The Ariel Helwani Show - Chael Sonnen in studio, Mikey Musumeci, Conor McGregor trial update, Ian Garry's title hopes

Episode Date: November 19, 2024

Ariel Helwani and The Boys In The Back discuss the latest in Conor McGregor's civil trial, the drama between Darren Till and Tommy Fury at their kickoff press conference, the importance of Nov. 19 in MMA history, the state of the UFC welterweight division, and more (07:11:).Chael Sonnen joins in-studio to discuss the Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall saga, Mike Tyson's loss to Jake Paul, how Chael nearly ended up managing a young Francis Ngannou, Donald Trump's UFC ties, the strategy behind contract negotiations, and much more (33:30).Mikey Musumeci discusses his defection to the UFC, what went wrong in ONE Championship, the state of his old promotion following a rash of criticism from former fighters, UFC's future plans for high-level jiu-jitsu, pizza preferences, and more (01:59:20).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Erya Hawaii Show! Back in your life on this Tuesday, November 19th, 2000. And 24. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. It's great to be here on a lovely, another lovely Tuesday in New York City. Another lovely day. What a stretch we've had. Tremendous weather.

A great time to be alive. Fantastic post-pay-per-view Monday has come and gone. Tremendous stuff with Oban Elliott in studio. How about Tom Aspinall? I mean, the world is just falling in love with this guy. Yeah. Bo Nicholas as well, ruffling some feathers. They're turning heel on

Bo. He was once the bell of the ball. Now everyone's like, ah, you're a bum. That's how it goes in the fight game. We have so much to get to. Not a lot of time. We actually announced some big news this morning in case you missed it. We have so much to get to, not a lot of time. We actually announced some big news this morning in case you missed it. We officially, officially, super officially announced Ariel Ade going down every Tuesday afternoon here in America, 5 p.m. Eastern, 10 p.m. in the UK,

2 p.m. on the West Coast. It's an uncrowned production, another check on the West Coast It's an Uncrowned production Another Check on the old list Another item, another jewel To add to the crown And it will air exclusively on DAZN On all their channels beginning live At 5pm Eastern today

And very exciting that Ade is going to be Joining me at 5pm so it won't be on this YouTube channel that you're watching us on right now. You'll have to go on the DAZN channels for that. But then afterwards, the audio will be on our feed and you'll figure it all out. But it's very exciting. It's another big thing that we're doing. It's another item.

And we've got more to come as well. But just looking at everything that we're doing, we're really doing it. We're really doing it. The dream is becoming a reality. We're like an actual production facility here. This is unbelievable. And you know how I know that we're a real thing? It's because this window is real.

Because when we started rehearsing earlier in the day, everything looked different. But now you can see there's an overcast over it. You see the overcast, Frank? You see it? Oh, I see it, all right. Everyone okay back there? I just heard someone hawking a loogie.

What just happened? Are you hawking a loogie? What's going on? I was laughing because Frank literally, as you were about to throw to him, hit his knee on his little audio cart. Jeez, you okay there, Frank? Is it tight back there for you? It is quite tight. I think they're going to fix this soon. They're efforting, as they say, so that's good.

Frank is like Tom Aspinall in business class over there. It's a little. It's tight everywhere. I can't lie. It was just the prime time to throw it in. The wall is right here. I mean, I'm back. You look fantastic.

What are you talking about? You seem to have a lot. I look great, but I mean, it's, you know. You look refreshed, well-rested. I am. I mean, how many hours did you get last night? Let us know. Let us know.

I can actually tell you On my whoop right now Wow Look at this The entire time It's tough Let's see Seven hours and two minutes That's it

Oh wow I'm shocked This is not in bedtime This is how How much time I was actually asleep I'm actually shocked I would have predicted

At least 11 to 12 hours Because if you If you recall At the end of yesterday's show I said Chris Weidman Would be on today's show he had to reschedule um and and so here comes mikey musumechi who i'm incredibly excited to speak to i'll tell you about the lineup in a moment and then i i get here at around uh 10 45 10 55 and all the stuff that we are doing is weidman asking and and and uh g GC says That he went to bed

At what time What time was it 6.30 6.45 What time was it It was closer to like 8.39 That's insane

You sent the update At 9.32 You were long gone Oh I was in REM sleep At that point That's crazy How does a person How old are you

31 31 yeah How do you go to bed At 8.15 Because I get up at 5.30 What are you doing Getting up at 5.30 Just right now

Working out Aspinall 75 Wow Look at these pythons Wait what is Aspinall 75 I get up at 5.30. What are you doing getting up at 5.30? Just right now. Working out. Aspinall 75. Wow. Look at these pythons. Wait, what is Aspinall 75? I haven't actually started it yet, but it's like a

workout program he has. Change your life in 75 days. I have to buy it first. It's 30 bucks, but. You have purchased the. Toothpicks are on the way. The BigBerry toothpicks are on the way.

I'm going to become a toothpick guy because Tom Aspinall became one. Okay, no time to waste on this very busy Tuesday. We've got the big show coming up at 5 p.m. Today we have a massive show once again. Can't wait for our in-studio guests.

Let me tell you about what's going on, and let me tell you why it's such a special day. Coming up at about 1.30, it's Ariel and the Bad Guy reunited, and it feels so good. In- old friend chale p we got the seat out for him already we got the microphone out for him already everything's ready to go 25 minutes from now chale p in studio and i'd say we have a few things to discuss coming off this past weekend with john jones and stipe and of course what what happened on Friday in Dallas. So, Ariel and the Bad Guy reunited on this beautiful Choo Choo Tuesday in New York City. At about three o'clock, we'll be joined by Darth Rigaton himself, Mikey Musumeci, who we found out late

last week has signed with the UFC. Exclusive deal with Fight Pass Invitational. He has left one championship. I think this is a massive, massive coup for the UFC and a massive loss for one. Mikey Musumechi comes on the program today at three. Great character to talk about leaving one championship and why and signing with the UFC. Stay tuned for that. So a lot to discuss, a lot to get to, a lot going on in the world of combat sports. And yesterday when I was putting together the rundown for today's show, you know, GC was already like two hours asleep at this point. In this defense, I was also asleep at like eight last night. There's no defense.

You're not going to shame me. There's no shaming. Please don't kick. There's no defense. I'm just stating facts. Have I shamed? Have I been any shaming? You're throwing the guilt my way

That's projecting Okay You feel guilty That you went to sleep No you're trying to make me Feel guilty It's just like the phone thing It's actually

Your screen time is in 10 hours We gotta get those numbers up It's actually I'm envious I wish there was a world That I could live in Yeah you have to remember I don't have children

Which changes everything I'm very well aware I'm envious Of course Yesterday I wouldn't have children Which changes everything I'm very well aware I'm envious Of course Yesterday I wouldn't Have gone to bed Because I was watching The Knicks

Lay the smackdown On the Washington Wizards Nice dub Nice dub But in any event Guys No need to get all You know

Those fighting words Yeah No need to get all Hoity-toity Alright What did John say On Saturday Uh

Saronata Saronata Saronata Let's get all hoity-toity, all right? What did John say on Saturday? Saranata? Saranata, sir. Saranata. That's a great line. So I'm putting it together. And just like last week, November 12th, I put in November 19th, and all of a sudden, a light goes off.

There are certain dates, especially in MMA history, that are etched in my brain. I think of November 12th. I think of UFC 1. I think of UFC 205. I think of November 12th, I think of UFC 1, I think of UFC 205, I think of November 19th, I go all the way back to 2011. And so happy 13th anniversary, as crazy as it sounds, to arguably the greatest night in MMA history.

Why? Because it was on that night, the UFC made its debut at the SAP Center in beautiful San Jose, California. You'll recall it had long been the home of Strikeforce. By then, the UFC had purchased Strikeforce. They bought Strikeforce or acquired Strikeforce in March of 2011. November of 2011, the door is open for another MMA organization to come in, and it's the UFC. So they make their debut at the Shark Tank.

And initially, it was a card that a lot of people felt like it fell a little flat because there was no title fight in the main event. But what we ended up getting was arguably one of the greatest fights in UFC history, certainly top five. It was a battle between two legends. It was Dan Henderson versus Mauricio Shogun Hua, one of the all-time great fights. Please do me a favor. If you have not watched this fight, it's Hall of Fame worthy. In fact, it is in the Hall of Fame. Do me a favor and watch it. Watch it tonight. Sit back and relax.

Incredible action. Back and forth they went. Two icons, two legends, two former champions. Of course, Shogun was just coming off the loss to John Jones a few months prior Dan Henderson two division champion in pride by then no longer with any belts but who cares it was magic it was absolute magic and it was a great night overall if I'm being honest because we had Vanderlei Silva defeating Kung Lee back home in San Jose. What a great finish that was. Uriah Faber in NorCal defeating Brian Bowles. Martin Katman defeating Rick Story. Stefan Bonner, may he rest in peace, defeating Kyle Kingsbury.

Ryan Bader and Michael McDonald. Mayday, remember him, on the prelims with two very quick knockouts. On the early Facebook prelims, we had a young man named Chris Weidman defeat Tom Lawler with a beautiful submission. Gleison Tebow defeated Rafael Dos Anjos. Miguel Torres defeated Nick Pace. Seth Bozinski defeated Matt Brown, the immortal. And Danny Castillo defeated Shamar Bailey. Such a fun week, such a fun card.

And I remember right before that main event, I was in the back. I was in the media room. And I was, you know, we was in the media room and I was, you know, we'd run back and forth to do the interviews and I was with Casey, longtime videographer, a member of MMA Fighting, Casey Lydon. And at the same time, we were watching Bellator 58. It was a rare time. Bellator used to be on Thursdays, Fridays, very rarely on a Saturday, but this time around they had a Saturday card and it was a card featuring one of their faces, Eddie Alvarez they had a Saturday card, and it was a card featuring one of their faces, Eddie Alvarez, defending his lightweight title, his Bellator lightweight title,

against Michael Chandler, and a lot of people thought it would be fait accompli for Eddie, and it wasn't. It was Chandler defeating Eddie Alvarez in one of the greatest fights of all time as well. In the span of about, I don't know, two hours, tops, maybe even 90 minutes, we had arguably two of the top five greatest fights of all time, Michael Chandler, Eddie Alvarez, Dan Henderson, Shogun Hua, a dizzying night, and that was a great card in its own right as well, but, and both fights, by the way, had rematches, and both fights, if I'm being honest, the rematches weren't actually all that bad, but nowhere near as good as the originals. All that happened, like I said, within the span of 60 to 120 minutes. And I'll never forget it. We were all buzzing afterwards, like, holy crap, work the show, come back to the room, pack my bag, and usually go to the airport. And this time, when you go to San Jose, it's hard to get a direct flight to New York. So I went to San Francisco.

So it's a bit of a trek. And I got there quite early, as I'm known to do. And at the San Francisco airport, with zero sleep under my belt, I was watching a stream of Fyodor Emelianenko against Jeff Munson. Now, this was a very important fight for Fyodor because he had just lost to Dan Henderson just a few months prior. He was back home, M1 Global in Russia, and he ended up winning that fight. And so within the span of like eight hours, we got Hendo Shogun, Chandler Alvarez, and a win for Fyodor Emelianenko against Jeff Munson, a very, very, very memorable time. So I just wanted to commemorate that and

reminisce a little bit. Loved those days, great times. I wasn't even a dad yet. That's how long ago that was. And yeah, I loved those events in San Jose. I really did. Those crowds, that energy, that region was really special during that period. Now, let's get to some news. Speaking of Eddie Alvarez, amazing how this all works out. It was announced about an hour or so ago that Eddie Alvarez is in fact returning. He is returning to action on January 25th, back home in Philly. Yes, the Underground King is coming back home January 25th at the Wells Fargo Center.

Just saw Boots Ennis with his homecoming there. Well, Eddie gets his as well. It's Knuckle Mania 5. Yes, this is Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships, kind of like their WrestleMania, and he's going up against Jeremy Stevens in a very fun fight. How about that? A huge deal not only for Eddie Alvarez, but also for Dave Feldman, who is, of course, the founder of bare-knuckle, a Philly guy as well.

This should be a lot of fun. It's exclusive on DAZN. And a bit of a full-circle circle moment you'll recall the very famous press conference with Conor McGregor who the F is that guy all that stuff that was for the Eddie Alvarez UFC 205 fight so now here they are Eddie Jeremy fighting under the Conor McGregor promotional banner if you will now that he's linked up with BKFC and they'll be doing the dance at BKFC Knucklemania 5 on January the 25th. So much going on in the world of combat sports. We found out on Sunday that our old friend Dadan is in fact

going to be returning. Darren Till, the pride of Liverpool, returning to action and it will in fact be inside the squared circle, a boxing ring. It's a Misfits card on January 18th against Tommy Fury. This is going to make a ton of cash. They are going to sell a ton of tickets. I heard already the pre-sale is already sold out. Fury from Manchester fighting back home at the Co-op Live, the brand new arena. UFC was there back in January. And of course, Darren Till fighting in Manchester and close to home. You know that's going to sell a lot. That'll be on DAZN pay-per-view another misfits boxing mega event. I was in Manchester about 11 months or so ago for that Tommy Fury KSI card. And there's a whole bunch of tension between KSI and,

and Tommy Darren Till and John Fury. Yeah. Well, there was a lot of Shit chatting going on Just about 30 minutes ago They had the kick off press conference in Manchester Our guy Ben the Bane Hosting the proceedings

And it all popped off my friends In case you missed it This is what just happened about 30 minutes ago That's John Fury throwing a bottle At Darren Till. And look at this. Fury, Till, KSI's in the mix over there with the hoodie. Hey, yo, 6 p.m., baby, get your teeth.

Yeah, KSI with the plug, 6 p.m., which I think is now because they're 5 hours ahead That is That is happening January 18th On the same day by the way As UFC 311 which we presume Will be Islam Makhachev Versus one Armin Tsurukian For the welterweight title

Rick can I ask you GC can I ask you Level of interest Fury Till Seven Seven out of ten Now is this before or after you saw Darren Till shadow boxing

We have exclusive footage here of Darren Till earlier today Shadow boxing Let's take a quick look at this Your thoughts when you see this I mean he looks like me in the gym bro He looks good I think he he's gonna be ready to roll i mean to me this is kind of like mike tyson jake paul i'm excited for the build-up i'm excited for the spectacle but the fight itself i can't imagine is going to be a barn burner i think uh by the time they get to that fight week

given where it's happening right if this fight is happening in philadelphia no one really cares but the fact that it's happening in manchester tommy's from manchester he's such a big deal darren is from nearby liverpool he still has a very loyal following i think it's going to be gigantic i think they'll sell it out oh for sure i i think a lot of people are going to watch i think it's going to be the talk of that weekend along with with bkfc uh but like i'm i'm not i'm not champing at the bit, as Frank would say, to see it happen. Thank you.

PT, what do you think? Till Fury, you in? We see you there? Yeah, yeah, I'm very excited. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What is going on? What is going on? He looks like a whole new man.

What is going on here? Wow. What is that? Is this PT in 3D? I don't know what it is. I don't know what it what is it what is happening i can see your chest there frank was barking in my face like all day but my room is destroyed this office is destroyed there's boxes everywhere andy thank god such a lovely person when andy took control of the situation we got everything done in two seconds. Frank, on the other hand, a disaster. Wow.

Is he in black and white? What is going on? Is this color corrected? What's happening here? What is that? He's in a white office with a black and white shirt and a black microphone. I feel like the gingerness of his beard isn't popping out as much. Why are you showing us the knife again?

Yeah, why are you showing us the knife? What's happening? This is why I had to get stern with him. I'm like, look, man man you can't threaten me we learned that pt doesn't have a have a toolkit or any basic tools no joking i had to explain the difference between a flathead and a phillips to him today um so it's all set up is the mic even on because it sounded a little bit hollow what's this if i don't have a toolbox there's just nothing but tools in here boys can you tap the mic for me real quick pt yeah the mic's not on i mean frank at what point do we like how do i notice this and not you um

oh it's there it says it's on it is literally not on it's literally not on by the way if that's what i paid for then that's the shittiest microphone of all time if that's the actual sound of that mic yes it's on it says it's on yeah we'll have to work through the kinks on that one. In any event, Tommy Fury versus Darren Till, your level of interest, Pete Z? Not all that much interest from me. Yeah, I mean, I think I'll watch it, because obviously I've got an issue

when it comes to combat sports, and I have to watch everything. But interest levels, I don't know. I haven't got any texts about it yet. usually that's how i gauge you know how many of my mates are like what till and till and fury who to thunk it i haven't got any of them yet but i i think you know they're too entertaining guys i think there will be a lot of like you say the press come is it do you know ariel are they contractually bound to have some type of uh altercation at these press conferences because i, I mean, I thought the novelty of these kind of things happened

was that it was a novelty. It happens once in a blue moon, but I'm pretty sure every single Misfits press conference I've seen, there is a kerfuffle of some sort. Well, it's usually because of John Fury. And so the question then is, do you think that John Fury does this on purpose, or is he that much of a loose cannon that he actually truly cannot control himself? He's a fighting man. He's a fighting man. He too dips his paws into gasoline, I presume. Like the great James Quinn McDonough.

Yes. Yeah. Boxing champion. I'm actually kind of into it to be honest like when when till fought um some i don't know who it was i never even heard of the guy when he fought him where was it in abu dhabi or uae or uh well abu dhabi is in the uae was in dubai somewhere it was somewhere in the middle east um there was no interest right this one i think will actually be gigantic oh yeah like i mean they are huge commodities both the lads like in fairness you know um and it like if that's true about the pre-sale selling out that's that's huge i wouldn't

thought it would so that's that's very surprising i've been in that arena it's massive this was 18 000 people yeah how many seats how many asks and how many seats, Ariel? Something to that effect, yes. It is taking away a lot of business from the formerly known MEN. I don't know what it's called now. It used to be the Manchester Evening News Arena, right? Yeah, I think they're refurbing that or they did refurb it. Oh, is it closing down? No, they've just done it all up. They've made it more futuristic, I believe.

But it's two huge arenas. And Manchester's not the biggest town, but it's... That new one is classed, the co-op life, really, really good. And for all of the controversy surrounding it, before it started, I was blown away by the place, even though I was walking into it at about 1 a.m. to watch that UFC event. Well, they haven't announced the rest of the card just yet,

but let us see. Let us see how it does. I think it does big business, certainly in the UK. Some other news. It appears as though the Conor McGregor civil trial has wrapped up today, right? There were closing statements earlier today, Pete C. Is that accurate?

And I know we got a great update from you when this all kicked off about two weeks ago. Can you bring us up to speed as best as possible? Yeah, well, obviously, I mean, even today, I think the closing statements from both sides went on for six hours, so it's a very complicated thing to put a bow on. But today, McGregor's lawyers started the day and they were just imploring the jury not to take any kind of prejudices they may have for McGregor. Remy Farrell, his lawyer, said some of you may

load this man and he didn't want this to have any impact on what they are putting across. He said focus on the evidence. He said look the cctv look at the text messages we showed you um look at the some of the the witnesses that were there that can't attest to any discomfort on hans part um danielle keely i believe her name is um and then on the other hand we had nikita hans lawyers put forward like know, we saw a doctor from the Rape Crisis Center that assessed Nikita. They said her injuries were, you know, akin to that that they would see of a rape victim. Had an ambulance driver say it's the most bruised person they've ever picked up in the ambulance. They've also, in the last few days, they were putting across the idea that James Lawrence, the co-accused um was a patsy as

they put it as in he put himself in the line of fire to defer from connor so that's their side of it and the jury will now go away they'll get all the evidence they'll get all the exhibits and they will have um as long as it takes to make up their mind um unlike i feel like this isn't like a criminal case where it's uh everybody has to be on the same page as far as i know i spoke to some lawyers not involved in this case and i think it's nine out of twelve of the jury have to believe that uh nikita was wronged here or assaulted here and that is how the decision will be passed down as far as I know. And do you have a timeline or any type of idea

as to when we'll know the actual decision? I can only go off what I've been told by lawyers. They expect the decision to be in the next two days. Oh, wow. And with all this coming out, what has been the sort of, you know, you have your ear to the streets, you consume all this stuff, you're talking to people. What has been the reaction to all this coming out?

