The Ariel Helwani Show - Colby Covington, Ben Askren, Dominick Cruz, Michael 'Venom' Page, Tommy McMillen, massive weekend recap, news & notes

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Ariel Helwani kicks off the show recapping a busy weekend in sports, including the World Cup final, Ben Askren’s retirement match, Conor McGregor sounding off about his injury and next steps on social media, UFC 329 viewership being released, and more (11:34). Dominick Cruz is back to discuss his UFC Hall of Fame induction, life in retirement, his reaction to Conor McGregor’s injury, his sense of McGregor’s mental and physical state, overcoming his own injuries throughout his career, and more (35:14). Michael "Venom" Page returns, talking about Conor McGregor’s injury, his frustration with opportunities he’s gotten since joining the UFC, his upcoming fight against Nursulton Ruziboev, his relationship and communication with the UFC, wanting to face the promotion’s biggest names, and more (1:01:51). Colby Covington joins the show as RAF crossover cruiserweight champion, reflecting on his upset win over Arman Tsarukyan at RAF 11, discussing the strength of Tsarukyan’s wrestling, his beef with and respect for Ben Askren, Belal Muhammad potentially being his next opponent, his friendship with Dricus du Plessis, his continued rivalries with Kamau Usman and Bo Nickal, and more (1:34:20). Ben Askren stops by to talk about his retirement match at RAF 11, his physical preparation for the event, why Belal Muhammad was his perfect opponent, his emotions during the week, having his friends and family there supporting him, his legacy, Gable Steveson’s MMA ceiling, and more (2:02:49). Tommy “Gun” McMillen makes his show debut, recapping his show-stealing performance at UFC OKC, his animosity toward Alberto Montes, training with Sean O’Malley and coach Tim Welch, his dream of fighting in the UFC coming true, setting a record for significant strikes, dubbing himself the third Diaz brother, and more (2:26:58). The Boys in the Back and Petesy Carroll join Ariel to covers news and notes, including Dricus du Plessis’ impressive win over Kamaru Usman and other fights from UFC OKC, Johnny Eblen’s continued improvements and PFL’s future, Zuffa Boxing’s press conference for Ryan Garcia vs. Conor Benn, Tom Brady and Logan Paul doing a WWE angle, and more (3:00:04). Ariel closes the show with your Super Chats (4:15:16).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Errawadis Monday, July 22, that. And 26, hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. Hope you had a lovely, lovely weekend. I sure did. I suspect most of you did. It was a very eventful weekend, not only in the world of combat sports, but in the world of sports. So much has happened since we last spoke.

and yesterday was actually July 19th. How do I know that? Because today's July 20th, so I just did 20 minus 1. 19. 19.19 is a very special day for me. July 19, 2008. A very special day for multiple reasons. I'll never forget that date because on that date, back in 2008,

there was the Affliction Band Show. UFC counter-programmed it with the Fight Night in Las Vegas, headlined by James Irvin versus Anderson Silva, moving up from 185 to 205. They put Frankie Edgar on there, Kane Velasquez. It was a lot of one-sided sort of squash match type fights,

but it was really to counter-program affliction. It was the first time I ever went on Twitter. I didn't really understand what the hell Twitter was, but we were live tweeting it, MMA rated, was covering both. I was at affliction because I couldn't get credentialed to the UFC events. And so for some reason,

every time July 19th pops up, I see it. I remember that day. and it blows me away that it's now 18 years since that day, one of the more eventful nights in MMA history. Incredible. Yesterday was an eventful day in sports. It was the World Cup final.

Felicidad? Felicidad. Felicidad. Felicidades. I think that's it. That's correct. I have to go to not just da, like da-des. Anyway, I'm working on my Spanish, okay?

It's getting there. Working through the Kings. Working through the Kings. Spain has conquered the world of Fuchibol. Fuchibol. I like to say like the Portuguese do. They say Fuchibor. They don't just say football.

They say Fuchibol. It was a somewhat uneventful match at MetLife. Everyone, or sorry, excuse me, New York, New Jersey Stadium. It seemed like everyone under the sun, every single celebrity, every single sports star, every single person of influence was there in attendance. I was not. I was driving back from picking up my boys from summer camp, and we were watching it on an iPad. It was very, very glamorous and luxurious.

And in the end, Spain wins. The more deserving squad, again, not the most eventful match. We'll always have that bronze medal game on Saturday, England. Securing their spot as number three, bronze medal, I know it doesn't really mean anything, but they're best finished since 1966. Shout out to the boys, devastating stuff against Argentina. when we were live on the air on Wednesday, they bounced back.

What a match, what a match. And now we have a World Cup hangover around these parts. Very sad that it is all over. But happy for the Spaniards, their second time winning. Congratulations. And of course, the great Ilya

out with his son celebrating on the streets of Hispania. Look at him last night. Here's Ilya. Good to see him with a smile. Could we get some music here for Ilya? I think it's appropriate to play, right? Dananana da-na-da-nan-dan-dan-dan-dan-da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-no-mus. No music? We're just going to go musicless.

This is crowd sounds. These are a son. Look at his son up there. Aging on the crowd. Look at that. Amazing. Did you guys enjoy the World Cup final? Oh, there it is. Okay, fine. Anyone have any strong feeling, strong thoughts on what transpired yesterday? I said this earlier and you let me know if this is a hot take. I felt like it kind of lost some momentum. Interesting. I felt like the World Cup was like on fire. It was hot. I was really into it. By the time the final came around,

I actually feel like it kind of like had flatlined a little bit. It didn't keep going for me. I think that's just because there's less games. Yeah. The buzz just felt smaller. Sort of like that with the NCAA tournament, right? The first couple days and then it kind of peters. Right.

I didn't feel... Did you? feel that way, GC? A little bit, yeah. You did? It was less hype, yeah. Wow, wow, nice jersey, of course. Outdated, yeah.

Need a second star. Got that second star to it. I also think it doesn't help that it was two like mega teams, right? Like two powerhouse type teams. Like if it was like, if there was a plucky underdog type story, then maybe it would have felt different and more people could have gotten engaged. But yeah, I just felt like it, not that, you know, it still felt huge, obviously. but it just felt like we peaked somewhere around a go.

It's almost like our attention spans are so short, and when there was games around the clock nonstop, it's all we could talk about, but now that there's gaps, days in between games, it feels like it fell off. Obviously, hundreds of millions of people watch that game. Of course, yeah. I really wanted England in there.

I think England being in the final would have made it better and bigger. Argentina just didn't have a great showing, and they were sort of scrappy, and they would win, you know, in the dying seconds, minutes. They're not quite the New York Knicks because the Nix were able to actually bring it home. But sad to see Messy Cry. He did get his one in 2022. I wonder if he'll be back in 2030.

But it was, you know, I will say this. I will never forget the going from the Knicks winning the championship right into the World Cup, the summer of 26, I will never forget this summer. It is going to be a cold, cold winter, a January. a pressing day, and I will think back to June and July of 2026. It was, it was magical. It truly was one of the greatest sports summers of my life. And I know it's not over just yet, but to go from the Knicks winning the championship to the parade in the midst of the World Cup kicking off, and it's in Canada, and it's in the United States, and Mexico was amazing as well. Oh, I will be

dreaming about this forever. I will really be dreaming about it forever. And this weekend in New York, was unbelievable. Obviously, New Jersey, New York, New Jersey, as they're calling it, you had the World Cup final, but you had Fanatics Fest as well, which this time we were not a part of, and I probably shouldn't be saying it publicly, but I did have FOMO. I wanted to be there. We kind of jumped on it a little bit late, and that's my fault. And then there was an opportunity to do something on Saturday, but it didn't work out. It was a Nick celebration there.

I mean, they had every single Nick player, it seemed, was doing something at Fanatics Fest, which was amazing. There was a ton of WW.E stuff, UFC stuff, boxing stuff as well. It's a big TKO spot. Every single celebrity, every single sports star, it seemed like, was there as well. I mean, they had everyone. Even like the JZs of the world, there was one thing on Friday where it's Messi, Kevin Durant, Jokovic, who else was up there?

Maybe like, who else was up there? There was Kevin Hart. It just was this convergence of celebrity. It was unbelievable. It really was. Yeah, I was. That that SpongeBob meme of the guy looking through the shades, whoever that guy was, is it SpongeBob?

I'm not a SpongeBob guy, but I've definitely seen you guys use it before. You're talking about Squidward, I believe. Squidward? That's who I felt like. And then we get to, then we get to WW's Saturday night's main event on Saturday night at the Garden. I mean, Jordan, did you see this? Did you see Carl Anthony Towns's choke slam? He comes out with Danhausen.

I mean, was Carl Anthony, Towns born to be a pro. He looks like a pro wrestler, right? The size, the slams on J.D. McDonough and Dominic Mysterio through the table. Look at this guy. By the way, has Cat lost a tremendous amount of weight or what in the past month? I first thought was, holy moly, he's thin. He is very thin. He's just getting back into plan shape, you know? He's doing the big, like, diesel choke slam sign. Jalen's coming out with Roman Raines. Ah! The aura. Did you see the walkout? Did you see the walk? Romans holding the trophy?

What? The belt? It was nuts. And you know Jalen is a hardcore pro wrestling fan. Like he is a legit fan. There was a video of him meeting Ria Ripley, and it was like me meeting him. He was starstruck.

He was blown away by the fact that he was in her presence. He also got to meet Justin Bieber. It was just a convert. There was just so much happening. There was so much happening. I was loving it all. I was absolutely loving it all. Very exciting time.

Very exciting time. Could we get one of these guys on the program? Could we get Jalen sitting here? Could we get Kat sitting here? What about OG Josh? Could we get the whole starting lineup? We'll take Alvarado. We'll take Deuce.

We'll take Jordan Clarkson. Did you guys see Jordan Clarkson got into a fight with that Jezebel, Travis Scott, over the weekend? Always up to no good. I did see this, yeah. Yeah, what the hell? Mind your business, bro. How do you get Jordan Clarkson, NBA champion kicked out of a club before you kick out of the other guy in his own city? Yeah, what the hell?

The other guy being a much more famous, more popular person. He won an NBA title? In New York? Popular? Yes. Yes. Not even, this is, this is, this is the Jalen Brunson has passed Derek Jeter of Taylor. In New York, in New York, right now. In New York.

Who is more popular in the city in New York? Travis Scott or Jordan Clarkson? Stop it. Stop it. It's not. Evelyn Rick is back. Don't be silly. Travis Scott or Jordan Clarkson?

Not even a question. I feel like I just zoned out for 15 seconds right now. I came back to this. Who's more recognizable? in New York though Don't forget the in New York part I don't give it on Mars, Pluto

whatever universe you want to enter Travis Scott is blowing Jordan Clarkson out of the water If they were standing next to each other He would get trampled as people Rush to Travis Scott More people would fight for his honor More people would have his back

Gordon Clarkson was the guy that when he was in the game I was like why is he in the game Nah he was great He was the spark plug He was the microwave Zero to 10 seconds Instant offense instant offense All of that was great

But if I'm being honest, the best thing that I saw a weekend was what transpired in Milwaukee at RAF. Real American Freestyle Wrestling, Ben Ascran, returning, exactly a year after he almost died multiple times. Double lung transplant. He comes back to compete in the organization that he helped launch. His family is in attendance. Look how beautiful that is. He goes up against Bilal Muhammad at one point, up three, nothing. Could you believe it?

Ben Ascran. Olympic wrestler, excuse me, Dan Hodge trophy winner. One championship champion. Bellator champion. In the end, the legs give out. The fact that he was able even to make the walk is absolutely surreal and absurd.

He takes off the shoes. He puts them in the middle of the mat. He says goodbye once and for, all incredible, absolutely amazing. And he will be on the show later today to talk about all of that and more. And so let's get into today's program. In about 18 minutes time, the great Dominic Cruz is going to join us. Dominic Cruz was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame finally this past month, two weeks ago in Las Vegas, as you may recall, alongside his former opponent who he beat at UFC, I do believe, versus six in Washington, D.C. I was there, Demetrius Johnson. Nevertheless,

After the Connor McGregor fight, he said something that was so profound. It was the best of all the people who spoke, including myself, including everyone in the back, including D.C., Rogan, anyone who weighed in on Connor McGregor's return, of all the people who spoke on that Saturday and in the aftermath, what Dominic Cruz said in the post-fight show about Connor and the return and the road back and the road that he now has to. to travel. I thought it was the absolute best, and it's the impetus as to why I wanted to have him on today's program. Can we play this real quick? Because I want to set the table. In case you missed it, here's what Dominic had to say. I thought it was so beautifully said, so profound, so smart, and so Dominic Cruz. Take a look. We keep saying he doesn't need to come back because he's got the money, right? But I disagree. I think the reason why he was coming back was to save his own life from the money, from the lifestyle that he's been living. I think that he's going to be facing that

again, God's going to keep putting the same test in front of you until you choose different. Fighting wasn't going to pull you out. Fighting can't solve everything. And he's going to learn that because now he's got to face himself without this thing that really cures a lot of us. I mean, martial arts saved my life. I truly believe he came back to save his own life. And now he's back to where he started before he booked this fight. We keep saying he doesn't need to come back. I absolutely love that. I absolutely love that from Don McRuez. Dominic Cruz, one of the smartest of the game, one of the best analysts in the history of the game. And I just love the way he broke that all down. And so we will talk to him

about all of that and the induction and everything else going on in the world of UFC and mixed martial arts. We'll talk to him at about 130. At 2 o'clock, Michael Venom Page is going to join us. We spoke late last week about his potential last UFC fight going down in Paris in September. He'll stop by to talk about that fight at 2.30, Kobe Covington, who beat Armist's. Sirukian on Saturday in the first ever RAF crossover championship bout or match, I was surprised. I think I saw something like, was Armand like a minus 500 going into this match? He's never lost in RAF. He's looked amazing, and obviously he hasn't always fought the creme de la creme.

But this was a massive, massive win for Kobe Covington. And so we will talk to him about that when he joins us at about 2.30 at 3 o'clock. We're going to be joined by the aforementioned Ben Ascran. And at 3.30, Tommy McMillan, who is one of the brightest young stars in the UFC, had another win on Saturdays, stole the show, dare I say, at the Oklahoma City card, protege of one Tim Welch, Timbo, Shugashon O'Malley, hailing from Montana, now trains at Arizona with the squad over there. He's got an amazing personality. He is magnetic.

He's a lot of fun. He calls himself the third Diaz brother, and he was phenomenal on Saturday. He really was, and so I'm really looking forward to having him on the show for the very first time. Those five individuals, what a program today, what a lineup, Colby, Ben, Dominic Cruz, Michael Venom Page, Tommy McMillan, all joining us on today's program.

Back-in will also be joined by the great PTC Carroll. He'll join us as well to talk about some news and notes. There was probably no bigger news item than what Connor McGregor shared yesterday, but I actually want to start several days ago, if I can, because he's, you know, there are times when a tragedy happens or a bad loss or something that would make you feel some sort of way transpires and the celebrity, the athlete kind of goes away. Connor is not cut from that cloth. he has not really gone away since his devastating loss to Max Holloway, which he has said on

social media, he wants, you know, all the bets to be refunded. He wants it to be rescinded as far as it not being a loss, but more so like a no contest that is not going to happen. But on Thursday, he was very active on social media. So we'll start there tweeting all kinds of things in which he later, shortly thereafter, deleted. So let's go through some of these and react to them. Someone was, you know, talking about his demeanor as he was walking out, as he was in the cage. He wrote heart rate, low 40s. I was as calm and as ready as I've ever been for a fight. I am devastated, shockingly cruel outcome, he wrote.

He continued. And this is, you know, more in response to that demeanor that everyone has been scrutinizing and breaking down and all that stuff. More nonsense. My hematocrit, does anyone know what this is? I said a word last week and I got roasted for it because I think I misread it or mispronounced it. You know, I'm not a doctor, so I don't know anything about a hematocrit. He says it was 48 percent. My engine was primed and ready for the full duration without effort.

I will delete these as I am not getting into the back and forth and further annoying myself. I was primed, fit, healthy, my engine, my oxygen, my blood. My heart rate was never in better condition. Next time I'll give a little scream at the camera so the illusion of something else is there. a nod to, you know what, all you people who are saying I was off, I was in great spirits. I was in great physical health. Oh, this is from intern Jack. Hematocrit is the volume percentage of red blood cells in your blood often expressed as a percentage. It is routinely measured as part of a complete blood count to determine how well your body transports oxygen.

All right, there you go. We continue. We continue. Someone says, you on the drugs again, bud? I have not and will not take any mind-altering substances. I feel if the fight had went any different favorably or otherwise, even if the fight got to take place at least, I may have cracked the seal on this and ended back in the cycle. However, it went the way it went, and I am awaiting my surgery and planning my recovery,

so zero mind-altering substances have entered my body whatsoever. More time under extreme discipline is required, and that is it. I find extreme discipline most enjoyable anyway, so happy days. He continues. Someone said, look like you were having issues with your knee prior to the fight. Hope you heal up and get back out there and kick some ars. I love how it's TA 1022 who's weighing in on this and getting him to respond. He says, more nonsense.

I had zero issue. The taking off of my shoe at Octagon side is sweaty foot without a sock on, pulling off the shoe with the ball of my free foot. It was a brief disbalance, if even. It's wild that we are breaking this down. He continues. Maybe start with a normal punch next time. No Bruce Lee flying kicks.

That's from Slab Man 3,000. Thanks for weighing in. Connor says, I could have walked into the center of that octagon and taken a phone call. There was zero forward attack coming at me, nor was there going to be next time. He continues. Warren says, how come you fought with a torn ACL in the first fight and couldn't in this one? Why did you throw the exact same kick after tearing your ACL? By the way, very good question.

Fair question. The first fight was midway through the second round and we were positioned on the canvas where there was no weight bearing necessary. It was also the left leg, which is my back leg in fighting stance. When you strike, you move on to your lead leg so the effect was less. I was able to strike sufficiently and enter to a takedown. This current one was my lead leg, the right leg. Every movement was affected. It was also not me who was calling for the fight to be waived.

Fair point. He continues. This is from MP at Legacy MP 17. Would you like your last fight to be versus Chandler or Porre? If not, is there anyone else? Also, heal up well and let us know about what the extent of the injury is when you can. Connor writes back simply, it has to be Holloway. Speaking of Max Holloway, here he is weighing in on what transpired on July 11th.

Selfishly, I hope I get the next title shot. If he's not Connor, give you a boy a title shot. I mean Justin got history That shit I got it He's in my life We know we're going to be a striking war So why not Max what

It's Max, Frank what do you think about Max doing his stream While Chewing Hey, it's fine It's part of the vibe It's uh What's he having a peanut butter

And jelly sandwich that? It does look like that Yeah like an uncrustable or something I'm here for it Okay I'm not In any event Connor continues

This is from Skip If it wasn't injured, it was a ridiculous attempt of full sprint jumping roundhouse kick that was never going to work and could and did lead to injury. Lesson learned, we hope. Connor writes, a foot too early for sure. Never going to work, I disagree. The eagerness slash rush out of the gate is what five years out of the game will do, noted and corrected. I'll get it right. I'm getting closer. That is my mindset. And so he is not wavering. He is not wavering. And so I believe those are the tweets that were deleted. right, those are all of them, but then yesterday he drops a big one. And it's the update that we have been waiting for. Update, he posts. It was ACL and meniscus.

It is the same injury as the first Holloway fight, only this time the opposite leg. Quite shocking. I returned to competition within nine months to fight Diego Brando back then. With today's regenerative medicine advancements and improved training methods, it is well within my realm to return by next summer. I'm walking without a crutch. I done leg extension machine work the other day to no issue. So I can walk without aid and activate my quad under resistance. All very positive. I am maximum discipline and have maintained it fully since the bout. I wonder, I wonder was I saved from something worse here? I believe so. I would

have attended the after party as quote unquote the man and who knows then. I believe I was saved. Thank you, God. On we go. No sad stories. Thank you for the support and well wishes everyone. Your health is your wealth. And so you don't want to look too far into social media posts,

tweets, Instagram, all that stuff and more. But he does seem to be taking a positive approach. He does seem to be confirming what I said on the Monday after, which is, I think he's going to come back. I think he's going to try to come back. I think he's going to try to come back by next summer. And I think he's going to try to fight Max Holloway. And so for Max Holloway, the question is, do you fight anyone until then?

You fought twice in 2026. You said you wanted a break. You said you're happy with coming back in 2027 at this point. If it's next summer, not too bad. Can he come back within a summer? Connor McGregor in 2026 isn't exactly Connor McGregor in 2013, 2014, younger, everything he's been through. I mean, that was a long time ago now, 13, 14 years.

And that's not me saying that he can't do it and won't do it. That's just, you know, it took nine months or so back then. that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to take nine, ten months this time around. But I do believe that he's going to give it his all to come back. And, you know, he's going to have to go under the knife. He's going to have to get the ACL surgery. The meniscus repaired as well. And I think the plan is fight one more time in the UFC and then see where the chips fall.

And I agree with Dana White, by the way. I saw Dana White do a whole bunch of media. He spoke to M.A. fighting. He spoke to the Mac Life. He spoke to a whole bunch of other outlets over the weekend. He was there at Fanatics Fest doing the Ryan Garcia, Connor Ben, press conference stuff, which we'll get into as well. But I agree with him when he's like, look, there's no real point in dissecting this every

single time you hear from me, every single time. Like, this is going to be for the UFC now, hopefully they're taking care of him, hopefully they're looking after him, hopefully they're checking in on him. But there's nothing to talk about until he gets cleared by a doctor and you know, all right, this guy's going to be ready in three or so months. There's literally nothing to talk about. We could talk about Max a million times. We can talk about Chandler, Porier, Diaz, anyone.

Carlos Proches, it doesn't matter. Pick a fighter. It does not matter until he's about three months out, medically cleared, ready to go. So we're not going to try to dissect every single thing here. But that was the big update. That was the last piece that we were missing. Okay, what was it? Was it ACL?

Was it meniscus? Was it one or the other? was it just one, was it both, we find out it's both, and here we are. Here we are. And so wish him the best, wish him well. And it does seem as though he's taking a positive approach to all of this. It does seem like he is in a good mindset, good, good spot mentally. He was very dark at the beginning. He was very depressed. He was very down. Now it seems as though he's in a good spot. Today's episode is brought to you by our good friends over at Cal She, the largest prediction

market in the U.S. of a here's what makes Cali different. You're not playing against the house. Cali is peer-to-peer trading. You buy yes or no contracts on whether something will happen and you're trading directly against other users. Think of it like buying or selling a stock. The line isn't set by some kind of algorithm working against you.

Public opinion sets the price. Cali is CFT. approved that's federally regulated, which is why it's available all across the country, including California and Texas. Download with the Calci Alp right now and app, excuse me, and use the code at Halwani to get up to $500 when you trade 25. We've up the ante. And there you see the QR code right over there.

500 bones when you trade 25? That's Cali, K-A-L-S-H-I-C-C-T-E, trade what's. next. And according to what's going on on Kalshi, here is what they are saying regarding the return of Connor McGregor. I do believe I saw something that said that they are kind of thinking that he's going to come back by the end of next year. We'll get that for you in a matter of moments. Right now, 21% him to fight again before 2028. Oh, wow. So they're not actually that confident, I suppose. The market seems to think he won't be back. Okay.

2028. 55% this morning at 9 a.m. It is now dropped all the way to... What? What changed? I don't know. I would have thought the update would make it more the market moved the other way, but that's interesting. That is very interesting.

Yeah. Maybe the ACL stuff. Yeah, it made people think, you know what? It's going to take a little longer because he is older. Now, UFC in Paramount, this may be a new thing because they never did this in the past. released the viewership numbers for this event. And here we go, courtesy of our friend Jedi Goodman. He put it in a nice little package for us.

Here are the highlights for the U.S. and Latin America only. Viewers reached 15.9 millie. U.S. 14.3, Latin America, 1.6. Peak concurrent streams, 7.9 million. And, oh, excuse me. 7 point, excuse me, 8.3 for 329, Freedom 250, 7.9, 324, which was Hamzach Strickland, 5.93. So it did better than Freedom 250, which is what I thought it was going to do.

I thought it was always going to do better. More on that in a moment. Live average minute audience, streaming views main card, 6.5 total, 6.1 in the U.S. 0.4. Now, people keep telling me that they're fudging the numbers. I don't know. I don't really care. It's interesting to me that they're putting this out there.

Can I be honest? I thought it would do more. I also thought it would do more. I thought the first time Connor McGregor was fighting essentially in front of the paywall in ages. Remember, fuel TV card was, you know, cable, FS1, then it was fight past, then the rest was pay-per-view. I thought it would, I thought it was going to do like 15 or 20. That concurrent number, I thought would. be way higher. Well, the concurrent at least be White House. Yeah, at least be White House.

But Connor McGregor was bigger than everyone on that White House card combined. I think we've reached a point that I've long suspected we've reached where I don't think new people are coming into the tent. I don't think a ton of new people are coming in for MMA. I think we've pretty much. Connor is the litmus, right? Connor and White House. If those two things are not getting more than that number of people in, I don't think we're really growing. So, did you? Did we find out the ceiling? I think we finally have more conclusive evidence that this is the ceiling. The only way that that ceiling opens up

would be Netflix, and they are not with Netflix. Right. Because do we all agree Connor on Netflix does? Yes. 20, 30 million? Netflix has a key to an audience that I don't think Paramount Plus does. Okay, so you're saying the ceiling on Paramount Plus specifically? Yes.

Okay. The ceiling for the UFC. The ceiling for MMA is larger just by the basis of Netflix having done an MMA event and being in the business of MMA at the moment. But for UFC, this seems to be what the ceiling would probably be. If I'm Netflix, this was a big win, right? Like we had a card with a promotion that no one knows in the world of MMA with, you know, names, but no one has big. So that. No one as big as, as Connor, I would think that they were like, I don't know, if I were them, I would be like, we were, we're, we're, we're, we're.

We're right there, if not better. I agree with that. Is that not the takeaway? That's the takeaway for me. This is the established three letters, and this is Connor McGregor, and I really thought it was going to do way more than that. Now, do you think the World Cup

going head to head with the card hurt? That was Argentina. No. I don't think those audiences are much the same. Anybody like... That's big competition. That was a World Cup, what? Quarter final match?

Yeah, but again, I think those worlds are so separate, the same way... NBA and MMA. Like, MMA is its own thing. And anybody who's a fan of both would have it on both TVs. Like, it's not a, it's not a vying for, for the attention. If you are a World Cup fan who also likes MMA, you're watching both. If you are only a World Cup fan, you're not watching the MMA. If you're an MMA fan and not a World Cup fan, you're only watching that. I don't think there's, I don't think there's a ton of competition for it. I don't think it was a timing thing. I don't think the Sunday night, you know, was a huge factor in the White

House one. It just is what it is. I think we found what the appetite for this is once and for all. I think my biggest takeaway is that the White House essentially performed the same as McGregor. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought there would have been a big gap. I thought the White House card was going to do great, but I thought there would have been a big gap. A huge gap.

I thought the Conner card was going to be like in the 20s. I thought it would... What do you think the next Conor card looks like after all of this? It won't be going up against a World Cup match, but I mean, Obviously, I would think the lure of the comeback will weaken. There's a way to make it bigger. Tell me. Nate Diaz.

I don't know if that makes that big of a difference. It makes a big difference. To me, I think it would. You think if... Versus Max Holloway? Yeah. I think that would make a big difference. That much of a difference?

Like adding 10 million? No. Adding 10 million is, I don't think, in the realm of possibility. But I think it would add something. I think it'd get you at least back to this number. I don't think people care about seeing the Max fight again. Is there a world where despite getting rid of the pay-per-view model, people are still, a lot of people are still legally streaming it.

They just don't want to get the Paramount Plus. I didn't think of that. Are people streamed? By the way, is our guest chiming in here because he texted me? Not yet. Okay. I don't know if people are. I mean, I guess people want to, yeah.

