The Ariel Helwani Show - Colby Covington, Holly Holm, Patrick Habirora, Adam Azim, On The Nose, news & notes

Episode Date: May 28, 2026

Ariel Helwani starts today’s show by answering your On The Nose questions, touching on the New York Knicks’ success, best all-time walkouts, running into Jake Shields, the scorecards for Oleksandr Usyk vs. Rico Verhoeven, and more blind rankings (04:52). Rising PFL prospect Patrick Habirora joins to recap his massive win over Benson Henderson and discuss criticism of the booking, his callout of Mike Perry, who he wants to fight next, and his relationship with the promotion (40:53). Colby Covington is back on the show to reveal details of his sudden retirement, including conversations with the UFC, then talks about his full-time move into wrestling, the RAF matchups he’s chasing, UFC’s White House card, the lack of animosity between Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland after their fight, whether he belongs in the UFC Hall of Fame, and more (1:04:42). Holly Holm returns to preview her rematch with Stephanie Han under the MVP banner, also discussing how much longer she plans to compete, potentially being Katie Taylor’s final opponent, Ronda Rousey coming out of retirement and the possibility of a rematch, and more (1:49:32). Boxer Adam Azim is our final guest of the day, looking ahead to his bout against Steve Claggett, then detailing his training for the fight, his desire to retire at just 31 years old, how he viewed the Usyk vs. Verhoeven controversy, praying with his opponents after their fight, and more (2:14:32). Ariel and the crew come back to cover news and notes (2:32:46), finish up On The Nose (3:13:38), and answer your Super Chats (3:44:28).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Air Hands Day, May 27, 2000. And 26, hello again, everyone. I was nervous about that intro because I was sure I was going to say Tuesday. It feels like a Tuesday. Does it not? Frank, does it not feel like a Tuesday today? It feels like a Tuesday. I can't believe this is my last show of the week.

I feel like I just got here. I feel like I just got started. There's so much to talk about. Did you hear the New York Knicks are going to the NBA finals, Frankie? Did you hear it? Can you feel like a tangible difference in the mood of the people here in New York as the Knicks are headed to the finals? Specifically one person, yes. He's been a lot more pleasant to be around.

I feel like I'm Teflon Helwani here. You can't do anything. You can't say anything that will make me upset. Challenge accepted. I'm riding high. I'm riding high, Frank. I'm riding high. Loving and lifeing and loving and lifeing.

I'm loving life, really. I'm really loving life. and it's an amazing thing. I said this earlier, it's kind of like senior team. I think it's like senior team make it to the Super Bowl. It's been a while for me because you just get a week now of enjoying all the content, all the fun, all the articles, all the videos, the highlights, the YouTube videos,

all that stuff. It's just been amazing. Long may continue. And what a scene New York is going to be. What a summer we're heading into, guys. What a summer. Nix are in the finals. Habs are going to the finals.

Finals. We'll win game four and then we'll turn this thing around. We and finally I can watch those games because they've been at the same time as the next game. Finally I can watch those games. You've got the Champions League final coming up this weekend. You've got a little thing called the World Cup starting in just a couple of weeks time. You've got the UFC holding an event at the White House and more importantly the return of Ilya to Puraa, the return of Alks-Pera as a heavyweight on and on it goes. The return of Connor McGregor in July. There's all the return of all kinds of events happening in between now and then, all kinds of boxing, MMA, pro wrestling. I mean, I just feel like we are spoiled. There's a lot to be thankful for, a lot to be grateful for. So let us get on to today's program.

We have a lot to get into today. Four guests on the program today. Back end of the show, Adam Azeem is going to join us. He is an up-and-coming, undefeated fighter out of England by way of Pakistan. He proudly reps both countries. He's headlining that boxer event

that we spoke to Ben Shalom about. A lot of people very high on Adam. Great backstory, great family, great upbringing, great fighter. We'll speak to him for the first time on the program. He's fighting the Canadian Steve Claggett on Saturday, May 30th. And as I said, on yesterday's show, May 30th, Saturday is a very busy day in the wild and wacky world of combat sports. There's that event. There's the RAF event, which is a very good card, the debut of Gable Steven, Colby Covington versus Chris Wyden,

Armid Sarukians on that card as well. It's just, it's, it's a pretty loaded card. Marab. So you've got that. You've got the MVP card in El Paso, which I'll be in. That's Stephanie Han against Holly Home 2. You've got the return of Amanda Serrano. You've got the UFC early, early morning in Macau,

Davis & Figaro versus Song Yadong. So a lot to be excited about as far as Saturday is concerned. And prior to the Adam Azeem interview, we will be joined by Holly Home. Holly Home is going to join us to talk about that fight, to talk about everything that's been going on in her career, the rematch, Ronda Rousey, is she going to fight her, is she not going to fight her, what she think of her return, all that and more.

The great Holly Home, the preacher's daughter is going to be joining us. So can't wait for that. Prior to that, Colby Covington's going to join us. And Colby hasn't done any interviews since word got out that he was leaving the UFC, that he was retiring from MMA. Like I said, he is going to be competing on Saturday's card in Dallas, R-AF. So Colby Comington is going to be joining us at 2 o'clock, first chat since all that news went down last week. And then prior to that, Patrick Habirora, who had the big win this past Saturday in Brussels against Benson Henderson, is going to join us a rising star out of Belgium.

Jim, we are very high on him. PFL is high on him. You should be high on him as well. All that and more on today's program. There's your guests. There's your lineup. It's a great day to be alive. And we love Wednesdays, of course, because we get to shoot. We get to answer your question. So time not for everyone's favorites.

We're going to do this in two parts. We'll do a little bit front end, a little bit back in. And the big story, of course, is that yesterday conspicuous by his absence. He has a rule, no show after a bank holiday, no show after he attends a Premier League match. So Petezy couldn't join us. But he is back, and he is better than ever.

There he is. Hello, London Saint himself, Pee C. Carroll, back in Blanche. We missed you yesterday, sir. We missed you. I missed you too. I watched the show, fantastic show. I thought Peter Fury was fantastic. I mean, what a, what a diplomatic man given the situation.

Rico, fantastic. And honestly, you know, I know they were robbed of that win or robbed of at least finishing that fight. But I think it's going to be great for both of them. I think their stock has gone up tremendously. And what a way they've been carrying themselves despite such an outlandish end to that fight. I like that you just went right into it there. No dilly-dallying. No time to waste.

It's kind of bearing the lead if we're being on. What's that shirt you're wearing, by the way? Is that your dog? Yeah, shout out to Reg. The best Reggie I've ever met. I've not actually met him, but I'm not a huge fan of Reggie Miller, and that's who I usually think of when I think of that name.

I'm sure there are other good reggae. Can I tell you something? Yeah. About the T-shirt? I came on wearing a white t-shirt, and I had the window open today because it's unseasonably warm in Ireland today. And Andy told me that I look translucent,

and I had to change to a darker palette. I didn't think you were wearing a shirt at all. It does look a little bit brighter. And what's going on with the stash? Did we trim it? What do we do here? What's going on? No, the rest of it just grew.

No, I think you did something with it. I didn't do something with it. It feels like you did something. I'm still there. I think he cried it to make it darker. It doesn't feel as pronounced as it was the last time we spoke. Well, on Friday's episode of the crack, it went to an extreme that I hadn't been before because we barbara, Simon, shout out of Simon.

He shaved this all down. I knew it. Just left the stash. No, he did this, this and left the stash. He did something. He did something. And he hell bad was the stash on Friday. It was.

It was, I was polite. It was checker hard drive levels. It was. Congratulations to Mr. Carroll. What a scene was at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. You were in attendance. It's boiling hot over there. You guys are there, schvitzing, as they say, in the sun cooking.

But you saw them. safe and sound. Have you thanked Danhausen? Because I don't know if you saw he's the reason why they made it through. Did you see that? I did not see that Dan. I was hoping that he would, but I didn't actually see that. I uncursed you guys as well. Yes. Nathan Fraser of WWE fame said he paid a lot of money to get spurs uncursed. And so I wasn't sure if you or your dad sent him a message of any kind. But what was it like in the stadium? Tell us very quickly. It was, it was brilliant. And the atmosphere was incredible. It was so tense. The goal went in early. but then everybody all over the stadium

just going, what scores the West Ham match? West Hamer winning 3-0. And then there was nine minutes out on at the end and Everton were on top of Spurs. It looked like, you know, the relief that went through the stadium was unbelievable. But what was crazy about it, obviously, you know, the family, dad's a big sports fan.

He was elated. But what was really interesting was, you're making your way back into Central London after the game from Hoyhart Lane. You get to Liverpool Street and suddenly the trains are full of not only sports fans, but Arsenal fans who've just won the league. West Ham fans who've just been relegated.

Crystal Palace fans, it was just crazy. Everyone in this different humor, obviously West Ham got relegated, Spurs just stayed up. Crystal Palace didn't really have much to fight for, but just the difference of dynamic, like the boys are getting on and shouting at each other on the trains. Fantastic atmosphere. Oh my God.

I forgot about that convergence. There it is. There's Danhausen with Nathan Frazier saying that he paid a lot of human money to get Spurs on curse. he's on a generational run, of course. He's the sole reason why the Knicks are where they are. Did you happen to catch the Knicks game on Monday, or were you too much vitamin G down the system there?

It was, you know, look, we had an area. Been a little bit lacking or slacking on the Knicks side, no? But hey, look, this series hasn't been, I watched the first two games and then I fell off because it was away. You know they're in the finals, right? First time in 27 years. You saw the New York Daily News, right?

On to the finals, 1999. You've seen all this, yeah? Very excited. And I was attempting to stay up for the game last night. But once again, the vitamin G hangover got the best of me and I was asleep by 11. Well, we need you to lock in. 8.30 p.m. Eastern tip-offs throughout the entire finals. So it's not.

I was wearing my Knicks hat around London. And people were just stopping me going, go, Nick! And I was like, shit. I forgot what they were talking about me. I forgot I was wearing the hat. And I was like, oh, shit. I love it. It was incredible.

I love it. Well, it has spread all the way across the pond. We do have a lot of questions, guys. So no time to wait. Shall we get into it, fellas? I don't know if the other guys are there, but I presume they are there. We're here, we're here.

Yeah, we just got back to. Oh, wow, wow, wow. Oh, wow, wow, wow. All right, cool. Let's get into things, guys. This is Adrian delgadoio. Hello. Oh, wait.

Holy shit. I didn't think substack was a real place. I just thought Ariel was going kooky and no one in the back had the heart to correct them. I want to just give thanks as my first post. Ariel, thank you for covering all combat sports. in the way that you do. Two-thirds of the boys in the back. Thursdays can be a drag, but y'all show, or maybe two out of three? He wrote two-thirds of the boys in the back? Thursdays can be a drag,

but y'all show get me to the weekend. Peter, you're cool. Frank, Jordan, how are you still employed with all the vacations you take? And hello, Andy, my biggest thank you is for Ariel. I'm a forest fan because of you. I used to be a football hater, but since you started to talk about them. I hopped on the train and we've had our ups and downs, but I bleed Garibaldi Red. Sorry for the length, but again, thank you. How about that guys? I've actually heard from a lot of people. I heard from a lot of people who said they're Knicks fans because of me. I thought that was nice. Thursday's a bit of a drag, huh? What does he mean by two-thirds of the boys in the back? He's shitting on me. I think he's shitting on all of us, Frank. Give me a fucking break.

He's trying to pitch against each other. He's trying to pitch his against each other. He's trying to make... Cool, cool, cool, cool. Uh, force, man. Michael Inglehern says, Ariel, my brother's friend, Tanner Andrews, just made his MLB debut for the Toronto Blue Jays last night. It was so cool to see him take the mound, and now I'm a Blue Jays fan. Guys, we're adopting everyone.

Could you believe it? Oh! It's unbelievable. Here's Islam's flambotomous. Congratulations, my friend. Your boys made it to the dance. Your monologue to start off yesterday's show was beautiful. It reminded me of a time way back in 2005.

when my beloved Houston Astros finally made it out of the NL and into our first world series. We ultimately found ourselves on the wrong side of a sweep that series. I do believe against the Chicago White Sox and had to endure a hard 12 years before we found our way back to the promised land. Did they cheat? Did they not cheat? Who's to check? Thank you for the raw emotion. I'm no New York sports fan, but I'm a fan of people seeing their teams do great things.

Thanks for sharing your journey with us. God bless Houston. God bless New York. God bless sports. You know what I was thinking about guys with regards to why this means so much? I might have thrown this out. Is it possible that these moments mean so much because it's almost like confirmation for all the time we spend worrying, thinking, watching our teams? And so in the end, you just want to know that it was worth it because you got to like complete the journey with them.

You got to watch them achieve their dreams and get over the hump and we sort of live vicariously through these people. Do you think that's what it is? Like why do we? Sometimes when I take a step back like, why do I care so much? Why does this affect me so much? Why does this mean so much? Why am I thinking about this constantly now? Is it because of that or is it because of something else? Is it nostalgia? I was listening to Patrick Ewing yesterday on ESPN radio and I swear I was tearing up. I've never heard him so happy before. I've never heard Patrick like so content. He was always very ordinary when it came to the media and it was just beautiful and maybe it took me back to being a kid and looking up to it. I don't know what it is. Why do we care so much, guys? Does anyone have

a good theory on this. Part of your identity, isn't it? Yeah, you've spent so much time watching the team and they've never reached this level of success in a quarter century. But the general thought of why do we care so much about any team? You know, like, we've all been there. Like, even my wife, my wife has been with me. Like, we watched them in the 1999 NBA finals together. And she still doesn't quite get it.

Like, she gets it, but she's still like, why does this make you so upset? Or why does this make you so happy? She's fine when it's happy, you know, when it's happy days. But like, it gives you hope. It gives you a reason to believe in something. Or is it the escape? It's the escape for sure. Your life won't change.

But it affects us. Yeah. Like when they do something, I'm like, I'm going to create. I can't control myself. Why does it do something to believe in? It's a wild thing. You believe that they can achieve something that maybe you can achieve yourself or you hope to achieve yourself or whatever, and you're living through it. You're vicariously part of that.

You feel part of that community that is doing this thing. That's another thing. Community. You watch it with your sons. You watch it growing up with your friends. No, you're right. And by the way, I love it. I am so thankful that I care this much, that I have something like this. I think we all are as sports fans. Life can be a drag. And so that's why I talk about like that random January morning where you're coming off a big win, whether it's a football win, a basketball win, whatever. It's a beautiful gift that we have this thing called sports. It's a beautiful gift that we have this escape. And that's why I like to think that our show for some people is that escape as well. But I was just thinking like,

why does this mean so much? Why will I be, I don't even know like, what happened? Let me ask you this, GC. You've seen it. Actually, all of you have seen it. What happens that next day? after you win? Yeah. What does that feel? Because it does become this thing where you're like chasing, chasing,

and you're like, okay, is it just like you won the video game and then it's cool? What happens? This is what I say. Losing hurts more than winning feels good. Yeah.

Like you're going to be watching everything. You're going to buy the shirts, the hoodies, the hats, everything like that. But like the high does kind of dissipate. And then moving forward, this might actually be helpful to you.

I have found when my team inevitably doesn't win titles now, I don't care nearly as much. Yeah, oh, 100%. I'm just kind of like, well, whatever. That feeling when they disrupt the calves, it's like that amplified. You'll feel it again if they... And you're going to look on Twitter and Instagram and everything like that.

It's going to be like, Knicks, champions. It's just like, you're like, you won't be able to get enough of it. You'll just scroll and scroll and scroll. And like the imagery, if they do end up winning of like, Knicks, champions, gold trophy with it. And all the merch is going to be like, I can't believe my eyes are looking at it. Yes, that's how I felt on Monday. You know what I always love about the NBA champion, like the experience? It's always at the very beginning of summer.

Everyone's in a great mood. And more often than not, the parade is on a beautiful day. And the gold trophy is just like illuminating. And they're wearing sunglasses, they're drunk, they're shirtless. And I'm just like picturing those scenes. Like, could you imagine those scenes down Broadway, Canada of like Jalen Brunson's sunglasses with that. Like when I saw Kyle Lowry do it for the Raptors that day that the Raptors had the parade and there were two million people there, that was surreal.

He was wearing the old purple dinosaur jersey, actually the white one. But, you know, like the original Damon Stoddemeier jersey. And I was like, wow, this looks surreal. And I was thinking like, what is it going to look like when the Knicks get this moment? And so I think that's the moment that or like, you know when the NBA does a carousel of everyone on the team holding the trophy, like even the 15th man? What is that going to feel like? God, I really hope I'm not setting myself up for utter heartbreak. I love sports so much, flash cut two weeks from now.

I fucking hate sports. Why do I care so much about this shit? Do you know what it is as well? Like, when you were in school and you're a Knicks fan, like for me anyway, I was a United fan in school. When they lost, like, I knew I was going in to get out on Monday. Like, I was like, oh, this is going to be hell. Like, so your mood for the week is dictated on how your team is doing

because everyone's going to rub it in your face. Even Liverpool, because obviously big rivals of Manchester United and most of my friends would be Liverpool fans, when they won something big, I was like, I'm going to have to go on face these lads now, and they are just going to give it to me. And it's just, it's endless,

and they just have something. You can't really say shit because they're after doing it. It's the flip of that. Like, finally you're going to be the guy with all the cheese. You're going to be going, oh, we did it. What about you, motherfuckers? You know what makes a difference. That made me think of another reason why I think people love sports,

which is like we're vulnerable, right? We spend so much of our lives being guarded and not showing everybody our true selves, but when it comes to sports, people pour their soul into it, right? They're living for the highs and sad with the lows and everybody kind of like accepts that and understands that. But if you just like, we're crying in the cafeteria

over XYZ thing and it wasn't related to sports, people would be like, who the fuck is this weirdo? With sports, it allows people to kind of like do that, to be vulnerable and invest themselves. and everybody else does it too, so they're not really judging. I remember my mom actually reminded me of this. In 1995, when Ewing missed the finger roll against the Pacers, I had to go to a bar mitzvah that day.

I was in eighth grade. I had to go to Bar Mitzvah that evening. It was a Sunday. And I remember going into a magazine and cutting out a Nix logo. And I was like, yeah, everyone's going to, I was the only Knicks fan. No one really cared, honestly, about basketball when I was that age. And I was like, all right, everyone's going to give it to me because they just made fun of me. They didn't actually like celebrate my wins.

And I cut it out and I stuck the logo on my yarmaca, on my kippa that you had to wear it to the service. And I was like, I'm going to put this where God will see it. That's how proud I am to still be a Knicks fan. And then when she drove me to school the next day, I was, I was complaining to her. I'm like, what am I going to do? It's May.

And I'm not going to see these guys until October. They're the only thing that gives me joy in life. What am I going to do? How am I not going to, how am I going to survive without them? And she's like, it's going to be okay, Rochi, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. Rochi is sweetheart in Arabic. And I'm like, I don't know how to live without these guys.

That was like the height, 94, 95, 6, 7, 8, 9. That was the height of my like super fandom. A friend of mine sent me a picture today of our sixth grade graduation where everyone is wearing white and black, white and black, white and black. And I'm sitting there with my orange and blue, very loud Knicks zip up because we were in the finals in 94. So anyway, it's bringing back all these emotions. I'm not trying to go on and on about it, but it's a very exciting time.

Ariel Salami says, hello to all the lads. Did any of you manage to watch Mighty Journey with GSP Part 1 and 2? Unbelievable viewing and so much knowledge shared. If you haven't had the chance, I would highly recommend. I haven't had the chance. Not surprised. I know that was a long, long time in the making. And by the way, shout out to GSP.

He started his own podcast, but it's not your typical podcast. It's called the GSP podcast or GSP podcast. and have you guys seen the trailer for it? It's like he's going out and basically exploring the things that he's interested in. Dinosaurs, like the quirky stuff out there, the non-fighting things, in addition to the fighting things,

but I thought it was a good idea. Oh, yeah, I'm subscribed. You are, okay. For sure. So we're locked in. I got that GSP DJ crossover saved too. Hell yeah. Is that on DJs?

I should think they both posted videos from it. Love it. Barely Perez. So what did happen to your glasses? Shout out to New York Rick, aka New York, Nick. I guess I didn't finish that story yesterday. Put the glasses on, went downstairs,

wanted to lock in, eventually took the glasses off and just left them there in the den because it was a lot of emotion. I had to take them off like this, you know? And I felt off yesterday, guys. I felt off. And where is his glasses?

He can't see without his glasses. I felt off. I'm just glad we got the conclusion to the story, which was I put them down. You know, what would we have done without without the ending to that one? Who are wondering. You know, whatever happened?

I put them down. You know what's weird for like, for like the first 12 years of my career, I didn't wear glasses? Yeah. And now people think it's so weird seeing me without. I have known you for so long and been with you for so long. It was weird when you went to the glasses for me at first.

And now it's weird when you took the glasses off. It's bizarre. It's bizarre. Right? Yeah. Like what happens now? Like if I ever get contacts, Am I just screwed?

Am I going to be like one of those people that just look? Has this just become my face? It has become your face, but eventually people will also adjust to the no glasses. Yeah. All right. Well, that's good to know. It's like a six-month break-in, I feel like. Here's Jacob Pacheco who says, hello, everyone, Jacob from Texas speaking.

I'd like for you guys to blind rank these worst mic moments. All right, do you see this for you? Frank using a clip from the Rodney King riots as a drop. Oh. I forgot. about that one. That was that was atrocious. Number two, yeah. Ariel claiming how great the show is from L.A.

Only for G.C.'s audio to be F-slash-Mike coming on early. Which one was that? During the live hit. Fuck, that shit was ass. Three. Michael Chandler claiming he is a determined individual who's ready to come down his opponent's throat and take on. Sorry, what? I remember.

That's... You remember? but I'm only saving I saw a clip of that because I know something's coming without the sex Deante Wilder yelling there's only one bronze bomber

to Tyson Fury during their one-on-one sit-down five Adesania claiming he will touch up Romero enough times that he will crumble

like the Twin Towers Oof usually these crescendo with like no one usually is Frank kissing his mom's ass or something

that's what I was waiting for Frank why did you use Rodney King again you guys were bickering at each other no we weren't Dick the Boozer says, I think they meant more like the thought behind it,

not necessarily the context. I mean, there could have been a million things. I did not have. That's just an alt without the sex. It's the same concept. Dick the Brewster wants to know if we can get Jason Statham on the show. I actually did try in the buildup, but no luck.

He also said he'd love to have Tom Hardy on the program. Didn't Tom Hardy get in some... Yeah, he got a lot of... Off Mobland. They might as well cancel that show. You can't do the show. And he got a big ego once he started to... There has been...

There has been contact made with parties involved in Jason State, though. Oh, for real. For real. You can tell me that. I don't want... You know, cart before the horse type of situation. Okay. Are you booking talent now in the show?

There has been a conversation. Ain't that what journalism is amazing? All right, all right. I would love to have Jason on the show. Here's LaManche MMA, who I do recognize from Twitter, who's a bit of a troll, if I'm being honest, but it's all good. Hey, Ariel, have you gotten to read your uncle's latest book? Suicidal empathy?

If so, what are your thoughts? Also, what's it like to have another famous person in the family? I have not read the book. I have not had time. But shout out to Gad. So my family history is a very, very complicated one. I don't think we're unique in that regard. And so I don't really see him or talk to him all that often.

He lives in Montreal. He's moving. He said that on Rogan's podcast. this is Gads said that I'm talking about. But yeah, I saw him on the street a couple of years ago. It was the first time in a very long time that I had seen him or talked to him. I don't think I need to get into like the family history and all that stuff. But all to say like we don't have holiday dinners together and things like that, happy for a success.

It is wild because, you know, I've known him since I was a baby to see him, you know, become this. phenomenon, if you will, and a lightning rod and a polarizing figure, no doubt about that as well. Happy for his success, happy for his family. But we don't, like, we don't hang out or, you know, things like that for no particular reason, to be honest. But, yeah, there's just, you know, family is family, right? But I love everyone in my family and God bless. Peace and love, peace and love.

Mikey Z. G.C. as a cultured man. what are some of your favorite walkout songs and what are some that you'd like a fighter to walk out to? Oh, man. It's a great question. Kind of catching me off guard here. Elias right now is number one in my book

among active fighters. Well, okay, give yourself some time here. Shout out to Ilya. They did drop a trailer, speaking of which, to his HBO Max. Is it a doc or a docu series? Anyway, it looks fantastic. to be honest.

They follow his family. They follow him, of course. There's his son narrating. This is around the time of the Charles Olavera fight. And it's brilliant for him. We were talking yesterday how it seems like Dana's getting

all the attention leading up to the White House card. But this is dropping next week. So what timing, as he's about the headline that card on June 14th? So this is on HBO Max. I do believe that,

oh, that's Sergio Ramos, right? I do believe that I do believe that it's in Spanish so our very own Andy is actually going to translate this for us take it away Andy What the whole thing? I'm kidding But it looks great

And there it is There's a big billboard on Oxford Street as well His Monterex billboard on Serious? Wow Father brother icon New documentary series June 5th Wait let me guess

Look at that 5th to Juneio is June 5th Yeah and it does say A series, new documentary series. And Los Toporio. Would Los Toporio be the Toporia? You got it. The Toporias. The Toporias.

Okay. So Father, Brother, Icon. How about that for Old Elia? That's a big deal. It's a huge deal. I'm looking forward to that one. Hopefully they got English subtitles. What just happened there, Frankie?

