN there was a new record for how many people were watching a no I know but I wonder well that was a fucking platform that was launched with the UFC, it was an out year. Yeah, it was launched on a battle.

We'll know, we'll know because this is on linear TV, so we'll get the ratings. It's certainly not growing the sport. Anyone who's watching these Apex are obviously watching the fight night and they're also watching the pay-per-views as well. Yeah. It's not bringing in any new fans.

There's no chance. Talking to Sean Grandy last week, I was like, man, belt tour shows on Spike used to get a million plus. There's there's no chance. I talk you to Sean Grandy last week. I was like man Beltway shows on spike used to get a million plus. Yeah, the numbers are nuts back then If I pulled like a wide majority of my casual Friends, not only do they not watch there's no chance they even knew it was happening. No way. Yeah Yeah, they know them to pay my mates used to watch every guard my mates every fucking card They watch my brother used to hit me up and I was just with him and I was like, what was the last pay-per-view you watched?

He was like, I think it was O'Malley Cheeto. I was like, oh, dang it! O'Malley Cheeto 299? Oh, like you don't watch it at all. Remember the countdown shows airing on Spike was a big deal after Monday Night Raw. Getting over a million viewers for the countdown shows. We were starved for content.

Now we're over saturated. I still watch countdown every pay-per-view. Every single one? Do you? I love it, I love deal. Every single one? Do you? I love it. I love it. You get the voiceover, it's done. Wow.

UFC 360. Yeah. Wow. Poirter recently said that to me. He's like, it's mad that they don't do the countdowns anymore. I was like, no, they do. I know they post them on YouTube.

You know something I've noticed on the UFC's YouTube is they love making the fighters, and they do it on the embedded ones too. They make the fighters eyes like overly white Piercingly white it like it's like a horrifying looking but yeah, that's the countdown I actually watch countdown and embedded everything and tough, right? Give us the quick tough one. No tough. Give us the quick tough.

Embedded? You're watching everything embedded? I watch stuff. I like I want I throw an embedded like while I'm working I think it's still great content, just like the Nats sound. You get the behind the scenes of the fighters. I think it's cool. A lot of other people have tried to recreate it and copy it and not the same success.

They're also like bite sized. They're like eight, nine minutes. Sure. You get the music at the end. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. But what's the incentive? The best part of that will be on Twitter in four seconds. Yeah, but you get the whole feel of it. Countdown is still great in my opinion.

They go to the cities. What was that? He like aborted, he aborted his point halfway through. They got something there? The crack they got it. Super Chats. The crack was literally tough as dead on Friday. We did say, we did say, Chaplain DC only fucking good thing on it. Sure, sure. It's very funny at the start. DC is like, this season is going to be so special. Commences the exact same episode that we've seen for 33 seasons. More than that because there were a couple of regional ones. Fighter evaluations. Pick the teams. Oh, fuck it. Frankie, Super Chats.

Super Chats. They're quite super. All right. Starting with Zombie Slayers. Will DP really retire if he defeats Max Holloway? I mean, that's what he said. Not known to be a liar. So yeah, we'll take his word for it.

What else? Max Mad, August 12th, Chili has another contender on the way. Christopher Tonke, Uert, takes on Yuri. Okay. And WCS, D WCS. Shout out to boys in the back, getting paid in Chilean dollars. Okay, wow, look at us. We just got 2,500.

What's the, let's see. 2,500 Chilean dollars. What is that, What is that? 2500 Chilean three dollars and fifty four. Hey, you know yourself Okay. Well, by the way, I see two sixty six. Oh, well the inflation must change It's 266 No, no, we appreciate it very very much It's 266. No disrespect to the Chilean.

No, no, we appreciate it very, very much. What else? Sir Spliffington, hey, Ariel. I served you coffee yesterday. Thanks for stopping by. You and the crew and the boys in the back are welcome anytime. Coffee on me.

If you're ever in Sunset Park, check out my brother's cafe. Soul Cafe NYC. Is this true? Okay. You were at Sunset Park? Yeah, because that's not too far away Matt's first Flippington It's actually incredibly far from my feet. So well, this is yesterday. Oh, so you were you were busy. Okay, can you guys let me speak? I can't spike

They're doing this thing right now where they feel bad and they're trying to overcompensate and No, you made that clear, you made that clear. Who feels bad? Zero guilt. Very clearly because I don't get it. You were doing coffee yesterday? No, because they had a whole team outing, Pizzi. They had a whole team outing and I wasn't invited.

You of course. Wait, you weren't invited? You weren't invited as well, Pizzi. It was a 33% invitation. I heard you got invited. Do we need to rehash all this? I heard you got invited. I'm exhausted from rehashing all this.