They're definitely doing it. But of course, some people are. It's just how many. Yeah. They're definitely, especially the kids, right? Like the sub 21 year olds who don't have a subscription, yeah, probably. And they're just used to stealing everything. They're just used to taking everything. Yeah, we'll never truly know. And that's why it's hard to compare today to 10 years ago to 15 years ago. We'll never ever truly know. But I just, I thought that that number was going to be gigantic. I thought it was going to be insanely big. And maybe two years ago, it's even bigger. You know, time changes everything. But This was a big deal, man. This was a massive, massive deal. And again, when these numbers come out, people hit me up and they're like, this isn't true.

This is... Wait, so when you say that, what are they saying is not accurate about? Well, the big thing about the White House numbers were they were doing this thing plus one minute. Oh, I see. Which is never, ever, ever measured. Plus one minute means you watch for a minute. Now, Netflix does a thing plus one. plus one is you watched within 24 hours

Not live Plus one minute is like you just Honestly in the world of streaming Who's watching anything plus one minute And like how is that significant? You're clicking on it You're watching it for a minute And then you leave

I honestly thought that was the stand When I was at Paramount That was like we just want people to watch shows For a minute so we can put it in our data And I guess that's what they're sticking to With live events as well still Yeah I've just never seen

seen that before. And so that's what I mean when people are, when they're posting this stuff, people are like, wait a second, what is this? What's going on? But these numbers seem very reasonable. Like it is not, this doesn't seem out of the realm of possibility. Ah, you see, Meltzer going crazy. Everyone's going crazy. Ah, these are fake numbers? I don't know what fucking know.

Yeah. What are these numbers? Who the hell knows? My only takeaway is, I just expected to see, Connor McGregor, like 20 million, 30 million. And to your point, it might have been that in the end, but, you know, with streaming and whatnot, but this is what they're putting out. And you know what?

I love the fact that they're putting it out. I hope they do it all the time. This would be great. I don't think they will. No, I don't think they will either. I don't think we're getting the UFC, Oklahoma City numbers. No. Nor do I think we'll get the next pay-per-view.

Yeah. Or sorry, numbered event. Islam, you might get it. Because it's going to be less than the White House and Connor. And you do yourself no favors to be like, well, look at how much it dropped off. It doesn't help you. All right. Well, in a matter of seconds, we're going to be joined.

minutes, seconds, has he emerged or not quite? Okay. In a matter of seconds, we're going to be joined by Dominic Cruz. He did such a phenomenal job. We played that clip at the very beginning of the show of him on the post show. And it's really like what triggered me wanting to reach out to him because I just thought of all the things said in the aftermath of this Conno McGregor fight, that was the best, most astute, most profound, most heartfelt sort of analysis that we had seen. He's always so great at all of this. And so he's kind enough to give us some time on this Monday. Morning over on the West Coast, the Hall of Famer, Dominic Cruz.

There he is. What's up, Dom? How are you? Morning, Ariel. Great to see you. Thanks for doing this. I know it's a very busy day for you, so we won't keep you too long. First, can I just say congratulations on the Hall of Fame induction?

Now that it's come and gone, can you tell us, like, what did that mean to you? Some people have a take on the induction like, eh, I didn't need it, but it was nice. Ah, I really wanted it. What did it signify to you? I think I needed it more than I thought, you know, when you're thinking, when I was thinking about it being presented to me while I was competing, it was almost not necessary in my head. So I get somebody's take on that, like, oh, I don't need that, you know. But as I actually retired and I don't know, it like allowed me to receive all my awards. Like I never really

I never really received any of them when I was getting them. I never felt them. I never allowed myself to to feel like that person because I always felt like there was such a target on me that to accept it

would mean complacency in my subconscious mind, I think. And then when I got the award and I'm done and I feel complete in what I've done in the career of fighting in in the in like the competitive pool it just let me say okay well this is like the stamp so take it in and that's what everybody kept saying that that week it was I think that's part of it too is like take it in take it in take it in everybody kept saying that to me it was like a very important point for every person I came to to take it in and I thought

that was interesting too so I just heard people I think. Did you take it in? Do you feel like you did a good job of that? I feel like I'm practicing that, Ariel. It's, excuse me, when you do what I've done for as long as I've done it in the sport of fighting, like I said, you make up a story that if you receive these awards, then you're going to turn into the ego. You're going to turn into that thing in regular life. If you're me, that's how I was thinking. So it's important to not let it go to your head. It's important to keep the foot in front of you because every day stays the same. Just because you have an award, you still got to go create more. You still got to keep going. But yeah, I was able to receive it. And it feels good to

receive it. It more has allowed me over the time to receive it more and more every day. Do you regret that mindset that you had when you were fighting, not receiving it? I don't regret it because, you know, that's what's the point of regret? It's pretty useless emotion. But, you know, it's happened. It happened that way for me. I had to, that's how I compartmentalized the pressure. That's how I did it.

Everybody has their own method. But I just, yeah, it's hard to explain it. This is why I like coming on your show because you always, it's always a intellectual, smart conversation that makes me think. So I appreciate that type of, these type of questions. And I appreciate them. I appreciate having them with you.

I love that you're open to having these types of conversations. Was there finality to the career after the ceremony? Did you feel like, okay, that's it. Usually the Hall of Fame is kind of like the last period, the book closes. Did you view it that way? For fighting, sort of. But I just know I tend to keep going.

I don't know. I have a gut feeling that this is the beginning of something. I can't explain it. When I stop fighting and I choose to be done, it's because I know that everything in me wants to hold on to what feels safe, which is what I know. And I'm ready to move into the possibilities where other miracles, other things can be created with the same mentality.

So I'm not going to remake the wheel. everything I used to become a champion in fighting is what I'm going to just move to other avenues and find ways to give back because at the end of this thing, when we die, every single thing we have, our legacy, our trucks, our houses, you know, everything we've given to our kids, when we die, it all gets given away anyway. So why not start now? So that was my mental career. Find a way to give it, give things away by whether it's entertainment, whether it's showing people that they can do whatever they want, whether it's showing people that if they don't think,

if they think because they rolled their ankle in high school, that they can't get it together and come back and compete at the highest level. Something, that's a story they made up. Ben Ascran's another great example of that, obviously. He removed his lungs where he put him in there and went and went and wrestled. Some people can't make it through one wrestling match their whole life. He did it with their lung replacement. So that's why.

we do sport, it's a parallel of life. And, you know, people are watching how I compete and how I do it. And we're put on that stage to vulnerably be to look like an idiot or to look big. So that's something to give away. Transformations, a public event, basically. So I'm just giving away what I can while I go through these challenges. So that competitive spirit that you possess is what I think separated you from so many people. Like you had those injuries.

most people say, okay, like enough is enough, I can't keep coming back. Not only do you come back, you come back and win. And so I'm wondering what do you channel that, you know, competitive energy, that spirit into now? Is it the broadcasting? Is it the podcast? Is it something else that we don't know about? There's some things that I've got in, there's an iron in the fire that I can't really talk about. Okay.

But that's building and that support. That's one thing that's supporting me. I do a lot of community work. that I don't talk about publicly. I just show up and be that thing. That really fuels me to give back in different ways and create in that way. I do, I have the podcast that supports me a lot. Interviews like this, you got to think when you talk, when you talk it out, it comes out of you, you know?

And so that supports me. Coaching, like helping other athletes. I haven't taken out a lot of other athletes because I'm moving. moving around so much trying to make money, trying to, you know, I still got to work full, like a lot of hours and stuff. I got to, I have a lot of different things I need to do to make money and I got to hustle and go to the money because I don't have like a nine to five like a lot of people. I do the commentary work, analyst work, but that only gets you paid, what, three days a month? So then what am I doing in between that to create, to give back? So there's a lot of things

I could be doing. There's a lot of things I am doing. And I knew fighting to an extent was kind of limiting me at a certain point. It's keeping me in the same place, in the same pool, doing the same things. And so I wanted to challenge myself by not holding on to what feels comfortable and safe and moving into another place. Think of how many people in this world are living their life successfully and they don't have to fight in a cage. How are they doing that? How are you guys doing it? It's something to behold. It's something to look at. I think fighters get out and they go, how are you guys all doing this? You guys are all looking at us, like, how do you do that?

And I'm looking at you guys. Like, how do you not? How do you not? How do you not do this? I'm still doing it because it's just now I'm not in the competition pool, but it's saved my life. I don't know how anybody lives life without fighting somebody in the morning some way. Okay, so there's that phrase right there.

It's saved your life. And that's the sentiment. that you shared when talking about Connor. And that's why I reached out to you because it kind of took my breath away the way you broke it down because I think a lot of people were having a different take on it all.

And so can I ask you to expand on that? Why did you feel like that was the appropriate analysis in the moment? And now that we've gotten like a week of tweets and updates from him, some very dark and now a lot more positive, I'm wondering, you know, like what's your interpretation of what he's going through?

He's in the honeymoon phase. of his injury, right? So we'll see how that goes. I have nothing but positive energy to put towards him in his healing. An ACL meniscus tear is what I heard it is. And I knew in my gut it was an ACL, you just don't know to the extent. Sometimes you can tear the ACL and everything else. But he just tore a meniscus and ACL, which is very repairable. And the good news is because it's ACL meniscus, you know, meniscus can heal, you don't, that doesn't stop you. Excuse me, if it was MCL, he'd be stuck for a little while, like, frozen for like, I think it's like two, three months before you can even start bending the leg. He should be able to start

moving that leg right away, which will really quick in the healing process for him. But what I, my analysis on that day that you're talking about was because, yeah, I could only look at him as a mirror that whole weekend. When you talk. about accepting the Hall of Fame, I got it that weekend. And there's no accident that this guy's trying to come back from one of the longest layoffs besides me. It would have been the longest, you know, if he goes out there and does the thing and wins, it's the longest layoff in MMA history. I've had, I think, two or three of those, unfortunate. I'm not proud of it, but it's like what I've had to do through my career. And I know what it takes. And it took a lot of looking at myself and

realizing that martial arts was the only thing keeping me alive because when I was injured, I was dying. I was not happy. I was not a good human to myself. I didn't enjoy myself. I didn't appreciate myself. Like I said, I don't know how everybody in the world goes through life without this sport, without these things to, it's it you wake up every morning and you get in a fight and you get punched in the face and you get dropped and you get up and then you finish the round and then you do three more rounds and then you win the next three rounds and you know who you are the rest of that day. It's that can go to anything. I get a ticket. Calm down. You got dropped and you got up this morning. Just I go, somebody pisses me up. Nothing really can get to you after a day like that.

When that gets taken away, you kind of lose like, okay, how do I create a measuring tape from myself on who I really am? And it's easy to get lost for a guy like me without that reference point. So I could only imagine Connor because he has more access to like if he wants to go on a super yacht in the middle of the Indian Ocean and get picked up on a helicopter and go somewhere he can do that. You know, I didn't have access to that. I had to, I got to work. Excuse me, I got to work while I was injured because I had bills to pay and my sponsors left and I wasn't, you know, make, I hadn't made my, you know, $100 million or whatever. you want to call it. So I kind of in a way, that saved me in a way to keep me on task and keep me in a disciplined mindset and keep me just keep paying the bills, keep, keep grinding. But man, how sad I was in between the two ACLs to the third one. Like after I beat Mizzagaki, came back one in a minute, man, I could so relate to him. It's very similar to what I think he felt,

which is you go in there and it's like he, he didn't really get it out, right? I went and got it out in a minute, but that didn't even really get it out. It was like, I got hit one time. And I smashed this dude who was on a five-fight winning streak with five finishes after I was out for two and a half years when nobody told me I could do it. And it was crazy. And then I blow my knee out another month later. And it's because I learned through all these injuries that they, now that I'm done, when I'm going through it, it's just hell. But I learned like, right when I blew it out, how calm I was.

I was like, it's okay. You've got a system now. you've done this twice, just copy the system, do the nine months, and you'll be all right. Well, man, that nine months was the hardest nine months ever, because without martial arts, I needed to get on antidepressants to deal with the lack of... Might have lost him right there. Yes, we did. As he's cooking, God, I could listen to him talk about this stuff forever. One thing I wanted to mention to him was, I feel like he could be a great motivational speaker. Should we reconnect with Dominic?

Hopefully his phone didn't die in the car over there, wherever he may be. And I'm not going to keep him much, much longer. Oh, no, we're going to reconnect with him in a moment. But yes, this is a man who had been through multiple ACL injuries, now like Connor McGregor. Now it is important to note the leg in which Connor suffered the recent, the very recent ACL MCL injury, not the same leg as the Porier injury, Holloway injury. and yes, there is the theory that you, you know, you overcompensate when you hurt one leg.

This is a massive time in between each. That usually happens, you know, historically two to three years later. This is, you know, 13 years after the first leg injury, five years after the second. So maybe there is something to that. But there's a very, very long road ahead. especially considering the age, especially considering everything he's been through, the miles on the body. It's a lot different when you are younger and Dominic was younger. I mean, Dominic's career is one of the most unique careers in the history of the sport,

just given the time off in between fights. It's really remarkable. He's on that role when he fights Demetrius Johnson, October 1st, 2011, and then his next fight is that Mizugaki fight. September 2014, essentially three years later, almost to the day. Then injures himself again and needs a little over a year, a year and a half exactly, to come back and fight T.J. Dilshawn win the belt. Fights your eye of favor, fights Cody Garbrand, and then is out for four years almost between Cody and Henry Sehudo. And then ends the year, well, he fights Henry Sehudo,

then comes back and beats Casey Kenney in March of 2021, wins again in December of 2021, fights again in August of 2022, and then that's the career. Did we not reconnect with him? Okay. Is he back? I'm really sorry about that. I'm really sorry about that. I was my phone overheated. That was my hypothesis. That was my hypothesis.

I did not see that coming. That got me. All right. So let me ask you this. given his age, given everything that's transpired, what he's done to himself, what his body's been through, do you think he is able to overcome this and come back? I'll finish where I left off real quick because it has to do with that and I'll make it as quick as I can for you. Sorry about that. But, you know, when I came back in between the three, I had the two surgeries, then I had the one fight for one minute, and then I came back and fought again.

between the two ACL surgeries to the third one with one fight in between, I could see how he had the five years off and came back and was so amped up and then didn't get to do it. It's kind of similar. And after I did that, he still knows it's like a reference point for him. Then, okay, I got to feel it. I went through the camp. I felt strong.

I felt ready. He can use that to get through this next rehab session that he's going to do. And it's not the worst one. like his knee. There's so many, there's access to so many things I didn't have now. He has the physical therapy at the Performance Institute. He has all the best doctors and money in the world. Now, I think he's going to stay in the testing pool this time. I don't know. Last time he didn't, I had to stay, I chose to stay in the testing pool through all these surgeries. So we'll see what he does with that. But with all the access to the things he has, he absolutely

can come back. And what I was going to say is it took so much for me, to not have martial arts, that that's why I think he came back. He's got everything in the world, everybody keeps saying, right? So why do you go back in the octagon? There's only one logical reason to go in there and do that. And it's when you have everything he has. And it's because he needs it. I needed it.

Why wouldn't he? Why would he be different? It takes a certain obsession to be good at this. And my obsession was taken away from me. And his obsession, I think, was taken away. And then he was just let out to go be free. And man, we saw where that went for him. Apparently for him, it wasn't working.

So he wanted to get back to what did work for him. I can totally resonate with that. And I think that he definitely will be back. I really do because of the injury. And because he got that taste and that feeling of showing up. And everybody doubts him right now. And everybody's kind of upset. Not everybody.

A lot of people are upset. You get both sides. You get the duel is both. You get the people who are pissed. You get the people who are on his side and say, get it done, yay. But everybody wants a comeback story. So no matter what anybody says, they're going to watch because everybody loves a comeback story. And he's entertaining.

So the buildup to that will be great. But yeah, I think he'll definitely do it. I think that that feeling he had that night will resonate with him. He's going to hold onto it tight and use it to get through this rehab. He has all the access he needs to everything. Do you think the way in which he started that fight, given everything he's been through, there was an element of self-sabotage there? I think that when you go through that many, like, I can't speak for his life. I can only speak for mine, right?

So when the things that I went through were so heavy that that's what I was getting injured for. It had nothing to do with my body. It was a mental, spiritual heart thing. whether people understand that or not, it's hard to explain unless you go through it. But once I started sorting out the mind and my personal life outside of the octagon, my body healed. And I think he's going through that right now. I mean, finding God, you know, everybody has their own belief system. Everybody has their own method of their belief system and their higher power.

And I believe we're all talking about the same person, the creator. We just dress them up different, every one of us. and everybody can have their method and nobody's wrong for it. So whatever he's tapping into right now, Connor, for his method and his higher power, I think that that's what this is all happening for us, for him to reconnect with himself,

because fighting allows us to turn everything off. We can just put blinders on. If, you know, I've seen it time and time again. We can just turn everything off with the sport. So I think he's being put in his position, so he could take a look at himself, build a relationship with himself. And then that's only going to make you better when you get into the octagon. That's how I see it.

That's what it did for me. You mentioned the testing pool. He has a theory as to why he left it. And there's that New York Times story, which you may have seen. Did you ever consider that? Do you buy what he's saying regarding taking, you know, PDs or taking drugs in order to just get healthy? And then when you're good to go, you go into the testing pool, you get tested and there are no issues. Were those his real words?

I don't know. I didn't hear that. Yes, yes. That he did use PEDs. He said he did what he had to do in order to just walk again, not to be a better fighter, per se, to heal his leg in order to walk again, then eventually train again, and then eventually fight again. Well, he had to do what he had to do. What does that mean? That's not real specific, right?

I don't know if he used him or not. We don't have, like, he didn't say yes. He eluded, right, maybe. And all I can do is, again, talk about myself. I don't know. There's no proof. He didn't come out and just say I use PDs. I mean, we can all tend to assume, I guess, interpret.

Did you consider that? No, never, because I knew that in my legacy, it was going to be seen that I stayed in the testing pool. You know the pressure it takes to not retire and to not just leave and get out of the testing pool? Because everybody's biting at your heels. They're talking shit saying, why is he in the rankings? They're talking shit saying he sucks. but he's still a champion, so I want to take everything he's got.

So the pressure doesn't leave. I really wanted to see how I could handle that even hurt. And so I never wanted to leave the testing pool because I knew in my legacy, when I look back at myself, there's no way I couldn't do any of those things because I was getting tested every month, no matter what. So I had to do things the straight and narrow way, and however whatever that means to anybody and just heal and do the physical therapy and eat right and stay disciplined and not you know do stupid shit and um that was hard that was but it's something i'm proud of now on the other end and i don't know what he did but i didn't leave the testing pool so i know it can be done and now that's a reference point for the for any athlete you don't have to go do that i had also broken my left ulna and he was speaking about a non-union of the bones. That's what I heard of talking about for his shin. Well, I had a non-union in my left forearm. It took me three months where they just said, okay, let a heal. Hopefully it'll mold back together. And I'm training with one arm just trying to stay alive, you know, trying to keep my body going. At the end of the three months, we go back in, my forearm still hurts, Doc. Yeah, you have a non-union. So now you got to go into surgery after the three months. Do you know how miserable that is for your brain? Yeah.

horrible. Like you're just, it, that crashed me out too. That was another one that nobody knows about. I signed the contract to fight John Lineker. And that day I went to spar, I threw a spinning back fist and snap my forearm on someone's head. That's the pressure. That's the signing the contract. That's the get to work and just doing anything to win in practice. And I did that. And I'm just saying, like, yeah, you can come back from these situations where you could have a non-union without using PEDs too. I don't know what he did or didn't do, but I can only talk for myself. And I didn't use anything. And I was in the testing pool and you can heal it. It just takes forever. It took it. What should have been a three-month injury turned into an eight, nine-month injury, again,

just like a knee, this stupid forearm arm. And then when they put the plate in there, now the bones have something to like grip onto in the fibers and they grow into that, grow around that plate. And then now I have a plate in my forearm, but the thing works. And I was able to come back and fight. And that's when I fought Pedro Munoz, Casey, Kenny, after those injuries and shoulder surgery. So I've had double reconstructive shoulder surgery, 14 different surgeries, stayed in the testing pool the whole time, healed all the injuries, came back and fought the top talent in the world and the top five. And I'm proud of that. And watching these things go on where somebody leaves as long as Connor did. And it showed me how difficult it really is,

because it's not just the body, it's everything around it. It's the mind. It's how do you live your life when you're not competing? It's do you know who you are without competition? It's, uh, how do you handle the pressure? So I got to, it's like I put myself in a snow globe in this sport and I shook it up and I got to see how I handle life. And I'm proud of myself for that. And I got to accept that when I got the Hall of Fame and I got to accept that watching Connor. So I'm great. grateful for him taking the shot and going for it because it did give me reference that, man, what you did is hard, Dom. Very hard, and you did it multiple times.

And I was so happy to see you get that recognition at the Hall of Fame. It was a beautiful thing. And seeing DJ there as well, your former opponent was amazing as well. I know you have to run, so I will let you go. You have a busy day. Great stuff, Dom. Thank you so much. And I urge everyone to check out the podcast as well.

You do amazing stuff. I love when Mayhem is on, one of my favorites. So keep that up. It's great to see it now, like flying in here. I look forward to when we have you on too. That would be an honor. That would be an honor. That would be an honor.

Thank you, Ariel. Thanks for the time, buddy. Thank you, Dom. All the best. There he is. The great Dominic Cruz. Always so thoughtful with his analysis. Always so great with the way in which he breaks things down and I wish we could have them on so often just because he does such a great job.

But that's why you have to check out his podcast, which is available right now on YouTube. and wherever you get your podcast, it's called Love and War with Dominic Cruz. Okay, we go from one of our favorites to another one of our favorites. We spoke about him late last week. We found out that on September 5th at the Accor Arena in beautiful Paris-France, it will be the return of Michael Venom Page against Nersulton-Ruzabayev. An important fight for, obviously, Nur-Seltan, this is a massive name, but I think it's an important fight for Michael Vennon-Page as well.

It may not feel that way on paper, but that's the impression that I'm getting. And so without further ado, let us speak to the one and only Michael Venham Page, who's kind enough to join us on this Monday evening. Hello, MVP. How are you, my friend? Can't complain. You know, we are here. Back in, like you said, getting the work done to, you know, for September 5th. There's something about this setup right now that you're in. You're like an Arabian prince or something.

I don't know. I feel like you're on like some sort of hammock here. You're being fed graves. I don't know. There's something about it. It's a beautiful side. Thank you, very good. Well, welcome back. Before we transition to you, just to stick with what we were talking about with Dom, can I ask for your takeaway from what we saw with Connor

and the aftermath of what transpired last weekend? Yeah, again, I think it is a difficult ask, a difficult task to come back of being, you know, five years out. He looked in, you know, a good shape. He looked in very, very good shape. It's a shame we didn't get to see more of him due to the injury. I think it was a bit reckless to start that way. I know he was obviously practicing that kick, you know,

in the back room before he came out. And also it was a very effective kick that he, you know, say not landed, but it was a very effective kick for him in their first bout together. So I understand why they wanted to use it. But doing it when you're stretching as the first thing going in is obviously day and just being, obviously, not going to be too cold because, you know, you're warm from backstage. But, yeah, it's just a shame we didn't get to see more of what Connor, the Conner that we haven't seen in so long. It's a bit of a disappointment in that respect.

But again, he looked, he did look in great shape. I don't believe he had an injury before. and everyone's speculating about, you know, when he's taken off his slippers and so on and so forth, but I don't feel like he was injured. The way he threw the kick, you're not 25 anymore. You can't do it in the same way.

I like to kick as well, but I have to be a bit more tactical about the timing I decide to throw things, and it wouldn't be like completely rushing at somebody, doing a turning kick going forward. So yeah, that's my only real take, really. Do you think he comes back? I think he can come back.

You know, his name is Connor McGregor. It's a very powerful name in the sport of combat. So he can come back at any time. And I think if he felt like he was ready, and again, that's what I'm saying. It's a shame we didn't get to see more of him because potentially, if you know, he actually looked in great shape during the fight,

and then that happened, we could easily, everybody would be like, no, no, he can definitely come back, but we didn't get to see anything. But yeah, you know, he is Connor McGreg, I'm sure. If he puts his mind to it, you can definitely get back there. But again, he has to select his opponents correctly. I think Max was a good fight for him to come back to, but it was always going to be a difficult one.

for somebody that is so active like Max. Okay, so now we transition to you. Returning September 5th, Akor Arena, Nerselton Ruzabayev, when you were offered that name, and maybe it didn't go that way, so please let us know

if I'm wrong in the way I'm phrasing this. What was your reaction? In all honesty, it's quite frustrating, it has been frustrating. I feel like it's crazy that I've come to the pinnacle of MMA

and trying to get names in the top 10 seems to be very, very difficult like very, very difficult. The exchange is I throw names forward and I'm like asking for like

starting from the top and I'm working my way down and then I, you know, audio will present them. He'll get back. Oh, this person is matched up. This person's injured. This person just an excuse after excuse off the excuse of excuse. Then I send, you know, the next slate of names.

And then again comes back. Same thing happens. And then we got sent a couple of names. Nasselton was one of them as well. Say they might be available. You have to ask them. They might be available simply because they had only just fought not too long ago. but because it was early

like first round finishes they potentially might want to take it you know they should have decent enough time so I was literally at the point I'm just like bro just anybody that says yes just let me get in there with them Nelson is obviously a tough opponent but you know I was

I was seeking bigger names and I feel like I have been for the last three fights and it's just nobody's seems to want to step in there. And so if it was up to you, like, could you tell us who were the names that you were asking for? Everybody at the top, whoever the top five, top ten, where I put their name forward.

And again, it's just there's, and it might be completely valid reasons as to why they can't make it, but literally start at number one and work your way down. And that's what I do. I'm cheeky. I'll just put the number one up there, number two, number three, number four, and then just see what happens. Because if, you know,

if one of their opponents had dropped out or whatever, if I'm capable of jumping in there, I'll definitely be happy to do so, which is why I'll just throw all their names. No exaggeration. In my last fight before Sam got offered to us, it was, near 30 names that we had sent in two divisions.

And then again, this time, I kind of made my mind up. I was like, look, the World to Eight divisions, I'm sorry, they're full of people that are trying to, I think there's too many people trying to claim that they're the next in line for the belt. So everybody's sitting out and everybody's not taking risk. Nobody wants to fight. The division's boring, man. So I said, I've made up my mind and I said,

cool, I'm just going to focus on the middleweight. Hopefully I can get more regular fights. And again, I was started for the top, worked my way down, and we've managed to get a fight. Were you even aware of Nur-Seltan when he was offered to you? No, not really. Okay. Weirdly enough, I have actually, I had actually seen him fight,

but when the name got sent to me, I didn't really know. It's my coaches that will kind of go back. and forth, but they'll kind of update me. But, yeah, again, I've seen the messages of them sending over name after name after name after name. And then they'll ask me and I'll say, yeah, just whoever, like, send that name, send these guys, send that guy. I forgot, I don't know why I just forgot the name, which I probably, I don't mean any disrespect by it. But the guy that I thought Izzy Larson won, which was a, you know, a very, very big jump up for him. Joe Pfeiffer.

Piper, yeah, I asked for Pfeiffer. as well. That'd be a fun one. Yeah, I felt it's a great fight. But again, I think he had just got matched with somebody. So I missed out on that one. But I'm genuinely asking for everybody. And it just feels boring.

Like I said, it feels like it's crazy that I'm in the toughest, you know, combat game in the world. And, you know, it's supposed to be every, all the tough guys are going to be a part of it. And nobody wants to fight. Is this the last fight on your UFC contract? Yeah. Yeah.