No idea. In any event. Elia's walkout? Yeah. Alex's walk out. We're going to get those back to back. That's going to be incredible on the, on the, Whitehouse.

McGregor's obviously is great. Greatest walkout in UFC history? Like greatest... Which one? DJ Pan. Okay, but I'm asking like, give me the fight the moment. Like, which one hit the hardest?

McGregor, Shenato Conno. That's probably the most famous, right? Got to be. It's also the best. It's so unique. I mean, not for nothing. Israel and Asana doing a full dance routine before knocking out Robert Whitaker was gangster as shit.

Like that's probably... Oh, that both those fights. Oh, wow. Fuck. You, man. So was I. Sick. Oh, wow.

Wow. Both of you. It was really cultured. Brian Ortega's Purge walkout. You like that one a lot? I feel like that one's like hit or miss. People either love or hate it. I mean, there's like Volk walking out to that song.

Oh, down under. Are you kidding me? Everyone's singing with that. Anderson Silver. Ain't no sunshine. DMX. Yeah. Yeah, until walking out to no music.

Pantosia, many men. Yeah. Frankie Edgar. Damn, you know sold that Pantosia. No, no. Buclesner, enter Sandman, UFC 100. Yeah, that's a good one.

Taboria is up there for sure. Teporia is up there for sure. I've watched that international fight week from the Oliver fight last year. Smile. I've watched that like probably 50 times. It's so good. Anik being, like,

giving the whole breakdown of him moving up to 155. It's fantastic. Yeah, I can't wait. I always love Cis. Time to say goodbye. That was a great one. I was a Korean zombie, of course.

D.C.'s was always great, in my opinion. Steepay. I'm from the land. to la da. That was actually good. Him walking out to that in Cleveland was pretty hard. No? It's all right.

You know so many men. Yeah, I mean, many men every time. Here's Logan who says, Ariel, as someone who has ragged on Kansas multiple times, on behalf of Wichita State alum, Landry Shammett, please say something nice about Kansas. Peace and love, piece of love. Ah, Landry. God, I love Landry. I love this guy so much.

And I love him even more because of how nice he was to my son. I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but we went to a game. My son's wearing a Landry Shammit jersey, which I had to get custom made because you couldn't buy it in the store. Landry Shamit is, you know, he was the last guy to make the team. If not for Malcolm Brogden retiring, Landry's maybe not on the team, and he's become an unbelievable force. He was 12 for 13 from 3 in the Eastern Conference Finals,

and he saw my son wearing the 44, and my son asked him for an autograph, and then he saw it, and he's like, oh shit, love it. Took a picture of them, was super nice. He was just a gentleman And he seems like a gentleman He's actually a great photographer He has a great Instagram page

Landry shamet dot JPEG And he's shot the US Open Artsy stuff around New York It's pretty damn cool I love when I see athletes do stuff like that Anyway shout out to Landry Love the guy He's our shop shooter

And every time he shoots My son is like, it's going in And it always goes in It's unbelievable Are the Knicks where they are today With our fellow Wichita State Alumni Ron Baker. Okay, so yeah, people, I thought you were going to say Landry Schaubbett, but yes,

Ron Baker number 31, the mayor. You know, he's one of those, like, classic Knicks players that everyone likes to bring up Cle Anthony Early and Jerry on Grant and Langston Galloway, like, just like those cast of characters that we all sort of adored. I don't know about not where they are today, but he was on the same team as Ron Baker. Landry Shammett is actually a lot younger than I thought. He's only like 29 or so. Or maybe even less than that.

29 is correct. Is he 29? Yeah. So I think he was, was he in the same draft as Jalen Brunson and drafted before Brunson? That's what my son told me. That's definitely possible, yeah. Let's see, Landry Shammett. Where did he get, go with the Clippers?

Where was he drafted? Yeah, he was 2018 draft. And I think 2018. Jalen was the 33rd pick and Shammett was the 26 pick. To who? The Sixers. The Sixers. That is wild, man.

That is wild. Here's Mikey Z. Did you talk to Jake Shields at the MVP event off camera? So you may have seen Nate Diaz and I, you know, we buried the hatchet, Diaz, DC, myself, Jake Shields. I went to the open workout. Did I talk about this or no? I don't know if I talked about this.

I went to the open workout. And I saw Jake there. And obviously Jake has said a lot of things about me and about Jewish people and, you know, I don't think a lot of them were very nice. And so I walked right up to him. And I was just like, hey, Jake, how's it going? And shook his hand. And I wanted to know what would happen. He was very nice.

He asked to take a picture. He posted that picture. And I was like, all right, cool. Like it was just all very cordial. We're buds, we're buds. I saw him again at the Wayans. and this is all 100% factual. Hey Jake, how's it going?

I wanted to know. Like, he has said a lot of things about me. I wanted to know if he would say any of it to my family. I don't know. I think he was filming this time. And I did ask him, like, hey, man, why so much animosity towards my people? Like, what, what's the deal? Ah, man, you know, I know, I know.

I don't always mean it and stuff like that. And I was like, I wish you would chill. Because I know Jake, I've known him for so long. We were always very, very cool. But it was very nice. It was very cordial. It was very respectful. And that was it.

So I don't know. I haven't checked back in. I don't know if he's softened his stance. But it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. And it was a lot more cordial than I expected. Josh P. Hey, Ariel. Riscite C.

Bias aside, whose boxing performance was better? Francis against Tyson or Rico against Usook? Wow. I guess you would have to say Rico against Usook, right? Yeah. Yeah? I would say so, yes. I don't know.

He dropped Fury. He did drop Fury, but I think most people would agree he was a... I think it's the hot take that... I think people don't like when I say Francis won. I maintain that he won. I think at worst there was a draw. I had Tyson winning, but I mean, it was a close fight. I don't...

I haven't seen... a lot of people who said I had Usik winning that fight. No, he was not winning that fight. Now, after the knockdown it could have been pretty close and then obviously I think... After the knockdown, I had it 104, 104 going into the 12th. He would have been stepping on the gas

and the 12th. Probably could have finished Rico at that point but like both close fights, both incredible performances. I don't think either of those men did themselves a disservice in there. I thought they both like came off fantastically. Francis had less moments in my opinion. I thought Rico was looking so good

against what many considered to be the pound for pound best boxer in the world. Tyson Fury was not that, right? Tyson Fury was what many thought the best heavyweight at the time, but he was not a pound for pound guy in the way that Ussick has become. And Francis had that big moment and then some close kind of like not a lot of action rounds.

Rico was putting it on Usoc for some of these rounds. Just absolutely steamrolling. Do you think that these crossover fights are more palatable now on the back of Inganu and Rico's performances than they were after the McGregor fight? I have... I have... I was going to say, I have definitely had to shift my... These guys have no chance. I really did not think either guy had a chance.

And it's just now been like, okay, fuck, I'm an idiot. Like, they have a chance. They really do. Yeah. Here's another question regarding that fight. Cape Town Matt says, hey, Ariel, I have never been as pissed off as I was when the ref ended Rico's chances after the bell on Saturday night. I immediately thought, another example of boxing being boxing.

I then thought, let's see the scorecards, then we'll know for sure. And sure enough, I actually feel like there's a very good case to be made that the scorecards are even more egregious than the stoppage. Like, I can live with the, hey, I didn't hear it. I mean, it's a crazy thing to say as the referee, but fine. especially when they weren't in a 50,000 seat arena. How many people were there? 5,000, 6,000, 7, open air?

Have a hard time believing that, but fine. The scorecards are just indefensible. Anyway, he continues. My question is, how do you have the ability to call it out so easily? I spent hours after the fight, and in the days that followed, looking up views on what transpired. The amount of soft, roundabout takes made me sick. Of the proper voices, not one that I read was able to call it the disgrace that it was. if they are scared of some kind of backlash,

how do you get away with it? I never really understood the extent of number one most biased or most unbiased. I do now. Big ups to you and the whole crew. I will be honest, I didn't go around looking for other people's takes.

Did you guys see that as well? Were people not calling that? I feel like that was the easiest thing to say. Like, first the stoppage and then the scorecards, it was the easiest thing to call out. It wasn't really a hard one. I appreciate the question and sentiment, but I didn't feel like that was a hard one.

If it feels obvious, and the obvious isn't being called out. There's a reason for that. And sometimes people would be, you know, afraid of pissing someone off, relationships, their friends. Sometimes it's hard. In this case,

I felt like it was pretty damn easy to call it out. And not once did I say, like, I'm blaming the ring or I'm blaming Turkey. I thought it was admirable that Turkey was in the ring saying, like, no, I thought this guy got screwed essentially while they were trying to push the cabal thing because clearly that was the plan beforehand, and they were just doing what they were expecting him

or thinking that he would want them to do. And so credit to him for doing that and saying that. And again, maybe the judges were doing it on their own thinking like a debutante in boxing, couldn't possibly pull this off, or the ref was thinking like, oh, that's too much for him to handle. So it was never a promotional conspiracy theory on my part. It was just a bad set of decisions. and I feel like those are pretty easy to call out.

But it does play into that, right? Like, oh, boxing. It's awful. Yeah. It's a bad, bad night for them because, oh, here it goes again. Like, that's what it feels like. Well, there's also like this, you know, like even yesterday, I know some people are mad of me.

Like, I adore boxing. And I feel like you can call it out, but also say, hey, you know, there are times where they don't allow any other opinion or any other. figure to enter without being slagged off, as they say, and then when you call it out or when you question it, then that too makes you a hater per se. And so there's a lot of, and we use that word tribalism, I guess it's something like that. It's like this territorial thing of like, you stay in your lane and you have no idea what you're talking about. I think we're all very keenly aware at how difficult boxing is and how much talent you have to have to be a boxer. I'm not trying to

suggest that anyone can walk over and be great at boxing. We've seen some awful boxing over the course of the past five, six years. It just seems to me like there has been a trend now since the Connor McGregor fight of people at the highest level trying their hand and in that first showing doing pretty well. Now, you can also make a very strong case that in each one of those showings, the boxer didn't take the fight seriously. Like we know Mayweather didn't trained seriously for that fight. We know Tyson didn't train seriously for that fight, and the consensus seems to be that Usik didn't train. And so maybe that's part of the problem as well. Maybe if they do treat it as a true championship fight, it goes completely different. I don't know.

But it's now, once it happens three times, there's a bit of a trend there, right? Like, it's a thing, I would think. All right, we're going to get to more questions. Backend, Pitsy, if you can join us again. We have many more, and we also have a ton of news to get to. notes. So I wanted to get a few of those out of the way. But now let's get into the interviews if we can. And of course, on Saturday, it wasn't just about Rico Verhoeven and Alexander Usik. We did have another great show for the PFL in Belgium, which has become a very hot market for not just the PFL, but of course for MMA as well. And the face of it all is Patrick Habirora, who on this night disposed of the legend, the former UFC lightweight champion

Benson Henderson in just 20 seconds. It was a very, very quick showing. It was a great scene. Patrick is kind enough to join us right here now to talk about it all. Let us welcome in the one and only, Patrick Habirero. Hello, Patrick, how are you? And congratulations. Felicitacion, massive win for you.

Yeah, thank you very much. Happy to be here. Thank you, and everything went well. Did it last a lot shorter than you expected? Were you surprised that it was just 20 seconds long? Yeah, I was thinking he's going to shoot for the wrestling first, but when he learned the middle kick, it went so fast. The first hook connected directly, then I followed a few punches,

and he was already out. So, yeah, the left hook connected so quick, so well. It went so fast, yeah. How many times have you watched these 20 seconds of action? I think I just watched, because at this moment, when you see me raising my hand, I don't know what's going on. Like, I really don't understand what's happening.

I didn't know I was winning because it went really fast. Like 20 seconds, it's so fast. But, yeah, really nice fight. So even now, like, does it feel like a blur for you? Does it feel like some sort of dream that you had on Saturday? No. I was just thinking, like, okay, he's obviously not Benson-Underson Prime, but he still has, like, a ton of.

experience ahead of me so I was I was expecting maybe he's gonna shoot for a take down because I was seeing his match in Arman Sarukhian and also Arjama staring in rough wrestling so I was expecting from him to wrestle with me first and not to exchange but at the same time it was really the debut of the fight and I think I cocked him so well that he wasn't expecting that when you jumped out of the cage and it seemed like you threw your mouthpiece and you were talking to some people, was there someone in particular that you were going to speak to or were you just hyped to be there among your people?

No, no, it was just because of the adrenaline. You know, in Belgium, it's 10,000 people coming for me, seeing me winning. And when I won, it was so much noise and so much energy that I just lose a little bit of my temper. But I don't know how to explain, but after every fight, I will have a big amount of of energy coming of me and then I just explode. Yeah, no, I could certainly understand that. And when you have a fight that just lasts 20 seconds long,

is it hard for you to come down? Like, when you fight for 15 minutes, you're tired afterwards. Here, I would imagine you had so much adrenaline. How did you bring your sort of energy down after? Yeah, it's really weird because you like, I did so much preparation for this fight and I was in the locker room for a long time, you know, when you main event you wait all the card. to finish. So it was really weird to, okay, it's already finished. And Donald is already asking the

question. You're like, damn, I'm not even tired. You know, it's a little bit awkward. But at the same time, as I said in the cage, all the respect to the legend he was because he did in MMA what I never did still now. So he was the best in the world at one point. And I'm aiming to do that also. So yeah. What was the difference for you this time around as opposed to last year? We talked when this fight was announced about you fighting in Belgium, but now coming back as a more established star, as a more established draw as the man, so to speak. What was it like? What was the difference?

As you're saying, I was more established as a star, so it was 10,000 people. Last time we did the first time, we did the big stage. So it was 8,000 people. Now I told them, like, hey, you can't put 10,000 and just leave the stage because it's going to be full. so packed and so everything. So we had to make it happen to have more seats for the people. And all the country of Belgium just showed up. It was really incredible.

Amazing. Did you have a lot of family and friends there as well? Yeah, I have my family who came. I have my friends who came. So it was really nice. Like, you know, when you dream about something, I remember when I was starting MMA and now I did two times main events in my home country, MMA has never touched Belgium

like a world-class league never came in Belgium ever. It was the first time, two times in a row, two times main event, two times sold out back to back. It's crazy. What do you say, Patrick, to some people, and I'll admit, I brought it up as well,

who felt like this was a mismatch that Benson Henderson shouldn't be there with them. I really understand that. First of all, what people have to understand is I don't fight who I want, but I take who the PFL gives me. And I think the strategy of the PFL wanted to meet, to fight an American that people knows already

and who's famous already. So if I beat him, something's going to be like, okay, he beat that name. I think they took Bess and understand for the name and not for what he is maybe now, because, of course, obviously, he's not in his prime anymore. But at the same time, I'm not in my prime also. the fact that I beat him so quick

maybe make people think that okay he wasn't good but I do believe that he had fighting another guy it might be not that quick you know it's just because I knock him on so quick that it makes my win sometimes look like

the guy in front of me is not good remember with Kevin Joucet he was doing a war with a Brian Battle in UFC and me I beat him in two minutes so people think Kevin Joucet is not good but that's not truth that's true No, it's a very fair point.

You did mention Mike Perry afterwards, and I saw on your Twitter that you said that you were kind of asked by the PFL to call out Mike Perry. Can you clarify that? Yeah, I think it was something. Yeah, people asked me to say about his name, but I think there is some discussion maybe in the works. This is not my job. If somebody asked me to say something and I work, I do it.

This is my work. At the end of the day, I'm not focused. on Mike Perry at all. You know, I'm focused to going in front of me, so I think about fighting guys, and I know we are talking about some guys for the next, it will be a really good

fight because the guys are really... Okay, we may have lost you there. Do you still hear me? Yeah, I hear you. Do you hear me? Yes, the connection isn't great, but it's kind of coming and going, so I'll keep fighting through it, as they say. Do you hear me?

I hear you, but I think there's a delay. it's very choppy like we can't really see you are you are you on Wi-Fi okay yeah I was on Wi-Fi but maybe Wi-Fi

everything seems should we reconnect what do you think guys we'll reconnect with it okay we'll reconnect with you real quick we're gonna reconnect with Patrick Mujiwara comes from

the manja manga One piece? You guys familiar with One Piece? One Piece. Yeah. Good stuff. He's from Belgium.

Now more, to be exact. 25 years old. 9 and 0. 8 career wins via knockout, one via decision. 7 career first round stoppages. 9 fights. 7 in France, 2 in Belgium. Absolute stud.

Quickest win of his career. Quickest loss of Benson's career as well. This is one of those guys that the PFL needs to make. sure that they do not lose. Usman or Magamadeov, don't lose them. Dakota Dichiva, don't lose her. Patrick Habirora, don't lose him. Try to get Cedric Dumbay back. You've got some names there. Coincidentally, none of them are American. Doesn't matter. You've got some names. That was Benson's first fight in over three years. When he was UFC champion, Patrick was just 12 years old. When Benson made his pro debut, Patrick was five years old.

It's been a while. And I do wonder if that's the last time we'll see Benson Henderson compete in MMA. Grappling, wrestling, a little bit different. But it does seem as though the chin may be going. This happens to the vast majority of fighters' father time, as they say, undefeated. And so it's hard because, I mean, there was once a time, I was going to say not that long ago, but I mean, now it's 2012 he's fighting in Japan as UFC lightweight champion. That's 14 plus years ago.

It is a long time. He's been fighting for about 20 years. And he was a massive favorite Patrick was going into that fight. There's some interesting names at 170. He's a 170 pounder, but like, man, could you, like him, it might be a little too soon, but him versus someone like Thad Gene, who I know is fighting for the belt coming up. would be tremendous theater. Two great young, homegrown, if you will, talents,

both very young. How old is Dadgene? That Jean. Patrick is 25. Thad Jean is 27. These are the kinds of guys that PFL has to invest in early on. Try to build up. Try to get their name out there.

Do we have Patrick or no? Okay. Still to come. Colby Covington, Holly Home, Adam Azim, more questions and comments, super chats, news and notes, all those things and more. On a Wednesday, not a Tuesday, and so everything is weird and off. Tomorrow, of course, boys in the back, Friday, crack, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All right, I do believe we have, Patrick, let's say hello to him. Can you see him?

Is he better? Yes, much, much better. I see you, I hear you. Okay, perfect. And so you did say also in that tweet, it seems like you may know already who might be next for you, but you can't say just yet. Is that accurate?

We have names. We have names on the table. So names are coming on the table. It's obviously guys with a ton of experiences. There is also a former champion from former organization. So it's going to be a good name. There is also UFC veteran. but a good one also

and I'm just looking to going up so I will see what the PFL decides for me but I know it's going to be a good fight obviously Are there any names in particular or a name in particular that gets you most excited? Right now no I don't have any names that gets me that excited I would say more like coming close in the rankings

maybe close to the belt also and getting bigger in the experience to get reaching the top of my 11. So I'm still on the debut, but I'm really excited to reach the top. But I know there is some name on the table. I'm just waiting for them to just announce it.

And I want to fight also outside of France of Belgium. Now I want to go a little bit abroad. Okay. For the next one, would you like it to be in the United States or somewhere else? Yeah, United States would be a banger. I think it would be nice to fight on the U.S. Seoul or maybe Dubai also,

or maybe other places, but I want to fight maybe outside. Yeah, okay. Start fighting outside of France or Belgium and just to see how it goes in the world stage. And how about your feelings towards PFL? Sometimes we get superstars, rising stars like you, and they're outside of the UFC,

and people say, do you want to go to the UFC or do you want to sign with the UFC? Do you feel like you are getting treated? Well, are you still happy there? Do you feel like it's the perfect place for you? How are you feeling right now? Actually, with the PFL, I'm feeling well. I'm good where I am.

I'm getting treated really well. They make me evolve as a fighter. They took me. I was 22 years old. Now I'm turning, I just turned 25. It's been really two years since I signed with them because I was doing, I did one shot before. And from all my fight, I did five fights with them and I've been growing in the PFL and everything is going well. I'm really not seeing the end right now with the PFL.

peaceful. I'm good where I am and I'm in the contract of them. I still have fights on it, so I'm just going to do my fights. It also does feel like, you know, at least for me, at this stage of your career, if you were in another organization, let's say the UFC, you're probably not headlining in Belgium this soon, but it feels like they're really pushing you as one of their faces. Yeah, I think they understood also the amount of hype I got in Belgium and in France and all the French-speaking countries. I think this is nice to just let the chains

to prove it. And I just needed a chance and I got it. So now I'm proving it two times in a row with the main event in the PFL. And I'm really willing to fight even more and more. And yeah, I'm just focused on the next fight now. I'm waiting for them

to drop the name, but I know it's going to be a good one. And obviously, it's going to be a good challenge for me also to fight that type of opponent. With great success also comes scrutiny. Do you feel like now you are getting more of that, more of that sort of negativity as you become more and more popular? Yeah, for me, I really discuss a lot in my coach and my team and my friends

because I think it was the first time in my career that you can get, like, you're winning, but you get also critics. Yeah. And at the same time, first, I was like, oh, I don't like it, why something is happening to me and I'm winning. I don't understand why people are critiquette. I'm sending like hate comments or something like that. And then I understood everything is going well for me. I'm winning, obviously.

And I won so fast against Benson. People are like, he should not fighting this type of fighter anymore. He should fight like the elite. and that means that actually it's a compliment they want me to see they want to see me fighting like the best of the best

of the best because they think that I deserve to be at this place if I was not good in MMA they would not speak about me like that that doesn't care about who I fight but now they want me to fight the best of the best in the world so they think I'm already there

and me as an athlete inside of MMA I know I'm not there yet but I'm tend to be so it's like a bad between what the fans want and what's good for me because I still need experience. We've seen so many rising stars, so many prospect fighting big guys after two, three wins, and then, okay, one loss, two loss, three loss, back in the road. Then nobody talks about you anymore.

Can I ask you to clarify a story that I saw making the rounds, especially in Belgium? Was there an issue with you and a media member and your team asked him to leave the press conference and all this stuff? No. What happened here? On this, I don't have any comments because I'm going to clarify this situation. Me and this person of the media, we didn't talk together or the whole week. We didn't exchange any message and we didn't talk.

So all this story, I don't know about this. Okay. Because this story doesn't include me. It includes other people. And my name obviously came in it because the only comment I have on this is I said, me and this person because we know each other personally, I won't respond to these questions. That's it. But we didn't have any of, you know, we didn't even talk to each other, didn't say hi, didn't see each other. So all this discussion is between him and other person, but my name

obviously is in the story. So obviously, I think that's what make more clicks on the net also. So yeah. Of course. Yeah. And I see a lot of the fans in Belgium talking about. I just want to ask, Was he removed from the press conference? Honestly, he was not on the press conference, but I think what's happened is maybe the people just wants something to be peaceful, and I don't want people to argue, so maybe they remove it for that. But if I had to be honest, me personally, I don't want to answer to these questions. I understand.

But the thing is, because we know each other personally, I'm not talking about the media. but if I has to be honest this guy if there is no problem if there is no argument with other people everyone should be free to come but if you argue with people and maybe you shot in the hotel or something like that the organization will not let you go in

but if everything is peaceful it's not a problem to have problems with fighters at the end of the day maybe the fighter doesn't answer to your question or he doesn't want to respond to your question or you don't ask him questions but the end of the day there is not only one fighter on the car, there is so many guys. So you can talk to other guys and you can do your thing peacefully.

But I think everything will go in order because this is not a big deal. Yes, and this happens quite often. It's been happening. Yeah, it's not a big deal. And as long as I'm saying, we didn't talk to each other. So at the moment I'm talking right now, if I never speak to him, he never speak to me, my name should not be brought in this story and I should not be involved in. I understand. Because this fight was so short, would you like to come back soon very fast?

Because I would imagine no injuries, right? It was a short fight, but a long camp. Really hard camp because we took the vice-war champion of grappling, IBGF. His name is Shai. He came in my preparation. We got so many great sparring partner. We did this preparation. We did like three months and a half of preparation, so it was a long camp. Now I want to come back also after the summer. Right after the summer, I would like to come back and fight abroad. So I'm waiting for the date.

They're looking for it. And then one day you're going to have it. I'm going to be on it, obviously. I saw you presenting an award at Le Flam. Yes. Is that a big award show in France? Yeah, I would say like in the music, in the French-speaking show, it's like, you know, a little bit the Grammys.

something like that. Wow. It's the same thing. Yeah, yeah. This is big time stuff, mainstream stuff. Yeah, because I'm doing also

many stuff outside of the MMA, I'm doing also a modeling career right now, so I do a lot of stuff. I did Fashion Week. I have my life outside of MMA, and I have also MMA. It does not look like the picking blinders.

I love it. What do these modeling agents think about you getting punched in the face? Well, you don't really get punched all that often, but... No, they said, They said, if I get pushed in the face, I obviously won't cut off, but since the moment,

I don't have any scars on the face. I can still do it. Yeah. But now you're like, you're maybe affecting the modeling career if you continue to fight. I would imagine you like the fighting more than the modeling, though, if you had to choose. I started MMA. The way I get in the modeling career, it was really something like coming out of a movie. I was in a recent party of a friend of mine who's a famous pianist.

He's going to do the stadium of France, football stadium. I was in my friends, 80,000 people. Wow. And I was at his release, part of his album, and the guy saw me and told me, like, we want you to work for us. That's literally how it went.

Wow, wow. So it's no about agency. It's like you in the streets, the front of the brand saw you, and they cast you like real life. Like, we want you to work for us. And then I started the modeling career like that. I wasn't expecting me doing modeling.

