The Ariel Helwani Show - Cory Sandhagen, Ian Machado Garry, Mikey Musumeci, Paulie Malignaggi, On The Nose

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

Ariel Helwani, The Boys in the Back, and Petesy open the show by talking about the latest round of UFC fight announcements, then answering On The Nose questions (29:49).Mikey Musumeci is back to discuss his UFC BJJ 3 victory, address the YouTube views controversy surrounding the event, open up about the level of scrutiny he faces, his relationship with Craig Jones, the Derek Moneyberg drama, and more (1:02:17).Paulie Malignaggi explains why he’s returning to the ring, before the conversation gets contentious when discussing Dana White and Zuffa’s entry into boxing, and Malignaggi challenges Conor McGregor to a winner-take-all fight (1:33:13).Cory Sandhagen returns to look back at his fight against Merab Dvalishvili, admitting he may have gotten cocky in second round and Merab hits harder than he expected. He also calls for the Sean O’Malley fight next (2:05:05).Ian Machado Garry explains why he’s fighting Belal Muhammad rather than Sean Brady, predicts his next fight will be for the title, explains there’s no bad blood with Belal, reacts to his son’s favorite fighter being Carlos Prates, predicts Prates ‘sparks’ Leon Edwards, and more (2:30:05).Ariel closes the show with more On The Nose questions and your Super Chats (3:05:17).

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Eriya-Hawaii show. Back in your life on this Tuesday, October 14th, 2000 and 25. Hello again, everyone. I'm Ariel Hawani. Welcome to the program. Welcome inside our New York City studio. to our one-year birthday party.

Yeah. Yeah. One year old. Or as they say on the streets, one year's old. We did it. They said it would never happen, Frankie. They never believed in us.

They said we were a toast. Who me? But we're still the birthday cake. Yeah. It was exactly a year ago today. That uncrowned. officially launched. We kind of launched in August of 2024, but it was on October 14th, 2024. We had our first show. The website went live. We were often running. And so what a year

it has been. Thank you so much to all of you who have been with us. Thanks to the newcomers. Thanks to the people who continue to check us out, who continue to support the cause. And perhaps most importantly, thank you to the great team behind the scenes over here. Thank you to the production team. Thank you to the technical staff here at Yahoo HQ. Thank you to the dot com squad as well. I would start naming names, but then I forget one name or two, and now I'm feeling bad and I can't go to sleep and I'm feeling guilty. And so you know who you are.

Thank you so very much. It's been a great first year. A lot more to come, a lot more to do, a lot more to accomplish, a lot more on our minds, a lot more in our hearts and souls. But I'd say it's been a pretty damn good first year. Even Frank showed up for the birthday party. He took the day off yesterday, but he's back. with us today.

Happier than ever. Thanks for having me. Well, it's good to have you here because yesterday was a crazy day on the program. We had a guy pour water on his face, almost ruined our microphone. You actually did text us the code word. We're still unsure who told you, but you did it. And so well done too. Did you watch all four and a half hours?

No. No, I just watched the bits that are the most interesting to me. Okay. Well, you got the microphone bit. You got the outro. The outro. Did you get the dancing bit with Marab? I'm not going to lie to you, Ariel.

Of course I did. Okay, because I was thinking of you in that moment. I wasn't speaking into the mic at all times, but it was just so much joy. There was so much excitement in the air as I was the one to inform Marab de Wally Shevili, the reigning defending UFC men's bantamway champion. I was the one to tell him that he'll be headlining

the final UFC on ESPN pay-per-view on December 6th in Las Vegas, UFC 323. He had no idea. And at first I thought he was kind of playing. At first I thought that he was working me. But come to find out speaking to him and his team that, you know, they threw their name in the hat. But they did not know until Dana White announced it. And when Dana White announced it, Marab was sitting here. And so I informed him of the news.

I broke the news to him. It's one of the all-time great moments on the 364th day of uncrowned. We were able to have this moment with the great Marab Duolishvili. In case you missed it like Frank did, here's what happened. We have breaking news right now because Dana White just went on Instagram. They're telling me in my ear. And he just announced that you are the main event. Ah!

Look how happy he is. Look at that. How do we do it? How do it? He didn't want to dance with me for some reason. Don't show that. Don't show that. The main event of UFC. I was trying. I don't know.

Why? Why? How's the dance? The dance? What's your dance? You have a dance. You have a dance. My dance?

What's your dance? He doesn't know the dance? Okay. What happened here? Marab got stage fright. A little shy? Come in front of the dust. They're telling me to go in front of the dust now.

I want to know the Maraq dad. You're the main event of UFC. You're going to be four title defenses in, in 2025. Never before. I'm like, I'm so excited. You have a dance. You show me that. What is the water ball?

jumping jacks what happened we've never seen maraub falter there's shy there he's actually you're not shy i see you with everyone with me in a drama you're not shy no you are i'm impressed by your dance to be honest i was working and then i tried to save it murrah you got shy on me there what happened i don't know what you mean the dance you just told me to fight news there hopefully we have the I just feel bad about our horrible dancing marat. We have to do, like this. Let's go, brother.

Here it is. Yeah, now we're at a wedding. There it is. Yes, that's the moro we know. Yes. Yes. The pride of Georgia. The pride of Kribilisi.

Can't stop now. The pride of the Baton boy division. Yes. December 6th, UFC 323. Team Mobile Arena Main event Four title defenses in 2025 Rematch against 50%

Peter Yan Yes look at this guy And Tojavan What a guy We're not done We're not done Please sit down I'm going to shake your hands

I'm excited I was excited I was excited He's so wholesome He saw you on the show And said you know what I want to give him a gift on the show So great

Another nod to your relationship blossoming again with Dana White as far as I'm concerned. He knew he was on the show. And he was like, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to announce this while he's on Ariel's show Ariel how much he means to me. Now, I will say, I do have a theory about Marab's reaction, initial reaction. Okay, okay. He doesn't understand that Dana's offering you this olive branch.

He doesn't understand I'm going to do this while he's on Ariel's show. And as you say, he doesn't know about this. So when you say it to him, he's initially so happy, right? And then he starts going, hang on. Is this real? Has it actually come from official UFC channels? Or is Ariel trying to get me to react to this on his show, and then it hasn't really got out there.

Wow. So I think that's why he's freezing up. And then he realizes, gets the phone. There's a situation where you're like, do you want to get your phone? I think at that stage, he's like, no, this is real. And that's when he left. Oh, you know what?

That actually makes sense. I don't even know if he actually looked at his phone because when he came back, I'm there dancing, or at least trying to get him to dance. So I don't know if he actually looked at it. He had two phones. That is confirmed. What do they say?

One for the plug and one for the something? I don't know. Anyway, it was a great moment. The vibes were high. We were heading into our first birthday party. By the way, kids love birthday parties. That's why I brought my kids today. My kids are in the back, Ptzee over there.

They're looking for you. They're looking for Un-Pi-Teezy back there. How are they behaving? I forgot they were here. Okay, they're that quiet. All three, all three, Helwani's in the house. Yeah. They actually said that when Pizzi showed up on the screen,

And they said, is that hung pizza? Yeah. Yeah. I told them if they even sneeze back there, they're never allowed back. They think they run the place. They are holding a rubric and are marking things off. Should I be concerned? No, they're just, they're observing.

They're observing. Okay. All right. I'm wearing his Roma? Yeah, no, he's not wearing it, but I'm sure he appreciates it. He said your aura farming with that jersey, pizza. Wow. I don't know if it's positive or negative.

We're still not sure. We're still not sure. Anyway, they're back there. We're going to Canada versus Columbia tonight. at Sports Illustrated Stadium. For some reason... Is that Red Bull? Yes.

They changed it to Sports Illustrated Stadium for some reason. But also for some reason, Canada is playing Columbia, the men's national team here in the United States, in New Jersey, to be exact. I'm not sure why.

World Cup Qualifier? No, because Canada made it already. They qualify as a host country. Oh, don't rule it in. I'm just saying it's a great time to see Jonathan David, great time to see Tejohn Buchanan, Alster Johnson, Luis Diaz,

over on the Colombian side. Hymas Rodriguez, I believe, is his name? It's just an international friendly, yeah, here in Jersey. But I'm excited. That's some jersey you're wearing there. Yeah, okay, so I was getting to it. I was getting to it. I was getting to it.

So we leave here, the vibes are high, I'm feeling good, Darby's pouring water on himself, Marab's dancing, horn swagull is a delight. I mean, Dylan is an absolute delight. Good show, feeling good. And I'm just saying to myself, what a night. This is like my sports equinox. Jay's Mariners, Thanksgiving evening, Game 2, ALCS, at home in Toronto, bills, Falcons, Monday night football, throwback jerseys, and oh, by the way, sprinkle a preseason Knicks game against the Sad Sack Wizards, not the Warriors, the Wizards, and this is going to be a great night. Leave here, Jays are down 6'3, then the blue's like 10 to 3. Get home, bills are down to the Falcons, end up tying it 7-7.

and then they never see the light of day. I mean, I still don't know. I still don't understand what that was, G.C. Was that you guys just being better than your record, or are we just that bad? I don't know what that was. I mean, we're only three and two. Like, we're not that bad.

Crap division, crap conference. No one fears you guys. Baker Mayfield's going to go into Buffalo later this year and teach you guys a lesson. By the way, probably, based on the way we're playing. I mean, I don't know what that was. Is it time to move on from McDermen? I don't know.

I don't know. No, no, not from the bills, but from McDermott. I have maintained that they should have gotten rid of him after the Bengals' playoff loss in 2023. And then I thought they were going to get rid of him after the Chiefs' playoff loss at home in 2024. And then I really thought that they were going to get rid of him after the Chiefs on the road playoff loss last year,

conference championship, and it didn't happen. And so what are we doing? What are we wasting here? What was happening? Anyway. You would be blown up your ticket spot with this going to talk. You know, I mean, be careful there. All doing great.

We love the Bullvilleville. Bill's bill. I'm just a little bit upset right now. I'm a little bit upset and a little bit worried, but I still believe. Anyway, and Nick's October 14. Nick's got whooped as well. Yeah, I know it's October 14. Chill out. A lot of injuries. We've got time. It's four and two against, we should be six and out.

I mean, it's two, like, that's, no, I'll do respect, I think the Falcons are good, but like the Bills are a better team than the Falcons. Do we not agree? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, no, because last night proved otherwise that the Falcons. And you had to Waltz in here, huh? There's got some savage players. They've got some really I thought about rubbing it in more like on social I was going to say something.

Oh, no, no, no. You rubbed it in plenty. I thought it was, you hit me on the tweets, you hit me in the comments, you hit us on the Instagram, you showed up on the thing. I typed up. I was like, well, at least the Blue Jays won. Yeah. No, it was a lot.

He's hurting a little too much already. Someone actually sent it to me and they're like, what's up with this? I mean, like, you know, I was like, listen. What's up with what, man? I mean, it's a lot of rubbing it in. That's fine. We'll remember this. We'll remember this.

It was pretty cold blue. It was pretty cold. Halani said congrats. Yeah, I was trying to be the bigger man. I said to congrats, I get a fucking dirty bird. Fucking, come on. By the way, I fell asleep early. I woke up to all this.

It was great. I woke up at 4 a.m. looking at the text grid. I was like, oh, wow. I tried to be the bigger man. I didn't say like, oh, this, that. And I get hit on the text. I get hit on the freaking tweet. I get hit with the jerseys.

How much more freaking jerseys you're going to be wearing this week? And let's see who's on the back there. It's not the guy who kills dogs, is it? It's not the guy who kills dogs on the back of that, Jersey. It's Vic, it is Vic. Okay, it's the pit bull guy. Atlanta legend. Wow.

Shame on you. Reformed, rehabilitated man. Shame on you. Reintered the NFL and had a successful second career. Now finds himself as a coach mentoring young men. Oh, yeah? I'm a man for second chances. Yeah, sure, sure, sure, sure.

you have to take a piece of tape and put Robinson back there that would be more appropriate he is amazing isn't he unbelievable that overhead cam of the 81 you're on touch now yeah it was wonderful yeah yeah yeah we'll go double or nothing on Nick's off

but this is why when we were having this conversation last week like what what is this joy you say it brings you joy no joy there's no joy there's no joy there's no joy never never there's no joy I went to bed saying to myself like what's the point of all this what's the point life in general or watching

of all there. I actually told my kids, I said, I have led you down the best path possible. All of our teams have made it to the conference championship of their respective league, right? In the past 365, Bill's made it to the conference championship. Jays have made it to the ALCS. NICs made it to the conference finals. But then it ends in heartbreak. And so the question is, is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all? And I'm not sure. Better to be. Yeah, I guess it's better to be in the mix. Sometimes it's not, though. Sometimes you want to be basement or ceiling.

I'm lowering my expectations. That's where I'm at. I think my problem is, I keep saying, I just want one, I just want one, I just want one. I think that's the problem. It's going to happen. You're just going to let it happen. Don't force you. Let's stop putting so much pressure.

We're putting too much pressure on each other's short. I agree. But it's okay, it's okay, enjoy, enjoy your Super Bowl in October. It's okay. I love what people do that. I was going to say, you keep saying this. You're lobbing yourself up for the. Okay, if that was the Super Bowl, then now the bills are own five in Super Bowls.

Oh, wow. Also, you can't simultaneously... That's disgusting. You can't... You lobbed yourself up to it. You threw the hoop to yourself. It was horrible for you, not for us. Let me make a real point, though.

You can't say to him, enjoy your October Super Bowl, but then take this October loss so seriously. If it's October, it's October, you'll get over it. It's October. It's October 14th. Who cares? Like, we've got a lot of season to play. The sky is falling, Rick. No, it's not.

It's not. The whales are going to be absolutely fine. I actually feel like it's falling. Do you have the MVP or not? Do you have the MVP on your team? I don't know what was going on yesterday. So let's chill out.

Let's chill out. Jay's down O2 going back to Seattle. What is that? That's tough. What is that? I do have to say, like, shout out to the bills, how good they are. I've never seen this much love on the timeline to the Falcons in a long while. Yeah, because everyone wants to beat the king.

I get it. And everyone's enjoying beating us. Even though we're the most lovable franchise there is. And even though we have suffered long. enough, everyone's enjoying beating us. It's fine. It's fine. You know what? We dreamed of this. We dreamed of this. Yes. When's the first Knicks-Hawks game?

I still think you're going to be in the Super Bowl, mate. You need to calm down. Like, this is still, like if you looked up the odds right now, I'm sure. For the record, I'm not jumping off the bandwagon. I'm just, I'm feeling a little bit sad. That's all. Oh, wow. Nick's Hawks played twice this year, 27th of December and then January 2nd. It's almost like a back-to-back. Yeah. That'll be the bowl. Hawks are good this year, right?

Hawks are going to be good this year. I can't wait for you to say before the game. that you don't care about the Hawks, but then when they win, you show up with, like, a Dekemey Matumbo jersey. I will, I will have a Dekemay Matumbo jersey. Spud Webb and a Trey Youngger. You have to let them on represent. You got to support the city, man.

Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. I didn't see that Blue Jay's jersey come out to the playoffs. No, what? We've had Blue Jay stuff here. We filmed that actual Blue Jays hype video from this chair in March. We filmed the Blue Jays. What do I mean? Right here.

I think this is a Blue Jail model, Not an actual Toronto's Blue Jays one. Toronto's Blue Jays. What are you talking about? You just have a Blue Jays figurine. Yeah, I've got the actual Toronto Blue Jets. We have Lattie right over there in the corner. We have Bo Bichette right over there in the other side right in the other side,

somewhere too, buried there. There's somewhere, there's some guy. There's a little Blue Jays. Don't hit me with that, all right? I'm doing hype videos for this. Come down. Guys, it's a great day on the program, despite all these shenanigans. Frank's back?

Frank is back. Yes, kids are here. So everyone please. Long overdue vacay for Frank. Let's be careful about the swearing. Mikey Musumetchi is going to join us. Darth Rigotone coming off his win at UFC BJJ Trois just a couple of weeks ago. He is the UFC BJJ Bantamweight champion.

He defeated Kevin Carrasco via first round. Heel hook. And he's a great character and I'm looking forward to talk to him. Polly Malinaghi. It's been a long time since we spoke to the Magic Man. How about that one, Pizzi? He's returning this weekend. to bare-knuckle boxing.

BKB, his first fight of any kind since the infamous Artem Lobov fight back in 2019, 44-year-old. That's a UK promotion, right? The barren-knuckle promotion in the UK. Yeah, they're really, really popular. Do they fight in a triangle shape? BKB-47 in Leeds.

It's called Leeds Brawl 2 in a little thing like that. Parangle thing, yeah, yeah. It's interesting. He does some commentary for them as well with Mike Goldberg. he's an endlessly entertaining man I guarantee he will have

some spectacular things to say to you when he's on the show I do believe in his first chat since the loss to Marab Corey Sanhagen will be joining us at 3 p.m. Eastern time and we'll round out the interviews today with Ian Machado Gary

who of course we know by now is fighting on the 22nd of November in Qatar on that big card headline by Armand Sirukian versus Dan Hooker those two fights, I mean, are amazing. Ian Gary versus Belal-Mohamed is a very, very, very important fight at 170 pounds. That's a tremendous four-pack of guess. And, of course, the main event on the 22nd of November is a very, very important one as well.

That's Dan Hooker versus Armid Surukin. When that Ian-Garry fight was announced, I thought to myself, if Ian's not fighting for the belt, it's got to be Ian Gary versus Sean Brady. And in the end, they went with Ian Gary versus Bilal-Mohamed. and we found out yesterday, it is in fact, as we hinted on the show last week, if you may recall, Sean Brady versus Michael Morales, Madison Square Garden, November 15th, UFC 322. This is interesting to me. PT, why didn't they do Brady versus Gary, Morales versus Muhammad?

I feel like the thing I'm going to say to you here is counterintuitive because it's the situation applies to Morales as well. I would have figured if they weren't going to match those two guys together, it's because they have two guys that they want to feed into these championship situations. But it's the exactly same thing with Morales. I feel like that is the toughest fight to sign for if you are in Brady or Ian's situation. And that's not the takeaway from the fact that Balal is the archetypal opponent that people want to see against. Gary, it's very similar to McGregor in that respect. Like, oh, well, if he has a dominant wrestler, a guy who's primarily a wrestler, how's he going to do? That's a serious question that he's a

needs to answer. I think he's going to be equal to it. But yeah, that's my feeling as well. Morales, though, terrifying. A guy who just looks absolutely huge for the division, a guy who is putting dudes away, frightening power. I would kind of put him in the same spot as we had Shavkat in there a little while ago when it was like, that is the guy to avoid. Fair play to Brady for taking that. I honestly don't understand the logic because I feel like that's the guy who can derail a championship run, which Brady and Gary are on at the moment. Can we just talk about this New York card for a second? This New York card is an absolute stellar lineup.

JDM versus Islamachev, main event, we know the stakes, 170. Valentina versus Zhang Wei Li, maybe one of the best women's fights in recent memory, maybe of all time, 1, 125 champion against the 115 pound champion, Leon Edwards versus Carlos Prachas, Benile Darius versus Benoit Saint-Denie, Sean Brady versus Michael Morales. That's the main card. Not officially announced, but I can't imagine it's not the main card. Also, Aaron Blanchfield versus Tracy Cortez.

There's a history there between them. Bison Gore-Susru Kayaev, who they're very high on. And then you got the likes of Bo Nicol versus Adolfo Vieira, Roman Coppilov against Gregory Rodriguez. It's a really good card. Malcolm Wellmaker also supposed to be on the card, but his opponent, Sirhi Sidi, has pulled out due to injury, shoulder dislocation.

But you have to think that they always try to showcase some young studs on these MSG cards. and Malcolm Wellmaker, excuse me, being on this card makes all the sense in the world. I would think that they are going to try hard to keep him on the card. That's a really, really, really good MSG card.

A couple of times they've gone to MSG and it's felt a little shallow, not this one. And there's three massive welterweight fights on the card. And then if you include the next week's card, seven days later, Gary and Muhammad, that's pretty much the time. You remember we were saying like there's no fights booked at Welch rate? Now it's like all of a sudden almost the top 10 is booked within the span of seven days,

which I kind of dig. It feels like it always happens that way because you just need the one, right? You get the one and then they're like, okay, I'm not going to get this opponent. We can start looking at what my future looks like and then they all kind of fall into place. But yes, I am very happy that this division seems to finally have. It had no momentum, then a ton of momentum, and then it went back to no momentum for some reason very quickly. And now it is back. And I love all these matchups.

These are great fights. Brady versus Morales is an amazing fight. Yeah. But I don't understand the booking. Why are you shaking your head, G-C? I'm just saying it's a G-move from Sean Brady for accepting it. He said on his podcast that he essentially had no other choice. It was either this or waiting until next year to fight, and he said fighters fight.

I don't get that, right? The guy that was on the podcast with him was like, why are you taking this fight? Like 18-0, super athletic young dude who's down in the rank. rankings, you're the number one contender, or the number two contender, whatever you want to call him. And he's just like, yeah, man, fighters fight. So I'm going to do it. And now he's on MSG. It's a G move by him.

It's crazy. Here's the one thing I'll say to post bail for that. I'd probably rather get a Michael Morales on my resume now than in a year from now. Because in a year from now, this guy might be walking through everybody. So get it while you can. But yeah, I mean, to your point that I think you're kind of alluding to, Ariel, like, you're the number one contender. You're Sean Brady. This feels like a risk as opposed.

opposed to like It should have been Brady versus Gary. It made sense. And then Morales versus Muhammad. Unless you're worried about, you know,

putting Morales in a fight like that because he's going to get taken down, I mean, you just book Payne Talbot versus Henry Sohudo, which is, you know, even in some ways,

a greater risk. Well, you also have to imagine Sean Brady's going to go for the takedons as well. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Ian Gary said on his

Instagram, he posted that that he got offered the Sean Brady fight and accepted, but his stipulation was he wanted it to be a public number one contender fight, the UFC

said they're not willing to commit to that. So I wonder if that's what happened. And then Sean Brady was left with just the Michael Morales fight. Well, this whole all of the matchmaking at a certain point is like dating, right? Like, yeah, if you can get the supermodel like great, but sometimes the supermodel's not

available. Sometimes the supermodel wants you know, Balal and Ian wanted each other. And that's fine. And unfortunately for Sean Brady, that puts you out in the cold. I mean, let us point no further than we're talking about Alex and John have an eyes for each other and Tom kind of being the odd man out. Like this is just the reality of the situation sometimes.

Unfortunately, it feels like Brady is a higher risk and lower reward than potentially the other names like if Balal and Ian link up. It makes a lot of sense. So he's in a tough position. But as Connor said, I respect the hell out of the fact that he's like, you know what? Give me him. I don't care. I don't care that he's tough.