Do you think it will be your last UFC fight? I don't want it to be. I just want to push for more, you know, bigger fights. I just want push for bigger fights. My goal is still to get a belt. And I still feel more than capable, far strong. And I'm training. I feel great.

so I know I can do it so I would like to get an extension but with the you know kind of get the UFC on side with like okay I want big names I want you know

I want you know like a rough idea of how I would get to that belt who do I have to fight you know what do I have to do give me the exact blueprint and then let me go at it historically when a fighter has one fight

left on their deal and they want to remain in business they'll try to wrap something up before that last fight so that you don't go into free agency. Have there been any talks between your team and the UFC brass about trying to do something before you make that walk in September? No, I haven't, I personally haven't heard anything back. I spoke to Audi, he hasn't mentioned anything regarding trying to get something going

beforehand. But I, for me, I'm a fighter first. I don't want to stress about the politics, everything. I'm like, let me go in there, putting a performance, and, you know, make them want me to come back and do it again. Do you get the impression that they want to remain in business with you? I haven't a clue. And again, it's very difficult because of how I started it felt exciting and, you know, how it's kind of the last few fights, not so much. I'm not, I'm not sure where

I land with them. It's very, very difficult to understand. But like I said, all I can do is just be a martial arts, be a fighter, go out there. fight and try and put on the best performance I can. I recall after your last fight against Sam Patterson, you did say that you wanted to have an open, honest conversation about your future, about your standing within the organization. Did that happen? Haven't had a conversation yet. Come on.

This is crazy, Michael. This is crazy to me. You're one of the very few guys that was established outside of the UFC, that it was a big deal that came over to the UFC. I felt like you started off your career in an exciting manner with exciting matchups. And I have to admit, like, I don't know if I've ever seen anything quite like this. Like, they're feeding you the most underwhelming matchups. I'm not trying to take anything away from those people.

They are fighters. They are, you know, well deserved of fighting someone like you. But, like, these aren't names that I can imagine. You read and you're like, oh, this is going to get me going. This is going to get me out of bed to go to the gym. Like, you are in the prime of your career. And it feels like they are just not, I don't know, they're not sharing that type of excitement about what you're doing in the UFC.

Yeah. Yeah, and I can agree. I'm not sure. This is why I don't know where they place me. I don't know how they place me. I don't know how they feel about me. I think the team in general is great. Like the UFC guys backstage, all the staff that work there,

they're amazing. Seriously, some of the best team I've worked with. So professional. And again, so well-oiled just because a lot of these guys have been there 15-plus years working with each other. So it's just, it's done so well in the back office. But again, in terms of like the matchmaker side of things, I don't know.

I don't really understand how that works or how the rankings work and, yeah, so on and so forth. So it's difficult to understand, you know, what to do, who to speak to, who to kind of find out or get answers from. With regards to it, but like I said, I keep going back to, all I can do is try and go out there and be the best me on the day and hope I get, you know, positive responses back. This may seem like I'm trying to stir the pot.

I promise you I'm not, but it is a very fascinating story because you are a big name who came over and I just don't feel like they're getting behind you. We see what it's like when the UFC gets behind someone when they give them the promotional push and I don't feel that right now. And so I am just wondering, given how tough Neryseltan is, you know, this guy, he finishes people, he's on a winning streak, he's just not a household name. Do you think they're trying to get you beat in the last fight of your deal? Again, is it just me that thinks about these things?

Maybe just me. No, you know, I think, again, it's definitely a debate. Because he is a very tough opponent, like I said, I think three-file, maybe five-fight win streak or something, but he's doing really, really well. Like he said, knockout artists, potentially, but at the same time, and it's even when I was fighting or I got matched with Shara Bullitt

I kind of felt like they were like we could use Michael because he does have a name to actually build up one of our other stars and I feel I do feel it was after that

fight where things kind of turned so I don't know if it's because I you know I went against what they thought was going to happen and kind of

dimmed the light a little bit on this up and coming star. But that's just, when you start going on that route, you start speculating about everything and you can kind of lose your head. So again, even the same with this one. You could argue and debate like,

potentially they're trying to do this and I don't know. I literally don't know. I can't go by what I don't know. I just need to go out there. Stop them from being able to do that. And like I said, hopefully, you know, we can have a proper sit down and, move forward and get something going.

If it turns out that this is the last one, will you be at peace with it? Or will it be something that will bother you? Do you think that the UFC career didn't pan out the way you thought it would? I don't think it will bother me. I just feel like I know what I can do. And when I see certain fights out there,

I'm like, man, I know if I was in there, I know what I could have done. I don't think it will bother me. I think I've had an amazing career. I've done very well. to even create such a name, not having not been in the UFC before and then got to the UFC, I wish I, I don't know, I could have done better,

maybe got, you know, more chaos, you know, exciting chaos as I was known for. But disappointed or upset by it, no, I think what will be will be that's not really in my, that's kind of out of my hands. I just go in there and do what I know is within my control, which is train hard in the gym and then putting the best performance that I can and then, you know, see what cards fall in front of me. You were at the RICO Usig fight in Egypt, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When you're watching a spectacle like that and all that, like are the wheels turning in your head? Like, this is different, it's fun. Yeah, no, no, again, you know me, man, I'm always up for big shows and, you know, it'd be, I've already done it in terms of boxing, you know, grappling, bare knuckle, whatever's out there, I'm always excited to, you know, put myself in there and just get in the

mix and see what I can do and entertain. So, yeah, when I see shows like that, it was, it was an amazing show, man, it really was an amazing show. Rico put on a performance of his life, which was just great. And yeah, yeah, so yeah, when I see stuff like that, it's always exciting. And you do always envision yourself being there and putting on those. kind of shows yourself. Do you agree that RICO got screwed? I feel like he got screwed big time. From the scorecards to the stoppage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I believe the scorecards, two of them had him up before he got knocked down. But to stoppage definitely, and I was in that corner that he was when they stopped the fight. And we heard the bell go before the referee stepped in. Again, it is loud, but I don't know,

I feel like even the fourth official should be able to say, no, the bell's already gone, or say something. or intervene because he should never have waved it off, especially. And I think it's important for referees to understand the fighters that they are about to fight. Because if you've seen Rico in his career, I've seen fights where he's been knocked down many times and gets back up and knocks the guy down.

Like you need to know almost like the fight personality of each fighter that you or potentially, especially when the main event like that, you need to understand the personality that you're dealing with because when they get hurt, are they the type of fighter that can recover from it? Or can you really see something completely different where it's like, no, they're not. It's too dangerous. But I feel like referees are very quick to weigh things off. I understand they have to, you know, it's their job to keep fighters safe. But I feel like they do need to do a little bit more research and I understand the people that they are rough in.

When you were over there in Egypt, you took one of the all-time great photos we were saying earlier that, do you know the one I'm talking about? Is that with the horse? I mean, is this real? We question everything. How did you do that? You have to question everything nowadays. To be fair, you know what's crazy about Egypt? It's a chaotic place.

So my wife found somebody that was saying that they can do photos by the pyramid. That would be cool. They do camel ride and horse rides and stuff as well. So I was like, yeah, that would be dope. went down there, did the camel bit all the way into the middle of the desert right by the pyramids. This guy comes with a horse.

My wife goes first. She's ridden the horse before and she ups, I wish you could show the video. She absolutely smashes it like nothing. And then I have to jump on the horse. The guy literally goes, this is the first time I've jumped on a horse where I've had to kind of gallop.

And he's like, oh yeah, this means this left, this means right. Okay, go. I was like, all right. The horse took off by itself. I was shitting myself inside back to act cool because I knew I was being recorded. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, the guy was like, yo, stop, stop, stop.

So I was like, how, how? Oh, my God. I managed to figure it out. It was cool. And then, you know, they do the trick with a horse where they show you how to make the horse go up and down. They take pictures and stuff. Yeah, it was amazing. terrifying that is that is one of my nightmares to be on a horse and not know how to stop it and it's going

that fast then don't start in egypt okay good to know anywhere else get lessons first they'll probably show you everything first like even my my wife was in sandals when she was riding on the horse but again she was very very confident very comfortable and she absolutely smashed it also what was it like uh i saw you at old trafford last month getting oh man was that a dream that that was amazing. They did like a celebrity for the friends and family of United and they invited me down.

It was great, man. Our team won as well. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it would just, it's so weird that, you know, I've grown up watching Manchester United play there, and I've been to games, and it's just imagine just being on the field. It was

a wish list that I didn't even know I had on the wish list because until it, it it even became a thing that, oh, yeah, you know, you get to play at Old Trafford. That I would never have put that down anywhere. But yeah, it was amazing, man. It had so much fun that day. It was amazing and a team won as well.

So, yeah, great. How'd you play? Oh, yeah, I'll play great. You know, it's funny to see, like, obviously there's a lot of youngsters and stuff there. And you forget, like, because of the work that we do, how fit we are in comparison to just normal everyday people. Yeah. And some of the guys that they can play football, they're really, really good, they're really, really fast.

But they just couldn't keep up in terms of the pace that you have to keep running up and down. You forget how big that pitch is, man, running up one way coming back, running up and down. But I just felt, I felt fine. I can do that all day. Speaking of football, what did you think of England? Man, I think it was, they played very well. I was already kind of skeptical because of the decisions that two, in terms of the people that he selected to go over.

But then when they started playing, it's like, okay, you know, Declan Rice played really, really well out of, like, kind of out of an odd position. But he played exceptionally well. Bellingen played out of his skin. Like, everybody played, and then Spence as well, I have to give up a big respect to that to Spence because he, I admit, it was,

Jed just, he just, I thought that was the best campaign I've seen him play. I think he's going to come back and he's going to be worth a lot of money after that performance because he just played out of his skin. But that game plan in that last game, not the French game, the game before against Ardenino, didn't make any sense to me.

And I think everyone's been talking about it online already, but genuinely I was sat on my screen screaming, like when he took off, he took off Declan Rice, and then he's taking on defender after defender after the fan. I'm like, what, there's 30 minutes left of the game. You can't be on all out. defense unless there's like five minutes left or you know what I mean six minutes like you did that

with 30 minutes left that there are obviously if you give me enough chances even for me that don't play at that level if you give me enough chances one it's going to go in and you they should have and then he managed when they scored the second one now you're attacking it meant that you guys could there were so many players off the bench that we saw in the next game I could come on to make a difference. Saka being there. Ratchwood was on the best. Saka's on the bench.

All these people that's on the bench that you could have put in, go for another goal. And it was disappointing to see him take that route. And I think everybody's seen it. It just didn't make any sense as to why he would do that

with so much time left. Gutting. I mean, the game on Saturday was amazing. I know the stakes weren't obviously as important, although a third place finish has nothing to scoff at. Of course.

I felt like they could have been in Argentina. I felt like they could have won the whole damn thing. I really did. And I wanted that for you guys so badly. They played very well and they definitely could have best, especially when you see the way, and I know Spain play very, very different, but you see the way Spain dealt with Argentina in that final game. We've got similar talent and faster, I think there's a lot of faster players. You know what I mean? People that can even just really keep pushing them. But yeah, it's disappointing. We definitely could have at least got to the final

and it showed in that France game. I actually thought France could have come out and just, they looked tired in that first half. They did turn up in the second half, but England just still,

they just showed what they could have done the game before against Argentina. I'll let you go in a moment, but I was just thinking of something that we were talking about in the aftermath of that Joe Piper fight. Yeah. I know you're friends with Izzy,

but we were all thinking like, oh man, what a fun fight that would be Izzy versus MVP. Is that something you would ever entertain or no? There'd have to be a lot of zeros. There's a lot of zeros on the end of that. If UFC want to make it happen, I'm sure they could persuade him and persuade myself.

Because where athletes at the end of the day, where prize fighters at the end of the day, if there's enough zeros, but just for the sake of, no, no, no, no, I wouldn't do it just for the sake of. It would be a fun fight, and I've trained with him as well, and he's just, I respect him massively,

I think he's such a, just a major talent, regardless of what's going on at the moment. And I kind of like the inconsistency of recent. He's still just, man, so unbelievable. I can watch him anytime he's on, I'm watching him. So, yeah, it would have to mean something to us both. And then, yeah, I'm sure we'd do it. Surprised he's leaving KB? No.

Not surprised. I feel like everybody, you know, I've had clashes with my coaches and stuff before. It's normal. We're all human. We, you know, you get frustrated different. But sometimes you just feel that you might feel like he just needs to try something different. To see, like I think he's said it himself to see if you can kind of get different results.

Something's not working at the moment. So he might need to, you know, change things up. And if he wants to continue, he definitely wants to. continue by getting better results and it might just mean a change could help. But I also don't know the politics of why for me to really, you know, delve into his decision. So, but I just hope it works out for him. I hope it works out. And I hope they've, you know, parted ways in the correct way. You know, I don't feel like bridges need to be burnt all the time when two people separate. I feel like, you know, it's good communication and good understanding. It still means

that it's like, no, no, man, wish you all the best. And that's, you know, but we're still, there's still years of history there that we can't ignore. So I hope that's how they've, they've left things. And like I said, I wish him all the best, man. I hope he finds some, to something new that, to get that spark going again and get him the results that he wants. Akko Arena, Paris, France, you fought there once before. Surely you remember. remember the fight. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Opponent?

It was, oh my God, I just lost him. I put you on the spot. Was that Derek? No, was it Derek? No. At Paris? Who's that at Paris? Ross Houston. Ross Houston, that was the other one. Yeah, okay, okay, okay, okay. October 2020. Yes. Because that was, I was the first

main event in Paris, I believe. because that was just after the ban for MMA came to France, got lifted in France. And I think Bellator got in there first in terms of putting on a show. It was a limited audience, which was a shame because of the COVID. But yeah, it was still, they were still loud as hell.

And that was probably, I think it's only like 3,000 people. It will be much different on, September 5th. I hear they're trying to sign a big name for that card. Let's see if they pull it off, but it looks like... Is that not Tom Aspinall? They're trying to. Oh, is that what you're hearing? Well, I know Cyril Garne mentioned it. I know Tom Aspenov said he's up for it, but it just depends obviously how his circumstances. I don't know if he's actually happening, but yeah. That's not the one I was alluding to. Another... Okay. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Well, I hope the bigger, the better, man. I'll just... Because I know, I know.

know the French, they make noise there, and I thrive off of that kind of energy. So I'm coming there to put on a big show. I love it. And looking forward to it and appreciate your time, breaking it all down, as always. Thank you, MVP. Appreciate it very much. Good luck in training. We'll see you in September. You're the man. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Take care. The great Michael Venom Page, returning on September 5th against Nerseltan Ruzabayev. maybe not the name that a lot of people thought he would come back to fight against. He has won three fights in a row, Shara Bullitt, Jared Kennanier, Sam Patterson. Those aren't, you know, lower-level names.

And Nersetan is a great fighter. He's been in this game for a long time, 37 wins, 9 defeat, 2 draws, but just not the biggest name out there. Not the biggest name by any stretch, but he has won, I believe, five fights in a row. No, sorry, he's won four. What is he won? He's won... I think he has four out of his last five fights are finishes.

Something like that. He's won three in a row, and two of those three are via stoppage. His last fight was in late June against Andre Puglia if he won via Rear Naked Choke in the first round. So not that long ago, big opportunity for him. Let us see. how it plays out on the 5th of September.

They haven't announced a main event for that card just yet, but there are some big names already announced for it, but they're missing that headliner, if you will. A whole bunch of fights have been announced for it. They also just announced, by the way, the Noce UFC card officially, that's going down September 12th. There was a press release that was issued just moments ago.

Alexa Grasso is going to be on there. there against Mano Furo, makes a lot of sense. Brandon Moreno, making his first Noce UFC appearance. Finally, against Joseph Morales, tough 33 winner. That's on there. Waldo Cortez Acosta against Curtis Blades is on there. Tim Elliott against Edgar Chares is on there. Calvin Gaslim against Ussri Belguri is on there.

J.J. Aldrich against Regina Tareen is on there. But they have also said that they haven't announced a main event for that one. just yet. It's going down in Glendale this time. So they've done it obviously in Las Vegas a couple times, San Antonio last year, this time in Glendale, beautiful Glendale, Arizona at the desert diamond arena. And that is, by the way, the arena which hosted, it wasn't called that back then, but it hosted the final WEC card way back when in 2010. And that is also the former home of the Phoenix Coyote. May they rest in peace, the great Phoenix coyotes.

And they've hosted a whole bunch of UFC events. Well, actually, Frank, you're trying to be cheeky here. Oh, no. They were originally known as the Phoenix coyotes, then the Arizona coyotes, and then they moved to... You know yourself. Yeah, yeah. I know better.

Do you want to just double-check that real quick? Let's put my head up my own ass. Frank is the biggest NHL fan in the control room. He would know his best. It is crazy how, like... I will never stick my neck out again. He was so... confident.

Our guest is here. He was so confident. And I'm even getting confirmation from Phoenix's own, Shaheen Ashadi, that it was Phoenix Coyotes, then Arizona. And then they moved. And too, Shaheen. Yeah. All right.

Let's move along. We talked at the very beginning of the show about RAF. One of the best stories of the past year. They're about to have their one-year anniversary in August. I don't think anyone could have predicted that it would have been such a successful first year. The mix of talent, the personalities, the members. matchups, the production, all that and more. And Saturday was another one for, you know, for that

belt, another notch on that belt with the likes of Armisturukian and Colby Covington. Obviously, the return of Ben Ascran, the retirement of Ben Ascran against Balal Mohammed. And the train keeps rolling along. They just had a great show in Georgia, not the state, the country, two weekends ago with Marab and Armin and all those characters involved as well. A massive, massive win for Colby Covington against Armantirucan. He is kind enough to join us on this Monday afternoon to recap it all. And it was a very eventful weekend for him because the post-match press conference created a lot of headlines. And there he is, Mr. Colby Covington, with the belt, with the inaugural RAF crossover belt.

There it is. Congrats, Colby. Thanks, Ariel. It's a pleasure to join the journalists of the year to talk about this big victory and, you know, this big underdog upset. You know, if you think about the history of time for America, if you think about, you know, the men from the 13 colonies, if they could have been 10 to 1 underdogs, they would have loved that. I mean, they were probably 100 to 1, 1,000 to 1 underdogs to beat the Brits,

but they overcome. And that's the great story of America's. We overcome and we defy all the odds. That is true. You were a big underdog, Armine undefeated, steamrolling the competition. You've been in this game a long time. Were you annoyed by this, Colby? Were you disrespected by this by people thinking that Armand would just walk right over you?

I was, you know. I took it to heart, you know, and I got to the train and, you know, it just made me want to work harder to overcome that and defy all those odds and expectations. Everybody was counting me out, you know, the guy hasn't lost in years, four or five years. I think the last time Ormond lost in anything was probably Checkers when he was playing at his family party. But besides that, the guy's been on a tear. He scared Islam Makachab out of the lightweight division. You know, he's going to be the lightweight champ.

He was an ultimate competitor. It was an honor to share the stage with Armament on Saturday night. The guy is, you know, one of the best guys in the world. I think he's going to be the UFC lightweight champ. So it was good to get a win over him and, you know, silence all the daughters, all the critics that counted me out in this matchup. Do you feel like this is honestly now, do you feel like it's one of the biggest victories of your competitive career, whether that's collegial wrestling, MMA, UFC, now this.

I mean, this is a guy that's on fire, one of the biggest stars in the sport, as you said, had not lost in about five or so years in any type of competition. Like, I really feel in a way, I feel like this really has validated R-AF because it feels like if the current UFC top contender slash champion is just going to go in there and steamroll everyone, then it feels like, all right, like, what are we really learning here? For someone like you to remind everyone with your background, like, hey, there's an art to this, there's skills to this. It doesn't just mean because you're a great UFC champion or contender that you're going to come in here and dominate. I feel like that really was a validation for RAF. I'm wondering how you processed it. Yeah, you're absolutely right, Ariel. You know, it was a lot of validation, you know, a lot of years and decades of hard work and overcoming and defying all the odds.

So, you know, he was on fire, you know. He's a lot younger than me. He's in his prime, you know. He hasn't been beaten, like you said, in four, five, six years. It's been such a long time. It was amazing to overcome that, but that's, you know, that's the spirit of the, you know, all us Americans is we're never out. It doesn't matter what the odds are. It doesn't matter who else believes in us. As long as you believe in yourself, that's what matters the most. And, you know,

I'm just, I'm glad to prove the doubters wrong. And we're going to keep proving the doubters wrong. Can you tell me about his wrestling skills? Like, what surprised you, what did in his strength? Obviously, he fights right now as a lightweight. You're a welterweight in the world of mixed martial arts. but what were your takeaways from what you saw from him? Yeah, he was unbelievably strong. You know, one of those takedowns, he literally lifted me up for the mat, and I was so surprised. I mean, just freaking pick me up like I was nothing.

You know, it was an intense match. You know, it came down to the final seconds. He was, you know, bringing the pace and the pressure until the final seconds and the final bell. So, you know, it was just a real joy to compete of someone of his caliber. You know, the guys, you know, the best guy in the world, I think, you know, in the UFC lightweight division right now. So it was amazing to compete against him.

You know, it was an intense match. It came down to the wire. And, you know, I look forward to doing a rematch with him one time in the future. You know, I know he wants that rematch. So when he's not preparing for his next fight, you know, he's probably going to be getting ready for a UFC title fight soon. When he's not, you know, prepared for a fight, I'll look forward to welcoming him back to Raff and, you know,

getting a rematch in and proving those downers wrong once again. You think he's better than Justin Geichi? Oh, yeah, light year is better than Justin Koichi. Goji's got nothing for him. He's way more well-rounded, way more explosive, way younger, fresher. No one's going to stop that guy right now. Armament is on top of the world. And, you know, I let him know that last night, you know, or on Saturday night that it was a pleasure to compete against him.

I felt his strength. I felt his power and explosiveness. And no one's going to stop him right now in the lightweight division. He will destroy Justin Goiji. Why Goji, by the way? I don't know. That's just what they call him, you know. That's just what I've been here.

That's what the people have been saying, Justin Goyiji, you know, like he's a duck-lipped little loser. So, you know, Armand's going to come take that belt off him soon if he doesn't retire, first off. It was pretty heated between the two of you. Now it seems like there's this mutual respect and love. So how would you describe your relationship with Armand after the match? Yeah, you know, it's a real respectful relationship. You know, we understood the task at hand, you know, and we're there and sell tickets and put

butts and seeds. So that's what we did. It was the biggest sellout in raft history for a gate. You know, it was an electrified full sold out arena, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. So it was a true joy to do business with our men. I'm thankful to him. You know, I'm thankful to him for, you know, showing up and putting on a good show for the fans. And we did our part. So, you know, it was just an overall great show. And that obviously the great story of Ben coming back, you know, and fighting through, you know, his rented lungs that he's using from somebody else and being able to put on a great show until his body just died, you know, if his body didn't shut down, you know, he would have beat that guy that was in front of him that night. But just an amazing story for him to

retire on that Raff Mat and I'm super excited for everything that Ben's done for the wrestling community and what he's going to continue to do for the wrestling community. So Raff 11 was a huge success, and the biggest and best is yet to come for Raph. That story I can't get enough of, and he'll join us in about 20 minutes time to talk about it. I just can't believe the guy that we saw last summer was able to compete against a UFC fighter and beat up. And then obviously, as he said, the legs gave out on him. As a wrestler, knowing how tough it is, how hard it is on your body, to see him do that and after everything he had been through to see him look like he did very early on in that match, what do you make of that? Man, absolutely incredible, Ariel. I mean, it truly was, you know,

so inspiring to see. I mean, the guy was like a hundred pounds like a couple months ago, Ariel. Like the guy had no chance to do anything. They didn't give him a chance to walk again, let alone, you know, get on a wrestling match and go six minutes. So, you know, it was incredible,

man. He inspired me. I know he inspired the masses in the wrestling community. I'm just, I'm so, I'm so thankful that he's a part of rap and what he's doing for the sport of wrestling. Even though I know we've had our back and force and, you know, we've had our feud in the UFC. You know, I wish him nothing about the best.

He may not like me still, but that's okay. You know, as you know at the press conference, I'm a man that's of the people and he's humble and he's willing to take the high road. So I'm willing to take the high road. And I'm just grateful for Ben and him being behind the scenes at Raff, he's going to do great things for Raff and he's going to keep helping the trajectory take this thing to the moon. So even now when you see him, you still feel like there's friction there? Yeah, yeah, no, definitely.

You can still see some friction there. I mean, he was agreeing with Bala when they were doing their face off. Yeah, I jumped Colby with you too. So I don't know. For whatever reason, Ben doesn't like me. You know, we were fiercest rivals in the UFC. You know, he wanted everything that I had. But unfortunately, he fell a little short.

But, you know, that doesn't mean that I don't still, you know, want him to succeed. And that's what I do. You know, he's a father. He's a brother. You know, he's an athlete in the community of wrestling and an investor in the company of R.S. So I only wish the best for Ben Asker and that. And I'm thankful to have, you know, headlined a card with him on it. So, Balal beats Ben, you beat Armin, they do the press conference afterwards.

And you and Balal get into it. It seems as though he gets up at one point and throws a kick in your direction. They also announced you guys competing against each other August 22nd. Here's the scene here. You guys are going back and forth. What is your reaction to all of this, Colby? That was a kick that I think even landed. Am I wrong?

Yeah, that was a sucker kick. and a cheap shot. So from a coward, you know, a guy that, you know, was celebrating, you know, on October 7th, you know, against our people, you know, against the kind people. I mean, the guy is a disgusting, despicable human being. He has no class. It's funny because he was talking about, oh, I want to be a role model for the kids. Oh, I want to not cuss and just, you know, put on a good show for the kids.

And then he does that some cheap shot, you know, at a press conference and, you know, just completely just just a disgusting human being. But, Eric, this is the biggest. show. I know there's probably, you know, so many people watching that we can't even count right now. Let's take a poll here today on the greatest MMA show. Okay, okay. Let's take a poll. Should we wrestle Belal Muhammad at the year anniversary, R.A.F show on August 22nd in Cleveland, Ohio. Or should I wrestle anybody else? And put, I want you to get your hardworking and producers behind the scenes. Put up this poll, Ariel. And at the end of the show, whatever the poll says, we're going to go with that.

Do A, do we wrestle Balah Muhammad or B, do we wrestle literally anybody else? Because we know that Belal doesn't sell. We know that, you know, the great Hunter Campbell, the smartest businessman alive for the UFC. He puts him in the A-pass because he knows he doesn't sell. You know, he doesn't put him in big arena. So I want the fans to decide this matchup. Do we go against Belal or do we go against anybody else? Okay, I like this.

And we're going to do it right now. We're going to put the poll in our YouTube chat. I just want to be clear, Balal is option A. and is it literally anyone else option B, or do you want to be more specific? Yeah, I think option B is literally anybody else. There's a ton of options, Ariel. It could be Michael Chandler. Maybe Usman gets his wounds healed up from the ass beating.

He took from Drickus deplessis over the weekend. You know, maybe it's somebody else that's more accomplished, you know, because Belal is a bomb. But I want the fans to decide whatever the people decide in this poll area on your show, that's what we're going to go with for our next math. for the year anniversary show. I appreciate that. I do want to clarify something. I did see you on submission radio earlier,

and it sounded like you were saying that matches off, that you weren't interested. Are you now saying that you're open to it if the people say they want it? Yeah, you know, like, you know, I talked to the executives, and of course we call the shots. You know, we're an investor in the company,

just like the great Armist-Rouki and is and this great, you know, company that's growing to the moon. But, you know, I want to leave it up to the people. That was my decision. You know, of course, I can make the executive decision at any time. The champ does what the champ wants.

But I want to leave it up to the poll. I want to leave it up to the people aerial on today's show, on your show. And whenever they decide, they will decide the fate of what we do next with this title. Okay. I appreciate that. And that belt, I'm assuming, would be on the line. Can I ask, what is the genesis of the issue with below? Where does it, you know, where does it start?

How long ago did it begin? Yeah. I mean, dude, he's just been saying so many things. about me for so long, Ariel. He was saying that I got a title shot at the UFC because the color of my skin, because I'm white, white privilege. I mean, he's made comments in my family, my sisters, this and that, like for years. He's been literally trying to ride off in my coattail because we know that Belal Muhammad doesn't have fans, Ariel. He just borrows other fighters, haters. So, you know, the Genesis is he just said so many nasty things. And then, of course,

him, you know, parading around celebrating what happened October 7th. That was disgusting. That was so many people that were innocent that lost their lives. And here he is freaking celebrating that. So the guy is a disgusting human to me. He's vile. And I just don't care about him. And I don't need him, Ariel. He needs me.