It's just incredibly polarizing. Yeah. You know, it's extreme to extreme. You talk to some people, they're completely, with McGregor on this, you talk to other sides, they're completely on Han's side of this. It's a massive national discussion, that's without a doubt um over the last two weeks i believe it started two weeks ago it's the cover of every newspaper as it's happening and we've got a general election coming up here now and i'm sure it's going to be rivaling them for um you know column inches when when this is all decided so it's been a it's been, really huge story. I can't stress that enough.

And, and the emotion attached to it is, is palpable too. And, and worth mentioning once again, um, what's at stake here is essentially monetary damages, right?

Um, if he is found guilty, there is no jail time attached because it's a civil trial. there won't be no sanctions for travel, anything like that. This is just monetary damages. Okay. And, and, and by the way, have they, um, attached because it's no there won't be no sanctions for travel anything like that this is just monetary damages okay and and by the way have they um have they announced how much they are seeking or is that up to the judge to decide i think that's up to the judge but they have cited

several figures they had someone come in to um to kind of assess loss of earnings like i don't have that figure to top my mind i know it was um was not, it wasn't in line with that initial comment. I know I referenced it the last time. When Hans lawyers were kind of setting the table for everything they had mentioned, you know, McGregor's lawyers will tell you that this woman is out to get a million out of this man. We don't know anything for sure. I think it's all to be decided

based on the decision. Okay, let's see how that all pans out and we'll get your take on it whenever there is an actual decision. Speaking of Irish MMA, do you want to get your reaction to the Ian Gary news? Now, it's not quite, I think, as big in the rich history of Irish MMA as perhaps Paul Hughes versus AJ McKee. But I do think that Ian Gary versus Shavkat Rachmanov is a very significant fight. I can't wait to see you do this 180 when Paul comes on. You know what I mean? And I have to say, Paul, this is one of the biggest things I've ever seen in my life.

Know yourself. Your reaction to Ian fighting a week earlier week earlier right he was supposed to fight december 14th against joaquin buckley um obviously the bilal muhammad versus shafqat rahmanoff fight falls through shafqat says i want to stay on the card give me an interim fight against uh the likes of ian gary or kamara usman in the end no interim title fight co-main event he gets to stay in the states and fight he He gets a payday. That's great. Ian fights a week earlier, number one contender fight. Colby Cummington replaces him against Joaquin Buckley, December 14th, last main event, last fight of the UFC's calendar for 2024. And

really a big shakeup in the welterweight division and maybe a moving day, if you will, in that seven-day stretch, because there's going to be a lot of activity your reaction to ian taking the fight i just he is a bad motherfucker there's no doubt about that ian loves competition he always has and he's desperate to prove that he's the best in the world i believe actually when we were talking about this initially when um we were thinking about who we match with shavka i think we all unanimously agreed, Ian would be the best fight, it's a huge step up compared to what he was getting ready for,

in Joaquin, that's no offense to Joaquin, it's just what Shavkat's done in the sport, I think it's an absolutely brilliant fight, and look, this will be the biggest non-McGregor win of all time, if he manages to get it done, it's the biggest non-McGregor fight,

it's a huge moment, and look, it's nice to be in this situation um I can remember in 2014-2015 we were in the golden ages of sport and we never thought it was going to stop we thought all these guys were going to be fighting for titles of course that didn't happen but right now you have Paul Hughes knocking on the door of PFL title yeah Bellator title whatever way it goes I'm not really sure which one he's going for but um I think you have Ian against Shavkat here. I think it's absolutely exceptional.

And hopefully it has reverberations on the local scene here, which is in a bit of a rut, I'd say, over the last eight years or so. This is classic lemonade out of lemons, if you ask me. I like these two fights better than what we were getting. There's a part of me,

obviously Shavkat versus Bilal is a title fight and there's intrigue there, but Shafqat versus Ian, just stylistically, forget about the stakes and all that, is a tremendous fight. It's a fascinating fight. Then when you add to the fact that they've trained together and some footage has emerged online of them just kind of friendly sparring, nothing too intense, but just seeing them side by side is pretty cool. I love the fact that Ian has asked for this. Not a lot of people are calling by side is pretty cool. I love the fact that Ian has asked for this. Not a lot of people are calling out Shafqat. I love the fact that Shafqat took the fight

because he's essentially putting his number one contender slash title shot on the line. If he loses, he's not getting it. He's undefeated. There's a lot at stake for him. And I love the fact that this two-degree is a put-up-or-shut-up time for Ian. He's talked a big game, and now he gets to prove it it and he could be one fight away from fighting for the belt already probably

a lot quicker than a lot of people thought and then when you add to it we finally get Colby Covington back we get him against Joaquin Buckley it's a big test for Buckley a massive opportunity for him to fight a former multiple time title contender a chance for Colby to get back on track against someone who is on fire as of late. I love everything about it. The one interesting little nugget about all this was Ian continued to say that he wanted Colby in December, and what we were hearing was Colby wasn't available,

that he wasn't ready, that he wasn't healthy, and here he is fighting in December just not against Ian. I thought that was very interesting, PT. Yeah, absolutely, and I think I thought that was very interesting, PT. Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's a lot of people, and you can see them in Ian's comments, have been giving Colby shit for a long time about this. And I don't expect that to stop anytime soon. But this matchup with Shavkat, look, I've already seen our friends at Red Corner MMA,

Dennis, putting up interviews with guys who are on the mat when they were sparring and he's like i'm pretty sure i've got choked him you know all this stuff yeah he's gonna play it's gonna be great you know he's gonna be bringing this stuff up when there are press conferences everything like that um and look i i saw this being announced i saw off a lot of people obviously saying oh finally we're gonna get to see Ian, you know, put in his place by this guy. I think Ian Gary has a massive chance of winning this fight. And there are two very, very different fighters. Of late, we've seen Ian operate at distance and operate in a more points, points scoring style.

But he's, he's so efficient with it. And then Shavka, a lot of work on the inside, great work on the ground. I think it's a brilliant style matchup. And, you know, I honestly think it's a pick-em. I think it's up in the air who wins this fight. This time next year, Ian Garry could be the UFC welterweight champion. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I would have thought that he would, you know,

it's very rare when you're around a guy like so early in his pro career and you immediately know that he's capable of these things. Ian Gary is one of those guys, and Paul Hughes is one of those guys as well. It's just amazing to see them going about their business exactly as they said they would. I really hope that this picks up a lot of interest in Ireland. I think that's the one thing Ian's been missing, support from home. I think this is a massive fight. If they aren't going to get behind him on this one i don't know what he

has to do so hopefully that happens hopefully we can stimulate a national interest in mma but as i say um you know earlier when we're talking about this civil case everything about mma is quite polarized in orleans and it has been for a long time this is gigantic for him i hope he gets the credit that he deserves for taking this fight on short notice. I know he was preparing for a fight on December 14th. Joaquin Buckley is not Shavkat. And I'm not knocking Buckley. Just they're built different. They have different styles.

One's Shoddy Man, Didi Boxing. The other one is Shavkat Rakhmanov. You know what I mean? Like it's just a completely different style. He deserves a lot of credit. You said Pickham. GC, do we know what the odds are? Yeah, it's not a Pickham

Shavkat Raghwan A massive favourite Minus 325 And Gary coming back Plus 260 What do you think of that You say the Irishman Pizzi

Yeah Yeah I mean I feel that's disrespect To be quite honest Shavkat's class He's brilliant It's just funny to me When Ian came in

People were nearly laughing at him You know when he was like I'm the best guy here. And Hamza was obviously in his pump at the time too. And people were like, yeah, but how would you do about Hamza? And then it's like, how would you do against Shavkat? And then we're like, well, you know, they're both kind of in a approximate to each other in terms of the rankings. They've both proven a lot so far. He's done everything he said he would and here he is doing it again um i'm surprised by the line i understand it i think we all look at shavkat like he's the boogeyman he's where we had shemayev before he left the division i think he is that guy now and it's finishing right obviously absolutely incredible but um i don't know i feel a feel a bit of a disrespect there for you know i i Reno. I thought it would be a little bit closer. I thought Shufcutt would be the favorite, but maybe, I don't know, minus 250.

Can I just ask one question? Yeah. You mentioned fair play to step up on short notice. How awkward of a situation do you think that is for a fighter when they're asked to step up on short notice? And I know for a fact that fighters over the years, they're reluctant to say no because they

think it will reflect poorly on them from the ufc's point of view like do you feel like that's a situation you you can't possibly say no to not that not that ian would but it just feels to me that like it's you can't even deliberate over a decision like that or else you will feel the wrath of the brass yeah also you know um the money attached to a Shafqat fight shouldn't be the same as a Joaquin fight. Although one was a main event, one is not. You're kind of saving the day. Remember a year ago, uh, Ian pulled out on the

same pay-per-view, right? The last pay-per-view of the year. Um, so maybe there's a part of him that wants to, you know, do right by them. There's, there's obviously a lot at stake. Uh, I think he's betting on himself And I think he's making the right move He loses to Shafqad

He dusts himself off Says I took it on short notice And I'll be right back in here You know, in a year in this same spot So to me it feels like a win-win And like I said Two better fights At least on paper

Than what we were originally getting Two weeks ago So I love it Alright, so a lot going on As I I said, in the world of MMA, a lot happening, a lot going on in the world of combat sports, a big day for us here at Uncrowned. But you know, there's nothing like a reunion. There's nothing like linking up with an old friend,

an old teammate, an old colleague, if you will. Yesterday, we had the Welsh gangster. Today, it's the American gangster. There he is. The one and only. My old friend. My ace. Bring it in.

Oh, you can't leave one of those hanging. For God's sakes, Ariel. You don't leave people hanging. This is the big time. But what's more exciting is that Mrs. Sonnen is here. Yes. The great Claudia. How are you? to kick trying to kick heroin for the second time oh it's so great to have her here sun and in the building how are you sir she's not on heroin that's a joke i am doing great by the way this is fantastic i gotta tell you i used to come to

your old studio and i would tease you but there's truth within every joke i would come in to the loading dock. They'd send you into the basement. It was like you're going three floors closer to hell. It was lined with boxes that I believe were stuffed with Lays potato chips. This is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been in. You like that, right? By the way. We made it?

Just talk to John Morgan. John Morgan, the MMA reporter. That's right. You know another John Morgan? When I go like this kid from high school named John Morgan, of course that John Morgan. I will be hosting this year's World MMA Awards. Wow, breaking news.

December 5th, broadcast details to come, Virgin Hotels, Las Vegas, and I told him I would find a way to mention that. Well, thank you for mentioning it. I will be there as well, hoping to collect number 15. 15. Yeah! I love it. I love it. I will be there as well, hoping to collect number 15. 15. I love it.

I love it. Errol, this place is so nice. You like this better. They took me to, do I like it better? For heaven's sakes. You see the finance. First off, I went up. I didn't go down. Yeah, that's true.

No, I didn't see a whole bunch of things. I went to the bathroom here. The bathroom here was fantastic. It was all chrome wall. My dad was a plumber. I know nice bathrooms. This thing was gorgeous. Everything here has been beautiful.

This is amazing because last time you shat all over our... It was disgusting. Yeah, and this time you love it. Yes. We're down with the rats in the cellar. No, I know. I do feel like Chael's a little bit... He's not lit up properly. Do we have the in-studio lighting here? He needs to be a little bit brighter, guys. Do I not? Look at that. We look great here, but I feel like the single...

I feel like the single's a little bit dark on him. Am I crazy, guys? Maybe they'll work on it. I just had to call that out. You know, we're just kind of working through the kinks here at Chael. George St. Pierre over there. No, where? Isn't that him with the gown, the karate gown and the white?

This is Hoist, but how about the fact that we've got... Oh, that is Hoist. How about the fact that we've got... Still a compliment. We've got Ariel and the bad guy, one of one. Like that. But what's interesting about it is, I do believe I watch your show with Daniel Cormier.

Thank you. It's called... Bad guy and the other guy. Bad guy and the other guy, aka Helwani sloppy seconds. I don't see any mention of me on the set. I don't see any reference. I mentioned you.

I mentioned you yesterday. On yesterday's show. Yes, I did. And you want to know something, by the way? Is that me up there? Is that me in the corner? Or is that Rich Franklin? Well, you're all over this.

You're here. You're everywhere. I think it's Vandelay, but it could be Chris Lieben. That's Chris. That is Chris Lieben. I think that's me. Or is that Dominic Cruz? This is Dominic Cruz, yeah.

I bought one of those for myself. I bought a little vanity doll for myself. And it came. And I had it up in the office. I put it over there like somebody gave it to me. You can't buy your own doll. And it was like a year before I looked up and go, Dominic Cruz. It actually said Dominic Cruz on the box.

I didn't look close enough. I thought it was me. That was a great area. Round five they were called. Round five. I don't know. There were a bunch. All week they were talking about the greatest of all time is going to be fired.

I looked everywhere. I didn't see St. Pierre anywhere to be seen. Okay, let's get into it. I'm so excited that you're here. Do you dispute that St. Pierre is the greatest of all time? So I have two lists. One list is everything goes, meaning if you've popped, if you've done this, that's the everything goes list.

And then it's the you never popped list. Okay, that's fair. So you never popped list, GSP number one. And you know I love him, pride of Montreal you never popped list. Okay, that's fair. So you never popped list, GSP number one. Sure. And you know I love him, pride of Montreal. Everything goes list, I have to put John.

Do you put John? Yeah. But you don't, I don't want to put words in your mouth as meant as a question, but you don't have John as the current GOAT or was the performance over Stipe

enough to move him in your mind? Okay, so wow, we're really getting into this. Well, are you aware Dana's pissed? Well, Dana's pissed about... We talked about this, I think, in Vegas. Dana confuses GOAT and pound-for-pound number one. He's making

an error here. You explain this to me. I understand your logic. And you agree, right? I understand your logic. I've never been brought up... Pound-for-pound number one is the current pound-for-pound king, the current man. Goat is the greatest of all time. Correct.

That could be someone from the 90s. Correct. So your argument, if I can jump, but just so you know, I listened. Your argument was that John, because we haven't got a recent body of work, has essentially disqualified himself from the title because it's not current. And therein lies the rub. Sure. I do believe that the performance on Saturday brings him back to that conversation. from the title because it's not current. And therein lies the rub. Sure.

I do believe that the performance on Saturday brings him back to that conversation. I was so impressed with the performance that I now accept Dana's argument and say, GOAT and in the discussion for Pound for Pound, number one, current. I still ultimately give it to Pereira, but I think if I were voting today,

I'm not. Pereira, Jones, Islam. How do you not give it to Pereira? Oh that's a great argument. It just wasn't the one. I just read this so I was just influenced as I walk in here, but it's Islam was one, Jones was two, Dana disagreed with that, believes Jones should be one, and the only reason I bring that up is because it was just between those two. There was no Pereira.

I like what you're saying about Pereira. Who do you have? Well, but if I may slow this down. So, I mean, Pierre and Jones are even across the board. Both light heavyweights. John's not a heavyweight. He just fights at heavyweight. He and Pierre weigh the same. They're the same

age of 37 across. So, are you telling me that you believe right now and after what you saw Saturday that John Jones would beat Pierre? Because DraftKings has a mythical odd. It's a it's a minus 650. Jon is a six-and-a-half-to-one favorite over Pierre in a mythical line. It's a little big, but ultimately, if I had to pick a winner, I think I'd favor him.

Did you see that takedown? No, no, no, Jon. Okay, but you just said that Pierre, you believe, is the winner. Oh, wait, they have Alex as the favorite minus 650? No, Jon. Yeah, so I agree with that line. I think it's a little big, but I agree ultimately that Jon would, you believe, is number one. Oh, wait. They have Alex as the favorite by the 650? No, John. Yeah, yeah. So I agree with that line. I think it's a little big, but I agree ultimately that John would be the favorite going into that fight.

I understand that. But if I understood your list and you've got Piera as number one. To me, pound for pound is a mix of mythical, like what would happen, but also what have you done for me lately? Sure. And Alex has won belts in two weight classes, has beaten the top guys at 205 and 185. Gunn and Stipe are nice, but not exactly the creme

de la creme right now at heavyweight. If he would have beaten, say, Francis and Tom, he'd be without a doubt number one. Yes. But you understand where I'm still a little bit confused. You made a great argument. I think I understand it, but it's still at the end of the day, you've got Piera one, John coming down that list, whether he was two or three in front of Islam, but you are saying you think in head-to-head competition that john would beat

pierre yeah so doesn't when at that yeah no it's it's it's an interesting okay you see where i'm confused sure but but again it's it's a it's a what have you done for me lately plus a mythical thing i've come a long way since last week if he would have squeaked by steepay i would have said absolutely not in fact i probably would have put him like third or fourth. I think I might have even put Ilya above him. I was that impressed. And that brings us to the performance on Saturday. I see a lot of people actually not giving him

the credit that he deserves. I see a lot of people saying it was Stipe who was old, who was slow. What do you think? I think that's unfair to John. That's not what happened. What happened? Father Time did not beat Stipe. John Jones beat Stipe. That's just what happened. And to imagine how good John could be if he followed some of the laws of logic, if he stayed active, if he stayed consistent, you and I know much about the sport as anybody. I could not tell you enough to bet one single dollar. I don't know what gym

he trains out of. I don't know. The last I heard about gyms is he was kicked out of his, but I saw Greg Jackson and there was something there and there was definitely a facility, but I don't know. The last I heard about Jim's is he was kicked out of his, but I saw Greg Jackson and there was something there and there was definitely a facility but I didn't see any team shots. I mean, it kind of looked like a glorified garage training camp and I only share that for he put two guys in his corner. He doesn't know either one of them. He got some workouts with Gordon Ryan.

He basically met Gable Steveson. He put them both in his corner. I mean, this is a guy like old school UFC. I would do that. I'd put my brother-in-law. I'd call my buddy. My uncle would come because I didn't have a team. So just imagine John did, though, and imagine he did stay active. We saw earlier that night proof of what you and I already know, but breaks don't make us better.

Time doesn't make us better. We saw that with Chandler. That was a slow. That was a Chandler that had missed a step that just hadn't been in there. He just needed to get some more reps. He did not fight Oliveira as well the second time as he did the first time, and we can directly attribute that to the layoff. He and John are the same age.

Chandler took what we'll call two years off. John took four years off. John would be so much better now, and Ariel, that's a scary thought. That's not exciting. He would hurt people. John is sending the baddest dudes in the world to the emergency room, and there is no way that he's fighting to the best of his own ability.

It is truly frightening how good he is at this game. Do you disagree with that? No, no, not at all. I was more impressed with that performance than the surreal performance, if only because I felt like surreal didn't really show up. They fought. Yeah, we couldn't really tell who John Jones the heavyweight was.