I don't care that he's young. I don't care that he's hungry because I'm going to prove that I below. along here. So I have a lot of respect for Sean Brady for taking the fight. Other thing is he's got to get paid. His last fight was in March. He has a kid now. Yeah, he's got to get paid. He's got a fight. That was a long time ago. He didn't get banged up in that fight. When Ian Gary put out that video and said, I will fight Sean Brady if it's a number one contender fight and they didn't want to guarantee that. I thought to myself, well, they don't really do that anymore. But then, like a week

later, Dana White is asked, and I know it wasn't an official announcement, but he was asked point blank is Terukian and Hooker fighting for the number one cadetter spot? And he said yes. And so why not? Why not do? Now, there's two theories. Are they waiting for Shafka to fight, you know, don't forget about him. He's the forgotten man. I'm hearing he's still not 100%, so who knows? And you kind of get the sense like, and correct me if you guys think otherwise, I feel like Pratchez versus Edwards, they want Prattis to win. Morales versus Brady, do they want Morales to win? Is that why they're doing this? Either way. And then Gary versus Muhammad, I think they want Gary to win, right?

And so I think they want to just see what's the best scenario out of all these guys. What's the best outcome? I don't think there's a doom or gloom outcome in any of them. I'll put it that way. Like, I don't think that Balal getting back on track is necessarily bad because, quite frankly, like, Bilal versus JDM was a hell of a scrap. I know people are happy to move on from the Balal era now and feel like, okay, we don't have to talk about or deal with Bilal anymore. But Balal stood there and traded the hands with JDM.

for five rounds. I wasn't mad about that fight. I think you could do a lot worse than Balal kind of getting back in that picture. I don't think there's any bad outcomes, but I certainly think, like, the youth and the excitement around Prachis and Morales would be good for a division that has kind of felt stagnant for a while.

Below also really is in a tough spot because if Islam wins, he's claimed that he and Islam will not fight each other, and if JDM wins, it's unlikely he's going to get a rematch with how deep the division is. I guarantee you all of a sudden, Balaw is not as good friends with Islam all of a sudden. I guarantee it. Oh, that would be interesting.

Guarantee you. I can I wait to hear what Sean and Brady and he and Gary have to say about all of this, you know what? Well, the good news is Ian on today, Sean on tomorrow. So that is the good news. The guy I do want to speak to as well as Peyton Talbot. What's the thinking here? You just got back on track.

You started the year with a very disappointing loss. The wrestling was somewhat exposed, right? Maybe it was just an off day. Comes back. It's back on track. And Henry Sohudo is next? Does this not feel too soon? But Maram said he doesn't train anymore

It's fine He doesn't wrestle He's too old He said a lot I know But it's Henry Sohudo man Like there's a lot of guys in between Where Peyton is right now

And Henry Saudo Is Henry freaking Sohudo If he beats him That'll put him in the top ten Is that it? Is that it? Is that the word on the street Henry's dared for the take

And let's put in this new superstar Who knocks people out With single punches Against this aging This aging legend Olympic gold medalist My thing is Olympic gold medalist in the facet of the game

that Peyton Talbot struggled with earlier this year Peyton Talbot is not 21 right Peyton Talbot is a grown man and if he wants to be something in this game there's no better way to get yourself prepared than going I have an Olympic gold medalist wrestler across from me and I need to fix that hole in my game there's going to be no bigger motivation

so if he can come out the other side of this and show improvements even from the last fight in which he showed improvements from the fight before that that, then that would be impressive to me, but I don't think it's like Peyton Talbot has all the time in the world to kind of make something of himself. Put the hardest possible matchup you got in front of you and see if you could conquer that. See if you can prepare yourself and get yourself ready for that. And if you can, then I think it's time to start having a real conversation. But I think it's going to be

a very tough fight. I think it's going to be a very tough fight for him. He was a dog in that Felipe Lima fight. A lot of people were kind of writing him off going into that one. And he had a really nice bounce back performance. They said he was fraud-checked. Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah. The FC claims were coming out on him. And so that's why I thought, all right, you got a nice win, international fight week, get maybe a couple more.

Like, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think he's fought a top 15 guy yet, right? No. And so now we're fighting Henry. Well, what is Henry? What is Henry right now? Ten. He's 10? Wow.

Henry's 10, huh? Yeah. Yeah, you've got Amin Zahabi, Mario Batista, Marlon Vera. Like, Marlon versus Payton would have made a lot of sense to me because Marlon is a striker, you know, he needs a high-profile win, and he's a high-profile name. Marlon's got you this weekend, though. No, I know. No, I just mean, like, if you're going to put him in there against a top 10 guy, that would

be the guy. Even like a Rob Fon at 13. I guess Suhudo's, like, he's about to turn 39, 35, he's on a three-fight losing streak. Listen, the flip side is he wins that fight, and now we're off, right? If he knocks out Henry Sehudo, we're off and running. Would Sehudo retire after that? I think it doesn't only have like one-fighter. There was a little bit of talk after the Song-e-Dong fight in February of him retiring, right?

I feel like there was some talk that he was going to walk away at that point. I think that one's just got to be a bad taste in the mouth to go out on. You know, like that's not the way you want to end the career if you're Sehudo. So I would get this being the last one. Interested to see in Henry's trash talk leading up to this one. Oh, yeah. Has he said anything? I haven't seen anything, but I can imagine.

Yeah. He'll be on the press conference. All right, well, lots of fights, lots of things going on, lots of great guests who are related to said fights. But on Tuesdays these days, we like to answer your question. So, time enough for everyone's favorite segment of the week. It's time for all the nose. Oh, what a great question here, off the top. How are the kids back there?

Are they still behaving? Is everyone okay? I forgot. Are you guys all right? They're doing. They're not even answering. There's no punching, there's no kicking. No, we're getting thumbs up across the board.

Usually what they like to do is one will tap the other and then the other one will smack the other. And I'm like, why did you have to do that? Classic. Because they touch me first, but did you have to elevate it? Don't touch them first. Barely Perez says, Hello, Ariel.

What is your level of concern for the Buffalo Bills? They are four and two, but all of their wins come against teams with three total victories, including my dolphins. Atlanta, Miami, New Orleans are one in five. Jets. 0 and 6. Shout out G.C. Nice win yesterday. Look, there's always concern. I feel like the sky is falling. I believe in the team. I believe in Josh. As long as we have number 17, I believe in him. But I just want them to fix some mistakes. Here's my biggest takeaway. You need a

superstar wide receiver. We don't have that guy. We have like, you know, solid wide receivers. You know, Khalil Shakir is fine. Josh Palmer got hurt yesterday. Dalton King Kate and Dawson Knox are great tight ends but like you need a wide receiver one. You need that guy. Kian Coleman, is he that guy? I don't know if he's that guy just yet. And I think that's missing. Like you guys have

Drake London. Like you go to him and he delivers you know? Drake London Bejohn. Yeah, well Bejohn's the running back. I'm just saying like we need a star wide receiver. We don't have that guy. We don't have that alpha male. Diggs last week was an alpha male. When's the trade deadline?

I'm alpha. end of October, I think. We need to start something now here. I appreciate. AJ Brown's unhappy at the Eagles. Let's have a chat. You know what I mean? Let's see what's happen.

What's the cop space, Luke? You know what I mean? Make things happen. Joe Mers. Hi, Ariel. If Connor and Chandler doesn't happen at the White House, where will it land

on the list of the following pullouts slash cancellations of Connor's career? Boxing versus Logan Paul was this even really a thing. It was discussed, but then the kibosh was put on it. So, like, it never really got off the ground. RDA at 196. My take on RDA at 196 is there was no heat between RDA and

Connor. It was all about Connor going for the second belt after knocking out Jose Aldo. So I don't, I don't feel like people look back on the RDA fight like, man, we really missed out on that one. Agree or disagree, Pee-T. Lessing in disguise, actually, to consider that the Diaz. Sure. But you know what I mean? Like the story of that fight wasn't because there's some history between Conner and RDA. It was all about Conner going for the second belt. Yeah. The cancellation was a good thing. Andy Ogle in Boston, where did he go?

Good question. Andy Ogle. Yeah, remember that? Andy Ogle. Do you remember? Andy Ogle was supposed to be the Boston opponent. He gets injured. Oh, I remember.

In enters Max Holloway. But what happened to Mr. Andiogo the little last? Did he fight, Mr. Finland, Americani? Macuan, Ameriqan. In his debut or something? No, not debut. That was his one, two. Not Andy Ogles, Americanis day.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He had a four-fight losing streak, which culminated with the loss in January of 2015. to Makwanamirkani and has not fought since. So he hasn't fought in almost 11 years. But still, I don't know if that's like a what-if fight. None of these fights are what-if fights. Can I just be honest? He's got one more.

He's got one more, which actually the build was fun for this one. You could probably guess. Cole Miller in Dublin, and he says, my favorite segment in MMA hour history. Do you remember we had them on at the same time? And Cole was great. Cole was great. I was actually, I was more into the Cole fight

than the Diego Brando fight. it didn't matter who was in there no no but to be honest Chandler would probably top all of these right just because we've talked about it for so long but it's also like

yeah yeah let's just leave it there yeah all right um sick beat man okay

this is an interesting one from Abdul 2604 because I've gotten this question now a lot in the last hour. Hey, Ariel and crew. This is fitting with Mikey Musumechi on the show today. However, I wanted to get your thoughts on the UFC BJJ 3 view count controversy on YouTube. It's very blatant that the views have been boughted. However, how can the UFC feel so freely to do this? Even though BJJ is on FightPass, I'm sure views and engagement will come up

in corporate earning calls. Okay, so what's the story here? The story here is if I've seen, because people have sent me screen grabs that the UFC BJJ3 event on YouTube had like tens of thousands of views and then it shot up to 9 million. Is that it, GC? Yeah, I think it was at like 270K views when the event ended. Obviously, you know, you got to wait for views to come in and everything, but it's now sitting at 9 million. It's been sitting at 9 million for a few days.

You would think something that had been posted only for like 12 days would continue to rise, but I tend to lean with these people. When it comes to the engagement around it as well, there's only 300 comments and there's only 9K likes, which is similar to a video with 10% of the views on the UFC's channel.

Also, the Postby press conference has 10K views. That just doesn't really add up. You would think if there's that many people that want to see the matches, they would want to see the post-fright presser to see what the people have to say as well. And then I think the Musumetchy match was clipped out and only has like 60K views. I don't know. It just

it just feels odd how many views it has. The one thing I will say is I would be very dubious that the UFC did it. I don't think the UFC would do it. So this is something that we've learned recently because we had a guest on our show, not going to name any names, where it was insinuated that views were being bought for videos that they were featured in. James Tehuno? No, not him.

But maybe, no, I'm kidding. Anyway, we caught wind of this and we decided to take down this video because it was said to us that YouTube can essentially ding your channel if it views like nefarious activities were going on. Right? And so is it possible, look, is it probably, I'm just going to throw out the conspiracy. Is it possible someone did this to the video to then say, hey, look at these guys, look at what they're doing? Like, what does it cost to add 9 million views to a video? And then what does it cost on the streets to then say, look at these Fugazis, they're buying views for their videos. I don't think that that's a crazy thought. I would find that more believable than the UFC all of a sudden.

Who? What do they care? Well, you can also just look at their channel. Like, they just don't do it, right? They're happy with their view. Like, they don't live and die by their views on these things. Like, as an example, right, every time there's a new paper view week, everybody's looking at the embedded numbers and like, oh, this embedded is only doing this and this and that. They could have had so many opportunities to kind of juice numbers and do that if they wanted to do that. They've never done it.

I just, I would be very reluctant to think that they all of a sudden for this one UFC BJJ did this. It just doesn't make sense to me. There's higher stakes, higher leveraged opportunities to have done that in the past and they never did. I agree with you. Why wouldn't they have done it for BJJ too? Also, did it air, did it premiere on YouTube or is it a fight past thing? I think they live streamed it. Okay.

There's a, there's like us weird, the BJ community is an interesting bunch, right? Oh, yeah. I mean, it is an interesting subset of the martial arts community. What was that? No, I just had something we're thrown. But at 270,000 people, that's, they should be. By the way, 270,000 people. Yeah, 270,000 people.

It's fine. It's fine. No, it's crazy that that many people watch BJJ, if I'm being honest. You know what I mean? I mean, BJJ2 did 1.4 million views. Oh, wow. Did it, though? Did it, though.

That's a good question. Here's Aaron. Hello, Mr. Hawwani, sir. Mr. Ansor in there. Two quick questions. It's great to see AEW talent on your program. We, of course, remember a time where you and Tony were not on good terms. Is it safe to say the bridges have been.

fixed and it's all good again. I do believe so. And I'm very, very happy about that. And as I've said before, my MO is, we don't have to all be best friends, but I would love to have respect and would love to have people on the program. And, you know, I don't love when people are told that they can't come on the show and all this nonsense. Actually, this happened quite recently regarding another entity that I won't get into because we're working on resolving that as well, not in the wrestling world, just for the record. And so, you know, people get upset, people say this, people say that. I always hope that, you know, we can move on and learn from things. And I have regrets about that, about the way all of that was handled. And what frustrates me about that is that I think

people think that I'm some sort of like, you know, TKO employee. Far from it. If you know the history here, far from it. If you've looked at the guest list over the past year, there ain't been that many from WWE for whatever reason. And so that's why I love having the T&A guys on. That's why I'm happy to have the AEW guys on. Any legends, indie guys, people who have left. I just want to have the best show and I just want to have the best and most interesting conversations. And if you know, as I've said to people behind the scenes, If you know anything about us here, we're always trying to shine a spotlight on the others, on the competition. We're always campaigning and championing having options for the wrestlers, for the fighters, for the boys in the back, because that's better for everyone.

That makes for a better product. That makes for competition, which leads to negotiation leverage, which means that, you know, guys are able to get paid more. And I often talk about the rising tide lifts all boats theory, and I feel like that has proven to be the case with what's happened to wrestling over the past, you know, six, seven, eight years. We had that misunderstanding, whatever you want to call it. I was upset about the tweet. He was upset about that.

I was frustrated with the interview. He was upset. But I think we've moved on. I'm happy to see that we've moved on. And I would love to have him on the show. And I would love to prove that we don't take sides. We're just trying to cover the sport, the way in which we cover it here, which is, I think, just having good conversations.

As I've always said, I don't consider myself a wrestling journalist. I think that we have great conversations with wrestlers. We'll have Diamond Dows page in studio tomorrow, which I'm really excited about. But we're not here talking about what happened on Monday Night Raw yesterday. We're not here talking about the ratings or the backstage stuff unless it pertains to someone sitting right there. And I think there's value in that. I used to watch a show called Off the Record with Michael Lansberg on TSN.

And he used to do the same thing. Like he didn't talk about the ins and outs of pro wrestling, but he would have major, major wrestling figures, the Rocks, Don't Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Vincent McMahon, Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon. He would have all these people on there, and he would have great out-of-character interviews. And I always thought that was phenomenal.

We try to do that. Others do it in a very good way as well. But there's really no, I'm really not rooting for anyone. I'm rooting for everyone. and I'm just trying to showcase these personalities. Like, Darby's a fascinating guy. That is a very unique, fascinating guy, and I love to learn more about these people.

So, yes, I do think that we have moved past that, and I'm very happy about that. And I do think that there have been some people behind the scenes that have vouched for us, and they know who they are, and I appreciate that as well. He also says, I've also noticed a lack of current WWW talent, Has this work with AW and the data connection to TCAO affected your ability to get WW talent on your program?

No. The AW thing just happened. You know, I honestly don't know. If I'm being a thousand percent honest with you guys, I don't know. We've had Paul Heyman on. We've had Natty Nighthart on. We had Gunther on. We might have had one more this year.

But I could be wrong about that. And so, you know, I don't think that there's a ban per se. it's just, you know, things come and go, things go in waves, and I love, love, love having them on and hope in the future we could do that as well. Josh P. Hi, Ariel, wondering if we can open up the discussion about Dana White versus Eddie Hearn and they're promoting.

Can we just talk? I mean, what a time. Eddie came in last week and I felt like he wanted to, I was, you know, I was paying respects. I was talking Dave Allen. I was talking Boots Ennis. Pee, I felt like he was, He was itching to talk about Dane.

It's so funny that you, you kind of had this thing at the start. We're like, listen, I don't want people to feel like I'm pitting you against each other. Absolutely no one feels that way. These two lads, you know, and it's very exciting. You did a lot of exciting things last week. You had your predictions of 2026, but this might be the most exciting. And I see a lot of people are getting tribal about this, which only adds to the excitement for me, honestly. But we're talking about this on the crack on Friday.

Chuck is adamant that this could actually bring back the Dana White of old. If someone is stepping to him on the playground. 1,000% actually, I'm the biggest dog in this yard. That is going to load a fire under Dana. This boxing thing, if he gets into MMA, I mean, honestly, I feel like MMA needs it. I feel like we need Eddie Hearn to just show up and rattle a few. Okay, so there's a lot there, Pee, there's a lot there.

Do you think he is genuinely interested in? getting in MMA or do you think this was his tit for tad? Like, hey, you're talking about being the man in boxing, well, what if I come to your world and rattle your cage? I'm not quite sure. You think it's both. Okay. I think it is, this is the motivating factor for him to get into MMA. If you want to come in here and, and, you know, show how everyone, how my sport is broken? How about I come in here and do this? And man, the amount of fighters that reached out to me after that interview and particularly the clip that you put out about revenue sharing and things like this. Oh, yeah. This is working, I don't want to say it's working against

the UFC right now, but if you think about it, this is, this is a major part of the conversation that really hasn't been for a long time. It's been something that we're all aware of. It's always in the Zykoist, the fighter pay. But has there ever been a time where people are just so blatantly speaking about this? Like Eddie Hearn is on the attack there. We saw Dana White getting that question. you know, questioned about this in the lead up to the Crawford and Canello fight. I spoke to Mick Conlon about it. Like, it's kind of becoming the war cry of the boxing world as far as I'm concerned, this revenue split thing. So I wonder, I wonder if Dana anticipated it to be, to be, for people to be this vocal about it, because I feel when this was announced, people were almost, like,

you know, it almost felt like some people were like, this is an open goal for, for Dana and Turkey. I feel like boxing is coming out swinging. And what better way for Eddie Hearn to come out swing and then to join the MMA world for a little bit, even if it is just a piss off day and a word a bit, I'm all for it. Here's the bottom line, and I think we can all agree on this. In terms of gift of gab,

he's never had a sparring partner like Eddie, right? And one who's not going to shy away, and one who can match or even exceed his passion. And so Eddie, everything that Eddie is saying is accurate. Hey, man, I'm the king here. At least I think so. at least I believe so, you're coming, let's fight. And he's right when he says, if I said the same stuff about MMA, he would feel the same.

Now, maybe he wouldn't be as open. Look, I think Eddie is smart enough to recognize that Eddie V. Dana is a good look for the brand, right? I think he's smart enough to run with that ball. I don't think that he is necessarily like foaming at the mouth to have this fight, but I don't think he's shying away from it. I don't think he's uncomfortable by the idea of sparring them. And so I think he's positioning himself as like, hey, you know, I'm boxing and these guys are the outsiders and they're trying to get rid of belts and I love the belts. They're trying to get rid of the Ali Act and I respect the Ali Act.

They're trying to undercut you and I'm trying to overpay you. And so he's very smart with what he's doing. And there's a lot of things that you can't disagree on. And if he was doing the same stuff and coming into MMA and saying that same stuff, Dana would feel the same way. Where I thought Eddie was wrong was where he said, like, I see Dana talking about the Crawford-Kinello undercard and reading off a paper. He doesn't have the same fire that he does for M-M-A. And what I wanted to say was, like, have you seen him, you know, announced fights on Instagram live?

He's reading those off a paper as well. But, you know, then people are going to start saying you're stirring the pod. And this is. No, you're dead right. Yeah, but like, I think he doesn't recognize that the fastball has gone from 98 to 78 in the last five years, you know? Or else this is very tactical as well. or else this is another. Like, I mean, these are very unique characters.

You know, you had Dana White in that 60 Minutes interview. It seemed to me he was as proud to be called loyal as he was to be called a bully. He is the archetypal bully in this yard. Like, you look at Dana White, and he looks like a guy who throw a main punch. He looks like the type of guy you do not want to get in a fight with. Eddie Hearn, on the other hand, the Silver Tongue Devil, always dressed immaculately. You know, looks like he could be on the cover of a catalog.

never mind, or maybe walking down a catwalk. He is a different kind of guy. He will attack in different ways. He will smile as he cuts her throat, whereas Dana is going to come in, lunging and swinging from the hip. It is so exciting. I think it's what you always say,

a rising tide lifts all ships. Everybody is talking about these two guys now, and they're kind of circling each other. I think they've kind of talked themselves into a situation here. Honestly, I think it's going to be one of the biggest stories. I agree. I do think that Eddie Hearn needs a. fighter. And that's what I was going to say to you. I don't think, right, this MMA thing,

he's trying out there. This is all hypothetical. We're just, we're just speculating. But I feel if he is going to get into the world of MMA, he needs one good fighter. He needs something the world knows about so he can shout about it. And I think he'll, he'll do wonderful things with that. Even if he doesn't have a B side, he needs one good fighter that he can get out there and spotlight, I feel. Anyone, look, when I say Eddie Hearn is the best promoter in combat sports, people are like, what are you talking about? Compare UFC to matchroom, how much they're worth. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about what we saw in the ring after Boots won on Saturday in Philly. There is no one doing that.

That's what I'm talking about when I'm talking. Promotion, right? Like you're backing your guy. Now, as you know, PT, in boxing, it's different than MMA. Dana's kind of overseeing the league. So he can't sit up there on November 13th and say, Isamachev is the best fighter in the world, and he's going to whoop this guy's ass. Eddie can because oftentimes it's, you know, it's Dave Allen, his guy fighting Mahmoudov, who's not his guy. So the way the fights are built, sometimes it's Matron versus Matron, but at the very top, it's often Matron versus Golden Boy or Matron versus Queensberry, and then he could do it. So the cards that he's playing with are a little bit different, but we don't see that type of passion, knowledge, that showmanship

from anyone. And you see that on the Netflix doc series as well. So it's very fun. I'm looking forward to it, and I couldn't agree more. I can't wait for Zufa boxing to kick off. I can't wait to see what it looks like. I can't wait to see who's on these cards. I can't wait to see what the Paramount broadcast look like. I can't wait to see all of it.

Like next year is so much fun. I love all this stuff. And there's a lot of interesting things that play next year. Where does PFL go after next year? That's a big story next year. This year was about the UFC's deal. What happens to PFL? Does ESPN say, okay, we're riding with these guys?

Or do they have to find another avenue? And by the way, there ain't many options out there right now. Just ask Top Rank. Top Rank's last show was end of July. They don't have a TV deal three months later. That's unheard of. Usually you announce the TV deal four months, five months, six months in advance of your deal coming to an end. So that just speaks to the lack of options right now.

Anyway, it's a great time and Eddie V. Dana is only going to get more interesting. And I love that. At first it was like, I love the guy. I love the guy. But, but, but, but now it's like one compliment. And then we get into the other stuff. Dana's calling him Oscar Deloia. He went Oscar De La Jolla on me.