I'm the champ. I'm the draw. You know, I'm the one that people pay, you know, to sit in seats. You know, I'm the one that sells full out arenas. So, you know, we don't need below. We're going to leave it up to the people. Whatever the people decide on your show today on the poll, that's who we're going to go with for the next one. Okay.

The votes are trickling in. so we'll have a better sense maybe by the end of this chat, definitely by the end of the day. Can I ask you this? What did you think of how he looked against Ben? Dude, he looked awful, Ariel. It took him until Ben Ascgren's body completely shut down because of his rented lungs in the fifth minute of the match

for him to even get any points. He was losing the whole entire match until the last minute because literally Ben's body shut down. He couldn't do anything anymore. So, you know, he looked like shit. I, it would be the easiest matchup for me ever in R-AF history for me to wrestle that guy. You know, he barely got by the dead guy.

So, you know, against me, the champ, you know, he has no shot. So that's why I just don't care to go against him because it'll be so easy. Like, I'll beat him in under 90 seconds. I'll tech fall him. But I know he's going to do some cheap shit, Ariel, he's going to sucker me. He's going to throw a kick.

He's going to throw a cheap punch at me. So, you know, do I want to put up with that? He's not a professional. And we're trying to lead by example to the kids. You know, we care about, you know, making an impact and inspiring the next generation of wrestlers. So that's what this is all about. And he doesn't check those boxes.

Okay, I want to ask you about a few of the other names that you referenced. Number one, kind of wild that you were competing on the same night as your old foe, two times. Kamara Usman, you guys had some tremendous fights against each other. Did you get a chance to see how he looked in that fight against DDP? And if so, what do you make of how he looked in his future now in MMA? Yeah, I mean, dude, he was up to his same old tricks, Ariel. Why do you think I named him Marty Fake Newsman? Because he's fake news.

All his little fake fouls, it's fake news. Drick is hit him with a nice uppercut. He took 12 ounces or four ounces of, you know, a leather glove to the eyeball, and then he tried to claim an eye poke and get a five-minute break. It's the same moves he was pulling me in the first title fight when I kicked him in the liver and he said, oh, no, y'all. Let me get five minutes to recover. That's what we call Marty Fake Newsman.

All his calls are fake news. He's a fake person, and he got his ass beat. I was excited to see Drickus get that win. You know, I sent him a bunch of the cases, a real American beer. I know he was chugging him in the celebration after that. So that's my boy now. Love Drickis. He's the real one true king from Africa, and it was awesome to see him whoop Marty fake newsman's ass.

Yeah, I saw in an interview with Fulsa and DDP saying that you guys are like boys now, like your friends, right? This is legit. It's legit, Ariel. You heard it here first on the greatest MAA show in the game. Did you give him tips on how to fight Kamar Usman? What? Did you give him tips?

You've been in there with him for like 50 minutes. Did you give him any tips? Is that where the friendship came from? No, I didn't give him any tips. You know, I'm not going to claim. You know, he did his thing. He trained hard. He's been working really hard and, you know, with his coaches and training partners.

But, you know, I just wanted to lend some beers because I know he loves beer and he wanted to chug some beers. And he was saying after the Dustin Poria incident, he's like, man, that's when we really became friends. He was just mad at me that, like, the only bad thing that I said about Dustin is that I was recommending Real American Beer Zero because this is a great beverage, you know? It's you won't get blacked out drunk and, you know, let your intrusive brace and stops come out on pops or call women hoes like Dustin Porey if you're drinking Real American Beer Zero. But what Drickett said is, bro, that was the real crime. It's not what you said to Dustin. It's that you were recommending a zero beer.

We need a real beer. So we do have a real beer, real American beer. It's real American beer light. You know, and I sent him about 60 beers, and I know he chugged them, and he was pounding them after that victory over Usman. And that's my boy. Any chance of Colby Usman 3 in RAF? Has that been discussed?

That has been discussed, and that's a great point that you bring that up, Ariel. You know, I think we need to do it. And I think that's who fits in the box of this poll for anyone else than Belaw Muhammad. for option B is, is, you know, the trilogy with Usman. We have unfinished business. So, you know, if he wants to come take a chance at this cruiserweight crossover world championship at RF, come get it. Let's do it.

Uzman, Marty, Fake Newsman. You're not going to be faking calls in the six minutes on this RF Mac. I'm going to bring the pace and the pressure. I'm going to break you on that, Matt, because you're a D2 scrub, and I'm a D1 and All-American, and I'm America's champ and the RIF crossover champ. So there is a chance we see it. Maybe we see it at the year anniversary show Cleveland Ariel, or maybe we see it in Miami on September 19th,

but we just need his, you know, little rap manager to approve. You did mention Michael Chandler. What did you think about how he looked in his last fight at the White House? Yeah, he didn't look that good. He looked like a guy that just looks defeated because he never got the Conner fight.

You know, we know that that's done a lot of psychological damage to Michael Chandler, that he never got the Conner fight. He's probably still hoping that he's holding out that he's going to get hope for, you know, the fight with Conner-Mregor. It's not going to happen. So, you know, we're willing to grant him a title shot over here in R&F.

If he wants to come over and challenge for this belt, you know, he's worthy of it. He's an all-American wrestler. He's a great wrestler. He's more deserving than Balal Muhammad. What's he ever done? He's one in the promotion. He barely beat the dead guy when the dead guy couldn't go anymore. So, you know, Belal Muhammad doesn't deserve it.

A guy like Michael Chandler deserves it. But as an aside, in the end, what did you think of the White House card? And what did you feel as you were watching it? We knew how much it meant you, how much you wanted to be. be on it to watch it from afar. How did you feel? To be honest, I was locked in on R.A. of St. Louis that night, so I wasn't really paying attention to what was going on. But I saw some clips, some highlights, you know, on the X afterwards. And, you know, it looked like a great spectacle. You know, it looked like a great show. And I'm thankful that, you know,

they put on a good show for the greatest president in American history, Donald Trump. You know, it was the birthday of him and, you know, the 250th anniversary of the greatest country to ever exists, you know, America. And so, you know, I thought it looked great. You know, Hunter Campbell did an amazing job. That's what he does is, you know, he puts on great events and he does the biggest and best business in the combat sports world. So I was happy for the UFC. I was happy for America. And, you know, I'm just happy for everybody involved. There was a great show. What do you think about what happened to Connor? Unfortunate, man. Really unfortunate what happened to Connor. I feel for him, man. I know he was

in the greatest shape of his life for that fight. He was going to go on to win that fight easily and son Max Holloway, who we're going to have to talk about that in a second as well. That's a whole different subject. What's going on with him and his wife? You know, it's just some weird stuff. But, you know, I felt for Connor, man. You know, he was in great shape. He was ready to go, you know, his comeback.

He'd been working hard for his comeback. But to end that abruptly is just, it sucks, man. It sucks for him. It sucks for the fans involved. And I just feel for all parties involved. But we know Connor will come back. You know, this story has been written before. He comes back.

He faces the adversity. He gets healed up. and recovers and he's going to come back and start someone again. What's your issue with Max? No, no issue with Max, but even like Armand was saying at the press conference, I didn't get to get this out because I was being rudely interrupted by this girl that was like trying to control the press conference, which, you know, we had to kind of put her in her place, like let us do our thing.

But, you know, the thing why I don't have a girlfriend, you know, like Armine was asking because you see women out there, like Max Holloway's wife that's saying that she's only with him because, you know, he got famous. She left him on red for like five years until she figured out how big of a deal he was in MMA and then she wanted to come back to him. That's why I don't have a girlfriend, Ariel. I don't want to get with a fake

girl that just wants me because my money and my belt my thing. Dude, I want a real girl that's genuine, that cares about me, that has a good heart and a good soul. So that's just my only issue with Max. I feel, can I just be honest? I feel like that clip was a little bit misconstrued. I feel like she was just saying like,

you know, I wasn't really sure. I was doing my thing through life, and then I eventually, I don't know. I feel like people are being a little bit too hard on Max's wife. That's my take. Actually, very hard on her. I don't think it's warranted. Okay. I understand that.

And I respect your opinion, Ariel. And, you know, just like in America, everybody's entitled to their women. But, you know, that's just the two cents that I got from the clip that I saw is just, it was a little, it was a little strange, you know, it seemed a little fake. And I didn't like it. And that's what worries me about women these days. They're just looking for men like they can provide for them. You know, they're looking for sugar daddies, you know, and this and that.

So it just scares me. You know, I want a good woman that, you know, that really cares about her man. And, you know, it's not about the money or fame. So you're not spoken for? You're flying solo? I'm flying solo, Ariel, unfortunately. You know, I haven't had the pleasure like you that's been lucky enough to meet, you know, the one and have kids with.

and, you know, create a great legacy because at the end of the day, you know, that's what it's all about in this life, you know, is creating a legacy and real legacy as kids, you know, the next generation. So, unfortunately, I haven't had the privilege to find that woman yet, but I also live in a tough, you know, I'm in South Florida, Miami. It's probably the fakes most superficial place on the planet. So finding a woman that has good values and good morals is, it's tough. And that's something that's non-negotiable for me. want kids? I do, I do want kids. You know, I want to bring kids to this planet. You know,

like Elon said, you know, we got to, we got to populate. We got to bring more kids to this planet. You know,

it sucks that, you know, you've been seeing the birth rates kind of decrease, you know, in the last couple years since COVID.

So, you know, I do want kids. I think that'll be my real legacy. And, you know, I hope I'll have the privilege to share that honor like yourself. I appreciate that. Two more,

if I can, I think one of the biggest matches that they could put on, RIF, is you versus Bo Nicol. Can we make this happen? Now that you've got that belt, why can't we do this?

I mean, dude, Bo Nichol's never been a main event. He's not a draw, Ariel. Like, he hasn't fought anybody in the UFC that's even ranked yet. They're giving him easy matchups against nobody. They brought a guy out the regional scene

so he could get a win on the White House lawn. I mean, the guy's irrelevant. He doesn't sell tickets. He hasn't beat any world beaters. He's not a ranked guy. He hasn't beat anybody ranked. He's never main evented. He's never pay-per-view,

We've never fought a title, and he's not my weight class. What about in wrestling? In wrestling, his resume is pretty damn amazing, right? Dude, yeah, he did his thing. You know, in a national scene, he's never done anything on the world scene, you know, like myself, you know, he's never, you know, competing against the world's best and one world titles and this and that. But, you know, we're not the same weight class.

If he wants to come down to 175, 170, yeah, we can do it for sure. I'll end that guy any day, but I'm not going up to your weight class. to compensate for you being a bigger guy. It's not going to happen. I'm the champ. I call the shots and frankly, he's not a good business dance partner. This is a business, you know that more than any. It's about selling tickets. It's about putting butts and seats and entertaining. He doesn't do any of that. All right. What about chamsat? Yeah, yeah, for sure. I love Combshot. I love to get the cum shot match up. But, you know, the same thing with that as well. He's going to have to come to my weight class. I'm not going up to his weight class, giving him a 30-pound weight advantage over me.

you know, I don't need to do that, dude. I'm the draw. I got tens of millions of views over the weekend. You know, I just ended, you know, the reign of this superstar in the sport, Aramus Ruki, his long winning streak. The guy hasn't been beaten anything. I think the last time he was beat was it, you know, in checkers maybe, but the guy's been on a tear, and I just ended that run.

You know, he's eight no and RF. And, you know, now I'm undefeated, unisputed. So we call the shots, just like Uncle Chale says. Just about a thousand votes so far, and it's 53% in favor of Bilal, by the way. Really? Okay. Well, we might have to give the people what they want, man. So ultimately, if by the end of this show, he's winning the poll, you're going with Bilal. This is the nicest thing that I've ever done for Bilal. I mean, I feel like he should thank me. The guy's on a campaign to try to say mean things about me. I feel like I should get a thank you from him, some kind of gift basket, a flower, edible arrangement, something.

Yeah, that's going to be part of this deal. If we're going to make the people happy, you know, give him this match, that he's going to have to also, you know, make you happy, you know, the greatest, you know, journalists in mind in the sport of MMA history. So if he doesn't send you a gift basket, the match is half. We don't need him. He's irrelevant. Okay, fair enough. Let's see if he stays true to that. One more, let me ask you, Walterweight title on the line in a few weeks. That's your weight class for so many years, interim champion. Islam or Ian, who are you picking? I'm picking Islam. You know, I think that he just has too many tools to win. He's just too strong,

and his grappling is just going to be undeniable in that cage. He's going to take down that little cuck. The little cuck is going to be too busy worried about what his wife's doing with other men to worry about winning a world title. So, you know, I got my money on Islam. And hopefully one day, you know, he'll want to come over to R&F and get beat on the freestyle mat. Wow, okay. That would be something that would interest you.

You versus Ian Gary. No, no. Islam market. Oh, sorry. Okay. Islam going over. You would like that one. Yeah, Islam could be, you know.

those would be good crossover fights that we can entertain for the crossover world championship of RIF history. And for those that may not know, what is the requirement here? Like in order to be able to compete for that belt, what do you have to do or who do you have to be?

Yeah, you need to be a star. You know, you need to be able to entertain. You need to be someone that's going to put eyes on it and draw engagement and fill butts in the seats in these arenas. You know, we're selling out arenas, you know, just like last weekend. sold out arena at the UW Milwaukee Panther Arena, you know, and that's what we do.

Every city we go to with RIF, we're selling out, and that was the biggest game in history. So you just need to be able to attract eyeballs and be able to entertain the masses. If you can't check those boxes, then you don't deserve to compete for the Cruiserweight crossover world championship of the RIF. All right. Well, as of right now, as we say goodbye, it's still 53% for Bilal. We'll update people by the very end of the show, but it sounds. like we may be getting some kind of resolution to this feud.

And honestly, after what transpired at the press conference, I don't hate it. I feel like we need to see you guys wrestle at this point. Hey, if you predict that, if that's what you say, prediction on the score? Prediction on what happens. 10-0 and under 90 seconds. I get that guy out of there so quick. I mean, it's just going to be embarrassing.

He's going to get slapped up and he knows it. All right. Thank you, Colby. Congrats to you, man. Enjoyed that match very much. huge victory for you and let's see what transpires here, but appreciate your time very much. Thank you for your time. Go. Have a good day, Ariel. Thank you, Kobe. There he is. The great Colby Covington, the inaugural crossover champion

for RAF, Real American Freestyle Wrestling, massive, massive weekend for them. And let's continue with that particular topic and speak about the man that we've been talking about the entire show. Best thing that I saw a weekend by far. By far, by far was the return of Ben Asperin. And who would have thought, forget a year ago, six months ago, that he'd be competing against someone like Balal Mohammed. And even at one point up three nothing, it was amazing to see in his hometown of Milwaukee with his family right there, the shoes being taken off in the end, the great interview with Chil Suna. And it was amazing. It really was, in my opinion, at this point, one of the greatest moments in RIAF's very short history. But so, so very emotional and surreal after everything we had seen from him.

over the course of the past year to see him compete like that and kind of go out on his own terms. And so without further ado, let us say hello to the funky one Ben Asgren, who's kind enough to join us to talk about it all. Hello, Ben, how are you? I'm doing well. How about yourself? How does the body feel after Saturday?

Oh, I was just a little sore, but I'm doing great. No real drop-off, no extreme soreness, nothing crazy. No, nothing crazy at all. When you look back on what transpired Saturday, what emotions, what feelings come to mind? I think it was a great ending. I mean, I think if you were to write a script for the movie, if I would have been able to hang on to the lead, right? Maybe I got a few more points now, and I was able to hang on as my body was working against me. I think that probably would have been a little bit of ending, but I did the very best I could.

And I trained so hard to get my body in shape and just based on the medications I'm taking. and where I started from, it was hard to do that. So I thought it was great. That was obviously the first time, the only time that you competed post-surgery's. And so I'm just curious, like, what did your body feel like? And how different was it from your old self?

Oh, my God. It's so much different. I mean, I don't know. I started out at such a low point. It's hard to even describe. I mean, well, obviously, I couldn't stand up on my own. power at one point, right? So if you can imagine the low point that that is. And then just that

when I started working out, like the tired I get is just a different tired than anything I've ever felt before my life. I don't know if it's due to the medications or just where I started at or I don't know what it was. It was just different. So somebody to the workouts, you know, in the many months leading up to this match were like pushing myself all the way to failure because I had to figure out where that was and I had to push the walls back. And you know what's funny. I have. I was so tired. I misspoke. I meant to say in my post message,

my lungs didn't hurt. My lungs actually are fine. It's my legs. My legs give out every time. And so, you know, going in, I couldn't say this pre-match because I obviously didn't want to blow all

to have the strategy to beat me, but my legs won't go hard for six minutes. So unless I can really keep the pace low or I can be really crafty or, or, you know, I caught them underneath me and forced him to shoot or something. I knew it was going to be a really, really tough night. So I was able to kind of control the hand fight for the first portion of the match.

But after the second period, I went back to the corner. I knew my legs were just about done. And when he came out for the third period really hard, I was like, shit. I didn't really stand on. What am I going to do now? You know, and I tried to figure it out, but I just couldn't get done. the feeling that you were experiencing with your legs, was that normal? Was that what people were telling you was going to happen?

Was that something that was consistent in training? No, it's not. No one can tell me anything because I don't know anyone who's done what I've done. That's trying to do what I do. Right? There's nobody. I filmed a few times and my blog guy, John, I told him not to put it out because, again, I didn't want to just give all the game plan on how to beat me, but it was like,

it was like at some point you know i did a lot of bike workouts because it's the aeronines i think the hardest cardiovascular device so i did a ton of bike workouts and every time at my legs would at some point there was just nothing left and they would go um and you know it was getting better and better and better like literally i scored better on my bike workouts like every single week for the last 12 weeks it just wasn't good enough when you were up three nothing what is going on in your mind uh nothing just thinking about the rest of wrestling and maybe you know obviously sticking to the game plan I wanted to which was to control the tie and not let them you know be able to really really get good positioning where he could try to

push and pull me around and make me even more tired than I already was so I was right you know trying to do that but you know again at some point just nothing left I guess the reason I asked that was like was there any part of you that was like wow you know I can't believe I'm I'm up I'm looking so good I'm feeling so good hold on like are you talking to yourself like that or is that what like a normal person like never it's it? Okay, no. That'd be highly counterproductive having a successful wrestling match

or anything. I mean, the best athletes, the best athletes are completely engaged in what they're doing. And the thoughts like you were having are not the now. That's the past, the present, or thinking some version of the future,

not the like what's happening right now. What do I need to? Where do I need to put my hands? Where do I need to move my feet? Like these type of thoughts. How nervous were you before you made the walk? I wasn't nervous at all. You know, I didn't know what the result was going to be.

I thought, you know, and I think I predicted correctly, I wanted to pick someone who, you know, if I picked one of the world-class guys, I was just going to get smashed, right? And there's obviously people on the roster who would be easy enough for me to beat someone who's not very good. But he was just the, like, perfect test, you know? And I like that he said he wasn't going to take it easy on me,

and he didn't. And when I was up 3-0, going on the third period, and he just came out really hard in the therapy, I was like, shit, like, I'm so tired. I don't know if I can hang on now that he's, you know, trying to come at me this hard. So, you know, that was, that was unfortunate. But I think, you know, the opponent was a great one.

He's a really good person. Always been really respectful. And so, you know, I thought it was really good. What about that walkout that you got? I mean, in your entire career, MMA wrestling, I don't know if you've ever had a walkout like this before, an entrance like this. Yeah.

You know, R.A.F. is doing an. amazing job promoting the sport of wrestling, and that's something that we've never had in the sport of wrestling. Even something like the NCAA championships doesn't come close to the production value that RAF has. And I think that's why we're having so much success is because people have been waiting for a really, really long time for wrestling to be presented in the right manner. It's not being presented in the right manner. And like, oh my, I can't tell you how many people that, you know, because obviously a lot of, a lot of people went to the event Saturday They were some way shape or form,

Ashton Wrestling Academy, people, parents, alumni, whatever, are just saying like, wow, we've never seen wrestling presented in that manner. You'd have to say, like, we're about to approach the one-year anniversary. This has exceeded your expectations, right? Like, you didn't think about it. Yeah.

Yeah, by far. Like, honestly, I thought, I thought this was possible. And that was, you know, when I taught, one of the first things I said to Chad and Izzy was like, I think this is possible, but you've got to give yourself a runway of, like, three to five years because it's going to take a while to build it. So like where we're at now is kind of like in my version of best case scenario where we would

have been after year three. So yes, the whole team at REF is they're really, really professional. They're really, really good. It's always impressive to see what they're doing. And yes, they are, they went faster than I ever imagine this could have happened. I saw you say that about two months out, you considered delaying the match. but then eventually decided to go through there. What happened?

Yeah, I just realized I wasn't going to be where I wanted to be kind of thing, you know? And if you want to get the technical thing of what I think happened was I had this thing called cytomegalovirus. And for normal people, it's not really a big deal whatsoever, but for immunocompromised lung transplant patients, it could be a really big deal. And I thought I got a medication for it, and I thought I would clear it really quickly, but the medication is really hard on your body. and I ended up being on it for like, I think, 11 weeks or something when I would have preferred to be like four.

And I think that really set me back quite a bit. So, but yeah, I just was feeling like, hey, I'm not going to get, you know, it's funny because it's not like I had a trial run at this. It's not like I, you know, had another time where I got a lung transplant and was in a coma for 40 days. And then, you know, started training. And I knew like, okay, by this week, I'm going to be ready. It's like, you know, I'm flying blind here.

And, you know, I just decided. hey, wherever I'm at on July 18th, that's where I'm at. And that's going to be good enough. And I'm going to go put it on the line. And I just felt like if I do this in Cleveland or Miami, it just won't be the same. I wanted to do it here. I wanted to do it on terms. I want to do it on.

And I did it. If this fight, or excuse me, match would have happened September, October. What do you think happens? I don't know. That's irrelevant to think about. So let's go on next question. Okay. but fair to say you would have been in much better shape and you think you could have performed better.

I'm getting consistently better every time. If you want to say like, I mean, a fair question or something would be if I had not gotten sick and I had my skill level that I had in May of 2025 prior to infection coma, lung transplant, how would I have done then? That's probably a more fair question. I didn't even at that point, I thought I was going to wrestle and wrap for a few matches because I thought I want to help this thing go.

I want to see professional wrestling in America for a really long time. And that was why I was going to wrestle. But at that point, I was highly competitive with all the guys in a room, Kegan O'Toole, Mitchell, Mitchell, Metzenbrink, Evan Wick, et cetera, et cetera. And so I didn't realize they're going to bring in these crossover guys.

Like every single one of these guys would have antennae in a period. None of these guys have remotely close to the skill level of wrestling I do. That's a more fair question. But again, that's neither here nor there because I am done wrestling and I will never not have a lung transplant. Because you are saying that you feel like you're getting better and your condition is improving and whatnot, not, why make the decision to retire?

Why not just leave the door open? Why? Because I don't need to wrestle. I have other things I want to do in my life. Being a competitor is not who I am. It's something that I've done. It's something I've done well. It's something I enjoy doing.

But we all have to move on in life. And so that part of my life is over. That chapter's closed. People are making fun to me because I closed it a few times. But technically, I never retired from wrestling. I retired from mixed martial. arts. Boxing, that was just like a fun pickup game, something I did. I didn't actually do boxing. That was just like, hey, let's go have fun on a Saturday night or something. And then this was my

retirement from wrestling. And that was always the plan, right? You were always going to do that win, lose, or draw on Saturday. Yes, correct. There's just one match. I don't need to wrestle permanently. I don't want to. You know, I hope to be, eventually get back to the point where I could compete with our really higher level high school kids to give them what they need. Because, man, we got some high school kids who get just ridiculously good, and they need someone that can, you know, beat up on them. And that was, that was always me. And now it's, now it's not. So hopefully I can get back to that point.

You know, one thing that may have been lost in the whole story on Saturday was that it was your 42nd birthday and happy birthday and happy birthday. And that's incredible symbolism, right? I mean, there was maybe a time where you thought you would not see your 42nd birthday. And so to do something like that on your actual birthday. almost a year after. That's why I asked you earlier about the nerves, about the pressure, about the emotion. I can't imagine it wasn't extremely emotional

for you and your family throughout the day. Yeah, it was very emotional. Just, yeah, I mean, so much gratitude to everyone who's helped me out in the last year because there's been so many people. And so many of the people who helped me out in the last year were there in attendance on Saturday night. So that was extra meaningful.

And then, you know, when I came out, it was like, oh, my gosh, like everyone's standing on their feet and, you know, it was like almost probably to tear to my eye. But then it was like, like, I got to go compete. Like, I got to go wrestle right now also. So that was kind of like a tough balance right there. Yeah. And I would imagine you're not the type of person that wants to like talk about your feelings

and get all emotional before competing throughout your life, right? So trying to compartmentalize all of that and sort of not think about the whole story and whatnot had to have been part of the process, right? Yeah, it was just, you know, it's like, okay, when it's time to wrestle, I, I enjoyed that moment for, you know, for a couple seconds, and then it was time to wrestle and try to win my last match and do the best that I can. Your kids were there. Have they been to any of your previous fights or anything recently? I know they're relatively young. I don't remember seeing them in the front. Yeah, we never took her kids any into fights. I think fighting is just a little bit too violent, and they were really young. so they wouldn't understand it. I think maybe I wrestled a couple matches

in something called Agon a long time ago. I think Alex might have been born, but she was a very little baby at that time. So none of them have ever really seen me compete in person. That was the very first time. Wow. What did that feel like? It was great. It was good.

I love my family. But, you know, again, being a competitor is not, I don't picture that of the huge part of my identity at this point in my life. It's like it's something I did in the past. passed. It's something I did do, of course, on Saturday night. But, you know, I'm a coach and a business owner and a family man now. I'm not, I don't envision myself as a competitor any longer. You, you obviously probably saw Colby and Armin. Were you surprised?

I actually didn't watch it. I haven't watched it yet. I know what the result was. I saw a few clips, but man, I was so tired. I went in the back and I laid down for a few minutes. Hopped in the shower and then I walked out with my family and left before the big rush of people have. Wow, you left the arena. Well, I would, there was only a few minutes left anyways. I know, but you didn't do the press or anything like that? I got my car. I went home.

What else was supposed to do? I don't know, revel in it, you know, the praise, the love, the, the... No, I've got to be around that many people. There were 6,000 people, so I'm like, I got to get out of here because, you know, if I don't get out of here and everyone else starts leaving, then I'm going to get swarmed and that's not going to be good for me because you know it's like who am I going to walk into that's sick or something I can't do that

so no I showered and I got out of there before it was all done okay fair enough can I just ask now that you've gone up against me yeah I predicted that Colby one I predicted the Colby Covington victory I just thought obviously he has a wrestling background but the other thing is

he's just a larger person you know if we think you know Colby wrestled a match at RAF at 200 pounds against Luke Grockhold and I think Armine wrestled 175 maybe multiple times, you know. So, like, he's just a naturally bigger person who understands wrestling. And I figured Armin would have a tough time scoring on him. And that was kind of what happened. Colby against Ballard.

What do you think of Colby Ballal? That's interesting. You know, Ballo doesn't have a huge wrestling background. He's, I was very strong and good hips. and I'd like to coach him up a little bit. I'd like to help him. You know, we trained together. We were at Rufus for a little bit,

but that was kind of like when I was a little bit, like I had a family and I would just go home and hang out with my kids versus, you know, go coach fights and stuff like that. So we never got super close. We have a bunch of mutual friends. But yeah, I would absolutely help on that one. Colby said right before you came on that he feels like there's still friction between you guys. Is that accurate?

You know, I try not to hold grudges. I've never sat down, had a one-on-one face-to-face. Colby just roves me the wrong way because he just doesn't say good things about people. If you watch what he said at the press conference on Friday about Ballal, and then specifically Ballal's wife, it was gross. It was just terrible human being stuff. And it's like, yes, we're in show business. and I get the trash talker thing.