A, looked to be in better shape and showed us the full arsenal. He's essentially the light heavyweight version of himself at heavyweight. We've never seen a heavyweight throw kicks like that. You know who you reminded me of? Tell me. You reminded me of David Loazzo. Sure. A guy who's been forgotten.

Spinning back kick. I know David Loazzo. Remember that? Trained with him, yeah. Charles McCarthy. Sure. Flying knee. You trained with David.

Yes, I did. Where? I trained with him at Dan Henderson's gym in Temecula it was a great training part he was a big star you know he did things and I was up and coming it's one of those guys it was very nice taught me a kick he throws his kick straight he just throws it out and touches absolutely nothing but you pause and look at it go what are you doing you're doing nothing boom he brings that up to a flip kick it was a taekwondo move and that might even be a basic that some people but I didn't know it and he you know took the time to show me, and it was very effective.

You kick your foot out, it does nothing, but you stand there and look at it. Brings it upstairs, kicks you in the mouth. And so I see him do that as a heavyweight, blown away. Are you not interested in the kick? You're not interested in the kick? No, but we're trying. I'm the one who brought up David Wazow. He's one of my favorite fighters.

Oh, all right. That's true. If not my favorite fighter. Okay. Montreal guy. That's in Canada. Yeah. So he wins the fight, and I Montreal guy. That's in Canada. Yeah. So he wins the fight, and I can't wait to talk to you about this.

I was listening to all this, and I was like, oh, I wish we had an arrow in the bad guy. This is last week. This is before I knew you were coming in and gracing us with your presence. Thank you, bud. By the way, Teddy Atlas dinner on Thursday? Yes. I'll see you there.

Yeah, I'll be there. The great Theodore Atlas Foundation. Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation. Who are you bringing as a date? My wife. You are bringing her. Good. Who are you bringing as a date? I'm bringing Douglas Crosby. One of my favorite Foundation. Dr. Theodore Atlas Foundation. Who are you bringing as a date? My wife. You are bringing her. Good. Who are you bringing as a date?

I'm bringing Douglas Crosby. One of my favorite people. Yes. I was hoping we could maybe... You think we could patch things up? Yes. There's a misunderstanding that we have some sort of feud. Yes.

I think that's right. I think the misunderstanding lies in his... I think he'd be happy to hear that. He respects your opinion. I think he'd be happy to hear that there's no... I believe in a world where we're all peaceful, shaking hands. None of this Dominic Cruz, Ali Abdelaziz stuff. I don't want that in my life.

He had gotten in trouble, if we can just digress for a minute. But Douglas had gotten in trouble. He had worked the Mohegan Sun on a Friday on one side of the country. He flew to the other side of the country to work a UFC on Saturday. And I can only tell you, when I was growing up, we credited guys that did that. We called them hard workers. I remember graduating from high school and the kid with the greatest attendance record, he'd get a award in front of the whole class and they'd go all the way back to kindergarten. It's a very hard thing, but some guys never miss. You would credit things like that. This was looked at

as a negative and we had athletic commission say yeah that was a negative but they're the ones that assigned him. Yeah. And it seemed like he was just doing what was asked of him and I do think that the punishment I think any punishment was unreasonable. Is there, has there been a punishment? Not that anybody's told me. I've asked him that. He will not confirm that. He's busy. He's got a couple of other jobs and he's a father and I get that but I feel as though he's been punished. He's one of the great judges in the history of the sport he lives in New York we were just in New York and he wasn't assigned so I'm I'm electing that he's been punished but he's not actually

admitted that I understand what you're saying that was the um the Bellator UFC back-to-back which then led to the controversial Jared Gordon Patty Pimblitt scorecard and starts the night before and and and people were saying like, maybe you shouldn't be flying across. And I think there's an argument to be made. But ultimately, the guy who's raising his hand and saying, hey, I'd like to work, it really should fall on the people who are assigning him that work, right? Thank you, Eric. No, so it is a fair argument.

It is a fair argument. Because they learned too. The commission learned as well. We have some of the best leaders. Mike Muzzoli learned as well. We have some of the best leaders. Mike Mizzulli, come on. We have some of the best leadership. He just hadn't thought of it. Commissioner Mizzulli just hadn't thought of it.

He thought, yeah, I can't just get a guy over here and there's jet lag. It just never crossed his mind. He fixed that. That's never happened again. But I do feel as though Douglas had some fallout from that, not to mention this controversial decision was the way the fight went. It was a split decision, but another licensed judge agreed with him. I'm just saying it wasn't obvious.

And if we have a learning lesson, great, but you can't punish a guy for it. Well, I don't think anyone should lose their job forever. Thank you. Based on a controversial scorecard or a weekend that maybe things were a little bit off. That's tough, especially in this sport where there just aren't a lot of people who do this job, and especially being A local show So couldn't agree more With you on that

Thank you for that So we have this fight And the reason why I was saying like Oh I can't wait To talk to you about this Is I love the business Side of the sport

And you have John Who I thought I said this yesterday I thought he had His best fight week ever The whole First of all The gimmick with the gloves

Was tremendous Did he do that? A thousand percent Okay Well they said he did And no one denied it He had his best fight week ever. First of all, the gimmick with the gloves was tremendous. Did he do that? A thousand percent. Okay. Well, they said he did and no one denied it. This is great heel work on his part. Please. You know, oh, guys, I don't like the gloves.

Do you mind changing? They moved the whole card for him. What if he would have poked the eye? Could you imagine? Oh, that would have been amazing. And he gives him the old. Oh, the best. Yeah, wear your new gloves now, you baby.

So then they change it. Are you surprised, by the way? I would love that. Here's my theory. Okay. You know Dana. God bless him. He digs his heels in.

They relented. They gave him the old gloves. That would be admitting that you're doing something in favor of one person, right? That would be preferential treatment. Now, you can make the argument that you reach a certain status. You deserve preferential treatment. You've earned that preferential treatment. Now, you can make the argument that you reach a certain status, you deserve preferential treatment. You've earned that preferential treatment. But I think to go so far as to not have people say you are favoring Jon Jones, they took all the new gloves, they threw them out, and said, all right, we're bringing back the old gloves.

I can see him doing that, like going to that extent, just so that people don't say, oh, you're giving preferential treatment to Jon. What do you think? I think that I agree with what you're saying. I've never actually heard confirmation that that is what happened. I read a headline and nobody denied it. But I just try to think of those steps like John would have to contact somebody with the request in the first place, of which is going to say, no, we're not interested, because they would have to get lawyers involved in government affairs and they would have to come to the commission in New York.

They have to redo the whole thing and perhaps have to put up with guys like us second-guessing it after the fact. I just don't believe that that's a realistic ask on the other side of it. It was reported that's what happened. Nobody said it didn't. So perhaps they did get lawyers, come to a government agency, and redo the entire card. But John has been so accused of poking the eye. Chuck Liddell and John both got accused of that a lot, and they did a lot of it,

but they both had the same mannerism for defense. They would throw their punches, and they'd put their hand out. And it was almost like an old cartoon where you're just trying to put your hand on the guy's forehead, and if you're far enough, he's working up that head of steam.

There's a cartoon that used to do this. That's essentially what John and Chuck both did. They understand how to use reach, and for defense, they would post like that. At any rate, fingers went into the eye and I don't know what we're talking about. John got some rule change.

Who cares if he got a rule change? Ariel? I think it's great heel work and then you have him saying, Tom's an asshole. I'm not fighting him. Oh, that was great.

I don't like it. He's not respectful. You know what I mean? You put that tweet out. That was great. So good. It was. It's so good on John's part.

I think this is all great. This is classic and I'm not calling him a coward, but you know in pro wrestling, when you're the coward heel and not giving the people what they want, that's great work. That only makes us want him more. What do you think? Based on how he – this is the Jon Jones who back in the day

I used to talk to him, his lip would quiver. He was so afraid to speak to the media because I think he didn't know who he wanted to be, right? I feel like we got a great version of him last week. Yes. What did you think? No, I really enjoyed it too. I know Jon Jones a little bit.

I know. But Ariel, every time I talk trash about the guy, it's for the character Jon Jones. The actual Jon Jones that I've been around that greets my mother with a hug. He mooned my mom one day. I told you that story. That's funny. He greets with Brittany. He won't even call Brittany Brittany. He calls her Mrs. Sonnen. He is such a

gentleman. He would take her jacket. He would bring her a cup of coffee. He's such a gentleman. But then the character that he plays, I don't like it. I think it's a little over the top. I think the real John, which you saw this week, John's got to have a couple of things. He's got to be a victim. To be in a fight. He's got to be the aggrieved party.

The other guy did something to him. That's important to him. That's really what gets him going. He can bring out that violence. and he's a violent guy. Did you see those elbows he was dropping? Those had such bad intentions. After he threw him down, he grabbed the guy and just threw him down. He's got to be the aggrieved party. And it went as far as to say that Stipe had talked about his children.

That did not happen. But John's reasonable. Today he would tell you it didn't happen, but he talked himself into it. And the other thing that John really needs is focus. I got to focus on this guy. He's no longer a wrestler where he's got three and four guys in one day. He's got one guy. And the whole week when John was denying Tom or even inserting the name of Aspinall,

what John did not want to do is to get into the ring and have to deal with Sugar Sean O'Malley had to deal with, which is I got to fight you, Merab, when you, Nurmagomedov, are sitting right there. O'Malley had to fight two guys at once. I didn't like how they did that, by the way. O'Malley should have been able to get the microphone, do what he does, steer his own career. That happened to him the night after Cheeto. After Cheeto, he's got Merab in the front row heckling him. After Merab, he's got Nurmagomedov sitting right here.

I'm just saying, in a game of inches, I don't think that was a fair thing to do to Sean let alone to do it twice to him John made sure he didn't get in that same spot and John was was blowing everything off but it's not because he was considering retirement he knew Stipe was bigger and more dangerous than anybody he'd ever dealt with and he wanted to have tunnel vision and like a great veteran that John is he put himself in the greatest situation for himself I just want to make sure you understand what happened there. And Errol, it's relevant because John is starting to mark out for his own gimmick. He's starting to forget why he was denying Tom in the first place. He's starting to forget if we go back a year, somebody had put out a suggestion that perhaps Stipe and Jones would retire.

So Jones went with that as a marketing standpoint. But over time, he forgot that it was a marketing standpoint. And he started to really think, well, maybe Jones would retire. So Jones went with that as a marketing standpoint. But over time, he forgot that it was a marketing standpoint, and he started to really think, well, maybe I'll retire. It's like, whoa, whoa, let's get some cold water in his face. Let's explain to him the audience, including the power team that came out to see him. He's special. Enjoy being king of the world. It doesn't last long.

Enjoy it, John. So do you believe him when he says that he is not either interested in fighting Tom or, and this is where it gets really interesting, on Saturday was the first time where he said, yeah, I'll fight him if you give me FU money. Do you believe him? Or is this all part of the gimmick? Well, excuse me when I say no. No, that is very real. What I'm arguing is it wasn't. He's talked himself into this.

And there's a couple of things, Errol. When John came back, he had Richard Schaefer come in and negotiate his contract. And I remember when I watched this happen, and I respect Richard Schaefer as fine as anybody, but I remember when this happened, going, John, you don't know what you're doing. You've been gone for three years. The model of distribution is so different now that if you come in and you argue a great big pay-per-view, if you try to do it the old way with the ceilings and floors and deliverables, if you try to do this with all the thresholds that you left

on, you're going to get your ass kicked because it's a different business. And you want to know who doesn't know it? That guy, Richard Schaefer. And they brought him in and the UFC couldn't have been happier with what the requests were. And you said you got it, kid, because he didn't know what he was doing. And I'm only sharing with you, he's arguing now, it's going to be the biggest fight ever, and I need more money. You get more money.

There is no ceiling. Dana does not cap participation, of which I don't even know why Dana's so generous that he ever gave pay-per-view participation. There's no company in the world that you get a piece of business without writing a check in the first place and taking risks. Well, what about boxes? What about boxes? That's where it came from. So it all came from the boxing model. Chuck Liddell and some other

guys had brought that up and Dana was the first to want us to have more, be equal to boxing and better. So he was very generous when he gave that away, but he forgot to cap it. So if you do have a tremendous night like John is predicting, and I think John's right. I think that's the biggest heavyweight fight of all time. I think that's the biggest fight our industry can make right now. He's going

to leave there with the biggest check, and that's going to include soaring over Brock Lesnar and the other greats. He's going to be rewarded for it. But if John is not confident that he can actually bring in that kind of attention, then how do you go to the table and go, well, give me a guarantee up front? It's like, I've given you a guarantee. I'm guaranteeing you a piece of the business, and you don't have any risk. Just get in there and throw your punches and kicks. I'll handle it from there. It's a very great spot. And somebody should sit John down and explain, this is the one. All this work you've done for that big pay, this is the one. But we don't need to change the contract. It's already in your contract. And I think if you do explain that to John,

John's more reasonable than people think. He really is a fairly reasonable guy, but you got to explain it to him. Sure. He trusts. He doesn't learn things on his own. He trusts other people. Those people need to just explain to him what the participation contract clause means. I think he would be very happy.

But doesn't this feel like deja vu from four years ago with Adano? That was such a great explanation. It was so good. You can't get explanations like that. But it's almost like the same thing all over again, right? Right. And so that didn't work out. That's right.

No one explained it to him. Yeah. But I'm saying, so why are we to believe that it's going to work out next year? Yeah, tough one. Tough one, right? I think I'm talking to him right now a little bit. Yeah. He doesn't like me, but he does trust me.

I mean, I'm just telling you. You think so? I think I'm trying to negotiate with him. Why do you trust you? I've been around John privately. Okay. And I have a very, I shared with you what happened in the airport. I shared with you.

Yeah, yeah. You were calling that PFL thing. And it's not as though that was some bonding moment for us but it did change some things. Not just us personally but the way that I saw the world just a little bit. And John was racially profiled just in case your audience missed us on the PFL.

There was a guy, there was a black man who was racially profiled. I couldn't see it. I could hear it. I knew what was going on and I turned to go to that situation. I got a degree in. I could hear it. I knew what was going on and I turned to go to that situation. I got a degree in sociology. It's literally what I'm trained in. It was John Jones.

John Jones was being racially profiled. Can you believe that? If that could happen to him, it could happen to anybody. And when my wife and I got there, says hello to me, which she didn't want to do.

He saw my wife, gave her a big hug, calls her Mrs. Sonnen, was a real gentleman. Helped her with her bags, helped, he's John, you can be a good guy. But you've got to level with them. These guys, if they sit him down and they get a calculator out

and they show him what the projections are for the Aspinall fight, he is likely to be projected to make more than he's going to sit and ask for. He needs to be real careful with what he says right now because they will give it to him. But he could work against himself, and that is what Richard Schaefer had him do. And I'm not throwing Schaefer under the bus. He doesn't know the business, and the business changed from those three years that John

sat out, and Schaefer went in and did not get him the best deal possible. I would have got him the best deal possible, but I understood the adjustment within our distribution. By the way, as an aside, have you ever considered being a manager? No, I did one time. For who? Francis Ngannou. What are you talking about?

I considered managing one time and it was going to be this young man. Wait, like back in the day? Yes. Did you talk to him about this? No, I was going to contact him and I talked with the UFC and we're going to build a show around it, but it was going to be one guy. I was going to take him and they were going to give me the right to make

certain promises to the guy. Which era is this? Like pre-Stipe first fight? Yes he's coming up yes and you saw him as a guy to build a whole show around yes and you were going to manage him yes and i don't know markel if i knew markel was in the picture i would have stayed out of his way but at that point he wasn't in the picture was on his own yeah and so i went to ali and i said, hey, do you work with – and Ali, he didn't say yes, but he didn't say no. He said, you know, I'm kind of an advisor. I help him when I can. And I just took that as enough to – okay, he's got his thing going and I didn't want to do that.

But yes, the one time I'd even pitched a show around it. It was going to be Francis. He does not know that. He doesn't know that until right now. Wow. Yeah. By the way, did you see Dominic and Ali going back and forth yesterday? What is up with that?

It made me uncomfortable. Dominic's shooting straight back and forth yesterday? What is up with that? It made me uncomfortable. Dominic's shooting straight. What is going on there? What is the genesis of this debate? I think ultimately what happened was someone suggested Cruz versus Henry. Dominic Cruz to back down from a fight. Oh, my God. Also, I've never seen him tweet so much.

Cruz and Henry and then Ali chimes in as the mouthpiece, if you will, trying to make a fight. And then Dom just goes for the jugular. I mean, essentially calling him a house manager, which is what he is. I mean, let's call it what it is, right? He's a house manager. I don't know that expression. House manager is basically the UFC says, hey, we have a problem. You go fix it for us. Oh, sure.

And you stay in good standing. He works more for the UFC than he does his clients. There have been countless times. Chris Cyborg has told me the story where she's in negotiations and all of a sudden Ali is there. I understand. That's a house manager.

I understand. So Dom is... But it's being used as a negative term. I mean, I like a guy that's got good contacts, but it's being used as a negative term. But I hear you. Please go ahead. No, no, no.

I'm using it as a negative term. Is a coffee possible? Would that be rude? Sure. No, guys, can we bring... With just as a negative term. Is a coffee possible? Would that be rude? Sure. No, guys, can we bring... With just a couple of creams to cool it down, would that annoy anybody? I don't want to annoy anybody. Are you trying to change the subject?

No. Is this making you uncomfortable? No, I like it. Well, I didn't really like... You know, house manager. It reminded me of house something. No, no, no. It felt like a bigger insult.

I don't... Well, I mean, it is a negative, but it's a term that is used in the fight game for someone who kind of works more for the promotion than works for the fighters. Okay, so did he want Dominic to fight Henry? Or was Ali standing up? Someone threw it out there. Someone threw it out there because— I like that fight.

You like it? Yes, I do. I love it, too. I love the idea of one last fight for Dominic. By the way, guys, if we could bring in a coffee first. If that's not annoying, guys, if that's annoying— Is that a yes, Frank? Blow it off.

Thanks, Frank. Hey, can I tell you— Is it hot under the lights, by the way? Is it hot under the lights? Yeah, it's a little bit warm. You know who I'd like to get in that mix of is O'Malley. I don't think Arizona's big enough for the three of these pricks. They got one thing in common. Besides Arizona, they were all world champions.

You've got to get O'Malley in this somewhere, whether it's with Henry, whether it's with Dominic, whether it's with Weir, but at least the... That's with Werner, but at least the... That's a great fight, but at least the conversation. Or O'Malley-Aldo. Oh, O'Malley-Aldo. I don't know. That might feel a little bit... You know...

O'Malley, at some point in his career, would have looked up to Aldo, and I don't think he wants to beat up Jose Aldo. I don't think he wants to go and punch him. It's that one-sided? Or you think he just doesn't want to fight the guy? I think he just wouldn't want to get into the place. I'm just guessing. I was a young man before, too, and when there's

guys that you admire, there was guys that I wouldn't have wanted to fight. I would just imagine O'Malley would prefer to not fight them. Isn't that the dream when you get to fight an idol? No, it's really what you say. You say that to get yourself there. Admire guys until they become your competitors. Like, there's some expressions to get you over that hump because you've got to go do it.

And largely, the student does have to take down the master. Like, there's truth to that, but no, it's not something you actually want to do. No. Speaking of expressions, you always used to say when we were doing the show, you don't like when the fighter turns the gun on the UFC. Yeah. Was John doing that on Saturday when talking about negotiations? It was bad what John did.