Andy invited everyone that went. Andy. Wow. I think it's the first time ever invited me to a fight fees. She invited everyone. She looked, she looked at the seating chart and was like, wow, this is kind of weird that Hellwani's not here. Let me be the only thoughtful person in the bunch and extend an invitation. Hey, the family's going this and that.

I'm like, oh, I appreciate it. You knew you weren't welcome. I didn't. Yeah, come on. It's the extend the invitation part for I'm like, oh, I appreciate it. You knew you weren't welcome. I didn't Invitation part we've all had a token invite. We've all had a token and your invites are What does that even mean I got invited and I didn't know I just sold you guys did a fight feast which was was fine. And you do it, but then I see all these people, I'm like, wow, even Eric's kids are there,

for goodness sakes, they got the invitation. I thank Andy for inviting me, and I said, I'll bring my kids. Point is, I had a very good time. I was not in Sunset Park, but I was at a place with my parents, thank you very much, and we went to a coffee shop and we were looking, gosh, now I wish I could remember,

I wish I could, let me see. So you're calling Sir Slytherin to the lawyer? In New York? For the record. In Queens? Ground support coffee, no, in Soho. Ground support, apparently they have another location, and I was walking up the stairs,

and then I walked down the stairs, and then I walked down the stairs, and then I guess, what's his name? Sir Slythington? That was not the same. He opens the door and he's like, come in, come in. And they were incredibly kind, incredibly gracious, and the coffee was fantastic. So if you are on West Broadway,

and to be exact, 399 West Broadway in New York, go check out Ground Support Cafe because it was really, really damn good coffee and a great salad as well. I also want to, and so thank you to my man and I will be back. Also want to give a shout out to Lucia's Pizza who brought us pizza because it was my niece's first birthday. And he's a huge fan of the program also huge Knicks fan and I really enjoyed meeting him as well. He said that he wanted to To deliver some pizzas to the studio because and this is my guy Richie Because he said that they were nearby and he wanted to hook up everyone

I said, maybe the boys in the back will come but this was before I heard about the secret Brunch at the Venezuelan cafe. So I felt a little weird about it. Secret that you were aware of. But I said, but I said to him, we'd love to have you. We're going to come, we're going to hang out. The pizza was quintessential New York pizza.

It was phenomenal. Pizza, you know what? Me and you. What if we go Thursday for Frank's birthday? No. What you said the coffee place was called Ground Support, was it? Ground Support Cafe.

Only support you got that day, huh? That's it. You know what? Thank you for that, Pizzi. Thank you for the, the only support I got on, uh, on Sunday, June 1st was from Ground Support, but Pizzi, you and I at Lucia's, you know, if, if you guys want to come, you can come, like, it's no big deal. Like just come. Okay, I'll be there.

Come if you want to come. I won't be there. Don't want to bother you. I'm also token it's no big deal like just okay I'll be there come come if you don't be there I'm also token token when it happens. I won't be there I'm bringing everybody Bring my brother want to make sure you guys is that how Andy did it is just like that doesn't sound like Andy actually Take pictures of our conversation. Oh no, Andy's throwing the receipt! No! Uh oh! Somehow Andy has turned this into a me versus her thing.

I'm the one saying she's the only one who thought she could stop it. She was the inviter. That is the one thing. You keep saying only her. When you're invited to someone's house to watch the Super Bowl, right? It's the host that invites. She was the host. Andy was the host Andy was the whole time the blame goes on you Rick on UGC on on cameraman or camera woman Nick and on

Frank that's that's who I'm blaming so Andy doesn't count. No because it's not our thing. It's not our thing. It's not Jordan's thing. I'm scotch-free? No, yeah, of course. Oh great. I'll see you at the pizza. Brick's a cum-see-cum-suh. He's here, he's there. Yeah, I'm in and out. Andy, you... You know, Ariel, I think you're right. Eric and Connor and Frank all should have individually texted you and said, Hey, we're doing fight fees to Venezuelan restaurant.

No, the people who are in charge of the production... Venezuelan restaurant in Queens. This one was Andy. Not one of the invitees this one restaurant in Queens not was and not not one of those Not one of the invitees. All right, Andy was not invited Andy set this all up In fact invited me and then I said Andy I'm bringing all my kids She and you remember reservation wants to hear the shows the rest laid out. She chose everything and did it all She gave us the time I'll be there the day that I asked Rick Wow

I was there. I said thanks for the invite, Andy. I appreciate it. We're never going to win this one. Because they'll just talk over us, they'll yell. They'll say, oh, we didn't invite you. And like, come on. No, we did invite you. Next time they should actually send you an email, maybe something in the mail.