Now I did the new collection, not from Paris, Madame. So everything is going well, but it was something like I couldn't expect. Wow. That is incredible, but I'm not surprised. Can I ask, how do you think Belgium does in the World Cup? I think we have a really young team.

Obviously, they're all my age. So between 21 and 27, there is Kevin DeBronstein, and Romero, Romenu Lukaku, and some guys like that, but it's the end of their career. I think it's a young team, but we have a lot of potential. I hope they're going to make a good World Cup there is really obviously a favorite team

like France and other countries but I believe that Belgium have a strong team also and they're going to maybe do some damage in this World Cup but it's a young team

so we have to be patient we don't have to rush with them because we had the golden generation back in the day it was amazing but now we have a new generation it's just the first time let them be just

we should be patient and wait to see what they're going to do. Last World Cup, you guys broke my heart. Canada played you guys in the first match. I'm Canadian. Canadian. We made a penalty kick. Jonathan David, I think it was.

Or maybe no, it was Alfonso Davies who took the kick, but it was supposed to be Jonathan David. Anyway, I'm very excited. I love World Cup. I love soccer, football, as you call it. So that's very excited. And the Belgian fans should be excited, but they should be very excited about you,

all the great things that you are doing. So well done. Yeah, for me, it's one of the best public the world, if not the best. But my country is really supporting me so well. Imagine a small country like Belgium, 10,000 people only for MMA, coming from a guy, coming from a small town, and bringing the PFO in Belgium two times in a row right now.

It's really amazing. And I'm just looking for what the next. And now to have Belgium guys flying across the world to see me fight all around the war is going to be amazing. I love that. I love that. Well, congratulations on another great night for you, another great win. looking forward to the next one.

Great to have you on the show, as always, Patrick. Yes. Thank you very much for the invitation. And yeah, every guys who likes knockouts, just know now. Just follow me and you're going to see Badjam Bomber on top. I love it. Thank you, Patrick. All the best to you.

Thank you. We'll talk to you soon. Patrick Habirora, who had another great win, still undefeated. This won a 22nd knockout of the former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson. He's now 9 and 0, 5 in the PFL. They are really pushing him and I think with good reason. Okay, about a month or two ago, we had Colby Covington on the program for the first time in quite some time. And wouldn't you know it? He's back on the program. He made some news last week. Well, he didn't actually make it. I guess the word got out, but we haven't heard from

him about like where this all came from, why it came out. Is it true? Is it not? And so, He's kind enough to join us just a couple of days before he co-headlines the next R-AF show in Dallas against Chris Wydenman. There he is. Twice in like a month and a half or so, Kobe? I think we're officially back now. We're officially back like we never left, my brother. I love it. Well, welcome back.

There's a lot to talk to you back about. I see you reppping RIF there. I see you reppping the beer, of course. We will get to all the RIF stuff in a moment. No doubt about it. Oh, zero, by the way. Is that a new one? I didn't know they had the zero.

Yeah, so we came up with Zero at Real American Beer because, you know, a lot of the kids of this generation, they don't want to drink. They don't want to be hung over and be unproductive the next day. So Zero is the perfect combination that you can be still social with your friends, have a beer, but you're not going to have the benefits of, you know, being hung over and being unproductive the next day. So check out Real American Beer Zero. We formulated it for our boy, Brantley Gilbert, and it's taken over. I love that. I love that. That is good, especially for the kids. Colby, we got news like a week or so ago that you had retired from the UFC and were no longer in the promotion. Can you clear this up? Tell us your side of the story. What's going on here? Yeah. So I had a good meeting with Hunter and, you know, we just talked about the future and we talked about everything that's been done and all the business we've done.

And it was a productive meeting. And I just said that, you know, I'm very thankful for everything that, you know, the UFC is allowed. allowed me to be able to do in my life and all the blessings that I've received from them. But, you know, this is the next step in my combat sports career is to join wrestling full time. My first true love and passion, you know, I started wrestling when I was in diapers and I was a little kid and it was family business, you know, to go into the wrestling world. So now I can get back to, you know, doing what I love the most, you know, which is wrestling. This is my first love. So it's amazing, you know, what Chad Bronstein's done with Real American Freestyle. And, you know,

this was just the red, the proverbial red tape that needed to be done to be able to clear up the biggest and best matches in raft. So there's no limitations to who I can wrestle. I want to wrestle everybody. I want to wrestle, you know, arm and I want to wrestle cum shot. I want to wrestle Marty Usman. You know, we have unfinished business. You know, we need to finish this trilogy. You know, I want to wrestle all these UFC guys, you know, but I can't get too ahead of myself. You know, this weekend I have a tough competitor in front of me with Chris Wybman. But, you know, it was just a formality, you know. And Hunter blessed me, you know, he gave me his blessing.

And it's all good. It's all love. My thing, though, is I didn't need one of these crazy retirement packages, our Ariel. I didn't need, oh, this is my life retirement package. Look at me and look at what I did. Oh, blah, blah, blah. I didn't need that, you know.

It wasn't about that. You know, I'm thankful to all the fans. I'm thankful to the great journalists like yourself. And, you know, I'm just moving on to bigger and better things. So did you call for the meeting with Hunter and ask him to essentially let you go, or did they come to you with an idea and you said, you know what, this is not what I want right now? No, so me and Hunter, we had a great meeting in Miami, and he was in town for the Miami show. And we just started talking about everything. And, you know, I just told him that I wanted all these big matchups freed up for me in Real American Freestyle.

You know, I was going back and forth with Chad. And, you know, I didn't want anything to hold me up and getting the big matchups in raft with all that. active UFC fighters. So, you know, it's just kind of what had to be done. I wasn't let go, Ariel. You know, I'm still a UFC fighter. I'll always be a UFC fighter. If I come back to fight again, it will be in the UFC. Okay, interesting. And so are you even allowed? Like, let's say someone comes to you and says, hey, we'd like you to fight this guy in this organization. Are you even allowed to do that, or are you still contractually tied to them as far as MMA is concerned? Yeah, I'm still a UFC fighter. You know, I'm still under contract with the UFC.

all still good with the UFC. I'm very thankful for everything they did for me. You know, shout out to Hunter Campbell, Dana White, Ari Emanuel, all the great team that makes UFC what it is, you know, from the girl working backstage to Heidi, you know, to Steve working security to Ozzy, you know, working, you know, sponsorships on the UFC. I'm appreciated to every single,

and I know I'm missing a lot of names, and I'd like to shout them out and say thank you, but just from the bottom of my heart, I'm very thankful to everybody at UFC for what they've done to me. but now it's about getting back to my true love and passion and not letting me hold me back from wrestling the biggest and best matchups in real American freestyle. Do you think you have fought your last MMA fight?

You know, it's 50-50. You know, I don't think I have because I know I have a lot left in the tank. I know there's a lot of good miles still left on the tread, but, you know, I don't know. I can't predict the future. Only God knows that. So, you know, I trust God's plan. And, you know, I'm just going to keep following along this,

journey the way that he intended for me to go on it. So, you know, this is my calling. I feel like this was my calling. If they would have had a platform like this with We're American Freestyle, you know, I never would have been in the UFC. So seeing Chad Bronstein, seeing Izzy Martinez, Eric Bischoff, the vision that they've created in reality. I mean, you got to think about, Ariel. Wrestling is one of the oldest sports of all time. It never had popularity like it does now. Now, we're on Fox Nation, like one of the biggest platforms in the world. I mean, We're headlining shows here in Dallas this weekend. You know, we'll be in Milwaukee.

We'll be in St. Louis. We'll be in Cleveland. We'll be in Ohio. And to be a part of that, and I'm an investor, too. I invested in Real American Freestyle with my harder money. I love this vision that Chad Bronsstein has. I believe in it. And just seeing what it's building up to.

I mean, you have to be there to feel it. Where are you been, Aaron? What are you going to come out to a Real America freestyle, man? I'm overdue. Seeing is believing, my brother. Seeing is believing. And when you feel the electricity of a real American freestyle crowd, you'll understand why it's the fastest growing sport in the world.

I will be honest, I don't need to be sold. I believe in it. I really do enjoy the product. I believe in what Chad, Eric, Izzy, all of you are doing, but I am overdue. I really would like to go. It's just a matter of figuring it out. You were saying we there, and then I was thinking it's like you almost come across as a promoter as someone who has an investment in it, and then you said you did invest.

I didn't know that. And so how did that come about? Was that from the get-go, or is that something that happened recently? Yeah, so, you know, when I first heard about it from Chad and Hulk Hogan, you know, when Hulk Hogan walked me out for my last fight, you know, I loved it. I loved the vision that they had for their freestyle wrestling and making it the Mecca. And, you know, and then when I got to see it firsthand, you know, when I competed against Luke Rockhold in a sunrise Florida, I got to see the electricity of the crowd.

I got to see the fan engagement, the kids, the families, all the people that came out to support this great sport. And I was all in. I told him right away. I wanted to invest my harder money and I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to help lead the future so wrestlers can have, you know, a platform to make money and, you know, supplement their income in life. So, you know, now I'm a part of the company. And, you know, I just, I truly believe in what Chad, Izzy and Eric are doing. And I'm just so thankful to be a part of it. When you told Hunter that you wanted to go all in on this, did he try to convince you to stay? Did he offer you something? something, one more fight, one last hurrah, that type of thing, a retirement fight, if you will?

Um, I don't, I don't know. I don't want to get into too much of the, the nitty gritty with Hunter. You know, I respect his privacy and the conversations we've had have been nothing but good. And, you know, I don't want to give these details because, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to, it's not about hurting his feelings. I just, I don't want to lose his trust. And I know I have the trust in the faith of Hunter and the UFC. So, you know, if I wanted to do another fight, for sure, it could have happened. But, you know, Real American Freestyle, this is my true love, Ariel. This is what I started in. There was, before there was UFC, Colby, it was wrestling, Colby.

And that's my whole life. I was 24-7, eating, sleeping, and breathing wrestling. So to have this platform where I can, you know, shine on a world stage, this is what I want to be doing my life right now. I don't want to be doing mixed martial arts. I want to be doing real freestyle wrestling. Do you think, you know, I have to ask because not that long ago, not with us, but with other media outlets when you're doing interviews, you did seem a little bit upset about not being on this White House card. Did that feeling, which it doesn't feel like you feel that way anymore, and I respect that and time evolves, people cool down, whatever, do you think that led to this decision for you? Did that crystallize something in your brain that led to you feeling this way? You know, to be honest, at that time, Ariel, it was a lot of people around me that were more frustrated than I was. And I think that came to a boiling point in one of my interviews where I kind of just, I kind of snapped and I lost it.

And I wasn't the regular real me, you know, I let the emotions of my family, you know, they were disrespected. They felt hurt. They felt this and that. But when I really sat down and I really evaluated, you know, everything that's going on in my life, You know, the, the partnership I have with Real American Freestyle, the partnership I have for real American beer and carrying on the legacy of my hero, Hulk Hogan, I realize I have nothing but to be thankful for. Why should I complain? Why should I, you know, be sad and down? I should be thankful. I feel I should be grateful for, you know, the vision of Chad Bronstein. So, you know,

it just took a little time to pass to cool down and realize, you know, my perspective on life in my career and you know I'm cool. You know, I'm very thankful for everything I've accomplished in the UFC, but now I want to accomplish even greater things than real American freestyle. You mentioned the package, the video package, the, you know, the final send-off that we've seen some fighters get. Why do you not want that? Why is that not of interest to you?

Just because I don't have an ego and they don't need to appease my ego. So, you know, a lot of these fighters, they want to feel important, they want to feel special, like, oh, you care about me, this and that. I know I'm loved. I know I'm cared for by the UFC. They made me, you know, from, you know, a kid from a small town in Oregon who had absolutely nothing. My family had nothing, a blue collar family to a self-made millionaire now.

You know, I'm very grateful. I don't need some crazy package to feel appreciated. I know I'm appreciated. And, you know, it's all love and respect to the UFC. Very thankful for what they did for me. But, yeah, I don't need to send off package, you know, because I'm not really sending off. I'm not retiring, man. Colby Covington, people ask me every day, Colby, when are you going to compete again? What are you going to compete again? Hey, well, guess what? In Real American

Freestyle, Colby's going to be traveling like a rock star. I'm wrestling in Dallas this weekend. I'm going to go Milwaukee next month. We're going to go St. Louis. We're going to go Vegas. It's going to be a rock show. We're going on tour. So if you want to see Kobe Covington compete, come to a Real American Freestyle. We're just getting started. And that's this weekend, you versus Chris Wyden. Obviously, there's a lot of matchups that people want to see you in. There's the Hamza, you know, rivalry, if you will, the Bo-Nickle rivalry, the Usman rivalry, as you mentioned, the Armin rivalry. How does Chris Weidman fit into all of this? How did this come about? Yeah, Chris Weidman came about because, you know, he's a legend of the

game, you know, first ballot, Hall of Famer, UFC champion, two-time Division I won All-American. You know, I only want the biggest and hardest challenges. And when I went to Chad Bronsty and I said, Chad, I don't want easy matches like Armans looking for. I'm not looking to go against guys that are 30 pounds lighter than me. I want the biggest and best matchups. And, you know, Chris Wyman is that. You know, he's been all-American for a reason. You know, his pedigree is unmatched to a lot of the fighters and wrestlers of today.

So it's a great challenge for me. And he's a bigger guy. It's a David and Goliath-type match. You know, he's going to have significant weight on me. So I'm excited to get out there and compete, you know, against the hardest challenges that I can get in real American freestyle. And what is the weight class for this one? So the weight class for this one is 200 pounds. And I've never weighed above 200 in my life.

So we're giving him a significant advantage in the weight department. But, you know, the heart department and the skill department, it can't be matched with me. Wow. So how much do you expect to weigh? You know, it's been tough. I've been on the Michael Phelps diet. You know, I've been eating as much as I can, eating carbs at like midnight before I go to bed just to keep a little extra weight on.

and I'll probably weigh like, you know, the most I've ever weighed, like 95 is what I'm guessing I'll come in at, maybe 92, 92 to 95 somewhere in there. When you would fight, you know, your peak, like a title fight at 170, what are you usually walking into the cage at? Usually about 182, 183. Okay, so this is bigger. This is more than you've ever really competed at at the highest level.

Yeah, this will be the most I've ever competed at the highest level. So I'm excited for the challenge, you know. They say it's not the, the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog. So you're going to see that Saturday night only on Fox Nation. And just curious, because you mentioned, I believe June is St. Louis, and then there's Milwaukee, and there's a whole bunch of other events coming up, and some that I know they haven't announced just yet. We don't know those opponents. Do you know those opponents? Do you already have your summer lined up? Only Chad Bronsty knows those opponents.

You know, he's the matchmaker of the year, man. At the MMA awards this year, I better expect to see Chad Brown sitting on the ballot because he's the greatest visionary and the greatest matchmaker combat sports has ever seen. So he's going to put together the biggest and best matchups that fans want to see. And there's nothing holding us back anymore. There's no this, that, retired, not retired. We're going to go after everybody. We're going to look for the tough matchups. And whatever Chad has in store, I'll be ready for. I'm training the hardest I've ever trained. I'm in my peak shape. And I just can't wait to get on that Real American Freestyle, Matt. One thing we had heard in the past is that the UFC wasn't too keen on two active UFC fighters competing against each other, but now it seems like that's out the window.

So you versus Armin, even though you're not in the same way class or you versus Hamzad, all those matches can be made. Is that accurate? Yep, that's accurate. Nothing's holding us back anymore. I'm not an active UFC fighter anymore. So yeah, we're going to look for all those matchups. You know, Armand's talked a lot of smack about me, but he hasn't showed up and signed no papers to see me on a mat. So, you know, he's looking for the easy way out. So I just want to get Armin before he gets exposed against Ilya. Okay. And so could I ask, like, could you rank those for me? I guess like Hamza, you've got some big time feuds there. Hamzat, you've got Armin, you've got Bo, you've got Camaro.

Maybe I'm missing one. You tell me, like, which one do you want the most with one being the one that you want the most in that order? So number one is a countryman of your country, you know, Georgia's St. Pierre. I forgot about it. You know, nothing's ever going to substitute him. He's the goat of the UFC, the goat of the World Tway Division. So, of course, I want George of St. Pierre.

I want to see him back on that, Matt. I know the fans want to see him. We love him. You know, I love him. You know, everybody respects him. So we'd love to see GSP number one. Number two, probably Armin. He's talked a lot of smack and ran his mouth and said this and that.

So love to see Armin. Comzat, number three. Actually, you know what? Number three would be Usman. You know, this trilogy, needs to happen. We have unfinished business from our UFC days and I know I'm a better athlete

than him, so I want to prove it. I want to prove the test of time that I'm a better athlete and a better winner. So, Usman number three, Kamsat number four and then number five, maybe that cross-eyed dildo, what's his name? That Palestinian fuck. I can't remember his

name. Balah Muhammad. Okay. Could I ask, are you surprised that Hamzad and Dylan are going up against each other. I think a lot of people were surprised by that matchup. And who do you think wins? I'm not surprised.

You know, Dylan's a great competitor. You know, he's a world champion. You know, he coached Connor McGregor. So, you know, he's competed at the highest level. He's a great competitor. He's a big guy, too. He's strong. So it'll be a great match.

I'm excited to see it. I'm not surprised, though. And I'm looking forward to seeing what Coms out can do on the freestyle wrestling, Matt. Everybody talks about his wrestling, how good it is. But every time I see him wrestling, he's gassing out. You know, he gassed out against him. to Usman, I thought he lost that fight.

You know, he gassed out the last fight with Strickland. He gassed out against Burns. So let's see if he gasses out in six minutes on a real American freestyle mat. Speaking of, speaking of Hamzad, you were never afraid to rile people up, the trash talk, the buildup and whatnot. What did you make of the buildup to that fight with Strickland? And then how the fight played out in the aftermath. What did you think of that whole thing?

I thought it was all fake from the start. And they revealed their true colors. It was embarrassing that they were like hugging and kissing. They were best friends after all the... animosity and all the tension that they had leading up into it. And then, you know, the fight and afterwards, they're acting like best buddies, you know. It was just, I hated it. I thought it looked just so fake and, you know, they don't know how to work.

So it just, it was embarrassing, you know, it truly was embarrassing. You know, you got the fans, you sold them on this and that, this rivalry, this drama, this real beef. And then you guys are going out there and you're hugging and kissing afterwards and complimenting each other after all the family remarks and religious remarks and this and that, it was disgusting. I didn't like it. Have you ever been in a feud, so to speak, where you said stuff about someone, you didn't like them very clearly leading up to the fight, and then you fought them and felt dramatically

different about them in the immediate aftermath? Not really. Not on a personal level, maybe on like a competitive level, you know, where I'm like, okay, you know, we just spent 25 minutes in a cage trying to kill each other. so it's a little different but you know all the things you know that have happened in my career and all the things said you know we're we're all truthful facts and a lot of a lot of a lot of truth so you know I never take anything back you know I have no regrets in life and no regrets about anything I've said so but when you step in a cage with someone definitely it gives you a little bit more respect because

you know you're taking their brain cells you're taking their health and you know you're taking the ultimate risk with your with your life around the time that the news of of your you know departure from the ufc came out people were saying oh maybe he's going to be on another MVP mMA card did you watch that card and if so what did you think of it and would you be interested or can that not even happen given the conversations that you've had with hunter um yeah i wasn't able to catch that card i think uh yeah it was streaming on netflix or something i uh canceled my netflix subscription you know like a year ago when I found out how woke they were and they were like, you know, showing like transgenderism to kids and like teaching kids about sex. Like, come on, let kids be kids, man. Let them

play with toys and stuff. So I was disgusted by the whole Netflix stuff. So I canceled my subscriptions. I didn't catch the fights. But no, I could never go anywhere else, brother. I'm, I'm a UFC fighter for life. And, you know, I'm thankful to be a UFC fighter. They made me, you know, a very successful man and, you know, a man that can make an impact and do good in the future. And just curious, your last fight was in December of 2024. Why did it take so long a year and a half later for this decision to come about? Did you consider doing this earlier? I know RAF is a thing now and it wasn't a thing in 24. It came to be in August of 25. But, you know, why so long after the last fight? That's a great question, honestly, Ariel. That's a very great.

question. To my recollection, you know, Real American Freestyle, you know, what they've done in less than a year, they've only been, you know, in business for, I think, seven or eight months. So it's pretty incredible. Once I realized, you know, six or seven, eight months ago when Real American Freestyle started, I knew I was all in and that's what I wanted to do. And there was nothing else. So, you know, I just, I don't know, I didn't think it was a big deal to have to go to the UFC and be like, oh, I'm retired, this and that, you know, like. Because honestly in my heart area, I don't feel like I'm retired. You know, I know still have a lot of fight left in me, and I'm going to be a fighter until I die.

So I'm never going to retire from the sport. You know, that's just not me. It was never my plan to ever retire from the sport. So, you know, I think it was just at this point, it was just, you know, to get through the red tape so I could get the active fighters. You know, that's why we did it now. But why I didn't do it before is because, you know, I didn't need the video package. I didn't need people to, you know, give me encouraging. like, oh, it's going to be okay, Colby, oh, the next chapter, this and that.

No, it's not a big deal. Like, life goes on, you know, there's more important stuff to life, like good health and, you know, your family that matters than, you know, being selfish and getting a retirement package or going and retiring. So, you know, I don't know. I just didn't feel like I needed it. I remember when we found out about, you know, the White House and whatnot, Kyle Dawkes insinuated that you might be with him in his corner, walk him out,

and then he said it again, not that long ago. This is coming up. It's in about two and a half weeks. Are you going to be there with Kyle Dachas as he fights Boe Nickel? No, unfortunately, I won't be there, Ariel. You know, we have more important business for Real American Freestyle. On June 13th, we have Real American Freestyle St. Louis. It's going to be an incredible show.

So, you know, I just couldn't leave Real American Freestyle. Now that I'm an investor in the company, my full focus in energy is on Real American Freestyle, being there for the company, being there for the wrestlers, and helping those guys build themselves up. So I just didn't have the time. I do have to go to D.C. on the 11th, do a speaking engagement for weaponization watch, and then I'll fly right out to St. Louis the next day of the 12th, where American Freestyle 13th. And then I'll go with my good buddy and an investor in Real American Beer and Noah Schwartz.

We'll go to Las Vegas and play some WSOP poker tournaments. Okay. Yes, I know you're big into that, right? Is that the big one? I'm not a huge poker guys. Is that like the main one every year? You're a part of that? The big one will be the first weekend in July. Okay. This is like all the preliminary events leading up to it. So there's a bunch of good tournaments. Like there's a tournament we like to play. It's a PLO and it's like a $25,000 buy-in. So we'll go play that and we'll play some other cash games. And it's just, it's just nothing like the competition of poker. And that's the mecca. You know, That's the one month of the year that everybody comes from all around the world and they gamble and they put in the action. And, you know, it's just a lot of fun and good adrenaline. Since you are so connected to R.A.F., can I ask you about the thought process in terms of like the secret sauce? I'm not as in tune with the wrestling community. We've debated this on the show.

Like I'm captivated when guys like you compete, Wydenman compete, Bo Nickle. I know these guys from M.MA. And then I know of like the Kyle Snyders and the Kyle Dakes, but I would be lying if I say I've followed their careers and I'm so in touch with the wrestling community. And so from your perspective, what's the secret sauce in terms of like, you know, catering to those hardcore wrestling fans who want to see those guys, maybe even like the Jordan Burroughs of the world, do this and have something to do post Olympics, post college. and then also these sort of fantasy matchups seeing the UFC stars, the MMA stars, wrestle. Is it, you know, MMA versus MMA that they want?

Do they want MMA versus hardcore collegiate or Olympic wrestler? What's the secret sauce to like making these cards and making this as successful as possible? Hopefully I understand what I'm talking about. Yeah, yeah. No, definitely. I completely understand what you're saying.

And I think the secret sauce is just these guys being able to develop a little bit of a persona, you know, and just having a little swat, having a little swag and not being afraid to open their mouth and, you know, use your mouth to, you know, intrigue the fans, get people drawn in to want to watch Real American Freestyle on Fox Nation. A lot of wrestlers, you know, they're very quiet, you know, and we always know that in the UFC, closed mouths don't get fed.

So if they want to get fed and become stars, then they're going to have to open up. They're going to have to show another side of them that they're not used to show. And so I think the biggest thing, you know, Eric's always working, Bischoff, you know, is always, you know, trying to get in these guys. guys' minds to let them know, like, you know, you need to become larger than life. You need to, you know, kind of open up, you know, a lot of guys that they just want to wrestle and they're so humble and they're so shy, but that's not what's going to captivate and attract, you know, the mainstream audience and the casual audience. So, you know, just getting these guys to get

outside their shelves and be a little bit more vocal is going to go a long ways. Are you, are you actually working with them? Are you trying to, because I couldn't agree more, a lot of them are just sort of focused on the sporting aspect and not the showmanship and selling themselves, are you actually trying to help these guys? Is that part of your role as well? Yeah, that will be part of my role going forward. You know, right now, of course, I have to focus on Chris Wyman. He's, you know, a great athlete, you know, a Hall of Famer. So my full focus is on him. But at the shows, like when I go to St. Louis, I won't be competing there. So that will be about helping out the wrestlers, understanding the vision, you know,

showing them why Hokomani became what it became, you know, because he was a larger than life figures. So once they understand, you know, the little things that they need to do to make themselves stars and separate themselves from the pack, then that's going to help out a lot. So I will get more evolved on that side. But right now, that's more on Eric Bischoff and Izzy Martinez and Chad Bronstein. That's their company. I'm just the investor. But I will get more hands on in the future. Okay. And by the way, can I ask when we did that breakdown, unless I missed it, Bo's name didn't come up there. Why is that?