The one question that I wish... He looked out very personally. The one question that I wish I asked Eddie and hopefully we'll have another opportunity is, you know, Dana always loves to say it's the one business out there that has generated trillions of dollars, trillions of dollars,

and there's nothing, nothing to show for it. And, you know, maybe I'm crazy, but I feel like Matron is worth something. See the Matroo on that Netflix documentary? That's their former home. you know that right don't come around to Blanche don't be coming around

to my Gaff if that's nothing I tell you that much they think they hosted events on their back yeah yeah I mean come on

it's it's an empire that the the the hirns have built very very exciting and just on the pfl point I think it's a big opportunity for them this broadcasting

as well I saw a lot of US fans with the Hughes and Usman event which you know a massive massive fight and a brilliant fight we don't have to get into

everything else but they really needed to make that obvious where to go and watch it. And we were doing the crack Friday, the card had already been gone and people needed to find it. Like that, that's a, that's a situation that needs to be dealt with. So I'd see that as an opportunity for it as the PFL. Grant asks, and this is apropos, considering my kids are there, unless they left. Did they leave? Nope, they're all here. Okay, well, maybe they can answer the

question because he says, you're going on date night with your wife, which never happens. In fact, it was my my wife's and I 17th anniversary this past weekend and uh we do have a relevant super chat for that oh yeah well we got uh we got to go out with Walter and Claire nice it was very romantic kids join you

yeah they joined us love it and then they were complaining and then they were how was the service it wasn't about that it was about it taking too long falling asleep at the tape Claire knows what's going on and then we went to get chocolate chip cookies it was a great time and by the way as I said to them oh there Oh, Bill, what a Mench. Happy belated 17th wedding anniversary to Ariel Jacket and one year anniversary to the Great Uncrouty.

I mean, is there any more thoughtful human being on the planet than Bill Steinmetz? I've never met him. Mention is a powerful word. It's an understatement. Yeah, yeah. How does he even know that? Happy retirement to Bill Steinmetz. He's retired.

Well deserved. Unbelievable. You put it in his time. Shout up to you, Bill. Yes. Las Vegas finest. You're going on date night with your wife and have to choose between Poetan. and Yere

to babysit your kids who are you choosing and why Shamba I'm coming just to help you if you choose Yeri and they start getting too excited he's going to be like

I feel like Yeri runs a tight ship yeah you know like we say bed by 8 he's bed by 730 no that kids could be the kids could be dancing around that's probably And Uri is just no selling it.

You have trees in the backyard? Yeah, you're going to come home. They're going to be... Unplug the internet. Yeah, shadow boxing. Mr. Uri, I just cut my finger open. Well, that's my thought is like, yes, he probably does run a tight ship. But what kind of activities are they doing and are they going to be safe when they do them, you know?

That's the question. Today we'll learn how to meditate. Poetan, no curfew. Yeah, probably not. Poetan, man of the kids. We had that video. I don't know if we still have it. of him going back to the school.

He had the school yesterday. I mean, what was it? Friday I saw this video of him going back to his school in Brazil. The kids love Poetan. You definitely get a Shama shuffle in there for sure. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you know what? I'd say he's having a great thing.

It's a party. It's a party with Pineda. Yeah, you're right. I know who I'd pick. Yeah, who'd pick. Yeah, who'd pick. Yeah, who'd pick. Yeah, who's that.

Poetan, of course. Yeah. He's going to let you order some crazy food. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, stick this on. like yerry love him but i mean just the idea of him looking after me as a child i can't imagine there'd be any screen time i can't imagine you know i'd say we'd be out the back garden howling at the moon and stuff trying to gather the energy sources from mother iry could help with

like academics as well you just went to school yeah so okay so would it be fair to say the kids would probably prefer alix the parents would probably prefer yury fair i think you hit around on the nose i think i'm going Alex well if you have Alex just plene you also need to be there to translate that'd be cool uncle uncle Plinyo? You get two babies? For the price of one? Last question.

Sure. You come home. I've been bullied. Who do you think would take action? Poetan or Yuri? Like who's saying... One of the kids comes home, like, I just had a rough day. This kid was, you know, acting a fool.

Who's jumping in the car and saying, we're rectifying this right now? I think Poetan. Really? I think Yeri's saying, let's figure this out. Let's not jump to conclusions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. All right, fair up.

I think Alex would advocate for you handling your business. I think both of them would do something. Go back and take care of the business that needs to be taken. Here's the keys. Go fix it. You know, like he did when he was watching Polatim. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's how we'd react to that story. He was just like...

I mean, Alex has kids. I think Yere would make it a statement of war. That's true. We should just ask Alex... There's evidence here of what could potentially happen in these scenarios, you know? Here's Jesse Orozco. He says, what gets a bigger pop? McGregor fighting at the White House? Two, Rhonda fighting again.

Or three, Ariel asking him. a question at a UFC press conference. Got some pretty big ones back in the day. Yeah, those are fun. Between one or three for sure. And how many spectators is it going to be at the White House? What do you say?

5,000? It's true. Yeah, no, it would be interesting. Yeah, I was actually just doing some research back to the BJJ question. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Top four live streams

on the UFC YouTube channel's history. Number one, the UFC, UFC 229 Wayans number two the UFC 229 post-fight presser number three

the UFC 229 pre-fight presser number four BJJ 3 it's bollocks it's bollocks wow wow this is ridiculous

mike he's going to be joining us in a matter of moments and we were asking first question or do we ease into it Peter Carroll said it's bollocks react to this to rig to rigs point I don't think the UFC if it is true

would have anything to do with it and I can guarantee Darth Rotton had nothing to do with it. No, I don't think so either. Here's Can't Let You Get Close. Ariel, I thought it made sense having Benny Safdi on the program. He was the director of the MMA movie or an MMA movie that came out recently and was

surprised to see Channing Tatum on the program, even if you tried to tie the interview to MMA in some way. But then it all made sense. Christy, starring Sidney, comes out in November and you don't want to have her coming in studio out of the blue and have people reacting as if it was for other reasons. Just make sure late night Frank doesn't pull a top shelf FMA

when he's micing her up backstage. You don't have to read every part of the question. I don't even know what this is. Oh, is that? Anyway, he says Saw Roofman and Smashing Machine this weekend.

They were great thanks. Oh, because of us? Kyle, fellas, true or false? The following fighters fight in the UFC again. John Jones, Rhonda Rousey, Connor McGregor, Francis.

I was just trying to read them all. Okay, John, true. Rhonda false? Connor true yeah Francis Falls I agree you agree with that

that's exactly how I'd answer it Gaza Brew hey Ariel two quick things can you please make an uncrowned app for ease of access to look at your articles

I would love an uncrowned app we'll get there soon get on that frank and has the area of Hawaii show really gone that big that Channing Tatum is coming on to promote his film

yes yes it has oh and also frank i also like to kiss my ma'am's ass don't worry there are children in this room yeah foof i mean ask the lads what they think of that yeah frank why'd you ask the kids about that story we're going to file that in no um muscle milk mike what's up ariel shout out to the boys in the back and the goat pizzi my question for you is how do you manage to ask questions to your guests that might seem personal or a subject they don't want to discuss without making them be turned off by the conversation.

Example, like when you ask fighters about personal life, such as past mistakes or such. I feel like you kind of just have to ease into it, you know? You have to be sort of empathetic. You have to be soft. You have to be thoughtful. That type of thing. Hi, Ariel.

Question for y'all. G.C. blind rank these five fighters. Giuliana Pena. Uh-huh. By the way, there's like 10 blind ranks today for you, specifically. Well, I always mean. Two for Pena? Oh, interesting.

Oh, fuck. Israel Adesanya. Aye. Is this in terms of skill or my favorite? He didn't. I'm okay with Pena at two then. We'll go Izzy three. She's coming for you.

Is he three, Yeri. Ah. We're going to put Yeri down at four just because of the recent events. Alex Fokinowski. Mm. Mm. I know the five is going to screw me. I know the five is going to screw me.

It's not going to be a five. But we'll put Volk 1. Poetan. Ah, that's just, it's inaccurate. Yeah, five, though. Five. What would the actual ranking be?

That's tough. The top four would probably be, probably be out of those, probably be Volk. Probably Volk. Poetan. yeary, Izzy, Pena? It's a difficult one.

Those are five of my favorites, though, for sure. They chose well. I thought they were going to throw Tom in there as well. No, no, I missed that. Very quickly, he also asks, Rick, do you have a letterbox, and do you rate the movies you watch like I do? He did never say,

he does not have a letter box. He does not. He was magic in. Yeah, he was masking. He was posting on the I hate. Does he have letterbox? He does not have it. All right.

It's like a movie review service. Frank, which UFC fighter is the best walkout song? yeah i don't know man no this is easy ilia happy belated andy shout out jordan he just says shout out jordan he also had a question here for ptze but it's going to take way too long to answer it we have our next guess it's about it's about you going to journalism and

it'll take you 10 minutes to answer it so like you know took over the game baby don't know what to tell you 15 years ago changed everyone's life changed this whole sport still getting a long response from that's right that's right thank you i thought the music was going to hit the All right, see is later. All right. Much to get into back into the show. Ian Machado, Gary.

You're going to join us, Corey Sanhagen, Polly Malinaji, but very exciting to speak to perhaps the best pound-for-pound BJJ that's Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner in the world today. He is the reigning, he is the defending UFC BJJ bantamweight champion. Just a couple of weeks ago, fight week for UFC 320. He successfully defended his title against Kevin Carrasco. He is the face. in many people's eyes, including my own.

The face of UFC BJJ. They call him Darth Rigatoni. He's the one and only Mikey Musamechi. He's kind enough to join us on this Tuesday afternoon. There he is. Hello, Mikey. How are you doing? I'm doing great yourself.

Good, good. Yeah, I competed like eight, nine days ago, so just been living life. Do you come down? Do you need like a come down process where you don't train, where you stay out of the gym, you just chill, you let the body relax? Yeah, so actually I had a lipoma, like I have a bunch of them, which are like fat deposits, like these small things. I get them like my arms, legs. They're not cancerous, but I had one on my head and I was waiting for a time after a match where I don't have to train for a week.

So I just got that removed like a few days ago. I have stitches in my head right now. Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. But I just trained with the stitches in my head, so I wasn't supposed to. Oh, my gosh. You know, can I tell you something, Mikey? I have a bunch of those as well on my arm, on my stomach. Should I get them removed?

I would not. It's a pain in the ass. I wouldn't do it. I had one on my head, so that's like a different story, you know, and it kept getting bigger. It's kind of gross. So that one I wanted to get removed just because it was getting bigger. And I was like, okay, I need some time. I don't have to train, right?

So this was like the perfect time. Happy with your win, happy with your performance, heel hook? Yeah, Mikey Lock. I did my own submission. It's called Mikey Lock. What's the difference? What's the difference? So when you do a heel hook,

you put the foot in your armpit. When I do a Mikey lock, you just basically put on your neck and you use that as the breaking. So I used my neck for it and it's cool when you hit your own move on the main stage, right? Yeah.

I definitely got some hate from that match doing the karate kid stance in the beginning like Daniel Oruzzo. Yeah, who hated you? Who hated you? The masses, the people. Like the jih Tjitsu hardcores or the casuals?

More of the jih Tijuana. course they um it's a very stupid thing but basically like they they think it's okay it's like manly it's like masculine it's tough uh if you just wrestle and you just collar tie and nothing happens like one of them was boring fucking fights ever but if you go in and you just try to submit the person as fast as you can that's that's gay that's feminine you know like it's like so weird uh i just was looking to submit the match as fast as possible and my match was less than three minutes and then people like oh that was boring what so i can't win with these people They hold you to such a high standard.

I had only two exchanges in my match aerial. And I went one for two with them. It was my first two times, like, exchanging, and I submitted it on the second time. But I'm still boring. I should be ashamed of myself doing a karate kid. But Daniel LaRusto is an Italian kid from New Jersey, just like me. Yeah. So I had to honor him.

I think you're, yeah, there it is. Your phone was, yeah, yeah. You have to stop maybe reading the comments. What do you think? Oh, now it's moving again. Oh yeah, this is not a good answer. Let me put something more heavy. Okay, okay, no problem.

Sorry, my fault. No, no, no, all good. Maybe the answer is you just start, uh, no. Good to go? Uh, I think that's good, yeah? Well, maybe the answer is you stop reading the comments. Yeah, I just have to stop going on Instagram as much,

but now I'm gaining like over 10,000 followers a day. Oh, my gosh. So my coach has been exploding. So at the same time as I'm getting hate, like, I am blowing up, you know, like it's unheard of for a jitititoo athlete. I have 73 million views on my page in a month now on Instagram. What?

I could, like, it's literally 73 million views now on my page. Why is it exploding right now? I just think that with everything that's been happening, it's just really hot, like, topic right now with the competing, the jihitsu, like, I don't know, but like this is unheard of for a jih Tijuana for a jih Tijuana. So, it's just an amazing,

it's just been amazing, but I've been getting a lot of hate this time. Okay, well, while we're on the subject, might as well bring it up. of people have been asking me because you were coming on today. So apparently this, this conspiracy about the UFC BJJ3 YouTube video. Have you seen this? Yeah. So it went from 275K to 9 million over the course of a couple of days with very low engagement. This is now a hot story. Everyone's that. What do you make of this? What's going on here? So first, I was just

pumped. I saw 9 million views. I'm like, yeah. You know, I was just really happy that I got to 9 I don't really understand or know how that works like pumping views on YouTube you know UFC has millions of subscribers but yeah I don't really know anything about this that's out of my pay grade that tier of like doing things like that right can I throw out a hypothesis on my end

okay so so I saw some people saying like oh look how pathetic the UFC is they're buying views to prop up UFC BJJ but let's be honest it's the UFC they don't need to buy views they're the freaking most dominant force in all of combat sports

so much money right they don't like it's the third event they're trying to build something new okay is it possible is it possible I don't know

but is it possible you can buy views on someone else's page you can attach those is it possible Mikey that someone bought views on the UFC page to then say

ah look at the UFC they're frauds look at what they're doing interesting is that like a setup like they plan yes Is that possible?

I feel like that's a possibility. Who's paying attention to this sort of thing? I feel like someone might have planted it to then say, look at these frauds. Is that possible? That feels more plausible to me than them buying views on their video. What do you think?

Man, I don't know. That's very interesting also, but again, I don't know how these major organizations work. I was just pumped to see the 9 million number. If it's not real, that kind of sucks. But hopefully it is, that would be, like, cool. But I get what you're saying, and like it was really fast how the views came up

so it seems weird, but maybe the planting story would work. It's a wild thing. I mean, everyone's talking about this and there's so much as you said, activity and drama right now in the BJJ world. Is this fun for you or is it overwhelming at times?

So it's very interesting because I'm in a very lightweight class of 135, right? It's like, again, it's unheard of for there to be so much talk about someone in 135, you know? It's usually heavy weights like Gordon, Craig, like that Like, the heavier people, there's always more talk. But so much talk in the lighter division now, it's, like, really cool that, like,

we're starting this landscape of, like, the light divisions, you know? And if you look at, like, MMA and boxing, like, Connemar Greger was 145, right? Mayweather and Pachial were, like, lighter to, like, 140, 135, Ryan Garcia, the same size. So we do, we are very marketable, the little guys, you know? And now I have the most followers in Jiu-Jitsu as well. So, uh, it does seem that, like, the little guys are, like, making a new landscape just like boxing at MMA.

did. So you have more followers than Craig Jones, then Gordon Ryan, Nikki Ryan, all these guys? All of them. I have like, I think Gordon's at like 9-96 and I'm at like one point, almost 1.3 million now. I've been getting over 10,000 followers a day, so. Wow.

So I said, I said you're the face of UFC BJJ, perhaps what I should have said, you're the face of Jiu-Jitsu. You're the face of Brazilian Jiu-Zitsu right now. Is that accurate? I'm not saying that. I'll get shit on so bad if I said that. But I'm saying it. I'm asking. I'm just trying to help grow our landscape for the next generation, right?

The numbers, again, are like unheard of in Jiu-Jitsu that we're having now. So I just want to continue growing that. And all of Jiu-Jitsu is growing right now like crazy. You know, CGI was insane. The last UFC card did very well as well. I know the views might be off or whatever. I don't know. But I thought it was an overall good experience.

I definitely am being talked about now by random people. I have no idea what Jiu-Jitsu is, and they know me. So that's really cool. feel about the state of UFC BJJ, like the promotion, it's getting off the ground, it's had a few events now, that was the third, I do believe. How do you feel about the way things are moving?

I think it's expected with only three events, how they're doing things, right? It's the beginning, right? And they just started it. We're moving at an okay pace. My contract's actually up now with UFC, so I'm up for re-negotiation, resigning.

But, yeah, everything's been going well. Definitely there's a lot of learning that they have to do and build because it takes time to do this, right? It takes time to perfect it, just like every other organization. Are you confident? Are you hopeful? Do you like the direction? I think that it's okay. I think it's good. I just hate the amount of hate that I receive from people with this. You know, it's very frustrating sometimes because I'm always down to fight the best in the world. You know, I'm the best in the world at 135

And I want to fight anyone that's the best in the world And then I'll get crapped on From the community Oh, I'm not having hard matches I'm not having hard It's not really my fault If there's people that don't want to compete with me Or I'm not able to compete with people, right?

What's the biggest match you can have right now? Who's the one that people are saying They want you to go up against And because maybe you're with UFC, you can't? So there's an opponent called Baby Shark Yes, you've wanted to fight him for a very long time or compete against. I've been trying to fight this guy

and now he's exclusive to one which is why I'm going crazy I just want to compete with him so bad but also another match that would be really big is Juon Miao I competed with him like eight years ago

but he's very famous now he was like a million followers and he was like my toughest opponent back in the day and that fight's been blowing up as well I think UFC did a poll who should I compete with next and it was like 1,500 comments

and like 1,400 of them were me and Juong so that's a good one. Baby Shark for sure and then yeah I just want to continue competing and getting better I'm so I have so much I've been getting so much better Ariel like nobody even knows how much better I am and how good

I am in like there's so many things you don't see for me in matches because they end so fast why didn't you and Baby Shark not happen when you were with one so he signed exclusive with one back then to compete with me and I signed about deal with him six or seven times and he

first he said he couldn't pass a drug test so I think he was like the first athlete ever in the history to send them a list of all the things he's on Oh wow But then Then what happened was He ended up doing flow grappling who's number one While signed to one

Because one lets athletes do other organizations And he did that two times I think When he was signed to fight with me Instead of doing a match with me So I went like months in camp trying to train for this guy and then he didn't have the match and I broke down my body

and messed me up a lot you know I was supposed to fight him first in January February March April June all those months then when I signed with UFC I requested the fight with him immediately the last two or three matches

I requested the fight with him and then he's like oh I'm exclusive the one I can't do it so I'm just like dude okay whatever so and now and now right now the UFC policy is the same as the MMA policy which is they're not co-promoting, right?

Like, they're not sharing talent. They can't. It makes sense, though, right? Like, you wouldn't want your champion competing with a champion of another organization. Like, you're just building up other athletes, right? So I understand that from a logical perspective. I just really wanted that match. But, Joom Meow is also an amazing match.

Like, he's so good and, like, an amazing competitor. Like, that fight would blow up as well. I'm just looking for us to grow our platform now, you know? I want to just keep getting better and fight with the best people, but I want to grow our platform. for more and more. And again, my page is exploding right now. I am doing the right things. I just have that tough skin

and handle the hate that I get sometimes. Where'd the black eye come from? It's a birth mark. You never noticed it? This right here? This is a birth mark. Wow, I didn't notice it. Really? Yeah, I could have gave you a cool story that I got punched in the face or something, but it's a birth mark.

You've always had... It's a little kid. People always thought I got beat up or something. Oh, wow. The other times you've been on the show, I didn't notice it. Probably because I was in my car. with like different lighting now I have a white background okay okay okay well it makes you look tough 24-7 oh yeah I'm a fighter of course that's right that's right um by the way I saw this photo of you this I saw a photo of you online um you're at the gym and I think it's old and you're showing off the the abs do we have this this photo here how is this an old photo that's like a year and a half

ago this is insanity man what is going on I was so skinny how do you look at what percentage your body fat you have on here? Probably like close to like 7, 6, 6. Maybe even low. I think like 6.7 probably. 6.7? Maybe. Because like the thing is, what happened to me was, again, that was during that time I was supposed to buy Baby Shark. So every month they had me in camp

for this fucking match that never happened. So I was in camp for like 6 months. And for me to be in camp more than like 2 months, it really breaks down my body, right? So staying skinny that long, like it really messes up your organs. It's not healthy for you. You see how, like, lean and cut I am there, right? And, like, I just was in camp too long.

Did you have any pizza afterwards to celebrate? Oh, of course. Of course I did. Now I just am, like, I'm probably going to travel to Asia soon. Get my contract worked on now. We'll see, like, what happens with that. What's going on? What's going on?

You free agent? Free agent right now. Come on. Well, my contract ends, like, in a few days. Whoa, this is massive news, Mikey. You've been no selling us here. this is the top line story wait a second wait a second

the face of UFC BJJ is a free agent in what do you say two or three days like in a few days from now yeah wow so what's happening what's happening what do we I don't know I'm supposed to meet with them soon so we'll see what happens with that

but yeah is there a chance you leave I don't know who's representing you in these talks or is it just you? Yes me do you need me to help you do you need me to fly down there

yeah could you got me You'll come in with me? I'd be happy to. Of course, they love me. I think I could get you a sweetheart deal. And then also another cool news that, like, we haven't talked about yet, but Craig and me want to start a travel show. Oh, yeah, I saw that. I saw you mentioned that in the post-match press conference.

So you and Craig are buddies now. Yeah, we're good friends. We talk all the time. I think things like that make you closer when you clash with someone, right? Sure. But, like, we have, like, a big brother love between me and him. But I know, like, people would go insane if me and him did a travel show, like, travel a show, traveling to random places and us like seeing different things and like who knows what will happen

on that show. Oh, it'd be brilliant. I mean, you guys are so different. What did you think of C.J.I.2 and how it all played out and especially the accusation from Gable to Craig. Did you hear about this? Yeah. I thought CGI2 was a great event. Like it just, the amount of views and stuff, it was great, like the amount of traction it got from the judicious community, right? Right. With Gable and Craig, I think that I don't know what's true or not, but I think that Craig is just an entertainer, right? He doesn't really care about competing anymore, like he's done, and he just wanted to entertain the crowd, right? So if that's true, he doesn't really care.

Like, he doesn't care about winning or losing. He just wanted to be entertaining. Do you think that Craig would have asked him to throw the match? That was the accusation. I don't know, exactly. I don't think Craig needed to do that with people. I think that Craig could submit him pretty chill, considering he's not a jihitsu person. person, right? But if they did do that, it was probably because Craig had some funny story

plot that he wanted to do to make it more entertaining. You know what I mean? Is there a chance you talk to the UFC, you cut a new deal? But within this deal, it allows you to compete for a CJA or a one if you want. Like, can you have carve-outs, as they say. See what I'm saying? You can have things that are- The second they do that, though, UFC would back away because it's not worth it to them to invest millions of dollars into something that they're just handing over their athletes that they're building to someone else, right? Sure, but you're representing them. And they're in the, look, back in the day, Mikey, Chuck Liddell.