And he didn't mean it from that standpoint. John had the right to be high. John had the right to, you know, guys will get high. I'm going to fight George St. Pierre next. Like, no, you're not. I'm going to save you from that stupid idea that you just had. Like, we used to have to do that a lot. You and I would kind of get a guy out of something because he was a little high on adrenaline.

And, you know, I think it was a big relief for John. John may never tell us the truth, but he was worried about Stipe. John respects size. And when Stipe got on that scale, 15 pounds of muscle bigger than him, John respects that. He took three years off and gave a world title back just to try to win a world title somewhere, but he wanted to put on some size.

And, I mean, I could just share for you what I, and I was watching John get into this frame of mind. I was watching him make himself aggrieved. Stipe and the kids and all these different, Stipe's caught off guard. Didn't even know what he was talking about. But John put himself in this spot. He didn't want to see Asimov there. He didn't want to see Pierre Arthur there.

He didn't want to see anybody. He just wanted to see this one guy because he really did respect him. And so that is a, that is a relief when you get through that. But to answer your question, to go on with Megan O'Leary on the UFC's cameras, you went to their cameras and you used their camera time to begin to negotiate against the UFC. Yes, if you're asking me if that was bad form, yes it was. And secondly, he's got to be taught how this contract works. He's going to get a guarantee.

That number doesn't matter. Don't look at that at all. You're doing this purely for the pay-per-view of which has no cap on it and he's right. It's a massive pay-per-view. The problem is when you go in and do these contracts, Errol, okay, I'm running the UFC. I've got 776 guys. 770 of them are interchangeable mediocrities that do nothing but cost money, but six guys keep the lights on for everybody.

That's the business. No problem. But I can't sit and talk with you all, including you six that bring me an ROI. So I'm going to sit with you one time. I'm going to do a three, five, and eight fight deal, which is my way of saying, don't call me for a while. This is the talk. The business stops if you stop that.

And Francis tried to do this. I don't know why I can't sit down and talk with them. Because they don't know why I can't sit down and talk with them What because they know about what I'm gonna go to lunch with you that I'm gonna pick up the tab for that you that you Scheduled and by the way, the only way you leave here happy not with just the big meal I put in you is if I agree to give you more money than I already agreed to give you the night that you were Giving high fives and sending out Instagrams and saying hey mom. We finally made it. What are you doing different? You're not doing anything I did my job so well that you think you've got convinced that your job should change. It's infuriating. And it also stops the business. So when you come out and you say, I need to sit with them and I

need to talk with them, they're going to sit back and go, I already have a contract. We've already sat and talked. And it's very important that they do do that. All of a sudden you start giving in. It's not giving in and you're getting loose with the reins. The problem is the resources and the time. I cannot establish that I got to sit down and talk with a son of a bitch every single time we do a deal. And moreover, human psychology would not allow John or anyone else to do a job and do that same job for less. Nobody since the beginning of Dana's career has made less. They make something, they might stay even or they go up. They might stay even when Dana's career has made less. They make something,

they might stay even, or they go up. They might stay even, you win, you lose, or you go up. Nobody goes down because he can't get them there. He couldn't get them to show up. They even tried to do this once with Michael Bisping, and Michael Bisping said, goodbye, thank you, and goodbye. It doesn't work from human psychology. What I'm sharing with you is John's got one big fight. He's got Aspinall. So we're going to change a contract to satisfy Aspinall. If you want him to defend after Aspinall, there's no opponents. He's not a master of building fights. It's just not a skill that he has. And now I got to live not only with your new contract that I didn't want to do the first time, but it's going to be an escalation against an obviously lesser draw. It doesn't work. Business is not sustainable. And it's very important that you make everybody clear.

This is a volunteer army. If you want out, you can go. If you want in, and for John specifically, it is endless. Dana never capped his participation. He had the right to. He had the legal right to. And he didn't do it. Gosh.

You're on fire right now. It's a very big deal. You're on fire. If you ever dream of being a fighter, like you dream this. Here's your coffee, by the way. I really appreciate this. Coming through. You treated me amazing today. You're on fire. If you ever dream of being a fighter, like you dream this. Here's your coffee, by the way. I really appreciate this. Coming through. You treated me amazing today. Thank you, buddy.

But, Errol, if you ever dream of being a professional fighter, whereas when I'm done with my career, I will then spend the rest of my life or with my time doing what I want with my time. I don't have to do other things. That dream can only come true if you got to a point in your career where you had participation. There is nothing else. There is no flat fee, no bonus, no sponsor anywhere. You have to have participation. John has it. John has it. He is in the most beautiful spot. John did not do anything Saturday that the other 28 guys on the card

didn't also do. He didn't train harder or longer or have more people or have bigger dreams and goals, but he did it better. And that's capitalism. He got treated a lot better. But then have your hand out on their cameras and act like it's not enough because I finally, after all these years, I finally am not fighting in front of a bunch of people dressed up like empty seats, which is what he's done for every fight he's been on until this one. And he's right on the next one.

There will be something very special against Tom. But now he's the one getting in the way. That's weird. And Tom versus John is a great selling pay-per-view. But I will see your Tom versus John, and I will ante myself a Piera versus Tom. And I'm not going to lose a whole bunch of business. Which is bigger? Which one draws?

Tom and John. You think so at this point? Tom and John. You think so? Yeah. Not for long. Cause parody's fun. So if you start all of a sudden, you're talking about champ, champ, champ status, and you get some really fun stuff. Arrow.

If Tom is the interim champion on Saturday night, the moment, the bell rings for John's fight, the bell ringing, not to weigh in, not about a great, the bell rings. Tom is now stripped of his title. That would be definition purely of interim. You cannot have an interim in the presence of the undisputed. Now, I'm told they didn't strip him. They didn't. Yeah, you tweeted that, but yeah.

But if they didn't strip him, then what's John? And you can't say he's undisputed. No, he's disputed. He'd be clearly disputed. Yeah, he'd be very disputed. He was disputed when he won the belt because Francis is the lineal champion. Well, you're talking lineal champion, and I love what you're saying there. I ripped his toe off and threw it in the second crowd.

Kids were horrified, and I did it anyway. They're talking about revisiting rules and revisit a 12-6. Well, go revisit what you're doing. A guy's got a bone sticking out of his foot, and then bring daddy his championship. What I'm trying to share with you, Ariel, they introduced him as the undisputed champion. They introduced that fight as for the undisputed championship. That cannot happen in the presence of an interim champion. So if Tom is still interim champion, and I understand we're going to fiercely adhere

to the rules we make up as we go, but one thing about interim is that's always been the number one contender. So if he in fact is the interim, we don't have to have a discussion against Tom and John. John would have two choices. He would fight Tom or he would not fight, but he would not find another opponent. He couldn't do that.

If they strip Tom, as they should have done, because you can't have both at the same time, you can't introduce John as the undisputed champion. He wouldn't be. Yeah, I don't think they will strip him. Wow, you blew right past him. No, no, no. That is so big. We're chatting.

Do you want me to? This is a conversation. I can't have a comment on every comment that you make. We're going back and forth. We're vibing here. You can go, wow. You go, wow. Thank you for that mind shale.

I usually have guys like Mikey and Neely sitting in here telling me about our bars and pizza. Listen. No, he's great. He's great, but he can't bring you this insight. No, 100%. I would never talk to him about this. I was hoping he'd be there today.

I thought he was going to be here. Yeah. And I had a question. I wanted to get on the ground and ask him about it. Tell me. We'll clip it off. Oh, it's a technique question. I thought it was about pizza. Well, and I had a question. I wanted to get on the ground and ask him. Tell me. We'll clip it off. Oh, it's a technique question. I thought it was about pizza.

Well, maybe we can clip it off. What's the question? I have to say that because I don't want him to think that I was teasing. I'm sharing for the inside of the business. It has to do with a – I call it a rolling shoulder low. Some other guys call it umpapalata. Umpapalata? No, I got it wrong.

Umoplata. You're on the ground. Umoplata is what I meant to say. So you go. When you're defending it, though, you can hit a roll. When you roll, you come with your knee and your chest up. He'll understand this. With your knee in and your head up so you don't get guillotined.

And I want to ask him if that's the correct defense because some other guys now are getting stuck in this. And they're just stepping over the body. Now, you can't step over if you do like Big Nog did when he showed the world this in the first place. And you look for that leg where you can even lay back and go for a leg lock. So sometimes you can't clear that way. You have to roll. But I just think if you roll, there's got to be a counter to that that I haven't been shown. So I want to know

what is the textbook currently saying for defense of a Uma Pallada? We're going to ask him this and then I'll send you the clip. By the way, do you still train? No, I don't train, but I'm getting ready to make a big comeback. Not to fight him, but a comeback to the gym. Okay.

So I'm working on it, but I do very much enjoy technique. I'll go down some roads on YouTube. Do not look up Eric Paulson technique on YouTube unless you have an hour. That man just might be a genius. I can't put him in front of Matt hume matt hume is still the wizard of this sport but god damn paulson's close he it is something else the things he knows so you'll sit there and just watch oh i can't stop wow i can't stop you ever met eric paulson um at the events and whatnot yeah for sure very kind person on top of that like if you if you didn't know who

he when you met him, you think, what a kind and gentle man. Then you find out he's... I believe he trains Cade Rutolo. Really? Yeah. I did not know. Oh, for MMA.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rutolo's Govon's guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's the one who, like the phenom. That'd be the perfect fit. Can I ask... If you have a grappling base, that's who you want to go to if you can get to him.

He's hard to get to. I was wondering about when we talk about the whole Jon Jones situation. Yesterday I had Tom on, and I just wanted to get your take on this. He says that he thinks that it's not a money thing. It's not a he's an asshole thing. He thinks that Jon is a serial tape studier. And he likes to be ready. He likes to be ready, right? UFC 151, he wasn't ready, right?

And his theory is, there's not enough tape on me. My average watch time is 202, and this is why he doesn't want to fight me. Your response. Well, it got me thinking a lot. I have to hear how good Tom is from people in the room with him and some of his

own buddies. And boy, they love him. That's a really tight room. Apparently, Tom is just a good human being. We've met his father. We know the story of the family. But I share with you Michael Bisping, who's gone and watched him train. I have to hear how great Tom is from these guys. I haven't seen it. I've seen great success. I haven't seen the greatness. But now I know why. Tom's right. There's not much footage on him. I don't know how he wrestles. I don't know what his defensive wrestling looks like. I've never seen somebody try to get in on a double. I don't know what his guard looks

like. He hasn't spent much time on his back. He brought up such a compelling point that no, that is not the reason. But he found a way to put himself over. But I thought it was really great, and I was looking at it, because see, I hold this against Tom. So many people are saying that this is a great thing,

and he's knocked out six guys, and they're in the first round. It's like, I don't like that, because one thing about Jones, he's tough. The people don't credit John for that. They credit him for being dynamic and good and versatile. John is tough. You get into the fifth round, don't think he's fading. You break his arm in the fourth round, he will show up for the fifth round, and he is not fading.

I don't tell you that Tom would do that, but that is a lot of muscle for anybody to carry around. It's the biggest thing that Francis has to work against. There's a lot of gifts and advantages, but oxygen late is hard. And I just bring that to you because it did make me think of it differently. It's like, well, yeah, maybe Tom is all those things that Michael Bisping said he is. I just haven't seen it. Tom's only left the first round of the UFC one time.

It was to finish Andrei Orlovsky in the second round. But I don't love that. I like a guy that can go 18, 20, 23 minutes pretty hard. What are you looking at with the cup? Did you want a coffee or would I make it too much? What do you keep staring at? I'm just looking at you. What's wrong? You're making me very self-conscious. i'm looking at you're vibing right now i didn't

drink i'm letting you very hot coffee oh is it you oh take the lid off you're out of your mind yeah that's a very hot coffee well that's that's a lawsuit in some states is that milk did you ask for milk i thought you asked cream in there oh okay cool it down but did you know that yeah i like the color yeah when i put cream in sometimes it Oh, okay. To cool it down. But did you know that? Yeah, I like the color. Yeah. When I put cream in, sometimes it doesn't have a taste, but I like the color. I prefer this color. Do you like, you know, almond milk, oat milk? Oh, no, no, no.

I grew up as a life of heterosexuality. Yes. Not that there'd be anything wrong with that, but... No, I do cream from cows, like a man. Crystal ball. Does it happen? In the field, I would go out and get it myself, like a true man. That milk wasn't intended for us. Many say that.

Yeah. I do know about that. Robert Follis agrees with you. Yeah. May he rest in peace. Yeah, may he rest in peace. Brought up. If you drink ice cold milk, you'll get that little phlegm in your throat.

Well, phlegm only because that's your body fighting something. And that was always Robert's argument. Yeah. On the other hand, the whippiest kids I ever knew in school, the kids that always had a broken leg or they couldn't do any sports,

every one of them to a man allergic to milk. I'm not. I just feel like... I'm just sharing with you that cows doesn't matter. Who am I to take milk away from a calf?

Sure. And I don't mean my calves, which are gigantic, but I just feel like it's... I haven't heard that one. That's interesting. Does it happen? 2025, do we get this fight?

Where are you going to get milk from an almond anyway? You ever squish an almond? You squeeze it. You squeeze it. I don't believe that. It's like, how do you get juice out of a grape? Press it, huh? How do you get juice out of a grape?

It's a little ball. Yeah, sure. You squeeze it. It's full of juice. I've bitten into almonds. They're not full of juice. They're not full of milk. There's other stuff in there.

You ever do coconut milk? Don't love it. Put a little coconut milk in a cereal. The bottom of the bowl will taste just like the bottom of a bowl after you eat Frosted Flakes. Very good. Coconut milk? Yeah. You have this.

You just told me a minute ago. I ever tell you about Nate Diaz ordering a coffee? No. So my wife is deathly scared of Nate Diaz. Okay. And I've tried to tell her not to. I'm like, if you go introduce yourself, he'll buy your coffee. Like, he'll look, you'll have protection for the rest of the time.

She doesn't know that. So we're in Hawaii, and she ends up in a coffee shop behind Nate Diaz. Now, when you order coffee, there's a process. Okay? There's even words such as vente and grande and dopio. And there's a way. Nate Diaz gets up there. He says, coffee?

Almond milk? That's it. And they start asking him questions. And he doesn't have the answers. He's stuck with coffee? Almond milk? And my wife thought it was the funniest thing. She helped him out?

No! She said they figured it out. Like, everybody knew who he was. And there was people in line, and, like, these kinds of people. But I just always thought that was funny. I will go into a coffee shop, and I'll order the Nate Diaz in my local town, which is just coffee with almond milk.

They've even had a special before for Nate Diaz because I've told this story. I did want to ask. You are a no-selling son of a bitch. No, no, no. You came to me, and you had a story like that. There's so much fun. You imagine what it is that Nate Diaz, when you admire him. You admire Nate Diaz. So my wife's behind him, and what it is that Nate Diaz when you admire him.

You admire Nate Diaz. So my wife's behind him and he says, some are here and some are here. You know, they can't all be dingers. They're not all home runs.

Even Babe Ruth struck out sometimes. Well, my hometown coffee shop liked it enough that Nate's got a special so not everyone hated that story,

you prick. What about this Obon Elliot? What about us getting along? Are we getting along? We are getting along. In fact,

the guys in the back said like, this time you can't argue because there's no screen in between you guys. So you have to. But I said, he knows that I would bury him where he stands. If push came to shove. He knows this.

He knows this. I don't go anywhere without steel on me. I wouldn't even reach, Errol. I wouldn't even reach. What steel? You're packing right now? For God's sakes, am I packing? Why does Oban Elliot like you so much? What if I run into a

dice game? What a gentleman. It's unbelievable. Errol, I got a ride over here today from Carlos. Carlos had just met Oban. He drove Oban. Oban is sending him messages. He tweeted out. He sent him a public message about how great Carlos was. And I'm just saying, everybody likes

Oban. He's incredible. I met guys at the airport. This guy came up and he said, hello. We did a photograph. And he said, yeah, I'm Welsh. I everybody likes Obon. He's incredible. I met guys at the airport. This guy came up, and he said, hello, and we did a photograph. And he said, yeah, I'm Welsh. I came here to watch Obon. I said, oh, hey, I'm looking for him. Where's he at? Like they were friends.

He goes, oh, I've never met him. I said, wait a minute. You've never met him, but just because he's Welsh, you flew all the way to a foreign country? He goes, oh, yeah, lots of us are here. So, I mean, this guy is the beginning of a phenom not to mention he can squabble yeah what what what is up with that era he showed patience in that fight he's got this guy coming at him winging him and he knows if one of those catches he stayed and he kept his eyes open matt mitrione was so good matt mitrione eyes matt mitrione could move a quarter of an inch and stop a fade or punch from sending him into outer space obon has those

mitrione eyes where he never blinks he knows right where he is he knows right where it's boom and that's why he was in position to attack it was very impressive looked like a real veteran to hear someone give you so much praise so much like it's emotional when speaking of you asked you to walk him out it didn't work out why didn't it work by the way? Why couldn't you have walked him out? Kim Sumbler is no longer in charge in New York. Okay. And going through the other routes when Miss Kim was gone, I just

didn't get it done. And so there was a place that the UFC has. And it's very important. What is the UFC's area? What is the commission's area? That actually falls under a legal contract for insurance reasons. So the UFC had an area that was theirs before it kicked into the commissions. So the UFC brought me down, and I got to talk to him right before he went to the tunnel. It was a beautiful scene.

We have the scene right here. It was straight out of a movie. I think I sent it to you. Look at this. Look at this. Look at this. Oh, I made this. I sent this to you.

No, you sent it to the ESPN MMA. Thanks a lot. Oh, there's me right there. This is straight out of a movie. You said to him, you smell really good, he said. Yes. But this is someone about to make that walk at Madison Square Garden, and they want you there.

That was incredible. What an honor. It really was incredible as the kindness. You love him like a son? Yes. It is unbelievable. There's nothing he can ask me for that it would not be a yes. He's a beautiful man.

Yeah, not a single thing. Would you train with him? Why don't you train together? Well, it was another reason that I was so brief there, where this was kind of our moment, but I didn't belong. Yeah, I get it. Yeah, I get it. He was very sweet to include me, and if it was from a figurative standpoint,

then I'm just going to be figurative and I'm going to stay out of the way. And I did say that to the coaches as they came through. Hey, thank you. Thank you for preparing him. Thank you. And all I said to him is, I believe in you. you that's it i didn't say one other word and then and we're hugging i said that and i said i believe in you and that was it i pull back he smells like a million bucks that's a move bisping used to pull to say like it might be with the british

maybe culturally he smelled so good and he said something about it he goes yeah you know i like to be fresh when i go out there he said something like that but it was it was a funny he's great i just got everybody's way he's. Thank you for always including him. On the microphone, he's great. He's posing. He's very quick. I mean, he uses your lines, but he does it in such a fun way. It's fun to see this generation who grew

up with the likes of you from 10 years ago now turn into UFC fighters. It's a reminder that we're all getting old. Chael, 13 years ago today, Hendo Shogun won San Jose. Remember that fight? Of course. Chandler Alvarez, same night, November 19, 2011.

Arguably the greatest night in MMA history. 13 years ago, Chael. Chandler Alvarez was in Bellator. Yes, but it was the same night. It was fight of the year. Yeah, same night as Hendo. I actually think Hendo Shogun was a better fight. Do you remember Hendo Shogun at the Shark Tank?

Yeah, it's great. Will you be handing me the 15? I actually think Hendo Shogun was a better fight. Do you remember Hendo Shogun at the Shark Tank? Yeah, it's great. Distribution to be in the house. Will you be handing me the 15? No, they'll probably bring in some hottie to do that. But no. Can I say, I mean, we've been talking now for like 50 minutes. I do have to say, a little bit offended. About what?