Yeah, he's just a spoiled and tiled little brat. And, you know, he doesn't deserve anything. You know, he pulled out of the last match that he had against the guy that, you know, should be at the early bird special. You know, a guy missed weight by a couple pounds and you don't want to wrestle him. The guy's 50-something years old. You don't want to wrestle that guy? What?

Like, you just completely let down this company, a Real American Freestyle. You're not a company, man, Bo. You're an entitled little prick. So, you know, he's not on my hit list. I could care less about him. He's a quitter anyways. The world saw he's a quitter. He's a coward.

You'll never see Kobe Covington quit in a match or a UFC fighter anything. You know, I'm a real fighter. So he's just a competitor. He's not a fighter. He's not a wrestler. And, you know, he's not on my hit list. So I can care less about him. I do have to say I'd really love to see that match.

And I think the buildup would be tremendous. You know, he's not a star. He's irrelevant, Ariel. He's not even in the top 10. What does it do for me? You know, he's got to win some fights and prove his worth in the company and become a are, you know. I'm not, I'm not going to help him up here. He's got to earn his way up here the hard way. Do you want to be in the UFC Hall of Fame? You know, to be honest, sir, that's a great question,

but doesn't make a difference to me, you know, like if I'm in the Hall of Fame arrow, does that mean I get money? Or do they, what is it entitled? I guess it's, no, I don't think you get money for it. I guess it's sort of recognition, legacy, being immortalized, if you will, like an honor, you're part of a select few. Is that something that means something to you? Not really, to be honest. You know, like, I think the fans can speak for themselves and, you know, the company knows my worth and, you know, the pay-per-views I've sold, went out to Madison Square Garden, you know, one of the highest gates in the history of Madison Square Garden, you know, put on iconic fights, you know, one of two fighters to headline a pay-per-view without

being a title fight, the other being Connor McGregor. So, you know, I know the star that I bring to the company and what I've done in that company, the money I've made for the company. So honestly, it makes no difference if they put me in the Hall of Fame or not. I won't lose any sleep over it. I feel like this will be a debate. In fact, I saw some people writing it to us now. Do you think you are a Hall of Fame or do you think your resume is Hall of Fame worthy? I mean, definitely, without a doubt. Only fighter to ever bring a world title to the White House to a sitting president. You know, the things I've done in this sport, you know, first fighter to bring the first family front row for a main event fight when I fought Robbie Lawler, another Hall of Famer. You know, I've beaten champion after champion, headline, you know, pay-per-view after pay-per-view for six, seven, eight years in the top ten of the UFC for almost a decade.

So, you know, my numbers and resume speak for itself. You know, I have nothing to prove in the UFC anymore. All my proving is going to be in real American freestyle. Okay, fair enough. I know there's some fighters who feel that way. Some fighters want the recognition. They want to be immortalized, all that stuff and more. I understand where you're coming from.

Maybe you want to be in the RAF. a Hall of Fame one day. Maybe that would mean more to you because wrestling seems to mean more to you. You're completely right. It means way more. This is what my family started me and my dad did it. And, you know, it's my first true love and passion. You know, it's the only reason I was able to go to college

because I was able to get a scholarship and go. So wrestling is my true love, my first passion. And I care more about wrestling than a lot of things in this world besides God and family and country. Do you think you can actually convince George to do? this? George Hill. St. Pierre.

Yeah. Why not? You know, he's a great wrestler. He used to wrestle with a Canadian national team. No, I know. After I called him out, I saw you see he put a picture on Instagram. He was like with his wrestling coach putting his wrestling shoes on. So I think he's intrigued.

I think he would do it. What do you think, Eric, do you think he would actually do it? Well, honestly, I feel like Chad has a really good, I'm not just glazing as they say. Like, he's made some match. Like, I didn't expect Humsat versus Dylan. to happen. I didn't expect them to even sign Hamza, to be honest, a year ago when this all started. So I feel like

George has kind of stayed away from competition. I don't think he's done a single thing unless I'm mistaken, like not even a grappling match or anything like that since his last fight in the UFC against Michael Bissing. That was 2017. But I know he loves wrestling and I know he's trained with the Canadian

wrestling team and all that stuff. And so I was at least wondering if Chad has made the call. Has he at least tried? Yeah. Yeah. Chad has made the call. He's actually had a few calls with, you know, GSP and their management. So, you know, I know the competitive fire still runs deep in GSP. You see the way, you know, the guy trains. You see what his physique is.

He's still in incredible shape. So, you know, the fans love him too. He's one of the most beloved fighters, if not the most beloved fighter of all time. You know, a guy that was just completely humble, respectful, but it's just stone cold killer. So, you know, I want to see him. Real American Freestyle wants to see him. Chats made the calls. The ball's in his court.

if he ever wants to come and compete. We'd love to, you know, incentivize him to come out here and put on a good show for the fans, you know? People want to see him, and we miss Georgia St. Pierre. Okay, two more quick ones for you. Gable Stephson making his RIF debut

this Saturday, which is very exciting. Obviously, Olympic gold medalist, a superstar at the University of Minnesota. How do you think he'll do in RIF? And also, how do you think he's going to do in the UFC? What do you think his ceiling is? Man, his ceiling is unlimited potential. Gable Stevenson, Olympic wrestling champion,

you know, NCAA champion. I mean, he's achieved everything in the wrestling world. So I expect him to, you know, just have the craziest career in Real American Freestyle. He's going to have some great matchups. You know, we want to get that rematch from the NCAAs. I know he wants to get that one back with White Hendrickson, you know, who's got the current heavyweight belt in Real American Freestyle. So that's going to be a great fun match.

He's got a great competitor this weekend, you know, Romanov. I think he wrestled for the Olympic team or was competing for his team over in his country. So that's going to be a great matchup. You know, I think his potential in the UFC is unlimited too. You know, he's a fast twitch type athlete. He's explosive. You know, he could take you down at will whenever he wants to. So, you know, I think he can run up through the ranks and be UFC champion within a year or two. Okay. And for you, Colby, you know, if there's a newer fan out there, who's maybe like a post-pandemic fan, there's all kinds of new fans watching the sport now, if they were ask you, if I would ask you, like, what was Pete Colby Covington? What's the fight? What's the performance

that you are most proud of? That you would want someone to go back and be like, this was when I was at my best. This is, this is the night that I felt on top of the world. What's the night that comes to mind? Yeah, so I think it would be probably two matches, and that would be the one with Rafael Dosangos when I won the interim world championship. You know, that was the guy that came in, the hungry he came in in his career. He was already a UFC champion. He wanted to, end me for his country of Brazil, you know, after all the things I said, you know, that were true, by the way. But he came in hungry. He came in motivated. He wanted to take me down. And, you know, I put on a pace that he couldn't match. And then my most favorite proud moment, you know,

in my career is against Robbie Lawler, you know, someone who was the boogeyman in the Walterweight division. He was knocking guys out, you know, what he did to Roy McDonald was life changing the damage he did to him. So, you know, that was a guy I respected, but also was one of the biggest killers we've ever seen in the UFC. So I think that was probably my most proud and best, you know, fight I ever put together. The pace I put on him, I landed the most amount of strikes, I think, in Walterweight Division history at the time, you know, on his face.

It was like, I don't know, like four or five hundred significant strikes that I landed on him, something crazy. But so, yeah, I would say the Robbie Lawler fight. And I had the first family front row, which is even more incredible. I had the Trump's in attendance. And, you know, the call I got from President Trump afterwards was in. credible. So I would say the Robbie Loller fight and the Rafael Dosangos fights. I had a feeling you'd say one of those two. I was wondering if one trumped the other,

pardon the pun, but I was, I remember being at the RDA one. To me, you at the post-fight press conference with the bottle, RDA tears, like that felt like, holy shit, this guy's on fire right now. It felt like it was all coming together for you. And then I remember the Robbie Loller fight coming together, I think, in like a month or so, because that show I think was supposed to be in Russia and then they moved it to New Jersey. It was an afternoon card in August. And then you got like, you got plucked into that one against Robbie, who was, you know, still very much a killer at 170. And it was like you were a robot out there.

Like nothing was going to deter you. So it felt like those two performances was the apex, of course, the title fights and whatnot. And I know you felt some sort of way about, you know, the first one, the way in which it ended. But an amazing run that I think you should be proud of. I know, I know, obviously you were a polarizing figure. Obviously, some people loved you, some people hated you, some people felt some kind of way about you. But as far as the action and the accomplishments in the cage, I think you're a really interesting debate as far as Hall of Fame is concerned because I think there is a strong case to be made,

especially considering some of the other names that have gotten in over the last few years. I appreciate the kind words, man. One of the greatest MMA journalists and sideline reporters we've ever seen. So that means a lot, man. Thank you. Thank you, Kobe. I appreciate that. Good luck this weekend.

You versus Chris Wyden. Love Chris. He's a Hall of Famer now as well. So maybe some, a little bit of motivation there. He's had a tremendous career in his own right. Love seeing him getting this opportunity with RAF. I know how much wrestling means to him. And love what they're doing as well. So I wish you all the best of luck. Good luck to you guys this weekend. We'll be watching R.A.F. 9, May 30th. Also, Marab Duwally-Schvili against Frankie Edgar. That's a fun little fantasy match right there. There it is 8 p.m. Eastern May 30th this Saturday from the College Park Center in Dallas, Texas. this, Colby, really appreciate and good luck to you this Saturday. Thanks for having me. I're always the honor. I'll see you in a Real America Freestyle in the future. I look forward to that. There he is. Colby Covington, aka Chaos, we're buds.

It's a beautiful thing. You see that? We come together, and it is quite the deep card. Gable Stephson versus Alexander Romanov. Colby Covington versus Chris Wyman, Kyle Snyder versus Givie Machia Shrevelli. Marab Duolishvili versus Frankie Edgar. Who else is on here? I'm pretty sure Armand's on here too. It's not on this particular bout sheet. That's it.com.

Yeah. Gable, Colby, Kyle, Marab, Real, Jason, Parker. James Tihuno? Bridge. Lucia. Armand's Rookin against Mugsy, guys. Armand's Rookin against Mugsy, the social media sensation. One and O is Mugsy.

actually 1-0 and 2 losses, so I didn't keep reading there. I think he actually lost to Georgia Poulos. But nevertheless, nevertheless, that is this Saturday. So one of the many events, and in a couple of moments, we will be joined by Holly Holm, who will be a part of that MVP card in El Paso, Texas. In fact, someone sent me a message, guys, regarding El Paso. Let me see. Is it here?

No. I think it's E-P-T-E. No. Frankie, someone sent me a message. What was the message? The message was as follows. Wait, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it. Hello, Ariel, I'm a big fan of your show in the BITB.

I saw on your show that you'll be coming to E PTX. Did you know that that was the abbreviation for it? Yes. And needed recommendations on where to go to eat. I recommend you go to L&J Cafe for some legit Tex-Mex food. Other place I recommend is track one where they have some amazing wings in a train. Let me know if you need other recommendations, peace and love, peace and love.

So you eat wings while you're sitting in a train? Yeah, kind of like that place in L.A. is the same idea. Train cart. Not familiar. Have you been to either of those spots? No. Again, I went a long time ago. However, that is where nachos were invented.

It was right outside of El Paso. Wow. L&J, 9,538 Google reviews. That might be the most Google reviews that I've ever seen. Best Mexican food I've ever had. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. This is going to be worth the trek on its own, right?

You did have a big pop for Tex-Mex in Dallas, so I think you're going to enjoy here. Love the Tex-Mex. In fact, it's one of the great meals that I've ever had. That particular one in Dallas. You know the one I'm talking about, right? Yeah, the one that you tried to get out of. No, no, I don't think so. I don't remember it being quite like that.

Holly Holmes, Stephanie Hahn 2 for the WBA lightweight title. Amanda Serrano against Cheyenne Hansen for the WBO and WBA featherweight titles. There's actually one, two, three, four title fights on this card, believe it or not. And it's taking place at the El Paso County Coliseum. There she is. Also on May 30th, dual screen night? Yeah, you know yourself. But I said this a couple of days ago.

For Holly Home, she's in a position in the year 2026, get by this fight, look good in this fight, I think she might be in line to fight Katie Taylor in her retirement fight. And maybe, maybe in line to fight. to fight Rhonda, maybe, I don't know. I mean, she seems quite adamant that she's not going to fight again. But still, like, that would be the one. If there's one fight that I think

that they can convince Rhonda to take it to that one, I don't think she takes the cyborg fight, even though that's the one that, you know, we've been talking about for so long. And so who would have thought she'd have these kinds of options after leaving the UFC, leaving MMA and having this career resurgence in the world of body?

boxing. And after that, we'll be joined by Adam Azeem, who we've never had on the program before, but he's also going to be fighting on Saturday, May 30th. That fight taking place at the OVO Arena in London, right next door to Wembley Stadium. So stay tuned for that. And then we'll get to many, many more questions and comments and news and notes and all kinds of things that are going on. I did see this one quick, do we have time for a quick quote thingy or no? Let's do it. I saw this from Dana White in Rolling Stone. What a question this is.

The WMBA agreed to a new salary minimum of around 270,000 a year, which is reportedly more than a journeyman MMA fighter earns. Do you ever see a future where a UFC fighter can immediately make a living wage? Dana White answered, fighter pay has gone up every year, and it will continue to go up as long as we continue to be successful, but to compare it to the WBA, that's ridiculous. First of all, if you come into the UFC, let's say you sign a three-fight deal, you're going to find out if you belong in the UFC. I should pay you $370,000 to see if you belong in the UFC. Why do you say $370,000, not 270? Is he trying to say more? I don't know.

I mean, yeah, the business models are completely different. I guess the question is, if you do fight those three fights in one year, would you make 270,000? Well, it depends on where you are in your career. Certainly someone who's coming over from another organization or who already is established, but let's say you're not. Let's say you're someone who's coming over from an LFA or a Cage Warriors or an Octagon. You're making 12 and 12 times three. Let's say you're winning all three of those fights. That's 24 times 3.48. What am I doing? What am I doing? 62?

No. No, 72, right? Yes? Yes. Yes. 72. And I saw a bonus here, there. Yeah, you're falling well short of the 270,000.

And obviously, there's training camps and all that other stuff involved. So, look, I don't know if the debate is about the specific number, but more so how they got to the number. coming together, collectively bargaining, and they all came together through a process to all agree the players association and the organization, the league, that this is going to be the number. This is going to be how it breaks down. In the sport of MMA and specifically the UFC, there is no process like that. It's just like, hey, it's gone up. Hey, we'll let you know, hey, this is going to how this is going to be the way it's going to be and you're just going to have to deal with it. and I think that's the bigger question.

Will we ever get to a point where the fighters can collectively bargain how much they want to make, how much they should make, what the minimum will be, all that stuff and more? I don't see that coming anytime soon. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. All right, Holly Holm is, in fact, here, the preacher's daughter who returns this Saturday in El Paso, Texas, enemy territory, so to speak,

against Stephanie Hahn, who is a very proud El Paso resident in fact works for the police force over there. Rematch of a fight that happened back in January. She's kind enough to join us right here now to talk about it all. We say hello to Holly home once again. Hello, Holly. How are you? Hello, how you doing?

I'm doing great. Great to see you again. How is El Paso? I've never been there before. That's good. You know, I've been down here just for soccer tournaments growing up, things like that. I haven't been here, and I don't, honestly, I don't even know how long. It's only a four-hour drive maxed.

just under four hours. So I don't know. I don't know why it's been so long. So it's definitely changed from when I was here before. But it's nice. The weather's good. Everything's good. I am curious because you have such a rabid fan base and a loyal fan base in Albuquerque.

Given the proximity, I think everyone thinks that she's going to be like the, you know, the A side, if you will, as far as who the fans are cheering for. And she is the champion. She is fighting at home. But do you expect to have a lot of your, you know, a lot of your fans, from Albuquerque come over to the fight on Saturday? I do. I mean, I do have a good group of my friends coming,

but I don't think it's going to be filling up as much with, you know, it's not going to match the fans that she has here in her hometown. She's, like you said, she's a police officer here. She's, she's, is her hometown. So I would expect a lot of cheering for her, and that's all right. I'm here to make a statement when that bell rings. What is your relationship like with Stephanie? Well, all the respect, she's a kind person, a good person, a hardworking person, and all the respect is there, but I still want to win.

And that's what I'm here for. Because the fight in January ended somewhat inconclusively, unceremoniously, did you know right away that they would run this back? Or was this something that you pushed for? I definitely wanted it. I asked for it right away. I don't want to end on a note like that. And it was a little kind of, you know, I definitely feel I should have been fighting better. That way when it goes to the scorecards, it's, you know, you don't leave it up too much.

You have to be more dominant than I was, and I definitely should have been fighting better. I don't think the scoring they had was accurate, but I don't feel that I was in there, you know, dominating this fight either. I always self-reflect and go back and do better and learn more. If I feel like you're not honest with yourself, you're not going to improve or be better. So I put in a lot of work. I've improved and I'm grateful for the rematch and I'm ready to put on a good show. Put in a lot of work, I think is an understatement. I saw a video of you doing like these leg.

I don't know what those, what are those called? Leg raises? What is that? when you're hanging in this video right here. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What in the world, Holly? Have you ever been this rip before?

Like, that is insane. What is that? An 8-pack you got going on there? That's when you're getting close to cut in weight. You get lean. But, you know, I have in training hard. I feel in good shape. I feel conditioned and all that.

It's also a lot of work that I've put in to the hours in the gym. You know, I don't really put up a lot of my training photos or videos because I'm training, so I really don't have my phone out. I don't really have a lot of, I could have people come in and help film and get more footage, which I'm sure later I'll regret not having as much. But sometimes certain fines I just want to get in there and work in silence. And I share some stuff when I'm at the strength training gym or running, but for the most part, a lot of that is just through the whole training camp, a lot of work I've put in.

You did say something just before that kind of piqued my interest. you said, I don't want to end on that. And you know that, you said that, right? So was that, what do you mean by that? I've never heard you say the word end before. What does that mean? Oh, like, I didn't want the fight to end like that. I think is what I was meaning.

But also, I want to, you know, I know that I'm going to, this, I'm not saying this is my last fight by any means. Okay, okay. It's definitely closer. It is definitely closer. I definitely, you know, I would say, within, I don't know, it's hard to say because if I put

any kind of thought of retirement in my head that I'm not all in, I feel, and I just want to feel it. But I definitely know I'm not fighting a crazy amount longer. Okay. Like, do you think it's like a year at this point? Yeah, maybe.

Wow, wow, wow. This is the most that you've ever said regarding this topic, at least to me, at least what I've heard. Yeah. Oh, and I think, it's just not that I'm not capable I just I'm not I really want to keep fighting and I do want to get a couple more fights in so we'll see what that means we'll see how far that goes I know I'm

still healthy capable I know I can still beat the top girls and so I want to keep fighting but I know I'm not going to fight forever. So it's just sooner. It's getting closer than obviously it was five years ago. Sure. I have a theory and I mentioned this before you came on. In the year 2026, you hold in the palm of your hand two megaphites, two absolute megaphytes.

And I'm curious to get your take on it. And I'm not trying to look past Stephanie Hahn. I think they sort of hinge on how you look on Saturday. And of course, a victory would help. But the first one would be, if in fact you do. you win on Saturday, I feel like you're the prime opponent for that Katie Taylor retirement fight in Ireland. Are you thinking the same? Yeah. I think that's very fair to say. And I know that's only if I do well. That's why I treat this fight as my only promised fight because

with whatever happens Saturday is what doors open, what's promised going forward, what things I can work for going forward. And that's why I want to make a statement this Saturday, because the fight like that would be amazing. You know, I've got Irish heritage. I know her and I had, there was like talk even before I went to MMA. Like, I wonder if I ever actually fight her, you know? And might be a full circle thing.

Maybe that comes to fruition. We'll see. Oh my gosh. What a scene that would be, especially if it's at Croke Park over there. in Ireland. Has this been at least brought to your attention? Have there been any sort of if all goes well? I'm not. There's no like any like negotiation type of. No, I know. But we definitely talk with it with, you know, between my team and it's, I mean, I think everybody can see that being an amazing fight. So it's not anything we're overlooking. It's something that we see as a

possibility. But that's really as long as far as I've thought about it. Okay. Because I got Stephanie Saturday. And, and I understand that and respect that. So forgive me for asking this second question. That's fine. I like to talk. I have like goals and dreams. Okay. Would that be the top one? Saturday. James are big fight. Yeah. That would be the top one. Okay. Did you happen to watch Netflix two Saturdays ago, Saturday night. Yes. Absolutely. I tuned in.

Okay. First of all, because it's been a minute since we spoke to you, were you surprised to see Rhonda even come back after all these years? You know, I wasn't sure if she did, but I wasn't shocked when she came back with this fight. I think maybe deep down, there's just always this hunger that she had to want to get back in there and get a win. and didn't surprise me that she wanted to.

She's been active, still doing, you know, physical things. She's still been performing. She's still been doing her thing, living her life. So it didn't shock me that she came back. I didn't think she would. You know, if you said, oh, you think of Rondel Feigen, I'm not really sure if she would. But when she said, yes, I'm fighting,

and this is the fight we're going to do, I was like, oh, okay. I wasn't shocked. Okay. I just wouldn't have, I wouldn't have, I guess I wouldn't have guessed it. But I feel like any, let's just say this. Any fighter has it in them, especially if they've been a champion, especially if they, and with her, she's been an Olympian. She's been a champion.

If you have that in you, any fighter that says they're ever retired or done, I don't ever really believe them because they have that. in them. And so for her to come back, she just felt she wanted to do something competitive like that again and push herself. Were you surprised that the fight ended so quickly? I'm not surprised. I think a lot of people, because of how her last two fights ended in knockouts, it's so easy for people to forget everything before. The reason why she was so dominant with what she does, because she was good at it. You know, she's, she's very good with her judo and she's very obviously a master with the arm bar. So I wasn't shocked that she came in and was able to win like that. She's a threat for anybody with that arm bar you see right there.

She's a threat with anybody. She's very good at it. So more punches thrown, not letting her get into that close range and all that could have been different. You know, but she went in there and she did her thing. And so, look, I was surprised that she came back because of the way she felt about MMA at the end, the things that she said, I was very surprised. I was surprised by how she looked. I was surprised by her love of MMA, the way she embraced the sport. Again, it was a completely different person that left after the Amanda Nunes fight in 2016.

And as I said, I felt unfulfilled. I wanted to see more of that Ronda that we saw two weekends ago. And I feel like you versus Ronda is a massive, massive fight. Like that is the completion of her story and perhaps maybe yours in MMA as well. Do you have interest in pursuing that? I've always been open to a rematch with her since the day the fight was over. She wants a rematch. I'm game.

Anytime. I've always said I'm good with a rematch. You know, right after the fight, it was. hey do you want to wait for the fight with ronda i said well sure how long are we going to wait and there was no answer because we had no answer from her she didn't say yes she just you know nothing and i was like well i don't i don't want to just sit and wait because i don't know if she'll ever want to fight or ever want to rematch or if she does come back will it be with me so i don't know there was no answer so i chose to keep fighting and then i think it was over a year after we fought and she fought

Nunez was done. But I've always said I would rematch her and I still would to this day. I just think that she wanted to come back, have a fight and then and be done. And no hate on her for that. So based on what you're hearing from her and feeling, do you think she's open to it? Do you think there's a chance? I know I asked her a million times and she said she wants to have babies. You don't feel that? I think she just wanted the fight that she had and that's it. Maybe it kind of gave her some kind of a better finish for her career. Maybe she'll love the way that win felt and come back and still want to fight again. But I believe her when she says she's done.

If both are possibilities, which one do you like more, the Katie Taylor fight or the Ronda fight? I mean, that would just be a coin toss, I guess, because I love both. Okay. I love both of those fights, you know. I would love the rematch, and I would also love to be able to share the ring with Katie Taylor. So I wouldn't be able to put one above the other. They both would be massive fights, and I'm just blessed and humbled to even be talked of in such big epic fights. I would take you the one of them.

I'm curious, if you saw Rhonda walking down the street there today, what do you think would happen? What do you think the interaction would be? I don't know. I don't think that she held herself real well after her losses, but it's hard to tell people how you're supposed to feel those are raw emotions. I've never been one to sit here and, you know, talk shit on her gloat, nothing like that. Um, you know, because like you said, a lot of how she, like, was angry about the MMA world and all of that. I feel like she said, you know, the MMA fans, they'll, they'll turn on you. And they, I, I honestly feel she took herself out of it.

They didn't turn on her. She just kind of got angry and disappeared for a while. And I think, you know, I think she would have been real surprised if even after those two losses, if she would have showed out to a UFC event when she walked in or they show her on the jump. Umbertron that people would cheer. I agree. So I don't think that she really perceived the right emotion. Like, I don't think she perceived how it really was, you know, talking so much crap about

the MMA world. She would have just showed up and showed face. They would have, they would have cheered for her. They would have, you know, she's got a lot of fans. And I think she kind of like just was, which any fighter that's really passionate about winning, they get frustrated when they lose. I think she just took everything too personal and separated herself from the MMA world rather than just face it, which is hard to do. But I think they would have cheered.