But pick on Ballal then. Don't bring his wife into it. His wife, it's not like his wife was yelling and asking to be brought into it. She certainly wasn't. So I just think a lot of things he does are kind of gross. And whatever he can choose to do that, I'm just probably not going to interact with him

because I don't see a purpose in it. Okay, that is fair. Before I let you go, can I ask, I know you were high on Gable, obviously part of the wrestling fraternity, Did you see his debut? And if so, what do you think? And if so, what do you think of his UFC ceiling?

I thought is, you know what? The thing is that a lot of people, not enough people were talking about, I think is probably the most important thing when a wrestler comes over is he wasn't scared to get hit. Now, that can be dangerous. He gets too reckless because someone's, especially heavy decision, someone could put him down.

But if you're scared to get hit, you're never going to put yourself in the positions you need to win fights. And so I think that's a very powerful. positive trait and he obviously has great skills and great athleticism and great wrestling stuff. So I would assume his ascension to the heavyweight division happened relatively quickly. You know, I made a video about the Josh Hokka thing was similar, great wrestler, super athletic. I think there's a lot of similarities there. So it'll be fun watching those two guys ascend the

heavyweight division and probably, I would say, pretty short order. that whole hocket gable Bo-Nichael thing that was going on Chale weighed in and it was like hey guys you're a part of fraternity like no fighting this and that how do you feel about all of that

you know what I didn't I didn't hear what Chale said I don't know Bo kind of like he just gets out of pocket sometimes for no reason I don't really know why he felt the need to respond

to, you know, I guess in the first group, I don't feel like Gable crapped on Bo. Not maybe, am I, am I misremembering that? I think, I think it was like an indirect. I think it was like a little bit of like a backhanded compliment if I, if I remember correctly. Okay, yeah. So I just didn't think that was that bad. And I think Bo kind of like elevated it to the next level and then he tried pulling it back a little bit. But, you know, not, not all wrestlers see totally eye to eye.

So I don't know, I don't know exactly what Chale said. I guess I don't want to comment fully, but, yeah, I don't know. I don't really see much of an issue. Okay. Last thing for you, Ben, you did mention when you spoke to Chale about, like, how you hate when people talk to you about your legacy and ask you that question and whatnot. But in the end, this is it, right? Like, this is it, that you overcame this and came back and got to go out on your own terms.

Like, this is bigger than anything you've ever done. Would you be okay with that? Well. Uh, yeah, of course I'm okay with that. Um, and yeah, this is probably something that people will remember for me, um, just how I dealt with adversity and how I bounced back. And I think it can be inspirational to a lot of people because at the end of the day, um, if you're going to leave any kind of meaningful life, you're going to go through hard things. You're going to have ups. You're going have downs, you're going to have adversity, you're going to have obstacles. And a lot of how successful

you are in life is how you deal with those obstacles and that adversity. And do you cow or do you run away? Do you try to find a different path? Or do you look at the obstacles and do you say, hey, God put these in my path for a reason? And he wants to make me stronger through these trials and tribulations. And, you know, whether you believe in God or don't believe in God, struggle makes you better, right? Trials and tribulations only can build you up. And if you think about it in an athletic perspective, you know, a fighter or a wrestler who only goes against inferior opponents to have a smooth path is not going to become elite in any way, shape, or form. And if you want to be an elite human being, you need to have trials, tribulations, and struggles because that forms you into who

you are. So, you know, never at one point during this did I say, oh, God, why me or how did I end up with a double lung transplant? It's like, hey man, this is this is where I ended up. This is the hand that life dealt me. And although it's pretty bad, I got a pretty great life. I've been so lucky to have amazing people surrounding me for the last, my whole life pretty much. I've had so many amazing people surrounding me. I have so many amazing friends when I needed it in the last year. So many people came more excited me and helped out myself and my family. So, you know, I don't know, maybe people can take something from that in their own lives. And instead of whining and crying when something hard comes their way, saying, okay, how do I deal with this?

And how do I allow this to make me a better person? More impressive than all that, by the way, throwing out a ceremonial first pitch wearing sandals from the mound. I threw a pretty solid pitch because I pitched to my son a bunch in the backyard. That's not easy. Yeah. Not easy, but I was just a tiny bit inside. I wanted to throw a strike. I almost threw one.

You can see, oh, he's going to watch. I'm just a little bit to the, it was my right side. That was it, yeah, unfortunate. I really wanted to throw a strike. Wearing the sandals, man, that makes it even more impressive, if you ask me. You never cease to amaze, Ben. Thank you so much. Congratulations on this.

Happy birthday and well done. and enjoy your time off now. I appreciate it. Thank you, buddy. All right, there he is. The great Ben Ascran with a, I mean, just an absolutely inspirational, beautiful moment on Saturday. Oh, my, that was incredible stuff. Well done to him.

And, yeah, I hope he's able to live a healthy, productive life. You hear about little things. Like, I can't be around 6,000 people afterwards. You forget about those things. Like, this guy is a double lung transplant. survivor. I mean, and then he went out there and competed against a UFC fighter and was up at one point. It's amazing. How could you not be in awe of that? How could you not be in awe of that? It's one of the great athletic feats. Is Ben Askron the comeback fighter of the year? Does he qualify?

Does an RAF wrestler qualify? I think he might qualify. We have to remember that one. In a matter of moments, we're going to be joined by someone who may be on the short list for breakout fighter of the year. Tommy McMillan is someone that we're very excited about here. He is an absolute superstar in the making. He has now two amazing fights under his belt in the UFC. If you want to count the contender series win over David Magoyan, who was on that MVP card in May, super tough fighter, very talented. We don't give him enough credit for that one. A great wrestler. He beat him. And then he comes into the UFC back in April, picks up a first round finish. And then on

Saturday, an amazing performance, which got him a performance of the night bonus for the second time. A win over Alberto Montez. He is an exciting fighter, a magnetic fighter, a fighter with a great personality, a great look, a great demeanor, and a great fighting style comes from a great camp over in Arizona by way of Montana with Tim Welch and Sugar Sean, guiding him through this whole UFC career now, very excited about his prospects. And so without further ado, let us welcome to the program for the very first time, the one and only Tommy McMillan, who's kind enough to join us right here now. Hello, Tommy, my man. How are you? Good. How are you doing, brother? I'm doing great. Great to meet you for the first time,

and congratulations on all your success. By the way, one thing I've wanted to be. One thing I've wanted to I wanted to ask you, you know, every time I see you do it, is this, is this right here paying homage to the Hardy Boys? Is that a Hardy boy thing or is that a Tommy Gunn thing? It's a Tommy Gunn thing, but I did, I did love the Hardy brothers, Jeff and Matt Hardy growing up. I was a WWE fan as a kid before I kind of figured out that it wasn't exactly real. But yeah, I mean, it's my own thing. It's guns, baby, throwing up the guns. I love it. I love it, man. Well, everything you're doing is a lot of fun, and that fight on Saturday was a lot of fun. Can I ask, you know, I've heard you say this is something you've dreamed about, you've been thinking about it 20 years, your father was a fighter. Now that you're living it, you're two and O in the UFC, one and own the contender series, the bonuses, the first round finishes. It's now happening. It's no longer a dream. It's now your life and reality. How are you processing all of this? I think I'm doing a very good job but just staying grounded. You know, I got Tim and Shug in my corner I've seen, I moved in with Shug

when he had like 5,000 followers on Instagram. I've seen his life blow up and, you know, they do a good job but just reminded me to stay grounded and be grateful for all the opportunities. So, you know, it's not surprising, really, what's happened in my life. I knew the stage was set big

in my last fight against Montez. He's a good prospect. And, you know, we gassed up the fight. I didn't like him. He didn't like me. You know, I was, I was all in on that fight. I knew I'd go out there, beat him, beat him up and finish him in a, you know, spectacular

a way that it would help push me to the next level of, like, UFC superstardom, and I think I did my job. Why didn't you like him? He just run his mouth about me, you know? I don't, I don't, my son runs their mouth about me, you know, just keep that same energy. He was running his mouth saying he thinks I'm playing an act. I'm not who I say I am.

And I got in there Saturday night, you know, to change his mind a little bit. So that's pretty much what it was. He's just talking shit about me. I was talking shit on him, though, too. All camp, I was posting on my story because his team watches my stories. I was tagging him. I said first one shoot is a bitch. So I was talking shit, you know, but I kept that same energy all the way through.

He didn't. He showed his hand, you know, that he was the one being fake. Were you talking to him in the fight as well? Yeah, 100%. I was talking to him since the moment I saw him. He was talking shit on me in interviews, and I've seen him at the face. offs when I pulled up backstage and he went to dat me up and I got in his face right away slapped his hand I told him to go fuck himself and you know that he's running his mouth and he thinks

I'm not a real gangster like I say I am so I said he's about to find out what a real American gangster is and they had to separate us and then made me go sit with a cop the whole time but you know I felt like I was kind of sitting in the hallway at school so you know nothing new to me is that true they really had you like chaperone by a cop and didn't let you interact with anyone yeah that Because we got into it because it was on site with him. He's run his mouth about me. He thought, you know, he literally said I'm playing an act. I don't know what the fuck he's talking about.

Like, I'll fight him for free, fight him anytime, anywhere. So for me, I was way more confident after that interaction because he showed that he was the fake one. You don't talk your shit like that about something before fighting and then go to dapp them up behind the scenes. Like that makes no sense to me. You mentioned like you felt like you were back in school with the cop, you know, sort of chaperoning you there. did you get kicked out of school? Yeah, quite a bit as a kid, and then I ended up getting to walk or graduate my high school class

because I pretty much only went to high school so I could wrestle because I was messaging Tim, obviously trying to move out here and fight, and he's like just keep wrestling, doing what you can get better at martial arts. So I went to high school to wrestle. I was pretty good, won a few state championships, and went undefeated my senior year. And then after that, they had, like, I just quit going to school pretty much because they couldn't,

they told me I couldn't really wrestle unless I go to school and, like, I was barely able to pass and do that. So then when I was done wrestling, I was like, yeah, I'm out. And I just kind of quit going. And then they just told me I had to, I couldn't walk.

So. Did you get into a lot of fights? Yeah, I mean, I'd say a decent amount growing up as a kid for sure. You know, that's where I got the, I got the name Tommy Gunn because I joined this little electric city boxing club, my hometown,

in Great Falls, and it's just Great Falls is right next to a Native American reservation. So all the kids on the fight team, the boxing team, were just a bunch of Native Americans. And I was the only white kids. So that's where I got the name Tommy Gunn because they all were fans of boxing. I guess there's some old boxer named Tommy Gunn. So they started calling me Tommy Gunn.

And, you know, I was just like kind of the, yeah. Tommy Morrison. Have you ever looked them up? I've seen a little bit of him. I was a big fan of the Rocky movies growing up. So that's kind of how I knew about him. I didn't watch too much boxing. My dad and my grandpa kind of did.

I remember we'd watch like the big Floyd Mayweather and like Oscar Deloitte fights and stuff like that, but I didn't watch too much of it. And your dad was a fighter, right? Yeah, he was a fighter. He had me, my little brother, my older sister, at a very young age. And so he was a plumber, go to work all day, plum, go,

and then baked groceries at this local Albertson store. Then he started taking these tough man boxing competitions. in our hometown when it became a thing to make a little extra money. So I used to, I watched him come home beat up and stuff. So fighting has kind of always seemed like a normal thing to me. I think this is your dad right here. We were like 95% sure this was your dad. Does this look familiar?

Yeah. Yeah, that is him. Big Joe. Look at this guy. He's in my corner this weekend. He's a funny guy. Is he your inspiration? Like, is he the reason why you wanted to do this?

I wouldn't just say my dad alone. You know, as a kid, I always just wanted the nicer things in life. You know, you see kids come to school. They got the drawings. They got this. Like, you can't get that. You know, my parents had us at a very young age. We didn't really have, like, we didn't have, obviously, like, the ability to get the finer things and stuff like that.

And so I kind of saw fighting. I remember seeing fighting on TV in third grade. It's like when my dad started doing from boxing to MMA, when it became like a thing in Montana. And I remember watching UFC fights in third grade and just looking at it. looking at it on TV and being like, yo, that's how I can go make a bunch of money. Those guys look famous. They look like, you know, you get money if you're on TV.

That's why I'm thinking as a kid. So that's kind of where my mind was at. And it's just, I'm here to just make a fortune for my family and be able to provide for my future family. Those are like my two biggest things. And, you know, like to inspire other kids around the world that, you know, just to chase their dreams and make something dope out of their life. So this dream that you're living right now,

this reality starts in the third grade. Most kids are thinking about cartoons and you're thinking about it like that in the third grade about being a prize fighter essentially 100% yeah I just actually was just talking to

Shale for a second on Tim's podcast and I literally used to go to bed pissed off as a kid in third grade because I just wasn't all enough to be in the UFC and changed my life like just go to bed pissed off because I can't be in UFC so this has been a long time coming

and I'm just super grateful to be here and taking advantage of the opportunity Is it true you started training when you were three years old? I started wrestling when I was like three, three and a half years old. My dad put me in the five and six year old division, little guy wrestling, one state. And I just, yeah, kind of kept wrestling. Wrestling was the thing in my life, the only thing that could kind of keep me out of trouble, you know, and I always wanted to be a fighter, so I kind of kept it close because I just knew that, you know,

I kind of need something like that in my life to just keep guiding me on the right path to one day become a UFC champion. Yeah. So obviously we know about Tim and Shugga's connection to Montana. You didn't know them. You just knew of these guys who were from your state and reached out to them. It wasn't like you actually knew them. I didn't personally know him. I would see Tim around a lot, though. Like Tim used to say, like, he'd see me come in, like, the Great Falls High Wrestling room. We'd wrestle at the same high school. Obviously, years later, I came along, but I was a pretty good wrestler coming up as a kid,

so I'd go wrestle with, like, the older guys or come into the high school room as a little kid and practice with the high schoolers. And so, like, I think Tim kind of knew of me, and then Tim knew my dad a little bit because the fight scene in Montana is very small. So, like, Tim knew of me for sure. And Shug used to see me around all the local fights when he was old enough to fight. I wasn't old enough. The fight scene in Montana is very small.

So, like, my dad would be going these fight shows because he was running, like, the local gym in Great Falls. And then I was, and I remember seeing Tim. I was like, this redhead dude that just knocks people out, like, just stood out to me. I was like, the shit's sick. Like, he's good. So kind of always followed Tim's career. Saw him go to, like, Oregon and whatnot and just kind of, like, followed his career.

That's all moved out to Arizona. And then years later, like, I watched Shug fight on the amateur. I watched Shug fight since an amateur, you know, I'd go all of his fights. and I saw him fighting, then I saw how good he got when he moved to Arizona. And I had been, like, probably like an eighth grader freshman at that time. I saw how good he started getting. I was like, yeah, that's where I got to go is Arizona, you know. And so I kind of started messaging Tim pretty young, like freshman or something like that in high

school on Facebook telling me, hey, I want to come down to Arizona and fight. So that's kind of how that came along. Wow. And so you're 28 now. How old are you when you moved to Arizona? I was 19 years old. It was right after Shug won the Contender Series. Wow.

I was taking fights locally in Montana, pretty much just training my dad. And a lot of times my dad's working a full-time plumbing job at this time. So he was even there a lot. Like I was just training pretty much like a garage with friends and just like a little group of guys and taking fights on the regional scene. And I text to Tim obviously right when I got kicked out of high school and I was like, hey, like I want to come out and fight. He's like, hey, just keep taking local fights. And then I had my first fight when I was in high school. I got kicked out on a Friday night.

and then a promoter came up to me and was like, hey, I have fights tomorrow night, Saturday night, in a town like two hours away, and Tim Welch is headlined in the card. And I was like, oh, like, I'm trying to get out to Arizona. Like, I need to get on that card. So they let me just use the weight that I weighed in for my Friday fight. And they said if I show up on Saturday, I can fight this kid. So I went out, partied all night, celebrating my dub, got like two hours of sleep, woke up with my girl at the time and drove two hours and then fought again on the same card as Tim.

I went to Tim up for the fight. I was like, hey, bro, like I'm trying to move there. Arizona. So then he finally messaged me like a year later saying, Shook's buying a crib because he just got on a contender series. You want to rent the room. And then I drove out and I was 19. So I was looking at your record on Tapology and it says you make your debut in 2019. And then it says there's a canceled fight in 2022, but your next fight is in 2023. Is that accurate? There was a four year gap between fight one and two? Yeah, it sucked, man. I mean, I was confident with my skills at the time. I was beating up good

guys in the gym, you know, so I felt like I was ready to go pro, ready to make a good push for UFC. And then I made my debut against a three and O dude, good little D1 wrestler, decent fighter. He was three and no at the time. I beat him in the first round. And then I was planning on staying active, but then COVID hit. And then all the fights team Montana shut down for two, two plus years or over two years. And like all the regional scenes shut down. And then, you know, when it came back in Arizona, like I wasn't like a favorite person to get fights out here. So I just Couldn't get a fight. And it was like about three years until Montana finally two, three years to

Montana opened back up. And then I came back to make a fight, poor ligaments my foot, training for that fight. So I was out for like another six, seven months, you know, and then I finally got healthy again and then made like a real push. So it was kind of things out of my control. But, you know, I wouldn't have it any other way. It was good of learning and life lessons for me for sure. Did you waver at all?

Did you think like, oh, man, maybe this isn't going to work out for me, but this isn't going to happen? Never. That's the crazy thing about me. I feel like that's why this has worked so much. It's never even sick. It's almost, it just feels like my destiny. Like, I just know it's going to happen.

It's what's supposed to happen. That's how the story is going. And, you know, I've always just said I was going to be in the UFC and become a UFC champion. One of the greatest to ever do it since a little kid. And, you know, I just never really thought that it wouldn't work out. That just doesn't make sense to me. I don't know what that reality would be.

You know, this is my reality. this is only the way I see moving forward in life. How did you support yourself during that time? That's four years without making fight money. And I know it's not a lot in the early stages of your career, but what were you doing? It was tough. It was pretty tough. So I got into, I did some crypto and stuff, made some money, obviously, just like living

super cheap trying to stay in the gym as much as possible. And then in like 2022, I got into 2021, 2021, I got into sales. So it was like 2021 and because I saw these kids driving nice car and shit and Scottsdale out here. And I'm like, what do you guys do? And they sold solar. So I used to like wake up, train a little bit and sell solar and knock doors all throughout the day. And I started making good money from sales doing that on the side. And I realized that a lot of these sales companies, they have a problem with like recruiting guys and being able to like maintain teams.

And I had a pretty big falling already in a platform from fighting. So I kind of started to shine life on the money I was making from sales to my like fighting. career and on my platform and like next you know i moved out some of my friends taught them how to sell we started our own sales team offia sales team and like they were selling they were selling and then we would move kids out train them and like we built teams like that so i did i did that for like two years made some money from sales and then uh made enough money to kind of just keep just folks on fighting that's why i got offered on the contender series for the first time in 2024 so that's kind when i stepped away from sales and then obviously got injured wasn't able to

to do that fight but uh yeah look at the uh that watch is nice i see that watch right there the um well iced out car yeah oh look at you man look at you and the necklace too what do you have on the necklace there it's an iced out paddock pendant on a little gold chain ice out damn they pay that before my i had that before my debut i've been making six figures in sales for a few years now i've never i'm not here to just i like money don't get me wrong that's my biggest motivator but i just truly like to fight people so okay but you're not starving you're doing quite well yeah no i've been i've been doing good for a minute that's why i think you know it's going to be easy to to stay humbled and stay grounded and keep moving forward in this career because i'm here to build a legacy at the end of

the day and are you still doing the sales while fighting so i quit doing it for like four years because eventually for two years it's pretty easy because i just recruited people yeah and then my friends would train them so i wasn't doing much i was always still hands on but like um i i stepped away from for a couple of years to just truly just focus on fighting, not do it anymore. But recently I restarted it up with my friends because they came to me this good idea. They want to build a call center. And I had this old mafia sales team Instagram page. So we used that.

And it's actually doing good. So I've been doing it a little bit again. I'm not too hands on with it. My friends run everything. But like I recruit people and work with them. And like I'm in group me chats with some of these guys. And they're like been my fans for a long time. So it's pretty sick.

Do you still live with sugar? I only lived with him for like eight months. Okay. But I was, I mean, it was sweet living with him. I think it was a big part of my journey. I moved out here and he still makes fun of me and tells stories about me sitting on his couch and eating like Sour Patch kids and like a half a block of cheese for dinner. Like, and that's literally what I would do. And then I kind of saw him like eating healthy and how he lived life and him and Tim.

And but mainly being around chug too, just in the. those eight months, it really kind of taught me what I needed to do and the kind of discipline and things I needed to put in my life in order to get to like the things he was doing. Yeah, so you're seeing him like quite literally explode, right? He becomes one of the biggest stars in the UFC, one of the faces of the UFC. And you have a front row seat. All those fights, are you going to them? Are you there? You're training with him, obviously. That's got to be like the greatest, you know, teaching tool to get to where you want to be. For sure. Yeah, I was that's debuting his first two fights in UFC, the one against soccer mom and then Terry

John Ware. I haven't heard that one in a while. That's right. You guys kind of actually sounded like. Has anyone ever said that to you? I don't know about sound alike. I don't know. People obviously resemble us all the time.

That's just going to be normal with me coming up under him. You know, Shug's been in my corner for most of my professional fights. He's one of my coaches. He's out of all my sparring practices. Some of the best advice I've gotten in fighting is from him. I think he just really obviously understands like the same kind of mindset I have. And so his little pointers make a lot of sense to me. Yeah.

Can I ask about the tattoos? Like this one right over here, the scarface one. What prompted that one on the other side? Well, so I got that one after. So I injured this shoulder. It was the shoulder I injured on when I couldn't fight on Contender Series the first time. So I put bullet holes in it and did the world as yours because it's like, that was a super dark time for me because, you know, I was trying my whole life to get to UFC

and I was so close in a week and a half out. I had a already hurt shoulder. I really heard it severely, like, separated my AC joint, tore like my labrum in there, blew it out pretty much like a week and half before and I had to withdraw from the bout. And it was just, it sucked so bad. And I knew I'd get back to it, but I just knew like, you know, like, this is just going to be longer on the journey, longer there. And I just want to be there that bad. And so in this scene in Scarford, It's when, you know, Scarface has made his fortune and he's in his house and all the, the enemies, the bad guys come to start invading his house. And he could have just ran, ran away, you know what I mean?

And got away. But he chose to grab his gun and then run at him, died defending his fortune. And to me, that guy just kind of meant like, you know, like, even though I got hurt on the first contender series that, like, I'm not going to quit this journey. I'm here to build a fortune for me and my family and I'm going to die trying. So, like, that's kind of what that meant to me. I love that it's not just I was a fan of Scarface, that there's an actual meaning behind it. Yeah, I mean, I love Scarface growing up too, but that's like there's actual meaning.

What about on the other side? It says die there, but I don't see the rest. Oh, Legends Never Die. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this right here is a car. Oh, yeah. It's Juice World. It's a Juice World album. So Juice World, you know, like the rapper Juice World. Yeah, sure, sure.

Yeah, so it's one of his album covers. It just means legend never never never die. I'm here to become a legend, you know. I want the name Tommy Gunn, McMillan to be solidified in UFC history in all sorts of ways. You know what I mean? So legends never die. What about the girl with the gun? That's the that one's just sick.

So it's the the cover of San Andreas, Grant that thought of San Andreas like on the old Xbox and shit. It's a chick from the cover and I just put a gun in her hand because a GTA is sick. I feel like I'm a real live GTA character. I'm just going on like missions and heists and like I get to like knock people out, get money, go buy a new clothes and just like upgrade my crib, upgrade my cars. Like, you know, I'm just living like a GTA character. I love it. I love it.

What comes first? Tommy McMillan title shot or GTA6? Shit. I mean, you guys just going to have to stay tuned in for that one. GTA six be taking a long time and I'm here to knock motherfuckers out and go straight to the top. So we'll see. Yeah, I mean, you got you have to be. been pretty hip on my part to know that reference right i mean as a 44 year old do i get street cred for

that i respect that yeah 100% thank you definitely got street care you you a g for sure i appreciate that i appreciate that um i did see your uh your instagram posted i think you were um paying homage to dustin porier in uh in one of year yeah that one right there so dude if i hit them shorts lifts and i see me out about hitting them shorts lifts it's gonna be bad You think Dustin's getting a lot of love for this. Why do you think that is? I don't know. I don't take things that serious.

I thought it was funny. I thought the whole video was funny. So I don't know. And I just like, it's going to be bad. I also saw the one, I think you called yourself 200K gun or something like that. Yeah, I knocked out the first doing my debut. Before that, because I got a lot of hate on my TikTok. I made this TikTok like a month and a half before my UFC debut saying I'm going to cash 100K in my debut.

And I started calling myself 100K in my debut. I start calling myself 100K guns. And, like, so there's all my, my fans, my Discord community. I stream on Twitch. And they, I just got the, if you go look at the TikTok, like, it's got the most hate comments saying, like, I'm going to make 100K, this, this, and that. I was telling everyone to bet the knockout is plus money. I'm going to knock them out for 100K in the first round. That's what I did.

And then after this, I was calling myself 200K guns because I was like, I'm going to go get another bonus. If there's 100K on the line and I'm fighting, I'm going to get the 100K. So I'm like, I'm 200K guns. Now, why the hate, though? Because I heard you talking about this when you were speaking to Fulsa, and you were like, yo, if you're hating, like, stay there. I don't want any new fans. I don't want bandwagoners.

Who's hating on you? You're bringing a lot of fun. Like, we need more characters like you in this sport. Who's hating on me? I think at the end of the day, they actually love me. Yeah. Like, how do they, you know what I mean? You can't even, like, I'm giving them something to talk about.

You know they tune into my fights. You can't watch my fights and just watch what I do and say it's not fucking fun to watch. So, like, at the end of the day, I think they love me. They talk about me more than anybody. I appreciate it because it's one of the things that fuels me the most, too. I love just proving people wrong and just making people look like idiots, like when they think I can't do something. There's so many boring characters.

There's just a lot of uniformity in this sport. So when someone like you comes along with your style, your swag, your tattoos, your fighting style, all that, like to me, it's such a breath of fresh air. So I don't understand where the hate comes from other than they're just trying to rile you up and troll you. Yeah, it's just that. I just don't, yeah, it doesn't make sense to me. I'm just truly being myself.

And I've always been crazy wild kid that likes to fight like money. And, you know, I've always in all my fights, talk shit, getting their face, getting their head, like throughout all my pro career. So it's nothing new to me. It's just, it's fun to me. Like, the whole fight week this week was so sick. Sickest week in my life. Like, me and that guy talking shit on each other to full send.

Like, I'm seeing shit he said. Like, he's saying shit I said. Like, we don't like each other. Then we get to go face off. Like, I get to fucking try to fight him backstage and shit. Like, it was so sick. it was so fun. How was Oklahoma City, and especially for the after party, if you will.

Is it a fun place to celebrate a win? Yeah, no, I loved Oklahoma. I think it was kind of like a quieter little place. It was very cool to experience for a few days. Definitely wasn't as crazy as Vegas, you know, obviously in Vegas. Didn't sleep for three days. I think everybody heard that. I didn't hear that.

Can you tell me about it? What'd you do? I mean, I fucking partied for three days straight after I went 100K for the first time. It was sick. I freaking knocked that dude out in first round. I just went out and partied for three days. What was on the itinerary? Like, what would you do?

What didn't I do? Wow. Better question. You know, I just, but hey, listen, Oklahoma City, though, we kept it a little bit more cool. Okay. I told Hunter Campbell, like, I heard he was worried about me a little bit. He came into me in the fight in the back. after face off.

And because somebody said, I've been partying a lot or something like that. Then he said, I'm like, hey, kid, you good? Like, you got good head on right now or something? Like, you're in the right place. I was just like, oh, yeah, I'm more dialed than ever. So, you know, I kept a little bit more chill in OKC, went out, took all the boys. Ezra showed up. I took them all to this sick club.

We got a table, popped some balls of champagne, got some signs. Then I went home and kicked with this girl. Called her a little early night at like 2 a.m. And just kept a dialed. Okay, okay. The club scene in Oklahoma hadn't heard about it. Not bad? Oh, we had that bitch turn.