There you go. Yeah. You know what I mean? No, I get it, and I think that's awesome. But, yeah, we'll just see how the meeting goes with them. Who's the meeting with? Like, who's the front? I know Claudia does, like, a lot of them.

Hunter. Hunter. Oh, wow. So it's you and Hunter in there. Yeah, Hunter loves me. He's a big fan. Really? Yes, he's a huge fan.

Marab told me, just yesterday. He's a big fan of mine. So if you need... Yeah, but you're coming to the meeting with me now. Yeah, I know. That's good for you. I'm just letting you know this is now... Yeah, you, me and Craig, we're all going in together. Is Craig going to be in there, too?

That might be a problem. That might be a problem. He was supposed to coach me my last match. Was he allowed? I think he... I think he could have came. I don't think they would stop him coming in. I needed his instructions.

He was going to give me tequila in between rounds, you know? Didn't you say he was going to give you Tylenol, too? Tylenol with Teal and... Like, I'm gonna, I need, I need a beverage to sip the Tylenar, right? I need something, sure, sure, sure. So then we were gonna do tequila with Tylenol, which is like a crazy combo. Do you, do you drink at all? No, not really.

The last time I drank was on that show with Craig. Oh, wow. You mean the one with DJ? Yeah, DJ and Craig. That show was insane. That got like 1.3, 1.4 million views. It was great. I mean, DJ's killing it on his channel.

The production was great. There you are awesome. Yeah. It was such a fun show. I was just sucked because I was like, blacked out junk at like noon 11 a.m. Like drinking tequila in the morning is brutal.

By the way, did you have mushrooms at UFC 320? There are people saying that as well. Oh, no. So I didn't realize what mushrooms even look like. I didn't know what that was. But I just was like, oh, I should do something funny. So I just brought random pasta for my house. I broke it up. I bought some pasta. And then I went on and went and then the problem was that I guess that's what mushroom look like.

And so people accused you of that. Did that bother you? It's kind of funny that I didn't even know what they are or what they look like, right? And then I was like, wow, people thought I was at mushrooms. So you were just saying like raw pasta? Just raw pasta. I just brought it with me.

Like, I thought it would be like a cool thing just that like bite the pasta when they put me on the camera. I believe they call that al dante. Yeah, super al dente, definitely. But I just am looking to be entertaining like random things, you know? Like, my post-fight interview at UFC, everyone loved when I said,

I want to thank Tylenor for this performance. Yeah, yeah. The karate kid in the beginning of my match, you know, the pasta. Like, I'm, jih Tzu's boring. We need things that make it exciting, you know, just random things like that, just to appeal to people. Like, I know Jitzie, the hardcore world, annoyed at the Daniel LaRuso, but it is freaking cool going out as a karate kid.

Of course, of course. I have a good idea. What about, what about Sean Strickland versus your friend, Derek Moneyberg? UFC BJJ-4 Craig was rocking the shirt Yeah I haven't spoke to Derek in a long time But

Have you have you Because I think you got a little bit of heat For being friends with him right Yeah that was That was rough But You said in the post-fight At the post-match press conference

You've been stabbed There's nothing left No there's nothing left The amount I got shit on For that situation It was crazy I didn't give the guy his black belt So, but yeah, it's just, sometimes people got to just be real with you and just put you, like, straight, you know?

So, like, I'm happy the community was pissed at me, and they just put me straight and, like, what is what it is. But, yeah, I got beat up pretty bad with that one. Yeah. But, yeah, Sean versus Derek, I don't know how that would go. But, yeah, that was crazy when Sean confronted him with the video. And so do you think that his black belt is legit? You didn't give him the black belt? No, I didn't give him the black belt.

I think Jake Shields did, right? Jake Shields did, and Jake Shields is OG, right? He's legit as hell. Sure. I mean, he's a little bit insane, but yes. Yeah, his poster insane, but I'm just saying like he is like an old, legit black belt, right? But I think that Derek definitely works hard, but I would never give someone their blackball

on that time. He's a very smart guy, but for myself, I wouldn't give someone a blackball at that time. I do respect the people I gave him it, though. That's all I'm saying. And so do you feel like it's in your best interest to distance yourself from him now? Yeah, I just feel like I got put in a bad situation. Like, the thing is, I can't prove if he's a black ball or not, right? And there's nothing I can do.

So what am I doing arguing? If there's no, if he's not having a match with somebody that could prove it, he's not doing anything like that, then there's no point in even doing this. I think that it's like showing it off and stuff. If you can't prove, like showing like logically why you're this belt, I think then it's like stupid, you know? That's why I just backed away from it. I think it's a stupid situation. Were you just friends? I was just friends with Derek.

I went three times. Okay. That's it. Just three times? Just three times. That's it. Does he pay you to work out with him? Yeah, he pays like coaches to come in and just hang out and like train with him.

Gilbert was there. And Gilbert, of course, is my coach, right? He gave me my black belt. So me, Gilbert and Derek would just hang out. And we had fun. Derek was really nice to me. He was a cool guy. Like he was like very nice to me.

I have nothing bad to say about him. I just didn't like the situation where I got put in the spot where I'm getting like canceled like a drug dealer. Like I did something insane when I just I just wanted to support him. You know, like I wasn't really thinking and I just jumped on it. I was like, oh, my friend got his black belt. Like instead of thinking like, oh, well, I understand what is set as a precedent in jiu-jitsu. Like no way of proving it. Like if we had a standardized test to pass, okay, awesome.

Then you could do that and then show everyone. I got my belt in this time. I passed a standardized test. But there's no standardized test, and then you just post it, and you can't, and there's no way of showing it, like, then it's kind of screwed, right? Mm-hmm. All right, so... That's how I see it from a logical perspective.

Sure. No, I understand that. I didn't know it was just three times as well. Yeah, I only there three times. And then people made it out, like, I'm the one that gave him it. I'm there with him every day. You know what I mean? Like...

It's rough out there, but this is what happens. When you're the top dog, when you're the face, everyone's punching up. Yeah, I'm much. Now that how much hate you get being in this position, Ariel, like, I never realized that, but I'm getting better with it over time. It's just, I'm very sensitive, as you know. No, I understand. I mean, I saw that picture of you with the belts. It's an unbelievable shot. Yeah, I get cold at night, so I need a good blanket, you know? Oh, my gosh. We were, we were looking at the pictures before the show. This is you on the left before, and this is

you afterwards with the two UFC BGJ belts. My 11-year-old son, he's going to kill me for saying this. He saw it, and he said, that's aura right there. This guy's got aura. I'm aura farming Are you aura farming? I don't know You won those Is aura farming a good thing Or a bad thing

I can't quite tell I think it's a good thing Right I think it's a good thing right Yeah Okay Again these Gen Z kids I don't know

Like their language But I think that's what it means Okay Well I mean look at that I can understand Why people are hating you With that picture I mean look at those belts

Which one means the most Yeah Which one means the most Yeah I don't know The one belt was really cool I think the beginning of each belt is cool because it's like a new chapter for me, right?

But I think the Black Belt World's Medals and the Ghee, those medals are actually the strongest ones for me that mean the most. Okay. Just because the hell I went through to get those, you know? What do you mean by hell? Like the sacrifice, the hours, the suffering. Like, it's just very hard.

Like, I've been undefeated now, Ariel, in my division, like eight or nine years. Well, yeah. So, but the beginning of getting undefeated, it's hard, right? Because your skill level is really more matched by people. But then once you break that barrier, it becomes easier to stay at the top. I think the hardest part, though, is that beginning when you get to the top. That makes sense.

That makes sense. But now everyone's coming after you. And you were active this year, three matches in 2025. When do you think you'll return? I think, well, we'll see how this meeting goes with UFC again. Yes, yes. When is that? Wednesday?

Tuesday, Thursday? Today's Tuesday. I think this week or next week we'll see. Okay, okay. We'll make a plan and see, like, what's going on. with that, I don't know at all what's going on, but we'll see. Are you nervous? No, I'm not nervous because I don't know.

I'm in a good spot in my life. I'm pretty chill. Like, regardless what happens, I'm chill. Like, there's so many things in Jitzi right now. There's so many different avenues and stuff. So, like, whatever happens, we'll see. But UFC was good to me this year, and we'll see, like, what happens and what we talk about. Do you think that UFC is fully invested in Jiu-D-D-Zitsu?

Do you feel like they're all in? I think they're all in I think that they I think they said they plan to have 10 events next year Wow So I just want to talk to them personally See what their plans are right

And see like what the future is And like then we can make a plan To see like where I go from this point Right But I am at the peak of my career right now I feel amazing My level is the best it's ever been I'm getting better every day

Even training with stitches today I felt so good in training So I haven't really rested I'm taking a break But I've been climbing every day I'm just obsessed and this obsession I have like I know I could be at the top

if I wanted to like another like 15 years if I really wanted to Wow how old are you I'm 29 but my body is like 20 21 like I have no because no steroids right remember we talked Yes of course of course so I'm so young Like I really am young so healthy young No injuries in my life thank God nothing bad

So I could really just go another like 10, 15 years that I really want to. But now I want to just keep building my following and page, get more people to Jiu-Jitsu. That's what I mean. Like, I have like 73 million views on my page right now. I guess I need a picture after this. Like, it's like they're now, like, the analytics.

But it's going like crazy. Any UFC fighters locally say, hey, Mikey, can you be my coach? You're so good. I'm surprised that you're not in more people's corners. I work a lot with Brandon Moreno. Okay. He was, I was supposed to train with him today, actually, but he didn't end up coming, but I work a lot with him.

But yeah, I think later on the line, I'll be more of, like, coach more with stuff like that. I'll definitely do more things like that as I get older. There's just so much for me to do right now. There's so much more for me to do. I'm excited, and, like, I'm just so blessed and grateful for the exact position I'm in right now, you know? Yeah. It's an amazing spot. Well, you should be proud.

You should be grateful. You should feel blessed. Congratulations on all your success. Mikey, always great to catch up with you. Congrats on the win. And good luck with that meeting. I'm very curious to see how plays out. Yeah, I'll send you your itinerary later.

All right, perfect. Yeah, yeah, so we'll set it up and Craig too. Yeah, yeah, could you imagine? You roll up at UFC HQ with me and Craig. Yeah, how fast are we getting kicked out? No, stop it. Don't put me. I'm not shooting Dana White's head on it with a freaking rifle or whatever he was doing.

I come in peace, Mikey. I come in peace. Oh, yeah, we're peaceful people. That's right. That's right. Chao de gatsso, Mikey. Grazie, Milly, Fratello. There he is.

The great Mikey, Musamechi, Darth Rigatoni. What a great guy, and he breaks some news. He's a free agent in a couple of days. Very, very interesting stuff there. UFC, BJJ, Underfire, their YouTube channel. I think much to do about nothing. But let us see. Let us see.

Okay, there's a story here that is developing regarding Frankie Edgar. You'll recall last week we had, it was the last week, no, two weeks ago. We had Dave Feldman on the program. And we talked about Frankie. This is what I was told. I was told that backup. They said Frankie couldn't get cleared.

You saw that. He said it on the show. I was told it was a ticket selling issue. Ultimately, they agreed to a certain number. They didn't sell X amount of tickets. And they said, you know what? Let's try to cut our losses here. We'll pay you X amount.

And then you can go on your way. but we're not going to pay you the full amount because the show wasn't as profitable as we thought. Well, Frankie has remained relatively quiet since, but he was on his podcast called The Champ and the Tramp. And he said this, quote, they didn't sell enough tickets. And they figure, let's get one of the highest paid guys on the card and get them off the card. We don't have to pay him. Or they lost a sponsor. These are all speculations.

I thought BKFC had something. I was like, wow, this is pretty entertaining. They got something. but not if they treat fighters like this because I'll tell you what, fighters out there, beware. I was training for six, seven weeks. I got a week out from the fight.

We get an email. My manager gets an email from someone at BKFC stating that the owner of BKFC is leaving for Manchester and he doesn't have a phone on him. He can't call you, but he'll call you eventually. But in the meantime, as doctor recommended, I don't fight based on my age, consecutive TKO losses, my layoff, my record,

which sounds Fugazi. That was before he'd even see. my medicals, this doctor or anything, which is kind of crazy. And the fact that he set me up a week before the fight, obviously we signed a deal months ago, so all those facts were known much before we signed that deal. Not to mention that I passed every single one of the medicals. I did a whole crap ton of medicals. Got a physical blood test, eye exam, three different heart things, passed it all. And so he's calling it to question, he did get paid, but it was it was a fraction of what he was supposed to get paid. I did ask Connor about this

when I was at the event in our dock that we taped, we filmed, which is going to come out next week is the plan, because we're fine tuning in and we wanted to be as good as possible. And he did respond to this. And I asked him if it was a ticket thing. And he responded to that as well. So you'll see that. Honestly, I don't give an F because the people that I know that know me know I was ready to go. I passed every effing medical. And honestly, thinking about it now, I haven't got any of these medicals since my fight. Just a clean bill of health. I'm good to go. So there you have it. MMA fighting. Did a whole breakdown and a recap of the comments. Go check it out on MMAfighting.com. All right. Speaking of the world of bare knuckle, BKB is back. BKB on quite a

role, especially overseas. They've got a show this weekend, October 18th in Leeds. It's called BKB 47. Leeds Brawl 2. And the featured bout on the card involves a gentleman named Tyler Goodjohn against the legend, the magic man, Pauli Malinaji in his first fight since June of 2019 when he fought the great Artem Lobov. How about this? He's kind enough to join us. Poly Malinaji is right here and now. Hello, Polly. How are you? Welcome back. Oh, I don't hear you. Are you muted? I was muted. All good. What's up, Polly?

How are you doing? I'm good, man. How's everything? Everything's good. It's good to have you back. Congrats on, and you're doing so much. The YouTube channel is doing great. You're out there doing media as well.

It's great stuff. ProBox TV. But you're back fighting. Why? Why are you doing this six years later? It's very various reasons. Probably there's a little bit of truth in everybody's opinion. You know, some of it is you don't want to let it go.

You want to give it one less shot. Some of it is. You want to make more money. I would like to and have plans to retire back to Italy, but in order to do that, I have to probably pay down some properties and stuff in the U.S. They tell you to invest your stuff, and so you invest, and then you end up creating routes for you in a place where maybe you want to leave, you know? So eventually I'd like to move back to Sicily, so I'd have to pay down some properties

there. Also, BKB has been very good to me as far as commentating and giving me a lot of opportunities after, you know, the 2020 separation from Showtime, actually ProBox TV and BKB have been every, very, very good to me. So it's a chance for me to try to kind of springboard them a little bit and sort of one hand-wash and the other by me fighting with them and fighting for them, sorry, and, you know, trying to sort of reciprocate the good that they've done for me.

And so was this your idea? Did you go to them or did they come to you and say, hey, what do you think? It was my idea. I was sort of brainstorming. various options, including glove boxing, but it seemed like this could be the most mutually beneficial. And also, sort of another feather in my head as far as an opportunity to win something major. I'm not sure I could win a major world championship in boxing anymore. I mean, granted, Paki almost could be Mario Barrios, and I probably did.

And the Walthaway Division is kind of weak in boxing. So I think I would take a step at something like that, only because it's such a weak division. But honestly, if I'm really honest with myself, I think that taking a step is something great, something that's more than just money, which I think we always need a motivation that's more than just money. It ended up being bare-knuckle because I think there's an opportunity to accomplish some things here. Not to overlook my opponent because I'm doing it one fight at a time, but if I could be good, John, I could get a title shot at BKB. and winning a BKB world title would be sort of a feather in my hat to add to the accolades that I've accomplished in boxing. So to be clear, you're not back just for a one-off swan song. This is like a proper return several fights?

I'm not playing to be back for a one-off swan song, but I'm here for a good time, not a long time. I'm also not a spring chicken. Although I do feel good, it's also a situation where, like I said, I'm here for a good time, not a long time. a long time. Before agreeing to this, did you, you know, obviously you're most well known from the sweet science, right? Queensberry rules with the big gloves, the padded gloves. Did you look around and see if there were options out there? Once you decide you're going to come back, did you see what else was out there or was it always BKB? There's things being discussed, even in glove boxing. There's possibly, you know, something discussed with misfits that's

been, you know, broadly discussed. But again, it's not, you know, misfits is cool. I think it will be actually a good fit, and it may still happen, you know. I'm not for sure going to say yes or no in that, in that direction, because I could do both. But the reason I went this way for now is because, like I said, there's a chance to accomplish something here. You know, in boxing, you know, the accomplishment is a world championship. I know what that feels like I won it, but I also know that I'm not, I probably can't win one at this point of my life, you know. So, you know, if I combine the finances and the accomplishing goals, I thought that Bernalco was the way to go for now, you know, but misfits is being discussed as well.

And, you know, it could possibly happen. I think it could be a good fit. Who would that be against? It wasn't really discussed that deeply, you know. It's kind of a slow-moving conversation. Fair enough. But if it happens, you know, then we'll discuss that. as well, you know? It was a slow-moving conversation. And like I said, it's, I think it's a fit for

somebody like me, but I also think that, you know, I generate more motivation to try to accomplish something like winning a championship. And with BKB, I may be able to do that, you know. And how long was this training camp for? Like, how long did you have to prepare? And how did your body feel since it's been so long since you've done one of these? I've been probably training for about six months, but I mean, I'll tell you what, I've had a, you know, there's a saying you train smarter, not harder. I've definitely done that. I have been able to spar as much as I would have liked to in the past, you know, so I had adjust that. I adjusted more so my, my strength training, my conditioning, you know, I needed to condition my body first for a training camp before going into a training camp. And I've done that almost the entire time. I actually. started working with my friend, my good friends, Don Jafferino and Sebs D'Alta, 8X, Mace Clubs, which is sort of a different kind of strength training, sort of the, I don't know if people have seen the Iron Sheek videos with lifting, they will look like bowling pins.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Obviously, I'm not lifting heavy with those, but there's a program there that mixes both movement and weights together, you know, and so I've done a lot of that as well. Nothing heavy, but also something that conditions my body for, you know, both the movement of fighting and as well as the ability to have, you know, the strength and being able to deal with, you know, the physical sport like combat sports, you know? Also, as far as boxing is concerned, like I said, we've not done as much sparring because, you know, back in the day, I was always a

heavy believer in heavy sparring, violent sparring. I was a product of gym wars and my career is a product of gym wars. And I think that, you know, no matter what medical experts may want to say or not say, I believe that's the way you get to the top, you know? So it was a different thing for me to not be able to do that as often at least, because, you know, I used to do that every two days when I was in training camps in my prime. And now you do that and you're like, whoa, I'm at a commission from sparring for quite longer than two days now, you know, to recover. So, but when I recover and when I'm sharp, I am good. So the way I look at it is even fight night may be difficult, maybe a physical go of it, but I'm sharp and I'm good.

So even if I'm very sore for a longer period of time than maybe I would have been in the past, it doesn't matter because at that point it will have ended the next day, you know, still so I can recover. But when I'm not sort of debilitated, I do feel sharp. I do feel the timing is good. We've worked a lot of nervous system training with the strength work. So there's a lot of good reaction and speed stuff. And I think we're ready for on Saturday night.

Like it's fight week. You're about to fight in what? Four days, these emotions you haven't felt. in a while. Are you nervous? Are you anxious? What are you feeling four days out? I feel curious more so. I feel good right now. So I'm curious to see, like, am I overconfident in myself? You know, I feel like, like I said, we've done a lot of, even if we haven't done a lot of sparring, we've done a lot of nervous system training, you know, which is a lot of explosiveness and a lot of reaction stuff, you know, and that has really worked well, you know. I've got a good

spring in my legs. I've got good snap in my shots and things of that nature. You know, obviously we had a load more on pad work since we weren't sparring mid and pad work. And again, my speed is there. My work is there. So, so I don't want to be overconfident because, you know, you never want to do that. So there's more of a curiosity, you know, like, am I feeling, am I really feeling this good or am I lying to myself, you know? So it's not really so much nervous because we've done this so much that we kind of know how to control those. They're always there but it's more so um i feel good like let's see if it's real on saturday night you know for those that may not know we were just talking about bkfc before you came on what's the

difference between bkfc and bkb and why do you like bkb better um the the biggest difference is three minute rounds instead of two minute rounds bkb does three minute rounds bkfc has two minute rounds and uh the trigon the trigon the trigon is a smaller surface is less room the maneuver less room to work with uh so i i think it enforces more more contact and especially in a three minute round there's a lot more contact right so so i do think it's more physically demanding what physically debilitating it can be but at the same time if you're a you know how to fight you can you know you know you know how to make your style work anywhere and so i i i don't mind that part of it why bkb's because i've worked with bkb for a long time they've been very good to me um and uh

i saw that my fight with bkfc six years ago was a big springboard for them and i was you know i was glad to do that you know they were they they were professional guys and worked with me well. But I feel like BKB has given me a lot of opportunities in commentating and keep my name relevant. And I thought it was only a natural marriage to do this with them. Well, I think you're still very relevant. Like I said, the YouTube channel is great. The stuff you do with Pro Box is great from a commentary standpoint. And I just wanted to ask you about some of that stuff. Obviously, one that we've been talking a lot on this show has been the Ali Act because of, you know, Zufa and Dana White getting into the world of boxing. More has been said.

I saw you talk about it a couple times now that we've had a little bit more time to digest we know they're going on Paramount we're hearing what Dana is saying about the promotion the amount of events contender series like how do you feel about their entry into the world of boxing? Ariel, you know, I don't know if you want to go down this road with me, man.

You know, I got a respect for you, but as a person but as media, you know, I see you as sort of the rest of the guys in the media. You guys don't ask the tough questions. You guys are a bit of kind of kiss-asses. Me. And when it comes, when you guys too, I mean, Dana, do you, do you ever ask Dana the top question? Do you ever push back on Dana?

You ever put back on Dana? I haven't been to a UFC event. I haven't been to a UFC event. He gives a lot of bullshit answers to people and nobody pushes back. Like, he literally lies. You know he's lying. You'll answer a question for me. I'm not saying necessarily you, but just a person in the media, they know he's lying when he answers the question.

And they don't say, dude, you're lying. Come on. It's like this. It's not like that. Instead of it, they'll just take the answer at his word for it. Even despite knowing he's lying. They're just happy they got to ask a question to the, the fact. fascinating Dana White.

Dude, if a guy lies to your face, he has no respect for you. And he has no respect for the fan base, right? So the guy constantly lies. So, wait, wait, wait, one second, one second, before you continue, with all due respect, if you're going to say that, come with facts and come with your research. The last time I spoke to Dana White was 2016.

The last time I did an interview with Dana White was 2016. Are you referring to an interview that I did with Dana White in 2016? You're obviously not. The last time I went to a UFC event was 2020. So, Pauly, with all due respect, don't be disrespectful. You don't know what you're talking about. I don't go to UFC events. I don't go to UFC events

I'm not the dudes you're talking about so don't let me in with them I understand what you're saying and I'm critical of them but don't let me in with the guys because you have no idea what you're talking about I haven't been to a UFC event in five years

okay so I won't lump you in with the Dana thank you but the same applies to you when you ask Connor McGregor questions he's a bullshit artist and you know I haven't talked to him in two and a half years but fair you know and you know he was bullshitting you when you just took the court

the response at that at face value instead of giving and now you're moving the goal post now you're moving the goal post no no hold on I'm talking about Dana White getting into boxing. What does that have to do with Connor McGregor? Do you do not have respect for me as an interviewer?