And you see her coming back. She had a lot of people wanting her to do well and being positive. So, and maybe that was better for her to feel something positive from the MMA world again and realize that, you know, they are supportive. and I mean, people are kind of cutthroat always. You're in the public eye. It's a sport. People are going to talk how they're going to talk, but that doesn't mean that all these people just abandon you

after being such dominant champion. Easy for me to say, but I do feel like sometimes the MMA fans, when someone is sort of like kicked off their throne, if you kind of just show up and take it on the chin, they actually support you more. like they want to see the comeback. I know they like to build you up

and I know they like to sort of, you know, watch you slip, but then they also want to like help rebuild you in a way. Yeah. You know, if you look at, there's been a lot of champions that have had knockouts and come back. I mean, you just,

just look at, I mean, I don't even know why this is the example that's coming into my head, but look at something like Adasania and Pareda. It's like, they both had knockouts. And then they like, come back You have these people that they just support on both sides. You know, they want to see an amazing fight and they're just, you know, I think people,

they know what risk it is when you get in there. And yes, there's always going to be haters no matter what. But the level of haters are not near what it is if you just show. I mean, people on keyboards, whatever. They're in there. You show up at an actual event. a martial arts event especially or a boxing event

they're fans and they're there for a reason they love the sport and they're a fan of the sport they will embrace you I know you have the history with her but it never seemed like you had animosity towards her and so were you happy to see her

potentially leave on this high note leave with a smile and not with this hatred well I also have a lot of love for Gina Carano and I know with, you know, I wanted to be able to see her get out there and do more because I know all the hours that go into training and when you can't really put everything into practice

and actually let it go in a fight. So I definitely wanted to see more and I wanted that also for Gina. I think Gina is a very, she's just a good person and I wanted more for her as well. So it's just yeah I watched the fight to watch it I wasn't really you know I just watched it is that potentially one for both of them you've just illuminated something in my brain yeah okay is that something you're interested in maybe you know and same thing with her I'd be out of all respect you know I really do have a lot of respect for Gina not that her and I have been you know sit down and have coffee but we've been friendly over the years we did train for a little bit in Albuquerque together when she came down and she's great and just here and there just through

even just messaging or social media just positive you know things for her life I'm like yeah hell yeah go get it you know and same thing from her side there we have a lot of mutual respect between each other and I do consider her a friend okay also would look to share a cage with her it would be an honor okay so we can add that one to the list too a lot of options for you and we're not trying to look past obviously the big test this weekend. I was curious to ask you, though, you do have a background in crossing over and kickboxing as well. Did you see Rico Verhoeven against Alexander Usik this weekend? I didn't. I just saw some of the highlights, you know, but I didn't actually watch the fight. I do want to go back and watch it, but I didn't get to see it.

Okay. So you don't have a take on, I thought it was very controversial, the stoppage, the scorecards, Yeah, I saw, like, I saw the stoppage. That's the kind of stuff I saw just, you know, social media. Sure. But I didn't really, like, get to go back and watch the whole fight, so. Okay. So perhaps after this. Also, by the way, speaking of your training, what's this planking thing that I saw you doing?

I've never quite seen this before. Do you know what I'm talking about? This, this maneuver right here. What is going on? Oh, yeah. I don't know. I just saw it. And I was like, hey, we should try this.

That's Jake Woodley, by the way. Keep your eye out for him. he's uh fights with LFA right now but he's very strong very skilled he wrestled in college he's an all-American wrestler and has been putting a lot of time into his full martial arts career so I know he was strong enough so I was like hey let's try this but also it's actually harder than you think for the person on top too uh to be able to do that but it looks insane it's like three or four tribe what even harder than I think it looks like the hardest thing in the world for both of you. No, it was. It was hard, but we were able to do it. For how long?

He obviously had to do more than I did, but it is hard on top, because if you're not hanging off far enough, then there's not enough weight to balance it out. So, you know, when your whole body is hanging off like that. How long can you guys go for? I don't know. I should probably time it next time. We didn't stay too long, but. If you could do 60 seconds, that is nuts. That would be nuts. Yes. I did see you post a tribute to the late Chuck Norris.

Why do he mean so much to you? You know, I feel like he's one of those people that he came into, he's obviously in the martial arts world. And there's a lot of respect, I think, through martial arts, it is a lot about respect. And he always carried himself well and he always, you know, there's all the memes, like the fun memes. and the funny memes and there's all that. But I just feel he was one of those people that he did. He put time into helping youth in helping them kind of change their life. And all the way, you know, until his last days, he was always trying to use his position

and his spotlight to help motivate and improve even just maybe be socially, physically, emotionally through martial arts, you know, to help improve lives for these. for people around him and children and just in the youth. And not a lot of people do that. You know, they get real in their life. They just enjoy their life. But he always kept wanting to be a good, positive influence on new generations. So I have a lot of respect for that.

I love that. Last thing. So you said that you made some mistakes. You didn't like the way in which you fought. What do you have to do differently, especially early on in this fight? to dictate the pace and not get behind in the scorecards? I just need to show up from Bell 1. Be sharp, focused, and skilled, and clean.

I'm going to make it look clean. I'm not sure if this is 100% accurate, but we did do some digging. And based on our research, I think if you win this fight, you would be the second oldest woman to win a major boxing title. I don't know if you know this for sure. I don't know it for sure, but I'll take it.

Alicia Ashley at 48, Wanda Belt. You're years away from that, so you don't have to worry about that. But I do think that's significant and is a testament to your longevity and everything that you've done. Final, final, final one to you. I'm just curious, I was asking Colby Covington about this. You're already in the Boxing Hall of Fame. Does being in the UFC Hall of Fame mean anything to you? Would you like to be in there as well?

I think you deserve to be in there. I would like to be in the UFC Hall of Fame. I mean, who wouldn't want to be in the Hall of Fame? So it's not going to be anything that defines me or, you know, if it doesn't happen, what I feel that I'm cut short, it's nothing like that. But, yeah, it would be a huge honor to be in the UFC Hall of Fame. Okay. Well, I think you deserve that.

I hope that happens in the future. Thank you. Looking forward to seeing you out there this weekend. Good luck in these last few days. And please say hello to my good friend Lenny back there. I saw I'm making a cameo. All right. We have news here.

I know he likes the camera time over there. He's sneaking in a shot. Well done. Thank you, Holly. Appreciate it. Very much. Good luck. There she is.

The preacher's daughter. Holly Home, joining us. A big fight for her this Saturday. May 30th. That's in El Paso, Texas. The home of Tex-Mex. Is that what Frank said? Is that where Tex-Mex was born in El Paso?

Is that true? Damn straight. Like, it's literally where it was invented. Yes. I find that hard to believe. The nachos, I know for sure. The whole cuisine, I mean, it's a regional thing, but I would imagine that it got popularized in that area, yeah. Okay. Well, that's happening on Saturday, May 30th. Our next and final guest, and like I said, more questions and news and notes to come, is also fighting on Saturday, May 30th. This fight happening at the OVO-Wembley Arena. It is against Steve Claggett of Canada. It's the headliner for the boxer event on BBC 2, and it's a big weekend, of course, You've got Champions League final, and it all kind of rolls into that.

So this is a big spot for young Adam Azim. 14 and 0, 11 knockouts from just west of London. I believe it's slow, but I'm probably butchering that. Maybe sloaf? I don't know. We're going to find out. 23 years young back in 2024 was named British boxing writer, young fighter of the year, currently ranked number nine by the ring, number seven by IBF,

number nine by WBC, number seven by the WBO. and he's got a big opportunity against a veteran of the game. This is just his 15 professional fight. Claggett's 51st, and he's been in there with the likes of Tiafima Lopez. So a big spot for the young man they call the assassin, and he is kind enough to join us right here now to talk about that big opportunity. There he is. Hello, Adam. How are you?

Thank you very much for joining us. Hey, how are you doing? I hope you're well. I am well. It's great to have you on the show. A great young fighter, a rising star in the sport. This is a big spot, big spotlight on you. Do you feel like this is, at least for now, the biggest moment of your career on Saturday?

Well, it's a big massive occasion, especially straight after the Champions League. Then you've got the rugby as well. So a lot of people would be tuning into my fight, especially like me fighting Steve Klaget, you know, I really want to do a really good statement. So better than T. Afima, that's my plan. Yes, and I know that that's a fight that you would like in the future as well, Tiofimo. This man, Steve Claggett, you know, when he made his debut, you were six years old. So he's put in the time, he's put in the work, you're relatively new to the pro ranks, so to speak, to fight someone who has that much more experienced than you.

How do you feel about that? Yeah, do you know what? Most of my fighters that I've fought recently, like Sergio Lippner, Harrow Davis, they're both, you know, they, you know, they older than me. So obviously with Steve Claggett, when he turned professional, I was six years old. It shows how much experience that he has. But, you know, the experience does play a big part in the boxing game, but I know for sure that with my train and the ability I have, that I know I can do really well.

This fight to the best by knowledge was announced in late April. And so it's been about a month or so, but it's not like it's been, and I know that there was some talk of you fighting, Gustavo, Lemos, and other people, but why so late and do you feel like you've had enough time to prepare for a fight of this stature? Yeah, most definitely because I think I had 11 or 12 week camp

and I've been training during Ramadan time and unfortunately I had an injury back in January so I couldn't fight then. But with the Gustavo Limos, it would have put me into position to fight El Garda next for the IBF World War II if I wanted to fight against Limos, but everything happens for a reason.

How difficult is it for you to train during Ramadan? Yeah, it's very difficult. Especially no water, no food. I normally train like four, three hours just before the fast open. But I love training during Ramadan. I think it's a really peaceful mindset where you've got the Islamic duties you have to do and then you train us. But during some of those trainings,

to not be able to rely on hydration and to be able to drink. Obviously, we've seen this on the highest of stages in football and basketball and whatnot. Do you feel like you've been able to conquer that? Do you feel like it's like a great exercise for your mind, for your discipline to be able to do that? Yeah, of course, especially when you're fasting and you can't eat the foods and the drinks. It's a great mindset to have. And especially when you get into like, obviously cutting weight for the fights, you know, your mindset would be really good as well because you know, you can't eat the drinks.

you're doing that obviously the Islamic duties, then obviously you're cutting away for the fight. So I'm fully prepared for any scenario like that. And I do believe, I believe today's is Eid, right? And so I should have said at the beginning of the conversation, Eid Mubarak to you and your family. Thank you so much. I appreciate that. Yeah, unfortunately, I can't be celebrating Eid today.

Because I'm in the hotel today for the fight for Saturday. So hopefully I can, you know, I have spent some time with my family off of the fight. And there's a big feast associated with this, right? Like, what would you typically eat? If I were at your home for one of these Eid feasts, if you will, what would you eat? What are you missing out on today? We have a traditional thing called Semiya. It's kind of like a dessert thing in the morning, and then we'll give you like buriani, like butter chicken, non, broad day, ruddy,

curries, chicken. It's a massive feast. But this is why, you know, when you have a fight coming up, especially when you have to eat, like, you can't really, you know, put your weight that much. So obviously, this week is the way in day, so I can't do it. Of course, yes. And probably best to stay away from at least the family feasts so you're not tempted. I know you're very proud of your Pakistani roots.

And we had Hamza Shiras on the show yesterday. He won the WBO title this weekend to see, you know, a guy who you've been friends with for a very long time, who shares a similar family history as yours have that moment a week before your fight did it give you extra motivation heading into Saturday?

Yeah, most definitely. Like, you know, Hamza, you know, congratulations to him winning the World Towers as well. I think Armacom won the World Toul back in 2011, I think. And so that many years, I think he obviously Hamza became

the second Paxtony world champion to become world champion. he's making the British Pakistan, he's proud. And for me, especially like this fight coming up, this week gave me more of a buzz as well. And I want to hopefully be the third Paxton and become world champion. You're 23, and I've seen you say in interviews

that you would like to retire by 31. Please correct me if that's incorrect. But if that is correct, why 31 in particular and why so young? You would still be very much in your prime when you're 31. To be fair, I would have that mindset where I actually wanted to retire 31, but 31, 32, but if I'm still in great condition and, you know, still, you know, capable to do boxing,

then I wouldn't mind, you know, staying until 33, 34. But, you know, like boxing, you rather obviously win your legacy, be financially stable and then enjoy your life. But, you know, it's too many boxes out there. Stay too long in the boxing world and, you know, don't get that time off, you know. Yes. I've heard from a lot of fighters who say, you know, I want to retire by this age, that age, and then they blow right past that. Typically, when they're younger. And so let us see, you have no reason to be thinking about the end, especially so young in your career and so successful.

I was wondering how far away do you think you are from those title fights, from those opportunities to do what Hamza did. Well, you know, after this fight, I think Kishon is

going up away. I think Tiofimo doesn't want to fight Elgado. Then I

think Oscar Dorote is in the same gym as Dorote is so Elgado

Delgado. So if I have the chance of this fight, hopefully, you know, I've become

obviously victorious on Saturday. Then hopefully I can fight for IBF or title after this fight. Okay, so knocking on the door, I saw a great video that the Boxer YouTube channel posted recently about your family, about your upbringing, and I believe you started training your dad kind of, like,

you know, nudged you to train in the garage when you were like five, six years old. Is that accurate? Yeah, so my dad got me into boxing at four or five years old. I had ADHD since the young age, and I used that into boxing. So it's like a superpower, really. like I can get up and literally do it

and I go straight into any training because I got so much energy as well so. And so was he a boxer as well? My dad wasn't a boxer. He was actually a footballer. So I think my dad won to get into football

but I think he saw the talent that I had and saw the potential I had at such a young age. And when did you start to feel like you were mastering this to the point where it wasn't just a fun thing that you were doing that you can actually become a pro boxer? Well, I started kickboxing first. I think there's obviously you can't have a boxing fight till you're like 10 or 11 years old. So obviously I did kickboxing until 4 to 9 and then I

never used to kick by the way. I used to punch. So that's why I was obviously really good at boxing instead of kicking. But I think my dad knew that obviously with the ruling of the amateurs that you can't fight till you're 10 or 11. So you would compete as a young in kickboxing matches but never throw kicks? Yeah, I think only one time I stopped someone with a kick, but I mostly would be knocking people out with punches. And even at that age, did you know that eventually you wanted to become a pro boxer? Yeah, 100%.

Like I had such fast hands at a young age, and, you know, right now, like I think I'm probably the most fastest puncher, probably after Armicon and Ryan Garcia, I reckon so. That is amazing. By the way, speaking of kickboxing, did you watch the RICO-U-Sig fight this weekend? Yeah, I did. I did watch the fight. Usec, I don't think he trained properly for that fight.

I think he under-est to make it RICO. Obviously, I think the referee kind of stopped it really earlier. I don't think that that was very controversial. But, you know, like Usec is like going into that fight and then, you know, fighting AJ and Dubois and Tyson Fury now looking really good but against him he didn't look at the greatest sir yeah and the scorecards were a little wacky too right yeah especially the scorecards I think all the favor was to you sec so no matter what how he boxed or how what he did I think he was going to win anyways because I think the favor was on his side yeah

perhaps an ugly side of the sport of boxing but one that is sometimes inevitable there was there talk last fall about potentially you leaving boxer and signing with another promotion how close were you to doing that yeah oh they know what you put me in a sticky situation but you know me and ben have a great relationship uh you know so obviously ben has always been good to me and and obviously with the platform that he has bbc you know it gets me into a good position uh obviously i want to build myself into a household name. But, you know, I didn't look elsewhere as much, but, you know, Ben's always looked, looked after me.

Do you feel happy with the way things are going with Boxer since then? Yeah, yeah, of course. Like, you know, after this fight, hopefully, you know, hopefully Ben can get me the fight with El Godo. That's, you know, that's the plan. So I'm not looking past Steve, Steve Flaggett first, but hopefully I want to fight for water this year. And you had, since signing, you did have the fight in November on the undercard of the Ben U. Bank 2 card against Kurt Scooby.

And so I would imagine that was the first fight since you signed. Could I ask how many fights did you sign for? And the reason I asked this is because I would imagine all the domestic British promoters, obviously, we know the names, would be very interested in having you a part of their stable as well. after that I still got like I got a free fight deal with boxer

so free fight deal with boxer so there's other clauses and stuff like that but obviously you know

I need to get past deep target first before you know look past anything else you know for sure for sure

yeah I know a lot of them were interested in you speaking of that fight against Kurt back in November there was a great scene afterwards

of you guys I believe praying together in the changing room. Could you tell us how that came about? And is this something that you'd like to do with your opponents afterwards? Yeah, of course, like, you know, before going into the ring, you know, we're going to war,

and then especially after, you have to go and show respect. And how we managed to do that, I think in the press conference, although Kurt Scroobey was talking so much rubbish at me, I did say to... And like, afterwards, whoever wins,

again, the change room and your prayer. We'll make the world together. And then straight after, obviously, I beat him. I was actually going to go into his chamber first to actually make that the world. But he came to me, so, you know, that was very nice with him. Okay. Is this something that you try to do with all your opponents? Yeah, of course.

Like, obviously, it can be any religion. But, you know, when I go in, I actually go in, I might give him like a chocolate or a burger or something that we can share with. You know, because at the end of the day, you know, boxing is a tough sport and it's all about the respect of the fight. And, you know, I love showing my respect to my opponent's after the fight as well. That is amazing. Respect you for that.

I saw photos recently of you with the likes of Terrence Crawford, Anthony Joshua, to be sort of contemporaries now with these legends and I feel like more people are talking about you and recognizing you. How are you making sense of all of this to, you know, to see sort of your dreams coming together here like this? Oh, it was amazing. like straight after the fight with Kurt Scooby, I saw Terrence Crawford, and I was like Starstruck because he's one of my favorite fighters. I watch him all the time and I admire his work all the time. And Anthony Joshua, like, you know, he's such a great person.

And I was on the phone to him on FaceTime the other day and, you know, he's such a lovely man and especially what he's been through as well, you know, like it's been hard for him. So, but you know, he's such an incredible man. Yeah, an absolute legend. Your brother, Hassan, is also an undefeated boxer. I believe he's 9-0. Could I ask who's better, you or him? Yeah. Do you know what? We don't say who's better. We don't compare ourselves like who's the better brother. But I'll tell you what, he hits way harder than me. Like, it hits like a horse.

Okay. I think obviously, I think I've spawned many people, but I've never been hit that hard by someone else in my life. My brother, it's really hot. What weight is he? He's super water weight. He's super water weight. He's not in and no. Obviously, he's been very inactive,

but hopefully, you know, these couple fights are coming up. He would be very active, and, you know, he hits really hot. It hits like a horse, I must say. And would it be fair to say that your family is a bit of a BBC family? Because, correct me if I'm wrong, I think your wife is on a BBC show as well, right? Yeah, so my wife is an actress.

as well. She's on a series called Man Like Mobin, which is a popular series in England. So, yeah, she's actress herself, and she's been on BBC before as well, like she was presented on BBC before. Amazing. Incredible stuff. And how badly did I butcher where you're from? Is it Slough? Slough. What did I? Slough. Slough. I think you got it wrong, but it's fine. No, I definitely got it. It's slough. Yeah. I know I got wrong. Who do you support? Who's your football team? Yeah. Liverpool, a big support of Liverpool, but, you know, this year was an year, but it's fine, we've got many years to come.

A London boy supporting Liverpool? Why is that? I think it's my dad, like my dad, he's been watching Liverpool since a young age and, you know, where my dad, like, supports, I support them as well. So Liverpool, like, I've met Kurt Jones, I met Simmercast from Liverpool, who recently moved I'm a big fan of Mosulah's also Are you a big football fan? Yeah, I'm a big football fan Obviously, I don't get time to watch it as much

Because I'm training, but I always keep up The scores and everything and stuff like that I'm very upset at the England gaffer Thomas Tuchamp. I'm very upset about his decisions Yeah, yeah, of course, of course He left my boy, Morgan Gibbs White Off the squad MGW, that guy deserved to be on there

Yeah, yeah it should be on there yeah there's a few players that should have been on there but i think there's some players that should not be on there either so yeah uh but you know it's it's not very let's see what what happens in the world cup so yes uh first things first massive night for you on saturday uh good luck to you adam really appreciate it great to meet you uh big fight big opportunity big stage this saturday on bbc two obviously everyone knows how to access that over in the uk Hey, I wish you once again, an idmubarak. Salam alaikum, good luck to you.

Thanks for coming on. Thank you. Thank you so much. Take care. Thank you for having me on your show as well. All the best. There he is. Adam Azim, someone who I think we'll be hearing about for quite some time.

They call him the assassin, so very young, 23 years old, 14 and 0, 11 knockouts. Big opportunity for him on Saturday. One of many events going down this Saturday. Okay. Some news and notes. What was this? What was this? Oh, geez.

Oh, geez. TMZ reporting Durvante Davis has wanted for a probation violation. A warrant has been issued in Maryland. Oh, dear. Lots of problems there. Lots of problems there. Okay, back to the news.

And that just was sent to me from Mr. New York. Quick. Speaking of TMZ, I do think they posted is, Rick, is your boy Ray J. OK? What's going on here? He's in the hospital? What's happened? Oh, he's done here.

Wait, how's he sending me links? Magic. Yeah. He took a couple of cards. He's emotional over. G.C., is your boy, Ray J. Okay? What's going on here? I don't know.

I just saw that he's in the hospital. Golly. It's not good, man. You don't play fighting, right? I don't think he was doing too good going into the fight as is. Yeah. There's a photo courtesy of TMZ. So that is not good.

That is not good. I did see, I heard PT there. Yeah, he's right here, man. Ptie, are you familiar with the work of Michael Beasley, former NBA player, New York Knick, Laker, he, he was on the brand risk card this past weekend. He was learning how to apply a choke, a rear naked choke on, I think, Jordan Levitt, right?

Hang on, during the fight? No, no, no. This is before the fight, but like a couple days before. before they were teaching him how to do it. Here's Jordan. Hang on. This guy is competing in the MMA. Yes.

And a couple of days before the 40s learned to do over a naked choke. I believe so, yes. Interesting. Struggling, isn't he? I mean, I think they're working through the kinks here. It's a fair few kinks there. Wait, Jordan tapped.

Whoa, he had an epiphany. Who won that match, by the way? Was it Beasley or Lance? Lance. Lance. Lance. Okay. Oh, yeah, Lance.

I did see a lot of people weighing in on our take on brand risk. I do want to say, peace in love, peace and love. And I did say this. And actually, I predicted this would happen that everyone would miss the part where I said, no issues whatsoever with Aden, no issues with what he's doing, really. I'm fine with whatever you want to call that, circus fights, this other. the the the uh the the fired upness came as a result of the comments regarding oh you know the Netflix card set mMA back and this is authentic and that is nothing to do with I get what

this is and I'm a fan of wacky stuff I love circus fights I love all that stuff and I'm not trying to use that term to diminish or demean I understand what's what and you know there's a place for everything there's a market for everything there's an audience for everything so I knew that that would happen. I did see, by the way, a clip of Aden responding. And I woke up and I saw a tweet, fires back, response. It was like a very quick response. And it certainly didn't feel like he was firing back.

But he did say, like, hey, and this is the way I took it. You know, you're welcome to come. And you know what? I appreciated that. Not that I deserve that invitation, not that I was expecting that invitation, not that I was trying to get that, but I do think that there is something to be said for being critical of something

and then actually going out there and seeing what it's all about. And again, my criticism had nothing to do with the actual product per se. It was about the hypocrisy of the people who were sort of endorsing it while crapping on other things. And so, yeah, I would like to go

to one of those events and see what it's all about. I don't know when the next one is. And yes, people did surface up a clip of me saying when I met him last year, like, yeah, I want to check it out. That is the same sentiment. And that proves my point, that I'm not against it, that I'm not against the idea of these types of things happening. Obviously, you've got to be safe. Obviously, you've got to be smart. Obviously, the matchmaking has to be, you know, fair and balanced and with safety in mind.

But it was 100% about the, you know, the, I guess I'll use that word again, the hypocrisy of the comments from one week to the following week. And so I do accept the invitation. I do appreciate the invitation. And I'll say once again, in case this does get clipped off and sent around and everyone loses their shit, I have respect for people who build themselves up from nothing, who build empires, who become uber successful, who are expanding, all that stuff and more. There's, there's no issues there. And I wouldn't, I'll tell you what I wouldn't do. I wouldn't show up and then leave and say like, oh, I feel, and I don't know, paid or not. that wouldn't happen with me and then say, I felt dirty and that was the lowest of the low.

I know exactly what it is going in. And I'd like to experience that. And I think it's important. That's why we went to fight circus. That's why we went to BKFC. That was the genesis of uncrown films, to be honest, is to go to these things that we don't usually go to and experience what it is. And so as far as MMA is concerned, there isn't a ton of influencer MMA. And I don't even know if they're going to stay in that world.

I saw a comment where he said maybe he'll go back to boxing. but it doesn't really matter. MMA, boxing, no difference for us. So anyway, peace and love, peace and love. And yeah, I apologize if it was misconstrued to attack what he was doing. That wasn't really what I was trying to do. And I thought that that was clear. It was more about what they were saying. And then I tried to even clarify later in the show because I could predict that it was going to happen that way. but in the end, it happened that exact way. What about Mofsar Yvloev tweeting this guy? Mofsar Yvloev tweeting, I am back end of the summer and new, inshallah.

So the summer typically ends, the typical end of summer. The precise end of summer, I do believe, is September 21st, not end of August. So I don't think it would be the Philly card. but maybe the September pay-per-view. Mofsar versus Volka headlining, Noce UFC. What do you guys think? That'd be bizarre, but...