I mean, you come to the new house, you're very complimentary. You mentioned the rug. Nice. You do a nice job. I'm not sure if you know this, but approximately 65 million households were watching me on Friday. Yes. Hey, Ariel, you did a good job. I'm proud of you.

Ariel. A comment would have been nice. You know, Netflix. May I? It would have been. May I? First off, your performance was great. When you brought in Logan Paul, which you had to do quickly, he wasn't quite part.

But yeah, that was a great line that he had. When you said, don't step on his toes about Logan Paul, it was just really funny stuff. When Tyson said, I have a biting fixation, you go, yeah, I've heard about that. Nothing else needed said. You did more with less than anybody. I really did love your performance. And quite frankly, Netflix pulled that off. They had some buffering issues.

I hacked that, which was my phone. My phone was the hack. Watching it on my TV, I had the buffer issues. Watching it on a device, it was perfect. And they really did a good job. There was even comic relief with Tyson's butt that was in there. Some people think that's silly. That's funny to me.

Mooning somebody is funny to me. Not to mention it was on accident. He only gave the interview because it was his son. He trusted them. He's got a right to be pissed off. I don't know. He's Muslim and maybe that offends. We'll see where that goes.

But I just share with you, I thought Netflix really did a very good job. It was a very fun event. Did you enjoy it? I was glad you were part of it. I appreciate that. Well, it's nice. I thought maybe you'd say, hey, good job. I should have. You've come a long way. What did you want to talk about? It was a very fun event. Did you enjoy it? I was glad you were part of it. I appreciate that. Well, it's nice. I thought maybe you'd say, like, hey, good job. I should have.

You've come a long way. I don't know what you wanted to talk about. It was a spectacle. No, it might be the biggest thing that I've ever done. Sure. Or I thought you'd be embarrassed being part of it when they robbed Amanda Serrano like that. It was one of the great moments of my life. And they ripped her heart out of her chest and spit on it.

It's a closer fight than people think. Have you watched it? Yes, and there's a point deduction in there. There's a point deduction. I thought it would end up being either a draw or a victory for Amanda. I was surprised when they announced Katie. I think unanimous, wasn't it? Unanimous,

yeah. But, you know, the takes have been outlandish. And I'd love to hear your take. You do make a fair point that you and I i together there was only one point deducted the reality oh i'm talking about the whole night yeah oh it's a black at home though thought there should have been several points deducted but the truth is there wasn't so it's math all right i'll move on to that the takes at home i don't know a lot about i found that hack

early i was in my hotel room just that it was a black guy telling me that they had a hard time what is it you want to talk about? Whose ass are you trying to lick? I'm trying to help you here. I'm saying, what did you think of the night? Was it a black eye for the sport? Did Jake Paul? Oh, a black eye. I thought you said a black guy.

It made me very uncomfortable. No, that's what I thought you said. Should he be ashamed of himself? Should he be? All that stuff. I want your take on this. It turns out Mike Tyson. Yes.

Okay, that's funny. Can I tell you my take? And then you can respond. Yes. Okay. That's funny. Can I tell you my take? And then you can respond. My take is I'm tired of the sanctimonious BS from people who never watched boxing, who all of a sudden on one night say, I was conned. Oh, boxing is in the gutter. This is another example. Well, here's the difference between Friday and really here's the difference between what Jake has done from the get-go and some of the other people who have ripped the heart out of boxing. And that is he gives back. The chat is not going to like this, but he puts Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor in the co-main event. That fight does not happen if not for Jake Paul and Mike

Tyson on Netflix. He puts Mario Barrios, who's not a household name, but he's the WBC welterweight champion. He's not putting like, it's not celebrity boxing. It's not Shaq versus Gronk on there. He's actually giving back to the sport. That whole promotion was giving back to the sport. And yet people sit there after the Tyson Paul thing who don't care about boxing, who never watch boxing, who couldn't care less about any of the particulars involved and say, boxing is dead. We were conned. That was a sham.

Oh, how dare you? First of all, you didn't pay for it. It was free with your subscription, right? It wasn't pay-per-view. And B, pretty good night of fights leading up to that point and what did you want did you want tyson to get brutally knocked out did you want him stretcher because guess what those same people would have said oh he murdered him he murdered him what did you want you wanted tyson to knock out jake and then they would have

said oh the fix is in like of course it's a it's a lose-lose but ultimately what i think people are missing is that was a 65 million households around the world watched boxing on a friday night on netflix on the biggest streaming platform no one got hurt it was somewhat competitive to a degree where's the problem that's the part that i don't understand where's the problem it was entertaining and fun so just so you understand like when somebody comes out and complains they very rarely tell you what a complaint is if you've been in a relationship with girls you will know all hell can break loose, but it's not the actual thing that they're stating.

I only share with you because I felt it too. It's from a nostalgia standpoint. When Tyson goes down, when the most feared boogeyman of our vision and of our young lives goes down to a Disney kid that's two weight classes below him. I mean, not for nothing, but it hurts. It's one of these painful things. And I remember kind of feeling the opposite. Dustin Poirier is a much younger guy, but when he did beat Saint-Denis, it was a very exciting one.

It kind of felt like one for the older guy. So I think when people were dealing with some of those frustrations or some of those agonies that that can bring, that they decided to just take it out on the entire event because your points are very fair. That's a sensible take. I'll go one step further. It's all about the gambling. People are upset because they feel like they were

led to believe that there was going to be a knockout. There wasn't. That Tyson would starch him. He didn't. Or even that Jake would starch him. And I think that's where all the outrage comes from. Because they say, oh, he took his foot off the gas. He went easy on him. Or it was a work. Or he carried him. All this nonsense. And I think it's ultimately because they bet on it. And they say, the promotion told us with the 20-second clips that the old Mike was going to come back. What? Are you unfamiliar with

the art of promoting? That's what promoters do. You really thought that 58-year-old Mike Tyson would look like the Tyson who knocked out Spinks? Sure. Or, you know, like 1990 Mike Tyson? Clearly, you know nothing about boxing. Sure. And so, to me, it almost was a win-win because we didn't get Tyson stretchered out. He was competitive for the first two rounds. Jake moves on to live and fight another day, and everyone goes home happy. I don't know. I'm a little bit surprised that the outrage is this great because it feels like because

it was not what people convinced themselves it was going to be now all of a sudden it's a black guy on the sport that they don't even watch or care. And it's a big deal that we got these numbers 66 million. I saw that same thing. Maybe it's even got up to 67 million. But it's a very big deal. We got that from Netflix.

That's a publicly traded company. That information is accurate, and it must be accurate. The hot boxing fight of all time is whoever's press release lied more than the previous press release lied. Those numbers have never been confirmed by anybody at Cox, Time Warner, DirecTV, never, because they're complete and utter lies. This number actually came in, and that can't be touched. I mean, that's 66 million. And people didn't watch it alone.

They're having parties and gatherings and friends over, even their son and their daughter. I mean, hundreds of millions of people. A massive part of our country stopped what they were doing. Yeah, can you believe that? To watch the fight, though, that's incredible, Ariel. Good for them. No, there was no black eye anywhere. and you've got to try those things. You know, Paul doesn't quite know where he's at.

He's a legit tough guy, but he doesn't quite know himself. And see, that's relevant. See, Vitor got in trouble when Vitor went in there and beat up Evander Holyfield. But I could imagine being Vitor. You're going to be scared of that guy. And that wasn't his opponent. He was supposed to be fighting little Oscar De La Hoya. Instead, he gets the heavyweight champion that got the jump on Mike Tyson twice. You're

going to be horrified. You're going to go in there and you're going to try as hard as you can. Well, that's what Vitor did. And it turned out Vitor's pretty good. Andy Vanderman wasn't quite ready to be in there. And it almost damaged Vitor's career where they're not even booking him and reusing him. Vitor should not have taken a black eye for that. He didn't know. And I just share with you that Paul was in the same spot. Paul looked fit. Paul gained weight. His eye for that. He didn't know. And I just share with you that Paul was in the same spot. Paul looked fit. Paul gained weight. His physiology was there. He was trained. He was moving around. He was in very good shape because he was scared. He doesn't know this version of Mike Tyson. He just knows the one that he saw on camera that was terrifying. So I don't like it

from a negative standpoint like that. I don't like when Tyson stumbles getting to the ring. I don't like that when they pull back, he's got a knee pad on. I've watched boxing my whole life. I've never seen any of them ever, anyone ever, wear a knee pad in boxing. They should have addressed it. The announcers didn't address it, which looks suspicious, like they were told not to address it. I asked him about it. Yeah, I'm just sharing. And what did he

say? He said, I had something, but I'm not going to make an excuse. You did say you said, why did you wear the... I said, yeah, what was going on? Did you have an injury? And he didn't claim it, yeah. He wasn't giving me much, if you recall, in that post-fight interview. No, he wasn't.

And he, you know, he's not a great worker. But it's almost like he could exhale at that point because on Thursday at the Wands, he was fuming. He slapped him. I think that was all real. I saw the look on his face. Very real. It was terrifying.

And then come Friday, he went the distance. He made it. We find out afterwards he was dealing with a ton of health issues. I don't want to see him ever fight again. He made that joke. I don't know if he was being serious or not, but all in all to me, it was like, okay, Netflix is getting into the WWE business in January. Who knows? If you're a boxer, you should want Netflix to remain in combat sports, right? I mean, this is better for everyone. The amount of money they paid on that production was huge. It's good for all of us. And so I thought it was a great night.

And then I get a lot of like soccer dads at my kid's game the next day saying like, wow, Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor, they're awesome. I can guarantee you three days ago, they had never heard of either of them. So that's a good thing. That's a nice, they are legit boxers. I want to bounce around because there's so much going on.

Yeah, no, I hear that. And I would love for for you to i want to have a serious conversation i don't believe i could just finish my thought i was telling you that the 66 million is going to be a real number netflix can't lie but they said that jake got 40 and tyson got 20 i don't believe that and i don't believe in any scenario that that jake got twice what tyson got i think that was very smart of jake's side to put that out i mean he could have said i got 10 bucks and this guy got five if you got double what Tyson got, you've painted yourself on the A side as though he needs you. I think that's what the goal of that was, but I'm sharing for you. I don't think anyone did that contract. I don't think anybody sat down in the back and

wrote checks twice to Jake, what they wrote to Mike. That is fiction. Fair enough. We may never know, but I got to meet the governor, by the way. Governor Abbott? Who knows? Sometimes you have guests on that do know, and they were sworn to secrecy. Say who their sources are, but they tell you straight up what it is. You've got to listen, Helwani. Tell me more about Governor Abbott. What a nice man.

Yeah? Did he ask about me? He did. Tell him I'm doing well. He said that I was welcome to come move to Texas because there's no state tax there. Tremendous. I was very excited about that. I did not know. come move to Texas because there's no state tax there. Tremendous. I was very excited about that. I did not know.

I don't follow. No state tax? Yeah. I didn't know he was in a wheelchair. Did you know that? No state tax? Yes, I did. I don't know how he got there.

What a stud. He's got a lot of energy, that man. And this is a great transition point. I want to have this very serious conversation with you. And I think that you may believe that I'm coming from a different place. No, please go ahead. But I want to talk about something that's very serious because I know later on, I think today you'll be on Fox News, yes?

I want to talk about the politicization of the UFC. Gutfield. Gutfield. What did I say? No, I was just letting you know what I'll be on on Fox. Tremendous program. Yeah. Politicization?

Number one in cable. Is that a word? Yeah. Politicization? You know Tyrus? Huh? Brodus Clay? You remember Brodus Clay?

Oh yeah, he's on there. The nicest guy. Okay, but- It's on there. The nicest guy. Okay, but. It's not what you would think. I actually want to have a serious conversation about this. Please, I'm being serious. There was once a time where.

Ask anything. Good. There was once a time where the Republican Party would say to the likes of LeBron James, shut up and dribble. That's right. And now it feels like, and correct me if you feel otherwise, that that same party is celebrating the UFC and happy to be a part of the UFC because they're welcome at UFC events as opposed to at an NBA event or an NFL game, et cetera, et cetera. Trump is the president. A lot of people are happy about that. A lot of people voted for him.

President-elect. President-elect. Yes. Two time now. 45, 47. Does there need to be a sort of, like, is there something to be said that like sports should be the place where politics aren't as visible?

Is there something to be said for that? Or, and if you can remove your cap, because look, I've already weighed in on this. I don't know if you saw me weigh in on the election. So I think people will jump to conclusions and be like, oh, Ariel's upset. No, I said one of the darkest days in the history of this country would be if Kamala Harris is elected president. So I just want that to be known before people clip this off and think that I'm coming.

I'm actually quite happy with the result, if I'm being honest. But I do feel like sports should be sports, and we don't need to ram it down our throats. The walkouts, the cutaways. Wrap it up. I get the question. Wrap it up. All right. So let me give you a sports analogy. While we fiercely adhere to whatever we make up as we go, the interim champion fights the undisputed champion.

So why Saturday do we have an interim champion in the beer garden with an undisputed champion in the ring? Well, allow me to explain. While that is the policy, we had Stipe versus John signed prior to knowing we need an interim champion and putting that in place. So even though we now have the interim champion, we didn't disrupt this. We took what we were already doing.

We came over here and did it. Now we've got to figure out the interim title. So that was the exception. And the reason I share that with you, would Dana White have brought Donald Trump into the front row to sit with him? Okay, I was wondering where you were going. Well, perfect tie-in. Just give me one second.

Sorry, sorry, sorry. But if Dana brought Donald Trump in to sit with him in the front row, yes, of course. He'd done that before. In fact, they even played Trump-Taj Mahal and Donald Trump did come and sit in very similar seats with the same people, at least his two children. So what I'm sharing is, it's what we were already doing. Now the man just happened to run for president. So yeah, he came out. I get that there was some-

Walk out the package. Some campaigning there, but I'm just saying, I'm going to run for governor, Errol. But when I officially do that, me coming and telling you that is very different. And when I go into the Secretary of State's office and I file that paperwork, I am off ESPN the same time that I hand that across the counter. There's a federal law about equal time and they would just like that. And would it be politics? It would be a federal law that they're just trying to follow. So it's very different than sharing with you what my intentions are. And I tell you that because when that happens and all of a sudden I don't get to see you, you have to follow that federal. Now all of a sudden

my friend to jail, whereas if I am sitting here and I'm telling you I'm running for governor, it's not because all of a sudden you're in the political business. I was doing that. It was your friend first. And you will get excluded from plenty of things. And the fact that Dana White did not exclude him, or if Dana could even be helpful in a situation, Dana was there at a fight with a friend who was his friend who he was at fight with

before anything political ever happened. And that is a big difference. Yeah, but there weren't walkouts where he was. Oh, for God's sake. The way you are just blowing through. Apprentice Trump wasn't getting walkouts. He wasn't getting that type of treatment. Come on, you know better.

Well, you just have to be quiet. Well, he used to come to the Taj Mahal and he would sit there. Yeah, Taj Mahal in 2001. I'm talking about 2012, 13, 14, 15. And I fully understand the distinction on what you're saying. And yes, that is happening. And there is even a part of it that's a little bit of a surprise. But it is relevant that he was there before, he was included before, he helped with the company before.

Now if the company can do something to include him and maybe it helps him a little bit, come on. That is a very different thing than bringing in some frontrunner now today hoping to gain some favor down the road. It's a very different thing. I'm not arguing that. I'm just asking is when is enough enough? But you're not considering that. No, no, no. Trump had promised everybody as a campaign promise

that if he won, he would come to this fight. Okay, but is it done now? Are we done with the politics? You're probably not going to see him very often. You don't think so? You probably won't see him very often. Yeah. Just because, you know, he's not sworn in yet.

He's got some time. He lives right over here. It's a little bit easier to do. And he promised everybody. He said, in fact, he'd said it on Joe Rogan. It was very hard to run that back. But he said, if I lose, I will probably be depressed and I won't come. Sure. And he said, if I win, though, I'm going to come see everybody. So I'm just sharing with you. Do you agree, though? I didn't want to hold him to that campaign promise, but he did make one. agree though that now that he has bigger problems yeah right he's got bigger issues on the plate yeah that we can scale back from this all i'm saying is michael jordan once famously said republicans buy sneakers too yeah there are people can we have an open mind there are people who

maybe feel a little uncomfortable with this why do we have to exclude anyone i'm not trying to say woke this i'm having a real conversation here why okay go this far why can't it just be cut away and look who's in attendance the same way they did it by the way the first time you went to a ufc event which was nate diaz versus jorge masvidal at msg they didn't do the whole big walkout why do we have to go this far is my question yeah well what i'll share with you i think that you're overthinking that a little bit but but but don't make believe that if kamala harris just by example wanted to come or joe biden wanted to come that dana would not put him in that exact same there's no walkout now they aren't personal friends yeah dana's not going to pretend to be his friend but dana would of course

bring them in tell them they're welcome give them i don't doubt that but we're not getting this the walkout the camera on them you know why i don't have to actually answer and tell you why they're doing you know the answer is why but I would like you to take into consideration that he was coming to these events before. He was very supportive to us as an industry. I'm not doubting that. I know this. I interviewed him at an affliction event. But then you have the answer.

But then you have the answer. I'm not totally sure where you're – My question is, does it end now? No, there actually isn't a point. No, not if Donald Trump wanted to come back. If he wanted to come back – The whole big walkout and everything. Yes, they would continue to bring

him back. From now until eternity? They could, but don't forget, Errol, your problem with it is that it could have been political. It could have helped with the campaign. He's never going to ask anybody for anything again. He'll never be on public ballot again. So if he does continue to come in the future, including this one, that is kind of your evidence that

they're not doing politics. You've actually just got a fight fan that wants to see a fight. What, are you going to bring the president in and you're just going to sit him somewhere? Come on. You got to do poppin' circles. When he goes to a college football game, they show him on the camera. They don't walk him out there in the middle of the field. Kadyrov and we had Putin.

These are not political statements, but two leaders of countries at the same fight when it was in Abu Dhabi, as well as the crown prince and prime minister of France, all at the same fight when it was in Abu Dhabi, as well as the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of France, all at the same event. So the UFC is very open. The Olympic Games are very opening. Most of the top leaders will go to the Olympic Games to show the athletes a little bit of I love it. I have no problem with it.

A little bit of support. As long as they are not making a political statement. I'm just asking, does the big walkout, does the big to-do end? Sure. No, if the president was to come back, he would likely be able to walk in with Dana White. And are you okay with that? Yes. Meaning, my question is, if it was Kamala Harris walking out, getting the big to-do, you'd be okay with it? I fully understand, yes. And I do understand your question, and you know where I stand. I want to be real fair about it. Sure. Shoe on the other

foot. There's no political statement made. There was where I stand. I want to be real fair about it. Shoe on the other foot. There's no political statement made. There was no request there to do anything, to vote for these people, to be this register. No statement whatsoever. There's a walkout. There's a sit down. And then there's a massive respect.

You saw with the fighters. Every single fighter to a man. It's a fascinating thing. I wanted to speak to this guy. In fact, I had a network call me yesterday and ask my thoughts on all this because they're going to do a story. Not a negative story. They asked about me?

They did not. But I did mention that you would actually, no joke. Tell them I'm well. So here's the thing. What I think is so fascinating about it is you don't see this in other sports. And I, again, I will say for the millionth time, I don't have an issue with politics. I don't have an issue. You've got a little bit of one.