Oh, it was sick. It was sick. Comparable to Vegas or different? Anywhere I go, it's going to be a fucking party. Sure. I'll party in an alley with whoever. It's just fun. So we made fun.

It was a good time. So is this, like you said in Vegas, three days where I guess this is technically like day three. Are you still on the high or is it back to business now? This one definitely, I don't feel like I didn't do as many crazy things. I don't really have like a bad come down as one would say after partying for three days straight. I feel super grounded. And I think it was just such a sick performance. I'm so happy with that.

I haven't watched the fight back yet, but I know it was sick. I felt the way how calm and just good I felt in there. I'm very happy with. I still want to obviously keep getting better a lot of things. But I think what it did just kind of really show me how close I am. so just keep unlocking my full potential in this sport, and it makes it a lot easier to wake up after they win another $100K, like nothing, and just get back. I'm already back in the gym.

I'm sitting at the top of Red Hawk Academy right now. I mean, Timbo about to bust out a little pod with Ezra after this. So I'm keeping a dial. By the way, when you say three days, like, is there no sleeping involved for three days? Yeah, all these other guys, I hear some of these guys talk like they party drinking. Like, they got kids and families. They ain't doing what I'm doing when they party. They have a few beers go out.

I didn't sleep for three days. Damn, that is crazy. And then, I mean, I've done five before, but that's been a minute. Five. And you don't feel like you need to take at least a nap? No. What the hell? Do you like to drink?

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I was yelling and not yelling, but I was asking everybody to give me a beer after the fight in the back, and I couldn't get a beer. And I had to do all these interviews. I couldn't get a beer, but I do like to party. Training camp, do you drink as well?

Okay, so this was like the first training camp. I'd say that I went sober for longer than four weeks. Okay. I was pretty, I was sober for about, I'd say, six, seven weeks for this one. Oh, wow, okay. And that's the most? That's huge for me. That's big.

What about smoking? No, I mean, I smoke just, I smoke regularly. clearly. That doesn't really count as being sober. Okay, I saw a fat-ass blunt that you had in that picture afterwards, right? That's a PRJ right there. For sure. Smoking doesn't count as being a, yeah. No, no, that's accepted.

They were asking me over your right shoulder over there. Is that a vase? What is that? Or is that a ball? What is that? Which one? Over the scarface. No, in back of you.

Oh, right here? No, no, like the object in back of you. Oh. What is that? It's a bomb. Okay, we weren't sure. We thought it was just a cool vase. No, it's a bomb.

Okay. Have you ever hit one of these? Do you want to know the truth, Tommy? Will you think less of me? No. I've never hit one. Yeah, you don't got to do drugs, bro. You're good.

Yeah. Have you ever hit one? Oh, yeah. What's it like? I hear there's like a bubbling sound when it happens, right? Yeah. it bubbles and you just get very high. You like it?

But dude, I eat like a lot of food when I get high. So it's like I try to not get as high lately because like that I'll be just fuck. I get it too big. Munchies and stuff like that? Yeah. What's the go to? Shake shack. Ah.

You have that over there on the West Coast? Yeah, we got shake shack. Because we had in and out in Vegas. It was awful. Oh, I hated it. You don't like in and out? No, like the fries. They're like styrofoam.

I think ShakeShack kills in and out It's not even close I agree with that I like Shake Shack over In-N-N-N-O as well But I think in-and-out's really good You gotta get an animal style though Fries extra crispy You gotta know what to order

Okay okay, maybe I didn't know what to order Okay so that's the go-to When you're smoking you go to Shake Shack That's the spot Oh yeah, I like candy too though What kind? Like Sour Patch kids Yeah yeah tremendous

Can't beat that I like Coke Gummies You ever have Coke Gummies? Like with the sour ones Yeah yeah So I go to sprouts. There's this local sprouts. They got a bin of those.

I do free sample every time I pull up. I know you have to do the pot in a moment, but can I ask, how soon are we going to see you again? Well, you heard my call out. I said I broke a fucking undefeated Armenian-Russian just to get in the UFC. A lot of motherfuckers just get these tuna cans. I broke an undefeated prodigy and then knocked out an Italian for 100K, knocked out of Venezuelan dude for 100K. So I told Uncle Dana, Uncle Hunter, send me a motherfucking Mexican.

Yes. September 12, baby, UFC Notte. In Glendale, in your backyard. Yeah, right in the backyard. So we'll see about that. Anyone in particular? You say like any fighter in particular? No, because there's no one worth calling out until I get to the top 15 to get my place.

And, you know, when I'm ready for the bell and want the bell, like just call somebody else that's got that. Because all these other guys, they got four or five fights in UFC. they got like one fourth, if that, one fifth of my following. I'm not going to mention none of their names. None of them are worth me mentioning. They all want to fight me for a reason because they're boring. No one wants to watch them. I'm not how good they are.

No personalities or anything. So they all want to fight me. I don't care about any of them. Just whoever UFC sends me, I'm going to go out there and I'm going to knock them out for 100K. Set the UFC featherweight record for most significant strikes landed in a three-round fight with 252. that is you. I'm also, is that wrong? Yeah, it's not just featherweight. It's overall.

Overall, excuse me. Okay. My bad. I should have noted that. But more notably, third Diaz brother. Have you ever met the Diaz brothers? No, I haven't actually, but I'm definitely the third Diaz brother. Okay. If anybody gets to break that record and take that, you know, from a Diaz brother, it's only right that it was guns. And honestly, I could have kept, dude, they, they stopped the fight two minutes early you feel that way yeah i could have kept going i probably would have got off at least at that rate bro he used that busted up i would have got off another 60 at least

man i i actually felt i felt like it was dragging a little bit there i thought uh i thought it could have been ended a lot sooner to be honest yeah dude he was so busted up i think i broke his nose i think he came out in the second round his nose was just already swore i know i broke his nose dude. He kind of looked like Ili after that gaugie fight. It's not as bad. I need to see a meeting between you and Nate, you and Nick. This has to happen at some point. I'm down. Set it up. All right. Well, congratulations, man. Really a lot of fun watching you do your thing and keep doing your thing. Keep being you. It's a lot of fun to watch and great to meet you and great to have you on the show for the first time. Appreciate you doing this, Tommy. Nice to meet you, Ariel. Thanks for having me, bro. See you soon. Yes, sir. Looking forward to the next one. There he is. Tommy McMillan. Tommy Gunn. What a stud. I love it. I love, you guys know when new characters come along, fun characters, this is great. This is great for the sport. And the UFC definitely behind him, as they should be. He's now 11 and 0, 2 and O in the UFC, one contender series win. The Son of Joe McMillan, we had that footage there. What a character this Tommy Gun is. And he's being guided by Sugar and Tim Walsh. Speaking of Sugar, Sean O'Malley,

he was watching. He was watching on Thursday's Boys in the Back episode. He was in the chat, but he didn't actually, he was more like just watching. He wasn't partaking. Lurking, I don't know what the word is,

but he saw you guys break down the top stars in the UFC and he was... Oh, what do you have to say? He was none too pleased with his omission. No, no, we had him. Yeah, he didn't watch the full segment.

He was absolutely... It felt like... It felt like he felt Yeah, we had him. This is so great. We talked about him, man. It felt like he felt he should have been top of mind. Okay.

Rick had him four. Where do you have him? Probably one or two at this point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. For sure.

Yeah. Who's, if he's one, who's two? As far as biggest stars in the UFC right now? They could potentially become like the face as we as we knew. Patrick. Patrick Pimblet. Yeah, he's two. Yeah.

Three? Connor Mac. Okay, Connor McGregor could be the next face of the U.C. Four? Tommy McMillan. Tommy Guns. Shut of Tommy Guy. Tommy.

It's a bore in this conversation at all? We're getting there, you know. I like to focus on the American fighters who I think have done a really good job of breaking through. Oh, that's why you added an Englishman and an Englishman. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, I, listen, everyone's list is everyone's list. but I did think he should have been more top of mind, that's all. I think Rick had him number four, which I-

Any apology that you guys want to issue to Mr. Shugashon O'Malley, who's been so kind to us. Anytime we text him to come on, he's there within a second. He's the best. He is the best. Not an apology, but a thank you for watching, and we are sorry that we didn't do justice by you. And a reminder that this is a serious show in which we talk about serious topic.

What is happening here with the hats? And how do I get one of these hats? Well, he just got it delivered, man. Wow. Who delivered them? our old friend BS Ben Stark She sure is

Hey Welcome PT wears your hat Didn't get one Ben's on the way I believe Okay Got in a plane All right

All right Well good to see you Pete It's nice to have you Have you recovered From Las Vegas Because the last time we heard from you It was a bit of a dark scene It was dark

And I got out of the darkness Okay And into the light again You're here Very happy to be back. I lost two days. It was kind of like Han Solo in a tournament of the Jedi there for kind of woke up on the Friday.

Like, what has happened? I have to do a show today. I've been frozen in time. But we got done in the end. Thanks to my lovely call. Ben, folks. Chuck Mendenhall. Jordan, of course. Fantastic stuff done. Oscar Losef. You know, without the team around me, who are we? At the end of the day. 100%. And a happy belated

to you and a happy belated to G.C. back to back. Like Jordan and I. G.C. on Thursday. It's a crazy run of birthday. It is a crazy right. It really is. 8, 9, 16, 17? It's wild. Also, I learned on Friday that did you guys know that if you type in calendar in your phone, the emoji, have you ever done it?

Oh, I don't know what you're saying. Do it right now. Take out your phone and type in. Like where you would find an emoji? Spotlight. I don't know what that thing is called. You know, like where you search for emojis? Like if I was texting you something.

A calendar. Yeah. Type in calendar. Yeah. Search it in my, like type it in the message bar or type it in the emoji? The emoji in the emoji search. Okay. What comes up?

Let's see, calendar. Calendar, calendar. It's his birthday. July 17? I did know that. I did know that. Oh, somebody's birthday will come up if you have them saved. Is that what you're saying?

No, it's literally the universal emoji for calendar. July 17. The most important date. Oh, that's what you're saying. Yes, his birthday and my dad's birthday. I wonder what made them choose that. Shout out. That had to have been like one of the dudes at Apple.

who was just putting in his own birthday or maybe it's like Apple's birthday you know what? Maybe they made it that day and they were like, we'll just use July 17th. Why is the universal emoji? 87, Pete?

For calendar. 87, 39 now, GC. Happy birthday day. You're still a young man, Pete. Okay, guys. ICAL. The date originally referred to the day Apple premiered

its ICAL calendar application in 2002. The day July 17, was displayed on the Apple Color emoji version of the calendar emoji as an Easter egg. World Emoji Day was created on the 17th of July 2014 by Jeremy Burge, the founder of emoji Burge, Bruges, Bruges, the founder of Emojopedia. How about that? So World Emoji Day is the 17th of July.

So not only is it Claude Halwani's birthday, not only is it Peter Carroll's birthday, it's also world. Oji Anobie? Oji Anobie. Hand of God. Wow, amazing. Well, what a stretch for you, Peter. Thank you.

No England. Spain wins. The game is back. No longer in disresput. We're all the way back. You know, I was listening to the lads talked on earlier, and I feel I agree with them in terms of like, the win kind of got out with the sales before the final, right? Once England left. Once a true star.

Well, as I said, like, you know, it took away my joy as well when England didn't play. because my team was then out as well, which is every team that plays against England. So that was, that was disastrous for my enjoyment too. But what a performance by the English against France did not have that common? I thought they were going to get absolutely road. Didn't get road.

Road them. Yeah. Wow. That was an insane game. So much fun. Me and Pizzi took France alive at the half. I did not have the balls you had. It was like $40 to win a thousand for me.

And when France made it four three, I like was, I was going ap shit in my apartment. What was your highest cashier with the offer? Oh, that's the worst part. I looked at it at $4.90 at one point. And I decided to ride it. I should have cashed.

I would have as well. I would have as well. At that point. Because when they made it 4'3, I was like, oh, surely they're going to tie it. They saw 25 more minutes. You know what it reminded me of, like a very, very fun, competitive NBA All-Star game

where, like, they care, but they don't quite care enough. When did you tune in, Helwani? Because you were on the fence about it. I think you're right. I think you're right in terms of what you were saying about the third place playoff and how... PT was texting me beforehand, whole breakdown of the game, and I said to him, like, I just don't care. And rare for me... So I haven't gotten into a show in a very long time, right?

I can't binge-watch kids, work, this and that. And I don't know what happened recently, but I said to myself, I really finally need to get into the Sopranos. I need to do it. I need to do it. It's a huge moment. Talked about this in Vegas. Maybe that was what sparked it. Anyway, we watched four straight on Saturday, which, you know, it was raining.

There was nothing to do. No kids at home. Back to back. And once we got like past like the 30 minute mark of episode one, I felt like, oh, man, I'm in. And then it just pops up and you're just like next, next. Like they make it so easy on you. And it's amazing. I get it.

I'm fully in. Now, the boys are back. Life. Let's see how long it takes to get to episode five, six, seven, eight. but Ptzey's texting me during this and I'm, you know, when you get into the groove in a show and you've been hearing about it, like, okay, this is all I need. This is all I need for the night.

And then honestly, it was you guys, I think saying like, holy shit, holy shit. There's a lot of that. Two-nil, three-nil. And then I jumped in maybe at like the 40-minute mark or 35-minute mark, and then I watched the whole thing. And I was, I mean, it was amazing. Saka getting the Jude Bellingham saying, no, you take the

Belingham's gall at the end. Holy shit, man. The whole thing was amazing. The whole thing was tremendous. Yesterday felt weird. I'm not going to lie. Yesterday felt weird. The combo of MetLife, which I think is a bizarre,

like it's just a crap stadium. It doesn't look good on TV. It doesn't look good in person. There's nothing good about it. MetLife, the combo of like all the celebrities there, which I felt like. Louis Vuitton thing, man. The Louis Vuitton thing.

The halftime show was bizarre. The pregame was bizarre. The national anthem was bizarre. I don't know. The whole thing. just kind of, it was not, it was not the 2022 final and that had its own, you know, issues as well, but it didn't have the magic of the 2022 final. It just, yeah, I would agree like yesterday by the time it ended, I was like, all right, it's time to move on. Oh, I mean, Trump being up there and not

leaving when they took, like, you could tell the guys they were waiting, right? They were waiting for him to go. And yeah, it just, uh, it, it, it just didn't feel right. I don't know what it was. Something about it. I went down to the bill's, I went. I went down to the bill's with the lads and my brother and we were watching the game or whatever and I went for a piss a half time and I came back up the stairs and everyone's gathered around the tech because we're writing from the screen everyone's like everyone in the pub is gathered around the table laughing hysterically and I'm like what he's laughing at it was the halftime show they were just pissing themselves laughing at my boy poor old big rinaldo there in his blue track suit beside Madonna

who was singing music not one of our famed hits I'd say um it was wild that that that half Ronaldo. He had like this smirk on his face. It was almost like he was in another universe. It was weird. Ronaldino was kind of moving to the music. Renato was like... Ronald was like, boy, did you get me a track suit too, so he's too small for me, let's say.

I was going to say, man, he looked big up there, bro. He looked big. Wayne Rooney was slagging it off as well. There he is. The legend. Intern Jack has something you want to say about the final. Well, yeah, so I went to the Central Park Fan Fest yesterday. Oh. And I

think online obviously the two juggernauts of the race being England and France are out of the final so you know they're not that excited about it but the Argentina fans and the Spanish fans were on top of the game and as much as all the stuff that you just said was bizarre it's everything that America is it's the commercialization of the World Cup which is like something we should expect in in a sense and I think that's the American way of the World Cup so the Louis Vuitton walk out with the trophy, all the celebrities there. I think that's just part of being in America and having the World Cup here. Had it been in Europe, had it been in Dubai in 2022, sorry, guitar, or Brazil.

Obviously, everything's different, but I think there was a lot of beauty in the final as well. A lot of people think it was a letdown. I think it was a great final. I had a lot of fun. Okay. All right. I go as far as saying, it's the worst world goal final of all time. Of all time.

Right on the back of Jackson. Chase second place to the 1994 World Cup final, which had the penalty shootout, Baggio and Borese, missing crucial moments. You have their moments trapped in time, right, of Beraezy and Baggio, Bajos going out over. You always reference it. So it's like an iconic moment kind of saves the final that time.

I thought the way it all went down, we could have wanted the shootout at the end because it's like, you lads. Yeah. I was happy for Forso Niko Willis. Williams getting that incredible assist, that header to Torres? It was a beautiful goal. Yeah, it was a very nice goal, to be fair.

But I thought the final was very poor. You guys don't know ball. There's Nico Williams from Wales on Forest. This is a different Nico Williams. Totally different guys. Do you know, I was born in the third place? Yeah, I was locked in. In the end, by the way, in case anyone's wondering at home,

I did not attend a single World Cup game. But, of course, who could forget back in 1994 Foxborough Stadium? Yo, did you watch that thing yet? I sent you. Not yet. Not yet. You did watch it. Oh my God.

I didn't want to be like all of you, like all of you sort of like Nouveau-Rish fans. Like where were you in 94, right? Like you guys are, you know, going to this one. Yeah, that's cool, but I was there at Foxborough. The Irish football team were one of the stories of the 19- Sure, of course. Who could forget, Roy Keene and the boys? Of course.

Well, well, that was obviously a big story. Could we give DDP his flowers? We haven't really talked about Oklahoma City. Big Time went for DDP. I don't think we're getting DDP versus. is Sean Strickland. I see him and Imovove and Brendan Allen all going at it on Twitter. Those guys are weighing in.

You know, it was nice to see DDP back. He's a tricky puzzle. He's unorthodox. Try to use all those words to say like he's just a little bit awkward at times. But it was a great fight, a great performance. I would think this probably puts an end to the Kamar Ustman title shot talk, but he hung in there with a former middleweight champion. I kind of feel like he's best at 170 when you consider the way he looked against Joaquin Buckley,

and I know he did have that great showing against Hamzat. But I think he would be better off moving back to 170. In the end, I don't really know what this does for DDP because he's sort of stuck right now. He does have the two wins over Strickland. Strickland's champ. Do we want a third? All right. I mean, you can make a case.

Hamzat's going to probably fight for the belt. It seems that way. that fight was not competitive. You got Imovov right there. How do you skip over him? I just think it was a good bounce back win. Nothing more, nothing less. A huge bounce back for him.

And one more for Kamaro. Anyone have another take? No, I feel the same. Like, he's in a bit of a holding pattern. I think we need to see how the next title fight shakes out, right? Is it going to be Hamzad? Is it going to be Imov? What happens there?

But he's in a good position. As you said, two wins over Strickland puts him in a really nice spot. And then those other guys would be fresh matchup. So I like where DDP is at. He just gets back in there, gets his legs back under him after a loss, and has a great name on his resume in Kamara Usman now, who I thought fought better than I thought he might even fight, despite the fact that DDP kind of controlled the fight.

I don't think it was a 50 to 45, maybe 4946. It was one of those were, yeah. It was a thumping, man. Yeah, he didn't really win any significant rounds, but I thought he did better in each round than I had. Took some big shots, man. Took some huge shots. That knee, the head kicks, yeah.

He was wobbled several times. Credit it to him for staying in it. Even had Drickus, you know, not quite in danger, but like on the defensive at various points as well. So I thought it was a decent showing by Kamaru in a weight class that is not his primary class. Here's the question. If it's Hamzat against Sean Strickland,

that means Nasrini Mavov. If he chooses not to fight, is not going to fight for at least a year and a half. His last fight was in September of last year. Do you try to do I'm Eamov versus DDP? I would try if I'm the UFC, but I don't know if I'm Yovov if I take that chance. Yeah, DDP look good, man.

DDP looked very good. But it's like, so let's just say, how early could Sean Strickland versus Hamzad happen? Which, by the way, just for the record, I think it should be Imovob. Sometime the end of the year? November? Yeah.

MSG, probably not. December? maybe Abu Dhabi. Yeah, you could do that. Or maybe, okay, let's trickle it. It feels like a December. It feels like December probably, yeah. So that means the winner of that fight is probably fighting in May, June.

Maybe even summer, yeah. So it's going to be two years almost? And what happens if Hamzat wins? Like, did they do a third fight? No, my God, that's great. I think it would open that conversation, though, if it won all, I think, yeah. If they don't want to have not a guy who gets to control his shots, unfortunately. he is not in the driver's seat on this

and never has been if they don't want to give him a title shot DDPUs DDP EMA though right he's like at a certain point it's about earning sure you know it's wild I saw this clip afterwards okay so I want to

I want to see if you guys feel the same way about this that I do and so I'm going to reserve my commentary until after we all watch it Kamar who's been talking about Justin Gaichi I can't tell if it's like friendly banter or if it's just, you know, weirdo Kamar Usman stuff. I don't know what to make of it.

I saw this clip. I want to play it and then we react to it. Justin Gates, you being here in attendance tonight and supporting you here in OKC and your thoughts on he now being the champion at Lightweight. And is there a fight that you would like to see Justin take next? Well, I mean, unfortunately, I still have to look down when I talk to Justin because, you know, he's a world champion now. so I can't make eye contact with him. And unfortunately, I was not victorious tonight,

so I have to live that more, you know. But, no, Justin right now is, I mean, I call him Captain America. I mean, I think everyone else in here would agree that he is Captain America right now. I would have loved to have seen that last week materialized and see what, because I think right there, him and Connor that that that tells itself you know so you know for for now I just think it has to make sense for him it has to make sense just in a position to where you know what really if it doesn't

make sense then what's the point of doing it he's done everything there is to do in the sport right now so you know I call him the most decorated for a reason and damn it I can't look him in the eyes still banner? Yeah. Okay, that's not... I think it's an insult. I think it's an insult.

Just, okay, just... All right. They say this to each other on the mats. Like, oh, don't look at me. Got it. Yeah, like, remember when Habib and D.C. used to do this? Can't look me in the eye

because you're not a double champ? This was the whole thing. Okay. I mean, he's a champ. Like, they're both the same level of champ. He's a former champ. He's a current champ. Yeah, but it's not the current.

I know, but I don't know. What was your take, Arnold? Well, initially, I'll be honest, when I saw it, I was like, Now, of course, there's a very easy out to be like, we're just joking and I'm a hater for saying this. But when I saw it, I was like, oh, that's weird. But maybe it's just a weird that didn't land or I don't know the dynamic or the inside joke or I just thought it was. Habib used to be told D.C.

Or D.C. used to tell Habib to like look at the ground because he couldn't. He wasn't in the double champ. Because he was a double champ. And then Islam comes in and he does it. But it's different. They're both in the championship fraternity. It's not like he's done, Gachie has done more than him. Well, that's his thing.

Once the champ, boys is he said Gatesi's the most decorated fighter of all time. Yeah, what's that all about? I don't have any clue what that's about. If it's about the championship, what would DDP? Why would that allow him to look him in the eye? Because he's on the route back to the title, you know? He's going to get it. Yeah, like nothing would have changed.

Nothing would have changed even if you want. Wait, so do you agree with me on this? No, I just think it's a terrible joke. Okay, that's it. Nothing more. Even the way he told it was just like, it was like he was not confident in the fact that it was actually funny. Okay.

It's not funny. Brendan Allen tweeting, so are we going to fight in October or are you going to keep ducking to Drikas? So he wants it. Nasr-Din is saying relax. I don't know what's going on with these guys. I think they're all going to be upset. It's going to be on there.

No, there's no one dynamic. Maybe it's DDP versus B. Brennan Allen and Imovov just chills. That's a long time of chilling for Emavov. Yeah. What do you do? Like, I think you have to keep the fireborn at some point for Imovov. Like the sitting out thing,

it has, it can go wrong. If they don't believe in you as a championship contender, then there's logic, though, Pizzi, and feeling like you've waited this long, do you take the risk now at the goal line, you know? Yeah, absolutely. I understand,

but I think that So many things can go wrong in this sport. As we said, one potential thing is just Hamzat winning this fight. He will be favored in the fight. I'd imagine the spoil what happened in the first one. If he wins, immediate talk of trilogy, then that puts him on the back burner again. I think he could fight in the meantime and, you know, be the more attractive one for the fan base because it's a lot of recency boys in this sport.

I just think he's leaving himself at a lose end. If he's just sitting back on, it's going to come my way. I totally agree. I think he just felt like he was in that position already, right? People were talking about how he deserved the shot. Then he took the... What was the last fight he took? The Israel fight?

What was the fight that he most recently took? DDP? No. Nasserdin. What was his most recent one? Yeah. No, no. Kyle.

Baha'u'llio and... Yeah. And so it's like he feels like he's doing this over and over. How many times can you do that? September of last year? Like, I don't even remember... Who remembers that fight now, you know? Nobody.

That's the thing. Yeah. That's the problem. That's it. there were a bunch of impressive performances PCs guy, CLD, Christian Leroy Duncan in the co-main slot against Jared Kennanier maybe the highest profile win of his career so far

Definitely oh yeah Yeah definitely unanimous decision win For the Pride of England Chase Hooper missing weight It's surprising But gets the win, the submission win Over Mitch Ramirez And what about Fatima Klein

I mean the freaking wrestling machine Dolly. You want to say something Pizzi about her? No, I was just saying Rick had her picked in the parlay piles on it and she definitely went to work. My God. It was Frank. Don't worry, Frank. Frank. Oh, it was Frank. Sorry, Frank. Whoa, well.

Frank's been driving Fatima bandwagon for quite some time. And she's going to be joining us, I think, on Wednesday in studio. Hey, studio. Yeah. Franky picture. On his wall, he'll have Becky Lynch, Michael Irvin,

Fatima McClure. Wow. Future champ, Frankie? A hall of Frank. Future champ? Future champ. The quote. Yeah. That's right.

She's already the quote. I forgot about that part. She's, she's impressive. That was a really impressive win. Yes, she's nice. No bonus for Tommy McMillan, man. I love this guy.

This guy. Fantastic. I didn't ask him about that one shot. Did you see the picture of the knee landing and his face is all smush? Oh my God, yeah. Crazy. He is fun as hell.

Holy shit is he fun. Fascinating, right? Yeah. Fascinating. That's not about, about like starting this business with his bringing guys over recruiting. Like he's like the wolf of Wall Street,

but an MMA fighter. It's absolutely insane. He is. Volume that you rarely see, right? You're talking Max Holloway territory when you think about what he was able to do in terms of significant strikes. Unbelievable. Yeah. And that was in a...

So I was wrong. That was significant strike record, period, not just featherway. No, no, feathered. Three round. For three round. Yeah, but he told me it's a significant strike record, period. Oh, not just featherweight. Yeah, that's possible. I had been hearing featherweight when they were talking about it.

It's possible. It was altogether. But yeah, it's unbelievable. Gee, the beast. Very, very impressive. Very, very impressive and a very fun personality as well. Jean-Paul did the IBG-G-G-G-B-N. Something like that.

Everyone's doing it now. IGB-B-B-M-N. It's become like a real thing. Yeah. He does it right here. Here comes. Here comes. He got a win.

Philippe Franco got another bonus. He got the other bonus there. Ezra Elliott. Any other performances? Oh, your boy, Alvin Hines. Sorry about that one. Whose boy? Josh.

Josh. Oh, Josh? Yes, man. Yeah, I appreciate it. I'm sorry. We're still grieving back here, but we're getting through day by day. RJ Harris with the crazy Tank Top Tan

Yeah, it was brutal In action, honor of him I got a farmer's tan This tremendous This past week In honor of the man that dethroned your boy So if you're gonna fight on National television streaming

You have to even that out, right? You can't just go No We are talking about him You have to You're talking about RJ Davis On this Monday If there's no farmer's tan

You're right You're right it was it was something it's perfect for a big dude like that okay other things other things to discuss oh by the way speaking of the the iB gee o'g whatever a fan i guess ran into Dustin Porier and sort of got up to say it take a look at this let's go it's gonna get bad for you it's gonna be good it's gonna be good appreciate it man nice for me

What a guy. I do believe Dustin Porey is going to join us on the show tomorrow. Oh, very nice. Stay tuned. It's going to be good. It's going to be great. Okay. Other things that transpired over the weekend.