Oh, hey, welcome back. I was just talking about you. What'd you say? Well, I was asking you about your boy, Ray J, and then they said you weren't there. He's my boy? What is the emphasis on your boy? Because I know you're a big fan.

Yeah. What's the story of Ray J? I'm a big fan of his work, great film, filmography. Are you poking at him? Because you know he's a diehard super hobby. Fire fan? Your boy is sort of like when Ptty talks to me about someone that I've never heard of before

and he goes, you're a man, right? Do you not say that? You're trying to say like, you know your man? And I was always like, what do you mean, my man? I'm like, no, your man. Like every time, every time. That can't apply in this case because you're specifically saying me and everybody else was here. Well, no, no, no, because then he moved on from you not being here and he was just like,

oh, G. You boy, Ray J's in the hospital. Well, here's the thing. You sent me a TMZ link. Yeah. I responded to the link being sent a minute later, and I'm like, Rick, tell us more. And they said you weren't there. So I'm like, where are you sending this from?

The bathroom. Yeah, you know, I was just, I was around. I was out and about. I just wanted to know. I was like, it's literally a second later. Anyway, let's not get to see. Is he in hospital because of the fight? Yes.

I mean, we can only suppose, right? Like, we can only assume they, he is in bad shape after the fight. Not good. My sources tell me, aka Andy, that Ray Jett was in bad shape before the fight. She was really worried about health. What does that mean? What is the bad shape? What was wrong with him? He's been saying he's had heart issues for however long.

So I was even surprised that he was fighting because he's been, and I say claiming because, you know, who knows? But he was like passing out in concerts and saying his heart wasn't beating fast enough. I know too much about this. I'm going to stop speaking. No, no. It sounds like Ray J is Andy. Sounds like he shouldn't be fighting. Sounds like he shouldn't.

Andy, what about your boy, Ray Jay? from the hospital after the fight. During the build-up, someone asked him straight up at the press conference, and they were like, weren't you supposed to die? Oh, gee. Oh, no. That is not good.

That's actually scary. That's actually scary. And then they had the, brand risk had to release the statement on his post-fight speech. Well, that was related to the fact that he was. What was his post-free speech? What happened at this?

He, like, at Aiden, and it was like, what the hell, man? Like, we took a loss tonight. What the hell? I thought we had a plan. That, in fact, was not part of the plan. And so this statement is saying that they're looking into it. I can't read that.

Yeah, that they're investigating. It says during Saturday night event, one of the fighters insinuated that there may have been a prearranged plan for his bout. Brand Risk has immediately launched an internal investigation led by our attorney, a former federal prosecutor, to determine whether any attempt was made to manipulate the outcome of the fight. Jesus. Both manipulating a fight or attempting to do so are serious violations that strike at the heart of the sport. Aiden is smart to get ahead of this. Don't open the door.

Like, you're already playing with, you know, actors, characters, people who are, you know, not necessarily associated with, you know, being dedicated, like, combat sports athletes. Shut this down as fast as you can. So I think that's smart. A new one of Ray J's boys has emerged Josh Markowitz, chiming in saying that Ray Jays was hospitalized earlier this year for heart issues and pneumonia.

Damn. Who knew Ray J had so many boys? All right, well, we do wish him the best. Earlier, we were talking about Ilya's documentary series that's coming out on HBO Max next weekend. What about Ilya talking? Is he talking to my boy, Vic Blends?

What do you know about Vic Blends? I know everything. He's the famous hair cutter guy, right? The barber. I've literally so removed from these conversations last four of minutes. You don't know about Vic Blends? You don't know Vic Blends?

Come on, man. That's your man. That's your man. Is a very, very popular barber who interviews people and cuts their hair at the same time. Like, he's done it to everyone. Like, Obama. Remember a while ago, John was in a barbature talking about... I was about to go on that, but he...

Obama, Frank's boy, Jackson Dart. Ray J.? Yes, yes, yes. No, not Ray J. Speed. Tom Brady. Anyway, here's what you. he had to say about the uh the islam fight i see him on twitter just a couple of days ago saying he's

ready to fight i do know gary now yeah see yeah and he's talking about signing a contract there and i'm just in here like why you know i feel like we could have made this happen i don't think that it's because of him that the fight is not happening uh i i truly believe that is is that the UFC doesn't want to make it happen. Interesting. Do they not want to make it happen because they think he's going to win because they don't want him to move up?

Who knows? He did talk about Shakur Stevenson and I think he said that he wanted to beat up Shakur Stevenson. What a fight that would be. And Shakur has since replied, I would beat the shit out of you. I got to say, I want to see L.E. in one of these fights. Am I crazy?

No. No. I don't want to see it. I want to fight at M.A. No, no, not right now, but like in two years. Yes, I want to see it. Yeah. I'm down. No?

Ptie. You hate it. Why? Long rain, M.M.A. Keep him in M.M.A. As soon as you go to boxing, it's over. A few years from now. A few years from now, maybe he's done everything he wants to do in M.A.

If he's done, if he's finished, he's being dethroned. No, maybe he leaves on top. I'm out. Thanks for the cheese. No, I don't want him to leave on top. He's still got a lot. He's not fighting enough these days. No, no, no, meaning like saying I don't want him. No, I get you.

I don't want him to leave in two years on top. Like, I want to see a lot of I'm lia tuporia, but I feel like he could do well. Am I crazy? Am I crazy for saying this? No, you're not crazy at all. We just discussed at the beginning of the show how we have to stop discrediting.

It will be a competitive fight. Oh, I know. But I bet there's people out there like, are you kidding me. Now, is Shakur, is Shakur the one? I don't know. Him versus Ryan Garcia would be an insane build. I think him versus Shikourish, of course, hilarious, I think would be very fun.

I really like the Ryan Garcia one. Yeah, that's the perfect one. I like the Iron and Syrucian fight. I love that one. I'm with you there, Pete. Of course. I'm with you there. You know what I really like?

I like the Justin Gitchie fight in a couple weeks. Yeah, hell yeah. I don't. I don't know. Hell yeah. What about your boy Saladin Parnas, Pizzi? He was at the PFL event this past weekend, talking about his future, his options.

Now here's the thing, my friends. This clip is in French. There are French subtitles. If only we had someone who can understand French to actually tell you what was being said in this clip. Roll the tape, Andy! Okay. In a month, we're going to have the name of the organization.

Right now, we have different options. We've got the PFL who invited us tonight. So let's see what's there. We've got the UFC. We're in discussion with them. And we've got MVP. That went very well. And they want us to return.

So we're in the midst of a negotiation right now. We've got negotiations with the three biggest organizations. We're going to go back and talk with Saladin. And in a month, we're going to have the name of the organization. One more time. There's good things happening right now. now, he's got to get ready, but in a month, we're going to have the name. And in September, October, we're going to come back and he's going to fight.

Now, that's his manager speaking, right, PT? That's Stefan Aitch, and he's a Frenchmane, my legend, in his own right, one of the founding fathers. I think most people would agree that he is. But what's interesting to me about that is this is the second time in two years that he's been in this situation. Like what a incredible business plan, Stefan ACH and Parnasseh put together because it was March, 2004, at that, the Akharina in Paris, where he showed up, it was Dune Bay, V Bakke, and that was the talk. Every single promotion was after him. And he went on to sign this KSW deal, which was rumored to be towards the end of the deal, over 500,000 euro per fight he was getting there. That's why everyone was kind of laughing at this disclose.

payment of 70 grand from MVP, didn't seem quite the kind of air that Saladin Pernas had been breathing the past couple of years. But what, what a tremendous negotiation tactic that is, goes in is one of the big stories coming off that MVP card was in a prominent place and a massive win over Kennet Cross. And suddenly they're all after him again. What an interesting time that is for Pernas. And I think we'd all be excited. I think I can speak for all of us to say that we'd be very excited to see him compete in any of these organizations. I think he's a massive addition. wherever he goes. What do you think happens?

I think you'll say, I think if MVP have another card, I think you'll fight there. And I think if they don't, I think PFL will offer him more money than the UFC and why shouldn't he go for more money at this stage? Do you think there's any chance

we never see him in the UFC? Because he's turned them down already. He's only getting bigger. Obviously, the price is going to go up. But do you think there's a chance? Does he strike you as one of those guys who doesn't need the UFC, who doesn't long for the UFC,

is just a true prize fighter. And to be clear, I don't think there's anything wrong with that, obviously. Do you think he may never fight inside the octagon? I don't think if the UFC don't come correct, I don't think he'll sign. But I also think that's an incredibly intelligent thing to do because as you and all of the lads and everyone that's involved in the MMA will tell you, I have seen 95, probably more than that, 95% of fighters have covered nearly 16 years of covering this sport leave with absolutely nothing.

It is a tankless sport at the end of the day. it will take everything from you and you should make as much money as you possibly can while you're active and while you're at the top of his game where that's exactly where he is right now. He's one of the most intriguing free agents out there, I would say.

He's magic. It is funny that there was so much focus on like the older fighters on that card and defend it, don't defend it, like it, don't like it. I like when people, like yesterday, they're bringing up, oh, this card is better than that card. Brand risk, you know I didn't put on that card, right?

Like, you know, I don't own MVP, I don't work for MVP. I didn't sign a single fighter. I didn't match. Like, if that's your biggest retort to me, I don't care. I couldn't care less. Like it, don't like it. Again, everything I said about that card was about Netflix's involvement. Nevertheless, you had guys like Saladin Parnas.

You had guys like Robles. You had guys like Pumi. You had guys like Jake Babian on there against Namafazil. Like, you had some people that I think if you are MVP and you are trying to actually go for this, you have to sign a guy like that. There aren't too many Saladin partners with his background and his popularity that are available right now.

So he would be, like, if they lose him to the PFL or the UFC, that would be a massive loss off the bat in my opinion. Yeah, absolutely. And look, I think it's, I think when these things happen, these guys go to any other place other than the UFC, fans are obviously upset

because they're like, we want you, we want to see you for it and the best guys. I'm with you. I'd like to see that too. but these guys shouldn't be losing money for us to see that. The USC should be coming correct, should have signed Dakota, should have signed Paul Hughes, should have signed Saladin. So I would like to see them doing that,

and I would love to see that guy competing with those guys, but you can't expect them to drop hundreds of south. Like, I think the UFC offer at the time, Stefan Aitch said two years ago that the offer that they went with was over 10 times what the UFC offered them. Like, but how can you expect a guy of his age to just drop that money when the window to earn in combat, that sports, it's just so narrow.

By the way, speaking of French, did you happy to see this video? I mean, no translation. It's so good. The delivery is so good that I think even if you don't speak French, you'll be able to understand. That's how crystal clear it is.

Here's the video in case you missed it, Ptze. Do you want to drink something to begin? We're ready to order. Okay. Okay, I would say you please. A superlour-en-ion chants ill-izze. Crock monsieur And so you please

Clubs sandwich Oh Pouli The Fritz Mesa's Mesa You have already Frit with the club Oh, that's all It's good, it's good

I've done A beer Yeah, what's what you We want? We have Anakin, Greenberg or Bette Blanche? A birnbergh Greenberg

And a Sauvignon Blanc A little A lemonade If you please Thank you Thank you. You know that? I saw that clip. I had like 10 million views on it.

I don't know. This dude is just out there ordering in French. That's pretty good French right there. He was unbelievable. For an Englishman? I was impressed. I don't know about you guys. You don't seem to impress. We all said it was very impressive. I felt like you were dismissive of the English.

That's what it felt like. It felt like that type of sentiment, if I'm being honest. Okay, speaking of impressed. Can we talk about AEW this weekend, gentlemen? I've been waiting to actually get your thoughts. Can we talk, Pizzi, the boys, relax. The boy, I can see Pizzi freaking out. The boy, you know, you were out gallivanting in London. We don't need your takes on this.

But the boys and another member of the team, camera guy Nick, went to Flushing Meadows, Louis Armstrong Stadium, A.W. Double or nothing. A lot of people, I listened. The first person I go to is the Sala Monster. That's my number one source when it comes to wrestling, host of the great uncrown wrestling show. It's out right now. He gave it a rave review. He said it's the best pay-per-view of the year and one of the greatest in AEW history, which is high praise.

We're midway through the year here. You boys were in attendance. I want to hear about it all because I watched 50% of it, not going to lie. And I saw the Will Osprey match against Samoa Joe. I watched the main event. I watched stadium stampede. I might have watched one more. Oh, I saw McFoli coming out with Renee in the...

I saw a pretty show out of this thing. Yeah, okay, but I want to hear from you guys. Who wants to go first? I want the review. My review is simple. And I said this on the day to GC. Live in Arena Pro Wrestling is my favorite entertainment, like sporting event, you know, debating on whether you call it sports or not,

but my favorite entertainment to go to. I'll take it over any other sport. It's just fantastic. It really is good. And AEW knocked it out of the park. I mean, the venue was perfect. It was packed to the gills. There were tons of rabid fans dying for this.

The chance were, you know, the noise in there was crazy. The matches all delivered as somebody who's not keeping up, you know, week to week, but only listens to the uncrown wrestling show to kind of get my news. It was unbelievable, incredible night. AW should be very proud of the show they put on, and I think the fans in there will all agree. I mean, it started at 8 o'clock, and we got in there at like 7.30.

They were doing like a pre-show little thing. Oh, yeah, the buy-in. Yeah, the buy-in. MJF was out there on the microphone with Mick Foley, as you mentioned. And like the crowd was going insane for that. Rick is not exaggerating. I don't think there was an empty seat in the entire arena. And this thing seats like 14,000.

The crowd pops were absolutely insane. It got so loud. It hit like the volume that like when something crazy happens in a UFC event, 10, 12 times. Like the pops for everyone that came out. It really was rabid fans. I thought the matches were creative, starting with the I quit match. I didn't realize what it was, but the ref kept coming up with the microphone. I was like, why does the ref keep coming up with the mic?

They were like, oh, it's an I quit match. That was great. They lit the table on fire. The stadium stampede was ridiculous. They started going all around the stadium. They came by us at one point. then they're going in the back, and then they end up in the parking lot, and they drive an 18-wheeler into an actual car.

Yeah, there were a lot of moments where I was like, holy shit, this is crazy. But yeah, I had a fantastic time. I loved it. It did end kind of late. That might be my only thing, because there was so much wrestling that we watched. But overall, it was a fantastic time. And MJF went over, which is most important.

Oh, yeah, MJF was so good, man. Comes out, he does the thing that giant MJF scarf, like, drops behind him with the camera angle. And like, credit to Darby Allen, too. Like right off Rip, he fucked up his neck. And then he goes and he climbs up on the scaffolding and he jumps off onto MJF. I can't do a breakdown akin to a Sala Monster. He's obviously much more deeply ingrained in this game and understands it better.

But from a fan that does not watch A.A.W. at all who just got thrown into it, it was fantastic. Very limited mic work as well. Like no mic work at all, just straight wrestling. How was the pacing? Was there a lot of breaks? Was there a lot of commercials? Oh, yeah, I mean, there was none. It was just like wrestling match ended. Like, the ring got fucked on like several matches where it was just like, this thing is in shambles. The turnbuckles were gone. The tables were splayed out everywhere. They were always grabbing chairs and bats from underneath.

And they would just, a team would come out, reset. They would go dark for maybe like three or four minutes and then they would just start the next match. Packages in-house? Historical packages? Like decent, but even those were quick. Like, the pace was great. It was just that there were so many matches on the card, which made it quite a long night.

But, man, you're definitely not, like, snoozing. You're definitely not getting bored in between. I can't say enough. It was an incredible experience. The people that really got over, Will Osprey? Hell yeah, Will Osprey was sick. Osprey. The crowd pop for that, dude,

and they start singing the song and everything. and then Konosuke Takashita This dude was beloved by the crowd Like it was crazy And then Proto Star comes out And he He stabs him in the back And everyone's like no fuck this guy's crazy

It was great It does seem to be Camera guy Nick knew and was like filling us in I didn't know about proto stars Wow You know we got an education Oh yeah There were several times where the song hit

And she popped And I was like who is it? How? She watches. Clause it? A.W fan? Not even. Not even closet.

I don't think it's closet. I think she just loves. Copen Cage getting there. Yeah, that was fun. Bro. First match. I didn't know that. You didn't know that was Edgy Christian?

I didn't know that until they got out and I was like, is that edge? Oh, my God. Talk about crowd pop. Everyone sang the song, all in unison. It was a great time, man. There seems to be a lot of positivity surrounding AW right now. There seems to be a lot of goodwill. that's my read online people seem to be glowing and you know it seems to be like people are a little bit

what's the word uh frustrated with the wwee product right now there definitely seems to be a moment that they're building up uh towards and i did see a clip in the post event press conference where tony con was asked about any plans for next april of course w w will be in Saudi Arabia for WrestleMania and it has been proposed by others. We mentioned Paul Walter Houser, mentioning this on Twitter as well, saying, like,

hey, there's an opportunity here to do something very special for the North American and, you know, the fans who, for whatever reason, don't want to travel to Saudi Arabia. And I thought that Tony Kahn's demeanor and remarks were very telling.

Here's what he had to say. But next April, there's no domestic wrestling weekend in the United States. Yeah. With the success, with the success. I wouldn't have kept going

with the question there. What do you mean yet? What do you have in mind? What are you working on? But I thought that was very, very telling. And he could do something which, look, I have said this before. I think I've definitely said it to the guy's offer,

but I'll say now, Tony Kahn could position himself as the biggest, excuse me, the biggest baby face in combat sports. if he sort of plays his cards right, I think he can position himself as the biggest baby face in combat sports. Why?

Because there's no investors as far as AEW is concerned. There's no large corporation controlling AW. It's him. And yes, I know. He is not self-made, but his dad is self-made,

and his dad has a great backstory, and he's the owner of Fulham, and he's the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars. But this is all Tony Kahn by himself. He's got no one else funding this thing, no one else pumping money into it, no one else telling him what he can and can't do. And it does feel as WWE moves further and further away right now from what they once were with the things like the ads on the mat and the commercial breaks and all that stuff and more,

which for the most part don't bother me. I don't mind the ads on the mat. I really don't. The commercial breaks do slow things down. I do miss the packages and the backstage vignettes and all that stuff. We talked about all of that coming off of WrestleMania. the AW product feels a little more old school, feels like it has more soul, and there's something there's something about that sort of little engine that could.

Now, I could see it a mile away. No one's going to call a billionaire and the son of a billionaire the little engine that could. But in this world that we're living in and who he's going up against, yeah, he is, in my opinion, the little engine that could. And so if he did put on an event like that in April, a domestic sort of celebration, of wrestling, I think that would further ingrain him in the community and further make him a baby face to a lot of these fans who will feel like they are missing out. We have a short film coming out about Joey Janella's spring break, which has been put on 10 years now. They just

had their 10th anniversary. Bloodsport was another one. These are staples of WrestleMania week. And it's not incumbent upon WWE to care about these indie promotions that put on events in the same city during mania week, it's not their business. But, you know, they do support, they do sort of endorse sometimes they'll show up and they do lend talent and all this stuff and more. And one thing that has been brought up, which I agree with is a lot of these indie promotions, smaller promotions won't have a place to really make a lot of money that particular week because they're not going to do events over in Saudi Arabia.

At least I don't think they are. And so if he did, maybe not the same weekend, but a weekend before or a weekend after, put on a sort of collection, a celebration of not only AW, but indie wrestling as well, I think that a lot of people would be happy about that. I really do. And so I was curious about, I've only been to one AEW event, and that was at Louis Armstrong Stadium. I wish they would bring back Action Bronson.

We love Action. I thought he was amazing. And that's the main reason why we went, because I really wanted to support him and see him wrestle in his first match. But I enjoyed it very much. I really did. And, you know, I'm not going to sit here and say that I watch every single dynamite or collision or all that stuff. But I do listen to The Solomonster and I do hear his breakdowns and I do read our work on uncrown.com.

And I read people like Robert Jackman and Drake Riggs and others who seem to be very high on what they're doing right now. And so that's why I was so curious to hear what you guys thought of it. Because one criticism that they have received is that the events do tend to go long and that they do like pack a lot into a pay-per-view. And so I was wondering if you guys felt like by the end you were just a little bit tapped out. I think that's totally fair, but that's a gift and a curse, right? Like if you're paying for it, you got a lot of value for your money, you know, whether it be on paper view or sitting there in the arena, you're getting as much as they can possibly throw at you and it was all high quality. But yeah, like there is a point in the night where, you know, it has become a lot. long night, but I was in. I was locked in. It was great. I agree with the sentiment that it could be

too long, especially like a lot of people. We luckily got out of there, but like a lot of people, they locked the gates to the seven trains, so they got stuck, and there was no MTA employees or police telling people where to go, so it was just like a mob of like 10,000 people stuck out there. I love what Tony Kahn's doing, though. I hope he does something. That would be brilliant. Domestically, directly against WrestleMania next year, because the fans showed out this week, and obviously it's not WrestleMania weekend, but the fans showed out.

It was hype in Louis Armstrong Stadium. It was an amazing atmosphere. I've seen people say that they should run that venue every year. Double or nothing historically has been a Las Vegas event, but it just seemed like the way that it's a tennis stadium, the way it's built, the acoustics, seems like an amazing place to watch wrestling.

The one we had went to was at Arthur Ashe. Yeah, which is being renovated. Yeah. This one, I thought it was even better. I thought just the feel of this, the way it was set up. the energy in the arena, it was incredible. They should run one version of this as much as they possibly can.

Only issue? Yeah. And they have no control over this? It was freezing for Memorial Day weekend, and it's like a partially open-air stadium. So, like, breezes are coming in. I had to buy a Will Osprey scarf and a Barbie Allen knit hat. Where is it? Where is it?

I should have brought them in. Yeah, they're back at the crib. Yeah. I mean, I was walking around in, like, a white t-shirt, because they ran out of hoodies. Darby Allen hoodies sold out with a... Will Osprey scarf on in a neon pink Darby Allen knit hat. And you had the belt to keep your shoulders. Yeah, the $850 belt that they sell at the concession stand.

I love that look. That's a tremendous look. PT, do yourself favor. Head on over to Wembley in August. Will Osprey is going to have a big match over there this summer. The pop is going to be nuts for it. The Wembley. No, no.

Stadium. AEW is doing Wembley? They've done it like three years in a row. Yeah. Yeah, Wembley Stadium. Wembley Stadium. The stadium. Fucking out.

I'm sleeping on A-Dub. Yeah, man. That's all well and good, but I still maintain the best thing in combat sports, guys, is El Grande Americano versus El Grande Americano, the OG. And I keep mentioning, okay, I knew I was forgetting one. UFC Macau, R-A-F, MVP, boxer, the biggest one of them all might be what's happening in Mexico this weekend. it's mascara versus mascara, mask versus mask.

El Grande Americano versus the OG, El Grande Americano, which is the best thing in wrestling right now and maybe even in combat sports. Take a look at the scenes of the good guy, El Grande Americano, being celebrated by the people of Mexico. Look at this guy. Emotional. This, by the way, days after the report came out

that he was arrested, what, for loving his girlfriend, for just being a lover? That's all. Look at this. They said they said they were doing a little too much PDA in the elevator. Uncontrollable intimacy. Yeah, come on. Let the guy live.

Uncontrollable intimacy. Nah. Look at this. What did you say? What was it? Uncontrollably intimate. No, I don't think it was uncontrollable. It was something else.

But yes, it was a beautiful thing. That's what we all want. I agree with you. An elevator? Look at this guy. This is, by the way, not to break the fourth wall. This is Ludwig Kaiser, a German. born wrestler who was just a

sort of, you know, very good, but mid-card-esque wrestler, becoming a national hero in Mexico. By all accounts, I wish I could go to this. Why is he El Grande-Americano? So in short, there was an El Grande-American who was

Chad Gable, and he was playing like the American luchador, but he was a bad guy, and then he left, I believe he got in there. He saw him at WrestleMania, right? He was at one of them, Royal Rumble. And then they bring in this other El Grande Americano. And then they're both there together, facing off against each other.

They're like, wait, who's the real one? Well, for whatever reason, the new one, who's the German wrestler, has just become a gigantic baby face. And there's something very, like, pure and innocent about this story. It's very old school Lucha Libre. It's very, like, there's grandmothers there, there's young kids there. He's just really tapped into it, and he had this one promo where he spoke in Spanish. I wish we had it, which at the very end, he says,

a Mexican is born wherever he pleases, I believe that's what he said, and a mural has been made. This is it, right? A Mexican is born, where does he? A Mexican is born wherever the hell are they pleased. There it is. And fighting mask against masks,

but above all, the honor of Mexico, this was done. And he went, and his girlfriend went, and it seems like he's just become this, I don't know, this beloved figure because they feel like he's embraced their culture. And his... How do you watch it?

It's this weekend, I believe, on, YouTube around the world. It's AAA. It's like one of their big events. The Undertaker is the Booker. So everyone's loving him. And it's just they put out a video. I'm going to send it to you like a comic book promo, like a four minute history of the feud, but in sort of comic book form, it was brilliant. And this company is owned by WWE. And so some people are scratching their head like, why are they getting this right so well and why are they getting the other stuff wrong? And I think part of it is just like the market and the way in which, you know, people are attracted to certain storylines and stuff. But they purchased AAA about, was it about a year ago?

Maybe it was two years ago now. And it's just been, it's just been a huge. When did the dead man take control? The man took control a few months back. Maybe a year or so ago. Yeah, and he's been phenomenal. So why don't they just, if that's a WDWE thing, But they...

Because this is his thing. He's building it up. Why don't they bring him over? Yeah. Well, I've seen some people say that's how people used to speak of Triple H when he was doing NXT and he was sort of the darling and they were like, why don't you bring him over and now they're not happy? Who knows?