I don't. I actually don't. Go ahead. My entire family voted. Self-awareness is hard. Go ahead. This is you putting it out there. I'm grown up enough to be able to talk about these things and not get heated about them like some other people.

I'm not saying you are. My one question is, there was once a time where we said, stick to sports, stick to sports. Don't blur the lines. Don't bring politics into the sport. Left politics or right politics. In other countries, like if you watch soccer in Europe, they don't talk about anything political. And I know you're saying there's no campaigning going on, but let's be honest. I think a lot of credit needs to go to Dana White, Joe Rogan, and the UFC for getting Trump reelected. Joe's taking way too much credit on this, but go ahead. The UFC fan base are very

in support of Trump. And I think seeing him at those events, walking, seeing your favorite fighter come up and essentially say, this is my hero, that goes a long way to an 18-year-old kid. Of course. This is not a negative commentary. This is just the facts of life. And so my question is, now that it's over, now that the election is over,

he's about to go into office right in January, does it end? Or is the UFC now just going to be a political playground for the next guy in four years who's anointed? Is J.D. Vance going to get this in four years? No, because of the history is what you're saying. It's fully because of the history.

If he wasn't there prior to this big run, he's not there now, but he was there prior to the run. So if there could be a little bit of a, let's shine a guy up. I mean, after all, after all,

he's in the promotion business. I would like to tell you this. Um, cause I love, I love your question about this and I fully understood where you were trying to go. I just do feel that you do get your question answered. He has nothing to run for anymore. Anymore.

That's why I'm asking, does it end? But he was there two days ago. He has nothing to run for anymore. But he'd been getting this walkout for a year and a half. But the fact that he has nothing to run for anymore, and he's still coming. So you said, does it end? So if it happened or it was to happen again or again, it would actually lessen your argument that this was for politics. I understand your point. And you're right about everything.

I wanted to add your story for you, though. Sure. Did you meet him, by the way? ESPN. Okay. No, I didn't get to meet him this time. Charlie and I put in for it. Charlie and I put in.

I don't know if you've ever met the wonderful Cheyenne, but Charlie, Cheyenne, and I were put in for it. Charlie and I put in, I don't know if you've ever met the wonderful Cheyenne, but Charlie, Cheyenne and I were put in for it. There was like groups of people that got, and we were not selected. However, that process worked, but we wanted to. Secret security, secret service is so damn good. These are the, these guys, not to mention that every one of them is beautiful. They got on great suits.

They got a pin. You know who's who. They were so good, man. There were snipers on rooftops and where I got put in for ESPN yeah it's a special process and we got to come hours and hours early and you get the wand and the batons and this is after the paperwork and I mean the whole thing um I could simply could not get down below to get to Obon Elliott I had to be escorted by multiple secret service because I was on one floor I was cleared for one floor so now they had to make an exception for me to get me to another floor to get to Obon.

I'm just sharing for you. There was a lot of movie parts. So meeting him where I was was just not really in the cards. Do you think if I was still at ESPN, they would have made the exception? I think Charlie would have put your name in there. Do you think he would have said, like, of course I want to meet Helwani.

Probably. One of our own. I like that you're waving. Come on. That's a funny prop. I had something to tell you and I've lost my train of thought. ESPN had the rights to NCAA wrestling, and Trump shows up to the event. So like any network, they don't want that.

To your point, this isn't what we do. You come in, you do your thing, have at it, but we're here for the wrestling. So they set the cameras and they set everything up so that that was not a thing. The very first wrestler to win in the championship jumped off the stage and beelined to Trump. So Secret Service stops him. It's not the path. It's not where the red ropes are guiding you to. And Trump says, let him in.

Let him in. So the first guy comes over, gets pictures, this whole bit. So the second guy, third guy, fourth guy, it was a total of 12 weight classes. All 12 winners ran to Trump. And so now here's ESPN that doesn't want to be political. And they got this guy on their cameras going, what do we do? But that's where the wrestlers went. They want to say hello.

So to your overarching point, he has definitely found a demographic here within combat. That's true. And it's, it's, it's crossing over yesterday. Christian Pulisic, the,

the, the star for the United States soccer team did the dance. And he said afterwards, he saw John Jones do the dance. So there's a, there's a fascinating shift happening here. It's not a political show, but I do think it's a fascinating topic because it's so prevalent

in our sport. One of his favorite fighters is Bo Nickel. I think you were quite critical of his performance. Am I fair to say that he's received a ton of backlash, especially after his interview on the show yesterday, because people are saying, hey, you're not being self-aware here. I think the backlash is unfair. Why were you unimpressed? Oh, no, I was impressed. I'm the backlash is unfair. Why were you unimpressed? Oh, no, I was impressed.

I'm very impressed with Bo. I give a backlash more, apologize, as a critique. I want to be helpful to Bo, but Bo got hired and he was given this opportunity in the first place. And that goes all the way to Dana White Contender Series. He did not get hired for being a mixed martial arts fighter or a boxer or kickboxer or a gym, this or that. He got hired for being a three-time national champion wrestler. He got hired for being a three-time national champion wrestler. He got hired for being a university world champion wrestler. So to come in here to Madison Square Garden and to not bring the very skill that he was brought with and what bothered me about it from a critical standpoint, and critical is very different.

I'm not giving him a hard time. His father, trust me, I know his father very well, he will slap cold water in Bo's face and that will not happen again. time. His father, trust me, I know his father very well. He will slap cold water in Bo's face, and that will not happen again. Somebody convinced Jason Nichols' son, Bo, that he wasn't good enough to go to the ground with Paul Craig. And somebody that's supposed to be in Bo's corner and supposed to be in his trusted inner circle, Bo believed him. And Bo cannot believe that. He cannot believe that there is anybody that he's got to back down from. And if he does believe it, he got to go back to the contender series. He belongs here. He belongs in the UFC. He belongs in the conversations opposite Cosma Chemaev. You cannot have a Chemaev or a Bo Nickel conversation without them seeming to find one another. That's where he belongs.

But he cannot be somebody that shows a weakness, even mentally, to concede a position before the fight ever took place. And frankly, I think Bo would have done just fine on the ground. I watched him do just fine on the ground with Gordon Ryan when they didn't have any punches and he had no training whatsoever. But it appeared I could have this wrong. Maybe that's not why he stood up. That's definitely the appearance. That's the belief that I have. And that's the problem that the people had. What are you scared of? If you're so good and you're undefeated, what in the hell are you scared of? And it's a very fair question. Andfeated, what in the hell are you scared of?

And it's a very fair question, and he does need to ask himself that. Throw a guy down and beat him up. That strategy has worked since 1993. Throw him down and beat him up. That's actually a fascinating take because what interested me so much about this fight was jujitsu guy, great off his back against the wrestler. So what happens when the wrestler takes him down, and he's now in an actual position that he likes Which is on his back

But sometimes that cancels each other out And they just stay standing So I just chalked it up to that I think he probably wants to show people that he's well-rounded We've seen this, look at Michael Chandler I know he's not the level of Bo Nickel But how often does he shoot these days? And I think a lot of wrestlers start to fall in love

With the knockout And they say, you know what, to helllers start to fall in love with the knockout and they say, you know what? To hell with that. Let me try to be the knockout artist. You would suggest to him, though, go back to what brought you to the dance, right? Sure. Go back to that.

And at least mix it up. And if you want to try a little of this, everybody falls for that, man. Every fighter that's ever gone in here falls for somebody on the underground floor and tell them you got to go out there and trade hands with somebody. I don't know why. Khabib never bought into it. Khabib would take you down and beat you up. And if you could ever stop that Khabib never bought into it. Khabib would take you down and beat you up. And if you could ever stop that, he'd deal with it.

George St. Pierre would take you down and beat you up. And if you could ever stop the takedown, he'll then kick you ahead and knock you out too. But you always go to what you do best. When Bo wrestled, he had three moves. But he would do them in that order. He would go to his best move. If you stopped that, he'd go to his second, he'd go to his third, and then he'd repeat the list. You never got to four, five, and six because he was just doing his best moves.

Mike Tyson with the uppercut followed by the hook. You never have to get to him circling and throwing a jab like all these other guys with their gold teeth and their eighth grade education are telling you to know about boxing. And I'm sharing that with you that Bo left all of his best skills behind and he did it under the perception, it was at least my interpretation, that he didn't believe he could get on top of Craig, that it was too dangerous. That's the part that I have the problem with.

He won every second of the fight. He won all three rounds. He did. Hey, he moved real well. His range was great. His power is something he could work on. His combination is something he could work on. But he did some things very well.

But he didn't mix it up. And it's called mixed martial arts. He didn't wrestle. He's a three-time NCAA champion. I mean, yes, I had a problem with it. I'm remaining critical of that performance, of that judgment and that decision. And whatever

coach in Bo's corner convinced him he is not good enough to go to the ground with Paul Craig, we didn't have a real talk with them. Did Michael Chandler salvage the Conor fight with that fifth round? Just with the fifth round. Ariel, he picked him up on his back, dog.

He jumped in the air. He slammed him. But I mean, it was pretty, it was four rounds to none going into that point, right? Oh, he was getting murdered. Yeah. He was getting murdered. Do you remember the night when there was an attempted homicide?

Paulo Costa is fighting with Luke Rockholt. But in the third round, Luke is bleeding so much that he rubs his blood on Paulo. Remember how disgusting that was? That was the night, I believe, of the head crick hurt around the world. I think it was the home main event. Yeah. To Leon's big win over Usman. But Luke sagged himself right there.

You got another million-dollar payday coming just for doing that. And that was one of those moments with Chandler. He gave a look to the crowd. He gave a I'm beat guys this is over but let's have a little fun with this sucker on my back and he gave him a couple of back bombs if he could have gotten to four or five it would have been so much better but what Chandler did with his shot on the microphone I forgot he lost the fight yeah when you asked me that I forgot that he lost the fight there's Charles Oliveira who's hoping to God, he's the number one contender, while hoping to God that it ain't Islam by the time that golden ticket gets called in.

And there you got Chandler trying to set up a fight and yes, he salvaged it completely. 15,000 screaming people and Joe Rogan co-signing it proves he salvaged it completely. What did you mean earlier when you said Trump should be grateful to Joe Rogan? What is that about? Tell me, tell me. Do you suggest that Rogan did more to help Trump than I did? Because you said it right to me. Yes. What did you do?

Where would you possibly get that? Because he had him on one time? Yeah, yeah. I mean, what did you do? Did you openly campaign? Whoa, whoa, whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Because he had him on one time?

Biggest podcast in the world, they say. And what does that have to do with anything? Second biggest. Okay, Bernie has been on that before. Did Bernie win an election? I think when you're speaking to the right... Tulsi was on there. Did she win an election?

RFK was on there. Did he win an election? What are you talking about? They're all in JD? Yeah, but what are you talking about that that helped or something like that? You think that's all hogwash? No, it's not a bad thing. I mean, yeah, if you got some views, you can save me a few stops. I can go

get 14 million clicks, but if I can do it all in one place, you're costing me three hours. I mean, Dana White himself thanked Joe Rogan. That was shocking. That was shocking. Nelk Boys, Joe Rogan, and Theo Vaughn. Believe me, I heard. It was shocking. Why? You don't believe that there's any credence to the fact that

him putting him over for three hours? Oh, for God's sake. Also, by the way... Is this a joke he also he also what was it he endorsed them did he not did he say and yet he put out a whole tweet and he said and yes this means i'm endorsing dollar drop you don't think that carries weight you do i do yes you really yes i think that's swayed an election i don't think you think the people that worked for 10 years to get to this position somehow got trumped in three hours because you red-pilled a guy? No, people are on the fence. You know what?

I like this guy. He left the West Coast for the Midwest. I mean, really? For heaven's sakes. Wait, wait, wait. What, do you think that's how elections are done? I'm not heel-turning, but I can only stick my tongue so above a mythical ass with the hope that I can get on the podcast someday, which is what you're doing. Have you ever been on? Yes, I've been on the podcast someday, which is what you're doing. Have you ever been on?

Yes, I've been on the podcast multiple times. You don't think that Joe swayed the election. You go, oh, Joe Rogan might say something about me. That's what you're doing right now. I've never been invited on Joe's show. I never will be invited. By the way. I did more to help this campaign.

Nah, that's crazy. Yes, I did. That is insane. He did three hours. He did three hours one time. I did 10 years. You're saying this to upset me. No, no. I'm not going one time. I did 10 years. You're saying this to upset me. No, no.

I'm not going to fall. I'm not saying. My mother's giving me. We have a cue for each other. When Errol's trying to. I'm not saying you didn't do. I'm just saying he did exponentially more. No, he did not.

No, we did. Three hours. Three hours. Three hours. He humanized them. Three hours. One week before an election of which the majority of ballots in the majority of swing states were mail-in ballots that had already been casted. One day before the actual election puts out a tweet that I endorse this guy.

Are you kidding? The ballots were already in. I'm not taking away from what Joe did. I'm glad that Joe did it. But to make believe that he did more than I did, that's fiction. So when you saw Dana White publicly thank Joe Rogan. Who thanked me privately. Oh, you're saying publicly. Yes, publicly he thanked Joe. when you saw Dana White publicly thank Joe Rogan. Who thanked me? Privately. Oh, you're saying publicly. Yes, publicly he thanked Joe.

Were you offended that you were not mentioned? No, I didn't need to be mentioned, and I thought that Joe is the one that handled this the best. Joe has not taken a victory lap. Joe is exceedingly humble. When the president came up to Joe and grabbed him and grabbed Cormier, Joe was exceedingly humble. Like, sir, this is not my moment.

This is yours. I think that Joe handled it perfectly. But making believe that you get three hours in Austin, you hold up a rally on an election where the ballots are already turned in with the rest of us been fighting for ten years. Making believe because... What fighting? What are you talking about fighting? For goodness sakes.

Fighting just means effort and trying. I agree. I don't think politicians should say fighting. They're the biggest bunch of pussies there are. I'm going to go fight for you. Well, leave the fighting to the fighters, dork. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But here's the thing. Trump's reaction when he saw Joe, which I would believe would maybe be the first time he saw him since the podcast, suggested that Trump believes that he did something.

Trump appreciated it. He pushed Attic right out of the way and went straight beeline for him. Couldn't even care about Cormier. Come on. That's a guy who's thankful that Joe endorsed him him he was very appreciative and that was very sincere and we know that for a couple of reasons but above everything there will never be another ask i don't need to be nice i mean that's one thing about trump he does not need anybody moving forward he is done he is he's in his second term which i have my own opinion on by the way that's a

constitutional claim that a person uh can only serve two terms that is everybody's interpretation but i believe if that were tested i don't believe that for one i believe and it uses the word consecutive i believe it was meant for two terms but it says consecutive and i don't believe you're you're capped at eight years i believe trump could have ran his four which he did did, missed four, which he did, do four, and do four more. I believe he gets eight consecutive. And nobody's going to test this. Chael looks crazy for saying this. I'm just

sharing with you, I don't agree with the interpretation. And we've questioned many things about the Constitution. We questioned marriage between man and woman, because it didn't say a man and a woman, and it held up at one. And I'm only sharing for you the verbiage of how long you can serve was meant to be four followed by four if you go four you take a break and you go you can go another four by my interpretation you think he

will challenge that no heavens no he doesn't want to do it so he's going to be like 86 by the time yeah well he'll have the energy he'll be able to do anything. Don Jr. will be ready at that point. Oh, wow. And it'll be very interesting only because typically with history, the incumbent has the advantage. So, you know, you will serve, you will serve. And now your whole party is toxic by that point. The media has just turned on you. They turn it with whoever's in charge. So the Democrat would come in. But this is very different because Trump essentially would be the incumbent. Incumbent meaning he's only done four years. So we can keep that name, we can even keep him bold. We can keep Don Trump right on the ticket by going to Junior if that's something he wanted to do. And then Junior gets the big walkout because he was there in his diapers back in 2001. What a gentleman. I mean that guy

never throws anything in anyone's face. What a gentleman he is. Ariel, somebody they will tell. If Junior doesn't want to run, let's just say he doesn't want to run. Somebody the party will speak to in closed doors, I promise you, is Dana White. And while Dana White would laugh at this right now, somebody will talk with him. And, yeah, it could be very interesting.

You think it happens? Here's what I think. Will I get deported? I assure you that somebody will speak to Dana about this. I assure you if they do that now, it will be completely blown off. However, Dana did say, and this was in 2016, that if Trump asked him to be chief of staff, he would leave the UFC and go be chief of staff. Dana has never said anything in the history of him learning how to speak that is anything

against the UFC. And he said, I would leave the UFC to be his chief of staff. I respect the president so much. I would do this for Biden. I would do it if a president called on me said I would leave the UFC to be his chief of staff I respect the president so much I would do this for Biden I would do if a president called on me I would serve and I'm just sharing with you there is going to be a day when Dana will change his mind and Dana White would win by the way he would win the president do you believe anybody could beat him in uh it'd be real real fair remember when the rock could have won but that was real the rock really 2016 was a very interesting time and the rock would have won the you don was real. The Rock really would have won. 2016 was a very interesting time. And The Rock would have won the presidency.

You don't think he can anymore? Well, he said that he doesn't want to. And no, he probably could not. They will eat their own. As soon as The Rock said that, they dug in, got to him on the side. And no, in fairness... Are you really running for governor one day? Yeah, he said, I'm not going to do this. He's got a showdown against

the head of the table at WrestleMania 41. Are you really running for governor one day? I will run for governor, yes, yes. I told you that. Of which state? Oregon. Oregon, wow. For heaven's sake, what state?

What state do I represent? How do the rules work? I represent the wonderful people of Westland, Oregon, which spills over to the wonderful people of the state of Oregon. One time you ran, you won by 99? 96%. I told you that, you scumbag. It might have been.

And you go, wasn't that the run you ran unopposed? Do you know what it takes to run unimposed? What do you think? Other people don't want to run. Do you know what has to go on behind the doors to get somebody to not even put their name on a ballot? And you took all that credit from me. My question is. You scolded me in front of my mother.

Don't do that, Helwani. Who did the 2% vote for if you were unopposed? I'd like to know. Yeah. I would really like to know. But can you consider, like, can you run? Yes. Oh, I guess we learned that with the election, right?

Sure. Yeah, that's right. They let gangsters in. That's right. Yeah. There's other political persecutions going on of me right now. Like what? I have not, I didn't have any issue.

I announced I'm running for governor. And all of a sudden, get these names. People are coming at you. And you would hope that 12 good people of a jury would be able to see that well when is this election by the way i don't i'm not no one knows that's the thing about it no one knows i i would vote for you thank you errol i appreciate that i don't know if i can but i wasn't really going to ask you for a vote but i was see you want me to nation do you want me to endorse you on the podcast that was a donation i would say to the good people of oregon this is your man. He will fight for you.

I have not met a more loyal friend in my life. If I was getting married tomorrow, you'd be my best man. That's even better than the check. You'd be in there. Would you show up? Oh, hell yeah, I'd show up. You'd be there? Of course.

With the little thingy here? I'd have 100%. You'd give me the ring? Bet I would. Oh my gosh, what a guy. I wish we could do this for two hours. Thank you very much. Is this Here's Your Hair, What's Your Hurry?

This is it, yeah. It was in the Joe Rogan in three hours and Austin did more than I did in 10 years. You do not need that. I've never seen you endorse him once. You truly don't. In fact, you can't even get a meeting with the guy. You can't even. What?

He won't even shake your hand. Excuse me. Excuse me. You used to tell me that I did the Trump hands. Excuse me. I didn't mean to do that, by the way. If that came up. If you take a group of people and you put them in where people are.