What about Johnny Eblen getting the big dub over in Pekasangene? So are we going to get that fight now? Are we going to get the rematch against Costello? We were supposed to get it on this night in Austin. Johnny has selling the shit out of it. He sold it so well on your show. We sold the shit over after this fight and he looked so impressive. like such an him, like just even from the last time he fought him,

but like such a massive improvement. He's a beast. When he looks like that, they're the kind of conversations that provoke people into saying, like, where would he sit in the UFC middleweight division? Because he's a fantastic fighter when he's on for him. I think he's one of the best middleweights in the world. I'd like to see him against a high-larker-law.

And that makes of guys that were talking. I was thinking Hamzat during night watching him. I was like, geez, I would love to see this version of Eblin against the Hamza. Like, because of that mall. Any of those guys. He's coming forward. The way he and Strickland trained and the way Strickland talks about him, I want to see him versus those guys.

Yeah. The thing is, I think they would fight each other, despite the fact that Strickland has taken him under his wing. Didn't they say they would? Strickland said it, but it feels like Strickland's promotional tactics or whatever are rubbing off on him in a good way. Like I think Johnny's come out of his shell.

I think he's become a lot of fun. I think he's selling fights. He's doing his part. So that was a really, impressive win. What about the Scottish twister that we saw on display on Saturday? Biagio Ali Walsh getting

submitted by Gamid Kisreyev. Look at this right here. Now, why is it called a Scottish twister? Does anyone know? Steve Rai. Is it literally because of him? Yeah. That's amazing. Look at that. Look at how painful that seems.

Damn. I think he had a couple on PFL as well, as far as I remember. Yeah, he did. He did. definitely. We got to remember some of these for, you know, submission to the year. Caposa hopefully was watching on Saturday. Some exciting news out of the PFL this morning, guys. They announced a co-lab event, a co-promotion event with Risen.

There it is, right there. Look at this. The Risen and PFL featherweight titles on the line, September 10th, A.J. McKee against Razbali. Shidulov. Now, I butcher that. John Martin didn't. Fair play to John Martin's CEO of PFL. He recorded this video to make the announcement and absolutely nailed the pronunciation. Take a look. Hey, everyone, John Martin here, CEO of the PFL. I'm excited to finally announce a truly historic event that's only possible because of our partnership with our great friends at Risen. On September 10th, A.J. McKee will represent the PFL as he takes on. Risen Featherweight World Champion Rajbali Shadalive, with both the PFL and the Rise and the Risen Featherweight World Championships on the line. This has never been done before. The winner will

become the first fighter in history to simultaneously hold world titles in both organizations. When I became CEO, I said we were going to build partnerships, bring the best fighters together, and make the fights that fans want to see. This is exactly what this looks like. The best of the PFL versus the best of Ryzen with the goal of determining who the best featherweight in the world really is. So I'm excited to say we'll see you on September

10th in Japan. What about John Martin killing it out there, right? John Martin does a great job. I like... No, no, seriously. Like, this is a guy who came from outside of the world of combat sports and I think like his pat, like I feel like he's selling it. Like it doesn't seem fake. It doesn't seem

inauthentic. I appreciate him. I think he's out there working. They've got work to do. We still don't know their TV home, but I feel like he's putting in the effort for sure. It feels real. It feels like he's trying at the very least. He trusts them as well. There's at least like, you know, when you hear him speaking, you're like, I believe this guy's doing all this stuff.

I believe he's trying to put his best foot forward for the company at all times. So I think it was a great switch up with them. And that's exactly what they need at this point. I think there was a time where, look, we're still in uncertain times. But they certainly need something you can look. at like a North Star in the company and go, well, at least he's trying to do something. He's endeavoring to make this better. It's just so tough.

They're going, like, there's an event going on Saturday night. There's a UFC event with a former UFC World War Champion, a former middleweight champion, two pretty damn big names, guys like Tommy Millen doing their thing. There's also RAF, which, you know, was stealing the headlines as well, Ben, Asker and Armatruki and Kobe Covue did. They're just sort of like, you know, it feels very lame duck. It feels lame duck right now. But is it intentionally so, right?

Like they're coming to the end of an ESPN deal. I don't know if it's intentional. I think ESPN is just putting them where it suits them, where they have an opening in the schedule, and they're like, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know if it's intentional to hurt them,

but it's just like they're swimming upstream right now, you know? But also, if you're the PFL, you're not really putting all your eggs in any baskets, right? Like, if that's the case, right? Your broadcast partner is just saying, here's your slot, let's do it, and it's not ideal. Why am I incentivized to put on my best product, right? I mean, they're kind of, like, what are they not doing?

They've got Dakota coming up, Usen and Marga made up coming. It's not like they're holding anyone back. Well, I mean. What are the fights that they're not doing that you could say like, oh, they're saving it for next year, like the UFC was with Connor? Dakota. Dakota needs to be fighting for a title. Yeah, the car. Other than Dakota, but is Dakota versus Liz Karmouche that big of a deal?

No, no. But the card with Dakota and Usman feels like the first one that has an investment in it. In this particular year? Yes. Yeah, that's a timing thing. She was hurt. But yeah, no, I get that. I just don't feel like they're like biting their time because there's something big on the horizon.

They only have so many names. They're also not putting... Is this the last one's deal? Yes. Yes. That's a very interesting situation. We've talked about before. That big deal they have in Dubai, I would say that's dependent on having him hang around.

That's going to be a huge moment for John Martin to see if you can keep him on their roster, it feel. Oh, yeah. They're also not putting all the... chips in the middle, though, on like a big show, right? They're not doing anything to make a splash. They're just riding the wave the same way that the broadcast partner is. We'll put a bow on R-AF and let you know that with over 2,000 votes right now, it's Balaahmahmed, 56%. So it seems like...

I might look it up. Colby Covington is... There you go. Ballal, don't say we never did anything for you. There you go. The people have spoken, and Balaal has spoken as well. If it walks like a duck and it talks like a duck, it's probably duck well, it doesn't seem like... The sex. It doesn't seem like he's ducking in the end. So, you know, you're welcome. Edible arrangement, basket, orchid, something.

Let's talk about what transpired on Saturday, guys. Fanatics Fest, it was the place to be. Knicks players, superstars, this and that. But they also had a pretty damn good boxing press conference. So it's going down, Ryan Garcia versus Connor Ben. It's going to be on Paramount Plus here in America. Deszone, UK and Ireland. It's two of the biggest names in the sport.

Ryan Garcia, WBC Walterway champion. There's so much here that almost makes your mind go. Like, okay, so Zufa's putting it on. It's going to be on Paramount. It's also going to be on DeZone, which is the network that, you know, the likes of Dana White called like a dead piece of wood. It's a WBC Welterway title fight,

but the way they're promoting it is the world Welterweight championship. It's Ryan Garcia, who's a golden boy guy against Connor Ben, who's their guy as well. Obviously, Turkey's involved. Oscar's not there. He signed a two-fight deal with the Saudis, so maybe Oscar won't be involved. Anyway, it was madness. They had the press conference.

There's a lot to get into here. First, let's look at the face-off. Here's Ben and Garcia with an electric face-off in front of the Fanatics Fest crowd on Saturday, New York City. Take a look. You keep on in your mark. You keep on in your mark. You know you're getting it. You know that best.

Two salons, two salons, can't be. Boxing skills. You're starting to take them. You're boxing skills for me. You're talking about it. You don't taste it. You quit. You quit. You quit. You're going to stop the fight. You quit. Amazing stuff. The crowd was great. This is the type of fight that you can bring to a fanatics fest type of crowd and they'd be into it. So, so, so the energy was great. Connor Ben, busting out the Spanish, was a nice little wrinkle. He spends a lot of time in Spain.

His Spanish is great, by the way. And I don't know if Ryan speaks Spanish fluently like Connor does, but clearly Connor can hang, so that was fun. The two fathers being up there as well. Henry Garcia kind of got into the shot there,

and you could tell Dana didn't love that. He was trying to get him to move away. All good. Nigel Ben there as well. Listen, is it the purest fights, the purest fight fans fight? Maybe not. Are there other people that you would want to see Ryan fight against as far as like a WBC

Welterweight title defense? Yeah, sure. But this is a fun fight, man. This is a fun fight. It's great for Mexican Independence Day weekend. It's going to be interesting how the UFC is going to do with Noce UFC. I suspect they'll put Noce earlier in the day to lead into this. What a day for Paramount Plus, by the way.

So I loved it. I loved everything about it. Now they got into it. Speaking of the Spanish, they got into it. Spanish back and forth in case you missed it, take a look at how well Connor Ben speaks Spanish. I don't know. Anyone know? Here, Jordan's flimba, basically.

Yeah, Jordan's going to translate for us. Oh, Jordan? There's some curses that can't be repeated on the air. Okay. All right. There's also another video of them, I guess, trying to go at it. Let's take a look. I can't even understand what he said.

That's what I'll do. You won't do shit. I promise you won't do shit. I promise you won't do shit. Work or shoot, guys. Work or shoot? Both. Are they amping it up?

Is it real? We're going to We're getting We're getting themselves into a shoot. Okay. We won't do shit. I'm in. He won't do shit.

He won't do shit. By the way, he won't do shit is a good question. If it's a work, I'm in. I've been hooked. I'm in. It's a fun fight.

Sign me up. Those are two all-action guys. Like, it's just, I, you know, there's better boxers than Connor Ben that I would rather see Ryan Garcia fight. But as far as, like,

matching his intentionity, matching his energy and bring, like, Conor Ben is not a top, tier boxer of the level that some of these guys that are, you know, the conversation is happening around. But as far as bringing the fight, as far as excitement, as far as energy, like, Conner Ben is all of that. And so I love Garcia versus Ben. It's also the fraud check, right, like,

in terms of when Connor Ben's signed for Zouffer, the talk from the UK, I remember Dave Allen was on talk sport and he was like, this guy is the best match fighter of all time. Like, this feels like, okay, well, he's not going to be able to hide in there against Rohing Garcia. No. This is going to be an absolute check of his skill and a lot of people feel like, you know, with the likes of pro gray and even the U-bank fights, he was always put in the favorable position. So very interested to see how it goes, just in terms of the fight as well as all this stuff. And there's also a lot of questions about the actual fight itself. A, you know, Connor didn't look great in his last fight. Ryan looked amazing. Prior to that, Ryan didn't look great.

Connor looked amazing. And so it feels very Jekyll and Hyde-ish. I'm very curious to see who turns up, how it looks, what the crowd is like. Young Whipersnapper, journalist Donna Corby, aka D.C. asked Dana White about Oscar Delahoya's involvement. Here's what he had to say. What involvement does Oscar Delahoya have in this fight? Not a lot, I guess. He said, what does Oscar have involvement with this? I mean, he's part of it. Yeah, yeah, he's cool. So they're co-promoters with Ryan and our company, Ryan Garcia, promotions.

So they're partners with us. It's the shodiest looking dude of all time. I mean, it shoots the two guys with dark sunglasses on being like, yeah, yeah, everything's fine. One's Henry Garcia, by the way. Put some respect on Mr. Garcia's name. I know, but like look at the dude. No, I know, I know. I know.

It's in there, fuck sake. My understanding is this is a lot like the Times Square, card in which Garcia signed a two-fight deal to be promoted by Sella, ring, whatever you want to say. And so this is a part of it. And so this might be like when Katie Taylor fought on Netflix, Eddie wasn't really there. Or when AJ fought on Netflix, Eddie wasn't really there. This might be one of those things. I'd love to talk to Oscar about all of that.

But massive, massive fight and a huge coup for Zufa Box. for Dana, for, you know, Turkey, for Nick Khan. Like, it's a huge coup to get these two big names. One of the biggest stars as far as American boxing is concerned. One of the biggest stars as far as UK boxing is concerned on Paramount Plus. That's a juicy fight. I wonder if they shopped it around. I wonder if they tried to put it on Netflix.

But for Paramount, this is by far the biggest fight. I mean, you can make the case right now in the seven plus months into the whole. Paramount Plus TKO partnership. It's McGregor. It's, it's McGregor, it's White House, it's Strickland-Hamsat, and it's this. Like, this is top five biggest fights that they put on. Yes.

In my opinion. I mean, the debut with Patty and Austin, maybe. That's still top five. Yeah. They've been doing big fights for them. Huge. They've absolutely been doing big fights. And this would be the biggest, as far as boxing is concerned.

It was a very busy Saturday for Dana White. He met up with the Fischer's. Here he is having a bit of Chinese with Big John and Johnny Fisher. We're really excited to have you on board. September 26th, Copper Bosch. We'll see you there. Bosch. Bosch.

Here he is actually. What did you feel about Dana's Bosch? Okay, before we get to that, let's watch him do it again. He does it again as they're actually having takeout Chinese. little wrinkle. Take a look. This is a better brush. Look where we are. New York, we were the boss. Big Dana. Dana, give a big shout to Levant for Boer Army September of 26. I can't wait, brother. He's looking forward to it and he's going to have a blue-walking before-hand as well. Bush. Bash.

That's a good one. That's a book. Which one's were? These are mine from way back away back. Do you have that one, Frankie? I don't have that one. No, you do. You have mine. MASH. You played it recently. Last week. You got to just make it your own. You have to attack it soon going away. You know what I mean?

No one's going to be able to do it against the fishers. Yeah. Him calling it the copper Bosch Arena as well. That's what we say. I know. You felt like it was force. I appreciate him even trying, though. There it is.

Do it again. So, one more time. Bash. Yeah, there it is. Well, you edit it a little too abruptly. Barsh. Give me a fucking break. I say this with the utmost love.

Seeing Big John and Johnny Fisher having the Chinese with Dana, like first of all, they're so linked to Eddie over the years, but does it not kind of feel like when Brett Hart joined the NWO? Like there's just something like... The pieces just don't fit. They're so innocent and lovable. And it's just like, this guy, he doesn't... Doesn't belong here?

Someone in the back probably told them, okay, they like Chinese. they say Bosch, it's the copper Bosch, not the copper. Like there had to have been someone giving him the law, because like... Yeah, for sure. This guy, it just... Okay. I agree with you. I'm delighted for Johnny for getting all the money

and all that stuff, but it just, there's something... Yeah, there's a mismatch there. But so is there when Eddie Hearn is talking about the business of MMA. Now that he's representing... Okay, all right. Tom Aspinall and... Fair play, fair play. He doesn't quite... He doesn't quite speak the language that Dana White speaks in that regard either.

Okay. I mean, these days, you know what I love? Someone asked Dana at the, so Dana told this amazing story press conference. Did you guys see this? He says that he's actually flying over Oklahoma City from New York, back home, and they realize they're flying over Oklahoma City, and he makes the executive decision mid-air to land the plane. I don't buy that for one.

This is what he said. No, I know. That's some gangster shit. So someone asked him about a random fight. I don't remember which, and he's like, well, actually, I only saw the main and co-main because we were flying. We made the decision. Here I am.

I'm going home. And then someone asked them about someone else, like, I can't remember. Someone, and, oh, do you have something in the works for Andre Puleev? Like that type of fighter. And you could tell, he would not fucking know who this guy is. He has no idea who he is. He does not know anything about, like, the inner workings of the promotion. Now, I understand what you're saying regarding, you know, Eddie and MMA, and it's a very,

very fair point. And speaking of which, Eddie was at the matchroom card. He had his own matchroom. card in California, I do believe, on Saturday. Diego Pacheco on the card. And who was there? Our old friend Bojaschina. Look at this guy.

Ah, a little rubbing of the elbows with Eddie Hearn. Can I just, Eddie's done some interviews now talking about how they linked up and he's mentioned my name. So I do feel like I need to clear this up. This is all that happened, all right? God is my witness. I'll show you the transcripts. This is all that happened.

they did see the interview with him on the show, they being Paolo and Tamara, they said they liked the interview very much, and they asked if I could put them in touch with Eddie. So I said, you know, I'd be happy to ask. I don't just give out phone numbers and whatnot. I asked Eddie. He said, would love to. I gave Eddie Tamara's number. I gave Tamara Eddie's number, one or the other, and that was it. So this happens all the time. Hey, do you mind putting me in touch? I'm happy to do it, but I had nothing to do. I did not tell anyone to reach out. I did not want anything to do with it.

That is not my place. But that's exactly what happened. And they would say it as well. Saw the interview, the last one in studio, said they loved what he had to say about the business of the sport, wanted to talk to him. I asked if he was interested. He said yes.

And away we go. But interesting stuff, right? Like, what does that mean? What does that mean when Paulo's there? Is Paulo going to use him? He's got one fight left. They're going to... What are they going to do?

It's on a talent agency? Talent agency. But this is actually the one who's like a true free agent. He has one fight left. Tom doesn't have a fight left. Ian certainly doesn't have a fight left. This is the one where it's like a true, true free agent situation. I don't know.

This one's interesting. What do you think? So say right, let's hypothesize here. Like imagine this happens, right? He's out of contract. He's signing with Eddie Hearn. What does Eddie Hearn do with him? Yeah, but hasn't Eddie Hearns?

say he's not in the MMA management business as of yet? He signs for Eddie as Eddie to promote it. I feel like with Tom he's his manager. I feel like with Ian, he's not.

I don't know what he would be with Palo. But the bottom line is, okay, if Palo wants to test a free agent market, where is he going? There's PFL, UFC, maybe MVP. There's not a ton of choices.

GFL, that's right. Oh, they signed Marlon Marais. I saw that. Huge. So let's see what happens. Andy Cruz with a big win. The Olympian bouncing back on Saturday. Here he is against Abraham Montoya on Saturday.

Look at this. Capacity crowd on hand. Bang. Big Andy. Coming off his first pro loss. Looking good. Shout out to the Cuban. And shout out to Amanda Serrano, continuing to break barriers.

Her next fight going to be on TikTok. This was announced on Thursday. at the Pichanga Casino. What do you guys think about the TikTok announcement? It's a bit bizarre. Is there PIP? No, there isn't, right? I don't think so.

I actually don't know. Are you only going to be able to stream it on your phone or tablet? Like you won't be able to get it on TV? Another good question. Also, can you go? I feel like certain smart TVs have TikTok integrated. Can you go horizontal? Yes, you can go.

There's no way. people are watching a vertical video fight. Yeah, I can't do it. They're doing the whole card too. So, like right now I'm watching a video, yeah, there is no PIP. Oof, that's tough. You win the PIP. The PIP is big.

Well, the PIP is especially big. Basically is what we know. We know Ireland is not watching. The PIP is big. What can I say? The PIP is big. But it's interesting. They're trying different things.

I don't think this is going to be a part of the ESPN deal per se. So let us see, let us see. Now, back to Finlay. Fanatics Fest guys, in or out on Tom Brady versus Logan Paul. Couldn't be more out. I don't think there's a level of out. What was the chair thing from? Do you have that?

Sorry. Go ahead. Here's Tom and Logan have been flirting. There's been something going on. I actually thought that there was going to be something going on in April at WrestleMania. Here they are at Fanatics Fest. Tommy slapping Logan. The best part is Carl Anthony Towns is in the middle.

Slap them kind of on the year there. Cats just said. everywhere these days. I mean, omnipresent. Look at them. Looking cool as hell with the sunglasses, too. What's up with Logan's hair, by the way, these days? What's going on? It's actually like old school, Logan.

Yeah, it looks like back in the day, the YouTube days. And now here they are at the game on Saturday, World Cup Final, and Tommy's just what is going on? With Michael Rubin. It's straight out of like 2007. Yeah. Michael Rubin in the middle. You love it? I'm sold.

Enter Josh. Josh the Mark. Mark, tell us, tell us, why. Exploding Barb Dwyer, death match. We've got to block it. Now I'm in. I'm in. I don't want to see Tom Brady Russell. There are a lot of people I see the sentiment being,

why are you lowering yourself to this, Tom? Why are you doing it? Did you see the thing that he did with the casket? No. You didn't see that? I saw that. So there were a bunch of WWE entrances, like Justin Bieber had one.

Terence Crawford will show you and say, he did one too as the Undertaker, but they were playing 28 to three highlights. And he comes out and does that. And the truth is, there are a lot of people are like Michael Jordan would never do this. You know, Leo Messi would never do this.

Tom Brady, like, I was walking the other day and there's like the Volt card shop by Tom Brady. Tom Brady has his name on everything now. Pizza Hut commercials, does the Fox Broadcasting. He is in this game to make money. I'm not even going that route. I'm not doing the, like, Tom is lowering himself. I don't want to see Tom Brady wrestle.

I'm in. For what? You want to see Tom Brady wrestle? Who cares? For what? He's going to fucking come out there. Just throw like one thing. Boom, there it is.

If you're going to wrestle, wrestle fucking Eli Manning or something. I don't want to see him wrestle Logan Paul. Why? Do you see him hitting the chair shot? What do you mean why? The fact that's that Logan... The history is he did a fake slap on him?

I mean, that's always been the history. No. Fort's Taylor, Bad Bad Bigelow. There was no history. Taurus. Tyreys Hallibur and Jalen Brunson. You do, you actually make something that makes sense. No.

When Logan made his debut, it was against the MIS. There was no history there. when Bad Bunny made his debut, he's going up against Damian Priest. There's no history there. Those guys are, first of all, Bad Bunny's actually trying to wrestle. Tom Brady's going to come in and do one stupid. When celebs wrestle, know your history, it's never Celeb versus Celeb. It's Celeb versus Wrestler, and the wrestler carries him.

And so the fact that Logan Paul has gone to a place to where he's now the wrestler carrying the celebrity, it's pretty remarkable. Trust me, I'm not a Tom Brady guy. I don't like Tom Brady, but I don't understand the big hull of Balloo. Like, oh, he's ruining his legacy. Like, one is, let the guy have. Fun. Let the guy have fun. Who cares? Is he that bored that he needs to like entertain himself with this? This is like, honestly, this is...

So you feel like he's ruining his legacy? No, I just think... This isn't what's going to ruin his legacy. I don't care. I don't need to see Tom Brady doing anything outside of football-related stuff. But the truth is, you don't have to watch. So, like, why is it bothering people so much? That's, I guess, the question.

It actually doesn't bother me at all. Well, maybe not you specifically. Do not care. But I'm seeing so many people being like he's ruining his legacy. He's ruining it. like, can he have fun? He's in great shape. He's having a good time.

He's clearly enjoying it. Maybe his kids like wrestling. He's doing it for them. I don't know. Tom Brady seems to have moved into an entertainer space, right? Sure. He has become like a Kevin Orr type figure. He is doing the roast and all these other things.

He is clearly the flag football. He is clearly up for like doing these things. I have no issue with it. I don't care about that part. I just like, what does a Tom Brady wrestling match look like? I have no interest in that. Would you watch it? No.

I would watch it just for the spectacle. I'll see it on Twitter. The same way I saw this. Can I tell you what I think the issue is, honestly? I think the best angles, especially when it comes to celebrities, the greatest celebrity angle of all time is probably Andy Kaufman versus Jerry Lawler. The best angles when it comes to celebrities is when it feels real. And this doesn't really feel real. Yeah, that's my point.

That's why I said Eli Manning, right? That feels real. He actually hates him. I don't know about that, but when Lawrence Taylor did it with Bam Bam Bigelow, WrestleMania 11, I do believe it was. Lawrence was in the front row. Bam Bam Bam bumps into him.

That kind of felt like, oh, that could happen to where they could get into it because he bumped into him. It just feels, this feels, I don't know, there's something inauthentic about it. Still gonna watch it, still interested. Not everyone could be, you know, choke slamming Dominic Mysterio through a table.

So not everyone could just be like a natural like that. But there's like a, like, Like, they bring out Tyrese Halliburton and Jalen Brunson always at the same time. It feels like. Like, there's heat there. They don't like each other. Or they seem to not like each other. Nix fans don't like Tyrese, Pacer's fans.

Like, what do Tom Brady and Logan Paul have to do with each? But again, it's like, what did Bam Bam and Lauren Sailor have to do? What did Floyd? What did Floyd and Big Show have to do with each other? Nothing. Are these, like, all-time good gimmicks? Is that what you're, like, I don't remember. I'm literally thinking of the biggest, you don't remember Floyd and Big Show?

I remember it. I'm just not remembering that as like an iconic moment. Oh, yes. Broke his nose, yeah. These are the most, like, these are the most popular celebrity crossover matches. Right, the most popular celebrity, but are they the most popular wrestling? We're talking about celebrity matches right now. We're not talking about Frank Hart versus Stone Cold, WrestleMania 13.

I'm talking about celebrity crossovers that work and don't work. What are the ones that didn't work? You're pointing out these as the ones that work. Well, those are the gold standard. What didn't work? I'd argue none of these work. Oh, you couldn't be more. Are you out of your mind?

Are these iconic? Lawrence Taylor, Bamban, Bigelow, headline WrestleMania. I don't know that one, so you could... It literally headlined WrestleMania. But like Big Show versus Floyd Mayweather is not a massive deal. Was it a seminal moment from my childhood? Massive deal. Mr. T. and Hulk Hogan?

Massive deal. WrestleMania won. So basically after like the 80s and 90s, it didn't work anymore. No, I'd say Logan worked. Mike Tyson DX thing? That worked. Massively. Dennis.

Rodman and Carl Malone worked in the NWO. So like 90s was the cutoff. I'd actually say majority of celebrity involvements have worked. Yes. Yeah, you're, you got, according to you guys, they've all worked. They're amazing. They're the best thing we've got. But my point is, in the scope of-

Josh, I'm so happy you're here. In the scope of wrestling, these are some of the biggest- They all suck. They're some of the biggest money-making matches in the history of wrestling, and I would venture to say that most of them are looked back on fondly by wrestling fans. Like, I would say Jelly Roll was all right. Jelly roll was great, right? This is so much fun. I'm

so glad we did it. Jelly roll at SummerSlam last year. Josh, would you agree? People like them? Yeah, why not? Your bar is in the gutter for this shit. McAfee, people loved them. Yeah, oh yeah. Can I ask? Can I tell you? They did. The WWE product is being criticized a lot, right? Just the

usual shows. Is there anything to do with that? What was it? Travis Scott? That was a fun one. Travis Scott was a bus. But they're going They're all bus. They're not all bus. This is such a bad thing. After the 90s, none of these work. Nobody buys it.

Floyd and Big Show was post-90s. What are you talking about? Why is Floyd and Big Show like the gold state? Like, there's not that many. There's only been like 20. They all stink. You're so wrong about this? Oh my God.

You're so wrong about this. You're literally taking a alternative. It's like we could do a wrestling match with good wrestlers or people that actually have heat. No, instead we're going to do the big show and and Floyd Mayweather. that nobody cares about. Bad Bunny was like two or three years ago and he actually was wrestling legitimate matches.

Yes, that's because he's actually wrestling. Yeah, I mean, he was a celebrity who really cared. Is Tom Brady coming in to go to wrestling school? If he is, I'm in. He's also like 40 years old. You're pointing out the exact reasons why nobody needs to see or do this. Nah, look, going back to Pizzi's point there,

a lot of people are annoyed, and they were annoyed about Saturday, too. They're like, oh, TKO just cares about, you know, Celebrity just cares about ESPN, just cares about like getting on SportsCenter. They like, why is Jalen Brunson in the main event? Why is Kat? I think that's dumb. Like they were at MSG.

It was a massive deal to have two fifths. But there are a lot of people saying like, oh, they're trying to do this while AEW is trying to put on real wrestling. I think this stuff is fun. Kat, I mean, I don't take this too seriously. Brunson and Halliburton and Kat and all that. That makes all the sense in the world. I think that's perfect.

That's how you use it. Tom Brady versus Logan Paul isn't anything. It's not a thing. It is a thing, and it's going to get a lot of attention, and if you look at social media, it gets a lot of attention, and this stuff works. But if you're a diehard, if you're a purist, you say, this is hogwash. And I think ultimately people don't like it because they think it's hokey,

because Michael Rubin is standing there, and it all feels like a big commercial. And that's fine. All to say, I don't think Tom is ruining his legacy by partaking in any of this. Definitely not. I think that's a little bit. crazy. Flakegate did that. What about, okay, Bud Crawford,

I could say a million things. Bud Crawford, so they did a bunch of like, celebrity walkouts. Bud Crawford's was the best. Take a look at this. We can't play the music because it's Sean Michael's music, but look how into Bud Crawford.