Well, initially they were happy with Triple H, no? They loved them. He was Booker of the Year, all this stuff. It's all cyclical. Everything's cyclical in combat sports and in wrestling. But if you're around on Saturday, I'm actually a little bit bummed that. I'm not going to be able to watch it live because I'll be working, but I really want to watch this. I am so into this feud. And every time these two guys like meet, they're like two

battering rams. And they get into these brawls and it's so real. They've done a phenomenal job. They really have. So I'm looking forward to that. That's this weekend. Another thing to look forward to as far as May 30th is concerned. Okay, just a couple other news and notes. We spoke on this last week, but Scott Coker is officially back. We're going to have him in studio next week. So I'm looking forward to that. Jake Paul did weigh in on this, and this is what he had to say about it. So a little bit of fighting words from Mr. Paul. I need to see the investors backing this and let them know that they are going to lose all their money. I feel like Superman trying to help them. Wow, Jake, such a good guy. All right, all right, a little bit of spiciness there. Never heard anyone.

Al Jermaine Sterling did weigh in on this as well, and it seems like he agrees with me. Enough with the tournaments. It only slows things down. Hope they do well, but man, tournaments style is so outdated, just make the production fun and people tune in. Couldn't agree more. Please, for the love of God, no tournament. Please, I don't want a tournament. I do want to give a big congratulations to Al Jermaine Sterling who got his own day in Nassau County this past week. Bruce Blakeman named this day Nassau County after me to honor me winning the UFC title the right way. May 23rd, happy Al Jermaine Sterling Day to Nassau County, grab some Funk Harbor and safe this weekend. Hey, there's Al-I. Quinta. I believe he's now the second Serro Longo guy to have his own

day, right? Chris Wyman. I believe Chris Widman's day is. Do you know what Chris Wyden Day is, PT? How about this? How about this factoid? Okay. Do you know what Chris Wyman Day is? No. P.T., have you any idea what Chris Widman Day is? No, please tell me what it is. It is the 17th of July. Oh, my birthday. It is your birthday. I know this because of my dad's birthday as well. It's incredible. I'm almost 100% sure. Chris Weidman, because he beat Anderson Silva, like July 6th or something like that.

Chris Wideman Day, July 17th. Nassau County proclaims July 17th as Chris Wideman Day. Could you believe that? One of your own. One of your own. Guys, Talasin Tashara is hard at work. He's employed a new technique. to his training

a little bit of eye poach there we don't appreciate your sense of humor towson wasn't he helping with Pereira training in that at the shares gym yeah I know maybe he'll implement it against sergey Pavlovich this week

I he's interested in seeing how that matches reft because so many changes have been made since then obviously we had the on Crown Films video about the documentary about the seminar they had, the officials thing, and Ben Folk showed an article about it.

And like this being a fell, and obviously we know for this, this do this quite a bit, but because of the heat Gannas got since the Tom Massimal fight, I am very interested to see how that's refereed that fight. Like, do you think there's more onus on the ref because of everything that's happened?

Because essentially that fell, forced them to really hammer down on these pokes. I'm really, really interested to see how that plays out. Will they stop punching just the outstretched finger, even if the guys are meters away from each other? And will they be less lenient, warnings and all that stuff? Yeah, no, for sure.

I want to go to the Herb Dean seminar in September. They'll surely be talking about this. Okay, let's go back to the questions, guys. Abey says, Ariel, I'm getting frustrated with what Vince Russo highlighted perfectly with you months back when talking about WW's lack of storytelling. They also appear incapable or unwilling to be able. build new main event stars. Ariel, in the last 18 months, how many angles had great potential only to produce nothing?

The new day, heel turn was the best theater since the bloodline, elimination chamber, followed by bad booking, and now they're out. Wyatt's six, no different. Karen Cross hits a sick promo post-mania only for booking to kill his buzz. And how's the Gunther Legend Killer angle going? Unfortunately, it makes me question if I gave trips too much credit for his creative post-vince, because if we're being honest, the only good angles involve Paul Heyman, bloodline, vision,

Mania 40 with Rock, Obafemi versus Lesnar, the build, etc. They couldn't even do Orton versus Cody well and the storyline was already there. Am I being too harsh? Also, thanks for learning me to the El Grande AAA angle. Their brawl reminded me of why I used to love

those messy brawls, Matt Hardy, quote, but now in WBE every other segment is a brawl, followed by the GM sending security. It's no longer reserved for intense rivalries rant over, much love your boy, Bay. I think a lot of people share his sentiment. They've had a bit of bad luck with injuries. And in fact, Logan Paul now injured guys. And he tore his tricep and recently posted a photo of said tricep. Here he is. Tor my tricep, got surgery while wide awake, told Doc, I want to feel it all. Still the tag team champ, just FYI. They're telling me six-month

recovery, but I don't believe them. I'll be back in a couple of weeks with some prime shake, 32 grams of protein. Golly, look at that, bad boy. That's a guy. That's some kind of scar right there. Damn, that is gnarly. Yeah. Why would you want to be awake? I don't know. You think he was actually awake?

No shot, right? He's about that life. He's about that staying awake during surgery life? Hell yeah. He raw dog surgery? Yeah, yeah, hell, yeah. I hope he gets better. But, you know, let's be real.

Like, the injury that we all care about is Sol Ruka. As the number one supporters and program of Sol Ruka, we hope she has a speedy recovery. Hell yeah. Fingers crossed. Here's Aaron who says, Yo, Ariel, I've never watched an NBA game in my life, but on the weekend I found myself checking the results, and I hope the Knicks get up for you.

Shout out to the whole team in L.A. On Monday, it felt like they loved each other, but by Thursday, it felt like they couldn't stand being in the same room. Is that accurate? Us in Los Angeles? Yes, no, completely 100% true. I couldn't disagree with this more. I felt like the camaraderie and friendship was reaching a peak on Thursday morning,

To where I felt like it had almost surpassed the quality of the show, and we were just friends having a good time and a room together. All that minus Frank, who's ironically not even in here right now. Anyway, he already left. Just like he was trying to leave on the Thursday in Los Angeles. So who's driving the boat here? No one. This is, we're freewheeling right now.

Let me see if this is accurate. Frank, please play my favorite drop. No, dead serious. He's not sitting in here. Holy crap. Okay, can you get me some sort of sign? Like, say enchilada when he's back, okay? Okay, I got you.

Here's Worship who says, Hey, fellows, allow me to go off on a tangent. I personally don't care for gimmick fights and boxing, but at least they get eyes on the sport. However, I draw the line with gimmick MMA fights. Influencers slash non-MMA athletes add nothing to the sport, absolutely nothing except sloppy street fights, which probably do great on the algorithm,

and that's all that matters anymore. By the way, do want to also note, just as an example of peace and love, peace and love, we did cover Brand Risk over at Uncrowned, at least on the social media front. So I think you guys got the hate wrong on this one, but I guess the messenger deserves some of the hate as well. Engagement is everything.

Dana and Hunter promoting this garbage tells me the UFC probably ain't cutting it when it comes to fan engagement, people competing in MMA, when they don't know what they are truly doing seems barbaric. I bet the brand risk 14 fighters made more money than the fighters on the last apex card. All right.

over, keep up the hard work, yin's are the best. Slava P says, hey Ariel, what has been the biggest change for you, having your own show versus working for Vox? Does your day to day or week to week look any different? Is there a big logistic difference on your end between working for Vox versus having Yahoo as a partner? We'd love to give more of an insight into how you run your business. Well, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, obviously different. A lot more. I'm doing three shows as opposed to two shows. and three shows where I have to travel into the city to do it at the studio and whatnot. And then, yeah, there's other things.

You know, the uncrowned films and dot com and thinking about other things and other projects that we're doing. So love it. And don't forget on Thursdays they cater lunch with enchiladas, you know? Oh, yes. I have often felt that Thursdays are the days that I miss. And so I was just wondering, just going back to that previous. question because we asked everyone their thoughts on all of it. I didn't get your take, Frank. So I was just wondering, because I know you were waiting to jump in there, because I know this is

a topic that's near and dear to your heart. What did you think about it? Like some AI shit. Like, I don't know. No, no, that, you know, when we were talking about, you know, like, Reddit and, you know, like, it was literally about your world. And I think we were a little bit rude talking about, like, audio and mixed boards and all that stuff. And no one even asked for your opinion. No one ever does. Please, go ahead. Please, tell me what you think.

Because I thought it was a great question. I thought it was a really good take. I'm going to abstain. Really? Yeah, I really want you guys to do it. But this is like your... I want you to marinate in the failure. This is your bread and butter right here.

It is my bread and butter. Because he was asking about those specific dimensions and requirements, and I thought that you'd be the perfect one. For some reason, Pizzi weighed in on it, but I thought it would be perfect. Actually, it's quite long there. My second in command, he was more than equipped to do that. Any of you tried to do it. I didn't do it right, man.

I was pretty bad. I was wrong. Clear it up for us real quick, because it's going to bother me. Some audio engineer, Frank. Yeah, that's right. Clear it up real quick. It's going to bother me.

Well, I'm going to let that bother you. Wow. Until the foreseeable future. Okay, the tone changed there real quick. Everything okay, Frank? Yeah. Hey, man. Is that the start of the question,

or is that a Frank Heyman? I can't tell. Or is that a... This is a... This is the Frank in the future. Got, I got, I got it. This is me packing up and... Hey, man.

So, um, I just got back to the room. And I feel like, what are you talking about? Oh, where were you? I actually got... I felt a little sick. I had to step out for a second. Oh, I had no idea. I thought you were there the whole time.

So I know that that's not true because as soon as I came back, Jordan told me everything that happened while I was gone. Wow. Wow. Wow. Frank walks and he goes,

Did I miss anything? And I was like, actually, this time you did? Oh, wow, wow. Boch front bench stands. Wow, wow, wow, wow. The United Front. I appreciate your attempts, but it did not work. Oh, yeah.

I did forget. I don't know if we ever made it to air with the multi-tool story, but that was horrendous. Serious threats of violence. Wow. From Frank? Well, he had the pre-show speech of just don't know that everybody know. yeah, Los Angeles has been a great fucking time. As soon as it's over, I'm leaving, I'm going back to the hotel, I'm editing audio, I'm doing my own thing tonight, I'll see you all back in New York.

Okay, sounds good, man. And then after the show, his precious multi-tool went missing. Not everything that happens behind the scenes needs to come to air. This is good. This is good. Frank made a lot of accusations that someone lost his multi-tool. We get back to New York. Frank, where was your multi-tool, man? It was inside Jordan's back? It was in Frank's back. Frank had his multi-tile the whole time. Threaten Andy and myself that the one front bench would be no more.

Wow. So since they're embellishing the truth here, I handed my multi-tool to Jordan. Story's getting mixed up now. He said, Andy went to go get hers. I may not need this. I put my hand out to get it back. He's like, but what if she doesn't find it? I'm like, all right, fine.

Then I go up front to wait for a lift, and I'm like, I need to open this Pelican case. I need the knife. So I went back, I was like, Jordan, where's a knife at, man? He's like, I don't know. Like, no big deal. It's just $100. Left. Came back to the hotel.

They're all over here chatting it up. Like, that's not what happened. That's what I remember. Well, you were in a red hot ridge, but in your defense, there was a lot of fear from Jordan and Andrew. Me and Rick walk in, and they're like, fuck, fuff, fuff, fuff. Frank's multi-tools miss. saying. We didn't want to hear it again. We were like, bro, we could just get him a new

multi-tool. They were like, I don't even know what Multitools is. What is multi-tools? It's like a Swiss Army knife, right? He's shattering. Oh, it's like one of those little things that he puts in his computer. Yeah. No, no, no, it's like a Swiss Army knife. Yeah, he sticks in his computer.

It's as valuable as the clip he keeps asking me about. I said the clips today, by the we will buy him the nicest multi-tool loan to man, and they were like, I'm not going to be able to come back. Oh, my God. I can't find this multi-tools. My only one question was like, is it sentimental? Does this matter?

And then they were like, I don't know. I was like, ah, we'll be fine. If it was a sentimental multi-tool, I wouldn't have left with a knot in my hand. His great-grandpae used it in a civil war. He likes to carry a knife, generation to generation. Actually, more than just a knife. They have computers in the Civil War. It's a multi-tool.

Frankie, we love you. I just want to let you know that. We should probably have a meeting after. I understand everything's not content, but we were asked directly about your attitude in Los Angeles. Yeah. Just had to address it. It's a good point.

He said that it felt like everyone hated it. It's just flared it all back up. Some guys said we all hated each other by Thursday. Yeah, that is true. I can't fucking stand to be in the same room anymore. Thursday was actually one of the most fun I've ever had on the boys in the bag. We did the whole show in sunglasses. It was one of the most ridiculous things to stare at.

We're all going to get the Hayman conversation. Yeah, maybe we'll skip it. Go straight to the Resolution. The Paul Hayman conversation or the Hayman? The Hayman. The Hayman. that one. Here's Ryan Chandler, guys, who says,

Sean Strickland wants to have his cake and eat it too. Perhaps that's the most succinct way to put it. And I didn't quite put it that way, but it is not a bad point. Oh dear, here's Kevin from Ottawa who says, all right, guys, this is a hot take. But considering the circumstances, I think this controversial stoppage is the best thing to happen to Rico. Honestly, I don't think that's a hot take.

Other than getting his hand raised, I think he's infinitely more beloved, popular, sort of like the people's champ, if you will. He got screwed. Let's go through four possible outcomes had the fight not been stopped. Usik gets a clean stoppage. Usik wins round 12 and then gets robbed. I think the same byproduct would have been present had that happened. But Rico stops Usik in round 12.

That would have been the best option. Personally, I think one or two are the most likely scenario. If either of those happen, he's not the people's champion. Yeah, I get that. This isn't too bad. This is from inappropriately appropriate. Harry, I was listening to PCC. Peter Cromiel.

Carol, is that your middle name? Yes. Is it really? No. Oh. And it seems like everyone is talking about Connor having two fights on his contract, and afterwards he'll be a free agent. Are we forgetting his old contract would have been based on a pay-per-view model?

That means he does have a new contract that fits the Paramount model. No? Who's the check? I've said this. They've adjusted it, and he still has two fights left. Chris Remb says, have you seen SNLUK's Louis Theroux's sketch? I have not. He says they smashed it.

Has anyone seen it? Yeah, it's pretty good. Is it good? Have you been watching? I thought you hated SNLUK. I did, but I didn't actually know those clips were from there, but as soon as he said the Louis Theroux thing, very, very good, actually. And he found out and he deleted it from his memory.

I was like, I can't do this. Craters is asking again for a bit of the blue drop. It would be better than hearing Balal's cringy ass every time. No, no, no. It sounds like El Grande Americano. The sex. Yeah. I was making a bit of blue there himself.

That's what happened. Yes, I looked it up, and it was uncontrollable intimacy. Yeah. That was witness. Then that's my way there, really, Rick, just so I can make sure. I don't think it was a bit of the blue. No, there was no security footage, PT. This is just, this one, you just got a memory bank.

Here's James the tuna who says, Ariel in the Gang, UFC 328, Post-Fight Press Conference. I believe you touched upon it, but I really wanted you to go a bit deeper into the comments by the Irish journalist that pressed Dane about Connor Ben. My favorite line went something like, well, you are his promoter. It just reminded me of stuff you guys say week in and week out. I know this was a few weeks ago, but worthy of an honorable mention and naming him all the best. I believe that was Donna Corby, right?

It wasn't there. Big day. What a legend. Donna Corby is a legend. We like him very much. and he does a great job whenever he's at these press conferences and it's very rare. I saw an interview yesterday in which Dana White,

Dana White's doing an interview with IFL TV. Have you guys seen this interview? Yes. And the young journalist who was interviewing him, I think does a really good job, especially with Eddie Hearn. And so I'm not trying to make this about him in particular. But at one point, he's asked about,

Dana says that he's done more events than Matron. And I think Matrum has done something like 15 or so events this year, and Dana has done seven, six or seven. And Dana at one point pulls out the chat GPT to confirm that he's done as much or more than Matrum. And Chat ChbT some way somehow actually confirms this, which goes to show you shouldn't trust Chat ChpT. Give me a fucking break. And the journalist who I know, and I don't want to say his name because I'm not trying to make this a do a thing, but he doesn't like, he knew that they knew that they. done way more. And he didn't challenge him on it. And I was surprised to see that. And the only reason why I bring this up is because I thought in this moment, I know it's hard when you're,

you know, you're interviewing Dana and all that stuff. I get it. I get it. I get it. Trust me, I get it. But I thought Donna in this moment was really good and he's often really good. And so I want to give him his props because I thought, like Dana's talking about these things as though he is not countervents promoter. He is counterbent's promoter. And then he was asked about promoting alongside Oscar Delahoya and I thought that that was interesting because he does this thing with the boxing guys have you noticed

that he does this thing where he smirks and he's like we'll see and then he always goes back to the same line judge me in a year judge me in January what's that I tell you about for being of babies when he said go back to the same way

I wish he would say that more though and Dana was strictly he was strictly talking about boxing events in reference to matron yes and actually it's crazy the journalist actually actually tried to give him the out and he's like oh maybe you meant

slap UFC everything he's like no no no I was talking about boxing events yeah I don't know who does he not know numbers for him I don't know who pulls these like these numbers chat chippy team man social numbers it's it is weird because it's a very easy

thing to you know to to verify they've they've definitely done more and like who really cares to be honest what does it matter once a company that's been around for like 15, 20 years, if not more.

And then another one is a company that's six months old. I just did a quick chat, GPT prompt. Who has promoted more events this year, Dana White or Eddie Hearn. It says probably Eddie Hearn by a pretty comfortable margin. That's fucking illegal. It says probably a chat, Chbtee? Probably Eddie Hearn. That is weird.

Thanks, chat. There's been six Zoufa boxing. Yes. Thanks, Chad. I mean, there's like, if we're talking match room, what are we counting them with? I mean, they did the Nicholson fight, the Walker, Miller. I mean, it looks like you can get the six if you just go back to like mid-March.

It's a very weird thing. Wood Warrington. Yeah. Yeah, God, I'm looking at this. The Shkor Stevenson fight. Yeah, they've done several more than six. Where does everyone think this fucking a-oy shit is always right? Like, as if you're like, you're...

I heard the drop right there when you said it. It's some a-o-o-ish-like, I don't really heard it. That was just the sober version of it. It's weird. But they think it's like you're fucking, you know, it's omniscient or something. You know, it's a lot of bullocks. Pizzi, it is. Well, I mean, obviously fucking, huh.

Guys, here's Lonnie who says, how can you call your program unbiased and then go on these lengthy Nix rents all the time, L.O.L. It's a fair point. That's a fair point. That's a fair point. That's a great point. That's a great point. Jake Garcia says, congrats on the Nix. I hope you guys give my spurs a good run for our.

money. I mean, golly, down three, two. My question today is, how does it make you feel that the only coach to agree to be on the basketball pod you had started a few years ago was Mike freaking Brown? The guy who inevitably ended up leading your lifelong team back to the big game, you're going to make me cry. Is the same one who showed you the respect to come do your show. Just wanted to know how that make me. What a question. You know, I was telling my kids about this, because I don't think they knew. And I've definitely mentioned it at some point on this show. When I did the, and this is weird, should I pick it up? Well, who is it?

You know the rules. Oh, well, now they hung up. Let me see, one second. Call them back. Oh, wait a second. Sorry. I can take over, right? It's all good, then.

Everything okay? Everything's great, man. What was that? I was listening to a podcast there. Yeah. And it was a football journalist who was preparing to go on cover to World Cup. And as an errand to, you know, see where he's at. He asked Chat ChachyBT, BT to make him a quiz on World Cup trivia to see if you could answer the questions.

Every question that the, like, he was answering them correctly. And every time ChachyBT was like, that is incorrect. And then he got into like a debate with him until Chatchbti BT would be like, oh yes, sorry, you are right. I mean, correct. Yeah, that's elevated right there for it to know that it made a mistake and correct itself. no we love a lot some aio shit like oh yeah a lot of ball so anyway back to my

story yeah yeah yeah yeah I agree to do this podcast for showtime the area hawani basketball show and it becomes abundantly clear that I don't have the same types of connections in the world of basketball as I do in the world of combat and so

man I must have struck out I was desperate I mean I'm like oh for 25 for my first episode I'm trying to get someone big for my first episode. And so here I am. It was it, it was 20, 23, so three years ago now, and I'm struggling. I have no one. How am I going to do this? I've committed to 20 to 25 episodes. How the hell am I going to pull this off? And I'm freaking out. And then it occurs to me that a couple years prior, 2021, the then-assisting coach of the Golden State Warriors, Mike Brown, reached out to me

out of the blue because he was coaching the Nigerian men's basketball team and is a massive MMA fan and he was wondering if I could put him in touch with both Israel Adesania and Kamar Ustman to send his guys to Nigerian basketball players a video message in support of their, you know, journey at the Olympic Games. And so I'm like, man, let me just, I'm desperate. I never spoke to him after, like I connected him with the right people and all that stuff and I think they did it for him. And we spoke a little bit at the time about his love of MMA. And I was like, holy crap, Mike Brown, like former coach of the Cavs, Lakers, assistant coach on the Spurs, Warriors. This is wild.

At first I thought it was Mike Brown of ATT fame. And I'm like, wow, this is great, but never thought much of it. Now we're two years later. Let me just throw this out there. At the time, it's March of 2023. Mike Brown is very much en route to becoming NBA coach of the year. First season with the Kings, leads them back to the playoffs for the first time in over a decade.

He's in the midst of the season. It is March of 2023. In a month, he's going to lead his team to the playoffs and be named NBA coach of the year. There is no way that he is going to respond, and I'm just a desperate loser, and I will strike out again. I send him the text. He responds within five minutes. I've not talked to this guy in two years. He's the NBA coach of the year for the Kings who are going to the playoffs. Absolutely, man. Does this day work for you? Yeah? And I couldn't believe it. And a couple days later, I'm sitting there on Zoom talking to Mike Brown, talked to a little MMA off

camera, talked about his, you know, return to being a head coach and the Kings and the season. And I was like, this guy is a freaking minch. I couldn't believe how nice he was. I couldn't believe. Didn't make me go through PR. Didn't make me go through anyone. Set it up, text. He was there. Great chat. My first interview for this new project is with the NBA coach of the year. And one of the best stories of that particular year. Fast forward two years later, Nick's Fire Tibbs. They're going after Jason Kidd. They're going after Billy Donovan. They're going after all these other names, and for whatever reason, everyone's enjoying them striking out. Every other day, there was another story.

Nix asked for permission to talk to this guy, and this guy said no, or this team said no, et cetera, et cetera. And there's Mike Brown. And I'm like, is it possible that Mike Brown's going to be the coach of the Nix? Lo and behold, he's the coach of the Nix. And so, yeah, I told my kids about this two days ago when they clinched. I am so happy for this guy, and I can't believe that I could actually say that I sort of kind of, I'll never claim to be his friend. we've texted a couple times since. I'll admit, I texted him after the game on Sunday.

He wrote back right away. And I'm like, this is the coach of the New York Knicks who brought us back to the NBA finals. Can't believe it. Surreal. Can't believe it. But honestly, he just, he is exactly who he comes across as. At the beginning of the post-game press conference, his team just went back to the NBA

finals. What does he do? He speaks for three, four minutes in a beautiful, eloquent way about Memorial Day, about his father being in the military, about everyone, you know, who is a family member of a fallen soldier, about those who paid the ultimate price, about what this day really means. Like, this is in one of the great moments of his career, and he's speaking like this. I remember how he spoke about Nick Nurse after his brother passed away, and they're in the midst of the, you know, the playoff battle with the 76ers. I'm just so happy for this guy, because everyone got their licks in

when he was hired. Everyone took shots at the Knicks and him and saying that he couldn't do it. And that here he is four wins away from being immortalized for being the second coach to ever win a championship for the Knicks, the first being the great Red Holtzman. It's unbelievable. So yeah, it is wild, and I pray to any God out there that it happens. Korean zombie or Zerian Kambi says, hello Ariel, I know they've talked about insects and weather being a factor for the White House. Do you know if a random act of violence has been discussed. I mean, I pray not. I'm sure they've talked about it. Yeah. I pray it doesn't happen, but yes, they have definitely... Oh, of course. Yes, he says, I don't mean, I pray that they didn't talk about it. I pray not

that something like that would be, I mean, that's awful. What's it mean a random act of violence? Does that not happen on a lot of U.S. events, Dylan Donis, etc.? Like, is that what we're talking about it? I think they mean something a little bit more than that. Yeah. You know, like what's, what's happened in the past. They've talked about it. I can promise you. I would say That was probably agenda item number one. Yeah. Okay, just a couple of more. Okay, Jake Garcia says, hey, Ariel, despite the Premier League ending, I'd like to ask a non-MMA question.

I'm not a huge fan of soccer, but growing up one of my friends was a Chelsea fan, so I've aligned myself with them since then. I've also had a soft spot for Tottenham because I've been a diehard San Antonio Spurs fan my whole life. So being a Tottenham fan with them being the Spurs also has made sense. I'm wanting to commit to one of the clubs. I understand they both suck, but which one should I? I give my full allegiance to. Can I say, I say go Spurs. Yeah.

Right? I know that Chelsea had a pretty good year and then they fizzled out and now they're not in Europe for next year. But Spurs couldn't be more Rock Bottom right now other than getting relegated. This is the time to attach yourself to them. Rock bottom? We just had a great day on Sunday. I had a fantastic time.