I will come out talking like them. I'm impressionable that way. But I don't think that I ever did the Trump hands like you say. But even if I did, you know what, Aaron, I've had it with you. Do I get up and leave? He's coming in in two minutes. Do you want to talk to him direct? I feel like if we could get, can we get on the ground and just ask him to zoom up?

I would love it. I don't know. Let me ask the guys. That would be amazing. I just want to know if you step over, you roll. That's all I need to know. The only difference is if you come on when he's on, then I can't do the goodbye and walk you out thing because then I can't make him wait. No one cares.

No one cares about that. You don't want the goodbye. Just roll right through. Is Mikey there? In a moment. Okay, they're setting him up. So you want to do this? He's the great kingmaker.

Now, what I'm going to do is. He's the president of the United States. He sent out a tweet and said... Frank, can I give him my headphones? Because I would love to hear this. I would love to hear the explanation. Are you dirtying my new table? What's going on here?

I didn't mean to. I've been worried ever since you said take the lid off. I knew sooner or later we were going to spill. Oh, what's that, Frank? You could do that. I could do what? You could give him the headphones. Oh, is he ready, though?

Not yet. You're efforting. You know what they say in the TV business, Frank? Can I go right here? I called you, Frank. Yes. i called you frank yes no no no oh yeah we got a cameraman right there just hold this position then i'll just ask you need me to come over or do i roll you need me to come yes we're gonna we're gonna actually plot on me i can't do that no i'll show you where to go i don't bring your leg up i don't want to embarrass you it won't embarrass me i've been i've been boxing you look good actually yeah that doesn't look as good, but you... Yeah, no, let's

stop doing that, please. Yeah, that's not... Okay, we have some breaking news here. I wasn't planning on this, but this is the beauty of live TV. You can't get this over at Bristol HQ. You know what I'm saying? I'm getting... I'm not trying to get you in trouble. I love everyone over there, my old friends. Let us say hello now

to the newest member of the UFC family. Yeah, what's up with that? Darth Rigatoni himself. The great Mikey Musumeci is here. Look at this guy, Mikey Musumeci. Now, Mikey, I have to tell you, I had Chael. He was refusing to leave. He doesn't want to leave because

he wants to ask you. You know this man, right? I know he's a little bit older than you. I'm glad that you made it, Chael Sonnen. Thank you, Mikey. I appreciate that. I love to talk to you. I love your videos and I grew up watching you. You're awesome. Thank you, brother. Can I tell you

something? My name, Chael, is the last five letters of your name. My mom just dropped the M-I. That is where I got you. We'll always remember. You learn something new every day. You learn something new every day. You learn something new every day. Can I tee this up?

Go ahead. This is all you. I just want to ask you about a umma plata defense real fast. So I'm the top guy. I get caught in it. Okay. Do I step over, which can be blocked? The guy just brings his arm.

Do I step over or do I roll? That's all I want to ask. And Errol and I were going to demonstrate it, but are we not going to do that now? If you want me to. If you can picture the position, do I step? So I'm in an umlauta. Do I step over his body or do I roll? Okay, so what I want you to do is try to build height first.

Okay. So when you build height, you're trying to remove your elbow from the triangle locked on your shoulder, right? Right. So I'm stuck. And then I want you to try to put your knee in front of that leg to remove your elbow. When they try to keep your elbow stuck, that's when you could roll to clear your body.

So you have to give them a dilemma. They try to take your elbow out first, and when they keep your elbow in, that's when you start rolling, and then you can begin to clear your elbow. Does that make sense? Yes, it does make sense. But am I doing this to set up the roll? Is the whole thing to set the roll because I want her to pull me down? Or is it a matter of I couldn't get out?

There's a chance, Kale, that you could remove your elbow when you're doing this, like by deadlifting and posturing up. Does that make sense? Yes, it does make sense, but that's what I'm asking. Is that common thing? Is this a strength issue? I've seen guys do that. I've seen guys come all the way up.

Build height from your elbow by building height, by getting taller. And then when you get taller, now the person's trying to keep your elbow stuck. And it's way harder in no-gi, of course. Are we talking gi or no-gi right now? No-gi. No-gi. Okay, yeah. They don't have a collar grip. Life is amazing. Just

stand up, hold the ankle, start getting your knee, your front knee in front of their leg, build height, and start facing them and start clearing your arm. That's the perfect way you can defend an omopata. Okay. That's the very first way that I ever learned to do it. We just said the role was more advanced.

All right, Mikey, I'm not as part of this interview. I'm leaving. Congratulations on all your success. And Joe Rogan, Joe Rogan for president, according to Ariel. If you're ever in Vegas, please hit me up. I would love to hang out with you, sir. Awesome. Awesome. I will call you if Joe Rogan is not free. All right. See you guys. One second, Mikey. Let me just say goodbye to Chell real quick. Don't go anywhere, Chell. I love you. And thank you for putting me over.

And Joe Rogan. This is stunning. You are the best. Thank you so much. You guys are great. God bless the great state of Oregon and the United States of America. All right, Mikey. That was tremendous. I wanted to say one more thing to Chael. Damn it. What did you want to say? Chael, come back. Can you come back? Can you come back one second? Okay, one second.

One second. One second. I'm coming back. Chael, Chael. He wants to say one more thing to you. He's coming back. He's coming back. Thank you. Okay, here he is. He's dying back He's coming back Thank you Okay here he is He's dying to tell you He's dying to tell you

One more thing Alright Mikey He's back I just wanted to say That we're both I'm from New Jersey And you're from Oregon We both don't

Pump our own gas So we share a lot in common So we have what coming? You have a lot in common Because you both don't keep your own guess. Oh, yes, that's tremendous. I'm a little surprised you brought me back to that. No, that's tremendous.

For those that don't know, every time people from New Jersey or Oregon go to other states and they have to pump their guts, they don't know how. Yeah, no, that's true. I ran into that. I was so worried for me to tell you for you to come back. I'm sorry. Yeah, and, Mickey, I ran into that, and I got glasses now,

so it's hard to see, and the screen talks to you. Like, you kind of have to know when to push the, do you pull the card out? Some, you leave it in, then you got to pull out fast. No, it's an entire thing.

I'm hoping that Joe Rogan could change that someday. Eric, would you talk to him about that? Nah, next time I'm on the pod. I'll do it. You see, we've got a lot of progress here for the world,

right? By us discussing this, like this is a real conversation that needs to happen. I agree. We need people from New Jersey and Oregon to be educated on pumping gas. This guy's brilliant, by the way. I don't remember Mikey being funny. This is a real conversation that needs to happen. I agree. We need people from New Jersey and Oregon to be educated on pumping gas. This guy is brilliant, by the way. I don't remember Mikey being funny. This is great.

Goodbye to you all. Bye-bye, Chael. There he is, the great Chael Sonnen. Undefeated, undisputed. More juice than Tropicana. There he is. I feel like we started the show very good, Ariel. We're already trying to make

a change in the united states yes this is great where else but here can we make such a change yeah we're trying to do this right now um you have a lot going on in your life and i want to get to all of it so let us start with the news of you signing with the ufc you're now exclusive to fight pass invitational you will make your debut on december 5th at the apex in las vegas which is where you reside but i feel like we can't 16 days we can't necessarily tell that story mikey without talking about your departure from one championship because all this happened in the span of two weeks so can you tell us the entire story what happened and maybe we even have to go a step back and talk about your fight

against Cade Rotolo falling through and then you having to go to the hospital. You could start wherever which you way, whichever way you want to start, but I'd love to know the A, B, and C of it all. Yeah, there's a lot, but... We got all the time in the world.

Let's start with Cade Rotolo. Why did that fight fall through? So Cade, first of all, congrats for him winning CGI. He did an incredible job, right? And then he got injuries from CGI, and he had to pull out of my match with him in September. Okay.

Now, you were supposed to still stay on that card, but apparently you, you injured your lung and were hospitalized the day before. So then what happened was, uh, basically, um, they offered me another opponent at one 78 and I had to be a minimum weight, I believe of like one 65 or one 60 something. And I walk around a lot lighter and I couldn't legally make that weight. Does that make sense? Because the athletic commission. So I was told, I told him I can't do that math because I legally can't make that weight. So, um, I would prefer to just do my division. Right. And I was very light. I definitely could have made 135 i believe no problem um i just sustained that lung injury which we all didn't know right um i had two days to make the weight

i typically uh do it for like a week but i was walking around my normal weight um i should have done the match at five pounds heavier because night before the match, uh, the weigh-ins, I was 140 hydrated and it was 135 the match. Right. But the injury happened that night. So, but again, we didn't know it's called, uh,

phenol medium stytum. It's, uh, ripping your lungs and then air went into my throat. So when I was trying to sweat, I was telling my friends, I'm like, guys,

what is wrong with my throat? It feels like so sore, like here. And it'm like, guys, what is wrong with my throat? It feels like so sore, like here. And it felt like rice crispy bubbles in my throat. But we all just like, oh, I'm probably just dehydrated. I'm dizzy, something, right? So, but I just feel something's off. And one thing also I did different. I tried doing a different style of cutting because I had two days to make the weight.

So I drank a lot of electrolytes thinking that my number for the hydration test would just stay the same. Because how the hydration test works in one, it's basically they have a urine thing, a gravity thing where they weigh, they check your urine for how much sodium is in your urine. Right. And the more sodium in your urine, if it's above 1.0250 you fail hydration but if you drink a lot of electrolytes your urine is above 250 so you have to literally go pure water plain water but the way i was trying to do this cut i was trying to do it where my urine maybe isn't pure water but it isn't uh i just wanted to do it a little healthier this time. And what happened was I drink a lot of electrolytes and my number was saying about 150, 130. So I was okay.

But then when the lung thing happened, all of a sudden my body shut down. Like it became very hard for me to sweat. I became super dizzy and out of it. I kept trying to push, but it just seemed something was off, you know? And then my urine had so much electrolytes in it from the drinking I was doing. I couldn't remove the electrolytes from my bladder. So I drink three gallons of water to try to get the sodium out of my urine. And it was just stuck in my stomach, the electrolytes, you know, so became very hard.

And then I just felt like something was off. I felt like I needed to go to the hospital. I felt very odd. Um, but it was, again, we're so lucky I didn't do that match because if I would have, I would have died. The doctor said I would have, my lung would have collapsed in one minute and then I would have, uh, possibly died uh possibly died right wow that sounds a terrifying also be very painful how long were you in the hospital for i was in the hospital for i think three or four days but i was when i left i had to go two weeks without elevating my heart rate or breathing from my like lungs i had to like i couldn't elevate my heart rate anything so i had to like lay like i could walk a little heart rate anything so i had to like lay

like i could walk a little bit but anytime i started breathing it started like getting weird again so i got really scared um again it's like one out of 42 000 hospital uh things for this so it's like so rare to get right wow and so they couldn't even detect it because i went to the medic at one i'm like something's off on me. I feel so weird. And of course he wouldn't think this, like nobody would think this, you know, until after the match, I go straight to the hospital and then they're all in like the doctors, like what the hell you have this? And then they like panic, you know, and, um, it was scary.

It was really scary. The way it was, it was labeled. I got a little upset because they said I missed weight. Yes. I did miss weight, but I couldn't keep cutting Ariel. There's nothing I could do when you have a medical condition that stops you from cutting weight. You understand? So did you feel like maybe, uh, it could have been positioned better and it wasn't just a simple, Oh, he missed weight. He wasn't fit or whatever. They should have explained what happened and protected you.

Did that bother you? I am extremely grateful for what one has done for me in my career and everything. That's what I'll start off with. Not even one, just Shotree in general. I was in one because of Shotree. I had a very close friendship with him. I saw him like a parent to me. I only lived with my parents my whole life.

My grandma a little bit when I went to college, but my parents and grandma. And then I moved to Asia just because of my relationship with Shot Tree. So I am extremely grateful for what he's done for me and what he's done for Grappling. He really gave Grappling a platform that you can make money in before anyone else. Right. So and we had such amazing memories together. So I'm full of gratitude to him. So however one positioned it, I have no opinion on. I'm just full of gratitude to him. Was I a little upset losing my belt? For sure. You know, because I love that belt so much, right?

But it was a part of my journey in life. You know, it was a part of my path. I'm more than just a belt, you know? So I definitely felt bad for sure because I had the best intentions in the world doing that match, Ariel. I was at Masters World here in Vegas and little kids

were coming up to me when I found out that the Cade match was cancelled, and they were saying that their parents are driving them to watch us fight. So, you could ask friends that were with me. I was, like, crying when they were telling me that, you know, because I felt like I was letting them down and disappointing them. So, I had the

purest intentions in my heart to do this match just to, like, give the fans a match, because so many people were traveling to see us, right? And I was pissed at Kane, too. I was happy for him for making a million dollars, but I was pissed that he couldn't even just message me, like, bro, I can't do it, I'm sorry, or whatever. But it is what it is. It is what happened. I'm just grateful to be alive ariel you know like when you almost die like you change your whole perspective changes in your life about

small things like this um i'm just happy i'm alive uh cade in the aftermath and we're obviously happy as well said you know he he wasn't sure where you're gonna go and you're probably just gonna end up back at one championship anyway he said this at the uh the post fight press conference did those comments upset you uh i just thought it was a little uh odd how opinionated he was of me when he's the one that pulled out of the match you know uh i always just speak very kindly of him i'm very respectful um he's the one thing he's going to submit me, this and that. He's incredible. I was happy for him for making a million dollars. I just think that he

should have not accepted a match with me after a big tournament like that. I got stuck in that position too because I just fought Gabriel Souza right before then and I wasn't allowed to stop him, right? Because they wanted me on that Denver card with him.

So I had to immediately finish that match with Gabriel and just keep training. So I was in camp like 11 months, Ariel, you know? I had like seven or eight match cancellations in one year. I was ready to fight all year, and I had like seven or 8 bout cancellations Like total If you include CGI my match would bulk

So It was just a very frustrating year for me And I was just My body was destroyed from everything And that's what happened with my lungs I think I was so destroyed my body From how long I was stuck in camp That my body just was deteriorating

So this happens And it's upsetting and it's scary And it's painful from how long I was stuck in camp, that my body just was deteriorating. So this happens, and it's upsetting, and it's scary, and it's painful. And we probably think, you know, all right, we're going to see Mikey at some point, maybe in 2025 or end of the year, etc. But then we find out you have parted ways with one championship. And so what led to that? So my contract was coming to an end basically. And, um, I just wanted to be back home in the U S you know, um, again, I told you, I love one championship, but I was there because of my relationship with Shashi.

Um, he was like a parent to me. Um, he was my closest friend probably for like a few years you know um and that's why i moved to asia so um then when i decided i want to be back in the u.s close to my family ufc is 10 to 15 minutes from my house right so it's a no-brainer uh for me uh especially being american and also what i feel ufc could bring to grappling as well. You know, I feel like it's finally another platform that could expand our sport to people that wouldn't typically watch jiu-jitsu. It's another platform that will eventually

have drug testing as well. It's another platform that could make our sport professional instead of all these steroids, all this craziness. I just want a legitimate professional platform for athletes to have for kids that are growing up. So then they could dream of being a professional jiu-jitsu person, you know, and they don't have to think of changing careers or doing things like that. Right. So I feel like the most fulfillment I could have as a person is setting this path for the next generation. So so was your contract coming to an end or did you ask out or did they release you?

Like, was it was it more just you chose not to resign with them? Basically, you know, it was basically that it was coming to an end and I'm still good friends with Shachri. You know, I talked to him all the time, even them hiring Tom DeBlas, I was so happy because I love Tom. I think he's awesome for the sport. And I have no hard feelings for one. How can I have hard feelings for an organization that helped me grow so much as a person? I'm just full of gratitude to Shotree. We were like a dysfunctional family.

Sometimes we had disagreements we would fight and stuff but at the end of the day i do i am full of gratitude for what he's done for me you know and i would never speak bad of that does that make sense 100 and and so then i'm fascinated by the ufc deal because they've never signed a bjj star to an exclusive deal to compete on fight pass And so do they reach out to you once this news comes out? Do you reach out to them? How does that all come about? Yeah, so basically I'm constantly training at UFC PI,

you know, in Vegas, because I live in Vegas. Yeah. I was back in Vegas because my matches, for one, I was supposed to fight Baby Shark January, February,ary march april and then june and all those matches fell through so i came back to the u.s to do my camp uh for those matches right and kate of course so because i typically lived in asia for three years so i came back to the u.s because i these were the biggest matches of my life right right? And I needed my old training. I needed to train with all these different people. I really put a lot of effort in those months.

And then they fell through. But in those months, I was training in Vegas. I was at UFC PI a lot. I met Hunter there, and we became good friends. And we established a relationship like that. And, yeah, how I am, Ariel, is I just let the universe guide me. You know, the universe guided me to Asia

at like a special time in my life. In 2021, that's when I first started talking to one. My grandma just died in the beginning of 2022 and Shacha gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. And then he gave Jiu-Jitsu a new platform. And I was like the first person to help grow the sport. Rutolo too. But I was the first person to win the belt for one.

And I feel like I did a very good job at helping our sport grow publicly to a new audience, right? Constantly new people seeing our sport, which is my whole goal now. I don't really care about titles or money or things like this. I care about helping our money or things like this i care about helping our sport grow to the max again like i said before that was that is what's going to give me the most of them and our sport having more professionalism actually drug testing not these freaking uh how horrible it is now that like people promote steroids and how fake everyone is and all these shady promoters i just wanted to have one professional legitimate organization where people could just not have to be afraid about budgeting. If it's some weird

shady investor that has money and then all of a sudden they go bankrupt, which is common in Jiu Jitsu, you know? So I feel like now with UFC, it was just the perfect opportunity for me and platform that I feel like I could completely fulfill what is in my heart to do for jiu-jitsu. Does that make sense? Oh, I love it. And I said this before you were even on, not today, I said it when the news came out. I think this is a massive coup for the UFC, a huge, huge deal and a huge positive. And I think it's a massive loss for one, because look, I've said this before. I'm not a jujitsu aficionado if you want to call me an mma aficionado i wouldn't call myself as well that but i i do follow it and cover

it a lot closer i i know you know maybe five jujitsu guys you know off top my head and i follow them and i and i and i'm interested in their career and when they compete i watch and you're at the top of that list i'm captivated by you so i think it's it's it's a huge deal and it's a huge loss for one and and so could i ask are you when you say exclusive like is this exclusive you cannot compete for any other entity you can't even do adcc you can't even do cji if you want to is it fight pass only um so for now we're just doing the fight pass invitational but ufc has very big plans for grappling uh i don't think i'm allowed to talk about them yet no problem just know that there's very big plans for grappling coming from ufc um now in terms of adcc those other things like um

craig cgi like i don't know exactly um if I'm doing it for charity to help a cause. Maybe I would, like, push UFC to let me do it, you know? Like, my fight with Vulk, I don't know if anyone knows, I was going to do it 100% free for charity. Just to donate money to help charity. I didn't want any money for it. I just wanted to help Craig and his event and help, like, for a good cause, right? Because that's what it's about for me. It isn't about money, these different things.