This will be remembered. Something a little more genuine. This will be remembered. What does that even mean? When we invite you to something and then you almost mock us, you're like, well, I'm not going to Venezuelan food in Queens, that's fucking crazy. That's crazy talk.

I've never done that. Frank, was I at the birthday party on Wednesday? You certainly were. I mean, dare I say I was a little- See you Thursday. Do you have your ticket for Ballerina? No, because I said I wasn't going to that. I said I can't go to that.

So I wasn't playing the game. I say upfront. Ballerina. I have seen a lot of commercials for that movie by the way. It's gonna be good. I didn't realize it was a John Wick. Oh yeah. John Wick world. All this information was given to you.

This doesn't change anything, but I have seen a lot of commercials. He was out from a job. Especially during the NBA playoffs. What else? Right, Ground Support Coffee. Go check them out. Lastly, Jason Carney says, is there a backup fighter for Kayla if she misses weight? That's a great question, Jason. I haven't heard of one. I don't think there's a backup for the main event either. But obviously the

the co-main is the one that a lot of people are wondering about. It's a nice little card. We're going to talk more about this card tomorrow and how I think it's flying into the radar. Marab, Sean O'Malley, great fight. Julianna, Kayla, I mean, I can't wait. Did you guys see the face-to-face? Still our ideas? No big deal. Kelvin, Joe Pfeiffer? Yep. Spicy. And? Luke Holland? I can't see that being bad in any way shape or form. Patchy Mix's debut is gonna be great just to see against a guy who's tough,

a tough out, maybe not the biggest name of all time, but look, he has spoiled some plans before, Mario Bautista, Bruno Silva, Joshua Van, I'm in, Queen of Violence, Ariane Lipski, Kong Wang, sure, Spivak on there, you know, prelims are the prelims. Anyone else down here? Yanal Shmoos, not bad, got some power. Chaos Williams. You wish you didn't go this far. Chaos Williams and Andreas Guskvich put together on six days notice. Listen, those top, we've seen a lot worse pay-per-views

than these top five. No, this is where the momentum begins. By the way, you said we didn't have any positive news. Thank you to my father for a reminder. Oh yes. Did we not talk about Josh Allen and Hailey Steinfeld's nuptials? Mazel Tov. That's the good stuff to end on.

Mazel Tov to the happy couple. Yeah, beautiful stuff. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jackman. Very, very beautiful photos. Yeah, look, you know, Nick's here out. Friends didn't invite me, but there's still a lot of things to be happy about. So Andy's not a friend now.

Wow, that's rough. That is rough. I said friends didn't invite me. What do you have to do? Yeah, no, Andy invited you, so you're saying your friends didn't invite me, but there's still a lot of things to be happy about so Andy's not a friend now Wow, that's rough. That is friends didn't invite me. What do you know Andy invited you? So you're saying your friends You know what this is crazy, this is crazy talk, thank you. Thank you Hey guys tomorrow on the program we have one of the greatest sports writers of all time Mark Kriegel sports writers of all time Mark Kriegel. He has a book that's coming out tomorrow called Baddest Man. As you can see I've been reading it and I enjoyed very much it's about really like the making of Mike Tyson. It's actually the making of Mike Tyson. It says it right there. Um, up until... I have like 30 pages left, but it's like... It's up until he wins the Heavyweight title,

and a little bit after as well. So it's not the entire career. Look how freaking thick this thing is. Uh, great reporting. Some amazing stories here. Really great stuff. I've long admired Mark Kriegel, and uh, looking forward to having him in studio to talk about this book, the reporting. So I think it's... you know I love those media chats. Grandy last week was great. Enjoyed that very much. Hey, any former San Diego Chargers slash Buffalo Bills fans out there, well I'm one. Sean Merryman is a fight promoter these days and he's gonna stop by to talk about all the work

that he's doing on the side of combat sports. You guys remember Sean Merryman? Of course, lights out the man. Are you kidding me? Hit the tattoo, baby. Yeah. Let's go. Sean Merryman gonna join us and also for the first time

in a long ass time, the Black Beast, Derrick Lewis. I haven't talked to him in forever. I haven't talked to him in forever. I haven't talked to him in forever. He's going to join us. I am looking forward to that very much. So a great day was had. Thank you very much to all our guests. Thank you to Cora Jade, Elena Black. Thank you to Aaron Blanchfield. Thank you, Giorgina Rosistrike. Thank you, Chael Sonnen. Rest in peace, Jordan Breen. Back tomorrow same time on Place It's Telling You Say,