I've never seen Bud Crawford. Is he a wrestling guy? Yes. Okay. I mean, wrestling. Oh, he got to hoppin? Look at this. Look at this for Bud Crawford.

Okay. Bud Crawford is loving this. I've never seen this type of personality at Terence Crawford. Look how into it he is. He doesn't do this for his own boxing match. No, look at this. Why is Tom the guy in now Bud?

Shit, I'll watch Bud. Oh my God. Bud and wrestling would be amazing. Yeah, do Bud. Those hips in action, the sprawl. That was great. Yeah. That was actually great.

There were a lot of them. By the way, they did this last year as well. Tom did one last year that we were like standing next to while he did it. Bieber came out to NWO, but he was more singing. It was a little bit different. Anyway, here is Bieber. Novak Djokovic, Tom Brady doing a striking child. Just as Bieber just like rolling around.

He's just like hanging out of Fanax Fest. That's what he's doing. Oh, damn. That's not a bad number. 780, not bad, shirtless. That's your boy Novak. Oh, wow. Why does Tom's ass out so much?

Yeah, why does his ass out? What's going on? Oh, shit, all right. It kind of looks like him in the pocket. 9-11 for Tommy. I think it was eight. Oh, my bad. Sorry, all right.

Still, not bad. Oh, Novak. Come on, bro. Here we go, here we go. Novak just kind of. He's protecting those instruments there. Wait, who was that? I missed that. Oh, Cody Rose.

Wait, what do he get? What do he get? Ooh, Cody Rose is the weakest of a mold? Wait. Beber got better than Cody Rhodes? Hey, he smoked them. You know why Novak's punch was so weak. Why? Yeah, he's looking after his blade and ounce. Nah, he got the shot.

No, actually, he's famously Novax. I know, I know, I know. It's a joke. Maybe the shot is what he was this. That reference is so old that I didn't even connect. I have no idea what was going on. That's why he's my goat. It doesn't have anything to do with his concourt plug.

Yeah, obviously. not Stan Novak. Of course, yes. Speaking of you guys don't. Was I the only one? Was I the only one that had FOMO looking at all this? None of you guys? I thought it was pretty cool.

Wow. You weren't into it, G.C. You thought it was lame. Not lame. I just wasn't. I saw a couple clips. You were just like... I wasn't like, give me to the Javits.

Ah, I love the Javats. ASAT. One of the best spots. Speaking of tennis stars, the great Carlos Alcaraz was on display yesterday the final. Here he is, hanging out with Shabibhna Magamadeov. What about that dude in the right? Did you see that one

clip where Carlos thinks that they're going up 1-0? It's like a great shot. And he's like, ah. And then he's immediately like, oh, shit, no. Great pick. And the one of him in La Mignon Mall with the trophy is incredible. Oh, I didn't see that. Carlos. Carlos, yeah. Finish the Career Grand Slam, by the way, this year, 2026. Spain wins the World Cup.

2010, Raphael Nadal finishes the career Grand Slam. Spam also won. Goat. Goat? That'd be Novax. That'd be Novax. All right. A lot of people think

John Jones is the goat. Here is Dana White talking to our good friend Adam Glenn on the streets of New York about a potential return for one Johnny Bones Jones. Lastly, John Jones. I know he said a squash beef

and a little bit of attention, but maybe guys go through the air a little bit. There's never been a beef with me and John. You know, we have this weird dynamic and John is the greatest of all. time. John knows where we stand and what we got going on, but I don't know, we'll see what happens. Is it a good chance in the way to get?

I don't know. You know, that's up to him. He likes to talk about it, but, you know, actually getting a fight broke to him. There's a whole other ball game. By the way, Alex Pereira was this close to becoming the greatest of all time. Had he beaten Seril Gunn. It's such an interesting thing because Dana keeps saying it's up to John, and John keeps saying, like, he's waiting for the offer, waiting for the call. I don't know who to believe at this point. That pause in the middle there, said it all for me. What does it say?

They're not doing anything. They're not on the same page at all. When he is wondering how to respond to this question, they'll call him if they need him. But at this point, now what about this whole thing where he says, oh, we have to offer three fights, all that stuff? But isn't he technically retired or is he back now? I don't actually know what his status is.

It's all very confusing. What about Dana White going online after the World Cup just shitting all over the production. This is tough. And in doing so, crapping all over his own team. Yeah. Like, the team makes the mistake about the Jalen Williams thing. All right, whatever.

You made them feel bad. I'm sure there was some, like, uh, graphics operator who just spent the night crying. Like, it's just a tough, it's a tough thing. To now triple down and go online. And what prompted this? Like, what was so bad about the production yesterday? Does anyone know, like, did they make mistakes? Did they fompe the wrong?

Apparently they missed the floo over. Apparently the flyover was about. Oh, my God. They also, on the European broadcast, they said Ferell Williams was A.k.a. Rocky. And then they corrected themselves and said he was ASAP Rocky. Okay, but there's no chance Dana White's watching that. So what's prompting him? He might have saw an X-Star or something.

He said that Matt Damon was Brad Pitt, I think. Whoa, did they fuck up that bad? That's actually. Okay, so maybe they did. Anyway, here's Dana getting all kinds of fired up about the World Cup production. You know what's crazy? I actually teed up. the guys who are doing the production, the guys responsible for the production of the World Cup,

for you guys to hit a grand slam home run. Even though everybody in my team was arguing with me saying that you are the worst, I said, no, we are the worst. They didn't fuck it up as bad as we did. And what do you guys do? You triple down today and you just go, fuck you, Dana White. You're not beating us. We're the worst production team in the history of sports to ever show celebrities.

I bow down. Congratulations to the producer. of the World Cup, you guys win. You guys fucked up that flyover, too. I'm not going to nitpick. I'm just giving you credit where credit is due. You guys absolutely fucking suck. We are the second worst.

What is this thing about... If I'm the production team, I'm feeling a type of way of watching that. Not only that is like, I teed it up for you and you were there to put, like, what? You think they're sitting around being like, what does Dana White have to say about this? I teed it up by completely shitting on my production team to them saying that they're,

the worst, even though they argued it was the World Cup. Do you think he thought... There's a lot of people in football, especially as our cover in European football and the World Cup and everything like that, that's a say Infantino's role model is Dana White due to his proximity to Trump. And he's watching it going, like, I wish I could have his ear like this. I wish I could have this kind of relationship with him. So I actually do think Infantino would be pretty offended by Dana White saying this, because

that is the ideal position he's looking for and his proximity to. Trump. So I do actually think he'd be pissed off at that. Infantino is Dana White's role model? Yeah. No, no, no, no. Get the way around. Like, Infantino wishes he was Dana White, wish he was as close to Trump as Dana. Like a lot of... Ultimately, isn't he crapping on Fox? He probably was watching this on Fox, I would imagine. I thought Fox's production was pretty damn good of the whole damn thing. Dana says

worst production in history of all of sports. Do you think he doesn't, he doesn't dramatically, he's never dramatically like that. It's just such a weird thing. It's always honed in on the celebrity thing too. It's like, that doesn't really reflect the entirety of the broadcast, right? Like, the UFC broadcast wasn't materially different just because they fucked up the Shakur thing. Maybe just show the celebs.

Fulking prison. And if they're famous enough, we'll just know who they are. I know, but Matt Damon for Brad Pitt is pretty rough. That's what I'm saying. Is that what they did? Apparently, I'm seeing that online. But it was like, did they faunt him? I don't know.

Who gives a crap? Odyssey was great. Odyssey was great. By the way. Oh, you're not. All right. I see everyone talking about it. Our own intern Josh did one of these walkouts. Let's see how he stacks up against one Terrence Crawford. Let me see. Okay, here he is. There's me on the left here doing Degeneration X with my good boy, Dillon. Okay, not bad. I could use a little zoom in on the camera there. Not as big of a crowd for you guys as opposed to. Okay. And you just walked off. You just walked off there. You didn't go the full length of the ramp? we did not we had we had to go off to the right clearly they've made improvements since this was a few years ago

okay uh and also there was absolutely no pop no pop whatsoever no what are we looking at who's who's who is who what is the on i'm on the left let's see it again dylan's on the right uh left of screen or right of left of screen that's me and the gray that's you in the gray okay hair was fantastic back yeah what year is that is that saying that his hair is not good now yeah i had some lettuce in uh two this is 22 four years ago That stage. In Dallas. Manxpress, come a long way. Yeah.

Well, this is not Fanatics Fest. This is like WrestleMania Access, right? Oh, okay, okay, okay. Yeah. So who are you looking, like, what are you looking out at when you're walking out? Your boy holding the camera? My boy holding the camera and then the three people also standing there while they have the people. Yeah, there it is.

Down-da-do-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. A little suck it, yeah. To generate into something more. I just got tired. Yeah, they could use the crowd. Like, saying, oh. with us while we were doing it. So it was just you two looking at each other

being like, suck it. Yeah, suck it. Yeah. By the way, you're in sync. You're in sync. Yeah, you guys think it. We practiced it a lot right behind the screen. Three, two, one, suck. Who's Hunter and Bush, Sean, you know?

Or is it the road dog? I love the point at each other there. Are you nervous in the back before you make the walk before you walk through the curtain? What's the last thing you say to each other before you walk out? I remember the music hanging out of nowhere. I was like, I got the music's playing. Let's go.

go. Let's go. It felt like I was actually in guerrilla. It was great. Is there an actual gorilla back there? No, but it is the actual stage they used for live events. Ah, that's tremendous. I love that. This is great. I love that for you. Josh, I love that. Don't let these people, you know, beat the wrestling fandom out of you, all right? I won't. I already pre-ordered my ticket for Fanatics Fats. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Me and you. We're the only ones who care.

Pre-ordered his ticket for Brady-Generations? Oh, yeah. They're working on it. Randy Paul, the match of the century. By the way, we've been talking about this. They're doing WrestleMania 43 in Riyadh, and they announced on Saturday, Josh. Did you see this? They're going to be doing NXT AAA and maybe something else. Oh, like a watch party.

Yeah, they're going to be doing watch parties. That's in New York City. At the infosis. Yes, and they're also looking into doing all different watch parties throughout the U.S. What do you think? What do you think about this? I mean, it's smart. It's good.

I would be very surprised if AEW doesn't run a big event. I can see them going into New York City as well, doing Arthur Ash, Louis Armstrong like they did for double or nothing. I'd be very surprised. It's pretty much the one year they have to really capitalize on this weekend in America where W.R.R.B. is not there. So I'd be surprised, but, I mean, it's the right thing W.B. should do. I feel bad for talent.

I won't be able to travel to WrestleMania and Saudi for, you know, NXD and AAA, but it is what it is. some breaking news. One Championship star. Rugg is leaving one championship. This is one of the biggest blows to come to the promotion in quite some time. After five years, my chapter with one championship has officially come to an end. I gave everything to the organization. But after everything that happened before during and after my last fight, I can no longer continue under these circumstances.

My release has now been agreed. I'm ready for the next chapter, ready to fight in August. And my next fight will be announced this Friday. Thank you to everyone who has supported me through this journey. See you in the cage, Rug, Rug. What do you guys saying? UFC should go after him. He's such a great character.

He's B. Pucci-Cache as well. I actually did a deep dive on this whole set of his wrestling. He came from like crazy. It's insane. I remember that. Yeah, he's really interesting. I can remember he was talking to his brother and he was like taking me around the training zones, like where the Senegal is do is train.

And they're all fucking beasts. But really, really interesting guy. an explosive start professional MMA. I think it was with Aries, right, in France, and he had a viral clip. He obviously fought Buccecha and won. But Chichita hasn't gone so well in UFC, but UFC need heavyweights.

They need people who, they're interested in that division. I think it's a natural thing for them to do. I doubt it's that, obviously, he's saying his fight's going to be announced on Friday, but I would love to see him get the call up to the UFC. I think he adds a lot to that division. When you said explosive, by the way, the first thing I thought of was this whole Taco Bell. Parasite? Yeah.

They keep, like, half. hammering home that word. Havanaugh's got it, the lettuce, right? It's lettuce, isn't it? My wife is defiant. She is having salad. Like, she is like, she is like laughing in the face. Yeah.

On the way home. Can I, can I tell you guys something? Have you guys ever had sourdough pizza? Sure have you. Have you really? I think I have. We had sourdough. It's sourdough crust.

No, but it's like the dough is sourdough. Right. Yeah. Blew me away. I felt so much better. There's this place that opened up near us. Sourdough pizza. Not only that.

it was so unique. It was tiny and there's a bar. I hate sitting at the bar. You know, you have to interact, this and that. But the bar is not like your typical bar. They're making the pizza right in front of you. So like, I'm sitting here and the dude's making the pizza right there. And I get to watch him do the whole thing.

And I'm asking him questions with the sourdough and this and that. And first of all... You're watching a guy put his hands all in your food. No, it was great. He puts it in the oven. You didn't care. You didn't care. Olives and pineapple?

So at first I asked for olives. Then I'm like, you know what? let's go with the original margarita this is my first time here I just want to have it but the point is we had the salad as well this is back on Thursday we had the salad oh you ate the salad it takes 14 days for the symptoms

okay perfect well we feel great and we're laughing in the face of all this hysteria I can't believe this you're watching somebody handle your food and you're eating salad I was enjoying it do not taunt the diarrhea gods I don't want it will pay back Do Annie is now someone who got it

no do any is now anyone that got it I probably ate all of it and It just didn't affect me I had a dream that I went to Taco Bell I had been drinking for the World Cup final And I went to Taco Bell And I just housed my meal And then I was like

Why the fuck did I just do that? I'm gonna get the parasite And? I woke up and I was just dreaming Thank God Hang on, hang on Is it only Taco Bell? No, no, no

But that's like a lot of the last goes through there Taylor Farm I saw that Taylor Farms Had their lettuce tested And it was not from it Horrible PR. Yeah, yeah, they came out with a statement today. Oh, they got a sue for liable, though?

Horrible PR. Yeah, that's pretty rough. That's fucking a legal. Could I get you to eat a salad right now, Connor? Like, what would it take? A bagged shredded lettuce salad? Yeah, I'm just going to pass on it. There's no amount of money?

No, no, there's an amount of money. I'll have explosive diarrhea for a price. If you were at, like, a really, really, really nice restaurant. Those are the worst. Don't eat it. Oh, all right. Like a Smith and Willinsky. No, no. I wouldn't consider that like really, really, really nice. I'm talking like Michelin Star, highest produce. I wouldn't mind. By the way, thank you to intern Josh for letting me know that Notch UFC's main card will start at 5 Eastern. We were talking about this, so that should end by around 8, and that would roll nicely right into the Ryan Garcia fight on Paramount Plus. Big Day for Paramount Plus. Okay, just a couple more things.

Volcanoesdemeer. He posted this statement, pretty much saying that at the end of 2025, he competed in Qatar. Yes, a few days later, I was contacted on Instagram by a healthcare professional based in Switzerland. He introduced himself as a supporter and suggested that we meet during our first meeting. He told me about his connections with influential people, investment opportunities in one of the Gulf states, and potential prospects for my career after retirement. He also mentioned the possibility of patronage. I was 36 years old thinking about life after my sporting career so I was interested. I was recovering from ankle surgery, healthcare professional, and I met again. The conversation shifted. He no longer talked about business, but about my recovery.

He presented me with a plan that according to him would get me back to peak physical condition within two months. He showed me a substance that he described as safe and undetectable. He had prepared a vial of EPO. He told me not to tell anyone about it. I complied. I gave myself the first injection that same evening. That was my decision and it was the biggest mistake of my life. And so this is him acknowledging that he took a banned substance and I appreciate him coming out and giving his side of the story and not really, you know, mincing words. He has been suspended for 16 months as a result of this. This is for violating the UFC's anti-doping policy. and they made that announcement last week.

EPO, of course, became famous due to all the stuff with Lance Armstrong, if you may recall. Ali Bagotinoff, shout out. As well, yeah. TJ? Yeah. Yeah. Bigfoot silver as well when he sprayed bloated all over the place against Kang.

That's right. That's right. So there you have it. There is his explanation. And here's a tweet from Patty Pimbleit. Did he really buy the stool? don't think so. This is great. This is great. Even if he didn't, it's great. Yeah. Fantastic. There's no way he did. But there's no way. I think he did. I think he, I think that would,

I would not put that past the body, honestly. There ain't no way. He's there and he's just picking it up. But it's, the music, by the way, on the post is Ilya's music. Yeah. These two got a fight. And the swipe, the other Instagram thing is to the, the price of the chair. It's a great troll. It's a great troll. These two got a fight. Do we have any super chats, Mr. Mr. Frankie. We do, and we have some lovely interns. They're going to read them for us. Oh, yes.

Who's up first? Let's go with intern Jack. Hey, so, uh, laser says, gents, how about Herb's aggressive fence push of the fighters hand-grabbing the fence? Thanks for your content, going through a small medical thing right now. The show helps. Well, my friend, uh, do wish you the best. Um, and, uh, we're, we're sending you all the love and support.

Uh, I mean, I don't think there should be a gentle fence push. I think there should be a penalty or a warning. Who is it? A cannonear that grabbed it like three or four times in a row, and he just took his hand out of the fence, didn't take a point? Yeah. I mean, should there be a point for a fence grab?

I don't know. Once you do it multiple times? Multiple times, yes. Second time, absolutely. Yeah. Just going to do it. That's one where I'm like, all right, warning's okay, but the second time, third time, like, let's go.

You're not hurting your opponent, like an eye poke or, a below the belt nutshot, but like, what else? What else? Intern Josh. Mohamed says, what a great lineup. Back with a bang. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Go back to back, Josh. That was a quick one. Let's do. We got Jake from Windy City saying, wonderful 40 days it has been, along with all the tourists,

enjoying everything Americana on social media. I wish U.S. soccer would reevaluate its paid-to-play mentality so many kids can play the game. Oh, yes, this has been something. the midst of this with all the travel soccer and whatnot. They don't make it, they don't make it easy on you here in the U.S. Travel soccer is a crazy thing. We never had that. Do you have that over there in Ireland, P.C. Travels. I have no idea what you're talking about. Like, if you want to play high-level soccer here, like, you really have to pay a lot of money and go all over the place. And they just,

they weed out a lot of people, I feel like. They don't make it cheap at all. No, I mean, over here, generally, like, when I don't make accessible is what I meant. say. No, it's really accessible here. Like, I mean, the best players go to the best teams, even schoolboy. And you have to pay for it or no? I mean, you pay subs, like, two euro for the referee or something. No.

I'm talking. I think they pay, they have to pay insurance at the start year and you pay for your kit. I think that's about it. It wouldn't be, like, not more expensive than any other sport would play. Yeah, it's, it's tough. I also could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure, like 15, 16, you can get paid in Europe to play for the

U-17 teams or the U-16 teams. If you're, like, in a club as to where here, that's when it gets the most expensive. Like, you know, $5,000 to play on a team for a whole season. That doesn't include travel, hotels, all those things. So, yeah, like an MLS next team, for sure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that is.

That's ridiculous, yeah. My son talks about the MLS thing all the time. MLS next. What does it all mean? What else? Intern Jack. Yeah, the Gator says the reporters should ask for an aspirin all update. From who?

Dana White? Yeah, I think they're going to try to get them in back into the year, maybe Abu Dhabi. What else, intern, Jack? What else? Sammy says, World Cup was great. Now it's over. Back to focusing on MMA. Boxing and watching you guys throughout the week was hard combining the two.

Thank you, Sammy. Very nice of you. Yeah, sometimes it's hard. I hate when there's Champions League or World Cup during our show because it feels like we have a lot of competition. but we get it and it was fun watching and I will miss it the greatest summer of our lives

I'm going to write a book about it one day that's what I'm going to do intern Josh here's Peter Byers saying Rick says new fans aren't coming in why would love to see the spin it's because the UFC MMA isn't welcoming anymore

it's right wing maga sport whoa whoa what game that I did come on it's crazy I don't think that's why I don't know even if there's even if that's true, I think it's that

everybody who has been exposed to UFC and MMA has been exposed to it. It is no longer a phenomenon. It is no longer new. All those people that got exposed to it from the pandemic are already exposed to it. It's their inner you're out. Peeks and valleys. Peaks of valleys. There could be another

generational talent that comes along and a whole bunch of other kids start falling in love with them. That's a great point. I'm doubtful, but yes, I suppose it's possible. Intern Jack. I believe. call. Shultzzi has a question asked me in January

2027 question for you guys. Who's going to have a better 12-month inaugural stretch when it's set and done? Zofa or Raff? I think Zufa boxing only because they've got the TV deal, they've got the backing, but it's a fun question.

We don't know how Raff is doing as far as their deal with Fox Nation and whatnot, but I don't think there's a soul on the planet including like the hardest of hardcore wrestling fan who thought that Real American Freestyle Wrestling would be where it is today. Now, I'm sure there are some hardcore fans who are like,

hey, look, it's all about Colby and Armin and Ben and Belal, and these aren't like the guys that, you know, we want to see, but they're doing what they have to do and they're getting a lot of attention. And it's a wonderful success story so far. What else? What else? I'll just let you guys, because now I'm forgetting who went when. All good.

Young Men 360s says UFC basically, used IR and DDP's eye polk foul. Is this a first? Also, isn't Colby's crossover belt weird since he's not crossing over from anywhere anymore? It's a fair point. Let me read that. What's IR? What does that mean? It's a replay.

Oh. Yeah, Usman immediately initially got time for the eye and then they were like, not, it was a punch. Go back. Go back to point it. Like mid. I've seen it before, but low shots. Yeah. Instantly. Not the first time. Not the first time. Love it. That's also a state jurisdiction thing. But not the first

No, I keep using it because that was clearly a punch by DDP. I've seen Herzog consult and then they immediately tell him what happened and he restarts it yet. And that's kind of what Colby was referring to as well. What else? What else? Jonah Far Out says me and Frank need Fatima McLean in studio. New York Rick should get working on it. Wow, wow, wow, wow. All caps need.

I think she's coming in on Wednesday. You got your wish, bud. There you go. What else? J. Dash says, hot takes. One, Colby is back. People love him. Two, Tommy Gunn v. Payton Talbot would be a sick fight.

Don't care about Wakelux. I was just going to say, yeah, all right. Clearly. Yeah. Three, Dracus' top five personalities in UFC. He's a low-key wizard on the mic. Get him on. Trust me.

He ain't easy to get on. No, no, no. Couldn't Payton just go up to 45? Yeah, he could. He could for sure. DDP's a great character. I enjoyed DDP even though he, you know, leaves us at the altar time and again. What else?

Jessette says, don't really mind the LV box for the trophy since it's been happening now since 2010 in South Africa. And it's cool seeing a football legend unpack it. It felt a little tacky. I mean, look, it's LV. It's not, you know, I don't know. Checker. Bullocks. Yeah.

A lot of bollocks. It ain't Skechers, but it's, you know. Shout out of it. Skechers. Love Skechers. What do you mean? Put up in a Skechers thing. I mean, OG wear Skechers.

I'm just saying, I'm sure LV pay. Actually, my kids were asking me, how much do you think they paid for that? The LV box. Insanez. A lot. I said somewhere in the range of five to ten million. Probably. Probably as much as, probably like, it's all for sale.

The game's all for sale. Yeah. That's the beauty of it. It's all for sale. Great. Every, yeah, every man has his price. What else? What else, guys?

Nathan Garcia asks, when a fighter misses weight and wins, do they get deducted 20% of their total win or just show money? If they're on the show slash win model, that is. That's a good one. I do believe it's the show. I do. Because how would you know, right? And it wouldn't be fair to take 20% of the win if he didn't win yet.

So you agree to this beforehand. but yeah, show win sucks. What else, guys? What else? We already heard about this, but Slito said, Patty won the auction for the stool. Oh, yes. Thanks, Slit. What else? What else?

Our collagen says, Hi, guys, what do you expect in the main event for UFC Paris to be? Hearing rumblings. But let's see, let's see. Let's see, let's see. What else? What else? That's all we got.

Okay. Amazing. It's been a wonderful day, guys. It's been a wonderful day. Tomorrow is going to be an even better day. We have Bruce Buffer joining us. Bruce Buffer was on display. What about the fact that they were talking over Bruce and Michael Buffer yesterday?

That might have been what Dana got pissed up about. You know what I mean? Michael Buffer and Bruce Buffer are hyping out the crowd and they're just talking like their wallpaper. It was crazy. I was actually deeply offended by that. Bruce Buffer up there doing his thing? This is truly the moment I have been waiting for. Bruce Buffer going to join us.

us Brandon Royville going to join us fresh off of having surgery. What's so funny over there? Why can't you guys are enjoying this hat thing so much and I don't understand. Is it bothering you man? I mean it's just like, I just don't understand what's so, okay, it's a big hat.

That's the point. I know, but why is it making you so happy to be wearing a big hat? It's a comically large hat. He looks happy at all. He looks very unhappy, funny. That's the point. I know, but I don't get it. Because it annoys you.

What's there to get? It's just a huge hat, man. I know, but it's not like we've never, you know, it's not like we've never seen people wear the hat like this? Yes, all the time. This looks like a custom-made Yahoo Sports one. I've seen, I don't know if you have seen this. I've seen Josh Allen wear it.

I've seen superstars wear it. This Yahoo Sports hat? Okay, so tell me, if you're going to wear it and make a whole thing about it, can you tell me what it's about? Like, where can people get this hat, what it represents? Oh, we can't get it. These are one of ones. Wow.

Two of two. Wow. I'm testing a lot of envy. These have been in our possession for months, and we had no idea. It's contributed. Oh, now I understand. There's been a box in there. He finally decided to open it.

Hey, can we give a shout-out to our friends at Matchroom Sport while you guys are just shilling for other nonsense? Let's give them a shout-out. Who is shilling for? This nonsense. What's bothering you from here? Show me. Show me the cue. Where's the queue?

It's all boxed up. I saw you playing with it before. It's box back up. Packed up But shout out to our friends At Matrum Sport They sent us what Pizzi

They sent us Snooker Snooker Q's ball They sent us Carbon fiber Pools Must got lost in the post over here

Did they send us balls to Yes Oh yeah They were balls Did they send us a table? No they did not send a table Well what am I supposed

How heavy a Snokeke What am I supposed to do With a cue And some balls Without a temptation Go to a bar bro You got a big hat You wear it

You play some What are you supposed to Pull up with your own stuff Yes That's good Yeah, you do, yeah. I guess. You never seen that episode of Bratrince?

Were they hustled? Yeah, that was a great episode. Jeffrey and Uncle Phil? That was a great episode. All right. That's our show. It's time to go. Thank you to all our guests.

Banger of a show. Love it. I'm seeing some tweets here regarding the much talked about Tom Brady situation. A developing situation? Good. What's happening? No, that they're in talks. Oh.

So the question is Would it happen? Intern Josh, does it happen for SummerSlam? That seems a little too soon, right? Too soon. Yeah. What, mania? I hope not.

Mania? By the way, it actually feels, it actually feels perfect for mania. It is for where mania is this year, it's absolutely perfect. Yes. Riyad. Not March? April. It's in April, but like...

Just April. Okay. Yeah. Taking the ESPil Laffert? 10 months. Wow, what about this? I just saw this, courtesy of our friend Jedi, bare-knuckle Ice Wars,

has signed with ESPN, and they're going to be on ESPN 8th, Ocho, on August 15th. What does it deal with ESPN 8? Is that a real thing? It's like a yearly thing. They do. I think they change ESPN news to...

But it's just one. It's just one day? Yeah, it's not real time. So they'll just show, like, crazy stuff. It's not a constant challenge. Got it. And they just show like the wackiest stuff, right? Obviously they'll do the dodge wall and the corn hole. Right. All right. By the way, that was a vase, a vase behind Tommy?

Giant bomb. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. Vase. Bays, vase? I don't know. Who's to check? Thank you to all our guests. Thanks to all of you. Back tomorrow, say, time, please. I'm out here.