Fame is great because I can just help the platform grow and help more people come to our sport, you know? So will I do CGI? I don't know exactly. Um, but ADCC, I don't really like what it stands for at the moment with, uh, with the steroids, all these different things. I just want one professional organization for everyone to have. Like i was when i was a kid like i told you i was going to be a doctor or lawyer you know and because i felt there was no chance in me making money in jiu-jitsu you know so i want kids to feel that there is a chance that they can make money that there's a professional platform they don't have to just know random people end up in these random promotions and just constant uh drama constant uh bs you know so that's my goal with this um and it is a little like we don't know

exactly what's going to be but yeah there are a lot of big plans for ufc in the future and i'm start i'm the first uh exclusively signed athlete right and that's a huge responsibility for me but i'm also blessed and grateful for that opportunity. I know UFC has a budget. They could like finance things, like they're not going to have budget problems. We know that they could drug test like they do for MMA. We could really legitimize and professionalize our sport, right? Oh my God. Yeah. It's huge. And if they're really getting behind it, like they have MMA and like they want to do boxing as well. I think it's brilliant. Could I they're really getting behind it, like they have MMA and like they want to do boxing as well,

I think it's brilliant. Could I ask, is it like an event deal? Meaning you'll do four Fight Pass Invitationals or is it a year deal? How is it structured? Could you tell us that breakdown? All I could say is it's the best deal I've ever had in my life.

Wow. It's incredible incredible they're really treating me well ariel and that's why i'm so uh grateful to them and i'm grateful for what we're gonna do for jiu-jitsu you know if i'm getting a deal like this i know many future generations can but i just have to freaking keep staying strong while there's a lot of people that are going to be mad at me for changing what the sport is now with all these random tournaments and all these shady promoters and all these things that promote steroids and all these things i want this all gone you know i want to make this one platform for all of us and i want to legitimize our sport and people are going to be mad at me for this but um, um, it takes, it takes people hating you.

It takes people, uh, just liking what you're doing to make a difference, you know? And I'm at the point in my life where I almost died. I, every day is a blessing for me. And I'm so grateful to still be alive. And I am just blessed for this opportunity. I feel like, uh, God gave me this gift of Jiu Jitsu, you know, there were so many times I wanted to quit and stop doing it, but he refused to let me. So I'm still on this path for a reason, and I'm really eager to keep helping our sport grow, and I'm really blessed that UFC there are doing an amazing job

and for Hunter what he's done for me. You've mentioned shady promoters a few times. Can I ask who you're referring to? Can I plead the fifth? You can plead whatever you want but i feel like i have to ask because you've said it a few times but yeah i'll just say a broad statement that in jiu-jitsu there's a lot of shadiness and a lot of shady promoters that do a lot of messed up things behind the scenes right and being in it for so many years you get really burnt out from it and it doesn't feel legitimate or professional.

You make money here and there, like different things. A random shady arms dealer might promote an event, and then they have money. Then you can make money in one event, and then all of a sudden it disappears. Then another one comes. Is this what we want for the next generation? Just constant weird things like this? No. generation, just constant weird things like this. No, we need it to become a sport like MLB, NBA, NFL, where we have a legitimate organization with money that we don't have to question,

are they going to have money in a year from now? You know, I hated feeling that in my past. I understand that. I couldn't, I couldn't agree more. That feeling alone makes me just want to go to law school or do another career because literally i was going to go to law school like two or three times i just keep stopping because of the opportunities jiu-jitsu has but now i really feel this is the chance for us to change our sport so do you have any sort of idea and can you share if you do how many fighters the ufc is looking to here? Are they trying to get like everyone? They're trying to get everyone. They're trying to take over jujitsu like they have MMA.

They're going to do exactly what they did for MMA. They're going to take over. That's their goal. They want to take over jujitsu. They're going to have a grappling league. And yeah, we're just going to grow the sport even more than it has been rapidly growing at Ariel. And that's why I'm so passionate about this. You can feel passion i'm talking about yeah and what about the fact that you're the guy you're the first one you're the face right now it's surreal you know it is really um

it's the most i could have done with my my gift of jiu-jitsu i really believe that this is uh god really put me on this path and i'm just so blessed to be a part of it, you know? And I have the most pressure and responsibility I've ever had in my life, but I'm so grateful for it, you know? And I'm so driven right now to make this difference, you know? Is there any chance that this creates a bridge to you maybe competing in the UFC

or are you not interested in that? For sure. I would love, now I feel like that I'm going to be around so many more MMA fighters. Um, I feel like I definitely have a higher chance of having more training partners for MMA, for wrestling, for all these different things that I lack when I'm only doing jujitsu. Right. And, um, I'm so young, my body's so young, you know, I never took steroids. So I think my body is like 21, 20 right now. Like I really have no injuries or anything, thank God. I have plenty of years that I could venture into MMA with the right guidance, of course,

which I will have around me a lot, you know. We just have to make sure my stand-up is like blue-purple belt so I don't get murdered. Mikey, how do you do it though i see you eating that pizza all the time every day i think and you're shredded you're ripped mikey if i would eat pizza every day how do you do this this is you in new york i believe look at these pies are you eating all that how is this possible and how are you so shredded wait you live in new york city right yeah why didn't you come i wanted you to come visit us i know i know i'm sorry i only had two or three days next time so what is your favorite pizza in new york city by the way that's

a great question uh i really like patsy's and uh old school patsy's and john's oh you like the old school places yeah man there's history there there's a vibe there well you what do you like uh i definitely do lucali is definitely uh home for me though because my dad's from south brooklyn like literally where lucali is from okay like the exact block so um that's like family for me lucali you know so i'll always be like the biggest lucali fan uh but for neapolitan pizza una pizza neapola i don't even want to say it i'm gonna get hated from italians for this. But that one in New York City has the number one ranked pizza place in the world.

No, I don't know. Una Pizza Neapolitan, I think it's called. Okay. Holy crap, Ariel. It's like the best Neapolitan pizza I've ever had in my life. Have you ever been to Roberta's in Brooklyn? No. But I'm telling you, look at the rankings of

best pizza in the world. This one is goaded. I was amazed when I went there. Where is it? Which part of the city? I'm ignorant. Okay, we'll look it up and we're going to go. I'm going to send Connor there. When I visit New York, I'll even take you to eat there. I'll cheat.

You have to freaking go eat there. Wait, what do you mean cheat? Don't you eat pizza every night? I said treat. Oh, treat. Okay, sorry, sorry. Is it really every night though? Are you really eating every night pizza? If I'm losing weight, I'll eat pizza every night.

If I'm trying to stay heavier, I'll eat more sometimes rice, chicken, more pasta. How is that possible? Doesn't pizza make you gain weight? I don't know. My body is so weird. When I eat pizza, my weight goes down. When I eat more rice and meat with pasta, my weight maintains. Oh, this is a dream.

Did I ever tell you what my go-to topping choice is? Have we talked about this? I think I gave you crap for it. I don't remember what it was, but I remember yelling at you for it. Because we're East Coast people, so I am allowed to yell at you. you yeah you're allowed to do whatever you want i loved when i went to new york this time i felt so at home because um like west coast people they're very nice and kind but they're not really uh you can't really yell at them showing that you care like at east coast energy you know uh being in new jersey new york like you can say f you to someone and that's like

us showing like love and care. Yeah. And you have to admit, the pizza kind of sucks on the West Coast, right? 100%. Yeah. There's nothing. Especially in Vegas. I only eat Neapolitan pizza, honestly.

Neapolitan's not bad on the West Coast. Vegas, I feel like everything is just sort of bland. Yeah, but Neapolitan, there's, like, two really good spots. Okay. If you're ever in Vegas, I could, like, tell you. Like, there's this place called Signora. Okay. If you're ever in Vegas, I could like tell you, like there's this place called Signora. It's this female world champion pizza maker. And she's out of this van and it's freaking awesome.

It's all from Italy, this stuff. So for Neapolitan, again, New York pizza, 100%, you're right. How far away are we from you opening up your own pizza shop? That's what I mean. I feel like I'm super excited about this venture in the UFC and competing and like making this new platform. And then I want to do some other business stuff at the same time. You know,

like I feel like, um, like there's so many things that I could learn and have opportunities now that, uh, I'm going to be on such a big platform with so many incredible people. Right. So this, I definitely want to do that one day for

sure you're right is that a dream 100 you know it's whatever i'm passionate about i want to do and i definitely have a passion when i talk about pizza yeah is is it number one for you like outside of sports to open up your own pizza shop is that your number one goal uh i think pizza for me is more of a hobby right now, right? Because for me, I feel like I really do have a gift for Jiu-Jitsu. And God wants me to do something with this that I have to maximize it. And then once I maximize whatever that gift is, I can do stuff more for me for fun, which would be like having pizza, maybe a pizza franchise, maybe other things.

Who knows? But right now, Jiu Jitsu is my main priority, right? And you're back in action on December 5th at the apex. Yes. Oh, much that sucks going like 11 months,

like to a year in camp. Like every month, like you're going to fight, your body's broken down, you're dying. And then every match gets cancelled. It's got to be incredibly frustrating. That's why we're excited.

I can't recover. I was dying. What do you know about and what could you tell us about Felipe Machado, your opponent? Felipe is from Brazil. I think he's a guard guy. He likes leg locks. Which I know a little bit about, I think. But it can be a great match.

I just want him to come at me and try to finish me. I don't really care his game or anything. I just love people that attack. In my game, like I said, I have no... I have bad ADHD, Ariel. I have no attention span or patience

for boring matches. I just want to come forward and try to finish them any way i can whatever limb i could take i'm taking you know are you able to sit through an entire movie and just watch it straight it gets hard sometimes especially if i go on my phone i'm done yeah it's a lot it has to be really good in the beginning to like keep me interested and then i collapse by the way You know those slow beginnings? I die. Oh, yeah. It's got to come out right out of the gate.

You have to instantly be into it. I remember one of the things I watched without going on my phone was Queens of Gambit. Like that Netflix series. Oh, yeah, yeah. The Queen Gambit? I was able to watch the whole thing without going on my phone, which was really impressive. Wow, that is impressive, especially as someone who, as you say, has bad ADHD.

Could I ask you, before I let you go, what did you think of CGI? Did you like it? Did you think it would do this well? Did you think it was a nice alternative to ADCC? I liked CGI for sure, that they gave another platform for grapplers to make money. That's all I really cared about, you know, what I've been thinking about, you know, instead of winning 10K in ADCC, which is again, ridiculous, only winning 10K for a medal.

I just am happy that grapplers are getting more opportunities. But so that's the right path and track for Jiu Jitsu. But now the next track is us having one professional organization where it's not just random pop-ups. You know, pop-ups are great, but are they sustainable, Ariel? You know, I'm not saying anything about Craig in particular, but I just am worried that these pop-ups don't last every year. So then the next generation doesn't have these pop-ups to do. You know, if it's just random investors each time giving money and then they always lose money, they not going to keep doing those pop-ups that makes sense oh no 100 percent uh there needs to be

some consistency yeah and consistency and it can't just be these one-offs every year every two years um i would love to see by the way jiu-jitsu in the olympics and i think that that could breed a whole new set of consistency right as long as it's not corrupt. You know, I know I heard a lot of like corrupt things or Olympics and like, so maybe Gi Jiu Jitsu in the Olympics would be cool because no Gi Jiu Jitsu will always be better for viewership. I don't think Gi Jiu Jitsu ever will be good for viewership, but Gi maybe has a place in the Olympics for that reason, you know. For now, though, December 5th, you return. Really great catching up with you, Mikey. This was a lot of fun,

and I loved the tutorial with Shale over there. He was really excited. He was actually bummed, as was I, that you weren't in New York. He wanted to meet you. I know. I'm sorry. No, it's okay. I wanted to come see you also, but I just really had no time. I literally was at Madison Square Garden. How cool was that? Oh, my God. i've never seen an event like that before had you never been to a

ufc before or is that just like is it just the energy because that was my first ufc ever ariel wow look at you first ufc ever you're there with hunter campbell with the brass you're the face of their new jujitsu league it's good to be you. MSG is a special place, Jon Jones. To see that up close and personal, that must have been a thrill. It was insane. I'm beyond blessed again for what's happening in my life. I'm just so motivated now

and eager to keep getting better and to keep spreading our sport to the right direction, regardless of all the people that are going to be mad at me for doing this. I'm going to get a lot of hate for changing our sport. I don't care about the hate. All I care about is that it goes in the right direction for the next generation. So when I die one day, I feel I did something good. 100%. Sometimes being a trailblazer, there's some heat that comes with it,

but in the end, everyone appreciates it. One last thing, I promise, one last thing. There appears to be some sort of sentiment. I don't know if you heard Rainier Derrida talk after his UFC debut saying, if you're considering signing with one, don't do it, take it from me. You leave, Sage Northcutt leaves. There appears to be some sort of sentiment that times aren't going well over there and that it's not a place that fighters should sign. And maybe a couple years ago we thought it could be number two and that doesn't appear at least now to be

the sentiment what is your reaction to that do you agree with rdr and this sentiment again um i i can't discuss other people right all i could discuss is my personal friendship with shotree and he really did right by me in my life right okay so i'm grateful for him um and i definitely have amazing memories with him right um i'm i i feel bad for the people that had bad experiences i can't talk on other people besides myself right um shotree really gave me a once in a lifetime opportunity and forever I'll be grateful for him for that. And him even hiring Tom DeBlas, I was really happy because I do feel Tom will do great things for our sport. So again, I'm not this hostile, outspoken person with them. I'm just,

I'm full of gratitude for what they've done for me. You're a classy guy and I would expect nothing less from you. I was just curious your stance on all of that. Again, congratulations. Love to see it. Thought this was brilliant on the UFC's part. They deserve, and it sounds like Hunter in particular deserves a lot of credit for this. And I'm really looking forward to it.

So December 5th, good luck to you, my friend. We'll be watching. Thank you so much, Ariel, for your time. Have a great day. All the best to you. There he is. The great Darth Rigaton won Mikey Musumechi. Have a great day. All the best to you. There he is, the great Darth Rigaton, one Mikey Musumeci.

What a character and what a scene that was with Chill, who may still be here sampling all the different coffee that we have. I loved how excited he was about the new studio because you'll recall when he came to our old studio, he really put it down. So that was a nice little feather in our cap. Two quick things before we go.

John Jones tweeting out moments ago, being ranked number two pound for pound at 37 years old. I'm happy with that. With a little sun emoji. He also has the duck holding the UFC title as his avatar. This in response to the rankings coming out, whomever it is That is contributing to those Rankings and him coming In at number two, Dana White Himself posting on his Instagram story That these people are morons Who are ranking these things on behalf of the UFC

I don't know who these people are And tagging the great Mark Zuckerberg of MetaFame Saying let's get this AI deal Done ASAP, So there you see, these are the official UFC rankings. Makhachev, one, Jones, two, Alex Pereira, three, Taporia, and Bilal Muhammad, five. Uncrowned.com, by the way, has the truly official pound-for-pound rankings in the sport of mixed martial arts. We also have

the highly respected pro wrestling rankings and people love those. Boxing wants to come as well. And as of right now, don't tell Dana White, it's Islam, Pereira, Taporia, John Jones 4. Now, I don't contribute to said rankings. I think a few boys in the back do, but that's where he falls, number four. I'm not sure if, if, if, far be it for me to weigh in on something that I'm not contributing to, but if I was contributing, I don't think I would have him as four. I think I would have him as two behind Pereira, three Makhachev, four Toporia, and five probably marab i think um but some positivity from mr john jones and i do want to mention this just came through the wire some breaking news frank netflix announcing that jake paul versus mike t was seen by over, as they put it, 108 million viewers around the world.

It's the most streamed global sporting event ever. And Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano, too, is the most watched professional women's sports event in U.S. history. Would we say that's a success or not? I'm sure someone will say, ah, but hey, it was a black eye. It was a black eye on the sport. Netflix is ABC in the 1970s. The wide world of sports, they would put on these one-off events. And that was a huge deal. Millions upon millions of people, when there were just four channels, would watch these events, whether it was, you know, races between celebrities and athletes, Evel Knievel type stuff. And that's the lane that

they're occupying now. And it's a pretty damn good lane because of the most successful streaming platform on the planet, but also because, you know, they do a chestnut Kobayashi one-off on Labor Day. They'll do this. The WWE deal will open the door to many more things. That's obviously not a one-off, but it's a whole new era when Netflix, which historically has always been in the, you know, VOD business, is now in the live sporting event business. Oh, by the way, Christmas Day, NFL, huge, huge. I mean, that's gigantic. That's gigantic stuff. So it's a fascinating time in the world of sports, sports business, sports streaming, and I'm happy Yeah, there you have it. Ariel and Ade, 5 p.m. Eastern today. Live, live, live, live, live, live. I'll be wearing the exact same thing.

We'll be right here. Myself and my good friend Ade Oladipo, the face of DAZN Boxing, has flown in. He has made the trek from Riyadh to London to New York City to go face-to-face, mano y mano, toe-to-toe with the great Helwani.

And we'll be talking about all sorts of things. I presume a little Jake Paul, Mike Tyson. I presume a little Katie Taylor, Amanda Serrano, a little Latino Knight, a little Fury Till, a little, I don't know, Morel Benavidez, maybe even the return of Ryan Garcia to Rizin on New Year's Eve. And I can't tell you that the great Eddie Hearn will be joining us as well. Of course. Of course Eddie Hearn is going to join us. He wouldn't miss a debut. He wouldn't miss the opening of an envelope. You know what I'm talking about, Frank?

People say that. He wouldn't miss the opening of an envelope. We're all cracking up back here. You like that? Yeah. Yeah, you know yourself, Frankie. Let me see here. Okay.

Rick's giving me the wrap-up sign. Come on. I said 3.30 hard out. It's 3.42. Chill went a little longer. You're 12 minutes late. Yeah, I'm 12 minutes late. Chill gave me a little long. No, no, no. For sure, for sure, for sure. Where's your hat? What's your heart out? For sure. 3.30 hard out. Back in the ESPN radio days, we're already back from commercial break at this point

I'd be fired by now Actually, we stopped streaming at 330 because of the hard out Yeah, that was the hard out I thought hard out was more of like a loose term You didn't use a 10, 9 Oh, yeah, yeah, right, right, right I thought it was a word The hard in it actually implies that it's a suggestion

I do have to say quickly, though You talked about Shale hyping up the studio Ade was in here He was floored By this control room Oh he loved it Oh couldn't believe it Everyone's loving it

He was like He's not actually In his mom's basement Of course If you sign off You can go see Ade Oh he's here He said this is like

The BBC Oh my god You know yourself We're bigger than the BBC Alright play the music Play the music I'm ready to go I'm ready to go

5 o'clock eastern Right back here We gotta rejigger some things Slap on a new logo This is all part of Uncrowned Productions Yeah You know

The whole crew Coming together We're a production house now Alright We're making deals We've got things in the works Things in the oven Helwani Vision

Watch parties Post shows Boys in the back The crack The A.H. show A fantastic website Led by the great shaheen al-shadi and the whole crew over there i had a moment earlier today gents where i was like you know what the childhood dream is coming true it's good yeah it's all coming true

the childhood dream is like you know yeah this this is it that's awesome okay all right this was it specifically like hey we're gonna be done when i was eight years old i used to dream of hosting a show on a set much like this one talking about combat sports reacting to mega fights like darren tiller versus tommy fury breaking things down having guests join us in studio you know lit or not lit you know those are those are details that don't need to be really hashed out these are all dreamlike scenarios they need to be hashed out just not over the air well how else am i supposed to get the word over what am i supposed to do?

Hey, guys, can you write him up, please? You sent me 8 million slacks. You've been producing the other show while you've been on air this time. You couldn't have been like, is Chael probably lit? Yeah, 5 o'clock. Thank you very much, Chael P., Mikey, all of you, all of them. Back later today. Same time, different place, different time, same place.

Anyway, we'll talk to you at 5. Peace.