Why are you here? I'm not that guy. You're not that guy with Dana White, but you're still that guy, Eric. Well, you guys in the media are all that guy. Why are you? I don't play the media game. I just, I don't play the media game.

You're in the media. You're in the media. It's a hobby for me. It's a hobby for me. What I'm talking about? You're talking about making money. Okay. It's about making money.

Everything's about making money. What are you talking about everything's about making money? You're the one talking about making money. It's not always, not everything's about making. You were just talking at the beginning about moving and investments and going to Italy. What are you talking about? You're the one that brought up money at the beginning of this. No, you asked me the question what it was, okay?

And I told you it's a part of it is that and a part of it is this. Okay, but you did bring up money. You don't need to always harp on the money. The money was a part of it. That wasn't the only response I gave you, REL. You say that being in media's hobby. So what is your day job? Like what is not your hobby?

What's your professional career then? Only TV is my hobby. ProBox TV is my day job. Okay. that's media. That's media, yeah. They're both media. I do media at my way.

I don't, nobody tells me what to do it or how to do it. That's why I don't get invited to the credential list and everything else because I do media my way. People know I'm going to push back. People know I'm going to do say what I'm going to say. People know they can't control me.

And people know I'm going to speak up when something's wrong. So therefore I don't get invited. So therefore, that's why I say it's a hobby. Because for me at ProVox TV, I get the respect I deserve. Yes, okay, good point. But I get the respect I deserve. I don't have to be told to say this or stay away from this.

I can do whatever I want. You're saying we do here? You're saying we do here? Mario. Again, what's your beef? I'm saying there are certain questions that you guys don't ask certain people. That's all I'm going to say. Okay.

And I can't be that guy. I am not that guy. I am not that guy. So I don't know how we even got on this topic. You asked me a question about Dana White getting into and you said, you want to go down this path because I offer him softballs. I haven't talked to the guy in almost 10 years. 10 years I haven't talked to.

Let's go to Dana White conversation. With Dana White, I stand corrected to Ariel. You actually have a pushback against Dana. But again, you have to... I got banned from the... I got my credentials revoked. Ariel, if you're going to be a pushback guy, you've got to be a pushback guy either way.

Like, for example, with me, me and Deonte Wilder were cool. When I said he got robbed by Dyson Fury, I didn't say, oh, no, he's my buddy. I'm not going to say he robbed Tyson Fury the first fight. I said it anyway. You know what? We stop talking.

It doesn't matter. I do my job. I do my job, right? If I'm going to do it... That's why I gave you respect. I'm going to stand the way... I'm going to stand for it whether it's convenient to me or not convenient to me

because there's a right and a wrong way to do things. Anyway, go back, going back, let's go back to what we were saying with the Ali Act and whatnot. Dana said they've generated Zufa. They generate billions of dollars. It's great for, it's great for the sport. The UFC model has shown that it generates billions of dollars.

Billions of dollars for who, dude, not for the fighters. When you talk, when a guy like Dana White talks about, this model generates billions of dollars and so on and so forth. Let's say it did, even for boxing. Let's say if it did. Without the Ali actor, you know what it's going to be because his resume, his body of work already calls you what it's going to be.

His body of work tells you it's going to be all for the corporate sponsors, all for the big shots, including him, and very little piece of it goes to the fighters. So when we talk about how is this thing going to benefit this or how does this thing going to benefit that,

it's not like we're talking to a guy who doesn't already have a prior road, a resume that you can look back on and say, how does he behave? How does he do things? How does he behave financially? This guy,

Rob's fighters left, right and center, you're going to say allegedly, right? Because you could say, considering the main event purses of UFC fighters compared to what the UFC shows generate, where's all the money going? The majority of the money ain't going to the fighters, like it would in boxing, if a fighter generates that kind of money. But yet, then this guy goes on a Joe Rogan podcast, and he'll talk about how he lost millions of a million dollars in one night. Money that he's robbing from fighters.

All right? So that's not a person I can respect coming into my business or any business. If he stays away from me, I stay away from him. I don't need to talk about him. but we're going to talk about a guy like that. No, boxing doesn't need a guy like that. Boxing already has had plenty of people like that that we've already dealt with.

The boxing landscape, regardless of having people like that, and if people could get away with it, they would, obviously, but boxing has a landscape through the Aliette that prevents that kind of, that kind of demented, perverse taking advantage of fighters to that degree. At least boxing has that protection. By removing the Aliyah, you risk not having that protection. That's all I'm saying. And there's going to be different, different, different, different options, different opinions.

Look at Francis and Ghana. What do you have to do? What do you had to do to make him boxing? Look at Connor McGregor himself, speaking of McGregor, what he had to go to boxing to make those kind of that kind of money. So ultimately, why did those guys go to boxing? Because boxing allowed that kind of loophole, right, that the UFC, the MMA in general, does not allow, right?

So in an open market, the fighter has more advantage if he reaches the top. Now, people will say, oh, lower level to lower level, it's similar purses. Yeah, of course. Lower level, a lower level of similar purses. But I made this example not long ago. I remember looking at a, at the end of my career, looking at a Max Holloway versus Volcanovsky fight matchup.

And there was purses being discussed on a website. I looked at Max Holloway's purse. Max Holloway was still a top star at that time. I was at the end of my boxing career. Guy was making the same money I was making in boxing. At that time, not at my prime, at that time. Okay? Now, granted maybe he had a couple of pay-per-view points,

which gave him a little more. more a little bit more money but this is a guy a guy who probably is going to be a UFC Hall of Famer in his prime years at the time and he's making what I'm making at the end of my career okay dude that's not a guy anybody should be working for in combat sports all right bro like people people broach the conversation talk to the conversation this is not a good person not that boxing is full of good people either but I'm saying this person himself is it's changing the landscape not for the better in any way especially for the fighters and for the competitors what do you think about the idea of having their own belt and

getting rid of the WBCW. He says he's not going to acknowledge those. Is that good or bad? I have my beef with... Listen, I have my beefs with the sanctioning bodies are real. You know, I think we all do, right? I mean, they're in that way. But let me tell you something. The sanctioning bodies, because every many things are not that intelligent, and I've said that over and over again. And I'm going to give you an example of why they're so stupid. In MMA, for example, they'll say, oh, everybody fights everybody. The UFC makes all these fights. But in M.M.A, you actually do have several belts. You have a Beltoe belt. You have a BELTOR no longer around. I get your point. Belt or not.

Okay. Oh, you have a one. I'm a casual. Sorry. It's okay. So I just don't want anyone to hit you back saying you're casual. So I'm correcting you here. But it's okay.

They can say I'm a casual because I'm a casual with MMA. I can watch the occasional MMA fight, but I'm not a hardcore. But okay, so it's one FC, it's PFL, UFC, right? Those are the main promotions, essentially, right? So you do have several belts. It's just they can't cross each other ever. So the leagues that they create, they can never cross each other. So just because they can never cross each other doesn't mean you're getting all the fights.

Because personally, if a fan, had any level of intelligence past the point of being retarded, they would say, wow, I want to watch the fighter who's the champion at one against the champion in the same weight class at the UFC or the champion in the same weight class at PFL. I want to see what that looks like, just like we do in boxing. Okay, so then when they tell you in boxing, oh, this champion can make this champion,

they make too many champions, and then they don't fight. Yes, there is politics involved. And sometimes one champion is one promoter and another champion is with another promoter. Fights we want to see don't happen. And that sucks. I get it. But you know what? In special occasions, they do cross-promote because the fight is good enough and they'll say,

you know what, let's just make it happen. And, MMMA, you don't even have that hope. Okay, the line is so drawn in the same. You can't have that hope. The UFC champion will never fight the PFL champion. The PFL champion will never fight the one champion and so on and so forth in the same way class. Those are the fights you should be asking for and should be seeing. Now, just the fan base is so stupid doesn't mean that that's not the same conversation.

It's not the fan. Polly, you're disrespecting the fan base. It's not the, it's just not the, we could cry in. until the cows come home about seeing the pfl champion who 1% of the public knows the comment the ariel and you're right but the are the no one wants to see that no one's asking for this no one's asking for this yes we are we have we ask for it because they're too stupid to know it's possible no you're wrong about that you're wrong about that you know what do you mean too stupid what is too stupid me that's not want to see the pfl champion or the one champion it's not about wanting

it's not about wanting it's not about wanting to see who the best in the world is i want to fly it's not happening. In boxing, you want to see that. It's not happening because of the structure. Because of the structure of the sport. It's like... And you're going to tell me that, okay, so you're answering your own questions. Yes.

That structure of the sport, you want to bring that into boxing. I don't want to bring anything, man. I'm just asking you questions. I don't want to bring anything. What are you talking about? I don't work for these guys. I think you got me confused with someone else. I'm actually not really that cool with them.

That's fine. That's fair play. That's my beef. I think you're... I think you think that I'm some sort of, face of MMA. I'm just a dude asking questions here, all right? That's it. Either way. And I'm asking a lifer.

I'm asking a boxing savant what he thinks of this. Because I've heard some people be like, you know what? I'm tired of the alphabet suit belts. I'm tired of this. I'm tired of that. You know what? Bring these guys in. I've heard people say it. Look, Terrence Crawford seemed pretty happy. Who have you heard the $2 shoemaker promoter tell you?

Who gets no opportunity? No, no. Fighters. Terrence Crawford seemed very happy being up there with Dana White, right? He seemed very happy. He's being used as a pawn. up there. Guys like Canelo, because now you're using these big money guys. You're going to pay them the same money. Of course, you're going to pay them, but you're bringing in a new regime where you won't pay them the same way anymore. See, this is the way they're doing it if you really look at it. And if you really, if I'm interpreting it correctly, they're paying the fighters on the old regime high to make it interesting, right? But then as those guys are going to eventually age out, you're signing new guys out of the amateurs. And those new guys you sign out of the amateurs are going to be constricted to those new contracts where the ceiling is not, is not high. And they're not grandfathered into the old. old regime of pay scale. So while the guys who have grandfathered eventually age out, the new

guys get put on this new pay scale and little by little, what you create is an entirely new pay scale, which will be similar to the year. How do you feel about Turkey getting involved in the big money that's going to these big stars, these fights being made? I think Turkey has done a lot of good things as far as making good matchups.

I think he's done very good match. I think we've seen matchups in boxing thanks to Turkey that we probably would not have seen. So in that regard, I can't anything bad about the guy. I think he's done well. And I think the fights have been entertaining. The fighters have been paid well and so on and so forth. My problem is you're working with Dana. Why are you working with Dana? What's the issue with Dana who does the opposite of what you're doing? You're planning to make big fights for big money and make, you know,

pay the fighters. They're just worth and and also make the big fights. Dana's trying to create a whole new league starting from scratch, low, little by little. Which I don't think is going to work unless you completely eliminate the competition. That's another thing, Ariel, that could be another conversation we could probably talk an hour about. In the MMA, it was such a new sport, he had for Tita money to buy out all the competition. And so therefore, they wouldn't know all the competition. In boxing, unless you plan to buy out the matchrooms of the world and the top ranks of the world, well, top rank actually doesn't have a TV deal. Sure, Queensberry, they're going to be, they're going to be remaining on the old pay scale. So fighters are going to be,

you know, top level fighters are going to be baking more money than the top level fighters under the, under the Zufa banner, right? Because if the Zupa banner has the ceiling, you're going to also be ruining their records because they're going to be fighting each other, just like in the UFC, because that's one thing I do say about the UFC. You have journeyman records on fighters that are not journeyman. Why? Because they all fight each other inside that league, right? So by boxing standards, that record is journeyman. But in reality, those are world class fighters. Sure. So what you're doing, you don't have, you actually, that's the standard in that sport, so it's okay. In boxing, what you're doing is, unless you

eliminate all the competition, you're going to have fighters with the other promoters getting to top level with 30 and all records. And now you're going to have top level fighters with Zufa having 17 and 5 records. And now when you want to make those interceding fights for make a, make a super fight, okay, we'll take it a Turkey and I will make a big fight. You're not going to get the interest of a 30 and 0 guy fighting a 17 and 5 guy. You're not going to get that same interest anymore. In fairness to Turkey, though, he's still working with Matrum.

He's not just with Dana though. In fairness to him, he's still, you know, he's doing Eubank Ben. Yes, he is. But what I'm saying is, that's what I'm saying, that in Matrum, you're going to still have these guys getting to 25, 30 and 0, prospect, being built to contenders, being built to champions like the old boxing model. And in the Zufa model, it's everybody fights everybody. It's a free for all.

Granted, it's fun to watch. I get it. Solid matchups from the top down. But you know what? Even the really good fighters are taking losses. So now when you get to the top level, top pay scale, like I said, you got a guy with a 20 and 5 record and you want to match him with the matchroom champion who's a 30 and old fighter. That's going to be hard to sell to boxing fans.

That's going to be, even if in reality, I would agree that that that's an even fight, right? because it will be world class to world class and I could see that even the 25 guy might be world class but to the regular boxing fan that's a hard sell now you're not going to sell the same way these things are built a certain way so so again these are a lot of questions that have to be brought to the table you know I don't know

it's good stuff it's good that we're talking now what's the issue with Connor what's the issue with I know I know the old issue but like that was nine years ago so what's the issue now you don't see this this guy still post stories about me but what are you guys out of your mind? Still? Still? A lot part to like

Less than six months ago He was still posting stories About what? What's the Random shit He was The last posty story he posted Was me commentating on a on a

On a BKB show with Oh yeah Yeah yeah I think it was in the last six to seven months Okay it wasn't And then What else I mean he just randomly post stories

About me still Like the guy The ass whipping he called That's what I'm telling you guys Well you guys never pushed back On the ass whipping he got bro The ass whipping from an out of shape Pauli Malinagin, unless.

That's why, and you can see that the personal thing, because, yes, like you said, Ariel, it's been nine years ago. Like, it could be over, right? It could be over. It could be over. But then if I respond, he's got a legion of groupies who are like, oh, you can't let it go. What do you mean if I can't let it go?

This guy's still obsessing all of me. You know what I mean? So is that the dream? Is that the fight? I mean, I feel like it could happen. No, no, no. No, here's the thing. With Conner, there's a stipulation there.

And I've said it before. It has to be winner takes all. And I know winner takes all is not allowed on any commission, so it would be a winner takes all and a loser gets like a $50,000 grant or something like that. I mean, just so it wouldn't be illegal. Why? Why does that have to be it? Because he convinced everybody of something that is completely fabricated in both. And the difference between us is like night and day. So it wouldn't just be a supreme ass whipping he would catch weight difference in all, honestly. At this point, it wouldn't even matter the wait. I would still beat the shit out of the guy. but it would have to be not only that ass whipping

but also the fact that he would have to take that short money winner takes so essential and that would never happen because he's never going to agree to that because he knows what really happened between us that day in the gym okay so that's not that's not going to happen anyway

but if we talk about the dream and all this of this stuff gladly I would love to beat the shit out of the guy because for me it's like you know it's on a personal level have you ever presented that to him like have you ever tried at least to present that I know you've kind of said it.

I've said it into the news. No, I've said it into it. But like, has there been any talks between representatives, managers, things like that? No, not to that degree, no. Not to that degree. But I said, you know,

they know that that's what I would have offered. It was what winter takes all. What about an art of rematch? The art and rematch? I don't know. I mean, is there interest, I mean,

I guess there's a, he came back and then he got hurt, but there was a lot of excitement when he came back. The thing about that fight is, okay, I broke my hand in a fight, right? I broke my hand in a fight.

And, yeah, That's just close than they should have been because I broke my hand in the fight. But this, again, it goes back to the MMA fans. Like, the only boxing event site that covered it had me winning. And people are going to say, oh, it's not boxing, it's bare-knuckle. Buddy, in any combat sport, whoever lanes more punches wins the fight. I don't care what combat sport we're talking about.

Whatever lanes more shots wins the fight. Okay. So in that fight, you say, oh, it's not boxing. But then why was he boxing me? If it was not boxing, why was he boxing? Because he had no choice, dude. I was boxing and I was controlling the pace and I was controlling the fight even with one hand.

That's how in control of the fight I was even with one hand. The fact that I didn't get a decision and the fact that the MMA media and nobody latched onto the fact that I got robbed showed me just how stupid it is the entire base is over there, bro. Because in boxing it would have been a whole-knuckle. Why not the bare-knuckle media? Why is it the M-M-A media? Because it wasn't an M-M-A-M-A fight. Ariel.

Yes, the M-A-Mobile media is a bare-rocal media, dude. This thing. They go, they go, they cross broad each other. I wish boxing will cover more. They don't. I really do. I wish. I should give you credit for covering all of it. But, but they don't, boxing does it. So only one website covered it and they had me winning. But like I said, when people gave me the, oh, it's not boxing. It's bare knuckle. Buddy, any combat sport, more strikes wins. I don't know what we're talking about here. I don't know if it's not really that complicated. More strikes wins, you know. But more so than that, like I said, the ring generalship of the fight was, it was a boxing match.

That was on me, bro. That was on Ardom. I wasn't trying to keep it a boxing match. That was on me. I kept in a boxing match. You know, so the fight was easy to score, just because you had three, three morons judging it doesn't mean that the rest of the fame based on how to get in there and also become moronic and not understand who really won the fight. So is there an interest in the rematch? I guess there could be.

I mean, I don't know. I listen. I give Arum credit. He hung tough. He took the fight. He doesn't know I'm going to break my hand. If I don't break my hand, I'd probably stop him. But, you know what?

Give him credit. He took it. He hung tough and he got the decision in the end. But I don't know. Ariel, you tell me, would there be interesting in that fight? I don't know. I think there's interesting. I think people like Ardom.

I think people like the history between you guys. I like the guy, too, to tell you the truth. Yeah, people used to go. I think we started pretty well. And afterwards, he wasn't going around saying anything like that before. You know, I said, bro, we're cool. Just stop lying, bro. You know what I mean?

Like, don't lie on behalf of Connor. You know, Connor's a fucking liar. Don't lie on behalf of the guy. And honestly, it's stopped. So, you know, there's not even a personal beef there. So I don't know. I mean, if there's interest, if Arden wants to do it, I guess it could be discussed. But right now I can only take into account Tyler Good John on Saturday night

because that's really what's in front of me, guys. BKB 45, no, actually it's 47. Leads Brawl 2 Tyler Good John versus Polly Malinaghi. Great to have you on, Polly. I actually have Dana standing by for my first interview with him in 10 years. So I'm going to ask him all the softball questions, kisses, but it's going to be great. I hope we're good, man. I got respect for you.

Yeah, all right, we're good, man. We're good. Even if, listen, I'm the kind of person. You've never to agree. I'm good. I can disagree with friends I can disagree with enemies I'm not the kind of person

wherever I disagree with you now I don't talk to you I'm not that guy I appreciate it no it's all good I like the energy I like the fire makes me want to see the fight even more

and I wish you the best and hopefully we can continue some of these conversations because I did really enjoy it yeah awesome all the best to you take care there he is Pauli Malinaji

a very Italian show today we went from Mikey Musumetchi to Pauli Malinaji he came out swinging there what do you think what do you think was that an old school was that an old school

was that an old school 108, 107, Hawani? I mean, the facts were a little comsi-com-sah. I think he was confusing me with someone else, honestly, because I haven't, the last interview that I did with Dana White was February of 2016 in London before Michael Bisping versus Anderson Silva, for goodness sakes. All right? My daughter wasn't even born yet,

and she's about to turn nine. So what are we talking about? Anyway, let's move on. Looking forward to having Ima Chato Garry on at 3.30, but very much looking forward and very much appreciate the fact that Corey Saneag is here. Of course, we saw him not that long ago. A little over a week ago at UFC 320 in Las Vegas fought valiantly. A big comeback for him, I thought, after the second round against Marab was refusing to quit,

won a round later in the fight as well. I believe off top my head it was the fourth. In the end, I don't think that he's a moral victory kind of guy, and I know that he's upset, and so I appreciate him coming on to talk about the fight, And of course, where he goes from here, the Sandman is kind enough to join us on this Tuesday afternoon. This is going to be a lot more pleasant than my previous interview because that guy was coming out swinging. You know, Polly Malanaji, Corey? Yeah, I'm a little familiar with who that is.

Yeah, I watched the end of it just now while I was waiting, and that guy has a lot of energy. Yes, a lot. And it was very intense at the beginning, but he calmed down towards the end. Anyway, great to see you, man. really do appreciate it. And I'll ask you the simple question that we ask sometimes in hopes of maybe just getting a good response, but this is a real question. How are you doing? How are you dealing with what transpired over a week ago? I'm doing all right. It obviously sucks to lose, but I'm not too down in the dumps right now, but it kind of just like hits you in waves a little

bit but uh but no i'm doing okay i uh obviously wish that i would have won um i wish that i would have had the fight go my way and there's some things to work on and all of that stuff but um i'm a little bit more mature now than i have been in the past just with dealing with losses and then um i've been here before so it's not super surprising with um you know the feelings and all of that stuff but i mean it definitely sucks i wish that i was champ right now but i'm not so you posted a video maybe three or four days after the fight you were walking outside and you said last night I watched a fight I can't sleep are are you sleeping a little bit a week later are you able to like let it go at night yeah I can sleep I was being maybe a little dramatic like I said

man I've been I've been kind of here before you know um so like not like I'm kind of just used to the feelings of you know being like damn I wish that that would have happened I wish that that would have gone differently. I wish that I would have trained better and gotten ready for this or made this decision instead of that. But, yeah, but I'm also familiar with that, those don't ever go anywhere, you know. So, yeah, I'm just kind of working on some other projects

that I've had gone for quite a bit of time now. I'm working on getting a couple of my comic books illustrated, so that's really fun. And then I'm working on my super secret business. Oh. Yeah, I can't. I'm not going to tell anyone. about it but we're about six months away from it and it's going to be sick wow wow excited to launch it

so yeah so i've kind of just been distracted myself with positive stuff like that what field are we talking about when you talk about this business no nothing i don't think i'm going to give you wow it's it's yeah i think i'm going to stay away from anything but i'm telling you it's really cool and it's it's something that i invented and came up with so wow excited about that yeah so one of my like many dumb ideas finally i feel like hit and it's a good idea and i'm excited about that so six months or so so we're talking like april spring next year that type period yeah i think so that that that's like a little bit optimistic because i'm trying not to mess it up you know like i've never i've never run a business before so i got to make sure that all of my ducks are in a row

and stuff but uh but yeah i'm really excited about that so i'll i'll tell you guys about that as gets closer but yeah i just been kind of distracted myself with the other little projects that i got going on in life and trying not to be sad what were the vibes like going into the fight how are you feeling mentally physically when you look back on fight week massive opportunity for you how are you doing yeah i was doing great i was ready to go i had like a really big belief in myself that i was going to be able to win and i think that um that kind of really i think you know obviously i didn't so i was wrong in my belief, but I think that that belief really helped me get through that really horrible second round that I was in. And yeah, I was happy with a lot of the things that I did in the

fight and some of the ways that I reacted to certain things and some of the things that worked really well and some improvements and stuff. Going into the fight, I felt great. And yeah, Marab just was a better man that day. Marab has a really good blueprint to winning fights. he's really good at doing his blueprint and it works and it wins and good for him. I was expecting a little bit different stuff from him a little bit, but yeah, I was good going into the fight. Congrats to Marab for beating me at what I think is my best. I thought you won the first round.