Celebrated. We had a party. They just signed Andy Robertson. I mean, come on. My daughter was singing. When the Spurs go marching in, I was. like, wow, first words. Do you not agree, though?

This is the time, right? Funny enough, I did see two dudes wearing San Antonio Spores jerseys at the game. So there you go. There you go. That's your sign. I say go with Spurs. Great, great people, great fans, have to say. Really, really great fans.

Justin says, I attended A.W. Double or Nothing. I'm a casual pro wrestling fan, but I was very hyped for MJF versus Darby after seeing both their interviews on the show. Coincidentally, I noticed New York Rick outside before entering the venue. After saying I wasn't going to hold you up, you still made time to chat while waiting for our groups to arrive.

It was a pleasure to meet you and GC in Atlantic City, and you outdid yourself the second time around. The boys from Brearwood, much respect. Overall, the event was top tier all time, but the AEW shows still seem to run too long. I can easily sit through six hours of USC but just can't with their overbooked shows. I'd love to know how the squad who attended Life felt in addition to your thoughts. Well, we spoke about that. But how about that? New York, Rick, man of the people.

Listen, you know, got to make time. Great dude. You know this man. Now I do. We were chatting it up outside Louis Armstrong. Yeah, Rick got there like really early. He set up a booth that said, come meet New York Rick. I was like, what is this?

No, it was one of those like changed my mind. Like I had a hot take that people come up. Five dollar autographs. This is so great. But yes, great dude. Stu Law says, tell G.C. If he's going to watch a game at the World Cup, it has to be a Scotland game. Get yourself to Miami for the Brazil game.

Even Pizzi will agree. The Scotland support is as good as if not better than the Irish. Also have the best national anthem in the sport. No Scotland, no party, you're welcome. Fuck, sounds incredible. Right now I got Spain, Saudi. Maybe a knockout game here in NYSoup. Spain, Saudi is a great game to go to.

We were talking about this earlier. When is it, June 13th? It's going to be France, Senegal, and Nix. Oh, June 16th. June 16th? At the same time? One's going to, like, bleed into the other, right? It's 3 o'clock Senegal.

So it'll be over by then. But Penn Station is going to be bopping. A lot of people getting back from the France game as people are showing up for the next day. Oh, right, right, right. Oh, my. It's going to be madness. One more, Nico, dear Ariel, boys, Pete, and all the other H affiliates.

I just wanted to say thank you. you. Two years ago, I was working a really awful job at a warehouse in my hometown. I was really depressed and was recovering from a pretty serious groin surgery. I'd fallen in love with combat sports the year before and started watching everything I possibly could in regards to MMA. I also started listening to the Halwani Show, BITB, and the crack Big Ups Pete. I fell in love with combat sports journalism by listening to your podcast. Fast forward to now, and I'm going back to college at the age of 24 for political studies since there is no journalism program but I've been busting my ass on the independent side of things.

They made me the culture editor of our college paper. Go, you sask. Oh, that's Saskatchewan, Huskies. Shout out to the sheaf. I went to a two-night boxing event in Regina, Saskatchewan and wrote 4,000 words on that which I'll be publishing soon. I've got an interview with the Unified MMA middleweight champion Hunter leave this Friday. Unified MMA, obviously doing a great job in Canada.

Everything is looking up. There's a lot of doom posting about the relevance of investigative journalism, especially written journalism in our AI age. But I'm standing 10 toes down for writers, commentators, and everybody who is as passionate about fighting as I am. Thanks for pushing me into following my dreams, guys. I really appreciate it. Keep up the fantastic work.

You truly are the last of a dying breed. Wow. What a message from Nico there. Imagine. Appreciate that. And love to see you. it, especially from a youngster. Well done.

And that's part of the reason why we take so much pride in uncrown.com, because we do feel like there's an incredible amount of written journalism that should be shared, that should be disseminated. And I think that led by our fearless leader, Shahin al-Shadi, we are doing just that. But well done. Thank you for those kind words. And maybe someday down the line, we will cross paths, right? What was that PT?

I said, who knows? Maybe you can end up on the team. Let's go, Nico. Speaking of Shaheen, he did remind me, May 30th is actually even more stacked. I knew I was forgetting a few. So we've got AAA, Battle of the Grandes, UFC Macal, R.AF9, Oshaki Foster against Raymond Ford, matchroom card. Maybe that's their, like, fourth of the year. Dimitri Bivel against Michael Eiffert, MVP in El Paso.

and lest we forget, Darren Till making his BKFC debut against Aaron Chalmers of Jordy Shore fame. That's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven events on May 30th. We're going to have a lot to talk about gents on Saturday. Excuse me, on Monday. This is happening on Saturday. Frankie, any superjets? Yeah, so to start us off is actually Sammy dash J6Z3S.

Oh, my guy. Where did it all go wrong for Eddie and Dana From the praising each other a few years ago To all out guns blazing Well I mean They entered the boxing space If I have to hear one more time

I was on the Pierce Morgan show And he asked me if I'd fight him And I said yes Can we move past this one? How many more times We can talk about this one? This is like beating up babies It's the same old hits

In every single interview I wish you know I was I'm surprised I thought they'd put up a bigger fight, this and that. I have no doubt for the 10th time. No, 10th? 100th time. Zufa boxing is here to stay.

They probably are going to sign a whole bunch of big names. There's a ton rumored. They're not going anywhere. But it seems like Eddie's up for the fight. So let's see. What else, Frankie? What else? Jake from Windy City.

Hey, man, caught me off guard by the callout yesterday. But I apologize if I made some pointed comments lately. Promise I won't do it again. Thanks. I appreciate that, Jake. I appreciate that, Jake. Peace in love, peace and love. And no heart feelings.

We do appreciate you here. What else? What else? Dorian dash Q7-8 says, Lamar Jackson greater than Josh Allen. Raven's winning it all this year. By the way, is it okay to say that that is the furthest thing

from my mind right now? Yes. I'm not, I'm not right. Like, we can't get it. Can we just love them both? Yeah, yeah. Let's love them both. That too.

But Dorian spent $10 to. to say this. But we will win around June 16th or so, and then we'll... Here, can you imagine, though? I know this is, you know, getting ahead of ourselves there. Pitchie, don't do this. Can you imagine if you go back to back in one year? And you have nothing to complain about ever again.

I will never complain. And guess what? I feel like it almost has to happen this way. Let's get through this one. Yeah, guys, this is bad juji right here. This is fucking bad. Can we talk about our boy Jake and the run he's, on. Jake Lenock?

Jake Lennox, Lennox, Lennox, but you know, fair enough. Our boy, Jake. University of Indiana grad gets the Natty. Oh, wow. Die-hard Arsenal supporter. Wow. He's actually in Budapest right now for the Champions League Final on Saturday. He gets the Prem. Lifelong, die-hard Knicks fan

could get the treble here with all his team. That is absurd. Yeah, he's on a run. Also, a Bears fan, and they're kind of getting hot, too. They are getting hot. They are going to be glad. I was that close. I was that close. to experience, I mean, Nick's last year, Bill's last year, Jay's World Series, I was that close.

You're even closer now. You're even fucking closer now. You got about the Jay's. You guys are both up, man. Please. Charit to dream, as they say in sports. Mercy and motion book. Hey, Ariel, you said you welcome religious conversation.

Question everyone on the team. If you could ask God one question, what would it be, God bless? Wow, wow, wow, wow. I do love religious conversations, by the way. Man, if you could ask God one question, What if God was one of us? Okay, I'll tell you what the first question that came to mind was.

All right. But I don't know if ultimately this is my choice. Is that fair? Yeah. The first thing that popped into my mind was like, why the heartbreak? Like, why do awful things happen to innocent people? Why do kids die?

Why do, why does cancer hit them? Why do these awful accidents happen, drowning, things like that? Why are wars happening? Why do these things happen? Why? And again, this is me workshopping the question, but can you stop these things? Is that fair or is that unfair? I think it's a good question.

I think it's a good one. Yeah. Do you think I could say I have a two-parter Can you please let the Knicks win One championship in my lifetime? I think that's God abuse Final final question

I don't know if it's like a request hotline I don't know if God's like there Just to do your will Two-parter God off the bat It's only one question I got you can ask Can we get the Knicks to win it? Why wars Why is there suffering and can the Knicks win?

One question Are you there, God? Yeah question. Is that your choice? What happens when we die? I don't mind that. I don't mind that, Pete. That's not bad. Wow. Okay, I was asking G.C. if that was your choice. No, it's a famous book. Are you there? God, it's me, Margaret.

That's a banger right there. What happens when you die? Yeah. I feel like the two most common ones are probably what happens when you die and how did it all begin? Oh, yeah. How did it start? I wasn't a good one that. I wasn't a good one. No, no, it was a good one. Who are you? It's the one that people actually want to know. Yeah. P.T., what do you think happens?

happens. Don't like to think about it. Wow. Dust in the wind, Pete. Wait, you don't think about it, but that's the one thing you'd ask? Because thinking about it, it's not a good time. Can I tell you my theory on what happened?

I've thought about it a lot. Oh, I think we become part of the earth, probably. Well, I think that's going to happen. You cannot pin, this is what I think, and I hope I'm wrong, but you cannot pinpoint when you go to sleep, right? Like, you can't tell me exactly the moment that you fell asleep last night. Sure. and I just kind of think it's like that.

Just a quiet passing. I just think it just kind of shuts off and that's it. That's physical though. This is God, right? Are we not talking like spiritual? Are we not talking like... I'm talking spiritual. I think we become like...

I don't know, man. I'd like to leave it. I think this is more of an implication of afterlife and all those things. I love to think of that. Yeah, of course we close our eyes and don't wake up. And of course... I think the lights just shut off and that's it. There's nothing.

I don't know. If I'm speaking to directly to God, I'm going to have a much stronger stance on the afterlife at that point. If I'm talking to God, it'll be like, hey man, you can't blame me for not being fully sure you were around, right? I feel like if he is frank. Well, that's more of a, that's more looking for. Mine is going to be like, were you watching when I did that thing back in 2050? Like, I'm just going to ask one very specific question. Did I get away with that or were you?

Do you know where the clip went? Did you find that clip? That's a good one. Did you find that? Speaking of the afterlife, right? I felt very bad about myself, right? So I went down, I went down to see my friend Abby's grave while I was in London. And I was, you know, chatting away to him about, you know, everything that's happening.

And then at the end, I was like, here, um, spurs, right? I'm bringing me to, uh, if you could just. Yeah. I love it. And then I'm walking away. I'm like, I'm going to see Abby. I'm like asking him for shit. Like, what is wrong with me?

Like, I felt like an awful human being then. But the obviously came through. Yeah. And yet. Yeah. Came through. You're delivered. You were saying.

saying Don He was an, I'm saying I'll be there. I much prefer the idea of a... Very combination. Was he a spurs fan? Or were you just trying to... I don't think he was a spurs fan, no. You were just desperate in that moment. But his best mate, Sandu is, so I mean...

Hell yeah. Oh, yeah, I was talking to Sandu about that on Sunday. I love that you went and visited him. That's amazing. Good on you for doing that, PT. Really, really, really well done. All right, what else, Frankie? What else?

24-inch dubs. Keep talking up the Knicks, Ariel. Oh, stop it. Talked. Why are you such a hater, man? You've enjoyed enough, all right? And that's the thing. Like, all these loser fans are going to just let us be happy.

Please, you know it's better for the league if the Nicks win. And if it's the Nix Thunder, I feel like we're the baby face in that one. For sure. If it's Spurs, everyone loves Wemby, I get it. Nicks have it right now. Nicks have the momentum right now. But like the fan momentum. Oh, yeah.

Big time. Big time. Which wasn't the case in 94. They were kind of known as like the big bad thugs. And in 99, we were just kind of hanging on. no one thought we had a chance. What else, Frankie? What else? Super moderator, Elaguan Dream.

Oh, my guy. Who's G.C. riding with for Roland Garland. Good question. On the men's side? I don't think it's a question. Yonix Center. There's no Carlos Alcarez. He's on an unbelievable run. He won like five straight tournaments. He's undefeated on Clay this year. He's disgusting. He will win. He'll finish the career grand slam.

Yeah. On the women's side, Coco, back to back. Shout out. Yeah. She won last year. She did, yeah. What about my gal Pagula? Yeah, Jess Pagula. She always hangs around. Hasn't gotten a major yet, but maybe one day. She's kind of like top five, top ten.

Yeah, incredible. Pete, you know Jessica Pagula? Is it Jessica Pagula? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Billionaire upbringing, you know. Not over to the tennis. Son, or excuse me, daughter of the owner of the Buffalo Bills? Top five? Top five, right? She has been top. So a friend of a friend, basically.

Pretty much. Part of the fam? Yeah, an hour. The mafia. What else, Frankie? What else? La Mancha, M.A. I apologize for trolling.

I'm officially retiring from MMA satire. Isn't this weird? Peace and love, Ariel. I'm a fan of yours and the team, especially G.C. And a weird salute emoji. Isn't this weird? You know? A little bit of a call-out and everyone backtracked.

You got them shook? You got them shook out there. Why did you call out La Mancha? I see him trolling. I see him trolling. He called the Lamontza. Didn't we meet La Mancha in Vegas? I don't know, did we?

I'm pretty sure we met him outside the studio. I'm down with La Mancha. There's several people in that chat that troll much harder. I see some people on Twitter saying some things. Yeah. What else, Frankie? What else? Smoke season 1162, even including pro wrestling,

where does Kobe's turn from heel to baby face rank all time? Kobe is a bit of a baby face right now, but then he'll throw Netflix's, woke line. I'm like, what? What's going on here? Did the WFB go when he said that? No, I mean, you could still be a baby face and

call out woke culture. Or maybe they, I don't know, do they agree? Do you reckon that? They actually all bought another subscription to Netflix under a different email. Oh yeah, Colby, you cancel? We'll double down. I actually ordered a case of Real American Beer Zero.

How is zero. Because my time spent with Kobe Covington back in 2019. Did you spend time with it? He chailed it a lot. Charlie. That's right, that's right. Nice guy, honestly, in person. It is a nice guy in person.

Very surprised. Were we going to say, PT? I just think, I don't think there was anything in the can because a few swigs of it. I didn't hear him. I heard the sound. He kept doing a. After each ship. Listen.

It's tasty. What else, Frankie? What else? Duncan 96-61, NBA Finals, Oklahoma City versus NIC. Why you asking him? Grade A hater. I don't want it to be OKC. I'm not doing this.

I'm not doing this. Why can't you at least just support us? I support my friends. If you're going to ask for my real opinions, I can't lie. I'm not a man who does that. They're tired. I'm supportive. Look, this lad said Rico had no chance, you know what I mean?

Come on. What idiot said that pre-fight? Not all of us. I didn't say. I was a competitive fight written all over this. I didn't say you're taking away half his weapons and he's going to You're blown out of the ring. And the result was the result, wasn't it?

I'm just going to say that I've said on multiple occasions. I've said on multiple occasions that I just want them to take that next step and make it to the finals. And now I'm here to say that I do not feel that way anymore. But I will be flogging out of it. I had a feeling that that would float away quickly. The expectations have been ratcheted up to a degree that is... The anxiety that I feel. You're going to get that Eastern Conference champion shirt and you're going to see it and be like,

yeah, this really isn't going to be that cool if they don't win the finals. It's just going to be. I'll never even wear it. I still have the NFC championship from the Super Bowl 51 season with the Falcons. You wear it? Occasionally, just to get trolled.

You all get, you wear it out, and people are just like, ha, fuck you, man. 28 to 3. You're just like, thanks, dude. Yeah. I'm actually, I'm so happy game one is in a week. I'm like dreading game one. Only because of the anxiety that I'm going to feel.

And obviously, no matter what happens, you can always be like there's a lot of time or like, what a great start. But, like, if the Knicks lose or if the Knicks win, like you're either going to be like, oh, my God, I'm so high, or you're going to be like, oh, God, is this how this series is going to be? This is an all or nothing scenario. There is no middle ground.

You're going to be heartbroken or you're going to be elated to a degree you've never experienced before. I'll tell you what. If the Knicks, okay, I'm throwing this out there. Declaration? I'm throwing this out there. Plant the flag. Let's do it. I'm throwing this out there right here and now on the air.

Yes. You know that restaurant in Vegas that I talked? that I talk about? Yes. Oh, wow. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If the New York Knicks

win the NBA championship this year we're all going to that restaurant. Wow. That's, what is that? 800 ahead, I think. Okay. How many dishes

will we have to wash to even? Even that, tripling down. Yeah. Parade Day, if they win, is there a show? I've actually thought about the parade

not getting ahead of myself here, but just how could you do a show? If there is a parade going down Broadway right outside. We need to be there, right? Do we do a live show from... Do we hook up someone with the live view and send you out there? Oh, Ariel goes out there with the line. Why would we go?

Ariel can't be sitting in the office. Do I bring the kids? Do I bring the kids? Absolutely. No school, right? Fuck, no way. Is there even school going on? Yeah, New York schools are going to shut down.

Everything's done. Once in a lifetime. Is school still in session? Yeah, of course. It's not Georgia. Yeah, you guys are done. Georgia schools have been out for like a month. End of June.

End of June. Oh, wow. Can I be honest? The sushi 800 euro ahead thing, that would be completely waste on me. It would be like feeding a pig caviar. Do you know what I mean? Just stay back for that one. Yeah, Pete, you just watch.

Send me pictures. Oh, Pete, man, I keep forgetting you coming to Vegas. It's going to be great, man. Yeah. Okay. You know, I'll do the 40 hands as you're doing it. I don't know. I have to do that with you, Pizzi.

We could do sake hands. Oh. This place is nuts. They bring you out melon. They bring you melon that's like $50 a slice. Like cantaloupe. It's not even that good, but it's grown on some special tree in Japan. That is exactly what I don't want to hear.

No, no, no. $50 a slice. It's average. Listen, whatever you guys say, I will do in celebrate. I want this on the table. I want a big pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. I want everyone in. And I'll tell you who's not invited.

It ain't Pizzi. It's Mr. Hater over there. I thought it was me. Oh, I think I'm going to say, Frankie's shitting on Pizzi for not joining in on team camaraderie. I got some bad news anyway, so. It ain't happening? I got some bad news. This dinner ain't happening, so.

Oh, that's. This will not age well. Yeah. For someone. Yeah, this is going on frozen cold takes. Whatever. Yeah. Go ahead of Cigmsing Cullet.

Leave me outside. I'll be grand. What else, Frankie? What else? Sammy wrote back, is mad how everyone is still... I am mad that everyone is still saying that Usyk... It's mad. You want to read this one? Sammy's the man.

It's mad how everyone is still saying that Ucig did not prepare for RICO. Even today on TalkSport, just give credit where credit it is Jew. He was great. I don't know. I do... I get Sammy's point here, because it just makes it sound like it's like... Despite what RICO did,

it would have gone this way no matter what? I don't think that that's true at all. I think two things can be true at the same time, which is one that Ussick didn't prepare properly for this, and two, RICO was able and willing to capitalize on that moment and had a great performance at the same time. Those two things can be true. It doesn't have to be one or the other, and it does.

And if Usook didn't prepare, that's his fault. That is not some like, we just forget about that. He underestimated an opponent that he should not. out of. So I see where Sammy's coming from here. Like it makes it sound like Rico did nothing to change this. There's a world where even if Rico, even if

Usick didn't prepare well, that Rico still gets the doors blown off because he wasn't prepared for the moment and he's, you know, a kickboxer facing one of the best boxers of all time. He was there and ready to fight and capitalize on exactly the opportunity ahead of him. So I'm with you, Sammy. I get that. I couldn't

agree more. And I also feel like a lot of people were saying in the buildup, Usik's not like Tyson. He's going to take this seriously. He's the ultimate pro. And now it's like, ah, he didn't take it seriously. Just give the guy credit. That's it.

Both can be true. You gave him no credit into it, and now you're giving him no credit coming out. Yeah. What else, Frankie? What else? DeKrum underscore golf. Why do you get so worked up with the UFC's comments on their promotions?

They are competition. Of course, they're going to dog other promotions. It's business. It's fine. Yeah. I don't really get all that worked up. I just call it out. That's all.

And people think that I take it so much more personally than I do. I really don't. I really, really don't. I can't stress this enough. It's the job. The job is to talk about the good, and I would say 90% of the show is good, and then there are times where you have to call out some hypocrisy or some nonsense or whatever, and that's just part of the gig, guys.

It ain't that personal. But fight is a fight, you know? That's right. Business. That's right. It's business. That's right. I thought that ended three times.

Yeah. Yeah, that's the point of that job. He did. He ended it early. actually. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. I just want you guys to see it for what it is.

What else, Frank? What else? Jonah Sacks 6574. Ray J. versus Adrian Broner next. On a serious note, Ray J. should not fight again. Adrian Bruner. Yeah, he should have fought the forest place. Do you know what I mean?

Adrian Bruner is not doing much better. Adrian Bruner, the gut on him right now. Something is wrong. He needs to get help. Also, bad. When did Dean the Great become such a big deal? Because I feel like we saw him in Misfits a couple years ago. and now I feel like he's like this is he going is he the one that everybody slapped in the face

larry wheels and then but i see who is larry who are these people i'm not trying to be like mr old guy but who's oh i watch that larry wheels i know larry wills is now about him and his missus oh yeah larry wheels is i really don't know i saw him with marab yeah yeah yeah but who is he he's a fit a uh uh uh a weightlifter an influencer all right yeah yeah sure you should He's a practitioner now. Okay. He's trying to get into... Him and his girl had a very messy kind of split thing,

and he was like, I'm dedicating myself to fighting now. And that's what he's doing? Oh, okay, okay, okay. All right. What else, Frankie? What else? Bucknutter, 96. You are around all this stuff a lot.

I wanted to see what you think I'm a 6-0 light heavyweight, hopefully getting to that next level soon. Would you even try to get in UFC or wait a bit and see we're all MVP and all these other promotions? end up at. I mean, you know, link up with a manager. The managers help get you in the door. There's obviously the PFL, there's the UFC MVP, let's see.

Do your thing. Get to one of these promotions like LFA or CFFC or if you're in Europe, you know, the obvious ones, the cage warriors of the world. And that's usually the last stop before you get in. It's very rare. Contemptor series. Yes, but I kind of view that as the UFC in some way, shape, or form. But yes, it's very rare that they pluck you from like a super regional show these days.

It's usually from one of those. So, you know, just put yourself out there, keep on winning, talk to the right people, be a part of a good team, good gym. It's a lot about connections these days. Good luck, though, and do keep us posted. I wish I knew your real name. What else, Frankie? What else? Sucker free, sweet flannel.

Where can we get it to dress up as Ariel this Halloween? Is he mocking me? I can't tell. Jordan said it was in good faith. Oh, I don't know where you can get it, to be honest. But... Well, then, Skull 717 says, Ariel, what the best button downs in the game?

That one for Lulu Lemon or your brother's company? Oh, I can't tell if they're being serious or not, but I do appreciate all the nice compliments, my friends. This is not from my brother's company, and it's certainly not from Lulu Lemon. It's a very nice texture. As you can see, there's a little bit of a thing going on here where it's like different plaids.

Can you guys see that? Yeah, yeah, I see Salty said. It's clear. It's very clear. That's what it is. Harold, did you take four of your shirts that were starting to rip? It just sew them all to make a new one for today. From a Raptors fan, go Nix.

It's called... Now I think it's starting to not be genuine. It's called art, guys. It's called fashion. Look it up. It's called... It's a Supreme number. We're off the Supreme Joint.

I made Supreme famous. I put Supreme on the map. And it got famous and I went off that. Oh, is that how it happened? I was doing Supreme back in 2009 when you were all in your father's nutsack, right? That's a bullshit. I was 21 then Yeah, hell yeah

What else, Frankie? What else? That was actually Oh wow Okay, what a way to end things Jens, that's it for me this week And so I bid you all at you Tomorrow it is BITB day

415 sup BITB What do we got as far as Let me guess, let me guess You're still working on it I feel like that's the thing We've done about 85 of these pound for pounds The ideas are starting to run a little dry You got one last time you had one

You got one? I did, I did have it have one. Well, you're putting me on the spot here. Pound for pound cows in honor of Macau. Pound for pound walkout songs in honor of song yodong. I mean, we just kind of had an impromptu walkout song convo there. Tomorrow is, what is it Jordan National Beef Beef Day? National Meat Day. Okay, okay. National Beef Burger Day. Okay, what about Beef burger, yadong? Out for pound meats. What type of food do they eat in McHale? I'm not sure it's a Chinese Portugal Portuguese province would that be something like

well pound for pound dishes Portuguese Chinese orders John John big John you know his orders you know I was thinking something related to gambling because of the casino the casino yeah how for pound they have a better Vegas than Vegas don't they yeah yeah that's definitely a hotbed for it that's what they say all right we'll workshop it's getting tough man it's getting tough how for pound Will Smith's songs, Figgie, Figgie, Figgie, Figgie, Figgie with it. Okay, I like that. Getting Figgy with it.

Pound for Pound Fing Newton flavors in honor of... I love a Fing Newton. Figgie. Absolutely. One of the great snacks. All right, well, let us know. And then, of course, the crack on Friday. And then May 30th, as we said, Saturday is a very...

Chokes pulling a sickie just for the record. Ah, for fuck. But we still love you, anyway. Everyone, thank you for joining us. Thank you to all our guests. Thanks to all of you. Back to our seat time.