What are you thinking going into the second at that point? What are you telling yourself what's your team saying to you? What are you feeling? What's your confidence like going into that second? Yeah, I didn't think about it too much. It's so hard, man, because I know that, like, no one can hold me down. Like, I know that I'm going to get, like, Matt returned a few times in a fight, especially against good wrestlers, but that doesn't really bother me.

I kind of don't really know what it looks like a ton aesthetically, but obviously if it's too many in a row, then it's a big deal. But I know in that first round I got maybe Matt returned a couple times, but popped right back up. I'm really good at not getting hit on the ground, and I'm really good at getting up. But I still don't really know how those are scoring. So I wasn't like, oh, I won that round. I didn't win that round.

It was like, all right, well, I did all of the right things in that round. So hopefully I won it type of thing. In the second, though, I think I just got maybe a little hair cocky just because Marab, when he would blitz, he was kind of getting a little bit wide with his shots, which we scouted and he does do good. Or he does get really wide and kind of open for shots. and I just sat down on a hook that I thought would hit him in between his punches against the cage. And I had one of those shots that kind of like bounce off the top of your head and then it like spins you for a second.

But because I was against the cage, not a good situation. And then he hit me with a really good right hand and that sucked. And then I just remember my coaches just yelling from the corner, get up, get up, move, move, move. So the second round definitely didn't go as planned, but it was like a baby mistake that I made. and one that I shouldn't have made and that's the way that this shit goes, man. So how close do you think you were out? I wasn't out.

Like, I remember I was like, oh, shit, I'm like, I'm a little wobbled, you know? And then when he hit me with the second one, I opened my eyes and I was on the ground and I could just hear my coaches yelling get up, get up, and move. By the time that I was up, I was all good. So that was good.

But I was definitely in my head, like, all right well that's not good you got some ground to cover now but you're still gonna you still got three more rounds and you can still do awesome in those three rounds so just ignore that and but yeah i wasn't rocked the whole fight or nothing i was just rocked for that little short bit and then when i feel like i got to my feet i was okay okay yeah because i was just going to ask did you feel like you were still kind of clearing out the cobwebs in the third i thought you won the fourth but i'm wondering if you still needed more time because it was such an onslaught in the third as well I think I was pretty flustered, I would say.

You know, like I was mentally way thrown off, which is tough not to because like that shit's kind of scary. Like when you get dropped in a fight, it's like kind of scary. You're like, oh, no, like I'm going to get hurt really bad right now. And that can kind of fluster you for a little bit. So I think more than anything, it was less me being super dazed and messed up as much as it was probably Marab felt like he could have gotten a finish or, or, or, or, or, you know, it gave him some spark of life to do a little bit more in that third round and maybe go for

a finish. So it was probably him fighting better in the third than it was me fighting bad, to be honest. And that's because, you know, he had a lot of confidence from that second. Top my head, I don't recall you ever getting rocked, at least on the UFC. I mean, maybe in the early days, have you ever been rock like that before? I've been hit pretty good. I think Jan's the only other guy that dropped me um yeah but yeah like i said man it was it was tough because like if if one of my fighters would have made that mistake i would have been like dude don't don't try to catch him in between his punches against the cage like that's a bad idea and then also it's really tough too because with those little mma gloves you have to be so precise with like um covering

yourself as you're throwing punches and it was totally just a left hook i i threw a left hook at the same time that he threw a right hand and it just bounced off the top of my head and and sent me spinning for a second and that's just there's just like such little room for error and those little gloves but uh but also man good good on marab uh he he he was a he was a strong little hard hitting guy that i didn't expect him to hit as hard as he did 47 takedown attempts uh which is an absurd number obviously he landed the 20 which has been talked about a lot did anything surprise you about his technique no i mean the the 20 takedowns is kind of funny to me because i think that if you watch that fight you're not going to be like wow marab's

wrestling was super impressive because what's a takedown without any control right um it's kind of just i mean like matt returns don't hurt you know what i mean like it's not like he was picking me up and slamming me or like if you just bump me down to my knees and i just have to get back up that to me is not like a quote unquote mma takedown that's like maybe it scores points in wrestling but uh i mean you're not doing any damage and you're not doing anything with those and I know who's working harder in those positions, and it's Marab. Like, it's way harder to hold someone down and continue to Matt return someone than it is to continue to get up.

I was really surprised, though, at Marab, like, being so adamant about keeping his hands locked. There's types of grips, too. Like, there's this type of grip, and then there's this type of grip. The S grip is, like, not great for, like, making things tight so that you could pick someone to up and slam them. It's really, really good for just keeping a lock on someone, and that's the type of lock that he was using. So I was actually really surprised that he was really adamant about staying on those body locks for so long. I thought, like a lot of his other fights, he'll

kind of fight for that a little bit, but then let go and start punching, and I was kind of expecting him to do that, but he made me fight his grip the whole time, and he milked a lot a clock doing that and it's like kind of a little bit of a it's a gamey way to win but i mean it's kind of like basketball you can't get mad at a team for running a two three zone instead of going man to man or you can't get mad at like a football team for running the ball when they're up and stuff like that so um yeah so i mean good on him and he he knows how to win really good and and he did what he needed to do so how many times have you watched it a few times not in a couple days i was kind of out new york spending some time with my family i had one of my fighters fight last

week on lFA so i was at his show um you're in new york you could have stopped by here you could come visit us oh uh it was a quick trip next time i'll get you up but um yeah i mean i watched it a few times it's definitely a winnable fight this thing i think fighting a lot of it is just xes and o's and ones and zeros and you just got to like do the right things at the right times and marab was better than me that night and I just got to fix some stuff and then I definitely know that I can still do it so the reason I asked that part of the reason why I asked that was I totally understand what you're saying regarding the takedowns how many legit like how many would you actually give him upon further review how many do you think he actually in MMA terms landed that you would say all right that's one um here's the thing

not not to be arrogant but like my wrestling take down defense might not be the best but there's no one that can hold me down, I promise. So like, and maybe that even makes me a little bit like treat the takedowns a little bit too much nonchalantly is because I know that I get up better than anyone in the division can hold me down. So it's kind of like, even when he did get a takedown and I went to my back maybe once or twice in the fifth round, it was because I was like, all right, like let me try to throw up a submission. I'm losing kind of big here. So like let me try to go for a submission a little bit, but I feel like at any point on any of those takedowns, I could have gotten up immediately. Most of them I did do. So, I mean, do you score him takedowns?

If you don't do anything with the takedown, is it a takedown in MMA? Then he probably got zero, I guess. So, yeah. At any point later in the fight, did you feel like momentum was shifting back your way? Did you feel like you had something? I felt like it's really hard because when you're in those positions where, they're kind of just grabbing and not doing a ton. It's hard just because it's like, how do we score this? If it's damaged, then I guess he's not really winning, but it definitely is control. So if it's a close round at all, then the other person's going to win.

It was tough. Marab did a really good job of any time I felt like I started getting some momentum on the feet, he would shoot in and make me have to deal with that. And then it kind of like flips your brain into another type of thinking that is outside of striking and inside grappling. So he did a really, really good job with that because it got really hard to build momentum and to feel like I was having success

when even when I would have success on the feet, it was just then I got to defend a shot for another 30 seconds or so. So he did a good job with that. I don't really know. It was hard to gain momentum on him, to be honest. We found out yesterday he's coming back December 6th. Are you surprised he's coming back so soon?

Yeah, he's an animal for that. All the respect in the world for that because he doesn't have to do that, but he wants to do that. And yeah, that dude is a unique individual and good for him for fighting again that soon because I would never do that, you know, so good on him. Do you think he wins that fight against Peter Yan? I think it's going to be a really tough fight, honestly. I think that he's going to have to do it the same way that he beat me. where he's going to have to, like, milk some of that time in those wrestling positions and make Jan fight them.

The first time they fought, like, Jan just couldn't get any momentum going. And I do kind of feel like after you have fought a guy like that, it's probably a little bit easier the second time because you can kind of feel that, notice that, and then counter it better. and Jan has that advantage for sure and yeah I think it's going to be a super tough fight but I think Marab will win but I think it's going to be a way way tough fight

You know Jan you know Jan very well He told me last week I was 50% In our first fight him and Marab And Marab kind of laughs that off You saw that first fight I would imagine your division You like MMA do you think It was because he wasn't 100% Or do you think that Marab is just

a bad matchup for him because it was a very dominant one-sided fight yeah it could i i think that honestly i think that yon didn't take him as serious that first time like i i don't know what was going on with the injuries but when i i remember looking back and watching that fight it seemed like marab at the time wasn't who marab is now marab was just kind of like an unexciting wrestler who just beat jos aaldo i think is probably around that time and it was kind of just like a a little bit lackluster but um now i think yon will definitely take him a lot more serious and i think that the whole the whole division takes him a lot more serious obviously now because he's crushing and beating all of us but um but yeah i think yon is uh i think that he'll definitely take a lot more serious

and it'll be a more competitive fight than the first one would be my guess have you allowed yourself to think of what's next yet are you are you are you in that mode yet yeah for sure i mean i i think that uh i think that me and o'malley has to happen there it is that's the one if there's ever time to do it man it's now i i don't know if he's booked on anything or um that white house card would be sick to fight on against o'malley i think that there's uh there's one fight in the division that people are like really really calling for like over and over and over again and it's me and omali so i mean if you if you threw us on that white house card i think that that would be such a gigantic fight.

It's kind of a ways away, you know, so I'm not stoked on that, but for such a huge card against such a good fighter and a really big opportunity for kind of the both of us to give the fans what they really want to see, it'd be worth waiting

for. So that's what I want. I love the idea. That's the one that we've all wanted to see for so long. My fear is he last fought four months ago and so I worry that the timeline doesn't work out. Is he going to take a full year off? if it is in fact the White House, if they call you up and say, hey, March, let's say, are you down with that or are you really, are you dead set on trying to get this on that

card, that White House card? No, for sure. March is good. You know, I definitely don't want to wait that long either. So it would be, yeah, it'd be great to do it earlier too. I just know that that fight, that card is going to be gigantic and a lot of people are going to watch it and it's going to be really historic so that's kind of cool but i mean if it just means main event and somewhere else and fight no mallee then yeah i got no problem doing that either i mean that that that that to me is the biggest fight that you can make in the division outside of a

championship fight and i think it doesn't make too much more sense than it ever has now so that's your top choice right is there is there a top two is there another name i haven't really thought of a top two. Yon's booked. I really want to get that one back eventually. I think it's too soon to do a rematch with Umar just because it wouldn't be super exciting quite yet to do.

But I mean, O'Malley and Yon are definitely the top two that I would love to fight right now. Can I ask, just because it's your division, I'm really curious to hear your thoughts. Yesterday we found out Peyton Talbot against Henry Suhudo, and I was a little surprised by the matchup, just because

I know they have high hopes for Peyton and such a big jump for him. what do you think of that yeah that's a giant leap up in competition um yeah henry's i mean henry's lost a few now but i mean he's losing against some of the best guys and i mean when you think about it um i forget the guy's name uh baroni or whoever it is that wrestled uh talbot the entire time um yeah that's going to be i mean henry's a much better grappler than that other guy so i mean it's hard to for me to imagine talbot doing super good in that one but uh yeah i don't know that that's a super tough fight for him i would you know even though i think henry's a little bit

checked out in the sport i think that uh he's still a really good fighter and and that that's a that's a that's a tough one for for talbot how any barcelos was in it and then he came back and beat philippe lema and he looked good but again there's a huge gap and i'm not saying he can't pull it off like he can he can knock him out he's a great fighter. I just wonder if the risk is worth the reward. Yeah. I mean, I guess if you beat Henry Sehudo, now you're in the mix, right? Oh, hell yeah. Yeah. If you beat Henry Sehudo, Henry's good. You know, he's an annoying little guy, but he is damn good. And yeah, I mean, if you beat Henry, then yeah, you're in the conversation with a lot of the other of us about

just being one of the top guys. Since I have you and, again, appreciate your insights. Zahabi Marlin this weekend. What do you think? Oh, yeah, that'll be a good one. Yeah, I'm not really sure. Cheeto needs to get a win. So I'm hoping that he's taking it really serious. That Eamon guy, he figures out ways to win, and he's got a ton of heart and a ton of spirit in him. So, yeah, that's an interesting matchup. I'll probably, I guess, just root for Aman just because we need some new faces. And what about Umar against Mario Batista? Because I think a lot of people think if Batista wins, he could be next if marab beats yon yeah he could be that's pretty crazy to think about um but

batista batista i think has his hands full big time against umar and that's going to be a really tough fight is it is it a three rounder or five yeah it's a three rounder on the um the next pay per view card the three 21 card october 25th okay yeah i mean i think that that's even like a tougher or fight for Batista if it's only three rounds. So, yeah, I think I got Umar in that one. Okay. So for you, you still believe, I heard your video. I feel it now.

You still believe you haven't lost confidence. This is just a bit of a speed bump. You still think your destiny is UFC Bantamway champion. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I definitely have a broken heart, you know, like, so that kind of sucks. But those always go away. But no, man, this sport to me is X's and O's and it's ones and zeros. and you just have to not make as big of mistakes.

Like, you just have to not make mistakes in these, and you have to have everything really dialed in, and I don't have it all the way dialed in yet, but I know that I train really hard, and I get better really quickly at a lot of things. And, yeah, I think that I'm only 33. I still got, like, two solid years of, maybe, hopefully three solid years of, like,

really high peak level performing. And I know myself, and I know that how good I, I can get in three years. And yeah, I think that I'll definitely still do it. Hard to kind of say and hard to kind of believe in yourself still after some shit like that happens. But believing in yourself is sometimes the hardest part. And I got to, you know, make sure that even in these challenging times, and I can still do that. Yeah. Yeah, thanks, Ariel. And, yeah, I mean, it's not like I got blown out the water. It was just like, nah, man, fix a couple things there, do some things differently there, get better here. Don't let them do that shit.

I'll let him almost knock you out in the second round, and then that's a different fight. So, yeah. Do you lie yourself to go back to the gym yet, or are you taking some time off? I got to take a little bit of time off. I hurt my good foot a little bit, so it's nothing crazy. It'll be better in a little bit. But no, I'm going to have a broken heart probably for the rest of the week and then get back to training next week. Okay, well, get well soon.

Don't be too hard on yourself. Great fight. You represented very well. and yeah, I feel like there's an easy path to get right back in that spot in no time. So I look forward to seeing you climb that ladder, so to speak, and I hope you get that O'Malley fight because it feels like there's no better time than now to make it happen. Really appreciate you coming on, Corey. Thank you so much.

Congrats on a great performance, and thank you, as always, for the insight and the time. Hell yeah, thanks, Ariel. I appreciate you having me on. I'll catch you next time. Yes, sir. There he is. The great Corey Sanhagen, still one of the very best fighters in the UFC, one of the very best fighters at 135 and appreciate the candor, you know, we just move on to the

next one, right? We just move on. There's another thing to talk about, another fight to talk about, another fight week to talk about, another event to talk about, and the dust kind of settles, and when he says broken heart, like you feel that, you feel that pain, and I feel for him, and that's what fighters go through, and we don't necessarily take the time to think of that and to allow them to have moments like this because I tend to not ask fighters to come on the show the week after a loss but sometimes I'll check it

if I feel like, you know, talk to the management this, the second week it's maybe therapeutic. I don't know, but he said yes right away. I appreciate him coming on, appreciate the insight and like I said, the candor and hopefully he gets over it and gets right back on the horse. All right, top of the show,

we were talking about how big November is, and in particular November 15th to November 22nd in the welterweight division. We were sort of wondering, okay, when's the activity going to start at 170? Well, now we know. November 15th, you've got three massive welterweight fights. You've got the welterweight title fight between Jack Delamadelaide and Isamachat. You've got Carlos Prachas against Leon Edwards. And then just yesterday, we find out Michael Morales against Sean Brady, three massive fights. Fast forward a week. Qatar, that fight night, headline by Armat Surukian

against Dan Hooker, another massive fight at 170 in the co-main event, Balal Muhammad, the former champ against potential future champ, Ian Machado Gary. He's kind enough to join us right here and now to talk about that fight and all the comings and going, yeah, there he is.

There he is. That's what I like to hear. Yeah. I'm doing well yourself. Dude, I'm happy as can be. Okay. I have a lot of questions. I'm fascinated by this fight and this booking, Ian.

So let's get into it because I'm happy we're talking today because now we have the complete picture. I have to admit, I felt like we were moving towards Ian Machado Gary against Sean Brady. I felt like that made all the sense in the world. Number one contender fight, that's the one. JDM and Islam do their thing. Winner gets you guys, winner of your fight.

Why are you fighting a week apart but not fighting each other? We both said yes. It's not my decision as to what the U.S. you want to do, but we were offered the fight. We both said yes. Never came to fruition. I woke up all morning, seeing that RDR and Fluffy Hernandez was announced as the main event in Vancouver. I was like, all right, fuck. I guess it's not happening.

That was the original plan this weekend, you guys fighting? Yep. Wow. I was asking. I said yes to it. Do you think he said yes? I know he said. We both the same agent.

Yeah. Yeah, Lloyd. We both said yes. Right. We both said yes. You see just changed their mind. Do you have any idea why? I don't care why.

If that makes sense. At the end of the day, the truth is I'm getting what I originally want and sought after when I went to, after my fight with practice, I wanted whoever came out of the fight from the world title fight, not victorious, because that, those were the two best guys at the time, right? If you're fighting for a championship, and that's what matters. And Balal had the belt.

He has knocked out number two and smashed number three. So I wanted Balal from the get-go. I said yes to Sean Brady, because as you know, if someone offers me a fight, I say yes. But Palau was who I wanted to do.

I saw your video on your Instagram right after the news came out, and you said you wanted it to be a number one contender fight and once they couldn't guarantee that, you changed direction. Is that accurate? No, I just, I wanted, I wanted to be publicly announced

that it was a number one contender fight. If you were, look, me and Sean Brady, you said it yourself at the start of show that that was the fight to make and the winner that goes to the world title. I don't disagree with you at all. I think that makes a lot of sense. However, there was a guy,

I said to the UFC, that was like when you've got someone personally I wanted no excuse I wanted no one to be able to jump the ladder because of any any excuse so from my point of view I sought after a fight with Balal first because as I said Balal has knocked out

number two in Sean Brady and he has smashed number three in Leon Edwards so when you smoke it's obvious what comes next now if I go out there and do that to Sean Brady someone can have that argument, oh, but you haven't beat this guy and someone out. And I didn't want any of that. So for me, it actually works out better, Ariel. I'm not going to lie. Okay. Have you been told,

though, you beat Bilal, you're next? When you knock out number one in the world, there is nothing else. When you knock out a former champion and who's number one in the world right now, and you smash him in less rounds than JDM could, then that's all that matters to me. I know I'm I saw another video on your page where I believe it was your cameraman someone asked you about the possibility of this fight going the distance and you were personally offended by this it was like someone insulting your mom for goodness sake that you had that similar reaction but let's let's be honest here I mean like it's it's hard to put the guy away right and and you've had some hard fights that have gone the distance recently as well and so why is this

such a crazy thought why are you so bothered by this notion that's none of them should have gone the distance area. I just, I get, like, I, can you see I've gone red? Like, I boil with anger. Why? Why are you so bothered by this? Because I want to, I want to finish people.

Yeah. I should have, I should have left Michael Venom page swimming with the fishes in the first round. He should have been unconscious, like a dead fish at a supermarket, unconscious like that, that's what he should have been out. I would have shocked the world.

I should have been, should have shoves, sub-Shavkat Rakmanov in the fifth round, and then the whole world would have lost its mind. and then I should have sparked how I was patches and three weeks notice when no one would expect that

so but we live and we learn and we get better and that's what we're doing is this a three round or a five round fight three rounds how do you feel about that

I mean again three round and a five round they both have three rounds I look I look as it my opinion is I would

I would like to think it's not going to get past the second wow so So either way, I don't see a third round as necessary in one wind. Okay. And is this one that you've obviously been thinking about him for a while?

He was champion. He was right. You've been sort of probably dreaming and thinking, how would I beat Belal? So it's not like he's a guy who's just been, like a Michael Morales just kind of arrived. So you're not thinking about this guy for several years. You've been thinking about fighting Belal for a while, I would imagine. I wait in to fight him in your hometown. Yeah, yeah.

I wait in a month. and the last time I seen Bilal Mohammed, he was stumbling, hobbling, bruised up, beat up, straight after the fight, getting onto the bus. So the last image I have mentally of Balaw was a very, very weak beat-up version of that man against someone who didn't capitalize on the opportunities that I saw at the same night. I don't know if there's any symbolism attached to this, but do you know the last time Balal was stopped due to strikes? Jeff Neal?

Do you know when that fight happened? It wasn't Jeff Neal. It was Vicente Leuke. No, but I'm guessing you're going to tell me it's probably November 22nd. Well, no. It was close to November 22nd. It was UFC 205, Madison Square Garden. Okay.

Where was Ian Gary when that was happening? Yeah. Where was I? That was Connor versus Eddie Alvarez. Yeah, I'm trying to think. Eddie Alvarez, where was that? at where was it in them? I'm pretty sure I was

voiceless from screaming all week just getting excited and I'm pretty sure I was in my best mate's house because me and him were sick at that point going out,

we just wanted to sit down and watch up and really focus on it and we got pizza and we lost the fight but yeah, 205 God that feels like a lifetime away. Yeah, that's nine years ago

so what you were around 16 years old, right? 16 years of age with a dream. 16 years of age with a dream. And so I bring that up because it's hard to put this guy away. You know, he's fought a lot of tough guys.

Hey, look, this is funny on me. This isn't to do with anybody else. At the end of the day, I didn't finish Shavkat and MVP due to my own mistakes. That's on me. I have to take full responsibility of that, not blame anybody else. If I didn't, I wouldn't be the fighter I am today. and I wouldn't evolve as fast as I can. I beat Carlos Fratchez

on the feet where he's best for the entire fight and I should have found a hole to put him away but that didn't happen. That's okay. This fight, I swear to God, Ariel, I'm going to come on to your show the day after when I get my hand raised and I absolutely better come on.

I better come on with having a knockout because that's the one thing that I want. I want to finish it. I want to make a vibrant. I want to put that exclamation mark on it, like, I am the best welterweight on the planet right now, and everybody just got to witness that. And as you said, we're going to have, how many,

we're going to have eight massive welterweights go out there and perform within seven days of each other. I want everybody to see, come November 22nd, that I'm the best welterweight walking the planet. You win this fight, let's just say, you win, and it's a dominant 30 to 26. got a 10-8 in there, but it went the distance. You're upset on the Monday when we're speaking, you feel like it's a loss? I won't feel like it's a loss. Wait, look, getting your hand raised

by any means necessary is the job. That's my job. But my goal, my heart, what would satisfy my heart is to go out there and punch a hole in his head and leave them unconscious. Is there animosity there? Is it at all personal between you two? No. No, I think Palazza will be human. I've never had a single bad interaction with him. Um, And I feel like he doesn't get as much love as you should because he's a good human, from what I've seen. There's no animosity towards Balas is just the job. This is something that I have to go out there and do, and it didn't matter who it was in front of me. I'm going to go out there and I'm going to do this.

And so can I ask, how do you think this all plays out? Like, meaning, okay, the week before, it's Islam JDM. Who's winning that fight? Oh, it's such a. It's such an intriguing fight. There's not a lot of fights at the highest of level where there's so many question marks. When I think about it in my head and I play the scenarios, we've seen JDM been taking down and beating up on the ground, right?

Belal was able to have success in the last two rounds going for shooting for the takedown and get it when he decided to do it. Obviously, we've seen him against Guilt of Burns. We've seen him against Basil. Showed weakness in that area. You're going up against one of the single most impressive, offensive wrestler, grappler in the sport right now, in Islam Akashis.

And the fight for me really is when Islam grabs a hold of Jack, How good has Jack improved? Because Islam is world-class at that and has been for probably his entire life because of the way he trains and where he has come from. So can Jack stop that consistently

like he did against Bilal because he did a phenomenal job against Bilal of stopping that. But can he do that against someone who's just clean or more technical? On the feet, I think Jack wins it cleanly. I think he'll jab switching stances

he'll have a bit more fluidity due to the fact that Islam's not going to be changing stances so regularly. So I think Jack can do it on the feet, but the question mark is, can he stop the takedown consistently over five rounds? Do you think

there's a chance if Islam loses he goes back to 155? Do you think size will be an issue here and he'll say, you know what, I was the big dog over there and maybe these guys are a little too big? I think he'll I don't know Islam. or what his mentality is.

But if you're coming up here and you lose, I don't see why you'd stay. Plus, a lot of fighters, when they lose, they like to cling on to a reason and an excuse. Going back down to 155 might be his excuse, if that makes sense. Would it be fair to say that you are rooting for him because you want to be the guy to beat him?

Isman? Yeah. To be honest, I really don't. at the end of the day whoever has that belt is the belt is what I want I don't care who holds us I know I'm the best in the world

and it's my job to go out there and prove it every time I step into the octagon I feel like the bigger storyline is me and Islam due to the history of our countries competing against each other at the highest level

but but I also think there's a massive, massive fan interest in me and Jack Delamander going on. Two young, hungry strikers, both are phenomenal what they do, who can go out there and do what they do best.

Both are brilliant fights, and you're right about the history. By the way, did you happen to catch the Paul Hughes-Uzman-Margam-Magamatov fight? I did. Who won? I did, and I haven't reached out to Paul. I've seen a lot of people talk about this.

And I've seen yourself, for example, so you scored at 3-2 to Paul the biggest indicator to me was straight after both men I finished the fight

Paul and Usman had a hug and after the hug did you see what Paul did I don't remember he turned around after the cuddle they had a little cuddle

he turned around and went fuck screamed in the fight in the fight you know you know in that moment and he knew he didn't do enough and he believed he lost in that second. Does that make sense?

That was the biggest indicator to me that Ouzman knew he won the fight and Paul knew he lost the fight. I scored it 3-2 to Paul or to Ousman. I think you could absolutely potentially score it 3-2 but you have to think about one, you are fighting the champion. You are also fighting in an area where they respect different skill sets more to a certain extent but also

I've seen this firsthand I watched Bilal Mohammed versus JDM live and I watched it again on the Monday or a Tuesday afterwards it looked like a completely different fight so the judges who are scoring the card

whoever scored the card 49 46 or 50 40 whichever that was absolutely ridiculous it's completely impossible that that was the scoreline but whatever i feel like it wasn't won the fight and i but they're razor close both fights are razor close and there's not much in it so it's an awkward one but it's also frustrating for paul i can imagine and then what about your i think your new best friend carlos preaches who would have thought this would come about, what, six months ago, you're fighting in Kansas City, you're giving him his first L, and now I see you there consoling him as his teammates are losing in Paris. I saw a great video of your son who is unbelievably cute. Here's the video

of you seeing, I believe it was Maricio Huffy losing in this moment. Yeah, and you're there consoling him a tough week for the team. And then I saw a video of your son proclaiming that Carlos is his favorite fighter? Leo, what happened here? Where do we go wrong? Every day. The video you've seen was one that's not been up yet for the fans, but I said, yeah, this one.

Yes. My son's favorite fighter is Carlos Pratchez. And if you ask him who his favorite fighter is, he'll tell you Carlos Pratch. And in this clip, I say, imagine beating a man for 23 and a half minutes. And after leaving the fight, he turns around and says that his other fight is,

his favorite fight is the other guy. I just, it, it, look, I love Carlos Fratchez. I think he's a phenomenal fighter. I think he's awesome to watch. And Leo loves it too. And Leo respects elite level fighters. Come on, dude,

you gotta back your L lad in this. Yeah. You know what I mean? You got to, your dad went down, handing him his L, proved to him that he's better than him where Carlos is best.

And I pieced him up on the feet for 23 and a half minutes. And the only reason he had any success in that fight was my mistake, not his, his work. Do you know what I mean? So,

I get that fight one more time because I believe he's going to be right up there in the morning contender when I get the belt and I will happily fight him again and I'm going to break my son's heart when I do. But that's okay. Does that mean you think he beats Leon? I think he's an absolutely stash limb.

Okay, wow, wow. Like not even close. No. You think Leon's done? I've been saying this for a long time, my friend. Right. Okay. I've been saying it for a long time.

I think he should be retired, and we might see that. And you'll never get to fight him, then. I'm shocked he took to fight in the first place. To be honest. He's been shouting and screaming about wanting to fight a striker for so long, and now he's got his opportunity, and I think he's going to absolutely punch around. Does it bother you that if he does walk away, you never fight him?

Because you wanted that fight for a while now. Leon? Yeah. No, it doesn't bother me. um i have no want no interest ever for him to ever earn any money of me doing all the hard work of being the more interesting fighter and him get any way shape of form some financial benefit i would if he was willing to fight me for all or nothing i'd find me happy because i'd make sure he'd leave their absolutely punch around unconscious and then leave with no benefit.

Wow. But I have no want to see him nor his team ever. It's still that personal between you two. Well, they lied. And I don't like liars. When people make up lies and things that aren't true, I don't like that because I know people's true colors then. And I know the truth. So I'm going to be, look, I'm going to have a Brazil flag on my shoulders come November 15th,

cheering Carlos Paxis on, watching them sparkly on Edwards Unconscious. I know you're at Novo Niao right now. You're back in, in Sao Paulo, right? Preparing for your fight. But just curious, what do you make of all this talk that the fighting nerds are a never-was team? You fought one of their guys. You kind of started the tough stretch for them, right, beating Carlos. the subsequent fight.

What do you make of this time? I find it funny, do you know what I mean? Like, I out nerds. I mean, and I loved it. And I did it on three weeks notice. The best thing about that fight for me is he was the best he's ever been. He'd had the best camp of his life. I was off the couch and absolutely peaceable.

So I take a lot of pride in that. But as I said to you earlier on, I wanted to knock him out. I still do. And we spoke about it in Paris. We both think we're going to fight again, and that's okay, but I know he can't sleep at night without thinking I'm better than him, because I beat him where he's best, and he has no excuses to tell himself. I beat him where he's best. It wasn't like I went out there and shot for his ankles and held him down the whole time. I used intelligent MMA, and I pieced him up on the feet, and yeah, he doesn't like that.

So that's amazing for me. So when you're with him at these events, I think the fight nerds, I think the fighting nerds. Look, no gym is ever like this, right? No gym is always win, win, win, win, win, win, win, that's it, right? Yep. It's never a thing. But what it shows is at the highest level, they haven't been able to pull the triggers. The last four fights they've had, for example, have been the four biggest fights.

Me and Patches, Imov and Bahalio, Kofi versus Benoit-Saint-Denis, and Jean-Silver versus Diego-Lopez. Two of them got finished, and two of them got finished, and two of them got the dominate. So they need to change and adapt. And it all depends on how they come back from that. Because when you look at Carlos Pratchez between the fight where he lost to me and then the Jeff Neal fight, he looked completely different than he looked amazing. So it all depends on how they all come back from this loss because losses can make

or break you. When you're with him, is there like that sort of rivalry there? Do you feel it? you know you're not teammates but you seem kind of cool like what's that vibe like when you're sitting next to him I think it's respect I think I think he can't not sit there and

respect me after what I did to him and I I respect him for everything that he is and has done this sport you know I have I would spark my nanny if I needed to in a fight in the UFC I don't care who it is my job is to go in there whoever the UFC put across the octagon

just go out there and do the absolute most damage I possibly can and leave there with all the prayers on my name I've told you this every single fight card that I'm on I want everybody to be talking about me and then the last one I wanted to ask you about Brady versus Morales that was just announced what do you think happens

it's an interesting one you've got someone like Michael Morales who's beating up old dudes that should all be close to retirement and he thinks he's amazing because of it and then you've got another guy who is slowly in the shadows of proving and I believe far more dangerous than Michael Morales and I think I look I don't again I don't necessarily mind who wins or he comes out on top but I think Sean Brady has the ability and the skill set

to go out there and out wrestle and out grapple Morales, but Morales is shown that he's just got sloppy but strong like strong punches. So can he land that shot that puts him out?

Kind of like the Bilal fight for Sean, where Balal just caught one and that was kind of the beginning of the end? Or can Morales get absolutely ragdolled? Do I mean? Can Sean Brady go out there and ragged all him like he did to Leon Edwards. That's why no. That's where the fight's interests.

Are you leaning in a direction? Am I leaning in the direction of who wins that fight? I mean, I think it's Sean Brady's fight to lose. Okay. I think Sean should be going out there putting insane pressure on this dude, not giving him an inch of respect, an inch of space, getting on his legs, putting him on the deck, elbow on his face in when he turns to give his back

or it turns to scramble, lock him down, pin him down and punch his head in and try find a submission. Because that's where Sean shines his brightest. You're not going to try, I don't think it's a smart idea to try to try to stand for this guy if you're Sean, because he hasn't got the abilities that I might have to be able to manage a maneuver in that space on the outside and take advantage of that striking element. So I think it's Sean's fight to lose. by the way i saw a video of you rock climbing like um is it like free hand what is this well this is what is this is absurd strength right here this is nuts yeah it's something i've been walking on i feel like it's going to absolutely massively benefit my fighting and i'm seeing the benefits

of my body i look bigger and as strong as i've ever been and i often look at myself in the mirror I'm like, when did I get this muscular? When did I get this big? And I'm just, it's, it's just coming areas. You know what I mean? I look at myself and I'm a bit frightened sometimes. My God, I don't want to step across the outcome from this fan. Is it going to be hard to make 170 with this newfound muscle?

No, but the truth is, I'm lighter than I was when I accept practice for it. Like, I'm just, it's muscular and lean and clean and functional. Okay. Yeah, it's all good. And by the way, what's the vibe over there with Charles getting? getting the big win back in Brazil. I saw he put on a whole party, a whole carnival for everyone. Were you at this thing?

Yeah, he said it afterwards. He said he was going to go to him from Vela when he got the bonus. He was going to throw a party because it was that was you had the kianza. So they have the kids in Brazil the day, which is awesome. What an amazing thing to do. Amazing. So many people would never do that. I mean, he's like, you know what?

I don't care. I'm going to throw a party for everyone to come and enjoy and celebrate because it's a day for the kids and it's a day where families want to be together. I want an amazing man and an amazing human. Dude, everyone is just so happy. Charles is, I was present in Vegas when Charles lost against the podium. And we were all heartbroken. We're all heartbroken because he is the leader of Shoot the Box.

He is the champion of their tribe. I mean, he's the alpha of the tribe. and you know that fight doesn't leave a good taste in anybody's mouth it was for even to poury he said like he didn't want to do that to see charles come back after such a short time in between those fights and a lot of people were saying stuff in the backgrounds of all is it too close yada yada yada it was so lovely to see him go out there look clean calm composed and efficient and he went out there and he did what he needed to do you know what i mean how many people after getting after getting probably like the most aggressive loss of their career

getting knocked out in a world title fight would want to come back and have a short notice change of a pond because that got they look gamut's dangerous and it's completely different style from physio so how many people would be willing to do that

Charles Odevedo was and I think he just was a lot more respect for what he did and he went down and he made one of the best guys in the division look look like an amateur impressive super i was one of those people by the way i was one of those people who said it's a little too soon as he coming back in october three and a half months later just because this card is in brazil and maybe that's not the best reason and he made me look very foolish for even bringing that up this is this is also sorry to cut you off i apologize

this is also where i like i love you so much and i i've told you you have the single best of this in the world, there's never any problems with you fact check and ever, you are unbelievable why you do and I love that about. Thank you. But also, everybody else in the world has an opinion of what child should do or what every fighter should do. Sure. The truth is, if the fighter wants to fight, that's a fighter fight, whether it's the right thing

to do or not. Because in his mind, I can imagine that he's like, I want to get back in there and I want to win, I want to win, I want to win, go and I'm still here and then I'm one of the best the world. And he went out and proved himself right more than anything. Does that make sense? I'm very proud of it. 100%. And by the way, I hope fighters know that, you know that he knows that that. When we talk about that, that's not because we're trying to stop them from realizing their dreams or earning money for their. It's just, this is the stuff you have to talk about. This is what happens. It's an opinion. It's an opinion that is absolutely completely logical to have and understandable to have,

but for someone like a fighter. Yeah. I mean, built different. It's, it's completely different. And His mentality is I'm one of the best in the world. I want to get back in there, get a win, and show everyone that I'm still here, and that I'm as dangerous as ever. So, yeah, it's awesome to see. And, look, I rang all the guys and spoke to them and told him, I'm so happy, I'm so proud. It's amazing to see him get that win.

And, yeah, I'm back in Brazil, getting ready for this fight. I got my training in this morning with Amy and Maya. I was in Shoot the Box yesterday, doing some sparring, and everybody's happy. Everyone's good. Wow, wow, wow. Okay, two last quick ones, if I can. Go ahead. Back at SBG for a seminar?

Yes, sir. I say back at SBG. I mean, I should say back in Dublin. You were never officially an SDG guy, but I feel like you're a friend of the team, right? Yes, yes. I look, we reached out to John Kavan and said, let's make something happen.

I'm back in Ireland and I want to do something. I want to go back with a bang and bring some knowledge back to my hometown, my home country. And what an amazing way to do it, to go back to the first ever MMA gym in Dublin, and to go out and pass on the knowledge I've gained from traveling the world and give it to the youngsters who are all present. It's going to be amazing.

Fastest-selling seminar in SBG-H-Q history. Wow, wow. Is this your first time doing one at this point in your career? Like, since you became this big... Properly, yes. This is the first proper thing they're doing, and I'm excited to do because, as I've said, look, I'm one of the greatest fighters walking this planet right now. I'm one of the most intelligent fighters walking the planet right now.

And I've also had an amazing time traveling and learning from such amazing professors, athletes. I have so much that I can pass on to the younger generation of mixed martial artists in Ireland. And I'm very excited. And I'm very excited for John Kavanaughan to give me that opportunity to come back and to do this and to put on a great day where people can learn and ask questions. And just, yeah, I kind of want to relight the fire a little bit. I've been doing my best to get the UFC back to Dublin, Ireland.

There's a lot of logistical issues with that, with the size of the production and stuff like that. But I'm going to get it back one day. And I'm going to keep pushing that. And by the way, here you are giving me props. I say no vunial. Of course, I meant shoot a box. My apologies.

I was thinking Aldo, I was thinking he was just retired. I'm never going to pull you up on. I'm not going to do you dirty on air. I want you to do me. dirty. I want you to correct me if I make that mistake, all right? Because that, because I know this stuff matters, and I can't believe I made that mistake. I'm actually super, super mad at myself. So anyways, my apologies, shoot a box, of course. Last thing, all goes well November 22nd. You're back, let's say, spring, May, June, July. Who are you fighting for the belt?

What's, what are you envisioning? You say spring, June, July, listen, if I go out there and I spark Palau Mohammed in the first round, I'm the champion I've already had a week off I'm going to be shouting on that octagon to fight the pay-per-view December don't you worry about that oh no that's not happening you're crazy man listen listen if the champion is present at cage side

and I get I get that I'm ready I'm ready but let's do it next week let's do in two weeks time let's see if you're ready do I mean back it up because you know I will you know I'll back it up and I'll fight two weeks after I was ready to fight in Montreal I thought practice 10 days later two weeks later i was present i was ready to go so i can do it but can they we'll find out i would love to do that but look regardless of whether that happens or not that's my little dream world my

fantasy land i'm going to finish palamhan that's my goal that is my single one focus of this fight is i want to go out there and leave it unquestionable that i'm the single greatest welterweight walk on the planet because they're going to be able to compare us over the last seven days right From November 22nd to November 15th, they're going to be able to compare us all. I want everyone to say that I look the best. And whoever wins that belt, Jack or Islam, I don't mind. I really don't have any preference. I'm going to fight both them eventually, I believe,

because I believe both of them are going to be up and around the top of the division for a long time. I am going to fight them wherever, whenever, and I will punch a hole in their head because there is nobody in this planet stopping me from getting that belt wrapped in my waist. We add this close area to succeeding in that takeover part two. I told the entire UFC fan base on the mic, I'm the future. I am inevitable and I'm this close to prove.

Oh, man. What a promo. Love that. Love how far you've come with your confidence with these interviews. It's a joy to watch and partake in. Thank you so much, Ian. Really appreciate it. Good luck to you.

Enjoy the homecoming on October 30th if you're in the area. Is it sold out, by the way? Did you happen to say? It's sold up. Don't worry. I'll have to go back and do more. Okay. Look, let's get this one out of the way.

And then after a spark, but maybe we go back and we'll pass it on all over. We'll do a little bit more. Victory, yeah. I'd love to do that to Ireland because, look, I love my hometown. I love Dublin, but I'm on a journey to be the best in the world and I'm focusing entirely myself.

Every time I go home, I would love to bring back some knowledge for the youngsters in MNMMA. Much love. All the best to you, Ian. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Hello to the family as well, and good luck on November 22nd.

Appreciate it all the best. As I said, every time you're the best of this. I love you. Thank you, Ian. Appreciate it very much. There he is the future and soon to perhaps be the present as well, as far as the Walter Way title picture is concerned.

Tremendous stuff, tremendous promo. Give me chills there at the end when he looked right into the barrel of that camera. I still can't believe I said no vunia. He's saying I'm the best. I'm saying no vuniao? What the hell? Shoot a box.

Actually, Diego Lima posted a great video of the celebrations after the Charles Oliver win this past Saturday in Rio. All kinds of parties, all kinds of celebrations, all kinds of jubilation, all kinds of excitement, all kinds of happiness. I was trying to go for as many adjectives as I possibly could. Yeah, there it is. Look at this. Look at this scene. Still receiving videos that will surely become history. How good is it to be able to fight and celebrate with those we love? Brazil is too much. The main event was made for you. Beautiful stuff. and that party that he threw the next day. Beautiful as well. Matase Gamrod, by the way,

has broken his silence, as they say in the business. He went on Instagram and said it was a huge honor to share the Octagon with you, Charles Dubranks. Thank you, Brazil, for the whole week and the special atmosphere. It was an exceptional time, and I'm definitely coming back from it as a different person. I'll be back here again to learn more. We often see this. Someone takes a short notice fight, gets the main event rub, so to speak, and then becomes better. I've no doubt. that he can do just that. All right, let's answer a few more. We didn't get to as many as I would have liked.

Let's rifle off a few more before we call it a day. Tomorrow's going to be another great day on the program. It has already been a great day on the program. This is from Adrian. Good day, gents. G.C. Making waves going on submission radio. He's him. When did you go on?

Sunday the day after Did you show up wearing like a New Zealand jersey or something like that Just to No, a VB longneck shirt Cory a bitter Oh so on that one you were You were leaning in

You were going for the hometown pop Yeah, it was supporting man Here you're a heel Anyway he says my gosh I'm supportive The terrible take The terrible take that Max easily beats Charles What did do Bronx do to DP

Max needed five rounds And only had Had him in trouble once. Max couldn't finish Justin. What did De Bronx do? And this is Justin who apparently somehow is demanding a title fight. Please, G.C. Man, please. What do you have to say for yourself?

I mean, I feel like that's a little bit of an over-exaggeration. I was asked to give a prediction for the fight. I said I thought Max would outstrike him and win a decision. Them's the brakes. There has to be a winner. I got to

make a prediction. There's your prediction right there. I think that he can He can thwart the takedowns, and then when it's standing, I think he'll have the edge there. As you win the fight's made, you know? Yeah. Lukie Dubbs. Shout out from South Australia. Speaking of Australia.

Longtime listener, first time questioner. What's the most important quality or thing about your team members and coworkers for you? I ask because you've mentioned arguments in the past with PZ and others. Ultimately, what brings you back to them? Their integrity, their loyalty, their unbiased opinions. I would love to know your opinion on each member's greatest attribute. Gosh, you want me to go down the line here? This is a great question.

This is, what is this? A performance review? This is fantastic. Thank you for us. Oh, live on the air. Keep the paper trail. Thanks, Lukie, from little old Adelaide. You guys, brighten my day every day with your content.

Shout out to the Adelaide Crows. I'm not going to go down the line. I mean, here's the overarching thing that I admire and respect and look for. am drawn to being hardworking, being reliable, being motivated, coming into work, being excited, wanting to make the best content possible, the best show possible, the best, whatever it is possible, the best production possible, being dedicated, being responsive, being loyal. Who do these apply to? Just hand them out. It sounds like everybody.

What do you have to say about pizza, though? I love Ptze's passion. I love his enthusiasm. Oh, so now we are doing individuals. All right. No, you're asking. Keep going. I love his loyalty.

Who's next? You know? No, I'm not doing that. Oh, just Petez? Okay. So we know Petezzi's number one then. No, he asked me specifically. He asked me specifically.

You know, I'll say this. Who is it? Who is it? I was in Montreal. Oh, I think I was talking to my dad. I think I was talking to my dad. my dad was asking me about like what we're doing and everything like that and my dad had a very very successful career he worked in the textile business in uh in Montreal and I used to actually

go to my dad's work a few times one time I went for a summer but I only lasted two weeks I don't know if I have I probably told the story over the years and he put me with the the shipping guys in the factory and I don't think that they were very happy about me being there because they kind of had to hold my hand, show me the ropes and kind of pretend like I was doing something. And I remember one time we were eating lunch and I was kind of leaning back on my chair and one of the guys like the head guy said,

I hope you fall off your chair and break your head. And I always thought that was a little bit harsh. But I never really liked, I liked going to my dad's office because it was cool to see what he was doing. But then I was like, oh, I don't really want to do this. I wonder if my kids feel the same way when they come to my work. anyway all to say my dad was asking me that was a bit of attention asked me yeah if you don't want how's your team no no no i'll tell you i'll tell you i'll tell you for god's sakes he said how's your team

how's your team how's your team do you trust them can you rely on them and my dad had a guy on his name abe who was kind of like his his right-hand man and i always loved their relationship because they're completely different human beings completely different personalities completely different everything, but I saw that there was respect, and it worked well. And what I said to him was, I have an AB. And that's New York Rick. So while New York Rick's actually mocking me here, the loyalty. I mean, we all remember the email. It's getting to that time of year. We don't need to read it. It actually is getting. The loyalty, the hardware. I mean, Rick wears a lot of hats here. He's knocked it out of the park. There were even some people when they said, oh, you're

launching on Crown. Who's the, who's like the EP? Can't, you know. And I was like, like, oh, Rick's in the crown. Rick's the EP, and they're like, Rick, he does PR, he does social media. I was like, no, no, no, he's the guy. He's built for this. He's born for this. There were some doubters. And I'm talking about, Rick, by the way, I'm talking about within the team here.

Everyone thought it was a very weird. I said that to you of confidence. By the way, they tell me every day, so it doesn't. Okay. So you didn't tell your dad, yeah, trust them all. We have this guy named Mysterious Frank. No, and then he's like, who does the drops on the show? I like that guy.

but no I feel very lucky I mean you dream of these things and I talk about the ESPN era where I didn't feel especially in the early days like I had that and over time we kind of found but nothing like this

nothing like this and so this is the dream quite literally the dream is to be surrounded by people you like and respect and admire and enjoy being around enjoy working enjoy coming to work every day

I'm excited to wake up and come to work. I'm excited to wake up and do work. You know what I mean? And I feel like that's the dream. And then hopefully that excitement and enthusiasm leads to good work and you all kind of swim together and you all prosper and you all thrive and you all get to live out your respective dreams as a result of that great work. I was giving you a hard time, but it's well said. And it's been a great year. And we owe a lot to you to founding this thing and getting it kicked off. And I'm very happy with where we're at, and I'm going to be even happier

than a year from now when we're at another place, so I'm very happy. Wait, wait, we're leaving? Like a further... Oh, okay. Another... Yes, yes, yes. You weren't wrong to assume that he did say

another place. Yeah, he did say, sorry. He said another place. I was worded oddly. He does this. As executive producer, he puts little nuggets and you got to follow them. It's a...

It's a moving day? No, no, no. I'm excited to see where we'll be in a year from now. Shake Turkey asks, happy Wednesday, Ariel, and crew. It's not Wednesday. It's Tuesday. but old habits.

I think I figured out the Ronda Rousey comeback and would love to hear your thoughts. Rhonda Rousey versus Holly Home Real American Freestyle Wrestling. Don't think that's the one.

Patrick McCraight says, Ariel, what are your thoughts on the vision turning on Seth Rawlins? I think it's too soon. They just formed. Like they just came out with the name. Let's see. They had Raw yesterday in Perth.

I'd be long if I said, I think it was happening while we were on the air or maybe it happened. happened earlier, but I was surprised to see that, but, you know, I like when factions are around for four, five, six, seven years. Okay, maybe seven's too long, but at least like two, three years. This is like three months. So I was surprised. Ryan says, hey, Ariel, love the show and the crew. I haven't had any luck getting through a

voicemail to be ITB, so I'll go to the big bus instead. I mean, wow, wow, wow. Apparently, Frank Channing Tatum said it's tough as well, someone told me. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of people have said it's tough while on the show, but only a few make the cut. Okay. In honor of the great James Tehuna, what are your thoughts on the top five Oceana MMA fighters? For me, in order, it's Vogue, Hunt, Whitaker, Izzy, and J.D.M. It's a pretty damn good list.

not sure you can have hunt over Whitaker and Izzy and JDM I mean he never won a UFC title but fair he did have an incredible kickboxing career that's fair oh man but if JDM beats Islam he might climb up that list pretty high

yeah and he's still in the midst of his career what are your thoughts oh fucking oath cunts I forgot about that love the show thanks for all the content my kids aren't still in there are they absolutely just came back so damn it's a thing that's a term of endearment guys writing something on the

rubric, I don't know what it is. They get no longer here. Now that both our mics are on. Perfect, perfect, perfect. They did catch that. I didn't mean to say that, guys. I mean, you spell it F. Yes.

Volkant, Whitaker, Izzy, Jdiem. The question is, are we missing anyone? George Sutteropoulos? Carlos Sahlberg could be added to that list very soon. But that's a pretty damn good list. Um, uh, what is this?

What is this? What is this? GC's performance is the guy's name. I sure hope you're doing well. You often use the analogy of it. If you wanted to get your refrigerator fixed, you wouldn't tell the contractor what to wear. But you could say if any contractor wants this job,

they need to wear a bill's jersey. And depending on the job market, you may get a taker. But if they have the right to not take the contract, just like UFC fighters, they sign a contract. If they want to get paid, they need to do the drug testing,

the uniform's media obligations as per the contract they agree to. Absolutely. I'm not calling for a mutiny. I'm not calling for a strike. of course they have to adhere to the rules they're the top dogs you want to make a living doing this

you have to go to them you want to be the biggest star you can be just ask Michael Chandler he was here with Bellator he's here with the UFC I just my whole point is I just wish they had a say

and if they old look the Knicks have to wear a jersey the Rockets have to wear a jersey the bills have to wear jerseys the Falcons have to wear jerseys the 49ers have to wear jerseys but there's a process there's a collective bargaining

that's my point They're also employees. Those players are employees. Do they get W-2s or 1099s? The players? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Those are employees.

Oh, yeah. That's a completely different thing. Sure, they are independent contractors, he continues, but once they sign a contract, they are under contract. Yeah, I'm aware. I'm aware. I'm just saying the whole structure is a little flawed. This is a very semantical question here.

Like, they're trying to push something here, but the reality is what you're, what you are advocating for is, one, if you're going to be classified as a contractor, you should have the ability to take jobs with anybody you want. That is not how this ultimately goes. And two, you should be able to make decisions on how things are performed there. This person is correct that, like, look, if you sign a contract, you're agreeing to the terms of the contract. That's certainly correct. But this is a larger conversation.

It is not per contract basis, right? Like the UFC contract is with those individual athletes. but what is the larger discussion around what the UFC's policy should be around how they handle contractors and things like that? This is like a microscopic look at something that's a much larger conversation. Semantics. Semantics. Yeah. Keen, thoughts on Bispink's commentary over the weekend.

Can't be told he's wrong, constantly arguing with. the other commentators. Great job by John Good and to stay so calm by far the worst on the desk. I'm going to plead the film. Anyone have any thoughts? Yeah, I mean, the confrontation was a bit odd. Yeah.

It's fun. Three-man booth better sometimes and a little more balance. Sometimes I just think the broadcasts, this is not about him in particular, but the broadcasts just need to breathe a little bit. Doesn't have to be talking all the time, right? It's tough for those guys. I mean, they have to go, what, seven, eight hours? Yeah, no, it's true.

That's why. Let it breathe. Just chill out. Everyone stop chatting shit. Yo, yo, my kids are back there, bro. It's muted. It's fine. Julian asks, and this is actually the best question of the day.

Julian, episode 42 of the MMA beat. What the F is New York? wearing I don't know somebody bring it up oh let me see bring it up bring it bigger bring it up bring it up

oh boy what do you mean a nice little quarter zip with a shirt under what that color though take it down please my eyes diamond the gelled hair

wait a second the hair was before we get too crazy here this is from an episode which aired on May 16th 2014 yeah why is Julian watching

an almost 12-year-old episode of the MMA beat A. Some say I bring the numbers. You know, he's going back to see the hits. And B, I think it's actually a great look. What's wrong with the look? Just not how I know you. Okay, but... The hair is phenomenal.

Can we go back to that? How old were you here? Like, 26? Were you selling cut code? Sorry, what year did you say it was, Ariel? 2014. No. I was...

Yeah, maybe like 26, 27, around... It's a great... I think it's a great look. And now that you... I don't know. Is it that bad? I think it's a very professional look I think that needs to be the clarification there

is that it's not bad it just is so you're the antithesis of you yeah it's a it's like a preppy northeastern kid I had to class it up for the beat you know you can't just walk on your look now where you show up with the black shirt

the diamond is shining too that thing is you still have the diamond right look at this diamond I swear to God we've had this conversation 18 times on this show tears are still pierced I feel like

I feel like I feel like I feel like it was a lot more evident back then. I feel like he wears the headphones so much now. Yeah. Ah. No, I think in the back you would always wear the headphones, no? I used to wear one off, one on. There was all kinds of things.

I don't know. I don't think it was that bad, honestly, for this person who's asking. It's not bad. Please don't think, though. It's actually too good. It's fascinating to look because if you go back 12 years, Rick looks dramatically different

Chuck looks the exact same Timeless style I mean It's exactly Timeless style man He's got the turtle shell up top

It's great Yeah How do I look Same Yeah do we have a beat He actually We were told No they just want to shit on me

And Chuck No one is shitting on you I'm Chuck Lord of the record No one is shitting on Chuck No one is No one is actually It looks great man

All right I mean This is from Matt Chiwiwi's Hello Ariel and crew Happy Be Bold and Be Free Day Can we give some praise to the troll job done by Mario Pinto this weekend? He's a London lad

and fooled Michael Bisping in the UFC to thinking he couldn't speak English Plus he's undefeated Hope he gets a big push Seems quite marketable Yeah we talked about yesterday It's tremendous Future of the Heavyweight Division

Loved it A little personality Tom Espinal is already quaking He doesn't want that He doesn't want that smoke Josh Pee Hey Ariel Suhudo versus Talbot A strange matchmaking in my eyes

is this the old guard versus the new does Sehudo retire if he can't stave off the fresh up and comer perhaps and yes to the first question it is also how big can a win for Talba be here's the thing you beat Sehudo you can't go back and so the question remains

can he beat those guys who are above Sehudo? Now I will admit I didn't realize Sehudo was down to ten I thought he was like six I appreciate a lot so there are a couple guys there like he could fight you know some of those dudes who are probably favorable matchups for him there.

But yeah, I would imagine that the thinking is swing for the fences, you lose, hey, you lost to Henry Suhudo, you win, and now you're swimming with the sharks. I think it's also important to note not everybody wants to fight Peyton Talbot, right? Like, not everybody wants to give these guys opportunities. There's not a lot of upside on beating the Peyton Talbot because if you beat them and you're saying Henry Suhudo, everybody goes, eh, Peyton Talbot was never anything. So it doesn't really matter. So I give credit to Henry. I give credit to Peyton. It doesn't always work out where it's like, oh, he gets the natural progression. He's taking a shot. Henry's

taking a shot. I like it. I don't have a problem with it. Mysterious Cam. Ola Ariel in an alternate universe where none of you worked in MMA or media. What regular jobs do you think the crew would have my guesses? You'd be a weatherman making every incoming rainstorm sound like UFC 300. G.C. would be a financial advisor who tells everyone to tail his stock picks. Frank would be a moody jazz and metal DJ who suddenly judges everyone's dancing. New York Rick would be 100% a school soccer coach who gives himself post-game interviews. PT would sell fatty-boom baddies out of his backyard caravan. There's nothing more I love to do than enjoy a meal watching you guys.

Thank you so much for everything you can give us. I was about to crap on all these suggestions, but that was a nice closing thought, so I won't. yeah he's a little off the mark Clay says hey Ariel several of your guests who do lots of speaking mention a vocal coach that has helped them with longevity

have you ever used or considered a vocal coach when I first started at Fox they told me to go on I think I did one lesson and I think the guy thought that I was hopeless and didn't show any interest

in working with me again I think they wanted me to have more of a voice stuff and I would come to them and I would say like look if you want the voice I could give you the voice I used to be on

Syracuse Radio back in the early aughts 2001, 2002. The Beatty Syracuse Z 89, Ariel Hawani here on a cold and brisk. Wednesday afternoon in Syracuse, New York, it is raining outside in central New York, but it's

going to be cloudy later than. I could do that voice if you want. Did they mention that at all in school, like where that voice came from, like why they want people to do it? The Biddy Syracuse, the 89. No, that doesn't. So yeah, it's all style, right? It's all style, yeah, yeah. I mean, Hornswoggle said it yesterday

that I have a buttery smooth voice. Yeah, you do. I used to also imitate more Rinaloa, the first time that I was on Fight Network Radio in 2007 with Morrow and John Pollock. He used to say, Ariel Helwaney, one of the Bernie's minds

in the business. And I used to, like, walk around my house. He used to call me the titan of Twitter. Anyway. Swing and a miss. Any more? Yes. El Perruano asks, well, first he says, shout out to El Cubano, and he says, have you listened to BITB's recent pound for pound? I noticed that there were a lot of people who didn't like the borough pound for pound.

They thought it was too regional guys. Yeah, we got crushed for that one. Is this in the question? Or you're saying it? Well, I saw the question and then I editorialize. I think the top comment on the video is something like Worst pound for pound to date, fellas I really liked it

We'll take the constructive criticism and move forward I think everyone who criticized it It's from Queens Yeah 100% Well yeah probably Because you guys shit the bet on that but Super chats Frankie Let's do it

Oh It's been done Did my sister do that? My daughter do that my sister just texted me what do we go what do we got well the first super chat we have we've already done the next one says

happy birthday to uncrown this is from Rick G yeah Rick G's the man he's the one that made the the rap song that's right mm-hmm mm-hmm yep yep

that's not how it goes but it was a good song what else what else next where the heck is Mike Lindsberg that's Lansberg legend That's the guy who hosted the show

Off the Record on TSN. He's still around. I see him on Twitter. He's a big mental health advocate. I don't think he's in broadcasting anymore. I think his son works in broadcasting. But an absolute legend. And that show, that show, so Sports Desk,

it was TSN Sports Desk. It's now called SportsCenter, but back of the day it was Sports Desk, I'm pretty sure off the record would be on at 5, and Sports Desk was on at 5.30, and I always like that because then you can catch ESPN Sports Center if you had a way to do that. Anyway, he would have these like shoot interviews

with Taker and with Vince and with Stone Cold and with Brent Hart and the Rock. It was amazing stuff, amazing stuff. So yes, he was great. Actually, I believe, I think Aaron Bronstetter did some work with him back in the day, but I could be wrong about that. I think he was his producer or something like that. Anyway, Canadian legend, and you can still see a lot of those if you type in the WWE guys and off the record, the interviews were great. Hard-hitting questions. too. Even did one with CM Punk. Seampunk got mad at him, did one with Chale, did some with Dana, towards the end of his career, did some UFC stuff as well.

I was on once, I think. What else, Frankie? What else? With Seattle up to zero in the ALCS, who are your top of MMA fighters in the Pacific Northwest ranked? Go MS. Or M's, the Mariners. MS is, no one's cheering for that. Just Frank. No one.

No one cares about that region or your team or. the fighters coming out of that region. Sorry. What else? What else? Recommended listening lately is Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro as a guest on the town podcast with Matt Bologna on the Reader. Bellini. Ari perfectly impolizes Hollywood fakeness and insecurity. Just diabolical. Okay, I don't know about that line, but I did, I did watch it and, excuse me, listen to it. It's actually a really good pod. It's sort of like a media business. sometimes sports media, but just media business, I would say.

I think Rick's listened to it. Haven't you listened to it a few times? Yeah, it's a decent pod. Yeah. Those interviews, you know, there are a couple things in there. It's great to listen. It's great to get some insight. Sometimes it just feels like a conference call.

But it's worth checking out if you're on a long drive or a walk or a run or something like that. I enjoy the pot. I just love listening to that type of stuff, especially now with all the streaming and the OTT and the DTC and everything going on in media is a very, very, very interesting topic to me. So check it out. What else? Look into Barry Hearn. Be a real journalist. Yeah. I love when people say be a real journalist. Like just because we're not specifically looking into one story that you have interest in. I actually read Barry Hearn's book that came out

and came out like six, seven years ago. No promoter. is perfect, and I wouldn't claim to be someone who's looked into Barry Hearn, as this man is suggesting. But I also don't think that not looking into Barry Hearn doesn't make me a real journalist. We have different jobs, different beats, different things that we're looking at talking about, just the way it goes. But why don't you tell us? Why don't you give us a super chat of approximately 20 to 25 pounds and let us know why we should look into him? What else, Frank? And lastly, Frank's hairy uncle, this being his absolute aspect skits on commentary. Wow. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I definitely bad. Okay. Well, that's your opinion. I also got to confirm that aura farming is a bad thing. Oh. Trying hard. You're trying too hard. Trying too hard. A try hard. Yeah. Who confirmed this?

Your children. Oh, all of them. No, just one. Collectively. Walter spoke on behalf of everybody. Can we get an overhead shot of the kids? We gave him a nickname, by the way. His name is now Walter Waite.

Where are they? What are they? Tuck to, guys, come in, come in. Don't be shy. They're still there? Yeah. We had them crammed in a corner. What's up, guys?

Where's Ollie? You had him, they're a little confusing. The problems, they can't hear you because... Move closer to Jordan, Walter. There he is. Yeah. They asked me a really good question yesterday. They're like, do we have to stay for the whole thing?

and what happens if we get bored? And I was like, yep. I'm going to assure you you you're going to get bored. Yeah, and you had to stay for the whole thing. Claire, did you get bored? She can't hear you as long as Connor's mic is on. Oh. Claire, did you get bored?

Here, come talking to this mic. Um, a little, I guess. What did you learn today? What's the big takeaway from the day? Wait, I don't know what he's saying. He said, what's the big takeaway from the day? What did you learn from today? Uh, I don't know, really.

Who was your favorite guest? I like, I don't know what his name was, the last one. Ian Machado Gary, the Irish guy. Yeah? What did you like about him? I don't know. I just liked it. His energy.

Yeah. His vibe. Yeah. His confidence. Yeah. Okay. Did you happen to catch the Polly Malinaji interview at the top, the Italian guy? Which one?

Was the first? Yeah, with the beard. The first one? I think a little. Okay. him like getting mad at me and stuff i saw him the the a little he was kind of like yelling at you yeah he was very intense huh yeah bit rude yeah all right well did you have fun yeah okay um is your mom there no she hasn't shown up no she's the one that got bored yeah she's the one that got bored

uh all right well thank you does anyone else want to say anything before we go oh they left oh they all left. They actually left the room? No, they're in here. Okay. Wow. They're cleaning up as I asked them. No, no. I said, in the basket. Yeah. That's great stuff. Appreciate it. Claire getting all the By the way, we used to do a show during the pandemic, the Claire and Ariel show. And then it became the Clariel show. Is she still there? Yep. Oh, she's breathing into the microphone. That's what happens. Okay, Claire, this is your big chance to get back into it. This weekend, We have RDR Rene de Ritter against Brendan Allen. Renee Derrinder.

Okay, that's the pick. I think a lot of people are going with them. And then what about a guy who a lot of people say I look like? Amon Zahabi against friend of the program. Well, they're both friends of the program. Marlon Chito Vera. Marlon Cheeto Vera. Okay, that's an interesting one.

What about next week? This is a tough one. Surreal Gun versus Tommy Aspinall. Tommy Aspen Yeah Why? Why? Why do you think? I just heard of the name So I think he's good

You heard us speaking about him And singing his song? Yeah Tommy Aspen Yeah, I've heard that Tommy Aspenna Tommy Aspenov Okay, one last one

Islamachov Against Jack Delamadeleana Jack Delamadea Wow What about Zhang Wei versus Valentina Shevchenko

Valatina Shentenko Okay And then one last one Michael Morales versus Sean Brady Sean Brady Okay

Wow I think you're You're Okay Okay one more Ian Machado Gary Against Balal Muhammad Belal Muhammad

What? You just said you like Ian Machado Gary He's the tea leaves He's the guy He's the guy That you said you like I know

I switched You switched already I switched All right Okay one last one Armin Suruki

or Dan Hooker? Dan Hooker. All right, wow, that would be big. That would be big news. That would be big news. All right, I'll be there in a moment, all right? We do have two more super chats. More super chats.

Are they for Claire? No. Okay. They're for me. Frank, brother, settle it for me. I want to buy wireless headphones. What should I buy? Honestly, if you need to do wireless,

I would go with the Apple Air Pro Maxes. One more. Okay. Unc Ariel, what's your all-time favorite interview? now they didn't specify interview you've done maybe it's just an interview you like wow I don't know that I've done you've stumped me

all right tune in next time to the answer to your question I'm thinking I'm thinking I'm thinking they're tough I love the walk-and-talks the Rampage 1 in Japan was great Connor and Dublin was great Bisping in London was great John Jones and D.C. before their fight

at 182 was great and there's more that I want to do and we shall be doing it with uncrowned films we shall be doing it I see Slito says good luck on your fight against Cheetah Ariel

thank you my friend tomorrow on the program guys it's another great day we'll have the aforementioned Sean Brady so looking forward to that he'll be on a young man named Stephen Spice

he's the star of a documentary that's out right now on Amazon Prime called Supercar Saints Daniel Cormier's in it John Sina's in it he's a budding wrestling slash combat sports

YouTube journalist and he's got a very heartwarming story so he'll stop by Danny Garcia DSG Danny Swift Garcia is going to stop by to talk about his final fight this weekend Jeff Perlman who is one of if not the best

sports book authors if that makes sense in the world he's written incredible books on the L.A. Lakers on Walter Pader on Brett Fav on so many topics he wrote the book

called Showtime that became winning time on HBO he has a new book out that's called Only God Can Judge Me about the late great Tupac Shakur

so he's venturing out of the sports world and then we'll wrap up the day with the one and only Diamond Dallas page DDP the master of the diamond cutter

bang the originator of GDP yoga he'll stop by so what's that three in studio guests plus brady and spice another great day on the program then new york rick and i are taking a bit of a road trip wait what yeah but more on that to come sorry you're not invited i see that uh you can my music though we got a soccer game to go to this is our music wow that's me damn you're probably in this picture you're trying to what Rick is wearing. I look very thin in that picture.

Golly. I was very thin back then. Around, what was that? 2014? Around 2006, 2007, 2008, I lost a lot of weight. Like, I lost like 50 pounds. I got on a very strict diet.

Claire says back then you looked better to. Really? I look like, I feel like I look like skin and bones. She thinks I look better there than now? That's a big problem. She's confirming. Your son, Walter, is a thing. Your nose looks a little bigger there.

Okay, yeah. Maybe with the face... I think it's the angle. The face filling out makes the nose stick out more. Or less, I should say. Either way, it looks great. This is life. You know, I'm a lot older now.

What am I? What is that? 11 years ago? That's crazy. Almost 12 years ago. also crazy anyway it was a great day here on the program great trip down memory lane

great to have the kitties here great to have Mikey Musamechi clearing up all kinds of things stop reading the comments Mikey and don't eat raw pasta that seems weird thank you very much to pali malanaji good luck to him this weekend great chat there thank you to Corey Sanhagan as always and thank you to the great

Ian Machado Gary thanks to all of you thanks for all the questions appreciate you very much thanks to all of them back tomorrow same time place disdames